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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Beauties of Nature, by Sir John Lubbock
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Beauties of Nature
+       and the Wonders of the World We Live In
+
+Author: Sir John Lubbock
+
+Release Date: March 8, 2009 [EBook #28274]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE
+
+[Illustration: _Frontispiece._
+
+GROUP OF BEECHES, BURNHAM. _Page 167._]
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+BEAUTIES OF NATURE
+
+AND THE
+
+WONDERS OF THE WORLD
+
+WE LIVE IN
+
+BY
+
+THE RIGHT HON.
+
+SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BART., M.P.
+
+F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D.
+
+New York
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO.
+
+AND LONDON
+
+1892
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1892,
+
+BY MACMILLAN AND CO.
+
+TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & CO., BOSTON, U.S.A.
+
+
+PRESSWORK BY BERWICK & SMITH, BOSTON, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+                                      PAGE
+
+INTRODUCTION                             1
+
+Beauty and Happiness                     3
+The Love of Nature                       5
+Enjoyment of Scenery                    14
+Scenery of England                      19
+Foreign Scenery                         21
+The Aurora                              33
+The Seasons                             34
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ON ANIMAL LIFE                          39
+
+Love of Animals                         41
+Growth and Metamorphoses                43
+Rudimentary Organs                      45
+Modifications                           48
+Colour                                  50
+Communities of Animals                  57
+Ants                                    58
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ON ANIMAL LIFE--_continued_             71
+
+Freedom of Animals                      73
+Sleep                                   78
+Senses                                  84
+Sense of Direction                      93
+Number of Species                       96
+Importance of the Smaller Animals       97
+Size of Animals                        100
+Complexity of Animal Structure         101
+Length of Life                         102
+On Individuality                       104
+Animal Immortality                     112
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ON PLANT LIFE                          115
+
+Structure of Flowers                   128
+Insects and Flowers                    134
+Past History of Flowers                136
+Fruits and Seeds                       137
+Leaves                                 138
+Aquatic Plants                         144
+On Hairs                               148
+Influence of Soil                      151
+On Seedlings                           152
+Sleep of Plants                        152
+Behaviour of Leaves in Rain            155
+Mimicry                                156
+Ants and Plants                        156
+Insectivorous Plants                   158
+Movements of Plants                    159
+Imperfection of our Knowledge          163
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WOODS AND FIELDS                       165
+
+Fairy Land                             172
+Tropical Forests                       179
+Structure of Trees                     185
+Ages of Trees                          188
+Meadows                                192
+Downs                                  194
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MOUNTAINS                              201
+
+Alpine Flowers                         205
+Mountain Scenery                       206
+The Afterglow                          213
+The Origin of Mountains                214
+Glaciers                               227
+Swiss Mountains                        232
+Volcanoes                              236
+Origin of Volcanoes                    243
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WATER                                  249
+Rivers and Witchcraft                  251
+Water Plants                           252
+Water Animals                          253
+Origin of Rivers                       255
+The Course of Rivers                   256
+Deltas                                 272
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+RIVERS AND LAKES                       277
+
+On the Directions of Rivers            279
+The Conflicts and Adventures of Rivers 301
+On Lakes      312
+On the Configuration of Valleys        323
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SEA                                335
+
+The Sea Coast                          337
+Sea Life                               344
+The Ocean Depths                       351
+Coral Islands                          358
+The Southern Skies                     365
+The Poles                              367
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE STARRY HEAVENS                     373
+
+The Moon                               377
+The Sun                                382
+The Planets                            387
+Mercury                                388
+Venus                                  390
+The Earth                              391
+Mars                                   392
+The Minor Planets                      393
+Jupiter                                394
+Saturn                                 395
+Uranus                                 396
+Neptune                                397
+Origin of the Planetary System         398
+Comets                                 401
+Shooting Stars                         406
+The Stars                              410
+Nebulae                                 425
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+FIG.                                                                   PAGE
+
+1. Larva of Choerocampa porcellus                                        53
+
+2. Bougainvillea fruticosa; natural size. (After Allman)                107
+
+3. Do.           do.        magnified                                   108
+
+4. Do.           do.        Medusa-form                                 109
+
+5. Medusa aurita, and progressive stages of development.
+(After Steenstrup)                                                      110
+
+6. White Dead-nettle                                                    124
+
+7. Do.                                                                  125
+
+8. Do.                                                                  125
+
+9. Salvia                                                               127
+
+10. Do.                                                                 127
+
+11. Do.                                                                 127
+
+12. Primrose                                                            131
+
+13. Do.                                                                 131
+
+14. Arum                                                                135
+
+15. Twig of Beech                                                       140
+
+16. Arrangement of leaves in Acer platanoides                           142
+
+17. Diagram to illustrate the formation of Mountain Chains              216
+
+18. Section across the Jura from Brenets to Neuchatel. (After Jaccard)  219
+
+19. Section from the Spitzen across the Brunnialp, and the
+Maderanerthal. (After Heim)                                             221
+
+20. Glacier of the Bluemlis Alp. (After Reclus)                          228
+
+21. Cotopaxi. (After Judd)                                              237
+
+22. Lava Stream. (After Judd)                                           239
+
+23. Stromboli, viewed from the north-west, April 1874. (After Judd)     242
+
+24. Upper Valley of St. Gotthard                                        257
+
+25. Section of a river valley. The dotted line shows a slope or
+talus of debris                                                         260
+
+26. Valley of the Rhone, with the waterfall of Sallenches, showing
+a talus of debris                                                       261
+
+27. Section across a valley. _A_, present river valley; _B_, old
+river terrace                                                           262
+
+28. Diagram of an Alpine valley, showing a river cone. Front view       263
+
+29. Diagram of an Alpine valley, showing a river cone. Lateral view     265
+
+30. Map of the Valais near Sion                                         266
+
+31. View in the Rhone Valley, showing a lateral cone                    267
+
+32. Do.                       showing the slope of a river cone         268
+
+33. Shore of the Lake of Geneva, near Vevey                             269
+
+34. View in the district of the Broads, Norfolk                         271
+
+35. Delta of the Po                                                     273
+
+36. Do.          Mississippi                                            274
+
+37. Map of the Lake District                                            281
+
+38. Section of the Weald of Kent, _a, a_, Upper Cretaceous strata,
+chiefly Chalk, forming the North and South Downs; _b, b_, Escarpment of
+Lower Greensand, with a valley between it and the Chalk; _c, c_, Weald
+Clay, forming plains; _d_, Hills formed of Hastings Sand and Clay. The
+Chalk, etc., once spread across the country, as shown in the dotted
+lines                                                                   283
+
+39. Map of the Weald of Kent                                            284
+
+40. Sketch Map of the Swiss Rivers                                      291
+
+41. Diagram in illustration of mountain structure                       296
+
+42. Sketch Map of the Aar and its tributaries                           299
+
+43. River system round Chur, as it used to be                           308
+
+44. River system round Chur, as it is                                   309
+
+45. River system of the Maloya                                          311
+
+46. Final slope of a river                                              317
+
+47. Do.         do.        with a lake                                  318
+
+48. Diagrammatic section of a valley (exaggerated). _R R_, rocky basis of
+a valley; _A A_, sedimentary strata; _B_, ordinary level of river;
+_C_, flood level                                                        329
+
+49. Whitsunday Island. (After Darwin)                                   359
+
+50. A group of Lunar volcanoes; Maurolycus, Barocius, etc.
+(After Judd)                                                            380
+
+51. Orbits of the inner Planets. (After Ball)                           388
+
+52. Relative distances of the Planets from the Sun. (After Ball)        389
+
+53. Saturn, with the surrounding series of rings. (After Lockyer)       395
+
+54. The Parallactic Ellipse. (After Ball)                               413
+
+55. Displacement of the hydrogen line in the spectrum of Rigel.
+(After Clarke)                                                          416
+
+
+
+
+PLATES
+
+
+BURNHAM BEECHES      _Frontispiece_
+
+WINDSOR CASTLE. (From a drawing by J. Finnemore)      _To face page_ 13
+
+AQUATIC VEGETATION, RIO. (Published by Spooner and Co.)             145
+
+TROPICAL FOREST, WEST INDIES. (After Kingsley)                      179
+
+SUMMIT OF MONT BLANC                                                203
+
+THE MER DE GLACE, MONT BLANC                                        229
+
+RYDAL WATER. (From a photograph by Frith and Co., published by
+Spooner and Co.)                                                    247
+
+WINDERMERE                                                          253
+
+VIEW IN THE VALAIS BELOW ST. MAURICE                                264
+
+VIEW UP THE VALAIS FROM THE LAKE OF GENEVA                          268
+
+THE LAND'S END. (From a photograph by Frith and Co., published by
+Spooner and Co.)                                                    334
+
+VIEW OF THE MOON NEAR THE THIRD QUARTER. (From a photograph by Prof.
+Draper)                                                             371
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+     If any one gave you a few acres, you would say that you had
+     received a benefit; can you deny that the boundless extent of
+     the earth is a benefit? If any one gave you money, you would
+     call that a benefit. God has buried countless masses of gold
+     and silver in the earth. If a house were given you, bright with
+     marble, its roof beautifully painted with colours and gilding,
+     you would call it no small benefit. God has built for you a
+     mansion that fears no fire or ruin ... covered with a roof
+     which glitters in one fashion by day, and in another by
+     night.... Whence comes the breath you draw; the light by which
+     you perform the actions of your life? the blood by which your
+     life is maintained? the meat by which your hunger is
+     appeased?... The true God has planted, not a few oxen, but all
+     the herds on their pastures throughout the world, and furnished
+     food to all the flocks; he has ordained the alternation of
+     summer and winter ... has invented so many arts and varieties
+     of voice, so many notes to make music.... We have implanted in
+     us the seed of all ages, of all arts; and God our Master brings
+     forth our intellects from obscurity.--SENECA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The world we live in is a fairyland of exquisite beauty, our very
+existence is a miracle in itself, and yet few of us enjoy as we might,
+and none as yet appreciate fully, the beauties and wonders which
+surround us. The greatest traveller cannot hope even in a long life to
+visit more than a very small part of our earth, and even of that which
+is under our very eyes how little we see!
+
+What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. When we turn our eyes
+to the sky, it is in most cases merely to see whether it is likely to
+rain. In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, geologists the
+fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportsmen the
+cover for game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not
+at all follow that we should see them.
+
+It is good, as Keble says, "to have our thoughts lift up to that world
+where all is beautiful and glorious,"--but it is well to realise also
+how much of this world is beautiful. It has, I know, been maintained, as
+for instance by Victor Hugo, that the general effect of beauty is to
+sadden. "Comme la vie de l'homme, meme la plus prospere, est toujours au
+fond plus triste que gaie, le ciel sombre nous est harmonieux. Le ciel
+eclatant et joyeux nous est ironique. La Nature triste nous ressemble et
+nous console; la Nature rayonnante, magnifique, superbe ... a quelque
+chose d'accablant."[1]
+
+This seems to me, I confess, a morbid view. There are many no doubt on
+whom the effect of natural beauty is to intensify feeling, to deepen
+melancholy, as well as to raise the spirits. As Mrs. W. R. Greg in her
+memoir of her husband tells us: "His passionate love for nature, so
+amply fed by the beauty of the scenes around him, intensified the
+emotions, as all keen perception of beauty does, but it did not add to
+their joyousness. We speak of the pleasure which nature and art and
+music give us; what we really mean is that our whole being is quickened
+by the uplifting of the veil. Something passes into us which makes our
+sorrows more sorrowful, our joys more joyful,--our whole life more
+vivid. So it was with him. The long solitary wanderings over the hills,
+and the beautiful moonlight nights on the lake served to make the
+shadows seem darker that were brooding over his home."
+
+But surely to most of us Nature when sombre, or even gloomy, is soothing
+and consoling; when bright and beautiful, not only raises the spirits,
+but inspires and elevates our whole being--
+
+          Nature never did betray
+    The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
+    Through all the years of this our life, to lead
+    From joy to joy: for she can so inform
+    The mind that is within us, so impress
+    With quietness and beauty, and so feed
+    With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
+    Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
+    Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
+    The dreary intercourse of daily life,
+    Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
+    Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
+    Is full of blessings.[2]
+
+Kingsley speaks with enthusiasm of the heaths and moors round his home,
+"where I have so long enjoyed the wonders of nature; never, I can
+honestly say, alone; because when man was not with me, I had companions
+in every bee, and flower and pebble; and never idle, because I could not
+pass a swamp, or a tuft of heather, without finding in it a fairy tale
+of which I could but decipher here and there a line or two, and yet
+found them more interesting than all the books, save one, which were
+ever written upon earth."
+
+Those who love Nature can never be dull. They may have other
+temptations; but at least they will run no risk of being beguiled, by
+ennui, idleness, or want of occupation, "to buy the merry madness of an
+hour with the long penitence of after time." The love of Nature, again,
+helps us greatly to keep ourselves free from those mean and petty cares
+which interfere so much with calm and peace of mind. It turns "every
+ordinary walk into a morning or evening sacrifice," and brightens life
+until it becomes almost like a fairy tale.
+
+In the romances of the Middle Ages we read of knights who loved, and
+were loved by, Nature spirits,--of Sir Launfal and the Fairy Tryamour,
+who furnished him with many good things, including a magic purse, in
+which
+
+    As oft as thou puttest thy hand therein
+    A mark of gold thou shalt iwinne,
+
+as well as protection from the main dangers of life. Such times have
+passed away, but better ones have come. It is not now merely the few,
+who are so favoured. All those who love Nature she loves in return, and
+will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are
+commonly called, but with the best things, of this world; not with money
+and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts,
+contentment and peace of mind.
+
+Happy indeed is the naturalist: to him the seasons come round like old
+friends; to him the birds sing: as he walks along, the flowers stretch
+out from the hedges, or look up from the ground, and as each year fades
+away, he looks back on a fresh store of happy memories.
+
+Though we can never "remount the river of our years," he who loves
+Nature is always young. But what is the love of Nature? Some seem to
+think they show a love of flowers by gathering them. How often one finds
+a bunch of withered blossoms on the roadside, plucked only to be thrown
+away! Is this love of Nature? It is, on the contrary, a wicked waste,
+for a waste of beauty is almost the worst waste of all.
+
+If we could imagine a day prolonged for a lifetime, or nearly so, and
+that sunrise and sunset were rare events which happened but a few times
+to each of us, we should certainly be entranced by the beauty of the
+morning and evening tints. The golden rays of the morning are a fortune
+in themselves, but we too often overlook the loveliness of Nature,
+because it is constantly before us. For "the senseless folk," says King
+Alfred,
+
+          is far more struck
+    At things it seldom sees.
+
+"Well," says Cicero, "did Aristotle observe, 'If there were men whose
+habitations had been always underground, in great and commodious houses,
+adorned with statues and pictures, furnished with everything which they
+who are reputed happy abound with; and if, without stirring from thence,
+they should be informed of a certain divine power and majesty, and,
+after some time, the earth should open, and they should quit their dark
+abode to come to us; where they should immediately behold the earth, the
+seas, the heavens; should consider the vast extent of the clouds and
+force of the winds; should see the sun, and observe his grandeur and
+beauty, and also his creative power, inasmuch as day is occasioned by
+the diffusion of his light through the sky; and when night has obscured
+the earth, they should contemplate the heavens bespangled and adorned
+with stars; the surprising variety of the moon, in her increase and
+wane; the rising and setting of all the stars, and the inviolable
+regularity of their courses; when,' says he, 'they should see these
+things, they would undoubtedly conclude that there are Gods, and that
+these are their mighty works.'"[3]
+
+    Is my life vulgar, my fate mean,
+    Which on such golden memories can lean?[4]
+
+At the same time the change which has taken place in the character of
+our religion has in one respect weakened the hold which Nature has upon
+our feelings. To the Greeks--to our own ancestors,--every River or
+Mountain or Forest had not only its own special Deity, but in some sense
+was itself instinct with life. They were not only peopled by Nymphs and
+Fauns, Elves and Kelpies, were not only the favourite abodes of Water,
+Forest, or Mountain Spirits, but they had a conscious existence of their
+own.
+
+In the Middle Ages indeed, these spirits were regarded as often
+mischievous, and apt to take offence; sometimes as essentially
+malevolent--even the most beautiful, like the Venus of Tannhaeuser, being
+often on that very account all the more dangerous; while the Mountains
+and Forests, the Lakes and Seas, were the abodes of hideous ghosts and
+horrible monsters, of Giants and Ogres, Sorcerers and Demons. These
+fears, though vague, were none the less extreme, and the judicial
+records of the Middle Ages furnish only too conclusive evidence that
+they were a terrible reality. The light of Science has now happily
+dispelled these fearful nightmares.
+
+Unfortunately, however, as men have multiplied, their energies have
+hitherto tended, not to beautify, but to mar. Forests have been cut
+down, and replaced by flat fields in geometrical squares, or on the
+continent by narrow strips. Here and there indeed we meet with oases, in
+which beauty has not been sacrificed to profit, and it is then happily
+found that not only is there no loss, but the earth seems to reward even
+more richly those who treat her with love and respect.
+
+Scarcely any part of the world affords so great a variety in so small an
+area as our own island. Commencing in the south, we have first the blue
+sea itself, the pebbly beaches, the white chalk cliffs of Kent, the
+tinted sands of Alum Bay, the Red Sandstone of Devonshire, Granite and
+Gneiss in Cornwall: inland we have the chalk Downs and clear streams,
+the well-wooded weald and the rich hop gardens; farther westwards the
+undulating gravelly hills, and still farther the granite tors: in the
+centre of England we have to the east the Norfolk Broads and the Fens;
+then the fertile Midlands, the cornfields, rich meadows, and large oxen;
+and to the west the Welsh mountains; farther north the Yorkshire Wolds,
+the Lancashire hills, the Lakes of Westmoreland; lastly, the swelling
+hills, bleak moors, and picturesque castles of Northumberland and
+Cumberland.
+
+There are of course far larger rivers, but perhaps none lovelier than
+
+    The crystal Thamis wont to glide
+    In silver channel, down along the lee,[5]
+
+[Illustration: WINDSOR CASTLE.
+
+_To face page 13._]
+
+by lawns and parks, meadows and wooded banks, dotted with country houses
+and crowned by Windsor Castle itself (see Frontispiece). By many
+Scotland is considered even more beautiful.
+
+And yet too many of us see nothing in the fields but sacks of wheat, in
+the meadows but trusses of hay, and in woods but planks for houses, or
+cover for game. Even from this more prosaic point of view, how much
+there is to wonder at and admire, in the wonderful chemistry which
+changes grass and leaves, flowers and seeds, into bread and milk, eggs
+and cream, butter and honey!
+
+Almost everything, says Hamerton, "that the Peasant does, is lifted
+above vulgarity by ancient, and often sacred, associations." There is,
+indeed, hardly any business or occupation with reference to which the
+same might not be said. The triviality or vulgarity does not depend on
+what we do, but on the spirit in which it is done. Not only the regular
+professions, but every useful occupation in life, however humble, is
+honourable in itself, and may be pursued with dignity and peace.
+
+Working in this spirit we have also the satisfaction of feeling that, as
+in some mountain track every one who takes the right path, seems to make
+the way clearer for those who follow; so may we also raise the
+profession we adopt, and smooth the way for those who come after us.
+But, even for those who are not Agriculturists, it must be admitted that
+the country has special charms. One perhaps is the continual change.
+Every week brings some fresh leaf or flower, bird or insect. Every month
+again has its own charms and beauty. We sit quietly at home and Nature
+decks herself for us.
+
+In truth we all love change. Some think they do not care for it, but I
+doubt if they know themselves.
+
+"Not," said Jefferies, "for many years was I able to see why I went the
+same round and did not care for change. I do not want change: I want the
+same old and loved things, the same wild flowers, the same trees and
+soft ash-green; the turtle-doves, the blackbirds, the coloured
+yellow-hammer sing, sing, singing so long as there is light to cast a
+shadow on the dial, for such is the measure of his song, and I want
+them in the same place. Let me find them morning after morning, the
+starry-white petals radiating, striving upwards up to their ideal. Let
+me see the idle shadows resting on the white dust; let me hear the
+humble-bees, and stay to look down on the yellow dandelion disk. Let me
+see the very thistles opening their great crowns--I should miss the
+thistles; the reed grasses hiding the moor-hen; the bryony bine, at
+first crudely ambitious and lifted by force of youthful sap straight
+above the hedgerow to sink of its weight presently and progress with
+crafty tendrils; swifts shot through the air with outstretched wings
+like crescent-headed shaftless arrows darted from the clouds; the
+chaffinch with a feather in her bill; all the living staircase of the
+spring, step by step, upwards to the great gallery of the summer, let me
+watch the same succession year by year."
+
+After all then he did enjoy the change and the succession.
+
+Kingsley again in his charming prose idyll "My Winter Garden" tries to
+persuade himself that he was glad he had never travelled, "having never
+yet actually got to Paris." Monotony, he says, "is pleasant in itself;
+morally pleasant, and morally useful. Marriage is monotonous; but there
+is much, I trust, to be said in favour of holy wedlock. Living in the
+same house is monotonous; but three removes, say the wise, are as bad as
+a fire. Locomotion is regarded as an evil by our Litany. The Litany, as
+usual, is right. 'Those who travel by land or sea' are to be objects of
+our pity and our prayers; and I do pity them. I delight in that same
+monotony. It saves curiosity, anxiety, excitement, disappointment, and a
+host of bad passions."
+
+But even as he writes one can see that he does not convince himself.
+Possibly, he admits, "after all, the grapes are sour"; and when some
+years after he did travel, how happy he was! At last, he says,
+triumphantly, "At last we too are crossing the Atlantic. At last the
+dream of forty years, please God, would be fulfilled, and I should see
+(and happily not alone), the West Indies and the Spanish Main. From
+childhood I had studied their Natural History, their Charts, their
+Romances; and now, at last, I was about to compare books with facts, and
+judge for myself of the reported wonders of the Earthly Paradise."
+
+No doubt there is much to see everywhere. The Poet and the Naturalist
+find "tropical forests in every square foot of turf." It may even be
+better, and especially for the more sensitive natures, to live mostly in
+quiet scenery, among fields and hedgerows, woods and downs; but it is
+surely good for every one, from time to time, to refresh and strengthen
+both mind and body by a spell of Sea air or Mountain beauty.
+
+On the other hand we are told, and told of course with truth, that
+though mountains may be the cathedrals of Nature, they are generally
+remote from centres of population; that our great cities are grimy,
+dark, and ugly; that factories are creeping over several of our
+counties, blighting them into building ground, replacing trees by
+chimneys, and destroying almost every vestige of natural beauty.
+
+But if this be true, is it not all the more desirable that our people
+should have access to pictures and books, which may in some small
+degree, at any rate, replace what they have thus unfortunately lost? We
+cannot all travel; and even those who can, are able to see but a small
+part of the world. Moreover, though no one who has once seen, can ever
+forget, the Alps, the Swiss lakes, or the Riviera, still the
+recollection becomes less vivid as years roll on, and it is pleasant,
+from time to time, to be reminded of their beauties.
+
+There is one other advantage not less important. We sometimes speak as
+if to visit a country, and to see it, were the same thing. But this is
+not so. It is not every one who can see Switzerland like a Ruskin or a
+Tyndall. Their beautiful descriptions of mountain scenery depend less on
+their mastery of the English language, great as that is, than on their
+power of seeing what is before them. It has been to me therefore a
+matter of much interest to know which aspects of Nature have given the
+greatest pleasure to, or have most impressed, those who, either from
+wide experience or from their love of Nature, may be considered best
+able to judge. I will begin with an English scene from Kingsley. He is
+describing his return from a day's trout-fishing:--
+
+"What shall we see," he says, "as we look across the broad, still, clear
+river, where the great dark trout sail to and fro lazily in the sun?
+White chalk fields above, quivering hazy in the heat. A park full of
+merry hay-makers; gay red and blue waggons; stalwart horses switching
+off the flies; dark avenues of tall elms; groups of abele, 'tossing
+their whispering silver to the sun'; and amid them the house,--a great
+square red-brick mass, made light and cheerful though by quoins and
+windows of white Sarsden stone, with high peaked French roofs, broken by
+louvres and dormers, haunted by a thousand swallows and starlings. Old
+walled gardens, gay with flowers, shall stretch right and left. Clipt
+yew alleys shall wander away into mysterious glooms, and out of their
+black arches shall come tripping children, like white fairies, to laugh
+and talk with the girl who lies dreaming and reading in the hammock
+there, beneath the black velvet canopy of the great cedar tree, like
+some fair tropic flower hanging from its boughs; and we will sit down,
+and eat and drink among the burdock leaves, and then watch the quiet
+house, and lawn, and flowers, and fair human creatures, and shining
+water, all sleeping breathless in the glorious light beneath the
+glorious blue, till we doze off, lulled by the murmur of a thousand
+insects, and the rich minstrelsy of nightingale and blackcap, thrush and
+dove.
+
+"Peaceful, graceful, complete English country life and country houses;
+everywhere finish and polish; Nature perfected by the wealth and art of
+peaceful centuries! Why should I exchange you, even for the sight of all
+the Alps?"
+
+Though Jefferies was unfortunately never able to travel, few men have
+loved Nature more devotedly, and speaking of his own home he expresses
+his opinion that: "Of all sweet things there is none so sweet as fresh
+air--one great flower it is, drawn round about; over, and enclosing us,
+like Aphrodite's arms; as if the dome of the sky were a bell-flower
+drooping down over us, and the magical essence of it filling all the
+room of the earth. Sweetest of all things is wild-flower air. Full of
+their ideal the starry flowers strained upwards on the bank, striving to
+keep above the rude grasses that push by them; genius has ever had such
+a struggle. The plain road was made beautiful by the many thoughts it
+gave. I came every morning to stay by the star-lit bank."
+
+Passing to countries across the ocean, Humboldt tells us that: "If I
+might be allowed to abandon myself to the recollection of my own distant
+travels, I would instance, amongst the most striking scenes of nature,
+the calm sublimity of a tropical night, when the stars, not sparkling,
+as in our northern skies, shed their soft and planetary light over the
+gently heaving ocean; or I would recall the deep valleys of the
+Cordilleras, where the tall and slender palms pierce the leafy veil
+around them, and waving on high their feathery and arrow-like branches,
+form, as it were, 'a forest above a forest'; or I would describe the
+summit of the Peak of Teneriffe, when a horizon layer of clouds,
+dazzling in whiteness, has separated the cone of cinders from the plain
+below, and suddenly the ascending current pierces the cloudy veil, so
+that the eye of the traveller may range from the brink of the crater,
+along the vine-clad slopes of Orotava, to the orange gardens and banana
+groves that skirt the shore. In scenes like these, it is not the
+peaceful charm uniformly spread over the face of nature that moves the
+heart, but rather the peculiar physiognomy and conformation of the land,
+the features of the landscape, the ever-varying outline of the clouds,
+and their blending with the horizon of the sea, whether it lies spread
+before us like a smooth and shining mirror, or is dimly seen through the
+morning mist. All that the senses can but imperfectly comprehend, all
+that is most awful in such romantic scenes of nature, may become a
+source of enjoyment to man, by opening a wide field to the creative
+power of his imagination. Impressions change with the varying movements
+of the mind, and we are led by a happy illusion to believe that we
+receive from the external world that with which we have ourselves
+invested it."
+
+Humboldt also singles out for especial praise the following description
+given of Tahiti by Darwin[6]:--
+
+"The land capable of cultivation is scarcely in any part more than a
+fringe of low alluvial soil, accumulated round the base of mountains,
+and protected from the waves of the sea by a coral reef, which encircles
+at a distance the entire line of coast. The reef is broken in several
+parts so that ships can pass through, and the lake of smooth water
+within, thus affords a safe harbour, as well as a channel for the native
+canoes. The low land which comes down to the beach of coral sand is
+covered by the most beautiful productions of the inter-tropical regions.
+In the midst of bananas, orange, cocoa-nut, and breadfruit trees, spots
+are cleared where yams, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, and pine-apples are
+cultivated. Even the brushwood is a fruit tree, namely, the guava,
+which from its abundance is as noxious as a weed. In Brazil I have often
+admired the contrast of varied beauty in the banana, palm, and orange
+tree; here we have in addition the breadfruit tree, conspicuous from its
+large, glossy, and deeply digitated leaf. It is admirable to behold
+groves of a tree, sending forth its branches with the force of an
+English Oak, loaded with large and most nutritious fruit. However little
+on most occasions utility explains the delight received from any fine
+prospect, in this case it cannot fail to enter as an element in the
+feeling. The little winding paths, cool from the surrounding shade, led
+to the scattered houses; and the owners of these everywhere gave us a
+cheerful and most hospitable reception."
+
+Darwin himself has told us, after going round the world that "in calling
+up images of the past, I find the plains of Patagonia frequently cross
+before my eyes; yet these plains are pronounced by all to be most
+wretched and useless. They are characterised only by negative
+possessions; without habitations, without water, without trees, without
+mountains, they support only a few dwarf plants. Why then--and the case
+is not peculiar to myself--have these arid wastes taken so firm
+possession of my mind? Why have not the still more level, the greener
+and more fertile pampas, which are serviceable to mankind, produced an
+equal impression? I can scarcely analyse these feelings, but it must be
+partly owing to the free scope given to the imagination. The plains of
+Patagonia are boundless, for they are scarcely practicable, and hence
+unknown; they bear the stamp of having thus lasted for ages, and there
+appears no limit to their duration through future time. If, as the
+ancients supposed, the flat earth was surrounded by an impassable
+breadth of water, or by deserts heated to an intolerable excess, who
+would not look at these last boundaries to man's knowledge with deep but
+ill-defined sensations?"
+
+Hamerton, whose wide experience and artistic power make his opinion
+especially important, says:--
+
+"I know nothing in the visible world that combines splendour and purity
+so perfectly as a great mountain entirely covered with frozen snow and
+reflected in the vast mirror of a lake. As the sun declines, its
+thousand shadows lengthen, pure as the cold green azure in the depth of
+a glacier's crevasse, and the illuminated snow takes first the tender
+colour of a white rose, and then the flush of a red one, and the sky
+turns to a pale malachite green, till the rare strange vision fades into
+ghastly gray, but leaves with you a permanent recollection of its too
+transient beauty."[7]
+
+Wallace especially, and very justly, praises the description of tropical
+forest scenery given by Belt in his charming _Naturalist in
+Nicaragua_:--
+
+"On each side of the road great trees towered up, carrying their crowns
+out of sight amongst a canopy of foliage, and with lianas hanging from
+nearly every bough, and passing from tree to tree, entangling the giants
+in a great network of coiling cables. Sometimes a tree appears covered
+with beautiful flowers which do not belong to it, but to one of the
+lianas that twines through its branches and sends down great rope-like
+stems to the ground. Climbing ferns and vanilla cling to the trunks, and
+a thousand epiphytes perch themselves on the branches. Amongst these are
+large arums that send down long aerial roots, tough and strong, and
+universally used instead of cordage by the natives. Amongst the
+undergrowth several small species of palms, varying in height from two
+to fifteen feet, are common; and now and then magnificent tree ferns
+send off their feathery crowns twenty feet from the ground to delight
+the sight by their graceful elegance. Great broad-leaved heliconias,
+leathery melastomae, and succulent-stemmed, lop-sided leaved and
+flesh-coloured begonias are abundant, and typical of tropical American
+forests; but not less so are the cecropia trees, with their white stems
+and large palmated leaves standing up like great candelabra. Sometimes
+the ground is carpeted with large flowers, yellow, pink, or white, that
+have fallen from some invisible tree-top above; or the air is filled
+with a delicious perfume, the source of which one seeks around in vain,
+for the flowers that cause it are far overhead out of sight, lost in the
+great over-shadowing crown of verdure."
+
+"But," he adds, "the uniformity of climate which has led to this rich
+luxuriance and endless variety of vegetation is also the cause of a
+monotony that in time becomes oppressive." To quote the words of Mr.
+Belt: "Unknown are the autumn tints, the bright browns and yellows of
+English woods; much less the crimsons, purples, and yellows of Canada,
+where the dying foliage rivals, nay, excels, the expiring dolphin in
+splendour. Unknown the cold sleep of winter; unknown the lovely
+awakening of vegetation at the first gentle touch of spring. A ceaseless
+round of ever-active life weaves the fairest scenery of the tropics into
+one monotonous whole, of which the component parts exhibit in detail
+untold variety of beauty."
+
+Siberia is no doubt as a rule somewhat severe and inhospitable, but M.
+Patrin mentions with enthusiasm how one day descending from the frozen
+summits of the Altai, he came suddenly on a view of the plain of the
+Obi--the most beautiful spectacle, he says, which he had ever witnessed.
+Behind him were barren rocks and the snows of winter, in front a great
+plain, not indeed entirely green, or green only in places, and for the
+rest covered by three flowers, the purple Siberian Iris, the golden
+Hemerocallis, and the silvery Narcissus--green, purple, gold, and white,
+as far as the eye could reach.
+
+Wallace tells us that he himself has derived the keenest enjoyment from
+his sense of colour:--
+
+"The heavenly blue of the firmament, the glowing tints of sunset, the
+exquisite purity of the snowy mountains, and the endless shades of green
+presented by the verdure-clad surface of the earth, are a never-failing
+source of pleasure to all who enjoy the inestimable gift of sight. Yet
+these constitute, as it were, but the frame and background of a
+marvellous and ever-changing picture. In contrast with these broad and
+soothing tints, we have presented to us in the vegetable and animal
+worlds an infinite variety of objects adorned with the most beautiful
+and most varied hues. Flowers, insects, and birds are the organisms
+most generally ornamented in this way; and their symmetry of form, their
+variety of structure, and the lavish abundance with which they clothe
+and enliven the earth, cause them to be objects of universal admiration.
+The relation of this wealth of colour to our mental and moral nature is
+indisputable. The child and the savage alike admire the gay tints of
+flowers, birds, and insects; while to many of us their contemplation
+brings a solace and enjoyment which is both intellectually and morally
+beneficial. It can then hardly excite surprise that this relation was
+long thought to afford a sufficient explanation of the phenomena of
+colour in nature; and although the fact that--
+
+    Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
+      And waste its sweetness on the desert air,
+
+might seem to throw some doubt on the sufficiency of the explanation,
+the answer was easy,--that in the progress of discovery man would,
+sooner or later, find out and enjoy every beauty that the hidden
+recesses of the earth have in store for him."
+
+Professor Colvin speaks with special admiration of Greek scenery:--
+
+"In other climates, it is only in particular states of the weather that
+the remote ever seems so close, and then with an effect which is sharp
+and hard as well as clear; here the clearness is soft; nothing cuts or
+glitters, seen through that magic distance; the air has not only a new
+transparency so that you can see farther into it than elsewhere, but a
+new quality, like some crystal of an unknown water, so that to see into
+it is greater glory." Speaking of the ranges and promontories of sterile
+limestone, the same writer observes that their colours are as austere
+and delicate as the forms. "If here the scar of some old quarry throws a
+stain, or there the clinging of some thin leafage spreads a bloom, the
+stain is of precious gold, and the bloom of silver. Between the blue of
+the sky and the tenfold blue of the sea these bare ranges seem, beneath
+that daylight, to present a whole system of noble colour flung abroad
+over perfect forms. And wherever, in the general sterility, you find a
+little moderate verdure--a little moist grass, a cluster of
+cypresses--or whenever your eye lights upon the one wood of the
+district, the long olive grove of the Cephissus, you are struck with a
+sudden sense of richness, and feel as if the splendours of the tropics
+would be nothing to this."
+
+Most travellers have been fascinated by the beauty of night in the
+tropics. Our evenings no doubt are often delicious also, though the mild
+climate we enjoy is partly due to the sky being so often overcast. In
+parts of the tropics, however, the air is calm and cloudless throughout
+nearly the whole of the year. There is no dew, and the inhabitants sleep
+on the house-tops, in full view of the brightness of the stars and the
+beauty of the sky, which is almost indescribable.
+
+"Il faisait," says Bernardin de St. Pierre of such a scene, "une de ces
+nuits delicieuses, si communes entre les tropiques, et dont le plus
+abile pinceau ne rendrait pas le beaute. La lune paraissait au milieu du
+firmament, entouree d'un rideau de nuages, que ses rayons dissipaient
+par degres. Sa lumiere se repandait insensiblement sur les montagnes de
+l'ile et sur leurs pitons, qui brillaient d'un vert argente. Les vents
+retenaient leurs haleines. On entendait dans les bois, au fond des
+vallees, au haut des rochers, de petits cris, de doux murmures
+d'oiseaux, qui se caressaient dans leurs nids, rejouis par la clarte de
+la nuit et la tranquillite de l'air. Tous, jusqu'aux insectes,
+bruissaient sous l'herbe. Les etoiles etincelaient au ciel, et se
+reflechissaient au sein de la mer, qui repetait leurs images
+tremblantes."
+
+In the Arctic and Antarctic regions the nights are often made quite
+gorgeous by the Northern Lights or Aurora borealis, and the
+corresponding appearance in the Southern hemisphere. The Aurora borealis
+generally begins towards evening, and first appears as a faint glimmer
+in the north, like the approach of dawn. Gradually a curve of light
+spreads like an immense arch of yellowish-white hue, which gains rapidly
+in brilliancy, flashes and vibrates like a flame in the wind. Often two
+or even three arches appear one over the other. After a while coloured
+rays dart upwards in divergent pencils, often green below, yellow in the
+centre, and crimson above, while it is said that sometimes almost
+black, or at least very dark violet, rays are interspersed among the
+rings of light, and heighten their effect by contrast. Sometimes the two
+ends of the arch seem to rise off the horizon, and the whole sheet of
+light throbs and undulates like a fringed curtain of light; sometimes
+the sheaves of rays unite into an immense cupola; while at others the
+separate rays seem alternately lit and extinguished. Gradually the light
+flickers and fades away, and has generally disappeared before the first
+glimpse of dawn.
+
+We seldom see the Aurora in the south of England, but we must not
+complain; our winters are mild, and every month has its own charm and
+beauty.
+
+In January we have the lengthening days.
+
+ " February  "     the first butterfly.
+
+ " March     "     the opening buds.
+
+ " April     "     the young leaves and spring flowers.
+
+ " May       "     the song of birds.
+
+ " June      "     the sweet new-mown hay.
+
+ " July      "     the summer flowers.
+
+ " August    "     the golden grain.
+
+ " September "     the fruit.
+
+ " October   "     the autumn tints.
+
+ " November  "     the hoar frost on trees and the pure snow.
+
+ " December  "     last not least, the holidays of Christmas, and the
+bright fireside.
+
+It is well to begin the year in January, for we have then before us all
+the hope of spring.
+
+                      Oh wind,
+    If winter comes, can spring be long behind?[8]
+
+Spring seems to revive us all. In the Song of Solomon--
+
+    My beloved spake, and said unto me,
+    Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
+    For, lo, the winter is past,
+    The rain is over and gone;
+    The flowers appear on the earth;
+    The time of the singing of birds is come,
+    The voice of the turtle is heard in our land,
+    The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,
+    And the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.
+
+"But indeed there are days," says Emerson, "which occur in this climate,
+at almost any season of the year, wherein the world reaches its
+perfection, when the air, the heavenly bodies, and the earth make a
+harmony, as if nature would indulge her offspring.... These halcyon days
+may be looked for with a little more assurance in that pure October
+weather, which we distinguish by the name of the Indian summer. The day,
+immeasurably long, sleeps over the broad hills and warm wide fields. To
+have lived through all its sunny hours, seems longevity enough." Yet
+does not the very name of Indian summer imply the superiority of the
+summer itself,--the real, the true summer, "when the young corn is
+bursting into ear; the awned heads of rye, wheat, and barley, and the
+nodding panicles of oats, shoot from their green and glaucous stems, in
+broad, level, and waving expanses of present beauty and future promise.
+The very waters are strewn with flowers: the buck-bean, the
+water-violet, the elegant flowering rush, and the queen of the waters,
+the pure and splendid white lily, invest every stream and lonely mere
+with grace."[9]
+
+For our greater power of perceiving, and therefore of enjoying Nature,
+we are greatly indebted to Science. Over and above what is visible to
+the unaided eye, the two magic tubes, the telescope and microscope, have
+revealed to us, at least partially, the infinitely great and the
+infinitely little.
+
+Science, our Fairy Godmother, will, unless we perversely reject her
+help, and refuse her gifts, so richly endow us, that fewer hours of
+labour will serve to supply us with the material necessaries of life,
+leaving us more time to ourselves, more leisure to enjoy all that makes
+life best worth living.
+
+Even now we all have some leisure, and for it we cannot be too grateful.
+
+"If any one," says Seneca, "gave you a few acres, you would say that you
+had received a benefit; can you deny that the boundless extent of the
+earth is a benefit? If a house were given you, bright with marble, its
+roof beautifully painted with colours and gilding, you would call it no
+small benefit. God has built for you a mansion that fears no fire or
+ruin ... covered with a roof which glitters in one fashion by day, and
+in another by night. Whence comes the breath which you draw; the light
+by which you perform the actions of your life? the blood by which your
+life is maintained? the meat by which your hunger is appeased?... The
+true God has planted, not a few oxen, but all the herds on their
+pastures throughout the world, and furnished food to all the flocks; he
+has ordained the alternation of summer and winter ... he has invented so
+many arts and varieties of voice, so many notes to make music.... We
+have implanted in us the seeds of all ages, of all arts; and God our
+Master brings forth our intellects from obscurity."[10]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Choses Vues._
+
+[2] Wordsworth.
+
+[3] Cicero, _De Natura Deorum_.
+
+[4] Thoreau.
+
+[5] Spenser.
+
+[6] Darwin's _Voyage of the Beagle_.
+
+[7] Hamerton's _Landscape_.
+
+[8] Shelley.
+
+[9] Howitt's _Book of the Seasons_.
+
+[10] Seneca, _De Beneficiis_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ON ANIMAL LIFE
+
+     If thy heart be right, then will every creature be to thee a
+     mirror of life, and a book of holy doctrine.
+
+                              THOMAS A KEMPIS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ON ANIMAL LIFE
+
+
+There is no species of animal or plant which would not well repay, I
+will not say merely the study of a day, but even the devotion of a
+lifetime. Their form and structure, development and habits, geographical
+distribution, relation to other living beings, and past history,
+constitute an inexhaustible study.
+
+When we consider how much we owe to the Dog, Man's faithful friend, to
+the noble Horse, the patient Ox, the Cow, the Sheep, and our other
+domestic animals, we cannot be too grateful to them; and if we cannot,
+like some ancient nations, actually worship them, we have perhaps fallen
+into the other extreme, underrate the sacredness of animal life, and
+treat them too much like mere machines.
+
+Some species, however, are no doubt more interesting than others,
+especially perhaps those which live together in true communities, and
+which offer so many traits--some sad, some comical, and all
+interesting,--which reproduce more or less closely the circumstances of
+our own life.
+
+The modes of animal life are almost infinitely diversified; some live on
+land, some in water; of those which are aquatic some dwell in rivers,
+some in lakes or pools, some on the sea-shore, others in the depths of
+the ocean. Some burrow in the ground, some find their home in the air.
+Some live in the Arctic regions, some in the burning deserts; one little
+beetle (Hydrobius) in the thermal waters of Hammam-Meskoutin, at a
+temperature of 130 deg.. As to food, some are carnivorous and wage open war;
+some, more insidious, attack their victims from within; others feed on
+vegetable food, on leaves or wood, on seeds or fruits; in fact, there is
+scarcely an animal or vegetable substance which is not the special and
+favourite food of one or more species. Hence to adapt them to these
+various requirements we find the utmost differences of form and size
+and structure. Even the same individual often goes through great
+changes.
+
+
+GROWTH AND METAMORPHOSES
+
+The development, indeed, of an animal from birth to maturity is no mere
+question of growth. The metamorphoses of Insects have long excited the
+wonder and admiration of all lovers of nature. They depend to a great
+extent on the fact that the little creatures quit the egg at an early
+stage of development, and lead a different life, so that the external
+forces acting on them, are very different from those by which they are
+affected when they arrive at maturity. A remarkable case is that of
+certain Beetles which are parasitic on Solitary Bees. The young larva is
+very active, with six strong legs. It conceals itself in some flower,
+and when the Bee comes in search of honey, leaps upon her, but is so
+minute as not to be perceived. The Bee constructs her cell, stores it
+with honey, and lays her egg. At that moment the little larva quits the
+Bee and jumps on to the egg, which she proceeds gradually to devour.
+Having finished the egg, she attacks the honey; but under these
+circumstances the activity which was at first so necessary has become
+useless; the legs which did such good service are no longer required;
+and the active slim larva changes into a white fleshy grub, which floats
+comfortably in the honey with its mouth just below the surface.
+
+Even in the same group we may find great differences. For instance, in
+the family of Insects to which Bees and Wasps belong, some have grub
+larvae, such as the Bee and Ant; some have larvae like caterpillars, such
+as the Sawflies; and there is a group of minute forms the larvae of which
+live inside the eggs of other insects, and present very remarkable and
+abnormal forms.
+
+These differences depend mainly on the mode of life and the character of
+the food.
+
+
+RUDIMENTARY ORGANS
+
+Such modifications may be called adaptive, but there are others of a
+different origin that have reference to the changes which the race has
+passed through in bygone ages. In fact the great majority of animals do
+go through metamorphoses (many of them as remarkable, though not so
+familiar as those of insects), but in many cases they are passed through
+within the egg and thus escape popular observation. Naturalists who
+accept the theory of evolution, consider that the development of each
+individual represents to a certain extent that which the species has
+itself gone through in the lapse of ages; that every individual contains
+within itself, so to say, a history of the race. Thus the rudimentary
+teeth of Cows, Sheep, Whales, etc. (which never emerge from their
+sockets), the rudimentary toes of many mammals, the hind legs of Whales
+and of the Boa-constrictor, which are imbedded in the flesh, the
+rudimentary collar-bone of the Dog, etc., are indications of descent
+from ancestors in which these organs were fully developed. Again, though
+used for such different purposes, the paddle of a Whale, the leg of a
+Horse and of a Mole, the wing of a Bird or a Bat, and the arm of a Man,
+are all constructed on the same model, include corresponding bones, and
+are similarly arranged. The long neck of the Giraffe, and the short one
+of the Whale (if neck it can be called), contain the same number of
+vertebrae.
+
+Even after birth the young of allied species resemble one another much
+more than the mature forms. The stripes on the young Lion, the spots on
+the young Blackbird, are well-known cases; and we find the same law
+prevalent among the lower animals, as, for instance, among Insects and
+Crustacea. The Lobster, Crab, Shrimp, and Barnacle are very unlike when
+full grown, but in their young stages go through essentially similar
+metamorphoses.
+
+No animal is perhaps in this respect more interesting than the Horse.
+The skull of a Horse and that of a Man, though differing so much, are,
+says Flower,[11] "composed of exactly the same number of bones, having
+the same general arrangement and relation to each other. Not only the
+individual bones, but every ridge and surface for the attachment of
+muscles, and every hole for the passage of artery or nerve, seen in the
+one can be traced in the other." It is often said that the Horse
+presents a remarkable peculiarity in that the canine teeth grow but
+once. There are, however, in most Horses certain spicules or minute
+points which are shed before the appearance of the permanent canines,
+and which are probably the last remnants of the true milk canines.
+
+The foot is reduced to a single toe, representing the third digit, but
+the second and fourth, though rudimentary, are represented by the splint
+bones; while the foot also contains traces of several muscles,
+originally belonging to the toes which have now disappeared, and which
+"linger as it were behind, with new relations and uses, sometimes in a
+reduced, and almost, if not quite, functionless condition." Even Man
+himself presents traces of gill-openings, and indications of other
+organs which are fully developed in lower animals.
+
+
+MODIFICATIONS
+
+There is in New Zealand a form of Crow (Hura), in which the female has
+undergone a very curious modification. It is the only case I know, in
+which the bill is differently shaped in the two sexes. The bird has
+taken on the habits of a Woodpecker, and the stout crow-like bill of the
+cock-bird is admirably adapted to tap trees, and if they sound hollow,
+to dig down to the burrow of the Insect; but it lacks the horny-pointed
+tip of the tongue, which in the true Woodpecker is provided with
+recurved hairs, thus enabling that bird to pierce the grub and draw it
+out. In the Hura, however, the bill of the hen-bird has become much
+elongated and slightly curved, and when the cock has dug down to the
+burrow, the hen inserts her long bill and draws out the grub, which
+they then divide between them: a very pretty illustration of the wife as
+helpmate to the husband.
+
+It was indeed until lately the general opinion that animals and plants
+came into existence just as we now see them. We took pleasure in their
+beauty; their adaptation to their habits and mode of life in many cases
+could not be overlooked or misunderstood. Nevertheless the book of
+Nature was like some missal richly illuminated, but written in an
+unknown tongue. The graceful forms of the letters, the beauty of the
+colouring, excited our wonder and admiration; but of the true meaning
+little was known to us; indeed we scarcely realised that there was any
+meaning to decipher. Now glimpses of the truth are gradually revealing
+themselves, we perceive that there is a reason, and in many cases we
+know what the reason is, for every difference in form, in size, and in
+colour; for every bone and every feather, almost for every hair.[12]
+
+
+COLOUR
+
+The colours of animals, generally, I believe, serve as a protection. In
+some, however, they probably render them more attractive to their mates,
+of which the Peacock is one of the most remarkable illustrations.
+
+In richness of colour birds and insects vie even with flowers. "One fine
+red admiral butterfly," says Jefferies,[13] "whose broad wings,
+stretched out like fans, looked simply splendid floating round and round
+the willows which marked the margin of a dry pool. His blue markings
+were really blue--blue velvet--his red and the white stroke shone as if
+sunbeams were in his wings. I wish there were more of these butterflies;
+in summer, dry summer, when the flowers seem gone and the grass is not
+so dear to us, and the leaves are dull with heat, a little colour is so
+pleasant. To me colour is a sort of food; every spot of colour is a drop
+of wine to the spirit."
+
+The varied colours which add so much to the beauty of animals and
+plants are not only thus a delight to the eye, but afford us also some
+of the most interesting problems in Natural History. Some probably are
+not in themselves of any direct advantage. The brilliant mother-of-pearl
+of certain shells, which during life is completely hidden, the rich
+colours of some internal organs of animals, are not perhaps of any
+direct benefit, but are incidental, like the rich and brilliant hues of
+many minerals and precious stones.
+
+But although this may be true, I believe that most of these colours are
+now of some advantage. "The black back and silvery belly of fishes" have
+been recently referred to by a distinguished naturalist as being
+obviously of no direct benefit. I should on the contrary have quoted
+this case as one where the advantage was obvious. The dark back renders
+the fish less conspicuous to an eye looking down into the water; while
+the white under-surface makes them less visible from below. The animals
+of the desert are sand-coloured; those of the Arctic regions are white
+like snow, especially in winter; and pelagic animals are blue.
+
+Let us take certain special cases. The Lion, like other desert animals,
+is sand-coloured; the Tiger which lives in the Jungle has vertical
+stripes, making him difficult to see among the upright grass; Leopards
+and the tree-cats are spotted, like rays of light seen through leaves.
+
+An interesting case is that of the animals living in the Sargasso or
+gulf-weed of the Atlantic. These creatures--Fish, Crustacea, and
+Mollusks alike--are characterised by a peculiar colouring, not
+continuously olive like the Seaweed itself, but blotched with rounded
+more or less irregular patches of bright, opaque white, so as closely to
+resemble fronds covered with patches of Flustra or Barnacles.
+
+Take the case of caterpillars, which are especially defenceless, and
+which as a rule feed on leaves. The smallest and youngest are green,
+like the leaves on which they live. When they become larger, they are
+characterised by longitudinal lines, which break up the surface and thus
+render them less conspicuous. On older and larger ones the lines are
+diagonal, like the nerves of leaves. Conspicuous caterpillars are
+generally either nauseous in taste, or protected by hairs.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1.--_Choerocampa porcellus._]
+
+I say "generally," because there are some interesting exceptions. The
+large caterpillars of some of the Elephant Hawkmoths are very
+conspicuous, and rendered all the more so by the presence of a pair of
+large eyelike spots. Every one who sees one of these caterpillars is
+struck by its likeness to a snake, and the so-called "eyes" do much to
+increase the deception. Moreover, the ring on which they are placed is
+swollen, and the insect, when in danger, has the habit of retracting its
+head and front segments, which gives it an additional resemblance to
+some small reptile. That small birds are, as a matter of fact, afraid of
+these caterpillars (which, however, I need not say, are in reality
+altogether harmless) Weismann has proved by actual experiment. He put
+one of these caterpillars in a tray, in which he was accustomed to place
+seed for birds. Soon a little flock of sparrows and other small birds
+assembled to feed as usual. One of them lit on the edge of this tray,
+and was just going to hop in, when she spied the caterpillar.
+Immediately she began bobbing her head up and down in the odd way which
+some small birds have, but was afraid to go nearer. Another joined her
+and then another, until at last there was a little company of ten or
+twelve birds all looking on in astonishment, but not one ventured into
+the tray; while one bird, which lit in it unsuspectingly, beat a hasty
+retreat in evident alarm as soon as she perceived the caterpillar. After
+waiting for some time, Weismann removed it, when the birds soon attacked
+the seeds. Other caterpillars also are probably protected by their
+curious resemblance to spotted snakes. One of the large Indian
+caterpillars has even acquired the power of hissing.
+
+Among perfect insects many resemble closely the substances near which
+they live. Some moths are mottled so as to mimic the bark of trees, or
+moss, or the surface of stones. One beautiful tropical butterfly has a
+dark wing on which are painted a series of green leaf tips, so that it
+closely resembles the edge of a pinnate leaf projecting out of shade
+into sunshine.
+
+The argument is strengthened by those cases in which the protection, or
+other advantage, is due not merely to colour, but partly also to form.
+Such are the insects which resemble sticks or leaves. Again, there are
+cases in which insects mimic others, which, for some reason or other,
+are less liable to danger. So also many harmless animals mimic others
+which are poisonous or otherwise well protected. Some butterflies, as
+Mr. Bates has pointed out, mimic others which are nauseous in taste, and
+therefore not attacked by birds. In these cases it is generally only the
+females that are mimetic, and in some cases only a part of them, so that
+there are two, or even three, kinds of females, the one retaining the
+normal colouring of the group, the other mimicking another species. Some
+spiders closely resemble Ants, and several other insects mimic Wasps or
+Hornets.
+
+Some reptiles and fish have actually the power of changing the colour of
+their skin so as to adapt themselves to their surroundings.
+
+Many cases in which the colouring does not at first sight appear to be
+protective, will on consideration be found to be so. It has, for
+instance, been objected that sheep are not coloured green; but every
+mountaineer knows that sheep could not have had a colour more adapted to
+render them inconspicuous, and that it is almost impossible to
+distinguish them from the rocks which so constantly crop up on hill
+sides. Even the brilliant blue of the Kingfisher, which in a museum
+renders it so conspicuous, in its native haunts, on the contrary, makes
+it difficult to distinguish from a flash of light upon the water; and
+the richly-coloured Woodpecker wears the genuine dress of a
+Forester--the green coat and crimson cap.
+
+It has been found that some brilliantly coloured and conspicuous animals
+are either nauseous or poisonous. In these cases the brilliant colour
+is doubtless a protection by rendering them more unmistakable.
+
+
+COMMUNITIES
+
+Some animals may delight us especially by their beauty, such as birds or
+butterflies; others may surprise us by their size, as Elephants and
+Whales, or the still more marvellous monsters of ancient times; may
+fascinate us by their exquisite forms, such as many microscopic shells;
+or compel our reluctant attention by their similarity to us in
+structure; but none offer more points of interest than those which live
+in communities. I do not allude to the temporary assemblages of
+Starlings, Swallows, and other birds at certain times of year, nor even
+to the permanent associations of animals brought together by common
+wants in suitable localities, but to regular and more or less organised
+associations. Such colonies as those of Rooks and Beavers have no doubt
+interesting revelations and surprises in store for us, but they have not
+been as yet so much studied as those of some insects. Among these the
+Hive Bees, from the beauty and regularity of their cells, from their
+utility to man, and from the debt we owe them for their unconscious
+agency in the improvement of flowers, hold a very high place; but they
+are probably less intelligent, and their relations with other animals
+and with one another are less complex than in the case of Ants, which
+have been so well studied by Gould, Huber, Forel, M'Cook, and other
+naturalists.
+
+The subject is a wide one, for there are at least a thousand species of
+Ants, no two of which have the same habits. In this country we have
+rather more than thirty, most of which I have kept in confinement. Their
+life is comparatively long: I have had working Ants which were seven
+years old, and a Queen Ant lived in one of my nests for fifteen years.
+The community consists, in addition to the young, of males, which do no
+work, of wingless workers, and one or more Queen mothers, who have at
+first wings, which, however, after one Marriage flight, they throw off,
+as they never leave the nest again, and in it wings would of course be
+useless. The workers do not, except occasionally, lay eggs, but carry on
+all the affairs of the community. Some of them, and especially the
+younger ones, remain in the nest, excavate chambers and tunnels, and
+tend the young, which are sorted up according to age, so that my nests
+often had the appearance of a school, with the children arranged in
+classes.
+
+In our English Ants the workers in each species are all similar except
+in size, but among foreign species there are some in which there are two
+or even more classes of workers, differing greatly not only in size, but
+also in form. The differences are not the result of age, nor of race,
+but are adaptations to different functions, the nature of which,
+however, is not yet well understood. Among the Termites those of one
+class certainly seem to act as soldiers, and among the true Ants also
+some have comparatively immense heads and powerful jaws. It is doubtful,
+however, whether they form a real army. Bates observed that on a
+foraging expedition the large-headed individuals did not walk in the
+regular ranks, nor on the return did they carry any of the booty, but
+marched along at the side, and at tolerably regular intervals, "like
+subaltern officers in a marching regiment." He is disposed, however, to
+ascribe to them a much humbler function, namely, to serve merely "as
+indigestible morsels to the ant thrushes." This, I confess, seems to me
+improbable.
+
+Solomon was, so far as we yet know, quite correct in describing Ants as
+having "neither guide, overseer, nor ruler." The so-called Queens are
+really Mothers. Nevertheless it is true, and it is curious, that the
+working Ants and Bees always turn their heads towards the Queen. It
+seems as if the sight of her gave them pleasure. On one occasion, while
+moving some Ants from one nest into another for exhibition at the Royal
+Institution, I unfortunately crushed the Queen and killed her. The
+others, however, did not desert her, or draw her out as they do dead
+workers, but on the contrary carried her into the new nest, and
+subsequently into a larger one with which I supplied them, congregating
+round her for weeks just as if she had been alive. One could hardly
+help fancying that they were mourning her loss, or hoping anxiously for
+her recovery.
+
+The Communities of Ants are sometimes very large, numbering even up to
+500,000 individuals; and it is a lesson to us, that no one has ever yet
+seen a quarrel between any two Ants belonging to the same community. On
+the other hand it must be admitted that they are in hostility, not only
+with most other insects, including Ants of different species, but even
+with those of the same species if belonging to different communities. I
+have over and over again introduced Ants from one of my nests into
+another nest of the same species, and they were invariably attacked,
+seized by a leg or an antenna, and dragged out.
+
+It is evident therefore that the Ants of each community all recognise
+one another, which is very remarkable. But more than this, I several
+times divided a nest into two halves, and found that even after a
+separation of a year and nine months they recognised one another, and
+were perfectly friendly; while they at once attacked Ants from a
+different nest, although of the same species.
+
+It has been suggested that the Ants of each nest have some sign or
+password by which they recognise one another. To test this I made some
+insensible. First I tried chloroform, but this was fatal to them; and as
+therefore they were practically dead, I did not consider the test
+satisfactory. I decided therefore to intoxicate them. This was less easy
+than I had expected. None of my Ants would voluntarily degrade
+themselves by getting drunk. However, I got over the difficulty by
+putting them into whisky for a few moments. I took fifty specimens,
+twenty-five from one nest and twenty-five from another, made them dead
+drunk, marked each with a spot of paint, and put them on a table close
+to where other Ants from one of the nests were feeding. The table was
+surrounded as usual with a moat of water to prevent them from straying.
+The Ants which were feeding soon noticed those which I had made drunk.
+They seemed quite astonished to find their comrades in such a
+disgraceful condition, and as much at a loss to know what to do with
+their drunkards as we are. After a while, however, to cut my story
+short, they carried them all away: the strangers they took to the edge
+of the moat and dropped into the water, while they bore their friends
+home into the nest, where by degrees they slept off the effects of the
+spirit. Thus it is evident that they know their friends even when
+incapable of giving any sign or password.
+
+This little experiment also shows that they help comrades in distress.
+If a Wolf or a Rook be ill or injured, we are told that it is driven
+away or even killed by its comrades. Not so with Ants. For instance, in
+one of my nests an unfortunate Ant, in emerging from the chrysalis skin,
+injured her legs so much that she lay on her back quite helpless. For
+three months, however, she was carefully fed and tended by the other
+Ants. In another case an Ant in the same manner had injured her antennae.
+I watched her also carefully to see what would happen. For some days she
+did not leave the nest. At last one day she ventured outside, and after
+a while met a stranger Ant of the same species, but belonging to another
+nest, by whom she was at once attacked. I tried to separate them, but
+whether by her enemy, or perhaps by my well-meant but clumsy kindness,
+she was evidently much hurt and lay helplessly on her side. Several
+other Ants passed her without taking any notice, but soon one came up,
+examined her carefully with her antennae, and carried her off tenderly to
+the nest. No one, I think, who saw it could have denied to that Ant one
+attribute of humanity, the quality of kindness.
+
+The existence of such communities as those of Ants or Bees implies, no
+doubt, some power of communication, but the amount is still a matter of
+doubt. It is well known that if one Bee or Ant discovers a store of
+food, others soon find their way to it. This, however, does not prove
+much. It makes all the difference whether they are brought or sent. If
+they merely accompany on her return a companion who has brought a store
+of food, it does not imply much. To test this, therefore, I made
+several experiments. For instance, one cold day my Ants were almost all
+in their nests. One only was out hunting and about six feet from home. I
+took a dead bluebottle fly, pinned it on to a piece of cork, and put it
+down just in front of her. She at once tried to carry off the fly, but
+to her surprise found it immovable. She tugged and tugged, first one way
+and then another for about twenty minutes, and then went straight off to
+the nest. During that time not a single Ant had come out; in fact she
+was the only Ant of that nest out at the time. She went straight in, but
+in a few seconds--less than half a minute,--came out again with no less
+than twelve friends, who trooped off with her, and eventually tore up
+the dead fly, carrying it off in triumph.
+
+Now the first Ant took nothing home with her; she must therefore somehow
+have made her friends understand that she had found some food, and
+wanted them to come and help her to secure it. In all such cases,
+however, so far as my experience goes, the Ants brought their friends,
+and some of my experiments indicated that they are unable to send them.
+
+Certain species of Ants, again, make slaves of others, as Huber first
+observed. If a colony of the slave-making Ants is changing the nest, a
+matter which is left to the discretion of the slaves, the latter carry
+their mistresses to their new home. Again, if I uncovered one of my
+nests of the Fuscous Ant (Formica fusca), they all began running about
+in search of some place of refuge. If now I covered over one small part
+of the nest, after a while some Ant discovered it. In such a case,
+however, the brave little insect never remained there, she came out in
+search of her friends, and the first one she met she took up in her
+jaws, threw over her shoulder (their way of carrying friends), and took
+into the covered part; then both came out again, found two more friends
+and brought them in, the same manoeuvre being repeated until the whole
+community was in a place of safety. This I think says much for their
+public spirit, but seems to prove that, in F. fusca at least, the powers
+of communication are but limited.
+
+One kind of slave-making Ant has become so completely dependent on their
+slaves, that even if provided with food they will die of hunger, unless
+there is a slave to put it into their mouth. I found, however, that they
+would thrive very well if supplied with a slave for an hour or so once a
+week to clean and feed them.
+
+But in many cases the community does not consist of Ants only. They have
+domestic animals, and indeed it is not going too far to say that they
+have domesticated more animals than we have. Of these the most important
+are Aphides. Some species keep Aphides on trees and bushes, others
+collect root-feeding Aphides into their nests. They serve as cows to the
+Ants, which feed on the honey-dew secreted by the Aphides. Not only,
+moreover, do the Ants protect the Aphides themselves, but collect their
+eggs in autumn, and tend them carefully through the winter, ready for
+the next spring. Many other insects are also domesticated by Ants, and
+some of them, from living constantly underground, have completely lost
+their eyes and become quite blind.
+
+But I must not let myself be carried away by this fascinating subject,
+which I have treated more at length in another work.[14] I will only say
+that though their intelligence is no doubt limited, still I do not think
+that any one who has studied the life-history of Ants can draw any
+fundamental line of separation between instinct and reason.
+
+When we see a community of Ants working together in perfect harmony, it
+is impossible not to ask ourselves how far they are mere exquisite
+automatons; how far they are conscious beings? When we watch an ant-hill
+tenanted by thousands of industrious inhabitants, excavating chambers,
+forming tunnels, making roads, guarding their home, gathering food,
+feeding the young, tending their domestic animals--each one fulfilling
+its duties industriously, and without confusion,--it is difficult
+altogether to deny to them the gift of reason; and all our recent
+observations tend to confirm the opinion that their mental powers differ
+from those of men, not so much in kind as in degree.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] _The Horse._
+
+[12] Lubbock, _Fifty Years of Science_.
+
+[13] _The Open Air._
+
+[14] _Ants, Bees, and Wasps._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ON ANIMAL LIFE--_continued_
+
+     An organic being is a microcosm--a little universe, formed of a
+     host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and
+     numerous as the stars of heaven.
+
+                              DARWIN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ON ANIMAL LIFE--_continued._
+
+
+We constantly speak of animals as free. A fish, says Ruskin, "is much
+freer than a Man; and as to a fly, it is a black incarnation of
+freedom." It is pleasant to think of anything as free, but in this case
+the idea is, I fear, to a great extent erroneous. Young animals may
+frolic and play, but older ones take life very seriously. About the
+habits of fish and flies, indeed, as yet we know very little. Any one,
+however, who will watch animals will soon satisfy himself how diligently
+they work. Even when they seem to be idling over flowers, or wandering
+aimlessly about, they are in truth diligently seeking for food, or
+collecting materials for nests. The industry of Bees is proverbial. When
+collecting honey or pollen they often visit over twenty flowers in a
+minute, keeping constantly to one species, without yielding a moment's
+dalliance to any more sweet or lovely tempter. Ants fully deserve the
+commendation of Solomon. Wasps have not the same reputation for
+industry; but I have watched them from before four in the morning till
+dark at night working like animated machines without a moment's rest or
+intermission. Sundays and Bank Holidays are all the same to them. Again,
+Birds have their own gardens and farms from which they do not wander,
+and within which they will tolerate no interference. Their ideas of the
+rights of property are far stricter than those of some statesmen. As to
+freedom, they have their daily duties as much as a mechanic in a mill or
+a clerk in an office. They suffer under alarms, moreover, from which we
+are happily free. Mr. Galton believes that the life of wild animals is
+very anxious. "From my own recollection," he says, "I believe that every
+antelope in South Africa has to run for its life every one or two days
+upon an average, and that he starts or gallops under the influence of a
+false alarm many times in a day. Those who have crouched at night by the
+side of pools in the desert, in order to have a shot at the beasts that
+frequent it, see strange scenes of animal life; how the creatures gambol
+at one moment and fight at another; how a herd suddenly halts in
+strained attention, and then breaks into a maddened rush as one of them
+becomes conscious of the stealthy movements or rank scent of a beast of
+prey. Now this hourly life-and-death excitement is a keen delight to
+most wild creatures, but must be peculiarly distracting to the
+comfort-loving temperament of others. The latter are alone suited to
+endure the crass habits and dull routine of domesticated life. Suppose
+that an animal which has been captured and half-tamed, received
+ill-usage from his captors, either as punishment or through mere
+brutality, and that he rushed indignantly into the forest with his ribs
+aching from blows and stones. If a comfort-loving animal, he will
+probably be no gainer by the change, more serious alarms and no less
+ill-usage awaits him: he hears the roar of the wild beasts, and the
+headlong gallop of the frightened herds, and he finds the buttings and
+the kicks of other animals harder to endure than the blows from which he
+fled: he has peculiar disadvantages from being a stranger; the herds of
+his own species which he seeks for companionship constitute so many
+cliques, into which he can only find admission by more fighting with
+their strongest members than he has spirit to undergo. As a set-off
+against these miseries, the freedom of savage life has no charms for his
+temperament; so the end of it is, that with a heavy heart he turns back
+to the habitation he had quitted."
+
+But though animals may not be free, I hope and believe that they are
+happy. Dr. Hudson, an admirable observer, assures us with confidence
+that the struggle for existence leaves them much leisure and famous
+spirits. "In the animal world," he exclaims,[15] "what happiness reigns!
+What ease, grace, beauty, leisure, and content! Watch these living
+specks as they glide through their forests of algae, all 'without hurry
+and care,' as if their 'span-long lives' really could endure for the
+thousand years that the old catch pines for. Here is no greedy jostling
+at the banquet that nature has spread for them; no dread of each other;
+but a leisurely inspection of the field, that shows neither the pressure
+of hunger nor the dread of an enemy.
+
+"'To labour and to be content' (that 'sweet life' of the son of
+Sirach)--to be equally ready for an enemy or a friend--to trust in
+themselves alone, to show a brave unconcern for the morrow, all these
+are the admirable points of a character almost universal among animals,
+and one that would lighten many a heart were it more common among men.
+That character is the direct result of the golden law 'If one will not
+work, neither let him eat'; a law whose stern kindness, unflinchingly
+applied, has produced whole nations of living creatures, without a
+pauper in their ranks, flushed with health, alert, resolute,
+self-reliant, and singularly happy."
+
+It has often been said that Man is the only animal gifted with the
+power of enjoying a joke, but if animals do not laugh, at any rate they
+sometimes play. We are, indeed, apt perhaps to credit them with too much
+of our own attributes and emotions, but we can hardly be mistaken in
+supposing that they enjoy certain scents and sounds. It is difficult to
+separate the games of kittens and lambs from those of children. Our
+countryman Gould long ago described the "amusements or sportive
+exercises" which he had observed among Ants. Forel was at first
+incredulous, but finally confirmed these statements; and, speaking of
+certain tropical Ants, Bates says "the conclusion that they were engaged
+in play was irresistible."
+
+
+SLEEP
+
+We share with other animals the great blessing of Sleep, nature's soft
+nurse, "the mantle that covers thought, the food that appeases hunger,
+the drink that quenches thirst, the fire that warms cold, the cold that
+moderates heat, the coin that purchases all things, the balance and
+weight that equals the shepherd with the king, and the simple with the
+wise." Some animals dream as we do; Dogs, for instance, evidently dream
+of the chase. With the lower animals which cannot shut their eyes it is,
+however, more difficult to make sure whether they are awake or asleep. I
+have often noticed insects at night, even when it was warm and light,
+behave just as if they were asleep, and take no notice of objects which
+would certainly have startled them in the day. The same thing has also
+been observed in the case of fish.
+
+But why should we sleep? What a remarkable thing it is that one-third of
+our life should be passed in unconsciousness. "Half of our days," says
+Sir T. Browne, "we pass in the shadow of the earth, and the brother of
+death extracteth a third part of our lives." The obvious suggestion is
+that we require rest. But this does not fully meet the case. In sleep
+the mind is still awake, and lives a life of its own: our thoughts
+wander, uncontrolled, by the will. The mind, therefore, is not
+necessarily itself at rest; and yet we all know how it is refreshed by
+sleep.
+
+But though animals sleep, many of them are nocturnal in their habits.
+Humboldt gives a vivid description of night in a Brazilian forest.
+
+"Everything passed tranquilly till eleven at night, and then a noise so
+terrible arose in the neighbouring forest that it was almost impossible
+to close our eyes. Amid the cries of so many wild beasts howling at once
+the Indians discriminated such only as were (at intervals) heard
+separately. These were the little soft cries of the sapajous, the moans
+of the alouate apes, the howlings of the jaguar and couguar, the peccary
+and the sloth, and the cries of (many) birds. When the jaguars
+approached the skirt of the forest our dog, which till then had never
+ceased barking, began to howl and seek for shelter beneath our hammocks.
+Sometimes, after a long silence, the cry of the tiger came from the tops
+of the trees; and then it was followed by the sharp and long whistling
+of the monkeys, which appeared to flee from the danger which threatened
+them. We heard the same noises repeated during the course of whole
+months whenever the forest approached the bed of the river.
+
+"When the natives are interrogated on the causes of the tremendous noise
+made by the beasts of the forest at certain hours of the night, the
+answer is, they are keeping the feast of the full moon. I believe this
+agitation is most frequently the effect of some conflict that has arisen
+in the depths of the forest. The jaguars, for instance, pursue the
+peccaries and the tapirs, which, having no defence, flee in close
+troops, and break down the bushes they find in their way. Terrified at
+this struggle, the timid and distrustful monkeys answer, from the tops
+of the trees, the cries of the large animals. They awaken the birds that
+live in society, and by degrees the whole assembly is in commotion. It
+is not always in a fine moonlight, but more particularly at the time of
+a storm of violent showers, that this tumult takes place among the wild
+beasts. 'May heaven grant them a quiet night and repose, and us also!'
+said the monk who accompanied us to the Rio Negro, when, sinking with
+fatigue, he assisted in arranging our accommodation for the night."
+
+Life is indeed among animals a struggle for existence, and in addition
+to the more usual weapons--teeth and claws--we find in some animals
+special and peculiar means of offence and defence.
+
+If we had not been so familiarised with the fact, the possession of
+poison might well seem a wonderful gift. That a fluid, harmless in one
+animal itself, should yet prove so deadly when transferred to others, is
+certainly very remarkable; and though the venom of the Cobra or the
+Rattlesnake appeal perhaps more effectively to our imagination, we have
+conclusive evidence of concentrated poison even in the bite of a midge,
+which may remain for days perceptible. The sting of a Bee or Wasp,
+though somewhat similar in its effect, is a totally different organ,
+being a modified ovipositor. Some species of Ants do not sting in the
+ordinary sense, but eject their acrid poison to a distance of several
+inches.
+
+Another very remarkable weapon is the electric battery of certain Eels,
+of the Electric Cat Fish, and the Torpedoes, one of which is said to be
+able to discharge an amount of electricity sufficient to kill a Man.
+
+Some of the Medusae and other Zoophytes are armed by millions of minute
+organs known as "thread cells." Each consists of a cell, within which a
+firm, elastic thread is tightly coiled. The moment the Medusa touches
+its prey the cells burst and the threads spring out. Entering the flesh
+as they do by myriads, they prove very effective weapons.
+
+The ink of the Sepia has passed into a proverb. The animal possesses a
+store of dark fluid, which, if attacked, it at once ejects, and thus
+escapes under cover of the cloud thus created.
+
+The so-called Bombardier Beetles, when attacked, discharge at the enemy,
+from the hinder part of their body, an acrid fluid which, as soon as it
+comes in contact with air, explodes with a sound resembling a miniature
+gun. Westwood mentions, on the authority of Burchell, that on one
+occasion, "whilst resting for the night on the banks of one of the
+large South American rivers, he went out with a lantern to make an
+astronomical observation, accompanied by one of his black servant boys;
+and as they were proceeding, their attention was directed to numerous
+beetles running about upon the shore, which, when captured, proved to be
+specimens of a large species of Brachinus. On being seized they
+immediately began to play off their artillery, burning and staining the
+flesh to such a degree that only a few specimens could be captured with
+the naked hand, and leaving a mark which remained a considerable time.
+Upon observing the whitish vapour with which the explosions were
+accompanied, the negro exclaimed in his broken English, with evident
+surprise, 'Ah, massa, they make smoke!'"
+
+Many other remarkable illustrations might be quoted; as for instance the
+web of the Spider, the pit of the Ant Lion, the mephitic odour of the
+Skunk.
+
+
+SENSES
+
+We generally attribute to animals five senses more or less resembling
+our own. But even as regards our own senses we really know or
+understand very little. Take the question of colour. The rainbow is
+commonly said to consist of seven colours--red, orange, yellow, green,
+blue, indigo, and violet.
+
+But it is now known that all our colour sensations are mixtures of three
+simple colours, red, green, and violet. We are, however, absolutely
+ignorant how we perceive these colours. Thomas Young suggested that we
+have three different systems of nerve fibres, and Helmholtz regards this
+as "a not improbable supposition"; but so far as microscopical
+examination is concerned, there is no evidence whatever for it.
+
+Or take again the sense of Hearing. The vibrations of the air no doubt
+play upon the drum of the ear, and the waves thus produced are conducted
+through a complex chain of small bones to the fenestra ovalis and so to
+the inner ear or labyrinth. But beyond this all is uncertainty. The
+labyrinth consists mainly of two parts (1) the cochlea, and (2) the
+semicircular canals, which are three in number, standing at right angles
+to one another. It has been supposed that they enable us to maintain
+the equilibrium of the body, but no satisfactory explanation of their
+function has yet been given. In the cochlea, Corti discovered a
+remarkable organ consisting of some four thousand complex arches, which
+increase regularly in length and diminish in height. They are connected
+at one end with the fibres of the auditory nerve, and Helmholtz has
+suggested that the waves of sound play on them, like the fingers of a
+performer on the keys of a piano, each separate arch corresponding to a
+different sound. We thus obtain a glimpse, though but a glimpse, of the
+manner in which perhaps we hear; but when we pass on to the senses of
+smell and taste, all we know is that the extreme nerve fibres terminate
+in certain cells which differ in form from those of the general surface;
+but in what manner the innumerable differences of taste or smell are
+communicated to the brain, we are absolutely ignorant.
+
+If then we know so little about ourselves, no wonder that with reference
+to other animals our ignorance is extreme.
+
+We are too apt to suppose that the senses of animals must closely
+resemble, and be confined to ours.
+
+No one can doubt that the sensations of other animals differ in many
+ways from ours. Their organs are sometimes constructed on different
+principles, and situated in very unexpected places. There are animals
+which have eyes on their backs, ears in their legs, and sing through
+their sides.
+
+We all know that the senses of animals are in many cases much more acute
+than ours, as for instance the power of scent in the dog, of sight in
+the eagle. Moreover, our eye is much more sensitive to some colours than
+to others; least so to crimson, then successively to red, orange,
+yellow, blue, and green; the sensitiveness for green being as much as
+750 times as great as for red. This alone may make objects appear of
+very different colours to different animals.
+
+Nor is the difference one of degree merely. The rainbow, as we see it,
+consists of seven colours--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and
+violet. But though the red and violet are the limits of the visible
+spectrum, they are not the limits of the spectrum itself, there are
+rays, though invisible to us, beyond the red at the one end, and beyond
+the violet at the other: the existence of the ultra red can be
+demonstrated by the thermometer; while the ultra violet are capable of
+taking a photograph. But though the red and violet are respectively the
+limits of our vision, I have shown[16] by experiments which have been
+repeated and confirmed by other naturalists, that some of the lower
+animals are capable of perceiving the ultra-violet rays, which to us are
+invisible. It is an interesting question whether these rays may not
+produce on them the impression of a new colour, or colours, differing
+from any of those known to us.
+
+So again with hearing, not only may animals in some cases hear better
+than we do, but sounds which are beyond the reach of our ears, may be
+audible to theirs. Even among ourselves the power of hearing shrill
+sounds is greater in some persons than in others. Sound, as we know, is
+produced by vibration of the air striking on the drum of the ear, and
+the fewer are the vibrations in a second, the deeper is the sound, which
+becomes shriller and shriller as the waves of sound become more rapid.
+In human ears the limits of hearing are reached when about 35,000
+vibrations strike the drum of the ear in a second.
+
+Whatever the explanation of the gift of hearing in ourselves may be,
+different plans seem to be adopted in the case of other animals. In many
+Crustacea and Insects there are flattened hairs each connected with a
+nerve fibre, and so constituted as to vibrate in response to particular
+notes. In others the ear cavity contains certain minute solid bodies,
+known as otoliths, which in the same way play upon the nerve fibres.
+Sometimes these are secreted by the walls of the cavity itself, but
+certain Crustacea have acquired the remarkable habit of selecting after
+each moult suitable particles of sand, which they pick up with their
+pincers and insert into their ears.
+
+Many insects, besides the two large "compound" eyes one on each side of
+the head, have between them three small ones, known as the "ocelli,"
+arranged in a triangle. The structure of these two sets of eyes is quite
+different. The ocelli appear to see as our eyes do. The lens throws an
+inverted image on the back of the eye, so that with these eyes they must
+see everything reversed, as we ourselves really do, though long practice
+enables us to correct the impression. On the other hand, the compound
+eyes consist of a number of facets, in some species as many as 20,000 in
+each eye, and the prevailing impression among entomologists now is that
+each facet receives the impression of one pencil of rays, that in fact
+the image formed in a compound eye is a sort of mosaic. In that case,
+vision by means of these eyes must be direct; and it is indeed difficult
+to understand how an insect can obtain a correct impression when it
+looks at the world with five eyes, three of which see everything
+reversed, while the other two see things the right way up!
+
+On the other hand, some regard each facet as an independent eye, in
+which case many insects realise the epigram of Plato--
+
+    Thou lookest on the stars, my love,
+      Ah, would that I could be
+    Yon starry skies with thousand eyes,
+      That I might look on thee!
+
+Even so, therefore, we only substitute one difficulty for another.
+
+But this is not all. We have not only no proof that animals are confined
+to our five senses, but there are strong reasons for believing that this
+is not the case.
+
+In the first place, many animals have organs which from their position,
+structure, and rich supply of nerves, are evidently organs of sense; and
+yet which do not appear to be adapted to any one of our five senses.
+
+As already mentioned, the limits of hearing are reached when about
+35,000 vibrations of the air strike on the drums of our ears. Light, as
+was first conclusively demonstrated by our great countryman Young, is
+the impression produced by vibration of the ether on the retina of the
+eye. When 700 millions of millions of vibrations strike the eye in a
+second, we see violet; and the colour changes as the number diminishes,
+400 millions of millions giving us the impression of red.
+
+Between 35 thousand and 400 millions of millions the interval is
+immense, and it is obvious that there might be any number of sensations.
+When we consider how greatly animals differ from us, alike in habits and
+structure, is it not possible, nay, more, is it not likely that some of
+these problematical organs are the seats of senses unknown to us, and
+give rise to sensations of which we have no conception?
+
+In addition to the capacity for receiving and perceiving, some animals
+have the faculty of emitting light. In our country the glow-worm is the
+most familiar case, though some other insects and worms have, at any
+rate under certain conditions, the same power, and it is possible that
+many others are really luminous, though with light which is invisible to
+us. In warmer climates the Fire-fly, Lanthorn-fly, and many other
+insects, shine with much greater brilliance, and in these cases the
+glow seems to be a real love-light, like the lamp of Hero.
+
+Many small marine animals, Medusae, Crustacea, Worms, etc., are also
+brilliantly luminous at night. Deep-sea animals are endowed also in many
+cases with special luminous organs, to which I shall refer again.
+
+
+SENSE OF DIRECTION
+
+It has been supposed that animals possess also what has been called a
+Sense of Direction. Many interesting cases are on record of animals
+finding their way home after being taken a considerable distance. To
+account for this fact it has been suggested that animals possess a sense
+with which we are not endowed, or of which, at any rate, we possess only
+a trace. The homing instinct of the pigeon has also been ascribed to the
+same faculty. My brother Alfred, however, who has paid much attention to
+pigeons, informs me that they are never taken any great distance at
+once; but if they are intended to take a long flight, they are trained
+to do so by stages.
+
+Darwin suggested that it would be interesting to test the case by taking
+animals in a close box, and then whirling them round rapidly before
+letting them out. This is in fact done with cats in some parts of
+France, when the family migrates, and is considered the only way of
+preventing the cat from returning to the old home. Fabre has tried the
+same thing with some wild Bees (Chalicodoma). He took some, marked them
+on the back with a spot of white, and put them into a bag. He then
+carried them a quarter of a mile, stopping at a point where an old cross
+stands by the wayside, and whirled the bag rapidly round his head. While
+he was doing so a good woman came by, who seemed not a little surprised
+to find the Professor solemnly whirling a black bag round his head in
+front of the cross; and, he fears, suspected him of Satanic practices.
+He then carried his Bees a mile and a half in the opposite direction and
+let them go. Three out of ten found their way home. He tried the same
+experiment several times, in one case taking them a little over two
+miles. On an average about a third of the Bees found their way home. "La
+demonstration," says Fabre, "est suffisante. Ni les mouvements
+enchevetres d'une rotation comme je l'ai decrite; ni l'obstacle de
+collines a franchir et de bois a traverser; ni les embuches d'une voie
+qui s'avance, retrograde, et revient par un ample circuit, ne peuvent
+troubler les Chalicodomes depayses et les empecher de revenir au nid."
+
+I must say, however, that I am not convinced. In the first place, the
+distances were I think too short; and in the second, though it is true
+that some of the Bees found their way home, nearly two-thirds failed to
+do so. It would be interesting to try the experiment again, taking the
+Bees say five miles. If they really possess any such sense, that
+distance would be no bar to their return. I have myself experimented
+with Ants, taking them about fifty yards from the nest, and I always
+found that they wandered aimlessly about, having evidently not the
+slightest idea of their way home. They certainly did not appear to
+possess any "sense of direction."
+
+
+NUMBER OF SPECIES
+
+The total number of species may probably be safely estimated as at least
+2,000,000, of which but a fraction have yet been described or named. Of
+extinct species the number was probably at least as great. In the
+geological history of the earth there have been at least twelve periods,
+in each of which by far the greatest number were distinct. The Ancient
+Poets described certain gifted mortals as having been privileged to
+descend into the interior of the earth, and exercised their imagination
+in recounting the wonders thus revealed. As in other cases, however, the
+realities of Science have proved far more varied and surprising than the
+dreams of fiction. Of these extinct species our knowledge is even more
+incomplete than that of the existing species. But even of our
+contemporaries it is not too much to say that, as in the case of
+plants, there is not one the structure, habits, and life-history of
+which are yet fully known to us. The male of the Cynips, which produces
+the common King Charles Oak Apple, has only recently been discovered,
+those of the root-feeding Aphides, which live in hundreds in every nest
+of the yellow Meadow Ant (Lasius flavus) are still unknown; the habits
+and mode of reproduction of the common Eel have only just been
+discovered; and we may even say generally that many of the most
+interesting recent discoveries have relation to the commonest and most
+familiar animals.
+
+
+IMPORTANCE OF THE SMALLER ANIMALS
+
+Whatever pre-eminence Man may claim for himself, other animals have done
+far more to affect the face of nature. The principal agents have not
+been the larger or more intelligent, but rather the smaller, and
+individually less important, species. Beavers may have dammed up many of
+the rivers of British Columbia, and turned them into a succession of
+pools or marshes, but this is a slight matter compared with the action
+of earthworms and insects[17] in the creation of vegetable soil; of the
+accumulation of animalcules in filling up harbours and lakes; or of
+Zoophytes in the construction of coral islands.
+
+Microscopic animals make up in number what they lack in size. Paris is
+built of Infusoria. The Peninsula of Florida, 78,000 square miles in
+extent, is entirely composed of coral debris and fragments of shells.
+Chalk consists mainly of Foraminifera and fragments of shells deposited
+in a deep sea. The number of shells required to make up a cubic inch is
+almost incredible. Ehrenberg has estimated that of the Bilin polishing
+slate which caps the mountain, and has a thickness of forty feet, a
+cubic inch contains many hundred million shells of Infusoria.
+
+In another respect these microscopic organisms are of vital importance.
+Many diseases are now known, and others suspected, to be entirely due to
+Bacteria and other minute forms of life (Microbes), which multiply
+incredibly, and either destroy their victims, or after a while diminish
+again in numbers. We live indeed in a cloud of Bacteria. At the
+observatory of Montsouris at Paris it has been calculated that there are
+about 80 in each cubic meter of air. Elsewhere, however, they are much
+more numerous. Pasteur's researches on the Silkworm disease led him to
+the discovery of Bacterium anthracis, the cause of splenic fever.
+Microbes are present in persons suffering from cholera, typhus,
+whooping-cough, measles, hydrophobia, etc., but as to their history and
+connection with disease we have yet much to learn. It is fortunate,
+indeed, that they do not all attack us.
+
+In surgical cases, again, the danger of compound fractures and
+mortification of wounds has been found to be mainly due to the presence
+of microscopic organisms; and Lister, by his antiseptic treatment which
+destroys these germs or prevents their access, has greatly diminished
+the danger of operations, and the sufferings of recovery.
+
+
+SIZE OF ANIMALS
+
+In the size of animals we find every gradation from these atoms which
+even in the most powerful microscopes appear as mere points, up to the
+gigantic reptiles of past ages and the Whales of our present ocean. The
+horned Ray or Skate is 25 feet in length, by 30 in width. The
+Cuttle-fishes of our seas, though so hideous as to resemble a bad dream,
+are too small to be formidable; but off the Newfoundland coast is a
+species with arms sometimes 30 feet long, so as to be 60 feet from tip
+to tip. The body, however, is small in proportion. The Giraffe attains a
+height of over 20 feet; the Elephant, though not so tall, is more bulky;
+the Crocodile reaches a length of over 20 feet, the Python of 60 feet,
+the extinct Titanosaurus of the American Jurassic beds, the largest land
+animal yet known to us, 100 feet in length and 30 in height; the
+Whalebone Whale over 70 feet, Sibbald's Whale is said to have reached
+80-90, which is perhaps the limit. Captain Scoresby indeed mentions a
+Rorqual no less than 120 feet in length, but this is probably too great
+an estimate.
+
+
+COMPLEXITY OF ANIMAL STRUCTURE
+
+The complexity of animal structure is even more marvellous than their
+mere magnitude. A Caterpillar contains more than 2000 muscles. In our
+own body are some 2,000,000 perspiration glands, communicating with the
+surface by ducts having a total length of some 10 miles; while that of
+the arteries, veins, and capillaries must be very great; the blood
+contains millions of millions of corpuscles, each no doubt a complex
+structure in itself; the rods in the retina, which are supposed to be
+the ultimate recipient of light, are estimated at 30,000,000; and
+Meinert has calculated that the gray matter of the brain is built up of
+at least 600,000,000 cells. No verbal description, however, can do
+justice to the marvellous complexity of animal structure, which the
+microscope alone, and even that but faintly, can enable us to realise.
+
+
+LENGTH OF LIFE
+
+How little we yet know of the life-history of Animals is illustrated by
+the vagueness of our information as to the age to which they live.
+Professor Lankester[18] tells us that "the paucity and uncertainty of
+observations on this class of facts is extreme." The Rabbit is said to
+reach 10 years, the Dog and Sheep 10-12, the Pig 20, the Horse 30, the
+Camel 100, the Elephant 200, the Greenland Whale 400 (?): among Birds,
+the Parrot to attain 100 years, the Raven even more. The Atur Parrot
+mentioned by Humboldt, talked, but could not be understood, because it
+spoke in the language of an extinct Indian tribe. It is supposed from
+their rate of growth that among Fish the Carp is said to reach 150
+years; and a Pike, 19 feet long, and weighing 350 lbs., is said to have
+been taken in Suabia in 1497 carrying a ring, on which was inscribed, "I
+am the fish which was first of all put into the lake by the hands of the
+Governor of the Universe, Frederick the Second, the 5th Oct. 1230." This
+would imply an age of over 267 years. Many Reptiles are no doubt very
+long-lived. A Tortoise is said to have reached 500 years. As regards the
+lower animals, the greatest age on record is that of Sir J. Dalzell's
+Sea Anemone, which lived for over 50 years. Insects are generally
+short-lived; the Queen Bee, however, is said by Aristotle, whose
+statement has not been confirmed by recent writers, to live 7 years. I
+myself had a Queen Ant which attained the age of 15 years.
+
+The May Fly (Ephemera) is celebrated as living only for a day, and has
+given its name to all things short-lived. The statement usually made is,
+indeed, very misleading, for in its larval condition the Ephemera lives
+for weeks. Many writers have expressed surprise that in the perfect
+state its life should be so short. It is, however, so defenceless, and,
+moreover, so much appreciated by birds and fish, that unless they laid
+their eggs very rapidly none would perhaps survive to continue the
+species.
+
+Many of these estimates are, as will be seen, very vague and doubtful,
+so that we must still admit with Bacon that, "touching the length and
+shortness of life in living creatures, the information which may be had
+is but slender, observation is negligent, and tradition fabulous. In
+tame creatures their degenerate life corrupteth them, in wild creatures
+their exposing to all weathers often intercepteth them."
+
+
+ON INDIVIDUALITY
+
+When we descend still lower in the animal scale, the consideration of
+this question opens out a very curious and interesting subject connected
+with animal individuality. As regards the animals with which we are
+most familiar no such question intrudes. Among quadrupeds and birds,
+fishes and reptiles, there is no difficulty in deciding whether a given
+organism is an individual, or a part of an individual. Nor does the
+difficulty arise in the case of most insects. The Bee or Butterfly lays
+an egg which develops successively into a larva and pupa, finally
+producing Bee or Butterfly. In these cases, therefore, the egg, larva,
+pupa, and perfect Insect, are regarded as stages in the life of a single
+individual. In certain gnats, however, the larva itself produces young
+larvae, each of which develops into a gnat, so that the egg produces not
+one gnat but many gnats.
+
+The difficulty of determining what constitutes an individual becomes
+still greater among the Zoophytes. These beautiful creatures in many
+cases so closely resemble plants, that until our countryman Ellis proved
+them to be animals, Crabbe was justified in saying--
+
+    Involved in seawrack here we find a race,
+    Which Science, doubting, knows not where to place;
+    On shell or stone is dropped the embryo seed,
+    And quickly vegetates a vital breed.
+
+We cannot wonder that such organisms were long regarded as belonging to
+the vegetable kingdom. The cups which terminate the branches contain,
+however, an animal structure, resembling a small Sea Anemone, and
+possessing arms which capture the food by which the whole colony is
+nourished. Some of these cups, moreover, differ from the rest, and
+produce eggs. These then we might be disposed to term ovaries. But in
+many species they detach themselves from the group and lead an
+independent existence. Thus we find a complete gradation from structures
+which, regarded by themselves, we should unquestionably regard as mere
+organs, to others which are certainly separate and independent beings.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Bougainvillea fruticosa; natural size. (After
+Allman.)]
+
+Fig. 2 represents, after Allman, a colony of Bougainvillea fruticosa of
+the natural size. It is a British species, which is found growing on
+buoys, floating timber, etc., and, says Allman, "When in health and
+vigour, offers a spectacle unsurpassed in interest by any other
+species--every branchlet crowned by its graceful hydranth, and budding
+with Medusae in all stages of development (Fig. 3), some still in the
+condition of minute buds, in which no trace of the definite Medusa-form
+can yet be detected; others, in which the outlines of the Medusa can be
+distinctly traced within the transparent ectotheque (external layer);
+others, again, just casting off this thin outer pellicle, and others
+completely freed from it, struggling with convulsive efforts to break
+loose from the colony, and finally launched forth in the full enjoyment
+of their freedom into the surrounding water. I know of no form in which
+so many of the characteristic features of a typical hydroid are more
+finely expressed than in this beautiful species."
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Bougainvillea fruticosa; magnified to show
+development.]
+
+Fig. 4 represents the Medusa or free form of this beautiful species.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Bougainvillea fruticosa, Medusa-form.]
+
+If we pass to another great group of Zoophytes, that of the
+Jelly-fishes, we have a very similar case. For our first knowledge of
+the life-history of these Zoophytes we are indebted to the Norwegian
+naturalist Sars. Take, for instance, the common Jelly-fish (Medusa
+aurita) (Fig. 5) of our shores.
+
+The egg is a pear-shaped body (_1_), covered with fine hairs, by the aid
+of which it swims about, the broader end in front. After a while it
+attaches itself, not as might have been expected by the posterior but by
+the anterior extremity (_2_). The cilia then disappear, a mouth is
+formed at the free end, tentacles, first four (_3_), then eight, and at
+length as many as thirty (_4_), are formed, and the little creature
+resembles in essentials the freshwater polyp (Hydra) of our ponds.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Medusa aurita, and progressive stages of
+development.]
+
+At the same time transverse wrinkles (_4_) are formed round the body,
+first near the free extremity and then gradually descending. They become
+deeper and deeper, and develop lobes or divisions one under the other,
+as at _5_. After a while the top ring (and subsequently the others one
+by one) detaches itself, swims away, and gradually develops into a
+Medusa (_6_). Thus, then, the life-history is very similar to that of
+the Hydroids, only that while in the Hydroids the fixed condition is the
+more permanent, and the free swimming more transitory, in the Medusae,
+on the contrary, the fixed condition is apparently only a phase in the
+production of the free swimming animal. In both the one and the other,
+however, the egg gives rise not to one but to many mature animals.
+Steenstrup has given to these curious phenomena, many other cases of
+which occur among the lower animals, and to which he first called
+attention, the name of alternations of generations.
+
+In the life-history of Infusoria (so called because they swarm in most
+animal or vegetable infusions) similar difficulties encounter us. The
+little creatures, many of which are round or oval in form, from time to
+time become constricted in the middle; the constriction becomes deeper
+and deeper, and at length the two halves twist themselves apart and swim
+away. In this case, therefore, there was one, and there are now two
+exactly similar; but are these two individuals? They are not parent and
+offspring--that is clear, for they are of the same age; nor are they
+twins, for there is no parent. As already mentioned, we regard the
+Caterpillar, Chrysalis, and Butterfly as stages in the life-history of
+a single individual. But among Zoophytes, and even among some insects,
+one larva often produces several mature forms. In some species these
+mature forms remain attached to the larval stock, and we might be
+disposed to regard the whole as one complex organism. But in others they
+detach themselves and lead an independent existence.
+
+These considerations then introduce much difficulty into our conception
+of the idea of an Individual.
+
+
+ANIMAL IMMORTALITY
+
+But, further than this, we are confronted by by another problem. If we
+regard a mass of coral as an individual because it arises by continuous
+growth from a single egg, then it follows that some corals must be
+thousands of years old.
+
+Some of the lower animals may be cut into pieces, and each piece will
+develop into an entire organism. In fact the realisation of the idea of
+an individual gradually becomes more and more difficult, and the
+continuity of existence, even among the highest animals, gradually
+forces itself upon us. I believe that as we become more rational, as we
+realise more fully the conditions of existence, this consideration is
+likely to have important moral results.
+
+It is generally considered that death is the common lot of all living
+beings. But is this necessarily so? Infusoria and other unicellular
+animals multiply by division. That is to say, if we watch one for a
+certain time, we shall observe, as already mentioned, that a
+constriction takes place, which grows gradually deeper and deeper, until
+at last the two halves become quite detached, and each swims away
+independently. The process is repeated over and over again, and in this
+manner the species is propagated. Here obviously there is no birth and
+no death. Such creatures may be killed, but they have no natural term of
+life. They are, in fact, theoretically immortal. Those which lived
+millions of years ago may have gone on dividing and subdividing, and in
+this sense multitudes of the lower animals are millions of years old.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] Address to Microscopical Society, 1890.
+
+[16] _Ants, Bees, and Wasps_, and _The Senses of Animals_.
+
+[17] Prof. Drummond (_Tropical Africa_) dwells with great force on the
+manner in which the soil of Central Africa is worked up by the White
+Ants.
+
+[18] Lankester, _Comparative Longevity_. See also Weismann, _Duration of
+Life_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ON PLANT LIFE
+
+    Flower in the crannied wall,
+    I pluck you out of the crannies,
+    I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
+    Little flower--but _if_ I could understand
+    What you are, root and all, and all in all,
+    I should know what God and man is.
+
+                              TENNYSON.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ON PLANT LIFE
+
+
+We are told that in old days the Fairies used to give presents of
+Flowers and Leaves to those whom they wished to reward, or whom they
+loved best; and though these gifts were, it appears, often received with
+disappointment, still it will probably be admitted that flowers have
+contributed more to the happiness of our lives than either gold or
+silver or precious stones; and that our happiest days have been spent
+out-of-doors in the woods and fields, when we have
+
+    ... found in every woodland way
+    The sunlight tint of Fairy Gold.[19]
+
+To many minds Flowers acquired an additional interest when it was shown
+that there was a reason for their colour, size, and form--in fact, for
+every detail of their organisation. If we did but know all that the
+smallest flower could tell us, we should have solved some of the
+greatest mysteries of Nature. But we cannot hope to succeed--even if we
+had the genius of Plato or Aristotle--without careful, patient, and
+reverent study. From such an inquiry we may hope much; already we have
+glimpses, enough to convince us that the whole history will open out to
+us conceptions of the Universe wider and grander than any which the
+Imagination alone would ever have suggested.
+
+Attempts to explain the forms, colours, and other characteristics of
+animals and plants are by no means new. Our Teutonic forefathers had a
+pretty story which explained certain points about several common plants.
+Balder, the God of Mirth and Merriment, was, characteristically enough,
+regarded as deficient in the possession of immortality. The other
+divinities, fearing to lose him, petitioned Thor to make him immortal,
+and the prayer was granted on condition that every animal and plant
+would swear not to injure him. To secure this object, Nanna, Balder's
+wife, descended upon the earth. Loki, the God of Envy, followed her,
+disguised as a crow (which at that time were white), and settled on a
+little blue flower, hoping to cover it up, so that Nanna might overlook
+it. The flower, however, cried out "forget-me-not, forget-me-not," and
+has ever since been known under that name. Loki then flew up into an oak
+and sat on a mistletoe. Here he was more successful. Nanna carried off
+the oath of the oak, but overlooked the mistletoe. She thought, however,
+and the divinities thought, that she had successfully accomplished her
+mission, and that Balder had received the gift of immortality.
+
+One day, supposing Balder proof, they amused themselves by shooting at
+him, posting him against a Holly. Loki tipped an arrow with a piece of
+Mistletoe, against which Balder was not proof, and gave it to Balder's
+brother. This, unfortunately, pierced him to the heart, and he fell
+dead. Some drops of his blood spurted on to the Holly, which accounts
+for the redness of the berries; the Mistletoe was so grieved that she
+has ever since borne fruit like tears; and the crow, whose form Loki had
+taken, and which till then had been white, was turned black.
+
+This pretty myth accounts for several things, but is open to fatal
+objections.
+
+Recent attempts to explain the facts of Nature are not less fascinating,
+and, I think, more successful.
+
+Why then this marvellous variety? this inexhaustible treasury of
+beautiful forms? Does it result from some innate tendency in each
+species? Is it intentionally designed to delight the eye of man? Or has
+the form and size and texture some reference to the structure and
+organisation, the habits and requirements of the whole plant?
+
+I shall never forget hearing Darwin's paper on the structure of the
+Cowslip and Primrose, after which even Sir Joseph Hooker compared
+himself to Peter Bell, to whom
+
+    A primrose by a river's brim
+    A yellow primrose was to him,
+      And it was nothing more.
+
+We all, I think, shared the same feeling, and found that the explanation
+of the flower then given, and to which I shall refer again, invested it
+with fresh interest and even with new beauty.
+
+A regular flower, such, for instance, as a Geranium or a Pink, consists
+of four or more whorls of leaves, more or less modified: the lowest
+whorl is the Calyx, and the separate leaves of which it is composed,
+which however are sometimes united into a tube, are called sepals; (2) a
+second whorl, the corolla, consisting of coloured leaves called petals,
+which, however, like those of the Calyx, are often united into a tube;
+(3) of one or more stamens, consisting of a stalk or filament, and a
+head or anther, in which the pollen is produced; and (4) a pistil, which
+is situated in the centre of the flower, and at the base of which is the
+Ovary, containing one or more seeds.
+
+Almost all large flowers are brightly coloured, many produce honey, and
+many are sweet-scented.
+
+What, then, is the use and purpose of this complex organisation?
+
+It is, I think, well established that the main object of the colour,
+scent, and honey of flowers is to attract insects, which are of use to
+the plant in carrying the pollen from flower to flower.
+
+In many species the pollen is, and no doubt it originally was in all,
+carried by the air. In these cases the chance against any given grain of
+pollen reaching the pistil of another flower of the same species is of
+course very great, and the quantity of pollen required is therefore
+immense.
+
+In species where the pollen is wind-borne as in most of our trees--firs,
+oaks, beech, ash, elm, etc., and many herbaceous plants, the flowers are
+as a rule small and inconspicuous, greenish, and without either scent or
+honey. Moreover, they generally flower early, so that the pollen may not
+be intercepted by the leaves, but may have a better chance of reaching
+another flower. And they produce an immense quantity of pollen, as
+otherwise there would be little chance that any would reach the female
+flower. Every one must have noticed the clouds of pollen produced by
+the Scotch Fir. When, on the contrary, the pollen is carried by insects,
+the quantity necessary is greatly reduced. Still it has been calculated
+that a Peony flower produces between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 pollen
+grains; in the Dandelion, which is more specialised, the number is
+reduced to about 250,000; while in such a flower as the Dead-nettle it
+is still smaller.
+
+The honey attracts the insects; while the scent and colour help them to
+find the flowers, the scent being especially useful at night, which is
+perhaps the reason why evening flowers are so sweet.
+
+It is to insects, then, that flowers owe their beauty, scent, and
+sweetness. Just as gardeners, by continual selection, have added so much
+to the beauty of our gardens, so to the unconscious action of insects is
+due the beauty, scent, and sweetness of the flowers of our woods and
+fields.
+
+Let us now apply these views to a few common flowers. Take, for
+instance, the White Dead-nettle.
+
+The corolla of this beautiful and familiar flower (Fig. 6) consists of
+a narrow tube, somewhat expanded at the upper end (Fig. 7), where the
+lower lobe forms a platform, on each side of which is a small projecting
+tooth (Fig. 8, _m_). The upper portion of the corolla is an arched hood
+(_co_), under which lie four anthers (_a a_), in pairs, while between
+them, and projecting somewhat downwards, is the pointed pistil (_st_);
+the tube at the lower part contains honey, and above the honey is a row
+of hairs running round the tube.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 6--White Dead-nettle.]
+
+Now, why has the flower this peculiar form? What regulates the length of
+the tube? What is the use of the arch? What lesson do the little teeth
+teach us? What advantage is the honey to the flower? Of what use is the
+fringe of hairs? Why does the stigma project beyond the anthers? Why is
+the corolla white, while the rest of the plant is green?
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 8.]
+
+The honey of course serves to attract the Humble Bees by which the
+flower is fertilised, and to which it is especially adapted; the white
+colour makes the flower more conspicuous; the lower lip forms the stage
+on which the Bees may alight; the length of the tube is adapted to that
+of their proboscis; its narrowness and the fringe of fine hairs exclude
+small insects which might rob the flower of its honey without performing
+any service in return; the arched upper lip protects the stamens and
+pistil, and prevents rain-drops from choking up the tube and washing
+away the honey; the little teeth are, I believe, of no use to the
+flower in its present condition, they are the last relics of lobes once
+much larger, and still remaining so in some allied species, but which in
+the Dead-nettle, being no longer of any use, are gradually disappearing;
+the height of the arch has reference to the size of the Bee, being just
+so much above the alighting stage that the Bee, while sucking the honey,
+rubs its back against the hood and thus comes in contact first with the
+stigma and then with the anthers, the pollen-grains from which adhere to
+the hairs on the Bee's back, and are thus carried off to the next flower
+which the Bee visits, when some of them are then licked off by the
+viscid tip of the stigma.[20]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 9.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 10.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 11.]
+
+In the Salvias, the common blue Salvia of our gardens, for instance,--a
+plant allied to the Dead-nettle,--the flower (Fig. 9) is constructed on
+the same plan, but the arch is much larger, so that the back of the Bee
+does not nearly reach it. The stamens, however, have undergone a
+remarkable modification. Two of them have become small and functionless.
+In the other two the anthers or cells producing the pollen, which in
+most flowers form together a round knob or head at the top of the
+stamen, are separated by a long arm, which plays on the top of the
+stamen as on a hinge. Of these two arms one hangs down into the tube,
+closing the passage, while the other lies under the arched upper lip.
+When the Bee pushes its proboscis down the tube (Fig. 11) it presses the
+lower arm to one side, and the upper arm consequently descends, tapping
+the Bee on the back, and dusting it with pollen. When the flower is a
+little older the pistil (Fig. 9, _p_) has elongated so that the stigma
+(Fig. 10, _st_) touches the back of the Bee and carries off some of the
+pollen. This sounds a little complicated, but is clear enough if we take
+a twig or stalk of grass and push it down the tube, when one arm of each
+of the two larger stamens will at once make its appearance. It is one of
+the most beautiful pieces of plant mechanism which I know, and was first
+described by Sprengel, a poor German schoolmaster.
+
+
+SNAPDRAGON
+
+At first sight it may seem an objection to the view here advocated that
+the flowers in some species--as, for instance, the common Snapdragon
+(Antirrhinum), which, according to the above given tests, ought to be
+fertilised by insects--are entirely closed. A little consideration,
+however, will suggest the reply. The Snapdragon is especially adapted
+for fertilisation by Humble Bees. The stamens and pistil are so
+arranged that smaller species would not effect the object. It is
+therefore an advantage that they should be excluded, and in fact they
+are not strong enough to move the spring. The Antirrhinum is, so to
+speak, a closed box, of which the Humble Bees alone possess the key.
+
+
+FURZE, BROOM, AND LABURNUM
+
+Other flowers such as the Furze, Broom, Laburnum, etc., are also opened
+by Bees. The petals lock more or less into one another, and the flower
+remains at first closed. When, however, the insect alighting on it
+presses down the keel, the flower bursts open, and dusts it with pollen.
+
+
+SWEET PEA
+
+In the above cases the flower once opened does not close again. In
+others, such as the Sweet Pea and the Bird's-foot Lotus, Nature has
+been more careful. When the Bee alights it clasps the "wings" of the
+flower with its legs, thus pressing them down; they are, however, locked
+into the "keel," or lower petal, which accordingly is also forced down,
+thus exposing the pollen which rubs against, and part of which sticks
+to, the breast of the Bee. When she leaves the flower the keel and wings
+rise again, thus protecting the rest of the pollen and keeping it ready
+until another visitor comes. It is easy to carry out the same process
+with the fingers.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 12. Fig. 13.
+
+Flower and Pollen of Primrose]
+
+
+PRIMULA
+
+In the Primrose and Cowslip, again, we find quite a different plan. It
+had long been known that if a number of Cowslips or Primroses are
+examined, about half would be found to have the stigma at the top of the
+tube and the stamens half way down, while in the other half the stamens
+are at the top and the stigma half way down. These two forms are about
+equally numerous, but never occur on the same stock. They have been long
+known to children and gardeners, who call them thrum-eyed and pin-eyed.
+Mr. Darwin was the first to explain the significance of this curious
+difference. It cost him several years of patient labour, but when once
+pointed out it is sufficiently obvious. An insect thrusting its
+proboscis down a primrose of the long-styled form (Fig. 12) would dust
+its proboscis at a part (_a_) which, when it visited a short-styled
+flower (Fig. 13), would come just opposite the head of the pistil
+(_st_), and could not fail to deposit some of the pollen on the stigma.
+Conversely, an insect visiting a short-styled plant would dust its
+proboscis at a part farther from the tip; which, when the insect
+subsequently visited a long-styled flower, would again come just
+opposite to the head of the pistil. Hence we see that by this beautiful
+arrangement insects must carry the pollen of the long-styled form to the
+short-styled, and _vice versa_.
+
+The economy of pollen is not the only advantage which plants derive from
+these visits of Insects. A second and scarcely less important is that
+they tend to secure "cross fertilisation"; that is to say, that the seed
+shall be fertilised by pollen from another plant. The fact that "cross
+fertilisation" is of advantage to the plant doubtless also explains the
+curious arrangement that in many plants the stamen and pistil do not
+mature at the same time--the former having shed their pollen before the
+pistil is mature; or, which happens less often, the pistil having
+withered before the pollen is ripe. In most Geraniums, Pinks, etc., for
+instance, and many allied species, the stamens ripen first, and are
+followed after an interval by the pistil.
+
+
+THE NOTTINGHAM CATCHFLY
+
+The Nottingham Catchfly (Silene nutans) is a very interesting case. The
+flower is adapted to be fertilised by Moths. Accordingly it opens
+towards evening, and as is generally the case with such flowers, is pale
+in colour, and sweet-scented. There are two sets of stamens, five in
+each set. The first evening that the flower opens one set of stamens
+ripen and expose their pollen. Towards morning these wither away, the
+flower shrivels up, ceases to emit scent, and looks as if it were faded.
+So it remains all next day. Towards evening it reopens, the second set
+of stamens have their turn, and the flower again becomes fragrant. By
+morning, however, the second set of stamens have shrivelled, and the
+flower is again asleep. Finally on the third evening it reopens for the
+last time, the long spiral stigmas expand, and can hardly fail to be
+fertilised with the pollen brought by Moths from other flowers.
+
+
+THE HEATH
+
+In the hanging flowers of Heaths the stamens form a ring, and each one
+bears two horns. When the Bee inserts its proboscis into the flower to
+reach the honey, it is sure to press against one of these horns, the
+ring is dislocated, and the pollen falls on to the head of the insect.
+In fact, any number of other interesting cases might be mentioned.
+
+
+BEES AND FLIES
+
+Bees are intelligent insects, and would soon cease to visit flowers
+which did not supply them with food. Flies, however, are more stupid,
+and are often deceived. Thus in our lovely little Parnassia, five of the
+ten stamens have ceased to produce pollen, but are prolonged into
+fingers, each terminating in a shining yellow knob, which looks exactly
+like a drop of honey, and by which Flies are continually deceived.
+Paris quadrifolia also takes them in with a deceptive promise of the
+same kind. Some foreign plants have livid yellow and reddish flowers,
+with a most offensive smell, and are constantly visited by Flies, which
+apparently take them for pieces of decaying meat.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Arum.]
+
+The flower of the common Lords and Ladies (Arum) of our hedges is a very
+interesting case. The narrow neck bears a number of hairs pointing
+downwards. The stamens are situated above the stigma, which comes to
+maturity first. Small Flies enter the flower apparently for shelter, but
+the hairs prevent them from returning, and they are kept captive until
+the anthers have shed their pollen. Then, when the Flies have been well
+dusted, the hairs shrivel up, leaving a clear road, and the prisoners
+are permitted to escape. The tubular flowers of Aristolochia offer a
+very similar case.
+
+
+PAST HISTORY OF FLOWERS
+
+If the views here advocated are correct, it follows that the original
+flowers were small and green, as wind-fertilised flowers are even now.
+But such flowers are inconspicuous. Those which are coloured, say yellow
+or white, are of course much more visible and more likely to be visited
+by insects. I have elsewhere given my reasons for thinking that under
+these circumstances some flowers became yellow, that some of them became
+white, others subsequently red, and some finally blue. It will be
+observed that red and blue flowers are as a rule highly specialised,
+such as Aconites and Larkspurs as compared with Buttercups; blue
+Gentians as compared with yellow, etc. I have found by experiment that
+Bees are especially partial to blue and pink.
+
+Tubular flowers almost always, if not always, contain honey, and are
+specially suited to Butterflies and Moths, Bees and Flies. Those which
+are fertilised by Moths generally come out in the evening, are often
+very sweetly scented, and are generally white or pale yellow, these
+colours being most visible in the twilight.
+
+Aristotle long ago noticed the curious fact that in each journey Bees
+confine themselves to some particular flower. This is an economy of
+labour to the Bee, because she has not to vary her course of proceeding.
+It is also an advantage to the plants, because the pollen is carried
+from each flower to another of the same species, and is therefore less
+likely to be wasted.
+
+
+FRUITS AND SEEDS
+
+After the flower comes the seed, often contained in a fruit, and which
+itself encloses the future plant. Fruits and seeds are adapted for
+dispersion, beautifully and in various ways: some by the wind, being
+either provided with a wing, as in the fruits of many trees--Sycamores,
+Ash, Elms, etc.; or with a hairy crown or covering, as with Thistles,
+Dandelions, Willows, Cotton plant, etc.
+
+Some seeds are carried by animals; either as food--such as most edible
+fruits and seeds, acorns, nuts, apples, strawberries, raspberries,
+blackberries, plums, grasses, etc.--or involuntarily, the seeds having
+hooked hairs or processes, such as burrs, cleavers, etc.
+
+Some seeds are scattered by the plants themselves, as, for instance,
+those of many Geraniums, Violets, Balsams, Shamrocks, etc. Our little
+Herb Robert throws its seeds some 25 feet.
+
+Some seeds force themselves into the ground, as those of certain
+grasses, Cranes'-bills (Erodiums), etc.
+
+Some are buried by the parent plants, as those of certain clovers,
+vetches, violets, etc.
+
+Some attach themselves to the soil, as those of the Flax; or to trees,
+as in the case of the Mistletoe.
+
+
+LEAVES
+
+Again, as regards the leaves there can, I think, be no doubt that
+similar considerations of utility are applicable. Their forms are
+almost infinitely varied. To quote Ruskin's vivid words, they "take all
+kinds of strange shapes, as if to invite us to examine them.
+Star-shaped, heart-shaped, spear-shaped, arrow-shaped, fretted, fringed,
+cleft, furrowed, serrated, sinuated, in whorls, in tufts, in spires, in
+wreaths, endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic, never the same from
+foot-stalk to blossom, they seem perpetually to tempt our watchfulness
+and take delight in outstepping our wonder."
+
+But besides these differences of mere form, there are many others: of
+structure, texture, and surface; some are scented or have a strong
+taste, or acrid juice, some are smooth, others hairy; and the hairs
+again are of various kinds.
+
+I have elsewhere[21] endeavoured to explain some of the causes which
+have determined these endless varieties. In the Beech, for instance
+(Fig. 15), the leaf has an area of about 3 square inches. The distance
+between the buds is about 1-1/4 inch, and the leaves lie in the general
+plane of the branch, which bends slightly at each internode. The basal
+half of the leaf fits the swell of the twig, while the upper half
+follows the edge of the leaf above; and the form of the inner edge being
+thus determined, decides that of the outer one also.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Beech.]
+
+The weight, and consequently the size of the leaf, is limited by the
+strength of the twig; and, again, in a climate such as ours it is
+important to plants to have their leaves so arranged as to secure the
+maximum of light. Hence in leaves which lie parallel to the plane of the
+boughs, as in the Beech, the width depends partly on the distance
+between the buds; if the leaves were broader, they would overlap, if
+they were narrower, space would be wasted. Consequently the width being
+determined by the distance between the buds, and the size depending on
+the weight which the twig can safely support, the length also is
+determined. This argument is well illustrated by comparing the leaves of
+the Beech with those of the Spanish Chestnut. The arrangement is
+similar, and the distance between the buds being about the same, so is
+the width of the leaves. But the terminal branches of the Spanish
+Chestnut being much stronger, the leaves can safely be heavier; hence
+the width being fixed, they grow in length and assume the well-known and
+peculiar sword-blade shape.
+
+In the Sycamores, Maples (Fig. 16), and Horse-Chestnuts the arrangement
+is altogether different. The shoots are stiff and upright with leaves
+placed at right angles to the branches instead of being parallel to
+them. The leaves are in pairs and decussate with one another; while the
+lower ones have long petioles which bring them almost to the level of
+the upper pairs, the whole thus forming a beautiful dome.
+
+For leaves arranged as in the Beech the gentle swell at the base is
+admirably suited; but in a crown of leaves such as those of the
+Sycamore, space would be wasted, and it is better that they should
+expand at once, so soon as their stalks have carried them free from the
+upper and inner leaves.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Acer platanoides.]
+
+In the Black Poplar the arrangement of the leaves is again quite
+different. The leaf stalk is flattened, so that the leaves hang
+vertically. In connection with this it will be observed that while in
+most leaves the upper and under surfaces are quite unlike, in the Black
+Poplar on the contrary they are very similar. The stomata or breathing
+holes, moreover, which in the leaves of most trees are confined to the
+under surface, are in this species nearly equally numerous on both.
+
+The "Compass" Plant of the American prairies, a plant not unlike a small
+sunflower, is another species with upright leaves, which growing in the
+wide open prairies tend to point north and south, thus exposing both
+surfaces equally to the light and heat. Such a position also affects the
+internal structure of the leaf, the two sides becoming similar in
+structure, while in other cases the upper and under surfaces are very
+different.
+
+In the Yew the leaves are inserted close to one another, and are linear;
+while in the Box they are further apart and broader. In other cases the
+width of the leaves is determined by what botanists call the
+"Phyllotaxy." Some plants have the leaves opposite, each pair being at
+right angles with the pairs above and below.
+
+In others they are alternate, and arranged round the stem in a spiral.
+In one very common arrangement the sixth leaf stands directly over the
+first, the intermediate ones forming a spiral which has passed twice
+round the stem. This, therefore, is known as the 2/5 arrangement. Common
+cases are 1/2, 1/3, 2/5, 3/8, and 5/13. In the first the leaves are
+generally broad, in the 3/8 arrangement they are elliptic, in the 5/13
+and more complicated arrangements nearly linear. The Willows afford a
+very interesting series. Salix herbacea has the 1/3 arrangement and
+rounded leaves, Salix caprea elliptic leaves and 2/5, Salix pentandra
+lancet-shaped leaves and 3/8, and S. incana linear leaves and a 5/13
+arrangement. The result is that whether the series consists of 2, 3, 5,
+8, or 13 leaves, in every case, if we look perpendicularly at a twig the
+leaves occupy the whole circle.
+
+In herbaceous plants upright leaves as a rule are narrow, which is
+obviously an advantage, while prostrate ones are broad.
+
+[Illustration: AQUATIC VEGETATION, BRAZIL. _To face page 145._]
+
+
+AQUATIC PLANTS
+
+Many aquatic plants have two kinds of leaves; some more or less rounded,
+which float on the surface; and others cut up into narrow segments,
+which remain below. The latter thus present a greater extent of surface.
+In air such leaves would be unable even to support their own weight,
+much less to resist the force of the wind. In still air, however, for
+the same reason, finely-divided leaves may be an advantage, while in
+exposed positions compact and entire leaves are more suitable. Hence
+herbaceous plants tend to have divided, bushes and trees entire, leaves.
+There are many cases when even in the same family low and herb-like
+species have finely-cut leaves, while in shrubby or ligneous ones they
+more or less resemble those of the Laurel or Beech.
+
+These considerations affect trees more than herbs, because trees stand
+more alone, while herbaceous plants are more affected by surrounding
+plants. Upright leaves tend to be narrow, as in the case of grasses;
+horizontal leaves, on the contrary, wider. Large leaves are more or less
+broken up into leaflets, as in the Ash, Mountain-Ash, Horse-Chestnut,
+etc.
+
+The forms of leaves depend also much on the manner in which they are
+packed into the buds.
+
+The leaves of our English trees, as I have already said, are so arranged
+as to secure the maximum of light; in very hot countries the reverse is
+the case. Hence, in Australia, for instance, the leaves are arranged not
+horizontally, but vertically, so as to present, not their surfaces, but
+their edges, to the sun. One English plant, a species of lettuce, has
+the same habit. This consideration has led also to other changes. In
+many species the leaves are arranged directly under, so as to shelter,
+one another. The Australian species of Acacia have lost their true
+leaves, and the parts which in them we generally call leaves are in
+reality vertically-flattened leaf stalks.
+
+In other cases the stem itself is green, and to some extent replaces the
+leaves. In our common Broom we see an approach to this, and the same
+feature is more marked in Cactus. Or the leaves become fleshy, thus
+offering, in proportion to their volume, a smaller surface for
+evaporation. Of this the Stonecrops, Mesembryanthemum, etc., are
+familiar instances. Other modes of checking transpiration and thus
+adapting plants to dry situations are by the development of hairs, by
+the formation of chalky excretions, by the sap becoming saline or
+viscid, by the leaf becoming more or less rolled up, or protected by a
+covering of varnish.
+
+Our English trees are for the most part deciduous. Leaves would be
+comparatively useless in winter when growth is stopped by the cold;
+moreover, they would hold the snow, and thus cause the boughs to be
+broken down. Hence perhaps the glossiness of Evergreen leaves, as, for
+instance, of the Holly, from which the snow slips off. In warmer
+climates trees tend to retain their leaves, and some species which are
+deciduous in the north become evergreen, or nearly so, in the south of
+Europe. Evergreen leaves are as a rule tougher and thicker than those
+which drop off in autumn; they require more protection from the weather.
+But some evergreen leaves are much longer lived than others; those of
+the Evergreen Oak do not survive a second year, those of the Scotch Pine
+live for three, of the Spruce Fir, Yew, etc., for eight or ten, of the
+Pinsapo even eighteen. As a general rule the Conifers with short leaves
+keep them on for several years, those with long ones for fewer, the
+length of the leaf being somewhat in the inverse ratio to the length of
+its life; but this is not an invariable criterion, as other
+circumstances also have to be taken into consideration.
+
+Leaves with strong scent, aromatic taste, or acrid juice, are
+characteristic of dry regions, where they run especial danger of being
+eaten, and where they are thus more or less effectively protected.
+
+
+ON HAIRS
+
+The hairs of plants are useful in various ways. In some cases (1) they
+keep off superfluous moisture; in others (2) they prevent too rapid
+evaporation; in some (3) they serve as a protection against too glaring
+light; in some (4) they protect the plant from browsing quadrupeds; in
+others (5) from being eaten by insects; or, (6) serve as a quickset
+hedge to prevent access to the flowers.
+
+In illustration of the first case I may refer to many alpine plants, the
+well-known Edelweiss, for instance, where the woolly covering of hairs
+prevents the "stomata," or minute pores leading into the interior of the
+leaf, from being clogged up by rain, dew, or fog, and thus enable them
+to fulfil their functions as soon as the sun comes out.
+
+As regards the second case many desert and steppe-plants are covered
+with felty hairs, which serve to prevent too rapid evaporation and
+consequent loss of moisture.
+
+The woolly hairy leaves of the Mulleins (Verbascum) doubtless tend to
+protect them from being eaten, as also do the spines of Thistles, and
+those of Hollies, which, be it remarked, gradually disappear on the
+upper leaves which browsing quadrupeds cannot reach.
+
+I have already alluded to the various ways in which flowers are adapted
+to fertilisation by insects. But Ants and other small creeping insects
+cannot effectually secure this object. Hence it is important that they
+should be excluded, and not allowed to carry off the honey, for which
+they would perform no service in return. In many cases, therefore, the
+opening of the flower is either contracted to a narrow passage, or is
+itself protected by a fringe of hairs. In others the peduncle, or the
+stalk of the plant, is protected by a hedge, or chevaux de frise, of
+hairs.
+
+In this connection I might allude to the many plants which are more or
+less viscid. This also is in most cases a provision to preclude creeping
+insects from access to the flowers.
+
+There are various other kinds of hairs to which I might refer--glandular
+hairs, secretive hairs, absorbing hairs, etc. It is marvellous how
+beautifully the form and structure of leaves is adapted to the habits
+and requirements of the plants, but I must not enlarge further on this
+interesting subject.
+
+The time indeed will no doubt come when we shall be able to explain
+every difference of form and structure, almost infinite as these
+differences are.
+
+
+INFLUENCE OF SOIL
+
+The character of the vegetation is of course greatly influenced by that
+of the soil. In this respect granitic and calcareous regions offer
+perhaps the best marked contrast.
+
+There are in Switzerland two kinds of Rhododendrons, very similar in
+their flowers, but contrasted in their leaves: Rhododendron hirsutum
+having them hairy at the edges as the name indicates; while in R.
+ferrugineum they are rolled, but not hairy, at the edges, and become
+ferrugineous on the lower side. This species occurs in the granitic
+regions, where R. hirsutum does not grow.
+
+The Yarrows (Achillea) afford us a similar case. Achillea atrata and A.
+moschata will live either on calcareous or granitic soil, but in a
+district where both occur, A. atrata grows so much the more vigorously
+of the two if the soil is calcareous that it soon exterminates A.
+moschata; while in granite districts, on the contrary, A. moschata is
+victorious and A. atrata disappears.
+
+Every keen sportsman will admit that a varied "bag" has a special charm,
+and the botanist in a summer's walk may see at least a hundred plants in
+flower, all with either the interest of novelty, or the charm of an old
+friend.
+
+
+ON SEEDLINGS
+
+In many cases the Seedlings afford us an interesting insight into the
+former condition of the plant. Thus the leaves of the Furze are reduced
+to thorns; but those of the Seedling are herbaceous and trifoliate like
+those of the Herb Genet and other allied species, subsequent ones
+gradually passing into spines. This is evidence that the ancestors of
+the Furze bore leaves.
+
+Plants may be said to have their habits as well as animals.
+
+
+SLEEP OF PLANTS
+
+Many flowers close their petals during rain; the advantage of which is
+that it prevents the honey and pollen from being spoilt or washed away.
+Everybody, however, has observed that even in fine weather certain
+flowers close at particular hours. This habit of going to sleep is
+surely very curious. Why should flowers do so? In animals we can better
+understand it; they are tired and require rest. But why should flowers
+sleep? Why should some flowers do so, and not others? Moreover,
+different flowers keep different hours. The Daisy opens at sunrise and
+closes at sunset, whence its name "day's-eye." The Dandelion (Leontodon)
+is said to open about seven and to close about five; Arenaria rubra to
+be open from nine to three; the White Water Lily (Nymphaea), from about
+seven to four; the common Mouse-ear Hawk-weed (Hieracium) from eight to
+three; the Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis) to waken at seven and close
+soon after two; Tragopogon pratensis to open at four in the morning, and
+close just before twelve, whence its English name, "John go to bed at
+noon." Farmers' boys in some parts are said to regulate their dinner
+time by it. Other flowers, on the contrary, open in the evening.
+
+Now it is obvious that flowers which are fertilised by night-flying
+insects would derive no advantage from being open by day; and on the
+other hand, that those which are fertilised by bees would gain nothing
+by being open at night. Nay it would be a distinct disadvantage, because
+it would render them liable to be robbed of their honey and pollen, by
+insects which are not capable of fertilising them. I have ventured to
+suggest then that the closing of flowers may have reference to the
+habits of insects, and it may be observed also in support of this, that
+wind-fertilised flowers do not sleep; and that many of those flowers
+which attract insects by smell, open and emit their scent at particular
+hours; thus Hesperis matronalis and Lychnis vespertina smell in the
+evening, and Orchis bifolia is particularly sweet at night.
+
+But it is not the flowers only which "sleep" at night; in many species
+the leaves also change their position, and Darwin has given strong
+reasons for considering that the object is to check transpiration and
+thus tend to a protection against cold.
+
+
+BEHAVIOUR OF LEAVES IN RAIN
+
+The behaviour of plants with reference to rain affords many points of
+much interest. The Germander Speedwell (Veronica) has two strong rows of
+hairs, the Chickweed (Stellaria) one, running down the stem and thus
+conducting the rain to the roots. Plants with a main tap-root, like the
+Radish or the Beet, have leaves sloping inwards so as to conduct the
+rain towards the axis of the plant, and consequently to the roots;
+while, on the contrary, where the roots are spreading the leaves slope
+outwards.
+
+In other cases the leaves hold the rain or dew drops. Every one who has
+been in the Alps must have noticed how the leaves of the Lady's Mantle
+(Alchemilla) form little cups containing each a sparkling drop of icy
+water. Kerner has suggested that owing to these cold drops, the cattle
+and sheep avoid the leaves.
+
+
+MIMICRY
+
+In many cases plants mimic others which are better protected than
+themselves. Thus Matricaria Chamomilla mimics the true Chamomile, which
+from its bitterness is not eaten by quadrupeds. Ajuga Chamaepitys mimics
+Euphorbia Cyparissias, with which it often grows, and which is protected
+by its acrid juice. The most familiar case, however, is that of the
+Stinging and the Dead Nettles. They very generally grow together, and
+though belonging to quite different families are so similar that they
+are constantly mistaken for one another. Some Orchids have a curious
+resemblance to insects, after which they have accordingly been named the
+Bee Orchis, Fly Orchis, Butterfly Orchis, etc., but it has not yet been
+satisfactorily shown what advantage the resemblance is to the plant.
+
+
+ANTS AND PLANTS
+
+The transference of pollen from plant to plant is by no means the only
+service which insects render.
+
+Ants, for instance, are in many cases very useful to plants. They
+destroy immense numbers of caterpillars and other insects. Forel
+observing a large Ants' nest counted more than 28 insects brought in as
+food per minute. In some cases Ants attach themselves to particular
+trees, constituting a sort of bodyguard. A species of Acacia, described
+by Belt, bears hollow thorns, while each leaflet produces honey in a
+crater-formed gland at the base, as well as a small, sweet, pear-shaped
+body at the tip. In consequence it is inhabited by myriads of a small
+ant, which nests in the hollow thorns, and thus finds meat, drink, and
+lodging all provided for it. These ants are continually roaming over the
+plant, and constitute a most efficient bodyguard, not only driving off
+the leaf-eating ants, but, in Belt's opinion, rendering the leaves less
+liable to be eaten by herbivorous mammalia. Delpino mentions that on one
+occasion he was gathering a flower of Clerodendrum, when he was himself
+suddenly attacked by a whole army of small ants.
+
+
+INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS
+
+In the cases above mentioned the relation between flowers and insects is
+one of mutual advantage. But this is by no means an invariable rule.
+Many insects, as we all know, live on plants, but it came upon botanists
+as a surprise when our countryman Ellis first discovered that some
+plants catch and devour insects. This he observed in a North American
+plant, Dionsea, the leaves of which are formed something like a
+rat-trap, with a hinge in the middle, and a formidable row of spines
+round the edge. On the surface are a few very sensitive hairs, and the
+moment any small insect alights on the leaf and touches one of these
+hairs the two halves of the leaf close up quickly and catch it. The
+surface then throws out a glutinous secretion, by means of which the
+leaf sucks up the nourishment contained in the insect.
+
+Our common Sun-dews (Drosera) are also insectivorous, the prey being in
+their case captured by glutinous hairs. Again, the Bladderwort
+(Utricularia), a plant with pretty yellow flowers, growing in pools and
+slow streams, is so called because it bears a great number of bladders
+or utricles, each of which is a real miniature eel-trap, having an
+orifice guarded by a flap opening inwards which allows small water
+animals to enter, but prevents them from coming out again. The
+Butterwort (Pinguicula) is another of these carnivorous plants.
+
+
+MOVEMENTS OF PLANTS
+
+While considering Plant life we must by no means confine our attention
+to the higher orders, but must remember also those lower groups which
+converge towards the lower forms of animals, so that in the present
+state of our knowledge the two cannot always be distinguished with
+certainty. Many of them differ indeed greatly from the ordinary
+conception of a plant. Even the comparatively highly organised Sea-weeds
+multiply by means of bodies called spores, which an untrained observer
+would certainly suppose to be animals. They are covered by vibratile
+hairs or "cilia," by means of which they swim about freely in the water,
+and even possess a red spot which, as being especially sensitive to
+light, may be regarded as an elementary eye, and with the aid of which
+they select some suitable spot, to which they ultimately attach
+themselves.
+
+It was long considered as almost a characteristic of plants that they
+possessed no power of movement. This is now known to be an error. In
+fact, as Darwin has shown, every growing part of a plant is in continual
+and even constant rotation. The stems of climbing plants make great
+sweeps, and in other cases, when the motion is not so apparent, it
+nevertheless really exists. I have already mentioned that many plants
+change the position of their leaves or flowers, or, as it is called,
+sleep at night.
+
+The common Dandelion raises its head when the florets open, opens and
+shuts morning and evening, then lies down again while the seeds are
+ripening, and raises itself a second time when they are ready to be
+carried away by the wind.
+
+Valisneria spiralis is a very interesting case. It is a native of
+European rivers, and the female flower has a long spiral stalk which
+enables it to float on the surface of the water. The male flowers have
+no stalks, and grow low down on the plant. They soon, however, detach
+themselves altogether, rise to the surface, and thus are enabled to
+fertilise the female flowers among which they float. The spiral stalk of
+the female flower then contracts and draws it down to the bottom of the
+water so that the seeds may ripen in safety. Many plants throw or bury
+their seeds.
+
+The sensitive plants close their leaves when touched, and the leaflets
+of Desmodium gyrans are continually revolving. I have already mentioned
+that the spores of sea-weeds swim freely in the water by means of cilia.
+Some microscopic plants do so throughout a great part of their lives.
+
+A still lower group, the Myxomycetes, which resemble small, more or less
+branched, masses of jelly, and live in damp soil, among decaying
+leaves, under bark and in similar moist situations, are still more
+remarkably animal like. They are never fixed, but in almost continual
+movement, due to differences of moisture, warmth, light, or chemical
+action. If, for instance, a moist body is brought into contact with one
+of their projections, or "pseudopods," the protoplasm seems to roll
+itself in that direction, and so the whole organism gradually changes
+its place. So again, while a solution of salt, carbonate of potash, or
+saltpetre causes them to withdraw from the danger, an infusion of sugar,
+or tan, produces a flow of protoplasm towards the source of nourishment.
+In fact, in the same way it rolls over and round its food, absorbing
+what is nutritious as it passes along. In cold weather they descend into
+the soil, and one of them (Oethalium), which lives in tan pits,
+descends in winter to a depth of several feet. When about to fructify it
+changes its habits, seeks the light instead of avoiding it, climbs
+upwards, and produces its fruit above ground.
+
+
+IMPERFECTION OF OUR KNOWLEDGE
+
+The total number of living species of plants may be roughly estimated at
+500,000, and there is not one, of which we can say that the structure,
+uses, and life-history are yet fully known to us. Our museums contain
+large numbers which botanists have not yet had time to describe and
+name. Even in our own country not a year passes without some additional
+plant being discovered; as regards the less known regions of the earth
+not half the species have yet been collected. Among the Lichens and
+Fungi especially many problems of their life-history, some, indeed, of
+especial importance to man, still await solution.
+
+Our knowledge of the fossil forms, moreover, falls far short even of
+that of existing species, which, on the other hand, they must have
+greatly exceeded in number. Every difference of form, structure, and
+colour has doubtless some cause and explanation, so that the field for
+research is really inexhaustible.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] Thomson.
+
+[20] Lubbock, _Flowers and Insects_.
+
+[21] _Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WOODS AND FIELDS
+
+     "By day or by night, summer or winter, beneath trees the heart
+     feels nearer to that depth of life which the far sky means. The
+     rest of spirit, found only in beauty, ideal and pure, comes
+     there because the distance seems within touch of thought."
+
+                              JEFFERIES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WOODS AND FIELDS
+
+
+Rural life, says Cicero, "is not delightful by reason of cornfields only
+and meadows, and vineyards and groves, but also for its gardens and
+orchards, for the feeding of cattle, the swarms of bees, and the variety
+of all kinds of flowers." Bacon considered that a garden is "the
+greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, without which buildings and
+palaces are but gross handyworks, and a man shall ever see, that when
+ages grow to civility and elegancy men come to build stately sooner than
+to garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection."
+
+No doubt "the pleasure which we take in a garden is one of the most
+innocent delights in human life."[22] Elsewhere there may be scattered
+flowers, or sheets of colour due to one or two species, but in gardens
+one glory follows another. Here are brought together all the
+
+                     quaint enamelled eyes,
+    That on the green turf sucked the honeyed showers,
+    And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.
+    Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,
+    The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
+    The white pink and the pansy freaked with jet,
+    The glowing violet,
+    The musk rose, and the well attired woodbine,
+    With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
+    And every flower that sad embroidery wears.[23]
+
+We cannot, happily we need not try to, contrast or compare the beauty of
+gardens with that of woods and fields.
+
+And yet to the true lover of Nature wild flowers have a charm which no
+garden can equal. Cultivated plants are but a living herbarium. They
+surpass, no doubt, the dried specimens of a museum, but, lovely as they
+are, they can be no more compared with the natural vegetation of our
+woods and fields than the captives in the Zoological Gardens with the
+same wild species in their native forests and mountains.
+
+Often indeed, our woods and fields rival gardens even in the richness of
+colour. We have all seen meadows white with Narcissus, glowing with
+Buttercups, Cowslips, early purple Orchis, or Cuckoo Flowers; cornfields
+blazing with Poppies; woods carpeted with Bluebells, Anemones,
+Primroses, and Forget-me-nots; commons with the yellow Lady's Bedstraw,
+Harebells, and the sweet Thyme; marshy places with the yellow stars of
+the Bog Asphodel, the Sun-dew sparkling with diamonds, Ragged Robin, the
+beautifully fringed petals of the Buckbean, the lovely little Bog
+Pimpernel, or the feathery tufts of Cotton Grass; hedgerows with
+Hawthorn and Traveller's Joy, Wild Rose and Honeysuckle, while
+underneath are the curious leaves and orange fruit of the Lords and
+Ladies, the snowy stars of the Stitchwort, Succory, Yarrow, and several
+kinds of Violets; while all along the banks of streams are the tall red
+spikes of the Loosestrife, the Hemp Agrimony, Water Groundsel, Sedges,
+Bulrushes, Flowering Rush, Sweet Flag, etc.
+
+Many other sweet names will also at once occur to us--Snowdrops,
+Daffodils and Hearts-ease, Lady's Mantles and Lady's Tresses, Eyebright,
+Milkwort, Foxgloves, Herb Roberts, Geraniums, and among rarer species,
+at least in England, Columbines and Lilies.
+
+But Nature does not provide delights for the eye only. The other senses
+are not forgotten. A thousand sounds--many delightful in themselves, and
+all by association--songs of birds, hum of insects, rustle of leaves,
+ripple of water, seem to fill the air.
+
+Flowers again are sweet, as well as lovely. The scent of pine woods,
+which is said to be very healthy, is certainly delicious, and the effect
+of Woodland scenery is good for the mind as well as for the body.
+
+"Resting quietly under an ash tree, with the scent of flowers, and the
+odour of green buds and leaves, a ray of sunlight yonder lighting up the
+lichen and the moss on the oak trunk, a gentle air stirring in the
+branches above, giving glimpses of fleecy clouds sailing in the ether,
+there comes into the mind a feeling of intense joy in the simple fact of
+living."[24]
+
+The wonderful phenomenon of phosphorescence is not a special gift to the
+animal kingdom. Henry O. Forbes describes a forest in Sumatra: "The stem
+of every tree blinked with a pale greenish-white light which undulated
+also across the surface of the ground like moonlight coming and going
+behind the clouds, from a minute thread-like fungus invisible in the
+day-time to the unassisted eye; and here and there thick dumpy mushrooms
+displayed a sharp, clear dome of light, whose intensity never varied or
+changed till the break of day; long phosphorescent caterpillars and
+centipedes crawled out of every corner, leaving a trail of light behind
+them, while fire-flies darted about above like a lower firmament."[25]
+
+Woods and Forests were to our ancestors the special scenes of
+enchantment.
+
+The great Ash tree Yggdrasil bound together Heaven, Earth, and Hell. Its
+top reached to Heaven, its branches covered the Earth, and the roots
+penetrated into Hell. The three Normas or Fates sat under it, spinning
+the thread of life.
+
+Of all the gods and goddesses of classical mythology or our own
+folk-lore, none were more fascinating than the Nature Spirits--Elves and
+Fairies, Neckans and Kelpies, Pixies and Ouphes, Mermaids, Undines,
+Water Spirits, and all the Elfin world
+
+    Which have their haunts in dale and piny mountain,
+    Or forests, by slow stream or tingling brook.
+
+They come out, as we are told, especially on moonlight nights. But while
+evening thus clothes many a scene with poetry, forests are fairy land
+all day long.
+
+Almost any wood contains many and many a spot well suited for Fairy
+feasts; where one might most expect to find Titania, resting, as once we
+are told,
+
+    She lay upon a bank, the favourite haunt
+    Of the Spring wind in its first sunshine hour,
+    For the luxuriant strawberry blossoms spread
+    Like a snow shower then, and violets
+    Bowed down their purple vases of perfume
+    About her pillow,--linked in a gay band
+    Floated fantastic shapes; these were her guards,
+    Her lithe and rainbow elves.
+
+The fairies have disappeared, and, so far as England is concerned, the
+larger forest animals have vanished almost as completely. The Elk and
+Bear, the Boar and Wolf have gone, the Stag has nearly disappeared, and
+but a scanty remnant of the original wild Cattle linger on at
+Chillingham. Still the woods teem with life; the Fox and Badger, Stoat
+and Weasel, Hare and Rabbit, and Hedgehog,
+
+    The tawny squirrel vaulting through the boughs,
+    Hawk, buzzard, jay, the mavis and the merle,[26]
+
+the Owls and Nightjar, the Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Magpie, Doves, and a
+hundred more.
+
+In early spring the woods are bright with the feathery catkins of the
+Willow, followed by the soft green of the Beech, the white or pink
+flowers of the Thorn, the pyramids of the Horse-chestnut, festoons of
+the Laburnum and Acacia, and the Oak slowly wakes from its winter sleep,
+while the Ash leaves long linger in their black buds.
+
+Under foot is a carpet of flowers--Anemones, Cowslips, Primroses,
+Bluebells, and the golden blossoms of the Broom, which, however, while
+Gorse and Heather continue in bloom for months, "blazes for a week or
+two, and is then completely extinguished, like a fire that has burnt
+itself out."[27]
+
+In summer the tints grow darker, the birds are more numerous and full of
+life; the air teems with insects, with the busy murmur of bees and the
+idle hum of flies, while the cool of morning and evening, and the heat
+of the day, are all alike delicious.
+
+As the year advances and the flowers wane, we have many beautiful fruits
+and berries, the red hips and haws of the wild roses, scarlet holly
+berries, crimson yew cups, the translucent berries of the Guelder Rose,
+hanging coral beads of the Black Bryony, feathery festoons of the
+Traveller's Joy, and others less conspicuous, but still exquisite in
+themselves--acorns, beech nuts, ash keys, and many more. It is really
+difficult to say which are most beautiful, the tender greens of spring
+or the rich tints of autumn, which glow so brightly in the sunshine.
+
+Tropical fruits are even more striking. No one who has seen it can ever
+forget a grove of orange trees in full fruit; while the more we examine
+the more we find to admire; all perfectly and exquisitely finished
+"usque ad ungues," perfect inside and outside, for Nature
+
+      Does in the Pomegranate close
+    Jewels more rare than Ormus shows.[28]
+
+In winter the woods are comparatively bare and lifeless, even the
+Brambles and Woodbine, which straggle over the tangle of underwood being
+almost leafless.
+
+Still even then they have a beauty and interest of their own; the mossy
+boles of the trees; the delicate tracery of the branches which can
+hardly be appreciated when they are covered with leaves; and under foot
+the beds of fallen leaves; while the evergreens seem brighter than in
+summer; the ruddy stems and rich green foliage of the Scotch Pines, and
+the dark spires of the Firs, seeming to acquire fresh beauty.
+
+Again in winter, though no doubt the living tenants of the woods are
+much less numerous, many of our birds being then far away in the dense
+African forests, on the other hand those which remain are much more
+easily visible. We can follow the birds from tree to tree, and the
+Squirrel from bough to bough.
+
+It requires little imagination to regard trees as conscious beings,
+indeed it is almost an effort not to do so.
+
+"The various action of trees rooting themselves in inhospitable rocks,
+stooping to look into ravines, hiding from the search of glacier winds,
+reaching forth to the rays of rare sunshine, crowding down together to
+drink at sweetest streams, climbing hand in hand among the difficult
+slopes, opening in sudden dances among the mossy knolls, gathering into
+companies at rest among the fragrant fields, gliding in grave procession
+over the heavenward ridges--nothing of this can be conceived among the
+unvexed and unvaried felicities of the lowland forest; while to all
+these direct sources of greater beauty are added, first the power of
+redundance, the mere quantity of foliage visible in the folds and on the
+promontories of a single Alp being greater than that of an entire
+lowland landscape (unless a view from some Cathedral tower); and to this
+charm of redundance, that of clearer visibility--tree after tree being
+constantly shown in successive height, one behind another, instead of
+the mere tops and flanks of masses as in the plains; and the forms of
+multitudes of them continually defined against the clear sky, near and
+above, or against white clouds entangled among their branches, instead
+of being confused in dimness of distance."[29]
+
+There is much that is interesting in the relations of one species to
+another. Many plants are parasitic upon others. The foliage of the Beech
+is so thick that scarcely anything will grow under it, except those
+spring plants, such as the Anemone and the Wood Buttercup or Goldilocks,
+which flower early before the Beech is in leaf.
+
+There are other cases in which the reason for the association of
+species is less evident. The Larch and the Arolla (Pinus Cembra) are
+close companions. They grow together in Siberia; they do not occur in
+Scandinavia or Russia, but both reappear in certain Swiss valleys,
+especially in the cantons of Lucerne and Valais and the Engadine.
+
+Another very remarkable case which has recently been observed is the
+relation existing between some of our forest trees and certain Fungi,
+the species of which have not yet been clearly ascertained. The root
+tips of the trees are as it were enclosed in a thin sheet of closely
+woven mycelium. It was at first supposed that the fungus was attacking
+the roots of the tree, but it is now considered that the tree and the
+fungus mutually benefit one another. The fungus collects nutriment from
+the soil, which passes into the tree and up to the leaves, where it is
+elaborated into sap, the greater part being utilized by the tree, but a
+portion reabsorbed by the fungus. There is reason to think that, in some
+cases at any rate, the mycelium is that of the Truffle.
+
+[Illustration: TROPICAL FOREST.
+
+_To face page 179._]
+
+The great tropical forests have a totally different character from ours.
+I reproduce here the plate from Kingsley's _At Last_. The trees strike
+all travellers by their magnificence, the luxuriance of their
+vegetation, and their great variety. Our forests contain comparatively
+few species, whereas in the tropics we are assured that it is far from
+common to see two of the same species near one another. But while in our
+forests the species are few, each tree has an independence and
+individuality of its own. In the tropics, on the contrary, they are
+interlaced and interwoven, so as to form one mass of vegetation; many of
+the trunks are almost concealed by an undergrowth of verdure, and
+intertwined by spiral stems of parasitic plants; from tree to tree hang
+an inextricable network of lianas, and it is often difficult to tell to
+which tree the fruits, flowers, and leaves really belong. The trunks run
+straight up to a great height without a branch, and then form a thick
+leafy canopy far overhead; a canopy so dense that even the blaze of the
+cloudless blue sky is subdued, one might almost say into a weird gloom,
+the effect of which is enhanced by the solemn silence. At first such a
+forest gives the impression of being more open than an English wood, but
+a few steps are sufficient to correct this error. There is a thick
+undergrowth matted together by wiry creepers, and the intermediate space
+is traversed in all directions by lines and cords.
+
+The English traveller misses sadly the sweet songs of our birds, which
+are replaced by the hoarse chatter of parrots. Now and then a succession
+of cries even harsher and more discordant tell of a troop of monkeys
+passing across from tree to tree among the higher branches, or lower
+sounds indicate to a practised ear the neighbourhood of an ape, a sloth,
+or some other of the few mammals which inhabit the great forests.
+Occasionally a large blue bee hums past, a brilliant butterfly flashes
+across the path, or a humming-bird hangs in the air over a flower like,
+as St. Pierre says, an emerald set in coral, but "how weak it is to say
+that that exquisite little being, whirring and fluttering in the air,
+has a head of ruby, a throat of emerald, and wings of sapphire, as if
+any triumph of the jeweller's art could ever vie with that sparkling
+epitome of life and light."[30]
+
+Sir Wyville Thomson graphically describes a morning in a Brazilian
+forest:--
+
+"The night was almost absolutely silent, only now and then a peculiarly
+shrill cry of some night bird reached us from the woods. As we got into
+the skirt of the forest the morning broke, but the _reveil_ in a
+Brazilian forest is wonderfully different from the slow creeping on of
+the dawn of a summer morning at home, to the music of the thrushes
+answering one another's full rich notes from neighbouring thorn-trees.
+Suddenly a yellow light spreads upwards in the east, the stars quickly
+fade, and the dark fringes of the forest and the tall palms show out
+black against the yellow sky, and almost before one has time to observe
+the change the sun has risen straight and fierce, and the whole
+landscape is bathed in the full light of day. But the morning is yet for
+another hour cool and fresh, and the scene is indescribably beautiful.
+The woods, so absolutely silent and still before, break at once into
+noise and movement. Flocks of toucans flutter and scream on the tops of
+the highest forest trees hopelessly out of shot, the ear is pierced by
+the strange wild screeches of a little band of macaws which fly past you
+like the wrapped-up ghosts of the birds on some gaudy old brocade."[31]
+
+Mr. Darwin tells us that nothing can be better than the description of
+tropical forests given by Bates.
+
+"The leafy crowns of the trees, scarcely two of which could be seen
+together of the same kind, were now far away above us, in another world
+as it were. We could only see at times, where there was a break above,
+the tracery of the foliage against the clear blue sky. Sometimes the
+leaves were palmate, or of the shape of large outstretched hands; at
+others finely cut or feathery like the leaves of Mimosae. Below, the tree
+trunks were everywhere linked together by sipos; the woody flexible
+stems of climbing and creeping trees, whose foliage is far away above,
+mingled with that of the taller independent trees. Some were twisted in
+strands like cables, others had thick stems contorted in every variety
+of shape, entwining snake-like round the tree trunks or forming gigantic
+loops and coils among the larger branches; others, again, were of zigzag
+shape, or indented like the steps of a staircase, sweeping from the
+ground to a giddy height."
+
+The reckless and wanton destruction of forests has ruined some of the
+richest countries on earth. Syria and Asia Minor, Palestine and the
+north of Africa were once far more populous than they are at present.
+They were once lands "flowing with milk and honey," according to the
+picturesque language of the Bible, but are now in many places reduced to
+dust and ashes. Why is there this melancholy change? Why have deserts
+replaced cities? It is mainly owing to the ruthless destruction of the
+trees, which has involved that of nations. Even nearer home a similar
+process may be witnessed. Two French departments--the Hautes- and
+Basses-Alpes--are being gradually reduced to ruin by the destruction of
+the forests. Cultivation is diminishing, vineyards are being washed
+away, the towns are threatened, the population is dwindling, and unless
+something is done the country will be reduced to a desert; until, when
+it has been released from the destructive presence of man, Nature
+reproduces a covering of vegetable soil, restores the vegetation,
+creates the forests anew, and once again fits these regions for the
+habitation of man.
+
+In another part of France we have an illustration of the opposite
+process.
+
+The region of the Landes, which fifty years ago was one of the poorest
+and most miserable in France, has now been made one of the most
+prosperous owing to the planting of Pines. The increased value is
+estimated at no less than 1,000,000,000 francs. Where there were fifty
+years ago only a few thousand poor and unhealthy shepherds whose flocks
+pastured on the scanty herbage, there are now sawmills, charcoal kilns,
+and turpentine works, interspersed with thriving villages and fertile
+agricultural lands.
+
+In our own country, though woodlands are perhaps on the increase, true
+forest scenery is gradually disappearing. This is, I suppose,
+unavoidable, but it is a matter of regret. Forests have so many charms
+of their own. They give a delightful impression of space and of
+abundance.
+
+The extravagance is sublime. Trees, as Jefferies says, "throw away
+handfuls of flower; and in the meadows the careless, spendthrift ways of
+grass and flower and all things are not to be expressed. Seeds by the
+hundred million float with absolute indifference on the air. The oak has
+a hundred thousand more leaves than necessary, and never hides a single
+acorn. Nothing utilitarian--everything on a scale of splendid waste.
+Such noble, broadcast, open-armed waste is delicious to behold. Never
+was there such a lying proverb as 'Enough is as good as a feast.' Give
+me the feast; give me squandered millions of seeds, luxurious carpets of
+petals, green mountains of oak-leaves. The greater the waste the greater
+the enjoyment--the nearer the approach to real life."
+
+It is of course impossible here to give any idea of the complexity of
+structure of our forest trees. A slice across the stem of a tree shows
+many different tissues with more or less technical names, bark and
+cambium, medullary rays, pith, and more or less specialised tissue;
+air-vessels, punctate vessels, woody fibres, liber fibres, scalariform
+vessels, and other more or less specialised tissues.
+
+Let us take a single leaf. The name is synonymous with anything very
+thin, so that we might well fancy that a leaf would consist of only one
+or two layers of cells. Far from it, the leaf is a highly complex
+structure. On the upper surface are a certain number of scattered hairs,
+while in the bud these are often numerous, long, silky, and serve to
+protect the young leaf, but the greater number fall off soon after the
+leaf expands. The hairs are seated on a layer of flattened cells--the
+skin or epidermis. Below this are one or more layers of "palisade
+cells," the function of which seems to be to regulate the quantity of
+light entering the leaf. Under these again is the "parenchyme," several
+layers of more or less rounded cells, leaving air spaces and passages
+between them. From place to place in the parenchyme run "fibro-vascular
+bundles," forming a sort of skeleton to the leaf, and comprising
+air-vessels on the upper side, rayed or dotted vessels with woody fibre
+below, and vessels of various kinds. The under surface of the leaf is
+formed by another layer of flattened cells, supporting generally more or
+less hairs, and some of them specially modified so as to leave minute
+openings or "stomata" leading into the air passages. These stomata are
+so small that there are millions on a single leaf, and on plants growing
+in dry countries, such as the Evergreen Oak, Oleander, etc., they are
+sunk in pits, and further protected by tufts of hair.
+
+The cells of the leaf again are themselves complex. They consist of a
+cell wall perforated by extremely minute orifices, of protoplasm, cell
+fluid, and numerous granules of "Chlorophyll," which give the leaf its
+green colour.
+
+While these are, stated very briefly, the essential parts of a leaf, the
+details differ in every species, while in the same species and even in
+the same plant, the leaves present minor differences according to the
+situation in which they grow.
+
+Since, then, there is so much complex structure in a single leaf, what
+must it be in a whole plant? There is a giant sea-weed (Macrocystis),
+which has been known to reach a length of 1000 feet, as also do some of
+the lianas of tropical forests. These, however, attain no great bulk,
+and the most gigantic specimens of the vegetable kingdom yet known are
+the Wellingtonia (Sequoia) gigantea, which grows to a height of 450
+feet, and the Blue Gum (Eucalyptus) even to 480.
+
+One is apt to look on animal structure as more delicate, and of a higher
+order, than that of plants. And so no doubt it is. Yet an animal, even
+man himself, will recover from a wound or an operation more rapidly and
+more perfectly than a tree.[32]
+
+Trees again derive a special interest from the venerable age they
+attain. In some cases, no doubt, the age is more or less mythical, as,
+for instance, the Olive of Minerva at Athens, the Oaks mentioned by
+Pliny, "which were thought coeval with the world itself," the Fig tree,
+"under which the wolf suckled the founder of Rome and his brother,
+lasting (as Tacitus calculated) 840 years, putting out new shoots, and
+presaging the translation of that empire from the Caesarian line,
+happening in Nero's reign."[33] But in other cases the estimates rest on
+a surer foundation, and it cannot be doubted that there are trees still
+living which were already of considerable size at the time of the
+Conquest. The Soma Cypress of Lombardy, which is 120 feet high and 23 in
+circumference, is calculated to go back to forty years before the birth
+of Christ. Francis the First is said to have driven his sword into it in
+despair after the battle of Padua, and Napoleon altered his road over
+the Simplon so as to spare it.
+
+Ferdinand and Isabella in 1476 swore to maintain the privileges of the
+Biscayans under the old Oak of Guernica. In the Ardennes an Oak cut down
+in 1824 contained a funeral urn and some Samnite coins. A writer at the
+time drew the conclusion that it must have been already a large tree
+when Rome was founded, and though the facts do not warrant this
+conclusion, the tree did, no doubt, go back to Pagan times. The great
+Yew of Fountains Abbey is said to have sheltered the monks when the
+abbey was rebuilt in 1133, and is estimated at an age of 1300 years;
+that at Brabourne in Kent at 3000. De Candolle gives the following as
+the ages attainable:--
+
+    The Ivy              450 years
+    Larch                570  "
+    Plane                750  "
+    Cedar of Lebanon     800  "
+    Lime                1100  "
+    Oak                 1500  "
+    Taxodium distichum  4000 to 6000
+    Baobab              6000 years
+
+Nowhere is woodland scenery more beautiful than where it passes
+gradually into the open country. The separate trees, having more room
+both for their roots and branches, are finer, and can be better seen,
+while, when they are close together, "one cannot see the wood for the
+trees." The vistas which open out are full of mystery and of promise,
+and tempt us gradually out into the green fields.
+
+What pleasant memories these very words recall, games in the hay as
+children, and sunny summer days throughout life.
+
+"Consider," says Ruskin,[34] "what we owe to the meadow grass, to the
+covering of the dark ground by that glorious enamel, by the companies of
+those soft countless and peaceful spears. The fields! Follow but forth
+for a little time the thought of all that we ought to recognise in those
+words. All spring and summer is in them--the walks by silent scented
+paths, the rests in noonday heat, the joy of herds and flocks, the power
+of all shepherd life and meditation, the life of sunlight upon the
+world, falling in emerald streaks, and soft blue shadows, where else it
+would have struck on the dark mould or scorching dust, pastures beside
+the pacing brooks, soft banks and knolls of lowly hills, thymy slopes of
+down overlooked by the blue line of lifted sea, crisp lawns all dim with
+early dew, or smooth in evening warmth of barred sunshine, dinted by
+happy feet, and softening in their fall the sound of loving voices.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Go out, in the spring time, among the meadows that slope from the
+shores of the Swiss lakes to the roots of their lower mountains. There,
+mingled with the taller gentians and the white narcissus, the grass
+grows deep and free, and as you follow the winding mountain paths,
+beneath arching boughs all veiled and dim with blossom,--paths, that for
+ever droop and rise over the green banks and mounds sweeping down in
+scented undulation, steep to the blue water, studded here and there with
+new mown heaps, filling all the air with fainter sweetness,--look up
+towards the higher hills, where the waves of everlasting green roll
+silently into their long inlets among the shadows of the pines; and we
+may, perhaps, at last know the meaning of those quiet words of the 147th
+Psalm, 'He maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains.'"
+
+"On fine days," he tells us again in his _Autobiography_, "when the
+grass was dry, I used to lie down on it, and draw the blades as they
+grew, with the ground herbage of buttercup or hawkweed mixed among them,
+until every square foot of meadow, or mossy bank, became an infinite
+picture and possession to me, and the grace and adjustment to each other
+of growing leaves, a subject of more curious interest to me than the
+composition of any painter's masterpieces."
+
+In the passage above quoted, Ruskin alludes especially to Swiss meadows.
+They are especially remarkable in the beauty and variety of flowers. In
+our fields the herbage is mainly grass, and if it often happens that
+they glow with Buttercups or are white with Ox-eye-daisies, these are
+but unwelcome intruders and add nothing to the value of the hay. Swiss
+meadows, on the contrary, are sweet and lovely with wild Geraniums,
+Harebells, Bluebells, Pink Restharrow, Yellow Lady's Bedstraw, Chervil,
+Eyebright, Red and White Silenes, Geraniums, Gentians, and many other
+flowers which have no familiar English names; all adding not only to the
+beauty and sweetness of the meadows, but forming a valuable part of the
+crop itself.[35] On the other hand "turf" is peculiarly English, and no
+turf is more delightful than that of our Downs--delightful to ride on,
+to sit on, or to walk on. The turf indeed feels so springy under our
+feet that walking on it seems scarcely an exertion: one could almost
+fancy that the Downs themselves were still rising, even higher, into the
+air.
+
+The herbage of the Downs is close rather than short, hillocks of sweet
+thyme, tufts of golden Potentilla, of Milkwort--blue, pink, and
+white--of sweet grass and Harebells: here and there pink with Heather,
+or golden with Furze or Broom, while over all are the fresh air and
+sunshine, sweet scents, and the hum of bees. And if the Downs seem full
+of life and sunshine, their broad shoulders are types of kindly
+strength, they give also an impression of power and antiquity, while
+every now and then we come across a tumulus, or a group of great grey
+stones, the burial place of some ancient hero, or a sacred temple of our
+pagan forefathers.
+
+On the Downs indeed things change slowly, and in parts of Sussex the
+strong slow oxen still draw the waggons laden with warm hay or golden
+wheat sheaves, or drag the wooden plough along the slopes of the Downs,
+just as they did a thousand years ago.
+
+I love the open Down most, but without hedges England would not be
+England. Hedges are everywhere full of beauty and interest, and nowhere
+more so than at the foot of the Downs, when they are in great part
+composed of wild Guelder Roses and rich dark Yews, decked with festoons
+of Traveller's Joy, the wild Bryonies, and garlands of Wild Roses
+covered with thousands of white or delicate pink flowers, each with a
+centre of gold.
+
+At the foot of the Downs spring clear sparkling streams; rain from
+heaven purified still further by being filtered through a thousand feet
+of chalk; fringed with purple Loosestrife and Willowherb, starred with
+white Water Ranunculuses, or rich Watercress, while every now and then a
+brown water rat rustles in the grasses at the edge, and splashes into
+the water, or a pink speckled trout glides out of sight.
+
+In many of our midland and northern counties most of the meadows lie in
+parallel undulations or "rigs." These are generally about a furlong (220
+yards) in length, and either one or two poles (5-1/2 or 11 yards) in
+breadth. They seldom run straight, but tend to curve towards the left.
+At each end of the field a high bank, locally called a balk, often 3 or
+4 feet high, runs at right angles to the rigs. In small fields there are
+generally eight, but sometimes ten, of these rigs, which make in the one
+case 4, in the other 5 acres. These curious characters carry us back to
+the old tenures, and archaic cultivation of land, and to a period when
+the fields were not in pasture, but were arable.
+
+They also explain our curious system of land measurement. The "acre" is
+the amount which a team of oxen were supposed to plough in a day. It
+corresponds to the German "morgen" and the French "journee." The furlong
+or long "furrow" is the distance which a team of oxen can plough
+conveniently without stopping to rest. Oxen, as we know, were driven
+not with a whip, but with a goad or pole, the most convenient length for
+which was 16-1/2 feet, and the ancient ploughman used his "pole" or
+"perch" by placing it at right angles to his first furrow, thus
+measuring the amount he had to plough. Hence our "pole" or "perch" of
+16-1/2 feet, which at first sight seems a very singular unit to have
+selected. This width is also convenient both for turning the plough, and
+also for sowing. Hence the most convenient unit of land for arable
+purposes was a furlong in length and a perch or pole in width.
+
+The team generally consisted of eight oxen. Few peasants, however,
+possessed a whole team, several generally joining together, and dividing
+the produce. Hence the number of "rigs," one for each ox. We often,
+however, find ten instead of eight; one being for the parson's tithe,
+the other tenth going to the ploughman.
+
+When eight oxen were employed the goad would not of course reach the
+leaders, which were guided by a man who walked on the near side. On
+arriving at the end of each furrow he turned them round, and as it was
+easier to pull than to push them, this gradually gave the furrow a turn
+towards the left, thus accounting for the slight curvature. Lastly,
+while the oxen rested on arriving at the end of the furrow, the
+ploughmen scraped off the earth which had accumulated on the coulter and
+ploughshare, and the accumulation of these scrapings gradually formed
+the balk.
+
+It is fascinating thus to trace indications of old customs and modes of
+life, but it would carry us away from the present subject.
+
+Even though the Swiss meadows may offer a greater variety, our English
+fields are yet rich in flowers: yellow with Cowslips and Primroses, pink
+with Cuckoo flowers and purple with Orchis, while, however, unwelcome to
+the eye of the farmer,
+
+              the rich Buttercup
+    Its tiny polished urn holds up,
+    Filled with ripe summer to the edge,[36]
+
+turning many a meadow into a veritable field of the cloth of gold, and
+there are few prettier sights in nature than an English hay field on a
+summer evening, with a copse perhaps at one side and a brook on the
+other; men with forks tossing the hay in the air to dry; women with
+wooden rakes arranging it in swathes ready for the great four-horse
+waggon, or collecting it in cocks for the night; while some way off the
+mowers are still at work, and we hear from time to time the pleasant
+sound of the whetting of the scythe. All are working with a will lest
+rain should come and their labour be thrown away. This too often
+happens. But though we often complain of our English climate, it is yet,
+take it all in all, one of the best in the world, being comparatively
+free from extremes either of heat or cold, drought or deluge. To the
+happy mixture of sunshine and of rain we owe the greenness of our
+fields,
+
+          sparkling with dewdrops
+    Indwelt with little angels of the Sun,[37]
+
+lit and
+
+          warmed by golden sunshine
+    And fed by silver rain,
+
+which now and again sprinkles the whole earth with diamonds.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[22] _The Spectator._
+
+[23] Milton.
+
+[24] Jefferies.
+
+[25] Forbes, _A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago_.
+
+[26] Tennyson.
+
+[27] Hamerton.
+
+[28] Marvell.
+
+[29] Ruskin.
+
+[30] Thomson, _Voyage of the Challenger_.
+
+[31] Thomson, _Voyage of the Challenger_.
+
+[32] Sir J. Paget, _On the Pathology of Plants_.
+
+[33] Evelyn's _Sylva_.
+
+[34] _Modern Painters._
+
+[35] M. Correvon informs me that the Gruyere cheese is supposed to owe
+its peculiar flavour to the alpine Alchemilla, which is now on that
+account often purposely sown elsewhere.
+
+[36] J. R. Lowell.
+
+[37] Hamerton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MOUNTAINS
+
+     Mountains "seem to have been built for the human race, as at
+     once their schools and cathedrals; full of treasures of
+     illuminated manuscript for the scholar, kindly in simple
+     lessons for the worker, quiet in pale cloisters for the
+     thinker, glorious in holiness for the worshipper. They are
+     great cathedrals of the earth, with their gates of rock,
+     pavements of cloud, choirs of stream and stone, altars of snow,
+     and vaults of purple traversed by the continual
+     stars."--RUSKIN.
+
+[Illustration: SUMMIT OF MONT BLANC. _To face page 203._]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MOUNTAINS
+
+
+The Alps are to many of us an inexhaustible source of joy and peace, of
+health, and even of life. We have gone to them jaded and worn, feeling,
+perhaps without any external cause, anxious and out of spirits, and have
+returned full of health, strength, and energy. Among the mountains
+Nature herself seems freer and happier, brighter and purer, than
+elsewhere. The rush of the rivers, and the repose of the lakes, the pure
+snowfields and majestic glaciers, the fresh air, the mysterious summits
+of the mountains, the blue haze of the distance, the morning tints and
+the evening glow, the beauty of the sky and the grandeur of the storm,
+have all refreshed and delighted us time after time, and their memories
+can never fade away.
+
+Even now as I write comes back to me the bright vision of an Alpine
+valley--blue sky above, glittering snow, bare grey or rich red rock,
+dark pines here and there, mixed with bright green larches, then patches
+of smooth alp, with clumps of birch and beech, and dotted with brown
+chalets; then below them rock again, and wood, but this time with more
+deciduous trees; and then the valley itself, with emerald meadows,
+interspersed with alder copses, threaded together by a silver stream;
+and I almost fancy I can hear the tinkling of distant cowbells coming
+down from the alp, and the delicious murmur of the rushing water. The
+endless variety, the sense of repose and yet of power, the dignity of
+age, the energy of youth, the play of colour, the beauty of form, the
+mystery of their origin, all combine to invest mountains with a solemn
+beauty.
+
+I feel with Ruskin that "mountains are the beginning and the end of all
+natural scenery; in them, and in the forms of inferior landscape that
+lead to them, my affections are wholly bound up; and though I can look
+with happy admiration at the lowland flowers, and woods, and open
+skies, the happiness is tranquil and cold, like that of examining
+detached flowers in a conservatory, or reading a pleasant book." And of
+all mountain views which he has seen, the finest he considers is that
+from the Montanvert: "I have climbed much and wandered much in the heart
+of the high Alps, but I have never yet seen anything which equalled the
+view from the cabin of the Montanvert."
+
+It is no mere fancy that among mountains the flowers are peculiarly
+large and brilliant in colour. Not only are there many beautiful species
+which are peculiar to mountains,--alpine Gentians, yellow, blue, and
+purple; alpine Rhododendrons, alpine Primroses and Cowslips, alpine
+Lychnis, Columbine, Monkshood, Anemones, Narcissus, Campanulas,
+Soldanellas, and a thousand others less familiar to us,--but it is well
+established that even within the limits of the same species those living
+up in the mountains have larger and brighter flowers than their sisters
+elsewhere.
+
+Various alpine species belonging to quite distinct families form close
+moss-like cushions, gemmed with star-like flowers, or covered
+completely with a carpet of blossom. On the lower mountain slopes and in
+alpine valleys trees seem to flourish with peculiar luxuriance. Pines
+and Firs and Larches above; then, as we descend, Beeches and magnificent
+Chestnuts, which seem to rejoice in the sweet, fresh air and the pure
+mountain streams.
+
+To any one accustomed to the rich bird life of English woods and
+hedgerows, it must be admitted that Swiss woods and Alps seem rather
+lonely and deserted. Still the Hawk, or even Eagle, soaring high up in
+the air, the weird cry of the Marmot, and the knowledge that, even if
+one cannot see Chamois, they may all the time be looking down on us,
+give the Alps, from this point of view also, a special interest of their
+own.
+
+Another great charm of mountain districts is the richness of colour.
+"Consider,[38] first, the difference produced in the whole tone of
+landscape colour by the introductions of purple, violet, and deep
+ultra-marine blue which we owe to mountains. In an ordinary lowland
+landscape we have the blue of the sky; the green of the grass, which I
+will suppose (and this is an unnecessary concession to the lowlands)
+entirely fresh and bright; the green of trees; and certain elements of
+purple, far more rich and beautiful than we generally should think, in
+their bark and shadows (bare hedges and thickets, or tops of trees, in
+subdued afternoon sunshine, are nearly perfect purple and of an
+exquisite tone), as well as in ploughed fields, and dark ground in
+general. But among mountains, in addition to all this, large unbroken
+spaces of pure violet and purple are introduced in their distances; and
+even near, by films of cloud passing over the darkness of ravines or
+forests, blues are produced of the most subtle tenderness; these azures
+and purples passing into rose colour of otherwise wholly unattainable
+delicacy among the upper summits, the blue of the sky being at the same
+time purer and deeper than in the plains. Nay, in some sense, a person
+who has never seen the rose colour of the rays of dawn crossing a blue
+mountain twelve or fifteen miles away can hardly be said to know what
+tenderness in colour means at all; bright tenderness he may, indeed,
+see in the sky or in a flower, but this grave tenderness of the far-away
+hill-purples he cannot conceive."
+
+"I do not know," he says elsewhere, "any district possessing a more pure
+or uninterrupted fulness of mountain character (and that of the highest
+order), or which appears to have been less disturbed by foreign
+agencies, than that which borders the course of the Trient between
+Valorsine and Martigny. The paths which lead to it, out of the valley of
+the Rhone, rising at first in steep circles among the walnut trees, like
+winding stairs among the pillars of a Gothic tower, retire over the
+shoulders of the hills into a valley almost unknown, but thickly
+inhabited by an industrious and patient population. Along the ridges of
+the rocks, smoothed by old glaciers, into long, dark, billowy swellings,
+like the backs of plunging dolphins, the peasant watches the slow
+colouring of the tufts of moss and roots of herb, which, little by
+little, gather a feeble soil over the iron substance; then, supporting
+the narrow strip of clinging ground with a few stones, he subdues it to
+the spade, and in a year or two a little crest of corn is seen waving
+upon the rocky casque."
+
+Tyndall, speaking of the scene from the summit of the Little
+Scheideck,[39] says: "The upper air exhibited a commotion which we did
+not experience; clouds were wildly driven against the flanks of the
+Eiger, the Jungfrau thundered behind, while in front of us a magnificent
+rainbow, fixing one of its arms in the valley of Grindelwald, and,
+throwing the other right over the crown of the Wetterhorn, clasped the
+mountain in its embrace. Through jagged apertures in the clouds floods
+of golden light were poured down the sides of the mountain. On the
+slopes were innumerable chalets, glistening in the sunbeams, herds
+browsing peacefully and shaking their mellow bells; while the blackness
+of the pine trees, crowded into woods, or scattered in pleasant clusters
+over alp and valley, contrasted forcibly with the lively green of the
+fields."
+
+Few men had more experience of mountains than Mr. Whymper, and from him,
+I will quote one remarkable passage describing the view from the summit
+of the Matterhorn just before the terrible catastrophe which overshadows
+the memory of his first ascent.
+
+"The day was one of those superlatively calm and clear ones which
+usually precede bad weather. The atmosphere was perfectly still and free
+from all clouds or vapours. Mountains fifty, nay, a hundred miles off
+looked sharp and near. All their details--ridge and crag, snow and
+glacier--stood out with faultless definition. Pleasant thoughts of happy
+days in bygone years came up unbidden as we recognised the old familiar
+forms. All were revealed, not one of the principal peaks of the Alps was
+hidden. I see them clearly now, the great inner circle of giants, backed
+by the ranges, chains, and _massifs_.... Ten thousand feet beneath us
+were the green fields of Zermatt, dotted with chalets, from which blue
+smoke rose lazily. Eight thousand feet below, on the other side, were
+the pastures of Breuil. There were black and gloomy forests; bright and
+cheerful meadows, bounding waterfalls and tranquil lakes, fertile lands
+and savage wastes, sunny plains and frigid plateaux. There were the most
+rugged forms and the most graceful outlines, bold perpendicular cliffs
+and gentle undulating slopes; rocky mountains and snowy mountains,
+sombre and solemn, or glittering and white, with walls, turrets,
+pinnacles, pyramids, domes, cones, and spires! There was every
+combination that the world can give, and every contrast that the heart
+could desire."
+
+These were summer scenes, but the Autumn and Winter again have a
+grandeur and beauty of their own.
+
+"Autumn is dark on the mountains; grey mist rests on the hills. The
+whirlwind is heard on the heath. Dark rolls the river through the narrow
+plain. The leaves twirl round with the wind, and strew the grave of the
+dead."[40]
+
+Even bad weather often but enhances the beauty and grandeur of
+mountains. When the lower parts are hidden, and the peaks stand out
+above the clouds, they look much loftier than if the whole mountain
+side is visible. The gloom lends a weirdness and mystery to the scene,
+while the flying clouds give it additional variety.
+
+Rain, moreover, adds vividness to the colouring. The leaves and grass
+become a brighter green, "every sunburnt rock glows into an agate," and
+when fine weather returns the new snow gives intense brilliance, and
+invests the woods especially with the beauty of Fairyland. How often in
+alpine districts does one long "for the wings of a dove," more
+thoroughly to enjoy and more completely to explore, the mysteries and
+recesses of the mountains. The mind, however, can go, even if the body
+must remain behind.
+
+Each hour of the day has a beauty of its own. The mornings and evenings
+again glow with different and even richer tints.
+
+In mountain districts the cloud effects are brighter and more varied
+than in flatter regions. The morning and evening tints are seen to the
+greatest advantage, and clouds floating high in the heavens sometimes
+glitter with the most exquisite iridescent hues
+
+          that blush and glow
+    Like angels' wings.[41]
+
+On low ground one may be in the clouds, but not above them. But as we
+look down from mountains and see the clouds floating far below us, we
+almost seem as if we were looking down on earth from one of the heavenly
+bodies.
+
+Not even in the Alps is there anything more beautiful than the "after
+glow" which lights up the snow and ice with a rosy tint for some time
+after the sun has set. Long after the lower slopes are already in the
+shade, the summit of Mont Blanc for instance is transfigured by the
+light of the setting sun glowing on the snow. It seems almost like a
+light from another world, and vanishes as suddenly and mysteriously as
+it came.
+
+As we look up from the valleys the mountain peaks seem like separate
+pinnacles projecting far above the general level. This, however, is a
+very erroneous impression, and when we examine the view from the top of
+any of the higher mountains, or even from one of very moderate
+elevation, if well placed, such say as the well-known Piz Languard, we
+see that in many cases they must have once formed a dome, or even a
+table land, out of which the valleys have been carved. Many mountain
+chains were originally at least twice as high as they are now, and the
+highest peaks are those which have suffered least from the wear and tear
+of time.
+
+We used to speak of the everlasting hills, and are only beginning to
+realise the vast and many changes which our earth has undergone.
+
+    There rolls the deep where grew the tree.
+        O earth, what changes hast thou seen!
+        There where the long street roars, hath been
+    The stillness of the central sea.
+
+    The hills are shadows, and they flow
+        From form to form, and nothing stands;
+        They melt like mist, the solid lands,
+    Like clouds they shape themselves and go.[42]
+
+
+THE ORIGIN OF MOUNTAINS
+
+Geography moreover acquires a new interest when we once realise that
+mountains are no mere accidents, but that for every mountain chain, for
+every peak and valley, there is a cause and an explanation.
+
+The origin of Mountains is a question of much interest. The building up
+of Volcanoes is even now going on before our eyes. Some others, the
+Dolomites for instance, have been regarded by Richthofen and other
+geologists as ancient coral islands. The long lines of escarpment which
+often stretch for miles across country, are now ascertained, mainly
+through the researches of Whitaker, to be due to the differential action
+of aerial causes. The general origin of mountain chains, however, was at
+first naturally enough attributed to direct upward pressure from below.
+To attribute them in any way to subsidence seems almost a paradox, and
+yet it appears to be now well established that the general cause is
+lateral compression, due to contraction of the underlying mass. The
+earth, we know, has been gradually cooling, and as it contracted in
+doing so, the strata of the crust would necessarily be thrown into
+folds. When an apple dries and shrivels in winter, the surface becomes
+covered with ridges. Or again, if we place some sheets of paper between
+two weights on a table, and then bring the weights nearer together, the
+paper will be crumpled up.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Adapted from Ball's paper "On the Formation of
+Alpine Valleys and Lakes," _Lond. and Ed. Phil. Mag._ 1863, p. 96.]
+
+In the same way let us take a section of the earth's surface AB (Fig.
+17), and suppose that, by the gradual cooling and consequent contraction
+of the mass, AB sinks to A'B', then to A''B'', and finally to A'''B'''.
+Of course if the cooling of the surface and of the deeper portion were
+the same, then the strata between A and B would themselves contract, and
+might consequently still form a regular curve between A''' and B'''. As
+a matter of fact, however, the strata at the surface of our globe have
+long since approached a constant temperature. Under these circumstances
+there would be no contraction of the strata between A and B
+corresponding to that of those in the interior, and consequently they
+could not lie flat between A''' and B''', but must be thrown into folds,
+commencing along any line of least resistance. Sometimes indeed the
+strata are completely inverted, as in Fig. 19, and in other cases they
+have been squeezed for miles out of their original position. This
+explanation was first, I believe, suggested by Steno. It has been
+recently developed by Ball and Suess, and especially by Heim. In this
+manner it is probable that most mountain chains originated.[43]
+
+The structure of mountain districts confirms this theoretical
+explanation. It is obvious of course that when strata are thrown into
+folds, they will, if strained too much, give way at the summit of the
+fold. Before doing so, however, they are stretched and consequently
+loosened, while on the other hand the strata at the bottom of the fold
+are compressed: the former, therefore, are rendered more susceptible of
+disintegration, the latter on the contrary acquire greater powers of
+resistance. Hence denudation will act with more effect on the upper
+than on the lower portion of the folds, and if continued long enough, so
+that, as shown in the above diagram, the dotted portion is removed, we
+find the original hill tops replaced by valleys, and the original
+valleys forming the hill tops. Every visitor to Switzerland must have
+noticed hills where the strata lie as shown in parts of Fig. 18, and
+where it is obvious that strata corresponding to those in dots must have
+been originally present.
+
+In the Jura, for instance, a glance at any good map of the district will
+show a succession of ridges running parallel to one another in a
+slightly curved line from S.W. to N.E. That these ridges are due to
+folds of the earth's surface is clear from the following figure in
+Jaccard's work on the Geology of the Jura, showing a section from
+Brenets due south to Neuchatel by Le Locle. These folds are
+comparatively slight and the hills of no great height. Further south,
+however, the strata are much more violently dislocated and compressed
+together. The Mont Saleve is the remnant of one of these ridges.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Section across the Jura from Brenets to
+Neuchatel.]
+
+In the Alps the contortions are much greater than in the Jura. Fig. 19
+shows a section after Heim, from the Spitzen across the Brunnialp, and
+the Maderanerthal. It is obvious that the valleys are due mainly to
+erosion, that the Maderaner valley has been cut out of the crystalline
+rocks _s_, and was once covered by the Jurassic strata _j_, which must
+have formerly passed in a great arch over what is now the valley.
+
+However improbable it may seem that so great an amount of rock should
+have disappeared, evidence is conclusive. Ramsay has shown that in some
+parts of Wales not less than 29,000 feet have been removed, while there
+is strong reason for the belief that in Switzerland an amount has been
+carried away equal to the present height of the mountains; though of
+course it does not follow that the Alps were once twice as high as they
+are at present, because elevation and erosion must have gone on
+contemporaneously.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 19.--_e_, Eocene strata; _j_, Jurassic; _s_,
+Crystalline rocks.]
+
+It has been calculated that the strata between Bale and the St. Gotthard
+have been compressed from 202 miles to 130 miles, the Ardennes from 50
+to 25 miles, and the Appalachians from 153 miles to 65! Prof. Gumbel has
+recently expressed the opinion that the main force to which the
+elevation of the Alps was due acted along the main axis of elevation.
+Exactly the opposite inference would seem really to follow from the
+facts. If the centre of force were along the axis of elevation, the
+result would, as Suess and Heim have pointed out, be to extend, not to
+compress, the strata; and the folds would remain quite unaccounted for.
+The suggestion of compression is on the contrary consistent with the
+main features of Swiss geography. The principal axis follows a curved
+line from the Maritime Alps towards the north-east by Mont Blanc and
+Monte Rosa and St. Gotthard to the mountains overlooking the Engadine.
+The geological strata follow the same direction. North of a line running
+through Chambery, Yverdun, Neuchatel, Solothurn, and Olten to Waldshut
+on the Rhine are Jurassic strata; between that line and a second nearly
+parallel and running through Annecy, Vevey, Lucerne, Wesen, Appenzell,
+and Bregenz on the Lake of Constance, is the lowland occupied by later
+Tertiary strata; between this second line and another passing through
+Albertville, St. Maurice, Lenk, Meiringen, and Altdorf lies a more or
+less broken band of older Tertiary strata; south of which are a
+Cretaceous zone, one of Jurassic age, then a band of crystalline rocks,
+while the central core, so to say, of the Alps, as for instance at St.
+Gotthard, consists mainly of gneiss or granite. The sedimentary deposits
+reappear south of the Alps, and in the opinion of some high authorities,
+as, for instance, of Bonney and Heim, passed continuously over the
+intervening regions. The last great upheaval commenced after the Miocene
+period, and continued through the Pliocene. Miocene strata attain in the
+Righi a height of 6000 feet.
+
+For neither the hills nor the mountains are everlasting, or of the same
+age.
+
+The Welsh mountains are older than the Vosges, the Vosges than the
+Pyrenees, the Pyrenees than the Alps, and the Alps than the Andes, which
+indeed are still rising; so that if our English mountains are less
+imposing so far as mere height is concerned, they are most venerable
+from their great antiquity.
+
+But though the existing Alps are in one sense, and speaking
+geologically, very recent, there is strong reason for believing that
+there was a chain of lofty mountains there long previously. "The first
+indication," says Judd, "of the existence of a line of weakness in this
+portion of the earth's crust is found towards the close of the Permian
+period, when a series of volcanic outbursts on the very grandest scale
+took place" along a line nearly following that of the present Alps, and
+led to the formation of a range of mountains, which, in his opinion,
+must have been at least 8000 to 9000 feet high. Ramsay and Bonney have
+also given strong reasons for believing that the present line of the
+Alps was, at a still earlier period, occupied by a range of mountains no
+less lofty than those of to-day. Thus then, though the present Alps are
+comparatively speaking so recent, there are good grounds for the belief
+that they were preceded by one or more earlier ranges, once as lofty as
+they are now, but which were more or less completely levelled by the
+action of air and water, just as is happening now to the present
+mountain ranges.
+
+Movements of elevation and subsidence are still going on in various
+parts of the world. Scandinavia is rising in the north, and sinking at
+the south. South America is rising on the west and sinking in the east,
+rotating in fact on its axis, like some stupendous pendulum.
+
+The crushing and folding of the strata to which mountain chains are due,
+and of which the Alps afford such marvellous illustrations, necessarily
+give rise to Earthquakes, and the slight shocks so frequent in parts of
+Switzerland[44] appear to indicate that the forces which have raised the
+Alps are not yet entirely spent, and that slow subterranean movements
+are still in progress along the flanks of the mountains.
+
+But if the mountain chains are due to compression, the present valleys
+are mainly the result of denudation. As soon as a mountain range is once
+raised, all nature seems to conspire against it. Sun and Frost, Heat
+and Cold, Air and Water, Ice and Snow, every plant, from the Lichen to
+the Oak, and every animal, from the Worm to Man himself, combine to
+attack it. Water, however, is the most powerful agent of all. The autumn
+rains saturate every pore and cranny; the water as it freezes cracks and
+splits the hardest rocks; while the spring sun melts the snow and swells
+the rivers, which in their turn carry off the debris to the plains.
+
+Perhaps, however, it would after all be more correct to say that Nature,
+like some great artist, carves the shapeless block into form, and endows
+the rude mass with life and beauty.
+
+"What more," said Hutton long ago, "is required to explain the
+configuration of our mountains and valleys? Nothing but time. It is not
+any part of the process that will be disputed; but, after allowing all
+the parts, the whole will be denied; and for what? Only because we are
+not disposed to allow that quantity of time which the absolution of so
+much wasted mountain might require."
+
+The tops of the Swiss mountains stand, and since their elevation have
+probably always stood, above the range of ice, and hence their bold
+peaks. In Scotland, on the contrary, and still more in Norway, the sheet
+of ice which once, as is the case with Greenland now, spread over the
+whole country, has shorn off the summits and reduced them almost to
+gigantic bosses; while in Wales the same causes, together with the
+resistless action of time--for, as already mentioned, the Welsh hills
+are far older than the mountains of Switzerland--has ground down the
+once lofty summits and reduced them to mere stumps, such as, if the
+present forces are left to work out their results, the Swiss mountains
+will be thousands, or rather tens of thousands, of years hence.
+
+The "snow line" in Switzerland is generally given as being between 8500
+and 9000 feet. Above this level the snow or _neve_ gradually accumulates
+until it forms "glaciers," solid rivers of ice which descend more or
+less far down the valleys. No one who has not seen a glacier can
+possibly realise what they are like. Fig. 20 represents the glacier of
+the Bluemlis Alp, and the Plate the Mer de Glace.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Glacier of the Bluemlis Alp.]
+
+[Illustration: THE MER DE GLACE.
+
+_To face page 229._]
+
+They are often very beautiful. "Mount Beerenberg," says Lord Dufferin,
+"in size, colour, and effect far surpassed anything I had anticipated.
+The glaciers were quite an unexpected element of beauty. Imagine a
+mighty river, of as great a volume as the Thames, started down the side
+of a mountain, bursting over every impediment, whirled into a thousand
+eddies, tumbling and raging on from ledge to ledge in quivering
+cataracts of foam, then suddenly struck rigid by a power so
+instantaneous in its action that even the froth and fleeting wreaths of
+spray have stiffened to the immutability of sculpture. Unless you had
+seen it, it would be almost impossible to conceive the strangeness of
+the contrast between the actual tranquillity of these silent crystal
+rivers and the violent descending energy impressed upon their exterior.
+You must remember too all this is upon a scale of such prodigious
+magnitude, that when we succeeded subsequently in approaching the
+spot--where with a leap like that of Niagara one of these glaciers
+plunges down into the sea--the eye, no longer able to take in its
+fluvial character, was content to rest in simple astonishment at what
+then appeared a lucent precipice of grey-green ice, rising to the height
+of several hundred feet above the masts of the vessel."[45]
+
+The cliffs above glaciers shower down fragments of rock which gradually
+accumulate at the sides and at the end of the glaciers, forming mounds
+known as "moraines." Many ancient moraines occur far beyond the present
+region of glaciers.
+
+In considering the condition of alpine valleys we must remember that the
+glaciers formerly descended much further than they do at present. The
+glaciers of the Rhone for instance occupied the whole of the Valais,
+filled the Lake of Geneva--or rather the site now occupied by that
+lake--and rose 2000 feet up the slopes of the Jura; the Upper Ticino,
+and contributory valleys, were occupied by another which filled the
+basin of the Lago Maggiore; a third occupied the valley of the Dora
+Baltea, and has left a moraine at Ivrea some twenty miles long, and
+which rises no less than 1500 feet above the present level of the river.
+The Scotch and Scandinavian valleys were similarly filled by rivers of
+ice, which indeed at one time covered the whole country with an immense
+sheet, as Greenland is at present. Enormous blocks of stone, the Pierre
+a Niton at Geneva and the Pierre a Bot above Neuchatel, for instance,
+were carried by these glaciers for miles and miles; and many of the
+stones in the Norfolk cliffs were brought by ice from Norway (perhaps,
+however, by Icebergs), across what is now the German Ocean. Again
+wherever the rocks are hard enough to have withstood the weather, we
+find them polished and ground, just as, and even more so than, those at
+the ends and sides of existing glaciers.
+
+The most magnificent glacier tracks in the Alps are, in Ruskin's
+opinion, those on the rocks of the great angle opposite Martigny; the
+most interesting those above the channel of the Trient between Valorsine
+and the valley of the Rhone.
+
+In Great Britain I know no better illustration of ice action than is to
+be seen on the road leading down from Glen Quoich to Loch Hourn, one of
+the most striking examples of desolate and savage scenery in Scotland.
+Its name in Celtic is said to mean the Lake of Hell. All along the
+roadside are smoothed and polished hummocks of rock, most of them deeply
+furrowed with approximately parallel striae, presenting a gentle slope on
+the upper end, and a steep side below, clearly showing the direction of
+the great ice flow.
+
+Many of the upper Swiss valleys contain lakes, as, for instance, that of
+the Upper Rhone, the Lake of Geneva, of the Reuss, the Lake of Lucerne,
+of the Rhine, that of Constance. These lakes are generally very deep.
+
+The colour of the upper rivers, which are white with the diluvium from
+the glaciers, is itself evidence of the erosive powers which they
+exercise. This finely-divided matter is, however, precipitated in the
+lakes, which, as well as the rivers issuing from them, are a beautiful
+rich blue.
+
+"Is it not probable that this action of finely-divided matter may have
+some influence on the colour of some of the Swiss lakes--as that of
+Geneva for example? This lake is simply an expansion of the river Rhone,
+which rushes from the end of the Rhone glacier, as the Arveiron does
+from the end of the Mer de Glace. Numerous other streams join the Rhone
+right and left during its downward course; and these feeders, being
+almost wholly derived from glaciers, join the Rhone charged with the
+finer matter which these in their motion have ground from the rocks over
+which they have passed. But the glaciers must grind the mass beneath
+them to particles of all sizes, and I cannot help thinking that the
+finest of them must remain suspended in the lake throughout its entire
+length. Faraday has shown that a precipitate of gold may require months
+to sink to the bottom of a bottle not more than five inches high, and in
+all probability it would require ages of calm subsidence to bring all
+the particles which the Lake of Geneva contains to its bottom. It seems
+certainly worthy of examination whether such particles suspended in the
+water contribute to the production of that magnificent blue which has
+excited the admiration of all who have seen it under favourable
+circumstances."[46]
+
+Among the Swiss mountains themselves each has its special character.
+Tyndall thus describes a view in the Alps, certainly one of the most
+beautiful--that, namely, from the summit of the AEgischhorn.
+
+"Skies and summits are to-day without a cloud, and no mist or turbidity
+interferes with the sharpness of the outlines. Jungfrau, Monk, Eiger,
+Trugberg, cliffy Strahlgrat, stately lady-like Aletschhorn, all grandly
+pierce the empyrean. Like a Saul of Mountains, the Finsteraarhorn
+overtops all his neighbours; then we have the Oberaarhorn, with the
+riven glacier of Viesch rolling from his shoulders. Below is the
+Marjelin See, with its crystal precipices and its floating icebergs,
+snowy white, sailing on a blue green sea. Beyond is the range which
+divides the Valais from Italy. Sweeping round, the vision meets an
+aggregate of peaks which look as fledglings to their mother towards the
+mighty Dom. Then come the repellent crags of Mont Cervin; the ideal of
+moral savagery, of wild untameable ferocity, mingling involuntarily with
+our contemplation of the gloomy pile. Next comes an object, scarcely
+less grand, conveying, it may be, even a deeper impression of majesty
+and might than the Matterhorn itself--the Weisshorn, perhaps the most
+splendid object in the Alps. But beauty is associated with its force,
+and we think of it, not as cruel, but as grand and strong. Further to
+the right the great Combin lifts up his bare head; other peaks crowd
+around him; while at the extremity of the curve round which our gaze has
+swept rises the sovran crown of Mont Blanc. And now, as day sinks,
+scrolls of pearly clouds draw themselves around the mountain crests,
+being wafted from them into the distant air. They are without colour of
+any kind; still, by grace of form, and as the embodiment of lustrous
+light and most tender shade, their beauty is not to be described."[47]
+
+
+VOLCANOES
+
+Volcanoes belong to a totally different series of mountains.
+
+It is practically impossible to number the Volcanoes on our earth.
+Humboldt enumerated 223, which Keith Johnston raised to nearly 300.
+Some, no doubt, are always active, but in the majority the eruptions are
+occasional, and though some are undoubtedly now extinct, it is
+impossible in all cases to distinguish those which are only in repose
+from those whose day of activity is over. Then, again, the question
+would arise, which should be regarded as mere subsidiary cones and which
+are separate volcanoes. The slopes of Etna present more than 700 small
+cones, and on Hawaii there are several thousands. In fact, most of the
+very lofty volcanoes present more or less lateral cones.
+
+The molten matter, welling up through some fissure, gradually builds
+itself up into a cone, often of the most beautiful regularity, such as
+the gigantic peaks of Chimporazo, Cotopaxi (Fig. 21), and Fusiyama, and
+hence it is that the crater is so often at, or very near, the summit.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Cotopaxi.]
+
+Perhaps no spectacle in Nature is more magnificent than a Volcano in
+activity. It has been my good fortune to have stood more than once at
+the edge of the crater of Vesuvius during an eruption, to have watched
+the lava seething below, while enormous stones were shot up high into
+the air. Such a spectacle can never be forgotten.
+
+The most imposing crater in the world is probably that of Kilauea, at a
+height of about 4000 feet on the side of Mouna Loa, in the Island of
+Hawaii. It has a diameter of 2 miles, and is elliptic in outline, with a
+longer axis of about 3, and a circumference of about 7 miles. The
+interior is a great lake of lava, the level of which is constantly
+changing. Generally, it stands about 800 feet below the edge, and the
+depth is about 1400 feet. The heat is intense, and, especially at night,
+when the clouds are coloured scarlet by the reflection from the molten
+lava, the effect is said to be magnificent. Gradually the lava mounts in
+the crater until it either bursts through the side or runs over the
+edge, after which the crater remains empty, sometimes for years.
+
+A lava stream flows down the slope of the mountain like a burning river,
+at first rapidly, but as it cools, scoriae gradually form, and at length
+the molten matter covers itself completely (Fig. 22), both above and at
+the sides, with a solid crust, within which, as in a tunnel, it
+continues to flow slowly as long as it is supplied from the source, here
+and there breaking through the crust which, as continually, re-forms in
+front. Thus the terrible, inexorable river of fire slowly descends,
+destroying everything in its course.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Lava Stream.]
+
+The stream of lava which burst from Mouna Loa in 1885 had a length of 70
+miles; that of Skaptar-Jokul in Iceland in 1783 had a length of 50
+miles, and a maximum depth of nearly 500 feet. It has been calculated
+that the mass of lava equalled that of Mont Blanc.
+
+The stones, ashes, and mud ejected during eruptions are even more
+destructive than the rivers of lava. In 1851 Tomboro, a volcano on the
+Island of Sumbava, cost more lives than fell in the battle of Waterloo.
+The earthquake of Lisbon in 1755 destroyed 60,000 persons. During the
+earthquake of Riobamba and the mud eruption of Tunguragua, and again in
+that of Krakatoa, it is estimated that the number who perished was
+between 30,000 and 40,000. At the earthquake of Antioch in 526 no less
+than 200,000 persons are said to have lost their lives.
+
+Perhaps the most destructive eruption of modern times has been that on
+Cosequina. For 25 miles it covered the ground with muddy water 16 feet
+in depth. The dust and ashes formed a dense cloud, extending over many
+miles, some of it being carried 20 degrees to the west. The total mass
+ejected has been estimated at 60 milliards of square yards.
+
+Stromboli, in the Mediterranean (Fig. 23), though only 2500 feet in
+height, is very imposing from its superb regularity, and its roots
+plunge below the surface to a depth of 4000 feet.
+
+It is, moreover, very interesting from the regularity of its action,
+which has a period of 5 minutes or a little less. On looking down into
+the crater one sees at a depth of say 300 feet a seething mass of
+red-hot lava; this gradually rises, and then explodes, throwing up a
+cloud of vapour and stones, after which it sinks again. So regular is it
+that the Volcano has been compared to a "flashing" lighthouse, and this
+wonderful process has been going on for ages.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Stromboli, viewed from the north-west, April
+1874.]
+
+Though long extinct, volcanoes once existed in the British Isles;
+Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh, for instance, appears to be the funnel of
+a small volcano, belonging to the Carboniferous period.
+
+The summit of a volcanic mountain is sometimes entirely blown away.
+Between my first two visits to Vesuvius 200 feet of the mountain had
+thus disappeared. Vesuvius itself stands in a more ancient crater, part
+of which still remains, and is now known as Somma, the greater portion
+having disappeared in the great eruption of 79, when the mountain,
+waking from its long sleep, destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii.
+
+As regards the origin of volcanoes there have been two main theories.
+Impressed by the magnitude and grandeur of the phenomena, enhanced as
+they are by their destructive character, many have been disposed to
+regard the craters of volcanoes as gigantic chimneys, passing right
+through the solid crust of the globe, and communicating with a central
+fire. Recent researches, however, have indicated that, grand and
+imposing as they are, volcanoes must yet be regarded as due mainly to
+local and superficial causes.
+
+A glance at the map shows that volcanoes are almost always situated on,
+or near, the sea coast. From the interior of continents they are
+entirely wanting. The number of active volcanoes in the Andes,
+contrasted with their absence in the Alps and Ourals, the Himalayas, and
+Central Asian chains, is very striking. Indeed, the Pacific Ocean is
+encircled, as Ritter has pointed out, by a ring of fire. Beginning with
+New Zealand, we have the Volcanoes of Tongariro, Whakaii, etc.; thence
+the circle passes through the Fiji Islands, Solomon Islands, New Guinea,
+Timor, Flores, Sumbava, Lombock, Java, Sumatra, the Philippines, Japan,
+the Aleutian Islands, along the Rocky Mountains, Mexico, Peru, and
+Chili, to Tierra del Fuego, and, in the far south, to the two great
+Volcanoes of Erebus and Terror on Victoria Land.
+
+We know that the contraction of the Earth's surface with the strains and
+fractures, the compression and folds, which must inevitably result, is
+still in operation, and must give rise to areas of high temperature,
+and consequently to volcanoes. We must also remember that the real
+mountain chains of our earth are the continents, compared to which even
+the Alps and Andes are mere wrinkles. It is along the lines of the great
+mountain chains, that is to say, along the main coast lines, rather than
+in the centres of the continents, which may be regarded as comparatively
+quiescent, that we should naturally expect to find the districts of
+greatest heat, and this is perhaps why volcanoes are generally
+distributed along the coast lines.
+
+Another reason for regarding Volcanoes as local phenomena is that many
+even of those comparatively near one another act quite independently.
+This is so with Kilauea and Mouna Loa, both on the small island of
+Hawaii.
+
+Again, if volcanoes were in connection with a great central sea of fire,
+the eruptions must follow the same laws as regulate the tides. This,
+however, is not the case. There are indeed indications of the existence
+of slight tides in the molten lake which underlies Vesuvius, and during
+the eruption of 1865 there was increased activity twice a day, as we
+should expect to find in any great fluid reservoir, but very different
+indeed from what must have been the case if the mountain was in
+connection with a central ocean of molten matter.
+
+Indeed, unless the "crust" of our earth was of great thickness we should
+be subject to perpetual earthquakes. No doubt these are far more
+frequent than is generally supposed; indeed, with our improved
+instruments it can be shown that instead of occasional vibrations, with
+long intermediate periods of rest, we have in reality short intervals of
+rest with long periods of vibration, or rather perhaps that the crust of
+the earth is in constant tremor, with more violent oscillation from time
+to time.
+
+It appears, moreover, that earthquakes are not generally deep-seated.
+The point at which the shock is vertical can be ascertained, and it is
+also possible in some cases to determine the angle at which it emerges
+elsewhere. When this has been done it has always been found that the
+seat of disturbance must have been within 30 geographical miles of the
+surface.
+
+Yet, though we cannot connect volcanic action with the central heat of
+the earth, but must regard it as a minor and local manifestation of
+force, volcanoes still remain among the grandest, most awful, and at the
+same time most magnificent spectacles which the earth can afford.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[38] Ruskin.
+
+[39] _The Glaciers of the Alps._
+
+[40] Ossian.
+
+[41] Bullar, _Azores_.
+
+[42] Tennyson.
+
+[43] See especially Heim's great work, _Unt. ue. d. Mechanismus der
+Gebirgsbildung_.
+
+[44] In the last 150 years more than 1000 are recorded.
+
+[45] _Letters from High Latitudes._
+
+[46] _Glaciers of the Alps._
+
+[47] _Mountaineering in 1861._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WATER
+
+     Of all inorganic substances, acting in their own proper nature,
+     and without assistance or combination, water is the most
+     wonderful. If we think of it as the source of all the
+     changefulness and beauty which we have seen in the clouds; then
+     as the instrument by which the earth we have contemplated was
+     modelled into symmetry, and its crags chiselled into grace;
+     then as, in the form of snow, it robes the mountains it has
+     made, with that transcendent light which we could not have
+     conceived if we had not seen; then as it exists in the foam of
+     the torrent, in the iris which spans it, in the morning mist
+     which rises from it, in the deep crystalline pools which mirror
+     its hanging shore, in the broad lake and glancing river,
+     finally, in that which is to all human minds the best emblem of
+     unwearied, unconquerable power, the wild, various, fantastic,
+     tameless unity of the sea; what shall we compare to this
+     mighty, this universal element, for glory and for beauty? or
+     how shall we follow its eternal cheerfulness of feeling? It is
+     like trying to paint a soul.--RUSKIN.
+
+[Illustration: RYDAL WATER. _To face page 251._]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WATER
+
+
+In the legends of ancient times running water was proof against all
+sorcery and witchcraft:
+
+    No spell could stay the living tide
+    Or charm the rushing stream.[48]
+
+There was much truth as well as beauty in this idea.
+
+Flowing waters, moreover, have not only power to wash out material
+stains, but they also clear away the cobwebs of the brain--the results
+of over incessant work--and restore us to health and strength.
+
+Snowfields and glaciers, mountain torrents, sparkling brooks, and
+stately rivers, meres and lakes, and last, not least, the great ocean
+itself, all alike possess this magic power.
+
+"When I would beget content," says Izaak Walton, "and increase
+confidence in the power and wisdom and providence of Almighty God, I
+will walk the meadows by some gliding stream, and there contemplate the
+lilies that take no care, and those very many other little living
+creatures that are not only created, but fed (man knows not how) by the
+goodness of the God of Nature, and therefore trust in Him;" and in his
+quaint old language he craves a special blessing on all those "that are
+true lovers of virtue, and dare trust in His Providence, and be quiet,
+and go a angling."
+
+At the water's edge flowers are especially varied and luxuriant, so that
+the banks of a river are a long natural garden of tall and graceful
+grasses and sedges, the Meadow Sweet, the Flowering Rush, the sweet
+Flag, the Bull Rush, Purple Loosestrife, Hemp Agrimony, Dewberry,
+Forget-me-not, and a hundred more, backed by Willows, Alders, Poplars,
+and other trees.
+
+The Animal world, if less conspicuous to the eye, is quite as
+fascinating to the imagination. Here and there a speckled Trout may be
+detected (rather by the shadow than the substance) suspended in the
+clear water, or darting across a shallow; if we are quiet we may see
+Water Hens or Wild Ducks swimming among the lilies, a Kingfisher sitting
+on a branch or flashing away like a gleam of light; a solemn Heron
+stands maybe at the water's edge, or slowly rises flapping his great
+wings; Water Rats, neat and clean little creatures, very different from
+their coarse brown namesakes of the land, are abundant everywhere; nor
+need we even yet quite despair of seeing the Otter himself.
+
+Insects of course are gay, lively, and innumerable; but after all the
+richest fauna is that visible only with a microscope.
+
+"To gaze," says Dr. Hudson, "into that wonderful world which lies in a
+drop of water, crossed by some stems of green weed, to see transparent
+living mechanism at work, and to gain some idea of its modes of action,
+to watch a tiny speck that can sail through the prick of a needle's
+point; to see its crystal armour flashing with ever varying tint, its
+head glorious with the halo of its quivering cilia; to see it gliding
+through the emerald stems, hunting for its food, snatching at its prey,
+fleeing from its enemy, chasing its mate (the fiercest of our passions
+blazing in an invisible speck); to see it whirling in a mad dance, to
+the sound of its own music, the music of its happiness, the exquisite
+happiness of living--can any one, who has once enjoyed this sight, ever
+turn from it to mere books and drawings, without the sense that he has
+left all Fairyland behind him?"[49]
+
+The study of Natural History has indeed the special advantage of
+carrying us into the country and the open air.
+
+Lakes are even more restful than rivers or the sea. Rivers are always
+flowing, though it may be but slowly; the sea may rest awhile, now and
+then, but is generally full of action and energy; while lakes seem to
+sleep and dream. Lakes in a beautiful country are like silver ornaments
+on a lovely dress, like liquid gems in a beautiful setting, or bright
+eyes in a lovely face. Indeed as we gaze down on a lake from some hill
+or cliff it almost looks solid, like some great blue crystal.
+
+[Illustration: WINDERMERE. _To face page 254._]
+
+It is not merely for purposes of commerce or convenience that men love
+to live near rivers.
+
+    Let me live harmlessly, and near the brink
+      Of Trent or Avon have my dwelling-place;
+    Where I may see my quill, or cork, down sink,
+      With eager bite of pike, or bleak, or dace;
+    And on the world and my Creator think:
+      While some men strive ill-gotten goods t' embrace:
+    And others spend their time in base excess
+    Of wine; or worse, in war, or wantonness.
+
+    Let them that will, these pastimes still pursue,
+      And on such pleasing fancies feed their fill:
+    So I the fields and meadows green may view
+      And daily by fresh rivers walk at will,
+    Among the daisies and the violets blue,
+      Red hyacinth and yellow daffodil.[50]
+
+It is interesting and delightful to trace a river from its source to the
+sea.
+
+"Beginning at the hill-tops," says Geikie, "we first meet with the
+spring or 'well-eye,' from which the river takes its rise. A patch of
+bright green, mottling the brown heathy slope, shows where the water
+comes to the surface, a treacherous covering of verdure often concealing
+a deep pool beneath. From this source the rivulet trickles along the
+grass and heath, which it soon cuts through, reaching the black, peaty
+layer below, and running in it for a short way as in a gutter.
+Excavating its channel in the peat, it comes down to the soil, often a
+stony earth bleached white by the peat. Deepening and widening the
+channel as it gathers force with the increasing slope, the water digs
+into the coating of drift or loose decomposed rock that covers the
+hillside. In favourable localities a narrow precipitous gully, twenty or
+thirty feet deep, may thus be scooped out in the course of a few years."
+
+If, however, we trace one of the Swiss rivers to its source we shall
+generally find that it begins in a snow field or _neve_ nestled in a
+shoulder of some great mountain.
+
+Below the _neve_ lies a glacier, on, in, and under which the water runs
+in a thousand little streams, eventually emerging at the end, in some
+cases forming a beautiful blue cavern, though in others the end of the
+glacier is encumbered and concealed by earth and stones.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Upper Valley of St. Gotthard.]
+
+The uppermost Alpine valleys are perhaps generally, though by no means
+always, a little desolate and severe, as, for instance, that of St.
+Gotthard (Fig. 24). The sides are clothed with rough pasture, which is
+flowery indeed, though of course the flowers are not visible at a
+distance, interspersed with live rock and fallen masses, while along the
+bottom rushes a white torrent. The snowy peaks are generally more or
+less hidden by the shoulders of the hills.
+
+The valleys further down widen and become more varied and picturesque.
+The snowy peaks and slopes are more often visible, the "alps" or
+pastures to which the cows are taken in summer, are greener and dotted
+with the huts or chalets of the cow-herds, while the tinkling of the
+cowbells comes to one from time to time, softened by distance, and
+suggestive of mountain rambles. Below the alps there is generally a
+steeper part clothed with Firs or with Larches and Pines, some of which
+seem as if they were scaling the mountains in regiments, preceded by a
+certain number of skirmishers. Below the fir woods again are Beeches,
+Chestnuts, and other deciduous trees, while the central cultivated
+portion of the valley is partly arable, partly pasture, the latter
+differing from our meadows in containing a greater variety of
+flowers--Campanulas, Wild Geraniums, Chervil, Ragged Robin, Narcissus,
+etc. Here and there is a brown village, while more or less in the centre
+hurries along, with a delightful rushing sound, the mountain torrent, to
+which the depth, if not the very existence of the valley, is mainly due.
+The meadows are often carefully irrigated, and the water power is also
+used for mills, the streams seeming to rush on, as Ruskin says, "eager
+for their work at the mill, or their ministry to the meadows."
+
+Apart from the action of running water, snow and frost are continually
+disintegrating the rocks, and at the base of almost any steep cliff may
+be seen a slope of debris (as in Figs. 25, 26). This stands at a regular
+angle--the angle of repose--and unless it is continually removed by a
+stream at the base, gradually creeps up higher and higher, until at last
+the cliff entirely disappears.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Section of a river valley. The dotted line
+shows a slope or talus of debris.]
+
+Sometimes the two sides of the valley approach so near that there is not
+even room for the river and the road: in that case Nature claims the
+supremacy, and the road has to be carried in a cutting, or perhaps in a
+tunnel through the rock. In other cases Nature is not at one with
+herself. In many places the debris from the rocks above would reach
+right across the valley and dam up the stream. Then arises a struggle
+between rock and river, but the river is always victorious in the end;
+even if dammed back for a while, it concentrates its forces, rises up
+the rampart of rock, rushes over triumphantly, resumes its original
+course, and gradually carries the enemy away.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Valley of the Rhone, with the waterfall of
+Sallenches, showing talus of debris.]
+
+Another prominent feature in many valleys is afforded by the old river,
+or lake, terraces, which were formed at a time when the river ran at a
+level far above its present bed.
+
+Thus many a mountain valley gives some such section as the following.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 27.--_A_, present river valley; _B_, old river
+terrace.]
+
+First, a face of rock, very steep, and in some places almost
+perpendicular; secondly, a regular talus of fallen rocks, stones, etc.,
+as shown in the view of the Rhone Valley (Fig. 26), which takes what is
+known as the slope of repose, at an angle which depends on the character
+of the material. As a rule for loose rock fragments it may be taken
+roughly to be an angle of about 45 deg.. Then an irregular slope followed in
+many places by one or more terraces, and lastly the present bed of the
+river.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Diagram of an Alpine valley showing a river
+cone. Front view.]
+
+The width or narrowness of the valley in relation to its depth depends
+greatly on the condition of the rocks, the harder and tougher they are
+the narrower as a rule being the valley.
+
+From time to time a side stream enters the main valley. This is itself
+composed of many smaller rivulets. If the lateral valleys are steep, the
+streams bring with them, especially after rains, large quantities of
+earth and stones. When, however, they reach the main valley, the
+rapidity of the current being less, their power of transport also
+diminishes, and they spread out the material which they carry down in a
+depressed cone (Figs. 28, 29, 31, 32).
+
+A side stream with its terminal cone, when seen from the opposite side
+of the valley, presents the appearance shown in Figs. 28, 31, or, if we
+are looking down the valley, as in Figs. 29, 32, the river being often
+driven to one side of the main valley, as, for instance, is the case in
+the Valais, near Sion, where the Rhone (Fig. 30) is driven out of its
+course by, and forms a curve round, the cone brought down by the torrent
+of the Borgne.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 29.--Diagram of an Alpine valley, showing a river
+cone. Lateral view.]
+
+Sometimes two lateral valleys (see Plate) come down nearly opposite one
+another, so that the cones meet, as, for instance, some little way below
+Vernayaz, and, indeed, in several other places in the Valais (Fig. 31).
+Or more permanent lakes may be due to a ridge of rock running across the
+valley, as, for instance, just below St. Maurice in the Valais.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 30.]
+
+[Illustration: VIEW IN THE VALAIS BELOW ST. MAURICE. _To face page
+266._]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 31.--View in the Rhone Valley, showing a lateral
+cone.]
+
+Almost all river valleys contain, or have contained, in their course one
+or more lakes, and where a river falls into a lake a cone like those
+just described is formed, and projects into the lake. Thus on the Lake
+of Geneva, between Vevey and Villeneuve (see Fig. 33), there are several
+such promontories, each marking the place where a stream falls into the
+lake.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 32.--View in the Rhone Valley, showing the slope of
+a river cone.]
+
+The Rhone itself has not only filled up what was once the upper end of
+the lake, but has built out a strip of land into the water.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Shore of the Lake of Geneva, near Vevey.]
+
+That the lake formerly extended some distance up the Valais no one can
+doubt who looks at the flat ground about Villeneuve. The Plate
+opposite, from a photograph taken above Vevey, shows this clearly. It is
+quite evident that the lake must formerly have extended further up the
+valley, and that it has been filled up by material brought down by the
+Rhone, a process which is still continuing.
+
+At the other end of the lake the river rushes out 15 feet deep of "not
+flowing, but flying water; not water neither--melted glacier matter, one
+should call it; the force of the ice is in it, and the wreathing of the
+clouds, the gladness of the sky, and the countenance of time."[51]
+
+[Illustration: VIEW UP THE VALAIS FROM THE LAKE OF GENEVA. _To face page
+270._]
+
+In flat countries the habits of rivers are very different. For instance,
+in parts of Norfolk there are many small lakes or "broads" in a network
+of rivers--the Bure, the Yare, the Ant, the Waveney, etc.--which do not
+rush on with the haste of some rivers, or the stately flow of others
+which are steadily set to reach the sea, but rather seem like rivers
+wandering in the meadows on a holiday. They have often no natural banks,
+but are bounded by dense growths of tall grasses, Bulrushes, Reeds, and
+Sedges, interspersed with the spires of the purple Loosestrife, Willow
+Herb, Hemp Agrimony, and other flowers, while the fields are very low
+and protected by dykes, so that the red cattle appear to be browsing
+below the level of the water; and as the rivers take most unexpected
+turns, the sailing boats often seem (Fig. 34) as if they were in the
+middle of the fields.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 34.--View in the district of the Broads, Norfolk.]
+
+At present these rivers are restrained in their courses by banks; when
+left free they are continually changing their beds. Their courses at
+first sight seem to follow no rule, but, as it is termed, from a
+celebrated river of Asia Minor, to "meander" along without aim or
+object, though in fact they follow very definite laws.
+
+Finally, when the river at length reaches the sea, it in many cases
+spreads out in the form of a fan, forming a very flat cone or "delta,"
+as it is called, from the Greek capital [Greek: Delta], a name first
+applied to that of the Nile, and afterwards extended to other rivers.
+This is due to the same cause, and resembles, except in size, the
+comparatively minute cones of mountain streams.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 35.]
+
+Fig. 35 represents the delta of the Po, and it will be observed that
+Adria, once a great port, and from which the Adriatic was named, is now
+more than 20 miles from the sea. Perhaps the most remarkable case is
+that of the Mississippi (Fig. 36), the mouths of which project into the
+sea like a hand, or like the petals of a flower. For miles the mud is
+too soft to support trees, but is covered by sedges (Miegea); the banks
+of mud gradually become too soft and mobile even for them. The pilots
+who navigate ships up the river live in frail houses resting on planks,
+and kept in place by anchors. Still further, and the banks of the
+Mississippi, if banks they can be called, are mere strips of reddish
+mud, intersected from time to time by transverse streams of water, which
+gradually separate them into patches. These become more and more
+liquid, until the land, river, and sea merge imperceptibly into one
+another. The river is so muddy that it might almost be called land, and
+the mud so saturated by water that it might well be called sea, so that
+one can hardly say whether a given spot is on the continent, in the
+river, or on the open ocean.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 36.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[48] Leyden.
+
+[49] Dr. Hudson, Address to the Microscopical Society, 1889.
+
+[50] F. Davors.
+
+[51] Ruskin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+RIVERS AND LAKES
+
+
+ON THE DIRECTIONS OF RIVERS
+
+In the last chapter I have alluded to the wanderings of rivers within
+the limits of their own valleys; we have now to consider the causes
+which have determined the directions of the valleys themselves.
+
+If a tract of country were raised up in the form of a boss or dome, the
+rain which fell on it would partly sink in, partly run away to the lower
+ground. The least inequality in the surface would determine the first
+directions of the streams, which would carry down any loose material,
+and thus form little channels, which would be gradually deepened and
+enlarged. It is as difficult for a river as for a man to get out of a
+groove.
+
+In such a case the rivers would tend to radiate with more or less
+regularity from the centre or axis of the dome, as, for instance, in our
+English lake district (Fig. 37). Derwent Water, Thirlmere, Coniston
+Water, and Windermere, run approximately N. and S.; Crummock Water,
+Loweswater, and Buttermere N.W. by S.E.; Waste Water, Ullswater, and
+Hawes Water N.E. by S.W.; while Ennerdale Water lies nearly E. by W. Can
+we account in any way, and if so how, for these varied directions?
+
+The mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland form a more or less oval
+boss, the axis of which, though not straight, runs practically from
+E.N.E. to W.S.W., say from Scaw Fell to Shap Fell; and a sketch map
+shows us almost at a glance that Derwent Water, Thirlmere, Ullswater,
+Coniston Water, and Windermere run at right angles to this axis;
+Ennerdale Water is just where the boss ends and the mountains disappear;
+while Crummock Water and Waste Water lie at the intermediate angles.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Map of the Lake District.]
+
+So much then for the direction. We have still to consider the situation
+and origin, and it appears that Ullswater, Coniston Water, the River
+Dudden, Waste Water, and Crummock Water lie along the lines of old
+faults, which no doubt in the first instance determined the flow of the
+water.
+
+Take another case. In the Jura the valleys are obviously (see Fig. 18)
+in many cases due to the folding of the strata. It seldom happens,
+however, that the case is so simple. If the elevation is considerable
+the strata are often fractured, and fissures are produced. Again if the
+part elevated contains layers of more than one character, this at once
+establishes differences. Take, for instance, the Weald of Kent (Figs.
+38, 39). Here we have (omitting minor layers) four principal strata
+concerned, namely, the Chalk, Greensand, Weald Clay, and Hastings
+Sands.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 38.--_a_, _a_, Upper Cretaceous strata, chiefly
+Chalk, forming the North and South Downs; _b_, _b_, Escarpment of Lower
+Greensand, with a valley between it and the Chalk; _c_, _c_, Weald Clay,
+forming plains; _d_, Hills formed of Hastings Sand and Clay. The Chalk,
+etc., once spread across the country, as shown in the dotted lines.]
+
+The axis of elevation runs (Fig. 39) from Winchester by Petersfield,
+Horsham, and Winchelsea to Boulogne, and as shown in the following
+section, taken from Professor Ramsay, we have on each side of the axis
+two ridges or "escarpments," one that of the Chalk, the other that of
+the Greensand, while between the Chalk and the Greensand is a valley,
+and between the Greensand and the ridge of Hastings Sand an undulating
+plain, in each case with a gentle slope from about where the London and
+Brighton railway crosses the Weald towards the east. Under these
+circumstances we might have expected that the streams draining the Weald
+would have run in the direction of the axis of elevation, and at the
+bases of the escarpments, as in fact the Rother does for part of its
+course, into the sea between the North and South Downs, instead of which
+as a rule they run north and south, cutting in some cases directly
+through the escarpments; on the north, for instance, the Wye, the Mole,
+the Darenth, the Medway, and the Stour; and on the south the Arun, the
+Addur, the Ouse, and the Cuckmere.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 39.--Map of the Weald of Kent.]
+
+They do not run in faults or cracks, and it is clear that they could not
+have excavated their present valleys under circumstances such as now
+exist. They carry us back indeed to a time when the Greensand and Chalk
+were continued across the Weald in a great dome, as shown by the dotted
+lines in Fig. 38. They then ran down the slope of the dome, and as the
+Chalk and Greensand gradually weathered back, a process still in
+operation, the rivers deepened and deepened their valleys, and thus were
+enabled to keep their original course.
+
+Other evidence in support of this view is afforded by the presence of
+gravel beds in some places at the very top of the Chalk escarpment--beds
+which were doubtless deposited when, what is now the summit of a hill,
+was part of a continuous slope.
+
+The course of the Thames offers us a somewhat similar instance. It rises
+on the Oolites near Cirencester, and cuts through the escarpment of the
+Chalk between Wallingford and Reading. The cutting through the Chalk has
+evidently been effected by the river itself. But this could not have
+happened under existing conditions. We must remember, however, that the
+Chalk escarpment is gradually moving eastwards. The Chalk escarpments
+indeed are everywhere, though of course only slowly, crumbling away.
+Between Farnham and Guildford the Chalk is reduced to a narrow ridge
+known as the Hog's Back. In the same way no doubt the area of the Chalk
+formerly extended much further west than it does at present, and,
+indeed, there can be little doubt, somewhat further west than the source
+of the Thames, almost to the valley of the Severn. At that time the
+Thames took its origin in a Chalk spring. Gradually, however, the Chalk
+was worn away by the action of weather, and especially of rain. The
+river maintained its course while gradually excavating, and sinking
+deeper and deeper into, the Chalk. At present the river meets the Chalk
+escarpment near Wallingford, but the escarpment itself is still
+gradually retreating eastward.
+
+So, again, the Elbe cuts right across the Erz-Gebirge, the Rhine through
+the mountains between Bingen and Coblenz, the Potomac, the Susquehannah,
+and the Delaware through the Alleghanies. The case of the Dranse will be
+alluded to further on (p. 292). In these cases the rivers preceded the
+mountains. Indeed as soon as the land rose above the waters, rivers
+would begin their work, and having done so, unless the rate of elevation
+of the mountain exceeded the power of erosion of the river, the two
+would proceed simultaneously, so that the river would not alter its
+course, but would cut deeper and deeper as the mountain range gradually
+rose.
+
+Rivers then are in many cases older than mountains. Moreover, the
+mountains are passive, the rivers active. Since it seems to be well
+established that in Switzerland a mass, more than equal to what remains,
+has been removed; and that many of the present mountains are not sites
+which were originally raised highest, but those which have suffered
+least, it follows that if in some cases the course of the river is due
+to the direction of the mountain ridges, on the other hand the direction
+of some of the present ridges is due to that of the rivers. At any rate
+it is certain that of the original surface not a trace or a fragment
+remains _in situ_. Many of our own English mountains were once valleys,
+and many of our present valleys occupy the sites of former mountain
+ridges.
+
+Heim and Ruetimeyer point out that of the two factors which have produced
+the relief of mountain regions, the one, elevation, is temporary and
+transitory; the other, denudation, is constant, and gains therefore
+finally the upper hand.
+
+We must not, however, expect too great regularity. The degree of
+hardness, the texture, and the composition of the rocks cause great
+differences.
+
+On the other hand, if the alteration of level was too rapid, the result
+might be greatly to alter the river courses. Mr. Darwin mentions such a
+case, which, moreover, is perhaps the more interesting as being
+evidently very recent.
+
+"Mr. Gill," he says, "mentioned to me a most interesting, and as far as
+I am aware, quite unparalleled case, of a subterranean disturbance
+having changed the drainage of a country. Travelling from Casma to
+Huaraz (not very far distant from Lima) he found a plain covered with
+ruins and marks of ancient cultivation, but now quite barren. Near it
+was the dry course of a considerable river, whence the water for
+irrigation had formerly been conducted. There was nothing in the
+appearance of the water-course to indicate that the river had not flowed
+there a few years previously; in some parts beds of sand and gravel were
+spread out; in others, the solid rock had been worn into a broad
+channel, which in one spot was about 40 yards in breadth and 8 feet
+deep. It is self-evident that a person following up the course of a
+stream will always ascend at a greater or less inclination. Mr. Gill
+therefore, was much astonished when walking up the bed of this ancient
+river, to find himself suddenly going downhill. He imagined that the
+downward slope had a fall of about 40 or 50 feet perpendicular. We here
+have unequivocal evidence that a ridge had been uplifted right across
+the old bed of a stream. From the moment the river course was thus
+arched, the water must necessarily have been thrown back, and a new
+channel formed. From that moment also the neighbouring plain must have
+lost its fertilising stream, and become a desert."[52]
+
+The strata, moreover, often--indeed generally, as we have seen, for
+instance, in the case of Switzerland--bear evidence of most violent
+contortions, and even where the convulsions were less extreme, the
+valleys thus resulting are sometimes complicated by the existence of
+older valleys formed under previous conditions.
+
+In the Alps then the present configuration of the surface is mainly the
+result of denudation. If we look at a map of Switzerland we can trace
+but little relation between the river courses and the mountain chains.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 40.--Sketch Map of the Swiss Rivers.]
+
+The rivers, as a rule (Fig. 40), run either S.E. by N.W., or, at right
+angles to this, N.E. and S.W. The Alps themselves follow a somewhat
+curved line from the Maritime Alps, commencing with the islands of
+Hyeres, by Briancon, Martigny, the Valais, Urseren Thal, Vorder Rhein,
+Innsbruck, Radstadt, and Rottenmann to the Danube, a little below
+Vienna,--at first nearly north and south, but gradually curving round
+until it becomes S.W. by N.E.
+
+The central mountains are mainly composed of Gneiss, Granite, and
+crystalline Schists: the line of junction between these rocks and the
+secondary and tertiary strata on the north, runs, speaking roughly, from
+Hyeres to Grenoble, and then by Albertville, Sion, Chur, Inns, bruck,
+Radstadt, and Hieflau, towards Vienna. It is followed (in some part of
+their course) by the Isere, the Rhone, the Rhine, the Inn, and the Enns.
+One of the great folds shortly described in the preceding chapter runs
+up the Isere, along the Chamouni Valley, up the Rhone, through the
+Urseren Thal, down the Rhine Valley to Chur, along the Inn nearly to
+Kufstein, and for some distance along the Enns. Thus, then, five great
+rivers have taken advantage of this main fold, each of them eventually
+breaking through into a transverse valley.
+
+The Pusterthal in the Tyrol offers us an interesting case of what is
+obviously a single valley, which has, however, been slightly raised in
+the centre, near Toblach, so that from this point the water flows in
+opposite directions--the Drau eastward, and the Rienz westward. In this
+case the elevation is single and slight: in the main valley there are
+several, and they are much loftier, still we may, I think, regard that
+of the Isere from Chambery to Albertville, of the Rhone from Martigny to
+its source, of the Urseren Thal, of the Vorder Rhine from its source to
+Chur, of the Inn from Landeck to below Innsbruck, even perhaps of the
+Enns from Radstadt to Hieflau as in one sense a single valley, due to
+one of these longitudinal folds, but interrupted by bosses of gneiss and
+granite,--one culminating in Mont Blanc, and another in the St.
+Gotthard,--which have separated the waters of the Isere, the Rhone, the
+Vorder Rhine, the Inn, and the Enns. That the valley of Chamouni, the
+Valais, the Urseren Thal, and that of the Vorder Rhine really form part
+of one great fold is further shown by the presence of a belt of Jurassic
+strata nipped in, as it were, between the crystalline rocks.
+
+This seems to throw light on the remarkable turns taken by the Rhone at
+Martigny and the Vorder Rhine at Chur, where they respectively quit the
+great longitudinal fold, and fall into secondary transverse valleys. The
+Rhone for the upper part of its course, as far as Martigny, runs in the
+great longitudinal fold of the Valais; at Martigny it falls into and
+adopts the transverse valley, which properly belongs to the Dranse; for
+the Dranse is probably an older river and ran in the present course even
+before the great fold of the Valais. This would seem to indicate that
+the Oberland range is not so old as the Pennine, and that its elevation
+was so gradual that the Dranse was able to wear away a passage as the
+ridge gradually rose. After leaving the Lake of Geneva the Rhone follows
+a course curving gradually to the south, until it reaches St. Genix,
+where it falls into and adopts a transverse valley which properly
+belongs to the little river Guiers; it subsequently joins the Ain and
+finally falls into the Saone. If these valleys were attributed to their
+older occupiers we should therefore confine the name of the Rhone to the
+portion of its course from the Rhone glacier to Martigny. From Martigny
+it occupies successively the valleys of the Dranse, Guiers, Ain, and
+Saone. In fact, the Saone receives the Ain, the Ain the Guiers, the
+Guiers the Dranse, and the Dranse the Rhone. This is not a mere question
+of names, but also one of antiquity. The Saone, for instance, flowed
+past Lyons to the Mediterranean for ages before it was joined by the
+Rhone. In our nomenclature, however, the Rhone has swallowed up the
+others. This is the more curious because of the three great rivers which
+unite to form the lower Rhone, namely, the Saone, the Doubs, and the
+Rhone itself, the Saone brings for a large part of the year the greatest
+volume of water, and the Doubs has the longest course. Other similar
+cases might be mentioned. The Aar, for instance, is a somewhat larger
+river than the Rhine.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 41.--Diagram in illustration of Mountain structure.]
+
+But why should the rivers, after running for a certain distance in the
+direction of the main axis, so often break away into lateral valleys? If
+the elevation of a chain of mountains be due to the causes suggested in
+p. 214, it is evident, though, so far as I am aware, stress has not
+hitherto been laid upon this, that the compression and consequent
+folding of the strata (Fig. 41) would not be in the direction _A B_
+only, but also at right angles to it, in the direction _A C_, though the
+amount of folding might be much greater in one direction than in the
+other. Thus in the case of Switzerland, while the main folds run
+south-west by north-east, there would be others at right angles to the
+main axis. The complex structure of the Swiss mountains may be partly
+due to the coexistence of these two directions of pressure at right
+angles to one another. The presence of a fold so originating would often
+divert the river to a course more or less nearly at right angles to its
+original direction.
+
+Switzerland, moreover, slopes northwards from the Alps, so that the
+lowest part of the great Swiss plain is that along the foot of the
+Jura. Hence the main drainage runs along the line from Yverdun to
+Neuchatel, down the Zihl to Soleure, and then along the Aar to Waldshut:
+the Upper Aar, the Emmen, the Wiggern, the Suhr, the Wynen, the lower
+Reuss, the Sihl, and the Limmat, besides several smaller streams,
+running approximately parallel to one another north-north-east, and at
+angles to the main axis of elevation, and all joining the Aar from the
+south, while on the north it does not receive a single contributary of
+any importance.
+
+On the south side of the Alps again we have the Dora Baltea, the Sesia,
+the Ticino, the Olonna, the Adda, the Adige, etc., all running
+south-south-east from the axis of elevation to the Po.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 42.]
+
+Indeed, the general slope of Switzerland, being from the ridge of the
+Alps towards the north, it will be observed (Fig. 42) that almost all
+the large affluents of these rivers running in longitudinal valleys fall
+in on the south, as, for instance, those of the Isere from Albertville
+to Grenoble, of the Rhone from its source to Martigny, of the Vorder
+Rhine from its source to Chur, of the Inn from Landeck to Kufstein, of
+the Enns from its source to near Admont, of the Danube from its source
+to Vienna, and as just mentioned, of the Aar from Bern to Waldshut.
+Hence also, whenever the Swiss rivers running east and west break into a
+transverse valley, as the larger ones all do, and some more than once,
+they invariably, whether originally running east or westwards, turn
+towards the north.
+
+But although we thus get a clue to the general structure of Switzerland,
+the whole question is extremely complex, and the strata have been
+crumpled and folded in the most complicated manner, sometimes completely
+reversed, so that older rocks have been folded back on younger strata,
+and even in some cases these folds again refolded. Moreover, the
+denudation by aerial action, by glaciers, frosts, and rivers has removed
+hundreds, or rather thousands, of feet of strata. In fact, the mountain
+tops are not by any means the spots which have been most elevated, but
+those which have been least denuded; and hence it is that so many of the
+peaks stand at about the same altitude.
+
+
+THE CONFLICTS AND ADVENTURES OF RIVERS
+
+Our ancestors looked upon rivers as being in some sense alive, and in
+fact in their "struggle for existence" they not only labour to adapt
+their channel to their own requirements, but in many cases enter into
+conflict with one another.
+
+In the plain of Bengal, for instance, there are three great rivers, the
+Brahmapootra coming from the north, the Ganges from the west, and the
+Megna from the east, each of them with a number of tributary streams.
+Mr. Fergusson[53] has given us a most interesting and entertaining
+account of the struggles between these great rivers to occupy the
+fertile plain of Bengal.
+
+The Megna, though much inferior in size to the Brahmapootra, has one
+great advantage. It depends mainly on the monsoon rains for its supply,
+while the Brahmapootra not only has a longer course to run, but relies
+for its floods, to a great extent, on the melting of the snow, so that,
+arriving later at the scene of the struggle, it finds the country
+already occupied by the Megna to such an extent that it has been driven
+nearly 70 miles northwards, and forced to find a new channel.
+
+Under these circumstances it has attacked the territory of the Ganges,
+and being in flood earlier than that river, though later than the Megna,
+it has in its turn a great advantage.
+
+Whatever the ultimate result may be the struggle continues vigorously.
+At Sooksaghur, says Fergusson, "there was a noble country house, built
+by Warren Hastings, about a mile from the banks of the Hoogly. When I
+first knew it in 1830 half the avenue of noble trees, which led from the
+river to the house, was gone; when I last saw it, some eight years
+afterwards, the river was close at hand. Since then house, stables,
+garden, and village are all gone, and the river was on the point of
+breaking through the narrow neck of high land that remained, and pouring
+itself into some weak-banded nullahs in the lowlands beyond: and if it
+had succeeded, the Hoogly would have deserted Calcutta. At this
+juncture the Eastern Bengal Railway Company intervened. They were
+carrying their works along the ridge, and they have, for the moment at
+least, stopped the oscillation in this direction."
+
+This has affected many of the other tributaries of the Ganges, so that
+the survey made by Rennell in 1780-90 is no longer any evidence as to
+the present course of the rivers. They may now be anywhere else; in some
+cases all we can say is that they are certainly not now where they were
+then.
+
+The association of the three great European rivers, the Rhine, the
+Rhone, and the Danube, with the past history of our race, invests them
+with a singular fascination, and their past history is one of much
+interest. They all three rise in the group of mountains between the
+Galenstock and the Bernardino, within a space of a few miles; on the
+east the waters run into the Black Sea, on the north into the German
+Ocean, and on the west into the Mediterranean. But it has not always
+been so. Their head-waters have been at one time interwoven together.
+
+At present the waters of the Valais escape from the Lake of Geneva at
+the western end, and through the remarkable defile of Fort de l'Ecluse
+and Malpertius, which has a depth of 600 feet, and is at one place not
+more than 14 feet across. Moreover, at various points round the Lake of
+Geneva, remains of lake terraces show that the water once stood at a
+level much higher than the present. One of these is rather more than 250
+feet[54] above the lake.
+
+A glance at the map will show that between Lausanne and Yverdun there is
+a low tract of land, and the Venoge, which falls into the Lake of Geneva
+between Lausanne and Morges, runs within about half a mile of the Nozon,
+which falls into the Lake of Neuchatel at Yverdun, the two being
+connected by the Canal d'Entreroches, and the height of the watershed
+being only 76 metres (250 feet), corresponding with the above mentioned
+lake terrace. It is evident, therefore, that when the Lake of Geneva
+stood at the level of the 250 feet terrace the waters ran out, not as
+now at Geneva and by Lyons to the Mediterranean, but near Lausanne by
+Cissonay and Entreroches to Yverdun, and through the Lake of Neuchatel
+into the Aar and the Rhine.
+
+But this is not the whole of the curious history. At present the Aar
+makes a sharp turn to the west at Waldshut, where it falls into the
+Rhine, but there is reason to believe that at a former period, before
+the Rhine had excavated its present bed, the Aar continued its course
+eastward to the Lake of Constance, by the valley of the Klettgau, as is
+indicated by the presence of gravel beds containing pebbles which have
+been brought, not by the Rhine from the Grisons, but by the Aar from the
+Bernese Oberland, showing that the river which occupied the valley was
+not the Rhine but the Aar. It would seem also that at an early period
+the Lake of Constance stood at a considerably higher level, and that the
+outlet was, perhaps, from Frederichshaven to Ulm, along what are now the
+valleys of the Schussen and the Ried, into the Danube.
+
+Thus the head-waters of the Rhone appear to have originally run by
+Lausanne and the Lake of Constance into the Danube, and so to the Black
+Sea. Then, after the present valley was opened between Waldshut and
+Basle, they flowed by Basle and the present Rhine, and after joining the
+Thames, over the plain which now forms the German Sea into the Arctic
+Ocean between Scotland and Norway. Finally, after the opening of the
+passage at Fort de l'Ecluse, by Geneva, Lyons, and the Valley of the
+Saone, to the Mediterranean.
+
+It must not, however, be supposed that these changes in river courses
+are confined to the lower districts. Mountain streams have also their
+adventures and vicissitudes, their wars and invasions. Take for instance
+the Upper Rhine, of which we have a very interesting account by Heim. It
+is formed of three main branches, the Vorder Rhine, Hinter Rhine, and
+the Albula. The two latter, after meeting near Thusis, unite with the
+Vorder Rhine at Reichenau, and run by Chur, Mayenfeld, and Sargans into
+the Lake of Constance at Rheineck. At some former period, however, the
+drainage of this district was very different, as is shown in Fig. 43.
+
+The Vorder and Hinter Rhine united then (Fig. 43) as they do now at
+Reichenau, but at a much higher level, and ran to Mayenfeld, not by
+Chur, but by the Kunckel Pass to Sargans, and so on, not to the Lake of
+Constance, but to that of Zurich. The Landwasser at that time rose in
+the Schlappina Joch, and after receiving as tributaries the Vereina and
+the Sardasca, joined the Albula, as it does now at Tiefenkasten; but
+instead of going round to meet the Hinter Rhine near Thusis, the two
+together travelled parallel with, but at some distance from, the Hinter
+Rhine, by Heide to Chur, and so to Mayenfeld.
+
+In the meanwhile, however, the Landquart was stealthily creeping up the
+valley, attacked the ridge which then united the Casanna and the
+Madrishorn, and gradually forcing the passage, invaded (Fig. 44) the
+valleys of the Schlappina, Vereina, and Sardasca, absorbed them as
+tributaries, and, detaching them from their allegiance to the
+Landwasser, annexed the whole of the upper province which had formerly
+belonged to that river.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 43.--River system round Chur, as it used to be.]
+
+The Schyn also gradually worked its way upwards from Thusis till it
+succeeded in sapping the Albula, and carried it down the valley to join
+the Vorder Rhine near Thusis. In what is now the main valley of the
+Rhine above Chur another stream ate its way back, and eventually tapped
+the main river at Reichenau, thus diverting it from the Kunckel, and
+carrying it round by Chur.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 44.--River system round Chur, as it is.]
+
+At Sargans a somewhat similar process was repeated, with the addition
+that the material brought down by the Weisstannen, or perhaps a
+rockfall, deflected the Rhine, just as we see in Fig. 30 that the Rhone
+was pushed on one side by the Borgne. The Rhone, however, had no choice,
+it was obliged to force, and has forced its way over the cone deposited
+by the Borgne. The Rhine, on the contrary, had the option of running
+down by Vaduz to Rheinach, and has adopted this course. The watershed
+between it and the Weisstannen is, however, only about 20 feet in
+height, and the people of Zurich watch it carefully, lest any slight
+change should enable the river to return to its old bed. The result of
+all these changes is that the rivers have changed their courses from
+those shown in Fig. 43 to their present beds as shown in Fig. 44.
+
+Another interesting case is that of the Upper Engadine (Fig. 45), to
+which attention has been called by Bonney and Heim. The fall of the Val
+Bregaglia is much steeper than that of the Inn, and the Maira has
+carried off the head-waters of that river away into Italy. The Col was
+formerly perhaps as far south as Stampa: the Albegna, the Upper Maira,
+and the stream from the Forgno Glacier, originally belonged to the Inn,
+but have been captured by the Lower Maira. Their direction still
+indicates this; they seem as if they regretted the unwelcome change, and
+yearned to rejoin their old companions.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 45.--River system of the Maloya.]
+
+Moreover, as rivers are continually cutting back their valleys they must
+of course sometimes meet. In these cases when the valleys are at
+different levels the lower rivers have drained the upper ones, and left
+dry, deserted valleys. In other cases, especially in flatter districts,
+we have bifurcations, as, for instance, at Sargans, and several of the
+Italian lakes. Every one must have been struck by the peculiar
+bifurcation of the Lakes of Como and Lugano, while a very slight
+depression would connect the Lake Varese with the Maggiore, and give it
+also a double southern end.
+
+
+ON LAKES
+
+The problem of the origin of Lakes is by no means identical with that of
+Valleys. The latter are due, primarily as a rule to geological causes,
+but so far as their present condition is concerned, mainly to the action
+of rain and rivers. Flowing water, however, cannot give rise to lakes.
+
+It is of course possible to have valleys without lakes, and in fact the
+latter are, now at least, exceptional. There can be no lakes if the
+slope of the valley is uniform. To what then are lakes due?
+
+Professor Ramsay divides Lakes into three classes:--
+
+1. Those due to irregular accumulations of drift, and which are
+generally quite shallow.
+
+2. Those formed by moraines.
+
+3. Those which occupy true basins scooped by glacier ice out of the
+solid rock.
+
+To these must, however, I think be added at least one other great class
+and several minor ones, namely,--
+
+4. Those due to inequalities of elevation or depression.
+
+5. Lakes in craters of extinct volcanoes, for instance, Lake Avernus.
+
+6. Those caused by subsidence due to the removal of underlying soluble
+rocks, such as some of the Cheshire Meres.
+
+7. Loop lakes in deserted river courses, of which there are many along
+the course of the Rhine.
+
+8. Those due to rockfalls, landslips, or lava currents, damming up the
+course of a river.
+
+9. Those caused by the advance of a glacier across a lateral valley,
+such as the Mergelen See, or the ancient lake whose margins form the
+celebrated "Parallel Roads of Glen Roy."
+
+As regards the first class we find here and there on the earth's surface
+districts sprinkled with innumerable shallow lakes of all sizes, down to
+mere pools. Such, for instance, occur in the district of Le Doubs
+between the Rhone and the Saone, that of La Sologne near Orleans, in
+parts of North America, and in Finland. Such lakes are, as a rule,
+quite shallow. Some geologists, Geikie, for instance, ascribe them to
+the fact of these regions having been covered by sheets of ice which
+strewed the land with irregular masses of clay, gravel, and sand, lying
+on a stratum impervious to water, either of hard rock such as granite or
+gneiss, or of clay, so that the rain cannot percolate through it, and
+without sufficient inclination to throw it off.
+
+2. To Ramsay's second class of Lakes belong those formed by moraines.
+The materials forming moraines being, however, comparatively loose, are
+easily cut through by streams. There are in Switzerland many cases of
+valleys crossed by old moraines, but they have generally been long ago
+worn through by the rivers.
+
+3. Ramsay and Tyndall attribute most of the great Swiss and Italian
+lakes to the action of glaciers, and regard them as rock basins. It is
+of course obvious that rivers cannot make basin-shaped hollows
+surrounded by rock on all sides. The Lake of Geneva, 1230 feet above the
+sea, is over 1000 feet deep; the Lake of Brienz is 1850 feet above the
+sea, and 2000 feet deep, so that its bottom is really below the sea
+level. The Italian Lakes are even more remarkable. The Lake of Como, 700
+feet above the sea, is 1929 feet deep. Lago Maggiore, 685 feet above the
+sea, is no less than 2625 feet deep.
+
+If the mind is at first staggered at the magnitude of the scale, we must
+remember that the ice which is supposed to have scooped out the valley
+in which the Lake of Geneva now reposes, was once at least 4000 feet
+thick; while the moraines were also of gigantic magnitude, that of
+Ivrea, for instance, being no less than 1500 feet above the river, and
+several miles long.
+
+Indeed it is obvious that a glacier many hundred, or in some cases
+several thousand, feet in thickness, must exercise great pressure on the
+bed over which it travels. We see this from the striae and grooves on the
+solid rocks, and the fine mud which is carried down by glacial streams.
+The deposit of glacial rivers, the "loess" of the Rhine itself, is
+mainly the result of this ice-waste, and that is why it is so fine, so
+impalpable. That glaciers do deepen their beds seems therefore
+unquestionable.
+
+Moreover, though the depth of some of these lakes is great, the true
+slope is very slight.
+
+Tyndall and Ramsay do not deny that the original direction of valleys,
+and consequently of lakes, is due to cosmical causes and geological
+structure, while even those who have most strenuously opposed the theory
+which attributes lakes to glacial erosion do not altogether deny the
+action of glaciers. Favre himself admits that "it is impossible to deny
+that valleys, after their formation, have been swept out and perhaps
+enlarged by rivers and glaciers."
+
+Even Ruskin admits "that a glacier may be considered as a vast
+instrument of friction, a white sand-paper applied slowly but
+irresistibly to all the roughness of the hill which it covers."
+
+It is obvious that sand-paper applied "irresistibly" and long enough,
+must gradually wear away and lower the surface. I cannot therefore
+resist the conclusion that glaciers have taken an important part in the
+formation of lakes.
+
+The question has sometimes been discussed as if the point at issue were
+whether rivers or glaciers were the most effective as excavators. But
+this is not so. Those who believe that lakes are in many cases due to
+glaciers might yet admit that rivers have greater power of erosion.
+There is, however, an essential difference in the mode of action. Rivers
+tend to regularise their beds; they drain, rather than form lakes. Their
+tendency is to cut through any projections so that finally their course
+assumes some such curve as that below, from the source (_a_) to its
+entrance into the sea (_b_).
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Final Slope of a River.]
+
+Glaciers, however, have in addition a scooping power, so that if
+similarly _a d b_ in Fig. 47 represent the course of a glacier, starting
+at _a_ and gradually thinning out to _e_, it may scoop out the rock to
+a certain extent at _d_; in that case if it subsequently retires say to
+_c_, there would be a lake lying in the basin thus formed between _c_
+and _e_.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 47.]
+
+On the other hand I am not disposed to attribute the Swiss lakes
+altogether to the action of glaciers. In the first place it does not
+seem clear that they occupy true rock basins. On this point more
+evidence is required. That some lakes are due to unequal changes of
+level will hardly be denied. No one, for instance, as Bonney justly
+observes,[55] would attribute the Dead Sea to glacial erosion.
+
+The Alps, as we have seen, are a succession of great folds, and there is
+reason to regard the central one as the oldest. If then the same process
+continued, and the outer fold was still further raised, or a new one
+formed, more quickly than the rivers could cut it back, they would be
+dammed up, and lakes would result.
+
+Moreover, if the formation of a mountain region be due to subsidence,
+and consequent crumpling, as indicated on p. 217, so that the strata
+which originally occupied the area A B C D are compressed into A' B' C'
+D', it is evident, as already mentioned, that while the line of least
+resistance, and, consequently, the principal folds might be in the
+direction A' B', there must also be a tendency to the formation of
+similar folds at right angles, or in the direction A' C'. Thus, in the
+case of Switzerland, while the main folds run south-west by north-east
+there would also be others at right angles, though the amount of folding
+might be much greater in the one direction than in the other. To this
+cause the bosses, for instance--at Martigny, the Furca, and the Ober
+Alp,--which intersect the great longitudinal valley of Switzerland, are
+perhaps due.
+
+The great American lakes also are probably due to differences of
+elevation. Round Lake Ontario, for instance, there is a raised beach
+which at the western end of the lake is 363 feet above the sea level,
+but rises towards the East and North until near Fine it reaches an
+elevation of 972 feet. As this terrace must have been originally
+horizontal we have here a lake barrier, due to a difference of
+elevation, amounting to over 600 feet.
+
+In the same way we get a clue to the curious cruciform shape of the Lake
+of Lucerne as contrasted with the simple outline of such lakes as those
+of Neuchatel or Zurich. That of Lucerne is a complex lake. Soundings
+have shown that the bottom of the Urner See is quite flat. It is in fact
+the old bed of the Reuss, which originally ran, not as now by Lucerne,
+but by Schwytz and through the Lake of Zug. In the same way the Alpnach
+See is the old bed of the Aa, which likewise ran through the Lake of
+Zug. The old river terraces of the Reuss can be traced in places between
+Brunnen and Goldau. Now these terraces must have originally sloped from
+the upper part downwards, from Brunnen towards Goldau. But at present
+the slope is the other way, _i.e._ from Goldau towards Brunnen. From
+this and other evidence we conclude that in the direction from Lucerne
+towards Rapperschwyl there has been an elevation of the land, which has
+dammed up the valleys and thus turned parts of the Aa and the Reuss into
+lakes--the two branches of the Lake of Lucerne known as the Alpnach See
+and Urner See.
+
+During the earthquakes of 1819 while part of the Runn of Cutch, 2000
+square miles in area, sunk several feet, a ridge of land, called by the
+natives the Ulla-Bund or "the wall of God," thirty miles long, and in
+parts sixteen miles wide, was raised across an ancient arm of the Indus,
+and turned it temporarily into a lake.
+
+In considering the great Italian lakes, which descend far below the sea
+level, we must remember that the Valley of the Po is a continuation of
+the Adriatic, now filled up and converted into land, by the materials
+brought down from the Alps. Hence we are tempted to ask whether the
+lakes may not be remains of the ancient sea which once occupied the
+whole plain. Moreover just as the Seals of Lake Baikal in Siberia carry
+us back to the time when that great sheet of fresh water was in
+connection with the Arctic Ocean, so there is in the character of the
+Fauna of the Italian lakes, and especially the presence of a Crab in the
+Lake of Garda, some confirmation of such an idea. Further evidence,
+however, is necessary before these interesting questions can be
+definitely answered.
+
+Lastly, some lakes and inland seas seem to be due to even greater
+cosmical causes. Thus a line inclined ten degrees to the pole beginning
+at Gibraltar would pass through a great chain of inland waters--the
+Mediterranean, Black Sea, Caspian, Aral, Baikal, and back again through
+the great American lakes.
+
+But though many causes have contributed to the original formation and
+direction of Valleys, their present condition is mainly due to the
+action of water. When we contemplate such a valley, for example, as that
+which is called _par excellence_ the "Valais," we can at first hardly
+bring ourselves to realise this; but we can trace up valleys, from the
+little water-course made by last night's rains up to the greatest
+valleys of all.
+
+These considerations, however, do not of course apply to such
+depressions as those of the great oceans. These were probably formed
+when the surface of the globe began to solidify, and, though with many
+modifications, have maintained their main features ever since.
+
+
+ON THE CONFIGURATION OF VALLEYS
+
+The conditions thus briefly described repeat themselves in river after
+river, valley after valley, and it adds, I think, very much to the
+interest with which we regard them if, by studying the general causes to
+which they are due, we can explain their origin, and thus to some extent
+understand the story they have to tell us, and the history they record.
+
+What, then, has that history been? The same valley may be of a very
+different character, and due to very different causes, in different
+parts of its course. Some valleys are due to folds (see Fig. 41) caused
+by subterranean changes, but by far the greater number are, in their
+present features, mainly the result of erosion. As soon as any tract of
+land rose out of the sea, the rain which fell on the surface would
+trickle downwards in a thousand rills, forming pools here and there (see
+Fig. 37), and gradually collecting into larger and larger streams.
+Wherever the slope was sufficient the water would begin cutting into the
+soil and carrying it off to the sea. This action would be the same in
+any case, but, of course, would differ in rapidity according to the
+hardness of the ground. On the other hand, the character of the valley
+would depend greatly on the character of the strata, being narrow where
+they were hard and tough; broader, on the contrary, where they were
+soft, so that they crumbled readily into the stream, or where they were
+easily split by the weather. Gradually the stream would eat into its bed
+until it reached a certain slope, the steepness of which would depend on
+the volume of water. The erosive action would then cease, but the
+weathering of the sides and consequent widening would continue, and the
+river would wander from one part of its valley to another, spreading the
+materials and forming a river plain. At length, as the rapidity still
+further diminished, it would no longer have sufficient power even to
+carry off the materials brought down. It would form, therefore, a cone
+or delta, and instead of meandering, would tend to divide into different
+branches. These three stages, we may call those of--
+
+    1. Deepening and widening;
+
+    2. Widening and levelling;
+
+    3. Filling up;
+
+and every place in the second stage has passed through the first; every
+one in the third has passed through the second.
+
+A velocity of 6 inches per second will lift fine sand, 8 inches will
+move sand as coarse as linseed, 12 inches will sweep along fine gravel,
+24 inches will roll along rounded pebbles an inch diameter, and it
+requires 3 feet per second at the bottom to sweep along angular stones
+of the size of an egg.
+
+When a river has so adjusted its slope that it neither deepens its bed
+in the upper portion of its course, nor deposits materials, it is said
+to have acquired its "regimen," and in such a case if the character of
+the soil remains the same, the velocity must also be uniform. The
+enlargement of the bed of a river is not, however, in proportion to the
+increase of its waters as it approaches the sea. If, therefore, the
+slope did not diminish, the regimen would be destroyed, and the river
+would again commence to eat out its bed. Hence as rivers enlarge, the
+slope diminishes, and consequently every river tends to assume some such
+"regimen" as that shown in Fig. 46.
+
+Now, suppose that the fall of the river is again increased, either by a
+fresh elevation, or locally by the removal of a barrier. Then once more
+the river regains its energy. Again it cuts into its old bed, deepening
+the valley, and leaving the old plain as a terrace high above its new
+course. In many valleys several such terraces may be seen, one above the
+other. In the case of a river running in a transverse valley, that is to
+say of a valley lying at right angles to the "strike" or direction of
+the strata (such, for instance, as the Reuss), the water acts more
+effectively than in longitudinal valleys running along the strike. Hence
+the lateral valleys have been less deeply excavated than that of the
+Reuss itself, and the streams from them enter the main valley by rapids
+or cascades. Again, rivers running in transverse valleys cross rocks
+which in many cases differ in hardness, and of course they cut down the
+softer strata more rapidly than the harder ones; each ridge of harder
+rock will therefore form a dam and give rise to a rapid, or cataract. We
+often as we ascend a river, after a comparatively flat plain, find
+ourselves in a narrow defile, down which the water rushes in an
+impetuous torrent, but at the summit of which, to our surprise, we find
+another broad flat valley.
+
+Another lesson which we learn from the study of river valleys, is that,
+just as geological structure was shown by Sir C. Lyell to be no evidence
+of cataclysms, but the result of slow action; so also the excavation of
+valleys is due mainly to the regular flow of rivers; and floods, though
+their effects are more sudden and striking, have had, after all,
+comparatively little part in the result.
+
+The mouths of rivers fall into two principal classes. If we look at any
+map we cannot but be struck by the fact that some rivers terminate in a
+delta, some in an estuary. The Thames, for instance, ends in a noble
+estuary, to which London owes much of its wealth and power. It is
+obvious that the Thames could not have excavated this estuary while the
+coast was at its present level. But we know that formerly the land stood
+higher, that the German Ocean was once dry land, and the Thames, after
+joining the Rhine, ran northwards, and fell eventually into the Arctic
+Ocean. The estuary of the Thames, then, dates back to a period when the
+south-east of England stood at a higher level than the present, and even
+now the ancient course of the river can be traced by soundings under
+what is now sea. The sites of present deltas, say of the Nile, were also
+once under water, and have been gradually reclaimed by the deposits of
+the river.
+
+It would indeed be a great mistake to suppose that rivers always tend
+to deepen their valleys. This is only the case when the slope exceeds a
+certain angle. When the fall is but slight they tend on the contrary to
+raise their beds by depositing sand and mud brought down from higher
+levels. Hence in the lower part of their course many of the most
+celebrated rivers--the Nile, the Po, the Mississippi, the Thames,
+etc.--run upon embankments, partly of their own creation.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 48.--Diagrammatic section of a valley (exaggerated)
+
+_R R_, rocky basis of valley; _A A_, sedimentary strata; _B_, ordinary
+level of river; _C_, flood level.]
+
+The Reno, the most dangerous of all the Apennine rivers, is in some
+places as much as 30 feet above the adjoining country. Rivers under such
+conditions, when not interfered with by Man, sooner or later break
+through their banks, and leaving their former bed, take a new course
+along the lowest part of their valley, which again they gradually raise
+above the rest. Hence, unless they are kept in their own channels by
+human agency, such rivers are continually changing their course.
+
+If we imagine a river running down a regularly inclined plane in a more
+or less straight line; any inequality or obstruction would produce an
+oscillation, which when once started would go on increasing until the
+force of gravity drawing the water in a straight line downwards equals
+that of the force tending to divert its course. Hence the radius of the
+curves will follow a regular law depending on the volume of water and
+the angle of inclination of the bed. If the fall is 10 feet per mile and
+the soil homogeneous, the curves would be so much extended that the
+course would appear almost straight. With a fall of 1 foot per mile the
+length of the curve is, according to Fergusson, about six times the
+width of the river, so that a river 1000 feet wide would oscillate once
+in 6000 feet. This is an important consideration, and much labour has
+been lost in trying to prevent rivers from following their natural law
+of oscillation. But rivers are very true to their own laws, and a change
+at any part is continued both upwards and downwards, so that a new
+oscillation in any place cuts its way through the whole plain of the
+river both above and below.
+
+The curves of the Mississippi are, for instance, for a considerable part
+of its course so regular that they are said to have been used by the
+Indians as a measure of distance.
+
+If the country is flat a river gradually raises the level on each side,
+the water which overflows during floods being retarded by reeds, bushes,
+trees, and a thousand other obstacles, gradually deposits the solid
+matter which it contains, and thus raising the surface, becomes at
+length suspended, as it were, above the general level. When this
+elevation has reached a certain point, the river during some flood
+bursts its banks, and deserting its old bed takes a new course along the
+lowest accessible level. This then it gradually fills up, and so on;
+coming back from time to time if permitted, after a long cycle of
+years, to its first course.
+
+In evidence of the vast quantity of sediment which rivers deposit, I may
+mention that the river-deposits at Calcutta are more than 400 feet in
+thickness.
+
+In addition to temporary "spates," due to heavy rain, most rivers are
+fuller at one time of year than another, our rivers, for instance, in
+winter, those of Switzerland, from the melting of the snow, in summer.
+The Nile commences to rise towards the beginning of July; from August to
+October it floods all the low lands, and early in November it sinks
+again. At its greatest height the volume of water sometimes reaches
+twenty times that when it is lowest, and yet perhaps not a drop of rain
+may have fallen. Though we now know that this annual variation is due to
+the melting of the snow and the fall of rain on the high lands of
+Central Africa, still when we consider that the phenomenon has been
+repeated annually for thousands of years it is impossible not to regard
+it with wonder. In fact Egypt itself may be said to be the bed of the
+Nile in flood time.
+
+Some rivers, on the other hand, offer no such periodical differences.
+The lower Rhone, for instance, below the junction with the Saone, is
+nearly equal all through the year, and yet we know that the upper
+portion is greatly derived from the melting of the Swiss snows. In this
+case, however, while the Rhone itself is on this account highest in
+summer and lowest in winter, the Saone, on the contrary, is swollen by
+the winter's rain, and falls during the fine weather of summer. Hence
+the two tend to counterbalance one another.
+
+Periodical differences are of course comparatively easy to deal with. It
+is very different with floods due to irregular rainfall. Here also,
+however, the mere quantity of rain is by no means the only matter to be
+considered. For instance a heavy rain in the watershed of the Seine,
+unless very prolonged, causes less difference in the flow of the river,
+say at Paris, than might at first have been expected, because the height
+of the flood in the nearer affluents has passed down the river before
+that from the more distant streams has arrived. The highest level is
+reached when the rain in the districts drained by the various affluents
+happens to be so timed that the different floods coincide in their
+arrival at Paris.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[52] Darwin's _Voyage of a Naturalist_.
+
+[53] _Geol. Jour._, 1863.
+
+[54] Favre, _Rech. Geol. de la Savoie._
+
+[55] _Growth and Structure of the Alps._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SEA
+
+      There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
+      There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
+      There is society, where none intrudes,
+      By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
+      I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
+      From these our interviews, in which I steal
+      From all I may be, or have been before,
+      To mingle with the Universe, and feel
+    What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
+
+      Roll on, thou deep and dark-blue Ocean--roll!
+
+                              BYRON.
+
+[Illustration: THE LAND'S END. _To face page 337._]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SEA
+
+
+When the glorious summer weather comes, when we feel that by a year's
+honest work we have fairly won the prize of a good holiday, how we turn
+instinctively to the Sea. We pine for the delicious smell of the sea
+air, the murmur of the waves, the rushing sound of the pebbles on the
+sloping shore, the cries of the sea-birds; and long to
+
+    Linger, where the pebble-paven shore,
+    Under the quick, faint kisses of the Sea,
+    Trembles and sparkles as with ecstasy.[56]
+
+How beautiful the sea-coast is! At the foot of a cliff, perhaps of pure
+white chalk, or rich red sandstone, or stern grey granite, lies the
+shore of gravel or sand, with a few scattered plants of blue Sea Holly,
+or yellow-flowered Horned Poppies, Sea-kale, Sea Convolvulus, Saltwort,
+Artemisia, and Sea-grasses; the waves roll leisurely in one by one, and
+as they reach the beach, each in turn rises up in an arch of clear,
+cool, transparent, green water, tipped with white or faintly pinkish
+foam, and breaks lovingly on the sands; while beyond lies the open Sea
+sparkling in the sunshine.
+
+    ... O pleasant Sea
+    Earth hath not a plain
+    So boundless or so beautiful as thine.[57]
+
+The Sea is indeed at times overpoweringly beautiful. At morning and
+evening a sheet of living silver or gold, at mid-day deep blue; even
+
+    Too deeply blue; too beautiful; too bright;
+    Oh, that the shadow of a cloud might rest
+    Somewhere upon the splendour of thy breast
+    In momentary gloom.[58]
+
+There are few prettier sights than the beach at a seaside town on a fine
+summer's day; the waves sparkling in the sunshine, the water and sky
+each bluer than the other, while the sea seems as if it had nothing to
+do but to laugh and play with the children on the sands; the children
+perseveringly making castles with spades and pails, which the waves then
+run up to and wash away, over and over and over again, until evening
+comes and the children go home, when the Sea makes everything smooth and
+ready for the next day's play.
+
+Many are satisfied to admire the Sea from shore, others more ambitious
+or more free prefer a cruise. They feel with Tennyson's voyager:
+
+    We left behind the painted buoy
+      That tosses at the harbour-mouth;
+    And madly danced our hearts with joy,
+      As fast we fleeted to the South:
+    How fresh was every sight and sound
+      On open main or winding shore!
+    We knew the merry world was round,
+      And we might sail for evermore.
+
+Many appreciate both. The long roll of the Mediterranean on a fine day
+(and I suppose even more of the Atlantic, which I have never enjoyed),
+far from land in a good ship, and with kind friends, is a joy never to
+be forgotten.
+
+To the Gulf Stream and the Atlantic Ocean Northern Europe owes its mild
+climate. The same latitudes on the other side of the Atlantic are much
+colder. To find the same average temperature in the United States we
+must go far to the south. Immediately opposite us lies Labrador, with an
+average temperature the same as that of Greenland; a coast almost
+destitute of vegetation, a country of snow and ice, whose principal
+wealth consists in its furs, and a scattered population, mainly composed
+of Indians and Esquimaux. But the Atlantic would not alone produce so
+great an effect. We owe our mild and genial climate mainly to the Gulf
+Stream--a river in the ocean, twenty million times as great as the
+Rhone--the greatest, and for us the most important, river in the world,
+which brings to our shores the sunshine of the West Indies.
+
+The Sea is outside time. A thousand, ten thousand, or a million years
+ago it must have looked just as it does now, and as it will ages hence.
+With the land this is not so. The mountains and hills, rivers and
+valleys, animals and plants are continually changing: but the Sea is
+always the same,
+
+    Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same
+    Year after year.
+
+Directly we see the coast, or even a ship, the case is altered. Boats
+may remain the same for centuries, but ships are continually being
+changed. The wooden walls of old England are things of the past, and the
+ironclads of to-day will soon be themselves improved off the face of the
+ocean.
+
+The great characteristic of Lakes is peace, that of the Sea is energy,
+somewhat restless, perhaps, but still movement without fatigue.
+
+    The Earth lies quiet like a child asleep,
+    The deep heart of the Heaven is calm and still,
+    Must thou alone a restless vigil keep,
+    And with thy sobbing all the silence fill.[59]
+
+A Lake in a storm rather gives us the impression of a beautiful Water
+Spirit tormented by some Evil Demon; but a storm at Sea is one of the
+grandest manifestations of Nature.
+
+    Yet more; the billows and the depths have more;
+      High hearts and brave are gathered to thy breast;
+    They hear not now the booming waters roar,
+      The battle thunders will not break their rest.
+    Keep thy red gold and gems, thou stormy grave;
+            Give back the true and brave.[60]
+
+The most vivid description of a storm at sea is, I think, the following
+passage from Ruskin's _Modern Painters_:
+
+     "Few people, comparatively, have ever seen the effect on the
+     sea of a powerful gale continued without intermission for three
+     or four days and nights; and to those who have not, I believe
+     it must be unimaginable, not from the mere force or size of the
+     surge, but from the complete annihilation of the limit between
+     sea and air. The water from its prolonged agitation is beaten,
+     not into mere creaming foam, but into masses of accumulated
+     yeast, which hangs in ropes and wreaths from wave to wave, and,
+     where one curls over to break, form a festoon like a drapery
+     from its edge; these are taken up by the wind, not in
+     dissipating dust, but bodily, in writhing, hanging, coiling
+     masses, which make the air white and thick as with snow, only
+     the flakes are a foot or two long each: the surges themselves
+     are full of foam in their very bodies underneath, making them
+     white all through, as the water is under a great cataract; and
+     their masses, being thus half water and half air, are torn to
+     pieces by the wind whenever they rise, and carried away in
+     roaring smoke, which chokes and strangles like actual water.
+     Add to this, that when the air has been exhausted of its
+     moisture by long rain, the spray of the sea is caught by it as
+     described above, and covers its surface not merely with the
+     smoke of finely divided water, but with boiling mist; imagine
+     also the low rain-clouds brought down to the very level of the
+     sea, as I have often seen them, whirling and flying in rags and
+     fragments from wave to wave; and finally, conceive the surges
+     themselves in their utmost pitch of power, velocity, vastness,
+     and madness, lifting themselves in precipices and peaks,
+     furrowed with their whirl of ascent, through all this chaos,
+     and you will understand that there is indeed no distinction
+     left between the sea and air; that no object, nor horizon, nor
+     any landmark or natural evidence of position is left; and the
+     heaven is all spray, and the ocean all cloud, and that you can
+     see no further in any direction than you see through a
+     cataract."
+
+
+SEA LIFE
+
+The Sea teems with life. The Great Sea Serpent is, indeed, as much a
+myth as the Kraken of Pontoppidan, but other monsters, scarcely less
+marvellous, are actual realities. The Giant Cuttle Fish of Newfoundland,
+though the body is comparatively small, may measure 60 feet from the tip
+of one arm to that of another. The Whalebone Whale reaches a length of
+over 70 feet, but is timid and inoffensive. The Cachalot or Sperm Whale,
+which almost alone among animals roams over the whole ocean, is as
+large, and much more formidable. It is armed with powerful teeth, and is
+said to feed mainly on Cuttle Fish, but sometimes on true fishes, or
+even Seals. When wounded it often attacks boats, and its companions do
+not hesitate to come to the rescue. In one case, indeed, an American
+ship was actually attacked, stove in, and sunk by a gigantic male
+Cachalot.
+
+The Great Roqual is still more formidable, and has been said to attain a
+length of 120 feet, but this is probably an exaggeration. So far as we
+know, the largest species of all is Simmond's Whale, which reaches a
+maximum of 85 to 90 feet.
+
+In former times Whales were frequent on our coasts, so that, as Bishop
+Pontoppidan said, the sea sometimes appeared as if covered with smoking
+chimneys, but they have been gradually driven further and further north,
+and are still becoming rarer. As they retreated man followed, and to
+them we owe much of our progress in geography. Is it not, however, worth
+considering whether they might not also be allowed a "truce of God,"
+whether some part of the ocean might not be allotted to them where they
+might be allowed to breed in peace? As a mere mercantile arrangement the
+maritime nations would probably find this very remunerative. The
+reckless slaughter of Whales, Sea Elephants, Seals, and other marine
+animals is a sad blot, not only on the character, but on the common
+sense, of man.
+
+The monsters of the ocean require large quantities of food, but they are
+supplied abundantly. Scoresby mentions cases in which the sea was for
+miles tinged of an olive green by a species of Medusa. He calculates
+that in a cubic mile there must have been 23,888,000,000,000,000, and
+though no doubt the living mass did not reach to any great depth, still,
+as he sailed through water thus discoloured for many miles, the number
+must have been almost incalculable.
+
+This is, moreover, no rare or exceptional case. Navigators often sail
+for leagues through shoals of creatures, which alter the whole colour of
+the sea, and actually change it, as Reclus says, into "une masse
+animee."
+
+Still, though the whole ocean teems with life, both animals and plants
+are most abundant near the coast. Air-breathing animals, whether mammals
+or insects, are naturally not well adapted to live far from dry land.
+Even Seals, though some of them make remarkable migrations, remain
+habitually near the shore. Whales alone are specially modified so as to
+make the wide ocean their home. Of birds the greatest wanderer is the
+Albatross, which has such powers of flight that it is said even to sleep
+on the wing.
+
+Many Pelagic animals--Jelly-fishes, Molluscs, Cuttle-fishes, Worms,
+Crustacea, and some true fishes--are remarkable for having become
+perfectly transparent; their shells, muscles, and even their blood have
+lost all colour, or even undergone the further modification of having
+become blue, often with beautiful opalescent reflections. This obviously
+renders them less visible, and less liable to danger.
+
+The sea-shore, wherever a firm hold can be obtained, is covered with
+Sea-weeds, which fall roughly into two main divisions, olive-green and
+red, the latter colour having a special relation to light. These
+Sea-weeds afford food and shelter to innumerable animals.
+
+The clear rocky pools left by the retiring tide are richly clothed with
+green sea-weeds, while against the sides are tufts of beautiful filmy
+red algae, interspersed with Sea-anemones,--white, creamy, pink, yellow,
+purple, with a coronet of blue beads, and of many mixed colours;
+Sponges, Corallines, Starfish, Limpets, Barnacles, and other shell-fish;
+feathery Zoophytes and Annelides expand their pink or white disks, while
+here and there a Crab scuttles across; little Fish or Shrimps timidly
+come out from crevices in the rocks, or from among the fronds of the
+sea-weeds, or hastily dart from shelter to shelter; each little pool is,
+in fact, a miniature ocean in itself, and the longer one looks the more
+and more one will see.
+
+The dark green and brown sea-weeds do not live beyond a few--say about
+15--fathoms in depth. Below them occur delicate scarlet species, with
+Corallines and a different set of shells, Sea-urchins, etc. Down to
+about 100 fathoms the animals and plants are still numerous and varied.
+But they gradually diminish in numbers, and are replaced by new forms.
+
+To appreciate fully the extreme loveliness of marine animals they must
+be seen alive. "A tuft of Sertularia, laden with white, or brilliantly
+tinted Polypites," says Hincks, "like blossoms on some tropical tree, is
+a perfect marvel of beauty. The unfolding of a mass of Plumularia, taken
+from amongst the miscellaneous contents of the dredge, and thrown into a
+bottle of clear sea-water, is a sight which, once seen, no dredger will
+forget. A tree of Campanularia, when each one of its thousand
+transparent calycles--itself a study of form--is crowned by a circlet of
+beaded arms, drooping over its margin like the petals of a flower,
+offers a rare combination of the elements of beauty.
+
+"The rocky wall of some deep tidal pool, thickly studded with the long
+and slender stems of Tubularia, surmounted by the bright rose-coloured
+heads, is like the gay parterre of a garden. Equally beautiful is the
+dense growth of Campanularia, covering (as I have seen it in Plymouth
+Sound) large tracts of the rock, its delicate shoots swaying to and fro
+with each movement of the water, like trees in a storm, or the colony of
+Obelia on the waving frond of the tangle looking almost ethereal in its
+grace, transparency, and delicacy, as seen against the coarse dark
+surface that supports it."
+
+Few things are more beautiful than to look down from a boat into
+transparent water. At the bottom wave graceful sea-weeds, brown, green,
+or rose-coloured, and of most varied forms; on them and on the sands or
+rocks rest starfishes, mollusca, crustaceans, Sea-anemones, and
+innumerable other animals of strange forms and varied colours; in the
+clear water float or dart about endless creatures; true fishes, many of
+them brilliantly coloured; Cuttle-fishes like bad dreams; Lobsters and
+Crabs with graceful, transparent Shrimps; Worms swimming about like
+living ribbons, some with thousands of coloured eyes, and Medusae like
+living glass of the richest and softest hues, or glittering in the
+sunshine with all the colours of the rainbow.
+
+And on calm, cool nights how often have I stood on the deck of a ship
+watching with wonder and awe the stars overhead, and the sea-fire below,
+especially in the foaming, silvery wake of the vessel, where often
+suddenly appear globes of soft and lambent light, given out perhaps
+from the surface of some large Medusa.
+
+"A beautiful white cloud of foam," says Coleridge, "at momently
+intervals coursed by the side of the vessel with a roar, and little
+stars of flame danced and sparkled and went out in it; and every now and
+then light detachments of this white cloud-like foam darted off from the
+vessel's side, each with its own small constellation, over the sea, and
+scoured out of sight like a Tartar troop over a wilderness."
+
+Fish also are sometimes luminous. The Sun-fish has been seen to glow
+like a white-hot cannon-ball, and in one species of Shark (Squalus
+fulgens) the whole surface sometimes gives out a greenish lurid light
+which makes it a most ghastly object, like some great ravenous spectre.
+
+
+THE OCEAN DEPTHS
+
+The Land bears a rich harvest of life, but only at the surface. The
+Ocean, on the contrary, though more richly peopled in its upper layers,
+which swarm with such innumerable multitudes of living creatures that
+they are, so to say, almost themselves alive--teems throughout with
+living beings.
+
+The deepest abysses have a fauna of their own, which makes up for the
+comparative scantiness of its numbers, by the peculiarity and interest
+of their forms and organisation. The middle waters are the home of
+various Fishes, Medusae, and animalcules, while the upper layers swarm
+with an inexhaustible variety of living creatures.
+
+It used to be supposed that the depths of the Ocean were destitute of
+animal life, but recent researches, and especially those made during our
+great national expedition in the "Challenger," have shown that this is
+not the case, but that the Ocean depths have a wonderful and peculiar
+life of their own. Fish have been dredged up even from a depth of 2750
+fathoms.
+
+The conditions of life in the Ocean depths are very peculiar. The light
+of the sun cannot penetrate beyond about two hundred fathoms; deeper
+than this complete darkness prevails. Hence in many species the eyes
+have more or less completely disappeared.
+
+Sir Wyville Thomson mentions a kind of Crab (Ethusa granulata), which
+when living near the surface has well developed eyes; in deeper water,
+100 to 400 fathoms, eyestalks are present, but the animal is apparently
+blind, the eyes themselves being absent; while in specimens from a depth
+of 500-700 fathoms the eyestalks themselves have lost their special
+character, and have become fixed, their terminations being combined into
+a strong, pointed beak.
+
+In other deep sea creatures, on the contrary, the eyes gradually become
+more and more developed, so that while in some species the eyes
+gradually dwindle, in others they become unusually large.
+
+Many of the latter species may be said to be a light to themselves,
+being provided with a larger or smaller number of curious luminous
+organs. The deep sea fish are either silvery, pink, or in many cases
+black, sometimes relieved with scarlet, and when the luminous organs
+flash out must present a very remarkable appearance.
+
+We have still much to learn as to the structure and functions of these
+organs, but there are cases in which their use can be surmised with some
+probability. The light is evidently under the will of the fish.[61] It
+is easy to imagine a Photichthys (Light Fish) swimming in the black
+depths of the Ocean, suddenly flashing out light from its luminous
+organs, and thus bringing into view any prey which may be near; while,
+if danger is disclosed, the light is again at once extinguished. It may
+be observed that the largest of these organs is in this species situated
+just under the eye, so that the fish is actually provided with a bull's
+eye lantern. In other cases the light may rather serve as a defence,
+some having, as, for instance, in the genus Scopelus, a pair of large
+ones in the tail, so that "a strong ray of light shot forth from the
+stern-chaser may dazzle and frighten an enemy."
+
+In other cases they appear to serve as lures. The "Sea-devil" or
+"Angler" of our coasts has on its head three long, very flexible,
+reddish filaments, while all round its head are fringed appendages,
+closely resembling fronds of sea-weed. The fish conceals itself at the
+bottom, in the sand or among sea-weed, and dangles the long filaments in
+front of its mouth. Little fishes, taking these filaments for worms,
+unsuspectingly approach, and thus fall victims.
+
+Several species of the same family live at great depths, and have very
+similar habits. A mere red filament would be invisible in the dark and
+therefore useless. They have, however, developed a luminous organ, a
+living "glow-lamp," at the end of the filament, which doubtless proves a
+very effective lure.
+
+In the great depths, however, fish are comparatively rare. Nor are
+Molluscs much more abundant. Sea-urchins, Sea Slugs, and Starfish are
+more numerous, and on one occasion 20,000 specimens of an Echinus were
+brought up at a single haul. True corals are rare, nor are Hydrozoa
+frequent, though a giant species, allied to the little Hydra of our
+ponds but upwards of 6 feet in height, has more than once been met
+with. Sponges are numerous, and often very beautiful. The now well known
+Euplectella, "Venus's Flower-basket," resembles an exquisitely delicate
+fabric woven in spun silk; it is in the form of a gracefully curved
+tube, expanding slightly upwards and ending in an elegant frill. The
+wall is formed of parallel bands of glassy siliceous fibres, crossed by
+others at right angles, so as to form a square meshed net. These sponges
+are anchored on the fine ooze by wisps of glassy filaments, which often
+attain a considerable length. Many of these beautiful organisms,
+moreover, glow when alive with a soft diffused light, flickering and
+sparkling at every touch. What would one not give to be able to wander a
+while in these wonderful regions!
+
+It is curious that no plants, so far as we know, grow in the depths of
+the Ocean, or, indeed, as far as our present information goes, at a
+greater depth than about 100 fathoms.
+
+As regards the nature of the bottom itself, it is in the neighbourhood
+of land mainly composed of materials, brought down by rivers or washed
+from the shore, coarser near the coast, and tending to become finer and
+finer as the distance increases and the water deepens. The bed of the
+Atlantic from 400 to 2000 fathoms is covered with an ooze, or very fine
+chalky deposit, consisting to a great extent of minute and more or less
+broken shells, especially those of Globigerina. At still greater depths
+the carbonate of lime gradually disappears, and the bottom consists of
+fine red clay, with numerous minute particles, some of volcanic, some of
+meteoric, origin, fragments of shooting stars, over 100,000,000 of which
+are said to strike the surface of our earth every year. How slow the
+process of deposition must be, may be inferred from the fact that the
+trawl sometimes brings up many teeth of Sharks and ear-bones of Whales
+(in one case no less than 600 teeth and 100 ear-bones), often
+semi-fossil, and which from their great density had remained intact for
+ages, long after all the softer parts had perished and disappeared.
+
+The greatest depth of the Ocean appears to coincide roughly with the
+greatest height of the mountains. There are indeed cases recorded in
+which it is said that "no bottom" was found even at 39,000 feet. It is,
+however, by no means easy to sound at such great depths, and it is now
+generally considered that these earlier observations are untrustworthy.
+The greatest depth known in the Atlantic is 3875 fathoms--a little to
+the north of the Virgin Islands, but the soundings as yet made in the
+deeper parts of the Ocean are few in number, and it is not to be
+supposed that the greatest depth has yet been ascertained.
+
+
+CORAL ISLANDS
+
+In many parts of the world the geography itself has been modified by the
+enormous development of animal life. Most islands fall into one of three
+principal categories:
+
+Firstly, Those which are in reality a part of the continent near which
+they lie, being connected by comparatively shallow water, and standing
+to the continent somewhat in the relation of planets to the sun; as,
+for instance, the Cape de Verde Islands to Africa, Ceylon to India, or
+Tasmania to Australia.
+
+Secondly, Volcanic islands; and
+
+Thirdly, Those which owe their origin to the growth of Coral reefs.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 49.--Whitsunday Island.]
+
+Coral islands are especially numerous in the Indian and Pacific Oceans,
+where there are innumerable islets, in the form of rings, or which
+together form rings, the rings themselves being sometimes made up of
+ringlets. These "atolls" contain a circular basin of yellowish green,
+clear, shallow water, while outside is the dark blue deep water of the
+Ocean. The islands themselves are quite low, with a beach of white sand
+rising but a few feet above the level of the water, and bear generally
+groups of tufted Cocoa Palms.
+
+It used to be supposed that these were the summits of submarine
+volcanoes on which the coral had grown. But as the reef-making coral
+does not live at greater depths than about twenty-five fathoms, the
+immense number of these reefs formed an almost insuperable objection to
+this theory. The Laccadives and Maldives for instance--meaning literally
+the "lac of or 100,000 islands," and the "thousand islands"--are a
+series of such atolls, and it was impossible to imagine so great a
+number of craters, all so nearly of the same altitude.
+
+In shallow tracts of sea, coral reefs no doubt tend to assume the
+well-known circular form, but the difficulty was to account for the
+numerous atolls which rise to the surface from the abysses of the ocean,
+while the coral-forming zoophytes can only live near the surface.
+
+Darwin showed that so far from the ring of corals resting on a
+corresponding ridge of rocks, the lagoons, on the contrary, now occupy
+the place which was once the highest land. He pointed out that some
+lagoons, as for instance that of Vanikoro, contain an island in the
+middle; while other islands, such as Tahiti, are surrounded by a margin
+of smooth water separated from the ocean by a coral reef. Now if we
+suppose that Tahiti were to sink slowly it would gradually approximate
+to the condition of Vanikoro; and if Vanikoro gradually sank, the
+central island would disappear, while on the contrary the growth of the
+coral might neutralise the subsidence of the reef, so that we should
+have simply an atoll with its lagoon. The same considerations explain
+the origin of the "barrier reefs," such as that which runs for nearly a
+thousand miles, along the north-east coast of Australia. Thus Darwin's
+theory explains the form and the approximate identity of altitude of
+these coral islands. But it does more than this, because it shows that
+there are great areas in process of subsidence, which though slow, is of
+great importance in physical geography.
+
+The lagoon islands have received much attention; which "is not
+surprising, for every one must be struck with astonishment, when he
+first beholds one of these vast rings of coral-rock, often many leagues
+in diameter, here and there surmounted by a low verdant island with
+dazzling white shores, bathed on the outside by the foaming breakers of
+the ocean, and on the inside surrounding a calm expanse of water, which,
+from reflection is generally of a bright but pale green colour. The
+naturalist will feel this astonishment more deeply after having examined
+the soft and almost gelatinous bodies of these apparently insignificant
+coral-polypifers, and when he knows that the solid reef increases only
+on the outer edge, which day and night is lashed by the breakers of an
+ocean never at rest. Well did Francois Pyrard de Laval, in the year 1605
+exclaim, 'C'est une merveille de voir chacun de ces atollons, environne
+d'un grand banc de pierre tout autour, n'y ayant point d'artifice
+humain.'"[62]
+
+Of the enchanting beauty of the coral beds themselves we are assured
+that language conveys no adequate idea. "There were corals," says Prof.
+Ball, "which, in their living state, are of many shades of fawn, buff,
+pink, and blue, while some were tipped with a magenta-like bloom.
+Sponges which looked as hard as stone spread over wide areas, while
+sprays of coralline added their graceful forms to the picture. Through
+the vistas so formed, golden-banded and metallic-blue fish meandered,
+while on the patches of sand here and there Holothurias and various
+mollusca and crustaceans might be seen slowly crawling."
+
+Abercromby also gives a very graphic description of a Coral reef. "As we
+approached," he says, "the roaring surf on the outside, fingery lumps of
+beautiful live coral began to appear of the palest lavender-blue colour;
+and when at last we were almost within the spray, the whole floor was
+one mass of living branches of coral.
+
+"But it is only when venturing as far as is prudent into the water, over
+the outward edge of the great sea wall, that the true character of the
+reef and all the beauties of the ocean can be really seen. After
+walking over a flat uninteresting tract of nearly bare rock, you look
+down and see a steep irregular wall, expanding deeper into the ocean
+than the eye can follow, and broken into lovely grottoes and holes and
+canals, through which small resplendent fish of the brightest blue or
+gold flit fitfully between the lumps of coral. The sides of these
+natural grottoes are entirely covered with endless forms of
+tender-coloured coral, but all beautiful, and all more or less of the
+fingery or branching species, known as madrepores. It is really
+impossible to draw or describe the sight, which must be taken with all
+its surroundings as adjuncts."[63]
+
+The vegetation of these fairy lands is also very lovely; the Coral tree
+(Erythrina) with light green leaves and bunches of scarlet blossoms, the
+Cocoa-nut always beautiful, the breadfruit, the graceful tree ferns, the
+Barringtonia, with large pink and white flowers, several species of
+Convolvulus, and many others unknown to us even by name.
+
+
+THE SOUTHERN SKIES
+
+In considering these exquisite scenes, the beauty of the Southern skies
+must not be omitted. "From the time we entered the torrid zone," says
+Humboldt, "we were never wearied with admiring, every night, the beauty
+of the southern sky, which, as we advanced towards the south, opened new
+constellations to our view. We feel an indescribable sensation, when, on
+approaching the equator, and particularly on passing from one hemisphere
+to the other, we see those stars which we have contemplated from our
+infancy, progressively sink, and finally disappear. Nothing awakens in
+the traveller a livelier remembrance of the immense distance by which he
+is separated from his country, than the aspect of an unknown firmament.
+The grouping of the stars of the first magnitude, some scattered nebulae
+rivalling in splendour the milky way, and tracts of space remarkable for
+their extreme blackness, give a particular physiognomy to the southern
+sky. This sight fills with admiration even those, who, uninstructed in
+the branches of accurate science, feel the same emotions of delight in
+the contemplation of the heavenly vault, as in the view of a beautiful
+landscape, or a majestic river. A traveller has no need of being a
+botanist to recognise the torrid zone on the mere aspect of its
+vegetation; and, without having acquired any notion of astronomy, he
+feels he is not in Europe, when he sees the immense constellation of the
+Ship, or the phosphorescent clouds of Magellan, arise on the horizon.
+The heaven and the earth, in the equinoctial regions, assume an exotic
+character."
+
+"The sunsets in the Eastern Archipelago," says H. O. Forbes,[64] "were
+scenes to be remembered for a lifetime. The tall cones of Sibissie and
+Krakatoa rose dark purple out of an unruffled golden sea, which
+stretched away to the south-west, where the sun went down; over the
+horizon gray fleecy clouds lay in banks and streaks, above them pale
+blue lanes of sky, alternating with orange bands, which higher up gave
+place to an expanse of red stretching round the whole heavens.
+Gradually as the sun retreated deeper and deeper, the sky became a
+marvellous golden curtain, in front of which the gray clouds coiled
+themselves into weird forms before dissolving into space...."
+
+
+THE POLES
+
+The Arctic and Antarctic regions have always exercised a peculiar
+fascination over the human mind. Until now every attempt to reach the
+North Pole has failed, and the South has proved even more inaccessible.
+In the north, Parry all but reached lat. 83; in the south no one has
+penetrated beyond lat. 71.11. And yet, while no one can say what there
+may be round the North Pole, and some still imagine that open water
+might be found there, we can picture to ourselves the extreme South with
+somewhat more confidence.
+
+Whenever ships have sailed southwards, except at a few places where land
+has been met with, they have come at last to a wall of ice, from fifty
+to four hundred feet high. In those regions it snows, if not
+incessantly, at least very frequently, and the snow melts but little. As
+far as the eye can reach nothing is to be seen but snow. Now this snow
+must gradually accumulate, and solidify into ice, until it attains such
+a slope that it will move forward as a glacier. The enormous Icebergs of
+the Southern Ocean, moreover, show that it does so, and that the snow of
+the extreme south, after condensing into ice, moves slowly outward and
+at length forms a wall of ice, from which Icebergs, from time to time,
+break away. We do not exactly know what, under such circumstances, the
+slope would be; but Mr. Croll points out that if we take it at only half
+a degree, and this seems quite a minimum, the Ice cap at the South Pole
+must be no less than twelve miles in thickness. It is indeed probably
+even more, for some of the Southern tabular icebergs attain a height of
+eight hundred, or even a thousand feet above water, indicating a total
+thickness of the ice sheet even at the edge, of over a mile.
+
+Sir James Ross mentions that--"Whilst measuring some angles for the
+survey near Mount Lubbock an island suddenly appeared, which he was
+quite sure was not to be seen two or three hours previously. He was much
+astonished, but it eventually turned out to be a large iceberg, which
+had turned over, and so exposed a new surface covered with earth and
+stones."
+
+The condition of the Arctic regions is quite different. There is much
+more land, and no such enormous solid cap of ice. Spitzbergen, the land
+of "pointed mountains," is said to be very beautiful. Lord Dufferin
+describes his first view of it as "a forest of thin lilac peaks, so
+faint, so pale, that had it not been for the gem-like distinctness of
+their outline one could have deemed them as unsubstantial as the spires
+of Fairyland."
+
+It is, however, very desolate; scarcely any vegetation excepting a dark
+moss, and even this goes but a little way up the mountain side. Scoresby
+ascended one of the hills near Horn Sound, and describes the view as
+"most extensive and grand. A fine sheltered bay was seen to the east of
+us, an arm of the same on the north-east, and the sea, whose glassy
+surface was unruffled by a breeze, formed an immense expanse on the
+west; the glaciers, rearing their proud crests almost to the tops of
+mountains between which they were lodged, and defying the power of the
+solar beams, were scattered in various directions about the sea-coast
+and in the adjoining bays. Beds of snow and ice filling extensive
+hollows, and giving an enamelled coat to adjoining valleys, one of
+which, commencing at the foot of the mountain where we stood, extended
+in a continual line towards the north, as far as the eye could
+reach--mountain rising above mountain, until by distance they dwindled
+into insignificance, the whole contrasted by a cloudless canopy of
+deepest azure, and enlightened by the rays of a blazing sun, and the
+effect, aided by a feeling of danger, seated as we were on the pinnacle
+of a rock almost surrounded by tremendous precipices--all united to
+constitute a picture singularly sublime."
+
+One of the glaciers of Spitzbergen is 11 miles in breadth when it
+reaches the sea-coast, the highest part of the precipitous front
+adjoining the sea being over 400 feet, and it extends far upwards
+towards the summit of the mountain. The surface forms an inclined plane
+of smooth unsullied snow, the beauty and brightness of which render it a
+conspicuous landmark on that inhospitable shore. From the perpendicular
+face great masses of ice from time to time break away,
+
+    Whose blocks of sapphire seem to mortal eye
+    Hewn from caerulean quarries of the sky.[65]
+
+Field ice is comparatively flat, though it may be piled up perhaps as
+much as 50 feet. It is from glaciers that true icebergs, the beauty and
+brilliance of which Arctic travellers are never tired of describing,
+take their origin.
+
+The attempts to reach the North Pole have cost many valuable lives;
+Willoughby and Hudson, Behring and Franklin, and many other brave
+mariners; but yet there are few expeditions more popular than those to
+"the Arctic," and we cannot but hope that it is still reserved for the
+British Navy after so many gallant attempts at length to reach the North
+Pole.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[56] Shelley.
+
+[57] Campbell.
+
+[58] Holmes.
+
+[59] Bell.
+
+[60] Hemans.
+
+[61] Gunther, _History of Fishes_.
+
+[62] Darwin, _Coral Reefs_.
+
+[63] Abercromby, _Seas and Skies in many Latitudes_.
+
+[64] _A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago._
+
+[65] Montgomery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE STARRY HEAVENS
+
+     A man can hardly lift up his eyes towards the heavens without
+     wonder and veneration, to see so many millions of radiant
+     lights, and to observe their courses and revolutions, even
+     without any respect to the common good of the
+     Universe.--SENECA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE STARRY HEAVENS
+
+
+Many years ago I paid a visit to Naples, and ascended Vesuvius to see
+the sun rise from the top of the mountain. We went up to the Observatory
+in the evening and spent the night outside. The sky was clear; at our
+feet was the sea, and round the bay the lights of Naples formed a lovely
+semicircle. Far more beautiful, however, were the moon and the stars
+overhead; the moon throwing a silver path over the water, and the stars
+shining in that clear atmosphere with a brilliance which I shall never
+forget.
+
+For ages and ages past men have admired the same glorious spectacle, and
+yet neither the imagination of Man nor the genius of Poetry had risen to
+the truer and grander conceptions of the Heavens for which we are
+indebted to astronomical Science. The mechanical contrivances by which
+it was attempted to explain the movements of the heavenly bodies were
+clumsy and prosaic when compared with the great discovery of Newton.
+Ruskin is unjust I think when he says "Science teaches us that the
+clouds are a sleety mist; Art, that they are a golden throne." I should
+be the last to disparage the debt we owe to Art, but for our knowledge,
+and even more, for our appreciation, feeble as even yet it is, of the
+overwhelming grandeur of the Heavens, we are mainly indebted to Science.
+
+There is scarcely a form which the fancy of Man has not sometimes
+detected in the clouds,--chains of mountains, splendid cities, storms at
+sea, flights of birds, groups of animals, monsters of all kinds,--and
+our superstitious ancestors often terrified themselves by fantastic
+visions of arms and warriors and battles which they regarded as portents
+of coming calamities. There is hardly a day on which Clouds do not
+delight and surprise us by their forms and colours. They belong,
+however, to our Earth, and I must now pass on to the heavenly bodies.
+
+[Illustration: THE MOON.
+
+_To face page 377._]
+
+
+THE MOON
+
+The Moon is the nearest, and being the nearest, appears to us, with the
+single exception of the Sun, the largest, although it is in reality one
+of the smallest, of the heavenly bodies. Just as the Earth goes round
+the Sun, and the period of revolution constitutes a year, so the Moon
+goes round the Earth approximately in a period of one month. But while
+we turn on our axis every twenty-four hours, thus causing the
+alternation of light and darkness--day and night--the Moon takes a month
+to revolve on hers, so that she always presents the same, or very nearly
+the same, surface to us.
+
+Seeing her as we do, not like the Sun and Stars, by light of her own,
+but by the reflected light of the Sun, her form appears to change,
+because the side upon which the Sun shines is not always that which we
+see. Hence the "phases" of the Moon, which add so much to her beauty
+and interest.
+
+Who is there who has not watched them with admiration? "We first see her
+as an exquisite crescent of pale light in the western sky after sunset.
+Night after night she moves further and further to the east, until she
+becomes full, and rises about the same time that the Sun sets. From the
+time of full moon the disc of light begins to diminish, until the last
+quarter is reached. Then it is that the Moon is seen high in the heavens
+in the morning. As the days pass by, the crescent shape is again
+assumed. The crescent wanes thinner and thinner as the Moon draws closer
+to the Sun. Finally, she becomes lost in the overpowering light of the
+Sun, again to emerge as the new moon, and again to go through the same
+cycle of changes."[66]
+
+But although she is so small the Moon is not only, next to the Sun, by
+far the most beautiful, but also for us the most important, of the
+heavenly bodies. Her attraction, aided by that of the Sun, causes the
+tides, which are of such essential service to navigation. They carry
+our vessels in and out of port, and, indeed, but for them many of our
+ports would themselves cease to exist, being silted up by the rivers
+running into them. The Moon is also of invaluable service to sailors by
+enabling them to determine where they are, and guiding them over the
+pathless waters.
+
+The geography of the Moon, so far as concerns the side turned towards
+us, has been carefully mapped and studied, and may almost be said to be
+as well known as that of our own earth. The scenery is in a high degree
+weird and rugged; it is a great wilderness of extinct volcanoes, and,
+seen with even a very moderate telescope, is a most beautiful object.
+The mountains are of great size. Our loftiest mountain, Mount Everest,
+is generally stated as about 29,000 feet in height. The mountains of the
+Moon reach an altitude of over 42,000, but this reckons to the lowest
+depression, and it must be remembered that we reckon the height of
+mountains to the sea level only. Several of the craters on the Moon have
+a diameter of 40 or 50--one of them even as much as 78--miles. Many
+also have central cones, closely resembling those in our own volcanic
+regions. In some cases the craters are filled nearly to the brim with
+lava. The volcanoes seem, however, to be all extinct; and there is not a
+single case in which we have conclusive evidence of any change in a
+lunar mountain.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 50.--A group of Lunar Volcanoes.]
+
+The Moon, being so much smaller than the earth, cooled, of course, much
+more rapidly, and it is probable that these mountains are millions of
+years old--much older than many of our mountain chains. Yet no one can
+look at a map of the Moon without being struck with the very rugged
+character of its mountain scenery. This is mainly due to the absence of
+air and water. To these two mighty agencies, not merely "the
+cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples," but the
+very mountains themselves, are inevitable victims. Not merely storms and
+hurricanes, but every gentle shower, every fall of snow, tends to soften
+our scenery and lower the mountain peaks. These agencies are absent from
+the Moon, and the mountains stand to-day just as they were formed
+millions of years ago.
+
+But though we find on our own globe (see, for instance, Fig. 21)
+volcanic regions closely resembling those of the Moon, there are other
+phenomena on the Moon's surface for which our earth presents as yet no
+explanation. From Tycho, for instance, a crater 17,000 feet high and 50
+miles across, a number of rays or streaks diverge, which for hundreds,
+or in some cases two or three thousand, miles pass straight across
+plains, craters, and mountains. The true nature of these streaks is not
+yet understood.
+
+
+THE SUN
+
+The Sun is more than 400 times as distant as the Moon; a mighty glowing
+globe, infinitely hotter than any earthly fiery furnace, 300,000 times
+as heavy, and 1,000,000 times as large as the earth. Its diameter is
+865,000 miles, and it revolves on its axis in between 25 and 26 days.
+Its distance is 92,500,000 miles. And yet it is only a star, and by no
+means one of the first magnitude.
+
+The surface of the Sun is the seat of violent storms and tempests. From
+it gigantic flames, consisting mainly of hydrogen, flicker and leap.
+Professor Young describes one as being, when first observed, 40,000
+miles high. Suddenly it became very brilliant, and in half an hour
+sprang up 40,000 more. For another hour it soared higher and higher,
+reaching finally an elevation of no less than 350,000 miles, after which
+it slowly faded away, and in a couple of hours had entirely disappeared.
+This was no doubt an exceptional case, but a height of 100,000 miles is
+not unusual, and the velocity frequently reaches 100 miles in a second.
+
+The proverbial spots on the Sun in many respects resemble the
+appearances which would be presented if a comparatively dark central
+mass was here and there exposed by apertures through the more brilliant
+outer gases, but their true nature is still a matter of discussion.
+
+During total eclipses it is seen that the Sun is surrounded by a
+"corona," or aureola of light, consisting of radiant filaments, beams,
+and sheets of light, which radiate in all directions, and the true
+nature of which is still doubtful.
+
+Another stupendous problem connected with the Sun is the fact that, as
+geology teaches us, it has given off nearly the same quantity of light
+and heat for millions of years. How has this come to pass? Certainly not
+by any process of burning such as we are familiar with. Indeed, if the
+heat of the Sun were due to combustion it would be burnt up in 6000
+years. It has been suggested that the meteors, which fall in showers on
+to the Sun, replace the heat which is emitted. To some slight extent
+perhaps they do so, but the main cause seems to be the slow condensation
+of the Sun itself. Mathematicians tell us that a contraction of about
+220 feet a year would account for the whole heat emitted, and as the
+present diameter of the Sun is about 860,000 miles, the potential store
+of heat is still enormous.
+
+To the Sun we owe our light and heat; it is not only the centre of our
+planetary system, it is the source and ruler of our lives. It draws up
+water from the ocean, and pours it down in rain to fill the rivers and
+refresh the plants; it raises the winds, which purify the air and waft
+our ships over the seas; it draws our carriages and drives our
+steam-engines, for coal is but the heat of former ages stored up for our
+use; animals live and move by the Sun's warmth; it inspires the song of
+birds, paints the flowers, and ripens the fruit. Through it the trees
+grow. For the beauties of nature, for our food and drink, for our
+clothing, for our light and life, for the very possibility of our
+existence, we are indebted to the Sun.
+
+What is the Sun made of? Comte mentioned as a problem, which it was
+impossible that man could ever solve, any attempt to determine the
+chemical composition of the heavenly bodies. "Nous concevons," he said,
+"la possibilite de determiner leurs formes, leurs distances, leurs
+grandeurs, et leurs mouvements, tandis que nous ne saurions jamais
+etudier par aucun moyen leur composition chimique ou leur structure
+mineralogique." To do so might well have seemed hopeless, and yet the
+possibility has been proved, and a beginning has been made. In the early
+part of this century Wollaston observed that the bright band of colours
+thrown by a prism, and known as the spectrum, was traversed by dark
+lines, which were also discovered, and described more in detail, by
+Fraunhofer, after whom they are generally called "Fraunhofer's lines."
+The next step was made by Wheatstone, who showed that the spectrum
+formed by incandescent vapours was formed of bright lines, which
+differed for each substance, and might, therefore, be used as a
+convenient mode of analysis. In fact, by this process several new
+substances have actually been discovered. These bright lines were found
+on comparison to coincide with the dark lines in the spectrum, and to
+Kirchhoff and Bunsen is due the credit of applying this method of
+research to astronomical science. They arranged their apparatus so that
+one-half was lighted by the Sun, the other by the incandescent gas they
+were examining. When the vapour of sodium was treated in this way they
+found that the bright line in the flame of soda exactly coincided with a
+line in the Sun's spectrum. The conclusion was obvious; there is sodium
+in the Sun. It must, indeed, have been a glorious moment when the
+thought flashed upon them; and the discovery, with its results, is one
+of the greatest triumphs of human genius.
+
+The Sun has thus been proved to contain hydrogen, sodium, barium,
+magnesium, calcium, aluminium, chromium, iron, nickle, manganese,
+titanium, cobalt, lead, zinc, copper, cadmium, strontium, cerium,
+uranium, potassium, etc., in all 36 of our terrestrial elements, while
+as regards some others the evidence is not conclusive. We cannot as yet
+say that any of our elements are absent, nor though there are various
+lines which cannot as yet be certainly referred to any known substance,
+have we clear proof that the Sun contains any element which does not
+exist on our earth. On the whole, then, the chemical composition of the
+Sun appears closely to resemble that of our earth.
+
+
+THE PLANETS
+
+The Syrian shepherds watching their flocks by night long ago
+noticed--and they were probably not the first--that there were five
+stars which did not follow the regular course of the rest, but,
+apparently at least, moved about irregularly. These they appropriately
+named Planets, or wanderers.
+
+Further observations have shown that this irregularity of their path is
+only apparent, and that, like our own Earth, they really revolve round
+the Sun. To the five first observed--Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and
+Saturn--two large ones, Uranus and Neptune, and a group of minor bodies,
+have since been added.
+
+The following two diagrams give the relative orbits of the Planets.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 51.--Orbits of the inner Planets.]
+
+
+MERCURY
+
+It is possible, perhaps probable, that there may be an inner Planet,
+but, so far as we know for certain, Mercury is the one nearest to the
+Sun, its average distance being 36,000,000 miles. It is much smaller
+than the Earth, its weight being only about 1/24th of ours. Mercury is a
+shy though beautiful object, for being so near the Sun it is not easily
+visible; it may, however, generally be seen at some time or other during
+the year as a morning or evening star.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 52.--Relative distances of the Planets from the
+Sun.]
+
+
+VENUS
+
+The true morning or evening star, however, is Venus--the peerless and
+capricious Venus.
+
+Venus, perhaps, "has not been noticed, not been thought of, for many
+months. It is a beautifully clear evening; the sun has just set. The
+lover of nature turns to admire the sunset, as every lover of nature
+will. In the golden glory of the west a beauteous gem is seen to
+glisten; it is the evening star, the planet Venus. A week or two later
+another beautiful sunset is seen, and now the planet is no longer a
+glistening point low down; it has risen high above the horizon, and
+continues a brilliant object long after the shades of night have
+descended. Again a little longer and Venus has gained its full
+brilliancy and splendour. All the heavenly host--even Sirius and
+Jupiter--must pale before the splendid lustre of Venus, the unrivalled
+queen of the firmament."[67]
+
+Venus is about as large as our Earth, and when at her brightest
+outshines about fifty times the most brilliant star. Yet, like all the
+other planets, she glows only with the reflected light of the Sun, and
+consequently passes through phases like those of the Moon, though we
+cannot see them with the naked eye. To Venus also owe we mainly the
+power of determining the distance, and consequently the magnitude, of
+the Sun.
+
+
+THE EARTH
+
+Our own Earth has formed the subject of previous chapters. I will now,
+therefore, only call attention to her movements, in which, of course,
+though unconsciously, we participate. In the first place, the Earth
+revolves on her axis in 24 hours. Her circumference at the tropics is
+24,000 miles. Hence a person at the tropics is moving in this respect at
+the rate of 1000 miles an hour, or over 16 miles a minute.
+
+But more than this, astronomers have ascertained that the whole solar
+system is engaged in a great voyage through space, moving towards a
+point on the constellation of Hercules at the rate of at least 20,000
+miles an hour, or over 300 miles a minute.[68]
+
+But even more again, we revolve annually round the Sun in a mighty orbit
+580,000,000 miles in circumference. In this respect we are moving at the
+rate of no less than 60,000 miles an hour, or 1000 miles a minute--a
+rate far exceeding of course, in fact by some 100 times, that of a
+cannon ball.
+
+How few of us know, how little we any of us realise, that we are rushing
+through space with such enormous velocity.
+
+
+MARS
+
+To the naked eye Mars appears like a ruddy star of the first magnitude.
+It has two satellites, which have been happily named Phobos and
+Deimos--Fear and Dismay. It is little more than half as large as the
+Earth, and, though generally far more distant, it sometimes approaches
+us within 35,000,000 miles. This has enabled us to study its physical
+structure. It seems very probable that there is water in Mars, and the
+two poles are tipped with white, as if capped by ice and snow. It
+presents also a series of remarkable parallel lines, the true nature of
+which is not yet understood.
+
+
+THE MINOR PLANETS
+
+A glance at Figs. 51 and 52 will show that the distances of the Planets
+from the Sun follow a certain rule.
+
+If we take the numbers 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, each one (after the
+second) the double of that preceding, and add four, we have the series.
+
+    4 7 10 16 28 52 100
+
+Now the distances of the Planets from the Sun are as follow:--
+
+    Mercury.   Venus.   Earth.   Mars.   Jupiter.   Saturn.
+      3.9       7.2       10     15.2      52.9      95.4
+
+For this sequence, which was first noticed by Bode, and is known as
+Bode's law, no explanation can yet be given. It was of course at once
+observed that between Mars and Jupiter one place is vacant, and it has
+now been ascertained that this is occupied by a zone of Minor Planets,
+the first of which was discovered by Piazzi on January 1, 1801, a worthy
+prelude to the succession of scientific discoveries which form the glory
+of our century. At present over 300 are known, but certainly these are
+merely the larger among an immense number, some of them doubtless mere
+dust.
+
+
+JUPITER
+
+Beyond the Minor Planets we come to the stupendous Jupiter, containing
+300 times the mass, and being 1200 times the size of our Earth--larger
+indeed than all the other planets put together. It is probably not
+solid, and from its great size still retains a large portion of the
+original heat, if we may use such an expression. Jupiter usually shows a
+number of belts, supposed to be due to clouds floating over the surface,
+which have a tendency to arrange themselves in belts or bands, owing to
+the rotation of the planet. Jupiter has four moons or satellites.
+
+
+SATURN
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Saturn.]
+
+Next to Jupiter in size, as in position, comes Saturn, which, though far
+inferior in dimensions, is much superior in beauty. To the naked eye
+Saturn appears as a brilliant star, but when Galileo first saw it
+through a telescope it appeared to him to be composed of three bodies in
+a line, a central globe with a small one on each side. Huyghens in 1655
+first showed that in reality Saturn was surrounded by a series of rings
+(see Fig. 53). Of these there are three, the inner one very faint, and
+the outer one divided into two by a dark line. These rings are really
+enormous shoals of minute bodies revolving round the planet, and
+rendering it perhaps the most marvellous and beautiful of all the
+heavenly bodies.
+
+While we have one Moon, Mars two, and Jupiter four, Saturn has no less
+than eight satellites.
+
+
+URANUS
+
+Saturn was long supposed to be the outermost body belonging to the solar
+system. In 1781, however, on the 13th March, William Herschel was
+examining the stars in the constellation of the Twins. One struck him
+because it presented a distinct disc, while the true fixed stars,
+however brilliant, are, even with the most powerful telescope, mere
+points of light. At first he thought it might be a comet, but careful
+observations showed that it was really a new planet. Though thus
+discovered by Herschel it had often been seen before, but its true
+nature was unsuspected. It has a diameter of about 31,700 miles.
+
+Four satellites of Uranus have been discovered, and they present the
+remarkable peculiarity that while all the other planets and their
+satellites revolve nearly in one plane, the satellites of Uranus are
+nearly at right angles, indicating the presence of some local and
+exceptional influence.
+
+
+NEPTUNE
+
+The study of Uranus soon showed that it followed a path which could not
+be accounted for by the influence of the Sun and the other then known
+planets. It was suspected, therefore, that this was due to some other
+body not yet discovered. To calculate where such a body must be so as to
+account for these irregularities was a most complex and difficult, and
+might have seemed almost a hopeless, task. It was, however, solved
+almost simultaneously and independently by Adams in this country, and Le
+Verrier in France.
+
+Neptune, so far as we yet know the out-most of our companions, is 35,000
+miles in diameter, and its mean distance from the Sun is 2,780,000,000
+miles.
+
+
+ORIGIN OF THE PLANETARY SYSTEM
+
+The theory of the origin of the Planetary System known as the "Nebular
+Hypothesis," which was first suggested by Kant, and developed by
+Herschel and Laplace, may be fairly said to have attained a high degree
+of probability. The space now occupied by the solar system is supposed
+to have been filled by a rotating spheroid of extreme tenuity and
+enormous heat, due perhaps to the collision of two originally separate
+bodies. The heat, however, having by degrees radiated into space, the
+gas cooled and contracted towards a centre, destined to become the Sun.
+Through the action of centrifugal force the gaseous matter also
+flattened itself at the two poles, taking somewhat the form of a disc.
+For a certain time the tendency to contract, and the centrifugal force,
+counterbalanced one another, but at length a time came when the latter
+prevailed and the outer zone detached itself from the rest of the
+sphere. One after another similar rings were thrown off, and then
+breaking up, formed the planets and their satellites.
+
+That each planet and satellite did form originally a ring we still have
+evidence in the wonderful and beautiful rings of Saturn, which, however,
+in all probability will eventually form spherical satellites like the
+rest. Thus then our Earth was originally a part of the Sun, to which
+again it is destined one day to return. M. Plateau has shown
+experimentally that by rotating a globe of oil in a mixture of water and
+spirit having the same density this process may be actually repeated in
+miniature.
+
+This brilliant, and yet simple, hypothesis is consistent with, and
+explains many other circumstances connected with the position,
+magnitude, and movements of the Planets and their satellites.
+
+The Planets, for instance, lie more or less in the same plane, they
+revolve round the Sun and rotate on their own axis in the same
+direction--a series of coincidences which cannot be accidental, and for
+which the theory would account. Again the rate of cooling would of
+course follow the size; a small body cools more rapidly than a large
+one. The Moon is cold and rigid; the Earth is solid at the surface, but
+intensely hot within; Jupiter and Saturn, which are immensely larger,
+still retain much of their original heat, and have a much lower density
+than the Earth; and astronomers tell us on other grounds that the Sun
+itself is still contracting, and that to this the maintenance of its
+temperature is due.
+
+Although, therefore, the Nebular Theory cannot be said to have been
+absolutely proved, it has certainly been brought to a high state of
+probability, and is, in its main features, generally accepted by
+astronomers.
+
+The question has often been asked whether any of the heavenly bodies are
+inhabited, and as yet it is impossible to give any certain answer. It
+seems _a priori_ probable that the millions of suns which we see as
+stars must have satellites, and that some at least of them may be
+inhabited. So far as our own system is concerned the Sun is of course
+too hot to serve as a dwelling-place for any beings with bodies such as
+ours. The same may be said of Mercury, which is at times probably ten
+times as hot as our tropics. The outer planets appear to be still in a
+state of vapour. The Moon has no air or water.
+
+Mars is in a condition which most nearly resembles ours. All, however,
+that can be said is that, so far as we can see, the existence of living
+beings on Mars is not impossible.
+
+
+COMETS
+
+The Sun, Moon, and Stars, glorious and wonderful as they are, though
+regarded with great interest, and in some cases worshipped as deities,
+excited the imagination of our ancestors less than might have been
+expected, and even now attract comparatively little attention, from the
+fact that they are always with us. Comets, on the other hand, both as
+rare and occasional visitors, from their large size and rapid changes,
+were regarded in ancient times with dread and with amazement.
+
+Some Comets revolve round the Sun in ellipses, but many, if not the
+majority, are visitors indeed, for having once passed round the Sun
+they pass away again into space, never to return.
+
+The appearance which is generally regarded as characteristic of a Comet
+is that of a head with a central nucleus and a long tail. Many, however,
+of the smaller ones possess no tail, and in fact Comets present almost
+innumerable differences. Moreover the same Comet changes rapidly, so
+that when they return, they are identified not in any way by their
+appearance, but by the path they pursue.
+
+Comets may almost be regarded as the ghosts of heavenly bodies. The
+heads, in some cases, may consist of separate solid fragments, though on
+this astronomers are by no means agreed, but the tails at any rate are
+in fact of almost inconceivable tenuity. We know that a cloud a few
+hundred feet thick is sufficient to hide, not only the stars, but even
+the Sun himself. A Comet is thousands of miles in thickness, and yet
+even extremely minute stars can be seen through it with no appreciable
+diminution of brightness. This extreme tenuity of comets is moreover
+shown by their small weight. Enormous as they are I remember Sir G. Airy
+saying that there was probably more matter in a cricket ball than there
+is in a comet. No one, however, now doubts that the weight must be
+measured in tons; but it is so small, in relation to the size, as to be
+practically inappreciable. If indeed they were comparable in mass even
+to the planets, we should long ago have perished. The security of our
+system is due to the fact that the planets revolve round the Sun in one
+direction, almost in circles, and very nearly in the same plane. Comets,
+however, enter our system in all directions, and at all angles; they are
+so numerous that, as Kepler said, there are probably more Comets in the
+sky than there are fishes in the sea, and but for their extreme tenuity
+they would long ago have driven us into the Sun.
+
+When they first come in sight Comets have generally no tail; it grows as
+they approach the Sun, from which it always points away. It is no mere
+optical illusion; but while the Comet as a whole is attracted by the
+Sun, the tail, how or why we know not, is repelled. When once driven
+off, moreover, the attraction of the Comet is not sufficient to recall
+it, and hence perhaps so many Comets have now no tails.
+
+Donati's Comet, the great Comet of 1858, was first noticed on the 2d
+June as a faint nebulous spot. For three months it remained quite
+inconspicuous, and even at the end of August was scarcely visible to the
+naked eye. In September it grew rapidly, and by the middle of October
+the tail extended no less than 40 degrees, after which it gradually
+disappeared.
+
+Faint as is the light emitted by Comets, it is yet their own, and
+spectrum analysis has detected the presence in them of carbon, hydrogen,
+nitrogen, sodium, and probably of iron.
+
+Comets then remain as wonderful, and almost as mysterious, as ever, but
+we need no longer regard "a comet as a sign of impending calamity; we
+may rather look upon it as an interesting and a beautiful visitor, which
+comes to please us and to instruct us, but never to threaten or to
+destroy."[69] We are free, therefore, to admire them in peace, and
+beautiful, indeed, they are.
+
+"The most wonderful sight I remember," says Hamerton, "as an effect of
+calm, was the inversion of Donati's Comet, in the year 1858, during the
+nights when it was sufficiently near the horizon to approach the rugged
+outline of Graiganunie, and be reflected beneath it in Loch Awe. In the
+sky was an enormous aigrette of diamond fire, in the water a second
+aigrette, scarcely less splendid, with its brilliant point directed
+upwards, and its broad, shadowy extremity ending indefinitely in the
+deep. To be out on the lake alone, in a tiny boat, and let it rest
+motionless on the glassy water, with that incomparable spectacle before
+one, was an experience to be remembered through a lifetime. I have seen
+many a glorious sight since that now distant year, but nothing to equal
+it in the association of solemnity with splendour."[70]
+
+
+SHOOTING STARS
+
+On almost any bright night, if we watch a short time some star will
+suddenly seem to drop from its place, and, after a short plunge, to
+disappear. This appearance is, however, partly illusory. While true
+stars are immense bodies at an enormous distance, Shooting Stars are
+very small, perhaps not larger than a paving stone, and are not visible
+until they come within the limits of our atmosphere, by the friction
+with which they are set on fire and dissipated. They are much more
+numerous on some nights than others. From the 9th to the 11th August we
+pass through one cluster which is known as the Perseids; and on the 13th
+and 14th November a still greater group called by astronomers the
+Leonids. The Leonids revolve round the Sun in a period of 33 years, and
+in an elliptic orbit, one focus of which is about at the same distance
+from the Sun as we are, the other at about that of Uranus. The shoal of
+stars is enormous; its diameter cannot be less than 100,000 miles, and
+its length many hundreds of thousands. There are, indeed, stragglers
+scattered over the whole orbit, with some of which we come in contact
+every year, but we pass through the main body three times in a
+century--last in 1866--capturing millions on each occasion. One of these
+has been graphically described by Humboldt:
+
+"From half after two in the morning the most extraordinary luminary
+meteors were seen in the direction of the east. M. Bonpland, who had
+risen to enjoy the freshness of the air, perceived them first. Thousands
+of bodies and falling stars succeeded each other during the space of
+four hours. Their direction was very regular from north to south. They
+filled a space in the sky extending from due east 30 deg. to north and
+south. In an amplitude of 60 deg. the meteors were seen to rise above the
+horizon at east-north-east, and at east, to describe arcs more or less
+extended, and to fall towards the south, after having followed the
+direction of the meridian. Some of them attained a height of 40 deg., and
+all exceeded 25 deg. or 30 deg.. No trace of clouds was to be seen. M. Bonpland
+states that, from the first appearance of the phenomenon, there was not
+in the firmament a space equal in extent to three diameters of the moon
+which was not filled every instant with bolides and falling stars. The
+first were fewer in number, but as they were of different sizes it was
+impossible to fix the limit between these two classes of phenomena. All
+these meteors left luminous traces from five to ten degrees in length,
+as often happens in the equinoctial regions. The phosphorescence of
+these traces, or luminous bands, lasted seven or eight seconds. Many of
+the falling stars had a very distinct nucleus, as large as the disc of
+Jupiter, from which darted sparks of vivid light. The bodies seemed to
+burst as by explosion; but the largest, those from 1 deg. to 1 deg. 15' in
+diameter, disappeared without scintillation, leaving behind them
+phosphorescent bands (trabes), exceeding in breadth fifteen or twenty
+minutes. The light of these meteors was white, and not reddish, which
+must doubtless be attributed to the absence of vapour and the extreme
+transparency of the air."[71]
+
+The past history of the Leonids, which Le Verrier has traced out with
+great probability, if not proved, is very interesting. They did not, he
+considers, approach the Sun until 126 A.D., when, in their career
+through the heavens, they chanced to come near to Uranus. But for the
+influence of that planet they would have passed round the Sun, and then
+departed again for ever. By his attraction, however, their course was
+altered, and they will now continue to revolve round the Sun.
+
+There is a remarkable connection between star showers and comets, which,
+however, is not yet thoroughly understood. Several star showers follow
+paths which are also those of comets, and the conclusion appears almost
+irresistible that these comets are made up of Shooting Stars.
+
+We are told, indeed, that 150,000,000 of meteors, including only those
+visible with a moderate telescope, fall on the earth annually. At any
+rate, there can be no doubt that every year millions of them are
+captured by the earth, thus constituting an appreciable, and in the
+course of ages a constantly increasing, part of the solid substance of
+the globe.
+
+
+THE STARS
+
+We have been dealing in the earlier part of this chapter with figures
+and distances so enormous that it is quite impossible for us to realise
+them; and yet we have still others to consider compared with which even
+the solar system is insignificant.
+
+In the first place, the number of the Stars is enormous. When we look at
+the sky at night they seem, indeed, almost innumerable; so that, like
+the sands of the sea, the Stars of heaven have ever been used as
+effective symbols of number. The total number visible to the naked eye
+is, however, in reality only about 3000, while that shown by the
+telescope is about 100,000,000. Photography, however, has revealed to us
+the existence of others which no telescope can show. We cannot by
+looking long at the heavens see more than at first; in fact, the first
+glance is the keenest. In photography, on the contrary, no light which
+falls on the plate, however faint, is lost; it is taken in and stored
+up. In an hour the effect is 3600 times as great as in a second. By
+exposing the photographic plate, therefore, for some hours, and even on
+successive nights, the effect of the light is as it were accumulated,
+and stars are rendered visible, the light of which is too feeble to be
+shown by any telescope.
+
+The distances and magnitudes of the Stars are as astonishing as their
+numbers, Sirius, for instance, being about twenty times as heavy as the
+Sun itself, 50 times as bright, and no less than 1,000,000 times as far
+away; while, though like other stars it seems to us stationary, it is in
+reality sweeping through the heavens at the rate of 1000 miles a minute;
+Maia, Electra, and Alcyone, three of the Pleiades, are considered to be
+respectively 400, 480, and 1000 times as brilliant as the Sun, Canopus
+2500 times, and Arcturus, incredible as it may seem, even 8000 times, so
+that, in fact, the Sun is by no means one of the largest Stars. Even the
+minute Stars not separately visible to the naked eye, and the millions
+which make up the Milky Way, are considered to be on an average fully
+equal to the Sun in lustre.
+
+Arcturus is, so far as we know at present, the swiftest, brightest, and
+largest of all. Its speed is over 300 miles a second, it is said to be
+8000 times as bright as the Sun, and 80 times as large, while its
+distance is so great that its light takes 200 years in reaching us.
+
+The distances of the heavenly bodies are ascertained by what is known as
+"parallax." Suppose the ellipse (Fig. 54), marked Jan., Apr., July,
+Oct., represents the course of the Earth round the Sun, and that A B are
+two stars. If in January we look at the star A, we see it projected
+against the front of the sky marked 1. Three months later it would
+appear to be at 2, and thus as we move round our orbit the star itself
+appears to move in the ellipse 1, 2, 3, 4. The more distant star B also
+appears to move in a similar, but smaller, ellipse; the difference
+arising from the greater distance. The size of the ellipse is inversely
+proportional to the distance, and hence as we know the magnitude of the
+earth's orbit we can calculate the distance of the star. The difficulty
+is that the apparent ellipses are so minute that it is in very few cases
+possible to measure them.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 54.--The Parallactic Ellipse.]
+
+The distances of the Fixed Stars thus tested are found to be enormous,
+and indeed generally incalculable; so great that in most cases, whether
+we look at them from one end of our orbit or the other--though the
+difference of our position, corresponding to the points marked January
+and July in Fig. 54, is 185,000,000 miles--no apparent change of
+position can be observed. In some, however, the parallax, though very
+minute, is yet approximately measurable. The first star to which this
+test was applied with success was that known as 61 Cygni, which is thus
+shown to be no less than 40 billions of miles away from us--many
+thousand times as far as we are from the Sun. The nearest of the Stars,
+so far as we yet know, is [Greek: alpha] Centauri, the distance of which
+is about 25 billions of miles.
+
+The Pleiades are considered to be at a distance of nearly 1500 billions
+of miles.
+
+As regards the chemical composition of the Stars, it is, moreover,
+obvious that the powerful engine of investigation afforded us by the
+spectroscope is by no means confined to the substances which form part
+of our system. The incandescent body can thus be examined, no matter how
+great its distance, so long only as the light is strong enough. That
+this method was theoretically applicable to the light of the Stars is
+indeed obvious, but the practical difficulties are very great. Sirius,
+the brightest of all, is, in round numbers, a hundred millions of
+millions of miles from us; and, though as bright as fifty of our suns,
+his light when it reaches us, after a journey of sixteen years, is at
+most one two-thousand-millionth part as bright. Nevertheless, as long
+ago as 1815 Fraunhofer recognised the fixed lines in the light of four
+of the Stars; in 1863 Miller and Huggins in our own country, and
+Rutherford in America, succeeded in determining the dark lines in the
+spectrum of some of the brighter Stars, thus showing that these
+beautiful and mysterious lights contain many of the material substances
+with which we are familiar. In Aldebaran, for instance, we may infer the
+presence of hydrogen, sodium, magnesium, iron, calcium, tellurium,
+antimony, bismuth, and mercury. As might have been expected, the
+composition of the Stars is not uniform, and it would appear that they
+may be arranged in a few well-marked classes, indicating differences of
+temperature, or perhaps of age.
+
+Thus we can make the Stars teach us their own composition with light,
+which started from its source years ago, in many cases long before we
+were born.
+
+Spectrum analysis has also thrown an unexpected light on the movements
+of the Stars. Ordinary observation, of course, is powerless to inform
+us whether they are moving towards or away from us. Spectrum analysis,
+however, enables us to solve the problem, and we know that some are
+approaching, some receding.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 55.--Displacement of the hydrogen line in the
+spectrum of Rigel.]
+
+If a star, say for instance Sirius, were motionless, or rather if it
+retained a constant distance from the earth, Fraunhofer's lines would
+occupy exactly the same position in the spectrum as they do in that of
+the Sun. On the contrary, if Sirius were approaching, the lines would be
+slightly shifted towards the blue, or if it were receding towards the
+red. Fig. 55 shows the displacement of the hydrogen line in the spectrum
+of Rigel, due to the fact that it is receding from us at the rate of 39
+miles a second. The Sun affords us an excellent test of this theory. As
+it revolves on its axis one edge is always approaching and the other
+receding from us at a known rate, and observation shows that the lines
+given by the light of the two edges differ accordingly. So again as
+regards the Stars, we obtain a similar test derived from the Earth's
+movement. As we revolve in our orbit we approach or recede any given
+star, and our rate of motion being known we thus obtain a second test.
+The results thus examined have stood their ground satisfactorily, and in
+Huggins' opinion may be relied on within about an English mile a second.
+The effect of this movement is, moreover, independent of the distance. A
+lateral motion, say of 20 miles a second, which in a nearer object would
+appear to be a stupendous velocity, becomes in the Stars quite
+imperceptible. A motion of the same rapidity, on the other hand, towards
+or away from us, displaces the dark lines equally, whatever the distance
+of the object may be. We may then affirm that Sirius, for instance, is
+receding from us at the rate of about 20 miles a second. Betelgeux,
+Rigel, Castor, Regulus, and others are also moving away; while
+some--Vega, Arcturus, and Pollux, for example--are approaching us. By
+the same process it is shown that some groups of stars are only
+apparently in relation to one another. Thus in Charles' Wain some of the
+stars are approaching, others receding.
+
+I have already mentioned that Sirius, though it seems, like other stars,
+so stationary that we speak of them as "fixed," is really sweeping along
+at the rate of 1000 miles a minute. Even this enormous velocity is
+exceeded in other cases. One, which is numbered as 1830 in Groombridge's
+_Catalogue of the Stars_, and is therefore known as "Groombridge's
+1830," moves no less than 12,000 miles a minute, and Arcturus 22,000
+miles a minute, or 32,000,000 of miles a day; and yet the distances of
+the Stars are so great that 1000 years would make hardly any difference
+in the appearance of the heavens.
+
+Changes, however, there certainly would be. Even in the short time
+during which we have any observations, some are already on record. One
+of the most interesting is the fading of the 7th Pleiad, due, according
+to Ovid, to grief at the taking of Troy. Again, the "fiery Dogstar," as
+it used to be, is now, and has been for centuries, a clear white.
+
+The star known as Nova Cygni--the "new star in the Constellation of the
+Swan"--was first observed on the 24th November 1876 by Dr. Schmidt of
+Athens, who had examined that part of the heavens only four days before,
+and is sure that no such star was visible then. At its brightest it was
+a brilliant star of the third magnitude, but this only lasted for a few
+days; in a week it had ceased to be a conspicuous object, and in a
+fortnight became invisible without a telescope. Its sudden splendour was
+probably due to a collision between two bodies, and was probably little,
+if at all, less than that of the Sun itself. It is still a mystery how
+so great a conflagration can have diminished so rapidly.
+
+But though we speak of some stars as specially variable, they are no
+doubt all undergoing slow change. There was a time when they were not,
+and one will come when they will cease to shine. Each, indeed, has a
+life-history of its own. Some, doubtless, represent now what others
+once were, and what many will some day become.
+
+For, in addition to the luminous heavenly bodies, we cannot doubt that
+there are countless others invisible to us, some from their greater
+distance or smaller size, but others, doubtless, from their feebler
+light; indeed, we know that there are many dark bodies which now emit no
+light, or comparatively little. Thus in the case of Procyon the
+existence of an invisible body is proved by the movement of the visible
+star. Again, I may refer to the curious phenomena presented by Algol, a
+bright star in the head of Medusa. The star shines without change for
+two days and thirteen hours; then in three hours and a half dwindles
+from a star of the second to one of the fourth magnitude; and then, in
+another three and a half hours, reassumes its original brilliancy. These
+changes led astronomers to infer the presence of an opaque body, which
+intercepts at regular intervals a part of the light emitted by Algol;
+and Vogel has now shown by the aid of the spectroscope that Algol does
+in fact revolve round a dark, and therefore invisible, companion. The
+spectroscope, in fact, makes known to us the presence of many stars
+which no telescope could reveal.
+
+Thus the floor of heaven is not only "thick inlaid with patines of
+bright gold," but studded also with extinct stars, once probably as
+brilliant as our own Sun, but now dead and cold, as Helmholtz tells us
+that our Sun itself will be some seventeen millions of years hence.
+
+Such dark bodies cannot of course be seen, and their existence, though
+we cannot doubt it, is a matter of calculation. In one case, however,
+the conclusion has received a most interesting confirmation. The
+movements of Sirius led mathematicians to conclude that it had also a
+mighty and massive neighbour, the relative position of which they
+calculated, though no such body had ever been seen. In February 1862,
+however, the Messrs. Alvan Clark of Cambridgeport were completing their
+18-inch glass for the Chicago Observatory. "'Why, father,'" exclaimed
+the younger Clark, "'the star has a companion.' The father looked, and
+there was a faint star due east from the bright one, and distant about
+ten seconds. This was exactly the predicted direction for that time,
+though the discoverers knew nothing of it. As the news went round the
+world many observers turned their attention to Sirius; and it was then
+found that, though it had never before been noticed, the companion was
+really shown under favourable circumstances by any powerful telescope.
+It is, in fact, one-half of the size of Sirius, though only 1/10000th of
+the brightness."[72]
+
+Stars are, we know, of different magnitudes and different degrees of
+glory. They are also of different colours. Most, indeed, are white, but
+some reddish, some ruddy, some intensely red; others, but fewer, green,
+blue, or violet. It is possible that the comparative rarity of these
+colours is due to the fact that our atmosphere especially absorbs green
+and blue, and it is remarkable that almost all of the green, blue, or
+violet stars are one of the pairs of a Double Star, and in every case
+the smaller one of the two, the larger being red, orange, or yellow. One
+of the most exquisite of these is [Greek: beta] Cygni, a Double Star, the
+larger one being golden yellow, the smaller light blue. With a telescope
+the effect is very beautiful, but it must be magnificent if one could
+only see it from a lesser distance.
+
+Double Stars occur in considerable numbers. In some cases indeed the
+relation may only be apparent, one being really far in front of the
+other. In very many cases, however, the association is real, and they
+revolve round one another. In some cases the period may extend to
+thousands of years; for the distance which separates them is enormous,
+and, even when with a powerful telescope it is indicated only by a
+narrow dark line, amounts to hundreds of millions of miles. The Pole
+Star itself is double. Andromeda is triple, with perhaps a fourth dark
+and therefore invisible companion. These dark bodies have a special
+interest, since it is impossible not to ask ourselves whether some at
+any rate of them may not be inhabited. In [Greek: epsilon] Lyrae there
+are two, each again being itself double. [Greek: xi] Cancri, and
+probably also [Greek: theta] Orionis, consist of six stars, and from
+such a group we pass on to Star Clusters in which the number is very
+considerable. The cluster in Hercules consists of from 1000 to 4000. A
+stellar swarm in the Southern Cross contains several hundred stars of
+various colours, red, green, greenish blue, and blue closely thronged
+together, so that they have been compared to a "superb piece of fancy
+jewellery."[73]
+
+The cluster in the Sword Handle of Perseus contains innumerable stars,
+many doubtless as brilliant as our Sun. We ourselves probably form a
+part of such a cluster. The Milky Way itself, as we know, entirely
+surrounds us; it is evident, therefore, that the Sun, and of course we
+ourselves, actually lie in it. It is, therefore, a Star Cluster, one of
+countless numbers, and containing our Sun as a single unit.
+
+It has as yet been found impossible to determine even approximately the
+distance of these Star Clusters.
+
+
+NEBULAE
+
+From Stars we pass insensibly to Nebulae, which are so far away that
+their distance is at present quite immeasurable. All that we can do is
+to fix a minimum, and this is so great that it is useless to express it
+in miles. Astronomers, therefore, take the velocity of light as a unit.
+It travels at the rate of 180,000 miles a second, and even at this
+enormous velocity it must have taken hundreds of years to reach us, so
+that we see them not as they now are but as they were hundreds of years
+ago.
+
+It is no wonder, therefore, that in many of these clusters it is
+impossible to distinguish the separate stars of which they are composed.
+As, however, our telescopes are improved, more and more clusters are
+being resolved. Photography also comes to our aid, and, as already
+mentioned, by long exposure stars can be made visible which are quite
+imperceptible to the eye, even with aid of the most powerful telescope.
+
+Spectrum analysis also seems to show that such a nebula as that in
+Andromeda, which with our most powerful instruments appears only as a
+mere cloud, is really a vast cluster of stellar points.
+
+This, however, by no means applies to all the nebulae. The spectrum of a
+star is a bright band of colour crossed by dark lines; that of a gaseous
+nebula consists of bright lines. This test has been made use of, and
+indicates that some of the nebulae are really immense masses of
+incandescent and very attenuated gas; very possibly, however, in a
+condition of which we have no experience, and arranged in discs, bands,
+rings, chains, wisps, knots, rays, curves, ovals, spirals, loops,
+wreaths, fans, brushes, sprays, lace, waves, and clouds. Huggins has
+shown that many of them are really stupendous masses of glowing gas,
+especially of hydrogen, and perhaps of nitrogen, while the spectrum also
+shows other lines which perhaps may indicate some of the elements which,
+so far as our Earth is concerned, appear to be missing between hydrogen
+and lithium. Many of the nebulae are exquisitely beautiful, and their
+colour very varied.
+
+In some cases, moreover, nebulae seem to be gradually condensing into
+groups of stars, and in many cases it is difficult to say whether we
+should consider a given group as a cluster of stars surrounded by
+nebulous matter or a gaseous nebula condensed here and there into stars.
+
+"Besides the single Sun," says Proctor, "the universe contains groups
+and systems and streams of primary suns; there are galaxies of minor
+orbs; there are clustering stellar aggregations showing every variety of
+richness, of figure, and of distribution; there are all the various
+forms of star cloudlets, resolvable and irresolvable, circular,
+elliptical, and spiral; and lastly, there are irregular masses of
+luminous gas clinging in fantastic convolutions around stars and star
+systems. Nor is it unsafe to assert that other forms and varieties of
+structure will yet be discovered, or that hundreds more exist which we
+may never hope to recognise."
+
+Nor is it only as regards the magnitude and distances of the heavenly
+bodies that we are lost in amazement and admiration. The lapse of time
+is a grander element in Astronomy even than in Geology, and dates back
+long before Geology begins. We must figure to ourselves a time when the
+solid matter which now composes our Earth was part of a continuous and
+intensely heated gaseous body, which extended from the centre of the Sun
+to beyond the orbit of Neptune, and had, therefore, a diameter of more
+than 6,000,000,000 miles.
+
+As this slowly contracted, Neptune was detached, first perhaps as a
+ring, and then as a spherical body. Ages after this Uranus broke away.
+
+Then after another incalculable period Saturn followed suit, and here
+the tendencies to coherence and disruption were so evenly balanced that
+to this day a portion circulates as rings round the main body instead of
+being broken up into satellites. Again after successive intervals
+Jupiter, Mars, the Asteroids, the Earth, Venus, and Mercury all passed
+through the same marvellous phases. The time which these changes would
+have required must have been incalculable, and they all of course
+preceded, and preceded again by another incalculable period, the very
+commencement of that geological history which itself indicates a lapse
+of time greater than human imagination can realise.
+
+Thus, then, however far we penetrate in time or in space, we find
+ourselves surrounded by mystery. Just as in time we can form no idea of
+a commencement, no anticipation of an end, so space also extends around
+us, boundless in all directions. Our little Earth revolves round the
+mighty Sun; the Sun itself and the whole solar system are moving with
+inconceivable velocity towards a point in the constellation of Hercules;
+together with all the nearer stars it forms a cluster in the heavens,
+which appears to our eyes as the Milky Way; while outside our star
+cluster again are innumerable others, which far transcend, alike in
+magnitude, in grandeur, and in distance, the feeble powers of our finite
+imagination.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[66] Ball, _Story of the Heavens_.
+
+[67] Ball, _Story of the Heavens_.
+
+[68] Some authorities estimate it even higher.
+
+[69] Ball.
+
+[70] Hamerton, _Landscape_.
+
+[71] Humboldt, _Travels_.
+
+[72] Clarke, _System of the Stars_.
+
+[73] Kosmos.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Beauties of Nature, by Sir John Lubbock
+
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