[Illustration: XVII
AURORA BOREALIS]
PETER PARLEY'S WONDERS
OF THE
EARTH, SEA, AND SKY.
EDITED BY THE REV. T. WILSON.
A New Edition,
WITH ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS.
LONDON:
DARTON AND CLARK, HOLBORN HILL.
Entered at Stationers' Hall.
TO
GEORGE BIRKBECK, Esq. M.D., F.G.S.,
PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION,
AS A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT
FOR
HIS BENEVOLENT AND EFFECTUAL ENDEAVOURS TO PROMOTE THE
DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE,
This Little Work
IS,
WITH PERMISSION, DEDICATED
BY THE EDITOR.
PREFACE.
It seems to me that there is something very unreasonable in the plan
of a great many of the books intended to introduce young people to
the various branches of Natural History, which have been recently
published. The chief aim of their authors seems to have been to
combine brevity with comprehensiveness. Brevity is, without doubt, a
great advantage, inasmuch as the proverb is true, that a great book
is a great evil; but in my opinion comprehensiveness ought not to be
attempted in books intended for children. If it were desirable, I
might indeed confidently say, that it can never be obtained within
the necessary limits; and the attempt to effect it, will very often
reduce the work to a mere dry table of classification. However neat and
systematic tables of genera and species, and lists of names may look,
they can never convey to the young the elements of sound scientific
method; and will seldom fail in being useless or disgusting to the
mind, at an age when it is seeking for that sort of knowledge which
will exercise the understanding, without burdening the memory. This
healthy appetite ought to be carefully cultivated; and I am satisfied
that if it were so, from the earliest stage of education, we should
have but few complaints of bad memories. The memory is apt to vanish
from those who would make an idol of it; and I am disposed to think
that its cultivation may very safely be omitted, as a direct object
of education, if due care is taken to keep the understanding active,
and to present the matter on which it is to be engaged in the most
entertaining form possible. In fact, what is often termed "a good
memory," that is, a ready recollection independent of the connections
which are made solely by the understanding, is, as we may see by its
fruits in many persons of feeble intellect, by no means desirable. An
apt example of such a memory is afforded, in what Dame Quickly says
to Sir John Falstaff, when she reminds him of a mixed multitude of
unimportant circumstances, with no other principle of arrangement or
connection, than what was supplied by proximity of time and place.
I would not, however, willingly be supposed to recommend books,
in which systematic arrangement, or the most scrupulous regard to
accurate statement, is overlooked. I had particularly in view that
numerous class of little books, which under various names come out in
series, each volume professing in a manner to comprise _the whole_
of the branch of Natural History which may be the subject of it, by
its containing a mere arrangement of the names of the phenomena which
the branch includes. There is another and widely different class of
books, in which stories from travellers and other idle gossip of the
like kind, are compiled in an undigested mass, without regard to
the different names by which the same thing may be called, and not
unfrequently to a common respect for truth, which is not much less to
be deprecated.
And yet to books of this latter description, often of a very
unworthy character, it is that many of us owe the first calling into
consciousness of that taste which may have made us travellers or
naturalists, or lovers of knowledge. I wish that, without copying the
example of their authors, we should learn a lesson from them, and put
it in practice, by striving to form a taste to enjoy knowledge in them
we have to teach, before we attempt any mode of systematic instruction.
The following little book has been written under the impressions
which I have here stated. I have selected a few of such phenomena
of the Kingdoms of Nature, as seemed to me to have in them most to
excite wonder and admiration; and I have sought to convey distinct
notions with the least possible use of technical language; neither
forgetting the connection of things, nor overloading the statements
with matters that are merely expletive of an arbitrary system. How far
I may have succeeded, is for my little friends, and their instructors,
who have approved of my other books, to decide. Wishing the former as
much pleasure in the reading, as I have had, for their sakes, in the
writing, I take my leave of them.
P. P.
CONTENTS.
PART I.--WONDERS OF THE EARTH.
Blah. Page
Chap. I. Parley explains how the Strata of the Earth are placed 1
Chap. II. What creatures once lived where Dorsetshire now is 5
The Icthyosaurus 6
The Plesiosaurus 14
The Pterodactyle, &c. 17
Chap. III. What sort of a place once existed where the neighbourhood
of Paris is now, and the animals that lived there 21
The Palæotherium 22
The Anoplotherium, &c. 25
The Dinotherium 26
Chap. IV. Of Great Caverns in England and Germany, filled with
bones of wild animals 30
Dr. Buckland's account of the great cave of Gaylenreuth 31
Chap. V. Of other animals that once lived in England and elsewhere
The Elephant 34
The Gigantic Elk 38
The Megatherium 39
The Beaver 41
The Dodo 42
Chap. VI. Parley describes Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Hot Springs 47
Earthquake of Calabria 49
Volcanoes 61
The way in which an Eruption takes place 63
Lava Streams 65
Great Lava Streams from Skapta Jokul, in Iceland 69
Alluvions 70
The Great Volcano Kirauea, in the island of Hawaii 71
Of the formation of new islands 76
Parley describes his visit to the Geysers of Iceland 78
The Sulphur Mountains and Sulphur Springs 87
How the Geysers may be caused 89
Chap. VII. Of the Rocks called Basaltic 92
Parley's visit to Staffa 93
The Giant's Causeway 101
Chap. VIII. Why Parley believes that there is a great source of
heat within the globe 103
Chap. IX. Parley tells something about the history of Mount
Vesuvius 111
The Grotto del Cano 112
Of the death of Pliny, the Naturalist 115
Herculaneum and Pompeii 124
Chap. X. Parley describes the Falls of Niagara 135
PART II.--WONDERS OF THE SEA.
Chap. I. Parley tells about the Frozen Ocean 144
Icebergs 146
Parley's dangerous situation on an Iceberg 150
Chap. II. The story of a long journey over the ice with some
Esquimaux 152
Chap. III. The journey over the ice, continued 167
Chap. IV. The Whale 178
The mode of catching Whales 183
Character of the Whale 187
Chap. V. A voyage on a Tropical Sea 190
Trade Winds and Monsoons 191
Chap. VI. The Waterspout 194
How Parley supposes Waterspouts to be caused 199
Chap. VII. Coral Reefs and Islands 203
Various kinds of Coral 204
The Coral-Making Polypes 206
Forms of the Coral Reefs 211
Parley's first sight of one 213
Chap. VIII. Luminous appearance of the sea 221
Animals by which it is occasioned, and the Acalepha
in particular 223
Chap. IX. The Cuttle Fish 231
The Octopus 235
Chap. X. The Paper Nautilus, or Argonaut 239
How Parley saw one sailing on the sea 241
The Pearly Nautilus 245
The Nautilus Spirula 248
PART III.--WONDERS OF THE SKY.
Chap. I. The Colour of the Sky 250
Chap. II. The Aurora Borealis 254
Chap. III. Parley tells of some other Meteors
Parhelia or Mock Suns 263
Ignes Fatui 264
Experiment to show the cause 266
Chap. IV. Shooting Stars 267
What they are 269
Chap. V. Meteoric Stones, or Aerolites 273
How they are caused 277
Chap. VI. Bloody Rain 280
Red Snow 281
Showers of Frogs and Fish 282
Chap. VII. The Spectre of the Brocken 285
Chap. VIII. Some other instances of Aerial Reflection
Souter Fell 291
What a Friend of Parley's saw 293
Dover Castle 293
What Humboldt saw 294
What Captain Scoresby saw 295
Apparent distance of Object 296
Chap. IX. Fata Morgana 299
The Mirage 299
Chap. X. How Parley supposes these appearances to be produced 303
Refraction 305
Reflection 311
Conclusion.
Of some other Wonders, &c.
Section I. How we ought to think upon what we know 314
II. Ever Part of the Earth a Home for something 316
III. Birds of Passage, Dormice, and Snails 318
IV. The Rein-deer--the Camel 322
V. Benefit of the difference of Climate 324
VI. The same Organs in different Animals developed in
various modes and degrees--the Acalepha, Actinia,
and Sepia 326
VII. How the Stars and we are connected together--
Gravitation--Aerolites 330
VIII. Dew 332
IX. How every thing is endowed with a tendency to preserve
its own life, and the existence of its race 334
X. The Bud of the Poppy--long retention of life by seeds
and roots 336
XI. Of Seeds which are furnished with wings or sails 339
XII. Conclusion of the conclusion 340
List of Plates.
PLATE Page
I. EXTINCT ANIMALS THAT ONCE LIVED WHERE DORSETSHIRE NOW IS 5
II. EXTINCT ANIMALS THAT ONCE LIVED WHERE PARIS NOW IS 21
III. GREAT BONE CAVERN OF GAYLENREUTH 30
IV. GIGANTIC ELK AND MEGATHERIUM 38
V. VESUVIUS, WITH THE PINE-TREE CLOUD 64
VI. VESUVIUS IN ERUPTION AT NIGHT 66
VII. THE GEYSERS OF ICELAND 78
VIII. ISLAND OF STAFFA 93
IX. FINGAL'S CAVE 97
X. FORUM OF POMPEII 131
XI. GREAT FALL OF NIAGARA 135
XII. ESCAPE ON THE ICE 157
XIII. THE WATER-SPOUT 194
XIV. ACTINIÆ--CORAL BUILDERS 206
XV. SEPIAS 231
XVI. NAUTILUS 239
XVII. AURORA BOREALIS (FRONTISPIECE.)
XVIII. SPECTRE OF THE BROCKEN 285
XIX. DOVER CASTLE 293
XX. FATA MORGANA 299
WONDERS OF THE EARTH,
SEA, AND SKY.
PART I.
WONDERS OF THE EARTH.
CHAPTER I.
PARLEY EXPLAINS HOW THE STRATA OF THE EARTH ARE PLACED.
I am now going to tell you, my young friends, about some of the
wonderful things in the earth, sea, and sky. A great number of them I
have seen myself in my travels through various countries, and others I
have only read of; but I shall tell you nothing that is not strictly
true, for I do not wish so much to astonish you as to make you take
pleasure in contemplating the works of God, and to increase your
knowledge of His goodness, wisdom, and power.
I shall begin with some of the wonders of the earth which, as I suppose
you know, belong to the branch of natural history which is called
geology; and to enable you to understand what follows, I must first
explain how the materials which compose the ground you tread upon are
arranged.
If you hastily travel over any extensive tract of country, such as that
between New York and Philadelphia, or between London and Bristol, you
might think that all the different substances, clay, chalk, limestone,
and granite, were irregularly mixed together. This is, however, not
the case, when taken on a great scale; for if you more carefully
examine, you will find that the various sorts of earth are disposed in
layers, or _strata_, and that a uniform order of arrangement is nearly
preserved.
If these layers were perfectly horizontal, laid one over another like
the coats of an onion, we should have to dig through one before we
could get to the second, and our knowledge of what the globe consists,
would be much more limited than it is; for the greatest depth to which
men have descended in the deepest mines, is not much greater than the
thickness of one of the strata.
But, instead of this, the surface is broken up by some force from
beneath elevating portions, so as to form mountains and hills; and in
consequence of this the edges of the strata appear on the surface one
after another; just as you would see the edges of a row of bricks that
had been set up on their ends, and then the last one thrown down so as
to push down all the others.
[Illustration]
This is the way in which the strata are placed in the neighbourhood of
Weymouth.
[Illustration]
The chief reason why I wished you to understand this is, that you
may see how it is known that one stratum is older than another. It
is evident that the substance marked _a_, in the section, which
is limestone, must have been deposited before _b_, while _b_ must
certainly be older than _c_.
Now in most of the strata above the granite, which is nearly always in
the position of the oldest formation, there are found various shells,
plants, and bones of animals; and where certain remains of different
animals or vegetables are found in one stratum, it is concluded that
they must have been living about the same time.
Most of the animals of the older strata were different in form from any
at present known to exist; and some of them are very remarkable, and if
they were alive now, would seem to us very strange and awkward.
[Illustration: PLATE I
EXTINCT ANIMALS.]