"Lame is Art, and her endeavour

Follows Nature's course but slowly,

Guessing, toiling, seeking, ever,

Still improving, perfect never.

Little Nautilus, thou showest

Deeper wisdom than thou knowest;

Lore, which man should study slowly;

Bold faith and cheer,

Small marinere.

Are thine within thy pearly dwelling;

Thine, a law of life compelling

Obedience, perfect, simple, glad and free,

To the Great Will that animates the sea."

(_Hartley Coleridge._)

You should read these exquisite lines with deep attention. There is an

allusion in the second verse to the common notion that the form of a

ship was first taken from the Nautilus; and, indeed, there is a very

distinct resemblance in a part of the shell to the keel, and in another

part to the poop. The sails and oars you will see best in the picture.

Do you think that if the Sepia were a murderer and a thief, in

possession of what does not belong to him, according to the notion of

some naturalists which I was telling you of just now, that he could be

so happy,--so in every way at home,--in his silver boat? If you had

seen him as I did, I am sure you would agree with me in saying that he

could not be any other than the rightful owner.

After "the small marinere" had sailed some distance, he folded up his

sails and packed them and his oars close into his shell, and went down

like a stone.

The Paper Nautilus is mostly found in hot climates. It is never seen

on the surface unless at a long distance from land, and it is very

shy of danger, so that it is not often you can get such a good chance

of observing one as I had. I have been told by a person who was to be

trusted, that sometimes the Sepia will lay hold of a piece of drift

wood, a large leaf, or any other floating substance, and use it as a

raft, when it is not inclined to take the trouble of balancing its

shell with its feet, and spreading its sails.

And now, my little friends, what I have told you respecting these

marvellous Sepias, reminds me of something on which I may give you a

useful caution. Many people are very fond of congratulating you on

the great wisdom and knowledge of the times in which you live, and

of making very light of what the ancients knew, or thought they knew,

especially respecting natural history. In doing this they are not

just to those who lived before us, and very often deceive themselves

in regard to the present state of our knowledge. Aristotle, the tutor

of Alexander the Great, did more in investigating the nature of the

Nautilus, and all other kinds of Cuttle fish, than any other naturalist

has done, and in his writings, (if you could read them,) you might find

nearly all the particulars I have mentioned, and a great many besides.

As to some foolish things that may be found related by him and other

old writers, which are held up for your ridicule, it is not at all

unlikely that future ages may find flaws and follies in what writings

we may leave behind us, as we now do in what our predecessors have left

us.

THE PEARLY NAUTILUS, &C.

There is another kind of Nautilus, the shell of which is very strong,

and marked with brown streaks. You will see it in plate XV, fig.

4. It also differs from the Paper Nautilus, in being divided into a

succession of cells or chambers, in this manner.

[Illustration]

In this respect it is like the immense family of extinct shells called

Ammonites, or Cornua Ammonis; but the partitions of the chambers of the

latter are undulated, thus

[Illustration]

As the cells are mostly filled with various hard earthy substances,

so as to form one solid mass, they used to be called snake-stones,

because it was fancied they were petrified snakes. There are a great

number of them on the coast of Yorkshire, and the story was once

believed that the place had been infested with an immense quantity of

snakes which were changed into stone at the prayer of St. Hilda. What I

am going to tell you, relates both to the Ammonites and the Nautilus.

If you examine the first cut, you will see small openings connecting

all the cells with each other, and the continuous passage thus formed

through the whole of the shell, is called the siphuncle. The inhabitant

of the shell is an animal of the Sepia kind, but without the webs which

serve the Paper Nautilus for sails, and with its arms not so long. It

always resides in the outermost chamber, and it is supposed that it

forms a new partition every year, so that the age of the animal may be

known by counting the number of chambers.

When the Pearly Nautilus wishes to rise to the surface, it pumps out

the water from its shell through the siphuncle, and makes itself light.

It floats often with its shell upwards, and at other times it moves

along backwards for a considerable distance, by means of spouting out

water over the front edge of the shell. It never floats with the same

beautiful stateliness as the Argonaut.

There is also the pretty little shell of the Nautilus Spirula, not much

larger than a shilling, plate XVI, fig. 5, which does not contain a

fish, but is merely annexed to the body of a Sepia, as is represented,

fig. 6. Its use appears to be just the same as that of the shell of the

Pearly Nautilus, to answer the purpose of a float.

These two kinds are very rarely seen floating on the surface, though

there must be many of both of them in the ocean, from the number of

their empty shells which are found. Perhaps this arises from their not

being so buoyant as the Argonauts, and hence they more readily dip

under the surface at the approach of a vessel.

It is now time for us to bid adieu to the sea and its wonderful

inhabitants, since I have promised to tell you of some of the wonders

of the sky, (though I remember a great many more things that I should

like to tell you of).

[Illustration]

PART III.

WONDERS OF THE SKY.

CHAPTER I.

COLOUR OF THE SKY.

Before I tell you of some of the wonders of the sky, I should like to

tell you what the sky is: it is true you know pretty nearly as much as

I do about it, but you perhaps have not thought so much on what you

know. The sky is everything above our heads which is not connected with

the earth: thus, you may speak of a cloudy sky, or a clear sky; or of

the stars, sun, and moon, being in the sky.

It may however be more proper to restrict the word to the blue

appearance which the atmosphere above us assumes when it is not

concealed by clouds. This appearance is caused by looking into the

air, which surrounds the globe to the height of forty or fifty miles

above its surface, and not by anything which exists above it; for

mountains, when seen from a great distance, appear of the same colour,

evidently from the extent of the air between the spectator and them.

Climate and the season of the year, have a considerable influence on

the colour of the sky. You know what a rich full blue is over us in the

hot months of summer; and I hope you have before now enjoyed the pale

blue of a clear winter's day, when the brown and bare branches of the

trees have showed against it, and all the rivers and ponds have been

frozen as solid as a stone pavement. When I see some of you sliding and

skating on the glassy ice, at such times I am ready to wish I was a boy

again, to join in your pleasures. However, I have had my turn, and old

age has its pleasures as well as youth, only we are apt to get into a

way of looking at all past times as happier than the present, which

is both foolish and wicked. If we were to keep ourselves diligently

engaged in doing our duty, we should always be happy, whether old or

young.

But the darkest blue sky you have ever seen in your country, is light

compared with the skies of hot climates. In them you often see a deep

rich indigo; at other times you are under a canopy of reddish orange,

almost copper colour, like that which was called in the poem I quoted

to you when describing the tropical sea, "a hot and copper sky."

The elevation of the observer above the surface of the earth, is

likewise another cause of variation. I have never myself ascended a

mountain sufficiently high to see this, but I have been told by a

gentleman who had been at the top of Mont Blanc, that the sky there

looked nearly black.

As you must have seen them yourselves, I need only remind you of the

glorious changes of colour by the alteration of the light at the

different times of day. I hope none of you are so lazy as not often

to have enjoyed the rosy mornings; then there is the grey twilight of

evening, and the splendours of the setting sun in the west, round which

the deep orange shades off into the most delicate yellow, which again

glides imperceptibly into pale blue towards the east. Then the moon,

when she has the heavens all to herself, and the stars, when they are

shining out boldly in her absence, each make the sky so beautiful, and

are so beautiful in themselves, that one cannot exceed the other.

I love to look at the moon when the winds rend the clouds asunder, and

drive them tumultuously along, and you see her now and then in the

dark blue depths between. But if I were to tell you all the ordinary

appearances in the sky which I love, I should leave no room to describe

its wonders; which will not do, because I meant this book to give you

an account of things which most of you have not seen.

CHAPTER II.

THE AURORA BOREALIS.

During the winter months in the Polar Regions, the sun never rises

above the horizon; and during summer it performs in appearance a little

circle round the pole of the Heavens, and never goes out of sight.

You may learn in what manner this is occasioned by the position of

those countries on the surface of the earth, from the book called "The

Wonders of the Telescope."

The year is thus in reality divided into one long day and one long

night. While the night continues, the ground is covered with snow, and

no vegetable life is to be seen, and the animals have much to do to

support themselves on what fish they may chance to pick up on the sea

shore, by preying on each other, or else by scraping away the snow to

get at that scanty vegetation which exists underneath. The odd-looking

Esquimaux and Greenlanders would indeed be very badly off, if it

were not for the beautiful atmospheric phenomena which I am going to

describe.

[Illustration]

There are seldom intervals of many hours which are not illuminated by

these beautiful meteors, called Auroræ Boreales, or Northern Lights,

occurring in a never-ending variety of form, colour, and intensity.

They generally have a tendency to form an irregular arch, and one side

of them is always much better defined than the other. The more ragged

side sends out brilliant corruscations, shooting out into the sharpest

angles.

Sir John Ross describes one which was nearly the colour of the full

moon, and of equal brightness, in the form of a well-defined arch

extending quite across the heavens, and reminded him of what he

conceived must be the effect of Saturn's ring seen by the inhabitants

of that planet from its surface. It lasted for several hours, and at

last broke up as it were into fragments of light, and disappeared.

The distinctness of its form is much influenced by the wind, and when

the air becomes agitated, showers of rays spread out in every direction

with the quickness of lightning. Sir Edward Parry describes long bands

of light extending with immense rapidity, but always appearing to form

round a fixed point, something like a riband held in the hand and

shaken with an undulatory motion.

Little scraps of the brightest light dart about in the heavens, called

by the sailors, "merry dancers." In stormy weather these wild little

things assume all manner of fanciful shapes; sometimes they shoot like

rockets across the firmament, then take a zigzag or waving direction,

and frequently seem to become invisible, and shine out again a little

further on. The Esquimaux say that these appearances are the spirits

of their ancestors playing at ball with the head of a Walrus! You may

perhaps laugh at this odd notion, and I will laugh with you, if you

will learn a lesson from it. You see that men in various states of

society, are always looking out for the appearance of spiritual beings,

and therefore that this disposition is a part of their constitution

which is given them by God: and although their fancies may form strange

notions at times, yet the exercise of the faculty, in some way or

other, is very important. Men had much better think that they see

spirits in the Aurora Borealis, and that they hear them in the wind,

than forget that there are such things as spirits, and that they have

spirits within them, which will live when their bodies are turned into

dust.

But for you, my little friends, who are better instructed, there is no

occasion to think you can see or hear spirits with your bodily ears

and eyes; but I trust you will always _feel_ inwardly that there are

spirits within you and around you, and one Great Spirit above you.

The most beautiful form of the Aurora, is called the Corona. It is

a luminous ring generally just overhead, with long distinct rays

very slender, but extremely bright, diverging from it all round. It

only lasts a few seconds, and then seems to burst like a firework,

scattering sparks in all directions.

The stars mostly shine through the Aurora, as through a veil of thin

gauze. The darkness of the sky, with the stars shining in it above

and below, produces a most astonishing effect, which you may see very

well represented in the frontispiece, where there is depicted a small

portion of the middle of a luminous arch, very clearly defined.

It was considered, till quite lately, that the Aurora in the Northern

regions, made a sort of rushing and rattling noise. This, however,

seems to be false, for Captain Lyons used to stand on the ice with his

ears uncovered till they were nearly frost-bitten, listening with the

utmost attention, but he could never hear the slightest sound. A very

intelligent Danish traveller says, that he has often heard the sound,

but that he is convinced of its being produced by the wind blowing upon

the ice. The reason of its being heard while the Aurora is shining,

seems to be that the Aurora often appears when it is windy, or has

something to do with a change of weather, which also occasions the

noise.

The Aurora often appears in this country, but not with nearly so much

brilliancy or frequency, as in more northern countries. I have,

however, seen it very beautifully developed in light tints of red,

yellow, and green, but very seldom with a clear outline and determinate

form. It appears that it has been observed here much oftener than

formerly, within the last hundred years, and this applies to nearly

the whole of Europe, where it occurs. In Sweden, before the year 1716,

it was a great rarity, and about the same time the inhabitants of

Iceland were alarmed at its becoming so much more frequent than it had

previously been, supposing that it portended some great misfortunes to

be coming upon them. A similar fancy prevailed amongst ignorant persons

in this country, and I have heard that people used to imagine that the

appearance was a sign of an approaching war.

I have very little to say to you respecting the cause of this wonderful

phenomenon. The most reasonable notion seems to be, that it is

occasioned by electric fluid playing about, and diffusing itself in

the upper regions of the atmosphere, where the air is very thin. A

similar kind of light is produced by a very pretty experiment, which

consists in sending an electric spark through a long glass vessel, from

which the air has been exhausted. When the air is more compressed,

as it is near the surface of the earth, the electric fluid does not

so spread itself abroad, but moves in more direct lines, and in

more compact masses, as you may see in lightning, or in the sparks

of an electrifying machine sent into the atmosphere under ordinary

circumstances of density.

CHAPTER III.

PARLEY TELLS OF SOME OTHER METEORS.

PARHELIA OR MOCK SUNS.

There are a great many very wonderful appearances in a polar sky,

besides the Aurora Borealis. Perhaps the most remarkable of these are

Parhelia, or "mock suns," which are often seen to shine in various

parts of the sky. As many as six of them are sometimes seen at once,

all shining with great brilliancy. They are generally brightest just

before day-break, and fade away as the true sun ascends.

Parhelia have also been seen at different times on the continent of

Europe. At Marienberg, in Prussia, many years ago, towards evening,

one was observed which seemed attached to a small white cloud that

was situated just below the sun. It was at first of a reddish colour,

but as the sun descended towards it, it assumed the aspect of the sun

itself.

Three at once were seen at Sudbury, in Suffolk, and two were seen in a

part of Rutlandshire. There are recorded many other appearances of this

remarkable phenomenon, but they do not seem to differ much from each

other.

There is great uncertainty as to what occasions these mock suns.

Perhaps they are merely reflections of the image of the true sun

upon reflecting clouds, such as I shall describe to you presently.

The circumstance that seems to render this probable, is that they

sometimes become brighter as the sun approaches them, which cannot

easily be accounted for by supposing them to have any source of light

in themselves. On the contrary, their fading away at times as he rises,

may be occasioned by the clouds on which they are reflected, becoming

rarified; or the effect may be only comparative, just as the moon grows

paler, and at last disappears, as day comes on. Thus you see the two

opposite effects of the sun's approach may be equally well accounted

for, on the supposition of the Parhelia being mere reflections of the

sun, and I do not think that they could on any other.

IGNES FATUI.

The name Ignis Fatuus, or False Fire, is applied to a flickering,

bluish light, which is often seen in marshy districts, and in damp

burial grounds, either on the surface of the earth or only a small

distance above it. So you see it is not strictly a wonder of the sky;

but I introduce it here because it seems to be somewhat similar to some

of the higher meteors, in the manner in which it is occasioned.

A great many entertaining stories are told of persons having mistaken

these Ignes Fatui for real lights, and it is said that benighted

travellers have frequently been led far astray by them. They are

vulgarly called in various parts of the country, Will-o'-the-Whisp,

Jack-o'-the-Lantern, Peg with her Lantern, and in burying grounds in

Scotland, Grave Candles; and strange superstitious notions are annexed

to them. They keep constantly in motion; now rising a few feet above

the earth, now sinking to the surface; now seeming to be close to you,

disappearing in an instant, and shining out at some distance; at times

one of them dividing into two, or two seeming to join into one.

I will presently tell you how you can try a simple experiment,

that will go a great way towards accounting for these idle

Will-o'-the-Whisps. The inflammable gas called Hydrogen, is copiously

produced by the decomposition of animal and vegetable bodies. The

substance called Phosphorus, is contained in animal bodies, and is set

at liberty in small quantities by their decomposition. When phosphorus

and hydrogen come together under certain circumstances, they mix, and

a gas called Phosphuretted Hydrogen is the result.

There is, therefore, no difficulty in supposing that most marshy

grounds may produce this gas; and this experiment will show that it is

very likely that the Will-o'-the-Whisp is nothing more.

Hydrogen may be obtained by pouring diluted Sulphuric acid on small

pieces of Iron or Zinc. If you mix very small pieces of Phosphorus

with very small pieces of Zinc, and put them into a glass, and pour

over them the acid, Phosphuretted Hydrogen will be sent off, and the

surface of the acid will be covered with a beautiful blue flame of

the very colour of the Ignis Fatuus. The cause of the flame is, that

the phosphuretted hydrogen is so wonderfully inflammable, that the

moment it comes into air of a common temperature, it bursts into flame.

If you try this experiment, you will see how likely it is that the

Will-o'-the-Whisp is an escape of this gas from the surface of the

earth.

CHAPTER IV.

SHOOTING STARS.

There are few of you who have not seen _falling_ or _shooting stars_,

as they are called. Perhaps some of you have loved to walk out when the

stars have been shining brightly in the blue sky overhead, to watch for

these shy wanderers that seem to come from no where, just to draw a

line of silver light across the heavens, and then disappear. When I was

a little child, I used to think that each appearance of this kind was

the destruction of one of the countless worlds that surround us, and

possibly the same fancy may, at some time or other, have occurred to

you.

If you have taken delight in watching for them, you have many a

time been disappointed, because they would not show themselves more

frequently. It is, for the most part, only now and then that you can

catch sight of one; but there have been some occasions on which they

have appeared in immense numbers.

The most astonishing multitude of them on record, appeared in the year

1833, in the night of the 13th of November, and was seen over nearly

the whole of North America, from the Gulf of Mexico to Baffin's Bay.

They came from all quarters of the Heavens, and are said at one time

to have been half as thick as the flakes in a heavy fall of snow. It

was calculated, on the most moderate grounds, that 36,000 must have

appeared every hour for seven hours successively.

Previously, in the year 1799, also on the 13th of November, a similar

phenomenon was observed by Humboldt, the celebrated traveller, by some

Moravian Missionaries in Greenland, and by many persons in Germany.

In the year 1822, on the same day of the same month, almost as great a

number were seen in several parts of Europe and Asia.

In the year 1831, a French Officer states, that on the 13th of

November, while off the coast of Spain, he saw on an average more than

two a minute during several hours of the night.

Similar observations were made in the year 1835, in some parts of

France; and from several other instances, there seems to be good reason

for believing that there are more falling stars about the middle of

November, than during any other part of the year.

There have been a great many vague and silly notions devised to account

for these remarkable phenomena, and some that are not unreasonable,

though none perhaps quite satisfactory. It has been considered that

they were clouds of hydrogen gas, suddenly ignited by electricity,

within the range of our own atmosphere, and indeed only a very few

miles above the earth. Recent investigations have, however, rendered

it most probable that they are at very considerable elevations, often

as much as 500 miles above us.

But supposing the circumstance of great multitudes of them appearing

just at one particular period of the year, to be a fact, a new light

is thrown upon their origin which must then be considered as decidedly

of an astronomical character. The theory which has been proposed,

is this:--that immense quantities of fragments of matter revolve in

regular orbits in our solar system in various planes, and that on

the 13th of November the earth passes near the orbit in which the

greatest number of such fragments move. Whether they are matter in a

gaseous state, or approaching it, or quite solid; or whether they are

constantly illuminated, or are only rendered luminous by their relation

to other bodies, such as reflection, or meeting with electric fluid,

and so becoming ignited, are questions which must remain unanswered.

There may be a slight evidence in favour of the notion of their

light not being permanent in themselves, from the fact of a French

naturalist having observed on the 17th of June in 1777, a very large

number of small black spots pass over the sun's disc. If these spots

were really bodies, which under other circumstances would have been

falling stars, it should not be forgotten that the earth in June is

nearly in the opposite part of its orbit to that which it passes over

in November.

Well, after all, this is a very doubtful subject, and we may possibly

be very much out in our notions; but it is always worth while to see

which is the best of two theories, though there may be ever so little

to choose between them. We should make the best of what knowledge we

have, and never lazily satisfy ourselves by saying--"nobody can tell

which is true," which is almost as bad as being too obstinate and

dogmatical. For even if we adopt a conclusion which is wrong, we shall

be more ready to receive the truth when our knowledge may be increased,

than if we have no conclusion at all. One of the wisest men who ever

lived, said--"Truth comes more easily out of positive error than out of

confusion."

You who have been interested with what I have told you respecting

shooting stars, should compare with it what I shall tell you in my next

chapter.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER V.

METEORIC STONES OR AEROLITES.

There were a great many accounts in very early times, of stones having

fallen from the sky. In China and some other eastern nations, they have

long had a notion that such occurrences were connected with political

events, and accordingly they have kept careful records of what they

have known to fall for centuries back. This was a vain superstition,

but it was not more vain than the incredulity with which these reports

were received by nearly all the learned of Europe, till about forty

years ago. They denied the existence of aerolites, for no other reason

than because they had not seen them.

Some new statements attracted the attention of scientific men in

England and on the Continent, to the subject, about the beginning of

the present century, and the conclusion of their researches was, that

stones of various sizes do, in reality, not unfrequently fall from

above to the earth.

It appears that sometimes they fall singly, and at other times in great

numbers. I will relate to you some particular instances.

Near Benares, in the East Indies, in the month of December in the

year 1798, a very bright meteor seemed to fall to the earth, about 8

o'clock in the evening, and a loud noise like thunder was heard, which

was followed by a shock like the fall of heavy bodies. No cloud was to

be seen in the sky. The light of the meteor was so great as to cast

very distinct shadows of the objects in its way. The ground where it

appeared to have fallen, was afterwards examined, and was found to

be strangely torn up, having a number of small holes in it about six

inches deep. At the bottom of each hole was an aerolite weighing on

the average about one pound and a half.

In the year 1803, a similar event took place in Normandy. The meteor,

when first seen, must have been at a very great elevation, for the

inhabitants of two places more than a league distant from each other,

thought it was just over their respective towns. A hissing noise was

also heard, like that of a stone hurled by a sling. The space over

which the stones were dispersed, must have been more than eight miles

long and three wide. There were about two thousand of them collected,

of various weights, from two drachms to seventeen pounds.

Two stones, one of which weighed 200 and the other 300 pounds, fell in

the year 1668, at Verona. In 1680, several small ones are said to have

fallen in London. In 1628, several fell near Hatford, in Berkshire, one

of which weighed twenty-four pounds. In 1795, one weighing fifty-five

pounds, fell in Yorkshire. In 1810, a large aerolite fell, which was

the means of setting fire to five villages, and killing several

persons, in India. The largest of these are, however, small compared

with some which are said, and there is good reason to believe, to have

fallen from the sky, at some time or other. One of these, now at Bahia,

in Brazil, weighs 14,000 pounds.

This is a cut of an aerolite in the British Museum, which fell in

Buenos Ayres. It weighs 1,400 pounds.

[Illustration]

They are generally covered over with a thin crust, which is quite

black, and have a very rough surface. Internally, they are greyish

and of a granulated texture. By the help of a microscope, you may

distinguish roundish grains of a grey colour; others, like rusty iron;

some, angular pieces of perfectly metallic iron, which are attracted

by the magnet; and the rest is an earthy sort of cement in which the

others are embedded. Their chemical composition is very uniform, with

the exception of some that consist almost entirely of iron; of which

sort is the one represented on the preceding page.

Their descent appears to be quite independent of the state of the

atmosphere, from whence we may infer that the clouds have nothing at

all to do with them, but that they come from much higher regions.

When they have been found soon after falling, they have always been

extremely hot, and, as I told you of one in India, they have been known

to set on fire what they have come in contact with on the surface of

the earth.

There have been four schemes devised to account for the existence of

aerolites. It has been imagined that they were substances which had

been cast out by volcanoes to immense heights from distant parts of the

world; but this is disproved by the fact that no substance of the same

composition as aerolites, has ever been discovered amongst the known

products of volcanoes.

The celebrated Frenchman, La Place, thought they were substances that

had been cast out by volcanoes in the moon, with such violence as to

send them within the limits of the earth's attraction.

Some have conjectured that they are formed in the air by the

consolidation of clouds of gaseous matters exhaled from the earth;

but according to Sir H. Davy's view of the nature of flame, the light

of meteors must arise from the ignition of _solid_ bodies, so that

at least they must become solid while they are in the condition of

meteors, and long enough before they approach the earth.

I will tell you what I think, according to the present state of our

knowledge, the likeliest explanation, though I do not say that the

reasons in favour of it are very conclusive. You will remember what I

told you respecting the probability of falling stars being fragments

of matter revolving in orbits, which the earth at certain times comes

near in its annual course round the sun. I suppose shooting stars and

aerolites to be the same things, only they are shooting stars while

they show in the sky, and aerolites after they have reached the earth.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VI.

BLOODY RAIN.

There are on record several instances of a fall of red liquid exactly

resembling blood in appearance, which has often been accompanied by a

descent of aerolites. On the 15th of November 1755, there was a heavy

shower of this kind at Ulm, and several parts of Russia and Sweden.

There was another, March 5, 1803, in Apulia, where it seemed to fall

from a reddish black cloud. A descent of large quantities of dry dust

preceded the latter, and has on several occasions occurred by itself.

Before this phenomenon was understood, you will easily suppose that

it was looked upon as something dreadfully portentous, and the more

so from its occurring so unfrequently. It is now known to be closely

related to the aerolites, as you shall hear.

Some of the liquid, looking just like congealed blood, which fell at

Ulm, was examined. It was found to have a sour taste, owing, as it

was thought, to the presence of sulphuric acid. When dried, the dust

that remained, which constituted the colouring matter, was found to

be subject to magnetic attraction, and in other respects to resemble

the substance of the meteoric stones; so there can be no doubt that

the dust is nothing more than what is caused by the fracture or the

friction one against the other, of aerolites, and that the rain is made

red by the dust falling on the clouds, from which it is precipitated.

RED SNOW.

Several travellers have witnessed the existence of snow of a bright red

colour, in various parts of Baffin's Bay; and at Arezzo, in Italy, in

March 1813, there was a fall of it, which lasted many hours.

There seems some reason to suppose that in the latter instance the

redness was caused by aerolite dust; but a microscopic examination of

some of that at Baffin's Bay, has proved that its colour is owing to a

still more wonderful cause. The colouring particles are actually small

plants or fungi, which take root and grow, and bear seed upon the snow

itself!

What do you think of this Lilliputian vegetation? One full-sized plant

is no more than 1-1600th of an inch in diameter; and to cover a single

square inch of its _cold bed_ of snow, 2,500,000 are necessary! It has

been named by its discoverer, Mr. Bauer, _Uredo Nivalis_.

SHOWERS OF FROGS AND FISH.

I dare say you have heard, before now, of its raining frogs and fish. I

like that you should have correct notions on these things, so I shall

just tell you what seems to have given rise to these reports.

If you understood what I told you respecting the water-spout, you will

see how likely it is that any small fish that may be on the spot,

should be sucked upwards along with the water, even to the very top of

the spout; now they might be kept up there as long as the whirlwind

kept up a rotatory motion in the cloud, after it had ceased to sustain

the column of water drawn up from the sea. When the whirlwind was

exhausted, the little fish would naturally fall out of the cloud,

perhaps after it had travelled far from where the water-spout occurred.

If the water-spout had passed over fresh-water lakes or rivers, frogs

might be drawn up instead of fish, and let fall in the same manner.

But I will relate to you another circumstance, which may have been

imputed to a descent of fish from the clouds. I told you in the first

part of this book respecting the alluvions, or torrents of mud, which

make their way after an eruption down the sides of Mount Vesuvius.

In some of the great volcanoes of South America, these alluvions have

not to be formed in the regular way, but mud of the consistence of pap

is ejected from the craters themselves in amazing quantities. This

mud is supplied by subterranean waters connected with the volcanic

channel, and it often contains myriads of little fishes of the kind

called _Pimelodes Cyclopum_: they are generally about four inches long,

and they exist in such vast numbers, that their putrifying has before

now bred a pestilence in the neighbourhood of the Volcano. There are

plenty of the same fish in the contiguous streams. What renders the

circumstance so wonderful, is their being raised up to the level of

8 or 9000 feet, and then thrown out from the crater with very little

injury.

[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.

SPECTRE OF THE BROCKEN]

CHAPTER VII.

THE SPECTRE OF THE BROCKEN.

I am going to tell you respecting some of the appearances produced

by clouds which reflect like mirrors; and by those changes in the

atmosphere which turn aside, in an irregular manner, the rays of light,

which, as they pass from an object to the eye which is looking at it,

excite the sensation called vision.

One of the most remarkable of these, has long been known by the name

of "The Spectre of the Brocken." The Brocken is the loftiest summit of

the Hartz Mountains, in Germany; it is said to be 3,300 feet above the

level of the sea, and to command the prospect of a tract of land which

is inhabited by more than five millions of people.

It appears that clouds, from some cause or other, which perhaps we

shall never perfectly know, are wont at times to collect on the

neighbouring heights, and reflect a very distinct shadow of great size

of whatever object may be on the summit of the Brocken, when the sun

is rising and casts his beams horizontally. The best account of this

wonderful spectacle, is given by the Abbe Hauy, who visited it in 1797,

and I shall give you his own statement.

"After having been here for the thirtieth time," says Mons. Hauy,

"I was at length so fortunate as to have the pleasure of seeing the

Spectre. The sun rose about four o'clock, and the atmosphere being

quite serene towards the east, his rays could pass without any

obstruction over the Heinrichshohe.[A] In the south-west, however,

towards Achtermanshohe,[B] a brisk west wind carried before it thin

transparent vapours, which were not yet condensed into thick heavy

clouds. About a quarter past four I went towards the inn, and looked

round to see whether the atmosphere would permit me to have a free

prospect to the south-west; when I observed, at a very great distance

towards Achtermanshohe, a human figure of a monstrous size. A violent

gust of wind having almost carried away my hat, I clapped my hand

to it by moving my arm towards my head, and the colossal figure did

the same. The pleasure which I felt on this discovery can hardly be

described, for I had already walked many a weary step in the hopes of

seeing this shadowy image, without being able to gratify my curiosity.

I immediately made another movement by bending my body, and the

colossal figure before me repeated it. I was desirous of doing the

same thing once more; but my colossus had vanished: I remained in the

same position, waiting to see whether it would return, and in a few

minutes it again made its appearance on the Achtermanshohe. I paid

my respects to it a second time, and it did the same to me. I then

called the landlord of the Brocken; and having both taken the same

position which I had taken alone, we looked towards the Achtermanshohe,

but saw nothing. We had not, however, stood long, when two such

colossal figures were formed over the above eminence, which repeated

our compliments by bending their bodies as we did; after which they

vanished. We retained our position, kept our eyes fixed on the same

spot, and in a little time the two figures again stood before us, and

were joined by a third," (most likely by the double reflection of one

of the spectators.) "Every movement that we made by bending our bodies,

these figures imitated; but with this difference, that the phenomenon

was sometimes weak and faint, sometimes strong and well defined."

[Footnote B: Two others of the Hartz mountains.]

There are some remarkable circumstances attending the Brocken, that

are doubtless in some degree connected with "The Spectre," which

was once looked upon as a supernatural apparition. When Christianity

was introduced into Germany, the priests and votaries of the old

superstition, retired to the Brocken as a refuge, and there long kept

up the dark and mysterious rites of the great Saxon idol, Cortho. It is

a very wild place, full of clefts and caverns, and with rivulets and

waterfalls on all sides of it, so that it would answer their purpose

remarkably well. After the inhabitants had taken up the profession of

Christianity, they used to celebrate on this mountain a festival on

Midsummer night, in honour of St. Walpurgis, a female saint, who had

first introduced Christianity among them. A legend then prevailed,

that the summit of the mountain was occasionally haunted by a demon,

which could have been no other than the Spectre. Everything about the

mountain was looked upon with awe and veneration. A beautiful spring

which runs down its side, is at this day called the Magic Spring;

a pretty little lily that abounds on the Mountain, is called the

Wizard's Flower; and two great square granite rocks are called the

Wizard's Chair. These names may be looked upon as monuments of the

estimation in which the mountain was once held.

While you ought, my young friends, to feel happy and grateful in being

taught what these natural things really are, and released from all

superstitious fears or notions respecting them; you should be most

careful not to forget what you owe to a purer faith, of which the

character is to invite you to inquire into, and to know everything

within your reach.

I shall say something to you respecting the cause of the Spectre, in a

future chapter.

CHAPTER VIII.

SOME OTHER INSTANCES OF AERIAL REFLECTION.

There has been something very like the Spectre of the Brocken, seen on

Souter Fell, a mountain about half a mile high, in Cumberland.

One summer's evening, in the year 1743, as a farmer, named John Wren,

and his servant were sitting at the door of his cottage, they saw a man

with a dog furiously chasing some horses along a ledge on the side of

the mountain which they knew was so narrow that a horse could hardly

stand upon it. They seemed to go round one end of the mountain, and

disappeared.

The next morning the farmer and his servant went round the track which

the horses and man had seemed to take, fully expecting to find that

they had fallen over and been killed. You may guess how surprised they

were to find no trace whatever of them, not even the mark of a hoof on

the ground.

Well, they said nothing of what they had seen, and perhaps they almost

forgot it by nearly the same season in the following year, when the

servant, whose name was Daniel Strickett, saw one evening a whole troop

of horsemen trot along the mountain-side, near the same spot. It seems

that he had been laughed at by those to whom he had related the other

apparition, so he was rather timid, and resolved to be well assured

of the reality of this one before he mentioned it. He looked at the

figures for a considerable time, and then called another person to

witness the sight with him. Several others afterwards joined them, and

continued looking at the aerial horsemen till it was quite dark. All

these circumstances were attested before a magistrate in the year 1785:

twenty-six persons are said to have been spectators of the sight.

[Illustration: PLATE XIX.

DOVER CASTLE]

WHAT A FRIEND OF PARLEY'S SAW.

A gentleman with whom I am acquainted, who lives in the country, told

me that he once left some labourers at the bottom of a very steep

hill, whom he had ordered to do some earth work. As he was going down,

intending to visit them again, about sun-set, he saw a part of the hill

which he was descending, and one of the labourers wheeling a barrow

upon the side of it, reflected on a cloud opposite with the greatest

distinctness. Though it was quite impossible that he could see the men

in their true position, he knew exactly what this man was about, and

what work had been done, from the reflected image.

DOVER CASTLE.

Dover Castle stands upon the side of a hill, and when looked at from

the side towards Ramsgate, its four turrets may be just seen peeping

over the top of the hill. You may see how it appears in the upper

figure of plate XIX. On the 6th of August 1806, when Professor Vince,

of Cambridge, was staying near Ramsgate, he was astonished to see the

appearance of the castle as if it stood on the side of the hill next to

him, as is represented in the lower figure of the plate. It continued

so for nearly half an hour, during which he looked at it several times

with a telescope, and the image appeared quite clear and distinct.

WHAT HUMBOLDT SAW IN SOUTH AMERICA.

When Humboldt was residing at Cumana, he frequently saw two small

islands which lie off the coast, suspended in the air. He once saw

some fishing boats seeming to float in the air for several minutes. In

another place he and his companion saw the figures of cows in the air

at a great height; and they were told by a person worthy of credit,

that he had seen the forms of horses suspended in like manner, but with

their legs upwards.

WHAT CAPTAIN SCORESBY SAW IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS.

Captain Scoresby relates several remarkable appearances of a similar

kind, one of which I will describe to you. He saw one morning the

inverted image of a ship in the air, which he at once recognized to

be that in which his father was sailing. "It was," says he, "so well

defined, that I could distinguish by a telescope every sail, the

general rig of the ship, and its particular character; insomuch that

I confidently pronounced it to be my father's ship, 'The Fame,' which

it afterwards proved to be; though on comparing notes with my father,

I found that our relative position at the time, gave a distance from

one another of thirty miles, being about seventeen miles beyond the

horizon, and some leagues beyond the limit of direct vision."

Many other such things have been related by travellers, but with very

little variation of circumstance.

APPARENT DISTANCE OF OBJECTS.

If you have never noticed the fact, you will be surprised to observe

what a great difference appears to exist in the distance of the same

objects under different states of the atmosphere. I do not mean when it

is merely clearer than at another time, but when it is equally clear,

the same object will show much higher above the horizon, and therefore

seem to be nearer to some given spot, than at other times. We who have

been at sea, have often seen this when we have been approaching land;

but you will better understand an instance which occurred at Hastings,

on the coast of Sussex. The gentleman who related it was surprised

one day to see a crowd of people running down to the sea-side, and on

inquiry he found they were going in consequence of a report that the

coast of France had become visible to the naked eye.

He went down to the beach, and actually saw the coast of France so

plainly as to be able to distinguish objects, and with a telescope he

even clearly saw French fishing-boats at anchor, close to the shore.

The illusion lasted for more than an hour, and occasionally grew faint

and then brightened again. The distance is fifty miles, and Hastings

would therefore be hidden from the opposite coast of France by the

convexity of the earth; so that if a straight line were drawn from one

to the other, it would pass through the sea.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE FATA MORGANA AND THE MIRAGE.

There is a very remarkable spectacle to be occasionally seen between

the coasts of Italy and Sicily, which the inhabitants call Fata

Morgana, or _Fairy Illusion_.

The shores on each side are rich and beautiful in the extreme, and the

narrow strait being very deep, looks always blue and fresh. According

to the best accounts of the Fata Morgana, it appears only when the sun

is elevated at an angle of 45°. It consists in a reflection of the

objects on the shore more or less magnified, multiplied, distorted, and

often decorated with the hues of the rainbow on the surface of the sea

itself, and the portion of the atmosphere which is in immediate contact

with it. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood look on it as a good

omen, and whenever it appears, run down to the sea-side joyously crying

out, Morgana! Morgana!

[Illustration: PLATE XX.

FATA MORGANA]

Those who have seen it, declare that nothing can be more beautiful. The

scene must look as wonderful as anything you have ever read about in

a fairy tale. Castles, palaces, temples, of the utmost magnificence,

houses, hills and valleys, woods, green pastures, all of the brightest

colours, and indeed every one of the beautiful objects on shore,

beautified tenfold. You will see in the plate the attempt of an

intelligent traveller to convey a notion of this glorious phenomenon.

THE MIRAGE.

This name is given to similar illusions which are seen in various parts

of the world, and more particularly to the illusive appearance of

water, which is frequent in the sandy deserts of the East. You shall

hear what the celebrated traveller, Dr. Clarke, says of it.

"We procured asses for our party, and, setting out for Rosetta, began

to re-cross the desert, which appeared like an ocean of sand, but

flatter and firmer as to its surface, than before. The Arabs, uttering

their harsh guttural language, ran chattering by the side of our asses;

until some of them calling out '_Raschid!_' we perceived its domes and

turrets, apparently upon the opposite side of an immense lake or sea,

that covered all the intervening space between us and the city. Not

having in my own mind, at the time, any doubt as to the certainty of

its being water, and seeing the tall minarets and buildings of Rosetta,

with all its groves of dates and sycamores, as perfectly reflected

by it as by a mirror, insomuch that even the minutest detail of the

architecture, and of the trees, might have been thence delineated, I

applied to the Arabs to be informed in what manner we were to pass the

water. Our interpreter, although a Greek, and therefore likely to have

been informed of such a phenomenon, was as fully convinced as any of

us that we were drawing near to the water's edge, and became indignant

when the Arabs maintained, that within an hour we should reach Rosetta,

by crossing the sands in the direct line we then pursued, and that

there was no water. 'What,' said he, giving way to his impatience,

'do you suppose me an idiot, to be persuaded contrary to the evidence

of my senses?' The Arabs, smiling, soon pacified him, and completely

astonished the whole party, by desiring us to look back at the desert

we had already passed, where we beheld a precisely similar appearance.

It was, in fact, _the Mirage_, a prodigy to which every one of us were

then strangers, although it afterwards became more familiar. Yet upon

no future occasion did we ever behold this extraordinary illusion

so marvellously displayed. The view of it enabled us to imagine the

horrible despondency to which travellers must sometimes be exposed,

who, in traversing the interminable desert, destitute of water, and

perishing with thirst, have sometimes this deceitful prospect before

their eyes."

Another traveller adds a particular which is well worthy of notice.

"The most singular quality of this vapour is its power of reflection.

When a near observer is a little elevated, as on horseback, he will see

trees and other objects reflected as from the surface of a lake. The

vapour, when seen at a distance of six or seven miles, appears to lie

upon the earth like an opaque mass; and it certainly does not rise many

feet above the ground, for I observed that, while the lower part of

the town of Abusheher was hid from the view, some of the more elevated

buildings, and the tops of a few date-trees, were distinctly visible."

CHAPTER X.

HOW PARLEY SUPPOSES THESE APPEARANCES TO BE PRODUCED.

If you wish to understand the manner in which it is most probable that

these illusions are produced, you must closely attend to what I am

going to tell you. I will make my explanation as simple as I can, but I

shall be able to teach you nothing, unless you do your part by paying

attention.

You know that vision is produced by rays of light passing from the

object seen, to the eye of the spectator. These rays have a tendency

to form straight lines, and they would be perfectly straight, if they

had only to pass through empty space; but this cannot be the case near

the surface of the earth, as they there have to go through air, and

frequently through other transparent substances.

When these rays meet with a substance which they cannot go through, and

which is therefore called opaque, such as a man or a house, they are

turned back or _reflected_, and strike the eye of the person who may be

looking in that direction, so as to cause vision.

But when they meet with a body which they can pass through, called

therefore transparent, such as water or glass, they are turned aside

out of their original course or _refracted_; and this refraction takes

place in different degrees, according to the density of the substance.

Thus, in looking at objects through air, you do not see anything

exactly in its real position; but in looking at them through water,

the variation between the reality and the appearance is still greater,

because the density of water being greater than that of air, it will

refract more. To prove this you need only put a stick obliquely into

water, and it will look as if it were broken or bent at the surface of

the water.

[Illustration]

The true position of the stick is marked by A B, and the apparent

position, by A C.

We see the rising sun some minutes before he has risen above our

horizon, and the setting sun after he has sunk below it, because his

rays are refracted by our atmosphere.

[Illustration]

If the sun be at A, he will appear to a spectator on the surface of the

earth at C, as if he were at B, because the rays will be refracted at

D, which represents the limit of the atmosphere, towards C.

Perhaps you knew all this before. Well, the knowledge of these laws

will very nearly enable you to understand the wonders of which I have

told you. I will try to explain to you the manner in which it seems

that the appearances are produced by the operation of the laws.

If a ray pass through a body that refracts it from its original course,

it will go on when it has got through, in a line parallel with its

first direction.

Thus, let A B be a thick piece of glass, and C D, a ray of light

passing through it, which would be refracted from _c_ to _d_; C _c_

would be exactly parallel to _d_ D, and the point C would be seen from

D as if it were at E.

[Illustration]

If you think a little upon this, you will see that nothing is necessary

to account for objects appearing nearer to a given point at one time

than another, or objects upon the earth appearing high up in the air,

except different degrees of refraction. Thus in the instance of the

coast of France seeming to approach Hastings, it is evident that the

effect would be produced by an extraordinary degree of refraction in a

stratum of air over the sea, through which the rays of light producing

vision must come.

[Illustration]

The explanation will be the same as that of the diagram of the rising

sun in a former page; if the ray from A took the direction D, as under

ordinary circumstances it would do, it is evident that a spectator at

C would see nothing. But instead of this, the ray was refracted near

the middle to the point C, which represents the town of Hastings, and

therefore the object A appeared as if it had been placed at B. You

shall now hear what causes are likely to alter the refracting power of

the air at times.

When air, water, or any other substance, is made hot, it becomes

rarified, and its refracting power is thereby diminished. Have you ever

watched, while you have been on one side of a stove, or of any heated

body, the appearance of things on the other side through the air above

it? If so, you must have seen how strangely they seem to tremble. Now

this is caused by a stream of irregularly heated air rising from the

stove, and enabling you every instant to see the things beyond it more

nearly in their true position than you can through air of the ordinary

temperature.

If you look through a magnifying glass at distant objects, they will

appear upside down. You may learn why this takes place from books on

optics. The same effect is produced by rays passing through a medium

which becomes gradually denser, instead of suddenly passing from one

state to another. Thus, if you take a square glass bottle and put some

clear syrup into it, and then carefully pour water on the top of that,

anything, such as a written or printed line, seen through the space

where the liquids are mixing, will appear inverted.

Again, if you take a tin tube full of water, stopped with a piece of

plain glass at each end, warm the middle of the tube, and then look at

one end, you will see an object at the other end, if held at a proper

distance, magnified, and distant objects turned upside down, just as

they would be by a convex lens. If, on the contrary, you cool the

middle of the tube, by applying ice to it, the same ensues as by using

a concave lens. If a space of cold air be between two spaces of hot

air, or the contrary, a space of hot air be between two spaces of cold

air, the effects would be the same, only they could not be produced in

so small a compass as they could with water. The space where the two

different temperatures were gradually mixing, would influence the rays

of light in the same manner as a lens on a very large scale.

Now portions of air are often made of different temperature by the

sun's rays, by evaporation, as from the surface of the sea, or

of lakes, or from marshy districts, and by winds operating under

particular local circumstances. I do not want to lengthen out this dry

story, but if you have read attentively what I have said, you will see

that various positions of masses of air heated to different degrees,

is all that is necessary to account for the instances which I have

mentioned, in which objects have appeared inverted and out of their

true positions; such as Dover Castle, Captain Scoresby's father's ship,

the French coast opposite Hastings, and the islands, and horses with

their legs upwards, described by Humboldt.

The apparitions of Souter Fell may be accounted for in like manner.

The latter one was seen at a time of civil commotion, when there were

private troops of horse exercised in all parts of the country, and so

the fact of armed horsemen being in the neighbourhood, is rendered

very probable. We have only to suppose the image of such a troop to be

brought to the side of Souter Fell, perhaps from the opposite side of

the mountain, by a complicated refraction, like that which appeared to

move Dover Castle out of its place.

* * * * *

But the Spectre of the Brocken, the Fata Morgana, and the image which

my friend saw of the side of the hill on which he was, require another

sort of explanation, because the object and the image are seen both at

once; the latter could therefore have been no other than the reflection

of the first.

It seems likely that some vapours are capable of receiving shadows.

When I have been bathing in a river with a muddy bottom, I have often

seen my shadow on the cloud of muddy particles which I have disturbed

from the bottom, in a manner something similar to that in which I

should think this may occasionally take place.

There is, however, another theory of it. When rays pass from a thin

medium into a denser medium, the whole do not go through, but they are

_strained_, as it were, and a part are kept back and reflected. It is

thus that you see a reflection on a transparent pane of glass.

If you breathe very lightly upon it, the reflection will be still more

distinct, and the resemblance to the phenomenon we are describing

probably greater. There are then two causes of reflection, the change

of refracting power, and the presence of the watery particles.

Something of this kind perhaps occurs on the top of the Brocken. A rush

of cold air may set up from deep ravines, with water and marshy land at

the bottom, on the West side, while the rising sun is genially warming

the air on the east side of the mountains. Mind, I do not say that it

is so, but it does not seem unlikely that two currents, one of cold air

and the other of hot, thus ascend close to each other; and according to

what I have told you, there would be a reflecting power in the plane

of contact, which might be increased by the watery particles carried

upwards.

A kind of aerial screen would thus be formed, which might catch

the shadow of a person on the opposite summit, cast upon it by the

horizontal rays of the morning sun. Thus you may account for the image,

and its being so greatly magnified, requires no further explanation

than I have given above; as it only needs the supposition of a mass

of heated air, with two colder ones on each side, being between the

persons and the reflecting substance.

The doubling of one of the figures was possibly occasioned by a

reflecting surface having been formed on a different plane from the

first, which might very easily occur.

CONCLUSION.

OF SOME OTHER WONDERS, AND HOW WE OUGHT TO USE OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE

WONDERS OF NATURE.

I. I have now given you, my little friends an account of a few of

the wonders of the wonderful world we live in, and I hope they have

entertained you. I should like to have spoken to you of a great many

other things, but it would make my book too large.

Some of you, I dare say, are fond of some branch or other of natural

history, and perhaps you may be in the habit of collecting shells,

plants, insects, or fossils. Well, I hope a great many of you do so,

for it is a very delightful employment, when you are not learning your

regular lessons. When I was a school-boy, I loved to dig fossils out

of the earth, and many a sunny day have I spent with my hammer and

chisel under the cliffs by the sea-side, or in a stone-quarry. Many

times I laboured long without success, but at last I scraped together

a very pretty collection, and always managed to enjoy myself on these

fossil-hunting days, whether I was successful or not.

But what I want particularly to say to you before we part is, that I

hope none of you will rest satisfied with merely listening to what

others tell you, with making an orderly collection of specimens, or

recollecting merely the outsides of things. Though all these are very

good when in their proper places, they are not enough. You should

compare together different facts, and often turn them over in your

minds, always keeping in view that there is something to be learned

from them more interesting and more important than any knowledge,

however correct, respecting the shapes of crystals, shells, or plants,

or the habits of animals.

If you are diligent in thinking on what you know, you will see that

nothing stands alone in nature; every single thing is connected with

other things, so as to make up one great whole. It is true that you

will sometimes see what seems to be an exception to this; you will see

instances of conflict and disorder, and, as it seems, things destroyed

without a reason; but you will also very often find, as you come to

know more, that what seemed at first an exception was not such in

reality, and that it was what tends as much to the order and beauty of

the whole, as any of the particular things you admired at first.

II. The ancients supposed that those parts of the world which were

in the torrid zone, and those towards the North Pole, could not

be inhabited by man; and we find from their writings, that it was

something of a puzzle to know of what use they could be. They did not,

however, know much about the extent of them, for even the shape of the

earth was then unknown,--some contending that it was in the form of a

cylinder, some that it was pear-shaped, and others that it was round

and flat like a trencher. A very few made a shrewd guess at its true

figure. No one was quite certain on the subject, till navigators had

sailed round it, so as to reach, by continually going forward, the same

spot as they started from.

What men have learned within the last four centuries, has taught us

that only a small portion of the surface of the earth is uninhabitable.

Man, by the wonderful constitution of his nature, is enabled to bear

the extremes of heat and cold better than any of the animals that

are sent for his use, each of which is adapted for the particular

climate in which it may be placed. Under the most extreme variations

of the temperature of the atmosphere, the heat of our bodies, when we

are in health, is never increased or diminished more than a very few

degrees; so that a thermometer, with the bulb put into the mouth of an

Esquimaux, in a climate much below freezing, will be only three or four

degrees below what it will be in the mouth of an inhabitant of the East

Indies, where the temperature often exceeds 100 degrees.

The dog is almost the only animal that is prepared to accompany man in

all climates. The form and habits of this faithful creature vary most

surprisingly, according to the circumstances in which he is placed;

but he is everywhere the loving friend and faithful associate of man,

and ready to defend him and to share his toil, in the hot and parched

deserts of the East, or the icy regions of the North.

There are a few animals that undergo remarkable changes, to enable them

to bear the vicissitudes of the climate in which they may be placed.

The hares and the foxes of the Northern regions become covered with

white hair in winter. Now, it is proved, that a body hotter than the

surrounding atmosphere which has a white covering, cools much more

slowly than one covered with a dark colour: hence, the heat generated

inwardly is preserved and economized by the winter coats of these

animals, to the great benefit of their health and comfort.

III. Some kinds of birds that love warm climates, are taught to

assemble together at a certain season near the end of summer, almost

to a day, and start off on a pilgrimage to distant lands, where nature

is still blooming. There are these birds which all live nearly the same

sort of life,--the swift, the swallow, and the house marten, which

all bear a strong resemblance to each other. They all come to us from

the south in spring, and take their departure before the next winter.

The swifts form themselves into companies, and take their leave of

us before the middle of August; the swallows do the same about the

middle of October, and the martens at the end of the same month. Thus

these happy creatures manage to live all their life long in summer and

sunshine.

[Illustration]

They are furnished with astonishing capabilities for performing these

very long journeys. You are acquainted with their slender forms, so

exactly adapted for cutting through the air, and their long, beautiful

wings. Each of these wings is moved by a muscle of prodigious power,

situated on each side of the breast-bone. Possibly you may have

noticed in larks and other birds, that are in the habit of flying long

distances, which are eaten, what a large proportion of their flesh is

in these two muscles; in the swallow, it greatly exceeds the weight of

the flesh of all the other parts of the body. You will hardly believe

it when I tell you, that the swift is able to fly at the rate of more

than a hundred miles in an hour. The little bird that perched upon

your chimney this morning, may perch to-morrow night upon one of the

pyramids of Egypt, and next week may be at the Cape of Good Hope. You

think a great deal of travelling twenty miles an hour on a railway, but

you see that is slow compared with the travelling of the swallows.

Instead of thus following the summer about over the surface of the

earth, some creatures, that love warmth, make the best of it where

they are. Some birds get into holes and other sheltered places, put

their heads under their wings, and so sleep away the winter months. The

pretty little black-eyed dormouse makes up a snug nest, and does the

same, and so do some other of our common animals. During this inactive

period, all the functions which are necessary to support life become

fitted to a state of repose; the circulation gets slower, and the

supply of inward heat sinks to the lowest temperature which life will

bear.

I dare say you have often found some sorts of snail-shells with the

snail inside, and the mouth sealed up firmly, and have taken them for

dead: this is not the case. The covering is only put over for the

winter to keep out the cold, and the creature lives till spring without

food or motion. How it must enjoy the first bright days of spring,

when it opens its eyes after its long nap, reaching out its horns, and

dragging its shell over the green grass.

[Illustration]

IV. Then, in the distribution of different animals, there is not less

to engage our attention. The rein-deer is the support and comfort of

the Laplanders. It lives constantly on the scantiest, and apparently

least nourishing diet, and when brought into warmer climates it soon

languishes and dies. The camel only flourishes where there are large

sandy deserts, with precarious supplies both of water and solid food;

and to fit him for his peculiar line of usefulness, he has a receptacle

to contain a stock of water, which he can at pleasure turn into his

stomach, and can go eight or nine days without a fresh supply; he eats

any kind of vegetables, however dry they may be; and a pound a day is

sufficient to support him for weeks together; though he is very much

larger than any of the animals which inhabit your country. It is usual

for camels to go the whole distance from Cairo to Suez, in Egypt,

without tasting a morsel, and this remarkable faculty has been supposed

to arise from the hump upon their backs. When the animal is well

fed, this hump, which is of a fatty substance, fills out and becomes

solid; but when his food is scanty, it wastes away, and its substance

appears to go to the nourishment of the more vital parts of his frame.

His large feet rest upon the sand without sinking in, and at the rate

of about two miles an hour, he will travel thirty miles a day over a

parched desert, bearing a burden of seven or eight hundred weight. He

is called by the Arabs the Ship of the Desert.

[Illustration]

V. You may see that there is, in every variety of circumstance,

something that enjoys itself, and has a place to fill up and a part to

act amongst the creatures which God has made. But this is not all: the

existence of the cold of the Poles, and of the heat of the Tropics, is

necessary to the well-being of the whole.

The free air that surrounds the globe, which we breathe, and through

which we see, and hear, and smell, and move, is the same in composition

in every part of the world. It contains just the same proportions of

the two gases, oxygen and nitrogen, in the coldest and the hottest

climates, in the deepest valleys and on the tallest mountains. Now,

this air, considered on a large scale, is always blowing from the Poles

towards the Equator. The more direct rays of the sun heat that portion

of the earth's surface which lies in the Torrid Zone, and therefore

the air above it is perpetually ascending to the upper regions of the

atmosphere, to make room for that which presses upon it from the Poles,

because it is cooler and heavier.

It is this process, united with the motion of the earth on its axis,

which causes the Trade Winds and Monsoons.

Now, do you not see how necessary the cold Poles are to keep the rest

of the world from becoming too hot, by supplying constant currents of

fresh air setting in upon the hotter regions from both sides? Then the

air, which ascends from the Equator, becomes cool, and travels down

again to join the air from the Poles; and so a healthful circulation is

kept up, which is necessary for all climates.

VI. It is very interesting to trace the dependance of the various

tribes of vegetables and animals on each other, and to observe how one

flourishes through the dissolution of another; and still more so to

notice the gradual development of the same parts in the kinds, as they

ascend one above another. You may see an instance of this in three of

the animals that I described to you, which were different enough in

other respects, but agreed in being without a bony skeleton, and in

having long organs round their mouths to catch their food with.

In the Acalephæ, or sea-nettles, these organs were merely filaments

without sensation, of which the use seemed to be, to entangle little

creatures in, which chance might bring in their way. The animals

themselves would seem, at first sight, to be very ill able to destroy

small crabs and other shell-fish. You would suppose that the struggles

they would make with their hard pointed legs, would tear the tender

bodies of the Acalephæ; but the deficiency is supplied by the caustic

luminous fluid which paralyzes the victim, and disables it for violent

struggles while it is detained by the filaments, before the Acalepha

attempts to swallow it.

In the Actiniæ, you will find the loose disorderly filaments changed

into feelers, with wonderfully acute sensation, regularly disposed

in a star. When a substance touches the feelers they close in with

considerable power, but seem to act more like a mechanical trap,--as

the leaves of certain plants catch flies and other insects,--than in

direct dependance on the will of the animal. However, the Actinia has

the sense of feeling, and has a perception of light and of odours,

though without eyes or nose. Having greater muscular strength and

more compactures of film, he does not need the destructive fluid with

which the Acalepha is furnished. Thus, one sort of power is made to

compensate for the loss of another.

The Sepia also catches his food by means of fleshy organs placed round

his mouth; but in him you find them possessed of amazing power, moving

in strict subjection to his will; never loosely floating about as in

the others. Then he tastes, sees, and hears, by means of a tongue,

eyes, and ears, distinctly formed.

A similar gradation is observed in the development of the various parts

composing the hand and arm in animals with perfect skeletons, in which

the bones act as levers. There is a very interesting book[C] written

on this subject, which you would do well to read; and you will see

in it that all sorts of birds, quadrupeds, and even fishes, have, in

their fore feet, wings, and fore fins, elements resembling those of

the human hand and arm. Often, in comparing only two animals, you might

fail to trace the slightest resemblance; but when one or two or more of

other kinds are placed between them, you find a sort of ladder which,

in an evident manner, unites the lowest with the highest tribes.

[Footnote C: Sir Charles Bell's Treatise on the Hand.]

At distant periods of the earth's history, you may see the same sort of

organs, and the same dependance of the creatures one on another. The

fierce Icthyosaurus, and the sly, long-necked Plesiosaurus, had eyes,

ears, tongues, and other parts, the same as our contemporaries; and

they ate and digested their food, and moved from place to place, and

preyed on each other in no other manner.

If our acquaintance with nature were much greater than it is, we should

doubtless be able to bring proofs that there is no sort of stones, of

vegetables, or of animals, nor any process or movement of the elements,

in which we have not an interest. There is no fact that is not in

some way or other connected with the whole, so as to influence its

well-being.

VII. Not only are the creatures which inhabit the earth united together

by bonds of similarity of structure and appetite, of common wants and

enjoyments, and of mutual support; but we are also united with the

boundless system of worlds which the night unveils to our view. The

principle of gravitation, and the beneficent rays of the sun operating

on the planets and their moons, throw over us a plain and obvious tie

of brotherhood with the stars that we may see night after night making

their way amongst the constellations, as they move in their orbits,

distinguished by their steady light from the twinkling multitude of

fixed stars. The law that unites us to them is the same as causes a

drop of rain to descend, or a weary fly to settle on the earth.

It is not improbable, that the aerolites (if the theory which I hinted

at in a former chapter be true) may be fragments of original matter,

which have never been appropriated by any globe, and now sometimes

pitch on one planet, and sometimes on another. If this be the case, we

should be warranted in concluding that the matter of our solar system

is everywhere the same, chemically considered, and is, therefore,

governed by the same chemical laws; for the aerolites contain no

substance which is not to be found far below the surface of the earth.

Some ignorant persons, in all ages of the world, have fancied that the

relative positions of the stars to each other, at the moment of the

birth of an individual, must have an influence upon his character and

the future circumstances of his life. Thus arose what was called the

_science_ of astrology, and the practice of _casting nativities_; and

in vulgar conversation it is not unfrequent for people, who do not

know the origin of the expression, to "thank their stars," or to talk

of their "unlucky stars," which arose from the prevalence of such a

belief. This, I need hardly tell you, is all nonsense, from beginning

to end; but you may now know that there is, in reality, quite as

wonderful a connection, and as direct a one, between yourselves and the

stars, as this which was fancied to exist.

VIII. But who can tell how wide the relationship of our earth and

everything upon it is extended, through the agency of those wonderful

principles Light, Heat, and Electricity? It may seem to you impossible,

when I tell you that there is not a blade of grass or a flower on

this earth, which may not, in its little degree, affect the climate

of a star far beyond the limits of our solar system; but if you will

consider the way in which the falling of dews is regulated, you will

see that there are grounds for such a notion.

I must first tell you that it is a property of Heat, like Light, to

_radiate_ or expand itself in all directions, without limit; so that a

heated body is always sending out its heat.

Now, this radiation is influenced by the surfaces of bodies: Heat will

radiate more from a black rough surface than from a smooth white one,

and a black body will therefore much sooner get cool than a white one,

as I had occasion to tell you just now. The heat radiates rapidly from

the leaves of vegetables, though from different kinds of plants in very

different degrees, while from stones and dry wood it radiates very

slowly.

Heat is also _reflected_, or turned back, by meeting with certain

objects; and in this respect, too, it resembles light. You have

possibly seen experiments showing this, made with polished metal

mirrors.

At night time, when the sun's rays are not present, as the heat

radiates quickly from the plants on the ground, each plant becomes

thereby cooler than the earth and stones which surround it. This causes

the watery particles which the air contains, to condense on its leaves

and flowers, in the same manner as you see the moisture in the air of

a crowded room, settle on the outside of a glass of cold water; and,

what is most wonderful, the surface of each plant is so constructed as

to allow the escape of just so much heat, and to receive just so much

dew in return, as its peculiar nature requires. You may see, if you

look, that some plants always have more dew on them than others.

On a cloudy night, when dews are not so much required, a great part of

the heat thus radiated is sent back, being reflected by the clouds.

Hence the dew falls less heavily at such a time than on a clear

starlight night, when every blade of grass and every little flower

sends out its ray of heat to an indefinite extent, and may possibly

meet another ray from the Dog-stars or one of the Pleiades!

This is very wonderful; but if you think, you will perceive that it

is not more wonderful than that a ray of light should travel so far.

Every particle of the surface of these stars does its part in emitting

light, and by that the light of our nights is increased; and if Light

is affected by such remote influences, why should not Climate be so

affected?

IX. As everything has a place to fill up amongst the creatures by which

it becomes connected with the universal system, we find innumerable

instances of things being most wonderfully provided with powers of

retaining the position for which they were created, when circumstances

may oppose it. The tendency which every animal has to preserve its

own life, supplies abundant illustration. It is this which causes the

Arctic animals to change their colour to white in winter, and the

swallows to migrate to warmer regions. But there is something selfish

in this, as the provision is merely to save the animal's own life.

Much more beautiful is it to observe the operation of the affections

of parent animals towards their offspring, by which the young, when

they are incapable of taking care of themselves, are kept alive and

preserved from injury often at the sacrifice of the enjoyment, and

even of the life of their parent. You will remember what I told you

respecting the love of the old whales towards the _suckers_. Nothing

parts with its own life willingly, but in a great many animals it may

be seen that there is a greater regard to the preservation of their

race than of their own individual lives.

[Illustration]

X. These tendencies may be seen in vegetables as well as in animals.

The young buds of various plants, of the common poppy for example, hang

down their heads, so that the bottom of the _calyx_, as it is called by

botanists, is placed upwards, and forms a sort of thatch or roof. When

the flower spreads out its bright broad leaves, although its weight

is increased, yet it then boldly lifts up its head to the sun, and

the neck of the stalk which seemed unable to bear up the bud, is well

able to sustain the full flower. Now if it were otherwise, and if the

bud held the same position as the flower, the rain would run into the

calyx and would lie there, so as to cause the _petals_ or leaves of the

future flower to become rotten.

In this Kingdom of Nature, the unwillingness to part with life is even

more wonderfully exhibited than in animals.

Seeds have been known to retain their principle of life for centuries,

and long after they have seemed perfectly dead and dry, when placed

in proper circumstances, they have sent out shoots and borne flowers

and fruit. Mr. White relates, that when some old beech trees were

removed from a spot in the neighbourhood of Selborne, where they must

have stood for ages, some strawberry plants sprung up, of which the

seeds must have lain dormant under the roots of the beeches. When the

Spaniards took possession of Peru, many of the race of Incas, the

rulers of that country, fled to the deserts and took with them what

provisions they could carry. There are now, sometimes, found in these

deserts, ancient vessels with very narrow mouths, containing at the

bottom a few grains of _maize_ or Indian corn, the remains of the stock

of those poor exiles. I have got one of the vessels; and the maize

which came out of it was sown, and took root and bore seed, though it

must have been bottled up for considerably more than three centuries.

But now I am going to tell you something still more surprising than

this. The Ancient Egyptians, from some notion connected with their

religion, used at times to place in the hands and under the soles of

the feet of the bodies they embalmed, the roots of a kind of lily. The

roots are of a bulbous sort, not much unlike an onion, and they have

often been found on those mummies which have been uncovered. One or two

of them have been set to vegetate, and have actually borne flowers and

seed, after having slumbered in a mummy coffin for considerably more

than 2000 years!

XI. You know that some seeds have wings or sails, by means of which

they are transported by the winds over land and sea for very many

miles. The thistle-down everybody is acquainted with. There is an

eastern annual plant whose seeds are provided with wings, which, in

a most curious manner, it only uses when it needs them, as you shall

hear. It grows in the little pools that occur here and there in the

deserts of Arabia, which, as you may suppose, in a hot climate and a

sandy soil, are very apt to dry up at some seasons of the year. The

seeds grow on the stalk enclosed in a roll of flaxen fibres, and when

they are ripe they fall off, and if the water continues till the next

year, they spring up close by where their parent plant lived. But

should the pool dry up, the flaxen fibres become dry and spread out

into wings, the wind takes hold of them, and away flies the seed till

it reaches a more favoured spot. When it is lucky enough to get to the

water, the pod speedily bursts open, and the seeds take root at the

bottom. You see how, by a simple mechanical contrivance, this plant is

enabled to do the same for the preservation of its species, as I told

you the Actinia did by a very simple exercise of instinct, for the

preservation of itself.

XII. Because you wonder at the works of creation, you feel a desire to

search into them. You will find out many things, and you may learn to

explain a great many things, the reasons of which you are ignorant of

at present. Still, your wonder will not be satisfied; on the contrary,

the further you go, the more it will be excited. You will have to

go wondering on, but if you proceed in the right disposition, every

addition to your knowledge will increase your admiration and love;

for everything was made by the loving and wise God, and therefore

the whole must necessarily be beautiful and harmonious, and there is

nothing which has not its place to fill, and its part to act. May you,

my little friends, ever keep in mind that you are not left out of this

Divine Plan; and that there is a place to be filled, and duties to

be performed, by each one of you, which are not left to a mechanical

contrivance nor to animal instinct; but must be found out and fulfilled

by a never dying Spirit, which must be conscious of what it is about,

and is responsible to God for every action.

J. GREEN AND CO., PRINTERS, BARTLETT'S BUILDINGS.

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* * * * *

Transcriber Note

Some of the quoted passages have unusual spelling for some words. These

were left as is; but other minor typos may have been corrected.

The Table of Contents and page 69 list name "Skapta-Jokul" and

"Skaptar Jokul" respectively. A web search shows that the more common

spelling was "Skapta Jokul" and both were changed to that. Some page

references in the Table of Contents were corrected. A reference to

"Plate XVI, fig. 4" on page 246 has been corrected to "Plate XV, fig.

4". Illustrations were moved so as to prevent splitting paragraphs.

All materials were obtained from The Internet Archive and any files

produced are placed in the Public Domain.