(*1) The coralites.
(*2) “One of the most remarkable natural curiosities in Texas is
a petrified forest, near the head of Pasigno river. It consists
of several hundred trees, in an erect position, all turned to
stone. Some trees, now growing, are partly petrified. This is a
startling fact for natural philosophers, and must cause them to
modify the existing theory of petrification.—_Kennedy_.
This account, at first discredited, has since been corroborated
by the discovery of a completely petrified forest, near the head
waters of the Cheyenne, or Chienne river, which has its source in
the Black Hills of the rocky chain.
There is scarcely, perhaps, a spectacle on the surface of the
globe more remarkable, either in a geological or picturesque
point of view than that presented by the petrified forest, near
Cairo. The traveller, having passed the tombs of the caliphs,
just beyond the gates of the city, proceeds to the southward,
nearly at right angles to the road across the desert to Suez, and
after having travelled some ten miles up a low barren valley,
covered with sand, gravel, and sea shells, fresh as if the tide
had retired but yesterday, crosses a low range of sandhills,
which has for some distance run parallel to his path. The scene
now presented to him is beyond conception singular and desolate.
A mass of fragments of trees, all converted into stone, and when
struck by his horse’s hoof ringing like cast iron, is seen to
extend itself for miles and miles around him, in the form of a
decayed and prostrate forest. The wood is of a dark brown hue,
but retains its form in perfection, the pieces being from one to
fifteen feet in length, and from half a foot to three feet in
thickness, strewed so closely together, as far as the eye can
reach, that an Egyptian donkey can scarcely thread its way
through amongst them, and so natural that, were it in Scotland or
Ireland, it might pass without remark for some enormous drained
bog, on which the exhumed trees lay rotting in the sun. The roots
and rudiments of the branches are, in many cases, nearly perfect,
and in some the worm-holes eaten under the bark are readily
recognizable. The most delicate of the sap vessels, and all the
finer portions of the centre of the wood, are perfectly entire,
and bear to be examined with the strongest magnifiers. The whole
are so thoroughly silicified as to scratch glass and are capable
of receiving the highest polish.— _Asiatic Magazine_.
(*3) The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky.
(*4) In Iceland, 1783.
(*5) “During the eruption of Hecla, in 1766, clouds of this kind
produced such a degree of darkness that, at Glaumba, which is
more than fifty leagues from the mountain, people could only find
their way by groping. During the eruption of Vesuvius, in 1794,
at Caserta, four leagues distant, people could only walk by the
light of torches. On the first of May, 1812, a cloud of volcanic
ashes and sand, coming from a volcano in the island of St.
Vincent, covered the whole of Barbadoes, spreading over it so
intense a darkness that, at mid-day, in the open air, one could
not perceive the trees or other objects near him, or even a white
handkerchief placed at the distance of six inches from the
eye._“—Murray, p. 215, Phil. edit._
(*6) In the year 1790, in the Caraccas during an earthquake a
portion of the granite soil sank and left a lake eight hundred
yards in diameter, and from eighty to a hundred feet deep. It was
a part of the forest of Aripao which sank, and the trees remained
green for several months under the water.”—_Murray_, p. 221
(*7) The hardest steel ever manufactured may, under the action of
a blowpipe, be reduced to an impalpable powder, which will float
readily in the atmospheric air.
(*8) The region of the Niger. See Simmona’s _Colonial Magazine_.
(*9) The _Myrmeleon_—lion-ant. The term “monster” is equally
applicable to small abnormal things and to great, while such
epithets as “vast” are merely comparative. The cavern of the
myrmeleon is vast in comparison with the hole of the common red
ant. A grain of silex is also a “rock.”
(*10) The _Epidendron, Flos Aeris,_ of the family of the
_Orchideae_, grows with merely the surface of its roots attached
to a tree or other object, from which it derives no
nutriment—subsisting altogether upon air.
(*11) The _Parasites,_ such as the wonderful _Rafflesia
Arnaldii_.
(*12) _Schouw_ advocates a class of plants that grow upon living
animals—the _Plantae_ _Epizoae_. Of this class are the _Fuci_ and
_Algae_.
_Mr. J. B. Williams, of Salem, Mass._, presented the “National
Institute” with an insect from New Zealand, with the following
description: “‘_The Hotte_, a decided caterpillar, or worm, is
found gnawing at the root of the _Rota_ tree, with a plant
growing out of its head. This most peculiar and extraordinary
insect travels up both the _Rota_ and _Ferriri_ trees, and
entering into the top, eats its way, perforating the trunk of the
trees until it reaches the root, and dies, or remains dormant,
and the plant propagates out of its head; the body remains
perfect and entire, of a harder substance than when alive. From
this insect the natives make a coloring for tattooing.
(*13) In mines and natural caves we find a species of
cryptogamous _fungus_ that emits an intense phosphorescence.
(*14) The orchis, scabius and valisneria.
(*15) The corolla of this flower (_Aristolochia Clematitis_),
which is tubular, but terminating upwards in a ligulate limb, is
inflated into a globular figure at the base. The tubular part is
internally beset with stiff hairs, pointing downwards. The
globular part contains the pistil, which consists merely of a
germen and stigma, together with the surrounding stamens. But the
stamens, being shorter than the germen, cannot discharge the
pollen so as to throw it upon the stigma, as the flower stands
always upright till after impregnation. And hence, without some
additional and peculiar aid, the pollen must necessarily fan down
to the bottom of the flower. Now, the aid that nature has
furnished in this case, is that of the _Tiputa Pennicornis_, a
small insect, which entering the tube of the corrolla in quest of
honey, descends to the bottom, and rummages about till it becomes
quite covered with pollen; but not being able to force its way
out again, owing to the downward position of the hairs, which
converge to a point like the wires of a mouse-trap, and being
somewhat impatient of its confinement it brushes backwards and
forwards, trying every corner, till, after repeatedly traversing
the stigma, it covers it with pollen sufficient for its
impregnation, in consequence of which the flower soon begins to
droop, and the hairs to shrink to the sides of the tube,
effecting an easy passage for the escape of the insect.”—_Rev. P.
Keith-System of Physiological Botany_.
(*16) The bees—ever since bees were—have been constructing their
cells with just such sides, in just such number, and at just such
inclinations, as it has been demonstrated (in a problem involving
the profoundest mathematical principles) are the very sides, in
the very number, and at the very angles, which will afford the
creatures the most room that is compatible with the greatest
stability of structure.
During the latter part of the last century, the question arose
among mathematicians—“to determine the best form that can be
given to the sails of a windmill, according to their varying
distances from the revolving vanes, and likewise from the centres
of the revolution.” This is an excessively complex problem, for
it is, in other words, to find the best possible position at an
infinity of varied distances and at an infinity of points on the
arm. There were a thousand futile attempts to answer the query on
the part of the most illustrious mathematicians, and when at
length, an undeniable solution was discovered, men found that the
wings of a bird had given it with absolute precision ever since
the first bird had traversed the air.
(*17) He observed a flock of pigeons passing betwixt Frankfort
and the Indian territory, one mile at least in breadth; it took
up four hours in passing, which, at the rate of one mile per
minute, gives a length of 240 miles; and, supposing three pigeons
to each square yard, gives 2,230,272,000 Pigeons.—“_Travels in
Canada and the United States,” by Lieut. F. Hall._
(*18) The earth is upheld by a cow of a blue color, having horns
four hundred in number.”—_Sale’s Koran_.
(*19) “The _Entozoa_, or intestinal worms, have repeatedly been
observed in the muscles, and in the cerebral substance of
men.”—See Wyatt’s Physiology, p. 143.
(*20) On the Great Western Railway, between London and Exeter, a
speed of 71 miles per hour has been attained. A train weighing 90
tons was whirled from Paddington to Didcot (53 miles) in 51
minutes.
(*21) The _Eccalobeion_
(*22) Mäelzel’s Automaton Chess-player.
(*23) Babbage’s Calculating Machine.
(*24) _Chabert_, and since him, a hundred others.
(*25) The Electrotype.
(*26) _Wollaston_ made of platinum for the field of views in a
telescope a wire one eighteen-thousandth part of an inch in
thickness. It could be seen only by means of the microscope.
(*27) Newton demonstrated that the retina beneath the influence
of the violet ray of the spectrum, vibrated 900,000,000 of times
in a second.
(*28) Voltaic pile.
(*29) The Electro Telegraph Printing Apparatus.
(*30) The Electro telegraph transmits intelligence
instantaneously—at least at so far as regards any distance upon
the earth.
(*31) Common experiments in Natural Philosophy. If two red rays
from two luminous points be admitted into a dark chamber so as to
fall on a white surface, and differ in their length by 0.0000258
of an inch, their intensity is doubled. So also if the difference
in length be any whole-number multiple of that fraction. A
multiple by 2 1/4, 3 1/4, &c., gives an intensity equal to one
ray only; but a multiple by 2 1/2, 3 1/2, &c., gives the result
of total darkness. In violet rays similar effects arise when the
difference in length is 0.000157 of an inch; and with all other
rays the results are the same—the difference varying with a
uniform increase from the violet to the red.
“Analogous experiments in respect to sound produce analogous
results.”
(*32) Place a platina crucible over a spirit lamp, and keep it a
red heat; pour in some sulphuric acid, which, though the most
volatile of bodies at a common temperature, will be found to
become completely fixed in a hot crucible, and not a drop
evaporates—being surrounded by an atmosphere of its own, it does
not, in fact, touch the sides. A few drops of water are now
introduced, when the acid, immediately coming in contact with the
heated sides of the crucible, flies off in sulphurous acid vapor,
and so rapid is its progress, that the caloric of the water
passes off with it, which falls a lump of ice to the bottom; by
taking advantage of the moment before it is allowed to remelt, it
may be turned out a lump of ice from a red-hot vessel.
(*33) The Daguerreotype.
(*34) Although light travels 167,000 miles in a second, the
distance of 61 Cygni (the only star whose distance is
ascertained) is so inconceivably great, that its rays would
require more than ten years to reach the earth. For stars beyond
this, 20—or even 1000 years—would be a moderate estimate. Thus,
if they had been annihilated 20, or 1000 years ago, we might
still see them to-day by the light which started from their
surfaces 20 or 1000 years in the past time. That many which we
see daily are really extinct, is not impossible—not even
improbable.