THE MAGICIAN'S DREAM OF ANCIENT DAYS.
[Illustration]
The magician sat in his armchair in the one little room in the house
which was his, and his only, besides the observatory. And a strange room
it was. The walls were hung with skulls and bones of men and animals,
with swords, daggers, and shields, coats of mail, and bronze
spear-heads. The drawers, many of which stood open, contained
flint-stones chipped and worn, arrowheads of stone, jade hatchets
beautifully polished, bronze buckles and iron armlets; while scattered
among these were pieces of broken pottery, some rough and only
half-baked, others beautifully finished, as the Romans knew how to
finish them. Rough needles made of bone lay beside bronze knives with
richly-ornamented handles and, most precious of all, on the table by the
magician's side lay a reindeer antler, on which was roughly carved the
figure of the reindeer itself.
He had been enjoying a six weeks' holiday, and he had employed it in
visiting some of the bone caves of Europe to learn about the men who
lived in them long, long ago. He had been to the south of France to see
the famous caves of the Dordogne, to Belgium to the caves of Engis and
Engihoul, to the Hartz Mountains and to Hungary. Then hastening home he
had visited the chief English caves in Yorkshire, Wales, and Devonshire.
Now that he had returned to his college, his mind was so full of facts,
that he felt perplexed how to lay before his class the wonderful story
of the life of man before history began. And as the day was hot, and the
very breeze which played around him made him feel languid and sleepy, he
fell into a reverie--a waking dream.
* * * * *
First the room faded from his sight, then the trim villages disappeared;
the homesteads, the corn-fields, the grazing cattle, all were gone, and
he saw the whole of England covered with thick forests and rough
uncultivated land. From the mountains in the north, glaciers were to be
seen creeping down the valleys between dense masses of fir and oak, pine
and birch; while the wild horse, the bison, and the Irish elk were
feeding on the plains. As he looked southward and eastward he saw that
the sea no longer washed the shores, for the English and Irish Channels
were not yet scooped out. The British Isles were still part of the
continent of Europe, so that animals could migrate overland from the
far south, up to what is now England, Scotland, and Ireland. Many of
these animals, too, were very different from any now living in the
country, for in the large rivers of England he saw the hippopotamus
playing with her calf, while elephants and rhinoceroses were drinking at
the water's edge. Yet these strange creatures did not have all the
country to themselves--wolves, bears, and foxes prowled in the woods,
large beavers built their dams across the streams, and here and there
over the country human beings were living in caves and holes of the
earth.
It was these men chiefly who attracted the magician's attention, and
being curious to know how they lived, he turned towards a cave, at the
mouth of which was a group of naked children who were knocking pieces of
flint together, trying to strike off splinters and make rough flint
tools, such as they saw their fathers use. Not far off from them a woman
with a wild beast's skin round her waist was gathering firewood, another
was grubbing up roots, and another, venturing a little way into the
forest, was searching for honey in the hollows of the tree trunks.
All at once in the dusk of the evening a low growl and a frightened cry
were heard, and the women rushed towards the cave as they saw near the
edge of the forest a huge tiger with sabre-shaped teeth struggling with
a powerful stag. In vain the deer tried to stamp on his savage foe or to
wound him with his antlers; the strong teeth of the tiger had penetrated
his throat, and they fell struggling together as the stag uttered his
death-cry. Just at that moment loud shouts were heard in the forest, and
the frightened women knew that help was near.
[Illustration: Fig. 77.
Palaeolithic times.]
One after another, several men, clothed in skins hung over one shoulder
and secured round the waist, rushed out of the thicket, their hair
streaming in the wind, and ran towards the tiger. They held in their
hands strange weapons made of rough pointed flints fastened into handles
by thongs of skin, and as the tiger turned upon them with a cry of rage
they met him with a rapid shower of blows. The fight raged fiercely,
for the beast was strong and the weapons of the men were rude, but the
tiger lay dead at last by the side of his victim. His skin and teeth
were the reward of the hunters, and the stag he had killed became their
prey.
How skilfully they hacked it to pieces with their stone axes, and then
loading it upon their shoulders set off up the hill towards the cave,
where they were welcomed with shouts of joy by the women and children!
[Illustration: Fig. 78.
Palaeolithic relics.
1, Bone needle, from a cave at La Madeleine, 1/2 size. 2, Tooth of
Machairodus or sabre-toothed tiger, from Kent's Cavern, 1/2 size. 3,
Rough stone implement, from Kent's Cavern, 1/4 size.]
Then began the feast. First fires were kindled slowly and with
difficulty by rubbing a sharp-pointed stick in a groove of softer wood
till the wood-dust burst into flame; then a huge pile was lighted at the
mouth of the cave to cook the food and keep off wild beasts. How the
food was cooked the magician could not see, but he guessed that the
flesh was cut off the bones and thrust in the glowing embers, and he
watched the men afterwards splitting open the uncooked bones to suck out
the raw marrow which savages love.
After the feast was over he noticed how they left these split bones
scattered upon the floor of the cave mingling with the sabre-shaped
teeth of the tiger, and this reminded him of the bones of the stag and
the tiger's tooth which he had found in Kent's Cavern in Devonshire only
a few days before.
By this time the men had lain down to sleep, and in the darkness strange
cries were heard from the forest. The roar of the lion, mingled with the
howling of the wolves and the shrill laugh of the hyaenas, told that they
had come down to feed on the remains of the tiger. But none of these
animals ventured near the glowing fire at the mouth of the cavern,
behind which the men slept in security till the sun was high in the
heavens. Then all was astir again, for weapons had been broken in the
fight, and some of the men sitting on the ground outside the cave placed
one flint between their knees, and striking another sharply against it
drove off splinters, leaving a pointed end and cutting edge. They
spoiled many before they made one to their liking, and the entrance to
the cave was strewn with splintered fragments and spoilt flints, but at
last several useful stones were ready. Meanwhile another man, taking his
rude stone axe, set to work to hew branches from the trees to form
handles, while another, choosing a piece remaining of the body of the
stag, tore a sinew from the thigh, and threading it through the large
eye of the bone needle, stitched the tiger's skin roughly together into
a garment.
"_This, then_," said the magician to himself, "_is how ancient man lived
in the summer-time, but how would he fare when winter came?_" As he
mused the scene gradually changed. The glaciers crept far lower down
the valleys, and the hills, and even the lower ground, lay thick in
snow. The hippopotamus had wandered away southward to warmer climes, as
animals now migrate over the continent of America in winter, and with
him had gone the lion, the southern elephant, and other summer visitors.
In their place large herds of reindeer and shaggy oxen had come down
from the north and were spread over the plains, scraping away the snow
with their feet to feed on the grass beneath. The mammoth, too, or hairy
elephant, of the same extinct species as those which have been found
frozen in solid ice under a sandbank in Siberia, had come down to feed,
accompanied by the woolly rhinoceros; and scattered over the hills were
the curious horned musk-sheep, which have long ago disappeared off the
face of the earth. Still, bitterly cold as it was, the hunter clad in
his wild-beast skin came out from time to time to chase the mammoth, the
reindeer, and the oxen for food, and cut wood in the forest to feed the
cavern fires.
This time the magician's thoughts wandered down to the south-west of
France, where, on the banks of a river in that part now called the
Dordogne, a number of caves not far from each other formed the home of
savage man. Here he saw many new things, for the men used arrows of
deer-horn and of wood pointed with flint, and with these they shot the
birds, which were hovering near in hopes of finding food during the
bitter weather. By the side of the river a man was throwing a small dart
of deer-horn fastened to a cord of sinews, with which from time to time
he speared a large fish and drew it to the bank.
[Illustration: Fig. 79.
Mammoth engraved on ivory by Palaeolithic man.]
But the most curious sight of all, among such a rude people, was a man
sitting by the glowing fire at the mouth of one of the caves scratching
a piece of reindeer horn with a pointed flint, while the children
gathered round him to watch his work. What was he doing? See! gradually
the rude scratches began to take shape, and two reindeer fighting
together could be recognised upon the horn handle. This he laid
carefully aside, and taking a piece of ivory, part of the tusk of a
mammoth, he worked away slowly and carefully till the children grew
tired of watching and went off to play behind the fire. Then the
magician, glancing over his shoulder, saw a true figure of the mammoth
scratched upon the ivory, his hairy skin, long mane, and up-curved tusks
distinguishing him from all elephants living now. "_Ah_," exclaimed the
magician aloud, "_that is the drawing on ivory found in the cave of La
Madeleine in Dordogne, proving that man existed ages ago, and even knew
how to draw figures, at a time when the mammoth, or hairy elephant, long
since extinct, was still living on the earth!_"
With these words he started from his reverie, and knew that he had been
dreaming of Palaeolithic man who, with his tools of rough flints, had
lived in Europe so long ago that his date cannot be fixed by years, or
centuries, or even thousands of years. Only this is known, that, since
he lived, the mammoth, the sabre-toothed tiger, the cave-bear, the
woolly rhinoceros, the cave-hyaena, the musk-sheep, and many other
animals have died out from off the face of the earth; the hippopotamus
and the lion have left Europe and retired to Africa, and the sea has
flowed in where land once was, cutting off Great Britain and Ireland
from the continent.
How long all these changes were in taking place no one knows. When the
magician drifted back again into his dream the land had long been
desolate, and the hyaenas, which had always taken possession of the caves
whenever the men deserted them for awhile, had now been undisturbed for
a long time, and had left on the floor of the cave gnawed skulls and
bones, and jaws of animals, more or less scored with the marks of their
teeth, and these had become buried in a thick layer of earth. The
magician knew that these teeth marks had been made by hyaenas, both
because living hyaenas leave exactly such marks on bones in the present
day, and because the hyaena bones alone were not gnawed, showing that no
animals preyed upon their flesh. He knew too that the hyaenas had been
there long after man had ceased to use the caves, because no flint
tools were found among the bones. But now the age of hyaenas, too, was
past and gone, and the caves had been left so long undisturbed that in
many of them the water dripping from the roof had left film after film
of carbonate of lime upon the floor, which as the centuries went by
became a layer of stalagmite many feet thick, sealing down the secrets
of the past.
* * * * *
The face of the country was now entirely changed. The glaciers were
gone, and so, too, were all the strange animals. True, the reindeer, the
wild ox, and even here and there the Irish elk, were still feeding in
the valleys; wolves and bears still made the country dangerous, and
beavers built their dams across the streams, which were now much smaller
than formerly, and flowed in deeper channels, carved out by water during
the interval; but the elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, and tigers were
gone never to return, and near the caves in which some of the people
lived, and the rude underground huts which formed the homes of others,
tame sheep and goats were lying with dogs to watch them. Also, though
the land was still covered with dense forests, yet here and there small
clearings had been made, where patches of corn and flax were growing.
Naked children still played about as before, but now they were moulding
cups of clay like those in which food was being cooked on the fire
outside the caves or huts. Some of the women, dressed partly in skins of
beasts, partly in rough woven linen, were spinning flax into thread,
using as a spinning-whorl a small round stone with a hole in the middle
tied to the end of the flax, as a weight to enable them to twirl it.
Others were grinding corn in the hollow of a large stone by rubbing
another stone within it.
[Illustration: Fig. 80.
Neolithic implements.
1, Stone hatchet mounted in wood. 2, Jade celt, a polished stone weapon,
from Livermore in Suffolk, 1/4 size. 3, Spindle whorl, 1/2 size.]
The men, while they still spent much time in hunting, had now other
duties in tending the sheep and goats, or looking after the hogs as they
turned up the ground in the forest for roots, or sowing and reaping
their crops. Yet still all the tools were made of stone, no longer rough
and merely chipped like the old stone weapons, but neatly cut and
polished. Stone axes with handles of deer-horn, stone spears and
javelins, stone arrowheads beautifully finished, sling-stones and
scrapers, were among their weapons and tools, and with them they made
many delicate implements of bone. On the broad lakes which here and
there broke the monotony of the forests, canoes, made of the trunks of
trees hollowed out by fire, were being paddled by one man, while
another threw out his fishing line armed with delicate bone-hooks; and
on the banks of the lakes, nets weighted with drilled stones tied on to
the meshes were dragged up full of fish.
For these Neolithic men, or men of the New Stone Period, who used
polished stone weapons, were farmers and shepherds and fishermen. They
knew how to make rude pottery, and kept domestic animals. Moreover, they
either came from the east or exchanged goods by barter with tribes
living more to the eastward, now that canoes enabled them to cross the
sea; for many of their weapons were made of greenstone or jade, and of
other kinds of stone not to be found in Europe, and their sheep and
goats were animals of eastern origin. They understood how to unite to
protect their homes, for they made underground huts by digging down
several feet into the ground and roofing the hole over with wood coated
with clay; and often long passages underground united these huts, while
in many places on the hills, camps, made of ramparts of earth surrounded
by ditches, served as strongholds for the women and children and the
flocks and herds, when some neighbouring tribe attacked their
homesteads.
Still, however, where caves were ready to hand they used them for
houses, and the same shelter which had been the home of the ancient
hunters, now resounded with the voices of the shepherds, who, treading
on the sealed floor, little dreamt that under their feet lay the remains
of a bygone age.
[Illustration: Fig. 81.
A burial in Neolithic times.]
And now, as our dreamer watched this new race of men fashioning their
weapons, feeding their oxen, and hunting the wild stag, his attention
was arrested by a long train of people crossing a neighbouring plain,
weeping and wailing as they went. At the head of this procession, lying
on a stretcher made of tree-boughs, lay a dead chieftain, and as the
line moved on, men threw down their tools, and women their spinning, and
joined the throng. On they went to where two upright slabs of stone with
another laid across them formed the opening to a long mound or chamber.
Into this the bearers passed with lighted torches, and in a niche ready
prepared placed the dead chieftain in a sitting posture with the knees
drawn up, placing by his side his flint spear and polished axe, his
necklace of shells, and the bowl from which he had fed. Then followed
the funeral feast, when, with shouts and wailing, fires were lighted,
and animals slaughtered and cooked, while the chieftain was not
forgotten, but portions were left for his use, and then the earth was
piled up again around the mouth of the chamber, till it should be opened
at some future time to place another member of his family by his side,
or till in after ages the antiquary should rifle his resting-place to
study the mode of burial in the Neolithic or Polished Stone Age.
Time passed on in the magician's dream, and little by little the caves
were entirely deserted as men learnt to build huts of wood and stone.
And as they advanced in knowledge they began to melt metals and pour
them into moulds, making bronze knives and hatchets, swords and spears;
and they fashioned brooches and bracelets of bronze and gold, though
they still also used their necklaces of shells and their polished stone
weapons. They began, too, to keep ducks and fowls, cows and horses; they
knew how to weave in looms, and to make cloaks and tunics; and when they
buried their dead it was no longer in a crouching position. They laid
them decently to rest, as if in sleep, in the barrows where they are
found to this day with bronze weapons by their side.
Then as time went on they learnt to melt even hard iron, and to beat it
into swords and plough-shares, and they lived in well-built huts with
stone foundations. Their custom of burial, too, was again changed, and
they burnt their dead, placing the ashes in a funeral urn.
[Illustration: Fig. 82.
British relics.
1, A coin of the age of Constantine. 2, Bronze weapon from a Suffolk
barrow. 3, Bronze bracelet from Liss in Hampshire.]
By this time the Britons, as they were now called, had begun to gather
together in villages and towns, and the Romans ruled over them. Now when
men passed through the wild country they were often finely dressed in
cloth tunics, wearing arm rings of gold, some even driving in
war-chariots, carrying shields made of wickerwork covered with leather.
Still many of the country people who laboured in the field kept their
old clothing of beast skins; they grew their corn and stored it in
cavities of the rocks; they made basket-work boats covered with skin, in
which they ventured out to sea. So things went on for a long period till
at last a troubled time came, and the quiet valleys were disturbed by
wandering people who fled from the towns and took refuge in the
forests; for the Romans after three hundred and fifty years of rule had
gone back home to Italy, and a new and barbarous people called the
Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, came over the sea from Jutland and drove the
Britons from their homes.
[Illustration: Fig. 83.
Britons taking refuge in the Cave.]
And so once more the caves became the abode of man, for the harassed
Britons brought what few things they could carry away from their houses
and hid themselves there from their enemies. How little they thought, as
they lay down to sleep on the cavern floor, that beneath them lay the
remains of two ages of men! They knew nothing of the woman who had
dropped her stone spindle-whorl into the fire, on which the food of
Neolithic man had been cooking in rough pots of clay; they never dug
down to the layer of gnawed bones, nor did they even in their dreams
picture the hyaena haunting his ancient den, for a hyaena was an animal
they had never seen. Still less would they have believed that at one
time, countless ages before, their island had been part of the
continent, and that men, living in the cave where they now lay, had cut
down trees with rough flints, and fought with such unknown animals as
the mammoth and the sabre-toothed tiger.
But the magician saw it all passing before him, even as he also saw
these Britons carrying into the cave their brooches, bracelets, and
finger rings, their iron spears and bronze daggers, and all their little
household treasures which they had saved in their flight. And among
these, mingling in the heap, he recognised Roman coins bearing the
inscription of the Emperor Constantine, and he knew that it was by these
coins that he had, a few days before in Yorkshire, been able to fix the
date of the British occupation of a cave.
* * * * *
And with this his dream ended, and he found himself clutching firmly the
horn on which Palaeolithic man had engraved the figure of the reindeer.
He rose, and stretching himself crossed the sunny grass plot of the
quadrangle and entered his classroom. The boys wondered as he began his
lecture at the far-away look in his eyes. They did not know how he had
passed through a vision of countless ages; but that afternoon, for the
first time, they realised, as he unfolded scene after scene, the history
of "The Men of Ancient Days."
INDEX
Abbot's Way across Dartmoor, 196
Absorption of rays of sunlight, 129
Abyssinia, wild ass of, 203
_Actinozoa_, Cydippe allied to the, 190
Ages, lapse of between old and new stone age, 217
Alcor, or Jack, 158
Aldebaran, 149;
called so by the Arabs, 153;
colour of, 167
Algol the Variable, 162, 165
Almach, [Greek: g] Andromedae, 156;
a coloured double star, 167
America, extinction of original horse in, 207
Andromeda, the great nebula of, 162, 164;
double coloured star in, 167
Animal of the Sea-mat, 191;
number in one leaf, 193
Animal-trees and stony plants, 178
Animals, extinct, living with man, 211
Antares, a ruby-red star, 167
Antherozoids of mosses, 89
Apothecia of lichens, 83
Apennines, Lunar, figured, 19
Archimedes, a lunar crater, 10;
smooth centre of, 19
Arctic lands, lichens in, 82
Arcturus, colour of, 166
Aristarchus, a lunar crater, 10, 24;
streaks around, 17
Aristotle, a lunar crater, 10
Arrows, old stone, 215
Asia, horse of Central, 201
_Asinus taeniopus_, 203
_Aspergillus glaucus_, 61;
growth of, 63
Ass tribe, forms allied to the, 201
Ass, wild of Africa, 203
Atmosphere, absence of in the moon, 21
Australia, wild horses of, 207
_Bacillaria Paradoxa_, a diatom, 185
Bacteria growing on wounds, 66
Baiae, hill thrown up on Bay of, 103
Ball, Sir R., on binary stars, 154
Beehive, triple star near the, 168
Beer, fermentation of, 65
Bellatrix, a star in Orion, 148
Berlin, ground beneath, formed of diatoms, 186
Bessel, on movements of Sirius, 169
Betelgeux, a star in Orion, 148
Binary star in Great Bear, 157, 158
Binary stars, 154, 166, 170
Bog-moss or Sphagnum, 93
Bog-mosses, distribution of, 94
Bombs, volcanic, 105
Booetis [Greek: e], a coloured double star, 167
Britons inhabiting caves, 224;
ornaments and customs of, 223
Britons of Dartmoor, 196
Bronze weapon and bracelet, 223
Bryum or thread moss, 77
Buckfast Abbey, monks of, 196
Bunt, a fungus, 64
Burial in Neolithic times, 221
Cassiopeia, the constellation, 162;
coloured double star in, 167
Castor, a binary star, 154
Camera, photographic, 47;
attached to the telescope, 121
Cancer [Greek: z], a triple coloured star, 168
Candle-flame, image of, formed by lens, 33
Canis Major, constellation of, 148
Capella, colour of the star, 153
Castor, light of compared with a near star, 158
Caterpillars destroyed by fungus, 66
Caucasus Mountains on the Moon, 18
Cave, the three periods of a, 225
Caves, Palaeolithic and Neolithic, 210;
Palaeolithic life in, 211;
hyaenas roamed in, 217;
Neolithic life in, 218;
Britons took refuge in, 224
Cells, fertile of mushroom, 69;
of moss-plant, 89
Celt, jade, from Suffolk, 219
Chambers, Mr., his drawing of [Greek: e] Lyrae, 166
Charles's Wain, 155;
part of Great Bear, 157;
stars of drifting, 159;
stars visible in waggon of, 160;
double coloured star in, 158, 167
_Chilomonas amygdalum_, a monad, 182
Ciliary muscle, action of the, 34
Clark, Alvan, on companion of Sirius, 169
Clockwork of telescope, 2
_Cocconema lanceolatum_, a diatom, 184
Coin of age of Constantine, 223
_Confervae_, growth of, 79
Commons, Mr., photographed Orion's nebula, 152
Constantine, coin of age of, 223
Constellations, maps of, 148, 156
Copernicus, a lunar crater, 10, 24;
figured, 17;
bright streaks around, 18
Copper-sulphate in lava, 108
_Corallina_, a stony seaweed, 175;
fruit of, 177;
appearance like _Sertularia_, 179
Cornea of the eye, 31
Corona, nature of the sun's, 123, 137
Cottam, Mr. A., his plate of coloured stars, 167
Crater, lava flowing from a, 98;
interior of Vesuvius, 100
Crater-plains, 19-21
Craters on the moon, 10, 13, 17, 19, 20;
of earth and moon compared, 16
Crystallites in volcanic glass, 109
Crystallisation, two periods of, in lava, 115
Crystals forming in artificial lavas, 114;
precious, 116
_Cydippe pileus_, a living jelly-ball, 187;
structure of, 188-190
Cygni [Greek: b], a coloured double star, 167
Dartmoor, fairy rings on, 57, 58;
the Sundew on, 56;
granite figured, 112;
ponies, 195
De la Rue, his photograph of moon, 13
Devonshire ponies, black stripe on, 201
Diatom, a growing, 185
_Diatoma hyalina_, 184
Diatoms, magnified fossil, 39;
living marine, 184
Didymium, giving a broken spectrum, 126
Dordogne, caves of the, 210, 215
Draper, Prof., photographed Orion's nebula, 152
_Drosera rotundifolia_ on Dartmoor, 56
Dschiggetai, horse-ass of Tibet, 200
Dsungarian desert, wild horse of the, 203
Dykes, nature of volcanic, 111
Earth, path of the moon round the, 8;
magnetic storm on, caused by sun, 14;
reservoirs of melted matter in the, 101
Earthquakes accompanying volcanic outbursts, 102
Eclipse of sun, red jets and corona seen during, 125
Eclipse, total, of the moon, 23;
lurid light during, 25
Eclipses, how caused, 7
Elephant, hairy, engraved on ivory, 216
_Empusa muscae_, 66
Engis and Engihoul caves, 210
England, ancient caves in, 210;
in Palaeolithic times, 211
Eocene, toed horses of the, 205
_Eohippus_, or horse of the dawn, 205
_Equus hemionus_, the horse-ass, 202
Eratosthenes, a lunar crater, 10
Erbia, giving a broken spectrum, 126
Ergot, a fungus, 61
Eruptions of Vesuvius, 97, 100, 104
Eudoxus, a lunar crater, 10
Experiments, necessity for accurate, 54
Eye, structure of the, 29-32;
mode of seeing with the, 32;
short-sighted, 29, 35;
distances spanned by the naked, 40
Faculae on the sun's face, 122, 140
Fairy rings, 55;
mentioned in _Merry Wives of Windsor_, 57;
growth of, 71-73
Ferments caused by fungi, 60, 64
Fishing in ancient times, 215, 220
_Fistulina hepatica_, a fungus, 71
Flint skeletons of plants, 185
Flustra or sea-mat, 187;
structure of, 191-193
Fly, fungus killing a, 66
Focal images, 33;
distances, 44
Fouque, M., artificial lava made by, 112
Fructification of mushrooms, 69;
of lichens, 83;
of mosses, 91;
of seaweeds, 177
_Funaria hygrometrica_, urn of the, 89, 91;
has no urn lid, 92
Fungi, nature of, 59;
different kinds of, 60;
attacking insects, 66;
growing on wounds, 66;
the use of, 74
Fungus and green cells in lichen, 81
Gardener, advice of the old, 118
Gas, spectrum of a, 126
Gases revealed by spectroscope, 52
Gemini, the constellation, 154
Geminorum, [Greek: d], a double coloured star, 167
Gills of mushroom, 69
_Gomphonema marinum_, 184
Gooseberry, fermentation in a, 64
Gory dew, _Palmella cruenta_, 79
Graham's island thrown up, 102
Granular appearance of sun's face, 123
Grape fungus, 65
Great Bear, the constellation, 157;
binary star in, 158;
coloured double star in, 158, 168
Greenstone, Neolithic weapons of, 220
Guards, the, in the Little Bear, 162
Hartz Mountains, caves of the, 210
Hatchet, a Neolithic stone, 219
Hebrides, volcanic islands of, 111
Henri, MM., photograph of moon's face by, 19
Herculaneum, buried, 98, 104
Herculis [Greek: a], a coloured double star, 168
Hermitage, lava stream flowing behind the, 97, 99
Herschel's drawing of Copernicus, 17
Huggins, Dr., on shape of prominences, 135;
on spectra of nebulae, 151;
on cause of colour in stars, 168
Himalayas, single-celled plants in the, 79
Horse, wild, of the Pampas, 198;
of Tartary, 199;
of Kirghiz steppes, 200;
Przevalsky's, 202;
early history of toed, 204;
structure of foot and hoof of, 205;
skeleton of, 206;
origin and migration of early, 207
Hungary, ancient caves of, 210
Huyghens, the highest peak in Lunar Apennines, 19
Image formed at focus of lens, 33;
of sky in telescope, 49
Implements, old stone, 213;
new stone, 219
Imps of plant-life, 59
India, low plants in springs of, 79;
solar eclipse seen in, 124;
wild ass of, 203
Infusorial earth, 186
Infusorians in a seaside pool, 183
Inhabitants of a seaside pool, 172-174
Iris of the eye, 30
Iron pyrites in lava, 108
Iron slag, lava compared to, 105
Islands, volcanic thrown up, 102
Jack by the second horse, 157
Jade, Neolithic weapons of, 220
Jannsen, Prof., on sun prominences, 131
Judd, Mr., on volcano of Mull, 111
Jutes and Angles invading Britain, 224
Kant on nebular hypothesis, 152
Kent's Cavern, rough stone implement from, 213
Kepler, a lunar crater, 10;
streaks around, 17
Kertag, or wild horse, 202
Kew, sun-storm registered at, 143
Kiang or Kulan, 200
Kirchhoff, Prof., on sunlight, 128
Kulan or Kiang, 200
Labrador felspar artificially made, 113
Langley, Prof., sun-spot drawn by, 141
Laplace, nebular hypothesis of, 152
Lava, aspect of flowing, 99;
reservoirs of molten, 101;
nature of, 107;
artificially made, 113;
two periods of crystallisation in, 115
Lava-stream, history of a, 100;
section of a, 108;
rapid cooling of surface, 108
Laver or sea-lettuce, structure of, 176
Leo, the constellation, 155
Leucotephrite artificially made, 113
Lens, natural, of the eye, 31;
simple magnifying, 35
Levy, M., artificial lava made by, 112
Lichens, specimens of from life, 77;
the life-history of, 80-84;
sections of, 81;
distribution of 82, 95;
fructification of, 83;
causes of success of, 94
Lick telescope, magnifying power of, 46
Light, lurid, on moon during eclipse, 24;
sifted by spectroscope, 126
Light-granules on sun's face, 123;
supposed explanation of, 141
Lime-tree, fungi on the, 64
Liss, bronze bracelet from, 223
Little Bear, pole-star and guards in the, 162
Lockyer, Mr., on sun-prominences, 131, 136
Lunar Apennines figured, 19
Lyrae [Greek: epsilon], a double-binary star, 166
Machairodus, tooth of, 213
Madeleine, La, carvings from cave of, 216
Magic glasses and how to use them, 27;
what can be done by, 28, 53
Magician's chamber, 1;
his pupils, 4;
spells, 28;
his dream of ancient days, 209
Magnetic connection of sun and earth, 142
Magnifying-glass, action of a, 35
Mammoth engraved on ivory, 216
Maps of constellations, 148, 156
_Marasmius oreastes_, fairy-ring mushroom, 55, 72
_Mazeppa_, quotation from Byron's, 201
Men of older stone age, 212;
of Neolithic age, 218
_Mesohippus_, a toed horse, 205
Microliths in volcanic glass, 109, 110, 113, 115;
formed in artificial lava, 113
Microscope, 3;
action of the, 36-38
Mildews are fungi, 60
Milky Way, 149;
Cassiopeia in the, 163
Minerals crystallising in lava, 108
Mines, increase of temperature in, 101
Miohippus, or lesser toed horse, 206
Mizar, a double-coloured star in the Great Bear, 158, 168
Monads, size and activity of, 183
Monks, ancient, of Dartmoor, 196
Monte Nuovo thrown up in 1538, 103
Moon, phases of the, 6;
course in the heavens, 8;
map of the, 10;
craters of the, 10, 13, 17, 19, 20;
face of full, 11;
a worn-out planet, 21;
no atmosphere in the, 21;
diagram of eclipse of, 23;
lurid light on during eclipse, 24
Moss-leaf magnified, 87
Moss, life-history of a, 84, 92;
a stem of feathery, 85;
protonema of a, 86;
modes of new growth of a, 88;
fructification of a, 89;
urns of a, 89, 91
Mosses, different kinds of, 77;
advantages and distribution of, 94
Moulds are fungi, 60;
how they grow, 63
Mountains of the moon, 19;
formation of, 21
_Mucor Mucedo_, figured, 61;
growth of, 63
Mull, volcanic dykes in the island of, 111
Mushroom, early stages and spawn of, 67;
mycelium of, 67;
later stages of, 68;
section of gills of, 69;
spores of, 70;
fairy or Scotch bonnet, 72
Mycelium of mould, 63;
of mushroom, 67;
of fairy rings, 72
Naples, volcanic eruption seen at, 96;
Monte Nuovo thrown up near, 103
Nasmyth on bright lunar streaks, 16
Nebula of Orion, 149;
spectrum of, 151;
photographs of, 152;
of Pleiades, 153;
of Andromeda, 163-164
Needle, bone, from a cave, 212
Neolithic implements, 219;
industries and habits, 218-220;
burials, 221
Neptune, invisible to naked eye, 35
Neison, Mr., his drawing of Plato, 20
_Nostoc_, growing on stones, 79
Oak, fungi on the, 64
Observatory, the Magician's, 2;
astronomical on Vesuvius, 97;
cascade of lava behind the, 99
Obsidian, or volcanic glass, 109
Occultation of a star, 22, 25
Onager, or wild ass of Asia, 203
Optic nerve of eye, 34
Orion, constellation of, 147, 149;
great nebula of, 149;
photographs of Nebula of, 152;
coloured double stars in, 168
Orionis [Greek: th], or Trapezium, 150
Ornaments of ancient Britons, 222
Orohippus, a toed horse, 205
_Oscillariae_, growth of, 79
Palaeolithic man, 212;
relics, 213;
life, 214, 216
Pampas, wild horses of the, 198
_Penicillium glaucum_, figured, 61;
growth of, 63
Penumbra of an eclipse, 23;
of sun-spots, 140
Perithecia of lichens, 84
Petavius, a lunar crater, 10
Photographic camera, 3, 47;
attached to telescope, 121
Photographs of the moon, 13, 19;
of galloping horse, 48;
of the stars, 49, 161;
of the sun, 121
Photosphere of the sun, 123
Philadelphia, electric shocks at during sun-storm, 143
Pixies of plant life, 59
Plains of the moon, 10;
nature of the, 12
Plants, colourless, single-celled, 65;
single-celled green, 78;
two kinds of in lichens, 80;
with flint skeletons, 185
Plato, a lunar crater, 10, 24;
figured, 20
Pleiades, the, 153;
nebulae in, 153
_Pleurococcus_, a single-celled plant, 78
Plough, the, or Charles's Wain, 157
Pointers, in Charles's Wain, 161
Pole-star, the, 161;
a yellow sun, 166
Pollux, a yellow sun, 166
_Polysiphonia_, a red seaweed, 175;
fruit of, 177
_Polytrichum commune_, a hair moss, 88;
its urns protected by a lid, 91
Pool, inhabitants of a seaside, 172-74
Precious stones, formation of, 116
Proctor, his star atlas, 146;
on drifting of Charles's Wain, 159
Prominence-spectrum and sun-spectrum compared, 134
Prominences, red, of the sun, 125;
seen in full daylight, 131-133;
shape of, 135
_Protococcus nivalis_, 79
Protonema of a moss, 86
Przevalsky's wild horse, 202
Ptolemy, a lunar crater, 10
Puffballs, 67, 70;
use of in nature, 73
Pupil of the eye, 30
Puzzuoli, eruption near, 1538, 103
Quaggas, herds of, 203
Rain-band in the solar spectrum, 130
Rain-shower during volcanic eruption, 107
Readings in the sky, 53, 127, 151, 168
Red snow, a single-celled plant, 79
Regulus, the star, 155, 166
Reindeer, carving on horn of, 216
Reservoirs of molten rock underground, 101
Resina, ascent of Vesuvius from, 98
Retina of the eye, 31;
image of object on the, 33
Richmond, Virginia, infusorial earth of, 186
Rigel, a star in Orion, 149;
a coloured double star, 168
Rings, growth of fairy, 73
Roberts, Mr. I., his photograph of Orion's nebula, 152;
and of nebula of the Pleiades, 153;
and of nebula of Andromeda, 164
Rosse, Lord, his telescope, 46;
on Orion's nebula, 150;
stars visible in his telescope, 160
Rue, De la, his photograph of the moon, 13
Rust on plants, 61
Sabrina island formed, 102
Saturn, distance of, 40
Saxons, invasion of the, 224
Schwabe, Herr, on sun-spots cycle, 137
Scoriae of volcanoes, 108
"Scotch bonnet" mushroom, 72
Sea-mat, _see_ Flustra
"Seas" lunar, so-called, 10
Seaweeds, a group of, 175;
fruits of, 177
Secchi, Father, on depth of a sun-spot, 139
Selwyn, Mr., photograph of sun by, 122
Senses alone tell us of outer world, 29
_Sertularia tenella_, structure of, 180;
_cupressina_, 181
Sertularian and coralline, resemblance of, 179
Shakespeare on fairy rings, 57
Shipley, Mr., saw volcanic island formed, 103
Sight, far and near, 35
Silkworm destroyed by fungi, 66
Sirius, 146;
a bluish white sun, 166;
irregularities of caused by a companion, 169
Skeleton of the horse, 206
Skin diseases caused by fungi, 61, 66
Sky, light readings in the, 53, 127, 151, 168
Smut, a fungus, 61
Sodium lime in the spectrum, 128
Somma, part of ancient Vesuvius, 97, 104
Spawn of mushroom, 67
Spectra, plate of coloured, 127
Spectroscope, 3;
Kirchhoff's, 51;
gases revealed by the, 52;
direct vision, 127;
sifting light, 126;
attached to telescope, 132
Spectrum of sunlight, 127, 130
Sphacelaria, a brown-green seaweed, 175;
fruit of, 177
Sphagnum or bog moss, 77, 93;
structure of leaves of, 93
Spindle-whorl from Neolithic caves, 219
Spore-cases of mosses, 89, 91, 93
Spores of moulds, 63;
of mushroom, 70;
of lichens, 83;
of mosses, 91
Star, occultation of, by the moon, 24;
a double-binary, 166;
a dark, travelling round Sirius, 169
Star-cluster in Perseus, 162
Star-depths, 160, 171
Stars, light from the, 40, 42;
visible in the country, 145;
apparent motion of the, 146;
maps of, 148, 156;
of milky way, 149;
binary, 154;
real motion of, 159;
drifting, 159;
number of known and estimated, 161;
colours of, 166;
double coloured, 167;
cause of colour in, 168;
are they centres of solar systems? 170
Statur or wild horse, 202
Streaks, bright, on the moon, 14-17
Suffolk, bronze weapon from barrow in, 223
Sun, path of the moon round the, 8;
one of the stars, 119;
how to look at the, 119;
face of, thrown on a screen, 120;
photograph of the, 122;
prominences, corona, and faculae of, 122-125;
mottling of face of, 123;
total eclipse of, 124;
zodiacal line round, 125;
dark lines in spectrum of, 128;
reversing layer of, 131;
metals in the, 131;
sudden outburst in the, 142;
magnetic connection with the earth, 143;
a yellow star, 166
Sun's rays touching moon during eclipse, 24
Sun-spots, cycle of, 137;
proving sun's rotation, 138;
nature of, 139;
quiet and unquiet, 140;
formation of, 142
Sundew on Dartmoor, 56
Tarpan, a wild horse, 199
Tartary, wild horses of, 199
Tavistock Abbey, monks of, 196
Telescope, clock-work, adjusting a, 2;
an astronomical, 41;
magnifying power of the, 43-46;
giant, 46;
terrestrial, 47;
what can be seen in a small, 46;
how the sun is photographed in the, 122;
how the spectroscope is worked with the, 132
Teneriffe, peak of compared to lunar craters, 15
Tennant, Major, drawing of eclipsed sun by, 123
Temperature, underground, 101
_Thuricolla follicula_, a transparent infusorian, 182
Tiger, sabre-toothed, 211, 213
_Tilletia caria_ or bunt, 64
Toadstools, 67, 70;
use of in nature, 73
Tools, of ancient stone period, 214, 215
Tooth of machairodus, 213
Torquay, the Magician's pool near, 172
Tors of Dartmoor, 197
Trapezium of Orion, 150
_Tremella mesenterica_ fungus, 71
Tripoli formed of diatoms, 35
Tundras, lichens and mosses of the, 82, 95
Tycho, a lunar crater, 10;
description of, 13;
bright streaks of, 14
_Ulva_, a green seaweed, 175;
a section magnified, 176
Umbra of an eclipse, 23
Urns of mosses, 89, 91
_Ustilago carbo_, or smut, 64
Variable stars, 165
Vega, a bluish-white sun, 166;
double-binary star near, 165
Veil of mushroom, 68
Vesuvian lavas imitated, 113
Vesuvius, eruption of 1868 described, 97, 99, 104;
dormant, 103;
eruption of in A.D. 79, 104
Volcanic craters of earth and moon compared, 16;
eruptions in the moon, 21;
glass under the microscope, 109, 110, 115
Volcano, diagram of an active, 105
Volcanoes, the cause of discussed, 101, 102;
ancient, laid bare, 111
Washington, electric shocks at during sun-storm, 143
Winter in Palaeolithic times, 215
Wood, winter growth in a, 76
"World without End," 115
Yeast, growth of, 65
Yorkshire, Roman coins in caves of, 225
Zebra, herds of, 203
Zodiacal light, 125
THE END
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