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MORE SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR
by
Sir RAY LANKESTER
K.C.B., F.R.S.
With 34 Illustrations
Methuen & Co. Ltd.
36 Essex Street, W.C.
London
* * * * *
Uniform with this Volume
1 The Mighty Atom Marie Corelli
2 Jane Marie Corelli
3 Boy Marie Corelli
231 Cameos Marie Corelli
4 Spanish Gold G. A. Birmingham
9 The Unofficial Honeymoon Doll Wyllarde
18 Round the Red Lamp Sir A. Conan Doyle
20 Light Freights W. W. Jacobs
22 The Long Road John Oxenham
71 The Gates of Wrath Arnold Bennett
81 The Card Arnold Bennett
87 Lalage's Lovers G. A. Birmingham
92 White Fang Jack London
108 The Adventures of Dr. Whitty G. A. Birmingham
113 Lavender and Old Lace Myrtle Reed
125 The Regent Arnold Bennett
135 A Spinner in the Sun Myrtle Reed
137 The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu Sax Rohmer
143 Sandy Married Dorothea Conyers
212 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad
215 Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo E. Phillips Oppenheim
224 Broken Shackles John Oxenham
227 Byeways Robert Hichens
229 My Friend the Chauffeur C. N. & A. M. Williamson
259 Anthony Cuthbert Richard Bagot
261 Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs
268 His Island Princess W. Clark Russell
275 Secret History C. N. and A. M. Williamson
276 Mary All-alone John Oxenham
277 Darneley Place Richard Bagot
278 The Desert Trail Dane Coolidge
279 The War Wedding C. N. and A. M. Williamson
281 Because of these Things Marjorie Bowen
282 Mrs. Peter Howard Mary E. Mann
288 A Great Man Arnold Bennett
289 The Rest Cure W. B. Maxwell
290 The Devil Doctor Sax Rohmer
291 Master of the Vineyard Myrtle Reed
293 The Si-Fan Mysteries Sax Rohmer
294 The Guiding Thread Beatrice Harraden
295 The Hillman E. Phillips Oppenheim
296 William, by the Grace of God Marjorie Bowen
297 Below Stairs Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick
301 Love and Louisa E. Maria Albanesi
302 The Joss Richard Marsh
303 The Carissima Lucas Malet
304 The Return of Tarzan Edgar Rice Burroughs
313 The Wall Street Girl Frederick Orin Bartlett
315 The Flying Inn G. K. Chesterton
316 Whom God Hath Joined Arnold Bennett
318 An Affair of State J. C. Snaith
320 The Dweller on the Threshold Robert Hichens
325 A Set of Six Joseph Conrad
329 '1914' John Oxenham
330 The Fortune of Christina McNab S. Macnaughtan
334 Bellamy Elinor Mordaunt
343 The Shadow of Victory Myrtle Reed
344 This Woman to this Man C. N. and A. M. Williamson
345 Something Fresh P. G. Wodehouse
A short Selection only.
Uniform with this Volume
36 De Profundis Oscar Wilde
37 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime Oscar Wilde
38 Selected Poems Oscar Wilde
39 An Ideal Husband Oscar Wilde
40 Intentions Oscar Wilde
41 Lady Windermere's Fan Oscar Wilde
77 Selected Prose Oscar Wilde
85 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde
146 A Woman of No Importance Oscar Wilde
43 Harvest Home E. V. Lucas
44 A Little of Everything E. V. Lucas
78 The Best of Lamb E. V. Lucas
141 Variety Lane E. V. Lucas
292 Mixed Vintages E. V. Lucas
45 Vailima Letters Robert Louis Stevenson
80 Selected Letters Robert Louis Stevenson
46 Hills and the Sea Hilaire Belloc
96 A Picked Company Hilaire Belloc
193 On Nothing Hilaire Belloc
226 On Everything Hilaire Belloc
254 On Something Hilaire Belloc
47 The Blue Bird Maurice Maeterlinck
214 Select Essays Maurice Maeterlinck
50 Charles Dickens G. K. Chesterton
94 All Things Considered G. K. Chesterton
54 The Life of John Ruskin W. G. Collingwood
57 Sevastopol and other Stories Leo Tolstoy
91 Social Evils and their Remedy Leo Tolstoy
223 Two Generations Leo Tolstoy
253 My Childhood and Boyhood Leo Tolstoy
286 My Youth Leo Tolstoy
58 The Lore of the Honey-Bee Tickner Edwardes
63 Oscar Wilde Arthur Ransome
64 The Vicar of Morwenstow S. Baring-Gould
76 Home Life in France M. Betham-Edwards
83 Reason and Belief Sir Oliver Lodge
93 The Substance of Faith Sir Oliver Lodge
116 The Survival of Man Sir Oliver Lodge
284 Modern Problems Sir Oliver Lodge
95 The Mirror of the Sea Joseph Conrad
126 Science from an Easy Chair Sir Ray Lankester
149 A Shepherd's Life W. H. Hudson
200 Jane Austen and her Times G. E. Mitton
218 R. L. S. Francis Watt
234 Records and Reminiscences Sir Francis Burnand
285 The Old Time Parson P. H. Ditchfield
287 The Customs of Old England F. J. Snell
A Selection only.
* * * * *
MORE SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR
_First Issued in this Cheap Form in 1920_
_Originally published by Messrs. Adlard & Son in 1913_
_First published by Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1914_
_Second Edition 1915_
_Third Edition 1920_
PREFACE
The present volume is a reprint of that issued in 1912 with the title,
"Science from an Easy Chair: Second Series." It consists, like its
predecessors, of chapters originally published by me in the _Daily
Telegraph_, which I have revised and illustrated by a large number of
drawings. In order to render the issue of the present cheap edition
possible, it has been found necessary to restrict its size a little by
the omission of chapters dealing with Glaciers, Ferns and Fern-seed,
and the history of the Sea-squirts or Ascidians, which are contained
in the original larger book. My hope is that this collection of
papers, "about a number of things," may meet with as kind a reception
from my readers as that which they have accorded to its predecessors.
E. RAY LANKESTER
_July 1, 1920_
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A DAY IN THE OBERLAND 1
Fertilization of Sage--The Edelweiss--The Jungfrau's
Breast--Contortions of Rock-strata--The Jungfrau
Railway--Mountain Sickness.
II. SWITZERLAND IN EARLY SUMMER 13
Alpine Flowers--Flowers of the Meadows and Woods--The
Herb Paris.
III. GLETSCH 19
From Baveno to the Rhone Glacier--A Glacier by the
Roadside--Changes in the Glacier.
IV. THE PROBLEM OF THE GALLOPING HORSE 25
The Cinematograph--Ancient Representations of Gallop--The
Dog in Mycenaean Art--What ought an Artist
to do?--Attention as a Condition of Seeing--Judgment
and Prejudice--Natural and Artificial Paces--Photographs
by Electric Spark--Use of Instantaneous
Photographs--Errors as to the Size of the Moon--The
Painter and the Moon--The Moon on the Stage.
V. THE JEWEL IN THE TOAD'S HEAD 55
The Decay of Credulity--A Sceptical Physician--How
to Test a Toadstone--Other Magical Stones--Medicinal
and Magical Stones.
VI. ELEPHANTS 65
The Indian and the African Elephant--Size of Modern
Elephants--Ears and Teeth of Elephants--Earliest
Elephants brought to Europe--The Elephant's Legs--Tusks
used in Digging--Elephants used in War--Geological
Strata since the Chalk--Ancestral Mammals--The
Typical or Ancestral Set of Teeth--The
Peculiarities of the Teeth of Elephants--Extinct
Relatives of Elephants--Ancestors of Elephants--Origin
of the Elephant's Trunk.
VII. A STRANGE EXTINCT BEAST 92
Fossil Skeletons and Jaw-bones--The Skull and Teeth
of Goats--The Teeth of Rats--The Rat-toothed
Goat--Origin of the Rat-toothed Goat.
VIII. VEGETARIANS AND THEIR TEETH 102
Teeth of Carnivors--Mixed Diets--Disease-germs in
Food.
IX. FOOD AND COOKERY 113
Special Diet of Various Races--Food and Habit--Nervous
Control of Digestion--Wholesale Food and
Mechanical Cookery--The Burnt Offering of the
Jews--Women Neglect Cookery--A Great German's
Appreciation.
X. SMELLS AND PERFUMES 126
Smells and Memory--Accidental Qualities--Bacteria and
Smells--Some Remarkable Smells.
XI. KISSES 134
Kissing and Smelling--Variations in the Sense of
Smell--Radiation and Odours--Attraction by Smell--Unconscious
Guidance by Smell.
XII. LAUGHTER 144
Why do we Laugh?--Varieties of Laughter--The
Laugh of Escape from Death--The Laugh of
Derision.
XIII. FATHERLESS FROGS 152
Fertilization of the Egg-cell--Egg-cells Developing
Unfertilized--M. Bataillon's Discovery.
XIV. PRIMITIVE BELIEFS ABOUT FATHERLESS PROGENY 159
Harvey and Milton--Reproduction by Budding--Stories
of Virgin Births--Spiritual Theory of Conception.
XV. THE PYGMY RACES OF MEN 167
Characteristics of Pygmies--Colour of the Skin--Egyptian
Stories of Pygmies--Congo and New
Guinea Pygmies--The Causes of Small Size--Smallness
a Correlation.
XVI. PREHISTORIC PETTICOATS 180
Early Carvings and Pictures--Paintings in Caverns--Painting
of Human Figures--Artistic Sympathy--Aurignacians
and Bushmen Allied.
XVII. NEW YEAR'S DAY AND THE CALENDAR 191
Make-believe and New Year--Divisions of Time--The
Difficulties of the Calendar--Pope Gregory's Ten
Days--The Astronomer Royal and the Shah.
XVIII. EASTERTIDE, SHAMROCKS AND SPERMACETI 201
The Real Shamrock--Sham Shamrock--Leonardo or
Lucas?--Various Fats.
XIX. MUSEUMS 209
The Muses--The Museum of Alexandria--Picture Galleries
and Museums--The Purposes of Museums--The
First Business of Museums--National Value of
Museums--University Museums--Not for Children but
for Adults--Screens and Electric Lifts--Frames and
Setting of Pictures.
XX. THE SECRET OF A TERRIBLE DISEASE 227
The Angel of Death--The Tyranny of Parasites--Typhus
and Monkeys--Typhus Fever in Russia.
XXI. CARRIERS OF DISEASE 235
The Entrance of Parasites--Man as a Carrier of
Disease--House Flies and Disease.
XXII. IMMUNITY AND CURATIVE INOCULATIONS 241
Inoculation of Smallpox--Antitoxins--The Wonderful
Properties of Blood--Germ-killing Poisons in the
Blood--Opsonins or Sauce for Germs.
XXIII. THE STRANGE STORY OF ANIMAL LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND 251
Strange Birds--Destroyed by Europeans--Introduced
Animals.
XXIV. THE EFFACEMENT OF NATURE BY MAN 259
Disappearance of Great Animals--Man's Reckless
Greed--Hope in Irrigation.
XXV. THE EXTINCTION OF THE BISON AND OF WHALES 266
Drowning in a Dead Whale's Heart--The Value of
Whalebone--No more Turtle Soup.
XXVI. MORE ABOUT WHALES 273
The Shape of Whales--Enormous Pressure of Gas in
the Blood--The Killer and the Narwhal--Fossil
Whales.
XXVII. MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT SCIENCE 281
What Science does not explain--Darwin's Theory is
adequate--The Aquosity of Water--Need for Interpreters
of Science--The Exploded Ghost called
"Caloric"--Nightmares Destroyed by Science--When
did the Soul arrive?--The Great Silence.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURES
FIG. PAGE
1. Flower of the Yellow Sage 4
2. The Edelweiss 5
3. "Folding" of Rock Strata 8
4. A Man Extracting the Jewel from a Toad's Head 58
5. The Palate of the Fossil Fish Lepidotus 60
6. The Indian Elephant 66
7. The African Elephant 67
8. The Crowns of Three "Grinders" or Molars of
Elephants Compared 71
9. Skeleton of the Indian Elephant 81
10. The Teeth in the Upper and Lower Jaw-bone of the
Common Pig 84
11. A Reconstruction of the Extinct American Mastodon 86
12. Skull and Restored Outline of the Head of the Long-jawed
Extinct Elephant called Tetrabelodon 87
13. Head of the Ancestral Elephant--Palaeomastodon 89
14. Restored Model of the Skull and Lower Jaw of the
Ancestral Elephant--Palaeomastodon 90
15. Head of the Early Ancestor of Elephants--Meritherium--as
it appeared in life 91
16. Skull and Lower Jaw of a Goat 94
17. Teeth in the Lower and Upper Jaw of the Goat 95
18. Skull of a Typical "Rodent" Mammal, the Coypu Rat 96
19. Teeth of the Coypu Rat 97
20. Skull of the Rat-toothed Goat, Myotragus 99
21. Skull of a Clouded Tiger 103
22. Teeth of the Lower and Upper Jaw of the same
Clouded Tiger's Skull 104
23. Figure from a Group Drawn on a Greek Vase 171
24. Group of Women Clothed in Jacket and Skirt
with "Wasp-like" Waists 185
25. Further Portion of same Group as Fig. 24 186
PLATES
I. Consecutive Poses of the Galloping Horse 27
II. Various Representations of the Gallop 29
III. Representations of the Gallop 31
IV. The Track of the Rising Moon 49
V. Three Figures--Lord Lansdowne, Mr. Lloyd George,
and Mr. Asquith 52
VI. Teeth of the Upper and Lower Jaw of Man 108
VII. Teeth of the Upper and Lower Jaw of the Gibbon 110
VIII. Votary or Priestess of the Goddess to whom Snakes
were Sacred 188
IX. Fresco Drawing of Two Female Acrobats 190
MORE SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR
CHAPTER I
A DAY IN THE OBERLAND
I am writing in early September from Interlaken, one of the loveliest
spots in Europe when blessed with a full blaze of sunlight and only a
few high-floating clouds, but absolutely detestable in dull, rainy
weather, losing its beauty as the fairy scenes of a theatre do when
viewed by dreary daylight. It is the case of the little girl of whom
it is recorded that "When she was good she was very good, and when she
was not she was horrid." This morning, after four days' misconduct,
Interlaken was very good. The tremendous sun-blaze seemed to fill the
valleys with a pale blue luminous vapour, cut sharply by the shadows
of steep hill-sides. Here and there the smoke of some burning weeds
showed up as brightest blue. Far away through the gap formed in the
long range of nearer mountains, where the Luetschine Valley opens into
the vale of Interlaken, the Jungfrau appeared in full majesty,
absolutely brilliant and unearthly. So I walked towards her up the
valley. Zweiluetschinen is the name given to the spot where the valley
divides into two, that to the left leading up to Grindelwald, under
the shadow of the Moench and the Wetterhorn, that to the right bringing
one to Lauterbruennen and the Staubbach waterfall, with the snow-fields
of the Tchingel finally closing the way--over which I climbed years
ago to Ried in the Loetschen Thal.
The autumn crocus was already up in many of the closely trimmed little
meadows, whilst the sweet scent of the late hay-crop spread from the
newly cut herbage of others.
At Zweiluetschinen, where the white glacier-torrent unites with the
black, and the milky stream is nearly as cold as ice, and is boiling
along over huge rocks, its banks bordered with pine forest, I came
upon a native fishing for trout. He was using a short rod and a
weighted line with a small "grub" as bait. He dropped his line into
the water close to the steep bank, where some projecting rock or
half-sunk boulder staved off the violence of the stream. He had
already caught half-a-dozen beautiful, red-spotted fish, which he
carried in a wooden tank full of water, with a close-fitting lid to
prevent their jumping out. I saw him take a seventh. The largest must
have weighed nearly two pounds. It seems almost incredible that fish
should inhabit water so cold, so opaque, and so torrential, and should
find there any kind of nourishment. They make their way up by keeping
close to the bank, and are able, even in that milky current, to
perceive and snatch the unfortunate worm or grub which has been washed
into the flood and is being hurried along at headlong speed. Only the
trout has the courage, strength, and love of nearly freezing water
necessary for such a life--no other fish ventures into such
conditions. Trout are actually caught in some mountain pools at a
height of 8,000 ft., edged by perpetual snow.
You are rarely given trout to eat here in the hotels. A lake fish,
called "ferras," a large species of the salmonid genus _Coregonus_, to
which the skelly, powan, and vendayce of British lakes belong, is the
commonest fish of the _table d'hote_, and not very good. A better one
is the perch-pike or zander. It is common in all the larger shallow
lakes of Central Europe, and abounds in the "broads" which extend from
Potsdam to Hamburg, though it is unknown in the British Isles. It is
quite the best of the European fresh-water fish for the table, and
there should be no difficulty about introducing it into the Norfolk
Broads. It would be worth an effort on the part of the Board of
Agriculture and Fisheries to do so, as the perch-pike, unlike other
fresh-water fishes, would hold its own on the market against haddock,
brill, and plaice. Another interesting fresh-water fish which grows to
a large size in the Lake of Geneva (where I have seen it netted) is
the burbot--called "lote" in French--a true cod of fresh-water habit
which, though common throughout Europe and Northern Asia, is, in our
country, only taken in a few rivers opening on the east coast. It is a
brilliantly coloured fish, orange-brown, mottled with black, and is
very good eating.
Passing up the Lauterbruennen valley, I came upon some wild raspberries
and quantities of the fine, large-flowered sage, _Salvia glutinosa_,
with its yellow flowers, in shape like those of the dead-nettle, but
much bigger. They were being visited by humble-bees, and I was able to
see the effective mechanism at work by which the bee's body is dusted
with the pollen of the flower. I have illustrated this in some
drawings (Fig. 1) which are accompanied by a detailed explanation. Two
long stamens, _a1_, arch high up over the lip of the flower, _li_, on
which the bee alights, and are protected by a keel or hood of the
corolla. Each stamen is provided with a broad process, _a2_, standing
out low down on its arched stalk, and blocking the way to the nectar
in the cup of the flower. When the bee pushes his head against these
obstacles and forces them backwards, the result is to swing the long
arched stalk, with its pollen sacks, in the opposite direction,
namely, forwards and downwards on to the bee's back. It was easy to
see this movement going on, and the consequent dusting of the bee's
back with pollen. In somewhat older flowers, which have been relieved
of their pollen, the style, _st._, or free stalk-like extremity of the
egg-holding capsule, already as long as the stamens, grows longer and
bends down towards the lip or landing-place of the yellow flower. When
a pollen-dusted bee alights on one of these maturer flowers the sticky
end of the now depending style is gently rubbed by the bee's back and
smeared with a few pollen-grains brought by the bee from a distant
flower. These rapidly expand into "pollen tubes," or filaments, and,
penetrating the long style, reach the egg-germs below. Thus
cross-fertilization is brought about by the bees which come for the
nectar of _Salvia_. The stalks and outer parts of the flower of this
plant produce a very sticky secretion which effectually prevents any
small insects from crawling up and helping themselves to the nectar
exclusively provided for the attraction of the humble-bee, whose
services are indispensable.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Diagrams of the flower of the yellow sage
(_Salvia glutinosa_) a little larger than life. 1. An entire flower
seen from the side. _st._ The stigma, _a2_. The pair of modified
half-anthers which are pushed back by the bee when inserting its head
into the narrow part of the flower. 2. A similar flower at a later
stage when the stigma, _st._, has grown downwards so as to touch the
back of a bee alighting on the lip of the flower, and gather pollen
from it. 3. Diagram of one of the two stamens. _f._ The stalk or
filament of the stamen. _a1_. The pollen-producing half-anther, _eo._
The elongated connective joining it to the sterile half-anther. 4.
Section through a flower showing _ov._ the ovary; _nec._ the nectary
or honey-glands; _st._ the style; _li._ the lip of the flower on which
the bee alights. 5. Similar section showing the effect of the pushing
back of _a2_ by the bee, and the downward swinging of the
polliniferous half-anther so as to dust the bee's back with pollen.
The dotted arrow shows the direction of the push given by the bee.]
[Illustration: Fig. 2.--The Edelweiss, _Gnaphalium leontopodium_.]
As I walked on, a belated Apollo butterfly, with its two red spots,
and a pale Swallow-tail fluttered by me. Then some children emerged
from unsuspected lurking-places in the wood and offered bunches of
edelweiss (Fig. 2). This curious-looking little plant does not grow
(as pretended by reporters of mountaineering disasters) exclusively in
places only to be reached by a dangerous climb. I have gathered it in
meadows on the hillside above Zermatt, and it is common enough in
accessible spots. The flowers are like those of our English groundsel
and yellow in colour--little "composite" knobs, each built up of many
tubular "florets" packed side by side. Six or seven of these little
short-stalked knobs of florets are arranged in a circlet around a
somewhat larger knob, and each of them gives off from its stalk one
long and two shorter white, hairy, leaf-like growths, flat and
blade-like in shape and spreading outwards from the circle, so that
the whole series resemble the rays of a star (or more truly of a
star-fish!). They look strangely artificial, as though cut out of new
white flannel (with a greenish tint), and have been dignified
by the comparison of the shape of the white-flannel rays with that
of the foot of the lion and the claws of the eagle. They are
extraordinary-looking little plants, and are similar in their
hairiness and pale tint to some of the seaside plants on our own
coast, which, in fact, include species closely allied to them
("cud-weeds" of the genus _Gnaphalium_).
The huge cliffs of rocks on either side (in some parts over a thousand
feet in sheer height from the torrent) come closer to one another in
the part where we now are than in most Alpine valleys, so as almost to
give it the character of a "gorge." At some points the highest part of
the precipice actually overhangs the perpendicular face by many feet.
A refreshing cold air comes up from the icy torrent, whilst the heat
of the sun diffuses the delicious resinous scent of the pine trees.
Above the naked rock we see steep hill-sides covered with forest, and
away above these again bare grass-slopes topped by cloud. But as the
clouds slowly lift and break we become suddenly aware of something
impending far above and beyond all this, something more dazzling in
its white brightness than the sun-lit clouds, a form sharply cut in
outline and firm, yet rounded by a shadow of an exquisite purple tint
which no cloud can assume. The steely blue Alpine sky fits around this
marvel of pure whiteness as it towers through the opening cloud, and
soars out of earth's range. What is this glory so remote yet impending
over us? It is the Jungfrau, the incomparable virgin of the ice-world,
who bares her snowy breast. She slowly parts her filmy veil, and, as
we gaze, uncovers all her loveliness.
The rock walls of the Lauterbruennen valley show at one place a
thickness of many hundred feet of strongly marked, perfectly
horizontal "strata"--the layers deposited immense ages ago at the
bottom of a deep sea. Not only have they been raised to this position,
and then cut into, so as to make the profound furrow or valley in the
sides of which we see them, but they have been bent and contorted in
places to an extent which is, at first sight, incredible. Close to one
great precipice of orderly horizontal layers you see the whole series
suddenly turned up at right angles, and the same strata which were
horizontal have become perpendicular. But that is not the limit, for
the upturned strata are seen actually to turn right over, and again
become horizontal in a reversed order, the strata which were the
lowest becoming highest, and the highest lowest. The rock is rolled up
just as a flat disc of Genoese pastry--consisting of alternate layers
of jam and sponge-cake--is folded on itself to form a double
thickness. The forces at work capable of treating the solid rocks, the
foundations of the great mountains, in this way are gigantic beyond
measurement. This folding of the earth's crust is caused by the fact
that the "crust," or skin of the earth, has ceased to cool, being
warmed by the sun, and therefore does not shrink, whilst the great
white-hot mass within (in comparison with which the twenty-mile-thick
crust is a mere film) continually loses heat, and shrinks definitely
in volume as its temperature sinks. The crust or jacket of stratified
rock deposited by the action of the waters on the surface of the globe
has been compelled--at whatever cost, so to speak--to fit itself to
the diminishing "core" on which it lies. Slowly, but steadily, this
"settlement" has gone on, and is going on. The horizontal rock layers,
being now too great in length and breadth, adjust themselves by
"buckling"--just as a too large, ill-fitting dress does--and the Alps,
the Himalayas, and other great mountain ranges, are regions where this
"buckling" process has for countless ages proceeded, slowly but
surely. Probably the "buckling" has proceeded to a large extent
without sudden movement, but with a lateral pressure of such power as
ultimately to throw a crust of thousands of feet thickness into deep
folds a mile or so in vertical measurement from crest to hollow,
protruding from the general level both upwards and downwards, whilst
often the folds are rolled over on to each other.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Diagrams to show the "folding" of rock strata.
A. Normal horizontal position of the strata, _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_; _xy_,
horizontal line. B. Folding due to a shortening of the horizontal _xy_
by lateral pressure, acting in the direction of the arrow and due to
shrinkage. C. More extreme case of folding, in which a raised ridge is
made to fall over so as to bring the lowest layer _d_ above _a_, _b_
and _c_.]
This crumbling and folding has gone on at great depths--that is to
say, some miles below the surface (a mere nothing compared with the
8,000 miles diameter of the globe itself), though we now see the
results exposed, like the pastry folded by a cook. Immense time has
been taken in the process. A folding movement involving a vertical
rise of an inch in ten years would not be noticed by human onlookers,
but in 600,000 years this would give you a vertical displacement of
more than 5,000 ft. (nearly a mile!). It has been shown that in
Switzerland, along a line of country extending from Basle to Milan,
strata of 10,000 ft. to 20,000 ft. in thickness, which, if
straightened out, would give a flat area of that thickness, and of 200
miles in length, have been buckled and folded so as to occupy only a
length of 130 miles! The former tight-fitting skin of horizontal rock
layers has "had to" buckle to that extent here (and in the same way in
other mountain ranges in other parts of the world), because the whole
terrestrial sphere has shrunk, owing to the gradual cooling of the
mass, whilst the crust has not shrunk, not having lost heat.
Filled with interest and delight in these things, I reached the
railway station at Lauterbruennen, from whence the little train is
driven far up the mountain, even into the very heart of the Jungfrau,
by an electric current generated by a turbine, itself driven by the
torrent at our feet, the waters of which have descended from the
glaciers far above, to which it will carry us. In a few minutes I was
gently gliding in the train up the to the "Wengern Alp" and the
"Little Scheidegg"--a slope up which I have so often in former years
painfully struggled on foot for four hours or more. One could to-day
watch the whole scene, in ease and comfort, during the two hours'
ascent of the train. And a marvellous scene it is as one rises to the
height of 8,000 ft., skirting the glaciers which ooze down the rocky
sides of the Jungfrau, and mounting far above some of them. At the
Scheidegg I changed into a smaller train, and with some thirty
fellow-passengers was carried higher and higher by the faithful,
untiring electric current. After a quarter of an hour's progress we
paused high above the "snout" of the great Eiger glacier, and
descended by a short path on to it, examined the ice, its crevasses
and layers, and its "glacier-grains," and watched and heard an
avalanche. The last time I was here it took a couple of hours to reach
this spot from the Scheidegg, and probably neither I nor any of my
fellow-passengers could to-day endure the necessary fatigue of
reaching this spot on foot. Then we remounted the train, and on we
went into the solid rock of the huge Eiger. The train stops in the
rock tunnel and we got out to look, through an opening cut in its
side, down the sheer wall of the mountain on to the grassy meadows
thousands of feet below.
Then we start again, and on we are driven by the current generated
away down there in Lauterbruennen, through the spiral tunnel, mounting
a thousand feet more till we are landed at an opening cut on the
further side of the rocky Eiger, which admits us to an actual footing
on the great glacier called the Eismeer, or Icelake. We lunch at a
restaurant cut out as a cavern in the solid rock, and survey the
wondrous scene. We are now at a height of 10,000 feet, and in the real
frozen ice-world, hitherto accessible only to the young and vigorous.
I have been there in my day with pain, danger, and labour, accompanied
by guides and held up by ropes, but never till now with perfect ease
and tranquillity and without "turning a hair," or causing either man
or beast to labour painfully on my behalf. We had taken two hours only
from Lauterbruennen; in former days we should have started in the small
hours of the morning from the Scheidegg, and have climbed through many
dangers for some six or seven hours before reaching this spot.
I confess that I am not enchanted with all of the modern appliances
for saving time and labour--the telegraph, the telephone, the
automobile, and the aeroplane. But these mountain railways fill me
with satisfaction and gratitude. When the Jungfrau railway was first
projected, some athletic Englishmen with heavy boots and ice-axes,
protested against the "desecration" of regions till then accessible
only to them and to me, and others of our age and strength. They
declared that the scenery would be injured by the railway and its
troops of "tourists." As well might they protest against the
desecration caused by the crawling of fifty house-flies on the dome of
St. Paul's. These mountains and glaciers are so vast, and men with
their railroads so small, that the latter are negligible in the
presence of the former. No disfiguring effect whatever is produced by
these mountain railways; the trains have even ceased to emit smoke
since they were worked by electricity. I quite agree with those who
object to "funiculars." The carriages on these are hauled up long,
straight gashes in the mountain side, which have a hideous and
disfiguring appearance. But I look forward with pleasure to the
completion of the Jungfrau railway to the summit. I hope that the
Swiss engineers will carry it through the mountain, and down along the
side of the great Aletsch glacier to the Bel Alp and so to Brieg. That
would be a glorious route to the Simplon tunnel and Italy!
I took three hours in the unwearied train descending from the Eismeer
to Interlaken, and was back in my hotel in comfortable time for
dinner, "mightily content with the day's journey," as Mr. Pepys would
have said. I have always been sensitive to the action of diminished
pressure, which produces what is called "mountain sickness" in many
people. Many years ago I climbed by the glacier-pass known as the
Weissthor from Macugnaga to the Riffel Alp, with a stylographic pen in
my pocket. The reservoir of the pen contained a little air, which
expanded as the atmospheric pressure diminished, and at 10,000 feet I
found most of the ink emptied into my pocket. Probably one cause of
the discomfort called "mountain sickness" arises from a similar
expansion of gas contained in the digestive canal, and in the
cavities connected with the ear and nose. The more suddenly the change
of pressure is effected, the more noticeable is the discomfort. But I
was rather pleased than otherwise to note, as I sat in the comfortable
railway carriage, that when we passed 8,000 feet in elevation the old
familiar giddiness, and tendency to sigh and gasp, came upon me
as of yore, as I gathered was the experience of some of my
fellow-passengers: and when we were returning, and had descended
half-way to Lauterbruennen, I enjoyed the sense of restored ease in
breathing which I well remember when the whole experience was
complicated by the fatigue of a long climb. A white-haired American
lady was in the train with me ascending to the Eismeer. "I have longed
all my life," she said, "to see a glaysher--to touch it and walk on
it--and now I am going to do it at last. I and my daughter here have
come right away from America to go on these cars to the glaysher."
When we were descending, I asked the old lady if she had been pleased.
"I can hardly speak of it rightly," she said. "It seems to me as
though I have been standing up there on God's own throne." I do not
sympathise with the Alpine monopolist who would grudge that dear old
lady, and others like her, the little train and tramway by which alone
such people can penetrate to those soul-stirring scenes. They are at
least as sensitive to the beauty of the mountains as are the most
muscular, most long-winded, and most sun-blistered of our friends--the
acrobats of the rope and axe.
Interlaken
_September, 1909_