ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY IN THE NOVEMBER NUMBER OF THE
CHAUTAUQUAN.
_Geology._
1. The glacial streams from ice-caves that are the sources of the
Arveiron and the Rhone rivers are milk-white from the presence of
innumerable molecules of triturated rock which they bear suspended.
This powdered rock is in the form of a very fine, impalpable mud. It
is an unctious, sticky deposit, and only requires pressure to knead it
into a tenacious clay. This mud owes its origin to the grinding power
of the glacier, the stones and sand being crushed and pulverized upon
the rock below.
2. The Grinnell glacier, discovered by Captain Hall, is just north
of and adjacent to Hudson’s Strait, on the extreme southern point of
Baffin’s Land, called Meta Incognita.
3. The Loffoden Islands are famous for the great maelstrom, which is
a narrow passage between two of them. They are also noted for their
fisheries. The evidences of the powerful wearing action of tidal
currents is seen in their extremely rugged and precipitous coasts, and
deep channels. Sharp pointed peaks three to four thousand feet above
the sea, rise nearly perpendicularly out of the water.
4. The volcano of Jorullo is situated one hundred and sixty miles
southeast of the City of Mexico. It is famous for its recent and sudden
upheaval during a single night, in the midst of a fertile and highly
cultivated plain.
5. Earthquakes are spoken of as “convulsive movements of Old Vulcan”
for the reason that the ancients ascribed the cause of them to that
God. Vulcan was the god of fire, and his workshop was generally
supposed to be in some volcanic island.
6. The connection of the former island of Tyre with the continent is
not wholly due to the rising of the land from beneath. In the siege of
Tyre by Alexander, 332 B. C., he united the island to the main land
by an enormous artificial mole. This has been increased by ruins and
alluvial deposits.
_History of Greece._
1. Earth and water given to the Persian heralds were regarded as
symbols of submission, because the earth represented the land, and the
water the sea, and the meaning was that they were willing to yield
dominion of both to the Persians.
2. The festival of the Karneian Apollo was a festival observed in
many of the Grecian cities, especially in Sparta, where it was first
instituted, in honor of Apollo Carneius. The celebration lasted nine
days, and during the time nine tents were pitched near the city, and
nine men lived in them after the manner of a military camp, obeying in
everything the order of a herald.
3. The pæan, or war song of the Greeks, was a song originally sung in
honor of Apollo, and was always of a joyous nature. It was also sung as
a battle song, both before an attack on an enemy, and after the battle
was finished. In later times it was sometimes sung in honor of mortals.
4. The tomb of Mausolus is one of the seven wonders of the world,
associated with the name of Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus,
inasmuch as the Mausoleum was built by another queen of the same name,
distinguished as Artemicia, queen of Caria.
5. According to Thucydides the sacrifice made by Pausanias during the
battle of Platæa was made to Jupiter in the market-place of Platæa. It
was a bloody sacrifice, probably of some domestic animal, and from the
entrails or the manner of the death the soothsayers sought to interpret
the will of the gods.
6. The Island of Delos was called sacred because it was said to have
been the birth-place of Apollo and Diana. In 426 B. C. it was purified
by the Athenians by having all tombs removed from it.
_Geology._
1. The Fille-Fond, or Fille-Field, is a mountain plateau of Norway,
connected with the Songe-Fjeld on the north and the Hardanger-Fjeld on
the south. The summits vary in height from 4,900 feet to 6,300 feet.
2. The common name of the Chimæra is the Sea-cat. It is so called on
account of its eyes. They have a greenish pupil surrounded by a white
iris, and they shine, especially at night, like cats’ eyes. It is also
called “King of the Herring.”
3. By the “Old Red Sandstone” of Europe is meant the Devonian Rocks.
These rocks are called “red” on account of their color, and “old” to
distinguish them from the New Red Sandstone, which appears in the
triassic period.
4. Some of the eccentric features which probably caused the
astonishment of Cuvier on examining the Plesiosauri for the first
time are the following: to a lizard’s head it united the teeth of
a crocodile, a neck like a serpent’s body, the trunk and tail of a
quadruped, the vertebræ of a fish, the ribs of a chameleon, and the
fins of a whale.
5. Some of the fossil footprints in the Connecticut Valley, made by
colossal reptiles, are called “bird tracks” because they were at first
supposed to be the tracks of birds, a large part of them resembling the
impressions of birds’ feet more than those of any known animal.
6. The Loup Fork Beds are beds of Pliocene deposit which occur on the
Loup Fork of the Platte River in the Upper Missouri region.
_History of Greece._
1. The Helots were Spartan slaves. They were said to have been the
native population of a portion of the Peloponnesus, and to have been
subjected to slavery by the invading Dorians.
2. The “sacred wars” were wars relative to the possession of the Temple
at Delphi and its treasures.
3. The Alkmæonidæ were a noble and wealthy family of Athens, descended
from Alkmæon, who was a descendant of King Codrus. They were considered
sacrilegious on account of the way in which Megacles, one of the
family, treated the insurgents under Cylon. Having taken refuge at the
altar of Minerva, on the Acropolis, Megacles induced them to withdraw
on the promise that their lives should be spared, but their enemies put
them to death as soon as they had them in their power.
4. The Untori, in the plague of Milan, in 1630, were persons suspected
of anointing doors with pestilential ointment, and thus spreading the
disease. Many persons were arrested and put to death on this suspicion.