HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i47 



grass, and the host of other trees and plants with which 

 the well-tilled slopes of this fertile spot abounds, 

 and wend our way onward to the little springs 

 whose rippling music had attracted our attention 

 when standing on the heights above. What a 

 blending of rural rusticity and wild rugged grandeur 

 do we not here find ? Immediately around us, the 

 springs ripple and dance onwards amid a wealth of 

 verdant watercresses and sweetly-scented wild 

 flowers ; while in the background looms up dark 

 and gray the craggy heights of the Binjemmas, the 

 brilliantly white limestones and the rich warm 

 colouring of the marl-beds of which lend an effect 

 of beautiful and substantial magnificence to the 

 scenery. 



But do our charges against the plant world of the 

 islands rest here? Assuredly not. Let us examine 

 the banks of the streamlets whose waters are eddying 

 onwards through their marly channels, and we shall 

 quickly find numerous fresh instances wherewith to 

 implicate them. Several of the trees that are 

 growing on the banks have been so vigorous in their 

 exertions to drive their roots in the direction of the 

 water, that they have undermined a neighbouring 

 wall, and have caused their roots to appear in the 

 very bed of the brook. This action has loosened the 

 soil in the vicinity, and while in that state, con- 

 siderable quantities have been carried onward by the 

 current and washed into the sea. 



This is an example, on a small scale, of what is 

 happening to the banks of rivers in other countries, 

 on a scale of considerable magnitude. 



The undermining action of the waters is facilitated 

 by the preparation made for them by the roots of the 

 trees that grow on its banks ; and when, as often 

 occurs, the trees themselves are precipitated into the 

 flood, either by the force of the gale or by being 

 themselves undermined, they carry with them tons of 

 soil, and thus open up inequalities, that can only be 

 effaced by a considerable lateral extension of the 

 river itself. 



A walk in any direction along the southern coast 

 of the island will furnish us with endless examples of 

 the various ways in which "plant life" assists in 

 degrading rock surfaces when the conditions are 

 favourable. The southern slopes are strewn with 

 boulders that have broken off from the upper lime- 

 stone, and have rolled down the hillsides, thu s 

 suggesting, from their great numbers and huge 

 proportions, the idea of a vast labyrinth of Cyclopeian 

 anarchy. 



And yet nothing more terrible has caused this 

 destruction than the ceaseless attacks of those 

 atmospheric agencies, which, by eroding the sub- 

 jacent sand and marl beds, have caused the super- 

 incumbent limestone to break off and precipitate 

 itself down the slopes. 



Though this work is largely due to the combined 

 action of a variety of aerial agencies, yet even here 



the humi of decaying vegetable matter plays its part 

 and adds its quota in assisting in the work of de- 

 vastation. 



The weatherworn and fretted appearance which is 

 the chief characteristic of the surfaces of the south- 

 eastern portions of both islands may in like manner 

 be attributed to these causes. 



These extravasations on the rock surfaces are the 

 means whereby, in winter time, a certain charm is 

 imparted to these otherwise rugged and sterile 

 portions of the islands, for the potholes then serve as 

 so many natural flower pots in which luxuriates a 

 wealth of verdure ; but this state of things endures 

 only for a few months, for when summer returns, 

 plant life disappears, and once again the island dons 

 that sterile, desolate garb which has earned for her 

 such an unenviable reputation. But these periodical 

 alternations have not been effected without leaving 

 behind them some traces of their existence. This 

 annual decay must be, and is, followed by its usual 

 physical accompaniments, namely, the disintegration 

 of the surfaces upon which the plants have rested, 

 and thus new surface indentations are formed and old 

 ones are, by the latest operation, still further 

 enlarged. 



I do not say that this is the only cause to which 

 these surface excavations are due, but it, at least, 

 seems to me to be the principal one. 



From the preceding observations it will be seen 

 that I have considered the effects wrought by one 

 only of the numerous class of agents that are 

 constantly engaged in wearing down the crust of the 

 globe. 



It is, however, one, the importance of which is not 

 always so fully appreciated as it should be, for 

 though it works as effectively as the others, yet by 

 reason of its subtle methods, and the fact, that under 

 certain conditions it exerts directly opposite effects, it 

 does not always get the full credit for the actual work 

 that it is responsible for. 



The Lyceum, Malta. 



THE BIRTH-PLACE OF THE ELECTRIC 

 TELEGRAPH. 



IT is a singular instance of the world's neglect 

 that the original discoverer of so momentous 

 and comparatively recent an invention as the 

 transmission of messages by means of electricity 

 should remain well-nigh unknown to the generality 

 of educated mankind ; but so it is. This is by no 

 means a case in which any possibility of doubt exists 

 for those who care to seek the truth, because, unlike 

 most great inventions, the honour of its first concep- 

 tion and practical application was due to one man, 

 and one only, and that at a time long prior to the 

 improvement and adaptation of the electric telegraph 

 for public purposes by Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone 

 in 1S37. 



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