32 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Feb. 1, 1S67. 



fragments of masonry, threading our way through 

 the shattered palace of the Moors, we unexpectedly 

 arrive at a heap of arms and legs, bodies without 

 heads resting by the side of others whose faces are 

 so battered and bemauled, that recognition is im- 

 possible; some are clad in chain-mail, others are 

 draped in priestly vestments, and very many are not 

 clad at all. By a little play of fancy we might easily 

 suppose all the statues must have recently gone in 

 for a sanguinary battle, and that we had stumbled 

 upon the remains of the fallen, gathered together, 

 awaiting the grave-digger. We find, however, on 

 inquiry, the workmen bring all the odds and ends 

 they discover, and deposit them at this spot. 



A short distance further down the ruin, brings us 

 beneath the two colossal figures from the Temple of 

 Barneses the Great, at Aboo Simbel, in Nubia. 

 Towering sixty feet above our heads, their monstrous 

 features, never very comely, are so altered by the 

 action of fire, that one might readily suppose two 

 sinful giants had been made to suffer death by fiery 

 martyrdom. A friend of the writer's, who was pre- 

 sent at the time these figures were partially burnt, 

 observed a column of flame pour through the tops 

 of their heads, giving to them the quaint semblance* 

 of wearing plumes of fire. We scramble past the 

 avenue of Sphinxes, or rather where it was once 

 shaded by plants of the stately Papyrus, the leaves 

 of which, in bygone times, supplied the Egyptians, 

 as well as other nations, with sheets whereon their 

 manuscripts were inscribed ; here, where we now 

 tread, grew the Sabal Palmetto, Cocos, Wine Palms, 

 Date Palms, Cabbage Palms, immense ferns, the 

 Cinnamon, Peruvian Bark, and Tea-tree. We can 

 likewise remember the silvery-leaved Looking-glass 

 plant, and the graceful Black Bamboo, a shoot of 

 which has been known to add twelve inches to its 

 height in a single day. Not far from us, the great 

 Palm-tree, from the Isle of Bourbon, forty feet high, 

 spread its feathery fronds alike over the Ficus 

 Buxburgii, which bears its figs on the stem close to 

 the ground, and the Mahogany-tree from Honduras. 

 We maynot tarry to recall many other species of rare 

 and beautiful plants, mostly of Eastern growth, no 

 trace of which remains save the black dust beneath 

 our feet. Where is the Nineveh Court ? Why, all that 

 remains of it is to be found in that heap of fragments 

 before us. The stupendous winged bulls, with their 

 uncannie faces and impossible beards, are now 

 blackened, headless, wingless trunks ; and the 

 giants, together with the lions they were for ever 

 strangling, lie buried beneath the gorgeous ceilings, 

 richly painted cornices, and sculptures graven with 

 arrow-headed inscriptions, that covered the walls of 

 the Assyrian hall. As we cross over to the opposite 

 side of the ruin, we note that Monti's fountains are 

 not so very seriously damaged, although the pond 

 surrounding them is dry and filled with dirty 

 rubbish — broken glass and iron ; and we learn with 



sorrow, from a man at work there, that the poor 

 little fish were nearly boiled alive in the miniature 

 lake, in which scores of them had grown from infancy 

 to a goodly maturity. And now we are at the spot 

 whereon the Mammoth-tree stood, known to 

 botanists as Wellingtonia gigantea. It was the bark 

 only that represented the tree which stood when 

 alive, in California, and was about 400 feet in 

 height. I have often stood beneath the shadows 

 of these forest monarchs in California, The 

 best plan to realize mentally the average height and 

 size of these stupendous trees, is to look at the 

 monument on Fish Street Hill, and picture in your 

 mind what a grove of trees must look like, every 

 one of which is taller, and many of them equal to 

 the Monument in girth. When Lady Franklin 

 visited California, only a few years since, Arch- 

 deacon Wright read the morning service to a 

 numerous congregation ; his "church was the stump 

 of a single tree, this stump is sometimes used as a 

 ball-room on festive occasions. Each tree has some 

 fanciful name bestowed upon it : — Hercules is 326 

 feet high, and 97 in girth ; the Hermit is 320 feet 

 high, and 60 in girth ; the Old Maid, a substantial, 

 portly lady, is 266 feet high, and 60 feet round her 

 waist. Addic and Mary are buxom damsels each in 

 height about 300 feet, and in circumference over 60 

 feet. The most forlorn looking of the group, with 

 rents in his bark, and a general air of seediness and 

 shabbiness, is the Old Bachelor, 300 feet high, and 

 70 feet in girth. We fear this representative 

 of the Mammoth-trees, burnt in the Crystal Palace, 

 will never be replaced. The cost of removing the 

 bark in narrow bands, or rings, was enormous ; and 

 the transport of so bulky a matter from California 

 to the United States, and thence to England, was 

 far greater than any company or individual will be 

 likely ever to outlay a second time. 



Not far from the site of the tree, just a little to 

 our left, the brilliantly-plumaged Cockatoos and 

 Macaws passed their lives, dividing their time 

 pretty equally betwixt screaming, eating, and coax- 

 ing philanthropic visitors to scratch and tickle them. 

 How very sad to recall the fact to our minds that 

 these poor birds were literally, and not in mere 

 figure of speech, roasted alive whilst chained to 

 their perches ; we can almost in fancy, even now, hear 

 the piercing screams of the imprisoned Monkeys, 

 and the frantic cries of the Chimpanzee, as they 

 clutched hold of, and in desperate agony hurled 

 themselves against, the iron bars of their cages until 

 the iron grew too hot to hold, and suffocation put 

 an end to their miseries. Here, too, resided the 

 " happy family " of opposites ; in one cage, living 

 amicably together, were cats, rabbits, Guinea pigs, 

 and the delicate musk-deer from Java — as they had 

 lived so they died, to the last unable to part com- 

 pany. Nightingales that were wont to make the 

 building vocal on ■ summer evenings with their 



