150 



EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



said, almost wholly composed of their tender 

 shells. 



The " nummulite-limestones" of the Alps, 

 the Apennines, and the Himalayas are other 

 instances of rock-formed mausoleums of these 

 iiny fossils. 



Alveolites abound in the " rice-stone" of 

 Persia, and numerous other instances of 

 every period could readily be cited, were 

 they wanted, to show how, throughout aU 

 time since the creation of life on our globe, 

 the perished armies of these microscopic 

 labourers have built up, flake by flake, and 

 film by film, the solid rock-masses of steep 

 wave-beaten clifis, of grassy plains, and mist- 

 clad hills. Small and feeble, and exquisitely 

 minute, with but few of the gifted powers of 

 life, how much they have done shows how 

 truly God's "thoughts are not as our 

 thoughts," but immeasurably above them, 

 how the simplest means at his command 

 produce stupendous results, how every- 

 thing, even the meanest, is worthy of man's 

 study and thought. " God," says old E-ay, in 

 his lovable philosophic spirit, " God is said 

 to be maximus in, minimis. We men esteem 

 it a more difficult matter, and of greater art 

 and curiosity, to frame a small watch than a 



large clock; and no man blames him who 

 spent his whole time in the consideration of 

 the nature and works of a bee, or thinks his 

 subject was too narrow. Let us not then 

 esteem anything contemptible, or inconsider- 

 able, or below our notice-taking, for this is 

 to derogate from the wisdom and art of the 

 Creator, and to confess ourselves unworthy 

 of those endowments of knowledge and under- 

 standing which He hath bestowed upon us. 

 Do we praise Daedalus, and Archytas, and 

 Hero, and Callicrates, and Albertus Magnus, 

 and many others which I might mention, for 

 their cunning in inventing, and dexterity in 

 framing and composing a few dead engines 

 or movements, and shall we not admire and 

 magnify the Great Arif^Lovpyos Koenov, Former 

 of the World, who hath made so many, yea, 

 I say innumerable, rare pieces, and those, 

 too, not dead ones, such as cease presently to 

 move so soon as the spring is down; but all 

 living, and themselves performing their own 

 motions, and those so intricate and various, 

 ar-d requiring such multitude of parts and 

 subordinate machines, that it is incompre- 

 hensible what art, and skUl, and industry, 

 must be employed in framing one of them." 

 S. J. Mackie. 



A CALENDAR OF NATFEE. 



OxE branch of scientific inquiry, which the 

 amateur observer is likely to take an interest 

 in, is that of recording a Calendar of Nature. 

 We mean, keeping a record of the arrival 

 and departure of migratory birds, the dates of 

 trees coming into and losing their leaves, the 

 blooming of plants, the ripening of fruit and 

 seeds, the building of birds' nests, the first 

 appearance of different insects, diseases 

 amongst animals and plants, the failure or 

 prolific harvest of corn, fruit, etc. ; in short, a 

 correct statement of the appearance of every- 

 tiiing in Nature which is seen around us. 



There are many of these calendars kept, 

 yet scarcely one can be made available to 

 science, and this owing to the want of proper 

 precautions. It is evident that if it were 

 known what kind of observations would be 

 reaUy useful, that many would lend a helping 

 hand, who now stand aloof simply because it 

 is not seen how such labour can benefit 

 science. 



The effects of the weather on the vegetable 

 kingdom is strikingly shown, when a careful 

 series of observations has been made year 

 after year. In illustration, we need only refer 



