I^ECHEATIVE SCIENCE. 



129 



after year, some few fresh, blocks. Slowly 

 as this is done, the principle of action re- 

 mains the same, and while, year after year, 

 portions of the first shallow roof fall in, the un- 

 dermining sea is working out a second step 

 or undercut of the chalk, and a second set 

 of fragments falls from the powerful grasp of 

 the frost continuously with the first ; a third, 

 fourth, fifth result, and so on by slow degrees 

 a cave is formed, with its base the deepest 

 indented into the side of the promontory. 

 In the continued process of this action the 

 cave is eaten quite through the wall of chalk, 

 and an " arch" results, the crown of which in 



Fig. 5. — Ideal Section of Chalk Promontory, showing 

 the crown of the arch broken through by the con- 

 tinued action of the frost. The faint portions indi- 

 cate the parts afterwards worn away by the continu- 

 ance of the same agency, until a "needle " and cliff 

 result, as shown by the dai-ker portions of the en- 

 graving. 



like manner gradually peels away, until a 

 vertical gap is made in the narrow headland, 

 and a square buttress remains standing out 

 alone from the sea. This the rain, weather, 

 and frost sharpen by a similar, but dimi- 

 nished action, of peeling ofi" the apex into a 

 "Needle." 



While this has heen performing, the sea 

 Las been indenting the deep bays between 

 the promontories of chalk, and cutting out 

 fresh steps, or undercuts, in their steep walls ; 



the frost has been breaking out a fresh cave 

 further inland of the old, and in the lapse of 

 time a second arch and a second "Needle" are 

 produced. So on a third, a fourth, and as 

 the like operations endure, the outermost, or 

 first-formed "Needles" are diminished by 

 waste to sunken rocks, become the prey of 

 the Pholas, and are ground down by the surf 

 into an undistinguishable portion of the great 

 sea-bottom. So painsfuUy, so slowly, then, 

 does Nature model out one, even, of her 

 curiosities. S. J. Mackte. 



THE ETEUSCAN VASE. 



Time is not supreme as a destroyer. He may 

 deface, but not wholly obliterate the name of 

 a people ; nor, when he has crumbled their 

 works to dust, can he finally annihilate the 

 last faint record which shall serve as a key 

 by which future generations shall obtain en- 

 trance to their buried archives. How many 

 have pondered over the Etruscan vase, and 

 how many hard-thinking and deeply-read 

 philosophers have turned aside at last from 

 the mystical word " Etruria," knowing not 

 whether to declare it the name of a people, 

 a country, an era, or a myth. But the spell 

 is broken, and, as in the case of Egyptian 

 and Babylonian inscriptions, an ffidipus has 

 arisen in the person of Johann Gustav 

 Stickel, and the Etruscan riddle has been 

 solved. By means of the Hebrew, Tuscan 

 relics have become intelligible, and new chap- 

 ters are added to history and ethnology. 

 Two centuries after the foundation of Eome, 

 a colony from Judea settled in Tuscany, 

 tilled the soil, built towns, and raised altars 

 to other gods than the Oif e Jehovah ! These 

 idolaters were the fathers of the modern Tus- 

 cans ; the Tuscans, in fact, have descended 

 from the Jews ! Such is the conclusion of Dr. 

 Stickel, ably set forth in his work, "Dag 

 Etruskische," lately published at Leipsie. 



H. 



