THE MUSEUM. 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. II. 



ALBION, N. Y., NOV. 15. 1895. 



No. I 



Science Gleanings- 

 Standing upon the shore of some 

 majestic river, we may trace its waters 

 ilowing away, possibly to the South, 

 until its course is lost to our vision; 

 while, as far as the eye can reach, 

 from the opposite direction, we see the 

 same onward flow that has brought 

 them to our feet. But nothing pass- 

 ing before us reveals either the source 

 or destination of the river. Whether 

 beyond this limited view it has been 

 flowing from some hidden fount in an 

 undeviating course and will so continue 

 to flow on till lost in the ocean deep; 

 or whether it may have turned, now 

 to the right, or again to the left, in a 

 deviating channel, it would be hazard- 

 ous from what we can see to predict. 

 And yet from this single page of its 

 history, seen by us, we might rightly 

 index much in the full volume of that 

 history. Has the small part of it we 

 see, assumed a slow and steady course, 

 enclosed by wide bottom lands of 

 made soil, and has it in the part we 

 see become a great navigable stream; 

 the certainty is we aie viewing that 

 part of its course in pro.ximity to the 

 ocean. 



Standing upon the shore of Time — 

 the material world, that which is 

 known as Nature, in the countless 

 phenomena we see — fed from an in- 

 visible fount, is flowing by us, on and 

 on, down the channel of Time, reveal- 

 ing to us nothing more of its origin 

 and destination than does the river 

 mentioned. Does the shortness of 



natural life shut in our vision to a 

 mere glimpse of the secret workings in 

 nature, that have been so constant 

 and never set aside during the ages of 

 the past, nor will be during the ages to 

 come.'' Or will this fleeting present 

 yield up the key to unlock Nature's 

 records of the past, and lisp some 

 prophecy to us of what Nature is to be 

 in the ages to come.' 



There are axioms in mathematics, 

 upon which we can implicitly rely in 

 solving a problem and there are truths 

 which are foundation principles in 

 natural science upon which we can se- 

 curely build. To illustrate some of 

 these principles, take that branch of 

 science called Geology. We know of 

 certain agencies, as frost, fire, water, 

 and electricity, by the effects we see 

 them produce. We have no reason to 

 believe that these effects have ever 

 been any different in kind, though they 

 may have been in degree, since time 

 began. For while they retain the 

 properties that make them to be what 

 they are, they could not have done 

 otherwise. And if they ever had prop- 

 erties other than what they now have, 

 they would not then be the agents they 

 now are. Hence the record they are 

 writing in the geological annals of to- 

 day, is the record they have always and 

 everywhere written. 



Is fire melting the rocky strata be- 

 neath to feed volcanic eruption.'' So it 

 always has done. And are these vol- 

 canoes mainly arranged along ocean 

 shore lines.' So they always have 



