166 



NATURE S TEACHINGS. 



Esquimaux, all feasting on a raw, newly killed, and yet warm 

 seal, the sailor had reason enough to decline a visit. Captain 

 Hall, however, determined, in his character of explorer, to 

 brave the strange odours, and moreover to join the inmates in 

 their feast, knowing that as he would have to live among the 

 Esquimaux for some two years, he would be forced to live as 

 they did, and might as well begin at once. Consequently on 

 this resolve, he drank the still steaming blood, and quaffed it 

 from a cup which an Esquimaux woman had just licked clean. 



FLOORS AND PILLARS. 



ONE decided step in Architecture is the invention of the 

 Pillar, and its capabilities of aiding to sustain another floor 

 above it. "We see this principle carried out in our great cathe- 

 drals, where the use of the Pillar is almost infinite. Take, for 

 example, Canterbury Cathedral. A heedless visitor might 

 easily pass through the nave, enter the choir, visit the various 



WASP-COMBS. 



SLAVE SHIP. 



side-chapels, and "Becket's Crown," without thinking that 

 under his feet is a vast chamber, and that the floor on which 

 he stands is, in fact, the roof of a great crypt. 



The weight of the Cathedral, with its lofty towers, is so 

 tremendous, that the building could not be erected simply 

 upon the ground, but rests upon a complicated substratum of 

 pillars and arches, whereby the weight is spread over a large 

 surface. In fact, the Cathedral is really two buildings, the 

 one erected upon the other. 



IN Nature there are many instances of pillars supporting 

 different floors. One of the most beautiful examples is to be 



