HISTORIC SKETCHES. 



115 



hell like that of a trochus or top-shell, the first segment of 

 will be at the apex of the nholl, and the last at the 

 1'iuiith. 



. as is sometimes the cose, the first or second segment in 

 not content to pat forth one neck at a time, but send* oat 

 miimTous ones all round the same plane, and these each pnt 

 forth one to form a fresh circle outside the first, a discoid shell 

 of concentric circles will bo formed, whose outward form will 

 I >t< hk.' that of a penny-piece. 



, methods do not by any means exhaust the process by 

 whi.-ii tin- budding of the Foraminifera (as the shelled Protozoa 

 are called) produce shells, but are only examples of them. 



Tin- animals called Polycyatina produce most beautiful shells, 

 ditlVring, however, in composition from those of the Foraminifera, 

 in that they are composed of flint and not of chalky substance ; 

 the first being represented by the chemical formula SiO 2 , and 

 the last by CaCO,. These shells, of both kinds, derive much 

 interest from the fact that they are now being deposited in 

 immense numbers on the bed of the Atlantic Ocean. In sur- 

 veying for the purpose of laying the Atlantic telegraph, a 

 number of cut quills, with their open ends downward, were 

 attached to the sounding-lead, and these ran into the mud and 

 brought it up in their tubes. On examination under the micro- 

 scope it was found to consist almost entirely of the empty shells 

 of once living things. Thus it waa found that an immense 

 tract of sea-bottom in mid-ocean, which the offscourings of the 

 land sand, mud, etc. never reach, was being strewn with 

 chalk and flints by these little animals which, living in the 

 water above, first gathered these substances from the sea, and 

 dying, bequeathed them to form a stratum below. The great 

 chalk formation, whose long, massive, rounded downs are found 

 distributed all over northern Europe, it is supposed, once formed 

 the bed of an ocean, and were thus formed. These chalk 

 ranges are unstratified that is, they are not formed of thin 

 layers one at top of the other, as sediment strewn by tidal 

 currents would be : they are also composed of carbonate of 

 lime and nodules of flint. These peculiarities, together with 

 their wide extent, accord well with this supposition as to their 

 origin. What vast, varied, and unexpected results are brought 

 about by unnoticed and apparently insignificant causes by Him 

 with whom nothing is sudden and nothing single ! 



The massing together of amoeba-like animals, or animated 

 portions of sarcode, produces also other animals of quite a 

 different type, with certain parts of which we are most of us 

 well acquainted. The sponges which chemists sell are the 

 fibrous skeletons of these compound animals. The branching 

 fibres, which spring 1 from a common base, and then reunite to 

 form a dense, closely- woven mass traversed by many canals and 

 porous throughout, ore, when they grow from their submarine 

 Levantine rock, clothed all over with living earcode. This is 

 believed to be composed of elementary particles which run and 

 are fused together, or are divided, according to the volition of 

 the individual parts. Many sponges have, besides the horny 

 skeleton, spicules, or sharp angular spines lying in the sab- 

 stance of their bodies, and projecting beyond their surfaces, so 

 as to protect them from being devoured by their enemies. Both 

 these spicules and the horny skeleton are of almost infinite 

 variety in the different species, and exhibit another instance of 

 how simple a form, when endowed with life, may produce very 

 complex products. 



The most interesting part of the economy of sponges is the 

 method by which a circulation of sea-water is maintained 

 through them. This circulation is absolutely necessary to bring 

 both food and fresh aerated water to these fixed animals. The 

 simple inspection of the skeleton of a large Turkish sponge 

 shows that there are on its outside two kinds of holes the large 

 round ones, which lead down to the great canals, and the 

 smaller pores, which lie between them. If a living sponge be 

 watched, while at work under water, especially if the experiment 

 be aided by placing some finely-powdered indigo in the water, it 

 will be found that from each of the large holes (oscula) there 

 gushes a fountain of water, which is sucked in through the 

 smaller pores. Lieberkiiln and Carter discovered that this cir- 

 culation was kept np in the following manner : The system of 

 canals which commences in the deeper substance of the sponge 

 beneath the small pores, unites into larger and larger water- 

 . courses, until the final ones deliver into the great excurrent 

 canals which end externally in the oscula. In the course of the 



secondary canal* small chambers are situated, which are lined 

 with sponge particles, eaoh of which ha* a lone movable brittle, 

 Each of these bristles is used, like Mrs. Partfnfton's broom, to 

 weep oat the water* of the ocean in one direction, towards the 

 Urge excurrent canals, while fresh water flows in from behind. 

 Professor Huxley aptly compares a sponge to a snbamius city. 

 It has roads, streets, and alleys, and the inhabttaau live in 

 houses fronting these thoroughfares, and the trade is kept op by 

 individual but combined efforts. 



The Infusoria have been by some cat off from the other Pro- 

 tozoa, as being of a higher grade, because they possess definite 

 mouths, often continued inward as free hanging gullet*, aed the 

 substance of their bodies is so far differentiated that it may U 

 divided into three layers an outside cuticle, bearing the eflia 

 and locomotive organs ; below this, the layer in which the fixed 

 organs are placed ; and, the movable mass which rotates in the 

 centre. 



Notwithstanding these differences, Professor James Clark, of 

 Pennsylvania, is now endeavouring to show that there is a 

 regular gradation of animals which connects the infusoria with 

 the sponges, and that, contrary to previous suppositions, some 

 of the sponge particles probably have months. 



One of the Infusoria, which may be taken aa a type of the class, 

 is called the vorticella, and it is a most interesting animal to 

 watch. It may be found almost wherever a little animal matter 

 is allowed to decay under water. It consists of a cap set on a 

 long stalk. The cup has a lid and a lip. The lid can be drawn 

 into the cup, and the lip can be closed over it thus transforming 

 the cup into a ball. These animals are seen to be perpetually 

 extending themselves on their stalks, protruding their discs, 

 and setting the circles of fine hairs which are set on them in 

 motion ; and then suddenly the stalk is shortened by throwing 

 it into a spire. Thus the cup is snatched back, and at the same 

 time closed. 



Perhaps the highest animal belonging to this sub-kingdom is 

 the noctiluca. This animal has the power of emitting light 

 when excited, and perhaps there is no more splendid sight in 

 nature than that which is presented on a warm summer night 

 when a rippling wave charged with these animals breaks upon 

 the shore. It instantly becomes fringed with a bright green 

 phosphorescent light, which flashes along the beach, as it strikes 

 it obliquely, in hues to which the finest shot silk, or even the 

 green and purple which glances from the neck of the starling, 

 are poor and dull. 



HISTORIC SKETCHES. XVII. 



THE MASSACBE OF GLENCOE. 



"As for Mao Ian of Glencoe and that tribe, if they can be well 

 distinguished from the other Highlanders, it will be proper, 

 for the vindication of public justice, to extirpate that set of 

 thieves." So wrote King William HI., by the hand of the 

 Master of Stair, to the commander of the royal troops in Soot- 

 land, in January, 1692. The words were part of a letter of 

 instructions to the king's general, respecting the conduct he 

 was to pursue towards the Highland chiefs, to whom a summons 

 had been made to come in and make submission to the Govern- 

 ment before the 31st of December, 1691. They were words of 

 general or particular significance, according to the way in which 

 the reader chose to read them, and according to the dream- 

 stances under which they were written. The letter was worded 

 thus ambiguously by design, in order that the Secretary of State, 

 who was to give further instructions upon it, might choose which 

 interpretation he liked ; and he chose an interpretation which had 

 the effect of covering his master with shame, though posterity 

 has done that master the justice to remove the blame from his 

 shoulders and to place it where it is due. 



" The massacre of Glencoe " was on this wise : Ever since the 

 Revolution in 1688 had turned out the boose of Stuart from the 

 throne, there had been more or less of disaffection in certain 

 parts of the kingdom to the rale of the new dynasty. In the 

 Highlands of Scotland, where the sentiment of devotion to the 

 exiled princes was most firmly engrafted on the people, and 

 where it was most difficult to follow it for the purpose of 

 rooting it out, disaffection was all bat universal. The chiefs 

 of clans, or heads of great families, there, were petty sovereign*, 

 ruling absolutely over all their tribes, jealous of each other, 

 ready to quarrel, and being ignorant and half barbarous, err 



