LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



23 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATU- 

 RALIST. 



PART V. 



JOHN JONSTON, quoting Robertas de Monte, 

 remarks, that " in the yeer 1125 the winter was 

 so violent, that innumerable eels in Brabant, by 

 reason of the ice, went forth of the lake, which 

 is strange, and got into hay-ricks, and lay hid 

 there, till by extream cold they rotted away. And 

 the trees at last had scarce any leaves put forth in 

 May." The eels might as well have staid .pa- 

 tiently in their lake waiting for better times, as 

 we must for milder weather. Whether the May 

 of 1850 is to be like the May in 1125 is a prob- 

 lem yet to be solved ; but I write on the 28th 

 March, after a bitter easterly-wind-blowing month 

 of it, with the snow on the ground, the sun shin- 

 ing, and the searching, biting, blasting wind in the 

 old quarter. There was thick ice yesterday on 

 the water in St. John's Park. The dryness, for 

 weeks, has almost equalled that which afflicted 

 Italy in the 322d year after the building of Rome, 

 and we have had dust more than enough to ran- 

 som a heptarchy of kings. So pressed for food 

 were the blackbirds, in consequence of the drought, 

 that they ate off the grass of the pinks and carna- 

 tions, making them look as if that plant-cutting 

 bird, the Phytotoma,* or the rodent rabbit, had 

 been at them. The crocuses look pinched with 

 cold, and keep their petals closed, though the 

 sun's rays court them, as if in mockery, to ex- 

 pand. But if Phoebus bears the nuptial torch of 

 the diurnal flowers, without the aid of Zephyrus, 

 the loves of the plants are checked. The buds 

 bide their time snugly wrapped up in their var- 

 nished coats ; but still nature gives signs of vege- 

 table life. The " daffodils begin to peer" 

 daffodils 



That come before the swallow dares, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty ; 



and the primrose and violet brave the severity of 

 the season from their lowly but sheltered retreats. 

 After all, the time has been genial when compared 

 with the springs of 1771 and 1838, though the 

 impatience with which many of us regard that 

 fixture the weathercock, day after day, can hardly 

 be wondered at. But could we order things for 

 the better in the long run ? 



A distinguished philosopher and poet,f indeed, 

 remarks, that the suddenness of the change of the 

 wind from north-east to south-west seems to show 

 that it depends on some minute chemical cause, 



* Phytotoma rara, the Chilian Plant-cutter. It lives 

 on plants, which it cuts off close to the root, and often 

 shears off many more than it wants, leaving them on the 

 ground, as if it did the mischief from caprice'. The 

 peasants consequently employ every method in their 

 power for its destruction, and rewards are given to chil- 

 dren who take their eggs. Molina describes the bird as 

 about the size of a quail, with a rather large bill, half an 

 inch in length, conical, straight, a little pointed, and 

 serrated. 



t Darwin. ,JL \3 



which if it was discovered might probably, like 

 other chemical causes, be governed by human 

 agency, such as blowing up rocks by gunpowder, 

 or extracting the lightning from the clouds. If, 

 adds the gifted writer, this could be accomplished, 

 it would be the most happy discovery that ever 

 has happened to these northern latitudes, since in 

 this country the north-east winds bring frost, and 

 the south-west winds are attended with warmth 

 and moisture ; and he argues, that if the inferior 

 currents of air could be kept perpetually from the 

 south-west supplied by new productions of air at 

 the line, which he makes the qfficina a'eris for this 

 supply, or by superior currents flowing in a con- 

 trary direction, the vegetation in this country 

 would be doubled, as in the moist African valleys 

 which know no frosts ; the numbers of its inhabit- 

 ants would be increased, and their lives prolonged ; 

 for a great abundance of the aged and infirm of 

 mankind, as well as many birds and animals, are 

 destroyed by severe continued frosts in this climate. 



And thus man proposes. See what he would 

 do if he had the direction of the clerk of the 

 weather-office ! Our poetic philosopher, however, 

 omits to tell us how he would dispose of the 

 superfluous population of long-livers in this Eden, 

 or how the tropical temperature would suit 

 hyperborean constitutions. In such a paradise, 

 threescore would be no burden, and all the gay 

 grandsires would frisk as in the celebrated Her* 

 fordshire May dance, in which figured eight chosen 

 men " whose ages counted together made eight 

 hundred yeers compleat, so that what one wanted 

 of a hundred, the other exceeded a hundred as 

 much." Our noble 106*168 would emulate " the 

 Countesse of Desmond, who lived in the yeer 

 1589, and after ; she married in the dayes of 

 Edward the fourth ; Verulam saith, she thrioe 

 renewed her teeth, and lived a hundred and fourty 

 yeers."* 



All this looks charming upon paper, but, de- 

 pend upon it, the winds are best in the hand of 

 the Great Anemonologist and disposer of events, 



* Jonston, 1657: who adds, "Epimenides of Crete 

 lived 150 yeers ; Gorgi as Siculus, a rhetorician, 108; 

 Hippocrates 114 : Terentia, wife of Cicero, 103 ; Clodia, 

 daughter of Ofilius, 115, though when she was young she 

 had borne fifteen children. What shall I say of Luceia 

 or Galeria Copiola ? She lived not a little more than a 

 hundred yeers ; for it is reported that for a hundred yeers 

 she played the jester upon the stage : it may be, at first 

 she acted the maid's part, and at last an old wive's. 

 Isra, the player and dancer, was in her youthfull dayes 

 brought upon the stage : how old she was then is not 

 known, but after 99 yeers from that time she was again 

 brought upon the Theater, not to act her part, but to be 

 showed as a miracle ; when Pompey the Great dedicated 

 the Theater. Also she was again showed at the sports 

 ordained for to pray for the health of Diyus Augustus. 

 Verstigan writes, that at Segovia, in Spain, it was re- 

 ported that a woman lived a hundred and sixty yeers. 

 Franciscus Alvarez reports, that he saw an Archbishop 

 of ^Ethiopia a hundred and fifty yeers old. Buchanan 

 testifies that one Lauren tins, of the Orcades, when he 

 was a hundred and fourty yeers old, went a fishing in his 

 boat on the coldest winter commonly." All, these, how- 

 ever, with our own old Parr to boot, must hide their 

 diminished youthful heads before John Jonston's other 

 example, which we have reserved for the last. "John 

 of Times, that was armor-bearer to Charles the Great, 

 lived 360 yeers I" 



