ASPECTS OF NATURE 



Archipelago, and Humboldt's Aspects of Nature. We 

 can form an impression of what he might have done by 

 perusing, before we proceed to the letters, a brilliant 

 passage in which he introduces to the public his book on 

 corals and coral islands. 



Dana s Memories of the Cruise 



" Most agreeable are the memories of events, scenes, 

 and labors connected with the cruise : of companions in 

 travel, both naval and scientific ; of the living things of 

 the sea, gathered each morning by the ship's side, and 

 made the study of the day, foul weather or fair; of coral 

 islands with their groves, and beautiful life above and 

 within the waters ; of exuberant forests on the mountain 

 islands of the Pacific, where the tree-fern expands its 

 clusters of large and graceful fronds in rivalry with the 

 palm, and eager vines or creepers intertwine and festoon 

 the trees, and weave for them hangings of new foliage 

 and flowers ; of lofty precipices, richly draped, even the 

 sternest fronts made to smile and be glad as delights the 

 gay tropics, and alive with waterfalls, gliding, leaping, or 

 plunging, on their way down from the giddy heights, and, 

 as they go, playing out and in amid the foliage ; of gorges 

 explored, mountains and volcanic cones climbed, and a 

 burning crater penetrated a thousand feet down to its 

 boiling depths; and, finally, beyond all these, of man 

 emerging from the depths of barbarism through Christian 

 self-denying, divinely aided effort, and churches and 

 schoolhouses standing as central objects of interest and 

 influence in a native village. 



" On the other hand, there were occasional events not 

 so agreeable. 



' Even the beauty of natural objects had, at times, a 

 dark background. When, for example, after a day among 

 the corals, we came, the next morning, upon a group of 

 Feejee savages with human bones to their mouths, finish- 

 ing off the cannibal feast of the night ; and as thoughtless 

 of any impropriety as if the roast were of wild game taken 

 the day before. In fact, so it was. 



Other regions gave us some harsh scenes. One that 

 of our vessel in a tempest, fast drifting toward the rocks 



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