A SHEAF OF NATURE NOTES 



ments into sound — its tremors and agitations be- 

 come audible. This microphone, when placed in a 

 cave twenty feet below the surface, and carefully 

 protected by means of a carpet from any accidental 

 disturbance in its immediate vicinity, revealed 

 what is called "natural telluric phenomena; such as 

 roarings, explosions, occurring isolated or in volleys, 

 and metallic or bell-like sounds." *'The noises 

 sometimes become intolerably loud," especially on 

 one occasion in the middle of the night, half an 

 hour before a sensible earthquake. 



Our apparently impassive and slumbering old 

 planet evidently has dreams we know little of. 



From Professor Shaler's "Nature and Man in 

 America" I get an impression which again deepens 

 my feeling of something half human about 

 our lucky planet, at least something progressive 

 and unequal, like life itself. Shaler finds that 

 organic development in the Northern Hemisphere 

 is more advanced, by a whole geologic period, than 

 in the Southern, with Europe at the head and 

 Australia the greatest laggard. The animal life 

 of Australia is much like that of Europe in 

 the tTurassic period, while both Asia and Africa 

 possess forms, such as elephants, and tigers, and 

 lions, which abounded in Europe in Tertiary times. 

 Hence the Northern Hemisphere is more like the 

 head of the beast, and the Southern more like the 

 viscera. The Northern races easily dominate 



171 



