Febriaby, 1902. 



KNOWLEDGE 



■^1 



short northern summer. We watched a pair of little stints, 

 those tiny snipe-liko birds, love-making with twitterings, 

 and fluttering of wings within a few yards of us, while 

 the male red-throated pipitsftt were singing en- 

 couragingly to their mates who were hard at work 

 building nests on little mounds raised above the general 

 slush. 



Whea at length we boarded the Russian cargo boat 

 which was to take us to Archangel we found our fellow 

 passenj;er3 were mostly rough unkempt Russian peasants, 

 with tawny beards and long hair. They were clothed in 

 long sheepskin coats, high black boots, and round fur 

 caps, and they appealed very hardy but vei-y dirty. 

 The steamer stopped evei-y few houi-s at the small fishing 

 stations along the Murman coast to land a few stores, 

 and to take on bo.ird barrels of fisli. bundles of porpoise 

 skins, and otlier fishy cargo. The landing and ship- 

 pin"; of this cargo, which was done by small boats, in- 

 variably caused an immense excitement. Each boat tried 

 its best to get to tlie side of the steamer first, and the 

 gesticulations, shouts, curses, and general hubbub raised 

 by the process might well have been products of the 

 fiery south or east rather than of the grave and solemn 

 north. We were glad when all the villages were past, 

 and we left the coast and entered the White Sea. 



We went to sleep that night in high hopes that on 

 waking we should be iieai-ing Archangel. But when we 

 awoke the steamer was laid to in a. thick fog. In a 

 few houi-s the fog lifted, and revealed a sea covered 

 with ice— white and dazzling— as far as the eye could 

 ECO. A man was sent aloft, but no channel could be 

 found so we slowly skirted the sea of ice. But almost 

 before we could take in the scene, the merciless fog 

 dropped down again like a curtain and shut out eveiy- 

 thing from sight. For five days we lay surrounded 

 by ice and fog, scarcely moving at all. At first the 

 captain, hoping for the best, pushed his boat into the 

 ice, and for hours we struggled with the floes. The 

 steamer was sharp in the bows and had twin screws, 

 both bad faults for an ice boat. The bows when 

 driven into a floe got janibed. and the boat had to be 

 backed out, while the screws, being quite unprotected, 

 were in continual danger of being broken by a collision 

 with the ice, which was verj' thick and often reached 

 far below the keel of the ship. Consequently men had 

 to be stationed fore and aft with long fir poles to push 

 off the floes, while the cajitain ran from side to side of 

 the bridge signalling every moment to the engineers 

 to stop one screw or the other as it was in danger 

 of fouling the ice. The crew worked like slaves for 

 hours, but the only result of their labours was to fix 

 the ship more firmly than ever in the ice. Then the 

 fog lifted for a brief half-hour and showed us to bo 

 in an uncomfortable position which might result in the 

 ship being nipped. By dint of hard w-ork she was 

 turned round, and a day of toil brought us once moro 

 out of the ice. The captain had been twenty-foui- hours 

 on the bridge working hard in a freezing fog, and the 

 crew were worn out, so for the next few days we hove 

 to and waited. The monotony was broken only by 

 the melancholy screech of syrens, for there were 

 fourteen other boats round about us, all waiting for 

 the fog to cleai- and the ice to shift. A little excite- 

 ment was caused one day when, judging by the quality 

 of the food, we appeared to be running short of pro- 

 visions, and on another when we were told that our 

 coal was giving out. How^ever, a few broad hints to 



t+t Anthut cervinut. 



the stewai-d brought forth better food, and a begging 

 tour to the neighbouring ships resulted in one coming 

 alongside and filling our bunkers with coal. 



At last the fog lifted, and making a bold move our 

 bright little captain turned his boat round and steamed 

 right back to the coast. The set of the tide had mado 

 a broad lane of clear water between the land and the ice, 

 and down this we steamed full speed ahead, slowing uj) 

 now and then to thread our way through some detached 

 floes or to force a passage through a narrow belt of 

 ice. Before the tide changed and brought down the 

 ice again to the shore we were through, and steaming 

 gaily for Archangel. While we raced the tide with 

 cheerful hearts our c\-es were treated to the most glorious 

 spectacle. The fog had completely cleared, and the 

 sky was cloudless. For an hour — between eleven o'clock 

 and midnight — tho sun just skirted the horizon as 

 though uncertain whether to go below or not. The 

 heat went out of it. and its brilliancy faded, but the 

 effect of its combined setting and rising was exquisite. 

 The horizon shone like gold, and stretching from it lay 

 the snow-covered ice, blushed with a delicate pink, and 

 with here and there on its surface a pool shining like 

 an emerald, while at our feet the dark, deep blue of 

 the open water served as a strong and fitting contrast 

 to the delicious delicacy of colouring beyond. As tho 

 sun rose higher the colours faded and we went below 

 cold but happy. While wc slept we crossed the arctic 

 circle once more, and when we awoke some hours 

 later the air was balmy, and tho delicious scent of pines 

 drifted through the cabin port hole. We were in the 

 delta of the Dwina, and steering up one of its narrow 

 channels we soon arrived at Solombala, the port of Arch- 

 angel. 



VEGETABLE MIMICRY AND 

 HOMOMORPHISM.-I. 



By Rev. Alex. S. Wilson, m.a., b.sc. 

 Besides the family likeness and similarity of structure 

 characteristic of closely allied organisms, other resem- 

 blances included under the terms Mimicry and 

 Homomoi-phism, are observed among living things which 

 cannot be referred to a common ancestiy since they are 

 presented by plants and animals whose affinities are 

 more or less remote. If the resemblance confers any 

 benefit on either species it is spoken of as a case of 

 Mimicry, but if it results from the operation of general 

 laws and is not directly advantageous, the likeness is 

 described as Homomorphic. It is not always possible 

 to draw a sharp line between the two, and homomor- 

 phism not improbably represents one stage in the 

 development of mimetic species. 



Both kinds of resemblance are common in the animal 

 kingdom. The most perfect examples of mimicry occur 

 among butterflies, particularly among the Pieridae of 

 South America, where it was first observed by Mr. Bates. 

 Most members of this family resemble the ordinary 

 cabbage-butterfly, but it includes species of LeptaJis, 

 which imitate the Heliconidae in the shape and bright 

 parti-coloured markings of their wings. The latter have 

 a nauseous taste and aic not molested by birds. So 

 exact is the imitation that even experienced entomolo- 

 gists have been deceived. In the Malayan Archipelago 

 Mr. A. R. Wallace found species of l'c/j)i/in mimicking 

 certain other families which have an offensive odour 

 and are, like the Ileliconidas, distasteful to birds. 



The curious walking-leaves and stick insects belong to 

 the Phasmidae, a family allied to the locusts and grass- 



