iistory 

 one 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



308 



not be solved or even approached by the 

 historical method. What we want to learn 

 is whether the facts, so far as they are 

 known, afford evidence that things arose 

 in the way described by Milton, or whether 

 they do not; and when that question is 

 settled it will be time enough to inquire into 

 the causes of their origination. HUXLEY 

 American Addresses, lect. l,p. 18. (A., 1.877.) 



1498. HISTORY HAS NO RECORDS OF 

 AGE OF STONE Altho our knowledge of 

 ancient times has of late years greatly in- 

 creased, it is still very imperfect, and we 

 cannot afford to neglect any possible source 

 of information. It is evident that history 

 cannot throw much light on the early con- 

 dition of man, because the discovery or, to 

 speak more correctly, the use of metal has 

 in all cases preceded that of writing. Even 

 as regards the Age of Bronze, we derive little 

 information from history; and altho, as we 

 have seen, the Age of Stone is vaguely al- 

 luded to in the earliest European writers, 

 their statements have generally been looked 

 upon as imaginative rather than historical, 

 and contain, indeed, little more than the 

 bare statement that there was a time when 

 metal was unknown. AVEBUKY Prehistoric 

 Times, ch. 13, p. 404. (A., 1900.) 



1499. HISTORY IN THE ROCKS 



Geological Evidences of Life in the Past. 

 The geologist has been able to turn back a 

 few leaves of the earth's past history, and 

 tho the pages have been defaced and mu- 

 tilated by Time's unsparing hand, he is yet 

 able to read in them of many strange vicis- 

 situdes to which the continents and oceans 

 of our globe have been exposed. . . . He 

 can, indeed, find the scattered remains of 

 only a few of those old-world creatures; but 

 he recognizes in those which have been pre- 

 served the clearest evidence that thousands 

 of others must have existed around them. 

 He knows that of a million creatures now ex- 

 isting scarcely one will leave to future ages 

 any record of its existence; he sees whole 

 races vanishing from the earth, leaving no 

 trace behind them; and he is thus able to 

 form an estimate of the enormous extent by 

 which the creatures and races of which he 

 can learn nothing mast have outnumbered 

 those whose scattered remains attest their 

 former existence upon the earth. PROCTOR 

 Other Worlds than Ours, vol. i, p. 22. 

 (Burt.) 



1500. HISTORY OF MAN A HISTORY 

 OF PROGRESS Taken as a whole, the 

 history of man is the history of his pro- 

 gressive development. It is true that ev- 

 erywhere and at all times we may no- 

 tice individual retrogressions, or observe 

 that crooked roads towards progress have 

 been taken which lead only towards one- 

 sided and external perfecting, and thus 

 deviate more and more from the higher goal 

 of internal and enduring perfecting. How- 

 ever, on the whole, the movement of develop- 

 ment of all mankind is and remains a pro- 



gressive one. HAECKEL History of Crea- 

 tion, vol. i, ch. 12, p. 320. (K. P. & Co., 

 1899.) 



1501. HOME, DECORATION OF The 



Original Form of Carpets. On festival oc- 

 casions the floor had to be decorated with 

 green, through which flowers were worked. 

 In the winter that could only be accom- 

 plished imperfectly, and they were obliged 

 to be satisfied with a layer of hay; but 

 in the summer there were grass and leaves 

 and flowers in plenty, and no house was so 

 rich or poor but that on every festival the 

 floor was thus decorated. The Edda testifies 

 to this ancient custom. GOETZ Altnordisches 

 Kleinleben und die Renaissance (a lecture). 

 (Translated for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



1502. HOME OF THE CONDOR A 



Dweller in the Upper Air Capacity for 

 Change of Atmospheric Pressure. The re- 

 gion which may be regarded as the common 

 resort of the condor begins at the elevation 

 of Mount Etna. It embraces atmospheric 

 strata which are from 10,000 to 19,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. Humming-birds 

 also, which in their summer flights advance 

 as far as 61 north lat. on the western coast 

 of America, and are on the other hand found 

 in the Archipelago of the Terra del Fuego, 

 were seen by Von Tschudi in Puna at an ele- 

 vation of 14,600 feet. There is a pleasure 

 in comparing the largest and the smallest 

 of the feathered inhabitants of the air. The 

 largest among the condors found in the Cor- 

 dilleras, near Quito, measure nearly 15 feet 

 across the expanded wings. This size and 

 the visual angle at which the birds are seen 

 vertically above one's head afford an idea 

 of the enormous height to which the con- 

 dor soars in a clear sky. A visual angle 

 of four minutes, for instance, would give 

 a vertical elevation of 7,330 feet. The cav- 

 ern (Mackay) of Antisana, opposite the 

 mountain of Chussulongo, and where we 

 measured the birds soaring over the chain 

 of the Andes, lies at an elevation of nearly 

 16,000 feet above the surface of the Pa- 

 cific; the absolute height which the condor 

 reached must therefore be 23,273 feet, a 

 height at which the barometer scarcely 

 stands at 12.7 inches, but which, however, 

 does not exceed that of the loftiest summit 

 of the Himalaya. It is a remarkable physi- 

 ological phenomenon that the same bird, 

 which wheels for hours together through 

 these highly rarefied regions, should be able 

 suddenly, as for instance on the western 

 declivity of the volcano of Pichincha, to de- 

 scend to the seashore, and thus in the 

 course of a few hours traverse, as it were, 

 all climates. At heights of 23,000 feet and 

 upwards the membranous air-sacs of the 

 condor must undergo a remarkable degree 

 of inflation after being filled in lower re- 

 gions of the atmosphere. HUMBOLDT Views 

 of Nature, p. 237. (Bell, 1896.) 



1503. HOMES, MIGRATORY BIRDS 

 RETURN TO Wonderful Local Memory of 

 Swalloius Proved. The individual swallow, 



