Jjarn 



Lain 



n ji age 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



370 



1807. LAMPS, CLASSICAL AND 

 SAVAGE, ESSENTIALLY THE SAME 

 In all essential particulars the Eskimo 

 woman's lamps at Bristol Bay are similar 

 to the ones tended long ago in the Pryta- 

 neum at Athens and in the Temple of Vesta 

 at Rome; and many hundreds of extremely 

 rude examples are now in use all about the 

 lands bordering on the Mediterranean. 

 MASON Woman's Share in Primitive Cul- 

 ture, ch. 5, p. 92. (A., 1894.) 



1808. LAND, DWELLERS pN 



Changes beneath Sea Hard to Imagine 

 8tone Quarried for Distant Building. The 

 first and greatest difficulty, then, consists 

 in an habitual unconsciousness that our 

 position as observers is essentially unfavor- 

 able when we endeavor to estimate the na- 

 ture and magnitude of the changes now in 

 progress. In consequence of our inattention 

 to this subject we are liable to serious mis- 

 takes in contrasting the present with former 

 states of the globe. As dwellers on the land, 

 we inhabit about a fourth part of the sur- 

 face, and that portion is almost exclusively 

 a theater of decay and not of reproduction. 

 We know, indeed, that new deposits are 

 annually formed in seas and lakes, and that 

 every year some new igneous rocks are pro- 

 duced in the bowels of the earth, but we 

 cannot watch the progress of their forma- 

 tion; and as they are only present to our 

 minds by the aid of reflection, it requires 

 an effort both of the reason and the imagi- 

 nation to appreciate duly their importance. 

 It is, therefore, not surprising that we esti- 

 mate very imperfectly the result of oper- 

 ations thus invisible to us; and that, when 

 analagous results of former epochs are pre- 

 sented to our inspection we cannot imme- 

 diately recognize the analogy. He who has 

 observed the quarrying of stone from a 

 rock, and has seen it shipped for some dis- 

 tant port, and then endeavors to conceive 

 what kind of edifice will be raised by the 

 materials, is in the same predicament as 

 a geologist who, while he is confined to the 

 land, sees the decomposition of rocks and 

 the transportation of matter by rivers to the 

 sea, and then endeavors to picture to him- 

 self the new strata which Nature is building 

 beneath the waters. LYELL Principles of 

 Geology, bk. i, ch. 5, p. 68. (A., 1854.) 



1809. LAND FROM BENEATH THE 

 WATERS (Gen. i, 9; Ps. civ. 6-7). It re- 

 sults from the simplest methods of interpre- 

 tation that, leaving out of view certain 

 patches of metamorphosed rocks and certain 

 volcanic products, all that is now dry land 

 has once been at the bottom of the waters. 

 It is perfectly certain that at a comparative- 

 ly recent period of the world's history the 

 Cretaceous epoch none of the great phys- 

 ical features which a{; present mark the sur- 

 face of the globe existed. It is certain that 

 the Rocky Mountains were not. It is certain 

 that the Himalaya Mountains were not. It 

 is certain that the Alps and the Pyrenees 



had no existence. The evidence is of the 

 plainest possible character, and is simply 

 this: We find raised up on the flanks of 

 these mountains, elevated by the forces of 

 upheaval which have given rise to them, 

 masses of cretaceous rock which formed the 

 bottom of the sea before those mountains ex- 

 isted. It is therefore clear that the elevatory 

 forces which gave rise to the mountains 

 operated subsequently to the Cretaceous 

 epoch, and that the mountains themselves 

 are largely made up of the materials depos- 

 ited in the sea which once occupied their 

 place. HUXLEY American Addresses, lect. 1, 

 p. 27. (A., 1898.) 



1 81O. LANDSCAPE, PHYSIOGNOMY 



OF Each Geological Formation Marked by 

 Features of Its Own. Physiognomy is no 

 idle or doubtful science in connection with 

 geology. The physiognomy of a country in- 

 dicates, almost invariably, its geological 

 character. There is scarce a rock among the 

 more ancient groups that does not affect its 

 peculiar form of hill and valley. Each has 

 its style of landscape ; and as the vegetation 

 of a district depends often on the nature of 

 the underlying deposits, not only are the 

 main outlines regulated by the mineralogy 

 of the formations which they define, but also 

 in many cases the manner in which these 

 outlines are filled up. The coloring of the 

 landscape is well-nigh as intimately con- 

 nected with its geology as the drawing. 

 MILLER Old Red Sandstone, ch. 11, p. 190. 

 (G. & L., 1851.) 



1811. LANDS, REMOTE, VISITED 

 BY MIGRATING BIRDS Desolation of Arc- 

 tic Regions in Winter. The chimney-swal- 

 low which in October was twittering under 

 the eaves of the manor-house in Kent may 

 possibly be recognizing the squire as he 

 suns himself in the Algerine town which 

 they have both chosen for their winter 

 quarters, and the night- jar, which was in 

 such a hurry to leave us that she had no 

 time to build a nest, is perhaps a week after 

 taking her departure from Surrey compar- 

 ing notes with her vocal rivals among those 

 palmetto groves beyond which peep the mina- 

 rets of the Great Mosque of Morocco. In 

 July every arctic cliff is moving with bird 

 life; by October or November, at latest, the 

 raven and the snowy owl are almost the 

 only fowls left to give a semblance of the 

 busy world to the snow wastes glittering un- 

 der the cold moon and the weird-like north- 

 ern lights. BROWN Nature-Studies, p. 14. 

 (Hum., 1888.) 



1812. LANGUAGE AMONG THE 

 LOWER ANIMALS Cooperation Involves 

 Language Rapid Communication among 

 Ants Antenna Language. Any means by 

 which information is conveyed from one 

 mind to another is language. And language 

 existed on the earth from the day that ani- 

 mals began to live together. The mere fact 

 that animals cling to one another, live to- 

 gether, move about together, proves that 



