393 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Life 



prepare the way for more rapid disintegra- 

 tion. Nor can we neglect the action of tun- 

 neling and burrowing animals, some of 

 which aid considerably in the work of de- 

 struction. There can be no doubt, for ex- 

 ample, that worms, as Darwin has shown, 

 play an important part in the formation of 

 soil, which is simply rotted rock plus or- 

 ganic matter. GEIKIE Earth Sculpture, ch. 

 2, p. 29. (G. P. P., 1898.) 



1918. LIFE, TRANSITORINESS OF 



Leaves Scarce a Trace on Earth. As to 

 the dry land, so far from being the recep- 

 tacle of fresh accessions .of matter, it is ex- 

 posed almost everywhere to waste away. 

 Forests may be as dense and lofty as those 

 of Brazil, and may swarm with quadrupeds, 

 birds, and insects, yet at the end of ten 

 thousand years one layer of black mold, a 

 few inches thick, may be the sole representa- 

 tive of those myriads of trees, leaves, flow- 

 ers, and fruits, those innumerable bones and 

 skeletons of birds, quadrupeds, and reptiles, 

 which tenanted the fertile region. Should 

 this land be at length submerged, the waves 

 of the sea may wash away in a few hours 

 the scanty covering of mold, and it may 

 merely impart a darker shade of color to the 

 next stratum of marl, sand, or other matter 

 newly thrown down. LYELL Principles of 

 Geology, bk. i, ch. 13, p. 188. (A., 1854.) 



1919. LIFE, ULTIMATE FACTS OF 



Sensation, perception, consciousness, and 

 thought these, if they are not the very es- 

 sence of life, are at least in their order 

 its highest accompaniments and result. 

 They are the ultimate facts, they are the 

 final realities, to which all lesser adjust- 

 ments are themselves adjusted. ABGYLL 

 Unity of Nature, ch. 2, p. 34. (Burt.) 



^ 192O. LIFE, UNIVERSAL DIFFU- 

 SION OF Insects on Highest Mountain Peaks 

 Condor Soars Above the Andes. When 

 the active spirit of man is directed to the 

 investigation of Nature, or when in imagi- 

 nation he scans the vast fields of organic 

 creation, among the varied emotions excited 

 in his mind there is none more profound or 

 vivid than that awakened by the universal 

 profusion of life. Everywhere even near 

 the ice-bound poles the air resounds with 

 the song of birds and with the busy hum of 

 insects. Not only the lower strata, in which 

 the denser vapors float, but also the higher 

 and ethereal regions of the air, teem with 

 animal life. Whenever the lofty crests of 

 the Peruvian Cordilleras, or the summit of 

 Mont Blanc, south of Lake Leman, have 

 been ascended, living creatures have been 

 found even in these solitudes. On the Chim- 

 borazo, which is upwards of eight thousand 

 feet higher than Mount Etna, we saw butter- 

 flies and other winged insects. Even if they 

 are strangers carried by ascending currents 

 of air to those lofty regions, whither a rest- 

 less spirit of inquiry leads the toilsome steps 

 of man, their presence nevertheless proves 



that the more pliant organization of ani- 

 mals may subsist far beyond the limits of 

 the vegetable world. The condor, that giant 

 among the vultures, often soared above us 

 at a greater altitude than the summits of 

 the Andes. HUMBOLDT Views of Nature, p. 

 210. (Bell, 1896.) 



1921. 



Vegetation on Snow, 



in Caves and Mines, and Under Glaciers. 

 The strong and beneficial influence exercised 

 on the feelings of mankind by the considera- 

 tion of the diffusion of life throughout the 

 realms of Nature is common to every zone, 

 but the impression thus produced is most 

 powerful in the equatorial regions, in the 

 land of palms, bamboos, and arborescent 

 ferns, where the ground rises from the shore 

 of seas rich in mollusca and corals to the 

 limits of perpetual snow. The local distri- 

 bution of plants embraces almost all heights 

 and all depths. Organic forms not only de- 

 scend into the interior of the earth where 

 the industry of the miner has laid open ex- 

 tensive excavations and sprung deep shafts, 

 but I have also found snow-white stalactitic 

 columns encircled by the delicate web of an 

 Usnea in caves where meteoric water could 

 alone penetrate through fissures. Podurellce 

 penetrate into the icy crevices of the gla- 

 ciers on Mount Kosa, the Grindelwald, and 

 the Upper Aar; the Chioncea araneoides de- 

 scribed by Dalman, and the microscopic 

 Discerea nivalis (formerly known as Proto- 

 coccus), exist in the polar snow as well as 

 in that of our high mountains. The redness 

 assumed by the snow after lying on the 

 ground for some time was known to Aris- 

 totle, and was probably observed by him on 

 the mountains of Macedonia. HUMBOLDT 

 Cosmos, vol. i, p. 344. (H., 1897.) 



1922. LIFE, VEGETABLE, LACKING 

 IN OCEAN DEPTHS It has not been de- 

 termined yet with any degree of accuracy 

 where we are to place the limit of vegetable 

 life, but it seems probable that below a hun- 

 dred fathoms no organisms, excepting a few 

 parasitic fungi, are to be found that can be 

 included in the vegetable kingdom. While 

 then the researches of recent times have 

 proved beyond a doubt that there is no 

 depth of the ocean that can be called azoic, 

 they have but confirmed the perfectly just 

 beliefs of the older naturalists that there is 

 a limit where vegetable life becomes extinct. 

 It is not difficult to see the reason for this. 

 All plants, except a few parasites and sapro- 

 phytes, are dependent upon the influence of 

 direct sunlight, and as it has been shown 

 . . . that the sunlight cannot penetrate 

 more than a few hundred fathoms of sea- 

 water, it is impossible for plants to live be- 

 low that depth. HICKSON Fauna of the 

 Deep Sea, ch. 2, p. 42. (A., 1894.) 



1 923. LIFE VIEWED AS CONTINU- 

 OUS Reproduction an Essential Attribute. 

 Reproduction is in truth an essential attri- 

 bute of living matter, just as is the growth 

 which gives rise to it. It is as impossible 



