519 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Perfection 



bryonic changes are illustrated contains 

 more than thirty figures, all representing 

 different phases of their growth. There is 

 not a living crab represented so fully in any 

 of our scientific works as is that one species 

 of trilobite whose whole story Barrande has 

 traced from the egg to its adult size. 

 AGASSIZ Geological Sketches, ser. i, ch. 2, p. 

 53. (H. M. & Co., 1896.) 



2554. PERFECTION SHEDS LIGHT 

 ON IMPERFECTION Complete Specimens 

 Give Meaning to Fragments. But cases, tho 

 few and rare, do occur in which, through 

 some favorable accident connected with the 

 death or sepulture of some individual exist- 

 ence of the period, its remains have been 

 preserved almost entire; and one such speci- 

 men serves to throw light on whole heaps 

 of the broken remains of its contemporaries. 

 The single elephant, preserved in an ice- 

 berg beside the Arctic Ocean, illustrated the 

 peculiarities of the numerous extinct family 

 to which it belonged, whose bones and huge 

 tusks whiten the wastes of Siberia. The 

 human body found in an Irish bog, with the 

 ancient sandals of the country still attached 

 to its feet by thongs, and clothed in a gar- 

 ment of coarse hair, gave evidence that bore 

 generally on the degree of civilization at- 

 tained by the inhabitants of an entire dis- 

 trict in a remote age. In all such instances 

 the character and appearance of the indi- 

 vidual bear on those of the tribe. In at- 

 tempting to describe the organisms of the 

 lower old red sandstone, where the fossils 

 lie as thickly in some localities as herrings 

 on our coasts in the fishing season,.! felt 

 as if I had whole tribes before me. MILLER 

 The Old Red Sandstone, ch. 9, p. 152. (G. 

 & L., 1851.) 



2555. PERIL DEFIED OR IGNORED 



" Sporting on the Volcano's Edge " 

 Prosperity and Happiness in the Endangered 

 Lands. The first impression which is pro- 

 duced upon the mind, when the phenomena 

 of volcanic action are studied, is that here 

 we have exhibitions of destructive violence 

 the effects of which must be entirely mis- 

 chievous and disastrous to the living beings 

 occupying the earth's surface. A little con- 

 sideration will convince us, however, that 

 the grand and terrible character of the dis- 

 plays of volcanic energy have given rise 

 to exaggerated notions concerning their de- 

 structive effects. The fact that districts 

 situated over the most powerful volcanic 

 foci, like Java and Japan, are luxuriant in 

 their productions, and thickly inhabited, may 

 well lead us to pause ere we condemn vol- 

 canic action as productive only of mischief 

 to the living beings on the earth's surface. 

 The actual slopes of Vesuvius and Etna, 

 and many other active volcanoes, are abun- 

 $antly clothed with vineyards and forests, 

 and are thickly studded with populous vil- 

 lages. JUDD Volcanoes, ch. 10, p. 281. (A., 

 1899.) 



2556. PERIL, FICTITIOUS -M> Lions 

 in the Deserts Vipers and Mosquitoes the 

 Real Terrors. Of larger wild animals, only 

 gazelles, wild asses, and ostriches are to be 

 met with [in the Desert of Sahara]. " That 

 lions exist in the desert," says M. Carette 

 ["Exploration Scientif. de 1'Algerie," t. ii, 

 p. 332], "is a myth popularized by the 

 dreams of artists and poets, and has no foun- 

 dation but in their imagination. This animal 

 does not quit the mountains, where it finds 

 shelter, food, and drink. When the traveler 

 questions the natives concerning these wild 

 beasts, which Europeans suppose to be their 

 companions in the desert, they reply, with 

 imperturbable sang-froid, ' Have you, then, 

 lions in your country which can drink air 

 and eat leaves? With us, lions require run- 

 ning water and living flesh; and therefore 

 they only appear where there are wooded 

 hills and water. We fear only the viper 

 (lefa), and, in humid spots, the innumerable 

 swarms of mosquitoes which abound there.' " 

 HUMBOLDT Views of Nature, p. 90. (Bell, 

 1896.) 



2557. PERIL IN EXALTATION In 



Earthquake Countries, Lowliness Is Safety 

 Spaniards " Building Their Own Sepul- 

 chers." Another plan adopted in South 

 America can be gathered from the same au- 

 thor's [James Douglas, in his " Journey along 

 the West Coast of South America "] writings 

 upon Lima, about which he says : " To build 

 high houses would be to erect structures for 

 the first earthquake to make sport of, and, 

 therefore, in order to obtain space, safety, 

 and comfort, the houses of the wealthy sur- 

 round court after court, filled with flowers 

 and cooled with fountains, connected one 

 with another with wide passages which give 

 a vista from garden to garden." 



History would indicate that houses of 

 this type have been arrived at as the re- 

 sults of experience, for it is said that when 

 the inhabitants of South America first saw 

 the Spaniards building tall houses they told 

 them they were building their own sepul- 

 chers. 



In Jamaica we find that even as early as 

 1692 experience had taught the Spaniards 

 to construct low houses, which withstood 

 shakings better than the tall ones. MILNE 

 Earthquakes, ch. 7, p. 127. (A., 1899.) 



2558. PERIL UNIMAGINED A Slum- 

 bering Volcano Vesuvius before the Erup- 

 tion of A. D. 79 Its Slopes Vineyards Its 

 Crater a Fortress. Nothing is more certain 

 than the fact that the Vesuvius upon which 

 the ancient Romans and the Greek settlers 

 of southern Italy looked, was a mountain 

 differing entirely in its form and appear- 

 ance from that with which we are familiar. 

 The Vesuvius known to the ancients was a 

 great truncated cone, having a diameter at 

 its base of eight or nine miles, and a height 

 of about 4,000 feet. The summit of this 

 mountain was formed by a circular de- 

 pressed plain, nearly three miles in diam- 



