38 THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY ; OR, 



be more numerous, and frequently are not continued through 

 one zone of wood to another, but more generally terminate 

 at the concentric circles. It abounds also in turpentine ves- 

 sels, or lacunae, of various sizes, the sides of which are dis- 

 tinctly defined/' Viewed through the microscope, in trans- 

 parent slips, longitudinal and transverse, it presents, within 

 the space of a few lines, objects fitted to fill the mind with 

 wonder. We find the. minutest cells, glands, fibres, of the 

 original wood preserved uninjured. There still are those 

 medullary rays entire that communicated between the pith 

 and the outside, there still the ring of thickened cells that 

 indicated the yearly check which the growth received when 

 winter came on, there the polygonal reticulations of the cross 

 section, without a single broken mesh, tJtere, too, the elon- 

 gated cells in the longitudinal one, each filled with minute 

 glands that take the form of double circles, there also, of 

 larger size and less regular form, the lacunae in which the 

 turpentine lay : every nicely organized speck, invisible to 

 the naked eye, we find in as perfect a state of keeping in the 

 incalculably ancient pile-work on which the gigantic Scuir is 

 founded, as in the living pines that flourish green on our hill- 

 sides. A net-work, compared with which that of the finest 

 lace ever worn by the fair reader would seem a net-work of 

 cable, has preserved entire, for untold ages, the most delicate 

 peculiarities of its pattern. There is not a mesh broken, nor 

 a circular dot away ! \^ 



The experiments of Mr Witham on the Eigg fossil furnish 

 an interesting example of the light which a single, apparently 

 simple, discovery may throw on whole departments of fact. 

 He sliced his specimen longitudinally and across, fastened the 

 slices on glass, ground them down till they became semi-trans- 

 parent, and then, examining them under reflected light by the 

 microscope, marked and recorded the specific peculiarities of 

 their structure. And we now know, in consequence, that the 



