98 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Edu 



The Transitional Nature of the Earth. 



There is in the delta of the Indus a singular region, called 

 the Runn of Cutch, which extends over an area of 7000 square 

 miles, which is neither land nor sea, but is under water during 

 the monsoons, and in the dry season is encrusted here and 

 there with salt about an inch thick, the result of evaporation. 

 Dry land has been largely increased here during the present 

 century by subsidence of the waters and upheavals by earth- 

 quakes. " That successive layers of salt may have been thrown 

 down one upon the other on many thousand square miles in 

 such a region is undeniable," says Lyell. " The supply of 

 brine from the ocean is as inexhaustible as the supply of heat 

 from the sun. The only assumption required to enable us to 

 explain the great thickness of salt in such an area is the con- 

 tinuance for an indefinite period of a subsiding movement, the 

 country preserving all the time a general approach to horizon- 

 tality." The crust of the globe is constantly changing in some 

 form or other in all places. It is true in a material sense that 

 the fashion of the world passeth away. w. 



Economy that is Loathsome. 



Like all the reptiles, the toad changes its skin, but the cast 

 envelope is never found, although those of the serpents are 

 common enough. The reason why it is not found is this : the 

 toad is an economical animal, and does not choose that so much 

 substance should be wasted. So after the skin has been en- 

 tirely thrown off, the toad takes its old coat in its two fore- 

 paws, and dexterously rolls it, and pats it, and twists it, until 

 the coat has been formed into a ball. It is then taken between 

 the paws, pushed into the mouth, and swallowed at a gulp like 

 a big pill. co. 



The Virtue and Limits of Education. 



Education is the development of a man's capacities. It gives 

 nothing ; it only brings out what there may be to bring out. 

 The child contains in himself the germ of all he will ever be. 

 Hazlitt contends in his essay " On Personal Character " that no 



