i88 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Kno 



The Knowing Look. 



The placid, half -indifferent, yet keen look which is so observ- 

 able in some " knowing " men reminds one of the chameleon's 

 look. These men seem able to stare all ways at one time, to see 

 nothing, and yet to observe everything. From the peculiar 

 arrangement of the nerves and muscles, each of the eyes of the 

 chameleon can move independent of the other. They can move 

 in different directions, one upwards, the other downwards, the 

 one forwards, the other backwards, and in all sorts of ways, 

 without the head undergoing any change of position. " You 

 cannot tell," says Mr. Gosse, " whether the creature is looking 

 at you or not ; he seems to be taking a general view of things ; 

 looking at nothing particular, or rather, to save time, looking at 

 several things at once. Perhaps both eyes are gazing upwards 

 at your face. A leaf quivers behind his head, and in a moment 

 one eye turns round towards the object, while the other retains 

 its upward gaze ; presently a fly appears, one eye rapidly and 

 interestedly follows all its movements, while the other leisurely 

 glances hither and thither, or remains steady. The creature 

 verily has the " knowing " look. MU. 



Knowledge as a Saving Power. 



Hurricanes, revolving storms, or " cyclones," differ from mere 

 local and temporary exaggerations of the regular atmospheric 

 currents in this, that they are in the nature of vortices or cir- 

 culating movements participated in by masses of air of from 

 fifty to five hundred miles in diameter, revolving the more 

 rapidly the nearer the centre, up to a certain distance or radius 

 within which there is a calm. The place of this centre of rota- 

 tion meanwhile advances steadily along a definite line upon the 

 globe, with a velocity varying from two to thirty or forty miles 

 per hour, and pursuing a track which in some of the hurricane 

 regions, as in the West Indies, has a singular fixity of geographi- 

 cal situation and geometrical form. But the character which it 

 is of most importance to a seaman to know, and the knowledge 

 of which may often save his ship from disaster, as ignorance of 

 it has repeatedly been the cause of catastrophes which might 



