Pun] AXD SYMBOLS. 289 



This beetle seems to prefer in Germany the Pinus sylvatica and 

 Pinus abies, though it attacks all the firs indiscriminately. It 

 gnaws the young shoots, thus causing them to wither. The ex- 

 tremities of a tree thus attacked (the most vigorous and healthy 

 trees are invariably selected by the beetle) several years in suc- 

 cession, sickness and death inevitably ensue, in dry seasons 

 especially. The mischief this beetle occasions in woods where 

 it abounds is almost incredible. One would have thought a 

 beetle's influence on a forest would have been only trifling. And 

 we think contemptible men have only trifling power. But the 

 man and the beetle can be desperately mischievous. MU. 



The Posthumous Uses of Puny Things. 



The fossils of the Tertiaries are in some respects more in- 

 teresting than those of any other series of strata. It is not in 

 the humbler classes of animals that this interest chiefly lies ; 

 and yet even in this department the Tertiaries present us with 

 a wonder quite unexampled. We refer to beds of greater or 

 less thickness, composed exclusively of the solid remains of 

 animalcules creatures individually so small that only a micro- 

 scope could enable human eyes to see them. Such a rock 

 (called tripoli) is found at Bilin in Bohemia, and at Planitz, 

 near Zwickau in Saxony. It has been used as a powder in 

 some of the arts for ages, without any suspicion of its being 

 thus composed. But within the last few years M. Ehrenberg, 

 a scientific Prussian, has fully ascertained that it consists simply 

 and wholly of the silicious coverings of certain minute creatures, 

 some of which belonged to species still to be found in stagnant 

 waters. To common perception, the powder of which the rock 

 may be said to consist resembles flour ; and in Norway, where 

 it is accordingly called berg-mehl (that is mountain-meal), it is 

 actually used in times of famine as food, for which it is not 

 entirely unsuitable, seeing that there is always a percentage of 

 animal matter left in it in addition to the silicious shields. 

 So extremely small are the creatures of which these rocks form 

 the sepulchre that, according to M. Ehrenberg's calculation, ten 

 millions of millions of individuals might be required to fill the 

 space of a cubic inch. CH. 



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