VII. 

 THE MEMORABLE. 



EVERY naturalist can recall certain incidents in his com- 

 munion with nature, which have impressed themselves 

 upon his imagination with a vividness that the lapse of 

 time in no wise effaces, and which he feels never will be 

 effaced. They came upon him with a power which at the 

 moment burnt-in the image of each in his remembrance; 

 and there they remain, and must remain while memory 

 endures, ever and anon starting up with a palpable clear- 

 ness that is all the more observable from the ever increas- 

 ing dimness and vagueness into which the contemporary 

 impressions are fading. They form the great landmarks 

 of his life : they stand out like the promontories of some 

 long line of coast, bold and clear, though the intervening 

 shore is lost to view. 



Every close observer of natural phenomena is familiar 

 with such memorabilia, and those know them best whose 

 minds are most poetic in temperament, most disposed to 

 receive pleasurable emotions from that which is new or 

 strange, or noble, or beautiful. Each has his own ; he 

 will fail, perhaps, to communicate to another the same 

 impressions when he communicates the facts, because the 

 halo with which the particular object or incident is in- 



