52 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



after another being wound around its prey, the process of digestion 

 takes place. When we laugh at the idea of two or three Hydras 

 growing out of one, if severed, we are told the reason is that the 

 principle of hfe is diffused equally in all its parts ; that any part can 

 live without the rest, and, like the cutting of a plant having life in 

 itself, it can grow into a perfect creature. 



Journeying onward, he tells us of another animalcule provided 

 with two hairy wheels upon its head, whirling continually around, 

 producing a strong current towards its mouth placed between them, 

 carrying in all lesser objects floating near, and like the rotary wheels 

 of a steamboat, carrying him onward, unless desirous of a rest, he 

 grasps with his prehensile tail some friendly water plant. With still 

 greater surprise we hear that these animalcules each have shells, 

 which in some places during the course of centuries, have formed 

 thick layers of white fine earth, so fine, that on the shores of a lake 

 near Urnea, in Sweden, the peasants have for many years mixed with 

 their flour this so-called " mountain meal." When we come to think 

 that the vast thickness of the chalk cliffs were all formed from the 

 deposition of animalcular exuviae, surely the mind of man is inade- 

 quate to count the myriads of ages through which this process was 

 going on, a process still silently and invisibly working in the depth 

 and darkness of the Atlantic. 



Skirting the pond, which has thus engrossed our attention, we 

 may see rocks now rising up precipitously in rugged masses, now 

 sloping quietly to the water's edge, partly clothed with lichens and 

 moss, here covering the stone to the depth of several inches, there 

 clustering around some bare patch of rock. From this we learn how 

 the first accumulation of soil took place, when order was first produced 

 from chaos ; soil, which year by year increasing from the decomposi- 

 tion of those rudiments of vegetable life, afiwded depth and life for 

 plants of a higher order and larger growth, to be in turn succeeded 

 by a more luxuriant vegetation adapted for the support of animal life. 



As we gaze upon the distant mountain range, what thoughts 

 come crowding on our minds. How solemnly and majestically they 

 raise their rugged peaks to heaven. Now, in token of their royalty 

 crowned with a diadem of clouds, and now with every one of their 

 cliffs gleaming in the sunlight like the pictures of a dream. For ages 

 they have held communion with the mysteries of the midnight sky. 



