12 



THE ATLANTIC SLOPE NATURALIST. 



rapacious hawk was the winning card in the 

 campaign against the overthrow of Chris- 

 tianity in the holy land. The hawk might 

 be said to have saved the day as in the 

 case of the geese in the eternal city. 

 There are many instances in the history 

 of the world where birds have played an 

 important part. 



Nature's Equipoise. 



A LITTLE STUDY IN CLIMATE. 

 By H. K., Philadelphia, Pa. 



That scene, I am sure, will never leave 

 me. It was a typically perfect tropic 

 night. From my window the town and 

 harbor of Montego Bay (Jamaica, W. I.) 

 lay spread, like a fairy picture, sunken 

 deep in frame of hills. How often had I 

 sat nearly the night through watching the 

 endless magic of changing lights with ever 

 a fresh delight — the air freighted with the 

 fragrance of growing things, vital with 

 the unceasing whisper of life's mystery 

 where nature is confidential. Slowly, 

 from above the screen of the mountains 

 opposite, the Southern cross ascends* 

 dominating the heavens. It is one of 

 those white nights when everything is 

 visible in detail, nothing is real or com- 

 mon-place. 



Suddenly the night was rent with the 

 distant "Helloo !" from a steamer's 

 whistle, caught up by the hillsides and 

 sportively bandied back and forth across 

 the great amphitheatre whose domain 

 was thus rudely invaded. Long ere the 

 antiphony ended, or the rattling of anchor 

 chains mocked the harmonies, the wharves 

 were in commotion — a Babel of voices, 

 of lash of oars, chanty of lines of porters, 

 each bearing on his, or her, head a great 

 bunch of bananas, refilling the great un- 

 gainly lighters, already plying back and 

 forth between dock and steamer. 



Within the hour, about 2 a. m., I was 

 on her deck, viewing regretfully the scene 

 I was leaving. The mercury was among 

 the upper eighties, costume accordingly. 

 The mate and I forgathered on the bridge 

 — "And the weather four days ago, when 

 you left Philadelphia?" "Well" drawled 



the oracle, "we left the slip all right, 

 though the river was full of ice, but had 

 to anchor off Lincoln Park, twenty-two 

 hours ; snow too thick to pick our way." 

 Then I remembered it was March, only 

 four days northward of all this voluptuous 

 tropic. I recalled a picture of a maiden, 

 all clad in sables, snow-balling a tropic 

 village under a palm grove. It was "only 

 advertisement," but suggestive. Ex- 

 tremes do — nearly — meet ; and we are 

 mostly extremists. After a series of 

 years' residence in Minnesota, where the 

 winters are so long, so deep, so uncom- 

 promising, I was ready to "swear off" 

 from further winters, from snow and ice. 



It was in that strenuous Northwest I 

 witnessed an absurd panic. Both spring 

 and summer were unusually dry (that 

 State depending less upon rain than upon 

 the residuum of the winter's snow) caught 

 and held in storage by a "hard-pan" 

 breath the top soil. The ground soil 

 grew harder and cracked. Farmers and 

 producers raised the calamity howl. The 

 churches were importuned to pray for 

 rain (but, wisely, refused) ; the irre- 

 ligious railed against Providence with 

 many words. But, in spite of the panic, 

 harvests were the largest and cleanest 

 known for many years precedent. Query. 

 Had men disturbed nature's equipoise, 

 how much of damage might have resulted ? 

 Were it in human hands — each desirous 

 to regulate the weather to suit his private 

 purposes — what would become of that 

 complementary interaction of nature's 

 forces making her equipoise, which we 

 call climate ? 



The skill with which the balance is 

 maintained ; the nicety of adjustment 

 whereby the many elements, great and 

 small— agents, diverse in character, dis- 

 tant in location — are made to act, react, 

 and interact in the service of this equi- 

 poise of nature ; these things all point to 

 intelligence present and active in the 

 ordering of every-day Providence. 



Sometimes a purely local adjustment 

 has been made to meet a local condition. 

 For instance, there is that little bridge of 



