LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
DAVIS

THE ROMANCE

OF

NATURAL HISTORY.

BY

PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S.

AUTHOR OF "AQUARIUM," "HISTORY OP THE JEWS," "RIVERS OF THE BIBLE."

•• NATURAL HISTORY OP BIRDS, MAMMALS, REPTILES," i;THE OCEAN,'5

" POPULAR BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY," ETC. ETC.

(Elegant

BOSTON:

GOULD AND LINCOLN,

59 WASHINGTON STREET.

NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY.
CINCINNATI : GEORGE S. BLANCHARD.

1864.

TTRRARY

PREFACE.

THERE are more ways than one of studying natural his-
tory. There is Dr Dryasdust's way ; which consists of
mere accuracy of definition and differentiation ; statistics
as harsh and dry as the skins and bones in the museum
where it is studied. There is the field-observer's way ; the
careful and conscientious accumulation and record of facts
bearing on the life-history of the creatures ; statistics as
fresh and bright as the forest or meadow where they are
gathered in the dewy morning. And there is the poet's
way; who looks at nature through a glass peculiarly his
own ; the aesthetic aspect, which deals, not with statistics,
but with the emotions of the human mind, — surprise,
wonder, terror, revulsion, admiration, love, desire, and so
forth, — which are made energetic by the contemplation
of the creatures around him.

In my many years' wanderings through the wide field
of natural history, I have always felt towards it something

vi PREFACE.

of a poet's heart, though destitute of a poet's genius. As
Wordsworth so beautifully says, —

" To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that jdo often lie too deep for tears."

Now, this book is an attempt to present natural history
in this aesthetic fashion. Not that I have presumed con-
stantly to indicate — like the stage-directions in a play, or
the " hear, hear ! " in a speech — the actual emotion to be
elicited ; this would have been obtrusive and impertinent ;
but I have sought to paint a series of pictures, the reflec-
tions of scenes and aspects in nature, which in my own
mind awaken poetic interest, leaving them to do their
proper work.

If I may venture to point out one subject on which I
have bestowed more than usual pains, and which I my-
self regard with more than common interest, it is that of
the last chapter in this volume. An amount of evidence
is adduced for the existence of the sub-mythic monster
popularly known as " the sea-serpent," such as has never
been brought together before, and such as ought almost
to set doubt at rest. But the cloudy uncertainty which
has invested the very being of this creature ; its home on
the lone ocean ; the fitful way in which it is seen and lost
in its vast solitudes ; its dimensions, vaguely gigantic ; its
dragon-like form ; and the possibility of its association
with beings considered to be lost in an obsolete antiquity ;

PREFACE. vil

all these are attributes which render it peculiarly precious
to a romantic naturalist. I hope the statisticians will for-
give me if they cannot see it with my spectacles.

The Illustrations are drawn for the most part by Wolf,
and engraved by Whymper : they will speak for them-
selves.

P. H 0.

TORQUAY. 1860.

CONTENTS.

I. TIMES AND SEASON'S.

PAQ<

Winter in the Polar Regions — Aurora — Snow-storiu — Suow on
Trees — Beauty of Snow-drifts — Silver-thaw — Opening of
Spring — Butterflies — Beetles — Fishes — Bees — Flowers —
Spring in Canada — Leafing of Forest — Summer — Autumn —
Autumnal Colours in American Forests — Indian Summer —
Autumn in the Alps — Morning in Newfoundland — Beaver-
pond— Water-insects— Morning in Jamaica— Awakening Buds
— Daybreak in Venezuela — Sunrise in the Oural — Winter-Noon
in England — Noon in a Brazilian Forest — Sunset in the Oural
— Sunset in the Altaian— Mothing in a Summer Evening in
England — Night on the Niesen — Night on the Jamaican Moun-
tains— Night in Tropical Forests — Night-sounds in Jamaica —
— in Brazil — on the Amazon — in Tobago — in Burmah — Beast-
voices in Guiana — Night on the Amazon — Night in Central
Africa — Night-lamps — English Glow-worms — Fire-fl.es in
Canada — in Alabama — in Jamaica — Luminous Elater, . . 1

II. HARMONIES.

Distribution of Animals and Plants — Harmony of a Natural his-
tory Picture — Gazelle in Desert — Hyena in a ruined City —
Siberian Stag in Altaian Gorge — Lammergeyer in the Alatou

CONTENTS.

PAOR

— Sperm-whales in Beagle Channel — Guanaco on the Andes —
Reindeer on a Snow Fjeld — Burrell at the Source of the Ganges
— Elephant in South African Forest — Lions at an African Pool
at Midnight — Butterflies in Brazilian Forest, . . . .38

III DISCREPANCIES.

Life at great Depths of Ocean — Life in Snow — Trees growing in
Ice — Life in the Sandy Desert — Life in a Volcano — Life in
Dust at Sea — Life in Brine — Life in boiling Springs — Blind
Fauna of Caverns — Oceanic Bird Stations — Land Birds at Sea —
Insects at Sea — Insects at lofty Elevations — Flying-fish in Bed
— Shoal of Fish in a Parlour, .... .64

IV. MULTUM fe PARVO.

Coral Structures — Polypes — Lagoons — Beauty of Coral Island —
Rate of Increase — Proposed Employment of Coral-builders —
Diatomacece — Immense Accumulations of Diatoms — Presence
in Guano — Ocean Streaks — Food of Salpse — of Whales — Origin
of Chalk-flints — Vermilion Sea — Green Water — Forests
planted by Finches — Destructive Insects — Locusts — Timber-
beetles — White-ants — Forest Scavengers in Brazil — Zimb —
Tsetse — Golubacser Fly — Musquito,

V. THE VAST.

Whales — Elephants — in India — in Africa — Condor — Exaggerations
of Travellers — Great Serpents — Ancient Celebrities — Darnell's
Picture — Guiana Boa — Oriental Pythons — African Python-
Tabular Summary— Colossal Sea-weeds— Cane — Cacti— Echi-
nocactus — Candelabra Cacti — Giant Cactus — Dragon-tree of
Orotava — Banyan of India— Baobab of Senegal — Mexican Cy-

CONTENTS. XI

PAOB

press — Zamang del G nay re — Elm in Wales— Limes in Lithu-
ania— Oak in France — Locust-trees in Brazil — Gum-trees in
Australia — Mammoth-tree of California — A tall Family — Fell-
ing the " Big Tree " — Speculation, Ill

VI. THE MINUTE.

V.'onder at Minuteness — Complexity — Meliccrta — Its Building
Powers— Mental Faculties — The Invisible World — Diatoms —
Their Form and Structure — Mode of Increase — Mode of Aggre-
gation— Various Points of Interest — Life in a Drop of Water
— Infusoria — Stentor — Animalcule-tree — Floscularia — Roti-
fera — Notommata — Salpina — Laying and Hatching of an Egg
— Sculptured Shells — Anursea — Maximus in Minimis, . ,148

VII. THE MEMORABLE.

Chuck-will's Widow — A Night Scene — Helicon ia — Singular Habit of
a Butterfly — Swarming of Urania — A Jamaican Forest — Tree-
ferns — A Brazilian Forest — Glories of Tropical Scenery —
Strange Scene in a Churchyard — The Bird of Paradise at
Home — Washington's Eagle — A Night with Fern-owls — The
King of the Butterflies captured— First Sight of the Royal
Water-lily — Scene in the Life of Mungo Park — Scientific En-
thusiasm— Humboldt's Experience, . . , . .172

VIII. THE RECLUSE.

Strange Tameness of Animals — Vigilance and Jealousy — Caution
and Confidence combined — Shyness and Coyness — Eagles —
Ducks — Stanzas to a Water-fowl — Ostrich — Rhea — Scottish
Urns — European Bison — Mode in which it is hunted — Suspi-
ciousness of Moose — Reputed Power of remaining submerged
— Strange Story — Crusting- Moose-yard — Solitary Habits —

XI 1 CONTENTS.

PAGB

Chamois — Difficulties of approaching it — The Gemze" Fawn —
Recluse Life in a Forest-pool — Grebes in early Morning —
Snake-bird — Water-shrew — Its Playful Manners, . . . 1 95

IX. THE WILD.

Capture of a Shark— Nautical Eagerness for the Sport — Hook and
Line — Harpoon — An expressive Countenance — Attendant
Sharks at Night— Scene in the Pacific — Sperm-whales at
Night— Element of Unearthliness— Whetsaw— White Owl-
Bittern — Qua-bird — Prophetic Imagery of Desolation — Devil-
bird — Eagle-owl — Guacharo — Rise of Water-fowl from River
— Assault of a Cuttle — Shriek of Jackal — American Howling
Monkeys — Prairie Wolves — African Wild Dogs, . . .218

X. THE TERRIBLE.

Man's Dominion over the Creatures — Sometimes contested — Bestial
Conflicts — Wolf — A Mother's Sacrifice — Night-attack of
Wolves in Mongolia — Bears — Syrian Bear — Grizzly Bear— En-
counter with one — Wild Beasts in Africa — Terrors of Ele-
phant-hunting— Mr Oswell's Adventure — Horrible Death of
Thackwray — Hottentot's Adventure with a Rhinoceros — Simi-
lar Adventure of Mr Oswell — Thunberg's Encounter with a
Cape Buffalo— Terrific Peril of Captain Methuen— Nearly fatal
Combat with a Kangaroo — An old Carthaginian Voyage of
Discovery — Wild Men — Identification of these with Apes —
The Gorilla — His Prowess — Comic Scenes with the Elephant
— Tragic Encounters with Man — Perils of Whale-fishing — An
Involuntary Dive — Horrid Voracity of Sharks — The Crocodile
— Fatal Adventure with an Alligator — Potency of Poisonous
Serpents — Detail of Symptoms of Poisoning — Case of Mr
Buckland — Death of Curling — Coolness of an Indian Officer —
Ugliness of Vipers — Shocking Adventure in Guiana — Another
in Venezuela — Fatal Encounter with Bees in India, . .210

CONTENTS. xiii

XI. THE UNKNOVrX.

PAGE

Charm of the Unknown — Expectation of an exploring Naturalist —
His daily Experiences — Experience of Mr Bates —Animals in
Brazil — A Natural-history Day on the Amazon — Anticipations
of Mr Wallace — The Far East— What may be expected in
Zoology — In South America — A great Ape — In the Oriental
Archipelago — In Papua — In China — In Japan — In the Farther
Peninsula — In Madagascar — In Africa — Hope points to Central
Africa — The Unicorn — Native Reports and Descriptions of it
— Dr A. Smith's Opinion — Drawings by Savages — Our Ignor-
ance of the Depth of Ocean — The Aquarium — Fancy Sketch by
Schleiden — Clearness of Arctic Seaa, 271

XII. THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

Wonders of Foreign Parts — Scepticism — Moot Points in Zoology —
Necessity of Caution — Liability to Error— Question of the
Existence of a "Sea-serpent" — Norwegian Testimony — New
England Testimony — Mr Perkins's Report — Mr Ince's Nar-
rative— Captain M'Quhse's Report — Lieut. Drummond's — Ob-
ject seen by Captain Beechey — Mr Stirling's Suggestion and
Personal Testimony — Suggestion of the Plesiosaurus — Profes-
sor Owen's Strictures and Opinion — Suggests a great Seal —
Captain M'Quhse's Reply— Mr Davidson's confirmatory Testi-
mony— Animal seen from the Barham — Captain Herriman
examines a supposed Sea-serpent — Finds it a Sea-weed — Cap-
tain Harrington's Testimony — Cnptain Smith's Sea-weed Ex-
perience— More Testimony from the Dcedalus — Examina-
tion of the accumulated Evidence — Recapitulation — Dismis-
sion of Sea-weed Hypothesis — Tests — Mammalia — Professor
Owen's Hypothesis — Reasons against it — Vagueness of the
Drawings — No Seal tenable — Cetacea — Fishes — Shark Hypo-
thesis— Ribbon-Fishes — Eels — Reptiles— Small Sea-snakes —
Occurrence of a true Serpent in the Atlantic —Serpent Hypo-

XIV CONTENTS.

PAGB

thesis rejected — Consideration of Enaliosaurian Hypothesis —
Resemblances — Difficulty of Mane — Objections examined —
Improbability of Perpetuation of the Form— Examples ad-
duced— Evidence of present Enaliosauria — Absence of recent
Remains — This Objection shewn to be groundless — Examples
of recent Whales— The Whale of Havre — Sowerby's Diodon —
IJi;;'h -finned Cachalot — Rhinoceros Whale — Defphinorkynch u.s
of the Atlantic -Conclusion. . .... 207

fist of Illustrations.

PLATE.

I. THE GORILLA (Ffantispuse).

II. THE HYENA IN THE DESERTED CITY, . 42

III. A BRAZILIAN FOREST SCENE, .... *»0

IV. A TROPICAL BIRD-STATION,

V. THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT, . ... 118

VI. A GROUP OF TREE-FERNS, .... 178

VII. WILD-FOWL ON SOLITARY RIVER, . 200

VIII. A MOOSE-YARD, .

IX. CAPTURE OF A SHARK,

X. ASSAULT OF A CUTTLE -36

XL ENCOUNTER WITH A RHINOCEROS, 550

XII THE SEA-SERPENT (on the Enatiosawrian %/**/«'«*), 358

THE

ROMANCE OP NATURAL HISTORY,

TIMES AND SEASONS.

" To everything there is a season ; " and, in its season,
everything is comely. Winter is not without its charm,
the charm of a grand and desolate majesty. The Arctic
voyagers have seen King Winter on his throne, and a full
royal despot he is. When the mercury is solid in the
bulb, to look abroad on the boundless waste of snow, all
silent and motionless, in the very midst of the six-months'
night, must be something awful. And yet there is a glory
and a beauty visible in perfection only then. There is
the moon, of dazzling brightness, circling around the
horizon ; there are ten thousand crystals of crisp and
crackling snow reflecting her beams ; there are the stars
flashing and sparkling with unwonted sharpness; and
there is the glorious aurora spanning the purple sky with
its arch of coruscating beams, now advancing, now re-
ceding, like angelic watchers engaged in mystic dance,
now shooting forth spears and darts of white light with
rustling whisper, and now unfurling a broad flag of crim-

2 TIMES AND SEASONS.

soned flame, that diffuses itself over the heavens, and is
reflected from the unsullied snow beneath. These pheno-
mena I have seen during many years' residence in the
grim and ice-bound Newfoundland, and in still sterner
Canada. There, too, I have often witnessed the

, . . . " Kindred glooms,
Congenial horrors !"....

that the poet apostrophises, when

. . . . " The snows arise, and, foul and fierce,
All winter drives along the darken'd air."

A snow-storm, when the air is filled with the thick flakes
driven impetuously before a blinding gale, rapidly oblite-
rating every landmark from the benighted and bewildered
traveller's search on a wild mountain-side in Canada ; or
on the banks of Newfoundland when a heavy sea is run-
ning, and floes of ice, sharp as needles and hard as rocks,
are floating all around — is something terrible to witness,
and solemn to remember.

Yet there are gentler features and more lovable attri-
butes of winter, even in those regions where he reigns
autocratically. The appearance of the forest, after a
night's heavy snow in calm weather, is very beautiful.
On the horizontal boughs of the spruces and hemlock-
pines, it rests in heavy, fleecy masses, which take the
form of hanging drapery, while the contrast between the
brilliant whiteness of the clothing and the blackness of
the sombre foliage is fine and striking. Nor are the
forms which the drifted snow assumes less attractive.

SILVER-THAW. 3

Here, it lies in gentle undulations, swelling and sinking ;
there, in little ripples, like the sand of a sea-beach ; here,
it stands up like a perpendicular wall ; there, like a coni-
cal hil] • here, it is a long, deep trench ; there, a flat, over-
hanging table ; but one of the most charming of it» many-
visaged appearances is that presented by a shed or out-
house well hung with cobwebs. After a drift, the snow
is seen, in greater or less masses, to have attached itself
to the cobwebs, and hangs from the rafters and walls, and
from corner to corner, in graceful drapery of the purest
white, and of the most fantastic shapes.

The elegant arabesques that the frost forms on our
window-panes, and the thin blades and serrated swords
of which hoar-frost is composed, are beautiful ; and still
more exquisitely charming are the symmetrical six-rayed
stars of falling snow, when caught on a dark surface.
But I think nothing produced by the magic touch of
winter can excel a phenomenon I have often seen in the
woods of the transatlantic countries named above, where
it is familiarly called silver- thaw. It is caused by rain
descending when the stratum of air nearest the earth is
below 32 deg., and consequently freezing the instant it
touches any object; the ice accumulates with every drop of
rain, until a transparent, glassy coating is formed. On the
shrubs and trees, the effect is magical, and reminds one of
fairy scenes described in oriental fables. Every little twig,
every branch, every leaf, every blade of grass is enshrined
in crystal ; the whole forest is composed of sparkling,
transparent glass, even to the minute leaves of the pines

4 TIMES AND SEASONS.

and firs. The sun shines out. What a glitter of light !
How the beams, broken, as it were, into ten thousand
fragments, sparkle and dance, as they are reflected from
the trees ! Yet it is as fragile as beautiful. A slight
shock from a rude hand is sufficient to destroy it. The
air is filled with a descending shower of the glittering
fragments, and the spell is broken at once ; the crystal
pageant has vanished, and nothing remains but a brown,
leafless tree.

But all this is the beauty of death ; and the naturalist,
though he may, and does, admire its peculiar loveliness,
yet longs for the opening of spring. To his impatience it
has seemed as if it would never come ; but, at last, on
some morning toward the end of April, the sun rises
without a cloud, the south-west wind blows softly, and he
walks forth, " wrapt in Elysium." Life is now abroad :
larks, by scores, are pouring forth sweet carols, as they
hang and soar in the dazzling brightness of the sky; the
blackbird is warbling, flute-like, in the coppice; swallows,
newly come across the sea, are sweeping and twittering
joyously; the little olive-clad warblers and white-throats
are creeping about like mice among the twigs of the
hedges ; and, ha ! — sweetest of all sounds of spring ! —
there are those two simple notes, that thrill through the
very heart, — the voice of the cuckoo !

Here, too, are the butterflies. The homely " whites "
of the garden are flitting about the cabbages, and the
tawny " browns " are dancing along the hedge-rows that
divide the meadows; the delicate "brimstone" comes

OPENING OF SPRING. 5

bounding over the fence, and alights on a bed of prim-
roses, itself scarcely distinguishable from one of them.
On the commons and open downs the lovely little "blues"
are frisking in animated play ; and here and there a still
more minute " copper" — tiniest of the butterfly race —
rubs together its little wings, or spreads them to the sun,
glowing with scarlet lustre like a coal of fire.

The beetles are active, too, in their way. The tiger-
beetle, with its sparkling green wing-cases, flies before our
footsteps with watchful agility, and numerous atoms are
circling round the blossoming elms, which, on catching
one or two, we find to belong to the same class ; the dark-
blue Timarcha — the bloody-nose — is depositing its drop
of clear red liquid on the blades of grass ; and if we look
into the ponds, we see multitudes of little black, brown,
and yellow forms come up to the surface, hang there for
a moment, and then hurry down again into the depths.
And then come up the newts from their castle in the mud,
willing to see and to be seen ; for they have donned their
vernal attire, and appear veritable holiday beaux, arrayed
in the pomp of ruffled shirt and scarlet waistcoat. The
frogs, moreover, are busy depositing their strings of bead-
like spawn, and announcing the fact to the world in loud,
if not cheerful strains.

The streams, freed from the turbidity of the winter
rains, roll in transparent clearness, now gliding along
smooth and deep in their weedy course through " th" in-
dented meads," where the roach and the dace play in
sight, and the pike lies but half-hidden under the pro-

6 TIMES AND SEASONS.

jecting bank ; and now brawling and sparkling in frag-
mentary crystal, over a rocky bed, where the trout dis-
plays his speckled side as he leaps from pool to pool.

The willows on the river margin are gay with their
pendant catkins, to whose attractions hundreds of hum-
ming bees resort, in preference to the lovely flowers which
are already making the banks and slopes to smile. The
homeliest of these, even the dandelions and daisies, the
buttercups and celandines, are most welcome after the
dreariness and death of winter.

" Earth fills her lap with treasures of her own ; " and
even " the meanest flower that blows " has, to the opened
eye, a beauty that is like a halo of glory around it. Yet
there are some which, from the peculiarities of their form,
colour, or habits, charm us more than others. The ger-
mander speedwell, with its laughing blue eyes, spangling
every hedge-bank — who can look upon it, and not love it ?
Who can mark the wild hyacinths, growing in battalions
of pale stalks, each crowned with its clusters of drooping
bells ; and interspersed with the tall and luxuriant cow-
slips, so like and yet so different, filling the air with their
golden beauty and sugary fragrance, without rapture?
Who can discover the perfumed violet amidst the rampant
moss, or the lily of the valley beneath the rank herbage,
without acknowledging how greatly both beauty and
worth are enhanced by humility ?

If in this favoured land we are conscious of emotions of
peculiar delight, when we see the face of nature renewing
its loveliness after winter, where yet the influence of the

SPRING IN CANADA. 7

dreary season is never so absolute as quite to quench the
activities of either vegetable or animal life, and where
that face may be said to put on a somewhat gradual smile
ere it breaks out into full joyous laughter — much more
impressive is the coming in of spring with all its charms
in such a country as Canada, where the transition is
abrupt, and a few days change the scene from a waste of
snow to universal warmth, verdure, and beauty. I have ob-
served, with admiration, how suddenly the brown poplar
woods put on a flush of tender yellow-green from the
rapidly-opening leaves ; how quickly the maple trees are
covered with crimson blossoms ; how brilliant flowers are
fast springing up through the dead leaves in the forests ;
how gay butterflies and beetles are playing on every bank
where the snow lay a week before ; and how the bushes
are ringing with melody from hundreds of birds, which
have been for months silent. The first song of spring
comes on the heart with peculiar power, after the mute
desolation of winter, and more especially when, as in
the country I speak of, it suddenly bursts forth in a whole
orchestra at once. The song-sparrow is the chief per-
former in this early concert ; a very melodious little crea-
ture, though of unpretending plumage.

Much of all this charm lies in the circumstantials, the
associations, It may be that there is something in the
psychical, perhaps even in the physical condition of the
observer, superinduced by the season itself, that makes
him in spring more open to pleasurable emotions from
the sights and sounds of nature. But much depends on

8 TIMES AND SEASONS.

association and contrast : novelty has much to do with
it. Everything tells of happiness ; and we cannot help
sympathising with it. We contrast the far) with the
OdvaTos, and our minds revert to aOavacrta. Here is,
where before there was not, at least for us ; and this is
novelty. The hundreds of rich and fragrant violets that
we find in April are not less rich in hue or less fragrant
in odour than the first ; yet the first violet of spring had
a charm that all these combined possess not. We can
never hear the cuckoo's voice, we can never mark the
swallow's flight, without pleasure ; but the first cuckoo,
the first swallow, sent a thrill through our hearts which
is not repeated.*

Akin to this is the rose-coloured atmosphere through
which every thing in nature is seen by childhood and
youth ; to whom the robin's breast appears of the bright-
est scarlet, and the sloe and blackberry are delicious
fruits. Love nature as we may, — and one who has ever
wooed can never cease to love her, — we cannot help being

* Darwin, writing of the Australian forest, observes : — " The leaves
are not shed periodically : this character appears common to the entire
southern hemisphere, namely, South America, Australia, and the Cape
of Good Hope. The inhabitants of this hemisphere, and of the inter-
tropical regions, thus lose perhaps one of the most glorious, though to
our eyes common, spectacles in the world, — the first bursting into full
foliage of the leafless tree. They may, however, say that we pay dearly
for this by having the land covered with mere naked skeletons for so
many months. This is too true ; but our senses acquire a keen relish
for the exquisite green of the spring, which the eyes of those living
within the tropics, sated during the long year with the gorgeous pro-
ductions of those glowing climates, can never experience." — Nat. Voy.t
(ed. 1852,) p. 433.

AUTUMN. 9

conscious, as " years bring the inevitable yoke," of such
a sadness as Wordsworth has described, in that Ode which
— rejecting, of course, as anything but a poetic dream,
the theory on which he founds it — is one of the most
nobly beautiful poems in our language : —

" There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,

To me did seem
Apparell'd in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore ; —
Turn wheresoe'er I may,

By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

" The rainbow comes and goes;
And lovely is the rose ;
The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare j
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair ;
The sunshine is a glorious birth ;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath pass'd away a glory from the earth."

The summer, with all its gorgeous opulence of life,
possesses charms of its own ; nor is autumn destitute of an
idiosyncrasy which takes strong hold of our sympathies.
We cannot, indeed, divest ourselves of a certain feeling
of sadness, because we know that the season is in the
decrepitude of age, and is verging towards death. In
spring, hope is prominent ; in autumn, regret : in spring
we are anticipating life ; in autumn, death.

10 TIMES AND SEASONS.

Yet a forest country in autumn presents a glorious
spectacle, and nowhere more magnificent than in North
America, where the decaying foliage of the hardwood
forests puts on in October the most splendid colours.
Every part of the woods is then glowing in an endless
variety of shades ; brilliant crimson, purple, scarlet, lake,
orange, yellow, brown, and green : if we look from some
cliff or mountain-top over a breadth of forest, the rich
hues are seen to spread as far as the eye can reach ; the
shadows of the passing clouds, playing over the vast
surface, now dimming the tints, now suffering them to
flash out in the full light of the sun ; here and there a
large group of sombre evergreens, — hemlock or spruce,
— giving the shadows of the picture, and acting as a foil
to the brightness ; — the whole forest seems to have be-
come a gigantic parterre of the richest flowers.*

" Ere, in the northern gale,

The summer tresses of the trees are gone,

The woods of autumn, all around our vale,

Have put their glory on.

" The mountains that infold,

In their wide sweep, the colour 'd landscape round,
Seem groups of giant kings, in purple and gold,

That guard th' enchanted ground." — BRYANT.

* In examining the details of this mass of glowing colour, I have
found that by far the greatest proportion is produced by the sugar-
maple, and other species of the same genus. The leaves of these display
all shades of red, from deepest crimson to bright orange ; which gene-
rally occurring in large masses, not in individual detached leaves, pre-
vents anything tawdry or little in the effect ; on the contrary, when
the full beams of the sun shine on them, the warm and glowing colours

INDIAN SUMMER. 11

It is observable that after all this short-lived splendour
has passed away, and the trees have become leafless, in
Canada and the Northern States, there always occur a
few days of most lovely and balmy weather, which is
called the Indian summer. It is characterised by a
peculiar haziness in the atmosphere, like a light smoke,
by a brilliant sun, only slightly dimmed by this haze, and
by a general absence of wind. It follows a short season
of wintry weather, so as to be isolated in its character.
One circumstance I have remarked with interest, — the
resuscitation of insect life in abundance. Beautiful but-
terflies swarm around the leafless trees ; and moths in
multitudes flit among the weeds and bushes, while mi-
nuter forms hop merrily about the heaps of decaying
leaves at the edges of the woods. It is a charming
relaxation of the icy chains of winter.

possess a great deal of grandeur. The poplar leaves often assume a
crimson hue ; the elm, a bright and golden yellow ; birch and beech, a
pale, sober, yellow-ochre ; ash and basswood, different shades of brown ;
the tamarack, a buff-yellow. The beech, the ash, and the tamarack do
not, in general, bear much part in this glittering pageant; the ash is
mostly leafless at the time, and the glory has passed away before the
other two have scarcely begun to fade. Indeed, the glossy green of
the beech is perhaps more effective than if it partook of the general
change; and even the gloomy blackness of the resinous trees, by
relieving and throwing forward the gayer tints, is not without effect.
This beauty is not shewn to equal advantage every year : in some
seasons the trees fade with very little splendour, the colours all par-
taking more or less of dusky, sordid brown ; early frosts seem to be
unfavourable for its development : and even at its best it is a melan-
choly glory, a precursor of approaching dissolution, something like the
ribbons and garlands with which the ancient pagan priests were accus-
tomed to adorn the animals they destined for sacrifice.

12 TIMES AND SEASONS.

Latrobe has depicted the aspect of the same season
in the Alps, which may be compared with the Ameri-
can : —

" On- my arrival [at Neufchatel at the beginning of
November], the vintage was over, and the vineyards,
lately the scene of so much life and gaiety, now lay brown
and unsightly upon the flanks of the mountain and bor-
der of the lake. The forest trees in the neighbourhood
of the town, and the brushwood on the wide and steep
acclivity of the Chaumont, were still decked in that splen-
did but transient livery which one frosty night's keen
and motionless breath, or a few hours' tempest, must
strew on the earth.

" There is something strangely moving in the few last
short and tranquil days of autumn, as they often inter-
vene between a period of tempestuous weather and the
commencement of the frosts. The face of nature is still
sunny, and bright and beautiful ; the forest still yields its
shade, and the sun glistens warm and clear upon the
flower and stained leaf.

" Then there is the gorgeous autumnal sunset closing
the short day ; and in this land of the lake and mountain
it is indeed a scene of enchantment. There is the rich
tinge of the broad red sun stealing over and blending the
thousand hues of the hill and forest, and the flood of
glory upon the sky above and lake beneath, while the
snows of the Alps are glowing like molten ore. I see it
still, and it warms my heart's blood.

"A few more days, and then rises the blast, howling

MORNING IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 13

through the pine forest and over the mountain-side, shak-
ing from the tree its fair foliage, roughening the surface
of the lake, and drawing over the sky a curtain of thick
vapours that narrows the horizon by day, and shuts out
the stars by night/ ' *

The different divisions of the day — early morning, noon,
evening, night — have each their peculiar phase of nature,
each admirable. An early riser, I have always been in
the habit of enjoying, with keen relish, the opening of
day and the awakening of life. In my young days of
natural history, when pursuing with much ardour an
acquaintance with the insects of Newfoundland, I used
frequently, in June and July, to rise at daybreak, and
seek a wild but lovely spot a mile or two from the town.
It was a small tarn or lake among the hills, known as
Little Beaver Pond. Here I would arrive before the
winds were up, for it is at that season generally calm
till after sunrise. The scene, with all its quiet beauty,
rises up to my memory now. There is the black, calm,
glassy pond sleeping below me, reflecting from its un-
ruffled surface every tree and bush of the dark towering
hills above, as in a perfect mirror. Stretching away to
the east are seen other ponds, embosomed in the frowning
mountains, connected with this one and with each other
in that chain-fashion which is so characteristic of New-
foundland ; while, further on in the same direction, be-
tween two conical peaks, the ocean is perceived reposing
under the mantle of the long dark clouds of morning.
* Alpenstock, p. 162.

14 . TIMES AND SEASONS.

There is little wood, except of the pine and fir tribe,
sombre and still ; a few birches grow on the hill-sides,
and a wild cherry or two ; but willows hang over the water,
and many shrubs combine to constitute a tangled thicket
redolent with perfume. Towards the margin of the lake,
the ground is covered with spongy swamp-moss, and several
species of ledum and kalmia, with the fragrant gale, give
out aromatic odours. The low, unvarying, and somewhat
mournful bleat of the snipes on the opposite hill, and the
short, impatient flapping of wings as one occasionally flies
across the water, seem rather to increase than to dimi-
nish the general tone of repose, which is aided, too, by
yonder bittern that stands in the dark shadow of an over-
hanging bush as motionless as if he were carved in stone,
reflected perfectly in the shallow water in which he is
standing.

But presently the spell is broken ; the almost oppres-
sive silence and stillness are interrupted ; the eastern
clouds have been waxing more and more ruddy, and the
sky has been bathed in golden light ever becoming more
lustrous. Now the sea reflects in dazzling splendour the
risen sun ; nature awakes ; lines of ruffling ripple run
across the lake from the airs which are beginning to
breathe down the glen ; the solemn stillness which weighed
upon the woods is dissipated ; the lowing of cattle comes
faintly from the distant settlements ; crows fly cawing
overhead ; and scores of tiny throats combine, each in its
measure, to make a sweet harmony, each warbling its
song of unconscious praise to its beneficent Creator.

WATER-INSECTS. 15

Then with what delight would I haste to the lake-side,
where the margin was fringed with a broad belt of the
yellow water-lily, whose oval leaves floating on the sur-
face almost concealed the water, while here and there the
golden globe itself protruded. Having pulled out my
insect-net from a rocky crevice in which I was accustomed
to hide it, I would then stretch myself on the mossy bank
and peer in between the lily leaves, under whose shadow
I could with ease discover the busy inhabitants of the
pool, and watch their various movements in the crystal-
line water.

The merry little boatflies are frisking about, backs
downwards, using their oar-like hind feet as paddles ; the
triple- tailed larvae of dayflies creep in and out of holes in
the bank, the finny appendages at their sides maintaining
a constant waving motion ; now and then a little water-
beetle peeps out cautiously from the cresses, and scuttles
across to a neighbouring weed; the unwieldy caddis-
worms are lazily dragging about their curiously-built
houses over the sogged leaves at the bottom, watching
for some unlucky gnat-grub to swim within reach of their
jaws ; but, lo ! one of them has just fallen a victim to the
formidable calliper-compasses wherewith that beetle-larva
seizes his prey, and is yielding his own life-blood to the
ferocious slayer. There, too, is the awkward sprawling
spider-like grub of the dragonfly ; he crawls to and fro
on the mud, now and then shooting along by means of
his curious valvular pump ; he approaches an unsuspect-
ing blood-worm, and, — oh ! I remember to this day the

1 6 TIMES AND SEASONS.

enthusiasm with which I saw him suddenly throw out
from his face that extraordinary mask that Kirby has so
graphically described, and, seizing the worm with the
serrated folding-doors, close the whole apparatus up again
in a moment. I could not stand that : in goes the net ; the
clearness is destroyed ; the vermin fly hither and thither ;
and our sprawling ill-favoured gentleman is dragged to
daylight, and clapped into the pocket-phial, to be fattened
at home, and reared " for the benefit of science."

Since then I have wooed fair nature in many lands,
and have always found a peculiar charm in the early
morning. When dwelling in the gorgeous and sunny
Jamaica, it was delightful to rise long before day and ride
up to a lonely mountain gorge overhung by the solemn
tropical forest, and there, amidst the dewy ferns arching
their feathery fronds by thousands from every rock and
fallen tree, and beneath the splendid wild-pines and orchids
that droop from every fork, await the first activity of some
crepuscular bird or insect. There was a particular species
of butterfly, remarkable for the extraordinary gem-like
splendour of its decoration, and peculiarly interesting to the
philosophic naturalist as being a connecting link between
the true butterflies and the moths. This lovely creature, I
discovered, was in the habit of appearing just as the sun
broke from the sea, and congregating by scores around
the summit of one tall forest-tree then in blossom, filling
the air with their lustrous and sparkling beauty, at a height
most tantalising for the collector, and after playing in giddy
flight for about an hour, retiring as suddenly as they came.

AWAKENING BIRDS. ] 7

In these excursions I was interested in marking the
successive awakening of the early birds. Passing through
the wooded pastures and guinea-grass fields of the upland
slopes, while the stars were twinkling overhead, while as
yet no indication of day appeared over the dark moun-
tain-peak, no ruddy tinge streamed along the east ; while
Venus was blazing like a lamp, and shedding as much
light as a young moon, as she climbed up the clear, dark
heaven among her fellow-stars ; — the nightjars were un-
usually vociferous, uttering their singular note, "witta-
wittawit," with pertinacious iteration, as they careered in
great numbers, flying low, as their voices clearly indi-
cated, yet utterly indistinguishable to the sight from the
darkness of the sky across which they flitted in their
triangular traverses. Presently the flat-bill uttered his
plaintive wail, occasionally relieved by a note somewhat
less mournful. When the advancing light began to break
over the black and frowning peaks, and Venus waned,
the peadove from the neighbouring woods commenced
her fivefold coo, hollow and moaning. Then the petchary,
from the top of a tall cocoa-palm, cackled his three or
four rapid notes, " OP, PP, P, Q ; " and from a distant
wooded hill, as yet shrouded in darkness, proceeded the
rich, mellow, but broken song of the hopping-dick-thrush,
closely resembling that of our own blackbird. Now the
whole east was ruddy, and the rugged points and trees
on the summit of the mountain-ridge, interrupting the
flood of crimson light, produced the singularly beautiful
phenomenon of a series of rose-coloured beams, diverging

18 TIMES AND SEASONS.

from the eastern quarter, and spreading, like an expanded
fan, across the whole arch of heaven, each ray dilating as
it advanced. The harsh screams of the clucking-hen
came up from a gloomy gorge, and from the summit of
the mountain were faintly heard the lengthened flute-like
notes, in measured cadence, of the solitaire. Then mock-
ing-birds all around broke into song, pouring forth their
rich gushes and powerful bursts of melody, with a pro-
fusion that filled the ear, and overpowered all the other
varied voices, which were by this time too numerous to
be separately distinguished, but which all helped to swell
the morning concert of woodland music.

A traveller in the mountain-regions of Venezuela has
described in the following words his own experience of a
similar scene : —

" That morning's moonlight ride along the summits of
the Sierra of Las Cocuyzas, was certainly one of the most
enjoyable I ever remember. It was almost like magic,
when, as the sun began to approach the horizon, the per-
fect stillness of the forests beneath was gradually broken
by the occasional note of some early riser of the winged
tribe, till, at length, as the day itself began to break, the
whole forest seemed to be suddenly warmed into life, send-
ing forth choir after choir of gorgeous-plumaged songsters,
each after his own manner to swell the chorus of greeting
(a discordant one, I fear it must be owned) to the glorious
sun ; and when, as the increasing light enabled you to
see down into the misty valleys beneath, there were dis-

SUNEISE IN THE OTJEAL. 19

played to our enchanted gaze zones of fertility, embracing
almost every species of tree and flower that flourishes
between the Tierra Caliente and the regions of perpetual
snow. It certainly was a view of almost unequalled
magnificence. Riding amongst apple and peach-trees that
might have belonged to an English orchard, and on
whose branches we almost expected to see the blackbird
and the chaffinch ; while a few hundred yards below,
parrots and macaws, monkeys and mocking-birds, were
sporting among the palms and tree-ferns, and, in flights
of two or three hundred yards, chasing each other from
the climate of the torrid to that of the temperate zone,
was not the least striking part of the scene/' *

I cannot avoid quoting from Mr Atkinson a picture of
day-break, as seen across the plains of Siberia from one
of the peaks of the Oural ; though its details scarcely
bring it within the limits of natural history proper : —

" Day was rapidly dawning over these boundless
forests of Siberia. Long lines of pale yellow clouds
extended over the horizon ; these became more luminous
every few minutes, until at length they were like waves
of golden light rolling and breaking on some celestial
shore. I roused up my fellow-traveller that he might
partake with me in my admiration of the scene, and a
most splendid one it was. The sun was rising behind
some very distant hills, and tipping all the mountain-
tops with his glorious rays : even the dark pines assumed
* Sullivan's Rambles in North and South America, p. 395.

20 TIMES AND SEASONS.

a golden hue. We sat silently watching the beautifully
changing scene for an hour, until hill and valley were
lighted up/' *

Cowper has selected "The Winter Walk at Noon" for
one of the books of his charming " Task ; " and as nihil
quod tetigit non ornavit, so he has sketched a beautiful
picture : —

" Upon the southern side of the slant hills,
And where the woods fence off the northern blast,
The season smiles, resigning all its rage,
And has the warmth of May. The vault is blue,
Without a cloud, and white without a speck
The dazzling splendour of the scene below.

No noise is here, or none that hinders thought.
The redbreast warbles still, but is content
With slender notes, and more than half suppress'd :
Pleased with his solitude, and flitting light
From spray to spray, where'er he rests he shakes
From many a twig the pendant drops of ice,
That tinkle in the wither'd leaves below."

But how different from such a scene is a tropical noon
— a noon in Guiana, or Brazil, for example ! There, too,
an almost death-like quietude reigns, but it is a quietude
induced by the furnace-like heat of the vertical sun,
whose rays pour down with a direct fierceness, from
which there is no shadow except actually beneath some
thick tree, such as the mango, whose dense and dark
foliage affords an absolutely impenetrable umbrella in the
brightest glare. Such, too, is the smooth-barked manga-
beira, a tree of vast bulk, with a wide-spreading head of

* Atkinson's Siberia, p. 59.

NOON IN A BRAZILIAN FOREST. 21

dense foliage, beneath which, when the sun strikes merci-
lessly on every other spot, all is coolness and repose.
The birds are all silent, sitting with panting beaks in the
thickest foliage ; no tramp or voice of beast is heard, for
these are sleeping in their coverts. Ever and anon the
seed-capsule of some forest-tree bursts with a report like
that of a musket, and the scattered seeds are heard patter-
ing among the leaves, and then all relapses into silence
again. Great butterflies, with wings of refulgent azure,
almost too dazzling to look upon, flap lazily athwart the
glade, or alight on the glorious flowers. Little bright-
eyed lizards, clad in panoply that glitters in the sun,
creep about the parasites of the great trees, or rustle the
herbage, and start at the sounds themselves have made.
Hark ! There is the toll of a distant bell. Two or three
minutes pass, — another toll ! a like interval, then another
toll! Surely it is the passing bell of some convent,
announcing the departure of a soul. No such thing ; it
is the note of a bird. It is the campanero or bell-bird of
the Amazon, a gentle little creature, much like a snow-
white pigeon, with a sort of soft fleshy horn on its fore-
head, three inches high. This appendage is black,
clothed with a few scattered white feathers, and being
hollow and communicating with the palate, it can be
inflated at will. The solemn clear bell-note, uttered at
regular intervals by the bird, is believed to be connected
with this structure. Be this as it may, the silvery sound,
heard only in the depth of the forest, and scarcely ever
except at midday, when other voices are mute, falls upon

22 TIMES AND SEASONS.

the ear of the traveller with a thrilling and romantic
effect. The jealously recluse habits of the bird have
thrown an air of mystery over its economy, which
heightens the interest with which it is invested.

Before I speak of night, the most romantic of all sea-
sons to the naturalist, I must quote two descriptions of
sunset in regions rarely visited by English travellers. The
first scene was witnessed from that rugged mountain-chain
which divides two quarters of the globe. We have just
looked at the rising sun from the same peaks, gazing
across the plains of Asia: we are now called to look
over Europe.

" I now turned towards the west, and walked to a high
crag overlooking the valley; here I seated myself to
watch the great and fiery orb descend below the horizon ;
and a glorious sight it was ! Pavda, with its snowy cap,
was lighted up, and sparkled like a ruby ; the other
mountains were tinged with red, while in the deep
valleys all was gloom and mist. For a few minutes the
whole atmosphere appeared filled with powdered carmine,
giving a deep crimson tint to everything around. So
splendid was this effect, and so firm a hold had it taken
of my imagination, that I became insensible to the hun-
dreds of mosquitoes that were feasting on my blood.
Excepting their painfully disagreeable hum, no sound,
not even the chirping of a bird, was to be heard : it was
truly solitude.

" Soon after the sun went down, a white vapour began
to rise in the valleys to a considerable height, giving to

SUNSET IN SIBERIA. 23

the scene an appearance of innumerable lakes studded
with islands, as all the mountain-tops looked dark and
black. I was so riveted to the spot by the scene before
me, that I remained watching the changes until nearly
eleven o'clock, when that peculiar twilight seen in these
regions stole gently over mountain and forest. The effect
I cannot well describe — it appeared to partake largely of
the spiritual."1

The other sketch is by the same accomplished traveller,
drawn in a mountain region still more majestically grand
than the Oural, — the great Altaian chain of Central
Asia.

" In the afternoon I rode to the westward ten or
twelve versts, which afforded me a fine view of the
beautiful scenery on and beyond the Bouchtaima river.
The effect of this scene was magnificent ; as the sun was
sinking immediately behind one of the high conical
mountains, I beheld the great fiery orb descend nearly
over the centre of this mighty cone, presenting a singular
appearance. Presently its long deep shadow crept over
the lower hills, and soon extended far into the plain, till
at length the place on which I stood received its cold
gray tone. The mountains to the right and left were
still shining in his golden light ; the snowy peaks of the
Cholsoum appearing like frosted silver cut out against
the clear blue sky. Gradually the shades of evening
crept up the mountain-sides ; one bright spot after
another vanished, until at length all was in shadowy gray,

* Atkinson's Siberia, p 57-

24 TIMES AND SEASONS.

except the snowy peaks. As the sun sank lower, a pale
rose tint spread over their snowy mantles, deepening to a
light crimson, and then a darker tone when the highest
shone out, as sparkling as a ruby ; and at last, for only a
few minutes, it appeared like a crimson star/' *

We come back from scenes so gorgeous, to quiet, homely
England. How pleasant to the schoolboy, just infected
with the entomological mania, is an evening hour in June
devoted to " mothing ! " An hour before sunset he had
been seen mysteriously to leave home, carrying a cup
filled with a mixture of beer and treacle. With this he
had bent his steps to the edge of a wood, and with a
painter's brush had bedaubed the trunks of several large
trees, much to the bewilderment of the woodman and his
dog. Now the sun is going down like a glowing coal
behind the hill, and the youthful savant again seeks the
scene of his labours, armed with insect-net, pill-boxes,
and a bull's-eye lantern. He pauses in the high-hedged
lane, for the bats are evidently playing a successful game
here, and the tiny gray moths are fluttering in and out of
the hedge by scores. Watchfully now he holds the net ;
there is one whose hue betokens a prize. Dash ! — yes !
it is in the muslin bag; and, on holding it up against
the western sky, he sees he has got one of the most
beautiful of the small moths, — the "butterfly emerald/'
Yonder is a white form dancing backward and forward
with regular oscillation in the space of a yard, close over
the herbage. That must be the " ghost-moth/' surely ! — •
* Atkinson's Siberia, p. 221.

MOTH-HUNTING. 2f>

the very same ; and this is secured. Presently there comes
rushing down the lane, with headlong speed, one far larger
than the common set, and visible from afar by its white-
ness. Prepare ! Now strike ! This prize, too, is won —
the " swallow-tail moth," a cream-coloured species, the
noblest and most elegant of its tribe Britain can boast.

But now the west is fading to a ruddy brown, and the
stars are twinkling overhead. He forsakes the lane, and
with palpitating heart stands before one of the sugared
trees. The light of his lantern is flashed full on the
trunk ; there are at least a dozen flutterers playing
around the temptation, and two or three are comfortably
settled down and sucking away. Most of them are mean-
looking, gray affairs ; but stay ! what is this approaching,
with its ten patches of rosy white on its olive wings ?
The lovely "peach-blossom," certainly: and now a pill-
box is over it, and it is safely incarcerated. He moves
cautiously to another tree. That tiny little thing, sitting
so fearlessly, is the beautiful " yellow underwing," a sweet
little creature, and somewhat of a rarity ; this is secured.
And now comes a dazzling thing, the " burnished brass,"
its wings gleaming with metallic refulgence in the lamp-
light ; but (0 in fortunate puer /) a nimble bat is before-
hand with you, and snaps up the glittering prize before
your eyes, dropping the brilliant wings on the ground for
your especial tantalisation. Well, never mind ! the bat is
an entomologist, too, and he is out mothing as well as
you ; therefore allow him his chance. Here is the " copper
underwing," that seems so unsuspicious that nothing

23 TIMES AND SEASONS.

appears easier than to box it ; but, lo ! just when the tra^i
is over it, it glides slily to one side, and leaves you in the
lurch. But what is this moth of commanding size and
splendid beauty, its Mnd wings of the most glowing crim-
son, like a fiery coal, bordered with black ? Ha ! the
lovely " bride ! " If you can net her, you have a beauty.
A steady hand ! a sure eye ! Yes ! — fairly bagged ! And
now you may contentedly go home through the dewy
lanes, inhaling the perfume of the thorn and clematis,
watching the twinkle of the lowly glowworms, and
listening to the melody of the wakeful nightingales.

It is always interesting to compare with our own expe-
rience pictures of parallel scenes and seasons in other and
diverse lands, drawn by those who had an open eye for the
poetical and beautiful in nature, though not in all cases
strictly naturalists. Here is a night scene from the sum-
mit of the Niesen, a peak of the Central Alps, nearly 8000
feet above the sea level : —

" I would gladly give my reader an idea of the solemn
scenery of these elevated regions, during the calm hours
of a summer night. As to sounds they are but few ; at
least, when the air is still. The vicinity of man, pro-
ductive in general of anything but repose, has caused
almost profound silence to reign among these wilds,
where once the cautious tread of the bear rustled nightly
among the dry needles of the pine forest, and the howl of
the wolf re-echoed from the waste. As I stood upon an
elevated knoll wide of the chalet, through whose inter-
stices gleamed the fire over which my companions were

NIGHT IN JAMAICA. 2?

amusing themselves, my ear was struck from time to
time by an abrupt and indistinct sound from the upper
parts of the mountain ; probably caused by the crumbling
rock, or the fall of rubbish brought down by the cascades.
An equally dubious and sudden sound would occasionally
rise from the deep valley beneath ; but else nothing fell
upon the ear, but the monotonous murmur of the mountain
torrent working its way over stock and rock in the depth
of the ravine. The moon barely lighted up the wide
pastures sufficiently to distinguish their . extent or the
objects sprinkled upon them. Here and there a tall bark-
less pine stood conspicuously forward on the verge of the
dark belt of forest, with its bleached trunk and fantastic
branches glistening in the moonshine." *

I have noticed the peculiar silence of a mountain
summit by night in the tropics, and this far more absolute
and striking than that alluded to by Latrobe. I was
spending a night in a lonely house on one of the Liguanea
mountains in Jamaica, and was impressed with the very
peculiar stillness ; such a total absence of sounds as 1 had
never experienced before : no running water was near ;
there was not a breath of wind ; no bird or reptile moved ;
no insect hummed ; it was an oppressive stillness, as if
the silence could be felt.

But at lower levels in tropical countries night is not
characterised by silence. Strange and almost unearthly
sounds strike the ear of one benighted in the forests of
Jamaica. Some of these are the voices of nocturnal

* Latrobe's Alpenstock, p. 135.

28 TIMES AND SEASONS.

birds, the rapid articulations of the nightjars, the mono-
tonous hoot, or shriek, or wail of the owls, the loud
impatient screams of the Aramus. But besides these,
there are some which are produced by reptiles. The
gecko creeps stealthy and cat-like from his hollow tree, and
titters his harsh cackle ; and other lizards are believed to
add to the concert of squeaks and cries. And then there
come from the depth of the forest-glooms sounds like the
snoring of an oppressed sleeper, but louder; or like the
groaning and working of a ship's timbers in a heavy gale
at sea. These are produced by great tree-frogs, of uncouth
form, which love to reside in the sheathing leaves of para-
sitic plants, always half full of cool water. These reptiles
are rarely seen ; but the abundance and universality of the
sounds, in the lower mountain-woods, prove how nume-
rous they must be. Occasionally I have heard other
strange sounds, as, in particular, one lovely night in June,
when lodging at a little lone cottage on a mountain-
side, in the midst of the woods. About midnight, as I
sat at the open window, there came up from every part of
the moonlit forest below, with incessant pertinacity, a clear
shrill note, so like the voice of a bird, and specially so like
that of the solemn solitaire, that it might easily be mis-
taken for it, but for the inappropriate hour, and the
locality. Like that charming bird-voice, it was beauti-
fully trilled or shaken ; and like it, the individual voices
were not in the same key. Listening to the mingled
sounds, I could distinguish two particularly prominent,
which seemed to answer each other in quick but regular

TROPICAL NIGHT-SOUNDS. 29

alternation ; and between their notes, there was the differ-
ence of exactly a musical tone.

Darwin speaks of the nocturnal sounds at Rio Janeiro :
— " After the hotter days, it was delicious to sit quietly in
the garden, and watch the evening pass into night.
Nature, in these climes, chooses her vocalists from more
humble performers than in Europe. A small frog of the
genus Hyla \i. e., of the family Hyladce, the tree-frogs
already alluded to], sits on a blade of grass about an inch
above the surface of the water, and sends forth a pleasing
chirp ; when several are together, they sing in harmony

on different notes Various cicadse and crickets at

the same time keep up a ceaseless shrill cry, but which,
softened by the distance, is not unpleasant. Every even-
ing, after dark, this great concert commenced ; and often
have I sat listening to it, until my attention has been
drawn away by some curious passing insect/' *

Edwards, in his very interesting voyage up the Amazon,
heard one night a bell-like note, which he eagerly con-
cluded to be the voice of the famed bell-bird. But on
asking his Indian attendants what it was that was
" gritando," he was told that it was a toad, — " everything
that sings by night is a toad ! "

I doubt much whether the voice first referred to in the
following extract ought not to be referred to the same
reptilian agency: —

" During our ride home, [in Tobago,] I was startled by
hearing what I fully imagined was the whistle of a steam-

* Naturalist's Voyage, (ed. 1852,) p. 29.

30 TIMES AND SEASONS.

engine ; but I was informed it was a noise caused by a
beetle that is peculiar to Tobago. It is nearly the size
of a man's hand, and fixing itself against a tree, it com-
mences a kind of drumming noise, which gradually
quickens to a whistle, and at length increases in shrillness
and intensity, till it almost equals a railroad-whistle. It
was so loud that, when standing full twenty yards from
the tree where it was in operation, the sound was so
shrill, that you had to raise your voice considerably to
address your neighbour. The entomological productions
of the tropics struck me as being quite as astonishing in
size and nature as the botanical or zoological wonders.
There is another beetle, called the razor-grinder, that
imitates the sound of a knife-grinding machine so exactly,
that it is impossible to divest one's self of the belief that
one is in reality listening to some ' needy knife-grinder/
who has wandered out to the tropical wilds on spec." '

This latter was pretty certainly not a beetle proper, but
a Cicada,"^ an insect of another order ; remarkable for
its musical powers, even from the times of classical an-
tiquity. These are doubtless sexual sounds ; the sere-
nades of the wooing cavaliers, who, as Mr Kirby humor-
ously says, —

"Formosam resonare decent Amaryllida sylvas."

A friend who has resided in Burmah informs me that

* Sullivan's Rambles in North and South America, p. 307.
f Dr Hancock has made out the "razor-grinder" of Surinam to be
the Cicada dariwna,.

NIGHT- VOICES IN GUIANA. 31

there at midnight the stranger is often startled by the
loud voice of a species of gecko, which is frequently
found in the houses. Its cry is exceedingly singular, and
resembles the word " tooktay," pronounced clearly and dis-
tinctly as if spoken by a human tongue. It is a source
of much alarm to the natives of India who accompany
Europeans to that country ; as they believe that the bite
of the little lizard is invariably fatal.

None of these sounds can compare in terrible effect
with the deafening howls that penetrate the forests of
Guiana after night has fallen, — the extraordinary vocal
performances of the alouattes or howling-monkeys. They
go in troops, and utter their piercing cries, which Hum-
boldt affirms can be heard in a clear atmosphere at the
distance of two miles, in a strange concord, which seems
the result of discipline, and incomparably augments the
effect. The same traveller informs us that occasionally
the voices of othei animals are added to the concert ; the
roarings of the jaguar and puma, and the shrill cries
of alarmed birds. "It is not always in a fine moon-
light, but more particularly at the time of storms and
violent showers, that this tumult among the wild beasts
occurs."

I linger on these tropical pictures, where nature ap-
pears under aspects so different from those of our clime.
Here is another on the Amazon : — " No clouds obscured
the sky, and the millions of starry lights, that in this
clime render the moon's absence of little consequence,
were shining upon us in their calm, still beauty. The

32 TIMES AND SEASONS.

stream where we were anchored was narrow ; tall trees
drooped over the water, or mangroves shot out their long
finger-like branches into the mud below. Huge bats
were skimming past ; night-birds were calling in strange
voices from the tree-tops ; fire-flies darted their mimic
lightnings ; fishes leaped above the surface, flashing in the
starlight ; the deep, sonorous baying of frogs came up from
distant marshes ; and loud plashings inshore suggested all
sorts of nocturnal monsters/'*

Yet another, by the same pleasant writer, on the banks
of the same mighty river : — " The flowers that bloomed
by day have closed their petals, and, nestled in their leafy
beds, are dreaming of their loves. A sister host now take
their place, making the breezes to intoxicate with per-
fume, and exacting homage from bright, starry eyes. A
murmur, as of gentle voices, floats upon the air. The
moon darts down her glittering rays, till the flower-
enamelled plain glistens like a shield; but in vain she
strives to penetrate the denseness, except some fallen tree
betrays a passage. Below, the tall tree-trunk rises dimly
through the darkness. Huge moths, those fairest of the
insect world, have taken the places of the butterflies, and
myriads of fire-flies never weary in their torchlight dance.
Far down the road comes on a blaze, steady, streaming
like a meteor. It whizzes past, and for an instant the
space is illumined, and dewy jewels from the leaves throw
back the radiance. It is. the lantern-fly, seeking what he
himself knows best, by the fiery guide upon his head.

* Edwards's Voyage up the Amazon, p. 27.

NIGHT IN AFRICA. 33

The air of the night-bird's wing fans your cheek, or you
are startled by his mournful note, ' wac-o-row, wac-o-row/
sounding dolefully — by no means so pleasantly as our
whip-poor-will. The armadillo creeps carelessly from his
hole, and, at slow place, makes for his feeding ground ;
the opossum climbs stealthily up the tree, and the little
ant-eater is out pitilessly marauding."*

Dr Livingstone has sketched the following pleasing
picture of a midnight in the very heart of Africa ; but
romantic as the region is, it lacks the gorgeousiiess of
the South American forest : —

"We were close to the reeds, and could listen to the
strange sounds which we often heard there. By day I
had seen water-snakes putting up their heads and swim-
ming about. There were great numbers of others, which
had made little spoors all over the plains in search of the
fishes, among the tall grass of these flooded prairies ;
curious birds, too, jerked and wriggled among these reedy
masses, and we heard human-like voices and unearthly
sounds, with splash, guggle, jupp, as if rare fun were
going on in their uncouth haunts. At one time, some-
thing came near us, making a splashing like that of a
canoe or hippopotamus : thinking it to be the Makololo,
we got up, listened, and shouted ; then discharged a gun
several times, but the noise continued without intermission
for an hour."-|-

If the sounds of night possess a romantic interest for.

* Edwards's Voyage up the Amazon, p. 30.
•(• Livingstone's Africa, p. 107.
C

3,4 TIMES AND SEASONS.

the naturalist, so do those animal flames with which it is
illuminated, —

" Stars of the earth, and diamonds of the night."

Mr Kirby, the jnost accomplished of entomologists,
speaks in rapturous terms of our own homely little glow-
worm. " If," says he, " living, like me, in a district where
it is rarely met with, the first time you saw this insect
chanced to be, as it was in my case, one of those delight-
ful evenings which an English summer seldom yields,
when not a breeze disturbs the balmy air, and ' every
sense is joy,' and hundreds of these radiant worms, stud-
ding their mossy couch with wild effulgence, were pre-
sented to your wondering eye in the course of a quarter
of a mile,— you could not help associating with the name
of glow-worm the most pleasing recollections." *

It is, however, in America that these " diamonds of the
night" are observed to advantage. In Canada I have
seen the whole air, for a few yards above the surface of a
large field, completely filled with fire-flies on the wing,
thicker than stars on a winter's night. The light is
redder, more candle-like, than that of our glow-worm, and,
being in each individual alternately emitted and concealed,
and each of the million tiny flames performing its part in
mazy aerial dance, the spectacle was singularly beautiful.

A sight in every respect similar, though doubtless de-
pendent on a different species, occurred to me in ascend-
ing the river Alabama from the Gulf of Mexico. As the
steamer passed booming along under the shadow of night,

* introduction to Entomology. Letter xxv.

FIRE-FLIES. 35

the broad belt of reeds which margined the river was
thronged with myriads of dancing gleams, and the air was
filled with what looked like thousands of shooting stars.

Beautiful, however, as these spectacles were, I had not
known what insects could effect in the way of illumi-
nation till I visited Jamaica. There, in the gorgeous
night of a tropical forest, I saw them in their glory. In
the glades and dells that open here and there from a
winding mountain-road cut through the tall woods, I have
delighted to linger and see the magnificent gloom lighted
up by multitudes of fire-flies of various species, peculiari-
ties in whose luminosity — of colour, intensity, and inter-
mittence — enabled me to distinguish each from others. I
delighted to watch and study their habits in these lonely
spots, while the strange sounds, snorings, screeches, and
ringings of nocturnal reptiles and insects, already de-
scribed, were coming up from every part of the deep forest
around, imparting to the scene a character which seemed
as if it would suit the weird hunter of German fable.

There are two kinds in particular, of larger size than
usual, which are very conspicuous. One of these * is
more vagrant than the other, shooting about with a
headlong flight, and rarely observed in repose. Its light
appears of a rich orange hue when seen abroad ; but it
frequently flies in at open windows, and, when examined
under candle-light, its luminosity is yellow : when held
in the fingers, the light is seen to fill the hinder part of
the body with dazzling effulgence, which intermits its

* Pyyolampis xantliophotis.

36 TIMES AND SEASONS.

intensity. The other* is more commonly noticed rest-
ing on a twig or leaf, where it gradually increases the
intensity of its light till it glows like a torch; then as
gradually, it allows it to fade to a spark, and become ex-
tinct ; in about a minute, however, it begins to appear
again, and gradually increases to its former blaze ; then
fades again : strongly reminding the beholder of a revolv-
ing light at sea. The hue of this is a rich yellow-green ;
and sometimes a rover of the former species will arrest
its course, and, approaching one of these on a leaf, will
play around it, when the intermingling of the orange and
green lights has a most charming effect.

In the lowland pastures of the same beauteous island,
there is another insect •(• abundant, of much larger dimen-
sions, which displays both red and green light. On the
upper surface of the thorax, there are two oval tubercles,
hard and transparent, like " bull's-eye " lights let into a
ship's deck ; these are windows out of which shines a
vivid green luminousness, which appears to fill the interior
of the chest. Then on the under surface of the body, at
the base of the abdomen, there is a transverse orifice in
the shelly skin, covered with a delicate membrane, which
glows with a strong ruddy light, visible, however, only
when the wing-cases are expanded. During the dark
nights it is most interesting to mark these large beetles
flying along over the herbage at the edges of the woods
and in the pastures : the red glare, like that of a lamp,
alternately flashing upon the beholder and concealed,

* Photaris i'ci\icolor.

FIEE-FLIES. 37

according as the insect turns its body in flight, but the
ruddy reflection on the grass beneath being constantly
visible, as the animal leisurely pursues its course. Now
and then the green light from the upper "bull's-eye,"
which seems to be under the insect's control, is displayed,
and then again the mingling of the two complementary
colours, red and green, in the evolutions of flight, is in-
describably beautiful.

I have gazed upon these changing lights, flitting here
and there in the openings of the dense forest, during the
stillness of the night, till I could scarcely divest myself of
the persuasion that human intelligence and human will
were concerned in their production. Thoughts of the
once happy Indians, that enjoyed a simple life in these
charming glades before Columbus discovered their re-
treats, would then crowd up ; and it required but little
imagination to fancy myself surrounded by hundreds of
the aborigines, holding their revels under the coolness of
the night-season, as of old.

II.

HARMONIES.

MODERN science has shewn that animals and plants arc
not scattered promiscuously over the world, but placed
in spheres according to well-defined laws. A few kinds
seem, indeed, cosmopolitan, but the great majority have
a limited range, each inhabiting its own region, and each,
in very many cases, replaced in other similar regions by
species more or less closely allied and yet distinct. And
more than this ; that there are predominant forms of life
in every region, so entirely governing the physiognomy of
the landscape, that an accomplished naturalist, on being
suddenly set down in any part of the earth's surface,
would instantly tell in what region he was, by an examina-
tion of a few plants or animals.

The statistics on which this science of the geogra-
phical distribution of life is built up do not come
within my present scope, which is to present the poetic
side of nature ; but there is a collateral aspect of the
same truths worthy of consideration, namely, the har-
mony which subsists between all the parts of a natural-
history picture. If we look with interest on the lion, the
jaguar, the zebra, the python, at the Zoological Gardens,
or the palms, and bananas, and bamboos in the con-

ARIEL GAZELLE. 39

servatories at Kew ; how vastly more interesting would
it be to behold each in its own home ; surrounded by all
the accessories of surface-form, of atmospheric pheno-
mena, of vegetation, of animal life, which properly belong
to it, and without which it is merely an isolated object.
Let us select a few examples.

To see the ariel gazelle, accompany a troop of Bedouin
Arabs across the great Syrian desert. Grand and awe-
inspiring in its boundless immensity, unearthly and ocean-
like, the eye shrinks from contemplating the empty, cheer-
less solitude, and vainly wanders round for some object
which may relieve the sense of utter loneliness and desola-
tion. Across the plain, far away towards the west, where
the fiery glow of the setting sun brings out their forms
in dark relief, a long interrupted line of columns is seen
stretching away below the horizon ; while, as the troop
approaches, prostrate heaps of ruins appear, groups of
broken shafts and bases of columns, huge platforms of
stone, and fallen capitals, while nere and there a solitary
monumental pillar rears itself above the rest in solemn
majesty. At the end of the sandy plain, the eye at
length rests upon the lofty colonnades of the Temple of
the Sun, encompassed by a dark elevated mass of ruined
buildings; but beyond, all around, right and left, as far
as the eye can reach, extends the vast level naked flat of
the great Desert, over which the eye runs in every direc-
tion, exploring the boundless horizon, without discovering
a human being, or a vestige that tells of existing human
life. Naked, solitary, unlimited space extends around,

40 HARMONIES.

where man never enjoys the refreshment of a shadow, or
rests his limbs under cover of a dwelling. There is a
deep blue aerial haze spread over the surface, but the dis-
tant horizon is nevertheless clear and sharply denned :
not an eminence rises to break the monotonous flat, higher
than the slight hillocks of sand sprinkled with a withered
herbage, which are undiscerned except in their immediate
proximity, while along the edge extends a large district
covered with salt, distinguished from the rest by its
peculiar colour.

Suddenly a herd of gazelles is seen playfully bounding
over the sandy mounds, and displaying their elegant
forms, and striking though simple colours, and the in-
imitable grace and beauty of all their actions. The
Bedouins seize their lances, the travellers draw their
pistols, and, distributing themselves into a wide circle,
endeavour to encompass the herd. They seem heedless
and unconscious for a time, and then, as the intruders
approach, they hold up their beautiful heads, toss their
curved and taper horns, and trot up into a closer group.
Then, seeing their enemies spurring their steeds from
behind the sandy hillocks all round them, they suddenly
shoot away with the rapidity of the wind, easily dash
through the loosely-formed circle, and, though lances are
cast, and pistol-shots resound, unharmed they quickly
distance the fleetest of their pursuers ; turn and gaze, as
if in mingled curiosity and contempt, and then away
again, bounding over the tawny sand with an agility that
seems rather that of flight than of running.

HYENA. 4Y

Or would you see the hyena, where he feels most at
home, surrounded by scenes and circumstances most con-
genial to his habits? Then plod your weary way still
further across the sands, and pause not till you encamp
amid the gorgeous remains of that ancient City of ilie
Wilderness,

" Whose temples, palaces, — a wondrous dream,
That passes not away, — for many a league
Illumine yet the desert."

There sit down alone amid the ruined fanes lighted up
by the setting sun, and watch the approach of night, just
at the breaking up of the long dry season. Everywhere
around are the remains of the glorious city; walls, and
gateways, and columns of polished granite of rosy hue, or
of marble that gleams like snow in the bright moonlight ;
many standing in their desolateness, but many more
prostrate and half-buried in the drifted sand. Some of
the pillars are but dimly seen in the gloomy shadow of
the lofty walls, others stand out boldly and brightly in
the soft moonbeams, while here and there a brilliant
gleam slants down through the windows of a ruined
edifice, and illumines the deep and delicate sculpture of
a fallen capital, or spreads over a heap of disjointed
stones. Under yon dark and gloomy portal the eye
wanders over distant funereal towers crowning the emi-
nences, the noble gateway of the grand avenue, and lines
of columns gradually lost in the distance.

But while you gaze, there is a change. The breeze,
which had lifted the sand in playful eddies, drops to per-

42 HARMONIES.

feet calmness. Black clouds are collecting over the
mountain range that forms the distant horizon. The
moon is obscured, and the whole heaven becomes black
with tempest. A hurricane suddenly sweeps through the
ruined palaces, and fills the whole air with a dense fog of
blinding sand. Then a flash of forked lightning shoots
between the columns, illuminating them for an instant,
and is instantaneously followed by a bursting crash of
thunder, which makes the tottering fanes tremble, and
huge drops of warm rain, like blood- drops, are spattering
the stones. The rain now comes down in one universal
deluge, flooding the floors, and pouring off from the old
marble platforms in cataracts. Flash follows flash in
one continuous blaze of blinding light, bringing out the
grim marble towers and pillars against the black clouds
of midnight with an awfully sublime distinctness ; and
crash after crash, and peal after peal of thunder are
blending into one uninterrupted roll.

But amidst the deep roar rises from the gaunt heaps
of stone an unearthly sound, like the laugh of a
demon. Again, the cackling mirth echoes along the
ruined halls, as if exulting in the wild war of the ele-
ments, and in the desolation around. Lo ! from out of
yon low arch, in the Placu of Tombs, gleam two fiery eyes,
and forth stalks into the lightning the fell hyena. With
bristling mane and grinning teeth, the obscene monster
glares at you, and warns you to secure a timely retreat.
Another appears, bearing in its jaws a loathsome human
skull, which it has found in the caravan track. You

SIBERIAN SCENERY. 43

shudder as you hear the bones crack and grind between
the powerful teeth, and gladly shrink away from the
repulsive vicinity.

The home of the great Siberian stag is aniong the most
magnificent scenery in the world. Search for him
amidst the bold precipices of the Altaian chain, where
enormous mountains of primeval formation are split and
cleft into the wildest ravines, and where cascades fall in
snowy foam down the terrible gorges bounded by sheer
cliffs that almost meet far overhead, and shut out the light
of heaven. Here is a little dell, embosomed in the moun-
tains, as full of flowers as an English garden, — irises and
columbines, primroses and peonies, of many rich hues
and of kinds unfamiliar to us, and of a luxuriant growth
which reaches up to a man's shoulders ; — then a tiny
basin of clear water, intensely black from its unruffled
stillness and its fathomless depth. Now the traveller
crosses a sharp ridge, crowned with colossal needles of
naked granite, where the furious gale, shrieking and howl-
ing through the crevices, threatens to hurl horse and
man a thousand fathoms down ; — then he passes into a
forest where not a breath waves the tops of the ancient
cedars.

It is a region where animal life is not very abundant,
but where the framework of the solid earth itself stands
revealed in unrivalled gorgeousness. The cliffs are here
of crimson or purple porphyry, as brilliant as the dyed
products of the loom, there of dark-red granite seamed
with thick veins of pure rose-coloured quarfz, transparent

44 HARMONIES.

as glass. Here a vast, uncouth column of black basalt
rears its fused cylinders from the midst of a narrow
ravine ; and here a vast precipice appears of white marble,
as pure as that ofLParos. Rocks of all hues, bright red,
purple, yellow, green ; of all combinations of colours,
white with purple spots, white with blue veins, brown
with pale green streaks, pale crimson with veins of black
and ' yellow, are scattered about in unheeded confusion ;
while, above all, the rich and splendid jasper rises in
enormous masses, as if it were the vilest rock, yet glitter-
ing in gorgeous beauty, — mountains of gems. Here is
one of a dark sea-green, with cream-coloured veins ; there
a mass of deep violet ; and here a ribbon-stripe, marked
irregularly with alternate bands of red, brown, and green ;
and yonder is a huge heap of shattered blocks of the
richest plum-purple, transmitting the light in sparkling
lustre through their translucent substance, as they lie
where they have been tumbled down from their beds by
the force of the torrent, and presenting the most agree-
able contrasts between their own deep, rich, imperial hue,
and that of the yellow-green moss that springs in cushion-
like tufts from their angles and crevices.

You pursue the little mountain stream, through the
thick mass of tangled cedars and fallen rocks, slippery
and treacherous to the unwary foot, wading from stone
to stone through many a narrow gorge, till there bursts
before you a beautiful cascade, that comes bounding down
in three leaps from a height of sixty feet. The water is
white and sparkling as it plunges over the purple preci-

SIBEKIAN STAO. 45

pine ; the lowest fall spreading out like a fan of thin
gauze, hanging over the rocky wall, and screening the
black cavern behind.

With difficulty you climb through a ravine to the top
of the waterfall, and follow the stream for a few hun-
dred yards higher, till you find its origin in a little moun-
tain tarn, deeply embosomed amidst perpendicular walls
of rock, with no opening or outlet except the narrow cleft
by which the tiny stream escapes. How beautiful is the
little quiet lake, clear as crystal, but of great depth, and
hence of a deep green hue, receiving and absorbing the
sun's rays in its profundity, like a floor of polished beryl !
And there on the opposite precipice, gazing down into
the distant water, stand in antlered majesty three noble
stags. Magnificent creatures ! here they are at home,
dwelling amidst this grandeur, the very presiding genii
loci*

We are familiar, by report, with that great bird of
mighty wing, the lammergeyer or bearded eagle, whose
red eye is a fair index of its cruel ferocity, that preys not
only on birds and quadrupeds, but even on children. We
commonly associate this proud and savage bird with the
crags of the Alps, but it is spread over the whole central
line of Europe and Asia, wherever lofty and rugged
mountain-chains arise. Mr Atkinson speaks of having
shot one in a scene which for savage grandeur surpasses
anything in the Alps. It was among the Alatou moun-

* Every feature in this picture is in Atkinson's Siberia ; in the
grouping only have I taken any liberty.

46 HAEMOME8.

tains in Chinese Tartary, where the river Cora breaks out
grandly into the plain, emerging from a rent in the lofty
mountain-chain, where the rocks rise several thousand
feet. " As I determined," says this intrepid traveller, " to
explore this mighty gorge, and sketch the scenery, our
horses were left at the mouth of the chasm, it being im-
possible to ride up the gorge ; and track there was none.
We had to climb over huge masses of rock ; some we
were obliged to creep under, they being much too high
to climb over: in other places, bushes and plants were
growing in tropical luxuriance. A scramble of five hours
brought me to a point I could not pass ; here the rocks
rose quite perpendicularly from the boiling flood, making
ascent to the summit impossible. Nor can this be ac-
complished either in spring or summer ; while in winter
the chasm is so deep in snow — there being no aoul
[hamlet] within several hundred versts — that it would be
madness to attempt it at that time ; thus these grand and
wild scenes are closed to man, and the tiger remains un-
disturbed in his lair, the bear in his den, and the maral
and wild deer range the wooded parts unmolested. A
very large bearded eagle was found amongst these crags,
which I shot. After making several sketches, I returned
to the horses, and ascended towards the great plateau be-
tween the mountains, where I arrived in the evening, tired
and hungry. The dark clouds which had obscured the
mountains cleared off, and gave me a most splendid view
of the Actou, which runs up towards the Ilia ; the snowy
peaks shining like rubies in the setting sun, while all

BEARDED EAGLE. 47

slow them was blue and purple, with the shades of even-
ing creeping over the lower range. In the foreground
was my yourt [hut], with the Kirghis cooking the sheep
in a large cauldron, while the camels and horses were lying
and standing around. Tired as I was, I could not resist
sketching the scene, which will ever be impressed upon
my memory, as well as the splendid sunset over the
Steppe." *

The describer, it must be remembered, is an artist in
search of the picturesque. His eye was mainly on the
scenery ; but surely the kingly eagle, seated in lone
majesty on that craggy throne of his, and surveying with
haughty eye his superb domain, was a very grand element
in the picture.

Again ; let us look at Darwin and Captain Fitzroy
threading their perilous way from the Atlantic to the
Pacific through the Beagle Channel. It is a straight
passage, not more than two miles wide, but a hundred
and twenty miles long, bounded on each side by moun-
tains rising in unbroken sweep from the water's edge,
and terminating in sharp and jagged points three thou-
sand feet high. The mountain-sides for half their height
are clothed with a dense forest, almost wholly composed
of a single kind of tree, the sombre-leafed southern
beech. The upper line of this forest is well defined, and
perfectly horizontal ; below, the drooping twigs actually
dip into the sea. Above the forest line the crags are
covered by a glittering mantle of perpetual snow, and
* Siberia, p. 574.

48 HARMONIES.

cascades are pouring their foaming waters through the
woods into the Channel below. In some places magnifi-
cent glaciers extend from the mountain-side to the water s
edge. " It is scarcely possible to imagine anything more
beautiful than the beryl-like blue of these glaciers, and
especially as contrasted with the dead-white of the upper
expanse of snow/' Heavy and sudden squalls come down
from the ravines, raising the sea, and covering it with
foam, like a dark plain studded with patches of drifted
snow, which the furious wind is ever lifting in sheets of
driving spray. The albatross with its wide-spread wings
comes careering up the Channel against the wind, and
screams as if it were the spirit of the storm. The surf
breaks fearfully against the narrow shores, and mounts to
an immense height against the rocks. Yonder is a pro-
montory of blue ice, the sheer end of a glacier ; the wind
and sea are telling upon it, and now dowrn plunges a huge
mass, which breaking into fragments, bespreads the angry
sea with mimic icebergs.

In the midst of this war of the elements, appear a pair
of sperm-whales. They swim within stone's-cast of the
shore, spouting at intervals, and jumping in their un-
wieldy mirth clean out of the waters, falling back on their
huge sides, and splashing the sea high on every hand,
with a sound like the reverberation of a distant broad-
side.* How appropriate a place for these giants of the
deep to appear ! and how immensely must their presence
have enhanced the wild grandeur of that romantic scene !

* Darwin's Voyage, chap. x.

HOME OF THE GUANACO. 49

We turn from this inhospitable strait to a region if
possible even more forbidding, more stern, more grandly
awful ; one of the passes of the mighty Andes, the Cor-
dilleras of Peru.

" We now came," says a traveller, " to the Jaula, or
Cage, from which the pass takes its name, where we took
up our quarters for the night, under the lee of a solid
mass of granite upwards of thirty feet square, with the
clear, beautiful heavens for our canopy. Well may this
place be called a cage. To give a just idea of it would be
next to impossible, for I do not think a more wild or
grander scene in nature could possibly exist ; neverthe-
less I shall attempt a description. The foaming river,
branching off into different channels formed by huge
masses of granite lying in its course, ran between two
gigantic mountains of about one thousand five hundred
feet high, and not more than two hundred yards distant
from each other ; so that to look up at the summits of
either, we had to lay our heads completely back on our
shoulders. Behind us, these tremendous mountains met
in a point, round which we had just passed, but now
appeared as one mountain, closing our view in a distance
of not more than four or five hundred yards ; before was
the mighty Cordillera, a mass of snow, appearing to block
up further progress. Thus were we completely shut up
in a den of mighty mountains; to look up either way —
before, behind, right, or left — excited astonishment, awe,
and admiration. Huge masses of granite, that had fallen
from the awful heights above, lay scattered about, and

50 HARMONIES.

formed our various shelters for the night. The torrent,
which now had become very formidable, rushed down
with fury, bounding and leaping over the rugged rocks
which lay in its course, keeping up a continued foam and
roar close to our wild resting-place. The mules were
straying about picking up the scanty shrubs ; and our
wild, uncouth-looking peons were assembled round a fire
under the lee of a large rock, which altogether rendered
it a scene most truly wild and surprising."4

Can animal life habitually exist in these awful soli-
tudes? Is it possible that any creature can make its
home amidst this waste of stark granite and everlasting
ice ? Yes ; the guanaco, or Peruvian camel, delights to
dwell here, and is as truly characteristic of the region as
the Arabian camel is of the sandy desert. It snuffs the
thin air in its wild freedom, and specially delights in
those loftier ridges which the Peruvians term punas,
where the elements appear to have concentrated all their
sternness. It was the sudden appearance of a guanaco,
on a lofty peak above the party, that gave occasion to the
above description. The peons, with their dogs, had pur-
sued it, and having overtaken it, had dragged down the
carcase, and were now roasting its flesh over their camp-fire.

The wild reindeer, in his native snows, is seldom visited
by civilised man ; and it is a thing to be remembered
during life to have seen him there. Climb the precipices
of that rugged mountain-chain that forms the backbone
of Norway ; cross plain after plain, each more dreary than

* Brand's Twvcl* in Peru, p. 102.

NOKWEGIAN SNOW-FJELD. 51

Ie last, as you reach a higher and a yet higher elevation,
1 you stand, in the sharp and thin air, catching your
breath on the edge of the loftiest, the wildest, and most
barren of those snowy fjelds. The highest hut you have
left far below. You will spend the day and the night,
(such night as an unsetting sun allows,) too, in traversing
its lonely waste, and you will see neither habitation nor
human being, nor trace of human works ; no tree, nor
shrub, nor heath, nor even earth ; nothing but hard, bare
barren, lichen-clad rocks, or enormous fields and patches
of snow. Here and there a little reindeer-moss fills the
crevices of the shattered rocks, and this is all the verdure
of this wilderness of rocks and snow. You must plunge
through the soft snow above your knees for many a weary
mile ; this is very fatiguing : at other times, through bogs
of moss and melted snow ; and then, perhaps, through a
wide torrent, whose waters reach to your middle. Now
you have to cross a ridge of sharp rock, which stands like
an island out of the snow, the sharp edges of the granite
cutting into the leather of your shoes, now completely
soft and sodden with the melted snow. Now you have
to descend a steep snow-mountain ; this is very difficult,
and not without considerable danger if you are unaccus-
tomed to it. As every one may not know what the de-
scent of a Norwegian snow-mountain is, it may be well
to explain it. Imagine a very steep mountain covered
with deep, never-melting snow, perhaps five or six hun-
dred feet in height, the side presenting a bank of snow as
steep as the roof of a house. To try whether the descent

52 HARMONIES.

is practicable, the guide places a large stone at the top,
gives it a gentle push, and watches its progress. If the
snow is soft enough to impede its pace, and allow it to
form a furrow for itself and glide gradually down, the
descent is pronounced feasible ; if, on the contrary, the
snow is not soft enough for this, but the stone descends
in successive bounds, it is pronounced too dangerous to
attempt. It is quite wonderful to see the rapidity and
ease with which the guide will shoot down these snow-
mountains, like an arrow from a bow. Placing both feet
together, with nothing in his hands to steady him, but
bearing your heavy provision-box and blankets at his
back, down he goes, his pace accelerating every second
till he reaches the bottom, and enveloped all the way
down in a wreath of snow, which he casts off on both
sides of his feet and legs as if it had been turned up by
a plough, and marking his track by a deep furrow. You
follow much more slowly, holding the barrel of your gun
across you, while the butt end is plunged deep into the
snow to steady you, and to slacken your pace. If you
lean forward too much, you are in danger of going down
head over heels ; if you lean back too much, your feet
will slip from under you, and the same result will inevi-
tably follow, and you will have a roll of, perhaps, some
hundred feet, without a chance of stopping till you reach
the bottom ; by no means pleasant even on snow, and
especially when the snow-hill ends (as is not unfrequently
the case) in a rocky precipice, to roll over which must be
certain death.

REINDEER. 53

Suddenly, rounding a rocky cliff, the guide makes a
quick movement with his hand, and whispers the single
word "reins!" pointing as he crouches down to three
black specks on the white mountain-side full two miles
off. Now all is excitement. The telescope distinctly
makes them out, — an old buck above, as guard and
watcher, a doe and her calf a little lower down. What
caution now is necessary in stalking the noble game !
There is a broad valley to cross full in their view ; you
must creep low, and in line, concealing your rifles, lest the
flashing of the sun on the barrels betray you, and not
speaking except in the gentlest whisper. The valley is
securely crossed ; there is a brawling torrent to be waded,
and you will be among the rocks.

Has the buck winded you ? He springs to his feet,
shakes his spreading antlers, and sniffs the air, then walks
leisurely up the hill-side, followed by his family, and all
disappear over the rocky ridge.

Now is the time for speed ! Up, up the hill, scramble
under, over, through the great loose fragments, but noise-
lessly, silently, for the game are probably not far off.
Now you are at the rock over which you saw them go.
The guide peeps cautiously over, and beckons. You. too,
peep, and there they are, all unsuspecting, a hundred yards
off. The old guide now lies down on the snow, and
wriggles along from rock to rock to get round, whence he
may drive them toward you. The deer are still busy
munching the moss, which they scrape from beneath the
snow.

54 HAEMONIES.

A few minutes of breathless excitement. The hunter
shews himself on yonder peak. The noble buck trots
majestically towards you, his head thrown up, and his
fine horns spreading far on each side of his back. He
stops — sniffs — starts ; but too late ! the rifle -ball has
sped, and his hoofs are kicking up the blood-stained
snow in dying convulsions.*

In our homely sheep, it must be confessed, the utili-
tarian element prevails over the poetic ; but wi;h the
burrell, or wild sheep, of the Himalaya Peaks, the case is
far otherwise. Twice the size of an English ram, with
horns of such vastness, that into the cavity of those which
lie bleaching on the frozen rocks, the fox sometimes creeps
for shelter, -f- dwelling in the most inaccessible regions,
the snow-covered ranges of the loftiest mountains in the
world, or the mighty spurs that jut out from them, shy
and jealous of the approach of man, whom it discerns at
an immense distance, — the burrell is considered as the
first of Himalayan game animals, and the killing of it the
ne plus ultra of Himalayan shooting.

How grand are the regions in which it dwells ! An en-
thusiastic and successful sportsman furnishes us with the
following vivid picture of the wild sheep and its home : —

"We started early to reach the source of the mighty
Ganges. The opposite bank being the best ground for
burrell, we were in great hopes that we might find suffi-
' ient snow left to enable us to cross the river; but the

* See "Notes on Norway," by A. C. Smith, in the Zoologist for 1851.
f- Hooker, Himal. Jour., i. p. 243

GLACIER OF THE GANGES. 55

snow that at times bridges over the stream was gone.
The walking was bad, for in all the small tributary streams
were stones and rocks incrusted with ice, which made
them very difficult to cross. On the opposite side we saw
immense flocks of burrell, but there was no getting at
them.

" At last, the great glacier of the Ganges was reached,
and never can I forget my first impressions when I beheld
it before me in all its savage grandeur. The glacier,
thickly studded with enormous loose rocks and earth, is
about a mile in width, and extends upwards many miles,
towards an immense mountain, covered with perpetual
snow down to its base, and its glittering summit piercing
the very skies, rising 21,000 feet above the level of the
sea. The chasm in the glacier, through which the sacred
stream rushes forth into the light of day, is named the
Cow's Mouth, and is held in the deepest reverence by all the
Hindoos ; and the regions of eternal frost in its vicinity
are the scenes of many of their most sacred mysteries.
The Ganges enters the world no puny stream, but bursts
forth from its icy womb, a river thirty or forty yards in
breadth, of great depth and very rapid. A burrell was
killed by a lucky shot across the river just at the mouth ;
it fell backwards into the torrent, and was no more seen.
Extensive as my travels since this day have been through
these beautiful mountains, and amidst all the splendid
scenery I have looked on, I can recall none so strikingly
magnificent as the glacier of the Ganges." *

* Markham, Shooting in the Ifimal., p. 57.

56 HARMONIES.

Again ; if we wish to see the vastest of terrestrial
animals, it is not within the bars of a travelling menagerie
that we should look for him, nor in the barbaric pomp or
domestic bondage of India, but in the noble forest-glens
of Africa.

Mr Pringle has drawn a graphic sketch of such a valley,
two or three miles in length, surrounded by a wild and
bewildering region, broken into innumerable ravines, in-
cumbered with rocks, precipices, and impenetrable woods
and jungles, among lofty and sterile mountains. The valley
itself is a beautiful scene ; it suddenly bursts on the view
of the traveller as he emerges from a wooded defile. The
slopes and sides are clothed with the succulent spek-boom ;*
the bottom is an expanded grassy savanna or meadow,
beautifully studded with mimosas, thorns, and tall ever-
greens, sometimes growing singly, sometimes in clumps
and groves of varying magnitude.

Foot-tracks deeply impressed in the soft earth are
everywhere visible ; paths, wide and well trodden, like
military roads, have been opened up through the dense
thorny forest, apparently impenetrable. Through one of
these a numerous herd of elephants suddenly appears on
the scene ; the great bull-elephant, the patriarch of the
herd, marches in the van, bursting through the jungle,
as a bullock would through a field of hops, treading down
the thorny brushwood, and breaking off with his proboscis
the larger branches that obstruct the passage ; the females
and younger males follow in his wake in single file.

* Postidacai-ia afro,.

AFKICAN ELEPHANT. 57

Other herds are seen scattered over the valley as the
prospect opens ; some browsing on the juicy trees, others
reposing, and others regaling on the fresh roots of huge
mimosas which have been torn up ; while one immense
monster is amusing himself, as if it were but play to him,
with tearing up these great trees for his expectant family.
He digs with his stout tusks beneath the roots, now on
this side, now on that, now using one tusk, now the other,
prizing, and forcing away, and loosening the earth all
around, till at length with a tremendous pull of his twisted
proboscis, he tears up the reluctant tree, and inverting the
trunk amidst a shower of earth and stones, exposes the
juicy and tender rootlets to his hungry progeny. Well
may the traveller say that a herd of elephants browsing
in majestic tranquillity amidst the wild magnificence of
an African landscape is a very noble sight, and one, of
which he will never forget the impression.*

Who has ever gazed upon the lion under conditions so
fitted to augment his terrible majesty, as those in which
the mighty hunter of South Africa was accustomed to
encounter him ? Who of us would have volunteered to
be his companion, when night after night he watched in
the pit that he had dug beside the Massouey fountain in
the remote Bamangwato country? There is the lonely
pool, situated in the open valley, silent and deserted by
day, but marked with well-beaten tracks converging to its
margins from every direction ; tracks in which the foot-
prints of elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, zebras, and
* African Sketches.

58 HAKMONIES.

antelopes, are crossed and recrossed by those of the great
padding paws of huge lions. The hunter observes the
paths, and selecting a spot, digs a hole in the earth just
large enough to allow him and his Hottentot attendant to
lie down in. He places his bedding in it, and prepares to
spend his nights there. About sunset he repairs to his
strange bed, and, with the sparkling stars above him, and
silence deep as death around him, he keeps his watch.

Soon the stillness is broken by many sounds. The
terrible roar of a lion is heard in the distance ; jackals
are heard snorting and snarling over a carcase ; a herd of
zebras gallops up toward the fountain, but hesitates to
approach ; then a pack of wild dogs is heard chattering
around. By and by, a heavy clattering of hoofs comes
up the valley, and on sweeps a vast herd of wildebeest ;
the leader approaches the water, when the hunter's rifle
sends a ball through him, and he falls dead on the
bank.

The herd disperses in terror; and presently a lion utters
an appalling roar from a bushy ridge just opposite, which
is succeeded by a breathless silence.

A quarter of an hour elapses. A peculiar sound causes
the hunter to lift his head, when he sees, on the opposite
edge of the pool, a huge and majestic male lion, with a
black mane which nearly sweeps the ground, standing
over the dead wildebeest. He seems suspicious; and
stooping to seize the carcase, drags it up the slope.
Again the intrepid watcher points his trusty rifle, and
the tawny monarch sinks to the shot. At length with a

LIONS AT MIDNIGHT. 59

deep growl he rises, and limps away to a bushy cover,
where he roars mournfully, and dies.

Or take him a few nights afterwards, when from the
same pit he sees six lions together approach to drink.
Six lions at midnight there ! two men here ! nothing be-
tween the parties but a little pool, which a ten minutes'
walk would encircle ! One of the lions detects the in-
truder, and, with her eye fixed upon him, creeps round
the head of the fountain. What a moment of suspense !
But once more the fatal ball speeds ; and the too curious
lioness, mortally wounded, bounds away with a howl,
followed by her five companions in a cloud of dust.

Very different from such a scene is the gorgeous gloom
of a Brazilian forest, where the wiry- haired sloth hangs
from the branches, the toothless ant-eater breaks up with
its hoofs the great earthy nests of the termites, and the
armadillo burrows in the soil ; where the capybara and
the tapir rush to the water ; where painted toucans cry to
each other, golden-plum aged trogons sit on the topmost
boughs, and sparkling humming-birds flit over the
flowers ; where beetles, like precious stones, crawl up the
huge trunks, and butterflies of all brilliant hues fan the
still and loaded air. Not like the small and pale or
sombre-hued species that we see in the fields and gardens
of Britain are these : their numbers are prodigious ; their
variety bewildering ; many of them are adorned with the
most splendid colours, and some of the finest are of
immense size. Very characteristic of this region are the
species of the genus Morpho ; great butterflies larger

60 HARMONIES.

than a man's open hand, with the lower surface of the
wings adorned with a pearly iridescence, and concentric
rings, while their upper face is of an uniform azure, so
intensely lustrous that the eye cannot gaze upon it in the
sun without pain.

Solemn are those primeval labyrinths of giant trees,
tangled with ten thousand creepers, and roofed with lofty
arches of light foliage, diversified with masses of glorious
blossom of all rich hues ; while from the borders of the
igaripes, or narrow canals that permeate the lower levels,
spring most elegant ferns, lowly sensitive mimosas, great
and fantastic herbaceous plants, marbled and spotted
arums, closely compacted fan-palms with spreading crowns,
and multitudes of other strange forms of vegetation in
an almost inconceivable profusion. The gigantic scale of
life strongly excites astonishment in these forests. In
Europe we associate flowers with herbs or shrubs, but
here we see trees of colossal height, in all the splendour
of bloom, which clothes the whole crown with its colour.

The traveller sees with delight, trees covered with
magnificent, large lilac, orange, crimson, or white
blossoms, contrasting beautifully with the surrounding
varied tints of green. After enjoying, with a restless
glance, this display of colours, he turns to the deep
shades which lie disclosed, solemn and mournful, be-
tween the gigantic trees on the wayside. The flame-
coloured raceme of a tillandsia, resembling an immense
pine-apple, glows like fire among the dark foliage.
Again attention is attracted by the charming orchids,

BRAZILIAN FOREST. 61

with most fantastic flowers, climbing up the straight
trunks of the trees, or picturesquely covering their
branches, which seldom shoot out from the trunk at a
less height than fifty to eighty feet from the ground.
From the fertility of the soil, the trees spring up so
densely, that, when young, their branches, not having
room to expand freely, strive to overtop one another.
The tillandsias nestle at the ramification of the smaller
branches, or upon excrescences, where they often grow to
an immense size, and have the appearance of an aloe, the
length of a man, hanging down gracefully from a giddy
height over the head of the passer-by.

Among the various plants which spring from the
branches or cling to the stems of the trees, are gray, moss-
like plants hanging down, not unlike horses' tails, from
the branches which support the orchids and tillandsias ;
or one might fancy them the long beards of these vener-
able giants of the forest, that have stood unbent beneath
the weight of a thousand years. Myriads of lianes hang
down to the ground, or are suspended in the air, several
inches thick, and not unfrequently the size of a man's
body, coated with bark like the branches of the trees.
But it is impossible for any one to conceive the fantastic
forms they assume, all interlaced and entangled : some-
times they depend like straight poles to the ground,
where striking root, they might, from their thickness, be
taken for trees ; at other times they resemble large loops
or rings, from ten to twenty feet in diameter, or are so
twisted that they look like cables. Sometimes they laco

62 HARMONIES.

the tree regularly from distance to distance ; often they
embrace it so closely as to choke it, and cause the leaves
to fall off, so that it stretches out its dead gigantic arms
like branches of white coral, among the fresh verdure of
the forest, — a picture of death, surprising us in the
midst of the most blooming life : frequently they give
the old trunk a new covering of leaves, so that the
same tree appears clothed in several different kinds of
foliage.*

So, if space permitted, we might depict the brown
bear emerging from his winter retreat in the dark pine
forests of Scandinavia ; or the white bear seated on a
solitary iceberg in the Polar Sea ; or the whale spouting
in the same frost-bound waters, and pursued by the har-
poon of his relentless persecutors ; or the moose impri-
soned in the " yard " which he has himself formed by
treading down the successive snows in the lofty woods of
America ; or the chamois upon the peaks of the Alps, with
the eagle sweeping over him as he gazes contemptuously
down on the jager far below ; or the patient camel toiling
along the unbounded waste of tawny sand ; or the kangaroo
bounding over the Australian scrub ; or the seal basking
in his rocky cavern, while the surf is dashing high on the
cliffs around ; or the wild-duck reposing at the margin of
a smooth river, when the red light of evening is reflected
in the line left by the tall and almost meeting trees over-
head ; or a group of snow-white egrets standing motion-
less in the shallows of a reedy lake at dawn of day ; or

* Travels of Prince Adalbert in Brazil, p. 15, et seq.

TIDE-POOL.

63

the petrel careering over the long waves in the midst of
the wide ocean ; or the tiny cyprides and Cyclopes disport-
ing in the umbrageous groves of their world, — a tiny
tide-pool hollowed out of a limestone rock by the action
of the waves. These and many more combinations might
be suggested ; and we shall surely see how incomparably
is the interest which attaches to each form enhanced, by
associating with it those accompaniments and conditions
of being, in which alone it is at home.

III.

DISCREPANCIES.

I USE the term at the head of this chapter for lack of a
better. There are no real discrepancies in nature, but I
may conveniently employ the word to distinguish a class
of phenomena not without interest. We occasionally
meet with animal or vegetable life existing under condi-
tions, not which are not as truly proper to them as the
jungle to the tiger or the river to the crocodile, but whicli
appear to us strange and incongruous ; which create in
us surprise, as the most prominent emotion of the mind, —
surprise at finding life, or any particular phase of it, in
circumstances where we should not a priori have at
all expected to find it. Examples will best explain what
I mean.

Take, then, the existence of animal life at groat depths
of ocean. The researches of Sars, MacAndrew, and others,
in the Norwegian seas, and those of Edward Forbes in
the ^Egean, have shewn that mollusca exist under two
hundred fathoms of water. Dead shells, indeed, are con-
tinually dredged from far greater depths ; but these may
have been voided by the many fishes which feed on mol-
lusca, and would, of course, fall to the bottom, whatever
the depth of the sea in which the fish might happen to be

LIFE IN THE DEEP SEA. 65

swimming. Dentalium entale, Leda pygmcea, and Cryp-
todon flexuosus have been taken alive in the northern
seas at two hundred fathoms' depth : in the ^Egean Sea,
Kellia dbyssicola and Necera cuspidata, two little bivalves,
were dredged, the former in one hundred and eighty, the
latter in one hundred and eighty-five fathoms; and Area
imbricata in two hundred and thirty fathoms.

Nor is the power of sustaining life at such immense
depths confined to the molluscan tribes ; zoophytes rival
them in this respect. Great tree-like corals, Primnoa and
Oculina, spring from the bottom-rocks, to which they are
affixed, at a depth of a hundred fathoms and upwards :
the magnificent Ulocyathus arcticus, a free coral, recently
discovered by Sars, lives on the mud at two hundred
fathoms ; Bolocera Tuedice, Tealia digitata, and Peachia
Boeckii, soft-bodied sea-anemones, reach to the same
depth, while other species of the same race, — Capnea
sanguined and Actinopsis flava live at the amazing depth
of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred fathoms.

It has been observed that the shells of mollusca which
inhabit very deep water are almost entirely devoid of
positive colour, and this has been supposed to be the
inevitable result of the darkness in which they live ; for
it is assumed that all or nearly all the sun's light must
be absorbed by so vast a mass of water. But yet most
of these zoophytes are highly-coloured animals, — the
Actinopsis being of a fine yellow, the Bolocera, Tealia,
and Capnea of a red more or less intense, and the
Ulocyathus of the most refulgent scarlet. The pressure

66 DISCREPANCIES.

of a column of sea-water, from twelve to eighteen hun-
dred feet in height, must be quite inconceivable to us ;
and we are at a loss to imagine how the corporeal tissues
can sustain it, and how the vital functions can be carried on.
Yet the presence of these creatures implies the presence
of others. The mollusca are mostly feeders on infusoria
and diatomacece ; therefore these minute animalcules
and plants must habitually live there. The zoophytes
are all carnivorous, and being all stationary, or nearly so,
the prey on which they feed must be abundant there in
proportion to their requirements. Perhaps this may
partly consist of the mollusca ; but it is highly probable
that Crustacea and annelida likewise abound.* One
species of the former class has, indeed, been discovered
in the profound sea. A small kind of lobster, named
Calocaris Macandrece, about as large as a small prawn,
was dredged by Mr MacAndrew, (after whom it has been
named,) in the Scottish seas, at a depth of one hundred
and eighty fathoms. t

Who would expect to find the expanse of everlasting
snow in the Arctic regions, and at the summits of the
Alps, the seat of abundant life, whether vegetable or ani-
mal? Yet such is the fact. Ross observed, in Baffin's
Bay, a range of cliffs covered with snow which was tinged
with a brilliant crimson colour for an extent of eight
miles, the hue penetrating from the surface down to the

* See, for the facts, Woodward's Mollusca, p. 441 ; and Fauna Litt.
Noweg., ii. pp., 73, 87.
t BeU's Brit. Crust, p. 233.

LIFE ON SNOW. 67

very rock, a depth of twelve feet. The same phenomenon
has been observed in other parts of the Polar regions, on
the glaciers of the Alps, and in other similar circum-
stances. Scientific investigation has proved this colour
to be caused by the excessive abundance of minute organ-
isms, mostly vegetable, of a very simple character, in the
form, according to Dr Greville, of a gelatinous layer, on
which rest a vast number of minute globules, resembling,
in brilliance and colour, fine garnets.* Professor Agassiz,
however, maintains that these globules are not vegetables,
but the eggs of a minute though highly-organised animal,
one of the Rotifer a, named Philodina roseola, which
animal he found in abundance, with the globules, in the
glacier of the Aar.f Other minute animals were also
found in the snow.

In Canada I have found, in the depth of winter, living
and active insects on the surface of the snow, which are
seen nowhere else, and at no other season. Little hop-
ping atoms, of singular structure, adapted to a mode of
progression peculiarly their own, dance about on the un-
sullied bosom of the new-fallen snow. They belong to
the genus Podura, and are distinguished by having at
the extremity of their body two long, stiff bristles, ordi-
narily bent up under the belly, but which, at the pleasure
of the insect, fly out straight with great force, and thus
jerk it into the air, on the principle of a child's toy-frog.
Other curious species, — two in particular, both belonging
to winged families, yet both without wings, the one a sort

* See Ciyptog. Flvra, p. 231. f Rep. Er. Assoc., 1840.

68 DISCREPANCIES.

of wingless gnat,* the other something like a flea, but
really one of the Panorpadce,^ — I have found numerous
in similar circumstances, and in no other.

As a curious incident, not altogether out of place in
this connexion, though the parallelism of the cases is
more apparent than real, we may notice the trees which
Mr Atkinson found growing, under very unusual circum-
stances, in the valley of the Black Irkout, in Eastern
Siberia, a romantic gorge, whose precipitous sides are
formed of different marbles — one white, with deep purple
spots and small veins, another a rich yellow kind, equal,
if not superior, to the best Sienna, but wholly untouched
by man. " We reached," he says, " a part of the ravine
filled with snow and ice, where large poplars were grow-
ing, with only their tops above the icy mass ; the
branches were in full leaf, although the trunks were
imbedded in the snow and ice to a depth of twenty-five
feet. I dismounted, examined several, and found that
there was a space around the stem, nine inches wide, filled
with water, the only parts that appeared to be thawing.
I have often seen flowers penetrating a thin bed of snow,
but this was the first time I had found trees growing
under such circumstances." {

The burning, sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa seem
at first sight to be utterly without organic life, and doubt-
less they are the most barren of all regions. But even
there both animals and vegetables do exist. Several sorts

* Chionea araneoides. f Borevs Jiyemalis.

+ A Icinson's Siberia, p. 595.

LIFE IN THE DESERT. 69

of hard, thorny shrubs are scattered over the dreary waste,
the chief of which is the Hedysarum of the Sahara, a
plant about eighteen inches high, which is green through-
out the year ; it grows absolutely out of the arid sand,
and is eagerly cropped by the camels of the caravans.
There are also beetles, which burrow in the sand ; and
nimble lizards which shine, as they bask in the burning
sun, like burnished brass, and bury themselves on being
alarmed. The lizards probably live upon the beetles ;
but what the beetles live upon is not so clear.

The enormous plains of South Africa, called karroos,
though not so absolutely barren wastes as the Sahara, are
still great wildernesses of sand, exposed to periodical
droughts of long duration. These regions are occupied
by a most singular type of vegetation ; fleshy, distorted,
shapeless, and often leafless, tribes of euphorbias, stapelias,
mesembryanthemums, crassulas, aloes, and similar succulent
plants, maintain their hold of the sandy soil by the weak
support of a single wiry root, and are fed rather by the
dews of heaven 'than by the moisture of the soil. During
the rainless months of the dry seasons, these plains are
scarcely less arid than the sandy deserts of the north ;
yet even then there are reservoirs beneath the surface.
Livingstone speaks of a certain plant, named leroshua,
which is a blessing to the inhabitants of this desert.
" We see a small plant with linear leaves, and a stalk not
thicker than a crow's quill ; on digging down a foot or
eighteen inches beneath, we come to a tuber, often as
large as the head of a young child ; when the rind is

70 DISCREPANCIES.

removed, we find it to be a mass of cellular tissue, filled
with fluid much like that in a young turnip. Owing to the
depth beneath the soil at which it is found, it is generally
deliciously cool and refreshing. Another kind, named
mokuri, is seen in other parts of the country, where long-
continued heat parches the soil. This plant is a herbaceous
creeper, and deposits underground a number of tubers,
some as large as a man's head, at spots in a circle a yard
or more, horizontally, from the stem. The natives strike
the ground on the circumference of the circle with stones,
till, by hearing a difference of sound, they know the water-
bearing tuber to be beneath. They then dig down a foot
or so, and find it."*

There are deserts on the Pacific coast of South America
as horribly barren as any in Africa or Asia, if not so ex-
tensive. One of these is described by Mr Darwin, who was
all day riding across it, as a " a complete and utter desert."

" The road/' he says, " was strewed with the bones and
dried skins of the many beasts of burden which had
perished on it from fatigue. Excepting the Vullur aura,
which preys on the carcases, I saw neither bird, quadruped,
reptile, nor insect. On the coast-mountains, at the height
of about 2000 feet, where during this season the clouds
generally hang, a very few Cacti were growing in the clefts
of rock, and the loose sand was strewed over with a
lichen, which lies on the surface quite unattached. This
plant belongs to the genus Cladonia, and somewhat re-
sembles the reindeer lichen. In some parts it was in suf-
ficient quantity to tinge the sand, as seen from a distance,

* Livingstone's Travels, p. 47.

LIFE IN A VOLCANO. 71

of a pale yellowish colour. Further inland, during the
whole ride of fourteen leagues, I saw only one other vege-
table production ; and that was a most minute yellow
lichen, growing on the bones of the dead mules." *

The rugged desolation which characterises the interior
of the crater of a volcano, even though the fiery torrent
which formed it be at the time dormant, seems ill-suited
for the smiling beauty of flowers ; yet such occasionally
exist there.

Sir Thomas Acland, who ascended to the summit of
Schneehatten, the lofty volcano of Norway, describes the
crater to be broken down on the northern side, surrounded
on the others by perpendicular masses of black rock,
rising out of, and high above, beds of snow that enveloped
their bases. The interior sides of the crater descended in
one vast sheet of snow to the bottom, where an icy lake
closed the view, at the depth of 1500 feet from the highest
ridge. " Almost at the top," he says, " and close to the
snow, which had probably but a few days before covered
them, were some very delicate and beautiful flowers, in
their highest bloom, of the Ranunculus glacialis, growing
most profusely ; nor were they the only inhabitants :
mosses, lichens, and a variety of small herbaceous plants
were in the same neighbourhood ; and, lower down, dwarf-
birch, and a species of osier, formed a pretty kind of
thicket. The traces of reindeer appeared on the very top-
most snow/' •(•

* Nat. Voyage, chap. xvi.

t MS. letter, quoted in Barrow's Excursions in the North of Europe,
p. 359.

72 DISCREPANCIES.

The very dust of the air is found to be peopled with
living plants and animals, and that where we should least
have expected to find it so stocked ; nay, where we should
scarcely have looked for clouds of dust at all, — far out on
the lone ocean, hundreds of miles from land. In Mr
Darwin's voyage, he noticed, as he approached the Cape
Verd Islands, this curious phenomenon : — " Generally the
atmosphere is hazy ; and this is caused by the falling of
impalpably fine dust, which was found to have slightly
injured the astronomical instruments. The morning be-
fore we anchored at Porto Praya, I collected a little
packet of this brown-coloured fine dust, which appeared
to have been filtered from the wind by the gauze of the
vane at the masthead. Mr Lyell has also given me four
packets of dust which fell on a vessel a few hundred miles
northward of these islands. Professor Ehrenberg finds
that this dust consists, in great part, of infusoria* with
siliceous shields, and of the siliceous tissue of plants. In
five little packets which I sent him, he has ascertained no
less than sixty-seven different organic forms ! The infu-
soria, with the exception of two marine species, are all
inhabitants of fresh water. I have found no less than
fifteen different accounts of dust having fallen on vessels
when far out in the Atlantic. From the direction of the
wind whenever it has fallen, and from its having always
fallen during those months when the harmattan io known
to raise clouds of dust high into the atmosphere, we may
feel sure that it all comes from Africa. It is, however, a

* Constituting the Diatomacece of modern science.

LIFE IN BRINE. 73

very singular fact, that, although Professor Ehrenberg
knows many species of infusoria peculiar to Africa, he
finds none of these in the dust which I sent him ; on the
other hand, he finds in it two species which hitherto he
knows as living only in South America. This dust falls
in such quantities as to dirty everything on board, and to
hurt people's eyes ; vessels even have run on shore owing
to the obscurity of the atmosphere. It has often fallen
on ships when several hundred, and even more than a
thousand miles from the coast of Africa, and at points
sixteen hundred miles distant in a north and south direc-
tion. In some dust which was collected on a vessel three
hundred miles from the land, I was much surprised to
find particles of stone, about the thousandth of an inch
square, mixed with finer matter. After this fact, one
need not be surprised at the diffusion of the far lighter
and smaller sporules of cryptogamic plants."*

In all these situations, in which we have seen organic
existence maintained, we must admit that there is nothing
actually hostile to life. The snow, the hot sand, the cal-
cined lava, the dust, seem ungenial spheres for living
beings, offer but little encouragement to them, as we
should have supposed, but are not actually destructive.
What shall we say, however, to animals disporting them-
selves, by myriads, in brine so strong as to contain two
pounds of salt to the gallon ? A solution so concentrated
is sufficient in general to destroy all life.-)- Yet, in the

* Naturalist's Voyage, chap. i.

•f* Goadby's preservative fluid contains but three-quarters of a pound
of salts to a gallon of water.

74 DISCREPANCIES.

salt-works at Lymington, in Hampshire, the reservoirs of
concentrated brine are always peopled by immense num-
bers of an elegant little animal, quite peculiar to such
situations, which sport about in all the enjoyment of
existence. The little creature is a sort of shrimp, and is
commonly known as the brine shrimp.* It is nearly
half an inch in length, and is furnished with eleven pairs
of leaf-shaped limbs. " There is nothing," says M. Joly,
" more elegant than the form of this little crustacean ;
nothing more graceful than its movements. It swims
almost always on its back, and moves rapidly through
the element. The feet are in constant motion, and their
undulations have a softness difficult to describe." Besides
these animals, the brine is inhabited by incalculable mul-
titudes of a microscopic animalcule of a crimson hue, on
which the brine-shrimp feeds, and which impart to its
translucent body their own roseate colour.

A similar creature, but of another species,-)- distin-
guished by a broad crescent-shaped shield over the head,
inhabits lakes, highly charged with nitre and common
salt, in North Africa. The animals are so numerous that
they are caught with muslin nets, and dried in the sun in
the form of a red paste or cake, which is highly esteemed
as an article of food, having the flavour of red herring.

Mr Darwin found, near Buenos Ayres, a shallow lake
of brine, which in summer is converted into a field of
snow-white salt. The border of the lake is a fetid, black

* Artemia salina.

f A. Oudneyi. See Excelsior, i., 229, for figures of both species.

LIFE IN BOILING WATER. 75

inud, in which are imbedded large crystals of gypsum,
three inches long, and of sulphate of soda. " The mud,
in many places, was thrown up by numbers of some kind
of worm. How surprising is it that any creatures should
be able to exist in brine, and that they should be crawl-
ing among crystals of sulphate of soda and lime ! And
what becomes of these worms when, during the long
summer, the surface is hardened into a solid layer of
salt?"* Exactly similar lakes, similarly peopled, occur
in Siberia also.*f

Perhaps even stranger still is the circumstance that
fishes — vertebrate animals far higher in the organic scale
than shrimps or worms — can subsist, apparently in health,
in water sufficiently heated to boil them if dead. Brous-
sonet found, by experiments, that several species of fresh-
water fishes lived many days in water so hot that the
human hand could not be held in it for a single minute.
Saussure found living eels in the hot springs of Aix, in
Savoy, in which the temperature is pretty regularly 113
deg. of Fahrenheit. But still more extraordinary are
the facts recorded by Humboldt and Bonpland, who saw
living fishes, apparently in health and vigour, thrown up
from the crater of a volcano in South America, with
water and hot vapour that raised the thermometer to 210
deg. Fahrenheit, a heat less, by only two degrees, than
that of boiling water.

The same accomplished travellers visited hot springs in

* Naturalist's Voyage, chap. iv.

t Pallas's Travels, 1793 to 1794, pp. 129-134.

76 DISCREPANCIES.

Venezuela, the temperature of which was above 194 deg.,
and which boiled eggs in less than four minutes. The
vegetation around seemed to rejoice in the heat, being
unusually luxuriant, the mimosas and fig-trees spreading
their branches far over the hot water, and actually push-
ing their roots into it.

One of the most interesting discoveries of modern
science is that of a subterranean fauna, all the members
of which are blind. The transition from the illuminated
tenants of this upper world to those darkened subjects of
Pluto is indeed facilitated by certain intermediate condi-
tions. Such is the guacharo, or fruit-eating nightjar, found
by Humboldt inhabiting, in immense hosts, a deep, sepul-
chral cavern in South America, shut out far from the re-
motest ray of light, coming forth under the cover of night,
and invested with superstitious terrors by the natives.
Such, too, is the aspalax, or mole of eastern Europe, which
habitually lives under ground ; and such is the proteus,
a strange sort of salamander found in the lakes of im-
mense caverns in Illyria. They are believed to come
from some great central, inaccessible reservoir, where no
ray of light has ever penetrated, and whence occasional
floods may have forced the individuals that have been
discovered.*

I know not what the condition of the eye may be in
the guacharo, but in the mammal and reptile, it exists
only in the most rudimentary condition, completely covered
by the integuments.

* See Davy's Consolations in Travel.

BLIND FAUNA OF CAVERNS. 77

Very recently, however, investigations in various parts
of the world have revealed the curious circumstance of
somewhat extensive series of animals inhabiting vast
and gloomy caves and deep wells, and perfectly deprived
even of the vestiges of eyes. Enormous caves in North
America, some of which are ten miles in length, and
other vast and ramified grottoes in Central Europe, have
yielded the chief of these ; but even in this country we
possess at least four species of minute shrimps,* three
of which are absolutely blind, and the fourth (though it
has a yellow speck in the place of an eye) probably so.
All these have been obtained from pumps and wells in
the southern counties of England, at a depth of thirty or
forty feet from the surface of the earth.

The crustacean Calocaris, already mentioned as in-
habiting the amazing depth of one hundred and eighty
fathoms, appears to be blind, for though eyes are present,
their surface is perfectly smooth and destitute of facetted
cornese, and white, shewing the absence of colouring pig-
ment. Vision can scarcely exist with such a structure,
and this is in keeping with the habits of the animal ; for
not only would the vast superincumbent body of water
absorb all the rays of light, and make its sphere of being
totally dark, but, in addition to this, it is of fossorial
habits, burrowing into the sandy mud at the bottom. -f-

The Mammoth Cave in Kentucky consists of innumer-

* Belonging to the genera Nijihargw and Crangonyx. (See Nat. Hist
Review, 1859 ; Pr. Soc., p. 164).
t Bell's Brit. Crust., p. 236.

78 DISCREPANCIES.

able subterranean galleries in the limestone formation,
some of which are of great extent. The temperature is
constant throughout the year — 59 deg. Fahr. A darkness,
unrelieved by the least glimmer of light, prevails. Ani-
mals of various races inhabit these caves, all completely
blind ; for though some have rudimentary eyes, they ap-
pear useless for purposes of vision. Among these are two
kinds of bats, two rats, (one found at a distance of seven
miles from the entrance,) moles, fishes, spiders, beetles,
Crustacea, and several kinds of infusoria *

In 1845, three caves near Adelsburg and one near
Trieste were examined by Professor Schiodte. Koch,
Schmidt, and others had already announced the existence
in these caves of a blind fauna, besides the proteus. An
Oniscus, a beetle of the family Staphylinidce, and two
belonging to the Carabidce, were found to be either totally
destitute of eyes, or to have these organs reduced to rudi-
mentary specks. Schiodte added to these two new species
of SilphadcB, a species of spring-tail, two remarkable
spiders, each constituting a new genus, and a crustacean. -f-
Still later, Schmidt has discovered two more beetles in
these caves, inhabiting the deepest recesses, and described
as perfectly eyeless, yet retreating quickly from the light
of the explorers' torches into clefts of the rock ; a curious
circumstance, which would seem to indicate a certain
sensibility to the stimulus of light. J Indeed, in several

* Trans, Roy. Soc. Edinb., Dec. 1853.
f Schiodte's Spec. Faun. Subteiv.
£ Laibacher Zeituny, August 1852.

BLIND FAUNA OF CAVEHNS. 79

of the vertebrate creatures of the Kentucky cave, the
optic nerve is found to exist, though the eyes are
wanting.

Of the true relations of these remarkable beings with
those which inhabit the sunny world without, there are
various opinions. Some have thought it possible that
they are the descendants of unfortunate individuals that,
in unknown ages past, wandered into the caves, and were,
unable to find their way out again ; the total absence of
light, and the consequent disuse of the visual organs, in-
ducing an obliteration of the organs themselves, or at least
of the function. Others suppose that the animals were
at the first assigned to such situations, and fitted for them
at their creation. Others again, among whom may be
reckoned the late Mr Kirby, in his " Bridgewater Treatise,"
contend that they form no portion of the fauna now in
existence on the surface of the earth, but belong to a
creation as distinct as we may suppose that of Venus or
Jupiter to be. The data, however, scarcely warrant such
a conclusion as this.

Mr Charles Darwin has lately alluded to these singular
facts in confirmation of his theory of the origin of species
by means of natural selection, or the preservation of fa-
voured races in the struggle for life. He takes the first-
named view, that in the subterranean animals the organs
of sight have become (more or less completely) absorbed,
in successive generations, by disuse of the function. " In
some of the crabs the foot-stalk remains, though the eye
is gone ; the stand for the telescope is there, though the

80 DISCREPANCIES.

telescope with its glasses has been lost. As it is difficult
to imagine that eyes, though useless, could be in any way
injurious to animals living in darkness, I attribute their
loss wholly to disuse. In one of the blind animals,
namely, the cave-rat, the eyes are of immense size ; and
Professor Silliman thought that it regained, after living
some days in the light, some slight power of vision. In
the same manner as, in Madeira, the wings of some of
the insects have been enlarged, and the wings of others
have been reduced, by natural selection aided by use and
disuse, so in the case of the cave-rat, natural selection
seems to have struggled with the. loss of light and to have
increased the size of the eyes ; whereas, with all the other
inhabitants of the caves, disuse by itself seems to have
done its work.

" .... On my view, we must suppose that American
animals, having ordinary powers of vision, slowly migrated
by successive generations from the outer world into the
deeper and deeper recesses of the Kentucky caves, as did
European animals into the caves of Europe. We have
some evidence of this gradation of habit ; for, as Schiodte
remarks, ' animals not far remote from ordinary forms,
prepare the transition from light to darkness. Next
follow those that are constructed for twilight ; and, last
of all, those destined for total darkness. By the time
that an animal has reached, after numberless generations,
the deepest recesses, disuse will on this view have more
or less perfectly obliterated its eyes, and natural selection
will often have effected other changes, such as an increase

BLIND FAUNA OF CAVERNS. 81

in the length of the antennae or palpi, as a compensation
for blindness.

" . . . . Par from feeling any surprise that some of the
cave-animals should be very anomalous, as Agassiz has
remarked in regard to the blind fish, the Amblyopsis, and
as is the case with the blind Proteus with reference to the
reptiles of Europe, I am only surprised that more wrecks
of ancient life have not been preserved, owing to the less
severe competition to which the inhabitants of these dark
abodes will probably have been exposed/'*

Lone and barren rocks rising abruptly out of the soli-
tary ocean often teem with animal life to an amazing
extent, where the navigator might reasonably have looked
for utter silence and desolation. For these are the resort
of millions of oceanic birds, affording to these, whose
proper home is on the wide and shoreless sea, the spots of
solid matter which they require for the laying of their
eggs and the hatching of their young. This brief occu-
pation, lasting only for a few weeks in the year, appears
to be the only link wrhich connects these pelagic free-
booters with the earth. Pelicans, gannets, boobies, cor-
morants, frigate-birds, tropic-birds, albatrosses, fulmars,
skuas, petrels, gulls, terns, puffins, and multitudes of other
tribes throng to such bare rocks in the season, in count-
less hosts, making the desolation horridly alive. Such a

* Op. cit.t p. 137. I am very far, indeed, from accepting Mr Dar-
win's theory to the extent to which he pushes it, completely tram-
pling on Revelation as it does ; but I think there is a measure of truth
in it.

82 DISCREPANCIES.

scene as ensues when man intrudes on it has been vividly
depicted by Le Vaillant. " All of a sudden, there arose
from the whole surface of the island an impenetrable
cloud, which formed, at the distance of forty feet above our
heads, an immense canopy, or rather a sky, composed of
birds of every species, and of all colours : cormorants,
sea-gulls, sea-swallows, pelicans, and I believe, the whole
winged tribe of that part of Africa, were here assembled.
All their voices, mingled together, and modified accord-
ing to their different kinds, formed such a horrid music,
that I was every moment obliged to cover my head to
give a little relief to my ears. The alarm which we
spread was so much the more general among those in-
numerable legions of birds, as we principally disturbed the
females which were then sitting. They had nests, eggs,
and young to defend. They were like furious harpies let
loose against us, and their cries rendered us almost deaf.
They often flew so near us, that they flapped their wings
in our faces, and though we fired our pieces repeatedly,
we were not able to frighten them : it seemed almost im-
possible to disperse this cloud."

How utterly desolate such insular rocks are is well
illustrated by what Mr Darwin says of St Paul's cluster,
situated in the midst of the Atlantic, under the equator..
At a distance these rocks appear of a brilliant white
colour, partly owing to the dung of the innumerable sea-
fowl, and partly to a coating of a hard, glossy substance
with a pearly lustre, which is intimately united to the
surface of the stone. It seems to be a sort of inflores-

BIRD-STATIONS. 83

cence of the phosphate of lime, obtained by the solution
of the bird-ordure in the elements, which takes on foliated
forms imitative of lichens or nullipores.

There is not a vestige of vegetable life here, but of
animals there are not a few. The booby and the noddy
sit on the bare rock in startling tameness, apparently
having less intellect than the far inferior races around
them. " By the side of many of the nests a small flying-
fish was placed, which, I suppose, had been brought by
the male bird for its partner. It was amusing to watch
how quickly a large and active crab, (Grapsus,') which
inhabits the crevices of the rock, stole the fish from the
side of the nest, as soon as we had disturbed the parent
birds. Sir W. Symonds, one of the few persons who
have landed here, informs me that he saw the crabs
dragging even the young birds out of their nests, and
devouring them. Not a single plant, not even a lichen,
grows on this islet ; yet it is inhabited by several insects
and spiders. The folio wing -list completes, I believe, the
terrestrial fauna : — A fly (Olfersia) living on the booby,
and a tick which must have come here as a parasite on
the birds ; a small brown moth, belonging to a genus
that feeds on feathers ; a beetle, (Quedius,) and a wood-
louse from beneath the dung ; and, lastly, numerous
spiders, which I suppose prey on these small attendants
and scavengers of the waterfowl. The often-repeated
description of the stately palm, and other noble tropical
plants, then birds, and lastly man, taking possession of
the coral islets as soon as formed, in the Pacific, is pro

84 DISCREPANCIES.

bably not quite correct ; I fear it destroys the poetry of
this story, that feather- and dirt-feeding, and parasitic in-
sects and spiders should be the first inhabitants of newly-
formed oceanic land." *

The occurrence, far out on the boundless sea, of crea-
tures which we habitually associate with the land, is a
phenomenon which interests even those who. are little
observant of natural history. Visits of land-birds to
ships have often been noticed by voyagers, and that not
of those species only which are known to make long
transmarine migrations, but of small and feeble-winged
races, such as finches and warblers. It is much more
remarkable, however, to see insects under such circum-
stances ; yet examples of this are not wanting. Mr
Darwin expresses his surprise at finding a considerable
number of beetles, alive and apparently little injured,
swimming in the open sea, seventeen miles off Cape
Corrientes, at the mouth of the La Plata. These may
have been carried down by a river, especially as several
of them were water-beetles ; but this will not account for
aerial insects taking a sea voyage. The same naturalist
was surrounded by flocks of butterflies of several kinds,
(chiefly of the genus Colias,) ten miles off the same coast.
They were in countless myriads, so that the seamen cried
that it was " snowing butterflies," extending as far as the
eye could range ; and, even with a telescope, it was not
possible to see a space free from butterflies. The day
had been fine and calm, and so had the day before ; so that

* Naturalist's Voy., chap. L

INSECTS AT SEA. 85

the supposition that the insects had been involuntarily
blown off the land was inadmissible.*

But in these cases the land was not beyond the range
of moderate flight. What shall we say to jaunts of five
hundred or a thousand miles performed by these filmy-
winged and delicate creatures ? Mr Davis has recorded •(•
that a large dragon-fly, of the genus JEshna, flew on
board the ship in which he was sailing, on the llth of
December 1837, when out at sea, the nearest land being
the coast of Africa, which was distant five hundred
miles.

The late Mr Newport, in his Presidential Address to
the Entomological Society of London, for the year 1 845,
thus alluded to two other instances of the same interest-
ing phenomenon : — " Mr Saunders exhibited, at our De-
cember meeting, a specimen of jEshna, that was taken at
sea by our corresponding member, Mr Stephenson, in his
voyage from this country to New Zealand, last year.
This insect is a recognised African species, and was
captured on the Atlantic, more than six hundred miles in
a direct line from land. In all probability it had been
driven across the ocean by the trade winds, which blow
continuously at that season of the year in a direction
oblique to the course of the ship that was conveying Mr
Stephenson outwards. The other instance that has just
come to my knowledge is mentioned in a letter from Mr
Dyson to Mr Cuming. Mr Dyson states, that while at sea,
in October last, when about six hundred miles from the

* Nat. Voy., cliap. viiL f Eniom, Mag., v. p. 2ol.

86 DISCREPANCIES.

Cape de Verd Islands, and twelve hundred from Guada-
loupe, he observed a large butterfly, apparently of the
genus Morpho, (?)* flying round the ship, but he could not
succeed in capturing it. These are facts related by entomo-
logists who could not have mistaken the objects observed,
and consequently they are entitled to full credit. They
are full of interest in relation to a subject of physiological
discussion, the power of flight supposed to be possessed
by these, our little favourites, and the speed with which
they are conveyed across the ocean, whether by an actual
expenditure of muscular energy, or whether carried by the
force of the wind alone. My own opinion certainly is,
that the amount of muscular power exerted during flight
is trifling, compared with what we have usually supposed
it to be, and that in these instances the insects have been
greatly aided in their progress by the wind. The speed
at which they must have traversed the ocean seems to
confirm this view ; as it is well known that the JEshna
will not live more than a few days, if unable to obtain its
living food."

The Atlantic being the great highway of nations, we
have more abundant observations on this than on other
oceans, but similar phenomena exist elsewhere. Hum-
boldt mentions having seen, in the Pacific, at a vast dis-

* If the butterfly was indeed a Morpho, — and Mr Dyson, who was an
experienced lepidopterist, could scarcely have been deceived about so
remarkable a butterfly, — it could have come neither from the Cape de
Verd Isles nor the Antilles, but from the continent of South America,
to which the genus Morpho is limited. The nearest part of that con-
tinent is not less than oue thousand five hundred miles from the posi-
tion of the observer.

INSECTS AT GREAT ELEVATIONS. 87

tance from the coast, large-winged Lepidoptera (butter-
flies) fall on the deck of the ship.

Equally striking is the presence of winged insects at
very lofty elevations. Saussure found butterflies at the
summit of Mont Blanc, and Kamond observed them in
the solitudes around that of Mont Perdu. Captain
Fremont saw honey-bees at the top of the loftiest peak
of the Kocky Mountains in North America, the height of
which is 13,568 feet. Dr Hooker, in the Himalaya range,
found insects plentiful at 17,000 feet ; butterflies of the
genera Colias, Hipparchia, Melitcea, and Polyommatus,
besides beetles, and great flies. Humboldt saw butterflies
among perpetual snow at yet loftier elevations in the
Andes of Peru, but conjectured that they had been
carried thither involuntarily by ascending currents of air.
And the same great philosopher, when ascending Chim-
borazo, in June 1802, with Bonpland and Montufar, found
winged flies (Diptera) buzzing around him at the height
of 18,225 feet ; while a little below this elevation Bon-
pland saw yellow butterflies flying over the ground.

I shall close this category with two examples of animal
life in unwonted situations, less scientifically curious it
may be than those already adduced, but more amusing.
That fishes should fly in the air is strange enough, but we
should scarcely expect that they would verify their gene-
ric name * by going to bed out of water. Yet Kotzebue
was favoured with such an unexpected bedfellow : —

" The nights being warm," observes the voyager, " we

* Exocoetus, the name of the flying-fish, from ega, out,
to sleep. The Greeks fancied that the fish left the water to sleep.

88 DISCREPANCIES.

always sleep on deck, to recover ourselves from the heat of
the day, a circumstance which occasioned me one night
a very unexpected visit. I was awakened by the con-
stant motion of a very cold animal at my side, which,
when it writhed in my hand, I first took to be a lizard.
This, I thought, might perhaps have been brought on
board at Chili, with the wood. But, on examining, I
found that it was a flying-fish that I had in my hands,
and I am probably the first that has caught such a one
in bed."*

The other incident occurred nearer home.

In the tremendous gale of the 25th October, 1859,
which did so much damage on the coast of South Devon,
a curious incident occurred to a gentleman whose house
was situated close to the water-side. He was sitting with
his parlour window open, when an enormous green wave
came curling towards the house, and discharged its force
full against the window. There was no time to shut the
window ; but, retreating as fast as he could, he pulled
the door of the room after him, in order to keep the sea
as far as practicable from the rest of the house. After
some time he returned to see what amount of mischief
was done, and, entering the room, found the floor covered
with flapping and jumping fishes. The wave had brought
forward a shoal of whiting, and had deposited them on
the good man's carpet ; where they tossed, much to his
amusement and their own chagrin — fish out of water.

* Voyage, i. p. 145.

IV.

MULTUM E PARVO.

NATURAL history affords not a few instructive examples
of

" What great effects from little causes flow ; "

and these are well worthy of our study, as presenting
to us one peculiar aspect of the wisdom of God, with
whom nothing is great, nothing small. Some of the
mightiest operations in nature are the results of pro-
cesses, and the works of agents, apparently feeble and
wholly inadequate to produce them ; and our wonder is
excited when we are able intelligently to trace them to
their causes. I propose, therefore, to devote this chapter
to the consideration of a few of these, which come more
immediately within the province of the naturalist. They
may be classed, according to the nature of their operations,
as either constructive or destructive.

How many a poetic dream is associated with the sunny
isles of the Pacific ! What a halo of romance encircles
all our ideas of those mirror-like lagoons in the midst of
the great ocean-waves, those long, low reefs just emerging
from the sea, on which the cocoa-nut palm is springing
from the very water's edge! Beautiful they are in our
imagination, as we have realised the pictures drawn by

90 MTJLTTJM E PAEVO.

Oook, and Kotzebue, and Beechey, by Stewart and Ellis,
Darwin and Cheever. But, when we know that these
thousand isles, these endless reefs, these huge barriers
that curb the furious ocean, are produced by tiny, soft-
bodied sea-anemones, by atoms of pulp, sluggish and
seemingly helpless morsels of animated jelly, individually
no bigger than the smallest flower that nestles in the
hedge-bank — our wonder, instead of being dispersed by
our philosophy, is deepened and incomparably aug-
mented by it. " We feel surprise when travellers tell us
of the vast dimensions of the Pyramids, but how utterly
insignificant are the greatest of these when compared to
these mountains of stone accumulated by the agency of
various minute and tender animals ! This is a wonder
which does not at first strike the eye of the body, but,
after reflection, the eye of reason/' *

The researches of the eminent naturalist whose words
I have just quoted, have shewn us that the coral polype
does not build from the fathomless depths of sea which
immediately surround these reefs and islands. He seems
to imply, indeed, that the coral animals cannot exist at a
greater depth than thirty fathoms ; but, whatever may
be the case in tropical seas, we have already seen that
living corals exist and build compound polypidoms at far
greater depths in our northern latitudes. Assuming,
however, that no reef is commenced deeper than thirty
fathoms, and that below that depth the building instinct
is not carried on, the only hypothesis which meets all the
exigencies presented by the actual phenomena of fring-

* Dai-win, Nat. Voy., chap. xx.

CORAL STRUCTURES. 91

ing reefs, encircling or barrier reefs, and atolls or ring
reefs, is that propounded and ably maintained by Darwin,
that the whole area of the Pacific is slowly sinking; that
all the reefs and islands are the summits of former moun-
tains ; that all the coral structures were originally attached
to the land at a shallow depth, and that, to whatever depth
below they now extend, it is only in a dead condition,
and has been effected by the subsidence of the supporting
land carrying the coral with it ; while the successive gene-
rations of the living polypes, ever working upwards on the
old dead foundation, have maintained a living coral struc-
ture near the surface, and that nearly in the same outline
and form as the original foundation.

It does not accord with my purpose to enter into the
details of this beautiful theory, but rather to present my
readers with some vivid pictures of the wonderful struc-
tures themselves, as sketched by those who have seen
them. In coasting along a tropical reef, the extreme
clearness of the water permits the coral shrubs and groves
to be distinctly seen, which rise from the blue transparent
depths. They take various forms — some massive, with
meandering channels over the rounded surface; some
forming honey- combed blocks formed by the union of
thin plates at various angles ; many growing like trees or
shrubs with .leafless branches, more or less ramified, and
with the twigs more or less slender and pointed, or thick
and rounded. Under water, the whole surface is covered
with a layer of jelly-like flesh, of many brilliant colours,
formed by the crowding together of the myriad tiny
polypes, which protrude their slender tentacles and ex,-

92 MITLTUM E PAEVO.

panding disks from the individual cells. Even when
severed, the branches are exquisitely beautiful so long
as they retain the faint purple halo that plays around
their ivory tips, but which soon vanishes. A rude touch
beneath the water will cause the lovely tints — brilliant
crimson, orange, and emerald green — to disappear, by
the withdrawal of the alarmed polypes ; but they soon
protrude again, and expand in their original loveliness.

The interest with which these gardens are contemplated
is enhanced by the multitude of strange creatures which
crawl over and through the shrubs. Fishes of the most
gorgeous hues, elegant shells, with clouded and spotted
animals carrying them, nimble prawns of crimson and
yellow, long gliding green worms, and purple sea-urchins,
with enormous spines, here find their home and live at
ease beneath the unclouded sun.

The dimensions attained by the labours of the minute
workmen are the most astonishing part of the spectacle.
"Some individual specimens of Forties, in the rock of
the inner reef of Tongatabu, are twenty-five feet in dia-
meter ; and Astreas and Meandrinas, both there and in
the Fejees, measure twelve to fifteen feet. The platform
resembles a Cyclopean pavement, except that the cement-
ing material between the huge masses is more solid than
any work of art could be.

" Sometimes the barrier reef recedes from the shore,
and forms wide channels or inland seas, where ships find
ample room and depth of water, exposed, however, to the
.danger of hidden reefs. The reef on the north-east coast

CORAL LAGOONS. 93

of New Holland and New Caledonia extends four hundred
miles, at a distance varying from thirty to sixty miles
from shore, and having as many fathoms of depth in the
channel. West of the large Fejee Islands the channel is
in some parts twenty-five miles wide, and twelve to forty
fathoms in depth. The sloop-of-war Peacock sailed along
the west coast of both Viti Lebu and Vanua Lebu, within
the inner reefs, a distance exceeding two hundred miles.

" A barrier reef, inclosing a lagoon, is the general form-
ation of the coral islands, though there are some of
small size in which the lagoon is wanting. These are
found in all stages of development : in some the reef is
narrow and broken, forming a succession of narrow islets
with openings into the lagoon ; in others there only
remains a depression of surface in the centre to indicate
where the lagoon originally was.* The most beautiful are
those where the lagoon is completely inclosed, and rests
within, a quiet lake. Maraki, one of the Kingsmill
group, is one of the prettiest coral islands of the Pacific.
The line of vegetation is unbroken, and, seen from the
mast-head, it lies like a garland thrown upon the waters.

"When first seen from the deck of a vessel, only a
series of dark points is descried, just above the horizon.
Shortly after, the points enlarge into the plumed tops of
cocoa-nut trees, and a line of green, interrupted at intervals,
is traced along the water's surface. Approaching still
nearer, the lake and its belt of verdure are spread out
before the eye, and a scene of more interest can scarcely

* Thiss does not agree with Darwin's theory of subsidence.

94 MULTUM E PAEVO.

be imagined. The surf, beating loud and heavy along the
margin of the reef, presents a strange contrast to the
prospect beyond — the white coral beach, the massy foliage
of the grove, and the embosomed lake, with its tiny islets.
The colour of the lagoon water is often as blue as the
ocean, although but fifteen or twenty fathoms deep ; yet
shades of green and yellow are intermingled, where patches
of sand or coral knolls are near the surface, and the green
is a delicate apple shade, quite unlike the usual muddy
tint of shallow waters.

" These garlands of verdure seem to stand on the brims
of cups, whose bases root in unfathomable depth. Seven
miles east of Clermont Tonnere, the lead ran out to eleven
hundred and forty -five fathoms, (six thousand eight
hundred and seventy feet) without reaching bottom.
Within three-quarters of a mile of the southern point of
this island, the lead had another throw, and, after running
out for a while, brought up for an instant at three hundred
and fifty fathoms, and then dropped off again and descended
to six hundred fathoms without reaching bottom. The
lagoons are generally shallow, though in the larger islands
soundings gave twenty to thirty-five, and even fifty and
sixty fathoms/' *

The rate at which coral structures are formed is an
interesting subject of inquiry, and various opinions have
been formed on the point, some affirming that no percep-
tible increase takes place in several years, others that the
process is so rapid, that the Pacific is fast filling up.
Darwin's theory of subsidence negatives this conclusion,
* Cheever's Sandwich Islands, p. 152.

EMPLOYMENT OF CORAL BUILDERS. 95

independently of the ratio of growth. There are facts
on record, however, which imply that, in certain circum-
stances, the process is rapid. A channel that had been
dug through the reef of Keeling Atoll for the passage
of a schooner, that had been built on the island, from the
lagoon into the sea, was found ten years afterwards to be
almost choked up with living coral. An interesting
experiment was tried at Madagascar, by securing several
masses of living coral by stakes three feet below the sur-
face. Seven months afterwards they were found nearly
reaching to the surface, firmly cemented to the rock,
and extended laterally several feet ; a remarkably rapid
growth !

An ingenious inquiry has been started, whether the
coral polypes may not yet be employed by man for the
construction of sea-walls and reefs, in places within or
near the tropics, where they are needed. Professor
Agassiz has shewn that it is not difficult to obtain living
specimens of the zoophyte, and to preserve them, so as to
study at leisure their habits and motions. Why, then,
it has been asked, as we employ the silk-worm, and
furnish it with food and material to spin for us our silks,
and as we plant and form beds of oysters in favourable
locations, where we please, may we not also employ the
agency of the coral lithophyte, to lay the foundations, for
instance, of a lighthouse, or to form a breakwater where
one is needed ? Such a practical result is by no means
improbable, from the minute and scientific observations
now making upon these busy little builders of the deep.*
* Cheever's Sandwich Islands, Appx., p. 310.

96 MULTUM E PARVO.

Let us look now at another class of labourers by whom
mighty deeds are performed, though the performers them-
selves are so inconceivably minute, that to say they bear
the same relation to the coral polype that a mouse does to
an elephant, would be greatly to overrate their dimensions.
They are, in fact, invisible to the sharpest sight, except
when aggregated together. I refer to the Diatomacece.

Of late years the attention of microscopic observers
has been largely and increasingly occupied by a tribe of
organic beings which are found to exist in all parts of
the world, in fresh and salt waters chiefly, and present a
great variety of species as well as of form and markings.
They consist of a glassy shell, formed of flint, inclosing a
soft coloured substance, generally of a golden yellow or
brown hue. This is called the endochrome, and the shell
is called the frustule. The latter has a determinate form,
which often assumes extraordinary elegance, and is usually
marked with series of specks, which are either knobs or
pits, arranged in the most varied and exquisite patterns.
They may exist either as isolated forms, or, more com-
monly, as united into long chains, or other connected
figures. These are called Diatoms. They have spontan-
eous movements, and hence they were considered, when
first discovered, to be animals ; but the opinion now
generally prevails, that they are plants of a very low
grade.

The influence of these tiny atoms upon this world in
which we live is almost beyond belief. <- The whole
bottom of the ocean," observes Dr Barclay Montgomery,
" seems to be in a great measure made up of these bodies.

DIATOMACE^E. 97

Sir John Ross and other Arctic explorers speak of a large
bank called the Victoria Barrier, 400 miles long, and 120
miles wide, composed almost entirely of infusoria. Dur-
ing the last week I was engaged in examining a sounding
from the bottom of the ocean at the depth of 2000
fathoms, on the exact spot where the Atlantic telegraph
unfortunately gave way; although the quantity was
minute, still I discovered a great number of interesting
forms. What is known as Tripoli powder in the arts
consists almost entirely of fossil deposits of the siliceous
coats of diatoms, which from their hardness form an
excellent means of polishing metals ; these fossil deposits
are very numerous and in great quantity in different parts
of the world. The town of Richmond, in the United
States, is built upon a stratum of these bodies twenty feet
in thickness ; in California and America generally, in
Bohemia, throughout Europe and Africa, and even in our
own country, we find similar deposits, varying of course

in the different species present I have been

enabled to examine some of the curious raised fossil beach
near Copiapo in Chili, which is gradually forming into
stone. Though this beach is one mile from the present
shore, and 180 feet above the level of the sea, yet I have
found in it diatoms of the same species as those that
occur on the shore at the present day ; the diatoms are
also found in a fossil state in peat, coal, bog iron-ore,
flint, and the chalk formation. Thus, in a geological view,
though individually invisible, yet numerically they per-
form a most important part in the crust of the earth — •

G

98 MULTUM E PAKVO.

a part more important than all the mighty monsters that

lived in ages past What purpose do these bodies

serve ? It is highly possible that they form, in a great
measure, the food. of all the minor aquatic animals more
highly organised than themselves ; I have often found, on
examining shrimps, that their stomachs, which are situated
behind the eyes, are entirely filled with diatoms. That
the siliceous shell passes through nearly intact, there can
be no doubt, but it is certain that the internal structure,
the endochrome, may be digested and form the nutritive
portion ; in this view I am borne out by referring to
guano — -a most prolific source of fossil diatoms. Here
we find abundance of siliceous shells, in fact their presence
or absence is now the test of the genuineness of the
article; — these, in past ages, must have been consumed
by small marine animals, these again consumed by fish,
and these in their turn by birds : in guano I have noticed
the proportion of diatoms to be in some specimens nearly
1 in 500 parts. A correspondent from Callao, writing to
the Illustrated London News, on the Cincha guano
islands, says the export of guano from the islands has
increased considerably during the last ten years ; between
300,000 tons and 400,000 tons are the annual amount at
present : here, in a very moderate calculation, from one
spot alone, we have the annual removal of 500 tons of
diatoms!' *

The agency of these mighty but minute forms has been
still further developed in some researches of great interest
* Report of Cornwall Polyt. Soc. for 1857.

DIATOMS IN THE OCEAN. 99

which have been very recently published by Dr Wallich.
He has ascertained that they exist in a free, swimming
condition, in various regions of the ocean, and at various
depths from the surface downward ; that their multitude
is incalculable ; and that they afford sustenance to im-
mense numbers of molluscous and crustaceous animals,
which in their turn constitute the food of the most gigan-
tic creatures of the deep. Dr Joseph D. Hooker had no-
ticed the vast profusion of Diatomacece in the Antarctic
Sea ; and he was struck by the conspicuous appearance
presented by their masses imbedded in the substance of
the ice, or washed up on its surface by the action of the
billows.

Dr Wallich found the surface of the Bay of Bengal and
the Indian Ocean to be crowded with masses of minute
life, forming yellow streaks, flakes, and tufts, intermixed
with glistening points, which, when examined, proved to
be recognisable forms of the organisms in question. The
mighty scale on which the Diatomacece really exist, did
not become manifest, however, until he reached the At-
lantic, between the Cape and St Helena.*

" It was here that, for many degrees, and in bright,
breezy weather, the ship passed through vast layers of
sea-water so thronged with the bodies of a species of
Salpa (S. mucronata) as to present the consistence of a
jelly. What their vertical limits were, it was impossible
to discover, owing to the speed at which the ship was

* See Annals Nat. Hist, for January 1860; and Quarterly Journ. Micr.
Sci. for January 1860.

100 MTJLTUM E PARVO.

moving. They appeared to extend deep, however, and in
all probability, were of a similar character to the aggre-
gations of what is called whale-food in the higher lati-
tudes. Each of these Salpce measured about half an inch
in length ; but so close was their aggregation, that, by a
sudden plunge of an iron-rimmed towing-net, half the
cubic contents, from which all water had percolated,
generally consisted of nothing but one thick gelatinous
pulp. Each individual presented a minute yellow diges-
tive cavity, of the size of a millet-seed, which contained
Diatomaceae, Foraminifera, and other organic particles.

" If we take into account the numbers of Diatomacese
and Foraminifera that must exist in order to afford even
a small integral proportion of the diet of these creatures,
the vast renewal of supply that must be perpetually going
on, and the equally vast multitude of these Diatom-con-
sumers that yield, in their turn, a source of food to the
gigantic Cetaceans and other large creatures of the sea, —
it becomes possible, in some measure, at least, to form an
estimate of the manner in which the deep-sea deposits
become accumulated."

The same observer has, with great ingenuity, applied
these facts to the solution of that much-vexed question,
the origin of the masses of flint that are found in the
chalk. Diatoms are found in great numbers in these
nodules, but the difficulty was, how to account for their
aggregation in these irregular masses. This is solved by
the hypothesis that they are the excrement of whales, —
the insoluble remains of the Diatoms, originally devoured

ORIGIN OF CHALK-FLINTS. 101

by the Molluscs, which in their turn found a grave in the
stomach of the Cetacean. "We find that the siliceous
particles of the Diatomacece, Polycistina, Acanthometrce,
and Sponges, exist not only in a state of the utmost purity,
but that they occur precisely in that state of minute sub-
division which favours the solvent or aggregative process
in an eminent degree. We see that they are gathered
together by the Salpae, in the first instance, from the ele-
ment in which they live, and that they are freed of all,
or nearly all, their soft portions, by the action of the di-
gestive cavities of these creatures. We find that the Salpae
again, in inconceivably vast numbers, afford almost the
entire food of the largest orders of Cetaceans ; and I there-
fore think we are able to infer, with certainty, that, in
the complex stomachs and intestines of the latter, the
further process of aggregation of siliceous particles goes
on upon a gigantic scale, aided by the presence of the
alkalies, and that the aggregated masses being voided at
intervals, slowly subside, without interruption, to the bed
of the ocean/'

Darwin records having seen clustered objects in the
sea near Keeling Atoll, which he does not name, but
which from the figures he has given must have been
Diatoms. But all the streaks and bands of colour seen on
the ocean are not attributable to plants : some of them
are certainly of an animal nature. The following pheno-
menon was noticed by the observer last named on the coast
of Chili. The vessel passed through broad bands of red-
dish water, which when examined microscopically swarmed

102 MULTUM E PARVO.

with minute active animalcules, darting about, and often
exploding. They swam by the aid of a ring of vibratory
cilia, which suggests the thought of the larvae of some
Annelid. They were exceedingly minute, so as to be quite
invisible to the naked eye, being not more than one thou-
sandth of an inch in length. Their numbers were infinite,
for the smallest drop of water which could be removed
contained very many. Yet in one day, they passed
through two spaces of water thus stained, one of which
alone must have extended over several square miles.
How utterly inconceivable, then, must have been the mul-
titude of these minute creatures !

Other navigators have noticed broad expanses of the
ocean tinged with colour, well defined ; as the red water
seen by M. Lesson off Lima, and that which in the vicinity
of California has been called the " Vermilion Sea ; " to
which Sir E. Tennent has recently added the sea around
Ceylon, which is of a similar hue, and which he has
ascertained to be owing to the presence of infusorial
animalcules.*

Off the coast of Brazil, Kotzebue observed on the
surface of the sea, a dark brown streak, about twelve feet
wide, and extending in length as far as the eye could
reach. It was found to consist of an innumerable multi-
tude of minute crabs, and the seeds [or air-vessels ?] of a
submarine alga.

In certain parts of the Arctic Ocean the water, instead
of being colourless and transparent, is opaque, and of a

* Ceylon, i , p. 53. .

FORESTS PLANTED BY FINCHES. 103

deep green hue. Scoresby found that this was owing to
the presence of excessiv ely numerous microscopic Medusce.
He computes that within the compass of two square
miles, supposing these creatures to extend to the depth of
two hundred and fifty fathoms, (which, however, is scarcely
probable,) there would be congregated together a number
which eighty thousand persons, counting incessantly from
the creation till now, would not have enumerated,
though they worked at the rate of a million a-week ! yet
it is calculated that the area occupied by this "green
water" in the Greenland Sea is not less than 20,000
square miles. What a union of the small and the great
is here !

It is little suspected by many how largely small seed-
eating animals, and especially birds, contribute to the
clothing of the earth with its varied vegetable riches.
Peculiar provision is made in many cases for the dissemi-
nation of seeds, in their own structure, of which the
pappus of the dandelion and the adhesive hooks of the
burdock are examples ; but this is largely effected also in
the stomachs of birds, the seed being often discharged
not only uninjured, but made more ready to germinate
by the heat and maceration to which it has been sub-
jected. " From trivial causes spring mighty effects : "
and the motto has been illustrated by a close observer
from this same subject. " Doubtless many of our most
richly wooded landscapes owe much of their timber to the
agency of quadrupeds and birds. Linnets, goldfinches,
thrushes, goldcrests, &c., feed on the seeds of elms, firs,

104 MULTUM E PARVO.

and ashes, and carry them away to hedge-rows, where,
fostered and protected by bush and bramble, they spring
up and become luxuriant trees. Many noble oaks have
been planted by the squirrel, who unconsciously yields no
inconsiderable boon to the domain he infests. Towards
autumn this provident little animal mounts the branches
of oak-trees, strips off the acorns and buries them in the
earth, as a supply of food against the severities of winter.
He is most probably not gifted with a memory of suf-
ficient retention to enable him to find every one he
secretes, which are thus left in the ground, and springing
up the following year, finally grow into magnificent trees.
Pheasants devour numbers of acorns in the autumn, some
of which having passed through the stomach, probably
germinate. The nuthatch in an indirect manner also
frequently becomes a planter. Having twisted off their
boughs a cluster of beechnuts, this curious bird resorts to
some favourite tree, whose bole is uneven, and endeavours,
by a series of manoeuvres, to peg it into one of the
crevices of the bark. During the operation it often-
times fall to the ground, and is caused to germinate by
the moisture of winter. Many small beeches are found
growing near the haunts of the nuthatch, which have
evidently been planted in the manner described." *

Not less important, perhaps, are the results of the de-
structive than those of the constructive propensities and
powers of minute creatures. Of the charming Introduc-
tion to Entomology, by Messrs Kirby and Spence, no less

* Zoologist, p. 442.

LOCUSTS. 105

' than five entire epistles are occupied with the injuries
which we sustain from insects, while two are devoted to
the benefits they yield us. The former is almost an ap-
palling array ; the injuries done to us in our field-crops,
in our gardens, in our orchards, in our woods and forests,
not to mention those which attack our living stock or our
persons, by these most minute of creatures, are indeed
well calculated to impress on us the truth of that Oriental
proverb, which tells us that the smallest enemy is not to
be despised.

The locust has been celebrated in all ages as one of the
scourges of God ; and the Holy Scriptures bear testimony
how often in ancient times, and with what effect, it was
let loose upon the guilty nations. To outward appearance
it is a mere grasshopper, in nowise more formidable than
one of those crinking merry-voiced denizens of our
summer-fields that children chase and capture ; yet with
what terror is it beheld by the inhabitants of the East !
The speech which Mohammed attributed to a locust
graphically represents the popular estimate of its powers :
— " We are the army of the great God ; we produce
ninety-nine eggs; if the hundred were complete we
should consume the whole earth and all that is in it."

It is only a short time since the public papers were
occupied with articles expressing the most gloomy fears
for the noble oak and pine forests of Germany. It was
stated that millions of fine trees had already fallen under
the insidious attacks of a beetle, a species of extreme
minuteness, which lays its eggs in the bark, whence the

106 MULTUM E PARVO.

larvae penetrate between the bark and the wood, and
destroy the vital connexion between these parts, inter-
rupting the course of the descending sap, and inducing
rapid decay and speedy death.

In the north of France, the public promenades are
almost everywhere shaded by avenues of noble elms. In
very many cases these trees are fast disappearing before
the assaults of a similar foe. And the grand old elms of
our own metropolitan parks and gardens are becoming so
thinned, that great alarm has been felt, and the resources
of science employed for the checking of the mischief.
Fifty thousand trees, chiefly oaks, have also been destroyed
in the Bois de Vincennes, near Paris. In all these cases
the minute but mighty agent has been some species or
other of the genus Scolytus.

Fortunately in this clime we know only by report the
consumptive energy of the termites, or white-ants ; " cala-
mitas Indiarum" Wood, timber of all kinds, with one
or two exceptions, is the object of their attacks ; and so
unrelenting is their perseverance, so incredible are their
numbers, that all the wood-work of a house disappears
before them in the course of a night or two ; though in-
dividually they are about the size of the common red ant
of our woods. They have an aversion to the light, and
invariably work under cover: hence, in attacking a tree, a
post, a rafter, or a table, they eat out the interior, leaving
the thinnest possible layer of the outer wood remaining.
It frequently happens that, after their depredations have
been committed, no indication of the work appears to the

WHITE- ANTS. 107

eye, but the least touch suffices to bring down the ap-
parently solid structure, like a house of cards, amidst a
cloud of blinding dust. If, however, as in the case of
the supporting posts of a house, any incumbent weight
has to be sustained, they have the instinct to guard against
the crash which would involve themselves in ruin, by
gradually filling up the hollowed posts with a sort of
mortar, leaving only a slender way for their own travel ;
thus the posts are changed from wood to stone, and re-
tain their solidity.

Forbes in his Oriental Memoirs* has recorded a
curious, but by no means unusual example of the ravages
of the termites. Having had occasion to shut up an
apartment, he observed, on returning after a few weeks, a
number of the well-known covered ways leading across
the room to certain engravings hung in frames. The
glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames
covered with dust. " On attempting," says he, " to wipe it
off, I was astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wall,
not suspended in frames as I left them, but completely
surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the white
ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and
backboards, and the greater part of the paper, and left
the glasses upheld by the incrustation or covered way,
which they had formed during their depredations."

Smeathman tells of a pipe of old Madeira wine hav-
ing been tapped and entirely lost by a band of these
insects, who had taken a fancy to the oak staves of the
* Vol. i., p. 362.

108 MULTUM E PAEVO.

cask. And Sir E. Tennent appears to have fared no
better ; for he complains that, in Ceylon, he had a case of
wine filled, in the course of two days, with almost solid
clay, and only discovered the presence of the white ants
by the bursting of the corks.

They find their way into bureaux and cabinets, and
greedily devour all papers and parchments therein, and
" a shelf of books will be tunnelled into a gallery, if it
happen to be in their line of march." Hence, as Hum-
boldt observes, throughout the equinoctial regions of
America, — and the same is true in similar climates of the
Old World, indeed, in all, where very special precautions
are not taken against it, — it is infinitely rare to find any
records much more than half a century old.

But though the exercise of their instinct brings these
little insects into collision with man, and so far they act
as his enemies, abundantly making up in pertinacity and
consociation what they lack in individual force, — we shall
greatly misunderstand their mission if we look at it only
in this aspect. As an example of mean agents perform-
ing great deeds, we must see them far from the haunts of
man, engaged as the scavengers of the forest- wilds of the
tropics ; the removers of fallen trees, of huge giants of the
woods, commissioned to get rid of those enormous bulks
of timber, which, having stood in stately grandeur and
rich life for a thousand years, have at length yielded to
death. Not long does the vast mass lie cumbering the
soil beneath: the termites attack it, enter its substance
from the ground, and in the course of a few weeks sue-

FOREST-SCAVENGERS. 109

ceed in so emptying it, as to leave it a mere deceptive
shell, on which if you step, to use the comparison of
Smeathman, "you might as well tread upon a cloud."

We presume that, in the following description of a
scene in Brazil, we may understand the insects of which
we are now speaking, though the traveller calls them
"ants:"—

"A number of tall, prostrate trees were lying about,
upon which large columns of ants of all kinds moved
busily to and fro. In penetrating into the depths of the
primeval forest, one sees evidence at every step that these
minute creatures are the destroyers of the colossal trees,
whose strength braves all the attacks of storm and wind.
A striking instance is this of how small are often the
means which the Creator employs to produce the mightiest
results; for what greater disproportion can be imagined
than between an ant and one of these giants of the forest?
No sooner is a tree attacked by them than it is doomed ;
its size and strength are of no avail ; and frequently these
little insects will destroy it in such a manner that the
bark alone remains, and all the woody fibres crumble
away, until the tall tree falls at length to the ground with
a tremendous crash, a prey to the united and persevering
attacks of millions and millions of the ants. Besides
these proofs of the destructive power of these insects, the
forests along the Estrada exhibit evidence of their skill
in the pyramidical ant-hills, similar to those we had seen
on the coast of the province of Kio de Janeiro. We
also observed large trunks of trees pierced with deep

110 MULTUM E PAKVO.

holes, having the appearance of filigree on a grand scale.
This, too, was probably the work of these destructive
insects.'"*

In Africa, there are flies which are the actual lords of
certain extensive districts, ruling with so absolute a sway,
that not only man and his cattle are fain to submit to
them, but even the most gigantic animals, the elephants
and rhinoceroses, cannot stand before them. There is the
zirrib of Abyssinia, the very sound of whose dreaded hum
sends the herds from their pastures, and makes them run
wildly about, till they drop with fatigue, fright, and hun-
ger. There is no resource for the pastoral inhabitants
but instantly to vacate the country, and retire with their
herds to their nearest sands, where they will not be mo-
lested. This they would do, though they knew that hos-
tile bands of robbers were waylaying them. Such is the
terror of a fly.f

Quite as formidable in the southern portion of the
same continent is the dreaded tsetse, like the zvrrib one of
the Tabanidce, though a different species. This insect,
which is scarcely larger than our house-fly, reigns over
certain districts, attacking the domestic animals. Its
bite is certain death to the ox, horse, and dog; yet,
strange to say, it produces no serious inconvenience to
the human body, nor apparently to the wild game of
the country — the buffaloes, giraffes, antelopes, and zebras,
which roam by millions over the same plains.

The effect on the smitten beast is not immediate, nor

* Adalbert's Travels, il, p. 237. f Bruce's Travels, ii., p. 315.

THE GOLUBACSER FLY. Ill

does the buzz produce the terror which that of the zimb
does. It is not till after several days that the poison
begins to manifest its effect: then the eyes and nose dis-
charge freely, the animal swells, and becomes gradually
emaciated, till at length violent purging supervenes, and
the animal perishes, the whole blood and flesh being unna-
turally altered in condition*

Nor is Europe wholly free from such plagues. There
is, in Servia and the Banat, a minute fly,f from whose
destructive assaults on the cattle the inhabitants have
suffered immense losses. A traveller, arriving at Golu-
bacs, on the Danube, thus speaks of it: —

" Near this place we found a range of caverns, famous
for producing the poisonous fly, too well known in Servia
and Hungary under the name of the Golubacser fly. These
singular and venomous insects, somewhat resembling
musquitoes, generally make their appearance during the
first great heat of the summer, in such numbers as to
appear like vast volumes of smoke. Their attacks are
always directed against every description of quadruped,
and so potent is the poison they communicate, that even
an ox is unable to withstand its influence, for he always
expires in less than two hours. This results, not so much
from the virulence of the poison, as that every vulnerable
part is simultaneously covered with these most destructive
insects ; when the wretched animals, frenzied with pain,
rush wild through the fields till death puts a period to

* Livingstone's Travels, p. 80, et seq.
t SimnJium Columbaschense, Koll.

112 MULTUM E PARVO.

their sufferings, or they accelerate dissolution by plunging
headlong into the rivers. " *

Perhaps worse, however, than these, or any of them,
are the musquitoea; not that their virulence or fatality
equals that of the tsetse or zimb, but because they are
almost universally distributed. Those, terrible as they
are, are limited to certain districts, but the musquito is
ubiquitous, and everywhere is a pest and a torment.
One needs to spend a night among nmsquitoes to under-
stand what a true plague of flies is. Hundreds of tra-
vellers might be cited on the subject, and if I adduce the
following testimony, it is not because it is the strongest I
could find, but because it is one of the most recent, and
therefore least known : —

That traveller of all travellers, Mr Atkinson, who has
laid open to us the most magnificent scenery of the world,
and the most inaccessible, to whom neither the most fear-
ful chasms and precipices, nor boiling torrents and swift
rivers, nor earthquakes and furious storms, nor eternal
frost and snow, nor burning waterless steppes, nor robbers,
nor wild beasts, presented any impediment, — fairly con-
fesses his conqueror in the musquito. The gnat alone, of
all creatures, elicits from him a word of dread ; — he could
not brave the musquitoes. Over and over he tells us in
his mountain scrambles, that the musquitoes were there
"in millions," — that they were "taking a most savage
revenge on him for having sent his horses out of their
reach," — that they were "devouring" him, — that he

* Spence's Travels in Circassia, i., p. 59.

MOSQUITOES. 113

•

"neither dared to sleep nor to look out;" — that " the hum-
ming sound of the millions was something awful;" — that
he found himself "in the very regions of torment/' which
" it was utterly impossible to endure ; " — that " the poor
horses stood with their heads in the smoke, as a protection
against the pests ; " — and that " to have remained on the
spot would have subjected them to a degree of torment
neither man nor beast could endure, so that they were
obliged to retreat." "I wish I could say," he feelingly
adds, " that we left the enemy in possession of the field.
Not so ; they pursued us with blood-thirsty pertinacity,
until we reached some open meadows, when they were
driven back into their fenny region by a breeze, — I hope
to prey on each other."

* Atkinson's Siberia, p. 75, et passim.

V.
THE VAST.

THOUGH great and small must always be comparative
terms, the human mind does ordinarily set up some
standard of dimensions, for this or that particular class of
entities, and is affected with emotions of surprise and
admiration, in proportion as some examples either exceed
or fall short of it. In living creatures, probably, the
human body is the tacitly recognised medium of size ; for
we call a horse or a buffalo a large animal, a cat or a
weasel a small one ; while, in such as pass beyond these
limits in either direction, we are conscious that the dimen-
sion becomes a prominent element in the interest with
which we regard them. The first exclamation of one who
sees an elephant for the first time, would probably be,
" How big he is ! " and in like manner the first impression
produced by a humming-bird, in most cases, would not
be " How beautiful ! How glittering ! " but " How very
small!"

I well remember the interest and almost awe with which,
on my first voyage across the Atlantic, I saw suddenly
emerge from the sea, the immense black oily back of a
whale. It was almost close to the ship, and it rose like a

WHALES. 115

great smooth bank out of the water, gave a sort of wallow-
ing roll, and quietly sank from sight again. The excite-
ment of the momentary sight prevented my attempting to
estimate its measurement, besides that the entire animal
was not exposed, but it seemed to me nearly as large as
the vessel in which I sailed. The species was no doubt
the great rorqual, since the whalebone whale is said never
to venture beyond the limits of the Arctic Seas. This is
the most enormous of all the animals known to inhabit
this globe, attaining a length of a hundred feet and even
more. The skeleton of one which was stranded near
Ostend in 1827, which was subsequenty exhibited in Paris
and London, measured ninety-five feet. Two specimens
have been measured of the length of a hundred and five
feet, and Sir Arthur de Capel Brooke asserts that it is
occasionally seen of the enormous dimensions of one hun-
dred and twenty feet.*

The "right" or whalebone whale, the object of commer-
cial enterprise in the Polar Seas, is little more than half
as large as this last-named bulk. Eighty and a hundred
feet are mentioned, indeed, by the earlier writers, as occa-
sional dimensions of this species, but these statements are
possibly exaggerations, or else the distinction between
this and the rorqual may have been overlooked. A tra-
dition exists of one Ochter, a Norwegian, of King Alfred's

* The gigantic whales that inhabit the Indian Ocean are probably of
this genus. One was stranded on the Chittagong coast in August 1 842,
which measured ninety feet in length and forty-two in diameter ; and
another on the coast of Aracan in 1851, which was eighty-four feet
long. (See Zoologist for December 1859, p. 6778.)

116 THE VAST.

day, who " was one of six that had killed sixty whales in
two days, of which some were forty-eight, some fifty yards
long." The discrimination here would seem to imply
actual measurement, though perhaps it was not very
precise. At present, nothing like such a length is attained.
The late Dr Scoresby, who was personally engaged in the
capture of three hundred and twenty-two whales, never
found one of this species that exceeded sixty feet. There is,
however, one caveat needful to be remembered ; that an
animal naturally long-lived, and which probably grows
throughout life, is not likely to attain anything like its
full dimensions when incessantly persecuted as the whale
of the Arctic Seas has been for ages past. However, a
whale of sixty feet is estimated to weigh seventy tons, or
more than three hundred fat oxen.

The sperm-whale or cachalot, whose home is the vast
Pacific, from north to south and from east to west, holds
a place as to bulk between the whalebone whale and the
rorqual. Mr Beale, who is the authority in all that
concerns this animal, gives eighty-four feet as the length
of a sperm whale of the largest size, and its diameter
twelve or fourteen feet. Of this huge mass, the head
occupies about one third of the entire length, with a
thickness little inferior to that of the body ; while, as this
thickness is equal throughout, the front of the head ter-
minating abruptly, as if an immense solid block had been
sawn off, this part of the animal bears no small resemblance
to an immense box. The appearance of a whale when
disturbed, and going what seamen call "head-out," this

THE ELEPHANT. 117

vast bluff head projected every few seconds out of water,
has a most extraordinary appearance.

Undoubtedly the largest of terrestrial animals is the
elephant,

" The huge earth-shaking beast;
The beast on whom the castle

With all its guards doth stand;
The beast that hath between his eyes

The serpent for a hand."

But the specimens with which we are familiar in our
ecological gardens and menageries, are inadequate repre-
sentatives of the race. It is in their native regions, of
course, that we look for the most magnificent specimens.
Some exaggeration, however, has prevailed respecting the
dimensions attainable by the elephant. " Seventeen to
twenty feet " have been given as its occasional height in
the Madras presidency. The Emperor Baber, in his
Memoirs, alludes to the report that in the islands the
elephants attain ten gez, or about twenty feet; but he
adds, " I have never seen one above four or five gez/' (eight
or ten feet.) The East India Company's standard was
seven feet and upwards, measured at the shoulder. Mi-
Corse says the greatest height ever measured by him was
ten feet six inches. As an example of the deceptiveness
of a mere conjecture even by experienced persons, he
mentions the case of an elephant belonging to the Nabob
of Decca, which was said to be fourteen feet high. Mr
Corse wished to measure particularly, as he himself judged
him to be twelve feet. The driver assured him that the
beast was from fifteen to eighteen feet ; — yet when care-

118 THE VAST.

fully measured, he did not exceed ten feet. The Ceylon
specimens rarely exceed nine feet ; yet Wolf says, he saw
one taken near Jaffna, which measured twelve feet one
inch, of course to the arch of the back.

The elephants of the farther peninsula much excel those
of India and Ceylon, perhaps because they are less dis-
turbed. The skeleton of one in the museum at St Peters-
burg, which was sent to Peter the Great by the Shah of
Persia, measures sixteen feet and a half in height ; and
probably this is the highest authentic instance on record.

The African elephant is perhaps not inferior to that of
Pegu. Mr Pringle, in a very graphic picture, has described
an unexpected rencontre with an enormous elephant in an
African valley. " We halted, and surveyed him for a few
minutes in silent admiration and astonishment. He was,
indeed, a mighty and magnificent creature. The two
engineer officers, who were familiar with the appearance
of the elephant in his wild state, agreed that the animal
before us was at least fourteen feet in height." Major
Denham in his expedition into Central Africa, met with
some which he guessed to be sixteen feet high ; but one
which he saw killed, and which he characterises as " an
immense fellow," measured twelve feet six to the back.*
Fossil remains of an elephant have been discovered at
Jubbalpore, which measure fifteen feet to the shoulder.

I need only advert to other colossal quadrupeds, the

* Sir E. Tennent, (Ceylon, ii., p. 291,) quoting this account, says " nine
feet six inches ; " but this is a mis-reading. It was nine feet six inches
to the hip-bone ; and three feet more to the back.

THE CONDOR. 119

seven or eight species of rhinoceros, the hippopotamus,
the giraffe, the camel, the gaur, the gayall, and other great
wild oxen of India ; the urus, the bison, the Cape buffalo,
the eland. Most of these dwell in the poor and arid
regions of South Africa; where the nakedness of the
country permits them to be seen to advantage. Dr An-
drew Smith, in one day's march with the bullock- waggons
saw, without wandering to any great distance on either
side, between one hundred and one hundred and fifty rhino-
ceroses, which belonged to three species ; the same day he
saw several herds of giraffes, amounting together to nearly
a hundred ; and, though no elephants were observed, yet
they are found in this district. At the distance of little
more than an hour's march from their place of encamp-
ment on the previous night, his party actually killed at
one spot eight hippopotamuses, and saw many more.
In this same river there were likewise crocodiles.

Among birds, the condor of the Andes has been the
subject of greatly exaggerated reports of its dimen-
sions. When it was first discovered by the Spanish con-
querors of America, it was compared to the Rokh of
Arabian fable, and by some even considered to be the
identical bird, "which is able to trusse an elephant."
Garcilasso states that some of those killed by the
Spaniards measured fifteen or sixteen feet (the vagueness
of the " or" in what professes to be actual measurement
is suspicious) from tip to tip of the extended wings. He
adds that two will attack a bull and devour it, and that
single individuals will slay boys of twelve years old.

120 THE VAST.

Desmarchais improves upon this ; stretches the expan-
sion of the wings to eighteen feet ; a width so enormous
that, as he says, the bird can never enter the forest ; and
he declares that a single one will attack a man, and
carry off a stag.

A modern traveller, however, soars far beyond these
puny flights of imagination, and gravely gives forty feet
as the measurement, carefully noted, as he informs us,
" with his own hand/' from the actual specimen. It is
only charitable to conclude that he really measured sixteen
feet, and that he either wrote " spaces " by mistake, or,
which is most likely, wrote simply "16," translating it
afterwards when he compared his notes with what others
had said before him. Here, however, is the veracious
description, which the reader will see does not lack
romance in its embellishment.

" It was so satiated with its repast on the carcass of a
horse, as to suffer me to approach within pistol-shot
before it extended its enormous wings to take flight,
which was to me the signal to fire ; and having loaded
with an ample charge of pellets, my aim proved effectual
and fatal. What a formidable monster did I behold,
screaming and flapping in the last convulsive struggle of
life 1 It may be difficult to believe that the most gigantic
animal which inhabits the earth or the ocean, can be
equalled in size by a tenant of the air ; and those persons
who have never seen a larger bird than our mountain
eagle, will probably read with astonishment of a species
of that same bird, in the southern hemisphere, being so

THE CONDOR. 121

large and strong as to seize an ox with its talons, and to
lift it into the air, whence it lets it fall to the ground, in
order to kill it and prey upon the carcass. But this
astonishment must, in a great measure, subside when the
dimensions of the bird are taken into consideration, and
which, incredible as they may appear, I now insert from
a note taken by my own hand. When the wings are
spread they measure sixteen spaces, forty feet in extent
from point to point. The feathers are eight spaces,
twenty feet in length, and the quill part, two palms,
eight feet in circumference. It is said to have strength
enough to carry off a living rhinoceros." *

Humboldt dissipated these extravagances; though he
confesses that it appeared to himself of colossal size, and
it was only the actual admeasurement of a dead specimen
that corrected the optical illusion. He met with no ex-
ample that exceeded nine feet, and he was assured by
many of the inhabitants of Quito that they had never
shot any that exceeded eleven. This estimate, however,
appears to be below the reality ; for Tschudi, a most care-
ful and reliable authority, and an accomplished zoologist,
assigns to this bird in one place an expanse of "from
twelve to thirteen feet/' while in another he says : " I
measured a very large male condor, and the width from
the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was fourteen
English feet and two inches, an enormous expanse of
wing, not equalled by any other bird except the white
albatross." -\- So far from his " trussing a rhinoceros," or

* Temple's Travels in Pern. f Travels in Peru.

1 22 THE VAST.

even an ox, he cannot, according to Tschudi, raise even a
sheep from the ground. " He cannot, when flying, carry
a weight exceeding eight or ten pounds/' The voracity
of the obscene bird is very great. The owner of some
captive specimens assured the naturalist that he had
given to one, in the course of a single day, by way of
experiment, eighteen pounds of meat, consisting of the
entrails of oxen; that the bird devoured the whole,
and ate his allowance the next day with the usual ap-
petite.

We have all been accustomed from childhood to regard
with awe the enormous serpents of the hot and damp
intertropical forests ; though the specimens carried about
in travelling menageries have but little contributed to
nurture the sentiment. A couple of coils of variegated
mosaic, looking like a tesselated pavement, about as
thick as a lacquey's calf, wrapped up in the folds of a
blanket at the bottom of a deal box, we had difficulty in
accepting as the impersonation of the demon which hung
from the branches of an Indian tree, and, having pressed
the life out of a buffalo in his mighty folds and broken
his bones, swallowed the body entire, all but the horns.
Here again there is incertitude and disappointment ; and
the colossal dragon, which looms so large in the distance
of time and space, grows " small by degrees and beauti-
fully less " in the ratio of its approach to our own times
and our own eyes. Yet enough of size and power re-
mains, even when all legitimate deductions are made, to
invest the great boa with a romantic interest, and to

SERPENTS. 123

make the inquiry into its real dimensions worthy of
prosecution.

I may observe, that several species of these great ser-
pents exist in the intertropical regions of America, Africa,
and Asia ; but all these, though assigned by zoologists to
distinct genera (the American species belonging to the
genus Boa, and those of Africa and Asia to Python)
have so much in common, in habits, structure, and size,
that I shall speak of them without distinguishing the
species.

The old Eoman historians report that the army of
Attilius Eegulus, while attacking Carthage, was assaulted
by an enormous serpent, which was destroyed only by the
aid of the military engines crushing it with huge stones.
The skin of this monster, measuring 120 feet in length,
was sent to Rome, and preserved as a trophy in a temple
till the Numantine war. Several writers mention the
fact, and Pliny speaks of its existence as well known,

Diodorus Siculus mentions a serpent which was cap-
tured, not without loss of human life, in Egypt, and which
was taken to Alexandria; it measured thirty cubits, or
about forty-five feet in length.

Suetonius records that one was exhibited in front of
the Comitium at Rome, which was fifty cubits, or seventy-
five feet in length.

It is probable that these measurements were all taken
from the skin after having been detached from the body.
I have had some experience in skinning serpents, and am
therefore aware of the extent to which the skin, when

124 THE VAST.

dragged off by force, is capable of stretching : one-fourth
of the entire length may not unfairly be deducted on this
account. But even with this allowance, we must admit,
unless we reject the testimony of sober historians, who
could hardly have been mistaken so grossly as to warrant
such rejection, that serpents did exist in ancient times
which far exceeded the limits that have fallen under the
observation of modern naturalists.

There is a well-known picture by Daniell, representing
an enormous serpent attacking a boat's crew in one of
the creeks of the Ganges. It is a graphic scene, said to
have been commemorative of a fact. The crew had
moored their boat by the edge of the jungle, and, leaving
one of the party in charge, had gone into the forest. He
lay down under the thwarts, and was soon asleep. During
his unconsciousness an enormous python emerged from
the jungle, coiled itself round the sleeper, and was in the
act of crushing him to death, when his comrades returned.
They succeeded in killing the monster, " which was found
to measure sixty-two feet and some inches in length."
This seems precise enough ; but we should like to know
whether the measurement was made by the Lascars them-
selves, or by any trustworthy European.

A correspondent of the Edinburgh Literary Gazette
has told, with every appearance of life- truth, a thrilling
story of an encounter which he had with an enormous
boa on the banks of a river in Guiana. Awaked, as he
lay in his boat, by the cold touch of something at his feet,
he found that the serpent's mouth was in contact with

BOA IN UUIANA. 125

them, preparing, as he presumed, to swallow him feet
foremost. In an instant he drew himself up, and, grasp-
ing his gun, discharged it full at the reptile's head, which
reared into the air with a horrid hiss and terrible con-
tortions, and then, with one stroke of his paddles, he shot
up the stream beyond reach. On arriving at his friend's
house, it was determined to seek the wounded serpent,
and several armed negroes were added to the party.

They soon found the spot where the crushed and
bloody reeds told of the recent adventure, and proceeded
cautiously to reconnoitre. Advancing thus about thirty
yards, alarm was given that the monster was visible.
" We saw through the reeds part of its body coiled up,
and part stretched out ; but, from their density, the head
was invisible. Disturbed, and apparently irritated, by
our approach, it appeared, from its movements, about to
attack us. Just as we caught a glimpse at its head we
fired, both of us almost at the same moment. It fell,
hissing and rolling in a variety of contortions/' Here
one of the negroes, taking a circuit, succeeded in hitting
the creature a violent blow with a club, which stunned it,
and a few more strokes decided the victory. " On mea-
suring it, we found it to be nearly forty feet in length,
and of proportional thickness."

I do not know how far this story is to be relied on ;
but if it is given in good faith, the serpent was the longest
dependable example I know of in modern times. Still,
" nearly forty feet " is somewhat indefinite.

In Mr Ellis's amusing account of his visit to Manilla,

126 THE VAST.

he mentions specimens of enormous size ; but there does
not seem to have been any actual admeasurement.

" On one occasion," he says, " I was driven by an Indian,
(coachman to the gentleman with whom I was stopping,)
in company with a friend, to the house of a priest, who
had some singularly large specimens of the boa- constrictor
[python] ; one, of two that were in a wooden pen together,
could hardly have been less than fifty feet long, and the
stoutest part as thick round as a very fat man's body."*

Bontius speaks of some which were upwards of thirty-
six feet long ; doubtless Oriental pythons. An American
boa is mentioned by Bingley, of the same length, the skin
of which was in the cabinet of the Prince of Orange ; and
Shaw mentions a skin in the British Museum which
measured thirty-five feet. Probably in these last two
cases we must allow something for stretching. ,

In the Bombay Courier, of August 31, 1799, a dreadful
story is narrated of a Malay sailor having been crushed
to death by a python on the coast of Celebes. His com-
rades, hearing his shrieks, went to his assistance, but only
in time to save the corpse from its living grave. They,
however, killed the serpent. It had seized the poor man
by the wrist, where the marks of the teeth were very dis-
tinct, and the body shewed evident signs of having been
crushed by coils round the head, neck, breast, and thigh.
The length of the monster was " about thirty feet, and its
thickness that of a moderate-sized man/'

* Ellis's Manilla, p. 237.

SERPENTS. 127

Mr M'Leod, in the Voyage of H. M.S. Alceste, has
minutely described the feeding of a python from Borneo,
which was sixteen feet long, and observes that, at Whydah,
in Africa, he had seen serpents "more than double the
size " of this specimen ; but it does not seem that they
were measured.

The Penang Gazette of a late date says — " A monster
boa-constrictor [python] was killed one morning this
week by the overseer of convicts at Bayam Lepas, on the
road to Telo' Kumbar. His attention was attracted by
the squealing of a pig, and on going to the place he
found it in the coils of the snake. A few blows from the
changkolf of the convicts served to despatch the reptile,
and, on uncoiling him, he was found to be twenty-eight
feet in length, and thirty- two inches in girth. This is one
of the largest specimens we have heard of in Penang." *

Dr Andrew Smith, in his Zoology of South Africa,
records having seen a specimen of Python Natalensis,
which was twenty-five feet long, though a portion of the
tail was wanting. This is the largest specimen I know
of, actually measured in the flesh by a perfectly reliable
authority ; and even here the amount to be added to the
twenty-five feet can only be conjectured.

It may be interesting to compare these statements by
setting them in a tabular form, indicating each specimen
by some name that shall serve to identify it, and adding
a note of the degree of credit due to each.

* Quoted in The Times, Nov. 1, 1859.

128 THE VAST.

Feet.

Regulus . . . .120 probably stretched.

Suetonius ... 75 ibid.

Diodorus ... 45 ibid.

Daniell .... 62 not reliable.

Ellis .... 50 conjectural.

Guiana .... 40 anonymous.

Bontius 36 reliable.

Bingley .... 36 perhaps stretched.

Shaw .... 85 ibid.

M'Leod .... 32 conjectural

Celebes .... 30 vague.

Penang . . . . 28 perhaps reliable.

Smith . . . . + 25 certainly correct.

Turning from the animal to the vegetable world, we
find giants and colossi there which excite our wonder.
There is a sea- weed, the Nereocystis, which grows on the
north-west shores of America, which has a stem no
thicker than whipcord, but upwards of three hundred feet
in length, bearing at its free extremity a huge hollow
bladder, shaped like a barrel, six or seven feet long, and
crowned with a tuft of more than fifty forked leaves, each
from thirty to forty feet in length. The vesicle, being
filled with air, buoys up this immense frond, which lies
stretched along the surface of the sea: here the sea-otter
has his favourite lair, resting himself upon the vesicle, or
hiding among the leaves, while he pursues his fishing.
The cord-like stem which anchors this floating tree must
be of considerable strength ; and, accordingly, we find it
used as a fishing-line by the natives of the coast. But
great as is the length of this sea-weed, it is exceeded by
the Hacrocystis, though the leaves and air-vessels of that

KATANS. 1 29

plant are of small dimensions. In the Nereocystis, the
stem is unbranched ; in Macrocystis, it branches as it
approaches the surface, and afterwards divides by repeated
forkings, each division bearing a leaf, until there results
a floating mass .of foliage, some hundreds of square yards
in superficial extent. It is said that the stem of this
plant is sometimes fifteen hundred feet in length.*

Mr Darwin,*!* speaking of this colossal alga at the
southern extremity of America, where it grows up from
a depth of forty-five fathoms to the surface, at a very
oblique angle, says, that its beds, even when of no great
breadth, make excellent natural floating breakwaters. It
is quite curious to mark how soon the great waves from
the ocean, in passing through the straggling stems into
an exposed harbour, sink in elevation, and become
smooth.

Such an enormous length is not without parallel in
terrestrial plants. Familiar to every one, — from the
schoolboy, over whom it hangs in terrorem, upward, — as
is the common cane, with its slenderness, its flexibility,
and its flinty, polished surface, — how few are aware that
it is only a small part of the stem of a palm-tree, which,
in its native forest, reached a length of five hundred feet !
These ratans form a tribe of plants growing in the dense
jungles of continental and insular India, which, though
they resemble grasses or reeds in their appearance, are
true trees of the palm kind. They are exceedingly slender,
never increasing in thickness, though immensely in length ;

* Harvey's Marine Algce, p. 28. f Nat. Voyage, xi.

I

130 THE VAST.

in the forest they trail along the ground, sending forth
leaves at intervals, whose sheathing bases we may easily
recognise at what we call joints, climb to the summits of
trees, descend to the earth, climb and descend again, till
some species attain the astonishing length of twelve
hundred feet.*

We are accustomed to consider the various species of
Cactus as petted plants for our green-house shelves and
cottage-windows ; yet, in our larger conservatories, there
are specimens which astonish us by their size. A few
years ago there were at the Eoyal Gardens at Kew, two
examples of Echinocactus, like water-butts for bulk;
one of which weighed upwards of seven hundred pounds,
and the other about two thousand pounds.

The species of Cereus which with us appear as green,
succulent, angular stems, and bear their elegant, scarlet
blossoms, adorned with a bundle of white stamens, grow,
in the arid plains of South America, to thick lofty pillars
or massive branching candelabra. Travellers in Cumana
have spoken with enthusiasm of the grandeur of these
rows of columns, when the red glow of sunset illumines
them, and casts their lengthening shadows across the
plain.

A kindred species in the Rocky Mountains of the
northern continent has been thus described by a recent
traveller : —

" This day we saw, for the first time, the giant cactus
(Cereus giganteus)\ specimens of which stood at first

* Humph., v., p. 100.

THE GIANT CACTUS. 131

rather widely apart, like straight pillars ranged along the
sides of the valley, but, afterwards, more closely together,
and in a different form — namely, that of gigantic cande-
labra, of six-and- thirty feet high, which had taken root
among stones and in clefts of the rocks, and rose in
solitary state at various points.

" This Cereus giganteus, the queen of the cactus tribe, is
known in California and New Mexico under the name of
Petahaya. The missionaries who visited the country be-
tween the Colorado and the Gila, more than a hundred
years ago, speak of the fruit of the Petahaya, and
of the natives of the country using it for food ; and they
also mention a remarkable tree that had branches, but no
leaves, though it reached the height of sixty feet, and was
of considerable girth The wildest and most in-
hospitable regions appear to be the peculiar home of this
plant, and its fleshy shoots will strike root, and grow to a
surprising size, in chasms in heaps of stones, where the
closest examination can scarcely discover a particle of
vegetable soil. Its form is various, and mostly depen-
dent on its age ; the first shape it assumes is that of an
immense club standing upright in the ground, and of
double the circumference of the lower part at the top.
This form is very striking, while the plant is still only
from two to six feet high, but, as it grows taller, the
thickness becomes more equal, and when it attains the
height of twenty-five feet, it looks like a regular pillar ;
after this it begins to throw out its branches. These
come out at first in a .globular shape, but turn upward as

132 THE VAST.

they elongate, and then grow parallel to the trunk, and
at a certain distance from it, so that a cereus with many
branches looks exactly like an immense candelabrum, espe-
cially as the branches are mostly symmetrically arranged
round the trunk, of which the diameter is not usually
more than a foot and a half, or, in some rare instances, a
foot more. They vary much in height ; the highest we
ever saw, at Williams' Fork, measured from thirty- six to
forty feet ; but, south of the Gila, they are said to reach
sixty ; and when you see them rising from the extreme
point of a rock, where a surface of a few inches square
forms their sole support, you cannot help wondering that
the first storm does not tear them from their airy eleva-
tion

" If the smaller specimens of the Cereus giganteus that
we had seen in the morning excited our astonishment, the
feeling was greatly augmented, when, on our further
journey, we beheld this stately plant in all its magnifi-
cence. The absence of every other vegetation enabled us
to distinguish these cactus-columns from a great distance,
as they stood symmetrically arranged on the heights and
declivities of the mountains, to which they imparted a
most peculiar aspect, though certainly not a beautiful one.
Wonderful as each plant is, when regarded singly, as a
grand specimen of vegetable life, these solemn, silent
forms, which stand motionless, even in a hurricane, give a
somewhat dreary character to the landscape. Some look
like petrified giants, stretching out their arms in speechless
pain, and others stand like lonely sentinels, keeping their

THE DRAGON-TREE. J 33

dreary watch on the edge of precipices, and gazing into
the abyss, or over into the pleasant valley of the Williams'
Fork, at the flocks of birds that do not venture to rest on
the thorny arms of the Petahaya ; though the wasp and
the gaily variegated woodpecker may be seen taking up
their abode in the old wounds and scars of sickly or
damaged specimens of this singular plant." *

In the island of Teneriffe there still exists a tree which
is an object of scientific curiousity to every visitor, the
Dragon-tree of Orotava. It has been celebrated from the
discovery of the island, and even earlier, for it had been
venerated by the Guanches as a sacred tree from imme-
morial time. Its height is about seventy feet, but its
bulk is far more extraordinary. Le Dru found the cir-
cumference of the trunk, near the ground, to be seventy-
nine feet. Humboldt, who, when he ascended the Peak
in 1799, measured it some feet from the ground, found it
forty-eight feet ; and Sir G. Staunton gives thirty-six feet
as the circumference at a height of ten feet.

The banyan, or sacred fig of India, acquires a prodigious
size, not by the enlargement of its individual trunk, but
by the multiplication of its trunks, in a peculiar manner
of growth. As its horizontal limbs spread on all sides,
shoots descend from them to the earth, in which they
root, and become so many secondary stems, extending
their own lateral branches, which in turn send down fresh
rooting shoots, thus ever widening the area of this won-
drous forest, composed of a single organic life. This is

* Moilhausen's Journey to the Pacific, ii., p. 218.

134 THE VAST.

the tree which Milton makes afford to our guilty first,
parents the "fig-leaves" with which they hoped to clothe
their new-found nakedness.

" So counsell'd he, and both together went
Into the thickest wood ; there soon they chose
The fig-tree ; not that kind for fruit renown'd ;
But such as at this day, to Indians known
In Malabar or Decan, spreads her arms,
Branching so broad and long, that in the ground
The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother-tree, a pillar'd shade
High overarch'd, and echoing walks between :
There oft the Indian herdsman shunning heat,
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds
At loopholes cut through thickest shade : those leaves
They gather'd, broad as Amazonian targe ;
And, with what skill they had, together sew'd,
To gird their waist." *

Banyans exist which are much older than the Christian
era. Dr Roxburgh mentions some whose area is more
than fifteen hundred feet in circumference, and one hun-
dred in height, the principal trunk being twenty or thirty
feet to the horizontal boughs, and eight or nine feet in
diameter. But the most celebrated tree of this kind is
one growing on the banks of the Nerbudda, and covering
an almost incredible area, of which the circumference still
existing is nearly two thousand feet, though a consider-
able portion has been swept away by the floods of the
river. The overhanging branches which have not (or had
not at the time this description was made) yet thrown
down their perpendicular shoots, cover a far wider space.
* Paradise Lost, book ix.

THE BAOBAB. 135

Three hundred and twenty main trunks may be counted,
while the smaller ones exceed three thousand ; and each
of these is constantly sending forth its branches and pen-
dent root-shoots to form other trunks, and become the
augmenters of the vast colony. Immense popular assem-
blies are sometimes convened beneath this patriarchal fig,
and it has been known to shelter seven thousand men
at one time beneath its ample shadow.*

The Baobab, a tree of tropical Africa, but now natu-
ralised in other hot countries, is one which attains an
immense bulk. Its growth is chiefly in the trunk. It is
by no means uncommon for a bole of seventy-five or
eighty feet in circumference to begin to send out its
branches at twelve or fifteen feet from the ground ; and
the entire height is frequently little more than the circum-
ference of the trunk. The lower branches, at first hori-
zontal, attain a great length, and finally droop to the
ground, completely hiding the trunk, and giving to the
tree the appearance of a vast hillock of foliage.

Some examples of the dimensions of this immense, but
soft-wooded and spongy tree, may be adduced. Adan-
son, in 1748, saw, at the mouth of the Senegal, baobabs
which were from twenty-six to twenty-nine feet in dia-
meter, with a height of little more than seventy feet, and
a head of foliage a hundred and eighty feet across. He
remarks, however, that other travellers had found speci-
mens considerably larger. Peters measured trunks from
twenty to twenty-five feet thick, which he says were the

* Forbes' Oriental Memoir*.

136 THE VAST.

largest he saw. Perrottet, in his Flora of Senegambm,
declares that he had seen some thirty-two feet in diame-
ter, and seventy to eighty feet high. Golberry found
specimens attaining thirty-six feet in diameter, yet but
sixty-four feet in height. And Aloysius Cadamosto, who
was the first to describe the tree, found specimens whose
circumference he estimated at seventeen fathoms, which
would give a diameter of thirty-four feet.*

A kind of cypress, growing in Oaxaca, in Mexico, has
attained great celebrity among botanists, De Candolle
having stated its diameter at sixty feet. Humboldt, who
speaks from personal examination, an advantage which
the great botanist did not possess, reduces it to forty feet
six inches — a very enormous bulk, however, still.

A recent traveller in Venezuela, thus notices a tree of
remarkable dimensions : —

" Soon after leaving Turmero, we caught sight of the
far-famed Zamang del Guayre, and in about an hour's
time arrived at the hamlet of El Guayre, from whence it
takes its name. It is supposed to be the oldest tree in
the world,f for so great was the reverence of the Indians
for it on account of its age at the time of the Spanish
Conquest, that the Government issued a decree for its
protection from all injury, and it has ever since been
public property. It shews no sign whatever of decay, but
is as fresh and green as it was most probably a thousand
years ago. The trunk of this magnificent tree is only

* See Humboldt's Aspects of Nature.

f This is probably the exaggeration of local prejudice.

IMMENSE TEEES. 137

sixty feet high, by thirty feet in circumference, so that it
is not so much the enormous size of the Zamang del
Guayre that constitutes its great attraction, as the wonder-
ful spread of its magnificent branches, and the perfect
dome-like shape of its head, which is so exact and regular
that one could almost fancy some extinct race of giants
had been exercising their topiarian art upon it. The
circumference of this dome is said to be nearly six hun-
dred feet, and the measure [arch?] of its semicircular
head very nearly as great. The zamang is a species of
mimosa, and what is curious and adds greatly to its
beauty and softness is, that the leaves of this giant of
nature are as small and delicate as those of the silver-
willow, and are equally as sensitive to every passing
breeze."*

Even in temperate climates, among the trees with which
we are familiar, vast dimensions are not unknown. A
yew in the churchyard of Grasford, North Wales, mea-
sures more than fifty feet in girth below the branches.
In Lithuania, lime-trees have been measured of the cir-
cumference of eighty-seven feet.j And, near Saintes, in
France, there is an oak, which is sixty-four feet in height,
and measures nearly thirty feet in diameter close to the
ground, and twenty-three feet at five feet high. A little
room, twelve feet nine inches in width, has been made in
the hollow of the trunk, and a semicircular bench within
it has been carved out of the living wood. A window

* Sullivan's Rambles in North and South America, p. 400.
t Endlicher, Grundz. der Bot., p. 399.

I 38 THE VAST.

gives light to the interior, and a door closes it, while
elegant ferns and lichens serve for hangings to the
walls.*

But let us look at examples in which prodigious height
and immense bulk are united. The Macrocystis and the
ratan are enormously lengthened, but they are slender ;
the baobab and the cypress are very thick, but they are
short. The colossal locust-trees of equinoctial America
are pre-eminent for vastness in both aspects. Von Mar-
tius has depicted a scene in a Brazilian forest, f where
some trees of this kind occurred of such enormous dimen-
sions, that fifteen Indians with outstretched arms could
only just embrace one of them. At the bottom they were
eighty-four feet in circumference, and sixty feet where
the boles became cylindrical. "They looked more like
living rocks than trees ; for it was only on the pinnacle of
their bare and naked bark that foliage could be discovered,
and that at such a distance from the eye that the forms
of the leaves could not be made out.

The various species of gum-trees J of Australia and
Tasmania are prodigious examples of vegetable life, occa-
sionally attaining a height of two hundred and fifty feet,
with a proportionate thickness. The following statement
of Mr Backhouse will give the reader a vivid idea of
a Tasmanian forest. He is speaking of the stringy-
bark : § —

* Ann. Soc. Ayr., RocTielle, 1843.

•}• It is copied in Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom, p. 551.

4. They form the genus Eucalyptus. § Eucal. robusta.

GUM-TREES IN TASMANIA. 139

"Some of the specimens exceed two hundred feet,
rising almost to the height of the monument in London
before branching ; their trunks also will bear comparison
with that stately column, both for circumference and
straightness. One of them was found to measure fifty-
five feet and a half round its trunk at five feet from the
ground ; its height was computed at two hundred and
fifty feet, and its circumference was seventy feet at the
base ! My companions spoke to one another, and called
to me when on the opposite side of the tree, and their
voices sounded so distant that I concluded they had in-
advertently quitted me in search of some other object.
I accordingly called to them, and they in answer remarked
the distant sound of my voice, and inquired if I possibly
were behind the tree. At the time when the road was
forming through the forest, a man, who had only two
hundred yards to go from one company of people to
another, lost his way ; he shouted, and was repeatedly
answered ; but, getting farther astray among the prodigious
trunks, his voice became inaudible, and he perished. A
prostrate tree of this kind was measured two hundred and
thirteen feet long ; we ascended the trunk on an inclined
plane, formed by one of its huge limbs, and walked four
of us abreast with ease upon the trunk. In its fall it had
hurled down another, one hundred and sixty-eight feet
long, which had brought up with its roots a wall of earth
twenty feet across ! "

But examples of even superior size have been described
by the liev. T. Ewing of Hobart Town. The species is

140 THE VAST.

probably the same, though called by another provincial
name.

" Last week I went to see two of the largest trees in
the world, if not the largest, that have ever been measured.
They were both on a tributary rill to the North-west Bay
Bivcr, at the back of Mount Wellington, and are what are
here called Swamp Gums. One was growing, the other
prostrate ; the latter measured, to the first branch, two
hundred and twenty feet ; from thence to where the top
was broken off and decayed, sixty-four feet, or two hun-
dred and eighty-four feet in all, so that with the top it
must have been considerably beyond three hundred feet.
It is thirty feet in diameter at the base, and twelve at the
first branch. We estimated it to weigh, with the first
branch, four hundred and forty tons ! The standing
giant is still growing vigorously, without the least symp-
tom of decay, and looks like a large church tower among
the puny sassafras trees. It measures, at three feet from
the ground, one hundred and two feet in circumfurence ;
at the ground, one hundred and thirty feet ! We had no
means of ascertaining its height (which, however, must be
enormous) from the density of the forest. I measured
another not forty yards from it, and at three feet from
the ground it was sixty feet round ; and at one hundred
and thirty feet, where the first branch began, we judged
it to be forty feet ; this was a noble column indeed, and
Bound as a nut. I am sure that within a mile there are
at least one hundred growing trees forty feet in circum-
ference/'

THE MAMMOTH-TEEE. 141

The public exhibition of the " Mammoth-Tree " in
London has, however, familiarised us with the fact that
greater trees exist than any yet noticed. Upper Cali-
fornia is the home of the most gigantic of vegetable pro-
ductions, which form two species of a sort of Cypress,
named respectively Sequoia sempervirens and Seq. Wel-
lingtonia. The latter has attained the most celebrity.

" About thirty miles from Sonora, in the district of
Calaveras, you come to the Stanislas river ; and, following
one of its tributaries that murmurs through a deep,
wooded bed, you reach the Mammoth-tree Valley, which
lies fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. In
this valley you find yourself in the presence of the giants
of the vegetable world ; and the astonishment with which
you contemplate from a distance these tower-like Coniferse,
rising far above the lofty pine-woods, is increased when
on a nearer approach you become aware of their pro-
digious dimensions. There is a family of them, consist-
ing of ninety members, scattered over a space of about
forty acres ; and the smallest and feeblest among them is
not less than fifteen feet in diameter. You can scarcely
believe your eyes as you look up to their crowns, which,
in the most vigorous of the colossal stems, only begin at
the height of a hundred and fifty or two hundred feet
from the ground/' *

Each member of this wonderful group has received a
familiar name, in many cases indicating in its homely
associations the rude mind of the backwoodsman. A

* Mollhausen's Journey to the Pacific, ii., p. 363.

142 THE VAST.

hotel has been built close to the group, which has become
a scene of attraction to visitors from all parts of the
country. An enumeration of a few of the more promi-
nent trees, with their statistics, will enable us better to
form an idea of the scene, particularly if we take the
monument of London as a standard of comparison, whose
total height is two hundred and two feet, and fifteen teet
the diameter of the column at the plinth.

Leaving the hotel, and proceeding into the grove, the
visitor presently comes to the "Miner's Cabin," a tree
measuring eighty feet in circumference, and attaining
three hundred feet in height. The "cabin/" or burnt
cavity, measures seventeen feet across its entrance, and
extends upwards of forty feet. Continuing our ramble,
admiring the luxuriant growth of underwood, consisting
of firs, cedars, dog-wood, and hazel, we come to the
"Three Graces." These splendid trees appear to grow,
and perhaps do grow, from one root, and form the most
beautiful group in the forest, towering side by side to the
height of two hundred and ninety feet, tapering symme-
trically from their base upwards. Their united circum-
ference amounts to ninety-two feet; it is two hundred
feet to the first limb on the middle tree. The " Pioneer's
Cabin " next arrests our attention, rising to the height of
one hundred and fifty feet, (the top having been broken
off,) and thirty- three feet in diameter. Continuing our
walk, we came to a forlorn-looking individual, having
many rents in the bark, and, withal, the most shabby-
looking in the forest. This is the "Old Bachelor;" it is

THE MAMMOTH GEOVE. 143

about three hundred feet high, and sixty feet in circum-
ference. The next tree is the " Mother of thevForest," pre-
sently to be mentioned as having- been stripped of its bark
by speculators in 1854. We are now amidst the "Family
Group," and standing near the uprooted base of the
" Father of the Forest." This scene is grand and beauti-
ful beyond description. The venerable " Father " has
long since bowed his head in the dust ; yet how stupend-
ous even in his ruins! He measures one hundred and
twelve feet in circumference at the base, and can be traced
three hundred feet, where the trunk was broken by falling
against another tree. A hollow chamber, or burnt cavity,
extends through the trunk two hundred feet, large enough
for a person to ride through. Near its base is a spring
of water. Walking upon the trunk, and looking from its
uprooted base, the mind can scarcely conceive its pro-
digious dimensions, while on either hand tower his giant
sons and daughters. Passing onward, we meet with the
" Husband and Wife," leaning affectionately towards one
another ; they are each sixty feet in circumference, and
two hundred and fifty feet in height. " Hercules/' one of
the most gigantic specimens in the forest, stands leaning
in our path. This tree, like many others, has been burnt
at the base ; it is three hundred and twenty-five feet high,
and ninety-seven feet in circumference. The " Hermit,''
rising solitary and alone, is next observed. This tree,
straight and well-proportioned, measures three hundred
and twenty feet high, and sixty feet in circumference.
Still returning towards the hotel by the lower trail, we

144* THE VAST.

pass the "Mother and Son," which together measure
ninety-three feet in circumference ; the " Mother " is
three hundred and twenty, the " Son " a hopeful youth
of three hundred feet. The "Siamese Twins and their
Guardian " form the next group : the " Twins " have one
trunk at the base, separating at the height of forty feet,
each measuring three hundred feet high; the ''Guardian"
is eighty feet in circumference, and three hundred and
twenty-five feet high. Beyond stands the "Old Maid,"
slightly bowing in her lonely grief ; she measures sixty feet
in circumference, and is two hundred and sixty feet high.
Two beautiful trees, called "Addie and Mary," are the
next to arrest our attention, measuring each sixty-five feet
in circumference, and nearly three hundred feet high.
We next reach the "Horse-back Eide," an old fallen
trunk of one hundred and fifty feet in length, hollowed
out by the fires which have, in days gone by, raged
through the forest. The cavity is twelve feet in the clear
and in the narrowest place, and a person can ride through
on horseback, a distance of seventy-five feet. "Uncle
Tom's Cabin" next claims our admiration, being three
hundred feet high, and seventy-five feet in circumference.
The " Cabin " has a burnt entrance of two and a half feet
in diameter ; the cavity within is large enough to seat fif-
teen persons. Two other trees we must note ; one of
which, named the "Pride of the Forest," remarkable for
the smoothness of its bark, measures two hundred and
eighty feet in height, and sixty feet in circumference.
The " Burnt Cave " is also remarkable ; it measures forty

FELLING THE " BIG TREE." 145

feet nine inches across its roots, while the cavity extends
to the distance of forty feet' — large enough for a horseman
to ride in, and, turning round, return. We now reach
the " Beauty of the Forest," a tree sixty- five feet in cir-
cumference, fully three hundred feet high, symmetrical in
form, and adorned with a magnificent crest of foliage.
Beaching the road, and returning to the house, we pass
the "Two Guardsmen," which tower to the height of
three hundred feet, and are sixty-five and seventy feet
in circumference, forming an appropriate gateway to this
wonderful forest.

Two of these trees have been used for the satisfaction
of public curiosity at a distance from their home. One
of the noblest, called the " Big Tree," was felled ; a work
of no small labour, since the trunk was ninety-six feet in
circumference at the base, and solid throughout. It was
effected by boring holes with augers, which were then
connected by means of the axe, and occupied twenty-five
men for five days. But even when this was done, so
accurately perpendicular was the noble column that it
would not fall, and it was only by applying a wedge and
strong leverage, during a heavy breeze, that its overthrow
was at last effected. In falling it seemed to shake the
ground like an earthquake ; and its immense weight
forced it into the soft virgin soil, so that it lies imbedded
in a trench, and the stones and earth were hurled up-
ward by the shock with such force that these records
of the fall may be seen on the surrounding trees to the

height of nearly a hundred feet. The stump was smoothed,

K

1 46 THE VAST.

and has been fitted up for theatrical performances and
balls, affording ample room for thirty-two dancers. The
bark was removed for a certain length, and being put
up symmetrically, as it originally subsisted, constituted
a large room, furnished with a carpet, a piano, and seats
for forty persons. In this state it was exhibited in various
cities of America and Europe.

So successful was this speculation, that another hero
of the Barnum tribe proceeded to separate the entire bark
from the " Mother of the Forest," to a height of one hun-
dred and sixteen feet, removing it in sections, carefully
marked and numbered, for future reconstruction. It is
this trophy which has been exhibited in London, first in
Newman Street, and afterwards at the Adelaide Gallery.
These buildings, however, would not admit of the erection
of the whole, so that it was removed in 1856 to the Crys-
tal Palace, where it now delights the eyes of thousands
daily.

Perhaps we can scarcely regret the removal and trans-
port of these relics, especially as it is said the "Mother"
has not been perceptibly injured in health by the abstrac-
tion of her outer garment. Yet it is a matter of congra-
tulation that pecuniary avidity will no further diminish
this noble grove, for the law has now prohibited the
injury of any more trees, on any pretence whatever.*

All these are the mighty works of an Almighty God ;
not self-produced, as some would fain assure us, by the

* This account is chiefly condensed from a memoir by Dr Berthold
Seemann, F.L.S., in the Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist, for March 1859.

DOXOLOGY.

147

operation of what are called eternal " laws," but designed
by a Personal Intelligence, created by a Living Word, and
upheld by an Active Power.

" Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all
deeps : . . . mountains, and all hills ; fruitful trees, and
all cedars ; beasts and all cattle ; creeping things, and
flying fowl ! His glory is above the earth and heaven."
(Ps. cxlviii.)

VI.

THE MINUTE.

IF great bulk excites our admiration, so does great minute-
ness. He who of old wrote the Iliad within the com-
pass of a nut-shell, might have copied the poem a hun-
dred times over, without eliciting one puff of that gas
which enabled him " hominum volitare per ora," if he had
confined himself to the ordinary scale ; and the curious
interest with which we gaze on a dozen spoons carved out
of one cherry-stone, and enclosed in another, we should
not think of bestowing on the same number of dessert
spoons in the plate-basket. The excessive minuteness of
the object in question is the point to be admired, and yet
not mere minuteness ; we might see objects much smaller,
atoms of dust for instance, and pass them by without a
thought. There must be minuteness combined with a com-
plexity, which, in our ordinary habit of thinking, we asso-
ciate with far greater dimensions : in the one case, the
number, form, and order of the letters that make up the
poem ; in the other, the number, shape, and carving of
the toy-spoons.

And thus, when we look on the tiny harvest mouse,
two of which scarcely weigh a halfpenny, and which
brings up its large little family of eight hopeful mouse-

COMPLEXITY OF STRUCTURE. 149

lings in a nest no bigger than a cricket-ball, or the still
tinier Etruscan shrew, it greatly enhances our interest to
know that every essential organ is there which is in the
giant rorqual of a hundred feet. The humming-bird is
constructed exactly on the same model as to essentials as
the condor ; the little sphserodactyle, which we might put
into a quill-barrel, and carry home in the waistcoat pocket,
as the mighty crocodile ; the mackerel-midge, which never
surpasses an inch and a quarter in length, as the huge
basking-shark of six-and-thirty feet.

Complexity of structure, the multiplicity and variety of
organs, do not depend upon actual dimensions, but rather
upon the position in the great plan of organic existence
which the creature in question occupies. The harvest
mouse possesses a much more elaborate organisation than
the vast shark or colossal snake. In general, the creatures
of simple structure are minute, — the most simple, the most
minute ; but we need to limit this proposition by many
conditions and exceptions, before we shall fully apprehend
the true state of the case. Ignorant exhibitors of oxy-
hydrogen microscopes will frequently, indeed, be heard to
declare that all the specks that are seen shooting to and
fro, or revolving, top- fashion, in their populous drops of
water, are furnished with all the organs, tissues, and
members, that constitute the human frame ; and similar
statements were not uncommon in cheap compilations of
natural history a few years ago. This has been abund-
antly shewn to be erroneous ; but the tendency has been to
run into an opposite extreme ; and to assume that what are

1 50 THE MINUTE.

called " low forms " of organic life are exceedingly simple
in their structure. There is, I say, error here ; the mi-
croscope is daily revealing the fact, that in such beings
the tissues that had been too hastily thought simple and
almost homogeneous are really complex, and that systems
of organs of the most elaborate character are present,
which had been altogether overlooked and unsuspected.

What is more interesting than an examination, by means
of a first-rate microscope, of a tiny atom, that inhabits
almost every clear ditch, — the Melicerta ? The smallest
point that you could make with the finest steel-pen would
be too coarse and large to represent its natural dimen-
sions ; yet it inhabits a snug little house of its own con-
struction, which it has built up stone by stone, cementing
each with perfect symmetry, and with all the skill of an
accomplished mason, as it proceeded. It collects the
material for its mortar, and mingles it; it collects the
material for its bricks, and moulds them ; and this with a
precision only equalled by the skill with which it lays
them when they are made. As might be supposed, with
such duties to perform, the little animal is furnished with
an apparatus quite unique, a set of machinery, to which,
if we searched through the whole range of beasts, birds,
reptiles, and fishes, and then, by way of supplement,
examined the five hundred thousand species of insects to
boot, — we should find no parallel.

The whole apparatus is exquisitely beautiful. The
head of the pellucid and colourless animal unfolds into
a broad transparent disk, the edge of which is moulded

THE MELTCERTA. 151

into four rounded segments, not unlike the flower of the
heart's-ease, supposing the fifth petal to be obsolete. The
entire margin of this flower-like disk is set with fine
vibratile cilia, the current produced by which runs uni-
formly in one direction. Thus there is a strong and
rapid set of water around the edge of the disk, following
all its irregularities of outline, and carrying with it the
floating particles of matter, which are drawn into the
stream. At every circumvolution of this current, however,
as its particles arrive in succession at one particular point,
viz., the great depression between the two uppermost
petals, a portion of these escape from the revolving
direction, and pass off in a line along the summit of the
face towards the front, till they merge in a curious little
cup-shaped cavity, seated on what we may call the chin.

This tiny cup is the mould in which the bricks are
made, one by one as they are wanted for use. The
hemispherical interior is ciliated, and hence the contents
are maintained in rapid rotation. These contents are the
atoms of sedimentary and similar matter, which have
been gradually accumulated in the progress of the ciliary
current ; and these, by the rotation within the cup becom-
ing consolidated, probably also with the aid of a viscid
secretion elaborated for the purpose, form a globular
pellet, which as soon as made is deposited, by a sudden
inflexion of the animal, on the edge of the tube or case, at
the exact spot where it is wanted. The entire process of
making and depositing a pellet occupies about three
minutes.

152 THE MINUTE.

I say nothing about the other systems of organs con-
tained in this living atom : the arrangements destined to
subserve the purposes of digestion, circulation, respiration,
reproduction, locomotion, sensation, &c., though these are
all more or less clearly distinguishable in the tissues of the
animal, which is as translucent as glass, For the moment
I ask attention only to the elaborate conformation of
organs, which I have briefly described, for the special
purpose of building a dwelling. No description that I
could draw up, however, could convey any idea approach-
ing to that which would be evoked by one good sight of
the little creature actually at work ; — a most charming
spectacle, and one which, from the commonness of the
animal, and its ready performance of its functions under
the microscope, is very easy to be attained.

It is impossible to witness the constructive operations
of the melicerta without being convinced that it possesses
mental faculties, at least if we allow these to any animals
below man. If, when the chinpanzee weaves together the
branches of a tree to make himself a bed; when the beaver,
in concert with his fellows, gnaws down the birch sap-
lings, and collects clay to form a dam ; when the martin
brings together pellets of mud and arranges them under
our eaves into a hollow receptacle for her eggs and young,
— we do not hesitate to recognise mind — call it instinct,
or reason, or a combination of both, — how can we fail to
see that in the operations of the invisible animalcule there
are the workings of an immaterial principle ? There must
be a power to judge of the condition of its case, of the

THE INVISIBLE WORLD. 153

height to which it must be carried, of the time when this
must be done ; a will to commence and to go on, a will to
leave off, (for the ciliary current is entirely under control) ;
a consciousness of the readiness of the pellet ; an accurate
estimate of the spot where it needs to be deposited ; (may I
not say also, a memory where the previous ones had been
laid, since the deposition does not go on in regular suc-
cession, but now and then, yet so as to keep the edge
tolerably uniform in height ?) ; and a will to determine that
there it shall be put. But surely these are mental powers.
Yet mind animating an atom so small that your eyes
strained to the utmost can only just discern the speck in
the most favourable circumstances, as when you hold the
glass which contains it between your eye and the light, so
that the ray shall illumine the tiny form while the back-
ground is dark behind it !

tit is a startling thought that there exists a world of
animated beings densely peopling the elements around us,
of which our senses are altogether uncognisant. For
six thousand years generation after generation of Rotifer a

I and Entomostraca, of Infusoria and Protozoa have been
living and dying, under the very eyes and in the very
hands of man ; and, until this last century or so, he has
no more suspected their existence than if " the scene of
their sorrow " had been the ring of Saturn. Dr Mantell
wrote a pretty book, the secondary title of which was " A
Glimpse of the Invisible World." It was a book about the
Animalcules, which are revealed only by the microscope ;
and though it gave little original information, and some of

] 5-4 THE MINUTE.

that unsound, yet, for the time, when the microscope was
in far fewer hands than it is now, it contained much to
interest and much to instruct. The minutely invisible
world has now become tolerably familiar to most persons
of education; and thousands of eyes are almost constantly
gazing on the surprising forms of animals and plants,
which the microscope reveals.

The study of one particular class of these organisms,
the Diatoms, has become quite a fashion, and the reunions
of our microscopists are almost exclusively occupied with
the names, the scientific arrangement, the forms and
sculpturings of these singular objects. I have already
had occasion to mention them in relation to the important
part they play in the economy of creation ; but it may not
be amiss to devote a few words more to them, with the
view to make the reader better acquainted with their
general appearance.

A flat pill-box or cylindrical tin canister, which is much
wider than it is deep, will give a good idea of many of
the Diatoms, such as Arachnodiscus. The top and bot-
tom of the box are formed by flat circular glassy plates,
called valves, and the sides by a ring or hoop of similar
material. Sometimes the outline of the valves (with
which the hoop agrees) is oval, or oblong, or square, or
triangular, instead of circular ; and their surface is some-
times convex in various degrees, but the side is generally
upright, or in other words, the surface of the hoop passes
in a straight line from the edge of one valve, whatever its
outline, to that of the other.

AEAOHNODTSCUS. 155

Here then is a box formed of pure transparent flint-
glass, very thin and delicate, and very brittle. The
valves are marked with minute dots, which appear to be
either knobs or pits ; or with lines, either depressed or
raised. In the beautiful Arachnodiscus, both of these
modes of sculpturing are present. Each valve is marked
with a number of most delicate lines, which radiate from
a central circle of dots to the circumference ; these radii
are connected by a multitude of cross lines, bearing the
closest resemblance to the elegant webs spun by our
common geometric spiders, whence the name given to the
genus ; while in the spaces marked out by these reticula-
tions there are rows of minute round dots. Altogether, the
effect of this complex pattern of sculpture is most charming,
and is heightened by the brilliant translucent material in
which it is wrought, which, as has already been observed,
is like the purest glass.

During life there is, in every individual, a small round
body in the centre of the enclosed cavity, called the nucleus,
and this is surrounded by irregular masses of yellowish
substance, called the endochrome, the nature of which is
not very clearly ascertained. The single specimen, in-
cluding the two valves and the hoop, with their contents,
is called afrustule.

The manner in which these beautiful, but most minute
atoms increase, is highly curious. The pill-box-like frus-
tule becomes deeper by the widening of the hoop, thus
pushing the valves further from each other ; then across
the middle two membranes form, which, by and by, from

156 THE MINUTE.

the deposition of flinty matter, become glassy valves, cor-
responding to the two outer valves, and then the whole
frustule separates between these two new valves, and
forms two frustules. The old hoop (in some cases at
least) falls off, or allows the hoops of the new-made frus-
tules to slip out of it, like the inner tubes out of a tele-
scope.

Now, the separation of the frustules thus made is not
always so complete, but that they remain adherent to one
another, by some point of contact ; and hence arises a
most singular and interesting appearance often presented
by these bodies. Let us suppose that the original frustule
was of the shape of a brick, and that by successive acts of
self-division, it has formed itself into a number, say a
dozen of bricks. These, of course, are laid one on another,
forming a pile ; but all the individuals adhere to one
another by a minute point at one corner, and the matter
of adherence is sufficiently tenacious and sufficiently
yielding to allow of the brick-shaped frustules moving
freely apart in every point, except just the connecting
angle. It is not the same corner that adheres all up the
pile ; more frequently opposite corners alternate with each
other, yet not very regularly, and thus an angularly jointed
chain of the little bodies is formed, which is very charac-
teristic. In some species, in which the form is a lengthened
oblong, the frustules have the faculty of sliding partially
over each other, and thus the chain resembles a series of
long steps.

Sometimes the frustules, perhaps of a graceful wedge-

DIATOMACE^J. 15?

like outline, are attached at the end of long slender threads,
which grow from a common point, and radiate in a beauti-
ful fan-like manner ; at other times, the frustule is of an
irregular trapezoidal form, and is connected with its
fellows by a short intervening band. Perhaps the most
common form of all is that of an italic / without the
terminal dots, each frustule being unconnected with
others. These have the power of spontaneous motion ;
and it is very interesting to mark them creeping along in
a vagrant, jerking manner over the field of the microscope,
making no inconsiderable progress.

There are, then, several circumstances which combine
to make the economy of these creatures full of interest,
and give them a strong hold on our imagination.

1. Their inconceivable multitudes, and their universal
distribution, especially in the waters of our globe, from
the equator to the poles, or at least as near to them as
man has been able to investigate, the everlasting glaciers
of the icy seas being conspicuously stained with them.

2. The vast part assigned to them in the economy of
creation, since, as we have seen, they not only enter largely
into the composition of the solid crust of the globe, but
sustain (mediately) the life of its very hugest creatures.*

3. The very great variety of forms assumed by the
different kinds.

4. Their marvellous elegance and beauty, consisting in
their material, their shapes, and their sculpturing.

5. Their spontaneous movements, and the mystery

* See supra, p. 101.

15S THE MINUTE.

which hangs over the manner in which these are performed,
a mystery which all the perseverance of hundreds of the
best microscopists has not yet been able to dissipate.

6. The power which their structure possesses of taking
up the siliceous matter held in solution in the waters, and
forming of it solid flint, — a process which excites our
wonder and which is quite beyond our comprehension.

7. The uncertainty which attends our conclusions as to
their true character. Are they animals ? Are they plants ?
The question .is still before the judges. Ehrenberg and
other names of high eminence have set them down as
animals, but the preponderance of modern opinion is in
favour of their vegetable nature. And there are some
who would fain make of them a fourth kingdom, neither
animal, nor vegetable, nor mineral, but an independent
group possessing affinities with all.

8. Their minute dimensions. The actual size varies
exceedingly, according to the species, between one-fiftieth,
and one six-thousandth of an inch, or even wider limits.
Perhaps, however, we may set down as an average size
for an oblong frustule, a length of one-thousandth of an
inch, and a width of one-five-thousandth ; that is, that if
you could make a chain of them, set end to end, in contact,
it would take a thousand specimens to measure an inch,
while, if you made a row of them, side by side, five
thousand would be required to fill the same extent.

Highly attractive to a young observer is the variety of
life which meets his eye, as he examines, with a good
microscope, a drop of water from some pool rich in

LIFE IN A DROP OF WATER. 159

organisms. Suppose he has nipped off the growing ter-
minal bud of some Myriophyllum or Nitella, and, having a
little broken it down with the point of a needle, has placed
it in the animalcule-box of the instrument, with a small
quantity of the water in which it grew, selected from the
sediment of the pool-bottom. The amount of life at first
is bewildering ; motion is in every part of the field ;
hundreds and thousands of pellucid bodies are darting
across, making a mazy confusion of lines. Some are mere
immensurable points without apparent form or diameter ;
others are definable and of exceedingly various shapes.
Aggregations of little transparent pears,* clinging together
by their stalks so as to form balls, go revolving merrily
through their waste of waters. Presently one of the pears
severs its connexion with the family, and sets out on a
voyage on its own individual responsibility ; then another
parts company ; and you see that there are plenty more
of the same sort, roving singly as well as in clusters ;
little tops of clear jelly with a few specks in the interior.
Here comes rolling by, with majestic slowness, a globe of
glass, with sixteen emeralds imbedded in its substance,
symmetrically arranged,-)* each emerald carrying a tiny
ruby at one end ; a most charming group. Elegant
forms,}; resembling fishes, or battledores, or poplar-leaves,
for they are of many kinds, all of a rich opaque green
hue, with a large transparent orange-coloured spot, wriggle
sluggishly by, the leaves now and then rolling themselves
up spirally, and progressing in a cork-screw fashion.
* Uvella. f Eudorina. + Euglena.

1GO THE MINUTE.

Disks of clear jelly* are seen, which are continually altering
their outline, so that you soon come to the conclusion
that they have no particular form, but every imaginable
one in turn. The mass, which seems a mere drop of thin
glaire, almost or quite homogeneous, with only one or two
bubbles in it, pushes out points and projections from its
outline, excavates other parts, lengthens here, rounds off
a point there, and this as long as we look at it, so that it
never appears twice in the same shape. Here a tiny
atom'f arrests the eye by its singular movements. Its
appearance is that of an irregular ball, with a bright spot
near the circumference ; the whole surface set with bristles
projecting obliquely from the periphery, not perpendicu-
larly, much thicker and stronger in the vicinity of the
bright spot. It remains in one place spinning round
and round upon its centre, sometimes so rapidly as to
preclude any sight of its distinctive characters, at others
more deliberately, displaying its bristles and surface.
Sometimes it rolls over in all directions, as if to let us see
that it is sub-spherical, not discoid. And now and then
it takes a sudden spring sideways, to a distance perhaps
twenty times its diameter, when it spins as before, or else
skips about several times in succession. Altogether this
is a very active little merry-andrew.

A great oblong purplish mass j comes rolling along, a
very Triton among the minnows. He suddenly arrests liis
headlong course, makes his hinder-end take hold of a
fragment of leaf, and unfolds his other end into an elegant

* Amceba. f Perhaps Trlchodina grandindla. J Stentor.

THE STENTOR. 161

trumpet, with one portion of the lip rolled-in with a sort
of volute, something like the beautiful African Arum or
Calla. The body now lengthens, and goes on lengthen-
ing, until the lower part, which is adherent, is drawn out
to a very slender foot. The open mouth, studded round
with a wreath of vigorous cilia in rapid rotatory motion,
strikes us with a pleased surprise. The cilia are seen,
like hooks, at those parts of the circle, which in perspec-
tive are brought in or near the line of vision, either
turned outward or inward according as their motion is
more or less rapid ; the other parts of the wreath being
visible only as a thin film along the line of their points,
and like little teeth at their bases. The obscure semi-
transparency of the texture of the animal renders it very
difficult to discern the form of the trumpet-outline satis-
factorily ; at one time it appears as if circular, but with
a large round piece cut out of one side ; which yet has a
thin filmy edge, as if the hiatus were covered by a trans-
parent membrane. Then perhaps the mouth is turned
slightly towards the eye, and this hiatus is no longer dis-
cernible anywhere, but one part of the margin is rolled
inwards spirally, but how the other part joins this it is
difficult to see. Then suddenly the orifice appears again,
but as a large round hole cut out of the side, with the
margin quite entire above it ; then in a moment this
aperture is seen rapidly to contract, and close up to a
point. But all these appearances, — the mystery of which
so greatly heightens the interest of these creatures to a
young observer, — seem to depend on the presence of a

102 THE MINUTE.

contractile bladder which alternately fills and empties it-
self, and, when distended, frequently displaces the coloured
parenchyma or flesh, to such a degree that only the thin-
nest film of transparent skin bounds it externally.

The tuft of needle-like leaves, too, is full of life. To
the outer ones are clinging multitudes of Diatoms in fans
and fantastic chains ; and multitudes more of single ones
are sprawling about the field, contrasting, by their slow,
jerking progress, with the rapid, headlong dash of tlie
animalcules. On the plant-stem, as if on solid ground,
is fixed a beautiful tree,* with many slender, divergent
branches, springing from a straight trunk. The branches
bear, instead of leaves, elegant transparent bells or wine-
glass-like vases, which are scattered thickly over them ;
and each vase is furnished with a ring of cilia round the
mouth, which rotates while it is open, but which at will
can be withdrawn and quite concealed by the closing up
of the mouth. Every moment one or other of the numer-
ous branches contracts spirally, with force, like a wire-
spring when weighted, and then deliberately straightens
itself again. And, now and then, the main trunk itself
contracts in the same manner, but less perfectly; and
when it extends we may see a band running down
through the middle of its pellucid substance, in which
the contractile power manifestly resides, and which is
probably of the nature of muscle. The elegant vases
have several globules of yellowish matter in their clear
substance, which seem to be stomachs, or more correctly

* CarcJiesium.

THE FLOSCULAR1A. 163

temporary cavities for the reception of food ; for if a little
indigo or carmine be mingled with the drop of water, the
ciliary rotation brings it to the mouth, and presently we
see globules of a faint blue or pink hue appear in the
colourless flesh, and these speedily augment the depth of
their tint, as more and more of the pigment is imbibed,
until they at length attain the richest deep blue, or full
crimson.

The observer may, perhaps, see also that most elegant
of animalcules the Floscularia. A tube of jelly stands up
from one of the leaves, so filmy and transparent, that one
perceives it only by the sedimentary matters that have
become entangled in its outer surface. It seems to be de-
posited progressively, — a mucus excreted and thrown off
by the skin of the tenant ; and hence the upper portion,
being the most recently formed, is destitute of such ex-
traneous substances, and can with the greatest difficulty
be traced to its termination. Within this tube resides
the beautiful constructor ; a very slender foot or pedicle,
capable of being drawn out to such a length as to equal
that of the tube, and of being suddenly contracted at the
pleasure of the animal, merges into an ovate body of
translucent flesh, in which all the organs are clearly visi-
ble. The upper portion expands into a most exquisite
disk or shallow cup of clear gelatinous membrane, having
five angles, each angle being terminated by a rounded
knob. Each of these five knobs is the seat of a pencil of
long straight bristles, of the most subtle tenuity, which
look as if they had been drawn out of the finest spun-glass.

1 64< THE MINUTE.

There may be perhaps fifty hairs in each pencil, which
radiate from their common base in all directions, and, as
they are graduated in length, the effect of these hairs is
most charming. Any little shock, such as a jar to the
table, or the shutting of a door, alarms the beautiful crea-
ture, and it suddenly closes up its elegant flower, and
retreats into its tube, the hairs forming a cylindrical
bundle as it goes down. It presently emerges again, how-
ever, and unfolds its array as before. The pencils of
hairs are carried quite motionless when expanded, but
when the united bundle is in the act of protrusion, a kind
of thrill, a quivering wave, is frequently seen to run
through it from end to end. There is a wreath of rotat-
ing cilia on the face of the disk, the effect of which is to
draw floating bodies around into its vortex; and the
little giddy monads, that are whirling heedlessly along,
may be seen to be thus entrapped by the living whirl-
pool, one after another, and engulphed in the transparent
prison. And there we may follow them with our eye, and
watch their fate. Hurled round and round in the capa-
cious crop, a pair of nipper-like jaws at length catches
hold of them, gives them a squeeze, lets them go round
again, presently seizes and nips them again, until, after
a few preliminary bruisings of this sort, the ill-fated
atom suddenly goes with a gulp down a kind of trap-door
into the true digestive stomach, and is presently dimmed
and lost in the mass.

Several tiny creatures are labouring with the most
praiseworthy industry among the close leaves of the plant,

THE NOTOMMATA. J 65

Here is one which may remind us of a guinea-pig in its
general outline, but you must suppose the two hind-feet
to be changed into a divergent fork, and the fore-feet to
be obliterated.* It is a most restless little rogue ; rang-
ing among the filamentous leaves of the Myriophyllum
with incessant activity, he now pokes his way through
some narrow aperture, using his curious forked foot as a
point of resistance, now pauses to nibble among the decay-
ing rind, and now scuttles off through the open water to
some other part. We see his large eye, shining with the
colour of a ruby, and set, like that of Polyphemus, right in
the middle of his forehead, and his curious apparatus of
jaws, the points of which are protruded from the front of
his head, and vigorously Worked, when he is grubbing
among the decaying vegetable matter, adding continually
morsel after morsel to the great mass of yellow-green
food, which is already swelling out his abdomen to a pig-
like plumpness. And when he swims away and gives a
fair view of his back to us, we notice the evolution of a
pair of hemispherical swellings, one on each side of the
broad head, and which are evidently connected with his
locomotion. The whole front is clothed with vibrating
cilia, but they are more developed on these organs, which
are only pushed out at the will of the little animal, when
they form strong vortical currents.

In another part of the bunch of leaves possibly a group
of Salpince may be feeding equally busily. These are
something like the former, but their bodies are inclosed

* Notommata lacinulata.

166 THE MINUTE.

in a sort of shell or transparent case, much arched along
the back, nearly straight along the belly, and hollowed
out at each extremity. This shell is a very beautiful
object, when we meet with it, as we often do, completely
cleaned of the softer parts, the animal having died. It is
hard, perfectly transparent, but marked all over with
minute pits. It is closed on all sides, except before and
behind, where, as I have said, it is cut away, as it were,
for the egress of the head, and the forked foot : along the
back it rises into two tall, longitudinal, sharp ridges wijii
a deep furrow between them, and the appearance of this
double ridge, from the perfect transparency of the material,
has a curious effect as the animal moves about. Both
before and behind, the ridges run out into projecting
points, those of the front arching over the head like curv-
ing horns. These little animals derive their nourishment
likewise from the soft vegetable tissues, or the half-dis-
solved matter that accumulates on the stems and leaves
of the aquatic plants. On this they feed greedily, and
nearly the whole of their time is spent in munching away
this with the mouth. To do this the foot, which consists
of two stiff unjointed styles, is brought into requisition.
These are capable of being opened or closed like the feet
of a pair of compasses, and of being brought round into
any position through the flexibility of the base, which
forms false or telescopic joints. The tips of these foot-
styles are used as a pivot on which the animal moves ;
they are placed perpendicularly to the stem, or other sub-
stance, on which it means to crawl or feed, and the body

THE SALPINA. 167

is brought down horizontally, so that the head can touch
the same plane. Thus, without moving its points of
support, the animal can reach a considerable extent of
surface with its mouth, either stretching forward until
the feet are nearly horizontal, or drawing backward until
the points are under the belly.

When I used the term " greedily " in describing its
eating, it was rather with reference to the activity and
apparent eagerness with which the little creature labours,
than to the quantity actually devoured. This indeed is
not very perceptible, though the jaws are continually
thrust forward, and are opened and closed with untiring
perseverance and energy. Probably they are not capable
of detaching more than the minutest particles, for the
effect produced is not the visible admission of atoms into
the stomach, as in the former example, but the gradual
discoloration of the viscera, which become stained with
a yellowish olive hue, that grows more and more intense.

The large oval eggs of this animalcule may also be seen
adhering to the leaves here and there, so large as to be
nearly half as long as the whole animal ; they are beauti-
fully symmetrical, are inclosed in a brittle transparent
shell, and look like birds' eggs. If we watch an individual,
we may easily see an egg laid ; taking care to select one
that is in the egg-producing condition ; a selection which
the perfect transparency of the tissues enables us to make
readily. The ovary occupies the ventral region, and when
an egg is in process of development, its mass gradually
becomes more and more opaque, and larger and larger,

168 THE MINUTE.

until nearly half of the bulk of the body is filled up with it.
Then suddenly it is discharged, a soft and shell-less mass,
but immediately on exclusion it takes its regular oval
figure, and the integument presently hardens into a shell.
Patience, moreover, for a few hours will be rewarded
by a sight of a living well-formed animal hatched from
this new-laid egg. At first it remains so turbid as to be
almost opaque ; but in the course of a couple of hours
or so, it is perceptible that the contents are becoming
pellucid flesh, and developing into organs and viscera, thjg
integuments and membranes becoming more and more
manifest in their overlying infoldings. Another hour
passes ; and now the action of the frontal cilia is discern-
ible ; at first as faint fitful waves, which, however, become
momentarily more vigorous, until at length their lashings
are distinct and incessant. Meanwhile the eye has been
coming into view, visible first as a pale red tinge in a
particular spot near the middle of the egg, and gradually
acquiring a definite outline, and a ruby-like translucent
brilliancy. After this a little working action is perceived
behind the eye, which shews that there the jaws are
already developed, and that their proper muscles are
assuming form and contractile power. About four hours
have now elapsed since the egg was laid ; the movenents
of the embryo are now vigorous, sudden, and spasmodic,
the folds of the body-integument change their places, and
the cilia work more rapidly. Presently, the oval form of
the egg undergoes a slight alteration ; it becomes more
elliptical, and then slightly constricted in the middle,

SCULPTURED SHELLS. 169

apparently by the pushing outwards and inflating of the
two extremities of the body. At this moment a white
line flies round the anterior end of the egg : it is a crack,
and the next instant the separated portion of the egg-shell
is pushed off, and the head protrudes, the cilia waving
nimbly in the water. A moment the new-born young
sits in the shell as in a nest ; but now it glides forth,
and we see that in every point of form and structure it
is the very counterpart of its parent, the shell, the foot,
all the internal viscera, being perfect and comme il faut

The shells in which these little creatures are enveloped
are models of symmetry and elegance, and display great
variety of form. Some of them are sculptured in curious
and beautiful patterns, an elaboration which is truly sur-
prising when we think of the invisible minuteness of the
entire creature. One is clothed* with a shell of the
usual glassy mail, nearly circular in outline, very flat,
but a little arched on the back aspect, the chin hollowed
out in a semicircle, and the brow armed with two horns
curving downward ; the posterior extremity square, with
two lateral spines. The entire surface of this shell is
covered with minute elevated points, which extend even to
the horns and spines; and besides these, the dorsal sur-
face is marked with elevated ridges, which form a regular
raised pattern, impossible to describe by words, but of
curious symmetry, forming three perfect pentagonal areas,
and parts of eight others surrounding them.

This kind of sculpturing is most remarkable in a little

* Noteus quadricomis.

170 THE MINUTE.

active genus,* which, being wholly without the foot com-
mon to this class of animals, is always found swimming,
being apparently incapable of resting, or, at least, of
crawling. The group contains many species, and most of
them have their shells ornamented with some symmetrical
variation of the surface. In one,f a ridge runs down the
middle of the back, dividing the shell into two equal
lateral portions, each of which is subdivided into about
ten polyhedral areas by intervening ridges, of which no
two are alike in form, though each corresponds accurately
with its fellow on the opposite side. The form of each
area is constant in every individual. In another, { the
medial line is occupied by five areas, of which the first is an
imperfect hexagon, the second is square, and the posterior
three are hexagons ; from the salient angles, other ridges
run off sidewise, and form other imperfect polygons. In
others, § the division is into many hexagonal tesselations,
varied with other forms in the outer or hinder areas
recording to the species, and having the peculiarity that
the dividing ridges are well-defined narrow elevations
armed throughout with conical points in single row.

I may be accused of exaggeration in presuming all these
creatures to be seen in one drop of water. I do not pre-
tend to be depicting them from one single actual observa-
tion ; .at the same time I may say that I have described
nothing but what I have personally observed ; and I
have known many small pools and other collections of

•* Anuram. f A. tecta. J A. curvicornis.

!§ A . aculcata, semulata, &e.

THE WONDER OF SMALLNESS. 1?1

water, sufficiently rich in organic life to afford examples of
quite as many species as I have enumerated, aye, and
many more, in a single dip taken at random, though all
might not appear in the live-box at one time. However,
the point is, these and hundreds of others are easily ob-
tainable, and cannot fail to delight the observer. The
variety is almost endless.

Scarcely anything more strikes the mind with wonder
than, after having been occupied for hours, perhaps, in
watching 'the movements and marking the forms of these
and similar creatures, till one has become quite familiar
with them, suddenly to remove the eye from the instru-
ment, and taking the cell from the stage, look at it with
the naked eye. Is this what we have been looking at ? This
quarter-inch of specks, is this the field full of busy life ?
are here the scores of active creatures feeding, watching,
preying, escaping, swimming, creeping, dancing, revolv-
ing, breeding ? Are they here? Where? Here is nothing,
absolutely nothing, but two or three minutest dots which
the straining sight but just catches now and then in one
particular light.

Truly, the world which we are holding between our
finger and thumb — this world in a globule of water — this
world of rollicking, joyous, boisterous fellows, that a pin's
point would take up, is even more wonderful than the
shoals of whales that wallow in Baffin's Bay, or the herds
of elephants that shake the earth in the forests of Ceylon.
Truly, the great God who made them is maximus in
\nininus !

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-

THE CHUCK- WILL'S WIDOW. 173

vested in his remembrance, depends very greatly on the
idiosyncrasy of his own mind, or on some peculiar condi-
tions of thought or feeling with which that particular
object was associated. That which sent such a thrill of
delight through your heart, is to him a mere fact, and
perhaps a fact of very little value. For the thing may be
a very little matter in itself ; it is the time, the place, the
association, the anticipation that makes it what it is. Let
me adduce a few examples.

Living for years in Newfoundland and Canada, Wilson's
American Ornithology had become almost as familiar to
me as my alphabet, and when at length I travelled into
the Southern States, many of the birds which do not ex-
tend their visits to the north had become objects of eager
interest to me. Prominent among these was that night-
jar* whose nocturnal utterances are thought to repeat
the words, " chuck- will's widow." I kno- not what made
this particular bird so interesting ; perhaps the singularly
true resemblance to the human voice of its cry ; perhaps
the solemn hour of its occurrence, for night-sounds have
always an element of romance about them ; perhaps the
rarity of a sight of the bird ; perhaps the superstitions
with which it is invested ; perhaps all of these combined ;
or perhaps none of them ; — I cannot tell ; but so it was :
I ardently desired to hear the chuck-will's widow.

I went to the South, and arrived in the hill-country of
Alabama as spring was merging into the early summer.
I had not been domiciled many days, when one night I

* Caprimulgus Carolinensis.

174 THE MI'MOilABLE.

remained sitting at the open window of my bedroom, long
after the household had retired to bed. It was a lovely
night ; a thunder-storm had just passed, which had cleared
and cooled the air ; the moon was in the west, and the
stars were twinkling ; the rain-drops still hung upon the
trees, sparkling as the beams fell on them ; the large
white blossoms of a catalpa tree were conspicuous just
under my window, and gushes of rich fragrance came up
from a clematis which thickly covered the trellis-work of
the ladies' arbour. The solemn forest, with its serried
ranks of primeval trees, girdled-in the little garden, and
lay dark and vague beyond. It was too early for the
noisy cicadse that in the later summer make the woods
ring with their pertinacious crinking, and not a sound
broke the profound silence. Every element was poetry,
and my mind was in a state of quiet but high enjoyment.
It wanted but a few minutes of midnight, when suddenly
the clear and distinct voice of the chuck- will's widow rose
up from a pomegranate tree in the garden below the win-
dow where I was sitting, and only a few yards from me.
It was exactly as if a human being had spoken the words,
<£ chuck — widowwidow." I had not been thinking of this
bird, but of course I recognised it in a moment, and a
gush of delight and surprise went through me. I scarcely
dared to breathe, lest any sound should alarm and drive it
away, and my ears were strained to catch every intonation
uttered. It continued to repeat its singular call at inter-
vals of a few seconds for about half an hour, when another
from, a little distance answered, and the two pursued their

A JAMAICA BUTTERFLY. 175

occupation together, sometimes calling alternately, some-
times both at the same instant. By and by, a third further
off in the forest joined them, and the first flew away. The
spell was broken, and I went to bed ; but even in sleep
the magic sounds seemed to be ringing in my ears.

A very vivid emotion of delight, was produced in my
mind on my visit to Jamaica, by the sight of Heliconia
Charitonia. The appearance of this fine butterfly is so
totally different from that of any of the species with which
I had been familiar, — the form is so peculiarly intertropical,
so associated with the gorgeous glooms of South American
scenery, — that nothing like it had occurred to me either in
Europe, or in any part of the northern continent. I first
saw it fluttering, slowly and fearlessly, over a great thicket
of Opuntia in full flower, itself a memorable object to be-
hold. The beauty and singularity of the form, the very
remarkable shape of the wings, so long and so narrow,
the brilliant contrasts of colour with which they are
adorned, lemon-yellow and velvety black in bands, and
the very peculiar flapping of these organs in flight, as if
their length rendered them somewhat unwieldy, altogether
took a strong hold on my imagination. I subsequently
saw it under circumstances which greatly heightened the
interest with which I had first beheld it.

Passing along a rocky footpath on a steep, wooded
mountain-side, my attention was attracted, just before
sunset, by a swarm of these butterflies in a sort of rocky
recess, overhung by trees and creepers. They were about
twenty in number, and were dancing to and fro exactly

1 76 THE MEMORABLE.

in the manner of gnats, or as the ghost-moth in England
plays at the side of a wood. After watching them awhile,
I noticed that some of them were resting with closed
wings at the extremities of one or two depending vines.
One after another fluttered from the group of dancers to
the reposing squadron, and alighted close to the others, so
that, at length, when only about two or three of the fliers
were left, the rest were collected in groups of half a dozen
each, so close together that each group might have been
grasped by the hand. When once one had alighted it
did not in general fly again, but a new-comer, fluttering
at the group, seeking to find a place, sometimes disturbed
one recently settled, when the wings were thrown open,
and one or two flew up again. As there were no leaves
on the hanging stalks, the appearance presented by these
butterflies, so crowded together, their long erect wings
pointing in different directions, was not a little curious.
I was told by persons residing near, that every evening
they thus assembled, and that I had not seen a third part
of the numbers often collected in that spot.

Another sight which I can never forget is the swarming
of Urania Sloanus around a blossoming tree at sunrise.
This is one of the most gorgeously beautiful of butterflies,
its broad wings and body being arrayed in a dress of
rich velvet black and emerald green, arranged in transverse
bands, with a broad disk of ruddy gold, the whole spark-
ling with a peculiar radiance, like powdered gems. It is,
besides, an insect of unusual interest to the philosophic
entomologist, because it is one of those transitional forms

A JAMAICAN FOREST. 177

by which great groups are linked together. Every one
would say, on looking at it, that it is a butterfly, and yet
it possesses the technical characters of a moth.

At a certain season, in Jamaica, viz., in the first week
of April, with very accurate regularity, this magnificent
insect suddenly appears in great numbers. The avo9ada
pear, a kind of Laurus, whose fruit is much esteemed, is
then in blossom, and is the centre of attraction to these
butterflies. As the approaching sun is casting a glow of
gold over the eastern sky, one after another begins to
come, and by the time the glorious orb emerges from the
horizon, the lovely living gems are fluttering by scores, or
even by hundreds, around some selected tree. The level
sunbeams, glancing on their sparkling wings, give them a
lustre which the eye can scarcely look upon ; and, as they
dance in their joyousness over the fragrant bloom, engage
in the evolutions of playful combats, or mount up on the
wing to a height of several hundred feet above the tree,
they constitute, in that brief hour of morning, a spectacle
which has seemed to me worth years of toil to see.

If I may allude to one more memorable incident in my
own natural-history experience, it shall be the interior of
a forest in the mountains of Jamaica. From the almost
insufferable glare of the vertical sunshine, a few steps
took me into a scene where the gloom was so sombre, —
heightened doubtless by the sudden contrast, — as to cast
a kind of awe over the spirit. Yet it was a beauteous
gloom, — rather a subdued and softened light, like that
which prevails in some old pillared cathedral when the

178 THE MEMOEABLE.

sun's rays struggle through the many-stained glass of a
painted window. Choice plants that I had been used to
see fostered and tended in pots in our stove-houses at home,
were there in wild and riant luxuriance. The very carpet
was a dense L.ycopodium, of most delicate tracery, cast
thick over the prostrate tree-trunks, and the rugged
masses of rock ; and elegant ferns were arching out of
the crevices. Enormous towering figs and Santa- Marias
were seen here and there, venerable giants of a thousand
years at least, whose vast trunks pierced through the
general roof of quivering foliage, and expanded far above,
while from the crevices of their rough bark, and from the
forks of the lesser trees curious and elegant parasites,
— wild pines, ferns, orchids, cactuses, pothoses, — were
clustering in noble profusion of vegetable life. These
trees, too, were connected and laced together by long
leaves, just as the masts of a ship are laced with the
various stays, braces, and halyards ; some of them stout
and cable-like, others mere slender cords, passing to and
fro, hanging in loops, or loosely waving in the air.

Yet amidst all this magnificence of vegetation, there
was nothing that took so strong a hold on my imagina-
tion as the arborescent ferns. To see these plants, whose
elegant grace I had so often admired in our English
lanes, so magnified that the crown of out-curving fronds
shaded an area of twenty feet in diameter, and yet pre-
serving all the voluptuous lightness and minute sub-
division which are so characteristic of these plants, and
this feathery diadem of leaves reared on the summit of a

A BBAZILIAN FOKEST.

179

stem as high as its own width ; — to stand under the
beautiful arch and gaze upwards on the filigree-fretted
fronds that formed a great umbrella of verdure, — this
was most charming, and never to be forgotten.

The eloquent pen of Charles Darwin has revivified for
us, with a peculiar charm, the impressions made on his
refined and poetic mind by the strange scenes of other
lands. His first experiences of the forests of South
America he has thus recorded : — " The day has passed
delightfully. Delight itself, however, is a weak term to
express the feelings of a naturalist, who, for the first time,
has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The
elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical
plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the
foliage, but, above all, the general luxuriance of the
vegetation, filled me with admiration. A most paradoxi-
cal mixture of sound and silence pervades the shady parts
of the wood. The noise from the insects is so loud, that
it may be heard even in a vessel anchored several hundred
yards from the shore ; yet within the recesses of the
forest a universal silence appears to reign. To a person
fond of natural history, such a day as this brings with it
a deeper pleasure than he can hope to experience again." *

Again, at the close of his eventful voyage, he thus
reverts to the same scenes: — "Such are the elements of
the scenery, but it is a hopeless attempt to paint the
general effects. Learned naturalists describe these scenes
of the tropics by naming a multitude of objects, and inen-

* Naturalist's Voyage, ch. i.

THE MEMORABLE.

tioning some characteristic feature of each. To a learned
traveller this, possibly, may communicate some definite
idea ; but who else, from seeing a plant in a herbarium,
can imagine its appearance when growing in its native
soil ? Who, from seeing choice plants in a hothouse, can
magnify some into the dimensions of forest-trees, and
crowd others into an entangled jungle? Who, when
examining, in the cabinet of the entomologist, the gay,
exotic butterflies, and singular cicadas, will associate with
these lifeless objects, the ceaseless harsh music of the
latter, and the lazy flight of the former, — the sure accom-
paniments of the still, glowing noonday of the tropics?
It is when the sun has attained its greatest height, that
such scenes should be viewed : then the dense, splendid
foliage of the mango hides the ground with its darkest
shade, whilst the upper branches are rendered, from the
profusion of light, of the most brilliaut green. In the
temperate zones the case is different : the vegetation there
is not so dark or so rich ; and hence the rays of the
declining sun, tinged of a red, purple, or bright yellow
colour, add most to the beauties of those climes.

" When quietly walking along the shady pathways, and
admiring each successive view, I wished to find language
to express my ideas. Epithet after epithet was found too
weak to convey to those who have not visited the inter-
tropical regions the sensations of delight which the mind
experiences. I have said that the plants in a hothouse
fail to communicate a just idea of the vegetation, yet I
must recur to it. The land is a great, wild, untidy,

STORKS IN A CHUKCH YARD. 181

luxuriant hothouse, made by Nature for herself, but taken
possession of by man, who has studded it with gay houses
and formal gardens. How great would be the desire of
every admirer of nature to behold, if such were possible,
the scenery of another planet ! yet to every person in
Europe it may be truly said that, at the distance of only
a few degrees from his native soil, the glories of another
world are opened to him. In my last walk, I stopped
again and again to gaze at these beauties, and endeavoured
to fix in my mind for ever, an impression which at the
time I knew sooner or later must fail. The form of the
orange-tree, the cocoa-nut, the palm, the mango, the tree-
fern, the banana, will remain clear and separate ; but the
thousand beauties which unite these into one perfect scene
must fade away ; yet they will leave, like a tale heard in
childhood, a picture full of indistinct, but most beautiful
figures/' *

The late James Wilson made his first acquaintance
with the storks of Holland under very impressive circum-
stances. One summer evening, of a beautifully calm and
serene character, he had sauntered into a churchyard, and
found himself, when the sun had set, and the dim twilight
was fading into darkness, alone. All was solemnly still,
as became the scene ; not a sound being audible to dis-
turb the perfect solitude and silence with which he was
surrounded. Suddenly, a soft and winnowing sound in
the air attracted his attention, and, looking up, with invo-
luntary thoughts of angels and spiritual visitants, he saw

* Rtkl.. eh. xxL

182 THE MEMOKABLK

two white-winged beings hovering in the air, who presently
descended and alighted close to his feet. They were
storks I attracted, doubtless, to the moist and rank herb-
age by the expectation of a plentiful repast on insects and
slugs which the dews had drawn abroad. To .have found
a living man, where they had been accustomed to find
only the dead, seemed to disturb them, however; for they
presently spread their ample wings, and mounted to the
spire, where, perched, they gave utterance to their wild
and singularly plaintive cries, which added greatly to those
impressions of loneliness and seclusion that the incident
had already inspired. No wonder that the naturalist
could never afterwards behold a stork without having
presented to his imagination, in vivid force, that startling
rencontre in the graveyard of Delft. *

Very few persons capable of appreciating the interest
of the spectacle have ever beheld the gorgeous bird of
paradise in his remote equatorial forests. The land in
which it dwells is still a terra incognita to science.
Nearly all the world has been laid open to the perseve-
rance of modern explorers ; but the sullen ferocity o£ the
savages of New Guinea, and their hostility to strangers,
keep us to this day in ignorance of the largest island of
the world. A few glances at the coast, obtained by ad-
venturous travellers, who, well armed, have penetrated a
mile or two from the sea, have only served to whet curio-
sity, and to stimulate desire for an acquaintance with the
productions in which it appears so rich.

* Hamilton's Memoirs of Wilson, p. 33.

THE BIED OF PARADISE. ] 83

Specimens of the birds of paradise had found their
way to Europe, through the native traders of the Oriental
Archipelago, and their surpassing gorgeousness of plumage
had disposed the credulous to receive the fabulous narra-
tions with which their history was invested. Gradually
these absurdities were exploded ; but still no naturalist
had ever beheld the birds in native freedom, till M. Lesson,
the zoologist attached to one of the French exploring ex-
peditions, touched at the island. He diligently used the
few days' stay he made on the coast, and obtained a score
of the birds. Thus he narrates his first observation of
the living gem : —

" Soon after my arrival in this land of promise for the
naturalist, I was on a shooting excursion. Scarcely had
I walked some hundred paces in those ancient forests, the
daughters of time, whose sombre depth was perhaps the
most magnificent and stately that I had ever seen, when
a bird of paradise struck my view ; it flew gracefully, and
in undulations ; the feathers of its sides formed an ele-
gant and aerial plume, which, without exaggeration, bore
no remote resemblance to a brilliant meteor. Surprised,
astounded, enjoying an inexpressible gratification, I de-
voured this splendid bird with my eyes ; but my emotion
was so great that I forgot to shoot at it, and did not
recollect that I had a gun in my hand till it was far
away." *

The bright spot in the memory of Audubon, the enthu-
siastic biographer of the birds of America, was the dis-

* Voy. de la Coquille.

184 THE MEMORABLE,

covery of the fine eagle which he has named " the Bird of
Washington/' "It was on a winter's evening/' he ob-
serves, "in the month of February 1841, that, for the
first time in my life, I had an opportunity of seeing this
rare and noble bird, and never shall I forget the delight it
gave me. Not even Herschel, when he ' discovered the
famous planet which bears his name, could have expe-
rienced more happy feelings ; for to have something new
to relate, to become yourself a contributor to science,
must excite the proudest emotion of the human heart.
We were on a trading voyage, ascending the upper Mis-
sissippi ; the keen winter blasts whistled over our heads,
and the cold from which I suffered had, in a great degree,
extinguished the deep interest which, at other seasons,
this river has been wont to awake in me. I lay stretched
beside our patroon ; the safety of the cargo was forgotten ;
and the only thing that called forth my attention was the
multitude of ducks, of different species, accompanied by
vast flocks of swans, which from time to time would pass
us. My patroon, a Canadian, had been engaged many
years in the fur-trade: he was a man of much intelli-
gence, who, perceiving that these birds had engaged my
curiosity, seemed only anxious to find some new object
to divert me. The eagle flew over us. ' How fortunate ! '
he exclaimed ; ' this is what I could have wished. Look,
sir ! the great eagle ; and the only one I have seen since
I left the lakes/ I was instantly on my feet ; and having
observed it attentively, concluded, as I lost it in the dis-
tance, that it was a species quite new to me."

THE WASHINGTON EAGLE. 185

ft was not till some years afterwards that he had an
opportunity of seeing this noble bird again. On the face
of a precipice was the nest of what the country-people
called the " brown eagle," and some peculiarities in the
situation induced the ornithologist to hope that it might
be the species of which he was in quest. He determined
to see for himself. " In high expectation/' he continues,
" I seated myself about a hundred yards from the foot of
the rock. Never did time pass more slowly. I could not
help betraying the most impatient curiosity, for my hopes
whispered it was the great eagle's nest. Two long hours
had elapsed before the old bird made his appearance,
which was announced to us by the loud hissings of the
two young ones, who crawled to the extremity of the hole
to receive a fine fish. I had a perfect view of this noble
bird, as he held himself to the edging rock ; his tail
spread, and his wings partly so, and hanging something
like a bank swallow. I trembled lest a word should
escape from my companions — the slightest murmur had
been treason from them ; they entered into my feelings,
and, although little interested, gazed with me. In a few
minutes the other parent joined her mate, which, from the
difference in size, (the female being much larger,) we
knew to be the mother-bird. She also had brought a
fish ; but, more cautious than her mate, ere she alighted,
she glanced her quick and piercing eye around, and in-
stantly perceiving her procreant bed had been discovered,
she dropped her prey, with a loud shriek communicated
the alarm to the male, and, hovering with him over our

J 86 THE MEMOKABLE.

heads, kept up a growling, threatening cry, to intimidate
us from our suspected design."

Tempestuous weather prevented access to the nest for
several days, at the end of which time it was found that
the young had been removed by the parents. " I come
at last to the day I had so often and so ardently desired.
Two years had gone by since the discovery of the nest,
but my wishes were no longer to remain ungratified. I
saw one day one of these birds rise from a small inclosure,
where some hogs had been slaughtered, and alight upon
a low tree branching over the road. I prepared my
double-barrelled piece, which I constantly carry, and went
slowly and cautiously towards him ; quite fearless, he
awaited my approach, looking upon me with an undaunted
eye. I fired, and he fell ; before I reached him he was
dead. With what delight I surveyed this magnificent
bird ! I ran and presented him to my friend, with a
pride which those can only feel, who, like me, have
devoted their earliest childhood to such pursuits, and
have derived from them their first pleasures ; to others,
I must seem ' to prattle out of fashion/ " *

I have already mentioned my own first acquaintance
with one of the nightjars ; the reader may be pleased to
have the particulars of a nocturnal Interview with our
native species, as sketched by a plain but trustworthy
observer, a thorough out-of-door naturalist.-f- It occurred
under somewhat romantic circumstances. The worthy

* London's Mag. Nat. Hist., i., p. 118.

t Mr Thomas, the Bird-keeper at the Surrey Zoological Gardens.

A NIGHT WITH THE FEKN-OWL. 187

man had taken a holiday from his metropolitan occupa-
tions, and, to make the most of it, had determined to
spend a summer night sub dio. By sunset he found him-
self many miles from London, in a field in which the new-
made hay was ready for carrying. No human being was
near, and so he threw two of the haycocks into one, at
the edge of a wood, and " mole-like, burrowed into the
middle of the hay/' just leaving his head exposed for a
little fresh air, and free for any observations he might
make under the light of the unclouded moon. In such a
soft, warm, and fragrant bed, sleep soon overcame him,
till he awoke with a confused idea of elves, sprites, fairies
and pixies, holding their midnight dances around him.

" I had not been long again settled," he says, " on my
grassy couch, reflecting upon my wild, fantastic dream, with
all its attendant revelry, when my attention was drawn to
the singular, wild, ringing strain of the fern-owl. It re-
sembled, at times, the whirring, rapid rotation of a wheel,
now swelling, now diminishing, the sounds intermixed with
curring and croaking notes, some of the sounds having a
ventriloquial effect; there was now and then a sharp,
unearthly kind of shriek ; presently there were the same
sounds issuing from other quarters of the wood, until the
whole place was ringing with the wild nocturnal notes.
As daybreak advanced, I could see the fern-owls (there
were at least from four to six birds,) hawking for moths,
chasing and pursuing each other, and sweeping along with
surprisingly sudden turns and tumblings. As I sat motion-
less, with my head just above the surface of the haycock,

] 88 THE MEMOKABLE.

I had a good view of their proceedings ; the birds were
continually snapping at the numerous small moths which
were hovering over the heaps of hay. The birds are not
very shy when pursuing their prey, for they would glide
along close by me ; amidst the gloom one could see them
looming in certain positions, as a ship at sea is sometimes
to be seen in the night-time. At times the fern-owls
would suddenly appear close to me, as if by magic, and
then shoot off', like meteors passing through the air.

"The spectral and owl-like appearance, the noiseless,
wheeling flight of the birds as they darted by, would
almost persuade one that he was on enchanted ground.
Spell-bound, whilst witnessing the grotesque gambols of
this singular bird, there only wanted Puck, with his elfin
crew, attendant fairies, &c., in connexion with the aerial
flights of the fern-owl, to have made it, as it was to me, a
tolerably complete ' Midsummer Night's Dream/ especially
as the fever of my night-haunted imagination had not
as yet vanished. As it was, I was delighted with this
nocturnal and beautiful scene from nature, and I wished
at the time that some of our museum naturalists had been
with me, to have shared the pleasure that I felt." *

The entomological cabinets of Europe have long counted
as one of their most prized treasures, a gorgeous butterfly
named Ornithoptera Priamus. Linnaeus named those
butterflies which are included by modern naturalists under
the family Papilionidce, Equites ; and he divided them
into Greeks and Trojans, naming each individual species

* Zoologist, p. 3650.

THE KING OF THE BUTTERFLIES. 1 89

after some one of the Homeric heroes, choosing a name
from the Trojan list, if black was a prominent colour, as if
mourning for a defeat, and from the Greeks if the prevail-
ing hues were gay. The one I speak of was called after the
king of Ilium, because it was the finest species of the butter-
fly then known. It is found only in Amboyna ; its elegant
wings expand fully eight inches, and they are splendidly
coloured with the richest emerald green and velvety black.

Other species of the same noble genus have recently
been discovered in the same Archipelago ; but the Trojan
monarch remained without a rival. About a year ago,
however, Mr A. R Wallace, an accomplished entomologist,
and one who has had a greater personal acquaintance
than any other man of science, with the Lepidoptera of
the very richest regions of the globe — Brazil, and the
Indian Isles, — announced by letter the discovery and
capture of a still more magnificent species. Having
arrived at Batchian, one of the isles of the eastern part of
the Archipelago, on an entomological exploration, he pre-
sently caught sight of a grand new Ornithoptera, which,
though the specimen was a female, and escaped capture,
gave promise for the future. At last the expected capture
was made, and Mr Wallace thus records his emotions on
the occasion ; — emotions, it must be remembered, of no
tyro, but of a veteran insect-hunter.

" I had determined to leave here about this time, but
two circumstances decided me to prolong my stay : first,
I succeeded at last in taking the magnificent new Orni-
thoptera, and, secondly, I obtained positive imforniation

190 THE MEMORABLE.

of the existence here of a second species of Paradisea,
apparently more beautiful and curious than the one I
have obtained. You may, perhaps, imagine my excite-
ment when, after seeing only two or three times in three
months, I at length took a male Ornithoptera. When I
took it out of my net, and opened its gorgeous wings, I
was nearer fainting with delight and excitement than I
have ever been in my life ; my breast beat violently, and
the blood rushed to my head, leaving a headache for the
rest of the day. The insect surpassed my expectations,
being, though allied to Priamus, perfectly new, distinct,
and of a most gorgeous and unique colour ; it is a fiery,
golden orange, changing, when viewed obliquely, to
opaline-yellow and green. It is, I think, the finest of
the Ornithopterce, and, consequently, the finest butterfly in
the world ! Besides the colour, it differs much in mark-
ings from all the Priamus group. Soon after I first
took it, I set one of my men to search for it daily, giving
him a premium on every specimen, good or bad, he takes ;
he consequently works hard from early morn to dewy eve,
and occasionally brings home one ; unfortunately, several
of them are in bad condition. I also occasionally take
the lovely Papilio Telemachus" *

The sight of so noble an aquatic plant as the gigan-
tic Victoria regia, the rosy-white water-lily of South
America, reposing on one of the glassy igaripes of the
mightiest river in the world, must be an incident cal-
culated to excite enthusiasm in any lover of the grand or

* Zoologist, p. 6621.

THE ROYAL WATEK-LILY. 1 91

the beautiful in nature. Thus speaks Schomburgk, to
whom we owe our knowledge of this magnificent plant,
and its introduction to the aquaria of Europe. " It was
on the 1st of January 1837, while contending with the
difficulties which, in various forms, nature interposed to
bar our progress up the Berbice River, that we reached a
spot where the river expanded, and formed a currentless
basin. Something on the other side of this basin
attracted my attention ; I could not form an idea what
it might be ; but, urging the crew to increase the speed
of their paddling, we presently neared the object which
had roused my curiosity, and lo ! a vegetable wonder !
All disasters were forgotten ; I was a botanist, and I felt
myself rewarded/' *

Mr Bridges, too, in the course of a botanical expedi-
tion in Bolivia, speaks of the delighted surprise with
which he first gazed on the lovely queen of water-lilies.
" During my stay in the Indian town of Santa Anna,"
observes this traveller, "in June and July 1845, I made
daily shooting excursions in the vicinity, and on one
occasion I had the good fortune, while riding along the
wooded banks of the Yacuma, a tributary of the Mamore',
to arrive suddenly at a beautiful pond, or rather small lake,
embosomed in the forest, where, to my delight and sur-
prise, I descried for the first time the queen of aquatics,
Victoria regia ! There were at least fifty flowers in
view ; and Belzoni could not have been more enraptured
with his Egyptian discoveries, than was I, on beholding

* Bot. Mag., 1847.

192 THE MEMOKABLE.

this beautiful and novel sight, which few Englishmen can
have witnessed. Fain would I have plunged into the
lake to obtain specimens of the splendid flowers and
foliage ; but the knowledge that these waters abounded
with alligators, and the advice of my guide, deterred me."*
In the travels of Mungo Park in the interior of Africa,
he is said to have been at one time so exhausted by
fever, and so depressed with his forlorn and apparently
hopeless condition, that he had lain down to die. His
eye, however, chanced to light on a minute moss,-)- with
which he had been familiar in his native Scotland. The
effect on him was magical ; the reflection instantly occur-
red, that the same Divine hand which made that little
plant to grow beneath that burning clime was stretched
out in loving care and protection over him ; and, smiling
amidst his tears, he cast himself on the love of his hea-
venly Father, and was comforted. We may well believe
that the sight of the fork-moss would ever afterwards
call up a vivid recollection of that desolate scene, and
that he could never look on it without strong emotion.

If it should be thought that some of the incidents and
objects which I have adduced as examples of the memor-
able, are mean and slight, and far less worthy of notice
than multitudes of other things that might have been
selected, I would suggest that what makes them worthy
of remembrance is not their intrinsic value, but their con-
nexion with the thoughts of the observer ; a connexion

* Lond. Journ. of Potany, iv., p. 571. f Dicranum bry aides.

A NATURALIST'S ENTHUSIASM. 193

which cannot be commanded nor controlled. Why one
man should have a powerful longing to behold a certain
sort of butterfly or to hear a particular bird, when he
cares nothing about the lion or the elephant ; why a fern
should fill one mind with strong emotion, and a spray
of moss another, while the magnificent palm leaves both
unmoved, we can give no reason but those peculiarities
of thought and feeling which constitute the individuality
of minds. Yet, that such is the fact, every admirer of
nature who has an element of poetry in his soul will
admit. He well knows that the distinct and promi-
nent points in memory, those which invariably start up
in association with certain scenes, are by no means
those — at least, not invariably or necessarily — which
are of most intrinsic importance, but such as to an-
other will often jseem trivial and destitute of aesthetic
power.

" The desire," says Humboldt, " which we feel to behold
certain objects is not excited solely by their grandeur,
their beauty, or their importance. In each individual this
desire is interwoven with pleasing impressions of youth,
with early predilections for particular pursuits, with
the inclination for travelling, and the love of an active
life. In proportion as the fulfilment of a wish may
have appeared improbable, its realisation affords the
greater pleasure. The traveller enjoys, in anticipation,
the happy moment when he shall first behold the constel-
lation of the Cross, and the Magellanic clouds circling

over the South Pole ; when he shall come in sight of

N

194» THE MEMORABLE.

the snow of the Chimborazo, and of the column of
smoke ascending from the Volcano of Quito ; when, for
the first time, he shall gaze on a grove of tree-ferns, or
on the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean. The days on
which such wishes are fulfilled mark epochs in life, and
create indelible impressions ; exciting feelings which
require not to be accounted for by a process of reason-
ing."*

* Views of Nature, p. 417.

VIII.
THE RECLUSE.

THERE are regions where the presence of man is a thing
so totally out of experience, that the wild animals manifest
no sort of dread of him when he does by accident intrude
on their solitude. In the Galapagos Islands, perhaps the
most singular land in the world, all the animals appear
quite devoid of the fear of man. Cowley, in 1684,
observed that the doves there "were so tame that they
would often alight on our hats and arms, so as that we
could take them alive/' Darwin saw a boy sitting by a
well with a switch, with which he killed the doves and
finches as they came to drink. He had already obtained
a heap of them for his dinner, and he said he had been
constantly in the habit of doing this. The naturalist
himself says that a mocking-bird alighted on the edge of
a pitcher which he held in his hand, and began quietly to
sip the water ; — that a gun is superfluous, for with the
muzzle he actually pushed a hawk off the branch of a
tree : in fact, all the birds of the islands will allow them-
selves to be killed with a switch, or even to be caught in
a hat.

Other naturalists have noticed the extreme tameness
of many kinds of birds at the Falkland Islands ; where,

196 THE KECLUSE.

though they take precautions against the attacks of foxes,
they appear to have no dread of man. Formerly they were
more confiding than at present. When the Isle of Bourbon
was discovered, all the birds, except the flamingo and
goose, were so tame that they could be caught with the
hand ; and on the lone islet of Tristan d'Acunha in the
Atlantic, the only two land-birds, a thrush and a bunting,
were so tame as to suffer themselves to be caught with a
hand-net. I have myself had large and beautiful butter-
flies come and suck at flowers in my hand, in the forest-
glades of North America.

Cowper has finely used this phenomenon to heighten
the desolation of a solitary island, when he makes Sel-
kirk, on Juan Fernandez, complain, —

" The beasts that roam over the plain,

My form with indifference see ;
They are so unacquainted with man ;
Their tameness is shocking to me."

But these facts are only local and partial exceptions to
a general rule. They can in nowise be allowed to set
aside the prevalence of that pristine law, by which God
covenanted to implant a terror of man in all the inferior
creatures, even those which are far stronger than he.
" And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon
every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air,
upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the
fishes of the sea/'* Often have I seen, and marked with
wonder, the excessive vigilance and jealousy with which

* Gen. ix. 2.

FEAR AND CONFIDENCE. 197

fishes watch the least approach of man. Often have I
stood on a rock in Jamaica, and seen the little shoals
come playing and nibbling at my feet, apparently all
unconscious of the monster that was watching them ; but
the least movement of the hand towards them was
sufficient to send them like arrows in all directions. And
how often have I been tantalised by the excessive prudence
of some fine butterfly that I eagerly desired to capture,
when, day after day, I might see the species numerous
enough at a particular part of the forest, and by no means
shy of being seen, playing in the air, and alighting con-
tinually on the leaves of the trees, and continuing there,
opening and closing their beauteous wings in the sun,
and rubbing them together with the most fearless uncon-
cern, though I walked to and fro with upturned face
below, — yet invariably taking care to keep themselves just
out of the reach of my net !

This power of judging of actual danger, and the free-
and-easy boldness which results from it, are by no means
uncommon. Many birds seem to have a most correct
notion of a gun's range, and, while scrupulously careful
to keep beyond it, confine their care to this caution,
though the most obvious resource would be to fly quite
away out of sight and hearing, which they do not choose
to do. And they sometimes appear to make even an
ostentatious use of their power, fairly putting their wit
and cleverness in antagonism to that of man, for the
benefit of their fellows. I lately read an account, by a
naturalist in Brazil, of an expedition he made to one of

198 THE KECLUSE.

the islands of the Amazon to shoot spoonbills, ibises, and
other of the magnificent grallatorial birds, which were
most abundant there. His design was completely baffled,
however, by a wretched little sandpiper, that preceded
him, continually uttering its tell-tale cry, which at once
aroused all the birds within hearing. Throughout the
day did this individual bird continue its self-imposed duty
of sentinel to others, effectually preventing the approach
of the fowler to the game, and yet managing to keep out
of the reach of his gun.

There is, however, in some animals, a tendency to seek
safety in an entire avoidance of the presence of man ; a
jealous shyness which cannot bear to be even looked at,
and which prompts the creature to haunt the most recluse
and solitary places. This disposition invests them with a
poetic interest. The loneliness of the situations which
they choose for their retreats has in itself a charm, and
the rarity with which we can obtain a glimpse of them in
their solitudes makes the sight proportionally gratifying
when we can obtain it.

The golden eagle seeks for its eyrie, the peak of some
inaccessible rock, far from the haunts of man, whose do-
main it shuns. Here it forms its platform-nest, rearing
its young in. awful silence and solitude, unbroken even by
the presence of bird or beast ; for these it jealously drives
from its neighbourhood. The bald eagle of North Ame-
rica achieves the same end by selecting the precipices of
cataracts for its abode. Lewis and Clarke have described *

* Expedition, i., p. 264.

THE SUMMEK-DUCK. 199

the picturesque locality of the nest of a pair of these
birds amidst the grand scenery of the Falls of the Mis-
souri. Just below the upper fall there is a little islet
in the midst of the boiling river, well covered with wood.
Here, on a lofty cotton-wood tree, a pair of bald eagles
had built their nest, the undisputed lords of the spot, to
contest whose dominion neither man nor beast would
venture across the gulf which surrounds it, the awfulness
of their throne being further defended by the encircling
mists which perpetually arise from the falls.

Our own wild -duck or mallard is a shy bird, avoiding
the haunts of man, and resorting to the reedy margins of
some lonely lake, or broad reach of a river. The summer-
duck of America has similar habits, but more delights in
woods. I have often been charmed, when standing by
the edge of some darkling stream, bordered with lofty
trees that so overhang the water as nearly to meet,
leaving only a narrow line of sky above the centre of the
river, with the sight of the coy summer-duck. When
the western sky is burning with golden flame, and its
gleam, reflected from the middle of " the dark, the silent
stream," throws into blacker shadow the placid margins,
then, from out of the indistinct obscurity, a whirring of
wings is heard, and the little duck shoots plashing along
the surface into the centre, leaving a long V-shaped wake
behind her, till, rising into the air, she sails away on
rapid pinion till the eye loses her in the sunset glow.

On other occasions we trace the same bird far up in
the solitudes of the sky, breaking into view out of the

200 THE RECLUSE.

objectless expanse, and presently disappearing in the same
blank. We wonder whence it came ; whither it is going.
Bryant's beautiful stanzas, though well known, will bear
repetition here : —

TO A WATER-FOWL.

Whither, 'midst falling dew,

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue

Thy solitary way ?

Vainly the fowler's eye

Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,

Thy figure floats along.

Seek'st thou the plashy brink
Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink

On the chafed ocean side ?

There is a Power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast, —
The desert and illimitable air, —

Lone wandering, but not lost.

Al1 day thy wings have fann'd,
At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere,
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,

Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end.
Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows ; reeds shall bend,

Soon, o'er thy shelter'd nest.

Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven
Hath swallow'd up thy form ; yet, on my heart,
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,

And shall not soon depart.

THE SCOTTISH UEUS. 20 J

He who, from zone to zone,

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,

Will lead my steps aright.

The ostrich is remarkably shy and wary. A native of
wide sandy plains, its stature enables it to command a
wide horizon, while its great fleetness makes the chase
a most severe exercise. " When she lif teth herself on
high, she scorneth the horse and his rider." The rheas,
which are the representatives of the ostrich in South
America, inhabit regions presenting many of the charac-
teristics of the African plains, and have much the same
habits. They are extraordinarily vigilant, and so swift of
foot, that it is only by surrounding them from various
quarters, and thus confusing the birds, who know not
whither to run, that the Gauchos are able to entangle
them with the bolas or weighted cord. Mr Darwin says
that the bird takes alarm at the approach of man, when
he is so far off as to be unable to discern the bird.

Ancient writers mention a species of ox as inhabiting
the forests of Europe, which they call the urus. It is
described as being of a most savage and untameable
disposition, delighting in the most wild and recluse parts
of the forest, of vast size and power. It is generally
believed that this race is preserved in some semi- wild oxen
of a pure white colour, which inhabit one or two extensive
woodland parks in the northern parts of our own island.
It is interesting to observe the effect which the presence
of man produces upon these animals. On the appearance

202 THE RECLUSE.

of any person, the herd sets off at full gallop, and, at the
distance of two or three hundred yards, they make a wheel
round, and come boldly up again, tossing their heads in a
menacing manner; on a sudden they make a full stop, at
the distance of forty or fifty yards, looking wildly at the
object of their surprise ; but, upon the least motion being
made, they all again turn round and fly off with equal
speed, but not to the same distance ; forming a shorter
circle, and again returning with a bolder and more
threatening aspect than before, they approach much
nearer, probably within thirty yards, when they make
another stand, and again fly off; this they do several
times, shortening their distance, and advancing nearer,
till they come within ten yards ; when most people think
it prudent to leave them, not choosing to provoke them
further ; for there is little doubt but, in two or three turns
more, they would make an attack.

The cows and calves partake of this jealous seclusion.
When the former bring forth, it is in some sequestered
thicket, where the calf is carefully concealed until it is
able to accompany its dam, who, till that time, visits it
regularly twice or thrice a day. Should accident bring a
person near the secret place, the calf immediately claps its
head upon the ground, and seeks concealment by lying
close like a hare in its form. A hidden calf of only two
days old, on being disturbed, manifested its inborn wild-
ness in a remarkable manner. On the stranger stroking
its head, it sprang to its feet, though very lean and very
weak, pawed two or three times like an old bull, bellowed

THE EUSSIAN BISON. 203

very loud, stepped back a few paces, and bolted at his
legs with all its force; it then began to paw again,
bellowed, stepped back and bolted as before. The observer,
however, now knowing its intention, stepped aside, so that
it missed its aim and fell, when it was so very weak that it
could not rise, though it made several efforts to do so. But
it had done enough ; the whole herd had taken the alarm,
and, coming to its rescue, obliged the intruder to retire.

In the forests of Lithuania there yet linger a few herds
of another enormous ox, which at one time roamed over
the whole of Europe, including even the British Isles —
the European bison. The great marshy forest of Bialo-
wicza, in which it dwells, is believed to be the only ex-
ample of genuine primeval or purely natural forest yet
remaining in Europe, and the habits of the noble ox are
in accordance with the prestige of his ancient domain.

A few years ago the Czar of Eussia presented a pair
of half-grown animals of this species to the Zoological
Society of London; and a very interesting memoir on
their capture, by M. Dolmatoff, was published in their
Proceedings. A few extracts from that paper will illus-
trate the seclusion of their haunts and manners. " The
day was magnificent, the sky serene, there was not a
breath of wind, and nothing interrupted that calm of
nature which was so imposing under the majestic dome
of the primitive forest. Three hundred trackers, sup-
ported by fifty hunters, had surrounded, in profound
silence, the solitary valley where the herd of bisons were
found. Myself, accompanied by thirty other hunters,.

204 THE KECLUSE.

the most resolute and skilful, had penetrated in Indian
file the circle, advancing with the utmost precaution, and
almost fearing to breathe. Arrived at the margin of the
valley, a most interesting spectacle met our eyes. The
herd of bisons were lying down on the slope of a hill,
ruminating in the most perfect security, while the calves
frolicked around the herd, amusing themselves by attack-
ing one another, striking the ground with their agile
feet, and making the earth fly into the air ; then they
would rush towards their respective dams, rub against
them, lick them, and return to their play. But at the
first blast of the horn the picture changed in the twink-
ling of an eye. The herd, as if touched with a magic
wand, bounded to their feet, and seemed to concentrate
all their faculties in two senses, those of sight and hear-
ing. The calves pressed timidly against their mothers.
Then, while the forest re-echoed with bellowings, the
bisons proceeded to assume the order which they always
take under such circumstances, putting the calves in
front to guard them from the attack of pursuing dogs,
and carrying them before. When they reached the
line occupied by the trackers and hunters, they were re-
ceived with loud shouts and discharges of guns. Immedi-
ately the order of battle was changed; the old bulls
rushed furiously towards the side, burst through the line
of the hunters, and continued their victorious course,
bounding along, and disdaining to occupy themselves
with their enemies, who were lying close against the great
trees. The hunters managed, however, to separate from

THE MOOSE. 205

the herd two calves ; one of these, three months old, was
taken at one effort, another of fifteen months, though
seized by eight trackers, overturned them all, and fled."
It was subsequently taken, as were five others, in another
part of the forest, one of them only a few days old. The
savage impatience of man manifested by these young
sylvan s, was in the ratio of their age and sex. The bull
of fifteen months maintained for a long time its sullen
and morose behaviour ; it became furious at the approach
of man, tossing its head, lashing its tail, and presenting
its horns. After a while, however, it became tolerant of
its keeper, and was allowed a measure of liberty.*

All the kinds of deer are shy and timid, but that fine
species the moose of North America is peculiarly jealous
and suspicious. The Indians declare that he is more shy
and difficult to take than any other animal ; more vigilant,
more acute of sense, than the reindeer or bison ; fleeter
than the wapiti, more sagacious and more cautious
than the deer. In the most furious tempest, when the
wind, and the thunder, and the groaning of the trees, and
the crash of falling timber, are combining to fill the ear
with an incessant roar, if a man, either with foot or hand,
break the smallest dry twig in the forest, the Indians
aver that the moose will take notice of it ; he may not
instantly take to flight, but he ceases to eat, and con-
centrates his attention. 4 If, in the course of an hour or
so, the man neither moves nor makes the slightest noise,
the animal may begin to feed again ; but he does not forget

* Proc. Zool. Soc., 1848, p. Iti.

200 THE EECLUSE.

what attracted his notice, and for many hours manifesto
an increased watchfulness. Hence, it requires the utmost
patience of an Indian hunter to stalk moose successfully.

The Indians believe that this animal, when other re-
sources fail, has the power of remaining under water for
a long time. It may be an exaggeration growing out
of their experience of the many marvellous devices which
he occasionally practises for self-preservation, and in
which they believe he is more accomplished than the fox,
or any other animal. A curious story is told, which may
serve to illustrate the reputation of the beast in the eyes
of those children of the forest, if it be worth no more. If
there is any truth in it, we must assume that the animal
managed to bring his nostrils to the surface at intervals ;
but how he could do this so as to elude the observation
of his hunters is the marvel. For it must be borne in
mind that they were Eed Indians, not white men.

Two credible Indians, after a long day's absence on a
hunt, came in and stated that they had chased a moose
into a small pond ; that they had seen him go to the
middle of it and disappear, and then, choosing positions
from which they could see every part of the circumference
of the pond, smoked and waited until evening ; during all
which time they could see no motion of the water, or
other indication of the position of the moose.

At length, being discouraged, they had abandoned all
hope of taking him, and returned home. Not long after-
wards came a solitary hunter, loaded with meat, who re-
lated, that having followed the track of a moose for some

A MOOSE- YARD. 20?

distance, he had traced it to the pond before mentioned ;
but having also discovered the tracks of two men, made
at the same time as those of the moose, he concluded they
must have killed it. Nevertheless, approaching cautiously
to the margin of the pond, he sat down to rest. Presently,
he saw the moose rise slowly in the centre of the pond,
which was not very deep, and wade towards the shore
where he was sitting. When he came sufficiently near,
he shot him in the water.

The manner of hunting moose in winter is also illus-
trative of his recluse disposition. Deer are taken exten-
sively by a process called " crusting ; " that is, pursuing
them, after a night's rain followed by frost has formed a
crust of ice upon the surface of the deep snow. This
will easily bear the weight of a man furnished with
rackets, or snow-shoes, but gives way at once under the
hoof of a moose or deer ; and the animal thus embar-
rassed is readily overtaken and killed.

The moose, though occasionally taken by " crusting,"
seems to understand his danger, and to take precautions
against it.

The sagacious animal, so soon as a heavy storm sets
in, begins to form what is called a " moose-yard/' which
is a large area, wherein he industriously tramples down
the snow while it is falling, so as to have room to move
about in and browse upon the branches of trees, without
the necessity of wandering from place to place, struggling
through the deep drifts, exposed to the wolves, who, being
of lighter make, hold a carnival upon the deer in crusting

208 THE EECLUSE.

time. No wolf, however, dares enter a moose-yard. He
will troop round and round upon the snow-bank which
walls it, and his howling will, perhaps, bring two or three of
his brethren to the spot, who will try to terrify the moose
from his vantage ground, but dare not descend into it.

The Indians occasionally find a moose-yard, and take
an easy advantage of the discovery, as he can no more
defend himself or escape than a cow in a village pound.
But, when at liberty, and under no special disadvantage,
the moose is one of the noblest objects of a sportsman's
ambition, at least among the herbivorous races. His
habits are essentially solitary. He moves about not like
the elk, in roving gangs, but stalks in lonely majesty
through his leafy domains ; and, when disturbed by the
hunter, instead of bounding away like his congeners, he
trots off at a gait which, though faster than that of the
fleetest horse, is so easy and careless in its motion that it
seems to cost him no exertion. But, though retreating
thus when pursued, he is one of the most terrible beasts
of the forest when wounded and at bay ; and the Indians
of the north-west, among some tribes, celebrate the death
of a bull-moose, when they are so fortunate as to kill one,
with all the songs of triumph that they would raise over
a conquered warrior.*

Who has not read of the chamois of the Alps and the
Tyrol ? and who does not know with what an unrelaxing
vigilance it maintains its inaccessible strongholds? As
long as summer warms the mountain air, it seeks the

* Hoffmann's Forest and Prairie, i., p. 92.

THE CHAMOia 20.9

loftiest ridges, ever mounting higher and higher, treading
with sure-footed fearlessness the narrow shelves, with pre-
cipices above and below, leaping lightly across yawning
chasms a thousand yards in depth, and climbing up the
slippery and perilous peaks, to stand as sentry in the
glittering sky. Excessively wary and suspicious, all its
senses seem endowed with a wonderful acuteness, so that
it becomes aware of the approach of the daring hunter
when half-a-league distant. When alarmed, it bounds
from ledge to ledge, seeking to gain a sight of every
quarter, uttering all the while its peculiar hiss of impa-
tience. At length it catches a glimpse, far below, of the
enemy whose scent had come up upon the breeze. Away
now it bounds, scaling the most terrible precipices, jump-
ing across the fissures, and leaping from crag to crag
with amazing energy. Even a perpendicular wall of rock
thirty feet in depth does not balk its progress: with
astonishing boldness it takes the leap, striking the face of
the rock repeatedly with its feet as it descends, both to
break the violence of the shock, and to direct its course
more' accurately. Every danger is subordinate to that of
the proximity of man, and every faculty is in requisition
to the indomitable love of liberty. Hence the chamois is
dear to the Swiss : he is the very type of their nation ; and
his unconquerable freedom is the reflection of their own.

The character of this interesting antelope, as well as that
of the scenery in which it dwells, are so pleasantly touched
in a little poem that I have lately met with, by Miss Crewd-
son, that I make no apology for quoting it at length : —

210 THE KECLUSE.

THE GEMZE FAWN.*

In a sunny Alpine valley

'Neath the snowy Wetterhoni,
See a maiden, by a chalet,

Playing with a Gemze* fawn.
How he pricks his ears to hear her,

How his soft eyes flash with pride,
As she tells him he is dearer

Than the whole wide world beside 1
Dearer than the lambkins gentle,

Dearer than the frisking kids,
Or the pigeon on the lintel,

Coming — going — as she bids.
Dearer than the first spring lily,

Peeping on the snowy fell ;
Dearer than his little Willie

To the heart of William Tell.

By a gushing glacier fountain,

On the giant Wetterhorn,
'Midst the snow-fields of the mountain,

Was the little Gemze born :
And his mother, though the mildest

And the gentlest of the herd,
Was the fleetest and the wildest,

And as lightsome as a bird.
But the gazer watch'd her gliding

In the silence of the dawn,
Seeking for a place of hiding,

For her little, tender fawn ;
So he mark'd her, all unheeding

(Swift and sure the bolt of death) ;
And he bore her, dead and bleeding,

To his Alpine home beneath.

* In all the German-Swiss cantons, and throughout the Tyrol, the
Chamois is called the " Gemze* ; " the other name, " Chamois," prevailing
only in those cantons in which French is spoken.

THE GEMZE FAWN. 21 1

And f,he orphan Gemze* follows,

Calling her with plaintive bleat,
O'er the knolls and through the hollowo,

Trotting on with trembling feet

See, the cabin latch is raised

By a small and gentle hand,
And the face that upward gazed

Had a smile serene and bland ;
Bertha was the Switzer's daughter,

And herself an orphan child ;
But her sorrows all had taught her

To be gentle, kind, and mild.
You might see a tear-drop quivering

In her honest eye of blue,
As she took the stranger, shivering,

To her heart so warm and true.
" / will be thy mother, sweetest,"

To the fawn she whisper'd low ;
" I will heed thee when thou bleateet,

And will solace all thy woe."
Then the tottering Gemze', stealing

Towards her, seem'd to understand,
Gazing on her face, and kneeling,

Placed his nose within her hand 1

Every day the Switzer maiden

Shared with him her milk and bread;
Every night the fawn is laid on

Moss and ling beside her bed.
Blue as mountain periwinkle

Is the ribbon round his throat,
Where a little bell doth tinkle

With a shrill and silvery note.
When the morning light is flushing

Wetterhorn so cpld and pale,
Or when evening shades are hushing

All the voices of the vale,
You might hear the maiden singing

To her happy Gemzd fawn,

212 THE RECLUSE.

While the kids and lambs she's bringing
Up or down the thymy lawn.

Spring is come, and little Bertha,

With her chamois at her side,
Up the mountain wander'd further

Than the narrow pathway guide.
Every step is paved with flowers : —

Here the bright mezereon glows;
Here the tiger-lily towers,

And the mountain cistus blows ;
Here the royal eagle rushes

From his eyrie overhead ;
There the roaring torrent gushes

Madly o'er its craggy bed.
Hark ! — from whence that distant bleating,

Like a whistle clear and shrill ?
Gemze' ! Ah, thy heart is beating,

With a wild and sudden thrill !
Voices of thy brothers, scouring

Over sparkling fields of ice,
Where the snow-white peaks are towering

O'er the shaggy precipice.

Bertha smiled to see him listening,

(Arching neck, and quivering ear,
Panting chest, and bright eyes glistening,)

To that whistle wild and clear.
Little knew she that it sever'd

All that bound him to the glen,
That her gentle bands are shiver'd,

And the tame one — wild again!
To the next wild bleat that soundeth,

Makes he answer strong and shrill;
Wild as wildest, off he boundeth

Fleet as fleetest o'er the hill.
" Gemze* ! Gemze' ! Komrnt, mein lieber !"

Echoes faint, from height to height :

* Coine, my darling !

A FOREST-POOL. 213

Dry thy tears, sweet Hertha ! never

Will he glance again in sight.
But, when paling stars are twinkling

In the twilight of the morn,
Thou may'st hear his bell a-tinkling

'Midst the snows of Wetterhorn.
And the kindness thou bestowest

On the helpless, thou shalt prove,
Somehow, when thou little knowest,

In a blessing from above !

An interesting scene of recluse life is exhibited by many
a little pool in tropical America, such as I have seen in
Jamaica, and such as I have seen, too, in the parts of the
northern continent bordering on the tropics. You pene-
trate the sombre woods perhaps for miles, and suddenly,
in the midst of the most perfect quietude, you see a great
light, and open upon an area occupied by a green level,
which, from indications here and there, you perceive to be
water, covered with a coat of vegetation. The lofty trees
rise up in closely-serried ranks all around, from the very
margin, and their long branches, as if rejoicing in the
unwonted room and light, stretch out over the water, and
dip their twigs into it. The long, pendent strings of
parasites hang down, and lightly touch the surface,
whipping the floating duck-weed aside when a storm
agitates the great trees. From time to time, one and
another have been prostrated before the tempest, and,
falling into the pond, ^project their half-decayed trunks
in great snags from the sluggish surface, or form piers,
wh.ch stretch away from the banks into the midst of the
lake, and precarious bridges across different portions.

214 THE KECLUSE.

If we make our way by the starlight of the early
morning to such a forest-pond as this, arriving silently
and cautiously at its margin, before the light of the
advancing dawn has yet struggled into the little inclosure,
and take our station behind the shelter of a leafy bush,
we shall discern that the spot is instinct with life. A
loud clanging cry is uttered, like the note of a child's
trumpet, which is immediately taken up in response from
the opposite side of the pool. Then a whirring of wings,
and much splashing of water. More of the loud clangours,
and more splashing ; and now the increasing light enables
us to discern a dozen or a score of tiny black objects
sitting on the surface, or hurrying to and fro. They
look like the tiniest of ducks, but are jet black ; some are
sitting on the points of the projecting snags; and, by their
erect attitude, we readily recognise that they are grebes.

Now it is light enough to see clearly, and the suspici-
ous birds do not yet seem to be aware of our presence.
Yonder, on the branch of a half-submerged tree, is a great
dark mass, and a little bird sitting in it ; it must surely
be her nest. We must examine it.

Yet, stay! What is that serpent-like object that so
quietly sits on yonder overhanging bough ? Is it indeed
a black snake reposing, with elevated neck, upon the
horizontal limb ? It moves ! It is a bird ! The lithe and
slender neck is thrown round, and we see the head and
beak of a bird, which begins to preen and arrange the
plumage of a black body, which is squatted close to the
bough. Mark that sudden start ! The neck is elevated

THE WATER-SHREW. 215

to the utmost ; the head is raised in an attitude of atten-
tion ; and the bird remains in the most absolute stillness.
It was that leaf that we rustled, in the nervousness of our
desire to see him more distinctly ; he heard it, and is on
the watch. Lo, he is gone ! he dropped, like a stone, per-
pendicularly into the pool below; and yet not like a
stone, for he made no splash, and we are amazed that so
large a body could be immersed from so great a distance,
and yet produce scarcely a perceptible disturbance of the
surface.

The little grebes, too, have taken the warning ; they are
gone, all but the faithful mother on the nest. She yet
lingers ; but we shew ourselves, and advance ; and now
she jumps into the green water, and disappears ; and all
is as still and sombre as if we were gazing on a grave.

In our sequestered rural districts we have a little ani-
mal not uncommon, almost the tiniest of all quadrupeds,
the water-shrew, whose graceful form and pleasing habits
are very seldom seen, because of its cautious timidity.
With great care it may, however, be occasionally detected
in its gambols, and, with due precaution, watched. The
following charming picture of the little creature at free-
dom, all unconscious of observation, has been drawn by
Mr Dovaston : — " On a delicious evening, far in April
1825, a little before sunset, strolling in my orchard, be-
side a pool, and looking into the clear water for insects
I expected about that time to come out, 1 was surprised
by seeing what I momentarily imagined to be some very
large beetle, dart with rapid motion, and suddenly dis-

-2] 6 THE KECLUSE.

appear. Laying myself down, cautiously and motionless,
on the grass, I soon, to my delight and wonder, observed
it was a mouse. I repeatedly marked it glide from the
bank under water, and bury itself in the mass of leaves
at the bottom ; I mean the leaves that had fallen off the
trees in autumn, and which lay very thick over the mud.
It very shortly returned, and entered the bank, occasion-
ally putting its long, sharp nose out of the water, and
paddling close to the edge. This it repeated at very
frequent intervals, from place to place, seldom going
more than two yards from the side, and always returning
in about half a minute. I presume it sought and
obtained some insect or food among the rubbish and
leaves, and retired to consume it. Sometimes, it would
run a little on the surface, and sometimes, timidly and
hastily, come ashore, but with the greatest caution, and
instantly plunge in again.

" During the whole sweet spring of that fine year I con-
stantly visited my new acquaintance. When under water
he looks gray, on account of the pearly cluster of minute
air-bubbles that adhere to his fur, and bespangle him all
over. His colour, however, is very dark brown." ....

After entering into some descriptive details of the speci-
men, Mr Dovaston proceeds : — " This minute description I
am enabled to give, having caught it in an angler's landing-
net, and carefully inspected it in a white basin of water.
The poor creature was extremely uneasy under inspection,
and we soon, with great pleasure, restored it to liberty
and love, for he had a companion, which, from her paler

THE WATEK-SHREW. 21?

colour and more slender form, we doubted not was his
mate, and we were fearful, by our intrusion, of giving
offence to either.

" He swims very rapidly; and though he appears to dart,
his very nimble wriggle is clearly discernible. He is never
seen till sunset ; but I saw him every evening I watched,
with the most perfect facility. They are easily discovered
about the going down of the sun, on still evenings, by the
undulating semicircles quickly receding from the bank of
the pool, when they are dabbling at the side. I believe
this to be the animal said to be so long lost in England,
the water-shrew (Sorex fodiens of Pennant) ....

" I have said he only appears at evening, and such
are his habits. Once, at broad and bright noon, while
leaning on a tree, gazing on the sun-sparkles passing
(like fairy lights) in numberless and continual succession
under the gentlest breath of air, I was aware of my little
friend running nimbly on the surface among them. My
rapture caused me to start with delight, on which he
vanished to .security, within his rush-fringed bank. . . .
I should have mentioned that, on very still evenings, when
my ear was close to the ground, I fancied I heard him
utter a very short, shrill, feeble sibilation, not unlike that
of the grasshopper-lark, in mild, light summer nights,
but nothing near so loud, or long continued. Though I
have watched for him warily in that and other . places,
after having, to the end of May, contributed to the
myriads of my amusements, I never saw him more." *

* Hag. Nat. Hist., il, p. 219.

IX.
THE WILD.

HAS my reader ever been present at the capture of a
shark ? If he has crossed the line, or even if he knows
what it is to spend a week or two in "the calm latitudes,"
the debateable border-sea between the ordinary breezes
and the trades, he is no stranger to the assiduous atten-
tions of this lank and lithe tenant of the tropical seas.
Jack familiarly calls him by the title of " Sea-lawyer/'
for reasons which are by no means complimentary to the
learned profession ; and views him with that admixture of
hate and fear, with which unsophisticated landsmen are
apt to regard his terrestrial representatives. To bait a line
and catch the mackerel or the bonito, is always a welcome
occupation to the sailor ; but to no amusement does Jack
bend himself with such a hearty alacrity as to take the
" shirk/' When, on approaching the northern tropic,

" Down drops the breeze, the sails drop down,"

'tis not " sad as sad can be ; " for all is hilarity and alert-
ness. Away goes one to the harness-cask, for a junk of
salt pork, another is on his knees before the cabin-locker
rummaging out an enormous hook, which tradition con-
fidently reports is deposited there ; a third is unreeving
the studding-sail halyards to serve as a line, for so tough

CATCHING A SHARK. 219

a customer needs stout gear ; a fourth is standing on the
taffrail, keeping an eye on the monster, that now drops
off, and now comes gliding up, a light-green mass, through
the blue water, till his whiteness nearly touches the sur-
face, and telling the villain all the while, with uncouth
maledictions, that his time is coming. The mate is on
the jib-boom wielding the grains, whose trident-prongs
he has been for the last half-hour sharpening with a file,
ready to take by force any one of the hated race who
may be too suspicious for the bait astern. And now the
skipper himself comes up, for even dignity itself cannot
resist the temptation, and with his own brawny hands
puts on the enticing pork, and lowers away.

Tis twirling and eddying in the wash of the ship's
counter; the crew are divided in their allegiance — half
cluster at the quarter to watch the captain's success, half
at the cat-heads to see the mate's harpooning. There
scuttle up the two little pilot-fishes, in their banded livery
of blue and brown, from their station one on each side
of the shark's nose : they hurry to the bait, sniff at it,
nibble at it, and then back in all haste to their huge
patron, giving his grimness due information of the treat
that awaits him. See how eagerly he receives it ! with
a lateral wave of his, powerful tail he shoots ahead, and
is in an instant at the pork. " Look out there ! stand by
to take a turn of the line round a belaying pin, for he 's
going to bite, and he 11 give us a sharp tug ! " Every
pair of eyes is wide open, and eveiy mouth, too ; for the
monster turns on his side, and prepares to take in the

220 THE WIL1>.

delicate morsel. But no ; he smells the rusty iron, per-
haps, or perhaps he sees the line ; at any rate he con-
tents himself with a sniff, and drops astern; coming
forward again, however, the next minute to sniff and
sniff again. 'Tis perilous ; yet 'tis tempting.

A shout forward ! The mate has struck one ! And
away rush the after band to see the sport ; the skipper
himself hauls in the line, and joins the shouting throng.
Yes ; the grains have been well thrown, and are fast in
the fleshy part of the back. What a monster ! full
fifteen feet long, if he 's an inch ! and how he plunges,
and dives, and rolls round and round, enraged at the
pain and restraint, till you can't discern his body for the
sheet of white foam in which it is enwrapped I The stout
line strains and creaks, but holds on ; a dozen eager
hands are pulling in, and at last the unwilling victim is
at the surface just beneath the bows, but plunging with
tremendous force.

Now, one • of the smarter hands has jumped into the
forechains with a rope made into a noose. Many efforts
he makes to get this over the tail, without success ; at
length it is slipped over, in an instant hauled taut, and
the prey is secure.

" Reeve the line through a block, and take a run with
it ! " Up comes the vast length, tail foremost, out of the
sea ; for a moment the ungainly beast hangs, twining and
bending his body, and gnashing those horrid fangs, till
hal -a-dozen boat-hooks guide toe mass to its death-bed
on the broad deck. Stand clear! If that mouth get

AN EXPEESSIVE COUNTENANCE. 221

hold of your leg, it will cut through it, sinew, muscle, and
bone ; the stoutest man on board would be swept down
if he came within the reach of that violent tail. What
reverberating blows it inflicts on the smooth planks !

One cannot look at that face without an involuntary
shudder. The long flat head, and the mouth so greatly
overhung by the snout, impart a most repulsive expres-
sion to the countenance ; and then the teeth, those
terrible serried fangs, as keen as lancets, and yet cut
into fine notches like saws, lying row behind row, row
behind row, six rows deep! See how the front rows
start up into erect stiffness, as the creature eyes you!
You shrink back from the terrific implement, no longer
wondering that the stoutest limb of man should be
severed in a moment by such chirurgery. But the eyes !
those horrid eyes! it is the eyes that make the shark's
countenance what it is — the very embodiment of Satanic
malignity. Half-concealed beneath the bony brow, the
little green eye gleams with so peculiar an expression of
hatred, such a concentration of fiendish malice, — of quiet,
calm, settled villany, that no other countenance that I
have ever seen at all resembles. Though I have seen
many a shark, I could never look at that eye without
feeling my flesh creep, as it were, on my bones.

How eerie (to use an expressive northern term, for
which we have no equivalent) must be the scene pre-
sented to a few forlorn mariners committed to an open
boat in the midst of the broad southern sea, a thousand
miles from land, when by night these obscene monsters

222 THE WILD.

came gliding up alongside, keeping hated company!
Cleaving the phosphorescent sea, their bodies are invested
with an elfish light, and a bluish gleam trails behind.
Nothing strikes more terror into the hearts of the poor
ship-bereft seamen than such uninvited companions.
They make no noise : as silently as ghosts they steal
along ; now disappearing for a few minutes ; then there
again ; throughout the dreary night they maintain their
vigil, filling the failing heart with auguries of death.

What do they there? Ah! their horribly unerring
instinct has taught them that such an object too often
yields them the meal they are seeking. They silently
demand the corpse that fatigue and suffering, exposure
and privation, are surely and swiftly preparing for them.
They well deem that by the morning light a sullen plunge
will ease the boat of the night's dead, and they are quite
ready to furnish the living grave.

The following vivid picture, though given in a work of
fiction, is so manifestly drawn from the life, that I shall be
pardoned for citing it, the more because I have had some
opportunities of personally verifying this writer s oceanic
delineations, and have observed their remarkable truth-
fulness—

" The night following our abandonment of the ship was
made memorable by a remarkable spectacle. Slumber-
ing in the bottom of the boat, Jarl and I were suddenly
awakened by Samoa. Starting, we beheld the ocean of a
pallid white colour, coruscating all over with tiny golden
sparkles. But the pervading hue of the water cast a

WHALES AT NIGHT. 223

cadaverous gleam upon the boat, so that we looked t<>
each other like ghosts. For many rods astern, our wake
was revealed in a line of rushing illuminated foam ; while,
here and there beneath the surface, the tracks of sharks
were denoted by vivid, greenish trails, crossing and
recrossing each other in every direction. Further away,
and distributed in clusters, floated on the sea, like con-
stellations in the heavens, innumerable medusae, a species
of small, round, refulgent fish, only to be met with in the
South Seas and the Indian Ocean.

" Suddenly, as we gazed, there shot high into the air
a bushy jet of flashes, accompanied by the unmistakeable
deep-breathing sound of a sperm whale. Soon the sea
all round us spouted in fountains of fire ; and vast forms,
emitting a glare from their flanks, and ever and anon
raising their heads above water, and shaking off the
sparkles, shewed where an immense shoal of cachalots
had risen from below, to sport in these phosphorescent
billows.

" The vapour jetted forth was far more radiant than
any portion of the sea ; ascribable, perhaps, to the origin-
ally luminous fluid, contracting still more brillancy from
its passage through the spouting canal of the whales.

" We were in great fear lest, without any vicious inten-
tion, the leviathans might destroy us by coming into close
contact with our boat. We would have shunned them,
but they were all round and round us. Nevertheless we
were safe ; for, as we parted the pallid brine, the peculiar
irradiation which shot from about our keel seemed to

224s THE WILD.

deter them. Apparently discovering us of a sudden,
many of them plunged headlong down into the water,
tossing their fiery tails high into the air, and leaving the
sea still more sparkling from the violent surging of their
descent.

" Their general course seemed the same as our own ;
to the westward. To remove from them, we at last out
oars, and pulled towards the north. So doing, we were
steadily pursued by a solitary whale that must have taken
our boat for a kindred fish. Spite of all our efforts, he
drew near and nearer ; at length rubbing his fiery flank
against the gunwale, here and there leaving long strips
of the glossy transparent substance, which, thin as a
gossamer, invests the body of the cachalot.

" In terror at a sight so new, Samoa shrank. But
Jaii and I, more used to the intimate companionship of
the whales, pushed the boat away from it with our oars ;
a thing often done in the fishery.

" But, to my great joy, the monster at last departed ;
rejoining the shoal, whose lofty spoutings of flame were
still visible upon the distant line of the horizon, showing
there like the fitful starts of the Aurora Borealis.

" The sea retained its luminosity for about three hours,
at the expiration of half that period beginning to fade ;
and, excepting occasional faint illuminations, consequent
upon the rapid darting of fish under water, the phe-
nomenon at last wholly disappeared.

" Heretofore, I had beheld several exhibitions of marine
phosphorescence, both in the Atlantic and Pacific ; but

UNEARTHLINESS. 225

nothing in comparison with what was seen that night.
In the Atlantic, there is very seldom any portion of the
ocean luminous, except the crests of the waves, and these
mostly appear so during wet murky weather. Whereas,
in the Pacific, all instances of the sort previously coming
under my notice, had been marked by patches of greenish
light, unattended with any pallidness of the sea. Save
twice on the coast of Peru, when I was summoned from
my hammock by the alarming cry of ' All hands ahoy !
tack ship ! ' and rushing on deck, beheld the sea white
as a shroud ; for which reason it was feared we were on
soundings/' *

This idea of unearthliness is a great element in the
Romance of Natural History. Our matter-of-fact age
despises and scouts it as absurd, and those who are con-
scious of such impressions acknowledge that they are
unreal, yet feel them none the less. The imaginative
Greeks peopled every wild glen, every lonely shore, every
obscure cavern, every solemn grove, with the spiritual,
only rarely and fitfully visible or audible. So it has been
with all peoples, especially in that semi-civilised stage
which is so favourable to poetic developments : the elves
and fays, the sprites and fairies, the Jack-o'-lanterns, the
Will-o'-the-wisps, and Robin-goodfellows, and Banshees, —
what are they all but the phenomena of nature, dimly
discerned, and attributed by a poetic temperament to
beings of unearthly races, but of earthly sympathies?
The garish day, with its clearness and perfect definition of

* Melville's Mardi, vol. i., p. 187.
P

226 THE WILD.

every object, is far less favourable for these impressions
than night; not only because at the latter season the mind
is solemnised, but also because the obscurity renders
visible objects dim and uncertain ; gives to familiar things
strange and fantastic forms ; and, while the peculiar con-
ditions of the atmosphere render sounds more distinct,
these are often of an unwonted character, vague in their
origin, and cannot be corrected by the sense of sight.

In the forests of Lower Canada and the New England
States I have often heard in spring a mysterious sound,
of which to this day I know not the author. Soon after
night sets in, a metallic sound is heard from the most
sombre forest swamps, where the spruce and the hemlock
give a peculiar density to the woods, known as the " black
growth/' The sound comes up clear and regular, like
the measured tinkle of a cow-bell, or gentle strokes on a
piece of metal, or the action of a file upon a saw. It
goes on, with intervals of interruption, throughout the
hours of darkness. People attribute it to a bird, which
they call the whetsaw ; but nobody pretends to have seen
it, so that this can only be considered conjecture, though
a highly probable one. The monotony and pertinacity oi
this note had a strange charm for me, increased doubtless
by the mystery that hung over it. Night after night, it
would be heard in the same spot, invariably the most
sombre and gloomy recesses of the black-timbered woods.
I occasionally watched for it, resorting to the woods
before sunset, and waiting till darkness ; but, strange to
say, it refused to perform under such conditions. The

NOCTURNAL BIRDS. 227

shy and recluse bird, if bird it is, was doubtless aware
of the intrusion, and on its guard. Once I heard it under
peculiarly wild circumstances. I was riding late at night,
and just at midnight came to a very lonely part of the
road, where the black forest rose on each side. Every-
thing was profoundly still, and the measured tramp of
my horse's feet on the frozen road was felt as a relief to
the deep and oppressive silence ; when, suddenly, from
the sombre woods, rose the clear metallic tinkle of the
whetsaw. The sound, all unexpected as it was, was very
striking, and, though it was bitterly cold, I drew up for
some time to listen to it. In the darkness and silence of
the hour, that regularly measured sound, proceeding too
from so gloomy a spot, had an effect on my mind, solemn
and unearthly, yet not unmingled with pi asure.

It is doubtless the mystery in such cases that mainly
constitutes the charm. In Jamaica I used to hear fre-
quently a querulous cry, "kep, kep, kep," — uttered in
the air after night-fall by some creature which flew round
in a great circle, but was invisible. Now and then the
utterance was varied by a most demoniac shriek or two,
and then the call went on as before. I was exceedingly
interested in this, till I ascertained that it was the white
owl, and obtained a specimen, after which the romantic
feeling with which I had listened to it was no longer
awakened by the sound.

In some parts of this country the peasantry hear with
superstitious awe the hollow booming note of the bittern,
proceeding from the lonely marsh in the stillness of the

228 THE WILD.

evening. They attribute the voice to some supernatural
creature of formi4able size and powers, which is supposed
to reside at the bottom of the fens, and which they call
the Bull-o'-the-bog. The sound is sufficiently awful to
excuse the error.

The dreary cypress-swamps of the Southern United
States possess a bird closely allied to our bittern, whose
voice, though destitute of the volume of the European
bird, is startling enough to hear in its savage solitudes.
Nothing can be more dismal, even by day, than the in-
terior of one of those swamps, — half-tepid, stagnant water
covering the ground, the dense timber trees, a hundred
feet in height, whose opaque and sombre-hued foliage
almost shuts out the sky, while the gaunt horizontal
branches are hung with far-pendent ragged bundles of
Spanish moss,* the very type of dreariness and desolation.
Such trees remind one of an army of skeletons, giants of
some remote age, still standing where they had lived, and
still wearing the decaying tatters of the robes which they
had worn of old. At night, however, these forests are
invested with tenfold gloom, and imagination peoples the
palpable blackness and silence with all sorts of horrors,
as the eye vainly attempts to peer into their depths;
while ever and anon, the melancholy " quah ! " hoarse and
hollow, booms out from the solitude, chilling one's spirit,
as if it were the voice of the presiding demon of the place.
Not in vain have the inspired Prophetsf made use of the
bittern as one of the elements in their delineations of

* TiMandsia usneoides. f Isa. xiv. 23, xxxiv. 11 ; Zej-h. ii. 14.

IMAGERY OF DESOLATION. 229

awful and utter desolation. Take for an example the
denunciation upon Idumea, in Isa. xxxiv. : —

"And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch,
and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof
shall become burning pitch.

" It shall not be quenched night nor day ; the smoke
thereof shall go up for ever : from generation to genera-
tion it shall lie waste ; none shall pass through it for ever
and ever.

" But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it ; the
owl also and the raven shall dwell in it : and he shall
stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones
of emptiness.

" They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but
none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.

" And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and
brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an
habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.

" The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the
wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his
fellow ; the screech-owl also shall rest there, and find for
herself a place of rest.

"There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay,
and hatch, and gather under her shadow ; there shall the
vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate."

A fine accumulation is -here of wild and dreary images ;
and I do not know a better exemplification of the category
of natural phenomena under consideration than this awfuJ
passage of Holy Writ.

230 THE WILD.

Sir Emerson Tennent, in his elaborate volumes on
Ceylon, lately published, has alluded to a bird of night
which superstition invests with peculiar terrors. He thus
speaks of it. Like the whetsaw, it seems to be " wx et
prceterea nihil."

" Of the nocturnal accipitres the most remarkable is
the brown owl, which, from its hideous yell, has acquired
the name of the ' Devil Bird.' The Singhalese regard it
literally with horror ; and its scream by night, in the
vicinity of a village, is bewailed as the harbinger of
approaching calamity."

After alluding to another sound attributed to a bird,
but of which the authorship is involved in uncertainty,
he adds : —

" Mr Mitford, of the Ceylon Civil Service, to whom I
am indebted for many valuable notes relative to the birds
of the island, regards the identification of the Singhalese
Devil-bird as open to similar doubt : he says, ' The Devil-
bird is not an owl. I never heard it until I came to
Kornegalle, where it haunts the rocky hill at the back of
the Government-house. Its ordinary note is a magnificent
clear shout like that of a human being, and which can
be heard at a great distance, and has a fine effect in the
silence of the closing night. It has another cry, like that
of a hen just caught ; but the sounds which have earned
for it its bad name, and which I have heard but once to
perfection, are indescribable, the most appalling that
can be imagined, and scarcely to be heard without
shuddering ; I can only compare it to a boy in torture,

TIIE EAGLE-OWL. 231

whose screams are being stopped by being strangled. I
have offered rewards for a specimen, but without success." *
The resemblance of this description to that given by
Wilson of the performances of the great horned owl of
North America, induces a suspicion that Mr Mitford may
be in error, in so confidently denying the Ceylon bird to
be an owl. Wilson says of his formidable species, — " His
favourite residence is in the dark solitudes of deep swamps,
covered with a growth of gigantic timber ; and here, as
soon as evening draws on, and mankind retire to rest, he
sends forth such sounds as seem scarcely to belong to this
world, startling the solitary pilgrim as he slumbers by his
forest fire,

' Making night hideous.'

Along the mountainous shores of the Ohio, and amidst
the deep forests of Indiana, alone, and reposing in the
woods, this ghostly watchman has frequently warned me
of the approach of morning, and amused me with his
singular exclamations, sometimes sweeping down and
around my fire, uttering a loud and sudden ' Waugh 0 !
Waugh 0 ! ' sufficient to have alarmed a whole garrison.
He has other nocturnal solos, no less melodious, one of
which very strikingly resembles the half-suppressed screams
of a person suffocating, or throttled, and cannot fail of
being exceedingly entertaining to a lonely benighted
traveller, in the midst of an Indian wilderness." •(•

I have myself heard the startling call of this fine night-
fowl in the Southern States, when, in penetrating through

* Tennent's Ceylon, i, p. 167. t Amer. OrnithoL, i., p. 100.

232 THE WILD.

the swamps, covered with gigantic beeches and sycamores,
entwined and tangled by the various species of briers and
vines that hang in festoons from the trees, and amidst
the evergreen bushes of the hystrix fan-palm, this " ghostly
watchman" lifts up his hollow voice like a sentinel
challenging the intruder. Through the afternoon, and
especially as day wanes into evening, they may be heard
from all quarters of the swamps ; and in the deep solitude
and general silence of these gloomy recesses, the cry is
peculiarly startling. "Ho! oh6! oh6! waugh h5!" is
his call ; the last syllable uttered with particular earnest-
ness, and protracted for some seconds, and gradually
falling. The whole is given deliberately, in a loud and
hollow tone ; and one can scarcely be persuaded that it
comes from a bird.

I have already alluded to the Guacharo, an extraordinary
bird inhabiting a very limited district in the province of
Cumana, South America, and entirely confined to caverns.
There is, however, so much of romantic interest attached
to its habits, that we may glance at a few of the details
which Humboldt has given us from his own experience.
On his arrival at the valley of Caripe, the people all spoke
with superstitious wonder of a cavern several leagues in
length, that gave birth to a river, and was haunted by
thousands of night-birds, whose fat was used in the
Missions instead of butter.

Humboldt made a party to explore this wondrous
cavern. After reaching the river which flows out of it,
.they followed its course upwards by a winding path, till

THE GUACHARO. 233

at length the cave yawned before them in all its grandeur.
It is pierced in the vertical side of a rock, forming a vault
upwards of eighty feet in width, and nearly the same in
height. The face of the rock is clad with gigantic trees,
and all the luxuriant profusion of tropical vegetation.
Beautiful and curious parasitic plants, ferns and orchids,
and elegant creepers and lianes, festooned the rugged
entrance, hanging down in wild drapery, and, what is
remarkable) this riant verdure penetrated for some distance
even into the cave. Humboldt beheld with astonishment
noble plantain-like heliconice eighteen feet high, palms,
and arborescent arums, following the course of the river
even to the subterranean parts. There the vegetation
continues as in the deep crevices of the Andes, half shut
out from the light of day, nor does it disappear till a
distance of thirty or forty paces from the entrance. The
party went forward for about four hundred and thirty
feet, without being obliged to light their torches. Where
the light began to fail, they heard from afar the hoarse
cries of the guacharo birds. He states that it is difficult
to form an idea of the horrible noise made by thousands
of these birds in the dark recesses of the cavern, whence
their shrill and piercing cries strike upon the vaulted
rocks, and are repeated by the echo in the depths of the
grotto. He observes that the race of guacharo birds
would probably have been extinct long since, if several
circumstances had not contributed to its preservation.
The natives, withheld by superstitious fears, seldom dare
to proceed far into the recesses of the cavern. Humboldt

234 THE WILD.

had great difficulty in persuading them to pass beyond
the outer part of the cave, the only part of it which they
visit annually to collect the oil ; and the whole authority
of the Padres was necessary to make them penetrate as
far as the spot where the floor rises abruptly, at an incli-
nation of sixty degrees, and where a small subterraneous
cascade is formed by the torrent. In the minds of the
Indians, this cave, inhabited by nocturnal birds, is
associated with mystic ideas, and they believe- that in the
deep recesses of the cavern the souls of their ancestors
sojourn. They say that man should avoid places which
are enlightened neither by the sun nor the moon ; and to
" go and join the guacharoes," means to rejoin their
fathers — in bhort, to die. At the entrance of the cave,
the magicians and poisoners perform their exorcisms, to
conjure the chief of the evil spirits.*

The following incident, which occurred to Mr Atkin-
son in his travels in Central Asia, is not without a ro-
mantic interest : —

" Our course had hitherto been along the middle of the
river, passing on our way several small islands which di-
vided it into different streams. The Cossacks were rest-
ing on their oars, not a sound was heard, when we glided
into a narrow channel, between a long island and a thick
bed of reeds. Our canoes had not floated more than fifty
yards, when one of the Cossacks struck the reeds with his
oar, and simultaneously they all gave a loud shout. In a
moment there came a shriek, as if a legion of fiends had

* Personal Nairative.

ASSAULT OF A CUTTLE. 235

been cast loose, which was followed by a rushing sound
and a flapping of wings on every side, rising high into
mid-air : then the wild concert was taken up and repeated
far above us. We had come suddenly on the covert of
thousands of water-fowl. After this uproar the Cossacks
pulled out into the middle of the stream, and passed
quickly along through some beautiful scenery." *

Those who are familiar with the poulpes and cuttles of
our coasts will readily allow that there is something more
than usually repulsive in their appearance. Their flabby,
corpse-like fleshiness, now lax and soft, now plumping up,
their changes of colour, the livid hue that comes and goes
so strangely, the long lithe arms with their cold adhesive
powers, their uncouth agility, their cunning adroitness
and intelligence, and especially the look of their ghastly
green eyes, make them decidedly " no canny." It does
not need that they should be sufficiently colossal in dimen-
sions to throw their arms over a ship's hull and drag her
under water, as oriental tales pretend, and as old-fashioned
naturalists believed, to induce us to give them a wide
berth. It would not be pleasant to be entwined in the
embrace of those arms ; and we can sympathise with Mr
Beale, who has described his feelings during an encounter
which he had with a beastie of this sort, while engaged in
searching for shells among the rocks of the Bonin Islands.
He was much astonished at seeing at his feet a most ex-
traordinary-looking animal, crawling towards the surf,
which it had only just left. It was creeping on its eight
* Atkinson's Siberia, p. 228.

236 THE WILD.

legs,, which, from their soft and flexible nature, bent con-
siderably under the weight of its body, so that it was
lifted by the efforts of its tentacula only a small distance
from the rocks. It appeared much alarmed at seeing
him, and made every effort to escape. Mr Beale endea-
voured to stop it by pressing on one of its legs with his
foot ; but, although he used considerable force for that
purpose, its strength was so great that it several times
liberated its member, in spite of all the efforts he could
employ on the wet and slippery rocks. He then laid
hold of one of the tentacles with his hand, and held it
firmly, so that it appeared as if the limb would be torn
asunder by the united efforts of himself and the creature.
He then gave it a powerful jerk, wishing to disentangle
it from the rocks to which it clung so forcibly by its
suckers. This effort it effectually resisted ; but, the
moment after, the apparently enraged animal lifted its
head, with its large projecting eyes, and, loosing its hold
of the rocks, suddenly sprang upon Mr Beale's arm,
(which he had previously bared to the shoulder for the
purpose of thrusting it into holes in the rocks after shells,)
and clung to it by means of its suckers with great power,
endeavouring to get its beak, which could now be seen
between the roots of its arms, in a position to bite. A
sensation of horror pervaded his whole frame, when he
found that this monstrous animal had fixed itself so
firmly on his arm. He describes its cold, slimy grasp as
extremely sickening ; and he loudly called to the captain,
who was similarly engaged at some distance, to come and
release him of his disgusting assailant. The captain

HOWLING-MONKEYS — PRAIRIE- WOLVES. 237

quickly came, and, taking him down to the boat, during
which time Mr Beale was employed in keeping the beak
of the Octopus away from his hand, soon released him
by destroying his tormentor with the boat-knife, when he
disengaged it by portions at a time. This Cephalopod
measured across its expanded arms about four feet, while
its body was not bigger than a man's fist*

The shriek of the jackal bursting on the ear in the
silence of night has been described by many a dweller in
tents in the East as a most appalling sound. But per-
haps this yields in effect to the combined efforts of the
howling-monkeys in a South American forest. This most
striking of all animal voices is heard occasionally at
sunrise and sunset, and sometimes in the heat of the day,
but more frequently during the darkness of the night.
When near, the roar is terrific : a naturalist f has com-
pared it to the tempest howling through rocky caverns.
It is a noise so unearthly, that, heard unexpectedly for the
first time, it would fill the mind with the most melan-
choly and fearful forebodings.

A traveller in the western wilds of North America
bivouacking on the open prairie, awakened at midnight
by the voices of a pack of prairie-wolves giving tongue
around him, speaks of the wierd impression made on him
by hearing a pack in full cry at the dead of the night,
and compares it to the phantom hounds and huntsman of
the German legends.J

What was this, however, to Gordon Cumming's noctur-

* Hist, of the Sperm Whale. t Mr Bates, in the Zoologist, p. 359&
J Sullivan's Gambles in America, p. 77.

238 THE WILD.

nal adventure with the wilde Iwnden in Africa? He was
watching for game in a hole which he had dug by a pool
in that romantic fashion already alluded to, and, having
shot a gnu, had put down his rifle without reloading ifc,
arid dropped asleep.

He had not slept long before his slumbers were dis-
turbed by strange sounds. He dreamed that lions were
rushing about in quest of him, till, the sounds increasing,
he awoke with a sudden start, uttering a loud shriek. He
heard the rushing of light feet on every side, accompanied
by the most unearthly noises, and, on raising his head, to
his utter horror, saw himself surrounded by troops of what
the colonists call wild dogs, a savage animal between a
wolf and a hyena. To the right and left, and within a few
paces of the bold hunter, stood two lines of these ferocious-
looking animals, cocking their ears and stretching their
necks to have a look at him ; while two large troops, con-
taining forty at least, kept dashing backwards and for-
wards across his wind, chattering and growling with the
most extraordinary volubility. Another troop of the wild
dogs were fighting over the gnu that had been shot ; and,
on beholding them, the expectation of being himself pre-
sently torn in pieces made the blood curdle over his
cheeks, and the hair bristle on his head.

In this dilemma the experienced hunter bethought
himself of the power of the human voice and a deter-
mined bearing in overawing brute animals ; and, spring-
ing to his feet, he stepped upon the little ledge surround-
ing the hole, when drawing himself up to his full height,

WILD- DOGS. 239

he waved his large blanket with both hands, at the same
time addressing his certainly attentive audience in a loud
and solemn tone. This had the desired effect : the wild
dogs shrank to a more respectful dk-ance, barking at him
like so many colleys. Upon this he began to load his
rifle, and before this was accomplished the entire pack had
retreated.*

* The Lion Hunter, chap. is.

THE TERRIBLE.

MAN'S connexion with the creation around him occa-
sionally brings him into circumstances of more serious
result than a temporary excitement of the imagination,
and a thrilling of the nerves, which might be on the
whole rather pleasant than otherwise. He was indeed
invested with lordship over the inferior creatures, and in
general they own his dominion ; but many of them are
endowed with powers for evil, to which he can oppose no
effectual resistance ; at least, none so invariably effectual,
but that occasions occur in which the mastery is reversed.
Some are furnished with enormous weight and strength,
able to crush him with mere brute momentum ; others
carry formidable weapons, horns and hoofs, claws and
teeth, tusks and fangs, wielded with consummate skill,
and made more effective by the aid of muscular strength,
fleetness of pace, agility, instinct of combination, or cun-
ning strategy. Others, small and apparently contemptible,
are yet armed with implements so terribly lethal, that
the slightest puncture of the skin by one of them, darted
too with lightning-like rapidity and almost unerring pre-
cision, is inevitably and immediately followed by the most
horrid form of death.

THE WOLF. 241

And the creatures are conscious of their own powers ;
and, though they will often tacitly own man's supremacy
by declining a contest with him, yet there are circum-
stances ever and anon occurring, — hunger sometimes, some-
times rage, or the desperation induced by escape being
cut off, or the aropjrj which makes the helpless bold,- — in
which they are willing to try " the wager of battle " with
their liege.

The stern conflict for life, when man stands face to
face with his bestial foes, has given many a romantic page
to the annals of natural history ; and too many such
pages are stained with the harrowing record of their
grim victory, and his bloody death. We cannot therefore
ignore them in the aspect of natural science which we
are considering ; but we may content ourselves with a few
examples of the terrible : the difficulty lies in the selec-
v'on from the profusion of materiel.

Throughout the north temperate zone the wolf is a
cruc 1 and bloodthirsty foe of man, making up by a scent
like that of the hound, a patient perseverance, and a
habit of combining in numbers in common pursuit, what
it lacks in individual power. Yet, individually, a wolf is
able to pull down an unarmed man, and, when pressed
with famine in severe winters, it becomes very darin.u.
In our own island its ravages have long ago induced its
extirpation ; but in a remote era houses were erected at
certain intervals by the road-sides, to serve as places of
refuge against the assaults of the wolves ; and January
was by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors called, " Wolf-inouat,"

Q

242 THE TEKKILLE.

(Wolf-month,) because more people were devoured by
wolves in that month than at other times.

In the north and east of Europe, the danger incurred
by travellers in sledges of being hunted by packs of
hungry wolves is very great ; and many dreadful incidents
bear witness to their success. A very horrible one is
narrated by Mr Lloyd. A woman accompanied by three
of her children was one day travelling in this mode, when
she discovered that she was pursued by these gaunt foes
in full pack. She immediately put the horse into a
gallop, and drove towards her home, from which she was
not far distant, with all possible speed. All, however,
would not avail, for the ferocious animals gained upon
her, and at last were on the point of rushing on the
sledge. For the preservation of her own life, and that
of the remaining children, the poo-r frantic creature now
took one of the babes and cast it a prey to her blood-
thirsty pursuers. This stopped their career for a moment,
but, after devouring the little innocent, they renewed
their pursuit, and a second time came up with the vehicle.
The mother, driven to desperation, resorted to the same
horrible expedient, and threw her ferocious assailants
another of her offspring. To cut short this melancholy
story, her third child was sacrificed in a similar manner.
Soon after this the wretched being, whose feelings may
more easily be conceived than described, reached her
home in safety.

Mr Atkinson has sketched,* with his usual graphic

* Siberia, p. 4G1.

NIGHT ASSAULT OF WOLVES. 243

vigour, the situation of himself and his party of Kalmucks,
when surrounded by wolves in Mongolia. They were en-
camped for the night on the open steppe on the banks of
a little lake, when suddenly the howling of the terrible
wolves was heard at a distance. The men quickly col-
lected the horses, and prepared to receive the assailants.
The fire was nearly out, but it was thought best to allow
them to approach, and then by a little fresh fuel obtain
light enough for a fair shot. It was not long before the
padding of their many feet was heard as they galloped
towards the party, and presently a savage howl arose.
The men threw some dry bushes on the embers, and
blew up a bright flame, which sent its red glare far
around, disclosing the pack with ears and tails erect, and
flashing eyes. At a signal, five rifles and a double-barrel
poured in a volley with deadly effect, as the horrible
howling revealed. Snarling and shrieking, the pack drew
off, but the Kalmucks declared they would return.

Soon the terror of the horses announced the re-approach
of the marauders, and they could be heard stealing round
between the encampment and the lake, dividing into two
packs, so as to approach on opposite sides. Presently
the glare of their eyeballs was seen, and thair grizzly
forms pushing one another on. Again the bullets sped,
and the shrieking packs again retreated, but only to keep
watch at a little distance.

The night now grew very dark, and all the fuel was
exhausted. Presently, a distant howling announced the
approach of a new pack, on whose arrival the old ones,

244 THE TEEEIBLE.

which had been silently biding their time, began to mani-
fest their presence by jealous growls, which soon gave
way to a general fight among themselves. Some of the
men now, well armed, crept along the margin of the lake
to collect more fuel, which was then placed on the fire.
The flame was blown up, and a group of eight or ten
wolves wras seen within fifteen paces, with others beyond.
The rifles once more cracked, and the packs with a fright-
ful howl scampered off

In the morning eight wolves were lying dead, and the
bloody tracks shewed that many others had carried away
mortal wounds, the reminiscences of this fearful night.

The brown bear of Europe is of formidable strength, and
sufficiently bold occasionally to be a serious antagonist, as
numerous adventures of Mr Lloyd and other northern
sportsmen testify. Though it can subsist on fruits, grain,
and honey, which involve no destruction of animal life,
yet it is predaceous and ferocious too. The ancient
Romans made use of Scottish bears to augment the horrors
of public executions : —

" Nuda Caledonio sic pectora prssbuit urso,
Non falsa pendens in cruce, Laureolus."

The ferocity of the Syrian bear is illustrated by many
passages of Sacred Writ, and in particular by the narra-
tive which records the slaughter of the forty-two youths,
who mocked Elisha, by two she-bears.* And the Polar
bear is a truly savage and powerful animal.

But no species of the genus can compare with the
* 2 Kings ii. 24.

ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY BEAK. 245

grizzly bear of the North American prairies, for either
size, strength, or ferocity. The names of Ursus ferox and
V. horribilis, which have been given to it, re-echo the
prevailing ideas of its terrible character. Even the savage
bison, vast and mighty as he is, falls a prey to the grizzly
bear, which can drag the carcase, though a thousand
pounds in weight, to its haunt. Lewis and Clarke measured
one which was nine feet in length.

The hunters and trappers of the Eocky Mountains
delight to tell, over their camp fires, stories of personal
encounters with this formidable savage. Many of these
stirring incidents have found their way into print, and
one of them I shall here condense.

A Canadian named Villandrie, pursuing his occupation
of a free trapper on the Yellow-stone Eiver, had acquired
by his skill and daring the reputation of the best white
hunter in the region. One morning, when he was riding
out to have a look at his beaver traps, he had to break
his way through some thick bushes that grew on a high
bank above a small river. He was going along, pushing
back the twigs with the barrel of his rifle, and keeping
an eye on the bank, when all at once he found himself
close §to an old she grizzly bear, which rose instantly and
dashed furiously at the horse, as he was struggling with
the shrubs and bushes. One blow of her colossal paw
was enough to break his back, and to throw Villandrie
down the bank, his rifle falling into the water. Three
half-grown cubs now occupied themselves with the poor
struggling horse, while the raging mother rushed towards

246 THE TEEKTBLE.

the trapper, who was just getting up ; but before he had
well drawn his long knife, the bear's claws were on his
left arm and shoulder. His right arm he could still move
freely, and he inflicted stab after stab in the neck of his
fierce enemy, which did not on that account relax her
gripe, but tried to catch the knife with her teeth. At
every movement he made, she seemed to dig deeper into
his shoulder and loins.

The struggle had not lasted a minute, when the sandy
bank suddenly gave way, and down the combatants went
into the water. Fortunately for Villandrie, the sudden
cold bath made the bear loose her hold : she returned to
her cubs, and left her mangled antagonist to get away as
well as he could. The next day he reached a Sioux
village, very much exhausted from loss of blood; but
he got his wounds tolerably healed, and still maintained
his character of the best white trapper on the Yellow-
stone.*

Recent travellers in Africa have made us somewhat
familiar with the mighty and ferocious brutes of that
arid continent, the very metropolis of bestial power. Not
only have the missionary, the colonist, and the soldier
encountered the lordly animals in their progress into the
willerness, but hunters, either for sport or profit, have
gone in search of them, bearded the lion by his midnight
fountain, and provoked the elephant to single combat in
his forest fastnesses. Fearful adventures have hence
ensued, the records of which have thrilled us dwellers at

* Mollhauseii's Journey to the Pacific, i., p. 103.

TERRORS OF ELEPHANT-HUNTING. 247

home by our winter firesides. One or two of these I may
select for illustration of the terrible in natural history.

Nothing is more appalling in the way of animal voices
than the scream, or " trumpeting/' as it is called, of an
enraged elephant. The hunting of this animal in South
Africa is awful work. To stand in front of a creature
twelve feet high, infuriated to the utmost, to hear his
shriek of rage, to see him come crashing on with an
impetus that throws the very trees out of the ground,
needs all the nerve and all the courage that man can
bring to the conflict. Livingstone says that the terrible
"trumpet" is more like what the shriek of a French
steam-whistle would be to a man standing on a railway,
than any other earthly sound. So confounding is it, that
a horse unused to the chase will sometimes stand shiver-
ing, and unable to move, instead of galloping from the
peril. Gordon Gumming has depicted a stirring scene,
in which, having dismounted to fire at an elephant, he
was immediately charged by another ; his horse, terrified
by being thus placed between two enraged monsters,
refused to be mounted ; and it was only when he expected
to feel a trunk clasping his body, that he managed to
spring into the saddle.

Even when mounted, the legs of the steed will some-
times fail from terror, and he falls with his rider ; or,
from the character of the forest, the latter may be dragged
from his seat during the flight, and thus be left helpless
before the furious beast, exposed to be inpaled by the long
tusks, or crushed into a mummy by the enormous feet.

21-8 THE TERRIBLE.

An adventure of this sort with an elephant befel one
who has had more narrow escapes than any man living,
but whose modesty has always prevented him from pub-
lishing anything about himself. On the bnnks of the
Zouga, in 1 850, Mr Oswell pursued one of these animals
into the dense, thick, thorny bushes met with on the
margin of that river, and to which the elephant usually
flees for safety. He followed through a narrow pathway,
by lifting up some of the branches and forcing his way
through the rest ; but when he had just got over this
difficulty, he saw the elephant, whose tail he had got
glimpses of before, now rushing towards him. There was
then no time to lift up branches, so he tried to force the
horse through them. He could not effect a passage ; and,
as there was but an instant between the attempt and
failure, the hunter tried to dismount ; but, in doing this,
one foot was caught by a branch, and the spur drawn
along the animal's flank ; this made him spring away
and throw the rider on the ground, with his face to the
elephant, which being in full chase, still went on. Mr
Oswell saw the huge fore-foot ab )ut to descend on his
legs, parted them, and drew in his breath as if to resist
the pressure of the other foot, which he expected would
next descend on his body. He saw the whole length of
the under part of the enormous brute pass over him ; the
horse got away safely. Dr Livingstone, who records the
anecdote, has heard but of one other authentic instance
in which an elephant went over a man without injury;
and, for any one who knows the nature of the bush in

FATAL ENCOUNTER WITH AN ELEPHANT. 2-M)

winch this occurred, the very thought of an encounter in
it with such a foe is appalling. As the thorns are placed
in pairs on opposite sides of the branches, and these turn
round on being pressed against, one pair brings the other
exactly into the position in which it must pierce the
intruder. They cut like knives. Horses dread this bush
extremely ; indeed, most of them refuse to face its thorns.*
Occasionally, however, the elephant-hunter falls a
victim to his daring. A young and successful ivory-
hunter, named Thackwray, after numberless hair-breadth
escapes, at length lost his life in the pursuit. On one
occasion, a herd pursued him to the edge of a frightful
precipice, where his only chance of safety consisted in
dropping down to a ledge of rock at some distance below.
Scarcely was he down before one of the elephants was
seen above, endeavouring to reach him with its trunk.
The hunter could easily have shot the brute while thus
engaged, but was deterred by the fear of the huge car-
case falling down on him, which would have been certain
destruction. He escaped this danger, but soon afterwards,
almost at the very same spot, he met the fatal rencontre.
With one attendant Hottentot, Thackwray had engaged a
herd of elephants, one of which he had wounded. The
Hottentot, seeing it fall, supposed that it was dead, and
approached it, when the animal rose and charged furiously.
The lad threw himself upon the ground, and the infuriated
beast passed without noticing him, tearing up the trees
and scattering them in its blind rage ; but, rushing into

* Livingstone's South Africa, p. 580.

250 THE TERRIBLE.

a thicket where Thackwray was reloading his rifle, it
caught sight of him, and in an instant hurled him to the
earth, thrusting one of its tusks through his thigh. It
then caught the wretched man in its trunk, and elevating
him in the air, dashed him with great force upon the
ground, kneeling and trampling upon him, and as it were
kneading his crushed and flattened corpse into the dust,
with an implacable fury. The remains, when discovered,
presented a most appalling spectacle." * More recently,
another ivory-hunter, named Wahlberg, met a fate almost
precisely parallel.

Little inferior to the elephant in strength, though by no
means approaching it in sagacity, the different species of
African rhinoceros manifest an irascibility against man
which waits not for provocation ; or rather the sight of a
man is itself a sufficient provocation to excite a paroxysm of
restless fury. Steedman f mentions a Hottentot who had
acquired a reputation as a bold elephant-huater, who on
one occasion had had his horse killed und»?r him by a
rhinoceros. Before he could raise his gun, the enormous
beast rushed upon him, thrust its sharp-point ad horn into
the horse's chest, and threw him bodily, rider and all,
over its back. The savage animal then, a; if satisfied,
went off, without following up its victory, aj d before the
Hottentot could recover himself sufficiently J jr an aveng-
ing shot.

Mr Oswell met with a similar rencontre, ile was once
stalking two of these beasts, and, as they ci ^e slowly to

* Stoedman's Wanderings, p. 74. f Ibk? . p. 69.

RHINOCEROS AND BUFFALO. 251

him, he, knowing that there is but little chance of hitting
the small brain of this animal by a shot in the head, lay,
expecting one of them to give his shoulder, till he
was within a few yards. The hunter then thought
that by making a rush to his side he might succeed in
escaping ; but the rhinoceros, too quick for that, turned
upon him, and though he discharged his gun close to the
animal's head he was tossed in the air. " My friend/' adds
Dr Livingstone, who gives the account, " was insensible for
some time, and on recovering found large wounds on the
thigh and body. I saw that on the former part, still open,
and five inches long." The white species, though less
savage than the black, is not always quite safe, for one,
even after it was mortally wounded, attacked Mr Oswell's
horse, and thrust the horn through to the saddle, tossing
at the same time both horse and rider.*

The buffalo of the same regions is another animal
of remarkable savageness of disposition, making an en-
counter with him a formidable affair. The eminent
Swedish botanist, Thunberg, was collecting plants in a
wood with two companions, when a buffalo bull rushed on
the party with a deafening roar. The men just saved their
lives by springing into the trees, while two horses were
speedily pierced through by the powerful horns, and killed.

Captain Methuen has given us the following graphic
account of an en counter /with this most vicious herbivore,
which the Cape colonists consider a more dangerous foe
than the lion himself. The gallant captain and his party

* Livingstone's Travels in Africa, p. 611.

252 THE TEBEIBLE.

had discovered a herd of buffaloes, and had wounded
some, but they had escaped to cover. He had climbed on
the low boughs of a small wait-a-Ut thorn, whence he
struck another bull. The wounded animal " ran towards
the report, his ears outstretched, his eyes moving in all
directions, and his nose carried in a right line with the
head, evidently bent on revenge ; — he passed within thirty
yards of me, and was lost in the bush. Descending from
my frail perch, Frolic [the Hottentot attendant] again dis-
covered this buffalo standing amongst some small thick
bushes, which nearly hid him .from view; his head was
lowered, not a muscle of his body moved, and he was
without doubt listening intently. We crept noiselessly
to a bush, and I again fired. The huge brute ran for-
wards up the wind, fortunately not in our direction, and
stood still again. No good screen being near, and his
nose facing our way, prudence bade us wait patiently for
a change in the state of affairs. Presently he lay gently
down, and knowing that buffaloes are exceedingly cun-
ning, and will adopt this plan merely to escape notice and
entrap their persecutors, we drew near with great caution.
I again fired through his shoulder, and concluding from
his not attempting to rise, that he was helpless, we walked
close up to him ; and never can the scene which followed
be erased from my memory. Turning his ponderous
head round, his eye caught our figures ; I fired the second
barrel of my rifle behind his horns, but it did not reach
the brain. His wounds gave him some difficulty in getting
up, which just afforded Moneypemiy and myself time to

ENCOUNTER WITH A BUFFALO. 253

ensconce ourselves behind the slender shrubs that grew
round the spot, while Frolic unwisely took to his heels.
The buffalo saw him, and uttering a continued unearthly
noise, between a grunt and a bellow, advanced at a pace
at which these unwieldy creatures are rarely seen to run,
unless stirred by revenge.

" Crashing through the low bushes, as if they were
stubble, he passed me, but charged quite over Money-
penny's lurking-place, who aimed at him as he came on,
and lodged the ball in the rocky mass of horn above
his head : the buffalo was so near at the time of his
firing, that the horn struck the gun-barrels at the next
instant ; but whether the noise and smoke confused the
animal, or he was partially stunned by the bullet, he
missed my friend, and continued his pursuit of Frolic.

" The Hottentot dodged the enraged and terrific-looking
brute round the bushes, but through these slight obstacles
he dashed with ease, and gained ground rapidly, Speech-
less, we watched the chase, and, in the awful moment,
regardless of concealment, stood up, and saw the buffalo
overtake his victim and knock him down. At this crisis,
my friend fired his second barrel into the beast, which
gave Frolic one or two blows with his fore-feet, and push-
ing his nose under, endeavoured to toss him ; but the
Hottentot, aware of this, lay with much presence of mind
perfectly still.

" Moneypenny now shouted to me, ' The buffalo is com-
ing ; ' and, in darting round a bush, I stumbled on my rifle,
cutting my knee very badly. This proved a false alarm ;

25 4< THE TEEEIBLE.

and directly after the buffalo fell dead by Frolic, who
then rose and limped towards us. He was much hurt,
and a powder-flask which lay in his game-bag was
stamped flat. The buffalo was too weak to use his full
strength upon him, having probably exhausted all his
remaining energy in the chase : otherwise the Hottentot
would undoubtedly have been killed, since a man is
safer under the paws of a wounded lion, than under the
head of an infuriated buffalo. Never did I feel more
grateful to a protecting Providence, than when this poor
fellow came to us ; for his escape without material injury
was little short of miraculous." *

Who, that has looked on the meek, deer-like face of a
kangaroo, would imagine th it any danger could attend a
combat with so gentle a creature ? Yet it is well known
that strong dogs are often killed by it, the kangaroo seiz -
ing and hugging the dog with its fore-paws, while with
one kick of its muscular hind-leg, it rips up its antagonist,
and tears out its bowels. Even to man there is peril, as
appears from the following narrative. One of the hunter's
dogs had been thus despatched, and he thus proceeds : —

" Exasperated by the irreparable loss of my poor dog,
and excited by the then unusual scene before me, I
hastened to revenge ; nothing doubting, that, with one
fell swoop of my formidable club, my enemy would be
prostrate at my feet. Alas ! the fates, and the still more
remorseless white ants, frustrated my murderous inten-
sions, and all but left me a victim to my strange and

* Life in the Wilderness, p. 173.

COMBAT WITH A KANGAROO. 255

active foe. No sooner had the heavy blow I aimed
descended on his head, than my weapon shivered into a
thousand pieces,* and I found myself in the giant embrace
of my antagonist, who was hugging me with rather too
warm a demonstration of friendship, and ripping at me in
a way by no means pleasant. My only remaining dog,
too, now thoroughly exhausted by wounds and loss of
blood, and apparently quite satisfied of her master's
superiority, remained a mute and motionless spectator of
the new and unequal contest.

" Notwithstanding my utmost efforts to release myself
from the grasp of the brute, they were unavailing ; and I
found my strength gradually diminishing, whilst, at the
same time, my sight was obscured by the blood which
now flowed freely from a deep wound, extending from the
back part of my head over the whole length of my face.
I was, in fact, becoming an easy prey to the kangaroo,
who continued to insert, with renewed vigour, his talons
into my breast, luckily, however, protected by a loose
coarse canvas frock, which, in colonial phrase, is called a
'jumper,' and but for which I must inevitably have shared
the fate of poor Trip. As it was, I had almost given
myself up for lost ; my head was pressed, with surpassing
strength, beneath my adversary's breast, and a faintness
was gradually stealing over me, when I heard a long and
heart-stirring shout. Was I to be saved ? The thought
gave me new life : with increased power I grappled and
succeeded in casting from me my determined foe; and,

* The reader will find an explanation of this fact at page 106, supra.

250 THE TEKKIBLE.

seeing a tree close at hand, I made a desperate leap to
procure its shelter and protection. I reached, and clung
to it for support ; when the sharp report of a rifle was
heard in my ear, and the bark, about three inches above
my head, was penetrated by the ball. Another shot
followed, with a more sure aim, and the exasperated
animal (now once more within reach of me) rolled heavily
over on its side. On the parties nearing, I found them to
be my brother and a friend, who had at first mistaken
me for the kangaroo, and had very nearly consummated
what had been so strangely begun. However, a miss is
always as good as a mile ; and having recruited my spirits
and strength with a draught from the never-failing
brandy-flask, and sung a requiem over poor old Trip, my
companions shouldered the fallen foe, by means of a large
stake, one carrying each end, while I followed with weak
and tottering steps. You may imagine that the little
beauty I ever had is not much improved by the wound on
my face, which still remains, and ever will. I am now an
older hand at kangaroo-hunting, and never venture to
attack so formidable an antagonist with an ant-eaten
club ; my dogs, also, have grown too wary to rush heed-
lessly within reach of his deadly rips. We have killed
many since, but rarely so fine a one as that which first
tried our mettle on the plains of New Holland/' *

The equatorial coast of Africa has recently yielded to
European science a gigantic kind of man-like ape, which
affords a curious confirmation of an old classic story.
Somewhere about the sixth century before the Christian

* Sporting Review, ii., p 343.

IIANNO'S WILD MEN. 257

era, one Hanno is reported to have sailed from Carthage,
through the Pillars of Hercules, on a voyage of exploration
along the coast of Africa. In the record of this voyage
there occurs the following passage : — " Passing the Streams
of Fire, we came to a bay called the Horn of the South.
In the recess there was an island like the first, having a
lake, and in this there was another island full of wild
men. But much the greater part of them were women,
with hairy bodies, whom the interpreters called ' Gorillas.'
But pursuing them, we were not able to take the men ;
they all escaped, being able to climb the precipices;
and defended themselves with pieces of rock But
three women, who bit and scratched those who led them,
were not willing to follow. However, having killed them,
we flayed them, and conveyed the skins to Carthage;
for we did not sail any further, as provisions began to
fail."*

The " wild men " of the ancient navigator were doubt-
less identical with the great anthropoid ape lately re-dis-
covered, to which, in allusion to the old story, the name
of Gorilla has been given. The region in question is a
richly wooded country, extending about a thousand miles
along the coast from the Gulf of Guinea southward ; and
as the gorilla is not found beyond these limits, so we may
pretty conclusively infer that the extreme point of Hanno
was somewhere in this region.

This great ape makes the nearest approach of any brute-
animal to the human form ; it is fully equal to man in

* Penphu,
K

258 THE TEBKIBLE.

stature, but immensely more broad and muscular ; while
its strength is colossal. Though exclusively a fruit-eater,
it is described as always manifesting an enraged enmity
towards man ; and no negro, even if furnished with fire-
arms, will willingly enter into conflict with an adult male
gorilla. He is said to be more than a match for the lion.

The rivalry between the mighty ape and the elephant
is curious, and leads to somewhat comic results. The old
male is always armed with a stout stick when on the
scout, and knows how to use it. The elephant has no
intentional evil thoughts towards the gorilla, but unfor-
tunately they love the same sorts of fruit. When the
ape sees the elephant busy with his trunk among the
twigs, he instantly regards it as an infraction of the laws
of property ; and, dropping quietly down to the bough, he
suddenly brings his club smartly down on the sensitive
finger of the elephant's proboscis, and drives off the alarmed
animal trumpeting shrilly with rage and pain.

There must be something so wild and unearthly in the
appearance of one of these apes, so demon-like in hideous-
ness, in the solemn recesses of the dark primeval forest,
that I might have told its story in the preceding chapter.
The terrors with which it is invested are, however, more
than imaginary. The young athletic negroes, in their
ivory hunts, well know the prowess of the gorilla. He
does not, like the lion, sullenly retreat on seeing them,
but swings himself rapidly down to the lower branches,
courting the conflict, and clutches at the foremost of his
enemies. The hideous aspect of his visage, his -green eyes

JACK KETCH IN THE FOKEST. 259

flashing with rage, is heightened by the thick and pro-
minent brows being drawn spasmodically up and down,
with the hair erect, causing a horrible and fiendish scowl.
Weapons are torn from their possessors' grasp, gun-barrels
bent and crushed in by the powerful hands and vice-like
teeth of the enraged brute. More horrid still, however,
is the sudden and unexpected fate which is often inflicted
by him. Two negroes will be walking through one of the
woodland paths, unsuspicious of evil, when in an instant
one misses his companion, or turns to see him drawn up
in the air with a convulsed choking cry ; and in a few
minutes dropped to the ground a strangled corpse. The
terrified survivor gazes up, and meets the grin and glare
of the fiendish giant, who, watching his opportunity,
had suddenly put down his immense hind-hand, caught
the wretch by the neck with resistless power, and dropped
him only when he ceased to struggle. Surely a horrible
improvised gallows this ! *

The pursuit of the whale, whether that species which
our hardy mariners seek amidst the ice-floes of the Polar
Seas, or the still huger kind which wallows in the bound-
less Pacific, is one full of peril, and its annals are crowded
with strange and terrible adventures. Swift and sudden
deaths ; the shattering of a boat into fragments, and the
immersion of the crew in the freezing sea ; the dragging
of a man into the depths, by a turn of the tangled line
round his leg or arm ; are but too common incidents in
this warfare with the leviathan. One instance of this lasfc-

* See Prof. Owen on the Gorilla (Proc. Zool Soc., 1859).

260 THE TEEEIBLE.

named accident is on record, in which the sufferer escaped
with life, to tell the harrowing tale of his own sensations.

An American whaling captain in the Pacific was fast
to a sperm whale, which " sounded," or descended nearly
perpendicularly. The line in swiftly running out became
suddenly entangled; the captain was seen to stoop in
order to clear it, and in a moment disappeared over the
bow. The boat-steerer seized an axe, and instantly cut
the line, in hope that, by the slackening, the unfortunate
man might become freed.

Several minutes had elapsed, and hope had wellnigh
become extinguished, when an object was seen to rise to
the surface a little way off. It was the body of the captain,
which in a few seconds was lifted into the boat. Though
senseless and motionless, life seemed to be not extinct,
and the usual remedies being applied, he revived, and
became, to use his own phrase, " as good as new," when
he gave an account of his singular escape.

It appears that in attempting to throw the line clear
from the chock, a turn caught his left wrist, and he was
dragged overboard by the descending whale. He was
perfectly conscious as he was rushing down with immense
rapidity, and it seemed to him as if his arm would be
torn from its socket, from the resistance of his body to
the water. Well aware of his peril, he knew that his only
chance was to cut the line, but with his utmost efforts he
could not raise his right hand from his side, to which it
was pressed by the force with which he was dragged
through the water.

VORACITY OF SHARKS. 261

On first opening his eyes it appeared as if a stream of
fire was passing before them ; but, as he descended, it
grew dark, and he felt a terrible pressure on his brain,
and there was a roaring as of thunder in his ears. Yet
he still remained conscious, and still made vain efforts to
reach the knife that was in his belt. At length, as he
felt his strength failing, and his brain reeling, the line for
an instant slackened by the whale's pausing in its descent ;
he reached and drew his knife ; the line again became
tight, but the edge of the keen blade was across it, and in
an instant he was freed. From this moment he remem-
bered nothing, until he awoke to light and life and
agonising pain, in his bed.

Perhaps the reader is familiar with a dreadful example
of the voracity of the great white shark. About thirty
natives of the Society Islands were proceeding from isle
to isle in one of their large double canoes. A storm
coming on, the lashings of the two canoes were torn apart
by the violence of the sea, and they were separated.
Their depth and narrowness rendered them incapable of
floating upright when single ; and, though the crew strove
hard to keep them on an even keel by balancing the
weight, they were every moment capsized. In these cir-
cumstances, they endeavoured to form a raft of the loose
spars and beams, the boards and paddles, which they could
get at, hoping to drift ashore thereon. From their
numbers, however, compared with the small size of the
raft, the latter was pressed so deep, that the waves washed
above their knees. At length they saw the horrid sharks

262 THE TERRIBLE.

begin to collect around them, which soon grew so bold aa
to seize one of the shipwrecked wretches, and drag him
into the abyss. Another and another followed ; for the
poor islanders, destitute of any weapons, and almost ex-
hausted with hunger and fatigue, and crowded together
on their submerged narrow platform, could neither defend
themselves nor evade their ferocious assailants. Every
moment made the conflict more unequal, for the sharks,
attracted by the scent of blood, gathered in greater numbers
to the spot, and grew more and more audacious, until two
or three of the mariners only remaining, the raft floated
so as to elevate them beyond reach of the savage monsters,
which continued to threaten them, and lingered around,
until the waves at lengh bore the survivors to the beach.

Among reptiles, the mailed crocodiles may be mentioned
as formidable foes to man. Vast in bulk, yet grovelling
with the belly on the earth ; clad in bony plates with
sharp ridges, the long tail bearing a double row .of teeth,
like two parallel saws; splay feet terminating in long
diverging hooked talons ; green eyes with a peculiar fiery
glare, gleaming out from below projecting orbits; lips
altogether wanting, displaying the long rows of interlock-
ing teeth even when the mouth is closed, so that, even
when quiet, the monster seems to be grinning with rage
(" his teeth are terrible round about," Job xli. 14), — it is no
wonder that the crocodile should be, in all countries which
it inhabits, viewed with dread.

Nor is this terror groundless. The crocodiles, both of
the Nile and of the West Indian Isles, are well known to

EENCONTRE WITH AN ALLIGATOR. 2(13

make man their victim ; and the alligators of continental
America are not behind them. Those of the great rivers
of South America appear to be more savage than their
northern congener. Waterton and other observers have
recorded terrible examples of their voracity ; and I will
add one from a more recent traveller, an officer engaged
in the wars which liberated the South American provinces
from the Spanish supremacy.

During Morillo's campaign in the Apuri country, three
officers were on their route with despatches from Colonel
Rangel's camp at Congrial, to General Paez's head-quarters
at Caiia Fistola ; and, not being able to procure a canoe,
were obliged to swim their horses over a small branch of
the lagoon of Cunavichi, which lay across the road, carry-
ing as usual their saddles on their heads. Two of the
party were brothers, by name Gamarra, natives of Varinas.
One of them, a lieutenant of Paez's Lancers, loitered so
long on the bank, as only to have just entered the water
at the moment his comrades had reached the opposite side.
When he was nearly half-way across, they saw a large
cayman, which was known to infest this pass, issuing
from under the mangrove-trees. They instantly warned
their companion of his danger ; but it was too late for
him to turn back. When the alligator was so close as
to be on the point of seizing him, he threw his saddle to
it. The ravenous animal immediately caught the whole
bundle in its jaws, and disappeared for a few moments ;
but soon discovered its mistake, and rose in front of the
horse, which, then seeing it for the first time, reared and

264 THE TEEKIBLE.

threw its rider. He was an excellent swimmer, and had
nearly escaped by diving towards the bank ; but, on ris-
ing for breath, his pursuer also rose, and seized him by
the middle. This dreadful scene, which passed before
their eyes, without the least possibility of their rendering
any assistance, was terminated by the alligator, having
previously drowned the unfortunate man, appearing on
an opposite sand-bank with the body, and there devouring
it.*

It is in this class of animals that we find the most
terrible of all creatures ; more potent than the roused lion,
the enraged elephant, the deadly shark, or the mailed
alligator. In the whole range of animal existence, there
is none that can compare with the venomous snakes for
the deadly fatality of their enmity ; the lightning stroke
of their poisonous fangs is the unerring signal of a swift
dissolution, preceded by torture the most horrible. The
bite of the American rattlesnake has been known to pro-
duce death in two minutes. Even where the consumma-
tion is not so fearfully rapid, its delay is but a brief pro-
longation of the intense suffering. The terrible symp-
toms are thus described : — a sharp pain in the part, which
becomes swollen, shining, hot, red ; then livid, cold, and
insensible. The pain and inflammation spread, and become
more intense; fierce shooting pains are felt in other
parts, and a burning fire pervades the whole body. The
eyes begin to water abundantly ; then come swoonings,
cold sweats, and sharp pains in the loins. The skin be-

* Campaigns and Cruises in Venezuela, vol. i., p. 59.

BITE OF SERPENTS. 265

comes deadly pale or deep yellow, while a black watery
blood runs from the wound, which changes to a yellowish
matter. Violent headache succeeds, and giddiness, faint-
ness, and overwhelming terrors, burning thirst, gushing
discharges of blood from the orifices of the body, intoler-
able fetor of breath, convulsive hiccoughs, and death.

Mr Francis T. Buckland * has described the awful effects
of a dose of poison received from the cobra-di-capello
in his own person. Fortunately it was a most minute
dose, or we should not have received the account. A rat
which had been struck by the serpent, Mr Buckland
skinned after its death. He scraped the interior of the
skin with his finger-nail, forgetting that he had an hour
before been cleaning his nails with his penknife. In so
doing, he had slightly separated the nail from the quick,
and into this little crack the poison had penetrated.
Though the orifice was so small as to have been un-
noticed, and though the venom was not received direct
from the serpent, but had been diffused through the system
of the rat, the life of the operator was all but sacrificed.

A few years ago the people of London were shocked by
the sudden death of Curling, one of the keepers of the
Zoological 'Gardens, from the bite of a cobra.

In India, where the species is common, its propensity
to haunt houses frequently brings it under notice, and
many accidents occur. It seems, however, on some occa-
sions to be placably disposed, if not assaulted; and some
singular escapes are on record of persons who have had
* Curiosities of Nat. Hist., p. 223.

266 THE TEERIBLE.

presence of mind enough to let it alone. One is told of
an officer who, having some repairs done to his bungalow,
was lying on a mattress in the verandah, reading, nearly
undressed. Perhaps his book was of a soporific tendency,
for he dropped asleep, and awaked with a chilly sensation
about his breast. Opening his eyes, he beheld, to his
horror, a large cobra coiled up on his bosom, within his
open shirt. He saw, in a moment, that to disturb the
creature would be highly perilous, almost certainly fatal,
and that it was at present doing no harm, and apparently
intending none. With great coolness therefore he lay per-
fectly still, gazing on the bronzed and glittering scales of
the intruder. After a period which seemed to him an
age, one of the workmen approached the verandah, and
the snake at his footsteps left its warm berth, and was
gliding off, when the servants at the cry of the artisan
rushed out and destroyed it.

It curiously happens that in some of the creatures whose
rage is likely to be fatal to man, there should be some-
thing in the physiognomy which puts him on his guard.
We have seen that it is so in the sharks ; we have seen
that it is so in the crocodiles ; it is so pre-eminently in
the venomous serpents. There is in most of these an
expression of malignity, which well indicates their deadly
character. Their flattened head, more or less widened
behind, so as to approach a triangular figure ; their wide
gape, and the cleft tongue ever darting to and fro ; and,
above all, the sinister expression of the glaring lidless eye,
\vith its linear pupil ; are sufficient to cause the observer

THE BUSH-MASTER. 267

to retreat with shuddering precipitancy. Darwin, speaking
of a sort of viper which he found at Bahia Blanca, says :
"The expression of this snake's face was hideous and
fierce ; the pupil consisted of a vertical slit in a mottled
and coppery iris ; the jaws were broad at the base, and
the nose terminated in a triangular projection. I do not
think I ever saw anything more ugly, excepting, perhaps,
some of the vampyre bats."

Many of the snakes of South America are highly
venomous. One of these is called, from its prowess and
power, the bush-master. Frightful accidents occur in the
forests of Guiana by this terrible species. Sullivan * gives
us the following : his host, a few days before, had sent
a negro to open some sluices on his estate ; but, as he did
not return, the master, thinking he had run away, sent
another negro to look after him ; this negro went to the
place directed, and found the man quite dead, and swollen
up to a hideous size. He was bitten in two places, and
death must have been instantaneous, as he was not more
than three feet from the sluice* They supposed that it
must have been a bush-master that had killed him. The
couni-couchi, or bush-master, is the most dreaded of all
the South American snakes, and, as his name implies, he
roams absolute master of the forest. They will not fly
from man, like all other snakes, but will even pursue and
attack him. They are fat, clumsy-looking snakes, about
four feet long, and nearly as thick as a man's arm ; their
mouth is unnaturally large, and their fangs are from one

* Rambles in America, p. 406.

268 THE TEBB1BLE.

to three inches in length. They strike with immense
force ; and a gentleman who had examined a man after
having been struck in the thigh and died, told the narrator
that the wound was as if two four-inch nails had been
driven into the flesh. As the poison oozes out from the
extremity of the fang, any hope of being cured after a bite
is small, as it is evident that no external application could
have any immediate effect on a poison deposited an inch
and a half or two inches below the surface ; the instan-
taneousness of the death depends upon whether any large
artery is wounded or not.

The same traveller records the following shocking story
about a very deadly snake, called the manoota, that infests
the borders of the Lake of Valencia, in Venezuela : —

" An American we met related an anecdote of this
snake, which, if true, was very frightful. He had gone
in a canoe one night with a father and son, intending to
shoot deer next morning on one of the islands in the
lake. When they reached the island, the son, notwith-
standing the repeated warnings of his father, jumped
out; but he had no sooner done so, than he gave an
agonised yell, and fell back; the father immediately
sprung out, but was also struck by the snake, but not so
severely. They got the young man into the boat, but he
swelled to a horrible size, and, bleeding at eyes, nose, and
mouth, died in less than half-an-hour. Our friend and
the father now set out on their return to Valencia with
the dead body. A storm had in the meantime arisen,
and they were in the greatest danger of being capsized

FATAL ATTACK OP BEES. 20 9

The old man was suffering fearful agony from his bite,
and had nearly gone out of his mind ; and the narrator
described in graphic terms the horrors of his situation, in
a frail canoe, in a dark night during a severe storm, and
the momentary expectation of being capsized, his only
companion being a mad father lamenting over the body
of his dead son." *

Even the most insignificant of creatures may be the
scourge of the most exalted. We have seen some examples
of insect pests in a former chapter, and of their ravages
and successful assaults against man ; but that he should
be actually slain in mortal conflict with a fly is something
unusual. Yet last summer this happened in India.

" Two European gentleman belonging to the Indian
Railway Company, — viz., Messrs Armstrong and Bodding-
ton — were surveying a place called Bunder Coode, for the
purpose of throwing a bridge across the Nerbudda, the
channel of which, being in this place from ten to fifty
yards wide, is fathomless, having white marble rocks
rising perpendicularly on either side from a hundred to a
hundred and fifty feet high, and beetling fearfully in some
parts. Suspended in the recesses of these marble rocks
are numerous large hornets' nests, the inmates of which
are ready to descend upon any unlucky wight who may
venture to disturb their repose. Now, as the boats of
these European surveyors were passing up the river, a
cloud of these insects overwhelmed them; the boatmen
as well as the two gentlemen jumped overboard, but,

* Sullivan's Rambles in N. and S. America, p. 409.

270 THE TERRIBLE.

alas! Mr Boddington, who swam and had succeeded in
clinging to a marble block, was again attacked, and being
unable any longer to resist the assaults of the countless
hordes of his infuriated winged foes, threw himself into
the depths of the water, never to rise again. On the fourth
day his corpse was discovered floating on the water, and
was interred with every mark of respect. The other
gentleman, Mr Armstrong, and his boatmen, although very
severely stung, are out of danger/'

Such is the story as narrated in the Times of Jan. 28,
1859. But I have the pleasure of being personally
acquainted with some of the members of the family of Mr
Armstrong, who have assured me that the insects were not
hornets, as represented, but honey-bees ; it may be not
the hive-bee domesticated with us, but a species well
known as making honey. Whatever the true nature of
the insect, it affords an apt illustration of such passages of
Holy Scripture as the following : — " The Lord shall hiss
for ... the bee that is in the land of Assyria." (Isa. vil
18.) " The Lord thy God will send the hornet among
them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from
thee, be destroyed/' (Deut. vii. 20.)

And with this we shut up our " chamber of horrors."

XI.

THE UNKNOWN.

LETOUILLANT tells us, in his " Travels in the East/' that
whenever he arrived at an eminence, whence he could
behold a distant mountain range, he felt an irrepressible
desire to reach it ; an unreasoning persuasion that it would
afford something more interesting, more delightful, than
anything which he had yet attained. The charm lay here,
that it was unknown: the imagination can people the
unexplored with whatever forms of beauty or interest it
pleases ; and it does delight to throw a halo round it, the
halo of hope.

" 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
And clothes the mountain in its azure hue."

One of the greatest pleasures of the out-of-door natu-
ralist depends upon this principle. There is so great
variety in the objects which he pursues, and so much
uncertainty in their presence at any given time and place,
that hope is ever on the stretch. He makes his excursions
not knowing what he may meet with ; and, if disappointed
of what he had pictured to himself, he is pretty sure to be
surprised with something or other of interest that he had
not anticipated. And much more does the romance of the
unknown prevail to the natural history collector in a new

272 THE UNKNOWN.

and unexplored country. It has been my lot' to pursue
various branches of zoology, in regions where the pro-
ductions were to science largely, to myself wholly, un-
known. In a rich tropical island, such as Jamaica, where
nature is prodigal in variety and beauty, and where,
throughout the year, though there is change, there is no
cessation of animal or vegetable activity, there was novelty
enough in every day's opima spolia to whet the expecta-
tion of to-morrow. Each morning's preparation was
made with the keenest relish, because there was the
undefined hope of good things, but I knew not what ; and
the experience of each day, as the treasures were gloated
over in the evening, was so different in detail from that
of the preceding, that the sense of novelty never palled.
If the walk was by the shore, the state of the tide, the
ever varying wave-washings, the diverse rocks with their
numerous pools and crannies and recesses, the cliffs and
caves, the fishes in the shallows, the nimble and alert
Crustacea on the mud, the shelled mollusca on the weed-
beds, the echinoderms on the sand, the zoophytes on the
corals, continually presented objects of novelty. If I rode
with vasculum and insect-net and fowling-piece into the
mountain-woods, there was still the like pleasing uncer-
tainty of what might occur, with the certainty of abund-
ance. A fine epiphyte orchid scents the air with fragrance,
and it is discovered far up in the fork of some vast tree ;
then there is the palpitation of hope and fear as we discuss
the possibility .of getting it down ; then come contrivances
and efforts, — pole after pole is cut and tied together with

COLLECTING IN JAMAICA. 273

the cords which the forest-climbers afford. At length the
plant is reached, and pushed off, and triumphantly bagged ;
but lo ! while examining it, some elegant twisted shell is
discovered, with its tenant snail, crawling on the leaves.
Scarcely is this boxed, when a gorgeous butterfly rushes
out of the gloom into the sunny glade, and is in a moment
seen to be a novelty ; then comes the excitement of pur-
suit ; the disappointment of seeing it dance over a thicket
out of sight; the joy of finding it reappear; the tantalising
trial of watching the lovely wings flapping just out of
reach ; the patient waiting for it to descend ; the tiptoe
approach as we see it settle on a flower ; the breathless
eagerness with which the net is poised ; and the trium-
phant flush with which we contemplate the painted wings
within the gauze ; and the admiration with which we
gaze on its loveliness when held in the trembling fingers.
Another step or two, and a gay-plumaged bird rises
from the bush, and falls to the gun ; we run to the spot
and search for the game among the shrubs and moss ; at
last it is found, admired, and committed to a little pro-
tective cone of paper. Now a fern of peculiar delicacy
appears ; then a charming flower, of which we search for
ripe seed : a glittering beetle is detected crawling on the
gray bark of a lichened tree ; here is a fine caterpillar
feeding ; yonder a humming-bird hovering over a brilliant
blossom ; and here a female of the same spangled bird
sitting in her tiny nest. By and by we emerge into a
spot where, for some cause or other, insects seem to have
specially congregated ; a dozen different kinds of butter-

274 THE UNKNOWN.

flies are flitting to and fro in bewildering profusion of
beauty, and our collecting-box is half filled in the
course of an hour. Meanwhile we have shot two or three
more birds ; caught a pretty lizard ; seen a painted tree-
frog, which escaped to be captured another day ; obtained
some strange nondescript creatures under stones ; picked
a beautiful spider from a web ; taken a host of banded
shells ; — and so the day wears on. And then in the evening
what a feasting of the eager eyes as they gloat over the
novelties, assigning each to its place, preparing such as
need preparation, and recording the facts and habits that
help to make up the as yet unwritten history of all.

I turn from my own experience to that of those who
have, with similar tastes and similar pursuits, rifled still
more prolific regions. Let us hear Mr Bates, who for the
last eleven years has been exploring the very heart of
South America in the service of natural history, chiefly
devoting himself to the gorgeous entomology of the great
Valley of the Amazon. He has drawn a picture of an
average day's proceedings, such as makes a brother natu-
ralist's mouth water, and almost induces him to pack up
his traps, and look out in The Times' shipping column for
the next ship sailing for Para : —

" The charm and glory of the country are its animal
and vegetable productions. How inexhaustible is their
study! Remember that, as to botany, in the forest
scarcely two trees of the same species are seen growing
together. It is not as in temperate countries (Europe), a
forest of oak, or birch, or pine — it is one dense jungle ;

COLLECTING IN BRAZIL. 2?5

the lofty forest trees, of vast variety of species, all lashed
and connected by climbers, their trunk covered with a
museum of ferns, tillandsias, arums, orchids, &c. The
underwood consists of younger trees — great variety of
small palms, mimosas, tree-ferns, &c. ; and the ground
is laden with fallen branches — vast trunks covered with
parasites, &c. The animal denizens are in the same way
of infinite variety ; not numerous, as to give the appear-
ance at once of tumultuous life, being too much scattered
for that ; it is in course of time only that one forms an
idea of their numbers. Four or five species of monkey
are constantly seen. The birds are in such variety that it
is not easy to get two or three of the same species. You
see a trogon one day ; the next day and the day after,
another each day ; and all will be different species. Quad-
rupeds or snakes are seldom seen, but lizards are every-
where met with; and sometimes you get tortoises, tree-
frogs, &c. Insects, like birds, do not turn up in swarms
of one species ; for instance, you take a dozen longicorns
one day, and they are sure to be of eight or ten distinct
species. One year of daily work is scarcely sufficient to get
the majority of species in a district of two miles' circuit.

"Such is the scene of my present labours ; and all the
rest of the Amazon is similar, though less rich ; the river
Tapajos alone differing, being a mountainous country.
Having thus my work at hand, I will tell you how I pro-
ceed. My house is in the centre of the town, but even
thus only a few minutes' walk from the edge of the forest
I keep an old and a young servant, on whom I rely for

276 THE UNKNOWN.

getting eatables and preparing my meals, so as to leave
me unembarrassed to devote all my thoughts to my work.
Between nine and ten A.M. I prepare for the woods; a
coloured shirt, pair of trousers, pair of common boots,
and an old felt hat, are all my clothing; over my left
shoulder slings my double-barrelled gun, loaded, one with
No. 10, one with No. 4 shot. In my right hand I take
my net, on my left side is suspended a leathern bag with
two pockets, one for my insect-box, the other for powder
and two sorts of shot ; on my right side hangs my " game-
bag," an ornamental affair, with red leather trappings and
thongs to hang lizards, snakes, frogs, or large birds. One
small pocket in this bag contains my caps ; another,
papers for wrapping up the delicate birds; others for
wads, cotton, box of powdered plaster ; and a box with
damped cork for the Micro-Lepidoptera ; to my shirt is
pinned my pin-cushion, with six sizes of pins. A few
minutes after entering the edge of the forest, I arrive
in the heart of the wilderness ; before me nothing but
forest for hundreds of miles. Many butterflies are found
on the skirts of the forest; in the midst of numbers
flitting about, I soon distinguish the one I want — often
a new one — Erycinide, Hesperia, Thecla, or what not.
Coleoptera you see nothing fine of at first; a few
minute Halticce on the leaves, or small Curculios, or
JEumolpi. When you come to the neighbourhood of u
newly-fallen tree, is soon enough to hunt closely for them ;
not only wood-eating species, but all kinds seem to con-
gregate there; Agras and Lebias in the folded leaves.

NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTING. 277

grand Cassidce, and Erotyli, Rutelce, or Melolonthids, Gym-
netis, &c. ; often a Ctenostoma running along some slender
twig. It requires a certain kind of weather for Coleo-
ptera, and some days all seem to be absent at once.

" Whilst I am about these things, I often hear the noise
of birds above — pretty tanagers, or what not. You can-
not see the colours of red, cobalt-blue, or beryl-green,
when they are up in the trees ; and it takes months of
experience to know your bird. I have sometimes shot at
small, obscure-looking birds up the trees, and when they
have fallen, have been dazzled by their exquisite beauty.

" I walk about a mile straight ahead, lingering in rich
spots, and diverging often. It is generally near two P.M.
when I reach home, thoroughly tired. I get dinner, lie
in hammock a while reading, then commence preparing
my captives, &c. ; this generally takes me till five P.M. In
the evening I take tea, write and read, but generally in
bed by nine/' *

I might quote similar details from Mr Wallace's letters,
written while engaged in similar pursuits in a neighbour-
ing part of the same mighty continent. But I prefer
citing, in illustration of our subject, his observations made
when, after having satiated himself in the west, he turned
to the gorgeous east, and set himself to explore the virgin
treasures of the remotest parts of the Indian Archipelago.
Who cannot sympathise with his enthusiasm, when he
gays : — « I I00k forward with unmixed satisfaction to my
visit to the rich and almost unexplored Spice Islands

* Zoologist, p. 5659,

278 THE UNKNOWN".

the land of the lories, of the cockatoos and the birds of
paradise, the country of tortoise-shell and pearls, of beauti-
ful shells and rare insects " ? And when, having visited
them, and swept into his cabinet their riches, his eye is
still towards the rising sun, and the gorgeous spoils of the
unknown Papuan group are firing his imagination, he
thus jots down his undefinable expectations : —

" I am going another thousand miles eastward to the
Arru Islands, which are within a hundred miles of the
coast of New Guinea, and are the most eastern islands of
the Archipelago. Many reasons have induced me to go
so far now. I must go somewhere to escape the terrific
rainy season here. I have all along looked to visiting
Arru as one of- the great objects of my journey to the
East ; and almost all the trade with Arru is from Macassar.
I have an opportunity of going in a proa, owned and com-
manded by a Dutchman, (Java-born,) who will take me
and bring me back, and assist me in getting a house, &c.,
there ; and he goes at the very time I want to leave. I
have also friends here with whom I can leave all the
things I do not want to take with me. All these advan-
tageous circumstances would probably never be combined
again; and were I to refuse this opportunity I might
never go to Arru at all ; which, when you consider it is
the nearest place to New Guinea where I can stay on
shore and work in perfect safety, would be much to bo
regretted. What I shall get there it is impossible to say
Being a group of small islands, the immense diversity and
richness of the productions of New Guinea will, of course,

EXPECTATIONS. 279

be wanting ; yet I think I may expect some approach to
the strange and beautiful natural productions of that
unexplored country. Very few naturalists have visited
Arru. One or two of the French discovery ships have
touched it. M. Payen, of Brussels, was there, but stayed
probably only a few days ; and I suppose not twenty
specimens of its birds and insects are positively known.
Here, then, I shall have tolerably new ground, and if I
have health I shall work it well. I take three lads with
me, two of whom can shoot and skin birds." *

Such men as these are fast beating up the untrodden
ground, and gathering into our museums and cabinets
the natural history harvest of every land. Already we
know the characteristic forms of almost all the regions of
the earth ; and, though there yet remain great tracts un-
explored, and these in the most teeming climes, yet from
the productions of surrounding or contiguous districts we
can pretty surely conjecture what forms they will yield, —
what sorts of forms, at least, though there may remain
much of novelty in detail. When we consider that an
ardent and most indefatigable entomologist, after spending
eleven years in one region — the Valley of the Amazon, —
devoting his whole time and energy to searching after
butterflies, yet finds new species turning up, in almost
unabated profusion, and that every little district visited,
though but a few miles 'distant from the last, has its own
peculiar, though allied kinds, we may form some idea of
the vast variety and abundance of unknown insects which

* Zoologist, pp. 5117, 5656.

280 THE UNKNOWN.

the almost boundless forests of South America have yet
to yield to scientific enterprise.

Yet in all this profusion, it is almost wholly new species
of already recognised genera that constitute the reward
of perseverance. It is comparatively rare to capture a
butterfly so different from anything before known as to
warrant the formation of a new genus ; and the occurrence
of a new family is almost out of the question.

Then, again, throughout that immense region, so little
explored by competent naturalists, we can assert with a
measure of confidence that no great mammal, scarcely any
conspicuous bird, is at all likely to be added to those
already known, with the exception of additional species
of characteristic • and large groups, such as the trogons,
the tanagers, the toucans, or the humming-birds. At the
same time, we may well believe that many of the smaller
mammalia, and a still greater number of the sombre-
coloured birds, have been as yet unnoticed.

It is, however, possible that a great anthropoid ape
may exist, as yet unrecognised by zoologists. On the
cataracts of the upper Orinoco, Humboldt heard reports
of a " hairy man of the woods," which was reputed to
build huts, to carry off women, and to devour human
flesh. The first and second of these attributes are so
characteristic of the great anthropoid Simice of Africa,
that, unless the belief has been transferred from the one
continent to the other, (a circumstance little probable,
when we think of the seat of the report, in the very heart
of the forests of Venezuela,) their adduction gives a

THE WILD MAN OF AMEEICA. 281

measure of authority to the statement; while the third
would be a very natural inference from such ferocity as
animates the gorilla. Both Indians and missionaries
firmly believe in the existence of this dreaded creature,
which they call vasitri, or " the great devil." Humboldt
suggests that the original of what he boldly calls " the
fable," may exist in the person of " one of those large
bears, the footsteps of which resemble those of man, and
which are believed in every country to attack women ;"
and he seems to claim credit for being the only person
to doubt the existence of the great anthropomorphous
monkey of America. But it might be permitted, in return,
to ask what "large bear" is known to inhabit Venezuela ;
and whether it is true that bears' footsteps have a signal
resemblance to those of men ; and that bears specially
attack women. Is not such a bear in South America quite
as gratuitous as the monkey himself ? And, since species
of Quadrumana are characteristic of the forests of that
region, may it not be possible that some one rivalling
man in stature and strength, may there exist, as well as
in Africa and the Oriental Archipelago? The mighty
gorilla himself has only just been introduced to us.

The immense, almost continental, islands of the eastern
hemisphere, Java, Sumatra, Borneo; and, above all, Papua,
hold, it is likely, more unknown animals than the Western
Continent. Yet the r'qmark just made will hold gocd
here also, — that we may rather expect new species of well-
known genera, than any really new forms. Again, nearly
half of the Australian continent is within the tropics, and

282 THE UNKNOWN.

this is absolutely virgin ground to the naturalist ; but
what we know of the poverty of the Australian fauna does
not encourage any extravagant expectation of novelties,
even from so vast an expanse of intertropical country :
some new genera of marsupial mammalia, and a good
many birds and reptiles, may possibly remain to be dis-
covered. Papua, if it is indeed continuous land and not
a group of islands, is the most promising region in this
quarter to the naturalist : it is a land of hope, immense
in area, and covered with virgin forest, producing birds
and insects the most magnificent in the world, and yet
only just glimpsed here and there on the coast. We may
expect great things from it when explored ; and cannot
but hope that Mr Wallace, whose longings have just been
recorded, may yet find opportunity, with safety to himself,
of satisfying the desire of his heart.

The interior of China is a great region scarcely seen by an
European eye ; and its mountainous districts especially are
doubtless rich in animal and vegetable productions as yet
unknown to science. But the incredibly crowded condi-
tion of its human population, and the diligence with which
every available inch of land is cultivated, are circum-
stances which militate against the existence of wild ani-
mals and plants.* Japan will probably fall under the

* Mr Wallace, writing from Lombok, one of the Sunda Isles, removed
but a few degrees from the equator, thus complains of the antagonism
of cultivation to natural history : — " There is nothing but dusty roads
and paddy fields for miles around, producing no insects or birds worth
collecting. It is really astonishing, and will be almost incredible to
many persons at homp, that a tropical country, when cultivated, should

IKDIA — MADAGASCAK — AFRICA. 283

same conditions ; and, in a less degree, the further penin-
sula of India. But of this last considerable portions are
mountainous, well watered with great rivers, and covered
with forests ; all circumstances favourable to natural his-
tory. The jealousy of the native governments has tended
to shut up these regions from Europeans, and we may
reasonably expect that important discoveries may yet re-
main in the immense intertropical countries of Cochin
China, Cambodia, Siam, Laos, and Burmah ; countries
where the elephant attains his most colossal dimensions,
where the two-horned rhinoceros roams the jungle, and
where the camphor and the gutta-percha grow.

Madagascar is another land of promise. Here, too,
mountain and forest prevail ; situation is favourable ; and
we know almost nothing of the interior; It appears to
be remarkably destitute of the greater Mammalia, but Mr
Ellis's late researches shew how rich it is in strange forms
of vegetation ; and doubtless it will prove to be the home
of many unknown birds, reptiles, and insects.

Africa is the land of wild beasts. The grandest forms

produce so little for the collector. The worst collecting-ground in
England would produce ten times r.s many species of beetles as can be
found here; and even our common English butterflies are finer and
more numerous than those of Ampanam in the present dry season. A
walk of several hours with my net will produce, perhaps, two or three
species of Chrysomela, and Coccinella, and a Cicindela, and two or three
Hcmiptera and flies ; and every day the same species will occur. In
an uncultivated district which I have visited, in the south part of the
island, I did indeed find insects rather more numerous, but two months'
assiduous collecting have only produced me eight species of Coleoptera.
Why, there is not a spot in England where the same number could not
be obtained in a few days in spring." — Zoologist, p. 5415.

284 THE UNKNOWN.

of the terrestrial creation have their habitation in that
continent. The elephant, the hippopotamus, several dif-
ferent sorts of rhinoceros, the zebra, the quagga, the
giraffe ; multitudes of antelopes, some of them of colossal
dimensions ; the buffalo ; the gorilla, the chimpanzee, the
mandril, and other baboons and monkeys ; the lion, the
panther, the leopard ; — these are only the more prominent
of the quadrupeds which roam the plains and woods of
Africa. Thinly peopled and little cultivated; a region
enclosed between sixty degrees of latitude, bisected by the
equator, and (in its widest part) between as many of lon-
gitude ; of which, perhaps, more than three-fourths are
only now just beginning to be penetrated by the straggling
foot of the European explorer and missionary ; — what may
we not expect of the vast, the uncouth, the terrible, among
the creatures which lurk as yet unsuspected in the teem-
ing wilds of Central Africa ? Perhaps less, however, after
all, than at first view appears probable. It is remarkable
that the explorations of the adventurous Livingstone from
the south, and of Earth and others from the north — ex-
plorations which have immensely diminished the extent
of absolutely unknown land — have contributed almost
nothing to what we previously knew of the natural his-
tory of the continent. The most important recent addi-
tion to zoology is, undoubtedly, the gorilla ; but this
discovery was not the result of geographic extension, the
animal inhabiting the forests of a line of coast frequented
for centuries by European traders. The great pioneers
alluded to were not strictly naturalists, it is true; and

THE UNICORN. 285

their immediate object was not to make discoveries in
zoology ; nay, their interest would lie in avoiding, so far
as possible, the haunts of unknown savage animals ; but,
in the case of Dr Livingstone particularly, his frequent
encounters with such as were already well known, and his
intelligent spirit of inquiry, leave no room for supposing
that any conspicuous forms inhabit the regions through
which he penetrated, different from those.

I am therefore inclined to believe, that whatever dis-
coveries of importance are yet to be made in African
zoology, will be in the very central district ; the region,
that is, which lies south of Lake Tchad and Abyssinia,
and extends to the equator. There is reason to suppose
that lofty mountain-chains exist here, and geographical
discovery has not yet even approached these parts. Many
forms of high interest, and some of them of vast dimen-
sions, may yet be hidden there.

It is highly probable that an animal of ancient renown,
and one in which England has (or ought to have) a pecu-
liar interest, resides in the region just indicated. I refer
to one of the supporters of Britain's shield, the famed
Unicorn. We may not, to be sure, find him exactly what
the heraldic artists delight to represent him — a sort of
mongrel between a deer and a horse, with cloven hoofs, a
tuft-tipped tail, and a horn spirally twisted to a point ;
but there may be the original of the traditionary portrait
of which this is the gradually corrupted copy.

Dr Andrew Smith, an able and sober zoologist, who
has investigated with much enterprise and success th&

286 THE UNKNOWN.

zoology of South Africa, has collected a good deal of in«
formation about a one-horned animal which is yet unknown
to Europeans, and which appears to occupy an interme-
diate rank between the massive rhinoceros and the lighter
form of the horse. Cavassi, cited by Labat, heard of such
a beast in Congo under the name of A bada ; and Ruppel
mentions it as commonly spoken of in Kordofan, where it
is called Nillekma, and sometimes A rase — that is, uni-
corn. Mr Freeman, the excellent missionary whose name
is so intimately connected with Madagascar, received the
most particular accounts of the creature from an intelli-
gent native of a region lying northward from Mozambique.
According to this witness, an animal called the Ndzoo-
dzoo is by no means rare in Makooa. It is about the
size of a horse, extremely fleet and strong. A single horn
projects from its forehead from two feet to two and a-half
feet in length. This is said to be flexible when the animal
is asleep, and can be curled up at pleasure, like an ele-
phant's proboscis ; but it becomes stiff and hard under
the excitement of rage. It is extremely fierce, invariably
attacking a man whenever it discerns him. The device
adopted by the natives to escape from its fury, is to climb
a thick and tall tree out of sight. If the enraged animal
ceases to see his enemy, he presently gallops away ; but, if
he catches sight of the fugitive in a tree, he instantly com-
mences an attack on the tree with his frontal horn, boring
and ripping it till he brings it down, when the wretched
man is presently gored to death. If the tree is not very
bulky, the perseverance of the creature usually succeeds

THE UNICOKN. 28?

in overturning it. His fury spends itself in goring and
mangling the carcase, as he never attempts to devour it.
The female is altogether without a horn.*

When in the neighbourhood of the tropic, Dr Smith
himself heard reports of a similar creature inhabiting the
country north of that parallel. The persons who professed
to be personally familiar with it, as well as a new kind of
rhinoceros allied to R. Keitloa, were only visitors in the
country it was said to inhabit, and, therefore, were unable
to afford any very circumstantial evidence. It was, how-
ever, described as very different from any species of rhi-
noceros they had ever seen, with a single long horn situated
towards the forehead. Dr Smith then cites the particu-
lars given by Mr Freeman, introducing them with the
following just observations : —

" Now, though descriptions of objects by such persons
are often inaccurate, from the circumstance of their not
having been favourably situated for making correct obser-
vations, as well as from a deficiency of language calculated
to convey the information they actually possess, I have
always remarked, that even a hasty examination seemed
to supply the savage with more accurate notions of the
general character of animals, than it did the civilised
man ; and, therefore, I do not despair of species such as
these mentioned being yet discovered. It is in regard to
the species with the single horn that we experience the
greatest hesitation in receiving their evidence as credible ;
and therefore, it is agreeable to have it corroborated by

* South Afr. Christian Recorder, voL i.

288 THE UNKNOWN.

the testimony of a man from a very different part of the
country, as obtained and published by a missionary of
great research, who resided a long time in Madagascar."*
The rude drawings made by savages are often faithful
delineations of the salient features of the objects familiar
to them. Sir J. Barrow, in his Travels in Africa, has
given the head of an unicorn, answering well to the ndzoo-
dzoo, which was copied from a charcoal sketch made by a
Caffre in the interior of a cavern. The copy was made by
Daniell ; and Colonel Hamilton Smith mentions having
seen, among the papers of this artist, another drawing
likewise copied from the walls of an African cave. In this
were represented, with exceedingly characteristic fidelity,
several of the common antelopes of the country, such as a
group of elands, the hartebeest, and the springbok; while
among them appeared, with head and shoulders towering
above the rest, an animal having the general character of
a rhinoceros, but, in form, lighter than a wild bull, having
an arched neck, and a long nasal horn projecting in the
form of a sabre. " This drawing," observes the Colonel,
" is no doubt still extant, and should be published ; but, in
confirmation of the opinion that truth exists to a certain
extent in the foregoing remarks, it may be observed that
we have seen, we believe in the British Museum, a horn
brought from Africa, unlike those of any known species
of rhinoceros : it is perfectly smooth and hard, about
thirty inches in length, almost equally thick throughout,
not three inches in its greatest diameter, nor less than

* Illustr. of Zool. of South Ajrica.

THE TTNICOEN IN KOEDOFAN. 289

in its smaller, and rather sharp pointed at top : from the
narrowness of the base, its great length and weight, the
horn must evidently stand nioveable on the nasal bones,
until excitement renders the muscular action more rigid,
and the coriaceous sole which sustains it more firm, — cir-
cumstances which may explain the repeated assertion of
natives, that the horn, or rather the agglutinated hair
which forms that instrument, is flexible.*

Much more recently, accounts have reached Europe of
the same nature, confirmatory of the former, inasmuch as
much of the value of such evidence consists in its cumu-
lative character ; but still only hearsay report. M. Antoine
d'Abbadie, writing to the Athenaeum from Cairo, gives the
following account of an animal new to European science,
which account he had received from Baron Von Mliller,
who had recently returned to that city from Kordofan: —
"At Melpes, in Kordofan," said the Baron, "where I
stopped some time to make my collections, I met, on the
17th of April 1848, a man who was in the habit of selling
to me specimens of animals. One day he asked me if I
wished also for an A'nasa, which he described thus : — It
is the size of a small donkey, has a thick body and thin
bones, coarse hair, and tail like a boar. It has a long
horn on its forehead, and lets it hang when alone, but
erects it immediately on seeing an enemy. It is a formid-
able weapon, but I do not know its exact length. The
A'nasa is found not far from here, (Melpes,) towards the
S.S.W. I have seen it often in the wild grounds, where the

* Cyclop. Bibl. Lit., Art. REEM.
T

290 THE UNKNOWN.

negroes kill it, and carry it home to make shields from
its skin.

"N.B. — This man was well acquainted with the rhino-
ceros, which he distinguished, under the name of Fetit,
from the A'nasa. On June the 14th I was at Kursi,
also in Kordofan, and met there a slave-merchant who
was not acquainted with my first informer, and gave me
spontaneously the same description of the A'nasa, adding
that he had killed and eaten one not long ago, and that its
flesh was well flavoured/' *

Almost as little known as the heart of Africa are the
depths of ocean. The eye penetrates in the clear crystal-
line sea a few fathoms down, and beholds mailed and
glittering forms flitting by ; the dredge gathers its scrap-
ings ; divers plunge out of sight, and bring up pearls ;
and the sounding-lead goes down, down, down, hundreds
of fathoms, and when it comes up, we gaze with eager
eyes to see what adheres to the tallow " arming ;" the tiny
shells, the frustules of diatoms, even the atoms of coral
sand, — curious to learn what is at the bottom of the deep.
But, after all, it is much like the brick which the Greek
fool carried about as a sample of the house he had to let.

Who can penetrate into the depths of the ocean to trace
the arrowy course of the mailed and glittering beings
that shoot along like animated beams of light ? Who can
follow them to their rocky beds and coral caverns ? The
wandering mariner sees with interested curiosity the flying-
fishes leaping in flocks from the water, and the eager

* Athencevm, Jan. 3849.

REVELATIONS OF THE AQUARIUM. 291

bonito rushing after them in swift pursuit ; but who can
tell what the flying-fish is doing when not pursued, or how
the bonito is engaged when the prey is not before him ?
How many pleasing traits of conjugal or parental attach-
ment the waves of the fathomless sea may conceal, we
know not : what ingenious devices for self-protection ;
what structures for the concealment of eggs or offspring ;
what arts of attack and detence ; what manceuvrings and
stratagems ; what varied exhibitions of sagacity, fore-
thought, and care ; what singular developments of in-
stinct ; — who shall tell?

The aquarium has, indeed, already enlarged our acquaint-
ance with the curious creatures that inhabit the waters ;
and not a few examples of those habits and instincts that
constitute animal biography, have by this means been
brought to light. Much more will doubtless be learned
by the same instrumentality ; but there will still remain
secrets which the aquarium will be powerless to resolve.
From its very nature it can deal only with the small,
and those which are content with little liberty ; for the
multitude of large, unwieldy, swift-finned races, which
shoot athwart the deep, and for the countless hosts of tiny
things, to whose organisation even the confinement of a
vessel is speedy death, we must find some other device
before we can cultivate acquaintance with them.

It is true, we can put 'together a goodly number of indi-
vidual objects, which various accidents have from time to
time revealed to us from the depths, and form them into
an imaginary picture. Schleiden has done this, and a

292 THE

lovely delineation lie has made. You have only to gaze
on it, to admire it : I would not abate your admiration ;
I admire it too : — but remember, after all, it is but a fancy
sketch of the unknown ; it is only "founded on fact/'

" We dive," he observes, " into the liquid crystal of the
Indian Ocean, and it opens to us the most wondrous
enchantments of the fairy tales of our childhood's dreams.
The strangely branching thickets bear living flowers.
Dense masses of Meandrinas and Astrseas contrast with
the leafy, cup-shaped expansions of the Explanarias, the
variously-ramified Madrepores, which are now spread out
like fingers, now rise in trunk-like branches, and now
display the most elegant array of interlacing branches.
The colouring surpasses everything : vivid green alternates
with brown or yellow ; rich tints of purple, from pale red-
brown to the deepest blue. Brilliant rosy, yellow, or
peach-coloured Nullipores overgrow the decaying masses,
and are themselves interwoven with the pearl-coloured
plates of the Retipores, resembling the most delicate ivory
carvings. Close by, wave the yellow and lilac fans, per-
forated like trellis-work, of the Gorgonias. The clear
sand of the bottom is covered with the thousand strano-e

o

forms and tints of the sea-urchins, and star-fishes. The
leaf -like Mustras and Escharas adhere like mosses and
lichens to the branches of the corals ; the yellow, green,
and purple-striped Limpets cling like monstrous cochineal
insects upon their trunks. Like gigantic cactus-blossoms,
sparkling in the most ardent colours, the Sea-anemones
expand their crowns of tentacles upon the broken rocks,

US DEE THE WATERS. 293

or more modestly embellish the bottom, looking like bedg
of variegated ranunculuses. Around the blossoms of the
coral shrubs play the humming-birds of the ocean, — little
fish sparkling with red or blue metallic glitter, or gleam-
ing in golden green, or in the brightest silvery lustre.

" Softly, like spirits of the deep, the delicate milk-white
or bluish bells of the jelly-fishes float through this charmed
world. Hero the gleaming violet and gold-green Isabelle,
and the flaming yellow, black, and vermilion-striped
Coquette, chase their prey ; there the band-fish shoots,
snake-like, through the thicket, like a long silver ribbon,
glittering with rosy and azure hues. Then come the
fabulous cuttle-fish, decked in all colours of the rainbow,
but marked by no definite outline, appearing and dis-
appearing, intercrossing, joining company and parting
again, in most fantastic ways ; and all this in the most
rapid change, and amid the most wonderful play of light
and shade, altered by every breath of wind, and every
slight curling of the surface of the ocean. When day
declines, and the shades of night lay hold upon the deep,
this fantastic garden is lighted up in new splendour.
Millions of glowing sparks, little microscopic Medusas and
Crustaceans, dance like glow-worms through the gloom.
The Sea-feather, which by daylight is vermilion-coloured,
waves in a greenish, phosphorescent light. Every corner
of it is lustrous. Parts which by day were dull and
brown, and retreated from the sight amid the universal
brilliancy of colour, are now radiant in the most wonder-
ful play of green, yellow, and red light ; and to complete

294 THE UNKNOWN.

the wonders of the enchanted night, the silver disc, six
feet across, of the moon-fish,* moves, slightly luminous,
among the crowd of little sparkling stars.

" The most luxuriant vegetation of a tropical landscape
cannot unfold as great wealth of form, while in the variety
arid splendour of colour it would stand far behind this
garden landscape, which is strangely composed exclusively
of animals, and not of plants ; for, characteristic as the
luxuriant development of vegetation of the temperate
zones is of the sea-bottom, the fulness and multiplicity
of the marine Fauna is just as prominent in the regions
of the tropics. Whatever is beautiful, wondrous, or un-
common in the great classes of fish and echinoderms,
jelly-fishes and polypes, and the molluscs of all kinds, is
crowded into the warm and crystal waters of the tropical
ocean, — rests in the white sands, clothes the rough cliffs,
clings where the room is already occupied, like a parasite,
upon the first comers, or swims through the shallows and
depths of the element — while the mass of the vegetation
is of a far inferior magnitude. It is peculiar in relation
to this, that the law valid on land, according to which
the animal kingdom, being better adapted to accommodate
itself to outward circumstances, has a greater diffusion
than the vegetable kingdom ; — for the Polar Seas swarm
with whales, seals, sea-birds, fishes, and countless numbers
of the lower animals, even where every trace of vegetation
has long vanished in the eternally frozen ice, and the cool
sea fosters no sea-weed ; — that this law, I say, holds good

* Orlhagoriscus mola.

THE DEEP SEA. 295

also for the sea, in the direction of its depth ; for when
we descend, vegetable life vanishes much sooner than the
animal, and, even from the depths to which no ray of
light is capable of penetrating, the sounding-lead brings
up news at least of living infusoria." *

Who has not felt, when looking over a boat's side into
the clear crystal depth, a desire to go and explore ? Even
on our own coasts, to see the rich luxuriant forests of
Laminaria or Alaria, waving their great brown fronds
to and fro, over which the shell-fishes crawl, and on which
the green and rosy-fingered Anemones expand like flowers,
while the pipe-fishes twine about, and the brilliant wrasses
dart out and in, decked in scarlet and green, — is a tempting
sight, and one which I have often gazed on with admiration.

" Nothing can be more surprising and beautiful/' says
Sir A. de Capell Brooke, " than the singular clearness of
the water of the Northern Seas. As we passed slowly
over the surface, the bottom, which here was in general
a white sand, was clearly visible, with its minutest objects,
where the depth was from twenty to twenty-five fathoms.
During the whole course of the tour I made, nothing
appeared to me so extraordinary as the inmost recesses
of the deep unveiled to the eye. The surface of the ocean
was unruffled by the slightest breeze, and the gentle
splashing of the oars scarcely disturbed it. Hanging over
the gunwale of the boat, with wonder and delight I gazed
on the slowly moving scene below. Where the bottom
was sandy, the different kinds of Asterias, Echinus, and

* Sckleiden's Lectures, pp. 403-406.

296 THE UNKNOWN.

even the smallest shells, appeared at that great depth
conspicuous to the eye ; and the water seemed, in some
measure, to have the effect of a magnifier, by enlarging
the objects like a telescope, and bringing them seemingly
nearer. Now, creeping along, we saw, far beneath, the
rugged sides of a mountain rising towards our boat, the
base of which, perhaps, was hidden some miles in the great
deep below. Though moving on a level surface, it seemed
almost as if we were ascending the height under us ; and
when we passed over its summit, which rose in appearance
to within a few feet of our boat, and came again to the
descent, which on this side was suddenly perpendicular,
and overlooking a watery gulf, as we pushed gently over
the last point of it, it seemed as if we had thrown ourselves
down this precipice ; the illusion, from the crystal clear-
ness of the deep, actually producing a start. Now we
came again to a plain, and passed slowly over the sub-
marine forests and meadows, which appeared in the
expanse below ; inhabited, doubtless, by thousands of
animals, to which they afford both food and shelter —
animals unknown to man ; and I could sometimes observe
large fishes of singular shape gliding softly through the
watery thickets, unconscious of what was moving above
them. As we proceeded, the bottom became no longer"
visible ; its fairy scenes gradually faded to the view, and
were lost in the dark green depths of the ocean/'*

* Travels in Norway, p. 195.

XII.

THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

A SAILOR lad, after his first voyage, having returned to
his country home, was eagerly beset for wonders. "What
hast t' seen in f urrin parts ? " Among other things he
reported having been where the rum flowed like rivers, and
sugar formed whole mountains. At last, his inventive
powers being exhausted, he began to speak of the shoals
of tropical flying-fishes, a phenomenon which his familiar
sight had long ceased to regard as a wonder. But here
his aged mother thought reproof needful ; raising her
horn spectacles, and frowning in virtuous indignation, she
said, " Nae, nae, Jock ! mountains o' sugar may be, and
rivers o' rum may be ; but fish to flee ne'er can be ! "

Old Dame Partlet did only what philosophers in all ages
have done ; she had formed her schedule of physical
possibilities, outside of which nature could not go ; nay,
must not go. It so happened, however, that old Dame
Nature was obstreperous, and refused to be confined within
possibilities ; and the lawless fishes fly to this day, in spite
of Dame Partlet's virtuous protest.

There are several questions in natural science which are
questiones vexatce, because a certain amount of evidence
of facts is on one side, and a certain amount of presuinp-

298 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

tion of impossibility oil the other. If eye-witnesses (or
those who present themselves as such) could decide the
points, they would have been decided long ago ; but those
who are believed to be best acquainted with natural laws
claim that theoretic impossibilities should overpower even
ocular demonstration. There is far more justice in this
claim than appears at first sight. The power of drawing
correct inferences from what we see, and even of knowing
what we do really see, and what we only imagine, is vastly
augmented by the rigorous training of the faculties which
long habits of observing certain classes of phenomena
induce ; and every man of science must have met with
numberless cases in which statements egregiously false
have been made to him in the most perfect good faith ;
his informant implicitly believing that he was simply
telling what he had seen with his own eyes. A person
the other day assured me, that he had frequently seen
humming-birds sucking flowers in England : I did not set
him down as a liar, because he was a person of indubitable
honour ; his acquaintance with natural history, however,
was small, and he had fallen into the very natural error
of mistaking a moth for a bird.

It is quite proper that, when evidence is presented of
certain occurrences, the admission of which would over-
turn what we have come to consider as fixed laws, or
against which there exists a high degree of antecedent
improbability, — that evidence should be received with
great suspicion. It should be carefully sifted ; possible
causes of error should be suggested ; the powers of the

POSSIBILITIES AND PEOBABILITIES. 299

observer to judge of the facts should be examined ; the
actual bounding line between sensuous perception and
mental inference should be critically investigated; and
confirmatory, yet independent, testimony should be sought.
Yet, when we have done all this, we should ever remember
that truth is stranger than fiction ; that our power to
judge of fixed laws is itself very imperfect ; and that
indubitable phenomena are ever and anon brought to
light, which compel us to revise our code. It is only a
few years since the existence of metamorphosis in the
Crustacea, when first announced, was scouted as absurd
by naturalists of high reputation ; and the wide pre-
valence of what is called Parthenogenesis in the Insecta
is even now laughing to scorn what had seemed one of
the most immutable laws of physiology.*

I propose, then, to examine a few questions in natural
history, the very mooting of which * is enough with many
to convict the inquirer of wrong-headedness and credulity.
High authorities — deservedly high, and entitled to speak
ex cathedra — have pronounced verdicts on them ; and
numbers of inferior name (as usual, going far beyond
their teachers,) are ready to treat with ridicule those
who venture to think that, in spite of the auro? e<£a, any

* "Experience," says Sir J. W. Herschell, "once recognised as the
fountain of all our knowledge of nature, it follows that, in the study of
nature and its laws, we ought at once to make up our minds to dismiss
as idle prejudices, or at least suspend as premature, any pre-conceived
notion of what might, or what (night to be, the order of nature in any
proposed case, and content ourselves with observing, as a plain matter
of fact, what is." — Prelim. Discourse, p. 79.

300 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

other conclusion can possibly be tenable. I by no means
wish to appear as a partisan in treating such questions ;
perversely adducing evidence only on one side, and cu-
shioning or distorting what might be said on the other ;
but honestly to weigh the proof on both sides, so that the
reader may be able to determine for himself to which is
the preponderance.

Perhaps the most renowned of all these doubtful ques-
tions is the existence of the " Sea-serpent."

For ages, an animal of immense size and serpentine
form has been believed to inhabit the ocean, though to be
but rarely seen. A strong conviction of its existence has
always prevailed among the inhabitants of Norway ; and
the fjords or deep inlets which indent the coast-line of
that mountainous country are the situations in which it
is reported to have been most frequently seen. The coasts
of New England, in the United States, are also said to
have been favoured with frequent visits from the august
stranger during the present century ; and, even recently,
reports by many witnesses of unimpeachable character
have been published of its appearance in the midst of the
ocean, far from land, in various latitudes.

Bishop Pontoppidan, who, about the middle of the last
century, wrote a natural history of Norway, his native
country, collected together a considerable mass of testi-
mony to the occasional appearance of an immense serpen-
tiform marine animal off the shores of northern Europe
before that period. Among other evidence, he adduces
that of Captain de Ferry, of the Norwegian navy, who saw

TEE J6EA-SEKPE.NT OF NORWAY. 301

the animal, when in a boat rowed by eight men. near
Molde, in August 1747. The declaration was confirmed
by oath, taken before a magistrate, by two of the crew.
The animal was described as of the general form of a
serpent, stretched on the surface in receding coils or
undulations, with the head, which resembled that of a
horse, elevated some two feet out of the water.

The public papers of Norway, during the summer of
1846, were occupied with statements to the following
effect :—

Many highly respectable persons, and of unimpeached
veracity, in the vicinity of Christiansand and Molde, [the
reader will observe that it is the same locality as that
mentioned by Captain de Perry, a hundred years before,]
report that they have lately seen the marine serpent. It
has been, for the most part, observed in the larger fjords,
rarely in the open sea. In the fjord of Christiansand it
is believed to have been seen every year, but only in the
hottest part of the summer, and when the sea has been
perfectly unruffled.

Affidavits of numerous persons are then given in de-
tail, which, with some discrepancies in minute particulars,
agree in testifying that an animal of great length (from
about fifty to about a hundred feet) had been seen by
them at various times — in many cases more than once.
The head, which was occasionally elevated, was compared
for size to a ten-gallon cask, rather pointed, as described
by one witness ; by another, as rounded. All agreed that
the eyes were large and glaring ; that the body was dark

302 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

brown, and comparatively slender; and that a diffusive
mane of long spreading hair waved behind the head. The
movements were in vertical undulations, according to pre-
ponderating testimony ; but some attributed to the animal
lateral undulations also. The deponents were of various
positions in society, — a workman, a fisherman, a merchant,
a candidatus theologice, a sheriff, a surgeon, a rector, a
curate, &c.

Later in the season, the Rev. P. W. Deinboll, arch-
deacon of Molde, published the following statement: —
"On the 28th of July 1845, J. C. Lund, bookseller and
printer ; G-. S. Krogh, merchant ; Christian Flang, Lund's
apprentice ; and John Elgenses, labourer ; were out on
Eomsdal-fjord, fishing. The sea was, after a warm sun-
shiny day, quite calm. About seven o'clock in the after-
noon, a little distance from shore, near the ballast place
and Molde Hooe, they saw a large marine animal, which
slowly moved itself forward; as it appeared to them,
with the help of two fins, on the fore part of the body
nearest the head, which they judged from the boiling of
the water on both sides of it. The visible part of the
body appeared to be between forty and fifty feet in length,
and moved in undulations like a snake. The body was
round and of a dark colour, and seemed to be several ells
(an ell=two feet) in thickness. As they discerned a
waving motion in the water behind the animal, they con-
cluded that part of the body was concealed under water.
That it was one connected animal, they saw plainly from
its movement. When the animal was about one hundred

STATEMENT OF FOUR NORWEGIANS. 303

yards from the boat, they noticed tolerably correctly its
fore-part, which ended in a sharp snout ; its colossal head
raised itself above the water in the form of a semicircle ;
the lower part was not visible. The colour of the head
was dark brown, and the skin smooth. They did not
notice the eyes, or any mane or bristles on the throat.
When the serpent came about a musket-shot near, Lund
fired at it, and was certain the shots hit it in the head.
After the shot he dived, but came up immediately. He
raised his head like a snake preparing to dart on its prey.
After he had turned and got his body in a straight line,
which he appeared to do with great difficulty, he darted
like an arrow against the boat. They reached the shore,
and the animal, perceiving it had come in shallow water,
dived immediately, and disappeared in the deep.

" Such is the declaration of these four men, and no one
has any cause to doubt their veracity, or imagine that
they were so seized with fear, that they could not observe
what took place so near them. There are not many here,
or on other parts of the Norwegian coast, who longer
doubt the existence of the sea-serpent. The writer of
this narrative was a long time sceptical, as he had not
been so fortunate as to see this monster of the deep ; but
after the many accounts he has read, and the relations he
has received from creditable witnesses, he does not dare
longer to doubt the existence of the sea-serpent."

That I may bring to a point the Norwegian testimony
on the subject, I add here a statement made by an English
gentleman, and published under the signature of " Oxoni-

304 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

ensis " in The Times for November 4, 1848, on the occa-
sion of the celebrated account of Captain M'Quhae, pre-
sently to be given.

"There does not appear," says this writer, "to be a
single well-authenticated instance of these monsters having
been seen in any southern latitudes ; but in the north of
Europe, notwithstanding the fabulous character so long
Ascribed to Pontoppidan's description, I am convinced that
they both exist and are frequently seen. During three
summers in Norway, I have repeatedly conversed with the
natives on this subject. A parish priest, residing on Roms-
dal-fjord, about two days' journey south of Drontheim —
an intelligent person, whose veracity I have no reason to
doubt — gave me a circumstantial account of one which
he had himself seen. It rose within thirty yards of the
boat in which he was, and swam parallel with it for a
considerable time. Its head he described as equalling a
small cask in size, and its mouth, which it repeatedly
opened and shut, was furnished with formidable teeth ;
its neck was smaller, but its body — of which he supposed
that he saw about half on the surface of the water — was
not less in girth than that of a moderate-sized horse.
Another gentleman, in whose house I stayed, had also
seen one, and gave a similar account of it ; it also came
near his boat upon the fjord, when it was fired at, upon
which it turned and pursued them to the shore, which
was luckily near, when it disappeared. They expressed
great surprise at the general disbelief attaching to the
existence of these animals amongst naturalists, and assured

NORWEGIAN EVIDENCE. 305

me that there was scarcely a sailor accustomed to those
inland lakes who had not seen them at one time or
another."

The Eev. Alfred Charles Smith, M.A., an excellent
naturalist, who passed the three summer months of 1850
in Norway, and who published his observations in a series
of papers in the Zoologist for that and the following
year, thus alludes to his own inquiries, which, if they add
nothing ro the amount of fact accumulated, add weight
to the testimonies already adduced. " I lost no oppor-
tunity," he remarks, " of making inquiries of all I could
see, as to the general belief in the country regarding the
animal in question ; but all, with one single exception —
naval officers, sailors, boatmen, and fishermen — concurred
in affirming most positively that such an animal did exist,
and had been repeatedly seen off their coasts and fjords ;
though I was never fortunate enough to meet a man who
could boast of having seen him with his own eyes. All,
however, agreed in unhesitating belief as to his existence
and frequent appearance ; and all seemed to marvel very
much at the scepticism of the English, for refusing cre-
dence to what to the minds of the Norwegians seemed so
incontrovertible. The single exception to which I have
alluded, was a Norwegian officer, who ridiculed what he
called the credulity or gullibility of his countrymen ;
though I am bound to add my belief, that he did this, not
from any decided opinion of his own, but to make a
show of superior shrewdness in the eyes of an Englishman,
who, he at once concluded, must undoubtedly disbelieve the

U

306 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

existence of the marine monster. That Englishman, how-
ever, certainly partakes of the credulity of the Northmen,
and cannot withhold his belief in the existence of some
huge inhabitant of those northern seas, when, to his mind,
the fact of his existence has been so clearly proved by
numerous eye-witnesses, many of whom were too intelli-
gent to be deceived, and too honest to be doubted."*

In 1817, the Linnsean Society of New England pub-
lished a " Report relative to a large marine animal, sup-
posed to be a serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts,
in August" of that year. A good deal of care was taken to
obtain evidence, and the depositions of eleven witnesses of
fair and unblemished characters were taken on the matter,
and certified on oath before magistrates, one of whom
himself saw the creature, and corroborated the statements
of the deponents on the most important points. The
serpent form was attested by all, and the colour, a dark
brown, mottled, according to some, with white on the
under parts of the head and neck. The length was vari-
ously estimated, from fifty to a hundred feet. No ap-
pearance of mane was seen by any. The head was com-
pared to that of a sea-turtle, a rattlesnake, and a serpent
generally ; and, for size, to that of a horse. As to the
form of the body, five deponents speak of dorsal protuber-
ances ; four declare that the body was straight, while two
do not moot the point. The mode of progression is gene-
rally spoken of as by vertical undulation, " like that of a
caterpillar/' — probably a looping or geometric caterpillar
* Zoologist, p. 3228.

COLONEL PEEKINS'S EVIDENCE. 307

is meant. The magistrate who saw the animal, and to
whom the body appeared straight, considers that the ap-
pearance of protuberances was due to the vertical bendings
of the body during energetic motion.

That there were other witnesses of the same appearance
of the stranger in 1817, was generally stated at the time ;
and one of these, whose testimony is of value, was brought
out by the report of Captain M'Quhse, and the correspond-
ence that ensued upon it. In the Boston (U.S.) Daily
Advertiser for November 25, 1848, appeared a long
communication from the Hon. T. H. Perkins of that city,
attesting his own personal observation of the marine
serpent at Gloucester Harbour, near Cape Ann, in 1817.
The communication mainly consisted of a copy of a letter
which Colonel Perkins had written to a friend in 1820.

". . . . Wishing to satisfy myself on a subject on which
there existed a great difference of opinion, I myself visited
Gloucester with Mr Lee. On our way down we met
several persons returning, who had visited the place where
he was said to have exhibited himself, and who reported
to us that he had not been seen for two or three days
past. We, however, continued our route to Gloucester,
though with fears that we should not be gratified with the
sight of the monster which we sought. I satisfied myself,
from conversation with several persons who had seen him,
that the report in circulation was not a fable. All the
town were, as you may suppose, on the alert ; and almost
every individual, both great and small, had been gratified,
at a greater or less distance, with a sight of him. The

308 THE GKEAT UNKNOWN.

weather was fine, the sea perfectly smooth, and Mr Lee
and myself were seated on a point of land which projects
into the harbour, and about twenty feet above the level
of the water, from which we were distant about fifty or
sixty feet. ....

"In a few moments after my exclamation, I saw on
the opposite side of the harbour, at about two miles' dis-
tance from where I had first seen, or thought I saw, the
snake, the same object, moving with a rapid motion up the
harbour, on the western shore. As he approached us, it
was easy to see that his motion was not that of the com-
mon snake, either on the land or in the water, but evidently
the vertical movement of the caterpillar. As nearly as I
could judge, there was visible at a time about forty feet
of his body. It was not, to be sure, a continuity of body,
as the form from head to tail (except as the apparent
bunches appeared as he moved through the water) was
seen only at three or four feet asunder. It was very evi-
dent, however, that his length must be much greater than
what appeared, as, in his movement, he left a considerable
wake in his rear. I had a fine glass, and was within from
one-third to half a mile of him. The head was flat in the
water, and the animal was, as far as I could distinguish,
of a chocolate colour. I was struck with an appearance
in. the front part of the head like a single horn, about
nine inches to a foot in length, and of the form of a mar-
linespike. There were a great many people collected by
this time, many of whom had before seen the same object,
and the same appearance. From the time I first -saw him

MR MANSFIELD'S OBSERVATION. 309

until he passed by the place where I stood, and soon after
disappeared, was not more than fifteen or twenty minutes.

" I left the place fully satisfied that the reports in cir-
culation, although differing in details, were essentially
correct. I returned to Boston, and having made my
report, I found Mrs Perkins and my daughters disposed
to make a visit to Gloucester with me when the return of
the animal should be again announced. A few days after
my return I went again to Cape Ann with the ladies ; we
had a pleasant ride, but returned ungratified in the object
which carried us there.

" Whilst at Cape Ann I talked with many persons who
had seen the serpent, and among others with a person
of the name of Mansfield, one of the most respectable
inhabitants of the town. His account to me was, that
a few days before, as he was taking a ride with his wife in
a chair, the road taking them close to a bank which over-
looks the harbour, (and is nearly a perpendicular preci-
piece,) he saw an uncommon appearance, which induced
him to descend from the carriage, when he saw the sea-
serpent, in which until then he had been an unbeliever.
The animal was stretched out, partly over the white sandy
beach, which had four or five feet of water upon it, and
lay partly over the channel. He desired his wife to get
<! at of the chair, which she did. He said he had made up
his mind as to the length of the snake, but wished the
opinion of his wife on the same subject. He asked her
what she should consider his length ; she answered that
she could not undertake to say how many feet in length

310 THE GREAT UNKNOWN,

he was, but that she thought him as long as the wharf
behind their house, an object with which she had always
been familiar. Mr Mansfield said he was of the same
opinion. The wharf is one hundred feet in length. It is
to be observed that the person above spoken of had been
such an unbeliever in the existence of this monster, that
he had not given himself the trouble to go from his house
to the harbour when the report was first made of such an
animal being there. Subsequent to the period of which
I have been speaking, the snake was seen by several of
the crews of our coasting vessels, and in some instances
within a few yards. Captain Tappan, a person well known
to me, saw him with his head above water two or three
feet, at times moving with great rapidity, and at others
slowly. He also saw what explained the appearance which
I have described, of a horn on the front of the head. This
was doubtless what was observed by Captain Tappan to
be the tongue, thrown in an upright position from the
mouth, and having the appearance which I have given
to it.

" One of the revenue cutters, whilst in the neighbour-
hood of Cape Ann, had an excellent view of him at a few
yards' distance ; he moved slowly, and upon the approach
of the vessel, sank and was seen no more."

Though the position and character of some of these
witnesses add weight to their testimony, and seem to
preclude the possibility of their being either deceived or
deceivers, on a matter which depended on the use of their
eyes, yet, owing to a habit prevalent in the United States,

SEEX BY FIVE BEITISH OFFICERS. 311

of supposing that there is somewhat of wit in gross
exaggerations, or hoaxing inventions, we do naturally look
with a lurking suspicion on American statements, when
they describe unusual or disputed phenomena. It may
therefore be interesting to give the evidence of five British
officers, to the serpent's appearance on the American
coast, some fifteen years after the occurrence last men-
tioned.

"On the 15th of May 1833, a party, consisting of
Captain Sullivan, Lieutenants Maclachlan and Malcolm
of the Rifle Brigade, Lieutenant Lyster of the Artillery,
and Mr Ince of the Ordinance, started from Halifax in a
small yacht for Mahone Bay, some forty miles eastward,
on a fishing excursion. The morning was cloudy, and
the wind at S.S.E., and apparently rising : by the time we
reached Chebucto Head, as we had taken no pilot with
us, we deliberated whether we should proceed or turn
back ; but after a consultation, we determined on the
former, having lots of ports on our lee. Previous to our
leaving town, an old man-of-war Vman we had along with
us busied himself in inquiries as to our right course ; ho
was told to take his departure from the Bull Rock olf
Pennant Point, and that a W.N.W. course would bring
us direct on Iron Bound Island, at the entrance of Mahojie
or Mecklenburgh Bay : he, however, unfortunately told
us to steer W.S.W., nor corrected his error for five or six
hours ; consequently we had gone a long distance oft' the
coast. We had run about half the distance, as we sup-
posed, and were enjoying ourselves on deck, smoking our

312 THE GEEAT UNKNOWN.

cigars, and getting our tackle ready for the approaching
campaign against the salmon, when we were surprised by
the sight of an immense shoal of grampuses, which
appeared in an unusual state of excitement, and which in
their gambols approached so close to our little craft, that
some of the party amused themselves by firing at them
with rifles ; at this time we were jogging on at about five
miles an hour, and must have been crossing Margaret's
Bay. I merely conjecture where we were, as we had not
seen land since a short time after leaving Pennant Bay.
Our attention was presently diverted from the whales and
' such small deer/ by an exclamation from Bowling, our
man-of-war's-man, who was sitting to leeward, of, '0
sirs, look here ! ' We were started into a ready compliance,
and saw an object which banished all other thoughts, save
wonder and surprise.

" At the distance of from a hundred and fifty to two
hundred yards on our starboard bow, we saw the head
and neck of some denizen of the deep, precisely like those
of a common snake, in the act of swimming, the head so
far elevated and thrown forward by the curve of the neck,
as to enable us to see the water under and beyond it.
The creature rapidly passed, leaving a regular wake, from
the commencement of which, to the fore part, which was
out of water, we judged its length to be about eighty feet ;
and this within, rather than beyond the mark. We were,
of course, all taken aback at the sight, and, with staring
eyes and in speechless wonder, stood gazing at it for full
half a minute. There could be no mistake, no delusion

EVIDENCE OF FIVE OFFICEES. 313

and we were all perfectly satisfied that we had been
favoured with a view of the c true and veritable sea-
serpent,' which had been generally considered to have
existed only in the brain of some Yankee skipper, and
treated as a tale not much entitled to belief. Bowling's
exclamation is worthy of record, — ' Well, I 've sailed in all
parts of the world, and have seen rum sights too in my
time, but this is the queerest thing I ever see!' and surely
Jack Dowling was right. It is most difficult to give
correctly the dimensions of any object in the water. The
head of the creature we set down at about six feet in
length, and that portion of the neck which we saw, at the
same ; the extreme length, as before stated, at between
eighty and one hundred feet. The neck in thickness
equalled the bole of a moderate sized tree. The head and
neck of a dark brown or nearly black colour, streaked
with white in irregular streaks. I do not recollect seeing
any part of the body.

" Such is the rough account of the sea-serpent, and all
the party who saw it are still in the land of the living, —
Lyster in England, Malcolm in New South Wales, with
his regiment, and the remainder still vegetating in Hali-
fax.
" W. SULLIVAN, Captain, Kifle Brigade, June 21, 1831.

A. MACLACHLAN, Lieutenant, ditto, August 5, 1824
G. P. MALCOLM, Ensign, ditto, August 13, 1830.

B. O'NEAL LYSTER, Lieut., Artillery, June 7, 1816.
HENRY INGE, Ordnance Store-keeper at Halifax." *

* This account was published in the Zoologist for 1847, (page 1715:)

314 THE GEEAT UNKNOWN.

I now come to an incident, which, from the character of
the witnesses, the captain, officers, and crew of one of Her
Majesty's ships, and from the medium through which it
was announced, an official report to the Lords of the Admi-
ralty,— commanded great notoriety and interest, and gave
an unwonted impetus to the investigation of the question.

The Times newspaper of October 9, 1848, published the
following paragraph : — " When the Dcedalus frigate,
Captain M'Quhse, which arrived at Plymouth on the 4th
instant, was on her passage home from the East Indies,
between the Cape of Good Hope and St Helena, her
captain, and most of her officers and crew, at four o'clock
one afternoon, saw a sea-serpent. The creature was
twenty minutes in sight of the frigate, and passed under
her quarter. Its head appeared to be about four feet
out of the water, and there was about sixty feet of its
body in a straight line on the surface. It is calculated
that there must have been under water a length of thirty-
three or forty feet more, by which it propelled itself at
the rate of fifteen miles an hour. The diameter of the
exposed part of the body was about sixteen inches, and
when it extended its jaws, which were full of large jagged
teeth, they seemed sufficiently capacious to admit of a tall
man standing upright between them."

and the editor states that he is indebted for it to Mr W. H. Ince, who
received it from his brother, Commander J. M. E. Ince, K.N. It was
written by their uncle, one of the eye-witnesses, Mr Henry Ince, the
Ordnance Store-keeper at Halifax, in Nova Scotia. The dates affixed
to the names, are those on which the gentlemen received their respec-
tive commissions. The editor is not aware of their present rank.

CAPTAIN M'QUELE'S REPORT, 31 5

Some of the details here given were not afterwards
substantiated ; but popular curiosity was excited. The
Admiralty instantly inquired into the truth of the state-
ment, and in The Times of the 13th was published the
gallant captain's official reply in the following terms : —

"HER MAJESTY'S SHIP DAEDALUS,
HAMOAZE, Oct. 11.

" SlR, — In reply to your letter of this date, requiring
information as to the truth of a statement published in
The Times newspaper, of a sea-serpent of extraordinary
dimensions having been seen from Her Majesty's ship
Dcedalus, under my command, on her passage from the
East Indies, I have the honour to acquaint you, for the
information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty,
that at five o'clock P.M., on the 6th of August last, in
latitude 24<° 44' S., and longitude 9° 22' E, the weather
dark and cloudy, wind fresh from the N.W., with a long
ocean swell from the S.W., the ship on the port tack
heading N.E. by N., something very unusual was seen by
Mr Sartoris, midshipman, rapidly approaching the ship
from before the beam. The circumstance was immediately
reported by him to the officer of the watch, Lieutenant
Edgar Drummond, with whom and Mr William Barrett,
the master, I was at the time walking the quarter-deck.
The ship's company were at supper.

"On our attention being called to the object, it was
discovered to be an enormous serpent, with head and
shoulders kept about four feet constantly above the vsur-

31 G THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

face of the sea, and, as nearly as we could approximate by
comparing it with the length of what our maintopsail-yard
would shew in the water, there was at the very least sixty
feet of the animal afleur d'eau* no portion of which was,
to our perception, used in propelling it through the water,
either by vertical or horizontal undulation. It passed
rapidly, but so close under our lee quarter, that had it
been a man of my acquaintance, I should easily have
recognised his features with the naked eye ; and it did
not, either in approaching the ship or after it had passed
our wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its course
to the S.W., which it held on at the pace of from twelve
to fifteen miles per hour, apparently on some determined
purpose.

"The diameter of the serpent was about fifteen or
sixteen inches behind the head, which was, without any
doubt, that of a snake ; and it was never, during the
twenty minutes that it continued in sight of our glasses,
once below the surface of the water; its colour a dark
brown, with yellowish white about the throat. It had no
fins, but something like the mane of a horse, or rather a
bunch of sea-weed, washed about its back. It was seen
by the quarter-master, the boatswain's mate, and the man
at the wheel, in addition to myself and officers above-
mentioned.

" I am having a drawing of the serpent made from a
sketch taken immediately after it was seen, which I hope

* " At the surface of the water" What need there was to express this
by a French phrase in an English report, is not obvious.

LIEUTENANT DRUMMOND's STATEMENT. 317

to have ready for transmission to my Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty by to-morrow's post.

" PETER M'QuH^E, Captain.

" To Admiral Sir W. H. Gage, G.C.H., Devonport."

Lieutenant Drummond, the officer of the watch named
in the above report, published his own impressions of the
animal, in the form of an extract from his own journal,
as follows : — "In the four to six watch, at about five
o'clock, we observed a most remarkable fish on our lee-
quarter, crossing the stern in a S.W. direction ; the
appearance of its head, which, with the back fin, was the
only portion of the animal visible, was long, pointed, and
flattened at the top, perhaps ten feet in length, the upper
jaw projecting considerably ; the fin was perhaps twenty
feet in the rear of the head, and visible occasionally ; the
captain also asserted that he saw the tail, or another fin
about the same distance behind it ; the upper part of the
head and shoulders appeared of a dark brown colour, and
beneath the under jaw a brownish white. It pursued a
steady undeviating course, keeping its head horizontal
with the surface of the water, and in rather a raised posi-
tion, disappearing occasionally beneath a wave for a very
brief interval, and not apparently for purposes of respira-
tion. It was going at the rate of perhaps from twelve to
fourteen miles an hour, and when nearest, was perhaps
one hundred yards distant. In fact it gave one quite the
idea of a large snake or eel. No one in the ship has ever
seen anything similar, so it is at least extraordinary. It

318 THE GEEAT UNKNOWN.

was visible to the naked eye for five minutes, and with a
glass for perhaps fifteen more. The weather was dark
and squally at the time, with sea running. " *

The pictorial sketch alluded to in Captain M/Quhae's
report, as well as one representing the animal in another
aspect, was published in the Illustrated London News,
of October 28, 1848, "under the supervision of Captain
M'Quhae, and with his approval of the authenticity of
the details as to position and form." These drawings
will be criticised presently.

As I have already said, a good deal of popular curiosity
and interest was immediately awakened ; and the public
papers were for a while filled with strictures, objections,
suggestions, and confirmations. Among the last, Captain
Beechey, the eminent navigator, mentioned an extraor-
dinary appearance which had occurred to him during the
voyage of the Blossom, in the South Atlantic. " I took
it for the trunk of a large tree, and before I could get
my glass it had disappeared."

Mr J. D. Morries Stirling, a gentleman long resident
in Norway, communicated to the Secretary to the
Admiralty important confirmatory evidence of the ex-
istence of the animal on the coasts of that country,
collected by a scientific body at Bergen, of which he was
one of the directors. In the course of this communica-
tion, the writer points out certain points of resemblance
borne by the Norwegian animal to the great fossil reptiles
known to geologists as the Enaliosauri : — " In several of

* Zoologist, p. 2306.

MR STIRLING'S EVIDENCE. 319

the fossil reptiles somewhat approaching the sea-serpent
in size and other characteristics, the orbit is very large ;
and, in this respect, as well as in having short paws or
flappers, the descriptions of the Northern sea-serpents
agree with the supposed appearance of some of the
antediluvian species/' This important identification had
been suggested (probably, however, without Mr Stirling's
knowledge) nearly two years before, by Mr E. Newman,
F.L.S., the able editor of the Zoologist*

The most valuable portion of Mr Stirling's communica-
tion is its closing paragraph:— "In concluding this hurried
statement, allow me to add my own testimony as to the
existence of a large fish or reptile of cylindrical form. (I
will not say sea-serpent.) Three years ago, while becalmed
in a yacht between Bergen and Sogn in Norway, I saw
(at about a quarter of a mile astern) what appeared to be
a large fish ruffling the otherwise smooth surface of the
fjord, and, on looking attentively, I observed what looked
like the convolutions of a snake. I immediately got my
glass, and distinctly made out three convolutions, which
drew themselves slowly through the water ; the greatest
diameter was about ten or twelve inches. No head was
visible, and from the size of each convolution I supposed
the length to be about thirty feet. The master of my
yacht, (who, as navigator, seaman, and fisherman, had
known the Norwegian coast and North Sea for many

* To the philosophic candour" with ^hich the Zoologist has been
opened to reports and discussions on such mooted questions as these,
natural history is much indebted. Not a little of the evidence adduced
in this chapter 1 have derived thence.

320 THE GHEAT UNKNOWN.

years,) as well as a friend who was with me, an experienced
Norwegian sportsman and porpoise shooter, saw the same
appearance at the same time, and formed the same opinion
as to form and size. I mention my friend being a porpoise
shooter, as many have believed that a shoal of porpoises
following each other has given rise to the fable, as they
called it, of the sea-serpent/' *

A writer in The Times of November 2, 1848, under
the signature of " F. G. S./' also suggested affinity with
the Enaliosauri, and particularly adduced the fossil genus
Plesiosaurus as presenting the closest resemblance.
"One of the greatest difficulties," observes this writer,
" on the face of the narrative [of Captain M'Quhse], and
which . must be allowed to destroy the analogy of the
motions of the so-called ' sea-serpent ' with those of all
known snakes and anguilliform fishes, is that no less
than sixty feet of the animal were seen advancing a fleur
d'eau at the rate of from twelve to fifteen miles an hour,
without it being possible to perceive, upon the closest
and most attentive inspection, any undulatory motion to
which its rapid advance could be ascribed. It need
scarcely be observed that neither an eel nor a snake, if
either of those animals could swim at all with the neck
elevated, could do so without the front part of its body
being thrown into undulation by the propulsive efforts of
its tail."

He then inquires to what class of animals it could have
belonged, and thus proceeds : —

* Illustrated Londvn News, Oct. 28, 1848.

THE PLESIOSAURUS. 321

" From the known anatomical character of the Plesio-
sauri, derived from the examination of their organic re-
mains, geologists are agreed in the inference that those
animals carried their necks (which must have resembled
the bodies of serpents) above the water, while their pro-
gression was effected by large paddles working beneath —
the short but stout tail acting the part of a rudder. It
would be superfluous to point out how closely the sur-
mises of philosophers resemble, in these particulars, the
description of the eye-witnesses of the living animal, as
given in the letter and drawings of Captain M'Quhsg. In
the latter we have many of the external characters of the
former, as predicated from the examination of the skele-
ton. The short head, the serpent-like neck, carried seve-
ral feet above the water, forcibly recall the idea conceived
of the extinct animal ; and even the bristly mane in cer-
tain parts of the back, so unlike anything found in
serpents, has its analogy in the Iguana, to which animal
the Plesiosaurus has been compared by some geolo-
gists. But I would most of all insist upon the pecu-
liarity of the animal's progression, which could only
have been effected with the evenness, and at the rate
described, by an apparatus of fins or paddles, not pos-
sessed by serpents, but existing in the highest perfection
in the Plesiosaurus"

A. master in science now appeared upon the field, —
Professor Richard Owen, who, in a most able article, gave
his verdict against the serpentine character of the animal
seen, and pronounced it to have been, in his judgment, a

322 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

seal. This opinion is too important to bear abridgment,
and must be given in extensG : —

" The sketch [a reduced copy of the animal seen by
Captain M'Quhse, attached to the submerged body of a
large seal, shewing the long eddy produced by the action
of the terminal flippers] will suggest the reply to your
query, ' Whether the monster seen from the Daedalus be
anything but a saurian ? ' If it be the true answer, it de-
stroys the romance of the incident, and will be anything
but acceptable to those who prefer the excitement of the
imagination to the satisfaction of the judgment. I am
far from insensible to the pleasures of the discovery of a
new and rare animal ; but before I can enjoy them, certain
conditions — e. </., reasonable proof or evidence of its exist-
ence— must be fulfilled. I am also far from undervaluing
the information which Captain M'Quhse has given us of
what he saw. When fairly analysed, it lies in a small
compass ; but my knowledge of the animal kingdom
compels me to draw other conclusions from the pheno-
mena than those which the gallant captain seems to have
jumped at. He evidently saw a large animal moving
rapidly through the water, very different from anything
he had before witnessed — neither a whale, a grampus, a
great shark, an alligator, nor any of the larger surface-
swimming creatures which are fallen in with in ordinary
voyages. He writes : — ' On our attention being called to
the object, it was discovered to be an enormous serpent/
(read 'animal,') 'with the head and shoulders kept about
four feet constantly above the surface of the sea. The
diameter of the serpent' (animal) 'was about fifteen or

PROFESSOR OWENS CRITICISMS. 323

sixteen inches behind the head ; its colour a dark brown,
with yellowish white about the throat. No fins were
seen, (the captain says there were none ; but from his
own account, he did not see enough of the animal to
prove his negative.) ' Something like the mane of a
horse, or rather a bunch of sea- weed washed about its
back/ So much of the body as was seen was ' not used
in propelling the animal through the water, either by
vertical or horizontal undulation/ A calculation of its
length was made under a strong preconception of the
nature of the beast. The head, e. g., is stated to be, ' with-
out any doubt, that of a snake ; ' and yet a snake would
be the last species to which a naturalist, conversant with
the forms and characters of the heads of animals, would
refer such a head as that of which Captain M'Quhae has
transmitted a drawing to the Admiralty, and which he
certifies to have been accurately copied in the Illustrated
London News for October 28, 1848, p. 265. Your Lord-
ship will observe, that no sooner was the captain's atten-
tion called to the object, than ' it was discovered to be an
enormous serpent,' and yet the closest inspection of as
much of the body as was visible, a fleur deau, failed to
detect any undulations of the body, although such actions
constitute the very character which would distinguish a
serpent or serpentiform swimmer from any other marine
species. The foregone conclusion, therefore, of the beast's
being a sea-serpent, notwithstanding its capacious vaulted
cranium, and stiff, inflexible trunk, must be kept in mind
in estimating the value of the approximation made to the
total length of the animal, as ' (at the very least) sixty

324 THE ORE AT UNKNOWN.

feet/ This is the only part of the description, however,
which seems to me to be so uncertain as to be inadmis-
sible, in an attempt to arrive at a right conclusion as to
the nature of the animal. The more certain characters of
the animal are these : — Head with a convex, moderately
capacious cranium, short obtuse muzzle, gape of the
mouth not extending further than to beneath the eye,
which is rather small, round, filling closely the palpebral
aperture ; colour, dark brown above, yellowish white be-
neath ; surface smooth, without scales, scutes, or other
conspicuous modifications of hard and naked cuticle.
And the captain says, ' Had it been a rnan of my ac-
quaintance, I should have easily recognised his features
with my naked eye.' Nostrils not mentioned, but indi-
cated in the drawing by a crescentic mark at the end of
the nose or muzzle. All these are the characters of the
head of a warm-blooded mammal — none of them those
of a cold-blooded reptile or fish. Body long, dark brown,
not undulating, without dorsal or other apparent fins ;
' but something like the mane of a horse, or rather a
bunch of sea- weed, washed about its back.' The charac-
ter of the integuments would be a most important one
for the zoologist in the determination of the class to
which the above-defined creature belonged. If an opinion
can be deduced as to the integuments from the above in-
dication, it is that the species had hair, which, if it was
too short and close to be distinguished on the head,
was visible where it usually is the longest, on the middle
line of the shoulders or advanced part of the back,

A GKEAT SEAL. 325

where it was not stiff and upright like the rays of a
fin, but 'washed about.' Guided by the above interpre-
tation, of the ' mane of a horse, or a bunch of sea-weed/
the animal was not a cetaceous mammal, but rather a
great seal. But what seal of large size, or indeed of any
size, would be encountered in latitude 24° 44' south,
and longitude 9° 22' east — viz., about three hundred miles
from the western shore of the southern end of Africa ? The
most likely species to be there met with are the largest of
the seal tribe, e.g, Anson's sea-lion, or that known to
the southern whalers by the name of the " sea-elephant,"
the Phoca proboscidea, which attains the length of from
twenty to thirty feet. These great seals abound in certain
of the islands of the southern and antarctic seas, from
which an individual is occasionally floated off upon an
iceberg. The sea-lion exhibited in London last spring,
which was a young individual of the Phoca proboscidea,
was actually captured in that predicament ; having been
carried by the currents that set northward towards the
Cape, where its temporary resting-place was rapidly
melting away. When a large individual of the Phoca
proboscidea or Phoca leonina is thus borne off to a dis-
tance from its native shore, it is compelled to return for
rest to its floating abode, after it has made its daily ex-
cursions in quest of the fishes or squids that constitute its
food. It is thus brought by the iceberg into the latitudes
of the Cape, and perhaps further north, before the berg
has melted away. Then the poor seal is compelled to
swim as long as strength endures ; and in such a predica-

326 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

ment I imagine the creature was that Mr Sartoris saw
rapidly approaching the Dcedalus from before the beam,
scanning, probably, its capabilities as a resting place, as it
paddled its long stiff body past the ship. In so doing, it
would raise a head of the form and colour described and
delineated by Captain M'Quhse, supported on a neck also
of the diameter given ; the thick neck passing into an
inflexible trunk, the longer and coarser hair on the upper
part of which would give rise to the idea, especially if the
species were the Phoca leonina, explained by the similes
above cited. The organs of locomotion would be out of
sight. The pectoral fins being set on very low down, as
in my sketch, the chief impelling force would be the
action of the deeper immersed terminal fins and tail,
which would create a long eddy, readily mistakeable, by
one looking at the strange phenomenon with a sea-serpent
in his mindVeye, for an indefinite prolongation of
the body.

" It is very probable, that not one on board the Dce-
dalus ever before beheld a gigantic seal freely swimming
in the open ocean. Entering unexpectedly from that
vast and commonly blank desert of waters, it would be a
strange and exciting spectacle, and might well be inter-
preted as a marvel ; but the creative powers of the human
mind appear to be really very limited, and, on all the
occasions where the true source of the ' great unknown'
has been detected — whether it has proved to be a file of
sportive porpoises, or a pair of gigantic sharks — old
Pontoppidan's sea-serpent with the mane has uniformly

THE STKONSA SKELETON. 327

suggested itself as the representative of the portent, until
the mystery has been unravelled.

" The vertebrae of the sea-serpent described and deline-
ated in the Wernerian Transactions, vol. i., and sworn
to by the fishermen who saw it off the Isle of Stronsa, (one
of the Orkneys,) in 1808, two of which vertebrae are in
the Museum of the College of Surgeons, are certainly
those of a great shark, of the genus Selache, and are not
distinguishable from those of the species called ' basking-
shark,' of which individuals from thirty feet to thirty-tive
feet in length have been from time to time captured or
stranded on our coasts.

" I have no unmeet confidence in the exactitude of rny
interpretation of the phenomena witnessed by the captain
and others of the Dcedalus. I am too sensible of the
inadequacy of the characters which the opportunity of a
rapidly passing animal, 'in a long ocean swell,' enabled
them to note, for the determination of its species or
genus. Giving due credence to the most probably accu-
rate elements of their description, they do little more than
guide the zoologist t^ the class, which, in the present in-
stance, is not that of the serpent or the saurian.

"But I am usually asked, after each endeavour to
explain Captain M'Quhae's sea-serpent, ' Why should there
not be a great sea-serpent?' — often, too, in a tone which
seems to imply, ' Do you think, then, there are not more
marvels in the deep than are dreamt of in your philoso-
phy?' And, freely conceding that point, I have felt
bound to give a reason for scepticism as well as faith.

328 THE GEE AT UNKNOWN.

If a gigantic sea-serpent actually exists, the species must,
of course, have been perpetuated through successive ge-
nerations, from its first creation and introduction into the
seas of this planet. Conceive, then, the number of indi-
viduals that must have lived, and died, and have left
their remains to attest the actuality of the species during
the enormous lapse of time, from its beginning, to the
6th of August last ! Now, a serpent, being an air-
breathing animal, with long vesicular and receptacular
lungs, dives with an effort, and commonly floats when
dead ; and so would the sea-serpent, until decomposition
or accident had opened the tough integument, and let out
the imprisoned gases. Then it would sink, and, if in deep
water, be seen no more until the sea rendered up its
dead, after the lapse of the aeons requisite for the yielding
of its place to dry land — a change which has actually re-
vealed to the present generation the old saurian monsters
that were entombed at the bottom of the ocean, of the
secondary geological periods of our earth's history. Dur-
ing life the exigencies of the respiration of the great
sea-serpent would always compel him frequently to the
surface ; and when dead and swollen —

' Prone on the flood, extended long and large/

he would

' Lie floating many a rood ; in bulk as huge,
As whom the fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove.'

Such a spectacle, demonstrative of the species if it existed,
has not hitherto met the gaze of any of the countless

ABSENCE OF EEMA1NS. 320

voyagers who have traversed the seas in so many directions.
Considering, too, the tides and currents of the ocean, it
seems still more reasonable to suppose that the dead sea-
serpent would be occasionally cast on shore. However,
I do not ask for the entire carcase. The structure of the
back-bone of the serpent tribe is so peculiar, that a single
vertebra would suffice to determine the existence of the
hypothetical Ophidian ; and this will not be deemed an
unreasonable request when it is remembered that the ver-
tebrae are more numerous in serpents than in any other
animals. Such large blanched and scattered bones on
any sea-shore, would be likely to attract even common
curiosity ; yet there is no vertebra of a serpent larger
than the ordinary pythons and boas in any museum in
Europe.

"Few sea-coasts have been more sedulously searched,
or by more acute naturalists (witness the labours of Sars
and Love'n) than those of Norway. Krakeris and sea-
serpents ought to have been living and dying thereabouts
from long before Pontoppidan's time to our day, if all
tales were true ; yet they have never vouchsafed a single
fragment of the skeleton to any Scandinavian collector ;
whilst the great denizens of those seas have been by no
means so chary. No museums, in fact, are so rich in
skeletons, skulls, bones and teeth of the numerous kinds of
whales, cachalots, grampuses, walruses, sea-unicorns, seals,
&c., as those of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden ; but of
any large marine nondescript or indeterminable monster
they cannot show a trace.

330 THE GREA.T UNKNOWN.

" I have inquired repeatedly whether the natural history
collections of Boston, Philadelphia, or other cities of the
United States, might possess any unusually large ophidian
vertebrae, or any of such peculiar form as to indicate some
large and unknown marine animal ; but they have re-
ceived no such specimens.

" The frequency with which the sea-serpent has been
supposed to have appeared near the shores and harbours
of the United States, has led to its being specified as the
' American sea-serpent ; ' yet out of the two hundred
vertebrae of every individual that should have lived and
died in the Atlantic since the creation of the species, not
one has yet been picked up on the shores of America,
The diminutive snake, less than a yard in length, ' killed
upon the sea-shore/ apparently beaten to death, 'by
some labouring people of Cape Ann, ' United States, (see
the Svo pamphlet, 1817, Boston, page 38,) and figured in
the Illustrated London News, October 28, 1848, from the
original American memoir, by no means satisfies the con-
ditions of the problem. Neither does the Saccopharynx
of Mitchell, nor the Ophiognathus of Harwood — the one
four and a half feet, the other six feet long : both are
surpassed by some of the congers of our own coasts, and,
like other rnursenoid fishes and the known small sea-
snake, (Hydrophis,) swim by undulatory movements of
the body

" The fossil vertebrae and skull which were exhibited
by Mr Koch, in New York and Boston, as those of the
great sea-serpent, and which are now in Berlin, belonged

THE SEA-SAURIANS EXTINCT. 331

to different individuals of a species which I had previously
proved to be an extinct whale ; a determination which
has subsequently been confirmed by Professors Miiller
and Agassiz. Mr Dixon, of Worthing, has discovered
many fossil vertebrae, in the Eocene tertiary clay at Brack -
lesham, which belong to a large species of an extinct
genus of serpent (Palceophis), founded on similar verte-
brae from the same formation in the Isle of Sheppey.
The largest of these ancient British snakes was twenty
feet in length ; but there is no evidence that they were
marine.

" The sea saurians of the secondary periods of geology
have been replaced in the tertiary and actual seas by
marine mammals. No remains of Cetacea have been
found in lias or oolite, and no remains of Plesiosaur, or
Ichthyosaur, or any other secondary reptile, have been
found in Eocene or later tertiary deposits, or recent, on
the actual sea-shores ; and that the old air-breathing
saurians floated when they died has been shewn in the
Geological Transactions, (vol. v., second series, p. 512.)
The inference that may reasonably be drawn from no
recent carcase or fragment of such having ever been
discovered, is strengthened by the corresponding absence
of any trace of their remains in the tertiary beds.

"Now, on weighing the question, whether creatures
meriting the name of 'great sea-serpent' do exist, or
whether any of the gigantic marine saurians of the
secondary deposits may have continued to live up to the
present time, it seems to me less probable that no part of

332 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

the carcase of such reptiles should have ever been dis-
covered in a recent or unfossilised state, than that men
should have been deceived by a cursory view of a partly
submerged and rapidly moving animal, which might only
be strange to themselves. In other words, I regard
the negative evidence from the utter absence of any of
the recent remains of great sea-serpents, krakens, or
Enaliosauria, as stronger against their actual existence,
than the positive statements which have hitherto weighed
with the public mind in favour of their existence. A
larger body of evidence from eye-witnesses might be got
together in proof of ghosts than of the sea-serpent." *

Such was the explanation of the deposed facts offered
by the ablest of living physiologists. Coming as it did
from such a quarter, and supported by so much intrinsic
reason, it is not surprising, that, although the romance
was sadly shorn away, most persons were willing to
acquiesce in the decision.

Captain M'Quhse, however, promptly replied to Professor
Owen : — " I now assert, neither was it a common seal,
nor a sea-elephant ; its great length, and its totally differ-
ing physiognomy precluding the possibility of its being
a Phoca of any species. The head was flat, and not a
' capacious vaulted cranium ; ' nor had it ' a stiff inflexible
trunk ' — a conclusion to which Professor Owen has
jumped, most certainly not justified by the simple state-
ment, that no ' portion of the sixty feet seen by us was

* The Times, of November 11, 1848.

M QUEUE'S REPLY TO OWEN. 333

used in propelling it through the water, either by vertical
or horizontal undulation/

" It is also assumed that the ' calculation of its length
was made under a strong preconception of the nature of
the beast ; another conclusion quite the contrary to the
fact. It was not until after the great length was developed
by its nearest approach to the ship, and until after that
most important point had been duly considered and
debated, as well as such could be in the brief space of
time allowed for so doing, that it was pronounced to be a
serpent by all who saw it, and who are too well accustomed
to judge of lengths and breadths of objects in the sea to
mistake a real substance and an actual living body, coolly
and dispassionately contemplated, at so short a distance
too, for the 'eddy caused by the action of the deeper
immersed fins and tail of a rapidly-moving gigantic seal
raising its head above the water,' as Professor Owen
imagines, in quest of its lost iceberg.

" The creative powers of the human mind may be very
limited. On this occasion they were not called into
requisition ; my purpose and desire being, throughout, to
furnish eminent naturalists, such as the learned Professor,
with accurate facts, and not with exaggerated representa-
tions, nor with what could by any possibility proceed
from optical illusion ; and I beg to assure him that old
Pontoppidan's having clothed his sea-serpent with a mane
could not have suggested the idea of ornamenting the
creature seen from the Dcedalus with a similar appendage,
for the simple reason that I had never seen his account,

THE GREAT UNKNOWN".

or even heard of his sea-serpent, until my arrival in
London. Some other solution must therefore be found
for the very remarkable coincidence between us in that
particular, in order to unravel the mystery.

" Finally, I deny the existence of excitement, or the
possibility of optical illusion. I adhere to the statements,
as to form, colour, and dimensions, contained in my
official report to the Admiralty ; and I leave them as
data whereupon the learned and scientific may exercise
the ' pleasures of imagination ' until some more fortunate
opportunity shall occur of making a closer acquaintance
with the 'great unknown* — in the present instance
assuredly no ghost." *

A few months later, the following letter appeared in
the Bombay Bi-monthly Times for January 1849. It is
a very valuable testimony : —

" I see, in your paper of the 30th December, a para-
graph in which a doubt is expressed of the authenticity
of the account given by Captain M'Quhse of the ' great
sea-serpent.' When returning to India, in the year 1829,
I .was standing on the poop of the Royal Saxon, in con-
versation with Captain Petrie, the commander of that
ship. We were at a considerable distance south-west of
the Cape of Good Hope, in the usual track of vessels to
this country, going rapidly along (seven or eight knots) in
fine smooth water. It was in the middle of the day, and
the other passengers were at luncheon ; the man at the
wheel, a steerage passenger, and ourselves, being the only

•* The Times, November 21, 1843.

MR DAVIDSON'S EVIDENCE. 335

persons on the poop. Captain Petrie and myself, at the
same instant, were literally fixed in astonishment by the
appearance, a short distance ahead, of an animal of which
no more generally correct description could be given than
that by Captain M'Quhse. It passed within thirty-five
yards of the ship, without altering its course in the least ;
but as it came right abreast of us, it slowly turned its head
towards us. Apparently about one-third of the upper part
of its body was above water, in nearly its whole length,
and we could see the water curling up on its breast as it
moved along, but by what means it moved we could not
perceive. We watched it going astern with intense in-
terest until it had nearly disappeared, when my com-
panion, turning to me with a countenance expressive of
the utmost astonishment, exclaimed, ' Good heavens !
what can that be ?' It was strange that we never thought
of calling the party engaged at luncheon to witness the
extraordinary sight we had seen ; but the fact is, we were
so absorbed in it ourselves, that we never spoke, and
scarcely moved, until it had nearly disappeared. Captain
Petrie, a superior and most intelligent man, has since
perished in the exercise of his profession. Of the fate of
the others then on deck I am ignorant ; so the story
rests on my own unsupported word, but I pledge that
word to its correctness. Professor Owen's supposition,
that the animal seen by the officers of the Dcedalus was
a gigantic seal, I believe to be incorrect, because we saw
this apparently similar creature in its whole length, with
the exception of a small portion of the tail, which was

336 THE GEE AT UNKNOWN.

under water ; and, by comparing its length with that of
the Royal Saxon, (about six hundred feet,) when exactly
alongside in passing, we calculated it to be in that, as
well as in its other dimensions, greater than the animal
described by Captain M'Quhse. Should the foregoing
account be of any interest to you, it is at your service ; it
is an old story, but a true one. I am not quite sure of
our latitude and longitude at the time, nor do I exactly
remember the date, but it was about the end of July. —
R DAVIDSON, Superintending Surgeon, Nagpore Sub-
sidiary Force, Kamptee, 3d January, 1849."

In the year 1852, the testimony of British officers was
again given to the existence of an enormous marine
animal of serpent form. The descriptions, however, shew
great discrepancy with that of the creature seen from the
Daedalus, and cannot be considered confirmatory of the
former account, otherwise than as proving that immense
unrecognised creatures of elongate form roam the ocean.

Two distinct statements of the incident were published,
which I cite from the Zoologist (p. 3756) ; but one of
them had already appeared in The Times.

Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Steele, of the Coldstream
Guards, thus writes : —

" I have lately received the following account from my
brother, Captain Steele, 9th Lancers, who, on his way out
to India in the Barham, saw the sea-serpent. Thinking
it might be interesting to you, as corroborating the ac-
count of the Dcedalus, I have taken the liberty of send-
ing you the extract from my brother's letter : — ' On the

CAPTAIN STEELE'S TESTIMONY. 337

28th of August, in long. 40° K, lat 37° 16' S., about
half-past two, we had all gone down below to get ready
for dinner, when the first mate called us on deck to see
a most extraordinary sight. About five hundred yards
from the ship there was the head and neck of an enor-
mous snake ; we saw about sixteen or twenty feet out of
the water, and he spouted a long way from his head ;
down his back he had a crest like a cock's comb, and was
going very slowly through the water, but left a wake of
about fifty or sixty feet, as if dragging a long body after
him. The captain put the ship off her course to run
down to him, but as we approached him, he went down.
His colour was green, with light spots. He was seen by
every one on board' My brother is no naturalist, and I
think this is the first time the monster has been ever seen
to spout."

The second statement is contained in a letter from one
of the officers of the ship : —

" You will be surprised to hear that we have actually
seen the great sea-serpent, about which there has been so
much discussion. Information was given by a sailor to the
captain just as we were going to dinner. I was in my
cabin at the time, and from the noise and excitement, I
thought the ship was on fire. I rushed on deck, and on
looking over the side of the vessel I saw a most wonderful
sight, which I shall recollect as long as I live. His head
appeared to be about sixteen feet above the water, and he
kept moving it up and down, sometimes shewing his

enormous neck, which was surmounted with a huge crest

y

338 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

in the shape of a saw, It was surrounded by hundreds
of birds, and we at first thought it was a dead whale.
He left a track in the water like the wake of a boat, and
from what we could see of his head and part of his body,
we were led to think he must be about sixty feet in
length, but he might be more. The captain kept the
vessel away to get nearer to him, and when we were
within a hundred yards he slowly sank into the depths of
the sea. While we were at dinner he was seen again/'

Mr Alfred Newton, of Elveden Hall, an excellent and
well-known naturalist, adds the guarantee of his personal
acquaintance with one of the recipients of the above
letters.*

If it were not for the spouting — which is not men-
tioned by one observer, and may possibly have been an
illusion — I should be inclined to think that this may
have been one of the scabbard-fishes, specimens of
which inhabit the ocean of immense size. They carry a
high serrated dorsal fin, and swim with* the head out of
water.-)-

On the 19th February 1849, Mr Herriman, commander
of the British ship Brazilian, sailed from the Cape of
Good Hope, and on the 24th was becalmed almost exactly
in the spot where Captain M'Quhse had seen his monster.

" About eight o'clock on that morning, whilst the

* I note this, because discredit has been undeservedly cast on the
phenomena observed, by foolish fabulous stories having been published
under fictitious names, for the purpose of hoaxing.

t See Colonel Montagu's account, in Yarrell's British Fishes, vol. i.,
p. 199, (edit. 1841.)

A CHEAT SEA-WEED. 339

captain was surveying the calm, heavy, rippleless swell of
the sea through his telescope, the ship at the same time
heading N.N.W., he perceived something right abeam,
about half a mile to the westward, stretched along the
water to the length of about twenty-five or thirty feet, and
perceptibly moving from the ship with a steady, sinuous
motion. The head, which seemed to be lifted several feet
above the waters, had something resembling a mane, run-
ning down to the floating portion, and within about six
feet of the tail it forced out into a sort of double fin.
Having read at Colombo the account of the monster said
to have been seen by Captain M'Quhse in nearly the same
latitude, Mr Herriman was led to suppose that he had
fallen in with the same animal, or one of the genus ; he
immediately called his chief officer, Mr Long, with seve-
ral of the passengers, who, after surveying the object for
some time, came to the unanimous conclusion that it
must be the sea-serpent seen by Captain M'Quhse. As
the Brazilian was making no headway, Mr Herriman,
determining to bring all doubts to an issue, had a boat
lowered down, and taking two hands on board, together
with Mr Boyd of Peterhead, near Aberdeen, one of the
passengers, who acted as steersman under the direction of
the captain, they approached the monster, Captain Herri-
man standing on the b9w of the boat armed with a har-
poon, to commence the onslaught. The combat, however,
was not attended with the danger which those on board
apprehended, for on coming close to the object it was
found to be nothing more than an immense piece of sea-

340 THE GKEAT UNKNOWN.

weed, evidently detached from a coral reef, and drifting
with the current, which sets constantly to the westward
in this latitude, and which, together with the swell left
by the subsidence of the gale, gave it the sinuous, snake-
like motion.

" But for the calm, which afforded Captain Herriman
an opportunity of examining the weed, we should have
had another ' eye-witness ' account of the great sea-serpent,
— Mr Herriman himself admitting that he should have
remained under the impression that he had seen it.
What appeared to be head, crest, and mane of the im-
mensum wlumen, was but the large root which floated
upwards, and to which several pieces of the coral reef
still adhered. The captain had it hauled on board, but,
as it began to decay, was compelled to throw it over. He
now regrets that he had not preserved it in a water-butt
for the purpose of exhibition in the Thames, where the
conflicting motion produced by the tide and steamers
would in all probability give it a like appearance.*

A new and unexpected interpretation was thus given to
the observed phenomena; an interpretation which has
been recently revived. For a statement published in The
Times of February 5, 1858, by Captain Harrington of the
ship Castilian, brought out another witness on the sea-
weed hypothesis.

The statement alluded to was couched in the form of
an extract from a Meteorological Journal kept on board
the ship, the original of which was sent to the Board of

* Sun, July 9, 1849.

CAPTAIN HARRINGTON'S TESTIMONY. 34]

Trade. It was authenticated by Captain Harrington, and
his chief and second officers.

« Ship Castilian, Dec. 12, 1857; N.E. end of St Helena,
distant ten miles. At 6*30 P.M., strong breezes and
cloudy, ship sailing about twelve miles per hour. While
myself and officers were standing on the lee side of the
poop, looking towards the island, we were startled by the
sight of a huge marine animal, which reared its head out
of the water within twenty yards of the ship, when it sud-
denly disappeared for about half a minute, and then made
its appearance in the same manner again, shewing us dis-
tinctly its neck and head about ten or twelve feet out of
the water. Its head was shaped like a long nun buoy,
and I suppose the diameter to have been seven or eight
feet in the largest part, with a kind of scroll, or tuft of
loose skin, encircling it about two feet from the top ; the
water was discoloured for several hundred feet from its
head, so much so, that, on its first appearance, my impres-
sion was that the ship was in broken water, produced, as
I supposed, by some volcanic agency since the last time I
passed the island, but the second appearance completely
dispelled those fears, and assured us that it was a monster
of extraordinary length, which appeared to be moving
slowly towards the lancl The ship was going too fast to
enable us to reach the mast-head in time to form a correct
estimate of its extreme length, but from what we saw
from the deck, we conclude that it must have been over
two hundred feet long. The boatswain and several of the

342 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

crew who observed it from the top-gallant forecastle, state
that it was more than double the length of the ship, in
which case it must have been five hundred feet ; be that
as it may, I am convinced that it belonged to the serpent
tribe ; it was of a dark colour about the head, and was
covered with several white spots. Having a press of
canvas on the ship at the time, I was unable to round to
without risk, and therefore was precluded from getting
another sight of this leviathan of the deep.

" GEORGE HENRY HARRINGTON, Commander.
WILLIAM DAVIES, Chief Officer.
EDWARD WHEELER, Second Officer."

This document was immediately answered by Captain
Fred. Smith, of the ship Pekin, in the following announce-
ment : —

" On Dec. 28, 1 848, being then in lat. 26° S., long. 6° E.,
nearly calm, saw about half a mile on port beam, a very
extraordinary-looking thing in the water, of considerable
length. With the telescope we could plainly discern a
huge head and neck, covered with a long shaggy-looking
kind of mane, which it kept lifting at intervals out of the
water. This was seen by all hands, and declared to be
the great sea-serpent. I determined on knowing some-
thing about it, and accordingly lowered a boat, in which
my chief officer and four men went, taking with them a
long small line in case it should be required. I watched
them very anxiously, and the monster seemed not to regard
their approach. At length they got close to the head.

ANOTHER SEA-WEED. 343

They seemed to hesitate, and then busy themselves with
the line, the monster all the time ducking its head, and
shewing its great length. Presently the boat began
pulling towards the ship, the monster following slowly.
In about half an hour they got alongside ; a tackle was
got on the mainyard and it was hoisted on board. It
appeared somewhat supple when hanging, but so com-
pletely covered with snaky-looking barnacles, about
eighteen inches long, that we had it some time on board
before it was discovered to be a piece of gigantic sea-
weed, twenty feet long, and four inches diameter ; the
root end appeared when in the water like the head of an
animal, and the motion given by the sea caused it to
seem alive. In a few days it dried up to a hollow tube,
and as it had rather an offensive smell was thrown over-
board. I had only been a short time in England when
the Dcedalus arrived and reported having seen the great
sea-serpent, — to the best of my recollection near the same
locality, and which I have no doubt was a piece of the
same weed. So like a huge living monster did this
appear, that had circumstances prevented my sending a
boat to it, I should certainly have believed I had seen the
great sea-snake/'

The last imputation called up " An officer of H.M.S.
Daedalus" whose testimony puts hors de combat the sea-
weed hypothesis in that renowned case. I need not give
it at length, the following sentences sufficing : — " The
object seen from H.M. ship was, beyond all question, a
living animal, moving rapidly through the water against

344 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

a cross sea, and within five points of a fresh breeze, with
such velocity that the water was surging under its chest,
as it passed along at a rate probably of ten miles per
hour. Captain M'Quhse's first impulse was to tack in
pursuit, . . . but he reflected that we could neither lay up
for it nor overhaul it in speed. There was nothing to be
done, therefore, but to observe it as accurately as we could
with our glasses, as it came up under our lee quarter and
passed away to windward, at its nearest position being
not more than two hundred yards from us ; the eye, the
mouth, the nostril, the colour and form, all being most
distinctly visible to us. . . . My impression was that it
was rather of a lizard than a serpentine character, as its
movement was steady and uniform, as if propelled by fins,
not by any undulatory power."*

Further correspondence ensued, but no additional light
of any importance was shed on the matter, except that
Captain Smith stated that the diameter of his sea-weed
capture in the water, before it was " divested of its extra-
ordinary-looking living appendages," was three feet.

A large mass of evidence has been accumulated ; and
I now set myself to examine it. In so doing, I shall
eliminate from the inquiry, all the testimony of Norwegian
eye-witnesses, that obtained in Massachusetts in 1817,
and various statements made by French and American
captains since. Confining myself to English witnesses
of known character and position, most of them being
* The Times of Feb. 16, 1858.

SUMMAEY OF BRITISH TESTIMONY. 345

officers under the crown, I have adduced the following
testimonies : —

1. That of five British officers, who saw the animal at
Halifax, N.S., in 1833.

2. That of Captain M'Quhse and his officers, who saw
it from the Dcedalus in 1848.

3. That of Captain Beechey, who saw something similar
from the Blossom.

4. That of Mr Morries Stirling, who saw it in a Nor-
wegian fjord.

5. That of Mr Davidson, who saw it from the Royal
Saxon, in 1829.

6. That of Captain Steele and others, who saw it from
the Bar ham, in 1852.

7. That of Captain Harrington and his officers, who
saw it from the Castilian, in 1857.

Carefully comparing these independent narratives, we
have a creature possessing the following characteristics :

1. The general form of a serpent (1, 2, 3,* 4, 5, 6, 7).

2. Great length, say above sixty feet, (1, 2, 5, 6, 7t).

3. Head considered to resemble that of a serpent, (1, 2,
5, 6,7}).

4. Neck from twelve to sixteen inches in diameter,
(1,§2, 4, 5).

* Captain Beech ey's view was too momentary to be of much value;
the object he saw he compares to the trunk of a tree, which, BO far a»
it goes, agrees with the serpent shape.

f From two hundred to five hundred feet (7).

£ " Like a long nun-buoy" (7).

§ " That of a moderate-sized tree" (1).

346 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

5. Appendages on the head (7), neck (6). 01 back
(2, 5), resembling a crest or mane. (Considerable discrep-
ancy in details.)

6. Colour dark brown (1, 2, 5, 7), or green (6) ; streaked
or spotted with white (1, 2, 5, 6, 7).

7. Swims at surface of the water (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7),
with a rapid (1, 2, 5), or slow (4, 6, 7), movement ; the
head and neck projected and elevated above the surface
(1, 2, 5, 6, 7).

8. Progression steady and uniform ; the body straight
(2, 5, 6), but capable of being thrown into convolutions
(4).

9. Spouts in the manner of a whale (6).

To which of the recognised classes of created beings
can this huge rover of the ocean be referred? And, first,
is it an animal at all ? That there are immense algse in
the ocean, presenting some of the characters described,
has been already shewn ; and on two occasions an object
supposed to be the "sea-serpent" proved on examination
to be but a sea-weed floating ; the separated and inverted
roots of which, projecting in the roll of the swell, seemed
a head, and the fronds (in the one case) and (in the other)
a number of attached barnacles, resembled a shaggy mane
washed about in the water.

But surely it must have been a very dim and indistinct
view of the floating and ducking object, which could have
mistaken this for a living animal ; * and it would be

* The distance is estimated at half a mile on both occasions. (See
the accounts of Captains Ilerriman and Smith.}

EXAMINATION OF OWEN'S DECISION. 347

in the highest degree to presume that of such a
nature could be the cr?.atur?s, going rapidly through the
water at ten or twelve miles an hour, with the head and
neck elevated, so distinctly seen by Captain M'Quhse and
Mr Davidson, the former at two hundred, the latter at
thirty-five yards' distance. We may fairly dismiss the
sea-weed hypothesis.

Among animals, the Vertebrata are tbe cnly classes
supposable. But of these, which ? Birds ai£ out of the
question ; — but Mammalia, Reptilia, Pisces,— there is
no antecedent absurdity in assigning it to either of these.
Each of these classes contains species of lengthened form,
of vast dimensions, of pelagic habit ; and to each has
the creature been, by different authorities, assigned.

Let us, then, look at the Mammalia. Here Professor
Owen would place it; and his opinion on a zoological
question has almost the force of an axiom. I trust I shall
not be accused of presumption if I venture to examine
the decision of one whom I so greatly respect. It is true,
his reasoning applies directly only to the creature seen
from the Daedalus; but we are bound to consider the
exigencies not only of that celebrated case, but of all the
other well-authenticated cases.

Professor Owen thus draws up the characters of the
animal : — " Head with a convex, moderately capacious
cranium, short obtuse muzzle, gape not extending further
than the eye ; eye rather small, round, filling closely the
palpebral aperture ; colour dark brown above, yellowish
white beneath ; surface smooth, without scales, scutes, or

348 THE GEEAT UNKNOWN.

other conspicuous modifications of hard and naked cuticle,
nostrils not mentioned, but indicated in the drawing by
a crescentic mark at the end of the nose or muzzle;
body long, dark brown, not undulating, without dorsal or
other apparent fins ; — ' but something like the mane of a
horse, or rather a bunch of sea-weed washed about its
back/"

The earlier of these characters are those " of the head
of a warm-blooded mammal ; none of them those of a
cold-blooded reptile or fish/' The comparison of the
dimly-seen something on the back to a horse's mane or
sea- weed, seems to indicate a clothing of hair ; and, guided
by this interpretation, the Professor judges that the
animal was not a cetacean, but rather a great seal.

Now, it is manifest that it was from the pictorial
sketches, more than from the verbal description of
Captain M'Quhse, that this diagnosis was drawn up. And
if the drawings had been made/rom the life, under the
direction of a skilful zoologist, nothing could be more
legitimate than such a use of them. But surely it has
been overlooked that they were made under no such
circumstances. Only one of the published representations
was original ; and this was taken *' immediately after
the animal was seen." * That is, one of the officers, who
could draw, went below immediately, and attempted to
reproduce what his eye was still filled with. Now, what

* The enlarged view of the head was no doubt made up from one
of the other drawings expressly for the Illustrated London News, and
therefore claims no independent value.

DIFFICULTIES OF DRAWING. 349

could one expect under such conditions ? Of course, the
artist was not a zoologist, or we should have had a
zoologist's report. Would the drawing so produced be of
any value ? Surely yes; of great value. It would doubt-
less be a tolerably faithful representation of the general
appearance of the object seen, but nothing more ; its
form, and position, and colour, and such of the details as
the observer had distinctly noticed, and marked down,
so to speak, in his mind, would be given ; but a great
deal of the details would be put in by mere guess.
When a person draws from an object before him, he
measures the various lines, curves, angles, relative dis-
tances, and so on, with his eye, one by one, and puts them
down seriatim ; ever looking at the part of the original
on which he is working, for correction. But no possibility
of doing this was open to the artistic midshipman ; he
had merely his vivid, but necessarily vague, idea of the
whole before him as the original from which he drew.
Who is there that could carry all the details of an object
in the memory, after a few minutes' gaze, and that, too,
under strong excitement ? This was not the case even of
a cool professional artist, called in to view an object for
the purpose of depicting it ; in all probability the officer
had not thought of sketching it till all was over, and
had made no precise observations, his mind being mainly
occupied by wonder. He sits down, pencil in hand ; he
dashes in the general outline at once ; now he comes to
details, — say the muzzle, the facial angle ; — of course, his
figure must have some facial angle, some outline of

350 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

muzzle ; but probably he had not particularly noticed
that point. What shall he do ? there is no original before
him, a glance at which would decide ; he sketches on a
scrap of paper by his side two or three forms of head ;
perhaps he shews the paper to a brother officer, with a
question, " Which of these do you think most like the
head ? " and then he puts the one selected in his sketch,
and so of other details.

Those who are not used to drawing will think I am
making a caricature. I am doing no such thing. I have
been accustomed for nearly forty years to draw animals
from the life; and the public are able to judge of my
power of representing what I see ; but I am quite sure
that if I were asked to depict an object unfamiliar to
me, which I had been looking at for a quarter of an hour,
without thinking that 1 should have to draw it, I should
do, in fifty points of detail, just what I have supposed
the officer to have done. Let my reader try it. Get hold
of one of your acquaintances, whom you know to be a
skilful, but non-professional artist, whose attention has
never been given to flowers ; take him into your green-
house, and shew him some very beautiful thing in blossom ;
keep him looking at it for some ten minutes without a
hint of what you are thinking of, then take him into your
drawing-room, put paper and colours before him, and
say, " Make me a sketch of that plant you have just seen!"
When it is done, take it to a botanist, and ask him to
give you the characters of the genus and species from
the sketch ; or compare it yourself with the original, and

THARACTEE OF THE HEAD. :3ol

note how many and, what ludicrous blunders had been
made in details, while there was a fair general correct-
ness.

Viewed in this light, it will be manifest how inefficient
the sketch made on board the Dcedalus must be for
minute characters ; and particularly those which in the
diagnosis above I have marked with italics. Yet these
are the characters mainly relied on to prove the mammalian
nature of the animal. Some of these characters could
not possibly have been determined at two hundred yards'
distance. I say " mainly relied on ; " because there is
the mane-like appendage yet to be accounted for. This is
a strong point certainly in favour of a mammalian, and
of a phocal nature ; whether it decides the question,
however, I will presently examine.

The head in either of the large sketches (those, I mean,
in which the creature is represented in the sea) does not
appear to me at all to resemble that of a seal ; nor do I
see a " vaulted cranium." The summit of the head does
not rise above the level of the summit of the neck ; in
other words, the vertical diameter of the head and neck
are equal, while there are indications that the occiput
considerably exceeds the neck in transverse diameter.
This is not the case with any seal, but it is eminently
characteristic of eels, of many serpents, and some lizards.
Let the reader compare the lower figure (Illustrated
London News, Oct. 28, 1848) with that of the Broad-
nosed Eel in Yarrell's British Fishes, (Ed. ii., vol. ii.,
p. 396.) The head of some of the scincoid lizards (the

352 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

Jamaican Celestus occiduus, for instance) is not at all
unlike that represented ; it is full as vaulted, and as short,
but a little more pointed, and with a flatter facial angle.
On this point the Captain's assertion corrects the drawing ;
for in reply to Professor Owen he distinctly asserts that
"the head was flat, and not a capacious vaulted cranium;"
and the description of Lieutenant Drummond, published
before any strictures were made on the point, says,
" the head .... was long, pointed, and flattened at
the top, perhaps ten feet in length, the upper jaw project-
ing considerably."

With regard to the " mane. " The great Phoca pro-
boscidea is the only seal which will bear comparison with
the Dcedalus animal in dimensions, reaching from twenty
to thirty feet. H. M. officers declare that upwards of
sixty feet of their animal were visible at the surface ; but
Mr Owen supposes, not improbably, that the disturbance
of the water produced by progression induced an illusive
appearance of a portion of this length. But how much ?
Suppose all behind thirty feet, the extreme length of the
elephant seal. Then it is impossible the animal could
have been such a seal, for the following reason. The
fore paws of the seal are placed at about one-third of the
total length from the muzzle ; that is, in a seal of thirty
feet long, at ten feet behind the muzzle. But twenty feet
of the " serpent" were projected from the water, and yet
no appearance of fins was seen. Lieutenant Drummond
judges the head to have been ten feet in length (with
which the lower figure, assuming sixty or sixty-five feet

WHALES — FISHES. 353

as the total length drawn, well agrees;) and besides this,
at least an equal length of neck was exposed.

But the great Phoca proboscidea has no mane at all.
For this, we must have recourse to other species, known as
sea-lions. Two kinds are recognised under this name,
Otaria jubata and Platyrhynchus leoninus ; though there
is some confusion in the names. Neither of these ever
exceeds sixteen feet in total length, of which, about five
feet would be the utmost that could project from the
water in swimming. Suppose, however, the eyes of the
gallant officers to have magnified the leonine seal to suffi-
cient dimensions ; I fear even then it will not do. For
the mane in these animals is a lengthening and thickening
of the hair on the occiput and on the neck, just as in the
lion. But the "serpent's" mane was not there, but " per-
haps twenty feet in the rear of the head," says Lieutenant
Drummond; it "washed about its back," says Captain
M'Quhae.

I do not hesitate to say, therefore, that on data we at
present possess the seal hypothesis appears to me quite
untenable.

It is by no means impossible that the creature may
prove to belong to the Cetacea or whale tribe. I know of
no reason why a slender and lengthened form should not
exist in this order. The testimony of Colonel Steele, who
represents his animal as spouting, points in this direction.

As to its place among Fishes, Dr Mantell and Mr
Melville* consider that the Dcedalus animal may have
* See Zoologist, p. 2310.

354* THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

been one of the sharks ; and there is no doubt that the
celebrated Stronsa animal, which was considered by Dr
Barclay as the Norwegian sea-serpent, was really the
Selache maxima or basking shark. But the identification
of Captain M'Quhae's figure and description with a shark
is preposterous.

There are, however, the ribbon-fishes ; and some of these,
as the hair- tail, the Vaegmaer, and the Gymnetrus, are of
large size, and slender sword-like form. Several kinds
have been found in the North Atlantic, and wherever seen
they invariably excite wonder and curiosity. All of these
are furnished with a back-fin ; but in other respects they
little correspond with the descriptions of the animal in
question. One of their most striking characteristics, more-
over, is, that their surface resembles polished steel or silver.

A far greater probability exists, that there may be
some oceanic species of the eel tribe, of gigantic dimen-
sions. Our own familiar conger is found ten feet in
length. Certainly, Captain M'Quhse's figures remind me
strongly of an eel ; supposing the pectorals to be either
so small as to be inconspicuous at the distance at which
the animal was seen, or to be placed more than com-
monly far back.

To the Reptiles, however, popular opinion has pretty
uniformly assigned this denizen of the sea ; and his
accepted title of "sea-serpent" sufficiently indicates his
zoological affinities in the estimation of the majority of
those who believe in him. Let us, then, test his claims
to be a serpent.

A SERPENT IN THE ATLANTIC. 355

The marine habit presents no difficulty. For, in the
Indian and Pacific Oceans, there are numerous species
of true snakes (Hydropliidce), which are exclusively in-
habitants of the sea. They are reported to remain much
at the sur ace, and even to sleep so soundly there that
the passing of a ship through a group sometimes fails
to awaken them.

None of these are known to exceed a few feet in length.

O '

and, so far as we know, none of them have been found
in the Atlantic. It is remarkable, however, that a record
exists of a serpent having been seen in the very midst of
the North Atlantic. The Zoologist (p. 1911) has pub-
lished a communication signed, "S. H. Saxby, Bon-
church, Isle of Wight," containing an extract from the
log-book of a very near relative, dated August 1, 1786, on
board the ship General Coole, in latitude 42° 44' N.,
and longitude 23° 10' W. ; that is, a little to the north-
east of the Azores. It is as follows : — " A very large
snake passed the ship : it appeared to be about sixteen or
eighteen feet in length, and three or four feet in circum-
ference ; the back of a lightish colour, and the belly thereof
yellow." According to the log, the ship was becalmed at
the time Mr Saxby vouches for the correctness of the
statement, and adds, that any one is welcome to see the
original record. It augments very considerably the value
of this incident, that no suggestion of identity with the
Norwegian dragon appears to have occurred to the ob-
server : he speaks of it as " a snake/' and nothing more ;
the dimensions alone appear to have excited surprise,

356 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

"sixteen or eighteen feet," and these are by no means
extravagant.

On the whole, I am disposed to accept this case as that
of a true serpent — perhaps the Boa murina, one of the
largest known, and of very aquatic habits — carried out
to sea by one of the great South American rivers, and
brought by the gulf stream to the spot where it was seen.
If I am warranted in this conclusion, it affords us no help
in the identification of the great unknown.

I do not attach much value to the assertions of obser-
vers, that the head of the animal seen by them respectively
was "undoubtedly that of a snake." Such comparisons
made by persons unaccustomed to mark the characteristic
peculiarities which distinguish one animal from another,
are vague and unsatisfactory. Their value, at all events,
is rather negative than positive. For example ; if a per-
son of liberal education and general information, but no
naturalist, were to tell me he had seen a creature with a
head " exactly like that of a snake •" I should understand
him, that the head was not that of an ordinary beast, nor
of a bird, nor that of the generality of fishes ; but I should
have no confidence at all that it was not as like that
of a lizard as of a serpent ; and should entertain doubts
whether, if I shewed him the form of head, even of cer-
tain fishes, he would not say, — " Yes, it was something
like that"

There does not seem, then, any sufficient evidence that
the colossal animal seen from the Daedalus, and on other
occasions, is a serpent, in the sense in which zoologists use

THE ANCIENT PLESIOSAUK. 357

that term. A lengthened cylindrical form it seems to
have ; but, for anything that appears, it may as well be a
monstrous eel, or a slender cetacean, as anything. All ana-
logies and probabilities are against its being an ophidian.

It yet remains to consider the hypothesis advanced by
Mr E. Newman, Mr Merries Stirling, and "F. G. S.,"*
that the so-called sea-serpent will find its closest affinities
with those extraordinary animals, the Enaliosauria, or
Marine Lizards, whose fossil skeletons are found so
abundantly scattered through the oolite and the lias. The
figure of Plesiosaurus, as restored in Professor Ansted's
Ancient World has a cranium not less capacious or
vaulted than that given in Captain M'Quhse's figures ; to
which, indeed, but that the muzzle in the latter is more
abbreviate, it bears a close resemblance. The head was
fixed at the extremity of a neck, composed of thirty to forty
vertebrae, which, from its extraordinary length, slender-
ness, and flexibility, must have been the very counterpart
of the body of a serpent. This snake-like neck merged
insensibly into a compact and moderately slender body,
which carried two pairs of paddles, very much like those
of a sea-turtle, and terminated behind in a gradually
attenuated tail.

Thus, if the Plesiosaur could have been seen alive, you
would have discerned nearly its total length at the sur-
face of the water, propelled at a rapid rate, without any
undulation, by an apparatus altogether invisible, — the
powerful paddles beneath; while the entire serpentine

* See supra, pp SI 8, 320.

358 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

neck would probably be projected obliquely, carrying the
reptilian head, with an eye of moderate aperture, and a
mouth whose gape did not extend behind the eye. Add
to this a covering of the body not formed of scales, bony
plates, or other form of solidified integument, but a yield-
ing, leathery skin, probably black and smooth, like that
of a whale ; give the creature a length of some sixty feet
or more, and you would have before you almost the very
counterpart of the apparition that wrought such amaze-
ment on board the Dcedalus. The position of the nostrils
at the summit of the head indicates, that, on first coming
to the surface from the deaths of the sea, the animal
would spout in the manner of the whales, — a circumstance
reported by some observers of the sea-serpent.

I must confess that I am myself far more disposed to
acquiesce in this hypothesis than in any other that has
been mooted. Not that I would identify the animals
seen with the actual Plesiosaurs of the lias. None of
them yet discovered appear to exceed thirty-five feet in
length, which is scarcely half sufficient to meet the exi-
gencies of the case. I should not look for any species,
scarcely even any genus, to be perpetuated from the oolitic
period to the present. Admitting the actual continua-
tion of the order Enaliosauria, it would be, I think,
quite in conformity with general analogy to find important
generic modifications, probably combining some salient
features of several extinct forms. Thus the little known
Pliosaur had many of the peculiarities of the Plesiosaur,
without its extraordinarily elongated neck, while it vastly

FRILL OF THE CHLAMYDOSAUR. 350

exceeded it in dimensions. What if the existing form
should be essentially a Plesiosaur, with the colossal mag-
nitude of a Pliosaur ?

There seems to be no real structural difficulty in such
a supposition except the " mane," or waving appendage,
which has so frequently been described by those who
profess to have seen the modern animal. This, however,
is a difficulty of ignorance, rather than of contradiction.
We do not know that the smooth integument of the Ena-
liosaurs was destitute of any such appendage, and I do
not think there is any insuperable improbability in the
case. The nearest analogy that I can suggest, however,
is that of the Chlamydosaur, a large terrestrial lizard of
Australia, whose lengthened neck is furnished with a very
curious plaited frill of thin membrane, extending like
wings or fins to a considerable distance from the animal.*

Two strong objections, however, stand in the way of
our acceptance of the present existence of Enaliosauria ;
and these are forcibly presented by Professor Owen.
They are, — 1. The hypothetical improbability of such
forms having been transmitted from the era of the secon-
dary strata to the present time; and, 2. The entire
absence of any parts of the carcases or unfossilised skele-
tons of such animals in museums.

My ignorance of the details of palaeontology makes me

* It was not till after this paragraph was written that I noticed the
very close similarity of the fins with which Hans Egede has adorned
his figure of the sea-serpent, (copied in the Illustrated London New$>
Oct. 28, 1848,) to the frill of the Chlamydosaurw.

360 THE GEEAT UNKNOWN.

feel very diffident in attempting to touch the for:^°.r
point, especially when so great an authority has pro-
nounced an opinion ; still I will modestly express one or
two thoughts on it.

There does not seem any a priori reason why early
forms should not be perpetuated ; and examples are by
no means rare of animals much anterior, geologically, to
the Enaliosaurs, being still extant. The very earliest
forms of fishes are of the Placo'id type, and it is remark-
able, that not only is that type still living in considerable
numbers, but the most gigantic examples of this class
belong to it, — viz., the sharks and rays ; and these ex-
hibiting peculiarities which by no means remove them
far from ancient types. The genus Chimcera appears in
the oolite, the wealden, and the chalk ; disappears (or
rather is not found) in any of the tertiary formations, but
reappears, somewhat rarely, in the modern seas. It is
represented by two species inhabiting respectively the
Arctic and Antarctic Oceans.

Now, this is exactly a parallel case to what is conjec-
tured of the Enaliosaurs. They appear in the oolite and
the chalk, are not found in the tertiary strata, but re-
appear, rarely, in the modern seas, represented by two
or more species inhabiting the Northern and Southern
Oceans.

Among Eeptiles, the curious family of river tortoises
named Trionychidce, distinguished by their long neck, and
a broad cartilaginous margin to 'the small back-shell, ap-
pears first in the wealden. No traces occur of it in any

THE IGUANODON AND IGUANA. 361

subsequent formation, till the present period, when we
find it represented by the large and savage inhabitants of
the Mississippi, the Nile, and the Ganges.

What is still more to the purpose is, that the Igua-
nodo-i, avast saurian which was contemporary with the
Plesiosaur and Ichtliyosaur, though transmitting no ob-
served representative of its form through the tertiary
era, is yet well represented by the existing Iguanadce of
the American tropics.

It is true the Iguana is not an Iguanodon; but the
forms are closely allied. I do not suppose that the so-
called sea-serpent is an actual Plesiosaur, but an animal
bearing a similar relation to that ancient type. The
Iguanodon has degenerated (I speak of the type, and not
of the species) to the small size of the Iguana; the
Plesiosaurus may have become developed to the gigantic
dimensions of the sea-serpent.

A correspondent of the Zoologist (p. 2395) adduces the
great authority of Professor Agassiz to the possibility of
the present existence of the Enaliosaurian type. That
eminent palaeontologist is represented as saying, that " it
would be in precise conformity with analogy that such an
animal should exist in the American seas, as he had
found numerous instances in which the fossil forms of
the Old World were represented by living types in the
New. He instanced the gar-pike of the Western rivers,
and said he had found several instances in his recent
visit to Lake Superior, where he had detected several
fishes belonging to genera now extinct in Europe/'

362 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

On this point, however, an actual testimony exists, to
which I cannot but attach a very great value. Mr
Edward Newman, in the same volume of the Zoologist
that I have just cited, (p. 2356,) records what he con-
siders " in all respects the most interesting natural-history
fact of the present century." It is as follows : —

" Captain the Hon. George Hope states, that, when in
H.M.S. Fly, in the Gulf of California, the sea being per-
fectly calm and transparent, he saw at the bottom a
large marine animal, with the head and general figure of
an alligator,* except that the neck was much longer, and
that instead of legs the creature had four large flappers,
somewhat like those of turtles, the anterior pair being
larger than the posterior. The creature was distinctly
visible, and all its movements could be observed with
ease. It appeared to be pursuing its prey at the bottom
of the sea. Its movements were somewhat serpentine,
and an appearance of annulations or ring-like divisions
of the body were distinctly perceptible. Captain Hope
made this relation in company, and as a matter of con-
versation. When I heard it from the gentleman to whom
it was. narrated, I inquired whether Captain Hope was

* Mr Marshall, in his interesting " Four Years in Burmah," just pub-
lished, mentions his having seen an " alligator " forty-jive feet in length,
swin>ming in the Irawaddy, with the head and nearly half of the body
out of the water. He is confident that it was travelling at the rate of at
least thirty miles an hour, and this against a very strong tide I What
could this have been ? Surely no Crocodilian ; for the great Gavial, the
largest of known Saurians, is little more than one-third of this length.
MM. Dumeril and Bibron give the dimensions of the largest on record
as 5 met. 40 centim., or about 17j feet.

CALIFOKNIAN ENALIOSAUR. 363

acquainted with those remarkable fossil animals, Ichthyo-
sauri and Plesiosauri, the supposed forms of which so
nearly correspond with what he describes as having seen
alive, and I cannot find that he had heard of them, —
the alligator being the only animal he mentioned as
bearing a partial similarity to the creature in question." *

Now, unless this officer was egregiously deceived, he
saw an animal which could have been no other than an
Enaliosaur, — a marine reptile of large size, of sauroid
figure, with turtle-like paddles. •[• It is a pity that no
estimate, even approximate, of the dimensions is given ;
but as the alligator affords the comparison as to form, it
is most probable that there was a general agreement with
it in size. This might make it some twelve or fifteen
feet in length.

I cannot, then, admit that either the general substitu-
tion of Cetacea for Enaliosauria, in our era, or the ab-

* Zoologist, p. 2356.

f Dr J. E. Gray long ago expressed his opinion, that some undescribed
form exists, which is intermediate between the tortoises and the ser-
pents. " There is every reason to believe, from general structure, that
there exists an affinity between the tortoises and the snakes ; but the
genus that exactly unites them is at present unknown to European
naturalists ; which is not astonishing when we consider the immense
number of undescribed animals which are daily occurring. Mr Macleay
thought that those two orders might be united by means of Emys lon-
gicollis (the long-necked tortoise) of Shaw; but the family to which
this animal belongs appears to-be the one which unites this class to the
crocodile. If I may be allowed to speculate from the peculiarities of
structure which I have observed, I am inclined to think that the union
will most probably take place by some newly discovered genera allied to
the marine or fluviatile soft-skinned turtles, and the marine serpent" '
* Synopsis of Gen of Reptiles, in Ann. of Philos., 1825.

364 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

eence of remains of the latter in the tertiary deposits, is
sufficient evidence of their non-existence in our seas ; any
more than the general replacement of Placo'id and Ga-
noid, fishes by the Cycloids and Ctenoi'ds, or' the absence
of the former two from the tertiaries, is proof of their
present non-existence.

It must not be forgotten, as Mr Darwin has ably in-
sisted, that the specimens we possess of fossil organisms
are very far indeed from being a complete series. They
are rather fragments accidentally preserved, by favouring
circumstances, in an almost total wreck. The Enalio-
sauria, particularly abundant in the secondary epoch,
may have become sufficiently scarce in the tertiary to
have no representative in these preserved fragmentary
collections, and yet not have been absolutely extinct.*

But Professor Owen presses also the absence of any
recognised recent remains of such animals. Let us test
this evidence first by hypothesis, and then by actual fact.

It may be that a true serpent, with large vesicular
lungs, would float when dead, and be liable to be seen by
navigators in that condition, or to be washed ashore,
where its peculiar skeleton would be sure to attract notice.
But, as I have before said, I do not by any means believe
that the unknown creature is a serpent in the zoological
sense. Would a Plesiosaurus float when dead ? I \hink
not. It is supposed to have had affinities with the whales.

* I reason as a geologist, on geological premises, — reserving my own
convictions on the subject of prochronism, which would not affect this
argument.

CHARACTER OF THE NOKWAY COAST. 365

Now, a whale sinks like lead as soon as the blubber is
removed ; the surface-fat alone causes a whale to float.
But we have no warrant for assuming that the Plesiosaur
was encased in a thick blanket of blubber ; no geologist
has suggested any such thing, and the long neck forbids
it ; and if not, doubtless it would sink, and not float,
when dead. Therefore the stranding of such a carcase,
or the washing ashore of such a skeleton, would most
probably be an extremely rare occurrence, even if the
animal were as abundant as the sperm-whale; but, on
the supposition that the species itself is almost extinct,
we ought not to expect such an incident, perhaps, in a
thousand years. If we add to this the recollection,
how small a portion of the border of the ocean is
habitually viewed by persons able to discriminate be-
tween the vertebrae of an Enaliosaur and those of a
Cetacean, we shall not, I think, attach great importance
to this objection.

The only region of the globe, in which the unknown
monster is reputed to be in any sense common, is the
coast of Norway. Now this, it is true, is fortunately
within the ken of civilised and scientific man ; and, con-
fessedly, no enormous ophidian or saurian carcases have
ever been recognised on that shore. But the shore of
Norway is, perhaps, the least favourable in the world for
such a jetsam. Such a thing as a sand or shingle beach
is scarcely known ; the coast is almost exclusively what
is called iron-bound ; the borders' of the deeply indented
fjords rise abruptly out of the sea, so that there is gene-

806 THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

rally from fifty to three hundred fathoms' depth of water
within a boat's length of the shore. How could a carcase
o,r a skeleton be cast up here, even if it floated ?

But, secondly, as to facts. Is it true, that of all the
larger oceanic animals we find the carcases or skeletons
cast up on the shore ? Is it true even of the Cetacea,
whose blubber-covered bodies invariably ensure their
floating, and whose bones are so saturated with oil that
they are but little heavier than water ?

In September, 1825, a cetacean was stranded on the
French coast which was previously unknown to natural-
ists. It was so fortunate as to fall under the examina-
tion of so eminent an zoologist as De Blainville; and hence
its anatomy was well investigated. It has become cele-
brated as the Toothless Whale of Havre (Aodon Dalei).
Yet no other example of this species is on record; and,
but for this accident, a whale inhabiting the British
Channel would be quite unrecognised.

Of another whale (Diodon Sowerbyi), likewise British,
our entire knowledge rests on a single individual which
was cast on shore on the Elgin coast, and was seen and
described by the naturalist Sowerby.

There is a species of sperm-whale (Physeter tursio)
affirmed to be frequently seen about the Shetland Islands ;
a vast creature of sixty feet in length, and readily dis-
tinguishable from all other Cetacea by its lofty dorsal,
and, according to old Sibbald, by other remarkable pe-
culiarities in its anatomy. Yet no specimen of this huge
creature has fallen under modern scientific observation ;

COSSE'S DELPHINORHYNCHUS. 367

and zoologists are not yet agreed among themselves,
whether the High-fmned Cachalot is a myth or a reality!

M. Rafinesque Smaltz, a Sicilian naturalist, described a
Cetacean which, he said, he had seen in the Mediterranean,
possessing two dorsals. The character was so abnormal
that his statement was not received ; but the eminent
geologists attached to one of the French exploring expedi-
tions,— MM. Quoy and Gaimard, — saw a school of cetacea
around their ship in the South Pacific, having this extra-
ordinary character, — the supernumerary fin being placed
on the back of the head. Here is the evidence of com-
petent naturalists to the existence of a most remarkable
whale, ?zo carcase of which, no skeleton, has ever been
recognised.

The last example I shall adduce is from my own ex-
perience. During my voyage to Jamaica, when in lat.
19° N., and long, from 46° to 48° W., the ship was sur-
rounded for seventeen continuous hours with a troop of
whales, of a species which is certainly undescribed. I
had ample opportunity for examination, and found that
it was a Delphinorhynchus, thirty feet in length, black
above and white beneath, with the swimming paws white
on the upper surface, and isolated by the surrounding
black of the upper parts, — a very remarkable character.
This could not have been the Toothless Whale of Havre;
and there is no other wi'th which it can be confounded.
Here, then, is a whale of large size, occurring in great
numbers in the North Atlantic, which on no other occa-
sion lias fallen under scientific observation.

368 THE GEEAT UNKNOWN.

Are not these facts, then, sufficiently weighty to re-
strain us from rejecting so great an amount of testimony
to the so-called sea-serpent, merely on the ground that
its dead remains have not come under examination ?

In conclusion, I express my own confident persuasion,
that there exists some oceanic animal of immense propor-
tions, which has not yet been received into the category
of scientific zoology ; and rny strong opinion, that it pos-
sesses close affinities With the fossil Enaliosauria of the
lias

IISTDEX.

ADVENTURE WITH BEAR, 245 — ele-
phant, 247, 249— rhinoceros, 250,
251— buffalo, 251 — kangaroo, 254
—alligator, 263— serpents, 265-
269— bees, 269.

Africa, night in, 33 — elephant in,
56— beasts of, 119, 246, 284.

Alatou Mountains, 46.

Alligator, voracity of, 263.

Altaian, sunset in, 23.

Andes, scene in, 49.

Animalcules, 159.

Animals, jealousy of, 197 — combats
with, 241 — undiscovered, 279.

Anurcea, 170.

Aracknodiscus, 154.

Arctic regions, 1.

Aurora borealis, 1.

Autumn in America, 10 — Alps, 12.

BANYAN, 133.
Baobab, 135.

Bees, encounter with, 269.
Beagle Channel. 47.
Bear, brown, 244— Syrian, 244 —
grizzly, 245.

Beaver pond, 13.

Bird of paradise, 183 — of Washing-
ton, 184.

Birds, voices of, 4 — awakening of,
17 — oceanic, 81 — planting forests,
103— tameness of, 195.

Bison, Eussian, 203.

Bittern, boom of, 227 — American,
228.

Blind Fauna, 76.

Brine, life in, 73.

Buffalo, fury of, 251.

Burrell, 54.

Bushmaster, 267.

Butterflies in spring, 5 — in Brazil,
59— king of, 189.

CACHALOT, common, 116, 223 —

high -finned, 316.
Cactus, giant, 130.
Cane, length of, 129.
Carchesium, 162.
Caves, blind animals of, 76.
Chamois, 208.
Chuck-will's widow, 173.
Churchyard, adventure in, 181.

370

INDEX.

Collecting, pleasures of, 271 — in
Jamaica, 272 — in Brazil, 274 —
in Arm, 278.

Condor, 119.

Coral formations, 89.

Crocodile, 262.

Crusting, 207.

Cuttle, assault of, 235.

Cypress, large, 136.

Cypress swamp, 228.

DARTER, 215.
Depths, life at, 64, 292.
Desert, life in, 68.
Devil-bird, 230.

Diatoms, forms of, 96, 154 — influ-
ence of, 96 — increase of, 155.
Dogs, wild, 238.
Dragon-tree, 133.
Duck, summer, 199.

EAGLE, Washington's, 184 — jealousy

of, 198.

Egg of salpina, 167.
Elephant in Africa, 56 — height of,

117— rage of, 247.
Elevations, insects of, 87.
Enaliosauri, existing, 361.

FAUNA, blind, 76.

Fawn, Gemze", 210.

Fern-owls, 186.

Ferns, tree, 178.

Fire-flies, 34.

Fishes in boiling water, 75 — in bed,

87 — in parlour, 88.
Flies, plagues of, 110.
Flints, origin of, 100.
floscularia, 163.

Flowers, spring, 6.

Forest, leafing of, 7 — coloui-s of, 10
—in Brazil, 59, 179— planted by
birds, 103 — in Jamaica, 177.

Frost, effects of, 3.

GANGES, source of, 55.
Gazelle, 39.
Golubacser fly, 111.
Gorilla, 257.
Grebes, 114.
Guacharo, 76, 232.
Guanaco, 49.
Gum-trees, large, 138.

HANNO, voyage of, 257.
Heliconia, 175.
Hot springs, life in, 75.
Hyena in Palmyra, 41.

ICE, trees in, 68.

Iguana, case of, 361.

Infusoria, 159.

Insects, destructive, 105 — water, 15
—luminous, 34 — brine, 73 — at
sea, 84 — at great heights, 87.

Invisible, the, 153.

Islands, coral, 90.

JACKAL, shriek of, 237.
Jamaica, morning in, 16 — forest in,
177— collecting in, 272.

KANGAROO, combat with, 254.

LAGOONS, 93.
Lammergeyer, 45.
Leafing of trees, 7.
Lion at midnight, 57.

INDEX.

371

Locust-tree, size of, 138.
Locusts, ravages of, 105.

MAMMOTH-TREE, 141.

Manoota, 268.

Melicerta, 150.

Methuen, peril of, 251.

Moose, caution of, 205.

Monkeys, voices of, 237.

Morning in Newfoundland, 13— in

Jamaica, 16 — in Venezuela, 18 —

in the Oural, 19.
Moss in Africa, 192.
Mothing, 24.
M'Quhse, Captain, sees sea-serpent,

315 — replies to Owen, 332.
Musquito, 112.

NEWFOUNDLAND, morning in, 13.

Noon, winter in England, 20— in
Brazil, 21.

Notommata, 165.

Night in the Alps, 26 — in Jamaica,
27 — sounds of, 28— on the Ama-
zon, 32 — in Africa, 33 — among
fern-owls, 186.

OAK, large, 137.
Ocean, depths of, 290.
Omithoptera, 188.
Ostrich, shyness of, 201.
Oswell, adventures of, 248, 250.
Oural, morning in, 19 — sunset in,

22. ,'

Owen, Professor, on sea-serpent, 322.
Owls, voices of, 227, 231.
Oxen, wild, 201.

PARK, M., moss of, 192.

Plesiosaur, characters of, :j 5 7— re-
vived, 358.

Pool in America, 213.
Polypes, coral, 90.
Prairie wolves, 237.

RATAN, size of, 129.
Reindeer, 50.
Rhea, 201.

Rhinoceros, rage of, 250.
Rotifera, 165-170.

Salpina, 165— egg of, 167.

Sculpture of Rotifera, 169.

Sea, deep, 64, 290, 295 — dust at, 72
— insects at, 84 — streaks at, 99 —
clearness of, 295.

Sea-weeds, long, 128.

Serpent, the great sea, 300 — in
Norway, 300 — in N. America,
306— seen by five officers, 311—
of the Dcedalw, 314, 317, 332,
343 — seen by Mr Stirling, 318 —
identified with Plesiosaurus, 320,
331, 357-368— seal, 325, 347-353
— ribbon-fish, 338, 354 — sea-weed,
339, 342— whale, 353— shark, 353
— eel, 354 — snakes, 354 — seen by
Davidson, 334— Steele, 336— Her
riman, 339 — Harrington, 341 —
Smith, 342 — characters of, 345.

Serpents, great, 122 — venom of, '1 i
— marine, 354.

Sequoia, 141.

Shark, capture of, 218 — coimtfmr> «
of, 221— instinct of, 222— vow
city of, 261.

Sheep, wild, 54.

Shrew, water, 215.

372

INDEX.

Shrimp, brine, 73.
Siberia, scene in, 43.
Silver-thaw, 3.
Snake-bird, 214.
Snow, beauty of, 2— life in. 66.
Snow fjeld, 51.
Snow-storm, 2.
Sounds of night, 28.
Spring, 4 — in Canada, 7.
Sprites, 225.
Stag, Siberian, 43.
Stentor, 161.
Storks, 181.
Summer, Indian, 11.
Sunset in the Oural, 22— in the Al-
taian, 23.

TAMENESS of animals, 195.
Termites, 106.
Thackwray, death of, 249.
Timber, destroyers of, 105, 109.
Tree-frogs, voices of, 28, 29.
Trees, enormous, 135 — mammoth,

141.

Tropical scenery, 179.
Tsetse, 110.

UNEARTHLINESS, 225.
Unicorn, traditions of, 285 — Recent
reports of, 28C.

Urania, 177.
TJrus, Scottish, 201.

VENEZUELA, morning in, 18.
Volcano, life in, 71.
Victoria regia, 190.

WATER, a drop of, 158.
Water-fowl, lines to, 200— at night,

234.

Water-insects, 15.
Water-lily, royal, 190.
Water-shrew, 215.
Whale-fishing, perils of, 259.
Whale of Havre, 365— Sowerby's,

366 — Rhinoceros, 366 — Gosse's,

367.

Whale, sperm, 48, 116.
Whales, size of, 115 — by night, 223.
Whetsaw, voice of, 226.
White-ants, 106.

Winter, charms of, 1 — Noon in, 20.
Wolves, prairie, 237 — European, 241

— voracity of, 242 — night-attack

of, 243.

YEW, large, 137.

ZAMANG, 136.
Zimb, 110.

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Gosse, P.H.

The romance of
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