Our knowledge of the natural history of the deep seas may be said to have commenced not more than fifty years ago. There are, it is true, a few fragments of evidence of a fauna existing in depths of more than a hundred fathoms to be found in the writings of the earlier navigators, but the methods of deep-sea investigation were so imperfect in those days that naturalists were disposed to believe that in the abysses of the great oceans life was practically non-existent. Even Edward Forbes just before his death wrote of an abyss ‘where life is either extinguished or exhibits but a few sparks to mark its lingering presence,’ but in justice to the distinguished naturalist it should be remarked that he adds, ‘Its confines are yet undetermined, and it is in the exploration of this vast deep-sea region that the finest field for submarine discovery yet remains.’...
To catch fish one must know more than the fish; to find toadstools one must know their season and habitats. They are propagated by their spores and from their mycelium—that web-like growth which is the result of spore germination. The spores of ground-growing kinds, when shed upon the ground, are washed by rains along the natural drainage; therefore, when a specimen of one of these kinds is found, it is well to look up and down the natural water-shed, and follow it. Good reward will usually come of it. Few fungi are strictly solitary. Careful observation of the habitats of the various genera and species will enable the student to know what may and may not be expected in a particular locality, and will save many a hunt. When an unknown species is found, collect it carefully, examine it closely, note all its features. Determine to which division of fungi...
The San Gabriel Mountains are approximately sixty-six miles long, and average twenty miles wide. The main axis of the range trends nearly east and west, and extends from longitude 117°25' to longitude 118°30'. The widest part of the range is bounded by latitude 34°7' and latitude 34°30'. The San Gabriel Mountains connect the Sierra Nevada with the Peninsular Ranges of southern California and Baja California. On the west the San Gabriels are bordered by the Tehachapi Mountains, which stretch northeastward to meet the southern Sierra Nevada; to the east, beyond Cajon Pass, the San Bernardino Mountains extend eastward and then curve southward to the broad San Gorgonio Pass, from which the San Jacinto Range stretches southeastward to merge with the Peninsular Ranges. The rocks comprising the major part of the San Gabriel Mountains probably were intruded in Late Jurassic times, with severe metamorphic activity taking place concurrently. A long period...
It was the 20th April, 1864. The clock of the church of the convent of Saint Joseph de Grace chimed 4 A.M. just as we turned into the main street that leads out of the town. Sumichrast took the lead. Tall in stature, noble in mien, and broad-shouldered, he was, in spite of his blue eyes and fair hair, the perfect representative of moral and bodily strength. I was always in the habit of permitting him to lead the way, when, in any of our excursions, it was necessary to favorably impress the imagination of the Indians. He was distinguished as an ornithologist, and was never so much at home as in the midst of the forests; in fact, he often regretted that he had not been born an Indian. His gravity entirely devoid of sadness, his skill in shooting, and his silent laugh, often led me to compare him...
PLAIN HINTS ON MICROSCOPES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. Powers that are most serviceable—Estimated by focal length—Length of body of microscope and its effects—Popular errors about great magnification—Modes of stating magnified power—Use of an "Erector"—Power of various objectives with different eye-pieces—Examination of surface markings—Methods of illumination—Direct and oblique light—Stage aperture—Dark ground illumination—Mode of softening light—Microscope lamps—Care of the eyes. HE microscope is rapidly becoming the companion of every intelligent family that can afford its purchase, and, thanks to the skill of our opticians, instruments which can be made to answer the majority of purposes may be purchased for three or four guineas, while even those whose price is counted in shillings are by no means to be despised. The most eminent English makers, Wales, and Tolles, in America, and Hartnack, in Paris, occupy the first rank, while the average productions of respectable houses exhibit so high a degree of excellence as to...
Our Artist has tastefully combined in the wreath that adorns her title page several of our native Spring Flowers. The simple blossoms of Claytonia Virginica , better known by its familiar name “ Spring Beauty ,” may easily be recognized from the right hand figure in the group of the first plate in the book. For a description of it see page 16. The tall slender flower on the left side on the title page is Potentilla Canadensis , (Var simplex ). This slender trailing plant may be found in open grassy thickets, by road side wastes, at the foot of old stumps, and similar localities, with the common Cinquefoil or Silver Leaf. This last species is much the most attractive plant to the lover of wild flowers. It abounds in dry gravelly and sandy soil, courting the open sunshine, rooting among stones, over which it spreads its slender reddish...
Cueva de San Josecito in the province of Aramberri, near the town on Aramberri, Nuevo León, México, is at an elevation of approximately 7400 feet above sea level on the east-facing slope of the Sierra Madre Occidental in a limestone scarp. The dominant vegetation about the cave is the decidedly boreal forest association of pine and live oak. Additional information concerning the cave is provided by Miller (1943:143-144). Animal remains recovered from San Josecito Cave are among the most important Pleistocene finds in México, and include the most extensive collection of Pleistocene geomyids. The vertebrate remains are probably late Pleistocene in age; certainly they are post-Blancan, since the genera Equus , Preptoceras , Smilodon , and Aenocyon (all Pleistocene genera) are present. According to Miller's ( loc. cit. :145) extensive report on the avifauna, the bird remains from the cave are a remarkable assemblage and beautifully preserved. Most of the...
From the middle of the 17th century meteorological observations were recorded in manuscript books known as "registers," many of which were published in the early scientific journals. The most effective utilization of these observations was in the compilation of the history of particular storms, but where a larger synthesis was concerned they tended, as Forbes has shown, to show themselves unsystematic and non-comparable. The principal problems of meteorological observation have been from the outset the construction of precisely comparable instruments and their use to produce comparable records. The former problem has been frequently discussed, and perhaps, as Forbes suggests, overemphasized. It is the latter problem with which we are here concerned. The idea of mechanizing the process of observation, not yet accomplished in Forbes' time, had been put forward within a little over a decade of the first use of the thermometer and barometer in meteorology. On December 9, 1663,...
BY DAVID WILSON METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON First Published in 1910 This book may be translated into any language without payment. The ideal hunter, like the ideal soldier or mountaineer, seaman or worker of any kind, “leaves nothing to chance”; yet in anticipating events he realises the limits of human foresight and remains continually wide-awake. Wellington has quoted Marshal Wrede’s report of Napoleon’s way of doing—to do from day to day what the circumstances require, but never have any general plan of campaign. That was how to rule circumstances by obeying them, as a seaman steering through the storm may be said to rule the waves. There are some occupations that allow more room for somnolence than others. Like the seaman afloat and the soldier in war, the man who is hunting big cats can ill afford to be caught napping. The consequences are apt...
About the middle of the Miocene period, as well as I can now remember (for I made no note of the precise date at the moment), my islands first appeared above the stormy sheet of the North-West Atlantic as a little rising group of mountain tops, capping a broad boss of submarine volcanoes. My attention was originally called to the new archipelago by a brother investigator of my own aerial race, who pointed out to me on the wing that at a spot some 900 miles to the west of the Portuguese coast, just opposite the place where your mushroom city of Lisbon now stands, the water of the ocean, as seen in a bird's-eye view from some three thousand feet above, formed a distinct greenish patch such as always betokens shoals or rising ground at the bottom. Flying out at once to the point he indicated, and poising myself...
Copyright , 1904 THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO. CHICAGO When discussing the ant-mind, we must consider that these small animals, on the one hand, differ very widely from ourselves in organisation, but on the other hand, have come, through so-called convergence, to possess in the form of a social commonwealth a peculiar relationship to us. My subject, however, requires the discussion of so many complicated questions that I am compelled to assume acquaintance with the work of others, especially the elements of psychology, and in addition the works of P. Huber, Wasmann, von Buttel-Reepen, Darwin, Romanes, Lubbock, my Fourmis de la Suisse , and many others. Since the functions of the sense-organs constitute the basis of comparative psychology, I must also refer to a series of articles entitled “Sensations des Insectes” which I have recently published (1900-1901) in the Rivista de Biologia Generale , edited by Dr. P. Celesia. In...
In the summer of 1861, I found myself, with some members of my family, in a small rustic pension in the village of Arzier, one of the highest villages of the pleasant slope by which the Jura passes down to the Lake of Geneva. The son of the house was an intelligent man, with a good knowledge of the natural curiosities which abound in that remarkable range of hills, and under his guidance we saw many strange things. More than once, he spoke of the existence of a glacière at no great distance, and talked of taking us to see it; but we were sceptical on the subject, imagining that glacière was his patois for glacier , and knowing that anything of the glacier kind was out of the question. At last, however, on a hot day in August, we set off with him, armed, at his request, with candles;...
Probably there is nothing more perplexing to a beginner than to decide what apparatus is required. If he consult a price list, it is difficult for him to tell which articles will be necessary, and which will be either luxuries, or required only for special investigation. In the following account of requisites, those only will be described which it is useful to have always at hand. They will be found sufficient for ordinary work, but for special investigations a more elaborate equipment will be required. All staining and other reagents should be made as far as possible by the worker himself, according to the directions given in later chapters. This should at any rate be done at first, as the knowledge thus gained will prove invaluable. It will also effect a great saving if articles that are used in any quantity, such as methylated spirit, distilled water, &c., are bought...
New York MACMILLAN AND CO. AND LONDON 1892 All rights reserved Copyright , 1892, By MACMILLAN AND CO. Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Boston, U.S.A. Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston, U.S.A. CHAPTER I PAGE Introduction 1 Beauty and Happiness 3 The Love of Nature 5 Enjoyment of Scenery 14 Scenery of England 19 Foreign Scenery 21 The Aurora 33 The Seasons 34 CHAPTER II On Animal Life 39 Love of Animals 41 Growth and Metamorphoses 43 Rudimentary Organs 45 Modifications 48 Colour 50 Communities of Animals 57 Ants 58 CHAPTER III On Animal Life — continued 71 Freedom of Animals 73 Sleep 78 Senses 84 Sense of Direction 93 Number of Species 96 Importance of the Smaller Animals 97 Size of Animals 100 Complexity of Animal Structure 101 Length of Life 102 On Individuality 104 Animal Immortality 112 CHAPTER IV On Plant Life 115 Structure of Flowers...
by W. T. FERNIE, M.D. Author of "Botanical Outlines," etc_ Second Edition. "Medicine is mine; what herbs and Simples grow In fields and forests, all their powers I know." DRYDEN. Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. 1897. "Jamque aderat Phoebo ante alios dilectus lapis Iasides: acri quondam cui captus amore Ipse suas artes, sua munera, laetus Apollo Augurium, citharamque dabat, celeresque sagittas Ille ut depositi proferret fata clientis, Scire potestates herbarum, usumque medendi Maluit, et mutas agitare inglorius artes." VIRGIL, AEnid : Libr. xii. v. 391-8. "And now lapis had appeared, Blest leech! to Phoebus'-self endeared Beyond all men below; On whom the fond, indulgent God His augury had fain bestowed, His lyre-his sounding bow! But he, the further to prolong A fellow creature's span, The humbler art of Medicine chose, The knowledge of each plant that grows, Plying a craft not known to song, An unambitious man!" [vii] It may...
Charles Robert Darwin was born at Shrewsbury on February 12th, 1809, the year which witnessed the birth of Alfred Tennyson, W. E. Gladstone, and Abraham Lincoln. Oliver Wendell Holmes, born in the same year, delighted to speak of the good company in which he came into the world. On January 27th, 1894, I had the great pleasure of sitting next to him at a dinner of the Saturday Club in Boston, and he then spoke of the subject with the same enthusiasm with which he deals with it in his writings; mentioning the four distinguished names, and giving a brief epigrammatic description of each with characteristic felicity. Dr. Holmes further said that he remembered with much satisfaction an occasion on which he was able to correct Darwin on a matter of scientific fact. He could not remember the details, but we may hope for their ultimate recovery, for he said that...
Before a leaf unfolds or a flower spreads its petals, even before the buds swell, and while yet there is snow on the ground, the birds tell us that spring is at hand. The Song Sparrow sings "Spring, spring, spring, sunny days are here"; the Meadowlark blows his fife, the Downy rattles his drum, and company after company of Grackles in glistening black coats, and of Red-wings with scarlet epaulets, go trooping by. For the succeeding three months, in orderly array, the feathered army files by, each member of it at his appointed time whether he comes from the adjoining State or from below the equator. Besides the Blackbirds, March brings the Robin and Bluebird, Woodcock, Phœbe, Meadowlark, Cowbird, Kingfisher, Mourning Dove, Fox, Swamp, White-throated and Field Sparrows. Near New York City the New Year of the birds has now passed its infancy and in April each day adds perceptibly...
In his Manual of Psychology Dr Stout reminds us that "Human language is especially constructed to describe the mental states of human beings, and this means that it is especially constructed so as to mislead us when we attempt to describe the working of minds that differ in a great degree from the human." The use of the word "territory" in connection with the sexual life of birds is open to the danger which we are here asked to guard against, and I propose, therefore, before attempting to establish the theory on general grounds, to give some explanation of what the word is intended to represent and some account of the exact position that representation is supposed to occupy in the drama of bird life. The word is capable of much expansion. There cannot be territories without boundaries of some description; there cannot well be boundaries without disputes arising as...
Perhaps no other country can vie with Great Britain in the vast number of edible species of fungi that may be gathered during all seasons of the year, from one end of the land to the other. The pastures and woodlands literally teem with them; they are, however (sad to say), little known, sadly neglected, or looked upon with unmerited suspicion. The literature, too, of the subject is so small, and the scientific part of the study so extremely difficult to begin, that few persons dare venture to test the qualities of any fungus except the meadow mushroom, and instances are common enough where even this species is rejected. It is apparent that no one can be a sure guide to others who is not himself a “regular fungus eater ,” and that no descriptions can be of value, or drawings of use, unless they are taken with the greatest...
Some people have an extreme repugnance to the idea that man should be treated of in connection with other animals. The development theory is shocking to them, and they would deny that man has anything in common with the brute creation. This is of course mere sentiment; no history of nature would be complete without the noblest work of the Creator. The great gulf that separates the human species from the rest of the animals is the impassable one of intellect. Physically, he should be compared with the other mammals, otherwise we should lose our first standpoint of comparison. There is no degradation in this, nor is it an acceptance of the development theory. To argue that man evolved from the monkey is an ingenious joke which will not bear the test of examination, and the Scriptural account may still be accepted. I firmly believe in man as an original...