The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
1
BY
MARY SOMERVILLE,
AUTHOR OF THE “CONNECTION OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES,”
“MECHANISM OF THE HEAVENS,” ETC., ETC.
SECOND AMERICAN,
FROM THE NEW AND REVISED LONDON EDITION.
WITH ADDITIONS AND
A GLOSSARY
PREPARED FOR THIS EDITION.
PHILADELPHIA:
LEA & BLANCHARD.
1850.
2Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by LEA &
BLANCHARD, in the Clerk’s Office, of the District Court of the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
3TO
SIR JOHN F. W. HERSCHEL, BART., K.H.,
&c., &c.
Dear Sir John,
I avail myself with pleasure of your permission to dedicate
my book to you, as it gives me an opportunity of expressing my
admiration of your talents, and my sincere estimation of your
friendship.
I remain, with great regard,
Yours truly,
Mary Somerville.
London, 29th February, 1848.
ADVERTISEMENT.
4
The improvements and additions embodied in the new London
edition are fully enumerated in the Author’s Preface. The
American publishers have supplied what was much needed, a
complete Glossary of Scientific and Technical Terms; which,
with some few additions scattered through the pages, and enclosed
in brackets [ ], were prepared by Dr. Ruschenberger.
These additions, while they have improved the work, have
added materially to the number and size of the pages. The
publishers, consequently, trust that it will be found more effectually
suited to the wants of the private reader as well as to those
of the higher classes in schools.
Philadelphia, December, 1849.
PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.
5
Since the publication of the first edition of this work, the Author
has been able to correct many inaccuracies that had crept into
it, and to collect much new matter from works since published,
which is embodied in the present edition, and has considerably
added to its size. The recently-published Second Volume of
Baron Humboldt’s invaluable “Cosmos,”[1] with Colonel Sabine’s
learned notes, and sundry papers that have appeared in the
scientific periodicals of Europe, America, and India, bearing on
questions of Physical Geography, have yielded profitable information.
It was the Author’s wish, and her Publisher’s intention, that
the present edition should be accompanied by a series of Maps to
illustrate the more important questions of Physical Geography
treated of in it; but Mr. A. Keith Johnston having announced
the publication of a new edition of his “Physical Atlas” in a
reduced size, at a low price,[2] the first two Nos. of which have
6already appeared, the project was relinquished, in the belief that
Mr. A. K. Johnston’s smaller Atlas will furnish suitable illustrations
to this work.
The reader will find this edition enriched with some of the
results of the recent researches of Messrs. Campbell, Thomson,
Strachey, and Dr. Hooker in the Himalaya, which tend largely
to elucidate the Physical History of that gigantic chain. The
book is also indebted to Mr. Pentland for some new matter,
hitherto unpublished, on the countries of South America visited
by him during his two public missions to Peru and Bolivia.
The absence of the Author from England during the printing
of the following sheets has obliged her to have recourse to a friend
conversant with her subject to revise the press; to him she begs
to express her acknowledgments, as well as to Sir William Jackson
Hooker, who very kindly undertook to correct the portion of
this new edition connected with Geographical Botany and Vegetable
Physiology—subjects respecting which he has so much
contributed to extend our knowledge. Captain Beechey has
been good enough to render similar service, in revising certain
passages bearing upon Hydrography.
Of Physical Geography—Position of the Earth in the Solar System—Distance from the Sun—Civil Year—Inclination of Terrestrial Orbit—Mass of the Sun—Distance of the Moon—Figure and Density of the Earth from the Motions of the Moon—Figure of the Earth from Arcs of the Meridian—From Oscillations of Pendulum—Local Disturbances—Mean Density of the Earth—Known Depth below its Surface—Outline of Geology
Direction of the Forces that raised the Continents—Proportion of Land and Water—Size of the Continents and Islands—Outline of the Land—Extent of Coasts, and proportion they bear to the Areas of the Continents—Elevation of the Continents—Forms of Mountains—Forms of Rocks—Connection between Physical Geography of Countries and their Geological Structure—Contemporaneous Upheaval of parallel Mountain Chains—Parallelism of Mineral Veins or Fissures—Mr. Hopkins’s Theory of Fissures—Parallel Chains similar in Structure—Interruptions in Continents and Mountain Chains—Form of the Great Continent—The High Lands of the Great Continent—The Atlas, Spanish, French, and German Mountains—The Alps, Balkan, and Apennines—Glaciers—Geological Notice
The Low Lands of South America—Desert of Patagonia—The Pampas of Buenos Ayres—The Silvas of the Amazons—The Llanos of the Orinoco and Venezuela—Geological Notice
North America (continued)—The Great Central Plains, or Valley of the Mississippi—The Alleghany Mountains—The Atlantic Slope—The Atlantic Plain—Geological Notice—The Mean Height of the Continents
9The Continent of Australia—Tasmania, or Van Diemen’s Land—Islands—Continental Islands—Pelasgic islands—New Zealand—New Guinea—Borneo—Atolls—Encircling Reefs—Coral Reefs—Barrier Reefs—Volcanic Islands—Areas of Subsidence and Elevation in the Bed of the Pacific—Active Volcanos—Earthquakes—Secular Changes in the Level of the Land
Nature and Character of Mineral Veins—Metalliferous Deposits—Mines—Their Drainage and Ventilation—Their Depth—Diffusion of the Metals—Gold—Silver—Lead—British Mines—Quicksilver—Copper—Tin—Cornish Mines—Coal—Iron—Most abundant in the Temperate Zones, especially in the Northern—European and British Iron and Coal—American Iron and Coal—Arsenic and other Metals—Salt—Sulphur—Diffusion of the Gems
The Ocean—Its Size, Colour, Pressure, and Saltness—Tides—Waves—their Height and Force—Currents—their Effect on Voyages—Temperature—The Stratum of Constant Temperature—Line of Maximum Temperature—North and South Polar Ice—Inland Seas
Temperature of the earth—Temperature of the Air—Radiation—Foci of Maximum Cold—Thermal Equator—Its Temperature, mean and absolute—Isothermal Lines—Continental and Insular Climates—Extreme Climates—Stability of Climate—Decrease of Heat in Altitude—Line of Perpetual Snow—Density of the Atmosphere—The Barometer—Measurement of Heights—Variations in Density and their Causes—Horary Variations—Independent Effect of the dry and aqueous Atmospheres—Mean height of Barometer in different Latitudes—Depression in the Antarctic Ocean and in Eastern Siberia—Barometric Storms—Polar and Equatorial Currents of Air—Trade-Winds—Monsoons—Land and Sea Breezes—Gyration of the Winds in the Extra-Tropical Zones—Winds in Middle European Latitudes—Hurricanes—The Laws of their Motion—Their Effect on the Barometer—How to steer clear of them—The Storm-Wave—Storm-Currents—Arched Squalls—Tornadoes—Whirlwinds—Water Spouts
Evaporation—Distribution of Vapour—Dew—Hoar-Frost—Fog—Region of Clouds—Forms of Clouds—Rain—Distribution of Rain—Quantity—Number of rainy Days in different Latitudes—Rainless Districts—Snow Crystals—Line of perpetual Snow—Limit of Winter Snow on the Plains—Sleet—Hail—Minuteness of the ultimate Particles of Matter—Their Densities and Forms—Their Action on Light—Colour of Bodies—Colour of the Atmosphere—Its Absorption and Reflection of Light—Mirage—Fog Images—Coronæ and Halos—The Rainbow—Iris in Dewdrops—The Polarization of the Atmosphere—Atmospheric Electricity—Its Variations—Electricity of Fogs and Rain—Inductive Action of the Earth—Lightning—Thunder—Distribution of Thunder-Storms—Back Stroke—St. Elmo’s Fire—Phosphorescence—Aurora—Magnetism—Terrestrial Magnetism—The Dip—Magnetic Poles and Equator—Magnetic Intensity—Dynamic Equator—Declination—Magnetic Meridian—Lines of equal Variation—Horary Variations—Line of Alternate Horary Phenomena—Magnetic Storms—Coincidence of the Lines of equal Magnetic Intensity with Mountain Chains—Diamagnetism
Of Physical Geography—Position of the Earth in the Solar System—Distance
from the Sun—Civil Year—Inclination of Terrestrial Orbit—Mass
of the Sun—Distance of the Moon—Figure and Density of the
Earth from the Motions of the Moon—Figure of the Earth from Arcs
of the Meridian—from Oscillations of Pendulum—Local Disturbances—Mean
Density of the Earth—Known Depth below its Surface—Outlines
of Geology.
Physical Geography is a description of the earth, the sea, and
the air, with their inhabitants animal and vegetable, of the distribution
of these organized beings, and the causes of that distribution.
Political and arbitrary divisions are disregarded, the sea and
the land are considered only with respect to those great features
that have been stamped upon them by the hand of the Almighty,
and man himself is viewed but as a fellow-inhabitant of the globe
with other created things, yet influencing them to a certain extent
by his actions, and influenced in return. The effects of his intellectual
superiority on the inferior animals, and even on his own
condition by the subjection of some of the most powerful agents
in nature to his will, together with the other causes which have
had the greatest influence on his physical and moral state, are
among the most important subjects of this science.
The former state of our terrestrial habitation, the successive
convulsions which have ultimately led to its present geographical
arrangement, and to the actual distribution of land and water,
so powerfully influential on the destinies of mankind, are circumstances
of primary importance.
The position of the earth with regard to the sun, and its connection
with the bodies of the solar system, have been noticed by
the author elsewhere. It was there shown that our globe forms
but an atom in the immensity of space, utterly invisible from the
14nearest fixed star, and scarcely a telescopic object to the remote
planets of our system. The increase of temperature with the
depth below the surface of the earth, and the tremendous desolation
hurled over wide regions by numerous fire-breathing mountains,
show that man is removed but a few miles from immense
lakes or seas of liquid fire. The very shell on which he stands
is unstable under his feet, not only from those temporary convulsions
that seem to shake the globe to its centre, but from a slow
almost imperceptible elevation in some places, and an equally
gentle subsidence in others, as if the internal molten matter were
subject to secular tides, now heaving and now ebbing, or that the
subjacent rocks were in one place expanded and in another contracted
by changes of temperature.
The earthquake and the torrent, the august and terrible ministers
of Almighty Power, have torn the solid earth and opened the
seals of the most ancient records of creation, written in indelible
characters on the “perpetual hills and the everlasting mountains.”
There we read of the changes that have brought the rude mass
to its present fair state, and of the myriads of beings that have
appeared on this mortal stage, have fulfilled their destinies, and
have been swept from existence to make way for new races,
which, in their turn, have vanished from the scene, till the creation
of man completed the glorious work. Who shall define the
periods of those mornings and evenings when God saw that his
work was good? and who shall declare the time allotted to the
human race, when the generations of the most insignificant insect
existed for unnumbered ages? Yet man is also to vanish in the
ever-changing course of events. The earth is to be burnt up,
and the elements are to melt with fervent heat—to be again reduced
to chaos—possibly to be renovated and adorned for other
races of beings. These stupendous changes may be but cycles
in those great laws of the universe, where all is variable but the
laws themselves, and He who has ordained them.
The earth is one of seventeen planets which revolve about the
sun in elliptical orbits: of these, twelve have been discovered since
the year 1787.[3] Mercury and Venus are nearer the sun than
15the earth, the others are more remote. The earth revolves at a
mean distance of 95,000,000 miles from the sun’s centre, in a
civil year of 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 49·7 seconds, at the
same time that it rotates in 24 hours about an axis which always
remains parallel to itself, and inclined at an angle of 23° 27ʹ 34ʺ·69
to the plane of the ecliptic; consequently, the days and nights are
of equal length at the equator, from whence their length progressively
differs more and more as the latitude increases, till at each
pole alternately there is perpetual day for six months, and a night
of the same duration: thus the light and heat are very unequally
distributed, and both are modified by the atmosphere by which
the earth is encompassed to the height of about forty miles.
With regard to magnitude, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune are larger than the earth, the rest are smaller, but even
the largest is incomparably inferior to the sun in size: his mass
is 354,936 times greater than that of the earth, but the earth is
nearly four times as dense.
Though the planets disturb the earth in its motion, their form
has no effect on account of their great distance; but it is otherwise
with regard to the moon, which revolves about the earth at
a mean distance of 240,000 miles, and is therefore so near that the
form of both bodies causes mutual disturbances in their respective
motions. The perturbations in the moon’s motions from that
cause, compared with the same computed from theory, show that
the earth is not a perfect sphere, but that it bulges at the equator,
and is flattened at the poles: it even gives a value of the compression
or flattening.[4] Again, theory shows that, if the earth
16were throughout of the same density, it would be much less flat
at the poles than the moon’s motions show it to be, but that it
would be very nearly the same were the earth to increase regularly
in density from the surface to its centre; and thus the lunar
motions not only make known the form, but reveal the internal
structure of the globe. Actual measurement has proved the truth
of these results.
The courses of the great rivers, which are generally navigable
to a considerable extent, show that the curvature of the land differs
but little from that of the ocean; and as the heights of the
mountains and continents are inconsiderable when compared with
the magnitude of the earth, its figure is understood to be determined
by a surface at every point perpendicular to the direction
of gravitation, or of the plumb-line, and is the same which the sea
would have if it were continued all round the earth beneath the
continents. Such is the figure that has been measured in various
parts of the globe.
A terrestrial meridian is a line passing through both poles, all
the points of which have their noon contemporaneously, and a
degree of a meridian is its 360th part. Now, if the earth were a
sphere, all degrees would be of the same length; but, as it is
flattened at the poles, the degrees are longest there, and decrease
in length to the equator, where they are least. The form and
size of the earth may therefore be determined by comparing the
length of degrees in different latitudes.[5] Eleven arcs have been
measured in Europe, one in Peru, and two in the East Indies;
but a comparison of no two gives the same result, which shows
that the earth has a slightly irregular form. From a mean of ten
of these arcs, M. Bessel found that the equatorial radius of the
earth is 3963·025 miles, and the polar radius 3949·8 miles nearly.
Whence, assuming the earth to be a sphere, the length of a mean
degree of the meridian is 69·05 British statute miles; therefore
360 degrees, or the whole circumference of the globe, is 24,858
miles; the diameter, which is something less than a third of the
circumference, is about 8286, or 8000 statute miles; and the
length of a geographical mile of 60 to a degree is 6086·76 feet.
The breadth of the torrid zone is 705 geographical miles, the
breadth of each of the temperate zones is 645 miles, and that of
each of the spaces within the arctic and antarctic circles 11,431
miles nearly. The Astronomer Royal Mr. Airy’s results, obtained
ten years afterwards, only differ from those of M. Bessel by 127
17feet in the equatorial, and 138 feet in the polar radius, quantities
not greater than the length of a ball-room. In consequence of the
round form of the earth, the dip or depression of the horizon is a
fathom for every three miles of distance; that is to say, an object
a fathom or six feet high would be hid by the curvature of the
earth at the distance of three miles. Since the dip increases as
the square, a hill 100 fathoms high, would be hid at the distance
of ten miles, and the top of Dhawalagori, the culminating point
of the Himalaya, 28,000 feet high, would be seen to sink beneath
the horizon by a person about 167 miles off; thus, when the
height is known, an estimate can be formed of the distance of a
mountain.
The oscillations of the pendulum have afforded another method
of ascertaining the form of the earth. Like all heavy bodies, its
descent, and consequently its oscillations, are accelerated in proportion
to the force of gravitation, which increases from the equator
to the poles. In order, therefore, that the oscillations may be
everywhere performed in the same time, the length of the pendulum
must be increased progressively in going from the equator
to the poles, according to a known law,[6] from whence the compression
or flattening at the poles may be deduced. Experiments
for that purpose have been made in a great number of places,
but, as in the measurement of the arcs, no two sets give exactly
the same results; the mean of the whole, however, differs very
little from that given by the degrees of the meridian and the perturbations
of the moon; and as the three methods are so entirely
independent of each other, the figure and dimensions of the earth
may be considered to be known. The sea has little effect on
these experiments, both because its mean density is less than that
of the earth, and that its mean depth of perhaps four miles is
inconsiderable when compared with 4000 miles, the mean terrestrial
radius.[7]
18The discrepancies in the results, from the comparison of the
different sets of pendulum experiments, and also of degrees of the
meridian, arise from local attraction, as well as from irregularities
in the form of the earth. These attractions, arising from dense
masses of rock in mountains, cause the plumb-line to deviate from
the vertical, and when under ground they alter the oscillations of
the pendulum. Colonel Sabine, who made experiments with the
pendulum from the equator to within ten degrees of the north
pole, discovered that the intensity is greatly augmented by volcanic
islands. A variation to the amount of a tenth of a second
in twenty-fours can be perfectly ascertained in the rate of the
pendulum, but from some of these local attractions a variation of
nearly ten seconds has occurred during the same period. The
islands of St. Helena, Ascension, St. Thomas, the Isle of France,
are some of those noted by Colonel Sabine.
There are other remarkable instances of local disturbance,
arising from the geological nature of the soil; for example, the
intensity of gravitation is very small at Bordeaux, from whence
it increases rapidly to Clermont-Ferrand, Milan, and Padua,
where it attains a maximum (owing probably to dense masses of
rock under ground), and from thence it extends to Parma. In
consequence of this local attraction, the degrees of the meridian
in that part of Italy seem to increase towards the equator through
a small space, instead of decreasing, as if the earth were drawn
out instead of flattened at the poles.
It appears from this that the effect of the whole earth on a pendulum
or torsion balance may be compared with the effect of a
small part of it, and thus a comparison maybe instituted between
the mass of the earth and the mass of that part of it. Now, a
leaden ball was weighed against the earth by comparing the
effects of each upon a balance of torsion; the nearness of the
smaller mass making it produce a sensible effect as compared
19with that of the larger, for by the laws of attraction the whole earth
must be considered as collected in its centre; in this manner a
value of the mass of the earth was obtained, and, as its volume
was known, its mean density was found to be 5·675 times greater
than that of water at the temperature of 62° of Fahrenheit’s thermometer.
Now, as that mean density is double that of basalt,
and more than double that of granite, rocks which undoubtedly
emanate from very great depths beneath the surface of the
earth, it affords another proof of the increase in density towards
the earth’s centre. These experiments were first made by
Mr. Cavendish and Mitchell, and latterly with much greater
accuracy by M. Baily, who devoted four years of unremitted
attention to the accomplishment of this important and difficult
object.[8]
Although the earth increases in density regularly from the
surface to the centre, as might naturally be expected from the
increasing pressure, yet the surface consists of a great variety of
substances of different densities, some of which occur in amorphous
masses; others are disposed in regular layers or strata,
either horizontal or inclined at all angles to the horizon. By
mining, man has penetrated only a very little way; but by
reasoning from the dip or inclination of the strata at or near the
surface, and from other circumstances, he has obtained a pretty
accurate idea of the structure of our globe to the depth of about
ten miles. All the substances of which we have any information
are divided into four classes, distinguished by the manner in
which they have been formed: namely,—plutonic and volcanic
rocks, both of igneous origin, though produced under different
circumstances; aqueous or stratified rocks, entirely due to the
action of water, as the name implies; and metamorphic rocks,
deposited by water, according to the opinion of many eminent
geologists, and consequently stratified, but subsequently altered
and crystallized by heat. The aqueous and volcanic rocks are
formed at the surface of the earth, the plutonic and metamorphic
at great depths; but all of them have originated simultaneously
during every geological period, and are now in a state of slow
and constant progress. The antagonist principles of fire and
water have ever been and still are the cause of the perpetual
vicissitudes to which the crust of the earth is liable.
It has been ascertained by observation that the plutonic rocks,
20consisting of the granites and some of the porphyries, were
formed in the deep and fiery caverns of the earth, of melted
matter, which crystallized as it slowly cooled under enormous
pressure, and was then heaved up in unstratified masses by the
elastic force of the internal heat even to the tops of highest mountains,
or forced in a semi-fluid state into fissures of the superincumbent
strata, sometimes into the cracks of the previously
formed granite: for that rock, which constitutes the base of so
large a portion of the earth’s crust, has not been all formed at
once; some portions had been solid, while others were yet in a
liquid state. This class of rocks is completely destitute of fossil
remains.
Although granite and the volcanic rocks are both due to the
action of fire, their nature and position are very different; granite,
fused in the interior of the earth, has been cooled and consolidated
before coming to the surface; besides, it generally
consists of few ingredients, so that it has nearly the same character
in all countries. But as the volcanic fire rises to the very
surface of the earth, fusing whatever it meets with, volcanic
rocks take various forms, not only from the different kinds of
strata which are melted, but from the different conditions under
which the liquid matter has been cooled, though most frequently
on the surface—a circumstance that seems to have had the greatest
effect on its appearance and structure. Sometimes it approaches
so nearly to granite that it is difficult to perceive a distinction; at
other times it becomes glass; in short, all those massive, unstratified,
and occasionally columnar rocks, as basalt, greenstone, porphyry,
and serpentine, are due to volcanic fires, and are devoid of
fossil remains.
There seems scarcely to have been any age of the world in
which volcanic eruptions have not taken place in some part of
the globe. Lava has pierced through every description of rocks,
spread over the surface of those existing at the time, filled their
crevices, and flowed between their strata. Ever changing its
place of action, it has burst out at the bottom of the sea as well as
on dry land. Enormous quantities of scoriæ and ashes have been
ejected from numberless craters, and have formed extensive
deposits in the sea, in lakes, and on the land, in which are embedded
the remains of the animals and vegetables of the epoch.
Some of these deposits have become hard rock, others remain in
a crumbling state; and as they alternate with the aqueous strata
of almost every period, they contain the fossils of all the geological
epochs, chiefly fresh and salt water testaceæ.
According to a theory now generally adopted, which originated
with Sir Charles Lyell, whose works are models of philosophical
investigation, the metamorphic rocks, which consist of gneiss,
21micaschist, clay-slate, statuary marble, &c., were formed of the
sediment of water in regular layers, differing in kind and colour,
but, having been deposited near the place where plutonic rocks
were generated, they have been changed by the heat transmitted
from the fused matter, and, in cooling under heavy pressure and
at great depths, they have become as highly crystallized as the
granite itself, without losing their stratified form. An earthy
stratum has sometimes been changed into a highly crystallized
rock, to the distance of a quarter of a mile from the point of contact,
by transmitted heat; and there are instances of dark-coloured
limestone, full of fossil shells, that has been changed into statuary
marble from that cause. Such alterations may frequently be seen
to a small extent on rocks adjacent to a stream of lava. There is
seldom a trace of organic remains in the metamorphic rocks;
their strata are sometimes horizontal, but they are usually tilted
at all angles to the horizon, and form some of the highest mountains
and most extensive table-lands on the face of the globe.
Although there is the greatest similarity in the plutonic rocks in
all parts of the world, they are by no means identical; they differ
in colour, and even in ingredients, though these are few.
Aqueous rocks are all stratified, being the sedimentary deposits
of water. They originate in the wear of the land by rain,
streams, or the ocean. The débris carried by running water is
deposited at the bottom of the seas and lakes, where it is consolidated,
and then raised up by subterraneous forces, again to undergo
the same process after a lapse of time. By the wasting away of
the land the lower rocks are laid bare, and, as the materials are
deposited in different places according to their weight, the strata
are exceedingly varied, but consist chiefly of arenaceous or sandstone
rocks, composed of sand, clay, and carbonate of lime. They
constitute three great classes, which, in an ascending order, are
the primary and secondary fossiliferous strata and the tertiary formations.
The primary fossiliferous strata, the most ancient of all the sedimentary
rocks, consisting of limestone, sandstones, and shales, are
entirely of marine origin, having been formed far from land at the
bottom of a very deep ocean; consequently, they contain the exuviæ
of marine animals only, and after the lapse of unnumbered
ages the ripple-marks of the waves are still distinctly visible on
some of their strata. This series of rocks is subdivided into the
Cambrian and the upper and lower Silurian systems, on account
of differences in their fossil remains.
The Cambrian rocks, sometimes many thousand yards thick,
are, for the most part, destitute of organic remains, but the Silurian
rocks abound in them more and more as the strata lie higher
in the series. In the lower Silurian group are the remains of
22shell-fish, almost all of extinct genera, and the few that have any
affinity to those alive are of extinct species; crinoidea, or stone
lilies, which had been fixed to the rocks like tulips on their stems,
are coëval with the earliest inhabitants of the deep; and the trilobite,
a jointed creature of the crab kind, with prominent eyes, are
almost exclusively confined to the Silurian strata, but the last traces
of them are found in the coal-measures above. In the upper Silurian
group are abundance of marine shells of almost every order,
together with crinoidea, vast quantities of corals, and some sea-weeds:
several fossil sauroid fishes, of extinct genera, but high
organization, have been found in the highest beds—the only vertebrated
animals that have yet been discovered among the countless
profusion of the lower orders of creatures that are entombed
in the primary fossiliferous strata. The remains of one or more
land plants, in a very imperfect state, have been found in the Silurian
rocks of North America, which shows that there had been
land with vegetation at that early period. The type of these plants,
as well as the size of the shells and the quantity of the coral, indicate
that a uniformly warm temperature had then prevailed over
the globe. During the Silurian period an ocean covered the
northern hemisphere, islands and lands of moderate size had just
begun to rise, and earthquakes, with volcanic eruptions from insular
and submarine volcanos, were frequent towards its close.
The secondary fossiliferous strata, which comprise a great geological
period, and constitute the principal part of the high land
of Europe, were deposited at the bottom of an ocean, like the primary,
from the débris of all the others, carried down by water,
and still bear innumerable tokens of their marine origin, although
they have for ages formed a part of the dry land. Calcareous rocks
are more abundant in these strata than in the crystalline, probably
because the carbonic acid was then, as it still is, driven off from
the lower strata by the internal heat, and came to the surface as
gas or in calcareous springs, which either rose in the sea and furnished
materials for shell-fish and coral insects to build their habitations
and form coral-reefs, or deposited their calcareous matter
on the land in the form of rocks.
The Devonian or old red sandstone group, in many places
10,000 feet thick, consisting of strata of dark red and other sandstones,
marls, coralline limestones, conglomerates, &c., is the lowest
of the secondary fossiliferous strata, and forms a link between them
and the Silurian rocks, by an analogy in their fossil remains. It
has fossils peculiarly its own, but it has also some shells and corals
common to the strata both above and below it. There are various
families of extinct sauroid fishes in this group, some of which were
gigantic, others had strong bony shields on their heads, and one
genus, covered with enamelled scales, had appendages like wings.
23The shark approaches nearer to some of these ancient fish than
any other now living.
During the long period of perfect tranquility that prevailed after
the Devonian group was deposited, a very warm, moist, and extremely
equable climate, which extended all over the globe, had
clothed the islands and lands in the ocean then covering the
northern hemisphere with exuberant tropical forests and jungles.
Subsequent inroads of fresh water, or of the sea, or rather partial
sinkings of the land, had submerged these forests and jungles,
which, being mixed with layers of sand and mud, had in time
been consolidated into one mass, and were then either left dry by
the retreat of the waters or gently raised above their surface.
These constitute the remarkable group of the carboniferous strata,
which consists of numberless layers of various substances filled
with a prodigious quantity of the remains of fossil land-plants,
intermixed with beds of coal, which is entirely composed of vegetable
matter. In some cases, the plants appear to have been carried
down by floods, and deposited in estuaries; but in most
instances the beauty, delicacy, and sharpness of the impressions
show that they had grown on the spot where the coal was
formed. More than 300 fossil plants have been collected from
the strata where they abound, frequently with their seeds and fruits,
so that enough remains to show the peculiar nature of this flora,
whose distinguishing feature is the preponderance of ferns; among
these there were tree-ferns which must have been 40 or 50 feet
high. There were also plants resembling the horse-tail tribe, of
gigantic size, others like the tropical club mosses; an aquatic plant
of an extinct family was very abundant, beside many others to
which we have nothing analogous. Forest-trees of great magnitude,
of the pine and fir tribes, flourished at that period. The
remains of an extinct araucaria, one of the largest of the pine
family, have been found in the British coal-fields; the existing
species now grow in very warm countries; a few rare instances
occur of grasses, palms, and liliaceous plants. The botanical districts
were very extensive when the coal-plants were growing, for
the species are nearly identical throughout the coal-fields of Europe
and America. From the extent of the ocean, the insular structure
of the land, the profusion of ferns and fir-trees, and the warm,
moist, and equable climate, the northern hemisphere during the
formation of the coal strata is thought to have borne a strong resemblance
to the South Pacific, with its fern and fir clothed lands
of New Zealand, Kerguelen islands, and others.
The animal remains of this period are in the mountain limestone,
a rock occasionally 900 feet thick, which in some instances lies
beneath the coal-measures, and sometimes alternates with the shale
and sandstone. They consist of crinoidea and marine testaceæ,
24among which the size of the chambered shells, as well as that of the
corals, shows that the ocean was very warm at that time, even in
the high northern latitudes. The footsteps of a very large reptile
of the frog tribe have been found on some of the carboniferous
strata of North America.
The coal strata have been very much broken and deranged in
many places by earthquakes, which frequently occurred during
the secondary fossiliferous period, and from time to time raised
islands and land from the deep. However, these and all other
changes that have taken place on the earth have been gradual and
partial, whether brought about by fire or water. The older rocks
are more shattered by earthquakes than the newer, because the
movement came from below; but these convulsions have never
extended all over the earth at the same time—they have always
been local: for example, the Silurian strata have been dislocated
and tossed in Britain, while a vast area in the south of Sweden
and Russia still retains a horizontal position. There is no proof
that any mountain-chain has ever been raised at once; on the contrary,
the elevation has always been produced by a long-continued
and reiterated succession of internal convulsions with intervals of
repose. In many instances the land has risen up or sunk down
by an imperceptible equable motion continued for ages, while in
other places the surface of the earth has remained stationary for
long geological periods.
The magnesian limestone, or permian formation, comes immediately
above the coal-measures, and consists of breccias or conglomerates,
gypsum, sandstone, marl, &c.; but its distinguishing
feature is a yellow limestone rock, containing carbonate of magnesia,
which often takes a granular texture, and is then known as
dolomite. The permian formation has a fossil flora and fauna
peculiar to itself, mingled with those of the coal strata. Here
the remnant of an earlier creation gradually tends to its final extinction,
and a new one begins to appear. The flora is, in many
instances, specifically the same with that in the coal strata below.
Certain fish are also common to the two, which never appear again.
They belong to a race universal in the early geological periods,
and bear a strong resemblance to saurian reptiles. A small number
of existing genera only, such as the shark and sturgeon, make
some approach to the structure of these ancient inhabitants of the
waters. The new creation is marked by the introduction of two
species of saurian reptiles; the fossil remains of one have been
found in the magnesian limestone in England, and those of the
other in a corresponding formation in Germany. They are the
earliest members of a family which was to have dominion on the
land and water for ages.
A series of red marls, rock-salt, and sandstones, which have
25arisen from the disintegration of metamorphic slates and porphyritic
trap, containing oxide of iron, and known as the trias or new
red sandstone system, lies above the magnesian limestone. In
England this formation is particularly rich in rocksalt, which, with
layers of gypsum and marl, is sometimes 600 feet thick; but in
this country the muschelkalk, a peculiar kind of shell limestone,
is wanting, which in Germany is so remarkable for the quantity
of organic remains. At this time creatures like frogs, of enormous
dimensions, had been frequent, as they have left their footsteps on
what must then have been a soft shore. Forty-seven genera of
fossil remains have been found in the trias in Germany, consisting
of shells, cartilaginous fish, encrinites, &c., all distinct in species,
and many distinct in genera, from the organic fossils of the magnesian
limestone below, and also from those entombed in the strata
above.
During a long period of tranquility the oolite or Jurassic group
was next deposited in a sea of variable depth, and consists of sands,
sandstones, marls, clays, and limestone. At this time there was
a complete change in the aqueous deposits all over Europe. The
red iron-stained arenaceous rocks, the black coal, and dark strata,
were succeeded by light-blue clays, pale-yellow limestones, and,
lastly, white chalk. The water that deposited the strata must have
been highly charged with carbonate of lime, since few of the formations
of that period are without calcareous matter, and calcareous
rocks were formed to a prodigious extent throughout Europe;
the Pyrenees, Alps, Apennines, and Balkan abound in them; and
the Jura mountains, which have given their name to the series,
are formed of them. The European ocean then teemed with animal
life; whole beds consist almost entirely of marine shells and
corals. Belemnites and ammonites, from an inch in diameter to
the size of a cart-wheel, are entombed by myriads in the strata:
whole forests of that beautiful zoophyte the stone-lily flourished on
the surface of the oolite, then under the waters; and the encrinite,
one of the same genus, is embedded in millions in the enchorial
shell-marble, which occupies such extensive tracts in Europe.
Fossil fish are numerous in these strata, but different from those of
the coal series, the permian formation, and trias: not one genus of
the fish of this period is now in existence. The newly-raised
islands and lands were clothed with vegetation like that of the large
islands of the intertropical archipelagos of the present day, which,
though less rich than during the carboniferous period, still indicates
a very moist and warm climate. Ferns were less abundant,
and they were associated with various genera and species of the
cicadeæ, which had grown on the southern coast of England, and
in other parts of northern Europe, congeners of the present cycas
and zamia of the tropics. These plants had been very numerous,
26and the pandanæ, or screw-pine, the first tenant of the new lands
in ancient and modern times, is a family found in a fossil state in
the inferior oolite of England, which was but just rising from the
deep at that time. The species now flourishing grows only on the
coasts of such coral islands in the Pacific as have recently emerged
from the waves. In the upper strata of this group, however, the
confervæ and monocotyledonous plants become more rare—an
indication of a change of climate.
The new lands that were scattered on the ocean of the oolite
period were drained by rivers, and inhabited by huge crocodiles
and saurian reptiles of gigantic size, mostly of extinct genera. The
crocodiles come nearest to modern reptiles; but the others, though
bearing a remote similitude in general structure to living forms,
were quite anomalous, combining in one the structure of various
distinct creatures, and so monstrous that they must have been more
like the visions of a troubled dream than things of real existence;
yet in organization a few of them came nearer to the type of living
mammalia than any existing reptiles do. Some of these had lived
in rivers, others in the ocean—some were inhabitants of the land,
others were amphibious; and the various species of one genus
even had wings like a bat, and fed on insects. There were both
herbivorous and predaceous saurians; and from their size and
strength they must have been formidable enemies. Besides, the
numbers deposited are so great, that they must have swarmed for
ages in the estuaries and shallow seas of the period, especially in
the lias, a marine stratum of clay, the lowest of the oolite series.
They gradually declined towards the end of the secondary fossiliferous
epoch; but as a class they lived in all subsequent eras, and
still exist in tropical countries, although the species are very different
from their ancient congeners. Tortoises of various kinds
were contemporary with the saurians, also a family that still exists.
In the Stonefield slate, a stratum of the lower oolite group, there
are the remains of insects, and the bones of two small quadrupeds
have been found there belonging to the marsupial tribe, such as
the opossum—a very remarkable circumstance, because that family
of animals at the present time is confined to New Holland, South
America, and as far north as Pennsylvania at least. The great
changes in animal life during this period were indications of the
successive alterations that had taken place on the earth’s surface.
The cretaceous strata follow the oolite in ascending order, consisting
of clay, green and iron sands, blue limestone, and chalk,
probably formed of the decay of coral and shells, which predominates
so much in England and other parts of Europe, that it has
given the name and its peculiar feature to the whole group. It is,
however, by no means universal; the chalk is wanting in many
parts of the world where the other strata of this series prevail,
27and then their connection with the group can only be ascertained
by the identity of their fossil remains. With the exception of
some beds of coal among the oolitic series, the Wealden clay, the
lowest of the cretaceous group in England, is the only fresh-water
formation, and the tropical character of its flora shows that the
climate was still very warm. Plants allied to the zamias and
cycades of our tropical regions, many ferns and pines of the
genus araucaria, characterized its vegetation, and the upright
stems of a fossil forest at Portland show that it had been covered
with trees. It was inhabited by tortoises approaching to families
now living in warm countries, and saurian reptiles of five different
genera swarmed in the lakes and estuaries. This clay contains
fresh-water shells and fish of the carp kind. The Wealden clay
is one of the various instances of the subsidence of land which
took place during this period.
The cretaceous strata above our Wealden clay are full of marine
exuviæ. There are vast tracts of sand in Northern Europe, and
many very extensive tracts of chalk; but in the southern part of
the Continent the cretaceous rocks assume a different character.
There and elsewhere extensive limestone rocks, filled with very
peculiar shells, show that, when the cretaceous strata were
forming, an ocean extended from the Atlantic into Asia, which
covered the south of France, all Southern Europe, part of Syria,
the isles of the Ægean Sea, the coasts of Thrace and the Troad.
The remains of turtles have been found in the cretaceous group,
quantities of coral, and abundance of shells of extinct species;
some of the older kinds still existed, new ones were introduced,
and some of the most minute species of microscopic shells, which
constitute a large portion of the chalk, are supposed to be the
same with creatures now alive, the first instance of identity of
species in the ancient and modern creation. An approximation
to recent times is to be observed also in the arrangement of
organized nature, since at this early period, and even in the
Silurian and oolitic epochs, the marine fauna was divided, as
now, into distinct geographical provinces. The great saurians
were on the decline, and many of them were found no more, but
a gigantic creature, intermediate between the monitor and iguana,
lived at this period. From the permian group to the chalk inclusive,
only two instances of fossil birds occur, one in a chalk deposit
in the Swiss Alps, and the other a kind of albatross in the chalk
in England; in North America, however, the foot-marks of a
variety of birds have been found in the strata between the coal
and lias, some of which are larger than those of the ostrich.
An immense geological cycle elapsed between the termination
of the secondary fossiliferous strata and the beginning of the tertiary.
With the latter a new order of things commenced, approaching
28more closely to the actual state of the globe. During
the tertiary formation the same causes under new circumstances
produced an infinite variety in the order and kind of the strata,
accompanied by a corresponding change in the animal and vegetable
life. The old creation, which had nothing in common with
the existing order of things, had passed away and given place to
one more nearly approaching to that which now prevails. Among
the myriads of beings that inhabited the earth and the ocean during
the secondary fossiliferous epoch, scarcely one species is to be
found in the tertiary. Two planets could hardly differ more in
their natural productions. This break in the law of continuity is
the more remarkable, as hitherto some of the newly-created
animals were always introduced before the older were extinguished.
The circumstances and climate suited to the one became
more and more unfit for the other, which consequently perished
gradually, while their successors increased. It is possible that, as
observations become more extended, this hiatus maybe filled up.
The series of rocks, from the granite to the end of the secondary
fossiliferous strata, taken as a whole, constitute the solid crust of
the globe, and in that sense are universally diffused over the
earth’s surface. The tertiary strata occupy the hollows formed
in this crust, whether by subterraneous movements, by lakes, or
denudation by water, as in the estuaries of rivers, and consequently
occur in irregular tracts, often, however, of prodigious
thickness and extent. Indeed, they seem to have been as widely
developed as any other formation, though time has been wanting
to bring them into view.
The innumerable basins and hollows with which the continents
and larger islands had been indented for ages after the termination
of the secondary fossiliferous series had sometimes been fresh-water
lakes, and at other times inundated by the sea; consequently,
the deposits which took place during these changes
alternately contain the spoils of terrestrial and marine animals.
The frequent intrusion of volcanic strata among the tertiary formations
shows that, in Europe, the earth had been in a very
disturbed state, and that these repeated vicissitudes had been
occasioned by elevations and depressions of the soil, as well as
by the action of water.
There are three distinct groups in these strata: the lowest
tertiary or Eocene group, so called by Sir Charles Lyell, because,
among the myriads of fossil shell-fish it contains, very few are
identical with those now living; the Miocene, or middle group,
has a greater number of the exuviæ of existing species of shells;
and the Pleiocene, or upper tertiary group, still more. Though
frequently heaved up to great elevations on the flanks of the
mountain-chains, as, for example, on the Alps and Apennines,
29by far the greater part of the tertiary strata maintain their original
horizontal position in the very places where they were
formed. Immense insulated deposits of this kind are to be met
with all over the world; Europe abounds with them, London,
Paris, and Vienna stand on such basins, and they cover immense
tracts both in North and South America.
The monstrous reptiles had mostly disappeared, and the mammalia
now took possession of the earth, of forms scarcely less
anomalous than their predecessors, though approaching more
nearly to those now living.
Numerous species of extinct animals that lived during the
earliest or Eocene period have been found in various parts of the
world, especially in the Paris basin, of the order of Pachydermata,
to the greater number of which we have nothing analogous;
they were mostly herbivorous quadrupeds, which had frequented
the borders of the rivers and lakes that covered the
greater part of Europe at that time. This is the more extraordinary,
as existing animals most similar to these, the tapirs for
instance, are confined to the torrid zone. These creatures were
widely diffused, and some of them were associated with genera
still existing, though of totally different species; such as animals
allied to the racoon and dormouse, the ox, bear, deer, the fox, the
dog, and others. Although these quadrupeds differ so widely
from those of the present day, the same proportion existed then
as now between the carnivorous and herbivorous genera. The
spoils of marine mammalia of this period have also been found,
sometimes of great elevations above the sea, all of extinct species,
and some of these cetacea were of huge size. This marvellous
change of the creative power was not confined to the earth and
the ocean; the air also was now occupied by many extinct races
of birds allied to the owl, buzzard, quail, curlew, &c. The climate
must still have been warmer than at present, from the remains of
land and sea plants found in high latitudes. Even in England,
bones of the opossum, monkey, and boa have been discovered,
all animals of warm countries, besides fossil sword and saw fish,
both of genera foreign to the British seas.
During the Miocene period, new amphibious quadrupeds were
associated with the old, of which the deinotherium is the most
characteristic and much the largest of the mammalia yet found,
far surpassing the largest elephant in size, of a singular form, and
unknown nature.
The palæotherium was of this period, and also the mastodon,
both of large dimensions. Various families, and even genera, of
quadrupeds now existing were associated with these extraordinary
creatures, though of extinct species, such as the elephant, rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, tapir, horse, bear, wolf, hyæna, weasel,
30beaver, ox, buffalo, deer, &c.; and also marine mammalia, as
dolphins, sea-calves, walruses, and lamantines. Indeed, in the
constant increase of animal life manifested throughout the whole
of the tertiary strata, the forms approach nearer to living species
as their remains lie high in the series.
In the older Pleiocene period some of the large amphibious
quadrupeds, and other genera of mammalia of the earlier tertiary
periods, appear no more; but there were the mastodon, and the
Elephas primigenius or mammoth, some species of which, of
prodigious size, were associated with numerous quadrupeds of
existing genera, but lost species. Extinct species of almost all
the quadrupeds now alive seem to have inhabited the earth at
that time; their bones have been discovered in caverns; they
were embedded in the breccias and in most of the strata of that
epoch—as the hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant, horse, bear,
wolf, water-rat, hyæna, and various birds. It is remarkable that
in the caverns of Australia the fossil bones all belong to extinct
species of gigantic kangaroos and wombats, animals belonging to
the marsupial family, which are so peculiarly the inhabitants of
that country at the present day, but of diminished size. The
newer Pleiocene strata show that the same analogy existed between
the extinct and recent mammalia of South America,
which, like their living congeners, as far as we know, belonged
to that continent alone; for the fossil remains, quite different from
those in the old world, are of animals of the same families with
the sloths, anteaters, and armadilloes which now inhabit that
country, but of vastly superior size and different species. In
fact, there were giants in the land in those days. Were change
of species possible, one might almost fancy that these countries
had escaped the wreck of time, and that their inhabitants had
pined and dwindled under the change of circumstances. The
megatherium and Equus curvidens, or extinct horse, had so vast
a range in America, that, while Sir Charles Lyell collected their
bones in Georgia in 33° N. latitude, Mr. Darwin brought them
from the corresponding latitude in South America. The Equus
curvidens differed as much from the living horse as the quagga
or zebra does, and the European fossil horse is also probably a
distinct and lost species.
A comparison of the fossil remains with the living forms has
shown the analogy between these beings of the ancient world and
those that now people the earth; and the greatest triumph of the
geologist is the certainty with which he can decide upon the
nature of animals that have been extinct for thousands of years,
from a few bones entombed on the earth’s surface. Baron Cuvier
will ever be celebrated as the founder of this branch of comparative
anatomy, and which Professor Owen has brought to the highest
31perfection. Among many discoveries, he has found, by the
most minute microscopic observation, that the structure of the
tissue of which teeth are formed is different in different classes of
animals, and that the species can in many instances be determined
from the fragment of a tooth. A small portion of a bone enabled
him to decide on the nature of an extinct race of birds, and the
subsequent discovery of the whole skeleton confirmed the accuracy
of this determination.
The greater part of the land in the northern hemisphere was
elevated above the deep during the tertiary period, and such lands
as already existed acquired additional height; consequently the
climate, which had previously been tropical, became gradually
colder, for an increase of land, which raises the temperature between
the tropics, has exactly the contrary effects in higher latitudes.
Hence, excessive cold prevailed during the latter part of
the Pleiocene period, and a great part of the European continent
was covered by an ocean full of floating ice, not unlike that seen
at this day off the north-eastern coast of America.[9]
During the latter part of the Pleiocene period, however, the
bed of that glacial ocean rose partially, and after many vicissitudes
the European continent assumed nearly the form it now
bears. There is every reason to believe that the glacial sea
extended also over great portions of the arctic lands of Asia and
America. Old forms of animal and vegetable life were destroyed
by these alterations in the surface of the earth, and the consequent
change of temperature; and when, in the progress of the
Pleiocene period, the mountain-tops appeared as islands above the
water, they were clothed with the flora and peopled by the animals
they still retain; and new forms were added as the land
rose and became dry and fitted to receive and maintain the races
of animals now alive, all of which had possession of the earth for
ages prior to the historical or human period. Some of the extinct
animals had long resisted the great vicissitudes of the times; of
these the mammoth or Elephas primigenius, whose fossil remains
are found all over Europe, Asia, and America, but especially in
the gelid soil of Siberia, alone outlived its associates, the last
remnant of a former world. In two or three instances this animal
has been discovered entire, entombed in frozen mud, with its
32hair and its flesh so fresh that wolves and dogs fed upon it. The
globe of the eye of one found by M. Middendorf at Tas, between the
rivers Oby and Jenesei, was so perfect that it is now preserved
in the museum at Moscow. It has been supposed that, as the
Siberian rivers flow for hundreds of miles from the southern part
of the country to the Arctic Ocean, these elephants might have
been drowned by floods while browsing in the milder regions,
and that their bodies were carried down by the rivers and
embedded in mud, and frozen before they had time to decay.
Mr. Darwin has suggested that, if the climate of Siberia has at
any time been similar to that of the high latitudes of South America,
where the line of perpetual snow in the Andes, and its sudden
flexure in Southern Chile, come close to a nearly tropical
vegetation, such a vegetation may have prevailed south of the
frozen regions in Siberia, and, consequently, the bodies of animals
entombed a few feet below the icy surface might be preserved
for ages. On the other hand, although the congeners of
this animal are now inhabitants of the torrid zone, they may have
been able to endure the cold of a Siberian winter, for Baron Cuvier
found that this animal differed as much from the living elephant
as the horse does from the ass. Mr. Darwin has shown that the
supply of food in summer was probably sufficient, since the quantity
requisite for the maintenance of the larger animals is by no
means in proportion to their bulk, or it may have migrated to a
more genial climate in the colder months.
Shell-fish seem to have been more able to endure all the great
geological changes than any of their organic associates, but they
show a constant approximation to modern species during the progress
of the tertiary period. The whole of these strata contain
enormous quantities of shells of extinct species; in the oldest, three
and a half per cent. of the shells are identical with species now
existing, while on the uppermost strata of this geological period
there are not less than from ninety to ninety-five in a hundred
identical with those now alive.
Of all the fossil fishes, from the Silurian strata to the end of the
tertiary, scarcely one is specifically the same with living forms:
the Mallotus villosus, or captan, of the salmon family, is an exception,
and perhaps a few others of the most recent of these periods.
In the Eocene strata one-third belong to extinct genera.
Under the vegetable mould in every country there is a stratum
of loose sand, gravel, and mud, lying upon the subjacent rocks,
often of great thickness, called alluvium, which in the high latitudes
of North America and Europe is mixed with enormous fragments
of rock, sometimes angular and sometimes rounded and
water-worn, which have been transported hundreds of miles from
their origin. It is there known as the Boulder formation, or
33Northern Drift, because, from the identity of the boulders with the
rocks of the northern mountains, they evidently have come from
them, and their size becomes less as the distance increases. In
Russia there are blocks of great magnitude that have been carried
800 and even 1000 miles south-east from their origin in the Scandinavian
range. There is much reason to believe that such
masses, enormous as they are, have been transported by ice-bergs,
and deposited when the northern parts of the continents were
covered by the glacial sea, by which part of Russia was submerged
to the depth of at least 1000 feet. The same process is
now in progress in the high southern latitudes, where icebergs
have been met with covered with fragments of rock and boulders.[10]
The last manifestation of creative power, with few exceptions,
differs specifically from all that preceded it; the recent strata contain
only the exuviæ of animals now living, often mixed with the
works of man.
The solid earth thus tells us of mountains washed down into
the sea with their forests and inhabitants; of lands raised from
the bottom of the ocean loaded with the accumulated spoils of
centuries; of torrents of water and torrents of fire. In the ordinances
of the heavens no voice declares a beginning, no sign points
to an end; in the bosom of the earth, however the dawn of life
appears, the time is obscurely marked when first living things
moved in the waters, when the first plants clothed the land.
There we see that during ages of tranquillity the solid rock was
forming at the bottom of the ocean, that during ages it was tossed
and riven by fire and earthquake. What years must have gone
by since that ocean flowed which has left its ripple-marks on the
sand, now a solid mass on the mountain—since those unknown
creatures left their foot-prints on the shore, now fixed by time on
the rock for ever! time, which man measures by days and years,
nature measures by thousands of centuries.
The thickness of the fossiliferous strata up to the end of the
tertiary formation has been estimated at about seven or eight
miles; so that the time requisite for their deposition must have
been immense. Every river carries down mud, sand, or gravel,
to the sea: the Ganges brings more than 700,000 cubic feet of
mud every hour, the Yellow River in China 2,000,000,[11] and the
34Mississippi still more; yet, notwithstanding these great deposits,
the Italian hydrographer Manfredi has estimated that, if the sediment
of all the rivers on the globe were spread equally over the
bottom of the ocean, it would require 1000 years to raise its bed
one foot, so that at that rate it would require 3,960,000 years to
raise the bed of the ocean alone to a height nearly equal to the
thickness of the fossiliferous strata, or seven miles and a half, not
taking account of the waste of the coasts by the sea itself: but if
the whole globe be considered, instead of the bottom of the sea
only, the time would be nearly four times as great, even supposing
as much alluvium to be deposited uniformly both with
regard to time and place, which it never is. Besides, in various
places the strata have been more than once carried to the bottom
of the ocean, and again raised above its surface by subterranean
fires after many ages, so that the whole period from the beginning
of the primary fossiliferous strata to the present day must be
great beyond calculation, and only bears comparison with the
astronomical cycles, as might naturally be expected, the earth
being without doubt of the same antiquity with the other bodies
of the solar system. What then shall we say if the time be
included which the granitic, metamorphic, and recent series occupied
in forming? These great periods of time correspond
wonderfully with the gradual increase of animal life and the
successive creation and extinction of numberless orders of
being, and with the incredible quantity of organic remains
buried in the crust of the earth in every country on the face of
the globe.
Every great geological change in the nature of the strata was
accompanied by the introduction of a new race of beings, and the
gradual extinction of those that had previously existed, their
structure and habits being no longer fitted for the new circumstances
in which these changes had placed them. The change,
however, never was abrupt; and it may be observed that there
is no proof of progressive development of species by generation
from a low to a high organization, for animals and plants of high
organization appeared among the earliest of their kind, yet
throughout the whole, the gradual approach to living and more
perfect forms is undoubted, not by change of species, but by
increasing similarity of type.
The geographical distribution of animated beings was much
more extensive in the ancient seas and land than in latter times.
In very remote ages the same animal inhabited the most distant
parts of the sea: the corallines built from the equator to within
ten or fifteen degrees of the pole; and previous to the formation
of the carboniferous strata there appears to have been even a
greater uniformity in the vegetable than in the animal world,
35though New Holland had formed even then a peculiar district,
supposing the coal in that country to be of the same epoch as in
Europe and America; but as the strata became more varied, species
were less widely diffused. Some of the saurians were inhabitants
of both the Old and New World, while others lived in the
latter only. During the tertiary period, the animals of Australia
and America differed nearly as much from those of Europe as
they do at the present day. The world was then, as now, divided
into great physical regions, each inhabited by a peculiar race of
animals; and even the different species of mollusca of the same
sea were confined to certain shores. Of 405 species of shell-fish
which inhabited the Atlantic Ocean during the early and middle
parts of the tertiary period, only 12 were common to the American
and European coasts. In fact, the divisions of the animal
and vegetable creation into geographical districts had been in the
latter periods contemporaneous with the rise of the land, each portion
of which, as it rose above the deep, had been clothed with a
vegetation and peopled with creatures suited to its position with
regard to the equator, and to the existing circumstances of the
globe; and the marine creatures had, no doubt, been divided into
districts at the same periods, because the bed of the ocean had
been subject to similar changes.
The quantity of fossil remains is so great that, with the exception
of the metals and some of the primary rocks, probably not a
particle of matter exists on the surface of the earth that has not at
some time formed part of a living creature. Since the commencement
of animated existence, zoophytes have built coral reefs
extending hundreds of miles, and mountains of limestone are full
of their remains all over the globe. Mines of shells are worked
to make lime; ranges of hills and rocks, many hundred feet thick,
are almost entirely composed of them, and they abound in every
mountain-chain throughout the earth. The prodigious quantity
of microscopic shells discovered by M. Ehrenberg is still more
astonishing; shells not larger than a grain of sand form entire
mountains; a great portion of the hills of San Casciano, in Tuscany,
consist of chambered shells so minute that Signor Soldani
collected 10,454 of them from one ounce of stone. Chalk is often
almost entirely composed of them. Tripoli, a fine powder long
in use for polishing metals, is also almost wholly composed of
shells which owe their polishing property to their siliceous coats;
and there are even hills of great extent consisting of this substance,
the débris of an infinite variety of microscopic insects.
The facility with which many clays and slates are split is owing,
in some instances, to layers of minute shells. Fossil fish are
found in all parts of the world, and in all the fossiliferous strata,
with the exception of some of the lowest, but each great geological
period had species of fish peculiar to itself.
36The remains of the great saurians are innumerable; those of
extinct quadrupeds are very numerous; but there is no circumstance
in the whole science of fossil geology more remarkable
than the inexhaustible multitudes of fossil elephants that are found
in Siberia. Their tusks have been an object of traffic in ivory
for centuries, and in some places they have been in such prodigious
quantities, that the ground is tainted with the smell of
animal matter. Their huge skeletons are found from the frontier
of Europe through all Northern Asia to its extreme eastern point,
and from the foot of the Altaï mountains to the shores of the
Frozen Ocean, a surface equal in extent to the whole of Europe.
Some islands in the Arctic Sea, as, for instance, the first of the
Lächow group, are chiefly composed of their remains, mixed
with the bones of various other animals of living genera, but
extinct species.[12]
Equally wonderful is the quantity of fossil plants that still remain,
if it be considered that, from the frail nature of many vegetable
substances, multitudes must have perished without leaving a
trace behind. The vegetation that covered the terrestrial part of
the globe previous to the formation of the carboniferous strata had
far surpassed in exuberance the rankest tropical jungles. There
are many coal-fields of great extent in various parts of the earth,
especially in North America, where that of Pittsburg occupies an
area of about 14,000 square miles, and that in the Illinois is not
much inferior to the area of all England.[13]
As coal is entirely a vegetable substance, some idea may be
formed of the richness of the ancient flora: in latter times it was
less exuberant, and never has again been so luxuriant, probably
on account of the decrease of temperature during the deposition
of the tertiary strata, and in the glacial period which immediately
preceded the creation of the present tribes of plants and animals.
Even after their introduction the temperature must have been
very low, but by subsequent changes in the distribution of the sea
and land the cold was gradually mitigated, till at last the climate
of the northern hemisphere became what it now is.
Such is the marvellous history laid open to us on the earth’s
surface. Surely it is not the heavens only that declare the glory
of God—the earth also proclaims His handiwork![14]
CHAPTER II.
37
Direction of the Forces that raised the Continents—Proportion of Land
and Water—Size of the Continents and Islands—Outline of the
Land—Extent of Coasts, and proportion they bear to the Areas of
the Continents—Elevation of the Continents—Forms of Mountains—Forms
of Rocks—Connection between Physical Geography of Countries
and their Geological Structure—Contemporaneous Upheaval of
parallel Mountain Chains—Parallelism of Mineral Veins or Fissures—Mr.
Hopkins’s Theory of Fissures—Parallel Chains similar in Structure—Interruptions
in Continents and Mountain Chains—Form of
the Great Continent—The High Lands of the Great Continent—The
Atlas, Spanish, French, and German Mountains—The Alps, Balkan,
and Apennines—Glaciers—Geological Notice.
At the end of the tertiary period the earth was much in the same
state as it is at present with regard to the distribution of land and
water. The preponderance of land in the northern hemisphere
indicates a prodigious accumulation of internal energy under
these latitudes at a very remote geological period. The forces
that raised the two great continents above the deep, when viewed
on a wide scale, must evidently have acted at right angles to one
another, nearly parallel to the equator in the old continent, and in
the direction of the meridian in the new; yet the structure of the
opposite coasts of the Atlantic points at some connection between
the two.
The mountains, from their rude and shattered condition, bear
testimony to repeated violent convulsions similar to modern earthquakes;
while the high table-lands, and that succession of terraces
by which the continents sink down from their mountain-ranges to
the plains, to the ocean, and even below it, show also that the
land must have been heaved up occasionally by slow and gentle
pressure, such as appears now to be gradually elevating the coast
of Scandinavia and many other parts of the earth. The periods
in which these majestic operations were effected must have been
incalculable, since the dry land occupies an area of nearly
38,000,000 of square miles.
The ocean covers nearly three-fourths of the surface of the
globe, but the distribution is very unequal, whether it be considered
with regard to the northern and southern hemispheres,
or the eastern and western. Independently of Victoria Land,
whose extent is unknown, the quantity of land in the northern
38hemisphere is three times greater than in the southern. In the
latter it occupies only one-sixteenth of the space between the
Antarctic Circle and the thirtieth parallel of south latitude, while
between the corresponding parallels in the northern hemisphere
the extent of land and water is nearly equal. If the globe be
divided into two hemispheres by a meridian passing through the
island of Teneriffe, the land will be found to predominate greatly
on the eastern side of that line, and the water on the western. In
consequence of the very unequal arrangement of the solid and
liquid portions of the surface of the earth, England is nearly in
the centre of the greatest mass of land, and its antipode, the island
of New Zealand, is in the centre of the greatest mass of water; so
that a person raised above Falmouth, which is almost the central
point, till he could perceive a complete hemisphere, would see
the greatest possible expanse of land, while, were he elevated to
the same height above New Zealand, he would see the greatest
possible extent of ocean. In fact, only one twenty-seventh of the
land has land directly opposite to it in the opposite hemisphere,
and under the equator five-sixths of the circumference of the globe
is water. It must, however, be observed that there is still an
unexplored region within the Antarctic Circle more than twice the
size of Europe, and of the north polar basin we know nothing.
With regard to the land alone, the great continent has an area of
about 24,000,000 square miles, while the extent of America is
11,000,000, and that of Australia with its islands scarcely 3,000,000.
Africa is more than three times the size of Europe, and Asia is
more than four times as large. The extent of the continents is
twenty-three times greater than that of all the islands taken
together.[15]
Of the polar lands little is known. Greenland probably is part
of a continent, the domain of perpetual snow; and the recent discovery
of so extensive a mass of high volcanic land near the south
pole is an important event in the history of physical science,
though the stern severity of the climate must for ever render it
unfit for the abode of animated beings, or even for the support of
vegetable life. It seems to form a counterpoise to the preponderance
of dry land in the northern hemisphere. There is something
sublime in the contemplation of these lofty and unapproachable
regions—the awful realm of ever-during ice and perpetual fire,
39whose year consists of one day and one night. The strange and
terrible symmetry in the nature of the lands within the polar
circles, whose limits are to us a blank, where the antagonist
principles of cold and heat meet in their utmost intensity, fills the
mind with that awe which arises from the idea of the unknown
and the indefinite.
The tendency of the land to assume a peninsular form is very
remarkable, and it is still more so that almost all the peninsulas
tend to the south—circumstances that depend on some unknown
cause which seems to have acted very extensively. The continents
of South America, Africa, and Greenland, are peninsulas on
a gigantic scale, all tending to the south; the Asiatic peninsula
of India, the Indo-Chinese peninsula, those of Corea, Kamtchatka,
of Florida, California, and Aliaska, in North America, as well as
the European peninsulas of Norway and Sweden, Spain and
Portugal, Italy and Greece, take the same direction. All the
latter have a rounded form except Italy, whereas most of the
others terminate sharply, especially the continents of South
America and Africa, India, and Greenland, which have the pointed
form of wedges; while some are long and narrow, as California,
Aliaska, and Malacca. Many of the peninsulas have an island
or group of islands at their extremity, as South America, which
terminates with the group of Tierra del Fuego: India has Ceylon;
Malacca has Sumatra and Banca; the southern extremity of New
Holland ends in Van Dieman’s Land; a chain of islands run from
the end of the peninsula of Aliaska; Greenland has a group of
islands at its extremity; and Sicily lies close to the termination
of Italy. It has been observed as another peculiarity in the
structure of peninsulas that they generally terminate boldly, in
bluffs, promontories, or mountains, which are often the last portions
of the continental chains. South America terminates in
Cape Horn, a high promontory, which is the visible termination
of the Andes; Africa with the Cape of Good Hope; India with
Cape Comorin, the last of the Ghauts; New Holland ends with
South-East Cape in Van Dieman’s Land; and Greenland’s farthest
point is the elevated bluff of Cape Farewell.[16]
There is a strong analogy between South America and Africa
in form and the unbroken mass which their surface presents,
while North America resembles Europe, in being much indented
by inland seas, gulfs, and bays. Eastern Asia is evidently continued
in a subaqueous continent from the Indian Ocean across
40the Pacific nearly to the west coast of America, of which New
Holland, the Indian Archipelago, the islands of the Asiatic coast
and of Oceania, are the great table-lands and summits of its mountain-chains.
With the exception of a vast peninsula in Siberia,
between the mouths of the rivers Yenesei and Khatanga and the
unknown regions of Greenland, the two great continents terminate
in a very broken line to the north; and as they sink beneath
the Icy Ocean, the tops of their high lands and mountains rise
above the waves and stud the coast with innumerable snow-clad
rocks and islands. The 70th parallel is the average latitude of
these northern shores, which have a great similarity on each side
of Behring’s Straits in form, direction, and in the adjacent
islands.
The peninsular form of the continents adds greatly to the
extent of their coasts, of such importance to civilization and commerce.
All the shores of Europe are deeply indented and penetrated
by the Atlantic Ocean, which has formed a number of
inland seas of great magnitude, so that it has a greater line of
maritime coast, compared with its size, than any other quarter of
the world. The extent of coast from the Straits of Waigatz, in
the Polar Ocean, to the Strait of Caffa, at the entrance of the
Sea of Azoff, is about 17,000 miles. The coast of Asia has
been much worn by currents, and possibly also by the action
of the ocean occasioned by the rotation of the earth from west to
east. On the south and east especially it is indented by large
seas, bays, and gulfs; and the eastern shores are rugged and
encompassed by chains of islands which render navigation dangerous.
Its maritime coast is about 33,000 miles in length.
The coast of Africa, 16,000 miles long, is very entire, except
perhaps at the Gulf of Guinea and in the Mediterranean. The
shores of North America have probably been much altered by the
equatorial current and the Gulf-stream. There is little doubt that
these currents, combined with volcanic action, have hollowed out
the Gulf of Mexico, and separated the Antilles and Bahama Islands
from the continent. The coast is less broken on the west, but in
the Icy Ocean there is a labyrinth of gulfs, bays, and creeks.
The shores of South America on both sides are very entire, except
towards Southern Chile and Cape Horn, where the tremendous
surge and currents of the ocean in those high latitudes have
eaten into the mountains, and produced endless sounds and fiords
which run far into the land. The whole continent of America
has a sea-coast of 31,000 miles. Thus, it appears that the ratio
of the number of linear miles in the coast-line to the number of
square miles in the extent of surface, in each of these great portions
of the globe, is 164 for Europe, 376 for Asia, 530 for Africa,
and 359 for America. Hence, the proportion is most favourable
41to Europe, with regard to civilization and commerce; America
comes next, then Asia, and last of all Africa, which has every
natural obstacle to contend with, from the extent and nature of its
coasts, the desert character of the country, and the insalubrity of
its climate, on the Atlantic coast at least.
The continents had been raised from the deep by a powerful
effort of the internal forces acting under widely-extended regions,
and the stratified crust of the earth either remained level, rose in
undulations, or sank into cavities, according to its intensity.
Some thinner portion of the earth’s surface, giving way to the
internal forces, had been rent into deep fissures, and the mountain
masses had been raised by violent concussions, perceptible
in the convulsed state of their strata. The centres of maximum
energy are marked by the pyrogenous rocks, which generally
form the nucleus or axis of the mountain masses, on whose flanks
the stratified rocks are tilted at all angles to the horizon, whence,
declining on every side, they sink to various depths, or stretch to
various distances in the plains. Enormous as the mountain-chains
and table-lands are, and prodigious as the forces that
elevated them, they bear a very small proportion to the mass of
the level continents and to the vast power which raised them
even to their inferior altitude. Both the high and the low lands
had been elevated at successive periods; some of the very highest
mountain-chains are but of recent geological date, and some chains
that are now far inland once stood up as islands above the ocean,
while marine strata filled their cavities and formed round their
bases. The influence of mountain-chains on the extent and form
of the continents is beyond a doubt.
Notwithstanding the various circumstances of their elevation,
there is everywhere a certain regularity of form in mountain
masses, however unsymmetrical they may appear at first, and
rocks of the same kind have identical characters in every quarter
of the globe. Plants and animals vary with climate, but a granite
mountain has the same peculiarities in the southern as in the
northern hemisphere—at the equator as near the poles. Single
mountains, insulated on plains, are rare, except where they are
volcanic; they generally appear in groups intersected by valleys
in every direction, and more frequently in extensive chains symmetrically
arranged in a series of parallel ridges, separated by
narrow longitudinal valleys, the highest and most rugged of
which occupy the centre: when the chain is broad and of the
first order in point of magnitude, peak after peak arises in endless
succession. The lateral ridges and valleys are constantly of
less elevation, and are less bold, in proportion to their distance
from the central mass, till at last the most remote ridges sink
down into gentle undulations. Extensive and lofty branches
42diverge from the principal chains at various angles, and stretch
far into the plains. They are often as high as the chains from
which they spring, and it happens not unfrequently that these
branches are united by transverse ridges, so that the country is
often widely-covered by a net-work of mountains, and, at the
point where these offsets diverge, there is frequently a knot of
mountains spreading over hundreds of square miles.
One side of a mountain range is usually more precipitous than
the other, but there is nothing in which the imagination misleads
the judgment more than in estimating the steepness of a declivity.
In the whole range of the Alps there is not a single rock which
has 1600 feet of perpendicular height, or a vertical slope of 90°.
The declivity of Mont Blanc towards the Allée Blanche, precipitous
as it seems, does not amount to 45°; and the mean inclination
of the peak of Teneriffe, according to Baron Humboldt, is
only 12° 30ʹ. The Silla of Caraccas, which rises precipitously
from the Caribbean Sea, at an angle of 53° 28ʹ, to the height of
between 6000 and 7000 feet, is a majestic instance of perhaps
the nearest approach to perpendicularity of any great height yet
known.
The circumstances of elevation are not the only causes of that
variety observed in the summits of mountains. A difference in
the composition and internal structure of a rock has a great influence
upon its general form, and on the degree and manner in
which it is worn by the weather. Thus dolomite assumes generally
the form of peaks like saw-teeth; crystalline schists assume
the form of needles, as in the Alps; slates and quartziferous
schists take the form of triangular pyramids; calcareous rocks a
rounded shape; serpentine and trachyte are often twisted and
crumpled; phonolites assume a pyramidal form; dark walls like
those in Greenland are of trap and basalt; and volcanoes are
indicated by blunt cones and craters. Thus, the mountain-peaks
often indicate by their form their geological nature.
Viewing things on a broad scale, it appears that there is also a
very striking connection between the physical geography or external
aspect of different countries and their geological structure.
By a minute comparison of the different parts of the land, M.
Boué has shown that a critical similarity of outward forms, while
indicating similarity in the producing causes, must also, to a large
extent, indicate identity of structure, and therefore from the external
appearance of an unexplored country its geological structure
may be inferred, at least to a certain extent. This he illustrates
by pointing out a correspondence, even in their most minute
details, between the leading features of Asia and Europe, and the
identity of their geological structure. It has been justly observed,
that when the windings of our continents and seas are narrowly
43examined, and the more essential peculiarities of their contours
contemplated, it is evident that Nature has not wrought after an
indefinite number of types or models, but that, on the contrary,
her fundamental types are very few, and derived from the action
of definite constructive forces on a primary base.[17] The whole of
our land and sea, in fact, may be decomposed into a less or greater
number of masses, either exhibiting all these fundamental forms
or merely a portion of them.[18] The peninsular structure of the
continents with their accompanying islands is a striking illustration
of the truth of this remark, and many more might be adduced.
It follows, as a consequence of that law in Nature’s operations,
that analogy of form and contour throws the greatest light on the
constitution of countries far removed from each other. Even the
picturesque descriptions of a traveller often afford information of
which he may be little aware.
The determination of the contemporaneous upheaval of parallel
mountain-chains, by a comparison of the ages of the inclined and
horizontal strata resting on them, is one of the highest steps of
generalization which has been attempted by geologists. It was
first observed by the miners of the Freyberg school, and established
as a law by Werner, that veins of the same nature in
mines occur in parallel fissures opened at the same time, and
probably filled with metal, also simultaneously, at a subsequent
period; and that fissures differing in direction differ also in age.
As these veins and fissures are rents through the solid strata,
often of unfathomable depth and immense length, there is the
strongest analogy between them and those enormous fissures in
the solid mass of the globe through which the mountain-chains
have been heaved up. Were the analogy perfect, it ought to
follow that parallel mountain-chains have been raised simultaneously,
that is, by forces acting during the same geological
periods. By a careful examination of the relative ages of the
strata resting on the flanks of many of the mountain systems, M.
Elie de Beaumont has shown, if not proved, that all strata elevated
simultaneously assume a parallel direction, or, that parallel strata are
contemporaneous. Should this be confirmed, parallel chains in
the most distant regions will no longer be regarded as insulated
44masses. They will indicate the course of enormous fissures that
have simultaneously rent the solid globe and passed through the
bed of the ocean from continent to continent, from island to island.
M. Von Buch has found that four systems of mountains in Germany
accord with this theory, and Mr. Sedgwick has observed
the same in the Westmoreland system of mountains, believed to
be the most ancient of which the globe can now furnish any
traces. This theory of elevation of mountain-chains, which originated
with M. Elie de Beaumont, has already led to the discovery
of twelve different periods of fracture and elevation in the
European continent alone.
Mr. Hopkins, of Cambridge, has taken a purely mathematical
view of the subject, and has proved that, when an internal expansive
force acts upwards upon a single point in the earth’s crust,
the splits or cracks must all diverge from that point like radii in
a circle, which is exactly the case in many volcanic districts; that
when the expansive force acts uniformly from below on a wide
surface or area, it tends to stretch the surface, so that it would
split or crack where the tension is greatest, that is, either in the
direction of the length or breadth; and if the area yields in more
places than one, he found that the fissures would necessarily be
parallel to one another, which agrees with the law of arrangement
of veins in mines. These results are greatly modified by the shape
of the area, but the modification is according to a fixed law, which,
instead of interfering with that of the parallelism of the fissures,
actually arises from the same action which produces it. This investigation
agrees in all its details with the fractures in the districts
in England to which they were applied, so that theory comes
to the aid of observation in this still unsettled question.[19]
It seems to bear on the subject, that parallel mountain-chains
are similar in geological age, even when separated by seas. For
instance, the mountains of Sweden and Finland are of the same
structure, though the Gulf of Bothnia is between them; those of
Cornwall, Brittany, and the north-west of Spain are similar; the
Atlas and the Spanish mountains, the chains in California and
those on the adjacent coast of America, and, lastly, those of New
Guinea and the north-east of Australia, furnish examples. The
same correspondence in geological epoch prevails in chains that
are not parallel, but that are convergent from the form of the earth.
This observation is also extensively exemplified in those that run
east and west, as the Alps, the Balkan, Taurus, Paropamisus with
its prolongation, the Hindoo Coosh, the Himalaya, and in America
the mountains of Parima and the great chain of Venezuela.
45Continents and mountain-chains are often interrupted by posterior
geological changes, such as clefts and cavities formed by erosion,
as evidently appears from the correspondence of the strata.
The chalk cliffs on the opposite sides of the British Channel show
that Britain once formed part of the continent; the formation of
the Orkney Islands and Ireland is the same with that of the Highlands
of Scotland; the formation is the same on each side of the
Straits of Gibraltar; that of Turkey in Europe passes into Asia
Minor, the Crimea into the Caucasus, a volcanic region bounds the
Straits of Babelmandel, and Behring’s Straits divide the ancient
strata of a similar age. This is particularly the case with coast
islands.[20]
Immediately connected with the mountains are the high table-lands
which form so conspicuous a feature in the Asiatic and
American continents. These perpetual storehouses of the waters
send their streams to refresh the plains, and to afford a highway
between the nations. Table-lands of less elevation, sinking in
terraces of lower and lower level, constitute the links between the
high ground and the low, the mountains and the plains, and thus
maintain the continuity of the land. They frequently are of the
richest soil, and enjoy the most genial climate, affording a delightful
and picturesque abode to man, though the plains are his principal
dwelling. Sloping imperceptibly from the base of the inferior
table-lands, or from the last undulations of the mountains, to
the ocean, they carry off the superfluous waters. Fruitfulness and
sterility vary their aspect: immense tracts of the richest soil are
favoured by climate, and hardly require culture; a greater portion
is only rendered productive by hard labour, compelling man to
fulfil his destiny; while vast regions are doomed to perpetual barrenness,
never gladdened by a shower.
The form of the great continent has been determined by an
immense zone of mountains and table-lands, lying between the 30th
and 40th or 45th parallels of north latitude, which stretches across
it from W.S.W. to E.N.E., from the coasts of Barbary and Portugal,
on the Atlantic Ocean, to the farthest extremity of Asia, at
Behring’s Straits, in the North Pacific. North of this lies a vast
plain, extending almost from the Pyrenees to the utmost parts of
Asia, the greater portion of which is a dead level, or low undulations,
uninterrupted except by the Scandinavian and British system
on the north, and the Ural chain, which is of small elevation.
The low lands south of the mountainous zone are much indented
by the ocean, and of the most diversified aspect. By much the
greater part of the flat country lying between the China Sea and
the river Indus is of the most exuberant fertility, while that between
46the Persian Gulf and the foot of the Atlas is, with some happy
exceptions, one of the most desolate tracts on the earth. The
southern lowlands, too, are broken by a few mountain systems of
considerable extent and height.
The Atlas and Spanish mountains form the western extremity
of that great zone of high lands that girds the old continent almost
throughout its extent: these two mountain systems were certainly
at one time united, and from their geological formation, and also
the parallelism of their mountain-chains, they must have been elevated
by forces acting in the same direction; now, indeed, the
Strait of Gibraltar, a sea-filled chasm 960 fathoms deep, divides
them.[21]
A very elevated and continuous mountain region extends in a
broad belt along the north-west of Africa, from the promontory of
Gher, on the Atlantic, to the Gulf of Sidra, in the Mediterranean,
enclosing all the high lands of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis. It
is bounded by the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and insulated from
the rest of Africa by the desert of Sahara.
This mountain system consists of three parts. The chain of
the Greater Atlas, which is farthest inland, extends from Cape
Gher, on the Atlantic, to the Lesser Syrtis; and, in Morocco, forms
a knot of mountains 15,000 feet high, covered with perpetual
snow.
The Lesser Atlas begins at Cape Spartel (the ancient Cape
Cotes) opposite to Gibraltar, and keeps parallel to the Mediterranean
till it attains the Gharian range in Tripoli, the last and lowest
of the Little Atlas, which runs due east in a uniformly diminishing
line till it vanishes in the plain of the Great Syrtis. That long,
rugged, but lower chain of parallel ridges and groups which forms
the bold coasts of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean,
is only a portion of the Lesser Atlas, which rises above it majestically,
covered with snow. The flanks of the mountains are generally
clothed with forests, but their summit is one uninterrupted
line of bare inaccessible rocks, and they are rent by fissures frequently
not more than a few feet wide—a peculiar feature of the
whole system.
The Middle Atlas, lying between the two great chains, consists
of a table-land, rich in valleys and rivers, which rises in successive
terraces to the foot of the Greater Atlas, separated by ridges of
hills parallel to it. This wide and extensive region has a delightful
climate, abounds in magnificent forests, and the valleys are full
of vitality. The crest of the Atlas is of granite and crystalline
47strata; their flanks and lower ranges are sandstone and limestone,
on which the tertiary strata rest.
The Spanish peninsula consists chiefly of a table-land traversed
by parallel ranges of mountains, and is surrounded by the sea,
except where it is separated from France by the Pyrenees, which
extend from the Mediterranean to the Bay of Biscay, but are continued
by the Cantabrian chain to Cape Finisterre on the Atlantic.
The Pyrenean chain is of moderate height at its extremities,
but its summit maintains a waving line, whose mean altitude is
7990 feet; it rises to a greater height on the east; its highest
point is the Malahite or Nethou, 11,170 feet above the sea. The
snow lies deep on these mountains during the greater part of the
year, and is perpetual on the highest parts; but the glaciers, which
are chiefly on the northern side, are neither so numerous nor so
large as in the Alps.
The greatest breadth of this range is about 60 miles, and its
length 270. It is so steep on the French side, so rugged and so
notched, that from the plains below its summits look like the teeth
of a saw, whence the term Sierra has been appropriated to mountains
of this form. On the Spanish side, gigantic sloping offsets,
separated by deep precipitous valleys, extend to the banks of the
Ebro. All the Spanish mountains are torn by deep crevices, the
beds of torrents and rivers.
The interior of Spain is a table-land with an area of 93,000
square miles, nearly equal to half of the peninsula. It dips to the
Atlantic from its western side, where its altitude is about 2300 feet.
There it is bounded by the Iberian mountains, which begin at the
point where the Pyrenees take the name of the Cantabrian chain,
and run in a tortuous south-easterly direction through all Spain,
constituting the eastern boundary of Valencia and Murcia, and
sending many branches through those provinces to the Mediterranean:
its most elevated point is the Sierra Urbion.
Four nearly parallel ranges of mountains originate in this limiting
chain, running from E.N.E. to W.S.W. diagonally across the
peninsula to the Atlantic. Of these, the high Castilian chain of
the Guadarama and the Sierra de Toledo cross the table-land, the
Sierra Morena, so called from the dingy colour of its forests of
Hermes oak, on the southern edge; and lastly, the Sierra Nevada,
though only 100 miles long and 50 broad, the finest range of mountains
in Europe after the Alps, traverses the plains of Andalusia
and Grenada. The table-land is monotonous and bare of trees;
the plains of Old Castile are as naked as the Steppes of Siberia,
and uncultivated, except along the banks of the rivers. Corn and
wine are produced in abundance on the wide plains of New Castile
and Estremadura: other places serve for pasture. The table-land
becomes more fertile as it extends towards Portugal, which
48is altogether more productive than Spain, though the maritime provinces
of the latter on the Mediterranean are luxuriant and beautiful,
with a semi-tropical vegetation.
Granite, crystalline strata, and primary fossiliferous rocks prevail
chiefly in the Spanish mountains, and give them their peculiar,
bold, serrated aspect. The valleys between the parallel ranges,
through which the great Spanish rivers flow to the Atlantic, appear
to have been at one time the basins of lakes.
The mass of high land is continued through the south of France,
at a much lower elevation, by chains of hills and table-lands, the
most remarkable of which are the Montagnes Noires, and the great
plateau of Auvergne, once the theatre of violent volcanic action.
It continued from the beginning to the middle of the tertiary period,
so that there are cones and craters of various ages and perfect form:
some of the highest, as the Puy de Dôme, are trachytic domes of
elevation; Mont d’Or, 6200 feet high, is a portion of an immense
crater of elevation.[22] The volcanic mountains of Auvergne, and
the Cévennes, which are a little lower, are the most remarkable
of the French system; the offsets of the latter reach the right bank
of the Rhone. In fact, the French mountains are the link between
the more elevated masses of Western and Eastern Europe.
The eastern and highest part of the European portion of the
mountain-zone begins to rise above the low-lands about the 52d
parallel of north latitude, ascending by terraces, groups, and chains
of mountains, through six or seven degrees of latitude, till it reaches
its highest point in the great range of the Alps and Balkan. The
descent on the south side of this lofty mass is much more rapid
and abrupt, and the immediate offsets from the Alps shorter; but,
taking a very general view, the Apennines and mountains of
Northern Sicily, those of Greece and the southern part of Turkey
in Europe, with all the islands of the adjacent coasts, are but outlying
members of the general protuberance.
The principal chain of the Hyrcanian mountains, the Sudetes,
and the Carpathian mountains, form the northern boundary of these
high lands: the first, consisting of three parallel ridges, extends
from the right bank of the Rhine to the centre of Germany, about
51° or 52° of N. lat., with a mean breadth of about 100 miles, and
terminates in the knot of the Fichtelberge, covering an area of 9000
square miles, on the confines of Bavaria and Bohemia. The Sudetes
begin on the east of this group, and, after a circuit of 300 miles
round Bohemia, terminate at the small elevated plain of the Upper
49Oder, which connects them with the Carpathian mountains. No
part of these limiting ranges attains the height of 5000 feet, except
the Carpathians, some of which are very high. They consist of
mountain-groups united by elevated plains, rather than of a single
chain: the Tatra mountains, bisected by the 20th meridian, is their
loftiest point. This range is high also in Transylvania, before it
reaches the Danube, which divides it from a secondary branch of
the Balkan. Spurs decline in undulations from these limiting
chains on the great northern plain, and the country to the south,
intervening between them and the Alps, is covered with an intricate
network of mountains and plains of moderate elevation.
The higher Alps, which form the western crest of the elevated
zone, may be said to begin at the Cape della Melle on the Gulf of
Genoa, and bend round by the west and north to Mont Blanc;
then turning E.N.E. they run through the Grisons and Tyrol to
the Great Glockner, in 40° 7ʹ N. lat., and 12° 43ʹ E. long., where
the higher Alps terminate a course 420 miles long. All this chain
is lofty; much of it is above the line of perpetual congelation;
the most elevated part lies between the Col de la Seigne, on the
western shoulder of Mont Blanc, and the Simplon. The highest
mountains in Europe are comprised within this space, not more
than 60 miles long, where Mont Blanc, the highest of all, has an
absolute elevation of 15,759·8 feet. The central ridge of the
higher Alps is jagged with peaks, pyramids, and needles of bare
and almost perpendicular rock, rising from fields of perpetual
snow and rivers of ice to an elevation of 14,000 feet. Many
parallel chains and groups, alike rugged and snowy, press on the
principal crest, and send their flanks far into the lower grounds.
Innumerable secondary branches, hardly lower than the main
crest, diverge from it in various directions; of these, the chain
of the Bernese Alps is the highest and most extensive. It breaks
off at the St. Gothard, in a line parallel to the principal chain,
separates the Valais from the Canton of Berne, and with its ramifications
forms one of the most remarkable groups of mountain
scenery in Europe. Its endless maze of sharp ridges and bare
peaks, mixed with gigantic masses of pure snow, fading coldly
serene into the blue horizon, present a scene of sublime quiet and
repose, unbroken but by the avalanche or the thunder.
At the Great Glockner the range of the Alps, hitherto undivided,
splits into two branches, the Noric and Carnic Alps: the latter
is the continuation of the chief stem. Never rising to the height
of perpetual snow, it separates the Tyrol and Upper Carinthia
from the Venetian States, and, taking the name of the Julian Alps
at Mont Terglou, runs east till it joins the Eastern Alps, or Balkan,
under the 18th meridian. Offsets from this chain cover all
the neighbouring countries.
50It is difficult to estimate the width of the Alpine chain: that
of the higher Alps is about 100 miles; it increases to 150 east of
the Grisons, and amounts to 200 between the 15th and 16th
meridians, but is not more than 80 at its junction with the
Balkan.
The Stelvio, 9174 feet above the sea, is the highest carriage-pass
in these mountains. That of St. Gothard goes directly over
the crest of the Alps. Passes very rarely go over the summit of
a mountain; they generally cross the watershed, ascending by
the valley of a torrent, and descending by a similar path on the
other side.
The frequent occurrence of extensive deep lakes is a peculiar
feature in European mountains, rarely to be met with in the Asiatic
system, except in the Altaï and on the elevated plains.
With the exception of the Jura, whose pastoral summit is about
3000 feet above the sea, there are no elevated table-lands in the
Alps: the tabular form, so eminently characteristic of the Asiatic
high lands, begins in the Balkan. The Oriental peninsula
rises by degrees from the Danube to Bosnia and Upper Macedonia,
which are some hundred feet above the sea; and the Balkan
extends 600 miles along this elevated mass, from the Julian
Alps to Cape Eminec on the Black Sea. It begins by a table-land
70 miles long, traversed by low hills, ending, towards Albania
and Myritida, in precipitous limestone rocks from 6000 to
7000 feet high. Rugged mountains, all but impassable, succeed
to this, in which the domes and needles of the Schandach, or
ancient Scamus, are covered with perpetual snow. Another
table-land follows, whose marshy surface is bounded by mural
precipices at Mount Arbelus, near the town of Sophia. There
the Hemus, or Balkan properly so called, begins, and runs in
parallel ridges, separated by longitudinal valleys, to the Black
Sea, dividing the plains between the Lower Danube and the Propontis
into nearly equal parts. The central ridge is passable in
few places, and where there is no lateral ridge the precipices
descend at once to the plains.
The Balkan is everywhere rent by terrific fissures across the
chains and table-lands, so deep and narrow that daylight is almost
excluded. These chasms afford the safest passes across the
range; the others along the faces of the precipices are frightful.
The Mediterranean is the southern boundary of the elevated
zone of Eastern Europe, whose last offsets rise in rocky islands
along the coasts. The crystalline mountains of Sardinia and Corsica
are outlying members of the Maritime Alps, while shorter
offsets end in the plains of Lombardy, forming the magnificent
scenery of the Italian lakes. Even the Apennines, whose elevation
has given its form to the peninsula of Italy, are but secondary
51on a greater scale to the broad central band, as well as the
mountains and high land in the north of Sicily, which form the
continuance of the Calabrian chain.
The Apennines, beginning at the Maritime Alps, enclose the
Gulf of Genoa, and run through the centre of Italy in parallel
ranges to the middle of Calabria, where they split into two
branches, one of which goes to Capo de Leuca, on the Gulf of
Torento, the other to Cape Spartivento, in the Straits of Messina.
The whole length is about 800 miles. None of the Apennines
come within the line of perpetual snow, though it lies nine months
in the year on the Gran Sasso d’ltalia, 9521 feet high, in Abruzza
Ulteriore.
Offsets from the Julian and Eastern Alps render Dalmatia and
Albania perhaps the most rugged tract in Europe; and the Pindus,
which forms the watershed of Greece, diverges from the latter
chain, and, running south 200 miles, separates Albania from
Macedonia and Thessaly.
Greece is a country of mountains, and, although none are perpetually
covered with snow, it lies nine months on several of their
summits. The chains terminate in strongly projecting headlands,
which reach far into the sea, and reappear in the numerous
islands and rocks which stud that deeply-indented coast. The
Grecian mountains, like the Balkan, are torn by transverse fractures.
The defile of Blatamana and the Gulf of Salonica are
examples. The Adriatic, the Dardanelles, and the Sea of Marmora
limit the secondaries of the southern part of the Balkan.
The valleys of the Alps are long and narrow; those among the
mountains of Turkey in Europe and Greece are mostly caldron-shaped
hollows, often enclosed by mural rocks. Many of these
cavities of great size lie along the foot of the Balkan. In the Morea
they are so encompassed by mountains that the water has no
escape but through the porous soil. They consist of tertiary strata,
which had formed the bottom of lakes. Caldron-shaped valleys
occur also in most volcanic countries, as Sicily, Italy, and central
France.
The table-lands which constitute the tops of mountains or of
mountain-chains are of a different character from those terraces
by which the high lands slope to the low. The former are on a
small scale in Europe, and of a forbidding aspect, with the exception
of the Jura, which is pastoral, whereas the latter are almost
always habitable and cultivated. The mass of high land in south-eastern
Europe shelves on the north to the great plain of Bavaria,
3000 feet high; Bohemia, which slopes from 1500 to 900 feet;
and Hungary, from 4000 above the sea to 300. The descent on
the south of the Alps is six or seven times more rapid, because
the distance from the axis of the chain is shorter.
52It is scarcely possible to estimate the quantity of ice on the
Alps; it is said, however, that, independent of the glaciers in the
Grisons, there are 1500 square miles of ice in the Alpine range,
from 80 to 600 feet thick. There are no glaciers east of the
Great Glockner, except on the small group of Hallstadt. Thirty-four
bound the snowy regions of Mont Blanc, and 95 square
miles of snow and ice clothe that mountain. Some glaciers have
been permanent and stationary in the Alps time immemorial,
while others now occupy ground formerly bearing corn or covered
with trees, which the irresistible force of the ice has swept away.
These ice-rivers, formed on the snow-clad summits of the mountains,
fill the hollows and high valleys, hang on the declivities,
or descend by their weight through the transverse valleys to the
plains, where they are cut short by the increased temperature,
and deposit those accumulations of rocks and rubbish, called
moraines, which had fallen upon them from the heights above;
but their motion is so slow, that six generations may pass before
a stone fallen on the upper end of a long glacier can reach the
moraine. In the Alps, the glaciers move at the rate of from 12 to
25 feet annually, and, as in rivers, the motion is most rapid in the
centre, and slower at the sides and bottom on account of friction.
It is slower in winter, yet it does not cease, because the winter’s
cold penetrates the ice, as it does the ground, only to a limited
depth. Glaciers are not of solid ice; they consist of a mixture
of ice, snow, and water; so that they are in some degree flexible
and viscous, but acquire more solidity as they descend to lower
levels; evaporation goes on at their surface, but they are not consumed
by it. The front is perpetually melting, but maintains a
permanent form; it is steep and inaccessible, owing to the figure
of the ground over which it tumbles in its icy cascade, sometimes
1000 feet high. The middle course is rather level, the higher
part very steep, and the surface is uneven and rent by crevices
into which the purest blue streams fall in rushing cascades while
the sun is up, but they freeze at his setting, and then a death-like
silence prevails. The rocks and stones that fall on them from the
surrounding heights protect the ice below from the sun which
melts it all around, so that at last they rest on elevated pinnacles
till they fall off by their weight, and in this manner those numerous
pyramids are formed with which the surface is bristled.
Throughout much of the length of a glacier the winter’s snow
melts from its surface as completely as it does from the ground;
it is fed from above, for in the upper part the snow never melts,
but accumulates in a stratified form and is consolidated. In some
of the largest glaciers, where there is a difference of 4000 feet in
height between the origin and termination, the pressure is enormous
and irresistible, carrying all before it; even the thickest
forest is overwhelmed and crushed.
53Glaciers advance or retreat according to the severity or mildness
of the season; they have been advancing in Switzerland of
late years, but they are subject to cycles of unknown duration.
From the moraines, as well as the striæ engraven on the rocks
over which they have passed, M. Agassiz has ascertained that the
valley of Chamouni was at one time occupied by a glacier that
had moved towards the Col de Balme. A moraine 2000 feet
above the Rhone at St. Maurice would appear to indicate that, at
a remote period, glaciers had covered Switzerland to the height of
2155 feet above the Lake of Geneva.
Their increase is now limited by various circumstances—as the
mean temperature of the earth, which is always above the freezing-point
in those latitudes; excessive evaporation; and blasts of
hot air, which occur at all heights, in the night as well as in the
day, from some unknown cause. They are not peculiar to the
Alps, but have been observed also in the glaciers of the Andes.
From the heat of the valley thawing the ice, the natural springs
that rise under the glacier as they do elsewhere, the heat of the
earth, the melting of the glacier itself, the rain that falls on its
surface, which rushes down its crevices, a stream of turbid water
is formed which works out an icy cavern at the termination of the
glacier and flows through it into the lower ground. Thus, a glacier
“begins in the clouds, is formed by the mountains, and ends
in the ocean.”[23]
Granite no doubt forms the base of the mountain system of
Eastern Europe, though it more rarely comes into view than
might have been expected. Crystalline schists of various kinds
are enormously developed, and generally form the most elevated
pinnacles of the Alpine crest and its offsets, and also the principal
chains in Greece and Turkey in Europe; but the secondary
fossiliferous strata constitute the chief mass, and often rise to the
highest summits; indeed, secondary limestones occupy a great
portion of the high land of Eastern Europe. Calcareous rocks
form two great mountain-zones on each side of the central chain
of the Alps, and rise occasionally to altitudes of 10,000 or 12,000
feet. They constitute a great portion of the central range of the
Apennines, and fill the greater part of Sicily. They are extensively
developed in Turkey in Europe, where the plateau of
Bosnia with its high lands on the south, part of Macedonia, and
Albania with its islands, are principally composed of them.[24]
Tertiary strata of great thickness rest on the flanks of the Alps,
and rise in some places to a height of 5000 feet; zones of the
older Pleiocene period flank the Apennines on each side, filled
with organic remains; and half of Sicily is covered with the
54Pleiocene strata. It appears that the Atlas, the Sierra Morena
and most of the Spanish mountains, the central chain of the
Caucasus, and the Balkan, were raised before the period of the
erratic blocks.
From numerous dislocations in the strata, the Alps appear to
have been heaved up by many violent and repeated convulsions,
separated by intervals of repose, and different parts of the chain
have been raised at different times; for example, the Maritime
Alps and the south-western part of the Jura mountains were
raised previously to the formation of the chalk: but the tertiary
period appears to have been that of the greatest commotions; for
nearly two-thirds of the lands of Europe have risen since the
beginning of that epoch, and those that existed then acquired
additional height, though some sank below their original level.
During that time the Alps acquired an additional elevation of
between 2000 and 3000 feet; Mont Blanc then attained its present
altitude; the Apennines rose 1000 or 2000 feet higher; and the
Carpathians seem to have gained an accession of height since the
seas were inhabited by the existing species of animals.[25]
CHAPTER III.
The High Lands of the Great Continent (continued)—The Caucasus—The
Western Asiatic Table-Land and its Mountains.
The Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora form but a small break
in the mighty girdle of the old continent, which again appears in
immense table-lands, passing through the centre of Asia, of such
magnitude that they occupy nearly two-fifths of the continent.
Here everything is on a much grander scale than in Europe: the
table-lands rise above the mean height of the European mountains,
and the mountains themselves that gird and traverse them
surpass those of every other country in altitude. The most barren
deserts are here to be met with, as well as the most luxuriant
productions of animal and vegetable life. The earliest records of
the human race are found in this cradle of civilization, and monuments
still remain which show the skill and power of those
nations which have passed away, but whose moral influence is
still visible in their descendants. Customs, manners, and even
prejudices, carry us back to times beyond the record of history,
or even of tradition; while the magnitude with which the natural
55world is here developed evinces the tremendous forces that must
have been in action at epochs immeasurably anterior to the
existence of man.
The gigantic mass of high land which extends for 6000 miles
between the Mediterranean and the Pacific is 2000 miles broad at
its eastern extremity, 700 to 1000 in the middle, and somewhat
less at its termination. Colossal mountains and elevated terraces
form the edges of the lofty plains.
Between the 47th and 68th eastern meridians, where the low
plains of Hindostan and Bokara press upon the table-land and
reduce its width to 700 or 1000 miles, it is divided into two parts
by an enormous knot of mountains formed by the meeting of the
Hindoo Coosh, the Himalaya, the Tsung-lin, and the transverse
ranges of the Beloot Tagh, or Cloudy Mountains: these two parts
differ in height, form, and magnitude.
The western portion, which is the table-land of Persia or plateau
of Iran, is oblong, extending from the shores of Asia Minor to the
Hindoo Coosh and the Solimaun range, which skirts the right
bank of the Indus. It occupies an area of 1,700,000 square miles,
generally about 4000 feet above the sea, and in some places 7000.
The Oriental plateau or table-land of Tibet, much the largest, has
an area of 7,600,000 square miles, a mean altitude of 14,000 feet,
and in some parts of Tibet an absolute altitude of 17,000 feet.
As the table-lands extend from S.W. to N.E., so also do the
principal mountain-chains, as well those which bound the high
lands as those which traverse them. Remarkable exceptions to
this equatorial direction of the Asiatic mass, however, occur in a
series of meridional chains, whose axes extend from S.S.E. to
N.N.W., between Cape Comoron, opposite to Ceylon, and the
Arctic Ocean, under the names of the Western Ghauts, the Solimaun
range (which forms the eastern boundary of the table-land
of Persia), the Beloot Tagh, or Bolor (which is the western limit
of the Oriental plateau), and the Ural Mountains. These chains,
rich in gold, lie in different longitudes, and so alternate among
themselves that each begins only in that latitude which has not
yet been attained by the preceding one. The Khinghan, in
China, also extends from south to north along the eastern slopes
of the table-land, and forms its boundary at that end.[26]
The lofty range of the Caucasus, which extends 700 miles
between the Black and Caspian Seas, is an outlying member of
the Asiatic high lands. Offsets diverge like ribs from each side
of the central crest, which penetrate the Russian Steppes on one
hand, and on the other cross the plains of Kara, or valley of the
Kour and Rioni, and unite the Caucasus to the table-land. Some
56parts of these mountains are very high; the Elburz, on the
western border of Georgia, is 17,796 feet. The central part of
the chain is full of glaciers, and the limit of perpetual snow is at
the altitude of 11,000 feet, which is higher than in any other
chain of the old continent, except the Himalaya.
Anatolia, the most western part of the table-land of Iran, 3000
feet above the sea, is traversed by short chains and broken groups
of mountains, separated by fertile valleys, which sink rapidly
towards the Archipelago, and end in promontories and islands
along the shores of Asia Minor, which is a country abounding in
vast, luxuriant, but solitary plains, watered by broad rivers—in
Alpine platforms and mountain-ridges broken up by great valleys,
opening seawards, with meandering streams. Single mountains
of volcanic formation are conspicuous objects on the table-land of
Anatolia, which is rich in pasture, though much of the soil is
saline and covered with lakes and marshes. A triple range of
limestone mountains, 6000 or 7000 feet high, divided by narrow
but beautiful valleys, is the limit of the Anatolian table-land along
the shores of the Black Sea. Two-thirds of their height are
covered with forests, and broken by wooded glens, leaving a
narrow coast, except near Trebizond, where it is broad and picturesque.
The high land is bounded on the south by the serrated
snowy range of the Taurus, which, beginning in Rhodes, Cos,
and other islands in the Mediterranean, fills the south-western
parts of Asia Minor with ramifications, and, after following the
sinuosities of the iron-bound coast of Karamania in a single lofty
range, extends at Samisat, where the Euphrates has pierced a
way through this stony girdle.
About the 50th meridian the table-land is compressed to nearly
half its width, and there the lofty mountainous regions of Armenia,
Kourdistan, and Azerbijan tower higher and higher between the
Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Gulf of Scanderoon in the Mediterranean.
Here the cold treeless plains of Armenia, the earliest
abode of man, 7000 feet above the sea, bear no traces of the Garden
of Eden; Mount Ararat, on which the Ark is said to have
rested, stands a solitary majestic volcanic cone, 17,260 feet above
the sea, shrouded in perpetual snow. Though high and cold, the
soil of Armenia is richer than that of Anatolia, and is better cultivated.
It shelves on the north in luxuriant and beautiful declivities
to the low and undulating valley of Kara, south of the Caucasus;
and, on the other hand, the broad and lofty belt of the Kourdistan
mountains, rising abruptly in many parallel ranges from the plains
of Mesopotamia, form its southern limit, and spread their ramifications
wide over its surface. They are rent by deep ravines, and
in many places are so rugged that communication between the
villages is always difficult, and in winter impracticable from the
57depth of snow. The line of perpetual congelation is decided and
even along their summit; their flanks are wooded, and the valleys
populous and fertile.
A thousand square miles of Kourdistan is occupied by the
brackish lake Van, which is seldom frozen, though 5467 feet
above the sea, and surrounded by lofty mountains.
The Persian mountains, of which Elburz is the principal chain,
extend along the northern brink of the plateau, from Armenia,
almost parallel to the shores of the Caspian Sea, maintaining a
considerable elevation up to the volcanic peak of Demavend, near
Tehrân, their culminating point, which, though 90 miles inland,
is a landmark to sailors on the Caspian. Elevated offsets of these
mountains cover the volcanic table-land of Azerbijan, the fire-country
of Zoroaster, and one of the most fertile provinces of
Persia; there the Koh Salavan elevates its volcanic cone. Beautiful
plains, pure streams, and peaceful glades, interspersed with
villages, lie among the mountains, and the Vale of Khosran Shah,
a picture of sylvan beauty, is celebrated as one of the five paradises
of Persian poetry. The vegetation at the foot of these
mountains on the shores of the Caspian has all the exuberance of
a tropical jungle. The Elburz loses its height to the east of
Demavend, and then joins the mountains of Khorasan and the
Paropamisan range, which appear to be chains of mountains
when viewed from the low plains of Khorasan and Balkh, but on
the table-land of Persia they merely form a broad hilly country of
rich soil, till they join the Hindoo Coosh.
The table-land of Iran is bounded, for 1,000 miles along the
Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, by a mountainous belt of from
three to seven parallel ranges, having an average width of 200
miles, and extending from the extremity of the Kourdistan Mountains
to the mouth of the Indus. The Lasistán Mountains, which
form the northern part of this belt, and bound the vast level plain
of the Tigris, rise from it in a succession of high table-lands
divided by very rugged mountains, the last ridge of which, mostly
covered with snow, abuts on the table-land of Persia. Oaks clothe
their flanks; the valleys are of generous soil, verdant, and cultivated;
and many rivers flow through them to swell the stream of
the Tigris. Insulated hill forts, from 2000 to 5000 feet high,
occur in this country, with flat cultivated tops some miles in
extent, accessible only by ladders, or holes cut in their precipitous
sides. These countries are full of ancient inscriptions and
remains of antiquity. The moisture decreases more and more
south from Shiraz, and then the parallel ridges, repulsive in
aspect and difficult to pass, are separated by arid longitudinal
valleys, which ascend like steps from the narrow shores of the
Persian Gulf to the table-land. The coasts of the gulf are burning
58hot sand solitudes, so completely barren, that the country
from Bassora to the Indus, a distance of 1200 miles, is nearly a
sterile waste. In the few favoured spots on the terraces where
water occurs there is vegetation, and the beauty of these valleys
is enhanced by surrounding sterility.[27]
With the exception of Mazenderan and the other provinces
bordering upon the Caspian, and in the Paropamisan range,
Persia is arid, possessing few perennial springs, and not one great
river; in fact, three-tenths of the country is a desert, and the
table-land is nearly a wide scene of desolation. A great salt-desert
occupies 27,000 square miles between Irak and Khorasan,
of which the soil is a stiff clay, covered with efflorescence of common
salt and nitre, often an inch thick, varied only by a few saline
plants and patches of verdure in the hollows. This dreary waste
joins the large sandy and equally dreary desert of Kerman. Kelat,
the capital of Belochistan, is 7000 feet above the level of the sea:
round it there is cultivation, but the greater part of that country
is a lifeless plain, over which the brick-red sand is drifted by the
north wind into ridges like the waves of the sea, often 12 feet
high, without a vestige of vegetation. The blast of the desert,
whose hot and pestilential breath is fatal to man and animals,
renders these dismal sands impassable at certain seasons.
Barren lands or bleak downs prevail at the foot of the Lukee
and Solimaun ranges, formed of bare porphyry and sandstone,
which skirt the eastern edge of the table-land, and dip to the
plains of the Indus. In Afghanistan there is little cultivation
except on the banks of the streams that flow into the Lake Zerrah,
but vitality returns towards the north-east. The plains and valleys
among the offsets from the Hindoo Coosh are of surpassing
loveliness, and combine the richest peaceful beauty with the
majesty of the snow-capped mountains by which they are encircled.
CHAPTER IV.
The High Lands of the Great Continent (continued)—The Oriental Table-Land
and its Mountains.
The Oriental plateau, or table-land of Tibet, is an irregular four-sided
mass stretching from S.W. to N.E., enclosed and traversed by
the highest mountains in the world. It is separated from the table-land
of Persia by the Hindoo Coosh, which may be considered as
59the western prolongation of the Himalaya, occupying the terrestrial
isthmus between the low lands of Hindostan and Bucharia.
The cold dreary plateau of Tibet is separated on the south from
the glowing luxuriant plains of Hindostan by the Himalaya, which
extends from the eastern extremity of the Hindoo Coosh in Cabulistan
to about the 95th meridian, where it joins the immense
mountain-knot which renders the south-western corner of the
table-land and the Chinese province of Yun-nan one of the most
elevated regions on the earth. On the west, the table-land has
its limits in the chain of the Bolor or Beloot Tagh, the “Cloudy
Mountains,” the Tartash Tagh of the natives, a transverse range
which detaches itself from the Hindoo Coosh nearly at a right
angle about the 72d degree of E. longitude, and, pursuing a
northerly direction, forms magnificent mountain-knots with the
diagonal chains of the table-land, and is the watershed between
the valley of the Oxus and Chinese Tartary. It descends in a
succession of tiers or terraces through the countries of Bokhara
and Balkh to the deep cavity in which the Caspian Sea and the
Sea of Azoff lie, and forms, with the Western Ghauts, the Solimaun
range, and the Ural, a singular exception to the general
parallelism of the Asiatic mountains. Two narrow difficult passes
lead over the Beloot Tagh from the low plains of Bucharia and
Independent Tourkistan to Kashgar and Yarkand, on the table-land
in Chinese Tartary. The north-eastern edge of the table-land
is bounded by the Khing-han Mountains, a serrated granitic
chain running from south to north, which separates the plateau
of Mongolia from the country of Mantchouria, and joins the Yablonoi
branch of the Altaï at right angles about the 55th degree of
north latitude. Little more is known of the south-eastern boundary
of the table-land than that it is a mass of exceedingly high
mountains. In fact, between the sources of the Brahmapootra
and the Altaï chain, nearly 1,000,000 of square miles of the Chinese
empire is covered with mountains.
The table-land itself is crossed longitudinally from west to east
by two great chains. The Kuenlun, or Chinese range, begins
about 35° 30ʹ N. lat. at the mountain-knot of Tsung-lin, formed
by the Hindoo Coosh and Himalaya, and, running eastward, it
terminates about the 110th meridian, but probably covers a great
part of the western provinces of China with its branches. The
Thian-shan, or “Celestial Mountains,” lie more to the north;
they begin at the Bolor or Beloot Tagh, and, running along the
42d parallel, sink to the desert of the Great Gobi about the centre
of the plateau, but, rising again, they are continued under the
name of Shan-Garjan, which runs to the north-east and ends on
the shores of the Japan Sea. The Thian-shan is exceedingly
60volcanic, and, though so far inland, pours forth lava, and exhibits
all the other phenomena of volcanic districts.
Tibet is enclosed between the Himalaya and the Kuen-lun;
Tungut, or Chinese Tartary, lies between the latter chain and the
Thian-shan, or Celestial Mountains; and Zungary, or Mongolia,
between the Celestial range and the Altaï. The meridional chain
of the Bolor encloses Chinese Tartary on the west; and Mongolia,
which is entirely open on the west, is shut in on the east
by the Khing-han range, also running from south to north. The
Himalaya and Altaï ranges diverge in their easterly courses, so
that the table-land, which is only from 700 to 1000 miles wide
at its western extremity, is 2000 between the Chinese province of
Yunnan and the country of the Mantchou Tonguses.[28]
Of all these vast chains of mountains the Himalaya, and its
principal branch the Hindoo Coosh, are best known; though
even of these a great part has never been explored, on account of
their enormous height and the depth of snow, which make it impossible
to approach the central ridge, except in a very few places.
The range consists of three parts: the Hindoo Coosh, or Indian
Caucasus, which extends from the Paropamisan range in Afghanistan
to Cashmere; the Himalaya, or Imaus of the ancients, which
stretches from the valley of Cashmere to Bhotan; and, lastly, the
mountains of Bhotan and Assam—the three making one magnificent
unbroken chain.
The Hindoo Coosh, which has its name from a mountain of
great height, north of the city of Cabul, is very broad to the west,
extending over many degrees of latitude, and, together with the
offsets of the Beloot Tagh, fills the countries of Kafferistan, Koonduz,
and Budakshan. From the plains to the south it seems to
consist of four distinct ranges running one above another, the last
of which abuts on the table-land, and is so high that its snowy
summits are visible at the distance of 150 miles. A ridge of stupendous
height encloses the beautiful valley of Cashmere, to the
east of which the chain takes the name of Himalaya, “the dwelling
of snow.” From the great mountain-knot of Tsung-lin, the
Himalaya no longer maintains its direct easterly course, but makes
a vast arch to the south of 300 miles, which extends to the Brahmapootra,
varying in breadth from 250 to 350 miles, and occupying
an area of 600,000 square miles.[29]
The general structure of the Himalaya is very regular: the
first range of hills that rise above the plains of Hindostan is alluvial,
north of which lies the Tariyani, a tract from 10 to 30 miles
wide, 1000 feet above the sea, covered with dense pestilential
jungle, and extending along the foot of the range. North of this
61region are rocky ridges 5000 or 6000 feet high. Between these
and the higher ranges lie the peaceful and well-cultivated valleys
of Nepaul, Bhotan, and Assam, of inexhaustible fertility, interspersed
with picturesque and populous towns and villages.
Though separated by mountain-groups, they form the principal
terrace of the Himalaya between the Sutlej and Brahmapootra.
Behind these are mountains from 10,000 to 12,000 feet high,
flanked by magnificent forests; and, lastly, the snowy ranges
rise in succession to the table-land.
The principal and most elevated chains are cut by narrow,
gloomy ravines and transverse dusky gorges, through which the
torrents of melted snow rush to swell the rivers of Hindostan.
The character of the valleys becomes softer in the lower regions,
till at last the luxuriance of vegetation and beauty cannot be surpassed.
Transverse valleys, however, are more frequent in the
Hindoo Coosh than in the Himalaya, where they consist chiefly
of such chasms filled with wreck as the tributaries of the Indus
and Ganges have made in bursting through the chain.
The mean height of the Himalaya is stupendous. Captain
Gerard and his brother estimated that it could not be less than
from 16,000 to 20,000 feet; but, from the average elevation of
the passes over these mountains, Baron Humboldt thinks it must
be under 15,700 feet. Colonel Sabine estimates it to be only
11,510 feet, though the peaks exceeding that elevation are not to
be numbered, especially at the sources of the Sutlej; indeed, from
that river to the Kalee, the chain exhibits an endless succession
of the loftiest mountains on earth; forty of them surpass the
height of Chimborazo, one of the highest of the Andes, and several
reach the height of 25,000 feet at least. So rugged is this
part of the magnificent chain, that the military parade at Sabathoo,
half a mile long and a quarter of a mile broad, is said to be the
only level ground between it and the Tartar frontier on the north,
or the valley of Nepaul on the east. Towards the fruitful valleys
of Nepaul and Bhotan the Himalaya is equally lofty, some of the
mountains being 28,000 feet high; but it is narrower, and the
descent to the plains excessively rapid, especially in the territory
of Bhotan, where the dip from the table-land is more than 10,000
feet in ten miles. The valleys are crevices so deep and narrow,
and the mountains that hang over them in menacing cliffs are so
lofty, that these abysses are shrouded in perpetual gloom, except
where the rays of a vertical sun penetrate their depths. From
the steepness of the descent the rivers shoot down with the swiftness
of an arrow, filling the caverns with foam and the air with
mist. At the very base of this wild region lies the elevated and
peaceful valley of Bhotan, vividly green, and shaded by magnificent
62forests. Another rapid descent of 1000 feet leads to the
plain of the Ganges.
The Himalaya still maintains great height along the north of
Assam, and at the Brahmapootra the parent stem and its branches
extend in breadth over two degrees of latitude, forming a vast
mountain-knot of great elevation. Beyond this point nothing
certain is known of the range, but it or some of its branches are
supposed to cross the southern provinces of the Chinese empire,
and to end in the volcanic island of Formosa. Little more is
known of the northern side of the mountains than that the passes
are about 5000 feet above the plains of Tibet.
The passes over the Hindoo Coosh, though not the highest, are
very formidable: there are six from Cabul to the plains of Turkistan;
and so deep and so much enclosed are the defiles, that
Sir Alexander Burnes never could obtain an observation of the
pole-star in the whole journey from Barmeean till within thirty
miles of Turkistan.
Most of the passes over the Himalaya are but little lower than
the top of Mont Blanc: many are higher, especially near the
Sutlej, where they are from 18,000 to 19,000 feet high; and
that north-east of Khoonawur is 20,000 feet above the level of
the sea—the highest that has been attempted. All are terrific,
and the fatigue and suffering from the rarity of the air in the last
500 feet is not to be described. Animals are as much distressed
as human beings, and many die; thousands of birds perish from
the violence of the wind, the drifting snow is often fatal to travellers,
and violent thunderstorms add to the horror of the journey.
The Niti Pass, by which Mr. Moorcroft ascended to the sacred
lake of Manasa, in Tibet, is tremendous; he and his guide had
not only to walk barefooted, from the risk of slipping, but they
were obliged to creep along the most frightful chasms, holding
by twigs and tufts of grass, and sometimes they crossed deep and
awful crevices on a branch of a tree, or on loose stones thrown
across. Yet these are the thoroughfares for commerce in the
Himalaya, never repaired nor susceptible of improvement from
frequent landslips and torrents.
The loftiest peaks being bare of snow gives great variety of
colour and beauty to the scenery, which in these passes is at all
times magnificent. During the day, the stupendous size of the
mountains, their interminable extent, the variety and sharpness
of their forms, and, above all, the tender clearness of their distant
outline melting into the pale blue sky, contrasted with the deep
azure above, is described as a scene of wild and wonderful beauty.
At midnight, when myriads of stars sparkle in the black sky,
and the pure blue of the mountains looks deeper still below the
pale white gleam of the earth and snow-light, the effect is of
63unparalleled solemnity, and no language can describe the splendour
of the sunbeams at daybreak streaming between the high
peaks, and throwing their gigantic shadows on the mountains
below. There, far above the habitation of man, no living thing
exists, no sound is heard; the very echo of the traveller’s footsteps
startles him in the awful solitude and silence that reigns in
these august dwellings of everlasting snow.
Nature has in mercy mitigated the intense rigour of the cold
in these high lands in a degree unexampled in other mountainous
regions. The climate is mild, the valleys are verdant and inhabited,
corn and fruit ripen at elevations which in other countries—even
under the equator—would be buried in permanent snow.
It is also a peculiarity in these mountains that the higher the
range the higher likewise is the limit of snow and vegetation.
On the southern slopes of the first range, Mr. Gerard found cultivation
10,000 feet above the sea, though it was often necessary
to reap the corn still green and unripe; while in Chinese Tartary
good crops are raised 16,000 feet above the sea. Captain Gerard
saw pasture and low bushes up to 17,009 feet; and corn as high
as even 18,544 feet, which is 2784 feet higher than the top of
Mont Blanc, and 1279 feet above the snow-line in the province
of Quito under the equator. Birch-trees with tall stems grow at
the elevation of 14,068 feet, and the vine and other fruits thrive
in the valleys of these high plains. The temperature of the
earth probably has some influence on the vegetation: as many
hot springs exist in the Himalaya at great heights, there must be
a source of heat below these mountains, which in some places
comes near the surface, and possibly may be connected with the
volcanic fires in the central chains of the table-land. Hot springs
abound in the valley of Jumnotra; and as it is well known that
many plants thrive in very cold air if their roots are well protected,
it may be the cause of pine-trees thriving at great elevations
in that valley, and of the splendid forests of the deodar, a
species of cypress that grows to gigantic size even in the snow.
According to Captain and Mr. Gerard, the line of perpetual
congelation is at an elevation of only 12,981 feet on the southern
slopes of the Himalaya; while on the northern side, or rather on
the peaks which rise above the table-land, the limit is 16,620 feet;
but the mean height of the table-land of Tibet, and the relative
elevation of the line of perpetual snow on the two declivities of
the Himalaya, require to be better investigated. The greater
elevation of the snow-line on the northern side is the joint result
of the serenity of the sky, the less frequent formation of snow in
very cold dry air, and the radiation of heat from the neighbouring
plains, which, being so near, have much greater effect on the
temperature than the warmer but more distant plains on the
64south. There are fewer glaciers in the Asiatic mountains than
might have been expected from the great mass of snow; they are
chiefly on the Thibetian side of the Himalaya, and on the Kuenlun.
There is a very large one at the source of the Indus, and
another at the source of the Ganges, on the southern face of the
Himalaya.
Various secondary chains of great length detach themselves
from the eastern extremity of the Himalaya, or rather the vast
knot of mountains, near the sources of the Brahmapootra, in the
Chinese province of Yun-nan, which is a terra incognita; their
origin, therefore, is unknown. But in Upper Assam they run
cross to the equatorial system of Asiatic mountains, and, extending
in a southerly but diverging direction, they spread like the
spokes of a fan through the countries east of the Ganges and the
Indo-Chinese peninsula, leaving large and fertile kingdoms between
them. The Birmano-Siamese chain is the most extensive,
reaching to Cape Romania, at the southern extremity of the Malay
peninsula, the most southerly point of the Asiatic continent; it
may be traced through the island of Sumatra parallel to the coast,
and also in the islands of Banca and Biliton, where it ends.
Another range, called the Laos-Siamese chain, forms the eastern
boundary of the kingdom of Siam, and the Annamatic chain, from
the same origin, separates the empire of Annam from Tonquin
and Cochin China.
These slightly diverging lines of mountains yield gold, silver,
tin of the best quality and in great plenty, almost on the surface,
and precious stones, as rubies and sapphires. Mountains in low
latitudes have nothing of the severe character of those in less
favoured climes. Magnificent forests reach their summit; spices,
dyes of brilliant tints, medicinal and odoriferous plants, clothe
their declivities; and in the low grounds the fruits of India and
China grow in perfection, in a soil which yields three crops of
grain in the year.
The crest of the Himalaya is of stratified crystalline rocks,
especially gneiss, with large granitic veins, and beds of quartz of
huge magnitude. The zone between 15,000 and 18,000 feet
above the level of the sea is of Silurian strata; granite is most
frequent at the base, and probably forms the foundation of the
chain. Strata of comparatively modern date occur at great elevations.
The sedimentary formations, prevailing also on the
acclivities of the Alps and Apennines, show that the epochs of
elevation in parts of the earth widely remote from one another, if
not simultaneous, were at least not very different. There can be
no doubt that very great geological changes have taken place at
a comparatively recent period in the Himalaya, and through an
extensive part of the Asiatic continent.
65The Altaï mountains, which form the northern margin of the
table-land, are unconnected with the Ural chain: they are separated
from it by 400 miles of a low marshy country, part of the
steppe of the Kirghiz, and by the Dalaï mountains, a low range
never above 2000 feet high, which runs between the 64th meridian
and the left bank of the Irtish. The Altaï chain rises on the
right bank of that river, at the north-west angle of the table-land,
and extends in a serpentine line to the Pacific, south of the Gulf
of Okhotzk, dividing the high lands of Tartary and China from the
wastes of Asiatic Siberia. Under various names, its branches skirt
the north-west side of the Gulf of Okhotzk, and thence stretching
to Behring’s Straits, it ends at Eastern Cape, the most eastern
extremity of the old continent, the whole length of the chain
being 4500 miles. The breadth of this chain varies from 400 to
1000 miles, but towards the 105th meridian it is contracted to
about 150 by a projection of the desert of the Great Gobi. Its
height bears no proportion to its length and breadth. The Altaï,
the only part of the chain properly so called, can only be regarded
as a succession of terraces of a swelling outline, descending by
steps from the table-land, and ending in the promontories of the
Siberian plains. There are numerous large lakes on these terraces
and in the valleys, as in the mountain systems of Europe.
The general form of this part of the chain is monotonous from
the prevalence of straight lines and smooth rounded outlines—long
ridges with flattened summits, or small table-lands not more
than 6000 feet high, which rarely attain the line of perpetual
congelation: snow, however, is permanent on the Korgon table-land,
9900 feet above the sea, supposed to be the culminating
point of this part of the chain. These table-lands bear a strong
resemblance to those in the Scandinavian mountains in baldness
and sterility, but their flanks are clothed with forests, verdant
meadows, and pastoral valleys.
East of the 86th meridian this region of low mountains splits
into three branches, enclosing longitudinal valleys for 450 miles.
The Sayansk and Zongnou mountains, which are the northern
and central branches, form a mountain-knot nearly as large as
England, which projects like a huge promontory on the Siberian
plains[30] west of Lake Baikal, and is celebrated for the richness of
its mines. The third branch, which is the Ulangomula, lies
south of Lake Oubsa. The principal part of the Baikal group is 500
miles long, from 10 to 60 wide, high and snow-capped, and said
to be without glaciers. It flanks lake Baikal on the north, the
largest of Alpine lakes, so embedded in a knot of mountains,
partly granitic, partly volcanic, that rocks and pillars of granite
66rise from its bed. The mountains south of the lake are but the
face of the table-land; a traveller ascending them finds himself at
once in the desert of Gobi, which stretches in unbroken sadness
to the great wall of China.
The Daouria mountains, a volcanic portion of the Altaï, which
borders the table-land on the north-east, follow the Baikal chain;
and farther east, at the sources of the Aldan, the Altaï range takes
the name of the Yablonnoi Khrebet, and stretches south of the
Gulf of Okhotzk to the coast of the Pacific opposite to the island
of Saghalian; while another part, 1000 miles broad, fills the space
between the Gulf of Okhotzk and the river Lena, and then, bending
to the north-east, ends in the peninsula of Kamtchatka. Between
the western end of Lake Baikal and the Yablonnoi Khrebet
the mountain-chains are parallel, and extend from the W.S.W. to
the E.N.E., which is the general direction of the high lands in
the most easterly regions of Asia.
A great part of the Altaï chain is unknown to Europeans; the
innumerable branches that penetrate the Chinese empire are completely
so: those belonging to Russia abound in a great variety
of precious and rare metals and minerals—silver, copper, and
iron. In the Yablonnoi range, and other parts, there are whole
mountains of porphyry, with red and green jasper; coal is also
found; and in a branch of the Altaï between the rivers Obi and
Yennissei there are mines of coal which, having been set on fire
by lightning, have continued to burn for more than a century.
The Siberian mountains far surpass the Andes in the richness of
their gold mines. The eastern flank of the Ural chain, and some
of the northern spurs of the Altaï, have furnished a vast quantity
of gold, but a region as large as France has lately been discovered
in Siberia covered with the richest gold alluvium, lying above
rocks abounding in that precious metal. The mines of the Ural
and Altaï are situated principally in metamorphic rocks, adjacent
to the greenstones, syenites, and serpentines that have caused
their change; and as the same formation prevails throughout the
greater part of the Altaï and Aldan chains almost to Kamtchatka,
there is every reason to believe that the whole of that vast region
is auriferous: besides, as many of the northern offsets of the Altaï
are particularly rich, it may be concluded that the southern
branches in the Chinese empire are equally so. Thus, Southern
Siberia and Chinese Tartary form an auriferous district, probably
greater in area than all Europe, which extends even to our
dominions in Hindostan, where the formations containing gold are
unexplored.[31]
The sedimentary deposits in this extensive mountain-range are
67more ancient than the granite, syenite, and porphyries: consequently
these igneous rocks have not here formed part of the
original crust of the globe. Rocks of the Palæozoic series occupy
the greater part of the Altaï, and probably there are none more
modern. There are no volcanic rocks, properly speaking, ancient
or modern, west of the Yenissei, but they abound to the east of
that river, even to Kamtchatka, which is full of them.
The physical characters and the fossil remains of this extensive
mountain system have little relation with the geological formations
of Europe and America. Eastern Siberia seems even to form an
insulated district by itself, and that part between the town of
Yakoutzk and the mouth of the Lena appears to have been raised
at a later period than the part of Siberia stretching westward to
the Sayansk mountains; moreover, the elevation of the western
part of the Altaï was probably contemporaneous with that of the
Ural mountains.[32] On the whole, the chains in the direction of
parallels of latitude in the Old Continent are much more numerous
and extensive than those in the meridians; and as they lie chiefly
towards the equator, the internal forces that raised them were
probably modified by the rotation of the earth.
The table-land of Tibet is only 4000 feet above the sea towards
the north, but it rises in Little Tibet to between 11,000 and 12,000
feet. The Kuen-lun, the most southerly of the two diagonal
mountain-chains that cross the table-land, begins at the Hindoo
Coosh, in latitude 35° 30ʹ, being, in fact, a branch of that chain,
and extends eastward in two branches, which surround the lake
Tengri-Nor, and again unite in the K’han of eastern Tibet. The
most southerly of the two branches, known as the Ice Mountains,
or Kara-Korum of the natives, maintains a curved course parallel
to the Himalaya, and then bends north towards the Kuen-lun,
which pursues a more direct line across the table-land. Chains
more or less connected with these form an elevated mountain
plain round Lake Koko-Nor, nearly in the centre of the table-land,
from whence those immense mountain-ranges diverge, which
render the south-western provinces of China the most elevated
region on earth. The country of Tibet lying between the Himalaya
and the Kuen-lun consists of rocky mountainous ridges, extending
from N.W. to S.E., separated by long valleys, in which
flow the upper courses of the Brahmapootra, Sutlej, and Indus.
According to Mr. Moorcroft, the sacred lake Manasa, in Great
Tibet, and the surrounding country, is 17,000 feet above the sea,
68which is 1240 feet higher than Mont Blanc. In this elevated
region wheat and barley grow, and many of the fruits of Southern
Europe ripen. The city of H’Lassa, in eastern Tibet, the residence
of the Grand Lama, is surrounded by vineyards, and is
called by the Chinese the “Realm of Pleasure.” There are
some trees in this country; but the ground in cultivation bears
a small proportion to the grassy steppes, which extend in endless
monotony, grazed by thousands of the shawl-wool goats, sheep,
and cattle. There are many lakes in the table-land: some in
Ladak contain borax—a salt very useful in the arts, found only
here, at Monte Cerboliti in Tuscany, and in one of the Lipari
islands.
In summer the sun is powerful at mid-day, the air is of the
purest transparency, and the azure of the sky so deep that it
seems black as in the darkest night. The rising moon does not
enlighten the atmosphere, no warning radiance announces her
approach, till her limb touches the horizon, and the stars shine
with the distinctness and brilliancy of suns. In southern Tibet
the verdure is confined to favoured spots; the bleak mountains
and high plains are sternly gloomy—a scene of barrenness not to
be conceived. Solitude reigns in these dreary wastes, where
there is not a tree, nor even a shrub to be seen of more than a
few inches high. The scanty, short-lived verdure vanishes in
October; the country then looks as if fire had passed over it, and
cutting dry winds blow with irresistible fury, howling in the bare
mountains, whirling the snow through the air, and freezing to
death the unfortunate traveller benighted in their defiles.
Yarkand and Khotan, provinces of Chinese Tartary, which lie
beyond the two diagonal chains, are less elevated and more fertile
than Tibet; yet it is so cold in winter that the river Yarkiang is
frozen for three months. They are watered by five rivers, and
contain several large cities; Yarkand, the most considerable of
these, is the emporium of commerce between Tibet, Turkistan,
China, and Russia. Gold, rubies, silk, and other productions are
exported.
The Tartar range of the Thian-Shan is very high; the Bogda
Oola, or “Holy Mountain,” near Lake Lob, its highest point, is
always covered with snow, and it has two active volcanoes, one
on each side. This range runs along the 42d parallel of north
latitude, forming at its western extremity a mountain-knot with
the Beloot Tagh, in the centre of which lies the small table-land
of Pamer, 15,600 feet high, called by the natives the “Roof of the
World.” Its remarkable elevation was first described by the
celebrated Venetian traveller Marco Polo, six centuries ago. The
Oxus originates in a glacier of the Pooshtee Khur, a peak of the
Beloot Tagh near the plain of Pamer; the lake Sir-i-Kol is here
the source of the river of Yarkand; and the Kokan also rises in
69the same plain, which is intensely cold in winter, and in summer
is alive with flocks of sheep and goats. Snow lies deep on the
Thian-Shan range in winter, yet little falls on the plains on account
of the dryness of the air. There are only two or three showers
annually on these mountains, for a very short time, and the drops
are so minute as scarcely to wet the ground, yet the streams from
them suffice for irrigation.
Zungary, or Mongolia, the country between the Thian-Shan
and the Altaï, is hardly known, further than that its grassy
steppes, intersected by many lakes and offsets from the Altaï, are
the pasture-grounds of the wandering Kirghiz.
The remarkable feature of the table-land is the desert of the
Great Gobi, which occupies an area of 300,000 square miles in
its eastern extremity, interrupted only by a few spots of pasture
and low bushes. Wide tracts are flat, and covered with small
stones or sand, and widely separated from one another are low
hills destitute of wood and water; its general elevation is 4220
feet above the sea, but it is intersected from west to east by a
depressed valley aptly named Shamo, or the “Sea of Sand,”
which is also mixed with salt. West from it lies the Han-Hai,
the “Dry Sea,” a barren plain of shifting sand blown into high
ridges. Here, as in all deserts, the summer sun is scorching, no
rain falls, and when thick fog occurs it is only the precursor of
fierce winds. All the plains of Mongolia are intensely cold in
winter, because the hills to the north are too low to screen them
from the polar blast, and, being higher than the Siberian deserts,
they are bitterly cold; no month in the year is free from frost and
snow, yet it is not deep enough to prevent cattle from finding
pasture. Sandy deserts like that of the Great Gobi occupy much
of the country south of the Chinese branches of the Altaï.
Such is the stupendous zone of high land that girds the old
continent throughout its whole length. In the extensive plains
on each side of it several independent mountain systems rise,
though much inferior to it in extent and height.
CHAPTER V.
Secondary Mountain Systems of the Great Continent—That of Scandinavia—Great
Britain and Ireland—The Ural Mountains—The Great
Northern Plain.
The great northern plain is broken by two masses of high land,
in every respect inferior to those described; they are the Scandinavian
70system and the Ural mountains, the arbitrary limit between
Europe and Asia.
The range of primary mountains which has given its form to
the Scandinavian peninsula begins at Cape Lindesnaes, the most
southerly point of Norway, and, after running along its western
coast 1000 miles in a north-easterly direction, ends at Cape Nord
Kyn, on the Polar Ocean, the extremity of Europe. The highest
elevation of this chain is not more than 8412 feet. It has been
compared to a great wave or billow, rising gradually from the east,
which, after having formed a crest, falls perpendicularly into the
sea in the west. There are 3696 square miles of this peninsula
above the line of perpetual snow.
The southern portion of the chain consists of ridges following
the general direction of the range, 150 miles broad. At the distance
of 360 miles from Cape Lindesnaes, the mountains form a
single elevated mass, terminated by a table-land which maintains
an altitude of 4500 feet for 100 miles. It slopes towards the east,
and plunges at once in high precipices into a deep sea on the west.
The surface is barren, marshy, and bristled with peaks; besides
an area of 600 square leagues is occupied by the Snae Braen, the
greatest mass of perpetual snow and glaciers on the continent of
Europe. A prominent cluster of mountains follows, from whence
a single chain, 25 miles broad, maintains an uninterrupted line to
the island of Megaree, where it terminates its visible career in
North Cape, a huge barren rock perpetually lashed by the surge
of the Polar Ocean, but from the correspondence in geological
structure it must be continued under the sea to where it reappears,
according to M. Boué, in the schistose rocks of Spitzbergen. Offsets
from these mountains cover Finland and the low rocky table-land
of Lapland: the valleys and countries along the eastern side
of the chain abound in forests and Alpine lakes.
The iron-bound coast of Norway is a continued series of rocky
islands, capes, promontories, and precipitous cliffs, rent into chasms
which penetrate miles into the heart of the mountains. These
chasms, or fiords, are either partly or entirely filled by arms of the
sea; in the former case, the shores are fertile and inhabited, and
the whole country abounds in the most picturesque scenery. Fiords
are not peculiar to the coast of Norway; they are even more extensive
in Greenland and Iceland, and of a more stern character,
overhung by snow-clad rocks and glaciers.
As the Scandinavian mountains, those of Feroe, Britain, Ireland,
and the north-eastern parts of Iceland, have a similar character,
and follow the same general directions, they must have been elevated
by forces acting in parallel lines, and therefore may be regarded
as belonging to the same system.
The Feroe islands, due west from Norway, rise at once in a
71table-land 2000 feet high, bounded by precipitous cliffs, which dip
into the ocean.
The rocky islands of Zetland, and those of Orkney, form part
of the mountain system of Scotland; the Orkney islands have evidently
been separated from the mainland by the Pentland Firth,
where the currents run with prodigious violence. The north-western
part of Scotland is a table-land from 1000 to 2000 feet high,
which ends abruptly in the sea, covered with heath, peat-mosses,
and pasture. The general direction of the Scottish mountains,
like those of Scandinavia, is from north-east to south-west, divided
by a long line of lakes in the same direction, extending from the
Moray Firth completely across the island to south of the island of
Mull. Lakes of the most picturesque beauty abound among the
Scottish mountains. The Grampian hills, with their offsets and
some low ranges, fill the greater part of Scotland north of the Clyde
and Forth. Ben Nevis, only 4374 feet above the sea, is the highest
hill in the British islands.
The east coast of Scotland is generally bleak, though in many
parts it is extremely fertile, and may be cited as a model of good
cultivation; and the midland and southern counties are not inferior
either in the quality of the soil or the excellence of the husbandry.
To the west the country is wildly picturesque; the coast
of the Atlantic, penetrated by the sea, which is covered with islands,
bears a strong resemblance to that of Norway.
There cannot be a doubt that the Hebrides formed part of the
mainland at some remote geological period, since they follow the
direction of the mountain system in two parallel lines of rugged
and imposing aspect, never exceeding the height of 3200 feet.
The undulating country on the borders of Scotland becomes higher
in the west of England and North Wales, where the hills are wild,
but the valleys are cultivated like gardens, and the English lake-scenery
is of the most gentle beauty.
Evergreen Ireland is mostly a mountainous country, and opposes
to the Atlantic storms an iron-bound coast of the wildest aspect;
but it is rich in arable land and pasture, and possesses the most
picturesque lake-scenery: indeed, freshwater lakes in the mountain
valleys, so peculiarly characteristic of the European system,
are the great ornaments of the high lands of Britain.
Various parts of the British islands were dry land while most
of the continent of Europe was yet below the ancient ocean. The
high land of Lammermuir and the Grampian hills in Scotland, and
those of Cumberland in England, were raised before the Alps had
begun to appear above the waves. In general, all the highest parts
of the British mountains are of granite and stratified crystalline
rocks. The primary fossiliferous strata are of immense thickness
in Cumberland and in the north of Wales, and the old red sandstone,
72many hundred feet thick, stretches from sea to sea along
the flanks of the Grampians. The coal strata are developed on a
great scale in the south of Scotland and the north of England; and
examples of every formation, with the exception of the muschelkalk,
are to be found in these islands. Volcanic fires had been
very active in early times, and nowhere is the columnar structure
more beautifully exhibited than in Fingal’s Cave and the Storr of
Skye, in the Hebrides: and in the north of Ireland a base of 800
square miles of mica-slate is covered with volcanic rocks, which
end on the coast in the magnificent columns of the Giant’s Causeway.
The Ural chain, the boundary between Europe and Asia, is the
only interruption to the level of the great northern plain, and is
altogether unconnected with and far separated from the Altaï mountains
by salt lakes, marshes, and deserts. The central ridge may
be traced from between the Lake of Aral and the Caspian Sea to
the northern extremity of Nova Zemlia, a distance of more than
1700 miles; but as a chain it really begins on the right bank of
the Ural river, at the steppes of the Kirghiz, about the 51st degree
of north latitude, and runs due north in a long narrow ridge to the
Karskaïa Gulf, in the Polar Ocean, though it may be said to terminate
in dreary rocks on the west side of Nova Zemlia. The
Ural range is about the height of the mountains in the Black Forest
or the Vosges; and, with few exceptions, it is wooded to the top,
chiefly by the Pinus cembra. The immense mineral riches of
these mountains—gold, platina, magnetic iron, and copper—lie on
the Siberian side, and mostly between the 54th and 60th degrees
of north latitude: the only part that is colonized, and one of the
most industrious and civilized regions of the Russian empire. To
the south the chain is pastoral, about 100 miles broad, consisting
of longitudinal ridges, the highest of which does not exceed 3498
feet: in this part diamonds are found. To the north of the mining
district the narrow mural mass is covered with impenetrable forests
and deep morasses, altogether uninhabitable and unexplored.
Throughout the Ural mountains there are neither precipices, transverse
gorges, nor any of the characteristics of a high chain; the
descent on both sides is so gentle that in many places it is difficult
to know where the plain begins; and the road over the chain
from Russia by Ekaterinburg is so low that it hardly seems to be
a mountain-pass. The gentle descent and sluggishness of the
streams produce extensive marshes along the Siberian base of the
range. To the arduous and enterprising researches of Sir Roderick
Murchison we are indebted for almost all we know of these
mountains: he found them on the western side to be composed of
Silurian, Devonian, and carboniferous rocks, more or less altered
and crystallized; on the eastern declivity the mines are in metamorphic
73strata, mixed with rocks of igneous origin; and the central
axis is of quartzose and chloritic rocks.
The great zone of high land which extends along the old continent
from the Atlantic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean divides
the low lands into two very unequal parts. That to the north, only
broken by the Ural range of the Valdai table-land of still less elevation,
stretches from the Thames or the British hills, and the eastern
bank of the Seine to Behring’s Straits, including more than
190° of longitude, and occupying an area of at least 4,500,000
square geographical miles, which is a third more than all Europe.
The greater part of it is perfectly level, with a few elevations and
low hills, and in many places a dead level extends hundreds of
miles. The country between the Carpathian and Ural mountains
is a flat on which there is scarcely a rise in 1500 miles; and in
the steppes of southern Russia and Siberia the extent of level
ground is immense. The mean absolute height of the flat provinces
of France is 480 feet. Moscow, the highest point of the
European plain, is also 480 feet high, from whence the land slopes
imperceptibly to the sea both on the north and south, till it absolutely
dips below its level. Holland, on one side, would be overflowed,
were it not for its dykes, and towards Astrakan the plain
sinks still lower. With the exception of the plateau of Ust-Urt,
of no great elevation, situated between the Caspian and Aral, and
which is the extreme southern ridge of the Ural chain, the whole
of that extensive country north and east of the Caspian Sea and
around the Lake of Aral forms a vast cavity of 18,000 square
leagues, all considerably below the level of the ocean; and the surface
of the Caspian Sea itself, the lowest point, has a depression
of rather more than 83 feet.
The European part of the plain is highly cultivated, and very
productive in the more civilized countries, in its western and middle
regions, and along the Baltic. The greatest amount of cultivated
land lies to the north of the watershed which stretches from
the Carpathians to the centre of the Ural chain, yet there are large
heaths which extend from the extremity of Jutland through Lunebourg
and Westphalia to Belgium. The land is of excellent quality
to the south of it. Round Polkova and Moscow there is an extent
of the finest vegetable mould, equal in size to France and the
Spanish peninsula together, which forms part of the High Steppe,
and is mostly in a state of nature.
A large portion of the great plain is pasture-land, and wide tracts
are covered with natural forests, especially in Poland and Russia,
where there are millions of acres of pine, fir, and deciduous trees.
The quantity of waste land in Europe is very great, and there
are also many swamps. A morass as long as England extends
from the 52d parallel of latitude, following the course of the river
74Prepit, a branch of the Dnieper, which runs through its centre.
There are swamps at the mouths of many of the sluggish rivers
in Central Europe. They cover 1970 miles in Denmark, and
mossy quagmires occur frequently in the more northerly parts.
Towards the eastern extremity of Europe the great plain
assumes the peculiar character of desert called a steppe, a word
supposed to be of Tartar origin, signifying a level waste destitute
of trees: hence the steppes may vary according to the nature of
the soil. They commence in the river Dnieper, and extend along
the shores of the Black Sea. They include all the country north
and east of the Caspian lake and Independent Tartary; and,
passing between the Ural and Altaï mountains, they may be said
to occupy all the low lands of Siberia. Hundreds of leagues may
be traversed east from the Dnieper without variation of scene.
A dead level of thin but luxuriant pasture, bounded only by the
horizon, day after day the same unbroken monotony fatigues the
eye. Sometimes there is the appearance of a lake, which
vanishes on approach, the phantom of atmospheric refraction.
Horses and cattle beyond number give some animation to the
scene, so long as the steppes are green; but winter comes in
October, and they then become a trackless field of spotless snow.
Fearful storms rage, and the dry snow is driven by the gale with
a violence which neither man nor animal can resist, while the sky
is clear and the sun shines cold and bright above the earthly turmoil.
The contest between spring and winter is long and severe,
for
“Winter oft at once resumes the breeze,
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving sleets
Deform the day, delightless.”
Yet when gentler gales succeed, and the waters run off in torrents
through the channels which they cut in the soft ground, the
earth is again verdant. The scorching summer’s sun is as severe
in its consequences in these wild regions as the winter’s cold. In
June the steppes are parched, no shower falls, nor does a drop of
dew refresh the thirsty and rent earth. The sun rises and sets
like a globe of fire, and during the day he is obscured by a thick
mist from the evaporation. In some seasons the drought is excessive:
the air is filled with dust in impalpable powder, the springs
become dry, and cattle perish in thousands. Death triumphs
over animal and vegetable nature, and desolation tracks the scene
to the utmost verge of the horizon, a hideous wreck.
Much of this country is covered by an excellent but thin soil,
fit for corn, which grows luxuriantly wherever it has been tried;
but a stiff cold clay at a small distance below the surface kills
every herb that has deep roots, and no plants thrive but those
75which can resist the extreme vicissitudes of climate. A very
wide range is hopelessly barren. The country from the Caucasus,
along the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas—a dead flat,
twice the size of the British islands—is a desert destitute of fresh
water. Saline efflorescences cover the surface like hoar-frost.
Even the atmosphere and the dew are saline, and many salt lakes
in the neighbourhood of Astrakan furnish great quantities of common
salt and nitre. Saline plants, with patches of verdure few
and far between, are the only signs of vegetable life, but about
Astrakan there is soil and cultivation. Some low hills occur in
the country between the Caspian and the Lake of Aral, but it is
mostly an ocean of shifting sand, often driven by appalling whirlwinds.
Turkistan is a sandy desert, except on the banks of the Oxus
and the Jaxartes, and as far on each side of them as canals convey
the fertilizing waters. To the north, barrenness gives place
to verdure between the river Ural and the terraces and mountains
of Central Asia, where the steppes of the Kirghiz afford pasture
to thousands of camels and cattle belonging to these wandering
hordes.
Siberia is either a dead level or undulating surface of more than
7,000,000 of square miles between the North Pacific and the Ural
mountains, the Polar Sea and the Altaï range, whose terraces and
offsets end in those plains, like headlands and promontories in the
ocean. M. Middendorf, indeed, met with a chain of most desolate
mountains on the shores of the Polar Ocean, in the country of
the Samoides; and the almost inapproachable coast far to the east
is unexplored. The mineral riches of the mountains have brought
together a population who inhabit towns of considerable importance
along the base of the Ural and Altaï chains, where the
ground yields good crops and pasture; and there are forests on
the undulations of the mountains and on the plains. There are
many hundred square miles of rich black mould covered with trees
and grass, uninhabited, between the river Tobal and the upper
course of the Obi, within the limit where corn would grow; but
even this valuable soil is studded with small lakes of salt and fresh
water, a chain of which, 300 miles long, skirts the base of the
Ural mountains.
North of the 62d parallel of latitude corn does not ripen on
account of the biting blasts from the Icy Ocean, which sweep
supreme over these unprotected wastes. In a higher latitude,
even the interminable forests of gloomy fir are seen no more: all
is a wide-spreading desolation of salt steppes, boundless swamps,
and lakes of salt and fresh water. The cold is so intense there
that the spongy soil is perpetually frozen to the depth of some
hundred feet below the surface; and the surface itself, not thawed
76before the end of June, is again ice-bound by the middle of September,
and deep snow covers the ground nine or ten months in
the year. Happily, gales of wind are not frequent during winter,
but when they do occur no living thing ventures to face them.
The Russian Admiral Wrangel, who travelled during the most
intense cold from the mouth of the river Kolyma to Behring’s
Strait, gives an appalling account of these deserts. “Here endless
snows and ice-covered rocks bound the horizon, nature lies
shrouded in all but perpetual winter, life is a constant conflict
with privation and with the terrors of cold and hunger—the grave
of nature, which contains only the bones of another world. The
people, and even the snow smokes, and this evaporation is
instantly changed into millions of needles of ice, which make a
noise in the air like the sound of torn satin or thick silk. The
reindeer take to the forest, or crowd together for heat, and the
raven alone, the dark bird of winter, still cleaves the icy air with
slow and heavy wing, leaving behind him a long line of thin
vapour, marking the track of his solitary flight. The trunks of
the thickest trees are rent with a loud noise, masses of rock are
torn from their sites, the ground in the valleys is rent into yawning
fissures, from which the waters that are underneath rise,
giving off a cloud of vapour, and immediately become ice. The
atmosphere becomes dense, and the glistening stars are dimmed.
The dogs outside the huts of the Siberians burrow in the snow,
and their howling, at intervals of six or eight hours, interrupts the
general silence of winter.”[33] In many parts of Siberia, however,
the sun, though long absent from these dismal regions, does not
leave them to utter darkness. The extraordinary brilliancy of
the stars, and the gleaming snowlight, produce a kind of twilight,
which is augmented by the splendid coruscations of the aurora
borealis.
The scorching heat of the summer’s sun produces a change
like magic on the southern provinces of the Siberian wilderness.
The snow is scarcely gone before the ground is covered with
verdure, and flowers of various hues blossom, bear their seeds,
and die in a few months, when Winter resumes his empire. A
still shorter-lived vegetation scantily covers the plains in the far
north, and, on the shores of the Icy Ocean, even reindeer-moss
grows scantily.
77The abundance of fur-bearing animals in the less rigorous parts
of the Siberian deserts has tempted the Russians to colonize and
build towns on these frozen plains. Yakutsk, on the river Lena,
in 62° 1ʹ 30ʺ N. lat., is probably the coldest town on the earth.
The ground is perpetually frozen to the depth of more than 400
feet, of which three feet only are thawed in summer, when Fahrenheit’s
thermometer is frequently 77° in the shade; and as there
is in some seasons no frost for four months, larch forests cover the
ground, and wheat and rye produce from fifteen to forty fold. In
winter the cold is so intense that mercury is constantly frozen
two months, and occasionally even three.
In the northern parts of Europe the Silurian, Devonian, and
carboniferous strata are widely developed, and more to the south
they are followed in ascending order by immense tracts of the
higher series of secondary rocks, abounding in the huge monsters
of a former world. Very large and interesting tertiary basins fill
the ancient hollows in many parts of the plain, which are crowded
with the remains of animals that no longer exist. Of these, the
most important are the London, Paris, Vienna, and Moscow
basins, with many others in the north of Germany and Russia;
and alluvial soil covers the greater part of the plain. In the east,
Sir Roderick Murchison has determined the boundary of a region
twice as large as France, extending from the Polar Ocean to the
southern steppes, and from beyond the Volga to the flanks of the
Ural chain, which consists of a red deposit of sand and marl, full
of copper in grains, belonging to the Permian system. This, and
the immense tract of black loam already mentioned, are among the
principal features of Eastern Europe.
CHAPTER VI.
The Southern Low Lands of the Great Continent, with their Secondary
Table-Lands and Mountains.
The low lands to the south of the great mountain girdle of the old
continent are much broken by its offsets, by separate groups of
mountains, and still more by the deep indentation of bays and
large seas. Situate in lower latitudes, and sheltered by mountains
from the cutting Siberian winds, these plains are of a more
tropical character than those to the north; but they are strikingly
contrasted in their different parts—either rich in all the exuberance
that heat, moisture, and soil can produce, or covered by
78wastes of bare sand—in the most advanced state of cultivation, or
in the wildest garb of nature.
The barren parts of the low lands lying between the eastern
shores of China and the Indus bear a small proportion to the
riches of a soil vivified by tropical warmth and watered by the
periodical inundations of the mighty rivers that burst from the icy
caverns of Tibet and the Himalaya. On the contrary, the favoured
regions in that part of the low lands lying between the Persian
Gulf, the Euphrates, and the Atlas mountains, are small when
compared with the immense expanse of the Arabian and African
deserts, scorched and calcined by an equatorial sun. The blessing
of a mountain-zone, pouring out its everlasting treasures of
moisture, the life-blood of the soil, is nowhere more strikingly
exhibited than in the contrast formed by these two regions of the
globe.
The Tartar country of Mandshur, watered by the river Amour,
but little known to Europeans, lies immediately south of the
Yablonnoi branch of the Altaï chain, and consequently partakes
of the desert aspect of Siberia, and, in its northern parts, even of
the Great Gobi. It is partly intersected by mountains, and
covered by dense forests; nevertheless, oats grow in the plains,
and even wheat in sheltered places. Towards Corea the country
is more fertile; in that peninsula there are cultivated plains at
the base of its central mountain-range.
China is the most productive country on the face of the earth;
an alluvial plain of 210,000 square miles, formed by one of the
most extensive river systems in the old world, occupies its eastern
part. This plain, seven times the size of Lombardy, is no less
fertile, and perfectly irrigated by canals. The Great Canal traverses
the eastern part of the plain for 700 miles, of which 500
are in a straight line of considerable breadth, with a current in
the greater part of it. Most part of the plain is in rice and
garden ground, the whole cultivated with the spade. The tea-plant
grows on a low range of hills between the 30th and 32d
parallels of north latitude, an offset from the Pe-ling chain. The
cold in winter is much greater than in the corresponding European
latitudes, and the heat in summer is proportionally excessive.
The Indo-Chinese peninsula, lying between China and the
river Brahmapootra, has an area of 77,700 square miles, and
projects 1500 miles into the ocean. The plains lying between
the offsets descending from the east end of the Himalaya, and
which divide it longitudinally, as before mentioned, are very
extensive. The Birman empire alone, which occupies the valley
of the Irrawaddy, is said to be as large as France, and not
less fertile, especially its southern part, which is the granary of
the empire. Magnificent rivers intersect the alluvial plains, whose
79soil they have brought down from the table-land of Tibet, and
still continue to deposit in great quantities in the deltas at their
mouths.
The plains of Hindostan extend 2000 miles along the southern
slope of the Himalaya and Hindoo Coosh, between the Brahmapootra
and the Indus, and terminate on the south in the Bay of
Bengal, the table-land of the Deccan, and the Indian Ocean—a
country embracing in its range every variety of climate from
tropical heat and moisture to the genial temperature of southern
Europe.
The valley of the Ganges is one of the richest on the globe,
and contains a greater extent of vegetable mould, and of land
under cultivation, than any other country in this continent, except
perhaps the Chinese empire. In its upper part, Sirhind
and Delhi, the seat of the ancient Mogul empire, still rich in
splendid specimens of Indian art, are partly arid, although in the
latter there is fertile soil. The country is beautiful where the
Jumna and other streams unite to form the Ganges. These rivers
are often hemmed in by rocks and high banks, which in a great
measure prevent the periodical overflow of the waters; this,
however, is compensated by the coolness and moisture of the
climate. The land gradually improves towards the east, as it
becomes more flat, till at last there is not a stone to be seen for
hundreds of miles down to the Gulf of Bengal. Wheat and
other European grain are produced in the upper part of this
magnificent valley, while in the south every variety of Indian
fruit, rice, cotton, indigo, opium, and sugar, are the staple commodities.
The ascent of the plain of the Ganges from the Bay
of Bengal is so gradual that Saharampore, nearly at the foot of
the Himalaya, is only 1100 feet above the level of Calcutta; the
consequence of which is that the Ganges and Brahmapootra, with
their branches, in the rainy season between June and September,
lay Bengal under water for hundreds of miles in every direction,
like a great sea. When the water subsides, the plains are verdant
with rice and other grain; but when harvest is over, and the heat
is intense, the scene is changed—the country, divested of its
beauty, becomes parched and dusty everywhere, except in the
extensive jungles. It has been estimated that one-third of the
British territory in India is covered with these rank marshy tracts.
It was estimated by Lord Cornwallis, and confirmed by Mr. Colebrooke,
that a third of the East India Company’s territory is
jungle.
The peninsula of Hindostan is occupied by the triangular-shaped
table-land of the Deccan, which is much lower, and
totally unconnected with the table-land of Tibet. It has the
primary ranges of the Ghauts on the east and west, and the
80Vendhya mountains on the north, sloping by successive levels to
the plains of Hindostan Proper. A trace of the general equatorial
direction of the Asiatic high land is still perceptible in the Vendhya
mountains, sometimes called the central chain of India, and in the
Saulpoora range to the south, both being nearly parallel to the
Himalaya.[34] The surface of the Deccan between 3000 and 4000
feet above the sea is a combination of plains, ridges of rock, and
insulated flat-topped hills, which are numerous, especially in its
north-eastern parts. These solitary and almost inaccessible
heights rise abruptly from the plains, with all but perpendicular
sides, which can only be scaled by steps cut in the rock, or by
very dangerous paths. Many are fortified, and were the strongholds
of the natives, but they never have withstood the determined
intrepidity of British soldiers.
The peninsula terminates with the table-land of the Mysore,
7000 feet above the sea, surrounded by the Nilgherry or Blue
Mountains, which rise 2941 feet higher.
The base of this plateau, and indeed of all the Deccan is granite,
and there are also many syenitic and trap rocks, with abundance
of primary and secondary fossiliferous strata. Though possessing
the diamond-mines of Golconda, the true riches of the country
consist in its vegetable mould, which in the Mysore is 100 feet
thick, an inexhaustible source of fertility. The sea-coasts on the
two sides of the peninsula are essentially different: that of Malabar
on the western side is rocky, but in many parts well cultivated,
and its mountains covered with forests form a continuous wall of
very simple structure, 510 miles long, and rather more than 5000
feet high. On the coast of Coromandel the mountains are bare,
lower, frequently interrupted, and the wide maritime plains are
for the most part parched.
The island of Ceylon, nearly equal in extent to Ireland, is
almost joined to the southern extremity of the peninsula by sandbanks
and small islands, between which the water is only six
feet deep in spring tides. The Sanscrit name of the “Resplendent”
may convey some idea of this island, rich and fertile
in soil, adorned by lofty mountains, numerous streams, and primeval
forests; in addition to which it is rich in precious stones,
and has the pearl oyster on its coast.
The Asiatic low lands are continued westward from the Indian
peninsula by the Punjab and the great Indian desert. “The Punjab,
or country of the five rivers,” lies at the base of the Hindoo
Coosh. Its most northern part consists of fertile terraces highly
cultivated, and valleys at the foot of the mountains. It is very
productive in the plain within the limits of the periodical inundations
81of the rivers, and where it is watered by canals; in other
parts it is pastoral. Lahore occupies the chief part of the Punjab,
and the city of that name on the Indus, once the rival of
Delhi, lies on the high road from Persia to India, and was made
the capital of the kingdom by Runjeet Sing. The valley of the
Indus throughout partakes of the character of the Punjab; it is
fertile only where it is within reach of water; much of it is delta,
which is occupied by rice-grounds; the rest is pasture, or sterile
salt marshes.
South of the Punjab, and between the fertile plains of Hindostan
and the left bank of the Indus, lies the great Indian desert,
which is about 400 miles broad, and becomes more and more arid
as it approaches the river. It consists of a hard clay, covered
with shifting sand, driven into high waves by the wind, with
some parts that are verdant after the rains. In the province of
Cutch, south of the desert, a space of 7000 square miles, known
as the Run of Cutch, is alternately a sandy desert and an inland
sea. In April the waves of the sea are driven over it by the
prevailing winds, leaving only a few grassy eminences, the resort
of wild asses. The desert of Mekram, an equally barren tract,
extends along the Gulf of Oman from the mouths of the Indus
to the Persian Gulf: in some places, however, it produces the
Indian palm and the aromatic shrubs of Arabia Felix. It was
the line followed by Alexander the Great returning with his army
from India.
The scathed shores of the Arabian Gulf, where not a blade of
grass freshens the arid sands, and the uncultivated valleys of the
Euphrates and Tigris, separate Asia from Arabia and Africa, the
most desert regions in the old world.
The peninsula of Arabia, divided into two parts by the Tropic
of Cancer, is about four times the size of France. No rivers, and
few streams or springs nourish the thirsty land, whose barren
sands are scorched by a fierce sun. The central part is a table-land
of moderate height, which, however, is said to have an
elevation of 8000 feet in the province of Haudramaut. To the
south of the tropic it is an almost interminable ocean of drifting
sand, wafted in clouds by the gale, and dreaded even by the
wandering Bedouin. At wide intervals, long narrow depressions
cheer the eye with brushwood and verdure. More to the north,
mountains and hills cross the peninsula from S.E. to N.W., enclosing
cultivated and fine pastoral valleys adorned by grooves of
the date-palm and aromatic shrubs. Desolation once more resumes
its domain where the table-land sinks into the Syrian desert, and
throughout the rest of its circumference it descends in terraces or
parallel ranges of mountains and hills to a flat sandy coast from
30 to 100 miles wide, which surrounds the greater part of the
82peninsula, from the mouths of the Euphrates to the Isthmus of
Suez. The hills come close to the beach in the province of
Oman, which is traversed by chains, and broken into piles of
arid mountains not more than 3500 feet high, with the exception
of the Jebel Okkdar, which is 6000 feet above the sea, and is
cleft by temporary streams and fertile valleys. Here the ground
is cultivated and covered with verdure, and still farther south
there is a line of oases fed by subterraneous springs, where the
fruits common to Persia, India and Arabia, are produced.
The south-eastern coast is scarcely known, except towards the
provinces of Haudramaut and Yemen or Arabia Felix, where
ranges of mountains, some above 5000 feet high, line the coast,
and in many places project into the ocean, sometimes forming
excellent harbours, as that of Aden, which is protected by projecting
rocks. In the intervals there are towns and villages, cotton-plantations,
date-groves, and cultivated ground.
On the northern side of these granite ranges, where the table-land
is 8000 feet above the sea, and along the edge of the desert
of El Aklaj in Haudramaut, there is a tract of land so loose and
so very fine, that a plummet was sunk in it by Baron Wrede to
the depth of 360 feet without reaching the bottom. There is a
tradition in the country that the Sabæan army of King Suffi
perished in attempting to cross this desert. Arabia Felix, which
merits its name, is the only part of that country with permanent
streams, though they are small. Here also the mountains and
fertile ground run far inland, producing grain, pasture, coffee,
odoriferous plants, and gums. High cliffs line the shores of the
Indian Ocean and the Strait of Bab-el-man-deb—“the Gate of
Tears.” The fertile country is continued a considerable way along
the coast of the Red Sea, but the character of barrenness is resumed
by degrees, till at length the hills and intervening terraces, on which
Mecca and Medina, the holy cities of the Mahomedans, stand, are
sterile wastes wherever springs do not water them. The blast of
the desert, loaded with burning sand, sweeps over these parched
regions. Mountains skirt the table-land to the north; and the
peninsula, between the Gulfs of Akabah and Suez on the Red
Sea, the Eliath of Scripture, is filled by the mountain-group of
Sinai and Horeb. Jebel Houra, Mount Sinai, on which Moses
received the Ten Commandments, is 9000 feet high, surrounded
by higher mountains, which are covered with snow in winter.
The group of Sinai abounds in springs and verdure. At its
northern extremity lies the desert of El-Teh, 70 miles long and
30 broad, in which the Israelites wandered forty years. It is
covered with long ranges of high rocks, of most repulsive aspect,
rent into deep clefts only a few feet wide, hemmed in by walls of
rock sometimes 1000 feet high, like the deserted streets of a
83Cyclopean town. The journey from Sinai to Akabah, by the
Wadee-el-Ain or Valley of the Spring, is perfectly magnificent,
and the site of Petra itself is a tremendous confusion of black and
brown mountains. It is a considerable basin closed in by rocks,
with chasms and defiles in the precipices. The main street is 2
miles long, and not more than from 10 to 30 feet wide, enclosed
between perpendicular rocks from 100 to 700 feet high, which
so nearly meet as to leave only a strip of sky. A stream runs
through the street which must once have been a considerable
torrent, and the precipitous rocks are excavated into thousands of
caverns once inhabited—into conduits, cisterns, flights of steps,
theatres, and temples, forming altogether one of the most wonderful
remains of antiquity. The whole of Arabia Petrea, Edom of
the sacred writers, presents a scene of appalling desolation, completely
fulfilling the denunciation of prophecy.[35]
A sandy desert, crossed by low limestone ridges, separates
the table-land of Arabia from the habitable part of Syria, which
the mountains of Lebanon divide into two narrow plains. These
mountains may almost be considered offsets from the Taurus
chain; at least they are joined to it by the wooded range of
Gawoor, the ancient Amanus, impassable except by two defiles,
celebrated in history as the Amanic and Syrian Gates. The
group of Lebanon begins with Mount Casius, which rises abruptly
from the sea in a single peak to the height of 7000 feet, near the
mouth of the Orontes. From thence the chain runs south, at a
distance of about twenty miles from the shores of the Mediterranean,
in a continuous line of peaks to the sources of the Jordan,
where it splits into two nearly parallel naked branches, enclosing
the wide and fertile plain of Beka or Ghor, the ancient Cœlo-Syria,
in which are the ruins of Balbec.
The Lebanon branch terminates at the sea near the mouth of
the river Leontes, a few miles north of the city of Old Tyre;
while the Anti-Libanus, which begins at Mount Hermon, 9000
feet high, runs west of the Jordan through Palestine in a winding
line, till its last spurs, south of the Dead Sea, sink into rocky
ridges on the desert of Sinai.
The tops of all these mountains, from Scanderoon to Jerusalem,
are covered with snow in winter; it is permanent on Lebanon
only, whose absolute elevation is 9300 feet. The precipices are
terrific, the springs abundant, and the spurs of the mountains are
studded with villages and convents; there are forests in the higher
grounds, and, lower down, vineyards and gardens. Many offsets
from the Anti-Libanus end in precipices on the coast between
Tripoli and Beyrout, among which the scenery is superb.
84The valleys and plains of Syria are full of rich vegetable mould,
particularly the plain of Damascus, which is brilliantly verdant,
though surrounded by deserts, the barren uniformity of which is
relieved on the east by the broken columns and ruined temples
of Palmyra (Tadmor). The Assyrian wilderness, however, is not
everywhere absolutely barren. In the spring-time it is covered
with a thin but vivid verdure, mixed with fragrant aromatic herbs,
of very short duration. When these are burnt up, the unbounded
plains resume their wonted dreariness. The country, high and
low, becomes more barren towards the Holy Land, yet even here
some of the mountains—as Carmel, Bashan, and Tabor—are
luxuriantly wooded, and many of the valleys are fertile, especially
the valley of the Jordan, which has the appearance of pleasure-grounds
with groves of wood and aromatic plants, but almost in a
state of nature. One side of the Lake of Tiberias in Galilee is
savage; on the other there are gentle hills and wild romantic
vales, adorned with palm-trees, olives, and sycamores—a scene
of calm solitude and pastoral beauty. Jerusalem stands on a
declivity encompassed by severe stony mountains, wild and desolate.
The greater part of Syria is a desert compared with what
it formerly was. Mussulman rule has blighted this fair region,
once flowing with milk and honey—the Land of Promise.
Farther south, desolation increases; the valleys become narrower,
the hills more denuded and rugged, till, south of the Dead
Sea, their dreary aspect announces the approach of the desert.
The valley of the Jordan affords the most remarkable instance
known of the depression of the land below the general surface of
the globe. This hollow, which extends from the Gulf of Akabah
on the Red Sea to the bifurcation of Lebanon, is 620 feet below
the Mediterranean at the Sea of Galilee, and the acrid waters of
the Dead Sea have a depression of 1300 feet.[36] The lowness of
the valley had been observed by the ancients, who gave it the
descriptive name of Cœlo-Syria, “Hollow Syria.” It is absolutely
walled in by mountains between the Dead Sea and Lebanon,
where it is from ten to fifteen miles wide.[37]
A shrinking of the strata must have taken place along this
coast of the Mediterranean, from a sudden change of temperature
85in the earth’s crust, or perhaps in consequence of some of the
internal props giving way, for the valley of the Jordan is not the
only instance of a dip of the soil below the sea-level: the small
bitter lakes on the Isthmus of Suez are cavities of the same kind,
as well as the Natron lakes on the Libyan desert, west from the
delta of the Nile.
CHAPTER VII.
Africa—Table-Land—Cape of Good Hope and Eastern Coast—Western
Coast—Abyssinia—Senegambia—Low Lands and Deserts.
The continent of Africa is 5000 miles long from the Cape of Good
Hope to its northern extremity, and as much between Cape
Guardafuï, on the Indian Ocean, and Cape Verde, on the Atlantic;
but from the irregularity of its figure it has an area of only
12,000,000 of square miles. It is divided in two by the equator,
consequently the greater part of it lies under a tropical sun. The
high and low lands of this portion of the old continent are so
distinctly separated by the Mountains of the Moon, or rather of
Komri, that, with the exception of the mountainous territory of
the Atlas, and the small table-land of Barca, it may be said to
consist of two parts only, a high country and a low.
An extensive, though not very elevated, table-land occupies all
Southern Africa, and even reaches to six or seven degrees north
of the equator. On three sides it shelves down in tiers of narrow
parallel terraces to the ocean, separated by mountain-chains which
rise in height as they recede from the coast; and there is reason
to believe that the structure of the northern declivity is similar,
though its extremities only are known—namely, Abyssinia on the
east, and the high land of Senegambia on the west; both of which
project farther to the north than the central part.
The borders of the table-land are very little known to Europeans,
and still less its surface, which no white man has crossed north of
the Tropic of Capricorn. A comparatively small part, north from
the Cape of Good Hope, has been explored by European travellers.
Mr. Truter and Mr. Somerville were the first white men whom
the inhabitants of Litakoo had seen. Of an expedition that followed
their track, a few years after, no one returned.
North of the Cape the land rises to 6000 feet above the sea;
and the Orange River, or Gareep, with its tributaries, may be
more aptly said to drain than to irrigate the arid country through
86which they flow; many of the tributaries, indeed, are only the
channels through which torrents, from the periodical rains, are
carried to the Orange River, and are destitute of water many
months in the year. The “Dry River,” the name of one of these
periodical streams, is in that country no misnomer. Their margins
are adorned with mimosas, and the sandy plains have furnished
treasures to the botanist; and, indeed, zoology is no less
indebted to the whole continent of Africa for the various animals
it produces.
Dr. Smith crossed the Tropic of Capricorn in a journey from
the Cape of Good Hope, where the country had still the same
arid character. North from that there is a vast tract unexplored.
In 1802 two native travelling merchants crossed the continent,
which is 1590 miles wide, from Loando on the Atlantic to Zambeze
on the Mozambique Channel. They found various mercantile
nations, considerably advanced in civilization, who raise
abundance of maize and millet, though the greater part of the
country is in a state of nature. Ridges of low hills, yielding copper,
the staple commodity of this country, run from S.E. to N.W.
to the west of the dominions of the Camleaze, a country full of
rivers, morasses, and extensive salt marshes which supply this
part of the continent with salt. The travellers crossed 102 rivers,
most of them fordable. The leading feature of this country is
Lake N’yassi, of great, but unknown length, and comparatively
narrow. It begins 200 miles north from the town of Tete, on the
Zambeze, and extends from S.E. to N.W., flanked on the east by
a range of mountains of the same name, running in the same
direction, at the distance of 350 miles from the Mozambique
Channel. This is all we know from actual observation of the
table-land of South Africa, till about the 10th northern meridian,
where Dr. Beke’s Abyssinian journey terminated. It is evident,
however, that there can be no very high mountains covered with
perpetual snow on the table-land, for, if there were, Southern
Africa would not be destitute of great rivers; nevertheless, the
height of the table-land, and of the mountains of Komri on its
northern edge, must be considerable, to supply the perennial
sources of the Nile, the Senegal, and the Niger.
The edges of the table-land are better known. At the Cape of
Good Hope the African continent is about 700 miles broad, and
ends in three narrow parallel ridges of mountains, the last of
which is the highest, and abuts on the table-land. All are cleft
by precipitous deep ravines, through which winter torrents flow
to the ocean. The longitudinal valleys, or koroos, that separate
them, are tiers, or steps, by which the plateau dips to the maritime
plains. The descent is rapid, as both these plains and the
mountain-ranges are very narrow. On the western side the
87mountains form a high group and end in steep promontories on
the coast, where Table Mountain, at Cape Town, 3582 feet high,
forms a conspicuous landmark for mariners.
Granite, which is the base of Southern Africa, rises to a considerable
height in many places, and is generally surmounted by
vast horizontal beds of sand-stone, which give that character of
flatness peculiar to the summits of many of the Cape mountains.
The koroos are arid deserts in the dry season, but soon after
the rains they are covered with verdure and a splendid flora.
The maritime plains partake of the same temporary aridity, though
a large portion is rich in cereal productions, vineyards, fruits, and
pasture.
The most inland of the parallel ranges, about the 20th meridian
east, is 10,000 feet high, and, though it sinks to some groups of
hills at its eastern extremity, it rises again, about the 27th meridian,
in a truly alpine and continuous chain—the Quotlamba
mountains, which follow the northerly direction of Natal, and are
continued in the Lupata range of hills, 80 miles inland, through
Zanguebar.
At Natal the coast is grassy, with clumps of trees, like an English
park. The Zambeze, and other streams from the table-land,
refresh the plains on the Mozambique Channel and Zanguebar,
where, though some parts are marshy and covered with mangroves,
groves of palm-trees adorn the plains, which yield prodigious
quantities of grain, and noble forests cover the mountains;
but from 4° N. latitude to Cape Guardafuï is a continued desert.
There is also a barren tract at the southern end of the Lupata
chain, where gold is found in masses and grains on the surface
and in the watercourses, which tempted the Portuguese to make
settlements on these unwholesome coasts.
The island of Madagascar, with its magnificent range of mountains,
full of tremendous precipices, and covered with primeval
forests, is parallel to the African coast, and only separated from it
by the Mozambique Channel, 300 miles broad, so it may be presumed
that it rose from the deep at the same time as the Lupata
chain.
The contrast between the eastern and western coasts of South
Africa is very great. The escarped bold mountains round the
Cape of Good Hope, and its rocky coast, which extends a short
way along the Atlantic to the north, are succeeded by ranges of
sandstone of small elevation, which separate the internal sandy
desert from the equally parched sandy shore. The terraced dip
of the Atlantic coast for 900 miles, between the Orange River and
Cape Negro, has not a drop of fresh water.
At Cape Negro, ranges of mountains, separated by long level
tracts, begin, and make a semicircular bend into the interior, leaving
88plains along the coast 140 miles broad. In Benguela these
plains are healthy and cultivated; farther north there are monotonous
grassy savannahs, and forests of gigantic trees. The
ground, in many places saturated with water, bears a tangled crop
of mangroves and tall reeds, which even cover the shoals along
the coasts; but pestilential vapours hang over them, never dissipated
by a breeze.
The country of Calbongos is the highest land on the coast,
where a magnificent group of mountains, covered almost to their
tops with large timber, lie not far inland. The low plains of
Biafra and Benin, west of them, and especially the delta of
the Niger, consist entirely of swamps loaded with rank vegetation.
The angel of Death, brooding over these regions in noisome
exhalations, guards the interior of that country from the aggressions
of the European, and has hitherto baffled his attempts to
form settlements on the banks of this magnificent river.
Many portions of North Guinea are so fertile that they might
vie with the valley of the Nile in cereal riches, besides various
other productions; and though the temperature is very high, the
climate is not very unhealthy.
No European has yet seen the high mountains of Komri, generally
known as the Mountains of the Moon, which are said to
cross the continent along the northern edge of the great plateau,
between the two projections or promontories of Abyssinia and
Senegambia. This chain divides the semi-civilized states of Soudan,
Bornou, and Begharmi from the barbarous nations on the
table-land. It extends south of Abyssinia at one end, at the other
it joins the high land of Senegambia, and is continued in the Kong
range, which runs 1200 miles behind Dahomy and the Gold
Coast, and ends in the promontory of Sierra Leone.
The vast alpine promontory of Abyssinia or Ethiopia, 700
miles wide, projects from the table-land for 300 miles into the low
lands of North Africa. It dips to a low swampy region on the
north, to the plains of Senaar and Kordofan on the west, and on
the east sinks abruptly to the coast at a short distance from the
Red Sea. It is there from 800 to 900 feet high, but declines to
the westward, so that in the 15th parallel of N. latitude the eastern
slope of the table-land towards the Red Sea is nearly twenty
times greater than the counter-slope towards the Nile; the edge
of the latter, however, is from 3000 to 4000 feet above the plains.[38]
The character of Abyssinia is in that respect like the Deccan, or
Southern India, where the Ghauts rise abruptly near the coast of
89Malabar, and the surface falls gradually towards that of Coromandel.
The table-land of Abyssinia is a succession of undulating
plains, broken by higher insulated mountain-masses, which in
Samien, Godjam, and in Kaffa more to the south, attain an absolute
altitude of from 11,000 to 15,000 feet. The plains are intersected
by numerous streams which form the Nile and its tributaries
on the one hand, and the Hawásh and its affluents, which
flow into the Indian Ocean, on the other. The edge of the table-land
towards the Nile is steep; the streams run to the low lands
through valleys from 3000 to 4000 feet deep, so that a traveller
in ascending them might imagine that he is crossing a mountain-range,
whereas, on coming to the top, he finds himself on a high
plain. This elevated country has lakes, swamps, verdant meadows,
and cultivated land, producing various grains, and occasionally
coffee. The plain of the Dembia, the granary of the country,
enjoys perpetual spring. Dr. Beke, to whom we are indebted
for so much valuable information with regard to this part of Africa,
travelled to within less than ten degrees of the equator, and, from
the accounts he received, the country south of Abyssinia appears
to be similar to those of Shoa and Godjam—extensive undulating
plains, with occasional mountain-masses, and traversed by numerous
streams; wide tracts must be 7000 or 8000 feet high, as they
only produce barley: the country towards Kaffa and the sources
of the Gojeb is still higher, and in some parts desert; but the
caravan-road between Wallega and Kaffa passes through a vast
forest impervious to the rays of the sun, which, according to the
accounts of the merchants, is not seen for four or five days successively;
and west of the Dedhesa there are immense grassy
plains, the elephant-hunting grounds of the Galla tribes.
The geological structure of Abyssinia is similar to that of the
Cape of Good Hope, the base being granite and the superstructure
sandstone, occasionally limestone, schist, and breccia. The
granite comes to the surface in the lower parts of Abyssinia, but
sandstone predominates in the upper parts, and assumes a tabular
form, often lying on the tops of the mountains in enormous flat
masses, only accessible by steps cut in the rocks or by ladders:
such insulated spots are used as state prisons. Large tracts are
of ancient volcanic rocks, especially in Shoa.
Senegambia, the appendage to the western extremity of the
table-land, also projects far into the low lands, and is the watershed
whence the streams flow on one side to the plains of Soudan,
where they join the Joliba or Niger; and from the other side,
the Gambia, Senegal, and other rivers, run into the Atlantic over
a rich cultivated plain, but unhealthy from the rankness of the
vegetation.
The moisture that descends from the northern edge of the
90table-land of South Africa, under the fiery radiance of a tropical
sun, fertilizes a tract of country stretching from sea to sea across
the continent, the commencement of the African low lands. A
great part of this region, which contains many kingdoms and
commercial cities, is a very productive country. The abundance
of water, the industry of the natives in irrigating the ground, the
periodical rains, and the tropical heat, leave the soil no repose.
Agriculture is in a rude state, but nature is so bountiful that rice
and millet are raised in sufficient quantity to supply the wants of
a numerous population. Gold is found in the river-courses, and
there are elephants in the forests; but man is the staple of their
commerce—a disgrace to the savage who sells his fellow-creature,
but a far greater disgrace to the more savage purchaser who
dares to assume the sacred name of Christian.
This long belt of never-failing vitality, which has its large lakes,
poisonous swamps, deep forests of gigantic trees, and vast solitudes
in which no white men ever trade, is of small width compared
with its length. In receding from the mountains, the moisture
becomes less and the soil gradually worse, sufficing only to
produce grass for the flocks of the wandering Bedouin. At last
a hideous barren waste begins, which extends northwards 800
miles in unvaried desolation to the grassy steppes at the foot of
the Atlas; and for 1000 miles between the Atlantic and the Red
Sea the nakedness of this blighted land is unbroken but by the
valley of the Nile and a few oases.
In the west about 760,000 miles, an area equal to that of the
Mediterranean Sea, and, in some parts, of a lower level, is covered
by the trackless sands of the Sahara desert, which is even prolonged
for miles into the Atlantic Ocean in the form of sandbanks.
This desert is alternately scorched by heat and pinched
by cold. The wind blows from the east nine months in the year;
and at the equinoxes it rushes in a hurricane, driving the sand in
clouds before it, producing the darkness of night at midday, and
overwhelming caravans of men and animals in common destruction.
Then the sand is heaped up in waves ever varying with
the blast; even the atmosphere is of sand. The desolation of
this dreary waste, boundless to the eye as the ocean, is terrific
and sublime; the dry heated air is like a red vapour, the setting
sun seems to be a volcanic fire, and at times the burning wind of
the desert is the blast of death. There are many salt lakes to the
north, and even the springs are of brine; thick incrustations of
dazzling salt cover the ground, and the particles, carried aloft by
whirlwinds, flash in the sun like diamonds.
Sand is not the only character of the desert; tracts of gravel
and low bare rocks occur at times, not less barren and dreary;
but on the eastern and northern borders of the Sahara, fresh water
91rises near the surface, and produces an occasional oasis where
barrenness and vitality meet. The oases are generally depressed
below the level of the desert, with an arenaceous or calcareous
border enclosing their emerald verdure like a frame. The smaller
oases produce herbage, ferns, acacias, and some shrubs; forests
of date-palms grow in the larger, which are the resort of lions,
panthers, gazelles, reptiles, and a variety of birds.
In the Nubian and Libyan deserts, to the east of the Sahara,
the continent shelves down towards the Mediterranean in a series
of terraces, consisting of vast level sandy or gravelly deserts,
lying east and west, separated by low rocky ridges. This
shelving country, which is only 540 feet above the sea at the
distance of 750 miles inland, is cut transversely by the Nile, and
by a deep furrow parallel to it, in which there is a long line of
oases. This furrow, the Nile, and the Red Sea, nearly parallel
to both, are flanked by rocky eminences which run north from
the table-land.
On the interminable sands and rocks of these deserts no animal—no
insect—breaks the dread silence; not a tree nor a shrub is to
be seen in this land without a shadow. In the glare of noon the
air quivers with the heat reflected from the red sand, and in the
night it is chilled under a clear sky sparkling with its host of
stars. Strangely but beautifully contrasted with these scorched
solitudes is the narrow valley of the Nile, threading the desert for
1000 miles in emerald green, with its blue waters foaming in
rapids among wild rocks, or quietly spreading in a calm stream
amidst fields of corn and the august monuments of past ages.
At the distance of a few days’ journey west from the Nile, over
a hideous flinty plain, lies the furrow already mentioned, trending
to the north, and containing the oases of Darfour, Selime, the
Great and Little Oases, and the parallel valleys of the Natron
Lakes, and Bahr-Belama or the “Dry River.” The Great Oasis,
or Oasis of Thebes, is 120 miles long and 4 or 5 broad; the
Lesser Oasis, separated from it by 40 miles of desert, is of the
same form. Both are rich in verdure and cultivation, with villages
amid palm-groves and fruit-trees, mixed with the ruins of
remote antiquity, offering scenes of peaceful and soft beauty contrasted
with the surrounding gloom. The Natron Lakes are in the
northern part of the Valley of Nitrùn, 35 miles west of the Nile;
the southern part is a beautiful quiet spot, that became the retreat
of Christian monks in the middle of the second century, and at
one time contained 360 convents, of which 4 only remain; from
these some very valuable manuscripts of old date have recently
been obtained.
Another line of oases runs along the latitude of Cairo, with
fresh-water lakes—consequently no less fertile than the preceding.
92The ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Ammon are in one of
them.
Hundreds of miles on the northern edge of the desert, from the
Atlantic along the southern foot of the Atlas to the Great Syrtis,
are pasture-lands without a tree—an ocean of verdure. At the
Great Syrtis the Sahara comes to the shores of the Mediterranean;
and, indeed, for 1100 miles between the termination of the Atlas
and the little table-land of Barca, the ground is so unprofitable
that the population only amounts to about 30,000, and these are
mostly wandering tribes who feed their flocks on the grassy
steppes. Magnificent countries lie along the Mediterranean coast
north of the Atlas, susceptible of cultivation. History, and the
ruins of many great cities, attest their former splendour; even
now there are many populous commercial cities, and much grain
is raised, though a great part of these valuable kingdoms is badly
cultivated or not cultivated at all.
The base of the sandy parts of North Africa is stiff clay; in
Lower Nubia, between the parallels of Assouan and Esneh, red
and white granite prevail, followed by argillaceous sandstone;
Middle Egypt is calcareous; and, lower down, the alluvium of the
Nile covers the surface.
It would appear that Southern Africa, though similar in its
unbroken surface and peninsular shape to South America, bears
no resemblance to it in other respects, but has a great analogy to
the Deccan in its triangular form, its elevated platform, and in
the position of its encompassing mountain-chains, if, as there is
every reason to believe, from the fertile region to the north, either
that South Africa descends in a succession of terraces to the low
lands, or that the Komri mountains have a real existence, and run
directly across the continent. From the connection already mentioned
between external appearance and internal structure, as well
as from partial information, it is surmised that the mountains surrounding
the two triangles in question are of corresponding constitution;
that, if any secondary strata do exist in this part of
Africa, they must be exterior to these chains, and neither on the
summits of the high mountains nor in the interior; and that any
tertiary strata on the table-land must, as in the Deccan, have
formed the basins of fresh-water lakes.[39]
The prodigious extent of desert is one of the most extraordinary
circumstances in the structure of the old continent. A zone of
almost irretrievable desolation prevails from the Atlantic Ocean
across Africa and through central Asia almost to the Pacific Ocean,
through at least 120 degrees of longitude. There are also many
long districts of the same sterile nature in Europe; and if to these
93sandy plains the deserts of Siberia be added, together with all the
barren and rocky mountain tracts, the unproductive land in the
Old World is prodigious. The quantity of salt on the sandy
plains is enormous, and proves that they have been part of the
bed of the ocean or of inland seas at no very remote geological
period. The low lands round the Black Sea and Caspian, and
the Lake of Aral, seem to have been the most recently reclaimed,
from the great proportion of shells in them identical with those
now existing in these seas. The same may be said of the Sahara
desert, where salt and recent shells are plentiful.
CHAPTER VIII.
American Continent—The Mountains of South America—The Andes—The
Mountains of the Parima and Brazil.
Some thinner portion of the crust of the globe under the meridians
that traverse the continent of America from Cape Horn to the
Arctic Ocean must have yielded to the expansive forces of the
subterranean fires, or been rent by contraction of the strata in
cooling. Through this the Andes had arisen, producing the
greatest influence on the form of the continent, and the peculiar
simplicity that prevails in its principal mountains systems, which,
with very few exceptions, have a general tendency from north to
south. The continent is 9000 miles long, and, its form being two
great peninsulas joined by a long narrow isthmus, it is divided by
nature into three parts, of South, Central, and North America;
yet these three are connected by the mighty chain of the Andes,
but little inferior in height to the Himalaya, running along the
coast of the Pacific from within the Arctic nearly to the Antarctic
circle. In this course every variety of climate is to be met with,
from the rigour of polar congelation to the scorching heat of the
torrid zone; while the mountains are so high that the same
extremes of heat and cold may be experienced in the journey of
a few hours from the burning plains of Peru to the snow-clad
peaks above. In this long chain there are three distinct varieties
of character, nearly, though not entirely, corresponding to the
three natural divisions of the continent. The Andes of South
America differ materially from those of Central America and
Mexico, while both are dissimilar to the North American prolongation
of the chain, generally known as the Chippewayan or
Rocky Mountains.
The greatest length of South America, from Cape Horn to the
94Isthmus of Panamá is about 4020 geographical miles. It is very
narrow at its southern extremity, but increases in width northwards
to the latitude of Cape Roque on the Atlantic, between
which and Cape Blanco on the Pacific it attains its greatest
breadth of nearly 2750 miles. It consists of three mountain
systems, separated by the basins of three of the greatest rivers in
the world. The Andes run along the western coast from Cape
Horn to the Isthmus of Panamá, in a single chain of inconsiderable
width but majestic height, dipping rapidly to the narrow maritime
plains of the Pacific, but descending on the east in high
valleys and occasional offsets to plains of vast extent, whose dead
level is for hundreds of miles as unbroken as that of the ocean by
which they are bounded. Nevertheless, two detached mountain
systems rise on these plains, one in Brazil between the Rio de la
Plata and the river of the Amazons; the other is that of Parima
and Guiana, lying between the river of the Amazons and the
Orinoco.
The great chain of the Andes first raises its crest above the
waves of the Antarctic Ocean in the majestic dark mass of Cape
Horn, the southernmost point of the archipelago of Tierra del
Fuego. This group of mountainous islands, equal in size to
Britain, is cut off from the main land by the Straits of Magellan.
The islands are penetrated in every direction by bays and narrow
inlets of the sea, or fiords, ending often in glaciers fed by the
snow on the summits of mountains 6000 feet high. Peatmosses
cover the higher declivities of these mountains, and their
flanks are beset with densely entangled forests of brown beech,
which never lose their dusky leaves, producing altogether a
savage, dismal scene. The mountains which occupy the western
side of this cluster of islands sink down to wide level plains to the
east, like the continent itself, of which the archipelago is but the
southern extremity.[40]
The Pacific washes the very base of the Patagonian Andes for
about 1000 miles, from Cape Horn to the 40th parallel of south
latitude. The whole coast is lined by a succession of archipelagos
and islands, separated from the iron-bound shores by narrow arms
of the sea, which, in the more southern part, are in fact profound
longitudinal valleys of the Andes filled by the ocean, so that the
chain of islands running parallel to the axes of the mountains is
but the summits of an exterior range rising above the sea.
The coast itself for 650 miles is begirt by walls of rock, which
95sink into unfathomable depths, torn by long crevices or fiords,
similar to those on the Norwegian shore, ending in tremendous
glaciers, whose masses, falling with a crash like thunder, drive the
sea in sweeping breakers through these chasms. The islands
and the mainland are thickly clothed with forests, which are of a
less sombre aspect as the latitude decreases.
Between the Pass of Chacabuco north of Santiago, the capital
of Chile, and the archipelago of Chiloe, a chain of hills, composed
in general of crystalline rocks, borders the coast; between which
and the Andes exists a longitudinal valley, well watered by the
rivers descending from the central chain, and which constitutes
the most fertile portion, nay the garden of the Chillian republic—the
rich provinces of Santiago, Colchagua, and Maule. This
longitudinal depression may be considered as a prolongation of
the strait that separates Chiloe from the mainland. Many peaks
of the Andes enter within the limits of perpetual snow, between
the 40th and 31st parallels; and some of which are active volcanos.
In lat. 32° 39ʹ rises the giant of the American Andes, the Nevado
of Aconcagua, which towers over the Chillian village of the same
name, and is so clearly visible from Valparaiso. Although
designated as a volcano, a term generally applied in Chile to
every elevated and snowy peak, it offers no trace of modern igneous
origin. It appears to be composed of a species of porphyry
generally found in the centre of the Chillian chain. Its height,
according to Captain Beechey’s very accurate observations, exceeds
24,000 feet.[41]
About the latitude of Concepcion the dense forests of Araucarias
and of other semi-tropical plants cease with the humid equable
climate; and as no rain falls in central Chile for nine months in
the year, the brown, purple, and tile-red hills and mountains are
only dotted here and there with low trees and bushes; very soon,
however, after the heavy showers have moistened the cracked
ground, it is covered with a beautiful but transient flora. In
some valleys it is more permanent and of a tropical character,
mixed with alpine plants.[42] In southern Chile rain falls only
once in two or three years, the consequence of which is sterility
on the western precipitous and unbroken descent of the Andes;
but on the east, two secondary branches leave the central Cordillera,
which extend 300 or 400 miles into the plains, wooded to a
great height. The Sierra de Cordova, the most southern of these,
begins between the 33d and 31st parallels, and extends in the
96direction of the Pampas; more to the north, the Sierra di Salta
and Juguy stretches from the valley of Catamarca and Tucuman
towards the Rio Vermejo, one of the tributaries of the Rio de la
Plata.
The chain takes the name of the Peruvian Andes about the
24th degree of south latitude, and is separated from the Pacific
by a range of hills composed of crystalline rocks, and parallel to
the sea coast, and of an intervening sandy desert, seldom above
60 miles broad, on which rain scarcely ever falls, where bare
rocks pierce through the moving sand. The width of the coast
is nearly the same to the Isthmus of Panamá, but damp luxuriant
forests full of orchideæ, begin about the latitude of Payta, and
continue northwards.
From its southern extremity to the Nevado of Chorolque, in
21° 30ʹ S. lat., the Andes are merely one grand and continuous
range of mountains, but north of that the chain intercepts a very
elevated table-land, or wide longitudinal valley, in the direction
of the chain, bounded on each side by a parallel range of high
mountains, rising much above it. These parallel Cordilleras are
united at various points by enormous transverse groups or mountain-knots,
or by single ranges crossing between them like dykes,
a structure that prevails to Pasto, 1° 13ʹ 6ʺ N. lat. The descent
to the Pacific is very steep; the dip is also very rapid to the east,
whence offsets diverge to the level plains.
Unlike the table-lands of Asia of the same elevation, where
cultivation is confined to the more sheltered spots, or those still
lower in Europe, which are only fit for pasture, these lofty regions
of the Andes yield exuberant crops of every European grain, and
have many populous cities enjoying the luxuries of life, with
universities, libraries, civil and religious establishments, at altitudes
equal to that of the Peak of Teneriffe, which is 12,170 feet
above the sea-level. Villages are placed and mines are worked
at heights as great and even greater than the top of Mont Blanc.[43]
This state is not limited to the present times, since these table-lands
were once the centre of civilization by a race of mankind
which “bear the same relation to the Incas and the present
inhabitants that the Etruscans bear to the ancient Romans and to
the Italians of our own days.”
The table-land or valley of Desaguadero, one of the most
remarkable of these, has an absolute altitude of 12,900 feet, and
a breadth varying from 30 to 60 miles: it stretches 400 miles
between the two parallel chains of the Andes, and between the
transverse mountain-group of Lipez, in 20° S. lat., and the enormous
97mountain-knot of Vilcañota, which, extending from east to
west, shuts in the valley on the north-west, and occupying an
area three times as large as Switzerland, some of the snowy
peaks rising 8300 feet above the surface of the table-land, from
which an idea may be formed of the gigantic scale of the Andes.
This table-land or valley is bounded on each side by the two grand
chains of the Bolivian Andes: that on the west is the Cordillera
of the coast; the range on the east is the Bolivian Cordillera,
properly speaking; and on its north-west prolongation the Cordillera
Real.[44] These two rows of mountains lie so near the edge
that the whole breadth of the table-land, including both, is only
226 miles. All the snowy peaks of the Cordilleras of the coast
are either active volcanoes or of igneous origin, and are all situate
near the maritime declivity of the chain; consequently, the descent
is very abrupt. The eastern Cordillera, which begins at
the metalliferous mountain of Potosi, is below the level of perpetual
snow to the south, but its northern portion contains the
three peaked mountains of Sorata, of Supäíwasi, and Illimani,
and is one of the most magnificent portions of the Andes.[45] The
snowy part begins with the gigantic mass of Illimani, whose
serrated ridges are elongated in the direction of the axis of the
chain. The lowest glacier on its southern slope does not descend
below 16,500 feet, and the valley of Totoral, a mere gulf in which
Vesuvius might stand, comes between Illimani and the Nevado of
La Mesada, from whence the eastern Cordillera runs to the north-west
in a continuous line of snow-clad peaks to the group of Vilcañoto,
where it unites with the Cordillera of the coast.
The valley of the Desaguadero, occupying 150,000 square
miles, has a considerable variety of surface; in the south, throughout
the mining district, it is poor and cold. Potosi, the highest
city in the world, stands at an absolute elevation of 13,330 feet,
at the foot of a mountain celebrated for its silver mines. Chiquisaca,
the capital of Bolivia, containing 13,000 inhabitants, lies to
the north-east of Potosi, in the midst of cultivated fields. The
northern part of the valley is populous, and produces wheat,
barley, and other grain; and the Lake of Titicaca, twenty times
as large as the Lake of Geneva, fills the north-western portion
of this great basin. The islands and shores of this lake still
exhibit ruins of gigantic magnitude, monuments of a people more
ancient than the Incas. The modern city of La Paz with 40,000
98inhabitants, not far from its southern shores, stands in the most
sublime situation that can be imagined, having in full view the
vast Nevado of Illimani to the east-south-east at a distance of
seven leagues.
Many offsets leave the eastern side of the Bolivian Cordillera
which terminates in the great plain of Chiquitos and Paraguay;
the most important is the Cordillera of Yuracaraës, which bounds
the rich valley of Cochabamba on the north, and ends near the
town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
There are some fertile valleys in the snow-capped group of
Vilcañota and Cusco. The city of Cusco, which contains nearly
50,000 inhabitants, was the capital of the empire of the Incas: it
still contains numerous ruins of that dynasty, among which
the remains of the Temple of the sun and its Cyclopean Fortress
still mark its former splendour. Four ancient Peruvian roads
led from Cusco to the different parts of the empire, little inferior
in many respects to the old Roman ways: all crossing mountain-passes
higher than the Peak of Teneriffe. On the northern prolongation
of the chain, in lat. 11° S., encircled by the Andes, is
the elevated plain of Bombon, near to the celebrated silver-mines
of Pasco, at a height of 14,000 feet above the sea. In it is situated
the Lake of Lauricocha, which may be considered, from its
remoteness, as one of the sources of the Amazon. There are
many small lakes on the table-lands and high valleys of the
Andes, some even within the range of perpetual snow. They
are very cold and deep, often of the purest sea-green colour;
some of them may have been craters of extinct volcanos.
The chain of the Andes is divided into three ranges of mountains
running from south to north in the transverse group or
mountain-knot of Pasco and Huanuco, which shuts in the valley
of Bombon between the 11th and 10th parallels of south latitude:
that in the centre separates the wide fertile valley of the Upper
Marañon from the still richer valley of the Huallaga, whilst the
more eastern forms the barrier between the latter and the tropical
valley of the Yucayali. The western chain alone reaches the
limit of perpetual snow, and, if we except the Nevado of Huaylillas,
in 7° 50ʹ, no mountain north of this for nearly 400 miles to
the Andes of Quito arrives at the snow-line.
In lat. 4° 50ʹ S. the Andes form the mountain-knot of Loxa,
once celebrated for its forests, in which the cinchona or Peruvian
bark was discovered. From this knot the chain divides into two
great longitudinal ridges or cordilleras, in an extent of 350 miles,
passing through the republic of the Equator to the mountain-group
of Los Pastos in that of New Grenada. These ridges enclose
a vast longitudinal valley, which, divided by the cross ridges of
Assuay and Chisinche into three basins, form the valleys of
99Cuença, Tapia, and Quito. The plain of Cuença offers little
interest; that of Tapia is magnificent; whilst the valley of
Quito is one of extraordinary beauty: on either side rise a series
of snow-capped peaks, celebrated in every way in the history of
science, as the valley itself is in that of the aboriginal races of the
New World. Here the energies of volcanic action have been
studied with the greatest fruits; here, now one hundred years
ago, took place that measurement of an arc of the meridian which
afforded the most accurate data at the time towards the determination
of the mass and form of our planet, and which has conferred
eternal honour on the body with which it originated, the French
Academy of Sciences; and celebrity on the names of Bouguier,
La Condamine, and Godin, Don George Juan and Ulloa, who
conducted it on the part of the crowns of France and of Spain.
The Cordillera or ridge which hems in the valley of Quito on
the east contains the snow-capped peaks of Antisana, Cotopaxi,
one of the most beautiful of active volcanoes, whose dazzling
cone rises to a height of 18,775 feet, of Tungaragua and el-Altar,
the latter once equal to Chimborazo in height, and Sangay. The
western range includes the gigantic Chimborazo, which may be
seen from the coast of the Pacific, the pyramidal peak of Illinissa,
the wreck of an ancient volcano. The height of Illinissa was
measured by the French Academicians, by very careful operations,
directly above the level of the ocean, the latter being visible
from it; and by its means the absolute elevation of the valley of
Quito, and of the other peaks that encircle it, was deduced, as
well as the first approximate value of the barometrical coefficient.
North of Chimborazo and near it is the Carguäirazo, and close to
the city of Quito rises the scarcely less celebrated volcano of
Pichincha, whilst the Nevado of Cayambè, whose summit, elevated
19,535 feet, is traversed by the terrestrial equator, perhaps
the greatest and most remarkable landmark on the surface of our
planet, closes the north-east extremity of the valley.
The valley of Quito, one of the finest in the Andes, is 200
miles long and 30 wide, with a mean altitude of 10,000 feet,
bounded by the most magnificent series of volcanoes and mountains
in the New World. A peculiar interest is attached to two
of the many volcanos in the parallel Cordilleras that flank it on
each side. The beautiful snow-clad cone of Cayambè Urcu, as
already stated, traversed by the equator, the most remarkable
division of the globe closes it on the north; and in the western
Cordillera the cross still stands on the summit of Pichincha,
15,924 feet above the Pacific, which served for a signal to
Bouguier and La Condamine in their memorable measurement
of an arc of the meridian.[46]
100Some parts of the plain of Quito to the south are sterile, but the
soil generally is good, and perpetual spring clothes it with exuberant
vegetation. The city of Quito, containing 70,000 inhabitants,
on the side of Pichincha has an absolute height of 9540 feet. The
city is well built and handsome; the churches are splendid; it
possesses universities, the comforts and luxuries of civilized life,
in a situation of unrivalled grandeur and beauty. Thus, on the
very summit of the Andes there is a world by itself, with its mountains
and its valleys, its lakes and rivers, populous towns and cultivated
fields. Many monuments of the Incas are still found in
good preservation in these plains, where the scenery is most noble—eleven
volcanic cones are visible from one spot. Although the
Andes are inferior in height to the Himalaya, yet the domes of
trachyte, the truncated cones of the active volcanos, and the serrated
ruins of those that are extinct, mixed with the bold features
of primary mountains, give an infinitely greater variety to the scene,
while the smoke, and very often the flame, issuing from these
regions of perpetual snow increase its sublimity. Stupendous as
these mountains appear even from the plains of the table-land, they
are merely the inequalities of the tops of the Andes, the serrated
summit of that mighty chain.
Between the large group of Los Pastos, containing several active
volcanos, and the group of Las Papas, in the second degree
of north latitude, the bottom of the valley is only 6900 feet above
the sea; and north of the latter mountain-knot the crest of the
Andes splits into three Cordilleras, which diverge not again to
unite. The most westerly of these, the chain of Choco, which
may be considered the continuation of the great chain, divides the
valley of the river Cauca from the Pacific; it is only 5000 feet
high, and the lowest of the three. Though but 20 miles broad,
it is so steep, and so difficult of access, that travellers cannot cross
it on mules, but are carried on men’s shoulders: it is rich in gold
and platina. The central branch, or Cordillera of Quindiu, runs
due north between the Magdalena and Cauca, rising to a great
height in the volcanic Peak of Tolima. The two last chains are
united by the mountain-knot of Antioquia, of which little more is
known than that it forms two great masses, which, after separating
the streams of the Magdalena, Cauca, and Atrato, trends to the
N.W., greatly reduced in height, and with the chain of Choco
forms the low mountains of the Isthmus of Panamá. The most
easterly of the three Cordilleras, called the Sierra de la Summa
Paz, spreads out on its western declivity into the table-lands of
Bogota, Tunja, and others, the ancient Cundinamarca, which have
an elevation of about 9000 feet; whilst on its eastern slope rise
the rivers Guaviari and Meta, which form the head waters of the
Orinoco. The tremendous crevice of Icononzo occurs in the path
101leading from the city of Santa Fé de Bogota to the banks of the
Magdalena. It probably was formed by an earthquake, and is
like an empty mineral vein, across which are two natural bridges:
the lowest is composed of stones that have been jammed between
the rocks in their fall.[47] This Cordillera comprises the Andes of
Cundinamarca and Merida, and goes north-east through New
Grenada to the 10th northern parallel, where it joins the coast-chain
of Venezuela or Caraccas, which runs due east, and ends at
Cape Paria in the Caribbean Sea, or rather at the eastern extremity
of the island of Trinidad. This coast-chain is so majestic and
beautiful that Baron Humboldt says it is like the Alps rising out
of the sea without their snow. The insulated group of Santa
Martha, 19,000 feet high, deeply covered with snow, stands on an
extensive plain between the delta of the Magdalena and the sea-lake
of Maracaybo, and is a landmark to mariners far off in the
Caribbean Sea.
The passes over the Chilian Andes are numerous; that of the
Portillo, leading from St. Jago to Mendoza, is the highest; it crosses
two ridges, offering a valley between, a diminutive representation
of the great Peru-Bolivian depression and of the valley of Quito;
the most elevated is so high that vegetation ceases far below its
summit. Those in Peru are higher, though very few reach the
snow-line. In Bolivia the mean elevation of the passes in the
western and eastern Cordillera is 14,892 and 14,422 feet respectively.
That leading from Sorata to the auriferous valley of Tipauni
is perhaps the highest in Bolivia. From the total absence
of vegetation, and the intense cold, it is supposed to be 16,000 feet
above the Pacific; those to the north are but little lower. The
pass of Quindiu in Colombia, though not so high, is the most difficult
of all across the Andes: but those crossing the mountain-knots
from one table-land to another are the most dangerous; for
example, that over the Paramo del Assuay, in the plain of Quito,
where the road is nearly as high as Mont Blanc, and travellers not
unfrequently perish from cold winds in attempting it.[48]
102On the western side of the Andes little or no rain falls, except
at their most southern extremity, and scanty vegetation appears
only on spots or in small valleys, watered by streams from the
Andes. Excessive heat and moisture combine to cover the eastern
side and its offsets with tangled forests of large trees and dense
brushwood. This exuberance diminishes as the height increases,
till at last the barren rocks are covered only by snow and glaciers.
In the Andes near the equator, glaciers descending below the snow-line
are unknown. The steepness of the declivities and the dryness
of the air, at such great elevations, prevent any accumulation
of infiltrated water: the annual changes of temperature besides are
small. Nothing can surpass the desolation of these regions, where
nature has been shaken by terrific convulsions. The dazzling
snow fatigues the eye; the huge masses of bold rock, the mural
precipices, and the chasms yawning into dark unknown depths,
strike the imagination; while the crash of the avalanche, or the
rolling thunder of the volcano, startles the ear. In the dead of
night, when the sky is clear and the wind hushed, the hollow
moaning of the volcanic fire fills the Indian with superstitious dread
in the deathlike stillness of these solitudes.
In the very elevated plains in the transverse groups, such as
that of Bombon, however pure the sky, the landscape is lurid and
colourless: the dark-blue shadows are sharply defined, and from
the thinness of the air it is hardly possible to make a just estimate
of distance. Changes of weather are sudden and violent; clouds
of black vapour arise and are carried by fierce winds over the
barren plains; snow and hail are driven with irresistible impetuosity;
and thunder-storms come on, loud and awful, without
warning. Notwithstanding the thinness of the air, the crash of
the peals is quite appalling; while the lightning runs along the
scorched grass, and, sometimes issuing from the ground, destroys
a team of mules or a flock of sheep at one flash.[49]
Currents of warm air are occasionally met with on the crest of
the Andes—an extraordinary phenomenon on such gelid heights,
which is not yet accounted for: they generally occur two hours
after sunset, are local and narrow, not exceeding a few fathoms in
width, similar to the equally partial blasts of hot air in the Alps.
A singular instance, probably, of earth-light occurs in crossing the
Andes from Chile to Mendoza. On this rocky scene a peculiar
brightness occasionally rests, a kind of undescribable reddish light,
which vanishes during the winter rains, and is not perceptible on
sunny days. Dr. Pœppig ascribes the phenomenon to the dryness
of the air: he was confirmed in his opinion from afterwards
observing a similar brightness on the coast of Peru, and it has also
been seen in Egypt.
103The Andes descend to the eastern plains by a series of cultivated
levels, as those of Tucuman, Salta, and Jujuy, in the Republic of
La Plata, with many others. That of Tucuman is 2500 feet above
the sea—the garden of the republic.
The low lands to the east of the Andes are divided by the table-lands
and mountains of Parima and Brazil into three parts of very
different aspect—the deserts and pampas of Patagonia and Buenos
Ayres, the Silvas or woody basin of the Amazons, and the Llanos
or grassy steppes of the Orinoco. The eastern table-lands nowhere
exceed 2500 feet of absolute height; the plains are so low and flat,
especially at the foot of the Andes, that a rise of 1000 feet in the
Atlantic Ocean would submerge more than half the continent of
South America.
The system of Parima is a group of mountains scattered over a
table-land not more than 2000 feet above the sea, which extends
600 or 700 miles from east to west, between the river Orinoco, the
Rio Negro, the Amazons, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is quite
unconnected with the Andes, being 80 leagues east from the mountains
of New Grenada. It begins 60 or 70 miles from the coast
of Venezuela, and ascends by four successive terraces to undulating
plains, which come within one or two degrees of the equator,
and is twice as long as it is broad.
Seven chains, besides groups of mountains, cross the table-land
from west to east, of which the chief is the Sierra del Parima.
Beginning at the mouth of the Meta, it crosses the plains of Esmeralda
to the borders of Brazil. This chain is not more than 600
feet high, is everywhere escarped, and forms the watershed between
the tributaries of the Amazons and those of the Orinoco. The Orinoco
rises on the northern side of the Sierra del Parima, and in
its circuitous course over the plains of Esmeralda it breaks through
that chain and the parallel chain of the Maypures 37 miles to the
south: dashing with violence against the transverse shelving rocks
and dykes, it forms the magnificent series of rapids and cataracts
of Maypures and Atures, from whence the Parima mountains have
got the name of the Cordillera of the cataracts of the Orinoco. The
chain is of granite, which forms the banks and fills the bed of the
river, covered with luxuriant tropical vegetation, especially palm-forests.
In the district of the Upper Orinoco, near Charichana,
there is a granite rock which emits musical sounds at sunrise, like
the notes of an organ, occasioned by the difference of temperature
of the external air and that which fills the deep narrow crevices
with which the rock is everywhere torn. Something of the same
kind occurs at Mount Sinai.[50]
The other parallel chains that extend over the table-land in
104Venezuela and Guiana, though not of great height, are very rugged
and often crowned with mural ridges; they are separated by
flat savannahs, generally barren in the dry season, but after the
rains covered with a carpet of emerald-green grass, often six feet
high, mixed with flowers. The vegetation in these countries is
beautiful beyond imagination: the regions of the Upper Orinoco
and Rio Negro, and of almost all the mountains and banks of rivers
in Guiana, are clothed with majestic and impenetrable forests,
whose moist and hot recesses are the abode of the singular and beautiful
race of the Orchideæ and tangled creepers of many kinds.
Although all the mountains of the system of Parima are wild
and rugged, they are not high; the inaccessible peak of the Cerro
Duida, which rises insulated 7155 feet above the plain of Esmeralda,
is the culminating point, and one of the highest mountains
in South America east of the Andes. The fine savannahs of the
Rupununi were the country of romance in the days of Queen
Elizabeth. South of Pacaraime, near an inlet of the river, the
far-famed city of Manoa was supposed to stand, the object of the
unfortunate expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh; about 11 miles
south-west of which is situated the lake Amucu, “the Great Lake
with golden banks,”—great only during the periodical floods.[51]
On the southern side of the basin of the river Amazons lies the
table-land of Brazil, nowhere more than 2500 feet high, which
occupies half that empire, together with part of the Argentine
republic and Uruguay Orientale. Its form is a triangle, whose
apex is at the confluence of the rivers Mamore and Beni, and its
base extends, near the shore of the Atlantic, from the mouth of
the Rio de la Plata to within three degrees of the equator. It is
difficult to define the limits of this vast territory, but some idea
may be formed of it by following the direction of the rapids and
cataracts of the rivers descending from it to the plains around.
Thus, a line drawn from the fall of the river of the Tocantins, in
3° 30ʹ S. latitude, to the cataracts of the Madeira, in the eighth
degree of south latitude, will nearly mark its northern boundary;
from thence the line would run S.W. to the junction of the
Mamore and Beni; then turning to the S.E. along the ridges of
mountains called the Cordillera Geral, and Sierra Parecis, it
would proceed south to the cataract of the Paraná, called the Sete
Quedas, in 24° 30ʹ S. lat.; and lastly from thence, by the great
falls of the river Iguassu, to the Morro de Santa Martha, in lat.
28° 40ʹ, south of the island of St. Catherine.
Chains of mountains, nearly parallel, extend from south-west
to north-east, 700 miles along the base of the triangle, with a
breadth of about 400 miles. Of these, the Sierra de Mar, or the
105“coast-chain,” reaches from the river Uruguay to Cape San
Roque, never more distant than 20 miles from the Atlantic, except
to the south of the bay of Santos, where it is 80. Offsets diverge
to the right and left; the granitic peaks of the Corcovado and
Tejuco, which form such picturesque objects in that most magnificent
of panoramas the bay of Rio de Janeiro, are the ends of one.
The parallel chain of Espenhaço, beginning near the town of San
Paolo, and the continuous chains of the Serro Frio, and forming
the western boundary of the basin of the Rio San Francisco, is
the highest in Brazil, one of its mountains, Itambe, being 8426
feet above the sea. All the mountains in Brazil have a general
tendency from S.W. to N.E., except the transverse chain of the
Sierra dos Vertentes, which begins 60 miles south of Villa Rica,
and runs in a tortuous line to its termination near the junction of
the Mamore and Beni. It forms the watershed of the tributaries
of the San Francisco and Amazons on the north, and those of the
Rio de la Plata on the south; its greatest height is 3500 feet
above the sea: its western part, the Sierra Parecis, is merely a
succession of detached hills. This chain, the coast-chain of Venezuela,
and the mountains of Parima, are the only ranges in the
continent of America that do not entirely, or in some degree, lie
in the direction of the meridians.
Magnificent forests of tall trees, bound together by tangled
creeping and parasitical plants, clothe the declivities of the mountains
and line the borders of the Brazilian rivers, where the soil
is rich and the verdure brilliant. Many of the plains on the table-land
bear a coarse nutritious grass after the rains only, others
forests of dwarf trees; but vast undulating tracts are always verdant
with excellent pasture intermixed with fields of corn: some
parts are bare sand and rolled quartz, and the Campos Parecis,
north of the Sierre dos Vertentes, in the province of Matto Grosso,
is a sandy desert of unknown extent, similar to the Great Gobi on
the table-land of Tibet.
CHAPTER IX. — GEOLOGY OF SOUTH AMERICA.
The Low Lands of South America—Desert of Patagonia—The Pampas
of Buenos Ayres—The Silvas of the Amazons—The Llanos of the
Orinoco and Venezuela—Geological Notice.
The southern plains are the most barren of the three great tracts
of American low lands; they stretch from Tierra del Fuego over 27
degrees of latitude, or 1900 miles, nearly to Tucuman and the
106mountains of Brazil. Palms grow at one end, deep snow covers
the other many months in the year. This enormous plain, of
1,620,000 square miles, begins on the eastern part of Tierra del
Fuego, which is a flat covered with trees, and therefore superior
to its continuation on the continent through eastern Patagonia,
which, for 800 miles from the land’s end to beyond the Rio Colorado,
is a desert of shingle.[52] It is occasionally diversified by huge
boulders, tufts of brown grass, low bushes armed with spines,
brine-lakes, incrustations of salt, white as snow, and by black
basaltic platforms, like plains of iron, at the foot of the Andes,
barren as the rest. Eastern Patagonia, however, is not one universal
flat, but a succession of shingly horizontal plains at higher
and higher levels, separated by long lines of cliffs or escarpments,
the gable ends of the tiers or plains. The ascent is small, for
even at the foot of the Andes the highest of these platforms is
only 3000 feet above the ocean. The plains are here and there
intersected by a ravine or a stream, the waters of which do not
fertilize the blighted soil. The transition from intense heat to
intense cold is rapid, and piercing winds often rush in hurricanes
over these deserts, shunned even by the Indian, except when he
crosses them to visit the tombs of his fathers. The shingle ends
a few miles to the north of the Rio Colorado: there the red calcareous
earth of the Pampas begins, monotonously covered with
coarse tufted grass, without a tree or bush. This country, nearly
as level as the sea and without a stone, extends almost to the
table-land of Brazil, and for 1000 miles between the Atlantic and
the Andes, interrupted only at vast distances by a solitary umbú,
the only tree of this soil, rising like a great landmark. This wide
space, though almost destitute of water, is not all of the same
description. In the Pampas of Buenos Ayres there are four distinct
regions. For 180 miles west from Buenos Ayres they are
covered with thistles and lucern of the most vivid green so long
as the moisture from the rain lasts. In spring the verdure fades,
and a month afterwards the thistles shoot up 10 feet high, so
dense and so protected by spines that they are impenetrable.
During the summer the dried stalks are broken by the wind, and
the lucern again spreads freshness over the ground. The Pampas
for 430 miles west of this region is a thicket of long tufted
luxuriant grass, intermixed with gaudy flowers, affording inexhaustible
pasture to thousands of horses and cattle; this is followed
by a tract of swamps and bogs, to which succeeds a region
of ravines and stones, and, lastly, a zone, reaching to the Andes,
of thorny bushes and dwarf trees in one dense thicket. The flat
plains in Entre Rios in Uruguay, those of Santa Fé, and a great
107part of Cordova and Tucuman, are of sward, with cattle-farms.
The banks of the Paraná, and other tributaries of the La Plata,
are adorned with an infinite variety of tropical productions, especially
the graceful tribe of palms; and the river islands are bright
with orange-groves. A desert of sand, called El Gran Chaco,
exists west of the Paraguay, the vegetable produce of which is
confined to a variety of the aloe and cactus tribes. Adjoining
this desert are the Bolivian provinces of Chiquitos and Moxos,
covered with forests and jungle, the scene of the most laborious
and benificent exertions of the Jesuit Missionaries towards the
civilization of the aborigines of South America in the last century.
The Pampas of Buenos Ayres, 1000 feet above the sea, sink
to a low level along the foot of the Andes, where the streams
from the mountains collect in large lakes, swamps, lagoons of prodigious
size, and wide-spreading salines. The swamp or lagoon
of Ybera, of 1000 square miles, is entirely covered with aquatic
plants. These swamps are swollen to thousands of square miles
by the annual floods of the rivers, which also inundate the Pampas,
leaving a fertilizing coat of mud. Multitudes of animals
perish in the floods, and the drought that sometimes succeeds is
more fatal. Between the years 1830 and 1832 two millions of
cattle died from want of food. Millions of animals are sometimes
destroyed by casual and dreadful conflagrations in these countries
when covered with dry grass and thistles.[53]
The Silvas of the river of the Amazons, lying in the centre of
the continent, form the second division of the South American
low lands. This country is more uneven than the Pampas, and
the vegetation is so dense that it can only be penetrated by sailing
up the river or its tributaries. The forests not only cover the
basin of the Amazons from the Cordillera of Chiquitos to the
mountains of Parima, but also its limiting mountain-chains, the
Sierra dos Vertentes and Parima, so that the whole forms an area
of woodland more than six times the size of France, lying between
the 18th parallel of south latitude and the 7th of north;
consequently inter-tropical and traversed by the equator. There
are some marshy savannahs between the 3d and 4th degrees of
north latitude, and some grassy steppes south of the Pacaraimo
chain; but they are insignificant compared with the Silvas, which
extend 1500 miles along the river, varying in breadth from 350
to 800 miles, and probably more. According to Baron Humboldt,
the soil, enriched for ages by the spoils of the forest, consists
of the richest mould. The heat is suffocating in the deep
108and dark recesses of these primeval woods, where not a breath of
air penetrates, and where, after being drenched by the periodical
rains, the damp is so excessive that a blue mist rises in the early
morning among the huge stems of the trees, and envelops the
entangled creepers stretching from bough to bough. A death-like
stillness prevails from sunrise to sunset, then the thousands of
animals that inhabit these forests join in one loud discordant
roar, not continuous, but in bursts. The beasts seem to be periodically
and unanimously roused by some unknown impulse, till
the forest rings in universal uproar. Profound silence prevails at
midnight, which is broken at the dawn of morning by another
general roar of the wild chorus. Nightingales too have their fits
of silence and song; after a pause they
“—— all burst forth in choral minstrelsy,
As if some sudden gale had swept at once
A hundred airy harps.” Coleridge.
The whole forest often resounds when the animals, startled from
their sleep, scream in terror at the noise made by bands of its
inhabitants flying from some night-prowling foe. Their anxiety
and terror before a thunder-storm is excessive, and all nature
seems to partake in the dread. The tops of the lofty trees rustle
ominously, though not a breath of air agitates them; a hollow
whistling in the high regions of the atmosphere comes as a warning
from the black floating vapour; midnight darkness envelops
the ancient forests, which soon after groan and creak with the
blast of the hurricane. The gloom is rendered still more hideous
by the vivid lightning and the stunning crash of thunder. Even
fishes are affected with the general consternation; for in a few
minutes the Amazons rages in waves like a stormy sea.
The Llanos of the Orinoco and Venezuela, covered with long
grass, form the third department of South American low lands,
and occupy 153,000 square miles between the deltas of the
Orinoco and the river Coqueta, flat as the surface of the sea. It
is possible to travel over these flat plains for 1100 miles from the
delta of the Orinoco to the foot of the Andes of Pasto; frequently
there is not an eminence a foot high in 270 square miles. They
are twice as long as they are broad; and as the wind blows constantly
from the east, the climate is the more ardent the farther
west. These steppes for the most part are destitute of trees or
bushes, yet in some places they are dotted with the mauritia and
other palm-trees. Flat as these plains are, there are in some
places two kinds of inequalities; one consists of banks or shoals
of grit or compact limestone, five or six feet high, perfectly level
for several leagues, and imperceptible except on their edges: the
other inequality can only be detected by the barometer or levelling
109instruments; it is called a Mesa, and is an eminence rising imperceptibly
to the height of some fathoms. Small as the elevation
is, a mesa forms the watershed from S.W. to N.E., between the
affluents of the Orinoco and the streams flowing to the northern
coast of Terra Firma. In the wet season, from April to the end
of October, the tropical rains pour down in torrents, and hundreds
of square miles of the Llanos are inundated by the floods of the
rivers. The water is sometimes 12 feet deep in the hollows, in
which so many horses and other animals perish, that the ground
smells of musk, an odour peculiar to many South American
quadrupeds. From the flatness of the country too, the waters of
some affluents of the Orinoco are driven backwards by the floods of
that river, especially when aided by the wind, and form temporary
lakes. When the waters subside, these steppes, manured by the
sediment, are mantled with verdure, and produce ananas, with
occasional groups of fan palm-trees, and mimosas skirt the rivers.
When the dry weather returns, the grass is burnt to powder; the
air is filled with dust raised by currents occasioned by difference
of temperature, even where there is no wind. If by any accident
a spark of fire falls on the scorched plains, a conflagration spreads
from river to river, destroying every animal, and leaves the clayey
soil sterile for years, till vicissitudes of weather crumble the brick-like
surface into earth.
The Llanos lie between the equator and the Tropic of Cancer;
the mean annual temperature is about 84° of Fahrenheit. The
heat is most intense during the rainy season, when tremendous
thunder-storms are of common occurrence.
The most remarkable circumstance in the geological features
of the South American continent is the vast development of
volcanic force, which is confined to the chain of the Andes, and
where it has acquired a considerable breadth, as in the Peru-Bolivian
portion, to the part nearest the sea-coast. It would be
wrong, however, to say that there are no traces of modern volcanic
action at a great distance from the sea:[54] it is one of those
110theories which recent discoveries in both continents have proved
the fallacy of. The volcanic vents occur in the Andes in linear
groups: the most southern of these is that of Chile, extending
from the latitude of Chiloe to that of Santiago, 42° to 33° S.: in
this space exist five well-authenticated craters in ignition—the
most southern is the volcano of Llanquihae or Osorno, observed
by M. Gaye, and the most northern that of Maypu, the fires of
which are sometimes seen from the capital of Chile. Between
the 32d parallel and the Bolivian frontier there does not appear
to be a single volcanic vent, but in the province of Atacama rises
the volcano of San Pedro of Atacama. The mountain of Isluga,
in the province of Tarapaca, is said to be an active volcano, but
the great centre of volcanic action in this part of the Western
Cordillera extends from 18° 10ʹ to 16° 20ʹ, where the Andes have
changed their direction from being parallel to the meridian to one
inclined nearly 45 degrees to that line. The trachytic giant
domes of the Andes, Sahama, and the Nevado of Chuquibamba
mark the N. and S. limits of this line of vents: the former, one
of the most perfect trachytic pyramids in the Andes, rises to a
height of 22,350 feet, in lat. 18° 7ʹ and long. 68° 54ʹ W.; near to
it are the twin Nevados of Pomarape and Parinacota, one of which
appears to emit smoke. The group of snowy peaks seen from
Arica, the centre of which, the Nevado of Tacora, is in lat. 17°
43ʹ, offers a broken-down crater, and an active solfaterra, on one
of its sides. Between this point and the volcano of Arequipa no
active volcano has been observed. It is well known that the latter
has vomited flames and ashes, and spread desolation around, at a
comparatively recent period; the crater of Uvinas, active in the
16th century, is now filled up and completely extinct. Between
the latitude of Arequipa (16° 24ʹ) and the Equatorial group of
volcanos, the Andes do not present a single active crater. This
Equatorial group extends over a meridional line of
31⁄4
degrees—between
the Peak of Sangay and the volcano of Los Pastos. The
most remarkable of these volcanic vents are the Sangay, Tunguragua,
and Cotopaxi, all situated in the Cordillera most remote
from the ocean. Pichincha burned as recently as 1831; and
north of the Equator, Imbaburu, the volcanos of Chiles, of Cumbal,
of Tuqueres or Los Pastos, of Sotara and Purace, mark the
extension of actual volcanic action into our hemisphere.
111Granite, which seems to be the base of the whole continent, is
widely spread to the east and south: it appears in Tierra del Fuego
and in the Patagonian Andes abundantly, and at great elevations,
and in Chile and southern Peru forms the line of hills parallel to the
Pacific, and where are situated the mineral riches of the former
republic; but it comes into view so rarely in the northern parts of
the chain, that Baron Humboldt says a person might travel years
in the Andes of Peru and Quito without falling in with it. He
never saw it at a greater height above the sea than 11,500 feet.
Gneiss is here and there associated with the granite, but micaschist
is by much the most common of the crystalline rocks. Quartz
rock, probably of the Devonian period, is much developed, generally
mixed with mica, and rich in gold and specular iron. It
sometimes extends several leagues in the western declivities of
Peru 6000 feet thick. Red sandstone, with its gypseous and
saliferous marls, of the age of our English red marl, of vast dimensions,
occurs in the Andes, and on the table-land east of them,
where, in some places, as in Colombia, it spreads over thousands
of square miles to the shores of the Atlantic. It is widely extended
at altitudes of 10,000 and 12,000 feet—for example, on
the plains of Tarqui and in the valley of Cuença. Coal is sometimes
associated with it, and is found in the Andes of Pasco, in
Peru, 14,750 feet above the sea.
Porphyry abounds all over the Andes, from Patagonia to Colombia,
at every elevation, on the slopes and summits of the mountains
rising to the greatest elevation, but of very different ages
and mineralogical characters. One variety which frequently
occurs is rich in metals, and hence has been designated as metalliferous:
in it are situated some of the most celebrated silver
mines of Peru, those of Potosi, Oruro, Puno. The bare and precipitous
porphyry-rocks give great variety to the colouring of the
Andes, especially in Chile, where purple, tile-red, and brown are
contrasted with the snow on the summit of the chain.[55]
Trachyte is almost as abundant as porphyry; many of the
loftiest parts, and all the great dome-shaped mountains, are formed
of it. Masses of this rock, from 14,000 to 18,000 feet thick, are
seen on Chimborazo and Pichincha. Prodigious quantities of
volcanic products, lava, tufa, and obsidian, occur on the western
face of the Andes, where volcanos are active. On the eastern
side there are none. This is especially the case in that part of
the chain lying between the equator and Chile. The Bolivian
Cordilleras, which encircle the valley of Desaguadero, furnish a
striking example. The Cordillera of the coast is composed of
crystalline and stratified rocks at its base, and of trachytes, obsidian,
112and trachytic conglomerates at greater elevations, while the eastern
Cordillera consists of stratified rocks of the Silurian system, with
granites, quartziferous porphyries, and syenites injected, and of
secondary rocks of the triassic period, and marls, containing
gypsum, oolitic limestone, and rock-salt of the most beautiful
colours. Towards Chile, and throughout the Chilian range, the
case is different, because active volcanos are there in the centre
of the chain.
Sea-shells of different geological periods are found at various
elevations, which shows that many upheavings and subsidences
have taken place in the chain of the Andes.[56] The whole range,
after twice subsiding some thousand feet, was brought up by a
slow movement in mass during the Eiocene period, after which
it sank down once more several hundred feet, to be again uplifted
to its present level by a slow and often interrupted motion.
These vicissitudes are very perceptible, especially at its southern
extremity. Stems of large trees, which Mr. Darwin found in a
fossil state in the Uspallata range, on the eastern declivity of the
Chilian Andes, now 700 miles distant from the Atlantic, exhibit a
remarkable example of such vicissitudes. These trees, with the
volcanic soil on which they had grown, had sunk from the beach
to the bottom of a deep ocean, from which, after five alternations
of sedimentary deposits and deluges of submarine lava of prodigious
thickness, the whole mass was raised up, and now forms
the Uspallata chain. Subsequently, by the wearing of streams,
the embedded trunks have been brought into view in a silicified
state, projecting from the soil in which they grew—now solid
rock.
“Vast and scarcely comprehensible as such changes must ever
appear, yet they have all occurred within a period recent when
compared with the history of the Cordillera; and the Cordillera
itself is absolutely modern compared with many of the fossiliferous
strata of Europe and America.”[57]
From the quantity of shingle and sand in the valleys in the
lower ridges, as well as at altitudes from 7000 to 9000 feet above
the present level of the sea, it appears that the whole area of the
Chilian Andes has been rising for centuries by a gradual motion;
and the coast is now rising by the same imperceptible degrees,
though it is sometimes suddenly elevated by a succession of small
upheavings of a few feet by earthquakes, similar to that which
shook the continent for 1000 miles on the 20th of February, 1835.
113On the eastern side of the Andes the land from Tierra del
Fuego to the Rio de la Plata has been raised en masse by one
great elevating force, acting equally and imperceptibly for 2000
miles, within the period of the shell-fish now existing, which, in
many parts of these plains, even still retain their colours. The
gradual upward movement was interrupted by at least eight long
periods of rest, marked by the edges of the successive plains,
which, extending from south to north, had formed so many lines
of sea-coast, as they rose higher and higher between the Atlantic
and the Andes. It appears, from the shingle and fossil shells
found on both sides of the Cordillera, that the whole south-western
extremity of the continent has been rising slowly for a long time,
and indeed the whole Andean chain. The rise on the coast of
Chile has been at the rate of several feet in a century; but it has
diminished eastward, till, in the Patagonian plains and Pampas,
it has been only a few inches in the same line.
The instability of the southern part of the continent is less
astonishing, if it be considered that at the time of the earthquake
of 1835 the volcanos in the Chilian Andes were in eruption contemporaneously
for 720 miles in one direction and 400 in another,
so that in all probability there was a subterranean lake of burning
lava below this end of the continent twice as large as the Black
Sea.[58]
The terraced plains of Patagonia, which extend hundreds of
miles along the coast, are tertiary strata, not in basins, but in one
great deposit, above which lies a thick stratum of a white pumaceous
substance, extending at least 500 miles, a tenth part of
which consists of marine infusoria. Over the whole lies the
shingle already mentioned, spread over the coast for 700 miles in
length, with a mean breadth of 200 miles, and 50 feet thick.
These myriads of pebbles, chiefly of porphyry, have been torn
from the rocks of the Andes, and water-worn, at a period subsequent
to the deposition of the tertiary strata—a period of incalculable
duration. All the plains of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia,
on both sides of the Andes, are strewed with huge boulders,
which have been supposed to have been transported by icebergs
which had descended to lower latitudes in ancient times than
they do now—observations of great interest, which we owe to
Mr. Darwin.
The stunted vegetation of these sterile plains was sufficient to
nourish large animals of the pachydermata tribe, now extinct,
even at a period when the present shell-fish of the Patagonian
seas existed.
The Pampas of Buenos Ayres are entirely alluvial, the deposit
114of the Rio de la Plata. Granite prevails to the extent of 2000
miles along the coast of Brazil, and with syenite forms the base
of the table-land. The superstructure of the latter consists of
metamorphic and old igneous rocks, sandstone, clay-slate, limestone,
in which are large caverns with bones of extinct animals,
and alluvial soil. Gold is found in the alluvial soil on the banks
of the rivers, and diamonds, so abundant in that country, in a
ferruginous conglomerate of a very recent period.
The fertile soil of the Silvas has travelled from afar: washed
down from the Andes, it has been gradually deposited, and
manured by the decay of a thousand forests. Granite again
appears, in more than its usual ruggedness, in the table-land and
mountains of the Parima system. The sandstone of the Andes
is found there also; and on the plains of Esmeralda it caps the
granite of the solitary prism-shaped Duida, the culminating
mountain of the Parima system. Limestone appears in the
Brigantine or Cocollar, the most southern of the three ranges of
the coast-chain of Venezuela; the other two are of granite,
metamorphic rocks, and crystalline schists, torn by earthquakes
and worn by the sea, which has deeply indented that coast. The
chain of islands in the Spanish main is merely the wreck of a
more northern ridge, broken up into detached masses by these
irresistible powers.
CHAPTER X.
Central America—West Indian Islands—Geological Notice.
Taking the natural divisions of the continent alone into consideration,
Central America may be regarded as lying between the
Isthmus of Panamá and Darien and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,
and consequently in a tropical climate. This narrow tortuous
strip of land, which unites the continents of North and South
America, stretches from S.E. to N.W. about 1200 miles, varying
in breadth from 20 to 300 or 400 miles.
As a regular chain, the Andes descend suddenly at the Isthmus
of Panamá, but as a mass of high land they continue through
Central America and Mexico, in an irregular mixture of table-lands
and mountains. The mass of high land which forms the
central ridge of the country, and the watershed between the two
oceans, is very steep on its western side, and runs near the coast
of the Pacific, where Central America is narrow; but to the north,
where it becomes wider, the high land recedes to a greater distance
115from the shore than the Andes do in any other part between
Cape Horn and Mexico.
This country consists of three distinct groups, divided by valleys
which run from sea to sea, namely, Costarica, the group of
Honduras and Nicaragua, and the group of Guatemala.[59]
The plains of Panamá, very little raised above the sea, and in
some parts studded with hills, follow the direction of the isthmus for
280 miles, and end at the Bay of Parita. From thence the forest-covered
Cordillera of Veragua, supposed to be 9000 feet high,
extends to the small but elevated table-land of Costarica, surrounded
by volcanos, and terminates at the plain of Nicaragua,
which, together with its lake, occupies an area of 30,000 square
miles, and forms the second break in the great Andean chain.
The lake is only 128 feet above the Pacific, from which it is
separated by a line of active volcanos. The river San Juan de
Nicaragua flows from its eastern end into the Caribbean Sea, and
at its northern extremity it is connected with the smaller lake of
Managua or Leon by the river Penaloya. By this water-line it
has been projected to unite the two seas. The high land begins
again, after an interval of 170 miles, with the Mosquito country
and Honduras, which mostly consist of table-lands and high
mountains, some of which are volcanos.
Guatemala is a table-land intersected by deep valleys, which
lies between the plain of Comayagua and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
It spreads to the east in the peninsula of Yucatan, which
terminates at Cape Catoche, and encompasses the Bay of Honduras
with terraces of high mountains. The table-land of Guatemala
consists of undulating verdant plains of great extent, of the
absolute height of 5000 feet, fragrant with flowers. In the
southern part of the table-land the cities of Old and New Guatemala
are situate, 12 miles apart. The portion of the plain on
which the new city stands is bounded on the west by the three
volcanos of Pacayo, del Fuego, and de Agua; these, rising from
7000 to 10,000 feet above the plain, lie close to the new city on
the west, and form a scene of wonderful boldness and beauty.
The Volcano de Agua, at the foot of which Old Guatemala stands,
is a perfect cone, verdant to its summit, which occasionally pours
forth torrents of boiling water and stones. The old city has been
twice destroyed by it, and is now nearly deserted on account of
earthquakes. The Volcano del Fuego generally emits smoke
from one of its peaks; and the Volcano de Pacayo is only occasionally
active. The wide grassy plains are cut by deep valleys
to the north, where the high land of Guatemala ends in parallel
ridges of mountains, called the Cerro Pelado, which run from
116east to west along the 94th meridian, filling half the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec, which is 140 miles broad, and unites the table-land
of Guatemala with that of Mexico.
Though there are large savannahs on the high plains of Guatemala,
there are also magnificent primeval forests, as the name of
the country implies, Guatemala signifying, in the Mexican language,
a place covered with trees. The banks of the Rio de la
Papian, or Usumasinta, which rises in the alpine lake of Lacandon,
and flows over the table-land to the Gulf of Mexico, are beautiful
beyond description.
The coasts of Central America are generally narrow, and in
some places the mountains and high lands come close to the
water’s edge. The sugar-cane is indigenous, and on the low
lands of the eastern coast all the ordinary produce of the West
Indian islands is raised, besides much that is peculiar to the
country.
As the climate is cool on the high lands, the vegetation of the
temperate zone is there in perfection. On the low lands, as in
other countries where heat and moisture are in excess, and where
nature is for the most part undisturbed, vegetation is vigorous to
rankness: forests of gigantic timber seek the foul air above an
impenetrable undergrowth, and the mouths of the rivers are
dense masses of jungle with mangroves and reeds 100 feet high,
yet delightful savannahs vary the scene, and wooded mountains
dip into the water.
Nearly all the coast of the Pacific is skirted by an alluvial
plain, of small width, and generally very different in character
from that on the Atlantic side. In a line along the western side
of the table-land and the mountains there is a continued succession
of volcanos, at various distances from the shore, and at
various heights, on the declivity of the table-land. It seems as if
a great crack or fissure had been produced in the earth’s surface,
along the junction of the mountains and the shore, through which
the internal fire had found a vent. There are more than 20 active
volcanoes in succession between the 10th and 20th parallels of
north latitude; some higher than the mountains of the central
ridge, and several subject to violent eruptions. Altogether, there
are 39 in Central America, 17 of which are in Guatemala—a
greater number than in any other country, Java excepted.
The Colombian Archipelago, or West Indian Islands, which
may be regarded as the wreck of a submerged part of the continent
of South and Central America, consists of three distinct
groups, namely, the Lesser Antillas or Caribbean Islands, the
Greater Antillas, and the Bahama or Lucay Islands. Some of
the Lesser Antillas are flat, but their general character is bold,
with a single mountain or group of mountains in the centre,
117which slopes to the sea all around, more precipitously on the
eastern side, which is exposed to the force of the Atlantic current.
Trinidad is the most southerly of a line of magnificent
islands, which form a semi-circle, enclosing the Caribbean Sea,
with its convexity facing the east. The row is single to the
island of Gaudeloupe, where it splits into two chains, known as
the Windward and Leeward Islands. Trinidad, Tobago, St.
Lucia, and Dominica are particularly mountainous, and the
mountains are cut by deep narrow ravines, or gullies, covered
by ancient forests. The volcanic islands, which are mostly in
the single part of the chain, have conical mountains bristled
with rocks of a still more rugged form; but almost all the islands
of the Lesser Antillas have a large portion of excellent vegetable
soil in a high state of cultivation. Most of them are surrounded
by coral reefs, which render navigation dangerous, and there is
little intercourse between these islands, and still less with the
Greater Antillas, on account of the prevailing winds and currents,
which make it difficult to return. The Lesser Antillas terminate
with the group of the Virgin Islands, which are small and flat,
some only a few feet above the sea, and most of them are mere
coral rocks.
The four islands which form the group of the Greater Antillas
are the largest and finest in the Archipelago. Porto Rico, Haiti
or San Domingo, and Jamaica, separated from the Virgin Islands
by a narrow channel, lie in a line parallel to the coast-chain of
Venezuela, from east to west; while Cuba, by a serpentine bend,
separates the Caribbean Sea, or Sea of the Antillas, from the Gulf
of Mexico. Porto Rico is 90 miles long and 36 broad, with wooded
mountains passing through its centre nearly from east to west,
which furnish abundance of water. There are extensive savannahs
in the interior, and very rich soil on the northern coast, but
the climate near the sea is unhealthy.
Haiti or San Domingo, 340 miles long and 132 broad, has a
chain of mountains in its centre, extending from east to west like
all the mountains in the Greater Antillas, the highest point of which
is 9000 feet above the sea. A branch diverges from the main
stem to Cape Tiburon, so that Haiti contains a great proportion of
high land. The mountains are susceptible of cultivation nearly
to the summit, and are clothed with undisturbed tropical forests.
The extensive plains are well watered, and the soil, though not
deep, is productive.
Jamaica, the most valuable of the British possessions in the West
Indies, has an area of 4256 square miles, of which 110,000 acres
are cultivated, chiefly as sugar-plantations. The principal chain
of the Blue Mountains lies in the centre of the island, from east to
west, with so sharp a crest that in some places it is only four yards
118across. The offsets from it cover all the eastern part of the island;
some of them are very high. The more elevated ridges are flanked
by lower ranges, descending to verdant savannahs. The escarpments
are wild, the declivities steep, and mingled with stately
forests. The valleys are very narrow, and not more than a twentieth
part of the island is level ground. There are many small
rivers, and the coast-line is 500 miles long, with at least 30 good
harbours. The mean summer-heat is 80° of Fahrenheit, and that
of winter is 75°. The plains are often unhealthy, but the air in
the mountains is salubrious; fever has never prevailed at the elevation
of 2500 feet.
Cuba, the largest island in the Colombian Archipelago, has an
area of 3615 square leagues, and 200 miles of coast, but so beset
with coral reefs, sandbanks, and rocks, that only a third of it is
accessible. Its mountains, which attain the height of 8000 feet,
occupy the centre and fill the eastern part of the island, in a great
longitudinal line. No island in these seas is more important with
regard to situation and natural productions; and although much
of the low ground is swampy and unhealthy, there are vast savannahs,
and about a seventh part of the island is cultivated.
The Bahama Islands are the least valuable and least interesting
part of the Archipelago. The group consists of about 500 islands,
many of them mere rocks, lying east of Cuba and the coast of
Florida. Twelve are rather large, and are cultivated; and though
arid, they produce Campeche or log-wood and mahogany. The
most intricate labyrinth of shoals and reefs, chiefly of corals, madrepores,
and sand, encompass these islands; some of them rise to the
surface, and are adorned with groves of palm-trees. The Great
Bahama is the first part of the New World on which Columbus
landed—the next was Haiti, where his ashes rest.
The geology of Central America is little known; nevertheless
it appears, from the confused mixture of table-lands and mountain-chains
in all directions, that the subterraneous forces must have
acted more partially and irregularly than either in South or North
America. Granite, gneiss, and mica-slate form the substrata of
the country; but the abundance of igneous rocks bears witness to
strong volcanic action, both in ancient and in modern times, which
still maintains its activity in the volcanic groups of Guatemala and
Mexico.
From the identity of the fossil remains of extinct quadrupeds,
there is every reason to believe that the West Indian Archipelago
was once part of South America, and that the rugged and tortuous
isthmus of Central America, and the serpentine chain of islands
winding from Cumana to the peninsula of Florida, are but the
shattered remains of an unbroken continent. The powerful volcanic
action in Central America and Mexico, the volcanic nature
119of many of the West Indian islands, and the still-existing fire in
St. Vincent’s, together with the tremendous earthquakes to which
the whole region is subject, render it more than probable that the
Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico are one great area of subsidence,
which possibly has been increased by the erosion of the
Gulf-stream and ground-swell—a temporary current of great impetuosity,
common among the West Indian islands from October to May.
The subsidence of this extensive area must have been very great,
since the water is of considerable depth between the islands, and
it must have taken place after the destruction of the great quadrupeds,
and consequently at a very recent geological period. The
elevation of the table-land of Mexico may have been a contemporaneous
event. In the Colombian Archipelago, volcanic action is
confined to the smaller islands, which, forming a line in a meridional
direction, extend from 12° to 18° N., and which may be
designated as the Caribbean range: it commences with Grenada
and ceases with St. Eustatius. St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Martinique,
a great portion of Guadaloupe, Montserrat, Nevis, and St. Kitts
are volcanic; most of them possess craters recently extinct, which
have vomited ashes and lava within historical periods; whilst the
less elevated of the Leeward and Windward Islands, Tobago, Barbadoes,
Deseada, Antigua, Barbuda and St. Bartholomew’s, with
the Virgin Islands and Bahamas, are composed either of calcareous
or coral rocks.
CHAPTER XI.
North America—Table-Land and Mountains of Mexico—The Rocky
Mountains—The Maritime Chain and Mountains of Russian America.
According to the natural division of the continent, North America
begins about the 20th degree of north latitude, and terminates in
the Arctic Ocean. It is longer than South America, but the irregularity
of its outline renders it impossible to estimate its area.
Its greatest length is about 5100 miles, and its breadth, at the widest
part, is 3500 miles.
The general structure of North America is still more simple than
that of the southern part of the continent. The table-lands of
Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, which are the continuation of
the high land of the Andes, run along the western side, but at so
great a distance from the Pacific as to admit of another system of
mountains along the coast. The immense plains to the east are
divided longitudinally by the Alleghany Mountains, which stretch
120from the Carolinas to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, parallel to the
Atlantic, and at no great distance from it. Although the general
direction of the mountains is from south to north, yet, as they maintain
a degree of parallelism to the two coasts, they diverge towards
the north—one in clinging towards the north-west, and the other
towards the north-east. The long narrow plain between the Atlantic
and the Alleghanies is divided, throughout its length, by a line of
cliffs not more than 200 or 300 feet above the Atlantic plain, the
out-cropping edge of the Second Terrace, or Atlantic Slope, whose
rolling surface goes west to the foot of the mountains.
An enormous table-land occupies the greater part of Mexico or
Anahuac. It begins at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and extends
north-west to the 42d parallel of north latitude, a distance of about
1600 miles, which is nearly equal to the distance from the north
extremity of Scotland to Gibraltar. It is narrow towards the south,
and expands towards the north-west till about the latitude of the
city of Mexico, where it attains its greatest breadth of 360 miles,
and there also it is highest. The most easterly part in that parallel
is 7500 feet above the sea, from whence it extends towards the
west, the height being 7430 feet at the city of Mexico, and then
gradually diminishes to 4000 feet towards the Pacific.
Its height in California is not known, but it still bears the character
of a table-land, and maintains an elevation of 6000 feet along
the east side of the Sierra Madre, even to the 32d degree of north
latitude, where it sinks to a lower level before joining the Rocky
Mountains. The descent from this plateau to the low lands is
very steep on all sides; on the east, especially, it is so precipitous
that, seen from a distance, it is like a range of high mountains.
There are only two carriage-roads to it from the Mexican Gulf, by
passes 500 miles asunder—one at Xalapa, near Vera Cruz, the
other at Saltillo, west of Monterey. The descent to the shores of
the Pacific is almost equally rapid, and that to the south no less
so, where, for 300 miles between the plains of Tehuantepec and
the Rio Yopez, it presses on the shores of the Pacific, and terminates
in high mountains, leaving only a narrow margin of hilly
maritime coast. Where the surface of the table-land is not traversed
by mountains, it is as level as the ocean. There is a carriage-road
over it for 1500 miles, without hills, from the city of
Mexico to Santa Fé.
The southern part of the plateau is divided into four parts or
distinct plains, surrounded by hills from 500 to 1000 feet high.
In one of these, the plain of Tenochtitlan, surrounded by a wall of
porphyritic mountains, stands the city of Mexico, once the capital
of the empire of Montezuma, which must have far surpassed the
modern city in extent and splendour, as many remains of its ancient
glory testify. It is 7430 feet above the sea.
121One of the singular crevices through which the internal fire
finds a vent, stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific,
directly across the table-land, in a line about 16 miles south of the
city of Mexico. A very remarkable row of active volcanoes occurs
along this parallel; Tuxtla, the most eastern of them, is in the
95th degree of west longitude, near the Mexican Gulf, in a low
range of wooded hills. More to the west stands the snow-shrouded
cone of Orizaba, with its ever-fiery crater, seen like a star in the
darkness of the night, which has obtained it the name of Cittalapetl—the
“Mountain of the Star.” Popocatepetl, the loftiest
mountain in Mexico, 17,884 feet above the sea, lies still farther
west, and is in a state of constant eruption, which, with the peaks
of Iztacihuatl and of Toluca, form a kind of volcanic circus, in the
midst of which the city of Mexico and its lake are situated. A
chain of smaller volcanoes unites the three. On a plain on the western
slope of the table-land, and about 70 miles in a straight line
from the Pacific, is the volcanic cone of Jorullo.[60] It suddenly
appeared, and rose 1683 feet above the plain, on the night of the
29th of September, 1759, and is the highest of six mountains which
have been thrown up on this part of the table-land since the middle
of last century. The great cone of Colima, the last of this volcanic
series, stands insulated in the plain of that name, between
the western declivity of the table-land and the Pacific.
A high range of mountains extends along the eastern margin
of the table-land to the Real de Catorce, and the surface of the
plain is divided into two parts by the Sierra Madre, which begins
at 21° of N. lat.; and, after running north about 60 miles, its
continuity is broken into the insulated ridges of the Sierra Altamina,
and the group containing the celebrated silver-mines of
Fresnillo and Zacatecas; it soon after resumes its character of a
regular chain, and, with a breadth of 100 miles, proceeds in
parallel ridges and longitudinal valleys to New Mexico, where it
skirts both banks of the Rio Bravo del Norte, and joins the
Sierra Verde, the most southern part of the Rocky Mountains, in
40° of N. lat.
To the south, some points of the Sierra Madre are said to be
10,000 feet high and 4000 feet above their base; and between
the parallels of 36° and 42°, where the chain is the watershed
between the Rio Colorado and the Rio Bravo del Norte, they are
still higher, and perpetually covered with snow. The mountains
on the left bank of the last-mentioned river are the eastern ridges
of the Sierra Madre, and contain the sources of the innumerable
affluents of the Missouri and other rivers that flow into the Mississippi
and Mexican Gulf.
122Deep cavities, called Barancas, are a characteristic feature of
the table-lands of Mexico: they are long rents, two or three miles
in breadth, and many more in length, often descending 1000 feet
below the surface of the plain, with a brook or the tributary of
some river flowing through them. Their sides are precipitous
and rugged, with overhanging rocks covered with large trees.
The intense heat adds to the contrast between these hollows and
the bare plains, where the air is more cool.
Vegetation varies with the elevation; consequently, the splendour
which adorns the low lands vanishes on the high plains,
which, though producing much grain and pasture, are often
saline, sterile, and treeless, except in some places where oaks
grow to an enormous size, free of underwood.
The Rocky Mountains run 1500 miles in two parallel chains
from the Sierra Verde to the mouth of the Mackenzie river in the
Arctic Ocean, sometimes united by a transverse ridge. In some
places the eastern range rises to the snow-line, and even far
above it, as in Mounts Hooper and Brown; but the general
elevation is only above the line of trees. The western range is
not so high till north of the 55th parallel, where both ranges are
of the same height, and frequently higher than the snow-line.
They are generally barren, though the transverse valleys have
fertile spots with grass, and sometimes trees. Their only offset
in the south is the Saba and Ozark mountains, which run through
Texas to the Mississippi. The long valley between the two rows
of the Rocky Mountains, which is 100 miles wide, must have
considerable elevation in the south, since the tributaries of the
Colombia river descend from it in a series of rapids and cataracts
for nearly 100 miles; and it is probably still higher towards the
sources of the Peace river, where the mountains, only 1500 feet
above it, are perpetually covered with snow. The Sierra Verde
is 490 miles from the Pacific, but, as the coast trends due north
to the Sound of Juan de Fuca, the western range of the Rocky
Mountains maintains a distance of 380 miles from the ocean,
from that point to the latitude of Behring’s Sea, in 60° of N. lat.
The mountains on the west coast consist of two chains, one of
which, beginning in Mexico, about the same latitude with the
Sierra Madre, skirts the Gulf of California on the east, and maintains
rather an inland course till north of the Oregon river, where
it forms the Sea Alps of the coast; and then, increasing in
breadth as it passes through Russian America, it ends at Nootka
Sound.
The other chain, known as the Sea Alps of California, begins
at the extremity of the peninsula, and, running northward with
increasing height close to the Pacific, it passes through the island
of Quadra and Vancouver, and, after joining the Alps of the north-west
123coast, it terminates at Mount St. Elias, which is 17,860 feet
high. A range of very high snowy mountains, which begins at
Cape Mendocino, goes directly across both of these coast-chains,
and unites them to the Rocky Mountains. It forms the watershed
between the Colorado, which goes to the Gulf of California,
and the affluents of the Oregon or Colombia river, which flows
into the Pacific, and is continued to the east of the Rocky Mountains,
at a less elevation, under the name of the Black Mountains,
which stretch to the Missouri. Prairies extend between this
coast-chain and the Rocky Mountains from California to the north
of the Oregon river. The Oregon coast, for 200 miles, is a mass
of undisturbed forest-thickets and marshes; and north from it,
with few exceptions, is a mountainous region of bold aspect, often
reaching above the snow-line. A branch of the Sea Alps, which
runs westward to Bristol Bay, has many active volcanos, and so
has that which fills the promontory of Aliaska.
The archipelagos and islands along the coast, from California
to the promontory of Aliaska, have the same bold character as the
mainland, and may be regarded as the tops of a submarine chain
of table-land and mountains which constitute the most westerly
ridge of the maritime chains. Prince of Wales’s Archipelago
contains seven active volcanos.
The mountains on the coasts of the Pacific and the islands are
in many places covered with colossal forests, but wide tracts in
the south are sandy deserts.
CHAPTER XII.
North America (continued)—The Great Central Plains, or Valley of the
Mississippi—The Alleghany Mountains—The Atlantic Slope—The
Atlantic Plain—Geological Notice—The Mean Height of the Continents.
The great central plain of North America, lying between the
Rocky and Alleghany Mountains, and reaching from the Gulf of
Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, includes the valleys of the Mississippi,
St. Lawrence, Nelson, Churchill, and most of those of the
Missouri, Mackenzie, and Coppermine rivers. It has an area of
3,245,000 square miles, which is 245,000 square miles more than
the central plain of South America, and about half the size of the
great plain of the old continent, which is less fertile; for although
the whole of America is not more than half the size of the old
continent, it contains at least as much productive soil.
124The plain, 5000 miles long, becomes wider towards the north,
and has no elevations, except a low table-land which crosses it at
the line of the Canadian lakes and the sources of the Mississippi,
and is nowhere above 1500 feet high, and rarely more than 700:
it is the watershed between the streams that go to the Arctic
Ocean and those that flow to the Mississippi. The character of
the plain is that of perfect uniformity, rising by a gentle regular
ascent from the Gulf of Mexico to the sources of the Mississippi,
which river is the great feature of the North American low lands.
The ground rises in the same equable manner from the right bank
of the Mississippi to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, but its
ascent from the left bank to the Alleghanies is broken into hill
and dale, containing the most fertile territory in the United States.
Under so wide a range of latitude the plain embraces a great
variety of soil, climate, and productions; but, being almost in a
state of nature, it is characterized in its middle and southern parts
by interminable grassy savannahs, or prairies, and enormous
forests, and in the far north by deserts which rival those of Siberia
in dreariness.
In the south a sandy desert, 400 or 500 miles wide, stretches
along the base of the Rocky Mountains to the 41st degree of N.
lat. The dry plains of Texas and the upper region of the Arkansas
have all the characteristics of Asiatic table-lands; more to the
north, the bare treeless steppes on the high grounds of the far
west are burnt up in summer, and frozen in winter by biting blasts
from the Rocky Mountains; but the soil improves towards the
Mississippi. At its mouth, indeed, there are marshes which
cover 35,000 square miles, bearing a rank vegetation, and its
delta is a labyrinth of streams and lakes, with dense brushwood.
There are also large tracts of forest and saline ground, especially
the Grand Saline between the rivers Arkansas and Neseikelongo,
which is often covered two or three inches deep with salt like a
fall of snow. All the cultivation on the right bank of the river is
along the Gulf of Mexico and in the adjacent provinces, and is
entirely tropical, consisting of sugar-cane, cotton, and indigo.
The prairies, so characteristic of North America, then begin.
To the right of the Mississippi these savannahs are sometimes
rolling, but oftener level, and interminable as the ocean, covered
with long rank grass of tender green, blended with flowers chiefly
of the liliaceous kind, which fill the air with their fragrance. In
the southern districts they are sometimes interspersed with groups
of magnolia, tulip, and cotton trees; and in the north with oak
and black walnut. These are rare occurrences, as the prairies
may be traversed for many days without finding a shrub, except
on the banks of the streams, which are beautifully fringed with
myrtles, azaleas, kalmias, andromedas, and rhododendrons. On
125the wide plains the only objects to be seen are countless herds of
wild horses, bison, and deer. The country assumes a more
severe aspect in higher latitudes. It is still capable of producing
rye and barley in the territories of the Assinaiboia Indians, and
round Lake Winnepeg there are great forests; a low vegetation
with grass follows, and towards the Icy Ocean the land is barren
and covered with numerous lakes.
East of the Mississippi there is a magnificent undulating country
about 300 miles broad, extending 1000 miles from south to
north between that great river and the Alleghany mountains, mostly
covered with trees. When America was discovered, one uninterrupted
forest spread over the country, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence
and the Canadian lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and from
the Atlantic Ocean it crossed the Alleghany mountains, descended
into the valley of the Mississippi on the north, but on the south
it crossed the main stream of that river altogether, forming an
ocean of vegetation of more than 1,000,000 of square miles, of
which the greater part still remains. Although forests occupy
so much of the country, there are immense prairies on the east
side of the river also. Pine barrens, stretching far into the interior,
occupy the whole coast of the Mexican Gulf eastward from
the Pearl River, through Alabama and a great part of Florida.
These vast monotonous tracts of sand, covered with forests of
gigantic pine-trees, are as peculiarly a distinctive feature of the
continent of North America as the prairies, and are not confined
to this part of the United States; they occur to a great extent in
North Carolina, Virginia, and elsewhere. Tennessee and Kentucky,
though much cleared, still possess large forests, and the
Ohio flows for hundreds of miles among magnificent trees, with
an undergrowth of azaleas, rhododendrons, and other beautiful
shrubs, matted together by creeping plants. There the American
forests appear in all their glory: the gigantic deciduous cypress,
and the tall tulip-tree, overtopping the forest by half its height, a
variety of noble oaks, black walnuts, American plane, hickory,
sugar-maple, and the lireodendron, the most splendid of the magnolia
tribe, the pride of the forest.
The Illinois waters a country of prairies ever fresh and green,
and five new states are rising round the great lakes, whose territory
of 280,000 square miles contains 180,000,000 of acres of land
of excellent quality. These states, still mostly covered with
wood, lie between the lakes and the Ohio, and they reach from
the Ohio river to the Upper Mississippi—a country twice as large
as France, and six times the size of England.
The quantity of water in the north-eastern part of the central
plain greatly preponderates over that of the land; the five principal
lakes, Huron, Superior, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario, cover an
126area equal to Great Britain [and Ireland], without reckoning
small lakes and rivers innumerable.
[The north-west country, or Upper Mississippi valley, comprehends
about ten degrees of latitude, from 39° to 49° north, and
about fourteen degrees of longitude, from 87° to 101° (from 10°
to 24° from the meridian of Washington), and contains about
300,000 square miles. A large part of this tract, consisting of the
northern portion, is still held by the Indians.
This country has some very peculiar natural features. The
most remarkable of these is the numberless lakes which spangle
its northern surface, the remains, no doubt, of a vast sea that once
covered the whole country extending north from the Gulf of
Mexico, possibly to Hudson’s Bay.
The country, from the outlets of the Illinois and Missouri rivers
to St. Peter’s, and from Lake Michigan to Council Bluffs, and
beyond that point westerly, is a vast gently-inclined plane, ascending
to the north and to the west. Between the Mississippi and
the lake the elevation above the Atlantic has been found to be a
little more than 500 feet: and west of the river, on the same
parallel, towards the Missouri, something more than 700 feet.
At St. Peter’s it is about 700 feet. Nicollet states that Council
Bluffs is 1037 feet above the gulf; and the elevation of Rock
Island, in the same latitude on the Mississippi, he says, is 528;
and the height of Fort Pierre Chouteau, on the Missouri, on the
same authority, is 1456; the lower end of Lake Pepin, in the
same latitude (44° 24ʹ north), is 710 feet, and the mouth of the
St. Peter’s, in about latitude 45°, is 744 feet. There are a few
elevations above the general range, called mounds; but with the
exception of these, the surface is marked only by ravines running
down to the beds of the streams, which are usually from one to
two hundred feet lower.
There are large tracts of this north-west country wholly destitute
of tree or shrub, and covered only with a luxuriant growth
of wild grass, and beautifully interspersed with flowers of every
hue and variety, each successively making the prairie to look gay
with their presence from April to October. This beautiful natural
meadow yields bountiful returns for culture and toil bestowed
upon it. It consists of a very dark-brown vegetable mould, and
is mellow beyond the conception of those who are acquainted only
with the hard, stiff soils of the Atlantic slope. This mould is
from one and a half to two feet deep, and entirely free from gravel.
The sub-soil is yellow light clay or clay loam, which resembles
the soil of timbered lands. The country is a limestone formation.
Timber is found only along the streams: it consists of elm, ash,
black walnut, butternut, maple, mulberry, and iron-wood, on the
bottoms; and on the upland, white, red, black, and burr-oaks, shell-bark
127and common hickory, with, occasionally, linden, birch, wild-plum
and cherry, locust, and some other trees. On the Wisconsin
and St. Croix rivers are heavy growths of pine, from which supplies
of lumber are carried down the Mississippi river.[61]
The mighty rivers of this region must be measured by travel,
the prairies must be crossed, and the lakes seen before the mind
fully comprehends a description of them. “To look at a prairie
up or down,” says Nicollet, “to ascend one of its undulations; to
reach a small plateau (or, as the voyageurs call it, a prairie
planché), moving from wave to wave over alternate swells and
depressions; and, finally, to reach the vast interminable low
prairie that extends itself in front,—be it for hours, days, or weeks,
one never tires; pleasurable and exhilarating sensations are all
the time felt; ennui is never experienced. Doubtless there are
moments when excessive heat, a want of fresh-water, and other
privations, remind one that life is toil; but these drawbacks are of
short duration. There is almost always a breeze over them. The
security that one feels in knowing that there are no concealed
dangers—so vast is the extent which the eye takes in—no difficulties
of road; a far spreading verdure, relieved by a profusion
of variously coloured flowers; the azure of the sky above, or the
tempest that can be seen from its beginning to its end; the beautiful
modifications of the changing clouds; the curious looming of
objects between earth and sky, taxing the ingenuity every moment
to rectify:—all, everything, is calculated to excite the perceptions
and keep alive the imagination. In the summer season, especially,
everything upon the prairies is cheerful, graceful, and
animated. The Indians, with herds of deer, antelope, and buffalo,
give life and motion to them. It is then they should be visited;
and I pity the man whose soul could remain unmoved under such
a scene of excitement.”]
The Canadas contain millions of acres of good soil, covered
with immense forests. Upper Canada is the most fertile, and in
many respects is one of the most valuable of the British colonies
in the west: every European grain, and every plant that requires
a hot summer and can endure a cold winter, thrives there. The
forests consist chiefly of black and white spruce, the Weymouth
and other pines—trees which do not admit of undergrowth: they
grow to great height, like bare spars, with a tufted crown, casting
a deep gloom below. The fall of large trees from age is a common
occurrence, and not without danger, as it often causes the
destruction of those adjacent; and an ice-storm is awful.
After a heavy fall of snow, succeeded by rain and a partial thaw,
128a strong frost coats the trees and all their branches with transparent
ice often an inch thick; the noblest trees bend under the
load, icicles hang from every bough, which come down in showers
with the least breath of wind. The hemlock-spruce especially,
with its long drooping branches, is then like a solid mass. If the
wind freshens, the smaller trees become like corn beaten down
by the tempest, while the large ones swing heavily in the breeze.
The forest at last gives way under its load, tree comes down
after tree with sudden and terrific violence, crushing all before
them, till the whole is one wide uproar, heard from afar like successive
discharges of artillery. Nothing, however, can be imagined
more brilliant and beautiful than the effect of sunshine in a
calm day on the frozen boughs, where every particle of the icy
crystals sparkles, and nature seems decked in diamonds.[62]
Although the subsoil is perpetually frozen at the depth of a few
feet below the surface beyond the 56th degree of north latitude,
yet trees grow in some places up to the 64th parallel. Farther
north the gloomy and majestic forests cease, and are succeeded by
a bleak, barren waste, which becomes progressively more dreary
as it approaches the Arctic Ocean. Four-fifths of it are like the
wilds of Siberia in surface and climate, covered many months in
the year with deep snow. During the summer it is the resort of
herds of rein-deer and bisons, which come from the south to
browse on the tender short grass which then springs up along
the streams and lakes.
The Alleghany or Appalachian chain, which constitutes the
second or subordinate system of North American mountains,
separates the great central plain from that which lies along the
Atlantic Ocean. Its base is a strip of table-land, from 1000 to
3000 feet high, lying between the sources of the rivers Alabama
and Yazoo, in the southern states of the Union, and New Brunswick,
at the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. This high land is
traversed throughout 1000 miles, between Alabama and Vermont,
by from three to five parallel ridges of low mountains, rarely more
than 3000 or 4000 feet high, and separated by fertile longitudinal
valleys, which occupy more than two-thirds of its breadth of 100
miles. In Virginia and Pennsylvania, the only part of the chain
to which the name of the Alleghany mountains properly belongs,
it is 150 miles broad, and the whole is computed to have an area
of 2,000,000 of square miles. The parallelism of the ridges, and
the uniform level of their summits, are the characteristics of this
chain, which is lower and less wild than the Rocky Mountains.
The uniformity of outline in the southern and middle parts of the
chain is very remarkable, and results from their peculiar structure.[63]129These mountains have no central axis, but consist of a
series of convex and concave flexures, forming alternate hills and
longitudinal valleys, running nearly parallel throughout their
length, and cut transversely by the rivers that flow to the Atlantic
on one hand, and to the Mississippi on the other. The watershed
nearly follows the windings of the coast from the point of
Florida to the north-western extremity of the State of Maine.[64]
The picturesque and peaceful scenery of the Appalachian
mountains is well known; they are generally clothed with a
luxuriant vegetation, and their western slope is considered one of
the finest countries in the United States. To the south they
maintain a distance of 200 miles from the Atlantic, but approach
close to the coast in the south-eastern part of the State of New
York, from whence their general course is northerly to the river
St. Lawrence. But the Blue Mountains, which form the most
easterly ridge, are continued in the double range of the Green
Mountains to Gaspé Point in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They
fill the Canadas, Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia with
branches as high as the mean elevation of the principal chain,
and extend even to the dreary regions of Baffin’s Bay. The
chief Canadian branches are parallel to the river St. Lawrence.
One goes N.E. from Quebec; and the Mealy Mountains, which
are of much greater length, extend from Ottowa River to Sandwich
Bay, and, though low, are always covered with snow.
Little is known of the high lands within the Arctic Circle, except
that they probably extend from S.E. to N.W.
The country between Hudson’s Bay, the mouths of the Churchill
and that of the Mackenzie river, is also an unknown region;
on the east it descends steeply to the coast, but the western part,
known as the Barren Ground, is low and destitute of wood,
except on the banks of the streams. The whole is covered with
low precipitous hills. Not only the deep forests, but vegetation
in general, diminishes as the latitude increases, till on the arctic
shores the soil becomes incapable of culture, and the majestic
forest is superseded by the arctic birch, which creeps on the
130ground. Many of the islands along the north-eastern coasts, though
little favoured by nature, produce flax and timber: and Newfoundland,
as large as England and Wales, maintains a population
of 70,000 souls by its fisheries: it is nearer to Britain than
any part of America—the distance from the port of St. John to
the harbour of Valentia in Ireland is only 1656 nautical miles.
The long and comparatively narrow plain which lies between
the Appalachian mountains and the Atlantic extends from the
Gulf of Mexico to the eastern coast of Massachusetts. At its
southern extremity it joins the plain of the Mississippi, and
gradually becomes narrower in its northern course to New England,
where it merely includes the coast islands. It is divided
throughout its length by a line of cliffs from 200 to 300 feet high,
which begins in Alabama and ends on the coast of Massachusetts.
This escarpment is the eastern edge of the terrace known as the
Atlantic Slope, which rises above the Maritime or Atlantic Plain,
and undulates westward to the foot of the Blue Mountains, the
most eastern ridge of the Appalachian chain. It is narrow at its
extremities in Alabama and New York, but in Virginia and the
Carolinas it is 200 miles wide. The surface of the slope is of
great uniformity; ridges of hills and long valleys run along it
parallel to the mountains, close to which it is 600 feet high. It
is rich in soil and cultivation, and has an immense water power
in the streams and rivers flowing from the mountains across it,
which are precipitated over its rocky edge to the plains on the
west. More than twenty-three rivers of considerably size fall in
cascades down this ledge between New York and the Mississippi,
affording scenes of great beauty.[65]
Both land and water assume a new aspect on the Atlantic
Plain. The rivers, after dashing over the rocky barrier, run in
tranquil streams to the ocean, and the plain itself is a monotonous
level, not more than 100 feet above the surface of the sea. Along
the coast it is scooped into valleys and ravines, with innumerable
creeks.
The greater part of the magnificent countries east of the Alleghanies
is in a high state of cultivation and commercial prosperity,
with natural advantages not surpassed in any country.
Nature, however, still maintains her sway in some parts, especially
where pine-barrens and swamps prevail. The territory of
the United States occupies 7,000,000 or 8,000,000 of square
miles, the greater part of which is capable of producing everything
that is useful to man, but not more than a twenty-sixth part
131of it has been cleared. The climate is generally healthy, the soil
fertile, abounding in mineral treasures, and it possesses every
advantage from navigable rivers and excellent harbours. The
outposts of civilization have already advanced half-way to the
Pacific, and the tide of white men is continually and irresistibly
pressing onwards to the ultimate extinction of the original proprietors
of the soil—a melancholy, but not a solitary, instance of
the rapid extinction of a whole race.
Crystalline and Silurian rocks, rich in precious and other
metals, form the substratum of Mexico, for the most part covered
with plutonic and volcanic formations and secondary limestone;
yet granite comes to the surface on the coast of Acapulco, and
occasionally on the plains and mountains of the table-land. The
Rocky Mountains are mostly Silurian, except the eastern ridge,
which is of stratified crystalline rocks, amygdaloid and ancient
volcanic productions. The coast-chain has the same character,
with immense tracts of volcanic rocks, both ancient and modern,
especially obsidian, which is nowhere developed on a greater
scale, except in Mexico and the Andes.
In North America, as in the southern part of the continent,
volcanic action is entirely confined to the coast and high land
along the Pacific. The numerous vents in Mexico and California
are often in great activity, and hot springs abound.
Though a considerable interval occurs north of them, where
the fire is dormant, the country is full of igneous productions,
and it again finds vent in Prince of Wales’s Archipelago, which
has seven active volcanos. From Mount St. Elias westward
through the whole southern coast of the peninsula of Russian
America and the Aleutian Islands, which form a semicircle
between Cape Aliaska, in America, and the peninsula of Kamtchatka,
volcanic vents occur, and in the latter peninsula there are
three of great height.
From the similar nature of the coasts, and the identity of the
fossil mammalia on each side of Behring’s Strait, it is more than
probable that the two continents were united, even since the sea
was inhabited by the existing species of shell-fish. Some of the
gigantic quadrupeds of the old continent are supposed to have
crossed, either over the land or over the ice, to America; and to
have wandered southward through the longitudinal valleys of the
Rocky Mountains, Mexico, and Central America, and to have
spread over the vast plains of both continents, even to their
utmost extremity.[66] An extinct species of horse, the mastodon,
a species of elephant, three gigantic edentata, and a hollow-horned
132ruminating animal roamed over the prairies of North
America—certainly since the sea was peopled by its present
inhabitants, probably even since the existence of the Indians.
The skeletons of these creatures are found in great numbers in
the saline marshes on the prairies called the Licks, which are still
the resort of the existing races.[67]
There were, however, various animals peculiar to America, as
well as to each part of that continent, at least as far as yet known.
South America still retains in many cases the type of its ancient
inhabitants, though on a very reduced scale. But on the Patagonian
plains, and on the Pampas, skeletons of creatures of
gigantic size and anomalous forms have been found, one like an
anteater of great magnitude, covered with a prodigious coat of
mail similar to that of the armadillo; others like rats or mice, as
large as the hippopotamus—all of which had lived on vegetables,
and had existed at the same time with those already mentioned.
These animals were not destroyed by the agency of man, since
creatures not larger than a rat vanished from Brazil within the
same period.
The geological outline of the United States, the Canadas, and
all the country of the Polar Ocean, though highly interesting in
itself, becomes infinitely more so when viewed in connection with
that of northern and middle Europe. A remarkable analogy exists
in the structure of the land on each side of the North Atlantic
basin. Gneiss, mica-schist, and occasional granite, prevail over
wide areas in the Alleghanies, on the Atlantic Slope, and still more
in the northern latitudes of the American continent; and they
range also through the greater part of Scandinavia, Finland, and
Lapland. In the latter countries, and in the more northern parts
of America, Sir Charles Lyell has observed that the fossiliferous
rocks belong either to the most ancient or to the newest formations,[68]
to the Silurian strata, or to such as contain shells of recent species
only, no intermediate formation appearing through immense regions.
Silurian strata extend over 2000 miles in the middle and
high latitudes of North America; they occupy a tract nearly as
great between the most westerly headlands of Norway and those
that separate the White Sea from the Polar Ocean; and Sir Roderick
Murchison has traced them through central and eastern
Europe, and the Ural Mountains, even to Siberia. Throughout
these vast regions, both in America and Europe, the Silurian strata
are followed in ascending order by the Devonian and carboniferous
formations, which are developed on a stupendous scale in the
133United States, chiefly in the Alleghany mountains and on the
Atlantic Slope. The Devonian and carboniferous strata together
are a mile and a half thick in New York, and three times as much
in Pennsylvania, where one single coal-field occupies 63,000 square
miles between the northern limits of that state and Alabama.
There are many others of great magnitude, both in the States and
to the north of them, so that most valuable of all minerals is inexhaustible,
which is not the least of the many advantages enjoyed
by that flourishing country. The coal formation is also developed
in New Brunswick, and traces of it are found on the shores and
in the islands of the Polar Ocean, on the east coast of Greenland,
and even in Spitzbergen.
Vast carboniferous basins exist in Belgium, above the Silurian
strata; and a great portion of Britain is perfectly similar in structure
to North America. The Silurian rocks in many instances are
the same, and the coal-fields of New England are precisely similar
to those in Wales, 3000 miles off.
In all the more northern countries that have been mentioned,
so very distant from one another, the general range of the rocks is
from north-east to south-west; and in northern Europe, the British
isles, and North America, great lakes are formed along the junction
of the strata, the whole analogy affording a proof of the wide
diffusion of the same geological conditions in the northern regions
at a very remote period. At a later time those erratic blocks,
which are now scattered over the higher latitudes of both continents,
were, most likely, brought from the north by drift ice or currents,
while the land was still covered by the deep. Volcanic agency
has not been wanting to complete the analogy. The Silurian and
overlying strata have been pierced in many places by trappean
rocks on both continents, and they appear also in the islands of
the North Atlantic and Polar Seas. Even now the volcanic fires
are in great activity in the very centre of that basin in Iceland,
and in the very distant and less-known island of Jan Meyen.
The average height of the continents above the level of the sea
is the mean between the height of all the high lands and all the
low. Baron Humboldt, by whom the computation was effected,
found that the table-lands, with their slopes, on account of their
great extent and mass, have a much greater influence upon the
result than mountain-chains. For example, if the range of the
Pyrenees were pulverized, and strewed equally over the whole of
Europe, it would only raise the soil 6 feet; the Alps, which occupy
an area four times as great as that on which the Pyrenees stand,
would only raise it 22 feet; whereas the compact plateau of the
Spanish peninsula, which has only 1920 feet of mean height,
would elevate the soil of Europe 76 feet; so that the table-land of
134the Spanish peninsula would produce an effect four times as great
as the whole system of the Alps.
A great extent of lowland necessarily compensates for the high—at
least it diminishes its effect. The mean elevation of France,
including the Pyrenees, Juras, Vosges, and all the other French
mountains, is 870 feet, while the mean height of the whole European
continent, of 1,720,000 square miles, is only 670 feet, because
the vast European plain, which is nine times as large as France,
has a mean altitude of but 380 feet, although it has a few intumescences,
which, however, are not much above 1000 feet high, so
that it is 200 feet lower than the mean height of France.[69]
The great table-land of Eastern Asia, with its colossal mountain-chains,
has a much less effect on the mean height of Asia than
might have been expected, on account of the depression round the
Caspian Sea; and still more from the very low level and the enormous
extent of Siberia, which is a third larger than all Europe.
The intumescences in these vast plains are insignificant in comparison
with their vast area, for Tobolsk is only 115 feet above the
level of the sea; and even on the Upper Angora, at a point nearer
the Indian than the Arctic Sea, the elevation is only 830 feet, which
is not half the height of the city of Munich, and the third part of
Asia has a mean height of only 255 feet. The effect of the Great
Gobi, that part of the table-land lying between Lake Baikal and
the wall of China, is diminished by a vast hollow 2560 feet deep,
the dry basin of an ancient sea of considerable extent near Ergé,
so that this great desert has a mean height of but 4220 feet, and
consequently it only raises the centre of gravity of the Asiatic continent
128 feet, though it is twice as large as Germany. The table-land
of Tibet, whose mean elevation, according to Baron Humboldt,
is 11,600 feet, together with the chains of the Himalaya and Kuenlun,
which enclose it, only produces an effect of 358 feet. On the
whole the mean level of Asia about the sea is 1150 feet.[70]
Notwithstanding the height and length of the Andes, their mass
has little effect on the continent of South America on account of
135the extent of the eastern plains, which are exactly one-third larger
than Europe. For if these mountains were reduced to powder,
and strewn equally over them, it would not raise them above 518
feet; but when the minor mountain systems and the table-land of
Brazil are added to the Andes, the mean height of the whole of
South America is 1130 feet. North America, whose mountain-chains
are far inferior to those in the southern part of the continent,
has its mean elevation increased by the table-land of Mexico,
so that it has 750 feet of mean height.
The mean elevation of the whole of the New World is 930 feet,
and the height of the centre of gravity of all the continental masses
above the level of the sea, Africa excepted, is 1010 feet. Thus,
it appears that the internal action in ancient times has been most
powerful under Asia, somewhat less under South America, considerably
less under North America, and least of all under Europe.
In the course of ages changes will take place in these results, on
account both of the sudden and gradual rise of the land in some
parts of the earth, and its depression in others. The continental
masses of the north are the lowest portions of our hemisphere, since
the mean heights of Europe and North America are 670 and 750
feet.[71]
So little is known of the bed of the ocean that no inference can
be drawn with regard to its heights and hollows, and what relation
its mean depth bears to the mean height of the land. From
its small influence on the gravitating force, La Place assumed it
to be about four miles. As the mean height of the continents is
about 1000 feet, and their extent only about a fourth of that of the
sea, they might be easily submerged, were it not that, in consequence
of the sea being only one-fifth of the mean density of the
earth, and the earth itself increasing in density towards its centre,
La Place has proved that the stability of the equilibrium of the
136ocean can never be subverted by any physical cause: a general
inundation from the mere instability of the ocean is therefore
impossible.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Continent of Australia—Tasmania, or Van Diemen’s Land—Islands—Continental
Islands—Pelasgic Islands—New Zealand—New Guinea—Borneo—Atolls—Encircling
Reefs—Coral Reefs—Barrier Reefs—Volcanic
Islands—Areas of Subsidence and Elevation in the Bed of
the Pacific—Active Volcanos—Earthquakes—Secular Changes in the
Level of the Land.
The continent of New Holland, situate in the Eastern Pacific
Ocean, is so destitute of large navigable rivers that probably no
very high land exists in its interior, which, as far as it has been
explored, seems to be singularly flat and low, but it is still so little
known that no idea can be formed of its mean elevation. It is
2400 miles from east to west, and 1700 from north to south, and
is divided into two unequal parts by the Tropic of Capricorn; consequently
it has both a temperate and a tropical climate. New
Guinea, separated from New Holland by Torres Straits, and traversed
by the same chain of mountains with New Holland and
Van Diemen’s Land, is so perfectly similar in structure, that it
forms but a detached member of the adjacent continent.
The coasts of New Holland are indented by very large bays,
and by harbours that might give shelter to all the navies in Europe.
The most distinguishing feature of the eastern side, which is
chiefly occupied by the British colony of New South Wales, is a
long chain of mountains which never retires far from the coast,
and, with the exception of some short deviations in its southern
part, maintains a meridional directing through 35 degrees of latitude.
It is continued at one extremity from Torres Straits, at the
north of the Gulf of Carpentaria, far into the interior of New
Guinea; and at the other it traverses the whole of Van Diemen’s
Land. It is low in the northern parts of New Holland, being in
some places merely a high land; but about the 30th degree of
south latitude it assumes the form of a regular mountain-chain,
and, running in a very tortuous line from N.E. to S.W., terminates
its visible course at Wilson’s Promontory, the southern extremity
of the continent. It is continued, however, by a chain of
mountainous islands across Bass’s Straits to Cape Portland, in Van
137Diemen’s Land; from thence the range proceeds in a zigzag line
of high and picturesque mountains to South Cape, where it ends,
having, in its course of 1500 miles, separated the drainage of both
countries into eastern and western waters.
The distance of the chain from the sea in New South Wales is
from 50 to 100 miles, but at the 32d parallel it recedes to 150,
yet soon returns, and forms the wild group of the Corecudgy
Peaks, from whence, under the names of the Blue Mountains
and Australian Alps, its highest part, it proceeds in a general
westerly direction to the land’s end.
The average height of these mountains is only from 2400 to
4700 feet above the level of the sea, and even Mount Kosciusko,
the loftiest of the Australian Alps, is not more than 6500 feet
high; yet its position is so favourable, that the view from its
snowy and craggy top sweeps over an area of 7000 square miles.
The rugged and savage character of these mountains far exceeds
what might be expected from their height: in some places, it is
true, their tops are rounded and covered with forests; but by far
the greater part of the chain, though wooded along the flanks, is
crowned by naked needles, tooth-formed peaks, and flat crests of
granite or porphyry, mingled with patches of snow. The spurs
give a terrific character to these mountains, and in many places
render them altogether inaccessible, both in New South Wales
and Van Diemen’s Land. These shoot right and left from the
ridgy axis of the main range, equal to it in height, and separated
from it, and from one another, by dark and almost subterraneous
gullies, like rents in the bosom of the earth, iron-bound by impracticable
precipices, and streams flowing through them in black
silent eddies or foaming torrents. The intricate character of these
ravines, the danger of descending into them, and the difficulty of
getting out again, render this mountain-chain, in New South
Wales at least, almost a complete barrier between the country on
the coast and that in the interior—a circumstance very unfavourable
to the latter.[72]
In New South Wales the country slopes westward from these
mountains to a low, flat, unbroken plain. On the east side, darkly
verdant and round-topped hills and ridges are promiscuously
grouped together, leading to a richly-wooded undulating country,
which gradually descends to the coast, and forms the valuable
lands of the British colony. Discovered by Cook in the year
1770, it was not colonized till 1788. It has become a prosperous
country; and although new settlers in the more remote parts
suffer the privations and difficulties incident to their position, yet
138there is educated society in the towns, with the comforts and
luxuries of civilized life.
The coast-belt on the western side of New Holland is generally
of inferior land, with richer tracts interspersed near the rivers,
and bounded on the east by a range of primary mountains from
3000 to 4000 feet high, in which granite occasionally appears.
Beyond this the country is level, and the land better, though
nowhere very productive except in grass.
None of the rivers of New Holland are navigable to any great
distance from their mouths. The want of water is severely felt
in the interior, which, as far as it is known, is a treeless desert of
sand, swamps, and jungle; yet a belief prevails that there is a
large sea or fresh-water lake in its centre; and this opinion is
founded partly on the nature of the soil, and also because all the
rivers that flow into the sea on the northern coast, between the
Gulfs of Van Diemen and Carpentaria, converge towards their
sources, as if they served for drains to some large body of water.
However unpropitious the centre of the continent may be—and
the shores generally have the same barren character—there is
abundance of fine country inland from the coast. On the north
all tropical productions might be raised, and in so large a continent
there must be extensive tracts of arable land, though its
peculiar character is pastoral. There are large forests on the
mountains and elsewhere, yet that moisture is wanting which
clothes other countries in the same latitudes with rank vegetation.
In the colonies, the clearing of a great extent of land has modified
in some degree the mean annual temperature, so that the climate
has become hotter and drier, and not thereby improved.
Van Diemen’s Land, of triangular form, has an area of 27,200
square miles, and is very mountainous. No country has a greater
number of deep, commodious harbours; and as most of the rivers,
though not navigable to any distance, end in arms of the sea, they
afford secure anchorage for ships of any size. The mountain-chain
that traverses the colony of New South Wales and the
islands in Bass’s Straits, rises again from Cape Portland, and,
winding through Van Diemen’s Land in the form of the letter Z,
separates it into two nearly equal parts, with a mean height of
3750 feet, and at an average distance of 40 miles from the sea.
It encloses the basins of Derwent and Heron rivers, and, after
sending a branch between them to Hobart Town, ends at South
Cape. The offsets which shoot in all directions are as savage
and full of impassable chasms as it is itself. There are cultivable
plains and valleys along the numerous rivers and large lakes by
which the country is well watered; so that Van Diemen’s Land is
more agricultural and fertile than the adjacent continent, but its
climate is wet and cold. The uncleared soil of both countries,
139however, is far inferior to that in the greater part of North or
South America.[73]
Granite constitutes the entire floor of the western portion of
New South Wales, and extends far into the interior of the continent,
bearing a striking resemblance in character to a similar
portion of the Altaï chain described by Baron Humboldt. The
central axis of the mountain-range, in New South Wales and in
Van Diemen’s Land, is of granite, syenite, and quartz rock; but
in early times there had been great invasions of volcanic substances,
as many parts of the main chain, and most of its offsets,
are of the older igneous rocks. The fossiliferous strata of the
two colonies are mostly of the Palæozoic period, but their fossil
fauna is poor in species. Some are identical with, and others are
representatives of, the species of other countries, even of England.
It appears from their coal-measures that the flora of these countries
was as distinct in appearance from that of the northern hemisphere,
previous to the carboniferous period, as it is at the present day.
Though the innumerable islands that are scattered through the
ocean and seas differ much in size, form, and character, they have
been grouped by M. Von Buch into the two distinct classes of
Continental and Pelasgic islands, most of the latter being either
of volcanic or coral formation. Continental islands are long in
proportion to their breadth, and follow each other in succession
along the margin of the continents, as if they had been formed
during the elevation of the mainland, or had subsequently been
separated from it by the action of the sea, and still mark its
ancient boundary. These islands, which follow one another in
their elongated dimensions, generally run parallel to the maritime
chains of mountains, and are mostly of the same structure, so that
they suggest the idea of a submarine portion of the maritime
range that has not yet completely emerged from the deep—or, if
sinking, has not yet disappeared below the waves.
America offers numerous examples of this kind of island. On
the north-western coast there is a long chain of them, beginning
with the New Norfolk group, and ending with Vancouver’s Island,
all similar and parallel to the maritime chain. Another range of
Continental islands occurs at the southern extremity of America,
extending from Chiloe to Cape Horn, evidently an exterior range
of the Patagonian Andes, and the southern prolongation of the
granitic or coast chain of Chile; in the Gulf of Mexico, the ancient
margin of the mainland is marked by the curved group of Porto
Rico, San Domingo, Jamaica, and Cuba, which nearly joins the
peninsula of Yucatan. The various islands along the American
coast of the Polar Ocean are the shattered fragments of the continent.
140The old continent also affords innumerable examples; along the
whole coast of Norway, from North Cape southwards, there
is a continuous chain of rocky islands similar and parallel to
the great range of the Scandinavian Alps; Great Britain itself,
with the Hebrides, Orkney, and Zetland islands, are remarkable
instances of Continental islands. It would be superfluous to
mention the various instances which occur in the Mediterranean,
where many of the islands are merely the prolongations of the
mountain-chains of the mainland rising above the sea, as Corsica
and Sardinia, which are a continuation of the Maritime Alps.
The great central chain of Madagascar and its elongated form,
parallel to the Lupata Mountains, show that the island once formed
part of the African continent. Asia, also, abounds in instances,
as Sumatra, Java, and the Moluccas, and another vast chain
extends along the western coast of Asia from Formosa to Kamtchatka.
Pelasgic islands have risen from the bed of the ocean, independently
of the continents, and generally far from land. They
are mostly volcanic, altogether or in part; often very lofty; sometimes
single, and frequently in groups, and each group has, or
formerly has had, a centre of volcanic action in one or more of
the islands, round which the others have been formed. Many
have craters of elevation, that is to say, they have been raised up
in great hollow domes by the internal elastic vapours, and have
either remained so, have become rent at the surface into gigantic
fissures, or have collapsed into hollow cups, in which craters have
formed, by the eruption of loose incoherent matter, or of lava
currents, when the pressure from below was removed:[74] a considerable
number have active vents.
The small islands and groups scattered at enormous distances
from one another, within the Antarctic Circle, are all of volcanic
formation, though none are active. In the Atlantic, Tristan da
Cunha, St. Helena, Ascension, and Madeira are volcanic, though
not now actively so; whereas the Cape de Verde, Canaries, and
Azores have each volcanic vents: the peak of Teyda, in Teneriffe,
is one of the most magnificent volcanic cones in the world.
The labyrinth of islands scattered over the Pacific Ocean for
more than 30 degrees on each side of the equator, and from the
130th eastern meridian to Sumatra, which all but unites this
enormous archipelago to the continent of Asia, has the group of
New Zealand or Tasmania, and the continent of Australia, with
its appendage, Van Diemen’s Land, on the south, and altogether
forms a region which, from, the unstable nature of the surface of
the earth, is partly the wreck of a continent that has been engulfed
141by the ocean, and partly the summits of a new one rising
above the waves. This extensive portion of the globe is in many
parts terra incognita; the Indian Archipelago has been little
explored, and, with the exception of our colonies in New Holland
and New Zealand, is little known.
M. Von Buch conceives that the enormous circuit, beginning
with New Zealand and extending through Norfolk Island, New
Caledonia, New Hebrides, Solomon’s Island, New Britain, New
Hanover, New Ireland, Louisiade, and New Guinea, once formed
the western and northern boundary of the Australian continent.
New Zealand, divided into three islands by rocky and dangerous
channels, is superior to Australia in richness of soil, fertility,
and beauty; it abounds in a variety of vegetable and mineral
productions. High mountains, of volcanic origin, run through the
islands, which, in the most northerly, rise 14,000 feet above the
stormy ocean around, buried two-thirds of their height in permanent
snow and glaciers, exhibiting on the grandest scale all the
alpine characters, with the addition of active volcanos on the
eastern and western coasts: that of Tangarara pours forth deluges
of boiling water, which deposit vast quantities of siliceous sinter
like the Geysers in Iceland; and such is the vitality of the vegetation,
that plants grow richly on the banks, and even in water too
hot to be endured.[75] The coast is a frozen country, overspread
with a most luxuriant but dark and gloomy vegetation. There
are undulating tracts and table-lands of great extent without a
tree, over-run by ferns and a low kind of myrtle; but the mountain-ridges
are clothed with dense and gigantic forests. There is
much good land and many lakes, with navigable rivers, the best
of harbours, and a mild climate; so that no country is better
suited for a prosperous and flourishing colony. It may be considered,
even at this early period of its colonial existence, as the
Great Britain of the southern hemisphere.
A very different scene from the stormy seas of New Zealand
presents itself to the north of Australia. There, vivified by the
glowing sun of the equator, the islands of the Indian Archipelago
are of matchless beauty, crowned by lofty mountains, loaded with
aromatic verdure, that shelve to the shore, or dip into a transparent
glassy sea. Their coasts are cut by deep inlets, and watered
by the purest streams, which descend in cascades rushing through
wild crevices. The whole is so densely covered with palms and
other beautiful forms of tropical vegetation that they seem to
realize a terrestrial paradise.
Papua or New Guinea, the largest island in the Pacific after
New Holland, is 1100 miles long and 400 in width, with mountains
142rising above mountains, till in the west they attain the
height of 16,000 feet, capped with snow, and two volcanos burn
on its northern shores. From its position so near the equator it is
probable that New Guinea has the same vegetation with the Spice
Islands to the east, and, from the little that is known of it, must
be one of the finest countries in existence.
Borneo, next in size to New Guinea, is a noble island, divided
into two nearly equal parts by the equator, and traversed through
its whole length by magnificent chains of mountains, which end
in three branches at the Java Sea. Beautiful rivers flow from
them to the plains, and several of these spring from a spacious
lake on the table-land in the interior, among the peaks of Keni-Balu,
the highest point of the island. Diamonds, gold, and antimony
are among its minerals; gums, gutta percha, precious
woods, and all kinds of spices and tropical fruits are among its
vegetable productions.
Situate in the centre of a vast archipelago, and in the direct
line of an extensive and valuable commerce, it will in the course
of time become the seat of a great nation, whose civilization and
prosperity will hand down to posterity the name of the enterprising,
philanthropic Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, with the
highest honour to which man can aspire. The climate is healthy,
tempered by sea-breezes, and in some parts even European; and
its appendage, the small island of Labuan, rich in coal, is happily
situate in the route of steam-vessels between India and China.
A volume might be written on the beauty and riches of the
Indian Archipelago. Many of the islands are hardly known;
the interior of the greater number has never been explored, so
that they offer a wide field of discovery to the enterprising traveller,
and they are now of easier access since the seas have been
cleared of pirates by the exertions of the Honourable Captain
Keppel, and other officers of Her Majesty’s Navy.
They have become of much importance since our relations
with China have been extended, on which account surveys of
their coasts have been already made, and are going on, under the
able direction of the Hydrographer of the Navy, Sir F. Beaufort.
The great intertropical islands of the Pacific, likewise other large
islands, as Ceylon and Madagascar, in the Indian Seas, which by
the way do not differ in character from the preceding, are really
continents in miniature, with their mountains and plains, their
lakes and rivers; and in climate they vary, like the main land,
with the latitude, only that continental climates are more extreme
both as to heat and cold.
It is a singular circumstance, arising from the instability of the
crust of the earth, that all the smaller tropical pelasgic islands in
the Pacific and Indian Oceans are either volcanic or coralline,
143except New Caledonia and the Seychelles; and it is a startling
fact, that in most cases where there are volcanos the land is rising
by slow and almost imperceptible degrees above the ocean, whereas
there is every reason to believe that those vast spaces, studded
with coral islands or atolls, are actually sinking below it, and
have been for ages.[76]
There are four different kinds of coral formations in the Pacific
and Indian Oceans, all entirely produced by the growth of organic
beings, and their detritus, namely, lagoon islands or atolls, encircling
reefs, barrier reefs, and coral fringes. They are all nearly
confined to the tropical regions; the atolls to the Pacific and
Indian Oceans alone.
An atoll or lagoon island consists of a chaplet or ring of coral,
enclosing a lagoon or portion of the ocean in its centre. The
average breadth of the part of the ring above the surface of the
sea is about a quarter of a mile, oftener less, and it seldom rises
higher than from 6 to 10 or 12 feet above the waves. Hence, the
lagoon islands are not discernible, even at a very small distance,
unless when they are covered with the cocoa-nut, palm, or the
pandanus, which is frequently the case. On the outer side this
ring or circlet shelves down to the distance of 100 or 200 yards
from its edge, so that the sea gradually deepens to 25 fathoms,
beyond which the sides plunge at once into the unfathomable
depths of the ocean, with a more rapid descent than the cone of
any volcano. Even at the small distance of some hundred yards,
no bottom has been found with a sounding-line a mile and a half
long. All the coral at a moderate depth below water is alive—all
above is dead, being the detritus of the living part, washed
up by the surf, which is so tremendous on the windward side
of the tropical islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, that it is
often heard miles off, and is frequently the first warning to seamen
of their approach to an atoll.
On the lagoon side, where the water is calm, the bounding ring
or reef shelves into it by a succession of ledges, also of living
coral, though not of the same species with those which build the
exterior wall and the foundations of the whole ring. The perpetual
change of water brought into contact with the external
coral by the breakers probably supplies them with more food than
they could obtain in a quieter sea, which may account for their
more luxuriant growth. At the same time, they deprive the
whole of the coral in the interior of the most nourishing part of
their food, because the still water in the lagoon, being supplied
from the exterior by openings in the ring, ceases to produce the
hardier corals; and species of more delicate forms, and of much
144slower growth, take their place.[77] The depth of the lagoon
varies, in different atolls, from 20 to 50 fathoms, the bottom being
partly detritus and partly live coral. By the growth of the coral,
some few of the lagoons have been filled up; but the process is
very slow from the causes assigned, and also because there are
marine animals that feed on the living coral, and prevent its
indefinite growth. In all departments of nature, the exuberant
increase of any one class is checked and limited by others. The
coral is of the most varied and delicate structure, and of the most
beautiful tints: dark brown, vivid green, rich purple, pink, deep
blue, peach-colour, yellow, with dazzling white, contrasted with
deep shadows, shine through the limpid water; while fish of the
most gorgeous hues swim among the branching coral, which are
of many different kinds, though all combine in the structure of
these singular islands. Lagoon islands are sometimes circular,
but more frequently oval or irregular in their form. Sometimes
they are solitary or in groups, but they occur most frequently in
elongated archipelagos, with the atolls elongated in the same
direction. The grouping of atolls bear a perfect analogy to the
grouping of the archipelagos of ordinary islands.
The size of these fairy rings of the ocean varies from 2 to 90
miles in diameter, and islets are frequently formed on the coral rings
by the washing up of the detritus, for they are so low that the waves
break over them in high tides or storms. They have openings or
channels in their circuit, generally on the leeward side, where the
tide enters, and by these ships may sail into the lagoons, which are
excellent harbours, and even on the surface of the circlet or reef
itself there are occasionally boat-channels between the islets.
Dangerous Archipelago, lying east of the Society Islands, is
one of the most remarkable assemblages of atolls in the Pacific
Ocean. There are 80 of them, generally in a circular form, surrounding
very deep lagoons, and separated from each other by
profound depths. The reefs or rings are about half a mile wide,
and seldom rise more than 10 feet above the edge of the surf,
which beats upon them with such violence that it may be heard
at the distance of 8 miles; and yet on that side the coral insects
build more vigorously, and vegetation thrives better, than on the
other. Many of the islets are inhabited.
The Caroline Archipelago, the largest of all, lies north of the
equator, and extends its atolls in 60 groups over 1000 miles.
Many are of great size, and all are beat by a tempestuous sea and
occasional hurricanes. The atolls in the Pacific Ocean and China
Sea are beyond enumeration. Though less frequent in the
145Indian Ocean, none are more interesting, or afford more perfect
specimens of this peculiar formation, than the Maldive and Laccadive
archipelagos, both nearly parallel to the coast of Malabar,
and elongated in that direction. The former is 470 miles long
and about 50 miles broad, with atolls arranged in a double row,
separated by an unfathomable sea, into which their sides descend
with more than ordinary rapidity. The largest atoll is 88 miles
long and somewhat less than 20 broad; Suadiva, the next in size, is
44 miles by 23, with a large lagoon in its centre, to which, there
is access by 42 openings. There are inhabited islets on most of
the chaplets or rings not higher than 20 feet, while the reefs
themselves are nowhere more than 6 feet above the surge.
The Laccadives run to the north of this archipelago in a double
line of nearly circular atolls, on which are low inhabited islets.
Encircling reefs differ in no respect from atoll-reefs, except that
they have one or more islands in their lagoon. They commonly
form a ring round mountainous islands, at a distance of two or
three miles from the shore, rising on the outside from a very deep
ocean, and separated from the land by a lagoon or channel 200 or
300 feet deep. These reefs surround the submarine base of the
island, and, rising by a steep ascent to the surface, they encircle
the island itself. The Caroline Archipelago exhibits good examples
of this structure in the encircled islands of Hogoleu and Siniavin;
the narrow ring or encircling reef of the former is 135 miles
in its very irregular circuit, on which are a vast number of islets:
six or eight islands rise to a considerable height from its lagoon,
which is so deep, and the opening to it so large, that a frigate
might sail into it. The encircling reef of Siniavin is narrow and
irregular, and its lagoon is so nearly filled by a lofty island, that
it leaves only a strip of water round it from 2 to 5 miles wide and
30 fathoms deep.
Otaheite [Tahiti], the largest of the Society group, is another
instance of an encircled island of the most beautiful kind; it
rises in mountains 7000 feet high, with only a narrow plain
along the shore, and, except where cleared for cultivation, it is
covered with forests of cocoa-nut, palms, bananas, bread-fruit, and
other productions of a tropical climate. The lagoon, which
encompasses it like an enormous moat, is 30 fathoms deep, and
is hemmed in from the ocean by a coral band of the usual kind,
at a distance varying from half a mile to three miles.
Barrier-reefs are of precisely the same structure as the two
preceding classes, from which they only differ in their position
with regard to the land. A barrier reef off the north-east coast
of the continent of Australia is the grandest coral formation
existing. Rising at once from an unfathomable ocean, it extends
1000 miles along the coast, with a breadth varying from 200
146yards to a mile, and at an average distance of from 20 to 30 miles
from the shore, increasing in some places to 60 and even 70
miles. The great arm of the sea included between it and the
land is nowhere less than 10, occasionally 60 fathoms deep, and
is safely navigable throughout its whole length, with a few
transverse openings by which ships can enter. The reef is
really 1200 miles long, because it stretches nearly across Torres
Straits. It is interrupted off the southern coast of New Guinea
by muddy water, which destroys the coral animals, probably
from some great river on that island. There are also extensive
barrier-reefs on the islands of Louisiade and New Caledonia,
which are exactly opposite to the great Australian reef; and as
atolls stud that part of the Pacific which lies between them, it is
called the Coralline Sea. The rolling of the billows along the
great Australian reef has been admirably described. “The long
ocean-swell, being suddenly impeded by this barrier, lifted itself
in one great continuous ridge of deep blue water, which, curling
over, fell on the edge of the reef in an unbroken cataract of dazzling
white foam. Each line of breaker ran often one or two
miles in length with not a perceptible gap in its continuity.
There was a simple grandeur and display of power and beauty
in this scene that rose even to sublimity. The unbroken roar of
the surf, with its regular pulsation of thunder, as each succeeding
swell fell first on the outer edge of the reef, was almost deafening,
yet so deep-toned as not to interfere with the slightest nearer and
sharper sound.... Both the sound and sight were such as
to impress the spectator with the consciousness of standing in the
presence of an overwhelming majesty and power.”[78]
Coral-reefs are distinct from all the foregoing; they are merely
fringes of coral along the margin of a shore, and, as they line the
shore itself, they have no lagoons. A vast extent of coast, both
on the continents and islands, is fringed by these reefs, and, as
they frequently surround these shoals, they are very dangerous.
Lagoon islands are the work of various species of coral animals;
but those particular polypi which build the external wall, the foundation
and support of the whole ring or reef, are most vigorous when
most exposed to the breakers; they cannot exist at a greater depth
than 25 or 30 fathoms at most, and die immediately when left
dry: yet the coral wall descends precipitously to unfathomable
depths; and although the whole of it is not the work of these
animals, yet the perpendicular thickness of the coral is known to
be very great, extending hundreds of feet below the depth at
which these polypi cease to live. From an extensive survey of
147the Coralline Seas of the tropics, Mr. Darwin has found an explanation
of these singular phenomena in the instability of the
crust of the earth.
Since there are certain proofs that large areas of the dry land
are gradually rising, and others sinking down, so the bottom of
the ocean is not exempt from the general change that is slowly
bringing about a new state of things; and as there is evidence,
on multitudes of the volcanic islands in the Pacific, of a rise in
certain parts of the basis of the ocean, so the lagoon islands indicate
a subsidence in others—changes arising from the expansion
and contraction of the strata under the bed of the ocean.
There are strong reasons for believing that a continent once
occupied a great part of the tropical Pacific, some part of which
subsided by slow and imperceptible degrees. As portions of it
gradually sank down below the surface of the deep, the tops of
mountains and table-lands would remain as islands of different
magnitude and elevation, and would form archipelagos elongated
in the direction of the mountain-chains. Now, the coral-animal,
which constructs the outward wall and mass of the reefs, never
builds laterally, and cannot exist at a greater depth than 25 or 30
fathoms. Hence, if it began to lay the foundation of its reef on
the submerged flanks of an island, it would be obliged to build its
wall upwards in proportion as the island sank down, so that at
length a lagoon would be formed between it and the land. As the
subsidence continued, the lagoon would increase, the island would
diminish, and the base of the coral-reef would sink deeper and
deeper, while the animal would always keep its top just below the
surface of the ocean, till at length the island would entirely disappear,
and a perfect atoll would be left. If the island were mountainous,
each peak would form a separate island in the lagoon, and
the encircled islands would have different forms, which the reefs
would follow continuously. This theory perfectly explains the
appearances of the lagoon islands and barrier-reefs, the continuity
of the reef, the islands in the middle of the lagoons, the different
distances of the reefs from them, and the forms of the archipelago,
so exactly similar to the archipelagos of ordinary islands, all of
which are but the tops of submerged mountain-chains, and generally
partake of their elongated forms.[79]
148Every intermediate form between an atoll and an encircling
reef exists: New Caledonia is a link between them. A reef runs
along the north-western coast of that island 400 miles, and for
many leagues never approaches within 8 miles of its shore, and
the distance increases to 16 miles near the southern extremity.
At the other end the reefs are continued on each side 150 miles
beyond the sub-marine prolongation of the land, marking the
former extent of the island. In the lagoon of Keeling Atoll,
situate in the Indian Ocean, 600 miles south of Sumatra, many
fallen trees and a ruined store-house show that it has subsided:
these movements take place during the earthquakes at Sumatra,
which are also felt in this atoll. Violent earthquakes have lately
been felt at Vanikora (celebrated for the wreck of La Pérouse), a
lofty island of the Queen Charlotte group, with an encircling
reef in the western part of the South Pacific, and on which there
are marks of recent subsidence. Other proofs are not wanting
of this great movement in the beds of the Pacific and Indian
Oceans.
The extent of the atoll formations, including under this name
the encircling reefs, is enormous. In the Pacific, from the
southern end of Low Archipelago to the northern extremity of
Marshall or Radick Archipelago, a distance of 4500 miles, and many
degrees of latitude in breadth, atolls alone rise above the ocean.
The same may be said of the space in the Indian Ocean between
Saya de Matha and the end of the Laccadives, which includes 25
degrees of latitude—such are the enormous areas that have been,
and probably still are, slowly subsiding. Other spaces of great
extent may also be mentioned, as the large archipelago of the
Carolinas, that in the Coralline Sea of the north-west coast of
Australia, and an extensive one in the China Sea.
Though the volcanic islands in the Pacific are so numerous,
there is not one within the areas mentioned, and there is not an
active volcano within several hundred miles of an archipelago, or
even group of atolls. This is the more interesting, as recent shells
and fringes of dead coral, found at various heights on their surfaces,
show that the volcanic islands have been rising more and
more above the surface of the ocean for a very long time.
The volcanic islands also occupy particular zones in the Pacific,
and it is found from extensive observation that all the points of
eruption fall on the areas of elevation.[80]
149One of the most terribly active of these zones begins with the
Banda group of islands, and extends through the Sunda group of
Timor, Sumbawa, Bali, Java, and Sumatra, separated only by
narrow channels, and altogether forming a gently curved line
2000 miles long; but as the volcanic zone is continued through
Barren Island and Narcondam in the Bay of Bengal, northward
through the islands along the coast of Aracan, the entire length
of this volcanic range is a great deal more. During the last
hundred years all the islands and rocks for 100 miles along the
coast of Aracan have been gradually rising. The greatest elevation
of 22 feet has taken place about the centre of the line of
upheaval, in the north-west end of the island of Cheduba, containing
two mud volcanos, and is continued through Foul Island
and the Terribles.[81]
The little island of Gonung-Api, belonging to the Banda group,
contains a volcano of great activity; and such is the elevating
pressure of the submarine fire in that part of the ocean, that a
mass of black basalt rose up, of such magnitude as to fill a bay
60 fathoms deep, so quietly that the inhabitants were not aware
of what was going on till it was nearly done. Timor and the
other adjacent islands also bear marks of recent elevation.
There is not a spot of its size on the face of the earth that contains
so many volcanos as the island of Java.[82] A range of volcanic
mountains, from 5000 to 13,000 feet high, forms the central
crest of the island, and ends to the east in a series of 38
separate volcanos with broad bases, rising gradually into cones.
They all stand on a plain but little elevated above the sea, and
each individual mountain seems to have been formed independently
of the rest. Most of them are of great antiquity, and are covered
with thick vegetation. Some are extinct, or only emit smoke;
from others sulphureous vapours issue with prodigious violence;
one has a large crater filled with boiling water; and a few have
had fierce eruptions of late years. The island is covered with
volcanic spurs from the main ridge, united by cross chains,
together with other chains of less magnitude, but no less fury.
In 1772 the greater part of one of the largest volcanic mountains
was swallowed up after a short but severe combustion; a luminous
cloud enveloped the mountain on the 11th of August, and soon
after the huge mass actually disappeared under the earth with
tremendous noise, carrying with it about 90 square miles of the
surrounding country, 40 villages, and 2957 of their inhabitants.
The northern coast of Java is flat and swampy, but the southern
provinces are beautiful and romantic; yet in the lovely peaceful
150valleys the stillness of night is disturbed by the deep roaring of
the volcanos, many of which are perpetually burning with slow
but terrific action.
Separated by narrow channels of the sea, Bali and Sumbawa
are but a continuation of Java, the same in nature and structure,
but on a smaller scale, their mountains being little more than 8000
feet high.
The intensity of the volcanic force under this part of the Pacific
may be imagined from the eruption of Tomboro in Sumbawa in
1815, which continued from the 5th of April till July. The
explosions were heard at the distance of 970 miles; and in Java,
at the distance of 300 miles, the darkness during the day was like
that of deep midnight, from the quantity of ashes that filled the
air: they were carried to Bencoolen, a distance of 1100 miles,
which, with regard to distance, is as if the ashes of Vesuvius had
fallen at Birmingham. The country round was ruined, and the
town of Tomboro was submerged by heavy rollers from the ocean.
In Sumatra the extensive granitic formations of Eastern Asia
join the volcanic series which occupies so large a portion of the
Pacific. This most beautiful of islands presents the boldest
aspect; it is indented by arms of the most transparent sea, and
watered by innumerable streams; it displays in its vegetation all
the bright colouring of the tropics. Here the submarine fire finds
vent in three volcanos on the southern, and one on the northern
side of the island. A few atolls, many hundreds of miles to the
south, show that this volcanic zone alternates with an area of subsidence.
More to the north, and nearly parallel to the preceding zone,
another line of volcanic islands begins to the north of New Guinea,
and passes through New Britain, New Ireland, Solomon Islands,
and the New Hebrides, containing many open vents. This range
or area of elevation separates the Coralline Sea from the great
chain of atolls on the north between Ellice’s group and the Caroline
Islands, so that it lies between two areas of subsidence.
The third and greatest of all the zones of volcanic islands
includes Gilolo, one of the Molucca group, which is bristled with
volcanic cones; and from thence it may be traced northwards
through the Philippine Islands and Formosa: bending thence to
the north-east, it passes through Loo-Choo, the Japan Archipelago,
and is continued by the Kurile Islands to the peninsula of Kamtchatka,
where there are several volcanos of great elevation.
The Philippine Islands and Formosa form the volcanic separation
between the atoll region in the China Sea, and that of the
Caroline and Pellew groups.
There are six islands east of Jephoon in the Japan Archipelago
which are subject to eruptions, and the internal fire breaks through
151the Kurile Islands in 18 vents, besides having raised two new
islands in the beginning of this century, one 4 miles round, and
the other 3000 feet high, though the sea there is so deep that the
bottom has not been reached with a line 200 fathoms long.
Thus, some long rent in the earth had extended from the tropics
to the gelid seas of Okhotsk, probably connected with the peninsula
of Kamtchatka: a new one begins to the east of the latter in
the Aleutian Islands, which are of the most barren and desolate
aspect, perpetually beaten by the surge of a restless ocean, and
bristled by the cones of 24 volcanos; they sweep in a half-moon
round Behring’s Sea till they join the volcanic peninsula of Russian
America.
The line of volcanic agency has been followed far beyond the
limits of the coral-working animals, which extend but a short way
on each side of the tropics; but it has been shown that in the
equatorial regions immense areas of elevation alternate with as
great areas of subsidence: north of New Holland they are so
mixed that it indicates a point of convergence.[83]
On the other side of the Pacific the whole chain of the Andes,
and the adjacent islands of Juan Fernandez and the Galapagos,
form a vast volcanic area, which is actually now rising; and
though there are few volcanic islands north of the zone of atolls,
yet those that be indicate great internal activity, especially in the
Sandwich Islands, where the volcanos of Owhyhee [Hawaii] are
inferior to none in awful sublimity. That of Kirawah is on the
flanks of Mowna Roa, which is itself a volcano. It was seen in
high activity by Mr. Douglas in 1834; he describes it as a deep
sunken pit, occupying five square miles, covered with masses of
lava which had been in a state of recent fusion. In the midst of
these were two lakes of liquid lava: in both there was a vast
caldron in furious ebullition, occasionally spouting to the height
of from 20 to 70 feet, whence streams of lava, hurrying along in
fiery waves, were finally precipitated down an ignited arch, where
the force of the lava was partly arrested by the escape of gasses,
which threw back huge blocks, and literally spun them into
threads of glass, which were carried by the wind like the refuse
of a flax-mill. He says the noise could hardly be described—that
of all the steam-engines in the world would be a whisper to it;
and the heat was so overpowering, and the dryness of the air so
intense, that the very eyelids felt scorched and dried up.[84]
It may be observed that, where there are coral fringes, the land
is either rising or stationary; for, were it subsiding, lagoons
152would be formed. On the contrary, there are many fringing
reefs on the shores of volcanic islands along the coasts of the
Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the West Indian islands, all of
which are rising. Indeed, this occurrence, in numberless instances,
coincides with the existence of upraised organic remains
on the land.
As the only coral formations in the Atlantic are fringing reefs,
and as there is not one in its central expanse, except in Bermuda,
it may be concluded that the bed of the ocean is not sinking; and
with the exception of the Leeward Islands, the Canaries, the
Azores, and the Cape de Verde groups, there are no active volcanos
on the islands or on the coasts of that ocean.
At present the great continent has few centres of volcanic
action in comparison with what it once had. The Mediterranean
is still undermined by fire, which occasionally finds vent in Vesuvius
and the stately cone of Etna. Though Stromboli constantly
pours forth inexhaustible showers of incandescent matter, and a
temporary island now and then starts up from the sea, the volcanic
action is diminished, and Italy has become comparatively more
tranquil.
The table-land of Western Asia, especially Azerbijan, had once
been the seat of intense commotion, now spent, as the Seiban
Dagh and Ararat, or only smoking from the snowy cone of Demavend.
The table-land of Eastern Asia furnishes the solitary
instance of igneous explosion at a distance of 1500 miles from
the sea, in the volcanic chain of the Thean-Tchan.
Besides the two active volcanos of the Pe-shan and Ho-tcheou
in the chain itself, at the distance of 670 miles from each other,
with a solfatara between them, it is the centre of a most extensive
volcanic district, extending northward to the Altaï Mountains, in
which there are many points of connection between the interior
of the earth and the atmosphere, not by volcanos, but by solfataras,
hot springs, and vapours. In the range of Targatabai, in the
country of the Kirghiz, there is a mount said to emit smoke and
even flame, which produces sulphur and sal-ammoniac in abundance.
It is not ascertained that there are any mountains in
China that eject lava, but there are many fire-hills and fire-springs;
the latter are real Artesian wells five or six inches wide,
and from 1500 to 3000 feet deep: from some of these water rises
containing a great quantity of common salt; from others gases
issue; and when a flame is applied, fire rushes out with great
violence, rising 20 or 30 feet high, with a noise like thunder.
The gas, conducted in tubes of bamboo cane, is used in the evaporation
of salt water from the neighbouring springs.
There are altogether about 270 active volcanos, of which 190
are on the shores and islands of the Pacific. They are generally
153disposed in lines or groups. The chain of the Andes furnishes a
magnificent example of linear volcanos. The peak of Teneriffe,
encompassed by the volcanic islands of Palma and Lancerote, is
an equally good specimen of a central group. Eruptions are
much more frequent in low than in high volcanos: that in the
island of Stromboli is in perpetual activity; whereas Cotopaxi,
18,775 feet high, and Tungaragua in the Andes, have only been
active once in a hundred years. On account of the force requisite
to raise lava to such great elevations, it rarely flows from very
elevated cones. Antisana is the only instance to the contrary
among all the lofty volcanos in Quito. In Etna also the pressure
is so great that the lava forces its way through the sides of the
mountain or at the base of the cone.
An explosion begins by a dense volume of smoke issuing from
the crater, mixed with aqueous vapour and gases; then masses
of rock and molten matter in a half-fluid state are ejected with
tremendous explosion and violence; after which lava begins to
flow, and the whole terminates by a shower of ashes from the
crater—often the most formidable part of the phenomenon, as was
experienced at the destruction of Pompeii. There are several
volcanos which eject only streams of boiling water, as the Volcano
de Agua in Guatemala; others pour forth boiling mud, as in the
islands of Trinidad, Java, and Cheduba in the Bay of Bengal. A
more feeble effort of the volcanic force appears in the numerous
solfataras. Hot springs show that the volcanic fire is not extinguished,
though not otherwise apparent. To these may be added
acidulous springs, those of naphtha, petroleum, and various kinds
of gas, as carbonic acid gas, the food of plants—and, when breathed,
the destruction of animals, as is fearfully seen in the Guero Upas,
or “Valley of Death,” in Java: it is half a mile in circumference,
and about 35 feet deep, with a few large stones, and not a vestige
of vegetation on the bottom, which is covered with the skeletons
of human beings and the bones of animals and birds blanched
white as ivory. On approaching the edge of the valley, which
is situate on the top of a hill, a nauseous sickening sensation is
felt; and nothing that has life can enter its precincts without
being immediately suffocated.[85]
The seat of activity has been perpetually changing, but there
always has been volcanic action, possibly more intense in former
times, but even at present it extends from pole to pole.
Notwithstanding the numerous volcanic vents in the globe,
many places are subject to violent earthquakes, which ruin the
works of man, and often change the configuration of the country.
154The most extensive district of earthquakes comprises the Mediterranean
and the adjacent countries, Asia Minor, the Caspian Sea,
Caucasus, and the Persian mountains. It joins a vast volcanic
district in Central Asia, whose chief focus seems to be the Thean-Tchan,
which includes Lake Baikal and the neighbouring regions.
A great part of the continent of Asia is more or less subject to
shocks: but, with the exception of the shores of the Red Sea and
the northern parts of Barbary, Africa is entirely free from these
tremendous scourges; and it is singular that, notwithstanding the
terrible earthquakes which shake the countries west of the Andes,
the Andean chain itself, and all the countries round the Gulf of
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, they are extremely rare in the great
eastern plains of South America. For the most part the shocks
are transmitted in the line of the primary mountain-chains, and
seem often to be limited by them in the other direction.
There must be some singular volcanic action underneath part
of Great Britain, which has occasioned 255 slight shocks of earthquake,
of which 139 took place in Scotland: the most violent of
them have been felt at Comre, in Stratherne; of the rest 14 took
place on the borders of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, 30 in Wales,
and 31 on the south coast of England: they were preceded by
singular phenomena, as a sudden fall of the barometer, fogs, and
unusual sultriness; the two latter are said to indicate these convulsions
about Siena, and in the Maremma of Tuscany, where
they have of late years been attended with very disastrous effects.
Earthquakes are probably produced by fractures and sudden
heavings and subsidences in the elastic crust of the globe, from
the pressure of the liquid fire, vapour, and gases in its interior,
which there find vent, relieve the tension which the strata acquire
during their slow refrigeration, and restore equilibrium. But
whether the initial impulse be eruptive, or a sudden pressure upwards,
the shock originating in that point is propagated through the
elastic surface of the earth in a series of circular or oval undulations,
similar to those produced by dropping a stone into a pool, and like
them they become broader and lower as the distance increases, till
they gradually subside; in this manner the shock travels through
the land, becoming weaker and weaker till it terminates. When
the impulse begins in the interior of a continent, the elastic wave
is propagated through the solid crust of the earth, as well as in
sound through the air, and is transmitted from the former to the
ocean, where it is finally spent and lost, or, if very powerful, is
continued in the opposite land. Almost all the great earthquakes,
however, have their origin in the bed of the ocean, far from land,
whence the shocks travel in undulations to the surrounding
shores.
No doubt many of small intensity are imperceptible: it is only
155the violent efforts of the internal forces that can overcome the pressure
of the ocean’s bed, and that of the superincumbent water.
The internal pressure is supposed to find relief most readily in a
belt of great breadth that surrounds the land at a considerable distance
from the coast, and being formed of the débris, the internal
temperature is in a perpetual state of fluctuation, which would
seem to give rise to sudden flexures and submarine eruptions.
When the original impulse is a fracture or eruption of lava in
the bed of the deep ocean, two kinds of waves or undulations are
produced and propagated simultaneously—one through the bed
of the ocean, which is the true earthquake shock, and coincident
with this a wave is formed and propagated on the surface of the
ocean, which rolls to the shore, and reaches it in time to complete
the destruction long after the shock or wave through the solid
ocean-bed has arrived and spent itself on the land. The sea rose
50 feet at Lisbon and 60 at Cadiz after the great earthquake; it
rose and fell 18 times at Tangier on the coast of Africa, and 15
times at Funchal in Madeira. At Kinsale in Ireland a body of
water rushed into the harbour, and the water in Loch Lomond in
Scotland rose two feet four inches—so extensive was the oceanic
wave.[86] The height to which the surface of the ground is elevated,
or the vertical height of the shock-wave, varies from one
inch to two or three feet. This earth-wave, on passing under
deep water, is imperceptible, but when it comes to soundings it
carries with it to the land a long, flat, aqueous wave; on arriving
at the beach, the water drops in arrear from the superior velocity
of the shock, so that at that moment the sea seems to recede
before the great ocean-wave arrives.
It is the small forced wave that gives the shock to ships, and
not the great wave; but when ships are struck in very deep
water, the centre of disturbance is either immediately under, or
very nearly under, the vessel.
Three other series of undulations are formed simultaneously
with the preceding, by which the sound of the explosion is conveyed
through the earth, the ocean, and the air, with different
velocities. That through the earth travels at the rate of from 7000
to 10,000 feet in a second in hard rock, and somewhat less in looser
materials, and arrives at the coast a short time before, or at the
same moment with, the shock, and produces the hollow sounds that
are the harbingers of ruin; then follows a continuous succession
of sounds, like the rolling of distant thunder, formed, first, by the
wave that is propagated through the water of the sea, which travels
at the rate of 4700 feet in a second, and, lastly, by that passing
156through the air, which only takes place when the origin of the
earthquake is a submarine explosion, and travels with a velocity
of 1123 feet in a second. The rolling sounds precede the arrival
of the great wave on the coasts, and are continued after the terrific
catastrophe when the eruption is extensive.
When there is a succession of shocks all the phenomena are
repeated. Sounds sometimes occur when there is no earthquake:
they were heard on the plains of the Rio Apure, in Caraccas, at
the moment the volcano in St. Vincent’s, 700 miles off, discharged
a stream of lava. The bellowings of Guanaxuato afford a singular
instance: these subterraneous noises have been heard for a month
uninterruptedly when there was no earthquake felt on the table-land
of Mexico, nor in the rich silver-mines 1600 feet below its
surface.
The velocity of the great oceanic wave varies as the square root
of the depth; it consequently has a rapid progress through deep
water, and less when it comes to soundings. That raised during
the earthquake at Lisbon travelled to Barbadoes at the rate of 7·8
miles in a minute, and to Portsmouth at the rate of a little more
than two miles in a minute. The velocity of the shock varies
with the elasticity of the strata it passes through. The undulations
of the earth are subject to the same laws as those of light
and sound; hence, when the shock or earth-wave passes through
strata of different elasticity, it will partly be reflected, and a wave
will be sent back, producing a shock in a contrary direction, and
partly refracted, or its course changed, so that shocks will occur
both upwards and downwards, to the right or to the left of the original
line of transit. Hence, most damage is done at the junction
of deep alluvial plains with the hard strata of the mountains, as in
the great earthquake in Calabria in the year 1783.
When the height of the undulations is small, the earthquake
will be a horizontal motion, which is the least destructive; when
the height is great, the central and horizontal motions are combined,
and the effect is terrible. The concussion was upwards in the
earthquake which took place at Riobamba in 1797. Baron Humboldt
mentions that some of the inhabitants were thrown across a
river, several hundred feet in height, on a neighbouring mountain.
The worst of all is a vorticose or twisting motion, which nothing
can resist; it is occasioned by the crossing of two waves of horizontal
vibration, which unite at their point of intersection and
form a rotatory movement. This, and the interferences of shocks
arriving at the same point from different origins or routes of different
lengths, account for the repose in some places, and those extraordinary
phenomena that took place during the earthquake of 1783
in Calabria, where the shock diverged on all sides from a centre
through a highly elastic base covered with alluvial soil, which was
157tossed about in every direction. The dynamics of earthquakes are
ably discussed by Mr. Mallet in a very interesting paper in the
“Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.”
There are few places where the earth is long at rest, for, independently
of those secular elevations and subsidences that are in
progress over such extensive tracts of country, small earthquake-shocks
must be much more frequent than we imagine, though imperceptible
to our senses, and only to be detected by means of
instruments. The shock of an earthquake at Lyons in February,
1822, was not generally perceptible at Paris, yet the wave reached
and passed under that city, and was detected by the swinging of
the large declination needle at the Observatory, which had previously
been at rest.
The undulations of some of the great earthquakes have spread
to an enormous extent. The earthquake that happened in 1842
in Guadaloupe was felt over an extent of 3000 miles in length;
and that which destroyed Lisbon had its origin in the bed of the
Atlantic, from whence the shock extended over an area of about
700,000 square miles, or a twelfth part of the circumference of the
globe; the West Indian islands, and the lakes in Scotland, Norway,
and Sweden were agitated by it. In linear distance the
effects of that earthquake extended through 300 miles, the shocks
were felt through a line of 2700 miles, and the vibrations or tremors
were perceptible in water through 4000 miles. It began
without warning, and in five minutes the city was a heap of ruins.
The earthquake of 1783, in Calabria, which completely changed
the face of the country, only lasted two minutes; but it was not
very extensive, yet all the towns and villages for 22 miles round
the small town of Oppido were utterly ruined. The destruction
is generally accomplished in a fearfully short time; the earthquake
at Caraccas, in March 1812, consisted of three shocks, which lasted
three or four seconds, separated by such short intervals that in 50
seconds 10,000 people perished. Baron Humboldt’s works are
full of interesting details on this subject, especially with regard to
the tremendous convulsions in South America.
Sometimes a shock has been perceived under-ground which
was not felt at the surface, as in the year 1802, in the silver-mine
of Marienberg, in the Hartz. In some instances miners have been
insensible to shocks felt on the surface above, which happened at
Fahlun, in Sweden, in 1823—circumstances in both instances
depending on the elasticity of the strata, the depth of the impulses,
or obstacles that may have changed the course of the terrestrial
undulation. During earthquakes dislocations of strata take place,
the course of rivers is changed, and in some instances they have
been permanently dried up, rocks are hurled down, masses raised
up, and the configuration of the country altered; but if there be
158no fracture at the point of original impulse, there will be no
noise.
The power of the earthquake in raising and depressing the land
has long been well known, but the gradual and almost imperceptible
change of level through immense tracts of the globe is altogether
a recent discovery; it has been ascribed to the expansion
of rocks by heat, and subsequent contraction by the retreat of the
melted matter from below them. It is not at all improbable that
there may be motions, like tides, ebbing and flowing in the internal
lava, for the changes are by no means confined to those enormous
elevations and subsidences that appear to be in progress in the
basin of the Pacific and its coasts, nor to the Andes and the great
plains east of them—countries for the most part subject to earthquakes;
they take place, to a vast extent, in regions where these convulsions
are unknown. There seems to be an extraordinary flexibility
in the crust of the globe from the 54th or 55th parallel of
north latitude to the Arctic Ocean. There is a line crossing Sweden
from east to west in the parallel of 56° 3ʹ N. lat., along which the
ground is perfectly stable, and has been so for centuries. To the
north of it for 1000 miles, between Gottenburg and North Cape,
the ground is rising, the maximum elevation, which takes place
at North Cape, being at the rate of five feet in a century, from
whence it gradually diminishes to three inches in a century at
Stockholm. South of the line of stability, on the contrary, the
land is sinking through part of Christianstad and Malmo, for the
village of Stassten in Scania is now 380 feet nearer to the Baltic
than it was in the time of Linnæus, by whom it was measured 87
years ago. The coast of Denmark on the sound, the island of
Saltholm, opposite to Copenhagen, and that of Bornholm are rising,
the latter at the rate of a foot in a century. The coast of Memel
on the Baltic has actually risen a foot and four inches within the
last 30 years, while the coast of Pillau has sunk down an inch
and a half in the same period. The west coast of Denmark, part
of the Feroe Islands, and the west coast of Greenland are all being
depressed below their former level. In Greenland, the encroachment
of the sea, in consequence of the change of level, has submerged
ancient buildings on the low rocky islands, and on the
main land. The Greenlander never builds near the sea on that
account, and the Moravian settlers have had to move inland the
poles to which they moor their boats. It has been in progress for
four centuries, and extends through 600 miles from Igalito Firth
to Disco Bay.[87] Mr. Robert Chambers has shown that in our own
country the land has been for ages on the rise, and that the parallel
roads in Glen Roy, which have so long afforded matter of discussion,
are merely margins left by the retreat of the water, as the land
159alternately rose and remained stationary. In the present day the
elevation is going on in many places, especially on the Murray
Firth and in the Channel islands. The notice of this curious subject
of the gradual changes of level on the land has been chiefly
revived by Sir Charles Lyell, in whose admirable works on geology
all the details will be found.[88]
Greenland, the most extensive of the Arctic lands, begins with
the lofty promontory of Cape Farewell, the southern extremity of
a group of rocky islands, which are separated by a channel five
miles wide from a table-land of appalling aspect, narrow to the
south, but increasing in breadth northward to a distance of which
only 1300 miles are known. This table-land is bounded by mountains
rising from the deep in mural precipices, which terminate
in needles and pyramids, or in parallel terraces, of alternate snow
and bare rock, occasionally leaving a narrow shore. The coating
of ice is so continuous and thick that the surface of the table-land
may be regarded as one enormous glacier, which overlaps the
rocky edges and dips between the mountain-peaks into the sea.
The coasts are beset with rocky islands, and cloven by fiords,
which in some instances wind like rivers for 100 miles into the
interior. These deep inlets of the sea, now sparkling in sunshine,
now shaded in gloom, are hemmed in by walls of rock often
2000 feet high, whose summits are hid in the clouds. They
generally terminate in glaciers, which are sometimes forced on by
the pressure of the upper ice-plains till they fill the fiord, and
even project far into the sea like bold headlands, when, undermined
by the surge, huge masses of ice fall from them with a
crash like thunder, making the sea boil. These icebergs, carried
by currents, are stranded on the Arctic coast, or are drawn into
lower latitudes. The ice is very transparent and compact in the
Arctic regions; its prevailing tints are blue, green, and orange,
which, contrasted with the dazzling whiteness of the snow and the
gloomy hue of the rocks, produce a striking effect.
160A great fiord in the 68th parallel of latitude is supposed to
extend completely across the table-land, dividing the country into
south and north Greenland, which last extends indefinitely towards
the pole; but it is altogether inaccessible from the frozen sea and
the iron-bound shore, so that, excepting a very small portion of
the coast, it is an unknown region.
In some sheltered spots in south Greenland, especially along
the borders of the fiords, there are meadows where the service-tree
bears fruit, beech and willow trees grow by the streams, but
not taller than a man; still farther north the willow and juniper
scarcely rise above the surface; yet this country has a flora peculiar
to itself. South of the island of Disco on the west coast, Danish
colonies and missionaries have made settlements on some of
the islands and at the mouths of fiords; the Esquimaux inhabit
the coasts even to the extremity of Baffin’s Bay.
The pelasgic islands in the Arctic Ocean are highly volcanic,
with the exception of Spitzbergen. In the island of Spitzbergen
the mountains spring sharp and grand from the margin of the sea
in dark gloomy masses, mixed with pure snow and enormous glaciers,
presenting a sublime spectacle. Seven valleys filled by
glaciers ending at the sea form a remarkable object on the east
coast. One of the largest masses of ice seen by Captain Scoresby
on the island was north of Horn Sound: it extended 11 miles
along the shore, with a sea-face in one part more than 2000 feet
high, from which he saw a huge fragment hurled into the sea,
which it lashed into vapour, as it broke into a thousand pieces.
The sun is not seen for several months in the year, when the
intensity of the cold splits rocks, and makes the sea reek like a
boiling caldron. Many have perished in the attempt to winter in
this island, yet a colony of Russian hunters and fishermen lead a
miserable existence there, within 10° of the pole, the most northern
inhabited spot on the globe.
Although the direct rays of the sun are powerful in sheltered
spots within the Arctic Circle, the thermometer does not rise
above 45° of Fahrenheit. July is the only month in which snow
does not fall, and in the end of August the sea at night is covered
with a thin coating of ice, and a summer often passes without one
day that can be called warm. The snow-blink, the aurora, the
stars, and the moon, which appears ten or twelve days without
intermission in her northern declination, furnish the greatest light
the inhabitants enjoy in their long winter.
Iceland is 200 miles east from Greenland, and lies south of the
Arctic Circle, which its most northern part touches. Though a
fifth part larger than Ireland, not more than 4000 square miles
are habitable, all beside being a chaos of volcanos and ice.
The peculiar feature of Iceland lies in a trachytic region which
161seems to rest on an ocean of fire. It consists of two vast parallel
table-lands covered with ice-clad mountains, stretching from N.E.
to S.W. through the very centre of the island, separated by a
longitudinal valley nearly 100 miles wide, which reaches from
sea to sea. These mountains assume rounded forms, with long
level summits or domes with sloping declivities, as in the trachytic
mountains of the Andes and elsewhere; but such huge masses of
tufa and conglomerate project from their sides in perpendicular or
overhanging precipices, separated by deep ravines, that the regularity
of their structure can only be perceived from a distance;
they conceal under a cold and tranquil coating of ice the fiery
germs of terrific convulsions, sometimes bursting into dreadful
activity, sometimes quiescent for ages. The most extensive of
the two parallel ranges of Jockuls or Ice Mountains runs along
the eastern side of the valley, and contains Ordefa, the highest
point in Iceland, seen like a white cloud from a great distance at
sea; the western high land passes through the centre of the
island.
Glaciers cover many thousand square miles in Iceland, descending
from the mountains, and pushing far into the low lands. This
tendency of the ice to encroach has very materially diminished
the quantity of habitable ground, and the progress of the glaciers
is facilitated by the influence of the ocean of subterranean fire,
which heats the superincumbent ground, and loosens the ice.
The longitudinal space between the mountainous table-lands
is a low valley 100 miles wide, extending from sea to sea, where
a substratum of trachyte is covered with lava, sand, and ashes,
studded with low volcanic cones. It is a tremendous desert, never
approached without dread even by the natives—a scene of perpetual
conflict between the antagonist powers of fire and frost,
without a drop of water or a blade of grass; no living creature is
to be seen—not a bird, nor even an insect. The surface is a confused
mass of streams of lava rent by crevices; and rocks piled
on rocks, and occasional glaciers, complete the scene of desolation.
As herds of reindeer are seen browsing on the Iceland moss that
grows plentifully at its edges, it is presumed that some unknown
parts may be less barren. The extremities of the valley are more
especially the theatres of perpetual volcanic activity. At the
southern end, which opens to the sea in a wide plain, there are
many volcanos, of which Heckla is most known, from its insulated
position, its vicinity to the coast, and its tremendous eruptions.
Between the years 1004 and 1766 twenty-three violent
eruptions have taken place, one of which continued six years,
spreading devastation over a country once the abode of a thriving
colony, now covered with lava, scoria, and ashes: in the year
1846 it was in full activity. The eruption of the Skaptar Jockul,
162which broke out on the 8th of May, 1783, and continued till
August, is one of the most dreadful recorded. The volcanic fire
must have been in fearful commotion under Europe, for a tremendous
earthquake ruined a wide extent of Calabria that year,
and a submarine volcano had been burning fiercely for many
weeks in the ocean, 30 miles from the south-west cape of Iceland.
Its fires suddenly ceased, the island was shaken by earthquakes,
when, at the distance of 150 miles, they burst forth with
almost unexampled fury in Skaptar. The sun was hid many
months by dense clouds of vapour, which extended to England
and Holland, and clouds of ashes were carried many hundreds of
miles to sea. The quantity of matter thrown out in this eruption
was computed at fifty or sixty thousand millions of cubic yards.
The lava flowed in a stream in some places from 20 to 30 miles
broad, and of enormous thickness, which filled the beds of rivers,
poured into the sea nearly 50 miles from the places of its eruption,
and destroyed the fishing on the coast. Some rivers were
heated to ebullition, others dried up; the condensed vapour fell
in snow and torrents of rain; the country was laid waste; famine
and disease ensued; and in the course of the two succeeding
years 1300 people and 150,000 sheep and horses perished. The
scene of horror was closed by a dreadful earthquake. Previous
to the explosion an ominous mildness of temperature indicated
the approach of the volcanic fire towards the surface of the earth;
similar warnings had been observed before in the eruptions of
Heckla.
A semicircle of volcanic mountains on the eastern side of the
Lake Myvatr is the focus of the igneous phenomena at the northern
end of the great central valley. Leirhnukr and Krabla, on the
N.E. of the lake, have been equally formidable. After years of
quiescence they suddenly burst into violent eruption, and poured
such a quantity of lava into the lake Myvatr, which is 20 miles
in circumference, that the water boiled many days. There are
other volcanos in this district no less formidable. Various caldrons
of boiling mineral pitch, the shattered craters of ancient
volcanos, occur at the base of this semicircle of mountains, and
also on the flanks of Mount Krabla: these caldrons throw up jets
of the dark matter, enveloped in clouds of steam, at regular intervals,
with loud explosion. That which issues from the crater of
Krabla must, by Mr. Henderson’s description, be one of the most
terrific objects in nature.
The eruptive boiling springs of Iceland are perhaps the most
extraordinary phenomena in this singular country. All the great
aqueous eruptions occur in the trachytic formation; they are
characterized by their high temperature, by holding siliceous
matter in solution, which they deposit in the form of siliceous
163sinter, and by the discharge of sulphuretted hydrogen gas.
Numerous instances of spouting springs occur at the extremities
of the great central valley, especially at its southern end, where
more than fifty have been counted in the space of a few acres—some
constant, others periodical—some merely agitated, or stagnant.
The Great Geyser and Strokr, 35 miles north-west from
Heckla, are the most magnificent; at regular intervals they project
large columns of boiling water 100 feet high, enveloped in
clouds of steam, with tremendous noise. The tube of the Great
Geyser whence the jet issues is about 10 feet in diameter and 75
feet deep; it opens into the centre of a basin 4 feet deep and
between 46 and 50 feet in diameter: as soon as the basin is filled
by the boiling water that rises through the tube, explosions are
heard, the ground trembles, the water is thrown to the height of
100 or 150 feet, followed by large volumes of steam. No farther
explosion takes place till the empty basin and tube are again
replenished.
MM. Descloiseaux and Bunsen, who visited Iceland in 1846,
found the temperature of the Great Geyser, at the depth of 72
feet, before a great eruption, to be
2601⁄2°
of Fahrenheit, and after
the eruption
2511⁄2°;
an interval of 28 hours passed without any
eruption. The Strokr (from stroka, to agitate), 140 yards from
the Great Geyser, is a circular well, a little more than 44 feet
deep, with an orifice of 8 feet, which diminishes to little more
than 10 inches at a depth of 27 feet. The surface of the water is
in constant ebullition, while at the bottom the temperature exceeds
that of boiling water by about 24°. By the experiments of M.
Donny of Ghent, water long boiled becomes more and more free
from air, by which the cohesion of the particles is so much
increased that when it is exposed to a heat sufficient to overcome
the force of cohesion, the production of steam is so instantaneous
and so considerable as to cause explosion. To this cause he
ascribes the eruptions of the Geysers, which are in constant ebullition
for many hours, and become so purified from air, that the
strong heat at the bottom at last overcomes the cohesion of the particles,
and an explosion takes place. The boiling spring of Tunquhaer,
in the valley of Reikholt, is remarkable from having two
jets, which play alternately for about four minutes each. Some
springs emit gas only, or gas with a small quantity of water.
Such fountains are not confined to the land or fields of ice; they
occur also in the sea, and many issue from the crevices in the
lava-bed of Lake Myvatr, and rise in jets above the surface of the
water.
A region of the same character with the mountains of the Icelandic
desert extends due west from it to the extremity of the long
narrow promontory of the Sneefield Syssel, ending in the snow-clad
164cone of the Sneefield Jockul, 5000 feet high, one of the most
conspicuous mountains in Iceland.
With the exception of the purely volcanic districts described,
trap-rocks cover a great part of Iceland, which have been formed
by streams of lava at very ancient epochs, occasionally 4000 feet
deep.
The dismal coasts are torn in every direction by fiords, penetrating
many miles into the interior, and splitting into endless
branches, in these fissures the sea is still, dark, and deep, between
walls of rock 1000 feet high. The fiords, however, do not
here, as in Greenland, terminate in glaciers, but are prolonged in
narrow valleys, through which streams and rivers run to the sea.
In these valleys the inhabitants have their abode, or in meadows
which have a transient verdure along some of the fiords, where
the sea is so deep that ships find safe anchorage.
In the valleys on the northern coast, near as they approach to
the Arctic Circle, the soil is wonderfully good, and there is more
vegetation than in any other part of Iceland, with the exception of
the eastern shore, which is the most favoured portion of this desolate
land. Rivers abounding in fish are much more frequent there
than elsewhere; willows and juniper adorn the valleys, and birch-trees,
20 feet high, grow in the vale of Lagerflest, the only place
which produces them large enough for house-building, and the
verdure is fine on the banks of those streams which are heated by
volcanic fires.
The climate of Iceland is much less rigorous than that of Greenland,
and it would be still milder were not the air chilled by the
immense fields of ice from the Polar Sea which beset its shores.
The inhabitants are supplied with fuel by the Gulf Stream,
which brings drift-wood in great quantities from Mexico, the Carolinas,
Virginia, the river St. Lawrence, and some even from the
Pacific Ocean is drifted by currents round by the northern shores
of Siberia. The mean temperature in the south of the island is
about 39° of Fahrenheit, that of the central districts 36°, and in
the north it is rarely above the freezing point. The cold is most
intense when the sky is clear, but that is a rare occurrence, as the
wind from the sea covers mountain and valley with thick fog.
Hurricanes are frequent and furious; and although thunder is seldom
heard in high latitudes, Iceland is an exception, for tremendous
thunder-storms are not uncommon there—a circumstance no
doubt owing to the volcanic nature of that island, as lightning accompanies
volcanic eruptions everywhere. At the northern end
of the island the sun is always above the horizon in the middle of
summer, and under it in mid-winter, yet there is no absolute
darkness.
The island of Jan Mayen lies midway between Iceland and
165Spitzbergen; it is the most northern volcanic country known. Its
principal feature is the volcano of Beerenberg, 6870 feet high,
whose lofty snow-capped cone, apparently inaccessible, has been
seen to emit fire and smoke. It is flanked by enormous glaciers,
like frozen cataracts, which occupy three hollows in an almost
perpendicular cliff, which descends from the base of the mountain
to the sea.
The group of New Siberian Islands, which lie north of the province
of Yakutsk, and in about 78° of N. lat., have so rude a climate
that they have no permanent inhabitants; they are remarkable
for the vast quantity of fossil bones they contain: the elephant’s
tusks found there have for years been an article of commerce.
The south polar lands are equally volcanic, and as deeply ice-bound,
as those to the north. Victoria Land, which from its extent
seems to form part of a continent, was discovered by Sir James
Ross, who commanded the expedition sent by the British government
in 1839 to ascertain the position of the south magnetic
pole. This extensive tract lies under the meridian of New Zealand;
Cape North, its most northern point, is situate in 70° 31ʹ S.
lat., and 165° 28ʹ E. long. To the west of that cape the northern
coast of this new land terminates in perpendicular ice-cliffs, from
200 to 500 feet high, stretching as far as the eye can reach, with
a chain of grounded icebergs extending for miles from the base of
the cliffs, all of tabular form, and varying in size from one to nine
or ten miles in circumference. A lofty range of peaked mountains
rises in the interior at Cape North, covered with unbroken snow,
only relieved from uniform whiteness by shadows produced by the
undulations of the surface. The indentations of the coast are filled
with ice many hundreds of feet thick, which makes it impossible
to land. To the east of Cape North the coast trends first to S.E.
by E. and then in a southerly direction to
781⁄4°
of S. lat., at which
point it suddenly bends to the east, and extends in one continuous
vertical ice-cliff to an unknown distance in that direction. The
first view of Victoria Land is described as most magnificent. “On
the 11th of January, 1841, in about latitude 71° S. and longitude
171° E., the Antarctic continent was first seen, the general outline
of which at once indicated its volcanic character, rising steeply
from the ocean in a stupendous mountain-range, peak above peak
enveloped in perpetual snow, and clustered together in countless
groups resembling a vast mass of crystallization, which, as the
sun’s rays were reflected on it, exhibited a scene of such unequalled
magnificence and splendour as would baffle all power of language
to portray, or give the faintest conception of. One very remarkable
peak, in shape like a huge crystal of quartz, rose to the height
of 7867 feet, another to 9096, and a third to 8444 feet above the
166level of the sea. From these peaks ridges descended to the coast,
terminating abruptly in bold capes and promontories, whose steep
escarpments, affording shelter to neither ice nor snow, alone showed
the jet black lava or basalt, which reposed beneath the mantle of
eternal frost.”... “On the 28th, in lat. 77° 31ʹ and long. 167°
1ʹ, the burning volcano, Mount Erebus, was discovered, covered
with ice and snow from its base to its summit, from which a dense
column of black smoke towered high above the other numerous
lofty cones and crateriferous peaks with which this extraordinary
land is studded from the 72d to the 78th degree of latitude. Its
height above the sea is 12,367 feet, and Mount Terror, an extinct
crater near to it, which has doubtless once given vent to fires beneath,
attains an altitude little inferior, being 10,884 feet in height,
and ending in a cape, from which a vast barrier of ice extended
in an easterly direction, checking all farther progress south. This
continuous perpendicular wall of ice, varying in height from 200
to 100 feet, its summit presenting an almost unvarying level outline,
we traced for 300 miles, when the pack-ice obstructed all farther
progress.”[89]
The vertical cliff in question forms a completely solid mass of
ice about 1000 feet thick, the greater part of which is below the
surface of the sea; there is not the smallest appearance of a fissure
throughout its whole extent, and the intensely blue sky beyond
indicated plainly the great distance to which the ice-plains reach
southward. Gigantic icicles hang from every projecting point of
the icy cliff, showing that it sometimes thaws in these latitudes,
although in the month of February, which corresponds with August
in England, Fahrenheit’s thermometer did not rise above 14° at
noon. In the North Polar Ocean, on the contrary, streams of water
flow from every iceberg during the summer. The whole of this
country is beyond the pale of vegetation: no moss, not even a
lichen, covers the barren soil where everlasting winter reigns.
Parry’s Mountains, a lofty range, stretching south from Mount
Terror to the 79th parallel, is the most southern land yet discovered.
The South Magnetic Pole, one of the objects of the expedition, is
situate in Victoria Land, in 75° 5ʹ S. lat., and 154° 8ʹ E. long.,
according to Sir James C. Ross’s observations.
Various tracts of land have been discovered near the Antarctic
Circle, and within it, though none in so high a latitude as Victoria
Land. Whether they form part of one large continent remains
to be ascertained. Discovery ships sent by the Russian, French,
and American governments have increased our knowledge of
these remote regions, and the spirited adventures of British merchants
167and captains of whalers have contributed quite as much.[90]
The land within the Antarctic Circle is generally volcanic, at
least the coast-line, which is all that is yet known, and that, being
covered with snow and ice, is destitute of vegetation. [The land
described by Sir James Ross as Victoria Land, was, in fact, discovered
by the U. S. Exploring Expedition, under the command
of Charles Wilkes, Esq., U. S. Navy. He says:—“That land
does exist within the Antarctic Circle is now confirmed by the
united testimony of both French and English navigators. D’Urville,
the celebrated French navigator, within a few days after
land was seen by the three vessels of our squadron, reports that
his boats landed on a small point of rocks, at the place (as I suppose)
which appeared accessible to us in Piner’s Bay, whence
the Vincennes was driven by a violent gale; this he called Clarie
Land, and testifies to his belief of the existence of a vast tract of
land, where our view of it has left no doubt of its existence.
Ross, on the other hand, penetrated to the latitude of 79° S. in
the succeeding year, coasted for some distance along a lofty country
connected with our Antarctic Continent, and establishes beyond
all cavil the correctness of our assertion that we have discovered,
not a range of detached islands, but a vast Antarctic Continent.
How far Captain Ross was guided in his search by our previous
discoveries will best appear by reference to the chart, with a full
account of the proceedings of the squadron, which I sent to him,
and which I have inserted in Appendix XXIV., and Atlas. Although
I have never received any acknowledgment of their
receipt from him personally, yet I have heard of their having
reached his hands a few months prior to his Antarctic cruise.”]—Wilkes’s
“Narrative of the U. S. Exploring Expedition,” vol. ii.,
p. 281-2.
CHAPTER XV.
168
Nature and Character of Mineral Veins—Metalliferous Deposits—Mines—Their
Drainage and Ventilation—Their Depth—Diffusion of the
Metals—Gold—Silver—Lead—British Mines—Quicksilver—Copper—Tin—Cornish
Mines—Coal—Iron—Most abundant in the Temperate
Zones, especially in the Northern—European and British Iron
and Coal—American Iron and Coal—Arsenic and other Metals—Salt—Sulphur—Diffusion
of the Gems.
The tumultuous and sudden action of the volcano and the earthquake
on the great masses of the earth is in strong contrast with
the calm, silent operations on the minute atoms of matter by which
Nature seems to have filled the fissures in the rocks with her
precious gifts of metals and minerals, sought for by man from the
earliest ages to the present day. Tubal-cain was “the instructor
of every artificer in brass and iron.” Gold was among the first
luxuries, and even in our own country, from time immemorial,
strangers came from afar to carry off the produce of the Cornish
mines.[91]
The ancients scarcely were acquainted with a third of the
thirty-five metals now known, and the metallic bases of the alkalis
only date from the time of Sir Humphry Davy, having formed a
remarkable part of his brilliant discoveries.[92]
169Minerals are deposited in veins or fissures of rocks, in masses,
in beds, and sometimes in gravel and sand, the detritus of water.
Most of the metals are found in veins; a few, as gold and tin,
iron and copper, are disseminated through the rocks, though
rarely. Veins are cracks or fissures in rocks, seldom in a straight
line, yet they maintain a general direction, though in a zigzag
form, striking downwards at a very high angle, seldom deviating
from the perpendicular by so much as forty-five degrees, and
extending to an unfathomable depth. They are for the most part
accompanied by a subsidence of the strata on one side of their
course, and by an elevation on the other; the throw, or perpendicular
distance between the corresponding strata on the opposite
sides of a vein, varies from a few inches to thirty, forty, even a
hundred fathoms. The beginning or end of a vein is scarcely
ever known; but, when explored, they are found to begin abruptly,
and, after continuing entire to a greater or less distance,
they branch into small veins or strings.
In the downward zigzag course of a vein, the bending of the
strata upwards on one side and downwards on the other, and the
chemical changes almost always observed on the adjacent rocks,
veins bear a strong analogy to the course and effects of a very
powerful electrical discharge.
Veins have been filled with substances foreign to them, which
have probably been disseminated in atoms in the adjacent rocks
or by sublimation. Nothing can be more certain than that the
minute particles of matter are constantly in motion from the action
of heat, mutual attraction, and electricity. Prismatic crystals of
salts of zinc are changed in a few seconds into crystals of a totally
different form by the heat of the sun: casts of shells are found in
rocks, from which the animal matter has been removed, and its
place supplied by mineral matter; and the excavations made in
rocks diminish sensibly in size in a short time if the rock be soft,
and in a longer time when it is hard—circumstances which show
an intestine motion of the particles, not only in their relative positions,
but in space, which there is every reason to believe is owing
to electricity—a power which, if not the sole agent, must at least
have co-operated essentially in the formation and filling of mineral
veins.[93]
The magnetism of the earth is presumed to be owing to electrical
currents circulating through its surface in a direction at
170right angles to the magnetic meridians. Mr. Fox, so well known
in the scientific world, has long since shown, from observations
in the Cornish mines, that such currents do flow through all
metallic veins. Now, as the different substances of which the
earth is composed are in different states of electro-magnetism,
and are often interrupted by non-conducting rocks, the electric
currents, being stopped in their course, act chemically on all the
liquids and substances they meet with. Hence, Mr. Fox has
come to the conclusion that not only the nature of the deposits
must have been determined by their relative electrical conditions,
but that the direction of the metallic veins themselves must have
been influenced by the direction of the magnetic meridians; and,
in fact, almost all the metallic deposits in the world are in parallel
veins or fissures tending from east to west, or from north-east to
south-west. Veins at right angles to these are generally non-metalliferous,
and, if they do contain metallic ores, they are of a
different kind. In some few cases both contain the same ore,
but in very different quantities, as in the silver-mine at Pasco, in
the Andes, and both veins are richer near the point of crossing
than elsewhere.
Sir Henry de la Beche conceives that the continued expansion
and elevation of an intensely heated mass from below would
occasion numerous vertical fissures through the superincumbent
strata, within which some mineral matters may have been drawn
up by sublimation, and others deposited in them when held in
solution by ascending and descending streams of water; but
even on this hypothesis the direction of the rents and the deposition
of the minerals would be influenced by the electrical currents.
But if veins were filled from below, the richest veins would be
lowest, which is not the case in Cornwall, Mexico, or Peru.[94]
The primum mobile of the whole probably lies far beyond our
globe: we must look to the sun’s heat, if not as the sole cause of
electrical currents, at least as combined with the earth’s rotation
in their evolution.[95]
When veins cross one another, the traversed veins are presumed
to be of prior formation to those traversing, because the
latter are dislocated and often heaved out of their course at the
171point of meeting; and such is the case with the metalliferous
veins, which are therefore the most recent. Veins are rarely
filled in every part with ore; they contain sparry and stony
matter, called its matrix, with here and there irregular masses of
the metallic ores, often of great size and value. Solitary veins
are generally unproductive, and veins are richer when near one
another. The prevalence and richness of mineral veins are intimately
connected with the proximity or junction of dissimilar
rocks, where the electro-molecular and electro-chemical actions
are most energetic. Granite, porphyry, and the plutonic rocks
are often eminently metalliferous; but mineral deposits are also
abundant in rocks of sedimentary origin, especially in and near
situations where these two classes of rocks are in contact with
one another, or where the metamorphic structure has been
induced upon the sedimentary. This is remarkably the case in
Cornwall, the north of England, in the Ural, and all the great
mining districts.
The metalliferous deposits are peculiar to particular rocks:
gold and tin are most plentiful in granite and the rocks lying
immediately above it; copper is deposited in various slate formations
resting on the preceding, and in the trias; lead is found in
the mountain-limestone system, and is rare where iron and copper
abound; iron abounds in the coal and oolitic strata, and in a
state of oxidule and carbonate in the older rocks; and silver is
found in almost all of these formations; its ores being frequently
combined with those of other metals, especially of lead and copper.
There is such a connection between the contents of a vein and
the nature of the rock in which the fissure is, that, when in the
oldest rocks the same vein intersects clay-slate and granite, the
contents of the parts enclosed in one rock differ very much from
what is found in the other. It is believed that in the strata lying
above the coal-measures none of the more precious metals have
been found in England in such plenty as to defray the expense
of raising them, although such a rule does not extend to the continent
of Europe or to South America, where copper and silver
ores abound in our new red sandstone series. In Great Britain
no metal is raised in any stratum newer than the magnesian
limestone. Metals exist chiefly in the primary and early secondary
strata, especially near the junction of the granite and slates; and
it is a fact that rich veins of lead, copper, tin, &c., abound only
in and near the districts which have been greatly shaken by subterraneous
movements. In other countries, as Auvergne and the
Pyrenees, the presence of igneous rocks may have caused mineral
veins to appear in more recent strata than those which contain
them in Great Britain.
When a mine is opened, a shaft like a well is sunk perpendicularly
172from the surface of the ground, and from it horizontal
galleries are dug at different levels according to the direction of
the metallic veins, and gunpowder is used to blast the rocks
when too hard for the pickaxe. When mines extend very far in
a horizontal direction, it becomes necessary to sink more shafts,
for ventilation as well as for facility in raising the ore. Such is
the perfection of underground surveying in England, that the
work can be carried on at the same time from above and below so
exactly as to meet; and in order to accelerate the operation, the
shaft is worked simultaneously from the different galleries or
levels of the mine. In this manner a perpendicular shaft was
sunk 204 fathoms deep, about nineteen years ago, in the Consolidated
mines in Cornwall; it was finished in twelve months,
having been worked in fifteen different points at once. In that
mine there are ninety-five shafts, besides other perpendicular
communications under-ground from level to level: the depth of
the whole of these shafts added together amounts to about 25
miles; the galleries and levels extend horizontally about 43 miles,
and 2500 people are employed in it: yet this is but one of many
mines now in operation in the mining district of Cornwall
alone.[96]
The infiltration of the rain and surface-water, together with
subterranean springs and pools, would soon inundate a mine and
put a stop to the work, were not adequate means employed to
remove it. The steam-engine is often the only way of accomplishing
what in many cases would otherwise be impossible, and
the produce of mines has been in proportion to the successive
improvements in that machine. In the Consolidated mines
already mentioned there are nine steam-engines constantly
pumping out the water; four of these, which are the largest
ever made, together lift from thirty to fifty hogsheads of water
per minute, from an average depth of 230 fathoms. The power
of the steam-engines in draining the Cornish mines is equal to
44,000 horses—one-sixth of a bushel of coals performing the
work of a horse. The largest engine is between 300 and 350
horse-power; but as horses must rest, and the engine works
incessantly, it would require 1000 horses to do its work.[97]
Mines in high ground are sometimes drained to a certain
depth by an adit or gallery dug from the bottom of a shaft in a
sloping direction to a neighbouring valley. One of these adits
extends through the large mining district of Gwennap, in Cornwall;
it begins in a valley near the sea, and very little above its
173level, and goes through all the neighbouring mines, which it
drains to that depth, and with all its ramifications is 30 miles
long. Nent Force Level, in the north of England, forms a similar
drain to the mines in Alston Moor: it is a stupendous aqueduct
9 feet broad, and in some places from 16 to 20 feet high; it
passes for more than 3 miles under the course of the river Nent
to Nentsbury engine-shaft, and is navigated underground by long
narrow boats. Daylight at its mouth is seen like a star at the
distance of a mile in the interior. Most of the adits admit of the
passage of men and horses, with rails at the sides for wagons.
The ventilation of mines is accomplished by burning fires in
some of the shafts, which are in communication with the others,
so that currents of air flow up one and down the others. In some
cases fresh air is carried into the mines by streams that are made
to flow down some of the shafts. Were this not done, the heat,
which increases with the depth, would be insupportable; ventilation
diminishes the danger from the fire-damp, for, even where
Sir Humphry Davy’s safety-lamp is used, accidents happen from
the carelessness of the miners.[98]
The access to deep mines, as in Cornwall, is by a series of perpendicular
or slightly inclined ladders, sometimes uninterrupted,
but generally broken at intervals by resting-places. It is computed
that one-third of a miner’s physical strength was exhausted
in ascending and descending a deep mine: they are now drawn
up by the steam-engine.
The greatest depth to which man has excavated is nothing
when compared with the radius of the earth. The Eselschacht
mine at Kuttenberg in Bohemia, now inaccessible, which is 3778
feet below the surface, is deeper than any other mine. Its depth
is only 150 feet less than the height of Vesuvius, and it is eight
times greater than the height of the pyramid of Cheopos, or the
cathedral of Strasburg. The Monkwearmouth coal-mine near
Sunderland, descends to 1500 feet below the level of the sea, so
that the barometer stands there at 31·80, which is higher than
anywhere on the earth’s surface.[99] The salt-works of New
174Saltzwerk in Prussia are 2231 feet deep, and 1993 feet below
the level of the sea; and various other mines, such as the Liege
coal-mine of Esperance, and that of Mont Massi, in the Maremma
of Tuscany, do the same. Mines on high ground may be very
deep without extending to the sea-level: that of Valenciana, near
Guanaxuato in Mexico, is 1686 feet deep, yet its bottom is 5960
feet above the surface of the sea; and the mines in the higher
Andes must be much more. For the same reason the rich mine
of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, 2120 feet deep, has not yet reached
that level. The fire-springs at Tseu-lieu-tsing in China are 3197
feet deep, but their relative depth is unknown.[100] How insignificant
are all the works of man compared with nature!—A line
27,600 feet long did not reach the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The metals are very profusely diffused over the earth. Few
countries of any extent do not contain some of them. A small
number occur pure, but in general they are in the form of ores, in
which the metal is chemically combined with other substances, and
the ore is often so mixed with earthy matter and rock that it is
necessary to reduce it to a coarse powder in order to separate the
ore, which is rarely more than a third or fourth part of the mass
brought above ground.
Gold is found in almost every country, but in such minute
quantities that it is often not worth the expense of working. It
is almost always in a native state, and in the form of crystals,
grains, or rolled masses. Sometimes it is combined with silver.
It is exhausted in several parts of Europe where it was formerly
found. The united produce of the mines in Transylvania, Hungary,
the north-western districts of Austria, and the bed of the
Danube, is nearly 60,000 ounces annually. Gold is found in
small quantities in Spain, in the lead-hills in Scotland, and the
Wicklow mountains in Ireland.
Gold abounds in Asia, especially in Siberia. The deposits at
the foot of the Ural mountains are very rich. In 1826 a piece of
pure gold weighing 23 pounds was found there, along with others
weighing three or four pounds each, together with the bones of
elephants. All the diluvium there is ferruginous; and more to
the east, as already mentioned, a region as large as France has
lately been discovered with a soil rich in gold-dust, resting on
rocks filled with it. In 1834 the treasures in that part of the
Altaï chain called the Gold Mountains were discovered, forming
a mountain-knot nearly as large as England, from which a great
quantity of gold has been extracted. Gold is found in Tibet, in
the Chinese province of Yun-nan, and abundantly in the mountains
175of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, in Japan, and Borneo. In
the latter island it occurs near the surface in six different places.
Africa has long furnished a large supply to Europe. That
part of the Kong Mountains west of the meridian of Greenwich
is one of the most auriferous regions in the world. The gold
stratum lies from 20 to 25 feet below the surface, and increases in
richness with the depth. It is found in particles and pieces in a
reddish sand. Most of the streams from the table-land bring
down gold, as well those that descend to the low ground to the
north, as those that flow to the Atlantic. On the shores of the
Red Sea it was found in sufficient quantity to induce the Portuguese
to form a settlement there.
In South America, the western Cordillera is poor in metals
except in New Grenada, where the most westerly of the three
chains of the Andes is rich in gold and platinum—a metal found
only there, in Brazil, and on the European side of the Ural mountains—in
alluvial deposits. The largest piece of platinum that
has been found weighed 21 ounces. Gold is found in sand and
gravel on the high plains of the Andes, on the low lands to the
east of them, and in almost all the rivers that flow on that side.
The whole country between Jaen de Bracamores and the Guaviare
is celebrated for its metallic riches. Almost all the Brazilian
rivers bring down gold; and the mine of Gongo Socco,
near Rio de Janeiro, is said to yield several varieties of gold-ore.
Central America, Mexico, and California are auriferous countries.
The quantity of gold recently found near the surface in California
is very great. [There is no definite statement of the amount.]
A considerable quantity is found in Tennessee, the mountains of
Georgia, and on 1000 square miles of North Carolina it occurs in
grains and masses.
A great deal of silver is raised in Europe. The mines of Hungary
are the most productive, especially those in the mountains
of Chemnitz. The metalliferous mountains of the Erzgebirge
are also very rich, as also the mines near Christiania in Sweden.
Silver is also found in Saxony, Transylvania, and Austria. In
no part of the old continent is silver in greater abundance than in
the Ural and Altaï mountains, especially in the district of Kolywan.
There are silver-mines in Armenia, Anatolia, Tibet, China,
Cochin-China, and Japan.
The richness of the Andes in silver can hardly be conceived,
but the mines are frequently on such high ground that the profits
are diminished by the difficulty of carriage, the expense of living
in a barren country, sometimes destitute of water, where the
miners suffer from the cold and snow, and especially the want of
fuel. This is particularly the case at the silver-mines of Copiapo
in Chile, where the country is utterly barren, and not a drop of
176water is to be found in a circuit of nine miles. These mines
were discovered by a poor man in 1832, who hit upon a mass of
silver in rooting out a tree. They extend over 150 square leagues.
Sixteen veins of silver were found in the first four days, and,
before three weeks elapsed, forty more, not reckoning smaller
ramifications, were discovered. The rolled pieces which lay on
the surface produced a large quantity of pure silver. A single
mass weighed 5000 pounds.[101]
In Peru there are silver-mines along the whole range of the
Andes, from Caxamarea to the confines of the desert of Atacama.
The richest at present are those of Pasco, which were discovered
by an Indian in 1630. They have been worked without interruption
since the beginning of the seventeenth century, and seem
to be still inexhaustible. The soil under the town of Pasco is
metalliferous, the ores probably forming a series of beds contemporaneous
with the strata. The richness of these beds is not
everywhere the same, but the nests of ore are numerous. The
mines of Potosi, 16,150 feet above the sea-level, are celebrated
for riches, but the owners have to contend with all the difficulties
which such a situation imposes. The small depth at which the
silver lies on the high plains of the Andes, and the quantity of
it on the surface, is probably owing, as has been already stated,
to the greater deposition of the sublimed mineral from refrigeration
near the surface. The ore in the mines at Chota is near the
surface over an extent of half a square league, and the filaments
of silver are sometimes even entwined with the roots of the grass.
This mine is 13,300 feet above the level of the sea, and even in
summer the thermometer is below the freezing-point in the night.
In the district of Huantajaya, not far from the borders of the
Pacific, there are mines where masses of pure silver are found,
of which one weighed 800 pounds.[102]
According to Baron Humboldt, the quantity of the precious
metals brought to Europe between the discovery of America and
the year 1803 was worth 1257 millions sterling; and the silver
alone taken from the mines during that period would form a ball
89 feet in diameter. The disturbed state of the South American
republics has interfered with the working of the mines.
Lead-ore is very often combined with silver, and is then called
Argentiferous Galena. It is one of the principal productions of
the British mines, especially in the northern mining district,
which occupies 400 square miles at the junction of Northumberland,
Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, and Yorkshire. It
comprises Alstan Moor, the mountain-ridge of Crossfell, and the
177dales of Derwent, East and West Allen, the Wear, and Tees.
There are other extensive mining tracts separated from this by
cultivated ground. The principal products of this rich district are
lead and copper. The lead-mines lie chiefly in the upper dales
of the Tyne, Wear, and Tees, and all of it contains more or less
silver, though not always enough to indemnify the expense of
refining or separating the silver. The deleterious vapours resulting
from this process are conveyed in a tube along the surface of
the ground for 14 miles; and instead of being, as formerly, a dead
loss to the proprietor, they are condensed in their passage, and in
one instance yield metal to the annual value of 10,000l.[103] The
Hudgillburn lead-mine in that district has yielded treasures almost
unexampled in the annals of mining. The veins, from ten to
twelve, and in some places even twenty feet wide, were filled
with ore which is entirely obtained with the pickaxe, without
blasting. In 1821 the galena of this mine yielded 32,000 ounces
of silver.
Lead-mines are in operation in France, but not to any great
amount: those of the south of Spain furnish large quantities of
this metal; also in Saxony, Bohemia, and Carinthia, where they
are very rich. Lead is not very frequently found in Siberia,
though it does occur in the Nerchinsk mining district, in the
basin of the river Amur. It is also a production of China, of the
peninsula beyond the Ganges, and of America. It is also found
in Lower Peru, Mexico, and in California, where the richest
argentiferous lead is worked.
[The northwest country, or Upper Mississippi Valley, is among
the most remarkable in the world for the variety and abundance
of its mineral deposits, and especially for those which are of most
extensive use in the arts. The sulphuret of lead occupies about
one degree of latitude, extending north from a point on the Mississippi,
about eight miles below Galena, and lying on both sides,
varying in width, till it covers as great an extent from east to
west. On the east side of the river the lead-ore is found principally
in a clay matrix, at a depth of sometimes only five or six feet from
the surface; on the west side of the river it runs at the depth of
one hundred feet or more, overlaid with magnesian limestone.
To the south-west of the lead deposit is a very abundant bed of
iron, about forty miles long by twenty-five broad. The copper
region extends north from the lead deposits to Lake Superior; it
embraces about three hundred square miles. To the south of
the lead region is a vast bed of bituminous coal of good quality,
at no great distance below the surface.
In the mineral district there are about four thousand persons
178employed in digging lead-ore. The value of the lead annually
produced is estimated at $1,500,000. A considerable quantity, in
form of pig-lead, is exported to China.]
Quicksilver—a metal so important in separating silver from its
ores, and in other arts as well as in medicine—occurs either liquid
in the native state, or combined with sulphur in that of cinnabar.
It is found in the mines of Idria and some other places in the
Austrian empire, in the Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine,
and in Spain. The richest quicksilver mines of Europe, at the
present day, are those of Almaden, where the quicksilver is found
in the state of sulphuret chiefly. These mines were worked 700
years before the Christian era, and as many as 1200 tons of the
metal are extracted annually. It occurs in China, Japan, and
Ceylon, at San Onofro in Mexico; and in Peru, at Guancavelica,
the mines of which, now almost deserted, produced, up to the
beginning of the present century, the enormous quantity of
54,000 tons of quicksilver. The discovery of quicksilver mines
in California has been announced.
Copper is of such common occurrence that it would be vain to
enumerate the localities where it is found. It is produced in
Africa and America, in Persia, India, China, and Japan. The
Siberian mines are very productive both in ore and native copper.
Malachite is the most beautiful of the ores, and the choicest specimens
come from Siberia. Almost every country in Europe
yields copper. The mines in Sweden, Norway, and Germany
are very productive; and it forms a principal part of our own
mineral wealth. It is raised in all the principal mining districts
in England and Wales. In Cornwall it is very plentiful, and is
often associated with tin. The period at which the Cornish mines
were first worked goes far beyond history, or even tradition: certain,
however, it is that the Phœnicians came to Britain for tin.
Probably copper was also worked very early in small quantities,
for its exportation was forbidden in the time of Henry VIII. It
was only in the beginning of the eighteenth century that the
Cornish copper-mines were worked with success, in consequence
of the invention of an improved machine for draining them.[104]
[On the lands south of Lake Superior is a body of copper ore,
supposed to be the richest in the world. It is almost pure in
some specimens: so that, as taken from the earth, it was wrought
into church utensils by some of the French who first visited the
place; and a portion of the large rock deposited on the grounds
of the War Department, at Washington, has been polished so as
to present the appearance of sheet-copper.
At a recent meeting of the “American Association for the Advancement
179of Science,” held at Cambridge, Mass., August 1849,
Mr. J. S. Hodge, speaking of the mineral region of Lake Superior,
said:—“The mines are wrought wholly for native copper.
The veinstone with scattered particles, furnish what is called
stamp work; which is crushed under heavy stamps and then
washed; the lumps are called barrel ore, being packed in barrels
for transportation; and the masses, after being cut up into pieces
not exceeding two tons in weight, are shipped in bulk. The size
of some of these masses is so enormous as almost to exceed belief.
They have been broken up in the Cliff mine of 60 and even 80
tons in weight. Such pieces are reduced, in the mine, to fragments
of seven tons weight and less, and after being hoisted to
the surface are still further reduced.
“At the Minesota mine, near the Ontonagon river, I had an
opportunity of examining, in June, the most extraordinary mass
yet met with. Two shafts had been sunk on the line of the vein
150 feet apart. At the depth of about 30 feet they struck massive
copper, which lay in a huge sheet with the same underlay as
that of the vein—about 55° towards the north. Leaving this
sheet as a hanging wall, a level was run under it connecting the
two shafts. For this whole distance of 150 feet the mass appears
to be continuous, and how much further it goes on the line of the
vein either way there is no evidence, nor beside to what depth
it penetrates in the solid vein. I examined it with care, striking
it repeatedly with my hammer in order to detect, if possible, by
the sound, any break or interruption there might be in the mass—for
a thin scale of stone encrusted it sometimes and concealed the
face of the metal. Examinations had been made by drilling
through this scale, where it attained the thickness of an inch or
so; but in no place had any sign of a break been found. It forms
the whole hanging wall of the level, showing a width of at least
eight feet above the floor in which its lower edge was lost. It
had been cut through in only one place, where a partial break
afforded a convenient opportunity. Measuring the thickness here
as well as the irregular shape of the gap admitted, it was found
somewhat to exceed five feet. Assuming the thickness to average
only one foot, there would be in this mass 1200 cubic feet, or
about 250 tons—still it is not safe to assume even one foot, for
the masses vary extremely in thickness.
“The mode adopted to remove these masses is to cut channels
through them with cold chisels, after they are shattered by large
sand blasts put in behind them. Grooves are cut with the chisels
across their smallest places, one man holding, and another striking,
as in drilling. A chip of copper three-quarters of an inch wide,
and up to six inches in length, is taken out, and the process is
repeated until the groove passes through the mass. The expense
180of this work is from eight to twelve dollars per superficial foot of
the face exposed. Fragments of veinstone enclosed in the copper
prevent the use of saws. A powerful machine, occupying
little room, is much needed, which would perform more economically
this work.
“The greatest thickness of any mass cut through at the Cliff
Mine has been about three feet. Their occurrence through the
vein is not regular. Barren spots alternate with productive portions.
The same is the case in all the mines. The total product
of the Cliff Mine for the year 1848 is estimated at 830 tons,
averaging 60 per cent. During the present year more than half
this amount has been already sent down, and there is enough
more on the surface and in sight in the mine to warrant the belief
that 1000 tons will be the product of the year’s work, or 600 tons
of copper. The whole amount of copper annually imported into
the United States is about the value of two million dollars, or
about 5400 tons. But little has been supplied from our own
mines. Nine such mines, then, as the Cliff, would render us
independent of foreign supplies. From present appearances,
after careful examination of the region, and consideration of the
progress made in mining since my last visit in 1846, I feel myself
warranted in expressing a decided conviction that this amount
of copper must be supplied in very few years, and this metal
soon become, as lead already has, one of export instead of import.
The recent failures of mining speculations, wildly undertaken,
and ignorantly and extravagantly conducted, may for a time check
the development of these mines; but their wonderfully rich character
is now beginning to be properly appreciated, as well as
the reliance which may be put in the surface-appearance of the
veins. Some curious features in their character and distribution
have been detected, which have heretofore escaped observation
for want of sufficient data, and which will, I believe, be found of
great consequence in the selection of the best localities. These,
after farther examination, I may at another time make public.
The history of these mines, so far, has remarkably proved the
foresight and excellent judgment of the lamented Dr. Houghton,
particularly so in his predictions of the disastrous effects that
must result from such speculations as have caused the country to
be overrun by hordes of adventurers.
“The silver found associated with the copper has not proved
of much importance, perhaps for the reason that the greater part
of it is purloined by the miners. The Cliff Mine has probably
yielded more than thirty thousand dollars worth, of which not
more than a tenth part has been secured by the proprietors. I
saw myself, the present season, no less than six pounds and eight
ounces of lumps and bars of silver seized in the hands of an absconding
workman.”]
181In Cornwall clay-slate rests upon granite, and is traversed by
porphyritic dykes. The veins which contain copper or tin, or
both, run east and west, and penetrate both the granite and the
clay-slate. The non-metalliferous veins run north and south;
and if veins in that direction do contain any metal, it never is tin
or copper, but lead, silver, cobalt, or antimony, which with little
exception are believed to be always in the clay-slate. No miner
in Cornwall has ever seen the end or bottom of a vein; their
width varies from the thickness of a sheet of paper to 30 feet;
the average is from one to three feet. It rarely happens that
either tin or copper is found nearer the surface than 80 or 100
feet. If tin be first discovered, it sometimes disappears after
sinking the mine 100 feet deeper, when copper is found, and in
some instances tin is found 1000 feet deep without a trace of
copper; but if copper is first discovered, it is very rarely succeeded
by tin. Tin is found in rolled pieces, in horizontal beds
of sand and gravel, and is called stream-tin. The most valuable
tin-mines on the continent of Europe are those in Saxony; it also
occurs in France, Bohemia, and Spain. One of the richest deposits
of tin known is in the province of Tenasserim, on the east
side of the gulf of Martaban, in the Malayan peninsula. These
deposits occur in several parts of that country; the richest is
a layer eight or ten feet thick of sand and gravel, in which masses
of oxide of tin are sometimes the size of a pigeon’s egg. The
best of all comes from the island of Banca, at the extremity of the
Malacca peninsula; a large portion of it is imported into Britain,
and much goes to China. It is found in the alluvial tracts through
every part of the island, rarely more than 25 feet below the surface.
Great deposits occur also in the Siberian mining district
of Nertshinsk, near the desert of the Great Gobi, and in Bolivia,
near Oruro.
There are comparatively few coal-mines worked within the
tropics; they are mostly in the temperate zones, especially between
the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer; and as iron,
the most useful of metals, is chiefly found in the carboniferous
strata, it follows the same distribution. In fact, the most productive
iron-mines yet known are in the temperate zones. In the
eastern mining district of Siberia, in the valley of the river Vilui,
the ores are very rich, and very abundant in many parts of the
Altaï and Ural. In the latter, the mountain of Blagod, at 1534
feet above the sea, is one mass of magnetic iron-ore.[105] Coal and
iron are worked in so many parts of Northern China, Japan,
India, and Eastern Asia, that it would be tedious to enumerate
them.
182In Europe the richest mines of iron, like those of coal, lie
chiefly north of the Alps. Sweden, Norway, Russia, Germany,
Styria, Belgium, and France, all contain it plentifully. In Britain
many of the coalfields contain subordinate beds of a rich argillaceous
iron-ore, interstratified with coal, worked at the same time
and in the same manner; besides, there is a substratum of limestone,
which serves as a flux for melting the metal. The mines
lie near Birmingham, on the northeast frontier of the great coal-basin
of South Wales, near Pontypool and Merthyr Tydvil.
There are extensive iron-mines in Staffordshire, Shropshire,
North and South Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Scotland.
Altogether there are about 220 mines, which yield iron sufficient
for our own enormous consumption, and for exportation. These
productive mines would have been of no avail had it not been for
the abundance of fuel with which the greater part of them in the
north of England, Scotland, and Wales are associated—the great
source of our national wealth, more precious than mines of gold.
Most of the coal-mines would have been inaccessible but for the
means which their produce affords of draining them at a small
expense. A bushel of coals, which costs only a few pence, in
the furnace of a steam-engine generates a power which in a few
minutes will raise 20,000 gallons of water from a depth of 360
feet—an effect which could not be accomplished in a shorter time
than a whole day by the continuous labour of twenty men working
with the common pump. Yet this circumstance, so far from
lessening the demand for human labour, has caused a greater
number of men to be employed in the mines.[106]
The coal strata lie in basins, dipping from the sides towards the
centre, which is often at a vast depth below the surface of the
ground. The centre of the Liege coal-basin is 21,358 feet, or
31⁄2
geographical miles deep, which is easily estimated from the dip,
or inclination, of the strata at the edges, and the extent of the basin.
The coal lies in strata of small thickness and great extent. It varies
in thickness from 3 to 9 feet, though in some instances several
layers come together, and then it is 20 and even 30 feet thick; but
these layers are interrupted by frequent dislocations, which raise
the coal-seam towards the surface. These fissures, which divide
the coalfield into insulated masses, are filled with clay, so that an
accumulation of water takes place, which must be pumped up.
There are three immense coalfields in England. The first lies
north of the Trent, and occupies an area of 360 square miles; and
although the quantity of coal annually raised in Northumberland
and Durham amounts to a million and a half of tons, there is enough
183to last 1000 years. London is chiefly supplied from it. The
second or central coalfield, which includes Leicester, Worcester,
Stafford, and Shropshire, has an area of 1495 square miles, and
supplies the manufactories round it, and the midland counties
south and east of Derbyshire. The third or western coalfield
includes South Wales, Gloucestershire, and Somersetshire. The
coalfield of South Wales alone is 100 miles long, and 18 or
20 broad. The Workington and Whitehaven coal-mines go a
mile under the sea; several shafts in the latter are 100 fathoms
deep; and it is one of the finest in England for extent and thickness
of strata, some of the seams being nine feet thick.
The Scotch coal-measures occupy the great central low-land of
Scotland, lying between the southern high lands and the Highland
mountains; the whole of that rude tract is occupied by them, besides
which there are other coalfields of less extent. Coal has
been found in seventeen counties in Ireland, but the island contains
only four principal coal districts—Leinster, Munster, Connaught,
and Ulster. Thus, there is coal enough in the British
islands to last some thousands of years; and were it exhausted,
our friends across the Atlantic have enough to supply the world
for ages uncountable. Moreover, if science continues to advance
at the rate it has lately done, a substitute for coal will probably be
discovered before our own mines are worked out.[107]
184The carboniferous strata are enormously developed in the States
of North America. The Appalachian coalfield extends, without
interruption, 720 miles, with a maximum breadth of 280 miles,
185from the northern border of Pennsylvania to near Huntsville, in
Alabama, occupying an area of 63,000 square miles. It is intersected
by three great navigable rivers—the Monogahela, the Alleghany,
and the Ohio—which expose to view the seams of coal on
their banks. The Pittsburgh seam, 10 feet thick, exposed on the
banks of the Monogahela, extends, horizontally, 225 miles in length
and 100 in breadth, and covers an area of 14,000 square miles, so
that this seam of coal may be worked for ages almost on the surface,
and in many places literally so. Indeed, the facility is so
great, that it is more profitable to convey the coal by water to New
Orleans, 1100 miles distant, than to cut down the trees with which
the country is covered for fuel, and which may be had for the expense
of felling. The coal is bituminous, similar to the greater
part of the British coal; forty miles to the east, however, among
the ridges of the Appalachian chain, there is an extensive outlying
member of the great coalfield, which yields anthracite, a species
of coal which has the advantage of burning without smoke.
In the western States, the Illinois coalfield, which occupies part
186of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, is as large as England, and
consists of horizontal strata, with numerous seams of rich bituminous
coal. There is a vast coalfield also in Michigan. Large
areas in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia abound in coal. Iron
is worked in many parts of the States, from Connecticut to South
Carolina.[109]
The tropical regions of the globe have been so little explored
that no idea can be formed of the quantity of coal or iron they
contain; but as iron is so universal, it is probable that coal is not
wanting. It is found in Formosa. Both abound in Borneo, and
in various parts of tropical Africa and America. There is comparatively
so little land in the southern temperate zone, that the
mineral produce must be more limited than in the northern, yet
New Holland, Van Diemen’s Land, and New Zealand are rich
in coal and iron.
Arsenic, used in the arts and manufactures, is generally found
combined with other metals in many countries as well as our
own. Manganese, zinc, bismuth, and antimony are raised to a
considerable amount. As the qualities of the greater part of the
more rare metals are little known, they have hitherto been interesting
chiefly to the mineralogist.
The mines of rock-salt in Cheshire seem to be inexhaustible.
Enormous deposits of salt extend 600 miles on each side of the
Carpathian mountains, and throughout wide districts in Austria,
Gallicia, and Spain. It would not be easy to enumerate the
places in Asia where rock-salt has been found. Armenia, Syria,
and extensive tracts in the Punjab abound in it, also China and
the Ural district; and the Andes contain vast deposits of rock-salt,
some at great heights.
Volcanic countries in both continents yield sulphur. Sicily,
where it is found in the tertiary marine strata, unconnected with
the volcanic district, is the magazine which supplies the greater
part of the manufactures of Europe. It is often found beautifully
crystallized. Asphalt, nitre, alum, and naphtha are found in
various parts of Europe and Asia, and natron is procured from
small lakes in an oasis on the west of the Valley of the Nile.
The diffusion of precious stones is very limited. Diamonds
are mostly found in a soil of sand and gravel, and in the beds of
rivers. Brazil furnishes most of the diamonds in commerce;
they are the produce of tracts on each side of the Sierra Espenhaço,
and of a district watered by some of the affluents of the Rio
San Francesco. During the century ending in 1822, diamonds
were collected in Brazil to the value of three millions sterling,
one of which weighed
1381⁄2
carats. The celebrated mines of
187Golconda have produced many splendid diamonds; they are also
found in Borneo, which produced one weighing 367 carats,
valued at 269,378l. The eastern parts of the Thian-Tchan, on
the great platform of Asia, and a wide district of the Ural Mountains,
yield diamonds.
The ruby and sapphire have the same crystalline form, and are
nearly allied to corundum; both are found in Ceylon, in the gravel
of streams. The rubies at Gharan, on the verge of the river
Oxus, are found imbedded in limestone. The gravel of rivulets
in the Birman empire contains the oriental, star, and opalescent
rubies. The spinelle also occurs in that country in a district five
days’ journey from Ava. The Hungarian rubies are of inferior
value. The blue, green, yellow, and white sapphires are the
produce of the Birman empire, and the spinelle is not uncommon
in Brazil.
The finest emeralds come from veins of clay-slate in the valley
of Musa, in New Grenada. Beryls are found in Brazil, and in
the old mines in Mount Zabarah, in Upper Egypt. Those of
Hungary and of the Heubach Valley, near Saltzburg, are very
inferior in colour and quality.
Hungary and Bohemia yield the finest opals; the most esteemed
are opaque, of a pale brown, and shine with the most brilliant
iridescence; some are white, transparent, or semi-transparent, and
radiant in colours: the precious opal is found in Hungary and in
Mexico. The most beautiful garnets come from Bohemia and
Hungary; they are found in the Hartz mountains, Ceylon, and
many other localities. The turquoise is a Persian gem, and supposed
to be the fossilized enamel of the tooth of a fossil mastodon;
it is also found in Tibet and in the Belat-Tagh in Badakshan,
which is the country of the lapis lazuli, mined by heating the
rock, and then throwing cold water upon it. This beautiful
mineral is also found in several places of the Hindoo Coosh, in
the hills of Istalif north of Cabool, in Tibet, and in the Baikal
mountains in Siberia.
The cat’s-eye is peculiar to Ceylon; the king of Kandy had
one two inches broad. Topaz, beryl, and amethyst are of very
common occurrence, especially in Brazil, Siberia, and other places.
They are little valued, and scarcely accounted gems. Agates are
so beautiful on the table-land of Tibet, and in some parts of the
desert of the Great Gobi, that they form a considerable article of
commerce in China; and some are brought to Rome, where they
are cut into cameos and intaglios. But the greater part of the
agates, cornelians, and chalcedonies used in Europe are found in
the trap-rocks of Oberstein, in the Palatinate.
Thus, by her unseen ministers, electricity and reciprocal action,
the great artificer Nature has adorned the depths of the earth and
188the heart of the mountains with her most admirable works, filling
the veins with metals, and building the atoms of matter, with the
most elegant and delicate symmetry, into innumerable crystalline
forms of inimitable grace and beauty. The calm and still exterior
of the earth gives no indication of the activity that prevails in its
bosom, where treasures are preparing to enrich future generations
of man. Gold will still be sought for in the deep mine, and the
diamond will be gathered among the débris of the mountains,
while time endures.
CHAPTER XVI.
The Ocean—its Size, Colour, Pressure, and Saltness—Tides—Waves—their
Height and Force—Currents—their Effect on Voyages—Temperature—The
Stratum of Constant Temperature—Line of Maximum
Temperature—North and South Polar Ice—Inland Seas.
The ocean, which fills a deep cavity in the globe, and covers
three-fourths of its surface, is so unequally distributed that there
is three times more land in the northern than in the southern
hemisphere. The torrid zone is chiefly occupied by sea, and
only one twenty-seventh part of the land on one side of the earth
has land opposite to it on the other. The form assumed by this
immense mass of water is that of a spheroid, flattened at the poles;
and as its mean level is nearly the same, for anything we know
to the contrary, it serves as a base to which all heights of land are
referred.
The bed of the ocean, like that of the land, of which it is the
continuation, is diversified by plains and mountains, table-lands
and valleys, sometimes barren, sometimes covered with marine
vegetation, and teeming with life. Now it sinks into depths
which the sounding-line has never fathomed, now it appears in
chains of islands, or rises near to the surface in hidden reefs and
shoals, perilous to the mariner. Springs of fresh water rise from
the bottom, volcanos eject their lavas and scoriæ, and earthquakes
trouble the deep waters.
The ocean is continually receiving the spoils of the land, and
from that cause would constantly be decreasing in depth, and,
as the quantity of water is always the same, its superficial extent
would increase. There are, however, counteracting causes to
check this tendency: the secular elevation of the land over extensive
tracts in many parts of the world is one of the most important.
Volcanos, coral islands, and barrier-reefs show that great changes
189of level are constantly taking place in the bed of the ocean itself—that
symmetrical bands of subsidence and elevation extend alternately
over an area equal to a hemisphere, from which it may be
concluded that the balance is always maintained between the sea
and land, although the distribution may vary in the lapse of time.
The Pacific, or Great Ocean, exceeds in superficies all the dry
land on the globe. It has an area of 50 millions of square miles;
including the Indian Ocean, its area is nearly 70 millions; and
its breadth from Peru to the coast of Africa is 16,000 miles. Its
length is less than the Atlantic, as it only communicates with the
Arctic Ocean by Behring’s Straits, whereas the Atlantic, as far as
we know, stretches from pole to pole.
The continent of Australia occupies a comparatively small portion
of the Pacific, while innumerable islands stud its surface
many degrees on either side of the equator, of which a great
number are volcanic, showing that its bed has been, and indeed
actually is, the theatre of violent igneous eruptions. So great is
its depth, that a line five miles long has not reached the bottom
in many places; yet as the whole mass of the ocean counts for
little in the total amount of terrestrial gravitation, its mean depth
is but a small fraction of the radius of the globe.
The bed of the Atlantic is a long deep valley, with few mountains,
or at least but few that raise their summits as islands above
its surface. Its greatest breadth, including the Gulf of Mexico,
is 5000 miles, and its superficial extent is about 25 millions of
square miles. This sea is exceedingly deep: in 27° 26ʹ S. latitude
and 17° 29ʹ W. longitude Sir James Ross found the depth
to be 14,550 feet; about 450 miles west from the Cape of Good
Hope it was 16,062 feet, or 332 feet more than the height of
Mont Blanc; and 900 miles west from St. Helena a line of 27,600
feet did not reach the bottom, a depth which is equal to the height
of some of the most elevated peaks of the Himalaya; but there is
reason to believe that many parts of the ocean are still deeper.
A great part of the German Ocean is only 93 feet deep, though
on the Norwegian side, where the coast is bold, the depth is 190
fathoms.
Immense sandbanks often project from the land, which rise
from great depths to within a few fathoms of the surface. Of
these, the Aghullas Banks, off the Cape of Good Hope, are
amongst the most remarkable; those of Newfoundland are still
greater in extent: they consist of a double sandbank, which is
supposed to reach to the north of Scotland. The Dogger Bank,
in the North Sea, and many others, are well known. According
to Mr. Stevenson, one-fifth of the German Ocean is occupied by
sandbanks, whose average height is 78 feet, an area equal to about
one-third of Great Britain. Currents are sometimes deflected from
190their course by sandbanks whose tops do not come within 50 or
even 100 feet of the surface. Some on the coast of Norway are
surrounded by such deep water that they must be submarine
table-lands. All are the resort of fish.
The pressure at the great depths is enormous. In the Arctic
Ocean, where the specific gravity of the water is lessened, on
account of the greater proportion of fresh water produced by the
melting of the ice, the pressure at the depth of a mile and a quarter
is 2809 pounds on a square inch of surface; this was confirmed
by Captain Scoresby, who says, in his “Arctic Voyages,” that
the wood of a boat suddenly dragged to a great depth by a whale
was found, when drawn up, so saturated with water forced into
its pores, that it sank in water like a stone for a year afterwards.
Even sea-water is reduced in bulk from 20 to 19 solid inches at
the depth of 20 miles. The compression that a whale can endure
is wonderful. Many species of fish are capable of sustaining
great pressure, as well as sudden changes of pressure. Divers in
the pearl-fisheries exert great muscular strength, but man cannot
bear the increased pressure at great depths, because his lungs are
full of air, nor can he endure the diminution of it at great altitudes
above the earth.
The depth to which the sun’s light penetrates the ocean
depends upon the transparency of the water, and cannot be less
than twice the depth to which a person can see from the surface.
In parts of the Arctic Ocean shells are distinctly seen at the
depth of 80 fathoms; and among the West India islands, in 80
fathoms of water, the bed of the sea is as clear as if seen in air;
shells, corals, and sea-weeds of every hue display the tints of the
rainbow.
The purest spring is not more limpid than the water of the
ocean; it absorbs all the prismatic colours, except that of ultramarine,
which, being reflected in every direction, imparts a hue
approaching the azure of the sky. The colour of the sea varies
with every gleam of sunshine or passing cloud, although its true
tint is always the same when seen sheltered from atmospheric
influence. The reflection of a boat on the shady side is often of
the clearest blue, while the surface of the water exposed to the
sun is bright as burnished gold. The waters of the ocean also
derive their colour from animalcules of the infusorial kind, vegetable
substances, and minute particles of matter. It is white
in the Gulf of Guinea, black round the Maldives; off California
the Vermilion Sea is so called on account of the red colour of the
infusoria it contains; the same red colour was observed by
Magellan near the mouth of the river Plate. The Persian Gulf
is called the Green Sea by eastern geographers, and there is a
trail of green water off the Arabian coast so distinct that a ship
191has been seen in green and blue water at the same time. Rapid
transitions take place in the Arctic Sea, from ultramarine to olive-green,
from purity to opacity. These appearances are not delusive,
but constant as to place and colour; the green is produced
by myriads of minute insects, which devour one another and are
a prey to the whale. The colour of clearer shallow water depends
upon that of its bed; over chalk or white-sand it is apple-green,
over yellow sand dark-green, brown or black over dark ground,
and grey over mud.
The sea is supposed to have acquired its saline principle when
the globe was in the act of subsiding from a gaseous state. The
density of sea-water depends upon the quantity of saline matter
it contains: the proportion is generally a little above 3 per cent.,
though it varies in different places; the ocean contains more salt
in the southern than in the northern hemisphere, the Atlantic
more than the Pacific. The greatest proportion of salt in the
Pacific is in the parallels of 22° N. lat. and 17° S. lat.; near the
equator it is less, and in the Polar Seas it is least, from the melting
of the ice. The saltness varies with the seasons in these regions,
and the fresh water, being lightest, is uppermost. Rain makes
the surface of the sea fresher than the interior parts, and the
influx of rivers renders the ocean less salt at their estuaries; the
Atlantic is brackish 300 miles from the mouth of the Amazons.
Deep seas are more saline than those that are shallow, and inland
seas communicating with the ocean are less salt, from the rivers
that flow into them; to this, however, the Mediterranean is an
exception, occasioned by the great evaporation, and the influx of
salt currents from the Atlantic. The water in the Straits of Gibraltar
at the depth of 670 fathoms is four times as salt as that at
the surface.
Fresh water freezes at the temperature of 32° of Fahrenheit;
the point of congelation of salt water is much lower. As the
specific gravity of the water of the Greenland Sea is about 1·02664,
it does not freeze till its temperature is reduced to
281⁄2°
of Fahrenheit,
so that the saline principle preserves the sea in a liquid
state to a much higher latitude than if it had been fresh, while it
is better suited for navigation by its greater buoyancy. The healthfulness
of the sea is ascribed to the mixing of the water by tides and
currents which prevents the accumulation of putrescent matter.
Besides its saline ingredients, the sea contains bromine and
iodine in very minute quantities, and, no doubt, portions of other
substances too small to be detected by chemical analysis, since it
has constantly received the débris of the land and all its organized
matter.
Raised by the moon and modified by the sun, the area of the
ocean is elevated into great tidal waves which keep time with
192the attractions of these luminaries at each return to the upper
and lower meridian. The water under the moon is drawn from
the earth by her attraction, at the same time that she draws the
earth from the water diametrically opposite to her, in both cases
producing a tide of nearly equal height. The height to which
the tides rise depends upon the relative positions of the sun and
moon, upon their declination and distance from the earth, but
much more upon local circumstances. The spring-tides happen
at new and full moon, consequently, twice in a month, because in
both cases the sun and moon are in the same meridian; for when
the moon is new they are in conjunction, and when she is full
they are in opposition, and in each of these positions their
attraction is combined to raise the water to its greatest height;
while, on the contrary, the neap or lowest tides happen when the
moon is in quadrature, or 90° distant from the sun, for then they
counteract each other’s attraction to a certain degree.
The tides ordinarily happen twice in 24 hours, because the
rotation of the globe brings the same point of the ocean twice
under the meridian of the moon; but peculiar local circumstances
sometimes affect the tides, so as to produce only one tide in 24
hours, while, on the other hand, there have been known three
and even four tides in the same space of time.
As the earth revolves, a succession of tides follow one another,
and are diffused over the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans,
giving birth to the tides which wash the shores of the vast continents
and islands which rise above their surfaces; but in what
manner those marginal tides branch off from the parent wave,
science has not yet determined: we know only their course along
each shore, but are unable to connect these curves with the great
ridge of the tidal wave.
In the Atlantic the marginal wave travels towards the north,
and impinges upon the coasts of North America and of Europe.
In the Indian Ocean it also pursues a northerly course, and
finally washes the shores of Hindostan, the Bay of Bengal, and
the Arabian Gulf: while in the Pacific, on the contrary, the
waves diverge from the equator towards the poles—but in all
they partake also of the westerly course of the moon.
Although such are the directions in which the tides unquestionably
proceed along the shores of those seas, yet observations
at islands in the open sea and towards the centres of the oceans
contradict the idea of corresponding progressive waves throughout
the entire area of those seas.
Upon the coasts of Britain and New Brunswick the tides are
high, from the local circumstances of the coast and bottom of the
sea; while in the centre of the ocean, where they are due to the
action of the sun and moon only, they are remarkably small.
193The spring-tides rise more than 40 feet at Bristol, and in the Bay
of Fundy, in Nova Scotia, they rise upwards of 50 feet; the
general height in the North Atlantic is 10 or 12 feet, but in the
open and deep sea they are less; and at St. Helena they are not
more than 3 feet, whilst among the islands in the Pacific they are
scarcely perceptible.
The mean height of the tides will be increased by a very small
quantity for ages to come, in consequence of the decrease in the
mean distance of the moon from the earth; the contrary effect
will take place after that period has elapsed, and the moon’s
mean distance begins to increase again, which it will continue to
do for many ages. Thus, the mean distance of the moon, and
the consequent minute increase in the height of the tides, will
oscillate between fixed limits for ever.[110]
The tidal wave extends to the bottom of the ocean, and moves
uniformly and with great speed in very deep water, variably and
slow in shallow water; the time of propagation depends on the
depth of the water as well as on the nature and form of the
shores. Its velocity varies inversely as the square of the depth—a
law which theoretically affords the means of ascertaining the
proportionate depth of the sea in different parts; it is one of the
great constants of nature, and is to fluids what the pendulum is
to solids—a connecting link between time and force.
The great oceanic wave that twice a-day brings the tides to
our shores, has occupied a day and a half in travelling from the
place where it was generated. The wave first impinges on the
west coast of Ireland and England, and then passes round the
north of Scotland, up the North Sea, and enters the Thames,
having made the tour of Great Britain in about 18 hours.
At the equator the tide-wave follows the moon at the rate of
1000 miles an hour; it moves very slowly in the northern seas
on account of the shallowness of the water; but the tides are so
retarded by the form of the coasts and irregularities of the bottom
of the sea, that a tide is sometimes impeded by an obstacle till a
second tide reaches the same point by a different course, and the
water rises to double the height it would otherwise have attained.
A complete extinction of the tide takes place when a high-water
interferes in the same manner with a low-water, as in the centre
of the German Ocean—a circumstance predicted by theory, and
confirmed by Captain Hewett, who was not aware that such an
interference existed. When two unequal tides of contrary phases
meet, the greater overpowers the lesser, and the resulting height
is equal to their difference; such varieties occur chiefly in channels
194among islands and at the estuaries of rivers. When the tide
flows suddenly up a river encumbered with shoals, it checks the
descent of the stream; the water spreads over the sands, and a
high crested wave, called a bore, is driven with force up the
channel. This occurs in the Ganges; in the Amazon, at the
equinoxes, where, during three successive days, five of these
destructive waves, from 12 to 15 feet high, follow one another up
that river daily; and in a lesser degree in some of our own
rivers.
There may be some small flow of stream with the oceanic
tide; but that does not necessarily follow, since the tide in the
open ocean is merely an alternate rise and fall of the surface: so
that the wave, not the stream, follows the moon. A bird resting
on the sea is not carried forward as the waves rise and fall;
indeed, if so heavy a body as water were to move at the rate of
1000 miles in an hour, it would cause universal destruction, since
in the most violent hurricanes the velocity of the wind hardly
exceeds 100 miles an hour.
During the passage of the great tidal wave in deep water, the
particles of the fluid glide for the moment over each other into a
new arrangement, and then retire to their places; but this motion is
extremely limited and momentary. Over shallows, however, and
near the land, both the water and the waves advance during the
flow of the tide, and roll on the beach.[111]
The friction of the wind combines with the tides in agitating
the surface of the ocean, and, according to the theory of undulations,
each produces its effect independently of the other; wind,
however, not only raises waves, but causes a transfer of superficial
water also. Attraction between the particles of air and
water, as well as the pressure of the atmosphere, brings its lower
stratum into adhesive contact with the surface of the sea. If the
motion of the wind be parallel to the surface, there will still be
friction, but the water will be smooth as a mirror; but if it be
inclined, in however small a degree, a ripple will appear. The
friction raises a minute wave, whose elevation protects the water
beyond it from the wind, which consequently impinges on the
surface at a small distance beyond; thus, each impulse, combining
with the other, produces an undulation which continually
advances.
Those beautiful silvery streaks on the surface of a tranquil sea
called cat’s-paws by sailors, are owing to a partial deviation of
195the wind from a horizontal direction. The resistance of the water
increases with the strength and inclination of the wind. The
agitation at first extends little below the surface, but in long-continued
gales even the deep water is troubled: the billows rise
higher and higher, and, as the surface of the sea is driven before
the wind, their “monstrous heads,” impelled beyond the perpendicular,
fall in wreaths of foam. Sometimes several waves overtake
one another, and form a sublime and awful sea. The highest
waves known are those which occur during a north-west gale
off the Cape of Good Hope, aptly called by the ancient Portuguese
navigators the Cape of Storms: Cape Horn also seems to
be the abode of the tempest. The sublimity of the scene, united
to the threatened danger, naturally leads to an over-estimate of
the magnitude of the waves, which appear to rise mountain-high,
as they are proverbially said to do: there is, however, reason to
doubt if the highest waves off the Cape of Good Hope exceed 40
feet from the hollow trough to the summit. The waves are short
and abrupt in small shallow seas, and on that account are more
dangerous than the long rolling billows of the wide ocean.
“The sea-shore after a storm presents a scene of infinite grandeur.
It exhibits the expenditure of gigantic force, which impresses
the mind with the presence of elemental power as sublime
as the water-fall or the thunder. Long before the waves
reach the shore they may be said to feel the bottom as the water
becomes shallower, for they increase in height, but diminish in
length. Finally, the waves become higher, more pointed,
assumes a form of unstable equilibrium, totters, becomes crested
with foam, breaks with great violence, and continuing to break,
is gradually lessened in bulk till it ends in a fringed margin.”[112]
The waves raised by the wind are altogether independent of
the tidal waves; each maintains its undisturbed course; and as
the inequalities of the coasts reflect them in all directions, they
modify those they encounter and offer new resistance to the wind,
so that there may be three or four systems or series of co-existing
waves, all going in different directions, while the individual waves
of each maintain their parallelism.
The undulation called a ground-swell, occasioned by the continuance
of a heavy gale, is totally different from the tossing of
the billows, which is confined to the area vexed by the wind;
whereas the ground-swell is rapidly transmitted through the
ocean to regions far beyond the direct influence of the gale that
raised it, and it continues to heave the smooth and glassy surface
of the deep long after the wind and the billows are at rest.
In the South Pacific, billows which must have travelled 1000
196miles against the trade-wind from the seat of the storm, expend
their fury on the lee side of the many coral islands which bedeck
that sunny sea.[113] A swell sometimes comes from a quarter in
direct opposition to the wind, and occasionally from various
points of the compass at the same time, producing a vast commotion
even in a dead calm, without ruffling the surface. They are
the heralds that point out to the mariner the distant region where
the tempest has howled, and not unfrequently they are the harbingers
of its approach. At the margin of the polar ice, in addition
to other dangers, there is generally a swell which would be
very formidable to the mariner in thick weather, did not the loud
grinding noise of the ice warn him of his approach.
Heavy swells are propagated through the ocean till they gradually
subside from the friction of the water, or till the undulation
is checked by the resistance of land, when they roll in surf
to the shore, or dash in spray and foam over the rocks. The rollers
at the Cape de Verde Islands are seen at a great distance
approaching like mountains. When a gale is added to a ground-swell
the commotion is great and the force of the surge tremendous,
tossing huge masses of rock and shaking the cliffs to their
foundations. During heavy gales on the coast of Madras the surf
breaks in nine fathoms water at the distance of four and even four
and a half miles from the shore. The violence of the tempest is
sometimes so intense as to quell the billows and scatter its surface
in a heavy shower called by sailors spoon-drift. On such occasions
saline particles have impregnated the air to the distance of
50 miles inland.
The force of the waves in gales of wind is tremendous; from
experiments made by Mr. Stevenson, civil engineer, on the west
coast of Scotland, exposed to the whole fury of the Atlantic, it
appears that the average pressure of the waves during the summer
months was equal to 611 pounds weight on a square foot of
surface, while in winter it was 2086 pounds, or three times as
great. During the storm that took place on the 9th of March,
1845, it amounted to 6083 pounds. Now, as the pressure of a
wave 20 feet high not in motion is only about half a ton on a
square foot, it shows how much of their force waves owe to their
velocity. The rolling breakers on the cliffs on the west coast of
Ireland are magnificent: Lord Adair measured some that were
50 and even 150 feet high.
In the Isle of Man, a block winch weighed about 10 stone was
lifted from its place and carried inland during a north-westerly
gale; and in the Hebrides a block of 42 tons weight was moved
several feet by the force of the waves. The Bell Rock light-house
197in the German Ocean, though 112 feet high, is literally
buried in foam and spray to the very top during ground-swells
when there is no wind. On the 20th of November, 1827, the
spray rose 117 feet, so that the pressure was computed by Mr.
Stevenson to be nearly three tons on a square foot.
The effect of a gale descends to a comparatively small distance
below the surface; the sea is probably tranquil at the depth of
200 or 300 feet; were it not so, the water would be turbid and
shellfish would be destroyed. Anything that diminishes the friction
of the wind smoothes the surface of the sea—for example,
oil or a small stream of packed ice, which suppresses even a swell.
When the air is moist, its attraction for water is diminished, and
consequently so is the friction; hence the sea is not so rough in
rainy as in dry weather.
Currents of various extent, magnitude, and velocity disturb
the tranquillity of the ocean; some of them depend upon circumstances
permanent as the globe itself, others on ever-varying
causes. Constant currents are produced by the combined action
of the rotation of the earth, the heat of the sun, and the trade-winds;
periodical currents are occasioned by tides, monsoons, and
other long-continued winds; temporary currents arise from the
tides, melting ice, and from every gale of some duration. A perpetual
circulation is kept up in the waters of the main by these
vast marine streams; they are sometimes superficial and sometimes
submarine, according as their density is greater or less than
that of the surrounding sea.
The exchange of water between the poles and the equator
affects the great currents of the ocean. Although these depend
upon the same causes as the trade-winds, they differ essentially
in this respect—that whereas the atmosphere is heated from
below by its contact with the earth, and transmits the heat to the
strata above, the sea is heated at its surface by the direct rays of
the sun, which diminish the specific gravity of the upper strata,
especially between the tropics, and also occasion strong and rapid
evaporation, both of which causes disturb the equilibrium of the
ocean. The rotation of the earth also gives the water a tendency
to take an oblique direction in its flow towards the equatorial
regions, as, in order to restore the equilibrium, deranged by so
many circumstances, great streams perpetually descend from
either pole. When these currents leave the poles they flow
towards the equator; but, before proceeding far, their motion is
deflected by the diurnal rotation of the earth. At the poles they
have no rotatory motion; and although they gain it more and
more in their progress to the equator, which revolves at the rate
of 1000 miles an hour, they arrive at the tropics before they have
acquired the same velocity of rotation with the intertropical
198ocean. On that account they are left behind, and consequently
seem to flow in a direction contrary to the diurnal rotation of the
earth. For that reason the whole surface of the ocean, for 30
degrees on each side of the equator, has an apparent tendency
from east to west, which produces all the effects of a great current
or stream flowing in that direction. The trade-winds, which blow
constantly in one direction, combine to give this current a mean
velocity of 10 or 11 miles in 24 hours.
It has been supposed that the primary currents, as well as
those derived from them, are subject to periodical variations of
intensity occasioned by the melting of the ice at each pole alternately.
In consequence of the uninterrupted expanse of ocean in the
southern hemisphere, the prevalence of westerly winds, and the
tendency of the polar water towards the equator, a great oceanic
current is originated in the Antarctic Sea. Driven by the prevailing
winds, the waters take an easterly direction inclining to
the northward, and one part sets upon the American coast, where
it is divided. A small part doubles Cape Horn, while the main
cold stream flows down the American shore; then turning suddenly
to the west, it loses itself in the great equatorial current of
the Pacific, which crosses that ocean between the parallels of 26°
S. and 24° N. in a vast stream nearly 3500 miles broad. In the
north this stream is interrupted by the coast of China, the Eastern
Peninsula, and the islands of the Indian Archipelago; but a
part forces its way between the islands, and joins the great equatorial
current of the Indian Ocean, which, impelled by the S.E.
trade-wind, maintains a westerly course between the 10th and
20th parallels of south latitude; as it approaches the Island of
Madagascar the stream is divided; one part runs to the north-west,
bends round the northern end of Madagascar, flows through
the Mosambique Channel, and, being joined by the other branch,
it doubles the Cape of Good Hope outside of the Agullhas Bank,
and, under the name of the South Atlantic Current, it runs along
the west coast of Africa to the parallel of St. Helena. There it
is deflected by the coast of Guinea, and forms the Great Atlantic
Equatorial Current, which flows westward and divides upon Cape
St. Roque in Brazil. One branch of the stream setting southward
along the continent of South America, becomes insensible
before it reaches the Straits of Magellan; but an offset from it
stretches directly across the Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope,
having made the circuit of the South Atlantic Ocean, and keeping
150 miles outside of the Cape or Agullhas current, which runs
in the opposite direction, it pursues its course into the Indian
Ocean, where traces of it are met with 2000 miles from the Cape.
The principal branch of the great equatorial current takes a
199northerly course from off Cape St. Roque, and rushes along the
coast of Brazil with such force and depth that it suffers only a temporary
deflection by the powerful streams of the river Amazon and
of the Orinoco. Though much weakened in passing among the
West Indian islands, it acquires new strength in the Caribbean
Sea. From thence, after sweeping round the Gulf of Mexico
with the high temperature of 88° 52ʹ of Fahrenheit, it flows
through the Straits of Florida, and along the North American
coast to Newfoundland under the name of the Gulf-stream: it is
there deflected eastward by the form of the land and the prevalent
wind, and after passing Newfoundland by a current from
Baffin’s Bay. From the Azores it bends southward, and aided
by the north-east trade rejoins the equatorial current, having
made a circuit of 3800 miles with various velocity, leaving a
vast loop or space of water nearly stagnant in its centre, which is
thickly covered with sea-weed. The bodies of men, animals,
and plants of unknown appearance, brought to the Azores by
this stream, suggested to Columbus the idea of land beyond the
Western Ocean, and thus led to the discovery of America. The
Gulf-stream is more salt, warmer, and of a deeper blue than the
rest of the ocean, till it reaches Newfoundland, where it becomes
turbid from the shallowness of that part of the sea. Its greatest
velocity is 78 miles a-day soon after leaving the Florida Strait;
and its breadth increases with its distance from the strait until the
warm water spreads over a large surface of the ocean. An important
branch leaves the current near Newfoundland, setting
towards Britain and Norway; which is again subdivided into
many branches, whose origin is recognized by their greater
warmth, even at the edge of perpetual ice in the Polar Ocean;
and in consequence of some of these branches the Spitzbergen
Sea is 6° or 7° warmer at the depth of 200 fathoms than at its
surface. Though the warmth of the Gulf-stream diminishes as
it goes north, Lieutenant Murray says “that the quantity of heat
which it spreads over the Atlantic in a winter’s day would be
sufficient to raise the whole atmosphere that covers France and
Great Britain from the freezing point to summer heat;” and it
really is the cause of the mildness and of the damp of Ireland and
the south of England.
These oceanic streams exceed all the rivers in the world in
breadth and depth as well as length. The equatorial current in
the Atlantic is 160 miles broad off the coast of Africa, and towards
its mid-course across the Atlantic its width becomes nearly equal
to the length of Great Britain: but as it then sends off a branch
to the N.W., it is diminished to 200 miles before reaching the
coast of Brazil. The depth of this great stream is unknown; but
the Brazilian branch must be very profound, since it is not deflected
200by the river La Plata, which crosses it with so strong a
current that its fresh muddy waters are perceptible 500 miles
from its mouth. When currents pass over banks and shoals, the
colder water rises to the surface and gives warning of the danger.
In summer, the great north polar current coming along the
coasts of Greenland and Labrador, together with the current from
Davis’s Straits, brings icebergs to the margin of the Gulf-Stream.
The difference between the temperatures of these two oceanic
streams brought into contact is the cause of the dense fogs that
brood over the banks of Newfoundland. The north polar current
runs inside of the Gulf-Stream, along the coast of North America
to Florida, and beyond it—since it sends an under-current into the
Caribbean Sea. Counter-currents on the surface are of such frequent
occurrence that there is scarcely a strait joining two seas
that does not furnish an example—a current running in along one
shore, and a counter-current running out along the other. One
of the most remarkable occurs in the Atlantic: it begins off the
coast of France, and, after sending a mass of water into the Mediterranean,
it holds a southerly direction at some distance from
the continent of Africa; till, after passing Cape Mesurada, it
flows rapidly for 1000 miles due east to the Bight of Biafra in
immediate contact with the equatorial current, running with great
velocity in the opposite direction, and seems to merge in it at
last.
Periodical currents are frequent in the eastern seas: one flows
into the Red Sea from October to May, and out of it from May to
October. In the Persian Gulf this order is reversed; in the Indian
Ocean and China Sea the waters are driven alternately
backwards and forwards by the monsoons. It is the southwesterly
monsoon that causes inundations in the Ganges, and a tremendous
surf on the coast of Coromandel. The tides also produce
periodical currents on the coasts and in straits, the water running
in one direction during the flood, and the contrary way in the
ebb. The Roost of Sumburgh, at the southern promontory of
Shetland, runs at the rate of 15 miles an hour; indeed, the
strongest tidal currents known are among the Orkney and Shetland
islands; their great velocity arises from local circumstances.
Currents in the wide ocean move at the rate of from one to three
miles an hour, but the velocity is less at the margin and bottom
of the stream from friction.
Whirlpools are produced by opposing winds and tides; the
whirlpool of Maelstrom, on the coast of Norway, is occasioned by
the meeting of tidal currents round the islands of Lofoden and
Mosköe; it is a mile and a half in diameter, and so violent that
its roar is heard at the distance of several leagues.
Although with winds, tides, and currents, it might seem that
201the ocean is ever in motion, yet in the equatorial regions, far from
land, dead calms prevail; the sea is of the most perfect stillness
day after day; partaking of the universal quiet, and heaving its
low flat waves in noiseless and regular periods as if nature were
asleep.
The safety and length of a voyage depends upon the skill with
which a seaman avails himself of the set of the different currents,
and the direction of the permanent and periodical winds; it is
frequently shortened by following a very circuitous track to take
advantage of them if favourable, or to avoid them if unfavourable.
From Acapulco, in Mexico, across the Pacific to Manilla or Canton,
the trade-wind and the equatorial current are so favourable
that the voyage is accomplished in 50 or 60 days; whereas, in
returning, 90 or 100 are required. Within the Antillas navigation
is so difficult from winds and currents, that a vessel, going
from Jamaica to the lesser Antillas, cannot sail directly across the
Caribbean Sea, but must go round about through the windward
passage between Cuba and Haiti to the ocean; nearly as many
weeks are requisite to accomplish this voyage as it takes days to
return. On account of the prevalence of westerly winds in the
North Atlantic, the voyage from Europe to the United States is
longer than that from the latter to Europe; but the Gulf-stream
is avoided in the outward voyage [i. e. from Europe], because it
would lengthen the time by a fortnight. Ships going to the
West Indies, Central or South America, from Europe, generally
make the Canary Islands in order to fall in with the N.E. trade-winds.
The passage to the Cape of Good Hope from the British Channel
may be undertaken at any season, and is accomplished in 50
or 60 days; but it is necessary to regulate the voyage from the
Cape to India and China according to the seasons of the monsoons.
There are various courses adopted for that purpose, but all of
them pass through the very focus of the hurricane district, which
includes the islands of Rodriguez, the Mauritius, and Bourbon,
and extends from Madagascar to the island of Timor.
The extensive deposits of coal discovered in the Bay of Talcahuano,
in Chile, in Australia, New Zealand, in the British settlement
at Labuan, and in Borneo, will be the means of increasing
the steam navigation of the Pacific, and shortening the voyages
upon that ocean.
Sea-water is a bad conductor of heat, therefore the temperature
of the ocean is less liable to sudden changes than the atmosphere;
the influence of the seasons is imperceptible at the depth of 300 feet;
and as light probably does not penetrate lower than 700 feet, the
heat of the sun cannot affect the bottom of a deep sea. It has been
established beyond a doubt that in all parts of the ocean the water
202has a constant temperature of about 39°·5 of Fahrenheit, at a certain
depth, depending on the latitude. At the equator the stratum
of water at that temperature is at the depth of 7200 feet; from
thence it gradually rises till it comes to the surface in S. lat. 56°
26ʹ, where the water has the temperature of 39°·5 at all depths;
it then gradually descends till S. lat. 70°, where it is 4500 feet
below the surface. In going north from the equator the same law
is observed. Hence, with regard to temperature, there are three
regions in the ocean: one equatorial and two polar. In the equatorial
region the temperature of the water at the surface of the
ocean is 80° of Fahrenheit, therefore higher than that of the stratum
of 39°·5; while in the polar regions it is lower. Thus, the
surface of the stratum of constant temperature is a curve which
begins at the depth of 4500 feet in the southern basin, from
whence it gradually rises to the surface in S. lat. 56° 26ʹ; it
then sweeps down to 7200 feet at the equator, and rises up again
to the surface in the corresponding northern latitude, from whence
it descends again to a depth of 4500 feet in the northern basin.
The temperature of the surface of the ocean decreases from the
equator to the poles. For 10 degrees on each side of the line the
maximum is 80° of Fahrenheit, and remarkably stable; from
thence to each tropic the decrease does not exceed 3°·7. The
tropical temperature would be greater were it not for the currents,
because the surface reflects much fewer of the sun’s rays which
fall on it directly, than in higher latitudes where they fall obliquely.
In the torrid zone the surface of the sea is about 3°·5
of Fahrenheit warmer than the air above it; because the polar
winds, and the great evaporation which absorbs the heat, prevent
equilibrium; and as a great mass of water is slow in following the
changes in the atmosphere, the vicissitude of day and night has
little influence, whereas in the temperate zones it is perceptible.
The line of maximum temperature, or that which passes through
all the points of greatest heat in the ocean, is very irregular, and
does not coincide with the terrestrial equator; six-tenths of its
extent lies on an average 5° to the north of it, and the remainder
runs at a mean distance of 3° on its southern side. It cuts the
terrestrial equator in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in 21° E.
longitude in passing from the northern to the southern hemisphere,
and again between Sumatra and the peninsula of Malacca
in returning from the southern to the northern. Its maximum
temperature in the Pacific is 88°·5 of Fahrenheit on the northern
shores of New Guinea, where it touches the terrestrial equator,
and its highest temperature in the Atlantic, which is exactly the
same, lies in the Gulf of Mexico, which furnishes the warm water
of the Gulf-stream.
The superficial water of the Pacific is much cooled on the east
203by the Antarctic current; it sends a cold stream along the coasts
of Chile and Peru, which has great influence on the climate of
both countries; it was first observed by Baron Humboldt, and is
known as Humboldt’s current. It is more than 14° colder than
the adjacent ocean, and renders the air 11° cooler than the surrounding
atmosphere.
In the Indian Ocean the highest temperature of the surface-water
(87°·4) is in the Arabian Sea, between the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb
and the coast of Hindostan; it decreases regularly
from south to north in the Red Sea.
The superficial temperature diminishes from the tropics with the
increase of the latitude more rapidly in the southern than in the
northern hemisphere, till towards the poles the sea is never free
from ice. In the Arctic Ocean the surface is at the freezing point
even in summer; and during the eight winter months a continuous
body of ice extends in every direction from the pole, filling
the area of a circle of between 3000 and 4000 miles in diameter.
The outline of this circle, though subject to partial variations, is
found to be nearly similar at the same season of each succeeding
year, yet there are periodical changes in the polar ice which are
renewed after a series of years. The freezing process itself is a
bar to the unlimited increase of the oceanic ice. Fresh water
congeals at the temperature of 32° of Fahrenheit, but sea-water
must be reduced to 28°·5 before it deposits its salt and begins to
freeze: the salt thus set free, and the heat given out, retard the
process of congelation more and more below.
The ice from the north pole comes so far south in winter as to
render the coast of Newfoundland inaccessible: it envelops
Greenland, sometimes even Iceland, and always invests Spitzbergen
and Nova Zembla. As the sun comes north the ice
breaks up into enormous masses of what is called packed ice.
In the year 1806 Captain Scoresby forced his ship through 250
miles of packed ice, in imminent danger, until he reached the
parallel of 81° 50ʹ, his nearest approach to the pole: the Frozen
Ocean is rarely navigable so far.
In the year 1827 Sir Edward Parry arrived at the latitude of
82° 45ʹ, which he accomplished by dragging a boat over fields of
ice, but he was obliged to abandon the bold and hazardous attempt
to reach the pole, because the current drifted the ice southward
more rapidly than he could travel over it to the north.
The following considerations have induced some persons to
believe that there is sea instead of land at the north pole. The
average latitude of the northern shores of the continent is 70°, so
that the Arctic Ocean is a circle whose diameter is 2400 geographical
miles, and its circumference 7200. On the Asiatic
side of this sea are Nova Zembla and the New Siberian islands,
each extending to about 76° N. latitude. On the European and
204American sides are Spitzbergen, extending to 80°, and a part of
Old Greenland, whose northern termination is unknown. Facing
America is a large island—Melville Island—with some others not
extending so far north as those mentioned; consequently all of
them may be considered continental islands. As there are no
large islands very far from land in the other great oceans, there
is reason to presume that the same structure may prevail here
also, and, consequently, it may be open sea at the north pole.
Possibly also it may be free from ice, for Admiral Wrangel found
a wide and open sea, free from ice and navigable, beginning 16
miles north of the island of Kotelnoi, and extending to the meridian
of Cape Jackan. In fine summers the ice suddenly clears away and
leaves an open channel of sea along the western coast of Spitzbergen
from 60 to 150 miles wide, reaching to 80° or even to
801⁄2°
N. latitude probably owing to warm currents from low latitudes.
It was through this channel that Captain Scoresby made his
nearest approach to the pole. A direct course from the Thames,
across the pole to Behring’s Straits, is 3570 geographical miles,
while by Lancaster Sound it is 4660 miles. The Russians would
be saved a voyage of 18,800 geographical miles could they go
across the pole and through Behring’s Straits to their North
American settlements, instead of going by Cape Horn.
Floating fields of ice, 20 or 30 miles in diameter, are frequent
in the Arctic Ocean: sometimes they extend 100 miles, so closely
packed together that no opening is left between them; their
thickness, which varies from 10 to 40 feet, is not seen, as there
is at least two-thirds of the mass below water. Sometimes these
fields, many thousand millions of tons in weight, acquire a rotatory
motion of great velocity, dashing against one another with a
tremendous collision. Packed ice always has a tendency to drift
southwards, even in the calmest weather; and in their progress
the ice-fields are rent in pieces by the swell of the sea. It is
computed that 20,000 square miles of drift ice are annually
brought by the current along the coast of Greenland to Cape
Farewell. In stormy weather the fields and streams of ice are
covered with haze and spray from constant tremendous concussions;
yet our seamen, undismayed by the appalling danger,
boldly steer their ships amidst this hideous and discordant tumult.
Huge icebergs and masses detached from the glaciers, which
extend from the Arctic lands into the sea, especially in Baffin’s
Bay, are drifted southwards 2000 miles from their origin to melt
in the Atlantic, where they cool the water sensibly for 30 or 40
miles around, and the air to a much greater distance. They
vary from a few yards to miles in circumference, and rise hundreds
of feet above the surface. Seven hundred such masses
have been seen at once in the polar basin. When there is a
swell the loose ice dashing against them raises the spray to their
205very summits; and as they waste away they occasionally lose
equilibrium and roll over, causing a swell which breaks up the
neighbouring field-ice; the commotion spreads far and wide, and
the uproar resounds like thunder.
Icebergs have the appearance of chalk-cliffs with a glittering
surface and emerald-green fractures: pools of water of azure-blue
lie on their surface or fall in cascades into the sea. The field-ice
also, and the masses that are heaped up on its surface, are extremely
beautiful from the vividness and contrast of their colouring.
A peculiar blackness in the atmosphere around a bright
haze at the horizon indicates their position in a fog, and their
place and character are shown at night by the reflection of the
snow-light on the horizon. An experienced seaman can readily
distinguish by the blink, as it is termed, whether the ice is newly-formed,
heavy, compact, or open. The blink or snow-light of
field-ice is the most lucid, and is tinged yellow; of packed ice it
is pure white: ice newly formed has a greyish blink, and a deep
yellow tint indicates snow on land.
Icebergs come to a lower latitude by 10° from the south pole
than from the north, and appear to be larger; they have been
seen near the Cape of Good Hope, and are often of great size;
one observed by Captain D’Urville was 13 miles long, with perpendicular
sides 100 feet high; they are less varied than those
on the northern seas, a tabular form is the most prevalent. The
discovery ships under the command of Sir James Ross met with
multitudes with flat surfaces, bounded by perpendicular cliffs on
every side, from 100 to 180 feet high, sometimes several miles in
circumference. On one occasion they fell in with a chain of
stupendous bergs close to one another, extending farther than the
eye could reach even from the mast-head. Packed ice too is
often in immense quantities: these ships forced their way through
a pack 1000 miles broad, often under the most appalling circumstances.
It generally consists of smaller pieces than the packs in
the comparatively tranquil North Polar seas, where they are often
several miles in diameter, and where fields of ice extend beyond
the reach of vision. The Antarctic Ocean, on the contrary, is
almost always agitated; there is a perpetual swell, and terrific
storms are common, which break up the ice and render navigation
perilous. The floe pieces are rarely a quarter of a mile in
circumference, and generally much smaller.
A more dreadful situation can hardly be imagined than that of
ships beset during a tempest in a dense pack of ice in a dark
night, thick fog, and drifting snow, with the spray beating perpetually
over the decks, and freezing instantaneously. Sir James
Ross’s own words can alone give an idea of the terrors of one of
the many gales which the two ships under his command encountered:—“Soon
206after midnight our ships were involved in an
ocean of rolling fragments of ice, hard as floating rocks of granite,
which were dashed against them by the waves with so much
violence, that their masts quivered as if they would fall at every
successive blow; and the destruction of the ships seemed inevitable
from the tremendous shocks they received. In the early
part of the storm the rudder of the Erebus was so much damaged
as to be no longer of any use; and about the same time I was
informed by signal that the Terror’s was completely destroyed
and nearly torn away from the stern-post. Hour passed away
after hour without the least mitigation of the awful circumstances
in which we were placed. The loud crashing noise of the
straining and working of the timbers and decks, as they were
driven against some of the heavier pieces of ice, which all the
exertions of our people could not prevent, was sufficient to fill the
stoutest heart, that was not supported by trust in Him who controls
all events, with dismay; and I should commit an act of
injustice to my companions if I did not express my admiration of
their conduct on this trying occasion. Throughout a period of
28 hours, during any one of which there appeared to be very
little hope that we should live to see another, the coolness, steady
obedience, and untiring exertions of each individual, were every
way worthy of British seamen.
“The storm gained its height at 2 P.M., when the barometer
stood at 28·40 inches, and after that time began to rise.
Although we had been forced many miles deeper into the pack,
we could not perceive that the swell had at all subsided, our
ships still rolling and groaning amidst the heavy fragments of
crushing bergs, over which the ocean rolled its mountainous
waves, throwing huge masses upon one another, and then again
burying them deep beneath its foaming waters, dashing and
grinding them together with fearful violence.” For three successive
years were these dangers encountered during this bold
and hazardous enterprise.
The ocean is one mass of water, which, entering into the
interior of the continents, has formed seas and gulfs of great magnitude,
which afford easy and rapid means of communication, while
they temper the climates of the widely expanding continents.
The inland seas communicating with the Atlantic are larger,
and penetrate more deeply into the continents, than those connected
with the great ocean; a circumstance which gives a coast
of 48,000 miles to the former, while that of the great ocean is only
44,000. Most of these internal seas have extensive river domains,
so that by inland navigation the Atlantic virtually enters into the
deepest recesses of the land, brings remote regions into contact,
and improves the condition of the less cultivated races of mankind
by commercial intercourse with those that are more civilized.
207The Baltic, which occupies 125,000 square miles in the centre
of northern Europe, is one of the most important of the inland
seas connected with the Atlantic, and, although inferior to the
others in size, the drainage of more than a fifth of Europe flows
into it. Only about a fourth part of the boundary of its enormous
basin of 900,000 square miles is mountainous; and so many
navigable rivers flow into it from the watershed of the great
European plain, that its waters are one-fifth less salt than those
of the Atlantic: it receives at least 250 streams. Its depth
nowhere exceeds 167 fathoms,[114] and generally it is not more
than 40 or 50. From that cause, together with its freshness and
northern latitude, the Baltic is frozen five months in the year.
From the flatness of the greater part of the adjacent country, the
climate of the Baltic is subject to influences coming from regions
far beyond the limits of its river-basin. The winds from the
Atlantic bring warmth and moisture, which, condensed by the
cold blasts from the Arctic plains, falls in rain in summer, and
deep snow in winter, which also makes the sea more fresh.
The tides are imperceptible; but the waters of the Baltic occasionally
rise more than three feet above their usual level from
some unknown cause—possibly from oscillations in its bed, or
from changes of atmospheric pressure.
The Black Sea, which penetrates most deeply into the continent
of all the seas in question, has, together with the Sea of Azov, an
area of 190,000 square miles: it must at a remote period have
been united with the Caspian Lake, and must have covered all
the Steppe of Astracan. It receives some of the largest European
rivers, and drains about 950,000 square miles, consequently its
waters are brackish and freeze on its northern shores in winter.
It is very deep, no bottom having been reached with a line of
140 fathoms: on the melting of the snow, such a body of water is
poured into it by the great European rivers that a rapid current
is produced, which sets along the western shore from the mouth
of the Dnieper to the channel of Constantinople.
Of all the branches of the Atlantic that enter deeply into the
bosom of the land, the Mediterranean is the largest and most beautiful,
covering with its dark blue waters more than 760,000
square miles. Situate in a comparatively low latitude, exposed
to the heat of the African deserts on the south, and sheltered on
the north by the Alps, the evaporation is excessive; on that
account the water of the Mediterranean is salter than that of the
ocean, and for the same reason the temperature at its surface is
31⁄2°
of Fahrenheit higher than that of the Atlantic: it does not
decrease so rapidly downwards as in tropical seas, and it becomes
constant at depths of from 340 to 1000 fathoms, according to the
208situations. Although its own river domain is only 250,000 square
miles, the constant current that sets in through the Dardanelles
brings a great part of the drainage of the Black Sea, so that it is
really fed by the melted snow and rivers from the Caucasus, Asia
Minor, Abyssinia, the Atlas, and the Alps. Yet the quantity of
water that flows into the Mediterranean from the Atlantic, by the
central current in the Straits of Gibraltar, exceeds that which
goes out by the lateral currents.
Near Alexandria the surface of this sea is 26 feet 6 inches
lower than the level of the Red Sea at Suez at low water, and
about 30 feet lower at high water.[115]
On the shore of Cephalonia there is a cavity in the rocks, into
which the sea has been flowing for ages.[116]
The Mediterranean is divided into two basins by a shallow that
runs from Cape Bon on the African coast to the Strait of Messina,
on each side of which the water is exceedingly deep, and said to
be unfathomable in some parts. M. Bérard has sounded to the
depth of more than 1000 fathoms in several places without reaching
the bottom. At Nice, within a few yards of the shore, it is
nearly 700 fathoms deep; and Captain Smyth, R. N., ascertained
the depth to be 960 fathoms between Gibraltar and Ceuta. This
sea is not absolutely without tides; in the Gulf of Venice they
rise three feet, and at the Great Syrte to five feet at new and full
moon, but in most other places they are scarcely perceptible.
The surface is traversed by various currents, two of which, opposing
one another, occasion the celebrated whirlpool of Charybdis,
whose terrors were much diminished by the earthquake of 1783.
Its bed is subject to violent volcanic paroxysms, and its surface is
studded with islands of all sizes, from the magnificent kingdom of
Sicily to mere barren rocks—some actively volcanic, others of volcanic
formation, and many of the secondary geological period.
Various parts of its coasts are in a state of great instability; in
some places they have sunk down and risen again more than
once within the historical period.
Far to the north the Atlantic penetrates the American continent
by Davis’s Straits, and spreads out into Baffin’s bay, twice the
size of the Baltic, very deep, and subject to all the rigours of an
arctic winter—the very storehouse of icebergs—the abode of the
walrus and the whale. Hudson’s Bay, though without the Arctic
Circle, is but little less dreary.
Very different is the character of those vast seas where the
Atlantic comes “cranking in” between the northern and southern
continents of America. The surface of the sea in Baffin’s
209Bay is seldom above the freezing-point; here, on the contrary, it
is always 88°·5 of Fahrenheit, while the Atlantic Ocean in the
same latitude is not above 77° or 78°. Of that huge mass of
water, partially separated from the Atlantic by a long line of
islands and banks, the Caribbean Sea is the largest; it is as long
from east to west as the distance between Great Britain and Newfoundland,
and occupies a million of square miles. Its depth in
many places is very great, and its water is limpid. The Gulf of
Mexico, fed by the Mississippi, one of the greatest of rivers, is
more than half its size, or about 625,000 square miles, so that the
whole forms a sea of great magnitude. Its shores, and the shores
of the numerous islands, are dangerous from shoals and coral-reefs,
but the interior of these seas is not. The trade-winds prevail
there; they are subject to severe northern gales, and some parts
are occasionally visited by tremendous hurricanes.
By the levelling across the peninsula of Panama by Mr. Lloyd,
in 1828, the mean height of the Pacific above that of the Atlantic
was found to be three feet six inches.
The Pacific does not penetrate the land in the same manner
that the Atlantic does the continent of Europe. The Red Sea
and Persian Gulf are joined to it by very narrow straits; but
almost all the internal seas on the eastern coast of Asia, except
the Yellow Sea, are great gulfs shut in by islands, like the Caribbean
Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, to which the China Sea, the
Sea of Japan, and that of Okhotsk are perfectly analogous.
The set of the great oceanic currents has scooped out and
indented the southern and eastern coasts of the Asiatic continent
into enormous bays and gulfs, and has separated large portions of
the land, which now remain as islands—a process which probably
has been increased by the submarine fires extending along the
eastern coast from the equator nearly to the Arctic Circle.
The perpetual agitation of the ocean by winds, tides, and currents,
is continually, but slowly, changing the form and position of
the land—steadily producing those vicissitudes on the surface of
the earth to which it has been subject for ages, and to which it
will assuredly be liable in all time to come.
CHAPTER XVII. — RIVERS. — AFRICAN RIVERS.
Springs—Basins of the Ocean—Origin, Course, and Heads of Rivers—Hydraulic
Systems of Europe—African Rivers—the Nile, Niger, &c.
The vapour which rises invisibly from the land and water ascends
210in the atmosphere till it is condensed by the cold into clouds,
which restore it again to the earth in the form of rain, hail, and
snow; hence, there is probably not a drop of water on the globe
that has not been borne on the wings of the wind. Part of this
moisture restored to the earth is reabsorbed by the air, part supplies
the wants of animal and vegetable life, a portion is carried
off by the streams, and the remaining part penetrates through
porous soils till it arrives at a stratum impervious to water, where
it accumulates in subterranean lakes often of great extent. The
mountains receive the greatest portion of the aërial moisture, and,
from the many alternations of permeable and impermeable strata
they contain, a complete system of reservoirs is formed in them,
which, continually overflowing, form perennial springs at different
elevations, which unite and run down their sides in incipient
rivers. A great portion of the water at these high levels penetrates
the earth till it comes to an impermeable stratum below the
plains, where it collects in a sheet, and is forced by hydraulic
pressure to rise in springs, through cracks in the ground, to the
surface. In this manner the water which falls on hills and mountains
is carried through highly-inclined strata to great depths, and
even below the bed of the ocean, in many parts of which there
are springs of fresh water. In boring Artesian wells the water
often rushes up with such impetuosity by the hydrostatic pressure
as to form jets 40 or 50 feet high. In this operation several
successive reservoirs have been met with; at St. Ouen, near Paris,
five sheets of water were found; the water in the first four not
being good, the operation was continued to a greater depth; it
consists merely in boring a hole of small diameter, and lining it
with a tube. It rarely happens that water may not be procured
in this way; and as the substratum in many parts of deserts is an
argillaceous marl, it is probable that Artesian wells might be bored
with success.
A spring will be intermittent when it issues from an opening
in the side of a reservoir fed from above, if the supply be not
equal to the waste, for the water will sink below the opening,
and the spring will stop till the reservoir is replenished. Few
springs give the same quantity of water at all times; they also
vary much in the quantity of foreign matter they contain. Mountain-springs
are generally very pure, the carbonic acid gas almost
always found in them escapes into the atmosphere, and their
earthy matter is deposited as they run along, so that river-water
from such source is soft, while wells and springs in the plains
are hard, and more or less mineral.
The water of springs takes its temperature from that of the
strata through which it passes: mountain-springs are cold, but,
if the water has penetrated deep into the earth, it acquires a temperature
depending on that circumstance.
211The temperature of the surface of the earth varies with the seasons
to a certain depth, where it becomes permanent and equal to
the mean annual temperature of the air above. It is evident that
the depth at which this stratum of invariable temperature lies
must vary with the latitude. At the equator the effect of the seasons
is imperceptible at the depth of a foot below the surface:
between the parallels of 40° and 52° the temperature of the
ground in Europe is constant at the depth of from 55 to 60 feet:
and in the high Arctic regions the soil is perpetually frozen a foot
below the surface. Now, in every part of the world where experiments
have been made, the temperature of the earth increases
with the depth below the constant stratum at the rate of 1° of
Fahrenheit for every 50 or 60 feet of perpendicular depth;
hence, should the increase continue to follow the same ratio, even
granite must be in fusion at little more than five miles below the
surface. In Siberia, the stratum of frozen earth is some hundred
feet thick, but below that the increase of heat with the depth is
three times as rapid as in Europe. The temperature of springs
must therefore depend on the depth to which the water has penetrated
before it has been forced to the surface, either by the hydraulic
pressure of water at higher levels, or by steam. If it never
goes below the stratum of invariable temperature, the heat of the
spring will vary with the seasons, more or less, according to the
depth below the surface: should the water come from the constant
stratum itself, its temperature will be invariable; and if from
below it, the heat will be in proportion to the depth to which it
has penetrated. Thus, there may be hot and even boiling
springs hundreds of miles distant from volcanic action and volcanic
strata, of which there are many examples, though they are
more frequent in volcanic countries and those subject to earthquakes.
The temperature of hot springs is very constant, and
that of boiling springs has remained unchanged for ages; shocks
of earthquakes sometimes affect the temperature, and have even
stopped them altogether. Jets of steam of high tension are frequent
in volcanic countries, as in Iceland.
Both hot and cold water dissolves and combines with many of
the mineral substances it meets with in the earth, and comes to
the surface from great depths as medicinal springs, containing
various ingredients. So numerous are they that in the Austrian
dominions alone there are 1500; and few countries of any extent
are destitute of them. They contain hydro-sulphuric and carbonic
acids, sulphur, iron, magnesia, and other substances. Boiling
springs deposit silex, as in Iceland and in the Azores; and
others of lower temperature deposit carbonate of lime in great
quantities all over the world. Springs of pure brine are rare;
those in Cheshire are rich in salt, and have flowed unchanged
2121000 years, a proof of the tranquil state of that part of the globe.
Many substances that lie beyond our reach are brought to the surface
by springs, as naphtha, petroleum, and boracic acid: petroleum
is particularly abundant in Persia, and numberless springs
and lakes of it surround some parts of the Caspian Sea. It is
found in immense quantities in various parts of the world.
Rivers have had a greater influence on the location and fortunes
of the human race than almost any other physical cause, and, since
their velocity has been overcome by steam navigation, they have
become the highway of the nations.
They frequently rise in lakes, which they unite with the sea;
in other instances they spring from small elevations in the plains,
from perennial sources in the mountains, alpine lakes, melted snow
and glaciers; but the everlasting storehouses of the mightiest
floods are the ice-clad mountains of table-lands.
Rivers are constantly increased, in descending the mountains
and traversing the plains, by tributaries, till at last they flow into
the ocean, their ultimate destination and remote origin. “All
rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full,” because it gives in
evaporation an equivalent for what it receives.
The Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Pacific Oceans are directly or
indirectly the recipients of all the rivers, therefore their basins are
bounded by the principal watersheds of the continents; for the
basin of a sea or ocean does not mean only the bed actually occupied
by the water, but comprehends also all the land drained by
the rivers which fall into it, and is bounded by an imaginary line
passing through all their sources. These lines generally run
through the elevated parts of a country that divide the streams
which flow in one direction from those that flow in another. But
the watershed does not coincide, in all cases, with mountain-crests
of great elevation, as the mere convexity of a plain is often sufficient
to throw the streams into different directions.
From the peculiar structure of the high land and mountain-chains,
by far the greater number of important rivers on the globe
flow into the ocean in an easterly direction, those which flow to
the south and north being the next in size, while those that flow
in a westerly direction are small and unimportant.
The course of all rivers is changed when they pass from one
geological formation to another, or by dislocations of the strata:
the sudden deviations in their directions are generally owing to
these circumstances.
None of the European rivers flowing directly into the Atlantic
213exceed the fourth or fifth magnitude, except the Rhine; the rest
of the principal streams come to it indirectly through the Baltic,
the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean. It nevertheless receives
nearly half the waters of the old continent, and almost all the new,
because the Andes and Rocky Mountains, which form the watershed
of the American continent, lie along its western side, and the
rivers which rise on the western slope of the Alleghanies are tributaries
to the Mississippi, which comes indirectly into the Atlantic
by the Gulf of Mexico.
The Arctic Ocean drains the high northern latitudes of America,
and receives those magnificent Siberian rivers that originate in the
Altaï range from the Steppe of the Kerghis to the extremity of
Kamtchatka, as well as the very inferior streams of North European
Russia. The running waters of the rest of the world flow
into the Pacific. The Caspian and Lake Aral are mere salt-water
lakes, which receive rivers but emit none. However, nearly one-half
of all the running water in Europe falls into the Black Sea
and the Caspian.
Mountain-torrents gradually lose velocity in their descent to the
low lands by friction, and when they enter the plains their course
becomes still more gentle, and their depths greater. A slope of
one foot in 200 prevents a river from being navigable, and a greater
inclination forms a rapid or cataract. The speed, however, does
not depend entirely upon the slope, but also upon the height of the
source of the river, and the pressure of the body of water in the
upper part of its course; consequently, under the same circumstances,
large rivers run faster than small, but in each individual
stream the velocity is perpetually varying with the form of the
banks, the winding of the course, and the changes in the width of
the channel. The Rhone, one of the most rapid European rivers,
has a declivity of one foot in 2620, and flows at the rate of 120
feet in a minute; the sluggish rivers in Flanders have only one-half
that velocity. The Danube, the Tigris, and the Indus
are among the most rapid of the large rivers. In flat countries
rivers are generally more meandering, and thus they afford a
greater amount of irrigation; the windings of the Vistula are nearly
equal to nine-tenths of its direct course from its source to its
mouth.
When one river falls into another, the depth and velocity are
increased, but not always proportionally to the width of the channel,
which sometimes even becomes less, as at the junction of the
Ohio with the Mississippi. When the angle of junction is very
obtuse, and the velocity of the tributary stream great, it sometimes
forces the water of its primary to recede a short distance. The
Arve, swollen by a freshet, occasionally drives the water of the
Rhone back into the Lake of Geneva; and it once happened that
214the force was so great as to make the mill-wheels revolve in a contrary
direction.
Streams sometimes suddenly vanish, and after flowing underground
to some distance reappear at the surface, as in Derbyshire.
Instances have occurred of rivers suddenly stopping in their course
for some hours, and leaving their channels dry. On the 26th of
November, 1838, the water failed so completely in the Clyde, Nith,
and Teviot, that the mills were stopped eight hours in the lower part
of their streams. The cause was the coincidence of a gale of wind
and a strong frost, which congealed the water near their sources.
Exactly the contrary happens in the Siberian rivers, which flow
from south to north over so many hundreds of miles; the upper
parts are thawed, while the lower are still frozen, and the water,
not finding an outlet, inundates the country.
The alluvial soil carried down by streams is gradually deposited
as their velocity diminishes; and if they are subject to inundations,
and the coast flat, it forms deltas at their mouths; there they generally
divide into branches, which often join again, or are united by
transverse channels, so that a labyrinth of streams and islands is
formed. Deltas are sometimes found in the interior of the continents
at the junction of rivers, exactly similar to those on the ocean,
though less extensive: deltas are said to be maritime, lacustrine,
or fluviatile, according as the stream that forms them falls into the
sea, a lake, or another river.
Tides flow up rivers to a great distance, and to a height far
above the level of the sea: the tide is perceptible in the river of
the Amazons 576 miles from its mouth, and it ascends 255 miles
in the Orinoco.
In the temperate zones rivers are subject to floods from autumnal
rains, and the melting of the snow, especially on mountain-ranges.
The Po, for example, spreads desolation far and wide over the
plains of Lombardy; but these torrents are as variable in their
recurrence and extent as the climate which produces them. The
inundations of the rivers in the torrid zone, on the contrary, occur
with a regularity peculiar to a region in which meteoric phenomena
are uniform in all their changes. These floods are due to
the periodical rains, which, in tropical countries, follow the cessation
of the trade-winds after the vernal equinox and at the turn of
the monsoons, and are thus dependent on the declination of the
sun, the immediate cause of all these variations. The melting of
the snow no doubt adds greatly to the floods of the tropical rivers
which rise in high mountain-chains, but it is only an accessory
circumstance; for although the snow-water from the Himalaya
swells the streams considerably before the rains begin, yet the
principal effect is owing to the latter, as the southern face of the
Himalaya is not beyond the influence of the monsoon, and the consequent
215periodical rains, which besides prevail all over the plains
of India traversed by the great rivers and their tributaries.
Under like circumstances, the floods of rivers, whose sources
have the same latitude, take place at the same season; but the
periods of the inundations of rivers on one side of the equator are
exactly the contrary of what they are in rivers on the other side
of it, on account of the declination of the sun. The flood in the
Orinoco is at its greatest height in the month of August, while that
of the river of the Amazons, south of the equinoctial line, is at its
greatest elevation in March.[117] The commencement and end of the
annual inundations in each river depend upon the mean time of
the beginning, and on the duration of the rains in the latitudes traversed
by its affluents. The periods of the floods in such rivers
as run towards the equator are different from those flowing in an
opposite direction; and as the rise requires time to travel, it happens
at regular but different periods in various parts of the same
river, if very long. The height to which the water rises in the
annual floods depends upon the nature of the country, but it is
wonderfully constant in each individual river where the course is
long; for the inequality in the quantity of rain in a district drained
by any of its affluents is imperceptible in the general flood, and
thus the quantity of water carried down is a measure of the mean
humidity of the whole country comprised in its basin from year to
year. By the admirable arrangement of these periodical inundations
the fresh soil of the mountains, borne down by the water,
enriches countries far remote from their source. The waters from
the high lands designated as the Mountains of the Moon, and of
Abyssinia, have fertilized the banks of the Nile through a distance
of 2500 miles for thousands of years.
When rivers rise in mountains, water communication between
them in the upper parts of their course is impossible; but when
they descend to the plains, or rise in the low lands, the boundaries
between the countries drained by them become low, and the different
systems may be united by canals. It sometimes happens
in extensive and very level plains, that the tributaries of the principal
streams either unite or are connected by a natural canal,
by which a communication is formed between the two basins—a
circumstance advantageous to the navigation and commerce of
both, especially where the junction takes place far inland, as on
the Orinoco and Amazons in the interior of South America. The
Rio Negro, one of the largest affluents of the latter, is united to the
Upper Orinoco in the plains of Esmeralda by the Cassiquiare—a
stream as large as the Rhine, with a velocity of 12 feet in a second.
Baron Humboldt observes that the Orinoco, sending a branch to
216the Amazons, is, with regard to distance, as if the Rhine should
send one to the Seine or Loire. At some future period this junction
will be of great importance. These bifurcations are frequent
in the deltas of rivers, but very rare in the interior of continents.
The Mahamuddy and Godavery, in Hindostan, seem to have something
of the kind; and there are several instances in the great
rivers of the Indo-Chinese peninsula.
The hydraulic system of Europe is eminently favourable to inland
navigation, small as the rivers are in comparison with those
in other parts of the world; but the flatness of the great plain, and
the lowness of its watershed, are very favourable to the construction
of canals. In the west, however, the Alps and German mountains
divide the waters that flow to the Atlantic on one side, and
to the Mediterranean and Black Sea on the other; but in the eastern
parts of Europe the division of the waters is merely a more
elevated ridge of the plain itself, for in all plains such undulations
exist, though often imperceptible to the eye. This watershed
begins on the northern declivity of the Carpathian Mountains, about
the 23d meridian, in a low range of hills running between the
sources of the Dnieper and the tributaries of the Vistula, from
whence it winds in a tortuous course along the plain to the Valdai
table-land, which is its highest point, 1200 feet above the sea; it
then declines northward towards Onega, about the 60th parallel,
and lastly turns in a very serpentine line to the sources of the
Kama in the Ural mountains near the 62d degree of north latitude.
The waters north of this line run into the Baltic and
White Sea, and, on the south of it, into the Black Sea and the
Caspian.
Thus, Europe is divided into two principal hydraulic systems;
but since the basin of a river comprehends all the plains and
valleys drained by it and its tributaries from its source to the sea,
each country is subdivided into as many natural divisions or
basins as it has primary rivers, and these generally comprise all
the rich and habitable parts of the earth, and are the principal
centres of civilization, or are capable of becoming so.
The streams to the north of the general watershed are very
numerous; those to the south are of greater magnitude. The systems
of the Volga and Danube are the most extensive in Europe;
the former has a basin comprising 640,000 square miles, and is
navigable throughout the greater part of its course of 1900 miles.
It rises in a small lake on the slopes of the Valdai table-land, 550
feet above the level of the ocean, and falls into the Caspian, which
is 83 feet 7 inches below the level of the Black Sea, so that it has
a fall of 633 feet in a course of more than 2400 miles. It carries
to the Caspian one-seventh of all the river-water of Europe.
Danube drains 300,000 square miles, and receives 60 navigable
217tributaries. Its quantity of water is nearly as much as that of
all the rivers that empty themselves into the Black Sea taken
together. Its direct course is 900 miles, its meandering line is
2400. It rises in the Black Forest at an elevation of 2850 feet
above the level of the sea, so that it has considerable velocity,
which, as well as rocks and rapids, impedes its navigation in
many places, but it is navigable downwards, through Austria,
for 600 miles, to New Orsova, from whence it flows in a gentle
current to the Black Sea. The commercial importance of these
two rivers is much increased by their flowing into inland seas.
By canals between the Volga and the rivers north of the watershed,
the Baltic and White Seas are connected with the Black Sea and
the Caspian; and the Baltic and Black Sea are also connected
by a canal between the Don and the Dnieper. Altogether, the
water system of Russia is the most extensive in Europe.
The whole of Holland is a collection of deltoid islands, formed
by the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt—a structure very
favourable to commerce, and which has facilitated an extensive
internal navigation. The Mediterranean is already connected
with the North Sea by the canal which runs from the Rhone to
the Rhine; and this noble system, extended over the whole of
France by 7591 miles of inland navigation, has conduced mainly
to the improved state of that great country.
Many navigable streams rise in the Spanish mountains; of
these the Tagus has depth enough for the largest ships as high as
Lisbon. Its actual course is 480 miles, but its direct line much
less. In point of magnitude, however, the Spanish rivers are of
inferior order, but canals have rendered them beneficial to the
country. Italy is less favoured in her rivers, which only admit
vessels of small burthen; those on the north are by much the
most important, especially the Po and its tributaries, which by
canals connect Venice and Milan with various fertile provinces of
Northern Italy but whatever advantages nature has afforded to
the Italian states have been improved by able engineers, both in
ancient and modern times.
The application of the science of hydraulics to rivers took its
rise in Northern Italy, which has been carried to such perfection
in some points, that China is the only country which can vie with
it in the practice of irrigation. The lock on canals was in use in
Lombardy as early as the 13th century, and in the end of the
15th it was applied to two canals which unite the Ticino to the
Adda, by that great artist and philosopher Leonardo da Vinci:
about the same time he introduced the use of the lock into France.[118]
218Various circumstances combine to make the British rivers more
useful than many others of greater magnitude. The larger
streams are not encumbered with rocks or rapids; they all run
into branches of the Atlantic; the tides flow up their channels to
a considerable distance; and above all, though short in their
course, they end in wide estuaries and sounds, capable of containing
whole navies—a circumstance that gives an importance to
streams otherwise insignificant, when compared with the great
rivers of either the old or new continent.
The Thames, whose basin is only 5027 square miles, and whose
length is but 240 miles, of which, however, 204 are navigable,
spreads its influence over the remotest parts of the earth; its depth
is sufficient to admit large vessels even up to London, and throughout
its navigable course a continued forest of masts display the
flags of every nation: its banks, which are in a state of perfect
cultivation, are the seat of the highest civilization, moral and
political. Local circumstances have undoubtedly been favourable
to this superior development, but the earnest and energetic temperament
of the Saxon races has rendered the advantages of their
position available. The same may be said of other rivers in the
British islands, where commercial enterprise and activity vie with
that on the Thames. There are 2790 miles of canal in Britain,
and, including rivers, 5430 miles of inland navigation, which, in
comparison with the size of the country, is very great; it is even
said that no part of England is more than 15 miles distant from
water communication.
On the whole, Europe is fortunate with regard to its water
systems, and its inhabitants are for the most part alive to the
bounties which Providence has bestowed.
In Africa the tropical climate and the extremes of aridity and
moisture give a totally different character to its rivers. The
most southerly part is comparatively destitute of them, and those
that do exist are of inferior size, except the Gariep, or Orange
River, which has a long course on the table-land, but is nowhere
navigable. From the eastern edge of the table-land of South
Africa, which is very abrupt, rise all those rivers which flow
219across the plains of Mozambique and Zanguebar to the Indian
Ocean. Of these, the Zambesi, or Quillimane, is probably the
largest: it is said to have a course of 900 miles, and to be navigable
during the rains for 200 or 300 miles from its mouth. The
Ozay, not far south of the equator, is also believed to be of great
extent, and the Juba, more to the north; all these streams have
little water at their mouths during the dry season, but in the
rainy season they are navigable. Some of those still farther north
do not reach the sea at all times of the year, but end in lakes and
marshes, as the Haines and Hawash. The first, after coming to
within a small distance of the Indian Ocean, runs southward parallel
to the coast, and falls into a very large and deep lake about
a degree north of the equator. Between the Hawash and the
Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb there is no river of any note. In many
parts of the coast, near the rivers, grain ripens all the year, yielding
from 80 to 150 fold, and every eastern vegetable production
might be raised. The Hawash runs through a low desert country
inhabited by the Dankali Beduins: that river is the recipient of
the waters which come from the eastern declivity of the table-land
of Abyssinia, while the Nile receives those of the counter
slope.
The part of the table-land between the 18th parallel of south
latitude and the equator is the origin from whence the waters
flow to the Atlantic on one hand, and to the Mediterranean on
the other. Those which go to the Atlantic rise south of Lake
N’yassi, chiefly in a ridge of no great elevation which runs from
S.W. to N.E. to the west of the dominions of the Cambeze, and,
after falling in cascades and rapids through the chains that border
the table-land on the west, fertilize the luxuriant maritime plains
of Benguela, Congo, Angola, and Loando. The Zaire, or Congo,
by much the largest of these, is navigable for 140 miles, where
the ascent of the tide is stopped by cataracts. The lower course
of this river is 5 or 6 miles broad, full of islands, and 160 fathoms
deep at its mouth. Its upper course, like that of most of these
rivers, is unknown; the greater number are fordable on the table-land,
but, from the abrupt descent of the high country to the maritime
plains, none of them afford access to the interior of South
Africa.
The mountainous edge of the table-land, with its terminal projections,
Senegambia and Abyssinia, which separate the northern
from the southern deserts, are the principal source of running
water in Africa. Various rivers have their origin in these mountainous
regions, of which the Nile and the Niger yield in size
only to some of the great Asiatic and American rivers. In importance
and historical interest the Nile is inferior to none.
Two large rivers unite their streams to form the Nile—the
220Bahr-el-Abiad, or White Nile, and the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue
Nile; but the latter is so far inferior to the Bahr-el-Abiad that it
may almost be regarded as a tributary. The main stream has
never been ascended by any traveller above 4° 42ʹ 42ʺ north latitude,
where a ledge of gneiss crossing it arrested the progress of
the second expedition sent by the Viceroy of Egypt to discover
its source. Bahr-el-Abiad, or the true Nile, is supposed, from
the report of the natives, to rise, under the name of the Tubiri, at
a comparatively small distance from the sea, in the country of
Mono Moézi, which is a continuation of the high plateau of Abyssinia,
situate to the north of the great Lake Zambéze, or N’yassi.
The natives say that it flows from the lake itself; at all events it
seems to be pretty certain that its origin is in the mountainous or
hilly country of Mono Moézi, a word which in all the languages
of that part of Africa signifies the Moon: hence, the Nile has
been said, since the days of Ptolemy, to rise in the Mountains of
the Moon. Amidst many windings it takes a general direction
towards the N.E. to the 14th northern parallel, whence it follows
the same course till its junction near Khartum with the Blue Nile
in the plains of Sennaar.
The Shoaberri and Godjeb, the chief affluents of the White
Nile, come from the east; the former makes a great circuit round
the country of Berri before it falls into the Nile, and the Godjeb,
which has its origin in the great forest already mentioned, in the
Galla country, south of Abyssinia, makes a similar spiral détour
round Kaffa, and under the name of Subat joins the Nile, which
it enlarges to nearly double its size.
The Abyssinian branch of the Nile, known as the Bahr-el-Azrek,
or Blue River, rises under the name of the Dedhesa in the
Galla country, south of Abyssinia, about 73 miles west of Sokka,
the capital of Enarea. It springs from a swampy meadow in the
same elevated plains where the Godjeb and other affluents of the
White Nile originate, and after a completely spiral course, in
which it separates the kingdoms of Guma and Enarea, it maintains
a general north-westerly direction till it joins the White Nile
at Khartum. Of the many tributaries to the Blue River, the
Abái, the Nile of Bruce, is the greatest and most celebrated. Its
sources are in a swampy meadow near Mount Giesk, in the district
of Sákkata, from whence it takes a circular direction round
the peninsula of Gojam, passing through Lake Dembea, and receiving
many affluents from the mountain-chain that forms the
cone of the peninsula, and at last falls into the Dedhesa or Bahr-el-Azrek,
in about 11° N. latitude. From that point no stream
of any consequence joins either the Blue River, or the united
streams of the Blue and White Rivers, till 160 miles below their
confluence, where the Atbarah, or Takkazie, falls into it. This
221river, which is the principal tributary of the Nile, is formed by
two branches. The Takkazie rises in the mountains of Lasta,
near Lalíbata, one of the most celebrated places in Abyssinia, remarkable
for its churches hewn out of the living rock, and the
Tselari, which springs from Mount Biála, the northern extremity
of the high land of Lasta, which divides the head waters of the
two branches. The united stream, after winding like the other
rivers of this country, joins the Nile in 18° N. latitude, the northern
limit of the tropical rains.
The Abyssinian rivers in the early part of their course are
little more than muddy brooks in the dry season, but during the
rains they inundate the plains. They break from the table-lands
through fissures in the rocky surface, which are at first only a
few yards wide, but gradually increase to several miles; the
streams form cataracts from 80 to more than 100 feet high, and
then continue to descend by a succession of falls and rapids,
which decrease in height as they go northwards to join the main
stream. The Takkazie takes its name of “The Terrible” from
the impetuosity with which it rushes through the chasms and
over the precipices of the mountains.
A peculiarity of most of the principal affluents of the Nile is
their spiral course, so that, after having formed a curve of greater
or less extent, generally round insulated mountain masses, they
return upon themselves at a short distance from their sources.
It is by no means improbable that the head stream of the Nile
itself takes a spiral course round a lofty mountain mass, similar to
the snow-clad mountains of Sámien and Káffa.[119]
From the Takkazie down to the Mediterranean, a distance of
1200 miles, the Nile does not receive a single brook. The first
part of that course is interrupted by cataracts, from the geological
structure of the Nubian desert, which consists of a succession of
broad sterile terraces, separated by ranges of rocks running east
and west. Over these the Nile falls in nine or ten cataracts, the
last of which is at Es-Souan (Syene), where it enters Egypt.
Most of them are only rapids, where each successive fall of water
is not a foot high. That they were higher at a former period has
recently been ascertained by Dr. Lepsius, the very intelligent
traveller sent by the King of Prussia at the head of a mission to
explore that country. He found a series of inscriptions on the
rocks at Sennaar, marking the height of the Nile at different periods;
and it appears from these, that in that country the bed of
the river had been 30 feet higher than it is now.
Fifteen miles below Cairo, and at 90 miles from the sea, the
Nile is divided into two branches, of which one, running in a
222northerly direction, enters the Mediterranean below Rosetta; the
other, cutting Lower Egypt into two nearly equal parts, enters
the sea above Damietta, so that the delta between these two
places has a sea-coast of 187 miles. The fall from the great
cataract to the sea is two inches in a mile.
The basin of the Nile, occupying an area of 500,000 square
miles, has an uncommon form: it is wide in Ethiopia and Nubia,
but for the greater part of a winding course of 2750 miles it is
merely a verdant line of the softest beauty, suddenly and strongly
contrasted with the dreary waste of the Red Desert. Extending
from the equatorial far into the temperate zone, its aspect is less
varied than might have been expected on account of the parched
and showerless country it passes through. Nevertheless, from
the great elevation of the origin of the river, the upper part has
a perpetual spring, though within a few degrees of the equator.
At the foot of the table-land of Abyssinia the country is covered
with dense tropical jungles, while the rest of the valley is rich
soil, the detritus of the mountains for thousands of years.
As the mean velocity of the Nile, when not in flood, is about
two miles and a half an hour, a particle of water would take
twenty-two days and a half to descend from the junction of the
Takkazie to the sea; hence, the retardation of the annual inundations
of the Nile in its course is a peculiarity of this river,
owing to some unknown cause towards its origin which affects
the whole stream. In Abyssinia and Sennaar the river begins to
swell in April, yet the flood is not sensible at Cairo till towards
the summer solstice; it then continues to rise about a hundred
days, and remains at its greatest height till the middle of October,
when it begins to subside, and arrives at its lowest point in April
and May. The height of the flood in Upper Egypt varies from
30 to 35 feet; at Cairo it is 23, and in the northern part of the
delta only 4 feet.
Anubis, or Sirius, the Dog-star, was worshipped by the Egyptians,
from its supposed influence on the rising of the Nile. According
to Champollion, their calendar commenced when the heliacal
rising of that star coincided with the summer solstice—the
time at which the Nile began to swell at Cairo. Now this coincidence
made the nearest approach to accuracy 3291 years before
the Christian era; and as the rising of the river still takes place
precisely at the same time and in the same manner, it follows
that the heat and periodical rains in Upper Ethiopia have not
varied for 5000 years. In the time of Hipparchus, the summer
solstice was in the sign of Leo, and probably about that period
the flowing of the fountains from the mouths of lions of basalt and
granite was adopted as emblematical of the pouring forth of the
floods of the Nile. The emblem is still common in Rome, though
223its origin is probably forgotten, and the signs of the Zodiac have
moved backwards more than 30°.
The two greatest African rivers, the Nile and the Niger, are
dissimilar in almost every circumstance; the Nile, discharging
for ages into a sea, the centre of commerce and civilization, has
been renowned by the earliest historians, sacred and profane, for
the exuberant fertility of its banks, and for the learning and wisdom
of their inhabitants, who have left magnificent and imperishable
monuments of their genius and power. Egypt was for ages the
seat of science, and by the Red Sea it had intercourse with the
most highly cultivated nations of the east from time immemorial.
The Niger, on the contrary, though its rival in magnitude, and
running through a country glowing with all the brilliancy of
tropical vegetation, has ever been inhabited by barbarous or semi-barbarous
nations; and its course till lately was little known, as
its source still is. In early ages, before the Pillars of Hercules
had been passed, and indeed long afterwards, the Atlantic coast
of Africa was an unknown region, and thus the flowing of the
Niger into that lonely ocean kept the natives in their original
rude state. Such are the effects of local circumstances on the
intellectual advancement of man.
The sources of the Niger, Joliba, or Quorra, are supposed to be
on the northern side of the Kong Mountains, in the country of
Bambarra, more than 1600 feet above the level of the sea. From
thence it runs north, and, after passing through Lake Debo, makes
a wide circuit in the plains of Soudan to Timbuctoo through eight
or nine degrees of latitude: then bending round, it again approaches
the Kong Mountains, at the distance 1000 miles in a
straight line from its source; and having threaded them, it flows
across the low lands into the Gulf of Guinea, a course of 2300
miles. In the plains of Soudan it receives many very large
affluents from the high land of Senegambia on the west, and the
Tchadda on the east—a navigable river larger than itself, probably
the outlet of the great lake Tchad, which drains the high land of
Komri, designated by the ancients as the Mountains of the Moon,
and falls into it a little below Fundah, after a course of some
hundred miles: thus, the Niger probably affords an uninterrupted
water-communication from the Atlantic to the heart of Africa.[120]
Long before leaving the plains of Soudan it becomes a noble river
with a smooth stream, gliding at the rate of from 5 to 8 miles an
hour, varying in breadth from 1 to 8 miles. Its banks are studded
with densely populous towns and villages, groves of palm-trees,
and cultivated fields.
This great river divides into three branches near the head of a
224delta which is equal in area to Ireland, intersected by navigable
branches of the principal stream in every direction. The soil is
rich mould, and the vegetation so rank that the trees seem to grow
out of the water. The Nun, which is the principal or central
branch, flows into the sea near Cape Formosa, and is that which
the brothers Lander descended. There are, however, six rivers
which run into the Bight of Benin, all communicating with the
Niger, and with one another. The old Calabar is the most
eastern; it rises in the high land of Calbongos, and is united to
the Niger by a natural canal. The Niger, throughout its long
winding course, lies entirely within the tropic of Cancer, and is
consequently subject to periodical inundations, which reach their
greatest height in August, about 40 or 50 days after the summer
solstice. The plains of Soudan are then covered with water
and crowded by boats. These fertile regions are inaccessible to
Europeans from the pernicious climate, and dangerous from the
savage condition of many of the tribes.
The coast of Guinea, west from the Niger, is watered by many
streams, of no great magnitude, from the Kong Mountains. The
table-land of Senegambia is the origin of the Rio Grande, the
Gambia, the Senegal, and others of great size; and also of many
of an inferior order that fertilize the luxuriant maritime plains on
the Atlantic. Their navigable course is cut short by a semicircular
chain of mountains which forms the boundary of the high
land, through which they thread their way in rapids and cataracts.
The Gambia rises in Foula Toro, and after a course of about 600
miles enters the Atlantic by many branches connected by natural
channels, supposed at one time to be separate rivers. The Senegal,
the largest river in this part of Africa, is 850 miles long. It
receives many tributaries in the upper part of its course, and the
lower is full of islands. It drains two lakes, has several tributaries,
and is united to the basin of the Gambia by the river Neriko.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Asiatic Rivers—Euphrates and Tigris—River Systems South of the
Himalaya—Chinese Rivers—Siberian Rivers.
The only river system of importance in Western Asia is that of
the Euphrates and Tigris. In the basin of these celebrated
streams, containing an area of 230,000 square miles, immense
mounds of earth, in a desolate plain, point out the sites of some
of the most celebrated cities of antiquity—of Nineveh and Babylon.
225Innumerable remains and inscriptions, the records of times very
remote, have been discovered by adventurous travellers, and bear
testimony to the truth of some of the most interesting pages of
history. The Euphrates, and its affluent the Merad-Chaï (supposed
to be the stream forded, as the Euphrates, by the Ten
Thousand in their retreat), rise in the heart of Armenia, and, after
running 1800 miles on the table-land to 38° 41ʹ of north latitude,
they join the northern branch of the Euphrates, which rises in
the Gheul Mountains, near Erzeroum. The whole river then
descends in rapids through the Taurus chain, north of Romkala,
to the plains of Mesopotamia.
The Tigris rises in the mountains to the N. and W. of Dyarbekir,
and after receiving several tributaries from the high lands
of Kurdistan, it pierces the Taurus range about 100 miles above
Mosul, from whence it descends in a tortuous course through the
plain of ancient Assyria, receiving many streams from the Tyari
mountains, inhabited by the Nestorian Christians, and, farther
south, from those of Luristan. The country through which it
flows is rich in cornfields, date-groves, and forest-trees.[121] Near
to the city of Bagdad the Tigris and Euphrates approach to
within 12 miles, where they were once connected by two great
canals. From this point they run nearly parallel for more than
100 miles, encircling the plain of Babylon or Southern Mesopotamia—the
modern Irak-Arabi. The two rivers unite at Korna,
and form one stream, which, under the name of Shat-el-Arab,
runs for 150 miles before it falls into the Persian Gulf. The
banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, once the seat of an extensive
population, and of art, civilization, and industry, are now nearly
deserted, covered with brushwood and grass, dependent on the
rains alone for that luxuriant vegetation which, under an admirable
system of irrigation, formerly covered them. Excepting the large
226centres of population, Bagdad and Mosul, the inhabitants consist
of nomade Kurdish tribes. What remains of civilization has
taken refuge in the mountains, where the few traces of primitive
and most ancient Christianity, under the misapplied denomination
of Nestorian Christians, are to be found in the Tyari range. The
floods of the rivers are very regular in their period; beginning in
March, they attain their greatest height in June.
The Persian Gulf may be navigated by steam all the year, the
Euphrates only eight months; it might, however, afford easy
intercourse with eastern Asia, as it did in former times. The
distance from Aleppo to Bombay by the Euphrates is 2870 miles,
of which 2700, from Bir to Bombay, are by water; in the time of
Queen Elizabeth this was the common route to India, and a fleet
was then kept at Bir, expressly for that navigation.
Six rivers of the first magnitude descend from the southern
side of the table-land of eastern Asia and its mountain barriers, all
different in origin, direction, and character, while they convey to
the ocean a greater volume of water than all the rivers of the
rest of the continent conjointly. Of these, the Indus, the double
system of the Ganges, and Brahmapootra, and the three parallel
rivers in the Indo-Chinese peninsula, water the plains of southern
Asia; the great system of rivers that descend from the eastern
terraces of the table-land irrigates the fertile lands of China; and
lastly, the Siberian rivers, not inferior to any in magnitude, carry
the waters of the Altaï and northern slope of the table-land to the
Arctic Ocean.
The hard-fought battles and splendid victories recently achieved
by British valour over a bold and well-disciplined foe have added
to the historical interest of the Indus and its tributary streams,
now the boundaries of our Asiatic territories.
The sources of the Indus were only ascertained in 1812; the
Ladak, the largest branch of the Indus, has its origin in the snowy
mountains of Karakorum; and the Shyook, which is the smaller
stream, rises in the Kentese or Gangri range, a ridge parallel to
the Himalaya, which extends along the table-land of Tibet, north
and west of the sacred lake of Mánasarowar. These two streams
join north-west of Ladak and form the Indus; the Sutlej, its
principal tributary, springs from the lake of Rakas Tal, which
communicates with that of Mánasarowar, both situated in a valley
between the Himalaya and Gangri chain at the great elevation of
15,200 feet. These rivers, fed by streams of melted snow from
the northern side of the Himalaya, both flow westward along the
extensive longitudinal valley of western Tibet. The Sutlej breaks
through the Himalaya about the 75th meridian, and traverses the
whole breadth of the chain, in frightful chasms and clefts in the
rocks, to the plains of the Punjab; the Indus, after continuing its
227course on the table-land through several degrees of longitude
farther, descends near the junction of the Himalaya and the Hindoo
Coosh, west of the valley of Cashmere, to the same plain.
Three tributaries—the Jelum or Hydaspes, the Chenab or Acescines,
and the Ravee or Hydraötes, all superior to the Rhone in
size—flow from the southern face of the Himalaya, and with the
Sutlej (the ancient Hyphasis) join the Indus before it reaches
Mittun; hence the name Punjab, “the plain of the five rivers,”
now one of the most valuable countries in the East. From Mittun
to the ocean, the Indus, like the Nile, does not receive a single
accessary, from the same cause—the sterility of the country
through which it passes. The Cabul river, which rises near
Guzni, and is joined by a larger affluent from the southern declivities
of the Hindoo Coosh, flows through picturesque and
dangerous defiles, and joins the Indus at the town of Attock, and
is the only tributary of any magnitude that comes from the west.
The Indus is not favourable to navigation: for 70 miles after
it leaves the mountains the descent in a boat is dangerous, and it
is only navigable for steam-vessels of small draught of water;
yet, from the fertility of the Punjab, and the near approach of its
basin to that of the Ganges at the foot of the mountains, it must
ultimately be a valuable acquisition, and the more especially
because it commands the principal roads between Persia and
India, one through Cabul and Peshawer, and the other from Herat
through Candahar. The delta of the Indus, formerly celebrated
for its civilization, has long been a desert; but from the luxuriance
of the soil, and the change of political circumstances, it may
again resume its pristine aspect. It is 60 miles long, and presents
a face of 120 miles to the sea at the Gulf of Oman, where
the river empties itself by many mouths, of which only three
or four are navigable: one only can be entered by vessels of 50
tons, and all are liable to change. The tide ascends them with
extraordinary rapidity for 75 miles, and so great is the quantity
of mud carried by it, and the absorbing violence of the eddies,
that a vessel wrecked on the coast was buried in sand and mud
in two tides. The annual floods begin with the melting of the
snow in the Himalaya in the end of April, come to their height
in July, and end in September. The length of this river is 1500
miles, and it drains an area of 400,000 square miles.
The second group of South Indian rivers, and one of the
greatest, is the double system of the Ganges and Brahmapootra.
These two rivers, though wide apart at their courses, have their
sources little removed from each other, on opposite sides of the
central ridge of the Himalaya, and which, converging to a common
delta, constitute one of the most important groups on the
globe.
228Mr. Alexander Elliot, of the Body Guard in Bengal, son of
Admiral Elliot, with his friends, are the first who have accomplished
the arduous expedition to the sources of the Ganges.
The river flows at once in a very rapid stream not less than 40
yards across, from a huge cave in a perpendicular wall of ice at
the distance of about three marches from the Temple of Gungoo-tree,
to which the pilgrims resort. Mr. Elliot says, “The view
from the glacier was perfectly amazing; beautiful or magnificent
is no word for it,—it was really quite astonishing. If you could
fancy a bird’s-eye of all the mountains in the world in one cluster,
and every one of them covered with snow, it would hardly give
you an idea of the sight which presented itself.”
Many streams from the southern face of the Himalaya unite at
Hurdwar to form the great body of the river. It flows from
thence in a south-easterly direction through the plains of Bengal,
receiving in its course the tribute of 19 or 20 rivers, of which 12
are larger than the Rhine. About 220 miles in a direct line from
the Bay of Bengal, into which the Ganges flows, the innumerable
channels and branches into which it splits form an intricate
maze over a delta twice as large as that of the Nile.
The Brahmapootra, a river equal in the volume of its waters to
the Ganges, may be considered as the continuation of the Dzangho
Tchou or river of Lassa, which rises near the sources of the
Sutlej and the Indus, in long. 82° E. After watering the great
longitudinal valley of eastern Tibet, it makes a sudden bend to
the south in long. 90° E., cutting through the Himalaya chain,
as the Indus does at its opposite extremity between Iskasdo and
Attock; after which it receives several tributaries from the
northern mountains of the Birman empire; but very little is known
of this part of its basin. The upper part of the Brahmapootra is
parallel to the Himalaya chain, until it enters Upper Assam,
where, passing through the sacred pool of Brahma-Koond, it
receives the name which it bears in the lower part of its course—Brahmapootra,
the “off-spring of Brahma:” the natives call it
the Lahit, Sanscrit for the “Red River.” In Upper Assam,
through which it winds 500 miles, and forms some extensive
channel islands, it receives six very considerable accessories, of
which the origin is unknown, though some are supposed to come
from the table-land of Tibet. They are only navigable in the
plains, but vessels of considerable burthen ascend the parent
stream as far as Sundiva. Before it enters the plains of Bengal,
below Goyalpara, the Brahmapootra runs with rapidity and in
great volume, and, after receiving the rivers of Bhotan and other
streams, branches of it unite with those of the Ganges about 40
miles from the coast, but the two rivers enter the sea by different
mouths, though they sometimes approach within two miles. The
229length of the Brahmapootra is probably 860 miles, so that it is 500
miles shorter than the Ganges: the volume of water discharged
by it during the dry season is about 146,188 cubic feet in a second;
the quantity discharged by the Ganges in the same time, and
under the same circumstances, is 80,000 cubic feet. In the perennial
floods the quantity of water poured through the tributaries of
the Brahmapootra from their snowy sources is incredible; the
plains of Upper Assam are an entire sheet of water from the 15th
of June to the 15th of September, and there is no communication
but by elevated causeways eight or ten feet high: the two rivers,
with their branches, lay the plain of Bengal under water for hundreds
of miles annually. They begin first to swell from the
melting of the snow on the mountains, but, before their inferior
streams overflow from that cause, all the lower parts of Bengal
adjacent to the Ganges and Brahmapootra are under water from
the swelling of these rivers by the rains. The increase is arrested
before the middle of August, by the cessation of the rains in the
mountains, though they continue to fall longer on the plains.
The delta is traversed in every direction by arms of the rivers.
The Hoogly branch, at all times navigable, passes Calcutta and
Chandernagor; and the Hauringotta arm is also navigable, as
well as the Ganges, properly so called. The channels, however,
are perpetually changing, from the strength of the current, and
the prodigious quantity of matter washed from the high lands;
the Ganges alone carries to the sea 600,000 cubic feet of mud in
a second, the effects of which are perceptible 60 miles from the
coast. The elevation of the mountains, and indeed of the land
generally, must have been enormous, since it remains still so
stupendous after ages of such degradation. The Sunderbunds, a
congeries of innumerable river islands formed by the endless
streams and narrow channels of the rivers, as well as by the
indentations of arms of the sea, line the coast of Bengal for 180
miles, a wilderness of jungle and heavy timber. The united
streams of the Ganges and Brahmapootra drain an area of 650,000
square miles, and there is scarcely a spot in Bengal more than
20 miles distant from a river navigable even in the dry season.
These three great rivers of Southern India do not differ more
widely in their physical circumstances than in the races of men
who inhabit their banks, yet from their position they seem formed
to unite nations the most varied in their aspect and speech. The
tributaries of the Ganges and Indus come so near to each other at
the foot of the mountains, that a canal only two miles long would
unite them, and thus an inland navigation from the Bay of Bengal
to the Gulf of Oman might be established.
An immense volume of water is poured in a series of nearly
parallel rivers of great magnitude, and running in the direction of
230the meridian through the Indo-Chinese peninsula, to empty
themselves into the ocean on either side of the peninsula of
Malacca. They rise in those elevated regions at the south-eastern
angle of the table-land of Tibet, the lofty but unknown
provinces of the Chinese empire, and water the great valleys
that extend nearly from north to south with perfect uniformity,
between chains of mountains no less uniform, which spread out
like a fan as they approach the sea. Scarcely anything is known
of the origin or upper parts of these rivers, and, with a few exceptions,
almost as little of the lower.
Their number amounts to six or seven, all large, though three
surpass the rest—the Irawady, which waters the Birman empire,
and falls into the Bay of Bengal at the Gulf of Martaban; the
Menam, or river of Siam; and the river Cambodja, which flows
through the empire of Annam: the last two fall into the Gulf
of Siam and the China Sea.
The sources of the Irawady are in the same chain of mountains
with the eastern affluents of the Brahmapootra more to the
south. Its course is through countries hardly known to Europeans,
but it seems to be navigable by boats before coming to the city of
Amarapoora, south of which it enters the finest and richest plain
of the empire, containing its four capital-cities. There it receives
two large affluents, one from the Chinese province of Yun-nan,
which flows into the Irawady at the city of Ava, 446 miles from
the sea, the highest point attained by the British forces during
the Burmese war.
From Ava to its delta the Irawady is a magnificent river, more
than four miles broad in some places, but encumbered with channel
islands. In this part of its course it receives its largest tributary,
and forms in its delta one of the most extensive systems of internal
navigation. The Rangoon is the only one of its 14 mouths that
is always navigable, and in it the commerce of the empire is concentrated.
The internal communication is extended by the junction
of the two most navigable deltoid branches with the rivers
Salüaen and Pegu by natural canals: that joining the former is
200 miles long; the canal uniting the latter is only navigable at
high water.
The Menam, one of the largest Asiatic rivers, is less known
than the Irawady; it comes from the Chinese province of Yun-nan,
and runs through the kingdom of Siam, which it cuts into
several islands by many diverging branches, and enters the Gulf
of Siam by three principal arms, the most easterly of which forms
the harbour of Bangkok. It is joined to the Menam Kong, or
Cambodja, by the small river Anan-Myit.
The river of Cambodja has the longest course of any in the
peninsula: it is supposed to be the Lantsan-Kiang, which rises
231in the high land of K’ham, in eastern Asia, not far from the sources
of the great Chinese river, the Yang-tse-Kiang. After transversing
the elevated plain of Yun-nan, where it is navigable, it
rushes through the mountain barriers, and, on reaching a wider
valley about 300 miles from its mouth, it is joined to the Menam
by the natural canal of the Anan-Myit. More to the south it is
said to split into branches which unite again.
The ancient capital of Annam is situate on the Cambodja,
about 150 miles from the sea; a little to the south its extensive
delta begins, projects far into the ocean, and is cut in all directions
by arms of the river, navigable during the floods; three of its
mouths are permanently so for large vessels up to the capital.
The Saüng, more to the east, is much shorter than the Cambodja,
though said to be 1000 miles long, but Europeans have not
ascended higher than the town of Sai-gon. Near its mouth it sends
off several branches to the eastern arm of the Cambodja. All
rivers of this part of Asia are subject to periodical inundations,
which fertilize the plains at the expense of the mountains.
The parallelism of the mountain-chains constitutes formidable
barriers between the upper basins of the Indo-Chinese rivers, and
decided lines of separation between the inhabitants of the intervening
valleys; but this inconvenience is in some degree compensated
by the natural canals of junction and the extensive
water communication towards the mouths of the rivers.
Four great systems of rivers take their origin on the eastern
declivity of the great table-land of central Asia, and running from
west to east, traverse the Chinese empire:—the Hong-Kiang,
which, rising in the province of Yun-nan, empties itself into the
bay of Canton; the Yang-tse-Kiang, or Son of the Ocean; the
Hoang-Ho; and the great river of Amur.
The length of the Hoang-Ho is 2000 miles, that of the Yang-tse-Kiang
2900. Though near their sources they are widely
separated by the mountain-chains that border the table-land, they
approach as they proceed on their eastern course, and are not
more than 100 miles apart when they enter the Yellow Sea.
From a map constructed by the Jesuit missionaries in the 18th
century, it appears that the mouth of the Hoang-Ho or Yellow
River has shifted to the enormous distance of 126 leagues from
its former position. The Yang-tse-Kiang and the Yellow River,
in the lower part of their course, are united by innumerable
canals, forming the grandest system of irrigation and of internal
navigation in existence.
The Hoang-Ho brings down so large a quantity of earthy matter
to the sea, that, like the Tiber of old, it is called the “Yellow”
River.
Strong tides ascend these rivers to the distance of 400 miles,
232and for the time prevent the descent of the fresh water, which
forms large interior seas frequented by thousands of trading-vessels,
and they irrigate the productive lands of central China,
from time immemorial the most highly cultivated and the most
densely-peopled region of the globe.
Almost all the Chinese rivers of less note—and they are numerous—feed
these giant streams, with the exception of the Ta-si or
Hong-Kiang and the Pee-ho or White River, which have their
own basins. The former, rising to the east of the town of Yun-nan,
flows through the plains of Canton eastward to the Gulf of
Canton, into which it discharges itself, increased in its course by
the Sekiang.
The White River, rising in the mountains near the Great Wall,
becomes navigable a few miles east of Pekin, unites with the
Eu-ho, joins the Great Canal, and, as the tide ascends it for 80
miles, it is crowded with shipping.
The Amur, the sources of which are partly in the Russian
dominions, though its course is chiefly in the Mantchoo territory
of China, is 2000 miles long, including its windings, and has a
basin of 853,000 square miles. Almost all its tributaries come
from that part of the Baikalian group called the Yablonnoi Khrebit
by the Russians, and Khing-Khan-Oola by the Chinese. The
river Onon, which is the parent stream, has its origin in the
Khentai Khan, a branch of the latter; and though its course is
through an uninhabited country, it is celebrated as being the
birthplace and the scene of the exploits of Tshingis Khan. After
passing through the lake of Dalai-nor, which is 210 miles in circumference,
it takes the name of Argun, and forms the boundary
between the Chinese and Russians for 400 miles; it is then
joined by the Shilka, where it assumes the Tunguse name of the
Amur or Great River: the Mandchoos call it the Sagalin or Black
Water. It receives most of the unknown rivers which come from
the mountain-slopes of the Great Gobi, and falls into the Pacific
opposite to the island of Sagalin, after having traversed three
degrees of latitude and thirty-three of longitude.
Three great rivers, the Lena, the Yenessei, and the double
system of the Irtish and Oby, not inferior in size to any of the
rivers of Asia, carry off the waters of the Altaï chain, and of the
mountains which bound the northern border of the great Asiatic
table-land. The Lena, whose basin occupies 800,000 square
miles, springs from mountains north of the Lake of Baikal, and
runs north-east through more than half its course to the Siberian
town of Yakutzk, the coldest town on the face of the earth,
receiving in its course the Vitim and the Olekma, its two principal
affluents, the former from the Baikal mountains, the latter
from Stannovoi Khrebit, the most southerly part of the Aldan
233range. North of Yakutzk, about the 63d degree of latitude, the
Lena receives the Aldan, its greatest tributary, which also comes
from the Stannovoi Khrebit; it then goes to the Arctic Ocean,
between banks of frozen mud, prodigious masses of which are
hurled down by the summer floods, and bring to view the bones
of those huge animals of extinct species which at some remote
period had found their nourishment in these desert plains. The
length of the Lena, including its windings, is 1900 miles.
A difference in the pressure of the air has been observed on
the banks of this river, on the shores of the Sea of Okhotzk, and
at Kamchatka; which indicates that in the distance of five
degrees of latitude there is an apparent difference in the level of
the sea amounting to 139 feet.[122] A similar phenomenon was
observed by Captain Foster near Cape Horn, and by Sir James
Ross throughout the South Polar Ocean.
The Yenessei, a much larger river than the Lena, drains about
1,000,000 square miles, and is formed by the union of the Great
and Little Kem. The former rises at the junction of the Sayansk
range, with the Baikalian mountains to the north-west of Lake
Kassagol; the latter comes from the Egtag or Little Altaï, in
quite an opposite direction, so that these two meet nearly at right
angles, and take the name of Yenessei; it then crosses the Sagaetses
range in cataracts and rapids, entering the plains of Siberia
below the town of Krasnojarsk. Below this many rivers join it,
chiefly the Angara from the Lake Baikal; but its greatest tributaries,
the Upper and Lower Tunguska, both large rivers from
the Baikalian mountains, join it lower down, the first to the south,
the latter to the north of the town of Yeniseisk, whence it runs
north to the Icy Ocean, there forming a large gulf, its length,
measured along its bed, being 2500 miles.
The Oby rises in the Lake of Toleskoi, “the Lake of Gold,”
in Great Tartary; all the streams of the Lesser Altaï unite to
swell it and its great tributary the Irtish. The rivers which come
from the northern declivity of the mountains go to the Oby, those
from the western side to the Irtish, which springs from numerous
streams on the south-western declivity of the Little Altaï, and run
westward into Lake Zaidzan, 200 miles in circumference. Issuing
from thence, it takes a westerly course to the plain on the north
of Semipolatinsk. In the plain it is joined by the Tobol, which
crosses the steppe of the Kirghiz Cossacks from the Ural Mountains,
and soon unites with the Oby; the joint stream then proceeds
to the Arctic Ocean in 67° N. lat. The Oby is 2000 miles
long, and the basin of these two rivers occupies a third part of
Siberia.
234Before the Oby leaves the mountains, at a distance of 1200
miles from the Arctic Ocean, its surface has an absolute elevation
of not more than 400 feet, and the Irtish, at the same distance,
is only 72 feet higher; both are consequently sluggish.
When the snow melts they cover the country like seas; and as
the inclination of the plains in the middle and lower parts of their
course is not sufficient to carry off the water, those immense lakes
and marshes are formed which characterize this portion of Siberia.
The bed of the Oby is very deep, and there are no soundings
at its mouth; hence, the largest vessels might ascend at least to
its junction with the Irtish. Its many affluents also might admit
ships, did not the climate form an insurmountable obstacle the
greater part of the year. Indeed all Siberian rivers are frozen
annually for many months, and even the ocean along the Arctic
coasts is rarely disencumbered from ice; therefore these vast
rivers never can be important as navigable streams; but towards
the mountains they afford water communication from the steppe
of Issim to the Pacific. They abound in fish and water-fowl, for
which the Siberian braves the extremest severity of the climate.
Local circumstances have nowhere produced a greater difference
in the human race than in the basins of the great rivers
north and south of the table-land of eastern Asia. The Indian,
favoured by the finest climate, and a soil which produces the
luxuries of life, intersected with rivers navigable at all seasons,
and affording easy communication with the surrounding nations,
attained early a high degree of civilization; while the Siberian
and Samoide, doomed to contend with the rigours of the polar
blasts in order to obtain mere existence, have never risen beyond
the lowest grade of humanity; but custom softens the rigour of
this stern life, so that even here a share of happiness is enjoyed.
CHAPTER XIX. — RIVERS OF NEW HOLLAND.
River Systems of North America—Rivers of Central America—Rivers
of South America and of Australia.
North America is divided into four distinct water systems by the
Rocky Mountains, the Alleghanies, and a table-land which contains
the great lakes, and separates the rivers that flow into the
Arctic Ocean from those which go to the Gulf of Mexico. This
table-land, which is a level, nowhere more than 1200 or 1500 feet
above the surface of the sea, is the watershed of the Mackenzie,
the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, and of the rivers that flow into
235Hudson’s Bay. The St. Lawrence rises under the name of the
St. Louis in 47° 43ʹ N. lat. and 93° W. long.; after joining the
Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, it issues from the last
by the name of the Iroquois, and, expanding in its north-easterly
course into Lakes St. Francis, St. Louis, and St. Peter, it is first
known as the St. Lawrence at Montreal, from whence it runs
north-east into the Atlantic, and ends in an estuary 100 miles
wide. It has a basin of 297,600 square miles, of which 94,000
are covered with water, exclusive of the many lesser lakes with
which it is in communication.
North of the watershed there is an endless and intricate labyrinth
of lakes and rivers, almost all connected with one another.
But the principal streams of these Arctic lands are—the Great
Fish River, which flows north-east in a continued series of dangerous
and all but impassable rapids to the Arctic Ocean at Melville
Strait; the Copper-mine River, of much the same character,
which, after traversing many lakes, enters the Icy Sea at George
the Fourth’s Gulf; and the Mackenzie River, a stream of greater
magnitude, formed by the confluence of the Peace River and the
Athabasca from the Rocky Mountains, which, after flowing north
over 16 degrees of latitude, enters the Frozen Ocean in the Esquimaux
country beyond the Arctic Circle. All these rivers are
frozen more than half the year, and the Mackenzie, in consequence
of its length and direction from south to north, is subject
to floods like the Siberian rivers, because its lower course remains
frozen for several hundred miles long after the upper part is
thawed, and the water, finding no outlet, flows over the ice and
inundates the plains.
South of the table-land the valley of the Mississippi extends
for 1000 miles, and this greatest of North American rivers has
its origin in the junction of streams from the small lakes Itaska
and Ussawa, on the table-land at no greater height than 1500 feet
above the sea. Before their junction these streams frequently
spread out into sheets of water, and the Mississippi does the
same in the upper part of its course. This river flows from north
to south through more degrees of latitude than any other, and
receives so many tributaries of the higher orders that it would be
difficult even to name them. Among those that swell its volume
from the Rocky Mountains, the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the
Red River are the largest, each being in itself a mighty stream,
receiving tributaries without number. Before their junction the
Missouri is a stream much superior to the Mississippi both in
length and volume, and has many affluents larger than the Rhine.
It rises in about 44° N. lat., and runs partly in a longitudinal
valley of the Rocky Mountains, and partly at their foot, and
drains the whole of the country on the right bank of the Mississippi
236between the 49th and 40th parallels of north latitude. It
descends in cataracts through the mountain regions, and in the
plains it sometimes passes through large prairies and sometimes
through dense forests, in all accomplishing 3000 miles in a very
tortuous and generally south-eastern direction till it joins the Mississippi
near the town of St. Louis. Lower down, the Mississippi
is joined by the Arkansas, 2000 miles long, with many
tributaries, and then by the Red River, the former from the
Rocky Mountains; the latter, which rises in the table-land of
New Mexico, is fed by rivers from the Sierra del Sacramento,
and enters the main stream not from the beginning of the delta,
at the head of which the Mississippi sends off a large branch
called the Atchafalaya to the south, and then turning to the east
it discharges itself by five mouths at the extremity of a long
tongue of land which stretches 50 miles into the Gulf of Mexico,
having formed a delta considerably larger than that of the Nile.
The shore is lined with shallow salt lagoons; the greater part of
the delta is covered with water and unhealthy marshes, the abode
of the alligator, and during the floods it is a muddy sea. This
river is navigable for 2240 miles. Its valley is of variable width,
but at its greatest width, at the junction of the White River, it is
80 miles.
The tributaries from the Rocky Mountains, though much longer,
run through countries of less promise than those which are traversed
by the Ohio and the other rivers that flow into the Mississippi
on the east, which offer advantages unrivalled even in this
wonderful country, only beginning to be developed.
The Ohio is formed by the union of the rivers Alleghany and
Monongahela, the latter from the Laurel ridge of the Alleghany
chain in Virginia; the former comes from sources near Lake Erie,
and the two unite at Pittsburg, from whence the river winds 948
miles through some of the finest states of the Union, till its junction
with the Mississippi, having received many accessories, six of
which are navigable streams. There are some obstacles to navigation
in the Ohio, but they have been avoided by canals. Other
canals join both the Mississippi and its branches with Lake Erie,
so that there is an internal water communication between the St.
Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico. The whole length of the Mississippi
is 3160 miles, but, if the Missouri be considered the main
stem, it is 4265, and the joint stream drains an area of about a million
and a quarter of square miles. The breadth of the river nowhere
corresponds with its length. At the confluence of the Missouri
each river is half a mile wide, and after the junction of the
Ohio it is not more. A steamer may ascend the Mississippi for
2000 miles from Balize without any perceptible difference in its
breadth. The depth is 168 feet where it enters the Gulf of Mexico
237at New Orleans: the fall of the river at Cape Girardeau is four
inches in a mile. This river is a rapid desolating torrent loaded
with mud; its violent floods, from the melting of the snow in the
high latitudes, sweep away whole forests, by which the navigation
is rendered very dangerous, and the trees, being matted together
in masses many yards thick, are carried down by the spring floods,
and deposited over the delta and Gulf of Mexico for hundreds of
square miles.
North America can boast of two other great water systems, one
from the eastern versant of the Alleghanies, which flows into the
Atlantic, and another from the western versant of the Rocky Mountains,
which runs into the Pacific.
All the streams that flow eastward through the United States to
the Atlantic are short, and comparatively small, but of the highest
utility, because many of them, especially those to the north, end
in gulfs of vast magnitude, and the whole are so united by canals
that few places are not accessible by water—one of the greatest
advantages a country can possess. There are at least 24 canals
in the United States, the [aggregate] length of which is 3101
miles.
Many of the streams which ultimately come to the Atlantic rise
in the western ridges of the Alleghany chain, and traverse its longitudinal
valleys before leaving the mountains to cross the Atlantic
slope, which terminates in a precipitous ledge for 300 miles parallel
to the range. By falling over this rocky barrier in long rapids
and picturesque cascades they afford an enormous and extensive
water-power; and as the rivers are navigable from the Atlantic
quite across the maritime plains, these two circumstances have
determined the location of most of the principal cities of the United
States at the foot of this rocky ledge, which, though not more than
300 feet high, has had a greater influence on the political and
commercial interests of the Union than the highest chains of mountains
have had in other countries. The Hudson in the north is
navigable to Albany; the Delaware and Susquehanna, ending in
bays, are important rivers; and the Potomac, which falls into
Chesapeake Bay, passes Washington, the capital of the United
States, to which the largest ships can ascend.
The watershed of the Rocky Mountains lies at a greater distance
from the Pacific than that of the Alleghanies from the Atlantic;
consequently the rivers are longer, but they are few, and little
known; the largest are, the Oregon or Colombia, and the Rio
Colorado. The former has its sources not far from those of the
Missouri and of the Rio del Norte; and after an exceedingly tortuous
source, in which it receives many tributaries, it falls into the
Pacific at Astoria. The Colorado is a Mexican stream, which
comes from the Sierra Verde and falls into the Gulf of California.
238The Sacramento with its tributaries, a Californian stream, lying
between the two, and much inferior to either, has been brought
into notice of late from the extensive and rich auriferous country
through which it flows in its course to the Bay of San Francisco
on the Pacific.
On the table-land of Mexico there is a basin of continental
streams, which, rising from springs on the eastern side of the
Sierra Madre, and fed by the periodical rains, flow northward and
terminate in lakes, which part with their superfluous water by
evaporation. Of these, the Rio Grande, which, after a course of
300 miles, falls into the Parras, is the greatest.
The largest river in the isthmus of Mexico is the Rio de Lerma
or Rio Grande Santiago, which rises on the table-land of Toluca,
passes through Lake Chapala, forms numerous cascades, and falls
into the Pacific after a course of 400 miles. There are many
streams in Central America, and above 10 rivers that are navigable
for some miles; six of these fall into the Gulf of Mexico and
Caribbean Sea, and four into the Pacific. Of these, the Guasacualco,
which traverses the Isthmus nearly from sea to sea, and
which has by some been considered as the best point for a sea canal
between the two oceans, and the Montagua, which rises in the
mountains near Guatemala: the first empties itself into the Gulf
of Mexico, whilst the second flows into the Gulf of Honduras, and
has a long line of navigation.
In the southern part of the State of Guatemala is situated the
River of San Juan, which drains the Lakes of Nicaragua and
Leon, and by which it is supposed a water communication could
be easily effected between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
The Andes, the extensive watershed of South America, are so
close to the sea, that there are no rivers of considerable size which
empty themselves into the Pacific; even some of the streams that
rise in the western Cordilleras find their way to the eastern plains.
The Magdalena, at the northern end of the Andes, though a
secondary river in America, is 620 miles long. It rises in the
central chain, at the divergence of the Cordilleras of Suma Paz
and Quindiu, and enters the Caribbean Sea by various channels;
it is navigable as far as Honda. The Cauca, its only feeder on
the left, comes from Popayan, and is nearly as large as its primary,
to which it runs parallel the greater part of its course.
Many streams join the Magdalena on the right, as the stream
which waters the elevated plain of Bogota, and forms the cataract
of Tequendama, one of the most beautiful and wildest scenes in
the Andes. The river rushes through a chasm 30 feet wide, which
appears to have been formed by an earthquake, and at a double
bound descends 530 feet into a dark gloomy pool, illuminated only
at noon by a few feeble rays. A dense cloud of vapour rising from
239it is visible at the distance of 15 miles. At the top the vegetation
is that of a temperate climate, while palms grow at the bottom.
The river Atrato, parallel to the Cauca and Magdalena, but less
considerable, empties itself into the Gulf of Darien. The rivers
of Patia, of San Juan, of Las Esmeraldas, and of Guyaquil, all rise
on the western declivity of the Andes to flow into the Pacific.
With these exceptions, all the water from the inexhaustible sources
of the Andes north of Chile is poured into the Orinoco, the River
of the Amazons, and the Rio de la Plata, which convey it eastward
across the continent to the Atlantic. In the far south, indeed, there
are the Colorado and Rio Negro, but they are insignificant when
compared with these giant floods.
The basins of these three rivers are separated in their lower
parts by the mountains and high lands of the Parima and Brazil;
but the central parts of the basins of all three, toward the foot of
the Andes, form an extensive level, and are only divided from one
another by imperceptible elevations in the plains, barely sufficient
to form the watersheds between the tributaries of these majestic
rivers. This peculiar structure is the cause of the natural canal
of the Cassiquiare, which joins the Upper Orinoco with the Rio
Negro, a principal affluent of the Amazons. Ages hence, when
the wilds are inhabited by civilized man, the tributaries of these
three great rivers, many of which are navigable to the foot of the
Andes, will, by means of canals, form a water system infinitely
superior to any that now exists.
The Orinoco, altogether a Colombian river, rises in the Sierra
del Parima, 200 miles east of the elevated Peak of Duida, and
maintains a westerly course to San Fernando de Atabapo, where
it receives the Atabapo, and Guaviare, which is larger than the
Danube; here ends the Upper Orinoco. The river then forces a
passage through the Sierra del Parima, and runs due north for
three degrees of latitude, between banks almost inaccessible; its
bed is traversed by dykes, and filled with boulders of granite and
islands clothed with a variety of magnificent palm-trees. Large
portions of the river are here engulfed in crevices, forming subterranean
cascades; and in this part are the celebrated falls of the
Atures and Apures, 36 miles apart, which are heard at the distance
of many miles. At the end of this tumultuous part of its
course it is joined by the Meta, and farther north by the Apure,
two very large rivers, which drain the whole eastern side of the
Andes in an extent of 10 degrees of latitude, and then runs eastward
to its mouth, where it forms an extensive delta and enters the
Atlantic by many channels. As the Upper Orinoco runs west,
and the Lower Orinoco east, it makes a complete circuit round the
Parima mountains, so that its mouth is only two degrees distant
from the meridian of its sources.
240The Cassiquiare leaves the Orinoco near the south base of the
Peak of Duida, and joins the Rio Negro, a chief tributary of the
Amazons, at the distance of 180 miles.
The Orinoco is navigable for 1000 miles at all seasons; a fleet
might ascend it from the Dragon’s Mouth to within 45 miles of
Santa Fé de Bogota. It receives many navigable rivers, of which
the Guaviare, the Atures, and the Meta are each larger than the
Danube. The Meta may be ascended to the foot of the Andes;
its mean depth is 36 feet, and in many places 80 or 90. It rises
so high in the Andes that Baron Humboldt says the vegetable productions
at its source differ as much from those at its confluence
with the Orinoco, though in the same latitude, as the vegetation
of France does from that of Senegal. The larger feeders of the
Orinoco come from the Andes, though many descend to it from
both sides of the Parima, in consequence of its long circuit among
these mountains.
The basin of the Orinoco has an area of 300,000 square miles,
of which the upper part is impenetrable forest, the lower is Llanos.
The floods of the Orinoco, like those of all rivers entirely within
the torrid zone, are very regular, and attain their height nearly at
the same time with those of the Ganges, the Niger, and the Gambia.
They begin to swell about the 25th of March, and arrive at
their full and begin to decrease on the 25th of August. The inundations
are very great, owing to the quantity of rain that falls in
the wooded regions, which exceeds 100 inches in a year.
Below the confluence of the Apure the river is three miles and
a quarter broad, but during the floods it is three times as much.
By the confluence of four of its greatest tributaries at the point at
which it bends to the east, a low inland delta is formed, in consequence
of which 3600 square miles of the plain are under water
during the inundation. The Orinoco in many places smells of
musk, from the number of dead crocodiles.
Upper Peru is the cradle of the Amazons, the greatest of rivers,
which drains the chain of the Andes from the equator to the 20th
parallel of southern latitude. Its highest branch, which bears the
name of Marañon, issues in two streams from the Lake of Lauricocha
in the plain of Bombon, at a great elevation in the Andes:
it runs in a deep longitudinal valley from south to north, till it
bursts through the eastern ridge at the Pongo de Manseriche,
near the town of San Borja, from whence it follows an uniform
eastern course of nearly 4000 miles including its windings, till it
reaches the Atlantic. West of San Borja, and on its southern
bank, it receives the Huallaga and Yucayali, the latter a river of
great size which rises in the Andes of Vilcañota, S. of Cusco,
where its source was visited and its position determined by Mr.
Pentland. The Amazons is supposed to drain an area of two
241millions and a half of square miles, which is ten times the size of
France. In some places it has a great depth; it is navigable
2200 miles from its source, and is 96 miles wide at its mouth.
The name of the river is three times changed in its course: it
is known as the Marañon from its source to the confluence of the
Yucayali; from that point to its junction with the Rio Negro, it
is called the Solimoes; and from the Rio Negro till it enters the
ocean it is the River of the Amazons.
The number, length, and volume of its tributaries are in proportion
to its magnitude; even the affluents of its affluents are
noble streams. More than 20 superb rivers, navigable almost to
their sources, pour their waters into it, and streams of less importance
are numberless. Two of the largest are the Huallaga and
the Yucayali: like their primary, the former has its origin in the
mining district of Pasco, and after a long northern course between
the Cordilleras it breaks through a gorge similar to that of Manseriche
and joins the Marañon in the plains; it is almost a mile
broad above its junction. The Spanish governor of Peru sent
Pedro de Orsoa down this river in the year 1560 to search for
the Lake of Parima and the city of El Dorado. The Yucayali,
not inferior to the Marañon itself, is believed by some eminent
geographers to be the true Marañon. In a course of 1080 miles
it is fed by accessaries from a wide extent of country, and at its
junction with the main stream, near the mission of San Joaquin
de Omaguas, a line of 50 fathoms does not reach the bottom, and
in breadth it is more like a sea than a river. By these streams
there is access to Peru, and there is communication between the
Amazons and the most distant regions around by other navigable
feeders. Nothing is known of the rivers that empty themselves
into the Amazon on its southern bank, between the Yucayali and
the Madeira; the latter, which is its greatest affluent, comes near
the sources of the Paraguay, the principal accessary of the Rio
de la Plata. The River of the Amazons is not less extensively
connected on the north. The high lands of Colombia are accessible
by the Putumayo, the Japura, and other great navigable
rivers; the Rio Negro, nearly nine miles broad, a little way
above its junction with the Amazons, unites it with the Orinoco
by the Cassiquiare; and lastly, the sources of the Rio Branco
come very near to those of the Essequibo, an independent river
of Demerara.
The main stream, from its mouth nearly throughout its length,
is full of river islands, and most of its tributaries have deltoid
branches at their junction with it. The annual floods of the
Amazons are less regular than those of the Orinoco, and, as the
two rivers are in different hemispheres, they occur at opposite
seasons. The Amazons begins to rise in December, is at its
242greatest height in March, and its least in July and August. The
quantity of rain that falls in the deep forests traversed by this
river is so great that, were it not for the enormous evaporation,
and the streams that carry it off, the country would be flooded
annually to the depth of eight feet. The Amazons is divided
into two branches at its mouth, of which one joins the Parà south
of the island of Das Joanes or Marajo, the other enters the ocean
to the north of it.
The water of some of the rivers in equatorial America is white;
in others it is of a deep coffee-colour, or dark green when seen in
the shade, but perfectly transparent, and, when ruffled by a breeze,
of a vivid green like some of the Swiss lakes. In Scotland, the
brown waters come from peat-mosses; but it is not so in America,
since they occur as often in forests as in savannahs. Sir Robert
Schomburgk thinks they are stained by the iron in the granite;
however, the colouring matter has not been chemically ascertained.
The Orinoco and the Cassiquiare are white; Rio Negro,
as its name implies, is black, yet the water does not stain the
rocks, which are of a dazzling white. Black waters are sometimes,
though rarely, found on the table-lands of the Andes.
The Rio de la Plata forms the third great water system of
South America. The Rio Grande, its principal stream, rises in
the mountains of Minas Geraes, in Brazil, and runs 500 miles on
the table-land from north to south before it takes the name of
Paranà. For more than 100 miles it is a continued series of
cataracts and rapids, the greatest of which, the Salta Grande, is
in about 24° 5ʹ lat. Above the fall the river is three miles broad,
when all at once it is confined in a rocky pass only 60 yards
wide, through which it rushes over a ledge with thunderous
noise, heard at the distance of many miles. The Paranà receives
three large rivers on the right—the Paraguay, the Pilcomayo,
and the Vermejo: all generally tend to the south, and unite at
different distances before entering their primary at Corrientes.
The Paraguay, 1200 miles long, is the finest of these: in its
upper part it is singularly picturesque, adorned with palms and
other tropical vegetation, and its channel islands are covered with
orange-groves. It springs from a chain of seven lakes, on the
southern slopes of the Campos Parecis, in Brazil, and may be
ascended by vessels of considerable burthen through nineteen
degrees of latitude. The Pilcomayo and Vermejo both come
from Bolivia; the former traverses the desert of the Gran Chaco,
the latter the district of Tarija. At Santa Fé the La Plata turns
eastward, and before entering the Atlantic is augmented by the
Uruguay from the north, which takes its name from the turbulence
of its streams.
The Rio de la Plata is 2700 miles long, and for 200 miles from
243its mouth, up to Buenos Ayres, it is never less than 170 miles
broad. Were it not for the freshness of its water it might be
mistaken for the ocean: it is, however, shallow, and loaded with
mud, which stains the Atlantic for 200 miles from its mouth.
The Paraguay is subject to dreadful floods. In 1812 the atmosphere
was poisoned by the putrid carcases of drowned animals.
The ordinary annual inundations of the Paranà, the principal
or upper branch of the La Plata, cover 36,000 square miles.
In consequence of the vast extent of the very level plains along
the base of the Andes, the basins of the three great rivers are apparently
united. So small are the elevations that determine their
direction, that, with the exception of a portage of three miles, a
vessel might sail from Buenos Ayres in 35° S. lat. to the mouth
of the Orinoco in 9° N. lat. by inland navigation.
The Colorado, which runs in a long shallow stream through
the Pampas of Buenos Ayres to the Atlantic, is formed of two
principal branches, one from the west, and the other from the
north, which unite at a great distance from the Atlantic, into
which the river flows.
The Rio Negro or Cusu-debu rises at a great elevation, and
separates the Pampas from Patagonia. In its long course through
arid deserts to the Atlantic it does not receive a single adjunct,
but it forms a communication between that ocean and Chile, as
it reaches a pass in the Andes that is free from snow. There is
some vegetation in its immediate neighbourhood; it has a bar at
its mouth, and is navigable only for four miles above Carmen; it
has floods twice in the year, one from the rains, the other from
the melting of the snow in the Andes.
Some other streams from the Chilian Andes run through, but
do not fertilize, the desolate plains of Patagonia.
There are various rivers in South America, unconnected with
those described, which in any other country would be esteemed
of a high order. Of many which descend from the mountains of
Guiana, the Essequibo is the largest; its general width is a mile
and a quarter; its water, though black, is transparent; and on its
banks and those of all its adjuncts the forest reigns in impenetrable
thickness. It rises in the Sierra Acaray, which separates its
basin from that of the Amazons, and, after a northerly course, falls
into the Atlantic near 7° N. lat. by an outlet 14 miles broad,
separated by three low islands into four branches. Sir Robert
Schomburgk, whose scientific journeys have made us acquainted
with a country of which so little was known, has shown that, by
cutting a canal three miles long between the Madeira and Guapore,
an affluent of the Mamore, an inland navigation might be opened
from Demerara to Buenos Ayres, over an extent of 42 degrees of
latitude, with the exception of a portage of only 800 yards in the
244rainy season between Lake Amucu and the Quatata, a branch of
the Rupununi, which flows into the Essequibo. But that is not
the only water communication between Guayana and remote
countries, great though the distance be, for the Napo, a tributary
of the Solimoes, offers communication with Quito, the Huallaga
with Peru and countries not far distant from the Pacific Ocean.
By the Rio Negro, the Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, and its tributary
the Meta, there is uninterrupted navigation to New Granada and
to within eight miles of Santa Fé de Bogota. “If,” says the distinguished
traveller already mentioned, “British Guayana did not
possess the fertility which is such a distinguishing feature, this
water communication alone would render it of vast importance;
but, blessed as it is with abundant fruitfulness, this extensive
inland navigation heightens its value as a British colony; and, if
emigration sufficient to make its resources available were properly
directed thither, the port of Demerara would rival any in the vast
continent of South America.” It is certainly very remarkable
that the tide of emigration has never set towards a country of such
promise, abounding in valuable natural productions, and so much
nearer to Great Britain than her colonies in the Pacific.
The Parà and San Francisco are the chief Brazilian rivers:
both rise on the table-land; the former results from the union of the
Tocantins and Araguay; it descends from the high lands in rapids
in its northerly course, and, after running 1500 miles, joins the
southern branch of the Amazons before entering the Atlantic
south of the island of Marajo. The San Francisco is only 1275
miles long: it rises in the Sierra Canastra in the province of
Minas Geraes, and, after travelling northward between mountain
ranges parallel to the coast, it breaks through them and reaches
the ocean about the 11th degree of S. lat. As in the Appalachian
chain, so here, many rivers come down the edge of the table-land
to the level maritime plains of the Atlantic.
The historical renown and the high civilization of Asia and
Europe, their great wealth and population, may be attributed in a
very great degree to the facility of transport afforded by their admirable
river systems, and still more to the genius of the people who
knew how to avail themselves of them; the same may be said of
the inhabitants of the United States of America, while the Indians
who have possessed these countries for ages never took advantage
of the noble streams with which Providence had enriched and
embellished them.
After America, the land of the river and the flood, New Holland
appears in more than its usual aridity. The absence of
245large rivers is one of the greatest impediments to the improvement
of this continent. What it may possess in the interior is
not known, but it is certain that no large river discharges its
water into the ocean, and most of the small ones are absorbed
before they reach it.
The streams from the mountains on the eastern side of the continent
are mere torrents, and would have short courses did they
not run in longitudinal valleys, as, for example, the Hawkesbury.
The Murumbidgee, the Lachlan, and the Macquarrie, formed by
the accumulation of mountain-torrents, are the largest.
The Murumbidgee rises in the ranges west of St. George’s
Lake, and, running south-west, meets the Lachlan, of unknown
origin, coming from the east. After their junction they run into
the Murray, a much larger stream, though only 350 feet broad,
and not more than 20 feet deep: before entering the ocean in
Encounter Bay, it passes through the Alexandrine Marsh: it is
too shallow even for boats. The Darling is supposed to be
merely the upper part of the Murray, probably rising towards
the head of St. Vincent’s Gulf. The origin of the Macquarrie
is unknown: it is called the Fish River between Bathurst and
Sydney; after running 600 miles north-west it is lost in the
marshes.
Swan River, on the western side of the continent, has much
the same character; and from that river to the Gulf of Carpentaria,
along the whole of the western and northern shores of the
continent, there are none. The want of water makes it hardly
possible to explore the interior of this continent. No country
stands more in need of a complete system of irrigation, which
could easily be accomplished from the nature of the rivers, which
lie in deep channels, and might be converted into canals by dams,
from whence the water might be conveyed by channels over the
surrounding country, as in Lombardy.
CHAPTER XX.
Lakes—Northern System of the Great Continent—Mountain System of
the same—American Lakes.
The hollows formed on the surface of the earth by the ground
sinking or rising, earthquakes, streams of lava, craters of extinct
volcanos, the intersection of strata, and those that occur along the
edges of the different formations, are generally filled with water,
246and constitute systems of lakes, some salt and some fresh. Many
of the former may be remnants of an ancient ocean left in
the depressions of its beds during its retreat as the continent
arose.
Almost all lakes are fed by springs in their beds, and they are
occasionally the sources of the largest rivers. Some have neither
tributaries nor outlets; the greater number have both. The
quantity of water in lakes varies with the seasons everywhere,
especially from the melting snow on mountain-chains and in high
latitudes, and from periodical rains, between the tropics. Small
lakes occur in mountain-passes, formed by water which runs
into them from the commanding peaks; they are frequently, as
in the Alps, very transparent, of a bright green or azure hue.
Large lakes are common on table-lands, and in the valleys of
mountainous countries, but the largest are on extensive plains.
The basin of a lake comprehends all the land drained by it; consequently
it is bounded by an imaginary line passing through the
sources of all the waters that fall into it.
There are more lakes in high than in low latitudes, because
evaporation is much greater in low latitudes than in high, and
in this respect there is a great analogy between the northern
plains of the two principal continents. Sheets of water of great
beauty occur in the mountain valleys of the British islands,
of Norway, and Sweden, countries similar in geological structure;
and besides these there are two regions in the old world in
which lakes particularly abound. One begins on the low coast of
Holland, goes round the southern and eastern sides of the Baltic,
often passing close to its shores, along the Gulf of Bothnia, and
through the Siberian plains to Behring’s Straits. The lakes
which cover so much of Finland and the great lakes of Ladoga
and Onega lie in a parallel direction; they occupy transverse
rents which had taken place across the palæozoic strata, while
rising in a direction from S.W. to N.E., between the Gulf of
Finland and the White Sea; that elevation was, perhaps, the
cause of the cavities now occupied by these two seas. Ladoga
is the largest lake in this zone, having a surface of nearly 1000
square miles. It receives tributary streams, and sends off its
superfluous water by rivers, and Onega does the same; but the
multitude of small steppe lakes among the Ural mountains and
in the basin of the river Obi neither receive nor emit rivers, being
for the most part mere ponds, though of great size, some of fresh
and some of salt water, lying close together—a circumstance
which has not been accounted for: those on the low Siberian
plains have the same character.
The second system of lakes in the old continent follows the
zone of the mountain mass, and comprehends those of the Pyrenees,
247Alps, Apennines, Asia Minor, the Caspian, the Lake Aral,
together with those on the table-land and in the mountains of
central Asia.
In the Pyrenees, lakes are most frequent on the French side;
many are at such altitudes as to be perpetually frozen: one on
Mont Perdu, 8393 feet above the sea, has the appearance of
an ancient volcanic crater. There is scarcely a valley in the
Alpine range and its offsets that has not a sheet of water, no
doubt owing to the cavities formed during the elevation of the
ridges, and, in some instances, to subsidence of the soil; Lake
Trüb, 7200 feet above the level of the sea, is the most elevated.
There are more lakes on the north than on the south side of the
Alps—the German valleys are full of them. In Bohemia, Gallicia,
and Moravia, there are no less than 30,000 sheets of water,
besides great numbers throughout the Austrian empire.
Of the principal lakes on the northern side of the Alps, the
Lake of Geneva, or Lake Leman, is the most beautiful from its
situation, the pure azure of the waters, and the sublime mountains
that surround it. Its surface, of about 240 square miles, is
1150 feet above the sea, and near Meillerie it is 1012 deep. The
lake of Lucerne is 1400 feet above the sea, and the lakes of Brienz
1900 feet. The Italian Lakes are at a lower level; the Lago
Maggiore has only 678 feet of absolute altitude; they are larger
than most of those on the north of the Alps, and, with the advantage
of an Italian climate, sky, and vegetation, they surpass the
others in beauty, though the mountains that surround them are
less lofty.
These great lakes are fed by rivers rising in the glaciers of the
higher Alps, and many large rivers issue from them. In this
respect they differ from most of the lakes in Lower Italy, some
of which are craters of ancient volcanos, or perhaps ancient craters
of elevation, where the earth had been swelled up by subterranean
vapour without bursting, and had sunk down again into a
hollow when the internal pressure was removed.
In Syria, the Lake of Tiberias and the Dead Sea, sacred
memorials to the Christian world, are situate in the deepest
cavity on the earth. The surface of the Lake Tiberias is 329
feet below the level of the Mediterranean, surrounded by verdant
plains bearing aromatic shrubs; while the heavy bitter waters of
the Dead Sea, 1312 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, is
a scene of indescribable desolation and solitude, encompassed by
desert sands, and bleak, stony, salt hills. Thus, there is a difference
of level of 983 feet in little more than 60 miles, which
makes the course of the river Jordan very rapid. The water of
the Dead Sea is so acrid, from the large proportion of saline matter
it contains, that it irritates the skin: it is more buoyant, and
248has a greater proportion of salt, than any that is known except
the small lake of Eltonsk east of the Volga.[123]
Though extensive sheets of water exist in many parts of
Asia Minor, especially in Bithynia, yet the characteristic feature
of the country, and of all the table-land of western Asia and the
adjacent steppes, is the number and magnitude of the saline lakes.
A region of salt lakes and marshes extends at least 200 miles
along the northern foot of the Taurus range, on a very elevated
part of the table-land of Anatolia. There are also many detached
lakes, some exceedingly saline. Fish cannot live in the Lake of
Toozla; it is shallow, and subject to excessive evaporation.
Neither can any animal exist in the Lake of Shahee or Urmiah,
on the confines of Persia and Armenia, 300 miles in circumference:
its water is perfectly clear, and contains a fourth part
of its weight of saline matter. These lakes are fed by springs,
rain, and melted snow, and, having no emissaries, the surplus
water is carried off by evaporation.
It is possible that the volcanic soil of the table-land may be the
cause of this exuberance of salt water. Lake Van, a sheet of salt
water 240 miles in circumference, is separated from the equally
salt lake Urmiah only by a low range of hills; and there are
many pieces of fresh water in that neighbourhood, possibly in
similar hollows.
Persia is singularly destitute of water; the Lake of Zurrah, on
the frontiers of Afghanistan, having an area of 18 square miles, is
the only piece of water on the western part of the table-land of
Iran.
It is evident from the saline nature of the soil, and the shells it
contains, that the plains round the Caspian, the Lake Aral, and
the steppes, even to the Ural Mountains, had once formed part of
the Black Sea; 57,000 square miles of that country are depressed
below the level of the ocean—a depression which extends northwards
beyond the town of Saratov, 300 miles distant from the
Caspian. The surface of the Caspian itself, which is 83 feet
7 inches below the level of the ocean, is its lowest part, and
has an area of 18,000 square miles, nearly equal to the area
of Spain. In Europe alone it drains an extent of 850,000
square miles, receiving the Volga, the Ural, and other great
249rivers on the north. It has no tide, and its navigation is dangerous
from heavy gales, especially from the south-east, which
drive the water miles over the land; a vessel was stranded 46
miles inland from the shore. It is 600 feet deep to the south,
but is shallower to the east where it is bounded by impassable
swamps many miles broad.[124] The Lake of Eltonsk, on the
steppe east of the Volga, has an area of 130 square miles, and
furnishes two-thirds of the salt consumed in Russia. Its water
yields 29·13 per cent. of saline matter, and from this circumstance
is more buoyant than any that is known.[125]
The Lake of Aral, which is shallow, is higher than the
Caspian, and has an area of 3372 square miles; it has its name
from the number of small islands at its southern end, Aral signifying
“island” in the Tartar language. Neither the Caspian nor
the Lake of Aral have any outlets, though they receive large
rivers; they are brackish, and, in common with all the lakes in
Persia, they are decreasing in extent, and becoming more salt, the
quantity of water supplied by tributaries being less than that lost
by evaporation. Most of the rivers that are tributary to the Lake
of Aral are diminished by canals, that carry off water for irrigation:
for that reason a very diminished portion of the waters of
the Oxus reaches the lake. Besides, the Russian rivers yield
less water than formerly from the progress of cultivation. The
small mountain-lake Sir-i-Kol, in the high table-land of Pamer,
from whence the Oxus flows, is 15,600 feet above the sea; consequently
there is a difference of level between it and the Dead
Sea of nearly 17,000 feet.
The small number of lakes in the Himalaya is one of the peculiarities
of these mountains. The Lake of Ular, in the valley of
Cashmere, is the only one of any magnitude; it is but 40 miles
in circumference, and seems to be the residue of one that had
filled the whole valley at some early period. There are many
great lakes, both fresh and salt, on the table-land; the annular
form of Lake Palte, at the northern base of the Himalaya, as
represented on maps, is unexampled; the sacred lakes of Manasarowar,
in Great Tibet, and of Rakas Tal, occupy a space of
about 400 square miles, in the centre of the Himalaya, between the
gigantic peaks of Gurla on the south and of Kailas on the north;
it is from the westernmost of these lakes (which communicate
with each other), the Cho Lagan of the Tibetians, that the Sutlej
rises, at an elevation of 15,200 feet above the level of the sea.
250These remarkable lakes mark the point from around which all
the great rivers rising in the Himalaya have their origin. Tibet
is full of lakes, many of which produce borax, found nowhere
else but in Tuscany and in the Lipari Islands. As most of the
great lakes on the table-land are in the Chinese territories,
strangers have not had access to them; the Koko-nor and Lake
Lop seem to be very large; the latter is said to have a surface of
2187 square miles, and there are others not inferior to it in the
north. The lakes in the Altaï are beautiful, larger and more
numerous than in any other mountain-chain. They are at different
elevations on the terraces by which the table-land descends
to the flats of Siberia, and are, owing to geological phenomena,
essentially different from those which have produced the Caspian
and other steppe lakes. They seem to have been hollows formed
where the axes of the different branches of the chain cross, and
are most numerous and deepest in the eastern Altaï. Baikal, the
largest mountain lake, supposed to owe its origin to the sinking
of the ground during an earthquake, has an area of 14,800 square
miles, nearly equal to the half of Scotland. It lies buried in the
form of a crescent, amid lofty granite mountains, which constitute
the edge of the table-land to the south, ending in the desert of the
Great Gobi, and in the north-west they gird the shore so closely
that they dip into the water in many places; 160 rivers and
streams fall into this salt lake, which drains a country probably
twice the size of Britain. The river Angara, which runs deep
and strong through a crevice at its eastern end, is its principal
outlet, and is supposed to carry off but a small proportion of its
water. Its surface is 1793 feet above the sea-level, and the
climate is as severe as it is in Europe 10° farther north; yet the
lake does not freeze till the middle of December, possibly from its
depth, being unfathomable with a line of 600 feet.
Two hundred and eighty years before the Christian era, the
large fresh-water lake of Oitz, in Japan, was formed in one night,
by a prodigious sinking of the ground, at the same time that one
of the highest and most active volcanos in that country rose from
the depths of the earth.
Very extensive lakes occur in Africa; there appears to be a
great number on the low-lands on the east coast of Africa, in which
many of the rivers from the edge of the table-land terminate.
Among others, there is the salt lake Assal, 25 miles west of Tadjurra,
in the country through which the Hawash flows, which has
a depression of more than 700 feet below the level of the ocean,
by Dr. Beke’s estimation, who first observed that curious circumstance;
but by the actual measurement of Lieutenant Christopher,
it is 570 feet. Notwithstanding the arid soil of the southern table-land,
it contains the fresh-water lake of N’yassi or Zambeze, one
251of the largest, being some hundred miles long; and, though narrow
in proportion, it cannot be crossed in a boat of the country in
less than three days, resting at night on an island, of which there
are many. It lies between 300 and 400 miles west from the
Mozambique Channel, and begins 200 miles north of the town of
Tete, which is situate on the river Zambeze, from whence it extends
from south-east to north-west, possibly to within a degree or two
of the equator. It receives the drainage of the country to the
south-east: but no river is known to flow out of it, unless it be the
Bahr-el-Abiad or White Nile, which probably rises in this lake.
No one knows what there may be in the unexplored regions of the
Ethiopian desert; but Abyssinia has the large and beautiful lake
of Dembia, situate in a spacious plain—the granary of the country—so
high above the sea that spring is perpetual, though within
the tropics. There are many other lakes in this great projecting
promontory, so full of rivers, mountains, and forests; but the lowlands
of Soudan and the country lying along the base of the northern
declivity of the table-land is the region of African lakes, of
which the Tchad, almost the size of an inland sea, is in the very
centre of the continent. Its extent, and the size of its basin, are
unknown; it receives many affluents from the high lands called
the Mountains of the Moon, certainly all those that flow from them
east of Bornou, and it is itself drained by the Tchadda, a principal
tributary of the Niger. Other lakes of less magnitude are known
to exist in these regions, and there are probably many more that
are unknown. Salt-water lakes are numerous on the northern
boundaries of the great lowland deserts, and many fine sheets of
fresh water are found in the valleys and flat terraces of the Great
and Little Atlas.
Fresh-water lakes are characteristic of the higher latitudes of
both continents, but those in the old continent sink into insignificance
in comparison with the number and extent of those in the
new. Indeed a very large portion of North America is covered
with fresh water; the five principal lakes—Superior, Huron,
Michigan, Erie, and Ontario—with some of their dependants, probably
cover an area of 94,000 square miles; that of Lake Superior
alone, 32,000 which is only 1800 square miles less than the whole of
England. The American lakes contain more than half the amount
of fresh water on the globe. The altitude of these lakes shows
the slope of the continent; the absolute elevation of Lake Superior
is 672 feet; Lake Huron is 30 feet lower; Lake Erie 32 feet lower
than the Huron; and Lake Ontario is 331 feet below the level of
Erie. The river Niagara, which unites the two last lakes, is
331⁄2
miles long, and in that distance it descends 66 feet; it falls in
rapids through 55 feet of that height in the last half-mile, but the
upper part of its course is navigable. The height of the cascade
252of Niagara is 162 feet on the American side of the central island,
and 1125 feet wide. On the Canadian side the fall is 149 feet
high, and 2100 feet wide—the most magnificent sheet of falling-water
known, though many are higher. The river St. Lawrence,
which drains the whole, slopes 234 feet between the bottom of the
cascade and the sea. The bed of Lake Superior is 300 feet, and
that of the Ontario 268 feet below the surface of the Atlantic,
affording another instance of deep indentation in the solid matter
of the globe. Some lakes are decreasing in magnitude, though
the contrary seems to be the case in America; between the years
1825 and 1838, Ontario rose nearly seven feet; and, according to
the American engineers, Lake Erie had gained several feet in the
same time. Lake Huron is said to be the focus of peculiar electrical
phenomena, as thunder is constantly heard in one of its bays.
The lakes north of this group are innumerable; the whole country,
to the Arctic Ocean, is covered with sheets of water which
emit rivers and streams. Lake Winnipeg, Rein-deer Lake, Slave
Lake, and some others, may be regarded as the chief members of
separate groups or basins, each embracing a wide extent of country
almost unknown. There are also many lakes on each side of
the Rocky Mountains; and in Mexico there are six or seven lakes
of considerable size, though not to be compared with those in North
America.
There are many sheets of water in Central America, though
only one is of any magnitude, and the Lake of Nicaragua, in the
province of that name, about 100 miles from the sea, and which
communicates with the Gulf of Mexico by the River of San Juan.
In Central America, the Andes are interrupted by plains and
mere hills on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and of Nicaragua, on
each side of which there is a series of lakes and rivers, which,
aided by canals, might form a water communication between the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In the former, the line proposed
would connect the river Guasacalco, on the Gulf of Mexico, with
the Bay of Tehuantepec in the Pacific. In the Isthmus of Nicaragua,
the Gulf of San Juan would be connected by the river of
that name, and the chain of Lakes of Nicaragua and Leon, with
the Bay of Realejo or the Gulf of Fonseca, with the Gulf of Costa
Rica. Here the watershed is only 615 feet above the sea, and of
easy excavation, and the lake, situate in an extensive plain, is deep
enough for vessels of considerable size.
A range of lakes goes along the eastern base of the Andes, but
the greater part of them are mere lagoons or marshes, some very
large, which inundate the country to a great extent in the time of
the tropical rains. There appears to be a deep hollow in the surface
of the earth at the part where Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay
meet, in which lies the Lake Xarayos, extending on each side of
253the river Paraguay, but, like many South American lakes, it is
not permanent, being alternately inundated and dry, or a marsh.
Its inundations cover 36,000 square miles. Salt and fresh water
lakes are numerous on the plains of La Plata, and near the Andes
in Patagonia, resembling, in this respect, those in high northern
latitudes, though on a smaller scale.
In the elevated mountain-valleys and table-lands of the Andes
there are many small lakes of the purest blue and green colours,
intensely cold, some being near the line of perpetual congelation.
They are generally of considerable depth. The lake of Titicaca,
however, in the Bolivian Andes, has an area of 2225 square miles,
of 60 to a degree, and is more than 120 fathoms deep in many
places, surrounded by splendid scenery. Though 12,846 feet
above the level of the Pacific, and consequently higher than the
Peak of Teneriffe, its shores are cultivated, producing corn, barley,
and potatoes; and peopled by a large aboriginal population, inhabiting
towns and villages. Numerous vestiges of Peruvian civilization
are everywhere to be met with; and in the island from which
it derives its name, and where tradition places the origin of the last
Inca dynasty, numerous specimens of Peruvian architecture still
exist.
The limpid transparency of the water in lakes, especially in
mountainous countries, is remarkable; minute objects are visible
at the bottom through many fathoms of water. The vivid green
tints so often observed in Alpine lakes may be produced by vegetable
dyes dissolved in the water, though chemical analysis has
not detected them.
Lakes, being the sources of some of the largest rivers, are of
great importance for inland navigation as well as for irrigation;
while, by their constant evaporation, they maintain the supply of
humidity in the atmosphere so essential to vegetation, besides the
embellishment a country derives from them.
CHAPTER XXI.
254
Temperature of the earth—Temperature of the Air—Radiation—Foci of
Maximum Cold—Thermal Equator—Its Temperature, mean and absolute—Isothermal
Lines—Continental and Insular Climates—Extreme
Climates—Stability of Climate—Decrease of Heat in Altitude—Line
of Perpetual Snow—Density of the Atmosphere—The Barometer—Measurement
of Heights—Variations in Density and their
Causes—Horary Variations—Independent Effect of the dry and aqueous
Atmospheres—Mean height of Barometer in different Latitudes—Depression
in the Antarctic Ocean and in Eastern Siberia—Barometric
Storms—Polar and Equatorial Currents of Air—Trade-Winds—Monsoons—Land
and Sea Breezes—Gyration of the Winds in the
Extra-Tropical Zones—Winds in Middle European Latitudes—Hurricanes—The
Laws of their Motion—Their Effect on the Barometer—How
to steer clear of them—The Storm-Wave—Storm-Currents—Arched
Squalls—Tornadoes—Whirlwinds—Water Spouts.
The atmosphere completely envelops the earth to the height of about
20 miles; it bulges at the equator, and is flattened at the poles, in
consequence of the diurnal rotation. It is a mixture of water in
an invisible state and of air; but the air is not homogeneous; 100
parts of it consist of 79 parts of hydrogen or azotic gas, and 21 of
oxygen, the source of combustion and animal heat. Besides these,
there is a little ammoniacal vapour, and a small quantity of carbonic
acid gas, which is sufficient to supply all the vegetation on the
earth with wood and leaves. No doubt exhalations of various
kinds ascend into the air, such as those which produce miasmata,
but they are in quantities too minute to be detected by chemical
analysis, so that the atmosphere is found to be of the same composition
at all heights above the sea hitherto attained.[126]
The temperature of the earth’s surface, and the phenomena of
the atmosphere, depend upon the revolution and rotation of the
earth, which successively expose all the parts of the earth, and
the air which surrounds it, to a perpetual variation of the gravitating
forces of the two great luminaries, and to annual and
255diurnal vicissitudes of solar heat. Atmospheric phenomena are
consequently periodical and connected with one another, and their
harmony, and the regularity of the laws which govern them, become
the more evident in proportion as the mean values of their
vicissitudes are determined from simultaneous observations made
over widely-extended tracts of the globe. The fickleness of the
wind and weather is proverbial, but, as the same quantity of heat
is annually received from the sun, and annually radiated into
space, it follows that all climates on the earth are stable, and that
their changes, like the perturbations of the planets, are limited,
and accomplished in fixed cycles, whose periods are still in many
instances unknown. It is possible, however, that the earth and
air may be affected by secular variations of temperature during
the progress of the solar system through space, or from periodical
changes in the sun’s light and heat, similar to those which take
place in many of the fixed stars. The secular variation in the
moon’s mean distance will no doubt alter the amount of her attractive
force, though probably by a quantity inappreciable in the
aërial tides; at all events, variations arising from such circumstances
could only become perceptible after many ages.
From experiments made by M. Peltier it appears that, if the
absolute quantity of heat annually received by the earth were
equally dispersed over its surface, it would, in the course of a
year, melt a stratum of ice 46 feet deep covering the whole globe.
It is evident that, if so great a quantity of heat had been continually
accumulated in the earth, instead of being radiated into space,
it would have been transmitted through the surface to the poles,
where it would have melted the ice, and the torrid zone, if not the
whole globe, would by this time have been uninhabitable. In
fact, every surface absorbs and radiates heat at the same time, and
the power of radiation is always equal to the power of absorption,
for, under the same circumstances, bodies which become soon
warm also cool rapidly, and the earth, as a whole, is under the
same law as the bodies at its surface.
Although part of the heat received from the sun in summer is
radiated back again, by far the greater part sinks into the earth’s
surface, and tempers the severity of the winter’s cold while passing
through the atmosphere into the etherial regions.
The power of the solar rays depends on the manner in which
they fall, as may be seen from the difference of climates. The
earth is about 3,000,000 of miles nearer to the sun in winter than
in summer, but the rays strike the northern hemisphere more
obliquely in winter than in the other half of the year.
Diurnal variations of heat are perceptible only to a small distance
below the surface of the ground, because the earth is a bad
conductor: the annual influence of the sun penetrates much
256farther. At the equator, where the heat is greatest, it descends
deeper than elsewhere with a diminishing intensity, but there,
and everywhere throughout the globe, there is a stratum, at a
depth varying from 40 to 100 feet below the surface of the ground,
where the temperature never varies, and is nearly the same with
the mean temperature of the country over it. This zone, unaffected
by the sun’s heat from above, or by the internal heat from
below, serves as an origin whence the effects of solar heat are
estimated on one hand, and the internal temperature of the globe
on the other. Below it the heat of the earth increases, as already
mentioned, at the rate of one degree of Fahrenheit’s thermometer
for every 50 or 60 feet of perpendicular depth; were it to continue
increasing at that rate, every substance would be in a state
of fusion at the depth of 21 miles; hitherto, however, the experiments
in mines and Artesian wells, whence the earth’s temperature
below the constant stratum is ascertained, have not been
extended below 1700 feet.
M. de Beaumont has estimated by the theory of Fourier, from
the observations of M. Arago, that the quantity of central heat
which reaches the surface of the earth is capable, in the course
of a year, of melting a shell of ice covering the globe a quarter of
an inch thick.[127]
The superficial temperature of the earth is great at the equator,
it decreases gradually towards the poles, and is an exact mean
between the two at the 45th parallel of latitude; but a multitude
of causes disturb this law even between the tropics. It is affected
chiefly by the unequal distribution of land and water, by the height
above the sea, by the nature of the soil, and by vegetation, so that
a line drawn on a map through all the places where the mean
temperature of the earth is the same would be very far from coinciding
with the parallels of latitude, but would approximate
more to them near the equator. Between the tropics the temperature
of the earth’s surface is greater in the interior of continents
than on the sea-coasts and islands, and in the interior of Africa it
is greater than in any other part of the globe.
Temperature depends upon the property all bodies possess,
more or less, of perpetually absorbing and emitting or radiating
heat. When the interchange is equal, the temperature of a substance
remains the same; but when the radiation exceeds the
absorption, it becomes colder, and vice versâ. The temperature
of the air is certainly raised by the passage of the solar heat
through it, because it absorbs one-third of it before reaching the
earth, but it is chiefly warmed by heat transmitted and radiated
from the earth. The radiation is abundant when the sky is clear
257and blue, but clouds intercept it; so that a thermometer rises in
cloudy weather, and sinks when the air becomes clear and calm;
even a slight mist diminishes radiation from the earth, because it
returns as much heat as it receives. The temperature of the air
is subject to such irregularities from these circumstances, and
from the difference in the radiating powers of the bodies at the
surface of the globe, that it is necessary to find, by experiment,
the mean or average warmth of the day, month, and year, at a
great variety of places, in order to have a standard by which the
temperature in different parallels of latitude may be compared.
The mean diurnal temperature of the air, at any place, is equal
to half the sum of the greatest and least heights of the thermometer
during 24 hours, and, as the height of the thermometer is
twice in the course of that time equal to the mean temperature
of the place of observation, it might seem easy to obtain its value;
yet that is not the case, for a small error in observation produces
a very great error in such minute quantities, so that accuracy can
only be attained from the average of a great number of observations,
by which the errors, sometimes in excess and sometimes in
defect, neutralize or balance each other. The mean value of
quantities is a powerful aid to the imperfections of our nature in
arriving at truth in physical inquiries, and in none more than in
atmospheric phenomena: almost all the certain knowledge man
has acquired with regard to the density and temperature of the
air, winds, rain, &c., has been acquired by that method.
The mean temperature of any one month at the same place
differs from one year to another, but the mean temperature of the
whole year remains nearly the same, especially when the average
of 10 or 15 years is taken; for although the temperature in any
one place may be subject to very great variations, yet it never
deviates more than a few degrees from its mean state.[128]
The motion of the sun in the ecliptic occasions perpetual variations
in the length of the day, and in the direction of his rays
with regard to the earth; yet, as the cause is periodic, the mean
annual temperature from the sun’s motion alone must be constant
in each parallel of latitude. For it is evident that the accumulation
of heat in the long days in summer, which is but little
diminished by radiation during the short nights, is balanced by
the small quantity of heat received during the short days of winter
258and its radiation in the long frosty and clear nights. Were the
globe everywhere on a level with the surface of the sea, and of
uniform substance, so as to absorb and radiate heat equally, the
mean heat of the sun would be regularly distributed over its surface
in zones of equal annual temperature parallel to the equator,
and would decrease regularly to each pole. The distribution of
heat, however, in the same parallel is very irregular in all latitudes,
except between the tropics, from the inequalities in the level and
nature of the surface of the earth, so that lines drawn on a map
through all places having the same mean annual temperature are
nearly parallel to the equator only between the tropics; in all
other latitudes they deviate greatly from it, and from one another.[129]
Radiation is the principal cause of temperature; hence, the heat
of the air is most powerfully modified by the ocean, which occupies
three times as much of the surface of the globe as the land,
and is more uniform in its surface, and also in its radiating power.
On the land the difference in the radiating force of the mountains
and table-lands from that of the plains—of deserts from grounds
covered with rich vegetation—of wet land from dry, are the most
general causes of variation; the local causes of irregularity are
beyond enumeration.
There are two points in the northern hemisphere, both in the
80th parallel of latitude, where the cold is more intense than in
any other part of the globe with which we are acquainted. One
north of Canada in 100° W. long. has a temperature of -3°·5 of
Fahrenheit; while, at the Siberian point, in 95° E. long., the
temperature of the air is +1°; consequently it is four and a half
degrees warmer than that north of Canada—a difference that has
an influence even to the equator, where the mean temperature of
the air is different in different longitudes.
The line of the maximum temperature of the atmosphere, or
the atmospheric thermal equator, which cuts the terrestrial equator
in the meridians of Otaheite and Singapore, passes through
the Pacific in its southern course, and through the Atlantic in its
northern, has a mean temperature of 83°·84 of Fahrenheit. But
by the comparison of many observations the mean equatorial temperature
of the air is 82°·94 in Asia, 85°·10 in Africa, and 80°·96
in America: thus, it appears that tropical Africa is the hottest region
on earth. Moreover, the atmosphere in the tropical zone of
the Pacific, when free from currents, is two degrees and a quarter
warmer than the corresponding zone in the Atlantic, which is
82°·40.
On account of the great extent of ocean, the isothermal lines in
259the southern hemisphere coincide more nearly with the parallels
of latitude than in the northern. In the Antarctic Ocean the
only flexure is occasioned by the cold of the south polar current,
which flows along the western coast of the American continent.
In the northern hemisphere the predominance of land and its frequent
alternations with water, the prevalence of particular winds,
irregularities of the surface, and the difference in the temperature
of the points of maximum cold, cause the isothermal lines to deviate
more from the parallels of latitude. They make two deep
bends northward, one in the Northern Atlantic and another in the
northeast of America, and at last they separate into two parts, and
encircle the points of maximum cold.
Professor Dove has discovered that, in consequence of the
excess of land in the northern hemisphere, and the difference in
the effect produced by the sun’s heat according as it falls on a solid
or liquid surface, there is an annual variation in the aggregate
mean temperature at the surface of the earth, whose maximum
takes place during the sun’s northern declination, and its minimum
during its southern.[130]
Places having the same mean annual temperature, often differ
materially in climate: in some, the winters are mild and the summers
cool, whereas in others the extremes of heat and cold prevail:
England is an example of the first; Quebec, St. Petersburg,
and the Arctic regions, are instances of the second. The
solar heat penetrates more abundantly and deeper into the sea
than into the land; in winter it preserves a considerable portion
of that which it receives in summer, and from its saltness does
not freeze so soon as fresh water; hence, the ocean is not liable to
the same changes of temperature as the land, and by imparting
its heat to the winds it diminishes the severity of the climate on
the coasts and in islands, which are never subject to such extremes
of heat and cold as are experienced in the interior of continents.
The difference between the influence of sea and land is strikingly
exemplified in the high latitudes of the two hemispheres. In
consequence of the unbounded extent of the ocean in the south,
the air is so mild and moist that a rich vegetation covers the
ground, while in the corresponding latitudes in the north the
country is barren from the excess of land towards the Polar Ocean,
260which renders the air dry and cold. A superabundance of land
in the equatorial regions, on the contrary, raises the temperature,
while the sea tempers it.
Professor Dove has shown, from a comparison of observations,
that northern and central Asia have what may be termed a true
continental climate, both in summer and in winter—that is to say,
a hot summer and cold winter; that Europe has a true insular or
sea climate in both seasons, the summers being cool and the winters
mild; and that in North America the climate is inclined to
be continental in winter, and insular in summer. The extremes
of temperature in the year are greater in central Asia than in
North America, and greater in North America than in Europe,
and that difference increases everywhere with the latitude. In
Guiana, within the tropics, the difference between the hottest and
coldest months in the year is 2°·2 of Fahrenheit, in the temperate
zone it is about 60°, and at Yakutsk in Siberia 114°·4. Even in
places which have the same latitude as in northern Asia, compared
with others in Europe or North America, the diversity is
very great. At Quebec the summers are as warm as those in
Paris, and grapes sometimes ripen in the open air, yet the winters
are as severe as those in St. Petersburg. In short, lines drawn
on a map through places having the same mean summer or winter
temperature are neither parallel to one another, to the isothermal
or geothermal lines, and they differ still more from the parallels
of latitude.[131]
Observations tend to prove that all the climates on the earth are
stable, and that their vicissitudes are only oscillations of greater
or less extent, which vanish in the mean annual temperature of a
sufficient number of years. There may be a succession of cold
summers and mild winters, but in some other country the contrary
takes place; the distribution of heat may vary from a variety of
circumstances, but the absolute quantity gained and lost by the
whole earth in the course of a year is invariably the same.
Since the air receives its warmth chiefly from the earth, its
temperature diminishes with the height so rapidly, that at a very
small elevation the cold becomes excessive, as the perpetual snow
261on the mountain-tops clearly shows. The decrease of heat is at
the rate of a degree of Fahrenheit’s thermometer for every 334
feet.
The atmosphere, being a heavy and elastic fluid, decreases
in density upwards, according to a determinate law, so rapidly,
that three-fourths of the whole air it contains are within four miles
of the earth, and all the phenomena perceptible to us—as clouds,
rain, snow, and thunder—occur within that limit. The air even
on the tops of mountains is so rare as to diminish the intensity of
sound, to affect respiration, and to occasion a loss of muscular
strength in man and animals.[132]
Since the space in the top of the tube of a barometer is a
vacuum, the column of mercury is suspended in the tube by the
pressure of the atmosphere on the surface of the mercury in the
cistern: hence, every variation in the density or height of the
atmosphere occasions a corresponding rise or fall in the barometric
column. The actual mean pressure of the atmosphere at the
level of the sea is 15 pounds on the square inch; hence, the
pressure on the whole earth is enormous.
The decrease in the density of the air affords a very accurate
method of finding the height of mountains above the level of the
sea, which would be very simple, were it not for changes of temperature
which alter the density and interfere with the regularity
of the law of its decrease. But as the heat of the air diminishes
with the height above the earth at the rate of one degree of Fahrenheit’s
thermometer for every 334 feet, tables are constructed, by
the aid of which heights may be determined with great accuracy.
In consequence of diminished pressure also, water boils at a lower
temperature on mountain-tops than at the level of the sea, which
affords another method of ascertaining heights.[133]
262By the annual and diurnal revolutions of the earth, each column
of air is alternately exposed to the heat and cold of summer and
winter, of day and night, and also to variations in the attraction of
the sun and moon, which disturb its equilibrium, and produce
tides similar to those in the ocean. Those produced by the moon
ebb and flow twice during a lunation, and diurnal variations in
the barometer, to a very small amount, are also due to the moon’s
attraction.[134] The annual undulations occasioned by the sun have
their greatest altitudes at the equinoxes, and their least at the
solstices, and the diurnal variations in the height of the barometer,
which accomplish their rise and fall twice in 24 hours, are chiefly
due to the effects of temperature on the dry air and moisture of
the atmosphere, which, according to Mr. Dove’s discoveries, produce
independent pressures upon the mercurial column.
A quantity of vapour is continually raised by the heat of the
sun from the surface of the globe, which mixes in an invisible
state with the dry air or gaseous part of the atmosphere. It is
most abundant in the torrid zone, and, like the heat on which it
depends, varies with the latitude, the season of the year, the time
of the day, the elevation above the sea, and also with the nature
of the soil, the land, and the water. There is no chemical combination
between the aërial and aqueous atmospheres, they are
merely mixed; and the diurnal variations arise from the superposition
of two distinct diurnal oscillations, each going through its
complete period in 24 hours; one taking place in the aërial atmosphere
from the alternate heating and cooling of the air, which
produce a flux and reflux over the point of observation; the other
arising from the aqueous atmosphere, owing to the alternate production
and destruction of vapour by the heat of the day and the
cold of the night. The diurnal variations of the vapour have
their maximum at or near the hottest hour of the day, and their
minimum at or near the coldest, which is exactly the converse of
the diurnal variations of the dry air. On the whole, there are
263two maxima and two minima heights of the barometer in the
course of 24 hours from the combinations of these, but in the
interior of continents far from water, where the air is very dry,
there ought to be one maximum and one minimum during that
period, according to this theory.
Between the tropics the barometer attains its greatest height at
nine or half-past nine in the morning; it then sinks till four in
the afternoon, after which it again rises and attains a second
maximum at ten or half-past ten in the evening; it then begins
to fall till it reaches a second time its lowest point at four in the
morning. The difference in the height is 0·117 of an inch, which
gradually decreases north and south. Baron Humboldt mentions
that the diurnal variations of the barometric pressure are so regular
between the tropics, that the hour of the day may be inferred
from the height of the mercury to within fifteen or sixteen minutes,
and that it is undisturbed by storm, tempest, rain, or earthquake,
both on the coasts and at altitudes 13,000 feet above them. The
mean height of the barometer between the tropics at the level of
the sea is 30 inches with very little fluctuation, but, owing to the
ascending currents of air from the heat of the earth, it is less under
the equator than in the temperate zones. It attains a maximum
in western Europe between the parallels of 40° and 45°; in the
North Atlantic the maximum is about the 30th parallel, and in
the southern part of that ocean it is near the tropic of Capricorn;
the amplitude of the oscillations decreases from the tropics to
about the 70th parallel, where the diurnal variations cease. They
are affected by the seasons, being greatest in summer and least in
winter. It appears, also, that the fluctuations are the reverse on
mountain-tops from what they are on the plains, and probably at
a certain height they would cease altogether.[135] It is a singular
fact, discovered by our navigators, that the mean height of the
barometer is an inch lower throughout the Antarctic Ocean and at
Cape Horn than it is at the Cape of Good Hope or Valparaiso:
that difference in the pressure of the atmosphere is probably connected
with the perpetual gales off the extremity of South America.
M. Erman observed a similar depression near the Sea of Okhotsk
in eastern Siberia.
Besides the small horary undulations, there are vast waves
moving over the oceans and continents in separate and independent
systems, being confined to local yet very extensive districts,
probably occasioned by long-continued rains or dry weather over
264wide tracts of country. By numerous barometrical observations
made simultaneously in both hemispheres, the courses of several
have been traced, some of which take 24, others 36 hours, to accomplish
their rise and fall. One especially of these vast barometric
waves, many hundreds of miles in breadth, has been traced
over the greater part of Europe, and not its breadth only, but also
the direction of its front, and its velocity, have been clearly ascertained.
The course of another wave has been made out from the
Cape of Good Hope, through many intermediate stations, to the
observatory at Toronto in Canada. Since every undulation has
its perfect effect independently of the others, each one is marked
by a change in the barometer, and this is beautifully illustrated
by curved lines on paper, constructed from a series of observations.
The general form of the curve shows the course of the principal
wave, while small undulations in its outline mark the maxima
and minima of the minor oscillations. Although, like all other
waves, these in the atmosphere are but waving forms, in which
there is no transfer of air, yet winds arise from them like tide-streams
in the ocean, and Sir John Herschel is of opinion that the
crossing of two of these vast aërial waves, coming in different
directions, may generate, at the point of intersection, those tremendous
revolving storms, or hurricanes, which spread desolation
far and wide.
The air expands and becomes lighter with heat, contracts and
becomes heavier with cold, and, as there are 82 degrees of difference
between the equatorial and polar temperature, the light warm
air at the equator is constantly ascending to the upper regions of
the atmosphere, and flowing north and south to the poles, from
whence the cold heavy air rushes along the surface of the earth
to supply its place between the tropics, for the same tendency to
restore equilibrium exists in air as in other fluids. These two
superficial currents, which have no rotatory motion when they
leave the poles, are deflected from their meridional paths by friction
from the continually increasing velocity of the earth’s rotation,
as they come nearer and nearer to the tropics; and, as they revolve
slower than the corresponding parts of the earth at which
they arrive, the bodies on its surface strike against them with the
excess of their velocity, so that the wind appears, to a person who
thinks himself at rest, to blow in a direction contrary to that of
the earth’s rotation. For that reason the current from the north
pole becomes a north-east wind before arriving at the tropic of
Cancer, and that from the south pole becomes a south-east wind
before it comes to the tropic of Capricorn, their limit being the
28th parallel of latitude on each side of the equator. In fact, the
difference of temperature puts the air in motion, and the direction
of the resulting wind, at every place, depends upon the difference
265between the rotatory motion of the wind and the rotatory motion
of the earth—the whole theory of the winds depends upon these
circumstances.
Near the equator the trade-winds, north and south of it, so
completely neutralize each other, that far at sea a candle burns
without flickering [i. e. when it is flat calm]. This zone of calms
and light breezes, known as the Variables, which has a breadth
of about five degrees and a half, is subject to heavy rains and violent
thunder-storms. On account of the arrangement of land and
water, it does not coincide with the equator, but its centre runs
along the sixth parallel of north latitude; however, it changes in
position and extent with the declination of the sun, but never
crosses the line.
Though the trade-winds extend to the 28th degree on each
side of the equator, their limits vary considerably in different
parts of the ocean, moving two or three degrees to the north or
south, according to the position of the sun; and in the Atlantic
the north-east trade-wind is less steady than the south-east.[136]
These perennial winds are known by recent observations to be
less uniform in the Pacific than in the Atlantic; they only blow
permanently over that portion between the Galapagos Archipelago,
off the coast of America, and the Marquesas. In the Indian
Ocean the south-east trade-wind blows from a few degrees east of
Madagascar to the coast of Australia, between 10° and 28° S. lat.
The trade-winds are only constant far from land, because continents
and islands intercept them, and change their course. On
that account the numerous groups of islands westward from the
Marquesas change the trade-winds into the periodical monsoons,
which are steady currents of air in the Arabian Gulf, the Indian
Ocean, and China Sea, arising from diminished atmospheric pressure
at each tropic alternately, from the heat of the sun, thereby
producing a regular alternation of north and south winds, which,
combining with the rotation of the earth on its axis, become a
north-east wind in the northern hemisphere, and a south-east in
the southern. The former blows from April to October, the latter
from October to April; the change is accompanied by heavy rain
and violent storms of thunder and lightning. The ascent of the
266warm air between the tropics occasions a depression of the barometer
amounting to the tenth of an inch, which is a measure of
the force producing the trade-winds. In both hemispheres there
is a regular variation in the mean height of the barometer within
the zone in which these great aërial currents flow; it is higher
at their polar limits, and decreases with extreme uniformity
towards their equatorial boundaries, the difference in both hemispheres
being 0·25 of an inch.
The unequal temperature of the land and sea causes sea-breezes
which blow towards the land during the day, and land-breezes
which blow sea-ward in the night; they are not perceptible in
the mornings and evenings, because the temperature of the land
and water is then nearly the same.
The trade-winds and monsoons are permanent, depending on
the apparent motion of the sun; but it is evident from theory
that there must be partial winds in all parts of the earth, occasioned
by the local circumstances that affect the temperature of
the air. Consequently, the atmosphere is divided into districts,
both over the sea and land, in which the winds have nearly the
same vicissitudes from year to year. The regularity is greatest
towards the tropics, where the causes of disturbance are fewer.
In the higher latitudes it is more difficult to discover any regularity,
on account of the greater proportion of land, the difference
in its radiating power, and the greater extremes of heat and cold.
But even there a degree of uniformity prevails in the succession
of the winds; for example, in all places where north and south
winds blow alternately, a vane veers through every point of the
compass in the transition, and in some places the wind makes
several of these gyrations in the course of the year.[137] The south-westerly
winds, so prevalent in the Atlantic Ocean between the
30th and 60th degrees of north latitude, are produced by the upper
267current being drawn down to supply the superficial current which
goes towards the equator, and, as it has a greater rotatory motion
than the earth in these latitudes, it produces a south-westerly
wind. On this account the average voyage from Liverpool to
New York in a sailing vessel is 40 days, while it is only 23
days from New York to Liverpool. For the same reason the
average direction of the wind in England, France, Germany,
Denmark, Sweden, and North America, is some point between
south and west. North-westerly winds prevail in the corresponding
latitudes of the southern hemisphere from the same
cause. In fact, whenever the air has a greater velocity of rotation
than the surface of the earth, a wind more or less westerly
is produced; and when it has less velocity of rotation than the
earth, a wind having an easterly tendency results. Thus, there
is a perpetual change between the different masses of the atmosphere,
the warm air tempering the cold of the higher latitudes,
and the cold air mitigating the heat of the lower; it will be shown
afterwards that the aërial currents are the bearers of principles on
which the life of the animal and vegetable world depends.
Hurricanes are those storms of wind in which the portion of the
atmosphere that forms them revolves in a horizontal circuit round
a vertical or somewhat inclined axis of rotation, while the axis
itself, and consequently the whole storm, is carried forwards along
the surface of the globe, so that the direction in which the storm
is advancing is quite different from the direction in which the
rotatory current may be blowing at any point; the progressive
motion may continue for days, while the wind accomplishes many
gyrations through all the points of the compass in the same time.
In the Atlantic the principal region of hurricanes is to the east of
the West Indian islands, and in the Pacific it lies east of the island
of Madagascar; consequently the former is in the northern hemisphere,
the latter in the southern; but in every case the storm
moves in an elliptical or parabolic curve. The West Indian hurricanes
generally have their origin eastward of the Lesser Antillas
or Caribbean islands, and the vertex of their path near the
tropic of Cancer, or about the exterior limit of the north-east
trade-wind. As the motion of the storm before it reaches the
tropic is in a straight line from S.E. to N.W., and after it has
passed the tropic from S.W., to N.E., the bend of the curve is
turned towards Florida and the Carolinas. In the South Pacific
Ocean the body of the storms moves in an exactly opposite direction.
The hurricanes which originate south of the equator, and
whose initial path is from N.E. to S.W., turn at the tropic of Capricorn,
and then tend from N.W. to S.E., so that the bend of the
curve is turned towards Madagascar.
The extent and velocity of the Atlantic hurricanes are great;
the most rapid move at the rate of 43 miles an hour, the slowest
26816. The hurricane which took place on the 12th of August,
1830, was traced from the eastward of the Caribbean islands to
the banks of Newfoundland, a distance of more than 3000 miles,
which it passed over in six days. Although that of the 1st of
September, 1821, was not so extensive, its velocity was greater,
as it moved at the rate of 30 miles an hour. Small storms are
generally more rapid than those of great magnitude. Sometimes
they appear to be stationary, sometimes they stop and again proceed
on their course, like water-spouts. Hurricanes are occasionally
contemporaneous, and so near to one another as to travel
in almost parallel tracks. This happened in the China seas
in October, 1840, when the two storms met at an angle of 47°,
and it was supposed that the ship Golconda foundered in that
spot with 300 people on board. A hurricane has been split or
divided by a mountain into two separate storms, each of which
continued its new course, and the gyrations were made with increased
violence. This occurred in the gale of the 25th of December,
1821, in the Mediterranean, when the Spanish mountains
and the maritime Alps became new centres of motion.
By the friction of the earth the axis of the storm bends a little
forward, and the whirling motion begins in the higher regions of
the atmosphere before it is felt on the earth: this causes a continual
intermixture of the lower and warmer strata of air with
those that are higher and colder, producing torrents of rain, and
sometimes violent electric explosions.
The rotation as well as the course of the storm is in a different
direction in the two hemispheres, though always alike in the
same. In the northern hemisphere the gyration is contrary to
the movement of the hands of a watch, that is to say, the wind
revolves from east, through the north, to west, south, and east
again; while in the southern hemisphere the rotation about the
axis of the storm is in the contrary direction. Hurricanes happen
south of the equator between December and April; in the West
Indies between June and October. Rotatory storms frequently
occur in the Indian Ocean, and the typhoons of the China seas
are real hurricanes of great violence. Both conform to the laws
of such winds in the northern hemisphere. The Atlantic storms
probably reach Spain, Portugal, and the coast of Ireland. Two
circular storms have passed over Great Britain, and small ones
often occur between the Chops of the Channel and Madeira.
The revolving motion accounts for the sudden and violent
changes observed during hurricanes. In consequence of the rotation
of the air, the wind blows in opposite directions on each side
of the axis of the storm, and the violence of the blast increases
from the circumference towards the centre of gyration, but in the
centre itself the air is in repose: hence, when the body of the
storm passes over a place, the wind begins to blow moderately,
269and increases to a hurricane as the centre of the whirlwind
approaches; then in a moment a dead and awful calm succeeds,
suddenly followed by a renewal of the storm in all its violence,
but now blowing in a direction diametrically opposite to what it
had before: this happened in the island of St. Thomas on the
2d of August, 1837, where the hurricane increased in violence
till half-past seven in the morning, when perfect stillness took
place for 40 minutes, after which the storm recommenced in a
contrary direction. The breadth of a hurricane is greatly augmented
when its path changes its direction in crossing the tropic.
In the Atlantic, the vortex of one of these tempests has covered
an area from 600 to 1000 miles in diameter. The breadth of the
lull in the centre varies from 5 to 30 miles: the height is from 1
to 5 miles at most; so that a person might see the strife of the
elements from the top of a mountain, such as Teneriffe or Mowna
Roa, in a perfect calm, for the upper clouds are frequently seen
to be at rest during the hideous turmoil in the lower regions.
The sudden fall of the mercury in the barometer in latitudes
habitually visited by hurricanes is a certain indication of a coming
tempest. In consequence of the centrifugal force of these rotatory
storms, the air becomes rarified, and, as the atmosphere is disturbed
to some distance beyond the actual circle of gyration or the
limits of the storm, the barometer often sinks some hours before
its arrival: it continues sinking the first half of the hurricane, and
again rises during the passage of the latter half, though it does
not attain its greatest height till the storm is over. The diminution
of atmospheric pressure is greater, and extends over a wider
area, in the temperate zones than in the torrid, on account of the
sudden expansion of the circle of rotation where the gale crosses
the tropic.
As the fall of the barometer gives warning of the approach of a
hurricane, so the laws of the storm’s motion afford to the seaman
knowledge to avoid it. In the northern temperate zone, if the
gale begins from the S.E. and veers by S. to W., the ship should
steer to the S.E.; but if the gale begins from the N.E. and changes
through N. to N.W., the vessel ought to go to the N.W. In the
northern part of the torrid zone, if the storm begin from the N.E.
and veer through E. to S.E., the ship should steer to the N.E.;
but if it begin from the N.W. and veer by W. to S.W., the ship
should steer to the S.W., because she is on the south-western side
of the storm. Since the laws of storms are reversed in the southern
hemisphere, the rules for steering vessels are necessarily reversed
also.[138]
270A heavy swell or storm-wave is peculiarly characteristic of these
tempests. In the centre of the hurricane the pressure of the atmosphere
is so much diminished by rotation, that the mercury in
the barometer falls from one to two, and even two and a-half inches.
On that account, the pressure of the ocean beyond the range of the
wind raises the water in the centre of the vortex about two feet
above its usual level, and proportionally to the degree of diminished
pressure over the whole area of the storm. This mass of water,
or storm-wave, is driven bodily along with, or before, the tempest,
and rolls in upon the land like a huge wall of water. It is similar
to the earthquake wave, and is by no means the heaping up of
the water after a long gale. Ships have been swept by it out of
docks and rivers, and it has sometimes carried vessels over reefs
and banks so as to land them high and dry; this happened to two
ships on the coast of the Eastern Andaman islands, in 1844. Coringa,
on the Coromandel coast, is particularly subject to inundations
from that cause. In 1789, the town and 20,000 inhabitants
were destroyed by a succession of these great waves during a hurricane,
and as many perished there in 1839.
Besides storm-waves, storm-currents are raised, which revolve
with the rotation of the wind, and are of the greatest force near
the centre of the vortex.
The rise of the sea by the pressure of the surrounding ocean,
271and the irresistible fury of the wind, makes a tremendous commotion
in the centre of the storm, where the sea rises, not in waves,
but in pyramidal masses: the noise during its passage resembles
the deafening roar of the most tremendous thunder; and in the
typhoons in the China seas it is like numberless voices raised to
the utmost pitch of screaming. In general, there is very little
thunder and lightning; sometimes a vivid flash occurs during the
passage of the centre, or at the beginning of the storm; yet in
Barbadoes the whole atmosphere has been enveloped in an electric
cloud.
A thick lurid appearance, with dense masses of cloud in the
horizon, ominous and terrible, are the harbingers of the coming
tempest. The sun and clouds frequently assume a fiery redness,
the whole sky takes a wild and threatening aspect, and the wind
rises and falls with a moaning sound, like that heard in old houses
on a winter’s night: it is akin to the “calling of the sea,” a melancholy
noise which, in a dead calm, presages a storm on some parts
of the English coast.
Those intensely violent gales, of short duration, called arched
squalls, because they rise from an arch of clouds on the horizon,
are not rotatory; they occur in the Straits of Malacca, attended
by fierce thunder and lightning and a lurid phosphorescent gleam.
The north-western gales in the Bay of Bengal, the tornadoes on
the African coast, and the pampéros of the Rio de la Plata, are of
the same nature. On an average, a strong gale moves at the rate
of 40 miles an hour, a storm at about 56, and hurricanes at 90.
Whirlwinds are frequent in tropical countries, especially in deserts;
sometimes several are seen at one time in the Arabian
deserts, of all sizes, from a few feet to some hundred yards in diameter.
They occur in all kinds of weather, by night as well as
by day, and come without the smallest notice, rooting up trees,
overwhelming caravans, and throwing down houses; and as they
produce water-spouts when they reach the sea, they dismantle and
even sink ships. The water-spouts so frequently seen on the
ocean originate in adjacent strata of air of different temperatures,
running in opposite directions in the upper regions of the atmosphere.
They condense the vapour, and give it a whirling motion,
so that it descends tapering to the sea below, and causes the surface
of the water to ascend in a pointed spiral till it joins that from
above, and then it looks like two inverted cones, being thinner in
the middle than either above or below. When a water-spout has
a progressive motion, the upper and under part must move in the
same direction, and with equal velocity, otherwise it breaks, which
frequently happens.
Evaporation—Distribution of Vapour—Dew—Hoar-Frost—Fog—Region
of Clouds—Forms of Clouds—Rain—Distribution of Rain—Quantity—Number
of rainy Days in different Latitudes—Rainless Districts—Snow
Crystals—Line of perpetual Snow—Limit of Winter Snow on
the Plains—Sleet—Hail—Minuteness of the ultimate Particles of Matter—Their
Densities and Forms—Their Action on Light—Colour of
Bodies—Colour of the Atmosphere—Its Absorption and Reflection of
Light—Mirage—Fog Images—Coronæ and Halos—The Rainbow—Iris
in Dewdrops—The Polarization of the Atmosphere—Atmospheric
Electricity—Its Variations—Electricity of Fogs and Rain—Inductive
Action of the Earth—Lightning—Thunder—Distribution of Thunder-Storms—Back
Stroke—St. Elmo’s Fire—Phosphorescence—Aurora—Magnetism—Terrestrial
Magnetism—The Dip—Magnetic Poles
and Equator—Magnetic Intensity—Dynamic Equator—Declination—Magnetic
Meridian—Lines of equal Variation—Horary Variations—Line
of Alternate Horary Phenomena—Magnetic Storms—Coincidence
of the Lines of equal Magnetic Intensity with Mountain Chains—Diamagnetism.
Moisture is evaporated in an invisible form from every part of the
land and water, and at all temperatures, even from snow. Mr.
Darwin mentions that the snow once entirely disappeared from
the volcano of Aconcagua, in Chile, which is 23,300 feet high,
from evaporation under a cloudless sky and an excessively dry
air. The vapour rises and mixes with the atmosphere; and as
its pressure and density diminish with the height above the surface
of the earth, in consequence of gravitation, there is absolutely
less moisture in the higher than in the lower regions of the air.
Seven-tenths of the atmosphere rests on the ocean; therefore the
sea has the greatest influence in modifying climates and supplying
the air with moisture. The evaporation is greatest between
the tropics, from the excess of heat and the preponderance of the
ocean, and its average quantity decreases from thence to the poles.
Over the open sea, in all latitudes, the air is saturated with moisture;
and in that over the coasts the quantity is very great, but it
diminishes from the coasts to the interior of the continents. In
the interior of the United States of North America, in the deserts
of Asia, and in the interior of New Holland, the air is continually
dry. There is scarcely any evaporation in the deserts of Africa,
273and the extreme heat, increased by the reverberation of the sand,
opposes aqueous precipitations, so this land is doomed to perpetual
sterility. The air over the steppes of Siberia is likewise nearly
deprived of moisture. The greatest degree of dryness on record
is that observed by M. Erman between the valleys of the Irtish
and Obi, after a continued south-west wind and a temperature of
74° 7ʹ of Fahrenheit.
Throughout all the countries in the northern hemisphere where
observations have been made on the variations of atmospheric
moisture, it appears that the air contains less vapour in January
than in any other month of the year, yet at that time there is the
greatest dampness; while in July the air is driest, and yet, on
account of the heat, evaporation is the greatest: the reason is,
that the heat in July dissolves the moisture and increases its elasticity
or tension so much that it becomes insensible, whereas the
cold of winter condenses it and renders it apparent.
The quantity of atmospheric moisture varies also with the hours
of the day and night. In early morning the evaporation accumulates
near the surface of the ground from the resistance of the air
above it, but as the sun rises above the horizon the warm air descends
and carries the vapour with it; so that the quantity near
the ground is diminished till evening, when, on account of the lowness
of the temperature, the ascending currents cease, and the air
becomes loaded with vapour, and deposits its excess in the shape
of dew or hoar-frost. For in the night the earth radiates part of
the heat it received during the day through the atmosphere into
space, and the temperature of the bodies on its surface sinks below
that of the air; and by abstracting part of the heat which holds
the humidity of the air in solution a deposition takes place. If the
radiation be great, the dew is frozen and becomes hoar-frost, which
is the ice of dew. Cloudy weather is unfavourable for the formation
of dew by preventing the free radiation of heat, and actual
contact is necessary for its formation, as it is never suspended in
the air like fog. Dew falls in calm serene nights, but not on all
substances indifferently; it wets them in proportion to their power
of radiation, leaving those dry that radiate feebly or not at all.
Dew is most abundant on coasts; in the interior of continents there
is very little, except near lakes or rivers. When dew is congealed
into hoar-frost it forms beautiful crystals, and the cold which produces
it is very hurtful to vegetation, but a slight covering preserves
plants from its effects.
When the atmosphere is so saturated with the vapour of water
that it is precipitated in the air itself, a fog is the result, which
consists of small globular particles of water. When dew is formed
the earth is colder than the air in contact with it; but the case
is exactly the contrary when fogs take place, the moist soil being
274warmer than the air. In countries where the soil is moist and
warm, and the air damp and cold, thick and frequent fogs arise,
as in England, where the coasts are washed by a sea of elevated
temperature, and the excess of the heat of the Gulf-stream above
the cold moist air is the cause of the perpetual fogs in Newfoundland.
Superior to all these phenomena, and at a considerable height
above the earth, the air is very dry, because, under ordinary circumstances,
the vapour ascends in a highly elastic and invisible
state till it reaches a stratum of air of lower temperature, and
then it is condensed into clouds. The region of clouds is a zone
at a height varying from one to four miles above the surface of
the earth, which is saturated with moisture. From friction and
other causes the currents of air in the lower parts of that zone
run horizontally on each other; and as they generally differ in
moisture, temperature, and velocity, the colder condense the
invisible vapour in the warmer, and make it apparent in the form
of a cloud, which differs in no respect from a fog, except that one
floats high in the air, while the other rests on the ground.
At moderate heights clouds consist of vapour, but at great
elevations, where the cold is severe, they are an assemblage of
minute crystals of ice. They assume three primary characters, from
whence four subordinate forms are derived. The cirrus, or cat’s-tail
of sailors, is the highest; it sometimes resembles a white
brush, at other times it consists of horizontal bands of slender
silvery filaments. To these all Kämtz’s measurements assign a
height of 19,500 feet, which is confirmed by their appearance
being the same when seen from the tops of mountains or from
the plains; consequently, they must consist of minute particles of
ice or flakes of snow floating in the higher regions of the zone of
clouds. The cirri for the most part arrange themselves in parallel
bands which converge to opposite points in the horizon by the
effects of perspective, and as they travel in their longitudinal
direction they appear to be stationary. In the middle and higher
latitudes of the northern hemisphere they tend from south-west to
north-east, and at the equator from south to north. It is supposed
that their parallel form arises from their being conductors
between two foci of electricity, but, whatever the cause of this
arrangement may be, it is very extensive. Among these clouds,
which occasionally appear like fleecy cotton or wool, halos and
parhelia are formed, which often precede a change of weather,
announcing rain in summer, in winter frost and snow.
Cumuli, or summer-clouds, are rounded forms resting on a
straight band in the horizon, and resemble mountains covered
with snow. They are formed by ascending currents drawing
the vapours into the higher regions of the atmosphere; sometimes
275they rise and cover the whole sky, and in the evening they
frequently become more numerous and of deeper tint, presaging
storm or rain.
The stratus is the third of the primary characters of clouds: it
is a horizontal band, which forms at sunset and vanishes at sunrise.
The subordinate varieties of clouds are combinations of
these three principal classes.[139] The winds, the great agents in all
atmospheric changes, carry the vapour to a distance, where it is
often condensed on the tops of mountains into clouds which seem
to be stationary, but which in reality are only maintained by a
constant condensation of fresh vapour, which is carried off, as soon
as formed, by the wind, and becomes invisible on entering
warmer air.
When two masses of air of different temperature meet, the
colder, by abstracting the heat which holds the moisture in solution,
causes the particles to coalesce and form drops of water,
which fall in the shape of rain by their gravitation. And when
two strata of different temperature moving rapidly in contrary
directions come into contact, a heavy fall of rain takes place;
and as the quantity of aqueous vapour is most abundant in
tropical regions, the drops are larger and the rain heavier than
elsewhere.
Since heat is the cause of evaporation, rain is very unequally
distributed, and with it decreases from the equator to the poles.
From the island of Otaheite [Tahiti], in the Pacific, to Uleaborg,
in Finland, the annual quantity of rain that falls decreases from
150 inches to 13. It is, however, more abundant in the New
World than in the Old; 115 inches fall annually in tropical
America, while in the Old World the annual fall is only 76
inches; so also in the temperate zone of the United States the
annual quantity is 37 inches, while in the Old Continent it is but
313⁄4
inches.
Between the tropics the rains follow the sun: when he is
north of the equator the rains prevail in the northern tropic; and
when he is south of that line, in the southern: hence, one half of
the year is extremely wet and the other half extremely dry; the
change taking place near the equinoxes. Nevertheless, in countries
276situate between the 5th and 10th parallels of latitude, north
and south, there are two rainy seasons, and two dry; one occurs
when the sun passes the zenith in his progress to the nearest
tropic, and the other at his return, but in the latter the rains are
less violent and of shorter duration. Although the quantity
of water which falls between the tropics in a month is greater
than that of a whole year in Europe, yet the number of rainy
days increases with the latitude, so that there are fewest where
the quantity is greatest. Neither does it fall continually during
the rainy season between the tropics, for the sky is generally
clear at sunrise, it becomes cloudy at ten in the morning, at noon
the rain begins to fall, and, after pouring for four or five hours,
the clouds vanish at sunset, and not a drop falls in the night, so
that a day of uninterrupted rain is very rare.
At sea, within the region of the trade-winds, it seldom rains, but
in the narrow zone between them known as the Variables, in both
the great oceans, it rains almost continually, attended by violent
thunder and lightning.
Throughout the whole region where the monsoons prevail, it
is not the sun, directly, but the winds, that regulate the periodical
rains. That region extends from the eastern coasts of Africa and
Madagascar across the Indian Ocean to the northern districts of
Australia, and from the tropic of Capricorn to the face of the
Himalaya, the interior of China, and even to Corea, inclusive.
In these countries the western coasts are watered during the
south-west monsoon, which prevails from April to October; and
the eastern coasts are watered during the north-east monsoon,
which blows from October to April. For example, the south-west
wind condenses the vapour on the summit of the Ghauts, and
violent rains fall daily on the coast of Malabar, while on the
Coromandel coast the sky is serene. Exactly the contrary takes
place during the north-east monsoon; it rains on the coast of
Coromandel, while there is fair weather on the Malabar coast,
and the table-land of the Deccan partakes of both. In the southern
hemisphere the rainy season corresponds with the south-west
monsoon, and the dry with the south-eastern.
Between the tropics it rains rarely during the night, and for
months together not a drop falls; while in the temperate zone it
often rains in the night, and rain falls at all seasons, though more
abundantly in some than in others. It seldom rains in summer
throughout the north of Africa, Madeira, the southern parts of
Spain and Portugal, Sicily, southern Italy, all Greece, and the
north-western part of Asia; but it falls copiously during the other
seasons, especially in winter; consequently, that extensive region
is called the province of winter rains.
The province of autumnal rains includes all Europe south of
277the Carpathians, western France, the delta of the Rhine, northern
and western Scandinavia, and the British isles; throughout these
countries more rain falls in autumn than in the other three
seasons.
The province of summer rains comprises the eastern parts of
France, the Netherlands (with the exception of the delta of the
Rhine), the north of Switzerland, all Germany north of the Alps,
the Carpathian mountains, Denmark, southern Scandinavia, all
central Europe, and the countries beyond the Ural Mountains to
the interior of Siberia, where showers are very rare in winter.
In some places it rains almost perpetually, as in the island of
Sitka, on the north-eastern coast of North America, where the
year has sometimes passed with only 40 days of fair weather.
In the southern hemisphere, in Chile and the south-western
part of America, winter is the rainy season, while on the eastern
side of the Cordilleras the rains occur in summer. In Tierra del
Fuego and the extreme point of the continent the two provinces
meet, the periodical precipitation disappears, and it snows and
rains throughout the year in torrents. At Cape Horn the quantity
of rain which fell in 41 days measured nearly 154 inches.
This excessive fall of rain occurs along the whole western shores
of Patagonia, from the Straits of Magellan to Cape Tres Montes—a
circumstance favoured by the high and rugged coasts, and the
incessant westerly winds, which carry the vapour exhaled from
the ocean to be precipitated here in the form of rain.
South Africa and Australia resemble each other in their rainy
seasons, which in both countries take place in the winter months.
The annual amount of rain at the equator is 95 inches, which
falls in 78 or 80 days, giving an average of 1·14 inch daily;
while at St. Petersburg the annual amount is 17 inches, which
falls in 169 days, the average being little more than the tenth of
an inch daily.
The quantity of rain decreases in ascending from the plains to
table-lands, especially if these be edged by mountains, because
they precipitate the vapour before it arrives at the high plains.
On the contrary, the quantity increases in ascending from plains
to the tops or slopes of rugged mountains, on account of partial
currents of air which condense the moisture into clouds.
The quantity of rain decreases on receding from the coasts
into the interior of continents, because more vapour rises from the
sea than from the land. The vapour from the Gulf-stream produces
a greater quantity of rain and fog in the southern counties
of England and Ireland than that which falls in the other parts
of the islands.
The number of rainy days depends upon the direction of the
wind. In Europe, if the wind always blew from the north-east,
278it would never rain, because it blows over a great extent of continent;
whereas it would never cease raining were the wind
always to blow from the south-west, because it would come
loaded with vapour from the Atlantic. Hence, the greatest quantity
of rain falls on the west coasts of Great Britain and Ireland,
the coast of Scandinavia, the eastern Alps, and the centre of
Portugal; in the two last it depends partly on the height and
serrated form of the mountains. In western Europe it rains
on twice as many days as in the eastern part; in Ireland there
are three times as many rainy days as in Italy or Spain. In
fact, on the western side of Ireland it rains on 208 days out of
the 365. In England, France, and the north of Germany, there
are from 152 to 155 rainy days in the year; the number decreases
towards the interior of the continent, so that in Siberia it only
rains on 60 days in the year.
There are enormous tracts of land on which rain never falls,
and others where it rains at long intervals and in small quantities.
The most extensive rainless district stretches from the borders of
Morocco eastward through the desert of Africa, the low coasts of
Arabia, Persia, and the desert province of Meekran, in Beloochistan,
occupying a space of 80 degrees of longitude and 17 of
latitude. The desert of Gobi, on the table-land of Tibet, and part
of Mongolia, form another rainless province in the great continent;
while, in the New World, the rainless districts are—the
table-land of Mexico, part of Guatemala and California, and the
western declivity of the Andes of Peru, towards the Pacific; in
all occupying a surface equal to 5,500,000 square miles. The
whole of the moisture is intercepted by the Andes of Peru; so
that rain only occurs on the coast once or twice in a century—to
the great terror of the inhabitants when it does fall. [The absence
of rain is here compensated for by copious dews and mists,
termed “llovisnas.”] South Africa, and Australia beyond the
tropics, suffer from droughts, which are periodical in Australia;
they recur in the countries of the eastern coasts in a period of 12
years, and continue 3 years. The Pampas of South America are
also subject to droughts, though they do not appear to be periodical,
nor do they continue more than a season.[140]
When the temperature of the air is near the freezing-point or
below it, snow falls instead of rain; but the colder the air the less
moisture does it contain, consequently the less snow falls, which
is the reason of the comparatively small quantity on the high
plains of the Himalaya and Andes. Snow sometimes assumes
279the form of grains; but is generally in regular crystals of great
beauty, varying in form according to the degree of cold. Captain
Scoresby, whose voyages in the Polar Seas afforded him
constant opportunities of studying them, of which he so diligently
availed himself, mentions five principal kinds of snow crystals,
each of which had many varieties, in all amounting to 96. M.
Kämtz, however, is of opinion that there are several hundred.
Snow never falls between the tropics except on the tops of very
high mountains. The mean elevation of the line of perpetual
snow above the level of the sea in these hot regions is about
15,207 feet, from whence it decreases on both sides, and at last
grazes the surface of the earth at the arctic and antarctic circles,
subject however to various flexures. In the Andes, near Quito,
the lowest level has an elevation of 15,795 feet, which is higher
than the top of Mont Blanc; from thence it varies very irregularly,
both to the north and south. In 18° of N. lat. it descends
to 14,772 feet on the mountains of Mexico, while on the south it
rises to 18,000 feet in some parts of the western Cordillera of the
Bolivian Andes, owing to the extensive radiation from the subjacent
plains and valleys. The line is at an altitude of 17,000 feet
on the western Cordillera, whence it sinks to 13,800 feet at Copiapo,
to 12,780 near Valparaiso; it is only 8300 in the southern
end of the Chilian Andes, and 3390 in the Straits of Magellan.
In lat. 31° N. the snow-line is at an elevation of 12,981 feet on
the southern side of the Himalaya, and at 16,620 feet on the
northern side, while Captain Gerard gives from 18,000 to 19,000
as its altitude on the mountains in the middle of the plain of Tartary.
On Mont Blanc the line is at the height of 8500 feet, so
that mountain is snow-clad for 7000 feet below its summit. In the
Pyrenees it is 8184 feet, and at the island of Mageroe it is at 2160
feet above the Polar Ocean.
In the southern hemisphere, snow never falls on the low lands
at the level of the sea north of the 48th parallel of latitude, on
account of the predominance of water, whereas in the northern
hemisphere it falls on the plains much nearer the equator, on
account of the excess of land, but its limit is a curved line, on
account of the alternations of land and water. In the western
part of the great continent, the southern limit of the fall of snow
on the low lands nearly coincides with the 30th parallel of north
latitude, so that it includes all Europe. In the American continent
it follows nearly the same line, extending through the southern
parts of the United States. In China, snow falls at the level
of the sea as far south as Canton; on the north-western coast of
America, on the contrary, it does not fall at that level till about
the 48th degree of N. lat.—these are the two extremes. Although
Europe lies within the region of snow, the quantity that
280falls is very different in different places, increasing greatly from
south to north. On an average, it snows only one day and a-half
at Rome in the year, while at Petersburg there are 171 snowy
days, but in that city the quantity of rain is to that of snow as 1000
to 384.
Sleet, which is formed of small particles of rounded hail, falls
in squally weather in spring and autumn. True hail, when large,
is pear-shaped, and consists of a nucleus of frozen snow coated
with ice, and sometimes with alternate layers of snow and ice.
Hailstones have often fallen as large as pigeons’ and even hens’
eggs. The masses and blocks of ice of great size, which have
not unfrequently fallen, appear to have been formed of hailstones
of large size frozen together. It appears to be formed in the high
cold regions of the atmosphere, by the sudden condensation of
vapour during the contention of opposing winds, and is intimately
connected with electricity, since its fall is generally accompanied
with thunder and lightning. Hail-showers are of short duration,
exceedingly partial, and extend over a country in long narrow
bands; one which took place on the 13th of July, 1788, began in
the morning in the south of France, and reached Holland in a
few hours, destroying a narrow line of country in its passage.
Local circumstances, no doubt, have a great influence on its
formation; it occurs more frequently in countries at a little distance
from mountains than in those close to them or farther off,
and at all hours, but most frequently at the hotter time of the day.
In the interior of Europe one half of the hail-storms take place in
summer. Hail is very rare on the tropical plains, and often altogether
unknown, though it frequently falls at heights of 1700 or
1800 feet above them. If the air is very cold throughout the
greater part of the stratum through which hail falls, it is probably
increased in size during its descent; and, on the contrary, large
drops of rain which precede a thunder-storm are supposed to be
hail melted in its passage through low warm air.
We know nothing of the size of the ultimate particles of matter,
except that they must be inconceivably small, since organized
beings possessing life and exercising all its functions have
been discovered so minute that a million of them would occupy
less space than a grain of sand.
The air is only visible when in mass; the smallest globule of
steam tells no more of its atoms than the ocean; the minutest
grain of sand magnified appears like the fragment of a rock—no
mechanical division can arrive at the indivisible. Although the
ultimate atoms are beyond the power of vision, chemical compounds
281show that the divisibility of matter has a limit, and that
the particles have different densities; moreover, the cleavage of
crystalline substances gives reason to believe that they have different
forms.[141] Thus, the reasoning power of man has come to
the aid of his imperfect sense of vision, so that what were before
imaginary things are now real beings with definite weights, and
uniting by fixed laws. Though nothing had been known of their
size, their effects were evident in the perceptions of sweet and
sour, salt and bitter, and in the endless varieties of aroma in the
food we eat and the liquors we drink. Moreover, their different
densities are evident, as they arise by their buoyancy in the perfume
of the rose, or sink by their weight in the heavy odour of
mignonette. Every substance on earth is merely a temporary
compound of the ultimate atoms, sooner or later to be resolved
into its pristine elements, which are again to be combined in other
forms, and according to other laws; so that literally there is
nothing new under the sun, for there is no evidence of new matter
being added to the earth, nor of that which exists being annihilated.
Fire, which seems utterly to destroy, only resolves bodies
into their elementary parts, to become what they were before, the
support of animal or vegetable life, or to form new mineral compounds.
It is to the action of these particles on the light of the
sun that nature owes all its colours.
When a sunbeam passes through a glass prism[142] an oblong
image of the sun is formed, consisting of colours in the following
order—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Sir
John Herschel discovered lavender rays beyond the violet, and
dark red rays exterior to the red, which are not so easily brought
into evidence as the rest.
Even the most transparent substances absorb light; air, water,
the purest crystal, stop some of the rays as they pass through
them. A portion of the light is also reflected from the surface of
all bodies; were it otherwise, they would be invisible. We
should be unconscious of the presence and form of material substances
beyond our reach except by the reflected rays,—
“The mist of light from whence they take their form
Hides what they are.”
As the same light does not come to all eyes, each person sees
his own rainbow, the same flower by different rays. White substances
282reflect all the light, black substances absorb all but that
which renders them visible, while coloured bodies decompose the
light, absorb some of the colours, and reflect or transmit the rest.
Thus, a violet absorbs all but the violet rays, which it reflects; a
red flower only reflects the red and absorbs the rest; a yellow
substance absorbs all but the yellow. In the same manner transparent
substances, whether solid or fluid, absorb some colours and
transmit others: thus, an emerald absorbs all but the green, a
ruby all but the red; whereas a diamond does not decompose the
light, but transmits every ray alike. Very few, however, of the
colours, whether transmitted or reflected, are pure, but the substance
takes its hue from the colour that predominates.
The atmosphere absorbs all the colours of the sun’s light except
the blue, which is its true colour. In countries where the air is
pure, the azure of the sky is deep; it is still more so at great
elevations, where the density of the air is less; and its colour is
most beautiful as it gradually softens the outlines of the mountains
into extreme distance, or blends the sea with the sky. The
air reflects and scatters part of the white solar beams, whence the
brightness and cheerfulness of day; that property, together with
the refractive power of the aqueous vapour, gives the roseate hue
to the early morning, and the gold and scarlet tints to the closing
day. Were it not for the reflective power of the air, the sun and
moon would be like sharply-defined balls of fire in the profoundly
black vault of the heavens, and dark night would instantly follow
sunset. When the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon, the air,
at the height of 30 miles, is still dense enough to reflect his rays,
and divide the day from the night by the solar shades of twilight.
A considerable portion of the sun’s light is absorbed by the atmosphere:
the loss increases with the density and obliquity of
incidence and the density of the air. It is diminished 1300 times
by the thickness of the air in the horizon, which enables us to look
at the sun when setting without being dazzled.
Mirage, or the delusive appearance of water, so frequent in
deserts, is owing to the reflection of light between two strata of air
of different densities, occasioned by the radiation of heat from the
arid soil. It is very common on the extensive plains in Asia and
Africa, and especially in Upper Egypt; villages on small eminences
above the plain appear as if they were built on islands in
the middle of a lake when the dry sandy ground is heated by the
mid-day sun. Sometimes objects appear double, and occasionally
several images appear above one another, some direct and some
inverted; this is particularly the case in high latitudes, where the
Icy Sea cools the stratum of air resting on it.[143]
283In the polar regions, or on the tops of mountains, when the sun
is in the horizon the shadow of a person is sometimes thrown on
an opposite cloud or mist, the head being surrounded by concentric
coloured rings or circles, the number varying from one to five;
Captain Scoresby saw four of these rings, on one occasion, round
the shadow of his head, as he stood between the sun and a thick
low fog: the first ring consisted of concentric bands of white, yellow,
red, and purple; the second consisted of concentric bands of
blue, green, yellow, red, and purple; the third of green, white, yellowish
white, red, and purple; and in the fourth were greenish
white, deeper on the edges. These appearances, called glories,
or fog-images, and the coronæ or small concentric coloured circles
which surround the sun or moon when partly obscured by thin
white clouds, are owing to the refraction of the light in the aqueous
particles of the cloud or fog. The colours in the concentric
bands of the coronæ, however, differ from the foregoing; that
nearest the sun is of deep blue, white, and red; the circle exterior
to that consists of purple, blue, green, pale yellow, and red; but
the series is very rarely complete.
Halos, which surround the sun in large circles, or a complicated
combination of circles, are, on the contrary, supposed to be produced
by the light falling on minute crystals of ice suspended in
the atmosphere; they are particularly brilliant and frequent in high
latitudes. It is scarcely possible to give an idea of these beautiful
and singular objects. Sometimes a large coloured circle surrounds
the sun or passes through his centre, which is occasionally touched
or cut by segments of others. One seen at St. Petersburg on the
29th of June, 1790, consisted of four coloured circles of different
sizes intersecting each other, which were either cut or touched by
segments of eight others, and at the points of intersection mock
suns or parhelia appeared. The sky is very hazy on these occasions.
Mock suns, without circles and halos, are by no means
uncommon round both sun and moon, but seldom of that complicated
kind. They are situate between the observer and the sun,
whereas the rainbow is always in that part of the sky opposite the
sun, because it is produced by refraction and reflection of the sun’s
rays in the drops of rain; and when the light is intense and the
rain abundant, there are two concentric bows, the prismatic colour
of the innermost of which are the most vivid, the violet being
within and the red outside: sometimes the inner edge exhibits a
repetition of colours in fine fringes, in which red and green predominate.
The colours are reversed in the exterior bow, the violet
being outside and the red on the inner edge. Besides these two
principal and most common bows, supernumerary rainbows occasionally
appear within the interior bow, generally green and violet,
though there are sometimes more or less perfect repetitions of all
284the colours. In squally weather a rainbow is sometimes seen on
a blue sky when rain is falling, but it is generally on clouds; it is
constantly seen when the sun shines on the fine drops of fountains
and cascades. As the light of the moon is feeble, lunar rainbows
are rare, and, for the most part, colourless. In the early morning,
when the sun throws his slanting beams across the fields, a miniature
bow, with all its vivid colours, may be seen in each dewdrop
as it hangs on the points of the bending grass.
Light is said to be polarized when, after having been once refracted
or reflected, it is rendered incapable of being again refracted
or reflected at certain angles. For example, if a crystal of brown
tourmaline be cut longitudinally into thin slices, and polished, the
light of a candle may be seen through a slice as if it were glass.
But if one of these slices be held perpendicularly between the eye
and the candle, and a second slice be turned round between the
eye and the other plate of tourmaline, the image of the candle will
vanish and come into view at every quarter-revolution of the plate,
varying through all degrees of brightness down to total or almost
total evanescence, and then increasing again by the same degrees
as it had decreased. Thus, the light, in passing through the first
plate of tourmaline, is said to be polarized because it has been rendered
incapable of passing through the second piece of tourmaline
in certain positions.
A ray of light acquires the same property if it be reflected from
a pane of plate-glass at an angle of 57 degrees; it is by that rendered
incapable of being reflected by another pane of plate-glass
in certain definite positions, for the image of the light vanishes
and reappears alternately at every quarter-revolution of the second
pane.
If a thin plate of mica be interposed when the image of the candle
has vanished, the darkness will instantly disappear, and a succession
of the most gorgeous colours will come into view, varying
with every inclination of the mica, from the richest reds to the most
vivid greens, blues, and purples. The most splendid colours arranged
in symmetrical forms are exhibited by thin plates of an
infinite variety of substances besides mica. They display some
of the most beautiful objects in nature, and show differences otherwise
inappreciable in the arrangement of the molecules of crystalline
bodies.[144]
M. Arago discovered that the light of the sun is polarized by
the reflection of the atmosphere, but not equally so on every part
of the sky; the polarization is least in the vicinity of the sun, and
greatest at 90° from him, for there his light is reflected at an angle
285of 45°, which is the polarizing angle for air.[145] There are three
points in the sky where the light is not polarized: one of these
neutral points, discovered by M. Arago, is 18° 30ʹ above the point
diametrically opposite to the sun when he is in the horizon; the
second neutral point, discovered by M. Babinet, is 18° 30ʹ above
the sun when he is rising or setting; and the third, discovered by
Sir David Brewster, is 15° or 16° below the sun. These points
vary with the height of the sun, and the two latter rise and coincide
in his centre when he is in the zenith.[146]
Now, the portion of polarized light sent to the eye from any part
of a clear sky is in a plane passing through that point, the eye of
the observer, and the centre of the sun. If that point be the north
pole of the heavens, it is clear that, as the sun moves in his diurnal
course, the plane will move with him as an hour circle, and
may be used as a dial to determine the hour of the day. Professor
Wheatstone, by whom that beautiful application of the polarization
of the atmosphere has been made, has constructed a clock, of
very simple form, which shows the time of day with great accuracy,
and which has many advantages over a sun-dial.
Electricity pervades the earth, the air, and all substances, without
giving any visible sign of its existence when in a latent state,
but, when elicited, it exhibits forces capable of producing the most
sudden, violent, and irresistible effects. It is roused from its dormant
state by every disturbance in the chemical, mechanical, or
calorific condition of matter, and then experience shows that bodies
in one electric state repel, and in another they attract each other.
Probably their mutual attraction and repulsion arise from the redundancy
and defect of electricity; in the first case they are said
to be positively, in the latter negatively electric.[147] When they
have different kinds of electricity they attract each other, and,
when not opposed, the electricity coalesces with great rapidity,
producing the flash, explosion, and shock, and that with the more
violence the greater the tension or pressure of the electricity on
the surrounding air which resists its escape. Equilibrium is then
restored, and the electricity remains latent till called forth by a new
exciting cause. The electrical state of substances is easily disturbed,
286for, without contact, positive electricity tends to produce
negative electricity in a body near it, and vice versâ: the latter is
then said to be electric by induction.
The electricity of the atmosphere arises from evaporation, and
the chemical changes that are in perpetual progress on the globe;
no electricity, however, is developed by the evaporation of pure
water, but it arises abundantly from water containing matter susceptible
of chemical action during the evaporation; consequently,
the ocean is one of the greatest sources of atmospheric electricity;
combustion is another, and a large portion arises from vegetation.
The air, when pure, is almost always positively electric; but as
the chemical changes on the earth sometimes produce positive
and sometimes negative electricity, it is subject to great local
variations; a passing cloud or a puff of wind produces a change,
and a distant storm renders it negative for the time, but the earth
is always in a negative state. The quantity of electricity varies
with the hours of the day and the seasons; it is more powerful
in the day than in the night, in winter than in summer, and it
diminishes from the equator to the poles. It thunders daily in
many places, in others never, as on the east coast of Peru and in
the Arctic regions, except where there are violent volcanic explosions,
which always generate electricity, as in Iceland. Wherever
there are no trees or high objects to conduct it to the ground, the
quantity of positive electricity increases with the height above the
surface of the earth. Violent thunder-storms take place on the
tops of the Andes and Himalaya mountains, at heights of 26,650
feet above the plains.
Electricity becomes very strong when dew is deposited, and in
some cases it is strongly developed in fogs. Mr. Cross found it
so powerful on one occasion, that it was dangerous to approach
the apparatus for measuring its intensity. A continued succession
of explosions lasted nearly five hours, and the stream of fire
between the receiving-ball and the atmospheric conductor was too
vivid to look at. M. Peltier has found that the common fogs
arising from the mere condensation of the moisture in the air are
neutral, but that others, which are produced by exhalations from
the earth, are sometimes positive, sometimes negative; the subject,
however, requires further investigation.
Though in long-continued mild rains there are no traces of
electricity, yet, when rain or snow falls from the higher regions
of the atmosphere, it is more or less developed, sometimes positive,
sometimes negative, depending a good deal on the direction
of the wind. The atmosphere being positively electric, negative
rain is supposed to arise from the evaporation of the drops in
passing through dry air; the vapour carries off the positive electricity
and leaves the drop in a negative state—a circumstance
287which seems to be confirmed by the electricity of cascades, near
which there always is more or less negative electricity; the positive
flows into the earth, while the other remains united to the
drops of the cascade.
The inductive action of the earth upon the clouds, and of the
different strata of clouds on each other, produces great variations
in their electrical state. If rain falls from the lowermost of two
strata of positively electrical clouds, the inductive action of the
earth renders the under surface positive and the upper negative,
and the rain is positive. By-and-bye the under surface of the
cloud and the earth become neutral; and after a time the lower
cloud becomes charged with negative electricity by the induction
of the upper strata, and the rain is then negatively electric.
Clouds are very differently charged; grey clouds have negative—red,
white, and orange clouds positive electricity; and when
clouds differently charged meet, an explosion takes place. When
the sky is clear and the air calm and warm, a succession of small
white fleecy clouds rising rapidly above the horizon, and flying
swiftly in the very high regions of the atmosphere, is a certain
presage of a thunder-storm.
Electricity of each kind is probably elicited by the friction of
currents of air, or masses of clouds moving rapidly in different
directions, as in thunder-storms, when small white clouds are seen
flying rapidly over the black mass; yet the quick and irregular
motion of clouds in storms is probably owing to the strong electrical
attraction and repulsion among themselves, though both may
be concerned in these hostile encounters. When two clouds differently
charged by the sudden condensation of vapour, and driven
by contending winds, approach within a certain distance, the
thickness of the coating of electricity increases on the two adjacent
sides, and, when the accumulation becomes so great as to overcome
the coercive pressure of the atmosphere between them, a
discharge takes place which occasions a flash of lightning. The
actual quantity of electricity in any part of a cloud is very small.
The intensity of the flash depends upon the extent of surface
occupied by the electricity, which acquires its intensity by its
instantaneous condensation.
The air, being a non-conductor, does not convey the electricity
from the clouds to the earth, but it acquires from them an opposite
electricity, and when the tension is very great the force of the
electricity becomes irresistible, and an interchange takes place
between the clouds and the earth, but the motion of the lightning
is so rapid that it is difficult to ascertain when it goes from the
clouds to the earth, or from the earth to the clouds, though there
is no doubt it does both: explosions have burst from the ground,
and people have been killed by them.
288When the air is highly rarified by heat, its coercive power is
diminished, so that the electricity escapes from the clouds in the
form of diffuse lambent sheets of lightning without thunder or
rain, frequently seen in warm summer evenings, sometimes even
near the zenith, and quite different from that sheet-lightning at the
horizon which is in general only the reflection of the forked
lightning of a distant storm. When the quantity of electricity
developed by the sudden condensation of vapour is very great,
the lightning is always forked; its zigzag form is occasioned by
the unequal conducting power of the air, by which it is sometimes
divided into several branches. The author once saw a flash
divide into four parallel streams—a very uncommon occurrence.
Occasionally, in very great storms, the lightning sends off lateral
branches. It often appears as a globe of fire moving so slowly
that it is visible for several seconds, while the flashes of forked
lightning do not last the millionth part of a second. Professor
Wheatstone, who has measured the velocity of lightning by experiments
of great ingenuity, found that it far surpasses the
velocity of light, and would encircle the globe in the twinkling of
an eye. This inconceivable velocity is beautifully exemplified
in the electric telegraph, by which the most violent and terrific
agent in nature is rendered obedient to man, and conveys his
thoughts as rapidly as they are formed. The colour of lightning
is generally a dazzling white or blue, though in highly rarified air
it is rose-colour or violet.
The sudden compression of the air during the passage of lightning
must convert a great quantity of latent into sensible heat, for
heat in a latent or insensible state exists in all bodies independent
of their temperature. Heat is absorbed and becomes insensible
to the thermometer when solids become liquids, and when liquids
are changed to vapour; and it again becomes sensible when
vapour is condensed, and when liquids become solid. When
water freezes, all the heat that kept it liquid is given out; and
when ice melts, it absorbs heat from everything near it. The air
is full of heat in a latent state, whatever its temperature may be,
but it can be squeezed out by sudden compression so as to kindle
tinder. Every aërial wave, every sound, every word spoken
must set free an infinitesimal quantity of heat; so everything that
tends to rarify the air must cause it to absorb a proportional
quantity.
The rolling noise of thunder is probably owing to the difference
between the velocity of lightning and that of sound. Thunder
may be regarded as originating in every point of a flash of lightning
at the same instant; and as sound takes a considerable time
to travel, it will arrive first from the nearest point; and if the
flash run in a direct line from a person, the noise will come later
289and later from the remote points of its path, in a continued roar.
Should the direction of the flash be inclined, the succession of
sounds will be more rapid and intense; and if the lightning describe
a circular course above a person, the sound will arrive at
the same instant from every point with a stunning crash.[148]
In passing to the earth, lightning follows the best conductors—metals
by preference, then damp substances—which is the reason
why men and animals are so often struck. If it meets with a bad
conductor, it shivers it to pieces and scatters the fragments to a
considerable distance. A powerful flash scatters gunpowder,
while a feeble one ignites it; the hardest trees are split and torn
to shreds; when a tree is struck, the heat of the flash converts
the sap into steam, the expansive force of which shivers the tree.
The surface of rocks is vitrified by it; and when it falls on a
sandy soil, its course underground is marked by vitrified tubes
many feet long.
Thunder-storms occur daily within the region of the Variables,
which is also the region of storms: in countries under the influence
of the monsoons they are tremendous at the changes of
these periodical winds; where the trade-winds prevail they are
hardly known, though electrical discharges are frequent at their
limits. In Greece and Italy there are about 40 thunder-storms
annually, which occur in spring and autumn, while north of the
Alps they chiefly take place in summer. There are about 24 in
the year on the coasts of the Atlantic and in Germany, but they
are much more frequent among mountains than on plains. In the
interior of the old continent they rarely occur in winter, and
three-fourths of the number happen in summer. They are of
such rare occurrence in high latitudes, that in a residence of 6
years in Greenland Sir Charles Geiseke only heard it thunder
once.
Some storms arise from the contention of opposite currents in
the air; others are occasioned by currents of warm air ascending
from the earth, which are suddenly condensed as they enter the
upper regions of the atmosphere, and, as this sometimes happens
at the hottest hour of the day, these storms are periodical for
many successive days, recurring always at the same hour.
Sometimes they extend over a great expanse of country, and the
lightning darts from all points of the compass. A person may be
killed at the distance of 20 miles from the explosion by the back
stroke. If the two extremities of a highly-charged cloud dip towards
290the earth, they will repel the electricity of the earth, if it be of
the same kind with their own, and will attract the other kind;
and if a discharge should take place at one end of the cloud, the
equilibrium will instantly be restored by a flash from that part of
the earth which is under the other, sufficiently strong to destroy
life, and it is the most dangerous, though never so strong as the
direct stroke.
When thunder-clouds are very low, there is frequently no lightning;
the electricity produced by induction is so powerful that it
escapes from pointed objects in the shape of flame without heat,
known as St. Elmo’s fire. These flames are not unfrequently
seen at the topmasts of ships and the extremities of their yard-arms.
Bodies between the clouds and earth may be electrized
by induction, and their electricity will be seen in the form of
flame, as showers of phosphorescent snow.
Phosphorescence is ascribed to electricity; various substances
emit light when decaying, as fish and wood. Although many
marine animals are phosphorescent, yet the luminous appearance
which the sea often assumes is not always to be attributed
to them, but probably to the decaying animal matter it contains.
The aurora is decidedly an electrical phenomenon. It generally
appears soon after sunset in the form of a luminous arch stretching
more or less from east to west, the most elevated point being
always in the magnetic meridian of the place of the observer:
across the arch the coruscations are rapid, vivid, and of various
colours, darting like lightning to the zenith, and at the same time
flitting laterally with incessant velocity. The brightness of the
rays varies in an instant: they sometimes surpass the splendour
of stars of the first magnitude, and often exhibit colours of admirable
transparency, blood-red at the base, emerald-green in the
middle, and clear yellow towards their extremity. Sometimes
one, and sometimes a quick succession of luminous currents run
from one end of the arch or bow to the other, so that the rays
rapidly increase in brightness; but it is impossible to say whether
the coruscations themselves are actually affected by a horizontal
motion of translation, or whether the more vivid light is conveyed
from ray to ray. The rays occasionally dart far past the
zenith, vanish, suddenly reappear, and, being joined by others
from the arch, form a magnificent corona or immense dome of
light. The segment of the sky below the arch is quite black, as
if formed by dense clouds; yet M. Struve is said to have seen
stars in it, consequently the blackness must be from contrast.
The lower edge of the arch is evenly defined; its upper margin
is fringed by the coruscations, their convergence towards the
north, and that of the arch itself, being probably an effect of perspective.
291Either the aurora must be high above the earth, or its coruscations
must be very extensive, since the same display is visible
at places wide asunder. It has frequently been seen in North
America and all over the north of Europe at the same time, sometimes
even as far south as Italy, yet Sir Edward Parry certainly
saw a ray dart from it to the ground near him. M. Struve,
Admiral Wrangel, and others who have had many opportunities
of seeing the aurora in high latitudes, assign a very moderate
elevation to it. The arch probably passes through the magnetic
pole; hence, in the north of Greenland it lies south of the observer,
and Sir Edward Parry saw it to the south in Melville Island,
which is in 70° N. lat.; consequently it must appear in the
zenith in some places. Dr. Faraday conjectures that the electric
equilibrium of the earth is restored by the aurora conveying the
electricity from the poles to the equator, for it appears in the high
southern latitudes, as well as in the northern; and the Rev. G.
Fisher has lately suggested, that, as the principal display of the
aurora takes place at or near the margin of the polar ice, the
electricity may be conveyed by the conducting power of the frozen
particles which abound in the air in these latitudes, and which,
being rendered fitfully luminous by the passage of the electricity,
produce the arch and the ever-varying flashes of the aurora.
The aurora has a powerful influence on the magnetic needle,
even in places where the display is not seen. Its vibrations seem
to be slower or quicker according as the auroral light is quiescent
or in motion, and the disturbances of the magnetic needle and the
auroral displays were simultaneous at Toronto, in Canada, on 13
days out of 24, the remaining days having been clouded; and
contemporaneous observations show that on these 13 days there
were also magnetic disturbances at Prague and at Van Diemen’s
Land, so that the “occurrence of aurora at Toronto on these
occasions may be viewed as a local manifestation connected with
magnetic effects, which, whatever may have been their origin,
probably prevailed on the same day over the whole surface of the
globe.”[149]
Magnetism is one of those unseen imponderable existences
which, like electricity and heat, are known only by their effects.
It is certainly identical with electricity, for, although it never
comes naturally into evidence, magnets can be made to exhibit all
the phenomena of electrical machines.
Terrestrial magnetism, which pervades the whole earth, is
292extremely complicated; it varies both with regard to space and
time, and, probably, depends upon the heat of the sun, upon his
motion in the ecliptic, which produces changes of temperature, on
galvanic currents circulating through the surface of the globe,
and possibly on the earth’s rotatory motion.
The distribution of terrestrial magnetism is determined by the
declination-needle, or mariner’s compass, and the dipping-needle;
they consist of magnetized needles or bars of steel, so suspended
that the declination-needle revolves in a horizontal direction, and
the dipping-needle moves in a plane perpendicular to the horizon.
The north end of the declination-needle or magnet points to the
north, and the south end to the south, and it only remains at rest
when in that position. The direction of the needle is the magnetic
meridian of the place of observation.
The north end of the dipping-needle bends or dips below the
horizon in the northern hemisphere, and the south end bends or
dips beneath it in the southern hemisphere, and between the two
there is a line which encircles the whole earth, where the dipping-needle
remains horizontal. That line, which is the magnetic
equator or line of no dip, crosses the terrestrial equator in several
places, extending alternately on each side, but never deviating
more than 12 degrees from it. The deviation is greater in that
part of the Pacific where there are most islands, and it is greatest
both to the south and north in traversing the continents of Africa
and America; thus, it appears that the configuration of the land
and water has an influence on terrestrial magnetism. North and
south of the magnetic equator the needle dips more and more, till
at last it becomes perpendicular to the horizon in two points, or
rather linear spaces, known as the north and south magnetic
poles, which are quite distinct from the poles of the earth’s rotation.
One, whose position was determined by Captain Ross, is
in 70° N. lat. and 97° W. long., while that in the southern
hemisphere, determined by Sir James Ross, in the interior of
Victoria Island, is in 70° S. lat. and 162° E. long. Lines of
equal dip are such as may be drawn on a globe through all those
places where the dipping-needle makes the same angle with the
horizon. The angle of the dip is not always the same: according
to Colonel Sabine, who is the highest authority on this subject, it
has been decreasing in the northern hemisphere, for the last fifty
years, at the rate of three minutes annually: it is also subject to
variations of short periods, and it seems to be affected by shocks
of earthquakes, even when very distant.
The intensity of the magnetic force is as variable and even
more complicated than the other magnetic phenomena: it is
measured by the number of vibrations made by the declination-needle
in a given time. It is very different in different parts of
293the earth, but there are four points in which the intensity is
greater than anywhere else. Two of these are in the northern
and two in the southern hemisphere; they neither coincide with
the poles of the earth’s rotation nor with the magnetic poles, nor
are they all of equal intensity.
One of these foci of maximum magnetic intensity is situate
in North America, south-west from Hudson’s Bay; another is in
northern Siberia in 120° E. long. In the southern hemisphere,
one of the points of maximum magnetic intensity is in the South
Atlantic in 20° S. lat. and 324° E. long., and the other is situate
in 60° S. lat. and 131° 20ʹ E. long.[150] In consequence of the
unequal intensity of the force in these 4 foci, the decrease in
magnetic power from them towards the equator is extremely
irregular, so that the dynamic equator, which is a line supposed
to be drawn through all the points on the earth where the intensity
is the least, encircles the globe in a waving line, which neither
coincides with the geographical nor magnetic equator; it forms
the division between the magnetic intensities in the two hemispheres.
Lines drawn on a globe through all the points where
the magnetic intensity is the same are so complicated that it is
scarcely possible to convey an idea of them in words. They form
a series of ovals round each of the foci of maximum force, then a
figure of 8 in each hemisphere having a focus and its ovals in
each loop, then they open into tortuous lines which encompass
the globe, but which become less so as they approach the dynamic
equator. The complication is increased by the foci in the two
hemispheres being unsymmetrically placed with regard to one
another, as well as by the difference in their intensities.
The declination or horizontal needle only remains at rest when
in a magnetic meridian, that is, when it points to the north and
south magnetic poles. The magnetic meridians coincide with
the geographical meridians in some places, and in these the magnet
points to the true north and south, that is, to the poles of the
earth’s rotation. But if it be carried successively to different
longitudes, it will deviate sometimes to the east, sometimes to the
west of the true north. Imaginary lines on the globe, passing
through all places where the magnet points to the poles of the
earth’s rotation, are lines of no variation; and lines passing
294through all places where the magnet deviates by an equal quantity
from the geographical meridians are lines of equal variation;
they are also very irregular, and form two closed systems or
loops,—that is, they surround two points, one in northern Siberia
and another in the Pacific, nearly in the meridian of the Pitcairn
Islands and the Marquesas.[151]
The whole magnetic system is perpetually undergoing secular
and periodical changes, which are so irregular and complicated
that half a century is sufficient to alter the form and position of
all the lines that have been mentioned. The foci of magnetic
intensity, and the whole system represented by the magnetic
lines, are moving along the two hemispheres in opposite directions;
those in the northern hemisphere are going from west to
east, and those in the southern from east to west; and as the foci
of maximum intensity move with different velocities, the forms,
as well as the places, of the curves are slowly, yet continually,
changing. The weaker magnetic focus in the northern hemisphere
moved through 50 degrees of longitude in 250 years.
The declination is subject to periodic variations depending
upon the position of the moon, and to annual variations arising
from the motion of the sun in the ecliptic, as well as to horary
variations corresponding to changes of temperature from the
diurnal rotation of the earth.
Throughout the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere
the north end of the magnet has a mean motion from east to west
from eight in the morning till half-past one, it then moves to the
east till evening, after which it makes another excursion to the
west, and returns again to its original position at eight in the
morning. The extent of its variation is greater in the day than
in the night, in summer than in winter. It decreases from the
middle latitudes in Europe, where it is 13 or 14 minutes, to the
equator, where it is only 3 or 4; but at the equator the variations
are performed with extreme regularity. The horary motions of
the south end of the magnet in the southern hemisphere are accomplished
in an exactly opposite direction. Between these two
magnetic hemispheres there is a line passing through an infinity
of places, and very nearly coinciding with the line of minimum
magnetic intensity, where the horary phenomena of both hemispheres
are combined, each predominating alternately at opposite
295seasons. At St. Helena, which is one of the places in question,
and nearly on the line of minimum intensity, the horary motion
of the north end of the magnet corresponds in direction during
one half of the year with the movement in the northern hemisphere,
and in the other half of the year the direction at the same
hours corresponds with that in the southern hemisphere, the passage
from the one to the other being at the equinoxes, when the
diurnal variations at the usual hours partake more or less of the
characteristics of both on different days.[152]
It thus appears that there are six points on the earth peculiarly
remarkable for magnetic phenomena, all of which are distinct
from one another, and from the poles of the earth’s rotation—namely,
two magnetic poles where the dipping-needle makes an
angle of 90 degrees with the horizon. The magnetic equator
corresponds with these in every point of which the angle of the
dip is zero: it encircles the earth, and intersects the terrestrial
equator, but does not coincide with it. The other four points are
the foci of maximum magnetic intensity, and to them the dynamical
equator or line of minimum magnetic intensity corresponds,
also surrounding the earth in an irregular line, but which coincides
with neither the terrestrial nor magnetic equator. Besides
these, and either partly or nearly coinciding with the line of
minimum intensity, is that line which is supposed to pass through
all places where the horary variations of the magnet partake of
the phenomena of each hemisphere alternately.
The earth’s magnetism is subject to vast unaccountable commotions
or storms of immense extent, which occur at irregular
intervals, and are of short duration. In 1818, a magnetic storm,
shown by a violent agitation of the needle, took place at the same
time over 47 degrees of longitude, extending through all the
countries from Paris to Kasan; and on the 25th of September,
1841, one of these storms was simultaneously observed at Toronto
in North America, at the Cape of Good Hope, Prague in Europe,
at Macao in China, and there is reason to believe that it extended
to Van Diemen’s Land. Similar storms have happened simultaneously
in Sicily and at Upsala in Sweden; others of less extent
and shorter periods more frequently occur, and are, like the
greater storms, not to be attributed to any known cause.
M. Necker de Saussure has traced a marked coincidence between
the prevailing direction of the stratified masses of the mountain
296chains and that of the curves of equal magnetic intensity.
The coincidence is perfect in the Ural chain, for there the lines
of force tend north and south; and they do not deviate much from
the stratification in the great plains of European Russia. There
is every reason to believe that a coincidence takes place in the
Scandinavian mountains, for a line of equal magnetic intensity
passes parallel to the Norwegian coast. In Scotland, a line almost
coincides with the Grampians; and as it becomes less northerly
before reaching Portugal and Spain, it is there also in singular
coincidence with the sierras on the table-land; the Pyrenees,
however, form an exception to the law. A magnetic line follows
the break of the chain of the Alps with great precision. The
intersection of two upheavals makes these mountains alter their
direction from S.W. and N.E. to E. nearly, and near to that
change the magnetic line takes a similar bend, and coincides with
the Caucasus, Taurus, Hindoo-Coosh, Himalaya, and Chinese
mountains, after which it again tends to the north, and follows
the Yablonia chain to Behring’s Straits.
In Africa, the lines of equal magnetic force coincide with the
Komri, and with the lofty sea-coast range which unites the mountains
of Abyssinia with those at the Cape of Good Hope. Throughout
North America the lines of equal force coincide with the
Alleghanies, and on the coast of the Pacific they take the direction
of the Rocky Mountains. In Mexico, the stratified rocks are
parallel to the mountains of Anahuac, which is the same with
the direction of the magnetic curves, and a similar coincidence
takes place in the Parima ranges, and in the coast-chain of Venezuela.
The Andes, and the lines of equal magnetic intensity,
are completely discordant, for they cross one another; but lines
of equal magnetic force stretch from the southern promontories of
America and Asia to the mountains of Victoria Land.
There is strong presumptive evidence of the influence of the
electric and magnetic currents on the formation and direction of
the mountain masses and mineral veins, but their slow persevering
action on the ultimate atoms of matter has been placed beyond
doubt by the formation of rubies and other gems, as well as various
other mineral substances, by voltaic electricity.
The existence of electric currents on the surface of the earth
has been deduced from terrestrial magnetism, and from the connection
between the diurnal variations of the magnet and the apparent
motion of the sun; also from the electro-magnetic properties
of metalliferous veins, and from atmospheric electricity, which
is continually passing between the air and the earth.
Dr. Faraday’s brilliant discoveries have changed the received
opinions with regard to the magnetic properties of matter. Although
all bodies are magnetic, they show that it assumes a totally
297different form in different substances. For example, if a bar of
iron be freely suspended between the poles of an electro-magnet,
or very powerful horse-shoe magnet, it will be attracted by both
poles, and will rest in the direction between them—that is, on the
line of force. But if a bar of bismuth be suspended in the same
manner, it will be repelled by both poles, and will assume a direction
at right angles to that which the iron took, and thus the same
force, whether electric or magnetic, produces opposite effects upon
these two metals. Substances affected after the manner of iron
are magnetic—those affected after the manner of bismuth are said
to be diamagnetic. All substances come under one or other of
these two classes: the diamagnetic are infinitely more abundant
than the magnetic; almost all bodies on earth belong to that class.
Many of the metals, acids, oils, sugar, starch, animal matter, flame,
and all the gases, whether light or heavy, have the diamagnetic
property less or more, but oxygen less than any other, and that
is the reason why atmospheric air is the most feebly diamagnetic
of all substances at its natural temperature; for when very hot it
becomes more diamagnetic, and if extremely cold it takes a place
among the magnetic class. Important results with regard to the
magnetic state of the globe will undoubtedly be deduced from this
new property of matter, and Dr. Faraday’s observations on that
subject show that he is not without such anticipations.
“When we consider the magnetic condition of the earth as a
whole, without reference to its possible relation to the sun, and
reflect upon the enormous amount of diamagnetic matter which
forms its crust; and when we remember that magnetic curves of
a certain amount of force, universal in their presence, are passing
through these matters, and keeping them constantly in a state of
tension, and therefore of action, we cannot doubt that some great
purpose, of utility to the system and to us its inhabitants, is fulfilled
by it. If the sun have anything to do with the magnetism
of the globe, then it is possible that part of this effect may be due
to the action of the light that comes to us from that body; and in
that view the air seems most strikingly placed round our sphere,
investing it with a transparent diamagnetic, which, therefore, is
permeable to his rays, and, at the same time, moving with great
velocity across them. Such conditions seem to suggest the possibility
of magnetism being thence generated.”
CHAPTER XXIII.
298
Vegetation—Nourishment and Growth of Plants—Effects of the different
Rays of the Solar Spectrum—Classes—Botanical Districts.
In the present state of the globe, a third part only of its surface is
occupied by land, and probably not more than a fourth part of
that is inhabited by man, but animals and vegetables have a
wider range. The greater part of the land is clothed with vegetation
and inhabited by quadrupeds, the air is peopled with birds
and insects, and the sea teems with living creatures and plants.
These organized beings are not scattered promiscuously, but all
classes of them have been originally placed in regions suited to
their respective wants. Many animals and plants are indigenous
only in determinate spots, while a thousand others might have
supported them as well, and to many of which they have been
transported by man.
Plants extract inorganic substances from the ground, which are
indispensable to bring them to maturity, but the atmosphere supplies
the vegetable creation with the principal part of its food.
The black or brown mould which is so abundant is the produce
of decayed vegetables. When the autumnal leaves, the spoil of
the summer, fall to the ground, and their vitality is gone, they
enter into combination with the oxygen of the atmosphere, and
convert it into an equal volume of carbonic acid gas, which, consequently,
exists abundantly in every good soil, and is the most
important part of the food of vegetables. This process is slow,
and stops as soon as the air in the soil is exhausted; but the
plough, by loosening the earth, and permitting the atmosphere to
enter more freely and penetrate deeper into the ground, accelerates
the decomposition of the vegetable matter, and consequently
the formation of carbonic acid.
In loosening and refining the mould, the common earth-worm
is the fellow-labourer with man; it eats earth, and, after extracting
the nutritious part, ejects the refuse, which is the finest soil,
and may be seen lying in heaps at the mouth of its burrow. So
instrumental is this creature in preparing the ground, that it is
said that there is not a particle of the finer vegetable mould that
has not passed through the intestines of a worm: thus, the most
feeble of living things is employed by Providence to accomplish
the most important ends.
The food of the vegetable creation consists of carbon, hydrogen,
299nitrogen, and oxygen—all of which plants obtain entirely from
the atmosphere in the form of carbonic acid gas, water, and ammonia.
They imbibe these three substances, and, after having
decomposed them, they give the oxygen to the air, and consolidate
the carbon, water, and nitrogen into wood, leaves, flowers,
and fruit.
The vitality of plants is a chemical process entirely due to the
sun’s light; it is most active in clear sunshine, feeble in the
shade, and nearly suspended in the night, when plants, like animals,
have their rest.
The atmosphere contains only one two-thousandth part of carbonic
acid gas, yet that small quantity yields enough of carbon to
form the solid mass of all the magnificent forests and herbs that
clothe the face of the earth, and the supply of that necessary
ingredient in the composition of the atmosphere is maintained by
the breath of animals, by volcanos, and by combustion. The
green parts of plants constantly imbibe carbonic acid in the day;
they decompose it, assimilate the carbon, and return the oxygen
pure to the atmosphere. As the chemical action is feeble in the
shade and in gloomy weather, only a part of the carbonic acid is
decomposed, then both oxygen and carbonic acid are given out by
the leaves; but during the darkness of the night a chemical action
of a different character takes place, and almost all the carbonic
acid is returned unchanged to the atmosphere, together with the
moisture which is evaporated from the leaves both night and day.
Thus, plants give out pure oxygen during the day, and carbonic
acid and water during the night.
Since the vivifying action of the sun brings about all these
changes, a superabundance of oxygen is exhaled by the tropical
vegetation in a clear unclouded sky, where the sun’s rays are
most energetic, and atmospheric moisture most abundant. In the
middle and higher latitudes, on the contrary, under a more feeble
sun and a gloomy sky, subject to rain, snow, and frequent atmospheric
changes, carbonic acid is given out in greater quantity by
the less vigorous vegetation. But here, as with regard to heat
and moisture, equilibrium is restored by the winds; the tropical
currents carry the excess of oxygen along the upper strata of the
atmosphere to higher latitudes, to give breath and heat to men
and animals; while the polar currents, rushing along the ground,
convey the surplus carbonic acid to feed the tropical forests and
jungles. Harmony exists between the animal and vegetable
creations; animals consume the oxygen of the atmosphere, which
is restored by the exhalation of plants, while plants consume the
carbonic acid exhaled by men and animals; the existence of each
is thus due to their reciprocal dependence. Few of the great
cosmical phenomena have only one end to fulfil, they are the
ministers of the manifold designs of Providence.
300When a seed is thrown into the ground, the vital principal is
developed by heat and moisture, and part of the substance of the
seed is formed into roots, which suck up water mixed with carbonic
acid from the soil, decompose it, and consolidate the carbon.
In this stage of their growth, plants derive their whole sustenance
from the ground. As soon, however, as the sugar and mucilage
of the seed appear above the ground, in the form of leaves or
shoots, they absorb and decompose the carbonic acid of the atmosphere,
retain the carbon for their food, give out the oxygen in
the day, and pure carbonic acid in the night. In proportion as
plants grow, they derive more of their food from the air and less
from the soil, till their fruit is ripened, and then the whole of their
nourishment is derived from the atmosphere. Trees are fed from
the air after their fruit is ripe till their leaves fall; annuals till
they die. Air-plants, and several species of cactus and others,
derive all their food from the atmosphere. It is wonderful that
so small a quantity of carbonic acid as exists in the air should
suffice to supply the whole vegetation of the world—and still
more wonderful that a seed, minute enough to be wafted invisibly
by a breath of air, should be the theatre of all the chemical changes
that make it germinate.[153]
Plants absorb water from the ground by their roots; they decompose
it, and the hydrogen combines in different proportions
with their carbonic acid to form wood, sugar, starch, gum, vegetable,
oils, and acids. As the green parts combine with the oxygen
of the air, especially during night, when the functions of plants
are torpid, it is assimilated on the return of daylight, and assists
in forming oils, resins, and acids. The combination of the oxygen
of the air with the leaves, and also with the blossom and fruit,
during night, is quite unconnected with the vital process, as it is
the same in dead plants. An acid exists in the juice of every
plant, generally in combination with an alkali. It must be observed,
however, that these different substances are produced at
different stages in the growth; for example, starch is formed in
the roots, wood, stalk, and seed, but it is converted into sugar as
the fruit ripens, and the more starch the sweeter the fruit becomes.
Most of these new compounds are formed between the flowering
of the plant and the ripening of the fruit, and indeed they furnish
the materials for the flowers, fruit, and seed.
Ammonia, the third organic constituent of plants, is the last
residue from the decay and putrefaction of animal matter. It is
volatilized, and rises into the atmosphere, where it exists as a gas,
301but in so small a quantity that it is with difficulty detected by
chemical analysis; yet, as it is very soluble in water, enough is
brought to the ground by rain to supply the vegetable world.
Ammonia enters plants by their roots along with rain-water, and
is resolved within them into its constituent elements, hydrogen
and nitrogen. The hydrogen aids in forming the wood, acids,
and other substances before mentioned; while the nitrogen enters
into every part of the plant and forms new compounds; it exists
in the blossom and fruit before it is ripe, and in the wood, as albumen;
it also forms gluten, which is the nutritious part of wheat,
barley, oats, and all other cerealia, as well as of esculent roots, as
potatoes, beet-root, &c. Nitrogen exists abundantly in peas, beans,
and pulse of every kind; it enters into the composition of most
elementary vegetable substances; in short, a plant may grow
without ammonia, but it cannot produce seed or fruit; the use of
animal manure is to supply plants with this essential article of
their food. Thus, the decomposition and consolidation of the elementary
food of plants, the formation of the green parts, the exhalation
of moisture by their leaves, its absorption by their roots,
and all the other circumstances of vegetable life, are owing to the
illuminating power of the sun. Heat can be supplied artificially
in our northern climates, but it is impossible to replace the
splendour of a southern sun. His illuminating influence is displayed
in a remarkable degree by the cacalia ficoides; its leaves
combine with the oxygen of the atmosphere during the night,
and are as sour as sorrel in the morning; as the sun rises they
gradually lose their oxygen, and are tasteless at noon; by the
continued action of light they lose more and more, till towards
evening they become bitter. The difference of a clear or cloudy
sky has an immense effect on vegetation; the ripening of fruit
depends upon the habitual serenity of the sky more than on summer
temperature alone.
The blue rays of the solar spectrum have most effect on the
germination of seed; the yellow rays, which are the most luminous,
on the growing plant. That is on account of the chemical
rays, now so well known by their action in Daguerreotype impressions.
They are most abundant beyond the visible part of
the solar spectrum, and diminish through the violet, blue, and
green, to the yellow, where they cease. They penetrate the
ground, and have a much greater influence on the germination of
seeds than ordinary light or darkness. That invisible principle,
together with light, is essential to the formation of the colouring
matter of leaves; it is most active in spring, and is in very considerable
excess compared with the quantity of light and heat;
but as summer advances the reverse takes place; the calorific
radiation, or those hot rays corresponding to the extreme red of
302the spectrum, which facilitate the flowering and forming of the
fruit, become by far the most abundant; and a set of invisible
rays, which exist near the point of maximum heat in the solar
spectrum, are also most abundant in summer. Mr. Hunt found
that the hot rays immediately beyond the visible red destroy the
colour of palm-leaves; and for that reason the glass of the palm-house
at Kew Gardens is tinged pale yellow-green by oxide of
copper, which excludes the scorching rays in question, though it
is permeable by the other rays of heat, those of light, and the
chemical rays.[154]
In spring and summer the oxygen taken in by the green leaves
in the night aids in the formation of oils, acids, and the other
parts that contain it; but as soon as autumn comes, the vitality or
chemical action of vegetables is weakened; and the oxygen, no
longer given out in the day, though still taken in during the night,
becomes a minister of destruction; it changes the colour of the
leaves, and consumes them when they fall. Nitrogen, so essential
during the life of plants, also resumes its chemical character
when they die, and by its escape hastens their decay.
Although the food which constitutes the mass of plants is derived
principally from water and the gases of the atmosphere,
fixed substances are also requisite for their growth and perfection,
and these they obtain from the earth by their roots. The inorganic
matters are the alkalis, phosphates, silica, sulphur, iron,
and others.
It has already been mentioned that vegetable acids are found
in the juices of all the families of plants. They generally are in
combination with one or other of the alkaline substances, as lime,
soda, potash, and magnesia, which are as essential to the existence
of plants as the carbonic acid by which these acids are formed:
for example, vines have potash; plants used as dyes never give
vivid colours without it; all leguminous plants require it, and
303only grow naturally on ground that contains it. None of the corn
tribe can produce perfect seeds unless they have both potash and
phosphate of magnesia; nor can they or any of the grasses thrive
without silica, which gives the hard coating to straw, to the beard
of wheat and barley, to grass, canes, and bamboos; it is even found
in solid lumps in the hollows and joints of cane, known in India
by the name of tabashir. To bring the cerealia to perfection, it
is indispensable that in their growth they should be supplied with
carbonic acid for the plant, silica to give it strength and firmness,
and nitrogen for the grain.
Phosphoric acid, combined with an earth or alkali, is found in
the ashes of all vegetables, and is essential to many. Pulse contain
but little of it, and on that account are less nutritious than
the cerealia. The family of the cruciferæ, as cabbages, turnips,
mustard, &c., contain sulphur in addition to the substances common
to the growth of all plants; each particular tribe has its own
peculiarities, and requires a combination suited to it. On that
account there is often a marked difference in the arborescent
vegetation on the same mountain, depending on the nature of the
rocks.
The ocean furnishes some of the matters found in plants; the
prodigious quantity of sea-water constantly evaporated carries
with it salt in a volatilized state, which, dispersed over the land
by the wind, supplies the ground with salt and the other ingredients
of sea-water. The inorganic matters which enter plants
by their roots are carried by the sap to every part of the vegetable
system. The roots imbibe all liquids presented to them indiscriminately,
but they retain only the substances they require at
the various stages of their growth, and throw out such parts as
are useless, together with the effete or dead matter remaining
after the nutriment has been extracted from it. Plants, like
animals, may be poisoned, but the power they have of expelling
deleterious substances by their roots generally restores them to
health. The feculent matter injures the soil; besides, after a
time the ground is drained of the inorganic matter requisite for
any one kind of plant: hence the necessity for a change or rotation
of crops.
A quantity of heat is set free and also becomes latent in the
various transmutations that take place in the interior of plants; so
that they, like the animal creation, have a tendency to a temperature
of their own, independent of external circumstances.
The quantity of electricity requisite to resolve a grain weight of
water into its elementary oxygen and hydrogen is equal to the
quantity of atmospheric electricity which is active in a very powerful
thunder-storm; hence, some idea may be formed of the intense
energy exerted by the vegetable creation in the decomposition of
the vast mass of water and other matters necessary for its sustenance.
304But there must be a compensation in the consolidation of
the vegetable food, otherwise a tremendous quantity would be in
perpetual activity. It is said to be given out from the points of
their leaves, so, possibly, some part of the atmospheric electricity
may be ascribed to this cause; but there is reason to believe that
electricity, excited by the power of solar light, constitutes the chemical
vitality of vegetation.
The colouring matter of flowers is various, if we may judge from
the effect which the solar spectrum has upon their expressed juices.
The colour is very brilliant on the tops of mountains and in the
Arctic lands. Possibly the diminished weight of the air may have
some effect, for it can scarcely be supposed that barometrical
changes should be entirely without influence on vegetation.
The perfume of flowers and leaves is owing to a volatile oil,
which is often carried by the air to a great distance: in hot climates
it is most powerful in the morning and evening. The odour
of the Humiria has been perceived at the distance of three miles
from the coast of South America, a species of Tetracera sends its
perfume as far from the island of Cuba, and the aroma of the Spice
Islands is wafted out to sea. The variety of perfumes is infinite,
and shows the innumerable combinations of which a few simple
substances are capable, and the extreme minuteness of the particles
of matter.
In northern and mean latitudes, winter is a time of complete
rest to the vegetable world, and in tropical climates the vigour of
vegetation is suspended during the dry, hot season, to be resumed
at the return of the periodical rains. The periodical phenomena
of the appearance of the first leaves, the flowering, ripening of the
fruit, and the fall of the leaf, depend upon the annual and diurnal
changes of temperature, moisture, electricity, and perhaps on magnetism,
and succeed with such perfect harmony and regularity,
that, were there a sufficient number of observations, lines might
be drawn on a globe passing through all places where the leaves
of certain plants appear simultaneously, and also for the other principal
phases of vegetation. In places where the same plant flowers
on the same day, the fruit may not ripen at the same period in
both; it would therefore be interesting to know what relation lines
passing through those would have to one another and to the isothermal
lines; more especially with regard to the plants indispensable
to man, since the periodicity of vegetation affects his whole
social condition.[155]
305Almost all plants sleep during the night; some show it in their
leaves, others in their blossom. The Mimosa tribe not only close
their leaves at night, but their foot-stalks droop; in a clover-field
not a leaf opens until after sunrise. The common daisy is a familiar
instance of a sleeping flower; it shuts up its blossom in the
evening, and opens its white and crimson-tipped star, the “day’s
eye,” to meet the early beams of the morning sun; and then also
“winking mary-buds begin to ope their golden eyes.” The crocus,
tulip, convolvulus, and many others, close their blossoms at different
hours towards evening, some to open them again, others never.
The ivy-leaved lettuce opens at eight in the morning, and closes
for ever at four in the afternoon. Some plants seem to be wide
awake all night, and to give out their perfume then only, or at
nightfall. Many of the jessamines are most fragrant during the
twilight: the Olea fragrans, the Daphne odorata, and the night-stock
reserve their sweetness for the midnight hour, and the night-flowering
Cereus turns night into day. It begins to expand its
magnificent sweet-scented blossom in the twilight, it is full blown
at midnight, and closes, never to open again, with the dawn of
day;—these are “the bats and owls of the vegetable kingdom.”[156]
Many plants brought from warm to temperate climates have become
habituated to their new situation, and flourish as if they were
natives of the soil; such as have been accustomed to flower and
rest at particular seasons change their habits by degrees, and adapt
themselves to the seasons of the country that has adopted them.
It is much more difficult to transfer alpine plants to the plains.
Whether from a change of atmospheric pressure or mean temperature,
all attempts to cultivate them at a lower level generally
fail: it is much easier to accustom a plant of the plains to a higher
situation.
Plants are propagated by seeds, offsets, cuttings, and buds; hence
they, but more especially trees, have myriads of seats of life, a
congeries of vital systems acting in concert, but independently of
each other, every one of which might become a new plant. In
this respect the fir and pine tribe are inferior to deciduous trees,
which lose their leaves annually, because they are not easily propagated
except by seeds. It has been remarked that all plants
that are propagated by buds from a common parent stock have the
same duration of life; this has been noticed particularly with regard
to some species of apple-trees in England. It appears that
306all the garden varieties of fruit, whether from buds, layers, or cuttings,
wear out after a time; and that seedlings have a great tendency
to revert to the original wild character of the plant.
A certain series of transitions takes place throughout the lives
of plants, each part being transformed and passing into another;
a law that was first observed by the illustrious poet Göthe. For
example, the embryo leaves pass into common leaves, these into
bracteæ, the bracteæ into sepals, the sepals into petals, which are
transformed into stamens and anthers, and these again pass into
ovaries with their styles and stigmas, that are to become the fruit
and ultimately the seed of a new plant.
Plants are naturally divided into three classes, differing materially
in organization:—The Cryptogamia, whose flowers and
seeds are either too minute to be easily visible, or are hidden in
some part of the plant, as in fungi, mosses, ferns, and lichens,
which are of the least perfect organization. Next to these are the
monocotyledonous plants, as grasses and palms, in which the foot-stalks
of the old leaves form the outside of the stem; plants of this
class have but one-seed-lobe, which forms one little leaf in their
embryo state. Their flowers and fruit are generally referable to
some law in which the number 3 prevails, as, for example, the
petals and other parts are three in number. The dicotyledonous
plants form the third class, which is the most perfect in its organization,
and by much the most numerous, including the trees of
the forest and most of the flowering shrubs and herbs. They increase
by coatings from without, as trees, where the growth of
each year forms a concentric circle of wood round the pith or centre
of the stem: the seeds of these plants have two lobes, which
in their embryo state appear first in two little leaves above ground,
like most of the European species. The parts of the flowers and
fruit of this class generally have some relation to the number 5.
The three botanical classes are distributed in very different proportions
in different zones: monocotyledonous plants, such as
grasses and palms, are much more rare than the dicotyledonous
class. Between the tropics there are four of the latter to one of
the grass or palm tribes, in the temperate zones six to one, and in
the polar regions only two to one, because mosses and lichens are
most abundant in the high latitudes, where dicotyledonous plants
are comparatively rare. In the temperate zones one-sixth of the
plants are annuals, omitting the cryptogamia; in the torrid zone
scarcely one plant in twenty is annual, and in the polar regions
only one in thirty. The number of ligneous vegetables increases
on approaching the equator, yet in North America there are 120
different species of forest-trees, whereas in the same latitudes in
Europe there are only 34. The social plants, grasses, heaths,
furze, broom, daisies, &c., which cover large tracts, are rare between
307the tropics, except on the mountains and table-lands and
on the llanos of equatorial America.
Equinoctial America has a more extensive and richer vegetation
than any other part of the world; Europe has not above half
the number of indigenous species of plants; Asia, with its islands,
has somewhat less than Europe; Australia, with its islands in the
Pacific, still less; and there are fewer vegetable productions in
Africa than in any part of the globe of the same extent.
Since the constitution of the atmosphere is very much the same
everywhere, vegetation depends principally on the sun’s light,
moisture, and the mean annual temperature, and it is also in some
degree regulated by the heat of summer in the temperate zones,
and also by exposure, for such plants as require warmth are found
at a lower level on the north than on the south side of a mountain.
Between the tropics, wherever rain does not fall, the soil is burnt
up and is as unfruitful as that exposed to the utmost rigour of frost;
but where moisture is combined with heat and light, the luxuriance
of the vegetation is beyond description. The abundance and violence
of the periodical rains combine with the intense light and
heat to render the tropical forests and jungles almost impervious
from the rankness of the vegetation. This exuberance gradually
decreases with the distance from the equator; it also diminishes
progressively as the height above the level of the sea increases, so
that each height has a corresponding parallel of latitude where the
climates and floras are similar, till the perpetual snow on the mountain-tops,
and its counterpart in the polar regions, have a vegetation
that scarcely rises above the surface of the ground. Hence,
in ascending the Himalaya or Andes from the luxuriant plains of
the Ganges or Amazons, changes take place in the vegetation analogous
to what a traveller would meet with in a journey from the
equator to the poles. This law of decrease, though perfectly regular
over a wide extent, is perpetually interfered with by local
climate and soil. From the combination of various causes, as the
distribution of land and water, their different powers of absorption
and radiation, together with the form, texture, and clothing of the
land, and the prevailing winds, it is found that the isothermal lines,
or imaginary lines drawn through places on the surface of the globe
which have the same mean annual temperature, do not correspond
with the parallels of latitude. Thus, in North America the climate
is much colder than in the corresponding European latitudes.
Quebec is in the latitude of Paris, and the country is covered with
deep snow four or five months in the year, and it has occurred that
a summer has passed there in which not more than 60 days have
been free from frost.
In the southern hemisphere, beyond the 34th parallel, the
summers are colder and the winters milder than in corresponding
308latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Neither does the
temperature of mountains vary exactly with their height above
the sea; other causes, as prevailing winds, difference of radiation,
and geological structure, concur in producing irregularities which
have a powerful effect on the vegetable world.
However, no similarity of existing circumstances can account
for whole families of plants being confined to one particular
country, or even to a very limited district, which, as far as we
can judge, might have grown equally well on many others.
Latitude, elevation, soil, and climate, are but secondary causes
in the distribution of the vegetable kingdom, and are totally inadequate
to explain why there are numerous distinct botanical districts
in the continents and islands, each of which has its own
vegetation, whose limits are most decided when they are separated
by the ocean, mountain-chains, sandy deserts, salt-plains, or
internal seas. Each of these districts is the focus of families
and genera, some of which are found nowhere else, and some
are common to others, but, with a very few remarkable exceptions,
the species of plants in each are entirely different or representative.[157]
This does not depend upon the difference in latitude,
309for the vegetation of the United States of North America is totally
unlike that of Europe under the same isothermal lines, and even
between the tropics the greatest dissimilarity often prevails under
different degrees of longitude: consequently, the cause of this
partial distribution of plants, and that of animals also, which is
according to the same law, must be looked for in those early
geological periods when the earth first began to be tenanted by
the present races of organized beings.
As the land rose at different periods above the ocean, each part,
as it emerged from the waves, had probably been clothed with
vegetation, and peopled with animals, suited to its position with
regard to the equator, and to the climate and condition of the
globe then being. And as the conditions and climate were different
at each succeeding geological epoch, so each portion of the
land, as it rose, would be characterized by its own vegetation and
animals, and thus at last there would be many centres of creation,
as at this day, all differing more or less from one another, and
hence, alpine floras must be of older date than those in the plains.
The vegetation and faunas of those lands that differed most in
age and place would be most dissimilar, while the plants and
animals of such as were not far removed from one another in
time and place would have correlative forms or family likenesses,
yet each would form a distinct province. Thus, in opposite hemispheres,
and everywhere at great distances, but under like circumstances,
the species are representatives of one another, rarely
identical: when, however, the conditions which suit certain
species are continuous, identical species are found throughout,
either by original creation or by migration. The older forms
may have been modified to a certain extent by the succeeding
conditions of the globe, but they never could have been changed,
since immutability of species is a primordial law of nature.
310Neither external circumstances, time, nor human art, can change
one species into another, though each to a certain extent is capable
of accommodating itself to a change of external circumstances,
so as to produce varieties even transmissible to their offspring.
The flora of Cashmere and the higher parts of the Himalaya
mountains is similar to that of southern Europe, yet the species
are representative, not identical. In the plains of Tartary, where
from their elevation the degree of cold is not less than in the
wastes of Siberia, the vegetation of one might be mistaken for
that of the other; the gooseberry, currant, willow, rhubarb, and
in some places the oak, hazel, cypress, poplar, and birch, grow
in both, but they are of different species. The flora near the
snow-line on the lofty mountains of Europe, and lower down, has
also a perfect family likeness to that in high northern latitudes.
In like manner many plants on the higher parts of the Chilian
Andes are similar, and even identical, with those in Tierra del
Fuego; nay, the Arctic flora has a certain resemblance to that of
the Antarctic regions, and even occasional identity of species.
These remarkable coincidences may be accounted for by the different
places having been at an early geological period at the
same level above the ocean, and that they continue to retain part
of their original flora after their relative positions have been
changed. The tops of the Chilian Andes were probably on a
level with Tierra del Fuego when both were covered with the
same vegetation, and in the same manner the lofty plains of
Tartary may have acquired their vegetation when they were on
the level of southern Siberia.
In the many vicissitudes the surface of the globe has undergone,
continents formed at one period were broken up at another
into islands and detached masses by inroads of the sea and other
causes. Now, Professor E. Forbes has shown that some of the
primary floras and faunas have spread widely from their original
centres over large portions of the continents before the land was
broken up into the form it now has, and thus accounts for the
similarity and sometimes identity of the plants and animals of
regions now separated by seas,—as, for example, islands, which
generally partake of the vegetation and fauna of the continents
adjacent to them. Taking for granted the original creation of
specific centres of plants and animals, Professor E. Forbes has
clearly proved that “the specific identity, to any extent, of the
flora and fauna of one area, with those of another, depends on
both areas forming, or having formed, part of the same specific
centre, or on their having derived their animal and vegetable
population by transmission, through migration, over continuous
or closely contiguous land, aided, in the case of alpine floras, by
transportation on floating masses of ice.”
311By the preceding laws the limited provinces and dispersion of
animal and vegetable life are explained, but the existence of
single species in regions very far apart has not yet been accounted
for.
Very few of the exogenous or dicotyledonous plants are common
to two or more countries far apart: among the few, the
Samolus Valerandi, a common English plant, is a native of Australia;
the Potentilla tridentata, not found in Britain, except on
one hill in Angusshire, is common to Arctic Europe and the
mountains of North America; and in the Falkland Islands there
are more than 30 flowering plants identical with those in Great
Britain.
There are many more instances of wide diffusion among the
monocotyledonous plants, especially grasses: the Phleum alpinum
of Switzerland grows without the smallest variation at the Straits
of Magellan, and Mr. Bunbury met with the European quaking-grass
in the interior of the country at the Cape of Good Hope;
but the cellular or cryptogamous class is most widely diffused—plants
not susceptible of cultivation, of little use to man, and of
all others the most difficult to transport. The Sticta aurata,
found in Cornwall, is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, St.
Helena, the West Indian islands, and Brazil; the Trichomanes
brevisetum, long supposed to be peculiar to the British isles, is
ascertained to grow in Madeira, South America, &c.; and our
eminent botanist, Mr. Brown, found 38 British lichens and 28
British mosses in New Holland, yet in no two parts of the world
is the vegetation more dissimilar; and almost all the lichens
brought from the southern hemisphere by Sir James Ross,
amounting to 200 species, are also inhabitants of the northern
hemisphere, and mostly European.
In islands far from continents the number of plants is small,
but of these, a large proportion occur nowhere else. In St.
Helena, of 30 flower-bearing plants, 1 or 2 only are native elsewhere,
but in 60 species of cryptogamous plants Dr. Hooker
found only 12 peculiar to the island.
Some plants are more particularly confined to certain regions:
the species of Cinchona which furnish the Peruvian bark grow
along the eastern declivity of the Andes, as far as 18° S. lat.;
the cedar of Lebanon is indigenous on that celebrated mountain
only; and the Disa grandiflora is limited to a very small spot on
the top of the Table-mountain at the Cape of Good Hope; but
whether these are remnants whose kindred have perished by a
change of physical circumstances, or centres only beginning to
spread, it is impossible to say.
Plants are dispersed by currents: of 600 plants from the
vicinity of the river Zaire on the coast of Africa, 13 are found
312also on the shores of Guiana and Brazil, evidently carried by the
great equatorial current to countries congenial in soil and climate.
The seeds of the Mimosa scandens, the Guilandina Bonduc, and
the cashew-nut, are wafted from the West India islands to the
coasts of Scotland and Ireland by the Gulf-stream, a climate and
soil which do not suit them, therefore they do not grow. Of all
the great orders, the species of Leguminosæ are most widely dispersed
on coasts, because their seeds are not injured by the water.
Winds also waft seeds to great distances; birds and quadrupeds,
and above all man, are active agents in dispersing plants.
CHAPTER XXIV. — ARCTIC FLORA OF THE GREAT CONTINENTS. — FLORA OF BRITAIN AND OF MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN EUROPE. — FLORA OF TEMPERATE ASIA.
Vegetation of the Great Continent—Of the Arctic Islands—And of the
Arctic and North Temperate Regions of Europe and Asia.
The southern limit of the polar flora, on the great continent, lies
mostly within the Arctic Circle, but stretches along the tops of the
Scandinavian mountains, and reappears in the high lands of Scotland,
Cumberland, and Ireland, on the summits of the Pyrenees,
Alps, and other mountains in southern Europe, as well as on the
table-land of eastern Asia, and on the high ridges of the Himalaya.
The great European plain to the Ural Mountains, as well as
the low lands of England and Ireland, were at one period covered
by a sea full of floating ice and icebergs, which made the climate
much colder than it now is. At the beginning of that period the
Scandinavian range, the other continental mountains, and those in
Britain and Ireland, were islands of no great elevation, and were
then clothed with the Arctic flora, or a representative of it, which
they still retain now that they form the tops of the mountain-chains,
and at that time both plants and animals were conveyed
from one country to another by the floating ice. It is even probable,
from the relations of the fauna and flora, that Greenland,
Iceland, and the very high European latitudes, are the residue of
a great northern land which had sunk down at the close of the
glacial period, for there were many vicissitudes of level during
that epoch. At all events, it may be presumed that the elevation
of the Arctic regions of both continents, if not contemporaneous,
was probably not far removed in time. Similarity of circumstances
had extended throughout the whole Arctic regions, since
there is a remarkable similarity and occasional identity of species
of plants and animals in the high latitudes of both continents,
313which is continued along the tops of their mountain-chains, even
in the temperate zones; and there is reason to believe that the
relations between the faunas and floras of Boreal America, Asia,
and Europe, must have been established towards the close of the
glacial period.
The flora of Iceland approaches that of Britain, yet only one in
four of the British plants are known in Iceland. There are 870
species in Iceland, of which more than half are flower-bearing:
this is a greater proportion than is found in Scotland, but there
are only 32 of woody texture. This flora is scattered in groups
according as the plants like a dry, marshy, volcanic, or marine
soil. Many grow close to the hot-springs: some not far from the
edge of the basin of the Great Geyser, where every other plant is
petrified; and species of Confervæ flourish in a spring said to be
almost hot enough to boil an egg. The grains cannot be cultivated
on account of the severity of the climate, but the Icelanders
make bread from metur, a species of wild corn, and also from the
bulbous root of Polygonum viviparum; their greatest delicacy is
the Angelica archangelica; Iceland moss, used in medicine, is an
article of commerce. There are 583 species in the Feroe islands,
of which 270 are flowering plants: many thrive there that cannot
bear the cold of Iceland.
In the most northern parts of the Arctic lands the year is
divided into one long intensely cold night and one bright and fervid
day, which quickly brings to maturity the scanty vegetation.
Within the limit of perpetual congelation the Palmella nivalis (or
red snow of Arctic voyagers), a very minute red or orange-coloured
plant, finds nourishment in the snow itself, the first dawn
of vegetable life; it is also found colouring large patches of snow
in the Alps and Pyrenees.
Lichens are the first vegetables that appear at the limits of
the snow-line, whether in high latitudes or mountain-tops, and
they are the first vegetation that takes possession of volcanic
lavas and new islands, where they prepare soil for plants of a
higher order: they grow on rocks, stones, and trees, in fact on
anything that affords them moisture. More than 2400 species
are already known; no plants are more widely diffused, and
none afford a more striking instance of the arbitrary location of
species, as they are of so little direct use to man that they could
not have been disseminated by his agency. The same kind prevail
throughout the Arctic regions, and the species common to
both hemispheres are very numerous. Some lichens produce brilliant
314red, orange, and brown dyes; and the tripe de roche, a species
of Gyrophora, is a miserable substitute for food, as our
intrepid countryman Sir John Franklin and his brave companions
experienced in their perilous Arctic journey.
Mosses follow lichens on newly-formed soil, and they are found
everywhere throughout the world in damp situations, but in greatest
abundance in temperate climates: 800 species are known, of
which a great part inhabit the Arctic regions, constituting a large
portion of the vegetation.
In Asiatic Siberia, north of the 60th parallel of latitude, the
ground is perpetually frozen at a very small depth below the surface:
a temperature of 70° below zero of Fahrenheit is not uncommon,
and, in some instances, the cold has been 120° below
zero. Then it is fatal to animal life, especially if accompanied by
wind. In some places trees grow and corn ripens even at 70° of
north latitude; but in the most northern parts boundless swamps,
varied by lakes both of salt and fresh water, cover wide portions
of this desolate country, which is buried under snow nine or ten
months in the year. As soon as the snow is melted by the returning
sun, these extensive morasses are covered with coarse grass
and rushes, while mosses and lichens mixed with dwarf willows
clothe the plains; saline plants abound, and whole districts produce
Diotis ceratoides.
In Nova Zembla and other places in the far north, the vegetation
is so stunted that it barely covers the ground, but a much greater
variety of minute plants of considerable beauty are crowded together
there in a small space than in the alpine regions of Europe where
the same genera grow. This arises from the weakness of the
vegetation; for in the Swiss Alps the same plant frequently
occupies a large space, excluding every other, as the dark-blue
gentian, the violet-coloured pansy, the pink and yellow stone-crops.
In the remote north, on the contrary, where vitality is comparatively
feeble and the seeds do not ripen, thirty different species
may be seen crowded together in a brilliant mass, no one having
strength to overcome the rest. In such frozen climates plants
may be said to live between the air and the earth, for they scarcely
rise above the soil, and their roots creep along the surface, not
having power to enter it. All the woody plants, as the Betula
nana, the reticulated willow, Andromeda tetragona, with a few
berry-bearing shrubs, trail along the ground, never rising more
than an inch or two above it. The Salix lanata, the giant of these
boreal forests, never grows more than five inches above the surface,
while its stem, 10 or 12 feet long, lies hidden among the moss,
owing shelter to its lowly neighbour.
The chief characteristic of the vegetation of the Arctic regions
is the predominance of perennial and cryptogamous plants, and
315also of the sameness of its nature; but more to the south, where
night begins to alternate with day, a difference of species appears
in longitude as well as in latitude. A beautiful flora of vivid
colours adorns these latitudes both in Europe and Asia during
their brief but bright and ardent summer, consisting of potentillas,
gentians, chickweeds, saxifrages, sedums, Ranunculi, spiræas,
drabas, artemisias, claytonias, and many more. Such is the power
of the sun, and the consequent rapidity of vegetation, that these
plants spring up, blossom, ripen their seed, and die, in six weeks:
in a lower latitude woody plants follow these, as berry-bearing
shrubs, the glaucous Kalmia, the trailing Azalea and rhododendrons.
The Siberian flora differs from that in the same European
latitudes by the North American genera Phlox, Mitella, Claytonia,
and the predominance of asters, Solidago, Spiræa, milk-vetches,
wormwood, and the saline plants goosefoot and saltworts.
Social plants abound in many parts of the northern countries,
as grass, heath, furze, and broom: the steppes are an example of
this on a very extensive scale. Both in Europe and Asia they
are subject to a rigorous winter, with deep snow and chilling
blasts of wind; and as the soil generally consists of a coating of
vegetable mould over clay, no plants with deep roots thrive upon
them; hence, the steppes are destitute of trees, and even bushes
are rare except in ravines: the grass is thin, but nourishing.
Hyacinths and some other bulbs, mignonette, asparagus, liquorice,
and wormwood, grow in the European steppes; the two last are
peculiarly characteristic. The Nelumbium speciosum grows in
one spot five miles from the town of Astracan, and nowhere else
in the wide domains of Russia: the leaves of this beautiful aquatic
plant are often two feet broad, and its rose-coloured blossoms
are very fragrant. It is also native in India and Tibet, where it
is held sacred, as it was formerly in Egypt, where it is said to be
extinct: it is one of the many instances of a plant growing in
countries far apart.
Each steppe in Siberia has its own peculiar plants; the Peplis
and Camphorosma are peculiar to the steppe of the Irtish, and the
Amaryllis tatarica abounds in the meadows of eastern Siberia,
where the vegetation bears a great analogy to that of north-western
America: several genera and species are common to both.
Half the plants found by Wormskiold in Kamtchatka are European,
with the exception of eight or ten, which are American.
Few European trees grow in Asiatic Siberia, notwithstanding the
similarity of climate, and most of them disappear towards the
rivers Tobol and Irtish.
In Lapland and in the high latitudes of Russia, large tracts are
covered with birch-trees, but the pine and fir tribe are the principal
inhabitants of the north. Prodigious forests of these are
316spread over the mountains of Norway and Sweden, and in European
Russia 200,000,000 acres are clothed with these Coniferæ
alone, or occasionally mixed with willows, poplars, and alders.
Although soils of pure sand and lime are absolutely barren, yet
they generally contain enough of alkali to supply the wants of
the fir and pine tribes, which require ten times less than oaks and
other deciduous trees.
The Siberian steppes are bounded on the south by great forests
of pine, birch, and willow: poplars, elms, and Tartarian maple
overhang the upper courses of the noble rivers which flow from
the mountains to the Frozen Ocean, and on the banks of the
Yenessei the Pinus Cembra, or Siberian pine, with edible fruit,
grows 120 feet high. The Altaï are covered nearly to their summit
with similar forests, but on their greatest heights the stunted
larch crawls on the ground, and the flora is like that of northern
Siberia: round the lake Baikal the Pinus Cembra grows nearly
to the snow-line.
Forests of black birch are peculiar to Dahuria, where there are
also apricot and apple trees, and rhododendrons, of which a species
grows in thickets on the hills, with yellow blossoms. Here,
and everywhere else throughout this country, are found all the
species of Caragana, a genus entirely Siberian. Each terrace of
the mountains, and each steppe on the plains, has its peculiar
plants, as well as some common to all: perennial plants are more
numerous than annuals.
If temperature and climate depended upon latitude alone, all
Asia between the 50th and 30th parallels would have a mild climate;
but that is far from being the case, on account of the structure
of the continent, which consists of the highest table-lands and
the lowest plains on the globe.
The table-land of Tibet, where it is not cultivated, has the character
of great sterility, and the climate is as unpropitious as the
soil: frost, snow, and sleet begin early in September, and continue
with little interruption till May; snow, indeed, falls every
month in the year. The air is always dry, because in winter
moisture falls in the form of snow, and in summer it is quickly
evaporated by the intense heat of the sun. The thermometer
sometimes rises to 144° of Fahrenheit in the sun, and even in
winter his direct rays have great power for an hour or two, so
that a variation of 100° in the temperature of the air has occurred
in twelve hours. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, there are
sheltered spots which produce most of the European grain and
fruits, though the natural vegetation bears the Siberian character,
but the species are quite distinct. The most common indigenous
plants are Tartarian furze and various prickly shrubs
resembling it, gooseberries, currants, hyssop, dog-rose, dwarf sow-thistle,
317Equisetum, rhubarb, lucern, and asafœtida, on which the
flocks feed. Prangos, an umbelliferous plant, with broad leaves
and scented blossom, is peculiar to Ladak and other parts of Tibet.
Mr. Moorcroft says it is so nutritious, that sheep fed on it become
fat in twenty days. There are three species of wheat, three of
barley, and two of buckwheat, natives of the lofty table-land,
where the sarsinh is the only fruit known to be indigenous.
Owing to the rudeness of the climate trees are not numerous, yet
on the lower declivities of some mountains there are aspens, birch,
yew, ash, Tartaric oak, various pines, and the Pavia, a species of
horse-chestnut. Much of the table-land of Tartary is occupied by
the Great Gobi and other deserts of sand, with grassy steppes
near the mountains; but of the flora of these regions we know
nothing.
The British islands afford an excellent illustration of distinct
provinces of animals and plants, and also of their migration from
other centres. Professor E. Forbes has determined five botanical
districts, four of which are restricted to limited provinces,
whilst the fifth, which comprehends the great mass of British
plants, is, everywhere, either alone or mixed with the others.
All of these, with a very few doubtful exceptions, have migrated
before the British islands were separated from the continent.
The first, which is of great antiquity, includes the flora of the
mountain districts of the west and south-west of Ireland, and is
similar to that in the south of Spain, but the more delicate plants
had been killed by the change of climate after the separation of
Ireland from the Asturias. The flora in the south of England
and the south-east of Ireland is different from that in all other
parts of the British islands; it is intimately related to the vegetation
of the Channel Islands and the coast of France opposite to
them, yet there are many plants in the Channel Islands which
are not indigenous in Britain. In the south-west of England,
where the chalk-plants prevail, the flora is like that on the adjacent
coast of France.
The tops of the Scottish mountains are the focus of a separate
flora, which is the same with that in the Scandinavian Alps, and
is very numerous. Scotland, Wales, and a part of Ireland received
this flora when they were groups of islands in the Glacial Sea.
The rare Eriocaulon is found in the Hebrides, in Connemara,
and in Northern America, and nowhere else. Some few individuals
of this flora grow on the summits of the mountains in Cumberland
318and Wales. The fifth, of more recent origin than the
alpine flora, including all the ordinary flowering plants, as the
common daisy and primrose, hairy ladies’ smock, upright meadow
crowfoot, and the lesser celandine, together with our common
trees and shrubs, has migrated from Germany before England
was separated from the continent of Europe by the British Channel.
It can be distinctly traced in its progress across the island,
but the migration was not completed till after Ireland was separated
from England by the Irish Channel, and that is the reason
why many of the ordinary English plants, animals, and reptiles,
are not found in the sister island, for the migration of animals
was simultaneous with that of plants, and took place between the
last of the tertiary periods and the historical epoch, that of man’s
creation: it was extended also over a great part of the continent.[158]
Deciduous trees are the chief characteristic of the temperate
zone of the old continent, more especially of middle Europe;
these thrive best in soil produced by the decay of the primary
and ancient volcanic rocks, which furnish abundance of alkali.
Oaks, elms, beech, ash, larch, maple, lime, alder, and sycamore,
all of which lose their leaves in winter, are the prevailing vegetation,
occasionally mixed with fir and pine.
The undergrowth consists of wild apple, cherry, yew, holly,
hawthorn, broom, furze, wild rose, honeysuckle, clematis, &c.
The most numerous and characteristic herbaceous plants are the
umbelliferous class, as carrot and anise, the campanulas, the
Cichoraceæ, a family to which lettuce, endive, dandelion, and sow-thistle
belong. The cruciform tribe, as wallflower, stock, turnip,
cabbage, cress, &c., are so numerous, that they form a distinguishing
feature in the botany of middle Europe, to which 45
species of them belong. This family is almost confined to the
northern hemisphere, for, of 800 known species, only 100 belong
to the southern, the soil of which must contain less sulphur, which
is indispensable for these plants.
In the Pyrenees, Alps, and other high lands in Europe, the
gradation of botanical forms, from the summit to the foot of the
mountains, is similar to that which takes place from the Arctic to
the middle latitudes of Europe. The analogy, however, is true
only when viewed generally, for many local circumstances of
climate and vegetation interpose; and although the similarity of
botanical forms is very great between certain zones of altitude and
parallels of latitude, the species are, for the most part, different.
Evergreen trees and shrubs become more frequent in the
southern countries of Europe, where about a fourth part of the
ligneous vegetation never entirely lose their leaves. The flora
319consists chiefly of ilex, oak, cypress, hornbeam, sweet chestnut,
laurel, laurustinus, the apple tribe, manna or the flowering ash,
carob, jujube, juniper, terebinths, lentiscus and pistaccio which
yield resin and mastic, arbutus, myrtle, jessamine (yellow and
white), and various pines, as the Pinus maritima, and Pinus
Pinea, or stone pine, which forms so picturesque a feature in the
landscape of southern Europe. The most prevalent herbaceous
plants are Caryophylleæ, as pinks, Stellaria, and arenarias, and
also the labiate tripe, mint, thyme, rosemary, lavender, with many
others, all remarkable for their aromatic properties, and their love
of dry situations. Many of the choicest plants and flowers which
adorn the gardens and grounds in northern Europe are indigenous
in these warmer countries: the anemone, tulip, mignonette, narcissus,
gladiolus, iris, asphodel, amaryllis, carnation, &c. In
Spain, Portugal, Sicily, and the other European shores of the
Mediterranean, tropical families begin to appear in the arums,
plants yielding balsams, oleander, date and palmetto palms, and
grasses of the group of Panicum or millet, Cyperaceæ or sedges,
Aloe and Cactus. In this zone of transition there are six herbaceous
for one woody plant.
The vegetation of western Asia approaches nearly to that of
India at one extremity, and Europe at the other; of 281 genera
of plants which grow in Asia Minor and Persia, 109 are European.
Syria and Asia Minor form a region of transition, like the
other countries on the Mediterranean, where the plants of the
temperate and tropical zones are united. We owe many of our
best fruits and sweetest flowers to these regions. The cherry,
almond, oleander, syringa, locust-tree, &c., come from Asia
Minor; the walnut, peach, melon, cucumber, hyacinth, ranunculus,
come from Persia; the date-palm, fig, olive, mulberry, and
damask rose, come from Syria; the vine and apricot are Armenian,
the latter grows also everywhere in middle and northern
Asia. The tropical forms met with in more sheltered places are
the sugar-cane, date and palmetto palms, mimosas, acacias, Asclepias
gigantea, and arborescent Apocineæ. On the mountains
south of the Black Sea, American types appear in rhododendrons
and the Azalea pontica, and herbaceous plants are numerous and
brilliant in these countries.
The table-land of Persia, though not so high as that of eastern
Asia, resembles it in the quality of the soil, which is chiefly
clayey, sandy, or saline, and the climate is very dry; hence,
vegetation is poor, and consists of thorny bushes, acacias, mimosas,
320tamarisk, jujube, and asafœtida. Forests of oak cover the Lusistan
mountains, but the date-palm is the only produce of the
parched shores of the Arabian Gulf and of the oases on the Persian
table-land. In the valleys, which are beautiful, there are
clumps of Oriental plane and other trees, hawthorn, tree-roses,
and many of the odoriferous shrubs of Arabia Felix.
Afghanistan produces the seedless pomegranate, acacias, date-palms,
tamarisks, &c. The vegetation has much the same general
character as that of Egypt. The valleys of the Hindoo Coosh
are covered with clover, thyme, violets, and many odoriferous
plants: the greater part of the trees in the mountains are of
European genera, though all the species of plants, both woody
and herbaceous, are peculiar. The small leguminous plant, from
whose leaves and twigs the true indigo dye is extracted, grows
spontaneously on the lower offsets of the Hindoo Coosh. This
dye has been in use in India from the earliest times, but the plant
which produces it was not known in England till towards the end
of the 16th century. Since that time it has been cultivated in
the West Indies and tropical America, though in that country
there is a species indigenous.
Hot arid deserts bound India on the west, where the stunted
and scorched vegetation consists of tamarisks, thorny acacia, deformed
Euphorbiæ, and almost leafless thorny trees, shaggy with
long hair, by which they imbibe moisture and carbon from the
atmosphere. Indian forms appear near Delhi, in the genera Flacourtia
and others, mixed with Syrian plants. East of this transition
the vegetation becomes entirely Indian, except on the higher
parts of the mountains, where European types prevail.
The Himalaya mountains form a distinct botanical district.
Immediately below the snow-line the flora is almost the same
with that on the high plains of Tartary, to which may be added
rhododendrons and andromedas, and among the herbaceous plants
primroses appear. Lower down, vast tracts are covered with
prostrate bamboos, and European forms become universal, though
the species are Indian, as gentians, plantagos, campanulas, and
gale. There are extensive forests of Coniferæ, consisting chiefly
of Pinus excelsa, Deodora, and Morinda, with many deciduous
forest and fruit trees of European genera. A transition from this
flora to a tropical vegetation takes place between the altitudes of
9000 and 5000 feet, because the rains of the monsoons begin to
be felt in this region, which unites the plants of both. Here the
scarlet and other rhododendrons grow luxuriantly; walnuts, and
at least 25 species of oak, attain a great size, one of which, the
Quercus semi-carpifolia, has a clean trunk from 80 to 100 feet
high. Geraniums and labiate plants are mixed in sheltered spots
with the tropical genera of Scitamineæ, or the ginger tribe;
321bignonias and balsams, and camellias, grow on the lower part of
this region.
It is remarkable that Indian, European, American, and Chinese
forms are united in this zone of transition, though the distinctness
of species still obtains: the Triosteum, a genus of the honeysuckle
tribe, is American; the Abelia, another genus of the same, together
with the Camellia and Tricyrtis, are peculiarly Chinese;
the daisy and wild thyme are European. A few of the trees and
plants mentioned descend below the altitude of 5000 feet, but
they soon disappear on the hot declivities of the mountain, where
the Erythrina monosperma and Bombax heptaphyllum are the
most common trees, together with the Millingtoniæ, a tribe of
large timber-trees, met with everywhere between the Himalaya
and 10° N. lat. The Shorea robusta, Dalbergia, and Cedrela, a
genus allied to mahogany, are the most common trees in the
forests of the lower regions of these mountains.
The temperate regions of eastern Asia, including Chinese Tartary,
China, and Japan, have a vegetation totally different from
that of any other part of the globe similarly situated, and show
in a strong point of view the distinct character which vegetation
assumes in different longitudes. In Mandshuria and the vast
mountain-chains that slope from the eastern extremity of the
high Tartarian table-land to the fertile plains in China, the forests
and flora are generally of European genera, but Asiatic species;
in these countries the buckthorn and honeysuckle tribes are so
numerous as to give a peculiar character to the vegetation.
Mixed with these and with roses are thickets of azaleas covered
with blossoms of dazzling brightness and beauty.
The transition zone in this country lies between the 35th and
27th parallels of north latitude, in which the tropical flora is
mixed with that of the northern provinces. The prevailing
plants on the Chinese low grounds are Glycine, Hydrangea, the
camphor laurel, Stillingia sebifera, or wax-tree, Clerodendron,
Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, Thuia orientalis, Olea fragrans, the sweet
blossoms of which are mixed with the finer teas to give them
flavour; Melia azedarach, or Indian pride, the paper mulberry,
and others of the genus, and Camellia sasanqua, which covers
hills in the province of Kiong-si. The tea-plant, and other species
of Camellia, grow in many parts; the finest tea is the produce
of a low range of hills from between the 33d and 25th
parallels, an offset from the great chain of Peling. Thea viridis
and bohea are possibly only varieties of the same plant; the
green tea is strong and hardy, the black a small delicate plant.
The quality of the tea depends upon the stage of growth at which
it is gathered; early leaves make the best tea, those picked late
in the season give a very coarse tea. Bohea grows in the province
322of Fu-kian, hyson in Song-lo. Pekoe or pak-ho, which
means white down in Chinese, consists of the first downy sprouts
or leaf-buds of three-years-old plants. A very costly tea of this
kind, never brought to Europe, and known as the tea of the
Wells of the Dragon, is used only by persons of the highest rank
in China. The true Imperial tea, also, called Flos theæ, which
is not, as was supposed, the flower-buds, but merely a very superior
quality of tea, seldom reaches Europe; that sold under this
name is really Chusan tea flavoured with blossoms of Olea
fragrans.[159] The Chinese keep tea a year before they use it,
because fresh tea has an intoxicating quality which produces disturbance
of the nervous system like the effect of Erythroxylon
Coca on the Peruvians. It is a remarkable circumstance that
tea and coffee, belonging to different families, natives of different
quarters of the globe, should possess the same principle, and it is
not less remarkable that their application to the same use should
have been so early discovered by man.
The tea-plant grows naturally in Japan and upper Assam; it
is hardy, and possesses great power of adaptation to climate. It
has lately been cultivated in Brazil, in Provence, and in Algiers,
but at an expense which renders it unprofitable. Tea comes to
Europe almost exclusively from China, but the plant thrives so
well in the north-western provinces of India that the English will
ultimately compete with the Chinese in producing it, especially
for the consumption of Tibet. Tea was first brought to Europe
by the Dutch in 1610; a small quantity came to England in 1666,
and now the annual consumption of tea in Great Britain is about
fifty millions of pounds.[160]
The climate of Japan is milder than its latitude would indicate,
owing to the influence of the surrounding ocean. European
forms prevail in the high lands, as they do generally throughout
the mountains of Asia and the Indian Archipelago, with the difference
of species, as Abies, Cembra, Strobus, and Larix. The
Japanese flora is similar to the Chinese, and there are 30 American
plants, besides others of Indian and tropical climates. These
islands, nevertheless, have their own peculiar flora, distinct in its
nature; as the Sophora, Kerria, Aucuba, Mespilus, and Pyrus
Japonica, Rhus vernix, Illicium anisatum, or the anise-tree,
Daphne odorata, the soap-tree, various species of the Calycanthus
323tribe, the custard-apple, the Khair mimosa, which yields the
catechu, the litchi, the sweet orange, the Cycas revoluta, a plant
resembling a dwarf palm, with various other fruits. Many tropical
plants mingle with the vegetation of the cocoanut and fan
palms.
Thus, the vegetation in Japan and China is widely different
from that in the countries bordering the Mediterranean, though
between the same parallels of latitude. In the tropical regions
of Asia, where heat and moisture are excessive, the influence of
latitude vanishes altogether, and the peculiarities of the vegetation
in different longitudes become more evident.
CHAPTER XXV. — FLORA OF THE INDO-CHINESE PENINSULA AND THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. — INDIAN FLORA. — ARABIAN VEGETATION.
Flora of Tropical Asia—Of the Indian Archipelago, India, and Arabia.
Tropical Asia is divided by nature into three distinct botanical
regions: the Malayan peninsula, with the Indian Archipelago;
India, south of the Himalaya, with the island of Ceylon; and the
Arabian peninsula. The two first have strong points of resemblance,
though their floras are peculiar.
Many of the vegetable productions of the peninsula beyond the
Ganges are the same with those of India, mixed with the plants
of the Indian Archipelago, so that this country is a region of
transition, though it has a splendid vegetation of innumerable
native productions, dyes of the most vivid hues, spices, medicinal
plants, and many with the sweetest perfume. The soil in many
places yields three crops in the year; the fruits of India, and most
of those of China, come to perfection in the low lands. The
arang forms an exception to the extreme beauty of the multitude
of palms which adorn the Malayan peninsula; though it is eminently
characteristic of that country, it is an ugly plant, covered
with black fibres like horsehair, sufficiently strong to make cordage.
It is cultivated for the sugar and wine made from its juice.
Teak is plentiful; almost all that is used in Bengal comes from
the Birman empire, though it is less durable than that of the
Malabar coast. The Hopea odorata is so large that a canoe is
made of a single trunk; the Gordonia integrifolia is held in such
veneration that every Birman house has a beam of it.
324There are seven species of native oak in the forests; the Mimosa
catechu, which furnishes the terra japonica used in medicine;
the trees which produce varnish and stick-lac; the Glyphyria
nitida, a myrtle, the leaves of which are used as tea in Bencoolen,
called by the natives the tree of long life. The coasts are wooded
by the Heritiera robusta, a large tree which thrives within reach
of the tide; bamboos with stems a foot and a half in diameter
grow in dense thickets in the low lands. The Palmyra palm and
the Borassus flabelliformis grow in extensive groves in the valley
of the Irawaddy: it is a magnificent tree, often 100 feet high, remarkable
for its gigantic leaves, one of which would shelter 12
men.
The anomalous trees the Zamias and Cycadeæ, somewhat like
a palm with large pinnated leaves, but of a different family, are
found here and in tropical India; those in America are of a different
species. Orchideæ and tree-ferns are innumerable in the
woody districts of the peninsula.
The vegetation of the Indian Archipelago is gorgeous beyond
description; although in many instances it bears a strong analogy
to that of the Malayan peninsula, tropical India, and Ceylon, still
it is in an eminent degree peculiar. The height of the mountains
causes variety in the temperature sufficient to admit of the growth
of dammar pines, oaks, rhododendrons, magnolias, valerians,
honeysuckles, bilberries, gentians, oleasters, and other European
orders of woody and herbaceous plants; yet there is not one
species in common.
Palm-trees are more abundant in these islands than in any other
part of the world, especially in the Sunda group, the origin of
many, a few of which are now widely spread over the eastern
countries. Three species of Areca, attaining a height of from 40
to 50 and more feet, are cultivated in all the hot parts of India;
and Caryota Urens, the fruit of which is acrid, yet it yields wine
and sugar, are all native. The attempt is vain to specify the
multitudes of these graceful trees which form so characteristic a
feature in the vegetation of these tropical islands, where a rich
moist soil with intense heat brings them to such perfection. It
has been observed that monocotyledonous plants are generally
more plentiful in islands than on continents, and also that they
extend farther into the southern than into the northern hemisphere,
which may be accounted for by the moist and mild climate
of the former.
Jungle and dense pestilential woods entirely cover the smaller
islands and the plains of the larger; the coasts are lined with
thickets of mangroves, a matted vegetation of forest-trees, bamboos,
and coarse grass, entwined with climbing and creeping
plants, and overgrown by orchideous parasites in myriads; and
325the gutta-percha is also a native of these alluvial tracts. The
forest-trees of the Indian Archipelago are almost unknown; teak
and many of the continental trees grow there, but the greater
number are peculiarly their own. The naturalist Rumphius had
a cabinet inlaid with 400 kinds of wood, the produce of Amboyna
and the Molucca islands.
Sumatra, Java, and the adjacent islands, are the region of the
Dryobalanops camphora, in the stems of which solid lumps of a
remarkable and costly kind of camphor are found. All the trees
of that order, and of several others, are peculiar to these islands,
and 78 species of trees and shrubs of the Melastomaceous tribe
grow there and in continental India. There are thickets of the
sword-leaved vaquois-tree and of the Pandanus or screw-pine, a
plant resembling the anana, with a blossom like that of a bulrush,
very odoriferous, and in some species edible.
This is the region of spices, which are very limited in their
distribution: the Myristica moschata (the nutmeg and mace-plant)
is confined to the Banda Islands, but it is said to have been discovered
lately in New Guinea. The Amboyna and the Molucca
groups are the focus of the Caryophyllus aromaticus, a myrtle,
the buds of which are known as cloves. Various species of cinnamon
and cassia, both of the laurel tribe, together with varieties
of pepper, different from those in India and Ceylon, grow in this
archipelago. All the pepper-plants require great heat: they are
rare in Africa, but plentiful in America and the Indian Archipelago;
the common black pepper is peculiar to the hottest parts
of Asia, extending only a few degrees on each side of the equator.
In 1842 more than 30,000,000 pounds weight of pepper were
produced in Sumatra alone. Some of the most excellent fruits
are indigenous here only, as the dourio, the ayer ayer, Loquat,
the choapa of Molucca, peculiar kinds of orange, lemon, and
citron, with others known only by name elsewhere. Those common
to the continent of India are the jambrose, rose-apple, jack,
various species of bread-fruit, mango, mangosteen, and the banana,
which is luxuriant.
Here the nettle tribe assume the most pernicious character, and
the upas-tree of Java, one of the most deadly vegetable poisons;
and even the plants resembling our common nettle are so acrid
that the sting of one in Java occasions not only pain but illness,
which lasts for days. A nettle in the island of Timor, called by
the natives the “Devil’s leaf,” is so poisonous that it produces
long illness and even death. The chelik, a shrub growing in the
dense forests, produces a poison even more deadly than the upas.
Some of the fig genus, which belongs also to the natural order of
nettles, have acrid juices. Trees of the cashew tribe have a
milky sap: the fine japan lacquer is made from the juice of the
326Stagmaria verniciflua. Barringtonia and palms are very splendid
here, the latter generally of peculiar species and limited in their
distribution, as the Nipa. No country is richer in club-mosses
and orchideous plants, which overrun the trees in thousands in
the deep dark mountain-forests, choked by huge creeping plants,
an undergrowth of gigantic grasses, through which not a ray of
light penetrates.
Sir Stamford Raffles describes the vegetation of Java as “fearful.”
In these forests the air is heavy, charged with dank and
deadly vapours, never agitated by a breath of wind; the soil, of
the deepest black vegetable mould, always moist and clammy,
stimulated by the fervid heat of a tropical sun, produces trees
whose stems are of a spongy texture from their rapid growth,
loaded with parasites, particularly the orchideous tribe, of which
no less than 300 species are peculiar to that island. Tree-ferns
are in the proportion of one to twenty of the other plants, and
form a large portion of the vegetation of Java and all these islands;
and there are above 200 tropical species of club-mosses growing
to the length of 3 feet, whereas in cold countries they creep on
the ground.
The Rafflesias, of which there are four species, are the most
singular productions of this archipelago. The most extraordinary
one is common to Java and Sumatra, where it was discovered by
Dr. Arnold, and therefore is called Rafflesia Arnoldi. It is a
parasitical plant, with buds the size of an ordinary cabbage, and
the flower, which smells of carrion, is of a brick-red colour,
31⁄2
feet
in diameter: that found by Mr. Arnold weighed 15 pounds, and
the cup in its centre could contain 12 pints of liquid.
According to Sir Stamford Raffles there are six distinct climates
in Java, from the top of the mountains to the sea, each having an
extensive indigenous vegetation. No other country can show an
equal abundance and variety of native fruit and esculent vegetables.
There are 100 varieties of rice, and of fragrant flowers,
shrubs, and ornamental trees the number is infinite. Abundant
as the Orchideæ are in Java, Ceylon, and the Birmese empire,
these countries possess very few that are common to them all, so
local is their distribution. Ferns are more plentiful in this archipelago
than elsewhere: tree-ferns are found chiefly between or
near the tropics, in airless damp places.
The plains of Hindostan are so completely sheltered from the
Siberian blasts by the high table-lands of Tartary and the Himalaya
mountains, that the vegetation at the foot of that range already
327assumes a tropical character. In the jungles and lower ridges of
the fertile valley of Nepal, and on the dark and airless recesses of
the Silhet forests, arborescent ferns and orchideous plants are found
in profusion, scarcely surpassed even in the islands of the Indian
Archipelago—indeed the marshy Tariyane is full of them. The
lowest ranges of the Himalaya, the pestilential swamp of the Tariyane,
the alluvial ridges of the hills that bound it on the south,
and many parts of the plains of the Ganges, are covered with
primeval forests, which produce whole orders of large timber-trees,
frequently overrun with parasitical loranths.
The native fruits of India are many; the orange tribe is almost all
of Indian origin, though some of the species are now widely spread
over the warmer parts of the other continents and the more distant
countries of Asia. Two or three species are peculiar to Madagascar;
one is found in the forests of the Essequibo, and another
in Brazil, which are the only exceptions known. The Limonia laureola
grows on the tops of the high Asiatic mountains, which are
covered with snow several months in the year; and the wampee,
a fruit much esteemed in China and the Indian Archipelago, is
produced by a species of this order. The vine grows wild in the
forests; plantain, banana, jambrose, guava, mango, mangosteen,
date, areca, palmyra, cocoa-nut, and gameto-palms are all Indian,
also the gourd family. The Scitamineæ, or ginger tribe, are so
numerous, that they form a distinguishing and beautiful feature of
Indian botany: they produce ginger, cardamoms, and turmeric.
The flowers peculiar to India are brilliant in colours, but generally
without odour, except the rose and some jessamines.
The greater part of the trees and plants mentioned belong also
to tropical India, where vegetation is still more luxuriant; a large
portion of that magnificent country, containing 1,000,000 square
miles, has been cultivated time immemorial, although vast tracts
still remain in a state of nature. Those extensive mountain-chains
which traverse and surround the Deccan are rich in primeval
forests of stupendous growth with dense underwood. The most
remarkable of these trees are the Indian cotton-tree and the Dombeya,
which is of the same order; that which produces the Trincomalee
wood, used for building boats at Madras; the red-wood
tree, peculiar to the Coromandel coast, the satin-wood, the superb
Butea frondosa, the agallochum tribe, which yields the odorous
wood of aloes mentioned in Scripture, the Melaleuca leucadendron
and the Melaleuca cajepute, from which the oil is prepared. The
dragon’s-blood tree is a native of India, though not exclusively, as
some of the best specimens grow in Madagascar, where it is planted
for hedges. Sanders-wood and dragon’s-blood are obtained from
the Pterocarpus sandalinus and Draco; the sappan-tree gives a
purple dye: these are all of the leguminous or bean tribe, of which
328there are 452 Indian species: ebony grows in these tropical regions,
in Mauritius, and the south coast of Africa.
Some of the fig tribe are among the most remarkable vegetable
productions of India for gigantic size and peculiarity of form, which
renders them valuable in a hot climate from the shade which their
broad-spreading tops afford. Some throw off shoots from their
branches, which take root on reaching the ground, and, after increasing
in girth with wonderful rapidity, produce branches which
also descend to form new roots, and this process is continued till a
forest is formed round the parent tree. Mr. Reinwardt saw in the
island of Simao a large wood of the Ficus Benjamina which sprang
from one stem. The Ficus Indica, or banyan-tree, is another instance
of this wide-spreading growth; it is found in the islands,
but is in greatest perfection around the villages in the Circar mountains:
there is a tree of it on the banks of the Nerbudda, in the
province of Guzerat, with 350 main stems, occupying an area of
2000 feet in circumference, independent of its branches, which extend
much farther. The camphor genus is mostly Indian, as well
as many more of the laurel tribe of great size. The banana is the
most generally useful tree in this country; its fruit is food, its leaves
are applied to many domestic purposes, and flax fit for making
muslin is obtained from its stem. Cotton is a hairy covering of
the seeds of several species of the mallow tribe which grow spontaneously
in tropical Asia, Africa, and America; it is, however,
cultivated in many countries beyond these limits. That grown in
China and the United States of America is an herbaceous annual
from 18 inches to 2 feet high: there are also cotton-trees, native
and cultivated, in India, China, Africa, and America. Herodotus
mentions cotton garments 445 years before the Christian era, and
the Mexicans manufactured cotton cloth before the discovery of
America.
Palms, the most stately and graceful of the vegetable productions
of tropical regions, are abundant in India, in forests, in groups, and
in single trees. Some species grow at the limit of perpetual snow,
some 900 feet above the sea, others in valleys and on the shores
of the continent and islands. They decrease in number and variety
as the latitude increases, and terminate at Nice, in 44° N. lat.,
their limit in the great continent. The leaves of some are of
gigantic size, and all are beautiful, varying in height from the
slender Calamus rotang, 130 feet high, to the Chamærops humilis,
not more than 15 or 20. Different species yield wine, oil, wax,
flour, sugar, thread, and rope; weapons and utensils are made of
their stems and leaves; they serve for the construction of houses;
the cocoa-nut palm gives food and drink; sago is made from all
except the Areca catechu, the fruit of which, the betel-nut, is used
by the natives for its intoxicating quality.
329Though palms in general are very limited in their distribution,
a few species are very widely spread; for example, the cocoa-nut
palm, which grows spontaneously on the southern coasts of the
Indo-Chinese peninsula and the Sunda Islands, from whence it has
been carried to all the intertropical regions of the globe, where it
has been extensively cultivated from its usefulness. So luxuriant
is its growth in Ceylon, that in one year nearly 3,000,000 of nuts
were exported; in parts of that island, on the Malabar and Coromandel
coasts, and in some districts in Bengal, the Borassus flabelliformis
supplies its place.
The island of Ceylon, which may be regarded as the southernmost
extremity of the Indian peninsula, is very mountainous, and
rivals the islands of the Indian Archipelago in luxuriance of vegetable
productions, and, in some respects, bears a strong resemblance
to them. The laurel, the bark of which is cinnamon, is indigenous,
and one of the principal sources of the revenue of Ceylon.
The taleput leaves of a species of palm are of such enormous size,
that they are applied to many uses by the Cingalese; in ancient
times strips of the leaf were written upon with a sharp style, and
served as books. The sandalwood of Ceylon is of a different species
from that of the South Sea islands, and its perfume more
esteemed. Indigo is indigenous, and so is the choya, whose roots
give a scarlet dye. The mountains produce a great variety of
beautiful woods used in cabinet-work. It is a remarkable circumstance
in the distribution of plants, that the orchideæ are very
numerous in this island.
The third division of the tropical flora of Asia is the Arabian,
which differs widely from the other two, and is chiefly marked by
trees yielding balsams. Oceans of barren sand extend to the south,
from Syria through the greater part of Arabia, varied only by occasional
oases in those spots where a spring of water has reached
the surface; there the prevalent vegetation consists of the grasses,
Holcus and Panicum dicotomum growing under the shade of the
date-palm; mimosas and stunted prickly bushes appear here and
there in the sand. There is verdure on the mountains, and along
some of the coasts, especially in the province of Yemen, which
has a flora of its own. The Keura odorifera, a superb tree, with
agreeable perfume, eight species of figs, the three species of Amyris—gileadensis,
or balm of Gilead, opobalsamum also yielding
balsam, and the kataf, from which myrrh is supposed to come—are
peculiar to Arabia. Frankincense is said to be the produce of
the Boswellia serrata; and there are many species of Acacia,
330among others the Acacia arabica, which produces gum arabic.
The arak and tamarind trees connect the botany of Arabia with
that of the West Indies, while it is connected with that of the Cape
of Good Hope by Stapelias, mesembryanthemums, and liliaceous
flowers. The character of Arabian vegetation, like that of other
dry hot climates, consists in its odoriferous plants and flowers.
Arabia produces coffee, which, however, is not indigenous, but
is supposed to have come from the table-land of Ethiopia, and to
have its name from the province of Kaffa, where it forms dense
forests. It was introduced into Arabia in the end of the fifteenth
century, and grows luxuriantly in Arabia Felix, where the coffee
is of the highest flavour. Most of that now used is the progeny
of plants raised from seed and brought from Mocha to the Botanic
Garden at Amsterdam in 1690, by Van Hoorn, Governor of Batavia.
A plant was sent to Louis XIV., in 1714, by the magistrates of
Amsterdam—it was from this plant that the first coffee-plants were
introduced in 1717 into the West India islands. A year afterwards
the Dutch introduced coffee-trees into Surinam, from whence
they spread rapidly over the warm parts of America and the West
India islands. Many thousands of people are now employed in
its cultivation there, in Demerara, Java, Manilla, the isle of Bourbon,
and other places. More than 3,000,000 pounds of coffee-beans
are produced, and 100,000 tons of shipping are annually
employed in its transport across the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
Coffee was not known till many centuries after the introduction of
sugar. The first coffee-house was opened in London in 1652, and
the first in France, at Marseilles, in 1671.
CHAPTER XXVI. — FLORA OF AUSTRALIA.
African Flora—Flora of Australia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and of
Polynesia.
The northern coast of Africa, and the range of the Atlas generally,
may be regarded as a zone of transition, where the plants
of southern Europe are mingled with those peculiar to the country;
half the plants of northern Africa are also found in the other
countries on the shores of the Mediterranean. Of 60 trees and
248 shrubs which grow there, 100 only are peculiar to Africa,
and about 18 of these belong to its tropical flora. There are
about six times as many herbaceous plants as there are trees and
shrubs; and in the Atlas mountains, as in other chains, the perennial
plants are much more numerous than annuals. Evergreens
331predominate, and are the same as those on the other shores of the
Mediterranean. The pomegranite, the locust-tree, the oleander,
and the palmetto abound; and the cistus tribe give a distinct
character to the flora. The sandarach, or Thuia articulata, peculiar
to the northern side of the Atlas mountains and to Cyrenaica,
yields close-grained hard timber, used for the ceiling of mosques,
and is supposed to be the shittim-wood of Scripture. The Atlas
produces seven or eight species of oak, various pines, especially
the Pinus maritima, and forests of the Aleppo pine in Algiers.
The sweet-scented arborescent heath and Erica scoparia are
native here, also in the Canary Islands and the Azores, where
the tribe of house-leeks characterizes the botany. There are 534
phanerogamous plants, or such as have the parts of fructification
evident, in the Canary Islands; of these, 310 are indigenous, the
rest African: the Pinus canariensis is peculiar, and also the
Dracænæ, which grow in perfection here. The stem of the
Dracæna Draco, of the Villa Oratava in Teneriffe, measures 46
feet in circumference at the base of the tree, which is 75 feet
high. It is known to have been an object of great antiquity in
the year 1402, and is still alive, bearing blossoms and fruit. If
it be not an instance of the partial location of plants, there must
have been intercourse between India and the Canary Islands in
very ancient times.
Plants with bluish-green succulent leaves are characteristic of
tropical Africa and its islands; and though the group of the
Canaries has plants in common with Spain, Portugal, Africa,
and the Azores, yet there are many species, and even genera,
which are found in them only; and the height of the mountains
causes much variety in the vegetation.
On the continent, south of the Atlas, a great change of soil and
climate takes place; the drought on the borders of the desert is
so excessive that no trees can resist it, rain hardly ever falls, and
the scorching blasts from the south speedily dry up any moisture
that may exist; yet, in consequence of what descends from the
mountains, the date-palm forms large forests along their base,
which supply the inhabitants with food, and give shelter to crops
which could not otherwise grow. The date-palm, each tree of
which yields from 150 to 160 pounds weight of fruit, grows
naturally, and is also cultivated, through northern Africa. It has
been carried to the Canary Islands, Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and
to Nice, the most northern limit of the palm-tribe. Stunted
plants are the only produce of the desert, yet large tracts are
covered with the Pennisetum dichotomum, a harsh prickly
grass, which, together with the Alhagi maurorum, is the food of
camels.
The plants peculiar to Egypt are acacias, mimosas, cassias,
332tamarisks, the Nymphæa Lotus, the blue Lotus, the Papyrus,
from which probably the first substance used for writing upon
was made, and has left its name to that we now use; also the
Zizyphus or jujub, various mesembryanthemums, and most of the
plants of Barbary grow here. The date-palm is not found higher
on the Nile than Thebes, where it gives place to the doom-palm
or Cucifera Thebaica, peculiar to this district, and singular as
being the only palm that has a branched stem.
The eastern side of equatorial Africa is less known than the
western, but the floras of the two countries, under the same latitude,
have little affinity: on the eastern side the Rubiaceæ, the
Euphorbiæ, a race peculiarly African, and the Malvaceæ, are
most frequent. The genus Danais of the coffee tribe distinguishes
the vegetation of Abyssinia, also the Dombeya, a species of vine,
various jessamines, a beautiful species of honeysuckle; and Bruce
says a caper-tree grows to the height of the elm, with white
blossoms, and fruit as large as a peach. The daroo, or Ficus
sycomorus, and the arak-tree, are native. The kollquall, or
Euphorbia antiquorum, grows 40 feet high on the plain of Baharnagach,
in the form of an elegant branched candelabrum, covered
with scented fruit. The kantuffa or thornby shrub, is so great a
nuisance from its spines, that even animals avoid it. The Erythrina
Abyssinica bears a poisonous red bean with a black spot,
used by the shangalla and other tribes for ages as a weight for
gold, and by the women as necklaces. Mr. Rochet has lately
brought some seeds of new grain from Shoa, that are likely to be
a valuable addition to European cerealia.
The vegetation of tropical Africa on the west is known only
along the coast, where some affinity with that of India may be
observed. It consists of 573 species of flower-bearing plants,
and is distinguished by a remarkable uniformity, not only in
orders and genera, but even in species, from the 16th degree of
N. lat. to the river Congo in 6° S. lat. The most prevalent are
the grasses and bean tribes, the Cyperaceæ Rubiaceæ, and the
Compositæ. The Adansonia, or baobab of Senegal, is one of the
most extraordinary vegetable productions; the stem is sometimes
34 feet in diameter, though the tree is rarely more than 50 or
60 feet high; it covers the sandy plains so entirely with its
umbrella-shaped top, that a forest of these trees presents a compact
surface, which at some distance seems to be a green field.
Cape Verde has its name from the numbers that conceal the
barren soil under their spreading tops; some of them are very
old, and, with the dragon-tree at Teneriffe, are supposed to be
the most ancient vegetable inhabitants of the earth. The Pandanus
candelabrum, instead of growing crowded together in
masses like the baobab, stands solitary on the equatorial plains,
333with its lofty forked branches ending in tufts of long stiff leaves.
Numerous sedges, of which the Papyrus is the most remarkable,
give a character to this region, and cover boundless plains, waving
in the wind like corn-fields, while other places are overgrown by
forests of gigantic grasses with branching stems.
A rich vegetation, consisting of impenetrable thickets of mangrove,
the poisonous manchineel, and many large trees, cover the
deltas of the rivers, and even grow so far into the water, that
their trunks are coated with shell-fish; but the pestilential exhalations
render it almost certain death to botanize in this luxuriance
of nature.
Various kinds of the soap or sapodilla trees are peculiar to
Africa; the butter-tree of the enterprising but unfortunate Mungo
Park, the star-apple, the cream-fruit, the custard-apple, and the
water-vine, are plentiful in Senegal and Sierra Leone. The
ibraculea is peculiarly African; its seeds are used to sweeten
brackish water. The safu and bread-fruit of Polynesia are
represented here by the musanga, a large tree of the nettle tribe,
the fruit of which has the flavour of the hazel-nut. A few palms
have very local habitations, as the Elais Guineensis, or palm-oil
plant, found only on that coast. That graceful tribe is less varied
in species in equatorial Africa than in the other continents. It
appears that a great part of the flora of this portion of Africa is
of foreign origin.
The flora of south Africa differs entirely from that of the
northern and tropical zones, and as widely from that of every
other country, with the exception of Australia and some parts of
Chile. The soil of the table-land at the Cape of Good Hope,
stretching to an unknown distance, and of the Karoo plains and
valleys between the mountains, is sometimes gravelly, but more
frequently is composed of sand and clay; in summer it is dry
and parched, and most of its rivers are dried up; it bears but a
few stunted shrubs, some succulent plants and mimosas, along
the margin of the river-courses. The sudden effect of rain on
the parched ground is like magic: it is recalled to life, and in a
short time is decked with a beautiful and peculiar vegetation,
comprehending, more than any other country, numerous and
distinctly-defined foci of genera and species.
Twelve thousand species of plants have been collected in the
colony of the Cape in an extent of country about equal to Germany.
Of these, heaths and proteas are two very conspicuous
tribes; there are 300 species of the former, and 200 of the latter,
both of which have nearly the same limited range, though Mr.
Bunbury found two heaths, and the Protea cynaroides, the most
splendid of the family (bearing a flower the size of a man’s hat),
on the hills round Graham’s Town, in the eastern part of the
334colony. These two tribes of plants are so limited that there is
not one of either to be seen north of the mountains which bound
the Great Karoo, and by much the greatest number of them grew
within 100 miles of Cape Town; indeed at the distance of only
40 miles the prevailing Proteaceæ are different from those at the
Cape. The Leucadendron argenteum, or silver-tree, which forms
groves at the back of the table-mountain, is confined to the peninsula
of the Cape. The beautiful Disa grandiflora is found only
in one particular place on the top of the table-mountain.
The dry sand of the west coast, and the country northward
through many degrees of latitude, is the native habitation of
Stapelias, succulent plants with square leafless stems, and flowers
like star-fish, with the smell of carrion. A great portion of the
eastern frontier of the Cape colony and the adjacent districts is
covered with extensive thickets of a strong succulent and thorny
vegetation, called by the natives the bush: similar thickets occur
again far to the west, on the banks of the river Gauritz. The
most common plants of the bush are aloes of many species, all
exceedingly fleshy and some beautiful: the great red-flowering
arborescent aloe, and some others, make a conspicuous figure in
the eastern part of the colony. Other characteristic plants of the
eastern districts are the spek-boem, or Portulacaria afra, Schotia
speciosa, and the great succulent euphorbias, which grow into real
trees 40 feet high, branching like a candelabrum, entirely leafless,
prickly, and with a very acrid juice. The Euphorbia meloformis,
three feet in diameter, lies on the ground, to which it is attached
by slender fibrous roots, and is confined to the mountains of Graaf
Reynet. Euphorbias, in the Old World, correspond with the
Cactus tribe, which belong exclusively to the New. The Zamia,
a singular plant, having the appearance of a dwarf-palm, without
any real similarity of structure, belongs to the eastern districts,
especially to the great tract of bush on the Caffir frontier.
Various species of Acacia are indigenous and much circumscribed
in their location: the Acacia horrida, or the white-thorned
acacia, is very common in the eastern districts and in Caffirland.
The Acacia cafra is strictly eastern, growing along the margins
of rivers, to which it is a great ornament. The Acacia detinens,
or hook-thorn, is almost peculiar to Zand valley.
It appears, from the instances mentioned, that the vegetation in
the eastern districts of the colony differs from that on the western,
yet many plants are generally diffused of orders and genera found
only in this part of Africa:—Nearly all the 300 species of the
fleshy succulent tribe of Mesembryanthemum, or Hottentot’s fig;
a great many beautiful species of the Oxalis, or wood-sorrel-tribe;
every species of Gladiolus, with the exception of that in the cornfields
in Italy and France; ixias innumerable, one with petals of
335apple-green colour; geraniums, especially the genus Pelargonium,
or stork’s bill, almost peculiar to this locality; many varieties of
Gnaphalium and Xeranthemum; the brilliant Strelitzia; 133
species of the house-leek tribe, all fleshy, attached to the soil by
a strong wiry root, and nourished more or less from the atmosphere:
Diosmas are widely scattered in great variety; shrubby
Boragineæ with flowers of vivid colours, and Orchideæ with large
and showy blossoms. The leguminous plants and Cruciferæ of
the Cape are peculiar; indeed all the vegetation has a distinct
character, and both genera and species are confined within narrower
limits than anywhere else, without any apparent cause to
account for a dispersion so arbitrary.
Notwithstanding the peculiarity of character with which the
botany of the Cape is so distinctly marked, it is connected with
that of very remote countries by particular plants; for example,
of the seven species of bramble which grow at the Cape, one is
the common English bramble or blackberry. The affinity with
New Holland is greater: in portions of the two countries in the
same latitude there are several genera and species that are identical:
Proteaceæ are common to both, so are several genera of
Irideæ, Leguminosæ, Ficoideæ, Myrtaceæ, Diosmeæ, and some
others. The botany of the Cape is connected with that of India,
and even that of South America, by a few congeners.
The vegetation of Madagascar, though similar in many respects
to the floras of India and Africa, nevertheless is its own: the
Brexiaceæ and Chlenaceæ are orders found nowhere else: there
are species of Bignonia, Cycadeæ, and Zamias, a few of the mangosteen
tribe, and in the mountains some heaths. The Hydrogeton
fenestralis is a singular aquatic plant, with leaves like the
dried skeletons of leaves, having no green fleshy substance, and
the Tanghinia veneniflua, which produces a poison so deadly that
its seeds are used to execute criminals, and one seed is sufficient.
Some genera and species are common and peculiar to Madagascar,
the Isle of Bourbon, and Mauritius; yet of the 161 known
genera in Madagascar only 54 grow on the other two islands.
The three islands are rich in ferns. The Pandanus, or screw-pine
genus, abounds in Bourbon and the Mauritius, where it
covers sandy plains, sending off strong aërial roots from the stem,
which strike into the ground and protect the plant from the violent
winds. Of 290 genera in Bourbon and Mauritius, 196 also
grow in India, though the species are different: there is also
some resemblance to the vegetation of South Africa, and there is
a solitary genus in common with America.
Eight or ten degrees north of Madagascar lies the group of the
Seychelles Islands, in which are groves of the peculiar palm
which bears the double cocoa-nut, or coco de mer, the growth of
336these islands only. Its gigantic leaves are employed in the construction
of houses, and other parts of the plant are applied to
various domestic purposes.
The interior of the Australian continent is so little known, that
the flora which has come under observation is confined to a short
distance from the coast; but it is of so strange and unexampled a
character, that it might easily be mistaken for the production of
another planet. Many entire orders of plants are known only in
Australia, and the genera and species of others that grow elsewhere
assume new and singular forms. Evergreens, with hard
narrow leaves of a sombre, melancholy hue, are prevalent, and
there are whole shadowless forests of leafless trees; the foot-stalks,
dilated and set edgewise on the stem, supply their place
and perform the functions of nutrition; their altered position
gives them a singular appearance. Plants in other countries
have glands on the under side of the leaves, but in Australia
there are glands on both sides of these substitutes for leaves,
which make them dull and lustreless, and the changes of the
seasons have no influence on the unvarying olive-green of the
Australian forests; even the grasses are distinguished from the
gramineæ of other countries by a remarkable rigidity. Torres
Straits, in the north, only 50 miles broad, separates this dry, sombre
vegetation from the luxuriant jungle-clad shores of New
Guinea, where deep and dark forests are rich in more than the
usual tropical exuberance—a more complete and sudden change
can hardly be imagined.
The peculiarly Australian vegetation is in the southern part of
the continent of New Holland distributed in distinct foci in the
same latitude, a circumstance of which the Proteaceæ afford a
remarkable instance. Nearly one-half of the known species of
these beautiful shrubs grow in the parallel of Port Jackson, from
which they decrease in number both to the south and the north.
In that latitude, however, there are twice as many species on the
eastern side of the continent as there are on the western, and four
times as many as in the centre. Although the Proteaceæ at both
extremities of the continent have all the characters peculiar to
Australia, yet those on the eastern coast resemble the South
American species, while those on the western side have a resemblance
to African forms, and are confined to the same latitudes.
Species of this family are numerous in Van Diemen’s Land;
where they thrive at the elevation of 3500 feet, and also on the
plains. The myrtle tribe form a conspicuous feature in Australian
337vegetation, particularly the genera Eucalyptus, Melaleuca,
Beaufortia, and others, with splendid blossoms—white, purple,
yellow, crimson: 100 species of the Eucalypti, most of them large
trees, grow in New Holland; they form great forests in the
colony of Port Jackson. The leafless acacias, of which there are
93 species, are a prominent feature in the Australian landscape.
The leaves, except in very young plants, are merely foliaceous
foot-stalks, presenting their margin towards the stem; yet these
and the Eucalypti form the densest shade of any trees in the
country. The genus Casuarina, with its strange-jointed, drooping
branches, called the marsh-oak, holds a conspicuous place;
it is chiefly confined to the principal parallel of this vegetation,
and produces excellent timber; it grows also in the Malayan
peninsula and South Sea islands. The Oxleya xanthoxylon or
yellow wood, one of the mahogany tribe, grows to great size, and
the Podocarpus aspleniifolia forms a new genus of the cone-bearing
trees. Some of the nettle tribe grow 15 or even 20 feet high.
The Epacrideæ, with scarlet, rose, and white blossoms, supply
the place of, and very much resemble, heaths, which do not exist
here. The purple-flowering Tremandreæ; the yellow-flowering
Dilleniaceæ; the Doryanthes excelsa, the most splendid of the lily
tribe, 24 feet high, with a brilliant crimson blossom; the Banksia,
the most Australian of all the Proteaceæ; with Zamias of new
species, are all conspicuous in the vegetation of Port Jackson.
There is a change on the north-eastern coast of New Holland.
The Castanospermum Australe is so plentiful that it furnishes the
principal food of the natives; a caper-tree of grotesque form,
having the colossal dimensions of the Senegal baobab, and extraordinary
trees of the fig genus, characterize this region. It sometimes
occurs, when the seeds of these fig-trees are deposited by
birds on the iron-bark-tree, or Eucalyptus resinifera, that they
vegetate and enclose the trunk of the tree entirely with their
roots, whence they send off enormous lateral branches, which so
completely envelop the tree, that at last its top alone is visible in
the centre of the fig-tree, at the height of 70 or 80 feet. The
Pandanus genus flourishes within the influence of the sea-air.
There are only six species of palms, equally local in their habitations
as elsewhere, not one of which grows on the west side of
the continent. The Araucaria excelsa, or Norfolk Island pine,
produces the best timber of any tree in this part of Australia: it,
or others of the same genus, extends from the parallel of 29° on
the east coast towards the equator, and grows over an area of 900
square miles, including New Norfolk, New Caledonia, and other
islands, some of which have no other timber-tree: they are supposed
to exist only within the influence of the sea. The Asphodeleæ
338abound and extend to the southern extremity of Van Dieman’s
Land.
The south-western districts of New Holland exhibit another
focus of vegetation, less rich in species than that of Port Jackson,
but not less peculiar. The Kingia Australis, or grass-tree, rises
solitary on the sandy plains, with bare blackened trunks as if
scathed by lightning, occasioned by the fires of the natives, and
tufts of long grassy leaves at their extremities; Banksias, particularly
the kind called wild honeysuckle, are numerous; the Stylidium,
whose blossoms are even more irritable than the leaves of
the sensitive mimosa, and plants with dry, everlasting blossoms,
characterize the flora of these districts. The greater part of the
southern vegetation vanishes on the northern coasts of the continent,
and what remains is mingled with the cabbage-palm, various
species of the nutmeg tribe, sandal-wood, and other Malayan forms—a
circumstance that may hereafter be of importance to our
colonists.
Orchideæ, chiefly terrestrial, are in great variety in the extra-tropical
regions of New Holland, and the grasses amount to one-fourth
of the monocotyledonous plants. Reeds of gigantic size
form forests in the marshes, and kangaroo-grass covers the plains.
Beautiful and varied as the flora is, New Holland is by no
means luxuriant in vegetation. There is little appearance of
verdure, the foliage is poor, the forests often shadeless, and the
grass thin; but in many valleys of the mountains, and even on some
parts of the plains, the vegetation is vigorous. It is not the least
remarkable circumstance in this extraordinary flora, that, with the
exception of a few berries, there is no edible fruit, grain, or vegetable
indigenous either in New Holland or Van Diemen’s Land.
The plants of New Holland prevail in every part of Van Diemen’s
Land; yet the coldness of the climate and the height of the
mountains permit genera of the northern hemisphere to be mixed
with the vegetation of the country. Butter-cups, anemones, and
polygonums of peculiar species grow on the mountain-tops, together
with Proteaceæ and other Australian plants. The plains
glow with the warm golden flowers of the black wattle, a Mimosa,
emblematic of the island, and with the equally bright and orange
blossom of the gorse, which perfumes the whole atmosphere.
Only one tree-fern grows in this country; it rises 20 feet to the
base of the fronds, which spread into an elegant top, producing a
shadow gloomy as night-fall, and there are 150 species of orchis.
The southern extremities both of New Holland and Van Diemen’s
Land are characterized by the prevalence of evergreen plants:
but the trees here, as well as in the other parts of the southern
hemisphere, do not shed their leaves periodically as with us.
The botany of New Zealand appears to be intimately allied to
339that of New Holland, South America, and South Africa, but
chiefly to that of New Holland. Noble trees form impenetrable
forests, 60 of which yield the finest timber, and many are of kinds
to which we have nothing similar. Here there are no representatives
of our oak, birch, or willow, but five species of beech and
ten of Coniferæ have been discovered that are peculiar to the
country. They are all alpine, and only descend to the level of
the sea in the southern parts of the island. The Coniferæ of the
southern hemisphere are more local than in the northern; of the
ten species peculiar to New Zealand it is not certain that more
than two or three are found in the middle island, or that any of
them grow south of the 40th parallel. The Kauri pine, or Dammara
australis, is indigenous in all the three islands, but it is the
only cone-bearing tree in North Island, where it grows in hilly
situations near the sea, shooting up with a clean stem 60 or 90
feet, sometimes 30 feet in diameter, with a spreading but thin
top, and generally has a quantity of transparent yellow resin
imbedded at its base. This fine tree does not grow beyond the
38th degree of S. lat. The Metrosideros tomentosa, with rich
crimson blossoms, is one of the greatest ornaments of the forests,
and the Metrosideros robusta the most singular. It grows to a
very great size, and sends shoots from its trunk and branches to
the ground, which become so massive that they support the old
stem, which to all appearance loses its vitality; it is in fact an
enormous epiphyte, growing to, and not from, the ground. Many
of the smaller trees are of the laurel tribe, with poisonous berries.
Besides, there is a cabbage-palm, the Areca sapida, elder, the
Fuchsia excorticata, and other shrubs. This country is probably
the southern limit of the orchideous plants that grow on trees.
Before New Zealand was colonized, the natives lived chiefly on
the roots of the edible fern, Pteris esculenta, with which the
country is densely covered, mixed with a shrub that grows like a
cypress, and the tea-plant, which is a kind of myrtle whose berries
afford an intoxicating liquor. More than 140 species of fern
are natives of these islands, some of which are arborescent and
40 feet high; the country is chiefly covered with these and with
the New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax, which grows abundantly
both on the mountains and plains. The vegetation is so vigorous
on these volcanic islands that it grows richly on the banks of hot
springs, and even in water too hot to be touched.[161]
In Norfolk Island, 152 species of plants are already known, and
many, no doubt, are yet to be discovered. The Cape gooseberry
or Physalis edulis, the guava-tree, pepper, white and swamp oak,
iron, blood-wood, and lemon trees, are native; also the bread-fruit
340tree, which blossoms, but does not bear fruit. The Araucaria
excelsa and some palms are indigenous, and there are three times
as many ferns as of all the other plants together.
The multitude of islands of Polynesia constitute a botanical
region apart from all others, though it is but little varied, and
characterized principally by the number of syngenesious plants
with arborescent terms and tree-ferns. In continental India and
the tropical parts of New Holland, the proportion of ferns to conspicuously-flowering
plants is as 1 to 26, while on the Polynesian
islands it is as 1 to 4, and perhaps even as 1 to 3.[162]
The cocoa-nut palm and the pandanus are common to all the
islands, but the latter thrives only when exposed to the sea-air.
This archipelago produces Tacca pinnatifida, which yields arrow-root;
the Morus papyrifera, whose bark is manufactured into
paper; and one of the Dracæna tribe, from which an intoxicating
liquor is made. Fifty varieties of the bread-fruit tree are indigenous,
which produce three or four crops annually. It is most
abundant in the Friendly, Society, and Caroline groups, from
whence it has been taken to America, where it thrives in very
low latitudes. The Sandwich group is peculiar in the number of
Goodenias and Lobelias; while the Coral Islands, whose flora is
entirely borrowed, rarely have two species belonging to the same
genus; the fragrant suriana and sweet-scented Tournfortia are
among their scanty vegetation.
The two species of banana-trees which are natives of southern
Asia have been introduced at an unknown and probably early
period into the Polynesian islands, and all tropical countries in
the eastern and western hemispheres. Syria is their northern
limit, where the Musa paradisaica grows to 34° N. lat. The
sweet fruit of these trees produces, on the same extent of ground,
44 times as much nutriment as the potato, and 133 times more
than wheat.
St. Helena, the Sandwich group, New Zealand, Juan Fernandez,
and above all the Galapagos islands, are more peculiar in their
floras than any other tracts of their size. The Galapagos archipelago
consists of 10 principal islands lying immediately under
the equator, 600 miles from the coast of America. They are
entirely volcanic, and contain 2000 extinct craters. The vegetation
is so peculiar that, of 180 plants which have been collected,
100 are found nowhere else; of 21 species of Compositæ all but
one are new, and belong to 10 genera, 8 of which are confined to
these islands exclusively.
This flora has no analogy to that of Polynesia, but it bears a
double relation to the flora of South America. The plants peculiar
341to the Galapagos islands are, for the most part, allied to those
on the cooler part of the continent or on high lands, while the
others are the same with those that abound in the hot damp intertropical
regions of the continent. The greatest number of peculiar
plants grow on the tops of the islands where the sea vapour
is condensed, and many of them are confined to some one islet of
the group. Though this flora is singular, it is poor compared
with that of the Sandwich group, or the Cape de Verde Islands.[163]
CHAPTER XXVII. — FLORA OF MEXICO AND THE WEST INDIES. — FLORA OF TROPICAL AMERICA. — ANTARCTIC FLORA. — ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF CEREALIA. — MARINE VEGETATION.
American Vegetation—Flora of North, Central, and South America—Antarctic
Flora—Origin and Distribution of the Cerealia—Ages of
Trees—Marine Vegetation.
From similarity of physical circumstances the arctic flora of
America bears a strong resemblance to that of the northern regions
of Europe and Asia. This botanical district comprises
Greenland, and extends considerably to the south of the arctic
circle, especially at the eastern and western ends of the continent,
where it reaches the 60th parallel of N. lat., and even more; it
is continued along the tops of the Rocky Mountains almost to
Mexico, and it re-appears on the White Mountains and a few
other parts of the Alleghanies.
Greenland has a much more arctic flora than Iceland; the valleys
are entirely covered with mosses and marsh-plants, and the
gloomy rocks are cased in sombre lichens that grow under the
snow, and the grasses on the pasture-grounds that line the fiords
are nearly four times less varied than those of Iceland. In some
sheltered spots the service-tree bears fruit, and birches grow to
the height of a few feet: but ligneous plants in general trail on
the ground.
The arctic flora of America has much the same character with
that of Europe and Asia, and many species are common to all;
still more are representative, but there is a difference in the vegetation
342at the two extremities of the continent; there are 30 species
in the east and 20 in the west end which grow nowhere else.
The sameness of character changes with the barren treeless lands
at the verge of the Arctic region, and the distribution of plants
varies both with the latitude and the longitude. Taking a broad
view of the botanical districts of North America, there are two
woody regions, one on the eastern, the other on the western side
of the continent, separated by a region of prairies where grasses
and herbaceous plants predominate. The vegetation of these
three parts, so dissimilar, varies with the latitude, but not after
the same law as in Europe, for the winter is much colder and the
summer warmer on the eastern coasts of America than on the
western coast of Europe, owing, in a great measure, to the prevalence
of westerly winds which bring cold and damp to our shores.
Boundless forests of black and white spruce, with an undergrowth
of reindeer moss, cover the country south of the Arctic
region, which are afterwards mixed with other trees; gooseberries,
strawberries, currants, and some other plants thrive there. There
are vast forests in Canada of pines, oak, ash, hickory, red beech,
birch, the lofty Canadian poplar, sometimes 100 feet high and 36
feet in circumference, and sugar-maple; the prevailing plants are
Kalmias, azaleas, and asters, the former vernal, the latter autumnal;
solidagos and asters are the most characteristic plants of this region.
The splendour of the North American flora is displayed in the
United States; the American sycamore, chestnut, black walnut,
hickory, white cedar, wild cherry, red birch, locust-tree, tulip-tree,
or Liriodendron, the glory of American forests, liquid-ambar,
oak, ash, pine-trees of many species, grow luxuriantly, with an
undergrowth of rhododendrons, azaleas, Andromedas, Gerardias,
Calycanthus, Hydrangea, and many more of woody texture, with
an infinite variety of herbaceous and climbing plants.
The vegetation is different on the two sides of the Alleghany
mountains; the locust-tree, Canadian poplar, Hibiscus, and Hydrangea,
are most common on the west side; the American chestnut
and Kalmias are so numerous on the Atlantic side as to give
a distinctive character to the flora: here, too, aquatic plants are
more frequent; among these the Sarracenia or side-saddle flower,
singular in form, with leaves like pitchers covered with a lid, half
full of water.
The autumnal tints of the forests in the middle States are
beautiful and of endless variety; the dark leaves of the evergreen
pine, the red foliage of the maple, the yellow beech, the scarlet
oak, and purple Nyssa, with all their intermediate tints, ever
changing with the light and distance, produce an effect at sunset
that would astonish the native of a country with a more sober-coloured
flora under a more cloudy sky.
343In Virginia, Kentucky, and the southern States, the vegetation
assumes a different aspect, though many plants of more northern
districts are mixed with it. Trees and shrubs here are remarkable
for broad shining leaves and splendid blossoms, as the Gleditschia,
Catalpa, Hibiscus, and all the family of Magnolias, which
are natives of the country, excepting a very few found in Asia
and the Indian islands. They are the distinguishing feature of
the flora from Virginia to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic
to the Rocky Mountains: the Magnolia grandiflora and the tulip-tree
are the most splendid specimens of this race of plants; the
latter is often 120 feet high. The long-leaved pitch-pine, one of
the most picturesque of trees, covers an arid soil on the coast of
the Atlantic of 60,000 square miles. The swamps so common in
the southern States are clothed with gigantic deciduous cypress,
the aquatic oak, swamp hickory, with the magnificent Nelumbium
luteum and other aquatics, and among the innumerable herbaceous
plants the singular Dionæa muscipula, or American fly-trap: the
trap is formed by two opposite lobes of the leaf, covered with
spines, and so irritable, that they instantly close upon the insect
that has come to light upon them. This Magnolia region corresponds
in latitude with the southern shores of the Mediterranean,
but the climate is hotter and more humid, in consequence
of which there is a considerable number of Mexican plants. A
few dwarf-palms appear among the Magnolias, and the forests in
Florida and Alabama are covered with Tillandsia usneoides, an
air-plant, which hangs from the boughs.[164]
Ten or twelve species of grass cover the extensive prairies or
steppes of the valley of the Mississippi. The forms of the Tartarian
steppes appear to the north in the Centaurea, Artemisia,
Astragali; but the Dahlias, Œnotheras, with many more, are
their own. The Helianthus and Coreopsis, mixed with some
European genera, mark the middle regions; and in the south,
towards the Rocky Mountains, Clarkia and Bartonia are mixed
with the Mexican genera of Cactus and Yucca. The western
forest is less extensive and less varied than the eastern, but the
trees are larger. This flora in high latitudes is but little known;
the Thuia gigantea on the Rocky Mountains and the coast of the
Pacific is 200 feet high. Claytonias and currants, with plants of
northern Asia, are found here.
Farther west, the Pinus Lambertiana is another specimen of the
stupendous trees of this flora; seven species of pine are indigenous
in California, some of which have measured 200, and even 300
344feet high, and 80 in circumference. Captain Sir Edward Belcher,
in his “Voyage on the Pacific,” mentions having measured an
oak 27 feet in circumference, and another 18 feet girth at the
height of 60 feet from the ground, before the branches began to
spread. This is the native soil of the currant-bushes with red
and yellow blossoms, of many varieties of lupins, pæonies, poppies,
and other herbaceous plants so ornamental in our gardens.
There are 332 genera of plants peculiar to North America,
exclusive of Mexico, but no family of any great extent has yet
been discovered there. About 160 large trees yield excellent
timber; the wood of the pine-trees of the eastern forests is of inferior
quality to that grown on the other side of the continent, and
both appear to be less valuable than the pine-wood of Europe,
which is best when produced in a cold climate. The Pinus Cembra
and the Pinus uncinata are the most esteemed of the Old
World.
The native fruits of North America are mostly of the nut-kind,
and there are many of these, to which may be added the Florida
orange, the Chicasa plum, the papaw, the banana, the red mulberry,
and the plumlike fruit of the persimon. There are seven
species of wild grapes, but good wine has not hitherto been produced.
Although America has contributed so much to the ornament
of our pleasure-grounds and gardens, yet there are comparatively
few North American plants which have become an object
of extensive cultivation, while America has borrowed largely from
other parts of the globe; the grapes cultivated in North America
are European; tobacco, Indian corn, and many others of the
utmost commercial value are strangers to the soil, having been
introduced by the earliest inhabitants from Mexico and South
America, which have contributed much more to general utility.
Mexico itself unites the vegetation of North and South America,
though it resembles that of the latter more nearly. Whole provinces
on the table-land and mountains produce alpine plants,
oaks, chestnuts, and pines spontaneously. The Cheirostemon,
or hand-tree, so named from the resemblance its stigma bears to
the human hand, grows here, and also in the Guatemala forests.
The low lands of Mexico and Central America have a very rich
flora, consisting of many orders and genera peculiar to them, and
species without number, a great portion of which are unknown.
The Hymenea Courbaril, from which the copal of Mexico is obtained,
logwood, mahogany, and many other large trees, valuable
for their timber, grow in the forests; sugar-cane, tobacco, indigo,
345American aloe, yam, capsicum, and yucca, are indigenous in
Mexico and Central America. It is the native region of the Melastomas,
of which 620 species are known; almost all the pepper
tribe, the Passifloræ, the ornament and pride of tropical America
and the West Indian islands, begin to be numerous in these regions.
The pine-apple is entirely American, growing in the woods and
savannahs: it has been carried to the West Indies, to the East
Indies and China, and is naturalized in all. This country has
also produced the cherimoya, said to be the most exquisite of fruits.
All the vanilla that is used in Europe comes from the States of
Vera Cruz and Oaxaca, on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera of
Anahuac in Mexico. It is native throughout tropical America,
growing in hot, damp, shady places. Hot arid tracts are covered
with the Cactus tribe, a family of Central America and Mexico,
which is more widely dispersed than the anana: some species bear
a considerable degree of cold. They are social plants, inhabiting
sandy plains in thickets, and of many species: their forms are
various, and their blossoms beautiful. A few occur at a considerable
distance from the tropics, to the north and the south. The
night-flowering Cereus grows in all its beauty in the arid parts of
Chile, filling the night air with its perfume. The Cactus opuntia
grows in the Rocky Mountains; and Sir George Back found a
small island in the Lake of the Woods covered with it. This species
has been brought to Europe, and now grows a common weed
on the borders of the Mediterranean. In Mexico, the cochineal
insect was collected from the Cactus coccinellifer long before the
Spanish conquest. There are large fields of American aloe, from
which a liquor called pulque, and also an ardent spirit, are made.
The ancient Mexicans made their hemp from this plant, and also
their paper. The forests of Panama contain at least 97 different
kinds of trees, which grow luxuriantly in a climate where the torrents
of rain are so favourable to vegetation, and so unfavourable
to life that the tainted air is deadly even to animals.
The sugar-cane is a native of both continents; Columbus found
it wild in many parts of America: the sweet cane is mentioned
by the Prophets, and it has grown time immemorial on the coasts
of China and in the islands of the Pacific. Its culture ranges
throughout the torrid zone, and to latitudes where the mean temperature
is not under 64° of Fahrenheit. It grows on the plains
of Nepaul at an absolute elevation of 4800 feet, and at the height
of from 3500 to 5100 feet in the Cordillera of New Grenada. It
is now scarcely cultivated in the southern provinces of New Spain,
where it was introduced by the Spaniards, but it is extensively
raised in Guiana, Brazil, the West India islands, the Mauritius,
Bourbon, Bengal, Siam, Java, the Philippine islands, and China.
Maize or Indian corn is believed to have come originally from
346Mexico and South America. It is an annual, requiring only summer
heat; its limit is 50° N. in the American continent, and 47°
N. in Europe; it ripens at an elevation of 7600 feet in low latitudes,
and in the Lower Pyrenees at the height of 3289 feet.[165]
The flora of each West Indian island is similar to that of the
continent opposite to it. The Myrtus pimento, producing allspice,
is common in the hills; custard-apple, guava, the avocado pear,
and tobacco, are indigenous; the cabbage-palm grows to the height
of 150 feet; the palma-real of Cuba is the most majestic of that
noble family; and in Barbadoes there still exists a tree, but wearing
out rapidly, which has given the island its name.
Although the flora of tropical America is better explored than
that of Asia or Africa, there must still be thousands of plants of
which we have no knowledge; and those which have come under
observation are so varied and so numerous, that it is not possible
to convey an idea of the peculiarities of this vegetation, or of the
extent and richness of its woodlands. The upper Orinoco flows
for some hundred miles chiefly through forests; and the silvas of
the Amazons are six times the size of France. In these the trees
are colossal, and the vegetation so matted together by underwood,
creeping and parasitical plants, that the sun’s rays can scarcely
penetrate the dense foliage.
These extensive forests are by no means uniform; they differ
on each side of the equator, though climate and other circumstances
are the same. Venezuela, Guiana, the Amazona, and Brazil, are
each the centre of a peculiar flora. So partial is this splendid
vegetation, that almost each tributary of the great rivers has a flora
of its own: particular families of plants are so restricted in their
localities, and predominate so exclusively where they occur, that
they change the appearance of the forest. Thus, from the prevalence
of the orders Laurineæ, Sapotaceæ, and others, which have
leathery, shining, and entire leaves, the forests through which the
Rio Negro, Cassiquiare, and Tuamine flow, differ in aspect from
those of the other affluents of the Amazons. Even the grassy
llanos, so uniform in appearance, have their centres of vegetation;
and only agree with the pampas of Buenos Ayres in being covered
with grass and herbs. In these tropical regions the flora varies
with the altitude also. On the Andes, almost at the limit of vegetation,
the ground is covered with purple, azure, and scarlet gentians,
347drabas, alchemillas, and many other brilliantly-coloured alpine
plants. This zone is followed by thickets of coriaceous-leaved
plants, in perpetual bloom and verdure; and then come the forest-trees.
Arborescent ferns ascend to 7000 feet; the coffee-tree and
palms to 5000; and neither indigo nor cocoa can be cultivated
lower than 2000. The tree yielding cocoa, of which chocolate is
made, grows wild in Guiana, Mexico, and on the coast of the Caraccas;
it is now cultivated in Central and South America, even
to Chile, also in the Canary and Philippine islands, into which it
was introduced by the Spaniards. The seeds of its fruit, which
is like a cucumber, are the cocoa.
Many parts of the coasts of Venezuela and Guiana are rendered
pestilential by the effluvia of the mangrove, Avicennia, and the
manchineel, one of the Euphorbia family, consisting of 562 species
in tropical America, all having milky juice, deleterious in the
greater number. The well-known poison Ourari is prepared by
the Indians of Guiana from the fruit and bark of the Strychnos
toxicaria, than which nature has probably produced no plants more
deadly. This Ourari (or Wourali) is a creeping plant which yields
the deadly juice, the powerful effect of which was proved by Mr.
Waterton’s experiments.
The Cinchona, or true bark-tree, grows only on the Cordilleras
of the Andes.[166] Some of its medicinal qualities are found in other
plants of different genera in Guiana, as the Cusparia carony, which
produces the Angostura bark. The Sapindus saponaria, or soap-tree,
is used by the natives for washing. Capsicum, vanilla, the
incense-plant, the Dipteryx odorata, whose fruit is the tonquin-bean,
and the cassava or mandioc, are natives of the country.
There are two kinds of mandioc, a shrub whose fleshy roots yield
a farina eaten by the natives of Spanish America and Brazil: the
root of one is harmless, but the other contains a poisonous milky
juice, the effects of which are removed by cultivation or pressure.
It grows to about 30° on each side of the equator, and to 3200 feet
above the sea-level. An acre of mandioc is said to yield as much
nourishment as six acres of wheat.
Arrow-root is native in South America; it has been transported
to the West Indies and Ceylon. The flour is the produce of the
root. The plant is said to owe its name to the belief of its being
an antidote to the poison of the arrows of the Indians. The cow-tree,
almost confined to the Cordillera of the coast of Venezuela,
yields such abundance of nutritious milky juice that it is carried
348in gourds, like milk from the cow. The chocolate-plant, or cacao-shrub,
fruits of the most excellent flavour, plants yielding balsam,
resin, and gum, are numerous in the tropical regions. There the
laurel tribe assume the character of majestic trees: some are so
rich in oil, that it gushes from a wound in the bark. One of these
laurels produces the essential oil which dissolves caoutchouc, or
Indian rubber, used in rendering cloth waterproof.
Plantains of gigantic size form large forests; but palms are the
most numerous and the most beautiful of all the trees in these
countries. There are 90 species of them; and they are so local
that a change takes place every 50 miles. They are the greatest
ornament of the upper Orinoco.
The llanos of Venezuela and Guiana are covered with tall grass,
mixed with lilies and other bulbous flowers, sensitive mimosas, and
palms constantly varying in species.
No language can describe the glory of the forests of the Amazon
and Brazil, the endless variety of form, the contrasts of colour
and size: there even the largest trees bear brilliant blossoms; scarlet,
purple, blue, rose-colour, and golden yellow, are blended with
every possible shade of green. Majestic trees, as the Bombax
ceiba (or silk-cotton tree), the dark-leaved mora with its white
blossoms, the fig, cashew, and mimosa tribes, which are here of
unwonted dimensions, and a thousand other giants of the forest,
are contrasted with the graceful palm, the delicate Acacia, reeds
of 100 feet high, grasses of 40, and tree-ferns in myriads. Passifloræ
and slender creepers twine round the lower plants, while
others as thick as cables climb the lofty trees, drop again to the
ground, rise anew and stretch from bough to bough, wreathed with
their own leaves and flowers, yet intermixed with the vividly
coloured blossoms of the Orchideæ. An impenetrable and everlasting
vegetation covers the ground; decay and death are concealed
by the exuberance of life; the trees are loaded with parasites
while alive—they become masses of living plants when they
die.
One twenty-ninth part of the flowering plants of the Brazilian
forests are of the coffee-tribe, and the rose-coloured and yellow-flowering
bignonias are among their greatest ornaments, where all
is grace and beauty. Thousands of herbs and trees must still be
undescribed where each stream has its own vegetation. The
palm-trees are the glory of the forest: 81 species of these plants
are natives of the intertropical parts of Brazil alone; they are of
all sizes, from such as have hardly any stem to those that rise 130
feet.[167] In those parts of Brazil less favoured by nature, the forests
349consist of stunted deciduous trees, and the boundless plains have
grasses, interspersed with myrtles and other shrubs.[168]
The forests on the banks of the Paraguay and Vermejo are
almost as rich as those of the tropics. Noble trees furnish timber
and fruit; the algaroba, a kind of acacia, produces clusters of a
bean, of which the Indians make bread, and also a strong fermented
liquor; the palm and cinchona grow there; and the
yerba-maté, the leaves of which are universally used as tea in
South America, and were in use before the Spanish conquest. It
is a species of holly, with leaves five or six inches long.
The sandy deserts towards the mountains are the land of the
Agave and Cactus in all their varieties. The fibres of the Agave
are made into cordage by the Indians for fishing-nets and other
uses, and the juice affords them drink. Some larger species of
Cactus give a light and durable wood; and the Cochineal insect,
which feeds on them, is a valuable article of commerce.
Grass, clover, and European and African thistles, which have
been introduced, with a solitary Ombu at wide intervals, are the
unvarying features of the pampas; and thorny stunted bushes,
characteristic of all deserts, are the only vegetation of the Patagonian
shingle. But on the mountain valleys in the far south
may be seen the winter’s bark, arbutus, new species of beech-trees,
stunted berberries, and Misodendron, which latter is a singular
kind of parasitical plant.
Large forests of Araucaria imbricata grow in the Andes of
Chile and Patagonia. This tall and handsome pine, with cones
the size of a child’s head, supplies the natives with a great part
of their food. It is said that the fruit of one large tree will maintain
eighteen persons for a year.
Nothing grows under these great forests; and when accidentally
burnt down in the mountainous parts of Patagonia, they never
rise again, but the ground they grew on is soon covered with an
impenetrable brushwood of other plants. In Chile the violently
stinging Loasa appears first in these burnt places, bushes grow
afterwards, and then comes a tree-grass, 18 feet high, of which
the Indians make their huts. The new vegetation that follows
the burning of primeval forests is quite unaccountable. The
ancient and undisturbed forests of Pennsylvania have no undergrowth,
and when burnt down they are succeeded by a thick
growth of rhododendrons.
The southern coasts of Chile are very barren, and all plants
existing there, even the herbaceous, have a tendency to assume
350a hard knotty texture. The stem of the wild potato, which is
indigenous in Chile and Peru, becomes woody and bristly as it
grows old. It is a native of the sea-strand, and is never found
naturally more than 400 feet above it. In its wild state the root
is small and bitter; it is one of many instances of the influence of
cultivation in rendering unpromising plants useful to man.
It was cultivated in America at the time of its discovery, and
is so now, at the height of from 9800 to 13,000 feet above the sea
on the Andes, and as high as 4800 feet on the Swiss Alps; it does
not succeed on the plains in hot countries, nor farther north than
Iceland. It had been introduced into Europe by the Spaniards
before the time of Sir Walter Raleigh; he brought it to England
from Virginia in 1586.
Coca, the Erythroxylon Coca of botanists, is a native of the
tropical valleys on the eastern declivity of the Andes of Peru and
Bolivia, where it is extensively cultivated for its leaf, of which
the tree furnishes 3 or 4 crops annually; the coca-leaf, which
possesses nutritive and narcotic qualities, is chewed by the aborigines
mixed with an alcaline substance: it allays hunger, and
enables the Indian to undergo great fatigue without any other
nourishment for days together; it is an article of great trade, and
absolutely indispensable in the more laborious profession of the
miner.
Between the southern parallels of 38° and 45° Chile is covered
with extensive forests. Stately trees of many kinds, having
smooth and brightly-coloured trunks, are bound together by
parasitical plants of the monocotyledonous structure; large and
elegant ferns are numerous, and arborescent grasses entwine the
trees to the height of 20 or 30 feet; palm-trees grow to the 37th
parallel of latitude, their southern limit.
Although the flora, at an elevation of 9000 feet on the Chilian
Andes, is almost identical with that of the Straits of Magellan, yet
the climate is so mild in some valleys, especially that of Antuco,
that the vegetation is semi-tropical. In it broad-leaved and bright-coloured
plants, and the most fragrant and brilliant Orchideæ, are
mixed with the usual alpine genera. Dr. Pœppig says, that
whatever South Africa or New Holland can boast of in beauty,
in variety of form, or brilliancy of colour, is rivalled by the flora
in the highest zone in this part of the Andes, even up to the
region of perpetual snow; and, indeed, it bears a strong analogy
to the vegetation of both these countries.
The Andes so completely check the migration of plants, that
almost throughout their whole length there is no mingling of the
floras on their east and west sides, except at the Isthmus of
Panama, where the mahogany-tree crosses from the Atlantic to
the Pacific side, and in the same way many of the plants on the
351lands on the east are brought to the west, and spread to California
on one side, and as far as the dry plains of Peru on the other.[169]
The humidity or dryness of the prevailing winds makes an
immense difference in the character of the countries on each side
of the Andes. Within the southern tropic the trade-winds come
loaded with vapour from the Atlantic, which is partly precipitated
by the mountains of Brazil, and supplies the noble forests of that
country with never ceasing moisture, while the remainder is condensed
by the Andes, so that on their eastern side there is an
exuberant vegetation, while on the western declivities and in the
space which separates them from the Pacific they are almost
barren, and on the plains and in the valleys of Peru, where rain
very seldom falls, completely so, except where artificial irrigation
is employed. Even on the eastern side of these mountains the
richness of the vegetation gradually disappears with the increasing
height, till at an elevation of about 15,000 feet arborescent plants
vanish, and alpine races, of the most vivid beauty, succeed;
which, in their turn, give place to the grasses at the height of
16,138 feet. Above these, in the dreary plains of Bombon, and
other lands of the same altitude, even the thinly-scattered mosses
are sickly; and at the height of 21,878 feet the snow-lichen
forms the last show of vegetable life; confirming the observation
of Don Ulloa, that the produce of the soil is the thermometer of
Peru.
Tierra del Fuego and Kerguelen’s Land are the northern
boundary of the antarctic lands, which are scattered round the
south pole at immense distances from one another. On these the
vegetation decreases as the latitude increases, till at length utter
desolation prevails; not a lichen covers the dreary storm-beaten
rocks; and, with the exception of a microscopic marine plant,
not a sea-weed lives in the gelid waves. In the arctic regions,
on the contrary, no land has yet been discovered that is entirely
destitute of vegetable life. This remarkable difference does not
so much depend on a greater degree of cold in winter as on the
want of warmth in summer. In the high northern latitudes the
power of the summer sun is so great as to melt the pitch between
the planks of the vessels; while, in corresponding southern latitudes,
Fahrenheit’s thermometer does not rise above 14° at noon
at a season corresponding to our August. The perpetual snow
comes to a much lower latitude in the southern lands than it
does in the north. Sandwich Land, in a latitude corresponding
352to that of the north of Scotland, is perpetually covered with many
fathoms of snow. A single species of grass, the Aira antarctica,
is the only flowering plant in the South Shetland islands, which
are no less ice-bound; and Cockburn Island, one of that group,
in the 60th parallel, contains the last vestiges of vegetation;
while the Namesake islands, in an equally high latitude, to the
north of Scotland, are inhabited and cultivated; nay, South
Georgia, in a latitude similar to that of Yorkshire, is always clad
in frozen snow, and only produces some mosses, lichens, and
wild burnet; while Iceland, 10 degrees nearer the pole, has 870
species, more than half of which are flower-bearing.
The forest-covered islands of Tierra del Fuego are only 360
miles from the desolate Shetland group. Such is the difference
that a few degrees of latitude can produce in these antarctic
regions, combined with an equable climate and excessive
humidity. The prevalence of evergreen plants is the most
characteristic feature in the Fuegian flora. Densely entangled
forests of winter’s bark, and two species of beech-trees, grow
from the shore to a considerable height on the mountains. Of
these, the Fagus betuloides, which never loses its brownish-green
leaves, prevails almost to the exclusion of the evergreen winter’s
bark and the deciduous beech, which is very beautiful. There
are dwarf species of Arbutus, the Myrtus nummularia, which is
used instead of tea, besides berberry, currant, and fuchsia; peculiar
species of Ranunculi, calceolarias, Caryophylleæ, cruciform
plants, and violets. Wild celery and scurvy-grass are the only
edible plants; and a bright yellow fungus, which grows on the
beech-trees, forms a great part of the food of the natives. There
is a greater number of plants in Tierra del Fuego, either identical
with those in Great Britain, or representatives of them, than exists
in any other country in the southern hemisphere. The sea-pink,
or thrift, the common sloewort, a primula farinosa, and at least 30
other flowering plants, with almost all the lichens, 48 mosses,
and many other plants of the cryptogamous kinds, are identically
the same; while the number of genera common to both countries
is still greater, and, though unknown in the intermediate latitudes,
reappear here. Hermite Island, west from Cape Horn, is a forest-land,
covered with winter’s bark and the Fuegian beeches; and
is the most southern spot on earth on which arborescent vegetation
is found. An alpine flora, many of the species of European
genera, grows on the mountains, succeeded higher up by mosses
and lichens. Mosses are exceedingly plentiful throughout Fuegia;
but they abound in Hermite Island more than in any other country,
and are of singular and beautiful kinds.
Although the Falkland Islands are in a lower latitude than
Tierra del Fuego, not a tree is to be seen. The Veronica elliptica,
353resembling a myrtle, which is extremely rare, and confined to
West Falkland, is the only large shrub; a white-flowering plant
like the aster, about four feet high, is common; while a bramble,
a crowberry, and a myrtle, bearing no resemblance, however, to
the European species, trail on the ground, and afford edible fruit.
The balsam bog, or Bolax globaria, and grasses, form the only
conspicuous feature in the botany of these islands; and, together
with rushes and Dactylis cæspitosa, or Tussack grass, cover them,
almost to the exclusion of other plants. The Bolax grows in
tufted hemispherical masses, of a yellow-green colour, and very
firm substance, often four feet high, and as many in diameter,
from whence a strong-smelling resinous substance exudes, perceptible
at a distance. This plant has umbelliferous flowers, and
belongs to the carrot order, but forms an antarctic genus quite
peculiar.
The Tussack grass is the most useful and the most singular
plant in this flora. It covers all the small islands of the group,
like a forest of miniature palm-trees, and thrives best on the
shores exposed to the spray of the sea. Each tussack is an isolated
plant, occupying about two square yards of ground. It
forms a hillock of matted roots, rising straight and solitary out of
the soil, often six feet high and four or five in diameter; from the
top of which it throws out a thick grassy foliage of blades, six
feet long, drooping on all sides, and forming, with the leaves of the
adjacent plants, an arch over the ground beneath, which yields
shelter to sea-lions, penguins, and petrels. Cattle are exceedingly
fond of this grass, which yields annually a much greater supply
of excellent fodder than the same extent of ground would do
either of common grass or clover. Both the Tussack-grass and
the Bolax are found, though sparingly, in Tierra del Fuego;
indeed, the vegetation of the Falkland Islands consists chiefly of
the mountain plants of that country, and of those that grow on the
arid plains of Patagonia; but it is kept close to the ground by
the fierceness of the terrific gales that sweep over these antarctic
islands. Peculiar species of European genera are found here, as
a calceolaria, wood sorrel, and a yellow violet; while the shepherd’s
purse, cardamine hirsuta, and the primula farinosa, appear
to be identical with those at home. In all, there are scarcely 120
flowering plants, including grasses. Ferns and mosses are few,
but lichens are in great variety and abundance, among which
many are identical with those in Britain.
In the same hemisphere, far, far removed from the Falkland
group, the Auckland Islands lie in the boisterous ocean south of
New Zealand. They are covered with dense and all but impenetrable
thickets of stunted trees, or rather shrubs, about 20 or
30 feet high, gnarled by gales from a stormy sea. There is
354nothing analogous to these shrubs in the northern hemisphere;
but the Veronica elliptica, a native of Tierra del Fuego and New
Zealand, is one of them. Fifteen species of ferns find shelter
under these trees, and their fallen trunks are covered with mosses
and lichens. Eighty flowering plants were found during the stay
of the discovery ships, of which 56 are new; and half of the
whole number are peculiar to this group and to Campbell’s
Island. Some of the most beautiful flowers grow on the mountains,
others are mixed with the ferns in the forests. A beautiful
plant was discovered, like a purple aster, a Veronica, with large
spikes of ultramarine colour; a white one, with a perfume like
jessamine; a sweet-smelling alpine Hierochloe; and in some of
the valleys the fragrant and bright-yellow blossoms of a species
of asphodel were so abundant that the ground looked like a carpet
of gold. A singular plant grows on the sea-shore, having bunches
of green waxy blossoms the size of a child’s head. There are
also antarctic species of European genera, as beautiful red and
white gentians, geraniums, &c. The vegetation is characterized
by an exuberance of the finer flowering plants, and an absence of
grasses and sedges; but the landscape, though picturesque, has
a sombre aspect, from the prevalence of brownish-leaved plants
of the myrtle tribe.
Campbell’s Island lies 120 miles to the south of the Auckland
group, and is much smaller, but from the more varied form of its
surface it is supposed to produce as many species of plants.
During the two days the discovery ships, under the command of
Sir James Ross, remained there, between 200 and 300 were collected,
of which 66 were flowering plants, 14 of which were
peculiar to the country. Many of the Auckland Island plants
were found here, yet a great change had taken place; 34 species
had disappeared and were replaced by 20 new, all peculiar to
Campbell’s Island alone, and some were found that hitherto had
been supposed to belong to Antarctic America only. In the Auckland
group only one-seventh of the plants are common to other
Antarctic lands, whilst in Campbell’s Island a fourth are natives
of other longitudes in the Antarctic Ocean. The flora of Campbell’s
Island and the Auckland group is so intimately allied to
that of New Zealand, that it may be regarded as the continuation
of the latter, under an Antarctic character, though destitute of the
beech and pine trees. There is a considerable number of Fuegian
plants in the islands under consideration, though 4000 miles
distant; and whenever their flora differs in the smaller plants
from that of New Zealand, it approximates to that of Antarctic
America: but the trees and shrubs are entirely dissimilar. The
relation between this vegetation and that of the northern regions
is but slight. The Auckland group and Campbell’s Island are
355in a latitude corresponding to that of England, yet only three
indigenous plants of our island have been found in them, namely,
the Cardamine hirsuta, Montia, and Callitriche. This is the
utmost southern limit of tree-ferns.
Perhaps no spot in either hemisphere, at the same distance
from the pole, is more barren than Kerguelen Islands, lying in a
remote part of the south polar ocean. Only 18 species of flowering
plants were found there, which is less than the number in
Melville Island, in the Arctic Seas, and three times less than the
number even in Spitzbergen. The whole known vegetation of
these islands only amounts to 150, including sea-weeds. The
Pringlea, a kind of cabbage, acceptable to those who have been
long at sea, is peculiar to the island, and grass, together with a
plant similar to the Bolax of the Falkland Islands, covers large
tracts. About 20 mosses, lichens, &c., are only found in these
islands, but many of the others are also native in the European
Alps and north polar regions. It is a very remarkable circumstance
in the distribution of plants, that there should be so much
analogy between the floras of places so far apart as Kerguelen
Islands, the groups south from New Zealand, the Falkland
Islands, South Georgia, and Tierra del Fuego.
The plants which the earth produces spontaneously are thus
confined within certain districts, and few of them would survive
a change of circumstances; nevertheless, Providence has endowed
those most essential to man with a greater flexibility of structure,
so that the limits of their production can be extended by culture
beyond what have been assigned to them by nature. The grasses
yielding the grains are especially favoured in this respect, though
their extension depends upon the knowledge and industry of
man; no grain will be cultivated where it can be procured from
a foreign market at less expense; so that with regard to useful
plants there is an artificial as well as a natural boundary. The
cultivation of plants in gardens and hot-houses is entirely artificial,
and depends on luxury and fashion.
Tartary and Persia are presumed to have been the original
countries of wheat, rye, and oats; but these grains have been so
long in use that it is impossible to trace their origin with certainty.
Barley grows spontaneously in Tartary and Sicily, probably of
different species. Those plants which produce the grains must
have had a more extended location than any other, and they can
endure the greatest extremes of heat and cold. In high northern
latitudes wheat is protected from the inclemency of winter by
356sowing it in spring, or if sown in autumn a coating of snow
defends it: the polar limit is the isothermal line of 57° 2ʹ, and
wheat will not form seed within less than 20° or 23° of the equator.
In America the northern limit is unknown, the country
being uninhabited; but at Cumberland House, in the very middle
of the continent, one of the stations of the Hudson’s Bay Company,
in 54° N. lat., there are fields of wheat, barley, and maize.
Wheat thrives luxuriantly in Chile and Rio de la Plata, and at
elevations of 8500 and 10,000 feet above the sea. It even produces
grain on the banks of the Lake Titicaca in the Peru-Bolivian
Andes at the absolute height of 12,795 feet in sheltered situations,
and good crops of barley are raised in that elevated region.
Barley bears cold better than any of the grains, yet neither it
nor any other will grow in Iceland. It is successfully cultivated
in the Feroe Islands, near Cape North, the extreme point of
Norway, near Archangel on the White Sea, and in Central
Siberia to between 58° and 59° N. lat.
Rye is only cultivated where the soil is very poor, and agriculture
little understood, yet a third of the population of Europe
lives on rye-bread, chiefly inhabitants of the middle and especially
of the northern parts; its limit is about the 67th parallel
of N. latitude.
Oats are scarcely known in middle and southern Europe; in
the north they are extensively cultivated to the 65th degree of
N. latitude.
Rice is the food of a greater number of human beings than any
other grain; it has been cultivated from such high antiquity that
all traces of its origin are lost. It contains a greater proportion
of nutritious matter than any of the Cerealia, but, since it requires
excessive moisture, and a temperature of 73° 4ʹ at least, its cultivation
is limited to countries between the equator and the 45th
parallel.
Indian corn and millet are much cultivated in Europe south of
the 45th and 47th parallels, and form an important article of food
in France, Italy, Africa, India, and America. Buck-wheat is
extensively cultivated in northern Europe and Siberia and the
table-lands of central Asia; it is a native of Asia, from whence it
was brought into Europe in the 15th century.
The cerealia afford one of the most remarkable examples of
numberless varieties arising from the seed of one species. In
Ceylon alone there are 160 varieties of rice, and at least 30 of
Panicum. The endless varieties which may be raised from the
seed of one plant is most conspicuous in the flower-garden: the
rose affords above 1400; the varieties of the pansy, calceolaria,
tulip, auricula, and primrose are without end, and often differ so
much from the parent plant that it seems almost impossible they
357should have had a common origin: it seems difficult to believe
that red cabbage, cauliflower, and many others, should have
sprung from the sea-kale or Brassica oleracea, so totally dissimilar
from any of them, with its bitter sea-green curly leaves.
Fashion changes so much with regard to plants that it is scarcely
possible to form even an approximation to the number known to
be in cultivation; new plants are introduced from a foreign country,
and are apt to take the place of some of the older, which are
neglected and sometimes lost; of 120,000 plants which are known
to exist on the earth, not more than 15,000 are believed to be in
cultivation.
It is supposed that plants capable of bearing a great range of
temperature would exist through longer geological periods than
those more limited in their endurance of vicissitudes of temperature,
and it appears that in many instances at least the existence
of varieties depends on the life of the plant from whence they
originated; the actual duration of individuals is a subject which
has not been sufficiently studied, though the progress of physiological
botany has given the means of doing so without destroying
the plant.
Since forest-trees increase by coatings from without, the growth
of each year forming a concentric circle of wood round the pith
or centre of the stem, the age of a tree may be ascertained by
counting the number of rings in a transverse section of the trunk,
each ring representing a year. Moreover, the progress of the
growth is known by comparing the breadth of the rings, which
are broader in a favourable than in an unfavourable season,
though this may depend also, in some measure, on the quality of
the soil which the roots have come to in their downward growth.
If the number of concentric rings in a transverse section has
shown the age of a tree, and its girth has been ascertained by
measurement, an approximation to the age of any other tree of
the same kind still growing, under similar circumstances, maybe
determined by comparison. In this way the age of many remarkable
trees has been ascertained. The yew attains a greater
age than any other tree in Europe. According to M. De Candolle
this tree increases in girth the twelfth part of an inch in a
year during the first 150 years, and rather less in the next hundred,
the increase probably decreasing progressively. By that
estimate a yew at Fountaine Abbey was reckoned by Pennant to
be 1214 years old; one at Crowhurst, in Surrey, was 1400 years
old when measured by Evelyn; it has been shown by the same
method that a yew at Fotherngill, in Scotland, was between 2500
and 2800 years old; and one at Braburn, in Kent, must have been
3000 years old: these are the veterans of European vegetation.
The cypress rivals the yew in longevity, and may perhaps surpass
it. There is a cypress in the palace garden at Grenada which
358had been celebrated in the time of the Moors, and was still known
in the year 1776, as Cipres della Regina Sultana, because a sultana
met with Abencerrages under its shade. Oaks come next in
order: they are supposed to live 1500 or 1600 years. One in
Welbec Lane, mentioned by Evelyn, was computated to be 1400
years old. Chestnut-trees are known to live 900 years; lime-trees
have attained 500 or 600 years in France; and birches are supposed
to be equally durable. Some of the smaller and less conspicuous
European plants perhaps rival these giants of the forest
in age: heaths, and the alpine willow, which covers the ground
with its leaves, although it is really a subterranean tree spreading
to a vast distance, are long lived. Ivy is another example of this:
there is one near Montpellier, six feet in girth, which must be 485
years old. A lichen was watched for forty years without the
appearance of change.
The antiquity of these European vegetables sinks into insignificance
when compared with the celebrated baobab, or Adansonia
digitata, in Senegal: taking as a measure the number of concentric
rings counted on a transverse incision made for the purpose in the
trunk of that enormous tree, it was proved to be 5150 years old;
yet Baron Humboldt considers a cypress in the garden of Chapultepec
to be still older; it had already reached a great age when
Montezuma was on the throne of Mexico, in 1520. These two
trees are probably the most aged organized beings on the face of
the earth. Eight olive-trees on the Mount of Olives are supposed
to be 800 years old; it is at least certain that they existed prior to
the taking of Jerusalem by the Turks. There is some doubt as to
the age of the largest cedar on Lebanon; it is nine feet in diameter,
and has probably existed 800 or 900 years. There are two cedar-trees
in the Botanic Garden at Chelsea which were mentioned 600
years ago.
The age of palms and other monocotyledonous plants is ascertained
by a comparison of their height with the time which each
kind takes to grow. M. De Candolle thus estimates that the Cocos
oleracea, or cabbage-palms, may live 600 or 700 years, while the
cocoa-nut palm lives from 80 to 330 years.
Mr. Babbage has made an approximation to the age of peat-mosses
from the concentric rings of the trees found in them.
A vegetable world lies hid beneath the surface of the ocean,
altogether unlike that on land, and existing under circumstances
totally different with regard to light, heat, and pressure, yet sustained
by the same means. Carbonic acid and ammonia are as
essential, and metallic oxides are as indispensable, to marine vegetation
359as they are to land-plants. Sea-water contains ammonia,
and something more than a twelve-thousandth part of its weight
of carbonate of lime, yet that minute portion is sufficient to supply
all the shell-fish and coral-insects in the sea with materials for
their habitations, as well as food for vegetation. Marine plants
are more expert chemists than we are, for the water of the ocean
contains rather less than a millionth part of its weight of iodine,
which they collect in quantities impossible for us to obtain otherwise
than from their ashes.
Sea-weeds fix their roots to anything—to stone, wood, and to
other sea-weeds: they must, therefore, derive all their nourishment
from the water, and the air it contains; and the vital force or chemical
energy by which they decompose and assimilate the substances
fit for their maintenance is the sun’s light.
Marine plants, which are very numerous, consist of two groups—a
jointed kind, which include the Confervæ, or plants having a
thread-like form; and a jointless kind, to which belong dulse, laver,
the kinds used for making kelp, vegetable glue, iodine, that in the
Indian Archipelago, of which the sea-swallows make their edible
nests, and all the gigantic species which grow in submarine forests,
or float like green meadows in the open sea. Flower-bearing sea-weeds
are very limited in their range, which depends upon the
depth of water and the nature of the coasts; but the cryptogamic
kinds are widely dispersed, some species are even found in every
climate from pole to pole. No doubt the polar currents at the surface,
and the stratum of uniform temperature lower down, are the
highways by which these cosmopolites travel.[170]
There are fewer vegetable provinces in the seas than on land,
because the temperature is more uniform, and the dispersion of
the plants is not so much interfered with by the various causes
which disturb it on land.[171]
Marine vegetation varies both horizontally and vertically with
the depth, and it seems to be a general law throughout the ocean
360that the light of the sun and vegetation end together; it consequently
depends on the power of the sun and the transparency of
the water; so different kinds of sea-weeds affect different depths,
where the weight of the water, the quantity of light and heat, suit
them best. One great marine zone lies between the high and low
water marks, and varies in species with the nature of the coasts,
but exhibits similar phenomena throughout the northern hemisphere.
In the British seas, where, with two exceptions, the
whole flora is cryptogamic,[172] this zone does not extend deeper than
30 fathoms, but is divided into two distinct provinces, one to the
south and another to the north. The former includes the southern
and eastern coasts of England, the southern and western coasts of
Ireland, and both the channels; while the northern flora is confined
to the Scottish seas and the adjacent coasts of England and
Ireland. The second British zone begins at low-water mark, and
extends below it to a depth from 7 to 15 fathoms. It contains the
great tangle sea-weeds, growing in miniature forests, mixed with
fuci, and is the abode of a host of animals. A coral-like sea-weed
is the last plant of this zone, and the lowest in these seas, where
it does not extend below the depth of 60 fathoms, but in the Mediterranean
it is found at 70 or 80 fathoms, and is the lowest plant
in that sea. The same law prevails in the Bay of Biscay, where
one set of sea-weeds is never found lower than 20 feet below the
surface; another only in the zone between the depths of 5 and 30
feet; and another between 15 and 35 feet. In these two last zones
they are most numerous; at a greater depth the kinds continue to
vary, but their numbers decrease. The seeds of each kind float
at the depth most genial to the future plant; they must therefore
be of different weights. The distribution in the Egean Sea was
found by Professor E. Forbes to be perfectly similar, only that the
vegetation is different, and extends to a greater depth in the Mediterranean
than in more northern seas.[173] He also observed that
361sea-weeds growing near the surface are more limited in their distribution
than those that grow lower down, and that with regard
to vegetation depth corresponds with latitude, as height does on
land. Thus, the flora at great depths, in warm seas, is represented
by kindred forms in higher latitudes. There is every reason to
believe that the same laws of distribution prevail throughout the
ocean and every sea.
Sea-weeds adhere firmly to the rocks before their fructification,
but they are easily detached afterwards, which accounts for some
of the vast fields of floating weeds; but others, of gigantic size
and wide distribution, are supposed to grow unattached in the water
itself. There are permanent bands of sea-weed in our British
Channel and in the North Sea, of the kind called Fucus Filum,
which grow abundantly on the western coasts of the Channel, and
they lie in the direction of the currents, in beds 15 or 20 miles
long, and not more than 600 feet wide. These bands must oscillate
with the tides between two corresponding zones of rest, one
at the turn of the flood, and the other at the turn of the ebb. It
is doubtful whether the Fucus natans or Sargassum bacciferum
grows on rocks at the bottom of the Atlantic, between the parallels
of 40° north and south of the equator, and, when detached, is drifted
uniformly to particular spots which never vary, or whether it is
propagated and grows in the water; but the mass of that plant,
west of the Azores, occupies an area equal to that of France, and
has not changed its place since the time of Columbus. Fields of
the same kind cover the sea at the Bahama Islands and other
places, and two new species of it were discovered in the Antarctic
seas.
The Macrocystis pyrifera and the Laminaria radiata are the
most remarkable of marine plants for their gigantic size and the
extent of their range. They were met with on the Antarctic
coasts two degrees nearer the south pole than any other vegetable
production, forming, with one remarkable exception, the utmost
limit of vegetable life in the south polar seas. The Macrocystis
pyrifera exists in vast detached masses, like green meadows, in
every latitude from the south polar ocean to the 45th degree N.
lat. in the Atlantic, and to the shores of California in the Pacific,
where there are fields of it so impenetrable, that it has saved vessels
driven by the heavy swell towards that shore from shipwreck.
It is never seen where the temperature of the water is at the freezing
point, and is the largest of the vegetable tribe, being occasionally
300 or 400 feet long. The Laminaria abounds off the Cape of
Good Hope and in the Antarctic Ocean. These two species form
great part of a band of sea-weed that girds Kerguelen Islands so
densely, that a boat can scarcely be pulled through it; and they
are found in great abundance on the coasts of the Falkland group,
362and also in vast fields in the open sea, hundreds of miles from any
land: had it ever grown on the distant shores, it must have taken
ages to travel so far, drifted by the wind, currents, and the sand
of the seas. The red, green, and purple lavers of Great Britain
are found on the coasts of the Falkland Islands; and, though some
of the northern weeds are not found in the intervening warm seas,
they reappear here. The Lessonia is the most remarkable marine
plant in this group of islands. Its stems, much thicker than a
man’s leg, and from 8 to 10 feet long, fix themselves by clasping
fibres to the rocks beyond the high-water mark. Many branches
shoot upwards from these stems, from which long leaves droop
into the water like willows. There are immense submarine forests
off Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, attached to the rocks at the
bottom. These plants are so strong and buoyant, that they bring
up large masses of stone; and, as they grow slanting, and stretch
along the surface of the sea, they are sometimes 300 feet long.
The quantity of living creatures which inhabit these marine forests
and the parasitical weeds attached to them is inconceivable, they
absolutely teem with life. Of the species of marine plants which
are strictly antarctic, including those in the seas of Van Diemen’s
Land and New Zealand, Dr. Hooker has identified one-fifth with
the British Algæ.
The high latitudes of the Antarctic Ocean are not so destitute
of vegetation as was at first believed. Most minute objects, altogether
invisible to the naked eye, except in mass, and which were
taken for siliceous shelled animalcules of the infusoria kind, prove
to be vegetable. They are a species of the Diatomaceæ, which,
from their multitudes, give the sea a pale ochreous brown colour.
They increase in numbers with the latitude, up to the highest
point yet attained by man, and, no doubt, afford the supply of food
to many of the minute animals in the antarctic seas. Genera
and species of this plant exist in every sea from Victoria Land to
Spitzbergen. It is one of the remarkable instances of a great end
being effected by small means; for the death of this antarctic
vegetation is forming a submarine bank between the 76th and
78th parallels of south latitude, and from the 165th to the 160th
western meridian.
Great patches of Confervæ are occasionally met with in the
high seas. Bands several miles long, of a reddish-brown species,
like chopped hay, occur off Bahia, on the coast of Brazil; the
same plant is said to have given the name to the Red Sea; and
different species are common in the Australian seas.
CHAPTER XXVIII. Distribution of Insects.
363
Three hundred thousand insects are known: some with wings,
others without; some are aquatic, others are aquatic only in the
first stage of their existence, and many are parasitical. Some
land insects are carnivorous, others feed on vegetables; some of
the carnivorous tribe live on dead, others on living animals, but
they are not half so numerous as those that live on vegetables.
Some change as they are developed; in their first stage they eat
animal food, and vegetables when they come to maturity.
Insects maintain the balance among the species of the vegetable
creation by preventing the tendency that plants have to
encroach on one another. The stronger would extirpate the
weaker, and the larger would destroy the smaller, were it not
checked by insects which live on vegetables. On the other hand,
many plants would be extirpated by insects were these not
devoured by other insects and spiders.
Of the 8000 or 9000 British insects the greatest part are carnivorous,
and therefore keep the others within due bounds.
Insects increase in kinds and in numbers from the poles to the
equator: in a residence of 11 months in Melville Island, Sir
Edward Parry found only 6 species, because lichens and mosses
do not afford nourishment for the insect tribes, though it is probable
that every other kind of plant gives food and shelter to
more than one species; it is even said that 40 different insects
are quartered upon the common nettle.
The increase of insects from the poles to the equator does not
take place at the same time everywhere. The polar regions and
New Holland have very few specifically and individually; they
are more abundant in Northern Africa, Chile, and in the plains
west of the Brazils; North America has fewer species than
Europe in the same latitude, and Asia has few varieties of species
in proportion to its size; Caffraria, the African and Indian
islands, possess nearly the same number of species; but by far
the richest of all, both in species and numbers, are central and
intertropical America. Beetles are an exception to the law of
increase towards the equator, as they are infinitely more numerous
in species in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere
than in equatorial countries. The location of insects
depends upon that of the plants which yield their food; and, as
almost each plant is peopled with inhabitants peculiar to itself,
364insects are distributed over the earth in the same manner as vegetables;
the groups, consequently, are often confined within narrow
limits, and it is extraordinary that, notwithstanding their powers of
locomotion, they often remain within a particular compass, though
the plants, and all other circumstances in their immediate vicinity,
appear equally favourable for their habitation.
The insects of eastern Asia and China are different from those
in Europe and Africa; those in the United States differ specifically
from the British, though they often approach very near;
and in South America the equinoctial districts of New Grenada
and Peru have distinct groups from those in Guiana.
Though insects are distributed in certain limited groups, yet
most of the families have representatives in all the great regions
of the globe, and some identical species are inhabitants of countries
far from one another. The Vanessa Cardui, or “Painted
Lady Butterfly,” is found in all the four quarters of the globe and
in Australia; and one, which never could have been conveyed
by man, is native in southern Europe, the coast of Barbary, and
Chile. It is evident from these circumstances that not only each
group, but also each particular species, must have been originally
created in the places they now inhabit.
Mountain-chains are a complete barrier to insects, even more
so than rivers: not only lofty mountains like the Andes divide
the kinds, but they are even different on the two sides of the Col
de Tende in the Alps. Each soil has kinds peculiar to itself,
whether dry or moist, cultivated or wild, meadow or forest.
Stagnant water and marshes are generally full of them; some
live in water, some run on its surface, and every water-plant
affords food and shelter to many different kinds. The east wind
seems to have considerable effect in bringing the insect or in
developing the eggs of certain species; for example, the aphis,
known as the blight in our country, lodges in myriads on plants,
and shrivels up their leaves after a continued east wind. They
are almost as destructive as the locust, and sometimes darken the
air by their numbers. Caterpillars are also very destructive; the
caterpillar of the Y moth would soon ruin the vegetation of a
country were it not a prey to some other. Insects sometimes
multiply suddenly to an enormous extent, and decrease as rapidly
and as unaccountably.
Temperature, by its influence on vegetation, has an indirect
effect on the insects that are to feed upon plants, and extremes of
heat and cold have more influence on their locality than the mean
annual temperature. Thus, in the polar regions the mosquito
tribes are more numerous and more annoying than in temperate
countries, because they pass their early stages of existence in
water, which shelters them, and the short but hot summer is
genial to their brief span of life.
365In some instances height corresponds with latitude. The Parnassius
Apollo, a butterfly native in the plains of Sweden, is also
found in the Alps, the Pyrenees, and a closely-allied species in
the Himalaya. The Parnassius Smyntheus, true to the habitat
of the genus, has recently been found on the Rocky Mountains of
North America. Some insects require several years to arrive at
their perfect state; they lie buried in the ground in the form of
grubs: the cock-chafer comes to maturity in 3 years, and some
American species require a much longer time.
Insects do not attain their perfect state till the plants they are
to feed upon are ready for them. Hence, in cold and temperate
climates their appearance is simultaneous with vegetation; and
as the rainy and dry seasons within the tropics correspond to our
winter and summer, insects appear there after the rains, and
vanish in the heat: the rains, if too violent, destroy them; and
in countries where that occurs, there are two periods in the year
in which they are most abundant—one before and one after the
rains. It is also observed in Europe that insects decrease in the
heat of summer, and become more numerous in autumn: the
heat is thought to throw some into a state of torpor, but the
greater number perish.
It is not known that any insect depends entirely upon only
one species of plant for its existence, or whether it may not have
recourse to congeners should its habitual plant perish. When
particular species of plants of the same family occur in places
widely apart, insects of the same genus will be found on them,
so that the existence of the plant may often be inferred from that
of the insect, and, in several instances, the converse.
When a plant is taken from one country to another in which
it has no congeners, it is not attacked by the insects of the
country: thus, our cabbages and carrots in Cayenne are not
injured by the insects of that country, and the tulip-tree and
other magnolias are not molested by our insects; but if a plant
has congeners in its new country, the inhabitants will soon find
their way to the stranger.
The common fly is one of the most universal of insects, yet it
was unknown in some of the South Sea islands till it was carried
there by ships from Europe, and it has now become a plague.
The mosquito and culex are spread over the world more generally
than any other tribe; they are the torment of men and
animals from the poles to the equator by night and by day: the
species are numerous, and their location partial. In the Arctic
regions the Culex Pipiens, which passes two-thirds of its existence
in water, swarms in summer in myriads: the lake Myvatr,
in Iceland, has its name from the legions of these tormentors that
cover its surface. They are less numerous in central Europe,
366though one species of mosquito, the Simulium columbaschense,
which is very small, appears in such clouds in parts of Hungary,
especially the Bannat of Temeswar, that it is not possible to breathe
without swallowing many: even cattle and children have died
from them. In Lapland there is a plague of the same kind. Of
all places on earth the Orinoco and other great rivers of tropical
America are the most obnoxious to this plague. The account
given by Baron Humboldt is really fearful: at no season of the
year, at no hour of the day or night, can rest be found; whole
districts in the upper Orinoco are deserted on account of these
insects. Different species follow one another with such precision,
that the time of day or night may be known accurately from
their humming noise, and from the different sensations of pain
which the different poisons produce. The only respite is the
interval of a few minutes between the departure of one gang and
the arrival of their successors, for the species do not mix. On some
parts of the Orinoco the air is one dense cloud of poisonous insects
to the height of 20 feet. It is singular that they do not infest rivers
that have black water, and each white stream is peopled with its
own kinds; though ravenous for blood, they can live without it,
as they are found where no animals exist.
In Brazil the quantity of insects is so great in the woods, that
their noise is heard in a ship at anchor some distance from the
shore.
Various genera of butterflies and moths are very limited in
their habitations, others are dispersed over the world, but the
species are almost always different. Bees and wasps are equally
universal, yet each country has its own. The common honey-bee
is the only European insect directly useful to man; it was introduced
into North America not many years ago, and is now spread
over the continent: it is now naturalized in Van Diemen’s Land
and New Zealand. European bees, of which there are many
species, generally have stings; the Australian bee, like a black
fly, is without a sting; and in Brazil there are 30 species of
stingless bees.
Fire-flies are mostly tropical, yet there are four species in
Europe; in South America there are three species, and so brilliant
that their pale green light is seen at the distance of 200 paces.
The silkworm comes from China, and the cochineal insect is a
native of tropical America: there are many species of it in other
countries. The Coccus Lacca is Indian, the Coccus Ilicis lives in
Italy, and there is one in Poland, but neither of these have been
cultivated.
Scorpions under various forms are in all warm climates; 2 or
3 species are peculiar to Europe, but they are small in comparison
with those in tropical countries: one in Brazil is six inches long.
367As in mosquitos, the poison of the same species is more active in
some situations than in others. At Cumana the sting of the scorpion
is little feared, while that of the same species in Carthagena
causes loss of speech for many days.
Ants, Formicidæ (Hymenoptera), are universally distributed,
but of different kinds. Near great rivers they build their nests
above the line of the annual inundations. The insects called
white ants, belonging to a different genus and family Termitidæ
(Neuroptera), are so destructive in South America, that Baron
Humboldt says there is not a manuscript in that country a hundred
years old.
There are upwards of 1200 species of spiders and their allies
known; each country has its own, varying in size, colour, and
habits, from the huge bird-catching spider of South America, to
the almost invisible European gossamer floating in the air on its
silvery thread. Many of this ferocious family are aquatic; and
spiders, with some other insects, are said to be the first inhabitants
of new islands.
The migration of insects is one of the most curious circumstances
relating to them: they sometimes appear in great flights
in places where they never were seen before, and they continue
their course with perseverance which nothing can check. This
has been observed in the migration of crawling insects: caterpillars
have attempted to cross a stream. Countries near deserts
are most exposed to the invasion of locusts, which deposit their
eggs in the sand, and, when the young are hatched by the sun’s
heat, they emerge from the ground without wings; but as soon
as they attain maturity, they obey the impulse of the first wind,
and fly, under the guidance of a leader, in a mass, whose front
keeps a straight line, so dense that it forms a cloud in the air, and
the sound of their wings is like the murmur of the distant sea.
They take immense flights, crossing the Mozambique Channel
from Africa to Madagascar, which is 120 miles broad: they come
from Barbary to Italy, and a few have been seen in Scotland.
Even the wandering tribes of locusts differ in species in different
deserts, following the universal law of organized nature. Insects,
not habitually migratory, sometimes migrate in great flocks. In
1847 lady-birds or coccinellæ and the bean aphis arrived in immense
multitudes at Ramsgate and Margate from the continent,
in fine calm weather, and a mass of the Vanessa cardui flew over
a district in a column from 10 to 15 yards wide, for 2 hours successively.
Why these butterflies should simultaneously take
wing in a flock is unaccountable, for had it been for want of food
they would probably have separated in quest of it. In 1847 the
cabbage butterfly came in a mass from the coast of France to
England. Dragon-flies migrate in a similar manner. Professor
368Ehrenberg has discovered a new world of creatures in the Infusoria,
so minute that they are invisible to the naked eye. He found
them in fog, rain, and snow, in the ocean, in stagnant water, in
animal and vegetable juices, in volcanic ashes and pumice, in
opal, in the dusty air that sometimes falls on the ocean; and he
detected 18 species 20 feet below the surface of the ground in
peat-earth, which was full of microscopic live animals: they exist
in ice, and are not killed by boiling water. This lowest order of
animal life is much more abundant than any other, and new species
are found every day. Magnified, some of them seem to
consist of a transparent vesicle, and some have a tail: they move
with great alacrity, and show intelligence by avoiding obstacles in
their course: others have siliceous shells. Language, and even
imagination, fails in the attempt to describe the inconceivable
myriads of these invisible inhabitants of the ocean, the air, and
the earth: they no doubt become the prey of larger creatures,
and perhaps bloodsucking insects may have recourse to them
when other prey is wanting.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Distribution of Marine Animals in general—Fishes—the Marine Mammalia—Phocæ,
Dolphins, and Whales.
Before Sir James Ross’s voyage to the Antarctic regions, the
profound and dark abysses of the ocean were supposed to be
entirely destitute of animal life; now it may be presumed that no
part of it is uninhabited, since during that expedition live creatures
were fished up from a depth of 6000 feet. But as most of the
larger fish usually frequent shallow water near the coasts, deep
seas must form barriers as impassable to the greater number of
them as mountains do to land animals. The polar, the equatorial
ocean, and the inland seas, have each their own particular inhabitants;
almost all the species and some of the genera of the
marine creation are different in the two hemispheres, and even in
each particular sea; and under similar circumstances the species
are for the most part representative, though not the same. Identity
of species, however, does occur, even at the two extremities
of the globe, for living animals were brought up from the profound
depths of the Antarctic Ocean which Sir James Ross recognized
to be the very same species which he had often met with in the
Arctic seas. “The only way they could have got from the one
pole to the other must have been through the tropics; but the
369temperature of the sea in these regions is such that they could
not exist in it unless at a depth of nearly 2000 fathoms. At that
depth they might pass from the Arctic to the Antarctic Ocean
without a variation of 5 degrees of temperature; whilst any land
animal, at the most favourable season, must experience a difference
of 50 degrees, and, if in winter, no less than 150 degrees of Fahrenheit’s
thermometer;”—a strong presumption that marine creatures
can exist at the depth and under the enormous pressure of
12,000 feet of water. The stratum of constant temperature in
the ocean may indeed afford the means of migration from pole to
pole to those which live in shallower water, as they would only
have to descend to a depth of 7200 feet at the equator. The
great currents, no doubt, offer paths for fish without any sudden
change of temperature: the inhabitants of the Antarctic Sea may
come to the coasts of Chile and Peru by the cold stream that flows
along them from the south polar ocean, and, on the contrary,
tropical fish may travel by the Gulf-stream to the middle and high
latitudes in the Atlantic, but few will leave either one or other to
inhabit the adjacent seas, on account of the difference of heat.
Nevertheless, quantities of medusæ or sea-nettles are brought by
the Gulf-stream to feed the whales at the Azores, though the
whales themselves never enter the stream, on account of its
warmth.
The form and nature of the coasts have great influence on the
distribution of fishes; when they are uniformly of the same geological
structure, so as to afford the same food and shelter, the fish
are similar. Their distribution is also determined by climate, the
depth of the sea, the nature of the bottom, and the influx of fresh
water.
The ocean, the most varied and most wonderful part of the creation,
absolutely teems with life: “things innumerable, both great
and small, are there.” The forms are not to be numbered even
of those within our reach; yet, numerous as they are, few have
been found exempt from the laws of geographical distribution.
The discoloured portions of the ocean generally owe the tints
they assume to myriads of insects. In the Arctic seas, where
the water is pure transparent ultramarine colour, parts of 20 or
30 square miles, 1500 feet deep, are green and turbid from the
quantity of minute animalcules. Captain Scoresby calculated
that it would require 80,000 persons, working unceasingly from
the creation of man to the present day, to count the number of
insects contained in 2 miles of the green water. What, then,
must be the amount of animal life in the polar regions, where
one-fourth part of the Greenland Sea, for 10 degrees of latitude,
consists of that water! These animalcules are of the medusa
tribe, mixed with others that are moniliform. Some medusæ are
370very large, floating like jelly; and although apparently carried at
random by the waves, each species has its definite location, and
even organs of locomotion. One species comes in spring from
the Greenland seas to the coast of Holland; and Baron Humboldt
met with an immense shoal of them in the Atlantic, migrating at
a rapid rate.
Dr. Pœppig mentions a stratum of red water near Cape Pilares,
24 miles long and 7 broad, which, seen from the mast-head, appeared
dark-red, but on proceeding it became a brilliant purple,
and the wake of the vessel was rose-colour. The water was perfectly
transparent, but small red dots could be discerned moving
in spiral lines. The vermilion sea off California is no doubt
owing to a similar cause, as Mr. Darwin found red and chocolate-coloured
water on the coast of Chile over spaces of several square
miles full of microscopic animalcules, darting about in every
direction, and sometimes exploding. Infusoria are not confined
to fresh water; the bottom of the sea swarms with them. Siliceous-coated
infusoria are found in the mud of the coral islands
under the equator; and 68 species were discovered in the mud in
Erebus Bay, near the Antarctic pole. These minute forms of
organized being, invisible to the naked eye, are intensely and
extensively developed in both of the polar oceans, and serve for
food to the higher orders of fish in latitudes beyond the limits of
the larger vegetation, though they themselves probably live on
the microscopic plant already mentioned, which abounds in all
seas. Some are peculiar to each of the polar seas, some are common
to both, and a few are distributed extensively throughout the
ocean.
The enormous prodigality of animal life supplies the place of
vegetation, so scanty in the ocean in comparison with that which
clothes the land, and which probably would be insufficient for the
supply of the marine creation, were the deficiency not made up
by the superabundant land vegetation and insects carried to the
sea by rivers. The fish that live on sea-weed must bear a smaller
proportion to those that are predacious than the herbivorous land
animals do to the carnivorous. Fish certainly are most voracious;
none are without their enemies; they prey and are preyed upon;
and there are two which devour even the live coral, hard as its
coating is; nor does the coat of mail of shell-fish protect them.
Whatever the proportion may be which predatory fish bear to
herbivorous, the quantity of both must be enormous, for, besides
the infusoria, the great forests of fuci and sea-weed are everywhere
a mass of infinitely varied forms of being, either parasitical, feeding
on them, seeking shelter among them, or in pursuit of others.
The observations of Professor E. Forbes in the Egean Sea show
that depth has great influence in the geographical distribution of
371marine animals. From the surface to the depth of 230 fathoms
there are eight distinct regions in that sea, each of which has its
own vegetation and inhabitants. The number of shell-fish and
other marine animals is greater specifically and individually
between the surface and the depth of 2 fathoms than in all the
regions below taken together, and both decrease downwards to
the depth of 105 fathoms; between which and the depth of 230
only eight shells were found; and animal life ceases in that part
of the Mediterranean at 300 fathoms. The changes in the different
zones are not abrupt; some of the creatures of an under
region always appear before those of the region above vanish;
and although there are a few species the same in some of the
eight zones, only two are common to all. Those near the surface
have forms and colours belonging to the inhabitants of southern
latitudes, while those lower down are analogous to the animals of
northern seas; so that in the sea depth corresponds with latitude,
as height does on land. Moreover, the extent of the geographical
distribution of any species is proportional to the depth at which
it lives; consequently, those living near the surface are less
widely dispersed than those inhabiting deep water. Professor
Forbes also discovered several shells living in the Mediterranean
that have hitherto only been known as fossils of the tertiary
strata; and also that the species least abundant as fossils are
most numerous alive, and the converse; hence, the former are
near their maximum, while the latter are approaching to extinction.
These very important experiments, it is true, were confined
to the Mediterranean; but analogous results have been
obtained in the Bay of Biscay and in the British seas. There
are four zones of depth in our seas, each of which has its own
inhabitants, consisting of shell-fish, crustaceæ, corallines and other
marine creatures. The first zone lies between high and low-water
marks, consequently it is shallow in some places and 30 feet deep in
others. In all parts of the northern hemisphere it presents the
same phenomena; but the animals vary with the nature of the
coast, according as it is of rock, gravel, sand, or mud. In the
British seas the animals of this littoral or coast zone are distributed
in three groups that differ decidedly from one another, though
many are common to all. One occupies the seas on the southern
shores of our islands and both channels; a middle group has its
centre in the Irish seas; and the third is confined to the Scottish
seas, and the adjacent coasts of England and Ireland. The
second zone extends from the low-water mark to a depth below
it of from 7 to 15 fathoms, and is crowded with animals living on
and among the sea-weeds, as radiated animals, shell-fish, and
many zoophites. In the third zone, which is below that of vegetable
life, marine animals are more numerous and of greater
372variety than in any other. It is particularly distinguished by
arborescent creatures, that seem to take the place of plants, carnivorous
mollusca, together with large and peculiar radiata. It
ranges from the depth of 15 to 50 fathoms. The last zone is the
region of stronger corals, peculiar mollusca, and of others that
only inhabit deep water. This zone extends to the depth of 100
fathoms or more.
Except in the Antarctic seas, the superior zone of shell-fish is
the only one of which anything is known in the great oceans,
which have numerous special provinces. Many, like the harp,
are tropical; others, as the nautilus and the pearl-oyster, are
nearly so; the latter abounds throughout the Persian Gulf and
on the coasts of Borneo and Ceylon, which are thought to produce
the finest pearls. There are many also in the Caribbean
Sea, and in the Pacific, and especially in the Bay of Panama,
but whether the species are different is not known. Some shells
are exceedingly limited in their distribution, as the Haliotis
gigantea, which is peculiar to the sea of Van Diemen’s Land.
According to Sir Charles Lyell, nearly all the species of molluscous
animals in the seas of the two temperate zones are distinct,
yet the whole species in one bears a strong analogy to that
in the other; both differ widely from those in the tropical and
arctic oceans; and, under the same latitude, species vary with
the longitude. The east and west coasts of tropical America
have only one shell-fish in common; and those of both differ
from the shell-fish in the islands of the Pacific and the Galapagos
Archipelago, which forms a distinct region. Notwithstanding
the many definite marine provinces, the same species are occasionally
found in regions widely separated. A few of the shell-fish
of the Galapagos Archipelago are the same with those of the
Philippine islands, though so far apart. The east coast of America,
which is poor in shell-fish, has a considerable number in
common with the coasts of Europe.
The Cypræa moneta lives in the Mediterranean, the seas of
South Africa, the Mauritius, the East Indies, China, and the
South Seas even to Otaheite; and the Janthina frangilis, the
animal of which is of a beautiful violet-colour, floats on the surface
in every tropical and temperate sea. Mollusca have a greater
power of locomotion than is generally believed. Some migrate
in their larva state, being furnished with lobes which enable them
to swim freely. The larva of the scalop is capable of migrating
to distant regions; the argonauta spreads its sail and swims along
the surface.
The numerous species of Zoophytes which construct the extensive
coral banks and atolls are chiefly confined to the tropical
seas of Polynesia, the East and West Indies: the family is represented
373by a very few species in our seas, and in the Mediterranean
they are smaller and different, generally, from those in the torrid
zone.
The larger and more active inhabitants of the waters obey the
same laws with the rest of the creation, though the provinces are
in some instances very extensive. Dr. Richardson observes that
there is one vast province in the Pacific, extending 42 degrees on
each side of the equator, between the meridians including Australia,
New Zealand, the Malay Archipelago, China, and Japan,
in which the genera are the same; but at its extremities the
Arctic and Antarctic genera are mingled with the tropical forms.
Many species, however, which abound in the Indian Ocean range
as far north as Japan, from which circumstance it is presumed
that a current sets in that direction. The middle portion of this
province is vastly extended in longitude, for very many species
of the Red Sea, the eastern coast of Africa, and the Mauritius
range to the Indian and China Seas, to those of northern Australia
and all Polynesia; so in this immense belt, which embraces
three-fourths of the circumference of the globe, and 60 degrees
of latitude, the fish are very nearly alike, the continuous chains
of islands in the Pacific being favourable to their dispersion.
Few of the Pacific fish enter the Atlantic;[174] and from the depth
and want of islands in it the great bulk of species is different on
its two sides. North of the 44th parallel, however, the number
common to both shores increases. The salmon of America is
identical with that of the British isles, the coasts of Norway and
Sweden; the cod-fish is the same, as well as several others of the
cod family. The Cottus or bullhead tribe are also the same on
both sides of the North Atlantic, and they increase in numbers
and variety on approaching the Arctic seas. The same occurs
in the northern Pacific, though the generic forms differ from
those in the Atlantic. From the near approach of the American
and Asiatic coasts at Behring’s Straits, the fish on both sides are
nearly alike, down to the Sea of Okhotsk on one side and to
Admiralty Inlet on the other. The Japan Sea and the neighbouring
coasts of China are frequented by fish having northern
forms, which are there mingled with many species common to
the temperate and warm parts of the ocean. Species of the
genus Gadus or Cod reappear in the southern seas very like
374those of the northern; and two very remarkable Greenland
genera, which inhabit deeper water, and are seldom taken except
when thrown up by a storm, have been discovered on the coasts
of New Zealand and South Australia, where the fish differ but
little from those in the seas of Van Diemen’s Land. Several
genera are peculiar to the southern hemisphere, and range
throughout the whole circle of the high latitudes. The sharks
of the China seas are, for the most part, identical with those of
Australia: the cartilaginous fish to which they belong have a
much wider range than those which have been under consideration.
The British islands lie between two great provinces of fishes—one
to the south, the other to the north—from each of which we
have occasionally visitors. The centre of the first is on the
coasts of the Spanish peninsula, extending into the Mediterranean;
that on the north has its centre about the Shetland
Islands; but the group peculiarly British, and found nowhere
else, has its focus in the Irish Sea. It is, however, mixed with
fish from the seas bounding the western shores of central Europe,
which form a distinct group.
The Prince of Canino has shown that there are 853 species of
European fish, of which 210 live in fresh water, 643 are marine,
and 60 of these go up rivers to spawn. 444 of the marine fish
inhabit the Mediterranean, 216 are British, and 171 are peculiar
to the Scandinavian seas; so that the Mediterranean is richest in
variety of species. In it there are peculiar sharks, sword-fish,
dolphins, anchovies, and six species of scomber or tunny, one of
the largest of edible fish, for which fisheries are established on
the southern coasts of France, in Sardinia, Elba, the Straits of
Messina, and the Adriatic. Four of the species are found
nowhere else but in the Mediterranean. Rays of numerous
species are particularly characteristic of the Mediterranean, especially
the two torpedos, which have the power of giving an
electric shock, and even the electric spark. The Mediterranean
has two or three American species, 41 fish in common with
Madeira, one in common with the Red Sea, and a very few seem
to be Indian. Some of these fish must have entered the Mediterranean
before it was separated from the Red Sea by the Isthmus
of Suez; but geological changes have had very great influence
on the distribution of fishes everywhere. Taking salt and
fresh-water fish together, there are 100 species common to Italy
and Britain; and although the communication with the Black
Sea is so direct, there are only 27 fish common to it and the
Mediterranean; but the Black Sea forms a district by itself,
having its own peculiar fish; and those in the Caspian Sea differ
entirely from those in every other part of the globe. The island
375of Madeira, solitary amid a great expanse of ocean, has many
species. They amount in number to half of those in Britain;
and nearly as many are common to Britain and Madeira as to
that island and the Mediterranean; so that many of our fish have
a wide range in the Atlantic. The Mediterranean certainly surpasses
the British and Scandinavian seas in variety, though it
is far inferior to either in the quantity or quality of useful fish.
Cod, turbot, haddock, tusk, ling, herring, and many more, are
better in northern seas than elsewhere, and several exist there
only.
The greater number of fish used by man as food frequent shoal
water. The coast of Holland, our own shores, and other parts of
the North Sea where the water is shallow, teem with a never-ending
supply of excellent fish of many kinds.
Vast numbers are gregarious and migratory. Cod arrive in
the shallow parts of the coast of Norway in February, in shoals
many yards deep, and so closely crowded together that the
sounding-lead can hardly pass between them: 16,000,000 have
been caught in one place in a few weeks. In April they return to
the ocean. Herrings come in astonishing quantities in winter.
The principal cod fisheries are on the banks of Newfoundland
and the Dogger-bank. They, like all animals, frequent the places
to which they have been accustomed. Herrings come to the same
places for a series of years, and then desert them, perhaps from
having exhausted the food. Pilchards, mackerel, and many others,
may be mentioned among the gregarious and migratory fish.
Sharks like deep water. They are found of different species
in all tropical and temperate seas; and, although always dangerous,
they are more ferocious in some places than in others, even of the
same species.
Most lakes have fish of peculiar species, as the lake Baikal.
The fishes of the great interalpine Lake of Titicaca amount to 7
or 8 species, and belong to genera only found in the higher regions
of the Andes. In the North American lakes there is a thick-scaled
fish, analogous to those of the early geological eras; and
the gillaroo trout, which is remarkable in having a gizzard, is
found in Ireland only. Pike and salmon are the only species of
fresh-water fish common to Europe and North America; the pike
is, however, unknown west of the Rocky Mountains. The common
salmon does not exist beyond 45° of N. lat. on the eastern
coast of America, and it is probably confined within similar limits
on the eastern coast of Asia. It is said to be an inhabitant of all
the northern parts of the old world from the entrance of the Bay
of Biscay to North Cape, and along the arctic shores of Asia and
Kamtchatka to the Sea of Okhotsk, including the Baltic, White
Sea, Gulf of Kara, and other inlets. Other kinds of the Salmon
376tribe are plentiful in the estuaries of Kamtchatka and on the
opposite coast of America down to Oregon, but apparently they
do not extend to China. Salmon go up rivers to spawn, and
make extraordinary leaps over impediments of rocks or walls, in
order to reach the suitable places for depositing their eggs.
Forty-four fish inhabit the British lakes and rivers, and 50 those
of Scandinavia, of the very best kinds. The fresh-water fish of
northern climates are better than those of the southern.
Each tropical river has its own species of fish. The fresh-water
fish of China agree with those of India in generic forms,
but not in species;[175] and those of the Cape of Good Hope and
South America differ from those in India and China. Sea-fish, in
immense quantities, frequent the estuaries of rivers everywhere.
The mouth of the Mississippi is full of fish; and the quantity at
the mouth of the Don, in the Sea of Azof, is prodigious.
There are some singular analogies between the inhabitants of
the sea and those of the land. Many of the medusæ, two corallines,
the Physalia, or Portuguese man-of-war, of sailors, and
some others, sting like a nettle when touched. A cuttle-fish, at
the Cape de Verde islands, changes colour like the chameleon,
assuming the tint of the ground under it. Herrings, pilchards,
and many other fish, as well as sea insects, are luminous. The
medusa tribe, the species of which are numerous, have the faculty
of shedding light in the highest degree. In warm climates, especially,
the sea seems to be on fire, and the wake of a ship is like
a vivid flame. Probably fish that go below the depths to which
the light of the sun penetrates are endowed with this faculty;
and shoals of luminous insects have been seen at a considerable
depth below the surface of the water. The glow-worm, some
beetles, and fire-flies, shine with the same pale-green light. But
among the terrestrial inhabitants there is nothing analogous to the
property of the Gymnotus electricus of South America, the trembler,
or Silurus electricus, of the African rivers, and the different
species of the torpedo of the Mediterranean, which possess the
faculty of giving the electric shock.
The marine mammalia, which, as their name indicates, suckle
their young, form two distinct families—the Phocæ or seals, and
the Cetacea or whales, and porpoises: whilst fish breathe by
means of gills, which separate the air dissolved in the water,
the marine mammalia possess lungs and breathe as the terrestrial
quadrupeds; they are obliged to come to the surface from time
to time, consequently, to inhale the air.
377The first family consists of the seal tribe, and is most abundant
in the polar regions; they live exclusively on fish, are carnivorous,
and are seldom found at a great distance from the land or ice
islands. To this division belong the common seal and the walrus
in our northern hemisphere; whilst the genus Otaria or sea-lion,
with different forms and characters, and which attains in general
a greater size, is only found in high southern latitudes.
The family of Cetacea consists of three great genera: the
manati and dugong, which live in or near the estuaries of tropical
rivers, are herbivorous; the dolphins or porpoises, which are carnivorous,
provided with long jaws and numerous teeth, and are
found in almost every latitude and in every sea; and the whales,
which, unprovided with cutting teeth, are furnished with whalebone
inserted in the upper jaw, the extreme filaments of which
are destined as a kind of net to catch the minute marine animals
which form their food. The marine Cetacea breathe by an opening
in the centre of the head, called, in whales, the blower, corresponding
to the nose of terrestrial quadrupeds, and which also
serves to expel the water taken into the mouth with the food, in
the form of jets, which, in the whale tribe, varies in height and
form according to the species.
The favorite haunts of the seal tribe are the polar oceans and
desert islands in high latitudes, where they bask in hundreds on
the sunny shores during the brief summer of these inhospitable
regions, and become an easy prey to man, who has nearly extirpated
the race in many places. A million are annually killed in
the South Atlantic alone. Seven species are natives of the Arctic,
Atlantic, and Polar Oceans; the Greenland seal, the bearded or
great seal, and the Phoca leporina are found also in the high
latitudes of the Northern Pacific. The Phoca oceanica is only
in the White Sea and the sea at Nova Zembla, and the Phoca
sagura on the coast of Newfoundland. The sea-lion is to be
found on all the coasts of the South Pacific, but their principal
gathering is on the island of St. George, one of the Pruibiloff group,
in lat. 56° N. The common seal is 6 or 7 feet long, with a face
like that of a dog, and a large intelligent eye. It is easily tamed,
and in the Orkney island it is so much domesticated that it follows
its master, and helps him to catch fish. This seal migrates in herds
from Greenland twice in the year, and returns again to its former
haunts; they probably come to the coasts of Europe and the
British islands at the time of their migrations, but the Phoca
vitulina is a constant inhabitant of our shores. Some of the seal
tribe have a very wide range, as the fur species, Arctocephalus
ursinus, of the Falkland islands, which at one time frequented
the southern coasts of New Holland in multitudes, but they and
three other species have now become scarce, from the indiscriminate
378slaughter of old and young. Sir James Ross found some of the
islands in the Antarctic seas overrun with the sea-elephant, Phoca
elephantina, and they captured a new species of seal without
external ears. The Walrus, a grim-looking creature, with tusks
2 feet long, bent downwards, and its nose covered with transparent
bristles, has a body like that of a seal, 20 feet long, with a coat of
short grey or yellow hair. It sleeps on the floating ice, feeds on
sea-weed and marine animals, and never leaves the Arctic seas.
The manati and dugong form the first group of the family of
the Cetacea; they are exclusively herbivorous, and inhabit near
the mouths of the great tropical rivers. The lamantin or manatus
of two species is found in the Amazon and Orinoco, and in some
rivers of Western Africa. In the former, where it is known as
the sea-cow, its body is round like a wine-bag, and sometimes
attains a length of 12 or 15 feet; it browses in herds on the
herbage at the bottom of streams; and when attacked, the mother
defends her young at the sacrifice of her own life. The dugong
is an inhabitant of the eastern archipelago, and of the shallow
parts of the Indian Ocean, where it also feeds on sea-weed; it is
more a marine animal than the lamantin, as it is scarcely ever
seen in fresh water. The dugong is so harmless and tame as to
allow itself to be handled. When it suckles its young it sits
upright, which has given rise to the fable of the Mermaid. This
animal, like the lamantin, will sacrifice its life for its young, and
is, hence, among the Malays, held as the type of maternal affection.
The animal called the Manatus septentrionalis, which frequents
the Arctic seas, is very little known, and probably not one
of the herbivorous Cetacea.
The second group or genus of the Cetacea consists of those
of predatory habits; they live on fish, and, consequently, have
sharp and numerous teeth, such as porpoises, dolphins, and
spermaceti whales or Cachalots; they have, like all the animals
of this family, spouting nostrils in the upper part of the head.[176]
The common porpoise is seen spouting and tumbling on the surface
of all the seas of Europe; shoals of them go in pursuit of
herrings and mackerel, and even swim up the rivers in chase of
salmon. They have more the form of fish than the seal tribe,
and have a dorsal fin. The several species of Dolphins, so
remarkable for their voracity and for the swiftness of their
motions, owing to the symmetry of their form and the width of
their horizontally-placed tail, are seen in almost every latitude.
The white dolphin, eaten by the Icelanders, is 18 feet long, and
379migrates from the Atlantic to Greenland in the end of November.
The Grampus, Delphinus Orca, nearly allied to the killer of the
South Sea whalers, is fierce and voracious, often 20 feet long,
roams in numerous shoals, preying upon the larger fish, and
even attacking the whale. The Grind or black dolphin has been
known to run ashore in hundreds in the bays of Feroe, Orkney,
and Shetland. This seems to be the same or nearly allied to the
black fish which was met with in vast numbers by Sir James
Ross in the Antarctic seas: they had so little fear, that they
darted below the ship on one side and came up at the other.
The white porpoise, Delphinus peronii, of the southern whalers,
is a rare and elegant species of dolphin which chiefly inhabits the
high southern latitudes, but has been seen at the equator in the
Pacific. They are about six feet long, the hinder part of the
head, the back, and the flukes of their tail are black, and all the
rest of the purest white. The Narwhal, or sea-unicorn (Monodon
monoceros), has no teeth, but a tusk of fine ivory wreathed with a
spiral groove extending 8 or 10 feet straight from the head; in
general there is only one tusk, but there are always the rudiments
of another, and occasionally both grow to an equal length. The
old narwhals are white with blackish spots, the young are dark-coloured.
This singular creature, which is about sixteen feet
long without the tusks, swims with great swiftness. Mr. Scoresby
has seen 15 or 20 at a time playing round his ship in the Arctic
seas, and crossing their long tusks in all directions as if they were
fencing; they are found in all parts of the Northern Ocean.
The spermaceti whale, the Cachalot or Physeter Macrocephalus,
belonging to the family of the predaceous spouters, is one of
the most formidable inhabitants of the deep. Its average size is
60 feet long and 40 feet in circumference; its head, equal to a
third of its length, is extremely thick and blunt in front, with a
throat wide enough to swallow a man. The proportionally small
swimming paws or pectoral fins are at a short distance behind the
head, and the tail, which is a horizontal triangle 6 or 7 feet long, and
19 feet wide, with a notch between the flukes, is the chief organ
of progressive motion and defence. It has a hump of fat on its
back, is of a dark colour, but with a very smooth clean skin.
These sperm whales have two nostrils on the top of their head,
through which they throw, at each expiration, a succession of jets
like smoke, at intervals of 15 or 20 minutes, after which they toss
their tails high in the air and go head foremost to vast depths,
where they remain for a considerable time, and then return again
to the surface to breathe. The jet or spout is from 6 to 8 feet
high, and consists of water mixed with air, expired from the lungs.
This whale has sperm-oil and spermaceti in every part of its body,
but the latter is chiefly in a vast reservoir in its head, which makes
380it very buoyant, and ambergris is sometimes found in the inside
of the body, supposed to be the produce of disease. These huge
monsters, occasionally 75 feet long, go in great herds of 500 or
600, or schools, as the whalers call them. Females with their
young, and two or three old males, generally form one company,
and the young males another, while the old males feed and hunt
singly. The sperm whales swim gracefully and equally, with
their head above the water; but when a troop of them play on
the surface of the water, some of these uncouth and gigantic
creatures leap with the agility of a salmon several feet into the
air, and fall down again heavily with a tremendous crash and
noise like a cannon, driving the water up in lofty columns capped
with foam. The fishery of the sperm whale is attended with
great danger; not only the wounded animal, but its companions
who come to its aid, sometimes fight desperately, killing the
whalers and tossing them into the air with a sweep of their tremendous
tails, or biting a boat in two. In 1820, the American
whaler Essex was wrecked in the Pacific by a sperm whale; it
first gave the ship so severe a blow that it broke off part of the
keel, then, retreating to a distance, it rushed furiously, and with
its enormous head beat in a portion of the planks, and the people
had just time to save themselves in the boats when the vessel
filled. They often lie and listen when suspicious of mischief.
No part of the aqueous globe, except the Arctic seas, is free from
their visits; they have been seen in the Mediterranean and the
Adriatic, in the British Channel, and even in the estuary of the
Thames, but their chief resort is the deepest parts of the warmer
seas within or near the tropics, and in the Antarctic Ocean, where
they feed on floating molluscæ, the sepia or cuttle-fish, &c.
The second and last genus of the Cetacea are whalebone
whales, such as the Greenland whale and rorquals. Instead of
teeth, the upper jaws of these animals are furnished with plates
and filaments of whalebone, which are moveable, and are adapted
to retain, as in a net, the medusæ and other small marine animals
that are the food of these colossal inhabitants of the deep. The
common Greenland species, Balæna Mysticetus, was formerly
much more numerous, but it is now chiefly confined to the very
high northern latitudes; however, should it be the same with the
whale found in such multitudes in shallow water on the coasts of
the Pacific and in the Antarctic Ocean by Sir James Ross, it must
have a very wide range, but it is more probable that each pole has
its own species. The Greenland whale is from 65 to 70 feet
long, but they are so much persecuted that they probably never
live long enough to come to their full size. The head is very
large, but the opening of the throat is so narrow that it can only
swallow small animals. It has no dorsal fin: the swimming
381paws are about nine feet long, and the flat tail is half-moon
shaped and notched in the middle. It has two spouts or nostrils,
through which it throws jets like puffs of smoke some yards high.
It only remains two or three minutes on the surface to breathe,
and then goes under water for five or six. The back and tail are
velvet-black, shaded in some places into grey, the rest is white:
some are piebald. The capture of this whale is often attended
with much cruelty, from their affection for their young; indeed
the custom of killing the calf in order to capture the mother has
ruined the fishery in several places, especially in New Zealand,
where there were eight species of whales in vast abundance.
Rorquals are also whalebone whales, differing from the common
whale in the more elongated form of the head. One species
is from 80 to 100 feet long, the largest of marine animals. The
bottle-nosed whale, a smaller species, was exceedingly numerous
in the Arctic seas; in the year 1809, 1100 were stranded in Huel-fiord
in Iceland. This whale travels to lower latitudes in pursuit
of herrings and other fish. It had been caught on the coast of
Norway as early as the year 890, and probably long before. The
first northern navigators were not attracted by the whale as an
object of commerce, but stumbled upon it in their search for a
north-west passage to the Pacific. The hump-backed whale,
Balæna gibbosa, a rorqual 30 or 40 feet long, is met with in small
herds in the intertropical and southern regions of the Pacific and
Atlantic; it is seldom molested by the whalers, and is very dangerous
for boats, from the habit it has of leaping and rising suddenly
to the surface. None of the senses of the whale tribe are
very acute; the whalebone whales alone have the sense of smelling,
and, although the sperm whale is immediately aware of a
companion being harpooned at a very great distance, they do not
hear well in air, and none have voice.[177]
The existence of creatures in the ocean resembling enormous
serpents has been announced at different times for more than a
century, but has never been authentically established. Accounts
of such monsters having been seen in the northern seas, in the
fiords of Norway and Sweden, had been given to the world by
Egede and Pantoppidan: by the latter more on hearsay evidence
than from his own observation. But, as in every instance, the
pretended sea-serpent was represented to possess either the blow-holes
of the Cetacea or the head and mane of a seal, it was evident
the credulity of our Scandinavian neighbours had converted
some well-known animals into the incomprehensible marine
monsters of their imagination. The same may be said of the
sea-serpent represented to have been stranded on one of the
382Orkney Islands in 1808, of which a part of a skeleton is preserved
in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, and which, when
examined by the naturalist, proved to belong to a large species of
shark; and of that fallen in with off the coast of Halifax in 1833,
by some British officers engaged on a fishing expedition. The
existence of the sea-serpent was looked upon therefore as one of
those creations of that imaginative credulity, so frequently entertained
by ignorant seafaring persons, and had ceased to attract
any attention except occasionally by an illusion to it in some
Transatlantic newspaper; when it has been again revived by no
less a person than the commander of one of her Majesty’s ships,
who has considered its discovery by him to be worthy of a report
to the Lords of the Admiralty. The officer in question, Captain
M’Quhae, of her Majesty’s ship Dædalus, states that, on the 6th
of August, 1848, being in lat. 24° 44ʹ S., long. 9° 22ʹ E., consequently
not far from the south-western coast of Africa, he descried
in broad daylight, and at a short distance, an animal with the
head of a serpent and at least 60 feet long, passing his ship to the
south-westward at the rate of 15 miles an hour. Professor Owen,
after a careful and impartial consideration of all the details given
of this strange apparition, has shown to the satisfaction of every
unbiassed mind that the animals seen by the officers of the Dædalus
was probably a large species of southern seal, and perhaps the
Otaria Proboscidea. The genus Otaria is longer in proportion
than our Arctic seals, and its fore flappers being situated farther
back, the neck of the animal becomes longer, and is generally, in
the act of swimming, raised out of the water, as seen and represented
by Captain M’Quhae in his drawing. Professor Owen
supposes that this seal had been carried from its usual haunts in
or near the Antarctic circle on an iceberg, which having melted
away in these middle latitudes, the animal was obliged to find its
way back by its own locomotive powers; an opinion rendered the
more likely, when we consider that it was making for the nearest
land, where such animals are known to live, Gough Island and
Tristan d’Acunha, from which it was distant about 1500 miles, or
4 days’ journey, at the rate and in the direction it is represented
by Captain M’Quhae to have been progressing when seen from
his ship. This statement of the appearance therefore of the sea-serpent
in 1848 adds nothing to our certainty as to the existence
of such monsters; whilst it shows how easy it is, for even well-informed
persons, to raise up imaginary beings out of animals
well-known to the naturalist. The general public, always fond
of the marvellous and extraordinary, is too prone to credit such
stories, and too ready to admit the existence of beings, however
opposed to all the known laws of organic co-existences. To persons
ready to give credit to the assertions of those ignorant of the
383first principles of zoology, it would be a loss of time for the naturalist
to endeavour to explain how impossible it is that the head
and jaws of a serpent, with the skin and mane of a seal, and the
blow-hole of a porpoise, could ever be found united in the same
animal. As well might one try to reason with a believer in
ghosts and fairies on the non-existence of those creations of a disordered
imagination.
CHAPTER XXX.
Distribution of Reptiles—Frogs and Toads—Snakes, Saurians, and Tortoises.
Reptiles, more than any other class of animals, show the partial
distribution of animated beings, because, being unable to travel to
any great distance, they have remained in the places wherein
they were originally stationed; and as they inhabit deserts,
forests, and uncultivated ground, they have not been disturbed by
man, who has only destroyed some individuals, but has not diminished
the number of species, which is probably the same as
ever it was. Few of the mammalia hybernate, or fall into a torpid
state in winter, except the bear, marmot, bats, and some others.
Their fat supplies the carbon consumed by the oxygen during
their feeble and imperceptible respiration, and is wasted by the
time the warm weather returns, which rouses them from their
lethargy, thin and extenuated. But reptiles, being colder-blooded,
bury themselves in the ground, and hybernate during the winter
in cold and temperate climates. In hot countries, they fall into a
state of torpor during the dry season, so that they have no occasion
to wander, either on account of temperature or want of sustenance;
and the few that do migrate in quest of food always return
to their old haunts. As the blood of reptiles receives only a small
part of the oxygen they inhale, little heat and strength are generated;
consequently they are cold-blooded, and, for the most part,
sluggish in their motions, which, however, are more varied than
in quadrupeds; but as some reptiles, such as tortoises and lizards,
breathe more frequently than others, there are, consequently,
great differences in their energy and sensibility.
The order of Reptiles is divided by naturalists into four classes,
commencing in the ascending order:—1. Batracians or frogs,
toads, and salamanders; 2. Ophidians or serpents; 3. Saurians,
lizards, chameleons, crocodiles; and 4. Emydians or tortoises,
and turtles. With very few exceptions they are oviparous; they
partake of both terrestrial and aquatic forms, and many are amphibious:
384they all increase in numbers towards the equator, and
few live in cold climates; but they can endure a cold winter
better than a cool summer. Frogs and salamanders inhabit the
banks of the M’Kenzie river in North America, where the mean
temperature is between 7° and 8° of Fahrenheit; the thermometer
in winter even sinks to 90° below the freezing point. The
southern limit of reptiles, so far as it is known, is in 50° S. lat.,
where a frog was found on the banks of the river Santa Cruz.
The number of species of reptiles in the torrid zone is at least
double that in the temperate; Australia has fewer than Europe,
and of all places in the Old World, Java is richest in reptiles.
America possesses more than half of all the species, the maximum
being in Brazil, but everyone of them is peculiar to that continent
alone.
The Batrachians approach nearest to the nature of fishes, and
form a link between land and water animals. As tadpoles
they have tails and no feet, but when full-grown they generally
acquire feet and lose their tails. Besides, in that early stage they
are aquatic and breathe by gills, like fishes; but in a state of
maturity they breathe by lungs like quadrupeds, though some of
the genera always retain their gills and tails, and some never
acquire feet. These animals have the power of retarding and
accelerating their respiration without stopping the circulation of
their blood, so that they can resist heat and cold to a certain
degree—a power most remarkable in the salamander, which
forms part of this class, so varied in appearance and nature.
Some, as toads and frogs, imbibe a quantity of water, which is
evaporated through their skin more or less quickly. This keeps
them at the temperature of the medium they live in, and the air
they inhale through the skin is as necessary to their existence as
that which they breathe.
The group of toads and frogs consists of four families, which
have four feet, but without tails; namely, frogs, hylas or rainettes,
toads, and pipæ. Frogs, which are amphibious, have no nails on
their toes, and their hind legs are longer than the fore, and webbed,
consequently better fitted for swimming and jumping, which they
do by leaps. There are 16 genera, and above 50 species, so that
they are more numerous and more varied than any other reptile.
Of the hyla or tree-frog there are 60 species, all of the most vivid
and brilliant tints, and several colours are frequently united on
the same animal. They mostly live on high trees, and their
webbed feet have little cushions at the points of their toes, forming
a kind of sucker, by means of which they can squeeze out the air
from under their feet, and, by the pressure of the atmosphere,
they adhere firmly to the under side of the smoothest leaf, exactly
on the same principle by which flies walk on the ceiling of a
385room. The bufo, or toad, is the ugliest of the race; many are
hideous, with swollen bodies, wart-like excrescences, and obtuse
toes. They seldom go into water, but frequently marshy, damp
places, and only crawl, whereas the frog and hyla leap. They
are much fewer than either of the other two families; only 30
species are known. The pipæ are also toads of a still more disgusting
form, and are distinguished from their congeners by not
having an extensile tongue. All these reptiles produce noises,
which are exceedingly varied; they croak in concert, following a
leader, and when he is tired another takes his place. One of the
North American frogs croaks in bands; one band begins, another
answers, and a third replies, till the noise is heard at a great distance;
a pause then takes place, after which the croaking is
renewed. Mr. Darwin mentions a little musical hyla at Rio de
Janeiro, which croaks a kind of harmony in different notes.
Toads and frogs are found in almost all parts of the earth,
though very unequally and partially distributed. America has
more than all the other countries taken together, and Europe the
fewest. Six species of frogs, one rainette, and two toads, are
European; and all, except four of the frogs, are also found in Asia
and Africa. The Rana temporaria lives at the height of 7700
feet in the Pyrenees, and near the snow-line on the Alps.
The law of circumscribed distribution is strongly marked in
Asia; for of ten species of frogs peculiar to that continent, three
only are in the mainland, two are confined to Japan, and, of the
five that are Javanese, one is also common to Amboina, and the
other four to Bengal. The eight species of rainettes, or tree-frogs,
are still more limited in their domicile; five of them are in Java
only, and one in Japan; and the Hyla viridis is in Asia Minor.
There are nine species of toad peculiar to Asia.
None of these reptiles exist in the Galapagos Archipelago, nor
in any of the innumerable islands in Oceanica, and there are very
few in Australia, but all peculiar. In Africa there are eight species
of frogs, two or three of rainettes, and two of toads. One of
the two species of pipa, more horrid in appearance than any toad,
is very common at the Cape of Good Hope, and there only.
The great extent of marshes, rivers, and forests, together with
the heat of the climate, make America the very home of reptiles
of this kind, and there they grow to a greater size than anywhere
else: 23 species of frog, 27 species of tree-frog or rainette, and
21 of toads, are indigenous in that continent, not one of which is
the same with any of those in the Old World; and most of those
in South America are different from those in the northern part of
the continent, though they are sometimes replaced by analogous
kinds. All these reptiles have abodes, with fixed demarcations,
often of small extent. The pipa, or toad of Surinam, is the most
386horrid of the tribe; the Bufo agua, of Brazil, 10 or 12 inches
long, and the Rana pipiens, of Carolina, are the largest.
The second family of this class of reptiles have tails and feet,
as the salamanders, which are very like lizards in their general
form, having a long round or flattened tail and four feet. Some
are terrestrial, and some are aquatic; the former are known as
salamanders or newts, the latter as tritons. Both are met with in
Europe, but the greater number are American. The amphibious
genera of Amphiuma Menopoma and Syren, possessing both lungs
and gills, are American; the latter are peculiar to the marshes
and rice-grounds of Carolina, and the Axolotl is only found in the
Lake of Mexico: they are very like eels with two feet. The
Proteus anguinus, of a light flesh-colour, has four little feet and a
flat tail, and has been found nowhere but in the dark subterraneous
caverns in Carniola.
The third group of this order of Batrachians are the Cæciliæ,
of which there are only eight species, all inhabitants of the warm
parts of Asia, Africa, and America. They have a cylindrical
body, without feet or neck, and move exactly as the serpent, so
they seem to form the link between these reptiles and the class
of frogs and toads.
There are serpents in all hot and temperate countries, but they
abound most in intertropical regions. Java contains 56 species,
which is a greater number comparatively than any other country,
while in Borneo not one has been found. Those in Japan are
peculiar. Wherever snakes exist, there also are some of the
venomous kinds, but they are fewer, specifically and individually,
than is generally supposed. Of 263 species, only 57 are venomous,
or about one in five, although that proportion is not everywhere
the same. In sterile, open countries, the proportion of
venomous snakes is greater than in those that are covered with
vegetation. Thus, in New Holland, seven out of ten species are
poisonous; and in Africa, one of every two or three individuals
is noxious. In general, however, the number of harmless individuals
is twenty times as great as the number of the poisonous.
The three great families of venomous serpents are the colubriform
or adder-shaped snakes, sea-serpents, and the triangular-headed
snakes.
The adder-formed snakes are divided into three genera, the
elaps, which are slender like a cord, with a small head, and of
brilliant colours. There are four species in South America, of
which two are confined to Guiana, and one to Surinam, while the
other is found everywhere from Brazil to Carolina. There is only
one in Africa, three in Australia, and the rest are in limited districts
in tropical Asia, especially in Sumatra and Java; and an
entire genus is found only in India, and the islands of Ceylon and
387Java. The hooded snakes (or Cobra Capello) are the best known
of this family, especially the spectacled or dancing snake of the
Indian jugglers, which is common everywhere from Malabar to
Sumatra, and two other species are only found in Sumatra and
Java. The three or four African species are chiefly at the Cape
of Good Hope and on the Gold Coast; but the most celebrated is
that generally known as the Egyptian asp, which has been tamed
by magicians of ancient and modern times, and is frequently
figured in Egyptian monuments; it derives some of its celebrity
from Cleopatra’s death. Two of the family inhabit New Holland,
one of which is spectacled, like, but of a different species from,
that in India.
All the seven species of sea-snakes are very venomous, and
more ferocious than any other. They frequent the Indian Ocean
in shoals from Malabar to the Philippine Islands and the Bay of
Bengal; they never enter fresh water.
The third venomous family consists of the triangular-headed
serpents, rattle-snakes, and vipers. The first are of a hideous
aspect,—a large head, broad at the base like a heart, a wide mouth,
with their hooked poisonous fangs strongly developed. They
quietly watch their prey till it is within reach, then dart upon it,
and inflict the deadly wound in a moment; the yellow viper of
the French West India islands, the Trigonocephalus lanceolatus,
being amongst the dangerous snakes in existence. One species
in the Old World is to be met with everywhere from Ceylon to
the Phillippine Islands; one is a native in Sumatra, Timor, and
Celebes; the rest are narrowly limited in their abode; two are
confined to Java alone. Ceylon, Sumatra, Japan, and Tartary,
have each a species of these serpents peculiar to itself.
The rattle-snakes are all American—two in the warm districts
of North America, and two in the intertropical parts of South
America. One of the latter, however, has a hard horn at the end
of its tail, instead of a rattle, and sometimes grows to the length
of 10 feet, being, with the Trigonocephalus, the longest of the
venomous snakes.
Vipers come farther north than any other of the noxious tribe:
two are Asiatic, though one is also common to Africa, which,
however, has four peculiar to itself; and the only venomous
serpents in Europe are three species of viper, one of which is
also spread over the neighbouring parts of Asia and Africa. The
common viper inhabits all central Europe and temperate Asia,
even to Lake Baikal, in the Altaï Mountains: it is also found in
England and Sweden, but it does not go farther west than the
Seine, nor does it pass the Alps. One which frequents dry soils,
in the south-east of Europe, is in Styria, Greece, Dalmatia, and
Sicily; and the aspic viper, which lives on rocky ground, inhabits
388France between the Seine and the Pyrenees, Switzerland, Italy,
and Sicily.
There are six families of innocuous serpents, consisting of numerous
species. Four of the families are terrestrial; their species
are very limited in their domicile, the greater number being confined
to some of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, Ceylon, or
to circumscribed districts in tropical Asia, Africa, and America.
Nine or ten species are European, some of which are also found
in Asia and Africa.
Tree-serpents of various genera and numerous species live only
in the great tropical forests of Asia and America, especially in the
latter. They are long and slender, the head for the most part
ending in a sharp point, and generally green, though there are
some of brighter colours; many of these serpents are fierce, though
not venomous; some feed on birds, which they watch hanging by
the tail from a bough.
In all temperate and warm countries abounding in lakes and
rivers, fresh-water snakes are numerous; some live in the water,
but they mostly inhabit the banks near it; they are excellent
swimmers, and may be seen crossing lakes in shoals. America
is particularly rich in them, there are several in Europe and Asia,
but they are rare in Africa, and none have been yet discovered in
Australia.
The genus Boa is peculiarly American, though some smaller in
size and differing in species are found in Asia. The boa constrictor,
generally from 9 to 15 feet long, lives in the great tropical
forests of South America, where it often watches its prey hanging
from the boughs of trees. Two of smaller size have similar
habits, and two are aquatic, one of which is sometimes 20 feet long,
and another 6 feet; the latter inhabits banks of the rivers from the
Amazons to Surinam; and a species is found at the foot of the
Andes of Quito, as high as 3000 feet.
Pythons are the largest snakes of the eastern world, where they
represent the boas of the western; one species, which sometimes
attains the length of 20 feet, is spread from the western coast of
Africa, throughout intertropical Asia, to Java and China. Another,
only 14 feet long, is confined to Malacca and some of the
Sunda Islands. Two others are found only in the islands of Timor
and Saparua, and one in New Holland. There are only two species
of Acrochordi, which, like boas and pythons, twist themselves
round their victims and crush them to death: one aquatic, peculiar
to Java; the other is a land snake, found everywhere through
India to New Guinea.
The West Indian islands have the snakes of North and South
America, and some peculiar; the snakes of central America are
little known.
389Saurians have representatives in every warm and temperate climate.
The crocodile, from its size and ferocity, claims the first
place. There are three genera of this family, all amphibious,
living in rivers, or in their estuaries: the Crocodile, properly speaking,
common to the old and new continents;[178] the Alligator or
Caiman, peculiar to America; and the Gavial, which comes nearer
to the form of certain fossil crocodiles than any other, is limited to
the Ganges and other great rivers of India. The various species
of crocodiles are confined to local habitations: three are Asiatic;
two African, one of which is only in Sierra Leone; two are peculiar
to Madagascar; and in America there are two species of crocodiles
and five of alligators. The American crocodiles inhabit the
estuaries of great rivers, a species is to be met with which ascends
as high as 3000 feet at the base of the Andes of Quito.[179]
The alligators of the Mississippi, and of the rivers and marshes
of Carolina, are more ferocious than those of South America,
attacking men and animals; they only prey in the night; while
in the water, like all their congeners, they cannot swallow their
food, but they drown the animal they have caught, hide it under
water till it is putrid, and then bring it to land to eat it. Locality
has considerable influence on the nature and habits of these animals;
in one spot they are very dangerous, while in another, at
no great distance, they are cowardly. Alligators are rarely more
than 15 feet long, and are seen in large herds basking on the banks
of rivers; their cry is like the roar of a bull; in a storm they bellow
loudly, and are said to be much afraid of some of the whale
family that ascend the great American rivers. The female watches
her eggs and her young for months, never losing sight of them;
but the male devours many of them when they go into the water.
All animals of this class are covered with scales; those of the crocodile
family are hard, horny, often osseous, and impenetrable.
Lizards are chiefly distinguished from crocodiles by having a
long, thin, forked tongue like that of the viper; by their rapid
motions, smaller size, and by some peculiarities of form.
The monitors, which are entirely confined to the old continent,
390have the tail compressed laterally, which enables them to swim
rapidly: and they are furnished with strong sharp teeth. Many
species inhabit Africa and India, especially the Indian Archipelago:
the terrestrial crocodile of Herodotus is common on the deserts
which surround Egypt; and an aquatic species in the Nile,
which devours the crocodile’s eggs, is often represented on the
ancient Egyptian monuments.
Another group of the monitor family is peculiarly American;
some of the species inhabiting the marshes in Guiana are 6 feet
long.[180]
Lizards are very common; more than 63 species are European,
of which 17 inhabit Italy, and one lives on the Alps at an elevation
of 4500 feet; the iguanians, which differ from them only
in the form of the tongue, are so numerous in genera and species,
that it would be in vain to attempt to follow all their ramifications,
which are nevertheless distributed according to the same laws with
other creatures: but the dragons, only found in India, are too singular
to be passed over. The dragon is in fact a lizard with wings
of skin, which are spread along its sides and attached to its fore
and hind feet, like those of the bat, and, though they do not enable
it to fly, they act like a parachute when the animal leaps from
bough to bough in pursuit of insects. Nocturnal lizards of many
species inhabit the hot countries of both continents; they are not
unlike salamanders, but they have sharp claws, which they can
draw in and conceal like those of a cat, and seize their prey. One
of this species, the Gecko, climbs on walls in all the countries round
the Mediterranean. Chameleons are frequent in northern Africa;
and several species inhabit different districts and islands in Asia:
the only European species is found in Spain; it is common to
North Africa.
The anolis, which lives on trees, replaces the chameleon in the
hot regions of South America and in the Antilles, having the property
common to chameleons of changing its colour, but it is a
more nimble and beautiful animal. In New Holland, where everything
is anomalous, there is a lizard with a leaf-shaped tail.
Skinks resemble serpents in form, but with four very short feet
and sharp nails on their claws; they burrow in the sands of Africa
and Arabia: there is a species of gigantic black and yellow skink
in New Holland, and those in the islands of the Indian Archipelago
are green, with blue tails.
391Two anomalous saurians of the genus Amblyrhinchus were discovered
by Mr. Darwin in the Galapagos Archipelago. One found
only in the central islands is terrestrial, and in many places it has
undermined the ground with its burrows; the other is the only
lizard known that lives on sea-weed and inhabits the sea; it is
about four feet long, and hideously ugly, with feet partially webbed,
and a tail compressed laterally. It basks on the beach, and in its
marine habits and food it resembles, on a small scale, the huge
monsters of a former creation.
Tortoises are covered with a shell or buckler, but their head,
legs, and tail are free, covered with a wrinkled skin, and the animal
can draw them into the shell when alarmed. The head is
sometimes defended by a regular shield, and the jaws, instead of
teeth, have a horny case. The upper buckler is rounded, and
formed of eight pairs of plates symmetrically disposed, and often
very beautiful; the under shell is flat, and consists of four pair of
bones and one in the centre. One family of tortoises is terrestrial,
two others are amphibious, one of which lives in fresh water, the
other in tropical and warm seas.
There are more land tortoises in Africa than in all the rest of
the world, both specifically and individually. They abound also
in the great Sunda Islands, in the United States of America, South
America, and especially Brazil. There are a few European species,
of which the common tortoise (Testudo Græca), which is
found in all the countries round the Mediterranean, is the largest,
being about a foot long; it lives on insects and vegetables, and
burrows in the ground in winter. Some of the East Indian species
are enormously large, above three feet long, and remarkable for
the beautiful distribution of their colours; certain species are peculiar
to Brazil, one to Demerara, and one to North America; but
perhaps the largest known species is that of the Galapagos Islands,
the Testudo Indicus, which attains 500 or 600 pounds in weight.
There are two families of the fresh water tortoises that live in
ponds and ditches. The emys is very numerous in America; there
are 15 species peculiar to the northern part of the continent, and
four to the southern: only one has been found in Africa, two in
Europe, and eight in Asia. The Emys caspia, in Asia Minor,
follows a leader, and plunges into the water when alarmed. The
Chelydæ are found in the South American rivers.
The trionyx, or fresh-water turtle, lives in the great rivers and
lakes in warm countries; there are two species peculiar to North
America; they are very large and voracious, devouring birds, reptiles,
and young crocodiles, and often are a prey to old ones. One
is peculiar to the Nile, one to the Euphrates; there are four species
in the Ganges, which are constantly seen eating the bodies of
the natives that are thrown into the sacred stream; one of these
392turtles often weighs 240 pounds. The starred trionyx is in the
rivers of Java only, and another kind is common also to the rivers
of Borneo and Sumatra.
The Chelonians, or sea-turtles, live in the seas of the torrid and
temperate zones, to the 50th parallel of latitude, some eating algæ,
and others small marine animals. Different species are found in
different parts of the ocean. The green turtle, of which there are
many varieties, inhabits the intertropical Atlantic; they may be
seen eating sea-weed at the bottom of the water along the coasts,
and they come in great shoals to the mouths of rivers to lay their
eggs in the sand from distances of many hundred miles. This
turtle is often six or seven feet long, and weighs 600 or 700
pounds; it is much esteemed for food, but the shell is of no value.
The hawk’s-bill turtle, which yields the tortoise-shell, is caught
among the Molucca Islands, and on the north-western coast of New
Guinea. There is also a fishery in the western hemisphere at
Haiti and the Caiman Islands, but the shell is less valuable than
that from the east. There are two species in the Mediterranean,
which are only valued for the oil.
With respect to the whole class of reptiles it may be observed,
that not one species is common to the Old and New World, and
few are common to North and South America; those in New
Holland are altogether peculiar; and, as far as is at present
known, with the exception of Marianne Islands, there are neither
toads, frogs, nor snakes in any of the islands of Oceanica, though
the Indian Archipelago abounds in them; neither are they found
in Tierra del Fuego, in the Straits of Magellan, nor in the Falkland
Islands.
Five species of reptiles only appear to have existed in Ireland
before its geological separation from England—a lizard, a frog, a
toad, and two tritons.
CHAPTER XXXI. — DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. — BIRDS OF ASIA AND THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. — AFRICAN BIRDS. — BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. — BIRDS OF SOUTH AMERICA. — AUSTRALIAN BIRDS.
Distribution of Birds in the Arctic Region—In Europe, Asia, Africa,
America, and the Antarctic Regions.
More than 6000 species of birds are known, which are arranged
in six natural orders or groups, namely, Birds of prey—or vultures,
eagles, hawks; Climbers, including parrots and woodpeckers;
Songsters, the most numerous of all the six; Gallinaceous
birds, including our domestic fowls, partridges, grouse, and
pheasants; Waders—herons, snipes, curlews; and Swimmers,
393or web-footed birds. Next to tropical America, Europe is richest
in species: the greatest number of birds of prey inhabit Europe
and America, which last surpasses every country in the number
of songsters and climbers.
There is great similarity in the birds of the northern parts of
the old and new continents, and many are identical. Towards
the south, the forms differ more and more, till in the tropical and
south temperate zones of Asia, Africa, and America, they become
entirely different, whole families and genera often being stationary
within very narrow limits. Some birds, however, are almost
universal, especially birds of prey, waders, and sea-fowl.
The bald buzzard is to be met with in every country from
Europe to Australia; the Chinese gosshawk inhabits the American
continent, and every station between China and the west
coast of Europe; the peregrine falcon lives in Europe, America,
and Australia; the common and purple herons are indigenous in
the old continent and the new; and the flamingo of different species
fishes in almost every tropical river, and in the Andes to the height
of 13,000 feet. Many of the sea-fowl also are widely spread: the
wagel-gull is at home in the northern and southern oceans. Captain
Beechy’s ship was accompanied by pintadoes, or Cape pigeons,
during a voyage of 500 miles in the Pacific; and even the common
house-sparrow is as much at home in the villages in Bengal
as it is in Britain. Many more instances might be given, but they
do not interfere with the general law of special distribution.
Birds migrate to very great distances in search of food, passing
the winter in one country and the summer in another, many
breeding in both. In cold climates, insects die or hybernate
during winter; between the tropics they either perish or sleep
in the dry season: so that, in both cases, insect-eating birds are
compelled to migrate. When the ground is covered with snow,
the want of corn and seeds forces those kinds whose food is
vegetable to seek it elsewhere; and in tropical countries the
annual inundations of the rivers regulate the migrations of birds
that feed on fish.
Some migrate singly, some in groups, others in flocks of thousands;
and, in most instances, the old and the young birds go
separately. Those that fly in company generally have a leader,
and such as fly in smaller numbers observe a certain order. Wild
swans fly in the form of a wedge, wild geese in a line. Some
birds are silent in their flight, others utter constant cries, especially
those that migrate during night, to keep the flock together,
as herons, goat-suckers, and rails.
Birds of passage in confinement show the most insurmountable
disquietude when the time of migration draws near. The Canadian
duck rushes impetuously to the north at the usual period of
394summer flight. Redbreasts, goldfinches, and orioles, brought from
Canada to the United States, when young, dart northwards, as if
guided by the compass, as soon as they are set at liberty. Birds
return to the same place year after year. Storks and swallows
take possession of their former nests, and the times of their departure
are exact even to a day. Various European birds spend
the winter in Asia and Africa; while many natives of these
countries come to central Europe in summer.
The birds of passage in America are more numerous, both in
species and individually, than in any other country. Ducks,
geese, and pigeons migrate in myriads from the severity of the
northern winters; and when there is a failure of grain in the
south, different families of birds go the north. The Virginian
partridge crosses the Delaware and goes to Pennsylvania when
grain is scarce in New Jersey; but it is so heavy on the wing,
that many fall into the river, and end the journey by swimming.
The same thing happens to the wild turkey, which is caught
in hundreds as it arrives wet on the banks of the Ohio, Missouri,
and Mississippi. These birds are not fitted for long flight by
their structure, because their bones have fewer of those air-cells
which give buoyancy to the feathered tribes. The number of
air-cells is greatest in birds that have to sustain a continued and
rapid flight; probably the extremes are to be met with in the
swift and the ostrich—the one ever on the wing, the other never.
The strength of the ostrich is in the muscles of its legs; while
the muscles on the breast of the swift weigh more than all the
rest of the body; hence, it flies at the rate of 100 miles an hour
easily. The wild duck and wild pigeon fly between 400 and
500 miles in a day. The stork, and some other migratory birds,
do not halt till the end of their journey. Many sea-fowl are never
seen to rest; and all the eagles, vultures, and hawks are birds of
strong flight, and capable of sustaining themselves at heights
beyond the reach of less buoyant creatures.
The birds of Europe and North America are better known
than those of any part of the globe. New species are constantly
discovered in Asia, Africa, and South America; and extensive
regions in the East are yet unexplored: however, about 6000
have already been described.
There are 503 species of birds in Europe, many of which are distributed
over Asia and Africa, without any apparent variation; and
100 of our European species are also in North America. Of these,
90 are land-birds, 28 waders, and 62 water-fowl; among which
395are most of the marine birds of northern Europe, which, like all
sea-fowl, have a wider range.
More than three-fourths of the species, and a much larger proportion
of individuals, of the birds of Greenland, Iceland, and
Feroe, are more or less aquatic, and many of the remainder are
only occasional visitors. Of the few small birds, the greater
number are British; but many that reside constantly in Britain
are migratory in Iceland and Feroe, and all the small birds leave
Greenland in winter. The Aquila albicilla, or fishing eagle, is
the largest bird of these northern islands; it feeds on salmon and
trout, and builds its nest on the boldest crags. The jer-falcon, or
Falco Islandicus, though native, is rare even in Iceland. The
snowy owl lives near the glaciers in the interior of Greenland,
and is sometimes seen in Orkney. Particular kinds of grouse
are peculiar to high latitudes, as the ptarmigan or white grouse.
The Columba æneas lives on all the rocky coasts of Europe, and
it is also an American bird. The crow family are inhabitants of
every part of the globe. The common crow is very generally
distributed; the carrion-crow and jackdaw are all over Europe
and North America. The Royston crow is the only one of the
genus within the Arctic circle, and but a summer visitor. The
magpie is everywhere in Europe. The Jay, one of the most beautiful
birds of its tribe, is found in Europe, North America, and
China. The raven is everywhere, from Greenland to the Cape
of Good Hope, and from Hudson’s Bay to Mexico; it is capable
of enduring the extremes of heat and cold, and is larger, stronger,
and more ravenous in the Arctic islands than anywhere else. It
is said to destroy lambs, and to drive the eider-ducks from their
nests to take their eggs or young: they unite in flocks to chase
intruding birds from their abode.
Waders are more numerous than land-birds in the Arctic
regions. The snipe and the golden plover are mere visitors;
and the oyster-catcher remains all the year in Iceland: it makes
its nest near streams, and wages war with the crow tribe. The
heron, curlew, plover, and most of the other waders, emigrate;
sand-pipers and the water-ousel remain all the year round.
Web-footed birds, being clothed with down and oily feathers,
are best able to resist the cold of a polar climate. The Cygnus
musicus, or whistling swan, is the largest migratory bird of Europe
or America. It is 5 feet long from the tip of the bill to the end
of the tail, and 8 feet from tip to tip of the wings: its plumage is
pure white, tinged orange or yellow on the head. Some of them
winter in Iceland; and in the long Arctic night their song is
heard, as they pass in flocks: it is like the notes of a violin.
Various species of the duck tribe live in the far north, in prodigious
multitudes. The mallard, supposed to be the origin of
396our tame duck, is everywhere in the Arctic lands. There are
two species of eider-duck: the king duck, or Somateria spectabilis,
one of these, is widely dispersed over the islands and coasts
of the North Atlantic, and all the Arctic land and islands in
Europe and America. In Europe its most southern building-place
is the Fern Islands on the coasts of Northumberland; in
America it never goes south of New York. It lives in the open
sea in winter, and resorts to the coast when the grass begins to
grow. The duck makes her nest of sea-weed, lined with down
from her breast. The islanders take the eggs and down twice
in the season; but they do not kill the old birds, because the down
of a dead duck is of no value, having lost its elasticity. The
third time the drake repairs the nest with down from his breast:
the birds are allowed to hatch their brood; and, as soon as the
young can feed themselves, they are taken out to sea by the
duck. They attain maturity in 4 years, and then measure 2 feet
from tip to tip of the wing. The same couple has been known
to frequent a nest 20 years, and the Icelanders think the eider-duck
lives to 100.
The cormorant, which lives on fish, is universal in the northern
seas, and is scarcely ever eaten by the natives. It sits singly,
or sometimes in flocks, on the rocks, watching the fish with its
keen eye: it plunges after them, and pursues them for three or
four minutes under water. Auks are very numerous, especially
the razor-billed auk, or penguin; but the great auk, which is
incapable of flight with its little wings, is now nearly extinct in
the Arctic islands. The tern, or sea-swallow, is seen everywhere
in these seas, skimming along the surface of the water, catching
mollusca and small fish. Gulls of many species, and in countless
numbers, are inhabitants of the Arctic regions, whilst in the
Antarctic they are represented by the equally numerous genus of
Procellaria, of which the Mother-Cary’s-chicken or stormy petrel
is the type. No birds are more widely dispersed than these two
genera. They are at home, and brave the storm, in every latitude
and in every sea; but those in the north are said to be
larger and more numerous than elsewhere. There are nine or
ten species in the Arctic regions, and the most numerous of
these probably are the kittywakes, the young of which cover the
rocks in Iceland, packed so close together that 50 are killed at a
shot.
The skua is one of the boldest and most rapacious of birds,
forming a link between gulls and birds of prey. It lives by robbing
other birds, and is so audacious that it forces the gulls to
disgorge the fish they have swallowed, and has been seen to kill
a puffin at a single blow. Its head-quarters are in Feroe, Shetland,
and the Hebrides, where it hatches its brood, and attacks
animals if they come near them.
397A few species of petrel inhabit the Arctic seas, but the South
Pacific and the Antarctic seas are the favourite resort of this
genus. They take their name from the faculty they have of
walking on the water,[181] which they do by the aid of their flat
webbed feet and widely-extended wings. The stormy petrels,
consisting of several distinct species, confounded by sailors under
the name of tempest-bird or Mother-Cary’s-chicken, are the most
widely diffused, about the size of a swallow, and nearly of the
same colour as the latter; their flight is rapid; they shelter
themselves from the storm in the hollow of a wave, and go to
land only at the breeding season.
It is observed that all birds living on islands fly against the
wind when they go to sea, so as to have a fair wind when they
return home tired. The direction of the prevailing winds, consequently,
has great influence on the choice of their abode: for
example, the 25 bird-rocks, or Vogel-berg, in Feroe, face the
west or north-west; and no bird frequents the cliffs facing the
east, though the situation is to all appearance equally good; a
preference accounted for by the prevalence of westerly wind in
these latitudes.
Most marine birds are gregarious. They build their nests on
the same rock, and live in society. Of this a curious instance
occurs on the rocks in question. The Fugle-berg lies in a frightful
chasm among the cliffs of Westmanshavn in Feroe. The
chasm is encompassed by rocks 1000 feet high, and myriads of
sea-fowl cluster round the top of the crags; but different kinds
have separate habitations; and no race or individual leaves his
own quarters, or ventures to intrude upon his neighbours.
Upon some low rocks, scarcely rising above the surface of the
water, sits the glossy cormorant; the predatory skuas, on a higher
shelf, are anxiously regarded by myriads of kittywakes on nests
in crowded rows along the shelving rock above, with nothing
visible but the heads of the mothers almost touching one another;
the auks and guillemots are seated a stage higher on the narrow
shelves, in order as on a parade, with their white breasts facing
the sea, and in absolute contact. The puffins form the summit
of this feathered pyramid, perched on the highest station, and
scarcely discernible from its height, if they did not betray themselves
by flying backwards and forwards. Some of these tribes
have a watch posted to look out for their safety; and such confidence
has the flock in his vigilance, that if he is taken the rest
are easily caught. When the whole take flight, the ear is stunned
by their discordant screams.
The greater part of the marine birds of the Arctic seas are inhabitants
398also of the northern coasts of the continent of Europe
and of the British islands.
No part of Europe is richer in birds than Britain, both in species
and numbers of individuals; and the larger game is so abundant,
that no one thinks of eating nightingales and redbreasts. Of the
503 species of European birds, 277 are native in our islands.
The common grouse, the yellow and pied wagtails, and the English
starling, are found nowhere else. It is probable that most of
the British birds came from Germany before the separation of our
island from the continent, and many of short flight never reached
Ireland. The ptarmigan and capercailzie came from Norway.
There are five European vultures: the lemmergeyer of the
Alps and Pyrenees builds its nest in the most inaccessible parts
of the mountains, and is seldom seen; it lives also in the mountains
of Abyssinia and on the Mongolian steppes. Ten eagles
are European; one is peculiar to Sardinia; and several of them
are common in America: the golden eagle is one; that beautiful
bird, which once gave a characteristic wildness to our Scotch
mountains, and the distinguishing feather to the bonnet of our
chieftains, is now nearly extirpated. The osprey or fishing eagle
is equally an inhabitant of Europe and America, and so are some
of our numerous hawks; among others the jer or gentil falcon
has been so much destroyed, that it is now rare even in Iceland,
its native place: there are still a few in Scotland, and several are
caught in their migratory flight over the Low Countries, and
reclaimed by the expert falconers for the now nearly obsolete
sport of falconry.
The owl tribe is numerous, and many of them are very handsome.
The Bubo maximus, the great owl, the largest of nocturnal
birds, inhabits the forests of middle and southern Europe; it is
rare in France and England, though not uncommon in Ireland
and Orkney: in Italy a small owl is tamed and used as a decoy.
Owls, eagles, and hawks, have representatives in every country,
but of different species. The two species of European Goatsuckers
migrate to Africa in winter; their peculiar cry may be
heard on a moonlight night when a large flock takes wing for the
journey. Several of our swallows go to Africa: both our kingfishers
are African, and only visit us in summer; one, the Alcedo
ispida, is a native of Lower Egypt and the shores of the Red Sea.
Some of the 7 species of European creeping birds, or certhias,
creep on the trunks and branches of trees in search of insects;
others pursue their prey clinging to the face of rocks and walls,
supported by the stiff elastic feathers of the tail: the hoopoe, an
inhabitant of southern Europe, is also a creeper, but it pursues
small reptiles and insects on the ground.
The Fringillæ or thick-billed birds are by much the most characteristic
399of Europe; to them belong our finest songsters. The
sylvias have soft beaks, and feed on insects and worms; the
nightingale, the redbreast, the wren, the smallest of European
birds, the warblers, white-throat, and others, are of this family
Thick-billed birds live on seed, as the common sparrow, the gold,
and other finches, linnets, buntings, and crossbeaks.
Four species of fly-catchers are peculiar to Europe, and five
species of shrikes. Ravens, crows, jays, and magpies are everywhere;
the Alpine crow and nutcracker are found in central
Europe only. Compared with America the starling family is
poor, and the woodpecker race still more so, yet we have six
species, some of which are very beautiful. There is only one
cuckoo entirely European, the other two kinds only come accidentally,
and all are birds of passage. There are four species of
the pigeon tribe; the ringdove frequents the larch forests, and is
migratory; the stockdove also leaves us in October; the biset or
rock pigeon, supposed to be the origin from which the infinite
variety of our domestic pigeons has sprung, flies in flocks, and
makes its flimsy nest on trees and rocks; it is also found in the
Da-ouria part of the Altaï chain. Of gallinaceous birds there are
many; the only native pheasant is in the south-western parts of
the continent; and the capercailzie, extinct in the British forests,
inhabits many parts of Europe; in Scandinavia especially it is
plentiful as far as the pine-tree grows, which is nearly to North
Cape, and also in the Russian forests. The hazel grouse frequents
the pine and aspen forests in central and northern Europe, where
the black cock also is plentiful. Five species of grouse and six
of partridges afford abundance of game; four of the latter are
confined to the southern parts of the continent, and so are the
sand and pentailed grouse, which form a separate family; the
former inhabits the sterile plains of Andalusia and Granada, and
the latter the stony uncultivated parts of France, southern Italy,
and Sicily. The Ortigis Gibraltarica is a peculiar bird allied to
the grouse family, found in the south of Europe only.
European waders are very numerous, and among them there
are specimens of all the genera; woodcocks, snipes, plovers, curlews,
and grebes, are very abundant, and herons of various
species; three of them are egrets or crested herons, and the
common heron now assembles on the tops of trees unmolested,
since the progress of agriculture has rendered the country
unfit for hawking. Several cranes and storks, and two species
of ibis, are European: a species of flamingo is met with in
the south-eastern parts of the continent, and in the maremme
on the east coast of Italy. Many of the waders, however,
migrate in winter. The stork, so great a favourite in Holland
that it is specially protected, is a wanderer; it retires to Asia
400Minor, and on the return of summer resumes its old nest on
a chimney-top, breeding in both countries. About 139 species
of European birds either live in the more elevated parts of the
Alps, or cross them in their annual migrations. They generally
take their flight by the great St. Bernard, the pass of St. Theodule,
the Simplon, and St. Gothard. Europe is particularly rich in
web-footed birds; there are three species of wild swans, four of
wild geese, and more than 30 of the duck tribe, including the
inhabitants of the Arctic seas.
European birds are widely spread over Asia; most of the
Arctic sea-fowl frequent its northern coasts: between 50 and 60
European birds are also Siberian, and there are above 70 European
species in Japan and Corea, which probably are also inhabitants
of Siberia and the Altaï Mountains, and several are identical
with the birds of North America; so that the same affinity prevails
in the feathery tribes of the Arctic regions as in the vegetable
productions.
Asia Minor is a country of transition, and many European birds
are mixed with those of warmer regions, as the Halcyon smyrnensis,
a large bird with gorgeous plumage, identical with the
great Bengal kingfisher, general throughout India. European
birds also inhabit the Caucasus, the shores of the Caspian Sea,
and Persia. Moreover, these warmer climates are the winter-quarters
of various European species.
In Asia Minor, and especially in Armenia, the number and
variety of birds is very great; large eagles, vultures, falcons, buzzards,
quails, partridges, starlings, herons, storks, cranes, legions
of Arctic grebes, swans, wild geese, ducks, and pelicans, are
natives of these countries; besides singing-birds, the nightingale,
the constant theme of the poet’s song, abounds in Persia: hawks
are trained for hunting deer in that country, and the Asiatic partridges,
or francolins, more vividly coloured than ours, differ also
in having beaks fitted for digging up bulbous roots, which is their
food in the deserts.
Farther east the types become more Indian; the great peninsulas
on each side of the Ganges are the habitations of the most
peculiar and the most gorgeous of birds. Many species, and
some entire genera, of kingfishers are here, of the gaudiest
colouring; the plumage of the fly-catchers has the richest
metallic lustre; and the shrikes, of a sober hue with us, are
there decked in the brightest colours; the drongo has a coat of
ultramarine, and the calyptomene has one of emerald green.
401The large-beaked climbing-birds are singularly handsome.
The great green parrot, so easily taught to speak, has inhabited
the Indian forests and the banks of the Ganges time out of mind,
with a host of congeners of every colour; not one species of
these, or indeed of the whole parrot tribe, is common to Asia,
Africa, America, or Australia, nor even to any two of these
great continents. They are vividly coloured in India, but the
cuckoo tribe rivals them; several genera of these birds exist
nowhere else, as the large-beaked Malcahos, the Coucals with
their stiff feathers, and the Couroucous or Trogons, dressed in
vermilion and gold; the last, however, also inhabit other tropical
climates.
Eastern Asia is distinguished by the variety of its gallinaceous
birds and the gorgeousness of their plumage. To this country
we owe our domestic fowls; and two species of peacock are wild
in the woods of India and Ceylon. The Polyplectron, the only
bird of its kind, and the Tragopons, are Indian; and some of the
most brilliant birds of the East are among the pheasant tribe, of
which five species are peculiar to China and Tibet. There are
various species of the pheasant in the Himalaya, and one whose
feathers have a metallic lustre. The gold, the silver, and Reeves’
pheasant, the tail-feathers of which are four feet long, belong to
China. The Lophophorus refulgens, and some others of that
genus, are altogether Indian.
The pigeons also are very splendid in their plumage; they
mostly belong to China and Japan; those in the Birman empire
are green.
It would be vain to enumerate the fine birds that range in the
forests, or fish in the rivers, of the Asiatic continent, yet the birds
of the Indian Archipelago far surpass them in splendour of plumage;
these islands indeed are the abode of the most gorgeously
arrayed birds in existence. Even in Java and Sumatra, though
most similar to India in their winged inhabitants, there are many
peculiar, especially 12 or 13 species of the climbing tribe, and
several of the honey-sucking kind; but the dissimilarity increases
with the distance, as in New Guinea and its islands, where the
honey-sucking genera are developed in novel forms and sumptuous
plumage.
In the various islands of the archipelago there are altogether at
least 15 genera, with their numerous species, found there only.
There are the Cassicans, which resemble jays, with plumage of
metallic lustre; the only two species of Pirolls, one bright violet,
the other of brilliant green; various species of Buceros with
large horned beaks, Orioles of vivid colours, the swallow that
builds the edible nest, the most numerous and splendid Sylvias,
and all the species but one of the Philedons or honey-sucking
402birds with tongues that end in a brush. Birds of Paradise of
many kinds inhabit New Guinea and the neighbouring Moluccas
and Aroo Islands. They are birds of passage, and change their
quarters with the monsoon. The king bird of paradise has two
long slender filaments from the tail, ending in a curled flat web of
emerald green, and the male of the green species has long flowing
plumes from the sides of his body, which give him a magnificent
appearance. The pigeons are peculiarly beautiful and
numerous, but limited in their abode. The Gouroa, or great
crowned pigeon, the largest of its tribe, is an inhabitant of Borneo.
Each island has its own species of Louries, which exist nowhere
else; many peculiar paroquets and cockatoos, couroucous or trogons,
coucals, and the barbu, with huge beaks, are all peculiar to
these islands. Even the partridges have thrown aside their
grave colours and assumed the vivid hues of the tropics, as the
green and tufted Cryptonyx. But the other gallinaceous birds
far surpass them, as the fire and the Argus pheasant, and two or
three species still more splendid, with a host of other birds already
known, and multitudes which Europeans never have seen, in the
deep jungles and impenetrable forests of these unexplored islands.
The Cassowary, a bird akin to the ostrich, without the power of
flying, but fleet in its course, has a wide range in the Indian
Archipelago and the south-eastern peninsula of Asia, and, though
destitute of beauty, is interesting from its peculiar location and
the character of the whole race.
A great number of European birds are also inhabitants of Africa,
and many migrate there in winter, yet the birds of this continent
are very peculiar and characteristic; those in the north and north-east,
and at the Cape of Good Hope, are best known, but the
greater part of tropical Africa is still unexplored. It may be
observed, generally, that the tropical birds differ from those of
north Africa, but are, with a few exceptions, the same with those
in the southern part of the continent, and the whole of Africa,
south of the desert, differs in species from those of north and
western Africa and from Europe. Moreover, there is a strong
analogy, though no affinity, between the birds of Africa and
America in the same parallels of latitude; there is not a single
perching bird common to the two, though some of the rapacious
are in both.
There are 59 species of birds of prey, of which a few are also
European. The Secretary-bird is the most singular of this order:
it preys upon serpents at the Cape of Good Hope, in Abyssinia,
403and other parts of the continent. Africa possesses at least 300
species of the passerine order, of which 10 genera, with all their
species, are peculiarly its own. The swallows are more beautiful
than ours, especially the Cecropis striata, with two tail-feathers
twice as long as its body. Many kingfishers, the most beautifully
coloured of their brilliant race, frequent the lakes and rivers: four
species of Hoopoes, one of which visits Europe in summer, are
natives; and the honey-birds, the representatives of the humming-birds
of South America, are peculiarly African. They abound at
the Cape of Good Hope, where the nectaries of proteas and other
plants produce the sacccharine juice which is their food. The
Malurus Africanus, and many other singing-birds, for the most
part unknown elsewhere, inhabit the forests. The canary-bird
is confined to the Canary Islands; its song differs even in two
adjacent districts: there are, however, other instances of this.
The Capirote, also indigenous in the Canary Islands, is a finer
songster, but it cannot be tamed. Various shrikes are peculiar
to Africa, but the species known as the grand Baratra is confined
to the Azores. There are several birds of the raven tribe, or
nearly akin to them: as the Lampratornis superba; another with
purple wings, the Buphaga, the only bird of its genus; and
several species of the Calaos. The weaving-bird, or Loxia
textor, is one of the most remarkable of the graminivorous tribe;
it weaves its nest with grass and twigs very dexterously; one
brought to Europe wove a quantity of thread among the wires of
its cage, with great assiduity, into a strong texture. The Widow-bird,
the Calious, the blue bee-eater, and all the fly-catching
touracous, with many species of woodpeckers, are found nowhere
else. The parrots and paroquets, which swarm in the tropical
forests, from the size of a hen to that of a sparrow, are of original
forms. The Trogons, or Couroucous, the most beautiful of the
large-beaked climbing-birds, are the same as in Asia; but the
Barbu and the four species of Barbicans are altogether African,
and so are some of the cuckoos. Among the latter are two
species of the Cuculus indicator, so named from indicating where
the bees have their nests; one is peculiar to Abyssinia, the other
to the interior at the Cape of Good Hope; and mocking-birds are
spread over a wide extent of this continent.
There are at least 13 species of African pigeons; and to Africa
we are indebted for the guinea-fowl, of which there are three or
four kinds: it wanders in flocks of hundreds among the brushwood
on the banks of rivers and lakes in Numidia and all the
tropical regions, and they are even more abundant in Madagascar.
Many grouse and partridges are peculiar, especially the Gangas,
of which there are five species; some go in coveys, and others
traverse the deserts in flocks of many hundreds. The sand-grouse,
404one of this family, is much more abundant on the arid
deserts of north Africa than in Europe; and the partridges of this
country are francolins, which feed on bulbous roots.
The Ostrich takes the wide range of Africa and Arabia; the
bird of the desert, and bustards, also wanderers in the plains, are
numerous: the most peculiar are the rhaad and the Otis kori, in
south Africa, five feet high, and remarkable for the brilliancy of
its eye.
Waders of infinite variety inhabit the rivers, lakes, and marshes—woodcocks,
snipes, plovers, storks, cranes, herons, and spoonbills.
The most peculiar are the Dromes and Marabous, whose
feathers form a considerable article of commerce; the cream-coloured
plover, the Scorpus or ombrette, the water-treader of
Abyssinia, and the Tantalus tribe, among which is the ibis (Tantalus
ibis), held sacred by the ancient Egyptians, so frequently
found in mummies in the catacombs, and represented on their
monuments.
Swimming-birds are no less numerous: the Bernicla cyanaptera
is a goose peculiar to Shoa; the rhynchops and pelicans, several
of the duck kind, or birds allied to them, are found nowhere else.
Of 471 species of North American birds, about 100 are also
found in Europe, the greater number of which are water-fowl,
and those common to the northern coasts of both continents. The
sea-fowl on the North Pacific and Behring’s Straits are very much
the same with those in the Greenland seas and the North Atlantic,
but the great Auk or penguin, with featherless wings, still exists
on the North Pacific, and the large white albatross, seldom seen
in the North Atlantic, frequents Behring’s Straits and the western
coasts of North America in immense flocks. It is almost universal
in the Pacific and in the stormy regions towards the southern pole.
Like the Mother-Cary’s-chicken, it is a bird of the tempest, sailing
calmly on its huge wings in the most tremendous gales, and following
a ship a whole day without resting on the waves: it is the
largest of winged sea-fowls; some measure 14 feet from tip to tip
of the wings.
There is no vulture common to the two continents, but there
are five eagles, half of the other birds of prey, a fourth part of the
crow tribe, several waders and web-footed birds which inhabit
both; yet the general character of North American birds is different
from that of European: 81 American generic forms and
two families are not found in Europe. The humming-birds are
altogether American; only four species are in North America;
405one of these is migratory, and another is common to South America.
The parrot family, distributed with generic differences in almost
all tropical countries, has but one representative here, which lives
in the forests of the Carolinas. Europe has nothing analogous to
these two families. It is singular that a country with so many
rivers and lakes should possess only one kingfisher. The woods
are filled with many species of creeping birds, and there are 68
peculiar species of sylvias and fly-catchers; among others the
Todus viridis, which forms a genus by itself. Ravens, crows,
pies, and jays abound, and there are 13 species of starlings. The
finch tribe are very numerous, and there are 16 species of woodpeckers,
as might be expected in a country covered with forests.
Of pigeons there are eight species, but individually they are
innumerable, especially the Columba migratoria, which passes
over Canada and the northern States in myriads for successive
days twice in the year. The poultry-yard is indebted to North
America for the domestic turkey, which there ranges wild in its
native woods, and attains great size. There are no partridges,
properly speaking, and of 13 American species of grouse, three
are probably European, a family which exists in every country
under different forms. The vast expanse of water and marshy
ground makes North America the home of water-fowl and
waders without end. Most of the waders and graminivorous birds
are migratory; in winter they find no food north of the great
lakes, where the ground is frozen upwards of six months in the
year. Many pass the winter in California, as storks and cranes;
wild geese cover acres of ground near the sea, and when they
take wing their clang is heard far off. Even gulls and other
northern sea-fowl come to the coasts of California, and indeed to
the shores of all the north and temperate Pacific.
It may be said generally that, with regard to the web-footed
tribe, North America possesses specimens of all the genera of the
old world, and many peculiarly its own. The table-land of
Mexico has some peculiar forms, and some species of swimming-birds
found only in more northern latitudes; but, except the
Ampelidæ, there are representatives of every group of North and
South America.
The tenants of the air in South America differ more from those
in North America than these do from the birds of Europe: there
are not more than 50 or 60 species in common. South America
has a greater variety of original forms than any other country;
more than 25 genera, with all their species, inhabit that country
406only; of the passerine family alone there are at least 1000 species,
all peculiar to it. The vultures are of different genera from
those in Europe; the Condor of the Andes is the largest of these;
it frequents the highest pinnacles of the Andes in summer, and
builds its nest at the height of 15,000 feet and more above the
sea; and Baron Humboldt saw it wheeling in circles at the elevation
of 22,000 feet. It inhabits the Andes from the Straits of
Magellan to 7° N. lat., but it never crosses the isthmus of Panama,
the condor of California being a smaller bird. It roams over the
plains of Patagonia even to the mouth of the Rio Negro, and in
winter it descends in groups to feed on the plains and sea-shore;
and, like all the vulture race, it possesses the faculty of descrying
a dead or dying animal from a very great distance. Although
the condor lives principally on dead animals and carrion, it will
sometimes attack live animals; its habits are those of our ordinary
vulture; much exaggeration has found its way into books
as to its size and ferocity; the most remarkable point in its history
is the great vertical extent in which it is known to live, from
the level of the sea, to an elevation of 22,000 feet. The Vultur
papa, or king of the vultures, an inhabitant of the tropical regions,
is remarkable for the bright blue and vermilion colour of the head
and neck; the black vulture lives in large assemblages on the
tops of high trees in the sylvas of Brazil; another numerous
species prey on animals in the llanos. Many other rapacious
birds are peculiar to this continent; the burrowing owl, so common
in the Pampas and Chile, is one of these. The Guachero
forms a genus by itself; it is of the size of a common fowl, with
the form and beak of a vulture, and is the only instance known
of a nocturnal bird feeding on fruit. It is confined to a limited
district in the province of Cumana, and shuns the day; incredible
numbers have taken possession of a dark cavern in the valley
of Caripe, where they are killed in thousands every year by the
Indians for their fat.
The Troupials represent our Orioles, the Baratras and Becardes
our shrikes, while the Tangaras partake of the form both of the
shrike and pie, which last, with all the rest of the crow family, have
various representatives in this country. Swallows, or birds allied
to them, are numerous, and many that live on the honeyed juice
of flowers, like the humming-bird, so peculiarly characteristic of
South America: 150 species of humming-birds, from the size of a
wren to that of an humble-bee, adorn the tropical regions of Brazil
and Guiana. This family, so entirely American, has a range from
the Straits of Magellan to the 38th parallel of N. lat.: it may be
met with in the forests on the mountain of Orizaba, at an elevation
of 11,000 feet above the sea; and some beautiful species of it at
still greater heights in the Andes of Bolivia and New Grenada.
407There is only one South American humming-bird which is also
permanent in the United States, and only two are found in Central
America: many of them are migratory; they come in multitudes
to north Chile in summer, and disappear in winter. The climbing-birds,
with large bills, are mostly confined to the tropical forests,
which swarm with peculiar races of parrots, paroquets, and macaws.
It is a remarkable circumstance in the distribution of birds that
there should be 40 species of parrots in the torrid zone of America,
and only three species on the opposite coast of Africa, though the
climate is similar and the vegetation nearly as luxuriant. Parrots
range from the Straits of Magellan to the 42d parallel of N.
lat.; where the Eider-duck, which is a peculiarly Arctic bird,
begins. There are whole families of birds in tropical America
not to be seen elsewhere: as the vividly-coloured Toucan, with its
huge beak; the Araucari, which lives on the fruit of the Araucaria;
some peculiar species of the gorgeous trogons or couroucous;
the Tomalias, birds related to the cuckoo tribe; and the Jacmars,
which represent the woodpeckers.
The gallinaceous family is totally different from that of the
North American forests; the Guan or penelope represents our
pheasants, the different species of Crax or Alectors the wild turkey,
which they equal in size and brilliancy of plumage; whilst
the numerous species of Tinamous and cognate genera fill the
place of the grouse, quails, and partridges of the old continent.
South America furnishes two species of gallinaceous birds of a
very peculiar character—the Cariama of Brazil, like to the secretary-bird
of the Cape of Good Hope in its form and its habits of
destroying reptiles; and the Kamichi, which possesses one or more
sharp triangular spurs at the point of each wing, a dreadful instrument
of attack and defence, such as is possessed by no other bird.
The three-toed or American ostrich, or Struthio Rhea, ranges,
like all its congeners, over a wide extent of country. It is found
from the silvas of Brazil to the Rio Negro, which bounds the Pampas
of Buenos Ayres on the south, and in some of the elevated
plains of the Peru-Bolivian Cordilleras; while the Struthio Darwinii
has the plains of Patagonia to the Straits of Magellan for its
residence.
The water-fowl and waders in this land of rivers are beyond
number; millions of flamingoes, spatules, cormorants, herons, fishing
falcons, and scissor-beaks, follow the fish that go up the rivers
to spawn; nor are gulls wanting where fish are to be found: a
little snow-white heron walks on the back and over the head of
the crocodile while it sleeps. The water-fowl are almost all peculiar;
the few that are excepted are North American. Eight or
nine genera belonging to the warm climates of the old world are
here under new forms, and the number of specific forms of the
408same genus is greater than in any other country. The beautiful
red Ibis or Tantalus ruber inhabits Cayenne; the Ardea helias and
scolopax are the most beautiful of the heron tribe, from their variegated
plumage.
Ducks migrate in immense flocks, alternately between the Orinoco
and the Amazons, on account of the greater supply of fish
afforded by the floods of these rivers, which take place at intervals
of six months from each other. Between the tropics the vicissitudes
of drought and humidity have much influence on the migration
of birds, because the supply of their food depends upon these
changes.
If anything more were required to show the partial location of
birds, the Galapagos Archipelago might be mentioned: of 26 specimens
shot by Mr. Darwin, 25 were peculiar, though bearing a
strong resemblance to American types; some birds were even confined
to particular islands; and the gulls, one of the most widely
dispersed families, are peculiar. But on this comparatively recent
volcanic group, only 500 miles distant from the coast of America,
everything is peculiar—birds, plants, reptiles, and fish; and though
under the equator, none have brilliant colours.
The coasts of Peru and northern Chile are not rich in birds, but
in southern Chile there are many humming-birds, parrots, flamingoes,
peculiar ducks and geese; and there commences that inconceivable
quantity of sea-fowl that swarm on the seas and coasts of
the Antarctic regions. The black scissor-bill, or Rhynchops nigra,
has been seen to form a dense mass seven miles long; shags fly
in an unbroken line two miles. Pelicans, terns, petrels, and many
others, cover the low islands and coasts of the mainland, and those
of Tierra del Fuego.
In the Antarctic and Southern seas Petrels take the place of our
gulls; seven species of them inhabit these high southern latitudes
in prodigious numbers. Two remarkable species of this genus
are found throughout the Southern Ocean—the Giant Petrel (P.
gigantea), equal to the albatross in size, and resembling it in its
mode of life—it sometimes becomes perfectly white; and the
Equinoctial Petrel (P. equinoctialis), a beautiful bird as large as
our domestic fowl, and of a jet black colour. A flock of what was
supposed to be the young of the species known as the Pintado or
Cape pigeon (Procellaria capensis) was estimated to have been
from six to ten miles long, and two or three miles broad, absolutely
darkening the air during the two or three hours they were flying
over the Discovery ships. The snowy petrel, a most elegant bird,
never leaves the ice, and consequently is never seen north of the
Antarctic circle in summer. Three species of the southern Penguin
(Aptenodytes) inhabit these seas; the A. Patachonica, the
largest of sea-fowls, is a rare and, for the most part, solitary bird,
409lives on the pack ice, and weighs from 60 to 70 pounds. The
other two species are smaller and gregarious; they crowd the
snow-clad islands in the high southern latitudes in myriads; every
ledge of rock swarms with them, and on the shore of Possession
Island, close to Victoria Land, it was difficult to pass through the
multitudes. They are fine, bold birds, pecking and snapping with
their sharp bills at those who venture among them. They can
scarcely walk, and, their wings being merely rudimentary, they
cannot fly; they skim along the snow, and swim rapidly, even
under water, resembling more a fish or a seal than a bird in their
movements, and the noise they make baffles all description. Two
species of albatross breed in the Antarctic islands; a kind of skua
gull, which robs their nests; and a goose which, like the eider-duck,
makes its nest with the down from its breast. A very curious
bird, forming as it were a passage between the gallinaceous
birds and waders, the Chionis or Vaginalis Alba, is only found near
the southern extremity of this continent: it is of a milky white,
and of the size of our domestic pigeon, and often takes refuge on
the yards of ships off Cape Horn and Staten Land; it lives chiefly
on a small species of cuttle-fish. Few land birds are met with
within the Antarctic circle: there are but seven or eight species
in the Auckland Islands, mostly New Zealand birds; among others,
the tooa or tui, and an olive-coloured creeper, the choristers of the
woods. One only was found in Campbell Island.
Many generic forms are the same at the two extremities of the
globe, yet with distinct specific differences. Sea-fowls are more
excursive than other birds, but even they confine themselves within
definite limits, so that the coasts may be known from their winged
inhabitants.
The Australian birds are, in many respects, as singular as the
quadrupeds and plants of that country: a white falcon is among
its birds of prey, a black swan among its water-fowl, and of 45
genera, 35 are purely Australian. The passeres are so original,
that many new genera have been found. The Cassican, a handsome
bird of bright colours, approaching somewhat to the crow
family, the Choucalcyon, the golden and black oriole, and one species
of Philedon, are peculiarly Australian. The Menura superba,
or lyre-bird, from the resemblance its outspread tail bears to the
form of the ancient lyre, is the only bird of its genus, and the only
one which approaches the character of the gallinaceous family,
of which none have been discovered in the Australian continent.
Here are many specific kinds of cuckoos, as the Coucal and the
Scythrops, the only bird of that genera. Woodpeckers there are
410none. The parrots, paroquets, and cockatoos, which live in numerous
societies, are all peculiar, especially the black cockatoo, which
is found here only; it is not so gregarious, but even more suspicious
than the white cockatoos, which have a sentinel to warn
them of danger. Chious, with huge bills like the toucan satin-birds,
pigeons and doves of peculiar forms, abound; and the Cereopsis
goose is no less peculiar among the web-footed tribe. The
desert plains of this great continent are allotted to the Emu, a large
struthious bird, like its congener the cassowary incapable of flight,
and once very plentiful, but now in progress of being extirpated
or driven by the colonists to the unexplored regions of the interior.
The Apteryx, a bird of the same family, still lingers in New
Zealand, but it is on the verge of extinction, and probably owes its
existence to its nocturnal and burrowing habits. It is one of those
anomalous creatures that partakes of the character of several others;
its head is in shape something like that of the ibis, with a long
slender bill, fitted for digging into the ground for worms and
grubs; its legs and feet resemble those of the common fowl, with
a fourth toe or spur behind, in which it differs from its congeners;
and its wings, if wings they can be called, are exceedingly small.
In a specimen, whose body measured 19 inches, the wings, stripped
of the feathers, were only an inch and a half long, ending in a hard
horny claw three inches long. The comparatively small wings
are characteristic of the whole family: the rhea and ostrich have
the largest, which, though unavailing in flight, materially aid their
progress in running; the wings of the emu and apteryx serve only
as weapons of defence: the whole tribe also defend themselves by
kicking. No animals have a more remarkable geographical distribution
than this family, or show more distinctly the decided
limits within which animals have originally been placed. These
huge birds can neither fly nor swim, consequently they could not
have passed through the air or the ocean to distant continents and
islands. There are five distinct genera, to each of which very
extensive and widely separated countries have been allotted: the
Ostrich is spread over Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the
deserts of Arabia; two species of the Rhea range over the plains
of the Pampas and Patagonia, in South America; the continent
of Australia is the abode of the Emu; the Cassowary roves over
some of the large islands of the Indian Archipelago; and the
Apteryx dwells in New Zealand. The Dodo, a very large bird
of the struthious kind, extirpated by the Dutch navigators, once
inhabited Mauritius and the adjacent island of Don Rodriguez.
The remains of a very numerous group of extinct struthious
birds have been recently discovered imbedded in the very recent
geological deposits of New Zealand. One of its genera, the
Dinornis, has several species, the largest of which, the D. giganteus,
411attains a height of 11 feet, or double that of the largest
ostrich; another, the Palapteryx, upwards of 9 feet. From the
position in which these bones are found, as well as from their
state of preservation, they can scarcely be considered as fossil,
although belonging to species which have become extinct. Professor
Owen has described no less than six species of dinornis,
and four of palapteryx; and later discoveries in the colony will
probably add several to these numbers. No better example can
be cited as elucidating the certitude of the deductions of the comparative
anatomist than what led to the first discovery of this
extraordinary group of birds. A small portion of a bone, which
from its dimensions appeared to have belonged rather to a quadruped
of the size of an ox than to a bird, was submitted to Mr.
Owen; he boldly pronounced it, from its structure, to belong to a
bird of the ostrich kind—a decision that was soon abundantly confirmed
by the subsequent discovery not only of the bones of the
bird, but of its eggs.
The bones of another extinct bird, the Nestor, have been found,
mixed with those of the Dinornis. It had been something between
an owl and a parrot, but more nearly allied to the latter.
There are two species living of the nestor, one in New Zealand,
another in Philip Island, only five miles in extent, and it is found
in no other part of the world. The Notornis, an extinct race,
closely allied to the water-hen, of the size of a bustard, had also
been an ancient inhabitant of these islands, where birds did and do
exist, almost to the entire exclusion of quadrupeds and reptiles:
an extinct species of dog, and a rat still existing, are the only
land animals which shared in these extensive territories with
multitudes of the feathered race.[182]
The ostrich family live on vegetables; the form of those that
had their home in New Zealand would lead to the conclusion that
412they had fed on the edible roots of the fern which covers that
country; and as no quadruped excepting a rat is indigenous in
New Zealand, though 700 miles long, and in many places 90
wide, these birds could have had no enemy but man, the most
formidable of all.
The beautiful and sprightly Tui, or parson-bird, native in New
Zealand, is jet black with a white tuft on its breast, and so imitative
that it can be taught to repeat whole sentences. There are
parrots and paroquets, vast numbers of pigeons, fine warblers,
many small birds, and a great variety of water-fowl, amongst
others a cormorant, which, though web-footed, perches on the
trees that overhang the streams and sea, watching for fish; and a
snow-white frigate-bird, that pounces on them from a great height
in the air. Altogether, there are at least 84 species of birds that
inhabit these islands.
CHAPTER XXXII. Distribution of Mammalia throughout the Earth. — EUROPEAN QUADRUPEDS. — ASIATIC QUADRUPEDS. — AFRICAN QUADRUPEDS. — AMERICAN QUADRUPEDS. — AUSTRALIAN QUADRUPEDS.
Carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, contain the elements necessary
for the support of animals, as well as of vegetables. They
are supplied to the graminivora in the vegetable food, which is
converted into animal substance by their vital functions.
Vitality in animals, as in vegetables, is the power they have of
assimilating their food, a process independent of volition, since it
is carried on during sleep, and is the cause of force. Animals
inhale oxygen with the air they breathe; part of the oxygen
combines with the carbon contained in the food, and is exhaled in
the form of carbonic acid gas. With every effort, with every
breath, and with every motion, voluntary or involuntary, at every
instant of life, a part of the muscular substance becomes dead,
separates from the living part, combines with the remaining
portion of inhaled oxygen, and is removed. Food, therefore, is
necessary to compensate for the waste, to supply nourishment,
and to restore strength to the nerves, on which all vital motion
depends; for by the nerves volition acts on living matter. Food
would not be sufficient to make up for this waste, and consequent
loss of strength, without sleep; during which voluntary motion
ceases, and the undisturbed assimilation of the food suffices to
restore strength, and to make up for the involuntary motion of
breathing, which is also a source of waste.
The perpetual combination of the oxygen of the atmosphere
413with the carbon of the food, and with the effete substance of the
body, is a real combustion, and is supposed to be the cause of
animal heat, because heat is constantly given out by the combination
of carbon and oxygen; and, without a constant supply of
food, the oxygen would soon consume the whole animal, except
the bones.
Graminivorous animals inhale oxygen in breathing, and, as
vegetable food does not contain so much carbon as animal food,
they require a greater supply to compensate for the wasting influence
of the oxygen; therefore, cattle are constantly eating. But
the nutritious parts of vegetables are identical in composition with
the chief constituents of the blood; and from blood every part of
the animal body, and even a portion of the bones, is formed.
Carnivorous animals have not pores in the skin, therefore their
supply of oxygen is from their breath only; and, as animal food
contains a greater quantity of carbon, they do not require to eat
so often as animals that feed on vegetables. The restlessness of
carnivorous animals when confined in a cage is owing to the superabundance
of carbon in their food. They move about continually
to quicken respiration, and by that means procure a supply of
oxygen to carry off the redundant carbon.
The quantity of animal heat is in proportion to the amount of
the oxygen inspired in equal times. The heat of birds is greater
than that of quadrupeds, and in both it is higher than the temperature
of amphibious animals and fishes, which have the coldest
blood. On these subjects we are indebted to Professor Liebig,
who has thrown so much light on the important sciences of animal
and vegetable chemistry.
The mammalia consist of nine orders of animals, which differ
in appearance and in their nature; but they agree in the one
attribute of suckling their young. These orders are—the Quadrumana,
animals which can use their fore feet as hands, as
monkeys and Apes; Cheiroptera, animals with winged arms, as
bats; Carnivora, that live on animal food, as the lion, tiger,
bear, &c.; Rodentia, or gnawers, as beavers, squirrels, mice;
Edentata or toothless animals [or more properly wanting certain
teeth, as the canines or incisors], as anteaters and armadilloes;
Pachydermata, or thick-skinned animals, as the elephant, the
horse; Ruminantia, animals that chew the cud, as camels, lamas,
giraffes, cows, sheep, deer; Marsupialia, possessing a pouch in
which the young is received after birth; and Cetaceæ, as whales
and dolphins.
The animal creation, like the vegetable, varies correspondingly
with height and latitude; the changes of species in ascending the
Himalaya, for instance, are similar to what a traveller would meet
with in his journey from a southern to a high northern latitude.
414The number of land animals increases from the frigid zones to the
equator, but the law is reversed with regard to the marine mammalia,
which abound most in high latitudes. Taking a broad
view of the distribution of the nine orders of mammalia, it may
be observed that the tropical forests are the chief abode of the
monkey tribe: Asia is the home of the ape, especially the islands
of the Indian Archipelago, as far as the most easterly meridian of
Timor, beyond which there are none.
They abound throughout Africa from the Cape of Good Hope
to Gibraltar, where the Barbary ape or magot is found: another
species of magot inhabits the island of Niphon, the northern limit
of monkeys at the eastern extremity of the continent.
The bats that live on fruits are chiefly met with in tropical and
warm climates, especially in the Indian Archipelago; the common
bats, which live on insects, and are so numerous in species as to
form more than a third of the whole family, are found everywhere
except in arctic America. The Vampire is only met with in
tropical America. Carnivorous mammalia are distributed all over
the globe, though very unequally: in Australia there are only
four species, two of which are bats; there are only 13 in South
America, and 27 in the Oceanic region; while in the tropical
regions of America there are 109, in Africa 130, and in Asia 166
species of carnivora; and so rapid is their increase towards the
tropical regions, that there are nearly three times as many in the
tropical as in the temperate zones.
With regard to the Gnawers or Rodents, species of the same
group frequently have a wide range in the same, or nearly the
same, parallels of latitude, but when they are inhabitants of high
mountain-ridges they follow the direction of the chain, whatever
that may be, and groups confined to high latitudes often appear
again at great elevations in low latitudes. The Edentata are particularly
characteristic of South America, where there are three
times as many species as there are in Asia, Africa, and Australia,
taken together. In the three latter countries they only occur at
intervals, but in America they extend from the tropic of Cancer
to the plains of Patagonia. Thick-skinned and ruminating animals
are very abundant in the old continent, especially in Asia
and Africa; they are also in North America, but in the southern
part of that continent there is only the Tapir, and in Australia
there are none. The marsupialia are confined to Australia and
America.
The distribution of animals is guided by laws analogous to those
which regulate the distribution of plants, insects, fishes, and birds.
Each continent, and even different parts of the same continent,
are centres of zoological families, which have always existed
there, and nowhere else; each group being almost always specifically
different from all others.
415Food, security, and temperature have no influence, as primary
causes, in the distribution of animals. The plains of America
are not less fit for rearing oxen than the meadows of Europe; yet
the common ox was not found in that continent at the time of its
discovery; and with regard to temperature, this animal thrives
on the llanos of Venezuela and the pampas of Brazil as well as on
the steppes in Europe. The horse is another example: originally
a native of the deserts of Tartary, he now roams wild in herds of
hundreds of thousands on the grassy plains of America, though
unknown in that continent at the time of the Spanish invasion.
All animals, however, are not so flexible in their constitutions, for
most of them would perish from change of climate. The stations
which the different families now occupy must have been allotted
to them as each part of the land rose above the ocean; and because
they have found in these stations all that was necessary for
their existence, many have never wandered from them, notwithstanding
their powers of locomotion; while others have migrated,
but only within certain bounds.
Instinct leads animals to migrate when they become too numerous;
the rat in Kamtchatka, according to Pennant, sets out in
spring in great multitudes, and travels 800 miles, swimming over
rivers and lakes; and the Lapland marmot or lemming, native in
the mountains of Kolen, migrates in bands, once or twice in 25
years, to the Western Ocean, which they enter and are drowned;
other bands go through Swedish Lapland and perish in the Gulf
of Bothnia. Thus, nature provides a remedy against the over
increase of any one species, and maintains the balance of the
whole. A temporary migration for food is not uncommon in
animals. The wild ass, a native of the deserts of Great Tartary,
in summer feeds to the east and north of the lake of Aral, and in
autumn they migrate in thousands to the north of India, and even
to Persia.[183] The ruminating animals that dwell in the inaccessible
parts of the Himalaya descend to their lower declivities in
search of food in winter; and for the same reason the reindeer
and musk-ox leave the Arctic snows.
The Arctic regions form a district common to Europe, Asia,
and America. On this account, the animals inhabiting the northern
parts of these continents are sometimes identical, often very similar;
in fact, there is no genus of quadrupeds in the Arctic regions
that is not found in the three continents, though there are only
27 species common to all, and these are mostly fur-bearing animals.
416In the temperate zone of Europe and Asia, which forms an uninterrupted
region, identity of species is occasionally met with, but,
for the most part, marked by such varieties in size and colour as
might be expected to arise from difference of food and climate.
The same genera are sometimes found in the intertropical parts
of Asia, Africa, and America, but the same species never; much
less in the south temperate zones of these continents, where all
the animals are different, whether birds, beasts, insects, or reptiles;
but in similar climates analogous tribes replace one another.
Europe has no family and no order peculiarly its own, and
many of its species are common to other countries; consequently
the great zoological districts, where the subject is viewed on a
broad scale, are Asia, Africa, Oceanica, America, and Australia;
but in each of these there are smaller districts, to which particular
genera and families are confined. Yet when the regions
are not separated by lofty mountain-chains, acting as barriers,
the races are in most cases blended together on the confines
between the two districts, so that there is not a sudden change.
The character of the animals of temperate Europe has been
more changed by the progress of civilization than that of any
other quarter of the globe. Many of its original inhabitants have
been extirpated, and new races introduced; but it seems always
to have had various animals capable of being domesticated. The
wild cattle in the parks of the Duke of Hamilton and the Earl of
Tankerville are the only remnants of the ancient inhabitants of
the British forests, though they were spread over Europe, and
perhaps were the parent stock from which the European cattle of
the present time have descended; though the Aurochs, a race
nearly extinct, and found only in the forests of Lithuania and the
Caucasus, may have some claim to the pedigree. Both races
are supposed to have come from Asia. The Mouflon, which
exists in Corsica and Sardinia, is said to be the parent stock of
our domestic sheep. The pig, the goat, the fallow-deer, and red-deer,
have been reclaimed, and also the reindeer, which cannot
strictly be called European, since it also inhabits the northern
regions of Asia and America. The cat is European; and, altogether,
eight or ten species of tamed quadrupeds have sprung
from native animals.
There are still about 180 wild land-animals in Europe: 45 of
these are also found in western Asia, and nine in northern Africa.
The most remarkable are the reindeer, elk, red and fallow deer,
the roe-buck, glutton, lynx, polecat, several wild-cats, the common
and black squirrels, the fox, wild boar, wolf, the black and the
417brown bear, eight species of weasels, and seven of mice. The
otter is common; but the beaver is now found only on the Rhine,
the Rhone, the Danube, and some other large rivers; rabbits and
hares are numerous; the hedgehog is everywhere; the porcupine
in southern Europe only; the chamois and ibex in the Alps
and Pyrenees. Many species of these animals are widely distributed
over Europe, generally with variations in size and colour.
The chamois of the Alps and Pyrenees, though the same in
species, is slightly varied in appearance; and the fox of the most
northern parts of Europe is larger than that in Italy, with a richer
fur, and somewhat different colour.
Some animals never descend below a certain height, as the
ibex and chamois, which live on higher ground than any of their
order, being usually found between the region of trees and the
line of perpetual snow, which is about 8900 feet on the southern,
and 8200 on the northern declivities of the Alps. The common
stag does not go above 7000 feet, and the fallow-deer not more
than 6000, above the level of the sea: these two, however,
descend to the plains, the former never do. The bear, lynx, and
the stoat ascend nearly to the limit of perpetual snow.
Some European animals are much circumscribed in their
locality. The ichneumon is peculiar to Egypt; the mouflon is
confined to Corsica and Sardinia; there are a weasel and bat
which inhabit Sardinia only; and Sicily has several peculiar
species of bats and mice. There is only one species of monkey
in Europe, which lives on the rock of Gibraltar, and is supposed
to have been brought from Africa. All the indigenous British
quadrupeds now existing, together with the hyæna, tiger, bear,
and wolf, whose bones have been found in caverns, are also
found in the same state in Germany. Ireland was separated by
the Irish Channel before all the animals had migrated across
England; so that our squirrel, mole, polecat, dormouse, and many
smaller quadrupeds, never reached the sister island. Mr. Owen
has shown that the British horse, ass, hog, the smaller wild ox,
the goat, roe, beaver, and many small rodents, are the same
species with those which had co-existed with the mammoth, the
great northern hippopotamus, and two kinds of rhinoceros long
extinct. So that a part only of the modern tertiary fauna has
perished, from whence he infers that the cause of their destruction
was not a violent universal catastrophe from which none could
escape. The Bos longifrons was co-existent with man.
Asia has a greater number and a greater variety of wild animals
418than any country, except America, and also a larger proportion
of those that are domesticated. Though civilized from the
earliest ages, the destruction of the animal creation has not been
so great as in Europe, owing to the inaccessible height of the
mountains, the extent of the plains and desert, and, not least, to
the impenetrable forests and jungles, which afford them a safe
retreat: 288 mammalia are Asiatic, of which 188 are common to
it and other countries; these, however, chiefly belong to the temperate
zone.
Asia Minor is a district of transition from the fauna of Europe
to that of Asia. There the chamois, the bouquetin, the brown
bear, the wolf, fox, hare, and others, are mingled with the hyæna,
the Angora goat, which bears a valuable fleece, the Argali or wild
sheep, the white squirrel; and even the Bengal royal tiger is
sometimes seen on Mount Ararat, and is not uncommon in Azerbijan
and the mountains in Persia.
Arabia is inhabited by the hyæna, panther, jackal, wolf, and
musk-deer. Antelopes and monkeys are found in Yemen and
Aden. Most of these are also indigenous in Persia. The wild
ass, Onagra, a handsome spirited animal of great speed, and so
shy that it is scarcely possible to come near it, wanders in herds
over the plains and table-lands of central Asia. It is also found in
the Indian desert, and especially in the Run of Cutch—“the
wilderness and the barren lands are his dwelling”—and in the
most elevated regions of Tartary and Tibet, on the shores of the
sacred lakes of Manasarowar and Rakastal, at a height of more
than 15,250 feet above the sea.[184]
The table-lands and mountains which divide eastern Asia almost
into polar and tropical zones, produce as great a distinction in the
character of its indigenous fauna. The severity of the climate
in Siberia renders the skins of its numerous fur-bearing animals
more valuable. These are reindeer, elks, wolves, the large white
bear, that lives among the ice on the Arctic shores, several other
bears, the lynx, various kinds of martens and cats, the common, the
blue, and the black fox, the ermine, and sable. The fur of these
last is much esteemed, and is only equalled by that of the sea-otter,
which inhabits the shores on both sides of the northern
Pacific.
419With the exception of the Jerboa, which burrows in sandy
deserts, on the table-land and elsewhere, all the Asiatic species
of gnawers are confined to Siberia. The most remarkable of these
is the flying squirrel. The Altaï Mountains teem with wild animals,
besides many of those mentioned. There are large stags,
bears, some peculiar weasels, the argali, and the wild sheep. The
wild goat of the Alps is found in the Sayansk part of the chain;
the glutton and musk-deer in the Baikal; and in Da-Ouria the
red-deer and the Antelope Saiga. The Bengal tiger and the
Felis Irbis, a species of panther, wander from the Celestial
Mountains to the Altaï chain and southern Siberia: the Tiger is
met with even on the banks of the Obi, and also in China, though
in the northern regions it differs considerably from the same
species in Bengal; thus it can bear a mean annual temperature
of from 81° of Fahrenheit to the freezing point. The Tapir, and
many of the animals of the Indian Archipelago, are found in the
southern provinces of the Chinese empire; but its fauna is little
known. It is, however, probable that in the northern parts it
resembles that of the Altaï mountains and Siberia. The animals
of Japan have a strong analogy to those of Europe: many are
identical, or slightly varied, as the badger, otter, mole, common
fox, marten, and squirrel. On the other hand, a large species of
bear in the island of Jezo resembles the grizzly bear in the Rocky
Mountains of North America. A chamois in other parts of Japan
is similar to the Antelope montana of the same mountains: and
other animals native in Japan are the same with those in Sumatra;
so that its fauna is connected with that of very distant regions.
A few animals are peculiar to the high cold plains of the table-land
of eastern Asia: the dziggetai, a very fleet animal, resembling
both the horse and the ass, is peculiar to these Tartarian
steppes; it is probably the same species as the Kiang of Tibet,
which inhabits at very great heights, and has been seen on the
banks of the sacred lake of Manasarowar, at an elevation of 15,250
feet, by Lieutenant Strachey: two species of antelopes inhabit the
plains of Tibet, congregating in immense herds, with sentinels so
vigilant that it is scarcely possible to approach them.
The Dzeran, or yellow goat, which is both swift and shy, and
the handsome Tartar ox, are native in these wilds; also the shawl-wool
goat and the manul, from which the Angora cat, so much
admired in Persia and Europe, is descended. Most of the animals
that live at such heights cannot exist in less elevated and warmer
regions, exhibiting a striking instance of the limited distribution
of species. Goats and sheep best endure the thin air and great
cold of high lands: the Cashmere goat and Argoli sheep browse
on the plains of Tibet at elevations of from 10,000 to 13,000 feet;
the rass, a sheep with straight spiral horns, lives on the table-lands
420of Pamer, which are 15,000 feet above the sea; and also the
kutch-gar, a species of sheep which is about the height of a year-old
colt, with fine-curling horns: they congregate in flocks of
many hundreds, and are hunted by the Kirghis.
The ruminating animals of Asia are more numerous and excellent
than those of any other part of the world; 64 species are
native, and 46 of these exist there only. There are several species
of wild oxen; one in the Birmese empire, and on the mountains
of north-eastern India, with spiral twisted horns. The
buffalo is native in China, India, Borneo, and the Sunda Islands;
it is a large animal, formidable in a wild state, but domesticated
universally in the East. It was introduced into Italy in the sixth
century, and large herds now graze in the low marshy plains
near the sea.
Various kinds of oxen have been domesticated in India time
immemorial: the handsome Indian ox, with a hump on the
shoulder, has been venerated by the Brahmins for ages; the
beautiful white silky tail of the domesticated ox of Tartary, used
in the East to drive away flies, was adopted as the Turkish
standard; and the common Indian ox differs from all others in
the great speed of its course. Some other species of cattle have
been tamed, and some are still wild in India, Java, and other
Asiatic islands. The Cashmere goat, which bears the shawl-wool,
is the most valuable of the endless varieties of goats and
sheep of Asia; it is kept in large herds in the great valleys on
the northern and southern declivities of the Himalaya, and in the
upper regions of Bhotan, where the cold climate is congenial to it.
The Bactrian camel, with two humps, is strong, rough, and
hairy, and is said to occur in a wild state in the desert of Shamo:
it is the camel of central Asia, north of the Himalaya and Taurus,
also of the Crimea and the countries round the Caucasus. The
common or Arabian camel with one hump is a native of Asia,
though only known now in a domesticated state; it has been
introduced into Africa, Italy, the Canary islands, and even into
the elevated regions of the Peru-Bolivian Andes. The best come
from the province of Nejed in Arabia, which, on that account, is
called the “mother of camels.” The camel of Oman is remarkable
for beauty and swiftness.
Ten species of antelopes and twenty of deer are peculiar to
Asia: two species of antelopes have already been mentioned as
peculiar to the table-lands, the others are distributed in the Asiatic
archipelago. The genuine musk-deer (Moschus moschiferus)
inhabits the mountainous countries of central and south-eastern
Asia, between China and Tartary, the regions round Lake Baikal,
the Altaï mountains, Nepaul, Bhotan, Tibet, and the adjacent
countries of China and Tonquin.
421Asia possesses about ten native species of Pachydermata, including
the elephant, horse, ass, which have been domesticated
from the time of the earliest scriptural records. The horse is
supposed to have existed wild in the plains of central Asia, as the
dromedary in Arabia; though now they are only known as domestic
animals. The Arabian and Persian horses have acknowledged
excellence and beauty, and from these our best European
horses are descended; the African horse, which was introduced
into Spain by the Moors, is probably of the same race.
The elephant has long been a domestic animal in Asia, though
it still roams wild in formidable herds through the forests and
jungles at the foot of the Himalaya, in other parts of India, the
Indo-Chinese peninsula, and the islands of Sumatra and Ceylon;
the hunting elephant is esteemed the most noble. A one-horned
rhinoceros is a native of continental Asia.
There are 60 genera of Asiatic carnivorous animals, of which
the royal tiger is the handsomest and the most formidable: its
favourite habitation is in the jungles of Hindostan, though it
wanders nearly to the limit of perpetual snow in the Himalaya,
to the Persian and Armenian mountains, to Siberia and China.
Leopards and panthers are common, and there is a maneless lion
in Guzerat: the Chitta, used in hunting, is the only one of the
panthers capable of being tamed. The hyæna is found everywhere,
excepting the Birman empire, in which there are neither
wolves, hyænas, foxes, nor jackals. There are four species of
bears in India; that of Nepaul has valuable fur: the wild boar,
hog, and dogs of endless variety, abound.
The Edentata have only two representatives in India, both
manis or pangolins; which differ from all others except the African,
in being covered with imbricated scales. Of these the short-tailed
pangolin, or scaly anteater, is found throughout the Deccan,
Bengal, Nepaul, the southern provinces of China, and Formosa.
The Indian Archipelago and the Indo-Chinese peninsula form
a zoological province of a very peculiar nature, being allied to the
faunas of India, Australia, and South America, yet having animals
exclusively its own. The royal tiger is in great abundance in
the Malay peninsula, and also the black variety of the panther,
leopard, wild cats, multitudes of elephants, the rhinoceros of all
three species, the Malayan tapir, many deer, the Babiroussa hog,
and another species of that genus. Some groups of the islands
have several animals in common, either identical or with slight
variations, that are altogether wanting in other islands, which,
in their turn, have creatures of their own. Many species are
common to the archipelago and the neighbouring parts of the
continent, or even to China, Bengal, Hindostan, and Ceylon.
Flying quadrupeds are a distinguishing feature of this archipelago,
422though some do not absolutely fly, but, by an extension
of the skin of their sides to their legs, which serves as a parachute,
they take long leaps. Nocturnal flying squirrels, of several species,
are common to the Malayan peninsula and the Sunda Islands,
especially Java; and three species of flying Lemurs inhabit
Sunda, Malacca, and the Pelew Islands. Besides these, there
are the frugivorous bats, which really fly, differing from bats in
other countries by living exclusively upon vegetable food. The
edible roussette, or kalong, one of the largest known, appears in
flocks of hundreds, and even thousands, in Java, Sumatra, and
Banda: the Pteropus funereus, another of these large bats, assembles
in as great numbers.
A hundred and eighty species of the ape and monkey tribe are
entirely Asiatic: monkeys are found only on the coast of India,
Cochin-China, and the Sunda Islands; the long-armed apes or
gibbons are in the Sunda Islands and the Malayan peninsula.
The Simayang, a very large ape of Sumatra and Bencoolen, goes
in large troops, following a leader, and makes a howling noise at
sunrise and sunset that is heard miles off. Sumatra and Borneo
are the peculiar abode of the Orang-outang, which, in the Malay
language, means the “man of woods,” which, except perhaps the
Chimpanzee of Africa, approaches nearest to man. It has never
spread over the islands it inhabits, though there seems to be
nothing to prevent it, but it finds all that is necessary within a
limited district. The orang-outang and the long-armed apes have
extraordinary muscular strength, and swing from tree to tree by
their arms.
The Malays have given the name of orang, or man, to the
whole tribe, on account of their intelligence as well as their form.
A two-horned rhinoceros is peculiar to Java, of a different species
from the African, also the Felis macrocelis, and a very large
bear; there are only two species of squirrels in Java, which is
remarkable, as the Sunda Islands are rich in them. The royal
tiger of India and the elephant are found only in Sumatra, and
the babiroussa lives in Borneo; but these two islands have many
quadrupeds in common, as a leopard, the one-horned rhinoceros,
the black antelope, some graceful miniature creatures of the deer
kind, the Tapir, also found in Malacca, besides a wild boar, an
inhabitant of all the marshy forest from Borneo to New Guinea.
In the larger islands deer abound, some as large as the elk, probably
the Hippelaphus of Aristotle.
The Anoa, a ruminating animal about the size of a sheep, a
species of antelope, shy and savage, goes in herds in the mountains
of Celebes, where many forms of animals strangers to the
Sunda Islands begin to appear, as some sorts of phalangers, or
pouched quadrupeds. These new forms become more numerous
423in the Moluccas, which are inhabited by flying phalangers and
other pouched animals, with scaly tails. The phalangers are
nocturnal, and live on trees. In New Guinea there are kangaroos,
the spotted phalanger, the pelandoe, the New Guinea hog,
and the Papua dog, said to be the origin of all the native dogs in
Australia and Oceanica, wild or tame.
The fauna of the Philippine Islands is analogous to that in the
Sunda Islands. They have several quadrupeds in common with
India and Ceylon, but there are others which probably are not
found in these localities.
The opposite extremes of aridity and moisture in the African
continent have had great influence in the nature and distribution
of its animals; and since by far the greater part consists of plains
utterly barren or covered by temporary verdure, and watered by
inconstant streams that flow only a few months in the year, fleet
animals, fitted to live on arid plains, are far more abundant than
those that require rich vegetation and much water. The latter
are chiefly confined to the intertropical coasts, and especially to
the large jungles and deep forests at the northern declivity of the
table-land, where several genera and many species exist that are
not found elsewhere. Africa has a fauna in many respects insulated
from that of every other part of the globe; for although
about 100 of its quadrupeds are common to other countries, there
are 250 species its own. Several of these animals, especially the
larger kinds, are distributed over the whole table-land from the
Cape of Good Hope to the highlands of Abyssinia and Senegambia
without the smallest variety, and many are slightly modified
in colour and size. Ruminating animals are very numerous,
though few have been domesticated: of these, the ox of Abyssinia
and Bornou is remarkable from the extraordinary size of its horns,
which are sometimes 2 feet in circumference at the root; and the
Galla ox of Abyssinia has horns 4 feet long. There are many
African varieties of buffalo; that at the Cape of Good Hope is a
large, fierce animal, wandering in herds in every part of the
country, even to Abyssinia: the flesh of the whole race is tainted
with the odour of musk. The African sheep and goats, of which
there are many varieties, differ from those of other countries; the
wool of all is coarse, except that of the Merino sheep, said to have
been introduced into Spain by the Moors from Morocco.
No country has produced a ruminating animal similar, or even
analogous, to the Giraffe, or Camelopard, which ranges widely
over south Africa from the northern banks of the Gareep, or
424Orange river, to the Great Desert; it is also found in Dongola
and in Abyssinia. It is a gentle, timid animal, which has been
seen in troops of 100. The earliest record we have of it is in the
sculptured monuments of the ancient Egyptians, and it is well
known that it was brought to Rome to grace the triumph of a
victorious emperor.
Africa may truly be said to be the land of the genus Antelope,
which is found in every part of it, where it represents the deer
of Europe, Asia, and America. Different species have their
peculiar localities, while others are widely dispersed, sometimes
with and sometimes without any sensible variety of size or colour.
The greater number are inhabitants of the plains, while a few
penetrate into the forests. Sixty species have been described, of
which at least 26 are found north of the Cape of Good Hope and
in the adjacent countries. They are of every size, from the
pigmy antelope not larger than a hare, to the Caama, which is
as large as an ox. Timidity is the universal character of the race.
Most species are gregarious; and the number in a herd is far too
great even to guess at. Like all animals that feed in groups,
they have sentinels; and they are the easy prey of so many
carnivorous animals, that their safety requires the precaution.
At the head of their enemies is the lion, who lurks among the
tall reeds at the fountain to seize them when they come to drink.
They are graceful in their motions, especially the spring-buck,
which goes in a compact troop; and in their march there is constantly
one which gathers its slender limbs together and bounds
into the air.
Africa has only two species of deer, both belonging to the
Atlas: one is the common fallow-deer of Europe.
The 38 species of rodentia, or gnawing quadrupeds, of this
continent, live on the plains; and many of them are leaping
animals, as the Jerboa capensis. Squirrels are comparatively
rare.
There are some species of the horse peculiar to south Africa;
of these the gaily-striped Zebra and the more sober-coloured
Quagga wander in troops over the plains, often in company with
ostriches. An alliance between creatures differing in nature and
habits is not easily accounted for. The two-horned rhinoceros of
Africa is different from that of Asia: there are certainly three,
and probably five, species of these huge animals peculiar to the
table-land. Dr. Smith saw 150 in one day near the 24th parallel
of south latitude. The hippopotamus is exclusively African:
multitudes inhabit the lakes and rivers in the intertropical and
southern parts of the continent; those that inhabit the Nile and
Senegal appear to form different species. An elephant, differing
in species from that of Asia, is so numerous, that 200 have been
425seen in a herd near Lake Tchad. They are not domesticated in
Africa, and are hunted by the natives for their tusks. The Phacochœre,
or Ethiopian hog, and a species of Hyrax, are among
the Pachydermata of this country. The monkey tribe is found
in all the hot parts of Africa: peculiar genera are allotted to particular
districts. Except a few in Asia, the family of guenons is
found in no part of the world but the Cape of Good Hope, the
coasts of Loango and Guinea, where they swarm.
The species are numerous, and vary much in size and colours:
the cynocephalus, or blue-headed baboon, with a face like that of
a dog, is large, ferocious, and dangerous. One species of these
baboons inhabits Guinea, others the southern parts of the table-land,
and one is met with everywhere from Sennaar to Cafraria.
A remarkable long-eared kind is found in Abyssinia; the mandrills,
which belong to the same genus, are confined to central
Africa. The magot or Barbary ape is in north Africa; and the
only macac in this continent inhabits the mountains in the high
country of southern Abyssinia, 8000 feet above the level of the
sea. The African species of thumbless apes are met with in the
tropical countries on the west coast, where the Colobus comosus,
or king of the monkeys, also lives, so called by the natives from
its beautiful fur and singular head of hair; another of these is
peculiar to the low lands of Gojam, Kulla, and Damot. The
Chimpanzee, which so nearly approaches the human form,
inhabits the forests of south Africa from Cape Negro to the
Gambia. Living in society like all apes and monkeys, which
are eminently sociable, it is very intelligent and easily tamed.
A new species of African Chimpanzee, equalling in size the
Orang-outang, has been recently described by Professor Owen:
it is probably the largest of the quadrumana, and by all accounts
the most dangerous and ferocious.
Baron Humboldt observes that all apes resembling man have
an expression of sadness; that their gaiety diminishes as their
intelligence increases.
Africa possesses the cat tribe in great variety and beauty;
lions, leopards, and panthers are numerous throughout the continent;
servals and viverrine cats are in the torrid districts; and
the lion of the Atlas is said to be the most formidable of all. In
no country are foxes so abundant. Various species inhabit Nubia,
Abyssinia, and the Cape of Good Hope. The corsac is peculiar
to the Cape. The long-eared fox, the famel of Kordofan, and
some others, are found in Africa only. There are also various
species of dogs, the hyæna, and the jackal. The hyænas hunt
in packs, attack the lion and panther, and easily destroy them.
Two species of Edentata are African—the long-tailed manis,
and the Aard-vark, or earth-hog: the first is covered with scales,
426the latter with coarse long hair; they burrow in the ground and
feed on ants. Great flocks of a large migratory vampire-bat frequent
the Slave-coast. Altogether there are 26 species of African
bats.
Multitudes of antelopes of various species, lions, leopards, panthers,
hyænas, jackals, and some other carnivora, live in the oases
of the great northern deserts; jerboas, and endless species of
leaping gnawers, rats, and mice burrow in the ground. The
dryness of the climate and soil keeps the coats of the animals
clean and glossy; and it has been observed that tawny and grey
tints are the prevailing colours in the fauna of the north African
deserts, not only in the birds and beasts, but in reptiles and
insects. In consequence of the continuous desert extending from
North Africa through Arabia to Persia and India, many analogous
species of animals exist in those countries: in some instances
they are the same, or varieties of the same, species, as the ass,
the dziggeti, antelopes, leopards, panthers, jackals, and hyænas.
The fauna on the eastern side of the great island of Madagascar
is analogous to that of India; on the western side it resembles
that of Africa, though, as far as it is known, it seems to be a distinct
centre of animal life. It has no ruminating animals; and
the monkey tribe is represented by the Lemures and the Galagos,
which are characteristic of this fauna. A frugivorous bat, the
size of a common fowl, forms an article of food.
No species of animal has yet been extirpated in America,
which is the richest zoological province, possessing 537 species
of mammalia, of which 480 are its own; yet no country has contributed
so little to the stock of domestic animals. With the exception
of the Llama and Alpaca, and the turkey, and perhaps
some sheep and dogs, America has furnished no animal or bird
serviceable to man, while it has received from Europe all its
domestic animals and its civilized inhabitants.
Arctic America possesses most of the valuable fur-bearing
animals that are in Siberia; and they were very plentiful till the
unsparing destruction of them has driven those yet remaining to
the high latitudes, where the hunters that follow them are exposed
to great hardships. Nearly 6,000,000 of skins were
brought to England in one year, most of which were taken in
the forest regions; the barren grounds are inhabited by the
Arctic fox, the polar hare, by the brown and the white bear, a
formidable animal which often lives on the ice itself. The reindeer
lives on the lichens and mosses of these barren grounds, and
427wanders to the shores of the Polar Ocean: its southern limit in
Europe is the Baltic Sea, in America it is the latitude of Quebec.
Some of the fur-bearing quadrupeds of these deserts never pass
the 65th degree of N. lat.; the greater number live in the northern
forests, as the black bear, racoon, badger, the ermine, and
four or five other members of the weasel tribe, the red fox, the
polar and brown lynxes, the beaver, the musquash or musk-rat,
of which half a million are killed annually, and the moose-deer,
whose northern range ends where the aspen and willows cease to
grow. The grizzly bear, the largest and most ferocious of its
kind, inhabits the range of the Rocky Mountains to Mexico, as
well as the western savannahs. The prairie-wolf, the grey fox,
the Virginian hare, live in the prairies; the Wapiti, a large stag,
inhabits those on both sides of the Rocky Mountains; and the
Prongbuck, an antelope fleeter than a horse, roams throughout
the western part of the continent, and migrates to California and
Mexico in winter. The musk-ox and shaggy bison are peculiar
to North America. The musk-ox travels to Parry’s Islands in
the Arctic regions, yet it never has been seen in Greenland or on
the north-western side of the continent. The shaggy bison goes
south to the Arkansas, roams in herds of thousands over the
prairies of the Mississippi and on both sides of the Rocky Mountains.
It never wanders farther north than the 30th parallel, the
southern limit of the musk-ox. A marmot known as the prairie-dog
is universal.
There are at least eight varieties of American dogs, several of
which are natives of the far north. The lagopus, or isatis, native
in Spitzbergen and Greenland, is found in all the Arctic regions
of America and Asia and in some of the Kurile Islands. Dogs
are employed to draw sledges in Newfoundland and Canada;
and the Esquimaux travel drawn by dogs as well as by reindeer.
The dogs are strong and docile. The Esquimaux dogs were
mute till they learned to bark from dogs in our discovery ships.
There are 13 species of the ruminating genus in North America,
including the bison, the musk-ox of the Arctic regions, the
big-horned sheep, and the goat of the Rocky Mountains. The
horse, now roaming wild in innumerable herds over the plains of
South America, was unknown there till the Spanish conquest.
The quadrupeds of the temperate zone are distributed in distinct
groups: those of the state of New York, consisting of about 40
species, are different from those of the Arctic regions, and also
from those of South Carolina and Georgia; while in Texas
another assemblage of species prevails. The Racoon, the Coatimondi,
and the Kinkajou are all natives of the southern States.
There are 118 species of rodentia or gnawing animals in North
America, rats, mice, squirrels, beavers, &c., many of which,
428especially in the north, appear to be identical with those in the
high latitudes of Europe and Asia. The genera of very different
latitudes are often representative but never identical. Squirrels
abound in North America; the grey squirrel is found in thousands.
There are 21 species of Opossum in this continent, a family of
the pouched animals which are so peculiarly characteristic of
Australia. Of these, the Virginian opossum inhabits the whole
extent of the American continent between the great Canadian
lakes and Paraguay, and also the West Indian islands, where it
is called the manitu; and two other animals of that order live in
Mexico. There is a porcupine in the United States and Canadian
forests which climbs trees. The bats are different from those in
Europe, and, excepting two, are very local. In California there
are ounces, polecats, the Berenda (an animal peculiar to that
country), and a deer of remarkable size and speed.
The high land of Mexico forms a very decided line of division
between the fauna of North and that of the South America; yet
some North American animals are seen beyond it, particularly two
of the bears, and one of the otters, which inhabits the continent
from the icy ocean to beyond Brazil. On the other hand, the
Puma, Jaguar, Opossum, Kinkajou, and Peccari, have crossed the
barrier from South America to California and the United States.
In the varied and extensive regions of South America there are
several centres of a peculiar fauna, according as the country is
mountainous or level, covered with forest or grass, fertile or desert,
but the mammalia are inferior in size to those of the old world.
The largest, most powerful, and perfect animals of this class are
confined to the old continent. The South American quadrupeds
are on a smaller scale, more feeble and more gentle; many of them,
as the toothless group and the sloths, are of anomalous and less
perfect structure than the rest of the animal creation, but the fauna
of South America is so local and so peculiar, that the species of
five of the terrestrial orders, which are indigenous there, are found
nowhere else.
The monkey tribe are in myriads in the forests of tropical America
and Brazil, but they never go north of the Isthmus of Darien,
nor farther south than the Rio de la Plata. They differ widely
from those in the old world, bearing less resemblance to the human
race, but they are more gentle and lively, and, notwithstanding
their agility, are often a prey to the vulture and puma.
There are two great American families of four-handed animals—the
sapajous with prehensile tails, by which they suspend themselves,
and swing from bough to bough. Some of these inhabitants
of the woods are very noisy, especially the Argualis, a large
ape whose bawling is heard a mile off. The howlers are generally
429very large, and have a wider range than any of the genus;
one species, the Mycetus rufimanus or beelzebub, ascends the
Andes to the height of 11,000 feet. The cebus or weepers, which
are frequently brought to Europe, belong also to this family; the
genus has a greater number of species than any other in the New
World, but a very narrow location; they are most abundant in
Guiana.
The saquis or bushy-tailed monkeys form the other great American
family. The fox-monkey sleeps during the day; it frequents
the deepest forests from the Orinoco to Paraguay. Squirrel-monkeys
inhabit the banks of the Orinoco, and the night-monkeys,
with very large eyes, live in Guiana and Brazil. The marmosets
are pretty little animals, easily tamed, especially the Midas leonina,
not more than 7 or 8 inches long. Some American monkeys have
no thumb, others have a versatile thumb on both their hands and
feet. In the New World the monkey tribe inhabit the continent
from Honduras to beyond Brazil, in thousands, yet each kind has
its own peculiar location.
The forests are also inhabited by opossums, a family of the marsupial
tribe, or animals with pouches, in which they carry their
young; they are analogous to those which form the distinguishing
feature of the Australian fauna, but of distinct genera and species.
Few of these animals are larger than a rat, and they mostly live
on trees, except one kind which is aquatic, found near the small
streams from Honduras to Brazil. A species in Surinam carries
its young upon its back; the elegant opossum is very numerous
on the west side of the Andes, and there only. All the opossums
and the yassacks of this country have thumbs on their hind feet,
opposite to the toes, so that they can grasp; they are, moreover,
distinguished from the Australian family by a long prehensile tail,
and by greater agility. The numerous tribe of sapajou monkeys,
the ant-eaters, the kinkajou, and a species of porcupine, have also
grasping tails, a property of many South American animals.
Five genera and 20 species of the Edentata are characteristic
of this continent, and exclusively confined to South America: they
are the sloths of two kinds, the ai and unau; the Armadilloes,
Chlamyphores, and Anteaters. The animals of these five genera
have very different habits: the sloths, as their name implies, are
the most inactive of animals; they inhabit the forests from the
southern limit of Mexico to Rio de Janeiro, and to the height of
3000 feet on the Andes in the region of palms and scitamineæ.
Of these, the common sloth or Ai ranges from Honduras to Brazil;
while the Unau, the larger of the two, is confined to Guiana. The
Armadillo, in its coat of mail, is in perpetual motion, and can outrun
a man in speed. They live on all the plains and table-lands
of South America even to Paraguay. The one-banded armadillo
430rolls itself up like a ball; the nine-banded species is eaten by the
natives; the giant armadillo, 3 feet long, inhabits the forests only.
Most species of these animals are nocturnal, and burrow in the
earth in the Pampas. The chlamyphores are also burrowing animals,
peculiar to the province of Cuyo on the eastern slope of the
Chilian Andes; they have the faculty of sitting upright. The
ant-eater, larger than a Newfoundland dog, with shorter legs,
defends itself against the jaguar with its power claws; it inhabits
the swampy savannahs and damp forests from Columbia to Paraguay,
and from the Atlantic to the foot of the Andes; its flesh, like
that of some other American animals, has a flavour of musk. The
little ant-eater has a prehensile tail, and lives on trees in the tropical
forests, feeding on the larvæ of bees, wasps, honey, and ants;
another of similar habits lives in Brazil and Guiana. The cat tribe
in South America is beautiful and powerful: the Puma, the lion
of America, is found both in the mountains and the plains, in great
numbers; so different are its habits in different places, that in Chile
it is timid and flies from a dog; in Peru it is bold, though it rarely
attacks a man. The Jaguar, which inhabits the lower forests, is
very abundant, and so ferocious that it has been known to spring
upon Indians in a canoe; hunting as it sometimes does in troops,
it has been known to destroy the inhabitants of entire Indian villages;
it is one of the few South American animals that cross the
Isthmus of Darien, being found in California, on the territory of
the Mississippi, and has been seen in Canada.
The vampire is a very large bat, much dreaded by the natives,
because it enters their huts at night, and, though it seldom attacks
human beings, it wounds calves and small animals, which sometimes
die from the loss of blood. The other three South American
bats are harmless.
The only ruminating animals that existed in South America prior
to the Conquest were the four species of the genus Auchenia—the
Llama, the Alpaca, the Vicuña, and the Guanáco: the three
first are exclusively confined to the colder and more elevated regions
of the Peruvian Andes; the last has a wider geographical range,
extending to the plains of Patagonia, and even to the southernmost
extremity of the continent. The Llama inhabits the high valleys
of the Peru-Bolivian Andes, its favourite region being in the valley
of the lake of Titicaca: it was the only beast of burthen possessed
by the aborigines; hence, we find it wherever the Incas carried
their conquests and civilization, from the equator to beyond the
southern tropic. It is still extensively employed by the Indian as
a beast of burthen, and its wool, though coarse, is used by the
aborigines: like all domestic animals, it varies in colour; its flesh
is nauseous, black, and ill tasted.
The Alpaca, or paco, a gentle and handsome animal, although
431more closely allied to the llama than any of its congeners, is a
distinct species: it inhabits at still more elevated places than the
llama, its favourite haunts being on the streams descending from
the snowy peaks: it is only found in a domestic state; it is reared
for its wool, which is extremely fine, silky, and long, and which
now bears a high price, from its introduction into some of our finest
woollen tissues. The vicuña is only found in the wild state, in the
plains on the Andes, as high as 1500 feet: its wool is much prized
for its fineness. The animal has a shrill whistle; it is easily
domesticated. The Guanáco, by some naturalists considered erroneously
as the parent stock of the llama and alpaca, is also only
found in the wild state: it is seen as far north as lat. 12° S., is
very abundant and in large flocks on the Bolivian and Chilian
Andes, and has been seen as far as the southern extremity of the
American continent. All these animals feed on a species of coarse
wiry grass called ichu.[185]
432Several species of deer are found in the tropical regions of South
America, and a remarkable species, with fragile hair like that of
the roebuck, the cervus (Andium), as high as 11,000 feet in the
Andes.
The rodentia, or gnawers, of South America, are very numerous;
there are 92 in Brazil alone: there are only 8 species of
squirrels and 64 species of rats and mice, some of which are very
peculiar.
The agoutis represent our hares in the plains of Patagonia, in
Paraguay, &c., and extend as far as Guiana. The family of the
cavias, or guinea-pigs, are found in Brazil, and some species in
the great table-lands of the Peru-Bolivian Andes; the Echymys,
or spiny rat, is an inhabitant of the shores of the Rio de la Plata
and Paraguay; the Vizcacha of the pampas, a burrowing animal,
inhabits the great plain of Buenos Ayres; an animal bearing the
same name is frequent in the rocky districts of the Andes, as high
as 15,000 feet above the sea; and the beautiful Chinchilla, nearly
allied to the latter, whose fur is so highly esteemed, inhabits the
same regions at the same great elevations in the Andes of Peru,
433Bolivia, and Chile: the best fur of the chinchilla is collected in
the Bolivia province of Potosi, and in the Chilian province of Copiabo.
The largest of all the rodentia, the Cabiai (Myopotamus),
inhabits the banks of the great rivers of tropical America, where
its habits resemble, according to some travellers, those of the hippopotamus.
The Paca, the next in size, is less aquatic in its habits,
and lives in the dense forests of Brazil and Paraguay.
It is very remarkable that in a country which has the most
luxuriant vegetation there should not be one species of hollow-horned
ruminants, as the ox, sheep, goat, or antelope; and it is
still more extraordinary that the existing animals of South America,
which are so nearly allied to the extinct inhabitants of the same
soil, should be so inferior in size not only to them, but even to the
living quadrupeds of South Africa, which is comparatively a desert.
The quantity of vegetation in Britain at any one time exceeds the
quantity on an equal area in the interior of Africa ten-fold, yet
Mr. Darwin has computed that the weight of 10 of the largest
south African quadrupeds is 24 times greater than that of the same
number of quadrupeds of South America; for in South America
there is no animal the size of a cow, so that there is no relation
between the bulk of the species and the vegetation of the countries
they inhabit.
The largest animals indigenous in the West Indian islands are
the Agouti, the Raccoon, the Houtias, a native of the forests of
Cuba; the Didelphous carnivora and the Kinkajou are common
also to the continent: the kinkajou is a solitary instance of a carnivorous
animal with a prehensile tail.
Australia is not farther separated from the rest of the world by
geographical position than by its productions. Its animals are
creatures by themselves, of an entirely unusual type; few in species,
and still fewer individually, if the vast extent of country be
taken into consideration; and there has not been one large animal
discovered. There are only 53 species of land quadrupeds in
New Holland, and there is not a single example of the ruminating
or pachydermatous animals, so useful to man, among them; there
are no native horses, oxen, or sheep, yet all these thrive and multiply
on the grassy steppes of the country, which seem to be so
well suited to them. There are none of the monkey tribe; indeed
they could not exist in a country where there is no fruit.
Of the species of indigenous quadrupeds, 40 are found nowhere
else, and 138 are marsupial or pouched animals, distinguished
from all others by their young being, as it were, prematurely
434born and nourished in the pouch till they are mature.[186] Though
all the members of this numerous family agree in this circumstance,
they are dissimilar in appearance, internal structure, in
their teeth and feet, consequently in their habits; two genera
live on vegetable food, one set are gnawers and another toothless.
The Kangaroo and the kangaroo-rat walk on their hind legs, and
go by bounds, aided by their strong tail; the rat holds its food in
its hands like the squirrel; the opossum walks on all fours; the
phalangers live on trees, and swing by their bushy tail, some
burrow in the sand; the flying opossum or Phalanger, peculiarly
an Australian animal, lives on the leaves of the gum-tree; by
expanding the skin of its sides it supports itself in the air in its
leaps from bough to bough. Several of the genera come out at
night only, a characteristic of many Australian animals.
The pouched tribe vary in size from that of a large dog to a
mouse; the kangaroos, which are the largest, are easily domesticated,
and are used for food by the natives. Some go in large
herds in the mountains, others live in the plains; however, they
have become scarce near the British colonies, and, with all other
native animals, are likely to be extirpated. In Van Diemen’s
Land they are less persecuted; several species exist there. The
kangaroos, of which there are 40 species, are more widely dispersed
than any of the marsupial animals of the old world. They
exist not only in New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land, but also
in New Guinea and Java. Some are limited within narrow
bounds: the banded kangaroo, the handsomest of his tribe, is
found only in the islands of Shark’s Bay, on the west coast of
Australia. The Wombat is peculiar to Australia, the islands in
Bass’s Strait, and Van Diemen’s Land; to which the two largest
carnivorous marsupials peculiarly belong, called by the natives
the tiger hyæna, and the native devil; both are nocturnal, predatory,
and ferocious. A wild dog in the woods, whose habits
are ferocious, is, with the tiger hyæna, the largest carnivorous
animal in Australia.
435The gnawing animals are aquatic and very peculiar, but the
edentata of New Holland are quite anomalous; of these there are
two genera, the Ornithorhynchus, or duck-billed mole, and the
Echidna: they are the link that connects the edentata with the
pouched tribe, and mammal with oviparous animals. The ornithorhynchus
is about 14 inches long, and covered with thick
brown fur; its head is similar to that of a quadruped, ending in
a bill like that of a duck: it has short furry legs with half-webbed
feet, and the hind feet are armed with sharp claws. It inhabits
burrows on the banks of rivers, which have two entrances, one
above, the other below the level of the water, which it seldom
leaves, feeding on insects and seeds in the mud.
The echidna is similar in its general structure to the ornithorhynchus,
but entirely different in external appearance, being
covered with quills like the porcupine; it is also a burrowing
animal, sleeps during winter, and lives on ants in summer.
A singular analogy exists between Australia and South America
in this respect, that the living animals of the two countries are
stamped with the type of their ancient geological inhabitants,
while in England and elsewhere the difference between the existing
and extinct generations of beings is most decided. Australia
and South America seem still to retain some of those conditions
that were peculiar to the most ancient eras. Thus, each tribe of
the innumerable families that inhabit the earth, the air, and the
waters, has a limited sphere. How wonderful the quantity of life
that now is, and the myriads of beings that have appeared and
vanished![187] Dust has returned to dust through a long succession
of ages, and has been continually remoulded into new forms of
existence—not an atom has been annihilated; the fate of the
vital spark that has animated it, with a vividness sometimes
approaching to reason, is one of the deep mysteries of Providence.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
436
The Distribution, Condition, and future Prospects of the Human Race.
More than 800,000,000 of human beings are scattered over the
face of the earth, of all nations and kindreds and tongues, and in
all stages of civilization, from a high state of moral and intellectual
culture, to savages but little above the animals that contend with
them for the dominion of the deserts and forests through which
they roam. This vast multitude is divided into nations and tribes,
differing in external appearance, character, language, and religion.
The manner in which they are distributed, the affinities of structure
and language by which they are connected, and the effect
that climate, food, and customs may have had in modifying their
external forms, or their moral and mental powers, are subjects of
much more difficulty than the geographical dispersion of the lower
classes of animals, inasmuch as the immortal spirit is the chief
agent in all that concerns the human race. The progress of the
universal mind in past ages, its present condition, and the future
prospects of humanity, rouse the deep sympathies of our nature,
for the high but mysterious destiny of the myriads of beings yet
to come, who, like ourselves, will be subject for a few brief years
to the joys and sorrows of this transient state, and fellow-heirs of
eternal life hereafter.
Notwithstanding the extreme diversity, personal and mental, in
mankind, anatomists have found that there are no specific differences—that
the hideous Esquimaux, the refined and intellectual
Caucasian, the thick-lipped Negro, and the fair blue-eyed Scannavian,
are mere varieties of the same species. The human race
forms five great varieties marked by strong distinctive characters.
Many nations are included in each; distinguished from one another
by different languages, manners, and mental qualities, yet
bearing such a resemblance in general physiognomy and appearance
as to justify a classification apparently anomalous.
The Caucasian group of nations, which includes the handsomest
and most intellectual portion of mankind, inhabit all Europe,
except Lapland, Finland, and Hungary; they occupy North
Africa, as far as the 20th parallel of north latitude, Arabia, Asia
Minor, Persia, the Himalaya to the Brahmapootra, all India between
these mountains and the ocean, and the United States of North
America. These nations are remarkable for a beautifully-shaped
small head, regular features, fine hair, and symmetrical form.
The Greeks, Georgians, and Circassians are models of perfection
437in form, especially the last, which is assumed as the type of this
class of mankind; of which it is evident that colour is not a
characteristic, since they are of all shades, from the fair and
florid, to the clear dark brown and almost black. This family of
nations has always been, and still is, the most civilized portion of
the human race. The inhabitants of Hindostan, the Egyptians,
Arabians, Greeks, and Romans, were in ancient times what the
European nations are now. The cause of this remarkable development
of mental power is, no doubt, natural disposition, for the
difference in the capabilities of nations seems to be as great as
that of individuals. The origin of spontaneous civilization and
superiority may generally be traced to the talent of some master-spirit
gaining an ascendancy over his countrymen. Natural
causes have also combined with mental—mildness of climate, fertility
of soil; rivers and inland seas, by affording facility of intercourse,
favoured enterprise and commerce; and the double-river
systems in Asia brought distant nations together, and softened
those hostile antipathies which separate people, multiply languages,
and reduce all to barbarism. The genius of this family
of nations has led them to profit by these natural advantages;
whereas the American Indians are at this day wandering as barbarous
hordes in one of the finest countries in the world. An
original similarity or even identity of many spoken languages may
be adverted to as facilitating communication and mental improvement
among the Caucasian variety in very ancient times.
The Mongol-Tartar family forms the second group of nations.
They occupy all Asia north of the Persian table-land and of the
Himalaya; the whole of Eastern Asia from the Brahmapootra to
Behring’s Straits, together with the Arctic regions of America
north of Labrador. This family includes the Tourkomans, Mongol
and Tartar tribes, the Chinese, Indo-Chinese, Japanese, the Esquimaux,
and the Hungarians, now located in the very heart of
Europe. These nations are distinguished by broad skulls and
high cheek-bones, small black eyes obliquely set, long black hair,
and a yellow or sallow olive complexion; some are good-looking,
and many are well-made. A portion of this family is capable of
high culture, especially the Chinese, the most civilized nation of
eastern Asia, although they never have attained the excellence of
the Caucasian group, probably from their exclusive social system,
which has separated them from the rest of mankind, and kept
them stationary for ages; the peculiarity and difficulty of their
language have also tended to insulate them. The Kalmuks, who
lead a pastoral wandering life on the steppes of central Asia, and
the Esquimaux, have wider domains than any other of this set of
nations. The Kalmuks are rather a handsome people, and, like
all who lead a savage life, have acute senses of seeing and hearing.
438The inhabitants of Finland and Lapland are nearly allied
to the Esquimaux, who are spread over all the high latitudes of
both continents—a diminutive race, equally ugly in face and
form.
Malayan nations occupy the Indian Archipelago, New Zealand,
Chatham Island, the Society group, and several other of the Polynesian
islands, together with the Phillipines and Formosa. They
are very dark, with lank coarse black hair, flat faces, and obliquely
set eyes. Endowed with great activity and ingenuity,
they are mild and gentle, and far advanced in the arts of social
life, in some places; in others, ferocious and vindictive, daring
and predatory; and from their maritime position and skill, they
are a migratory race. Several branches of this class of nations
had a very early indigenous civilization, with an original literature
in peculiar characters of their own.
The Ethiopian nations are widely dispersed; they occupy all
Africa south of the Great Desert, half of Madagascar, the continent
of Australia, Mindanao, Gilolo, the high lands of Borneo,
Sumbawa, Timor, and New Ireland. The distinguishing characters
of this group are, a black complexion, black woolly or
frizzled hair, thick lips, projecting jaws, high cheek-bones, and
large prominent eyes. A great variety, however, exists in this
jetty race: some are handsome both in face and figure, especially
in Ethiopia; and even in Western Africa, where the Negro
tribes live, there are groups in which the distinctive characters
are less exaggerated. This great family has not yet attained a
high place among nations, though by no means incapable of cultivation;
part of Ethiopia appears to have made considerable
progress in civilization in very ancient times. But the formidable
deserts, so extensive in some parts of the continent, and the
unwholesome climate in others, have cut off intercourse with
civilized nations; and, unfortunately, the infamous traffic in
slaves, to the disgrace of Christianity, has made the nations of
tropical Africa more barbarous than they were before: while, on
the contrary, the Foulahs and other tribes who were converts to
Mahommedanism 400 years ago, have now large commercial
towns, cultivated grounds, and schools. The Australians and
Papuans, who inhabit the eastern islands mentioned, are the
most degraded of this dark race, and indeed of all mankind.
The American race, who occupy the whole of that continent
from 62° N. lat. to the Straits of Magellan, are almost all of a
reddish brown or copper colour, with long black hair, deep-set
black eyes, aquiline nose, and often of handsome slender forms.
In North America they live by hunting, are averse to agriculture,
slow in acquiring knowledge, but extremely acute, brave, and
fond of war, and, though revengeful, are capable of generosity
439and gratitude. In South America many are half-civilized, but a
greater number are still in a state of utter barbarism. In a family
so widely scattered great diversity of character prevails, yet
throughout the whole there is a similarity of manners and habits
which has resisted all the effects of time and climate.
Each of these five groups of nations, spread over vast regions,
is accounted one family; and if they are so by physical structure,
they are still more so by language, which expresses the universal
mind of a people, modified by external circumstances, of which
none have a greater influence than the geographical features of
the country they inhabit—an influence that is deepest in the
early stages of society. The remnants of ancient poetry in the
south of Scotland partake of the gentle and pastoral character of
the country; while Celtic verse, and even the spoken language
of the Highlander, are full of poetical images of war and stern
mountain scenery. This is particularly to be observed in the
noble strains of Homer, and in the heroic poems of the early
Hindus, which reflect the lofty and sublime character of eastern
scenery.[188] As civilization advances, and man becomes more
intellectual, language keeps pace in the progress. New words
and new expressions are added, as new ideas occur and new
things are invented, till at last language itself becomes a study, is
refined and perfected by the introduction of general terms. The
improvement in language and the development of the mind
have been the same in all nations which have arrived at any
degree of refinement, and shows the identity of human nature in
every country and climate. The art of printing perpetuates a
tongue, and great authors immortalize it; yet language is ever
changing to a certain degree, though it never loses traces of its
origin. Chaucer and Spenser have become obscure; Shakespeare
requires a glossary for the modern reader; and in the few years
that the United States of America have existed as an independent
nation, the colloquial language has deviated from the mother-tongue.
When a nation degenerates, it is split by jealousy and
440war into tribes, each of which, in process of time, acquires a
peculiar idiom, and thus the number of dialects is increased,
though they still retain a similarity; whereas when masses of
mankind are united into great political bodies, their languages by
degrees assimilate to one common tongue, which retains traces of
all to the latest ages. The form of the dialects now spoken by
some savage tribes, as the North American Indians, bears the
marks of a once higher state of civilization.
More than 2000 languages are spoken, but few are independent;
some are connected by words having the same meaning,
some by grammatical structure, others by both; indeed the permanency
of language is so great, that neither ages of conquest,
nor mixing with other nations, have obliterated the native idiom
of a people. The French, Spanish, and German retain traces of
the common language spoken before the Roman conquest, and
the Celtic tongue still exists in the British Islands.
By a comparison of their dialects, nations far apart, and differing
in every other respect, are discovered to have sprung from a common,
though remote origin. Thus, all the numerous languages
spoken by the American Indians, or red men, are similar in
grammatical structure: an intimate analogy exists in the languages
of the Esquimaux nations who inhabit the arctic regions
of both continents. Dialects of one tongue are spoken throughout
North Africa, as far south as the oasis of Siwah on the east, and
the Canary Islands on the west. Another group of cognate
idioms is common to the inhabitants of Equatorial Africa, while
all the southern part of the continent is inhabited by people whose
languages are connected. The monosyllabic speech of the
Chinese and Indo-Chinese shows that they are the same people;
and all the insular nations of the Pacific derived their dialects
from some tribes on the continent of India and the Indian
Archipelago. Cognate tongues are spoken by the Tartars,
Mandtchoux, Fins, Laplanders, many of the Siberian nations,
and by the Hungarians.
The Persian, Arabic, Greek, Latin, German, and Celtic tongues
are connected by grammatical structure, and words expressive of
the same objects and feelings, with the Sanscrit, or sacred language
of India; consequently, the nations inhabiting that vast
extent of country from the mouths of the Ganges to the British
Isles, the coast of Scandinavia and Iceland, must have had the
same origin. “The words that fall thoughtlessly from our lips
in the daily vocations of life are no idle sounds, but magic
symbols which preserve for ever the first migrations of the
race, and whose antiquity makes Greece and Rome appear but
of yesterday.”
The number of languages spoken from the Ganges to Scandinavia,
441differing so widely from one another, is a proof of the
strength of individual character in nations, which can so powerfully
impress its peculiarities on the same mother tongue. In
fact every nation, as well as every individual, has its own physical,
moral, and intellectual organization, which influences its
language and its whole existence.
In the Indo-Germanic nations, which have been dominant for
ages, civilization has been progressive, though not without interruptions.
Providence has endowed these nations with the richest
and most ornamental gifts. Imagination has been liberally granted,
and embodied in all that is sublime and beautiful in architecture,
sculpture, painting, and poetry. In strength of intellect and
speculation, in philosophy, science, laws, and the political principles
of society, they have been pre-eminent.
The prevailing races of mankind now inhabiting Europe are
the Teutonic, Celtic, and Sclavonian. In the greater part of the
continent these races are mixed, but the blood is purely Teutonic
throughout Iceland, Scandinavia, round the Gulf of Bothnia, in
Denmark, Germany, and the east of England from Portsmouth to
the Tyne. Pure Celtic blood is confined to the Basque Provinces
in Spain, the south and south-west of France, a part of the Grisons
and Switzerland, and some part of Great Britain. The Sclavonian
blood is widely dispersed in middle Russia, from the Ural Mountains
to the west of the Valdai table-land, and from Novogorod to
the lower course of the Don. The three races have been much
improved by mixture, in appearance, energy, and versatility of
mind.
It is extraordinary that nations should lose their vitality without
any apparent cause; throughout the Indian Archipelago there is
no longer any one great Malayan nation, in Europe pure Celtic
blood has been on the decline for twenty centuries, and even the
mixed Celtic variety has not increased in proportion to the Teutonic,
although for 2000 years they have been exposed to the
same external circumstances.
At present the Teutonic race, including the inhabitants of
North America and the British colonies, considerably outnumber
the Celtic, though its numbers were far inferior in ancient times.
The Teutonic variety has subdued and even exterminated the
other varieties in its progress towards the west; it is undoubtedly
the most vigorous, both in body and mind, of all mankind, and
seems destined to conquer and civilize the whole world. It is a
singular fact, whatever the cause may be, that the Celts are invariably
Catholic, while the Teutonic population is inclined to Protestantism.
Various other races inhabit Europe, much inferior in numbers
to those above mentioned, though occasionally mixed with them,
442as the Turks, Fins, the Samojedes, who live on the shores of the
White Sea and in the north-east of Russia, and the Hungarians,
the higher class of which are a fine race of men, and on a par
with the most civilized of the European nations. There are
many mixed Tartar tribes, chiefly in the south and east of the
Russian territories; also Jews and Gipsies, who live among all
nations, yet mix with none.[189]
The inhabitants of Great Britain are of Celtic and Teutonic
origin. The Celtic blood is purest in Cornwall and the Scilly
Islands, in Wales, and the Isle of Man: in the highlands of Scotland
and the Hebrides it is more mixed than is generally supposed,
as plainly appears from the frequency of red hair and blue
eyes. In some parts of Ireland there is pure Celtic blood, but
throughout the greater part of that country it is mixed, although
the Celtic character predominates; but in Ulster, where the
earliest colony settled, the blood is purely Teutonic. In Ireland
443the difference in the organization of the two races is strongly
marked: placed under the same circumstances, the Teutonic
part of the population has prospered, which, unfortunately, has
not been the case with the Celtic.[190]
The dialects spoken in the Celtic districts are closely allied to
the Semitic languages of Asia, and to one another. The Cornish
is worn out, the Manx is nearly so, and the Gaelic is declining
fast in the highlands of Scotland.
The Roman invasion had no effect on the Anglo-Saxon or old
English, a language of Teutonic origin, but the Normans in
ancient times had altered it considerably, and in modern times
the English tongue has unfortunately been corrupted by the introduction
of French, Latin, and Latinized words. Scotch spoken
throughout the Lowlands of Scotland is a language independent
of the English, though of the same stock; it is derived from the
low German, the Frisian, Dutch, and Flemish, and differs widely
from the Anglo-Saxon.
No circumstance in the natural world is more inexplicable than
the diversity of form and colour in the human race. It had
already begun in the antediluvian world, for “there were giants
in the land in those days.” No direct mention is made of colour
at that time, unless the mark set upon Cain, “lest any one finding
him should kill him,” may allude to it. Perhaps, also, it may be
inferred that black people dwelt in Ethiopia, or the land of Cush,
444which means black in the Hebrew language. At all events, the
difference now existing must have arisen after the flood, consequently
all must have originated with Noah, whose wife, or the
wives of his sons, may have been of different colours, for aught
we know.
Many instances have occurred in modern times, of albinos and
red-haired children having been born of black parents, and these
have transmitted their peculiarities to their descendants for several
generations, but it may be doubted whether pure-blooded white
people have had perfectly black offspring. The varieties are
much more likely to have arisen from the effects of climate, food,
customs, and civilization upon migratory groups of mankind; and
of such, a few instances have occurred in historical times, limited,
however, to small numbers and particular spots; but the great
mass of nations had received their distinctive characters at a very
early period. The permanency of type is one of the most striking
circumstances, and proves the length of time necessary to produce
a change in national structure and colour. A nation of Ethiopians
existed 3450 years ago, which emigrated from a remote country
and settled near Egypt, and there must have been black people
before the age of Solomon, otherwise he would not have alluded
to colour, even poetically. The national appearance of the Ethiopians,
Persians, and Jews, has not varied for more than 3000
years, as appears from the ancient Egyptian paintings in the
tomb of Rhameses the Great, discovered at Thebes by Belzoni,
in which the countenance of the modern Ethiopian and Persian
can be readily recognized, and the Jewish features and colour are
identical with those of the Israelites daily met with in London.
Civilization is supposed to have great influence on colour, having
a tendency to make the dark shade more general, and it appears
that, in the crossing of two shades, the offspring takes the complexion
of the darker and the form of the fairer. But as there is
no instance of a new variety of mankind having been established
as a nation since the Christian era, there must either have been
a greater energy in the causes of change before that time, or,
brief as the span of man on earth has been, a wrong estimate of
time antecedent to the Christian period must have made it
shorter.[191]
445Darkness of complexion has been attributed to the sun’s power
from the age of Solomon to this day—“Look not upon me, because
I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me;” and
there can be no doubt that, to a certain degree, the opinion is well
founded. The invisible rays in the solar beams, which change
vegetable colours, and have been employed with such remarkable
effect in the Daguerreotype, act upon every substance on which
they fall, producing mysterious and wonderful changes in their
molecular state—man not excepted.[192]
Other causes must have been combined to occasion all the varieties
we now see, otherwise every nation between the tropics would
be of the same hue, whereas the sooty Negro inhabits equatorial
Africa, the Red man equinoctial America, and both are mixed with
fairer tribes. In Asia, the Rohillas, a fair race of Affghan extraction,
inhabit the plains north of the Ganges: the Bengalee and
the mountaineers of Nepaul are dark, and the Mahrattas are yellow.
The complexion of man varies with height and latitude;
some of the inhabitants of the Himalaya and Hindoo Koosh are
fair, and even a red-haired race is found on the latter. There are
fair-haired people with blue eyes in the Ruddhua mountains in
Africa. The Kabyles, that inhabit the country behind Tunis and
Algiers, are similar in complexion to the nations in high northern
latitudes. This correspondence, however, only maintains with
regard to the northern hemisphere, for it is a well-known fact that
the varieties of the numerous species in the great southern continents
are much more similar in physical characters to the native
races of the torrid zone, than any of the aboriginal people of the
northern regions. Even supposing that diversity of colour is owing
to the sun’s rays only, it is scarcely possible to attribute the thick
lips, the woolly hair, and the entire difference of form, extending
even to the very bones and skull, to anything but a concurrence
of circumstances, not omitting the invisible influence of electricity,
which pervades every part of the earth and air—and possibly
terrestrial magnetism.
The flexibility of man’s constitution enables him to live in every
climate, from the equator to the ever-frozen coasts of Nova Zembla
446and Spitzbergen, and that chiefly by his capability of bearing the
most extreme changes of temperature and diet, which are probably
the principal causes of the variety in his form. It has already
been mentioned that oxygen is inhaled with the atmospheric air,
and also taken in by the pores on the skin; part of it combines
chemically with the carbon of the food, and is expired in the form
of carbonic acid gas and water; that chemical action is the cause
of vital force and heat in man and animals. The quantity of food
must be in exact proportion to the quantity of oxygen inhaled,
otherwise disease and loss of strength would be the consequence.
Since cold air is incessantly carrying off warmth from the skin,
more exercise is requisite in winter than in summer, in cold climates
than in warm; consequently, more carbon is necessary in
the former than in the latter, in order to maintain the chemical
action that generates heat, and to ward off the destructive effects
of the oxygen, which incessantly strives to consume the body.
Animal food, wine, and spirits, contain many times more carbon
than fruit and vegetables, therefore animal food is much more
necessary in a cold than in a hot climate. The esquimaux, who
lives by the chace, and eats 10 or 12 pounds weight of meat and
fat in 24 hours, finds it not more than enough to keep up his strength
and animal heat, while the indolent inhabitant of Bengal is sufficiently
supplied with both by his rice diet. Clothing and warmth
make the necessity for exercise and food much less, by diminishing
the waste of animal heat. Hunger and cold united soon consume
the body, because it loses its power of resisting the action of
the oxygen, which consumes part of our substance, when food is
wanting. Hence, nations inhabiting warm climates have no great
merit in being abstemious, nor are those guilty of committing an
excess who live more freely in colder countries. The arrangement
of Divine Wisdom is to be admired in this as in all other
things, for, if man had only been capable of living on vegetable
food, he never could have had a permanent residence beyond the
latitude where corn ripens. The Esquimaux, and all the inhabitants
of the very high latitudes of both continents, live entirely on
fish and animal food. What effects the difference of food may
have upon the intellect is not known.
A nation or tribe driven by war, or any other cause, from a warm
to a cold country, or the contrary, would be forced to change their
food both in quality and quantity, which in the lapse of ages might
produce an alteration in the external form and internal structure.
The probability is still greater, if the entire change that a few
years produces in the matter of which the human frame is composed
be considered. At every instant during life, with every
motion, voluntary and involuntary, with every thought and every
exercise of the brain, a portion of our substance becomes dead,
447separates from the living part, combines with some of the inhaled
oxygen, and is removed. By this process it is supposed that the
whole body is renewed every 7 years; individuality, therefore,
depends on the spirit, which retains its identity during all the
changes of its earthly house, and sometimes even acts independently
of it. When sleep is restoring exhausted nature, the spirit
is often awake and active, crowding the events of years into a few
seconds, and, by its unconsciousness of time, anticipates eternity.
Every change of food, climate, and mental excitement, must have
their influence on the reproduction of the mortal frame; and thus
a thousand causes may co-operate to alter whole races of mankind
placed under new circumstances, time being granted.
The difference between the effects of manual labour and the
efforts of the brain appears in the intellectual countenance of the
educated man, compared with that of the peasant, though even he
is occasionally stamped with nature’s own nobility. The most
savage people are also the ugliest. Their countenance is deformed
by violent unsubdued passions, anxiety, and suffering. Deep sensibility
gives a beautiful and varied expression, but every strong
emotion is unfavourable to perfect regularity of feature; and of
that the Greeks were well aware when they gave that calmness
of expression and repose to their unrivalled statues. The refining
effects of high culture, and, above all, the Christian religion, by
subduing the evil passions, and encouraging the good, are more
than anything calculated to improve even the external appearance.
The countenance, though perhaps of less regular form, becomes
expressive of the amiable and benevolent feelings of the heart, the
most captivating and lasting of all beauty.[193]
Thus, an infinite assemblage of causes may be assigned as having
produced the endless varieties in the human race; but the fact
remains an inscrutable mystery. But amidst all the physical
vicissitudes man has undergone, the species remains permanent;
and let those who think that the difference in the species of animals
and vegetables arises from diversity of conditions, consider,
that no circumstances whatever can degrade the form of man to
that of the monkey—or elevate the monkey to the form of man.
Animals and vegetables, being the sources of man’s sustenance,
have had the chief influence on his destiny and location, and have
induced him to settle in those parts of the world where he could
448procure them in greatest abundance. Wherever the chace or the
spontaneous productions of the earth supply him with food, he is
completely savage, and only a degree further advanced where he
plants the palm and the banana; where grain is the principal food,
industry and intelligence are most perfectly developed, as in the
temperate zone. On that account the centres of civilization have
generally been determined, not by a hot, but by a genial climate,
fertile soil, by the vicinity of the sea-coast or great rivers, affording
the means of fishing and transport, which last has been one of the
chief causes of the superiority of Europe and Southern Asia.
The mineral treasures of the earth have been the means of assembling
great masses of men in Siberia and the table-land of the
Andes, and have given rise to many great cities, both in the Old
and the New World. Nations inhabiting elevated table-lands and
high ungenial latitudes have been driven there by war, or obliged
to wander from countries where the population exceeded the means
of living—a cause of migration to which both language and tradition
bear testimony. The belief in a future state, so universal,
shown by respect for the dead, has no doubt been transmitted from
nation to nation. The American Indians, driven from their hunting-grounds,
still make pilgrimages to the tombs of their fathers;
and these tribes alone, of all uncivilized mankind, worship the
Great Spirit as the invisible God and Father of all—a degree of
abstract refinement which could hardly have sprung up spontaneously
among a rude people, and which must have been transmitted
from races who held the Jewish faith.
It is probable that America had been peopled from Asia before
the separation of the continents by Behring’s Straits, and there is
reason to believe that the location of various races of mankind, now
insulated, may have taken place before the separation of the lands
by mediterranean seas; whilst others, previously insulated, may
be now united by the drying up of inland seas, as those which
covered the Sahara desert, and the great hollow round the Caspian
Sea, of which it and the Black Sea are probably the remnants.
M. Boué has observed that mountain chains running nearly east
and west establish much more striking differences among nations
than those which extend from north to south—a circumstance confirmed
by observation through the history of mankind. The Scandinavian
Alps have not prevented the countries on both sides from
being occupied by people of a common descent; while the feeble
barrier of the Cheviot Hills, between England and Scotland, and
the moderate elevation of the Highland mountains, have prevented
the amalgamation of the Anglo-Saxons and the Celts, even in a
period of high civilization. The Franks and Belgians are distinct,
though separated by hills of still less elevation. For the same
449reason the Spaniards and Italians differ far more from their neighbours
on the other side of the eastern and western chains, than
the Spaniards do from the Portuguese, or the Piedmontese from
the Provençals. A similar distinction prevails throughout Asia;
and in America, where all the principal chains run north and south,
there is but one copper-coloured race throughout the continent,
which stretches over more climates than Europe and Africa, or
even than Asia and Australia, united. It is along chains running
north and south that the fusion of languages takes place, and not
along those of an easterly and westerly direction. From Poland,
for instance, there are intermediate insensible gradations through
Germany into France; while in crossing from a German district
of the Alps to the valleys of Italy, different tribes and different
languages are separated by a single mountain. Even wars and
conquest have ever been more easy in one direction than in the
other. The difference in the fauna and flora on the two sides of
the great table-land and mountains of Asia is a striking illustration
of the influence which high lands running east and west have on
natural productions, and thus, both directly and indirectly, they
affect the distribution of mankind.
The circumstances which thus determine the location of nations,
and the fusion or separation of their languages, must, conjointly
with moral causes, operate powerfully on their character.
The minds of mankind, as well as their fate, are influenced by
the soil on which they are born and bred. The natives of elevated
countries are attached to their mountains; the Dutch are as
much attached to their meadows and canals; and the savage,
acquainted only with the discomforts of life, is unhappy when
brought among civilized man. Early associations never entirely
leave us, however much our position in life may alter, and strong
attachments are formed to places which generate in us habits differing
from those of other countries.
The Baltic and Mediterranean Seas have had no inconsiderable
share in civilizing Europe; one combined with a cold and gloomy
climate, the other with a warm and glowing sky, have developed
dissimilar characters in the temperament and habits of the surrounding
nations, originally dissimilar in race. The charms of climate,
and the ease with which the necessaries of life are procured, were
favourable to the development of imagination in the more southern
nations, and to an indolent enjoyment of their advantages. In
the north, on the contrary, the task imposed upon man was
harder, and perhaps more favourable to strength of character.
The Dutch owe their industry and perseverance to their unceasing
struggle against the encroachments of the ocean; the British
are indebted to their insular position for their maritime disposition,
and to the smallness of their country and the richness of their
450mines, for their manufacturing and colonizing habits; the military
propensities of the French, to the necessity of maintaining
their independence among the surrounding nations, as well as to
ambition and the love of fame.
Thus, external circumstances materially modify the character
of nations, but the original propensities of race are never eradicated,
and they are nowhere more prominent than in the progress
of the social state in France and England. The vivacity
and speculative disposition of the Celt appear in the rapid and
violent changes of government and in the succession of theoretical
experiments in France; while in Britain the deliberate slowness,
prudence, and accurate perceptions of the Teuton are manifest
in the gradual improvement and steadiness of their political
arrangements. “The prevalent political sentiment of Great
Britain is undoubtedly conservative, in the best sense of the word,
with a powerful under-current of democratic tendencies. This
gives great power and strength to the political and social body of
this country, and makes revolutions by physical force almost
impossible. It can be said, without assumption or pretension,
that the body politic of Britain is in a sounder state of health than
any other in Europe; and that those know very little of this
country, who, led away by what they see in France, always
dream of violent and revolutionary changes in the constitution.
Great Britain is the only country in Europe which has had the
good fortune to have all her institutions worked out and framed
by her in a strictly organic manner—that is, in accordance with
organic wants, which require different conditions at different
and successive stages of national development—and not by theoretical
experiments, as in many other countries which are still in
a state of excitement consequent upon these experiments. The
social character of the people of this country, besides the features
which they have in common with other nations of Teutonic origin,
is, on the whole, domestic, reserved, aristocratic, and exclusive.”[194]
451In speculating upon the effects of external circumstances, and
on the original dispositions of the different races of mankind, the
stationary and unchanged condition is a curious phenomenon in
the history of nations. The inhabitants of Hindostan have not
advanced within the historical period; neither have the Chinese.
The Peruvians and Mexicans had arrived at a considerable degree
of civilization, at which they became stationary, never having
availed themselves of their fine country and noble rivers; and
their conquerors, the Spaniards, degenerated into the same apathy
with the conquered. The unaccountable gipsies have for ages
maintained their peculiarities in all countries; so have the Jews
and Armenians, who by the perseverance with which they have
adhered to their language and institutions, have resisted the
influence of physical impressions.
The influence of external circumstances on man is not greater
than his influence on the material world. He cannot create
power, it is true, but he dexterously avails himself of the powers
of nature to subdue nature. Air, fire, water, steam, gravitation,
his own muscular strength, and that of animals rendered obedient
to his will, are the instruments by which he has converted the
desert into a garden, drained marshes, cut canals, made roads,
turns the course of rivers, cleared away forests in one country,
and planted them in another. By these operations he has altered
the climate, changed the course of local winds, increased or
diminished the quantity of rain, and softened the rigour of the
seasons. In the time of Strabo, the cold in France was so
intense, that it was thought impossible to ripen grapes north of
the Cevennes: the Rhine and the Danube were every winter
covered with ice thick enough to bear any weight. Man’s influence
on vegetation has been immense, but the most important
changes had been effected in the antediluvian ages of the world.
Cain was a tiller of the ground. The olive, the vine, and the fig-tree
have been cultivated time immemorial: wheat, rice, and
barley, have been so long in an artificial state, that their origin is
unknown; even maize, which is a Mexican plant, was in use
among the American tribes before the Spanish conquest; and
tobacco was already used by them to allay the pangs of hunger,
to which those who depend upon the chace for food must be
exposed. Most of the ordinary culinary vegetables have been
known for ages, and it is remarkable that in these days, when
our gardens are adorned with innumerable native plants in a cultivated
state, few new grains, vegetables, or fruits have been
reclaimed; the old have been produced in infinite variety, and
many brought from foreign countries: yet there must exist many
plants capable of cultivation, as unpromising in their wild state as
the turnip or carrot.
452Some families of plants are more susceptible of improvement
than others, and, like man himself, can bear almost any climate.
One kind of wheat grows to 62° N. latitude; rye and barley are
hardier, and succeed still farther north; and few countries are
absolutely without grass. The cruciform tribe abounds in useful
plants, indeed that family, together with the solanum, the papilionaceous
and umbelliferous tribes, furnish most of our vegetables.
Many plants, like animals, are of one colour only in their wild
state, and their blossoms are single. Art has introduced the
variety we now see in the same species, and, by changing the
anthers of the wild flowers into petals, has produced double blossoms:
by art, too, many plants, natives of warm countries, have
been naturalized in colder climates. Few useful plants have
beautiful blossoms—but if utility were the only object, of what
pleasure should we be deprived! Refinement is not wanting in
the inmates of a cottage covered with roses and honeysuckle; and
the little garden cultivated amidst a life of toil, tells of a peaceful
home.
Among the objects which tend to the improvement of our race,
the flower-garden and the park adorned with native and foreign
trees have no small share: they are the greatest ornaments of the
British Islands; and the love of a country life, which is so strong
a passion, is chiefly owing to the law of primogeniture, by which
the head of a family is secured in the possession and transmission
of his undivided estate, and therefore each generation takes pride
and pleasure in adorning the home of its forefathers.
Animals yield more readily to man’s influence than vegetables,
and certain classes have greater flexibility of disposition and structure
than others. Those only are capable of being perfectly
reclaimed that have a natural tendency for it, without which
man’s endeavours would be unavailing. This predisposition is
greatest in animals which are gregarious and follow a leader, as
elephants, dogs, horses, and cattle do in their wild state; yet even
among these some species are refractory, as the buffalo, which
can only be regarded as half-reclaimed. The canine tribe, on the
contrary, are capable of the greatest attachment, not the dog only,
man’s faithful companion, but even the wolf, and especially the
hyæna, generally believed to be so ferocious. After an absence
of many months, a hyæna which had been the fellow-passenger
of a friend of the author’s in a voyage from India, recognized his
voice before he came in sight, and on seeing him it showed the
greatest joy, lay down like a dog and licked his hands. He had
been kind to it on the voyage, and no animal forgets kindness,
which is the surest way of reclaiming them. There cannot be a
greater mistake than the harsh and cruel means by which dogs
and horses are too commonly trained; but it is long before man
453learns that his power is mental, and that it is his intellect alone
that has given him dominion over the earth and its inhabitants, of
which so many far surpass him in physical strength. The useful
animals were reclaimed by the early inhabitants of Asia, and it is
very remarkable, notwithstanding the enterprise and activity of
the present times, that among the multitudes of animals that
inhabit America, Central and Southern Africa, Australia and the
Indian Archipelago, 4 only have been domesticated, yet many
may be capable of becoming useful to man. Of 35 species, of
which we possess one or more domestic races, 31 are natives of
Asia, Europe, and North Africa; these countries are far from
being exhausted, and a complete hemisphere is yet unexplored.
An attempt has been made to domesticate the Llama, the Dziggetai,
Zebra, and some species of Indian deer, but the success is
either doubtful or the attempt has not been followed up. Little
has been left for modern nations but the improvement of the
species, and in that they have been very successful. The variety
of horses, dogs, cattle, and sheep is beyond number. The form,
colour, and even the disposition, may be materially altered, and
the habits engrafted are transmitted to the offspring, as instinctive
properties independent of education. Domestic fowls go in flocks
on their native meads when wild. There are, however, instances
of solitary birds being tamed to an extraordinary degree, as the
raven, one of the most sagacious.
Man’s necessities and pleasure have been the cause of great
changes in the animal creation—and his destructive propensity of
still greater. Animals are intended for our use, and field-sports
are advantageous by encouraging a daring and active spirit in
young men, but the utter destruction of some races, in order to
protect those destined for his pleasure, is too selfish. Animals
soon acquire a dread of man, which becomes instinctive and
hereditary; in newly-discovered uninhabited countries, birds and
beasts are so tame as to allow themselves to be caught; whales
scarcely got out of the way of the ships that first navigated the
Arctic Ocean, but now they universally have a dread of the common
enemy: whales and seals have been extirpated in various
places; sea-fowl and birds of passage are not likely to be extinguished,
but many land animals and birds are vanishing before
the advance of civilization. Drainage, cultivation, cutting down
of forests, and even the introduction of new plants and animals,
destroy some of the old, and alter the relations between those that
remain. The inaccessible cliffs of the Himalaya and Andes will
afford a refuge to the eagle and condor, but the time will come when
the mighty forests of the Amazons and Orinoco will disappear with
the myriads of their joyous inhabitants. The lion, the tiger, and
the elephant will be known only by ancient records. Man, the lord
454of the creation, will extirpate the noble creatures of the earth—but
he himself will ever be the slave of the canker-worm and the
fly. Cultivation may lessen the scourge of the insect tribe, but
God’s great army will ever, from time to time, appear suddenly—no
one knows from whence; the grub will take possession of the
ground, and the locust will come from the desert and destroy the
fairest prospects of the harvest.
Though the unreclaimed portion of the animal creation is falling
before the progress of improvement, yet man has been both the
voluntary and the involuntary cause of the introduction of new
animals and plants into countries in which they were not natives.
The Spanish conquerors little thought that the descendants of the
few cattle and horses they allowed to run wild, would resume the
original character of their species, and roam in hundreds of thousands
over the savannahs of South America. Wherever man is,
civilized or savage, there also is the dog, but he too has in some
places resumed his native state and habits, and hunts in packs.
Domestic animals, grain, fruit, vegetables, and the weeds that grow
with them, have been conveyed by colonists to all settlements.
Birds and insects follow certain plants into countries in which
they were never seen before. Even the inhabitants of the waters
change their abode in consequence of the influence of man. Fish,
natives of the rivers on the coast of the Mexican Gulf, have
migrated by the canals to the heart of North America; and the
mytilus polymorphus, a shell-fish brought to the London Docks
in the timbers of ships from the brackish waters of the Black Sea
and its tributary streams, has spread into the interior of England
by the Croydon and other canals.
The influence of man on man is a power of the highest order,
far surpassing that which he possesses over inanimate or animal
nature. It is, however, as a collective body, and not as an individual,
that he exercises this influence over his fellow-creatures.
The free-will of man, nay, even his most capricious passions,
neutralize each other, when large numbers of men are considered.
Professor Quetelet has most ably proved, that the greater the
number of individuals, the more completely does the will of each,
as well as all individual peculiarities, moral or physical, disappear,
and allow the series of general facts to predominate, which
depend upon the causes by which society exists and is preserved.
The uniformity with which the number of marriages in Belgium
occurred in 20 years, places the neutralization of the free-will of
the individual man beyond a doubt, and is one of many instances
of the importance of average quantities in arriving at general
laws.
Certainly no event in a man’s life depends more upon his free
will than his marriage, yet it appears from the records in Brussels,
455that nearly the same number of marriages take place every year,
in the towns as well as in the country, and, moreover, that the
same constancy prevails in each province, though the numbers of
the people are so small, that accidental causes might be more
likely to affect the general result than when the numbers are
larger. In fact the whole affair passes as if the inhabitants of
Belgium had agreed to contract nearly the same number of marriages
annually, at each stage of life. Young people may possibly
be in some degree under the control of parents, but there can
be no restraint on the free will of men of 30 and women of 60
years of age, yet the same number of such incongruous marriages
do annually take place between men and women at those unsuitable
ages—a fact which almost exceeds belief. The day fixed for
a wedding is of all things most entirely dependent on the will of
the parties, yet even here there is regularity in the annual recurrence.
(See Table on next page.)
With regard to crimes also, M. Quetelet observes that the same
number of crimes of the same description are committed annually,
with remarkable uniformity, even in the case of those crimes
which would seem most likely to baffle all attempt at prediction.
The same regularity occurs in the sentences passed on criminals:
in France, in every hundred trials there were sixty-one convictions
regularly, year after year.
Forgetfulness, as well as free-will, is under constant laws: the
number of undirected letters put into the post-office in London
and in Paris is very nearly the same year after year respectively—in
London they amount to 2000: so that even the deviations from
free-will proves the generality and the constancy of the laws that
govern us.
Scientific discoveries and social combinations, which put in
practice great social principles, are not without a decided influence;
but these causes of action coming from man, are placed out
of the sphere of the free-will of each: so that individual impulse
has less to do with the progress of mankind than is generally
believed. When society has arrived at a certain point of advancement,
certain discoveries will naturally be made; the general
mind is directed that way, and if one individual does not hit upon
the discovery, another will. Therefore, on the disputes and discussions
of different nations for the honour of particular inventions
or discoveries, as for example the steam-engine, a narrow view of
the subject is taken; they properly belong to the age in which
they are made, without derogating from the merits of those benefactors
of mankind who have lessened his toil or increased his
comfort by the efforts of their genius. The time had come for
the invention of printing, and printing was invented; and the
same observation is applicable to many objects in the physical, as
456well as to the moral world. In the present disturbed state of
society the time is come for the termination of the feudal system,
which will be swept away by the force of public opinion, though
individuality merges in these general movements.
The following Table, which is one of the most curious of statistical documents, was formed by Professor Quetelet from
the Register of Marriages at Brussels:—
MARRIAGES IN BELGIUM IN THE YEARS
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
Men of 30 years of age and under, to
Women of 30 years of age and under
12,788
12,422
12,368
13,024
13,157
Women from 30 to 45
2,630
2,626
2,406
2,375
2,438
Women from 45 to 60
93
121
125
129
102
Women from 60 upwards
7
6
8
5
8
Men from 30 to 35 inclusive, to
Women of 30 and under
6,122
5,803
5,617
4,948
5,810
Women from 30 to 45
5,531
5,396
5,100
5,205
4,981
Women from 45 to 60
529
542
479
493
532
Women from 60 upwards
18
12
18
21
21
Men from 45 to 60 inclusive, to
Women of 30 and under
376
346
380
355
346
Women from 30 to 45
896
879
896
951
993
Women from 45 to 60
461
447
433
462
460
Women from 60 upwards
23
19
29
36
28
Men from 60 and above, to
Women of 30 and under
48
35
45
41
36
Women from 30 to 45
139
147
133
119
125
Women from 45 to 60
153
170
137
112
145
Women from 60 upwards
62
52
48
50
31
Annual Number of Marriages
29,876
29,023
28,220
29,326
29,210
457Though each individual is accountable to God for his conduct,
it is evident that the great laws which regulate mankind are altogether
independent of his will, and that liberty of action is perfectly
compatible with the general design of Providence. “A
more profound study of the social system will have the effect of
limiting more and more the sphere in which man’s free-will is
exercised, for the Supreme Being could not grant him a power
which tends to overthrow the laws impressed on all the parts of
creation: He has traced its limits, as He has fixed those of the
ocean.”
Man is eminently sociable; he willingly gives up part of his
free-will to become a member of a social body; and it is this portion
of the individuality of each member of that body, taken in the
aggregate, which becomes the directrice of the principal social
movements of a nation. It may be greater or less, good or bad,
but it determines the customs, wants, and the national spirit of a
people; it regulates the sum of their moral statistics; and it is in
that manner that the cultivation or savageness, the virtues or the
vices, of individuals have their influence. It is thus that private
morality becomes the base of public morality.
The more man advances in civilization the greater will be his
collective influence, for knowledge is power; and at no time did
the mental superiority of the cultivated races produce such
changes as they do at present, because they have extended their
influence to the uttermost parts of the earth by emigration, colonization,
and commerce. In civilized society the number of
people in the course of time exceeds the means of sustenance,
which compels some to emigrate; others are induced by a spirit
of enterprise to go to new countries, some for the love of gain,
others to fly from oppression.
The discovery of the New World opened a wide field for emigration.
Spain and Portugal, the first to avail themselves of it,
acquired dominion over some of the finest parts of South America,
which they have maintained till lately a change of times has
rendered their colonies independent states. Liberal opinions have
spread into the interior of that continent, in proportion to the
facility of communication with the cities on the coasts, from
whence European ideas are disseminated. Of this Venezuela and
Chile are instances, where civilization and prosperity have advanced
more rapidly than in the interior parts of South America, where
the Andes are higher and the distance from the sea greater.
Civilization has been impeded in many of the smaller states by
war, and those broils inevitable among people unaccustomed to
free institutions. Brazil would have been further advanced but
for slavery, that stain on the human race, which corrupts the
master as much as it debases the slave.
458Some of the native South American tribes have spontaneously
made considerably progress in civilization in modern times;
others have benefited by the Spanish and Portuguese colonists;
and many have been brought into subjection by the Jesuits, who
have instructed them in some of the arts of social life. But these
Indians are not more religious than their neighbours, and, from
the restraint to which they have been subject, have lost vigour of
character without improving in intellect; so that now they are
either stationary or retrograde. Extensive regions are still the
abode of men in the lowest state of barbarism: some of the tribes
inhabiting the silvas of the Orinoco, Amazons, and Uruguay are
cannibals.
The arrival of the colonists in North America sealed the fate
of the red men. The inhabitants of the Union, too late awakened
to the just claims of the ancient proprietors of the land, have
recently, but vainly, attempted to save the remnant. The white
man, like an irresistible torrent, has already reached the centre of
the continent; and the native tribes now retreat towards the far
west, and will continue to retreat, till the Pacific Ocean arrests
them, and the animals on their hunting-grounds are exterminated.
The almost universal dislike the Indian has shown for
the arts of peace has been one of the principal causes of his
decline, although the Cherokee tribe, which has lately migrated
to the west of the Mississippi, is a remarkable exception; the
greater number of them are industrious planters or mechanics;
they have a republican government, and publish a newspaper
in their own language, in a character lately invented by one of
that nation.
No part of the world has been the scene of greater iniquity
than the West Indian islands—and that perpetrated by the
most enlightened nations of Europe. The native race has
long been swept away by the stranger, and a new people,
cruelly torn from their homes, have been made the slaves of
hard task-masters. If the odious participation in this guilt has
been a stain on the British name, the abolition of slavery by the
universal acclamation of the nation will ever form one of the
brightest pages in their history, so full of glory: nor will it be
the less so, that justice was combined with mercy, by the millions
of money granted to indemnify the proprietors. It is deeply to be
lamented that our brethren on the other side of the Atlantic have
not followed the example of their fatherland; but in limited
monarchies the voice of the people is listened to, while republican
governments are more apt to become its slave. The
Northern States have nobly declared every man free who sets his
foot on their territory—and the time will come when the Southern
States will sacrifice interest to justice and mercy.
459It seems to be the design of Providence to supplant the savage
by civilized man in the continent of Australia as well as in North
America, though every effort has been made to prevent the
extinction of the natives. Most of the tribes in that continent
are as low in the scale of mankind as the cannibal Fuegians,
whom Captain Fitzroy so generously, but so ineffectually, attempted
to reclaim. Some of the New Hollanders are faithful
servants for a time, but they almost always find the restraint of
civilized life irksome, and return to their former habits, though
truly miserable in a country where the means of existence are so
scanty. Animals and birds are very scarce, and there is no fruit
or vegetable for the sustenance of man.
Slavery has been a greater impediment to the improvement of
Africa than even the physical disadvantages of the country—the
great arid deserts and unwholesome coasts. A spontaneous
civilization has arisen in various parts of Southern and Central
Africa, in which there has been considerable progress in agriculture
and commerce; but civilized man has been a scourge on the
Atlantic coast, which has extended its baneful influence into the
heart of the continent, by the encouragement it has given to warfare
among the natives for the capture of slaves, and for the introduction
of European vices, unredeemed by Christian virtues. Now that
France and England have united in the suppression of this odious
traffic, some hopes may be entertained that their colonies may be
beneficial to the natives, and that other nations may follow their
example, in which, however, they have been anticipated by three
Mahommedan sovereigns; the Sultan has abolished the slave
market in Constantinople, Ibrahim Pasha on his return from
France and England gave freedom to his bondsmen in Egypt,
and the Bey of Tunis has abolished slavery in his dominions.
The French are zealous in improving the people in Algiers,
but the constant warfare in which they have been embroiled ever
since their conquest must render their success in civilizing the
natives at least remote. The inhabitants of those extensive and
magnificent countries in the eastern seas that have long been
colonized by the Dutch have made but little progress under their
rule.
The British colony at the Cape of Good Hope has had considerable
influence on the neighbouring rude nations, who now
begin to adopt more civilized habits. When Mr. Somerville
visited Litako, the natives for the first time saw a white person
and a horse, and were scantily clothed with skins. When Dr.
Smith visited them 20 years afterwards, he found the chief men
mounted on horseback, wearing hats made of rushes, and an
attempt made to imitate European dress.
Colonization has nowhere produced such happy results as
460among the amiable and cultivated inhabitants of India, who are
sensible of the benefits they derive from the impartial administration
of just and equal laws, the foundation of schools and colleges,
and the wide extension of commerce.
All the causes of emigration have operated by turns on the
inhabitants of Britain, and various circumstances have concurred
to make their colonies permanent. In North America, that which
not many years ago was a British colony has become a great
independent nation, occupying a large portion of the continent.
The Australian continent and New Zealand will in after ages be
peopled by a British race, and will become centres of civilization
which will spread its influence to the uttermost islands of the
Pacific. These splendid islands, possessing every advantage of
climate and soil, with a population in many parts far advanced in
the arts of civilized life, industry, and commerce, though in others
savage, will in time come in for a share of the general improvement.
The success that has attended the noble and unaided
efforts of Sir J. Brooke in Borneo, shows how much the influence
of an active and benevolent mind can in a short time
effect.
The colonies on the continent of India are already centres from
which the culture of Europe is spreading over the East.
Commerce has not less influence on mankind than colonization,
with which it is intimately connected; and the narrow limits of
the British Islands have rendered it necessary for its inhabitants
to exert their industry. The riches of our mines in coal and
metals, which produce a yearly income of 24,000,000l. sterling,
is a principal cause of our manufacturing and commercial wealth;
but even with these natural advantages, more is due not only to
our talents and enterprise, but to our high character for faith and
honour.
Every country has its own peculiar productions, and by an
unrestrained interchange of the gifts of Providence the condition
of all is improved. The exclusive jealousy with which commerce
has hitherto been fettered, shows the length of time that
is necessary to wear out the effects of those selfish passions which
separated nations when they were yet barbarous. It required a
high degree of cultivation to break down those barriers consecrated
by their antiquity; and the accomplishment of this
important change evinces the rate at which the present age is
advancing.
A new era in the history of the world began when China was
opened to European intercourse; but many years must pass
before European influence can penetrate that vast empire, and
eradicate those illiberal prejudices by which it has so long been
governed.
461Two important triumphs yet remain to be achieved over physical
difficulties by the science and energy of man, namely, the
junction of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans at the Isthmus of
Central America, and the union of the Red Sea with the Mediterranean
at that of Suez. The first seems to be on the eve of
accomplishment, and, in conjunction with the treasures with
which the auriferous district of California is said to abound, may
bring about a complete revolution in the tide of affairs; and that
country, hitherto so completely separated from the rest of the
world and so little known, will become a new centre of civilization,
whose influence will be diffused over the wide Pacific to the
shores of the eastern continent; the expectation of Columbus will
then be realized—of a passage to the East Indies by the Atlantic.
Should the Mediterranean and Red Sea be united by a water
communication, Alexandria, Venice, and the other maritime cities
of southern Europe may regain, at least in part, the mercantile
position which they lost by the discovery of Vasco da Gama.[195]
The advantages of colonization and commerce to the less civilized
part of the world are incalculable, as well as to those at home,
not only by furnishing an exchange for manufactures, important
as this is, but by the immense accession of knowledge of the earth
and its inhabitants, that has been thus attained.
The history of former ages exhibits nothing to be compared
with the mental activity of the present. Steam, which annihilates
time and space, fills mankind with schemes for advantage or defence:
but however mercenary the motives for enterprise may
be, it is instrumental in bringing nations together. The facility
of communication is rapidly assimilating national character. Society
in most of the capitals is formed on the same model; and as
the study of modern languages is now considered a part of polite
education, and every well-educated person speaks more than one
modern tongue, one of the great barriers to the assimilation of
character amongst nations will be removed.
462Science has never been so extensively and so successfully cultivated
as at the present time: the collective wisdom and experience
of Europe and the United States of America is now brought
to bear on subjects of the highest importance in annual meetings,
where the common pursuit of truth is as beneficial to the moral as
to the intellectual character, and the noble objects of investigation
are no longer confined to a philosophic few, but are becoming
widely diffused among all ranks of society, and the most enlightened
governments have given their support to measures that
could not have been otherwise accomplished.[196] Simultaneous
463observations are made at numerous places in both hemispheres on
electricity, magnetism, on the tides and currents of the air and
the ocean, and those mysterious vicissitudes of temperature and
464moisture, which bless the labours of the husbandman one year,
and blight them in another.
The places of the nebulæ and fixed stars, and their motions, are
465known with unexampled precision, and the most refined analyses
embrace the most varied objects. Three new satellites and six
new planets have been discovered within four years, and one of
these under circumstances the most unprecedented. In the far
heavens, from disturbances in the motions of Uranus which could
not be accounted for, an unknown and unseen body was declared
to be revolving on the utmost verge of the solar system; and it
was found in the very region of the heavens pointed out by analysis.
On earth, though hundreds of miles apart, that invisible
messenger, electricity, instantaneously conveys the thoughts of
the invisible spirit of man to man—results of science sublimely
transcendental.
Vain would be the attempt to enumerate the improvements in
machinery and mechanics, the canals and railroads that have been
made, the harbours that have been improved, the land that has
been drained, the bridges that have been constructed; and now,
although Britain is inferior to none in many things, and superior
to all in some, one of our most distinguished engineers declares
that we are scarcely beyond the threshold in improvement; to
stand still is to retrograde, human ingenuity will always keep
pace with the unforeseen, the increasing wants of the age.[197]
“Who knows what may yet be in store for our use; what new
discovery may again change the tide of human affairs; what
hidden treasures may yet be brought to light in the air or in the
ocean, of which we know so little; or what virtues there may be
in the herbs of the field, and in the treasures of the earth—how far
its hidden fires, or stores of ice, may yet become available—ages
can never exhaust the treasures of nature or the talent of man.”[198]
It would be difficult to follow the rapid course of discovery through
the complicated mazes of magnetism and electricity; the action of
the electric current on the polarized sun-beam, one of the most
beautiful of modern discoveries, leading to relations hitherto unsuspected
between that power and the complex assemblage of
visible and invisible influences on solar light, by one of which
nature has recently been made to paint her own likeness. It is
impossible to convey an idea of the rapid succession of the varied
and curious results of chemistry, and its application to physiology
and agriculture; moreover, distinguished works have lately been
published at home and abroad on the science of mind, which has
been so successfully cultivated in our own country. Geography
466has assumed a new character, by that unwearied search for accurate
knowledge and truth that marks the present age, and physical
geography is altogether a new science.
The spirit of nautical and geographical discovery, begun in the
15th century, by those illustrious navigators who had a new world
to discover, is at this day as energetic as ever, though the results
are less brilliant. Neither the long gloomy night of a polar
winter, nor the dangers of the ice and the storm, deter our gallant
seamen from seeking a better acquaintance with “this ball of
earth,” even under its most frowning aspect; and that, for honour,
which they are as eager to seek even in the cannon’s mouth.
Nor have other nations of Europe and America been without their
share in these bold adventures. The scorching sun and deadly
swamps of the tropics as little prevent the traveller from collecting
the animals and plants of the present creation, or the geologist
from investigating those of ages long gone by. Man daily indicates
his birthright as lord of the creation, and compels every land and
sea to contribute to his knowledge.
The most distinguished modern travellers, following the noble
example of Baron Humboldt, the patriarch of physical geography,
take a more extended view of the subject than the earth and its
animal and vegetable inhabitants afford, and include in their
researches the past and present condition of man, the origin, manners,
and languages of existing nations, and the monuments of
those that have been. Geography has had its dark ages, during
which the situation of many great cities and spots of celebrity in
sacred and profane history had been entirely lost sight of, which
are now discovered by the learning and assiduity of the modern
traveller. Of this, Italy, Egypt, the Holy Land, Asia Minor,
Arabia, and the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, with the
adjacent mountains of Persia, are remarkable instances, not to
mention the vast region of the East, and the remote centres of
aboriginal civilization in the New World. The interesting discoveries
of Mr. Layard, who possessed every acquirement that
could render a traveller competent to accomplish so arduous
an undertaking, have brought to light the long-hidden treasures
of the ancient Nineveh, where its own peculiar style of art had
existed anterior to that of Egypt.[199] In many parts of the world
the ruins of cities of extraordinary magnitude and architecture
show that there are wide regions of whose original inhabitants we
know nothing. The Andes of Peru and Mexico have remains of
civilized nations before the age of the Incas. Mr. Pentland has
467found numerous remains of Peruvian monuments in every part of
the great valley of the Peru-Bolivian Andes, and many parts of
the imperial capital Cusco, little changed from what they were at
the downfall of Atahualpa. Mr. Stephens has found in the woods
of Central America the ruins of great cities, adorned with sculpture
and pictorial writings, vestiges of a people far advanced, who
had once cultivated the soil where these entangled forests now
grow. Picture-writings have been discovered by Sir Robert
Schomburgk on rocks in Guiana, spread over an extent of 350,000
square miles, similar to those found in the United States and in
Siberia. Magnificent buildings still exist in good preservation all
over eastern Asia, and many in a ruinous state belong to a period
far beyond written record.
Ancient literature has furnished a subject of still more interesting
research, from which it is evident that the mind of man is
essentially the same under very different circumstances: every
nation far advanced in civilization has had its age of poetry, the
drama, romance, and philosophy, each stamped with the character
of the people and times, and still more with their religious belief.
Our profound Oriental scholars have made known to Europeans
the refined Sanscrit literature of Hindostan, its schools of philosophy
and astronomy, its dramatic writings and poetry, which are
original and beautiful, and to these the learned in Greece and Italy
have contributed.
The riches of Chinese literature, and their valuable geography,
were introduced into Europe by the French Jesuits of the last century,
and followed up with success by the French and English
philosophers of the present: to France we also owe much of our
knowledge of the poetry and letters of Persia; and from the time
that Dr. Young deciphered the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone,
Egyptian hieroglyphics and picture-writing have been studied by
the learned of France, England, and Italy, and we have reason to
expect much new information from the more recent researches of
Professor Lepsius of Berlin. The Germans, indeed, have left few
subjects of ancient literature unexplored, even to the language
written at Babylon and Nineveh—the most successful attempt to
decipher which is due to a distinguished countryman of our own,
Colonel Rawlinson.
The press has overflowed with an unprecedented quantity of
literature, some of standard merit, and much more that is ephemeral,
suited to all ranks, on every subject, with the aim, in our
own country at least, to improve the people, and to advocate the
cause of morality and virtue. All this mental energy is but an
effect of those laws which regulate human affairs, and include in
their generality the various changes that tend to improve the condition
of man.
468The fine arts do not keep pace with science, though they have
not been altogether left behind. Painting, like poetry, must come
spontaneously, because a feeling for it depends upon innate sympathies
in the human breast. Nothing external could affect us,
unless there were corresponding ideas within; poetically constituted
minds of the highest organization are most deeply impressed
with whatever is excellent. All are not gifted with a strong perception
of the beautiful, in the same way as some persons cannot
see certain colours, or hear certain sounds. Those elevated sentiments
which constitute genius are given to few; yet something
akin, though inferior in degree, exists in most men. Consequently,
though culture may not inspire genius, it cherishes and calls forth
the natural perception of what is good and beautiful, and by that
means improves the tone of the national mind, and forms a counterpoise
to the all-absorbing useful and commercial.
Historical painting is successfully cultivated both in France and
Germany. The Germans have modelled their school on the true
style of the ancient masters. They have become their rivals in
richness and beauty of colouring, and are not surpassed in vividness
of imagination, nor in variety and sublimity of composition,
which is poetry of the highest order embodied. Sculpture and
architecture are also marked by that elevated and pure taste which
distinguish their other works of art.[200] French artists, following
in the same steps, have produced historical works of great merit.
Pictures of genre and scenes of domestic life have been painted
with much expression and beauty by our own artists; and British
landscapes, like some painted by German artists, are not mere portraits
of nature, but pictures of high poetical feeling, and the excellence
of their composition has been acknowledged all over Europe,
by the popularity of the engravings which illustrate many of our
modern books. The encouragement given to this branch of art at
home may be ascribed to the taste for a country life so general in
England. Water-colour painting, which is entirely of British
growth, has now become a favourite style in every country, and
is brought to the highest perfection in our own.
The Italians have had the merit of restoring sculpture to the
pure style which it had lost, and that gifted people have produced
some of the noblest specimens of modern art. The greatest genius
of his time left the snows of the far North to spend his days in
469Rome, the head-quarters of art; and our own sculptors of eminent
talents have established themselves in Rome, where they find a
more congenial spirit than in their own country, in which the compositions
of Flaxman were not appreciated till they had become
the admiration of Europe. Munich can boast of some of the finest
specimens of modern sculpture and architecture.
The Opera, one of the most refined of theatrical amusements in
every capital city in Europe, displays the excellence and power
of Italian melody, which has been transmitted from age to age by
a succession of great composers. German music, partaking of the
learned character of the nation, is rich in original harmony, which
requires a cultivated taste to understand and appreciate.
Italy is the only country that has had two poetical eras of the
highest order; and, great as the Latin period was, that of Dante
was more original and sublime. The Germans, so eminent in
every branch of literature, have also been great as poets; the
power of Goethe’s genius will render his poems as permanent as
the language in which they are written. France is, as it long has
been, the abode of the Comic Muse; and although that nation can
claim great poets of a more serious cast, yet the language and the
habits of the people are more suited to the gay than the grave style.
Though the British may have been inferior to other nations in
some branches of the fine arts, yet poetry, immeasurably the
greatest and most noble, redeems, and more than redeems us.
The nation that produced the poetry of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare
and Milton, with all the brilliant train, down nearly to the
present time, must ever hold a distinguished place, as an imaginative
people. Shakespeare alone would stamp a language with
immortality. The British novels stand high among works of imagination,
and they have generally had the merit of advancing the
cause of morality. Had French novelists attended more to this,
their knowledge of the human heart and the brilliancy of their
composition would have been more appreciated.
Poetry of the highest stamp has fled before the utilitarian spirit
of the age; yet there is as much talent in the world, and imagination
too, at the present time, as at any former period, though
directed to different and more important objects, because the whole
aspect of the moral world is altered. The period is come for one
of those important changes in the minds of men which occur from
time to time, and form great epochs in the history of the human
race. The whole of civilized Europe could not have been roused
to the enthusiasm which led them to embark in the Crusades by
the preaching of Peter the Hermit, unless the people had been
prepared for it: men were ready for the Reformation before the
impulse was given by Luther; and Pius IX. merely applied the
470match to a train already laid. These are the barometric storms of
the human mind.
The present state of transition has been imperceptibly in progress,
aided by many concurring circumstances, among which
the increasing intelligence of the lower orders, and steam-travelling,
have been the most efficient. The latter has assisted eminently
in the diffusion of knowledge, and has probably accelerated
the crisis of public affairs on the Continent, by giving the inhabitants
of different countries opportunities of intercourse, and comparing
their conditions. No invention that has been made for
ages has so levelling a tendency, which accords but too well with
the present disposition of the people. The spirit of emancipation,
so peculiarly characteristic of this century, appears in all
the relations of life, political and social. On the continent of
Europe it has shaken the whole fabric of society, subverted law
and order, and ruined thousands, in order to throw down the
crumbling remains of the feudal system. The same emancipating
spirit which has thrown young and old into a state of
insubordination and rebellion abroad, has been quietly but gradually
altering the relations of social and domestic life at home.
Parent and child no longer stand in the same relation to one
another; even at an early age boys assume the character and
independence of men, which may perhaps fit them sooner for
taking their share in the affairs of the world; for it must be
acknowledged that, whether from early independence or some
other cause, no country has produced more youthful and able
statesmen than our own; but, at the same time, it places them
on a less amicable and more dangerous position, by depriving
them of the advice and experience of the aged, to which the
same deference is no longer paid. The working man considers
his interest to be at variance with that of the manufacturer, and
the attachment of servants to their masters is nearly as extinct in
Britain as vassalage. Ambition, to a great extent, pervades the
inferior and middle grades of society, and so few are satisfied
with the condition in which they were born, that the pressure
upwards is enormous. The numerous instances of men rising
from an inferior rank to the highest offices in the State encourages
the endeavour to rise in society, which is right and natural, if
pursued by legitimate means, but the levelling disposition so
prevalent abroad is pernicious as it is impracticable. So long as
men are endowed with different dispositions and different talents,
so long will they differ in condition and fortune, and this is as
strongly marked in republics as in any other form of government;
for man, with all his attempts to liberate himself from
nature’s ordinances, by the establishment of equal laws and civil
rights, never can escape from them—inequality of condition is
471permanent as the human race. Hence, from necessity we must
fulfil the duties of the station in which we are placed, bearing in
mind that, while Christianity requires the poor to endure their
lot with patience, it imposes a heavy responsibility on the rich.
In Britain, respect for the labouring classes, together with
active benevolence, form the counterpoise to the evil propensities
of this state of transition; a benevolence which is not confined
to alms-giving, but which consists in the earnest desire to
contribute with energy to the sum of human happiness. In proportion
as that disposition is diffused among the higher classes,
and the more they can convince the lower orders that they have
an ardent desire to afford them every source of happiness and
comfort that is in their power, so much sooner will the transient
evils pass away, and an improved state of things will commence;
kindly and confiding feelings will then take the place of coldness
and mistrust.
The continual increase of that disinterested benevolence and
liberal sentiment, which in our own country is the most hopeful
and consoling feature of the age, manifests itself in the frequency
with which plans for ameliorating the condition of the lower
classes are brought before Parliament; in the societies formed
for their relief; and in the many institutions established for their
benefit and comfort.
Three of the most beneficial systems of modern times are due
to the benevolence of English ladies—the improvement of prison
discipline, savings-banks, and banks for lending small sums to the
poor. The success of all has exceeded every expectation, and
these admirable institutions are now adopted by several foreign
countries. The importance of popular and agricultural education
is becoming an object of attention to the more enlightened governments;
and one of the greatest improvements in education is,
that teachers are now fitted for their duties, by being taught the
art of teaching. The gentleness with which instruction is conveyed
no longer blights the joyous days of youth, but, on the contrary,
encourages self-education, which is the most efficient.
The system of infant-schools, established in many parts of
Europe and throughout the United States of America, is rapidly
improving the condition of the people. The instruction given in
them is suited to the station of the scholars, and the moral lessons
taught are often reflected back on the uneducated parents by their
children. Moreover, the personal intercourse with the higher
orders, and the kindness which the children receive from them,
strengthen the bond of reciprocal good feeling. Since the abolition
of the feudal system, the separation between the higher and
the lower classes of society has been increasing; but the generous
exertions of individuals, whose only object is to do good, is now
beginning to correct a tendency that, unchecked, might have led
472to the worst consequences to all ranks. We learn from statistical
reports that the pains taken by individuals and associations are
not without their effect upon the character of the nation. For
example, during the eleven years that preceded 1846, in which
the criminal returns indicated the intellectual condition of persons
accused, there were 31 counties in England and Wales in which
not one educated woman was called before a court of law, in a
population of 2,617,653 females.[201]
Crime has generally decreased in proportion to the religious and
moral education of the people: the improvement in the morality
of the factory-children is immense since Government appointed
inspectors to superintend their health and education;[202] and indeed
the improvement in the condition of the whole population appears
from the bills of mortality, which unquestionably prove that the
duration of human life is continually increasing throughout Great
Britain.[203]
The voluntary sacrifices that have been made to relieve the
necessities of a famishing nation evince the humane disposition
473of the age. But it is not one particular and extraordinary case, however
admirable, that marks the general progress—it is not in the earthquake
or the storm, but in the still small voice of consolation heard
in the cabin of the wretched, that is the prominent feature of the
charities of the present time, when the benevolent of all ranks
seek for distress in the abodes of poverty and vice, to aid and to
reform. No language can do justice to the merit of those who
devote themselves to the reformation of the children who have
hitherto wandered neglected in the streets of great cities; in the
unpromising task they have laboured with patience, undismayed
by difficulties that might have discouraged the most determined—but
they have had their reward, they have succeeded.[204] The
language of kindness and sympathy, never before heard by these
children of crime and wretchedness, is saving multitudes from
perdition. But it would require a volume to enumerate the exertions
that are making for the accommodation, health, and improvement
of the people, and the devotion of high and low to the
introduction of new establishments and the amelioration of the old.
Noble and liberal sentiments mark the proceedings of public assemblies,
whether in the cause of nations or of individuals, and the
severity of our penal laws is mitigated by a milder system. Happily
this liberal and benevolent spirit is not confined to Britain,
it is universal in the States of the American Union, and it is
spreading widely through the more civilized countries of Europe.
No retrograde movement can now take place in civilization;
the diffusion of Christian virtues and of knowledge ensures the
progressive advancement of man in those high moral and intellectual
qualities that constitute his true dignity. But much yet
remains to be done at home, especially in religious instruction
and the prevention of crime; and millions of our fellow-creatures
in both hemispheres are still in the lowest grade of barbarism.
Ages and ages must pass away before they can be civilized; but
if there be any analogy between the period of man’s duration on
earth and that of the frailest plant or shell-fish of the geological
periods, he must still be in his infancy; and let those who doubt
of his indefinite improvement compare the first revolution in France
with the last, or the state of Europe in the middle ages with what
it is at present. For, notwithstanding the disturbed condition of
the Continent, and the mistaken means the people employ to improve
their position, crime is less frequent and less atrocious than
it was in former times, and the universal indignation it now raises
is a strong indication of improvement. In our own country, men
474who seem to have lived before their time were formerly prosecuted
and punished for opinions which are now sanctioned by the legislature,
and acknowledged by all. The moral disposition of the
age appears in the refinement of conversation. Selfishness and
evil passions may possibly ever be found in the human breast,
but the progress of the race will consist in the increasing power
of public opinion, the collective voice of mankind regulated by
the Christian principles of morality and justice. The individuality
of man modifies his opinions and belief; it is a part of that variety
which is a universal law of nature; so that there will probably
always be a difference of views as to religious doctrine, which,
however, will become more spiritual, and freer from the taint of
human infirmity; but the power of the Christian religion will
appear in purer conduct, and in the more general practice of
mutual forbearance, charity, and love.
APPENDIX. — EUROPE. — ASIA. — AFRICA, AND ISLANDS IN THE ATLANTIC. — AMERICA. — ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC, POLYNESIA, AUSTRALASIA, &c. — LAKES AND INLAND SEAS. — HEIGHTS OF SOME REMARKABLE INHABITED PLACES.
475
Table of the Heights above the Sea of some of the Principal Mountain Chains.
Abyssi´nica. Lat. Abyssinian; belonging or relating to Abyssinia.
Aca´cia. Gr. ake, a point, and akios, not subject to worms: a thorny tree.
A genus of the family Leguminósæ and order Mimósæ. About 300
species are enumerated; many of them yield gum.
Aca´cia ara´bica. Arabian acacia.
Aca´cias. Trees belonging to the genus acacia.
A´cid. A term given by chemists to those compound bodies which unite
with salifiable bases to form salts: for example, a compound of sulphur
and oxygen, called sulphuric acid, unites with magnesia and forms a
salt named sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salts.
Aci´dulous. Sourish; possessing acid properties.
Acrocho´rdi. Lat.: plural of acrochordus.
Acrocho´rdus. From the Greek akrochordon, a wart. A genus of non-venemous
ophidians, whose bodies are entirely covered by scales resembling
warts: these scales, or rather squamous tubercles, are small,
numerous, rhomboidal, and surmounted by a small horn or point, more
or less sharp.
Adanso´nia. A genus of plants named in honor of Michel Adanson, a
famous French botanist, born in 1727. Adanso´nia digita´ta. Sour gourd.
Monkeys’ bread or Baobab tree of Senegal, which is considered the largest
or rather the broadest tree in the world. “Several measured by Adanson,
were from sixty-eight to seventy-eight feet in circumference, but not extraordinarily
high. The trunks were from twelve to fifteen feet high, before
they divided into many horizontal branches, which touched the ground at
their extremities; these were from forty-five to fifty-five feet long, and were
so large that each branch was equal to a monstrous tree; and where the
water of a neighboring river had washed away the earth, so as to leave
the roots of one of these trees bare and open to the sight, they measured
110 feet long, without including those parts of the roots which remained
covered. It yields a fruit which resembles a gourd, and which serves for
vessels of various uses; the bark furnishes a coarse thread, which they
form into ropes, and into cloth with which the natives cover their middle
from the girdle to the knees; the small leaves supply them with food in
time of scarcity, while the large ones are used for covering their houses,
or, by burning, for the manufacture of good soap. At Sierra Leone this
tree does not grow larger than an orchard apple tree.” Loudon.
A´dit. Lat. adeo, I approach. A horizontal shaft or passage in a mine,
either for access, or for carrying off water.
Africa´nus. Lat. African; belonging or relating to Africa.
Agallo´chum. From the Gr. aggalomai, to become splendid. A resinous,
aromatic wood, burned by the Chinese and Japanese for the sake of its
agreeable odour, from the Excæca´ria aggallo´cha. Aloes wood.
488A´gamous. From the Gr. a, privative, and gamos, marriage. Having no sex.
A´gate. A name given to all varieties of quartz which have not a vitreous
aspect; are compact, semi-transparent, and whose fracture resembles
that of wax. Agates are of various colors and admit of a fine polish.
According to Theophrastes and Pliny, the name comes from the river
Achates in Sicily, now the Drillo, on the banks of which the first agates
were found.
Agla´ia. From the Gr. Aglaia, beauty, elegance. A genus of plants, trees
or shrubs, of which there are five or six species in the Island of Java.
The odora´ta is one.
A´gua. Spanish. Water.
Aira. From the Gr. aira, a tare, cockle weed. A genus of the family of
Gramíneæ, or grasses, of the tribe of Avenáceæ. Hair-grass. A. antarctica.
Antarctic hair-grass.
Air-plants. A name given to certain parasitic plants which were supposed
to be nourished by the air alone, without contact with the soil.
There are some species which will live many months suspended by a
string in a warm apartment.
Alba, Albus, Album,
Lat. White.
Albi´no. Spanish. From the Lat. albus, white. Applied to individuals of
the human race, (and extended also to some other animals), who have
white hair; the iris, pinkish or very pale; and the eyes unable to bear
much light. Albinos are most frequent in the negro race; but it does not
seem to be true that there are tribes of Albinos in any part of the world.
Al´bumen. From the Lat. albus, white. A chemical term, applied to an
immediate organic principle, which constitutes the chief part of the
white of egg. Animal and vegetable albumen are nearly the same in composition.
Al´caline. Having properties of an alkali.
Alchemi´llas or Alchemi´lla. Arabic. A genus of plants of the family
Rosáceæ. The A. vulgaris, common ladies’ mantle.
A´lga. Lat. Sea-weed.
A´lgæ. Plural of alga. Name of a sub-class of crytógamous plants, which
is subdivided into three families: the Phy´ceæ, or submerged sea-weeds;
the Lichens, or emerged sea-weed, and the Byssa´ceæ, or amphibious sea-weeds.
The algæ or sea-weeds are ágamous plants which live in the air,
on the surface or at the bottom of fresh or salt water; they are remarkable
for their cellular or filamentous structure into which no vessels enter.
Alha´gi. Arabic. Genus of plants of the family of Leguminósæ. The
alhagi maurorum grows in the deserts of Egypt; a sweet, gummy substance
exudes from the bark in form of small yellowish grains, which,
it appears, was the manna the Hebrews ate while in the deserts of Arabia
Petria.
Al´kali or AL´CALI. A chemical term formerly applied to potash and soda:
it now embraces the oxides of potassium, sodium, lithium, barium, strontium
and calcium, metals which decompose water at ordinary temperatures
and absorb, that is, combine with its oxygen, giving out heat and
flame.
A´loe. Name of a genus of plants which includes very many species. The
inspissated juice of several of these species constitutes the varieties of the
medicine called Soccotrine, Barbadoes aloes, &c.
Allu´vial. Of the nature of alluvium.
489
Allu´vion, Alluvium,
From the Lat. alluo, I wash upon. Gravel,
sand, mud and other transported matter, washed down
by rivers and floods upon lands not permanently submerged beneath
water. A deposit formed of transported matter.
Alpi´num, Alpi´nus,
Lat. Alpine; belonging or relating to the Alps.
Alu´minum or Alumi´nium. From alu´men, alum. The mettaloid which
forms the basis of alum; of alumina or pure argil.
Amary´llis. From the Gr. amarusso, to be resplendent. A nymph in
ancient mythology. Name of a genus of plants, forming the type of
the family of Amaryllídeæ, composed of about sixty species. Generally
they are bulbous plants, remarkable for the size and beauty of their
flowers.
Amblyrhi´nchus. From the Gr. amblus, obtuse, and rugchos, snout. Name
of a genus of iguanian reptiles.
A´methyst. From the Gr. amithustos, not drunk. The ancients gave this
name to a stone in which the wine red colour was tempered with violet.
A violet variety of hyaline quartz.
Ammo´nia. A colourlous gas of a peculiar, pungent odour. It causes death
when respired; and its strong alcaline reaction distinguishes it from all
other elastic fluids. It is liberated from all its chemical combinations by
the alkalis. Spirits of hartshorn is a solution of this gas.
Ammoni´acal. Of the nature of ammonia.
Am´monite. From the Lat. Ammon, a name of Jupiter. A fossil so called
from a supposed resemblance to the horns engraven on the heads of
Jupiter Ammon. In certain parts of England called snake-stones. Ammonites
are fossil shells, rolled upon the same plane, consisting of a
series of separate chambers, like the nautilus.
Amor´phous. From the Gr. a, privative, and morphe, form. Without definite
or regular shape.
Ampe´lidæ. Lat. (ampelis), name of a family of birds in the tribe of dentiróstres.
Ampeli´deæ. From the Gr. ampelos, a vine. Name of the family of Phanerógamous
plants, which includes the vine.
Amphi´bious. From the Gr. amphibios, two-lived. Having the faculty of
living in two elements.
Amphiu´ma. From the Gr. amphi, both, on all sides, and uma, that which
has been moistened. A genus of Batrachians in which lungs but no
bronchiæ exist through life. Amphiu´ma menop´oma. A kind of Batrachian
which resembles the Salamander. It is found in Louisiana.
A´mplitude. In astronomy denotes the angular distance of a celestial body,
at the time it rises or sets, from the east or west points of the horizon. It
is sometimes used to designate the horizontal distance a projectile reaches
when thrown from a gun.
Amy´ris. From the Gr. amuros, not perfumed. A genus of phanerógamous
plants, which is the type of the family of Amyri´deæ which is allied to the
family of turpentines. Amy´ris gileade´nsis. The Balm of Gilead. Amy´ris
kataf. The myrrh tree. Amy´ris opoba´lsamum. The opobalsam, or balsam
of Mecca.
Ana´nas. Portuguese. Pine-apple. Genus of the family Bromeliáceæ, and
type of the tribe Ananáceæ.
Andro´meda. Mythological name of a constellation. Genus of the family
Ericáceæ, and type of the tribe Andromédeæ or Andromedas.
490Ange´lica archenge´lica. Garden Angelica. Root and seeds used in medicine
as an aromatic stimulant.
Angui´nus. Lat. Of the nature of a snake; belonging or relating to a
snake.
Ane´roid Baro´meter. Consists of a cylinder of copper with a very thin
and corrugated end, partially exhausted of air and hermetically sealed.
The effect of the varying pressure of the atmosphere on the thin end is
magnified by a system of levers, so as to affect the index of a dial like
that of a watch or clock. This is a French invention, but was patented
in England, in the year 1844. See Barómeter.
Anima´lcula. Lat. Animalcule.
Anima´lculæ. Lat. plural of Animálcula.
Anima´lcule. A diminutive animal. A term used to designate animals so
small that they cannot be seen by the unassisted eye.
Anisa´tum. Lat. Belonging or relating to aniseed. Specific name of the
tree which produces star-aniseed.
Ano´lis. A kind of Saurian, called anoli in the Antilles. Also called, long-toed
lizard, or dactyloa.
An´nual. From the Lat. annus, a year. Yearly. A plant which rises from
the seed, reaches perfection, and perishes within a year, is termed an
annual.
Anta´rctica. Lat. Antarctic.
Antelope monta´na. Mountain Antelope. A. rupicapra. Chamois. A.
cervicapra. Common antelope. A. dorcas. Gazelle. A. gazella. Algazel.
A. mhorr. Mhorr.
A´nther. From the Gr. anthera, a flowery herb. In botany: the essential
part of the stamen. The small yellowish body, compared to a diminutive
leaf folded on itself, which crowns the stamen, and in which the pollen is
formed.
Antiquo´rum. Lat. Of the ancients.
A´phis. Gr. A plant-louse; a vine-fretter.
A´phides. Plural of aphis.
Apocy´neæ. From the Gr. apo, far from, and knon, dog. Having the virtue
of driving away dogs, the plant which kills dogs. Botanical name of a
family of plants of which the genus apo´cynum is the type.
A´ptenody´tes. From the Gr. apten, without wings, and dutes, diver. A genus
of birds. A´ptenody´tes patagonica. A species of Penguin.
A´pteryx. From the Gr. apteros, without wings. Name of a genus of birds.
Aqueous rocks. Are those formed by deposits from water.
Aquila. Lat. An eagle. Aquila albicilla. The fishing eagle.
Arauca´ria. From Arauco. Name of a department or district of Chile
where the first species was seen. Name of a genus of the family of
conifers. Arauca´ria excelsa. The Norfolk Island pine.
Arbu´tus. Lat. A shrub. A genus of plants.
Arctoce´phalus. From the Gr. arktos, a bear, kephale, head. Name of a
genus of mammals.
Arde´a. Lat. A Heron. Name of a genus of birds. Arde´a helias. The
Sun Bird.
A´rea of subsidence. A geological expression used to designate a space
which has settled.
Are´ca. Cabbage-tree. A genus of plants of the family of Palmæ. Are´ca
catechu. The medicinal or betel-nut palm.
Arena´ceous. From the Lat. arena, sand. Sandy; of the nature of sand.
Argen´teum. Lat. Silvery; relating to silver.
491Argenti´ferous. From the Lat. argentum, silver, and fero, I bear. Containing
silver.
Argilla´ceous. From the Lat. argilla, clay or argil. Of the nature of clay.
Argonau´ta. Lat. From the Gr. argo, name of a vessel, and nautes, a navigator.
Name of a genus of cephalopódous mollusks.
Armadi´llo. Spanish. Diminutive of armado, armed. Name of a mammal
of the family of edentáta or edentates.
Aroma´ticus. Lat. Aromatic; spicy.
Ar´senic. A metal of a shining, steel gray colour. Heated in contact with
atmospheric air, it rapidly absorbs oxygen, and forms arsenious acid, which
is the poison commonly called arsenic, or rat’s bane. Arsenic is found in
its metallic state, in the form oxide or arsenious acid, or white arsenic;
and combined with sulphur, forming orpiment, and realgar.
Arteme´siæ. Artemesias.
A tribe of plants, of which the genus Artemésia is the type.
Many of them are used in medicine.
Arte´sian. From Artois, name of a province of France where especial
attention has been given to a means of obtaining water, which consists
in boring vertical perforations of small diameter in the exterior crust of
the earth, frequently of great depth. These are termed Artesian wells.
Articula´ta. Lat. From articulus, a joint or articulation. Having joints
or articulations.
Ascle´pias. A name of Esculapius. A genus of phanerógamous plants.
Ascle´pias giga´ntea. Mudar of the Hindoos. The milky juice is very caustic;
the bark of the root as well as the juice are used in medicine by the
Asiatics.
Asphalt. Asphaltum.
From the Gr. a, privative, and sphalto,
I slip, or asphaltos, bitumen. Used anciently
as a cement. A black brittle bitumen, found on the surface and banks of the
Dead Sea, hence called the Asphaltic lake.
Asphode´leæ. Name of a family of phanerógamous plants.
Assi´milate. From the Lat. ad, and similare, to render similar. Assimilation
is the act by which living bodies appropriate and transform into their
own substance, matters with which they may be placed in contact. In
man, assimilation is a function of nutrition.
Asple´niifo´lia. Compound of asplenium, a genus of ferns, and folia, leaves.
Having leaves resembling those of the asplénium.
A´ster. From the Gr. aster, a star. A name given to the plant by the
Greeks in allusion to the radiate form of the flowers. Name of a genus
of plants which forms the type of the asteroides or asters—literally, star-flowers.
Astra´gali. Lat. plural of Astragalus.
Astra´galus. Lat. Name of a genus of phanerógamous plants of the
family of leguminósæ.
Atoll. A chaplet or ring of coral, enclosing a lagoon or portion of the
ocean in its centre.
Aucu´ba. Auku´ba.
A genus of plants of the family of Rhamnoides. There
is but one species, which grows in Japan. Aucuba
Japonica.
Auche´nia. From the Gr. auchenios, belonging to the head or neck. Lat.
name of a genus of mammals, the Llama. Also, a genus of coleópterous
insects.
Auri´cula. Lat. Little ear. A genus of phanerógamous plants of the
family of Primuláceæ.
Auri´ferous. From the Lat. aurum, gold, and fero, I bear. Gold-bearing
containing gold.
492Aurochs. An alteration of the German Auerochs, wild-bull. Their race
is now almost extinct; a few individuals are found in the forests of
Lithuania, &c.
Austra´le. Austra´lis.
Lat. Belonging or relating to the south.
Aza´læa. From the Gr. azalea, burned. A genus of phanerógamous plants
of the family of Ericáceæ.
Aze´darach. From the Arab. Azadaracht, a name given by Avicenna to a
plant.
Azote. Azotic gas.
From the Gr. a, privative and zo´on,
life. The name given by chemists to a gas, now also
called nitrogen, which will support neither respiration nor combustion.
It constitutes seventy-nine per cent. of the atmosphere, and enters into
the composition of all animal matter, except fatty substances, and into a
certain number of proximate vegetable principles.
Baccife´rum. Lat. Compound of bacca, a berry, and fero, I bear. Berry-bearing.
Specific name of a plant.
Balance of torsion, or TORSION BALANCE. A machine invented by Coulomb
for measuring the intensities of electric or magnetic forces, by establishing
an equilibrium between them and the force of torsion.
Balæ´na. Lat. A whale. Name of a genus of mammals, belonging to the
order Cetácea. Balæ´na mystece´tus. The common whale. Balæ´nu gibbosa.
A kind of whale which has five or six protuberances on its back.
Ban´ksia. A genus of phanerógamous plants of the family of Proteáceæ.
Bao´bab. See Adansonia.
Ba´rium. From the Gr. barus, heavy. A metal obtained from barytes by
Sir H. Davy.
Barometer. From the Gr. baros, weight, and metron, a measure. An instrument
for measuring the weight of atmospheric air.
Barometric. Barometrical.
Belonging, or relating to the barometer.
Barringto´nia. A genus of phanerógamous plants of the family of Myrtáceæ,
and the type of the tribe of Barringtóniæ.
Ba´salt. An Ethiopian word. A black or bluish gray rock, harder than
glass, very tenacious, and consequently difficult to break: it is homogenous
in appearance although essentially composed of pyroxene and
feldspar, with a large proportion of oxide of iron or titanium. Basalt is
considered by all geologists to be a product of igneous formation.
Basa´ltic. Belonging or relating to basalt.
Batra´hcian. From the Gr. batrachos, a frog. The name given by naturalists
to those reptiles which resemble frogs in their organization. Batrahcians
form the fourth order in the class of Reptiles.
Beaufo´rtia. Name of a genus of the family of Myrtáceæ, named in honor
of Mary, the Duchess of Beaufort, who encouraged the study of Botany.
Belem´nites. From the Gr. belemnon, a dart. A genus of fossil dibranchiate
cephalopods, the shells of which are chambered and perforated by a
siphon, but internal. They are long, straight and conical; and commonly
called “thunder stones.”
Benjami´na. Lat. Benjamin. A genus of plants; also the specific name
of a plant.
Berni´cla. Generic name of a kind of goose, having a short beak. Berni´cla
cyana´ptera. The goose of Shoa.
493Ber´yl. A mineral allied to the emerald. It is transparent, of a pale green
colour, and in Brazil it is sometimes sold under the name of emerald.
Bete´l. The leaf of the betel or Siriboa pepper.
Be´tula. Lat. Birch. Name of a genus of plants. Be´tula nana. Dwarf
birch.
Betulöides. From betula, a birch-tree, the Gr. eidos, resemblance. Specific
name of a plant.
Bigno´nia. A genus of plants named in honor of the Abbey Bignon, the
Librarian of Louis XIV.
Bis´muth. From the Germ. Wismuth. A brittle, yellowish white metal.
Bi´tumen. A combustible mineral, composed of carbon, hydrogen and
oxygen.
Bixa Orleana. A plant which produces a colouring matter, called annotto.
Boa. Name of a genus of non-venemous reptiles.
Bohea. Specific name of a tea-plant.
Bombax. From bombux, one of the Greek names of cotton. A genus of
plants of the family Malváceæ. Bombax heptaphyllum. A kind of cotton-tree.
Bombax ceiba. The cotton-wood tree, much valued for making
canoes.
Bonduc. A synonym of the Guilandina. Specific name of a plant.
Bora´cic acid. An acid obtained from borax, consisting of boron and
oxygen.
Bora´ssus. From the Gr. borassos, a date. A genus of the family of Palms.
Borassus flabelliformus. The fan-leaved palm.
Bo´rate. The salt resulting from a combination of boracic acid and a
salifiable base, as the borate of soda.
Bo´rax. Tinkal. A natural compound of soda and boracic acid.
Boron. A simple or undecomposable substance, the basis of boracic acid
and borax.
Bori´chthys. From the Fr. borgne, one-eyed or blind, and the Gr. ichthus, a
fish.
Borragi´niæ. Name given by Jussieu to a group of plants.
Borrer´ia. From Borrera, name of a man. A genus of phanerógamous
plants of the family of Rubiáceæ.
Boswe´llia. A genus named in honor of Dr. John Boswell. Boswellia serrata.
The olibanum tree.
Botany. From the Gr. botane, plant. The branch of natural history which
embraces the knowledge and study of plants.
Botanic. Belonging or relating to botany.
Bos. Lat. An ox. A genus of ruminating mammals, embracing several
species. Bos aurus. The Urus. Bos caffer. Cape buffalo. Bos bubalus.
Common buffalo. Bos Americanus. The Bison. Bos moschatus. The
Musk ox. Bos gruniens. The Yak.
Boulders, or Bowlders. Rounded masses of stone lying upon the surface
or loosely imbedded in the soil.
Boulder formation, or Erratic block formation. A geological term applied
to a part of the diluvial drift. See Ruschenberger’s Natural History.
Brac´teæ. Lat. Bracts. Floral leaves, different in colour from other
leaves.
Bras´sica. Lat. Cabbage.
Breccia. Italian. A rock composed of an agglutination of angular fragments.
When the fragments are rolled pebbles, it constitutes a conglomerate
rock, called pudding stone.
Brevise´tum. Lat. Brevis, short, and setum, a bristle. A specific name.
494Brexia. From the Gr. brexis, rain: in allusion to the protection from rain
afforded by its ample foliage. A genus of plants of the family of Brexiáceæ.
Bubo. Lat. An owl. A specific as well as generic name. Bubo maximus.
A kind of owl.
Bu´fo. Lat. A toad. Bufo Agua. A Brazilian toad.
Bupha´ga. Lat. From the Gr. bous, an ox, and phago, I eat. A genus of
birds, which includes the African beef-eater.
Bursa. Lat. A sack, a purse or pouch.
Bu´tea. A genus of the family of Papillionáceæ, named in honor of John,
Count of Bute, a cultivator of botanic science. Butea frondosa yields a
gum (butea) which has been confounded with Kino.
Cac´ti. Lat. Plural of cactus.
Cac´tus. From the Gr. kaktos, spiny plant. Name of a genus of the family
of Cactáceæ. Cactus coccine´llifer. The cochineal cactus. Cactus opuntia.
Indian fig.
Caca´lia. Name of a genus of phanerógamous plants of the family of Compósitæ.
Several species are useful as condiments.
Cachalot, or Cachelot. Fr. Name of the spermaceti whale. Used to designate
a variety of the order of cetáceans, which has teeth in both jaws.
Coccine´llifer. From coccinella (the diminutive of the Lat. coccinus, crimson,)
a genus of coleopterous insects, and fero, I bear. A specific name.
Cad´mium. A white metal, much like tin. Its ores are associated with
those of zinc. Discovered in 1818.
Ca´ducous. From the Lat. cado, I fall. In Botany when a part is temporary,
and soon disappears or falls off, it is said to be caducous.
Cæci´liæ. From the Lat. cæcus, blind. A tribe of Batrachians.
Cæespito´sa. Lat. From cæspes, turf or sod. Belonging or relating to turf.
Cafeine. Fr. In chemistry the name of the proximate principle of coffee.
Cajapute, Cajaputa,
A Malay name for a greenish, volatile oil used as a remedy in rheumatism, &c.
Ca´lamus. A genus of phanerógamous plants of the family of Palms. Ca´lamus
draco. An East Indian plant which yields an astringent substance
called Dragon’s blood. Ca´lamus rotan The rattan plant.
Calca´reous. From the Lat. calx, calcis, lime. Belonging to or relating to
lime. Calcareous rocks are those of which lime forms a principal part.
Calceola´ria. From the Lat. calceolus, a little shoe. A remarkable genus
of phanerógamous plants of the family of Scrophulariáceæ.
Cal´cium. From the Lat. calx, calcis, lime. A metal discovered by Sir H.
Davy in 1807, which united with oxygen forms oxide of calcium or lime.
Callitri´che. From the Gr. kallithrix, having luxuriant hair. A genus of
aquatic plants. Also the name of a genus of American monkeys.
Calo´ric. From the Lat. caleo, I am warm. The term used by chemists to
designate the matter of heat.
Calori´fic. Belonging or relating to caloric.
Calyca´nthus. From the Gr. kalux, a calyx, and anthos, flower. A genus
of the family of Calycantháceæ.
Calyp´tomene. From the Gr. kaluptos, concealed, and meno, I remain. Name
of a genus of birds.
Cam´brian system. From Cambria in Wales. A name given by geologists
to the lowest sedimentary rocks, characterized by fossil remains of
animals, lowest in the scale of organization, such as corallines, &c. It is
also called the Schistose system, on account of its slaty nature.
495Camel´lia. A genus of the family of Aurantiáceæ, named in honor of
Kamel, a botanist. It contains the tea plants. Came´llia sasanqua. Lady
Bank’s Camellia. Came´llia odorifera. Sweet smelling Camellia.
Campa´nula. From the Lat. campana, a bell, from the shape of its corolla.
A genus of phanerógamous plants of the family of Campanuláceæ, of
which it is the type. 182 species are described.
Camphorósma. From the Lat. camphora, camphor, and the Gr. osme, odour.
A genus of plants of the family of Chenopodáceæ.
Campho´ra. Lat. Camphor. Belonging or relating to camphor.
Canarie´nsis. Lat. Belonging or relating to the Canary islands.
Candela´brum. Lat. A candlestick.
Ca´nine. From the Lat. canis, a dog. Teeth which resemble those of a
dog are so called; the canine teeth of the upper jaw in man are commonly
called the eye-teeth.
Caou´tchouc. Gum elastic; India-rubber, a substance obtained from the
Jatropha elastica, the Ficus indica and the Urceola elastica.
Cape´nsis. Lat. Belonging or relating to the Cape of Good Hope.
Caraga´na. A genus of plants of the family of Papilionáceæ.
Car´bon. From the Lat. carbo, charcoal. A chemical element or undecomposed
body. The diamond is pure carbon. It is the basis of anthracite,
and of all the varieties of mineral coal, and is one of the principal constituents
of all organic bodies.
Carbo´nic acid. A compound of carbon and oxygen.
Car´bonate. Any compound of carbonic acid and a salifiable base, as
carbonate of lime, carbonate of soda.
Carboni´ferous. From the Lat. carbo, coal, fero, I bear, coal-bearing; containing
carbon. In geology the term is applied to those strata which contain
coal, and to the period when the coal measures were formed.
Cardamine. Gr. Name of a plant. A genus of the family of crucíferæ.
Lady’s smock. Cardamine hirsuta. Hairy Cardamine.
Cardui. Lat. Genitive case of carduus, a thistle. Specific name of a
butterfly.
Carni´vora. From the Lat. caro, carnis, flesh, and voro, I eat. Name of a
family of Mammals.
Cartila´ginous fishes. A term used to designate that division of the class
of fishes which includes only those having cartilaginous instead of bony
skeletons.
Caryo´phyllus. Lat. A garden pink. A genus of plants of the family of
caryophy´lleæ. Caryo´phyllus aroma´ticus. The clove-tree.
Caryo´ta. A genus of Palms of equatorial Asia. The caryota urens derives
its specific name from a burning sensation its fruit imparts when eaten.
Ca´spia. Lat. Belonging or relating to the Caspian Sea.
Cas´sia. From the Gr. kassia, cinnamon. A genus of plants of the family
of Papilionáceæ. The genus contains more than 300 species.
Ca´stanospe´rrnum. From the Gr. kastanon, chestnut, and sperma, fruit. A
genus of the family of Papilionáceæ.
Casuari´næ. A family of plants separated from that of the cónifers. The
casuari´næ are found in New Holland, and in India, and are remarkable
for the absence of leaves.
Cata´lpa. A genus of plants of the family of the Bignoniáceæ.
Cat´echu. An astringent extract, used in medicine.
Cat’s eye. A beautiful silicious mineral, penetrated by fibres of asbestos,
which, when polished, reflects an effulgent, pearly light, much resembling
the mutable reflections from the eye of a cat.
496Caule´rpa. From the Gr. kaulos, a stem, and erpo, I creep. A genus of algæ
of the family of Zoosper´meæ. There are about 35 species of caulérpa,
which inhabit equatorial seas. The caule´rpa proli´fera belongs to the Mediterranean.
Ca´via. Genus of mammals of the family of rodents, including the guinea-pig.
Ce´bus. Lat. Name of a genus of monkeys; the marmoset.
Cecro´pis. A genus of birds.
Cedre´la. Genus of plants of the family of Cedreláceæ.
Cei´ba. Synonym of Bombax, cotton. Specific name of a kind of cotton.
Centa´urea. A genus of plants of the family of Synanthéreæ Cyanáreæ
and type of the tribe of Centaúrieæ.
Cerati´tes. From the Gr. keratetes, horned. A generic name of certain
insects.
Cerato´des. From the Gr. keratodes, formed of horns. A genus of mollusks.
Cer´eal. From the Lat. Ceres, corn. Applied to grasses which produce the
bread corns; as wheat, rye, barley, oats, rice, &c.
Cerea´lia. Lat. Name of a tribe of grasses.
Cereo´psis. From the Gr. keros, wax, and opsis, aspect. A genus of birds of
the order of palmípedes and family of lamelliróstres. It is marked by a
wax-like membrane on the beak. Cereopsis striata. A kind of goose.
Ce´rium. Named after the planet Ceres. A white brittle metal discovered
in 1803, by Hisinger and Berzelius.
Cer´thia. Latin. Name of a genus of passerine birds, commonly called
creepers.
Cer´vus. Latin. A stag. A genus of mammals.
Ceta´cea. From the Gr. ketos, a whale. A genus of pisciform mammals
that have fins in place of feet, and inhabit the sea. Name of an order of
aquatic mammals.
Chalk. Earthy carbonate of lime.
Chambered shells. A term used to designate those shells of mollusks
which are divided internally into cells or chambers by partitions.
Cham´ærops. From the Gr. chamai, on the ground, and rops, a brush. Name
of a genus of palms. Chamærops humilis. The dwarf fan palm.
Cheiro´ptera. From the Gr. cheir, hand, and pteron, a wing; signifying the
hand has become a wing. Name of a family of mammals, including the
bats.
Cheiros´temon. From the Gr. cheir, hand, and stemon, filament. A genus
of plants of the family of Sterculiáceæ, and tribe of bombáceæ.
Chelo´nian. From the Gr. chelone, a tortoise. Applied to reptiles resembling
tortoises.
Chel´ydæ. From the Gr. chelus, a tortoise. A tribe of reptiles of the family
Emy´des.
Chlam´yphore. From the Gr. chlamus, a cloak, and phero, I bear. A genus
of mammals of the tribe of armadillos.
Chlena´ceæ. From the Gr. chlaina, a cloak. A tribe of plants, native in
Madagascar.
Chloa´nthes. From the Gr. chloros, greenish yellow, and anthos, flower. A
genus of plants of the family of chloantháceæ.
Chlori´tic. From the Gr. chloros, green. Belonging or relating to chlorite,
an earthy mineral found in the cavities of slate rocks.
Chrome, Chro´mium. From the Gr. chroma, colour. A whitish brittle metal,
discovered by Vauquelin in 1797. In union with oxygen it forms chromic
acid.
497Cichora´ceæ. From the Gr. kichore, chichory. A tribe of plants of the
family of Compósitæ.
Ci´rri. Plural of cirrus.
Ci´rro-cumulus. A sondercloud; a kind of cloud. The cirro-cumulus is
intermediate between the cirrus and cumulus, and is composed of small
well defined masses closely arranged.
Ci´rro-stratus. A wanecloud. The cirro-stratus, intermediate between
the cirrus and stratus, consists of horizontal masses separated into groups,
with which the sky is sometimes so mottled as to suggest the idea of resemblance
to the back of a mackerel.
Ci´rrus. Lat. A tendril. A kind of cloud. Applied to certain appendages
of animals; as the beard from the end and sides of the mouth of
certain fishes. The cirrus cloud consists of fibres or curling streaks
which diverge in all directions. It occupies the highest region, and is
frequently the first cloud which is seen after a continuance of clear weather.
Ci´stus. A genus of plants of the family of cistáceæ.
Cla´rkia. Proper name. A genus of plants of the tribe of epilóbiæ.
Clay-slate. A rock which resembles clay or shale, but is generally distinguished
by its structure; the particles having been re-arranged, and
exhibiting what is called slaty cleavage. It is one of the metamorphic
rocks.
Clayto´nia. A genus of plants of the family of Portuláceæ-calandríneæ.
Cleavage. The mechanical division, the laminæ of rocks and minerals, to
show the constant direction in which they may be separated.
Clerode´ndron. From the Gr. kleros, accident, and dendron, tree. In allusion
to its accidental effects in medicine. A genus of plants of the family
of Verbenáceæ-Lantáneæ.
Coal measures. The geological formation in which coal is found.
Co´balt. From the Germ. kobold, a devil, A brittle metal of a reddish gray
colour. Its ores are always associated with arsenic.
Cobra capello. Portu. cobra, snake, and capello, a cawl or hood. Hood
snake, a venomous serpent.
Coca. Quechua or aboriginal Peruvian word. Specific name of the genus
Erythróxylum.
Coccine´lla. From the Gr. kokkinos, scarlet. A genus of coleopt´erous insects:
commonly called Lady birds.
Coc´cus. From the Gr. kokkos, a seed which dyes scarlet. A genus of insects
of the order Hemíp´tera. Coccus lacca. A species of cochineal insect.
Coccus ilicus. Green oak cochineal.
Co´cos. Gr. A genus of palms; the cocoanut. Cocos olera´cia. The oil cocoanut.
Codi´um. From the Gr. kodion, a fleece. A genus of plants of the tribe
siphóneæ. Codium bursa and Codium flabelliforme are species.
Colo´bus. From the Gr. kolobos, mutilated. A genus of monkeys which belong
to the old world. Colobus comosus. A hairy monkey.
Colu´briform. From the Lat. coluber, a serpent, an adder, and forma, shape.
Adder-shape.
Colum´ba. Lat. A pigeon. A genus of birds. Columba migrato´ria. Wild
pigeon.
Colum´bium. A metal discovered in a mineral found in Massachusetts by
Mr. Hachett, in 1801.
Colu´mnar. In the form of columns.
498Combu´stion. The combination of two bodies accompanied by the extrication
of heat and light. When a body rapidly combines with oxygen, for
example, with a disengagement of heat and light, it is said to undergo
combustion.
Comparative Anatomy. The comparative study of the various parts of
the bodies of different animals.
Compo´site. A family of monopetalous plants.
Conductor. Those substances which possess the property of transferring
caloric or heat, and electricity, are termed conductors of heat or caloric,
and conductors of electricity.
Confe´rvæ. Tribe of plants of the family of Zóospérmeæ. It includes many
sea-weeds.
Con´gener. From the Lat. con, with, and genus, race. Species belonging
to the same genus, are termed congeners.
Conglo´merate. From the Lat. conglomero, I heap together. Any rock composed
of pebbles cemented together by another mineral substance, either
calcareous, silicious or argillaceous.
Co´nifer. From the Lat. conus, a cone, and fero, I bear. A tree or plant
which bears cones, such as pines, fir-trees, &c.
Coni´feræ. A family of plants which includes the conifers.
Co´ral. From the Gr. koreo, I ornament, and als, the sea. The hard calcareous
support formed by certain polypi.
Cora´lline. Belonging or relating to coral.
Coralli´neæ. The corallines, a tribe of calciferous polypi.
Coreo´psis. From the Gr. koris, a bug, and opsis, aspect. A genus of plants.
Cor´dia. A genus of plants of the family of Cordiáceæ. It contains about
150 species.
Coria´ceous. From the Lat. corium, the hide of a beast. Leathery.
Coro´na. Lat. A crown. A genus of plants.
Coro´næ. Plural of corona.
Coru´ndum. A crystallized or massive mineral of extreme hardness, almost
opaque, and of a reddish colour. It is allied to the sapphire, and is composed
of nearly pure alúmina.
Cot´tus. A genus of fishes.
Coty´ledon. From the Gr. katuledon, a seed-lobe.
Cotyle´donous. Belonging or relating to a cotyledon or seed lobe.
Cra´ter. Lat. A great cup or bowl. The mouth of a volcano.
Crate´riform. In form of a crater.
Crateri´ferous. Containing craters.
Creta´ceous. From the Lat. creta, chalk. Of the nature of chalk, relating
to chalk.
Crinoi´deæ. From the Gr. krinon, a lily, and eidos, resemblance. A family
of radiate animals.
Crop out. When a rock, in place, emerges on the surface of the earth, it
is said to crop out.
Cro´ton. A genus of plants of the family of Euphorbiáceæ.
Crucife´ræ. From the Lat. crux, crucis, a cross, and fero, I bear. A family
of plants which have flowers in form of a Maltese cross.
Cru´ciform. In shape of a cross.
Crusta´cea. From the Lat. crusta, a crust. A class of articulated animals.
Crusta´cean. An animal of the class of crustacea; a crab.
Cryptoga´mia. From the Gr. kruptos, concealed, and gamos, marriage. A
class of plants, which are propagated without apparent seeds.
Cryto´gamous. Belonging or relating to crytogámia.
499Crypto´nyx. From the Gr. kruptos, concealed, and onux, a nail. A genus of
birds; also, a genus of insects.
Cryst´al. From the Gr. krustallos, ice. This term was originally applied to
those beautiful transparent varieties of silica or quartz known under the
name of rock-crystal. When substances pass from the fluid to the solid
state, they frequently assume those regular forms which are generally
termed crystals. A crystal is any inorganic solid of homogeneous structure,
bounded by natural planes and right lines, symmetrically arranged.
Crys´talline. Relating to, or resembling crystals.
Crystalliza´tion. The process by which crystals are formed.
Cucife´ra Thebai´ca. A palm of Egypt which grows to the height of 20
feet. Also known as the genus Hyphæne, from the Gr. Huphaino, I entwine.
A fan-leaf palm of the tribe of Borassíneæ.
Cu´culus. Lat. A cuckoo. A genus of passerine birds.
Cu´lex. Lat. A gnat. A genus of insects of the family of Dip´tera, and
type of the tribe of Culícides: culex pipiens, the common gnat.
Cu´muli. Plural of cumulus.
Cu´mulo-stra´tus. Twain cloud: it partakes of the appearance of the
cumulus and stratus.
Cu´mulus. A form of cloud. A convex aggregate of watery particles, increasing
upwards from a horizontal base, and assuming more or less of
a conical figure.
Cur´videns. Lat. Curvus, bent, and dens, tooth. Having a bent tooth.
Cuspa´ria. A genus of plants, named after the tree which yields the Angustura
bark.
Cyanap´tera. From the Gr. kuanos, blue, and pteron, wing. A specific
name.
Cyaneroi´des. From the Gr. kuanos, blue, and eidos, resemblance. A family
of medusæ.
Cy´cas. A genus of plants, the type of the family cycádeæ. Cycas revoluta.
Narrow-leaved cycas.
Cyca´deæ. A family of plants allied to the cónifers.
Cycada´ceous. Belonging or relating to the cycádeæ.
Cy´clas. From the Gr. kuklos, a circle. A genus of gasteropods.
Cygnus. Lat. A swan. A genus of birds. Cygnus musicus. The whistling
swan.
Cynoce´phalus. From the Gr. kuon, a dog, and kephale, head. A genus of
mammals. Dog headed monkey or baboon.
Cypera´ceæ. Name of a family of herbaceous plants.
Cyp´ræa. From the Gr. kupris, Venus. A cowry. A genus of mollusks.
Cypræa moneta. The money cowry.
Cypri´nidæ. From the Gr. kuprinos, a carp. Name of a family of fishes.
Cystosei´riæ. From the Gr. kustis, a vesicle, and seira, a chain. A tribe of
sea-weeds.
Dac´tylis. From the Gr. daktulos, a finger. A genus of the family of Gramíneæ.
Dactylis cæspitosa. Tussock grass.
Dahlia. After Dahl, a Swedish botanist. Genus of plants of the family
of Compósitæ.
Dalbe´rgia. After Dalberg, a Swedish botanist. A genus of plants of the
family of Papilionáceæ, and of the tribe of Dalbergiæ.
Daman. Alteration of the Arabic word Ghannem, the name of an animal.
Specific name of a mammal.
Danais. Genus of plants of the family of Rubiáceæ.
500Daph´ne. A genus of plants of the family Daphnáceæ.
Darwi´nii. The name of Darwin latinized. Belonging or relating to Darwin.
Dasy´uridæ. From the Gr. dasus, thick, hairy, and oura, tail. A family of
mammals.
Debris. Fr. Wreck, ruins, remains. In geology the term is applied to
large fragments, to distinguish them from detritus, or those which are
pulverized.
Deci´duous. From the Lat. decido, I fall off. Applied to plants whose leaves
fall off in autumn, to distinguish them from evergreens.
Dec´lination of any celestial body, is the angular distance of the body, north
or south, from the equator.
Deinothe´rium. From the Gr. deinos, terrible, and thereion, wild beast. A
genus of fossil pachyderms.
Delesse´riæ. Proper name. Tribe of plants of the family of Flori´deæ.
Delphi´nus. Lat. Dolphin. A genus of aquatic mammals.
Del´ta. The Gr. letter Δ. The triangular deposits, shoals or islands, at
the mouths of rivers are called deltas.
Del´toid. From the Gr. letter Δ and eidos, resemblance. Resembling the
letter delta.
Denuda´tion. From the Lat. denudo, I strip. A removal of a part of the
land, so as to lay bare the inferior strata.
Deoda´r. A kind of pine tree.
De´position. From the Lat. depono, I let fall. In geology the falling to the
bottom of matters suspended or dissolved in water.
Devonian system. So called because it is largely developed in Devonshire,
England. It is synonymous with the old red sand formation. It is composed
at first of pudding stone, and then passes into sandstone, with
which it alternates at different places.
De´tinens. Lat. Detaining; that which has the power to detain.
De´tritus. A geological term applied to deposits composed of various substances
which have been comminuted by attrition. The larger fragments
are usually termed debris; those which are pulverized, as it were,
constitute detritus. Sand is the detritus of silicious rocks.
Diamagnetic. If a bar of iron be suspended between the poles of an electro-magnet,
it will be attracted by both poles on the line of force. But if a
bar of bismuth be suspended in the same manner, it will be repelled by
both poles, and rest at right angles to the line of force. Substances which
are attracted by both poles of an electro-magnet are said to be magnetic,
and those which are repelled by both poles are termed diamagnetic.
Dichoto´ma, Dichoto´mu, Dichoto´mus,
From the Gr. dicha, divided, and tomos, section. In zoology
this term is applied to a species of the genus Iris, the
body of which is bifurcate. In botany it is applied to the
stem, branches, peduncles, leaves, hairs, styles, &c., when they are bifurcated
in form.
Dicoty´ledon. From the Gr. dis, two, and kotuledon, seed lobe. A double
seed lobe.
Dicotyle´donous. Relating to dicotyledon; having a double seed lobe.
Didel´phous. From the Gr. dis, double, and delphus, womb. Applied to
opossums and other marsupial mammals.
Didel´phis. A genus of marsupial mammals.
Didel´phidæ. A tribe of marsupial mammals.
Digita´ta. Lat. Digitate; spread out like the fingers.
501Dino´rnis. From the Gr. deinos, great, terrible, and ornis, a bird. A genus
of fossil, or extinct birds.
Dio´tis. From the Gr. diôtos, having two ears: referring to the flower. A
genus of plants of the family of heliantháceæ.
Dislocation. Displacement. In geology where strata or veins have been
displaced from the position where first deposited or formed, they are said
to be dislocated.
Di´sa. A genus of plants of the family of Orchi´deæ. Di´sa grandiflora.
Large-flowered Disa.
Dio´sma. From the Gr. dios, divine, and osme, smell. A genus of plants of
the family of Dios´meæ.
Dillenia´ceæ. Proper name. A family of plants.
Dionæ´a. One of the names of Venus. A genus of plants of the family of
Droserácea. Dionæa musci´pula. Venus’ Fly-trap.
Dip´teryx. From the Gr. dis, double, and pterux, a wing, in allusion to the
two appendages of the calyx. Tonquin Bean. A genus of plants of the
family of Leguminósæ. Dip´teryx odora´ta. Sweet-scented Tonquin Bean.
Dic´tyota. From the Gr. dictuon, a net. A genus of plants of the family
of Phy´ceæ, and tribe of dictyóteæ.
Dictyo´nema. From the Gr. dictuon, a net, and nema, a filament. A genus
of plants of the family of Phy´ceæ.
Dip. In geology direction of the inclination of strata. “To take a dip,” is
to measure the degree that a stratum inclines or dips from a horizontal line.
Dis´integrate. From the Lat. de, privative, and integer, a whole. To separate
or break up an aggregate into parts.
Do´lomite. Magnesian marble, or granular magnesian carbonate of lime.
Named after Dolomieu.
Dombe´ya. In honor of Joseph Dombey. A genus of plants of the family
of Byttneriácea: it is found in Madagascar and the Isle of Bourbon.
Dorsige´ra. Lat. From dorsum, the back, a ridge, and gero, I carry or wear.
A specific name.
Dorya´nthes. From the Gr. doru, doratos, a lance, and anthesis, a flowering.
A genus of plants of the family of Amaryllidáceæ.
Draba. A genus of plants of the family of Cruciferæ.
Dracæna. Lat. A genus of Saurians.
Dracænæ. Plural of Dracæna.
Dryoba´lanops. From the Gr. drus, os, an oak, balanos, an acorn, and ops,
aspect. A genus of plants of the family of Dip´terocárpeæ. Dryobalanos
camphora. The camphor tree of Sumatra.
Dyna´mic. From the Gr. dunamis, power, force. Belonging or relating to
dynamics.
Dynamics. The doctrine of forces as exhibited in moving bodies which
are at liberty to obey the impulses communicated to them. The motions
of celestial bodies in their orbits, or of a stone falling freely through the
air, are embraced in the study of dynamics.
Di´dymium. A metal discovered recently by Mosander.
Earths. Formerly chemists, believing them to be simple bodies, included
the following substances under the name of earths: Baryta, Strontia,
Lime, Magnesia, Alumina or clay, Silica, Glucina, Zirconia, and Yttria.
Research has shown that all have metallic or metalloid bases.
Echid´na. Greek name of a monster, supposed to have the body of a beautiful
woman, and the tail of a serpent. A genus of mammals of the
family of Monotrema.
502E´chimys. From the Gr. echinos, spiny, and mus, a rat. A genus of mammals;
a sort of rat found in South America.
Ecliptic. In Astronomy the great circle of the heavens which the sun appears
to describe in his annual revolution.
Edenta´ta. From the Lat. e, without, and dens, tooth: without teeth. An
order of mammals which are destitute of teeth.
E´dulis. Lat. Eatable; that which may be eaten.
Efflore´scence. The pulverulent covering formed on the surface of saline
substances from which the atmosphere has removed the water of crystallization.
When saline substances give up their water of crystalization
to the air, they are said to effloresce.
Elais. Elæis.
From the Gr. elaia, the olive. A genus of plants of the family
of Palms. The Elais Guinea´ensis yields the Palm oil.
Elaps. Gr. Name of a serpent. A genus of ophidians.
Electricity. From the Gr. elektron, amber, the substance in which it was
first observed. The property acquired by glass and resin from friction
to attract light substances. Electricity exists in all bodies, and becomes
manifest, at least partially, whenever the natural state of equilibrium of
their molecules is disturbed by any cause.
Electro-magnetism. The phenomena produced when a current of electricity
is traversing any substance, or when electricity is in motion, magnetism
is at the same time developed.
Electro-magnet. An apparatus for exhibiting the phenomena of electro-magnetism.
Elec´tricus. Lat. Electric. Belonging to, or relating to electricity.
Ellip´tica. Lat. Elliptic.
E´lephas. Lat. Gr. name of the elephant. A genus of mammals of the
order of pachydemus.
Elephanti´na. Lat. Belonging or relating to an elephant; elephantine.
Em´bryo. From the Gr. embruon, from, bruô I bud forth. A germ at the
early stages of development.
E´merald. A mineral of a beautiful green colour, much valued for ornamental
jewelry. It consists of silica, alumina, glucina, oxide of chromium,
which is the colouring matter, and a trace of lime.
E´mys. Lat. From the Gr. emus, a water tortoise. A genus of reptiles of
the family of emydians.
Emy´dians. A family of reptiles of the order of Chelónia.
Encri´nites. From the Gr. krinon, a lily. A genus of fossil Echinoderms.
The skeleton of this animal is said to consist of not less than 26,000 separate
pieces.
E´oce´ne. From the Gr. eôs, dawn, and kainos, recent. In geology a name
for the older tertiary formation, in which the first dawn, as it were, of
existing species, appear.
Epacri´deæ. From the Gr. epi, upon, and akros, an elevated place, a hill. A
family of plants.
Ep´iphyte. From the Gr. epi, upon, and phutos, a plant. Applied to plants
which grow upon other plants.
Equinoctia´lis. Lat. Equinoctial.
Equise´tum. From the Lat equus, a horse, and seta, hair. A genus of
plants of the family of equisitáceæ.
Equus. Lat. A horse. A genus of mammals.
Er´bium. A metal, recently discovered.
Erica. A genus of plants of which there are 429 species.
503Eri´ocaulon. From the Gr. erion, wool, and kaulon, stem or stalk. A genus
of plants of the family of eriocaulóneæ.
Erythri´na. From the Gr. eruthros, red. A genus of plants of the family of
Papilionáceæ.
Erythrox´ylon. From the Gr. eruthros, red, and xulon, wood. A genus of
plants.
Escarpment. From the Ital. scarpa, sharp, formed from the Lat. carpere, to
cut. The steep face often presented by the abrupt termination of strata
where subjacent beds crop out from beneath them.
Esculenta. Lat. Esculent.
Eucaly´pti. Lat. Plural of eucalyptus.
Eucaly´ptus. From the Gr. eu, well, and kaluptos, covered. A genus of
plants of the family of Myrtáceæ.
Eupho´rbia. Gr. Name of a plant. A genus of plants of which there are
300 species.
Exce´lsa. Lat. Noble, tall, stately.
Exco´rtica. Lat. Without bark.
Ex´ogenous. From the Gr. ex, from, and geinomai, I grow. Applied to
plants which grow by successive external additions to their wood.
Extensile. Having the power to extend itself.
Exu´viæ. Lat. The sloughs or cast skins, or cast shells of animals.
Fa´gus. Lat. Beech. A genus of plants of the family of Amentáceæ.
Falco. Lat. Falcon. A genus of birds. Falco islandicus. The Gerfalcon.
Family. In natural history the term is applied to an assemblage of several
genera which resemble each other in many respects.
Far´ina. Lat. Meal.
Far´inha. Portu. Meal, flour.
Farino´sa. Lat. Meally; belonging or relating to meal.
Fauna. All animals of all kinds peculiar to a country constitute the fauna
of that country.
Felis. Lat, A cat. A genus of mammals of the family of carnivóra.
Felis irbis. The panther.
Fenestra´lis. Lat. Belonging or relating to a window or opening.
Fer´bium. A recently discovered metal.
Ferns. The filices; an order of cryptogámic plants.
Fi´cus. Lat. A fig. A genus of plants of the family of Moræ´ceæ.
Ficoide. A genus of plants of the family of Mesembrya´nthe´meæ, of which
there are about 200 species.
Ficoides. Ficoideæ.
The family of Mesembryánthémeæ. Ficoides is applied as a specific name.
Flacour´tia. Proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Flacourtiáceæ.
Flabel´liforme. From the Lat. flabellum, a fan, and forma, form. Fan-shaped.
Flora. Lat. Name of the Goddess of Flowers. All the plants of all kinds
belonging to a country constitute the flora of that country.
Flo´rida. Belonging or relating to flowers; or relating to the State of Florida.
Foci. Lat. Plural of focus.
Focus. Lat. A hearth. In optics the term describes the point or space
where the rays of light are concentrated by a lens. The apex of a cone
of rays of light, or of heat, formed by a lens, or concave mirror.
Folia´ceous. From the Lat. folium, a leaf. Leafy. Having the form of
leaves.
504Footstalks. In botany the stalks of flowers, or of leaves.
Fossil. From the Lat. fodio, I dig. Any organic body, or the traces of any
organic body, whether animal or vegetable, which has been buried in the
earth by natural causes.
Fossili´ferous. Contain fossils.
Formi´cidæ. From the Lat. formica, an ant, and the Gr. eidos, resemblance.
A family of insects of the family of Hymenóptera.
Frond. Also, frons. A name applied to the leaves of palms, and of cryptógamous
plants.
Frondo´sa. Lat. Full of green leaves.
Fra´grans. Lat. Fragrant; odorous.
Fra´gilis. Lat. Fragile; easily broken.
Fringi´llæ. Lat. fringilla, a chafinch. A family of birds, the most numerous
of the group of conirostres, or thick billed birds.
Fucca. Name of a genus of aquatic plants.
Fuci. Lat. Plural of fucus.
Fucus. Lat. Sea-weed. A genus of aquatic plants.
Fuchsia. After Leonard Fuchs, a physician of the 16th century. A genus
of plants.
Function. From the Lat. fungor, I act. The action of an organ, or system
of organs.
Fungi. Lat. Plural of fungus.
Fungus. Lat. A mushroom.
Fune´reus. Lat. Funeral: belonging to a dead body.
Ga´dus. Lat. A codfish.
Gallina´ceous. From the Lat. galle´na, a hen. Relating to birds of the
order of Gallináceæ.
Gale´na. From the Gr. galene, lead ore. A mineral composed of sulphur
and lead: a natural sulphuret of lead.
Gal´vanism. From Galvani, a distinguished Italian philosopher. That
branch of electrical science in which electricity is made manifest by the
mediate contact of different metals. Also, the phenomena exhibited by
living animal matter when placed between the poles or extremities of an
apparatus for showing electricity by the mediate contact of different
metals.
Galva´nic. Belonging or relating to galvanism.
Gangea´ticus. Lat. Gangeatic; belonging or relating to the river Ganges.
Garde´nia. After a proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Rubiáceæ;
it contains some forty species. The Gardenia grandiflora is the
Cape Jasmin.
Gar´net. A mineral consisting of silicates of alumina, lime, iron, and
manganese. It occurs imbedded in mica-slate, granite, and gneiss, and
occasionally in limestone, chlorite-slate, serpentine, and lava. There are
several varieties of garnet.
Gas. From the Germ. geist, spirit. The name given to all permanently
elastic fluids, or airs, different from the atmospheric air.
Gaseous. Of the nature of gas.
Genre. Fr. Genus, kind, manner, style. In painting it is applied to signify
the representation of certain kinds of objects, as landscapes, views,
animals, plants, flowers, scenes in common life. Pictures of genre, then,
are pictures of a genus or kind as to subject; as landscapes, marine
views, flower pieces, still-life, &c.
Ge´nera. Lat. Plural of genus.
505Genus. Lat. A kindred, breed, race or family.
Ge´ology. From the Gr. ge, the earth, and logos, discourse. That branch of
natural history which treats of the structure of the terrestrial globe. It is
divided into descriptive geology; dynamic geology, which treats of the forces
by which the surface of the earth has been modified; practical and economic
geology, embracing the application of geological science to mining,
road-making, architecture, and agriculture.
Geother´mal. From the Gr. ge, the earth, and thermos, heat, temperature.
Relating to the temperature of the earth.
Gera´rdia. Proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Scrophulárieæ.
Germina´tion. The process of the development of the seed, and the embryo
which it contains.
Gey´sers. From an Icelandic word, signifying raging or roaring. Celebrated
spouting fountains of boiling water in Iceland.
Gibbosa. Lat. Gibbous; having protuberances or bunches.
Gibralta´rica. Lat. Belonging or relating to Gibraltar.
Gigan´tea. Gigan´teus.
Lat. Gigantic, huge.
Gileade´nsis. Lat. Belonging or relating to Gilead.
Gla´cial. Belonging or relating to ice.
Gla´ciers. Fr. Masses or beds of ice formed in high mountains, derived
from the snows or lakes frozen by the continued cold of those regions.
Gladio´lus. A genus of plants of the family of Iri´deæ.
Gland. An organ formed for the purpose of secreting a peculiar fluid.
Glau´cous. From the Gr. glaukos, blue. Applied to the bluish and pulverulent
aspect which certain plants present, such as the leaves of cabbages,
&c. Also used to signify the bloom of the color of cabbage
leaves, sometimes observed on polished bodies.
Gledi´tschia. A genus of plants of the family of Leguminósæ, named in
honor of J. G. Gleditsch, a German botanist. It includes the Honey and
Swamp locust trees among its species.
Globba´ria. From the Lat. globum, a ball. A genus of insects: also a
specific name.
Gluci´num. A metal discovered in glucina in 1798 by Vauquelin.
Glu´ten. Lat. The viscid elastic substance which remains when wheat
flour is wrapped in a coarse cloth, and washed under a stream of water,
so as to carry off the starch and soluble matters. It exists in many plants
and in animals. It is the basis of glue.
Glyce´ria. A genus of plants of the family of grami´neæ, and the tribe
Festucáceæ.
Gly´cine. From the Gr. glukus, sweet. A genus of plants of the family of
Papilionáceæ.
Gnapha´lium. From the Gr. gnaphalion, the cotton tree. A genus of plants
of the family of Compositæ.
Gneiss. Germ. A rock resembling granite. It is composed chiefly of
feldspar and mica, and is more or less slaty in its structure. Gneiss is
used for building and flagging.
Gold. The most valuable and longest known of the metals.
Goode´nia. Proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Goodeniáceæ.
Gordo´nia. Proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Gordonieæ.
Grandiflora. Lat. Large-flowered.
Grami´neæ. Lat. Grasses. A family of monocotylédonous plants, containing
about 3000 species.
506
Granivorous. Granivora.
Applied to animals which feed upon grains, especially
to passerine birds.
Græca. Lat. Greek.
Gra´nular. Composed of grains.
Granite. A rock which is a crystaline aggregate of quartz, feldspar, and
mica.
Granitic. Of the nature of granite.
Greenstone. A rough variety of trap-rock, consisting chiefly of hornblende.
Grit. A coarse-grained sandstone.
Guilandi´na. A proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Leguminósæ.
Guilandina Bonduc, the oval-leaved Nicker-tree.
Guineaen´sis. Lat. Belonging or relating to Guinea.
Gum. A vegetable product, which is tasteless and inodorous, and is distinguished
by being soluble in water, and insoluble in alcohol. Gum arabic,
for example.
Gymno´tus. From the Gr. gumnos, naked, and nôtos, back. A genus of fishes.
Gypsum. Native sulphate of lime. It is converted into plaster of Paris by
heat.
Gyro´phora. From the Gr. guros, a circle, and pherô, I give. A genus of
cryptógamous plants.
Habitat. Lat. He inhabits. Used to designate the place in which animals
and plants are naturally found.
Halio´tis. From the Gr. als, the sea, and ous, the ear. A genus of mollusks.
Ha´lcyon. From the Gr. alkuo´n, a king-fisher. A genus of birds.
Helia´nthus. From the Gr. elios, the sun, and anthos, flower; sunflower.
Heli´acal. From the Gr. elios, the sun. Relating to the sun. When a
star rises so as to be visible in morning twilight before the appearance of
the sun, it is said to rise heliacally.
Hep´taphyllum. From the Gr. epta, seven, and phulon, a leaf. Seven-leaved.
A specific name.
Herba´ceous. In botany, Herb-like; that perishes every year. An annual
stem. Not woody.
Herbivo´ra. Lat. Herbivorous.
Herbivo´rous. From the Lat. herba, a plant, and vorare, to eat. Plant eating.
Applied to animals which feed chiefly or exclusively on plants or
herbs.
Heritie´ra. Proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Sterculiáceæ.
Hibernate. From the Lat. hibernare, to winter. Animals which retire and
sleep throughout the winter, are said to hibernate.
Hibi´scus. A genus of plants of the family of Malváceæ.
Hieroch´loa. From the Gr. ieros, sacred, and chloa, herb. A genus of
plants of the family of Grami´neæ.
Hippopo´tamus. From the Gr. ippos, a horse, and potamos, river. River
Horse. A genus of mammals.
Hirsu´ta. Lat. Hirsute; covered with soft hairs.
Hol´cus. A genus of plants of the family Grami´neæ.
Hopea, or Hoppea. Proper name. A genus of plants.
Ho´rrida. Lat. Horrid; spiny.
Ho´rary. From the Lat. hora, an hour. The motion of a celestial body, or
the space it moves through in an hour, is termed its horary motion.
507Horse-shoe magnet. A magnet in form of a horse-shoe.
Humi´ria. A genus of plants of the family of humoriáceæ. They inhabit
tropical America.
Hydran´gea. From the Gr. udôr, water, and aggos, a vessel. A genus
of plants of the family of Saxifragáceæ, and tribe of Hydrangéeæ.
Hydrau´lic. From the Gr. udôr, water, and aulos, a pipe. Relating to
liquids in motion. Hydraulics is that branch of natural philosophy or
physics which treats of the force of water and other liquids in motion.
Hydrosta´tic. From the Gr. udôr, water, and staô, I stand. Relating
to water in a state of rest. Hydrostatics is the science which treats of
the equilibrium and pressure of water and other liquids.
Hy´drogen. From the Gr. udôr, water, and gennaein, to generate. A
colorless, tasteless, inodorous gas, one part of which, by weight, combined
with eight parts of oxygen forms water;—combined with sulphur it
constitutes sulphuretted Hydrogen;—and with carbon, carburetted Hydrogen,
the gas used for illumination.
Hydrogeton. A synonym of Ouviraudra. A genus of aquatic plants.
Hyla. From the Gr. ule, wood, a tree. A tree frog.
Hymenæ´a. A genus of plants of the family of Papilionáceæ. A resinous
tree of tropical America.
Hymeno´ptera. From the Gr. umen, a membrane, and pteron, wing. Systematic
name of a class of insects, characterized by membranous wings.
Hy´rax. From the Gr. urax, a shrew mouse. A genus of mammals.
Ianthina. See Janthina.
I´bex. Lat. A wild goat. A genus of mammals.
I´bis. A genus of birds.
Igneous rocks. Are those rocks whose structure is attributable to the influence
of heat, such as granite and basalt. They are distinct from
stratified rocks, or those formed by deposits from water.
I´guana. A reptile of the lizard tribe.
Igua´nian. Applied to Saurians which resemble the iguana.
Igua´nodon. From iguana, and the Gr. odous, tooth. A genus of extinct or
fossil reptiles of gigantic size discovered in the south of England.
I´lex. Lat. The Holly.
Ili´cis. Lat. Of the Holly; belonging or relating to the holly.
Illi´cium. From illicio to attract; from its agreeable perfume. The aniseed
tree. A genus of plants of the family of Magnoliáceæ.
Im´bricate. Laid one over another like tiles.
Inconspicuus. Lat. Not conspicuous or remarkable.
Incisor. From the Lat. incido I cut. Applied to those teeth which occupy
the anterior or centre of the upper and lower jaws, because they are used
for cutting the food.
Inca. Designation of the aboriginal Peruvian princes; used as a specific
name. Also, a genus of insects.
Indica—Indicus. Lat. Indian: Belonging or relating to India.
Indica´tor. Lat. Indicator; one who points out. A genus of birds.
Infuso´ria. Animals of infusions; microscopic animalcules.
Infuso´rial. Belonging or relating to the Infusoria.
Inorganic. Without organs or organization.
Insect. From the Lat. in, into, seco, I cut. Applied to animals whose
bodies are cut, as it were, into three parts—head, thorax, and abdomen.
Irid´eæ. A family of monocotylédonous plants.
508Iridium. From the Lat. iris, the rainbow. A grey, brittle, very infusible
metal, which is found associated with the ores of platinum.
Isatis. From the Gr. isazô, I render equal. Woad. A genus of plants of
the family of Cruciferæ. Also the name of a species of dog.
Isla´ndicus. Lat. Belonging or relating to Iceland.
Iso´geo´thermal. From the Gr. isos, equal, ge, the earth, and thermos, heat.
Applied to lines which are supposed to pass through all parts of the
earth’s structure on the surface where the mean heat is the same.
Isothe´rmal. From the Gr. isos, equal, and thermos, heat. Isothermal lines
are supposed to pass through all places where the mean temperature of
the air is the same.
Isotherial. From the Gr. isos, equal, and thereios, having the heat of summer.
Isotherial lines are supposed to be drawn through all places having
the same mean summer temperature.
Isochi´menal. From the Gr. isos, equal, and cheima, winter. Isochimenal
lines pass through all places where the mean winter temperature is the
same.
Ixia. A genus of plants of the family of Irideæ.
Janthi´na. From the Gr. ianthinos, violet. A genus of mollusks.
Japo´nica—Japo´nicus. Belonging or relating to Japan.
Jasper. A silicious mineral of various colors; sometimes spotted, banded
or variegated. It takes a fine polish.
Jerbo´a. A genus of mammals of the family of Rodents, or gnawers.
Jura´ssic. Belonging or relating to the Jura mountains. Applied to a system
of rocks of the middle secondary geological period. Also termed
oolitic.
Ka´lmia. A genus of plants of the family of Ericáceæ.
Ker´ria. Proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Rosáceæ.
Ke´urva.Synonym of Pandanus.
King´ia. Proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Joncáceæ,
found in New Holland. Kingia australis; the grass tree.
Labia´tæ. From the Lat. labium, lip; in allusion to the form of the corolla.
A family of dicotylédonous plants.
Lago´pus. From the Gr. lagôs, a hare, and pous, foot: hare-footed. A genus
of birds of the order Gallináceæ.
Lam´antin. The manatus. A genus of mammals of the order of Cetácea.
Lamina´ria. A genus of aquatic plants of the family of Phy´ceæ.
Lamprato´rnis. A genus of birds. Lampratornis superba. A kind of raven.
Lana´ta. Lat. Woolly.
Lanceola´tus. Lat. Lanceolate; lance-shaped.
Landslip, or Landslide. In geology, the removal of a portion of land down
an inclined surface, from its attachment being loosened by the action of
water beneath, or by an earthquake.
Lanta´nium. A metal discovered in 1840 by Mosander.
Lapis lazuli. A mineral belonging to the aluminous silicates, of an azure
blue colour.
Laureo´la. Specific name of a plant.
Lauri´neæ. Laurea´ceæ.
From laurus, laurel, one of the genera. A family of plants.
509Latent heat. Heat not indicated by the thermometer, upon which the
liquid and aëriform conditions of bodies depend, and which becomes
sensible during the conversion of vapour into liquids, and of liquids into
solids.
La´rva. Lat. A mask. The first state of an insect after leaving the egg.
La´rvæ. Lat. Plural of larva.
La´va. In geology, substances which flow in a melted state from a volcano.
Lavas vary in consistence and texture.
Legumino´sæ. From the Lat. legumen, a bean. A family of plants.
Legu´minous. Belonging or relating to the Leguminoseæ.
Leoni´na. Belonging or relating to a lion.
Lepori´na. Lat. Belonging or relating to a hare.
Lepido´ptera. From the Gr. lepis, a scale, and pteron, a wing, scaly wings.
An order of insects characterized by scaly wings.
Lesso´nia. Proper name. A genus of plants; also a genus of birds.
Leucade´ndron. From the Gr. leukos, white, and dendron, tree. A genus of
plants of the family of Proteáceæ.
Lias. Provincial corruption of the word layers. In geology, a division of
the secondary formation. It is also called the Liassic, Jurassic, and Oolitic
system of rocks.
Li´chens. An order of cryptógamous plants. They include various mosses.
Lilia´ceous. Belonging or relating to the lily.
Lilia´ceæ. A family of plants.
Llanos. Span. Planes.
Limo´nia. A genus of plants of the family of Aurantiáceæ.
Limb. In botany, the spreading part or border of a leaf or petal. In astronomy,
the outermost edge of the sun or moon.
Li´riode´ndron. From the Gr. leirion, a lily, and dendron, a tree. The tulip
tree. A genus of plants of the family of Magnoliáceæ.
Li´thium. A metal.
Lo´asa. A genus of plants of the family of Loasáceæ.
Lobe. A term applied in botany to the more or less profound divisions of
a leaf, corolla, or other part of a plant.
Lobelia´ceæ. In honor of Lobel, a botanist. A family of dicotylédonous
plants.
Longifrons. Lat. Having a long front or forehead.
Lophobra´nches. From the Gr. lophos, a tuft, or crest, and branchia, gills.
An order of fishes.
Lophopho´rus. From the Gr. lophos, a tuft, and phoros, bearer. A genus of
birds of the order Gallináceæ.
Lora´nthus. From the Gr. lôron, a leather strap, and anthos, flower. Loranth.
A genus of plants of the family of Lorantháceæ.
Lo´tus. A genus of plants of the family of Leguminósæ.
Loxia. A genus of birds.
Lu´teum. Lat. Yellow; dirty; made of clay. A specific name.
Macroce´phalus. From the Gr. makros, large, and kephale, head. A genus
of insects. The specific name of a mammal.
Macrocy´stis. From the Gr. makros, large, and kustis, bladder. A genus of
aquatic plants of the family of Phyceæ. Gigantic sea-weeds found in
the southern hemisphere.
Macrou´rous. From the Gr. makros, great, and oura, tail. Having a long
or large tail.
510Magnet. Loadstone is the natural magnet, which has the property of attracting
iron. Artificial magnets are prepared so as to possess the peculiar
attractive properties of the loadstone.
Mag´netism. The science which investigates the phenomena presented by
natural and artificial magnets, and the laws by which they are connected.
Magne´sium. A silvery white metal obtained from magnesia.
Magne´sian. Containing magnesia.
Magno´lia. Name of Magnol, a French botanist. A genus of plants of
the family of Magnoliáceæ.
Ma´lachite. A mineral; native green carbonate of copper.
Mal´lotus. A genus of fishes of the family of Salmones. A genus of
plants of the family of Euphorbiáceæ. A synonyme of the genus Rottlera.
Malu´rus. A genus of passerine birds.
Mam´mal. Any animal that suckles its young.
Mamma´lia. From the Lat. mamma, a breast. The name of the class of
mammals or animals which suckle their young.
Mammi´feræ. Same as mammalia.
Mana´ti. Lat. Plural of manatus.
Mana´tus. A genus of mammals. The Lamantin.
Mangane´se. A metal.
Mariti´ma. Lat. Maritime; relating to the sea.
Marl. Argillaceous carbonate of lime. There are several varieties of
marl.
Marsu´pial. From the Lat. marsupium, a pouch. Any animal having a
peculiar pouch in front or on the abdomen.
Mas´todon. From the Gr. mastos, a nipple, and odous, a tooth. A genus of
extinct mammals allied to the elephant.
Ma´trix. In geology, the stony substance or bed in which metallic ores
and crystaline minerals are embedded. The gangue.
Mauri´tia. Lat. Belonging to the island of Maritius.
Mauro´rum. Lat. Of the Moors.
Maximus. Maxima. Maximum.
Lat. The greatest.
Medu´sa. A genus of marine animals of the class Acalepha.
Megathe´rium. From the Gr. megas, great, and therion, beast. Name of a
fossil quadruped.
Melaleu´ca. From the Gr. melas, black, and leukos, white. A genus of
plants of the family of Myrtáceæ.
Mela´stoma. From the Gr. melas, black, and stoma, opening. A genus of
plants of the family of Melastomáceæ.
Mel´ia. A genus of plants of the family of Meliáceæ.
Melofo´rmis. From the Lat. melo, a melon, and forma, shape. Melon-shaped.
Menopoma. From the Gr. menos, strong, and poma, cover. A genus of
reptiles of the family of Salamanders. Specific name of a batrachian.
Menura. A genus of passerine birds. The Menura superba, the lyre-bird.
Mercury. Quicksilver. A metal which is liquid at the ordinary temperature.
Mese´meryan´themum. From the Gr. mesembria, the mid-day, and anthemum,
flowering, because the flowers usually expand at that time. The fig
marygold. A genus of plants of the family of Ficoides.
Me´sa. Span. A table.
Mespilus. From the Gr. mesos, half, and pilé, bullet, the fruit resembling
a half ball. The medlar. A genus of plants of the family of Rosáceæ.
511Met´alloid. Literally, resembling metal. The metals obtained from the
alkalis and earths are called metalloids.
Metalli´ferous. Containing metal, or metals.
Metamor´phic. From the Gr. meta, indicating change, and morphe, form.
Metamorphic rocks are those which are evidently of mechanical origin,
but owing to the presumed action of heat, have undergone change. Altered
rocks.
Metrosi´deros. From the Gr. metra, heart of a tree, and sideron, iron, in
allusion to the hardness of its wood. A genus of plants of the family of
Myrtáceæ.
Metur. A species of wild corn which grows in Iceland.
Mia´sma. Mia´smata.
From the Gr. miainô, I contaminate. Applied to any emanation
from animal or vegetable substances, or from the earth,
which may prejudicially influence the health of those persons who may
be exposed to it.
Mi´ca. From the Lat. mico, I shine. A mineral, generally found in thin
elastic laminæ, soft, smooth, and of various colors and degrees of transparency.
It is one of the constituents of granite.
Mica-schist. Germ. (Gr. schistos, slaty, easily split.) Mica-slate. A
lamellar rock composed of quartz, ordinarily grayish, and a great quantity
of brilliant lamellæ of mica arranged in scales, or extended leaves.
Mi´das. Name of a genus of monkeys; also, of a genus of reptiles.
Migrato´ria. Lat. Migrating.
Millingto´nia. Proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Bignoniáceæ.
Millepo´ra. From mil, a thousand, and pori, holes. A genus of stony
polyps, or corallines.
Mimo´sa. From the Lat. mimus, a comedian, in allusion to its numerous
varieties. A genus, and a tribe of plants.
Mi´ocene. From the Gr. meiôn, less, and kainos, recent. In geology a name
of a group of rocks of the tertiary period.
Mi´nimum. Lat. The least.
Mira´ge. Fr. A kind of natural optical illusion, arising from the unequal
refraction of the lower strata of the atmosphere. The illusive appearance
of water in deserts is explained in this manner.
Misodendron. A genus of plants of the family of Lorantháceæ.
Mite´lla. A genus of plants of the family of Saxafragáceæ.
Mollusk. From the Lat. mollis, soft. Applied to certain soft animals
which inhabit shells, as oysters.
Mollu´sca. A branch of the animal kingdom.
Mollu´scous. Belonging or relating to mollusks.
Molyb´denum. A white, brittle metal.
Monocotyle´don. From the Gr. monos, single, and kotuledon, seed-lobe. A
single seed-lobe.
Monocotyle´donous. Relating to monocotyledon.
Mono´ceros. From the Gr. monos, single, and keras, horn. Having one horn.
Mo´nodon. From the Gr. monos, single, and odous, tooth. Name of a genus
of aquatic mammals. The Narwhal.
Mone´ta. Lat. Belonging or relating to money.
Moni´liform. From the Lat. monile, a necklace. In form of a string of
beads, necklace-like.
Mo´nitor. A genus of Saurian reptiles.
Monospe´rma. From the Gr. monos, single, sperma, seed. One-seeded. A
specific name.
512Mon´tia. A genus of plants of the family of Portuláceæ.
Mori´nda. A genus of plants of the family of Rubiáceæ.
Moraines. Longitudinal deposits of stony detritus found at the bases, and
along the edges of all the great glaciers.
Mo´rus. Mulberry. A genus of plants of the family of Urti´ceæ.
Mosasau´rus. From Meuse, name of a river, and the Gr. sauros, a lizard. A
genus of fossil reptiles.
Mos´chus. From the Gr, moschos, musk. A genus of mammals.
Moschi´ferus. Lat. Musk bearing; containing musk.
Mosses. Crytógamous parasites of the family of Lycopodeácæ.
Mu´cilage. A mixture of gum and water.
Mural. Belonging or relating to a wall.
Musa. The banana. A genus of plants of the family of Musáceæ.
Muschelkalk. German. Shell limestone.
Musci´pula. Lat. A fly trap or mouse trap.
Musicus. Lat. Relating to music; musical.
Mycetus. Name of a genus of monkeys.
Myopo´tamus. From the Gr. mus, a rat, and potamos, a river. A genus of
gnawing mammals.
Myri´stica. A genus of plants of the family of Myrista´ceæ; Mystri´tica
moschata, the nutmeg tree.
Myrtus. Myrtle. A genus of plants of the family of Myrta´ceæ.
Nana. From the Gr. nanos, a dwarf. A specific name.
Na´ptha. A limpid bitumen.
Narci´ssus. A genus of plants of the family of Amarylli´deæ.
Na´trium. A metal.
Natron. A subcarbonate of soda.
Nectary. That part of a flower which produces honey.
Nelum´bium. A genus of plants of the family of Nymphæ´ceæ. Sacred
Bean.
Nestor. An extinct bird.
Neuro´ptera. From the Gr. neuron, a nerve, and pteron, wing. An order
of insects.
New red sandstone. In geology, a system of rocks of the secondary formation.
Nickel. A white metal. It is the basis of “German Silver.”
Nigra. Lat. Black.
Nimbus. A rain cloud.
Ni´tida. Lat. Neat, clean, bright.
Nitrogen. A simple, permanently elastic fluid or gas, which constitutes
four-fifths of the atmosphere, and is the basis of nitric acid.
Niva´lis. Lat. Snowy.
Non-conductor. Applied to substances which do not possess the property
of transmitting electricity, or heat.
Notacanthus. From the Gr. nôtos, back, and akantha, a spine. A genus
of fishes.
Nototherium. A fossil genus of marsupial mammals.
Notornis. An extinct bird.
Nummula´ria. From the Latin nummus, a coin. A family of Mollusks.
Nummulites.
Nymphæ´a. A genus of plants of the family of Nymphæa´ceæ.
Nyssa. From the Gr. nussô, I prick. A genus of plants.
513Obsi´dian. A glassy lava. Volcanic glass.
Ocean´ica. Lat. Relating to the ocean.
Oeno´thera. From the Gr. oinos, wine, and therô, I hunt. A genus of
plants of the family of Oenothera´ceæ. Synonym of onagrariæ.
Odora´ta. Lat. Odorous.
Odoratissi´ma. Lat. Very, or most odorous.
Odori´fera. Lat. Odoriferous.
O´lea. Lat. Olive. A genus of plants of the family of Olea´ceæ.
Old red sandstone. A system of rocks of the secondary formation.
O´olite. From the Greek ôon, an egg, and lithos, stone. A granular variety
of carbonate of lime, frequently called roestone.
O´pal. A brittle mineral, characterized by its iridescent reflection of light.
It consists of silica with about ten per cent. of water.
O´pales´cent. Resembling opal.
Ophi´dian. From the Gr. ophis, a serpent; applied to reptiles of the order of
Ophidia.
Ophice´phalus. From the Gr. ophis, serpent, and kephale, head. Serpent-head.
A genus of acánthoptery´gian, or bony-finned fishes.
Or´chis. A genus of plants of the family of Orchid´eæ, named from most
of the species being marked by two tubercles.
Orchid´eous. Relating to the genus orchis.
Organ. From the Gr. organon, an instrument. Part of an organized being,
destined to exercise some particular function; for example, the ears are
the organs of hearing, the muscles are the organs of motion.
Orga´nic. Relating to an organ. Organic remains, are the fossil remains
of organized beings.
Organiza´tion. The mode or manner of structure of an organized being.
Organized. Composed of organs; having a mode of structure.
Orienta´lis. Orienta´le.
Lat. Eastern. Belonging to the East.
Ornithoryn´chus. From the Gr. ornis, ornithos, a bird, and rugchos, a beak.
A genus of mammals, having the beak of a duck.
Or´tygis. From the Gr. ortux, a quail. A genus of birds.
Os´mium. From the Gr. osme, odour. A metal discovered in 1803, by
Tennant.
Oscilla´tion. The act of moving backwards and forwards like a pendulum.
Ota´ria. From the Gr. ôtarion, a small ear. A genus of amphibious mammals,
of the tribe of seals.
Out crop. In geology, the emergence of a rock in place, at the surface.
O´vary. In botany, that part of a flower in which the young seeds are contained.
Oxa´lis. A genus of plants of the family of Oxalideæ.
Oxle´ya. A genus of plants of the family of Cedrela´ceæ.
Oxygen. The vivifying gas which constitutes about one-fifth of the atmosphere,
the presence of which is essential to life.
Ozo´ne. From the Gr. ozô, I smell of something. The odorous matter
perceived when electricity passes from pointed bodies into the air.
Pachyder´mata. From the Gr. pachus, thick, and derma, skin. An order of
mammals—Pachyderms.
Padi´na. Same as Zonária, a beautiful marine plant. Padina pavonia, or
Zona´ria pavonia. Turkey feather.
514Palap´teryx. From the Gr. palaios, ancient, and apteryx, formed from
the Gr. a, privative, and pteron, wing, wingless. Name of a genus of
fossil birds, discovered recently in New Zealand.
Palæothe´rium. From the Gr. palaios, ancient, and therion, beast. A fossil
genus of pachyder´matous mammals.
Palæonto´logy. From the Gr. palaios, ancient, and on, a being or creature,
and logos, discourse. That branch of zoological science which treats of
fossil organic remains.
Palæ´ozoic. From the Gr. palaios, ancient, and zoe, life. Relating to ancient
life; belonging or relating to fossils.
Palma rea´l. Spanish. Royal Palm.
Palla´dium. A white, hard, very maleable and ductile metal, which is susceptible
of a fine polish. It is more difficult to melt than gold.
Palmel´la. A genus of plants of the family of Conferváceæ. Palmella
nivalis, a plant of the snowy regions, which gives color to the snow amidst
which it grows. Protococcus is the red snow plant.
Panda´nus. From the Malay name of the tree, pandang. Screw-pine. A
genus of plants, of the family of Pandancæ. Pandanus candelabrum.
Candlestick screw-pine.
Panda´na. Relating to, or resembling the Screw-pines.
Pa´nicum. Panic-grass. A genus of plants of the family of Gramineæ.
Panicum miliaceum, millet, a grain used for feeding poultry in England.
Papa. Spanish. Pope. Specific name of a vulture.
Papy´rus. A genus of plants of the family of Cypera´ceæ. The Papyrus
antiquorum yields the substance used as paper by the ancient Ægyptians.
Papyri´fera. From papyrus, a sort of paper, and fero, I bear. Paper-bearing.
Parhelia. Plural of parhelion.
Parhelion. From the Gr. para, for, elios, the sun, A mock sun. A meteor
which consists in the simultaneous appearance of several suns, “fantastic
images of the true one.”
Paradisa´ica. Lat. Belonging or relating to Paradise. A specific name.
Parna´ssus. A genus of lepidopterous insects of the tribe of Parna´ssidæ.
Pass´erines. Pass´eres. Passerine birds.
From the Lat. Passer, a sparrow, name of a varied
and extensive order of birds, not easily characterized.
Passiflora. Abbreviation of flos, flower, and passionis, of the passion. Passion-flower,
so called from a supposed resemblance between its floral
organs, and the instruments of the Passion of our Saviour. An extensive
and beautiful genus of plants.
Patago´nica. Lat. Relating to Patagonia. Specific name of a penguin.
Pavo´nia. Formed from the Latin, pavo, a peacock. A specific name.
Peat. The natural accumulation of vegetable matter on the surface of
lands not in a state of cultivation; always moist to a greater or less degree,
varying, according to the kind of plants to the decay of which the
formation of peat is due.
Pelo´pium. A metal discovered by Prof. H. Rose.
Pelargo´nium. From the Gr. pelargos, a stork. Stork’s bill. A genus of
plants of the family of Geraniáceæ.
Pela´sgic. After a mythological name of Jupiter.
Pen´dulum. From the Lat. pendo, I hang. A weight suspended at the end
of a rod, so that it may vibrate from side to side in a plane, is called a
pendulum.
Pennise´tum. From the Lat. penna, a feather or pen, and seta, a bristle.
A genus of plants of the family of Grami´neæ.
515Pep´lis. Gr. Water-purslane. A genus of plants of the family of Salicáriæ.
Per´mian. After the ancient kingdom of Permia. A name applied by Mr.
Murchison to a system of rocks, consisting of an extensive group of fossiliferous
strata, intermediate, in their geological position, between the Carboniferous
and Triassic systems, the latter being the upper portion of the
New Red Sandstone formation.
Perturbation. In astronomy, the deviation of a celestial body from the
elliptic orbit which it would describe, if acted upon by no other attractive
force than that of the sun, or central body about which it revolves.
Pe´tal. From the Gr. petalon, a leaf. A part of the corolla of a flower analogous
to a leaf.
Petro´leum. From the Gr. petros, a rock, and the Lat. oleum, oil. Rock-oil,
often called Barbadoes tar. A brown, liquid bitumen, found in the West
Indies, Europe, &c.
Phaco´chæ´re. Fr. Phaco´chæ´rus. Lat.
From the Gr. phake, a wart, and choiros, a hog. A
genus of mammals of the order of pachydermata;
allied to the hogs.
Phala´nger. From the Gr. phalagx, a phalanx. A genus of marsupial or
pouch-bearing mammals.
Phaneroga´mia. From the Gr. phaneros, evident, and gamos, marriage.
Phanerógamous plants. Applied to plants having distinct flowers.
Phi´ledon. Phi´lemon.
Name of a genus of birds.
Phle´um. Cat’s tail grass. A genus of plants of the family of Grami´neæ.
Phlox. Gr. Flame. A genus of beautiful plants of the family of Polemoniáceæ.
Pho´cæ. Lat. Plural of phoca.
Pho´ca. Lat. A seal. A genus of aquatic mammals, embracing the common
seal or Phoca vitulina; the Harp seal or P. oceanica; the Hare-tailed
seal or P. lagura; the sea-lion; sea-wolf; sea-elephant; sea-cow; &c., &c.
Pho´nolite. From the Gr. phoneó, I resound, and lithos, a stone. Clinkstone.
A kind of compact basalt which is sonorous when struck.
Phor´mium. From the Gr. phormos, a basket. Flax-lilly. A genus of plants
of the family of Asphodéleæ. Phormium tenax, Iris-leaved flax-lilly of
New Zealand.
Phos´phorus. From the Gr. phos, light, and pherô, I bear. A simple substance
which is highly inflammable.
Phospho´ric acid. A compound of phosphorus and oxygen, having the
properties of acids.
Phos´phates. Compounds of phosphoric acid with salifiable bases, as soda,
are termed phosphates; Phosphate of soda, for example.
Phosphore´scence. Emission of light from substances at common temperatures,
or below a red heat.
Phosphorescent. Having the property of emitting light without sensible
heat.
Physa´lia. Physa´lis.
From the Gr. phuse, a vesicle. A genus of animals of the
family of Acalepha. The Portuguese man-of-war belongs to
this genus.
Physa´lis. A genus of plants of the family of Solanáceæ. Physalis edulis,
the Cape gooseberry.
Physe´ter. A blower. Name of a genus of mammals of the family of
Ceta´cea.
516Pime´nto. Allspice; Jamaica pepper.
Pinnate. From the Lat. pinnatus, feathered. Having leaflets arranged
along each side of a common petiole, like the feather of a quill.
Pinnati´fida. Lat. Pinnatifid. A leaf is so called when it is divided
into lobes from the margin nearly to the midrif.
Pinus. Lat. A pine-tree. A genus of plants of the family of Coniferæ.
Pinus abies. The Norway Spruce. Pinus canariensis. The Canary
pine. Pinus cembra. The Riga balsam tree; the Cembran or Siberian
pine. Pinus excelsa. The lofty or Nepal pine. Pinus maritima. The
maritime pine. Pinus pinea. The Stone pine.
Pipiens. Lat. Peeping like a chicken.
Pipa. A genus of batrachian reptiles. A kind of toad.
Plat´ina. Plat´inum.
The diminutive of the Spanish plata, silver. A metal of a
steel gray colour, approaching to the white colour of silver,
to which resemblance it owes its name. It was found in Choco, one of
the provinces of Columbia, and brought to Europe in 1741, by Don Antonio
de Ulloa.
Plei´ocene. Pli´ocene.
From the Gr. pleion, more, and kainos, recent. A term applied
by geologists to the newer tertiary formation, because
there is found fossilized in it a greater number of existing than of extinct
species.
Plumb-line. Plummet.
From the Lat. plumbum, lead. An instrument, consisting
of a string with a weight, usually of lead, attached to a
straight staff, for the purpose of ascertaining the direction of gravitation,
or the perpendicular to the horizon.
Pluto´nic rocks. Unstratified crystaline rocks, probably formed at great
depths beneath the surface by igneous fusion. Volcanic rocks are formed
near the surface.
Podoca´rpus. From the Gr. pous, podos, the foot, and karpos, fruit. A genus
of plants of the family of Coniferæ.
Polarized light. Light so modified as to possess poles, or sides, having
opposite properties.
Polariza´tion. Light, by reflexion, by passing through crystals possessing
the power of double refraction, becomes modified, so that it does not
present the same phenomena of transmission and reflection, as light
which had not been polarized.
Polyg´onum. From the Gr. polus, many, and gonu, a knee or joint. A genus
of plants of the family of Polygona´ceæ. Polygonum viriparum, Alpine
Bistort.
Polymo´rpha. Lat. From the Gr. polus, many, and morphe, form. Many-shaped.
A specific name.
Po´lypi. Lat. Plural of polypus.
Polyple´ctron. Name of a genus of birds.
Pol´ypus. From the Gr. polus, many, and pous, foot. A genus of radiate
animals.
Pon´tica. From pontus, the sea. Belonging or relating to the sea.
Pontop´pida´na. Synonym of Couroupita. A genus of plants of the family
of Myrtáceæ, Lecythideæ. A large tree of Guiana.
Ponto´phidan. From the Lat. pontus, the sea, and the Gr. ophis, a serpent.
The sea serpent.
Portulaca´ria. A genus of plants of the family of Portula´ceæ. The Purslane-tree.
Portulaca´ria afra. The African purslane-tree.
Porphyri´tic. Of the nature of porphyry.
517Porphyry. From the Gr. porphura, purple. Originally applied to a red rock
found in Egypt. A compact feldspathic rock containing disseminated
crystals of feldspar, the latter when polished forming small angular spots,
of a light color, thickly sprinkled over the surface. The rock is of various
colors, dark green, red, blue, black, &c.
Portland bed. A name given by geologists to the superior division of the
upper óolite or lias system. The “Portland stone” is a kind of limestone
found in the south of England, and more particularly in the Isle of
Portland. In this series of strata is a silicious sand known as the “Portland
Sand.”
Potas´sium. A metal discovered in potash by Sir H. Davy in 1807.
Potenti´lla. A genus of plants of the family of Rosáceæ. Cinquefoil.
Potentilla tridenta´ta. Trifid-leaved cinquefoil.
Pre´hensile. From the Lat. prehendere, to lay hold of. Having the faculty
to lay hold of. Applied to the tails of those monkeys, for example, which
have the power to suspend themselves by the tail.
Preda´ceous. Living on prey.
Primary formation. A term applied by geologists to designate the different
rocks which were formed prior to the creation of plants and animals.
Primigenius. Lat. Original; first of its kind.
Pri´mum mo´bile. That which first imparts motion.
Prim´ula. Lat. A primrose. A genus of plants of the family of primuláceæ.
Primula farino´sa, the Bird’s-eye primrose.
Prism. A solid bounded by three planes, two of which are equal.
Prismatic. Belonging or relating to a prism.
Probosci´dian. From the Gr. proboskis, a proboscis or trunk. Applied to
mammals of the family which includes the elephant.
Procella´ria. From the Lat. procella, a tempest at sea. A genus of birds
of the family of Palmipedes.
Proli´fera. Formed from proles, a race or stock, and fero, I bear. Prolific.
Pro´tea. A genus of plants of the family of Proteáceæ. Protea cyaneroides,
Artichoke-flowered protea.
Pro´teus. A genus of reptiles.
Pteroca´rpus. From the Gr. pteron, a wing, and karpos, fruit. The pods
have membranous wings. A genus of plants of the family of Leguminósæ.
Pterocarpus santalinus. The red saunders tree.
Pte´ris. Gr. Name of Fern. A genus of cryptógamous plants. Brake.
Pteris esculenta. Edible fern.
Pteropus. From the Gr. pteron, wing, and pous, foot. A genus of mammals
of the tribe of bats, termed Roussettes.
Pu´ma. A name of the couguar or American Lion.
Pyroge´nous. From the Gr. pur, fire, and geinomai, I beget. Applied to
rocks which owe their origin to the action of fire, as granite.
Py´rus. A genus of plants of the family Rosáceæ. A pear-tree.
Pyri´fera. Lat. From pyrus, a pear, and fero, I bear.
Python. A genus of reptiles.
Quadruma´na. Formed from the Lat. quatuor, four, and manus, hand. An
order of mammals characterized by having four hands.
Qua´rtz. Germ. Rock crystal.
Quartzose. Of the nature of quartz.
Quicksilver. A metal which is fluid at ordinary temperatures. Also
called mercury.
518Radia´ta. Lat. Radiate; the name of a class of zóophytes.
Ra´diate. From the Lat. radius, a ray. Furnished with rays; having rays.
Radia´tion. The emission of the rays of light, or of heat, from a luminous
or a heated body.
Raffle´sia. After Sir T. Raffles. A genus of plants of the family of Rafflesiáceæ,
which are parasites, growing on the roots of dicotyledonous
plants. The flowers of some of them are enormously large; the Rafflesia
arnoldi are said to be three feet in diameter.
Raine´tte. Fr. A tree-frog.
Ranun´culus. From the Lat. rana, a frog, because the species inhabit
humid places. Crow-foot. A genus of plants of the family of Ranunculáceæ.
Ranun´culi. Lat. Plural of ranunculus.
Ra´na. Lat. A frog. A genus of reptiles.
Refra´ction. From the Lat. refractus, broken. The deviation of a ray of
light from its rectilinear course, caused by passing through a transparent
substance. The degree of refraction depends upon the density of the
medium through which the ray of light passes.
Refu´lgens. Lat. Shining brightly; refulgent.
Re´ptile. From the Lat. repere, to crawl. A term applied to any animal
that moves naturally upon its belly, or on very short legs, as serpents,
&c.
Repti´lia. The class of reptiles: it comprises those vertebrate animals
which have cold blood, an aërial respiration, and an incomplete circulation.
Resenife´ra. Lat. Containing resin.
Revolu´ta. Lat. Turned back; tumbled.
Rhea. Synonyme of Struthio, an ostrich.
Rho´dium. From the Gr. rodon, a rose, on account of the rose red color of
some of its salts. A metal discovered in the year 1803 by Wollaston.
Rhodode´ndron.From the Gr. rodon, a rose, and dendron, a tree. A genus
of plants of the family of Ericáceæ.
Rhodome´lia. From the Gr. rodon, a rose, and melas, black. A genus of
plants of the family of Phy´ceæ.
Rhus. A genus of plants of the family of Terebintáceæ. Rhus vernix. The
varnish Sumach.
Rhynchops. From the Gr. rugchops, a beak. A genus of birds: the skimmers
or scissor-bills.
Rock-salt. Common salt found in masses or beds in the new red sandstone.
Rod´entia. From the Lat. rodere, to gnaw. An order of mammals.
Rodents. Animals of the order Rodentia.
Ror´qual. A kind of whalebone whale.
Ro´sa. A genus of plants of the family of Rosáceæ. Rosa sinensis. The
Chinese rose.
Ru´ber. Lat. Red.
Rubia´ceæ. A family of plants.
Ru´by. A crystalized gem of various shades of red.
Rufima´nus. Lat. Red-handed.
Ru´minant. An animal that chews the cud.
Rumina´ntia. An order of mammals which are characterized by chewing
the cud.
Ru´minati. To chew the cud.
519Sa´lines. Natural deposits of salt; salt springs.
Sa´lix. Lat. Willow. A genus of plants of the family of Salici´neæ
Sa´lix lana´ta. Woolly willow.
Salt. A combination of an acid with one or more bases.
Samo´lus. From the Celtic, san, salutary, and mos, pig. Salutary to pigs.
Brook-weed. A genus of plants of the family of Primuláceæ. Samo´lus
valera´ndi. Common brook-weed.
Sandara´ch. A name given by the Arabs to an odorous resin.
Sandali´nus. Lat. Sandal-like.
Sandstone. Any rock consisting of aggregated grains of sand.
Sapa´jou. Fr. A genus of monkeys.
Sapi´ndus. Abbreviation of sapo, soap, and indicus, Indian soap. Soap-berry.
A genus of plants of the family of Sapindáceæ. Sapi´ndus sapona´ria.
Common soap-berry.
Sapona´ria. Lat. Soapy.
Sapota´ceæ. A family of plants.
Sa´pphire. A very hard gem consisting essentially of crystalized alu´mina.
It is of various colors; the blue variety being usually called sapphire; the
red, the oriental ruby; the yellow, the oriental topaz.
Sa´quis. Sakis.
A genus of monkeys.
Sarga´sum. From the Span. sarga´zo, sea-lentils. A genus of plants of the
family of Phy´ceæ.
Sarrace´nia. After Dr. Sarrazin. The side-saddle flower, or pitcher plant.
A genus of plants of the family of Sarracénieæ.
Sau´rian. From the Gr. sauros, a lizard. Applied to animals of the lizard
tribe.
Sauroid. From the Gr. sauros, a lizard, and eidos, resemblance. Resembling
a lizard.
Sca´ndens. Lat. Climbing.
Schist. From the Gr. schistos, split. Slate.
Schisto´se. Slaty.
Schot´ia. After Schott, a Dutch gardener. A genus of plants of the family
of Leguminósæ. Schotia speciosa. Small-leaved Schotia.
Sci´tame´neæ. A family of plants.
Scie´ria.From the Gr. skleros, hard. A genus of plants of the family of
Cyperáceæ.
Sco´lopax. A genus of birds: a heron.
Scopa´ria. From scopa, a broom. A genus of plants of the family of Scrophulari´neæ.
Sco´riæ. Volcanic cinders. Cinders and slags of basaltic lavas of a reddish
brown and black color.
Scoria´ceous. Of the nature of scoriæ.
Sco´riform. In form of scoriæ.
Scy´throps. From the Gr. skuthrops, sad. A genus of birds of the order of
climbers. A cuckoo.
Seams. Thin layers or strata interposed between others.
Secondary formation. In geology the formation which is next in order to
the transition formation.
Se´cular. From the Lat. seculum, a century. Secular elevations are those
which take place gradually and imperceptibly, through a long period of
time. Secular tides are those which are dependent upon the secular variation
of the moon’s mean distance from the earth.
520Se´diment. From the Lat. sedeo, I sit. That which subsides or settles to the
bottom of any liquid.
Sedime´ntary. Belonging or relating to sediment.
Sebife´ra. Lat. Containing tallow.
Seed-lobe. The envelope in which the seed in plants is formed.
Sele´nite. A variety of gypsum, or sulphate of lime.
Se´mitic. Applied to the languages of the descendants of Sem, or the Orientals.
Se´pal. That part of the calyx of a flower which resembles a leaf.
Se´pia. A kind of paint prepared from the cuttle fish. A genus of mollusks.
Ser´pentine. A magnesian rock of various colors, and often speckled like
a serpent’s back. It is generally dark green.
Se´ptentriona´lis. Lat. Northern.
Ser´rate. From the Lat. serra, a saw. Toothed like a saw.
Serra´ta. Lat. Serrate.
Shaft. A cylindrical hollow space, or pit, in mines, made for the purpose
of extracting ores, &c.
Shale. An indurated slaty clay, or clay-slate.
Shingle. Loose, water-worn gravel and pebbles.
Shore´a. Synonym of Vatica. A genus of plants of the family of Diptérocárpeæ.
Sierra. Span. A mountain chain.
Si´lex. From the Gr. chalis, a pebble. The principal constituent of quartz,
rock-crystal, and other silicious minerals.
Si´lica. Silicious earth: the oxide of silicon (the elementary basis of Silica,)
constituting almost the whole of silex or flint. It combines with many of
the metallic oxides, and is for this reason sometimes called sili´cic acid.
Si´licate. A compound of silicic acid and a base. Plate-glass and window-glass
are silicates of soda and potassa; and flint-glass is a similar compound
with a large addition of silicate of lead.
Sili´cious. Containing silica.
Sili´cified. Petrified or mineralized by silicious earth.
Silt. The name given to the sand, clay, and earth, which accumulate in
running waters.
Sili´cium. The metalloid which forms the basis of silica.
Silurian system. Series of rocks formerly known as the greywacke series.
So called after the Silures or Siluri, the ancient Britons who inhabited the
region where these strata are most distinctly developed. They are entirely
of marine origin.
Silu´rus. A genus of fishes of the family of Silurida.
Silva. A forest, or woods.
Simu´lium. From the Lat. simulo, I feign. A genus of insects of the order
of Diptera.
Sine´nsis. Lat. Chinese; belonging or relating to China.
Sin´ter. Germ. A scale. Calcareous sinter is a variety of carbonate of
lime composed of successive concentric layers. Silicious sinter is a variety
of common opal.
Sipho´nia. A genus of plants of the family of Euphorbiáceæ.
Slate. A well known rock which is divisible into thin plates or layers.
Smynthus, or Sminthus. From the Gr. sminthos, rat. A genus of rodent
mammals.
Smyrne´nsis. Lat. Belonging, or relating to Smyrna.
521Solar spe´ctrum. Lat. Spectrum, an image. In optics the name given
to an elongated image of the sun formed on a wall or screen by a beam of
undecomposed light, received through a small hole, and refracted by a
prism.
Solfata´ra. Italian. A volcanic vent emitting sulphur and sulphurous
compounds.
Solida´go. Golden-rod. A genus of plants of the family of Compósitæ.
So´mate´ria. Synonym with platypus. A genus of birds.
Sopho´ra. A genus of plants of the family Leguminósæ.
Spar. (Germ. Spath.) Applied to certain crystalized mineral substances,
which easily break into cubic, prismatic, or other forms.
Spar´ry. Of the nature of spar.
Spe´cies. A kind; a subdivision of genus. Extinct species is a term applied
to those kinds of organized beings, whether plants or animals,
which are not found living upon the face of the earth.
Speci´fic. Relating to species.
Specific weight, or SPECIFIC GRAVITY. The relative weight of one body
with that of another of equal volume.
Specio´sa. Specio´sus.Specio´sum.
Lat. Handsome. A word used as a specific name.
Spe´cular iron. A kind of iron ore of granular structure, and metallic
lustre, sometimes shining.
Specta´bilis. Lat. Visible, remarkable, noteable.
Spica´ta. Lat. Having spikes; eared like corn.
Spine´lle, or Spine´l. French. A sub-species of ruby.
Spiræ´a. A genus of plants of the family of Rosáceæ.
Spores. The seeds of lichens, and crytógamous plants.
Sporu´les. The diminutive of spores.
Spuma´ceous. From the Lat. spuma, foam. Foamy.
Stagma´ria. From the Gr. stagma, a drop. A genus of plants of the family
of Anacardiáceæ. Stagma´ria verniciflua, a tree of Sumatra, from the bark
of which exudes an extremely acrid juice. This juice quickly dries in
the air, becomes black, and is sold at a high price; it is employed in the
preparation of a varnish. The Sumatrans consider it dangerous to sit
or sleep in the shade of this tree.
Sta´men. Lat. The male apparatus of a flower.
Stape´lia. Proper name. A genus of plants of the family of Asclepiádeæ.
Starch. A vegetable substance which exists in many tuberous roots, the
stalks of palms, and in the seeds of the cereal grasses.
Step´pe. Fr., from the Lat. stipes, a landmark. A term applied to the
Savanahs of Tartary, of the Crimea, &c., and salt deserts of Northern
Asia.
Sti´gma. The superior, terminating part of the pistil of a flower.
Stillin´gia. After Dr. Stillingfleet. A genus of plants of the family of
Euphorbiáceæ. Stillingia sebifera. The tallow tree of China.
Stra´ta. Lat. Plural of stratum, a layer, a bed.
Stratifica´tion. An arrangement in beds or layers.
Stra´tified. Arranged in strata.
Stra´tus. A kind of cloud: it consists of horizontal layers, and includes
fogs and mists; its under surface usually rests upon the land or sea, and
it is therefore the lowest of the clouds.
Strelit´zia. After Queen Charlotte, of the family of Mecklenburgh Strelitz.
A genus of plants of the family of Musáceæ.
522Stri´æ. Lat. Diminutive channels or creases.
Stria´ta. Lat. Striated; marked with striæ.
Stron´tium. A metalloid found in the earth called strontia.
Stru´thio. Lat. An ostrich. A genus of birds.
Stru´theous. Of the nature of an ostrich.
Strych´nos. A genus of plants of the family of Apocy´neæ. Strych´nos
toxica´ria. The poison strychnos.
Style´dium. From the Gr. stulos, a column. A genus of plants of the
family of Stylideæ, found in New Holland.
Sublima´tion. The process by which volatile substances are raised by
heat, and again condensed into the solid form. The substances so obtained
are called sublimates.
Sub soil. An under soil.
Sub stra´ta. Lat. Plural of substratum, an under layer or bed.
Sul´phuret. A compound of sulphur with another solid, as with iron,
forming sulphuret of iron.
Sul´phuretted. Containing sulphur; as hydrogen, containing sulphur, is
called sulphuretted hydrogen.
Supe´rba. Lat. Superb, elegant.
Suria´na. A genus of plants of the family of Suriáneæ; it was formerly
of the Rosáceæ.
Sycomo´rus. Lat. The Sycamore; applied also as a specific name.
Sy´enite and SI´ENITE. A granite rock from Syene or Siena in Egypt. It
consists of quartz, feldspar, and hornblende. It is tougher than granite.
Syl´via. Name of a genus of birds.
Syngene´sia. From the Gr. sun, together, and geinomai, to grow. Linnean
name of a class of plants.
Tac´ca. Malay. A genus of plants of the family of Aroïdeæ. Tac´ca pinnatifida.
The Salep tree.
Tang´hinia. From the Madagascar name, Tanghing. A genus of plants
of the family of Apocy´neæ. Tang´hinia vene´niflua yields an active poison
which is used to cause death, under judicial sentence, by the natives of
Madagascar.
Tanta´lium. A metal, remarkable for its insolubility in acids.
Tan´talus. A genus of birds of the family of Herons.
Tata´rica. Lat. Belonging or relating to Tartary.
Telesco´pic. Relating to the telescope; telescopic objects are those which
may be seen by the aid of a telescope.
Tellu´rium. A rare metal, found in the gold mines of Transylvania.
Tempera´ture. A definite degree of sensible heat.
Tempora´ria. Lat. Temporary; relating to time.
Te´nax. Lat. Tenacious.
Ter´mes. A genus of insects of the order of Neuroptera, and family of
Termitidæ. White ants.
Terra japo´nica. An astringent medicinal gum, obtained from the Acácia
catechu.
Tertiary formation. A series of sedimentary rocks which are superior
to the primary and secondary, and distinguished by the fossil remains
found in them.
Testa´ceæ. From testa, a shell. Testáceans; animals provided with an
external shelly cover, composed chiefly of carbonate of lime.
Testa´ceous. Consisting of carbonate of lime and animal matter.
Testu´do. Lat. Tortoise. A genus of reptiles of the order of Chelonians.
523Tetrace´ra. From the Gr. tettaras, four, and keras, a horn. A genus of
plants of the family of Dillenáceæ.
Te´trago´na. From the Gr. tetra, four, and gonos, angle. Having four
angles; applied as a specific name. A genus of plants of the family of
Portuláceæ.
The´a. A genus of plants of the tribe of Camelleæ. The´a bohea, Bohea
tea; Thea viridis, Green tea.
The´ine. The proximate principle of tea.
Ther´mal. From the Gr. thermos, heat. Warm; belonging or relating to
heat.
Tho´rium. A metal obtained from Thorina, an earthy substance.
Thu´ia, also Thu´ja. A genus of plants of the family of Coni´feræ. Thuia
articulata. Jointed arbor vitæ. T. orientalis; Chinese arbor vitæ. T.
sandarach, Shittim wood.
Tidal. Relating to tides. Tidal wave is the elevation of the water of the
ocean, produced by the attraction of the moon.
Tilland´sia. A genus of plants of the family of Bromeliáceæ.
Tita´nium. A metal discovered in 1781, by W. Gregor, in a ferruginous
sand.
To´dus. A genus of birds of the order of Passerinæ.
To´paz. A crystalized mineral, harder than quartz, of a yellow wine
color.
Torsion balance. See, Balance.
Tou´rmaline. A mineral substance consisting of a Boro-silicate of alumine,
harder than quartz, but not as hard as topaz.
Tournfo´rtia. After Tournefort. A genus of plants of the family of Borragi´neæ.
Tra´chyte. From the Gr. trachus, rough. A variety of lava. A feldspathic
rock, which often contains glassy feldspar and hornblende. When
the feldspar crystals are thickly and uniformly disseminated, it is called
trachytic porphyry.
Trap. From the Swedish trappa, a flight of stairs, because trap rocks frequently
occur in large tabular masses rising one above another like the
successive steps of a stair-case. Applied to certain igneous rocks composed
of feldspar, angite, and hornblende.
Tra´ppean. Belonging to trap rocks.
Trema´ndra. A genus of plants of the family of Tremándrea.
Trias. From the Lat. tres, three. Synonym of the triássic system of rocks,
consisting of the Bunter sandstein, the Muschelkalk, and Keuper, a group of
sandy marls of variegated colors.
Tricho´manes. From the Gr. trichos, hair, and mania, madness, excess. A
genus of plants of the class of Crytoga´mia. Tricho´manes brevise´tum.
Short-styled trichómanes.
Tricy´rtis. From the Gr. treis, three, and kurtis, a sack or pouch. A genus
of plants of the family of Melantháceæ.
Tridenta´ta. Lat. Three-toothed; having three teeth.
Tri´gonoce´phalus. From the Gr. treis, three, gonos, an angle, and kephale,
head. A genus of very venemous serpents. Tri´gonoce´phalus lanceola´tus.
Lance-head viper.
Tri´lobite. From the Lat. tres, three, and lobus, lobe. A genus of fossil
crustáceans.
Trio´nyx. From the Gr. treis, three, and onux, a nail. A genus of Chelonians.
524Trio´steum.From the Gr. treis, three, and osteon, a bone, a nut. A genus
of plants of the family of Caprifoliáceæ.
Tu´fa. Italian. A volcanic rock, composed of an agglutination of fragmented
scoriæ.
Tung´sten. Swedish. Heavy stone. A metal which is hard, white, brittle,
and difficult to fuse.
Tu´rquoise. A blue mineral found in Persia; its color depends on the
presence of oxide of copper.
Um´bel. A form of inflorescence, in which several peduncles expand so as
to produce a flower somewhat resembling a parasol when open.
Umbelli´feræ. From umbel, screen, and fero, I bear. Name of a family of
plants.
Umbelli´ferous. Belonging or relating to Umbelliferæ.
Uncina´ta. Lat. From uncus, a hook. Hooked; having hooks.
Upheaval. The elevation of land by earthquakes.
Ura´nium. A metal discovered by Klaproth, in 1789.
Ursi´nus. Lat. Belonging or relating to bears.
U´sneoides. From u´sne, a kind of lichen, and the Gr. eidos, resemblance.
Resembling the u´sne.
U´rens. Lat. Burning.
Va´cuum. From the Lat. vacuus, empty. A portion of space void of matter.
Vagina´lis. Lat. From vagina, a sheath. A genus of birds.
Vana´dium. A silvery white metal, discovered originally by Del Rio, in
1801, but not admitted until 1830.
Vane´ssa. A genus of butterflies. Vanessa cardui, the painted lady butterfly.
Vero´nica. A genus of plants of the family of Scropularínæ.
Ve´rtebra. From the Lat. vertere, to turn. A joint or bone of the spine.
Vertebral column, is the spine or back bone.
Ver´tebrate. Having vertebræ, or a spine.
Verticose. Whorl-like.
Vene´niflua. Lat. Flowing with poison.
Verni´ciflua. Lat. Flowing with varnish.
Ver´nix. Lat. Varnish.
Villo´sus. Lat. Velvety.
Vi´ridis. Lat. Green.
Vi´tex. Chaste-tree. A genus of plants of the family of Verbenáceæ.
Vit´rified. From the Lat. vitrea, glass. Converted into glass.
Vituli´na. From the Lat. vitulus, a sea calf. Belonging or relating to seals.
Vivipa´rum. Lat. Viviparous.
Volca´nic. Belonging or relating to volcanoes.
Volta´ic. Applied to electricity produced after the manner of Volta, an
Italian philosopher.
Vultur papa. The king of vultures.
Watershed. The general declivity of the face of a country which determines
the direction of the flowing of water.
Weald. Name of a part of Kent and Surrey in England. The Wealden clay
and Wealden deposit are found in this part of England.
Xanthox´ylum. From the Gr. xanthos, yellow, xulon, wood. Tooth-ache
tree. A genus of plants of the family of Rutáceæ.
525Xera´nthemum. From the Gr. xeros, dry, and anthos, flower. A genus of
plants of the family of Compo´sitæ.
Yerba mate. Spanish name of the Ilex paraguensis.
Ytt´rium. A metal discovered by Wöhler, in 1828; it is of a dark gray
color and brittle.
Yuc´ca. Adam’s needle. A genus of plants of the family of Liliáceæ. It
yields an esculent root.
Za´mia. A genus of plants of the family of Cycádeæ.
Zanniche´llia. After Zannichella, a Venetian apothecary. Pond weed. A
genus of plants of the family of Naiades.
Zirco´nium. A metal found in zirconia, an earth, discovered by Klaproth in
1789.
Zi´zyphus. A genus of plants of the family of Rhamni. Z. jujuba, yields
the jujube fruit.
Zoste´ra. From the Gr. zoster, a riband. Sea-wrack grass. A genus of
plants of the family of Fluviales.
Zo´ology. From the Gr. zo´on, an animal, and logos, a discourse. That
branch of Natural History which treats of animals.
Zo´ophyte. From the Gr. zo´on, an animal, and phuton, a plant. An animal
without vertebræ, or extremities, that attaches itself to solid bodies, and
seems to live and vegetate like a plant.
Uranus, discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781.
Neptune, discovered by M. Le Verrier and Mr. Adams in 1846.
4. The compression of the earth is the flattening at the poles. Its
numerical value is equal to the difference between the equatorial and
polar diameters, expressed in feet or miles. [The amount of compression,
oblateness at the poles, is measured by the ratio of the difference
of the equatorial and polar diameters to the equatorial diameter, which
is technically termed the oblateness. The following are the dimensions
of the earth in miles:
Miles.
Diameter.
Radius at the equator
3962·60
=
7925·2
Radius at the pole
3949·60
=
7899·2
Difference of equatorial and polar radii
0013·00
=
0026·0
Mean radius, or at 45° Latitude
3956·10
=
7912·2
Mean length of a degree
0069·05
——
The fourth part of a meridian
6214·20
——]
5. The theoretical investigation of the figure of the earth, the method
employed for measuring arcs of the meridian, and that of finding the
form of the earth from the oscillations of the pendulum, are given in
the “Connection of the Physical Sciences,” by Mary Somerville, 7th
Section, 7th edition.
6. A pendulum which oscillates 86,400 times in a mean day at the
equator, will do the same at every point of the earth’s surface if its
length be increased progressively to the pole as the square of the sine
of the latitude. The sine of the latitude is a perpendicular line drawn
from any point of a terrestrial meridian to the equatorial radius of the
earth. That line expressed in feet or miles, and multiplied by itself,
is the square of the sine of the latitude. Gravitation increases from the
equator to the poles according to that law, and the length of the degrees
augments very nearly in the same ratio.
7. The compression deduced by M. Bessel from arcs of the meridian
is
1⁄299;
that deduced by Colonel Sabine from his experiment with the
pendulum is
1⁄288·7.
Other pendulum experiments have given a compression
of
1⁄298·2
and
1⁄266·4.
The protuberant matter at the earth’s
equator produces inequalities in the moon’s motions, from whence the
compression of the earth is found to be
1⁄305·05;
and although the reciprocal
action of the moon on the protuberant matter at the earth’s equator
does not actually give the compression, it proves that it must be
between
1⁄279
and
1⁄573.
Coincidences so near and so remarkable, arising
from such different methods, show how nearly the irregular figure
of the earth has been determined. The inequalities in the motions of
the moon and earth alluded to are explained in Sections 5 and 11
“Connection of the Physical Sciences.”
8. It is clear that the mean density of the earth may be found from
the attraction of the plumb-line by mountains, or by the irregularity in
the oscillations of the pendulum, but the torsion balance is a much
more sensible instrument than either. The density determined by M.
Reich differs from that found by Mr. Baily by only one twenty-eighth
part.
9. If a line be drawn from the north-eastern coast of North America
within the limit of floating ice, and if it be continued across the southern
half of Ireland and England, and prolonged eastward so as to strike
against the Ural mountains, it will mark the boundary of the European
portion of the Glacial Sea. It submerged part of Russia to the depth of
1000 feet.—Essay on the British Fauna and Flora, by Professor E.
Forbes, in the “Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain,”
vol. i.
10. Sir James Ross and Captain Wilkes met with icebergs covered
with mud and stones in the antarctic seas, and even in 66° 5ʹ lat. One
block seen by Sir James Ross was estimated to weigh many tons.—Antarctic
Voyages.—[Narrative of United States Exploring Expedition.
By Charles Wilkes, U. S. N.].
11. Account of the Ganges and Brahmapootra, by Major Rennell.—“Phil.
Trans.,” 1781. Sir George Staunton’s Embassy to China. Elie
de Beaumont, Leçons de Géologie, 1 vol., 8vo. The latter work contains
a very elaborate essay on alluvial deposits by rivers, &c.
13. [See Statistics of Coal. By Richard Cowling Taylor. Philadelphia,
1848.]
14. The author’s geological information rests on the authority of those distinguished
authors whose works are in the hands of every one, namely,
Baron Cuvier, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Roderick Murchison, Sir Henry de
la Beche, Professor Owen, and the Memoirs of the Geological Society.
15. The proportions of land to water referred to in the text were
estimated by Mr. Gardner. According to his computation, the extent
of land is about 37,673,000 square British miles, independently of Victoria
Continent [discovered by Charles Wilkes, U. S. N.]; and the sea
occupies 110,849,000. Hence, the land is to the sea as 1 to 4 nearly.
The unexplored region within the Arctic Circle is about 7,620,000
square miles.
16. This very general view of the structure of the globe originated
chiefly with the celebrated German geologist Von Buch, and has been
much extended and developed by M. Elie de Beaumont, one of the
most philosophical of modern geologists.
18. The author avails herself with much pleasure of an opportunity of
expressing her admiration of the accuracy, extent, and execution of
Mr. Keith Johnston’s Physical Atlas, and of the valuable information
contained in the letterpress which accompanies it, which has afforded
her the greatest assistance. As Mr. Johnston is publishing a small and
cheap edition of his Atlas, well fitted to illustrate these volumes, the
necessity of inserting in them any similar maps, which was at one
time contemplated, is obviated.
19. “On the Parallel Lines of Simultaneous Elevation in the Weald of
Kent and Sussex,” by —— Hopkins, Esq.
21. By the soundings of Captain Smyth, R. N., the Strait is 960 fathoms
deep between Gibraltar and Ceuta, and varying from 160 to 500 in the
narrowest part.
22. A crater of elevation is a mountain, generally dome-shaped, whose
top has sunk into a crater or hollow, after the internal force which raised
it was withdrawn, but from which no lava has issued. Dome-shaped
mountains owe their form to internal pressure, probably from lava, but
which have not sunk into a crater.
32. From the observations of Sir Roderick Murchison, M. Middendorf,
M. de Verneuil, and Count Keyserling, it appears also that the low land
of Siberia has been extended since the existing species of shell-fish
inhabited the northern seas; a circumstance that must have rendered
the Siberian climate still more severe, and materially affected that of
the northern parts of Europe and Asia.
33. In 1820, Admiral (then Lieutenant) Wrangel travelled from the
mouth of the Kolyma to Behring’s Straits on sledges drawn by dogs,
and made a bold but vain attempt to reach the North pole. Lieutenant
Anjou, at the same time, sailed from the mouth of the Jana river,
reached
761⁄2
degrees of north latitude, and passed round the group of
the New Siberian Islands.
35. From Miss Martineau’s spirited and picturesque account of her
journey to Egypt and Syria.
36. By the trigonometrical measurement of Major Anthony Symonds,
confirmed by French authorities, and adopted by Baron Humboldt, the
depression of the Dead Sea is, as stated in the text, 1300 feet; but
MM. Bertou and Russiger made it out to be 1388 by the barometer.
See Lieut. Molyneux’s paper in the Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society, 1848.
37. [For a very interesting and reliable account of the river Jordan
and its valley, the reader is directed to a “Narrative of the United
States’ Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea, by W. F.
Lynch, U. S. N., Commander of the Expedition.” Philadelphia, 1849.]
38. Estimated from N.E. to S.W., the proportion of the two slopes of
the Abyssinian table-land is as 12·6 to 1.
40. The Voyage of Captain King, R. N., Mr. Darwin’s “Journal of a
Naturalist,” Dr. Pœppig’s “Travels in South America,” are the authorities
for the account of Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, and Chile; Baron
Humboldt, Mr. Pentland, Drs. Pœppig and Meyer of Berlin, for Peru
and the Andean Chain to the Isthmus of Panamá.
41. This great height has been deduced, adopting the position of the
Peak as fixed by Captain Fitz Roy, and employing the angles of elevation
observed by Captain Beechey near Valparaiso.
45. The breadth of the table-land, and the two Cordilleras of the
Bolivian Andes given in the text, was measured by Mr. Pentland; he
also determined the heights of Illimani to be 21,150 feet; of Supäíwasi
or Huayna Potosi, 20,260 feet; and of Ancohuma or the Nevado of
Sorata, 21,290 feet.
48. It appears by the measurements of Mr. Pentland in the Peru-Bolivian
Andes, that many of their passes are higher than in the equatorial
portion of the chain. The passes of Rumihuasi, on the high road from
Cusco to Arequipa, of Toledo (between Arequipa and Puno), of Gualillas
and Chullunquiani (between Arica and La Paz), all in the Western
Cordillera, attain the respective elevations of 16,160, 15,790, 14,750, and
15,160 feet;—whilst in the Eastern or Bolivian Cordillera the passes of
Challa (between Oruro and Cochabamba), of Pacuani (between La Paz
and Coröico), of Pumapacheta (between the lake of Titicaca and the
affluents to the Amazon), of Vilcañoto (between the valley of the Collao
and that of the river Yucay), rise to heights of 13,600, 15,350, 13,600,
and 14,520 English feet.
53. Sir Woodbine Parish on Buenos Ayres, and Sir Francis Head’s
Journey over the Pampas.
54. Mr. Pentland found a very perfect volcanic crater, with well-marked
currents of lava issuing from it—a rare occurrence in the
higher craters of the Andes—near to San Pedro de Cacha, in the valley
of the Yucay (lat. 14° 12ʹ, long. 71° 15ʹ W., and at an elevation of
12,000 feet), near to the ruins of the Temple of the Inga Viracocha, a
monument and a locality celebrated in Peruvian legend, the nearest
point of the sea-coast being 175 miles distant. It is probable that many
of the most celebrated mining districts of Alto Peru—Potosi, for instance,
situated in a porphyry—have been upheaved at a very recent
period. Modern volcanic rocks are not wanting in the valley of the
Desaguadero; volcanic conglomerates exist in the deep ravines round
the city of La Paz. lat. 16° 30ʹ; and the mountain of Litanias, which
furnishes the building-stone for that Bolivian city (lat. 16° 42ʹ, long. 68°
191⁄2ʹ),
is composed of a most perfect trachyte, and rises to a height of
14,500 feet above, and at a distance of 160 miles from the Pacific.
56. Mr. Pentland found fossil shells of the Silurian period at a height
of 17,500 feet, on the Bolivian Nevado of Antakäua, lat. 16° 21ʹ, and
those of the carboniferous limestone as high as 14,200 in several parts
of Upper Peru.
57. Mr. Darwin’s Journal of Travels in South America.
58. Mr. Darwin’s Journal of Travels in South America.
64. A chain of mountains is assumed to be a three-sided horizontal
prism, whose height is the mean elevation of the chain, and the base
the mean length and breadth of the same, or the area on which the
chain stands, and thus its mass may be computed approximately. It
is evident that a table-land must have a greater effect on the mean
height of a continent than a chain of mountains, for, supposing both to
be of the same base and altitude, one would be exactly double the
other; and even if the mountains be the higher of the two, their upper
parts contain much less solid matter than their lower on account of the
intervals and deep valleys between the peaks.
65. The author is indebted to the “Physical Geography of North
America” by H. D. Rogers, Esq., of the United States, for much valuable
information.
66. Dr. Richardson on the Fauna of the High Latitudes of North
America.
68. This remarkable analogy between the fossil remains of the Silurian
systems in the Old and New World has been more particularly shown
by the researches of Messrs. de Verneuil and Sharpe.
69. According to M. Charpentier, the area of the base of the Pyrenees
is 1720 square English miles. As the mean elevation of the passes
gives the mean height of the mountains, Baron Humboldt estimated from
the height of 23 passes over the Pyrenees that the mean crest of that
chain is 7990 feet high, which is 300 feet higher than the mean height
of the Alps, though the peaks in the Alps have a greater elevation than
those of the Pyrenees in the ratio
14⁄10
to 1.
70. The Russian Academicians MM. Fuss and Bunge, found by barometrical
measurement the mean height of that part of the Eastern Asiatic
table-land lying between Lake Baikal and the Great Wall of China to
be only about 6960 feet. The smallness of this mean is owing to hollows
in the table-land, especially in the desert of the Great Gobi.
71. By the mensuration and computation of Baron Humboldt and Mr.
Pentland, the elevation of the highest peaks, and the mean heights of
the Himalaya, of the equatorial and Bolivian Andes and the Alps, are
as follows:—
Peaks.
Mean Height.
Himalaya
25,700
15,670
Andes between 5° N. and 2° S. lat.
21,420
11,380
Eastern Cordillera
Between 18° and 15° S. lat.
21,200
15,250
Western Cordillera
22,300
14,900
Alps
15,666
7,353
However, the Peak of Dhawalaghini is certainly 28,000 feet high. Captain
Gerard gives 18,000 or 19,000 feet as the height of the snow-line on
the mountains in the middle of the Asiatic table-land, and 30,000 feet as
the absolute elevation of the Kuen-lun, but Colonel Sabine observes that
these measures want confirmation.
77. Supplement to the Observations on the Temple of Serapis, by
Charles Babbage, Esq.
78. By Mr. Jukes, Naturalist to the Surveying Voyage of Captain
Blackwood, R. N., in Torres Straits.
79. Another theory relative to the formation of the lagoon islands is,
that the coral circuit is but the edge of a submarine elevation crater, on
which the coral animals have raised their edifice. This view, which
has been adopted by Von Buch and Captain Beechy, to whom we are
indebted more than to any other navigator for positive information and
admirable surveys of the coral islands of the Pacific, receives corroboration
from the perfect conformity in shape between many of the lagoon
islands of the Gambier group and the known elevation craters, and
from the circumstance of a lagoon island having been seen to rise in
1825, in lat. 30° 14ʹ, accompanied with smoke, and communicating so
high a temperature to the surrounding sea as rendered it impossible to
land.—See Beechy’s Voyages, and Pœppig’s Reise.
80. Few books have more interest than Mr. Darwin’s on Coral Reefs
and Volcanic Islands, to which the author is much indebted. Consult
also Captain Beechy’s Voyages, and his beautiful charts of the Coral
Islands in the Pacific.
84. Mr. Douglas’s Voyage to the Sandwich Islands in 1833-4.—Journal
of the Royal Geographical Society of London.
85. Letter from Alex. Loudon, Esq., in the Journal of the Geographical
Society of London.
86. Mitchell on the Causes of Earthquakes, in Philosophical Transactions
for 1760.
87. Captain Graah’s Survey in 1823-4, and Dr. Pingel, 1830-2.
88. Lyell’s Principles of Geology, in 8vo. See also Mr. Darwin’s observations
on the same subject, in the voyage of the Adventure and
Beagle.
89. Remarks on the Antarctic Continent and Southern Islands, by
Robert MacCormick, Esq., Surgeon of H.M.S. Erebus.
90. Captain Cook discovered Sandwich Land in 1772-5.—Captain
Smith, of the brig William, discovered New South Shetland in 1819.—Captain
Billingshausen discovered Peter’s Island, and the coast of
Alexander the First.—Captain Weddel discovered the Southern Orcades.—Captain
Bisco discovered Enderby’s Land and Graham’s Land in
1832, Admiral d’Urville La Terre d’Adelie in 1841; and Sir James Ross
Victoria Land in the same year.
91. The author owes much information on British mines to two publications
on the Mining District of the North of England, by J. Sopwith,
Esq., Civil Engineer, and Mr. Leithart, Mine Agent. On the Cornish
mines she has derived much information from the writings of John
Taylor, Esq., and Sir Charles Lemon, Bart.; from a store of valuable
materials contained in the “Progress of the Nation,” by G. R. Porter,
Esq.; from the Statistical Journal; and on the general distribution of
minerals over the globe, from the “Penny Cyclopædia,” and various
other sources.
92. The metals are gold, silver, platinum, copper, lead, tin, iron, zinc,
arsenic, bismuth, antimony, nickel, quicksilver, manganese, cadmium,
cerium, cobalt, iridium, uranium, chrome, lantanium, molybdenum,
columbium, osmium, palladium, pelapium, tantalum, tellurium, rhodium,
titanium, vanadium, tungsten, dydynium, ferbium, erbium.
The three last are little known.
Sir Humphry Davy discovered that lime, magnesia, alumine, and
other similar substances, are metals combined with oxygen. There
are thirteen of these metalloids, namely—calcium, magnesium, aluminum,
glucinum, thorium, yttrium, zirconium, strontium, barium,
lithium, natrium, potassium, and silicium.
93. This subject is ably discussed by Mr. Leithart in his work, already
mentioned, on the formation and filling of metallic veins. Mr. Leithart
is an instance of the intelligence that prevails among miners, notwithstanding
the scanty opportunities of acquiring that knowledge which
they are generally so eager to obtain. He was a working miner, whose
only education was at a Sunday-school.
94. Mineral veins are generally richer near the surface than at great
depths: this is particularly the case in the mines of the precious metals
in America, where the greatest quantities of ore have been found near
the surface—a fact that may be explained by supposing the mineral
substances brought by sublimation from the interior of the earth, and
deposited where the temperature was lowest at or near the surface in
the rocks among which they are situated.
95. Rotation alone produces electrical currents in the earth.—“Connection
of the Physical Sciences,” page 364, 7th edition.
97. The total amount of steam-power in Great Britain in 1833 was
equal to that of 2,000,000 of men.—J. Taylor, Esq., on Cornish Mines.
98. The splendid discovery of Sir Humphry Davy, that flame does not
pass through fine wire-gauze, prevents the fatal explosion of inflammable
air in the mines, by which thousands of lives have been lost.
By means of a light enclosed in a wire-gauze lantern, a miner now
works with safety surrounded by fire-damp. To the honour of the
illustrious author of this discovery, be it observed that it was not, like
that of gunpowder and others, the unforeseen result of chance by new
combinations of matter, but the solution of a question based on scientific
experiment and induction, which it required the genius of a philosophic
mind like his to arrive at.
99. Supposing the barometer to be 30 inches on the level of the sea.
100. Note to the English translation of Kosmos, by Colonel Sabine, on
the depths below the surface of the earth attained by man.
106. In 1841 there were 196,921 persons employed in the mines of
Great Britain and Ireland.
107. In the year 1829 the value of the mineral produce of Europe, including
Asiatic Russia, but exclusive of manganese, amounted to—
Gold and Silver
£1,943,000
Other metals
28,519,000
Salts
7,640,000
Combustibles
18,050,000
Total
£56,148,000
England contributed more than half this amount, namely,—
Silver
£28,500
Copper
1,369,000
Iron
11,292,000
Lead
760,000
Tin
536,000
Salts
756,250
Vitriol
33,600
Alum
33,000
Coal
13,000,000
Total
£28,716,750
—nearly £29,000,000 sterling.—John Taylor, Esq., on the Cornish
Mines.
At present there are 34,000,000 of tons of coals consumed in Great
Britain annually, besides the quantity exported to our colonies and to
foreign countries, amounting to nearly 2,000,000 of tons. 8,000,000 of
tons are consumed in our iron-foundries alone. Between 500,000 and
600,000 tons are used in making gas.
The iron made in Britain in 1844 amounted to 1,400,000 tons. Iron
is now applied to many uses instead of timber, especially in ship-building:
between the years 1830 and 1847, 150 iron vessels were launched
in Britain. 25 of the steamships of the East India Company are of iron.
The produce of our copper-mines has increased threefold within the
last 60 years. The quantity of tin has also increased from our own
mines, and also from the extensive importation of that metal from Banca,
where the country yielding stream-tin extends from 7° N. lat. to 3° S.
lat. The yearly produce amounts to 300 tons of pure metal.—“Progress
of the Nation, in its Social and Commercial Relations, since the beginning
of the Nineteenth Century,” by G. R. Porter, Esq., 2d edition.
In France there are 62 coal-mines, which yielded 3,410,200 tons in
1841, and in 1838 the 12 iron districts in that country yielded to the
value of 4,975,424l.
The British coal and metal imported into France amounted to 1,222,228l.—Progress
of the Nation.
Belgium is next to Britain as a European coal country. In Britain
the coalfields occupy one-twentieth part of the area of the country—in
Belgium one twenty-second part—in France one two hundred and tenth
part of its area.
The quantity of coal raised in one year is, according to “The Statistics
of Germany,” by R. Valpy, Esq.—
In Britain
347,000,000
tons
Belgium
4,000,000
France
3,783,000
Germany
3,000,000
[The following table exhibits the quantity and value of coal produced,
in the six principal coal countries in the world, in the year 1845:—
Order in 1845.
Countries.
Square miles of Coal formations.
Tons of Fuel raised in the year 1845.
Relative parts of 1000.
Official estimated value at the places of production.
United States Dollars.
English Sterling.
1
Great Britain
11,859
31,500,000
642
$45,738,000
£9,450,000
2
Belgium
518
4,960,077
101
7,689,900
1,660,000
3
United States
133,132
4,400,000
89
6,650,000
1,373,963
4
France
1,719
4,141,617
84
7,663,000
1,603,106
5
Prussian States
Not defined
3,500,000
70
4,122,945
856,370
6
Austrian States
Not defined
659,340
14
800,000
165,290
Total
49,161,034
1000
72,663,845
15,108,729
The coal trade appears to be increasing in all parts of the world.
There are no authentic data from which the increasing production of
bituminous coal in the United States can be exactly deduced, but what
we have show that it is very rapid. The production of anthracite may
be said to be entirely confined to the State of Pennsylvania, which possesses
a numerous and interesting group of coal basins, of various sizes
and characters.
In the year 1820, the anthracite coal trade commenced with 365 tons;
in 1827 it reached 48,047 tons; in 1837, 881,026 tons, and advanced to
3,000,000 tons in 1847.
The following table exhibits the production of smelted or manufactured
iron in different countries in the year 1845:—
1. Great Britain
2,200,000
2. United States
502,000
3. France
448,000
4. Russia
400,000
5. Zollverein, or Prussian States
300,000
6. Austria
190,000
7. Belgium
150,000
8. Sweden
145,000
9. Spain (in 1841)
26,000
10. All other European countries
50,000
4,411,000
The rapid increase in the number of railroads and locomotive engines,
and the number of steam vessels employed in commerce, augments the
demand, proportionally, for iron and fuel.
At the commencement of 1847, the length of railroad completed and
partly finished in the principal countries of Europe and America was
20,000 miles, only a few thousand miles less than the entire circumference
of the globe.][108]
108. “Statistics of Coal.” By Richard Cowling Taylor, Philadelphia, 1848.
109. Sir Charles Lyell’s “Travels in the United States of North America.”
110. For the reason of this secular variation in the Moon’s distance,
see page 42 of “The Connection of the Physical Sciences.”
111. Every undulating motion consists of two distinct things—an advancing
form and a molecular movement. The motion of each particle
is in an ellipse lying wholly in a vertical plane, so that, after the
momentary disturbance during the passage of the wave, they return to
their places again.—“Theory of Waves,” by J. Scott Russell, Esq.
118. Leonardo da Vinci was appointed Director of Hydraulic Operations
in Lombardy by the Duke of Milan, and during the time he was painting
the “Last Supper” he completed the Canal of Martesana, extending
from the Adda to Milan, and improved the course of the latter river
from where it emerges from the Lake of Como to the Po. By means
of the Naviglio Grande, the Martesana canal establishes a water communication
between the Adda and the Ticino, the Lakes of Como and
Maggiore.
121. It is in the space comprised between two of the eastern tributaries
of the Tigris, the Khaus and the Great Zab, or Abou Selman of the
Arabs, that the extensive ruins of Koyunjik, Khorsabad, and especially
of Nimroud, are situated, the last of which have been so satisfactorily
identified with the capital of Assyria—the ancient Nineveh—by our
enterprising and talented countryman Mr. Layard, to whose exertions,
under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, surrounded by every privation,
our national Museum is indebted for that magnificent collection
of Assyrian monuments which at this moment forms the admiration of
the British public. It is to be hoped that our Government will follow
up the researches commenced by Mr. Layard, and that several of the
gigantic sculptures removed by him, with such perseverance and labour,
to Bussorah, will ere long be added to the riches of the British Museum.
See Mr. Layard’s work on “Nineveh and its Remains,” 2 vols. 8vo.,
and his illustrated work in folio—the former one of the most interesting
narratives ever published on the antiquities of Central Asia.
123. [Lieutenant W. F. Lynch, of the United States Navy, has recently
published an interesting and valuable narrative of an expedition to the
Dead Sea and River Jordan. According to his measurements and
surveys, the level of the Dead Sea is 1,316·7 feet below that of the
Mediterranean. The city of Jerusalem is 2,610·5 feet above the latter,
and 3,927·24 feet above the former sea. The greatest depth of the
Dead Sea is 1308 feet. Lieutenant Lynch states the density of the
water of the Dead Sea to be 1·13, that of distilled water being 1.]
124. The water of Lake Eltonsk contains chloride of calcium.
125. The water of the Dead Sea, according to Lieutenant Lynch, contains
26·42 per cent. of saline ingredients, one of which is chloride of
magnesium.
126. Professor Schoenbein of Basle attributes the peculiar smell, when
bodies are struck by lightning, to a principle existing in the atmosphere,
which he calls ozone, liberated by the decomposing action of electricity,
and possessing the same electrical characters as bromine, chlorine, and
iodine. He ascribes the luminous appearance of the ocean to the action
of that principle on the animal matter it contains.
127. Annales des Sciences Géologiques, par M. Rivière, 1842.
128. The mean of any number of unequal quantities is equal to their
sum divided by their number: thus the mean temperature of the air at
any place during a year is equal to the sum of the mean temperature
of each month divided by 12. This method, however, will only give
an approximate value; therefore, to ascertain the mean annual temperature
at any place accurately, the mean of a number of years must be
taken.
129. Lines drawn on a map or globe through all places where the mean
annual temperature is the same are isothermal lines.
130. For example, Professor Dove has found that the mean temperature
of December, January, and February, at Toronto in Canada, added to
the mean temperature of the same months at Hobart Town in Van
Diemen’s Land, exceeds the sum of the mean temperature of June,
July, and August, at the same places, added together, by 22°·7 of Fahrenheit.
Similar results, though varying in amount, were obtained for
many corresponding places in the two hemispheres, which establishes
the law given in the text.
131. In the same manner as isothermal lines are supposed to pass
through all parts of the globe where the mean temperature of the air is
the same, so the isogeothermal lines are supposed to pass through all
places where the mean heat of the ground is the same: the isotherial
lines are supposed to be drawn through all places having the same
mean summer temperature; and the isochimenal lines pass through all
places where the mean winter temperature is the same. The practice
of representing to the eye these lines on a map or terrestrial globe is of
the greatest use in following and understanding the complicated phenomena
of temperature and magnetism.
132. If the heights above the earth increase by equal quantities, as a
foot or a mile, the densities of the strata of air, or the heights of the
barometer which are proportional to them, will decrease in geometrical
progression: for example, if the height of the barometer at the level of
the sea be 29·922 inches, it will be 14·961 inches at the height of 18,000
feet, or one-half as great; it will be one-fourth as great at the height of
36,000 feet, one-eighth at the height of 54,000 feet, and so on.
133. A very ingenious little instrument, called the Aneroid Barometer,
has been lately invented in France; which, at the same time that it
forms an exact and very portable weather-glass, in the common acceptation
of that term, may be employed with considerable accuracy in
ascertaining differences of level. Although not to be compared, as an
instrument of precision, with the ordinary mercurial barometer, it is
infinitely more portable, and gives with promptitude and accuracy
small differences of level.
A friend of the author’s has recently tested it in the latter respect on
some of our railways, and found that observations made with it carefully
will give, on a line of 200 miles in extent, the relative levels of
the different stations within a few feet. The observations can be made
in a couple of minutes. The gentleman in question writes to us, that
he considers the Aneroid Barometer will prove a very useful instrument
to the geological and the botanical traveller.
See, for a description of this instrument, a pamphlet recently published
at 84, Strand, by Mr. E. J. Dent, on the Construction and Uses
of the Aneroid Barometer. London, 1849.
134. The moon’s orbit is very much elongated, so that her distance
from the earth varies considerably, and consequently her attractive
force. Moreover, her attraction varies with the rotation of the earth,
which brings her twice in 24 hours in the meridian of any place, once
in the superior and once in the inferior meridian; but her action on the
atmosphere is much inferior to that of the heat of the sun.
135. Mr. Pentland has, however, found in the Peru-Bolivian Andes, at
elevations between 11,000 and 14,000 feet, the horary oscillations of
the barometer as regular, and nearly as extensive, as on the level of
the sea in the same latitude.
136. Lieutenant Maury, of the United States Navy, is led to believe that
there is a region within the limit of the N.E. trade-winds, in the Atlantic,
in which the prevailing winds are from the south and west: this
region is somewhat in the shape of a wedge, with its base towards the
coast of Africa, between the equator and 10° N. lat., and between the
meridians of 10° and 25° W. long. In this space, in which the law of
the trade-winds is reversed, there are great atmospheric disturbances,
violent squalls, sudden gusts of wind, thunder, storms, heavy rains,
baffling airs, and calms.
137. In the northern hemisphere, a north wind sets out with a less rotatory
motion than the places have at which it successively arrives, consequently
it veers through all the points of the compass from N. to N.E.
and E. If a south wind should now spring up, it would gradually veer
from S. to S.W. and W., because its rotatory velocity would be greater
than that of the places it successively comes to. The combination of
the two would cause a vane to veer from E. to S.E. and S.; but the
rotation of the earth would now cause the south wind to veer round
from S. to S.W. and W.; and should a north wind now arise, its combination
with the west wind would bring the vane round from W. to N.W.
and N. again. At the Greenwich Observatory the wind makes five
gyrations in that direction in the course of a year. In Europe it is the
contention of the N.E. and S.W. winds which causes the rotation of the
wind, and the principal changes of weather, the S.W. being warm and
moist, the N.E. cold and dry, except where it comes over the German
Ocean.
138. In all hurricanes hitherto observed, the sinking of the mercury, and
the increase of the wind, have been more or less regularly progressive
till within three or four hours’ sail of the centre of the storm; and in one
class they have continued so even to the centre; while in another class,
and by far the most terrible, the depression of the mercury has been
sudden and excessive when within that distance of the centre, and the
violence of the tempest far beyond the average. When a ship is within
50 or 60 miles of the centre, the storm has the mastery, and seamanship
is of little avail. Rules for avoiding this calamity, and for managing a
ship when involved in a hurricane, are fully explained in the “Sailor’s
Horn-Book for the Laws of Storms,” by H. Piddington, Esq., President
of the Marine Courts of Inquiry at Calcutta. The following approximate
table is given by him, to serve as a guide till better data shall be obtained:—
Average fall of the barometer per hour.
Distance of a ship from the centre of the storm, in miles.
From 0·020 to 0·060
From 250 to 150
From 0·060 to 0·080
From 150 to 100
From 0·080 to 0·120
From 100 to 80
From 0·120 to 0·150
From 80 to 50
The rate of fall per hour doubles after the storm has lasted six hours,
and within three hours of the centre of the hurricane the mercury will
fall four times as fast, if it be of the violent class.
Colonel James Capper discovered the rotatory motions of storms, and
W. C. Redfield, Esq., of New York, was the first who determined their
laws. Colonel Reid, Governor of Barbadoes, and Dr. Thom, of the 86th
regiment, have also written on the subject.
139. The four subordinate forms of clouds are the cirro-stratus, composed
of little bands of filaments, more compact than the cirrus, forming
horizontal strata, which seem to be numerous thin clouds when in the
zenith, and at the horizon a long narrow band. The cumulo-stratus
consists of the summer-cloud, like snowy mountains heaped on one
another, which at sunrise have a black or bluish tint at the horizon, and
pass into the nimbus, or rain-cloud, which has a uniform grey tint,
fringed at the edges; and the fourth is the cirro-cumulus, a combination
of filaments and heaped-up cumuli or summer-clouds.
140. The reader is referred to the chart of the distribution of rain in the
Physical Atlas of Alexander Keith Johnston, Esq., where the value of
the practice referred to in note p. 27 is shown.
141. The reader is referred to the “Connection of the Physical Sciences”
for an account of Dr. Dalton’s theory of definite proportions, and the
relative weight of atoms.
142. The reader is referred to the 18th section of the “Physical Sciences”
for reflection, refraction, and absorption of light, and to the 19th
section for the constitution of the solar light and colours.
143. For the cause of mirage, see the “Connection of the Physical
Sciences.”
144. For phenomena and theory of polarized light, see section 21, “Connection
of the Physical Sciences.”
145. Every substance, whether solid or fluid, has its own polarizing
angle.
146. The reader is referred to a plate in “Johnston’s Physical Atlas”
showing the phenomena of the polarization of the atmosphere.
147. See sections 28 and 29 of the “Connection of the Physical Sciences:”
on Electricity.
148. Sound travels at the rate of 1120 feet in a second in air at the
temperature of 62° of Fahrenheit; so if that number be multiplied by
the seconds elapsed between the flash of lightning and the thunder, the
result will be the distance in feet at which the stroke took place.
150. The foci are all of different intensities; that in the South Atlantic,
discovered by M. Erman, has the least intensity of the four, and the
other in the southern hemisphere, discovered by Sir James Ross, has
the greatest; taking 1 as the unit at the magnetic equator in Peru, their
intensities are as 2·071 and 0·706. In the northern hemisphere the
American focus is more intense than that in Siberia, which is moving
from west to east, while the minor focus in the southern hemisphere
is moving from east to west.
151. The author is indebted to the admirable and profound investigations
of Colonel Sabine for almost all she knows on the subject of terrestrial
magnetism. In these, and in his notes on the English translation
of “Kosmos,” the reader will find all that is most interesting on the
subject. In his own works there are plates of the course of the different
magnetic lines mentioned in the text.
152. At St. Helena, the north end of the needle reaches its eastern extreme
in May, June, July, and August, and nearly at the same hours
it reaches its western extreme in November, December, January, and
February. The passage from one to the other takes place at, or soon
after, the equinoxes in March and April, September and October.—Colonel
Sabine’s Notes to “Kosmos.”
153. The sporules or seeds of the fungi are so minute that M. Freis
counted above ten millions in a single plant of the recticularia maxima:
they were so subtile that they were like smoke.
154. The solar spectrum, or coloured image of the sun, formed by
passing a sunbeam through a prism, is composed of a variety of invisible
as well as visible rays. The chemical rays are most abundant
beyond the violet end of the spectrum, and decrease through the violet,
blue, and green, to the yellow, where they cease. The rays of heat
are in excess a little beyond the red end, and gradually decrease
towards the violet end. Besides these there are two insulated spots at
a considerable distance from the red, where the heat is a maximum.
Were the rays of heat visible, they would exhibit differences as distinct
as the coloured rays, so varied are their properties according to their
position in the spectrum. There are also peculiar rays which produce
phosphorescence, others whose properties are not quite made out, and
probably many undiscovered influences; for time has not yet fully
revealed the sublimity of that creation, when God said, “Let there be
light—and there was light.”
155. Professor Quetelet is desirous that the periodical phenomena of
vegetation should be observed at a number of places, in order to establish
a comparison between the periods at which they take place; and
for that purpose he gives a list of the commonest plants, as lilac, laburnum,
elder, birch, oak, horse-chestnut, peach, pear, crocus, daisy, &c.,
which he himself observes annually at Brussels.
156. Dandelion opens at five or six in the morning, and shuts at nine in
the evening; the goat’s-beard wakes at three in the morning, and shuts
at five or six in the afternoon. The orange-coloured Escholtzia is so
sensitive that it closes during the passage of a cloud. “The marigold
that goes to bed wi’ the sun, and with him rises weeping,” with many
more, are instances of the sleep of plants.
157. M. de Candolle established 20 botanical regions, and Professor Schow
the same number; but Professor Martius, of Munich, has divided the
vegetation of the globe into 51 provinces, namely, 5 in Europe, 11 in
Africa, 13 in Asia, 3 in New Holland, 4 in North and 8 in South America,
besides Central America, the Antillas, the Antarctic Lands, New Zealand,
Van Diemen’s Land, New Guinea, and Polynesia. To these, other divisions
might be added, as the Galapagos, which is so strongly defined.
Baron Humboldt gives the following concise view of the distribution
of plants, both as to height and latitude:—
The equatorial zone is the region of palms and bananas.
The tropical zone is the region of tree-ferns and figs.
The subtropical zone, that of myrtles and laurels.
The warm temperate zone, that of evergreen trees.
The cold temperate zone, that of European or deciduous trees.
The subarctic zone, that of pines.
The arctic zone, that of rhododendrons.
The polar zone, that of alpine plants.
Upper Limit of Trees on Mountains.—The upper limit of trees is distinguished
by the Escalloniæ, on the Andes of Quito, at the height of
11,500 feet above the level of the sea.
In tropical Mexico, the upper limit of trees, at the height of 12,789
feet, is distinguished by the Pinus occidentalis.
In the temperate zone the limit of trees is marked by the Quercus
Semicarpifolia, at 11,500 feet, on the south side of the Himalaya, and
by the Betula Alba, on the north side, at the height of 14,000 feet: the
same birch forms the limit on the Caucasus, at the elevation of 6394
feet. On the Pyrenees and Alps the limit is marked by the Coniferæ
or pine tribe: on the Pyrenees by the Pinus uncinata, at the height
of 10,870 feet; on the south side of the Alps by the larch, at the elevation
of 6700 feet; and by the Pinus abies, at 5883 feet, on the north.
In Lapland, the Betula Alba forms the upper limit of trees, at the
height of only 1918 feet.
The upper Limit of Shrubs.—In the Andes of Quito the Bejarias are
the shrubs that attain the greatest height, and terminate at 13,420 feet
above the sea-level.
The juniper, Salix, and Ribes, or currant tribe, form the upper limit
of Shrubs on the south side of the Himalaya, at the height of 11,500
feet. The tama, or Genista versicolor, a species of broom, flourishes
at the height of 17,000 feet on the north side, and vegetation is prolonged
to nearly 18,000 feet.
The Rhododendron forms the upper limit of shrubs on the Caucasus,
at 8825 feet; in the Pyrenees it grows to 8312 feet; in the Alps to 7480
feet; and in Lapland it forms the upper limit of shrubs at an elevation
of 3000 above the Arctic Ocean.
158. The British flora contains at least 3000 species.
159. The plants with which the Chinese give flavour to tea are the Olea
fragrans, Chloranthus inconspicuus, Gardenia florida, Aglaia odorata,
Mogorium sambac, Vitex spicata, Camellia sasanqua, Camellia odorifera,
Illicium anisatum, Magnolia yulan, Rosa indica odoratissima,
turmeric, oil of Bixa orellana, and the root of the Florentine iris.
The principles of caffeine and theine are, in all respects, identical.
163. The Euphorbia and Borreria are the distinguishing features of the
low grounds in the Galapagos islands; while the Scleria, croton, and
Cordia mark the high grounds. Compositæ and Campanulaceæ distinguish
St. Helena and Juan Fernandez. The prevailing plants in the
Sandwich group are the Goodeniaceæ and Lobeliaceæ; and in New
Zealand ferns and club-mosses prevail, almost to the exclusion of the
grasses.—Dr. J. D. Hooker.
164. Of 2891 species of flower-bearing plants in the United States of
North America, there are 385 found also in northern and temperate
Europe.
165. In the basin of Titicaca in Peru-Bolivia, Mr. Pentland has seen a
variety of maize ripen as high as 12,800 feet.
166. Dr. Weddell, a very distinguished botanist, who has recently returned
from an exploration of the districts of the Andes which furnish
the Peruvian bark of commerce, has discovered several new species of
Cinchona, the total number of which, according to his beautiful monography,
now amounts to 21.
167. Professor Martius, of Munich, in his great work on Palms, has described
500, accompanied with excellent coloured plates. It is supposed
that the number of species throughout the world amounts to 1000.
168. There are innumerable points of analogy between the vegetation
of the Brazils, equinoctial Africa, and India: but the number of species
common to these three continents is very small.
170. The cosmopolite ulvæ are the Enteromorpha, Codium, &c.
171. Dr. J. D. Hooker has divided the marine vegetation into ten provinces:—the
Northern Ocean, from the pole to the 60th parallel of north
latitude;—the North Atlantic, between the 60th and 40th parallels, which
is the province of the delessariæ and fucus proper;—the Mediterranean,
which is a sub-region of the warmer temperate zone of the Atlantic,
lying between the 40th and 23d northern parallels;—the tropical Atlantic,
in which sargassum, rhodomelia, corallinia, and siphinea abound;—the
antarctic American region, from Chile to Cape Horn, the Falkland
Islands, and the whole circumpolar ocean south of the 50th southern
parallel;—the Australian and New Zealand province, which is very
peculiar, being characterized, among other generic forms, by cystoseiriæ
and fuceæ;—the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea;—and the last, which
comprises the Japan and China Seas. There are several undetermined
botanical marine provinces in the Pacific and elsewhere.
172. The British flowering sea-weeds are the Zostera and Zanichellia.
173. The vegetation at different depths in the Egean Sea is as distinctly
marked as that at different heights on the declivity of a mountain. The
coast plants are the Padina pavonia and Dictyota dichotoma. A greater
depth is characterized by the vividly green and elegant fronds of the
Caulerpa prolifera, probably the prasium of the ancients; associated
with it are the curious sponge-like Codium Bursa, and four or five others.
The Codium flabelliforme, and the rare and curious vegetable net called
Microdictyon umbilicatum, characterize depths of 30 fathoms. The
Dictyomenia, with stiff purple corkscrew-like fronds, and some others,
go as low as 50 fathoms, beyond which no flexible sea-weeds have been
found. The coral-like Millepora polymorpha take their place, and range
to the depth of 100 fathoms, beyond which there is no trace of vegetable
life, unless some of the minute and microscopic infusorial bodies
living there be regarded as plants.—“Travels in Lycia,” by Lieutenant
Spratt, R. N., and Professor E. Forbes.
174. The notocanthus and macrourus are the deep-water fish in the
arctic regions; they also inhabit the seas of New Zealand. The Pacific
fish that enter the Atlantic are some of the mackerel tribe, sharks, and
lophobranches. The genera most prevalent in the southern hemisphere
are the notothemia, borichthys, and harpagifer. The same species of
these genera are found in the seas of the Falkland Islands, Cape Horn,
the Auckland Islands, and Kerguelen’s Land.—Dr. Richardson.
175. The Chinese fresh-water fish are cyprinidæ, ophicephali, and
siluridæ—genera which agree closely with those in India, though the
species are different.
176. The carnivorous Cetacea, with two remarkable exceptions, inhabit
the ocean—the Delphinus Inca, of the Amazons and its affluents; and
the D. Gangeticus, of the Ganges.
178. One of the most celebrated species of this division is the crocodile
of the Nile, which probably is to be met with in the western branch of
that river, the Bahr-el-Abiad, as high as 4000 feet. Immense numbers
of this species, of every size and age, are found embalmed in the catacombs
of the ancient Egyptians, which are perfectly identical with the
existing species, and offering another proof of the important fact first
announced by Cuvier, from his examination of the mummies of the ibis,
that no animal, in its wild state, had presented the least change, within
the longest historical periods.
179. Mr. Pentland informs me that crocodiles are found in some of the
rivers of Bolivia at a much greater elevation.
180. Animals of a gigantic size, and allied to the lizard family, formerly
inhabited the latitudes of Britain. A monster (the Mosasaurus) much
surpassing the largest living crocodile is found in our Sussex chalk-beds;
and an animal allied to the Iguana, the iguanodon of Mantell, is of frequent
occurrence in the strata upon which the chalk reposes in the weald
of Sussex, the Isle of Wight, &c. Some bones of the iguanodon would
indicate an animal more than 50 feet long.
182. In some parts of the earth the same conditions which regulated
the distribution of the ancient fauna and flora still prevail. The flora
of the carbonaceous epoch is perfectly similar to that of New Zealand,
where ferns and club-mosses are so abundant; and the fauna of that
ancient period had been representative of that which recently prevailed
in these islands, since foot-prints of colossal birds have been discovered
in the red sandstone of Connecticut.
The age of reptiles of the Wealden and other secondary periods is
representative of the fauna of the Galapagos islands, which chiefly
consists of tortoises and creatures of the lizard or crocodile family; and
the cycadaceous plants and marsupial animals of the oolite are representative
of the flora and fauna of Australia.
The colossal birds which prevailed in New Zealand, almost to the
entire exclusion of reptiles and quadrupeds, lasted to a very late period;
they differed in the structure of the beak and skull from every class of
birds, recent or fossil.
183. Perhaps no quadruped in the wild state will be found to have so
wide a vertical range of habitat as this animal. It is found in the plains
of Tartary, in the valley of the Tigris, at a very few feet above the sea-level,
and in the most elevated plains of the Himalaya, at elevations
exceeding 15,300 feet.
184. It is by no means certain that the wild Ass of the three countries
mentioned in the text belongs to the same species. The Kiang of
Tibet appears to be the same as the Dziggetai (Equus Hemonus) of
Pallas, which is met with throughout central Asia; but the species
found in the Run of Cutch is of a different colour and form: whilst the
one neighs like a horse, the other brays like an ass; in one the striped
colour of the zebra family exists in the young, and not in the second.
185. The attention of the scientific world in France has been recently
directed to the advantages that might arise from the naturalization of
the Llama tribe in Europe, and especially of its two most useful species,
the Llama and the Alpaca. M. J. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, a zoologist of
some note, but rather carried away by theoretical views in a branch of
science where observation, and observation alone, ought to be our
guide, and ignorant perhaps of what had been done in England on the
same subject, where the experiment had long since been tried, and
with very inadequate success, has presented lately some papers to the
Academy of Sciences on this subject. We cannot imagine, even if the
naturalization of the Llama on a large scale was possible, what benefit
could arise from it to our agriculturists. The wool of the llama is coarse,
and so infinitely inferior to the commonest qualities of sheep’s wool, that
in its native country it is seldom used for any other purpose than the
manufacture of ropes, of a rough carpeting and packing-cloth, and for
the coarsest apparel of the poor Indian. As to its use as a beast of
burden, whilst the llama eats as much as the ass, it does not carry
more than one half what he can, and can scarcely travel one half of
the same daily distance; besides, the female llama is useless in this
respect. The flesh of the llama, as above stated, is greatly below that of
all our domestic animals, even of the Italian buffalo.
As to the Alpaca, it is very doubtful if, living as it does in an extremely
dry, elevated, equable, and clear atmosphere, it would ever
become accustomed to the damp and variable climate of our northern
latitudes, or to that of the great European chains of mountains, the Alps
and the Pyrenees, and if it did, that its wool would not be greatly deteriorated.
As to the vicuña, it is purely a wild species, and has hitherto
resisted all the efforts of the aborigines, the most patient and docile of
the human race, to render it prolific in its own climate and in domesticity.
It appears, therefore, that the domestication of the several species of
Auchenia in Europe would be a costly and useless experiment, on the
large scale on which it is proposed to try it; indeed, this will appear
evident when it is known that in the Peru-Bolivian Andes the llama
and alpaca are daily disappearing to make room for the more useful
and profitable breed of the common European sheep, whilst, as a beast
of burden, the ass is everywhere taking its place.
Connected with this subject, a very singular fact, and, if well established,
a very curious one, has been announced by M. Geoffroy St.
Hilaire, on the authority of one of our countrymen, Dr. Weddel, recently
returned from South America, that a cross-breed between the Alpaca
and the Vicuña had been obtained, and that the mules from this cross-breed
were capable of reproducing this newly-created species, the
wool of which is represented to be of a valuable quality. Now, if
there exists in zoological science a fact clearly established, it is this:
that within historical periods no new species of vertebrate animal has
been created—in fact, the great law of the immutability of species.
The remains of the several wild animals which have been buried for
more than 30 centuries in the catacombs of Egypt, and in the ruins of
Nineveh, are perfectly identical with those now existing in the most
minute details of their anatomical structure. We have examined, in
the case referred to, the evidence adduced by M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire
in support of his favourite doctrine, and we do not by any means consider
it sufficient to shake the conclusions arrived at by all the great
zoologists of past and present times—by the Cuviers, the Humboldts,
and the Owens of our own period—on the impossibility of the production
of a new species of animals, or the immutability of species in the
animal creation. Contradictions to this law we know have been brought
forward by writers of the theoretical school of naturalists, to support
favourite theories of their authors; but we believe such dangerous
doctrines are founded on the vagaries of a school which have ever
placed in natural history observation in the back, and the dreams of
imagination in the foreground.
186. There are 8 families, 14 genera, and 123 species of marsupial
animals, amounting to about one-twelfth of all the mammalia. The
opossum is American; the seven other families are inhabitants of
Australia and the Indian Archipelago.
Of the Didelphidæ or opossum family there are 21 species, all inhabitants
of America; the Virginian opossum is about the size of a cat, the
other species are not larger than rats or mice. A pretty kind in Surinam,
the D. dorsigera, is so named because it carries its young on its back,
which hold on by their prehensile tails twisted round that of the
mother: another species is aquatic, and in its habits resembles the
otter.
The Dasyuridæ and Phalangers are nocturnal: the Dasyuridæ and
wombats burrow.
187. Sir Charles Lyell estimates the number of existing species of animals
and vegetables, independent of the infusoria, to be between one
and two millions, which must surely be under the mark, considering
the enormous quantity of animal life in the ocean, to the amount of
which we have not even an approximation. If the microscopic and
infusorial existence be taken into the account, the surface of the globe
may be viewed as one mass of animal life—perpetually dying—perpetually
renewed. A drop of stagnant water is a world within itself,
an epitome of the earth and its successive geological races. A variety
of microscopic creatures appear, and die; in a few days a new set succeeds;
these vanish and give place to a third set, of different kinds
from the preceding; and the débris of all remain at the bottom of the
glass. The extinction of these creatures takes place without any apparent
cause, unless a greater degree of putrescence of the water be to
them what the mighty geological catastrophes were to beings of higher
organization—the introduction of the new is not more mysterious in
one case than in the other.
188. Valmiki, the Hindu poet, is supposed to have been contemporary
with Homer, if not his predecessor: his great work is the “Ramayana,”
an heroic poem of the highest order, four cantos of which have been
translated by Gaspare Gorresco, an Italian. According to Dr. Pritchard,
the four great dynasties of languages in the old continent are—the Indo-European
or Indo-Germanic, now called the Arian or Iranian languages;
the Turanian or Ugro-Tartarian, the language of high Asia; the Chinese
and Indo-Chinese, or Monosyllabic; and the Syro-Arabian or Semitic
languages. The three first are common to Europe and Asia; the
fourth, common to Africa and some parts of Asia near Africa. The
Arians are the ancient Medes and Persian; the Ugrians are the Fins,
Laplanders, Hungarians, and many Siberian nations.
Turco-Tatar-Sclavonic in centre, south-east, and east of Russia
2,600,000
Kalmuk, between the rivers Volga and Ural
300,000
The number of people of mixed blood in Europe
101,600,000
The total population of Europe, pure and mixed, amounts to about 232
millions, including 600,000 Gipsies. The Teutonic population in the
United States of North America and in the British colonies amounts to
20 millions; so that the total number of people of Teutonic blood is
rather more than 100 millions.—Notes accompanying the Ethnographic
Map of Europe, by Dr. Gustaf Kombst: “Phys. Atlas.”
On an average the pure-blooded population amounts to
Teutonic in England, Scotland, and in the east and north-east of Ireland
10,000,000
Celtic in Cornwall, Wales, the Scottish Highlands, and Ireland.
6,000,000
The pure-blooded inhabitants amounts to
16,000,000
Mixed blood.
Mixture in which the Teutonic blood predominates
6,000,000
Mixture in which the Celtic blood predominates
4,000,000
10,000,000
In all 26,000,000 of inhabitants.
Notes accompanying the Ethnographic Map of Great Britain and
Ireland, by Gustaf Kombst: “Phys. Atlas.”
The fear that Britain may be ruined by over population may be
allayed by considering that we are ignorant of the immense treasures
and inexhaustible resources of the natural world—that the ingenuity of
man is infinite, and will continually discover new powers and innumerable
combinations that will furnish sources of wealth and happiness
to millions.
191. From the discrepancies in the chronological systems it is evident
that the actual period of man’s creation is not accurately known. The
Chevalier Bunsen has ascertained, from monumental inscriptions, that
the successive Egyptian dynasties may be traced back to Meres, 3640
years before the Christian era, and from the high state of civilization
during the reign of that prince, proved by the magnificence of the works
thus executed, he infers that the Egyptians must have existed 500
years previous to their consolidation into one empire by him, which
goes back to the renewed period of man’s creation. Compared with
geological periods, man is of very recent creation, as appears from the
vast extent of uninhabited land, but which would require ages and ages
to people, even if the increase of population were as rapid as in the
United States of North America.
192. Dark-coloured substances absorb more of the sun’s heat than light-coloured
ones; therefore, the black skins of the natives of tropical climates
absorb more heat than fair skins, but, from some unknown cause,
the black skin is protected from a degree of heat that would blister a
fair one.
193. The countenances of the Fuegians brought to England in 1830 by
Captain Fitzroy improved greatly in expression by their intercourse
with civilized men, but they had not returned to their savage brethren
more than a year before their whole appearance was completely
changed; the look of intelligence they had acquired was gone; and
when compared with likenesses that had been taken of them when in
England, they were not to be recognized as the same persons.
The average age of a nation, or the mean duration of life, has a considerable
influence on the character of a people. The average age of
the population of England and Wales is 26 years 7 months. By the
census, the average age of the population of the United States of North
America is 22 years 2 months. In England there are 1365 persons in
every 10,000, who have attained 50 years of age, and consequently
of experience; while, in the United States, only 830 in each 10,000
have arrived at that age: hence, in the United States, the moral predominance
of the young and passionate is greatest. In Ireland there
are 1050 persons in every 10,000 of the population, above 50 years of
age, to exercise the influence of their age and experience upon the community—an
influence that will diminish with the progress of emancipation.
195. It is singular that the British should, for years, have possessed such
extensive territories in Asia without having explored their mineral
wealth. Perhaps the quantity of gold recently discovered in California
and Africa may call the attention of the East India Company to the
subject. Some of the richest mining districts are in countries where
primary formations have been crossed or disturbed by volcanic action;
and as that is eminently the case along the eastern coast of the Bay of
Bengal, from Aracan to the peninsula of Malacca, mines of the precious
metals will most likely be found on that frontier, possibly in Siam and
the Birman empire. The interior of the Deccan has also been greatly
disturbed by ancient volcanos; and as that country is said to bear a
strong analogy in structure to South Africa, it may also resemble it in
the production of gold. The auriferous territory in California appears
to be at least 400 miles long and 100 broad.
196. In bringing to a close a work which may in some measure be considered
a kind of Résumé of Natural knowledge, it may not be either
out of place or irrelevant to our subject to allude more particularly to
the encouragement of late years granted to scientific investigation by
our own Government.
It must be confessed that Great Britain for a long time remained
behind the nations of the continent in fostering scientific enterprise
and research; and if England has rivalled in most branches of natural
knowledge, and surpassed in some, every other people, it has arisen
more from individual exertion, and that spirit of association which forms
so happy a characteristic of our race, and which has in our political
institutions so mainly contributed to our national greatness and prosperity,
than from any direct encouragement from our rulers. Whilst
France and other continental nations were endowing the votaries of
science, were lavishing money on scientific expeditions, and founding
institutions which will hand down the names of their sovereigns to posterity
as the benefactors of mankind, England had done little in the
same track beyond fitting out those memorable expeditions of Cook,
and, subsequently, those of Vancouver and Flinders, and the support
granted to our great national Observatory, which, under the direction of
Bradley, Maskelyne, Pond, and Airy, has attained a degree of celebrity
and utility unequalled by any astronomical foundation in ancient or
modern times.
The conclusion of a long war, in opening the scientific repositories of
the continent to our countrymen, showed us how much our great institutions,
with the above solitary exception, were behindhand, not only
in extent and utility, but in the liberality with which they were conducted.
Possessing as we did the most ample means, from our immense colonial
possessions and our widely-extended commerce, to add to the stock
of our knowledge in natural history, our collections were infinitely behind
those of the great states of the continent, and scarcely on a par with those
of the sovereigns of a second and even third rate importance. A better
system was loudly called for, and a better system has been adopted. Our
great national collection of the British Museum—and I here refer more
particularly to its scientific and antiquarian department, for there is still
much room for improvement in the literary—has in a few years, thanks
to the liberality of Parliament and the exertions of its trustees and officers,
become equal in every respect, and superior in many, to any similar
institution on the continent. Two establishments have been created
within the last dozen of years which reflect the greatest honour on the
statesmen, Sir F. Baring, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the
late Earl of Besborough, as chief Commissioner of the Woods and Forests,
who fostered them in their infancy, and on the talented individuals who
had been selected to carry out the enlightened views of the Government—the
Museum of Practical Geology, a designation that conveys a very
inadequate idea of the extent of its attributes or of its utility, and the
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. To the first the public is already indebted
for such a geological survey and map of the empire as never had
been planned or executed in any other country—only a small instalment,
however, of great services which the nation and geological science are
likely to derive from the labours of Sir H. Delabeche and his collaborators.
The Royal Gardens at Kew, under the direction of Sir W. J.
Hooker, lose nothing when compared with the most celebrated establishments
of the kind, ancient or modern: never was public money
better bestowed, or in a way to convey more useful instruction and
gratification to the great mass of the community. Whilst every German
university had its Museum of Comparative Anatomy, when the government
of revolutionary France had placed at the disposal of Cuvier ample
means to lay the basis of that science of which he was to be considered
the founder, an eminent surgeon, John Hunter, animated by the love of
science alone, and unaided by his Government, was rendering a similar
service to Great Britain, in laying the foundation of that Museum which
so justly bears his honoured name. Thanks to the liberality of the
Government, and to the well-judged appreciation of the Royal College
of Surgeons, the Hunterian Collection has become the property of the
nation, and has received such additions and ameliorations as not to be
behind any of those of the continent; whilst in point of arrangement,
facilities granted for study, and real practical utility, it infinitely surpasses
them all. To it we principally are indebted for the introduction
of the study of comparative anatomy into this country, and for the possession
of one of its greatest modern expositors, Professor Owen.
It may appear invidious, at a time when every department of our
Government is showing itself so desirous of promoting the cause of
science, to point to any in particular: still we cannot refrain from making
special mention of one to which science in general, and more particularly
that branch of it which forms the principal object of this work, and
our best national interests, owe a deep and lasting debt of gratitude—the
Hydrographic department of the Admiralty; which, under its present
able chief, Sir Francis Beaufort, has attained a degree of eminence
unequalled by that of any other maritime country. The Admiralty has
profited of a long peace to extend our knowledge over almost every
region of the globe, conferring thereby an immense service on geographical
science, and placing in the hands of our national and commercial
marine a collection of charts and nautical instructions unparalleled in
the history of navigation for their extent and exactitude. Another branch
of inquiry, closely connected with Hydrography and Navigation, which
it required the encouragement of a government to institute, the investigation
of the laws of terrestrial magnetism and meteorology, has been
very liberally provided for by Parliament, and most ably carried out,
under the direction of Colonel Sabine, by the establishment of special
observatories in our widely extended colonies, and by the publication
and distribution of their results.
The several maritime expeditions undertaken since the peace in a
purely scientific view reflect the highest credit on the departments of
the Government with which they have originated, as they do on the
eminent individuals, many of whom still live to enjoy their well-merited
fame, who have carried out their country’s wishes. The names of Parry,
Franklin, Back, James C. Ross, and Richardson, will be preserved in the
memory of posterity long after the ephemeral glory of their professional
career will have been forgotten.
Although it is to the projectors of such an altered state of things, and
to the statesmen who encouraged and brought it about, that our first
acknowledgement is due, our thanks must be also expressed to that
branch of the legislature which, holding, as it rightly does, the public
purse, has so liberally come forward upon every occasion, when solicited,
in granting the means to promote scientific enterprise. The votary
of science therefore owes to the House of Commons the expression of
his unmingled gratitude.
But, in paying that just tribute to the ministers of the Crown and to
Parliament, we must not pass over in silence the encouragement which
science has in every department met with from the East India Company.
Lords of an immense territory, the Court of Directors, and its representatives
in India, have always shown themselves ready to contribute in
a most liberal spirit to the extension of our knowledge of their widely
extended empire. The trigonometrical surveys of India, the establishment
of observatories, the endowment of colleges and of scientific societies,
the formation of collections of natural history at great expense,
and which it distributes to all those who are likely to make good use of
them, the publication of works on physical researches, on natural history,
of astronomical observations, bestowed with so liberal a hand to
men of science, the formation of such a map of its extended dominions
and of charts of its coasts as would do honour to any government, must
place the East India Company in the first rank of those mighty potentates
of the earth to whom science will both now and in after ages feel
placed under the most lasting obligations.
Connected with our Oriental empire, it is due to some of the native
sovereigns of India to state that they have not been behindhand in imitating
the liberal example of their powerful protectors. Two native
princes, the Rajah of Travancore and the King of Oude, have at very
great expense established astronomical observatories in their territories,
furnished with European instruments of the most delicate construction,
and placed under the direction of European officers amply endowed and
provided for. The peninsula of India at the present moment possesses
four astronomical observatories little behind those of Europe as regards
the means of observation; until very lately there did not exist one public
observatory in the whole extent of the United States of America.
[A national observatory was established at Washington in the year
1843.]
199. We learn, on closing the present volume, that this distinguished
traveller, through the liberality of Her Majesty’s Government, is again
about to proceed to the former field of his exertions.
200. The works of Cornelius and Kaulbach bear testimony to the justice
of the observations in the text. In drawing, nothing can be more beautiful—in
composition, nothing can be more varied or sublime. The
“Destruction of Jerusalem,” by Kaulbach, in which a powerful genius
has combined the truth of the historian with the imagination of the poet,
and executed with the hand of a master, might bear comparison even
with the Italian school for colouring.
201. Twenty of these counties were in England and 11 in Wales, and
so few crimes took place among educated women in the other counties
during the 11 years mentioned, that the annual proportion of accusations
against educated females was only 1 in 1,349,059. During the year
1846 only 48 educated persons were convicted of crimes out of the whole
population of England and Wales, and none were sentenced to death.
And during the years 1845 and 1846 there were 15 counties in England
and 11 in Wales in which no well-educated person was convicted of
any crime. The number of accusations among educated persons in
Scotland is greater, because education is more general, and because the
quantity of ardent spirits used in Scotland is five times greater than in
England. Crime is very much below the average in the mining districts,
and it is still less frequent in Wales and in the mountainous country
in the North of England. The accomplishments of a well-educated
person in these statistical records consist merely in being able to read
and write fluently.—“London Statistical Journal.”
202. Every factory-child is limited to 48 hours of labour in the week, and
the children must by law attend school at least two hours a-day for six
days out of the seven, besides a Sunday-school—one penny being deducted
out of each shilling of wages for education. The inspectors have
the power of establishing schools where wanted, and of dismissing incompetent
teachers. The engagement of factory-children in Britain lasts
till they are 13, in the United States it ends at 15 years of age.—“Statistical
Journal.”
203. The average duration of the life of sovereigns is greater in
modern than in ancient times, but it is still lower than any other class of
mankind. The most favourable average for them is 70·05 years; for
the English aristocracy it is 71·69; for the English gentry, 74·00; for
the learned professions, 73·62; for English literary and scientific men
it is 72·10; for the army and navy, 71·99; and for the professions of the
fine arts, 71·15.—“London Statistical Journal.”
204. There are 62 Ragged Schools in London, and Government undertakes
to send annually to the colonies 150 of such of the scholars as
choose to go.—“London Statistical Journal.”
205. The letters affixed indicate the parts of the Alps to which each locality belongs—M.,
Maritime; C., Cottian; G., Grecian; P., Pennine; L., Lepontine; B., Bernese, or
Helvetian; R., Rhetian; J., Julian; Car., Carniac.
206. The authorities on which these heights are given are—the Piedmontese Surveys
(P. S.), as published in 1845, in the Work entitled “Le Alpi che cingono l’Italia,” 1 vol.
8vo.; the Austrian Survey (A. S.), as given in the splendid Maps, published by the
Austrian Government, of the Regno Lombardo-Veneto, in 84 sheets; and the Swiss
Trigonometrical Survey, by Eichman, 1 vol. 4to., 1846.
207. The first eight passes are only fit for foot-passengers, and in certain seasons for
mules; the remaining eleven offer carriage-roads, and are generally open at all seasons
of the year, with the exception of the Stelvio.
208. Heights taken from the list published in the French “Annuaire du Bureau des
Longitudes,” converted from metres into English feet.
209. Heights determined by the French expedition under Captains Peytier and Boblaye,
and published in the “Connaissance des Temps” for 1839.
210. The heights in the Sikim Himalaya are the results of the observations of Colonel
Waugh, Director of the Trigonometrical Survey of India. See “Journal of As. Soc. of
Bengal,” Nov. 1848.
211. For Lieut. Strachey’s observations during his very interesting journey to the Sacred
Lakes of Manasarowar, &c., see “Journal of As. Soc. of Bengal,” Aug. 1848.
213. The heights followed by the letters A. C. have been taken from Humboldt’s “Asie
Centrale.”
214. The heights given on Captain Vidal’s authority are taken from the elaborate Admiralty
Surveys of Madeira, the Canaries, and Azores, partly executed under his direction;
the latter not yet published.
215. The heights given in this table on Mr. Pentland’s authority have been taken from his
Map of “The Laguna of Titicaca, and of the Valleys of Yucay, Collao, and Desaguadero,”
published in 1848.
216. As stated in the text, vol. i., p. 155. The height here assigned to the Peak of Aconcagua
differs 700 feet from that given by Captain Fitzroy. A re-calculation, however, of his elements
has led us to adopt a much greater elevation for the giant of the Chilian Andes than
given by that talented officer.
Captain Fitzroy’s observations place the summit of the Peak of Aconcagua, which on his
chart is incorrectly designated as a volcano, in lat. 32° 38ʹ 30ʺ, long. 70° 00ʹ 30ʺ W., or 23ʹ
23ʺ N., and 100ʹ 45ʺ E. of Valparaiso, or its nearest distance about 88 9-10 geographical
miles. From a station near Captain Fitzroy’s, at Valparaiso, Captain Beechy found the
angle of elevation of Aconcagua, by several very careful observations, to be 1° 55ʹ 45ʺ, the
distance from this station to the Peak being 88·74 geographical miles. From a discussion of
all these data, the compiler of this table has deduced for the height of Aconcagua 23,910 feet
above the sea.
Transcriber’s Note
This book uses inconsistent spelling and hyphenation, which were retained
in the ebook version. Some corrections have been made to the text, including
normalizing punctuation and capitilization, replacing ditto marks with the text they represent,
and correcting the spelling of Index entries to match the spelling in the main text.
Where incorrect page number references were found in the Index, these were corrected.
Several instances of Antartic or antartic were changed to Antarctic or antarctic. Further corrections are noted below: