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Title: Physical Geography
Author: Somerville, Mary
Language: English
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Transcriber’s Note
When italics were used in the original book, the corresponding text has
been surrounded by _underscores_.
Some corrections have been made to the printed text. These are listed in
a second transcriber’s note at the end of the text.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
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.
ENTERED, 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.
TO
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.
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
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.
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 already 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.
_May, 1849._
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
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 PAGE 13
CHAPTER II.
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 37
CHAPTER III.
The High Lands of the Great Continent (_continued_)—The Caucasus—
The Western Asiatic Table-Land and its Mountains 54
CHAPTER IV.
The High Lands of the Great Continent (_continued_)—The Oriental
Table-Land and its Mountains 58
CHAPTER V.
Secondary Mountain Systems of the Great Continent—That of
Scandinavia—Great Britain and Ireland—The Ural Mountains—The
Great Northern Plain 69
CHAPTER VI.
The Southern Low Lands of the Great Continent, with their
Secondary Table-Lands and Mountains 77
CHAPTER VII.
Africa—Table-Land—Cape of Good Hope and Eastern Coast—Western
Coast—Abyssinia—Senegambia—Low Lands and Deserts 85
CHAPTER VIII.
American Continent—The Mountains of South America—The Andes—The
Mountains of the Parima and Brazil 93
CHAPTER IX.
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 105
CHAPTER X.
Central America—West Indian Islands—Geological Notice 114
CHAPTER XI.
North America—Table-Land and Mountains of Mexico—The Rocky
Mountains—The Maritime Chain and Mountains of Russian America 119
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 123
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 136
CHAPTER XIV.
Arctic Lands—Greenland—Spitzbergen—Iceland—Its Volcanic Phenomena
and Geysers—Jan Mayen’s Land—New Siberian Islands—Antarctic
Lands—Victoria Continent 159
CHAPTER XV.
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 168
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 188
CHAPTER XVII.
Springs—Basins of the Ocean—Origin, Course, and Heads of Rivers—
Hydraulic Systems of Europe—African Rivers—the Nile, Niger, &c. 209
CHAPTER XVIII.
Asiatic Rivers—Euphrates and Tigris—River Systems South of the
Himalaya—Chinese Rivers—Siberian Rivers 224
CHAPTER XIX.
River Systems of North America—Rivers of Central America—Rivers
of South America and of Australia 234
CHAPTER XX.
Lakes—Northern System of the Great Continent—Mountain System of
the same—American Lakes 245
CHAPTER XXI.
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 254
CHAPTER XXII.
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 272
CHAPTER XXIII.
Vegetation—Nourishment and Growth of Plants—Effects of the
different Rays of the Solar Spectrum—Classes—Botanical Districts 298
CHAPTER XXIV.
Vegetation of the Great Continent—Of the Arctic Islands—And of
the Arctic and North Temperate Regions of Europe and Asia 312
CHAPTER XXV.
Flora of Tropical Asia—Of the Indian Archipelago, India, and
Arabia 323
CHAPTER XXVI.
African Flora—Flora of Australia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island,
and of Polynesia 330
CHAPTER XXVII.
American Vegetation—Flora of North, Central, and South America—
Antarctic Flora—Origin and Distribution of the Cerealia—Ages of
Trees—Marine Vegetation 341
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Distribution of Insects 363
CHAPTER XXIX.
Distribution of Marine Animals in general—Fishes—The Marine
Mammalia—Phocæ, Dolphins, and Whales 368
CHAPTER XXX.
Distribution of Reptiles—Frogs and Toads—Snakes, Saurians, and
Tortoises 383
CHAPTER XXXI.
Distribution of Birds in the Arctic Regions—In Europe, Asia,
Africa, America, and the Antarctic Regions 392
CHAPTER XXXII.
Distribution of Mammalia throughout the Earth 412
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The Distribution, Condition, and future Prospects of the Human
Race 436
APPENDIX.
Table of Heights above the Sea of some of the Principal Mountain
Chains 475
GLOSSARY 487
INDEX 527
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
CHAPTER I.
GEOLOGY.
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 nearest 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 the 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 were 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 feet 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]
The 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 with 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,
consisting 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, micaschist, 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 shell-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. The 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, among 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 arisen 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, and
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, and 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 more 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, by 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, beaver, 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 perfection. 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 hair
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 Northern 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 Mississippi 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, though 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.
The 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.
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 hemisphere 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, whose 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 the 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 to 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 diverge 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 examined, 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 masses. 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.
Continents 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 the 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 strata; 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 is 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 Oder, 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.
It 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 on 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.
It 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.
Glaciers 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 Pleiocene 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 world 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 parts 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 depth 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 hot 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 the 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 volcanic, 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 region 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
forests. 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 unparalleled 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 south. 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.
The 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 rise 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 more
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, which
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 the 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 system
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 table-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, many 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 strata, 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 Prepit, 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 which 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 before 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.
The 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 wastes 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
soil 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 Vendhya 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 of 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 peninsula, 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 Cyclopean 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.
The 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 in 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 which 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 mountains 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 plains
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 Malabar, 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 table-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 rises 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. The 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 sandy 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 Isthmus 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 sink
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 direction 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 mountain-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 inhabitants, 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 Cuença, 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]
Some 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 leading
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]
On 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.
The 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 Venezuela
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 “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.
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 mountains 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 part 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 and 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 instruments; 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.
GEOLOGY OF SOUTH AMERICA.
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 theories 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 3-1/4 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.
Granite, 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, and 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.
On 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 of 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 from 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 east 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, which 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 across. 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 of 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 from 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.
One 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.
Deep 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 coast, 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.
The 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 the 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 area 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 and 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, a
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] These 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 ground. 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 of 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 ruminating 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 United
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 the 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 the 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 ocean 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 Diemen’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 there 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, however, 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.
The 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 by 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 rising
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, except 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 slower 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 Indian 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 yards 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 the 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]
Every 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]
One 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 valleys
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 the 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 would 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 disposed 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. The 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 the
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 through 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 tossed 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 no 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 alternately 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]
CHAPTER XIV.
Arctic Lands—Greenland—Spitzbergen—Iceland—Its Volcanic Phenomena and
Geysers—Jan Mayen’s Land—New Siberian Islands—Antarctic Lands—Victoria
Continent.
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.
A 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 seems
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, which 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 sinter, 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 260-1/2° of Fahrenheit, and after the eruption 251-1/2°;
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 cone 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 Spitzbergen; 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
78-1/4° 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 level 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 and 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.
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]
Minerals 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 right 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 point 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 from
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 level, 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 Saltzwerk 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 of 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 water 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 dales 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 10,000_l._[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 employed
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 of
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 of 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.”]
In 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.
In 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 3-1/2 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 to 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]
The 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, from 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 of
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 138-1/2 carats. The celebrated
mines of Golconda have produced many splendid diamonds; they are also
found in Borneo, which produced one weighing 367 carats, valued at
269,378_l._ 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 the 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 of 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 their
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 has 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 28-1/2° 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 the 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. The 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 among 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 the 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 miles 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 in 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 ocean. 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 northerly
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 by 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 the 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 has 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 by 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 American 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 80-1/2° 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 very 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 after 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.
The 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 3-1/2° 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
situations. 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 Bay 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.
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 in 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.
The 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 1000
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.
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 exceed
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 the 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 periodical 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 the 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
tributaries. 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]
Various 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.
AFRICAN RIVERS.
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 across 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 Bahr-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
river, 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 northerly
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 its 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 delta
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. Innumerable 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 centres 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 course 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.
Mr. 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 length 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 the 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 in 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, and 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 range. 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.
Before 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.
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 Hudson’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 between 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 at 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.
The 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 it 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.
The 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 millions
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 greatest 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 its
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 rainy 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.
RIVERS OF NEW HOLLAND.
After America, the land of the river and the flood, New Holland appears
in more than its usual aridity. The absence of large 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, and 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, Alps, 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 has 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 rivers 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. These 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 of 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 33-1/2 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 of 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 the 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.
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 diurnal 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 farther. 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 and 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 and 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 the
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, which 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 on 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]
By 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 two 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 wide 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 between 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 warm 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 current 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 16. 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, and 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]
A 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, and 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.
CHAPTER XXII.
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, and 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 warmer 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 they 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 31-3/4 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 situate 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 the
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, it 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 the 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 falls 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.
LIGHT.
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 show 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 reflect 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]
In 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 the
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 of 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.
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, for, 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 which 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.
When 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 and 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 the 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.
Either 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.
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 extremely
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 the 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 through 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 seasons. 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 chains 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 different 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.
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,
nitrogen, 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.
When 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, but 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 the 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 only 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. But 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]
Almost 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 all 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 the 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 latitudes 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, for 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. Neither 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.”
By 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 also 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.
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, which 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.
ARCTIC FLORA OF THE GREAT CONTINENTS.
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 red,
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 also 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 spread 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, Equisetum, 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.
FLORA OF BRITAIN AND OF MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN EUROPE.
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 and 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 consists 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.
FLORA OF TEMPERATE ASIA.
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, tamarisk, 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; bignonias 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 of 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 tribe,
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 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.
FLORA OF THE INDO-CHINESE PENINSULA AND THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO.
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.
There 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 the 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 Stagmaria 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, 3-1/2 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.
INDIAN FLORA.
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 assumes 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 there 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.
Though 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.
ARABIAN VEGETATION.
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, among 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.
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
predominate, 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, tamarisks,
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, with 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 colony. 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 apple-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 these islands only.
Its gigantic leaves are employed in the construction of houses, and
other parts of the plant are applied to various domestic purposes.
FLORA OF AUSTRALIA.
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 vegetation, 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 abound 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 that 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 tree, 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 to 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.
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 at 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.
In 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 feet 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.
FLORA OF MEXICO AND THE WEST INDIES.
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, American 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 Mexico 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.
FLORA OF TROPICAL AMERICA.
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, drabas, 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 in 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 consist 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 a 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 lands 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.
ANTARCTIC FLORA.
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 to 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, resembling 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 nothing 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 in 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.
ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF CEREALIA.
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 sowing 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 should 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 had 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.
MARINE VEGETATION.
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 as 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 that 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
sea-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, and 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.
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, insects 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.
In 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, though 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. As 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 Ehrenberg 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 temperature 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 very
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 marine 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 variety 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 by 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 those 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 of 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 tribe 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.
The 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 slaughter 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 migrates 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 it 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 paws 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 Orkney 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 first 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: they 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
room. 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 horrid 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 Java. 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 France
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.
Saurians 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, have 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.
Two 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 turtles 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 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, or 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 summer 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.
DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC AND EUROPEAN BIRDS.
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 are 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 our 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.
A 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
also 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
of 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 Minor, 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.
BIRDS OF ASIA AND THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO.
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.
The 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 birds 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.
AFRICAN BIRDS.
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, and 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, one 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.
BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA.
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; one 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.
BIRDS OF 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 only; 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. There 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 same 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, lives 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.
AUSTRALIAN BIRDS.
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 none. 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, attains 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 they 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.
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 with 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. The 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.
Food, 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. In 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.
EUROPEAN QUADRUPEDS.
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 brown 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.
ASIATIC QUADRUPEDS.
Asia has a greater number and a greater variety of wild animals than 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.
With 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 of 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.
Asia 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, though 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 in 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.
AFRICAN QUADRUPEDS.
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 Orange 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 seen 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, the 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.
AMERICAN QUADRUPEDS.
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
wanders 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, especially 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 very 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
rolls 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 more 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]
Several 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, Bolivia, 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.
AUSTRALIAN QUADRUPEDS.
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 born 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.
The 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.
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 in 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. The 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 and 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
war 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, differing
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, as 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
the 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, which 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]
Darkness 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 and
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, separates 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 procure 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 reason
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 mines,
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]
In 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.
Some 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 learns 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 of 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, that 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 well 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 |
+---------------------+-----------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| {| Women of 30 years of | | | | | |
| {| age and under | 12,788 | 12,422 | 12,368 | 13,024 | 13,157 |
| Men of 30 years of {| Women from 30 to 45 | 2,630 | 2,626 | 2,406 | 2,375 | 2,438 |
| age and under, to {| Women from 45 to 60 | 93 | 121 | 125 | 129 | 102 |
| {| Women from 60 upwards | 7 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 8 |
| | | | | | | |
| {| Women of 30 and under | 6,122 | 5,803 | 5,617 | 4,948 | 5,810 |
| Men from 30 to 35 {| Women from 30 to 45 | 5,531 | 5,396 | 5,100 | 5,205 | 4,981 |
| inclusive, to {| Women from 45 to 60 | 529 | 542 | 479 | 493 | 532 |
| {| Women from 60 upwards | 18 | 12 | 18 | 21 | 21 |
| | | | | | | |
| {| Women of 30 and under | 376 | 346 | 380 | 355 | 346 |
| Men from 45 to 60 {| Women from 30 to 45 | 896 | 879 | 896 | 951 | 993 |
| inclusive, to {| Women from 45 to 60 | 461 | 447 | 433 | 462 | 460 |
| {| Women from 60 upwards | 23 | 19 | 29 | 36 | 28 |
| | | | | | | |
| {| Women of 30 and under | 48 | 35 | 45 | 41 | 36 |
| Men from 60 and {| Women from 30 to 45 | 139 | 147 | 133 | 119 | 125 |
| above, to {| 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 |
+---------------------+-----------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
Though 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.
Some 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.
It 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 among 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 24,000,000_l._ 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.
Two 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.
Science 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
observations 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 moisture,
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 known
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 has 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 found 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.
The 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 Rome, 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
match 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 permanent
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 to 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 of 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 who 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.
Table of the Heights above the Sea of some of the Principal Mountain
Chains.
EUROPE.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
MONT BLANC | 15,739 |Alps, P.[205]| P. S.[206]
Monte Rosa | 15,210 | Alps, L. | P. S.
Mont Cervin | 14,836 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Finsterärhorn | 14,026 | Alps, B. | Eichman.
Jungfrau | 13,672 | Alps, B. | Eichman.
Le Géant du M. Blanc | 13,786 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Mont Combin | 14,124 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Mont Iséran | 13,272 | Alps, G. | P. S.
Monte Viso | 13,599 | Alps, C. | P. S.
Ortler Spitz | 12,851 | Alps, R. | A. S.
Le Grand Rioburent | 11,063 | Alps, M. | P. S.
Drey Herrn Spitz | 10,122 | Alps, Car. | A. S.
Mont Terglou | 9,386 | Alps, J. | A. S.
| | |
_Passes of the Alps_:-- | | |
| | |
Col du Géant | 11,238[207]| Alps, P. | Saussure.
Col de St. Theodule | 11,185 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Pass of Great St. Bernard | 8,173 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Pass of La Furka | 8,714 | Alps, L. | S. S.
Pass of Mont Moro | 8,937 | Alps, L. | P. S.
Pass of Le Tavernette | 9,827 | Alps, C. | P. S.
Pass of Mont Iséran | 9,196 | Alps, G. | P. S.
Pass of Col des Fenêtres | 9,581 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Pass of the Stelvio | 9,177 | Alps, R. | A. S.
Pass of Bernardino | 7,015 | Alps, R. | A. S.
Pass of the Splugen | 6,946 | Alps, R. | A. S.
Pass of St. Gothard | 6,808 | Alps, R. | S. S.
Pass of Mont Cenis | 6,772 | Alps, G. | P. S.
Pass of Simplon | 6,578 | Alps, L. | P. S.
Pass of Tende | 6,159 | Alps, M. | P. S.
Pass of Mont Genèvre | 6,119 | Alps, C. | P. S.
Pass of Brenner | 4,659 | Alps, R. | A. S.
Pass of Pontebba | 3,625 | Alps, J. | A. S.
| | |
Malahite Peak | 11,168 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.[208]
Mont Perdu Peak | 10,994 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Maboré, Cylinder of | 10,899 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Maladetta, Cylinder of | 10,886 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Vignemale, Cylinder of | 10,820 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Pic du Midi | 9,540 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Canigou | 9,137 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
| | |
_Passes of the Pyrenees_:-- | | |
| | |
Pass or Port d’Oo | 9,843 | France | A. B. L.
Pass or Port d’Estaube | 8,402 | France | A. B. L.
Pass or Port de Gavarnie | 7,654 | France | A. B. L.
Pass or Port de Tourmalet | 7,143 | France | A. B. L.
| | |
Pic de Sancy | 6,188 | France | A. B. L.
Plomb du Cantal | 6,093 | France | A. B. L.
Mont Mezen | 5,795 | France | A. B. L.
Puy de Dôme | 4,806 | France | A. B. L.
Ballon des Vosges | 4,688 | France | A. B. L.
Mont Ventoux | 6,263 | France | A. B. L.
Mulachaçen | 11,483 | Spain | A. B. L.
Sierra de Gredos | 10,552 | Spain | Bory.
Estrella | 7,526 | Spain | Franzini.
Siete Picos | 7,244 | Spain | Bauza.
Peña Laza | 8,222 | Spain | Bauza.
El Gador | 6,575 | Spain | Rojas.
| | |
Monte Corno, or Gran Sasso | 9,521 | Italy, |
d’Italia | | Apennines |
Monte Vellino | 7,851 | Italy, | M. de Prony.
| | Apennines |
Termenillo Grande | 7,212 | Italy, | Schow.
| | Apennines |
Monte Amaro di Majella | 9,113 | Italy, | Schow.
| | Apennines |
Monte Cimone | 6,975 | Italy, | Schow.
| | Apennines |
Mont Amiata | 5,794 | Tuscany | Schow.
St. Oreste or Soracte | 2,140 | Campagna | Schow.
| | of Rome. |
| | |
_Passes of the Appennines_:-- | | |
| | |
Pass of Noviordi Giovi | 1,550 | | Schow.
Pass of La Bochetta | 2,550 | | Schow.
Pass of Pietramala | 3,294 | | Schow.
| | |
_Islands of the Mediterranean_:--| | |
| | |
Monte Rotondo | 8,767 | Corsica | A. B. L.
Monte d’Oro | 8,701 | Corsica | A. B. L.
Monte Generargenta | 6,004 | Sardinia | La Marmora.
Mount Etna | 10,874 | Sicily | W. H. Smyth.
Pizzo di Cane | 6,509 | Sicily | A. B. L.
Mount Eryx | 3,894 | Sicily | A. B. L.
Stromboli | 2,687 | Lipari Isles| De Borch.
| | |
_Greece and Morea_:-- | | |
| | |
Mount Guiona | 8,538 | | Peytier.[209]
Parnassus | 8,068 | | Peytier.
Taygetus, Mont St. Elias | 7,904 | | Peytier.
Mont Olonas | 7,293 | | Peytier.
Mont Kelmos | 7,726 | | Peytier.
Mont Athos | 6,778 | | De Borch.
Mont Helicon | 5,738 | | Peytier.
Delphi | 5,725 | | Peytier.
Mont Hymettus | 3,378 | | Peytier.
| | |
_Central Europe_:-- | | |
| | |
Ruska Joyana | 9,912 | E. Carpaths.| Malte Brun.
Budosch, Transylvania | 9,593 | E. Carpaths.| A. B. L.
Surrul | 9,593 | |
Mount Tatra; highest point | 8,524 | W. Carpaths.| Wahlenberg.
Mount Tatra; Csabi Peak | 8,314 | W. Carpaths.| Wahlenberg.
Mount Tatra; Lomnitz | 8,861 | W. Carpaths.| A. B. L.
Riesenhoppe, in the | | |
Riesengeberge | 5,394 | Germany | Horen.
Feldberg, in the Schwarzwald | 4,675 | Germany | French
| | | Engineers.
Belchenberg, in the Schwarzwald| 4,642 | Germany | French
| | | Engineers.
Kandelberg, in the Schwarzwald | 4,160 | Germany | Bohnenberger.
Schneeberg, Geisengebirge | 4,784 | Germany |
Kammkoppel, Geisengebirge | 4,265 | Germany | Charpentier.
Sonnenwerbel, in the Erzgebirge| 4,124 | Germany |
Rachelberg, in the Böhmerwald | 4,561 | Germany | Sternberg.
Steinberg, Moravia | 3,511 | Germany | David.
Brocken, Hartz | 3,658 | Germany | Zach.
Schneeberg, in the | | |
Fichtelgebirge | 3,461 | Germany | Goldfuss.
Blessberg, in the Thuringerwald| 2,748 | Germany | Zach.
Glockner, in the Thuringerwald | 2,231 | Germany | Zach.
Gross Feldberg, in the Taunus | | |
chain | 2,775 | Germany | Schmidt.
Lowenberg, in the Siebengebirge| 2,024 | Germany | Nose.
| | |
_Norway and Sweden:--_ | | |
| | |
Skagtöltend Lat. 61° 24ʹ | 8,101 | Scandinavian| Keilhau.
| | Mountains |
Koldetind | 7,224 | Scandinavian| Keilhau.
| | Mountains |
Sognefield | 7,182 | Scandinavian| Hagelstam.
| | Mountains |
Mugnafield Lat. 61° 20ʹ | 7,215 | Scandinavian| Forsell.
| | Mountains |
Schneehattan Lat. 62 20 | 8,120 | Scandinavian| Eismark.
| | Mountains |
Pighœttan Lat. 62 2 | 6,788 | Scandinavian| Hagelstam.
| | Mountains |
Sulitelma Lat. 67 5 | 6,178 | Scandinavian| Wahlenberg.
| | Mountains |
Langfield Lat. 61 53 | 6,598 | Scandinavian| Hagelstam.
| | Mountains |
Melderskin Lat. 60 0 | 4,859 | Scandinavian| Von Buch.
| | Mountains |
Lyngen Mountains Lat. 69 30 | 4,300 | Scandinavian| Von Buch.
| | Mountains |
| | |
_Great Britain:--_ | | |
| | |
Ben Nevis | 4,380 | Scotland | Jameson.
Cairntoul, Aberdeenshire | 4,223 | Scotland | Playfair.
Ben Avon, Aberdeenshire | 3,931 | Scotland | Playfair.
Ben More, Grampians | 3,819 | Scotland | Playfair.
Schehallien, Grampians | 3,514 | Scotland | Playfair.
Snowdon | 3,557 | Wales | Roy.
Cader Idris | 3,550 | Wales | Roy.
Carn Llewellyn | 3,471 | Wales | Roy.
Cross Fell, Cumberland | 3,383 | England | Jameson.
Helvyllen, Cumberland | 3,313 | England | Jameson.
Skiddaw, Cumberland | 3,038 | England | Dr. Young.
Schunner Fell, Yorkshire | 2,388 | England | Smith.
Coniston Fell, Lancashire | 2,575 | England | Smith.
Cheviot Hills | 2,657 | England | Smith.
Pentland Hills | 1,878 | Scotland | Playfair.
Curran Tual, Kerry | 3,412 | Ireland | Nimmo.
Sleib Donnard | 3,146 | Ireland | Nimmo.
Nephin, Mayo | 2,644 | Ireland | Jameson.
Mourne Mountains, Down | 2,493 | Ireland | Jameson.
Ben More, Isle of Mull | 3,100 | Hebrides | Jameson.
Hecla, Isle of S. Uist | 3,002 | Hebrides | Boué.
Cuchullin, Isle of Skye | 2,995 | Hebrides | M’Culloch.
Mount Rona | 3,593 | Shetland | Laing.
| | |
_Iceland and Feroe:--_ | | |
| | |
Snœfials, Jokull | 5,115 | Iceland | A. B. L.
Hecla | 3,324 | Iceland | A. B. L.
Skalingefield, Isle Stromoe | 2,172 | Feroe | Stein.
ASIA.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
| | |
_Himalaya Chain:—_ | | |
| | |
Kunchinginga, W. part | 28,178 | Sikim | Col. Waugh.[210]
Kunchinginga, E. Peak | 27,826 | Sikim | Col. Waugh.
Dwalagari | 26,862 | Nepaul | Webb.
Juwahir | 25,670 | Kumaöon | Herbert.
Jumoo | 25,312 | Sikim | Waugh.
Jumnautri | 25,500 | Nepaul | Webb.
Dhaibun | 24,740 | Nepaul | Webb.
Kabroo | 24,005 | Sikim | Waugh.
Chamalari | 23,929 | Tibet | Waugh.
Powhunry | 23,176 | Sikim | Waugh.[210]
Momonangli, or Gurla | 23,500 | Tibet | Strachey.[211]
Api Peak | 22,799 | Nepaul | Webb.
| | |
Peak No. 12 | 23,263 |} Between the| Webb.
Peak No. 13 | 22,313 |} Kali and E.| Webb.
Peak No. 23 | 22,727 |} branch of | Webb.
Peak No. 25 | 22,277 |} the Ganges.| Webb.
| | |
St. George’s Peak | 22,500 |} Between | Webb.
St. Patrick’s Peak | 22,638 |} the Ganges | Webb.
Gungoutri Pyramid | 21,219 |} and Sutlej.| Webb.
| | |
Jownlee Peak (highest) | 21,940 | Kumaöon | Webb.
Kailas Peak | 21,000 | Tibet | Strachey.
Kohibaba | 17,905 | Hindoo Cush | Burnes.
Peak N. of Cabul | 20,232 | Hindoo Cush | Burnes.
| | |
_Passes of the Himalaya:—_ | | |
| | |
Karokorum Pass | 18,600 | Tibet | Dr. Thomson[212]
Parangla Pass | 18,500 | Tibet | Cunningham.
Kronbrung Pass | 18,313 | Tibet | Gerard.
Langpya Dhura or Doora | | |
Ghaut | 17,750 | Tibet | Strachey.
Lipu Lek Pass | 16,884 | Tibet | Manson.
Niti Ghaut Pass | 16,814 | Tibet | Gerard.
Paralaha Pass | 16,500 | Tibet | Webb.
Shatool Pass | 15,500 | Tibet | Webb.
| | |
Elbrouz | 18,493 | Caucasus | Fuss.
Kasbeck | 16,530 | Caucasus | A. C.[213]
Demavend | 14,695 | Persia | Thomson.
Ararat | 17,112 | Persia | Parrot.
Argæus | 13,197 | Asia Minor | A. C.
Beloukha | 11,062 | Altai | A. C.
Mount Lebanus | 9,517 | Syria | A. B. L.
Mount Horeb | 8,593 | Syria | Rüppell.
Mount Sinai | 7,498 | Syria | Rüppell.
Jebel Serbal | 6,760 | Syria | Rüppell.
Kamen Peak | 5,397 | Ural | A. C.
Tremel Peak | 5,071 | Ural | A. C.
AFRICA, AND ISLANDS IN THE ATLANTIC.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
| | |
Mount Atlas (Miltsin) | 11,400 | Morocco | Washington.
Mount Abba Jarrat 13° 10ʹ N | 15,008 | Abyssinia | Rüppell.
Mount Buahat 13 12 N | 14,362 | Abyssinia | Rüppell.
Kilimandjaro 4 0 S | 20,000 | Abyssinia in| Ans. of Phil.
(doubtful.) | | the Mtns. |
| | of the |
| | Moon. |
Table Mountain | 3,816 | Cape of Good| A. B. L.
| | Hope. |
Pico Ruivo | 6,056 | Madeira | Vidal.
Peak of Teyde, Teneriffe | 12,172 | Canaries. | Von Buch.
Chahorra, Teneriffe | 9,885 | Canaries. | Von Buch.
Pico de Cruz, Palma | 7,730 | Canaries. | Vidal.[214]
Los Pexos, Great Canary | 6,400 | Canaries. | Vidal.
Alto Garaona, Gomera | 4,400 | Canaries. | Vidal.
San Anton, Ferro | 3,907 | Canaries. | Vidal.
Asses’ Ears, Fuestaventura | 2,770 | Canaries. | Vidal.
Peak of Fogo | 9,154 | Cape Verde | Deville.
| | Islands. |
Pico, Island of San Antonio | 8,815 | Cape Verde | Capt. King.
| | Islands. |
Pico, Island of Pico | 7,613 | Azores | Vidal.
Pico de Vara, Island of St. | | |
Michael’s | 3,570 | Azores | Vidal.
Caldeira de Sta. Barbara, | | |
Terceira | 3,500 | Azores | Vidal.
Pico de San Jorje | 3,498 | Azores | Vidal.
Morro Gordo, Flores | 3,087 | Azores | Vidal.
Caldeira de Corvo | 2,460 | Azores | Vidal.
AMERICA.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
| | |
_North America:—_ | | |
| | |
Mount St. Elias | 16,775 |N. America | A. B. L.
Popocatepetl | 17,717 |Mexico | A. B. L.
Orizaba | 17,374 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Iztacihuatl | 15,705 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Nevado of Toluca | 15,542 |Mexico | A. B. L.
Sierra Nevada | 15,170 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Perote Mount | 13,413 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Fair Weather Mountain | 14,925 |N. America |
Jorullo | 4,265 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Volcan de Fuego, west peak | 13,160 |Guatemala | Basil Hall.
Volcan de Fuego, east peak | 13,050 |Guatemala | Basil Hall.
Irasu, or Volcano of Cartago | 11,480 |Guatemala | Phys. Atlas.
| | |
_West Indies:—_ | | |
| | |
Blue Mountains | 7,277 |Jamaica |
La Souffrière | 5,108 |Guadaloupe |
Montagne Pelee | 4,432 |Martinique | Monnier.
Mount Garon | 4,370 |St. Vincent’s| Chisholm.
| | |
_South America:—_ | | |
| | |
La Silla de Caraccas | 8,600 |Venezuela | Humboldt.
Cerro de Duida | 8,280 |Venezuela | Humboldt.
Roraima Lat. 5° 30ʹ N. | 7,450 |Guiana | Schomburgk.
Mountains of Santa Martha | 19,000? |New Grenada |
Plains of Bogota | 8,730 |New Grenada | Humboldt.
Volcano of Tolima | 18,020 |Andes of | Humboldt.
| | N. Grenada |
Volcano of Purace | 17,034 | | Humboldt.
| |Andes of |
Cumbal | 15,620 |N. Grenada | Bousingault.
| |Andes of the |
Cayambe | 19,535 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Antisana | 19,137 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Cotopaxi | 18,875 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Pinchincha | 15,924 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Chimborazo | 21,424 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Illinissa | 17,380 | Equator | Bouguer.
| |Andes of the |
Tunguragua | 16,424 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Sangai | 16,138 | Equator | La Condamine.
Vilcañota Mount | 17,525 |Peru | Pentland.[215]
Apu-Cunuranu | 17,590 |Peru | Pentland
Guaracoota Peak, Snowline | 16,297 |Peru | Pentland
Cololo Lat. 14° 58ʹ | 17,930 |Bolivia |
Volcano of Arequipa | 20,320 |Peru | Pentland
Quenuta Lat. 17° 41ʹ | 18,765 |Peru | Pentland
Chipicani | 19,745 |Peru | Pentland
Pomarape | 21,700 |Peru | Pentland
Parinacota | 22,030 |Peru | Pentland
Sahama | 22,350 |Peru | Pentland
Gualateiri Lat. 18° 23ʹ | 21,960 |Peru | Pentland
Ancohuma, S. Peak | 21,286 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Ancohuma, N. Peak | 21,043 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Chachacomani, N. Peak | 20,355 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Angel Peak Lat. 16° 10ʹ | 20,115 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Supaïwasi, or Huayna Potosi | 20,260 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Cacaca Lat. 16° 25ʹ | 18,210 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
La Mesada, S. Peak | 19,356 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Illimani, S. Peak | 21,140 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Mount de las Litanias | 14,500 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Mount Miriquiri Peak Lat. 17° | 16,100 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Cerro, or Mountain of Potosi | 16,152 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Cerro, or Mountain of | |Bolivian |
Chorolque, near Tupisa | 16,550 |Andes | Redhead.
Aconcagua Mountain | 23,910 |Chile[216] | Fitzroy and
| | | Beechey
Tupungato | 15,000 |Chile |
Antuco | 16,000 |Chile | Fitzroy
Villarica | 16,000 |Chile | Fitzroy
Volcano of Osorno, or | 7,550 |Chile | Fitzroy
Llanquihue | | |
Yanteles | 8,030 |Chile | Fitzroy
Minchinmadava Volcano | 8,000 |Chile | Fitzroy
Mount Stokes | 6,400 |Patagonia | Fitzroy
Mount Burney | 5,800 |Patagonia | Fitzroy
Mount Sarmiento | 6,900 |Tierra del | Fitzroy
| | Fuego |
Mount Darwin | 6,800 |Tierra del | Fitzroy
| | Fuego |
| | |
_Passes of the Andes:_ | | |
| | |
Rumihuasi | 16,160 |Peru | Gaye.
Altos de Toledo | 15,790 |Peru | Pentland.
Pacuani | 15,340 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Chullunquiani | 15,160 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Vilcañota, or la Raya | 14,520 |Peru | Pentland.
Gualillas | 14,750 |Peru | Pentland.
Paramo d’Assüay | 15,528 |Equator | Humboldt.
Guanacas | 14,708 |Equator | Bouguer.
Pass of Quindiu | 11,502 |N. Grenada | Humboldt.
Pass of el Almorsadero | 12,850 |N. Grenada | Humboldt.
Pass of La Cumbre | 12,450 |Chile | Pentland.
Pass of Peuquenes | 13,210 |Chile | Dr. Gillies.
Pass of el Portillo | 14,365 |Chile | Humboldt.
| | |
_Mountains of Brazil:_ | | |
| | |
Itambe | 5,960 | | Eschwege.
Villarica chain, Sierra da | | |
Piedade | 5,830 | | Eschwege.
Itacolumi | 5,750 | | Eschwege.
ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC, POLYNESIA, AUSTRALASIA, &c.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
| | |
Isle of Bourbon, highest point | 8,340 | | Phys. Atlas.
Mount Ambotismene | 11,506 |Madagascar | A. B. L.
Adam’s Peak | 6,152 |Ceylon |
Mount Slamat or Tajal | 11,930 |Java | Junghuhn.
Mount Sumbung | 11,030 |Java | Junghuhn.
Mount Gounnong Pasama, or Ophir | 13,840 |Sumatra | Raffles.
Volcano of Matua | 4,500 |Kurile Is. | Phys. Atlas.
Peak of Unimak | 8,593 |Aleutian Is. | Phys. Atlas.
Mowna Kea | 13,953 |Sandwich Is. | Wilkes.
Mowna Roa | 13,760 |Sandwich Is. | Wilkes.
Tobreonou | 12,250 |Otaheite | Phys. Atlas.
Mount Wellington, or Kosciusco | 6,500 |New Holland | Strelizki.
Mount Lindsay Lat. 28° 20ʹ S. | 5,700 |New Holland | Mitchell.
Mount Canobolas Lat. 33 25 | 4,551 |New Holland | Mitchell.
Mount Edgecumbe | 9,630 |New Zealand | Bidwell.
Mount Egmont | 8,840 |New Zealand | Dieffenbach.
Tongariro Mountain | 6,200 |New Zealand | Dieffenbach.
Mount Erebus | 12,400 |} Antarctic | Sir J. C. Ross.
Mount Terror | 10,880 |} Lands | Sir J. C. Ross.
LAKES AND INLAND SEAS.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Sirikol, source of the Oxus | 15,630 |Pameo | Wood.
Manasarowar and Raikas Thal | 15,250 |Tibet | Strachey.
Chumurari Lake | 15,000 |Tibet | Cunningham.
Titicaca | 12,847 |Peru-Bolivia | Pentland.
Baikal | 1,535 |Asia | A. C.
Lake of Van | 566 |Turkey in | A. C.
| |Asia |
Aral | 36 |Asia | A. C.
Caspian Sea, _below_ the level | | |
of the Ocean | 82 |Asia | R. Survey.
Dead Sea, _below_ the Ocean | 1,312 |Syria |Symond.
Lake Superior | 596 |N. America |
Lake of Lucerne | 1,407 |Switzerland | Eschman.
Lake of Geneva | 1,230 |Switzerland | Eschman.
HEIGHTS OF SOME REMARKABLE INHABITED PLACES.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
| | |
Rumihuasi, Post Station | 15,542 |Andes of Peru| Gaye.
Ayavirini, Post Station | 14,960 |Peru | Gaye.
Pati, Post Station 16° 05ʹ | 14,400 |Peru | Pentland.
Apo Post Station 16 13S. | 14,376 |Peru | Pentland.
Ancochallani, farm 17 35 | 14,683 |Peru | Pentland.
Tacora, village 17 47 | 13,690 |Peru | Pentland.
Calamarca 16 54 | 13,650 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Antisana, farm | 13,454 |Equator | Humboldt.
Potosi, city | 13,330 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Puno, city | 12,870 |Peru | Pentland.
Oruro, city | 12,454 |Bolivia | Pentland.
La Paz, city | 12,226 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Miquipampa, village | 11,870 |Peru | Humboldt.
Cusco, city | 11,384 |Peru | Pentland.
Quito, capital of the Equator | 9,543 | | Humboldt.
Chuquisaca, capital of Bolivia | 9,343 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Bogota, capital of New Grenada | 8,730 |N. Grenada | Humboldt.
Mexico | 7,570 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Arequipa, city | 7,852 |Peru | Pentland.
Highest villages on S. side of | | |
the Himalaya | 13,000 |Kumäon | Strachey.
Ladak | 9,995 |Tibet | A. C.
Niti, village | 11,473 |Kumäon | Webb.
Darjeeling, town | 7,165 |Sekim | Waugh.
| | Himalaya |
Cabool | 6,382 |Afghanistan | Burnes.
Kandahar | 5,563 |Afghanistan | Humboldt.
Teheran | 4,137 |Persia | A. C.
Kashmir, city | 5,818 |Kashmir | Hugel.
Hospital of Great St. Bernard | 8,110 | | A. B. L.
Hospital of St. Gothard | 6,808 |Alps, P. | A. B. L.
St. Veran, village | 6,693 |Alps, C. | A. B. L.
Breuil, village | 6,584 |Alps, P. | P. S.
Barèges, village | 4,072 |Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Briançon, town | 4,285 |Alps, M. | A. B. L.
Madrid, city | 1,994 |Spain | A. B. L.
Münich, city | 1,764 |Bavaria | A. B. L.
Geneva, city | 1,450 |Switzerland | A. B. L.
Lima, city | 520 |Peru | Pentland.
Vienna, city | 436 |Austria | A. B. L.
Milan, city | 420 |Lombardy | A. B. L.
Paris, Observatory | 213 |France | A. B. L.
Rome, Capitol | 151 |Italy | A. B. L.
Berlin | 131 |Prussia | A. B. L.
GLOSSARY.
A´BIES. Lat. A fir-tree. Specific name of a tree.
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.
A´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,} Lat. White.
ALBUM,}
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.
ALLU´VION,} From the Lat. _alluo_, I wash upon. Gravel,
ALLUVIUM, } 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,} Lat. Alpine; belonging or relating to the Alps.
ALPI´NUS,}
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.
ANGE´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.
ARGENTI´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. } A tribe of plants, of which the genus Artemésia
ARTEMESIAS. } 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. } From the Gr. _a_, privative, and _sphalto_,
ASPHALTUM. } 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. } A genus of plants of the family of Rhamnoides. There
AUKU´BA. } 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.
AUROCHS. 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. } Lat. Belonging or relating to the south.
AUSTRA´LIS. }
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. } From the Gr. _a_, privative and _zo´on_,
AZOTIC GAS. } 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. } Belonging, or relating to the barometer.
BAROMETRICAL. }
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.
BER´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.
BREXIA. 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, } A Malay name for a greenish, volatile oil used as
CAJAPUTA, } 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.
CAMEL´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.
CAULE´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.
CICHORA´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.
COMBU´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.
CRYPTO´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.
DAPH´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, } From the Gr. _dicha_, divided, and _tomos_,
DICHOTO´MU, } section. In zoology this term is applied to a species
DICHOTO´MUS, } 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.
DINO´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.
E´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. } From the Gr. _elaia_, the olive. A genus of plants
ELÆIS. } 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.
ERI´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. } The family of Mesembryánthémeæ. _Ficoides_
FICOIDEÆ. } 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.
FOOTSTALKS. 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.
GENUS. 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. } Lat. Gigantic, huge.
GIGAN´TEUS. }
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.
GRANIVOROUS. } Applied to animals which feed upon grains,
GRANIVORA. } 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_.
HORSE-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.
IRIDIUM. 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. } From _laurus_, laurel, one of the genera.
LAUREA´CEÆ. } A family of plants.
LATENT 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.
MAGNET. 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. } Lat. The greatest.
MAXIMUM. }
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.
MET´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. } From the Gr. _miainô_, I contaminate. Applied
MIA´SMATA. } 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.
MON´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.
OBSI´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. } Lat. Eastern. Belonging to the East.
ORIENTA´LE. }
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.
PALAP´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. } From the Lat. _Passer_, a sparrow, name
PASS´ERES. } of a varied and extensive order of birds, not
PASSERINE BIRDS. } 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.
PEP´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. } From the Gr. _phake_, a wart, and
PHACO´CHÆ´RUS. Lat. } _choiros_, a hog. Agenus 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. } Name of a genus of birds.
PHI´LEMON. }
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. } From the Gr. _phuse_, a vesicle. A genus of
PHYSA´LIS. } 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.
PIME´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. } The diminutive of the Spanish _plata_, silver.
PLAT´INUM. } 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. } From the Gr. _pleion_, more, and _kainos_,
PLI´OCENE. } 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. } From the Lat. _plumbum_, lead. An instrument,
PLUMMET. } 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.
PORPHYRY. 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.
RADIA´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.
SA´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. } A genus of monkeys.
SAKIS. }
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.
SE´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.
SOLAR 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. } Lat. Handsome. A word used as a specific name.
SPECIO´SUM. }
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.
STRI´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.
TETRACE´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.
TRIO´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.
XERA´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.
INDEX.
A.
Abyssinia, 89;
dimensions of, _ib._;
table-land, _ib._;
mountains, _ib._;
geological structure, _ib._
Acidulous springs, 153.
Admiralty, its encouragement of science, 463.
Afghanistan, flora of, 320.
Africa, extent and area, 85;
height of table-land, _ib._;
interior of continent, 86;
width at the Cape of Good Hope, _ib._;
western mountains, 87;
the koroos, _ib._;
western coast, _ib._;
fertile tract across the continent, 89, 90;
deserts, 90, 91;
analogy of Southern Africa to the Deccan, 92;
earthquake, 154.
Africa, rivers of, 218-224;
the Gariep, or Orange River, 218;
the Zambesi, 219;
the Haines, _ib._;
the Hawash, _ib._;
the Zaire, _ib._;
the Nile, _ib._-223;
the White Nile, 220;
its affluents, _ib._;
the Blue Nile, _ib._;
its tributaries, _ib._;
the Takkazie, _ib._;
Abyssinian rivers, 221;
course of the Nile, _ib._;
its basin, 222;
velocity, _ib._;
inundations, _ib._;
ancient renown of, _ib._;
the Niger, 223;
barbarous state of its nations, _ib._;
its sources and course, 223;
its affluents, _ib._;
its branches, _ib._;
inundations, 224;
the Gambia, _ib._;
the Senegal, _ib._
Africa, flora of, 330;
quadrupeds of, 423;
birds of, 402.
Agassiz, M., on a former glacier in Chamouni, 53.
Agouti, 432.
Aconcagua, volcano of, 95.
Ai, species of sloth, 429.
Airy, Mr., 16; 462.
Alector, genus of birds, 407.
Alleghanies, chain of, 128, 129;
area, _ib._;
scenery, _ib._;
branches, 129;
vegetation on, 342.
Alligators, 389.
Alpaca or Paco, 431;
on naturalization of, in Europe, _ib._
Alpine vegetation, 318.
Alps, the, 49;
higher Alps, their extent, _ib._;
elevation of central ridge of, _ib._;
width of the chain, 50;
ice in, 52;
flora of, 313.
Altai Mountains, 65;
length and breadth of the chain, _ib._;
form, _ib._;
geology of, 66.
Alluvial deposits by rivers, 33.
Amblyrhinchus, genus of reptiles, 391.
Amboyna, its vegetation, 325.
America, length and form of the continent, 93;
its natural divisions, _ib._;
climate, _ib._;
mountains, _ib._;
mean height of, 135.
America, rivers of, 234-244;
the St. Lawrence, 235;
Arctic streams, _ib._;
the Mississippi, 235, 236;
its sources, 235;
its tributaries, _ib._;
the Missouri, _ib._;
the Arkansas, _ib._;
the Red River, _ib._;
the Ohio, 236;
length of the Mississippi, _ib._;
floods, 237;
rivers of the Alleghany chain, _ib._;
of the Rocky Mountains, _ib._;
Mexican rivers, _ib._;
rivers of the Andes, 238;
the Orinoco, its rise and course, 239;
tributaries, _ib._;
area of its basin, 240;
floods, _ib._;
the Amazons, its rise and course, _ib._;
its basin, _ib._;
tributaries, 241;
floods, _ib._;
branches, _ib._;
colour of American rivers, 242;
the Rio de la Plata, its rise, _ib._;
tributaries, _ib._;
length, _ib._;
floods and inundations, 243;
the Colorado, 243;
the Rio Negro, _ib._;
the Essequibo, _ib._;
navigation of South American rivers, _ib._;
the Parà, 244;
the San Francisco, _ib._
America, continental islands of, 139.
American quadrupeds, 426;
birds, 404, 405;
races of man, 438.
America peopled from Asia, 448.
America, Central, its dimensions, 114;
mountains, _ib._;
climate and vegetation, 116;
volcanos, _ib._;
geology, 118.
America, Central, flora of, 344.
America, North, its dimensions and structure, 119;
mountains, 119-123, 128-129;
plains, 123, 130;
progressive extinction of aborigines, 131;
geological notice, 131-133;
volcanic action, 131; fossil mammalia, _ib._; analogy
of the geology of North America with that of Europe, 132-133;
mean height of the continent, 135;
coalfields, 184, 185;
flora of, 341.
America, South, length and width, 93;
its mountains, 94-105;
low lands, 105-114;
their extent and area, 105;
geology, 109-114;
volcanic remains, 109, _note_;
upheavings and subsidences, 112;
mean height of the continent, 134;
earthquakes, 154;
tropical flora of, 346.
Ammonia, its use in vegetation, 301.
Amphiuma, 386.
Amucu, lake, 104.
Anatolia, table-land and mountains of, 56.
Andes, chain of, 93-103;
Patagonian Andes, 94;
Chilian Andes, 95;
Peruvian Andes, 96;
fertility and populousness of, _ib._;
ancient civilization, _ib._;
Bolivian Andes, _ib._, 97;
three ranges of the chain, 98;
Andes of Cundinamarca and Merida, 100;
passes of the Andes, elevations of, 101;
climate and temperature, 102;
development of volcanic force in the Andes, 109, 110;
geology of, 111, 113;
coal found in, 111;
volcanic products, 112;
sea-shells in, _ib._;
alternate elevation and depression of, 112, 113;
volcanos in eruption in 1835, 112;
Andes of Central America, 114, 115.
Aneroid barometer, 261.
Angara, a Siberian river, 250.
Angora goat, 418.
Animated beings, new races of, accompany great geological changes in
the strata, 34;
their ancient geographical distribution, 35.
Anjou, Lieutenant, his voyage, 76, _note_.
Anoa, the, 422.
Anolis, genus of reptiles, 390.
Antarctic lands, 165-167.
Ant-eaters, 420.
Antelopes of Asia, 420;
of Africa, 424.
Antelope Saiga, 419.
Antelope, Prongbuck, or American, 427.
Anti-Libanus, height of, 83.
Ants, 367.
Ants, white, their ravages, _ib._
Antuco, vegetation at, 350.
Apennines, their extent, 51.
Aptenodytes, southern penguin, 408.
Apteryx, anomalous bird, 410.
Arabia, peninsula of, 81, 82;
elevation of table-land, 81;
mountains, 82.
Arabia Felix, 82.
Arabia Petrea, 83.
Arabia, flora of, 329.
Arabians, 437.
Arago, M., on polarized light, 284.
Aral, lake of, 248, 249.
Ararat, Mount, 56, 418.
Araucari, a bird, 407.
Araucaria, genus of plants, 349.
Arctic lands, 159-167.
Ardea helias, 408.
Areca tree and nut, 324.
Argali sheep, 418.
Armadilloes, 429.
Armenia, plains of, 56.
Arrow-root, 347.
Artesian wells, 152, 210.
Asia, mean height of, 134;
volcanos of, 152;
earthquakes in, 153.
Asia, rivers of, 224, 234;
system of the Euphrates and Tigris, area of its basin, 224;
rise and course of the Euphrates, 225;
of the Tigris, _ib._;
their junction, _ib._;
ancient and present state of their banks, _ib._;
the Indus, its sources, 226;
its tributaries, _ib._;
its navigation, 227;
its delta, _ib._;
length and area, _ib._;
the Ganges and Brahmapootra, sources of, 228;
their tributaries, _ib._;
length, 228, 229;
inundations, 229;
branches, _ib._;
drainage, _ib._;
the Irawady, 230;
the Menam, _ib._;
the Cambodja, _ib._;
the Saüng, 231;
the Hoang-Ho, _ib._;
the Yang-tse-Kiang, _ib._;
the Hong-Kiang, 232;
the White River, _ib._;
the Amur, _ib._;
the Lena, _ib._;
the Yenessei, 233;
the Oby and Irtish, _ib._;
great difference in the inhabitants of the basins of Asiatic rivers,
234.
Asia, flora of, 319; quadrupeds of, 417;
birds of, 400.
Asp, Egyptian, a snake, 387.
Ass, wild, or onagra, 418.
Assal, lake of, 250.
Assam, Upper, its mountains, 64.
Assam, tea-plant in, 322.
Assyrian wilderness, 84.
Atlantic Ocean, volcanic islands of, 140;
its size, 189.
Atlantic Plain, 130.
Atlantic Slope, 130.
Atlas mountains, 46.
Atmosphere influential in modifying the distribution of light and heat,
15.
Atolls, 142-145; description of, 143;
diameter, 144;
atolls of the Pacific, _ib._;
of the China Sea, _ib._;
of the Indian Ocean, 145;
great extent of atolls, 148.
Auchenia, genus of llamas, 430.
Auckland Islands, flora of, 353.
Aurochs, or wild ox, 416.
Aurora, the, 290;
form and height of, 291;
effect on the magnetic needle, _ib._
Australia, continent of, 136-139.
Australia, rivers of, their insignificance, 244;
the Murray, _ib._;
the Macquarrie, _ib._;
Swan River, _ib._
Australia, flora of, 336;
quadrupeds of, 344;
birds of, 309;
human races, 438.
Axolotl, a Mexican reptile, 386.
Azerbijan, 418.
B.
Babbage, Mr., on age of peat-mosses, 358.
Babiroussa hog, 421.
Back, Sir George, 463.
Bahama Islands, 118.
Bahr-el-Abiad, or White Nile, 251. _See_ Nile.
Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue Nile. _See_ Nile.
Baikal mountains, 99.
Baily, Mr., 19; and _note_.
Balkan, 50.
Baltic Sea, its area, 207;
basin, _ib._;
depth, _ib._;
climate, _ib._;
influence on European civilization, 449.
Baratra, the, 403.
Barbican, a genus of birds, 403.
Baring, Sir Francis, 463.
Barley, origin and cultivation of, 356.
Barometer, use in determining heights, 261;
how affected by storms, 269;
horary visitations of, 262;
aneroid, 261, _note_.
Barren Ground, the, of North America, 129.
Barrier-reefs, 145;
notice of a reef off the north-east coast of Australia, 146.
Batrachians, an order of reptiles, 384;
their distribution, 385.
Bear, 417, 419.
Bear, the grizzly, 427.
Beaufort, Admiral Sir Francis, 463.
Beaumont, M. Elie de, extension of Von Buch’s views, 39, _note_;
parallelism of contemporary chains, 43.
Beechey, Captain, his measurement of the height of the Nevado of
Aconcagua, 95.
Bees, distribution of, 366.
Beke, Dr., travels in Africa, 89.
Beloot Tagh, or Cloudy Mountains, 59.
Benguela, 88.
Ben Nevis, its elevation, 71.
Besborough, Earl of, 463.
Bessel, M., his measurement of the earth’s radii, 16;
his results compared with those of Mr. Airy, 17;
with Colonel Sabine’s, 17, _note_.
Birds, classification of, 392;
geographical distribution of, 393; migration of, _ib._;
gregarious, 397;
British, 398;
European, 394;
Asiatic, 400;
African, 402;
North American, 404;
South American, 405;
Australian, 409;
of New Zealand, 410;
fossil from New Zealand, 410.
Bison, the, a species of ox, 427.
Black Sea, its area, 207;
basin, _ib._;
depth, _ib._
Blue Mountains, 117.
Boa, a genus of serpents, 388.
Boar, wild, 416.
Bombon, plain, its height, 98.
Borax, lakes of, in Tibet, 250.
Borneo, general features, products, and climate of, 143;
population of, 438.
Boué, M., his deductions from a comparison of different parts of the
land, 42;
nature’s fundamental types few, 43;
interruptions in continents and mountain-chains, 45;
Scandinavian mountain system, 70.
——, Dr., on the influence of chains of mountains on the difference of
nations, 448.
Brazil, table-land, its form, 104; boundaries, _ib._;
soil, 105;
flora of, 348.
Brienz, lake of, 247.
Britain, flora of, 317.
British mountains, geology of, 71.
British population, 443.
Brooke, Sir J., at Borneo, 460.
Buch, Von, the structure of the globe, 39, _note_;
notice of mountains in Germany, 44;
classification of islands, 139;
boundary of the Australian continent, 141.
Bunsen, Chevalier, on the antiquity of the Egyptian dynasties, 444,
_note_.
Buphaga, a genus of birds, 403.
C.
Caama antelope, 424.
Cabiai, or myopotamus, 433.
Cachalot, or spermaceti whale, 379.
Calbongos, 88.
Camel, Bactrian, 420;
Arabian, or dromedary, _ib._
Camellia, country of, 321.
Campbell’s Island, 354.
Campos Parecis, desert of, 105.
Canadas, the, products, 127;
ice-storms 128;
waste-land, _ib._
Cape Negro, 87.
Cape pigeons, or pintadoes, 393.
Cariama, a gallinaceous bird, 407.
Caribbean Sea, 209.
Caroline Archipelago, 144.
Carpathian mountains, 49.
Carnivorous quadrupeds, 414.
Cashmere, flora of, 310.
Cashmere, goat, 419.
Casius, Mount, height of, 83.
Caspian Sea, its depression, 73.
Caspian Sea, 248.
Cassican, genus of birds, 401.
Cassowary, 402.
Caucasus, the, 55.
Caucasian race of mankind, 436;
its distribution, _ib._
Cavendish, Mr., 19.
Cebus, an American monkey, 429.
Celtic races of man, 441.
Cerealia, geographical distribution of, 355.
Cereopsis, a New Holland bird, 410.
Cerro Duida, height of, 104.
Cetacea, division of, 377.
Ceylon, island of, 80;
flora of, 329.
Chameleons, 390.
Chamois, 417, 419.
Charpentier, M., his measurement of the base of the Pyrenees, 134,
_note_.
Cheiroptera, or bats, 414.
Chelonians, or turtles, 392.
Chelydæ, 391.
Cherokee Indians, 458.
Chile, its climate, 95;
group of volcanic vents, 110;
rise of the coast, 113;
vegetation of, 349.
Chimpanzee, 422, 425.
China, great productiveness of, 78;
area of its alluvial plain, _ib._;
extent of great canal of, _ib._;
climate, _ib._;
fire-hills and fire-springs of, 152;
flora of, 321.
Chinchilla, 432.
Chinese empire, extent of mountains in, 59.
Chinese population, 437.
Chionis, an antarctic bird, 409.
Chious, 410.
Chiquisaca, 97.
Chitta, the hunting leopard, 421.
Chlamyphores, 429.
Choco, chain of, 100.
Cinchona, or Peruvian-bark tree, 311; 347.
Circassians, 436.
Civilization, effects of, 439;
greatest in the vicinity of the sea, 457.
Climate during the Eocene period, 29;
excessive cold of the Pleiocene period, 31.
Climate altered by cultivation, 451.
Clouds, formation and height of, 274;
different names given to, _ib._
Coal, diffusion of, 181-186;
quantity consumed and exported annually by Great Britain, 184,
_note_;
quantity
produced in France in 1841, _ib._;
quantity raised in one year, _ib._, _note_;
annual value of coal, 184.
Coalfields, great extent of, 36.
Coasts, extent and form of, 40;
comparative extent of, in the four quarters of the globe, 41.
Cobra capello, or hooded snake, 387.
Coca (Erythroxylon), 350.
Coccineal insect, 366.
Cæciliæ, genus of reptiles, 386.
Coffee-plant, and history of, 330.
Cold, regions where greatest, 258.
Colima, volcanic cone, 121.
Colobus, genus of Lemuridæ, 425.
Colombian Archipelago. _See_ West Indian Islands.
Condor, the, 406.
Coniferæ, family of plants, 362.
Continent, the great, form of, 45;
its high lands, 46, 69;
European portion of its mountains, 47;
extent and breadth of high lands between the Mediterranean and the
Pacific, 55;
area of its high land, 73;
southern low lands, 77;
great extent of desert, 92;
continental islands of, 140.
Continents, forces that raised them, their mode of action, 37;
area of the great continent, 38;
relative extent of continents and islands, _ib._;
elevation of continents, 41;
interruptions in, 45;
mean height of, 133;
height of their centres of gravity, 135.
Continental islands described, 139.
Copper, diffusion of, 178.
Coral formations, four kinds of, 143.
Coral reefs, 146.
Cotopaxi, height of, 99.
Coucals, genus of birds, 401.
Coucou, 407.
Couroucou, species of bird, 401.
Crater of elevation, definition of, 48, _note_.
Crax alector, 407.
Crime, decrease of, by education, 471.
Crocodiles in general, 389;
of the Nile, _ib._;
of the Ganges, _ib._
Cryptogamia, 306.
Cuba, area and coast-line, 118;
height of its mountains, _ib._
Culture, its influence on the human form, 447.
Currents, causes of, 197;
direction and velocity, _ib._;
great oceanic currents, 198;
Gulf-stream, 199;
breadth of currents, _ib._;
counter-currents, 200;
periodical currents, _ib._;
effect of currents on voyages, 201.
Cusco, city, 98;
reliques of the Incas, _ib._
Cush, or land of Ethiopia, 443.
Cutch, river of, 81.
Cuvier, Baron, 30, 32, 463.
Cuyo, a province of South America, 430.
D.
Daman, or Hyrax, 425.
Dangerous Archipelago, 144.
Daouria mountains, 66.
Daouria, flora of, 316.
Darwin, Mr., his speculations on perfect animals found buried in
Siberia, 32;
his ‘Travels in South America’ quoted, 112;
on red water on the coast of Chile, 370;
on reptiles of Galapagos, 391;
on Aconcagua Peak, 272.
Dasyurus, a genus of carnivora, 434.
Da Vinci, Leonardo, his hydraulic operations, 217, _note_.
Davy, Sir Humphry, his discovery of metalloids, 168;
his safety-lamp, 173, _note_.
Day and night, unequal duration of, 15.
Dead Sea, depression of, 84, _note_.
Dead Sea, 247.
de Candolle, M., on botanical regions, _note_, 308;
on growth of trees, 358.
Deccan, table-land of, 79;
its height and composition, 80;
structure, _ib._;
soil, _ib._
Deer, Asiatic, 421.
De la Beche, Sir Henry, on metalliferous deposits, 170, 463.
Dembia lake, 251.
Deodora pine, 320.
Desaguadero, table-land or valley of, its dimensions, 96;
its area, 97.
Dinornis, a fossil bird, 410.
Dip of the horizon, 17.
Distance estimated from known height of an object, 17.
Dodo, an extinct bird, 410.
Dogs, American, 427.
Dolphins, 378.
Domestic animals, number of species, 452.
Donny, M., his experiments with boiling water, 163.
Douglas, Mr., his account of an eruption of the volcano of Kirawah in
1834, 151.
Dove, Professor, on mean temperatures, 259.
Dragon lizard, 390.
Dry River, 86.
Dugong, the, 377.
Dzeran goat, 419.
Dziggetai, the, 418, _note_.
E.
Earth, the, its insignificance in space, 13;
instability of its shell, 14;
its internal fires, _ib._;
changes which have brought about its present state, _ib._;
its future destruction, _ib._;
its distance from the sun, 15;
its annual and diurnal revolutions, _ib._;
its position in the solar system, _ib._;
inclination of the axis, _ib._;
its relative magnitude, _ib._;
its oblateness, _note_, _ib._;
its figure and density deduced from the perturbations in the motions
of the moon, _ib._;
its curvature, 16;
modes of determining its form and size, _ib._;
its radii, _ib._;
its circumference and diameter, _ib._;
experiment to ascertain the value of its mass, 18;
its mean density, 19;
increase in density towards the centre, _ib._;
constitution of its surface, _ib._;
an idea of its structure obtained from mining, _ib._;
its antiquity, 34;
unequal arrangement of land and water, 37, 38;
ancient internal action, 135.
Earthquakes, 153-157;
causes of, 154;
propagation of the shocks _ib._;
effect on the sea, 155;
elevation of the ground, _ib._;
sound of the explosion, rate of progression of, _ib._;
velocity of the great oceanic wave, 156;
comparative destructiveness of earthquakes, 157;
frequency of small shocks, _ib._;
extent of undulations, _ib._;
rapidity of destruction, _ib._;
partial shocks, _ib._;
effects of earthquakes on the configuration of the country, 158.
Eagles, 395.
East India Company, its encouragement of science, 463.
Echidna, 435.
Edentata, 414;
South American, 429.
Egede, M., on sea-serpents, 381.
Ehrenberg, M., microscopic shells discovered by, 35.
Eider duck, the, 407.
Eocene period, the globe and its inhabitants during, 29.
Elburz, elevation of, 56.
Electricity in general, 285;
of the atmosphere, 286.
Elephants, fossil, multitudes of, in Siberia, 36.
Elephants, Asiatic, 421;
African, 424.
Elk, the, 416.
Elliot, Mr. Alexander, his expedition to the sources of the Ganges,
228.
El-Teh, desert of, 82.
Eltonsk, lake of, 248.
Emigration, its effects in Great Britain, 459.
Emu, Australian cassowary, 410.
Emys, fresh-water tortoise, 391.
Encircling reefs, 145.
England, earthquakes in, 154;
its coalfields, 182.
Equator, protuberant matter at, influences and is influenced by the
moon’s motion, 17, _note_.
Erebus, Mount, 166.
Erie, lake, 251.
Erman, M., on evaporation, 273.
Espenhaço, chain of, 105.
Esquimaux, 437.
Ethiopian races, 438.
Etna, manner of its explosions, 153.
Europe, mean height and area of, 134.
European mountains, frequency of deep lakes in, 50;
geological notice, 53.
Evaporation in different regions, 272.
F.
Factory labour, 412, _note_.
Falkland Islands, vegetation of, 352.
Famel, 425.
Faraday, Dr., on auroras, 291;
on magnetic properties of matter, 296.
Feroe Islands, 70.
Fichtelberge, area of, 48.
Finns, the, 442.
Fire, subterranean lakes of liquid, 14;
volcanic, its agency in the formation of rocks, 20.
Firefly, the, 366.
Fishes, geographical distribution, 373;
migration of, 375;
fresh-water, _ib._
Fitzroy, Captain, 447; _note_, 459.
Floras of different countries, 312.
Fogs, how produced, 273.
Fonseca Bay, 252.
Forbes, Professor E., on British fauna and flora, 31, _note_;
on glaciers, 53;
on primary floras, 310;
on Egean fuci, 360;
on the influence of depth on marine animals, 370;
on the Mediterranean, 371.
Formosa, population of, 438.
Fossil remains, immense quantity of, 35.
Foulahs, an African nation, 438.
Fourier’s theory of central heat, 256.
Fox, the, 416.
Fox, Mr., on metalliferous deposits, 170.
France, its high lands, 48;
mean height of its flat provinces, 73;
mean elevation of, 134.
Franklin, Sir John, 464.
Fringillæ, genus of birds, 398.
Frogs, 384.
Fuci, or sea-weeds, 361.
Fuegians, 392.
Fuego, volcano del, 115.
Future state, a universal belief in, 448.
G.
Galago, genus of Lemuridæ, 426.
Galapagos islands, flora of, 341;
birds of, 408;
mollusca of, 372.
Ganges, valley of the, 79;
soil, _ib._;
flatness, _ib._
Gardner, Mr., his computation of the extent of dry land, 38, _note_.
Gecko, a species of lizard, 390.
Gems, diffusion of, 186.
Geneva, lake of, 247.
Geography, Physical, definition of, 13;
effects of the intellectual superiority of man among its most
important subjects, _ib._;
connection between it and geological structure of countries, 42.
Geology, outline of, 19-36.
Georgian race, 436.
Gerard, Captain, his estimate of the mean height of the Himalaya, 61;
notices of its vegetation, 63;
snow-line, _ib._;
height of the snow-line on mountains of Middle Asia, 135, _note_.
Gerboa, or Jerboa, 419.
Geysers, 162;
Great Geyser, 163;
Strokr, _ib._
Giant petrel, 408.
Gibbon, a genus of monkeys, 422.
Gibraltar, Strait, depth of, 46.
Gipsies, number of, 442.
Giraffe, 423.
Glaciers, 52;
their rate of motion in the Alps, _ib._;
their composition, _ib._;
their enormous pressure, _ib._
Glutton, 417.
Goatsuckers, 398.
Gobi, Great, area and elevation of, 69;
climate, _ib._;
mean height, 134.
Gobi, desert of, 250.
Gold, diffusion of, 174.
Gonung-Api, volcanic island of, 149.
Gothard, St., pass of, 50.
Guasacalco river, 252.
Gough’s Islands, 282.
Grampian hills, 71.
Grampus, 379.
Gran Chaco, desert of, 107.
Gran Sasso d’Italia, height of, 51.
Gravitation, variations in its intensity, 18.
Great Central Plain of North America, _see_ Mississippi, valley of.
Great Northern Plain, 73;
its soil, _ib._;
geology, 77.
Grecian mountains, 51.
Greeks, 436.
Greenland, 159;
flora of, 341.
Greenwich Observatory, 462.
Guachero, the, 406.
Guan, a gallinaceous bird, 407.
Guanáco, 431.
Guatemala, table-land of, 115;
fertility, _ib._;
elevation, _ib._;
volcanos, _ib._
Guinea, flora of, 348.
Guinea, North, 88.
Guinea, New, its size, 141;
height of its mountains, 142.
Gulf of Mexico, 209.
Gurla, mountain of, 249.
H.
Hail, how formed, 280.
Haiti (San Domingo), dimensions, 117;
its mountains, _ib._
Halos, 283.
Haudramaut, depth of loose sand in, 82;
tradition concerning, _ib._
Hebrides, 71.
Heckla, mount, 161.
Heights of places, table of, 475.
Helena, St., 295.
Hermit Island, 352.
Herschel, Sir John, on cause of revolving storms, 264.
Himalaya, chain, general structure, 60;
mean height, _ib._;
height of its peaks, _ib._;
passes of, 62;
climate, 63;
range of vegetation, _ib._;
geology of, 64.
Hindoo Coosh, 60, 296;
passes of, 62.
Hindostan, plains of, their extent, 79;
peninsula, _ib._
Hippelaphus of Aristotle, 422.
Hippopotamus, 424.
Holland, depression of, 73.
Holland, New, length and breadth, 136;
climate, _ib._;
coasts, _ib._;
mountain-chain, 137;
length and average height of mountains, _ib._;
rivers, 138. _See_ Australia, rivers of.
Hooker, Sir William J., 463, _note_.
Hooker, Dr. J. D., on marine plants, 359, _note_;
on Antarctic Algæ, 362.
Hopkins, Mr., his theory of fissures, 44.
Horizon, its dip, 17.
Horse, 421;
varieties of, _ib._, 427.
Houtias, a gnawing animal, 433.
Human races, 436;
permanency of type, 444;
discrepancy of their colour, 445.
Human constitution, its flexibility, 445.
Humboldt, Baron, his ‘Cosmos,’ 5;
on the inclination of the Peak of Teneriffe, 42;
estimate of the mean
height of the Himalaya, 61;
on the silvas of the Amazons, 107;
on the influence of table-lands and mountains on the mean height of
continents, 133;
estimate of height of mean crest of the Pyrenees, 134, _note_;
measurements of highest peaks and mean heights of several
mountain-chains, 135, _note_;
notice of an earthquake at Riobamba in 1797, 157;
his statement of the quantity of the precious metals brought to
Europe from America, 176;
on river-floods, 215.
Humming birds, 406.
Hunter, John, 463.
Huron, lake, 250.
Hurricanes, 267.
Hydraulic systems of Europe, 216;
divisions, _ib._;
system of the Volga, _ib._;
Danube, _ib._;
origin of the application of hydraulics to rivers, 217;
system of Britain, 218.
Hydrogen, influence on vegetation, 301.
Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, 463.
Hyæna, Asiatic species, 431;
African species, 425.
Hyla, or tree-frog, 385.
Hyrax, or Daman, 425.
Hyrcanian mountains, 48.
I.
Ibex, or wild goat, 417.
Ibis, the red, 408.
Ice, quantity in the Alps, 52;
rivers of, _ib._
Ice, polar, 203;
area of, in the Arctic Ocean, _ib._;
north polar ice, _ib._;
packed ice, 204;
icebergs, _ib._;
colours of ice, 205.
Ice mountains, 67.
Iceland, 166;
ice mountains, 161;
glaciers, _ib._;
desert, _ib._;
volcanos, _ib._;
eruptions, _ib._;
geysers, 163;
fiords, 164;
products, _ib._;
climate, _ib._;
storms, _ib._
Ichneumon, a carnivorous quadruped, 417.
India, flora of, 320.
Indian Archipelago, islands of, 141;
their importance, 142;
surveys of their coasts, _ib._;
flora of, 326.
Indian desert, 81.
Indo-Chinese peninsula, 78;
its population, 437.
Insects, geographical distribution of, 363;
number of, _ib._;
migration of, 367.
Iran, plateau of, _see_ Persia.
Ireland, its scenery, 71;
coal districts, 183.
Iron, diffusion of, 182;
quantity manufactured in Britain in 1844, 183, _note_;
uses, 184, _note_;
value of, in France, in 1838, _ib._, _note_.
Isatis fox, 427.
Islands, their relative extent to that of the continents, 38;
classification of, 139.
Isothermal lines, 258.
Itambe, mountain, height of, 105.
J.
Jackal, 425.
Jaguar, or American tiger, 428.
Jamaica, its area, 117;
mountains, _ib._;
extent of coast, 118;
temperature, _ib._
Jan Mayen’s Land, 164.
Japan, flora of, 321.
Japanese, 437.
Java, volcanos of, 149;
height of volcanic mountains, _ib._;
destruction of a mountain in 1772, _ib._;
character of the coast, _ib._;
“Valley of Death,” 153.
Jebel Houra, 82.
Jebel Okkdar, height of, 82.
Jewish population of Europe, 442.
Johnston, Mr. Keith, his Physical Atlas, 5; 43, _note_.
Jordan, valley of, its fertility, 84;
its depression, _ib._
Jordan, river, 247.
Jorullo, volcanic cone, its sudden appearance, 121.
Jukes, Mr., his description of the rolling of the billows along the
great Australian barrier-reef, 146.
Jura, elevation of, 50.
K.
Kailas Peak, 249.
Kalmuks, 437.
Kamichi, a gallinaceous bird, 407.
Kamtchatka, flora of, 315.
Kangaroo, 434.
Kangaroo rat, 434.
Kelat, elevation of, 58.
Kerguelen’s Land, vegetation of, 355.
Keyserling, Count, 67, _note_.
Khing-han mountains, 59.
Kiang, wild ass of Tibet, 419.
Kingfishers, 398.
Kinkajou, the, 428.
Kirawah, volcano of, 151;
eruption in 1834, _ib._
Kirghiz, steppes of, 75.
Koko-nor lake, 250.
Kombst’s ethnographic map, 443, _note_.
Kosciusko, mount, height of, 137.
Kourdistan mountains, 56.
Kuen-lun (or Chinese) mountains, 59.
Kurile Islands, volcanic vents of, 151.
L.
Laccadive Archipelago, 145.
Ladak, 317.
Ladoga, lake of, 246.
Lagoons and Lagoon Islands, 143;
described, 146;
theories of their formation, _ib._; and _note_, 147.
Land, dry, its area, 37;
its proportion to the ocean, 38, _note_;
relative quantity in the northern and southern hemispheres, 38;
and in the various quarters of the globe, _ib._;
unexplored, _ib._;
polar lands, _ib._;
tendency of land to assume a peninsular form, 39;
outline of the land, _ib._;
changes in its level, 158.
Languages varying, 440;
number of, _ib._;
derivation and comparison of, _ib._;
spoken in Britain, 443.
La Paz, city, 97.
Lapland, flora of, 315.
Lasistán mountains, 57.
Latitude, sine of, 17, _note_.
Layard, Mr., his antiquarian researches, 225, _note_.
Lead, diffusion of, 176.
Lebanon, mountains of, 83.
Leithart, Mr., 169, _note_.
Lemurs, 422, 426.
Leon or Managua, lake of, 252.
Leopard, 421.
Life, duration of, in different classes of society, 450, _note_.
Light, composed of different rays, 280;
its properties, 281;
absorbed by the atmosphere, 282;
polarized, 284;
influence on vegetation, 301.
Lightning, 288.
Lion, the, 425.
Litako, in South Africa, 459.
Lizards, 390.
Llama, 430;
on its naturalization in Europe, 431, _note_.
Llanos of the Orinoco and Venezuela, 108;
area of, _ib._;
character, _ib._;
climate, _ib._;
floods and conflagrations, 109;
temperature, _ib._
Locusts, flights of, 367.
Locks on canals, early use of, 217;
their application by Leonardo da Vinci, _ib._
Lophophorus, a bird, 401.
Lop lake, 250.
Loudon, Alex., Esq., account of the “Valley of Death,” in Java, 153.
Lourie, a genus of parrots, 402.
Loxa, mountain-knot of, 98.
Lucerne, lake of, 247.
Lyell, Sir Charles, his theory of the formation of rocks, 20;
division of tertiary strata, 28;
on the Alleghany mountains, 128;
on the fossiliferous rocks of northern Europe and America, 132;
on the coal fields of North America, 185;
on mollusca in the temperate zones, 372;
on the number of existing species of animals, 381.
Lynch, Lieut., relative height of Dead Sea and Jerusalem;
analysis of Dead Sea, 248, _note_.
Lynch, Lieut., expedition to the Dead Sea, 84, _note_.
Lynx, the, 416.
M.
MacCormick, Robert, Esq., his description of the first view of Victoria
Land, 165.
Mace plant, 325.
Madagascar, 87;
fauna of, 426;
inhabitants of, 438.
Mageroe Island, 279.
Maggiore lake, 247.
Magnetism, 291.
Magnetic poles of the earth, 292.
Magnetic intensity, force of, 293.
Magnetic needle, hourly variation of, _ib._
Magnetic variation or declination, 294.
Magnetic storms, 295.
Magnetic force, lines of equal, 296.
Magnolias, region of, 343.
Maize, or Indian corn, origin and culture of, 345.
Malabar, extent and height of its mountains, 80.
Malayan races of man, 438.
Maldive Archipelago, its dimensions, 145;
size of its atolls, _ib._
Malurus Africanus, 403.
Mammalia, division into groups, 413;
geographical distribution, 414;
migration of, 415;
instinct of, _ib._
Man, division into races, 436;
his influence on the material world, 450.
Manasa, or Manasarowar, lake of, 67;
height of, 418.
Manatus, or lamantin, 377.
Mandshur, its aspect, 78.
Mandshuria, 321.
Manfredi on the rate of rise in the bed of the ocean, 34.
Mango, a fruit, 327.
Manis, 421, 425.
Mankind, numbers of, 436.
Marabous crane or stork, 404.
Marine animals in general, 370.
Marine mammalia, classification of, 376.
Marine vegetation, 358.
Marriage, average number of, annually, 455.
Marsupial, or pouched quadrupeds, 434.
Martineau, Miss, her ‘Journey to Egypt and Syria’ quoted, 152.
Mediterranean Sea, volcanos of, 152;
its area, 207;
sources of supply, _ib._;
depth, _ib._;
tides and currents, 208;
bed, _ib._;
coasts, _ib._;
its influence on European civilization, 449.
Miocene period, the globe and its inhabitants during, 29.
Mekram, desert of, 81.
Menopoma, genus of reptiles, 386.
Menura, or lyre-bird, 409.
Meridian, terrestrial, 16;
area of, measured by M. Bessel, _ib._;
length of a degree of, _ib._;
measurement of an arc at Quito, 99.
Metals, list of, 168, _note_;
diffusion of, 174.
Metalliferous Deposits, 169, &c.;
direction of, 170;
peculiar to particular rocks, 171.
Metalloids, list of, 168, _note_.
Mexico, table-land and mountains, 120;
dimensions, _ib._;
city of, _ib._;
volcanos, 121;
Barancas, 122;
vegetation, _ib._;
flora, 344.
Midas Leonina, a genus of monkeys, 429.
Middendorf, M., 67, _note_.
Millet, its cultivation, 356.
Mindanao, population of, 438.
Mines, mode of opening, 172;
drainage, _ib._;
ventilation, 173;
access, _ib._;
depth, _ib._
Mineral produce of Europe, value of, in 1829, 183, _note_;
proportion furnished by England, _ib._, _note_.
Mineral veins, parallelism of, 43;
filling of, 169;
richest near the surface, 170, _note_.
Mirage, 282.
Mississippi, valley of the, its area, 123;
table-land, _ib._;
general character, 124;
southern desert, _ib._;
marshes, _ib._;
the Grand Saline, _ib._;
prairies, _ib._;
forests, 125;
[Upper Valley of the, 126, 177;]
new states, 125;
principal lakes, _ib._
Mitchell, Mr., on the causes of earthquakes, quoted, 155.
Mongol Tartar races, 437.
Mongolia, its situation, 60;
little known, 69.
Monitor, genus of reptiles, 389;
fossil, 390.
Monkeys, American, 428;
African, 425.
Monocotyledonous plants, 306.
Monsoons, 266.
Mont Blanc, its height, 49;
quantity of ice on, 52.
Moon, the, its influence on, and distance from the earth, 15;
its perturbations show the compression at the poles, _ib._;
inequality in its motions produced by matter at the earth’s equator,
17, _note_.
Moon, the, mountains of, 88.
Moorcroft, Mr., elevation of the sacred lake Manasa, 67.
Moose-deer, or elk, 425.
Moraines, 52.
Mosasaurus, 390, _note_.
Moscow, height of, 73.
Mosquito, the, 365.
Mountains, forms of, 41;
their declivity, 42;
contemporaneous upheaval of parallel mountain-chains, 43;
interruptions in, 45;
table of the heights of the principal mountains of the globe, 475.
Mountain-chains, assumed form of, 129, _note_;
a barrier to insects, 364.
Mouflon, 416.
Mowna Roa mountain, 269.
M’Quhae, Capt., 382.
Murchison, Sir Roderick J., on the geology of the Altai chain, 66;
observations on Siberia, 67, _note_;
researches in the Ural mountains, 72;
on the geology of Northern Europe, 77.
Museum, British, improved state of, 462.
Museum, of Practical Geology, 463.
Museum, Hunterian, 463.
Musk-deer, Moschus, 420.
Musk-ox, 427.
Musk-rat, or musquash, 427.
Mycetus, or Beelzebub monkey, 429.
Mysore, table-land of, height, 80;
soil, _ib._
Myvatr, 365.
N.
Narwhals, or Monoceros, 379.
Negro tribes, 438.
Nejed, province of Arabia, 420.
Newfoundland, population of, 130;
distance from Ireland, _ib._
New Ireland, people of, 438.
New Siberian Islands, 165.
New Zealand, flora, 338;
fauna 411;
birds, 410;
inhabitants, 438.
Nevado of Aconcagua, height of, 95.
Nevado of Cayambè, height of, 99.
Niagara, lake and fall of, 251.
Nicaragua, plain and lake, area of, 115;
lake and isthmus, 252.
Nile, valley of, 91;
river, 219.
Nilgherry mountains, height of, 80.
Niti or Netee Pass, 62.
Nitrogen contained in the air, 300;
in plants, _ib._
Nitrùn, valley of, its convents, 91.
Norway, character of its coast, 70.
Notornis, fossil bird, 411.
Nova Zembla, flora of, 314.
Nutmeg, the plant, 325.
N’yassi, lake, 86.
O.
Ocean, the proportion it bears to the land, 37;
mean depth of, 135;
its bed, 188;
size, _ib._;
sandbanks, 189;
pressure, 190;
colour, _ib._;
saltness, 191;
tides, _ib._;
waves, 192;
currents, 197;
temperature, 201;
polar ice, 203;
inland seas, 206;
agency of the ocean in changing the surface of the earth, 209.
Oitz, lake of, 250.
Okhotsk, sea of, 263.
Oman, height of its mountains, 81.
Onega, lake, 246.
Ontario, lake of, 251.
Opossum, 428, 429.
Orange River, 85.
Orang-outang, 422.
Oriental plateau. _See_ Tibet.
Orinoco, river, 103;
its cataracts, _ib._;
region of Upper Orinoco, its fertility, 104.
Ornithorhynchus, 435.
Oscillations of the Pendulum. _See_ Pendulum.
Ostrich, the African, 404;
the American, 410.
Otaheite, 145.
Otter, the, 417.
Owen, Professor, his discoveries as a geologist, 30;
on sea-serpent, 382;
on British fossil quadrupeds, 417, 463.
Owhyhee, its volcanos, 151.
Owls, 398.
Ox, varieties of, 420.
Oxygen, its influence on vegetation, 301.
P.
Paca, 433.
Pacayo, Volcano de, 115.
Pachydermata, 413.
Pacific Ocean, islands of, 140;
volcanic islands in, 148;
great volcanic zone in, 149;
areas of elevation and subsidence in its bed, _ib._;
its size, 189.
Palapteryx, fossil bird, 411.
Palms, distribution of, 333.
Palte, lake of, 249.
Pamer, table-land, 420.
Pampas of Buenos Ayres, 106;
their elevation, _ib._;
floods, 107;
conflagrations, _ib._;
geology, 113.
Pampéros hurricanes, 271.
Panama, plains of, extent, 115.
Pandanus, genus of plants, 144.
Pangolin, or manis, 421.
Panicum, genus of Cerealia, 356.
Panthers, 421.
Paradise, birds of, 402.
Parima, mountain system of, 103;
Sierra del Parima, _ib._;
musical rock in, _ib._
Parry, Sir Edward, 464.
Parry’s Mountains, 166.
Passages across the Atlantic, 267.
Patagonia, desert of, 106;
climate, _ib._;
geology, 113.
Peccari, or South American hog, 428.
Pelasgic Islands, description of, 140.
Peltier’s experiments on the heat of the earth, 255.
Pendulum, 17;
its oscillations influenced by gravitation, _ib._;
variations in, 18;
experiments with, for ascertaining compression at the poles, 17;
affected by volcanic islands, _ib._
Penguins, southern (Aptenodytes), 408.
Peninsulas, their southward tendency, 40;
form, _ib._
Pentland, Mr. his measurements of Cordilleras and mountains of the
Andes, 97, _note_;
and of their passes, 101, _note_;
his discovery of a volcanic crater in the valley of the Yucay, 109,
_note_;
and of fossil shells in Bolivia and Peru, 112, _note_;
on measurement of highest peaks and mean heights of several
mountain-chains, 135, _note_;
on horary variation of the barometer, 265;
on fishes of Lake of Titicaca, 375;
on the naturalization of the Llama tribe, 431.
Pepper-tree, 325.
Perfume of flowers, cause of, 304.
Persia, table-land of (Plateau of Iran), area and elevation of, 55;
extent of Persian mountains, 57;
great salt desert, 58;
flora, 319.
Petra, appearance of its site, 83.
Petrel, stormy, the, 397.
Petrel, genus, or Procellariæ, 397, 408.
Phacochœre, or African hog, 425.
Phalanger, 434.
Pheasants, different species of, 401.
Philedon, genus of birds, 401.
Phocæ, or seals, 377.
Physalia, 376.
Physeters, or cachalots, 379.
Pichincha, height of, 100.
Planets, their magnitude relative to that of the earth, 15;
their influence on the earth’s motion, _ib._
Plants, division of, 306;
propagation of, 305;
sleep of, _ib._;
nourishment of, 300; elements of, 301;
geographical distribution of, 306.
Pleiocene period, the earth and its inhabitants during, 30;
changes during, 31;
discoveries of perfect animals buried in this period, 32.
Pœppig, Dr., his ‘Travels’ quoted, 94, 176;
on red water of the ocean, 370.
Pole, North, reasons for the existence of sea at, 203.
Poles, compression at, ascertained by perturbations in the moon’s
motions, 15;
by oscillations of the pendulum, 17.
Polynesia, flora of, 401.
Polyplectron, genus of birds, 407.
Pontoppidan, or sea-serpent, 381.
Popocatepetl, mountain, 121.
Porcupine, 417.
Porpoise, genus of, 379.
Porter, G. R., Esq., his ‘Progress of the Nation’ quoted, 184, _note_.
Porto Rico, dimensions and climate, 117.
Portugal, flora of, 319.
Potato, country of, 350.
Potosi, the height of, 97, _note_;
city of, its elevation, 97;
its mines, 175.
Prairies, N. American, 127, _note_.
Prairie-dog, a marmot, 427.
Prairie wolf, 427.
Prongbuck antelope, 427.
Prongos, 315.
Proteus anguinus, 386.
Puma, or American lion, 428.
Punjab, 80.
Pyrenees, flora of, 318.
Python, genus of snakes, 388.
Q.
Quadrumana, or monkeys, 413.
Quadrupeds, European, 416;
Asiatic, 417;
African, 423;
American, 426;
Australian, 433.
Quagga, species of horse, 424.
Quebec, summer of, 260.
Quicksilver, diffusion of, 178.
Quito, valley of, 99;
dimensions, _ib._;
city of Quito, 100;
monuments of the Incas, _ib._
Quotlamba mountains, 87.
R.
Races of mankind, 436;
inhabiting Europe, 441.
Racoon, 427.
Radii of the earth measured by M. Bessel, 16.
Rakastal lake, 249.
Rain, cause of, and distribution, 275.
Rains, periodical, 275;
countries without, 278.
Rainbows, 283.
Rattle-snakes, 387.
Realejo Bay, 252.
Redfield, W. C., on storms, 270, _note_.
Reich, M., mean density of the earth as ascertained by the torsion
balance, 19, _note_.
Reid, Colonel, on storms, 270.
Rein-deer Lake, 252.
Reptiles, classification of, 383;
geographical distribution of, 385.
Rhinoceros of Asia, 422;
of Java, _ib._;
of Africa, 424.
Rhyncops, or scissor-bill bird, 408.
Rice, cultivation of, 356.
Richardson, Dr. Sir J., his account of the fauna of North America
quoted, 131, 464.
Rivers, origin of, 212; course of, _ib._;
velocity, 213;
junction of rivers, _ib._;
influence of wind and frost, 214;
deltas, _ib._;
tides, _ib._;
floods, _ib._;
inundations, 215;
heads of rivers, _ib._
Rocks, their division into four classes, 19;
plutonic rocks, _ib._;
volcanic rocks, 20;
metamorphic rocks, _ib._;
aqueous rocks, 21;
pierced by lava, _ib._;
Sir Charles Lyell’s theory concerning, 20;
forms of, 42;
height of calcareous rocks in the Alps, 53.
Rocky Mountains, 122.
Rodentia, or gnawers, 414;
American, 432.
Rogers, H. D., Esq., his ‘Physical Geography of North America’ quoted,
130.
Rorqual, a species of whale, 381.
Ross, Sir James, his account of a gale, 205, 464.
Ruminating animals, 413.
Russell, J. Scott, Esq., his ‘Theory of Waves’ quoted, 195, _note_.
Rye, cultivation of, 356.
S.
Sabine, Colonel, experiments with the pendulum, 18, and _note_;
mean height of the Himalaya, 61;
on terrestrial magnetism, 294, 464.
Saquis, bush-tailed monkeys, 429.
Sahama, trachytic dome of, its height, 111.
Sahara desert, 90.
Salamanders, 386.
Salt, diffusion of, 186.
Samojedes, 442.
Sanders-wood, 327.
Sandwich Land, vegetation, 351.
Santa Martha, group of, 100.
Saratov, 248.
Saurians, order of, 389.
Saussure, Necker, on direction of stratified masses, 295.
Solimaun chain, 59.
Scandinavian mountain system, 69;
extent and elevation, 70;
part of the same system as those of Feroe, Britain, Ireland, and
northeastern Ireland, _ib._
Schomburgk, Sir Robert, on water-communication in South America, 243.
Schools, ragged, 473.
Sclavonian races, 441.
Scorpions, 366.
Scotland, its mountains, 71;
direction of, _ib._;
table-land, height of, _ib._;
lakes, _ib._;
earthquakes, 154;
coal-measures, 183.
Scythrops, genus of birds, 409.
Sea, its mean depth, 17;
rise and fall of, after an earthquake, 155.
Sea, Alps of North America, 122.
Sea serpents, pretended, 282.
Sea snakes, 387.
Secretary-bird, the, 402.
Sedgwick, Mr., mountains of Westmoreland, 44.
Seed, mode of development, 300.
Serpents, or ophidians, 386;
venomous, _ib._;
innocuous, 388;
tree, _ib._
Shahee Lake, 248.
Siberia, its area, 75;
mineral riches, _ib._;
soil, _ib._;
climate, _ib._;
flora, 314.
Sicily, plants of, 319.
Sierra do Mar, 104.
Sierra dos Vertentes, 105.
Sierra Madre, 122.
Silk-worms, 366.
Silvas of the Amazons, 107;
dense vegetation, _ib._;
area of woodland, _ib._;
Humboldt’s description of, _ib._;
geology of, 114.
Silver, diffusion of, 175.
Simayang, a species of ape, 422.
Sinai, Mount (Jebel Houra), its height, 82;
group of Sinai, _ib._
Sine of the latitude, 17, _note_.
Sir-i-Kol, lake of, 249.
Skaptar Jokull, eruption of, in 1783, 161.
Skink, a species of lizard, 390.
Skua gull, 396.
Slave-lake, 252.
Slave-trade, its evil effects, 459.
Sleet, nature of, 283.
Smyth, Captain, R. N., report of soundings, 46, _note_.
Snae Braen, area of, 70.
Snow, how produced, 278;
form of its crystals, 279.
Snow-line, its height on mountains in different latitudes, 279.
Solar system, 15, _note_.
Soudan, 251.
South magnetic pole, its situation, 166.
Senegambia, 89.
South Shetland, vegetation, 352.
South Wales, New character of the country, 137;
structure, 139.
Spain, its mountains, 47;
table-land, area of, _ib._;
plants of, 319.
Spiders, numbers of, 367.
Spitzbergen, 160.
Springs, their origin, 209;
intermittent, 210;
temperature, 211;
hot springs, _ib._;
medicinal springs, _ib._;
saline springs, _ib._
Squalls, arched, 271.
Squirrels, flying, 422.
Steam-power, amount of, in Great Britain in 1833, 172, _note_.
St. Elias, Mount, height of, 123.
Stelvio, pass of, its height, 50.
Steppes of Eastern Europe, 74;
great extent of, _ib._;
climate, _ib._;
soil, _ib._;
atmosphere, 75.
St. Lawrence, river, 12.
Stonefield slate, 26.
Storms, rotatory, 268;
waves, 270.
Strata, primary fossiliferous, 21;
Cambrian, 21;
lower Silurian, _ib._;
upper Silurian, 22;
secondary fossiliferous, _ib._;
Devonian, _ib._;
carboniferous, 23;
mountain limestone, _ib._;
magnesian limestone, 24;
new red sandstone, 25;
oolite, _ib._;
cretaceous strata, 27;
tertiary strata, divided by Sir Charles Lyell into Eocene, Miocene,
and Pleiocene, 28;
boulder formation, 32;
parallel direction of contemporary strata, 43.
Strata, tertiary, of the Alps, height of, 53.
Strachey, Lieut., journeys, 17.
Sudetes, the, 48.
Suez, projected canal of, 461.
Sulphur, diffusion of, 186.
Sumatra, character of the island, 150.
Sumbawa, population of, 438.
Summa Paz, Sierra de la, 100.
Sun, his mass, 15.
Superior, Lake, 251.
Symonds, Major A., on the depression of the Dead Sea, 84, _note_.
Syren, genus of reptiles, 386.
Syria, its soil, 84;
deterioration of the country, _ib._;
shrinking of the strata, _ib._
Swamps, area of, in Denmark, 74.
T.
Table-lands, their soil and climate, 45.
Table Mountain (Cape Town), its height, 86.
Tangaras, American birds, 406.
Tapir, Indian or Malayan, 419;
American, 414.
Targatabai, volcanic range of, 152.
Tartary, flora of, 321.
Tariyani, tract of, 60.
Taurus mountains, 296.
Taylor, Mr., description of an ice-storm in Canada, 127.
Taylor, John, Esq., on the Cornish mines, 172, _note_.
Tchad, river and lake, 251.
Tea, cultivation and varieties of, 321.
Tehuantepec, isthmus of, 116, 252;
bay, _ib._
Temperature of the ocean, 201;
stratum of constant temperature, 202;
line of maximum temperature, _ib._
Temperature of the earth, 254;
mean at any place, 257;
highest observed, 258.
Terror, Mount, 166.
Teutonic races, 442.
Thean-Tchan, volcanic chain of, 152.
Thian-shan, or Celestial Mountains, 59, _etc._
Thomas, St., island, 269.
Thunder storms, 286;
causes of, 287.
Tiberias, Lake, 247.
Tibet, table-land of (Oriental plateau), its area and altitude, 55;
its form and situation, 58;
its width, 69;
mean height, 134.
Tibet, flora of, 316.
Tides, influence of the sun and moon upon, 191;
spring tides, 192;
neap-tides, _ib._;
frequency of tides, _ib._;
their succession, _ib._;
marginal tide, _ib._;
heights of tides, 193;
variation in, _ib._;
velocity, _ib._;
stream, 194.
Tierra del Fuego, account of, 94, 105;
geology, 113;
flora of, 352.
Tiger, royal, country of, 421.
Tin, diffusion of, 178.
Tinamous, an American bird, 407.
Titicaca, lake of, 97;
area and height, 253.
Toads, 384.
Tobolsk, elevation of, 134.
Tomboro, volcanic eruption of, in 1815, 150.
Toozla Lake, 248.
Tortoises, 391.
Trade-winds, 265.
Tragopons, an East Indian bird, 401.
Trees, growth of, 357;
age of, _ib._
Trigonocephalus, or yellow ape, 387.
Tripe de Roche, 314.
Tristan d’Acunha, island, 282.
Trogon, 401.
Troupials, 406.
Trüb, lake of, 247.
Trionyx, 391.
Tui, a New Zealand bird, 412.
Tnngut, or Chinese Tartary, its geographical position, 60.
Turks, 442.
Turtles, 392.
Tuscany, earthquakes in, 154.
Tussack grass, 353.
U.
Uleaborg, 275.
Ular, lake, 249.
Unau sloth, the, 429.
United States territory, area of, 130.
Ural Mountains, 72; extent, _ib._;
height, _ib._;
mineral riches, _ib._;
geology, 73.
Urmiah Lake, 248.
V.
Valmiki, author of the Ramayana, 439, _note_.
“Valley of Death,” 153.
Vampire-bats, 420.
Van, lake, 57, 248.
Van Dieman’s Land, area of, 138;
mountains, _ib._;
soil, _ib._;
structure, 139;
flora, 337.
Vanessa Cardui, a butterfly, 364.
Vanilla Epidendron, 345.
Variables, the, 265.
Vegetation, mode of, 298;
effects of, on the atmosphere, 299.
Veragua, Cordillera of, its height, 115.
Verneuil, M. de, 67, _note_.
Vermejo river, 349.
Victoria Land, 165; ice cliffs, _ib._;
mountains, _ib._;
its appearance described, _ib._
Vicuña, 430;
its naturalization, _ib._
Vipers, 387.
Vultures, European, 398;
American, 404.
Volcanic eruptions, frequency of, 153.
Volcanic islands, 148.
Volcanos, eruptions of, 20;
active volcanos, 152.
W.
Wales, earthquakes in, 154.
Waves, causes of, 144;
height, 195;
ground-swell, _ib._;
billows, _ib._;
surf, 196;
force of waves, _ib._
Wealden clay, 27.
Weddell, Dr., on Cinchona, 347, _note_;
on breed of alpaca and vicuna, 431.
Werner, law of parallelism of mineral veins, 43.
Western Asia, its table-lands and mountains, 55.
West Indian islands, 116;
Lesser Antillas (group), _ib._;
Greater Antillas, 117;
Bahamas, 118;
structure, _ib._
Whales, 380.
Wheat, varieties and cultivation, 355.
Whirlwinds, 271.
[Wilkes, Capt. C., discovery of Antarctic Continent, 167.]
Winds, theory of, 264;
trade, 265.
Winnipeg Lake, 252.
Wombat, 434.
Wrangel, Admiral, on the climate of Siberia, 76;
his attempt to reach the North Pole, _ib._, _note_.
X.
Xarayos Lake, 252.
Y.
Yablonnoi Khrebet, 66.
Yablonnoi Mountains, 296.
Yakutsk, “the coldest town on the earth,” 77, 260.
Ybera, swamp, its area, 107.
Yenesei, flora of, 316.
Z.
Zambeze, lake, Africa, 250.
Zealand, New, its mountains, 141;
coast, _ib._;
general character, _ib._
Zebra, 424.
Zenes, their breadth, 16.
Zungary, or Mingolia, its situation, 60.
Zurrah, lake, 248.
Footnotes
Footnote 1:
“Cosmos,” by Alexander Von Humboldt, translated under the
superintendence of Colonel E. Sabine, F.R.S. Second Edition. London,
1848.
Footnote 2:
Alexander Keith Johnston’s “Physical Atlas,” 4to., in Monthly Numbers.
Edinburgh, 1849. [Published by Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1850.]
Footnote 3:
The Solar System:—
Mercury, nearest the Sun, known to the ancients.
Venus, known to the ancients.
The Earth.
Mars, known to the ancients.
Flora, discovered by Mr. Hind in 1847.
Vesta, discovered by Mr. Olbers in 1807.
Iris, discovered by Mr. Hind in 1847.
Metis, discovered by Mr. Graham in 1848.
Hebe, discovered by Mr. Hencke in 1847.
Astræa, discovered by Mr. Hencke in 1845.
Juno, discovered by Mr. Harding in 1804.
Ceres, discovered by M. Piazza in 1801.
Pallas, discovered by Mr. Olbers in 1802.
Jupiter, known to the ancients.
Saturn, known to the ancients.
Uranus, discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781.
Neptune, discovered by M. Le Verrier and Mr. Adams in 1846.
Footnote 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 3962·6 = 7925·2
Radius at the pole 3949·6 = 7899·2
Difference of equatorial and polar radii 13·0 = 26·0
Mean radius, or at 45° Latitude 3956·1 = 7912·2
Mean length of a degree 69·05 ——
The fourth part of a meridian 6214·2 ——]
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.”
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.].
Footnote 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.
Footnote 12:
Lieut. Anjou’s Polar Voyage.
Footnote 13:
[See Statistics of Coal. By Richard Cowling Taylor. Philadelphia,
1848.]
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 17:
M. Boué.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 19:
“On the Parallel Lines of Simultaneous Elevation in the Weald of Kent
and Sussex,” by —— Hopkins, Esq.
Footnote 20:
M. Boué.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 23:
Professor Forbes on Glaciers.
Footnote 24:
Dr. Boué.
Footnote 25:
Sir Charles Lyell.
Footnote 26:
Johnston’s Physical Atlas.
Footnote 27:
Sir John Malcolm on Persia, and Mr. Morier’s Travels.
Footnote 28:
Johnston’s Physical Atlas.
Footnote 29:
Ibid.
Footnote 30:
Johnston’s Physical Atlas.
Footnote 31:
Sir Roderick I. Murchison.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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 76-1/2
degrees of north latitude, and passed round the group of the New
Siberian Islands.
Footnote 34:
Johnston’s Physical Atlas.
Footnote 35:
From Miss Martineau’s spirited and picturesque account of her journey
to Egypt and Syria.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.]
Footnote 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.
Footnote 39:
Johnston’s Physical Atlas.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 42:
Dr. Pœppig’s Travels.
Footnote 43:
The celebrated silver mines of Potosi were formerly worked to the very
summit of that metalliferous mountain, 16,150 feet above the sea
level.
Footnote 44:
Baron Humboldt and Mr. Pentland.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 46:
Baron Humboldt.
Footnote 47:
Baron Humboldt.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 49:
Dr. Pœppig.
Footnote 50:
Baron Humboldt.
Footnote 51:
Baron Humboldt’s Personal Narrative.
Footnote 52:
Captain King, R. N., and Mr. Darwin.
Footnote 53:
Sir Woodbine Parish on Buenos Ayres, and Sir Francis Head’s Journey
over the Pampas.
Footnote 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° 19-1/2ʹ), 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.
Footnote 55:
Dr. Pœppig.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 57:
Mr. Darwin’s Journal of Travels in South America.
Footnote 58:
Mr. Darwin’s Journal of Travels in South America.
Footnote 59:
Johnston’s Physical Atlas.
Footnote 60:
Baron Humboldt.
Footnote 61:
[Notes on the North-west, or Valley of the Upper Mississippi. By Wm.
J. A. Bradford. New York, 1846.]
Footnote 62:
Mr. Taylor.
Footnote 63:
Sir Charles Lyell’s Travels in North America.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 66:
Dr. Richardson on the Fauna of the High Latitudes of North America.
Footnote 67:
Sir Charles Lyell.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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 1-4/10 to 1.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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° { 21,200 15,250
Western Cordillera } and 15° S. lat. { 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.
Footnote 72:
Memoirs of Count Strzelecki.
Footnote 73:
Count Strzelecki.
Footnote 74:
M. Von Buch.
Footnote 75:
—— Mansel, Esq.
Footnote 76:
Mr. Darwin on Coral Reefs.
Footnote 77:
Supplement to the Observations on the Temple of Serapis, by Charles
Babbage, Esq.
Footnote 78:
By Mr. Jukes, Naturalist to the Surveying Voyage of Captain Blackwood,
R. N., in Torres Straits.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 81:
By the Nautical Survey in 1848.
Footnote 82:
Sir Stamford Raffles on Java.
Footnote 83:
Mr. Darwin on Volcanic Islands.
Footnote 84:
Mr. Douglas’s Voyage to the Sandwich Islands in 1833-4.—Journal of the
Royal Geographical Society of London.
Footnote 85:
Letter from Alex. Loudon, Esq., in the Journal of the Geographical
Society of London.
Footnote 86:
Mitchell on the Causes of Earthquakes, in Philosophical Transactions
for 1760.
Footnote 87:
Captain Graah’s Survey in 1823-4, and Dr. Pingel, 1830-2.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 89:
Remarks on the Antarctic Continent and Southern Islands, by Robert
MacCormick, Esq., Surgeon of H.M.S. Erebus.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 95:
Rotation alone produces electrical currents in the earth.—“Connection
of the Physical Sciences,” page 364, 7th edition.
Footnote 96:
J. Taylor, Esq., on Cornish mines.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 99:
Supposing the barometer to be 30 inches on the level of the sea.
Footnote 100:
Note to the English translation of Kosmos, by Colonel Sabine, on the
depths below the surface of the earth attained by man.
Footnote 101:
Dr. Pœppig’s “Travels in Chile and Peru.”
Footnote 102:
Dr. Pœppig.
Footnote 103:
Constructed under the direction of Thomas Sopwith, Esq.
Footnote 104:
Sir Charles Lemon, Bart.
Footnote 105:
M. Erman’s “Travels in Siberia.”
Footnote 106:
In 1841 there were 196,921 persons employed in the mines of Great
Britain and Ireland.
Footnote 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 4,975,424_l._
The British coal and metal imported into France amounted to
1,222,228_l._—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:—
+-------+-----------------+-------------+------------+----------+-----------------------------+
| | | | Tons of | | Official estimated value at |
| Order | | Square | Fuel | Relative | the places of production. |
| in | COUNTRIES. | miles of | raised in | parts of +----------------+------------+
| 1845. | | Coal | the year | 1000. | United States | English |
| | | formations. | 1845. | | Dollars. | 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]
Footnote 108:
“Statistics of Coal.” By Richard Cowling Taylor, Philadelphia, 1848.
Footnote 109:
Sir Charles Lyell’s “Travels in the United States of North America.”
Footnote 110:
For the reason of this secular variation in the Moon’s distance, see
page 42 of “The Connection of the Physical Sciences.”
Footnote 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.
Footnote 112:
J. Scott Russell, Esq., on Waves.
Footnote 113:
Beechy’s Voyage to the Pacific.
Footnote 114:
By Captain Albrecht’s soundings.
Footnote 115:
By the measurement of M. Lepère in the French expedition to Egypt.—
“Annales du Bureau de Longitude,” 1836.
Footnote 116:
Proceedings of the Royal Geological Society, vol. ii., p. 210.
Footnote 117:
Baron Humboldt’s Personal Narrative.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 119:
Dr. Beke on the Nile and its affluents.
Footnote 120:
Captain W. Allen, R. N.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 122:
M. Erman.
Footnote 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.]
Footnote 124:
The water of Lake Eltonsk contains chloride of calcium.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 127:
Annales des Sciences Géologiques, par M. Rivière, 1842.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 129:
Lines drawn on a map or globe through all places where the mean annual
temperature is the same are isothermal lines.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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 Distance of a ship from the
barometer per hour. 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 143:
For the cause of mirage, see the “Connection of the Physical
Sciences.”
Footnote 144:
For phenomena and theory of polarized light, see section 21,
“Connection of the Physical Sciences.”
Footnote 145:
Every substance, whether solid or fluid, has its own polarizing angle.
Footnote 146:
The reader is referred to a plate in “Johnston’s Physical Atlas”
showing the phenomena of the polarization of the atmosphere.
Footnote 147:
See sections 28 and 29 of the “Connection of the Physical Sciences:”
on Electricity.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 149:
Colonel Sabine’s Notes to “Kosmos.”
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.”
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.”
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 158:
The British flora contains at least 3000 species.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 160:
Davis on China.
Footnote 161:
Dr. Mantel.
Footnote 162:
Dr. J. D. Hooker.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 165:
In the basin of Titicaca in Peru-Bolivia, Mr. Pentland has seen a
variety of maize ripen as high as 12,800 feet.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 169:
Dr. J. D. Hooker.
Footnote 170:
The cosmopolite ulvæ are the Enteromorpha, Codium, &c.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 172:
The British flowering sea-weeds are the Zostera and Zanichellia.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 175:
The Chinese fresh-water fish are cyprinidæ, ophicephali, and siluridæ—
genera which agree closely with those in India, though the species are
different.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 177:
Captain Scoresby’s “Arctic Voyages.”
Footnote 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.
Footnote 179:
Mr. Pentland informs me that crocodiles are found in some of the
rivers of Bolivia at a much greater elevation.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 181:
Petrel, from St. Peter.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 189:
EUROPEAN POPULATION.
_Pure blood._
Teutonic 52,000,000
Sclavonian 50,000,000
Celtic 12,000,000
Magyar 9,000,000
Fins and Samojedes 3,000,000
Tartar 2,000,000
Jews 2,000,000
-----------
Total European population of pure blood 130,000,000
_Mixed blood in Europe._
Teutonic Celtic 22,000,000
Teutonic Sclavonian 6,000,000
Teutonic mixed with Walloons in Belgium 1,200,000
Teutonic Northmen in Normandy 1,500,000
Celtic in its different crosses 56,000,000
Sclavonian 6,000,000
Lettons 2,000,000
Turks 4,000,000
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.”
Footnote 190:
POPULATION OR GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
_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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 194:
Johnston’s “Physical Atlas.”
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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.]
Footnote 197:
Sir John Rennie.
Footnote 198:
Charles Babbage, Esq.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.”
Footnote 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.”
Footnote 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.”
Footnote 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.”
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 208:
Heights taken from the list published in the French “Annuaire du
Bureau des Longitudes,” converted from metres into English feet.
Footnote 209:
Heights determined by the French expedition under Captains Peytier and
Boblaye, and published in the “Connaissance des Temps” for 1839.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 212:
_See_ Hooker’s “Journal of Botany,” May, 1849.
Footnote 213:
The heights followed by the letters A. C. have been taken from
Humboldt’s “Asie Centrale.”
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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:
p. 8: Maratime Chain -> Maritime Chain
p. 15: William Herschell -> William Herschel
Footnote 7: earth’s equaor -> earth’s equator
Footnote 7: The inequalties -> The inequalities
Footnote 7: Connection of Physical Sciences -> Connection of the
Physical Sciences
p. 23: from the strata were they abound -> from the strata where they
abound
p. 26: mosily of extinct genera -> mostly of extinct genera
p. 29: horizonial position -> horizontal position
Footnote 9: mark the boundery -> mark the boundary
p. 32: specificially the same -> specifically the same
p. 38: perpetural fire -> perpetual fire
p. 45: Immediately counected -> Immediately connected
p. 47: mountains of this foam -> mountains of this form
p. 51: The chains terminates -> The chains terminates
p. 52: have been permament -> have been permanent
p. 52: tranverse valleys -> transverse valleys
p. 53: in the giaciers of the Andes -> in the glaciers of the Andes
p. 62: Hindo Coosh -> Hindoo Coosh
p. 66: that rocks and pillars rises -> that rocks and pillars rise
p. 69: wondering Kirghi -> wandering Kirghi
p. 73: greographical miles -> geographical miles
p. 77: remains of animals that no longer exists -> remains of animals
that no longer exist
p. 80: most nothern part -> most northern part
p. 88: sinks abrubtly -> sinks abruptly
p. 89: tops of the monntains -> tops of the mountains
p. 92: suceptible of cultivation -> susceptible of cultivation
p. 93: are connnected by -> are connected by
p. 99: once equal to Chimboroza in height -> once equal to Chimborazo in
height
p. 104: which is situate -> which is situated
p. 120: thoughout its length -> throughout its length
p. 121: Mexico and it lake -> Mexico and its lake
p. 123: Culf of California -> Gulf of California
p. 127: the forests consists of -> the forests consist of
p. 131: a considerable intervals -> a considerable interval
p. 132: over wide area -> over wide areas
p. 132: they cccupy a tract -> they occupy a tract
p. 136: idea can be formad -> idea can be formed
p. 136: Tropic of Capricon -> Tropic of Capricorn
p. 136: frem New Holland -> from New Holland
p. 140: along the the whole coast -> along the whole coast
p. 142: nothern shores -> northern shores
p. 143: it seldem rises -> it seldom rises
p. 147: of the the crust -> of the crust
p. 153: Hot spings -> Hot springs
p. 154: fall of the barometer, frogs, and unusual sultriness -> all of
the barometer, fogs, and unusual sultriness
p. 156: are continned after -> are continued after
p. 158: on which they moor their boots -> on which they moor their boats
p. 168: of these mettalloids -> of these metalloids
Footnote 98: the unforseen result -> the unforeseen result
Footnote 99: Suppposing -> Supposing
p. 175: Rio de Janeira -> Rio de Janeiro
Footnote 112: J. Scott Russel -> J. Scott Russell
p. 195: the waves becomes higher -> the waves become higher
p. 197: where it not so -> were it not so
p. 199: closing quote position assumed ... to summer heat;”
p. 206: the Alantic virtually enters -> the Atlantic virtually enters
p. 219: the Nile recieves -> the Nile receives
p. 226: a greater volumne of water -> a greater volume of water
p. 228: covored with snow -> covered with snow
p. 234: insersected with rivers -> intersected with rivers
p. 242: branches as its mouth -> branches at its mouth
p. 251: cannot br crossed -> cannot be crossed
p. 267: Carribean islands -> Caribbean islands
p. 273: whereas the the cold -> whereas the cold
p. 281: only resolve bodies -> only resolves bodies
p. 285: polarization of the atmosphese -> polarization of the atmosphere
p. 286: positive elctricty increases -> positive electricity increases
p. 296: two upheavels makes -> two upheavals makes
p. 298: combination witht he oxygen -> combination with the oxygen
p. 315: North Amerian -> North American
p. 315: which are Amercian -> which are American
p. 316: The themometer sometimes rises -> The thermometer sometimes
rises
p. 322: Rosa indica odoratissima, tumeric, oil of Bixa orellana -> Rosa
indica odoratissima, turmeric, oil of Bixa orellana
p. 337: crimson blosssom -> crimson blossom
p. 344: in the Guatimala forest -> in the Guatemala forest
p. 344: logwood, mohogony, and many other -> logwood, mahogony, and many
other
p. 349: which cones the -> with cones the
p. 352: of the cyptogamous kinds -> of the cryptogamous kinds
p. 352: aborescent vegetation -> arborescent vegetation
p. 358: tranverse incision -> transverse incision
p. 362: and alse in vast fields -> and also in vast fields
p. 371: their are eight distinct regions -> there are eight distinct
regions
p. 374: of the mackarel tribe -> of the mackerel tribe
p. 383: Emydians or tortoises, and turtle -> Emydians or tortoises, and
turtles
p. 384: and and form a link -> and form a link
p. 386: from Bazil to Carolina -> from Brazil to Carolina
p. 390: at an elevavation of -> at an elevation of
p. 391: Testuno Græca -> Testudo Græca
p. 392: the Indian Arcipelago -> the Indian Archipelago
p. 395: More than three-fourth of the species -> More than three fourths
of the species
p. 395: Aquilla albicilla -> Aquila albicilla
p. 396: catching moluscas and small fish -> catching mollusca and small
fish
p. 399: allied to to the grouse family -> allied to the grouse family
p. 401: Oriols of vivid colours -> Orioles of vivid colours
p. 407: Straits of Magellen -> Straits of Magellan
p. 410: unexplored regions of the inferior -> unexplored regions of the
interior
p. 413: the restlessness of carniverous animal -> the restlessness of
carniverous animals
p. 420: also of the Crimera -> also of the Crimea
p. 422: which serves as a parchute -> which serves as a parachute
p. 425: a new speeies of -> a new species of
p. 427: known as the prarie-dog -> known as the prairie dog
p. 434: a characteristeric of many -> a characteristic of many
Footnote 186: wombats bnrrow -> wombats burrow
p. 452: are absoutely without grass -> are absolutely without grass
p. 457: knowlege is power -> knowledge is power
p. 457: ides are disseminated -> ideas are disseminated
p. 458: stationary or retrogade -> stationary or retrograde
p. 466: ancient Ninevah -> ancient Nineveh
p. 472: years that preceeded -> years taht preceded
p. 473: particlar and extraordinary -> particular and extraordinary
Footnote 208: Annuaire du Bureau des Laugitutdes -> Annuaire du Bureau
des Longitudes
p. 500: opposums and other marsupial -> opossums and other marsupial
p. 506: soluble in alchol -> soluble in alcohol
p. 507: The anniseed tree -> The aniseed tree
p. 508: Synonyne of Pandanus -> Synonym of Pandanus
p. 518: Erom the Gr. -> From the Gr.
p. 519: Fram the Gr. -> From the Gr.
p. 520: a genu of mollusks -> a genus of mollusks
p. 520: Smybne´nsis -> Smyrne´nsis
p. 524: Grom the Gr. -> From the Gr.
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