Part 14

I found in Perceval’s Cape of Good Hope, that notwithstanding all the assertions he had heard of the existence of this animal in Southern Africa, he never met any person who had seen one. A horn, nearly three feet long, was indeed shewn him, as being that of the unicorn, but it evidently belonged to a large species of antelope. My uncle afterwards told us, that there is an antelope of this kind in the mountains of India, which the natives used to pretend had only a single horn; but since the conquest of Nepaul, those mountains have been visited by English officers, who have seen the animal alive with both its horns.

Frederick produced Mr. Barrow’s description of a drawing he had seen at the Cape, representing a single horn projecting from the forehead of an animal, which he says, resembles a horse, with an elegantly shaped body, marked, from the shoulders to the flanks, with longitudinal stripes or bands.

Mary had collected a great many facts about the rhinoceros; and she made it appear pretty clearly, that the allusion in Scripture to the strength and untameableness of the unicorn, are much more applicable to the rhinoceros than to any species of antelope, all of which are remarkably deficient in strength, and naturally timid. She found in some book, that the derivation of the Scripture name _Reem_, both in the Hebrew and the Ethiopic, implies erectness; and though the rhinoceros is by no means a very erect animal, yet his horn certainly is so, as it stands perpendicular to the face; and in that respect, it differs from the horns of all other animals. “The upright direction of the horn,” Mary said, “as well as the power and fierceness of the rhinoceros, would equally justify the metaphor in the Psalms, ‘my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn.’”

Caroline then brought forward her authorities to prove, that in Abyssinia the name of the rhinoceros signifies the beast with _the horn_, implying that it has but one; whereas, in Nubia, the name expresses _horn upon horn_. But as the Septuagint translates the word _reem_ into _monoceros_ or unicorn, we may suppose that if the rhinoceros had always two horns, the writers of the Septuagint, who probably must have seen the animal at Alexandria, at the exhibition given by Ptolemy Philadelphus, would not have called it monoceros.

We proceeded with our gleanings to my uncle, who seemed pleased with our industry. He observed, that notwithstanding the translation in the Septuagint, it was not quite certain that the reem or unicorn of the Hebrew Scriptures was always mentioned there as having but one horn; and he pointed out a passage in Deuteronomy, where horns in the plural are distinctly expressed. “But,” said my uncle, “it is classed with the behemoth and leviathan, which are supposed to be the elephant and crocodile, and the savage rhinoceros seems to be a more suitable companion to those huge and terrific creatures than the delicate antelope. Every body knows that there are two species of that animal, the R. unicornis, and the R. bicornis; and that the latter is only found in certain parts of Africa. The former, or one-horned species, is common not only in Abyssinia but all over Asia, and in Arabia is called by the name of _reem_, to the present day. Why then should we doubt that this untamed and destructive animal, which, in every respect, answers to the description in Scripture, should be the unicorn mentioned there; and having a horn, or horns, according to the different countries where the allusion was made?”

My uncle then shewed us Sparrman’s account of the two-horned rhinoceros, which he killed and dissected at the Cape. The longest horn, which is close to the nose, measured about eighteen inches in length, and seven in diameter. The uppermost horn was much smaller, and much worn, and the Hottentots told the Doctor, that these animals had the power of turning the long horn aside out of the way, while they employed the other in rooting up the plants on which they feed. But my uncle does not believe that there is any truth in this assertion.

_7th._--I have just had a little geological lecture, and hasten to write the substance while it is fresh in my memory.

In examining the materials of which our great mineral masses are composed, we are immediately struck by the difference of the _older formations_, which proceeded from causes that have long ceased to operate, and those _newer_ formations, the causes of which are still at work under our own observation.

Compared with the former, these recent formations are of very limited extent; they consist of the sand and stones that are accumulated on the sea coast by tides and currents; of the land washed away from one bank of a river, and thrown up on the opposite bank by the winding stream; of the earth and gravel, and fragments of rock, carried down by all rivers, and forming deposits at their mouths; and of the constant increase of marsh land, in consequence of the growth of aquatic plants. All these appear to have proceeded uninterruptedly from the period when our continents assumed their present form, and may be all designated by the general term _alluvial_. There are vast alluvial formations at the mouths of the Ganges, the Nile, the Mississippi, the Amazons, and other great rivers; and an evident change has been effected by these means in many sea-coast countries, of which there are innumerable instances.

The overflowing of the Rhine, the Arno, and the Po, formerly dispersed the soil they carried down over the neighbouring land; but ever since it has been confined within dykes, their deposits have not only elevated the beds of these rivers, but are also rapidly pushing forward their mouths into the sea. The low alluvial plains through which they run were themselves produced by ancient deposits; and the progress of this continually increasing formation may be easily estimated from various historic records. From Strabo we learn that Ravenna was situated, in the time of Augustus, at the head of a bay connected with the Adriatic, and that it had then a good harbour; yet it is now three miles from the coast. By comparing the old maps with the present state of the Duchy of Ferrara, which is flooded annually by the Po, it appears that the coast has gained from the sea 14,000 yards in breadth since the year 1604, giving an average of sixty yards for its advance per annum. And the town of Adria, which in ancient times was a sea-port, is now sixteen miles inland!

The same causes have produced similar effects along the branches of the Rhine and Maëse; and for many leagues from their mouths the country exhibits the singular spectacle of having its largest rivers held up by dykes at the height of twenty or thirty feet above the level of the land. The alluvial depositions on the north coasts of Friesland and Groningen, and the increase of land which they have effected, are very considerable: the first dykes were formed in 1570; and in only one hundred years afterwards, the deposits had accumulated to the extent of nearly three miles on the outside of the dykes. A large part of the United Provinces has thus been actually formed by materials washed down from the interior of Germany; and many populous cities now stand where the sea once rolled its waves.

_8th._--Of the various buds which are beginning to open, none advance so rapidly as those of the peach blossoms. On the 14th of February I first observed a little streak of red at the tops of a few; they are now quite opened, and looked very pretty last week, when the ground was slightly covered with snow.

I must tell you a curious thing about buds. Early in January we had some little branches and twigs of several trees brought in, that we might see the state of the buds; and I put a few into a jug of water in my room, that I might examine them at leisure. Very soon afterwards, I perceived that the buds were beginning to swell; their scales gradually separated, and now there are some horse-chestnut leaves quite opened out, and displaying the beautiful manner in which they, and the embryo flower, were folded up and preserved within those scaly cases in the winter. I thought it very extraordinary that they should have been supported merely by water; but my uncle says that the principal nourishment of all plants is derived from water. The famous botanist Du Hamel reared an oak tree for eight years in water only; and a willow planted by Van Helmont in a pot, increased fifty pounds in weight in five years, though the earth, which had been accurately weighed, was only diminished by two ounces.

In my collection of branches there were some of lilac and of pear; and on each of these, the buds, which were hard, little greenish knobs when first put in the water, have now burst open and disclosed their cluster of miniature flower-buds.

We have all been most philosophically employed in dissecting and examining leaf-buds of various trees: for my own part, I think that I can distinctly see in most of them, that they proceed from the wood; and in some I could plainly trace the little communication that connects the wood and the bud. But my uncle says we must continue to study this subject for years before we can venture to form a decided opinion.

I intend to keep my branches in water as long as possible, that I may see what happens at last. On the living trees out of doors no leaf-bud has yet attempted to unfold its scales.

_9th._--As we walked in the sheltered kitchen-garden this stormy day, Miss Perceval remarked what an alteration soil, climate, and culture can produce in the external characters of plants; and for remarkable instances of this, she says, we need not go farther than the kitchen-garden.

“There,” she said, “we find cabbage, cauliflower, kale, brocoli, and turnip-rooted cabbage; but who could ever imagine that all these were from the same original species? Nothing, however, is more certain than that they are all varieties produced by the cultivation of a plant which grows wild on the sea-shores of Europe, and which, in its external appearance, is as different from any of those, as they are from each other. These alterations become so strongly fixed by habit, that they continue in the plants that spring from the seeds of each variety; they are liable, however, again to degenerate into each other; and it is only by the art of gardening that they are preserved distinct, or that fresh varieties are produced.”

Miss Perceval made me examine the several young crops of cabbage of different kinds which had been sown at short intervals, during February and the beginning of March, that they might be ready for use in succession; and I find that, although she is such a great botanist, she does not at all despise the knowledge of garden vegetables and of their cultivation. Indeed, she says, that it is being but half a botanist, not to have a general knowledge of all the useful vegetables, with the principles of their cultivation, and their times and seasons.

Among the few plots of cabbage now in leaf, we found some rows of the large-ribbed species, in which there appeared to be several varieties; and in trying to make out the differences, I perceived an odd tail or appendage to some of the leaves. When I made Miss P. take notice of it, she was surprised, and said she had never before observed a similar circumstance in the growth of any cabbages. This curious appendage, which grows from the back of the principal rib, in its substance is like the foot-stalk of the leaves; and at the end it dilates into a sort of hollow cup like a funnel, with something of the appearance of the _nepenthes_, or pitcher plant.

_11th._--I asked my uncle, after dinner what were those older causes, which he told us had produced such infinitely greater changes in the structure of the earth’s surface than any that are now going on.

“The more you learn,” he replied, “of the structure of the earth, and of the prodigious thickness of the strata, which once must have lain horizontally, and which have been since torn up and thrown into every angle of inclination, the more readily you will form an idea of the stupendous power with which that cause must have operated. The changes which are now in constant progress are very limited in their effects, and are entirely confined to the surface. The action of frost in crumbling the rocky tops of the mountains; and of rivers in carrying the fragments to the sea, and thus altering the outline of the coasts, I have already mentioned. Considerable changes are also produced by avalanches, by inundations, and by the unceasing action of the waves of the sea. But these changes are slow, and can never be very extensive. “The effect of volcanoes is greater; and, though many countries bear the traces of having been overflowed by vast torrents of lava, they are now confined to a comparatively small portion of the globe. But if they were far more numerous or extensive, volcanoes could not have raised up or overthrown the strata through which their apertures pass, still less could they have acted upon those immense regions which are not volcanic. The mind, indeed, is lost in astonishment at the means employed by nature in feeding these enormous fires from such prodigious depths; but still we must perceive how inadequate they are to account for the revolutions which appear to have shaken the earth to its foundations. The same reasoning applies to earthquakes; their consequences are awfully great in the adjacent country, but very far from being equal to explain the subversions which appear to have occurred in every corner of the world that has been visited.

“In short, all the greatest possible efforts of those causes that can be supposed to have taken place since the creation, cannot have inverted the strata, nor inclosed great quadrupeds in solid stone, nor imbedded bones, shells, and vegetables, in the middle of compact rocks, nor have deposited complete strata of shell-fish at the tops of the highest mountains; nor could they have swept away whole species of animals which once inhabited the earth; causes, which evidently extend through a limited space, and whose effects are only partial, could never have operated throughout the globe, to produce the general and amazing changes that we observe in all parts of it. To produce such a universal effect, the cause must have been not only powerful, but general.

“Sacred history alone furnishes us with the knowledge of this general and powerful cause--the Deluge. What physical means Providence employed to produce this great convulsion, have not been revealed to us, but that the whole globe must have been involved in its fury is everywhere apparent. The former bed of the ocean must have been lifted up; former continents must have been sunk; and the entire crust of the earth must have been rent, shattered, and tossed into every variety of position.”

_12th, Sunday._--‘And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place.’

“The place alluded to here,” said my uncle, “was his own country, Mesopotamia. His prophecies having been delivered, the design of heaven was answered, and the instrument was thrown aside. The wicked Balaam was now left to pursue the schemes of his ambition; and they were intended to be as destructive to the Israelites as if he had even succeeded in cursing them. Josephus tells us, that Balaam informed the king that he could never subdue the Israelites, unless they should be disobedient to their God; and he instructed him how to make them so. This seems to be confirmed in Sacred History by Moses, who says that Balaam ‘caused the Israelites to commit trespass against the Lord,’ and also by St. John, in the second chapter of Revelations. The consequence was a severe plague which was inflicted on them as a punishment, and which swept off many thousand people.

“The history of this obdurate Prophet furnishes a deplorable instance of the weakness of the human heart, and of the obstinacy with which it clings to sinful passions, in spite of the most solemn warnings. Balaam could not forego the tempting offer of Balak, nor the allurements of his own ambition: after having been refused permission to go to that king, and after having been obliged to bless the people instead of cursing them, he endeavoured, by his mischievous counsel, to seduce the Israelites into idolatry. He expressed indeed a hope of dying the death of the righteous, but for that purpose he should have lived the life of the righteous. He was cut off by the avenging sword; and his end furnishes an awful example of the gradual progress of sin, and proves that extraordinary ‘gifts of the Spirit’ are not always accompanied by the genuine ‘fruits of the Spirit.’ When we possess extraordinary talents, or any peculiar gifts from Providence, we should consider them as so many temptations or trials, and pray the more humbly and strenuously for assistance to use them virtuously.”

My uncle then explained that to tempt, is an old English word, which signifies to try; it is frequently so used in all our old works, as well as in the Bible. The forty years’ temptation in the wilderness evidently means trial. Forty years long did I tempt and prove thee--that is, did I try thee. Again, in the text, “to take him a nation from amidst another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders,” Deut. iv. 34. The word “temptations” is undoubtedly put for trials; for the miracles wrought in Egypt were real trials both to the Egyptians and to the Israelites, who were thereby given the alternative of obedience, or of obstinate resistance. And St. Paul repeatedly tells us, that even good men are allowed to fall into _trying_ circumstances, for the exercise and improvement of their virtue.

_13th._--My aunt has been shewing me various species of the aphis to-day.

There are two distinct sorts which belong to the plum tree, one of a yellowish green, with a round short body; the other oblong, of a bluish green, enamelled with white. The same kinds are found on the gooseberry and currant; and the rose tree supports three distinct species.

There are some amusing circumstances told of the singular friendship that appears to subsist between these little animals and ants, with whom they share the honey they obtain, and are in return assisted and protected. I met this morning with an entertaining account of these facts in the Dialogues on Entomology, which my aunt lent me last month.

There is another species called the oak puceron, which bury themselves in the crevices of the bark when it is a little separated from the wood, and live at their ease on the sap. They are black, and nearly as large as a common house-fly. Their trunk is twice the length of their bodies, and it holds so fast by the wood, that, when pulled away, it frequently brings a small piece along with it. Ants are so fond of this species of puceron, that they are the surest guides where to find it; for whenever we see a number of ants upon an oak, and all creeping into one cleft of the bark, we may be certain, my aunt says, of finding quantities of oak pucerons there.

Mary, two or three days ago, raised the turf in different places in a dry pasture field, and shewed me clusters of ants gathered about some large grey pucerons. My aunt says that these earth pucerons draw the juices from the roots of plants, as the other species do from the stem and branches. It is imagined by some people, that they are only the common pucerons, which in winter creep into the earth to shelter themselves: but this is not the case, as they are usually met with in places distant from the trees or plants on which they might before have fed. And she says, that though many may be killed by the cold, yet numbers escape, and are found early in spring, sucking the buds of the peach and other trees.

_14th._--I have not yet found the least difficulty in comprehending what my uncle tells us in our geological conversations. This is partly owing to the clearness with which he teaches; and partly to my immediately writing down the substance of it for you. The habit of writing this journal has been indeed of very great use to me, and I have to thank you, dear mamma, for desiring me to do it. I am afraid Marianne will not be much interested as yet by the present subject, for want of my uncle’s explanations; but when I am once more with you and her, I will try to give her at full length the details of what he has told us; and I am sure that she will then like it for his sake.

We have just had another little chapter on the changes in the globe. My uncle said, that extraordinary as the changes on its surface appear, yet when we have an opportunity of penetrating a little into the interior by means of deep mines, or of viewing a long section of the strata in cliffs or on bare mountains, then our ideas expand into a clearer conception of the extent and grandeur of its ancient revolutions. In examining the more elevated chains of mountains, or in following the beds of their torrents, we can perceive somewhat of its interior structure thus laid open to us.

The low and level parts of the earth, when penetrated to a great depth, generally exhibit parallel strata, composed of various substances, and most of them containing vegetable and animal, and innumerable marine productions. Similar strata, with the same kind of productions, compose the hills even to a great height; and sometimes the shells are so numerous, that an entire stratum seems to be formed of them. These shells are frequently in such perfect preservation, that they retain their sharpest ridges, and their tenderest forms. They are sometimes found incrusted in hard stone, and sometimes inclosed in loose sand or clay; and the nicest comparison cannot detect any difference between the texture of these shells, and those which now inhabit the sea. It is, therefore, fair to conclude, that they also must have formerly lived in the sea, and, consequently, that the sea must once have flowed over those places.

But we must not forget that in some countries none of these remains occur, for instance, in Cornwall, and the highlands of Scotland; while in others, not a well can be sunk, or a pit opened, without presenting them in abundance; as in the south-eastern counties of England. The reason of this difference will, I am sure, have suggested itself, if you recollect our former conversations: Cornwall is composed of the lowest series of rocks, which are therefore called primitive; and they, you know, must be entirely destitute of organic remains. The next series contains them very sparingly, but they abound in the three succeeding series, or what are called the _secondary formations_; though sometimes there are beds interposed, in which they are still rare. In examining these organic remains, the skill of the botanist and zoologist has discovered that several of the plants and animals are entirely different from any with which we are at present acquainted; and a vast field of inquiry has thus been opened in those departments of nature.

I asked my uncle whether these remains are regularly distributed through the whole of those series in which they are so numerous. He likes that I should ask him questions; he says it doubles his pleasure in giving information, when he sees people really alive to what he tells them.