CHAPTER X

THE MAGICIAN'S DREAM OF ANCIENT DAYS.

The magician sat in his armchair in the one little room in the house which was his, and his only, besides the observatory. And a strange room it was. The walls were hung with skulls and bones of men and animals, with swords, daggers, and shields, coats of mail, and bronze spear-heads. The drawers, many of which stood open, contained flint-stones chipped and worn, arrowheads of stone, jade hatchets beautifully polished, bronze buckles and iron armlets; while scattered among these were pieces of broken pottery, some rough and only half-baked, others beautifully finished, as the Romans knew how to finish them. Rough needles made of bone lay beside bronze knives with richly-ornamented handles and, most precious of all, on the table by the magician's side lay a reindeer antler, on which was roughly carved the figure of the reindeer itself.

He had been enjoying a six weeks' holiday, and he had employed it in visiting some of the bone caves of Europe to learn about the men who lived in them long, long ago. He had been to the south of France to see the famous caves of the Dordogne, to Belgium to the caves of Engis and Engihoul, to the Hartz Mountains and to Hungary. Then hastening home he had visited the chief English caves in Yorkshire, Wales, and Devonshire.

Now that he had returned to his college, his mind was so full of facts, that he felt perplexed how to lay before his class the wonderful story of the life of man before history began. And as the day was hot, and the very breeze which played around him made him feel languid and sleepy, he fell into a reverie--a waking dream.

* * * * *

First the room faded from his sight, then the trim villages disappeared; the homesteads, the corn-fields, the grazing cattle, all were gone, and he saw the whole of England covered with thick forests and rough uncultivated land. From the mountains in the north, glaciers were to be seen creeping down the valleys between dense masses of fir and oak, pine and birch; while the wild horse, the bison, and the Irish elk were feeding on the plains. As he looked southward and eastward he saw that the sea no longer washed the shores, for the English and Irish Channels were not yet scooped out. The British Isles were still part of the continent of Europe, so that animals could migrate overland from the far south, up to what is now England, Scotland, and Ireland. Many of these animals, too, were very different from any now living in the country, for in the large rivers of England he saw the hippopotamus playing with her calf, while elephants and rhinoceroses were drinking at the water's edge. Yet these strange creatures did not have all the country to themselves--wolves, bears, and foxes prowled in the woods, large beavers built their dams across the streams, and here and there over the country human beings were living in caves and holes of the earth.

It was these men chiefly who attracted the magician's attention, and being curious to know how they lived, he turned towards a cave, at the mouth of which was a group of naked children who were knocking pieces of flint together, trying to strike off splinters and make rough flint tools, such as they saw their fathers use. Not far off from them a woman with a wild beast's skin round her waist was gathering firewood, another was grubbing up roots, and another, venturing a little way into the forest, was searching for honey in the hollows of the tree trunks.

All at once in the dusk of the evening a low growl and a frightened cry were heard, and the women rushed towards the cave as they saw near the edge of the forest a huge tiger with sabre-shaped teeth struggling with a powerful stag. In vain the deer tried to stamp on his savage foe or to wound him with his antlers; the strong teeth of the tiger had penetrated his throat, and they fell struggling together as the stag uttered his death-cry. Just at that moment loud shouts were heard in the forest, and the frightened women knew that help was near.

One after another, several men, clothed in skins hung over one shoulder and secured round the waist, rushed out of the thicket, their hair streaming in the wind, and ran towards the tiger. They held in their hands strange weapons made of rough pointed flints fastened into handles by thongs of skin, and as the tiger turned upon them with a cry of rage they met him with a rapid shower of blows. The fight raged fiercely, for the beast was strong and the weapons of the men were rude, but the tiger lay dead at last by the side of his victim. His skin and teeth were the reward of the hunters, and the stag he had killed became their prey.

How skilfully they hacked it to pieces with their stone axes, and then loading it upon their shoulders set off up the hill towards the cave, where they were welcomed with shouts of joy by the women and children!

Then began the feast. First fires were kindled slowly and with difficulty by rubbing a sharp-pointed stick in a groove of softer wood till the wood-dust burst into flame; then a huge pile was lighted at the mouth of the cave to cook the food and keep off wild beasts. How the food was cooked the magician could not see, but he guessed that the flesh was cut off the bones and thrust in the glowing embers, and he watched the men afterwards splitting open the uncooked bones to suck out the raw marrow which savages love.

After the feast was over he noticed how they left these split bones scattered upon the floor of the cave mingling with the sabre-shaped teeth of the tiger, and this reminded him of the bones of the stag and the tiger's tooth which he had found in Kent's Cavern in Devonshire only a few days before.

By this time the men had lain down to sleep, and in the darkness strange cries were heard from the forest. The roar of the lion, mingled with the howling of the wolves and the shrill laugh of the hyænas, told that they had come down to feed on the remains of the tiger. But none of these animals ventured near the glowing fire at the mouth of the cavern, behind which the men slept in security till the sun was high in the heavens. Then all was astir again, for weapons had been broken in the fight, and some of the men sitting on the ground outside the cave placed one flint between their knees, and striking another sharply against it drove off splinters, leaving a pointed end and cutting edge. They spoiled many before they made one to their liking, and the entrance to the cave was strewn with splintered fragments and spoilt flints, but at last several useful stones were ready. Meanwhile another man, taking his rude stone axe, set to work to hew branches from the trees to form handles, while another, choosing a piece remaining of the body of the stag, tore a sinew from the thigh, and threading it through the large eye of the bone needle, stitched the tiger's skin roughly together into a garment.

"_This, then_," said the magician to himself, "_is how ancient man lived in the summer-time, but how would he fare when winter came?_" As he mused the scene gradually changed. The glaciers crept far lower down the valleys, and the hills, and even the lower ground, lay thick in snow. The hippopotamus had wandered away southward to warmer climes, as animals now migrate over the continent of America in winter, and with him had gone the lion, the southern elephant, and other summer visitors. In their place large herds of reindeer and shaggy oxen had come down from the north and were spread over the plains, scraping away the snow with their feet to feed on the grass beneath. The mammoth, too, or hairy elephant, of the same extinct species as those which have been found frozen in solid ice under a sandbank in Siberia, had come down to feed, accompanied by the woolly rhinoceros; and scattered over the hills were the curious horned musk-sheep, which have long ago disappeared off the face of the earth. Still, bitterly cold as it was, the hunter clad in his wild-beast skin came out from time to time to chase the mammoth, the reindeer, and the oxen for food, and cut wood in the forest to feed the cavern fires.

This time the magician's thoughts wandered down to the south-west of France, where, on the banks of a river in that part now called the Dordogne, a number of caves not far from each other formed the home of savage man. Here he saw many new things, for the men used arrows of deer-horn and of wood pointed with flint, and with these they shot the birds, which were hovering near in hopes of finding food during the bitter weather. By the side of the river a man was throwing a small dart of deer-horn fastened to a cord of sinews, with which from time to time he speared a large fish and drew it to the bank.

But the most curious sight of all, among such a rude people, was a man sitting by the glowing fire at the mouth of one of the caves scratching a piece of reindeer horn with a pointed flint, while the children gathered round him to watch his work. What was he doing? See! gradually the rude scratches began to take shape, and two reindeer fighting together could be recognised upon the horn handle. This he laid carefully aside, and taking a piece of ivory, part of the tusk of a mammoth, he worked away slowly and carefully till the children grew tired of watching and went off to play behind the fire. Then the magician, glancing over his shoulder, saw a true figure of the mammoth scratched upon the ivory, his hairy skin, long mane, and up-curved tusks distinguishing him from all elephants living now. "_Ah_," exclaimed the magician aloud, "_that is the drawing on ivory found in the cave of La Madeleine in Dordogne, proving that man existed ages ago, and even knew how to draw figures, at a time when the mammoth, or hairy elephant, long since extinct, was still living on the earth!_"

With these words he started from his reverie, and knew that he had been dreaming of Palæolithic man who, with his tools of rough flints, had lived in Europe so long ago that his date cannot be fixed by years, or centuries, or even thousands of years. Only this is known, that, since he lived, the mammoth, the sabre-toothed tiger, the cave-bear, the woolly rhinoceros, the cave-hyæna, the musk-sheep, and many other animals have died out from off the face of the earth; the hippopotamus and the lion have left Europe and retired to Africa, and the sea has flowed in where land once was, cutting off Great Britain and Ireland from the continent.

How long all these changes were in taking place no one knows. When the magician drifted back again into his dream the land had long been desolate, and the hyænas, which had always taken possession of the caves whenever the men deserted them for awhile, had now been undisturbed for a long time, and had left on the floor of the cave gnawed skulls and bones, and jaws of animals, more or less scored with the marks of their teeth, and these had become buried in a thick layer of earth. The magician knew that these teeth marks had been made by hyænas, both because living hyænas leave exactly such marks on bones in the present day, and because the hyæna bones alone were not gnawed, showing that no animals preyed upon their flesh. He knew too that the hyænas had been there long after man had ceased to use the caves, because no flint tools were found among the bones. But now the age of hyænas, too, was past and gone, and the caves had been left so long undisturbed that in many of them the water dripping from the roof had left film after film of carbonate of lime upon the floor, which as the centuries went by became a layer of stalagmite many feet thick, sealing down the secrets of the past.

* * * * *

The face of the country was now entirely changed. The glaciers were gone, and so, too, were all the strange animals. True, the reindeer, the wild ox, and even here and there the Irish elk, were still feeding in the valleys; wolves and bears still made the country dangerous, and beavers built their dams across the streams, which were now much smaller than formerly, and flowed in deeper channels, carved out by water during the interval; but the elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, and tigers were gone never to return, and near the caves in which some of the people lived, and the rude underground huts which formed the homes of others, tame sheep and goats were lying with dogs to watch them. Also, though the land was still covered with dense forests, yet here and there small clearings had been made, where patches of corn and flax were growing. Naked children still played about as before, but now they were moulding cups of clay like those in which food was being cooked on the fire outside the caves or huts. Some of the women, dressed partly in skins of beasts, partly in rough woven linen, were spinning flax into thread, using as a spinning-whorl a small round stone with a hole in the middle tied to the end of the flax, as a weight to enable them to twirl it. Others were grinding corn in the hollow of a large stone by rubbing another stone within it.

The men, while they still spent much time in hunting, had now other duties in tending the sheep and goats, or looking after the hogs as they turned up the ground in the forest for roots, or sowing and reaping their crops. Yet still all the tools were made of stone, no longer rough and merely chipped like the old stone weapons, but neatly cut and polished. Stone axes with handles of deer-horn, stone spears and javelins, stone arrowheads beautifully finished, sling-stones and scrapers, were among their weapons and tools, and with them they made many delicate implements of bone. On the broad lakes which here and there broke the monotony of the forests, canoes, made of the trunks of trees hollowed out by fire, were being paddled by one man, while another threw out his fishing line armed with delicate bone-hooks; and on the banks of the lakes, nets weighted with drilled stones tied on to the meshes were dragged up full of fish.

For these Neolithic men, or men of the New Stone Period, who used polished stone weapons, were farmers and shepherds and fishermen. They knew how to make rude pottery, and kept domestic animals. Moreover, they either came from the east or exchanged goods by barter with tribes living more to the eastward, now that canoes enabled them to cross the sea; for many of their weapons were made of greenstone or jade, and of other kinds of stone not to be found in Europe, and their sheep and goats were animals of eastern origin. They understood how to unite to protect their homes, for they made underground huts by digging down several feet into the ground and roofing the hole over with wood coated with clay; and often long passages underground united these huts, while in many places on the hills, camps, made of ramparts of earth surrounded by ditches, served as strongholds for the women and children and the flocks and herds, when some neighbouring tribe attacked their homesteads.

Still, however, where caves were ready to hand they used them for houses, and the same shelter which had been the home of the ancient hunters, now resounded with the voices of the shepherds, who, treading on the sealed floor, little dreamt that under their feet lay the remains of a bygone age.

And now, as our dreamer watched this new race of men fashioning their weapons, feeding their oxen, and hunting the wild stag, his attention was arrested by a long train of people crossing a neighbouring plain, weeping and wailing as they went. At the head of this procession, lying on a stretcher made of tree-boughs, lay a dead chieftain, and as the line moved on, men threw down their tools, and women their spinning, and joined the throng. On they went to where two upright slabs of stone with another laid across them formed the opening to a long mound or chamber. Into this the bearers passed with lighted torches, and in a niche ready prepared placed the dead chieftain in a sitting posture with the knees drawn up, placing by his side his flint spear and polished axe, his necklace of shells, and the bowl from which he had fed. Then followed the funeral feast, when, with shouts and wailing, fires were lighted, and animals slaughtered and cooked, while the chieftain was not forgotten, but portions were left for his use, and then the earth was piled up again around the mouth of the chamber, till it should be opened at some future time to place another member of his family by his side, or till in after ages the antiquary should rifle his resting-place to study the mode of burial in the Neolithic or Polished Stone Age.

Time passed on in the magician's dream, and little by little the caves were entirely deserted as men learnt to build huts of wood and stone. And as they advanced in knowledge they began to melt metals and pour them into moulds, making bronze knives and hatchets, swords and spears; and they fashioned brooches and bracelets of bronze and gold, though they still also used their necklaces of shells and their polished stone weapons. They began, too, to keep ducks and fowls, cows and horses; they knew how to weave in looms, and to make cloaks and tunics; and when they buried their dead it was no longer in a crouching position. They laid them decently to rest, as if in sleep, in the barrows where they are found to this day with bronze weapons by their side.

Then as time went on they learnt to melt even hard iron, and to beat it into swords and plough-shares, and they lived in well-built huts with stone foundations. Their custom of burial, too, was again changed, and they burnt their dead, placing the ashes in a funeral urn.

By this time the Britons, as they were now called, had begun to gather together in villages and towns, and the Romans ruled over them. Now when men passed through the wild country they were often finely dressed in cloth tunics, wearing arm rings of gold, some even driving in war-chariots, carrying shields made of wickerwork covered with leather. Still many of the country people who laboured in the field kept their old clothing of beast skins; they grew their corn and stored it in cavities of the rocks; they made basket-work boats covered with skin, in which they ventured out to sea. So things went on for a long period till at last a troubled time came, and the quiet valleys were disturbed by wandering people who fled from the towns and took refuge in the forests; for the Romans after three hundred and fifty years of rule had gone back home to Italy, and a new and barbarous people called the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, came over the sea from Jutland and drove the Britons from their homes.

And so once more the caves became the abode of man, for the harassed Britons brought what few things they could carry away from their houses and hid themselves there from their enemies. How little they thought, as they lay down to sleep on the cavern floor, that beneath them lay the remains of two ages of men! They knew nothing of the woman who had dropped her stone spindle-whorl into the fire, on which the food of Neolithic man had been cooking in rough pots of clay; they never dug down to the layer of gnawed bones, nor did they even in their dreams picture the hyæna haunting his ancient den, for a hyæna was an animal they had never seen. Still less would they have believed that at one time, countless ages before, their island had been part of the continent, and that men, living in the cave where they now lay, had cut down trees with rough flints, and fought with such unknown animals as the mammoth and the sabre-toothed tiger.

But the magician saw it all passing before him, even as he also saw these Britons carrying into the cave their brooches, bracelets, and finger rings, their iron spears and bronze daggers, and all their little household treasures which they had saved in their flight. And among these, mingling in the heap, he recognised Roman coins bearing the inscription of the Emperor Constantine, and he knew that it was by these coins that he had, a few days before in Yorkshire, been able to fix the date of the British occupation of a cave.

* * * * *

And with this his dream ended, and he found himself clutching firmly the horn on which Palæolithic man had engraved the figure of the reindeer. He rose, and stretching himself crossed the sunny grass plot of the quadrangle and entered his classroom. The boys wondered as he began his lecture at the far-away look in his eyes. They did not know how he had passed through a vision of countless ages; but that afternoon, for the first time, they realised, as he unfolded scene after scene, the history of "The Men of Ancient Days."

INDEX

Abbot's Way across Dartmoor, 196

Absorption of rays of sunlight, 129

Abyssinia, wild ass of, 203

_Actinozoa_, Cydippe allied to the, 190

Ages, lapse of between old and new stone age, 217

Alcor, or Jack, 158

Aldebaran, 149; called so by the Arabs, 153; colour of, 167

Algol the Variable, 162, 165

Almach, [Greek: g] Andromedæ, 156; a coloured double star, 167

America, extinction of original horse in, 207

Andromeda, the great nebula of, 162, 164; double coloured star in, 167

Animal of the Sea-mat, 191; number in one leaf, 193

Animal-trees and stony plants, 178

Animals, extinct, living with man, 211

Antares, a ruby-red star, 167

Antherozoids of mosses, 89

Apothecia of lichens, 83

Apennines, Lunar, figured, 19

Archimedes, a lunar crater, 10; smooth centre of, 19

Arctic lands, lichens in, 82

Arcturus, colour of, 166

Aristarchus, a lunar crater, 10, 24; streaks around, 17

Aristotle, a lunar crater, 10

Arrows, old stone, 215

Asia, horse of Central, 201

_Asinus tæniopus_, 203

_Aspergillus glaucus_, 61; growth of, 63

Ass tribe, forms allied to the, 201

Ass, wild of Africa, 203

Atmosphere, absence of in the moon, 21

Australia, wild horses of, 207

_Bacillaria Paradoxa_, a diatom, 185

Bacteria growing on wounds, 66

Baiæ, hill thrown up on Bay of, 103

Ball, Sir R., on binary stars, 154

Beehive, triple star near the, 168

Beer, fermentation of, 65

Bellatrix, a star in Orion, 148

Berlin, ground beneath, formed of diatoms, 186

Bessel, on movements of Sirius, 169

Betelgeux, a star in Orion, 148

Binary star in Great Bear, 157, 158

Binary stars, 154, 166, 170

Bog-moss or Sphagnum, 93

Bog-mosses, distribution of, 94

Bombs, volcanic, 105

Boötis [Greek: e], a coloured double star, 167

Britons inhabiting caves, 224; ornaments and customs of, 223

Britons of Dartmoor, 196

Bronze weapon and bracelet, 223

Bryum or thread moss, 77

Buckfast Abbey, monks of, 196

Bunt, a fungus, 64

Burial in Neolithic times, 221

Cassiopeia, the constellation, 162; coloured double star in, 167

Castor, a binary star, 154

Camera, photographic, 47; attached to the telescope, 121

Cancer [Greek: z], a triple coloured star, 168

Candle-flame, image of, formed by lens, 33

Canis Major, constellation of, 148

Capella, colour of the star, 153

Castor, light of compared with a near star, 158

Caterpillars destroyed by fungus, 66

Caucasus Mountains on the Moon, 18

Cave, the three periods of a, 225

Caves, Palæolithic and Neolithic, 210; Palæolithic life in, 211; hyænas roamed in, 217; Neolithic life in, 218; Britons took refuge in, 224

Cells, fertile of mushroom, 69; of moss-plant, 89

Celt, jade, from Suffolk, 219

Chambers, Mr., his drawing of [Greek: e] Lyræ, 166

Charles's Wain, 155; part of Great Bear, 157; stars of drifting, 159; stars visible in waggon of, 160; double coloured star in, 158, 167

_Chilomonas amygdalum_, a monad, 182

Ciliary muscle, action of the, 34

Clark, Alvan, on companion of Sirius, 169

Clockwork of telescope, 2

_Cocconema lanceolatum_, a diatom, 184

Coin of age of Constantine, 223

_Confervæ_, growth of, 79

Commons, Mr., photographed Orion's nebula, 152

Constantine, coin of age of, 223

Constellations, maps of, 148, 156

Copernicus, a lunar crater, 10, 24; figured, 17; bright streaks around, 18

Copper-sulphate in lava, 108

_Corallina_, a stony seaweed, 175; fruit of, 177; appearance like _Sertularia_, 179

Cornea of the eye, 31

Corona, nature of the sun's, 123, 137

Cottam, Mr. A., his plate of coloured stars, 167

Crater, lava flowing from a, 98; interior of Vesuvius, 100

Crater-plains, 19-21

Craters on the moon, 10, 13, 17, 19, 20; of earth and moon compared, 16

Crystallites in volcanic glass, 109

Crystallisation, two periods of, in lava, 115

Crystals forming in artificial lavas, 114; precious, 116

_Cydippe pileus_, a living jelly-ball, 187; structure of, 188-190

Cygni [Greek: b], a coloured double star, 167

Dartmoor, fairy rings on, 57, 58; the Sundew on, 56; granite figured, 112; ponies, 195

De la Rue, his photograph of moon, 13

Devonshire ponies, black stripe on, 201

Diatom, a growing, 185

_Diatoma hyalina_, 184

Diatoms, magnified fossil, 39; living marine, 184

Didymium, giving a broken spectrum, 126

Dordogne, caves of the, 210, 215

Draper, Prof., photographed Orion's nebula, 152

_Drosera rotundifolia_ on Dartmoor, 56

Dschiggetai, horse-ass of Tibet, 200

Dsungarian desert, wild horse of the, 203

Dykes, nature of volcanic, 111

Earth, path of the moon round the, 8; magnetic storm on, caused by sun, 14; reservoirs of melted matter in the, 101

Earthquakes accompanying volcanic outbursts, 102

Eclipse of sun, red jets and corona seen during, 125

Eclipse, total, of the moon, 23; lurid light during, 25

Eclipses, how caused, 7

Elephant, hairy, engraved on ivory, 216

_Empusa muscæ_, 66

Engis and Engihoul caves, 210

England, ancient caves in, 210; in Palæolithic times, 211

Eocene, toed horses of the, 205

_Eohippus_, or horse of the dawn, 205

_Equus hemionus_, the horse-ass, 202

Eratosthenes, a lunar crater, 10

Erbia, giving a broken spectrum, 126

Ergot, a fungus, 61

Eruptions of Vesuvius, 97, 100, 104

Eudoxus, a lunar crater, 10

Experiments, necessity for accurate, 54

Eye, structure of the, 29-32; mode of seeing with the, 32; short-sighted, 29, 35; distances spanned by the naked, 40

Faculæ on the sun's face, 122, 140

Fairy rings, 55; mentioned in _Merry Wives of Windsor_, 57; growth of, 71-73

Ferments caused by fungi, 60, 64

Fishing in ancient times, 215, 220

_Fistulina hepatica_, a fungus, 71

Flint skeletons of plants, 185

Flustra or sea-mat, 187; structure of, 191-193

Fly, fungus killing a, 66

Focal images, 33; distances, 44

Fouqué, M., artificial lava made by, 112

Fructification of mushrooms, 69; of lichens, 83; of mosses, 91; of seaweeds, 177

_Funaria hygrometrica_, urn of the, 89, 91; has no urn lid, 92

Fungi, nature of, 59; different kinds of, 60; attacking insects, 66; growing on wounds, 66; the use of, 74

Fungus and green cells in lichen, 81

Gardener, advice of the old, 118

Gas, spectrum of a, 126

Gases revealed by spectroscope, 52

Gemini, the constellation, 154

Geminorum, [Greek: d], a double coloured star, 167

Gills of mushroom, 69

_Gomphonema marinum_, 184

Gooseberry, fermentation in a, 64

Gory dew, _Palmella cruenta_, 79

Graham's island thrown up, 102

Granular appearance of sun's face, 123

Grape fungus, 65

Great Bear, the constellation, 157; binary star in, 158; coloured double star in, 158, 168

Greenstone, Neolithic weapons of, 220

Guards, the, in the Little Bear, 162

Hartz Mountains, caves of the, 210

Hatchet, a Neolithic stone, 219

Hebrides, volcanic islands of, 111

Henri, MM., photograph of moon's face by, 19

Herculaneum, buried, 98, 104

Herculis [Greek: a], a coloured double star, 168

Hermitage, lava stream flowing behind the, 97, 99

Herschel's drawing of Copernicus, 17

Huggins, Dr., on shape of prominences, 135; on spectra of nebulæ, 151; on cause of colour in stars, 168

Himalayas, single-celled plants in the, 79

Horse, wild, of the Pampas, 198; of Tartary, 199; of Kirghiz steppes, 200; Przevalsky's, 202; early history of toed, 204; structure of foot and hoof of, 205; skeleton of, 206; origin and migration of early, 207

Hungary, ancient caves of, 210

Huyghens, the highest peak in Lunar Apennines, 19

Image formed at focus of lens, 33; of sky in telescope, 49

Implements, old stone, 213; new stone, 219

Imps of plant-life, 59

India, low plants in springs of, 79; solar eclipse seen in, 124; wild ass of, 203

Infusorial earth, 186

Infusorians in a seaside pool, 183

Inhabitants of a seaside pool, 172-174

Iris of the eye, 30

Iron pyrites in lava, 108

Iron slag, lava compared to, 105

Islands, volcanic thrown up, 102

Jack by the second horse, 157

Jade, Neolithic weapons of, 220

Jannsen, Prof., on sun prominences, 131

Judd, Mr., on volcano of Mull, 111

Jutes and Angles invading Britain, 224

Kant on nebular hypothesis, 152

Kent's Cavern, rough stone implement from, 213

Kepler, a lunar crater, 10; streaks around, 17

Kertag, or wild horse, 202

Kew, sun-storm registered at, 143

Kiang or Kulan, 200

Kirchhoff, Prof., on sunlight, 128

Kulan or Kiang, 200

Labrador felspar artificially made, 113

Langley, Prof., sun-spot drawn by, 141

Laplace, nebular hypothesis of, 152

Lava, aspect of flowing, 99; reservoirs of molten, 101; nature of, 107; artificially made, 113; two periods of crystallisation in, 115

Lava-stream, history of a, 100; section of a, 108; rapid cooling of surface, 108

Laver or sea-lettuce, structure of, 176

Leo, the constellation, 155

Leucotephrite artificially made, 113

Lens, natural, of the eye, 31; simple magnifying, 35

Levy, M., artificial lava made by, 112

Lichens, specimens of from life, 77; the life-history of, 80-84; sections of, 81; distribution of 82, 95; fructification of, 83; causes of success of, 94

Lick telescope, magnifying power of, 46

Light, lurid, on moon during eclipse, 24; sifted by spectroscope, 126

Light-granules on sun's face, 123; supposed explanation of, 141

Lime-tree, fungi on the, 64

Liss, bronze bracelet from, 223

Little Bear, pole-star and guards in the, 162

Lockyer, Mr., on sun-prominences, 131, 136

Lunar Apennines figured, 19

Lyræ [Greek: epsilon], a double-binary star, 166

Machairodus, tooth of, 213

Madeleine, La, carvings from cave of, 216

Magic glasses and how to use them, 27; what can be done by, 28, 53

Magician's chamber, 1; his pupils, 4; spells, 28; his dream of ancient days, 209

Magnetic connection of sun and earth, 142

Magnifying-glass, action of a, 35

Mammoth engraved on ivory, 216

Maps of constellations, 148, 156

_Marasmius oreastes_, fairy-ring mushroom, 55, 72

_Mazeppa_, quotation from Byron's, 201

Men of older stone age, 212; of Neolithic age, 218

_Mesohippus_, a toed horse, 205

Microliths in volcanic glass, 109, 110, 113, 115; formed in artificial lava, 113

Microscope, 3; action of the, 36-38

Mildews are fungi, 60

Milky Way, 149; Cassiopeia in the, 163

Minerals crystallising in lava, 108

Mines, increase of temperature in, 101

Miohippus, or lesser toed horse, 206

Mizar, a double-coloured star in the Great Bear, 158, 168

Monads, size and activity of, 183

Monks, ancient, of Dartmoor, 196

Monte Nuovo thrown up in 1538, 103

Moon, phases of the, 6; course in the heavens, 8; map of the, 10; craters of the, 10, 13, 17, 19, 20; face of full, 11; a worn-out planet, 21; no atmosphere in the, 21; diagram of eclipse of, 23; lurid light on during eclipse, 24

Moss-leaf magnified, 87

Moss, life-history of a, 84, 92; a stem of feathery, 85; protonema of a, 86; modes of new growth of a, 88; fructification of a, 89; urns of a, 89, 91

Mosses, different kinds of, 77; advantages and distribution of, 94

Moulds are fungi, 60; how they grow, 63

Mountains of the moon, 19; formation of, 21

_Mucor Mucedo_, figured, 61; growth of, 63

Mull, volcanic dykes in the island of, 111

Mushroom, early stages and spawn of, 67; mycelium of, 67; later stages of, 68; section of gills of, 69; spores of, 70; fairy or Scotch bonnet, 72

Mycelium of mould, 63; of mushroom, 67; of fairy rings, 72

Naples, volcanic eruption seen at, 96; Monte Nuovo thrown up near, 103

Nasmyth on bright lunar streaks, 16

Nebula of Orion, 149; spectrum of, 151; photographs of, 152; of Pleiades, 153; of Andromeda, 163-164

Needle, bone, from a cave, 212

Neolithic implements, 219; industries and habits, 218-220; burials, 221

Neptune, invisible to naked eye, 35

Neison, Mr., his drawing of Plato, 20

_Nostoc_, growing on stones, 79

Oak, fungi on the, 64

Observatory, the Magician's, 2; astronomical on Vesuvius, 97; cascade of lava behind the, 99

Obsidian, or volcanic glass, 109

Occultation of a star, 22, 25

Onager, or wild ass of Asia, 203

Optic nerve of eye, 34

Orion, constellation of, 147, 149; great nebula of, 149; photographs of Nebula of, 152; coloured double stars in, 168

Orionis [Greek: th], or Trapezium, 150

Ornaments of ancient Britons, 222

Orohippus, a toed horse, 205

_Oscillariæ_, growth of, 79

Palæolithic man, 212; relics, 213; life, 214, 216

Pampas, wild horses of the, 198

_Penicillium glaucum_, figured, 61; growth of, 63

Penumbra of an eclipse, 23; of sun-spots, 140

Perithecia of lichens, 84

Petavius, a lunar crater, 10

Photographic camera, 3, 47; attached to telescope, 121

Photographs of the moon, 13, 19; of galloping horse, 48; of the stars, 49, 161; of the sun, 121

Photosphere of the sun, 123

Philadelphia, electric shocks at during sun-storm, 143

Pixies of plant life, 59

Plains of the moon, 10; nature of the, 12

Plants, colourless, single-celled, 65; single-celled green, 78; two kinds of in lichens, 80; with flint skeletons, 185

Plato, a lunar crater, 10, 24; figured, 20

Pleiades, the, 153; nebulæ in, 153

_Pleurococcus_, a single-celled plant, 78

Plough, the, or Charles's Wain, 157

Pointers, in Charles's Wain, 161

Pole-star, the, 161; a yellow sun, 166

Pollux, a yellow sun, 166

_Polysiphonia_, a red seaweed, 175; fruit of, 177

_Polytrichum commune_, a hair moss, 88; its urns protected by a lid, 91

Pool, inhabitants of a seaside, 172-74

Precious stones, formation of, 116

Proctor, his star atlas, 146; on drifting of Charles's Wain, 159

Prominence-spectrum and sun-spectrum compared, 134

Prominences, red, of the sun, 125; seen in full daylight, 131-133; shape of, 135

_Protococcus nivalis_, 79

Protonema of a moss, 86

Przevalsky's wild horse, 202

Ptolemy, a lunar crater, 10

Puffballs, 67, 70; use of in nature, 73

Pupil of the eye, 30

Puzzuoli, eruption near, 1538, 103

Quaggas, herds of, 203

Rain-band in the solar spectrum, 130

Rain-shower during volcanic eruption, 107

Readings in the sky, 53, 127, 151, 168

Red snow, a single-celled plant, 79

Regulus, the star, 155, 166

Reindeer, carving on horn of, 216

Reservoirs of molten rock underground, 101

Resina, ascent of Vesuvius from, 98

Retina of the eye, 31; image of object on the, 33

Richmond, Virginia, infusorial earth of, 186

Rigel, a star in Orion, 149; a coloured double star, 168

Rings, growth of fairy, 73

Roberts, Mr. I., his photograph of Orion's nebula, 152; and of nebula of the Pleiades, 153; and of nebula of Andromeda, 164

Rosse, Lord, his telescope, 46; on Orion's nebula, 150; stars visible in his telescope, 160

Rue, De la, his photograph of the moon, 13

Rust on plants, 61

Sabrina island formed, 102

Saturn, distance of, 40

Saxons, invasion of the, 224

Schwabe, Herr, on sun-spots cycle, 137

Scoriæ of volcanoes, 108

"Scotch bonnet" mushroom, 72

Sea-mat, _see_ Flustra

"Seas" lunar, so-called, 10

Seaweeds, a group of, 175; fruits of, 177

Secchi, Father, on depth of a sun-spot, 139

Selwyn, Mr., photograph of sun by, 122

Senses alone tell us of outer world, 29

_Sertularia tenella_, structure of, 180; _cupressina_, 181

Sertularian and coralline, resemblance of, 179

Shakespeare on fairy rings, 57

Shipley, Mr., saw volcanic island formed, 103

Sight, far and near, 35

Silkworm destroyed by fungi, 66

Sirius, 146; a bluish white sun, 166; irregularities of caused by a companion, 169

Skeleton of the horse, 206

Skin diseases caused by fungi, 61, 66

Sky, light readings in the, 53, 127, 151, 168

Smut, a fungus, 61

Sodium lime in the spectrum, 128

Somma, part of ancient Vesuvius, 97, 104

Spawn of mushroom, 67

Spectra, plate of coloured, 127

Spectroscope, 3; Kirchhoff's, 51; gases revealed by the, 52; direct vision, 127; sifting light, 126; attached to telescope, 132

Spectrum of sunlight, 127, 130

Sphacelaria, a brown-green seaweed, 175; fruit of, 177

Sphagnum or bog moss, 77, 93; structure of leaves of, 93

Spindle-whorl from Neolithic caves, 219

Spore-cases of mosses, 89, 91, 93

Spores of moulds, 63; of mushroom, 70; of lichens, 83; of mosses, 91

Star, occultation of, by the moon, 24; a double-binary, 166; a dark, travelling round Sirius, 169

Star-cluster in Perseus, 162

Star-depths, 160, 171

Stars, light from the, 40, 42; visible in the country, 145; apparent motion of the, 146; maps of, 148, 156; of milky way, 149; binary, 154; real motion of, 159; drifting, 159; number of known and estimated, 161; colours of, 166; double coloured, 167; cause of colour in, 168; are they centres of solar systems? 170

Statur or wild horse, 202

Streaks, bright, on the moon, 14-17

Suffolk, bronze weapon from barrow in, 223

Sun, path of the moon round the, 8; one of the stars, 119; how to look at the, 119; face of, thrown on a screen, 120; photograph of the, 122; prominences, corona, and faculæ of, 122-125; mottling of face of, 123; total eclipse of, 124; zodiacal line round, 125; dark lines in spectrum of, 128; reversing layer of, 131; metals in the, 131; sudden outburst in the, 142; magnetic connection with the earth, 143; a yellow star, 166

Sun's rays touching moon during eclipse, 24

Sun-spots, cycle of, 137; proving sun's rotation, 138; nature of, 139; quiet and unquiet, 140; formation of, 142

Sundew on Dartmoor, 56

Tarpan, a wild horse, 199

Tartary, wild horses of, 199

Tavistock Abbey, monks of, 196

Telescope, clock-work, adjusting a, 2; an astronomical, 41; magnifying power of the, 43-46; giant, 46; terrestrial, 47; what can be seen in a small, 46; how the sun is photographed in the, 122; how the spectroscope is worked with the, 132

Teneriffe, peak of compared to lunar craters, 15

Tennant, Major, drawing of eclipsed sun by, 123

Temperature, underground, 101

_Thuricolla follicula_, a transparent infusorian, 182

Tiger, sabre-toothed, 211, 213

_Tilletia caria_ or bunt, 64

Toadstools, 67, 70; use of in nature, 73

Tools, of ancient stone period, 214, 215

Tooth of machairodus, 213

Torquay, the Magician's pool near, 172

Tors of Dartmoor, 197

Trapezium of Orion, 150

_Tremella mesenterica_ fungus, 71

Tripoli formed of diatoms, 35

Tundras, lichens and mosses of the, 82, 95

Tycho, a lunar crater, 10; description of, 13; bright streaks of, 14

_Ulva_, a green seaweed, 175; a section magnified, 176

Umbra of an eclipse, 23

Urns of mosses, 89, 91

_Ustilago carbo_, or smut, 64

Variable stars, 165

Vega, a bluish-white sun, 166; double-binary star near, 165

Veil of mushroom, 68

Vesuvian lavas imitated, 113

Vesuvius, eruption of 1868 described, 97, 99, 104; dormant, 103; eruption of in A.D. 79, 104

Volcanic craters of earth and moon compared, 16; eruptions in the moon, 21; glass under the microscope, 109, 110, 115

Volcano, diagram of an active, 105

Volcanoes, the cause of discussed, 101, 102; ancient, laid bare, 111

Washington, electric shocks at during sun-storm, 143

Winter in Palæolithic times, 215

Wood, winter growth in a, 76

"World without End," 115

Yeast, growth of, 65

Yorkshire, Roman coins in caves of, 225

Zebra, herds of, 203

Zodiacal light, 125

THE END

* * * * *

D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.

_THE FAIRYLAND OF SCIENCE._ By ARABELLA B. BUCKLEY. With 74 Illustrations. Cloth, gilt, $1.50.

"Deserves to take a permanent place in the literature of youth."--_London Times._

"So interesting that, having once opened the book, we do not know how to leave off reading."--_Saturday Review._

_LIFE AND HER CHILDREN: Glimpses of Animal Life from the Amoeba to the Insects._ By ARABELLA B. BUCKLEY. With over 100 Illustrations. Cloth, gilt, $1.50.

"The work forms a charming introduction to the study of zoölogy--the science of living things--which, we trust, will find its way into many hands."--_Nature._

_WINNERS IN LIFE'S RACE; or, the Great Backboned Family._ By ARABELLA B. BUCKLEY. With numerous Illustrations. Cloth, gilt, $1.50.

"We can conceive no better gift-book than this volume. Miss Buckley has spared no pains to incorporate in her book the latest results of scientific research. The illustrations in the book deserve the highest praise--they are numerous, accurate, and striking."--_Spectator._

_A SHORT HISTORY OF NATURAL SCIENCE; and of the Progress of Discovery from the Time of the Greeks to the Present Time._ By ARABELLA B. BUCKLEY. New edition, revised and rearranged. With 77 Illustrations. Cloth, $2.00.

"The work, though mainly intended for children and young persons, may be most advantageously read by many persons of riper age, and may serve to implant in their minds a fuller and clearer conception of 'the promises, the achievements, and claims of science.'"--_Journal of Science._

_A WORLD OF WONDERS; or, Marvels in Animate and Inanimate Nature._ A Book for Young Readers. With 322 Illustrations on Wood. Large 12mo. Cloth, illuminated, $2.00.

_CONTENTS._--Wonders of Marine Life; Curiosities of Vegetable Life; Curiosities of the Insect and Reptile World; Marvels of Bird and Beast Life; Phenomenal Forces of Nature.

_AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA: Twenty Months of Quest and Query._ By FRANK VINCENT, author of "The Land of the White Elephant," etc. With Maps, Plans, and 54 full-page Illustrations. 8vo, xxiv-473 pages. Ornamental cloth, $5.00.

No former traveler has made so comprehensive and thorough a tour of Spanish and Portuguese America as did Mr. Vincent. He visited every capital, chief city, and important seaport, made several expeditions into the interior of Brazil and the Argentine Republic, and ascended the Paraná, Paraguay, Amazon, Orinoco, and Magdalena Rivers; he visited the crater of Pichinchas, 16,000 feet above the sea-level; he explored falls in the center of the continent, which, though meriting the title of "Niagara of South America," are all but unknown to the outside world; he spent months in the picturesque capital of Rio Janeiro; he visited the coffee districts, studied the slaves, descended the gold-mines, viewed the greatest rapids of the globe, entered the isolated Guianas, and so on.

_BRAZIL: Its Condition and Prospects._ By C. C. ANDREWS, ex-Consul-General to Brazil. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

"I hope I may be able to present some facts in respect to the present situation of Brazil which will be both instructive and entertaining to general readers. My means of acquaintance with that empire are principally derived from a residence of three years at Rio de Janeiro, its capital, while employed in the service of the United States Government, during which period I made a few journeys into the interior."--_From the Preface._

_FIVE THOUSAND MILES IN A SLEDGE: A Mid-Winter Journey across Siberia._ By LIONEL F. GOWING. With Map and 30 Illustrations in Text. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

"The book is most certainly one to be read, and will be welcomed as an addition to the scant literature on a singularly interesting country."--_Courier._

_CHINA: Travels and Investigations in the "Middle Kingdom."_ A Study of its Civilization and Possibilities. With a Glance at Japan. By JAMES HARRISON WILSON, late Major-General United States Volunteers and Brevet Major-General United States Army. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75.

"The book presents China and Japan in all these aspects; the manners and customs of the people; the institutions, tendencies, and social ideas; the government and leading men."--_Boston Traveller._

_THE GARDEN'S STORY; or, Pleasures and Trials of an Amateur Gardener._ By GEORGE H. ELLWANGER. With Head and Tail Pieces by Rhead. 12mo. Cloth extra, $1.50.

"Mr. Ellwanger's instinct rarely errs in matters of taste. He writes out of the fullness of experimental knowledge, but his knowledge differs from that of many a trained cultivator in that his skill in garden practice is guided by a refined æsthetic sensibility, and his appreciation of what is beautiful in nature is healthy, hearty, and catholic. His record of the garden year, as we have said, begins with the earliest violet, and it follows the season through until the witch-hazel is blossoming on the border of the wintry woods.... This little book can not fail to give pleasure to all who take a genuine interest in rural life. They will sympathize with most of the author's robust and positive judgments, and with his strong aversions as well as his tender attachments."--_The Tribune_, New York.

_THE FOLK-LORE OF PLANTS._ By T. F. THISELTON DYER, M.A. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

"The Folk-Lore of Plants" traces the superstitions and fancies connected with plants in fairy-lore, in witchcraft and demonology, in religion, in charms, in medicine, in plant language, etc. The author is an eminent English botanist, and superintendent of the gardens at Kew.

"A handsome and deeply interesting volume.... In all respects the book is excellent. Its arrangement is simple and intelligible, its style bright and alluring; authorities are cited at the foot of the page, and a full index is appended.... To all who seek an introduction to one of the most attractive branches of folk-lore, this delightful volume may be warmly commended."--_Notes and Queries._

_FLOWERS AND THEIR PEDIGREES._ By GRANT ALLEN, author of "Vignettes of Nature," etc. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

No writer treats scientific subjects with so much ease and charm of style as Mr. Grant Allen. His sketches in the magazines have well been called fascinating, and the present volume, being a collection of various papers, will fully sustain his reputation as an eminently entertaining and suggestive writer.

"'Flowers and their Pedigrees,' by Grant Allen, with many illustrations, is not merely a description of British wild flowers, but a discussion of why they are, what they are, and how they come to be so; in other words, a scientific study of the migration and transformation of plants, illustrated by the daisy, the strawberry, the cleavers, wheat, the mountain tulip, the cuckoo-pint, and a few others. The study is a delightful one, and the book is fascinating to any one who has either love for flowers or curiosity about them."--_Hartford Courant._

_THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION._ A Hand-book based upon M. Gustave Ducoudray's "Histoire Sommaire de la Civilisation." Edited by the Rev. J. VERSCHOYLE, M.A. With numerous Illustrations. Large 12mo. Cloth, $1.75.

"With M. Ducoudray's work as a basis, many additions having been made, derived from special writers, Mr. Verschoyle has produced an excellent work, which gives a comprehensive view of early civilization.... As to the world of the past, the volume under notice treats of Egypt, Assyria, the Far East, of Greece and Rome in the most comprehensive manner. It is not the arts alone which are fully illustrated, but the literature, laws, manners, and customs, the beliefs of all these countries are contrasted. If the book gave alone the history of the monuments of the past it would be valuable, but it is its all-around character which renders it so useful. A great many volumes have been produced treating of a past civilization, but we have seen none which in the same space gives such varied information."--_The New York Times._

_GREAT LEADERS: Historic Portraits from the Great Historians._ Selected, with Notes and Brief Biographical Sketches, by G. T. FERRIS. With sixteen engraved Portraits. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75.

The Historic Portraits of this work are eighty in number, drawn from the writings of PLUTARCH, GROTE, GIBBON, CURTIUS, MOMMSEN, FROUDE, HUME, MACAULAY, LECKY, GREEN, THIERS, TAINE, PRESCOTT, MOTLEY, and other historians. The subjects extend from Themistocles to Wellington.

"Every one perusing the pages of the historians must have been impressed with the graphic and singularly penetrative character of many of the sketches of the distinguished persons whose doings form the staple of history. These pen-portraits often stand out from the narrative with luminous and vivid effect, the writers seeming to have concentrated upon them all their powers of penetration and all their skill in graphic delineation. Few things in literature are marked by analysis so close, discernment so keen, or effects so brilliant and dramatic."--_From the Preface._

_LIFE OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS_, described from Ancient Monuments. By E. GUHL and W. KONER. Translated from the third German edition by F. HUEFFER. With 543 Illustrations. 8vo. Cloth, $2.50.

"The result of careful and unwearied research in every nook and cranny of ancient learning. Nowhere else can the student find so many facts in illustration of Greek and Roman methods and manners."--_Dr. C. K. Adams's Manual of Historical Literature._

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street.