Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

HISTORY OF APHIDES, ETC.

201

established his position that even metamorphoses so unexpected as these, are not at variance with the harmony of Nature, but are really instances and further manifestations of that harmony. His object is to shew that, under some modification or other, they exist in all classes of animals below the vertebrates. The well-known circumstances in the history of Aphides, and the existence of numerous sexes of bees, wasps and ants, each having its assigned office, have been skilfully compared with the facts we have just been discussing, and an unexpected connexion established among them. It is thus one department of nature throws light upon another, proving that to understand any part it is necessary to be acquainted with more. And this consideration ought to cure us of making rash assertions as to what is or is not possible in a natural phenomenon. When Chamisso first announced his discovery of the propagation of Salpa, he was laughed at as a dreamer. And now, not only is the fact, as described by Chamisso, established in its minutest details, but it is shewn to be by no means isolated, and it receives support and confirmation from the most unexpected quarters.

Now is it pleasant in the summer-eve,
When a broad shore retiring waters leave,
Awhile to wait upon the firm fair sand,
When all is calm at sea, all still at land;
And there the ocean's produce to explore,
As floating by, or rolling on the shore ;
Those living jellies which the flesh inflame,
Fierce as a nettle, and from that their name;
Some in huge masses, some that you may bring
In the small compass of a lady's ring;

202 "TREASURES THE VULGAR IN THEIR SCORN NEGLECT."

Figured by Hand Divine—there's not a gem
Wrought by man's art to be compared to them;
Soft, brilliant, tender, through the wave they glow,
And make the moonbeam brighter where they flow.
Involved in sea-wrack, here you find a race,
Which science doubting, knows not where to place;
On shell or stone is dropped the embryo seed,
And quickly vegetates a vital breed.

While thus with pleasing wonder you inspect
Treasures, the vulgar in their scorn reject,
See as they float along th' entangled weeds
Slowly approach, upborne on bladdery beads;
Wait till they land, and you shall then behold
The fiery sparks those tangled fronds infold,
Myriads of living points; the unaided eye
Can but the fire and not the form descry.
And now your view upon the ocean turn,
And there the splendour of the waves discern ;
Cast but a stone, or strike them with an oar,
And you shall flames within the deep explore;
Or scoop the stream phosphoric as you stand,
And the cold flames shall flash along your hand;
When, lost in wonder, you shall walk and gaze
On weeds that sparkle, and on waves that blaze.

CRABBE.

[graphic][merged small]

SEA-SIDE PLANTS, BIRDS, DRIFTWOOD, ETC.

COAST Scenery is so varied in its character that it is impossible to describe it, without localizing; and our plan prevents us from indicating any place. Nothing can be more dissimilar than the eastern and western shores of the British Islands,-the one flat, sandy, shingly, with few harbours, and a slightly indented coastline; the other rock-bound, with bluff headlands, abounding in harbours, and deep bays which penetrate far into the land, while all exposed places are lashed by the heavy swells of the Atlantic. A person who has seen the sea

[blocks in formation]

only on the east coast of England, can form but a feeble

conception of that

glorious mirror, where the Almighty form

Glasses itself in tempests; in all time

Calm or convulsed-in breeze, or gale, or storm,
Seeing the pole, or in the torrid clime,

Dark heaving ;—boundless, endless, and sublime.

The general colour of the water, and the play of light on the surface, are totally different on our eastern and western coasts. The greater depth, near land, on a rock-bound shore, and the different colour of the bottom, cause the waters on the west coast to have a deeper blue; and the absence of sand and mud give them greater clearness, so that it is not uncommon, in gliding along in a boat, to see below us sea-weeds waving and fishes swimming at a depth of many fathoms. But it is not merely in colour that the western ocean surpasses the sea on our eastern coasts. The broad Atlantic, free from impediment for a thousand leagues, breasts high against the rocks, and even in summer there is often a swell such as is seen only in the storms of winter elsewhere. These grand swells, clear as emerald, moving in with a slow and stately step, break in thunder on the rocks, throwing up glorious showers of spray and this amid the sunshine of a summer's noon, when there is no wind, or only sufficient breeze from the land to throw back the top of the wave in a feathery crest, while the great mass of water, with arching neck, breaks in an opposite direction. Not that such occurs on every summer day: there are times when the ocean takes its rest. But these great

MARITIME VEGETATION.

205

breakers are the relics of some storm which has roused his strength a thousand miles away, and come to our peaceful coasts, like the rejoicings after victory, to tell of his power and majesty.

The aspect of the coast is thus indefinitely varied. There are, however, characters, which a Naturalist will at once detect, common to most seashores. The vegetation, in general, has not the luxuriance which an inland situation affords. The trees are of smaller size, of slower growth, and apt to be bent by the prevalent winds, or their tops shorn by the salt air. On many coasts, trees will not grow beyond the shelter of walls or rocks, and foresttrees dwindle into stunted shrubs. Then there are numerous plants which are peculiar to the seashore, and which are never found far from the coast.

I have already mentioned

HORNED POPPY.

the sea-reed (Ammophila arundinacea) which flourishes among drifting sands, and binds together the mass with

« ZurückWeiter »