trating its subterranean recesses. Stalactites of immense size and fantastic forms adorn the interior, though they are less brilliant and beautiful than those of some other caverns. 4. Bats and rats are abundant in this cave, and several species of insects are found in its dark recesses. In its waters have been found two species of fish, in color nearly white, and unknown elsewhere. One of these is the eyeless fish; and the other, though with the appearance of eyes, is entirely blind, showing that where eyes are of no use, nature finally dispenses with them-a proceeding in perfect harmony with the physiological law that disuse of an organ gradually leads to its destruction. 5. A volume might be written descriptive of the wonders of this "Mammoth Cave"-of its mysterious chambers, its pillared domes, its echoing halls, its fathomless gulfs, and its dark waters; but in the brief space at our command we can not do better than submit the following from the pen of an American poet. 1 STA-LAG'-MĪTE, STA-LAC ́-TĪTE, layers or deposits of carbonate of lime, the former ris ing from the floor, the latter hanging from the roof. LESSON X.-THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 1. ALL day, as day is reckoned on the earth, 2. All day my steps And pure transparency-high pillar'd domes, With stars and flowers all fretted' like the halls Of Oriental monarchs-rivers, dark And drear, and voiceless as oblivion's stream That flows through Death's dim vale of silence-gulfs, Plunges, until its far-off echoes come Fainter and fainter, like the dying roll 3. 5. 6. In the volcano's depths-these, these have left God's hand, At the creation, hollowed out this vast Like shadows, came and passed, and not a sound The great mastodon,1 How oft we gaze Beautiful Are all the thousand snow-white gems that lie In these mysterious chambers, gleaming out R Amid the melancholy gloom; and wild Of a chained giant in his agony.-GEORGE D. PRENTICE. 1 FRET'-TED, formed into raised work. 2 STYG'-I-AN, dark; pertaining to the river Styx, a fabulous river of the lower world, which was to be crossed in passing to the regions of the dead. 3 ЄOR'-BI-DORS, gallery-like passages. 14 MAS'-TO-DON, an animal much like the elephant, now extinct. See p. 469. BE-LEA'-GUERED, studded with; surrounded by, as by an army that beleaguers a city. CHER -O-BIM, the plural of cherub. Here meaning the stars. See Genesis, iii., 24. LESSON XI.—AVALANCHES AND GLACIERS. 1. VAST masses of snow, which accumulate on the precipitous sides of mountains, being frequently disturbed from their positions, roll or slide down to lower levels. Hark! the rushing snow! The sun-awakened avalanche! whose mass, As thought by thought is piléd, till some great truth Is loosened, and the nations echo round, Shaken to their roots, as do the mountains now.—SHELLEY. 2. Immense masses of earth and rock, also, loosened by the rains or by the thawing of the frosts, are precipitated down the mountain steeps, sometimes sweeping before them whole forests, and overwhelming villages in the valleys beneath. Such rolling or sliding masses, whether of snow, or of earth and rocks, are called avalanches. Such, also, are mountain-slides, which are a constant terror to the inhabitants of the narrow Alpine valleys. 3. The name of glaciers is given to those immense masses of ice which accumulate on the peaks and slopes, but in the greatest quantities in the upper valleys of lofty mountains. Although those parts of the mountains which are above the line of congelation are covered with perpetual snow, yet this snow, being partially thawed during the summer months, is, on the approach of winter, converted into ice, thus constituting what is called a glacier. Yet the glacier ice does not resemble that found in ponds and rivers; not being formed in layers, but consisting of small grains or crystals of congealed snow, it has neither the compactness, the solidity, nor the transparency of river ice. 4. The glacier ice, descending by a thousand channels along the slopes of the mountains into the valleys, accumulates there in vast beds or fields, presenting, where the descent of the valley is gradual, a very level surface, and with few crevices; but where there is a rapid or rugged declivity the surface is rent with numerous, and often deep and dangerous chasms, and covered with elevations of icy peaks which are sometimes one or two hundred feet high. These glaciers not unfrequently work their way gradually down into the lower valleys. 5. This is particularly the case in the valley of Chamouni, where the singular spectacle is presented of huge pyramids of ice of a thousand fantastic forms in juxtaposition with the most luxuriant pastures, or towering in majestic grandeur in the midst of verdant forests. "The snow-white masses," says Lyell, "are often relieved by a dark background of pines, as in the valley of Chamouni; and they are not only surrounded with abundance of the wild rhododendron in full bloom, but they encroach still lower into the region of cultivation, and trespass on fields where the tobacco-plant is flourishing by the side of the peasant's hut." An Alpine Glacier. 6. The lower extremities of these glaciers are sometimes excavated by the melting of the ice into the form of immense grottoes, adorned with the finest stalactic crystallizations, whose brilliant azure tints are reflected on the foaming streams and torrents which generally issue from these cayerns, forming altogether so beautiful and imposing a picture as to defy the most faithful pencil to portray it accurately. These scenes are beautifully described by Coleridge in his HYMN BEFORE SUNRISE IN THE VALLEY OF CHAMOUNI. a. "Ye ice falls'! ye that from the mountain's brow Adown enormous ravines slope amain 7. Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven b. Answer! and let the ice plains echo God! God! sing, ye meadow streams', with gladsome voice'! 8. It is known that the great glacier beds of Switzerland move gradually and silently down the valleys at the rate of about twenty-five feet annually-a phenomenon which has long been an interesting subject of scientific investigation. "Philosophers and naturalists," says Brande, "have attributed the downward movement of a glacier to various causes; but by far the most prevalent opinion respecting it is that of Saussure, who maintained it was nothing more than a slipping upon itself, occasioned by its own weight. On the other hand, M. Agassiz ascribes this motion to the expansion of the ice, resulting from the congelation of the water which has filtered into it and penetrated its cavities; while M. R. Mallet is inclined to attribute it to the hydrostatic pressure of the water which flows at the bottom, and makes rents in the mass." 9. The inhabitants of the plains, reposing in almost uninterrupted security from that "war of the elements" which nature ever wages in more elevated regions, seldom realize the many dangers from avalanches of snow, and ice, and rocks, and mountain torrents, to which the "dwellers of the hills" are almost constantly exposed. To their reflections we commend the following picture, which has had many a counterpart in the Scottish Highlands, in the upper Swiss valleys, and in all mountain regions where man plants his dwelling. It is but a few years since that an entire family of nine per a, a. The direct address, when exclamatory, takes the falling inflection. |