Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) by Various

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Young Folks' Library

Selections from the Choicest Literature of All
Lands; Folk-Lore, Fairy Tales, Fables, Legends,
Natural History, Wonders of Earth, Sea
and Sky, Animal Stories, Sea Tales,
Brave Deeds, Explorations, Stories
of School and College Life,
Biography, History, Patriotic
Eloquence, Poetry

Third Edition

Revised in Conference by

Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Editor-in-Chief,
President William Jewett Tucker,
Hamilton Wright Mabie,
Henry Van Dyke,
Nathan Haskell Dole

Twenty Volumes Richly Illustrated

Boston
Hall and Locke Company
Publishers
Stanhope Press
F.H. Gilson Company
Boston, U.S.A.

1902

EDITORIAL BOARD

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH, Editor-in-chief,
Author, poet, former editor _Atlantic Monthly,_ Boston, Mass.

The HON. JOHN D. LONG,
Secretary of the United States Navy, Boston.

HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE, LL.D.,
Author, literarian, associate editor _The Outlook_, New York.

ERNEST THOMPSON SETON,
Artist, author, New York.

JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE,
Author, poet, and editor, Arlington, Mass.

The REVEREND CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY,
Archdeacon, author, Philadelphia.

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS,
Humorous writer, Atlanta, Ga.

MARY HARTWELL CATHERWOOD,
Historical novelist, Chicago.

LAURA E. RICHARDS,
Author, Gardiner, Me.

ROSWELL FIELD,
Author, editor _The Evening Post>_, Chicago.

TUDOR JENKS,
Author, associate editor _Saint Nicholas_, New York.

GEORGE A. HENTY,
Traveller, author, London, England.

KIRK MUNROE,
Writer of stories for boys, Cocoanut Grove, Fla.

EDITH M. THOMAS,
Poet, West New Brighton, N.Y.

CAROLINE TICKNOR,
Author, editor, Boston.

NATHAN HASKELL DOLE,
Author, translator, literary editor _Current History_, Boston.

WILLIAM RAINEY HARPER, D.D., LL.D.,
President Chicago University.

DAVID STARR JORDAN, M.D., LL.D.,
President Leland Stanford Junior University, naturalist, writer,
Stanford University, Cal.

CHARLES ELIOT NORTON, A.M., LL.D., etc.,
Scholar, author, Emeritus Professor of Art at Harvard University.

HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D., LL.D.,
Clergyman, author, Professor Princeton University.

The REVEREND THOMAS J. SHAHAN,
Dean of the Faculty of Divinity, Professor of Early Ecclesiastical
History, Catholic University, Washington, D.C.

WILLIAM P. TRENT,
Author, editor, Professor of English Literature, Columbia University,
New York City.

EDWARD SINGLETON HOLDEN, A.M., LL.D.,
Ex-president University of California, astronomer, author,
U.S. Military Academy, West Point.

EDWIN ERLE SPARKS,
Professor of American History, Chicago University.

The VERY REV. GEORGE M. GRANT, D.D., LL.D.,
Educator, author, vice-principal Queen's College, Kingston, Ont.

BARONESS VON BULOW,
Educator, author, Dresden, Germany.

ABBIE FARWELL BROWN,
Author, Boston.

CHARLES WELSH, Managing Editor,
Author, lecturer, editor, Winthrop Highlands, Mass.

LIST OF VOLUMES

VOLUME I.

THE STORY TELLER
Edited by CHARLES ELIOT NORTON

VOLUME II.

THE MERRY MAKER
Edited by JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS

VOLUME III.

FAMOUS FAIRY TALES
Edited by ROSWELL FIELD

VOLUME IV.

TALES OF FANTASY
Edited by TUDOR JENKS

VOLUME V.
MYTHS AND LEGENDS
Edited by THOMAS J. SHAHAN

VOLUME VI.

THE ANIMAL STORY BOOK
Edited by ERNEST THOMPSON SETON

VOLUME VII.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS
Edited by KIRK MUNROE and
MARY HARTWELL CATHERWOOD

VOLUME VIII.

BOOK OF ADVENTURE
Edited by NATHAN HASKELL DOLE

VOLUME IX.

FAMOUS EXPLORERS
Edited by EDWIN ERLE SPARKS

VOLUME X.

BRAVE DEEDS
Edited by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE

VOLUME XI.

WONDERS OF EARTH, SEA AND SKY
Edited by EDWARD SINGLETON HOLDEN

VOLUME XII.

FAMOUS TRAVELS
Edited by GEORGE A. HENTY

VOLUME XIII.

SEA STORIES
Edited by CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY

VOLUME XIV.

A BOOK OF NATURAL HISTORY
Edited by DAVID STARR JORDAN

VOLUME XV.

HISTORIC SCENES IN FICTION
Edited by HENRY VAN DYKE

VOLUME XVI.

FAMOUS BATTLES BY LAND AND SEA
Edited by JOHN D. LONG

VOLUME XVII.

MEN WHO HAVE RISEN
Edited by HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE.

VOLUME XVIII.

BOOK OF PATRIOTISM
Edited by

VOLUME XIX.

LEADERS OF MEN, OR HISTORY TOLD IN BIOGRAPHY
Edited by WILLIAM RAINEY HARPER

VOLUME XX.

FAMOUS POEMS
Selected by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH,
with Poetical Foreword by EDITH M. THOMAS.

[Illustration: A GEYSER]

Volume XI: WONDERS OF EARTH, SEA AND SKY

Edited by EDWARD SINGLETON HOLDEN

Boston
Hall and Locke Company Publishers

1902

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi

THE MARVELS OF NATURE xiii
BY PROFESSOR E.S. HOLDEN.

WHAT THE EARTH'S CRUST IS MADE OF 1
BY AGNES GIBERNE.

AMERICA THE OLD WORLD 45
BY LOUIS AGASSIZ.

SOME RECORDS OF THE ROCKS 77
BY N.S. SHALER.

THE PITCH LAKE IN THE WEST INDIES 97
BY CHARLES KINGSLEY.

A STALAGMITE CAVE 111
BY SIR C. WYVILLE THOMSON.

THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA 119
BY ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE.

WHAT IS EVOLUTION? 127
BY PROFESSOR EDWARD S. HOLDEN.

HOW THE SOIL IS MADE 135
BY CHARLES DARWIN.

ZOOeLOGICAL MYTHS 143
BY ANDREW WILSON.

ON A PIECE OF CHALK 171
BY T.H. HUXLEY.

A BIT OF SPONGE 205
BY A. WILSON.

THE GREATEST SEA-WAVE EVER KNOWN 211
BY R.A. PROCTOR.

THE PHOSPHORESCENT SEA 228
BY W.S. DALLAS.

COMETS 251
BY CAMILLE FLAMMARION.

THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1883 261
BY E.S. HOLDEN.

HALOS--PARHELIA--THE SPECTRE OF
THE BROCKEN, ETC. 268
BY CAMILLE FLAMMARION.

THE PLANET VENUS 282
BY AGNES M. CLERKE.

THE STARS 296
BY SIR R.S. BALL.

RAIN AND SNOW 342
BY JOHN TYNDALL.

THE ORGANIC WORLD 357
BY ST. GEORGE MIVART.

INHABITANTS OF MY POOL 366
BY ARABELLA B. BUCKLEY.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 387

SUGGESTIONS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY
READING. 389

NOTE.

The publishers' acknowledgments are due to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin &
Co., for permission to use "America and the Old World," by L. Agassiz;
to Messrs. D.C. Heath & Co. for permission to use "Some Records of the
Rocks," by Professor N.S. Shaler; and to Professor E.S. Holden for
permission to use "What is Evolution?" and "An Astronomer's Voyage to
Fairy Land."

LIST OF COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS

A GEYSER. _Frontispiece, See Page_ 47

VIEW IN A CANON _Face Page_ 12

A VOLCANO 48

A STALAGMITE CAVE 116

WHERE SPONGES GROW 208

A COMET 254

THE SPECTRE OF THE BROCKEN 272

AND ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE
TEXT.

THE MARVELS OF NATURE

BY EDWARD S. HOLDEN, M.A., Sc.D. LL.D.

The Earth, the Sea, the Sky, and their wonders--these are the themes
of this volume. The volume is so small, and the theme so vast! Men
have lived on the earth for hundreds of the sands of years; and its
wonders have increased, not diminished, with their experience.

To our barbarous ancestors of centuries ago, all was mystery--the
thunder, the rainbow, the growing corn, the ocean, the stars.
Gradually and by slow steps they learned to house themselves in trees,
in caves, in huts, in houses; to find a sure supply of food; to
provide a stock of serviceable clothing. The arts of life were born;
tools were invented; the priceless boon of fire was received; tribes
and clans united for defence; some measure of security and comfort was
attained.

With security and comfort came leisure; and the mind of early Man
began curiously to inquire the meaning of the mysteries with which he
was surrounded. That curious inquiry was the birth of Science. Art was
born when some far-away ancestor, in an idle hour, scratched on a
bone the drawing of two of his reindeer fighting, or carved on the
walls of his cave the image of the mammoth that he had but lately
slain with his spear and arrows.

In a mind that is completely ignorant there is no wonder. Wonder is
the child of knowledge--of partial and imperfect knowledge, to be
sure, but still, of knowledge. The very first step in Science is to
make an inventory of external Nature (and by and by of the faculties
of the mind that thinks). The second step is to catalogue similar
appearances together. It is a much higher flight to seek the causes of
likenesses thus discovered.

A few of the chapters of this volume are items in a mere catalogue of
wonders, and deserve their place by accurate and eloquent description.
Most of them, however, represent higher stages of insight. In the
latter, Nature is viewed not only with the eye of the observer, but
also with the mind's eye, curious to discover the reasons for things
seen. The most penetrating inward inquiry accompanies the acutest
external observation in such chapters as those of Darwin and Huxley,
here reprinted.

Now, the point not to be overlooked is this: to Darwin and Huxley, as
to their remote and uncultured ancestors, the World--the Earth, the
Sea, the Sky--is full of wonders and of mysteries, but the wonders are
of a higher order. The problems of the thunder and of the rainbow as
they presented themselves to the men of a thousand generations ago,
have been fully solved: but the questions; what is the veritable
nature of electricity, exactly how does it differ from light, are
still unanswered. And what are simple problems like these to the
questions: what is love; why do we feel a sympathy with this person,
an antipathy for that; and others of the sort? Science has made almost
infinite advances since pre-historic man first felt the feeble current
of intellectual curiosity amid his awe of the storm; it has still to
grow almost infinitely before anything like a complete explanation
even of external Nature is achieved.

Suppose that, at some future day, all physical and mechanical laws
should be found to be direct consequences of a single majestic law,
just as all the motions of the planets are (but--are they?) the direct
results of the single law of gravitation. Gravitation will, probably,
soon be explained in terms of some remoter cause, but the reason of
that single and ultimate law of the universe which we have imagined
would still remain unknown. Human knowledge will always have limits,
and beyond those limits there will always be room for mystery and
wonder. A complete and exhaustive explanation of the world is
inconceivable, so long as human powers and capacities remain at all as
they now are.

It is important to emphasize such truths, especially in a book
addressed to the young. When a lad hears for the first time that an
astronomer, by a simple pointing of his spectroscope, can determine
with what velocity a star is approaching the earth, or receding from
it, or when he hears that the very shape of the revolving masses of
certain stars can be calculated from simple measures of the sort, he
is apt to conclude that Science, which has made such astounding
advances since the days of Galileo and Newton, must eventually reach a
complete explanation of the entire universe. The conclusion is not
unnatural, but it is not correct. There are limits beyond which
Science, in this sense, cannot go. Its scope is limited. Beyond its
limits there are problems that it cannot solve, mysteries that it
cannot explain.

At the present moment, for example, the nature of Force is unknown. A
weight released from the hand drops to the earth. Exactly what is the
nature of the force with which the earth attracts it? We do not know,
but it so happens that it is more than likely that an explanation will
be reached in our own day. Gravity will be explained in terms of some
more general forces. The mystery will be pushed back another step, and
yet another and another. But the progress is not indefinite. If all
the mechanical actions of the entire universe were to be formulated as
the results of a single law or cause, the cause of that cause would be
still to seek, as has been said.

We have every right to exult in the amazing achievements of Science;
but we have not understood them until we realize that the universe of
Science has strict limits, within which all its conquests must
necessarily be confined. Humility, and not pride, is the final lesson
of scientific work and study.

* * * * *

The choice of the selections printed in this volume has been
necessarily limited by many hampering conditions, that of mere space
being one of the most harassing. Each of the chapters might readily be
expanded into a volume. Volumes might be added on topics almost
untouched here. It has been necessary to pass over almost without
notice matters of surpassing interest and importance: Electricity and
its wonderful and new applications; the new Biology, with its views
upon such fundamental questions as the origins of life and death;
modern Astronomy, with its far-reaching pronouncements upon the fate
of universes. All these can only be touched lightly, if at all. It is
the chief purpose of this volume to point the way towards the most
modern and the greatest conclusions of Science, and to lay foundations
upon which the reading of a life-time can be laid.

[Illustration: Signature: Edward S. Holden]

UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY, WEST POINT, _January 1, 1902_.

WONDERS OF EARTH, SEA, AND SKY

WHAT THE EARTH'S CRUST IS MADE OF

(FROM THE WORLD'S FOUNDATIONS.)

BY AGNES GIBERNE.

"Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God."

[Illustration]

What is the earth made of--this round earth upon which we human beings
live and move?

A question more easily asked than answered, as regards a very large
portion of it. For the earth is a huge ball nearly eight thousand
miles in diameter, and we who dwell on the outside have no means of
getting down more than a very little way below the surface. So it is
quite impossible for us to speak positively as to the inside of the
earth, and what it is made of. Some people believe the earth's inside
to be hard and solid, while others believe it to be one enormous lake
or furnace of fiery melted rock. But nobody really knows.

This outside crust has been reckoned to be of many different
thicknesses. One man will say it is ten miles thick, and another will
rate it at four hundred miles. So far as regards man's knowledge of
it, gained from mining, from boring, from examination of rocks, and
from reasoning out all that may be learned from these observations, we
shall allow an ample margin if we count the field of geology to extend
some twenty miles downwards from the highest mountain-tops. Beyond
this we find ourselves in a land of darkness and conjecture.

Twenty miles is only one four-hundredth part of the earth's
diameter--a mere thin shell over a massive globe. If the earth were
brought down in size to an ordinary large school globe, a piece of
rough brown paper covering it might well represent the thickness of
this earth-crust, with which the science of geology has to do. And the
whole of the globe, this earth of ours, is but one tiny planet in the
great Solar System. And the centre of that Solar System, the blazing
sun, though equal in size to more than a million earths, is yet
himself but one star amid millions of twinkling stars, scattered
broadcast through the universe. So it would seem at first sight that
the field of geology is a small field compared with that of
astronomy....

With regard to the great bulk of the globe little can be said. Very
probably it is formed through and through of the same materials as the
crust. This we do not know. Neither can we tell, even if it be so
formed, whether the said materials are solid and cold like the
outside crust, or whether they are liquid with heat. The belief has
been long and widely held that the whole inside of the earth is one
vast lake or furnace of melted fiery-hot material, with only a thin
cooled crust covering it. Some in the present day are inclined to
question this, and hold rather that the earth is solid and cold
throughout, though with large lakes of liquid fire here and there,
under or in her crust, from which our volcanoes are fed....

The materials of which the crust is made are many and various; yet,
generally speaking, they may all be classed under one simple word, and
that word is--_Rock_.

It must be understood that, when we talk of rock in this geological
sense, we do not only mean hard and solid stone, as in common
conversation. Rock may be changed by heat into a liquid or "molten"
state, as ice is changed by heat to water. Liquid rock may be changed
by yet greater heat to vapor, as water is changed to steam, only we
have in a common way no such heat at command as would be needed to
effect this. Rock may be hard or soft. Rock maybe chalky, clayey, or
sandy. Rock may be so close-grained that strong force is needed to
break it; or it may be so porous--so full of tiny holes--that water
will drain through it; or it may be crushed and crumbled into loose
grains, among which you can pass your fingers.

The cliffs above our beaches are rock; the sand upon our seashore is
rock; the clay used in brick-making is rock; the limestone of the
quarry is rock; the marble of which our mantel-pieces are made is
rock. The soft sandstone of South Devon, and the hard granite of the
north of Scotland, are alike rock. The pebbles in the road are rock;
the very mould in our gardens is largely composed of crumbled rock. So
the word in its geological sense is a word of wide meaning.

Now the business of the geologist is to read the history of the past
in these rocks of which the earth's crust is made. This may seem a
singular thing to do, and I can assure you it is not an easy task.

For, to begin with, the history itself is written in a strange
language, a language which man is only just beginning to spell out and
understand. And this is only half the difficulty with which we have to
struggle.

If a large and learned book were put before you and you were set to
read it through, you would perhaps, have no insurmountable difficulty,
with patience and perseverance, in mastering its meaning.

But how if the book were first chopped up into pieces, if part of it
were flung away out of reach, if part of it were crushed into a pulp,
if the numbering of the pages were in many places lost, if the whole
were mixed up in confusion, and if _then_ you were desired to sort,
and arrange, and study the volume?

Picture to yourself what sort of a task this would be, and you will
have some idea of the labors of the patient geologist.

Rocks may be divided into several kinds or classes. For the present
moment it will be enough to consider the two grand divisions--_Stratified
rocks_ and _Unstratified rocks_.

Unstratified rocks are those which were once, at a time more or less
distant, in a melted state from intense heat, and which have since
cooled into a half _crystallized_ state; much the same as water, when
growing colder, cools and crystallizes into ice. Strictly speaking,
ice is rock, just as much as granite and sandstone are rock. Water
itself is of the nature of rock, only as we commonly know it in the
liquid state we do not commonly call it so.

[Illustration: UNSTRATIFIED ROCK.--A VOLCANIC BLOCK.]

"Crystallization" means those particular forms or shapes in which the
particles of a liquid arrange themselves, as that liquid hardens into
a solid--in other words, as it freezes. Granite, iron, marble, are
frozen substances, just as truly as ice is a frozen substance; for
with greater heat they would all become liquid like water. When a
liquid freezes, there are always crystals formed, though these are not
always visible without the help of a microscope. Also the crystals are
of different shapes with different substances.

If you examine the surface of a puddle or pond, when a thin covering
of ice is beginning to form, you will be able to see plainly the
delicate sharp needle-like forms of the ice crystals. Break a piece of
ice, and you will find that it will not easily break just in any way
that you may choose, but it will only split along the lines of these
needle-like crystals. This particular mode of splitting in a
crystallized rock is called the _cleavage_ of that rock.

Crystallization may take place either slowly or rapidly, and either
in the open air or far below ground. The lava from a volcano is an
example of rock which has crystallized rapidly in the open air; and
granite is an example of rock which has crystallized slowly
underground beneath great pressure.

Stratified rocks, on the contrary, which make up a very large part of
the earth's crust, are not crystallized. Instead of having cooled from
a liquid into a solid state, they have been slowly _built up_, bit by
bit and grain upon grain, into their present form, through long ages
of the world's history. The materials of which they are made were
probably once, long, long ago, the crumblings from granite and other
crystallized rocks, but they show now no signs of crystallization.

[Illustration: SECTION OF STRATIFIED ROCKS.

_a._ Conglomerate. _b._ Pebbly Sandstone, _c._ Thin-bedded Sandstone,
_d._ Shelly Sandstone, _e._ Shale. _f._ Limestone.]

They are called "stratified" because they are in themselves made up of
distinct layers, and also because they lie thus one upon another in
layers, or _strata_, just as the leaves of a book lie, or as the
bricks of a house are placed.

Throughout the greater part of Europe, of Asia, of Africa, of North
and South America, of Australia, these rocks are to be found,
stretching over hundreds of miles together, north, south, east, and
west, extending up to the tops of some of the earth's highest
mountains, reaching down deep into the earth's crust. In many parts if
you could dig straight downwards through the earth for thousands of
feet, you would come to layer after layer of these stratified rocks,
one kind below another, some layers thick, some layers thin, here a
stratum of gravel, there a stratum of sandstone, here a stratum of
coal, there a stratum of clay.

But how, when, where, did the building up of all these rock-layers
take place?

[Illustration: THE BEACH IN THE FOREGROUND IS A ROCKY SHELF, THE
REMNANT OF THE CLIFF WHICH ONCE EXTENDED OUT TO THE ISLAND.]

People are rather apt to think of land and water on the earth as if
they were fixed in one changeless form,--as if every continent and
every island were of exactly the same shape and size now that it
always has been and always will be.

Yet nothing can be further from the truth. The earth-crust is a scene
of perpetual change, of perpetual struggle, of perpetual building up,
of perpetual wearing away.

The work may go on slowly, but it does go on. The sea is always
fighting against the land, beating down her cliffs, eating into her
shores, swallowing bit by bit of solid earth; and rain and frost and
inland streams are always busily at work, helping the ocean in her
work of destruction. Year by year and century by century it continues.
Not a country in the world which is bordered by the open sea has
precisely the same coast-line that it had one hundred years ago; not a
land in the world but parts each century with masses of its material,
washed piecemeal away into the ocean.

Is this hard to believe? Look at the crumbling cliffs around old
England's shores. See the effect upon the beach of one night's fierce
storm. Mark the pathway on the cliff, how it seems to have crept so
near the edge that here and there it is scarcely safe to tread; and
very soon, as we know, it will become impassable. Just from a mere
accident, of course,--the breaking away of some of the earth, loosened
by rain and frost and wind. But this is an accident which happens
daily in hundreds of places around the shores.

Leaving the ocean, look now at this river in our neighborhood, and see
the slight muddiness which seems to color its waters. What from? Only
a little earth and sand carried off from the banks as it flowed,--very
unimportant and small in quantity, doubtless, just at this moment and
just at this spot. But what of that little going on week after week,
and century after century, throughout the whole course of the river,
and throughout the whole course of every river and rivulet in our
whole country and in every other country. A vast amount of material
must every year be thus torn from the land and given to the ocean. For
the land's loss here is the ocean's gain.

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