Diversions of a Naturalist

Chapter X, and Also to Thank Messrs. Veitch for the Use of Figures 33,

34, 35, 40, and 42. I have copied figures 4 to 8, 11, 19, and 20 from the drawings made by Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S., and published by him in that wonderful little book "Marine Zoology," now long out of print. I have also borrowed my frontispiece from the book on "The Aquarium" by that great naturalist and lover of the seashore. Many beautiful coloured plates of marine animals executed by his skilful hand are to be found in that and other works published by him.

E. R. L.

16 June 1915

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. ON A NORWEGIAN FIORD 1

II. NATURE-RESERVES 13

III. FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD 23

IV. THE GREAT GREY SEAL 32

V. THE GROUSE AND OTHER BIRDS 41

VI. THE SAND AND PEBBLES OF THE SEASHORE 48

VII. THE CONSTITUENTS OF A SEABEACH 55

VIII. QUICKSANDS AND FIRE-STONES 64

IX. AMBER 70

X. SEA-WORMS AND SEA-ANEMONES 77

XI. CORAL-MAKERS AND JELLY-FISH 88

XII. SHRIMPS, CRABS, AND BARNACLES 98

XIII. BARNACLES AND OTHER CRUSTACEANS 108

XIV. THE HISTORY OF THE BARNACLE AND THE GOOSE 117

XV. MORE AS TO THE BARNACLE AND THE GOOSE 129

XVI. SEA-SHELLS ON THE SEASHORE 142

XVII. SAND-HOPPERS 152

XVIII. A SWISS INTERLUDE 160

XIX. SCIENCE AND DANCING 170

XX. COURTSHIP 180

XXI. COURTSHIP IN ANIMALS AND MAN 189

XXII. COURTSHIP AND DISPLAY 197

XXIII. COURTSHIP, INSTINCT AND REASON 205

XXIV. DADDY-LONG-LEGS 216

XXV. THE MOTH AND THE CANDLE 226

XXVI. FROM APE TO MAN 236

XXVII. THE SKELETON OF APES AND OF MAN 245

XXVIII. THE BRAIN OF APES AND OF MAN 253

XXIX. THE MIND OF APES AND OF MAN 262

XXX. THE MISSING LINK 275

XXXI. THE SUPPLY OF PURE MILK 292

XXXII. CHRISTMAS TREES AND OTHER PINE TREES 302

XXXIII. THE LYMPH AND THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM 332

XXXIV. THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION 342

XXXV. FISH AND FAST DAYS 351

XXXVI. SCIENCE AND THE UNKNOWN 361

XXXVII. DIVINATION AND PALMISTRY 367

XXXVIII. TOADS FOUND LIVING IN STONE 376

XXXIX. THE DIVINING-ROD 383

XL. BIRTH-MARKS AND TELEGONY 396

XLI. HOW TO PROMOTE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY BY MONEY 408

INDEX 417

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE WEYMOUTH ANEMONE, ACTINOLOBA DIANTHUS, AND THE CONTORTED TUBE-WORM SERPULA CONTORTUPLICATA Frontispiece

FIG. PAGE

1. A PORTION OF THE BRANCHING TUBULAR GROWTH FORMED BY RHABDOPLEURA NORMANI 5

2. ONE OF THE POLYPS OF RHABDOPLEURA 7

3. A PIECE OF THE WHITE BRANCHING CORAL (LOPHOHELIA PROLIFERA) 9

4. BRITISH MARINE WORMS OR CHÆTOPODS 78

5. THE SHELL OF THE HEART-URCHIN (SPATANGUS PURPUREUS) WITH ITS SPINES RUBBED OFF 80

6. BRITISH SEA-ANEMONES 85

7. A COMMON BRITISH JELLY-FISH 94

8. A COMMON BRITISH JELLY-FISH 96

9. THE LARVAL OR YOUNG FORM OF CRUSTACEA KNOWN AS "THE NAUPLIUS" 105

10. THE COMMON SHIP'S BARNACLE, LEPAS ANATIFERA 109

11. A LARGE BRITISH SEA-ACORN, BALANUS PORCATUS 110

12. TWO STAGES IN THE GROWTH OF THE COMMON BARNACLE FROM THE NAUPLIUS STAGE 112

13. THE PICTURE OF THE "GOOSE TREE," COPIED FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF GERARD'S "HERBAL" 123

14. FANCIFUL DESIGNS BY MYKENÆAN ARTISTS, SHOWING CHANGE OF THE CUTTLEFISH (OCTOPUS OR "POULPE") INTO A BULL'S HEAD AND OTHER SHAPES 131

15. THE GOOSE AND THE BARNACLE 133

16. COPY OF A SERIES OF MODIFIED GEESE PAINTED ON AN EARLY MYKENÆAN POT, FIGURED BY M. PERROT 134

17. TWO DRAWINGS ON POTTERY OF MODIFIED GEESE, FROM PERROT'S "OSSUAIRE DE CRÈTE" 135

18. LEAVES FROM THE TREE, DRAWN ON A MYKENÆAN POT 136

19. SOME BRITISH MARINE BIVALVE MOLLUSCS 144

20. THE TWO COMMON KINDS OF "SAND-HOPPER" 153

21. A PHOSPHORESCENT SHRIMP (EUPHAUSIA PELLUCIDA) 154

22. THE CRANE-FLY (DADDY-LONG-LEGS), TIPULA OLERACEA 217

23. COMPARISON OF THE RIGHT HALF OF THE LOWER JAW OF A, MODERN EUROPEAN; B, EOANTHROPUS FROM PILTDOWN; AND C, CHIMPANZEE 277

24. DIAGRAMS OF THE LOWER SURFACE OF THE LOWER JAW OF A, MAN; B, THE EOANTHROPUS OF PILTDOWN (THE LEFT HALF RE-CONSTRUCTED); AND C, THE CHIMPANZEE 283

25. THE PILTDOWN JAW AND THE HEIDELBERG JAW 286

26. THE CANINE TOOTH OF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE LOWER JAW OF EOANTHROPUS DAWSONI 287

27. CANINE TOOTH OF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE LOWER JAW OF A EUROPEAN CHILD, MILK DENTITION 287

28. THE PILTDOWN JAW (EOANTHROPUS) 288

29. COMPLETE SKULL AND JAW OF EOANTHROPUS DAWSONI 290

30. THE COMPLETE SKULL AND JAW OF A YOUNG CHIMPANZEE 290

31. A FERTILE BRANCH OF THE SCOTS FIR, PINUS SYLVESTRIS 305

32. THE COMMON YEW, TAXUS BACCATA 310

33. A THIN SLICE ACROSS ONE OF THE FOLIAGE NEEDLES OF THE COMMON SPRUCE 314

34. A THIN SLICE ACROSS ONE OF THE FOLIAGE NEEDLES OF THE SILVER FIR 315

35. THE UPRIGHT FEMALE CONE OF THE SILVER FIR, ABIES PECTINATA 316

36. STRUCTURE OF THE FEMALE CONE OF THE SILVER FIR 317

37. THE FEMALE CONE OF THE COMMON SPRUCE, PICEA EXCELSA 318

38. THE FEMALE CONE AND THE FOLIAGE OF THE COMMON LARCH, LARIX EUROPŒA 319

39. FEMALE CONE OF THE PINASTER, OR MARITIME PINE (PINUS PINASTER) 323

40. FEMALE CONE OF THE MONTEREY PINE OF CALIFORNIA (PINUS INSIGNIS) 325

41. FEMALE CONE OF PINUS MURICATA 326

42. FEMALE CONE OF THE DOUGLAS FIR OF NORTH-WEST AMERICA, PSEUDOTSUGA DOUGLASII 327

43. THE FORE-ARM OF MAN, WITH THE SKIN REMOVED SO AS TO SHOW THE LARGE SUPERFICIAL LYMPHATIC VESSELS RESTING ON THE MUSCLES 334

Oh! how light and lovely the air is upon the earth! How beautiful thou art, my earth, my golden, my emerald, my sapphire earth! Who, born to thy heritage would choose to die, would wish to close his eyes upon thy serene beauties and upon thy magnificent spaces?--FEODOR SOLOGUB.

DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST

CHAPTER I. On a Norwegian Fiord

ON A NORWEGIAN FIORD

THE splendour of our Sussex Weald, with its shady forests and lovely gardens, around which rise the majestic Downs sweeping in long graceful curves marked by the history of our race, has charmed me during these sunny days of June. The orchids, the water-lilies, the engaging and quaintly named "petty whin," and the pink rattle are joined with the tall foxgloves and elder-blossoms in my memory. And for some reason--perhaps it is the heat--I am set thinking of very different scenes--the great, cool fiords of Norway, with their rocky islets and huge, bare mountain-tops, where many years ago I had the "time of my life" in exploring with the naturalist's dredge the coral-grown sea-bottom 1000 and even 2000 feet in a straight line below the little boat in which I and my companion and three Norwegian boatmen floated on the dark purple waves.

To let a dredge--an oblong iron frame some three feet long, to the edges of which a bag of strong netting is laced, whilst the frame is hung to a rope by a mystical triangle--sink from the side of a boat and scrape the surface of the ocean-floor far below for some ten or twenty minutes, and then to haul it up again and see what living wonders the unseen world has sent you, is, in my opinion, the most exciting and delightful sport in which a naturalist can indulge. There are difficulties and drawbacks connected with it. You cannot, in a small boat and without expenditure of large sums on a steam yacht and crew, reach from our coast--with rare exceptions in the north-west--with a fair prospect of returning in safety, those waters which are 100 fathoms deep. And it is precisely in such depths that the most interesting "hauls" are to be expected. I had had in former days to be content with 10 fathoms in the North Sea and 30 to 40 off the Channel Islands.

Then there is the question of sea-sickness. Nothing is so favourable to that diversion as slowly towing a dredge. I used to take the chance of being ill, and often suffered that for which no other joy than the hauling in of a rich dredgeful of rare sea creatures could possibly compensate, or induce me to take the risk (as I did again and again). I remember lying very ill on the deck of a slowly lurching "lugger" in a heaving sea off Guernsey, when the dredge came up, and as its contents were turned out near me, a semi-transparent, oblong, flattened thing like a small paper-knife began to hop about on the boards. It was the first specimen I ever saw alive of the "lancelet" (Amphioxus), that strange, fish-like little creature, the lowest of vertebrates. I recognized him and immediately felt restored to well-being, seized the young stranger, and placed him in a special glass jar of clear sea-water. A few years later the fishermen at Naples would bring me, without any trouble to myself, twenty or more any day of the week ("cimbarella" they called them), and I not only have helped to make out the cimbarella's anatomy, but also to discover the history of the extraordinary changes it undergoes as it grows from the egg. I sent my pupil Dr. Willey, now professor in Montreal, one summer to a nearly closed sea-lake, the "pantano" of Faro, near Messina, where the lancelet breeds. He brought home hundreds of minute young in various stages, and again later made a second visit to that remote sea-lake in order to complete our knowledge of their growth and structure by observation on the spot.

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