Through Magic Glasses and Other Lectures — The Magician's Dream of Ancient Days

[Illustration] 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.

[Illustration: Fig. 77. Palaeolithic times.

] 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!

[Illustration: Fig. 78. Palaeolithic relics.

1, Bone needle, from a cave at La Madeleine, 1/2 size.

2, Tooth of Machairodus or sabre-toothed tiger, from Kent's Cavern, 1/2 size.

3, Rough stone implement, from Kent's Cavern, 1/4 size.

] 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 hyaenas, 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.

[Illustration: Fig. 79. Mammoth engraved on ivory by Palaeolithic man.

] 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 Palaeolithic 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-hyaena, 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 hyaenas, 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 hyaenas, both because living hyaenas leave exactly such marks on bones in the present day, and because the hyaena bones alone were not gnawed, showing that no animals preyed upon their flesh.

He knew too that the hyaenas 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 hyaenas, 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.

[Illustration: Fig. 80. Neolithic implements.

1, Stone hatchet mounted in wood.

2, Jade celt, a polished stone weapon, from Livermore in Suffolk, 1/4 size.

3, Spindle whorl, 1/2 size.

] 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.

[Illustration: Fig. 81. A burial in Neolithic times.

] 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.

[Illustration: Fig. 82. British relics.

1, A coin of the age of Constantine.

2, Bronze weapon from a Suffolk barrow.

3, Bronze bracelet from Liss in Hampshire.

] 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.

[Illustration: Fig. 83. Britons taking refuge in the Cave.

] 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 hyaena haunting his ancient den, for a hyaena 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 Palaeolithic 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] Andromedae, 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 taeniopus_, 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 Baiae, 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 Booetis [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, Palaeolithic and Neolithic, 210;

Palaeolithic life in, 211;

hyaenas 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] Lyrae, 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 _Confervae_, 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 muscae_, 66 Engis and Engihoul caves, 210 England, ancient caves in, 210;

in Palaeolithic 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 Faculae 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 Fouque, 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 nebulae, 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 Lyrae [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 _Oscillariae_, growth of, 79 Palaeolithic 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;

nebulae 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 Scoriae 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;