Marvels Of Animal Life

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Page 43 - The day is done, and the darkness Falls from the wings of Night, As a feather is wafted downward From an eagle in his flight. I see the lights of the village Gleam through the rain and the mist, And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me, That my soul cannot resist: A feeling of sadness and longing, That is not akin to pain, And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles...
Page 46 - ... While sailing a little south of the Plata on one very dark night, the sea presented a wonderful and most beautiful spectacle. There was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which during the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake she was followed by a milky train.
Page 111 - The colour of the part seen was black. It was suggested by Mr. Dawson that a swell in the sea might give the deceptive appearance of an undulating movement, as it is well known " that a stick held horizontally at the surface of water when there is a ripple seems to have an uneven outline.
Page xv - ... floating with the current, until the stone was over the centre of the heap, when it was dropped, lodging sometimes on one side, and sometimes on the other. He then usually returned for more material to the deep and comparatively still pool formed above the dam by the previous excavations, but in some instances was unable to stem the more rapid current at the top of the dam, and was carried below it. When this happened, he swam around the outer end of the dam, and returned to the pool to resume...
Page 105 - His head appeared about three feet out of water ; I counted thirteen bunches on his back ; my family thought there were fifteen. He passed three times at a moderate rate across the bay, but so fleet as to occasion a foam in the water ; and my family and...
Page 109 - Ireland, do solemnly and sincerely declare that on July 8, 1875, in lat. 5° 13' S., long. 35° \V., we observed three large sperm whales, and one of them was gripped round the body with two turns of what appeared to be a huge serpent. The head and tail appeared to have a length beyond the coils of about thirty feet, and its girth eight or nine feet.
Page 45 - Shaped as bard's fancy shapes the small balloon, To bear some sylph or fay beyond the moon. From all her bands see lurid fringes play, That glance and sparkle in the solar ray With iridescent hues. Now round and round She whirls and twirls ; now mounts, then sinks profound...
Page xv - ... king-fisher, who dashes down fiercely in fruitless chase, a dire warning to the sportive fishes. All is not play, however, even among the dace. In the warm weeks of June come the sterner duties, the nesting-time; male and female join in the preparation, and the locality is selected, perhaps in some running brook, in shallow water. Roots, snags, and leaves are carried away, both fishes sometimes...
Page 110 - A few moments after it was seen elevated some sixty feet perpendicularly in the air by the chief officer and the following able seamen, whose signatures are also affixed.
Page 51 - Ophiacantha, but almost constant, sometimes flashing out at one point more brightly and then dying gradually into comparative dimness, but always sufficiently bright to make every portion of a stem caught in the tangles or sticking to the ropes distinctly visible.

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