Page images
PDF
EPUB

savages, the strong fell upon the weak, and despoiled them; they eagerly surrounded the dying, and often even waited not for their last sigh before they stripped them.

"When a horse fell, they rushed upon it, tore it in pieces, and snatched the morsel from each other's mouth, like a troop of famished wolves. However, a considerable number still preserved enough of moral feeling not to seek their safety in the ruin of others, but this was the last effort of their virtue.

"If an officer or a comrade fell alongside them, or under the wheels of the cannon, it was in vain that he implored them, by a common country, religion, and cause, to succour him. He obtained not even a look all the frozen inflexibility of the climate had passed into their hearts; its rigidity had contracted their sentiments as well as their features.

"All, except a few chiefs, were absorbed by their own sufferings, and terror left no place for pity. That egotism which is often produced by excessive prosperity, results also from extreme adversity-but in which latter case it is more excusable, the former being voluntary, the latter forced; one a crime of the heart, the other an impulse of instinct, and altogether physical.

“And, indeed, upon the occasion here alluded to, there was much of excuse, for to stop for a moment was to risk your own life. In this scene of universal destruction, to hold out your hand to your comrade or your sinking chief, was an admirable effort of generosity. The slightest act of humanity was an instance of sublime devotion.

"When unable, from total exhaustion, to proceed, they halted for a moment, winter, with his icy hands, seized upon them for his prey. It was then that, in

vain these unfortunate beings, feeling themselves benumbed, endeavoured to rouse themselves.

"Voiceless, insensible, and plunged in stupor, they moved a few paces like machines; but the blood, already freezing in their veins, flowed languidly through their hearts, and, mounting to their heads, made them stagger like drunken men.

"From their eyes, become red and inflamed from the continual view of the dazzling snow and the want of sleep, there burst forth red tears of blood, accompanied with profound sighs; they looked at the sky, at us, and upon the earth, with a fixed and haggard state of consternation; this was their last farewell, or rather reproach to that barbarous nature that tortured them.

"Thus dropping upon their knees, and afterwards upon their hands, their heads moving for an instant or two from right to left, while from their gasping lips escaped the most agonizing moans; at length they fell prostrate upon the snow, staining it with a gush of living blood, and all their miseries terminated.

"Their comrades passed over them without even stepping aside, dreading to lengthen their march by a single pace-they even turned not their heads to look at them, for the slightest motion of the head to the right of left was attended with torture, the hair of their heads and beards being frozen into a solid

mass.

"Scenes of still greater horror took place in those immense log-houses, or sheds, which were found at certain intervals along the road. Into these, soldiers and officers rushed precipitately, and huddled together like so many cattle. The living not having strength enough to move those who had died close to the fire, sat down upon their bodies, until their

own turn came to expire, when they also served as death-beds to other victims.

"Sometimes the fire communicated itself to the wood, of which these sheds were composed, and then all those within the walls, already half dead with cold, expired in the flames. At one village the soldiers set fire to whole houses, in order to warm themselves a few moments.

"The glare of those conflagrations attracted crowds of wretches whom the intensity of the cold and suffering had rendered delirious: These rushing forward like madmen, gnashing their teeth, and with demoniac laughter, precipitated themselves into the midst of the flames, where they perished in horrible convulsions.

REMARKABLE INSTANCES OF ADAPTATION AND CONTRIVANCE IN NATURE.

IF

any quantity of matter, as a pound of wood or iron, fashioned into a rod of a certain length, say one foot, the rod will be strong in proportion to its thickness; and, if the figure is the same, that thickness can only be increased by making it hollow. Therefore, hollow rods or tubes, of the same length and quantity of matter, have more strength than solid This is a principle so well understood now, that engineers make their axles and other parts of machinery hollow, and, therefore, stronger with the same weight, than they would be if thinner and solid. Now the bones of animals are all more or less hollow; and are therefore, stronger with the same weight and quantity of matter than they otherwise

ones.

could be. But birds have the largest bones in proportion to their weight: their bones are more hollow than those of animals which do not fly; and there. fore, they have strength without having to carry more weight than is absolutely necessary. Their quills derive strength from the same construction. They have another peculiarity to help their flight.

other animals have any communication between the air-vessels of their lungs and the hollow parts of their bodies but birds have; and by this means, they can blow out their bodies as we do a bladder, and thus make themselves lighter, when they would either make their flight towards the ground slower or rise more swiftly, or float more easily in the air. Fishes possess a power of the same kind, though not by the same means. They have air-bladders in their bodies, and can puff them out, or press them closer, at pleasure-when they want to rise in the water, they fill out the bladder, and this lightens them. If the bladder breaks, the fish remains at the bottom, and can only be held up by the most laborious exertion of the fins and tail. Accordingly, flat fish, as skaits and flounders, which have no hair-bladders, seldom rise from the bottom, but are found lying on banks in the sea, or at the bottom of sea rivers.

The pressure and weight of the atmosphere, as shown by the barometer and air-pump, is near 15 pounds on every square inch, so that if we could entirely squeeze out the air between our two hands, they would cling together with a force equal to the pressure of double this weight, because the air would press upon both hands; and, if we could contrive to suck or squeeze out the air between one hand and the wall, the hand would stick fast to the wall, being pressed on it with the weight of above two

hundred weight, that is, near 15 pounds on every square inch of the hand. Now, by a late most curious discovery of Sir Edward Home, the distinguished anatomist, it is found that this is the very process by which flies, and other insects of a similar description, are enabled to walk up perpendicular surfaces, however smooth, as the sides of walls and panes of glass in windows; and to walk as easily along the ceiling of a room, with their bodies downwards and their feet over head. Their feet, when examined by a microscope, are found to have flat skins or flaps, like the feet of web-footed animals, as ducks and geese; and they have towards the back part or heel, but inside the skin or flap, two very small toes, so connected with the flap as to draw it close down upon the glass or wall the fly walks on, and to squeeze out the air completely, so that there is a vacuum made between the foot and the glass or wall. The consequence of this is, that the air presses the foot on the wall with a very considerable force, compared with the weight of the fly; for, if its feet are to its body in the same proportion as ours are to our bodies, since we could support by a single hand on the ceiling of the room, (provided it made a vacuum,) more than our whole weight, namely, a weight of fifteen stone, the fly can easily move on four feet in the same manner, by help of the vacuum made under its feet. It has likewise been found that some of the larger sea animals are by the same construction, only upon a greater scale, enabled to climb the perpendicular and smooth surfaces of the ice hills among which they live. Some kinds of lizard have the same power of climbing, and of creeping with their bodies downwards along the ceiling of a room; and the means by which they are

« PreviousContinue »