A NUMBER of years ago a party of English naturalists, with several native attendants, penetrated a previously unexplored portion of India for the purpose of establishing stations, and eventually opening up a country very rich in natural advantages. To the ordinary observer, the slow progress of the party and the evident caution taken in the march would have seemed unnecessary except in time of war and when proceeding against a vigilant enemy; but the mission was one of peace, and all their care and precaution were taken to guard against the dangerous animals that infested the jungle. The most dreaded of all were the tiger and the cobra, and so common were these foes, that even in the neighborhood of the towns and cities thousands of persons annually fell victims to them. For days they had been penetrating a wooded region, but one evening they came upon a clear, undulating stretch of country that seemed, in the opinion of the officer in charge, favorable for the object of their trip; so a halt was ordered, the brush was cleared away, great patches that might have concealed the deadly cobra were burned, and the tents were pitched. In a few days the workmen had commenced their task of erecting a substantial building. It was necessary to have a large and deep cellar for the reception of certain stores, and in a short time a deep excavation was made. The earth was dry and sandy, and was worked with ease. The absence of large stones was noticed; indeed, there was found no hard substance that would have interested a geologist. But late in the afternoon of the first day's work, one of the natives struck his pick against a resisting substance. Another blow, and the implement broke through into a hollow space. The earth being scraped away, a large smooth object was exposed, of so strange an appearance that the attention of the commanding officer was called to it. He at once pronounced it a bone of some kind. The fact that they had come upon the grave of a strange animal created great excitement, and all hands went to work clearing away the sand. As they progressed, their wonder and amazement increased also; their discovery began to assume the shape of a dome, and appeared to be rounded off. Finally, when four feet or more of sand had been cleared away, they saw a hut-shaped object, that seemed, through the hole made by the pick, to be partly hollow. The natives one and all thereupon declared it a hut, or house, built by some of ing to an age long past. The work progressed rapidly; and though when exposed to the sun some parts broke in pieces, the entire shell was successfully uncovered and finally a complete restoration of it was made. The shell was that of a land-tortoise (called by naturalists Colossochelys Atlas). Hundreds of thousands of years ago the monster had lived and died; and the dust, sand, and vegetation had gradually covered it up and preserved it as a monument of the animal wonders of that ancient time. So enormous was the shell that when the sand and dirt were removed, several of the men crawled into it; in fact, it might have been used as a house, and on a subsequent occasion was so used the shell of a young land-tortoise, and measures ten feet in length, twenty-five feet in horizontal circumference, and fifteen feet in girth in a vertical direction. The Colossochelys was a land-turtle that fed upon vegetation, and in the Galapagos Islands, its modern representatives, at least in regard to size, are found to-day. These islands, numbering about fifteen in all, are situated in the Pacific Ocean, directly under the equator, and about six hundred miles west of Ecuador. They were first discovered by the Spaniards in the beginning of the one of them is approached, it draws in legs, head, and tail, and falls with a loud hiss. If now the captor is disposed to ride, as was Mr. Darwin, he can mount upon the turtle's back, and be carried along at a fair rate of speed. Though the great land-tortoise was the largest turtle of India, there has been found in our own country the remains of a sea-turtle that may have exceeded it in point of size. It was found near Fort Wallace, in western Kansas. The discoverer first observed the large bony shields projecting from a bluff near Butte Creek. They were care sixteenth century; and from the numbers of gigantic turtles found there, those early voyagers named the group "Galapago," which is the Spanish name for tortoise. All over the islands are many extinct craters, some being mere elevations, while others are miles in circumference. Next to the craters, the visitor is attracted by the network of trails, paths, or lanes that lead over many of the islands. These are the tracks of the great turtles, of which there are five totally different species, living upon different islands. But fully taken out and brought to Philadelphia, where the restoration was made. The fore-flippers alone were nearly five feet long, while its expanse from the tip of one extended flipper to another was about seventeen feet. The accompanying illustration gives an ideal view of this giant. how did this sea-turtle become buried in a bluff in the State of Kansas? A natural supposition would be that Kansas is in the bed of a former ocean, and so it is. Ages ago, in what is called by geologists the Cretaceous Period, that part of the world was the bed of a great sea, in which the great turtle swam, together with other monsters of curious shape and appearance. Gradually the crust of the earth was raised, the water fell back, or became inclosed, and left the inhabitants of the Cretaceous Sea high and dry, to be covered by the earth and preserved for us to study ages afterward. The shores of this ancient ocean are easily found and followed by geologists. Its extent has been traced on our Western plains by the bleaching and disintegrating remains that have been found, upon and beneath the surface. Professor Cope, who has described many of the animals that lived and died in that great ocean, says: "Far out on the expanse of this ancient sea might have been seen a huge snakelike form, which rose above the surface and stood erect, with tapering throat and arrow-shaped head, or swayed about, describing a huge circle above the water. Then, as it plunged into the depths. nought would be visible but the foam caused by the disappearing mass of life. Should several have appeared together, we can easily imagine tall, flexible forms rising to the height of the masts of a fishing-fleet, or, like snakes, twisting and knotting themselves together. This extraordinary surface; and it could raise its head to the distant air for a breath, and therf, withdrawing it, could explore the depths forty feet below, without altering the position of its body." In other localities, huge shells have been found strewn about; in fact, during that ancient IDEAL VIEW OF GIGANTIC SEA-REPTILE, OF THE CHALK AGE. FROM BACH TO WAGNER. (A Series of Brief Papers concerning the Great Musicians.) VIII. SCHUMANN. BY AGATHA TUNIS. ROBERT ALEXANDER SCHUMANN, great both as a composer and as a critic, was born at Zwickau, a little village of Lower Saxony, June 8, 1810. His father was a bookseller; he had some talent as a writer, and encouraged his son's love of art. His genius showed itself early, and when only seven, his father allowed him to study music under the church organist, who was very much impressed by the child's power. In his eleventh year he was sent to the high school, where he remained till 1828, when he went to Leipsic to study law. His heart was absorbed in his music, but his father was dead and his mother would not consent to his adopting music as a profession. He found the study of law very unattractive, and during his first half year at school devoted his time to reading poetry and studying music. He made the acquaintance of a number of young men who, like himself, were devoted to music; they met in Schumann's rooms every evening, where they discussed and performed various compositions. In 1829 Schumann went to Heidelberg to study law, but here, too, all his time and enthusiasm were for his much loved music. He frequently practiced seven hours a day. The time had now come for Schumann to graduate and determine his profession. Every emotion within him prompted him to adopt a musical career, but his mother was determined he should choose the law. She felt how few achieve success in so difficult and uncertain a profession as music, and she feared her son would be unable to support himself. Schumann, on the other hand, feared nothing so much as to be untrue to his highest light, and that light pointed steadily toward music. Money was as nothing to him if only he could devote himself to his art; and he had faith in himself, he felt that he should be successful. He knew that it would require steady and persistent toil, but he believed that in the end he would make a musician of himself. Finally, he persuaded his mother to place the decision in the hands of Friedrich Wieck, a friend and a well-known musician, Schumann agreeing that if, after six years of work at the piano, he gave no sign of success, he would turn to the practice of law. Wieck, after warning Schumann of the incessant and almost discouraging work which lay before him, advised him, if he were willing to brave all this, to become a musician. Schumann now made his home at Leipsic, where he attacked his work with great enthusiasm, practicing all day. In his anxiety to attain success, he invented a machine which was intended for the equal training of every finger; by this contrivance, his third finger remained up in a vertical position, while he played with the others; but the tendons became so strained that he lamed the troublesome finger, and all thought of a career as a pianist had to be put aside. Poor Schumann! after all his struggles and sacrifices, was this to be the end? We can well imagine the gloom which oppressed him, as he felt that his brilliant hopes were crushed, and everything pointed to the law. But music claimed him; he could not escape, and now he began to compose. He had always been rather self-willed, and suffered from having no one to guide his musical education. Unfortunately he had almost neglected musical composition, but now he set about to repair his mistake. He should have grown up in this part of his art, and he was never quite compensated for the loss of early training. art. In 1834, Schumann and some of his friends started a journal which was to be an aid to both music and musicians. Its aim was to educate the public taste in music by encouraging everything that was good, and condemning everything that was bad in Schumann edited it for ten years, and wrote many articles for it; he confirmed the reputation of many artists whose works were already known, and brought many composers, among them Chopin and Berlioz, to the notice of the public. His generous encouragement of young artists was especially beneficial, and no musician possessed of talent was too young or too obscure for his kindly notice. In 1836, Schumann fell in love with Clara Wieck a beautiful woman and brilliant genius. Her father objected to her marrying Schumann on account of the uncertainty of his income. Schumann was as yet almost unknown to the people. His compositions were appreciated by a circle of artists, but he reached only to the few who were cultivated enough to understand him. He now made every effort to win a reputation. Clara Wieck's influence over him was already seen in his music, for he turned his attention to song-writing, and wrote 138 songs, all of which he tells us were inspired by her. In 1840 they were married, and he settled down to a quiet, beautiful life, broken only by his ill-health. His wife appreciated 1 |