Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/16



The revelations of the microscope—Single and compound microscopes—A drop of water—Minute creatures—The globe animalcule—The wheel animalcule—Microscopic plants—Diatoms—Formation of rocky strata—Beautiful forms—Bed of earth composed of living infusoria—The marls of Virginia—Chalk—Microscopic fungi—Eggs of insects—Scales of a butterfly's wing—Insect anatomy—Pollen—Fissures and cavities in gems

A fanciful tree—Bread-fruit—Cabbage-palm—Cow-tree—The papyrus and fan-palm—Pashiuba palm—The mangrove—Wonderful cane—Australian trees—The Banyan—Sensitive plants—The traveller and the moss

Glaciers—Regions of eternal snow—The Névé—Rivers of ice—Moraines—Movement of the glacier—A moving hut—Lost knapsack—Mysterious noises—Theories of glacier motion—Saussure—Observations of Professor James Forbes—Viscous theory—Tyndall's experiments—The plasticity of ice—Fracture and regelation—Ancient glaciers—Time slides

The home of the gnomes—Wondrous architecture of the stalactite caverns—Science and superstition—The Grotto of Antiparos—Petrifying springs—Tabreez marble—A busy scene—The guardian of the jewels—The Koh-i-noor—Aluminous and silicious—The keeper of the metals