Curiosities of Science, Past and Present: A Book for Old and YoungTimbs, John
Science
Curiosities of Science, Past and Present: A Book for Old and Young
Timbs, John
Science
Among the earliest races we have those remarkable forms, the
Trilobites, inhabiting the ancient ocean. These crustacea remotely
resemble the common wood-louse, and like that animal they had the power
of rolling themselves into a ball when attacked by an enemy. The eye of
the trilobite is a most remarkable organ; and in that of one species,
_Phacops caudatus_, not less than 250 lenses have been discovered. This
remarkable optical instrument indicates that these creatures lived
under similar conditions to those which surround the crustacea of the
present day.--_Hunt’s Poetry of Science._
PROFITABLE SCIENCE.
In that strip of reddish colour which runs along the cliffs of Suffolk,
and is called the Redcrag, immense quantities of cetacean remains have
been found. Four different kinds of whales, little inferior in size to
the whalebone whale, have left their bones in this vast charnel-house.
In 1840, a singularly perplexing fossil was brought to Professor Owen
from this Redcrag. No one could say what it was. He determined it to
be the tooth of a cetacean, a unique specimen. Now the remains of
cetaceans in the Suffolk crag have been discovered in such enormous
quantities, that many thousands a-year are made by converting them into
manure.
EXTINCT GIGANTIC BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND.
In the islands of New Zealand have been found the bones of large
extinct wingless Birds, belonging to the Post Tertiary or Recent
system, which have been deposited by the action of rivers. The bird
is named _Moa_ by the natives, and _Dinornis_ by naturalists: some
of the bones have been found in two caves in the North Island, and
have been sold by the natives at an extraordinary price. The caves
occur in limestone rocks, and the bones are found beneath earth and
a soft deposit of carbonate of lime. The largest of the birds is
stated to have stood thirteen or fourteen feet, or twice the height
of the ostrich; and its egg large enough to fill the hat of a man as
a cup. Several statements have appeared of these birds being still
in existence, but there is every reason to believe the Moa to be
altogether extinct.
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