Faraday, Michael, 1791-1867; Physicists -- Great Britain -- Biography
If the surface of the earth gave our amateur traveller cause for
wonder, what must have been his feelings when he first went down to
the sea-shore? or when, on the night of October 17th, he was on board
in mid-channel, with the "immense waves," as he graphically puts it,
"striding one after another at a considerable distance?" or when,
again, to use his own words, the vessel "sank down into the valleys
between the great waves, and we had nothing in view but the wall of
waters around us." He carefully observed, on this occasion, remaining
on deck all night for that purpose, the phosphorescence of the sea.
The next day they reached the harbour of Morlaix, on the French coast,
where, after much examination of luggage, and searching in all possible
and impossible places for contraband goods by the French Customs'
officers, they took up their lodging for a couple of nights. And on
the 22nd, the carriage having been successfully put together (to
ensure comfortable accommodation Sir Humphry had brought his own with
him), the party commenced their tour, reaching Paris, where a stay of
three months' length was made, on the 29th. Faraday's observant nature
is made evident to us in every page of his journal, and the light,
humorous style in which much of it--that part which admits of such
treatment--is written, gives evidence of the abiding cheerfulness of
his disposition.
On the road to Paris there was a temporary stoppage, owing to the
breaking of one of the horses' traces. While the accident was being
repaired by the postillion, Faraday found, to his great delight, a
glow-worm, the first that he had seen, and which gave him much food for
reflection. So great an impression did the first sight of the luminous
little grub make on him, that, writing to his mother six months
afterwards, and enumerating some of the more important things he had
seen in his travels, he says, "I have seen a GLOW-WORM!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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