+----------------------------------------------------------+-------+ FRONTISPIECE.] Nature Readers. SEA-SIDE AND WAY-SIDE. No. 4. BY JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT. “‘Come, wander with me,’ she said, Into regions yet untrod, And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God.’” LONGFELLOW, _Poem on the fiftieth birthday of Agassiz_. Illustrated by C. S. King. BOSTON, U.S.A.: D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1892. COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY D. C. HEATH & CO. TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & CO., BOSTON, U.S.A. PRESSWORK BY BERWICK & SMITH, BOSTON, U.S.A. PREFACE. Says Cicero: “There is nothing so charming as the knowledge of that branch of literature which enables us to discover the immensity of nature, the heavens, the earth, and the seas; this is the branch which has taught us religion, moderation, and magnanimity, and has rescued the soul from obscurity to make us see all things above, below, and between both.” Such literature as this is now markedly in the ascendant. Natural science seems to be pre-eminently the coming pursuit of the coming man, and natural science has been wonderfully popularized in books suited to those who without expecting to be specialists desire to be well informed and to look understandingly at the world which lies about them. Several decades have gone by since Michelet, with his marvellous books, “The Bird” and “The Insect,” and Hugh Miller, chaste, graphic, and enthusiastic in his “Old Red Sandstone,” “The Cruise of the Betsy,” and “The Testimony of the Rocks,” opened glorious new worlds before a rising generation. That generation is now doing good work under the inspiration of the impetus then received. Our library shelves are to-day affluent in books that are handmaids of natural science. Tait and Balfour Stewart in their “Unseen Universe” have brought marvels of world-building within range of our narrower ken. Argyle in his “Unity of Nature” and “Reign of Law” and “Primeval Man,” interpreted mighty and far-reaching harmonies. Principal Sir William Dawson, in his “Story of the Earth and Man,” brings the successive geologic ages before us with the vividness of some master-painter. Darwin and Huxley, detailing experiments, have not scorned to come within the reach of the unlearned mind. In botany, the pleasing, enthusiastic, if often erroneous generalizations, of Grant Allen have their use and place beside the stronger works of Cooke, Gray, Jaegar, Taylor, and others. Our Gray, taking a leading rank among systematic botanists, did not disdain to write for children “How Plants Grow.” No man has done more toward popularizing natural science than Rev. J. G. Wood in his numerous works. Kingsley, with his exquisite English, has given us “Town Geology,” and Tyndale has told us of “Forms of Water.” Buckland and Gosse have written what young and old have rejoiced to read. The elders have sat down with the juniors to revel in Arabella Buckley’s