The divine lineaments and delicate forms which in man the intellect and the affections conspire to mould, are concealed under the shaggy drapery of the world of instinct; and even if they existed and were perceived, could hardly be appreciated by those who have not studied its manners and submitted to its laws. But even in the present state of photography such a celerity of process has been attained that a distinguished amateur in Edinburgh has constructed a portable camera, which, by pulling a trigger, instantaneously records upon its sensitive retina the surf which is hurrying to the shore, or the stranger who is passing in the street. With such an instrument, in such hands, the denizens of the jungle or of the plains may be taken captive in their finest attitudes and in their most restless moods. Photographs thus obtained will possess a value of no ordinary kind, and when taken in the binocular camera and raised into relief by the stereoscope, will be valuable auxiliaries to the naturalist, and even to the painters and the poets whose works or whose lyrics may require an introduction to the brutes that perish. In representing with accuracy the osteology and integuments of the zoological world—the framework which protects life, and to which life gives activity and power, the aid of the stereoscope is indispensable. The repose of death, and the sharp pencil which resides in the small lens, will place before the student’s eye the skeleton, clothed or unclothed, in accurate perspective and true relief, while he contemplates with wonder, in their true apparent magnitude, the gigantic Mastodon, the colossal Megatherion, and the huge Dinornis, or examines the crushed remains of the lengthened Saurian, or the hollow footsteps which ancient life has impressed on the massive sandstone or the indurated clay. In the other branches of natural history, ichthyology, ornithology, conchology, &c., the stereoscope will be found equally useful. In entomology, where insects are to be represented, the microscopic binocular camera must be used; and in order to prevent the legs, the antennæ, and other small parts of the object from being transparent, and therefore spotted, with the images of objects or parts beyond them, as explained in a preceding chapter, the smallest lenses should be employed.