The west shore., July 01, 1886, Page 220, Image 22

220
THE WEST SHORE.
shoots of growing plants. These conditions must have
prevailed since the northern half of the continent has
had the shape it now has. Whether once the Rockies
wnr too low to olwtruct the moisture-laden winda which
Hum dwppt fur inland scroti the plninn, whether the
Lnuroutian range, the true and ancient backbone of the
continent, then reared its lofty head higher than even
its younger ustart brother, the Rocky mountain range,
does now, thus serving to catch the moiHture carried all
the way from the Pacifio and to condense it in the form
of great hiiow masses and glaciers, the real iInr ice-cap
of pro-Adamite ages, whether this is true such a niiito
of things would furnish a solution of some of our prob
louiH mighty glaciers have written their autobiography
in marks and deep grooves ovor the rocks of half our
continent, a record before which the works of Memphian
kings are as insignificant as they were when compared
with Milton's Hatanio architect. These glaciers, slid
ing down to the south and west, would scarcely yield to
anything but the periodical visit of great Hoi himself.
The drippings furnished a supply of pure ice water for
tho Mississippi. Their grinding action made the soil;
and tho streams of fogs and rains all along its borders
furnished moisture for tho coarse and hardy vegetation
of the times. Itut what tho sun, unaided, could not ac
complish in the lofty rarified air of those primitive
peaks, was at last accomplished by the sulmidenceof the
great range itaolf. Hack, slowly back, through success
ive centuries tho glaciers retreated, leaving a great shal
low lake between the rear of their bullied columns and
tho newly elevaUnl coasttt whence tho shortened Mississ
ippi look its rise. Ktill further centuries and a further
milmidcucfl drained oiT even tho most of this lake, a mere
sluggish ami tortuous creek serving to mark tho deepest
part of tho lake the present lied river of tho North.
Tho immense uplifting, too, of tho Rockies effectually
shut off the supply of moisture from tho Pacific, and
thenceforward camo tho present climato of our North
west. Tho old framework of our continent, the very
first to appear ahovo tho archaic waters, has now sunk
so low that we are apt to forget tho part it playod in the
formation of our country.
AT tho new Cirque Xautiquo, in Paris, there is an
aquatic performance of a wry novel character. After
tho conclusion of tho ordinary gymnastio and riding en
tertainment, tho carpet is removed from the floor of the
ring, and the latter entirely iubmorged. A circular
poud is thereby produced, and an electric aro lamp il
luminate the water from below. The swimming per
formers apHMir like mermen and mermaids in the trans
lucent depths of the sea. Tho general .installation
throughout the building is a very fine one, and includes
both arc and incandescent laui; the lamps soleil pro
ducing a beautiful effect.
Faith always implies disbelief of a lesser fact in
favor or a greater.
BIRDS' NESTS IN JAPANESE HOUSES.
Nothing recommends itself more to the traveler as a
national trait among the Japanese than their gentleness
and kindness to children and animals.
It is in consequence of this that not only the domes
ticated, but the so-called wild, animals and birds of this
country are far bolder and easier of approach than in
other parts of the world. There is here a species of
swallow, much resembling the chimney swallows of
Europe, which actually frequents the houses, and twit
tors and circles about the heads of the people in the dif
ferent apartments, as we have seen tame canaries when
sot froo from their cages in the house where they are
kept Only in this case the swallow is free to come and
go through the open window or door, and makes his own
living in the open air. Even in Europe and America
this beautiful little bird is a favorite. Humphrey Davy
says of it: "Tho swallow is one of my favorite birds,
and a rival of the nightingale, for he cheers my sense of
sight as much as the other does my sense of hearing.
Ho is tho glad prophet of the year, the harbinger of the
best season. He lives the life of enjoyment among the
loveliest forms of nature. Winter is unknown to him
and he leaves the green meadows and forests of England
in autumn for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy and
for tho palms of Africa. He has always objects of pur
suit, and his success is sure. Even the beings selected
for his prey are poetical, beautiful and transient The
ephemerie aro saved by his menus from a slow and lin
gering death in tho evening, and killed in a moment
when they have known nothing but pleasure. He is a
constant destroyer of insects, the friend of man and a
sacred bird. His instinct, which gives him his appoint
ed season and teaches him when and where to move, may
1)0 regarded as flowing from a divine source, and he be
longs to the oracles of nature, which speak the awful
and intelligible fiats of a present Deity."
Of course this character of symbolic grace and mod
esty goes far to recommend the bird to so artistio a peo
ple as tho Japanese, and it is, in consequence, almost
a national emblem, being a favorite subject with their
decorators, and finding a place with the crane and the
lotus as a religious type. It is, however, in the build
ing of its nest and rearing of its young that the Japan
ese swallow pays the highest compliment to, and exhib
its the greatest amount of confidence in, its protectors;
for, however incredible it may seem, its habitation is
built, and its little family brought up, in the living rooms
of Japanese families, and this not only in unfrequented
parts of the country, but, as Prof. Morse assures us, in
the midst of their largest cities. The professor, than
whom no more acute observer of Japanese life exists, in
shaking of those neste says that they are not built in
any remote part of the house, but in the principal and
oftenost visited rooms, where the inmates are the busiest
alKHit the household affairs. He adds that the children
take great delight in watching the nest in process of con
struct,,,!,, ,! , t10 rerin,r amj eJm.ati0U 0f tue youug
birds afterward. .