Nature and thought : an introduction to a natural philosophy / by St. George Mivart.
- Date:
- 1882
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Nature and thought : an introduction to a natural philosophy / by St. George Mivart. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![of the camel is a trite subject of remark. Less known but not less noteworthy are the wonderful cacti which, though inhabiting perfectly arid and rainless Mexican deserts, yet store up within their rounded, spiny masses such juicy stores of beverage that their eccentric forms are more grateful to the eye of the tired and thirsty traveller than would be trees with the most graceful and varied foliage. Love for the aspect of rugged mountains is a modern development of taste.. But in addition to the aesthetic beauties now discovered to exist in scenes which before were deemed savage and hor- rible—in addition to the charm of majestic masses, changing in tint as seen beneath changing skies—the advance of science has given to the student of nature the pleasure of understanding their various geologi- cal relations. With Professor Ramsay's aid we may study ancient history of surpassing interest in every English range of hills, while, further south, we may trace the devastating floods of lava poured out by the volcanoes of Auvergne, or see in imagination Alpine summits rise as wooded islets from the ocean at a time when Skiddaw and Snowdon were already venerable from age. The various mountain or- ganisms now living, the chamois and the ibex, the saxifrages, campanulas, orchids, and the who]e multitude of brilliant Alpine plants, are all instances of admirable natural harmony. Even the very glacier, with its power of internal change accommo- dating it to rocky passages differing in size, and with its relation to past history, is a sort of crystal poem. In all these instances of natural harmony there may be said to be not only beauty but a certain](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21941373_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
