The
Excitement From The Novelty Of Objects, And The Chance Of
Success, Stimulate Him To Increased Activity.
Moreover, as a
number of isolated facts soon become uninteresting, the
habit of comparison leads to generalization.
On the other
hand, as the traveller stays but a short time in each place,
his descriptions must generally consist of mere sketches,
instead of detailed observations. Hence arises, as I have found
to my cost, a constant tendency to fill up the wide gaps of
knowledge, by inaccurate and superficial hypotheses.
But I have too deeply enjoyed the voyage, not to recommend
any naturalist, although he must not expect to be so
fortunate in his companions as I have been, to take all
chances, and to start, on travels by land if possible, if
otherwise, on a long voyage. He may feel assured, he will meet
with no difficulties or dangers, excepting in rare cases, nearly
so bad as he beforehand anticipates. In a moral point of
view, the effect ought to be, to teach him good-humoured
patience, freedom from selfishness, the habit of acting for
himself, and of making the best of every occurrence. In
short, he ought to partake of the characteristic qualities of
most sailors. Travelling ought also to teach him distrust; but
at the same time he will discover, how many truly kind-hearted
people there are, with whom he never before had, or ever again
will have any further communication, who yet are ready to offer
him the most disinterested assistance.
[1] After the volumes of eloquence which have poured forth on
this subject, it is dangerous even to mention the tomb. A
modern traveller, in twelve lines, burdens the poor little
island with the following titles, - it is a grave, tomb,
pyramid, cemetery, sepulchre, catacomb, sarcophagus, minaret,
and mausoleum!
[2] It deserves notice, that all the many specimens of this
shell found by me in one spot, differ as a marked variety,
from another set of specimens procured from a different spot.
[3] Beatson's St. Helena. Introductory chapter, p. 4.
[4] Among these few insects, I was surprised to find a small
Aphodius (nov. spec.) and an Oryctes, both extremely numerous
under dung. When the island was discovered it certainly
possessed no quadruped, excepting perhaps a mouse: it becomes,
therefore, a difficult point to ascertain, whether these
stercovorous insects have since been imported by accident, or if
aborigines, on what food they formerly subsisted. On the banks
of the Plata, where, from the vast number of cattle and horses,
the fine plains of turf are richly manured, it is vain to seek
the many kinds of dung-feeding beetles, which occur so
abundantly in Europe. I observed only an Oryctes (the insects of
this genus in Europe generally feed on decayed vegetable matter)
and two species of Phanaeus, common in such situations. On the
opposite side of the Cordillera in Chiloe, another species of
Phanaeus is exceedingly abundant, and it buries the dung of the
cattle in large earthen balls beneath the ground.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 401 of 402
Words from 207392 to 207896
of 208183
