Curiosities of Natural History: Second series |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Ammonites ancient animal appearance bait baleen beautiful birds boat body boiled bones boring bottom brick Bridgewater Treatise Brighton British British Museum Buckland called catch caught cement Cheirotherium claws color congers coprolites covered crabs creatures crow curious cuttle-fish eagle eels feet fish fishermen floating Folkestone foot formed fossil gamekeeper gigantic hair harbor hard head hedgehog holes Hungerford Market hyæna Ichthyosaurus inches iron keeper killed live lobster London look Lyme Regis magpie marks mermaid mouth Museum natural nets never numerous observed Oxford pheasants Pholas pipe pouters prawns preserved probably Professor Quekett Pterodactyle rabbit remains remarkable rocks Roman round sand seen shell ships shore shot side skeleton skin skull smell soft species specimens sperm whale stoat stone tail teeth Teredo things tide tion Weymouth whale whalebone wood worm young
Popular passages
Page xxii - But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Page 46 - And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.
Page 45 - And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
Page 208 - MOURN, Ammonites, mourn o'er his funeral urn, Whose neck ye must grace no more; Gneiss, granite, and slate, he settled your date, And his ye must now deplore. Weep, caverns, weep with unfiltering drip, Your recesses he'll cease to explore ; For mineral veins and organic remains No stratum again will he bore.
Page 36 - And they came at last, to a sea long past, But as they reached its shore, The Almighty's breath spoke out in death. And the ammonite lived no more!
Page 160 - Whence came this royal bird, and whither did he wend his way ? " His history was as follows. Early in 1848 a white-tailed sea eagle was brought to London in a Scotch steamer, cooped up in a crib used for wine bottles, and presenting a most melancholy and forlorn appearance. A gentleman, seeing him in this woeful plight, took pity on him, purchased him, and took him to Oxford; he being duly labeled at the Great Western Station,
Page 48 - And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. 11 Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet not ought of your work shall be diminished.
Page 161 - The mystery was not, however, cleared up for three days; when a large lump of hedgehog's bristles and bones, rejected by the bird, at once explained the nature of his meal. He had doubtless caught the unlucky hedge-pig (as it is called in Oxfordshire) when on his rounds in search of food ; and, in spite of his formidable armor of bristles, had managed to uncoil him with his sharp bill, and to devour him.
Page 296 - Northern Seas can hardly be doubted ; and though some accounts may have been much exaggerated, yet there is sufficient cause for believing that such species may very far surpass all that are generally observed about the coasts of European Seas. A...
Page 290 - Cuvier drew his figures of the recent Sepia with ink extracted from its own body. I have drawings of the remains of extinct species prepared also with their own ink; with this fossil ink I might record the fact, and explain the causes of its wonderful preservation. I might register the proofs of instantaneous death detected in these ink-bags, for they contain the fluid which the living sepia emits in the moment of alarm ; and might detail further evidence of their immediate burial, in the retention...