Charles Surface

“ Charles and Joseph Surface are much more effective together than either of them would be alone. The whole-hearted and happy-go-lucky recklessness of the one sets off the smooth and smug dissimulation of the other ”

“ All our communities cover equal surface space, a square fifteen hundred by fifteen hundred terrestrial feet or 2,250,000 square feet. All the communities except those adjoining the center oval are bordered into exact squares by hedges, even though the buildings within may be laid out in different shapes, so as to make the entire plan symmetrical and harmonious. ”

“ It was remarked that the same species of organic remains cannot be traced horizontally, or in the direction of the planes of stratification for indefinite distances. This might have been expected from analogy; for when we inquire into the present distribution of living beings, we find that the habitable surface of the sea and land may be divided into a considerable number of distinct provinces, each peopled by a peculiar assemblage of animals and plants. In the Principles of Geology, I have endeavoured to point out the extent and probable origin of these separate divisions ”

“ If by a continued series of elevatory movements, such masses shall hereafter be brought up to the surface, in the same manner as sedimentary marine strata have, in the course of ages, been upheaved to the summit of the loftiest mountains, it is not difficult to foresee what perplexing problems may be presented to the geologist. ”

“ A characteristic feature of the deposits under consideration in all these countries is the occurrence of large erratic blocks, and sometimes of moraine matter, in situations remote from lofty mountains, and separated from the nearest points where the parent rocks appear at the surface by great intervening valleys, or arms of the sea. ”

“ There must have been a subsidence of the forest to the amount of 400 or 500 feet, and a re-elevation of the same to an equal extent in order to allow the ancient surface of the chalk or covering of soil, on which the forest grew, to be first covered with several hundred feet of drift, and then upheaved so that the trees should reach their present level. Although the relative antiquity of the forest-bed to the overlying glacial till is clear, there is some difference of opinion as to its relation to the crag presently to be described. ”

“ Yet, however uniform and horizontal may be the surface of new deposits in general, there are still many disturbing causes, such as eddies in the water, and currents moving first in one and then in another direction, which frequently cause irregularities. We may sometimes follow a bed of limestone, shale, or sandstone, for a distance of many hundred yards continuously ”

“ The mere distance of hills or mountains need not discourage us from making trials; for the waters which fall on these higher lands readily penetrate to great depths through highly inclined or vertical strata, or through the fissures of shattered rocks, and after flowing for a great distance, must often reascend and be brought up again by other fissures, so as to approach the surface in the lower country. ”

“ Whenever the surface of the underlying rock has been exposed by the removal of the superficial detritus, a polished and furrowed surface is seen, like that underneath a glacier, the direction of the furrows being from north-west to south-east, or corresponding to the course of the large erratics. ”

“ It is one of those exquisite May mornings when the rolling prairies of Western Kansas seem swimming in a soft, hazy light, and the mirage on the horizon looks like a glassy sea. The springy turf is tinted with the hues of myriads of wild flowers, purple, pale blue, and creamy white; the mountain breeze that is already whirling the dust-clouds on the Denver plains has not yet begun to ruffle the cottonwoods or the placid surface of the slow-moving stream, and in many a sheltered pool the waters of the "Smoky Hill" gleam like silvered mirror, without break or flaw. ”

“ If the upper surface of a hard stony stratum be uncovered, whether artificially in a quarry, or by waves at the foot of a cliff, it is easy to determine towards what point of the compass the slope is steepest, or in what direction water would flow if poured upon it. ”

“ When the forms of these horizontal grooves, of which the surface is sometimes smooth and almost polished, and the roofs of which often overhang to the extent of 5 feet or more, have been carefully studied by geologists, they will serve to testify the former action of the waves at innumerable points far in the interior of the continents. ”

“ In considering alterations of this kind, brought about in the physical geography of particular tracts, we are too apt to think exclusively of that part of the earth's surface which has emerged from beneath the waters, and with which alone, as terrestrial beings, we are familiar. ”

“ F. This is the surface-plain, and is continuously united with that which stretches like a fringe along the coast. In ascending the valley it gradually becomes narrower, and is at last, at the distance of about ten miles from the sea, reduced to a row of flat-topped patches on the sides of the mountains. None of the lower terraces extend so far up the valley.
These five terraces are formed of shingle and sand; three of them, as marked by Captain B. Hall (namely, B, C, and F) , are much more conspicuous than the others. ”

“ Feeling as one about to die; feeling as if death, in that awful moment, might be a boon, rather than the contrary, Charles sped down the east quadrangle, and turned into the north. At the extremity of the north side, forming the angle between it and the west, commenced the narrow passage similar to the one he had just traversed, which led to the west gate of entrance. ”

“ In the shallow parts of many Swiss lakes, where there is a depth of no more than from 5 to 15 feet of water, ancient wooden piles are observed at the bottom sometimes worn down to the surface of the mud, sometimes projecting slightly above it. ”

“ Away beyond the garden, far as eye could reach, stretched wood and dale and fair green meadows, where the sheep cropped at the sweet turf and the cows{6} grazed, whisking away the tiresome flies with their great tails as they moved slowly along. Here and there among the leafy hedgerows and coppices, the little boy, whose Christian name was Charles, could see from his lofty watch-place the gleaming of a stream which wound like a silver ribbon on and on, nearer and nearer, till it reached the little wood covering the wide, sloping banks which shut in the road leading past the house. ”

“ M. always stands for angular or trigonometrical measurement. Ba. M. always stands for barometrical measurement. Est. always stands for estimation by the Officers of the Survey.
DIAGRAM 1. SECTION OF STEP-FORMED PLAINS SOUTH OF NUEVO GULF.
From East (sea level) to West (high) : Terrace 1. 80 Est. Terrace 2. 200-220 An. M. Terrace 3. 350 An. M.)
The upper plain is here well defined (called Table Hills) ; its edge forms a cliff or line of escarpment many miles in length, projecting over a lower plain. The lowest plain corresponds with that at San Josef with the recent shells on its surface. ”

“ The round of pleasure, and the expenses of those citizens' tables, are much superior to what you would imagine: indeed the growth of this town and province has been astonishingly rapid. It is pity that the narrowness of the neck on which it stands prevents it from increasing; and which is the reason why houses are so dear. The heat of the climate, which is sometimes very great in the interior parts of the country, is always temperate in Charles-Town; though sometimes when they have no sea breezes the sun is too powerful. ”

“ And probably nothing but village talk, all of it. Prejudice and dislike: I'll close my mind to it.
When she had finished unpacking, she spent the day in not unpleasant exploration. There was a savage beauty in that barren spot that somehow explained the hold it had on Charles. She followed the little ravine leading from the house to the sea, and clambered over the rocks tumbled about the water's edge.
Charles found her standing there, gazing out to sea, her hair blown straight back by the strong salt wind. When she heard his voice she turned and held out her hands. Her face was alight. ”

“ While other boys were ranging through the woods in pursuit of bird-nests, Charles would stretch himself on a smooth-faced rock, and pore on the adjacent landscape like one half crazed. To retire into a lonely wood behind his father's house, and teach a little brook, which ran through it, to take a thousand fantastic forms, was to Charles the sweetest recreation he could enjoy. The perpetual wings of time had now spread fifteen or [Pg 32] sixteen winters over the vale of Kentmere, since the stone rolled into Hawes Water, and Charles was grown a tall and graceful boy. ”

“ Here a lofty headland, approaching from the interior, advances upon the river and forces it into a narrow channel of three-fourths of a mile in width. The river St. Charles, a small stream flowing from the northwest, uniting here with the St. Lawrence, forms a basin below the promontory, spreading out two miles in one direction and four in another. The rocky headland, jutting out upon the river, rises up nearly perpendicularly, and to a height of three hundred and forty-five feet, commanding from its summit a view of water, forest and mountain of surpassing grandeur and beauty. ”

“ The necessity for a good ground being so great, as the process became more and more general in England, a race of professional ground-layers grew up, who were paid at a certain rate per square inch for the surface thus covered. ”

“ Our intelligence must be extracted from ill-spelled, closely scrawled, and much erased sheets of brown paper, on which Charles has scribbled drafts for letters to his household, to Waters, his banker in Paris, to adherents in Paris or London, and to ladies. ”

“ But if we limit ourselves to {218} surfaces of revolution (that is to say, to surfaces symmetrical about an axis) , we find, as Plateau was the first to shew, that those which meet the case are very few in number. They are six in all, namely the plane, the sphere, the cylinder, the catenoid, the unduloid, and a curious surface which Plateau called the nodoid. ”

“ Such was his habit of ordering and arranging all things, that Charles not only undertook to regulate the affairs of men, and redress the inequalities of their several destinies, but he took into his consideration the inequalities of the several climates of the earth, and very seriously occupied himself with redressing their anomalies. ”

“ The region designed for the existence of man, and of every other creature endowed with organic life, as well as the sphere open to the preception of man's senses, is confined to a limited space between the upper and lower parts of the earth, exceedingly small in proportion to the diameter, or even semi-diameter of the earth, and forming only the exterior surface, or outer skin, of the great body of the earth. ”

“ The strata being found as regular on one side of a rivulet, river, deep valley or channel as on the other, over an extent of many miles, when proper allowance is made for the inclination, and for the variation of the surface, is it not reasonable to suppose that the same strata may be found as regular on one side of the sea or ocean as on opposite sides of a deep valley upon land, and if so, and the continuation of the strata is general, what is their general direction or drift? ”

“ The eastern part of King Charles's South Land is low, with plains like the Patagonian coast; but the range of high land crossing the Strait at Port Famine extends down the north side of Admiralty Sound, and, perhaps with some few interruptions, continues to the south-east extremity of the land, at Cape Good Success, which is the south cape of the west side of Strait Le Maire, and there terminates in lofty mountains covered with snow, one of which, called in the charts 'The Sugar-loaf,' is probably four thousand feet high. ”

“ Then he saw that the links of the chain were equally useless, and as he gave the grating a push they all rattled and fell helplessly to the ground.
For a moment more the gate stuck hard, but with another tremendous push of Charles’s shoulder, it yielded with a screech, and swung back as far as a heap of mud and rotten leaves allowed it to go, and this was far enough to allow of Charles’s slender little body squeezing through.
When he got outside, he found himself—where? Ah! that was the puzzle of it. That he was beyond the moat of course he knew, but was he beyond the garden walls? ”

“ The manner in which the soil is influenced by a difference in the arrangement and position of the strata, will become evident, on comparing districts in which one particular sort of rock lies beneath the surface in horizontal strata, with others in which the solid substratum is composed of various rocks differing in their inclination towards the horizon. ”

“ The tendency of the primary strata to remain straight in the horizontal direction, and to be bent in the vertical, is a phenomenon which points very directly to the causes from whence it has arisen. A surface of simple curvature, or a surface straight in one direction, is - 231 - what the application of forces to different points of a plane, which is flexible, though with a certain degree of rigidity, will naturally produce. ”

“ Vertical strata, when they can be traced continuously upwards or downwards for some depth, are almost invariably seen to be parts of great curves, which may have a diameter of a few yards, or of several miles. ”

“ The older the strata are, the more uniform is each of them over a great extent; the newer they are, the more limited are they, and the more subject to vary at small distances. Thus the displacements of the strata were accompanied and followed by changes in the nature of the fluid, and of the matters which it held in solution; and when certain strata, by making their appearance above the waters, had divided the surface of the seas by islands and projecting ridges, different changes might take place in particular basins. ”