Moabites

“ Many grain fields are found throughout this territory; but like Gilead, Moab is pre-eminently the land of the herdsman and the shepherd. In the wadies which run down to the Dead Sea thousands of camels are bred, while on the hills above are seen at every point flocks of cattle, sheep, and goats.
Its Fertility and Water Supply. In the spring-time the upland fields are masses of green, which almost conceal the stones and outcrop of rock. The marvel is that any vegetation is found in a land thus bounded, on the west by the Sea of Death and on the east by the rocky desert. ”

“ We descended into the valley of a winter stream, now filled with patches of sparse wheat, just beginning to ripen. The mountains grew more bleak and desolate as we advanced, and as there is a regular descent in the several ranges over which one must pass, the distant hills of the lands of Moab and Ammon were always in sight, rising like a high, blue wall against the sky. ”

“ Occasionally a massive head, with sharp formidable tusks, peers above the surface, and then the gleam of fins and scales reveals a creature some twenty or thirty feet long. Glancing down into the clearer spots, we can detect many other forms of the finny tribes, all cased in a strong glistening armature of scales, and darting about with ceaseless activity. Beyond this scene of almost tropical luxuriance, on the one side, lies the blue ocean, with its countless shells and corals, its stone-lilies and sea-urchins, and its large predaceous fish ”

“ The richness of its soil, its magnificent forests, its numberless navigable streams, its salt springs and licks, its saltpetre caves, its coal strata, and the vast herds of buffaloes and deer that browsed on its hills and amidst its charming valleys, afforded ample inducements to the new settler, who pushed forward with a spirit far above that of the most undaunted tribes, which for ages had been the sole possessors of the soil. ”

“ With a cluster of colored petals swaying in the breeze, one may at times bridge centuries or span the earth.
And now as I sit writing these words in my jungle laboratory, a small dusky hand steals around an aquarium and deposits a beautiful spray of orchids on my table. The little face appears, and I can distinguish the high cheek bones of Indian blood, the flattened nose and slight kink of negro, and the faint trace of white—probably of some long forgotten Dutch sailor, who came and went to Guiana, while New York City was still a browsing ground for moose. ”

“ Within the Mohave region the principal faunal localities are indicated as follows: B, Barstow fauna; R, Ricardo fauna; M, Manix fauna.
Characteristic View of the Mohave Desert in the Vicinity of the Fossil Beds. (Photograph by C. L. Baker.) not alone for the desire of gain, but because the fascination of the desert always increases. The traveler is inevitably deeply influenced by the uncertain magnitude of distance, by the silence, and the unusual forms and brilliance of the landscape by day and night. ”

“ Our path lay through extensive and fertile meadows, stretching away to the distant horizon, and bounded sometimes by the verge of the sky, and sometimes by the margin of a forest. The elk, the deer, and the bison, the indigenous inhabitants of these delightful meadows, had been long since driven away by the incursions of the white settlers, scattered at remote intervals on the borders of the forests. The dense and uniform growth of grass had risen untrodden and uncropped, and was now waving with ceaseless undulations, as the wind swept lightly over the surface of the plain. ”

“ The variety of the fauna is explained by the physical configuration of the region, where a walk of a few hours will carry one from the green sod of meadows intersected by rice-fields to the inaccessible precipices of the granitic mountains, from the sea-shore jungles of bamboo and the rich, tropical vegetation of the coasts to immense virgin forests and the stiff and dark pines of the mountain-sides. ”

“ This was the kind of man that was at home there; for, as near as I can learn, that has never been the residence, but rather the hunting-ground of the Indian. The moose will perhaps one day become extinct; but how naturally then, when it exists only as a fossil relic, and unseen as that, may the poet or sculptor invent a fabulous animal with similar branching and leafy horns,—a sort of fucus or lichen in bone,—to be the inhabitant of such a forest as this! ”

“ They resort to the uninhabited islands over the globe, rocks that always remain above water, and the unfrequented shores of Africa and elsewhere; there they congregate to breed and bring up their young. I have seen twenty or thirty acres of land completely covered with these birds or their nests, wedged together as close as they could sit. Every year they resort to the same spot, which has probably been their domicile for centuries,—I might say since the creation. They make no nests, but merely scrape so as to form a shallow hole to deposit their eggs. ”

“ Some are dwellers in the arid recesses of the desert; while others affect the most fertile pastures, or the deepest shades of the thick forest. Others, again, find their home amidst the sedge on the banks of lakes and rivers, passing half their time in the water; while several species—as the Chamois of Europe and the Klipspringer of South Africa—dwell in the mountains, making their way among cliffs and ravines, with an agility scarce equalled by any other animal. ”

“ We have as yet passed no ancient forest; young jungle, mixed with bamboos, cover the banks. The water to-day has, on the whole, been very shallow, and we had to use great exertions occasionally to get the boats over the rapids.
Just before dusk, a man shouted out that there were moose-deer in the island. We instituted a very active search, but the cunning animals hid themselves away in the long grass and brushwood, so that without [53] dogs they were not to be found, and swimming exceedingly well, they always take to the water when pursued. ”

“ We saw some fresh moose tracks along the shore, but the Indian said that the moose were not driven out of the woods by the flies, as usual at this season, on account of the abundance of water everywhere. The stream was only from one and one half to three rods wide, quite winding, with occasional small islands, meadows, and some very swift and shallow places. When we came to an island, the Indian never hesitated which side to take, as if the current told him which was the shortest and deepest. ”

“ Different tribes of shells live in different waters. Some love the "full-fed river winding slow," some the swift and crystal chalk-stream. Some only flourish just over the spots where the springs come bubbling up from the inner cisterns of earth, and breathe, as it were, the freshness of these untainted waters; others love the rich, fat mud, others the sides of wearings and piles, others the river-jungles where the course is choked with weeds. ”

“ One finds that species and their distribution are determined largely by food, climate and physical conditions. The mountain goat, the camel of the desert, the river beaver, the wading and swimming birds, the antelope of the plains, the apes of the jungle, the reindeer and polar bear in the arctic, the coral in the warm seas—many of their adaptations are determined by the geography of their homes. ”

“ In Africa she is said often to nest under stones, but in the Malay Archipelago we hear of her kinswoman in houses. From one end of the world to the other she has the same tastes—Spiders, mud cells, and the shelter of a man’s roof. ”

“ Emerging from the forest we broke upon a beautiful plain of fine low grass, bounded on our right hand by jungle. This being the cool hour of evening, the plain was alive with game, including buffaloes, zebras, and many varieties of large antelopes. It was a most enlivening sight to see them scouring over the plain as we advanced; but our large party, and three red flags streaming in the breeze, effectually prevented us from getting sufficiently near for a shot. ”

“ All the country from the banks of the river to the hills, a distance of about eight or nine miles, and the whole surface of this mountain range, is covered with brown iron-ore and aërolites; where they occur in the greatest abundance, vegetation is scanty and consists principally of bamboo, but it is rich and varied in those places where the detritus has formed a thicker surface of soil. The dense forests furnish gum and oil, which would be valuable for commerce if the indolent natives could be prevailed on to collect them. They are, however, infested with leopards, tigers, and tiger-cats. ”

“ All these tribes are excellent hunters. The moose in the south and wooded country, the reindeer in the barren lands, ducks and geese in vast numbers during the summer, and, generally speaking, inexhaustible fish in the lakes yield them their means of living. At times, one prodigious feast; again, a period of starvation.
For a time living on moose nose, or buffalo tongue, or daintiest tit-bit of lake and forest; and then glad to get a scrap of dry meat, or a putrid fish to satisfy the cravings of their hunger. While the meat lasts, life is a long dinner. ”

“ Though the wilderness may appear a desert solitude, bare and empty of all life, let only a few hours go by and the sun change its position a little, and already one sees movement under the trees and bushes that have been till now casting deep shadows. Then with measured steps, prudently regardful of their safety, all kinds of animals come forth to graze. We see the different wild species appearing, at first a few individuals, and soon in greater or smaller herds. ”

“ Had the reptiles sprung from fishes, why, upon the principle of progression, should there be fishes still? Had man derived his parentage from the monkey, why are there so many species of the one class, and only a single great family of the other? The vegetable tribes have been equally true to their kind—the fucoids and algæ, still abundant in the seas—the pines of Mar forest, rivaling in coniferous qualities the most gigantic of the oldest relics—and the palms and fern trees of Australia maintaining the very types that flourished in the carboniferous era. ”

“ One had but to look an instant to realize that the jungle was alive with lizards, black, green, and gray, all motionless on limb or root, staring at the explorers with bright beady eyes—to flash into a green streak of movement at the first motion to catch them. ”

“ It is difficult, even in contemplation, to anticipate the time when we shall be entitled to make any other hypothesis in regard to all the marine tribes, and to by far the greater number of the terrestrial;—such as birds, which possess such unlimited powers of migration; insects, which, besides the variability of each species in number, are also so capable of being diffused to vast distances; and cryptogamous plants, to which, as to many other classes, both of the animal and vegetable kingdom, similar observations are applicable. ”

“ The principle of adaptation above alluded to, appears to have been analogous to that which now peoples the arctic, temperate, and tropical regions contemporaneously with distinct assemblages of species and genera, or which independently of mere temperature gives rise to a predominance of the marsupial tribe of quadrupeds in Australia, and of the placental tribe in Asia and Europe, or to a profusion of reptiles without mammalia in the Galapagos Archipelago, and of mammalia without reptiles in Greenland. ”

“ When the bamboo forests and the straggling palms come in view, he will remember with great contentment that he is in the tropics indeed. The birds and the butterflies are shy of the noise and mess of the locomotive, but still the traveller may see enough of the beauty of the fluttering insects to teach him something of the loveliness which is born beneath the shelter of tropical foliage. ”

“ In the hot days of the summer, they go and watch in the night at the salt licks. Another mode of killing the deer; they take slivers of basswood bark and proceed to the place and obtain a canoe and go into the river or lake in the night, provided with a light of slivers.—The bear, elk and buffalo, were found in the territory of the Five Nations.—The moose inhabit the spruce country and the heads of the Mohawk river; this country was never inhabited by any kind of people in the winter season; the snow fell so deep it was supposed that country would always remain a wilderness. ”

“ In Continental Africa, more especially in the south and west, we find, along with much that is peculiar, a number of genera showing a decided Oriental, and others with an equally strong South American affinity; this latter more particularly showing itself among reptiles and insects. 2. All over Africa, but more especially in the east, we have abundance of large ungulates and felines—antelopes, giraffes, buffaloes, elephants, and rhinoceroses, with lions, leopards, and hyænas, all of types now or recently found in India and Western Asia. ”

“ The Indians informed me, that, at a very small distance from either bank of the river, are very extensive plains, frequented by large herds of buffaloes; while the moose and rein-deer keep in the woods that border on it. The beavers, which are in great numbers, build their habitations in the small lakes and {202} rivers, as, in the larger streams, the ice carries every thing along with it, during the spring. The mud-banks in the river are covered with wild fowl; and we this morning killed two swans, ten geese, and one beaver, without suffering the delay of an hour ”

“ Insects, preserved by the bark, propagated themselves in new surroundings, and seeds drifting on the waves, or clinging to roots and fibres, wreathed unfamiliar shores with exotic flowers. Animal migration has frequently been caused by natural catastrophes, and to birds directing their swift flight by faculties now attributed to keen observation rather than to unreasoning instinct, the change of locality was infinitely simplified. In the Moluccas we may read a compendium of the wide-spread history which applies to the vast regions comprised in the mighty Archipelago. ”