Petrification

“ The stormy petrel is known to be the smallest bird with webbed feet, consequently his smallness is to the ornithologist his chief distinction. He is no bigger than a sparrow, and when seen flying in the wake of a ship, gliding to and fro close to the surface, his small size, sharp-pointed, swallow-like wings, dark plumage, and snow-white rump, give him the appearance of the house-martin. Like other pelagic birds, the petrel when on the wing is perpetually seeking its food, and is seen to drop often on to the surface to pick up some floating particle from the water ”

“ None of these birds are known to breed anywhere along the east coast of England or Scotland. The typical Petrels may be readily identified by the sooty-black plumage, relieved by a patch of white across the rump and the upper tail-coverts. These small Petrels rarely alight upon the sea to swim notwithstanding their webbed feet. They flutter often close to the big waves, and may then be seen to drop their legs downwards and to pat the water with their feet, seeming sometimes literally to run down the glassy surface of some huge roller. ”

“ Solomon John had been very busy in inventing some fireworks. As Mrs. Peterkin objected to the use of gunpowder, he found out from the dictionary what the different parts of gunpowder are,—saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur. Charcoal, he discovered, they had in the wood-house; saltpetre they would find in the cellar, in the beef barrel; and sulphur they could buy at the apothecary's. He explained to his mother that these materials had never yet exploded in the house, and she was quieted. ”

“ There are many known breeding-places of this Petrel from the Scilly Islands northwards, along the west coast of England, Wales, and Scotland to the Shetlands, and many others round the coasts of Ireland. The favourite breeding haunts of the Stormy Petrel are rocky islands, rising in uneven turf-clad downs, strewn with masses of rock and stones. The bird probably pairs for life, and is more or less gregarious at its breeding-places. The slight nest of dry grass is placed in an old rabbit earth or Puffin burrow, under a rock or heap of loose stones, or in ruins, and amongst masonry. ”

“ In the midst of the rumble of water, he thought he heard a short splash; something dark went down in the white froth of the water, then rose to the surface near his boat—then sank and rose again not an arm’s length away. Peterkin peered over the edge to see what it was. He gasped and almost shrieked; it was a man! He reached down, made a wild grab at the floating jacket—pulled, tugged, hoisted—ouf! and he had the drowning one inside his Pumperkin. 114He gazed down into the face of the rescued. A loud cry escaped him. It was the Toothless Farmer! ”

“ The Petrel builds its nest, a rude structure of weeds and rubbish, either in the hole of a cliff or under stones on the beach, and lays a single egg. It rarely comes abroad by day, and if disturbed ejects from its mouth an oily matter, after the manner of the Fulmar. Towards evening it comes forth from its stronghold, and skims the sea in quest of food, which consists of floating animal matter of all kinds. ”

“ Some of them were petrels; they remained a long time skimming about the ship, and though they greedily devoured any fat substance thrown into the sea, all our endeavours to procure one failed. One species was the stormy petrel, which they say is seen all over the Atlantic Ocean. Some chopped straw being thrown overboard, we saw{5} them stand on it with expanded wings; but these birds never settle or swim in the water. They skim along with incredible rapidity in the hollows of the waves. It is to the stormy petrel that these two lines allude ”

“ Another whale? Peterkin rushed up his ladder, and ... oh, it was land!
Yes, directly ahead of him, the waves were combing into a high, frothy surf thundering down upon a stretch of yellow sands. Behind that, he could see tall trees spreading their broad palm leaves in tufts of brightest green; and a low hill of glistening rock, where purple flowers clung and orange-leaved vines were twining.
“Land!” cried Peterkin in rapture. “Land at last!”
Sure enough, the pumpkin boat gave a last leap in the swirl of the surf and came down on something firm and grating. ”

“ For the food of petrels, strange to say, is oil. At any rate, nothing else is found in their stomachs, but where the oil comes from—whether they collect it from the surface of the sea, or whether by some chemical process of their own they convert other material into oil—no one can say with certainty.
Oddly enough, too, the little stormy-petrel in its breeding haunts does not fly by day, but feeds its young at night; and here, again, reason is puzzled for an explanation. They lay their eggs in crevices of the rocks, in heaps of débris, or old rabbit-holes ”

“ And, evidently, when the “habitat” of such a creature was suddenly invaded by a siliceous crystalline solution, extinction of the animal and a petrifying investment of his abode would be simultaneous.
Lastly. If the objects here petrified had been vegetable in their extraction, should we not, with the aid of the microscope, be able to identify them? But this I have never yet succeeded in doing; yet all the petrified “woods” are well known. I have myself obtained slabs of the “acacia” from the coast of South Devon; of the “beech,” in Sussex; of coniferous wood almost everywhere. ”

“ Organisms living on land can, as a rule, become petrified only when their corpses fall accidentally into the water and are buried at the bottom in the hardening layers of mud. But this event depends upon very many conditions. We cannot therefore be astonished that by far the majority of petrifactions belong to organisms which have lived in the sea, and that of the inhabitants of the land proportionately only very few are preserved in a fossil state. ”

“ The stomach resembles a leather purse, four inches in length, and was much distended with fishes of various kinds, partially digested or entire. The œsophagus is capable of being greatly expanded. Some of the fishes were two and a half inches in length, and one in depth. The flesh of this Petrel was fat, but tough, with a strong smell, and unfit for food; for, on tasting it, as is my practice, I found it to resemble that of the porpoises. No difference is perceptible in the sexes. ”

“ I fancy that this narrow cove prescribes the proper limits of a sonnet; and when I count the lines of ripple within yonder projecting wall, there proves to be room for just fourteen. Nature meets our whims with such little fitnesses. The words which build these delicate structures of Petrarch’s are as soft and fine and close-textured as the sands upon this tiny beach, and their monotone, if such it be, is the monotone of the neighboring ocean. ”

“ Peterkin hunched his back and 66pushed against the bars. He was in the hall now—and free!
Neither he nor the little princess said a word for a long moment. Then she took his hand and placed into it a little vial of purple liquid.
“Guard this well,” she warned him. “It is the Water of 67Bounceability. Whenever you wish to leap over great heights, you have only to sip a little of it and then to bounce high up and away. And, alas, you have many heights to leap ere you are back in my royal father’s favor. ”

“ One of these brushed close past Peterkin's ear; the other, unable to arrest its headlong flight, went, as Peterkin, himself afterwards expressed it, "bash," into his arms with a sudden squeal, which was caused more by the force of the blow than the will of the animal, and both of them rolled violently down to the foot of the mound. No sooner was this reached than the little pig recovered its feet, tossed up its tail, and fled shrieking from the spot. ”

“ Petrels are archaic oceanic forms, with great powers of flight, dispersed throughout all the seas and oceans of the world, and some species apparently never resort to land except for the purpose of nidification, though nearly all are liable at times to be driven ashore, and often very far inland, by gales of wind. ”

“ The blue petrels which are seen throughout this immense ocean, and which now settled in flocks of several hundreds on the smooth surface of the water, were not worse fitted out against the cold than the pinguins. Their plumage was amazingly abundant, and increased their bulk in a great proportion; and two feathers instead of one, proceeded out of every root, lying within each other, and formed a very warm covering. As they are almost continually in the air, their wings are very strong, and of a great length to support them. ”

“ But now, ever flapping its winglets, I have marked the little bird, dusky all over save a single spot, the whiteness of which contrasts with the dark hue of the waters and the deep tone of the clear sky. Full of life and joy it moves to and fro, advances toward the ship, then shoots far away, gambols over the swelling waves, dives into their hollows, and twitters with delight as it perceives an object that will alleviate its hunger. Never fatigued, the tiny Petrels seldom alight, although at times their frail legs and feet seem to touch the crest of the foaming wave. ”

“ On the following day, as we lay all but becalmed, the storm petrels (Thalassidroma pelagica) appeared in great numbers, settling [14] on the water close to our stern, in flocks of twelve or fourteen, and feeding greedily on the rubbish thrown overboard. It seems that the natural food of these birds (which probably consists of the minute surface organisms) is not within their reach when the surface of the water is unbroken, and hence during calms they are more than commonly anxious to avail themselves of any offal thrown overboard. ”

“ Petrosilex and felsite are more generally porphyritic than any other rocks; and they are commonly called porphyry. It is better, however, since almost any rock may be porphyritic, and since this texture cannot be correlated with any particular composition, not to use porphyry as a rock-name, but simply as the name of a very important rock-texture. The banded and porphyritic textures are about equally characteristic of petrosilex and felsite. In petrosilex, quartz, as well as feldspar, is sometimes porphyritically developed, forming the variety known as quartz-porphyry. ”

“ Nor is this the only power of the kind which these petrels possess, for they are able to eject their excrement to a quite astonishing distance—greater even, perhaps, than that to which the cormorant or shag attains in this art—at least it seems so at the time. This power is fully developed in the chick—by whom, indeed, it is the more needed—and I notice that the rock where each one lies is clean enough, though all round about it is whitened. ”

“ With regard to the incrustations: they are nothing more nor less than petrifactions (as they are called) , made exactly in the same manner as other petrifactions, by the deposition of the earthy carbonates. The difference in colour from other petrifactions arises from the difference in the composition of the Sprudel water and the water in other parts, where the white incrustations are formed. The Sprudel contains a small quantity of the carbonate of iron. This is deposited with the carbonates of lime and magnesia; and hence the brown colour. ”

“ Mirestone hurried after the Dutchman. Jerking at the halter the goat bleated in agony, prancing up and down frantically. Its eyes grew horribly bloodshot and finally closed. With a feeble, choking sigh, the animal dropped over on its side, its legs still twitching spasmodically. Mirestone bent over the hairy form and examined the head, now wet with perspiration.
"Nothing can be done for the beast?"
"No." Peter looked on with a touch of pity in his eyes, "Nothing can be done once the feather has turned red." ”

“ But the struggle was too exciting for her, and the flying insects seemed to increase. Moths of every description—large brown moths, small, delicate white millers—whirled about her, while the irritating hum of the mosquito kept on more than ever. Mr. Peterkin and the rest of the family came in to inquire about the trouble. It was discovered that each of the little boys had been standing in the opening of a wire door for some time, watching to see when Elizabeth Eliza would have made her preparations and would begin to write. ”

“ And with that it dived deep under the pumpkin boat and came up on the other side. “Haw, haw,” it chuckled—as only a whale can chuckle—“what bully good sport! Just to look at that little man who is peeking out over the side of this yellow ball! Just to see how surprised he looks to find me over here, where he didn’t expect me to be! Haw, haw!” And the whale gave another frolicsome wiggle to his tail—nearly upsetting the Pumperkin again.
As for Peterkin, he was chattering with fear. He did not know what was coming next! Perhaps the whale was about to swallow him for breakfast. ”

“ Next night Peterkin lay awake a long time, hoping to see the moonshine-folk again. He had spoken of them, but was told that there were no little people in the poplar. At first this was the more strange to him, for had he not seen them? Then, after he had scrupulously examined the branches from beneath as well as at a distance, he comforted himself with the thought that, while there might be no little14 people actually living in the poplar, they came into the tree on the flood of the moonshine. ”

“ Some of the far-southern species are almost as big as albatrosses. Petrels get their food from both the waves and the shore and follow ships on long voyages in hope of scraps of flesh thrown overboard. Most of them breed in holes dug in the topsoil of sea-fronting cliffs, and lay white eggs; many hide in these holes by day, and go out only at night, filling the air with wild cries while they hunt ”

“ Peterkin ungratefully said it tasted of anything but coffee. The chemist was not discouraged. He put in a little belladonna and atropine, some granulated hydrogen, some potash, and a very little antimony, finishing off with a little pure carbon. But still Mrs. Peterkin was not satisfied.
The chemist said that all he had done ought to have taken out the salt. The theory remained the same, although the experiment had failed. Perhaps a little starch would have some effect. If not, that was all the time he could give. He should like to be paid, and go. ”