Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

Most insects become torpid when their temperature is much reduced. When it approaches the freezing point, they fall into a deep lethargy, and in that state require no food. Ants present a remarkable exception to this rule; for they are not benumbed till the thermometer has sunk to 27° of Fahrenheit, or 5 degrees below the freezing point. They therefore have need of a supply of provisions during the greatest part of the winter; although it is true that they are satisfied with much less than in summer. Their principal resource, however, under these circumstances, is still the same, namely, the honey of the aphis; which natural secretion appears to be expressly designed for the subsistence of ants. What confirms this view of the intentions of nature is, that the aphis becomes torpid at precisely the same temperature as the ant; a coincidence which it is hardly possible to attribute to mere chance. The winter haunts of the aphis, which are chiefly the roots of trees and shrubs, are well known to their pursuers; and when the cold is not excessive, they regularly go out to seek their accustomed supply from these insects. Some species of ants have even sufficient foresight to obviate the necessity of these journies; they bring these animals to their own nests, where they lodge them near the vegetables on which they feed; while the domestic ants prevent them from stirring out, guarding them with great care, and defending them with as much zeal as they do their own young.

The accounts given of ants inhabiting other climates, sufficiently show what formidable power they acquire when the efforts of numbers are combined. M. Malonet mentions, in his account of his travels through the forests of Guyana, his arriving at a savannah, extending in a level plain beyond the visible horizon, and in which he beheld a structure that appeared to have been raised by human industry. M. de Prefontaine, who accompanied him in the expedition, informed him that it was an ant hill, which they

could not approach without danger of being devoured. They passed some of the paths frequented by the labourers, which belonged to a very large species of black ants. The nest they had constructed, which had the form of a truncated pyramid, appeared to be from fifteen to twenty feet in height, on a base of thirty or forty feet. He was told that when the new settlers, in their attempts to clear the country, happened to meet with any of these fortresses, they were obliged to abandon the spot, unless they could muster sufficient forces to lay regular siege to the enemy. This they did by digging a circular trench all round the nest, and filling it with a large quantity of dried wood, to the whole of which they set fire at the same time, by lighting it in different parts all round the circumference. While the entrenchments are blazing, the edifice may be destroyed by firing at it with cannon; and the ants being by this means dispersed, have no avenue for escape, except through the flames, in which they perish. The narrations of Mr. Smeathman (Phil. Tran. vol. lxxi, p. 139), relative to the white ant of Africa, are also calculated to raise our ideas of the magnitude of these republics of insects, which must surpass the largest empire in the numbers of their population'.

The maritime plants which flower in July are the club rush (scirpus maritimus), bearded cat's tail grass (phleum crinitum), bulbous fox tail grass (alopecurus bulbosus), the reflexed and creeping meadow grass (poa distans and maritima), the field eryngo (eryngium campestre), parsley water drop-wort (ananthe pimpinelloides), smooth sea-heath (frankenia lævis), and the golden dock (rumex maritimus); all of which are to be found in salt marshes.

For much curious information relative to the manners and habits of ants, see M. Huber's Recherches sur les Maurs des Fourmis Indigènes, Paris, 1810; and a very able analysis of this work, in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xx, p. 143.

On sandy shores may be seen the sea-mat weed (arundo arenaria), upright sea-lime grass (elymus arenarius), the sea lungwort (pulmonaria maritima), the sea bind-weed (convolvulus soldanella), saltwort (salsola), sea-holly (eryngium maritimum): prickly samphire (echinophora spinosa), and the sea-lavender (statice limonium), are found on maritime rocks; and the sea pea (pisum maritimum) on rocky shores.

+

About the middle of this month, pilchards (clupea pilchardus) appear in vast shoals off the Cornish coasts. In August 1808, the greatest abundance of fish ever known, particularly pilchards, were caught in Mount's Bay. Upwards of 10,000 hogsheads were landed at St. Ives, and sold for ten-pence the cartload, for manure. Turbot fetched only from one penny to two-pence per pound, and the inferior fish were not worth catching. In September 1811, upwards of 1200 hogsheads of fine pilchards were caught off Fowey; a large quantity has also been taken in Whitsund Bay, adjoining Plymouth. The glut was so great, that they sold at three-pence per hundred. The Seans at Mevagessey, in September 1812, inclosed a thousand hogsheads, and one boat at Newlyn had six hundred hakes on board, which sold for two shillings and nine-pence, a burn, of twentyone fish. Pilchards form a great article of food when corn is scarce, and are very extensively used as a manure: they also furnish a large quantity of oil. This fish disappears at the approach of winter.

The farmer's labours, in this month, are various and important. In the southern parts of the island, the corn harvest commences; but August is, generally, dedicated to this grateful employment; though, in some districts, the work of the sickle is protracted till September or even October. The hay-harvest in the north is generally completed in July. Flax and hemp are pulled in this month.

[graphic][ocr errors][merged small]

SEXTILIS was the antient Roman name of this month, being the sixth from March. The Emperor Augustus changed this name, and gave it his own, because in this month Cæsar Augustus took possession of his first consulship, celebrated three triumphs, reduced Egypt under the power of the Roman people, and put an end to all civil wars.

August shall bear the form of a young man of a fierce and coleric aspect, in a flame coloured garment; upon his head a garland of wheat and rie; upon his arm a basket of all manner of ripe fruits, as peares, plums, apples, gooseberries: at his belt (as our Spencer describeth him) a sickle, bearing the sign Virgo.' (Peacham, 419, 20.) August they called arn-monat (more rightly barn-monat), intending thereby the then filling of their barnes with corne.' (Verstegan, p. 61.)

Remarkable Days.

1.-LAMMAS DAY.

THIS day, in the Romish church, is generally called St. Peter in the Fetters, in commemoration of this apostle's imprisonment. Some imagine that it was named Lammas Day, from St. Peter's being patron of the lambs, as our Saviour gave him this particular charge, Feed my Lambs. It is most probably derived from an old Saxon term, signifying LoafMass; as it was customary for the Saxons to offer an oblation of loaves, made of new wheat, on this day, as the first-fruits of their new corn.

6.-TRANSFIGURATION.

Though this day was observed in remembrance of our Lord's Transfiguration on the Mount, by the primitive Christians, yet it is but of recent date in the church of Rome, as it was not instituted by Pope Calixtus until the year 1455.

7.-NAME OF JESUS.

Before the Reformation, this day was dedicated to Afra, a woman who had been converted to Christianity by Narcissus, Bishop of Jerusalem, and who afterwards suffered martyrdom; and the Breviary was recognized by Paul V. Afterwards Donatus, who became martyr in the time of Julian for refusing to sacrifice, was substituted in her place. Our reformers devoted it to the NAME OF OUR blessed Lord.

10. SAINT LAWRENCE.

St. Lawrence was, by birth, a Spaniard, and treasurer of the church of Rome, being deacon to Pope Sextus, about the year 259. Soon afterwards, his bishop was killed by the soldiers of Valerian the emperor, with whom our saint would willingly have died. Lawrence refusing to deliver up the church

a

« ElőzőTovább »