Nature's Teachings: Human Invention Anticipated by Nature

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Daldy, Isbister, 1877 - 533 pagine

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Pagina 2 - Light as a flake of foam upon the wind, Keel upward from the deep emerged a shell, Shaped like the moon ere half her horn is filled ; Fraught writh young life, it righted as it rose, And moved at will along the yielding water. The native pilot of this little bark Put out a tier of oars on either side, Spread to the wafting breeze a twofold sail, And mounted up and glided down the billow In happy freedom, pleased to feel...
Pagina 311 - The serpent has neither hands nor talons, yet it can outwrestle the athlete, and crush the tiger in the embrace of its ponderous overlapping folds.
Pagina 68 - ... fingers with a hot iron. Nevertheless, there was no remarkable appearance ; neither swelling, nor pustule, nor inflammation. The pain rapidly spread along the arm, as far as the armpit. I was then seized with frequent sneezing and with a copious running at the nose, as if I had caught a violent cold in the head. About noon...
Pagina 512 - Heedless he heard them : but disdain'd reply ; The bow perusing with exactest eye. Then, as some heavenly minstrel, taught to sing High notes responsive to the trembling string, To some new strain when he adapts the lyre, Or the dumb lute refits with vocal wire, Relaxes, strains, and draws them to and fro ; So the great master drew the mighty bow, And drew with ease.
Pagina 94 - ... and yet so wondrously fitted to its work, that we must needs endure, for our own instruction, to handle and to look at it. Its name we know not, (though it lurks here under every stone,) and should be glad to know. It seems some very " low
Pagina 255 - He had mounted along the side of thu window, nearly as high as the ceiling, a little below which he had begun to break through. The bed was covered with large pieces of plaster, the lath was exposed for at least fifteen inches...
Pagina 323 - In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened. And the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low...
Pagina 94 - In an instant a bell-shaped sucker mouth has fastened to his side. In another instant, from one lip, a concave double proboscis, just like a tapir's (another instance of the repetition of forms), has clasped him like a finger; and now begins the struggle: but in vain. He is being "played...
Pagina 94 - Look now, as it is raised and its coils drawn out. Three feet — six — nine, at least : with a capability of seemingly endless expansion ; a slimy tape of living caoutchouc, some eighth of an inch in diameter, a dark chocolate-black, with paler longitudinal lines. Is it alive? It hangs helpless and motionless, a mere velvet string across the hand. Ask the neighbouring Annelids and the fry of the rock fishes, or put it into a vase at home, and see.
Pagina 94 - played" with such a fishingline as the skill of a Wilson or a Stoddart never could invent; a living line, with elasticity beyond that of the most delicate fly-rod, which follows every lunge, shortening and lengthening, slipping and twining round every piece of gravel and stem of sea-weed, with a tiring drag such as no Highland wrist or step could ever bring to bear on salmon or on trout. The victim is tired now; and slowly, and yet dexterously, his blind assailant is feeling and shifting along his...

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