CONTENTS

List of Illustrations [ xi]

The Marvels of Nature [ xiii]

By Professor E.S. Holden.

what The Earth's Crust is Made of [ 1]

by Agnes Giberne.

America The Old World [ 45]

By Louis Agassiz.

Some Records of the Rocks [ 77]

By N.S. Shaler.

The Pitch Lake in the West Indies [ 97]

By Charles Kingsley.

A Stalagmite Cave [ 111]

By Sir C. Wyville Thomson.

The Big Trees of California [ 119]

by Alfred Russel Wallace.

what is Evolution? [ 127]

By Professor Edward S. Holden.

How the Soil is Made [ 135]

By Charles Darwin.

zoölogical Myths [ 143]

By Andrew Wilson.

On a Piece of Chalk [ 171]

By T.H. Huxley.

A Bit of Sponge [ 205]

BY A. WILSON.

The Greatest Sea-Wave Ever Known [ 211]

By R.A. Proctor.

The Phosphorescent Sea [ 228]

By W.S. Dallas.

COMETS, [ 251]

By Camille Flammarion.

The Total Solar Eclipse of 1883 [ 261]

By E.S. Holden.

Halos—Parhelia—the Spectre of the Brocken, etc. [ 268]

By Camille Flammarion.

The Planet Venus [ 282]

By Agnes M. Clerke.

The Stars [ 296]

By Sir R.S. Ball.

Rain and Snow [ 342]

By John Tyndall.

The Organic World [ 357]

By St. George Mivart.

Inhabitants of My Pool [ 366]

By Arabella B. Buckley.

Biographical Notes [ 387]

Suggestions for Supplementary Reading [ 389]

NOTE.

The publishers' acknowledgments are due to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for permission to use "America and the Old World," by L. Agassiz; to Messrs. D.C. Heath & Co. for permission to use "Some Records of the Rocks," by Professor N.S. Shaler; and to Professor E.S. Holden for permission to use "What is Evolution?" and "An Astronomer's Voyage to Fairy Land."