For awhile, such castles were impregnable, and the owners thereof were the irresponsible despots of the neighbourhood, recognising no law but their own will, robbing, torturing, and murdering at pleasure, and setting the king at open defiance. When, however, the tremendous powers of artillery became developed, the age of stone castles passed away. Height was found to be equivalent to weakness, as the strongest tower in existence could be knocked to pieces in an hour or two, and do infinite harm within the fortress by its falling fragments.
Fortification then returned to its original principles. Earth took the place of stone or brick; and at the present day, instead of erecting lofty walls and stately towers, the military engineer sinks his buildings as far as he can into the ground, and protects them with banks of simple earth, which is found to be the best defence against heavy shot. There is no masonry in existence that will endure the artillery fire of the present day, and even the solid rock can be knocked to pieces by it. But an earth-mound is a different business, and will absorb as many shot and shell as can be poured into it, without being much the worse for it. See, for example, the Proof-mound at Woolwich, which receives the shot of guns as they are being proved. Now, this mound has undergone perpetual battering for many years, and is as strong as ever. The same thing may be said of the celebrated Mamelon before Sebastopol.
So much for the Fort made by the hand of man. We now come to that which is formed by the feet of animals.
The Elk, or Moose, an inhabitant of Northern Europe, finds itself in great danger during the winter, the wolves being its chief enemies. At certain times of the year there comes a partial thaw during the day, followed by a frost at night. The result is, that a slight cake of ice forms on the surface of the snow, too slight to bear the weight of so heavy an animal, and strong enough to cut the legs of the elk as it ploughs its way along. Now, the wolves are sufficiently light to pass over the frozen surface without breaking it, and accordingly, they can easily run down and secure the elk.
In order, therefore, to counteract the wolves, a number of elks select a convenient spot where they can find food, and unite in trampling the snow down so as to sink themselves nearly to their own height below its surface. The wolves never dare attack an Elk-yard, as this enclosure is termed. In the first place, they are always haunted with suspicions of traps, and do not like the look of the yard; and in the next place, if some of the wolves did venture within the fort, the elks would soon demolish them with hoofs and horns. One of these Elk-yards is seen on the left hand of the illustration.
WAR AND HUNTING.
CHAPTER VII.
SCALING INSTRUMENTS.—DEFENCE OF FORT.—IMITATION.—THE FALL-TRAP.
Scaling-forks.—The Climbing-spur and its Use.—Larva of the Tiger-beetle.—Hooks of Serpula.—Mr. Gosse’s Description.—Falling Stones.—A Stone rolling down a Precipice.—The Polar Bear and the Walrus.—Imitation.—The Polar Bear and the Seal.—The Esquimaux Hunter “Seal-talking.”—Enticing Mother by means of Young.—The Fall-trap and its Variations.—The Schoolboy’s “Booby-trap.”—Curious Mode of killing Elephants.—The Elephant-spear.—The Hippopotamus-trap of Southern Africa.—The Mangrove and its Seeds.—The Spring-gun and Spring-bow.
BEFORE dismissing the subject of the Fortress, we will glance at the Attack and Defence, as seen in Nature and Art.
Scaling Instruments.
We have already seen how the Battering-ram could be worked against the walls of a fort, or how the assailants could scale them by means of the Testudo. There must, however, be occasions when it would be impossible to bring together a sufficiently large body of men to form the Testudo, or even to place ladders, and in such instances it would be necessary that each soldier should be furnished with an instrument by which he could haul himself up the wall.