Daily Kennebec journal., 1878-08-16
foontnued from hrst psge.l

heart of the great tropical fallacy. The
point which grows upon the traveller in
India, in South America, in the Pacific
islands, with greater distinctness every
day, is the total absence of the POLITICALLY
marvellous have lived for years in the
tropics, but have never yet beheld an al
ligator, an iguana, toucan, an antelope,
in their wild and native state. have had
scorpions trapped for my inspection, and
tarantuas bottled as specimens for nv
cabinet: but | never caught living indi-
vidual creeping up my boots or dropping
from the ceiling into my soup. These lit
tie incidents. even If unpleasant, would
have at least the charm ot novelty they
would look we'll to figure in ones memoirs
and would point the moral of an alter
dinner tale. But unhappily they don I
occur. Swarms OF common and uninter-
esting insects perpetually worry ones life
in tropical countries; mosquitoes, ants,
iiggers. termites, ticks and fifty more un-
mentionable brutes distress the European
visitor from morn to night, from night to
morn again; but no creature OF the poeti-
cally marvellous order ever disturbs the
monotoDy OF these vulgar insect plaques
The pests which one did not expect make
ones existence wretched with their cease
less stings; but the pests to which one
looked forward with vague mixture OF
terror aud interest, never make their APP
pearance on the stage at all.
But il all this be true, whence did the
tropical iallacy derive its originP How
have mankind come to believe 50 implicit
ly in the supreme beauty of every scrap OF
soil between the imaginary limits of the
crab and the goat? The reason is not far
N,.pn IA
familiar English guise, and see what idea
of England tropicist would gain from a
British botanical and geological garden on
one of his coolest mountain-tops.
Worlds of delight would open up to his
gaze at the first glance over the hali-wild,
half-cultivated bowers covered with dog
rose, honeysuckle and white clematis.
Beds of purple foxglove and dropping
fritillary would alternate with golden mas
ses of cowslip. primrose, buttercup, eel
andine, and corn-marigold. PINK and
white daises would form borders around
the gravelled paths snowdrops would rise
in little clumps upon the grassy lawn
bee-orchids, gorse. hychnis, cuckoo-pints.
hyacinths, snapdragons, cornpoppies and
meadow satfrons would bear the aspect of
rare exotics, while the unwonted sight OF
fields purpled with clover and heath, or
gided with mustard charlock, would raise
an involuntary exclamation of pleased sur
prise. In the cages around, the strange
animals of that distant land might be ex-
hibited to the eyes of visitors. The red
deer OF the Highlands, the iallow deer OF
English parks. the wild cattle OF Chilling
ham, would represent the larger rumi
nants. The badger, the otter, the fox.
the weasel, the marten, the pole-cat and
the ferret would illustrate the carnivores.
Then the tiny harvest-mouse. the long
nosed shew, the prickly hedgehog, the
soft-furred mole, the nimble squirrel, the
hare, and the pretty little rabbit would
give delightful idea OF our smaller NAM
mails. As Tor birds, what beautiful pic
ture of our woodlands or ponds the visitor
would gain from an aviary filled with
nerons, swans, redbreasts, yellow-ham-
mers, lapwings. pheasants, bulitinches.
curlews, kingfishers, golden thrushes,
woodpeckers, aud seagulls! Adders, Vi
pers, blind-worms aud lizards would Dask
in their glass cases; while the aquariums
would swarm with crested nevis, speckled
trout, silvery minnows, banded perch,
shining carp, ,and,quaint monstrous-headed
miller's thumbs. As he surveyed the
whole. the tropical spectator would nat
urally exclaim, what lovely country
this England must BET And in my hum
ble opinion he would be quite right, too.
Now, all these varied and beautiful OBJ
Jects are roughly selected from single
European island If we were to add
flowers and animals from all temperate
climates, such as the Alpine rhododen-
drons and gentians. the Canadian lriliums
and columblnes, the heaths and geraniums
OF the Cape, We should have u garden OF
transcendent beauty, which not even the
tropics themselves could Guido. But when
we form our idea OF tropical scenery, we
similarly pick out from all the equatorial
world every beautiful tree. shrub, herb,
Hover, beast, bird or butterfly, and put
them together in tanciiul picture OF
waving trees. hanging creepers and gor-
geous colored blossC surrounded by
groups OF brilliant animals. Nor is this
all; we think Of the palms and tree-ferns
AS we see them under Sir Joseph Hooker's
charge, with all the branches carefully
rendered and every dead leaf picked off al
once by watchiul myrmidons. But palm
In It's native state has generally dirty
ring of decaying boughs beneath its green
crown while tree-iern can scarcely be
seen through the foul mouldering tonds
that cling around its musty stem. Cruel.
perhaps the reader thinks, to disenchant
him OF his pretty dream; but is it not
worth something after all to know that
our own home is tar lovelier than these
distant lands' Why need any man wish
to search the mountain passes OF Java of
Madagascar when he can roam at will
through Dovedsle and Aberg glasllyn? whv
need he banker after Trinidad or Hawaii
when he can wander over the purple
moorsides OF the Grampians and gather
punches OF spotted snake-head in the
hoWerY meadows Of IffieY meadows