Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-09-22

anu titc almighty CouAN dUOIu llG OBJ
liberation of such resources Of beauty
and glory. The casting down Of such
I affairs and the humiliation of such ten.
pies would have been an ioonoelasai
that would have affronted the universe
but for tho fact that the Lord who maIo
Tarawera and Rotomahana has right
to do what he will with his own, and
the terraces. already beginning to re-
form. may be richer colored and loftier
and more respondent than their predo-
cessors
The loss to New Zealand of these
white and pink terraces is what woula
be the loss Of the Giants causeway to
Ireland. or the loss Of the pyramids to
Egypt. or the loss of Niagara falls to
America. Tho exact physical causes of
this upsctting and down tearing and
mountain splitting leave TO biologists
to guess about Translating their sciem-
| tific accounts into easier language, it
seems that the mountains were stiff in
their joints from long stSnding and
went into play. For great while they
had enjoyed no fireworks, and that
night they illumined New Zealand
with rockets and wheels Of fire. Tho
hills went into games of leapfrog and
ball playing and flying kites and boxing
and general romp. They wero exhila-
rated with mixture Of rasos-sulphor-
ic, phosphoric and carhonic-and forgot
all the proprieties that mountains usual
" observe But it was not comedy.
1t was tragedy of the mountains, and
nll the King I.ears, and the Macliaths,
and the Hamlots, and the Meg MGR.
rifles of arrangement and horror were
that night on the stage, Of which the
belching fires were the footlights and
flames hundreds Of feet high were tho
gorgeous upholstery. Tornadoos OF
ashes. Furnaces seven times heated, in
which walked the Deity. Grand march
Of God sounded by the avalanchcs Tho
earth bombardng the heavens. Dante's
Inferno" lifted into the terrestrial
Maniac elements tearing the clouds into
tatters and grinding rocks undor their
heels. That night Of juno O. that awful
night in New Zealand, when the native
settlements went down under tho ashes
Of bursting Tarawera as completely as
Pompcii ard Horculaneum under tho
burial of Vesuvirs, seemed 20 play ac-
compartment to the words Of the old
book, MS much reyered in New Zealand
as in America, an accompaniment in
full diapason, an earthquake with its
foot ON the pedal. ''The perpetual hills
| did low. Tho mountains Skipped
like rama" 1.-The hills melted like
wax. "TAp foundations of the earth
were shakon. ''lIe looketh on tho
earth, and il trcmbleth "
That downfall of the New zealaad
terraces was only conspicuous cir
cumstance in the history of the world
Mountains are mortal, and they write
their autobiographies on leaves OF stone.
All the mountains Of Now Zealand were
nursed in cradle of earthquake by
parentage Of rock and glacier, and they
will have their descendants. You can
not bury mountains unobservod. There
must be black pail Of smoke and dead
march sounded by orchestra Of clements,
and thunders tolling at the passing IN
neral Of hills, and spade Of iiro TO dig
their grave. and the discharge Of all
heavens artillery at their burial, and The
solemn aud overwhelming litany sound
ed, Earth to earth, ashes 10 ashes dust
to dustr'
You SEQ it will be we'll for biologists
to como to New Zealand. Oniihologists
ought also to come. Last evening, al
though il is here midwinter-New Zca-
lands July corresponding with Amcri-
cas- January, although far from being
as cold--I was standing near a clunp
of trees which still kept all their foliagc,
and there we've bird voices absolutely
bowildering for numbers and sweetness
Ii the notes Of the music there rendered
by tho winged choir had been written
on each leaf, the rendering could not
have been moro dulcot and resonant. IL
would take more room and timo than
possess to describe the ornithological
riches of New Zealand. First Of ALL its
extinct moa. whose skeleton stands IN
tho museum O. Cbristchurch--a wing
less bird. or only apologies for wings,
but 10 feet inches high, neck ike u
giraffe and foot as wide as u cancels,
this moa. the largest bird whose skole-
ton has ever been reticulated, its eggs
the size Of small bandbox.
What the mastodon was among
quadrupeds. and the icbthyosaurus was
among fishes the moa was among Birds
But among tho living birds IN New
Zealand's ayiary are the whale bird.
black ON tho back and white on the
breast-morning rising from tho night;
the huiz, sacred bird Of the aborig-
ines--but all birds ought to be sacred
The parson bird, so called because tho
white feathers round its neck give 1t tho
appearance Of white choker:" tho
bell bird, with voice like chime from
the tower; the New Zealand pigeon.
three times es large AZ the American
pigeon ans more beautiful only because
il has moro cxpanse Of wing and fcath.
srs ON which TO be beautiful; the keas
that wars ON the sheep. fastening itself
on the back Of the live sheep and not
relaxing. but pecising its way through
the wool and the flesh until the sheep 10
dead aud the bcak reaches the fat
around the kidneys, for which this bird
has special Appetite habit learned
probably by peelting at tho butchered
sheep around the door Ct tho shepherds
hut; the storm petrol, like flnko Of
the midnight; the crested pcngIun; tho
paradise duck, les name taken from the
/ fact that its richness Of color suggests
the Edenic-and birds with all wealth
OF feather, and curiosity Of bcak, and
eccentricity Of habit, and defense OF
claw, and audacity Of flight, aud bear
! ing all coiors---tho whit0 running into
crimson. like snow melting into tho
fire; tho blro rs If in some higher flight
it had brushed against the heavens. or
| yellow as IL IL had nestod among cow
slips and buttercups, or spotted and
friugcd and ribboncd and afiame until
there are no more fountains Of radiance
iito which they can possibly dip their
wings. Oh, for some scientific gunner
TO do for Now Zealand what Audubon
did for Americal But. what I never
knew before, tire native birds are dying
out before the foreign birds that have
been introduced, and the native flowers
arc dying out before tho foreign flowers
Although now New Zealand IS 80
abundant in all styles OF quadrupcds, it
had not, when discovered. single quad-
ruped except the rat and a foreign rat
having been introduced tho aboriginal
rat has nearly disappeared Tho English
grass brought here has killed the native
| grass The birds Of America. Europe
and Asia imported here have killed
The birdsof New Zealand All the earth
Il q