Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-09-22

but it is hard for me to believe that they
are dumb, and that the fire does not feel
the warmth flowing in its own veins,
and that the signing winds have no
sorrow, and that playing fountains
experience no oxhilaration, and that the
light does not enjoy illumining tho
world, and that the sensitive plant does
not feel your touch, and that the rose,
with all its incense, docs not worship.
1t seems that in these pnroxysms OF 'ho
mountains nature must suffer
That night nine miles OF the noun
tain changed. 1.-THE terraces, when
mad been the pride of the colonies, sank
ont of existence. No one but the infinite
and the almighty could afford the OBJ
liberation of such resources OF beauty
and glory The casting down OF sCch
affairs and the humiliation of such tenn
pies would have been an iconocIasm
that would have afFronted the universe
but for the fact that the Lord who made
Tarawera and Rotomahana has right
to do what no will with his own, and
tho terraces, already beginning to re-
form, may DO richer colored and Ioftler
and more respondent than their prcde-
cessors.
The loss to New Zealand of these
white and pink terraces is what would
be the loss of the Giants causeway TO
ireland, or the loss Of the pyramids TO
Egypt, or the loss of Niagara tails TO
-: M, o>.,cr ,,l,x-Si r.,t callscs If
this upsetting and down tearing and
mountain splitting l leave TO geo!oglstS
10 guess about. Translating their scien-
1ifio accounts into easier language, 1t
seems that the mountains were stlif IN
their joints from long standing and
went into play. For a great while they
had enjoyed no fireworks, ANA that
night they illumined New Zealand
with rockets and wheels Of fire. The
hills went into games Of leapfrog and
ball playing and flying kites and boxing
and general romp. They We're exhila-
rated with mixture Of gaseS--sulphUr-
ic, phosphoric and carbonic-and forgot
all the proprietieS that mountains usual
" observe But it was not comedy
1t was tragedy of the mountains, and
all the King Lears, and the MacbethS,
and the Hamlets, and the Meg Mer-
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 the
gorgeous upholstery. Tornadoes Of
ashes. Furnaces seven times heated, III
which walked the Deity. Grand march
OF God sounded by the avalancheS The
earth bombarding the heavens. Dante :
Inferno" lifted into the terrestrial.
Maniac clements tearing the clouds into
tatterS and grinding rocks under their
heels. That night of June 8, that awful
night in New Zealand, when the native
settlements went down under the ashes
of bursting Tarawera as completely rs
Pompcii and Herculaneum under the
burial of Yesuvius seemed TO play ac-
compartment to the words OF the old
book, as much reyered IN New Zealand
as in America, al accompaniment i'll
full diapason, an earthquake with It's
foot on the pedal. Tho perpetual hills
did bow" 1.-THE mountains skipped
like rams" THE hills melted Ike
wax" "Tho foundations of the earth
were shaken" "He looketh on the
earth, and it trembleth.
That downfall of the New Zealand
terraces was only a conspicuous cir
cumstance III the history Of the world.
Mountains are mortal, and they write
their autobiographies on leaves of stone.
AL the mountains of New Zealand We're
nursed in cradle of earthquake by
parentage of rock and glacier, and they
will have their descendants. You can
not bury mountains unobserved. There
must be black pail of smoke and dead
march sounded by orchestra OF clements,
and thunders tolling at the passing fu-
neral of hills, and spade OF fire to dig
their grave, and the discharge Of al
heaven g artillery at their burial, and the
solemn and overwhelming Etany sound
cd, Earth to earth, ashes TO ashes, dust
10 dustW
You see it will be well for biologists
70 come TO New Zealand. Crnithologists
ought also to come. Last evening, al
though it is here NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Zea-
lands July corresponding with -Ameri-
cas- January, although far from being
rs cold-I was standing near clump
of trees which still kept all their foliage,
and there were bird voices absolutely
bcwildering for numbers and sweetness
tt -bo ,,o+o- &c +l,o ,,,,,.;c +L,ro Taro2
by the winged choir had been written
on each leaf, the rendering could not
have been more dulcet and resonant 1t
would take more room and time than l
possess to describe the ornithological
riches of New Zealand. First OF all, its
extinct moa, whose skeleton stands in
the museum Of Christchurch---a wing
less bird, or only apologies for wings,
but 10 feet inches high, neck like q
giraffe and foot as wide as camel ;,
this moa, the largest bird whose skele-.I
ton has ever been rcticulated, It's eggs
the size of a small bandboX.
What the mastodon was among
quadrupeds, and the ichthyosaur1s was
among fishes the moa was among birds.
But among the living birds il New
Zealand's aviary are the whale bird,
black on the back and white on the
breast-morning rising from the night;
the huiz, sacred bird Of the aborig.
ines-but all birds ought to be sacred
The parson bird, so called because the
white feathers round its neck give it the
appearance of white choker;' the
bell bird, with voice like q chime from
the tower; the New Zealand pigeon,
three times as large as the American
pigeon and moro beautiful only because
it has more expanse of wing and feath
ers on which to be beautiful; the kea,
that wars on the sheep, fastening itself
OH the back of the live sheep and not
but pecking its way through
the wool and the flesh until the sheep is
dead aud the beak reaches the fat
around the kidneys, for which this bird
has special aDDetite-a habit learned |