OCR Text |
Show 224 WANT OF OBSERVATION. once in every five years, when he finds as much as repays his labour. Those hard and apparently useless productions of the rocks are not only useful, as may be seen from the two instances tha.t have been mentioned, and of which there would, no doubt, be many more instances, if those who are much in the wild places where lichens are most abundant w<?u~d look at what is around them, and find out what It IS good for; but imagining that a place must be barren in every respect, because it is barren _in tho~e productions which abound in places of qmte a different character, is a folly by means of which we are left without much useful information wi.th regard to nature of which we might otherwise be in possession, and deprived of the use of many things in the arts of which we might otherwise be in the enjoyment. That folly is as absurd as it is mischievous. No man would think of taking hounds to sea in order to course game, or propose going to the moors with boats and harpoons, or white. fis~-lines. ~<?w, though in many cases the absur_dity IS n~t s.o s~nkmg as it is in these, yet so far as It goes, It I~ JUSt as absurd. And it is far more dangerous; for, JUSt as at sea there is more to be dreaded from the sunken rock than from that which stands high and gives warning, so in the case of error, there is ever the more peril from that which is the more concealed, or has the nearer resemblance to truth. We find that very frequently the case in ma~ters connected with the study of nature-more especially those parts of nature which do not appear to bear immediately upon the com~on concer~s of food and clothing. In those very h~hens~ whi.ch. we have mentioned as being us-eful Ill dymg, It IS not the people who live where _they 15r<?w that gather them, but strangers who find It their mterest to g:o there in the season : so also it is not very long smce the people of Britain depended mainly upon the Dutch WANT OF OBSERVATION. 225 for supplies of the very fish which are most plentiful on the British shores. In matters connected with the earth itself, the want of common observation, and the loss occasioned by that want, are still m?re stri_king. If coal, or iron or any other useful mmeral, IS found for the first ti~e in any district, it will, in general, be found that the discoverer is not a native, but some stranger. There is a case in point. The greenstone rocks which form a considerable portion of the lower valley of the Tay contain vast numbers of veined ao-atcs or Scotch pebbles, and in some places the r~ck has, to a considerahle depth, crumbled into mould, well fitted for agricultural purposes; but the pebbles, containing less clay than the stone in which they have been formed, and being of a close texture, do not decompose so readily. In consequence there are whole fields and farms where, excepting where the ground has been opened. for quarries, every stone that can be picked up is an agate, just as in the ~balk districts of England every stone that can be p1cked up is a flint. Some years ago, those I_>ebbles ~~re fashionable, if not valuable (and except In durability, size, or some use in the arts, fashion forms much of the value of any stone), and they were consequently esteemed. The proprieter of one of the estates, on which there is really nothing but pebbles, was in London on some business ; and as he did not often visit the metropolis, he resolved to purchase some trinket for his wife, as a memorial of his journey. He went to a jeweller's, and was shown all the varieties of gems and pastes, but he rejected most of them on account of their smallness, and made his election of a necklace, &c. of larg:e and strongly-marked Scotch pebbles. So much <1id he admire these, that he began to question the jeweller (who was also a lapidary), what part of the world was so rich as to furnish jewels so splendid. With utter astonishment he heard the name of his own estate |