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Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
 The Project Gutenberg eBook of The 'Look
About You' Nature Study Books, Book 2 [of 7]
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The 'Look About You' Nature Study Books, Book 2 [of 7]

Author: Thomas W. Hoare

Release date: October 16, 2015 [eBook #50236]

Most recently updated: October 22, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephen Hutcheson, and the

Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE 'LOOK ABOUT

YOU' NATURE STUDY BOOKS, BOOK 2 [OF 7] ***
 The land is at rest

The
“LOOK ABOUT YOU”
Nature Study Books
BOOK II.
 BY
THOMAS W. HOARE

TEACHER OF NATURE STUDY

to the Falkirk School Board and Stirlingshire County Council

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, Ltd.

35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
AND EDINBURGH
 PREFACE.

This little book should be used as a simple guide to the practical

study of Nature rather than as a mere reader.
Every lesson herein set down has, during the author’s many years’
experience in teaching Nature Study, been taught by observation and
practice again and again; and each time with satisfactory result. The
materials required for the lessons are within everybody’s reach.
There is nothing that appeals to the heart of the ordinary child
like living things, be they animal or vegetable, and there is no branch
of education at the present day that bears, in the young mind, such
excellent fruit as the study of the simple, living things around us.
Your child is nothing if not curious. He wants to understand
everything that lives in his bright little world.
Nature Study involves so many ingenious little deductions, that
the reasoning powers are almost constantly employed, and
intelligence grows proportionately. The child’s powers of observation
are stimulated, and his memory is cultivated in the way most pleasing
to his inquiring nature. By drawing his specimens, no matter how
roughly or rapidly, his eye is trained more thoroughly than any
amount of enforced copying of stiff, uninteresting models of prisms,
cones, etc., ever could train it.
The love of flowers and animals is one of the most commendable
traits in the disposition of the wondering child, and ought to be
encouraged above all others. A few lessons on Nature Phenomena
are added.
It is the author’s fondest and most sanguine hope that his little
pupils may study further the great book of Nature, whose broad
pages are ever open to us, and whose silent answers to our manifold
questions are never very difficult to read.
T. W. H.
 CONTENTS

LESSON PAGE
I. How Plants take Food from the Soil (1) 5
II. How Plants take Food from the Soil (2) 13
III. The Weasel and the Otter 20
IV. Dwellers in the Corn Field 27
V. Harvest Time 33
VI. The Squirrel 40
VII. How the Fire Burns 48
VIII. The Fire-Balloon 55
IX. The Gull 61
X. Dew, Frost, Rain 68

5
“LOOK ABOUT YOU.”
BOOK II.
 I.—HOW PLANTS TAKE FOOD FROM
THE SOIL (1).

Uncle George had taught his little friends many things from what
he called the Book of Nature, and what they had learnt made them
eager to know more.
One day as Dolly, the boys, and Uncle George were in the garden
they saw that a tulip, which the day before was in full bloom and
strong, was now lying dead on the ground.
“Poor little tulip!” said Dolly. Both the boys were sorry too. They
had watched it come through the ground like a blade of grass, open
out its bud, and expand its bloom. Now all was over. The little 6
flower would no longer enjoy the bright sunshine or the rain. It
would no longer send forth its rootlets in search of the food it so
much liked.
“Have you ever thought, Dolly, how the tulip, and indeed all
plants, take their food from the soil?” asked Uncle George.
“I know they must feed in some way,” said Dolly, “or they would
not grow. But I do not know how they do it.”
“Should you like to know, Dolly?” asked Uncle George.
“Indeed I should,” said the little girl.
The boys were just as eager as Dolly to know about this, so Uncle
George and the children went indoors for a lesson.
“I cannot tell you how plants take their food from the soil without
first of all showing you what happens when water and soil are mixed
together in a tumbler,” said Uncle George. “Tom will fetch me a
tumbler, and you, Frank, bring me a little water.”
When these were brought, Uncle George put a spoonful of soil
into the tumbler, and then poured some water on it.
 “Stir it up, please, Dolly,” said Uncle George, “and you may 7
pretend you are going to make a pudding.”
Dolly did so.
“Now let us put it aside for a few minutes, while we place the
flowers we have gathered into the vases,” said Uncle George. “Then
we will look at our tumbler of muddy water.”
How pretty the flowers were made to look! How fresh they were!
and how pleasant was their scent! The children hardly thought of the
tumbler, but Uncle George was ready now for the lesson.

Glass of Mud and Water.

“Look! look, at the tumbler,” said he. “Do you see a change?”
“Indeed we do,” said all the children in one voice.
 “The mud has sunk to the bottom of the glass,” added Tom, “and
the water on the top is clear.”
Uncle George poured some of the clear water into a clean flat
dish. Then he took a spirit-lamp from a little cabinet, and heated the
water in the dish with it.
The children watched to see what would happen. Soon a 8
cloud was seen over the dish, and by and by all the water had
gone.
“But what is that at the bottom of the dish?” asked Uncle George.
“It looks like powder,” said Frank.
“And it must have been in the water all the time,” added Tom.

Evaporating Salt Water.

 “And yet the water was clear,” said Uncle George. “Look once
more.”
As he spoke, Uncle George took a glass of clean water from the
tap. He put two large spoonfuls of salt in, and stirred it up.
“You see,” he said, “the salt has gone from sight. Still the water is
clear. Where has it gone?”
“Into the water,” said Tom.
Uncle George put more salt in the water, and stirred it up. He kept
on doing this until the water would take up no more salt, no matter
how much it was stirred. This he called brine.
“Now, Frank, please go and ask mother for a fresh egg,” he 9
said, “and you, Tom, please bring me some fresh water in
another glass.”
 Egg floating in Salt Water.

Uncle George placed the egg in the glass in which the salt had
been put, and it floated in it. He then placed the egg in the glass of
fresh water, and it at once sank to the bottom.
“Can you explain this!” he said.
“The salt water is heavier and thicker than the fresh water. That is
why it bears up the egg,” said Frank.
“That is very good indeed, Frank. That is just the reason. The salt
water or brine is denser, or heavier, than the other.”
Uncle George next took a glass tube with a thistle-shaped bulb at
the end of it. Frank kept his finger on the small end, while his uncle
poured some of the brine into the bulb. He next tied a piece of
bladder skin over the bulb, and placed it in a glass of fresh water, so
that the salt water in the tube was at the same level as the 10
fresh water in the glass.
Then he took two small glass bottles. He filled one with fresh
water and the other with brine, and tied a piece of bladder skin over
the mouth of each. The one which was filled with brine he placed in a
larger dish of fresh water. The other, that is the one filled with fresh
water, he placed in a dish of brine.
“Now, children, we will go and have tea,” he said, “and when we
come back we will see if any change has taken place.”
About an hour later Uncle George, Dolly, and the boys came back.
“Oh,” said Frank, “look, Uncle George! The water has risen up in
the thistle tube.”
“Yes, how do you account for that, Frank?”
“Some of the fresh water has passed through the skin,” Frank
answered.
“Now taste the water in the glass outside the skin,” said Uncle
George. “It was fresh water when we put it in, wasn’t it?”
Frank did so. Tom tasted it too. Both boys declared that it was
now salt.
“Where did the salt taste come from?” their uncle asked.
“It must have come through the skin,” said Tom. 11
 “Then some of the salt water in the thistle tube has passed
through the skin into the glass; and some of the fresh water in the
glass has passed through the skin into the thistle tube. Can you tell
me any more?”
Frank thought for a little while and then said, “Oh yes, more fresh
water than salt water has passed through the skin, because the salt
water is now far up the tube.”
“Quite right, my boy. Now let us look at the small bottles. The skin
on the one filled with brine is swollen out like a ball, while the water
in the dish tastes salt. The skin of the other is drawn far in, showing
us that much of the fresh water which it contained has passed out. If
you taste the water in this bottle, you will find that a very little of the
brine in the dish has passed into it through the skin.
“Now what we learn from these things is really this—that when
two liquids, a heavy and a light one, are separated by a thin skin,
they both pass through the skin. The heavy liquid passes through
slowly, and the light liquid passes through quickly.”
Uncle George then placed some small seeds on a piece of 12
wet blotting-paper. He turned a glass tumbler upside down,
and placed it over them.
“We will leave these for a few days,” he said.

Questions and Exercises.

1. Boil some river-water in a flat dish until all the water is gone. Do the same with
some sea-water, or, if this is not at hand, make some brine. Examine the two
dishes, and tell what you see.
2. Take a glass gas chimney, and tie a piece of bladder, or parchment, over one end
of it. Half fill it with sugar and water. Now place it with its tied-up end
bottommost in a tumbler of clear cold water. After an hour or so taste the
water in the tumbler. What have you to say about it?
3. What takes place when brine and clear water are separated from one another by
a piece of skin (parchment)?

13
A Box of Mustard Seeds.
II.—HOW PLANTS TAKE FOOD FROM
THE SOIL (2).

A whole week went by before Uncle George was ready for the
next lesson.
At last he called the children and said to them—“Tom, will you
please fetch me the seeds which we put on the wet blotting-paper
under the tumbler? Frank, bring me two leafy branches from a rose-
bush in the garden; and, Dolly, please fetch two glasses from the
kitchen.”
Now there was nothing the children liked better than to help their
Uncle George, and all three rushed off at once to do his bidding.
While they were away Uncle George himself went into the 14
garden, dug up two young plants, and brought them to the
children in the study.
 Sun-flower Plant in Water.

“Now, children,” said Uncle George, “we are ready to begin our
lesson. Fill one of the glasses with water, Frank, and put one of your
leafy rose branches in each glass—one branch in water and the other
in a dry glass. Can you tell me what will happen to the branches?”
The children had many times seen what had happened to flowers
when the maid had forgotten to put water in the vases, so that Tom
readily said, “Yes, the one in the dry glass will wither, while the one in
the water will keep fresh for some time.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because it always happens, Uncle,” said Frank. “Why, sometimes
the flowers we gather in the wood are faded before we get home.
They often come back to life when put in water.”
 “You are quite right, Frank,” Uncle George replied. “See, 15
here are two young sun-flower plants, which I brought in from
the garden. I placed one in water. The other I left lying on the table.
The one on the table is dead. What does this show us?”

The Sun-flower, faded.

“That plants require water,” said Tom. “That whenever you cut off
their water supply they die.”
“Quite right, Tom. We shall see by and by that plants are always
[1]
giving off a great deal of water to the air from their leaves. Where
do they get this water from?”
“It must be from the soil,” said Frank.
“It must be,” said Uncle George. “If we keep a plant in a pot
without watering it, it soon dies. All the water it contains will by and
by travel up to the leaves. It passes out through tiny pores in the
leaves into the air. If no more water comes up from the soil, the plant
withers and dies. The roots of plants search the soil in all directions
for water. And in this water there is but little plant-food. We 16
saw this when we boiled away the clear water which covered
the soil in the glass.
“If we boil away some water from the tap, we shall find some
solid matter left behind in the dish. Thus we see that in order to get a
small quantity of food, plants take up a great quantity of water from
the soil. Most of the water is sent into the air from the leaves. But the
food stuff remains in the plant, just as it did in the dish.
“Now I am going to show you how this water gets into the plant.
Look at these little seeds on the damp blotting-paper!
“Each seed has a small plant with a long root, and small, stout
green leaves. Look at the roots and tell me what you see?”
“They are covered with silky stuff,” said Frank.
“Yes. Now take this glass, which will make things look bigger than
they really are, and look at the roots once more.”
“The silky stuff is a number of fine hairs,” said Frank.
THE OTTER
FIELD-MICE
 “That is quite right, Frank,” said Uncle George. “These are 17
the root-hairs. Each of these hairs is a long bag or sac, of very
thin skin. It is filled with a liquid called sap, which is slightly denser,
or heavier, than the water in the blotting-paper. Now, do you see how
a plant takes food from the soil, when it is growing in the garden or
in a field?”
“Yes, I think I do,” said Frank. “The water in the soil contains very
little plant-food. The water inside the tiny sac contains very much.”
“And what have you to say, Tom?”
“One of these liquids is denser than the other,” said Tom. “Both
are separated by a thin skin. The lighter liquid outside the sac will
pass into it quickly, while the heavier liquid will pass out slowly.”
“Bravo! Tom!” said Uncle George. “I couldn’t have given a better
reply myself. The water from the soil passes in quickly. The sap from
the inside of each root-hair passes out slowly. If they were both of
the same density, neither would pass through the skin. If the water in
the soil were the denser, then the sap would pass out so quickly that
the plant would soon be robbed of its water.
“Here are two young plants, each growing in a small pot. I 18
want you to water them, Tom. Water one with salt and water
(brine), the other with tap-water.”
Tom did as he was asked.
 Plants watered with Fresh and Salt Water.

“See,” said Uncle George, “the one which you watered with brine
is drooping. It is bending over the pot. That is because the water
outside its root-hairs is denser than that which is inside the plant.”
“How does the water get up from the roots to the leaves?” 19
Frank asked.
“Just in the same way as the oil travels up the wick of the lamp.
Water will always travel up through small spaces.”
Uncle George poured some red ink into a saucer, and dipped the
corner of a lump of sugar into it. The red ink ran up into the sugar
until it was red all over. Next he took a bundle of very small glass
tubes, and dipped the ends of them in the ink. The ink ran up the
tubes, filling them to the top.
“Inside every plant,” Uncle George went on, “there are thousands
of long tiny tubes, up which the water travels. In fact the veins of a
leaf are just bundles of tubes, something like the bundle I hold in my
hand.”

Questions and Exercises.

1. Why do branches wither quickly when cut from the tree? How would you keep
them from withering quickly?
2. Place two small panes of clean glass close together. Dip the corner of them in
coloured water, and watch what happens.
3. Why do we never see the silky root-hairs when we dig or pull a plant out of the
ground?

20
 III.—THE WEASEL AND THE OTTER.

It was Frank who wanted to follow the stream far up towards the
hills. He wished to see where it began, for he had heard that its
source was in several small streams many miles away.
Uncle George agreed to take the children as far up the stream as
they could walk, without being tired. Soon they were far up above
the wood, and the fields, and the pond.
Frank was not in the least sorry when his uncle sat down on a
large stone by the side of the stream.
“We shall not go much farther,” said Uncle George. “Some other
day we will. But tell me what you think of the country round about
you.”
“It is very wild and lonely,” said Tom. “There are no fields of corn;
nothing but green hills and moorland. Yet it is very grand.”
“The flowers and plants are not like those of the valley,” 21
said Tom. “The stream, too, is different. Here it is a noisy,
rushing course of clear, lovely water. Down below it is a lazy-flowing
stream.”
“It is not always so clear,” said Uncle George. “After heavy rains
this stream is swollen and brown.”
“Look! look!” cried Dolly. “What is that on the other side of the
stream?”
Sure enough there was something moving about. Now it turned
round and opened its mouth, showing two rows of sharp, white
teeth. Then, with a harsh cry that could be heard above the noise of
the water, it bolted away.
There was just time for all to see the creature, which Tom at once
called a weasel.
 “Yes, a weasel it is,” said Uncle George; “it is one of the animals
which prey on rabbits and young hares. Look! there it is again.”
The children looked, and saw it quite clearly. There it was, a
pretty little animal of a black and brown colour, with just a little white
on its breast. It sat up, and was holding something in its fore paws.
“Ah!” said Uncle George, “our little friend is a thief. He has 22
found a nest, and that is an egg he has stolen from it. Let us
see what he will do with it.”

The Weasel at Home.

In a moment or two Master Weasel tucked the egg under his chin
and was off once more.
“What a dear little thing, to be sure!” said Dolly. “How 23
quaint to carry an egg in that way!”
“It looks pretty, that is certain,” said Uncle George, “but it is a
dreadful foe to the smaller animals of the field. There are other foes,
too, and I hope we may see some of them before we return.”
 The boys were glad to hear their uncle say this, and they asked
him to take them, now they were rested, a little farther up the
stream.
All of them made a start.
By and by they came to a place where the stream made a kind of
pool. The pool was bounded on each side by high rocks. At the top
end the water came down with a rush from a great height.
It was a very lonely spot indeed; and, except for the noise of the
water, nothing could be heard.
On and on they went.
Uncle George told them of the stoat, the polecat, and the marten,
all of which, he said, were foes of the smaller animals.
Tom kept a sharp look out, and hoped he would see at least one
of these.
As luck would have it, a dull splash was heard in the water 24
a little way in front of them. All of them looked towards the
spot.
“Down, boys, down! and keep quite still,” said Uncle George.
“Hide behind these big stones. We shall have a treat.”
Swimming on the surface of the water was an animal as large as
a good-sized dog. Now it dived to the bottom. The ripples on the
water showed that the animal was swimming underneath. The
children held their breaths and watched. Not in vain; for there, on the
other side of the stream, the animal came out of the water. It held a
fish which it had caught.
“Now,” said Uncle George, “we have a fine chance to look at our
new friend. That animal is the otter. See! Its body is pretty flat; its
legs are short, and its toes are webbed like those of the duck. Look
at its round nose and its small ears. If we were closer to it we should
see that there is a fold of skin which can be turned over the ears
while the creature is in the water.”
“How fierce it looks!” broke in Dolly, “and how its eyes gleam!”
“It is glad to have caught the fish, I should think,” said Frank.
Uncle George raised his hand to hold the children in silence. 25
Then he went on in a soft voice. “Look at its flat tail, which is
pointed at the tip. The otter uses his tail as a rudder to guide him in
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