Madam How and Lady Why Notes: Ch. 7

Ch. 7 The Chalk-Carts

*Interesting website on chalk in the UK:

http://www.geologyshop.co.uk/chalk.htm

*P. 138 The “ignoble army of noodles, who think nothing interesting or important but dinners, and balls, and races, and backbiting their neighbors…” Hee hee.

*The Odiham Chalk Pits are in Hampshire, Southeast England, UK

*copse: a small group of trees

*grubbed: removed by digging

*P. 139 “Learn from the thing that lies nearest you.”

*P. 141 Empirical knowledge: “…his knowledge is sound and useful because it comes from long experience.” The farmer’s knowledge came from careful observation.

*Chalk, a type of limestone, “sweetens” soil, or raises its pH, making it less acidic. (eHow)

*A great picture of the chalk grasslands in South England:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beachy_Head,_Sussex,_UK.jpg

*P. 142 The “silver Itchen” is a chalk stream. Chalk streams have unusual characteristics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk_stream

*P. 145 Kingsley compares the chalk stream to the chalk-cart. They both carry chalk, but how differently they do it.

*marl: lime-rich mud (Wikipedia). Here is a photo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MatmorFormation2009.JPG

*P. 146 A possible transformation: chalk into marl into coral into limestone into marble.

*Whernside is in Yorkshire, Northern England

*A swallow-hole is also known as a sink-hole:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinkhole

*P. 151 Cave formation; stalactites and stalagmites

*The dropping-well at Knaresborough, now known as the Petrifying Well:

http://www.mothershiptonscave.com/the_petrifying_well.htm

*Proteus: cave salamander or olm (http://a-z-animals.com/animals/olm/)

*P. 153 The vanishing lake:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Cerknica

*Mammoth Cave in Kentucky:

http://www.nps.gov/maca/index.htm

*P. 153-154 Cave adaptation: partial or total blindness, and, in the case of the ducks, lack of feathers. Interesting to note that the ducks quickly re-adjusted to life in the upper world—growing feathers and regaining their eyesight.

*The cave at Caripe, Venezuela:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cueva_del_Gu%C3%A1charo_National_Park

*Guacharos, or Oilbirds:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oilbird

*P. 157 “It will not do for us (at least if we mean to be scientific men) to use terms without defining them.”