heart of a city you must seek a park, or some spot with trees and shrubs. If it be early in the season, and you can find a brushheap, study that well. You may well come across the beautiful fox-sparrow, chewinks, wrens, and perhaps a thrush or two. They will cower in such a heap all day, if the wind has a nip, and the sun lies on one side of the heap. If you have a couple of old apple trees near at hand, you will see passing through them a greater number, and greater variety of birds, than any two trees you might choose. Begin to study the first bird you see. Learn the names of the different parts of his body. Get his size fixed in your mind. Accustom yourself to see at a glance the shape of his bill, the spots and marks on his breast and wings, and a general idea of his head. Do not be discouraged if you cannot "name" him the first time. Try again.

If you can learn a dozen birds you never knew before, during your first year of study you may be well content. Note in a book carefully all details as to time, place, and the bird's appearance. These may be studied out when you have time, and are valuable for reference. You will never regret time spent in this delightful pursuit. Begin today.

"Art thou in love with April-tide?
I' faith in love am I.

For now 'tis sun, and now 'tis shower,
And now 'tis bud, and now 'tis flower."

APRIL NOTES.

April 19 is celebrated in England as Primrose Day. It is the anniversary of Lord Beaconsfield's death. The Primrose League was organized in memory of him. The members pledge themselves to " oppose radical and revolutionary tendencies and preserve the religion of the realm and the ascendency of the British empire." All classes belong to this league and on this day wear a bunch of primroses on the coat or dress.

Shakespeare was born in April, and it was of April's flowers that he sang most frequently and most sweetly. Violets, cowslips, and primroses he mentions over and over again, and also the "flower de luce" which is with us, too, decking our garden beds.

Certain colors are in my mind associated with certain months. Blue is April's color, white belongs to May, pink to June. In April the sky, the water, the bluebirds, and many flowers seem to tinge the world with a celestial hue. Beside the banks of violets we all know so well, from those short-stemmed shy ones in the meadow, to the large flat crows-foot which covers so many New England hills, there is the wild geranium, the wild forget-me-not, the housatonia or Quaker lady, and

best and bluest of all, the mertensia. The species I mean is Mertensia virginica. Do you know it? To see it in its glory about the third week in April I ride three or four miles into the country, go down a steep hill, and still on my wheel, ride a quarter of a mile farther through a shallow, noisy brook. Then I come to a woodland nook where the color blue is born. of blue mertensia, wild Up to my knees in waves geranium, and ferns like plumes, I stand and live, the blue sky overhead, the sunlight flickering through the trees, and all around me circling and wheeling, pouring out their indigo birds! song as they dart, the They show every shade of blue on their graceful bodies as they flash in

sunshine and shade, and

fly so low and so near

SONG SPARROW.

me that it seems as if I but stretched out my hand, I could seize one. All this fluttering and careering is not for me, but for that modest brown bird yonder on her nest. There are eight or ten cavaliers, but she is the only female that I see. I steal away so as not to disturb her, bearing with me a bunch of the mertensia. Every part of this plant is fine, the leaves a tender, delicate green, the flowers sky blue, the buds a rosy pink. It is said to grow in the greatest profusion and beauty in the rich flats of the Ohio valley.

Wandering through the woods we find the dogwood, white or pink-tipped, a shrub with a double mission. It is a thing of beauty in the spring, and its red berries a source of great delight to countless birds during the chill autumnal days.

On stony hillsides the columbine is in full bloom. The arbutus is peeping out, the adder's tongue is dangling its yellow lily bells-it is a lily, you know in moist woodlands, and the early meadow-rue, modest though it be, spreads to the wandering insect a rich meal of pollen.

In the slight shade at the wood's edge we may find the wood anemone so delicate and fragile that it is but a sacrifice of beauty to pluck it. Don't forget to look for the trilliums, and take a trip to the marsh for early orchis. While you are here, if the pitcher plant grows in your locality dig up a root of it, taking as much of the black soil as you can. Put the plant and mud into a bowl or deep saucer, and it is a pretty sight till midwinter to watch the new pitchers grow. They come out flat like blades of grass, but red-tipped, and gradually spread out. Keep the bowl pretty well filled with water, and put some into the pitchers occasionally. You will see unwary insects entrapped therein, inset hairs prevent their getting out. There is a sweet secretion on the edge of the pitcher which has a fatal attraction.

the

T is barely two years since the Cretan question, after baffling all the cabinets of Europe, was settled in summary fashion by the allied admirals. But the diplomats, not content with their own ignominious failure, then stepped in and vitiated the work of the admirals by insisting that the Turkish flag be flown on a barren isle as a symbol of the formal continuance of Turkish dominion. Thus the definitive settlement became a mere modus vivendi and no one, unless it be the diplomats who seem inaccessible to information known to all the world, was surprised when the word recently went forth that the Cretan question was again reaching an acute stage. It is sufficiently well established today that no arrangement which ignores the foundation facts of geography and history has the element of permanence.

Crete is located midway between Sicily and Cyprus, almost exactly in the center of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean. From Cape Malea in the Peloponnesus to the western end of the island the distance is sixty miles; from Cape Krio in Asia Minor to the eastern end it is one hundred and ten miles. This gap, however, is partly filled up by the large islands of Carpathos and Rhodes. On a clear day, the snowy tops of the Cretan mountains are visible from the mainland, both of Asia and of Greece. The island itself is one hundred and sixty miles in length, and from ten to thirty-five miles in width; the total area being 3,326 square miles more than three times that of Rhode Island, and nearly double that of Delaware. It is extremely mountainous, being, in fact, but the crest of the same submerged mountain range which includes Rhodes, Cyprus and countless lesser peaks which appear as small islands in the sea. In the center rises Mt. Psiloriti, anciently Mt. Ida, to a height of over 8,000 feet. To the west are the White mountains, almost as lofty, which fill up nearly all the western end; while the eastern, though slightly less rugged, nevertheless has peaks exceeding 7,000 feet. In spite of its mountainous character, however, the island as a whole is surprisingly fertile. Even today, after four centuries of oppression and eighty years of almost continuous insurrection, the

population is 295,000; which is greater than either Delaware or North Dakota, and nearly equal to that of Vermont or South Dakota.

The northern coast is so indented as to form a series of harbors, many of them well sheltered and of ample size, while the southern coast, lined with bluffs rising like a wall from the sea to the height of from two to three thousand feet, is singularly destitute of inlets; the one exception being the small bay still called Kaloi Limenes or Fair Havens, as when the ship bearing the Apostle Paul took refuge there. (Acts xxvii., 8.)

This peculiarity of the coast-line marks the island as a part of Europe rather than of Asia or Africa, causing it to face the north instead of the south, and to constitute, during all the ages preceding the invention of the compass, the most easy and natural line of communication, migration, and commerce between southern Europe and Asia. But while it thus belongs to the European world, it is peculiarly exposed, by its position, to influences and attacks from both Asia and Africa. Like Sicily, of which Freeman has written so convincingly, it was set apart by nature and predestined to be the meetingplace and battle-ground of the East and the West, in that secular conflict which began in ages before history, and which continues today with unabated bitterness. From time immemorial this has accordingly been its history.

The earliest myths and legends connect Crete with Syria and Asia Minor. Thus Pasiphae is obviously the well-known Syrian nature goddess, while the shining bull represents the sun-god, as in the Egyptian Apis. The man-eating Minotaur, again, is simply Baal-Moloch, to whom human sacrifices were offered; and its slaughter by Theseus symbolizes the triumph of the Greek Pantheon. The legends of Europa, fabled to have been carried off from Sidon to Crete, and of Sarpedon, the colonizer of Asia Minor, also point to early connection with Asia. In Homer (Odyssey XIX., 175 ff.), and even in Herodotus, the Eteocretes or "genuine Cretans," of undoubted Asiatic origin, are distinguished from the various tribes of Greeks - Pelasgians, Archæans, Dorians who afterwards colonized and subdued the island. Recent researches show that they had developed an

indigenous Cretan alphabet, literature, and art at the time when the Hellenes were still running wild in the mountains.

But notwithstanding these foreign influences, or perhaps because of them, Crete became the cradle of Greek civilization, art, and government. It was the birthplace, as men believed, of Zeus and Artemis, and the abode of Rhea and Demeter. Cretan priests established the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. And in the time of Solon, when the right of sanctuary in the temples had been violated, and the Athenians were shaken and terrified with the sense of guilt, it was from Crete that Epimenides was summoned to intercede with the offended gods, and to purify the people. In matters of art its early prominence is attested by the legend of Dædalus, the skilful artisan, and his son Icarus, who perished, like many another youth, of too soaring ambition. In political affairs its early power quite justified Aristotle's remark that Crete" seemed formed by nature to rule the sea and dominate Greece." It was the seat of Minos, who was the first of the Greeks to consolidate his state, build a navy, suppress piracy, and enforce law and order with a strong hand. By Homer it is called the "Hundred Citied," and the "Isle of the Blessed," epithets indicating both its populousness and its prosperity. Idomeneus, a grandson of Minos, led against Troy a force second only to that of Agamemnon himself, and Lycurgus, as the ancients believed, found in the free city-states of Crete the model of the famous constitution afterwards established at Sparta.

In strictly historical times, this greatness had passed away, and Crete played no decisive part in the golden age extending from the Persian invasions through the Peloponnesian war. As it had been the first to develop, so also it was the first to reach the limit of development possible to Greek city-states, and to sink into the confusion and anarchy which sooner or later destroyed them all. Polybius paints most unlovely pictures of public and private demoralization in Crete, and it is well known that the Apostle Paul, who founded a church there some two centuries later, is not more flattering. (Epistle to Titus, i., 12.)

But in the last days of free Greece, amidst the general wreck of the Grecian world, the characteristics of islanders and mountaineers were again revealed; and the Cretans became renowned for liberty and courage long after these had perished elsewhere. In 146 B. C. Corinth was sacked by the Romans,

and all the Grecian mainland bowed in terror to the stranger. But the Cretans, secure in their mountains, swept the seas with their swift galleys, waging war on whatever craft carried the Roman flag. They preferred to be bandits rather than slaves. For nearly a century they held out. In 79 B. C. they defeated the prætor Antonius, captured numerous vessels, and hung the Roman officers with the chains which had been provided by the Romans for another purpose. Ten years more passed before they were again attacked. In 68 B. C. Metellus came with a large army. The Cretans dared to give battle in the open plains; defeated, they shut themselves up in their walled cities and fought to the last. It required three years and three legions- an army nearly equal to that which effected the conquest of Gaul to reduce Crete to submission. Finally, in 66 B. C., this last mountain stronghold of Greek freedom surrendered. Right worthily had the Cretans defended their liberty, and dearly did they pay for it. Many cities which had fallen under the heavy hand of Rome were never rebuilt; the most fertile land was confiscated; and such restrictions were placed upon the commerce of the island that Strabo, writing some generations later, remarks, "The men whose maritime skill was proverbial have not a single ship." The history of ancient Crete was finished.

Under the Roman empire, Crete was joined with the neighboring African coast west of Egypt into one province called Cyrenaica. On the final division of the empire, 395 A. D., this province fell to the eastern, or Byzantine, emperor.

In the year 815, religious disturbances broke out among the Arabs, who had now been in possession of Spain since 711, and about fifteen thousand were compelled to emigrate. A portion of these settled for a time at Alexandria in Egypt. In 823, a band of them plundered Crete. When they would have embarked again, their ships were in flames, and their chief, Abu Caab, confessing himself the author of the fire, said: "Of what do you complain? I have brought you to a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is your true country; repose from your toils, and forget the barren land of your nativity." Taking to themselves by force wives from the inhabitants, they settled first near the bay of Suda, then in the north central portion of the island where the town of Candia still recalls their capital, Candax. For one hundred and thirty-eight years they maintained their control. But in 961, Nice

phorus Phocas, afterward Byzantine emperor, captured their city by storm, after a siege of several months. Such of the Arabic population as survived the contest were compelled to receive Christian baptism of the

conquerors.

In 1821, when the Greek revolution began, the Cretans rose, headed by the Sphakiotes of the western mountains, and soon drove the Turks into the fortified towns; but the island having been promised by the sultan to the khedive of Egypt in return for his aid against the Greeks, the Christian nations - England, France and Russia-took it upon themselves to carry out the promise at the close of the war. This was the first of eight Cretan revolts. The second, in 1821, resulted in the return of the island to Turkey. The third, in 1840, and the fourth, in 1858, were extinguished in blood. In 1866 the fifth revolution began. This lasted three years, cost fifty million dollars and the lives of eighty thousand men, besides the multi

66

The Turks landed in Crete in 1645. After capturing Canea, they besieged Candia, which the Venetians defended for twenty-five years the longest, costliest and bloodiest siege in history. The city fell in 1669, and the island speedily passed under Turkish control. But as it was the last Turkish conquest, it was also the least secure. It was not even complete. The mountainous districts, especially in the west, where the Cretans had lived on unchanged since ancient days, heeded little the change of masters, and Turkish troops rarely penetrated their mountain fastnesses. But in the more exposed sections, especially the cities, so many of the inhabitants, particularly of the Venetian land-owners, abjured their Christian faith in order to retain their estates, that about one-fourth of the entire population became Mohammedan. In return for their conversion they were granted such rights and privileges by the sultan as to constitute them a ruling caste. The lives and property of all Christians were at their mercy, since no court would listen to any complaint by a Christian against a Mohammedan. With the proverbial fervor of fresh converts, they set themselves to the congenial work of pillage, outrage, and murder, which they continued with unabated zeal until the expulsion of the Turkish authorities some two years ago. This may serve to explain why such bitter hatred exists between Mohammedans and Christians in the island, notwithstanding Greek is their common language.

massacred. It resulted in the expulsion of the Turks from all but three fortresses. For the second time the Cretans had fairly achieved their own freedom; and for the second time, notwithstanding France and Russia were this time favorable to their cause, they were again thrust back under the Turkish yoke by the influence of England. The net result of the heroic devotion of the Cretans was a kind of constitution called the Organic Statute, which Turkey promised scrupulously to observe, and of course scrupulously ignored. Again, in 1877, the Cretans were in arms, but desisted from war on the promise of the powers to consider the Cretan question at the Congress of Berlin. They did consider it, and the result thereof was a new promise from the sultan to observe the Organic Statute aforesaid. Doubtless the powers were much surprised and pained that this did not satisfy the Cretans; but since the revolt had broken out afresh, they again interfered, and had the sultan sign a new constitution called the Pact of Halepa (November, 1878). This provided for an assembly, to be chosen by universal suffrage; also that either the governor or vice-governor should be a Christian. This provision, however, was nullified by the appointment of a Mohammedan military governor, who superseded all civil authorities. After giving the arrangement a trial for ten years, and finding their condition more intolerable than ever, the Cretans again rose in revolt in 1889. The sultan immediately turned to the Greek government at Athens, promising satisfaction to the Cretans provided they abstained from occupying certain important positions. The powers guaranteed this promise. On the advice of the Greek government, the Cretans