from an early age of antiquity, as the familiar proverb attests, been regarded as very dangerous. It appears that the Charybdis is calm for about a quarter of an hour when the direction of the current changes, at intervals of about six hours. Spallanzani, an early investigator, visited this dangerous spot to ascertain, if possible, whether the Charybdis was really a whirlpool. As he approached it, he says that "it appeared like a group of tumultuous waters, increasing in size as he came nearer. There was a revolving motion within a small circle of about a hundred feet diameter, within which was an incessant undulation of agitated waters which fell, beat, and dashed against one another." Still, although his barque was rocked and beaten to and fro very violently, Spallanzani was enabled to cross the Charybdis, and found that there was not the all-absorbing circular motion supposed to be so dangerous. On questioning the pilots respecting the appearance of the spot when at its greatest degree of agitation, he learned that when the current and the wind are opposed to each other, and both violent, the disturbance is at its height. It then contains three or four small whirlpools, or even more, according to the degree of its violence. "If at this time small vessels are driven into the Charybdis by the wind or the current, they are seen to whirl round, rock, and plunge, but are never drawn into the vortex. They only sink when filled with water by the waves dashing over them. When larger vessels are forced into it they cannot extricate themselves; whatever wind they may have, their sails are useless, and after having been for some time tossed about by the waves they are in danger, if not managed by skilful pilots, of being dashed on a neighbouring rock, wrecked, and the crew destroyed." The Scylla rock greatly increases the danger of the Messina Strait. If a sailing vessel is carried by a strong southerly wind, it will pass safely through the strait, but unless navigated by skilful pilots it is likely to be driven on this rock if it encounters a northerly wind.

By far the most terrible whirlpool known to the world, and concerning which some very marvellous tales have been told, is the famous Maelstrom, off the coast of Norway. Between the Islands of Lofoden and Moseve the depth of the sea is insufficient for the passage of a vessel; the water rushes past at flood tide with great force, but at ebb tide its fury is so great that its roar is heard many miles off, while it forms such capacious and powerful eddies that if sailing vessels come within their outer currents they are liable to be drawn in and dashed to pieces, the wrecks being thrown up to the surface when the sea becomes calm, which it does for only about a quarter of an hour at the turn of the tide. Even in this wild tumult later inquiry shows that there is no such all-comprehending vortical action as tradition formerly alleged. Whales have, however, been drawn into the Maëlstrom, although they have exerted themselves to the utmost to escape after they have entered it. The bottom of the sea here appears to be very rocky, inasmuch as pieces of fir and pine wood, after being absorbed, rise torn to fragments.

"The

An American' captain visited this great whirlpool at one of its calmer intervals, and ran along the edge of it with his ship. He describes it, though in somewhat confused language, as about a mile and a half in diameter. velocity of its current increasing as it approximates to its centre, and gradually changing its dark-blue colour to white, and foaming, tumbling, and rushing to its vortex, very much concave, as much so as the water in a funnel when half run out; the noise, too, hissing, roaring, dashing—all press ing on the mind at once-presented the most awful, grand, and solemn sight I ever experienced. We were near it about eighteen minutes, and in sight of it two hours. From its magnitude I should not doubt that instant destruction would be the fate of a dozen of our largest ships were they drawn in at the same moment.

These whirlpools have been described by later observers as "chopping seas," caused by the conflict of currents or winds under peculiar conditions. Terrible as were the traditions attaching to these spots, it is now known that neither of these so-called whirlpools is dangerous in calm weather for large ships, though when the current and the wind are strongly in opposition the broken swell is so violent and extensive in the Maelstrom as to founder large ships.

There are dangerous eddies and currents of a similar nature in various parts of the sea around the Orkney Islands, in which boats manned by persons ignorant of the waters are

liable to be engulfed. Off the west coast of Argyleshire, and in the strait between Scarba and the Jura Isles, is the Corrievrekin Whirlpool, formed by the meeting of very rapid tides from the north and west in the narrow passage into the Jura Sound, round a rock which rises with a steep slope from a great depth to several fathoms from the surface. The water is driven by the rock in different ways, and at flow tide in stormy weather great openings form in the water, and prodigious volumes of water fall as over a precipice, and on rebounding dash together and rise in spray to a great height. The water is only smooth for about half an hour, and in slack water.

The Raspberry Interest in Canada.-At the entrance of the village to which the railway north of Toronto to Lake Simla conducted me I saw a placard with the announcement, “Wanted, 50,000 pails of raspberries. Apply," etc. At each small station on the railway there was a pile of raspberry-pails going up, and a similar pile of pails full going down. The fruit sells at twopence a pound, and a woman can earn four shillings a day during the season. The rasp berry is the same as that which grows in England, and appears to be indigenous in both places. In Canada it forms the low undergrowth in the fir-forests. I essayed to join the juvenile pickers on the shores of the lake, but was fairly beaten (and bitten) by mosquitos. The fruit is used, of course, everywhere to make " berry-pie," the summer food of thousands, also for jam and preserves, an extensive business among our trans-Atlantic cousins. Of the fine varieties of other edible berries I do not here speak, save to say that I have joined children in huckleberrying, thimbleberrying, high and low bush blackberrying, and bilberrying, and that there are divers others. I am told that the enterprising storekeeper at Sutton would certainly get the 50,000 pails for which he advertised. The Indian squaws and children, from the island reserved in the lake, helped to provide the supply.

S. R. P.

Dead as a Doornail.-This seemingly odd simile is at least as old as the time of Shakespeare, for Pistol remarks to Doors Falstaff that the king is dead "as nail in door." of the sixteenth and seventeenth century were furnished with nails upon which the knocker fell. Hence, says Stevens, it is used as a comparison for one irrecoverably dead, one who has fallen, multâ morte, in Virgil's phrase, such as reiteration of strokes on the head would naturally produce.

London Trains.-According to the "City Press " a total number of 2,200 trains leave London railway stations every twenty-four hours, whilst every hour between 10 a.m. and II p.m. 1,600 trains start for the Metropolitan termini, this being at the rate of two per minute. Of this number, 1,750 are suburban trains, the remainder comprising the country and continental service. From Broad-street Station 395 trains daily start, and 312 leave Liverpool-street Station every day.

Luther at the Diet of Worms.-The appearance of Luther before the Diet on this occasion is one of the finest-perhaps it is the very finest-scenes in human history. Many a man has encountered death bravely for a cause which he knows to be just, when he is sustained by the sympathy of thousands, of whom he is at the moment the champion and the representative. But it is one thing to suffer and another to encounter face to face, and single-handed, the array of spiritual and temporal authorities which are raling supreme. Luther's very cause was yet unshaped and undetermined, and the minds of those who had admired and followed him were hanging in suspense for the issue of his trial. High-placed men of noble birth are sustained by pride of blood and ancestry, and the sense that they are the equals of those whom they defy. At Worms there was on one side a solitary low-born peasant monk, and on the other the Legate of the dreaded power which had broken the spirit of kings and emperors, sustained and personally supported by the Imperial Majesty itself and the assembled princes of Germany, before whom the poor peasantry had been taught to tremble as beings of another nature from themselves. Well might George of Frendsburg say that no knight among them all had ever faced a peril which could equal this. The victory was The wavering hearts took courage. The Evangelical

won.

revolt spread like an epidemic.

The Papacy was like an idol, powerful only as long as it was feared. Luther had thrown his spear at it, and the enchantment was broken. The idol was but painted wood, which men and boys might now mock and jibe at. Never again had Charles another chance of crushing the Reformation. France fell out with him on one side, and for the rest of his life gave him but brief intervals of breathing time. The Turks hung over Austria like a thunder cloud, terrified Ferdinand in Vienna, and swarmed over the Mediterranean in their pirate galleys. Charles was an earnest Catholic, but he was a statesman also, too wise to add to his difficulties by making war on heresy. What some call Providence, and others accident, had so ordered Europe that the tree which Luther had planted was allowed to grow till it was too strongly rooted to be overthrown.-Mr. Froude, in the "Nineteenth Century."

The Dentist in Brittany.—It was market-day at Bricquebec, and there was a covered cart in the little Place (on which the bronze statue of one of Napoleon's generals looks dows), with a crimson sort of banner, on which was inscribed, "Honneur à la Science," and it further was set forth that a surgeon-dentist who attends the barracks at Cherbourg was prepared to extract teeth on the smallest provocation. The practitioner was just then exercising his own at the hotel on some roast duck, but he had left his instruments behind him -a sword was very conspicuous. Imagine this brandished by the assistant in case the patient thinks better of it when his tooth is half out ! There was also a tambourine, to keep up his spirits-and perhaps drown his remonstrances. Lastly, there was a large flat basket, full of human teeth, doubtless to encourage the others.

Eclipse of the Sun as seen in the South Seas.-On Monday, May 6th, an eclipse of the sun attracted universal attention, as I had previously given notice of it. It was not quite a total eclipse. We watched it from 9.30 a.m. till 11, when clouds obscured it quite. In heathen days this event would have occasioned great consternation. Liberal offerings of food would be carried to the maraes, while the priests chanted prayers to Tangaroa in order to get back the sun. It was supposed that the hungry Gangarod had swallowed the luminary, but that on account of the large presents of food and many prayers he vomited the bright morsel up again! So completely has heathenism died out here that I did not hear allusion to the firm belief of past times. W. Wyatt Gill, B.A., Rarotonga.

4

The Volcanic Eruption in Java.-The magnitude of the recent volcanic eruption in Java has hindered the publication of accurate details. The very terror of the scenes enacted must have prevented the accurate observation of facts. We give place, for future reference, to the following extract from a description telegraphed to the "Daily News" from New York, as giving the most vivid account which has yet appeared :-"The disturbances began on the island of Krakatoa on Saturday, August 25th, when deep rumblings were distinctly audible at Suraperta and Batavia. Little alarm was felt at first, but within a few hours showers of stones began to fall, and all through the night showers of red-hot stones and ashes fell. Far away at Madura, more than five hundred miles distant, furious waves were lashed into mountains of foam as they came rolling in. The rumblings gradually became more and more distinct, and by noon of the same day Maha Meru, the largest of the volcanoes, was belching forth flames at an alarming rate. This eruption soon spread to Gunung Guntur, and many other minor mountains, until more than a third of the forty-five craters of Java were either in active eruption or seriously threatening it. Just before dusk a great luminous cloud formed over Gunung Guntur, and the crater of that volcano began to emit enormous streams of white and sulphurous mud and lava, which were rapidly succeeded by explosions, followed by tremendous showers of cinders and enormous fragments of rock, which were hurled high into the air. On Sunday evening the shocks and eruptions increased in violence. About midnight the most frightful scene of all took place. Suddenly an enormous luminous cloud, similar to that over Gunung Guntur, but much greater in extent, formed over the Kandang range of mountains which skirt the south-east coast of the island. This cloud

gradually increased in size until it formed a canopy of lurid red and whitish-grey over a wide extent of territory. During this time the eruptions increased, and streams of lava poured incessantly down the sides of the mountains into the valleys, sweeping everything before them. About two o'clock on Monday morning this great cloud suddenly broke into small sections and vanished, and when daylight came it was seen that an enormous tract of land had disappeared, extending from Point Capucin, on the south, to Negery Passoerang, on the north and west, to the lowest point, covering about fifty square miles. The entire Kandang range of mountains, extending along the coast in a semicircle for about sixty-five miles, had gone out of sight. The waters of Welcome Bay in the Sunda Straits, and Pepper Bay on the east, and the Indian Ocean on the south, had rushed in and formed a sea of turbulent waters. On Monday night the volcano of Papandayang was in an active state of paroxysmal eruption. In Sumatra three distinct columns of flame were seen to rise from a mountain to a vast height, and its whole surface was soon covered with fiery lava streams which spread to great distances on all sides. Stones fell for miles around, and black fragmentary matter carried into the air caused total darkness. A whirlwind accompanied this eruption, by which house-roofs, trees, men, and horses were carried into the air. The quantity of ashes ejected was such as to cover the ground and the roofs of the houses at Denamo to a depth of several inches. Suddenly the scene changed. The mountain was split into seven parts without a moment's warning, and where Papandayang had stood alone were now seven distinct peaks. One of the most singular incidents was the sudden rising on the forenoon of Tuesday of fourteen new volcanic mountains in the Straits of Sunda.'

The Three Stutterers.-A gentleman, afflicted with an impediment in his speech, sat down to dinner at a tavern, and calling to a waiter, addressed him thus, "W-w-waiter, gi-give m-me s-s-some r-r-roast b-b-beef." The waiter stammered out, "W-w-we a-a-an't g-g-got a-a-any." At which the gentleman, highly enraged, supposing the servant was mocking him, sprang from his seat and was proceeding to knock him down, when a third person arrested his arm, and cried to him not to strike, saying, "He st-tt-stutters s-s-same as w-w. we d-d-do!"

Gaining Information.-Locke was asked how he had con. trived to accumulate a mine of knowledge so rich, yet so extensive and deep. He replied that he attributed what little he knew to the not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to the rule he had laid down of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics chiefly that formed their own particular profession and pursuits. The best-informed men are undoubtedly those who adopt this rule.

Base Sport.-A correspondent of "Land and Water," Mr. R. Johnston, wrote the following appeal on the cruel and wanton murder of seafowl by men who "scatter death, and call it sport"-" For partridge and pheasant shooting it may be fairly urged that execution is usually done by practised shots, that few birds are hit which are not killed, and that the birds after being killed are of some use-we do see them on the dinner-table. But for the kind of 'sport' which I am now about to describe I fail to see any excuse whatever. It is simply a form of self-indulgence, purchased at the cost of great misery to untold numbers of not only harmless but most useful birds. To a right-thinking man it is wanton cruelty, and nothing else. I can best describe the practice by giving two examples, out of many which I have personally witnessed. No. 1. Two men, having the appearance of farmers, and apparently fairly good shots, lounged about on a lonely beach for a whole day, shooting at every bird which came in sight. As the birds were numerous, they had what they would call a fine day's sport.' It so happened that on the following day I saw the same two men on the platform at Ipswich Station. They were relating their exploits to a friend. In reply to questions by the friend, I

6

noted down the following answers. (I may say that there was no eavesdropping' about the matter, as the remarks were made in a loud tone, and in the hearing of many people. They gloried in their shame.) 'Well, I hit about sixty.' 'I hit pretty nearly one hundred.' 'Use? No, you can't do anything with them.' 'Did I get them? No, half of themaye, two-thirds of them-were only winged.' You see, a gull is all feathers, and the chances are that your shot does not hurt its body; you only break its wing.' 'Why, then he tumbles into the water.' Fetch him! No, he's not worth fetching.' Thus, for their own 'amusement,' and for nothing else, these two men, according to their own account, had left about two-thirds of 150 birds (say 100) to perish miserably of wounds and starvation. Example No. 2. Four or five men, having the appearance of grooms or gentlemen's servants out for a holiday, hire double-barrelled guns, take a boat, and fire away all day with similar results. I am utterly averse to prosecutions. I would never use imprisonment save as a dire necessity. I would rather earnestly call for an expression of public opinion, which should gibbet such wanton cruelties with the infamy which they deserve. Further, as a farmer, I protest that these cruel men are killing our best friends. The green plover all the year round, and the sea-gulls on the least approach of rough weather, may be seen scouring the fields for miles inland in pursuit of wire-worm and grub. green plovers or lapwings are purely insectivorous birds, and as such are invaluable to the turnip grower. The clowns who shoot them and the poachers who take their eggs are about equally mischievous. I submit that the naturalist, the husbandman, and the hater of wanton cruelty should ally in protesting against this system of slaughter of harmless and useful birds-a system which is growing year by year.

The

[By the exertions of the late Mr. Frank Buckland and other humane naturalists, protection is given by law at certain seasons to seafowl as well as to other birds, but the cruel slaughter on our coasts by cads with guns is still too prevalent.]

Umbrellas in India. -Last year 3,353,055 umbrellas were imported into India, a number much larger than the imports of 1881-2; but also, according to the official report, much smaller than the imports of the year before that. A large proportion of these umbrellas are stated to be "wonderful things to behold, brilliant in colour and remarkable in design, and apparently specially manufactured for use in India." "As illustrative of the relative condition of the people in the two provinces, it is noted that while Burmah imported 819,313 umbrellas, Madras imported only 22,960.

Visit of H.M.S. Kingfisher to Rarotonga.-After morning service on Sunday, April 29th ult., H. M.S. Kingfisher steamed opposite this village. In a short time Captain Thornton, with one of his lieutenants, landed and formally waited upon the Queen to express the kindly feelings of Great Britain. After a little pleasant conversation we all attended afternoon service. Our visitors were pleased with all that they saw and heard. We then conducted them to the Mission House to partake of a cup of tea. About sunset they returned on board. On the following day presents of food were made to the captain, and a large party of us-chiefs, missionaries, and merchants-went on board to inspect the ship. Queen Makea was received with the utmost respect. At 3 p.m. the King. fisher steamed away for Aitutaki. Captain Thornton is a grandson of good Bishop Heber, whose famous hymn, "From Greenland," is as popular in the Pacific, in various native renderings, as the original is in our own land. The visit of the Kingfisher was a pleasing surprise.-W. Wyatt Gill, B.A., Rarotonga.

Marriage Seriously Viewed.-The following letter of very questionable congratulation was sent to a young friend and neighbour in Chelsea, who had written in the first flush of hope and pleasure to tell Mrs. Carlyle of her engagement :“And you are actually going to get married! You al ready! And you expect me to congratulate you, or perhaps I admire the judiciousness of that perhaps not.' Frankly, my dear, I wish you all happiness in the new life that is opening to you, and you are marrying under good auspices, since your father approves of the marriage. But congratulation on such occasions seems to me a tempting of Providence. The triumphal procession air, which in our

not.

manners and customs is given to marriage at the outsetthat singing of Te Deum before the battle has begun-has, ever since I could reflect, struck me as somewhat senseless and somewhat impious. If ever one is to pray-if ever one is to feel grave and anxious-if ever one is to shrink from vain show and vain babble, surely it is just on the occasion of two human beings binding themselves to one another, for better and for worse, till death part them, just on that occa sion which it is customary to celebrate only with congratula tions and rejoicings, and trousseaux and white ribbon.

The Sea Serpent.-A correspondent writes:-"In the article upon the sea serpent (at page 123 of the "Leisure Hour") allusion is made to the fight between the sea serpent and a sperm whale, in lat. 5° 13' S., and long. 35° w., as witnessed by the captain and crew of the ship Pauline in the year 1875. In the summer of 1878, while travelling upon the Continent, I noticed in Galignani's Messenger' a statement that the telegraph cable to Brazil being out of order it was found on examination that a sperm whale had been strangled by its coils, which the whale had no doubt utilised to free itself from parasites. This statement might be easily verified, and if true there can be little doubt that it would account for that sea serpent story, although it does not in the least follow that no massive saurian is now in existence. The young officer in H.M.s. Algerine, who was killed by a sea snake in Madras Roads, was Mr. Hyman, stepson of Hayden the artist. The snake was for many years in the United Service Institution in London."-H. K., Capt. R.N.

A Great Wire Rope.-The great driving-rope which pulls the cars across the new Brooklyn Bridge is 1țin. in diameter, 11,700ft. long, and weighs nineteen tons. It is accompanied by a duplicate rope of the same weight and strength, which is to be held in reserve, for use when the first rope wears out. The test which it has been subjected to gives ample assurance of its strength. Before it left the works every wire held at least 1,000 pounds, and was stretched from four to six per cent. more. In order to protect it from the atmosphere, and also to supply to the interior a kind of lubricator when it comes to be used, the rope has received a coating of tar.—Iron.

Pawnbroking in France. An official document with re gard to the pawnbroking business in France, which is entirely in the hands of the State, shows that there are at the present time only forty-two establishments or Monts-de-Piéte throughout the country. In nearly three-fourths of the departments there exist none whatever. The most important is that of Paris, after which come those of Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Lille, and Rouen. In these six branches the sums lent represent 82 per cent. of the total for the whole of France. Last year 3,012,571 articles were received in pledge in the different establishments, representing 52,995,948fr. lent. The average sum was 20fr. for Paris, and 14fr. for the departments. There were 1,224,806 loans ranging between 5fr. and 10fr., 906,829 under 5fr., and 880,936 from 11fr. to 1,000fr. and upwards.

Carlyle and George Washington.-The following amusing conversation between Carlyle and Mr. J. T. Fields, the American publisher, is recorded in "The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford": "So, sir, ye're an American?" quoth the self-sufficient Scotchman. Mr. Fields assented.

Ah,

that's a wretched nation of your ain. It's all wrong. It always has been wrong from the vera beginning. That grete mon of yours-George" (did any one under the sun ever dream of calling Washington George before?)-"your grete mon George was a monstrous bore, and wants taking down a few hundred pegs.' "Really, Mr. Carlyle," replied my friend, "you are the last man in the world from whom I should have expected such an observation. Look at your own book on Cromwell! What was Washington but Cromwell without his personal ambition and without his fanaticism?" "Eh, sir," responded Carlyle, "George had neither ambition nor religion, nor any good quality under the sunGeorge was just Oliver with all the juice squeezed out."

Aurora Borealis.-In the account of the Aurora Borealis (p. 510) as seen in Cumberland Straits, it was Captain Penny (not Kenny) who should have been mentioned.-Also, for Arminian, p. 528, read Armenian.

animals may be said to be "taken in and done for" in a good or a bad sense, accordingly as they may happen to have good or bad masters; but regarded generally, I think the lot of animals which man has brought wholly or partially under subjection is better, more comfortable, happier in the main (if the word happiness may be applied to mere brute perceptiveness) than it would have been had the animals brought under dominion continued wild.

Suppose we investigate the proposition, to which end let us figure to ourselves, if possible, certain tame, or reclaimed, species as existing side by side with unreclaimed ones. When we

come to think about it, the condition we are in quest of presents but few examples. There are wild elephants, indeed, as there are tame elephants, and both, so to speak, live side by side. Again, there are wild pigs as there are tame pigs, and these, too, though not in England, live side by side. Add the less commonly considered case of llamas and guanacos, the former tame representatives of the latter, and we exhaust our comparative case almost, if not quite. Wild horses there are, indeed, in the North American prairies, in the American pampas, and elsewhere; but, so far as concerns America, at least, there are no indigenous wild horses. Of course I need hardly state that horses were altogether unknown in America before the Spaniards took them there; hence American wild horses are very differently circumstanced to horses wild from the first. It is considered a very doubtful point by naturalists whether any race of horses indigenously or originally wild be now in existence. Certain naturalists take the affirmative view, and accord to existing indigenous wild horses some part of the immense Asiatic table-land vaguely known as Tartary, or Thibet. The majority of naturalists, I fancy, are of the opinion that the race of horses originally wild is altogether extinct. From horses to donkeys the transition is not so very abrupt; what then are we warranted in affirming about them? what have we to state about their ancestry? Nothing for certain, though a considerable balance of testimony favours the hypothesis that our domestic thistle-eating, obstinate, long-eared, slow-going friends are lineally descended from the onager, or wild-ass tribe, animals considered good eating by the Greeks and Romans of antiquity, when the Greeks and Romans could catch them, for the onager is not only a very fleet but also a very fierce animal, as specimens yet to be found in the wilds and mountains of Persia amply testify.

Prying into the ancestry of dogs, the investigator soon loses himself in doubt and speculation. That the dog is merely a reclaimed wolf hardly bears looking into; far more probable it seems that reclaimed dogs are merely the descendants of wild dogs, the races of which are mostly exterminated. Probably, in times long gone by, wild dogs were found in many parts of the world, and man reclaimed them. Probably, different climates have in the course of time given rise to different varieties. In this way it is well attested that certain European dogs, especially hounds and pointers,

if taken to India, degenerate after some descents to the character approximate to that of the native East Indian pariah dogs. A circumstance strongly favouring the opinion that wild dogs had formerly a very wide range of distribution is found in the presence of wild dogs called "dingoes," in Australia and Van Diemen's Land. It is a marked. characteristic of the Antipodean fauna that the species and members of which it consists are strange; that they have mostly so little alliancewith animals constituting the old world, and the American fauna. Thus, in Australia and Australia only, is the strange ornithorhynchus or duck-billed. platypus found. Of kangaroos the same may be said those queer vertebrate flea-like quadrupeds that progress by jumping rather than by walking, and which throughout Australia are found representing many species, the individuals of which vary from the smallness of a rat to the bigness of a heifer. Nevertheless, Australia and Van Diemen's Land have their native wild dogs, as emigrant shepherds discovered to their cost and occasionally still find to their sorrow.

Cats-whence did they come-what is their ancestry? Nobody knows. If we choose to affirm-" from wild cats," the expression is ambiguous, seeing that in different countries the term wild-cat is given to different small species of the tiger tribe. As regards our British, or rather Scottish wild cats, these are animals which in the opinion of most naturalists differ from the mousing tabbies of our homes and hearths in some essential or generic particulars. Not to lose the thread of our discourse, be it remembered that we applied ourselves to the case of comparing if possible the condition and prospects of tame species with those of corresponding wild species still in existence; and relative thereto the statement was made that, with the exception of elephants and swine, for a certainty, and donkeys, and llamas, under some sort of reservation, the necessary elements of comparison are no longer available. In making this statement, however, be it understood that the remark can only be held to apply to quadrupeds; in respect to domestic and reclaimed birds the case is different. Wild barn-door fowls are still to be met with in the forests of Burmah. Pintadoes or guinea-fowls still roam wild in Afr.ca. Wild turkeys still afford good shooting in America; and wild geese and ducks are common enough even in our own native isles.

Restricting the observations with which we set out to quadrupeds, it will be found to hold very good, even though we count off one by one all the races of reclaimed animals upon the tips of our fingers. Horses, dogs, and cats, we have done with them; and the exceptional position of donkeys and onagers, llamas and guanacos, has already come under observation. Now, llamas and guanacos may be regarded as a sort of diminutive New World camel, doing in America the duties of camels and dromedaries in Asia and Africa, and affording a far more valuable hair (or wool, if we choose to call it so) than their bigger representatives. It is a point worthy of remark, that although the tame llama still finds its re