commotion being carried to their nest, dinary accomplishments, whose house ants of a powerful and determined char- was hospitably opened during a journey acter issued forth, in the capacity of mag-across the country. He possessed "a istrates, to allay the tumult, but they, too, small library of books, nearly all being coming in contact with the corrosive sub-missals and prayer-books;" and he had limate, became as mad as the others, and "a little knowledge of geography," but the conflict went on till the field was as regards England he was sadly defistrewn with the wounded and dismem-cient. That it "was a small island, he bered bodies of the combatants.

admitted was new to him, as he thought it was part of the United States, or at least joined to them." As a climax to his ignorance, he asked "if it was true that Rome was one of the four quarters of the globe." Droll, but very melancholy! The ignorance of these Central Americans appears to go far beyond that of the most abject and illiterate of the population in Great Britain.

That these ants actually eat the brokendown leaves with which their nests are stored, seems to be by no means conclusive. Our author offers an explanation which may not, perhaps, be readily accepted by naturalists. He gives it as his belief that the ants make use of the leaves as manure, or mass of decaying matter, "on which grows a minute species of fungus, on which they feed- - that they We have little space for the further exare in reality mushroom growers, and eat- plorations of this indefatigable naturalist. ers." To verify this supposition, he men- His accounts of humming-birds, gems of tions having discovered in the interior of beauty; of the nests of certain birds a nest "a speckled brown, flocculent, hanging from trees; of parrots which spongy-looking mass of a light and loose- construct their dwellings in the ground ly connected substance." The mass, he near the nests of ants, conveniently close adds, was "overgrown and lightly con- to a highly relished variety of food; and nected together by a minute white fun-of wasps that have strange ways of living, gus, that ramified in every direction all must be passed over. Ants of one through it." Such, he contends, is the kind or other, we should say, form the ant-food, which is carefully watched, and staple topic of the volume. They cast carried away in cases of danger to the up in all quarters. One species of a community. No doubt, any mass of small size differ very distinctly from all broken leaves would, in the confinement the rest. Instead of making their nests of a cell in a warm climate, soon become in the ground, and roving about in a preputrid, even although the ants, as we are datory fashion, they assume the duty of informed, have the skill to construct protecting plants in which they take up shafts for ventilation. The rather curi- their residence. On the plant that speous and confidently maintained theory, cially commands their services there grow that these so called leaf-eating ants do hollow thorns, adapted for their abode. not eat leaves at all, but carry them off There they continually reside, deriving in order to rear fungi for food on the de-food from a minute kind of fruit of a luscaying mass, is worth the consideration of investigators acquainted with this branch of science.

cious description suitable for their sustenance. These fruits do not ripen all at once. They come to maturity one Mr. Belt gives some valuable informa- after the other, to keep up a proper suction respecting the geology of the dis- cession of nutriment; the ants always trict, and the nature of the lodes, which running about to examine the progress of will be appreciated by those concerned ripening. In requital for board and lodgin gold-mining. For all useful details, ing, these valiant little warriors, like we refer them to his very interesting household troops, defend the plant against work. We might offer the same counsel all comers, whether mammalia or articuto all who wish to know the social char-lata. Few things are calculated to imacteristics of the country. What the nar-press us more strongly with the wonders rator says of the sloth and ignorance of of animal life in this part of the world, even the more affluent classes, is past or- than the description of these tiny warrior dinary credence. Sunk in self-indul-ants. To Mr. Belt, for what he has regence, they would prefer to submit to any lated on this and other subjects, all inconvenience rather than put themselves proper thanks must be awarded. We to the smallest industrial exertion. The heartily commend his unassuming work general ignorance is grotesquely pictured to the notice of all who are curious in in describing a person of more than or-natural history.

W. C.

The Chilian colony of Punta Arenas, founded in 1843 in the peninsula of Brunswick, has been very flourishing for the last four or five years. Its proximity to Terra del Fuego will allow M. Pertuiset's expedition to find a refuge there in case of necessity. Its chief wealth is its mining industry; gold is found in the river in considerable quantities, and the supply of coal is very abundant. Fuegians, as well as most of the natives of the islands in the Straits of Magellan, are savages; but the Patagonians, though nomads and hunters, faithfully observe their treaties. Their number is decreasing every day, but from what precise causes does not appear to be known. Academy.

The

MR. EDWARD ATKINSON, an Americanern part of Chili, from ocean to ocean, from writer on Cotton Culture in the South, once the isle of Chiloé to Cape Horn. The climate predicted that cotton would be sown in hot- is cold in autumn and winter, but in the other beds and planted out. A recent official report seasons either great heat prevails or violent from Georgia tells us that an experiment of west winds, blowing for whole days together, this kind has been tried by a planter there which render it impossible to get out of doors. with perfect success. He dug long pits about three or four feet deep, and had a number of boxes made with shavings, larger at the top than at the bottom, placed them on planks at the bottom of this pit, filled them with manure and soft earth, and planted his seed in January. He covered the pits with canvas at night and in very cold weather; and in April, when people were preparing to plant, he had stalks a foot high. He then carried them out on their planks to the field, dug his holes, slipped his plant down, and raised his box out, and thus the plant never felt the change. He made nearly two bales to the acre, and contends that it was easier to do this than haul out his stable manure. "He is a very practical man," adds the chronicler of this apparently well-authenticated piece of intelligence, "and has made a fortune, which is pretty good evidence of his good sense." The same report states that it is likely that cotton will be grown in California to a certain extent. Some experiments in 1871 were so favourable, that in 1872 a crop of 1500 bales was expected, which would be a crop of about one bale per acre. Last year, it was thought, the average would be more than doubled. The Californian cotton had a ready home market, being found to possess a remarkable fitness "for combination with wool in various fabrics."

Academy.

IN continuation of his exquisite researches on the phenomenon of flight (Comptes Rendus, January 12, 1874), M. Marcy has made a series of observations which prove how important a part the onward movement of a bird plays in increasing the efficiency of each wing stroke. For supposing that in its descent the wing did not continually come in contact with a fresh volume of air, it would act at a disadvantage, because the downward impulse which, at the commencement of each stroke, it gives to the air below it, would 'make that air so much less efficient a resisting medium; whilst, by continually coming in contact with a fresh body of air, the wing is always acting on it to the best advantage. For this reason, when a bird commences its flight, it turns towards the wind if possible, to make up for its lack of motion on starting. Nature.

NEWS has been received by the French Geographical Society from the expedition to Terra del Fuego, under M. Pertuiset. The landing was effected on December 7 last, and the members of the expedition, armed to the teeth, at once proceded inland in the direction of Cape Horn. Their first discovery was an exquisitely beautiful lake, from twenty to twenty-five kilomètres round, covered with A WASTED LIFE. What a distressing thousands of small birds, ducks, and geese. spectacle is that of a man of talent approach The party gave it the name of their leader.ing to old age not only without the consciousAt its south extremity a group of Fuegians was discovered, all of whom escaped, with the exception of a woman and two children. In return for some presents the woman gave M. Pertuiset " a piece of tin from a box of sardines;" she was, adds M. Pertuiset, "belle pour sa race." The Fuegians appeared to be hostilely disposed according to last accounts. Only one native hut was discovered, lately abandoned; it contained nothing but dead

rats.

ness of having employed his abilities to any permanent good purpose for the benefit of mankind, but with the sense of having written in behalf of errors and exploded fallacies all the time, and in favour of a party which has come to natural ruin in the course of time, and can now do nothing for him- not even give him sympathy in his misfortune. When such a man reflects on his wasted existence, and compares his position with that of one who took a directly opposite course— that is, worked for good and not for evil, or, it may be, worked uselessly and misspent his lifehow painful must be his feelings, if at all sen

The report of the expedition is accompanied by some details from the French Consul at Valparaiso, relating to the territory of Magellan. That territory includes all the south-sitive!

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194

TWILIGHT DREAMS.

THEY Come in the quiet twilight hour,
When the weary day is done,

And the quick light leaps from the glowing
heaps

Of wood, on the warm hearth-stone.

When the household sounds have died away,
And the rooms are silent all,

Save the clock's brief tick, and the sudden
click

Of the embers as they fall;

They come, those dreams of the twilight hour,
To me, with their noiseless tread,
A tearful band, by the guiding hand
Of a grave-eyed spirit led.

There is no voice within the hall,

No footstep on the floor,

The children's laughter is hushed, there is
No hand at the parlour door.

Like fingers tapping eagerly
Against the shuttered frame,

Each morn gives birth to fresh life-giving airs; And lightly, blithely throb through every thing

Where the trailing rose its long branch throws, All vernal impulses, all vernal stirs,

Beat the great drops of rain.

The spirit which is Spring.

From Blackwood's Magazine. LORD STANHOPE AND THE HISTORIANS OF QUEEN ANNE'S REIGN.

icled age, or of a distant people, with natures and customs unkindred to our own, but as the affairs of our own time and our own land, that there is present so large a fund of interest to welcome the history of them.

WHY is it that the reign of Queen Anne is so attractive both to the writer and the reader of history? There are many reasons for this, as we shall presThe affluence of this historical region ently see; but there is a common cause cannot, we apprehend, be contemplated that gives strength and unity to them all. without envy by authors whose lot it is It is the earliest historical epoch that to labour in more arid districts; those, blends in with our own time, and pre- for instance, where they have to gather sents us with historical glories of hero- their materials through the sort of quarism, genius, and statesmanship, belong-rying process termed archæology. "Naing, as it were, to our own age, and stir- tions as well as men arrive at maturity ring us as the history that passes around by degrees; and the events which hapus, with the freshness and impulse of pen during their infancy or early youth that present, wherein our countrymen, cannot be recollected, and deserve not to our friends, and kindred — ourselves perhaps — are participators.

doomed to perpetual sordid use is marshalled and displayed. Whatever has glitter or form or cost about it is posed to catch the eye, like poor Caleb Balderstone's tin flagon. And yet when all is done there is a hardness and thinness visible to every spectator, and a pity is inspired by the palpably meagre effect of all the sedulous efforts to accomplish by diligence and cunning what wealth alone can realize.

be remembered." So spake Principal Robertson when he gracefully gave the The period belongs to that eighteenth whole affair the go-by as "dark and century, remembered by the old among fabulous;" just as your prosperous genus in our youth, and crowded with me- tleman evades participation in the lot of morials of grand historical events still re- those who have to struggle with hard cent and fresh. But it is not in sound work and poverty. There is, indeed, in alone that Queen Anne's reign has its the arider regions of historical investigaplace in the histories that have in them tion, something strikingly akin to the more of the present than the past. If struggles of genteel poverty striving to we go back fifteen years from the acces- hide the baser elements of its lot. In sion of Queen Anne, and get behind the the endeavour to cope with the richer Revolution, we are in a history that neighbour, every little trifle that is not seems to carry us further away from Queen Anne's reign than Queen Anne's reign is from Queen Victoria's. The Reformation, the great Civil War, the Protectorate, the Restoration, and the Revolution, had not yet finished the work that was to be done by successive convulsions, each shaking society to pieces before it could readjust itself after the latest shattering. But in Queen Anne's day all had settled down into the order that still exists. In politics, in literature, in social life, we are all at home, as it were, and among our own people, If the political life were uneventful, the literature debased, the social life vapid, there might be little in the epoch to interest or attract us. But all its attributes are stamped with grandeur and energy. It is full of rapid action, of powerful sensations, and of great events. And it is when these are not viewed through the apathetic influence of remoteness, as the deeds of a past and indistinctly-chron

Such being the doom of historical poverty to those who grope into the "dark and fabulous," if it be in their destinies to reach such a period as Britain in the first fifteen years of the eighteenth century, they are to be congratulated as those who have emerged from poverty to the sudden acquisition of great riches. So great is the affluence of this historical reign, that it gives to all comers with an open hand. There is no occasion for jostling. each workman may separately reap a plentiful harvest. There is room