VOL-CA-NOES AND BOIL-ING SPRINGS.

THE earth con-tains, in its in-te-ri-or, melt-ed sub-stan-ces. times these sub-stan-ces force their way from the in-te-ri-or to the sur-face of the earth, and pour out at holes on the tops of mountains, like fire com-ing out of a chim-ney. The moun-tains which have these o-pen-ings are called vol-ca-noes. To the o-pen-ings them-selves we give the name of cra-ters. Burn-ing mat-ter, call-ed la-va, hot stones, and ash-es, are thrown out from these cra-ters. The burst-ing out of the fire from the in-side of a vol-ca-no is call-ed

an e-rup-tion. Vol-ca-noes are found in all parts of the world. All a-long one side of A-mer-i-ca runs a long range of ver-y high mountains call-ed the An-des. A-mong these moun-tains are a great ma-ny vol-ca-noes. The en-grav-ing shows you the vol-can-ic mountain call-ed Hec-la, in the cold is-land of Ice-land, and in the foreground you see the springs of boiling water call-ed the gey-sers.

LESSON CXLV.

AN E-RUP-TION OF A VOL-CA-NO.

NEAR-LY eight-een hun-dred years ago a ver-y ter-ri-ble out-burst or e-rup-tion of Mount Ve-su-vi-us oc-cur-red. The moun-tain be-gan to throw up im-mense vol-umes of la-va, and the air was dark-en-ed with the thick cloud of fall-ing ash-es. Two cit-ies, call-ed Her-cu-la-ne-um and Pom-pei-i, were com-plete-ly bur-ied. They re-main-ed hid-den un-der the la-va for cen-tu-ry aft-er centu-ry, and no one knew ex-act-ly where these cit-ies had stood. At last, a-bout a hun-dred years a-go, the old cit-ies were re-dis-cov-er-ed by a strange chance. A num-ber of work-men were dig-ging a well in a gen-tle-man's gar-den, when, to their great sur-prise, they came upon the roof of a house. This house be-long-ed to the old city of Pom-pei-i, and aft-er a time, one part of the town aft-er an-oth-er was ex-hum-ed.

I HAVE heard of a boy who was in the hab-it of giv-ing way to passion. He was rath-er a pret-ty boy, with long flax-en hair; but, when he flew into a pas-sion, his eyes seem-ed near-ly start-ing from his head, his face be-came a bright scar-let, and he was quite hid-eous to look at. His par-ents had tried va-ri-ous pun-ish-ments to cure him of this bad pro-pen-si-ty, but in vain; till at last, one day, in the ver-y midst of the boy's rage, his fa-ther sud-den-ly held a look-ing glass up to him. The an-gry boy was hor-ri-fied at the distort-ed coun-te-nance that glar-ed at him from the glass. He could scarce-ly be-lieve it to be his own. He stop-ped cry-ing sudden-ly, and ran and hid him-self in a cor-ner.

of his giv-ing way to his pas-sion aft-er that day.

I have nev-er heard

Gey'sers, Re'dis-eov-er-ed, Pun'ish-ments, Pro-pen' si-ty.

THE south of Eu-rope was in-hab-it-ed ma-ny hun-dred years a-go by a very pow-er-ful peo-ple call-ed the Ro-mans. The cit-y of Rome was the cen-tre of an im-mense em-pire, and Rome was call-ed the mis-tress of the world. The city was the most splen-did on earth. It had baths, and pub-lic build-ings, and the-a-tres al-most in-nu-mer-a-ble. Im-mense wealth had been collect-ed there. But the peo-ple were hea-thens, and the tem-ples they rais-ed were not built for the wor-ship of the one true God, but of a num-ber of i-dols. These tem-ples were a-mong the most splen-did build-ings in the cit-y. Ru-ins of some of them are still to be seen in Rome and in dif-fer-ent parts of It-a-ly. One of these ru-in-ed tem-ples you see de-pict-ed at the head of this les-son. A few pillars, and a mass of large stone blocks, are all that re-main of the beau-ti-ful tem-ple. But, in-stead of hea-then tem-ples, church-es are built now to the hon-our of the true God.

LESSON CXLVIII.

FIRE UN-DER CON-TROL.

FIRE is one of the most val-u-a-ble pos-ses-sions of man. By means of fire our food is pre-par-ed; by its as-sist-ance our homes are made

In-hab'it-ed,

The' a-tre, In-nu' mer-a-ble, De-piet'ed.

warm and hab-it-a-ble. There are still more im-port-ant ob-jects ef-fect-ed by the aid of fire. No black-smith could make a nail-no i-ron found-er could cast a ves-sel of i-ron-no ma-chine could be con-struct-ed, with-out the em-ploy-ment of fire. Even if ma-chines could be made, they would be al-most use-less if fire were not ap-plied to them; for near-ly ev-er-y en-gine is now work-ed by the aid of steam, and to ob-tain steam we need fire. Then, a-gain, if it were not for fire, we could not see to read or work dur-ing the long nights of win-ter.

As there is noth-ing more use-ful than fire when man has it un-der con-trol, so there is noth-ing more ter-ri-ble than fire when it has got be-yond con-trol. When a fire breaks out in a crowd-ed town, no one can tell where the mis-chief will end. A whole row of hous-es oft-en falls a prey to the flames; and not on-ly is pro-per-ty lost, but lives are oft-en lost al-so. More than once the great-er part of a cit-y has been de-stroy-ed by fire. This hap-pen-ed to the city of Lon-don not two hun-dred years a-go; and a-bout fif-teen years a-go the same mis-for-tune be-fell the cit-y of Ham-burg, in Ger-ma-ny. And to think that a fire may be caus-ed by the care-less-ness of a child!

LESSON CL.

POI-SON-OUS BER-RIES.

IN your walks in the fields you must have no-tic-ed a plant grow-ing in the hedg-es with a pur-ple and yel-low flow-er and dark ber-ries. This plant you should nev-er pick, and, a-bove all things, you must nev-er eat any of the ber-ries it bears; for they are poi-son-ous, and a very few of them would be suf-fi-cient to cause your death. The plant is call-ed the dead-ly night-shade. Ma-ny chil-dren have been kill-ed by eat-ing its ber-ries. The night-shade is not the on-ly plant bear-ing ber-ries of a poi-son-ous kind. You should there-fore take care nev-er to eat the fruit of a plant with which you are not well ac-quaint-ed. Though these ber-ries are poi-son-ous, they are fre-quent-ly giv-en as med-i-cines, in small quan-ti-ties.

Engine, Con-tain' ed, Suf-fi'cient (pron. suf-fish'ent).

WE go to school to learn those things which it will be nec-es-sar-y for us to know when we grow up. There are schools fit for young peo-ple of all a-ges. The in-fant school is for the lit-tle child who can on-ly learn the be-gin-ning of know-ledge; for in-stance, the names of the let-ters of the al-pha-bet, the days of the week, and the months of the year. Chil-dren are al-so taught at in-fant schools to count, and to sing lit-tle songs and hymns. For old-er boys and girls there are va-ri-ous kinds of schools; and for in-struction in lan-guag-es and in sci-enc-es, u-ni-ver-si-ties and col-leg-es are found-ed,

The first three things a boy is taught at school are us-u-al-ly reading, writ-ing, and a-rith-me-tic. It is req-ui-site that these three things should be prop-er-ly learnt. Ev-er-y one will re-quire them more or less, and the want of a know-ledge of them has kept ma-ny a man poor all his life.

Vă'ri-ous, Lăn"guag-es (pron. lang'gwaj-es.)

Al' phǎ-bet, Vǎ'ri-ous,