DOMESTIC UTILITIES. DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING MARKETS. Thrust a sharp pointed knife into the middle of the ham, under the bone; and on smelling the knife, if the ham be good, it will have a pleasant flavour; but if it be daubed and smeared, and has a disagreeable scent, reject the ham as a bad one; those short in the hock generally turn out best. A gammon of bacon may be tried in the same manner; and be sure to observe that the flesh adheres closely to the bones, and the fat and lean to each other; for, if it does not, the hog was not sound. When bacon is young the rind is thin; but thick when it is old. TURKEYS. The signs of a cock turkey being young, are the shortness of the spur, and the smoothness and blackness of the legs; the feet will also be limber and moist, and the eyes full and bright. But it will be necessary to observe that the spurs are not cut or scraped, which is an artifice frequently made use of, in order to deceive. If the turkey be stale, the eyes will be sunk, and the feet dry. The same rules may be observed to judge of a hen turkey, with this difference, that if she be old, her legs will be rough and red. COCKS AND HENS. PIGEONS. The tame pigeon, which is generally preferred to the wild, should be large in the body, fat, and tender; and, when new, are full and fat at the vent, and limber footed; but if the toes be harsh, the vent loose, open, and green, it is a sure sign they are stale; and the legs will be large and red if old. Wood-pigeons are much larger than either wild or tame, but like them in other respects. The same rules may be observed in the choice of other small birds, such as larks, field-fares, plovers, &c. THE CABINET. HOPE.-Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that, and manage it against despairing thoughts. MUNIFICENCE.-Liberality consists less in giving much than in giving wisely. GROWING RICH.-Were men content to grow rich somewhat more slowly, they would grow rich much more surely. GENTLENESS.-That gentleness which belongs to virtue is to be carefully distinguished from the mean spirit of cowards. HAPPY PROPENSITY.-A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow, real poverty. COMPLIMENTS.-Compliments are only prismatic bubbles, blown with the aid of "soft soap." COOLNESS.-No man has such advantage over others, as he whom no man can provoke. INGRATITUDE.-Nothing more detestable does the earth produce than an ungrateful man. RELIEVE MISFORTUNE.-Relieve misfortune quickly. A man is like an egg-the longer he is kept in hot water the harder he is when taken out. STUDY TO GET THROUGH THE WORLD.-A man should study to get through the world as he gets through St. Giles', with as little annoyance and interruption as possible from the shabbiness around him. MEMORY. Have as much reason as a camel-to rise when thou hast thy full load. Memory is like a purse-if it be overfull that it cannot shut, all will drop out of it. STUDY YOUR HOUSEHOLD.— -He who disdains to look after the economy of his house and the habits of his servants would require some more assured source of income than the works of his own hands. lately ensued at the presentation of M. Biot, the newly-elected member of the Academy, to the Emperor Napoleon the following remark is said to have escaped M. Guizot :-" Science is the only edifice that never falls." FINE SENTIMENT.-In the course of a conversation which KEEPING UP APPEARANCES. A great evil of English society is the folly, or, in many instances, rather the crime, of appearance-making. How many a ruined family might be well doing and happily circumstanced but for this folly!-how many a crime would never have been committed if it had not been for this social curse! WHAT LAW IS.-Law is like a fire; and those who meddle with it may chance to burn their fingers. Law is like an eel trap-very easy to get in, but very difficult to get out of. Law is like a lancet-dangerous in the hands of the ignorant; doubtful even in the hands of an adept. Law is like a sieve-you may see through it, but you will be considerably reduced before you can get through it. Law is like prussic acid-a dangerous remedy, and the smallest dose is generally sufficient. MIND LITTLE THINGS.-Mr. Emerson, in his lectures upon New England, relates the following anecdote:-" An opulent merchant in Boston was called on by a friend in behalf of a charity. At the time he was admonishing his clerk for using whole wafers instead of halves. His friend thought the circumstance was unpropitious, but to his surprise, on listening to the appeal, the merchant subscribed 500 dollars. The applicant expressed his astonishment that any person who was so particular about half a wafer should present 500 dollars to a charity-but the merchant said, 'It is by saving half wafers, and attending to such little things, that I have now something to give."" POETICAL CURIOSITY FROM BIBLICAL TEXTS. Cling to the Mighty One, Cling to the Gracious One, Cling to the Reigning One, Joy lights thine eyes. Ps. lxxxix. 19. Ps. cxvi. 9. 1 Thes. v. 24. John xv. 4. Ps. xcvi. 1. THE WIFE'S INFLUENCE.-A woman, in many instances, has her husband's fortune in her power, because she may or may not conform to his circumstances. This is her first duty, and it ought to be her pride. No passion for luxury or display ought to tempt her for a moment to deviate in the least degree from this line of conduct. Nothing can be more miserable than to keep up appearances. If it could succeed, it would cost more than it is worth; as it never can, its failure involves the deepest 1 mortification. Some of the sublimest exhibitions of human virtue have been made by women, who have been precipitated suddenly from wealth and splendour to absolute want. Then a man's fortunes are, in a manner, in the hands of his wife, inasmuch as his own power of exertion depends on her. If it be harassed and worn to a morbid irritability, her gentle tones steal over it with a soothing more potent than the most exquisite music. If every enterprise be dead, her patience and fortitude have the power to rekindle them in the heart, and he again goes forth to encounter with the toils and troubles of life. MAXIMS FOR GUIDANCE THROUGH LIFE. Never affect, Sir B. Lytton says, to be other than you really are either richer or wiser. Never be ashamed to say "I do not know." Men will then believe you when you say, "I do know." Never be ashamed to say, whether as applied to time or money, "I cannot afford it." "I cannot afford to waste an hour in the idleness to which you invite me-I cannot afford the guinea you ask me to throw away." Once establish yourself and your mode of life as what they really are, and your foot is on solid ground, whether for the gradual step onward, or for the sudden spring over a precipice." From these maxims let me deduce another-learn to Say No" with decision; "Yes" with caution-"No" with decision whenever it meets a temptation; "Yes" with caution whenever it implies a promise. A promise once given is a bond inviolable. A man is already of consequence in the world when it is known that we may implicitly rely upon him. I have frequently seen in life a person preferred to a long list of applicants for some important charge which lifts him at once into station and fortune merely because he has this reputation, that when he says he knows a thing he knows it; and when he says he will do a thing, he will do it. THINKING.—Thinking leads man to knowledge. He may see and hear, and read and learn, whatever he pleases, and as much as he pleases; yet he will never know anything of it, except that which he has thought over, that which by thinking he has made the property of his mind. Is it then saying too much, if I say that man, by thinking only, becomes truly man. Take away thought from man's life, and what remains? MINT OF HUMOUR. Why were there no postage labels in Henry the Eighth's time?-Because a queen's head wasn't worth a penny. The man who was "bent on matrimony" straightened up afterwards. Why does a blacksmith seem the most dissatisfied of all mechanics?-Because he is always striking for wages. "What name do you intend to give your boy?" asked a friend of his other friend yesterday. 66 Well, as he has terrible sore eyes, I believe I shall call him Isaac."" (Eyes-ache.) A foreign journal contains the following advertisement: "A young gentleman on the point of getting married, is desirous of meeting a man of experience who will dissuade him from such a step." Happy the mortals whose building is restricted to castles in the air, for they know not the bother when once the bricklayers have got into the house of getting them out again. "Is this good money?" said a man to a suspiciouslooking wight who had made some small purchase of him. "It ought to be good for I made it myself," was the answer. With that he took up the man for coining; but the man, in his defence, proved that he made the money by boot-making. What a melancholy spectacle it is, when a young man is seen wandering through the streets of a strange city, alone in the crowds, solitary in the multitudes, meeting no extended hand, no smile of welcome, destitute of money and friends, and -with corns and tight boots on his feet! When Prince Gonzago was in England, he dined in company with Dr. Johnson, and thinking it was a polite thing to drink the Doctor's health with some proof that he had read his works, called out from the top of the table to the bottom-that table filled with company-At your good health, Mr. Vaga bond!" instead of Mr. Rambler! Said a gentleman the other day to a servant at the hotel where he was stopping :-"Bless my soul, Sambo, how black you are; how in the name of wonder did you get so black? "Why, look'a here, massa, de reason am dis-de day dis child was born dere was an eclipse." Ebony received a shilling for his satisfactory explanation, and after grinning thanks, continued: "I tell you what it is, massa, dis nigger may be black, but he ain't green, no how." Oliver Cromwell, hailing his accession to power as a glorious The poet Waller dedicated a splendid production to ancestors, and Waller produced another panegyric for the honour event. Presently Charles the Second came to the throne of his and glory of the king. The witty monarch read it, and, turning to Waller, observed "The poem you wrote on Cromwell was superior." The reply was unequalled:-"I own it, your Majesty," said Waller," but poets write better on fiction than on truth." When a certain great man had called labourers "the swinish multitude," a barber adopted the title, and put over his door, "Shaver to the Swinish Multitude." A zealous magistrate desired him to take it down, and finding his order disobeyed, called to say, that, if he did not remove the offensive board, he would make him." "You can't," says the barber. "I it," said the barber." Well, and what did he say? will," says "I have had counsel's opinion upon the magistrate. "He said that I was a great fool for putting it up, and that you were a bigger for taking any notice of it.' Having an abiding faith in the axiom that nothing was created in vain, says an American paper, we have tong sought for some apology for the existence of those wretched little creatures known as poodle dogs, and at last we have found out their use. A lady who kept one of the curly abominations recently lost her pet, and called upon a policeman to find it. The dirty. The lady was overjoyed, and asked forty silly questions; next day the officer came with the dog, which was very wet and among others, Where did you find the dear baby?" "Why had him tied to a pole, and was washing windows with him." marm," replied the officer, "a big nigger up in Sullivan street, 66 In a certain burgh town in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, there existed in days of yore a member of a learned profession who was called to the command of a company of volunteers. This individual, though in every respect a most excellent character, piqued himself upon his appearance under a martial garb.One day on returning home from the parade, he thus accosted his Sergeant "Well, Sergeant Morrison, how did I look in the field to-day?" "Why," responded the Sergeant, "your Honour looked like Julius Cæsar at the head of the Roman Army." "Jenny! Bring Sergeant Morrison the remains of the cold goose, and a bottle of porter." MANGLING ENGLISH.-There is an individual in Quincy Market, "doing business," who is down on customers who do not speak proper. "What's eggs this morning?" says a customer. "Eggs, of course," says the dealer. "I mean-how do they go?" "Go?-where? "Sho-!" says the customer, getting up his fury, "what for eggs?" Money, money, sir, or good endorsed credit?" says the dealer. "Don't you understand the English language, sir?" says the customer. "Not as you mix it and mangle it, I don't!" responded the egg merchant?" "What-is-the-price-per-dozen-for your eggs?" "Ah! now you talk," said the dealer, "sixteen cents per dozen is the price, sir!" They traded! "Why do you rob me so ?" asked a Russian Prince of his servant, as they were travelling confidentially in the same carriage. "My Prince," replied the cook, taken aback only for the moment, "I must have my pleasures. The fatigues of your service require recreation. I have imbibed from your presence rather expensive tastes. I should have no genius for composing a dish unless I refreshed my faculties with a little music, and always arranged a feast when my ideas were put in order by the motion of a comfortable carriage. What else can I do?" us understand one another," said the Prince. "You are necessary to me, and I am necessary to you; neither can do without you any amount of wages you require." the other. Is there no means of arranging matters? I will give The cook hesitated, stammered, and at length burst into tears, and exclaimed, "My Prince, I would rather rob you!" Let A favourite magpie which had been used to receive its dainty bits from the mouth of its mistress, the other day perched, as usual, on her shoulder, and inserted its beak between her lips, not, as it proved, to receive, but to give or hide, for as one good turn deserves another, the grateful bird dropped an immense green caterpillar into the lady's mouth. 256 TO CORRESPONDENTS. Where the FAMILY MIRROR cannot be had through a Bookseller, it will be sent per post, at the following rates: One copy weekly 2s. ditto Two Three ditto Four ditto per quarter. 2s. 8d. ditto. 3s. 6d. ditto. 4s. 4d. ditto. The amount to be sent in stamps, to the Office, 9, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London. NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS.-We beg to thank our numerous contributors to our Pastime Column, but would hint to some of them to try to throw a little more poetry and rhyme into their lines, and, if possible, some innocent wit or humour, without descending to anything mean or grovelling. We have received several communications which we cannot insert, from the mere want of attention to the music of their rhymes. Always write only on one side of your paper. T. F.-In common cases of chilblains, as soon as any part becomes affected, rub it with spirits of rosemary, or aromatic camphorated cream; afterwards apply pieces of soft linen, moistened with, camphorated spirits, soap liniment, camphorated liniment, &c. When the swellings break or ulcerate, apply poultices and emollient ointments for a few days. Persons subject to chil. blains should, on the approach of winter, cover the parts liable to be affected with woollen gloves and stockings, and not expose the hands and feet too precipitately, when cold, to a considerable degree of heat. Another excellent application for chilblains can be made with equal quantities of sweet-oil, lime water, and proof spirits. A. C.-We know it, but there are two things which blunt the general sense of horror, which would else connect itself with toothache, viz. first, its enormous diffusion, hardly a household in Europe being clear of it, each in turn having some one chamber intermittingly echoing the groans extorted by this cruel torture. There-namely, in its ubiquity-lies one cause of its slight valuation. A second cause is found in its immunity from danger. This latter ground of undervaluation is noticed in a saying ascribed to Sir Philip Sydney-namely, that supposing toothache liable in ever so small a proportion of its cases to a fatal issue, it would be generally ranked as the most dreadful of maladies; wheras, the certainty that it will in no extremity lead to death, and the knowledge that, in the very midst of its storms, sudden changes may be looked for, bringing long halcyon calms, have an unfair effect in lowering the appreciation of this malady considered as a trial of fortitude and patience. A. B.-The Sandwich is generally said to have been invented by a celebrated earl of Sandwich. T. S.-The first convert in America was a native named Manteo, who was baptised in 1587. Raleigh ultimately sold his patent to a company, but though he relinquished the superintence of its operations, he gave 1007. for the propagation of the Christian Religion in Virginia -the first pecuniary offering avowedly made by an Englishman for such a purpose. T. A.-Yes; amongst the recent inventions at Birmingham is a waterproof paper, which is of great use for packing metallic goods. YOUNG ARCHITECT.-The capital of the Corinthian order in architecture had its origin in a simple incident:-On the death of a young maid of Corinth, her lover gathered the ornaments she had most valued when living, and placed them in a wicker basket, covered by a tile, upon her tomb. Close to her grave an acanthus had taken root, and the flower shooting forth in the spring, its leaves twined around the basket, and convolved beneath the tile in the form of volutes. Attracted by this display, Callimachus, the founder of the Corinthian order, made it the model for his capital, the tile being the ABACUS, the foliage of the acanthus the volutes, and the whole forming the capital which adorns his column, about 540 B. c. R. S.-At the present time great numbers of counterfeit five-shilling pieces, representing the current coinage of George III., with St. George and the Dragon on the reverse, are being passed in almost every part of the kingdom. FAMILY RASTIME [As we intend devoting a portion of our space to this kind of innocent and intellectual entertainment, contributions from our numerous subscribers towards it are solicited. ED. F. M.] 59. A precious gem that in the sun doth shine That's celebrated for its lofty flight; At least a portion of them I should say- My first is a burden, my second a gem, Of use undoubtedly great to them, 61. I'm a word of one syllable, Behead me, I'm two; In both cases, I am J. TAIT. An enemy to you. 62. It will puzzle you to guess it, for no language can express it, Nor letters e'en reveal the sound, although 'tis true 'tis heard At times throughout the nation, and causes palpitation Of the heart, which you'll acknowledge is as curious as absurd. Imagination can't conceive it, 'tis gone when you receive it, Invisible and valueless as soon as it is done. Disembodied when completed, thus it cannot be defeated In its object, bad or harmless, for 'tis finished when begun. It is neither air nor vapour, though committed oft to paper, And yet 'tis not a substance transferable at will. 'Tis colourless, and passes current 'tween the lads Though looked upon by many as a monster- In paradise Eve learnt it, and lost it when she'd And man, by her example, claims the same as E'en to this day with pleasure, though he cannot For 'tis lost-as I have said before-as soon as Solutions to the pastime of our last number, page 240. (56.) Fal(1)-staff. (57.) Light-house. (58.)-(1) Lark, (2) Widow-bird, (3) Snakebird, (4) Guinea-bird, (5) Lyre-bird, (6) Sunbird, (7) Diamond-bird, (8) Oven-bird, (9) Umbrella-bird, (10) Man-of-war bird, (11) Rice-bird, (12) Butcher-bird, (13) Mouse-bird, (14) Adjutant-bird, (15) Secretary-bird, (16) Weaver-bird. S. R. O.-The third year in the reign of Henry VIII. was the first period of legal restraint upon the practice of physic in London. Until then, the Bishop of London, or Dean of St. Paul's, licensed people to practise physic at will. A GEOLOGIST.-Artificial stone is made by uniting eighty quarts of caustic soda in solution, evaporated from 100 pounds with one pound of pulverised flint for every quart. The solution is effected under a pressure of 45 atmospheres in a strong steam vessel. This solution, mixed with quartz sand, hardens to a stone, which strikes fire with steel. For building stone, millstones, &c., this composition is admirably adapted, as on exposure it becomes thoroughly indurated, resisting the action of the elements for an indefinite period of time. MARY.-The only words in English for the first day of the week, before the existence of Puritanism, were Sunday and Lord's Day. The former of these expressions was used by our Saxon ancestors, with all Teutonic nations. The latter was adopted from the Christian form of Southern Europe. Saturday, in Italian, still retains the name of Sabbato. The word for Sunday, in Russian, means resurrection; identifying the day, as the Southern nations do, though more significantly, with the great triumph of Christian faith. A. MARSHALL.-Yes. A bill has been brought in by Lord Brougham to prevent litigation, by providing "Courts of Reconciliation." It is pro posed that the judge at the Court shall hear the parties at strife, and give his opinion and advice on the matter. If the parties abide thereby, the agreement shall be final and binding. J. KNIGHT. The wealth of Croesus, which has passed into a proverb, has been variously ac counted for. The possessors of Sardis, the capital. of the Lydian Kings, were enriched by the neighbourhood of the river Pactolus, which flowed down from Mount Tmolus towards the Hermes, and brought with it considerable quantities of gold in its sand. To this cause historians often ascribe the many treasures belonging to Croesus and his predecessors; but Croesus possessed besides other mines near Pergamus, and another cause of wealth is also to be found in the general industry of the Lydian people. They were the first (according to Herodotus) who ever carried on retail trade, and the first to coin money of gold and silver. INQUIRER.-A successful attempt to cultivate the sugar cane has been made in the department of the Vaucluse. In June last, a M.Tellée, residing in the village of Claumont, having procured some of the seeds of that plant from a friend in the colonies, sowed them on his estate, and notwith'standing the advanced period of the season, by the month of October last they had attained a sufficient degree of maturity to be cut down and subjected to the operation for extracting the juice. One hundred canes of a medium size were crushed by means of an oil mill, and afterwards pressed, when they yielded 50 litres of saccharine juice. The cultivation of the cane does not require more attention than that of corn. After the ground has been well ploughed, furrows are drawn, and the cuttings planted at equal distances, and covered lightly with earth, and then with the leaves of the old canes, reserved for the purpose. As soon as they begin to shoot above the ground, the furrows are filled up with the earth, and the plant is left to itself, taking care to keep the ground clear of weeds. The climate of Provence is perfectly identical with that of New Orleans, where the sugar cane is cultivated with great success. MARY.-Walnuts are a favourite and pretty dish at the royal table. The shells are carefully cracked, taking care not to break the fruit. The fruit is then thrown into a strong solution of salt and water for a few minutes: it is then easy to remove the skins with a penknife, and the fruit thus remains unbroken. We cannot engage to return rejected manuscripts. All our literary arrangements are complete. CHAPTER XXXV.-THE NATURALIST'S MUSEUM. "It is, I think, in Julius Cæsar, where the conspirator Cassius is described as "loving no play," and as having "a lean and hungry look," "ALBEIT I am no poet and not very deeply read in any which as you observe is pretty much the case with this gaunt thing; no, not even in the book of living Nature, yet do I remember one description applied by Shakspeare to a man, that would not be inapplicable to this wolf, Mr. Ainslie," observed the Naturalist, as he pointed to one of the most terrific stuffed specimens of that animal Dorrington had ever beheld. friend of mine, who for the safety of my household, notwith- VOL. I. sented to me by a sea-faring friend who traded to that country," said Otterwell, as he travelled round his museum with a pride and gratification which showed how deeply he was interested in the objects upon which he discoursed. To every one of these there was a history attached. The wolf had been shot by a Norwegian huntsman in the act of carrying off the child of a woodman. A guinea-pig had been the pet of a brother's boy, who was the finest specimen of childhood that human eyes ever beheld; but he died, and so did the pig. The one was buried, and flowers strewed upon his grave. The other was stuffed and preserved as an ornament and a memento for Otterwell's museum. A magnificent tree of antlers had belonged to a buck which was caught by them in the branches of a thick oak where it foolishly committed suicide by hanging itself. An Alpine goat he had purchased from a travelling showman, who had, himself, shot it in the Jungfrau mountains. An old fox he had received as a present from Squire Dashaway, on account of the celebrity it had attained for its cunning in deceiving the hounds for no fewer than six successive seasons. He was finally caught in an old chimney in Treadunder, where he was taken by one of the squire's own dogs, and saved from annihilation for preservation. A snake in a bottle was the same, he affirmed, which had slept under the head of Lord Clive one night during his Indian campaigns. Birds and fish of almost every kind to be found in the woods and the streams of Britain filled a large space in his museum; but it would be impossible to enter into the adventures connected with their capture without wearying the reader, as, indeed, it well-nigh did Dorrington, notwithstanding the liberal allowance of patience with which he was imbued, and the really deep interest he took in the infinite variety of objects here prominently brought under his review. Whilst the animate portion of creation received such a large share of the attention of Mr. Otterwell, it was hardly to be expected that he could devote so much to the inanimate; yet he allowed nothing with which any remarkable circumstance was connected to escape his notice, provided it was portable enough and reasonable enough to be appropriated and transported into this epitomised storehouse of nature. Accordingly several cabinets of curiosities occupied suitable places in the apartment; but the most of the specimens with which they were filled were notable only for being pieces of celebrated stones, or of structures that were scattered over the country in the form of ancient crosses, or of antiquated houses, the authenticity of whose histories however faint, had assumed a strong and tangible existence in the mind of the Naturalist. For example, a chip of the Druidical rock was here, labelled by the bold mercantile hand of Mr. Otterwell, as "taken from a stone on the top of which he had shot an old crow." Besides this memorable relic there was in the same cabinet, a piece of oak which he declared once formed a portion of the first wooden London Bridge. "Indeed!" cried Dorrington, whose sympathies with a vestige of such remarkable antiquity were at once awakened.” "Ay, indeed," repeated the Naturalist; "it was cut from one of the piles of timber that had been buried for ages on the Southwark side, and which was pronounced by those who are knowing in such things to have lain there for seven or eight hundred years.' "It still seems in a state of good preservation," remarked Dorrington. "Ah! it is all deception, sir; it is as hollow as a drum, and if I were to touch it, it would crumble into powder in an instant," observed the Naturalist with a sigh. We are afraid that in this instance the antiquarian credulity of Mr. Otterwell had been imposed upon, as his natural history propensities certainly were in many cases, where his foible was known to unscrupulous dealers in those animal wonders, with which there is nothing more easy than to connect a story that would wear the semblance of truth, and yet be sufficiently extraordinary to induce such a character as the Naturalist to purchase it. Not to speak even of the doubts which some antiquaries have thrown upon the existence at all of a wooden bridge over the Thames, so far back as the period to which Mr. Otterwell referred, where and how was he to get it authenticated, that the old worm-eaten bit of oak preserved with such care, belonged to a portion of the structure to which he fondly assigned it. This thought suggested itself to Dorrington, and detracted not a little from his own enthusiasm in the matter, although he was too well-bred to wound the feelings of his entertainer by starting the smallest doubt as to the reality of which he spoke. An entomological case was the next object of their attraction, and a specimen of the footman moth from Australia, was particularly pointed out as an object worthy of Dorrington's attention. "The specimen is certainly beautiful," said he, "and every one must admire the depth of its colouring." "Yes, sir," agreed the Naturalist, "and although the crimson speckled footman moth is an insect distributed throughout continental Europe, Western Asia, and North America, it is very rarely found in the British islands, and scarcely at all in the Southern Hemisphere. This specimen I had from a friend who captured it in Geelong, and who assures me that it was the first instance of its discovery in that part of the world. It is therefore rare, and of course, valuable in proportion to its rarity." Mr. Otterwell added something about the plants boraginacea and solanaceæ, upon which the insect feeds, but which were pronounced in a manner so utterly incomprehensible to Dorrington that his knowledge was rather confused than increased by the learned mode of the proffered information. fell Leaving the moth they came to a "shower of frogs,” which were placed under a glass cover and on a table by themselves. They were clustered together as we behol groups of stars, with the naked eye, on a clear frosty night. "There, Mr. Ainslie, is a phenomenon! one of the most wonderful of natural things that has ever occurred." What is that, then, Mr. Otterwell?" asked Dorrington. Why, sir, that tableful of frogs. All that you see there upon me, sir,- actually fell upon me in a shower. I was coming home one night through a field, when all of a sudden I was enveloped in a shower of these little croakers. Yes, it was most extraordinary. They fell upon my head and shoulders, and my coat-pockets were literally filled with them. The air was completely darkened with them for about thirty yards by fifteen, and I was in the middle of them. The road was entirely covered in an instant, and I could not make a step lest, like Gulliver amongst the Lilliputians, I should crush several of them to atoms. They were just as you see them, with the difference of being alive, and no bigger than a bee. They were the prettiest little hopping things I ever saw, upon a road; and all that had taken refuge in my pockets and on my person I carried home, and disposed as you see them there, — like a shower.*" Whilst Dorrington was digesting this extraordinary story in the best way he could, another, more wonderful still, wain store for him in this room, so fertile in miraculous associations, if they were all to be viewed through the same kind of optical lenses with which Mr. Otterwell had, somehow or other supplied his imagination. This was connected with a native goat-a pretty little horned animal, which had been stuffed with great care, with its cornuted head peeping from an elm tree, whilst its body was made to appear as if it nestled in a labyrinth of branches. "What does this mean?" inquired Dorrington, pointing to the fanciful nestling-place in which the animal was ensconced. "Goats," he added, "I know to be fond of climbing, but I never heard of their ascending trees and making their beds therein." "No; I dare say not," replied the Naturalist; "but the A fact which occurred last year, at a place call Artafelie, in Invernesshire. |