Chapter II: Part 2

Thus it happened that, but for the shrewdness and energy of the detective, Joe Grimrood would have started on a voyage to Australia with, as it appeared, nearly a thousand pounds in hard cash belonging to Silas; and the old miser himself would in all probability have been left to die in the vault under the strong-room in Crutched Friars, and ‘the mystery of Silas Monk’ would have remained a mystery to the present day.

All this occurred some years ago. Silas Monk is long dead; and Walter Tiltcroft, who married the old miser’s grand-daughter, is now a merchant-prince. He purchased, soon after the death of Mr Armytage, a partnership in the great firm; and thus the gold which old Silas had hoarded up in Crutched Friars proved the means, to a great extent, of making Walter Tiltcroft’s fortune.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE HONEY-BEE.

BY A BEEKEEPER.

To ascertain the kind of flower, plant, or shrub which the honey-bee mostly prefers, is worth care and consideration. Having been a keeper of bees for some years, I think it may be useful to make known the results of my experience and observations in Somersetshire, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex.

I will suppose that I have purchased a new stock and hive, bar-frame for preference, and caused it to be removed from the market-gardens around Middlesex to a country town in Hertfordshire. My bees on arrival examine their prospect, and what an estate-agent may call their ‘outlook,’ very minutely, going even over the walls and trees adjacent to their own hive, and taking trial-trips of flight into the air, straight up—very like the rising of a skylark from a field—and dropping again almost as suddenly. Having to some extent, after a day or two, mastered the topography of the district, they will, if on a warm day in February, commence upon the crocuses, and work only upon them—not, as some may suppose, dodge about irrespective of the kind of flower. Although the casual spectator may see bees upon every description of open flower upon one and the same day, yet they are winging their way from different hives. Our bees have commenced on the crocus. The day following this, they will try the common field dandelion; and the next, the white arabis of the garden culture. Then the black-thorn; later on, the currant and gooseberry blossoms, and the sweet ‘may’ of our hedgerows; and of trees—lime, palm, chestnut come next.

The hive should face the south, and the alighting-board occupy as free a space as possible. Water should be given, even during winter—inside, if frost is severe.

Some beekeepers suppose that colour attracts the bee; others, that they possess acutely the sense of smell; and much has been written on the subject. But our readers are to suppose that we are keeping bees between us, and that I am relating my own experiences, which point to this—the preference of these intelligent insects for some plants over others. I have tried to educate my bees, by inducing them on certain days to gather from flowers presented to them in small bunches upon the alighting-board of their hive. In two instances I succeeded. One was with white clover, which I picked in a field a mile distant. This appeared to cheer the bees greatly, and drove away their listlessness and inactivity. After making an examination of my offering, they began work in earnest; and this stimulant had the desired effect of inducing an idle community to work well. The second experiment was much more demonstrative. Early in the morning, before the workers came forth, I placed by the alighting-board some bunches of alder-flower. I had shortly the satisfaction of seeing the outgoing bees return with little white trousers of pollen, and I watched their flight to an alder tree at a corner of the garden, not far from their hive. This was conclusive.

Now for some descriptions of preference shown by bees. I have grown garden-peas of various descriptions near my hives without inducing the bees to notice them. Yet they will greedily gather from French beans or scarlet runners the whole day, till long after sunset. In spring-time, the yellow gorse on uncultivated spots forms a very strong attraction for the honey-bees; yet they never touch the blossom of the laburnum, which to ordinary mortals smells much the same. The cultivated hyacinth they do not care about, although they gather from the wild sort in the woods and shady groves. Bees show great preference for the pollen of some sorts of lilies, yet are wholly indifferent to the lily of the valley. They gather from the field-daisy, yet are careless of the cultivated sort.

Stocks they prefer to pinks, and lavender to either; also the small flower of the borage delights them; yet wild foxglove possesses little charm. I have heard that bees like monkshood, and will gather from it, but I have never seen them do so. If they did, their honey would be poisonous. Bees are passionately fond of clover and certain vetches, and they will desert any garden flowers for such natural feeding. Wild thyme and heather, which improve the flavour of the honey, bees perfectly revel in. Garden primroses, they do not care much for; and auriculas, however gaudy in colour, form no kind of attraction. The polyanthus they have a languid liking for. I have seen the wild-bees attack the cowslip; but not the honey-bee of our hives. I saw a bee once upon a cultivated rose; it was only resting. I have likewise a distinct remembrance of seeing many upon the wild-rose and dog-rose, wild clematis, honeysuckle, and blackberry blossom.

The situation of our hive cannot always be in such a flowery land; and the beekeeper will do well to study the different flora and trees in the immediate neighbourhood of his hive, and endeavour to supply any deficiencies of pollen-bearing plants, as well as to give a gentle hint to the inhabitants of his hives of any honey-bearing plant from which he especially wants them to gather. Of course, in wild heather districts, there is no need to resort to planting or sowing for the bees; they will in such places always take care of themselves. In Somersetshire, bees find honey from the many miles of apple-orchard stretching away to the mild county of Devon; and farmers well know that a good bee season, with a warm and early spring, means a plentiful show of fruit in the autumn for cider. In and around Middlesex, there are market and fruit gardens; and in Hertfordshire, grazing and clover lands, besides hedges lined with limes and hawthorn, and later on, honeysuckle.

It is always a good plan to send late swarms of the hive into heather-bearing counties; for the bees being young, and having every inducement to work for the approaching winter, will store better than hives which have been ‘swarmed’ and deprived of honey, the colonies of which are worn or fatigued with the long-continued gathering of a summer in more southern counties. It must likewise be remembered that bees cannot gather, or rather will not do so, late in the autumn, when the cold prevents them sealing over with wax the top of the cell.

And now, a last word as to the preference of our bees for certain flowers over others, which we would imagine, with our limited powers of the sense of smell and taste, would be preferred by these insects, and for which we have the greater amount of regard. I have seen, upon the approach of a bee to any flower, that it flies around the calyx almost always before alighting upon the flower itself. This is a cursory examination; and with its antennæ outstretched and quivering, it is evidently scenting the honey contained within. Should this prove a fruitful flower and of the flavour required, the bee settles on the centre of the stamen, and clutching it with its four front-legs, steadies itself with its longer outstretched two hindermost ones, and withdraws the nectar by its proboscis, the rings of the body assuming a vibratory motion the while. The bee’s proboscis is a most important instrument. It is composed of forty cartilaginous rings, each of which is fringed with minute hairs, having also a small tuft of hair at its extremity, where it is somewhat serrated. Its movement is like the trunk of an elephant, and is susceptible of extension and contraction, bending and twisting in all directions. Thus, by rolling it about, it searches out the calyx, pistil, and stamen of every flower, and deposits its nectar upon the tongue, whence it passes into the gullet at the base. The gullet or first stomach is the honey-bag. No digestion takes place here. In shape, it is like an oil-flask, and when full, contains about one grain. It is susceptible of contraction, and is so arranged as to enable the insect to disgorge its contents into the cells of the hive. A short passage leads to the ventricle or true stomach, which is somewhat larger. This receives the food from the honey-bag, for the nourishment of the bee and the secretion of wax. Dzierzon says that the honey which a bee can take into her stomach will enable her to subsist for a week under some circumstances, while under others she will die of hunger within twenty-four hours. This opinion of Dzierzon settles my conviction, that in the selection of the kind of food which will enable the bee to live longest, the true guide is to be found in the flowers for which it has the strongest preference.

BOOK GOSSIP.

The Norman Conquest is one of the great outstanding and predominating facts in English history. It occasioned a sudden break in the life of the English people, and its influence is felt in their character and institutions even to the present day. A hundred and fifty years before that event, the long black ships of the Norse pirates entered the wide mouths of the Seine and the Loire, and their crews, the rudest of the rough barbarians of Denmark and Norway, sacked the towns and pillaged the churches of the country which was afterwards to be called by their name. They had no science, no arts, no culture. Their physical strength was their glory; and their weapons of war, their defence at home, served also as their passport into the lands of the stranger whom they plundered and slew. But they had a remarkable power of adaptation. However foreign to them the environment into which their hardy courage had brought them, they did not long remain untouched by it. Without losing their own native hardihood and fearlessness, they quickly absorbed into them the spirit of the peoples and institutions among which they had taken root; and before a century had passed over their heads in France, they had already become one of the great political forces of Europe. It was this people, brave, warlike, and with strong practical sagacity, who landed on the English shores in 1066, and shattered the Saxon arms on the slopes of Senlac. The battle at ‘the hoar apple tree,’ where Harold lay dead with the Norman arrow deep in his brain, marks the beginning of a new epoch in England.

The history of that great event, with its antecedents and consequents, has rarely been better told than it is by Mr Wm. Hunt, in the new volume of the ‘Early Britain Series,’ entitled _The Norman Conquest_ (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge). As compared with the work of Freeman, this is in bulk but a small book; yet it contains within it all that thousands of readers would desire to know of the history of the Conquest. The author is extremely well-informed on his subject, and his scholarly little book gives evidence not only of original research but of much original thought. The pictures he draws for us of the England that preceded the Conquest, and of the England that followed it, are sketched with a fullness and beauty of detail which amply exhibit the capacity and preparedness of the author for the task which he undertook, and which he has executed so well. His extensive reading has enabled him to take advantage of the results obtained by all the best and more recent investigators in this section of European history; and the Northmen both before and after their descent on France, as well as the Saxon tribes and Danish hordes that scoured our coasts centuries before, are portrayed with a quick and living touch. Still more interesting is the story of the Normans after their taking possession of England; and the strange manner in which the Saxon head eventually conquered the Norman hand—the Saxon language and institutions arising in more than their original vitality and force out of the ashes, as it were, of a temporary death—is here narrated with admirable clearness and coherency. The book is one of the best of the very valuable series to which it belongs.

⁂

The same publishing house issues another learned little volume on _Anglo-Saxon Literature_, by Mr John Earle, Rawlinson Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford. It belongs to the series bearing upon ‘The Dawn of European Literature,’ and is rich with the results of the best modern scholarship on the early history and growth of our language. The time when Latin and Greek formed the chief essentials of learning is fast receding into the past, and these languages are having a place assigned them more consistent with the necessities of the modern world, which is not tolerant of the acquisition of a kind of knowledge that in great part is archaic and useless. Under the influence of this change, our own language is rising into an importance which it could never attain so long as it was regarded simply as a vulgar tongue, and the historical study of English is becoming one of the most popular as well as one of the most useful pursuits of our philologists. The great English Dictionary of the Philological Society is only one evidence of this; for individual scholars, during the last twenty years, have done not a little to lay bare to us the inner structure of our language, and the changes and modifications to which it has been subjected in the course of its long descent.

In the little work under review, Mr Earle states that Anglo-Saxon literature is the oldest of the vernacular literatures of modern Europe. The materials of this early literature are found chiefly in written books and documents; but they are found also in such subsidiary sources as inscriptions on churches and church towers, sun-dials, crosses, and even on jewellery. One of the most remarkable in this last category is what is known as the Alfred Jewel. It was discovered in Newton Park, near Athelney, in 1693, and in 1718 had found its way to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, where it still is. It consists of an enamelled figure enshrined in a golden frame, with a golden back to it, and with a thick piece of rock-crystal in front, to serve as a glass to the picture. Around the sloping rim the following legend is wrought in the fabric: ÆLFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCEAN (‘Alfred me commanded to make’). ‘The language of the legend,’ says the author, ‘agrees perfectly with the age of King Alfred, and it seems to be the unhesitating opinion of all those who have investigated the subject that it was a personal ornament of the great West-Saxon king.’ Mr Earle traces the language from the Heathen Period—that is, from the time previous to the English conversion to Christianity, about 597 A.D.—down to the times that immediately succeeded upon the Norman Conquest, and gives examples of the language during these six centuries, with translations of the various passages adduced. All who have an interest in the study of the English tongue, and of the changes superinduced upon it by contact with other European vernaculars, will find Mr Earle’s volume a ready and efficient guide.

THE MONTH:

SCIENCE AND ARTS.

Projects for cutting waterways across isthmuses follow one another with such amazing swiftness, and the project is in most cases so quickly followed by realisation, that it would appear that before many years have passed, all the available peninsulas of the world will have been operated upon and transformed into islands. Our French neighbours are at present discussing the feasibility of a gigantic undertaking of this nature, which, if carried out, will unite the Bay of Biscay with the Mediterranean. This projected canal, which is to be of such dimensions that the largest ships afloat can make use of it, is to have one entrance near Bordeaux, and the other at Narbonne. This short-cut across France will obviate the necessity of the tedious voyage round Spain and through the Straits of Gibraltar, and will undoubtedly be a boon to shipping, and especially to British vessels; but the scheme is at present only on paper. It remains to be seen whether the undertaking is possible; by which is meant, in these days of engineering marvels, whether it will pay.

Like most other canal projects, this one is by no means new; indeed, a canal already exists almost along the same line of route—namely, the Canal du Midi, which finds an outlet at Cette in the Gulf of Lions, and joins the river Garonne at its other extremity at Toulouse; the entire navigable distance from Bordeaux to Cette being three hundred and thirty-two miles. The existing canal only accommodates small vessels, and the entire journey is by no means a rapid one, for there are more than a hundred locks to be encountered, which gradually raise the boats to a level of nearly eight hundred feet above the sea. Whether the engineers of the new undertaking propose any novel means of battling with this difficulty of level, we do not know; but it will be readily seen that the undertaking has not the simplicity of a simple cutting, such as the Suez Canal presents. Another formidable obstacle to the work is the presence of certain rivers which flow right across the track. In the present case, these are crossed by aqueducts. But what would be the size and cost of aqueducts which would give passage to the floating palaces which have taken the place of the small vessels of days gone by?

Coming nearer home, a project has been mooted for cutting a channel from the river Tyne to the Solway; and another across the low land which separates the Forth from the Clyde. It is true that in the latter case a narrow passage already exists; but what is required is—according to the opinion of a former President of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, who writes to the _Times_ upon the subject—a channel which will allow the passage of our largest merchantmen and ships of war, so that in case of need the efficiency of our naval defences may be practically doubled. In case of war, the advantages of quick transport of our ships from one coast to the other is obvious, and may in a manner be compared to the undoubted advantages which we reap from being able to convey information quickly from place to place by telegraphic agency.

Some very interesting Roman relics have recently been unearthed in the bed of the river Rhone at Geneva, where some engineering works are in progress. The most interesting of these is a Roman altar furnished with an inscription to the effect that the writer, a certain soldier of the twenty-second legion, who had been shipwrecked in the waters hard by, had raised this altar to the god of the waves, Neptune, as a thank-offering for his escape from death. We have also to record a far more valuable find near Rome itself—at Subiaco, where several priceless statues supposed to have been sent by the Emperor Nero to that place for the decoration of his villa there, have been dug up. In Britain too, a Roman villa has just been laid bare at Woolstone, Berkshire, where, in addition to many tesselated pavements, several graves of the Anglo-Saxon period have been found. In London, our knowledge of the Roman city which lies beneath the busy metropolitan streets has been much enriched by numerous discoveries made during the recent excavations for the completion of the Underground Railway. There is little doubt that interest in things antiquarian is rapidly increasing on all sides. This is not only apparent from the attention which every fresh discovery receives, but is indicated in a most satisfactory manner by the circumstance that the University of Cambridge has given archæology a recognised position among the subjects for the classical tripos examination, and has just opened a Museum which will give an impetus to studies of the kind.

Although interest in matters archæological shows a healthy increase, we have to regret a decrease of interest in another important branch of knowledge. The Royal Geographical Society, which has just held its anniversary meeting, has had to deplore, by the mouth of its President, Lord Aberdare, that the Council have failed in their attempt to introduce the efficient study of geography into the curriculum of our great public schools, such as Eton and Harrow. Prizes have been offered; but there were few who cared to compete for them. This seems a very extraordinary state of things in a country which is always proudly pointing to its possessions as being so large that the sun must always shine upon some part or other of them. But the fault probably lies with the teachers more than with the pupils. The members of the Geographical Society evidently understand this, for they are now about to institute an inquiry into the systems adopted for geographical instruction in continental schools, from which, if all reports speak truly, we may well take a lesson.

Professor Monier Williams’s recent lecture on India, delivered before the University of Oxford, was full of interesting particulars relating to the great progress in every way which that vast country had experienced under British rule. But perhaps the most interesting portion of his remarks was that relating to the new route to India which will probably be opened, and which it is expected will lead to great development of intercourse between our Eastern and Western possessions. This route will consist of a journey from London to Odessa; thence by steamer across the Black Sea to Batoum; then by Russian railway—a thirty-six hours’ journey—to Baku on the Caspian; and a day’s voyage across the Caspian to Michaelovsk. At this latter place is the terminus of the Central Asian Railway, which some months ago was complete for one hundred and forty-four miles, and which will eventually land the traveller at the gate of India—Herat. The journey from Calais to our Indian frontier will be possible in nine days, so long at least as we remain friends with Russia. Professor Williams considers that we shall be bound to extend our railway from its present limit at Quetta, through Candahar, so as to meet the Russians at Herat. He thinks that we can meet them there as friends rather than enemies; and all will agree in trusting that his words may come true.

During the past year, the progress made by the British Ordnance Survey has been greater than in any previous period, an area of more than two and a half million acres having been mapped. It is expected that the survey of the entire kingdom will be complete by the year 1888, and that the publication of the maps will be finished two years later. A largely increased staff of surveyors and draughtsmen has been engaged to insure this acceleration in the work, and considerable time has been spent in instructing their assistants in their duties. The maps are reduced to the six-inch scale, and are reproduced by the zincographic process. All particulars of the work are contained in a recently published Blue-book.

The long-continued dispute as to the right of the telegraph department to erect posts and wires over our crowded city streets has at last been set at rest, and the Postmaster-general can, with certain restrictions, do much as he likes about the matter. The Telephone Companies, who are new-comers and have no statutory powers, have yet to fight the question. We must for many reasons deplore the circumstance that additions will still be made to the metallic spider-webs which cover so many of our fine metropolitan streets. It has been suggested that the lines could be made to follow the contour of the roads, and could be hidden under eaves and behind coping-stones so as no longer to offend the eye, or to present the risk of danger to life, which they now undoubtedly do. This innovation would doubtless mean a great deal of difficulty to telegraphic engineers, and would be naturally opposed by them, for there is a sweet simplicity about a suspended wire; but the gain to others would be great.

The International Health Exhibition, London, which follows so closely upon the Fisheries Exhibition, and occupies the same spacious site, bids fair to be a success, although it can hardly be expected to be quite so popular with the multitude as its predecessor. Still, there is much to attract the far larger part of the community who long for amusement rather than instruction, and as the financial success of the undertaking must be dependent upon such visitors, the caterers cannot be blamed if they have admitted within their walls many exhibits which, by the widest stretch of the imagination, can hardly be associated with the subject of health. For more thoughtful visitors, there are Conferences upon all manner of questions connected with Domestic Sanitation, questions of which the majority of people are at present profoundly ignorant. There will also be papers read upon the subjects of Meat-supply; Food-adulteration and Analysis; School-diet; School-life in Relation to Eyesight; Posture in Schools; Epidemics in Schools; and numberless other matters of social interest. As these Conferences are under the care of different Societies and Associations, which exist only to increase our knowledge regarding the different subjects indicated, and which have in most cases been at work for many years, we may be sure that much good will accrue from these discussions. Following the procedure of the Fisheries Exhibition, a number of pamphlets will also be issued, dealing with the multifarious sections of the Exhibition.

Although, as we have more than once pointed out, the general adoption of the electric light for domestic purposes cannot be looked for in the near future, it can easily be installed for special occasions. An account has recently been published of a ball at a private house in London where the rooms were illuminated during the evening by one hundred and twenty incandescent lamps. These lamps were fed by secondary batteries, which arrived in two vans, and which were subsequently accommodated in an adjoining coach-house. The batteries had been previously charged at a place ten miles distant. This use for the light may possibly become common in cases where cost is not a matter of first consideration.

Another phenomenal diamond has fallen to the lot of a fortunate digger at the Kimberley mine, South Africa. Its weight is three hundred and two carats; but, unfortunately, it does not possess that purity of colour, or rather absence of colour, which is the first desideratum in a diamond. Its value is said to be about three thousand pounds; whereas the far smaller Porter-Rhodes gem, found in the same mine about three years ago, was valued by its owner at one hundred thousand pounds. But the popular notion is that the value of a thing is what it will fetch, and there are certainly very few persons in the world who would lock up such an enormous sum for the doubtful advantage of possessing such a thing.

A document, which should be widely known, was recently issued by the Board of Trade, in the form of a Report of the first year’s experience of the Boiler Explosions’ Act of 1882. This Act, we may remind our readers, provides that an inquiry should be held into the cause of every boiler explosion, with a view to their prevention if possible. The causes of the forty-five casualties of this description which were inquired into, and which resulted in the loss of thirty-five lives and injuries to as many more, were entirely preventable. One of the assistant-secretaries to the Board goes so far as to say that ‘the terms “inevitable accident” and “accident” are entirely inapplicable to these explosions, and that the only accidental thing about many of them is that the explosions should have been so long deferred.’ The prevailing cause of the disasters is the unsafe condition of the boilers through age, corrosion, wasting, &c.; and a noticeable feature in many cases is the absence of any effort on the part of the steam-user to ascertain the condition of the boiler, and consequently of any attempt to repair, renew, or replace defective plates or fittings.

The authorities of Kew Observatory have undertaken a duty which will be hailed with satisfaction by all watchmakers and watchowners in the kingdom. They will undertake for a small fee to test the virtues of any watch left in their care, and with every watch so tested, will issue a statement of its going powers, under varied conditions of position, temperature, &c. They will also award to watches of superior excellence certificates of merit, which certificates will possess an equal value with documents of the same nature which have for years been granted by the Geneva and by the Yale College Observatories. The Swiss and Americans have long enjoyed these facilities for obtaining independent testimony as to the qualities of their watches, and it is only surprising that a movement has not been made before in this direction here at home; for English-made watches, in spite of foreign competition, are still much sought after.

A new method of dealing with road-sweepings and the contents of domestic dust-bins is now on its trial in New York, and seems to be very successful. The rubbish is carted, to the extent of forty loads a day, to a wonderful machine, which separates the paper, rag, iron, glass, coal, and cinder into different heaps. These are afterwards sold, with the exception of about four hundred pounds of coal and cinder, which are used for firing the engine attached to the machine. The remaining refuse—of no use to anybody, and too often, under existing systems, a possible source of disease—is reduced by fire to impalpable ash. It has been the custom in New York for many years to carry their rubbish out to sea and to discharge it outside the harbour. Pilots and others have long protested against this procedure, and affirm that the approaches to the harbour’s mouth are gradually being silted up by the accumulation of dirt thrown in. The experiment will be watched with interest by all those who acknowledge the importance of improved sanitation in our large towns and cities.

Moon’s Patent Quicksilver-wave Gold Amalgamator is the imposing title of a clever machine which has been introduced to obviate the serious loss of gold which is inseparable from previously existing methods of treating the ore. From the discovery of gold in California in 1848 to the end of 1882, the value of the gold found there was nearly two hundred and thirty-seven million pounds sterling. It is said on competent authority that this vast amount is less than fifty per cent. of the gold known to be in the ore treated, more than half the precious metal escaping in particles so fine that the machines employed could not intercept them. In this new machine, the crushed ore, mingled with water, is thrown in small quantities into a moving wave of quicksilver, and not merely across a quicksilvered plate, as under the old system. The tiniest spangles of gold are by this means speedily absorbed by or amalgamated with the liquid metal, the two being afterwards separated by heat in the usual manner. In one mine where Mr Moon’s machine is in use the increase of yield is estimated at forty pounds sterling per week, so it would seem that the cost of the appliance is soon repaid to its purchaser.

A very convenient combined seat and easel for the use of sketchers has lately been brought under our notice. It packs into a very small compass; it will hold a large picture; it fully justifies its name, ‘The Rigid,’ and actually weighs only four pounds. Its price is moderate, and it is to be had of Messrs Reeves, London.

Referring to a recent article in this _Journal_ on ‘Some Queer Dishes,’ in which it was stated that the cuttle-fish is used for food in Japan and elsewhere in the Pacific, a Portuguese correspondent writes to us that in Portugal the cuttle-fish is used as an article of food. It is opened, and then dried; and may be seen hanging up for sale in the shops. The people, he remarks, consider it a delicacy; and it is, when properly cooked, very rich and nourishing.

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

NEW POSTAL ORDERS.

The system of Postal Orders, instituted in 1881, has proved so successful, that it has been found desirable to make certain alterations and extensions therein, with a view to affording further facilities to the public for the ready transmission of small sums of money through the post. On the 2d of June, a new series of Postal Orders were issued, the former series being entirely withdrawn. The new Postal Orders are of fourteen different denominations, instead of ten, as formerly; and the amounts of the various denominations, together with the rates of poundage chargeable thereon, are as follows:

_s._ _d._ _d._
1 0 0½
1 6 0½
2 0 1
2 6 1
3 0 1
3 6 1
4 0 1
4 6 1
5 0 1
7 6 1
10 0 1
10 6 1
15 0 1½
20 0 1½

There can be no doubt that these classes will prove extremely useful to the public generally, more especially as any amount of shillings and sixpences up to twenty shillings can be transmitted by means of only two of the above-named classes of orders. A novel feature, too, is introduced, whereby postage-stamps not exceeding fivepence in value are to be allowed to be affixed to the back of any one Postal Order to make up broken sums—a feature which, it needs not much of the spirit of prophecy to anticipate, will extensively be taken advantage of. By this useful concession, any sum up to a pound can now be sent through the post by means of Postal Orders, and in no case are more than two orders required to make up the exact desired amount. It will be noticed that the former twelve shillings and sixpence and seventeen shillings and sixpence orders are not included amongst the new denominations of Postal Orders; but their abolition will cause no inconvenience, as these two denominations were of all the orders of the old series probably the least used; and where such amounts are desired to be sent under the new series, they can be made up by using two orders, the poundage on which will be no more than is now charged for each of the denominations referred to—namely, twopence. In several cases, the poundage has been reduced, a benefit that will probably be the best appreciated of all. A ten shillings and ten shillings and sixpence order now only costs one penny; and the orders for fifteen and twenty shillings have been reduced to three-halfpence, instead of twopence, as heretofore. Compared with the former money-order rates, the Postal Order system is remarkably cheap, and on this score, will undoubtedly commend itself more than ever to popular favour; and it is extremely probable that for small sums the money-order system will in future be very little if at all used. Indeed, the Postal Order system, with its ready convenience and cheapness, seems likely to supersede all other methods of transmitting sums of a pound and under.

The Act under which these changes have taken place also authorises the issue of Postal Orders on board Her Majesty’s ships, a boon that the seamen concerned will not be slow to appreciate. The system is also to be extended to many of the colonies as opportunity occurs. It is indeed now in operation in Malta and Gibraltar, where it has met with much popularity, owing to the fact, no doubt, that the same rates are charged on Postal Orders issued there as on Postal Orders issued in this country. If we compare these rates with those charged on foreign and colonial money orders, it can readily be imagined that the system will be hailed with unmixed satisfaction by the colonies where it is shortly to be instituted.

NEW METALLIC COMPOUND.

Delta-metal, a new metal said to be not unlikely to rival steel under certain conditions, has, according to the _Hamburg Correspondent_, been lately submitted to the Polytechnic Association in Berlin. Delta-metal contains iron in addition to the ordinary constituents of brass. It takes on an excellent polish, and is much less liable to rust than either steel or iron. When wrought or rolled, it is harder than steel, but not when cast only. It can be forged and soldered like iron, but not welded. It melts at about one thousand seven hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit; and at from one thousand three hundred to one thousand five hundred degrees it is remarkably malleable, and in this condition can admirably well be pressed or stamped. For founding, it is also well suited. The price is somewhat higher than that of the better kinds of brass. It should be found specially serviceable for objects exposed to rust and requiring great hardness. At present—not to mention other cases—the small steamers for the exploration of Central Africa are being made of delta-metal.

HARBOUR OF REFUGE FOR EAST COAST OF SCOTLAND.

We have before alluded to the operations of the Committee appointed by the Government to take evidence as to the most suitable place for a harbour of refuge on the east coast of Scotland. The Report of the investigators has now been published, with their final recommendations. The towns and harbours of Wick, Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Aberdeen, Arbroath, and Montrose, are severally reported upon, and the advantages and disadvantages of each stated, with the result that the reporters unanimously recommend Peterhead as the site of the proposed harbour of refuge. That town is situated almost midway between the great natural harbours of the Firth of Forth and Cromarty Firth, and its bay is well adapted as a place of shelter. Its anchorage also is excellent, the bottom of the bay being of mud with a sandy surface, affording a good holding-ground. The harbour is to be constructed by Scottish convict labour.

SUBTERRANEAN FISH.

A fact of much interest to students of natural history is vouched for by Cavalier Moerath, a civil engineer, formerly of Rome, and now visiting this country. This gentleman has devoted much labour and attention to the improvement of water-supplies in Italy. In sinking for water with one of Norton’s Abyssinian Tube Wells, he tapped a spring from which was pumped a tiny living fish. This fish had passed into the tube well through the ordinary perforations of about one-eighth of an inch. Examination proved it to have no eyes, clearly indicating that it belonged to an order intended to inhabit subterranean waters. The occurrence was certified to by two other gentlemen who were present when the fish was pumped up.

The site of the well is Fontano del Prato, near the old city of Cori, between Rome and Naples, and the depth is about seventy feet. The soil from which the fish came was fine sand. The strata passed through above this sand were volcanic loose earth, clay and water, other volcanic earth, rocks and sand, and clay. The temperature of the water was low—about forty degrees Fahrenheit. The water was fresh. The fish, we are informed, has been preserved in spirit, and is to be brought to England, when it will probably be exhibited at the Health Exhibition in London.

THE FASTEST PASSAGE ON RECORD.

This great feat has just been achieved by the Guion line steamer _Oregon_, which left New York on the 26th of April last, and arrived at Queenstown at 5.16 on Saturday morning the 3d of May, making the trip in six days sixteen hours and fifty-seven minutes, which is the fastest homeward trip yet recorded. This is the more remarkable from the fact that she had to traverse over a hundred miles at least out of her course to avoid the icebergs, those pests of the North Atlantic. Passengers who embarked at New York on Saturday the 26th April were landed at Liverpool on the evening of that day week. The _Oregon_ is another of those naval masterpieces for which the industry and skill of Scotland are so justly celebrated, and is considered one of the finest steamers afloat. Her highest score of miles run in one day was four hundred and thirty-six.

A CANINE ‘COLLECTOR.’

That dogs can be taught the performance of tricks or acts showing a remarkable amount of sagacity and intelligence, no one will pretend to doubt, for it is a fact patent to all. But that a dog could become a ‘collector,’ and a collector of money too, is at first sight somewhat startling. Yet such is the fact. A splendid and thoroughbred Scotch collie, known as ‘Help,’ has been actually trained as a collector of money for charitable contributions, or subscriptions, for the ‘Orphan Fund of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants.’ His tutor has been one of the guards of the night-boat train on the London, Brighton, and south-coast line. He is described as a dog not only of great beauty, but of gentle and winning ways, possessing marvellous intelligence and a generous disposition. In his capacity as collector he has travelled over the greater part of England, always returning home to the headquarters in the City Road, London, with the proceeds of his charitable efforts. Last year, he is reported to have crossed the Channel, having been taken over by the captain of the steamer _Brittany_, and introduced by him to Her Majesty’s consul at Dieppe. In this port he is stated to have collected about six pounds ten shillings; and on returning home he seems to have made a rather profitable stay at Newhaven, where he collected nearly seven pounds. In February last it was reported in the newspapers that Help had been killed at a level crossing at Middlesborough, in Yorkshire, where he had been run over by an ‘express’ train. This, however, turns out to have been a mistake. A handsome Scotch collie _was_ killed as stated, and as he resembled Help very much, the story got about that the canine ‘collector’ had lost his life on the line. But Help is at this moment actively following his charitable avocation, in which, we believe, he excites more interest than ever. And long may he continue to carry on his useful career of helping the fatherless and the afflicted. It would be interesting to know the plan or system employed for the dog’s operations; in other words, how it is done. The animal must, of course, always be in charge of somebody, otherwise, when he had done a fair day’s work in collecting money, there are numbers of unprincipled people who would speedily ease the collie of his subscriptions, if they did not take his life as well.

WILD-FLOWERS FROM ALLOWAY AND DOON.

BY ALEXANDER ANDERSON.

No book to-night; but let me sit
And watch the firelight change and flit,
And let me think of other lays
Than those that shake our modern days.
Outside, the tread of passing feet
Along the unsympathetic street
Is naught to me; I sit and hear
Far other music in my ear,
That, keeping perfect time and tune,
Whispers of Alloway and Doon.

The scent of withered flowers has brought
A fresher atmosphere of thought,
In which I make a realm, and see
A fairer world unfold to me;
For grew they not upon that spot
Of sacred soil that loses naught
Of sanctity by all the years
That come and pass like human fears?
They grew beneath the light of June,
And blossomed on the Banks of Doon;
The waving woods are rich with green,
And sweet the Doon flows on between;
The winds tread light upon the grass,
That shakes with joy to feel them pass;
The sky, in its expanse of blue,
Has but a single cloud or two;
The lark, in raptures clear and long,
Shakes out his little soul in song.
But far above his notes, I hear
Another song within my ear,
Rich, soft, and sweet, and deep by turns—
The quick, wild passion-throbs of Burns.

Ah! were it not that he has flung
A sunshine by the songs he sung
On fields and woods of ‘Bonnie Doon,’
These simple flowers had been a boon
Less dear to me; but since they grew
On sacred spots which once he knew,
They breathe, though crushed and shorn of bloom,
To-night within this lonely room,
Such perfumes, that to me prolong
The passionate sweetness of his song.
The glory of an early death
Was his; and the immortal wreath
Was woven round brows that had not felt
The furrows that are roughly dealt
To age; nor had the heart grown cold
With haunting fears that, taking hold,
Cast shadows downward from their wing,
Until we doubt the songs we sing.
But his was lighter doom of pain,
To pass in youth, and to remain
For ever fair and fresh and young,
Encircled by the youth he sung.

And so to me these simple flowers
Have sent through all my dreaming hours
His songs again, which, when a boy,
Made day and night a double joy.
Nor did they sink and die away
When manhood came with sterner day,
But still, amid the jar and strife,
The rush and clang of railway life,
They rose up, and at all their words
I felt my spirit’s inner chords
Thrill with their old sweet touch, as now,
Though middle manhood shades my brow;
For though I hear the tread of feet
Along the unsympathetic street,
And all the city’s din to-night,
My heart warms with that old delight,
In which I sit and, dreaming, hear
Singing to all the inner ear,
Rich, clear, and soft, and sweet by turns,
The deep, wild passion-throbs of Burns.

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The Conductor of CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL begs to direct the attention of CONTRIBUTORS to the following notice:

_1st._ All communications should be addressed to the ‘Editor, 339
High Street, Edinburgh.’

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should accompany every manuscript.

_3d._ MANUSCRIPTS should bear the author’s full _Christian_ name,
Surname, and Address, legibly written; and should be written on
white (not blue) paper, and on one side of the leaf only.

_4th._ Offerings of Verse should invariably be accompanied by a
stamped and directed envelope.

_If the above rules are complied with, the Editor will do his best to insure the safe return of ineligible papers._

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Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.

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