Chapter II: Part 2

Acclimatisation has succeeded too thoroughly in one instance--the rabbit, as we have had occasion to shew in a previous paper, having increased and multiplied until the colonists have reason to wish he had never been induced to settle in the land. One wheat-grower, wroth at having to sit up o' nights with his farm hands, dogs, bullock-bells, and tin cans, in order to scare the little pests back to their burrows, lest, like his neighbours, he should have nothing left to reap, declares either the rabbit or the farmer must go down; there is no longer room for both. Sheep-farmers are in a similar predicament; but their trouble is of native growth; the kangaroo is their _bête noire_, and they are busy arming against the pouched depredators. Kangaroo battues are the rage. At one held at Warroo, upwards of three thousand five hundred of these animals were disposed of in ten days; making eight thousand of which the run had been cleared in the space of a month--equivalent to saving pasturage for a like number of sheep. Another sheep-owner, after shooting down four thousand kangaroos on a small portion of his run, finds it necessary to call in outside aid, and lay in tons of cartridges for the use of those who respond to the appeal. By reports just to hand (Oct. 1877) we find that the process of kangaroo extermination is still at work.

There are other nuisances it would be well to see to. A woodman at Maryborough lately died of a scorpion sting; and we read of a man being bitten by a black snake while working a short distance from Brisbane. His mates scarified the wound, bound up the arm, and administered a large dose of brandy; put the patient into a cart, and made for a dispensary with all possible speed. Here the wound was scarified again; and a doctor passing by, being called in, cauterised it, and injected ammonia. In a few minutes the man's spasmodic struggles ceased, and he was able to walk to a cab. By the time he reached the hospital all traces of the venom had disappeared, and he seemed only to suffer from the effects of the spirits he had imbibed. The ammonia treatment of snake-bite is not efficacious with the lower animals; at least in a series of experiments upon dogs, not a single canine sufferer recovered. Although Queensland is reputed to be a land of rivers and streams, there are tracts where water is scarce, and those who recklessly go on the tramp, or 'wallaby,' as this kind of vagabondising is called, sometimes experience the horrors of thirst, and actually sink down and die in the wilderness.

To prove the truth of this, and to shew that examples are not wanting of travellers who have died of thirst, a correspondent of the _Queenslander_ tells how, following the tracks of some horses that had strayed from their beat, he came upon a pair of moleskin trousers hanging upon a tree, as if put there for a signal of distress. Looking about, he picked up a torn pocket, containing an illegible cheque and a match-box; and scattered about on the grass saw a blanket, shirt, hat, and water-bag. Searching further, he found the skull and bones of a man who had apparently been dead some two or three weeks; some of the flesh was still on the bones, and the brains were almost intact. Bags of flour, tea, and sugar lay near; a proof that the poor fellow had not died of hunger, but of thirst, the nearest water being twelve miles from the spot where he died his lonely death.

Thomas Stevenson, a lad of seventeen, started one December morning from his brother's station, some fifty miles from Louth, New South Wales, for the post-office at that place, which he reached safely, and left again at daybreak on the Saturday. The following Wednesday his horse arrived home, bearing his rider's coat, scarf, and spurs. His brother started for the bush with some black trackers, who found that the missing lad had been wandering on the Debil-Debil Mountains, but finding it impossible to get his horse down them, had turned back to get round the base of the mountains, but mistaking the road and overtaken by darkness, had camped out and hobbled his horse. After a three days' search the trackers discovered the body of young Stevenson lying between two logs in a lonely part of the bush. The weather had been extremely hot, and it was known he had no water-bag with him; so there was little doubt that he died of thirst. After losing his way and losing hope, he must have taken off his coat, scarf, and spurs, fastened them to a saddle, and turned the horse loose. Then placing the two logs on a track, he had lain down between them with his head resting on a cross-piece at one end, and so waited Death's releasing hand.

If advertising means business, business should be brisk indeed at Darling Downs, since the editor of the _Darling Downs Gazette_ finds it necessary to explain the absence of the customary 'leader' in this wise: 'Owing to a press of advertis---- In fact it is coming to this, that we shall have to throw up the business if people come hustling their advertisements in at the rate they are doing. The general appreciation of the fact that the _Gazette_ is bound to be read by everybody, is becoming overwhelming. We plead guilty to no leader this time; but what were we to do? Only just now a bald-headed man came rushing in---- But stop! let us first explain that we mean no offence to bald-headed men, and they needn't get up in arms. Goodness knows, we were bald-headed enough ourselves once upon a time, and used to be up in arms frequently about that period. Ask our nurse. However, as we were about to say, a bald-headed man came hustling in just as we had commenced our leader, and had got as far as, "When the history of mankind shall have been disinterred from the triturated and inevaporable sediments of its consummated cosmogony"--and while with our pen suspended we were working up the continuation in the same gay and sparkling style, that bald-headed man violently brought us down from the ethereal heights in which we were soaring, and wanted to know whether we could spare space for a column or so of advertisements. He fluttered some dingy papers, each marked five pounds, under our eyes, and we rather liked it. But we conquered our feelings and remarked: "Caitiff! our duty to our readers demands a leading article; hang advertisements! Take your beak from out our heart; take your form from off our door." The wretch winked, and went to the book-keeper, and inveigled him into finding space for that advertisement. Since then, there have been processions of bald and hairy men with insidious manners and fluttering notes, palming off advertisements on us. In short--or if the reader objects to that phrase as inappropriate--at length, we have no leading article, and if the reader could only witness our tears!'

With certain parliamentary proceedings fresh in remembrance, we dare not cast stones at our cousins for not eliminating the rowdy element from their legislatures. That it should be predominant is not surprising, since we are assured, that in view of a coming dissolution, candidates swarm on the ground like frogs in a marsh. Every man who has figured in the insolvent list for the last three years; every boot-black whose stock of materials has given out; wild wood-carters whose only horse and hope is dead; country newspaper reporters down on their luck; country-town bellmen whose vocation has been supplanted; seedy men who cry penny papers in the streets: in short, all Bohemia and its dependencies have taken the field with a view to winning senatorial honours and the three hundred a year going with them. Prominent among these candidates stand Tom M'Inerney, who bases his claims upon the fact that he owns fifteen drays and fourteen children, and is under the impression that S. I. after a man's name denote him to be a civil engineer; and Patrick Tyrrell, who objects to 'circular' education, and who proved himself a real Irishman when asked if he would tax absentees, by replying: 'To be sure I would, if they didn't live in the country.'

However Australian legislators may indulge in libellous personalities, it is pleasant to note that such things are not received into favour by the press; the _Queenslander_ notifying to all concerned, that 'any statement, comment, or criticism of a personal character calculated to provoke ill-feeling in the community from which it may be penned, will not only be rigorously excluded, as hitherto, but any correspondent who may think fit to forward such matter for publication will be immediately requested to discontinue his connection with this journal.' To be perfect, this notification only needs the N.B.--English papers please copy.

TAKING IT COOLLY.

Some of many instances of extraordinary coolness in the midst of danger and otherwise that have been recorded, are here offered to our readers, together with some amusing sayings and doings. When gallant Ponsonby lay grievously wounded on the field of Waterloo, he forgot his own desperate plight while watching an encounter between a couple of French lancers and one of his own men, cut off from his troop. As the Frenchmen came down upon Murphy, he, using his sword as if it were a shillelagh, knocked their lances alternately aside again and again. Then suddenly setting spurs to his horse, he galloped off full speed, his eager foes following in hot pursuit, but not quite neck and neck. Wheeling round at exactly the right moment, the Irishman, rushing at the foremost fellow, parried his lance, and struck him down. The second, pressing on to avenge his comrade, was cut through diagonally by Murphy's sword, falling to the earth without a cry or a groan; while the victor, scarcely glancing at his handiwork, trotted off whistling _The Grinder_.

Ponsonby's brave cavalry-man knew how to take things coolly, which, according to Colonel R. P. Anderson, is the special virtue of the British man-of-war, who, having the utmost reliance in himself and his commanders, is neither easily over-excited nor readily alarmed. In support of his assertion, the colonel relates how two tars, strolling up from the Dil-Kusha Park, where Lord Clyde's army was stationed, towards the Residency position at Lucknow, directed their steps by the pickets of horse and foot. Suddenly, a twenty-four-pound shot struck the road just in front of them. 'I'm blessed, Bill,' said one of the tars, 'if this here channel is properly buoyed!' and on the happy-go-lucky pair went towards the Residency, as calmly as if they had been on Portsmouth Hard. During the same siege, a very young private of the 102d was on sentry, when an eight-inch shell, fired from a gun a hundred yards off, burst close to him, making a deal of noise and throwing up an immense quantity of earth. Colonel Anderson rushed to the spot. The youthful soldier was standing quietly at his post, close to where the shell had just exploded. Being asked what had happened, he replied unconcernedly: 'I think a shell has busted, sir.'

Towards the close of the fight of Inkermann, Lord Raglan, returning from taking leave of General Strangways, met a sergeant carrying water for the wounded. The sergeant drew himself up to salute, when a round-shot came bounding over the hill, and knocked his forage-cap out of his hand. The man picked it up, dusted it on his knee, placed it carefully on his head, and made the salute, not a muscle of his countenance moving the while. 'A neat thing that, my man?' said Lord Raglan. 'Yes, my lord,' returned the sergeant, with another salute; 'but a miss is as good as a mile.' The commander was probably not surprised by such an exhibition of _sang-froid_, being himself good that way. He was badly hurt at Waterloo; and, says the Prince of Orange, who was in the hospital, 'I was not conscious of the presence of Lord Fitzroy Somerset until I heard him call out in his ordinary tone: "Hollo! Don't carry that arm away till I have taken off my ring!" Neither wound nor operation had extorted a groan from his lips.'

The Indian prides himself upon taking good or ill in the quietest of ways; and from a tale told in Mr Marshall's _Canadian Dominion_, his civilised half-brother would seem to be equally unemotional. Thanks mainly to a certain Métis or half-breed in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, a Sioux warrior was found guilty of stealing a horse, and condemned to pay the animal's value by instalments, at one of the Company's forts. On paying the last instalment, he received his quittance from the man who had brought him to justice, and left the office. A few moments later the Sioux returned, advanced on his noiseless moccasins within a pace of the writing-table, and levelled his musket full at the half-breed's head. Just as the trigger was pulled, the Métis raised the hand with which he was writing and touched lightly the muzzle of the gun; the shot passed over his head, but his hair was singed off in a broad mass. The smoke clearing away, the Indian was amazed to see his enemy still lived. The other looked him full in the eyes for an instant, and quietly resumed his writing. The Indian silently departed unpursued; those who would have given chase being stopped by the half-breed with: 'Go back to your dinner, and leave the affair to me.'

When evening came, a few whites, curious to see how the matter would end, accompanied the Métis to the Sioux encampment. At a certain distance he bade them wait, and advanced alone to the Indian tents. Before one of these sat crouched the baffled savage, singing his own death-hymn to the tom-tom. He complained that he must now say good-bye to wife and child, to the sunlight, to his gun and the chase. He told his friends in the spirit-land to expect him that night, when he would bring them all the news of their tribe. He swung his body backwards and forwards as he chanted his strange song, but never once looked up--not even when his foe spurned him with his foot. He only sang on, and awaited his fate. Then the half-breed bent his head and spat down on the crouching Sioux, and turned leisurely away--a crueller revenge than if he had shot him dead.

It is not given to every one to play the philosopher, and accept fortune's buffets and favours with equal placidity. Horatios are scarce. But there are plenty of people capable of behaving like Spartans where the trouble does not touch their individuality. 'How can I get out of this?' asked an Englishman, up to his armpits in a Scotch bog, of a passer-by. 'I dinna think ye _can_ get oot of it,' was the response of the Highlander as he went on his way.

Mistress of herself was the spouse of the old gentleman, who contrived to tumble off the ferryboat into the Mississippi, and was encouraged to struggle for dear life by his better-half shouting: 'There, Samuel; didn't I tell you so? Now then, work your legs, flap your arms, hold your breath, and repeat the Lord's Prayer--for its mighty onsartin, Samuel, whether you land in Vicksburg or eternity!'

Thoroughly oblivious of court manners was the red-cloaked old Kentish dame who found her way into the tent occupied by Queen Charlotte, at a Volunteer review held shortly after her coming to England, and after staring at the royal lady with her arms akimbo, observed: 'Well, she's not so ugly as they told me she was!'--a compliment the astonished queen gratefully accepted, saying: 'Well, my good woman, I am very glad of dat.' Probably Her Majesty forgave her critic's rudeness as the outcome of rustic ignorance and simplicity.

There is no cooler man than your simple fellow. While General Thomas was inspecting the fortifications of Chattanooga with General Garfield, they heard some one shout: 'Hello, mister! You! I want to speak to you!' General Thomas, turning, found he was the 'mister' so politely hailed by an East Tennessean soldier.

'Well, my man,' said he, 'what do you want with me?'

'I want to get a furlough, mister, that's what I want,' was the reply.

'Why do you want a furlough, my man?' inquired the general.

'Wall, I want to go home and see my wife.'

'How long is it since you saw her?'

'Ever since I enlisted; nigh on to three months.'

'Three months!' exclaimed the commander. 'Why, my good fellow, I have not seen my wife for three years!'

The Tennessean looked incredulous, and drawled out: 'Wall, you see, me and _my_ wife ain't that sort!'

The Postmaster-general of the United States once received an odd official communication; the Raeborn postmaster, new to his duties, writing to his superior officer: 'Seeing by the regulations that I am required to send you a letter of advice, I must plead in excuse that I have been postmaster but a short time; but I will say, if your office pays no better than mine, I advise you to give it up.' To this day, that Postmaster-general has not decided whether his subordinate was an ignoramus or was quietly poking fun at him.

Spite of the old axiom about self-praise, many are of opinion that the world is apt to take a man at his own valuation. If that be true, there is a church dignitary in embryo somewhere in the young deacon, whose examining bishop felt it requisite to send for the clergyman recommending him for ordination, in order to tell him to keep that young man in check; adding by way of explanation: 'I had the greatest difficulty, sir, to prevent him examining me!' This not to be abashed candidate for clerical honours promises to be as worthy of the cloth as the American minister who treated his village congregation to one of Mr Beecher's sermons, unaware that the popular Brooklyn preacher made one of his hearers. Accosting him after service, Mr Beecher said: 'That was a fair discourse; how long did it take you to write it?'

'Oh, I tossed it off one evening,' was the reply.

'Indeed!' said Mr Beecher. 'Well, it took me much longer than that to think out the framework of that sermon.'

'Are you Henry Ward Beecher?' asked the sermon-stealer.

'I am,' said that gentleman.

'Well, then,' said the other, not in the least disconcerted, 'all I have to say is, that I ain't ashamed to preach one of your sermons anywhere.'

We do not know if Colman invented the phrase, 'As cool as a cucumber;' but he makes the Irishman in _The Heir-at-Law_ say: 'These two must be a rich man that won't lend, and a borrower; for one is trotting about in great distress, and t' other stands cool as a cucumber.' Of the two, the latter was more likely to have been intending a raid on another man's purse, for the men whose 'very trade is borrowing' are usually, we might say necessarily, the coolest of the cool; like Bubb Dodington's impecunious acquaintance, who, rushing across Bond Street, greeted Dodington with: 'I'm delighted to see you, for I am wonderfully in want of a guinea.'

Taking out his purse, Bubb shewed that it held but half a guinea.

'A thousand thanks!' cried his tormentor, deftly seizing the coin; 'that will do very well for the present;' and then changed the conversation. But as he turned to take leave, he inquired: 'By-the-by, when will you pay me that half-guinea?'

'Pay you? What do you mean?' exclaimed Dodington.

'Mean? Why, I intended to borrow a guinea of you. I have only got half; but I'm not in a hurry for t' other. Name your own time, only pray keep it!' saying which, he disappeared round the corner.

'John Phœnix' the American humorist being one night at a theatre, fancied he saw a friend some three seats in front of him. Turning to his next neighbour he said: 'Would you be kind enough to touch that gentleman with your stick?' 'Certainly,' was the reply, and the thing was done; but when the individual thus assaulted turned round, Phœnix saw he was not the man he took him for, and became at once absorbed in the play, leaving his friend with the stick to settle matters with the gentleman in front, which, as he had no excuse handy, was not done without considerable trouble. When the hubbub was over, the victim said: 'Didn't you tell me to tap that man with my stick?' 'Yes.' 'And what did you want?' 'Oh,' said Phœnix, with imperturbable gravity, 'I wanted to see whether you _would_ tap him or not!'

'Jack Holmes,' a man-about-town, living no one knew how, was once under cross-examination by a certain sergeant-at-law, who knew his man too well. 'Now, sir,' said the learned gentleman, 'tell the jury how you live?'

'Well,' said Holmes, 'a chop or a steak, and on Sunday perhaps a little bit of fish; I am a very plain-living man.'

'You know what I mean, sir,' thundered the questioner. 'What do you do for a living?'

'The same as you, sergeant,' said the witness, tapping his forehead suggestively; 'and when that fails, I do'--going through the pantomime of writing across his hand--'a little bit of stuff--the same as you again.'

'My lud, I shall not ask this obtuse witness any more questions,' said the angry counsel.

'Brother,' said Baron Martin, 'I think you had better not.'

Here is a hint for our old friend the clown in the pantomime. At the burning of a provision store, the crowd helped themselves freely. One man grasped a huge cheese as his share of the salvage; rising up with it he found himself face to face with a policeman, and with admirable presence of mind put the plunder into the officer's arms, saying: 'You had better take care of that, policeman, or some one will be walking off with it.'

Equally ready to relinquish his loot when there was no help for it was a Chicago negro, caught by a poultry fancier in the act of carrying off some of his live stock, and challenged with: 'What are you doing with my chickens?' 'I wuz gwine fer ter fetch 'em back, boss,' explained he. 'Dere's a nigger roun' here what's bin disputin along er me 'bout dem chickens. I said dey wuz Coachin Chyniz; an he said dey wuz Alabarmar pullets; an I wuz jes takin 'em roun' fer ter stablish my nollidge. Dey don't lay no aigs, does dey, boss? Ef dey does, I'm mighty shamed of hustlin 'em roun'. Aigs is scase.'

Impudently cool as the darkey was, he must yield the palm for effrontery to the Erie Railway guard, whose interview with Manager Fisk is thus related in an American paper.

'You are a conductor on the Erie, I believe?'

'Yes, sir.'

'How long have you been on the road?'

'Fifteen years.'

'Worth some property, I learn?'

'Some.'

'Have a very fine house in Oswego? Cost you some thirty, forty, or fifty thousand dollars?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Some little money invested in bonds, I am told?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Own a farm near where you reside?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Had nothing when you commenced as conductor on our road?'

'Nothing to speak of.'

'Made the property since?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Been at work for no other parties?'

'No; but I have been saving money, and invested it from time to time to good advantage.'

'Well, sir, what will you give to settle? Of course you cannot pretend to say you have acquired this property from what you have saved from your salary? You will not deny that you have pocketed a great deal of money belonging to the railway--at least fifty or sixty thousand dollars? Now, sir, what will you give to settle, and not be disgraced, as you certainly will be if a trial is brought, and you are compelled to give up the property you profess to own, but which in reality belongs to the Company?'

'Well, Mr Manager, I had not thought of the matter. For several years I have been running my train to the best of my ability. Never looked at the matter in this light before. Never thought I was doing anything wrong. I have done nothing more than other conductors; tried to earn my salary and get it, and think I've succeeded. I don't know that I owe the Company anything. If you think I do, why, there's a little difference of opinion, and I don't want any trouble over it. I have a nice family, nice father and mother; relatives all of good standing; they would feel bad to have me arrested and charged with dishonesty. It would kill my wife. She has every confidence in me, and the idea that I would take a penny that did not belong to me would break her heart. I don't care anything for the matter myself; but on account of my family and relatives, if you won't say anything more about it, I'll give you say--a dollar!'

THE MONTH:

SCIENCE AND ARTS.

Mr Charles Barry, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, in his opening address, mentioned that with a view to facilitate the studies of young men, the library of the Institute is open from ten in the morning till nine at night, to members of the Architectural Association, to the architectural classes of the Royal Academy, of University College, and King's College. A fee of five shillings a year and a proper recommendation are the conditions on which this valuable privilege may be obtained; and it is to be hoped that earnest-minded students--the architects of the future--will hasten to avail themselves of this generously offered store of knowledge.

The Council of the Institute have given notice of lectures which are to be delivered at University College, London, during the present session, comprising Ancient Architecture as a Fine Art; on Construction and Materials; on Roofing, Masonry, Quarries, Arches, and Groining. At King's College also there will be lectures on the Mechanics of Construction; on Constructive Design and Practice, besides classes for the study of Architectural Drawing, Descriptive Geometry, and Surveying and Levelling. Young men who wish to study architecture and allied subjects have in the courses thus provided for, a favourable opportunity. Among the papers announced for reading at the meetings of the Institute are: On the Architecture of Norway; On the Prevention of Corrosion in Iron; and Syria, the Cradle of Gothic Architecture; which may be expected to present especial points of interest.

The Council of the Royal Agricultural Society have published a statement of members' privileges which is worth attention. On payment of a moderate fee the advice of a competent veterinary inspector can be had in cases of disease among the live-stock; post-mortem examinations can be made, and the animals may be sent to the Brown Institution, Wandsworth Road, London, where the Professor-Superintendent undertakes 'to carry out such investigations relating to the nature, treatment, and prevention of diseases of cattle, sheep, and pigs, as may be deemed expedient by the Council of the Society.' Reports on the cases are drawn up quarterly, or specially as may be required. Analyses of guano and other fertilisers, of soils, of water, of vegetable products, may be had; also reports on seeds, with determination of the quantity of weeds mingled among them; on vegetable parasites; on diseases of farm-crops. And besides all this, any member whose lands are infested by noxious intruders may have a 'determination of the species of any insect, worm, or other animal, which, in any stage of its life, injuriously affects the farm-crops, with a report on its habits, and suggestions as to its extermination.'

Experiments on the fattening of animals by Messrs Lawes and Gilbert help to settle the much-debated question as to whether fat is produced exclusively from nitrogenous food or not. Their conclusion is, that excess of nitrogen contributes to growth but not to fatness. 'There is, of course,' they say, 'a point below which the proportion of nitrogenous substance in the food should not be reduced; but if this be much exceeded, the proportion of the increase, and especially of the fat-increase, to the nitrogenous substance consumed, rapidly decreases; and it may be stated generally, that taking our current fattening food-stuffs as they are, it is their supply of digestible non-nitrogenous, rather than of nitrogenous constituents which guides the amount, both of the food consumed and of the increase produced, by the fattening animal.'

Since the outbreak of discussion on spontaneous generation and the germ theory, many readers have become familiar with the term Bacteria, by which certain minute organisms are described. The question involved may be studied from different points of view, as appears from a communication addressed to the Royal Society by Dr Downes and Mr Blunt, a chemist, on the Effect of Light upon Bacteria and other Organisms. Properly prepared solutions were inclosed in glass tubes; some of the tubes were placed in sunlight, others were covered with paper or some material that excluded light. The dark tubes became turbid; the light tubes remained clear. The experiments modified in various ways were continued from April to October; and the conclusions that the experimentalists came to were that--Light is inimical to the development of Bacteria and the microscopic fungi associated with putrefaction and decay, its action on the latter being apparently less rapid than upon the former--That the preservative quality of light is most powerful in the direct solar ray, but can be demonstrated to exist in ordinary diffused daylight--and That this preservative quality appears to be associated with the actinic rays of the spectrum. 'It appears to us,' say the two gentlemen, 'that the organisms which have been the subject of our research may be regarded simply as isolated cells, or minute protoplasmic masses specially fitted by their transparency and tenuity for the demonstration of physical influences. May we not expect that laws similar to those which here manifest themselves may be in operation throughout the vegetable, and perhaps also the animal kingdom wherever light has direct access to protoplasm? On the one hand, we have chlorophyll (colouring substance of leaves, &c.) owing its very existence to light, and whose functions are deoxidising; on the other, the white protoplasm or germinal matter oxidising in its relations, and to which, in some of its forms at least, the solar rays are not only non-essential, but even devitalising and injurious.

'This suggestion,' continued the gentlemen, 'we advance provisionally and with diffidence; nor do we wish to imply that the relations of light to protoplasmic matter are by any means so simple as might be inferred from the above broad statement.'

A paper by Dr Burdon Sanderson, F.R.S., read before the same Society, contains, amid much that is controversial about _Bacteria_, germs, organised particles, development and so forth, a few passages which all intelligent readers will be able to understand. On the question of disease-germs, the learned doctor remarks: 'In order that any particle may be rightly termed a disease-germ, two things must be proved concerning it: first, that it is a living organism; secondly, that if it finds its way into the body of a healthy human being or of an animal, it will produce the disease of which it is the germ. Now there is only one disease affecting the higher animals in respect of which anything of this kind has been proved, and that is splenic fever of cattle. In other words, there is but one case in which the existence of a disease-germ has been established. Comparing such a germ with the germinal particles we have been discussing, we see that there is but little analogy between them, for, first, the latter are not known to be organised; secondly, they have no power of producing disease, for it has been found by experiment that ordinary Bacteria may be introduced into the circulating blood of healthy animals in considerable quantities without producing any disturbance of health. So long as we ourselves are healthy, we have no reason to apprehend any danger from the morbific action of atmospheric dust, except in so far as it can be shewn to have derived infectiveness from some particular source of miasma or contagium.'

In a communication to the _American Journal_, Professor Kirkwood discusses the question--Does the motion of the inner satellite of Mars disprove the nebular hypothesis? This satellite he remarks is within three thousand four hundred miles of the planet's surface, and completes three orbital revolutions in less than a Martial day. How is this remarkable fact to be reconciled with the cosmogony of Laplace? The Professor then remarks that there is some similarity between the movements of the satellites and those of the rings of Saturn. The rings are composed of clouds of exceedingly minute planetoids, and while the outer ring revolves in a period somewhat greater than that of Saturn itself, 'the inner visible edge of the dusky ring completes a revolution in about eight hours. These rings,' in the words of Professor Tait, 'like everything cosmical, must be gradually decaying, because in the course of their motion round the planet there must be continual impacts among the separate portions of the mass; and of two which impinge, one may be accelerated, but at the expense of the other. The other falls out of the race, as it were, and is gradually drawn in towards the planet. The consequence is that, possibly not so much on account of the improvement of telescopes of late years, but perhaps simply in consequence of this gradual closing in of the whole system, a new ring of Saturn has been observed inside the two old ones, called from its appearance the crape ring, which was narrow when first observed, but is gradually becoming broader. That crape ring is formed of the laggards which have been thrown out of the race, and are gradually falling in towards Saturn's surface.' It is then suggested that, by a process similar to that here described, the phenomena of the Martial system may have been produced, and the argument concludes thus: 'Unless some such explanation as this can be given, the short period of the inner satellite will doubtless be regarded as a conclusive argument against the nebular hypothesis.'

In a paper read at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Mr Brett argues against the hypothesis that Mars is in a condition similar to that of the earth. He grounds his conclusion on the fact that in all his observations of Mars he has seen no clouds in the atmosphere thereof. That atmosphere is very dense, of great bulk, and is probably of a temperature so high that any aqueous vapour contained therein is prevented from condensation. Mr Brett implies that the glowing red colour of the middle of the disk is glowing red heat; and he remarks, in terrestrial experience there is always an intermediate phenomenon between vapour and snow, namely opaque cloud; and the absence of this condition seems fatal to the hypothesis that the white polar patch, as hitherto supposed, consists of snow. According to Mr Brett this patch is not only not snow; constitutes no part of the solid mass of the planet; but is nothing more than a patch of cloud, 'the only real cloud existing in Mars.'

From particulars published in the _Quarterly Journal_ of the Geological Society, it appears that metallic copper and copper ore have been discovered along a tract of country in Nova Scotia, that the specimens when analysed at Swansea yielded satisfactory results, and that 'Nova Scotia may soon appear on the list of copper-producing countries, it being confidently expected that during the approaching summer fresh localities will be proved to contain copper-bearing veins.' And shifting the scene, we learn from the same _Journal_ that in the South African Diamond Fields, two claims in Kimberley Mine, comprising eighteen hundred square feet, have yielded twenty-eight thousand carats of diamond; that at Lyndenburg, in the Transvaal country, most of the alluvial gold is supplied by Pilgrim's Rest Creek, the gold being coarse and nuggety, in well-rounded lumps, some of which, ten pounds in weight, are worth from seventy-six to eighty shillings an ounce; and that near the Oliphant River cobalt ore is found, of which a hundred tons have been sent to England. The same locality yields beryls, and is believed to be rich in other minerals.

Compressed air on being released from pressure can be cooled down to a very low temperature by throwing into it a jet of cold water. Advantage has been taken of this fact in contriving a new refrigerator or freezing chamber; and we are informed that at a trial which took place with a view to commercial purposes, 'in half an hour after commencing to work the machine, the thermometer within the freezing chamber stood at twenty degrees below zero; the interior of the chamber was covered with hoar-frost half an inch thick, bottles of water were frozen solid, and the general temperature of the room in which the freezing chamber stands was reduced to thirty degrees Fahrenheit.' It is clear that by this invention a very cheap way of producing ice and maintaining coolness has become available; and that it should have been adopted by a Company for use on board ship to keep meat fresh during the voyage from Canada is what might be expected. Bearing in mind that in April of the present year the United States sent to England more than eight million pounds of meat, the importance of the new cooling method will be appreciated. Moreover, it may be applied to many other purposes which require a low temperature.

Another step has been taken towards diminishing the risk of railway travelling. Experience has shewn that the danger most to be dreaded is collision; and that collision is brought about by defective signals. The interlocking system of signals is good, and the block-system is good; but they have failed in critical moments. The manager of the Railway Signal Works at Kilburn has invented a method which combines the two systems, and, as we are informed, has thereby 'dislodged the last atom of human fallibility' from railway signalling. Time will prove.

The block-system has been adopted, with endeavours to improve it, on some of the principal lines in France; and the companies point to statistics which shew that railway travelling is safer in France than in Belgium or England; there being not more than _one_ death to forty-five millions of travellers.

Professor Marsh's address to the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science cannot fail to interest all readers who desire to learn something of the Introduction and Succession of Vertebrate Life in America. It is a subject very inviting, and very difficult to trace the succession from fishes to amphibia, reptiles and birds, and onwards to mammals; but cannot be properly discussed without the aid of much dry scientific detail. We shall content ourselves therefore with a few points in the address which admit of presentation in a popular form. 'During the Triassic time,' says Professor Marsh, 'the Dinosaurs attained in America an enormous development both in variety of forms and in size. The Triassic sandstone of the Connecticut valley has long been famous for its fossil footprints, especially the so-called bird-tracks, which are generally supposed to have been made by birds. A careful investigation, however, of nearly all the specimens yet discovered has convinced me that most of these three-toed tracks were certainly not made by birds; but by quadrupeds which usually walked upon their hind-feet alone, and only occasionally put to the ground their smaller anterior extremities.'

According to present knowledge, the earliest appearance of birds in America was during the Cretaceous period. Among them was one to which the name _Hesperornis_ has been given. It was aquatic, nearly six feet in length, had jaws with teeth set in grooves, rudimentary wings, and legs similar to those of modern diving-birds. We have it on the authority of Professor Marsh that this strange creature 'was essentially a carnivorous swimming ostrich.'

Coming to the Miocene period, we are told of the Brontotherium, an animal nearly as large as the elephant, but with much shorter limbs. A countryman looking at the skeleton of one of these monsters in the museum at Newhaven, was heard to say: 'Adam must have had a bad time of it when he branded that critter there.' It was succeeded by the equally huge _Chalicotherium_. And a little later we have the statement that 'the Marsupials are clearly the remnants of a very ancient fauna which occupied the American continent millions of years ago, and from which the other mammals were doubtless all derived, although the direct evidence of the transformation is wanting.'

It has long been supposed that the New World was peopled by migrations from the Old World. Professor Marsh holds a directly opposite opinion, whereby an interesting question is presented for discussion. The surveys and explorations carried on of late years by the United States government have brought to light such an amazing number of fossils, indicative of more, that the museums in America will soon be the largest and the richest in specimens in the world. On the other hand, we may point to Central Asia, and suggest that when that vast country shall be thoroughly explored, fossil relics may be discovered more diversified and interesting even than those of America.

A remarkable statement occurs in a Report by one of the government naturalists on the Injurious Insects of the West, namely that in the United States the loss of agricultural products through the ravages of insects amounts to 'probably more than two hundred millions of dollars each year, and that from one-quarter to one-half of this sum might be saved by preventive measures.'

Another item from beyond the Atlantic is the gigantic cuttle-fish, which was found after a storm at Catalina, on the coast of Newfoundland. The measurements of this monster were: circumference of body seven feet; length of tentacular arms thirty feet; of the ventral arms eleven feet, and eye-sockets eight inches diameter. This, the largest specimen ever preserved, is now in the New York Aquarium. With a grasp of sixty feet when living, it must have realised the descriptions in old writers of horrid sea-monsters that devoured divers, and enveloped even ships with their terrible arms. It is not the first that has been found on the shores of Newfoundland.

Readers who prefer the study of geography when mixed with adventures will find instruction and entertainment in Mr Alfred Simson's _Notes of Travel Across South America from Guayaquil to the Napo_, an affluent of the great river of Brazil, as published in the last number of the Geographical Society's _Journal_. Among descriptions of perilous incidents, of laborious exertions, and of narrow escapes, are accounts of wonderful scenery, of natural products, and of some of the native tribes, which make us aware that much yet remains to be discovered in that mountainous interior. In one place a party of the numerous Jívaros tribe was met with, one of the most independent and warlike in South America, who withstood alike the attacks of Incas and Spaniards, and have still a habit of killing white people. A Jesuit padre who had resided among them three years, told Mr Simson 'that he found it impossible to make any progress with them.'

On another occasion Mr Simson explored the almost unknown Putumayo, one of the largest of the Amazonian tributaries, navigable to the foot of the Andes, eighteen hundred miles from the sea. This voyage, aided by the Brazilian government, with a view to steam-navigation, occupied fifty-seven days, beset by hardships, and the plague of the blood-thirsty Pium flies, all of which Mr Simson appears to have overcome by indomitable resolution.

In reply to further inquiries made regarding vegetable size, we are told that 'the best and purest, if not the cheapest, is the _haï-thao_, which is sold by Messrs Renault aîné et fils, 26 Rue du Roi de Sicile, Paris. Its price (last year) varied from 5.50 to 7 francs per kilogramme.' We are further told that this 'gum' was applied to the sizing of cotton cloths with good results, and that it might prove equally useful for the sizing of other materials such as paper. To one gallon of water, four ounces of the size are added and _well_ boiled, the result of which is a jelly which gets very thick when cool. Besides the _haï-thao_, there are other kinds of size made from sea-weeds, such as the _gélase_ of M. Martineau, druggist, St Parchaise, Charente Inférieure--sold at 3.50 francs per kilogramme; the _thao-français_, sold by M. Steinbach, Petit Guerilly, near Rouen, from 3.50 to 5 francs; and the _ly-cho_ of M. Fichet, 8 Rue de Chateau, Asnières, Seine. Of the foregoing we believe the _haï-thao_ size to be the best.

THE ROLL-CALL OF HOME.

'FOR VALOUR.'

A soldier came from distant lands, to seek his childhood's home:
A gallant boy he marched away, when first he longed to roam
With colours flying o'er his head, with music's thrilling strain;
But now a saddened, dying man, he wandered home again.

He left his love, the village belle, and cried, in careless glee:
'When medals shine upon my breast, a hero's bride thou 'lt be.'
To bring his mother laurels back, his youthful heart had yearned;
A simple cross, a life of toil, were all that he had earned.

Beside the old churchyard there sat, upon a rustic stile,
A pretty little village maid, who gave him smile for smile.
He asked her news of dear old friends--his dog among the rest--
And trem'lous then he slowly asked for those he loved the best.

But when his father's, mother's, name she heard him softly say,
The merry face grew grave and sad; the bright smile passed away.
She told, their son was lost or dead, their hearts' delight and pride;
''Neath yonder yew-tree,' said the maid, 'they're sleeping, side by side.'

He asked her of his boyhood's love; a joyous answer came;
'Thou knowest all my friends,' she cried; 'that _was_ my mother's name.'
The soldier's face was fraught with grief she could not understand;
Yet, with a child's quick sympathy, she placed in his her hand.

'Come home,' she said; but with a kiss, quoth he, 'That may not be;
I soon shall reach the only home now left, on earth, for me.'
She was his last remaining friend; and thus, life's journey done,
He gave her all he had to give--the cross, too dearly won!

Bethought the maid, he needs repose as he has come from far;
So prayed that he would tell, some day, the story of the war.
'We two will rest a little while, for I am tired,' she said;
'Where daisies grow, beneath the tree, come now and rest thy head.'

She led him, gently, to the spot; and sleeping, calmly, there,
The mother found them, hand in hand. How different the pair!
_He_ was at peace; but in that rest where sorrow ne'er may come.
Ah! may the soldier then have gained, in Heaven, a better home.

AUGUSTA A. L. MAGRA.

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_Volume XIV. of the Fourth Series of CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL is now completed, price Nine Shillings._

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_A Title-page and Index, price One Penny, have been prepared, and may be ordered through any bookseller._

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_An elegant cloth case for binding the whole of the numbers for 1877 is also ready._

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_Back numbers to complete sets may at all times be had._

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_Next Saturday, January 5, 1878, will be commenced in this JOURNAL, a NOVEL, entitled_

HELENA, LADY HARROWGATE.
By JOHN B. HARWOOD,
Author of _Lady Flavia_, &c.

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END OF FOURTEENTH VOLUME.

Printed and Published by W. and R. Chambers, 47 Paternoster Row, London, and 339 High Street, Edinburgh.

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