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as Manager having being served under your service daily respectfully beg to inform these few request that I am also liable to get some extra money on account of my Square Conversion which has been given by the Former manager's on the Squaring Mill I conclusion having a large family to support with I have to thank your esteem favor and hoping to favor with the above requestion for which I shall ever thankful to your honors gratitude; Hoping to be excused at your honors valuable time P.S. Therefore having served under your service many Head Clerks who have not had any a English education in case of necessity I could do any kinds of English account in the Timber Trading line and being very, curious in my consideration of getting extra money in the Old Mill is somewhat like hatching a great many eggs without a Hen If I dont try hard in conversion of Squares how can you expect to get the Slabs for Scantling &c.-I remain, &c.

The passage we have italicised is particularly lucid. The next specimen is from a Madrassee Christian who has benefited by an English education. ALOT

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To J. CONNELL, Esquire,
B. B. T. C. Limitted & Co.
Rangoon,

!(ཏ་ཎཱི་སྣ། ་ ་༽

GENTLEMAN-I beg most respectfully to bring these following few lines to your benign consideration Hoping to Satisfy my confused mind. Sir, I have come from Madras some months ago, and I have tried in many places for a post except this Office I am Sorry proved unsuccessful. Having heard that you are a Liberal Generous and Pitiable gentleman towards poor. I have made up my mind to come and ask your honor for a post under your controlobility in the Firm or in the Mills.

Praying to comply my request for which act of charity and kindness I shall in duty bound shall ever pray-I beg to remain, Gentleman, your most obedient and humble Servant, V. REUBEN JACOB.

By the following amusingly ambiguous epistle, a Burmese clerk states his incapacity for work, and expresses a hope that further sick-leave may be granted him: SIR-Having the feaver again more than before will not have the vexation to permit you me further.-I. Remain Yr obed.

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Most respectfully showeth-That your petitioner, an under graduate of the Calcutta University has formerly lived in credit in the world, but through a variety of losses in several law-suits and through. the sudden death of some lively young members of the family, is reduced with his family to the lowest state of poverty and destitute of the necessaries of life; and being desirous to discharge his duty himself to your honor for one of the present as a sole guardian, he has presumed to address vacant place of clerkship in your Office, and for which he can make it appear, he is properly qualified, and will produce certificates of his education, capacity and good moral character, and if so happy as to seem worthy of your notice, he shall, on all occasions observe the strictest fidelity, and make it appear to the world that he has not been unworthy of your favour; And as in duty bound shall ever pray.

On the 24th of October 1881, the writer promised a Burman, Moung Khyin, to employ his brotherin-law, Moung Shway Yee, if he would come round to the office. This is the letter of introduction which Shway Yee brought the meaning is, that Moung Khyin will be much obliged if Shway Yee is employed according to promise:

DEAR SIR-Herewith I send you the bearer Moung Shway Yee, was employed under you in the Office, when you promised me Yesterday in Our Yard. I shall be much oblige and thankful MOUNG KHYIN. to you. Yours faithfully,

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SIR-My brother Boon Paw Tally clerk, suffering by fever since about 20 days ago, and he is taking our Docter advise, but sorry still very bad, so begging of you be pleased to allow him to go back Moulmein on Tomorrow by his father to cure there. And also please let me have an order the 15 Days he is in fever in one month of Augst is to be cut all or to be paid.Yours obediently, &c.

The final specimen we shall here give is an application for work, made by a native of India,

to a merchant of Rangoon, and was thought so comical by the recipient, although he was-like all other residents in Rangoon-daily deluged with strangely worded petitions, that it was published in the Rangoon Gazette of February 14, 1879.

'There is life for a keen look'

LIFE SUPPORTING SIR-The bearer of this begs to bring his most deplorable case before you trusting you to be his parent and guardian. That he is brought to such a low circumstances that he can hardly support himself and his family. Now your humble petitioner begs to say that if there be even a petty post in clerks under kind control please try your utmost to confer the same on him. Sure he is in an unutterable trouble that this life is heavier to him, nay, the shades of death are happier to him than those of life. Let it not be hidden that as in these days he is out of employment it would be your great kindness to confer some good and supportable post on him and as he is a man of large family to please for your blessed name's sake be a father to him and his family. Please lose not this good opportunity out of your all powerful hands of making a room for him under you in clerks. Surely in such a hard circumstances your refusal will be the case of real death and your kind reception the real cause of life for him.

Now let any one go, but please try your utmost to save him, pass by any one, but pass not by him, reject some one, but reject not him, and put asunder some one, but make him adhere close by in any way you can. Please take him in your kind honour's office as soon as possible. Nay, sooner than the twinkling of an eye.

As one has the source of his life in this and another in that way but he alone has none except thee and God alone. O Thou high-ranked man of good humour. For this act of your over running you shall both be blessed and rewarded from heavens.

P.S.-A drowning man will catch at a straw. Pour not water on a drowned mouse. Give and it shall be given unto you. The measure we mete to others shall be meted to us again. A withered purse, a withered face. Sorrow's best antidote is employment, &c.

He begs to remain,
most honoured Sir,
with much gratitude
your most obedient and
foot-kissing servant
ILLAHIE BUKSH.

18-7-78.

BOOK GOSSIP.

Ir may be pointed out as a characteristic of our modern men of science and of their immediate predecessors, that, however they may differ from many of their fellows in matters of intellectual research and speculation, they have led notably good and true and useful lives. Hence the record of such lives has for their successors something more than the interest which attaches to merely great names; there is in addition the healthy stimulus to intellectual and moral achievements which we derive from the contemplation of adverse circumstances patiently overcome, of high ends worthily gained, of life-purposes devotedly followed out. This is indeed the great end of

biography; and biography which, while embracing many things, does not embrace this, had better not be written.

Some of those men of science have had biographers innumerable, others of them are less written about, and consequently less known. To supply this defect, and to render the chief names among Botanists, Zoologists, and Geologists more familiar to the rising generations, Professor P. Martin Duncan, vice-president of the Geological Society, has published a volume of such biographies under the title of Heroes of Science (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge). But the book is something more than a mere collection of biographies. In regard to Botany, for instance, chapters are given to the consideration of old fancies and notions about plants, such as are found in the Metamor phoses of Ovid, and in the works of the early Greek writers. The author also sketches the lives of the ancient botanists-Aristotle, the first botanist, born 384 B.C., Theophrastus, Pliny, and others. Then, after the long sleep of centuries, we have the revival of science that followed the release of the human mind from the trammels of superstition consequent upon the great religious reformations of the sixteenth century. This period gave us the quaint old English naturalist and traveller, John Ray, and the earliest systematic botanist in France, Joseph de Tournefort. Then by-and-by came Linnæus, and with him the formation of botany into a science, with his artificial system of classification, and his untiring and heroic energy in the pursuit of plantknowledge.

In the department of Zoology, Professor Duncan follows a similar method of treating the subject, beginning with the ancients, and descending to modern names, including Buffon, Pennant, Lamarck, and Cuvier, to each of whose contributions to the science of animals reference is here made, with well-written and graphic portraitures of the men themselves, as they appeared in the daily round of their life and labours. Then we have the Geologists-the heroes of a newer science than either of the foregoing. A wonderful science, that has made familiar to us a kind of knowledge which was at one time thought entirely beyond the reach of man's intellectual vision, revealing to us an exact and impressive picture of our earth in its various stages of secular cooling, from the time when it was little more than a molten mass with a newly-formed igneous crust, down to the time when this crust was covered with rocks made from its own waste materials, ground down by ice and tides and rains, and spread out in stratified order at the bottom of seas and the mouths of great rivers, and gradually covered with the earlier forms of vegetable life, till we have the globe as we see it now with all its wealth of animate and inanimate existence. This portion of Professor Duncan's work seems to us to be the most interesting, as dealing perhaps with the heroes of a science in which he may feel a stronger and more genuine interest than in the others. The story of Hutton, the Edinburgh geologist; of William Smith, the father of English geology and of Murchison and Lyell, its later leading representatives, is well told by our author, and cannot fail to awaken in the minds of readers some stirrings of that noble emulation which led these

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A SLIGHT SCARE.

IN the first of those four entertaining little volumes, Curiosities of Natural History, the late Mr Frank Buckland has related, in his pleasant, chatty, discursive style, an anecdote of a gentleman in India who was favoured with the presence of a cobra da capello under the flooring of his bungalow. Snakes very often take up a residence beneath houses in this way, especially in tropical countries, where the buildings are frequently of wood, and usually raised from the damp or insectteeming earth on piles of some sort; such a situation being almost inaccessible to anything but a 'varmint.' Here they rest in security by day, and by night sally forth on excursions prejudicial to the henroost, to the frogs in the watertank or bathroom, or to the rats and other smalldeer which always affect the neighbourhood of omnivorous man. So habituated do people become to these creatures in serpent-ridden lands, that so close a vicinity to them is often but little regarded, and scarcely any attempt is made to eject the visitor. I once slept in a house up in Guatemala where a huge venomous snake, a toboba -or what was believed to be such-was known to have made the under-space among the piles his abode for more than a year, having been frequently seen by lantern-light, though it never made its appearance indoors. Not that people are fonder of such things in this part of the world than in any other; possibly, they are a little lazier; but in any case, familiarity will always breed contempt. Mr Buckland's friend, however, so little appreciated this confidence on the part of the reptile, that he went the length of cutting a hole in his floor, baiting a fish-hook and line with a frog and passing it down. The lure succeeded. That same night he was aroused by a tremendous scuffle and commotion under the boards; and the line being drawn up, brought with it the unlucky cobra, with its neck expanded and 'spectacles' all agog-when, we may be sure, it quickly received the coup de grâce from a coolie's bludgeon.

slapping and writhing about over the bare boards with just such a noise as a hooked snake would make. After a moment's hesitation, I sprang out of bed to strike a light, and had taken a second step with the intention of groping for my matches, when, horror! I put my bare foot on something cold, slimy, and alive-wrigglingly and twistingly alive, as it 'squirmed' under my naked sole! I think I have stood on few objects for a shorter space of time. than that during which I lingered on that creature; and darting back to bed again, lay there with a beating heart, and bathed but only to break out with renewed vigour after in perspiration. Presently, the flopping ceased; the lapse of a minute, and just as I was cautiously attempting another descent upon my matches, causing me to retreat once more with extreme expedition. It soon stopped again, and was resumed at longer and longer intervals and with less energy. The cobra was evidently growing weaker. At length, it ceased altogether. Whereupon I seized all the garments within reach, and hurled them on the floor in the direction from which the sounds had proceeded, hoping the reptile would seek shelter underneath them and remain quiescent during the night.

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Now, of course this was all very foolish. There was no cobra within thousands of miles of me; besides, I am not more afraid of a snake than other people, knowing perfectly well that if I lay still it would not molest me. I think I would, under most circumstances, rather have a cobra than a cockroach near me. Thus I reasoned with my absurd terror, but to very little purpose. If there were no cobras in Brazil, there were other snakes just as venomous-rattlesnakes, jararacas, and bushmasters. Snakes often found their way on board ships in bales of medicinal woods, coir, and other cargo; or dropped into boats as they lay under bushes or along palm-shaded jetties; or escaped from boxes surreptitiously smuggled from the shore. It recurred to my disordered brain-I would have it remembered that I was weak and unwell-with great force, that only a short time before, a living serpent was actually discovered under the capsule of the patent lead on the quarter-deck of the Royal Mail steamship Douro, within a hundred miles of where we were, the reptile having obviously climbed up the quarter-line as the steamer lay moored to the wharf at Santos. Furthermore, though I can tolerate anything which I can see and understand, I have the greatest respect for the unknown in darkness.

I had been reading this story one hot night at sea as I lay in my bunk, and had fallen asleep. Scarcely a breath of air came in at the open scuttle, and the candle in the swinging stand All very foolish, as I kept reproaching myself; burned with an unflickering flame, though the but it was of no use. The silence which succeeded good ship Elbe was steaming down the coast of was even worse than the slapping noise, and my Brazil at the rate of thirteen knots an hour; for fever-heated imagination kept picturing the snake my cabin was on the 'lee-side,' and the lower edge gliding up over my bunk, and made me start of the porthole descended pretty nearly to the as I fancied I felt its forked tongue darting against level of the water as she rolled slowly and rhyth- my hand or cheek; while I repeatedly kneaded mically to and fro on a long swell from the west- my foot, to assure myself of the unreality of the ward. How long I slept, I cannot say; but when thrills which shot up my leg. At last I gave way, I awoke with a start, the candle had burned out, and standing up on the bed, shouted through the and the cabin was pitch-dark. What had waked ventilator at the top of my voice for the quarterme? Was it fancy, bred of the snake-story I master. By-and-by I heard a distant Ay, ay, had been reading, the impression of which was sir!' floating down the hatchway from the deck still vividly upon me, mystified and exaggerated above, and presently saw the welcome gleam of by the sudden transition of ideas, or did I really a lantern along the alley-way. I was somehear a scuffling and flopping on the floor? Yes, what ashamed of my trepidation when the there was no doubt about it! Something was light arrived; and proceeded to remove the

pile of coats and trousers, seeking for the 'varmint' with a boldness which was not mine a few moments before. And there, on the floor, which glistened with its beaten-off scales, we found a flying-fish, as big as an ordinary mackerel, which had sailed in at the open port as the ship rolled to leeward, and had danced itself to death on the boards! Its entrance must have been a pure accident, though not a very uncommon one in these latitudes. The fish seems to have little power of directing its flight in the air, and the aperture of the scuttle no doubt came in its straight line of course. I need hardly say I did not mention anything of my late ophidian hypothesis to the quartermaster, but presented him with the subject of it. Probably it was cooked and eaten as soon as he came off watch, for the flying-fish is one of the most delicious of the denizens of ocean.

Flying-fish are certainly preferable to venomous serpents in one's cabin, even were the latter entangled with hooks in their stomachs; but the finny intruder can make himself disagreeable too, at times. I remember an old Frenchman rushing on deck one night with his face and breast streaming with blood, roaring out that the Enemy of mankind was below; when it was found that the enemy' on this occasion was a large flyingfish, which had flown against him and scratched him severely with its enormous fin-wings.

ΤΗΕ ΜΟΝΤΗ,

SCIENCE AND ARTS.

RESPECT for relics of the past, and a desire to preserve those landmarks of time which speak of a period when no books were written and no histories compiled, are feelings which denote an advanced state of civilisation. We have learned Societies which take perhaps more interest in prehistoric man and his cave-dwellings than they do in their fellow-beings of this present time. We have Archæologists who can tell us all about the pile-dwellings the remains of which are found in Swiss lakes and in many other parts of the world; and we have others who will discourse to us concerning the three Ages of man as represented by the Stone, Bronze, and Iron implements which he has left behind him. The interest which centres around the buried cities of the world is naturally of a wider nature, for there are records which give us an insight into the lives of those who peopled such cities. The ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii have an unusual interest attached to them from their terrible end. But other ruined cities have in them plenty to arouse the curiosity and to interest the attention of the antiquary. Of these places, a foremost position must be given to the ruins of Ephesus, which, from its scriptural associations, must plead recognition from all. But the ruins of Ephesus have not been taken care of; we learn that the city is a mass of ruined columns, fragments of arches, broken sarcophagi, and that it is covered with debris. The Temple of Diana, supposed to have been the most magnificent in the world,

has now little to distinguish it from the rubbish surrounding it, although a piece of marble here and there gives, from its exquisite tracery, an idea of former splendour. The Ephesus Exploration Committee are appealing to the public for funds to carry on their work, and it is to be hoped that they will be instrumental in preserv ing the ruined city from further dilapidation.

Funds are also sought to aid the Society of Antiquaries in excavating what are considered to be among the most remarkable relics of the Roman occupation of Britain. The famous hot springs of Bath afford plenty of evidence that the Romans appreciated their good qualities, for they took the trouble to build round them a massive wall, cased on the inside with lead. Excavations beneath the pump-room have revealed the existence of an old bath eighty-one feet in length by thirty-eight in width, floored with blocks of masonry, and retaining its old lining of lead. There are indications that these Roman baths occupied a large area, the greater portion of which still remains buried beneath more modern buildings.

Mr Carl Bock, the Swedish traveller, whose explorations in Borneo have been brought before the public in book-form, has recently returned from an adventurous trip into Siam, and has visited many districts where no European has previously penetrated. In spite of the cordial protection offered by the king, and His Majesty's command that Mr Bock should carry the royal standard of Siam, the white-elephant flag, the traveller met with great opposition in various parts of the country. The inhabitants were not impressed with a sight of the white-elephant flag, perhaps because they had no idea of the importance attached to such a national emblem. Unfortunately, they showed their dislike to Mr Bock's progress by destroying a large portion of the natural-history collection which he had accumulated.

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A St Louis newspaper furnishes some interesting facts in connection with alligator-catching and killing, occupations which give employment United States. The mode of catching the creature to a large number of persons in the south of the is as follows: The young ones are first secured as they play about the hole where the parent is lying. A noose is then so arranged that immediately the animal emerges from its lurking-place, its head is thrust within it. Another noose is then secured to the tail; and the animal is strapped down to a board, and is towed away behind a boat in which her young ones are between one and two dollars, and can be trans placed. The hide of a large alligator is worth formed into splendid leather. Besides this, the alligator is valued for the oil which it affords, which, although of an unpleasant odour, is considered a good remedy for rheumatism.

The Report of the department of Agriculture of Manitoba will remove the impression which, for some unascertained reason, has gained cur rency-that little or no fruit could be raised there. The list of fruits indigenous to Manitoba and the North-west Territory given in this Report is by no means a scanty one. Plums, grapes, cherries, currants; all kinds of berries,

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More than forty years ago, there was a strange craft which appeared upon the waters of the Neva. It was contrived by a Russian Professor named Jacobi, and was worked by electricity. Since that time, we have made great strides in electrical science, and the batteries which Jacobi used, with their zinc plates and corrosive acids, have been supplanted by dynamo-machines turned by steam-power. The modifications of Plante's secondary batteries, which have recently made such a stir in the world, have opened up new employments for electricity, and the latest which has been recorded is once more represented by a battery-driven boat. This electric launch was recently tried on the Thames with satisfactory results. It measures twenty-six feet in length, and draws about two feet of water. It has neither fire, boiler, nor chimney; indeed, it is without any visible means of propulsion. But stowed away under flooring and seats are forty-five boxes, containing secondary batteries, which, before starting on its trial trip, were charged by a dynamomachine on shore. It was calculated that the power stored was equal to that of four horses, and would last for six hours. From the electrician's point of view, the boat is a great success. But in order to find out whether it can compete with steam, we must learn its cost of construction, particulars of wear and tear, cost of power expended in charging the batteries, &c. Of late years, we have learned what electricity can do in the way of storage, in transmission of power, and in giving us light. To successfully compete with existing systems, it must be equally cheap.

from raspberries and strawberries to the more and it should also be remembered that liming humble blackberry, flourish here in profusion. and the use of chemical manures are important The Report also removes another fallacy-namely, factors in diminishing the number of insect that the crab-apple must be the only representative of its class which ean flourish in Manitoba. It is pleaded that the same idea was once urged with regard to other States which are now exporting their thousands of barrels of splendid apples to foreign markets. d to We have more than once referred to the systems of drying hay, which, according to many reports, have been so successful, but which, according to the judges at the last show of the Agricultural Society, were not thought worthy of the prize offered for the best method. Another mode of storing food for stock is now arousing the interest of farmers; and it offers, both in cheapness and simplicity, no obstacle to a trial of its merits. That these merits are great, seems unquestionable, from reports which have reached this country from the continent and from the United States, The system in question is known as Ensilage, and consists in storing green fodder in a specially constructed air-tight pit called a Silo. This pit can be of any convenient size, and the best material for its walls is concrete. The materials with which it is stored may consist of every kind of green food used for cattle, excepting roots. These are usually cut into short lengths by a machine, and are then thrown into the pit. The vegetable mass is then covered with planks, and weighted with barrels of sand until its bulk is reduced about two-thirds. A certain amount of fermenta tion is naturally set up; but it does not appear to affect the flavour of the stored food, which cattle eat greedily. Even in the wettest weather, the fodder can be so stored without risk of failure, if the operation be properly conducted. The silo is opened periodically, when the food is cut away in sections, just as a truss of hay is cut from a stack; but if necessary, the opening can be postponed to an indefinite period, as the fodder keeps as well as if it were sealed down in an air-tight tin can. We cannot meanwhile devote space to enumerate the advantages which claimed for this new departure in agriculture, but intend, recurring to the subject in an early numbered

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Miss Ormerod's lecture, given at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, on The Effects of Weather on Insect Life, contained some interesting observations relating to hibernation. The lecturer pointed out that this phenomenon was a distinct condition from the mere effect of cold, and assumed a constitutional influence, under whichpato a certain season, insects instinctively prepared a shelter for themselves. This shelter was specially selected under leaves or stones; and in some cases they prepared a cell to protect their bodies, while they passed into a motionless state, with functions decreasing in power with increase of cold. Though frozen so hard that they could be broken across like dried sticks, many kinds of caterpillars were not injured by the cold so long as they were protected in the shelters which they had selected or made for themselves. The remedy for getting rid of such pests was for farmers to cultivate their land in the autumn, so as to throw out and expose the creatures to the frost, thaw, and wet which followed. The egg-laying places rank (grasses, and weeds should be destroyed;

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One more recent electrical application is deserv ing of notice, from its useful and practical char acter. This is a contrivance for stopping a steam-engine by the mere pressure of a button, which button may be at a point at any distance from the engine itself; or there may be numerous buttons at different points, the pressure on any one of which will stop the engine. We need not enter into the details of the contrivance, beyond saying that an electro-magnet acts instan taneously upon the stop-valve of the engine. Its use in large cotton or woollen mills to which it has recently been applied by the inventor, Mr Tate is obvious, when we remember how easily some accident may arise, when it may be necessary to stop the works without a moment's delay, Another projected use for it is on board ship, so that in case of impending collision, the captain can himself turn off the steam, without losing time by signalling in the usual way to the engineer in charge. The apparatus is manufac tured by Duncan Brothers, 32, Queen Victoria Street, London.bu

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The phrase Recommended by the faculty,' has been long a favourite, one with clever advertisers, who know well that the majority of persons look upon doctors as magicians and their drugs as infallible. Indeed, the superstition natural to man may be said to show itself principally in the modern belief in drugs; hence the success of any patent medicine which is sufficiently well advertised. But beyond ordinary drugs, there are a number of well-known remedies for various

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