wood; but a mere bedstead upon skins. It is made in this wise: a deceased buffalo or ox being seized upon, a cut is made in the inside of his hind leg, from the trunk to the heel, and the leg pulled out. The whole body and remaining limbs are then drawn through this cut, and the skin pulled over the head till it is free from the carcass. The advantage of this plan is, that when the skin comes to be fastened up for inflation, there is no sewing to be done: the apertures for the eyes and limbs are merely choked with a cord, and the skin becomes an air-tight bag with no further trouble. Two such skins are blown out and tied under a light country bedstead. On this we each spread a blanket to protect us from the spray, which will dash up beneath, and we sit down cross-legged. Each conveyance carries only one person. It is accompanied by two men, each holding to it with one hand, while he guides it partly with a paddle held in the free hand, and partly by the spiral motion of his feet in the water. Every man is supported by a similar skin.

Now we are off, with a "Bismillah" from the servant. The motion is delicious. We bound along, lightly riding on the very top of the waves, yet so gently as not to cause uneasiness to the most qualmish. It is a pretty sight, as our fleet goes on in single file down the stream in the dim morning twilight; Mrs. P- first, then E-, next P the commodore, and lastly the servant, in an agony of fear, clutching his hamper of provender as his only hope in this world, and eying the foaming waves and threatening rocks with tearful recollections of his dark-eyed spouse and piccaninny. But presently the first raft drifts slowly to shore, the others follow, and we learn that at this spot the river is just now too shallow to allow of our airbubbles going over without the risk of being pierced and torn by the rocks below. The huge, ungainly rafts and skins are carried over a sharp little peninsula of excruciating stones, and launched again in the stream beyond. We mount, and again sweep along with the current. Now the sun strikes on the tips of the bold bluffs on our right, which tower above us, hoary with gray lichens, and green with pendent ferns peeping coyly from every crevice. On the left is a fine sierra of trap rock, stretching down from the distant mountains to kiss the hurrying stream, which swirls boisterously into a little cove at the bottom to give it a cold embrace, and tumbles out again more quickly, as if ashamed of itself for loitering ever so little.

ant Tritons blow lustily into one leg of each buffalo-skin to replace the air which the use of it has expelled. They tell us that the water is very cold, and brandy very warm; they have been paddling in the former for a couple of hours, and would like some of the latter. Our slender stock of cognac is quickly poured into their open palms, and it is sipped up very cleverly, without the loss of a drop. Refreshed with wine, again we venture on the deep.

Passing by a rock, we experience for the first time a sense of some danger, as our fleet is chased by an unwelcome rival in the race, no crocodile or polar bear; only a huge log of timber, which was cut the year before last in the forests of Barmor, for railway sleepers at Lahore. It has drifted down to the present resting-place in two annual floods, and while sleeping quietly in a shallow our advent has disturbed it, and now it is coming after us down a place where the slope in the water is visible, at a good fifteen miles an hour, tumbling and rolling in clumsy gambols, pursuing us with threats to knock all the breath out of the bodies of the defunct buffaloes that are carrying us. The men see the danger, and skilfully paddle us away from our ugly neighbor; soon it is left behind, and still we swiin along. It is now eight o'clock; the hills are fading away from our view; the sunlight streams over meadow and corn-field; the laborer is at work, and goat's-hair cloaks are no longer needed. Umbrellas are unfurled; and E, whose headache is not improved by the sunning, puts his head into a wet towel; so we creep languidly along. For now the region of rapids is passed, and the water has no longer the impetus which carried us along an hour ago. We pass under the Dalla Hill, where Sir John Lawrence in 1846 led the only military expedition in which he was ever personally engaged. This was an attack upon a rebel named Ram Singh, and the place has become memorable from the fact that two officers and several British soldiers were killed in the assault. Next we reach a sand-bank under Shahpore Fort. It is now strewn with logs of timber, and alive with gangs of laborers dividing the logs which are to go on from those which are to remain and be sawn upon the spot.

We must now disembark. Our agitated servant mutters thanks for the safe conclusion of his frightful voyage, and hopes again fill his heart that he shall to-morrow see the little brown mortal who awaits his fatherly embrace. We feel that our thirOn we rush into the ever-increasing daylight, the teen shillings apiece has been well spent. It has scene changing every moment. We spy on the left given us one of the most delightful mornings of our far above us a natural archway in the rock, through lives, and a thirty-mile rush down the river in four which may be seen the blue sky and flushing fleecy hours and a half. We betake ourselves to the clouds of an Indian autumn morning. On the right friendly shelter of Shahpore Fort, with happy reis a fine baronial castle built by the King of Chum-membrances of our stay at Dalhousie, and our jourba to overawe his refractory subjects. Anon we ney on skins down the Ravi. sweep between confining rocks, which rise perpendicularly above us to the height of hundreds of feet, while the torrent bears us dancing through the AN AWKWARD DILEMMA. chasm, still dark in the shades of early dawn, uncon- WHEN Bloomsbury was a fashionable locality in scious of the sun, which has been shedding its warm London, on a particular day, and in one of the best glories on the hill-tops for the last hour. Here, dwellings in that street of good houses called Great down on the water, which was snow in the high Ormond Street, there was considerable commotion, mountain two days ago, and is still cold, the atmos- and the old housekeeper, who evidently for some phere is chilly, and we wrap our goat's-hair cloaks long time past had been the only ostensible head of closely round us, and wait again till the gushing, the establishment, was in her glory. Dusting-brush bounding current brings us, ten minutes later, into and broom were hard at work, rooms that had not an open country where a ferry plies across, and a seen daylight for some years were thrown open, crowd of shivering villagers are already waiting for shutters taken down, furniture and curtains uncov their boat. Here we again land, while our attend- | ered, all denoting the expected return of the master

April 28, 1866.)

AN AWKWARD DILEMMA.

of the house, who, it may be here stated, was a
bachelor.

457

hoped on his arrival there to terminate a negotispecimen the rarest and most perfect in the world. ation which he had in hand for the purchase of a It is not necessary for me to give in detail an account of what the coin was, or whence it came; I need but add, for the purposes of my story, that it was supposed to be the only one of its kind extant, and that it had been long sought after. Of late frequently been supposed to have been discovered ; but on close examination by the most skilful eyes, the pretended" rara avis" had always turned out to be wanting in some minute characteristic known to be possessed by the genuine coin itself. Grumbach admitted that if such an one could be obtained, it would be simply invaluable, at the same time slightly discrediting its existence.

It has been remarked somewhere, that you have but to enter the room where a man spends the greater part of his life, either in labor, study, or idleness, and you penetrate at once very far into his tastes and character. Such might be said with perfect truth in this instance, for there, not only in the library, but in every room and passage, was pro-years its existence even had been doubted. It had claimed loudly, by the thousand and one mysterious ornaments, glass cases, bones of animals, old armor, quaint furniture, rusty relics, &c., that our friend was an antiquary. More than all, however, did the display of innumerable coins in various receptacles betoken unmistakably that his favorite hobby was numismatology, or the study of coins. He had been journeying abroad in the far East for some two or three years, partly to collect for himself any interesting relics, and partly as the travelling correspond-ject; England all confident in the coming triumph Words ran good-humoretly high upon the subent of a society which had for its main object the of its own society, and Germany sceptical to the elucidation of all mysteries relating to the current highest degree. coin of every realm, ancient or modern. During his wanderings, of course he had become acquainted with many learned and scientific men of all nations whose pursuits lay in the same direction as his own. In some instances acquaintance had ripened into positive friendship, and particularly had it done so in one case, at Berlin, on his homeward journey.

When, on his arrival in that city, he presented letters of introduction to the Baron von Grumbach, president of several learned societies there, he found it was not the first time they had met. It appeared that they had formerly been students together at Heidelberg, and up to the time of their both leaving the university they had evinced many tastes in common; but our antiquary, then a young man of nineteen or twenty, returning home, their intercourse, was gradually broken off, though they corresponded at intervals upon such topics as studious young men find interest in. This habit, however, was relinquished by degrees, as time went on, and each became more and more engaged in his own affairs.

went on to say, "within a month from this date (for "If my man does not deceive me," Winkworth his visit was drawing to a close) I shall have the treasure safely deposited on British soil, for it only awaits my arrival in Paris, I believe, to be made

over to me."

a slightly ironical chuckle at his friend's enthusiasm The Baron von Grumbach could hardly disguise at the prospect of so great a success, which being observed by Mr. Winkworth, the matter was allowed to drop.

gratulation on the one hand, and apparently a slight It had evoked a certain amount of undue selfamount of jealousy on the other; jealousy that Germany should allow so valuable a relic to be captured almost under its eyes, and carried off for the glorification of another nation; for even firmly as the friends were bound together, this little matter seemed to afford the possibility of a slight unpleasantness between them. The subject was only once The young German, whose parents were wealthy, worth's sojourn in Berlin, when it was arranged, more touched upon during the remainder of Winkhad followed his ardent desire for travel and love that if this success did attend the labors of our anfor scientific research. Mr. Winkworth, on the tiquary, Grumbach should become his guest on the other hand, had not again quitted England (for occasion of the treasure being first displayed before foreign travelling in those days was not so easy as the eyes of the learned in London. The reader, it has since become). The friends had thus lost unless acquainted with the enthusiasm of men of sight of each other for nearly twenty years. course, this recognition led to a renewal, with re- may hardly understand how so much interest could Of science, or those well versed in this especial study, doubled intensity, of all the feelings which they had be excited upon apparently so trivial a matter as originally entertained the one for the other, and the the date and impression of a particular coin; yet surprise and pleasure were the greater, as the name Grumbach was not known to Mr. Winkworth as time are continually being expended, in obtaining so it is, and a vast amount of energy, wealth, and that of his old university friend, it having only re- the rarest specimens of antiquity of every descripcently been assumed by the German on his acces- tion, by the laborers for the different societies sion to a title and estates. of knowledge. formed for the advancement of each separate branch

They were greatly delighted to meet again, and Grumbach insisted upon Winkworth becoming his guest during his stay in Berlin. He would take no denial, and the visit was prolonged from a few days to a few weeks, for the increased knowledge of each other, which ensued upon the gradual opening of their storehouses of learning, confirmed their old understanding, and ripened it into a friendship of the liveliest character. The study of coins entered largely into their discussions, and Winkworth displayed with great pride and gratification many rare and choice specimens gathered from the East and elsewhere. But he intimated that, from a certain correspondence which had taken place between himself and one learned in the science at Paris, he

just referred to had occurred, Mr. Winkworth found In the course of a few weeks after the incidents himself safely lodged in his museum of rarities in Great Ormond Street. He had been home about a fortnight when huge and mysterious packages began to be delivered by carts and wagons at his door, choking up the already crowded passages and rooms. tained the more cumbrous booty gathered in his For days and days these cases, which conrecent raids in distant climes, were allowed to remain unpacked, filling up every available inch of space in the gangways of the house. Now that he had got them safely home, it was surely strange that he should take so little apparent interest in them.

He sat, however, for hours writing in his study, with | a complacent, self-satisfied smile upon his goodnatured face, and a little fortune was expended in the prepayment of the then expensive postage of letters to all parts of England and the Continent.

view of the gem; but this privilege was denied with a sort of jocose sternness.

"All in good time," said Mr. Winkworth; "this is a piece of real business, and we must not trifle with it. When my audience is assembled, I shall read a paper on the coins of this date, referring particularly to all that is known in connection with this one, giving an account of my first discovery of it, my negotiations for its purchase, and conclude with an ample description of the proofs which I have, and which it bears of its authenticity. It shall then be handed round to the visitors in succession, and they will have the opportunity of com

With a smile that was not altogether pleasant, Von Grumbach ceased to urge his request, and in a few days' time from this conversation he formed one of a numerous assembly of some fifty or sixty gentlemen who had gathered to overflowing in the large drawing-room in Ormond Street.

The truth was, that in an out-of-the-way quarter of Paris he had succeeded in purchasing from a Jew dealer in curiosities—who, perhaps strangely enough, was hardly aware of its real value the much-coveted and unquestionably-genuine and unique coin before referred to. This had absorbed for the time all interest in the results of his recent travel. There is little doubt that the last month had proved, as he hoped it would, the most satisfac-menting to their utmost upon it.' tory portion of the time he had spent abroad; therefore his pleasure was boundless, and he had been scribbling to everybody he knew, or ever heard of, as likely to be interested in. such a subject, announcing his success, and inviting them on a certain occasion, not far distant, to an exhibition of this wonderful treasure, the discovery of which would render Mr. Winkworth had received but few refusals to him famous throughout the world, and add an un- his invitations; his name stood so high that no one paralleled lustre to the association of which he was feared a disappointment, and the liveliest interest head and chief. For his own part he had no doubt was created. There were present one or two of it; he well knew all the signs, characters, and bishops, several noblemen, learned professors, home hieroglyphics appertaining to the question; he knew and foreign, presidents of academies, directors of in every minute particular what had been the short-literary and scientific institutions, —indeed, just such comings of the specimens hitherto advanced as genuine, but this was complete in all the requirements. Whilst he was pondering over a list of names, and endeavoring to think if there were any others to whom he could send an announcement of the great event then occupying all his thoughts, a servant brought into the room a parcel, saying that the cabinet-maker had sent home the case recently ordered. It was a small square mahogany box; when the lid was raised, an inner glass case was displayed, within which again was seen a sort of velvet cushion with a circular indentation on the uppermost side; a case similar indeed to that in which jewellers display their valuables. On examination, Mr. Winkworth appeared dissatisfied with it, as it was by no means well finished; and, turning it about in his hands, he complained loudly of the bad workmanship; the inner glass case did not fit its wooden covering, the velvet was loosely glued on, and it was altogether a slovenly bit of handiwork. He declared that he would certainly be obliged to get an other made; but for the present this must suffice.

When the servant had left the room, he drew from his waistcoat-pocket a small packet, which he began carefully to unfold, and eventually, after several coverings of paper had been taken off, exposed to his delighted gaze his priceless gem. Priceless gem, indeed! To the eye of the uninitiated it did not look worth a farthing; it was not much larger, and certainly was not above half the thickness. On closely viewing it you could discover it was gold; but it was so old, worn, and battered, that it might just as well have passed for brass. There it was, however; and, after gazing at it fondly for a few minutes, he deposited it, with a proud gesture, in the circular niche on the cushion made for its reception. It did not fit it very well, and, as he moved the box, it slipped into his hand; but, replacing it, he shut the case, and put it carefully away in a cabinet, which he locked.

At length, the eventful day looked forward to by Mr. Winkworth with so much exultation arrived. His friend, the Baron von Grumbach, had come to pay his promised visit, and was staying in the house; he entreated Winkworth to grant him a private

a gathering as could only meet together for the exploration or elucidation of some deeply interesting point of science. They chatted together until the hour arrived for the commencement of business. There were neither seats nor standing room even for every one of the guests within the doors, which were consequently left open.

On a small table stood the case containing the coin, and a roll of manuscript, which the host presently began to read, amidst the most profound attention. A murmur of approbation followed its conclusion. The case was then unlocked, and Mr. Winkworth was about to hand the precious jewel round in its resting-place for inspection, when he suddenly said, "No, gentlemen, it fits so badly in its case, that I will ask you severally to take it in your hands, and pass it from one to the other." Then picking up the coin, he gave it, with a large magnifying glass, to the person immediately on his left. For upwards of two hours there ensued an earnest examination of the treasure; every one had something to say about it, to which all the rest listened. There were but few doubts raised as to its genuineness, and whenever any did arise, and were for a moment pertinaciously maintained, they were soon overthrown by Mr. Winkworth, who advanced to the disputant, and by the most irrefutable proofs demonstrated that the specimen was unique.

The Baron von Grumbach was nearly one of the last into whose hands it fell. A shade of something like disappointment came over his face as he examined it; he made no remark, and while giving it to his neighbor a keen observer might have seen something very like a sneer curling the corners of his mouth. Apparently not a doubt was left on anybody's mind, and jostling words of congratulation began to be showered forth upon Mr. Winkworth from all sides. At last a certain reverend gentleman came to the front, and in a short but neatlyworded speech, returned the thanks of the assemblage for the gratifying afternoon they had spent, and reiterated the congratulations which had been generally offered. The host replied, the party was breaking up, and Mr. Winkworth was about to invite his guests to descend to the dining-room for

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would it be now to describe the mingled consternation, astonishment, and confusion that ensued. Who had found it? Where was it? were questions asked on all sides; and when the hubbub into which these usually grave men had been betrayed had subsided, it was explained.

VINES AND WINES.

Ir will be important to many of our friends engaged in the wine trade, as well as interesting to the public generally, to learn that the Vendemmia or vintage feast has been this year celebrated in Madeira with all the honors and ceremonies which belonged to its observance in the day of the island's greatest prosperity.

The grape, as is well known, is not one of the indigenous fruits of Madeira, having been introduced about three hundred years ago during the governorship of a Portuguese noble named Alver.

After the departure of this man from the island, the cultivation of the vine for a long time was neglected, the people in general meeting with no encouragement.

One of the guests, while the awkward scene just described was being acted up stairs, had taken hold of the case belonging to the coin, and which curiously enough no one had thought of carefully examining after the first moment of its inmate being missed. Whilst idly turning it about, he had removed the glass portion of it, and in so doing, slightly disturbed the velvet cushion before mentioned. At the same moment he heard a gentle click, as of something falling to the bottom of the box. This attracted his attention, and turning it upside down, the cushion fell out, and the coin with it, upon the table. It had evidently slipped between the badly fitting In the beginning of the sixteenth century, however, edge of the velvet and the woodwork of the case. some nine or ten Jesuits landed at Funchal. These Amidst all the pleasure that now followed on the men were not only sages and scholars, but they were restoration of the missing wonder, there was min- men strong in resources from repeated successful gled a great feeling of awkward annoyance. What trials. No sooner had they touched the brown sands could be said to M. le Baron? How could Mr. of Madeira with their sandalled feet, and breathed Winkworth and his friends atone sufficiently to him the pure atmosphere, stealing ever with refreshing for the outrage he had undergone? However, all fragrance from the groves and gardens, than they that could be said was said, and Grumbach received justly estimated the amount of wealth which slumthe apologies graciously enough. Yet a natural cu-bered amongst the everlasting hills of Madeira, like riosity manifested itself upon the simple question of why, as he had not secreted the coin- in fact, had had no more to do with it than anybody else he should have made so vehement and active a protest against being searched. He at first made no reply to the interrogation, but merely drew from the breast of his coat a small packet, which he begged Mr. Winkworth to open. This was done, and there lay exposed to the wondering eyes around a facsimile of the much-vaunted and isolated specimen! Not a mark, not a hair's breadth of difference could be detected between them. Rigidly were they compared over and over again, and at last, changing hands so often, it was impossible to tell one from the

other.

living crystal in a rock, and they resolved at once on effecting important changes in the agriculture of the country.

They found that both soil and climate were particularly suited to the cultivation of the vine, and accordingly they procured cuttings from Candia, Cyprus, and Burgundy, and once more the hills in the neighborhood of Funchal were clothed with amaranthine vineyards. Adopting the Eastern custom, they trained the vines over trellised arches, allowing the rich clusters to droop through the leafy roof, beneath which thousands of delicate flowers lifted up their heads, wooing the sunny gleams which came and went, as the soft wind stirred the broad foliage above.

"There is my answer, gentlemen. Had I sub- The rock-ribbed spaces lying between one leafmitted to your search, most inevitably I should have woven colonnade and another were left open, and been convicted of a gross and abominable theft, and of course presented wildernesses of flowers and at once have forfeited my position, and with it all I ferns, the latter sending up their tremulous fronds hold dear." Then turning to Mr. Winkworth, he from every crevice and fissure, shading and softenadded, "Had you not, my friend, persisted in refusing the gorgeous beauty of the scarlet and purple ing to show me your prize the other day, I had in- and golden flowers. tended to tell you how, a few days after you had left me, I got scent of the existence of a second specimen in St. Petersburg, which I forthwith secured in person for my society in Berlin; and I was on the point of surprising you all by its production when the disappearance of yours led to what has just occurred. I had suspected that there was more than one coin of that date extant, but I am sure there are not more than two; here they are."

"Fiction founded on fact" is an old expression, used in many cases of story-telling, and I can find none better with which to conclude what I have related. The fiction only has been that part of the story which applied to names, dates, and localities; the main gist of the matter is fact, but, as may have been seen in its narration, could not for many reasons have been given in all its actual reality. Still the circumstances appeared as curious, and the coincidences, perhaps, as odd as any that have ever led to those mistakes and equivoques which sometimes clothe the events of every-day life in the garb of romance.

While on the subject of ferns, I may as well mention that one of those most difficult to find now in Madeira, is one which for centuries was thought to be indigenous only on the shores of the lovely lakes of Killarney, the Trichomanes radicans. Even in the childhood days of the writer, it grew there in such profusion that tourists were in the habit of carrying it away in corn-sacks. Now, however, its beautiful filmy fronds must be carefully sought for in moist little nooks, and in the crevices of the rocks, or they will escape being discovered.

Having planted numerous vineyards on the hills, the Jesuits next turned their attention to the low grounds, and to the northern coast; but instead of watching, step by step, the progress of their judicious labors, it may be as interesting, and more profitable, to examine into the present appearance and prosperity of the island.

Comparing it with the years previous to 1852, before the sudden and fearful blight "Oidium Tuckeri" had destroyed its thousands of vines, the balance is against it; but comparing the current