to deep purple and at last to spectral white.

Lesbos, or Mytelene, has attracted the attention of the civilized world within a few months, from the fact of a few British red-coats having landed for gun practice. For days the Bourses of Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and the great money markets of the world were convulsed: it was thought that Great Britain had seized the island as a base of operation against the Dardanelles and Constantinople-so sensitive is the barometer of commerce to political agitation. As we sailed by the island on a lovely Sunday morning, the old medieval castle, with its huge embattlements, walls and towers, and curious old Byzantine church, presented a striking feature. The Lesbian isle is the birthplace of the famous poets Alcæus, Sappho, and Arion, and of the philosopher Theophrastus.

In an opening to the left, between the islands of Lero and Lepso, we caught a glimpse of the lonely isle of Patmos, a name familiar to uncounted millions through its sacred associations. It is a tiny island only ten miles long and five miles wide. It is scarcely mentioned in history. It is a bleak, barren mass of rock, and was used by the Romans as a place of banishment for criminals, hence it was the place of exile to which St. John was condemned by the emperor. Here, according to undisputed tradition, he had his glorious vision of the open heavens and the great white throne and the New Jerusalem, and wrote the last book of the canon of Holy Scripture. On the rocky ridge is a small town, and still higher the famous Monastery of St. John the Divine, presenting the appearance of a fortress of the Middle Ages. In a grotto in the rocks is shown a cavern, covered with a chapel, upon whose walls are depicted apocalyptic scenes. Here St. John is said to have written his Revelation. The

monks even point out some fissures in the roof where the last of the prophets heard the sound of a voice from heaven like the sound of a trumpet.

It was with keen interest that we skirted the low coast of the ancient Troas and passed the site of Troy and Hisarlik, where Schliemann made such wonderful finds. We thought of the wondrous siege sung by Homer, the earliest and probably the best-known siege in history. The excavations of Schliemann have shown that this was not merely the creation of a poetic imagination, but a historic fact. He found the remains of six different towns, one beneath the other, and in the treasure-house of Priam all sorts of gold vessels and ornaments, some of which weighed four pounds. These I have myself seen in the South Kensington Museum, London. Here, too, is the place where St. Paul in his vision saw the man of Macedonia crying, "Come over and help us," and with a courage greater than that of Ulysses or Achilles entered on his sacred "Odyssey" for the evangelization of Europe.

It is somewhat odd to remember that our English word "meander " comes from a very tortuous stream of that name which wanders at its own sweet will through the plains of Troy.

To the right we passed the Island of Tenedos, where the Greek fleets retired while the faithless wooden horse, with its perilous freight, was dragged into Troy. Amid this striking environment we held our Sunday service. The Rev. Mr. Steel, son of Dr. Daniel Steel, read the account of Paul at Troas and Ephesus.

On Sunday afternoon we sailed up the famous Dardanelles or Hellespont. The European and Asiatic shores are full of interest, not for their scenic attractions, for they have few, but from the profound historic interest which they present. This strait is seventy miles long and in

land seems to indicate the exact spot where the bridge of Xerxes must have been, and also where the army of Alexander crossed from Europe into Asia. Here, too, the crescent was first planted in Europe by Soleiman in 630 A.D. This is the scene of the tragical tale of Leander, who used to swim across the Hellespont to visit Hero, the priestess of Aphrodite. Lord Byron swam across this current in an hour and ten minutes.

At the Castle of the Dardanelles, farther up, our ship had to come to anchor to receive permission to pass

or grand. On either side are fertile fields of grain, mixed with vineyards and frequent villages. Gallipoli, the ancient Caloly polis, at the mouth of the Sea of Marmora, is a fortified Oriental-looking town of 20,000 inhabitants, with a mediæval castle.

While passing through the historic strait I was requested by the tourists on the ship, among whom were several ministers of the United States, to give them a talk on the Catacombs, as an appropriate employment of the hours of Sunday afternoon. This I had pleasure in

doing at a greater length than I had intended. "Can it be possible," "Can it be possible," I said, when I got through, "that I have talked an hour and fifteen minutes?" "Why," said my friend, the Rev. Mr. Brown, of Berlin University, "it did not seem more than ten minutes." This I took to be a very high compliment till I found that he had been sound asleep most of the time. We passed by night through the Sea of Marmora, which takes its name from the splendid marble quarries on an island of the same name, and with the early morning approached the famous city of Constantinople.

BROUSSA-(See frontispiece).

Broussa is a large Turkish city in Asia Minor, a few hours' journey from Constantinople. A recent traveller says, "Broussa is, without exception, the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It covers an immense area on a sloping plateau about five hundred feet above the level of the sea, at the foot of Mount Olympus. It contains fiftytwo mosques, with their bubble-like domes and white minarets, and other fine buildings, interspersed with mulberry orchards and luxuriant gardens. Mount Olympus has wellmarked zones of vegetation, first chestnuts, then oaks and hazels,

beech and pines, and junipers, and then the snowy summit. An instance of Turkish misgovernment is scen in the railway stretching from Broussa to the Sea of Marmora. The earthwork was so miserably planned and executed that the whole line had to be completely remodelled. When the rolling stock arrived it would not fit the rails, and the pier at Moudania is already toppling over."

The cultivation of the mulberry and feeding of silkworms is one of the principal industries. The long trains of camels are picturesque objects. But the general cultivation is poor in the extreme, not half of the land being under tillage, and there is that appearance of thriftlessness which is so general in Turkey. Its population is about seventy-five thousand, of whom eleven thousand are Armenians and six thousand Greeks, the rest being Mohammedans. Its mosques number two hundred. Some of these are very fine. The "Green Mosque" is lined with exquisite enamelled tiles and arabesque carving of the the most beautiful description. It is built of marble and has a cupola of emerald green; hence its name. The whole country bubbles with hot springs, which are supposed to be of medicinal value.

THE Rev. Dr. Scadding, in his interesting account of "Toronto's First Germ," says: "By a popular misuse of terms the word Toronto' came to be applied to the small trading-post or 'fort,' established in 1749, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, not far from the mouth of the Humber. The proper and official name of this erection was Fort Rouillé, so called in compliment to Antoine Louis Rouillé, the Colonial Minister of the day. But traders and coureurs du bois preferred to speak of Fort Rouillé as Fort Toronto, because it stood at the landing-place of the southern terminus of the trail which conducted up to the well-known Toronto,' the place of concourse, the great Huron rendezvous sixty miles to the north; and popular phraseology ultimately prevailed.

"Fort Rouillé or Toronto was noth

ing more than a stockaded storehouse, with quarters for a keeper and a few soldiers, after the fashion of a small Hudson's Bay tradingpost. A large portion of the site which, fifty years ago, used commonly to be visited as that of the 'Old French Fort,' is now fallen into the lake; but depressions, marking the situation of cellars and portions of some ancient foundations connected with out-buildings are still discernible, as also indications of the line of the stockade on the north side. Formerly there were conspicuous remains of flagged flooring and the basement of chimneys.

"The site of the trading establishment which was thus destined to be the initial germ of the present city of Toronto is now within the bounds of the park appertaining to the Exhibition Build

ings of the city, overlooking the lake. Here a cairn or mound, commemorative of the fact, has been erected by the Corporation (1878). On its top rests a massive granite boulder, bearing the following inscription: This cairn marks the exact site of Fort Rouillé, commonly known as Fort Toronto, an Indian Trading-post and Stockade, established A.D. 1749, by order of the Government of Louis XV., in accordance with the recommendations of the Count de la Galissonière, Administrator of New France 1747-1749. Erected by the Corporation of the City of Toronto, A.D. 1878.' The boulder which bears

VICTORIA PARK.

the inscription has been allowed to retain its natural features. It was dredged up out of the navigable channel which leads into the adjoining harbour."

In the year 1795, Governor Simcoe removed from Newark (Niagara), the first capital of Upper Canada, to York, which he had selected as the seat of government before a single house was erected in the latter place. He lodged temporarily in a canvas tent or pavilion, pitched on the plateau overlooking the western end of the bay. It is a matter of historic interest that this tent had been originally constructed for the distinguished navigator, Captain James

Cook, and was by him used in his explorations. In 1797 the Provincial Legislature of Upper Canada was opened in a wooden building near the river Don, whose site is still commemorated by the name of Parliament Street.

Within the lifetime of men still living, Toronto has grown from an unimportant hamlet to a noble and beautiful city. In commercial enterprise, in stately architecture, and in admirable institutions, it is surpassed by no city in the Dominion. Situated on an excellent harbour, it has communication by water with all the ports of the great lakes and

the St. Lawrence, and its commercial prosperity is fostered by the rich agricultural country by which it is surrounded, by several railroads and by the great high.ways by which the remoter settlements are made tributary to its growth.

Few cities of its size will compare with Toronto for the number and beauty of its churches. Some of these are conspicuous for their size and grandeur. The Metropolitan Church is a monument of the residence in Canada of the Rev. W. Morley Punshon, LL.D., to whose faith in the future of Methodism in this country, and zeal for its prosperity, it largely owes its existence. It is both externally and internally one of the most elegant and commodious Methodist churches in the world, and is unequalled by any of which we are aware in the spacious and beautiful grounds by which it is surrounded.

St. James' Cathedral, may, in like manner, be said to be a memorial of the energy and religious zeal of the Rev. Dr. Strachan, the first and most indefatigable bishop whom the An