picture showing an interview or great council between Indian chiefs and a Commission from Washington. It is a good and characteristic sketch of one of these famous pow-wows.

AUNT HARRIET: I suppose that the Indian question will never seriously interest any but a small proportion of our people; otherwise we might even yet hope to see the Indian department creditably managed.

DR. PAULUS: I do not despair altogether of the future of the race, although there are many gloomy aspects of the question. The Church of Christ is grap

pling with the difficulty with more earnestness than ever. It is demonstrated, beyond doubt, that the Indian is capable of civilization, and I am glad to see that our government is encouraging and aiding the establishment of schools in the various tribes, with very gratifying results.

AUNT HARRIET: I hope it will not be long before Indian citizenship will be fully recognized.

MR. MERRIMAN: I believe that some of the wisest and most philanthropic men and women of our country are devoting their lives to the study of this great question, and it is devoutly to be hoped that the next decade or two will witness the dawn of a better state of things-a more enlightened and creditable administration of the department, and a greater tendency to peaceful pursuits on the part of the Indians.

GENERAL SHERIDAN.

THE COLONEL: I sincerely hope it may, but the Indian is a hard puzzle at best, though I admit that he has been used very badly. Miss Laura, you can give us some stanzas of Bryant's Soliloquy of an Indian at the burying place of his fathers.

THE COLONEL: And now to change the topic, and before we leave the plains, let me show you a beautiful picture of the famous Wapiti deer (Cervus Canadensis), native of the Northern States, and found most abundantly on the upper Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. Sometimes it is called the elk, though improperly, as the true American Elk is what is called the moose (Alces Americanus), found in Maine, eastern Canada, Labrador, etc. The Wapiti is by far the nobler-looking animal of the two.

CHAPTER XI.

MOUNTAIN SCENERY IN PENNSYLVANIA.

HE next meeting of the J. U. T. C. was held at the house of Mr. John Smith, and after the transaction of the usual preliminary business, which occupied only a few minutes, the Conversational Tour of the evening was begun by the President calling upon Mr. John Smith first to lead the club through some of the mountain and river scenery of Pennsylvania.

JOHN (reading from MS.): The Alleghany Mountains form a part of the great Appalachian chain, extending from the St. Lawrence River on the north, to Alabama in the south. The general direction of these mountains is from northeast to southwest, and they constitute the great easterly ridge of the northern continent.

Sometimes the whole range is generally spoken of by this title " Alleghany," the meaning of which is "endless"-Indian origin, of course. The name Appalachian was given to the range by the Spaniards under De Soto, who probably received it from the Indians, but I do not know the meaning of the word. The total length of the Appalachian range is about 1,300 miles, and its mean width about 100 miles. It comprises several extensive groups of mountains better known by their local names, such as the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Adirondacks, the Catskills, the Highlands of the Hudson, the Cumberland, the Blue, the Black Mountains, etc., and the entire system of lateral hills and spurs of this eastern region of the continent.

The highest peaks of this range are in North Carolina and in New Hampshire. In the former State the Black Mountains rise to an elevation of between six and seven thousand feet above the sea; and Mount Washington, in the White Mountains, has an altitude of 6,288 feet.

Geologically this mountain range is highly important. Granitic rocks containing veins of magnetic iron ore, limestone rocks, iron and coal of almost limitless ex

In

tent, together with copper, lead, gold, silver and other mineral strata, abound. some parts of the range rock salt exists in abundance, and in others salt is obtained by boring artesian wells, and evaporation.

The surface of these hills is clothed with noble forests, and the valleys are

This evening we will visit some of the most beautiful places along the Susque