e

altogether favourable, both as regards Queen Charlotte Islands and their inhabitants. The natives are physically, intellectually, and morally superior to any other of the North Pacific tribes, and are quite exceptionally well disposed towards white men. They have some vague notions of a religion, of a Great Spirit and a future life; they are not cruel or revengeful, and not vicious, except that, like all Indians, they are inveterate gamblers. They have a sad kind of native music, and they cook their food, two indications of rudimentary civilisation. They keep many festivals, but the celebrations are innocent enough-they certainly are not 'orgies.' The women are decidedly good-looking, and both sexes have naturally fair complexions; the 'black' in their case being entirely artificial. The institution of marriage is quite unknown, as also is polygamy. So much for the people. The place produces valuable minerals, and the soil is incomparably rich. The timber is superb and various. Potatoes grow in large quantities. Fruit of fine quality is abundant, and the creeks and streams swarm with fish. Queen Charlotte Sound is a playground for whales and porpoises. The stock of game is marvellous in profusion and variety. "For twenty years hence,' says Mr Poole, 'no colonist of the islands need starve if he possesses a gun, and can hit a haystack.' The present breeds of bears, seals, ermine, and marten, would supply fur enough to make the fortunes of half-a-dozen fur companies. The native population numbers less than five thousand. It is a remarkable fact that the natives know nothing of the use of spears, or bows and arrows, so that until they got muskets from the white men, the game on the islands had a pleasant time of it. Even now the Indians are only able to shoot an occasional seal, or at most a duck or a goose.

These isles of the Far West lie directly in the high-road of the immense system of commerce which will be established in the not very distant future, when unbroken steam and rail communication with the North Pacific Ocean will give to England and Canada a new outlet for the exports to the western sea-boards of the two Americas, and, farther on, to Japan, China, and Australasia. If, therefore,' says Mr Poole, at the conclusion of his most interesting narrative, 'their beneficent climate, and the magnitude of their mineral and agricultural resources, be judiciously appraised beforehand, their prosperity will be secured.'

'I don't know; I should not like to trust her far,' said Capelmann: she is nearly as bad as her brother, and of a more desperate temper. But-but I can silence her.' The baker seemed to speak this with a little reluctance. 'I don't like to do it, but right is right. You have committed bigamy, sir'to Mr Ambrose this, of course, was said-'you must excuse my plain speaking; you have committed bigamy, but so has she; and what is of more importance, she married again before you did. Her name from that marriage is Hirrisley. I don't know how you came to call her White; but she

may have the same sort of right to that name, for all I know; it's likely enough; but, at anyrate, she married a man before you had been out of the country two years. She is a great coward at the idea of imprisonment. She has a superstitious dread that she shall end her days in a jail or a lunatic asylum, and upon that feeling I can work.'

'But can you prove her marriage?' asked Mr Perrow; and will the second husband come forward? Who is he? Where is he? We never heard of him. Do you know anything about him?'

'It must come out, I suppose,' said Capelmann, with more hesitation. Her husband is my poor sister's child, the very party that your clerk consulted at the Dover, and my nephew.'

This communication, which was utterly unexpected by the partners, seemed to surprise and startle them more than all which had gone before.

'He-he had been sent away by government to Bermuda, Mr Ambrose,' continued Capelmann; 'that is the fact, and that is how he came to know you in the West Indies. I hardly remember how he first met Harriet Gyllon, but, at anyrate, they were married before they had known each other six weeks; and they didn't live together a year. To upset such rascality as Vann is plotting, poor Hirrisley will come forward, although he is very reluctant to do so. He is very poor, and gets but a precarious living by following races, and so on; still, I do assure you that he's not a bad fellow when you come to know him; and if you are disposed to do anything for anybody after this business is settled, I should like you to do it for him. Well, gentlemen, I have said all now; and I think we hold everybody safe enough.'

'I should think we did!' exclaimed the old gentleman exultingly. My dear sir, you have saved the house of Perrow and Son, and whatever we do in return, we shall still be, and must always remain your debtors.'

'Of course, if they like to be obstinate,' said the cautious baker, 'they can do you some harm still, but not very much; her bigamy takes the sting out of it. From what I know of the people, however, I think they are quieted.'

'I will take my chance of that,' said Ambrose, and then the three shook hands. Some very rare wine was produced from a closet, and with a repetition of histories on all sides, and comments thereon, the sitting was prolonged until nine o'clock; realising the worst fears of the clerk in waiting, who, by this time, was driven almost frantic under a sense of his injuries, and a desire to annihilate the corpulent stranger.

When at last, with excited manner, beaming faces, and general laughter, the three came out, the clerk assumed an expression as near to the demoniac scowl the occasion demanded as he

dared.

'Oh, by-the-bye, Steele,' exclaimed the elder partner, you will see that Jarvis has the keys of the office; give them to him before you go. And, Steele, I am afraid we have kept you a most unreasonable time; but you can take all to-morrow as a holiday, to make up for it.'

The three passed out, leaving the young clerk in a world which had suddenly changed from all that was dark and gloomy to a rose-strewn, myrrhscented bower.

The morning was one of the brightest which can cheer an early spring, and as a long spell of

went on.

seemed trying to say something in answer, but could get out no articulate sound; and Mr Perrow 'I told you before, and I tell you again, that we do not mean to take any very harsh measures. We mean, nevertheless, to take very decided ones; and rather than have you triumphing in the idea that you had us in your power, we would bring on the crisis at once; for this purpose, we have asked the detective to attend. But, considering that there has been wrong, as we own, on both sides, we are willing to provide for your sister as before, and to find for you a situation as good as this, in America. We can do this in a large mercantile house there, and you will have an easy time of it; dependent on your good behaviour. So long as you hold your tongue, you will have an honourable living secured, with fair promotion. Do you accept our terms?' Vann looked sullenly from face to face, and had he possessed more physical courage, might have made a dangerous attack upon the partners, for he was baffled, savage, and boiling with a desire for revenge. 'I ought to say,' added Mr Perrow, 'that these terms are much more lenient than those we had at first decided upon, and are wholly due to the request of the gentleman who gave us the chief part of our information-Mr Capelmann, of Parble Street; but for him, we should have proceeded very differently.' If Vann had looked pale before, his aspect was now absolutely ghastly: the partners moved towards him, for they thought he was about to faint, but he waved them off and rose, although with unsteady feet.

'It's all up,' he said in a husky whisper: 'I accept your offer. When do I go?'

'Call there in a week,' said Mr Perrow, handing him a card; by that time all will be arranged. Be faithful to us, and we will do more than we have promised.'

Vann took the card, round which was a banknote, looked at the partners with vacant eyes, and then, walking like one who walks in his sleep, left the room and the house. The grazier-like man rose from his chair when he appeared; but at a signal from Mr Perrow, who had followed his clerk to the office door, he sat down again, and again wiped his forehead with his silk kerchief.

And that was the last time that any of the clerks in the employ of Perrow and Son ever saw Frederick Vann. Nor, after that day, was he any more seen in the neighbourhood in which he had lived; he paid his landlady his arrears, packed up his slender wardrobe, which was fetched on the following day by a messenger, and left without saying a syllable as to where he was going. Nothing was ever afterward heard of him by any of his former comrades, save that young Steele-formerly clerk at Perrow and Son's, but who obtained a capital berth a few years after in the great shipping house of Black and Company-once remarked to the man sitting next to him: By Jove, sir, the corresponding clerk at Yawls, Higgs, and Merrybees, of New York, writes a peculiar hand, just like a fellow did who disappeared in a most mysterious manner from a house was once in. It is supposed he was garrotted, or something.' He dismissed the subject thus briefly; and, so far as is known, none of Vann's old associates ever spoke so much of him, after his first dis

baker was very much incensed against Vann, and being of full, stubborn, German breeding, never forgave him: he had advised the firm, from motives of policy, to make pretty good terms with him, yet he never forgave him the offence of aspiring to Bessy's hand, and offering her father a bribe to break his word. It may be doubted, however, whether Bessy saw the offence in quite so serious a light, for she sometimes took his part; and as not only before marriage, but afterwards, the young ironmonger was entirely ruled by her, he also came to consider Vann a little harshly dealt with. At anyrate, his falling in love, so violently in love, with Bessy was a compliment to the young lady, and to the ironmonger's taste, and so what offence there was in it could easily be forgiven. As the young people were not informed of all the negotiations which accompanied the departure of Vann, they were very much surprised at seeing Bessy's scapegrace of a cousin, Tom Hirrisley, go off, in grand style, to Australia, with the intention of setting up in some kind of business. Where he got the money from, they could never divine, but supposed it was by betting. If so, they argued, he must have been remarkably fortunate in his speculations, for he made them several valuable presents; or, at anyrate, they received several valuable presents in his name, one being no less than a splendid service of plate-All real silver, you know,' as Bessy would say. Her father chuckled a little, at times when she extolled her cousin's unexpected liberality, but said nothing in explanation. He might, it is prob able, have thrown some light on these gifts, had he chosen.

There is very little more to tell about the characters in this story. Ambrose Perrow was noticed by his friends to have become suddenly a graver man; while his wife, as beseemed the wife of so prosperous and respectable a merchant-prince, held her head higher with each succeeding year. She was fortunate in her husband and in her children; for several very fine boys and girls played in the garden where Vann had once entered, until, on the decease of his father, Mr Ambrose became the head of the firm, and was persuaded to remove to a villa standing in its own grounds, at Hampstead. There, too, the prosperity continued, and Mrs Perrow held quite the sway amongst those of her own standing in the neighbourhood, taking the lead in charitable and religious organisations more especially: she was a most useful and active committee lady, but a little inclined to severity when women were to be dealt with. She had no toleration for them, and no sympathy with those who had, as she shewed on one occasion, which we will, out of many, cite as an illustration.

She was shocked by her husband dropping his newspaper, with a groan, one morning at breakfasttime, when, moreover, he was obliged to go out into the open air-although there was a bitter frost at the time-to keep himself from fainting, She naturally examined the paper to see what had so disturbed him, and-though he would never own it, and was even harsh in his manner when ques tioned upon the subject-she felt sure that he was thus upset merely by reading an account of a fatal accident to a dissipated creature at Greenwich. It was, after all, only a fitting end to such characters, and, to her mind, the marvel was that such judgments did not occur more frequently. The paragraph was not a long one, and it appeared that

a woman, whose name was Jane White, and who lived, as just said, at Greenwich, had been for years in the habit of drinking to excess, and on one particular evening she had set fire to her bed-curtains, and was burned to death. It was fortunate that the only life lost was her own, for people living in the same house, and tacitly enconraging such conduct, had indeed reason to be thankful that they were spared. So Mrs Perrow said when speaking, in confidence, to another committee lady; and thus was expressed the sympathy of the second Mrs Ambrose Perrow for the terrible end of the first woman who had borne that title.

THE MONTH:
SCIENCE AND ARTS.

THE magnificent aurora of February 4 will long be remarkable, not only for its splendours and extent, but for the extraordinary magnetic perturbations which preceded and accompanied it. The Astronomer-royal has stated, that in all his experience he has never seen so great a disturbance of the magnets regularly observed at Greenwich Observatory, as took place during the display here referred to; the deflections in some instances having amounted to more than three degrees. Similar phenomena were noticed in other parts of the country, and at Manchester, attempts were made to analyse the auroral light by the spectroscope. The actual conclusions to be derived therefrom will be made known after further discussion.

A communication has been made to the Philosophical Society of Manchester on the destruction of a church by lightning, in which clear particulars are given of the metallic connections, and of the behaviour of the shock when it fell. The author states, in closing his paper, that in districts where gas-mains and water-mains and pipes are laid under ground, all buildings may be entirely protected by connecting the lightning-conductors directly with the two sets of mains. Had this been done, he says, at the church in question, it would not have suffered.

The Astronomer-royal has addressed the Astronomical Society on a question of much importance in the present advanced state of astronomical sciencenamely, that an observatory should be set apart for the exclusive observation of the phenomena of Jupiter's satellites. In setting forth his reasons, he says, it is well known to the students of gravitational astronomy that the theory of the movements of Jupiter's satellites is a very singular one, perhaps the most interesting among the planetary applications of the theory of gravitation. The results are striking; but it is especially the fourth satellite which has claims to attention, for it is by observation of that one of his moons that the mass of Jupiter himself is to be measured. Ordinary readers must take this for granted; but it is well known to astronomers that in our solar system the mass of Jupiter is next in importance to that of the sun. The work would not be dry or dull, for, as Mr Airy ventures to believe, the mere observations in their beauty, and the incessant variation of their character, would be found very interesting. Is there no well-skilled amateur who will devote himself to this task for the advantage of science? As an additional inducement we mention, that the belts of Jupiter have, within the past few weeks, exhibited magnificent effects of colour.

In certain manufacturing operations it is important to know what amount of vacuum or current may exist in a chimney or air-course; consequently, a trustworthy indicator would be appreciated. This desideratum appears to have been realised by Mr Swan's improved anemometer and pressure-gauge, which were described in a paper read before the Chemical Society of Newcastle-onTyne. The President of the Society stated, in his annual address, that in all furnace operations the highest results can be obtained only by a much more careful attention to the amount of atmospheric air allowed to pass into furnaces and kilns than is usually given; and as this little instrument appears to measure the amount of vacuum in a flue, or velocity of a current, with accuracy, in the hands of those properly alive to its use, and capable of interpreting its indications, important and profitable results may be obtained.

Professor Ogden Rood, of the United States, has made experiments to ascertain the amount of time necessary for vision, and finds that an object can be distinctly seen in so small a space of time as forty billionths of a second. He saw clearly, for example, the letters on a printed page, and the radiating structure of the crystalline lens of the eye; and by using a polariscope, he could see the cross and rings round the axes of crystals. It seems wonderful that the retina should be able to retain and combine a series of impressions in forty billionths of a second; but Professor Rood remarks that it is not so wonderful after all, if we accept the Undulatory Theory; for, according to that theory, in four billionths of a second, nearly two millions and a half of the mean undulations of light reach and act on the eye.

A screw-propeller fitted to a sailing-ship would turn round whenever the vessel moved forward. It has been suggested that the power thus gained might be used to give motion to an electromagnetic apparatus which would produce an electric light of great brilliancy, far more serviceable for signalling and other purposes than oil-lamps.

An ingenious inventor in Philadelphia has devised a way of blowing a jet of steam through a current of liquid slag; and thereby he produces fine threads of slag from two to three feet in length, and more or less elastic. To this material he gives the name 'mineral cotton;' and as it is found to be an admirable nonconductor for heat, it is to be manufactured in quantities, and tried as padding for pipes and steam-boilers, and in places where escape of heat is to be prevented. A specimen of this thread or fibre has been exhibited at the Manchester Philosophical Society. Although, as described, produced from slag, it has a lustrous white fibre, singularly like cotton-wool from the pod. We are informed that its cost is trifling, and that it can be used as a coating for refrigerators as well as for steam-boilers. Small quantities of similar wool, it is said, are sometimes produced while the blast is on, in the Bessemer steel-converters.

Slag accumulates in such large ugly heaps in the neighbourhood of smelting-furnaces, that we have the more satisfaction in noticing the foregoing and other profitable ways of turning it to use. Near Osnabrück, in Hanover, in imitation. of shot-making, molten slag is let fall from a height of about eight feet into water, where it forms into 'large bean-shaped gravel,' which is