6 disconcerted him extremely. Was it possible that any woman could so love him, that she had been content to be his wife, notwithstanding that such a revelation as he had just made had been no news to her? for fear it should stop beating at such fatal news, for ever. "There is no worse news,' he said, 'than what I have told you, Helen.' Half-fainting in his arms for joy, she blessed her fate, and thanked him. She had never known, she said, how dear he had been to her until that moment when his face had seemed to be so strangely set against her, and yet she had loved him from the first, and had never ceased to love rebukes (that should never again be uttered), notwithstanding. She was his, and his alone, and ever would be his while life was in her. 'You don't know what a gamester is; you don't know what a marriage with such a man may mean, girl,' said Arthur, almost fiercely. He was struggling against the tenderness with which her selfsacrificing affection, and simplicity, and beauty-all sharp words, and pouting looks, and perilous were inspiring him. How should you?' 6 'It may mean ruin, Arthur,' said she calmly; 'my mother told me so, and I believed her. Is this all your bad news?' And he, on his part, was not silent, but touched 'You talk of ruin, Helen, as though it did not (as well he might be) by her unexacting trustfulmean the wreck of happiness, as well as of every-ness, made solemn promise that, for the future, he thing else. I saw you were annoyed the other day, when I lost but a few pounds 'That was wrong of me,' interrupted she earnestly very wrong of me. But do not punish me with death for an offence so slight.' 'Death, Helen! What do you mean?' asked he. 'Never mind,' replied she, with the same ghastly look as she had worn before. Don't ask me; but go on. 'I say, if it annoyed you because I lost a few pounds, what would you say if I were to lose hundreds-thousands?" 'Nothing, Arthur; nothing at all, believe me. Whatever you may lose henceforth, you shall never hear a reproach from me.' would risk nought at play of hers, nor his; nor What could he say with those blue eyes swimming in grateful tears beneath his own, and while she nestled in his bosom like a dove? THE MONTH: SCIENCE AND ARTS. THE scientific session being over, men of science, That she meant what she said was clear; it was who are not going abroad for their holiday, are also becoming clear to Arthur why she meant it-thinking about the meeting of the British Associawhy she clung to him, while he was confessing his unworthiness, more closely than she had ever done when he was pouring forth his protestations of love. She was resolved, at all hazards, not to lose him. 'You think and hope it may not happen, Helen. You know not the depths of folly into which such a man as I describe is capable of descending. Let me give you an instance, not of what may happen, but of what has already taken place. I have paid away three thousand pounds of losses at cards since my return to England, and I owe five thousand more. I lost a thousand pounds last night while you were sleeping-dreaming, perhaps, of me as your pure mind has pictured me, not as I am 'It matters nothing,' she broke in; though your debt were five times as great, I still could pay it. And how could I spend my fortune better than in helping you? What use were a fortune to me, if you did not need it? I would never ask you to stint yourself of a single pleasure; and if this be indeed a pleasure, take it. Perhaps luck will turn; and if it does not turn, at least there will be your Helen to comfort you. O Arthur! is this loss the only ill news you had to tell me? If so, I thank Heaven for it, for somehow, in your look and tone at first, I thought I saw but it is not there now-I thought I saw I was exiled from your heart, and that would have been loss and doom indeed.' The passionate earnestness and pathos of her tone took Arthur's soul by storm. Looking down upon the beautiful face that supplicated him thus tenderly, he could not but stoop down and kiss it, and clasp to his own that self-sacrificing and generous heart, which only beat for him. He dared not say: 'I have not told you half; I love another,' tion which is to be held at Brighton about the middle of August. Science in a fashionable watering-place is as rare as philosophy on a racecourse; and some curiosity prevails as to the entertainment the savants are likely to meet with in our marine metropolis. This year, Dr Carpenter is President, and it is pretty safe to predict that his opening address will enter largely into natural history, deep-sea dredging, and ocean-currents. The ship Challenger is fitting out at Sheerness for the round-the-world expedition mentioned in our last Month, and Captain Nares, who has much experience in deep-sea dredging, is to have the command. In addition to Professor Wyville Thomson, the scientific staff will include a chemist, three naturalists, and an artist; hence we may anticipate that everything seen and found during the long voyage will be properly drawn and described. The Geographical Society are trying to persuade the Admiralty to send out another expedition to explore once more towards the north pole, up the west side of Greenland by way of Smith's Sound. There are interesting questions in geography, fossil botany, temperature, and magnetism waiting in those frozen regions to be cleared up. It may be that another nation will win fame therein, for an Austrian expedition has recently sailed from Norway to get, if possible, to the pole. The paragraph on the use of strychnia for affections of the sight, published in our Month for May last, has elicited so many inquiries, that we return to the subject here with further particulars. Attention was first attracted by Professor Nagel's (of Tübingen) reports of cases which appeared in the Centralblatt (a German periodical) during 1871. In those cases it was shewn that, by the injection of sulphate of strychnia under the skin, surprising effects had been produced, and that functional and organic diseases of the optic nerve had been relieved quickly and permanently. In many of the cases, improvement in vision appeared to follow upon the very first dose of the remedy; and in a few cases of functional derangement, the complete restoration of sight was established after three or four doses of the strychnia administered under the skin; but the whole quantity was not more than a minute fraction of a grain. Paternoster Row, London. But to all who may desire to try the remedy, we say, do not try it except under the best medical advice. The difficulty of purifying a sick chamber is known in many quarters by painful experience, especially in cases of lunacy or epilepsy, which diffuse smells of the most disagreeable kind, that cling to the rooms for months, and even come back after vigorous attempts to get rid of them. Dr B. W. Richardson, F.R.S. has shewn in a recent lecture how this difficulty may be overcome. He as amyl hydride, and in the liquid thus produced, he soaks pieces of filter-paper, and when these are dry, he lays three or four about the room, and the chemical action that then takes place purifies the air. If the smell of iodine is perceptible in the room, that is a proof that the work of purification is going on; and this may be accelerated by burning one of the little sheets of paper from time to time. Dr Chisholm, Clinical Professor of Eye and Ear Diseases in the University of Maryland, at Balti-dissolves iodine in the chemical preparation known more, heard of these cures, and though he had himself relieved infirmity of sight by the use of strychnia, he thought it nearly as possible to metamorphose old age into youth as to give sight in cases of nerve atrophy.' However, he tried the remedy on the naval captain mentioned in the paragraph above referred to, and with complete success, although his case had previously been dismissed as incurable. Some other cases were of that peculiar imperfection of sight known as 'night-blindness,' extending in one instance over a period of seven months. On this case, Dr Chisholm remarks: Notwithstanding a long and carefully instituted treatment by other physicians, the patient remained so absolutely blind after nightfall that he could not detect even a gaslight in full blaze. After a few doses of the sulphate of strychnia injected under the skin of the arm, night-vision was so perfectly restored, that at the end of ten days the patient could read a newspaper by the gas, when a few nights previously he could not see even the light itself.' So far as we can gather from Dr Chisholm's statements, he has not failed to afford relief in a single instance. His cure of the naval captain was not less wonderful than the cases reported by Professor Nagel; and after this the doctor remarks: 'In testing the use of strychnia in other cases of optic nerve atrophy, the effects seem nearly instantaneous upon the injection of the fluid under the skin. In nearly every instance the patient experienced the brightening of the light in less than half a minute. In one instance, in which one-fortieth of a grain in solution was accidentally thrown into a vein, the sensations of light, and a feeling of muscular twitchings, were apparently simultaneous with the emptying of the syringe. I commence usually with the one-sixtieth of a grain, which I gradually increase to one-thirtieth, twice a day, in no case exceeding this last amount.' The professor at Tübingen injects under the skin of the temple, but Dr, Chisholm prefers to inject in the arm; and we close our notice with his concluding words: This treatment has now been tried in many cases, doing harm to none, and benefiting all more or less. In functional disturbances, the relief is very prompt; in organic troubles of the retina and optic nerve, results shew themselves more slowly. So far, my experience in the hypodermic (under-skin) use of strychnia, enables me to endorse the statement of the wonderful effects secured by Professor Nagel; and I can recommend to the profession strychnia, hypodermically used, as a most valuable remedy in many cases of nerveblindness.' Those who desire to read Dr Chisholm's statement in full will find it in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, January 1872, published at Philadelphia, and to be had of Trübner & Co. 60 After infectious diseases, a room may be more effectually purified by damping it with the liquid in showers of spray. Instruments which will send forth a shower of spray may be bought at the makers of chemical apparatus. The room should be first thoroughly cleaned and dried, and then moistened in every part with the liquid, of which one ounce will suffice for four feet of wall, floor, or ceiling; and care must be taken that the doors and windows are kept close shut for twenty-four hours after the operation. During this time, also, the carrying of a lighted candle into the room must be absolutely forbidden. While the room is drying, a volatile vapour rises from the layer of liquid, and, by mere contact, rapidly destroys the offensive and hurtful organic matters lurking therein. By this simple method,' says Dr Richardson, the most persistent and offensive odour in rooms that have been occupied by the sick may be more speedily purified than perhaps by any other known method? Some remarks on the gas known in mines as fire-damp,' published by the doctor, are worth attention. The chemical name of this is gas methyl hydride:' in small quantities, it is not dangerous; but mixed in large quantities with the ordinary air of a mine, it is at once fatal, yet occasions no pain to the victim. A man killed by methyl hydride appears only to have fallen asleep, and it seems almost impossible to believe that he cannot be awakened. Dr Richardson believes that the day will come when some advance will be made in the art of restoring animation at considerable periods of time after what is now called actual death. Meanwhile, he recommends that as much pains should be taken to restore respiration in persons who have breathed the gas, as in cases of drowning, Artificial breathing will expel the gas from the lungs, and thereby aid recovery, especially if the attempt be made in a dry, warm room, which should be always available at all mines liable to outbursts of fire-damp. As many persons now know, the best way to restore breathing is to gently raise and lower the arms, and at the same time to rub the chest with a warm hand. An instrument has been invented which will be very serviceable in surgery, especially in cases when it is desired to ascertain whether a bullet has lodged in a wound or not. It may be described as a galvanic probe: the operator passes it into the wound, watching, all the while, the needle of a small galvanometer which is attached to the instrument, and no sooner does the end of the probe touch the bullet, than a movement of the needle indicates the fact. This, it will be seen, is a means towards the alleviation of suffering; for cures are often retarded by uncertainty as to whether a bullet is actually in the wound or not. Some of our readers will perhaps remember a memorable instance when Garibaldi was wounded, an eminent English surgeon travelled to Italy and declared there was no bullet in the wound, from which a bullet was afterwards extracted by the famous Nelaton-a Frenchman. A recommendation of this new galvanic probe is, that it is so small and light as to be easily carried in the pocket. Among mechanical novelties recently brought out in America is a 'gunpowder pile-driver,' which drives in piles more rapidly than by any other method, and does not require any hoop or protection round the top of the pile. A notion of the contrivance and its operation may perhaps be gathered from a brief description. Tall hoisting timbers, as usual in pile-drivers, are fitted up; the pile is set in place by a steam-engine: a gun weighing one thousand eight hundred pounds with a six-inch bore is lowered, and made to rest on the top of the pile. The muzzle points upwards, and the breech being dished or recessed, covers the top of the pile as a cap. Above the gun is suspended the ram, with a piston projecting downwards that fits the bore of the gun. All being ready, a cartridge is dropped into the gun; the ram is released, and descends, the piston plunges into the gun, compressing the air, and fires the cartridge. A tremendous explosion follows; up flies the ram, and is caught in the break, and with the recoil of the gun down goes the pile. This must certainly be regarded as a very clever way of utilising the force of fired gunpowder. Tried for the first time, and by inexperienced hands, in constructing a pier near Philadelphia, it drove piles ten inches in diameter to a depth of nearly twenty feet with five blows, and with an expenditure of eight ounces of gunpowder for each pile. An alteration in a steam-engine which saves fuel and improves the vacuum could hardly fail to be acceptable. It occurred to Mr R. Edge, of Dean Mills, near Bolton, that if he connected each end of his horizontal air-pump with the upper part of his condenser, by a pipe fitted with a valve, the pump would, while working, draw air from the condenser above the surface of the water. He tried, and succeeded. By improving the vacuum, the consumption of coal is diminished, and the saving in this particular is said to be beyond expectation; and we are not surprised to hear that many engines in Lancashire have been fitted with the additional pipe, as above described. It may be applied also to vertical air-pumps, but not with so large an amount of economy in the result. We have the more pleasure in making this invention known, as the inventor, instead of taking out a patent, has presented it freely to the public. It was mentioned at a meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute that the waste of fuel in an ordinary puddling furnace is enormous. There is heat enough in a pound of coal to produce seventeen pounds of puddled bar-iron, but in most of the existing furnaces not more than one pound of iron is produced for one pound of coal consumed. Apart from this, we are informed that puddling by hand is so exhausting and laborious that the puddlers are now abandoning it and seeking other employment. It was quite time that the new furnace of which we gave a brief notice a few months ago, should be invented. In the old way of puddling, the huge lump of iron is stirred about inside a fixed furnace; but in the new way it is the furnace that moves, turning round and round about the iron. In America, petroleum has been used as fuel for puddling with excellent results, but the cost is believed to be great. The importance of the questions involved in this statement may be inferred from the fact, that the production of iron ore in this country last year was more than fourteen million tons; and in the United States nearly one million five hundred thousand tons of manufactured iron. Professor Ramsay, F.R.S. who, since Sir Roderick Murchison's decease, has become Director-general of the Geological Survey, has recently made public statements with regard to future supplies of coal which will comfort all those worthy people who feared that our grandchildren would have nothing to burn. We have from time to time informed our readers of the geological speculations put forward to shew that abundant deposits of coal are lying ready for use below the New Red Sandstone, and the strata known to geologists as Permian, and now Professor Ramsay enlarges their scope, and lends them the weight of his authority. In the South Staffordshire and Shropshire districts, he says there are ten thousand million tons of coal 'existing at a workable depth beyond the present limits.' Two thousand four hundred and ninety-four million tons underlie the present Warwickshire coal-field, and one thousand seven hundred and sixty millions, the Leicestershire field. After this, all people who love a good fire may cease to be apprehensive about lack of coal, and smelters of iron and other metals may look forward to doing (literally) a roaring trade for ages to come. Of course the mines will have to be as deep again as they are at present, and difficulties will increase; but we may be sure that they will be overcome by mechanical skill and ingenuity. It is safe, however, to predict that posterity will pay a much higher price for their coal than the present generation. OUR FEATHER FARM. IN FOUR CHAPTERS.-CHAPTER IV. WHEN first the gray-bearded German, speaking with all the emphasis of an elderly Mephistopheles suggesting radiant visions to a young Faust, told me that his cherished scheme for making our fortunes was based upon feathers, I could not avoid breaking into a fit of hearty laughter, an exhibition of unseemly mirth of which I soon felt ashamed as I met the calm, sad, patient eyes of my companion. he said mildly. 'You are wrong, young man, you are wrong,' You were 'I was very unmannerly, I know that,' said I, reddening; and I beg your pardon, professor. But the idea somehow tickled me. talking of ostrich-feathers, I presume?' The old lecturer nodded assentingly. It seems absurd to you, does it not?' he asked meekly, but with an odd twinkle in his pale bright eyes. 'Not fabsurd,' I answered, smiling, but scarcely a paying scheme. Do you know how yonder poor fellows toil, ruining good horse-flesh, and risking their own limbs and necks, to bring in a few plumes that are often battered or blood-stained, and so unsaleable? Then the pedlers who purchase them are keen bargainers, and the gains are so small that the Guacho gets excitement and pocket-money, but no solid reward, out of the ostrich-hunts that exhaust the best energies of horse and man. Nothing worth mention is to be earned thus.' The professor eyed me with the serene benignity with which a very old gray muzzled rat might contemplate the sportive gambols of a young rodent of the same race. My dear, good friend,' he said, 'you have been, as the advocates say, "proving my case" all this while. Do I need to be told, at my time of life, that the "noble savage" theory is an economical paradox! Bah! the mere hunter is of necessity a wasteful barbarian, a destructive spendthrift that lays by nothing against a rainy day. Did ever the man who spent his life in the pursuit of wild creatures make any but a precarious living out of the fur, or the plumes, or the ivory, that he painfully won with spear and arrow, with trap and gun? No, Herr Warburton; those fowls of mine'-turning his head with an affectionate smile towards where the pale blue smoke from his kitchen chimney was faintly visible at a rifle-shot off-give eggs and chicks almost enough to pay for the maintenance of a thrifty old master. There would soon be an end of them, if I knocked them by wholesale on the head, in coop and henhouse.' He then, with a lucid power of description, for which I had not given him credit, developed his scheme to me. It was, like most sound ideas, eminently simple. When in South Africa, he had made himself familiar with every detail of those ostrich-farms which constitute one of the most thriving industrial enterprises in the Cape Colony. He extracted from one of his cavernous pockets a bundle of papers, neatly docketed, and proved every statement by the inexorable logic of figures. The average hatch of ostrich-chicks was so and so; the cost of food and labour so much; sale of eggs, meat, and feathers brought in such and such returns. So much acreage of grass and berry-bearing bushes, so many bushels of grain for winter consumption, would feed so many young, half-grown, and full-grown birds. The diseases to which tame ostriches are liable, the ratio of mortality to be expected, the fluctuations in the European feathermarket, were set down with the painstaking accuracy of a Teutonic man of letters. Had the ostrich been a Greek comedy, the professor could not have annotated it with more severe and critical industry. He verbally photographed, as it were, every habit, every merit and each drawback, of the huge nonflying bird on which his thoughts were running. He pointed out with cogency that the strong point of ostrich-keeping was the regular and large supply of feathers superior to those taken from the wild birds, and of eggs, for which the demand was constant. On the other hand, many young birds perished in adolescence, and the plumage of the American ostrich would never prove so valuable as that of the African variety. I am not of a speculative turn, and at first I listened, incredulous if attentive, to the professor's shower of statistics. But presently I was won over. The facts of the case were stated so modestly, so forcibly, and yet with such dry, hard adherence to the naked truth, that I could not withhold my belief that ostrich-farming, if undertaken under favourable auspices, would prove a lucrative employment of time and capital. But why on earth,' I could not help saying, 'did you not grow rich by this notion of yours long ago at the Cape or here?' Mr Hartmann chuckled in his bushy beard, like an amiable baboon over a nut. 'English boy,' he said, 'have you yet to learn the great lesson that things are not what they seem? I am an ugly old fellow. My speech, my gait, my clothes, are all out of tune with the world. Why, the very children--and I love children—either jeer and pelt me, or else run away from old Hans Hartmann as if he were an ogre. Only the brutes have found me out. They understand me. I am their friend. But men-I do not speak of you, kind sir, who have done me a great service-but men, in general, will not see any good that there may be under this unsightly husk of mine. At the Cape, I had no credit. I have none here. I am the crazed old German bookworm to the educated whom I meet, the vile wizard to the superstitious population of New Spain. But you-you are fair-faced and wellspoken, and the sort of man that men willingly hearken to. Old Hans owes you a debt-his poor life-and he would fain pay it by sending you back, rich, to your sweetheart at home in England. Be my partner. Do you manage the men, and leave the lower creation to me.' The professor further urged that the preliminary expenses would be trifling. There was his hut and its homestead, and a small expenditure would put up extra pens and fenced inclosures. Maize was cheap at Rosario, rice was abundant near the great river, and grass was to be had almost gratis. The Guachos, who were indispensable for the purpose of capturing the old birds that were to be the foundation of our Titanic poultry-yard, would ride their best for me; and if I could but coax them into using the lasso instead of the murderous bolas, we should soon be masters of a sufficient stock of brood-birds. Don Miguel was under deep obligations to me, and would push on the undertaking, instead of hindering it. Finally, if I would but put down seventy dollars, he, the professor, would produce another seventy-hoarded by what painful self-denial, who knew?-and we would enter into articles of partnership on equal terms. Don We did enter into partnership, to the intense astonishment, and perhaps disgust, of the neighbourhood, since none of the Creoles around us could be brought to regard the poor old professor with more than toleration at the best. Miguel, however, could, as he said, refuse me nothing, and he proved a kind and generous friend to the new firm of Hartmann and Warburton, for not only did he hand us over several acres of choice grass-land, rent-free, with leave to cut what fencingtimber we wanted in his woods, but he also bade his smiths and carpenters do our behests without charging us a single real; and permitted several of his best riders to devote their spare time to the novel task of catching live ostriches for us. Little Charlie clapped his hands with delight at the notion of his friend, myself, setting up as a 'patron,' with a farm of his own, and only stipulated for a ride on the first bird caught; and the wild Guachos shewed unusual docility in acceding to my plans, and swore to do all that man, horse, hemp, and leather could do, in the service of their English comrade, Don Morrizio. it with its bony heel in a manner that was anything but encouraging to its future proprietor. Indeed, the kick of an ostrich is much dreaded, and a single male bird will keep several fierce dogs at bay. But we sometimes had the good fortune to capture a number of young birds, and often found in some sandy spot, under the screen of the Under these good auspices, we began operations cactus shrubs and thorny bushes, the great shining in a vigorous way. Like other pastoral persons, our eggs of some gigantic hen, lately scared from her first concern was to stock our farm; and this was nest. The professor proved himself a poultrycomparatively difficult when the feathered objects master of the first water, and it was wonderful of our interested attentions were roving the desert, with what skill and care he attended to the wants leagues away, and were gifted, besides, with far- of our prisoners, feeding, herding, and doctoring sighted vision, and a power of running that re- the feathered flock with unfailing patience and minded me of an express train. Indeed, the speed remarkable success. I shall never forget his pride of a full-grown ostrich is almost portentous; and, when the first brood of young ostriches that had although I regard as fabulous the assertion, com- been hatched in our yard began first to peck mon in the colony, that with the help of a favour-greedily at the cunningly devised paste of flour, able wind to fill their short close-fledged wings, herbs, and chopped eggs, that he had prepared for they can accomplish eighty miles in the hour, still, their refection, nor how singular was his success when unwearied and confident as to their line of in taming the full-grown denizens of the desert. country, I am sure that the best thoroughbred of Some few of the plumed bipeds, indeed, proved Nejd or Market-Harborough could not live with too quarrelsome or morose to be useful, and were them for ten minutes of prairie-galloping. Swift reluctantly consigned to the butcher; but, in and strong as the big birds are, however, they have general, Mr Hartmann won the affection of his somewhat of the proverbial stupidity which is apt feathered charges; and even old 'Anak,' the_great to accompany gigantic proportions; and although cock-ostrich, whose kick was like that of a horse, they do not, according to the dear old classical and with whom I was on terms of wary politeness, tradition that has pointed so many epigrams, hide was gentle with him, and would come running, their heads in holes by way of concealing them- as if he had been a pet bantam, to be fed and selves, they run in circles, are easily headed back stroked. or outflanked, and throw away, by a succession of strategic blunders, the advantages of their extraordinary fleetness of foot. Nor, when fatigued and hard-pressed, do they shew the generous endurance of man's faithful four-footed servant, the horse. The great difficulty was to induce the Guachos, when heated with a long chase, to remember our compact, and to take the game alive. It saved trouble to end the contest by a stroke of the deadly leaden balls, instead of tugging along a kicking and recalcitrant captive over endless stretches of plain. To keep these wild riders steady to their work, I had frequently myself to turn out and join the expedition, to the amusement of my less adventurous partner, who, indeed, admitted that the equestrian art was not among his multifarious accomplishments. 'Never could I make up my mind to trust my bones to the tender mercies of an individual of the genus Equus,' he said, in his quaint dry way. Horsemanship is all very well for our Prussian Vons, our subalterns of cavalry, but the saddle is not a chair fit for a civil professor. Luckily, you Englanders have somewhat of the old barbarous hunting instinct in you still.' near It was lucky, as it turned out, for although, being neither so light nor so expert as our wiry men of the wilderness, I was never actually present at the noosing of a mature ostrich, and occasionally found myself alone, thirty miles from home, and compelled to find my route by compass, and to plod slowly back with my exhausted horse, I was often enough to save the life of a captured bird, by taking charge of it when the impatient Guacho who had it in tow was disposed to club it down with the bolâs. A strange sight it was, that of Juan or Pedro coming back victorious, the heaving flanks of his mustang black with heat, and furrowed by spur-strokes, dragging after him an enormous fowl, that flapped its short wings and lashed about By the commencement of the second year we had seven hundred head of ostriches, chiefly young, on our farm, and we were forced continually to inclose fresh acres of grass, for which we now insisted on paying regular rent to Don Miguel, at a rate that would appear ludicrously low to the tenant of an English sheep-walk. Nine or ten persons, black, brown, and copper-coloured, two-thirds of whom were grizzle-headed negresses, were in our employment as 'hen-wives.' The professor appeared ubiquitous, sometimes in a shed, helping to crack the egg that in its breakage allowed the embryo ostrich to assert its position in the world, and presently soothing a wild, new-caught hen, whose bright shy eye told of her timid horror of the obtrusive human beings who held her captive. The Guachos had now thoroughly learned the lesson that it paid better to take the ostrich alive than to bring back a few ruffled feathers from the Pampas; and before long, my partner began to talk of the necessity of additional skilled superintendence, and to propose writing to one or two countrymen of his own, doctors of laws and masters of all arts but that of making money, who would, he thought, gladly exchange the semi-starvation of a scholastic career in Germany for the rough plenty and freedom of the plains. After all, the great gauge of these experiments may be best expressed by the simple, eminently Anglo-Saxon query, 'Did it pay?' _Well, it did. The money, like the gains of the Indiana cornplanter, according to the boat-song of the negro oarsmen on the Ohio, 'came tumbling in.' We had small profits, large profits, profits that were very large indeed. Mr Hartmann himself went down to Buenos Ayres and brought back seventeen thousand dollars as the price of our hoarded store of snow-white feathers. The eggs sold very well. In the Pampas, they are more rarely offered for sale than in some districts nearer to the coast, in |