The volume contains portraits of Constable, William Godwin, Miss Seward, and Goethe-those of Godwin and Goethe being reproduced from the Maclise Gallery.

THE latest development of the "Little Classic" idea is the little "Vest-Pocket Series" (Boston J. R. Osgood & Co.). The object of this series is to present the briefer prose and poetic masterpieces of standard and popular authors in volumes "so small that they can be carried in a vest-pocket of proper dimensions;" and, as a specimen of their proposed contents, the publishers have issued four volumes, containing Longfel low's "Evangeline" (illustrated), Whittier's

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Snow-bound" (illustrated), and six of Emerson's essays, "Power," " Wealth," "Illusions," "Culture," "Behavior," and "Beauty," in two volumes. Other authors whose works will be drawn upon are Tennyson, Holmes, Lowell, Hawthorne, Howells, and Bret Harte.

The volumes are not really small enough to put into a vest-pocket of ordinary size, but they are sufficiently diminutive to be easily stowed away, they are well printed and very prettily bound, and they are abundantly readable. With one or two of them hid away about his person, one can bid defiance to a railway journey or, what is worse, a long horse-car ride.

"REMINISCENCES of Saratoga and Ballston," by William L. Stone (New York: Virtue & Yorston), is a somewhat scrappy and newspaperish collection of anecdotes, traditions, and historical incidents relating to Saratoga and its vicinity. Mr. Stone can remember a time when Saratoga was still almost a wilderness, and he heard in his childhood stories from others of the days when it was the scene of fierce Indian fights and of General Gates's great victory over Burgoyne. These stories and reminiscences he narrates in lively style, and the book has a certain value as illustrative of the narrow interval in point of time which, in America, separates savagery from civilization.

Mr. M. D. Conway, writing to the London Academy regarding a recent visit to Walt Whitman, says: "He is only in his fifty-seventh year, nor does his face present so many indications of age as I was prepared to see. He is about as handsome an old man as I have seen, his white locks parting over a serene and most noble forehead, the eye clear and sweet, the features manly and refined, and the strength of the large head softened by an aspect at once pensive and simple. Time has not in any sense diminished his sanguine democratic hopes and his enthusiasm for America. He spoke most sadly when saying that he could hardly hope to see those of his readers and critics in England from whom he has received so many expressions of esteem and affection, and he was never wearied in asking questions concerning those among them with whom I was acquainted. He evidently feels that his end cannot be very far, but he is perfectly calm in the prospect, which I hope may be brighter than he at present anticipates. I will only add that, even more than when I first saw him, I have felt that I was in the presence of a man cast in the large mould, both as to heart and brain, and in every sense (as Thoreau describes him) the greatest democrat that lives."

ARTHUR CLIVE, in the Gentleman's Maga- | zine, declares Walt Whitman to be "the noblest literary product of modern times," and asserts that "his influence is invigorating and refining beyond expression." We are told that no poet since Shakespeare has written with a vocabulary so fruitful; no word can be substituted for another; and "where he seems roughest, rudest, most prosaic, then often is his language most profoundly melodious." We learn that "under a mask of extravagance, of insane intensity, Whitman preserves a balance of mind and a sanity such as no poet since Shakespeare has evinced." If his sympathies were fewer he would go mad. Energy and passion so great, streaming through few and narrow channels, would burst all barriers. His universal sympathies have been his salvation, and have rendered his work in the highest degree sane and true. He is always emphatic, nay violent, but then he touches all things. Life is intense in him, and the fire of existence burns brighter and stronger than in other men. Thus he does his reader service: he seems out of the fullness of his veins to pour life into those who read him. He is electric and vitalizing. All Nature, books, men, countries, things, change in appearance as we read Whitman; they present themselves under new aspects, and with different faces."

Bur Peter Bayne, in the last Fortnightly, takes a very different view of the poet. "Whitman's writings abound with reproductions of the thoughts of other men spoiled by obtuseness or exaggeration. . . . Is there any thing in Whitman decidedly better than merely extravagant affectation? . . . Nature in America is different from nature in Europe, but we do not, in crossing the Atlantic, pass from cosmos into chaos, and Mr. Carlyle's expression, 'winnowings of chaos,' would be a candidly scientific description of Whitman's poetry if only it were possible to associate with it the idea of any winnowing process whatever. Streetsweepings of lumber-land-disjointed fragments of truth tossed in mad whirl with disjointed fragments of falsehood, gleams of beauty that have lost their way in a waste of ugliness-such are the contents of what he calls his poems."

JOAQUIN MILLER has confided to a correspondent of the Louisville Courier-Journal certain facts regarding his past life, from which it appears that he "came from a Godforsaken, impecunious, wandering race;" that, as near as he can tell, he was born in Cincinnati in 1841; that he ran away from his home in California, was captured by the Modoes, lived with them nearly five years, loved them, learned their language, fought with them, and escaped from them to San Francisco in 1858; that he then went to Oregon, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1860; that he shortly afterward became editor of a newspaper; that in 1866 he was elected District Judge of Oregon, in which position he served for four years; that he was married in 1863, and didn't know of one pleasant momert after that for years; that his very first poem was babbled at his mother's breast; and that he is now at work on a new poem called "Adrianne: A Dream of Italy."

THE Manchester Guardian speaks of a curious contribution as being just made to the literature of Lancashire, viz., a book published in Manchester bearing the title of "Angelic Revelations," which professes to give dissertations on the "origin, ultimation, and destiny, of the human spirit, communicated by a feminine angel, Purity, who on earth was

known by the name of Teresa Jacoby." The frontispiece, it is stated, is designed by the spirit of Jan Steen, the Dutch painter.

THE Condition of Turkey will remind the curious of the old rhymed prophecy which has It is dropped out of common recollection. said to have been made in 1453:

"In twice two hundred years the Bear
The Crescent shall assail,

But if the Cock and Bull unite,

The Bear shall not prevail.
"But look! in twice ten years again,
Let Islam know and fear,

The Cross shall wax-the Crescent wane,
Grow pale and disappear."

It will be "twice ten years" next spring from the conclusion of the Crimean War.

CARLYLE attained his eightieth birthday on the 3d instant, and the occasion was commemorated by presenting him with an address signed by eighty persons in England and Scotland, and accompanied by a gold medal, with Carlyle's head on the obverse and the date and a few appropriate words on the reverse. As no American participated, we may hope that the great Scotchman accepted the friendly testimonial with a good grace.

BAYARD TAYLOR is said to be making elaborate studies for a combined biography of Goethe and Schiller, which will occupy several volumes, and take several years to complete.

A GREEK translation of three of Shakespeare's tragedies will be published at Athens next year.

MR.

The Arts.

R. SNEDECOR, at his new picture-gallery in Fifth Avenue, has a noticeable collection of paintings. At most of the gal leries of the city the public is accustomed to find works by foreign artists, many of whose names are well known, but there are very few paintings by Americans. In Mr. Snedecor's collection it is interesting and pleasant to be able to compare foreign and American scenes that hang side by side.

The larger portion of the exhibition consists of about a hundred of Mr. Colman's studies, made during his residence in Africa and Europe. These occupy one whole side and part of another in the large room. In a recent number of the JOURNAL we described the general character of these sketches, with their rich, deep skies, picturesque groupings of figures, and the charming architecture, quaint or ornate, of Brittany or Algeria. The blue Mediterranean, too, stretching away from the shores of Italy, and the rich tones of the barren hill-sides to be seen along the Corniche road, all appear soft in sunshine or gray at twilight in these varied pictures. But, besides the works of Mr. Colman, Snedecor has gathered from various sources a number of other important paintings. Some of our readers will remember a cheerful figurepainting by Mr. Eastman Johnson called “A Woodland Bath," which was exhibited at the Academy two or three years ago. The scene represents a woman dipping her infant into a pool of clear water, surrounded by bright maple-trees. The sister of the child is leaning

toward him on her hands and knees, cheering him up and diverting his fears of the cold pool. Near this picture is a cabinet painting by Mr. S. J. Guy, representing a little scene which the artist names "The Torn Trousers," and showing a frightened boy, seated on an old leather trunk, sewing up a rent he has made in his velveteen breeches, while his mother, attracted by his unusual quietude, is watching the process of his sewing through the balustrade of the staircase. Many persons will recall a charming summer landscape of the Housatonic Valley, by Bristol, which was one of the first paintings sold from the walls of the Academy last year-white summer clouds, that lie in little groups, dappled with alternate light and shade; the far reaches of soft meadows dotted with trees, and varied by the windings of the gleaming river. On either side this valley is bounded by the low, blue hills of Berkshire, and the artist had combined all the forms and softened the colors, so that the picture was the favorite of everybody who saw it, and was conceded to be one of the best paintings in the exhibition.

WHILE, unlike some of the other picturedealers, Mr. Schaus seldom exhibits an entirely new collection of works of art, in his little gallery the visitor is constantly pleased and surprised by finding, from month to month, excellent additions of pictures or statues from different foreign artists, or from our own. At the present time, Mr. Schaus has some half-dozen new pictures, of cabinet size, which, from the names of the artists, at once attract attention. Two of these are "still-life" scenes, one by Desgoffe, and the other is a newly-painted fruitpiece by the Düsseldorf artist, Preyer. To say that a picture is by Desgoffe is to say that it is beautiful, for he is almost the only man living who knows how to add interest and poetical charm to groups of objects of virtu, which are always artistically composed in light, and shade, and color, to bring out the beauty of a pearly shell cup, or to reveal the delicacy of an enamel or the texture of a bit of lace. The little picture by Preyer is one of his usual subjects, fruit and leaves; and in this painting, as fully as in the first picture we saw from his easel, he has rendered with exquisite purity of color and of touch the bloom of a peach and the juicy flesh of a broken apricot. Grapes lie beside these as lucent as drops of gum, and pinks, purples, and their yellow transparency, are all depicted with the utmost purity. Be

Side by side with these pictures the visitor has a chance to compare the modeling of a boy sitting on the side of his fishing-boat, by Mr. Winslow Homer, and see how good it is, even when the eye can travel immediately to a painting of an old prisoner in his cell, the work of the celebrated artist Knaus. The pale, worn features of the prisoner, with their gray and delicate shades, caught our eye the moment we entered the gallery, but it was not till we came close to it that we discovered the reason why the close drawing of the old man's features, the brown stones of his cell, or the straw pallet on which he was sitting, had impressed us as so good, and we saw the artist's name, which was a justification of the whole impression.

One of the largest works in the gallery, by Mr. F. H. De Haas, called "Heaving-to for a Pilot," is one of the best specimens of this artist's style. A fine sea, a fine sky, and a ship full of motion and breezy lightness, combine many of his strongest points.

Pictures that are all good do not suffer by direct comparison with others, and we think no opportunity is so valuable for the public or the artists themselves to see what they have really done as to allow such a picture as Knaus's, or two or three Viberts, to show at a glance whether Mr. Johnson's soft, sweet color is as harmonious as it appears when seen alone, and if the action of Mr. Guy's "Good Sister teaching her Little Brother the Alphabet," in a charming domestic" bit," is as excellent as we had supposed.

hoven, rather small in size, but one of the pleasantest compositions we remember by this painter. A shepherd, whose head is turned partially aside to call to his sheep, in the field outside the door, is driving a small flock of lambs, goats, and two or three woolly veterans of the flock, through an open door into their sheepfold. Two or three brightcolored fowls within the barn catch a stray ray of sunshine on their red and green feathers, and outside appear a green pasture and blue distant hills. Looking at this little scene through a magnifying-glass, the locks of long wool on the backs of the sheep separate and stand apart in their thick, close wisps, while the minute delineation of the faces of the animals is seen in each nicely-finished feature. Verboeckhoven is now an old man, and he is one of the most laborious of artists. Six o'clock in the morning finds him at work in his studio, while other artists are still sleeping, and he seldom abandons his brush till eight or ten at night. His pictures in America are now quite numerous, but it is not many years that we can expect this excellent animal-painter to be able to produce works to which each year adds a better reputation.

Besides the subjects we have mentioned, there are two small costume-pictures by Gues. Soldiers, in slashed doublets and leather topboots, in one picture hold a magnificent pennon, rich in color, and heavy with gold em

be opened to the public in the galleries of the National Academy of Design on Monday, January 31st, and will continue four weeks. Works for the exhibition will be received from the 12th to the 19th proximo. Drawings in black and white, as well as water-colors, will be admitted, but they must be origi nal works, and never before have been exhibited in New York. The hanging committee is composed of artists who will be likely to rigorously exclude poor pictures; and, judging from the average annual increase in works sent in, they will have at least one thousand to select from. This will insure a high general merit; besides which, we know of a number of important drawings of special value now in preparation by prominent artists. Altogether, there is every prospect that the society will make a better show than that of last year. There will be the usual reception to artists and their friends on Saturday evening preceding the public opening. The exhibition this year is necessarily short, owing to the demands of the Academic Council, which requires that the galleries must be vacated on or before March 4th. The officers of the society hope in another year to have a suitable building for their exhibitions, exclusively under their own management. At the close of the exhibition in New York the collection, or such part of it as may be left unsold, is to be transferred to the galleries of the Brooklyn Art Association, where it will be exhibited two weeks. The officers also announce that they have secured one of the best galleries in the Centennial buildings, and are preparing to make a good display of work at the exhibition.

THE Crawford monument and group of statues at Richmond form the best piece of monumental sculpture in the country. But it stands in a city not usually visited by foreigners, and is unfamiliar, except in engravings, to the greater number of our own people. If it were practicable, and we believe it is, to have a copy taken in plaster fullsize, and placed at the Centennial Exhibition, we should be able to show our visitors from abroad a specimen of art-work of a character larger in conception and better in execution than we are commonly supposed to possess. Plaster copies of colossal works of art may be seen in the School of Fine Arts at Paris; and hence it may be assumed that no insuperable obstacle exists to the erection at Philadelphia of a plaster-cast of the great Crawford group.

From Abroad.

OUR PARIS LETTER.

November 30, 1875.

is acting as a sentry. There is also a small cattle-piece by Van Marcke, a pupil of Troyon. This artist has the touch and manner of the master, united with individual feeling and conception.

THE ninth annual exhibition of the American Society of Painters in Water-Colors will

on the subject of "L'Etrangère," the new comedy by Alexandre Dumas, so anxiously awaited by the public, and now in rehearsal at the Comédie Française. This piece, which is probably the most talked about of any literary work of the present season, will probably be produced early in February. It was only read by the author to the committee some two weeks ago. Various rumors about

the leading personage, or at least the one that gives her name to the piece, have been afloat, some declaring that L'Etrangère was no other than a portrait of the eccentric Princess de Metternich, others that the model thereof was the notorious Mrs. Blackford, whose career has evidently made a great impression on the imagination of Alexandre Dumas, to judge by the allusion which he makes to her in his preface to Manon Lescaut." At all events, the fact that L'Etrangère herself is an American appears to be settled. She is one Mistress (sic!) Clarkson, a terrible creature, a stranger not only to France but to morality and decency as well. Her husband, an American of a very pronounced type, is one of the minor personages.

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This Clarkson has not been studied from any actual living model, but has been evolved merely from the depths of the inner consciousness of M. Dumas. Hence, if reports are to be believed, he is depicted as a gross, vulgar boor, who draws a pipe from his pocket to smoke at an evening soirée, and only puts it up at the request of the mistress of the house, and then after testifying the utmost astonishment at her objection. The cast is to comprise the very "flower of the basket" (to use a pretty French idiom) of the Comédie Française. The real heroine of the play is a titled lady-a duchess of the Faubourg St.-Germain. This elegant personage has fallen to the share of the bizarre Croizette, while to Sarah Bernhardt-elegant, poetic, talented, and touching-has been allotted the part of L'Etrangère; a curious reversal of things as they ought to be. But Mademoiselle Croizette is in truth what she is often significantly called-namely, "the mistress of the house" at La Comédie, and consequently she has first choice of a part in any piece in which she may be called upon to play. The male characters are to be taken by Got, Delaunay, Febvre, Coquelin, and Laroche. After the close of the reading of the comedy, M. Dumas, as is usual in such cases, retired. A unanimous vote of acceptance from the sociétaires followed, and then one of them remarked: "Gentlemen, let us call back M. Dumas, and do not even say to him that his piece is received; it would be impertinent to hint that there was ever the slightest doubt on the subject."

I have lately had the pleasure of an introduction to M. Théodore Barrière, the wellknown and brilliant dramatist, whose "Scandales d'Ilier" is now drawing crowded houses at the Vaudeville. He is a tall, slender, aristocratic-looking gentleman, apparently about fifty years of age, with dark, silver-threaded hair, keen, dark eyes, finely-cut but attenuated features, and a heavy black mustache. The right of translation and reproduction of "Les Scandales d'Hier" for America has already been sold to M. Théodore Michaelis and to Mr. Samuel French. On being complimented on its brilliant and deserved success, M. Barrière remarked modestly that it was so admirably acted that even a bad piece could hardly fail of success with such a cast; and he went on to say that he had built more hopes upon others among his works that had failed for want of proper interpretation. "Better a poor play well acted," he added, "than a good one badly performed." Probably he was thinking of his "Chemin de Damas," which fell flat at the Vaudeville last season. But, with all due deference to M. Barrière, I am willing to assert that the acting of Rossi and Ristori combined could hardly have availed to save that well-written, pretentious, but most stupid play from its well-deserved fate.

An account has recently been published of one of the most curious and ancient of existing typographical establishments, the printing-house of the Plantin family at Antwerp, which has been in existence since the sixteenth century, and the archives of which have been most carefully preserved. The city of Antwerp has under consideration a project for purchasing the establishment and its contents, and it is from the interesting report made by M. Naut to the Communal Council of that city that the following facts are taken: The founder of the house was one Christopher Plantin, born in France in 1514, who established himself at Antwerp in 1550, and five years later he purchased the large mansion on the Marché du Vendredi, which became the seat of his typographical works, and which has served as a residence for his descendants until the present day. Thence he filled the civilized world with his publications and with his renown. He contrived to win the confidence of the terrible Philip II., notwithstanding his avowed abhorrence of the Inquisition, and of its peculiar features, the torture and the stake. The King of France and the Duke of Savoy strove to win the illustrious printer to their dominions by the most tempting offers, but he steadfastly refused to leave his beloved city of Antwerp. He died in 1589, at the age of seventy-five, leaving his house and his numerous works to his son-in-law Jean Moretus. At the time of his death he possessed twenty-two presses, and had established a branch-house in Paris. From that epoch till the end of the last century, the wealthy house lost nothing either of its prestige or its importance. Passing from heir to heir, from generation to generation, it has come down intact to our own times, and forms one of the most curious literary monuments not only of Belgium but of the world. In the present house are still preserved the first two presses ever possessed by Christopher Plantin. They are still in working order, and a proof was taken from one of them by the Queen of the Belgians during a recent visit. All the primitive material of the establishment has been preserved. The stalls and tables for the correctors and workmen stand in their original places, and the hall in which they work, with its massive ceiling in carved oak, and its curious windows with smallpaned lattices and wrought-iron fastenings, is one of the most interesting of existing relics of the household architecture of the sixteenth century. The room formerly occupied by Justin Lipsius when correcting proofs retains its antique furniture and its hangings of Cordova tapestry. In the correctors' room is preserved the type of the house from its origin to the commencement of the present century. The firm possesses a mass of rare manuscripts, documents, etc., amounting to over eleven thousand pieces, and comprising valuable and curious historical documents, autographs of great interest and value, such as those of Rubens, Vandyck, etc., and a quantity of interesting matter, valuable for a complete history of the art of printing. It would take years to classify and arrange this immense and priceless collection. The copperplates and wood-blocks of the numerous publications of the house are in perfect order and preservation. The copperplates amount in number to twenty-seven hundred and thirty-seven, all of Anversois artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and the number of the wood-blocks is estimated at fifteen thousand. The collection of engravings is extremely important. They number over two thousand, of which many are proofs before letter, and comprise the works of most of the

master-engravers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Four large albums contain the drawings made for the house, among which are eleven by Rubens, accompanied by a receipt signed by him. Nearly all the important Flemish artists are represented in these albums. As to the library, it contains specimens of all the works issued by Plantin and his descendants, as well as copies of works issued by rival houses, such as Etienne, the Elzevirs, etc. Nearly all the books are anterior to the middle of the eighteenth century. The library contains nine thousand volumes, including two hundred and three manuscripts. Among the latter are to be found the "Biblia Sacra" of 1402, in two volumes, a magnificent work, ornamented with colored designs, for which twenty-five thousand francs (five thousand dollars) has been offered; the "Apocalypsis" of the fifteenth century, and the "Chronicle of Jean Froissart" of the same period, in three volumes. Among the printed volumes is to be found the celebrated Polyglot Bible, published by Plantin, and still bearing the notes and corrections of Arias Montanus.

The possessions of the firm, exclusive of the manuscripts and the library, have been estimated at over forty thousand dollars. It is to be hoped that the collections of this curious and interesting establishment will be kept together and not dispersed by publie sale, as is now threatened, in case the city of Antwerp does not become their purchaser.

The literary news of the week is unimpor tant, owing to the approach of the holidays, and the consequent absorption of booksellers and publishers in the peculiar forms of trade incidental to the season. Dentu has issued Hecter Malot's "Marquise de Luciliière," a continuation of his "Colonel de Chaprillan," and one or two other unimportant novels have seen the light. The articles on "Alsace and Lorraine in 1875," from the pen of Jules Clarétie, now in course of publication in l'Evénement, has procured for that paper its suppression by the German authorities in the two provinces in question. I gave some extracts from the first numbers of the series a few weeks ago. Erckmann-Chatrian's "History of a Conservative" is still running as a feuilleton in Le Rappel. John Lemoinne's articles in Les Débats, on the late purchase of the Suez Canal shares by the English Government (an affair which, by-the-way, has created an immense excitement here), are wonderfully able, and have attracted a great deal of notice and of commendation.

M. Patin, the secretary of the Academy, is dangerously ill. He is over eighty years of age. Dejazet and Frédéric Lemaître still survive, though both these aged theatrical celebrities are in a dying condition-Dejazet from dropsy of the chest, and Lemaitre from an internal cancer. M. Schneider, the former president of the Corps Législatif, died of apoplexy at his superb hotel on the Rue Boudreau last week. The remains of Carpeaux were transported to Valenciennes the other day, and there interred with much pomp and ceremony. The City Council and the Academical Council received the body at the railway-station. It was then transported to a chapel erected on one of the large vestibules of the Academy, where it remained all day to receive the homage of the fellow-citizens and admirers of the celebrated sculptor. The coffin was loaded with crowns and bouquets long before the close of the day. Yesterday morning the funeral took place in the midst of an enormous crowd. The ceremonial is said to have been magnificent. The father, mother, and children of the deceased were present, but not his

seems to be a decided one, and, so far, has interfered with a general adoption of the plan.

An English inventor, Captain W. H. Thompson, by a judicious and eminently practical combination of these two methods, has succeeded in perfecting a device that has secured the indorsement of the directors of the "White Star Line" of steamers, upon two of which-the Britannic and Germanic the apparatus has already been fitted. A reference to the accompanying illustration will render the following description of Captain Thompson's method plain to the reader: At a point A on the upper-deck midships, a series of four iron pipes project, and are, when not in use, closed by screwcaps. These pipes terminate below respectively in the main-deck, 'tween-deck, hold, and coal-bunkers. To the right of this line of projecting pipes is a second single one leading from the boilers below, and half-way between this steam-pipe and the other four is a large box, in which carbonic-acid gas can be generated by some one of the usual methods.

Let it be supposed that, as in the case of the Russian ship, a fire has broken out in the coal-bunkers. In such a case, the first order would be to close all the openings to the bunkers, in order that the extinguishing agents may not be too widely or uselessly distributed. The reagents needed to generate the gas are then brought together in the box, and connection between it and the nozzle of the pipe leading to the bunkers is established, as here shown. When all is in readiness, the steam-valve is opened, and at once a blast of steam enters the box, where it combines with the carbonic acid, and these two powerful agents rush on and downward together. The carbonic acid, aided by the energy imparted to it by the steam, soon finds its way to the seat of the conflagration, and, replacing the air that favored the combustion, acts as a wet blanket, smothering and finally extinguishing the flames. In order that the distribution of the steam and gas may be as general and positive as possible, the conducting-pipes, on entering their special precinct, are perforated along their sides, the steam emerging from these holes in the manner indicated in the illustration. will be seen from the method of its construction that this apparatus is so contrived that either gas or steam may be used alone. In the former case, however, it is evident that the gas must not only be generated in increased quantity, but under sufficient presssecure an immediate distribution through the pipe into the desired apartment.

ure to

It

The inventor of this apparatus also commands one of the vessels-the Britannicupon which it has been fitted, and has doubtless given attention to all the needed details of its construction. Certainly, the device as here illustrated is simple enough in construction, and there seems little reason to doubt but that it will compass the desired end. Should experience-though we trust it may be long delayed-establish its claims, it will then be imperative to demand of ship-owners an adoption of it upon all ocean-going

steamers.

ON the appearance of Sir John Lubbock's first paper recording his observations on ants and bees, we presented an extended review of the author's experiments and the conclusions deduced from them. These conclusions, it may be remembered, were briefly to the effect that these insects do not, as a rule, possess, or at least practise, the communicative facultythat is, having found a store of honey or food, they do not communicate the information to their friends or collaborators. So contrary was this opinion to the popular belief, that many observers and bee-keepers were led to question the thoroughness of Sir John's observation, for which reason he has been led to repeat or vary the tests, with a view to a final verification or retraction of his former statements. The results of these continued observations were embodied in a recent paper read before the Linnæan Society.

As may rightly be judged from the observer and his theme, this last report is one of exceeding interest, and significance, and, as many of the experiments were of a character which will admit of a repetition by those specially interested, we are prompted to condense from this paper somewhat at length:

The first test was of the same order as the former one made with bees, and was instituted with a view to determine whether ants communicate their good fortune to their companions. A small heap of larvæ was placed within a few feet of a nest of small red ants. A single ant was then placed on the larvæheap, and her movements watched from eleven o'clock in the morning till after seven in the evening. During this time she made eighty-six journeys from the larvæ to the nest, carrying off one each time; but, although so busy, and with the precious store lying so long exposed, she brought no other ant to aid her in removing it. In a second instance a single ant bore off one hundred and eighty larvæ in a single day. Other trials, however, resulted differently; and, being in doubt whether in these cases the ants purposely brought assistance, or whether the aid was the result of accident merely, the following final test was made.

Having taken two ants, the one was placed on a heap of larvæ, and the other on a group of two or three only. In this latter case, however, a larva was always put in the place of the one carried off. It was then observed that the ant placed on the large group of larvæ brought far more friends to its assistance than the one which had but a few to remove. Thus it appears that the question, so far as regards the ants, remains unsettled, with the weight of evidence, as shown by this final test, in favor of the view that they do seek for and secure all needed assistance.

was

Advancing another step, an ingenious and extremely interesting series of tests made, with a view to settle a vexed question regarding the intelligence of ants. It appears that M. Lund states that, while in Brazil, he was passing one day under a tree which stood almost by itself, and was surprised to hear the leaves falling about him like rain. On examining the cause for this, he found that a number of ants had climbed the tree and were cutting off the leaves, which were then carried away by companions waiting below. This certainly sounds like a veritable "traveler's tale," and that it may justly be regarded as such appears from the following report which Sir John Lubbock gives of a kindred experi

ment:

"I placed a number of larvæ on a slip of glass, which I suspended by a tape, so that it hung one-third of an inch from the surface of

one of my artificial nests; isolating it, however, in such a manner that, for an ant to walk to the nest she would be obliged to go thirteen fect round, I then placed some black ants (F. nigra) on the glass with the larvæ. Each of them took a larva in the usual way, and then endeavored to go by the quickest road home. They leaned over the glass, and made every effort to reach down, but of course in vain, though the distance was so small that they could all but touch the nest with their antennæ, and even in one or two cases succeeded in getting down by stepping on to the back of an ant below. Those, however, which did not meet with any such assistance, gradually, though at first requiring some help from me, found their way round to the nest, and after a short time there was quite a string of ants passing to and fro from the nest to the larvæ, although it would have been so easy for them to throw the larvæ over the edge of the glass, or to go straight home, if they would have faced a drop of, say, one-tenth of an inch."

With a true natural philosopher's faith in the wisdom of all of Nature's children, it is not surprising that Sir John should confess with reluctance that this experiment, which he tried several times, "surprised him very

much."

Having in the former paper taken the ground that bees did not as a rule conmunicate the discovery of honey to other bees, the following test was made: Having placed some honey in a flower-pot laid on its side, a ber was introduced through the small orifice in the bottom. Under these circumstances, from a quarter to seven in the morning till a querter-past seven at night, she made fifty-nine journeys to and from her nest, and only one other bee found her way to the honey. conclusion here reached is the same as that hitherto presented-namely, that, when honey is concealed so that it would not naturally be found by others, the bee in the possession of the secret will not or cannot divulge it. This same test was made with wasps with like results only when the honey was exposed aid others come. "I trained," he writes, "a

The

wasp to come to some honey, which I placed in a box communicating with the outside by an India-rubber tube six inches in length and one-third of an inch in diameter. She came to this honey continuously for three days, during which time no other wasp found the honey."

Though this last paper presents many other facts of great interest, we will omit further reference to all save one, which opens a rich field for inquiry and speculation. This fact relates to the question as to whether bees possess the faculty of distinguishing colors, and as to how this question was answered we will refer to the author's own recital, giveu as follows:

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"I found that bees soon accustomed themselves to look for honey on papers of partieslar colors. For instance, on September 13 placed a bee to some honey on a slip of glass on green paper, and, after she had made twelve journeys to and from the hive, I put red pa per where the green had been, and place i another drop of honey on a green paper, at a distance of about a foot. The bee returned, however, to the honey on the green paper. I then gently moved the green paper, with the bee on it, back to the old place. When the bee had gone, I replaced the green paper by a yellow one, and put the green again a foot off. After the usual interval, she returned again to the green. I repeated the same proceeding, but with orange paper instead of green. She returned again to the green. I now did the same with white paper; she returned again to the green. Again I tried her with blue; she again came to the green. I then reversed the position of the blue and green papers, but still she returned to the green. I repeated this experiment with other bees, and with the same result, though it