of the fallen angels from the infernal council in Paradise lost;' and the cattle on the mountain-side lowed, and the fish, large and small, like darts and arrows of fire, sparkled up from the black abyss of waters, and swam in haloes of flame round the ship in every direction, as if they had been the ghosts of a shipwrecked crew, haunting the scene of their destruction; and the guanas and large lizards, which had been shaken from the trees, skimmed and struggled on the surface in glances of fire, like evil spirits watching to seize them as their prey. At length the screaming and shrieking of the birds, the clang of their wings, and the bellowing of the cattle ceased, and the startled fish subsided slowly down into the oozy caverns at the bottom of the sea, and becoming motionless, disappeared, and all was again black and undistinguishable—the deathlike silence being only broken by the hoarse murmuring of the distant surf." This is not poetry, but is very discriminating painting of that kind which many suppose to be a private monopoly of Mr. Ruskin's. And the book is thickly studded with equally vivid pictures, and often equally vivid pictures of yet more magnificent scenes. PURIFICATION AND EXTRACTION OF OILS. | -Bisulphide of carbon has lately been applied to the purification of oils with much success. It has a great affinity for fatty bodies, as may be shown from the fact that when the bones of which ivory black is made are treated in the usual manner, only five per cent of fat is obtained; treated with sulphide of carbon, they yield twelve per cent. Immense quantities of Soap are wasted in extracting grease from wool; treated with the sulphide, the operation is more efficacious, economical, and expeditious. Oily seeds treated with the sulphide yield ten to twenty-two per cent more oil than by the old processes; besides, the oil is purer, and entirely free from glutinous matters, and requires no purification; besides, the oil contains more stearin and margarin, and consequently yields a harder and a better soap. The mode of operating is very simple. The fatty matters and the sulphide are mixed together in a closed vessel, and after digestion the sulphide is allowed to filter off, carrying with it the oil. The receiver is then converted into a distilling apparatus; steam is introduced; the sulphide passes off and leaves the pure oil behind. The sulphide may be used as often as required. — London Review. OXYGENATED WATER.-Under this title M. Ozanam announces a substance which he considers of great therapeutic value, prepared by him of distilled water charged with oxygen under high pressure, forming a mechanical mixture, and not a chemical combination, as is the case with other substances of nearly the same name. Oxygen is but sparingly soluble in water, so, in spite of the high pressure employed, proportions similar to those of the car bonic acid in seltzer water were far from being obtained. The analysis of the gas contained in the best-preserved bottles gives half a volume, while in those exposed to the air it varies from one-twentieth to one-fourth of a volume. This water is perfectly limpid and pure, the gas goes off in the form of small bubbles, without persistent froth, rather unpleasant to the taste; it resembles in this respect water deprived of air. Its action is favorable in gout, and perhaps scrofula, but in all inflammatory diseases it is rather hurtful than otherwise.-London Review. BLEACHING FLOWERS.-Light is as much a necessity to the healthy development of plants, as is a due supply of heat and moisture. In darkness the green coloring matter, "chlorophyll," cannot be developed. Advantage is taken of this circumstance in the blanching of salads and vegetables, and the same process is now being applied to flowers. It appears that in Paris there is a great demand for white lilacs for ladies' bouquets in winter, and as the common white lilac does not force well, the purple "Lilas de Morly" is used. The flowers of this variety, when made to expand at a high temperature, in total darkness, are of a pure white; those of the Persian lilac will not whiten.-London Review. THE Duke of Manchester, we hear, is engaged in preparing from his family papers a couple of volumes for the press, illustrative of the history of English society from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Anne. The work is expected for the coming season. 253 Eclectic Review, St. James' Magazine, Examiner, Spectator, London Review, Examiner, Spectator, Economist, 11. Memoirs and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville, Examiner, POETRY.-The Carollers, 194. Vestigia Retrorsum, 194. Adele, 194. A “No,” 237. Under the Holly Bough, 237. SHORT ARTICLES.-New Yellow Pigment, 218. Daguerreotype Anticipated, 218. Electrical Currents, 218. Geographical Changes, 236. Ballad from Bedlam, 236, 256. NEW BOOKS. By Poems with Autobiographic and other Notes. (Illustrated by Darley, Hoppin, and others.) T. H. Stockton, Chaplain to Congress. Philadelphia: Wm. S. & Alfred Martien. Boston: J. G. Tilton & Co. Pulpit and Rostrum, No. 24. Speech of the Hon. Henry Winter Davis. New York: E. D. Barker. Alleghania. The Strength of the Union and the Weakness of Slavery in the Highlands of the South. By James W. Taylor. Saint Paul: James Davenport. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL, SON, & CO., BOSTON. For Six Dollars a year, in advance, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded free of postage. Complete sets of the First Series, in thirty-six volumes, and of the Second Series, in twenty volumes, handsomely bound, packed in neat boxes, and delivered in all the principal cities, free of expense of freight, are for sale at two dollars a volume. ANY VOLUME may be had separately, at two dollars, bound, or a dollar and a half in numbers. ANY NUMBER may be had for 13 cents; and it is well worth while for subscribers or purchasers to complete any broken volumes they may have, and thus greatly enhance their value. "In the East a gray light As a child how often, Simple words of wisdom! "In the East a gray light Christ the Lord is born!" "Up!—if one have wronged thee, This old melody, That beneath my window "In the East a gray light -St. James' Magazine. VESTIGIA RETRORSUM. WHITE-THROATED swans and sedges of the mere Still float, still quiver, on the shining stream; And underneath the antique bridge I hear Smooth waters lapping slowly, and their gleam Frets the cold dark wherein my boat is moored : Nor yet, above, the storied elms of June Forget to murmur, nor to welcome noon With silence-save when some stray breeze, allured By fragrance of the central avenue, Creeps, cooling ever, down the elastic arch, And through branched cliffs and green inwoven shelves Lets in fresh glimpses of the sultry blue. So year by year regardless Nature blooms; So year by year, for all the far-off tombs Of those who loved them, these impassive courts Lay their calm shadows on the grateful sward: No change is here, nor any peace is marred Save ours; who, pausing in life's midday march, Miss the dear souls of all these fair resorts, And find instead our own forgotten selves. ARTHUR J. MUNBY. -Fraser's Magazine. ADELE. LAST night in emptying out my desk It had a scent of Rowland's oil, So soft, so long, so fair. I mind me yet how all began; By chance or by design. When first you drew your hand away, Then laid it back in mine. Adele ! Then laid it back in mine. A thrill shot up from arm to heart, I looked into a half-closed eye, And learned a lesson there. We walked, we danced, we quarrelled, too, Were reconciled, and then We parted. I was false, and you A flirt with other men. Adele ! A flirt with other men. -Poems. By the Rev. George Edmond Maunsell. From Fraser's Magazine. BETWEEN THE CATARACTS WITHOUT A DRAGOMAN. CHAPTER I. Nile boat by that functionary, who, when we questioned the infallibility of "de reglar," used to say, "I not know it? aye-e-e-e-e," (drawn out into a long, querulous snarl, ris SHOWING HOW I BECAME THE ONLY INHABITANT ing gradually to a very high note of expos OF AN ISLAND. tulatory interrogation), "I been at Tibbs five I AM afflicted with a distaste to all busi-and-twenty time!" We found out at last ness-like ways of doing things. When I am that the so often mentioned and visited Tibbs was Thebes. Does the untravelled reader begin to understand what freedom I felt on my island when the dragoman sailed away towards the second cataract? travelling for pleasure, especially, I loathe all fixed plans and pre-arrangements. I find it both cheaper and pleasanter to be the sport of circumstances. I like to drift in and scramble out of difficulties; and at each step of my journey to be able to decide, at five minutes' notice, whether I will move towards Timbuctoo or Kamschatka. It seems to me an insult to the spirit of adventure to put one's self under the conduct of such a blind guide as human foresight. Let those who like it book their destiny by parcels delivery. The temple is large, but not roomy; abounding in barely accessible towers, lofty gateways, roofless peristyle courts, and long colonnades, which make a good show in the distance, but are rather too vague and airy for domestic comfort. Still, a chamber being demanded, as there was no dragoman to interpose his veto, and insist on the "reglar," a chamber was found. Narrow it certainly was, and dark, except when the sunrise shone in through its doorless doorway, which served for window as well. It opened on an area sunken about six feet below the platform level of the north-eastern part of the ruins. This area, being of about the same size and shape as my apartment, eighteen feet by ten, formed my antechamber and kitchen. In one corner of this were some steps leading up to my northern rampart, a thick wall, within which, a long, narrow stair, sloped down to the northern watergate where I had landed. Another corner of the area was my fireplace. my milk to steep rusks (of which I had brought a barrel from Cairo, so as to be in By the force of circumstances I arrived in Cairo. Everybody was rushing up the Nile with a servile uniformity of purpose that gave me a disgust to the idea of pyramids and squat-columned temples. None of that for me. I will sit down in a house in Cairo, and complete my knowledge of Arabic at leisure. What do I care for inanimate objects. I can see pictures of tombs and temples and pyramids and colossal statues and obelisks. However, I found a difficulty in my search for a house, and an Egyptian resident suggested that there were plenty of empty chambers in the temple up at Philæ. A fellow-passenger from Malta offered me a gratuitous cast thither in his Nile boat. So I bought six or seven pounds' worth of gro-dependent of local bakers), fried my omeceries, passed the first cataract with him, and settled down to house, or rather temple keeping, as the only inhabitant of the island of Phila. My companion went on up the river with his boat and dragoman. He was about to shoot rhinoceri and hippopotami on the blue Nile. Here I boiled lette, and made my coffee. I had entered into relations with one of the men managing the boat which transported me and my baggage to the island, to supply me with milk, eggs, firewood, and attendance. His wages were twopence a day, his name Aali (the Exalted), and his ordinary business to look There I was, the only inhabitant of a ruin- after a saqiah (jar-belt irrigation wheel) on sprinkled, palm-fringed island in a calm pool, the neighboring island of Biggeh, where he among the granite gorges of the first cata- dwelt. Aali used to swim across the chanract, perfectly free from any pre-arrange- nel dividing Biggeh from Phile, with these ment for getting back to civilized life again. necessaries on his head, except the attendI had no dragoman to say to me, "Ghentel-ance, which swam separately in the shape of mán do as hém pleess, sar-I tell him de reglar!" Which was the formula with which all attempts to assert an undragomanized will had been met on board the a naked, skinny little black imp, called Ahmed, aged seven. Ahmed kept guard all day, to preserve my goods from depredation in case of my absence. Still, Ahmed apart, |