pulled through some of the streets of the | had been buried in aquatic mud; but if town, and visited the market - a collec- they are eaten, then it is only in rare tion of canoes, with fish, eggs, vegetables, etc.; also a sago factory. Moored near the steps of the factory were some rafts of sago-palm trunks. Inside we saw men breaking up the pith into large lumps, and others vigorously pounding these lumps (placed between mats) with their feet, occasionally pouring over them buckets of water drawn from beneath the house, a very disagreeable process. The roughly prepared sago is then packed in bags and sold to the Chinese, who refine it. There being little else of interest to see, we returned on board. the more readily as the water, disturbed by our oars, gave off the most offensive odors; which, however, seemed to have no effect on the natives, most of whom were squatting placidly outside their houses, chewing betel-nut or smoking, and staring at us indolently as we passed.

When we left we could not but draw an unfavorable contrast between the ancient town and the young capital of the adjacent State of Sarawak, Kuching, which we had lately visited. There, under European rule, the jungle has been cleared, and a wellbuilt and well-planned town has sprung up, with good roads, handsome public buildings, an efficient police - all the essentials of civilization, in fact; Malays, Dyaks, and Chinese live and trade amicably together, and all the resources of a rich country are being opened up; while the river-banks are beautified with picturesque bungalows nestling among the trees, many of them with green lawns, such as one rarely sees out of England, stretching down to the water's edge.

ANY one who has observed nature closely must have remarked how exceedingly rare it is to find the dead body of any wild animal. Millions die every year; yet, unless after a heavy storm, or a severe frost, the sharpest-eyed ranger of the woods and fields will seldom come upon a corpse. The wildlings seem to creep into holes when they feel their end approaching, or their bodies are devoured by other animals, or concealed by their kindred. In the first and last cases, their skeletons will, of course, be preserved in the earth's crust all the same, as if they

instances that we can identify the component portions of their bony structure. This may be the reason why some animals are never found except in the shape of a few teeth, and it may also explain the absence of birds from formations in which they might presumably be found. Birds can more easily escape any terrestrial disturbance likely to overwhelm animals without such capabilities of fleeing from the mischief at hand; so that it is by no means a safe inference to consider the spot in which a bird's skeleton is found that in or about which its owner was in the habit of disporting itself. Moreover, in former ages, as in ours, birds were no doubt migratory; indeed, there is reason to believe that the routes at present taken by certain species in removing from and to their summer and winter quarters, were those adopted by them when the physical geography of the world was very different from what it is at present. We also know that when birds are drowned and after a boisterous winter the northern coasts are often strewed with the bodies of aquatic species — they invariably float on the surface, owing to their light_skeletons and water-resisting plumage. Hence, when they reach the strand, their car casses are usually so macerated that their bones are scattered far and wide, or they fall a prey to the animals which prowl along the shore intent on picking up such flotsam and jetsam of the ocean. Other large animals, on the contrary, sink to the bottom when they die, and if the sediment is favorable for their fossilization, they are soon silted over, and their harder parts preserved more or less intact for all succeeding time. These facts, which to a certain extent apply to all animals, are in an especial degree worthy of consideration when the comparative rarity of ornithic remains comes to be explained.

From Allen's Indian Mail. A BRITISH SOLDIER RUNNING AMUCK. CASES of native soldiers running amuck are of frequent occurrence, but it is not often that we hear of British soldiers breaking out. Such a case, however, has occurred at Delhi, where Private Venart, of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, ran amuck in the fort on May 13. A correspondent gives the following particulars: "It seems he had been drinking

for some days, and was somewhat under | prevalence of the habit of self-treatment the influence of liquor at noon when he by means of drugs. Doubly dangerous was at the coffee-house. He demanded a as the practice is when carried out by stick of tobacco on credit, and, the coffee- uninstructed persons at the instance of house keeper refusing, he seized a knife nostrum-sellers, we are reminded by a on the table and attacked the man, who, recent disaster due to this cause that even however, managed to effect his escape. the possession of technical knowledge The provost corporal on duty then, hear- does not always qualify a practitioner to ing of the occurrence, came down with a deal with his own ailments. Recently at guard of three men and endeavored to ar- Southsea an inquest was held on the body rest Venart, who struck at the corporal of a medical man, believed to have died with the knife, inflicting a slight flesh from the effects of an overdose of morphia wound, and, breaking through the guard, administered by himself. The deceased rushed bareheaded out of the building. had been in the habit of taking opiates, He next came across a party of native originally to procure sleep, but afterwards, servants of the fort, who were under a as the habit grew upon him, at irregular tree close by, and attacked them. They periods. A fortnight ago, rising from bed all contrived to get away, however, except in the afternoon, but apparently well and one unfortunate punkah coolie, who was cheerful, he was found an hour and a half lying on the broad of his back fast asleep. later in a state of coma with symptoms of Venart threw himself on this man, plant- opium poisoning, which proved fatal in ing his knees on his chest, and, thinking spite of restorative measures. Such is he had killed him for the man showed the sad and simple history elicited at the no signs of life - he attempted no further coroner's inquest. It comes as an unwelviolence. He then rushed away from the come but useful warning that drugs of spot, observing he was being surrounded dangerous character are not matters for by the guard, and made for a baoli, or merely routine administration. Much less well, which is approached by means of are they, in whatever popular form, a natstone steps leading to the surface of the ural part of the household stock, though water. He ran down the steps, and seeing apparently assumed to be so by not a few there was no other way of getting at him thrifty householders. Two things are except by the steps, he faced about and necessary for satisfactory treatment: a defied any one to take him. The guard, knowledge of the body, and its state for finding Venart would not give himself up, the time being; and a knowledge of the then approached him with fixed bayonets. means of cure, with its possibilities of He made a determined fight for it, and action. A mere smattering of one or both received a bayonet wound in the right side will not suffice. Such theoretical insight before he could be overcome. The punkah as is conveyed by books, or popular medicoolie was immediately removed to hos-cal newspapers, is worse than useless, pital. He was in a dying condition at the time, but revived somewhat towards the afternoon. Little hope is entertained of his eventual recovery."

since it is necessarily partial and misleading. Nothing short of a clear perception of the nature of the disease under obser vation, and its appropriate remedy, with an understanding of the just measure in which the latter must be used in given circumstances, is sufficient to guarantee a safe or a satisfactory issue. For these reasons a fully trained practitioner, other than the patient, is obviously the only natural guide as to treatment.

beneath it, and a single drop of water deposited on the heated place will cause a clean breakage of the glass at that point. Contrary to what takes place with the usual processes in the treatment of this frangible material, it is found that the thicker the sides of the tube are the better the experiment succeeds.

GLASS-CUTTING BY ELECTRICITY.-The cut- | the latter becomes red hot and heats the glass ting of glass tubes of wide diameter is another of the almost innumerable industrial applications of electricity. The tube is surrounded with fine wire, and the extremities of the latter are put in communication with a source of electricity, and it is of course necessary that the wire should adhere closely to the glass. When a current is passed through the wire,

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From The Fortnightly Review.
THE CLOISTER IN CATHAY.

of the official creed, the intellectual axioms of Confucius, the painted image-worship BUDDHISM in China is a curious mixture of the Buddhist temple, the mysticism of of decaying rites and popular supersti- the rationalists, or sect of Laou-tsze, protions. There is probably no country duce little permanent effect upon their where there are fewer evidences of faith or stolid imaginations. The beautiful teachdevotion, or where, on the other hand, an ing enshrined in the sacred writings as apparently doomed system dies so hard. they came from India, the precepts that From the squalid and dilapidated condi- made white lives and brought tearless tion of the temples, from the indifference deaths, that almost Christianized idolatry, and irreverence with which the worship- and might have redeemed a world, have pers enact their artificial parts, and from long ago died down into frigid calcula the miserable status of the priesthood, it tions, tabulating in opposite columns with might be inferred that the days of Bud- mathematical nicety the credit and debit dhism were numbered, and that a rival accounts of the orthodox disciple. Thus system was driving it from dishonored on the one hand the people are plunged in shrines. Such, however, would be a most gloomy dread of a hereafter, determined superficial view of the case. This myste- by the exact laws of moral retribution ; on rious religion, which has survived the the other, deeply embedded in the springs varied competition of rationalism, Confu- of their nature is a fanatical attachment cianism, and ceremonialism, and which to their Lares and Penates, and to the has an antiquity not far short of two thou-worship of the dead; and hence it comes sand years in China, is yet the favorite about that the religion which, whatever its creed of a community numbering four shortcomings and disqualifications, minishundred millions, and despised and degen- ters to their requirements in both these erate though it be, it will still lift its head respects, is simultaneously derided and and smile its serene Buddha-smile long advocated, neglected and espoused. after its purer and prouder and more splendid counterpart in Japan has crumbled into the dust.

The explanation of this strange anomaly is that the popular faith has with rare discretion intertwined itself with the popular superstitions. Partly creating and partly accommodating itself to them, Buddhism, involved in the sacred ties of ancestral worship, and claiming to dispense the portions of another life, has wrapped itself in a covering of triple brass, and can afford to laugh at its enemies. It has found the key to the inner being of this inscrutable people, and in secure command of the lock, takes good care that none others shall tamper with the wards. It may safely be contended that, were it not for the uneasy anxieties of the Chinese about their souls, and the universal and cherished cult of the family tree, and for the part played in relation to both by the Buddhist priesthood, Chinese Buddhism would long ere now have languished and disappeared. Dogmas, tenets, ritual, and liturgy in themselves are of small import to the Celestials. The stately ceremonial

No better illustration of this anomalous state of affairs can be given than the condition and public estimation of the Buddhist priesthood. A stranger will at first be puzzled by the opposite verdicts which he hears passed upon this class of men. He will hear them denounced as contemptible outcasts, as pariahs from society, who have forfeited all the sympathies of humanity by cutting themselves adrift from all human ties. And this is a sentence which to some extent finds its corroboration in their forlorn and decrepit appearance, in their cheerless mode of life, and in their divorce from the haunts and homes of men. On the other hand he will find these despised exiles supported by popular contributions, recruited by voluntary adherents, and engaged in the discharge of essential rites at the most solemn moments of life and death, and in the service to the dead. A grosser seeming contradiction can scarcely be imagined.

And yet it is an identical feeling which is partly responsible for both attitudes, and which prepares for these unhappy creatures this opposite mixture of tolera