40 INHABITANTS OF A DROP OF WATER. INHABITANTS OF A DROP OF WATER. their con'fines blend, that it is at present utterly impossible to define exactly where vegetable existence ceases, and animal life begins. The name animal'cules is given to minute animals of various classes, which require the aid of the microscope in order to be seen distinctly. An interesting fact in ref SUBMITTING a glob'ule of water to the magnifying glasses of a microscope, we are at once astonished by the multitude and variety of living creatures presented to our notice. What diversity of size and shape! They can only be compared to funnels and cylinders, fans and flasks, tops, bells and trumpets, globes and stars, fruits and flow-erence to the fossil or petrified animalcules ers, tadpoles, fish, beetles, serpents, etc. Equally varied are their movements. Some creep and drag their slow length along; others sport and dance, or whirl and dart, with amazing rapidity, through the waters of this tiny ocean; and yet they no more interfere with the progress one of another than do the stars in the firmament. Here is a drop of stagnant water magnified six hundred times its orig inal size. These living beings ap pear too close together to admit of the existence of a greater number; and yet it is considered that such a drop contains forms of life which-to whatever perfection microscopic power may attain human perseverance will never accurately detect. A cubic inch of stag nant water is calculated to contain more may here be noticed. The flinty shells of these creatures form indestructible earths, stone, and rocky masses. The greater part of a flinty pebble is composed of the compacted fossil skeletons of animalcules, so minute as to elude our unassisted vision, yet revealed to us, in all their delicacy of structure, on the application of the microscope. With lime and soda we may manufacture glass out of invisible animalcules. The hone by which we give an edge to the razor and to mechanical tools is composed of myriads of these little beings, in a petrified state. Yea, every grain of dust on which we set our feet may have been a living creature. Here, then, we pause in our study of these minute beings. We call them miall such distinctions vanish. The small and nute; but before the eye of Omnipotence the weak are regarded by Him with the mighty. We, therefore, have the most same benignity as the massive and the than eight hundred millions of living, act-powerful inducement to the exercise of an ive, and organized beings. To add to the astonishment which a con templation of the vast number of these atoms of life excites, it is to be observed that these creatures are endowed with a diversity of organs. In some a mouth has been discovered, in others digestive apparatus; in some an eye, and in others organs of locomotion. Nor is color wanting: they are either red, green, blue, or black; yellow, scarlet, sandy, lilac, or a mixture of these and other colors. Some of these little animals are so nearly allied to the vegetable world, that botanists claim them as a part of their system. Indeed, so gradually and imperceptibly do implicit confidence in Him, who not only caused the mountains to rise, the seas to flow, and the planets to revolve in their orbits, but has also created, with various animal functions, points of life far beyond the reach of our unassisted vision, and provides them with their daily food. ICEBERGS. Ship among Floating Icebergs. ICEBERGS are the masses of ice resembling mountains abounding in the polar seas, and sometimes found floating in the moderate latitudes. In the Arctic regions, the snow which annually falls on the islands or continents, being again dissolved by the progress of the summer's heat, pours forth numerous rills and limpid streams, which collect along the indented shores and in the deep bays enclosed by precipitous rocks. Here this clear and gelid water soon freezes, and every successive year supplies an additional investing crust, till, after the lapse, perhaps, of several centuries, the icy mass rises, at last, to the size and aspect of a mountain, commensurate with the elevation of the adjoining cliffs. The melting of the snow which is afterward deposited on such enormous blocks likewise contributes to their growth; and, by filling up the accidental holes or crevices, it renders the whole structure compact and uniform. Meanwhile the principle of destruction is already at work. The ceaseless agitation of the sea gradually wears and undermines the base of the icy mountain, till at length, by the action of its own accumulated weight, when it has perhaps attained an altitude of a thousand, or even two thousand feet, it is torn from its frozen chains, and precipitated, with a tremendous plunge, into the abyss below. This mighty launch now floats like a lofty island on the ocean; till, driven southward by winds and currents, it insensibly wastes and dissolves away in the wide Atlantic. Icebergs have been known to drift from Baffin's Bay to the Azores. Being composed of fresh water, the ice is clear and solid; and from their cavities the crews of the northern whalers are accustomed, by means of a hose or a flexible tube of canvas, to fill their casks easily with the purest and softest water. Some of the masses of floating ice in the polar seas are two miles long, and a mile or more broad. An idea may be formed of the immense depth to which icebergs descend, from the fact that the mass of ice below the level of the water is about eight times greater than that above. An incident is related by Dr. Kane that shows the wonderful powers of endurance of the Esquimaux. Two of these people were hunting the walrus on the open ice of the frozen sea, when a north wind broke up the ice, and they found themselves afloat. An iceberg being near, they urged their dogs toward it, and made good their landing on it with them and the carcass of a walrus. It was at the close of the last moonlight of December, a season when daylight is unknown in the Arctic latitudes. A complete darkness settled around them. They tied the dogs down to knobs of ice, and built a sort of screen from the wind for themselves. The berg drifted toward the south, and here, for a whole month, drifting, drifting along the coast-line of Baffin's Bay, dwelt these two hardy adventurers, wedged in ice, eating their walrus-meat, and sustaining life in spite of the intense cold. At length the iceberg grounded, and they contrived to make their way on a sort of ice-raft to the main land. FIRST GRIEF. BY JAMES HEDDERWICK. THEY tell me first and early love But the memory of a first great grief The grief that marks our dawning youth From his dwelling in the tomb. I had not seen his face before-. Cold was the cheek, and cold the brow, The eye was fixed and dim; And one there mourned a brother dead, I know not if 't was summer then, If flowers came forth to deck the earth, I looked upon one withered flower, A sad and silent time it was Within that house of woe; And from each cheek at intervals Softly we trod, as if afraid To mar the sleeper's sleep, With him the agony was o'er, And now the pain was ours, And when at last he was borne afar His every look, his every word, Came back to us like things whose worth That grief has passed with years away, The gayest hours trip lightly by, And leave the faintest trace; But the deep, deep track that sorrow wears No time can e'er efface! OUR CHRISTMAS PASTIMES OUR CHRISTMAS PASTIMES. IN A LETTER FROM A BOY. I PROMISED to tell you how we spent Christmas at our grandfather's house in the country. We rose early, and found, to our delight, that the weather was clear and bracing. There was no snow on the ground, but the pond in the rear of the garden was frozen. In the forenoon we attended divine service in the village church, and listened to a good sermon. The interior of the church was well ornamented with evergreen bushes and wreaths, which the girls had arranged. The dinner at grandfather's was a grand affair. Some ten of my cousins were present. Would you like to have the bill of fare? Truly, it would take up too much room in my letter. As I was looking forward to a plenty of out-of-door sport in the afternoon, I was careful not to eat more than would leave my body light, and in good running trim. It is a poor way of celebrating Christmas, I think, to gorge one's self with turkey and mince-pies. One of the pleasantest sights was that of all the paupers of the village collected in grandfather's great hall, and seated round a long table loaded with viands, to which they were doing ample justice. There was a blazing wood fire on the wide hearth, and it was cheering to witness the sense of comfort and the social good-will that prevailed. One old veteran of ninety proposed grandfather's health (to be drunk in hot coffee), and made a speech, in which due honor was done to the American eagle. The orator was quite upset by the prolonged applause with which we youngsters greeted his strong points. It was his maiden effort, and he felt as if he had only just found out his true vocation. Off to the pond! Huzza! The ice was like plate-glass; and at first we could hardly stand on it with our skates. In my pair the edge of the iron was plain; but in John's it was fluted. The groove or flute bites into the ice, and gets a good hold. The plain skates are the more difficult to 43 hands together with two pieces of string, as shown in the picture, so that the strings cross. The problem is for the persons to free themselves without untying any of the knots. It is done thus: A gathers up the middle part of the string that binds him, and slips it under the noose on B's wrist. Through this noose, if B's hand is put, the handcuffed parties will be free. The other game Eugenia called "the self-supporting bridge." Set three glass tumblers, or three cups, upon the table, in the form of a triangle, as in the picture, 2 3 and arrange upon them three knives. Number 1 thus rests upon No. 2; No. 2, upon No. 3; and No. 3 upon No. 1, Such a bridge will bear considerable weight. After we had had enough of this game, Eugenia produced a small box. On opening it, we found the inside divided into two compartments, one about eight times smaller than the other. The larger one was filled with white peas, and the smaller contained a number of short wires, measuring an inch and a quarter in length, and each wire perfectly straight, and pointed at both ends. The peas had been soaked sixteen hours in cold water to be ready for use. With the peas and the wires you can form and explain a great variety of figures. To form a triangle, we of course take three of the wires, and begin by inserting the ends of one into two peas about half through their diameters; to this object we insert another wire in the upper pea, and then, by adding another pea and another wire, the triangle is completed. By continuing the sides of the triangle downward, by the addition of two more wires and two more peas, the letter A is formed. To form those letters or figures which consist of curves, it is necessary to use curved wires also. After making a triangle, Eugenia taught us to build a three or four sided pyramid, and by joining four more wires to its bases, she explained to us that well-known crystal, the octohedron. After having made a square, she taught us to make a cube, like the dice used in playing backgammon. We found that with a lit tle practice we could make chairs, baskets, tables, and many other familiar articles, out of the contents of Eugenia's box. So long were we in exercising our ingenuity over them, that the clock struck ten before we dreamed of its being bedtime. We bade one another good-night, well content with our pleasant Christmas at grandfather's. Yours, HENRY B. Reading Exercise. ARNOLD THE TEACHER. We abridge the following eloquent remarks on Thomas Arnold from the London Quarterly Review for October, 1857. THE career of Thomas Arnold, the distinguished instructor of youth, though teeming with the poetry of common life, was not one of stirring incident, or ro-mance'; it consisted in laboring to his best in his sacred vocation. Born in England in 1795, he was educated at Winchester College, and in 1827 became head-master of Rugby School. It was now that his professional life began; and he plunged into fourteen years of uninterrupted toil. Holding labor to be his appointed lot on earth, he harnessed himself cheerfully to his work. A craving for rest was to him a sure sign that neither mind nor body retained its pristine vigor; and he determined, while blessed with health, to proceed like the camel in the wilderness, and die with his burden on his back. His principles were few: the fear of God was the beginning of his wisdom, and his object was not so much to teach knowledge |