6. Steep the rock and straight the path;
Sure the death that waits below!
Yet we climb with fearful step,

For the power of God we know;
Naught can harm a single hair
While He keeps us in His care."

7. Those who dwell on the coast are employed in fishing, while those in the interior guide their flocks, and range over the hills in search of moss, repair their little huts, get in turf for fuel, take the wool from the sheep, dry meat and fish for winter food, gather down from the nests of the eider-duck, and prepare articles to export to Denmark.

8. Iceland is a little world of ice-mountains, volcanoes, and geysers, or boiling springs. The "Great Geyser" is a mound of stones, at the top of which is a basin formed by the action of the water. At the bottom of the basin is a kind of deep pit, like a pipe, through which the water is forced. This basin gradually fills with water. There is a noise like distant artillery, and the ground trembles under feet.

9. In a short time there is another shock, when the earth around the basin begins to heave and sink and the water boils violently and overflows. Loud reports now follow one another rapidly, increasing to a perfect roar, and in a few moments the boiling water rushes upward through volumes of steam, column rising above column, as if each were bent on outstripping the other, and throwing up stones to a considerable height. This is repeated at intervals of some hours, and when the water is spent, columns of steam continue to rush up with a deafening

roar.

10. Mount Hecla, in Iceland, is celebrated on account of its frequent eruptions; but another mount, called Skaptar

Jökul, is still more fearful and destructive. In 1783, three fire-spouts broke out on this mountain, which rose to a great height, and sent forth a torrent of red-hot lava, which flowed for six weeks, and dried up rivers, destroyed valleys, villages, cattle, and more than two hundred people. This terrible eruption was followed by a famine and pestilence which lasted for two years. Picture Gallery of Nations.

XXX.-LIFE IN RUSSIA.

Extract from an address by Hon. Marshall Jewell, formerly Minister of the United States at the Court of the Czar.

1. "I have experienced much greater cold in my home in Hartford than in Russia. But the average winter temperature is certainly very low there. Frosts begin in September; by the first of October all the leaves have fallen; by the 10th and 12th ice is abundant, and by November every thing is hermetically sealed up for the next eight months.

2. "The sun's rays fall so nearly horizontally in midwinter that they impart but little warmth during the short days of four or five hours; consequently the temperature at noonday is but few degrees higher than at night.

3. "After winter sets in the houses are carefully closed up to keep out the cold, and, as the ventilation is very defective, nearly all the women who are confined at home have a sallow, unhealthy complexion, but the men are generally a fine stalwart race.

4. "The fruit buds do not begin to swell before May, but, by the accumulation of heat in the long days and short nights of summer, fruit and grass are ripened in an incredibly short period, as they have to be if at all, to

avoid the early frosts; but of course fruit grown and harvested in the space of sixty or seventy days can not be of remarkable quality.

5. "Although there is plenty of snow, I have never seen a snow-storm during my residence in Russia. The explanation is as follows: St. Petersburg is built on very low, flat land at the mouth of the Neva, and the atmosphere is saturated with moisture arising from the soil and the bodies of water adjacent.

6. A slight reduction of temperature is sufficient to congeal this moisture, and it is deposited in the form of snow, or rather ice-crystals, at the rate of two inches every night, until it attains the depth of several feet; and yet no one has seen it fall.

7. "As there is no such thing as a hill any where near St. Petersburg, artificial ones are made, so as to provide the means for the amusement of coasting on steel-shod sledges, of which the Russians are very fond. As an illustration of the soil in St. Petersburg, it is said the piles upon which the principal church is built cost as much as some of the finest churches in this country, and yet it has settled some."

XXXI.-BEAUTIFUL HANDS.

1. Such beautiful, beautiful hands!
They're neither white nor small,
And you, I know, would scarcely think
That they were fair at all.

2. I've looked on hands whose form and hue
A sculptor's dream might be,

Yet are these aged, wrinkled hands
Most beautiful to me.

3. Such beautiful, beautiful hands!

Though heart were weary or sad,
These patient hands kept toiling on,
That children might be glad.

4. I almost weep, as, looking back
To childhood's distant day,

I think how these hands rested not
When mine were at their play.

5. But, O! beyond the shadow land,
Where all is bright and fair,

I know full well these dear old hands
Will palms of victory bear.

6. Where crystal streams, through endless time,
Flow over golden sands,

And where the old grow young again,
I'll clasp my mother's hands.

XXXII.-ANDROCLES AND THE LION.

1. When Rome was mistress of the world she had a colony in Africa, over which a governor was appointed. This governor had many slaves, to whom he was so cruel that they sometimes ran away from him.

2. Among these slaves was one called Androcles, who was so cruelly treated that he ran away and escaped into the desert, where he soon hid himself in a large cave. He was very weary and sore from the scratches of the thorns through which he had passed.

3. He had been but a short time in the cave when a huge lion approached. Androcles was greatly terrified, and felt that he should surely be torn to pieces by the savage beast.

4. But, to his surprise, the lion gently came near and held up its right paw, which was wounded and bloody. Almost overcome with fear, the slave took the foot and carefully examined it. He there found a large thorn, which was evidently causing the animal great pain.

5. With trembling hand Androcles ventured to pull the thorn out, all the time fearing the beast would destroy him, as he caused pain to the foot. But, to his great joy, the lion caressed him in the kindest manner instead of offering any harm.

6. At night the man and the lion lay down and slept together in the greatest harmony. The next day when the beast went forth for his prey he brought a good supply of food and placed it at the feet of Androcles. For nearly three years they lived together in harmony.

to

7. At the end of this period Androcles was captured as a runaway slave and sent to Rome, whither his cruel master had gone. At that time a master had power put to death a slave who had escaped. This cruel master rejoiced in the opportunity to exercise his power, and resolved that his returned slave should be thrown to a lion for destruction.

8. The people assembled in great numbers to witness such an awful death as they expected the poor slave would meet with. Androcles was placed in a lot from which he could not escape and where he could be seen by the crowd of people. When all was ready an enormous lion was let loose upon him as his executioner.

9. In great agony the slave awaited what he supposed would be sure death. But, to his surprise and that of all the spectators, instead of opening his jaws to devour the poor man, the lion commenced fawning upon him and caressing him, as a dog would do on finding his long lost måster. Androcles soon discovered, with great joy, that