the furnace, and kept some time at a red heat. After cooling it off, it is rolled up like a quill and heated in a glass vessel containing nitric acid; the acid dissolves the silver and leaves the gold pure and ready to be weighed on its own merits.

10. Then salt water is poured into the vessel containing the silver in solution, and the silver returns to its solid form again and sinks to the bottom. Nothing now remains but to weigh it; then the proportions of the several metals contained in the brick are known, and its value is stamped upon its surface.

"E sat aloft on a rocky height,

HSnow-white above the snow,

In the winter morning calm and bright,
And I gazed at him below.

2. He faced the east where the sunshine streamed
On the singing, sparkling sea,

And he blinked with his yellow eyes that seemed
All sightless and blank to be!

3. The snow-birds swept in a whirling crowd
About him gleefully,

And piped and whistled sweet and loud,
But never a plume stirred he.

4. Singing they passed, and away they flew
Through the brilliant atmosphere;
Cloud-like he sat with the living blue
Of the sky behind him, clear.

5. "Give you good morrow, friend!" I cried.
He whirled his large round head,
Solemn and stately from side to side,
But never a word he said.

6. "O lonely creature, weird and white,
Why are you sitting there,

Like a glimmering ghost from the still midnight,
In the beautiful morning air?"

7. He spurned the rock with his talons strong,
No human speech brooked he;

Like a snow-flake huge he sped along,
Swift and noiselessly.

8. His wide,, slow-waving wings so white
Heavy and soft did seem,

Yet rapid as a dream his flight,
And silent as a dream.

9. And when a distant crag he gained,
Bright, twinkling as a star,

He shook his shining plumes and deigned
To watch me from afar.

10. And once again, when the evening red
Burned dimly in the west,

I saw him, motionless, his head
Bent forward on his breast.

11. Dark and still 'gainst the sunset sky
Stood out his figure lone,

Crowning the bleak rock, far and high,
By sad winds overblown.

12. Did he dream of the ice-fields, stark and drear,
Of his haunts on the Arctic shore?

Or the downy brood in his nest last year
On the coast of Labrador?

13. Had he fluttered the Eskimo huts among?
How I wished he could speak to me!
Had he sailed on the icebergs, rainbow-hung,
In the open Polar Sea?

14. O, many a tale he might have told
Of marvelous sounds and sights,

Where the world lies hopeless and dumb with cold,
Through desolate days and nights.

15. But with folded wings, while the darkness fell, He sat, nor spoke nor stirred,

And chained, as if by a subtile spell,

I mused on the wondrous bird.

OUR YOUNG FOLKS.

LESSON XII.

A FIGHT WITH A SHARK.

Road'stead, a place where ships] Dye'ing, coloring; staining. may ride safely at anchor at Clam ́or, a loud, confused noise.

some distance from shore.

Sprung, began to appear.

Sue - çès ́sion, a following of things in order of time or

place.

WE

born in a

Ex-pert', dexterous; skillful.
Na'tives, persons
place or country.
Lăs'eär, a native sailor.

E had not long come into the roadstead at Madras when a circumstance occurred which I cannot help relating. There was a Lascar on board our ship who was very expert in handling a catamaran, a kind of raft made of three sticks of wood lashed together, and used in the surf, which in this place rolls very heavily.

2. This man had a little child, a boy of eight years, and while we were there he would take this boy and show him how to handle a catamaran, it being his intention to bring the boy up to this pursuit.

3. And it happened one morning that, going out very early, even before the day had sprung, the catamaran ran afoul of a palm which was washed ashore, and overset, throwing the man and the boy into the water. The man rose easily enough, for he could swim like a duck, and made for the raft, which he had scarcely reached, when he saw a huge shark seize the 'child and make to sea with his prey.

4. The father, as may be supposed, was horrified at the sight, and, for a moment, dazed; but he soon re

covered, and, drawing a long knife which he carried in his cummerbund, plunged after the shark. I was on

the beach at the time and saw the whole affair.

5. The man disappeared, but rose again, the shark near him, and both apparently engaged in a desperate fight. This lasted several minutes. The water then began to grow red; the man rose two or three times in quick succession, the knife still in his hand, and he was striking with great force and energy.

6. This continued several seconds. Then the shark rose suddenly, and throwing its huge form half way out of the spray, sank with a heavy plunge, dyeing the waters with deep crimson as it disappeared.

7 I now looked anxiously for the man, and seeing no signs of him, thought he had shared the fate of his foe; but presently he came to the surface and swam directly for the shore. He was very tired, but his body was without a wound.

. While we were talking, I heard a great clamor

ong the boatmen on the beach, and sent one of our men to learn what it was about. He came back with the tidings that the shark had drifted ashore, and the noise that we heard proceeded from the natives, who were amazed at its size and the number of wounds it had received.

9. It lay on its side among a lot of sea-weed. I had seen sharks of large proportions, but they were small compared with this creature. It was nearly thirty feet in length, and as thick as the mast of our ship. It had made a bold defence, and was not conquered until its life gushed from a multitude of wounds.

ANON.