to be on fire. It was said that the Russians, with singular self-sacrifice, had resolved to make Moscow the funeral-pile of their invaders. Hideous-looking men were seized wandering among the flames; and it was said they were criminals let out of prison on condition of setting fire to the city. "So grand, so extreme a resolution," says a French author, "could only have been conceived by patriotism." The fire spread rapidly among the many wooden houses of Moscow.

The conquest, for which Napoleon had sacrificed everything, vanished from his grasp in smoke and flame at the very moment when he thought it was his own. It was with difficulty that he could be persuaded to leave the place, which he had been so proud of possessing for even a few hours. One of his suite thus describes his escape from the flames: "There was no time to be lost. The roaring of the flames around us became every moment more violent. A single narrow winding street completely on fire, appeared to be rather the entrance than the outlet to this furnace. The Emperor rushed on foot, and without hesitation, into this narrow passage. He advanced amid the crackling of the flames, the crash of floors, and the fall of burning timbers, and of the red-hot iron roofs which tumbled around him. These ruins impeded his progress. The flames, which with impetuous roar consumed the edifices between which we were proceeding, spreading beyond the walls, were blown out by the wind, and formed an arch over our

heads. We walked on a ground of fire beneath a fiery sky, and between two walls of fire. The intense heat pained our eyes, which we were nevertheless obliged to keep open and fixed on the danger. A consuming atmosphere, glowing ashes, detached flames, parched our throats, and rendered our respiration short and dry; and we were already almost suffocated by the smoke. Our hands were burned, either in endeavouring to protect our faces from the insupportable heat, or in brushing off the sparks, which every moment covered and penetrated our garments.

"In this inexpressible distress, and when a rapid advance seemed to be our only means of safety, our guide stopped in uncertainty and agitation. Here would probably have terminated our adventurous career, had not some pillagers of the first corps recognised the Emperor amidst the whirling flames. They ran up and guided him towards the smoking ruins of a quarter which had been reduced to ashes in the morning."

The French looked with indifference on the burning until it threatened their own lives; and, as it has been related, they were obliged to escape as they best could from the ruined city. Napoleon wrote to the Emperor Alexander proposing to make peace, after he had done all the evil that was in his power; but his proposals were not listened to. The camp of the French outside Moscow presented a strange spectacle. In the fields, amidst thick and cold mud, large fires were kept up with mahogany furniture, windows, and

gilded doors. Around these fires, on a litter of damp straw, imperfectly sheltered by a few boards, were seen the soldiers and their officers, splashed all over with mud, and blackened with smoke, seated in armchairs, or reclined on silken couches. At their feet were spread or heaped cashmere shawls, the rarest furs of Siberia, the gold stuffs of Persia, and silver dishes, off which they had nothing to eat but a black dough baked in the ashes, and half-broiled and bloody horse-flesh. Singular assemblage of abundance and want, of riches and filth, of luxury and wretchedness!

The troops now felt the want of food, which at first they had so sinfully wasted. All the country round was desolate, the villages were burned down, and no supplies were to be had. Pressed by necessity, Napoleon was at last obliged to give orders for a retreat. It was a most terrible undertaking, because there was no way open to the army except that by which it had come. They had wasted and made desolate the whole country through which they had passed; there was neither food nor shelter to be found on the track of the army. Their evil deeds were now recoiling upon themselves.

Napoleon made his escape, and left his army to their fate. The greater part of them perished of cold and hunger.-J. Campbell Overend.

DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS (2).

DERIVATION.

Correspondence, Lat., cor (con), with, and

Succession,

Inhospitable,

Profuse,

Indigenous,

Recognise,
Enormous,

respondeo, from re, again,
and spondeo, to promise.
Lat., successo, I follow,
from sub, after, and cedo,

to go.
Lat., in, not, hospes, a
guest. Literally, not kind
to guests.
Lat., pro, forth, fundo
fusus, to pour. Literally,
pouring forth.
Lat., indu (from in), not,
and gen, root of gigno, to
beget. Literally, in-born.
Lat., re, again, cognosco,
to know.
Lat., e, out of, norma, a
rule. Literally, out of all

rule.

MEANING.

An agreement by which one thing answers to another.

A long line of things, one following the other."

Affording no shelter to strangers; comfortless.

Abundant or liberal to overflowing.

Naturally produced in a
country.

To know again, to perceive.
Unusually great.

Humboldt, who took great pains in arranging the correspondence between vertical and horizontal climates, describes a region in South America thus :— "In the burning plains, scarce raised above the level of the Southern Ocean, we find bananas, cycads, and palms, in the greatest luxuriance; after them, shaded by the lofty sides of the valleys in the Andes, tree

ferns; and next in succession, bedewed by cool, misty clouds, cinchonas (Peruvian-bark trees) appear. When lofty trees cease, we come to azaleas and myrtle-leaved andromedas (heaths); these are succeeded by bijarias (heaths) abounding in resin, and forming a purple belt around the mountains. In the stony region of the Paràmos, the more lofty plants and showy, flowering herbs disappear, and are succeeded by large meadows covered with grasses, on which the llama feeds. We now reach the bare trachytic rocks, on which the lowest tribes of plants flourish. Paramelias, lecidias, and leprarias (lichens), with their many-coloured thalli and fructification, form the flora of this inhospitable zone. Patches of recentlyfallen snow now begin to cover the last efforts of vegetable life, and then the line of eternal snow begins."

In temperate climates a similar gradation appears, but, of course, wanting the tropical trees. "We may begin the ascent of the Alps, for instance, in the midst of warm vineyards, and pass through a succession of oaks, sweet-chestnuts, and beeches, till we gain the elevation of the more hardy pines and stunted birches, and tread on pastures fringed by borders of perpetual snow. At the height of 1950 feet the vine disappears; and at 1000 feet higher, the sweet-chestnuts cease to thrive; 1000 feet farther, and the oak is unable to maintain itself; the birch ceases to grow at an elevation of 4680 feet; and the spruce-fir at the height of 5900 feet, beyond which no tree appears. The rhododendron then covers immense tracts to the