ingly cold and drying, that they are said to prevent dead animals from putrefying.

SUMMARY. Our atmosphere is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, in the proportion of one to four. It supports flame and the breath of man and animals by its oxygen, and is the receptacle of the vapour which affords us rain. The weight of the air is greatest at the sea-level, being compressed by that which is above it. Here it amounts to 15 lbs. on a square inch. The state of the atmosphere chiefly depends on its temperature, and, as a result, its weight or density. The first is measured by the thermometer, and the second by the barometer. By the latter weather may be to some extent foretold. The quality of temperature and density produce currents or winds. Thus we find land and sea breezes between the land and ocean, and tradewinds between the equator and the poles. In the latter the heated air of the tropics flows towards the poles, and the cold air of the polar regions moves in a lower level towards the equator, north and south. But the rotation of the earth from west to east modifies these courses, and the result is the oblique currents we call the trade winds. Monsoons blow half the year in one direction, and half the year in the opposite. Cyclones are sudden and violent winds common in the West Indies and other tropical districts.

QUESTIONS.

What is the atmosphere? Where is the weight of the air greatest? What is the mean pressure of the atmosphere taken at the sea level? How is the temperature of the atmosphere measured? What are the constant winds? What are the trade winds? What are the monsoons? What are cyclones? What is the samieli? What is the hot wind called in Egypt? What is it called in Guinea and Senegambia? What is the sirocco? What is the solano? puna winds blow?

What is the pampero? Where do the

Captain Basil Hall, R.N., was the son of Sir James Hall, Bart., of Dunglass. He was born in Edinburgh in 1788, and entered the British navy in 1802. For many years he was actively engaged in various parts of the globe; but he is best known by his popular books of voyages and travels, which extend to numerous volumes, and have met with general favour. Captain Hall died in 1844.

The flying-fish is a small fish, seldom larger than a herring. By the extraordinary length and size of their pectoral fins, the fishes of this genus are enabled

to spring occasionally from the water, and to support a kind of temporary flight through the air; hence their name. "No familiarity," says Captain Basil Hall, “with the sight can ever render us indifferent to the graceful flight of these most interesting of all the finny, or rather winged tribe. On the contrary, like a bright day or a smiling countenance, the more we see of them the more we value their presence. I have, indeed, hardly ever observed a person so duil that his eye did not glisten as he watched a shoal, or it may be called a covey, of flying-fish, rise from the sea, and skim along for several hundred yards. There is something in it so peculiar, so totally different from everything else in other parts of the world, that our wonder goes on increasing every time we see one take its flight; so that we may easily excuse the old Scotch wife, who said to her son, when he was relating what he had seen when abroad, "You may have seen rivers of milk and mountains of sugar, but you will never make me believe you have seen a fish that could fly."

"We were stealing along pleasantly enough, under the influence of a newly-formed breeze, which, as yet, was confined to the upper sails, and every one was looking open-mouthed to the eastward, to catch a little cool air, or was congratulating his neighbour on getting rid of the calm in which we had been so long half-roasted, half-suffocated, when about a dozen flyingfish rose out of the water, and skimmed away to windward, at the height of ten or twelve feet above the surface. Shortly after, we discovered two or three dolphins, ranging past the ship in all their beauty.

Presently, the ship, in her course, put up another shoal of those little creatures, which flew in the same direction which the others had taken.

"A large dolphin, which had been keeping company with us at the depth of two or three fathoms, and, as usual, glistening most beautifully in the sun, no sooner detected our poor little friends taking wing than he turned his head towards them, and, darting to the surface, leaped from the water with a swiftness little short, as it seemed, of a cannon ball. But, although the force with which he shot himself into the air made him gain upon the flying fish at first, yet the start which they had got enabled them to keep a-head of him for a considerable time.

"The length of the dolphin's first spring could not be less than ten yards; and after he fell we could see him gliding like lightning through the water for a moment, when he again rose and shot forward with a speed considerably greater than at first, and, of course, to a still greater distance. In this manner the merciless pursuer seemed to stride along the sea with fearful rapidity, whilst his brilliant coat sparkled and flashed in the sun quite splendidly. As he fell headlong on the water at the end of each huge leap, a series of circles were sent far over the still surface, which lay as smooth as a mirror.

“The group of flying fish, thus hotly pursued, at length dropped into the sea; but we were rejoiced to observe that they merely touched the top of the swell, and scarcely sunk into it; at least they instantly set off again in a fresh and even more

vigorous flight. It was particularly interesting to observe that the direction they now took was quite different from the one in which they had set out, thus implying that they had detected their fierce enemy, who was following them with giant steps along the waves, and was now rapidly gaining upon them. His terrific pace, indeed, was two or three times as swift as theirs-poor little things!

"The dolphin was fully as quick-sighted as the flying fish, for whenever they changed their flight in the smallest degree, he lost not the tenth part of a second in shaping a new course in pursuit; whilst they, in a manner really not unlike that of the hare, doubled more than once upon their pursuer. But it was soon too plainly to be seen that the strength and confidence of the flying fish were fast ebbing; their flights became shorter and shorter, and their course more fluttering and uncertain, whilst the enormous leaps of the dolphin appeared to grow only more vigorous at each bound. At last, indeed, we could see, or fancied we could see, that this skilful seasportsman so arranged all his springs that he contrived to fall at the end of each, just under the very spot on which the exhausted flying fish were about to drop. Sometimes this took place at too great a distance for us to see from the deck exactly what happened; but on our mounting high into the rigging, we could discover that many of the unfortunate little creatures, one after another, either fell right into the dolphin's jaws as they lighted on the water, or were snapped up instantly afterwards.