the public merely to gratify an ostentations pride? I think

not.

It is a Sabbath evening, and the sun is just setting. Groups of gentlemen and ladies are threading the walks among the trees the hard-working mechanic with his wife and children, all dressed in their best, are sauntering over paths thickly strewed with tiny seashells, admiring the flowers and rare shrubs that border the walks, or throwing crumbs to the tame fishes in the fish-pond, or gazing at the rare exotics in the green-houses, and all enjoying the costly scene, as really, for the moment, as if it were their own. The proprietor, if he is at home, simply enjoys the innocent pleasure which his establishment affords the people, and I really believe, that if he were conditioned to hold it guarded with the exclusiveness which characterizes some of the snobbish aristocracy of our land, he would sooner burn it to the ground. But the chances are that, instead of being at home, stretched upon a luxurious sofa, this Sunday evening, he started in his buggy some hour or two since, to fulfil an appointment to lecture upon temperance in some country village, distant ten or fifteen miles. His heart is thoroughly interested in this reform, which, heaven knows, is unpopular enough in Connecticut, and he is constantly sacrificing his money and ease to promote it. Although unaccustomed to public speaking, his addresses tell upon an audience in a most effective manner.

With many others, I was once accustomed to associate the name of Barnum with humbug, but the truth is, there is no humbug about the man- -Barnum. He may have taken the

advantage of the craving for humbugs, which is one of the passions of mankind, but he is a real man, with noble qualities and feelings and no humbug. He is proving in many ways that the public know nothing of, that he unites benevolence and enlarged views to his acknowledged business tact, talent, and enterprise. This latter has indeed been placed above all cavil by his engagement with the famed Swedish Nightingale ; for who in America could have given us Jenny Lind, but Barnum?

DR. E. KANE.

Ir was announced that Dr. E. Kane, of Arctic Expedition notoriety, would lecture before the citizens of Boston, on Monday evening, consequently an immense audience convened at an early hour to see and hear the intrepid traveller. While we were patiently waiting the arrival of the great tourist, a sudden outburst of applause advertised the arrival of a short, stout, fat, corpulent old gentleman, whose large round head was thickly covered with long dark hair, carefully parted in the middle and combed behind his ears. He had a low forehead, full, fat face, light inexpressive eyes, and his jaws seemed to cave in as though he had lost his teeth. He looked more like a Dutch ploughman from the valley of the Mohawk, than a learned lawyer, but it really was Chief Justice Shaw, the most distinguished jurist in Massachusetts.

Another explosion of applause, and a slender man of average height, weighing perhaps one hundred and twenty-five pounds, walked gracefully toward the desk. It was the heroic adventurer, who has probably seen as much of the physical world as any living man of his age. He has black hair with a curl in it, carefully brushed aside, leaving one of his lofty temples

bare and concealing the other. His pale thin face is lit up with a pair of small round blue eyes, and his mouth is shaded with a short black moustache, which terminates in an imperial; his long nose indicates clearness of brain, and his earnest countenance denotes unfaltering integrity of purpose. His voice, though clear and flexible, has not sufficient volume and power to fill the great hall where he lectured. He extemporised nearly half the time, and spoke fluently and correctly. In his right hand he held a fish pole, with which he pointed to the diagrams on the wall in front of the audience.

His lecture was the shortest of the season, and might have been made the most interesting one had he confined himself to the history of his search for Sir John Franklin, instead of giving us a geographical history of the North Pole. A report of a part of his lecture, however, I am sure will be intensely interesting.

"It is difficult," the lecturer remarked in opening, as we look at a map of the world, to believe that all the world, save a very limited expanse, was wrapped in ignorance. Nor has that ignorance totally disappeared, for there are portions of the globe entirely unknown to the civilized world, and much exploration is needed to reveal vast regions, still hidden from the knowledge of man. The vicinity of the North Pole is among those portions yet to be explored. It is shut out from us by a vast barrier of ice. The early settlers of Iceland revealed an extension of ice far to the north. It was then shown to extend to Hudson and Baffin's Bays, and Captain Cook defined its existence in Behring's Straits.

"Modern science has taught us to lay down the limits of this vast ice barrier, and to define the boundaries of a great polar continent. The ice barrier, commencing at Labrador, extends to that portion known as Lost Greenland, and then comes across the Atlantic to Spitzbergen, thence to Nova Zembla. On the northern coast of Russia it may further be traced, and also north of America, while whalers have found it throughout Behring's Straits. This immense body of ice bounds a circle 6000 miles in circumference, and encloses an area one-third larger than the continent of Europe. It can be safely stated that this ice barrier is not continuous, but is a ring surrounding an open sea. How solemn is the conception of such a vast inland sea, shut in by ice, on whose coast no human being has yet trod!

"There are facts to show the necessity and certainty that there is a vast inland sea at the North. There must be some vast receptacle for the drainage of the polar regions, and the great Siberian rivers. To prove that water must actually exist, we have only to observe the icebergs. These floating masses cannot be formed without terra firma, and it is a remarkable fact that out of 360° in only 30° are icebergs to be found, showing that land cannot exist in any considerable portion of the country."

66

Again, Baffin's Bay was long thought to be a close bay, but it is now known to be connected with the Arctic sea. Within the Bay, and covering an area of 90,000 square miles, there is an open sea from June to October. We find here a