power; and some were said to have forty-horse power; and this they soon proved-so that people were obliged to believe that steam-engines were wonderful things. Now, if the steam-engines are so useful, what sort of a man must he have been who made them? Suppose we begin our "picture-gallery" with his life. THE HISTORY OF JAMES WATT. A delicate-looking boy was one day sitting down in a parlour, bending over the white hearth-stone, when one of his father's friends came in. The gentleman looked at the boy. He saw that he had a piece of coloured chalk in his hand, and was making marks on the hearth. So he said to his father, "Mr. Watt, you ought to send that boy to school, and not let him trifle away his time at home." "Look at my boy," said his father, "and see how he is engaged, before you condemn him!" The gentleman looked, and was astonished; for the boy was busy in a difficult study. He was not playing, but hard at work. W. Was he doing a sum, papa? P. No; he was engaged in working mathematics-he was drawing lines and circles, and was working a difficult problem in geometry. The gentleman questioned him further, and the boy answered him like one who had been accustomed to think and learn. So the gentleman said to his father, "Certainly he is no common child." The boy's father was a merchant and a ship-builder, living in the town of GREENOCK, in Scotland. He was one who liked work, and liked to see his son employed. He taught him writing and arithmetic, and his mother taught him reading. The boy did not need to be taught much else; he was always trying to learn, or else he amused himself with his father's tools. With them he made toys, and he even formed a small electrical machine. This boy never liked to be still; he was always doing something. He was either observing something, or he was comparing things; or he was thinking about something; or he was listening about something, or he was imagining something, or he was making something; or else he was asking questions about something. He always had something to do. When he was about fourteen years old, he went to see his aunt at Glasgow. His aunt, however, did not know what to do with so active a boy. It seemed as if he could not possibly sit still in a new place, which he had never seen before; when he saw his aunt's teakettle, he began to be busy; he took off the lid and put it on again; he held a cup, and then a silver spoon over the steam; he watched how long it took in coming out of the spout, and tried to count the drops which it made when it cooled. And when the tea things were cleared away, he would talk to his aunt, and ask her questions. When tlemen study languages, mathethe supper-time came, he began matics, and science. Of course, to tell her tales; he made her James Watt soon took an inand all the friends around her terest in that. He soon became listen. He told them a humour-known to the students, and they ous tale to make them laugh, at once took an interest in him. a sorrowful tale to make them As he was not very rich, he cry; and even after ten o'clock, used to go to the college-gates many an hour passed away of with a box of "philosophical the time when they should have toys," which he had made; been sleeping. His poor aunt these he used to sell, together never had so much to think with some "candle bombs," so about before, and at last became that he might get money and very tired-so she was obliged buy what he wanted for his to tell his mother, "You must studies. Poor lad, how much take your son James home; I he wanted to learn! He was am worn out for want of very "shame-faced"; he had sleep." not enough assurance to ask the students to buy. Yet he took all this trouble so that he might have the means of gaining knowledge. But when James Watt went home again, he still found something to do. How could he have eyes and not use them? He liked to look into things-he found a book on "natural philosophy," and he looked into that; he found books on medicine and anatomy, and these also he read. Then he went into the fields, and studied the flowers; he studied the various parts of his own body, and once he was found with the head of a child, which he was taking to his room to dissect. There was indeed very little that he did not examine. At the close of his apprenticeship he went to London for twelve months, and in the year 1757 he returned to set up in business in Glasgow. Here he was hindered by a difficulty; he was not a Glas gow citizen, and the "copota tion" of the city tried to prevent him from settling there. His friends in the University, however, took his part. They furnished him with a convenient room, and conferred on him the title of "MATHEMATICAL INSTRUMENT-MAKER TO THE COLLEGE OF GLASGOW." lon. Suppose he had been without friends, he would not have been able to settle there. In the course of time it became necessary for him to learn a business. He chose that of an instrument-maker, and was apprenticed for three years at Glasgow; where he had to make "theodolites," quad- P. True. What a good rants, and other perfect instru- thing it is to have many friends ments which you do not under--to be such a character that all stand. At Glasgow there is a men can love you! University, a place where gen- (Continued on page 33.) MAMMALS. RECAPITULATION. P. TO-DAY we will conclude our NATURAL HISTORY LESSONS; and, should there be time, you may begin your course on Botany. 13. What order of mammals are arranged in divisions according to their tails? 14. What order are arranged according to their horns? 15. Which are arranged partly according to the number of their toes? 16. Which are arranged according to the formation of their feet-forming the divisions "digitigrade' and "plantigrade" animals? 17. Give me the following six divisions of a certain order; and the name of the order itself. 1st Tribe, animals with retractile claws, elastic pads, great power of springing, eyes with pupils which dilate at night, and contract in a strong light. The 2nd Tribe have "vermiform" bodies, sharp limbs, and a peculiar means of defence in the offensive odour they emit when attacked. The 3rd Tribe have blunt claws, but very long canine teeth, great swiftness, and great sagacity. The 4th Tribe are rather difficult to distinguish; their claws are semi-retractile; they have pouches containing a substance with an agreeable odour; and the pupils of the eye do not contract during the day. The 5th Tribe walk on the soles of their feet; they have rough, shaggy paws, massive bodies and limbs, and great power of climbing. The 6th Tribe are amphibious; the body is fish-shaped; the limbs may rather be called fins or paddles, than legs. Can you name these tribes and their order? 18. Tell me the names of six animals in the first three, and three animals in the last three of these tribes. 19. What are the tribe, order, and name of the animal which is most useful to the Greenlander? 20. What are the tribe, order, and name of the most useful animal to the Tartar? 21. I will describe some of the habits of our friends, and you may tell me their names. A certain animal comes down in the night when men sleep, and acts as a scavenger, clearing the streets of the Eastern cities; sometimes it attacks the sheep-fold, or even the graveyard, it is said. The animal is gregarious; large packs are often heard in the distance making strange cries, a shrieking or yelping. What animal do I refer to? 22. Go to the West Indies, and you may hear the distant noises of animals belonging to another order. When the sun is setting, you may hear them making a loud howling and weeping, as if they were bidding it "Good-bye." What animals am I thinking of? 23. What animals of the second order are peculiar to MADAGASCAR and the neighbourhood? 24. There are also some of the third order which are almost peculiar to Madagascar. They sleep during the day suspended by their limbs from the branches of the trees, looking like some strange fruit, and they are often knocked down and eaten as food. What sort of bats are they? 25. There is an animal with a neck which is long and thin; therefore, having very little strength there, it defends itself with its heels. 26. There is another in the same order which has less strength in its heels, but has a more short, thick, and strong neck; therefore it defends itself with the horns of its head. 27. A certain large mammal has no teeth, and a very small throat, not large enough to swallow a middling-sized fish; it feeds on a minute kind of "jelly-fish" called the medusa. Instead of teeth, it has a curious apparatus like a sieve at each side of its mouth; through this it strains the water which enters when it receives its food, and spouts it up through its nostrils. I remember, too, that as it cannot receive fresh air under the water, it has a large cavity containing numerous arteries. In these it retains the blood, which is purified when it rises to the surface of the water and breathes. What is the animal's name? 28. How is so huge an animal kept warm in the polar seas? 29. Which is the smallest mammal, and in what order is it found? 30. Name the different animals of the rat tribe. 31. The different animals of the squirrel tribe? 32. Name all the torpid mammals you know. 33. And all that are amphibious. 34. I will name the exact position of an animal. It belongs to the animal kingdom; the vertebrated sub-kingdom; the class mammals; the order of flesh-eating animals; the tribe of seals; it is known not only by its size, but by its large tusks. What is its name? 35. Name the tribe, order, class, sub-kingdom, and king dom of the shrew. 36. Name the kingdom, subkingdom, class, order, tribe, and division of the elk. 37. In the same way mark the position of the ichneumon. 38. Also the exact position of the pole-cat. 39. Of the hippopotamus. 41. Of the ourang-outang. 46. Into how many "subkingdoms" is the "kingdom" of nature divided? 47. Name them, and distinguish them. 48. Into how many "classes" is the sub-kingdom mammals divided? 49. Which two classes have warm red blood? 50. Name the two classes with cold red blood. We will now bid good-bye to our lesson on the mammals; and, for a time, to the animal kingdom. Ihope, dear children, that the animals of which we have learned are now more interesting to you than they were at first. Not only is the history of their habits interesting, but it is pleasant to get a glance at THE WISDOM OF GOD; to see how He fits each animal for the climate in which it is placed, or fits them all for the different circumstances in which they live. It is pleasant to think how each is fitted for his peculiar food, and what strange changes are made in the limbs, teeth, stomach, claws, and feet; the senses, the frame-work, and coverings of these animals. I am sure you can now admire the wisdom of God more than you could at first. Ion. Yes. When we had never studied the animals, the great difference in their parts seemed like confusion and disorder. P. True; and now these differences only show you what order God keeps in his works; and that all are "fearfully and wonderfully made." Let us spend a few more minutes in begining our new course of lessons on Botany. (See next page.) WINTER, AWAY! AWAY, hoary winter! away to thy cavern, On the wings of the storm, to the far rigid North; From the green hills of England and heather-crown'd rocks, To where rein-deer are cropping the moss 'neath the snow. In thy iron-zoned vestment across the wide main, On the hurricane haste to thy own native sphere; With the hoar-frost, and vapours, and all thy cold train, Come, glowing spring! soft, benignant, ethereal, And thou god of the day! with thy earth-warming beams, Will exultingly wave o'er our rivers and streams. Then come, gentle zephyrs, bright sunshine, and flowers, Y. S. |