the markets of Chili and Peru, where a very fine one may be purchased for a dollar and a half." DR. J. VON TSCHUDI: Travels in Peru. 1 Sterile heights.-The Andes, the lofty range of mountains traversing South America from north to south. 2 Hum'boldt. (See p. 107, Note 5.) 'Carrion, dead or putrid flesh. [Fr. charogne, from Lat. caro, flesh.] • Vicuña (vicoonya), an animal of the camel kind, inhabiting South America; much prized for its fine silken wool. It somewhat resembles the alpaca or Peruvian sheep. 5 Llama, another animal of the camel kind, found in large numbers on the mountains of Peru. It is used as a beast of burden, and is valued for its flesh, as well as its light, woolly hair. Boʻlas, a ball of stone or iron attached to a thong, and thrown with great force and precision. A dollar and a half-about six shillings and threepence in English money. QUESTIONS.-What other name is given to the condor? Where does it build its nest? What accounts of it were current before the present century? Who overthrew these? What are the dimensions of a full-grown condor? On what does it chiefly feed? Where does its principal strength lie? When does it go in quest of prey? What shows the keenness of its sight and smell? Why do the natives seldom attempt to shoot the condor? How do they kill it? ous method of capturing it is practised in one province? For what may a live condor sometimes be bought? CHOICE QUOTATIONS. (To be written from memory.) TRUE NOBILITY. HOWE'ER it be, it seems to me "Tis only noble to be good: Kind hearts are more than coronets, What curi And simple faith than Norman blood.-TENNYSON. FEAR GOD. COUNT life a stage upon thy way, And follow conscience, come what may ; Alike with heaven and earth sincere, With hand and brow and bosom clear; "Fear God"-and know no other fear. HUMAN LIFE. We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most; feels the noblest, acts the best.-P. J. BAILEY. Synecdoch I COME from haunts of coot and hern,1 I chatter over stony ways, I chatter, chatter, as I flow To join the brimming river;-- For men may come, and men may go, I wind about, and in and out, With many a silvery water-break And draw them all along, and flow To join the brimming river ;– I steal by lawns and grassy plots, To join the brimming river;— 1 Coot and hern, water-birds that frequent quiet streams amongst the hills. 2 Thorp, a hamlet; generally used in composition-as Milthorp, Thorparch. [Old Eng. thorp, a group of houses; Ger. dorf, as in Düsseldorf.] ALFRED TENNYSON." land projected into the bed of the brook. Set means planted. Willow-weed and Mallow are wild-plants that grow luxuriantly in marshy ground. "Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate ; born in Lincolnshire in 1810; gained the Chancellor's medal at Cambridge in 3 Fallow, land ploughed, but not 1829 for a poem on Timbuctoo; sucsown; lit. yellow land. [Old Eng. fealo, ceeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate yellowish.] in 1850. Chief works: In Memoriam Foreland, a piece of flat marshy and The Idylls of the King. THE PRAIRIE ON FIRE. [THE PRAIRIES.-Between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains there is a vast extent of country, consisting of boundless meadows or grassy plains, called Prairies. The soil is fertile and the vegetation wildly luxuriant; and as the tall grass waves in the wind over the wide expanse, it resembles the rolling of an emerald ocean. These plains furnish food for countless herds of buffaloes, elks, antelopes, and other animals that feed on herbage. They move continually to and fro in vast masses, as the seasons change and the state of the pasture drives them to new fields. Different regions of the prairies have different characters. The wide, undulating plains, frequented by buffaloes and covered with grass, are called Rolling Prairies, from their general resemblance to the long, heavy swell of the ocean, when subsiding after a storm; and Dry Prairies, because they are generally destitute of water. These are the most common and extensive. Other regions abound in springs, and are covered with shrubs and bushes. These are called Bushy Prairies. Lastly, there are the Alluvial or Wet Prairies, which are covered with rich verdure and gorgeous flowers, and which in the rainy season are frequently overflowed. Sometimes a prairie is set on fire, either accidentally or by design. A prairie on fire is one of the most terrible things in nature. The ocean of flame rolls onward and onward before the wind, with irresistible might, devouring everything that lies in its path. Droves of wild horses, buffaloes, antelopes, rush madly before the advancing flames, beasts of prey forgetting their enmities in the midst of the common danger. Crowds of vultures and other birds of prey follow the course of the fire, and seize upon the carcasses which the flames have not completely consumed.] THE sleep of the fugitives lasted for several hours. The trapper1 was the first to shake off its influence, as he had been the last to court its refreshment. Rising just as the gray light of day began to brighten that portion of the studded vault2 which rested on the eastern margin of the plain, he summoned his companions from their warm lairs, and pointed out the necessity of their being once more on the alert. "See, Middleton!" exclaimed Inez, in a sudden burst of youthful pleasure, that caused her for a moment to forget her situation," how lovely is that sky; surely it contains a promise of happier times!" 'It is glorious!" returned her husband. Glorious and heavenly is that streak of vivid red; and here is a still brighter crimson. Rarely have I seen a richer rising of the sun." "Rising of the sun!" slowly repeated the old man, lifting his tall person from his seat with a deliberate and abstracted air, while he kept his eye riveted on the changing and certainly beautiful tints that were garnishing the vault of heaven. Rising of the sun!—I like not such risings of the sun. Ah's me! the Indians have circumvented3 us. The prairie is on fire! "Oh, dreadful!" cried Middleton, catching Inez to his bosom, under the instant impression of the imminence of their danger. "There is no time to lose, old man; each instant is a day. Let us fly!" A "Whither?" demanded the trapper, motioning him, with calmness and dignity, to arrest his steps. In this wilderness of grass and reeds, we are like a vessel in the broad lakes without a compass. single step on the wrong course might prove the destruction of us all. It is seldom danger is so pressing that there is not time enough for reason to do its work, young officer; therefore let us await its biddings. "For my part," said Paul Hover, looking about |