the nerves of the peculiar organs. The power appears to be subservient to the continuance of life, in a twofold manner. It af fords protection, by enabling the animal to benumb its foes, and it assists in procuring food, by stunning or killing the smaller animals on which its sustenance depends. M.

RAPID GROWTH OF FISH.

THE rapid growth of some fish is very extraordinary. I saw three pike taken out of a pond in Staffordshire, belonging to the present Sir Jervoise Clark Jervoise, two of which weighed thirty-six pounds, and the other thirty-five pounds. The pond was fished every seven years, and supposing that store pike of six or seven pounds weight were left in it, the growth of the pike in question must have been at the rate of at least four pounds a year. Salmon, however, grow much faster. It is now ascertained that grilse, or young salmon, of from two pounds and a half to three pounds weight, have been sent to the London markets in the month of May, the spawn from which they come having only been deposited in the preceding October or November, and the ova taking three months of the time to quicken. It has also been ascertained by experiment that a grilse, which weighed six pounds in February, after spawning, has, on its return from the sea in September, weighed thirteen pounds; and a salmon fry of April will in June weigh four pounds, and in August six pounds.-Gleanings of Natural History.

WICKED WILL.

WILLIAM B- — was employed generally to work in the barn of a respectable farmer at L, in Essex. From his singular profaneness he obtained the appellation of Wicked Will, and was principally known by this name in the village. One evening he was playing at cards with his companions, and repeatedly lost the game. At length he threw down the cards in great anger, and imprecated a judgment on his eyes, as of no manner of use to him. He was observed shortly afterwards to rub his eyes, as though they were painful to him, and to wash them at the pump. The following morning, a friend passing him remarked, that it was a fine morning, and that he could see a certain object at a great distance. To the surprise of this friend, Will replied, "I wish I could see it; but last night I dreamt I was counting over some guineas, all my own, and on awaking, I

found I had lost my sight: I am stone blind." He never recovered his sight, and in his character became worse and worse, indulging in the most awful oaths and exe crations.

Such men as these are awfully mischiev ous in a neighbourhood, as they do much to harden others in sin. No judgment, however awful, without the grace of God, will convert the heart. While Jehovah punishes sin, it becomes us to be grateful thus shows that he judges in the earth, and that he invites us to partake of his favour, and to receive from him the forgiveness of our transgressions.—Abridged from Cong, Mag.

ON FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.

HAPPY, thrice happy, they who can with all the confidence of truth adopt the apostle's language, “Truly, our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ;" who find access to the presence of God at every hour, but especially in every time of need. This was the privilege of the apostles in a high degree, and it was this which armed them for the contests in which they were engaged, and enabled them to come off" more than conquerors." But it was by no means confined to them, for "this honour have all his saints." It was not exclusively their privilege; it belongs to every, even the humblest, indiviBut we dual in the household of God. should ever remember that, in order to enjoy it, we must be in a state of reconciliation, for "how can two walk together except they be agreed?" It is a privilege which includes in it freedom of access, or liberty of approach to God; constant and intimate intercourse with God and with his Son; and the communication of spiritual blessings. And if such be the nature of the privilege, well may we anxiously inquire by what means it may be attained and enjoyed. Jesus Christ is not now personally present with his disciples, but is there no medium of communication open to us? Oh yes: though he be no longer with his disciples upon earth, yet there is as direct a communication between him and them now, as there was then. O let us manifest that we esteem this privilege, by studying his word, by attending on the ordinances of religion, and by prayer, which are the ordinary means of attaining and enjoying it. C. J. M.

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AMONG the monsters of the deep, whose voracity and weapons of attack render them terrible to their fellows, one of the most remarkable is the saw-fish, (Pristis antiquorum,) which inhabits the northern and temperate latitudes of the ocean. Nearly allied to the sharks, it has all their ferocity, and more than all their powers, being armed with a weapon of destruction, which gives it pre-eminence even over the mighty cetacea, the grampus, and the whale. The weapon to which we allude, is a kind of saw of a flattened form, projecting from the snout, armed along the edges with tremendous teeth: with this instrument, it strikes right and left, inflicting the most horrible wounds, or thrusts onwards, ripping the body of its unfortunate victim, on whose flesh it satiates its ravenous appetite. The saw-fish, closely allied, as we have said, to the sharks, (squalus,) con

VOL. II.

stitutes one of the group of soft-boned fishes; the mouth is placed beneath the head, the eyes are large, and situated before the nostrils; the body is long and compressed, and furnished with large and spreading fins. It frequently attains to extraordinary dimensions. The snout, or saw, before us, which is from an adult individual, measures five feet in length, and is nearly one foot broad at the base, whence it tapers to the apex, which is rounded, and measures five inches across. The number of teeth on each side are nineteen, but this appears to be subject to considerable variation. These teeth are placed at nearly equal distances from each other, and are from two to three inches in length, tapering to a sharp point. The snout, or saw, measures about one-third the length of the whole body, so that fifteen or twenty feet may be taken as the dimensions of a

3 M

full-grown saw-fish, its weapon included. The annexed sketch represents a portion of

ΑΛΛ

(Portion of the Saw.)

this formidable instrument, much diminished, it is true, but still capable of con

veying an idea of its character, which, as our readers must allow, is not a little terrific. With weapons thus adapted for aggression or defence, and with bodily powers enabling the possessor to use them to the utmost advantage, the saw-fish roams the deep in fearless security: not, however, that it is content with repelling the assaults of its adversaries; on the contrary, it carries on an implacable warfare against all that approach, as if confident in the superiority of its resources.

The saw-fish, under the name of pristis, was known to the ancients; it is described by Pliny, and alluded to by Virgil, who applies to it the epithet, swift.

When considering the formation of this wonderful fish, how are we constrained to cry out with the Psalmist, "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts." Ps.civ.24,25.

We add the sketch of one of the teeth of the saw of the natural dimensions. M.

CONFORMITY TO CHRIST IN SUFFERING. Ir is a sweet, a joyful thing to be a sharer with Christ in any thing. All enjoyments wherein he is not, are bitter to a soul that loves him, and all sufferings with him are sweet. The worst things of Christ are more truly delightful than the best things of the world: his afflictions are sweeter than their pleasures, his reproach more glorious than their honours, and more rich than their treasures, as Moses accounted them, Heb. xi. 26. Love delights in likeness and communion, not

only in things otherwise pleasant, but in the hardest and harshest things, which have not any thing in them desirable, but only that likeness. So that this thought is very sweet to a heart possessed of this love. What does the world by its hatred, and persecutions, and revilings for the sake of Christ, but make me more like him, give me a greater share with him in that which he did so willingly undergo for me? "When he was sought for to be made a king," as St. Bernard remarks, "he escaped; but when he was sought to be brought to the

cross, he freely yielded himself." And shall I shrink and creep back from what he calls me to suffer for his sake? Yea, even all my other troubles and sufferings, I will desire to have stamped thus, with this conformity to the suffering of Christ, in the humble, obedient, and cheerful endurance of them, and the giving up my will to my Father's.

DIVISION OF LABOUR.

AMONG the red ants which are very common in Mexico, the eye singles out a few of the workmen, or operari, which in point of size far exceed their fellowlabourers, and which have their mandibles, or jaws, proportionally large. The eye of the curious observer will be taught to regard these jaws, not as formidable, but as useful instruments, by the use of which they provide for their own wants, and for the wants of the males and females for which they labour.

While the writer was staying in Tepi, a province of Mexico, he had many opportunities of studying their habits. Observing one day a line of small ants carrying fresh pieces of the pulp of an orange much larger than themselves, he was inquisitive to learn by what means they could separate pieces of such magnitude. But upon advancing to inspect the half-eaten orange, he saw the larger ants described above, employed, like men in a quarry, in cutting off these pieces, which they gave to their lesser companions, who carried them to the place of

their retreat.

Who taught these creatures, ungifted with reason, not merely to combine, but to distribute their efforts and employment according to their abilities?

What a vast augmentation of happiness would succeed, if all of us were willing to improve that situation in which, by the appointment of Providence, we have been placed, instead of aspiring to things unattainable, or of coveting preferments for which we are not adapted. Among the ants, no disputings about the choice of occupation could be discovered; they all seemed to understand, that they had but one object, which was to house as much of the orange as possible, with the smallest possible expenditure of time and labour.

L.

ON THE RELATIVE PROPORTIONS OF THE

ELEMENTARY FORMS OF BODIES.

Ir has been minutely ascertained, within the last twenty years, by an almost infinite variety of accurate and well-defined expe

riments by Higgins, Dalton, Gay, Lussac, and Davy, that the combinations and separations of all simple bodies are conducted in a definite and invariable ratio of relative weight or measure; as that of one part to one part, one part to two parts, one to three, or one to four; and, consequently, that every change in the compound thus produced, whether of addition or diminution, is a precise multiple or division of such ratio; or, in other words, that the such compounds can never unite or sepadifferent elementary bodies which enter into rate, never lay hold of or let go each other, in any other proportions.

Let us exemplify this remark by a famiIt is now well known liar instance or two. to every one that the calxes, oxides, or, as they are often called, rusts, of metals, consist of a certain portion of oxygen with a certain portion of the metal, which is thus converted into a calx or oxide. It is also known in the present day to most persons, sessed of two or more kinds of oxides, prothat the greater number of metals are posduced by a union of different proportions of the oxygen and the metal, and often distinguishable even by their colour; as minium, or red lead, and ceruse, or white lead, which are equally oxides of the metal whose name they bear. Now, in whatever proportion the oxygen unites with the metal to produce an oxide of one kind, it invariably unites by a multiple or divisor kind of oxide belonging to the same metal. of the same proportion to produce every Thus we have discovered not less than four different oxides of antimony in different parts of the world: the lowest, or simplest of them, contains four and a half parts of oxygen to one hundred parts of metal; the next simplest contains eighteen parts of which is four times four and a half; the oxygen to one hundred parts of metal, third oxide consists of twenty-seven parts of oxygen to one hundred parts of metal, which is six times four and a half; and the fourth oxide, thirty-six parts of oxygen to one hundred parts of metal, which is eight times four and a half. So, tin, which possesses three discovered oxides, has for its of охуlowest the proportion of seven parts gen to one hundred parts of metal; for its second oxide, fourteen parts of oxygen to one hundred parts of metal, which is twice seven; and, for its highest, twenty-one parts of oxygen to one hundred parts of I have metal, which is three times seven. given the proportions in round numbers, but if I were to use the fractions that be. long to them, the comparative results would be precisely the same.

Nor can we