SOME QUEER RACING-CRAFT. The illustrations on this page are of two varieties of sail-boats that are very common in the vicinity of New York, and quite rare in other parts of the country. They are boats built expressly for speed, and are used almost entirely for racing. The upper of the two pictures represents a regatta of swift sailing craft that, as can be readily seen, would be totally unfit for a... more...

December 23, 1914. An exceptionally well-informed Berlin newspaper has discovered that, owing to the war, Ireland is suffering from a horse famine, and many of the natives are now to be seen driving cattle. An appeal is being made in Germany for cat-skins for the troops. In their Navy, on the other hand, they often get the cat itself. In offering congratulations to the "Green Howards" on the... more...

CASCADE AT VIRGINIA WATER. This has been described as "perhaps the most striking imitation we have of the great works of nature:" at all events, it has less of the mimicry of art than similar works on a smaller scale. Virginia Water will be recollected as the largest sheet of artificial water in the kingdom, with the exception of that at Blenheim. Near the high Southampton road it forms the... more...

RARE ARCTIC BIRDS.THE WHITE-HORNED OWLTHE COCK OF THE PLAINSLEGS AND FEET OF THE MOUNTAIN GROUSE.Few of the results of recent expeditions of discovery have been so interesting to the public as their contributions to zoological history. Many important additions to geographical science have also been made by these journeys into countries hitherto unexplored, or but imperfectly known by Europeans; but the... more...

The New Prison, Norwich. The old gaol in the city of Norwich, in the year 1823, being found no longer secure, nor according to the new act of parliament, admitting of sufficient room for the classification of the prisoners, the magistrates came to a resolution of erecting a new one outside the city, near St. Giles's gates; the same was accordingly advertised in the Norwich papers, in which... more...

NOTES ETYMOLOGY OF PENNIEL. Some eighteen years ago, the writer of the following sonnets, by the kindness of the proprietors of a pleasant house upon the banks of the Teviot, enjoyed two happy autumns there. The Roman road which runs between the remains of the camp at Chew Green, in Northumberland, and the Eildon Hills (the Trimontium of General Roy), passed hard by. The road is yet distinctly visible... more...

ROBBERY We shall not waste time over the looting of cellars, of larders, of poultry yards, of linen-chests, or of whatever can be consumed promptly, or immediately made use of by the troops—all these are the merest trifles. Let us also dismiss pillage, organised on a large scale by the authorities, of all sorts of raw material and industrial machinery: the bill on this score will come to... more...

The death of this distinguished man must be recorded. An interesting résumé of his labors by M. Daubree has appeared, from which we take the following facts. After a training in his native town at the Lyceum of Metz, which furnished so many scholars to the Polytechnic school, Delesse was admitted at the age of twenty to this school. In 1839 he left to enter the Corps des Mines. From the beginning of... more...

We look forward to the fifty-second anniversary of the American Missionary Association to be held at Concord, N. H., October 25-27, with exceptional interest. The sermon will be preached by Rev. Doctor George A. Gordon. Distinguished speakers add to the interest of the meetings. Missionaries from the field will present the varied features of their work among the Indians, mountain people and the colored... more...

Vicenza. SPIRIT OF THE "ANNUALS," FOR 1829. For some days past our table has been glittering with these caskets of song and tale in their gay attire of silken sheen and burnished gold—till their splendour has fairly put out the light of our sinumbra, and the drabs, blues, and yellows of sober, business-like quartos and octavos. Seven out of nine of these elegant little books are in... more...