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LESSONS IN LATIN.-XXXVII. DEVIATIONS IN THE SECOND CONJUGATION (continued). 5. Perfect in -1; Supine in -SUM.

i. Prandeo, prandere, prandi, pransum, I breakfast. ii. Sedeo, sedere, sedi, sessum, I sit.

In the same way are formed the compounds of sedeo which have prefixes of two syllables; as, circumsedeo, circumsedere, circumsedi, circumsessum, to sit round, enclose, besiege. The compounds, having prefixes of one syllable, change the e into i; e.g., assideo, assidere, assedi, assessum, to sit with or by.

iii. Strideo, stridere, stridi (no supine), to make a shrill or hissing sound.

iv. Video, videre, vidi, visum, I see; videor, I appear.

The following take a reduplication in the perfect :

v. Mordeo, mordere, momordi, morsum, I bite; and hence, I grieve, vex, or provoke.

vi. Pendeo, pendere, pependi (supine uncertain), I hang. vii. Spondeo, spondere, spopondi, sponsum, I vow, become liable for.

viii. Tondeo, tondere, totondi, tonsum, I shear.

The compounds of these reduplicated verbs follow their several primitives, but drop the reduplication; as, admordeo, admordi, admorsum, to bite at; præpendeo, præpendi, to hang before; respondeo, respondi, responsum, to reply; detondeo, detondi, detonsum, to shear off.

6. Perfect in -SI; Supine in -TUM.

i. Augeo, augere, auxi, anctum, I increase (E. R. augment). ii. Indulgeo, indulgere, indulsi (indultum, rare), I yield to, indulge.

iii. Lugeo, lugere, luxi (no supine), I grieve.

iv. Torqueo, torquere, torsi, tortum, I twist, torture.

Acute, sharply.
Ancillaris, -e (from an-
cilla, a maid-servant),
assisting, menial.
Barba, -æ, f., a beard.
Capillus, -i, the hair of
the head.
Collum, -i, n., a neck.
Epistola, -æ, f., a letter.
Extěrus, -a, -um, ex-
ternal, foreign.
Extorquêre, to extort,
take, or wrest.

VOCABULARY.

Ferreus, -a, -um, made
of iron, iron-hearted.
Interritus, -ūs, m., ruin
Lachryma,-, f., a tear.
Locupleto, 1, I enrich.
Occasus, -ûs, m., a
going down, a down-
fall.
Occupo, 1, I seize.
Pervidere, to see through,

handle, investigate.
Probitas, -ātis, f. (from

probus, good, kind),
honesty, goodness.

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Quoad, as long as.
Rabies, -ei, f., madness.
Rabiosus, -a, -um, mad,
raging.
Residère, to remain be-
hind.

Sica, -æ, f., a dagger.
Sicarius, -i, m., an as-
sassin.

Tonsor, -ōris, m., a
barber.
Tonstricula, æ, f., a
barber-girl.

EXERCISE 137.-LATIN-ENGLISH.

a sign of manliness, to think of in any way parting with them;
and the love of self-decoration then displayed itself in trimming
and dressing the beard. In time, effeminacy led to the shaving
of the beard. Besides being clipped, the chin was also shaven,
and the hair was plucked out, so as to promote what was con-
sidered a becoming appearance. Thus, three methods of hair.
dressing prevailed-clipping (cutting), plucking out, and shaving.
Tonsor has a feminine noun, tonstrix, and in the exercise we find
tonstricula. Hence we learn that hair-dressing was not confined
to men only.
7. Perfect in -SI; Supine in -SUM.

i. Mulceo, mulcere, mulsi, mulsum, I soothe.
ii. Mulgeo, mulgere, mulsi, mulsum, I milk.
iii. Tergeo, tergere, tersi, tersum, I wipe or scour.
iv. Ardeo, ardere, arsi, arsum, I burn.

v. Rideo, ridere, risi, risum, I laugh.

vi. Suadeo, suadere, suasi, suasum, I advise.
vii. Maneo, manere, mansi, mansum, I remain.
viii. Jubeo, jubere, jussi, jussum, I command.
ix. Hæreo, hærere, hæsi, hæsum, I stick.
The ensuing are without supines:
x. Algeo, algere, alsi, I am cold.
xi. Fulgeo, fulgere, fulsi, I shine forth, lighten.
xii. Turgeo, turgere, tursi, I swell.

xiii. Urgeo, urgere, ursi, I press.

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xiv. Frigeo, frigere (frixi, rare), I am stiff with cold.

xv. Luceo, lucere, luxi (lucsi), I shine.

8. Perfect in the passive form (semi-deponents); no Supine.

i. Audeo, audere, ausus sum, I dare venture.

ii. Gaudeo, gaudere, gavisus sum, I rejoice.

iii. Soleo, solere, solitus sum, I am accustomed.

Abstergere, to wipe

away, remove.

Affulgere, to shine upon.
Cadūcus, -a, -um, fail-
ing, frail.
Carthaginensis, -is, m.,
a Carthaginien.

VOCABULARY.
Convivor, I eat in com-

mon.

Deridere,to laugh down.
or at.
Detergere,to wipe down.
Dissuadere, to dissuade.
Elucere, to shine forth.

nishment.

Mirifice, wonderfully,
Napoleo, -ōnis, m., Na
poleon.
Oblectare, to delight.
Optare, to wish for.
Perpetior, perpěti, per-

pessus sum, I suffer
greatly. [greatly.
Permulcère, to soothe
Lateo, -ui, 2, I lie kid Remanere, to remain.
(E. R. latent). Scintilla, -æ, f., a sperk.

Comitas, -atis, f., po- Exsilium, -i, exile, ba-
liteness.
Confectio, -ōnis, a mak-
ing, preparation.

EXERCISE 139.-LATIN-ENGLISH.

1. Dux mitibus verbis excitos militum animos permulsit. 2. Legendis Virgilii carminibus animus meus mirifice oblectatus et per mulsus est. 3. Ita jucunda mihi hujus libri confectio fuit, ut omnes absterserit senectutis molestias. 4. Non prius ad te veniam qua luctum omnem meum abstersero. 5. Detersane jam est tabula? 6. Quadraginta milia librorum Alexandriæ (at Alexandria) arserunt. 7. Non dubito quin brevi tempore tota Germania bello arsura sit. 8. Quis est cui semper arriserit fortuna ? 9. Nescio cur a te derisus sim. 10. Sic mihi persuasi, sic sentio, non esse animos nostros mortales. 11. Quis credat cives pacem dissuasures esse ? 12. Quis confidit semper sibi illud stabile et firmum permansurum esse, quod fragile et caducum sit ? 13. Romanorum gloria usque ad nostram memoriam remansit. 14. Lycurgus convivari omnes cives jussit. EXERCISE 140.-ENGLISH-LATIN.

1. Postquam prandero, ambulabo. 2. Nos cras in horto prandebimus. 3. Audistine nos cras in horto pransuros esse ? 4. Quoad ulla spes in animo meo resedit, pro patriæ libertate dimicavi. 5. Jam tres menses obsiderunt hostes nostram urbem. 6. Non sum ille ferreus qui (= ut ego) non movear horum omnium lachrymis, a quibus me circumsessum videtis. 7. Multi putant se beneficos in suos amicos visum iri, si locupletent eos quacunque ratione. 8. Cave ne prius de re aliquâ judices quam eam diligenter pervidĕris. 9. Epistolæ tuæ valde me momorderunt. 10. Si quis a cane rabiose morsus est, rabies eum occupat. 11. Quoad tu locutus es, puer ab ore tuo pependit. 12. Spopondistine pro amico? 13. Spopondi. 14. Multa a Lælio et in senatu et in foro vel provisa prudenter, vel acute responsa sunt. 15. Cicere narravit Dionysium ne tonsori collum committeret, tondere filias suas docuisse; ita sordido ancillarique officiojoiced. 5. Fortune smiles on brave men. regias virgines ut tonstriculas totondisse barbam et capillum patris, EXERCISE 138.-ENGLISH-LATIN.

1. I have dined. 2. My friends have dined. 3. After my friends have (shall have) dined, they will take a walk. 4. Hast thou heard that I am about to dine in the garden ? 5. I heard that thou hadst been shaved by a barber-girl. 6. It is not true; the barber shaved me. 7. Give me that dagger. 8. Take (extorqueo) the dagger from the hands of the assassin. 9. The mother and the father will bewail the ruin of the young man. 10. I have taken the dagger from the hands of the slave. 11. What dost thou see? 12. I see a city besieged. 13. Our country has been much increased by wisdom and industry. 14. Wisdom and industry are preferable (potior) to (than, abl.) war.

In the word tonsor, a barber, we have an instance of the way in which language conveys to posterity a knowledge of customs and manners. Tonsor is properly a shearer, from tondeo, I shear. The Romans, like the Greeks, were too proud of their beards, as

1. I am accustomed to rejoice at the prosperity of my friends. 2 They have rejoiced. 3. They will rejoice. 4. My sisters have re6. Dost thou think that fortune will smile on the brave? 7. I deny that fortune always smiles on the brave. 8. He laughs at the philosopher. 9. Why is the philo sopher derided by a boy? 10. There is no doubt that philosophers have been derided by very foolish persons. 11. Orators wish to soothe the excited minds of the citizens. 12. I am persuaded that orators ought to soothe the excited minds of men. 13. In the reign of Napoleon (Napoleon reigning, abl. abs.), all Europe burned with war. Fabula.-Hoedus et Lupus.

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Hœdus stans in tecto domus lupo prætereunti maledixit. Cui lupus,

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"Non tu," inquit, "sed tectum mihi maledixit." Sæpe locus et tempus timidos homines audaces reddit.

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Hoedus, -i, m., a kid.
Inquit, said.
In tecto, under the cover
or protection.

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KEY TO EXERCISES IN LESSONS IN LATIN.-XXXVI.
EXERCISE 133.-LATIN-ENGLISH.

1. Minerva taught Cicero all arts. 2. The mingled earnestness of
modesty is greatly to be admired. 3. So many times have I been occu-
pied, and with such important business, that I am unable (that it is not
allowed to me) to breathe freely. 4. Know you not how many toils,
how many dangers, how many miseries the soldiers have sustained on
their way? 5. If virtue has restrained you from bad desires, your life
will be happy. 6. Cicero having been told all things by the ambas-
sadors, ordered the prætors to seize the Allobroges on the bridge. 7.
8. The ascent to
Let not their minds mingle with the vices of men.
heaven is easy to the good. 9. The less minds have mingled with and
attached themselves to the errors and vices of men, the easier to them
will be the ascent to heaven. 10. The nature of the mind is simple,
nor has it in it anything mixed. 11. We live on grapes dried in the
sun. 12. We have dried many grapes this season. 13. Cato was of
opinion that Carthage should be destroyed. 14. Every fifth year all
Sicily was subjected to the census. 15. Two most powerful cities,
Carthage and Numantia, were destroyed by Scipio. 16. No forgetful-
ness has ever blotted out the fame of the Greeks and Romans, nor ever
will blot it out. 17. God has filled the world with all good things, and
has mixed with it nothing bad.

EXERCISE 134.-ENGLISH-LATIN.

1. Cicero a Minervâ omnes artes edoctus est. 2. Cives sex templa publice voverunt. 3. Templum Veneri dedicaverunt. 4. Mater in fantem fovet. 5. Mater semper liberos fovebit. 6. Uxores maritos foverunt. 7. Militum clades per urbem magnum ploratum movit. 8. Nescio quot labores sustinueris. 9. Nescis quot labores sustinuerim. 10. Pater te a vitio areuit. 11. Age patri gratias, quum te a vitio

arcuerit. 12. Cave ne animus vitæ solicitudinibus se admisceat. 13. Magnum fovi in pectore meo amorem. 14. In meo pectore magnus amor in te fotus est. 15. Quis hoc bellum movit ? 16. Hostium duces hoc bellum moverunt. 17. Tua mens excita nunquam sedabitur. 18. Delete hæc verba. 19. Historiam imperii ejus delevit. 20. Mala non sunt facilia deletu. 21. Pater tuus vitium delendum esse censuit.

EXERCISE 135.-LATIN-ENGLISH.

1. Teach me how I may escape these things. 2. I did not receive the letter which should inform me what you were doing. 3. I told you your brother's reason. 4. The judge must be informed of the cause of the affair. 5. His father informs the judges concerning the injuries of Augustus. 6. Your uncle will instruct you about your journey. 7. It is fit and pleasant to teach those desirous of learning. 8. I envy your master who for so large a fee has taught you to be wise in nothing. 9. I teach many scholars the Latin language. 10. I must be taught to speak Greek. 11. He taught my daughter to play on the lyre. 12. They may teach him to ride a horse and to use weapons. 13. Will you teach me the Greek language? 14. Teach these my sons music. 15. Gladly will I teach you letters.

EXERCISE 136.-ENGLISH-LATIN.

1. Doce me quo modo tibi prodesse possim. 2. Filiam tuam gram. maticam decebunt. 3. Docui uxorem meam Latinam linguam loqui. 4. Me docent fidibus. 5. Latinam linguam doctus est. 6. Doce eos Græce loqui. 7. A pater doctus multa sum. 8. Musicam a sorore mea docentur. 9. Nescio quid te doceam de belli evento. 10. Latinam linguam docendi sunt pueri. 11. Doctus sum Græce loqui. 12. Multi discipuli a me Latinam linguam docti sunt.

Fable. The Mouse and the Kite.

A kite, caught in a snare, besought a little mouse to set him free by gnawing the meshes of the net (the meshes of the not being gnawed). Which being done, the liberated kite seized the mouse and devoured it. This fable shows what thanks the wicked are wont to give in return for benefits.

RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY.

THE ANTELOPES.

We have already treated of three great families of ruminants,
the ox, sheep, and deer,* and we must now finish our account of
this important order of mammals by some notices of the ante-
lopes. These resemble the ox and sheep in possessing perma-
nent and hollow horns, and the deer in their forms and motions.
If numbers entitle animals to high consideration, then the
antelopes will occupy the first rank among ruminants. To a
native of Europe this statement may at first seem questionable;
but a slight acquaintance with the works of African and Asiatic
travellers will lead to the conviction that if a census of the
ruminants could be taken, the antelopes would outnumber all
the ox, sheep, and goat families combined. These quadruped
armics give life to the far-stretching table-lands of Asia, and
cover the luxuriant plains of South Africa. Some species find
food in the sandy wilds of Thibet, and on the storm-swept
steppes of Mongolia; others make their homes in the deep
forests of northern India; while some delight in mountain
The great number of species into
peaks and rocky solitudes.
which this extensive family is divided renders it impossible
in one short article to describe more than a few of the more
remarkable members of the group.

Europe can, at the utmost, reckon but two antelopes among
her ruminants, the chamois (Antilope rupicapra) and the saiga
(Antilope colus). The name rupicapra (rock-goat), applied to
the former, suggests the difficulty which naturalists have felt
in classing this creature of the Alpine peaks. We will, however,
admit it among the antelopes, and this will give one species of
the family to Western Europe, leaving the saiga to the regions
Neither
of the Lower Danube and the hills of Caucasus.
species can be deemed a good example of antelope form and
beauty, the rough coat of the chamois, and the heavy, sheep-
like body of the saiga, exhibiting little of elegance or grace.
But either animal may be taken as a good specimen of the won-
derful activity and amazing watchfulness which distinguish the
whole family. The skill of the keenest rifleman is often baffled
when tracking the chamois along the edge of the avalanche or
up the ice-covered peaks. Far of the daring animal stands, on
some projection of a rock where no hunter's foot can tread, or
bounds from crag to crag as if endowed with supernatural
energies. No finer specimen of brute skill and courage can be
witnessed in Europe. The muscular power by which the brave
creature balances itself on the narrow ledge of rock, and then
springs from this across a fathomless gulf to a mere shelf of
the opposite precipice, may well excite the envy of the most
daring and best-trained hunters. The contest between human
power and animal energy is here seen in its highest forms.

The saigas, or antelopes of Eastern Europe, are often seen in flocks many thousands in number when making their autumnal migration from the barren plains of the north to the sheltered valleys of the south. Man keeps a sharp look-out for their approach, and destroys vast multitudes, not for the sake of venison, but to enrich himself by the sale of their horns and skins. The belles of Europe and Asia wear ornamental combs made from the transparent substance of the saiga's horn, while the skins may appear, as elegant gloves, in the shops of London and Paris. Thus far this antelope may claim to be a promoter of civilisation, and to share with the tortoise the honour of adorning beauty's head.

The gazelle, or Dorcas antelope, has supplied Eastern poets with many an image suggestive of honest praise or fulsome flattery. The lover has won the Moorish lady's heart by sending to her the message, "You have the eyes of a gazelle." Such brevity was to her mind the very soul of wit, and of its meaning no damsel with even the smallest of hearts could doubt. The beauty and speed of the gazelle did not escape the notice of the The swiftness of the ancient Hebrew poets and historians. warrior Asahel and of the Gadites+ is likened to that of the gazelle, while in the Song of Solomon the animal is taken as the most expressive symbol of the beautiful. These antelopes are as courageous as they are graceful. When attacked by the lion of the Sahara, the males form themselves into a circle, with the

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does and fawns in the centre, and, presenting a line of sharp horns to the enemy, prepare to receive his charge on this row of living bayonets. Readers must not confound the rare algazel (Antilope gazella) of Senegal with the beautiful species we have just described. The algazel is little known, but is remarkable for the extraordinary horns which, curving backwards over the neck, form an arc of a large circle. The name usually given to this antelope is very misleading, for "al" being only the definite article, the compound epithet al-gazel signifies the gazelle, and thus leads many to confound this species with the more famous Dorcas antelope. The algazel appears to be related to a species around which many a fable has grown. From what animal was the notion of a unicorn derived? The shape of this heraldic creature, and its possession of a horn, naturally lead us to look for its type among the antelopes. The abu-addas (father-addas) or white antelope of Nubia (Antilope leucorya) has been selected as the animal which may have suggested the notion of the unicorn to the ancient naturalists. But as the abu-addas has two long horns, it seems impossible to imagine how it could have suggested the idea of a one-horned quadruped. The abu-addas is, we admit, so represented in profile on the monuments of ancient Egypt that only one horn is visible; but it is not probable that the old writers on the unicorn were misled by any such pictorial peculiarities. Some have thought that the Chiree antelope, frequenting the forests of

the lower Himalayas, and which sometimes has but one horn, must have given the first notion of the unicorn. Laughing sceptics may inquire why this constant heraldic companion of the British lion should be traced from any actual animal. Surely, if the zoologists of olden times could form the notion and believe in the existence of a bird which had a worm for its mother and lived for 500 years, it would give such men small trouble to imagine a unicorn. We need not, therefore, weary ourselves by searching among the antelopes for the prototype of that valiant beast which formerly upheld the honour of Scotland, and still nobly aids in supporting the shield of the house of Brunswick. We know that some old museums used proudly to exhibit the carefully-preserved horns of unicorns, as positive proofs of the existence of such

If the animal now in the Zoological Gardens, London, may be regarded as a fair specimen of his race, then we fear the gnus must have terrible tempers. Perhaps that particular animal may be irritated by his imprisonment, but he is by no means a type of antelope gentleness. He saluted us with a fierce bellow, snorted indignantly, and looked as if nothing would gratify him more than to drive his curved horns into our ribs. Not being able thus to indulge his feelings, he consoled himself by angrily tossing up the straw in his compartment. The keepers evidently understand the gentleman's temper, as they have fixed metal caps on his horns.

Amongst the antelopes of South Africa, the springbok, or leaping buck (Antilope euchore), would be the most formidable rival of the gazelle for the prize of beauty. The individual in the Zoological Gardens will give an observer some idea of the elegant proportions of the animal, but the graceful freedom of its motions can be seen only on its native plains. Can the reader picture to himself an army of twenty or thirty thousand of these swift and beautiful creatures of the wilderness galloping over the far-stretching wastes? Such are the grand panoramas of animal life shown to the savage tribes of Africa.

The blessbok (Antilope albifrons), called also the painted goat, may in the opinion of many be considered a more beautiful antelope than the springbok. The mode in which the colours

THE DORCAS ANTELOPE.

animals. But we also know that cruel and unromantic natu- | ralists have proved one to be the tusk of the narwhal, or unicorn whale, and another to have been manufactured from an elephant's tusk! If no antelope can be found with one horn, it may be some consolation to discover a species furnished with four. This is the chickara of India (Antilope quadricornis), which certainly possesses that number, though the second pair are hardly an inch long.

These animals present us with remarkable differences, not merely in their horns, but in their bodily structure and formas. The nyl-ghau, or blue ox (Antilope picta) approaches a bullock in bulk, while the pigmy antelope of Africa is not larger than a rat. The bulk of the huge nyl-ghau, and its ferocity when assailed, preserve it from the attacks of the ordinary hunters, who, even when they have killed it, are seldom able to carry off their prey. We were looking at the animal in the Regent's Park Gardens a few days ago, when a gentleman from India remarked, "I have often seen sixty or seventy of these in a troop, but they were not worth shooting at." The magnificent Mogul emperor Aurangzebe, who modestly styled himself "the conqueror of the world," was also anxious to vanquish the nylghau, which he attacked seated on his trained elephant.

One of the most notable antelopes is the singular gnu, which we might be pardoned for describing as a horned horse. Some have found in its appearance resemblances to the horse, buffalo, and stag. When a long file is seen galloping over the plains of South Africa, they might easily be taken for a troop of zebras.

are arranged on the body pro

cured for the animal its name of blessbok or blazebuck, while the peculiar white mark down the face justifies the epithet al bifrons. Thus the animal has the good fortune to be appropriately named both in Dutch and Latin.

Other interesting species might be noticed, such as the Prong. buck (Antilope furcifer) of North America, the beautiful sasin of India (Antilope cervicapra), the dzerens of Mongolia (Antilope gutturosa), and many more, but our limited space forbids such extended details.

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Readers will, probably, not have failed to notice that the widely spread family of the antelopes are not always very clearly distinguished from the goats on the one hand and the deer on the other, and even approach, in some particulars, to the ox kind. The permanent horns may serve to distinguish the antelopes from the deer, but both possess the tear-pits, and one species of antelope, the prongbuck, shows a tendency to the branched horn. It will thus be seen that the antelopes touch, at various points, every family of the great ruminating order. Another noteworthy fact is the almost complete absence of these animals from America and Europe; one species only, the prongbuck, being found in the former continent, and not more than two in the latter. Yet the prairies of the New World seem more adapted to the habits of such animals than the wild table-lands of Central Asia.

The countless hosts of antelopes which inhabit many a desert region may suggest to us some notion of the living multitudes found in places which we regard as tenantless because man is absent there.

Does not the almost innumerable variety of form and struc ture in these animals show what amazing modifications may arise from one simple type of animal organisation?

We trust this very brief survey of a race of creatures living in remote lands, far from the range of our observations, may lead some of our readers to take a wider view over the vast field of animal life, and induce others to receive with deeper interest the zoological reports brought from distant regions.

A strongly-defined white line along the face of a horse is some times called a blaze.

LESSONS IN GEOLOGY.-X.

FOSSILS.

A FOSSIL, as the derivation of the word indicates (fossus, dug up), means anything which is exhumed from the earth. The application of the word is restricted to organic remains, the substance of which has undergone mineralisation or petrifaction. If any of the original material of the body be still unchanged, the term sub-fossil is sometimes used, though it is quite unnecessary; for if any organic body had only been buried a few years, without impropriety it might be called a fossil. There are three kinds of fossils ::

1. When the animal or vegetable remain is embedded in clay, or some recent deposit, and preserved in its natural state.

2. When the original substance of the body has been removed, and particles of mineral matter have replaced the organic particles, thus forming an exact model of the embedded body.

3. When all the hollow parts of the shell have become filled with fine particles of mud, thus forming a cast of the inside. At a subsequent time the shell became removed, and this cast remained to perpetuate the memory of the buried animal.

Fig. 16a is a good example of this action. The "fossil screw" is common in the limestone of the middle oolitethe coral-ragand is nothing but a cast of the internal structure of the phasianella (Fig. 166). Fig. 17

shows the cast of the pleurotomaria (Fig. 176) in situ. The lime of which the shell was composed was, in each instance, either dissolved by the water under certain circumstances, or otherwise destroyed.

The space it occupied is evident in Fig. 17a. In this class are placed the prints of the footsteps of birds and beasts, which are found on rocky slabs. In one sense they are the remains of animal life.

The Process of Fossilisation.-The simplest form of fossilisation is when water charged with some mineral in solution saturates a substance, and in its pores deposits the mineral matter. It is in this manner that petrifying springs "turn into stone" porous bodies immersed in their waters.

This mode of fossilisation may be practically illustrated by steeping thin vertical slices of deal in a solution of green vitriol -sulphate of iron-for several days. The wood is then removed and dried, and upon exposing it to a red heat the vegetable matter is consumed, and nothing but oxide of iron remains, which has so exactly taken the form of the deal that even the casts of the dotted vessels which characterise this species of wood are visible under the microscope.

In this case, as in all cases of recent petrifaction, the original fibre of the wood is left intact, and the pores only are filled up with the mineral matter held in solution in the water. But after a lapse of time a further process sets in, and the original matter of the body begins to decay. Particle after particle makes its escape, either as gas, or, becoming loosened, drops out of its place, and its position is at once filled by an atom of mineral matter. Thus, in time, all the body is replaced by the deposit in which it is buried, and a fossil produced which faithfully preserves the structure of the plant or shell.

Soft animal tissues can never be fossilised, but during their process of putrefaction the gases they emit cause various chemical precipitates to be thrown down from the water in which they are immersed.

The student will frequently find a nodule of clay which, when broken, is found to contain the fossil of an ammonite, or some other shell-fish, bright with a metallic crust of iron pyrites. The presence of this is easily accounted for by the fact that albumen, a constituent of all animal tissues, contains sulphur, and when undergoing decomposition this sulphur escapes as sulphuretted hydrogen gas. If the water be impregnated with iron, a sulphide of that metal would be found at the place where the gas was produced, and thus the fossil would be built up partially of iron sulphide. These replacements of matter frequently take place more than once, and with such wonderful accuracy that a piece of wood, whose ligneous matter had been replaced atom for.atom by carbonate of lime, and this again by silica or flint-processes which may have taken ages for their completion-still retains its structure; and, under the microscope, reveals sufficient of the arrangement of the woody fibre to determine its nature.

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The observant reader will at once perceive that the best fossils will be found in rocks of the finest grain, such as limestones, whereas sandstones embed fossils which retain no delineation of delicate structure. It frequently happens, especially with fossils of carbonate of lime, that a process of crystallisation has caused a rearrangement of the particles, utterly obliterating all indication of organic structure.

This subject of fossilisation is not sufficiently understood to

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warrant our dwelling further upon it. We have indicated the general outlines of the process, but the more intricate questions require a greater knowledge of chemistry than we can presume our readers possess. We only would observe that it must not be supposed that in all cases the lapse of many years was required for the completion of the mineralisation, for it frequently happens that the very soft tissues of plants, which would rapidly decay, are beautifully fossilised, especially in siliceous matter, indicating the occasional rapidity of the process.

In enumerating the characteristic fossils of the various systems of rocks, we shall so frequently have cause to refer to the generic names, that we give a full classification of the animal kingdom-omitting the families-as arranged by Professors Owen and Huxley. We shall not have occasion to mention many of the orders here given, but we judge it important to give a table of reference, so that the relative position of those fossils we do not mention may be comprehended. The orders in italics are only known in a fossil state.

KINGDOM, ANIMALIA.
SUB-KINGDOM, VERTEBRATA.
Class I.-MAMMALIA.
Sub-class. Placentalia.

Archencephala:

Order 1. Bimana Gyrencephala:

2. Quadrumana

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3. Zoantharia

Four-starred corals. Six-starred corals.

Class II.-HYDROZOA.

Order 1. Lucernaroida 2. Hydroida

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Sertularia. Medusa.

SUB-KINGDOM, PROTOZOA.

Class I.-STOMATODA.

Order 1. Noctilucida (?) 2. Infusoria

Order 1. Spongiada

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Noctiluca. Vorticella.

Sponges.

Class II.-ASTOMATA.

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2. Foraminifera 3. Thalassicolida 4. Gregarinidæ .

Nummulites, orbitolites.
Thalassicolla.
Gregarina.

The above tabulation is intended for reference.

We have

left the meanings of the terms unexplained, intending to enter into the explanation of those under which the various fossils we shall deem it necessary to mention will be arranged.

Like all systems of classification, it is only provisional, and as further examination is conducted, it is altered and adapted accordingly.

There is another division of the class "Pisces," which was arranged by Agassiz.

In almost all the fish of the Paleozoic period, the limits of which will be defined in the next lesson, the skeleton passed on to the tip of the tail, causing the lobes to be unequal, hence such fish are said to be heterocercal (different-tailed)-Fig. 18. Very few of these fish now exist; the shark and sturgeon are examples.

The great majority of recent fish are homocercal (having tails with like lobes)-Fig. 19. This caudal development will be

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