HAMILTON.-Hail on 28th. Fog 17th. Snow 4th, 6th, 9th, 23rd. Rain 3rd, 6th, 7th, 17th-19th, 25th. SIMCOE.-Meteor at 8 p.m. on commencing 40° above the horizon, proceeded in a South-easterly course, and exploded when it arrived at about 30° above the horizon. Wind storm 7th. Rain 4th. A very cold month, there being scarcely any rain. WINDSOR.-Lunar halo on 2nd, 28th, 30th. Navigation on Detroit River resumed on 10th. Lake St. Clair open 17th. Lake Erie 23rd. Lightning with rain 3rd. Hail 7th. Thunder 18th. Lightning 17th. Wind storms 7th-9th, 11th, 12th, 22nd, 23rd. Fog 2nd, 6th, 17th, 18th. Snow 4th, 7th,

12th, 26th. Rain 3rd, 6th, 7th, 17th, 19th.

III. Papers on Practical Education.

WHERE LESSONS SHOULD BE LEARNED.

parents. Let a person notice the scholars of this town return home from school, and he will be astonished to see the books they carry with them. They are expected to study a lesson in each book before the return to the school-room the next morning, where they recite, and the next evening they return with a new batch of lessons with which to bother their parents. Here children even carry their slates and arithmetics home for their parents to teach than they can study at school, the sooner some of them are cut off them how to cypher. If this is because they have more lessons the better. Children are burdened with too many studies; in consequence none are well learned, and the children become discontented with school.

A child should have but few lessons, but they should be well prepared, under the eye of the teacher. We doubt whether modern school books are the great aids to study they have the credit of beOn the question as to whether pupils should prepare all their les-ing. As a rule, we do not believe the children understand, or can sons in the school-room and none of them at home, there is some-appreciate the author's system. Teachers and scholars should unthing to be said on both sides. The Philadephia Bulletin says :- derstand that there is no royal road to knowledge. It is labour to It was a very remarkable fact that in these days, when the sub-teach and labour to learn, and both parties should understand it. ject of education is so extensively discussed, and when there is When children studied Comly's spelling book, Pike's arithmetic, such a general desire among an entire people to procure for their and read from the English reader, they had better prepared lessons children a higher attainment in learning than they have enjoyed than now, and had as good, if not better, knowledge of the branches themselves, that there should be almost no schools, either public or they studied. Then the children were taught in the school-room, private, where children are taught anything. This assertion may and the parents were not taxed with this duty. Will some of our sound a little startling; and a good many parents may read it educational experts turn their attention to these evils? with an instinctive contradiction, as the familiar visions of school bills, rise before them, and they remember all the trouble and expense that it has cost them to find a good school for their boys and girls, and to keep them at school after it has been found. And it will be also resented by those who labor under the impression that "The time of the singing of birds draws near. The sun is they teach school in this city. But it is a stubborn fact that speaks thrusting his nood mornings upon us at an unseasonably early calling badly for our vaunted progress in the science of education, that al- hour and as kindly delaying a little each day his evening (a) dews. most nothing is taught in the schools of the present day. They The question is, shall we, when it is "out," give more than a passing Nature has a new edition of a wonderful book just now in press." are simply recitation-rooms, where the children go to repeat the results of laborious study and instruction at home. The glance to its innumerable, curiously wrought leaves, its gorgeous school proper is at home, and the parents are the teachers. The illustrations of incomparable grace and beauty. I know that when amount of labour that our modern school system throws upon the the volume is spread out before us in its freshness and glory, all parents of the scholars is as intolerable as it is wrong and unreason- the world for a little season will yield to its inspiration. With wonable. In many families, the evening circle is simply a drudgery dering eyes and awe-parted lips, all the world will then be one But why should we as teachers lose so favourover the teaching and learning of lessons, often so badly adapted great Botany Class.

SHALL WE HAVE A BOTANY CLASS.

to the capacity of the pupil, to be learned from text-books so in-able an opportunity of leading the minds of those we teach still geniously contrived to" darken wisdom with words without know- farther in this department of truth. Let us consider whether there ledge," that parent and child are alike incapable of mastering their are sufficient reasons why we should take up this subject in all our difficulties. Hours that belong to domestic recreation and enjoy-schools; whether at this season of the year this should not be one ment are thus converted into hours of weariness and vexation. of the regular branches of study. A few suggestions will be preUnder such a system as this, the school has very little to do with sented here, but stronger and better ones will present themselves to education. It merely affords a machine for cutting out the work, the thoughtful investigator of the subject, and the aim of this article and inspecting it when it is done. If it is a well-ordered school, it is to stimulate such investigations. may also supply some useful moral discipline; in a few, it may What is our aim in teaching any subject? Surely not simply to even supply the much neglected physical training of the scholars, pour from the chalice of the fulness of our knowledge into the But it has very little to do with educating the mind. The mental empty cups of ignorance around us; but rather to put our pupils in discipline, the habit of intelligent study, the acquirement and the way of satisfying their God-given thirst for truth. Can we sucdigestion of knowledge, these ends, which the school professes to ceed in leading them to a quick perception and a ready use of truth? How this can best be compass, are all remanded to the parents at home. They are the Then verily we hold not our office in vain. teachers. They do the chief work for which schools are established, done is the question all true teachers are trying to solve. Any and for which they pay. The nominal teachers are mere monitors, means which will lead them to be wisely observant, and to systemainspectors, occasionally drill-masters, to whom boys and girls, tically arrange the result of their observations will certainly be a crammed at home by painstaking parents, or by private tutors hired step in the right direction. And just such are the inseparable to relieve the parents from the labour, go daily to recite. That results of a properly directed study of the subject. Charles Dudley this is strictly true will be testified by the thousands of homes that says: "It is held by some naturalists, that the child is are converted into night schools by this absurd and radically de- only a zoophyte, with a stomach and feelers radiating from it in fective system. search of something to fill it. It is true that a child is always hungry all over; but he is also curious all over; and his curiosity is excited about as early as his hunger. He immediately begins to put out his moral feelers into the unknown and the infinite, to discover what sort of an existence this is into which he has come."

Let some body invent a school where children shall be taught, a system of education by which no school-books shall be carried home, but under which the teacher and not the parent shall have the drudgery of the work. Such a school, in these days would be a novelty and a success, educationally and pecuniarily. If the parents must do any part of the work, let them hear the recitations, and not have the onerous task of instruction, which they pay the teacher to perform, thrust upon them, as is now ordinarily done. The public need is for schools, not for mere recitation-rooms.

To this the Doylestown Democrat responds :

We thank the Bulletin for the above sensible views on the school question. They meet our approbation, and no doubt will meet that of the thousands who read them. There are several things radically wrong in our school system which need correction. As the Bulletin remarks, our schools, as a general thing, are only places for the children to recite their lessons, while the drudgery of preparation falls upon the parents at home.

The common practice of having school children carrying their books home to study their lessons, should have a stop put to it. The teachers are paid both to teach the children and have them recite their lessons, and they should not devolve this duty on the

Warner

And have we not all proved that this mental appetite can be so stimulated as to cause him, for a time, even to forget the physical. What a quantity of beautiful and varied material so admirably adapted to stimulate and satisfy this appetite, the vegetable world affords. And as if that were not enough to entice us, we find a new set with which to begin operations every year.

Another reason, not to be overlooked in these money-getting times of ours, is, the culture it gives to the finer sensibilities. Who can "hold communion with the visible forms" of fairy ferns, stately trees, the exquisite shapes and colourings of flowers and fruits, without his innate sensibility to beauty developing and growing within him? Do not imagine that anything of the pure and elevating influence of flowers is lost by looking at them scientifically. The more we study them the more we shall feel with Wood, that : "The benevolent Thought, which first conceived of this crowning glory of the vegetable world had evidently in view the education of man's moral nature as well as the reproduction and permanence of vegetable nature."

66

But how many dwelling all their lives amid the "grass of the literature of a disgusting and disgraceful character. The question field" never stop to note the glory and the beauty with which God was not between cheap literature and something better, but between so clothed it," and of those who do pause to admire the Solomon- that and something worse, and, that being so, he thought they surpassing glory of the lilies, how few realize that the command is, could have no hesitation in preferring the cheap literature. not to wonder and admire but, to "consider how they grow."

To my fellow teachers working in the common schools both mixed and graded, this subject presents strong claims. Its educational THE VALUE OF LITERATURE TO TEACHERS. benefits will show themselves in every other subject. It is said of that great student of facts in Nature, Agassiz, that his perception should not fall behind in this intellectual race which seems to be It must be admitted that in this age of universal reading, teachers was so wonderfully acute, that things in which others saw nothing worthy of notice, often became to him the eloquent exposition of deep and far-reaching scientific truth. All our pupils ought to develop something of this power. Another leading benefit is the habit of methodizing their acquisitions so as to be available to themselves and others.-E. Richardson in N. Y. State Educational

Journal.

RULES FOR RECITING.-1. Give your entire attention throughout the recitation.

2. Stand or sit erect, and move quietly and quickly. 3. Be independent, and answer in your own words.

4. Raise your hand promptly whenever prepared to answer or criticise, but never speak without permission.

5. Speak distinctly, energetically, and in a pleasant tone of voice. 6. Ask help only during recitation.

7. Criticise closely, but kindly; discuss earnestly, but honestly; and yield gracefully when convinced of error.

8. Speak briefly, stick to the point, and avoid side issues.

One of the English School Inspectors, in his recent report, says that his custom is to examine the first class in reading in one of the newspapers of the day, and with generally satisfactory results.

IV. Papers on Literature and Science.

urging us forward at such rate of speed as almost to take away all power of thought. When we see men, women, and children, issuing from the public library of the town or city our first impression is that we are a remarkably literary people. And if the reading tion of our literary taste, we are so most emphatically. But is there through volume after volume—mostly works of fiction—is an indicanot another view of this subject?

Grant that quantity is something, yet reading alone does not make a people literary. It does not even create a literary taste, though it does generally produce a restless, morbid sentimentalism which is injurious to a healthy tone of mind and morals. Sound literary judgment and correct literary tastes do, in great measure, depend upon the quality of the reading, and the thoroughness and reflection given to the subject.

A large majority of the books published are not deserving of a careful perusal; there is hardly an idea in them worth preserving ; consequently it is worse than a waste of time to read them. What books we should read, and what we can do without, is an important and perplexing question, and which no person ever can decide for another; but out of the great number and variety that are influential for good, we should select those best adapted to our special necessities, those that are most potential in elevating and enlarging the mind and reforming the feelings, and those that treat of such subjects as are matters of daily conversation and use.

Now, in the world of thought, or literature the medium of thought, there are pictures so grand in conception, so beautiful in form and colouring, so rich in ideal, that they inspire us with a deeper reverence for nature's work in the kingdom of the mind than for her developments in her domain of matter. The region of literature is almost boundless, and all that lies within the capacity of any one, is merely to gather a few grains of gold from its abundant store-house.

It is not easy to conceal the poverty of an impoverished mind from the penetrating eyes of a bright class, and do you not think that the teacher who failed to answer the questions would suffer in the estimation of the pupil?

MR. LOWE ON CHEAP LITERATURE. Lately the Right Hon. Mr. Lowe presided at the annual debate of the University College Debating Club, when the question discussed was, "Is the spread of cheap literature, on the whole, a benefit to Although there are at the present time many books published, the community?" At the close of the debate the right honourable and there cannot be time to read all, yet if those who assume gentleman said, he had listened very attentively to all that had the responsibility of guiding the education of others, do not have been said on both sides. Before voting on the question it was desi-a tolerably extensive acquaintance with books, both of the past rable they should understand what the issue was. In the first and present time, are they not to be classed among those who are place, what was literature? Then, was literature desirable? The next weighed in the balance and found wanting? question was, as to the spread of literature, and if literature was a Scarcely a lesson is heard in which there is not the need of literagood thing, he did not think any one would say the spread of literature, science, or art, to explain the figures and allusions not underture was bad. Therefore, they got this length, that they were all stood by pupils, but which have become interwoven with all agreed that the spread of literature was desirable. Now came the branches of education. Take, for example, an ordinary reading question, whether literature being of benefit to the community when lesson, prose or poetry, selected from any school-book in common it was dear, it would still remain so if it was cheap. This was the use, especially those used by the more advanced classes, and how only point on which they were disagreed, and he hoped it would many questions might be asked by an inquisitive pupil which would also be decided in the affirmative. "Adam Bede" was a charming puzzle a teacher to answer if not well protected by the breast-plate novel and a masterpiece of writing, now that it cost 5s. Suppose it of knowledge. were to be reduced to 3s, would it become an evil? Wherever the evil of books was, he really did not think it could be in their cheapness. They might be objectionable because they were coarse, vulgar, or stupid, or had a bad tendency; but not because they were cheap. That practically disposed of the whole question. But he did not wish to confine himself to that. As to the influence of what was popularly known as cheap literature, he agreed with a lady who had spoken, that books might be vulgar, stupid, and have all sorts of faults, so long as they were not immoral, and yet not produce any in a great measure misdirected. bad effect on the person who read them. The working classes, for Taste, perception of the good and beautiful in literature and art whom the literature in question was provided, had probably no is, for the most part, the result of cultivation; it is not the spontagreat desire to go back into the past in their reading. Their feeling neous growth of undisciplined minds; hence a child must be led that they did not know the age in which they lived. Their gradually to see the beauty and fitness of language, and must be whole desire and aspiration was to know what was going on among taught to understand and admire the noble thoughts of others. the people above them. It would be preferable-and he dared say The question then arises, can any one be better adapted to conthey would prefer if they could get their knowledge from the best duct the young learner into the wide and fertile fields of literature novels and histories; but the dearness of these books prevented than the teacher who day after day is leaving the impress of her that, and their longing was, legitimately, as he thought, satisfied with mind and character upon those under her instruction? Is any a coarser literature which was more accessible. What appeared teacher discouraged at the pressing demands made for the mental vulgar and stupid to educated people might not do so to those who preparation of the school-room, and at the seeming impossibility of were less fortunate in this respect, and it was quite possible this meeting them? No doubt such discouragements have met every literature they looked down upon might inspire in the working teacher, but instead of deterring her from duty they ought to incite classes new ideas and opinions which might tend greatly to the bene- her to establish habits of reading thoughtfully some of the best fit of the community. He decidedly thought it was, above all things, authors of our language, and translations of the best from other desirable that they should have some cheap literature not in itself languages, unless she is so thoroughly educated as to be able to read base. If such literature could not be got legally, they might depend them in the original. on it the cravings of the people would be satisfied by a contraband

was,

But it may be said that pupils are not expected to understand these things, that they do not trouble themselves about the sense of the author, but read merely to acquire facility in pronouncing words. Then if this be the case, the efforts of pupil and teacher have been

Aside from professional reasons, teachers at the present day should

aim at a wider culture, a more elevated standard of intellectual at- plishment. No matter how good a person's general education, his tainments than ever before. The times demand it, and the children power to achieve success for himself, or to advance any good cause, who are now daily by your side, will look back in future years with is more than doubled by a good elocution and delivery. Perhaps, fond remembrance to those who so carefully and faithfully guided too, these more free exercises are favourable to the formation of a their minds into those paths which have given them keen pleasure truly natural manner of speaking. and enjoyment at every turn in their journey of life.-Maine Journal of Education.

THE SPREAD OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

We çonfess, also, that societies of young men for discussion and debate seem to us to be in many ways beneficial. We have a good school system, by which the present generation of youth are prepared to become the next generation of men, and men superior to those who preceded them. But schools alone, mere elementary learning and I notice one striking change in Egypt. This is the astonishing spread knowledge, will not secure intellectual wealth. Knowledge in the of the English language within the last twenty years, resulting both memory does not of necessity develop the thinking powers, nor from the number of English and American travellers who visit the does it awaken mental activity. A man may have a store on the East, and the use of the language by travellers of other national- shelves of memory, and yet not be a thinking man, not a man who ities. French, which until within the last few years was indispen is able to apply his knowledge in the best way, much less to add to it. sable, has been slowly fading into the background, and is already It is only by thinking habits, not by dead stores of knowless available than English for Italy and all the Orient. I was a ledge, that the mind enlarges its capacity, strengthens its faculties, little surprised in Rome, at being accosted by a native boot-black and trains itself to prolific activity. Therefore all and every means with, "Shine your boots?" In Naples, every pedler of canes, of promoting a general activity in the minds of the people, even all corals, photographs, and shells, knows at least enough to make a tentative efforts of the kind, ought to be encouraged. good bargain; but this is nothing to what one meets in Egypt. The These remarks apply also to various other methods of mutual bright-witted boys learn the language with amazing rapidity, and improvement. They apply to evening schools for teaching singing, are so apt at guessing what they do not literally understand, that the or any special art or branch of knowledge, for these each show a traveller no longer requires an interpreter. At the base of Pom- voluntary effort after mental acquisition of some kind. They are pey's pillar, a ragged and dirty little girl came out of a fellah hut indicative of a desire of improvement, show an enterprising social and followed us, crying, "Give me a ha'penny!" All the coach-spirit of an excellent tendency. So, too, when young men combine men and most of the shopkeepers are familiar with the words nece›- under the auspices of some good cause, they are sure to be gainers, sary for their business, and prefer to use them, even after they see in heart as well as in mind. It must surely be gratifying, in view that you are acquainted with the Italian and Arabic. The simple, of the temptations young men have to wasteful frivolity, to observe natural structure of the English language, undoubtedly contributes an increasing disposition to spend their precious leisure to some to its extension. It is already the leading language of the world, valuable purpose; to employ their leisure hours in a wise and spoken by ninety millions of people, (double the number of the profitable way. We have no hesitation in preferring such assoFrench-speaking races,) and so extending its conquests year by ciations as these, which aim at strengthening the higher nature, year, that its practical value is in advance of that of any other to those associations which profess to aim only at strengthening the tongue.-Bayard Taylor's Letters. muscles-a good but inferior aim, and not always reached by the means employed.

While societies of this kind must, on the whole and in the long A correspondent favours Galignani with the following additional run, be a benefit of some kind to all, they will give an opportunity list of the curiosities of the English language: "Fowlers speak of and aid to native talent. Many public men, and many men of a sege of herons and bitterns; a herd of swans, cranes or curlews; honoured name, became first known to themselves as well as to a depping of sheldrakes; a spring of teals; a covert of coots; a others, in the village discussion or in private exercises for mutual gaggle of geese; a badelynge of ducks ; a sord or sute of mallards; mental benefit. How many are there who would never have known a muster of peacocks; a nye of pheasants; a bevy of quails; a con- their own capabilities, nor have dared the experiment of trying gregation of plovers; a walk of snipes; a fall of woodcocks; a brood their own powers, have found the young society the very thing they of hens; a building of rooks; murmuration of starlings; an exal-needed! Not from colleges alone, but from the determined possestation of larks; a flight of swallows; a host of sparrows; a watch sors of a worthy ambition, whether inside or outside college walls, of nightingales, and a charm of goldfinches."

ASSOCIATIONS OF YOUNG MEN.

men.

London Advertiser.

are to come our future men of mark. However imperfect many of these little societies, however diffident their experiment, they are of some good; they are in a good direction; they will grow better; and they will prepare the way for performances of a higher class. The desire of young men for mental improvement is a good indiNo subject is more important than the leisure hours of young cation for their country, as well as for themselves. We therefore It contains a sure prophecy of the country's future. We observe with pleasure the increasing disposition to form societies for hail, therefore, with pleasure, any sign of a growing taste for intelmutual improvement, which has been manifested of late through- tion after a noble character. Their exercises in their evening galectual engagements, any desire for mental attainments, any ambiout Ontario. These associations are becoming common, not only in the cities and towns, but also in the villages and country neigh-therings are not mere amusements. They will secure what will be bourhoods. Young Men's Associations and Literary Societies worth more than salary or wages. They will fit them to achieve a everywhere show our young men to be alive to the necessity of bet-good position, and fit them for a good position when achieved. ter fitting themselves for their part in life-life in such a country as this is likely to be. We confess to feeling much interested in every plan for mutual aid in mental exercises, even in cases where the performances are not exactly perfect, and think it the duty of Even all to extend all possible sympathy and encouragement. where the members feel their parts to be not very creditably sustained, they are still in the right way towards gradual improvement The advantage of political liberty is chiefly the universal activity of thought, begotten of free speech; for though much of the thought must be defective, yet mental activity must of itself produce mental growth, and be prolific of various good. The young men thus engaged are certainly gaining something, and many of them are gaining much. They are educating themselves for life, for society and business, and many will receive from them a start for higher attainments.

and ultimate success.

Some of the societies are for readings and recitations, for the purpose of attaining to a good elocution, which is surely worth almost any pains. Since most of our colleges and seminaries quite neglect elocution, it is gratifying to see our young men doing their best to gain so beautiful and valuable an acquisition. It is amazing that, while colleges are giving us each year scores of graduates, who may be very well up in elementary knowledge, so few, so very few of these certificated young men, have a tolerable command of their own voices! And, since the majority cannot go to college, it is pleasing to see so many seeking to aid each other in acquiring so valuable an accom

NOTES ON THE SCIENCE OF WEATHER. Professor William Ferrel conducted a series of mathematical investigations on "the motions of fluids and solids on the surface of the earth" (published in 1856, and a second edition in 1860), which resulted in the establishment of the following general laws; regarding the earth as a sphere, and assuming that there is no friction between the atmosphere and the surface of the earth:

1. The atmosphere cannot exist at the poles.

2. The exterior surface of the atmosphere meets the surface of the earth at the poles, attains its maximum height in about latitude 35°, and is slightly depressed at the equator.

3. In latitude 35° the atmosphere has no motion.

4. Between latitude 35° and the equator the atmosphere moves toward the west.

5. Between latitude 55° and the poles the atmosphere moves toward the east.

Under the same assumption, if we consider a small circular portion of air on any part of the earth's surface and suppose it to rotate, we can establish the following similar propositions :

1.. Air cannot exist at the centre of this rotating portion. 2. The upper surface of the revolving portion is convex, and meets the earth near the axis of revolution.

3. The region of maximum height has no gyratory motion. The Mediterranean, if placed across North America, would make 4. The inner part will gyrate from right to left in the northern sea navigation from San Diego to Baltimore. hemisphere.

7. The whole mass will have a tendency to move toward the north or toward the south according as it gyrates from right to left or from left to right.

The Gulf of Mexico is about ten times the size of Lake Superior, and about as large as the Sea of Kamschatka, Bay of Bengal, China Sea, Okhotsk Sea, or Japan Sea. Lake Ontario would go into either of them more than fifty times.

Great Britain and Ireland are about as large as New Mexico, but not as large as Iowa and Nebraska. They are less than New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

V. Biographical Sketches.

REV. JAMES PORTER.

8. If a body move in any direction on the surface of the earth it will be deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere, and to the left in the southern hemisphere, by reason of the earth's rotation. These results are greatly modified when friction and varying density are considered. Still the general character of the results remains. There are small depressions at the poles and equator; near the poles the prevailing direction of the motions of the atmosphere is towards the east, in the torrid zone toward the west; On the 18th of April, 1874, entered into rest, at his residence in there are regions of calms at the poles and near the equator; there Toronto, aged nearly 62 years, the Rev. James Porter, Inspector of are also belts of calms, but they are in latitude about 30° instead of the City Public Schools. Mr. Porter was born on the 16th of May, 35°; there is an accumulation of air at the tropical belts the outflow of which, uniting with the westerly and easterly motions of the atIn 1843, he came to New Bruns1812, at Highgate, near London. mosphere, produces the north-east trade winds of the northern wick, at the call of the ancient Church in Sheffield, through the Colonial Missionary Society. In 1852, Mr. Porter was appointed hemisphere and the south-west currents of the temperate zone, and Chief Superintendent of Education for the Province of New Brunsalso the corresponding winds of the southern hemisphere. wick, during the Lieutenant-Governorship of Sir Edmund Head, Local movements are also modified, by reason of the same causes, from the theoretical deductions of Ferrel. Whenever there is local who, not only in that Province, but afterwards on his removal to rarefication an upper current is produced. From all sides, currents Canada, evinced a high personal consideration for him, and took a set in towards this centre, of low barometic pressure, but in the very special interest in his work. Mr. Porter resigned the Chief Sunorthern hemisphere are deflected to the right. There being less perintendency at the end of 1853, and removed to St. John, N.B., resistance in the upper strata, a rapid gyratory motion begins there where he established a weekly newspaper, the Pree Press; but the enterprise was not successful. In the autumn of 1854, he paid a but immediately descends towards the earth. The most rapid motion is on the outer limit of a centre of calm caused by resistance. visit to Canada, which led to his being invited to go to Windsor, After six months, The contrary gyration of the outer part, indicated by theory, is C. W., as minister of a Congregational Church. destroyed by friction. The gyration will be from right to left in however, he returned to St. John, and remained there some two the northern hemisphere, and from left to right in the southern. years longer. In the spring of 1857, he was called to the Church The motion of gyrating mass will be north-west to the zone of calms at London. C. W., to which place he then removed his family. In and then north-east in the northern hemisphere; and south-west June, 1858, he received the appointment of Local Superintendent and south-east in the southern hemisphere. There can be no cyclones of Public Schools for the City of Toronto, the laborious, responsible, and ever-increasing duties of which office he discharged with at the equator since there can be no gyratory motion. In the case of small areas of disturbance, the rotation of the earth has less in- so great fidelity for the remainder of his days. In his office of Superintendent (now entitled Inspector), as in the discharge of all fluence in determining the direction of rotation than the initial condition of the atmosphere. Hence tornadoes rotate in a direction duties, public and private, Mr. Porter was distinguished by a determined by the condition of the atmosphere; hence also there punctilious exactitude, which made him ever prompt to the momay be tornadoes at the equator. Tornadoes run into belts of low ment in all matters where time was concerned, unspairing of his barometric pressure and are soon overcome by friction. The low own labour, and intent on performing the last jot and tittle of barometer in tornadoes and cyclones is due to two causes-the rare- what was required of him, seeking no indulgence, asking no favour, fied condition, and the centrifugal force caused by the rapid motion until his health broke down, and even then injuring his chances of of the particles of air near the centre. The wind moves in a des- recovery by his extreme anxiety to be at his post. Of course, he Yet he cherished a very cending spiral externally, and an ascending spiral internally. The expected the like fidelity in others. velocity of rotation increases toward the centre of the storm, particles of air describing equal areas about this centre, in equal times. The descending spiral is an involute, the ascending an evolute, owing to the increased pressure of the air in approaching the earth The axis of rotation generally bends in the direction the tempest takes because of friction at the surface of the earth.-J. N. Fradenburgh in N. Y. State Educational Journal.

THE SIZE OF COUNTRIES.

warm sympathy with the toils and trials of the teachers, and manifested a never-failing courtesy in his intercourse with them, so that he was regarded on their parts not only with official respect and deference, but with strong personal attachment. This feeling manifested itself in the present of a silver tea-service, in April, 1864, in many ways during his last illness, and at his burial. The sentiment characterized the scholars of the city schools, one token of which was the frequent leaving of a bouquet at his door during the last winter, as he lay ill and dying. The sentiments of the board of School Trustees was expressed in the renewal of

The Red Sea would reach from Washington to Colorado, and it his appointment (which till 1871 was needful annually), in the re

is three times as wide as Lake Ontario.

Madagascar is as large as New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina, all put together.

Palestine is one-fourth the size of New York.

Hindostan is more than a hundred times as large as Palestine. Great Britain is two-thirds the size of Japan, one-twelfth the size of Hindostan, one-twelfth of China, and one-twenty-fifth of the United States.

Greece is about the size of Vermont.

The English Channel is nearly as large as Lake Superior, and Lake Huron is as large as the Sea of Azof.

The great Desert of Africa has nearly the present dimensions of the United States.

The Caspian Sea would stretch from New York to St. Augustine, and is as wide as from New York City to Rochester.

The following bodies of water are nearly equal in size: German Ocean, Black Sea, Yellow Sea; Hudson Bay is rather larger; the Baltic, Adriatic, Persian Gulf, and Ægean Sea, about half as large, and somewhat larger than Lake Superior.

spect always paid to his judgment, in their granting him leave of
absence for four months-from April to August, 1874-(in order
to allow of an unexpected visit to England), in their presence at
his funeral, and in the following resolution, passed at the first
"That this Board begs to record its high
meeting after his death :-
appreciation of the long, faithful, and efficient services of the late
Rev. James Porter, as Inspector of the Public Schools of this city,
and hereby tenders to the family of the reverend gentlemen its
heartfelt sympathy in their sad bereavement, earnestly trusting
that He who has promised to be the Husband of the widow and
Father of the fatherless, will sustain and comfort them in their
affliction.

He was followed to the grave by a large concourse of citizens, among whom were the Very Reverend Dean Grasett, the Rev. Dr. Ryerson, the Board of Trustees, the Teachers of the City Schools, and a deputation of the boys of each school.-F. H. M., in Canadian Independent of May.

S. B. FREEMAN, ESQ., Q.C.

In noticing the death of Mr. Freeman, of Hamilton, the Spectator says :-" He made his mark, chiefly as a lawyer, and it is no extravagance to say that in the art of examining and cross-examining