He announced his own triumphs at home as follows, from the Golden Cross, where the Oxford crew then stopped :

I

"MY DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER, should have been with you yesterday, but was obliged to wait because they had not finished the gold oars which we have won at Putney. We have been as successful here as we were at Henley, and I hope I shall bring home the cup to show you. I shall be home to-morrow, and very glad to get to Donnington again. I don't feel the least unsettled by these proceedings, and am in an excellent humour for reading."

The two great cups came to Donnington, and remained for the year on your grandfather's sideboard, who could never quite make up his mind about them; pride at his son's extraordinary prowess being dashed with fears as to the possible effects on him. George himself, at this time, certainly had no idea that he was at all the worse for it, and maintained in his letters that pulling" is not so severe exercise as boxing or fencing hard for an hour." "You may satisfy yourselves I shall not overdo it. I have always felt better for it as yet, but if I were to feel the least inconvenience I should give it up at once."

One effect the seven-oar race had on the generation at Oxford: it made boating really popular, which it had not been till then. I, amongst others, was quite converted to my brother's opinion, and began to spend all my spare time on the water. Our college entered for the University four-oar races in the following November Term, and, to my intense delight, I was selected for No. 2, my brother pulling stroke.

Our first heat was against Balliol, and through my awkwardness it proved to be the hardest race my brother ever rowed. At the second stroke after the start I caught a crab (to use boating phrase), and such a bad one that the head of our boat was forced almost into the bank, and we lost not a stroke or two, but at least a dozen, Balliol going away with a lead of two boats' lengths and more. Few strokes would have gone on in earnest after this, and I am not sure that my brother would, but that it was first race for a University prize. As it was, he turned round, took a look at Balliol, and just said, "Shove her head out! Now then," and

shame, and longing to do more than my utmost to make up for my clumsiness. The boat seemed to spring under us, but I could feel it was no doing of mine. Just before the Gut we were almost abreast of them, but, as they had the choice of water, we were pushed out into mid-stream, losing half a boat's length, and having now to pull up against the full current while Balliol went up the Oxford side under the willows. Our rivals happened also to be personal friends, and I remember well becoming conscious as we struggled up the reach that I was alongside, first of their stroke, the late Sir H. Lambert, then of No. 3, W. Spottsiwoode, and at last, as we came to the Cherwell, just before the finish, of our old school-fellow, T. Walrond, who was pulling the bow oar. I felt that the race was won, for they had now to come across to us; and won it was, but only by a few feet. I don't think the rest of us were much more distressed than we had been before in college races. But my brother's head drooped forward, and he could not speak for several seconds. I should have learnt then, if I had needed to learn, that it is the stroke who wins boat races.

Our next heat against University, the holders of the cup, was a much easier affair. We won by some lengths, and my brother had thus carried off every honour which an oarsman can win at the University, except the sculls, for which he had never been able to enter. not remember any race in which he pulled stroke and was beaten.

I can

There are few pleasanter memories in my life than those of the river-side, when we were training behind him in our college crew. He was perhaps a thought too easy, and did not keep us quite so tightly in hand as the captains of some of the other leading boats kept their men. But the rules of training were then barbarous, and I think we were all the better for not being strictly limited even in the matter of a draught of cold water, or compelled to eat our meat half cooked. He was most judicious in all the working part of training, and no man ever knew better when to give his crew the long Abingdon reach, and when to be content with Iffley or Sandford. At the half-hour's rest at those places he would generally sit quiet, and watch the skittles, wrestling, quoits, or feats of strength

which were going on all about. But if he did take part in them, he almost always beat everyone else. I only remember one occasion on which he was fairly foiled. In consequence of his intimacy with F. Menzies, our crew were a great deal with that of University College, and much friendly rivalry existed between us. One afternoon one of their crew, R. Mansfield, brother of George's old vaulting antagonist, rode down to Sandford, where, in the field near the inn, there was always a furze hurdle for young gentlemen to leap over. In answer to some chaffing remark, Mansfield turned round, and sitting with his face towards his horse's tail, rode him over this hurdle. Several of us tried it after him, George amongst the number, but we all failed; and of course declared that it was a trick, and that his horse was trained to do it under him, and to refuse under anybody else. The four-oar race was the last of my brother's boating triumphs. At the end of the term he gave up rowing, as his last year was beginning, and he was anxious to get more time for his preparation for the Schools. I am not sure that he succeeded in this, as, strong exercise of some kind being a necessity to him, he took to playing an occasional game at cricket, and was caught and put into the University Eleven. He pulled, however, in one more great race, in the Thames Regatta of 1845, when he was still resident as a bachelor, attending lectures.Number 6 in the Oxford boat broke down, and his successor applied to him to fill the place, to which he assented rather unwillingly. The following extract from a letter to his father gives the result, and the close of his boating

career

"You will have seen that Oxford was unsuccessful in London for the Grand Cup, but I really think we should have won it had it not been for that unluckly foul. I only consented to take an oar in the boat because they said they could not row without me, and found myself well up to the work."

He always retained his love for rowing, and came up punctually every year to take his place on the umpire's boat at the University race, to which he had a prescriptive claim as an old captain of the O. U. B. C. And this chapter may fitly close with a boating song, the best of its kind that I know of, which he wrote at my request. It appeared in Mr. Severn's "Alma

nac of English Sports," published at Christmas 1868. I had rashly promised the editor to give him some verses for March, on the University race, and put it off till it was time to go to press. When my time was limited by days, and I had to sit down to my task in the midst of other work, I found that the knack of rhyming had left me, and turned naturally to the brother who had helped me in many a copy of verses thirty years back. I sent him down some dozen hobbling lines, and within a post or two I received from him the following, on the March Boat Race:

The wood sways and rocks in the fierce Equinox,

Aslant down the street drives the pitiless sleet,
The old heathen war-god bears rule in the sky,
At the height of the house-tops the cloud-rack
spins by.

Old Boreas may bluster, but gaily we'll muster,
And crowd every nook on bridge, steamboat, and

shore,

With cheering to greet Cam and Isis, who meet For the Derby of boating, our fête of the oar. "Off jackets!"-each oarsman springs light to his

seat,

And we veterans, while ever more fierce beats the rain,

Scan well the light form of each hardy athlete,

And live the bright days of our youth once again.

A fig for the weather! they're off! swing together; Tho' lumpy the water and furious the wind, "dead noser 29 Against a our champions can row, sir, And leave the poor "Citizens" panting behind. "Swing together!" The Crab-tree, Barnes, Chiswick are past;

Now Mortlake-and hark to the signaling gun! While the victors, hard all, long and strong to the last,

Rush past Barker's rails, and our Derby is won. Our Derby, unsullied by fraud and chicane,

By thieves-Latin jargon, and leg's howling dinOur Derby, where "nobbling" and "roping" are vain,

Where all run their best, and the best men must win.

No dodges we own but strength, courage, and

science;

Gold rules not the fate of our Isthmian games; In brutes-tho' the noblest-we place no reliance; Our racers are men, and our turf is the Thames.

The sons of St. Dennis in praise of their tennis,
Of chases and volleys, may brag to their fill;
To the northward of Stirling, of golf, and of curling,
Let the chiels wi' no trousers crack on as they
will.

Cricket, football, and rackets - but hold, I'll not preach,

Every man to his fancy-I'm too old to mend— So give me a good stretch down the Abingdon reach. Six miles every inch, and "hard all" to the end.

Then row,
dear Etonians and Westminsters, row—
Row, hard-fisted craftsmen on Thames and on
Tyne,

Labuan, New Zealand, your chasubles peel, and
In one spurt of hard work, and hard rowing,
combine.

Our maundering critics may prate as they please
Of glory departed and influence flown-
Row and work, boys of England, on rivers and seas,
And the old land shall hold, firm as ever, her own.

IT

T is curious how difficult it is to arrive at certain calculations in science, even as to facts which are mere matters of observation, and which, one would think, could be verified or disproved with the greatest ease. It is well known that the classical writers gave very remarkable accounts of the habit of ants, their providence, industry, and wonderful "harvesting" instincts. They give minute and detailed accounts of how the ants ascend the stalks of corn, and gnaw off the grains; whilst others station themselves below and detach the seed from the chaff. The ants were further related to carry off the corn to their homes, to gnaw off the radicle, so as to prevent germination, and finally to store away the grain in receptacles for winter use. What schoolboy does not know all this? It is, however, also well known that modern entomologists, including such pre-eminent authorities as Huber, Latreille, Kirby, Blanchard, and others, have unanimously discredited these observations, and apparently upon excellent grounds. None of these distinguished observers ever succeeded in detecting any ants engaged in carrying out these alleged harvesting operations. Ants are, for the most part, strictly carnivorous in their diet, and they are not active during the winter in temperate regions, but, on the contrary, "hybernate" or

become dormant. The "larvæ "9 or young of ants are, however, not unlike grains of corn, and the ants have the habit of carrying them about in their mouths; hence, as was supposed, the error of ancient observers. Indeed, Messrs. Kirby and Spence, who are amongst the best and most popular of writers on insects, for these and other reasons, go so far as to say that, "when we find the writers of all nations and ages united in affirming that, having deprived it of the power of vegetating, ants store up grain in their nests, we feel disposed to give larger credit to their assertion. But when observers of nature began to examine the manners and economy of these creatures more narrowly, it was found, at least with respect to European species of ants, that no such hoards of grain were made by them; and, in fact, that they had no magazines in their nests in which provisions of any kind were stored up." In view of these positive statements on the part of the most eminent of modern entomologists, it is curious to learn that observations recently carried out in the south of Europe, by a competent naturalist, have resulted in the complete confirmation of the views of the classical writers. Mr. Moggridge, by observations at Mentone and other places on the shores of the Mediterranean, has verified, in every detail, the account given by ancient

authors of the habits and economy of the "harvesting ants." He has seen them in the act of collecting seeds; he has traced the seeds to the granaries, from which all husks and refuse are carefully carried away; he has seen them bring out the grains to dry after rain, and nibble off the radicle in those which had begun to germinate; and he has seen them, when kept in confinement, actually feeding upon the grains so collected.

Professor Agassiz is well known as holding rather remarkable views upon various subjects in Natural History, and amongst these is the view that all the varieties of man are so many distinct species. One may well ask, however, if the following, as to the points of difference between the white man and the negro, should be regarded as emanating from the learned Professor or from the exuberant imagination of some newspaper reporter of strong anti-abolitionist tendencies. In a recent lecture the eminent savant is made to say (as reported in an American journal) :—“I have pointed out over a hundred specific differences between the bonal (sic) and nervous systems of the white man and the negro. Indeed, their frames are alike in no particular. There is no bone in the negro's body which is relatively of the same shape, size, articulation, or chemically of the same composition, as that of the white man. The negro's bones contain a far greater proportion of calcareous salts than those of the white The whole physical organization of the negro differs as much from the white man's as it does from that of the chimpanzee—that is, in his bones, muscles, nerves, and fibres, the chimpanzee has not much farther to progress to become a white man. orably demonstrates.

man.

This fact science inex

Climate has no more to

of the horse. How stupendous and yet how simple is the doctrine that the Almighty Maker of the universe has created different species of men just as He has different species of the lower animals, to fill different places and offices in the grand machinery of nature." In the last sentence we recognise Agassiz; but it is to be hoped, for the credit of American science, that the sentences which precede it may justly claim their parentage elsewhere.

If we could transport ourselves to one of the forests of the coal-period, we should find ourselves, says Dr. Dawson, in one of "those great low plains, formed by the elevation of the former sea-bed. The sun pours down its fervent rays upon us; and, the atmosphere being loaded with vapour, and probably more rich in carbonic acid than that of the present world, the heat is, as it were, accumulated and kept near the surface, producing a close and stifling atmosphere, like that of a tropical swamp. This damp and oppressive air is, however, most favourable to the growth of the strange and grotesque trees which tower over our heads, and to the millions of delicate ferns and club-mosses, not unlike those of our modern woods, which carpet the ground. Around us, for hundreds of miles, spreads a dense and monotonous forest, with here and there open spaces occupied by ponds and sluggish streams, whose hedges are bordered with immense savannahs of seed, like plants springing from the wet and boggy soil. Everything bespeaks a rank exuberance of vegetable growth, and, if we were to dig downwards into the soil, we should find a thick bed of vegetable mould evidencing the prevalence of such conditions for ages."

Messrs. Blackwood & Sons of Edinburgh have just brought out an excellent chart of the North Polar regions, by the well-known geographer, Mr. Keith Johnston. Besides the most recent discoveries of voyages within the Arctic circle, the chart also indicates each of "the farthest points which have as yet been reached on the margin of the great unvisited area, the . glaciers and snow-fields, the average and extreme limits of the appearance of sea-ice, the northmost limits of tree-growth on the land, the depths of the Arctic waters, so far as these are known, and the elevation of the land which sur

welcome evidence of growing culture and pro

gress, in the opening of the first Exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists. It chanced that the enterprise of Messrs. Notman & Fraser, whose triumphs in photography have won for Canada a foremost rank in that branch of art, had led to the erection of a fine gallery and suite of rooms for their own use, in the main centre of resort in our Ontario capital. This was liberally placed at the disposal of the young society of Artists; and it but remained for them to do their part. We employ no extravagant language when we say that the result surprised us. A collection of upwards of two hundred and fifty oil paintings and water-colour drawings by Canadian artists was brought together, many of which were of such high merit that they could not fail to gratify the most cultivated taste. Nor was there any lack of appreciation shown. During the brief period of the exhibition, upwards of five thousand visitors were present, and purchases of over one hundred pictures, to the value of $6,665, were made. It need not be matter either of surprise or disappointment that the selection by purchasers was not in every case the most judicious. We have happily reached that stage in the progress of our country which leaves a fair amount of superfluous wealth available for refinement and luxury; and on nothing can this be more beneficially expended than in the cultivation and encouragement of the Fine Arts. But a refined and cultivated taste is not to be looked for among the native products of our Canadian clearings. The wealthy lover of art, here or at home, must buy his experience as well as his pictures; and will no doubt be glad, in a few years, to part with some of the most prized of his recent purchases for works suited to a more advanced taste. For an annual exhibition of paintings constitutes one of the most valuable means of national refinement. It educates the eye, develops the taste, and creates a higher standard, affecting dress, furniture, house decoration, architecture, and much else which is supposed to be entirely beyond the artist's sphere. Few things are more uninteresting to read than a detailed account of the contents of an Exhibition Gallery which we have not ; we shall not therefore place our readers in that predicament. But the formation of a Canadian Academy of Art, and the first exhibition of pictures under its auspices, are events too important to be passed over unnoticed. We doubt not that years

seen

nings from which great results will be found to have sprung.

One of the most noticeable charms of the exhibition was its essentially native character; and the general preference shown by purchasers for Canadian, in preference to European, subjects will no doubt contribute still more to the same result in future years. The wooded creeks and river valleys of our neighbourhood had been lovingly visited; and some lovely snatches of characteristic native scenery were rendered with fine effect, in water colours. The names of Fowler and Millard, of Mathews, Martern, and Verner, all claim a creditable place in noticing the more important contributions in this branch of art. Some of them were charming studies, evidently finished on the spot. Though in reference to this it may not be out of place to remark that, while the study of nature cannot be too strongly inculcated; yet a sketch from nature, and a finished picture embodying the earnest and oft renewed study of nature, are not to be confounded without misleading results. We think it well, at the present stage of Canadian Art, to avcid individual censure; but we may remark that some of the larger water-colour drawings betrayed only too much evidence of being done on the spot. They had plenty of accuracy of detail, very valuable as artistic study; but wanted the breadth of effect which is needed to make a picture. Photography will give the detail of the landscape under any light and shade, and from any point of view; but the art of the true artist is required to bring his accumulated study of nature to bear on this subject ; just as the poet makes "a thing of beauty" out of what seems homely and prosaic to the common eye.

Among younger native artists, Mr. L. O'Brien had more than one Indian scene of great beauty. His Passing Away," for example, representing Indian guiding his canoe among the reeds and rushes of a lovely lake, into the shadows of a quiet sunset, was replete with the true poetry of art. Mr. J. Hoch has a minutely finished style, especially in his trees, effective and truthful in the characteristics of the diverse foliage; though verging at times on mannerism.

Flower subjects, always popular, were in great force. Mr. Fowler attracted all eyes by his brilliant depiction of a cactus in full flower; and won the patronage of one of our best judges of art by his more unobtrusive Jug of Lilacs. In the treatment of cer