xplanation of
the facts whatsoever.

And so, thanking Mr. Bland heartily for his valuable contribution to
the infant science of Bio-Geology--I take leave, in these pages at
least, of the Earthly Paradise.

Our run homeward was quite as successful as our run out. The
magnificent Neva, her captain and her officers, were what these
Royal Mail steamers and their crews are--without, I believe, an
exception--all that we could wish. Our passengers, certainly, were
neither so numerous nor so agreeable as when going out; and the most
notable personage among them was a keen-eyed, strong-jawed little
Corsican, who had been lately hired--so ran his story--by the
coloured insurgents of Hayti, to put down the President--alias (as
usual in such Republics) Tyrant--Salnave.

He seemed, by his own account, to have done his work effectually.
Seven thousand lives were lost in the attack on Salnave's quarters
in Port au Prince. Whole families were bayonetted, to save the
trouble of judging and shooting them. Women were not spared: and--
if all that I have heard of Hayti be true--some of them did not
deserve to be spared. The noble old French buildings of the city
were ruined--the Corsican said, not by his artillery, but by
Salnave's. He had slain Salnave himself; and was now going back to
France to claim his rights as a French citizen, carrying with him
Salnave's sword, which was wrapped in a newspaper, save when taken
out to be brandished on the main deck. One could not but be
interested in the valiant adventurer. He seemed a man such as Red
Republics and Revolutions breed, and need; very capable of doing
rough work, and not likely to be hampered by scruples as to the
manner of doing it. If he is, as I take for granted, busy in France
just now, he will leave his mark behind.

The voyage, however, seemed likely to be a dull one; and to relieve
the monotony, a wild-beast show was determined on, ere the weather
grew too cold. So one day all the new curiosities were brought on
deck at noon; and if some great zoologist had been on board, he
would have found materials in our show for more than one interesting
lecture. The doctor contributed an Alligator, some two feet six
inches long; another officer, a curiously-marked Ant-eater--of a
species unknown to me. It was common, he said, in the Isthmus of
Panama; and seemed the most foolish and helpless of beasts. As no
ants were procurable, it wa