posture of kneeling. The position of the legs of each
figure not being very distinct, he inadvertently painted three black
feet for the negro king, and three also between the two white kings;
and he did not discover his error until the picture was hung up in the
cathedral.

In another picture of the Adoration of the Magi, which was in the
Houghton Hall collection, the painter, Brughel, had introduced a
multitude of little figures, finished off with true Dutch exactitude,
but one was accoutred in boots and spurs, and another was handing in,
as a present, a little model of a Dutch ship.

The same collection contained a painting of the stoning of Stephen,
the martyr, by Le Soeur, in which the saint was attired in the habit of
a Roman Catholic priest at high mass.

A picture by Rubens, in the Luxembourg, represents the Virgin Mary
in council, with two cardinals and the god Mercury assisting in her
deliberations.

A STOPPAGE OF THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.

The following remarkable account of the stoppage of Niagara Falls,
appeared in the _Niagara Mail_ at the time of the occurrence: "That
mysterious personage, the oldest inhabitant, has no recollection of
so singular an occurrence as took place at the Falls on the 30th of
March, 1847. The 'six hundred and twenty thousand tons of water each
minute' nearly ceased to flow, and dwindled away into the appearance
of a mere milldam. The rapids above the falls disappeared, leaving
scarcely enough on the American side to turn a grindstone. Ladies
and gentlemen rode in carriages one-third of the way across the river
towards the Canada shore, over solid rock as smooth as a kitchen
floor. The _Iris_ says: 'Table Rock, with some two hundred yards more,
was left dry; islands and places where the foot of man never dared to
tread have been visited, flags placed upon come, and mementoes brought
away. This unexpected event is attempted to be accounted for by an
accumulation of ice at the lower extremity of Fort Erie, which formed
a sort of dam between Fort Erie and Buffalo.'"

WONDERS OF MINUTE WORKMANSHIP.

In the twentieth year of Queen Elizabeth, a blacksmith named Mark
Scaliot, made a lock consisting of eleven pieces of iron, steel and
brass, all which, together with a key to it, weighed but one grain of
gold. He also made a chain of gold, consisting of forty-three links,
and, having fastened this to the before-mentioned lock and key, he put
the chain about the neck of a flea, whic