th sugar-plantations; but at the time we
speak of, this was a solitary spot, behind which dark forests
stretched upwards to the summit. Among these forests, on the shoulder
of the hill, there occurs an optical phenomenon, not unknown in
Europe, which is here an object of superstitious terror to the
natives.

The first European who observed it was a gentleman who, taking
advantage of the coolness of the hour, had strolled away in the early
morning from the inhabited district, and was skirting round a deep
valley, dotted at the bottom, and overhung at the sides with lofty
trees. The beams of the sun had already begun to acquire some power,
although his disk was scarcely yet above the horizon; and the
traveller watched with interest the effect of the dawning light upon a
sea of vapour which nearly filled the valley. This slowly-moving
cloud, as it was acted upon by the sun, swelled higher and higher, and
became whiter and whiter, till it finally settled, filling the whole
valley with a substance that looked like alabaster, in the midst of
which the topmost branches of the tall trees hung motionless. The
scene was strangely beautiful; and the spectator, who was screened
from the now risen sun by a belt of forest, lingered for awhile to
contemplate it. When at length he resumed his walk, and, emerging from
the trees, found himself in the full blaze of the rising sun, he
turned once more to observe the effect on the vapour; and a cry of
wonder which arose to his lips was only repressed by a feeling of awe,
as he saw upon that alabaster surface a dark human figure of gigantic
dimensions, surrounded by a halo that seemed formed of the rainbow. A
confused rush of associations half acquainted him at the moment with
the nature of the phenomenon; but giving way to the feeling of
poetical delight, he clasped his hands above his head in admiration--a
movement which the Phantom of the Alabaster Valley instantaneously
imitated! It was indeed his own shadow--and a shadow he was not to
recall, even when he turned away to journey homewards. There, in that
lonely place, it seemed to him to remain for ever--a link connecting
him with the spirit of nature, and ever and anon drawing him back into
her domain from the meanness, and folly, and wickedness of the world.

DECIMAL SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

The state of our national weights and measures has been a fertile
subject of legislative enactment ever since the signing of th