breezes to soften, and days to grow long;
For eyes to grow brighter, and hearts to grow gladder,
And Earth to rejoice in her jubilant song.
Almost time for the sweetest of seasons:
Nearer it comes with each new-born day,
And soon the smile of the beautiful spring-time
Winter's cold shadows will chase away!

REMARKABLE ANIMALS.

Australia and Tasmania possess many specimens of strange animal life;
even in the latter, or Van Diemen's Land, are found several species
which exist only on that small bit of the earth's surface. Tasmania,
which is separated from the southern extremity of Australia by a strait
about one hundred and forty miles in width, was first discovered in
1633, by Abel Tasman, a famous Dutch navigator, who supposed it to be a
portion of Australia, then known as New Holland. The celebrated Captain
Cook visited it one hundred and fifty years later; but it was not until
about 1800, when Captain Flinders, exploring the southern coast of
Australia, discovered the strait, that Tasmania was known to be an
island. As Mr. Bass, surgeon of a British ship which had cruised in
those waters, had already affirmed that such a strait existed, Captain
Flinders named it Bass Strait in his honor.

At the beginning of this century a few tribes of natives were the sole
human inhabitants of Tasmania, but about 1803 a party of English
military, with a gang of convicts under their charge, came from New
South Wales and formed a settlement, which is now a flourishing English
town called Hobart Town. Sheep-raising is now the principal industry of
this island, and large exports of wool are made yearly.

The scenery of Tasmania is very picturesque. Grand basaltic headlands
tower along the coast, while inland are lofty mountains, broad lakes,
untrodden jungles, and wide-spreading plains covered with rich and
luxuriant vegetation.

Australia and Tasmania are the residence of the curious family of
animals with pouches, called Marsupialia, from _marsupium_, signifying a
purse or bag. One variety of this species, the opossum, is found in the
United States, and a few live in South America and Mexico, but in the
Australian regions are more than seventy different kinds of these
singular creatures. The leader of them all is the great kangaroo, which
stands about five feet high when resting upon its hind-feet and
haunches. When running it springs from the ground in an erect position,
holding its short fore-arms t