by means of Artesian, or rather not
very deep driven wells, by which the desert has already been made, in a
hundred artificial oases, to "blossom as the rose."

* * * * *

Ship canals seem to be among the special works of our time. It is now
almost a quarter of a century since the Caspian and Black Seas were
connected, through the enterprise of Russian capitalists. The newest
project broached is to cut through from the Gulf of Boothia to Hudson's
Bay, in latitude 65 deg. N. and longitude 90 deg. W. from Greenwich.

* * * * *

I think I shall join, this summer, one of the excursions which are
getting so fashionable, to Labrador, Greenland, or perhaps Iceland. The
Upernavik House is said to be very well kept, and filled most of the
season with boarders or transient visitors.

There is something yet new in these northern places. Switzerland is
getting spoiled and commonplace. Think of making the ascent of Mont
Blanc on a steam railroad! Think, too, of public school excursions to
the Yosemite, and the rocks there being placarded all over (until the
government very properly had them taken down) with advertisements!

* * * * *

Certainly man must begin to repair or restore to nature some of his
robberies. A small beginning of this has been made by the Society of
Acclimatization and Conservation. At their Acclimatarium in West
Philadelphia, including the old Centennial Grounds of '76, and the
Zoological Garden, munificent arrangements have been made, by the use of
glass, wood, iron, and water-gas heating apparatus, for the creation of
an artificial tropical and sub-tropical climate. All the glories of
Southern India, Ceylon, Java, Australasia, Brazil, and the West Indies
may now be seen there, in palms, cycads, eucalypti, acacias, tree ferns,
clinging vines, and splendid flowers, as well as in the many-colored
birds and insects of those regions; with their animals, also, which are
disposed, when needful for safety, in cages so large and yet so light,
as scarcely to give the appearance of imprisonment.

Also, the camel is now fairly naturalized in Texas and New Mexico, and
the two-toed ostrich in South America; on the pampas of that continent
travellers may meet with the gazelle, the springbok, the oryx, and the
kangaroo. Elephants are domesticated and used for court occasions in
Brazil, as they are in India. Tea and coffee are