cattered about over its surface. Peculiar interest will always
attach itself to this spot as being the first land on which the
discoverer of the New World set foot.--_Ibid._

THE MYSTERY OF THE SHADOWY SEA.

XERIF AL EDRISI, surnamed "The Nubian," an eminent Arabian
geographer. Born at Ceuta, Africa, about 1100. In "A Description of
Spain" (Conde's Spanish translation, Madrid, 1799). He wrote a
celebrated treatise of geography, and made a silver terrestrial
globe for Roger II., King of Sicily, at whose court he lived.

The ocean encircles the ultimate bounds of the inhabited earth, and all
beyond it is unknown. No one has been able to verify anything concerning
it, on account of its difficult and perilous navigation, its great
obscurity, its profound depth, and frequent tempests; through fear of
its mighty fishes and its haughty winds; yet there are many islands in
it, some peopled, others uninhabited. There is no mariner who dares to
enter into its deep waters; or, if any have done so, they have merely
kept along its coasts, fearful of departing from them. The waves of this
ocean, although they roll as high as mountains, yet maintain themselves
without breaking, for if they broke it would be impossible for ship to
plow them.

PALOS.

Prof. MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN. From an article, "Columbus the
Christ-Bearer," in the New York _Independent_, June 2, 1892.

The caravels equipped at Palos were so unseaworthy, judged by the
dangers of the Atlantic, that no crew in our time would have trusted in
them. The people of Palos disliked this foreigner, Columbus. No man of
Palos, except the Pinzons, ancient mariners, sympathized with him in his
hopes. The populace overrated the risks of the voyage; the court,
fortunately for Columbus, underrated them. The Admiral's own ships and
his crew were not such as to inspire confidence. His friends, the
friars, had somewhat calmed the popular feeling against the expedition;
but ungrateful Palos never approved of it until it made her famous.

AN UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

SAMUEL R. ELLIOTT, in the _Century Magazine_, September, 1892.

You have no heart? Ah, when the Genoese
Before Spain's monarchs his great voyage planned,
Small faith had they in worlds beyond the seas--
And _your_ Columbus yet may come to land!

SAGACITY.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON, the well-known American essayist, poet, and
speculative philosopher. Born