the island. From
the blue clay of which these cliffs are composed may be culled out
specimens of all the fishes, fruits, and trees, which abounded in
Britain before the birth of Noah; and the traveller may consequently
handle fish which swam, and fruit which grew, in the days of the
antediluvians, all now converted into sound stone, by the petrifying
qualities of the soil in which they are imbedded. Here are lobsters,
crabs, and nautili, presenting almost the same reality as those we now
see crawling and floating about; branches of trees, too, in as perfect
order as when lopped from their parent stems; and trunks of them,
twelve feet in length and two or three diameter, fit, in all
appearance, for the operations of the saw, with great varieties of
fruits, resembling more those of tropical climates than of cold
latitudes like ours, one species having a large kernel, with an
adherent stalk, as complete as when newly plucked from the tree that
produced it. An interesting collection of these relics of a former
world may be seen at a watchmaker's on the cliff, at Margate,
including the most remarkable productions of the isle of Sheppey.

_The Camelopard_.

[Illustration: The Camelopard.]

As a live camelopard has been sent to London and another to Paris, the
history and habits of these animals have excited some interest. At a
meeting of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, on the 2nd of July last, M.
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire observed that naturalists were wrong in supposing
that there was only one species of the camelopard. The animal now in
Paris differs from the Cape of Good Hope species by several essential
anatomical characters, and he proposes to distinguish it by the name of
the _Giraffe of Sennaar_, the country from which it comes. Some natives
of Egypt having come to see the one in Paris in the costume of the
country, the animal gave evident proofs of joy, and loaded them with
caresses. This fact is explained by the circumstance that the Giraffe
has an ardent affection for its Arabian keeper, and that it naturally is
delighted with the sight of the turban and the costume of its keeper.

Some authors have proved the mildness and docility of the camelopard,
while others represent it as incapable of being tamed. This difference
is ascribed by M. Saint-Hilaire to difference of education. Four or
five years ago a male Giraffe, extremely savage, was brought to
Constantinople. The keeper of the present Giraffe had also t