(_Harris's
Collection_, vol. i., p. 233:)--'The soil about Puerto, Seguro, and very
likely in most of the valleys, is a rich black mould, which, as you turn
it up fresh to the sun, appears as if intermingled with gold dust, some
of which we endeavored to purify and wash from the dirt. But, though we
were a little prejudiced against the thoughts that it could be possible
that this metal should be so promiscuously and universally mingled with
common earth, yet we endeavored to cleanse and wash the earth from some
of it; and the more we did the more it appeared like gold. In order to be
further satisfied, I brought away some of it, which we lost in our
confusion in China.'" How an accident prevented the discovery, more than
a century back, of the golden harvest now gathering in California!

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT OF PERU has issued a decree, appointing the Minister of the
Home Department, Don Lucas Fonceas, Don Nicolas Pierola, and Don Nicolas
Rodrigo, a commission to select and take charge of articles intended to
be sent to England for exhibition next year.

* * * * *

MR. GLIDDON'S MUMMY.--We find in the _Boston Transcript_ a long letter
from Mr. Gliddon, telling the whole story, which the latest and complete
examinations of papyrus, straps, bandages, &c. have unfolded about his
mummy early this summer in Boston. It seems the said mummy was all right,
in the right coffin duly embalmed; the body being that of a priest who
died about B. C. 900. The Theban undertakers, in this particular _case_,
were honest; and all suspicion of fraud on their part is unnecessary and
unfair. Mr. Gliddon made a slight mistake, before the opening of the
coffin, in reading the fragments of the inscription; and so got the
notion that the contents were a female body. The frank, manly,
good-natured, and generous manner in which Mr. G. explains the whole
affair and owns his error, should now stop the laugh, and satisfy
everybody.

* * * * *

RACHEL is making a lucrative professional tour in Germany. The last
accounts leave her in Berlin. She has lately had built in Paris, not far
in the rear of the Madelaine, a hotel for her private residence. It is
not large, but is a perfect gem of taste, (as the French understand it)
and luxury. She receives there a choice circle of gentlemen of all
professions. The ladies who frequent her _salons_ are rarer, if