ed with them
not half an hour ago!" The woman stared at me with an expression of doubt,
and muttering something that sounded extremely like "little liar," turned
from me, and went her way.

(_To be concluded in our next_.)

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

ORIGIN OF PRAIRIES.

The origin of prairies has occasioned much theory; it is to our mind very
simple: they are caused by the Indian custom of annually burning the
leaves and grass in autumn, which prevents the growth of any young trees.
Time thus will form prairies; for, some of the old trees annually perishing,
and there being no undergrowth to supply their place, they become thinner
every year; and, as they diminish, they shade the grass less, which
therefore grows more luxuriantly; and, where a strong wind carries a fire
through dried grass and leaves, which cover the earth with combustible
matter several feet deep, the volume of flame destroys all before it; the
very animals cannot escape. We have seen it enwrap the forest upon which
it was precipitated, and destroy whole acres of trees. After beginning;,
the circle widens every year, until the prairies expand boundless as the
ocean. Young growth follows the American settlement, since the settler
keeps off those annual burnings.

_American Quarterly Review_.

* * * * *

SUTTON WASH EMBANKMENT.

This is said to be one of the grandest public works ever achieved in
England. It is an elevated mound of earth, with a road over, carried
across an estuary of the sea situated between Lynn and Boston, and
shortening the distance between the two towns more than fifteen miles.
This bank has to resist, for four hours in every twelve, the weight and
action of the German Ocean, preventing it from flowing over 15,000 acres
of mud, which will very soon become land of the greatest fertility. In the
centre the tide flows up a river, which is destined to serve as a drain to
the embanked lands, and has a bridge over it of oak, with a movable centre
of cast iron, for the purpose of admitting ships.

* * * * *

BRITISH IRON TRADE.

The following view of the progressive and wonderful increase of the
iron-trade is extracted from the Companion to the Almanac for 1829:--

Iron made in Number
Great Britain. of
Tons. Furnaces.
In 1740