wind. A flock of gazelles, or a troup of Bedouins, scouring across the plain, would have relieved its monotony; but neither the one nor the other appeared. To the north and the east, the landscape pre sented a perfect contrast to this savage scenery; night and day are not more different. All that remains of the valley of the Nile is luxuriantly covered with verdure and beauty; corn-fields, green meadows, woods of various growth and foliage, scattered villages, a thousand shining sheets of water, and above all, the broad, glittering stream of the Nile, spreading fertility on all sides. Beyond this were the white buildings of Cairo, Babylon and Rhoda, backed by the long, lofty range of the Gebel Mokattam, reflecting the bright rays of the mid-day sun.

We remained for some time on the summit of the pyramid, as if loth to quit the spot, admiring, with unwearied delight, the extraordinary features of the landscape beneath; but at length it became necessary to descend. We descended rapidly. I had an Arab on each side of me, who actively assisted my efforts, springing from step to step with the agility of a chamois. It was now that the height looked dangerous, the blocks on which we stood vast, and the labor that had piled them upon each other marvellous; but we reached the bottom in safety, in one twentieth part of the time it had taken us to ascend."

The pyramids are not perfectly solid, but contain numerous galleries and chambers, which have often been explored. Some of the large stones of which I have spoken were used in constructing these chambers, and they are often worked as smooth and as true as the best marble.

The original use and object of these imperishable structures has never been discovered; but they are supposed to have been connected in some way with the religion of the ancient Egyptians, and employed as tombs and temples. Many bodies, embalmed, have been found in them, and the coffins covered over with hieroglyphics. The pyramids, from some recent discoveries which have been made in deciphering these characters, are supposed to have been built about eighteen hundred years before our Saviour came upon the earth, though some of them are, doubtless, much more ancient.

How cheerful the farmer!-do you mark that smile,
That lights up his honest face? Meanwhile
He is humming an air the hours to beguile,

While breaking the bright green sward;
No fears are filling his quiet heart,
For he trusts in God, if he does his part,
That his labor shall reap its reward.

He knows right well who it is who said,
"Who tilleth the soil shall not want bread,
While light o'er the earth by the sun is shed,"
Rich plenty shall fill his store :

When winter has come with chilling blast,
All sorrow away from his home is cast,

And the poor are not turned from his door.

It is May, and the green young leaf is unrolled,

The sweet-scented blossoms their beauties unfold,
Where the honey-bees gather a levee to hold,

All nature is smiling with joy;

Come away to the fields with the gamboling herds,
With the murmur of brooks and the songs of the birds
Your hearts' purest praises employ.

QUICKSILVER MINES.

93

Quicksilver, or Mercury.

Go into a druggist's shop and ask the proprietor to show you some quicksilver. He will probably take down a small bottle containing a shining fluid, very closely resembling melted lead. If you take the bottle into your hands you will be astonished at its great weight, and for some moments you will be almost certain that there are some heavy weights attached to it. If you pour out a small quantity into your hand, it will roll about in all directions, but will assume nearly the shape of a ball, unless scattered by violence. You cannot pick it up, for it will evade your grasp entirely. It will not stick to your fingers, but as soon as they are removed it will fall together again into one mass. This is what mineralogists call MERCURY.

Mercury is of great use in extracting other metals from their ores. It has a great attraction for gold, and still greater for silver; and without the aid of this mineral, it would not be easy to obtain those more precious commodities. The silver-mines of Potosi would have been almost useless, had not a mine of quicksilver been discovered at Guanza Velica, in the same country. This mine has been worked almost three hundred years, and does not seem to diminish in its productiveness.

When a visitor gets fairly into the mine, he finds a subterraneous city, with broad streets, open squares, and a chapel, in which the ceremonies of the Romish religion are performed, especially upon high days. Thousands of flambeaux are kept continually burning, to give light to these otherwise gloomy regions, into which the sun has never darted a ray.

The ore in which the quicksilver is contained is earthy, of a whitish red color, looking like burned brick. This is pounded small. It is then put into a kiln, somewhat, in shape, like an oven: the bottom consists of an iron grating, covered with earth. Under this a gentle heat is kept up, with an herb which grows in that part of the country; and, from its being deemed the most suitable fuel for this business, the cutting of it for other purposes is prohibited, for sixty miles around. The heat thus communicated to the pounded ore sublimes the mercury, that is, makes it rise with the smoke, which can only pass off through a very small hole, connected with a

number of retorts, or earthen vessels with long necks, each having a little water in its lower part. The water condenses the smoke, and the small globules of quicksilver which had come with it fall to the bottoms of the retorts, where they are gathered easily together into

one mass.

This mine is wrought at the expense of private persons, who are obliged to sell the whole produce to the king at a stated price. When the government has obtained enough for present purposes from the mines, the work is suspended. This mine is worked by the native Indians, who, in consequence of the noxious gases in all mines of quicksilver, rarely live more than one or two years. They work naked, and although they are required to labor only six months at one time, yet many do not live even that short period, and those that do are reduced to a state of great wretchedness, and are unfit for any other employment afterwards.

There are various mines of quicksilver in Europe. One at Idria, in Carniola, belonging to the Emperor of Austria, is worked by persons condemned for certain crimes. They are said to be wretched in the extreme. They labor in darkness, or far away from the light of the sun, toiling out a miserable life under the lash of hard-hearted task-masters. The entrance to this mine is in the side of a mountain, at a hole about fifteen feet wide. The conveyance to the mine below is in a bucket, to a depth of more than six hundred feet. The opening widens as you descend, but becomes more and more gloomy as you leave the light. After a pretty long swing in this manner, you touch the bottom; but the ground on which you tread sounds hollow. The sound of your own feet echoes among the gloomy caverns like thunder. Feeble lamps are placed here and there, just sufficient to guide the workmen. But a person just descended from the surface is not able to see anything, not even the persons who come to conduct him about the place.

This mine was discovered in 1497. The quantity of mercury cleansed from the ore every year amounts to about one hundred and thirty-five tons. Much pure metal, called virgin mercury, is caught here as it oozes out of the crevices of the mine. There is another important mine in the in Spain. This is worked by the king.

province of La Mancha,

Here, also, much pure