three of us combining our forces actually turned him over by it without compelling him to quit his hold. Oh, those terrible jaws! They gave me a hideous vision of some bather hopelessly imprisoned in their iron grip and gradually absorbed by his immovable foe. GOETHE ON THE PANAMA ISTHMUS. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sir,-The mention of Goethe in your instructive article on Mr. Colquhoun's book on "The Key of the Pacific," in the Spectator of July 18th, sent me to my Eckermann. And as not every one of your readers will have that treasure at his disposal, I venture to inclose-for publication if you think fit-a translation of the remarkable passage in which Goethe, foreseeing, advocates the making of a Nicaragua Canal by the Americans, and a Suez Canal in the possession of England.-I am, Sir, etc., E. O. I Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, there would result, for the whole of the civilized world, also for the not civilized part of mankind, the most incalculable advantages. should, however, be astonished if the United States were to let slip the opportunity of getting such a work into their own hands. One may foresee that that youthful country, with its pronounced tendency towards the West, will have seized upon and peopled, within thirty or forty years, even the wide stretches of land beyond the Rocky Mountains. One may also foresee that along all this coast of the Pacific, where Nature has already created the most spacious and most secure harbors, there will gradually arise very important commercial towns, which will become the intermediaries of a great intercourse between China and the East Indies on the one side and the United States on the otner. But in that case it will be not only desirable, but almost a matter of necessity that merchant vessels as well as men-of-war shall maintain a more rapid communication than has so far been possible by the wearisome, disagreeable, and costly navigation round Cape Horn. I refor the United States to effect a cutting peat, then, that it is absolutely imperative from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. And I am certain that they will achieve that aim. I should like to live to see it. But that is not possible in my case. Secondly, I should like to live to see To dinner at Goethe's. . . . "Humboldt" said Goethe, "has indicated, with great local knowledge, several points, where, by making use of some rivers flow-effected a joining of the Rhine with the ing into the Gulf of Mexico, one might, perhaps, attain the object in view, even more advantageously than at Panama. The decision of all this is reserved to the Future, and so a grand spirit of enterprise. So much is certain, that if a cutting be possible of such a character as would allow ships with any kind of cargo and of every, even the greatest, size to pass through such a Canal, from the Gulf of Danube. But that were another gigantic undertaking, and I doubt its being carried out, more especially when I contemplate the [smallness of the] means that Germany can dispose of. And, thirdly, 1 should like the English to be in possession of a Canal of Suez. These three things I should like to live to see, and it would be really worth while to hold out here, for their sake, another fifty years." Orchids and Ants.-It has been observed that orchids derive some benefit from the numerous ants which overrun them in the tropics, but the precise nature of the service has remained a mystery. According to a naturalist of the Botanic Gardens in Trinidad, the ants appear to foster the growth of a fungus on the roots of the orchid, and this fungus acts as an addi-ington, United States. tional source of nourishment to the plant. Certain South American ants are known to cultivate fungi for their own use, and these may unconsciously sow the seed of the fungi in crawling over the roots of the orchid. Quite recently, we may add, a variety of these fungus-farming ants was found in the neighborhood of Wash |