the meat, of their bed by night and their clothing by day; -the coarser part they make into saddles or cut into halters. The sinews they use as strings to their bows, the smaller fibres for thread; the hoof is made to answer the purpose of a mallet. The bones are used as scrapers and chisels; others pointed for needles; and the ribs furnish bows. The animal is essential to their existence; when the 'buffalo' is exterminated the Indian of the prairies must perish."

LESSON XXVIII.

THE CAMEL.

I. Description of its external Appearance. ABOUT six feet in height; brown, ashy colour ; covered with long, shaggy hair; cushions upon the joints of the leg and front of the chest; broad feet; heavy eyelids; long lips. Two varietiesthe Arabian (the dromedary) and the Bactrian ; easily distinguished by the outline of their backs; the former, one hump—the latter, two humps; acute sense of smell, discovers water at a distance.

II. Countries where found.

In Europe-Southern Russia, Italy, and Turkey; Asia-Arabia, Turkey, Persia, Tartary, and India; Africa-South, Centre, Egypt. The dromedary is the more widely known. In America the llama is used as a substitute.

III. Habits, Character, Food, &c.

Gentle; patient; docile (receives its burden kneeling); becomes stubborn when beaten; rumi

nant (the cow, deer, sheep, camel and other animals which chew the cud, have four stomachs concerned in digestion: the first receives the food after a slight mastication; thence it goes into the second (the honey-comb), and when it has lain for some time it is carried up again into the mouth; it is then chewed and passes into the third stomach, or manyplies, whence it goes into the fourth, or real, the proper digesting stomach); the second stomach consists of cells, solely appropriated to the reception of water; by means of a muscular structure these cells are closed and the water preserved from being mixed with the food. Lives from thirty to forty years. Travels about twenty miles a day. Food consists of herbage and foliage of shrubs; fed also with dates, barley cakes, &c. In spring, when the herbage is fresh, it can go for twenty-five days without water.

IV. Structure adapted to its Habits.

1. Internal reservoir supplies water when passing from oasis to oasis.

2. Long neck enables it to raise its head to catch the first glance of the distant verdure.

3. Over-hanging eyelid shelters the eye from the brilliancy of the sun.

4. Long nostril protects from the sand-blasts which sweep over the deserts.

5. Loose, shaggy hair; less warm than wool, but good defence to the skin.

6. Broad feet find ready support on the sand. 7. Cushions upon feet, knees, and chest, support the weight of the body while eating.

8. Hump, a mass of fat, substitute for food on lengthened journeys; large when well fed; decreases as food is withheld.

V. Uses.

a. Of the utmost use as a beast of burden; called the "ship of the desert;" these wildernesses impassable without it; by its aid men traverse regions"Where no springs in murmurs break away,

Or moss-crown'd fountains mitigate the day; Where rocks alone and tasteless sands are found, And faint and sickly winds for ever howl around." b. The milk forms a nourishing and refreshing drink; made also into butter and cheese.

c. Flesh supplies food to the Arab.

d. Hair manufactured into clothing and fabrics for tents; the finer hair is imported into England, from Persia, for making painters' brushes.

VI. Scriptural Notices.

From the earliest times it has been a domestic animal; frequently mentioned in the Bible-e. g., enumerated among the riches of the patriarchs, Abraham, Job, Jacob, &c. ; on a camel Rebecca rode on leaving her home in company with Abraham's servant (Gen. xxiv.); camels' hair composed the simple dress of St. John Baptist (St. Matt. iii. 4); "a coarse stuff is still made from the long, shaggy hair of the camel." The camel was the largest animal known to the Jews,-hence the proverb expressive of great improbability, "a camel to pass through the eye of a needle." (Vide also Esth. viii. 10; 1 Sam. xxx. 17.)

LESSON XXIX.-CORAL.

I. Description of Appearance, Nature, &c.

LONG supposed to be a vegetable production, but it is really animal; resembles bark, spotted with

round lumps; covered with a thick adhesive substance. Living something like a tree; consists of the dead bodies of insects, marine polypi; zoophytes, animal-plants, or zoantharia, animal-flowers; the most common the madrapore. Of various shapes and sizes, from a pin's head to the bulk of a pea ; some have the appearance of stars, with arms from four to six inches long; others thin as threads, and several feet in length. Colour varies- yellow, blue, brown, &c.

II. Formation.

Their bodies adhere to each other ; increase upwards and extend laterally; when left above high-water mark they die; do not then decay, but harden and become as stone. When the tide is down, appear like rocks, compact, rugged, hard, and dry; as the water rises the worms protrude themselves from numberless holes, and the mass appears alive.

"I saw the living pile ascend
The mausoleum of its architects,

Still dying upwards as their labours closed;
Slime the material, but slime was turned
To adamant, by their petrific touch;

Frail were their frames, ephemeral their lives,
Their masonry imperishable."

The principal coral-builders are found within twenty-eight degrees of the equator; waters too cold for them beyond; others in more temperate regions; generally at about a hundred feet deep, never deeper than one hundred and twenty feet. "There are few things more beautiful to look at than these corallines, when viewed through two or three fathoms of clear, still water. The colours of the rainbow are put to shame on a bright, sunny

day, by what meets the view on looking into the sea in those fairy regions."

"Millions of millions thus, from age to age,
With simplest skill and toil unweariable,
No moment and no movement unimproved,-
Laid line on line, on terrace, terrace spread,

To swell the heightening, brightening, gradual mound
By marvellous structure rising towards the day."

III. Islands and Reefs.

The whole Pacific crowded with coral-reefs and islands; the Red Sea is gradually growing less and less navigable in consequence of them. The surface of the island or reef gradually formed; only slightly elevated; "visited by sea-birds; salt plants take root; soil formed by degrees; cocoa-nuts and other seeds thrown on shore; land-birds visit it and deposit seeds of shrubs and plants; every high tide adds something to the bank; at last comes man to take possession."

"The sea-snatch'd isle is the home of men,

And mountains exult where the wave hath been."

Reefs of various forms; barrier-reefs run nearly parallel to the shore at some distance, separated by a smooth channel; shore-reefs fringe the shore, from which they are divided by a narrow strait. They are extremely dangerous to ships, the surface generally under water, and sides steep, no warning of the danger can be discovered by sounding. The New Holland coral reef extends three times the length of England.

IV. Coral Fishery.

Fishery pursued extensively in the Mediterranean Sea, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea. Most celebrated