at length presents ifself before them! Abel dead! Abel slain! Ah! bitter fruit of their own transgression! Paradise is lost indeed, and death has robbed them of their pious son. Nor is this the worst sad feature of the case. His brother is his murderer. They know it; for there was no other person to commit the deed; and he has fled.-Rev. Thornley Smith.

ARCTIC NAVIGATION.

THE return of Dr. Kane's Arctic expedition to NewYork may be said to close the eventful history of modern Arctic exploration, commenced by the despatch of Sir John Franklin's expedition in 1845. It is true that we have yet to learn the results of the expedition despatched this summer by the Hudson's-Bay Company, to search for the traces of Franklin and his party which are said to exist near the mouth of the Fish-River; but it is not probable that this expedition will add to our geographical knowledge of the Arctic regions. The accounts of Dr. Kane's proceedings, published in the New-York papers, enable us to arrive at the conclusion that he has accomplished a very daring and adventurous voyage, which will add to his already high reputation as an Arctic navigator. The expedition of which he had the command was equipped in the early part of 1853, and sailed on the 21st of May in that year from New-York. It consisted of the brig "Advance," which carried seventeen persons, including the officers, and provisions for three years. The ostensible object was to search for Sir John Franklin by a new route along the west coast of Greenland, passing through Smith's Sound, and, if possible, into a Polar sea, which was supposed to exist to the north. Great success attended the expedition during the first summer. The party reached the headland of Smith's Sound as early as the 6th of August, 1853, when further progress became difficult on account of the great accumulation of ice. The vessel was, however, warped through the pack, and the expedition finally gained the northern face of Greenland at a point

never before reached. "Here," says the account published in the New-York papers, "the young ice froze around the vessel, and compelled them to seek a winter asylum, in which they experienced a degree of cold much below any previous registration. Whisky froze in November, and for four months in the year the mercury was solid daily. The mean annual temperature was five degrees below zero. This is the greatest degree of cold ever experienced by man." This last assertion is not correct. The scurvy now broke out, but was controlled by judicious treatment. A more terrible enemy, and one novel in Arctic adventure, was tetanus, or lock-jaw, which killed fifty-seven of their sledgedogs. In the ensuing spring the search was commenced, Dr. Kane heading a party in March, along the north coast of Greenland, which was followed until progress became arrested by a stupendous glacier. "This mass of ice rose in lofty grandeur to a height of five hundred feet, abutting into the sea. It undoubtedly is the only obstacle to the insularity of Greenland; or, in other words, the only barrier between Greenland and the Atlantic. It is, however, an effectual barrier to all future explorations. This glacier, in spite of the difficulties of falling bergs, was followed out to sea, the party rafting themselves across open-water spaces upon masses of ice. In this way they succeeded in travelling eighty miles along its base, and traced it into a new northern land." This part of Dr. Kane's explorations, as described in the above extract, is not clear. We apprehend that by the Atlantic is meant a Polar sea, which is claimed as the great discovery of the expedition. "The channel leading to those waters was entirely free from ice; and this feature was rendered more remarkable by the existence of a zone, or solid belt of ice, extending more than one hundred and twenty-five miles to the southward." The lashing of the surf against this frozen beach is stated as having been most impressive. The land attached to Greenland by ice has been named Washington; and that to the north and west of the channel leading out of Smith's Sound, Grinnell. The second winter was one of great suffering: scurvy attacked the

party, and at one time every man of the expedition, except Dr. Kane and Mr. Bonsell, was laid up by this disease. To aggravate their misfortunes, there was a deficiency of fuel, and they were even obliged to adopt the habits of the Esquimaux, and live upon raw walrus flesh. As it was impossible to disengage the ship from her icebound position, it was resolved to abandon her; and on the 17th of May, 1855, the party commenced their journey to the south in boats and sledges, and finally arrived, on the 6th of August, at the north Danish settlements in Greenland, having travelled thirteen hundred miles. Here they were rescued by the American Government expedition, despatched this year in search of them. The expedition had the misfortune to lose three men, two from tetanus, and one from abscess following frost-bites. With these exceptions, the party have returned in good health, and Dr. Kane is reported to be even improved in personal appearance by his hardships.-Athenæum.

THE POPE AND THE AUTHOR.

M. DENON, the well-known savant, resided at Fontainbleau during Pius the Seventh's enforced residence there. The Pope liked him, and became intimate with him. Denon used to relate the following anecdote:-"The Pope conversed with me in the most familiar manner. He always addressed me by the appellation, My son,' and seemed to take a pleasure in conversing with me, especially on the subject of our Egyptian expedition, respecting which he made frequent inquiries. One day he asked me for my work on the antiquities of Egypt; and, as it is not quite orthodox on some points, I at first hesitated. But the Pope insisted, and at length I complied with his desire. The Holy Father told me he had felt much interested in the perusal; and upon my alluding to certain delicate points, he said, 'No matter, no matter, my son: all that is exceedingly curious, and certainly quite new to me.' I then explained to His Holiness why I had hesitated to lend him the work; which, I observed, he had excommunicated,

together with its author.

'Excommunicated you, my

son!' exclaimed the Pope, in a tone of the most affectionate concern: 'I am very sorry for it, and I assure you I was not at all aware of it.'" Any person who has been in Rome will remember the flabella which are borne before the Pope on all occasions of high ceremony. They are monster fans, the circumference of which is set round with eyes taken from the feathers of the peacock. An infallible Pope must, of course, be all-seeing and all-knowing; and this is what the fans full of eyes signify. Yet the owner of this remarkably liberal provision of eyes knew no more than the bird from which he borrowed them, the man whom he had excommunicated, or the book he had placed in the "Index Expurgatorius.”—Bulwark.

recovery had gone, the entered, with a broken The dying boy, with

A DEATH-BED PRAYER. ONE day, when all hope of his father, a man of strong feelings, spirit, the chamber where he lay. his tears dropping upon the pillow, was sobbing the name of his mother: "My mother! my dear mother! O, that she were here to pray for me as she used to do!"

The father bent over him, unable, for a time, to speak, but mingling his tears with those of his son. Clasping his trembling hands, and casting a look of appalling earnestness at his parent, the boy exclaimed, "Father, I am dying with my sins upon me! I shall be lost in my present state! Send, O send, for some one to pray for me!"

"My child," replied the father, trembling with emotion, "there are none but Catholic Clergymen on the island; and they cannot help you."

"O, what shall I do, then, father?" exclaimed the son. "Pray for yourself, my dear child," replied the father, unwilling to repose the destiny of his son on his own infidel views of the future.

"I do," replied the boy; "but I need the help of others. O, can you not, will you not, pray yourself for your perishing son, father?"

The Captain felt as if the earth shook beneath him. He had never prayed in his life; but his heart melted over his child: he felt, as by consciousness, the necessity and truth of religion. He felt that none but a God could meet this terrible emergency of man. As if smitten down, he fell on his knees by the bedside of his son. His spirit was broken; his tears flowed like rain, and, with agony, he called upon God to save himself and his child. The family and servants of the house were amazed; but he prayed on, and before he rose, his child's prayers were heard, if not his own. suffering boy had found the peace which passeth understanding.

The

He died trusting in his Saviour, and full of tranquil hope. Oppressed with sorrow, the father did not cease to pray for himself: he was deeply convicted of sin, and before long found peace in believing.-Sketches and Incidents.

NEW BOOKS.

(Literary, Scientific, Educational.)

A BOOK of reference, of extraordinary elegance and great value, is presented to students of the Greek Testament. It bears a descriptive title-page: The New Testament Quotations, collated with the Scriptures of the Old Testament, in the original Hebrew, and the version of the LXX.; and with other Writings, Apocryphal, Talmudic, and Classical, cited, or alleged so to be. By HENRY GOUGH. (Walton and Maberly.) A textual index at the end enables the student to find the Hebrew text in full, the Septuagint also in full, with the English translation of each; and then the quotation in the Greek, as it stands in the New Testament, with its correspondent English, as in the authorized version. The similar passages from apocryphal and other ancient writings are equally curious and useful. The notes throughout the volume are invaluable, tending to confirm the canon of Scripture, and to illustrate, most vividly, the analogy of faith.

Young lawyers who desire help to read The Institutes of Justinian have a masterly and elegant translation by WILLIAM CHAPEL, Esq., M.A., Barrister-at-Law. (Macmillan, Cambridge.)

The Tribes of the Caucasus. With an Account of Schamyl and the Murids, by BARON AUGUST VON HAXTHAUSEN, (Chapman and Hall,) is a little book, a mere appendix to the Baron's greater work