new set of legs. At first it dreaded my approach to its web; but at last it became so familiar as to take a fly out of my hand, and upon my touching any part of the web, would immediately leave its hole, prepared either for a defence or an attack. HE two largest and most celebrated cities in Scotland are situated in the valleys of two rivers, the Forth and the Clyde. They are Edinburgh and Glasgow. Edinburgh is on the Forth, though situated at some little distance from its banks, Glasgow is on the Clyde. There is a railway extending across from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and also a canal, connecting the waters of the Forth with those of the Clyde. The region of these cities, and of the canal and railroad connecting them, is altogether the busiest, the most densely peopled, and the most important portion of Scotland. 2. The cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, though both greatly celebrated, are celebrated in very different ways. Edinburgh is the city of science, of literature, and of the arts. Here are many learned institutions, the fame and influence of which extend to every part of the world. Here are great bookpublishing establishments, which send forth millions of volumes of all kinds every year. 3. The situation of Edinburgh is very romantic and beautiful; the town being built among hills and ravines of the most picturesque and striking character. When Scotland was an independent kingdom, Edinburgh was the capital of it, and thus the old palace of the kings, and the royal castle, are there; and the town has been the scene of some of the most remarkable events in Scottish history. 4. Glasgow, on the other hand, which is on the Clyde, towards the western side of the island, together with all the country for many miles around it, forms the scene of the mechanical and manufacturing industry of Scotland. The whole district, in fact, is one vast workshop, being full of mines, mills, forges, furnaces, machine-shops, shipyards, and iron works, with pipes puffing out steam, and tall chimneys rising everywhere all round the horizon, and sending up volumes of dense black smoke, which come pouring incessantly from their summits, and thence floating majestically away, mingle with the clouds of the sky. 5. The reason of this is, that the strata of rocks which lie beneath the ground in all this region, consist in great measure of beds of coal and of iron ore. The miners dig down in almost any spot, and find iron ore; and very near it, and sometimes in the same pit, they find plenty of coal. 6. These pits are like monstrous wells: very wide at the mouth, and extending down four or five times as far as the height of the tallest steeples, into the bowels of the earth. Over the mouth of the pit the workmen build a machine, with ropes and a monstrous wheel, to hoist up the iron and coal by, and all around they set up furnaces to smelt the ore and turn it into iron. 7. Then at suitable places, in various parts of the country, they construct great rolling mills and foundries. The rolling mills are to turn the pig iron into wrought iron, and to manufacture it into bars, and sheets, and rails for the railroads; and the foundries are to cast it into the form of great wheels, and cylinders, and beams for machinery, or for any other purpose that may be required. 8. The Clyde is the river on which the steamboats were first built in Great Britain. The first man in England or Scotland that found a way of making a steam-engine that could be put in a boat and made to turn paddle wheels, so as to drive the boat along, was James Watt, who was born on the Clyde, which, of course, very naturally became the centre of steamboat and steamship building. 9. The iron for the engines was found close at hand, as well as abundant supplies of coal for the fires. The timber they brought from the Baltic. At length, however, they found that they could build ships of iron instead of wood, using iron beams for the framing, and covering them with plates of iron riveted together, instead of planks. 10. These ships were found superior, in almos all respects, to those built of timber; and as iror in great abundance was found all along the banks of the Clyde, and as the workmen in the region were extremely skilful in working it, the business of building ships and steamers of this material increased wonderfully, until, at length, the banks of the river for miles below Glasgow became lined with shipyards, where countless steamers, of monstrous length and graceful forms, in all stages of construction, lie; now sloping towards the water and down the stream, ready at the appointed time to glide majestically into the river, and thence to plough their way to every portion of the habitable globe. pub'-lish-ing dense'-ly ho-ri'-zon cy'-lin-ders pic-tur-esque' con-struc'-tion |