The stars of heaven shall guide us, QUESTIONS:-What is meant by the change and chances of the ocean? 2. What are reels? 3. What is the meaning of give way? THE river Amazon forms, with the long mountainchain of the Andes, the chief geographical feature of the American continent. The Amazon is not only the largest watercourse upon the face of the earth, it is also that which waters the richest and most fertile countries. The interminable forest upon its shores has no glades or openings. Upon either side the trees are wedged as closely together as ears of corn, and are as straight as artificial columns; their bases are hidden in darkness by clustering vegetation, while their summits, crowned with foliage, greet the vivifying light. From the boats which navigate the river it is impossible to distinguish the precise form of this vegetable rampart. To obtain some idea of the immense variety of trees and shrubs which swell with the inexhaustible sap of tropical nature, the traveller must penetrate the thicket by one of the tortuous little channels which surround the islets scattered over the Amazon. Growing at the very edge of the banks divers trees are found nodding their plumes, spreading their fans, displaying their leafy shades, and hanging their flowing creepers over the very waves. And how many useful plants are there in that immense green thicket! There are no fewer than twentythree kinds of palm-trees, all contributing, either in their sap, their bark, or their fruit, to the service of man. Then come the cacao-tree, the coffeeplant, the cotton-plant, the orange-tree, the breadfruit tree, the mango, the Brazil wood,-which has given its name to an empire,-the cedar, the sarsaparilla, and others. And contiguous to these well-known trees, others grow by hundreds which are not less necessary to the sustenance or the cure of mankind, than to the construction of ships and the manufacture of articles of household furniture. Terrible as it is from the rapidity of its current, the Brazilian river is not the less so by reason of its periodical swellings. As regular in its upward progress as the Nile, it begins to rise towards the month of February, when the sun on its northward journey melts the snows of the Peruvian Andes, and draws above the basin of the Amazon the zone of clouds and rain which accompany it. Under the combined operations of the melting of the snows and the heavy rains, the waters gradually rise twelve yards above the level of the land; the low islands disappear altogether; the banks of the river are inundated; the shallow lagoons fill up, and, uniting their waters with those of the river, become small internal seas; the animals seek shelter on the lofty branches of the trees; and the Indians who live near the banks betake themselves to their rafts. Towards the 8th of July, when the waters begin to subside, the denizens of the shores. have new dangers to encounter. The waters, returning to their natural bed, undermine its saturated banks or gnaw them gradually, and all at once great masses of earth crumble to pieces and carry with them the trees and the animals they have hitherto borne. Travellers who navigate the Amazon, see but few of those colossal trunks which they expect to behold. From this sketch it will be clear that the cultivation of estates in the vicinity of the Amazon would be a rash and perilous enterprise. The colonist could only venture upon such a measure with the risk of seeing his dwelling and his crops. washed away, unless he made timely preparation for the inevitable visitation. Even the islands are exposed to sudden destruction. When the trunks of drifted trees, which have clustered around them like breakwaters, yield to the violence of the current, it is not many hours-nay, sometimes not many minutes before they disappear, overwhelmed by the flood. Peruvian Andes.-That portion of the Andes that runs through Peru. Lagoons.-Small lakes, formed by the sea running into the land. They generally contain numerous small islands. QUESTIONS:-1. What is the peculiarity of the forests upon the banks of the Amazon? 2. Mention some useful plants that grow upon its banks. 3. What causes its periodic rise? 4. What dangers attend this periodic rise? 5. What dangers attend the subsidence of the waters? 6. What renders agriculture a perilous enterprise along the barks of this river? It was a calm, sunny day in the year 1750; the scene, a piece of forest-land in Virginia, near a noble stream of water. Implements of surveying were lying about, and several men reclining under the trees, betokened, by their dress and appearance, that they composed a party engaged in laying out the wild lands of the country. These persons had apparently just finished their dinner. Apart from the group stood a young man of a tall and compact frame, whose countenance wore a look of decision not usually found in one so young, for he was apparently little over eighteen years of age. His hat had been cast off, as if for comfort, and he had paused, as if in quiet thought. Suddenly there was a shriek, then another, and several in rapid succession. At the first scream, the youth turned his head in the direction of the sound, and saw his companions crowded together on the banks of the river, while in the midst stood a woman, held back by two of the men, but struggling vigorously for freedom. The instant her eye fell on him she exclaimed, "Oh! sir, you will do something for me. My boy, my poor |