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"The true avalanche, in its recoil from the rock wall, has formed an immense rampart, separated from the rock by a deep trench. On the sides, under the stress of the enormous power of the wind, which, like the avalanche itself, was deflected by the Weissfluhgrat, blocks of considerable size were driven around as in a whirlpool, so as, at least on the northern edge, to have been forced back up the slopes of the Altels toward the entrance of the gorge lead

terrific blast of wind which swept away | like a battle-field in old muzzle-loading chalets, trees, men, and cattle as though they had been feathers. This is proved by the fact that, far above the limit reached by the avalanche, hundreds of trees have been uprooted, and lie in regular rows, indicating with mathematical exactitude the direction of the aerial current. These trees are for the most part of great size, several indeed having trunks one metre in diameter. Such as were protected by a large rock or a reverse dip on the hillside have been spared. Others, standing with only half their height above such hol-ing to Kandersteg. These different atlows, have had the exposed part бlown off, while the subsequent on-coming of the avalanche has not succeeded in tearing up what was left of them, even when it has enveloped their base. This wind produced a veritable bombardment of ice dust mixed with stones, which has stripped the roots and branches of the trees laid low by the wind itself, and which must have killed man and beast before ever the real avalanche overwhelmed them. Further away the trees have only been denuded of their upper portion, the branches composing which were transported to a great distance, and now form a com. pact line of débris among the far-off scattered trees, like the bank of seawreck left on open coasts after a fierce storm. Ice bombs, too, round like cannon balls, but with an average diameter of one foot, which lay all about in the neighborhood of the fallen mass, bore eloquent testimony to the extreme violence of the wind. On the way from the Hotel Schwarenbach, before coming to the Bernese frontier, the green pasture was strewn with these balis

mospheric motions were well marked, owing to the disposition of the materials which came under their influence. Near the Winteregg, the trees, shrubs, and grasses were all bent toward the north, forming an exterior zone, which was more and more thickly covered with the dust, etc., raised by the catastrophe as the central mass was approached. A second zone, within the first, was found to consist of the loose rocks, etc., thrust aside by the head of the ice mass as it dashed up the west slope; the inner edge of this zone was itself covered by a layer of ice and snow, representing the matter that kept pouring off from the sides of the central body in its upward progress, and also the results of the reflux which took place when its further advance was barred. Some of the ice and stones hurled against the Weissfluhgrat had adhered to it, being plastered, as it were, into the fissures and gullies. These masses were being constantly detached from their precarious position, and kept descending in roaring avalanches."

Negative Varnish.-Dissolve eight parts of borax and two parts of carbonate of soda in one hundred and sixty parts of hot water, and dissolve in this thirty-two parts of bleached shellac broken up small. When this is dissolved add one part of

glycerine dissolved in one hundred and sixty parts of water. If any deposit forms after a few days, filter off. This varnish can be run on the plate while it is wet, hence the plate dries once for all. Photography.

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VIII.

A PARIAH. By Henry Seton Merriman, Cornhill Magazine, .

446

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When André rode to Pont-du-lac,
With all his raiders at his back,
Mon Dieu! the tumult in the town!
Scarce clanged the great portcullis down
Ere in the sunshine gleamed his spears
And up marched all his musketeers,
And far and fast in haste's array
Sped men to fight and priests to pray;
In every street a barricade

Of aught that lay to hand was made,
From every house a man was told
Nor quittance given to young or old;
Should youth be spared or age be slack
When André rode to Pont-du-lac?

When André rode to Pont-du-lac With all his ravening reiver-pack, The mid lake was a frozen road Unbending to the cannon's load,

No warmth the sun had as it shone, The kine were stalled, the birds were gone;

Like wild things seemed the shapes of fur

With which was every street astir,

And over all the huddling crowd

The thick breath hung-a solid cloud-
Roof, road, and river, all were white,
Men moved benumbed by day-by night
The boldest durst not bivouac,
When André rode to Pont-du-lac.
When André rode to Pont-du-lac
We scarce could stem his swift attack,
A halt, a cheer, a bugle-call,
Like wild cats they were up the wall,
But still as each man won the town
We tossed him from the ramparts down;
And when at last the stormers quailed
And back the assailants shrank assailed,
Like wounded wasps that still could sting,
Or tigers that had missed their spring,
They would not fly, but turned at bay
And fought out all the dying day;
Sweet saints! it was a crimson track
That André left by Pont-du-lac.
When André rode to Pont-du-lac
Said he: "A troop of girls could sack
This huckster town that hugs its hoard
But wists not how to wield a sword."
It makes my blood warm now to know
How soon Sir Cockerel ceased to crow,
And how 'twas my sure dagger-point
In Andre's harness found a joint,
For I, who now am old, was young,
And strong the thews were,

strung,

now un

And deadly though our danger then,
I would that day were back again;
Ay, would to God the day were back
When André rode to Pont-du-lac.
A. H. BEESLY.
Longman's Magazine

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From The Contemporary Review. LI HUNG CHANG. "There are three parties at Pekin: 1. Li Hung Chang. 2. The Court. 3. The literary class. Li Hung Chang is a noble fellow, and worth giving one's life for." These sentences are taken from an unpublished letter of General Gordon, written in July, 1880, when on his way to the Chinese capital. I have permission to quote them, and they provide an appropriate introduction for the remarkable statesman who is about to arrive in this country, as well as for the serious political questions suggested by the present condition of the empire he represents.

I do not propose to describe in any detail here the varied and brilliant services which have made the name of Li Hung Chang as well known in foreign lands as in his own. The main incidents of his career since he co-operated with Gordon, over thirty years ago, in the suppression of the Taeping rebellion are probably familiar by this time to the majority of readers, and no one has ever impugned the sincerity of his desire to improve the administration of his State, to introduce industrial reforms, and to maintain peace. If the progress has not been rapid, if the part of reformer has not been as popular or as successful as it deserved to be, no one has blamed Li Hung Chang for the smallness of the result, while every one has admired the skill, courage, and determination with which he has forced his way against the most powerful enemies, and the prejudices of the lettered and official classes, to a summit of power such as no other Chinese subject ever attained during the countless centuries of her past history. And now, in the evening of his life, the Grand Old Man of China has undertaken a tour round the capitals of the world, in order to see with his own eyes those foreign countries with which the fate of his own must be closely mixed up, and to study their systems of efficient administration for purposes of peace and war, especially the latter, to which China must by her own effort, or by external compulsion, and with

as little delay as possible, provide the best approximation that she can. There is a serious side as well as an ornamental to the showy embassy that the imperial chancellor has conducted to the courts of Europe. The ornamental part began and terminated at Moscow. The serious part, although not restricted to London, must be chiefly transacted in the capital of the empire which has the largest stake in the trade and future of the Far East, and whose statesmen stand resolute to the purpose that that stake shall not be diminished, much less filched away.

Li Hung Chang comes to form his own opinion about us, but it is also desirable to state that we have to form our opinion about him; not as to his undoubted ability, or the tact and dignity with which he will hold his own in any assembly, but as to his power and capacity to effect that improvement in the administration which will practically amount to a regeneration of China. It is something to be assured, on the most unimpeachable authority, that this serious task was the principal object he set before himself on undertaking a mission from which his age and his inexperience as a traveller would have justified his asking to be excused. But, as the people most closely concerned in the result after the Chinese themselves, we are bound to measure his chances of success with the nearest approach to accuracy we can attain, and it would be paying our guest a very poor compliment to minimize the difficulties of his task or to declare that he is sure to accomplish it. With the fullest admission as to the great ability and unfailing shrewdness of Li Hung Chang, there is more reason to anticipate that the powerful forces arrayed against him, the two of the three parties into which General Gordon divided the repositories of supreme power in China, will prove triumphant, to the inevitable ruin of their country, than that he, at his age, will carry out those drastic measures which can alone render China competent to preserve her independence.

There is one great reason for believ- | Chang sees these facts as clearly as we

ing that Li Hung Chang may be not only in earnest as to his own mission, but also successful in impressing on his countrymen the imperative necessity of bestirring and qualifying themselves to take their part in the international conflicts of the future. The rude lesson they received at the hands of the Japanese must have opened the eyes of at least the ruling powers at Pekin. It was not merely the material loss they suffered by the destruction of a costly fleet and the imposition of an indemnity which will permanently absorb their maritime customs at their present total; but the blow to their self-esteem and reputation must have hurt far more deeply, and can only be deemed healed when China, Phoenix-like, has risen from the ashes of her own degradation. China entered on that war with a high reputation and such superior resources as seemed at least to justify the opinion that the struggle would prove arduous and, at the worst, inconclusive. A single campaign sufficed to shatter that reputation, to destroy the new military organization she was supposed to have created, and to cripple her in the future with a heavy legacy of debt. Worst of all, this terrible blow was inflicted by a race of Asiatics traditionally considered inferior, who had imitated admirably one branch of European progress, the art of "égorger vos prochains," while China, wrapped in her pride, had been standing still, or wasting her resources on a sham.

In this experience was provided motive enough for that "awakening of China," which the late Marquis Tseng promised us ten years ago, but which the result has shown us we must still

expect. As a stimulant it certainly should prove sufficient, although it must be frankly admitted that the only sign China has yet given of realizing her damaged and dangerous position is this very tour of her one statesman, and considerably over a year has elapsed since the treaty of Shimonoseki secured for her the breathing space necessary to repair what had been destoyed. It can well be believed that Li Hung

do; but with a more complete knowledge than we have of the Chinese system and greater tolerance for national prejudices than we need pretend to, he may hesitate as to where or how the desirable reforms can be commenced. That hesitation will not be diminished by the fact that while the Japanese war was a terrible lesson for the members of the central government, it did not affect nine-tenths of the Chinese people, who are still lulled in a sleep of fancied superiority and security. If the Chinese people at large were really awake to the military helplessness of their country and to the imperative necessity of making every sacrifice to recover that capacity of defence which in nations is the only sound basis of selfrespect, then the task of Li Hung Chang would be both easier and more likely to succeed. Unfortunately, the only persons in China thoroughly aroused to the perils of the situation are Li Hung Chang himself and a few high personages at Pekin, among whom may undoubtedly be placed the empress dowager and the reigning emperor. Against them are arrayed all the powerful forces of the censors, the literary class, and those resolute opponents of all change, nowhere stronger than in China. They have numbers, they fill every post, and block every channel of improved knowledge and a healthier spirit, and they will even argue that as ironclads and rifles failed in 1894-5 to give them the victory over Japan it would be folly to throw away any further sums on such useless purchases!

When it is stated that Li Hung Chang has come on a mission for the purpose of inaugurating a system of reforms it is necessary to consider both the state of opinion in China and the amount of opposition he is likely to encounter

from interested parties. That opposition can only be diminished and overcome by the growth of a strong national opinion that reforms are necessary, and that the one way to preserve the independence of China is by some of those radical carrying out

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