larger ones which grow in their place. They are at first covered with a soft, downy substance, called the velvet;" but this soon comes off in fragments, leaving the horn white and smooth. The antelope never sheds its horns. The roe or gazelle is the smallest animal of the antelope kind; it is only about two feet in height, and not more than half the size of the fallowdeer. Its eyes are remarkably soft and expressive; so that the people of those countries sometimes say of a beautiful woman, "She has the eyes of a gazelle." Like the hart and hind, it is noted for its swiftness: so we read, in 1st Chronicles, 128, of men who were as swift as the roes upon the mountains." In 2d Samuel, 2: 18, it is said, "And Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe;" and in the Song of Solomon, "The voice of my beloved! behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills: my beloved is like a roe or a young hart." The gazelle is often pursued in the chase; so Solomon says, "Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter." They go in very large companies, sometimes as many as two or three thousand; and they are still found in great numbers on the hills of Judea, the land where our Savior lived and died. "The wild gazelle o'er Judah's hills "Exulting, still may bound, THE SCORPION. This frightful creature is several times mentioned in the Bible. It is the largest among insects, and more dangerous than any of them. It is sometimes found in Europe, and is there about four inches long; but those of hot countries are sometimes more than a foot in length. ९९ The scorpion is very easily made angry, and then its sting is terrible; it very often causes death, but not always. In Revelation, 5 : 6, we read, And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man; and in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it and shall desire to die, and death : shall flee from them." This shows that the pain caused by their sting is very great. When a person has been stung by a scorpion, the part around the wound swells and becomes very painful, the hands and feet become cold, the skin is pale, and there is a feeling as though there were needles in every part of it. This pain often increases and rages until the person dies in great suffering. It is well for man that scorpions destroy each other as readily as they do animals of a different kind. It is said that a hundred were once put together under a glass, where they immediately began to attack and kill each other; so that in a few days only fourteen were left alive. I have heard that if a circle of alcohol or spirit of any sort, is set on fire, and a scorpion placed within it so that he cannot get out on any side, he will sting himself so as to cause his death. I am not certain that this is true, and it would be a very cruel thing to try it even upon so dangerous an animal as the scorpion. It seems that this creature was sometimes seen in the wilderness through which the children of Israel passed. When they had nearly reached the end of their journey, Moses reminded them to praise God for having kept them safely in so |