is a play founded on a mystery which
perplexes all the persons of it until its
revelation in the final act. The conduct of the
plot in the Greek drama is admirable;
the secret being kept to the end, though
gradually unfolded during the progress of
the play. Seneca has not been equally
successful; but the style of the Œdipus is
more natural than that of the Medea. Two
other tragedies attributed to Seneca, the
Octavia and the Thebaid, are of little merit
as dramas though not wanting in beauty as
poems.

The remaining six may be summarily
dismissed. They have, say classical critics,
many beauties, the style being generally
noble, and the sentiments sublime; but
they are irregular both in regard to fable
and construction, and therefore but ill
suited for representation. Indeed, the
tragic writers of the period composed their
dramas rather for the sake of rhetorical
exercise than with a design to furnish pieces
for actual representation in the theatre.
Of these P. Pomponius Secundus is
mentioned by the younger Pliny and by
Quintilian with high commendation. Æmilius
Scaurus was the author of a tragedy
entitled Atreus; he was put to death by
Tiberius, having been suspected of alluding
to that emperor in an objectionable passage.
Curatius Maternus is cited as a tragic poet
of celebrity. Four of his tragedies are
entitled Medea, Thyestes, Cato, and Domitius.
He was put to death by Domitian, having
declaimed against tyranny. Of minor
poets and dramatists Rome possessed so
many that an account of them would be
tedious, and, we fear, uninteresting, though
some of them are of remarkable merit. Thus
Pollio, a writer of tragedies, is celebrated
both by Horace and Virgil as a fine poet,
as well as a good orator and a just historian.

Ultimately, the love of the Romans for
spectacles and pantomimes ruined the hopes
of both the tragic and comic poet. Comedy,
indeed, after the time of Terence was
still more neglected than tragedy. Both
flourished, however, sufficiently to make
two actors famous, Æsopus and Roscius.
They were friends of Cicero. The former
is recorded to have excelled in tragic
scenes, and the latter to have gained a
wonderful reputation both in comedy and
tragedy. The theatres in Rome were so
large that it was difficult to perform in
them. Indeed, we find it hard to conceive
how a speaker, having to make himself
heard by forty, or even eighty, thousand
persons, was able to preserve the tones and
expressions of voice requisite to touch the
feelings. The Roman actor, also, was
expected sometimes to play a female part,
as women never appeared on the stage
except as mimes or dancers. The business
of a comedian at Rome was very lucrative,
and both Æsopus and Roscius acquired
immense wealth.

ADVENTURE OF FIVE GOLD
DIGGERS.

IN the spring of 1865, I got belated by the
Mission of St. Peter's in the Rocky
Mountains, and there I heard a tale of suffering,
which, as a contribution to the history of
gold "prospecting," I may relate just as I
jotted it down from the lips of one of the
adventurers. Five gold diggers of Montana
Territory were wintering in a log cabin at
Cottonwood, Deer Lodge, but as the winter
lagged along they grew tired, and thought
that they would try a little "prospecting."
Accordingly, on the 10th of January, Joe
Shields, Jerry Cross, Joe Wood, Alexander
Dorrell and Alexander Grant, started on
their winter journey, and after prospecting
Carpenters' Bar they crossed the Rocky
Mountains to Helena, where they procured
the services of an old French Canadian
voyageur as guide, and proceeded to
explore the country about the head waters
of the Mariah, one of the tributaries of the
Missouri River. The company were
provisioned with six months' supplies, and
carried with them all necessary tools and
utensils. On the 19th they reached the
base of the mountains, and not expecting
Indians in a section of the country so
remote, they turned their animals loose to
graze, and after their usual repast and
smoke they laid themselves round the camp
fire, to enjoy that sound and refreshing
sleep vouchsafed to the hardy mountaineer.
On the following morning the horses were
not to be found. Presuming they had
strayed, the party, after breakfast, started
off to find them, and after hours of fruitless
search they returned from their several
directions, to find their camp stripped of
everything they possessed save their
buffalo robes. Realising their situation, that
their horses and supplies had been stolen
by some wandering band of hostile Indians,
they started on the morning of the 21st to
retrace their steps. They were then eighty
miles above the main stream of the Mariah
among its tributaries, but weary, hungry,
and stripped of horses and provisions as they
were, they began their sad march through
a drizzling fall of snow, back to the Big