That the skin or cuticle of grasses contains a
large proportion of silex is proved by its hardness,
and by large masses of vitrified matter
being found wherever a haystack or heap of
corn is accidentally consumed by fire. It is said
that wheat-straw may be melted into a colourless
glass by the blowpipe, without any addition,
and that barley-straw will melt into a glass
of a topaz yellow colour.

ASHING THE PILOT.

IT was on a cold, damp, foggy January morning
in the south of China— yes, cold, damp, and
foggy in the south of China, where every one
believes it to be continually broiling hot— that
one of the ships of the squadron left the English
colony of Hong Kong, with stores and provisions
for the men-of-war at Canton, distant
about eighty miles. The war with China had
been entered into but a very few months, and
there was great scarcity of ships at hand, to
cope with an enormously superior force of
Chinese, had the latter behaved with the pluck
of only ordinary cowards, and had all come out
in a body to eject the intruders from their
waters. But this they did not do, preferring
to cruise about in large detachments of a hundred
or more junks, up their creeks, where it
was too shallow for English ships to venture,
and pounce on such undefended merchant craft
as had not already taken the hint and cleared
out.

But to return to the subject: on the morning
in question the entire Escape Creek fleet, consisting
of about two hundred and fifty mandarin
war junks, in three squadrons, Red, White,
and Blue, was at the mouth of the creek from
which it took its name, and our man-of-war,
when off the Bogue forts (not long captured),
found the weather to be too foggy to proceed,
the river being a dangerous and intricate one,
in consequence of whicn it was found advisable
to anchor, until Phœbus should have come out
strong and given one or two of his own peculiar
looks at the mist, causing it to vanish in a
manner which clearly showed its antipathy to
strong rays of heat.

This having at length been brought about,
the steamer was again got under weigh, and had
not proceeded far, when the signalman reported
a large number of war junks ahead, with everything
apparently ready for action. Upon this
the captain ordered the drummer up to beat to
quarters, the first lieutenant standing on the
bridge giving his orders: " Action on the fighting
bolt, starboard bow!"

As soon as they are within range they let the
Chinamen feel how very heavy English shot are,
especially when well directed by experienced
hands. On the present occasion they have a
particularly good opportunity of judging, as the
ship in question carries the heaviest guns our
navy knows, of which she has four in her
broadside now exposed to the enemy. These
consist of two weighing 95 cwt., and throwing
a 68lb. shot, and two weighing 85 cwt., throwing
a 10-inch shot, whose weight is 85lbs. Of
these they now proceeded to give the Chinese
a taste, who, however, did not appear to be
taking the slightest notice of them, and stood
to be fired at for about a quarter of an hour
without reply. They notwithstanding had all
their guns laid for a particular point, and when
our ship got within range, they let her have it
to the heart's content of the greediest old fire-eater
on board. Down came rattling on deck,
ropes, backstays, and splinters from wounded
spars, to the grief of the poor old boatswain, who
was running about with a musket in his hand,
taking random shots at the enemy in general,
anathematising them, and saying aloud what he
thought they deserved for disturbing his masts
and rigging.

Never did men work guns better, or stick to
them closer than on this occasion, and indeed it
required all their energy to administer anything
like condign punishment to so preposterously
superior a force, who opened the ball on their part
in the following manner: After waiting quietly to
be fired at until it suited them to "show out," the
Admiral of the Red squadron, or senior admiral,
fired one gun, which was followed by the next in
order, namely, that of the White squadron, then
by the Blue, when they all set to as hard as
they could, with what immediate effect has been
already seen. Never was single ship, perhaps, in
a more critical position, and never, perhaps, did
single ship maintain that position better, the
numerous shot splashing the water up over her
decks, cracking into the hull, or whistling overhead,
and cutting up the masts and rigging.
Presently a heartrending yell was heard below,
when, on some one going to see what was the
matter, it was discovered that the pilot (a Chinaman,
and well known in the old Chinese war)
had, while trying to avoid the shot by skulking
below, just managed to catch one, not far from
the captain's cabin door, which had knocked
away his thigh close up to the body. When he
was discovered, he was talking Chinese in such
a particularly rapid manner, that the generous
seaman who carried him to the surgeon in the
cockpit declared that it was too fast for him
clearly to understand, which perhaps was as
well, as he might have been equally unintelligible
had he spoken in anything but " Canton English."
The shot that had struck him was an
extraordinary one, having passed through three
cabins and the ward-room, doing more or less
damage in each, and after wounding the pilot,
had entered the captain's steward's berth, breaking
an infinity of Her Majesty's crockery and
glass, and falling expended to the deck.

But while this was going on below, other
things were being enacted on deck, where some
of the most marvellous escapes yet recorded
were taking place. The captain of the after
gun had just given the word "Elevate!" with a
view to improving his shot, the second captain
was on the point of stepping in to withdraw the
coin (or wedge), when a shot came, and, shivering
it to pieces, went crashing through the bulwarks
on the other side, not, however, hurting a