neuraigia. I was especially successful in my treatment
of similar sufferings, for which I had
discovered an anodyne that was almost specific. I
wrote, on a leaf of my pocket-book a prescription
which I felt suire would be efficatious, and as I
tore it out and placed it in his hand, I chanced
to look up, and saw the hazel eyes of my hostess
fixed upon me with a kinder and softer expression
than they often condescended to admit into
their cold amd penetrating lustre. At that
moment, however her attention was drawn from
me to a servant, who entered with a note, and I
heard him say, though in au under tone, " From
Mrs Ashleigh."

She opened the note, read it hastily, ordered
the servant to wait without the door, retired to
her writing-table, which stood near the place at
which I still lingered, rested her face on her
hand, and seemed musing. Her meditation was
very soon over. She turned her head, and, to
my surprise, beckoned to me. I approached.

"Sit here," she whispered; " turn your back
towards those people, who are no doubt watching
us. Read this."

She placed in my hand the note she had just
received. It contained but a few words to this
effect:

"DEAR MARGARET,— I am so distressed. Since
I wrote to you, a few hours ago, Lilian is taken
suddenly ill, and I fear seriously. What medical
man should I send for? Let my servant have his
name and address.

"A. A."

I sprang from my seat.

"Stay," said Mrs. Poyntz. "Would you,
jnneli care if I sent the servant to Dr. Jones?"

"Ah, madam, you are cruel! What have I
done that you should become my enemy?"

"Enemy! No. You have just befriended
one of my friends. In this world of fools, intellect
should ally itself with intellect. No; I am
not your enemy! But you have not yet asked
me to be your friend."

Here she put into my hands a note she had
written while thus speaking. " Receive your
credentials. If there be any cause for alarm, or
if I can be of use, send for me." Resuming
the work she had suspended, but with lingering,
uncertain fingers, she added, " So far, then, this
is settled. Nay, no thanks; it is but little that
is settled as yet."

GREAT SALT LAKE.

There are in the world several very remarkable
lakes of salt water, two of which, especially,
are not more singular for their geographical
peculiarities than in reference to human history;
these are, the well known Dead Sea, and the
Great Salt Lake of the Mormons.

The Dead Sea, gloomy and terrible in its wild
and desolate majesty, object of superstitious
terror to the miserable Arabs on its shore, and
dreaded and shunned by animals as well as men,
occupies part of a deep and large depression in
Asia Minor, more than three hundred and fifty
miles in length, and twenty miles wide. Its
extreme depth is more than two thousand
five hundred feet below the sea. The surface of
the water of this lake is about thirteen hundred
feet below the level of the Mediterranean, but the
whole depression of which the lake is a part,
can only be understood, by regarding it as a
continuation towards the north, of the gorge
of the Red Sea. There can be little doubt that
the Dead Sea and Lake of Tiberias originally
formed part of that inlet from which they
have long been cut off by a rocky neck.
Receiving little fresh water from rivers, the
sea water has been partly evaporated from its
former bed— the arid scorching air of Palestine
having sucked away so much of the whole
quantity as corresponds to the present dilference
of level. All the water left behind has become
fully saturated with the salts originally present
when the lake formed part of the, sea; and large
quantities of these salts have sunk down, forming
a solid but partly soluble bed, which might
be redissolved il at any time the supply of fresh
water should increase. The cause of the want
of vegetation and of animal life, must be sought
in the large quantity of bitter or magnesian salts
that everywhere abound, and has no reference
to the supposed asphalte from which the lake
derived its classical name.

There is, however, some evidence from ancient;
sculptures, once embellishing the temple of
Karnak in Egypt, and now in the Louvre,
illustrating the ancient geography of the part of
Asia in which the Dead Sea is situated. These
sculptures refer to an expedition under the
Egyptian king, Ramesis II., through the land
of the Philistines and Canaan, to the land of
Shittim, in the plains of Moab. They show us
that the ford ot the Jordan, and the course of
the river Arnon, existed formerly pretty much
as they do now; and, indeed, it seems probable
that the ordinary surface of the water of the
lake and its tributaries must have been somewhat
lower then than it has been since, so that
there has been no additional evaporation within
many centuries. Travellers have often noticed
a succession of terraces, or pebble beaches,
apparently marking intervals of cessation in the
evaporation; but it is clear that the most
modern of these must date back from a period
very much anterior to that of the Egyptian
memorial referred to.

Important and necessary as salt is to almost
all living beings, and useful as it is sometimes
as a mineral manure, it is evident that a very
small excess of supply over demand, converts it
into a poison. Salt is by no means an inert
mineral, and when common salt is mixed, as
in these cases it must be, with the magnesian
salts existing in the sea, the result is very
injurious.

It is not necessary that the surface of a
lake should be below the sea level, in order that
it become saturated with salt when evaporation
has removed part of the original water. In
Persia there is a curious instance recorded;
the lake of Oroomiah, eighty miles long and
thirty broad. This intensely salt lake is nearly
four thousand feet above the level of the Black