runners from kroom to kroom. But he
persisted in the  assertion that he himself had
gone to, and returned from, Oke Araolo,
and even described the person from whom
he had received the supplies he had been
sent for.

Malcombe and his wife both recovered so
far that they could be moved from
Ogbomoshaw for some healthier locality. As their
health was completely broken up, they
decided on returning to England; and, for that
purpose, had to get to Oke Amolo.

As they were neither of them fit for the
journey by land, I proposed, and they agreed,
to go off by the next English vessel by which
they could have a passage.

When the time came, and they were ready,
we had to carry them both down to the
beach. The poor lady had been lying all the
morning on the verandah, watching the spot
where her baby was buried. She was, as she
had been from the first, sad but quite still;
too weak to give any outward sign of
suffering.

The surf lashes the whole of the West
Coast of Africa with terrific violence, so that
no vessel can stand close in shore, and
passengers and goods have to be conveyed to
and from the ship in canoes, always with
considerable danger.

We lifted Mrs. Malcombe into the canoe—
half-unconscious; but, the violent dashing of
the surf, the cries of the kroomen, the tossing
of the boat, roused her. She started up in an
agony of fear, and, with a loud scream, said
that they were leaving the baby, the dear
baby, in its grave alone. Clinging to her
husband, she entreated him not to go, in
such piteous accents, that he turned to me
(I had gone to see them safe on board, and
to make some little arrangements with the
captain, whom I knew, for her comfort) and
asked me to desire the kroomen to return to
the shore.

It was in vain that I remonstrated: he sat
trying to comfort her, and would not even
listen. So, very sadly, I gave the order for
our return.

But, in a day or two it was more than
ever evident that they must die, if they did
not at once leave Ogbomoshaw. So I
resolved to try once again; appealing to the
husband and wife separately, and urging that
each should get into better quarters, or go
home altogether, for the sake of the other.
I was successful, but now there was no
possibility of going by sea, and their only
chance of life lay in their leaving Africa
by the next mail. They had therefore to
travel by hammock, and alone; for my duties
would not allow me to leave Ogbomoshaw.

Poor Mrs. Malcombe! she died on the
evening of the second day, and was buried
on the beach. Malcombe lived to reach Oke
Amolo, and even to embark on board the
vessel for England—but not to set sail. The
kroomen in their canoes, hovering round the
ship, watched with curiosity the heavy-
shotted coffin as it splashed into the deepest
of all graves,—the sea.

MINERAL SPRINGS.

THE ink-bottle is a chalybeate spring (from
which I am as well disposed to drink as from
any other fountain of that sort), and it is
her ink-bath that keeps Britain fresh and
wholesome. Therefore I expect Britain to
listen to what I have now to state generally
about the wines from the cellarage of Mother
Earth,

    Springing through the veins of the mountains;

which even the dull old Druids received

    As a banquet from the friendly rock.

Many of these wines come up tolerably well
iced, others froth over at various degrees
of heat, from gentle warmth up to the
temperature of boiling water; some springs
are bright and sparkling, others, like fruity
port, are deeply tinged with alkaline and
other earthy matter. It is to their absorption
of ingredients during their long and intricate
course, that springs owe their gaseous
and saline contents. Here I cease to be
allegorical, and speak as a philosopher. For the
waters which circulate through the earth's
crust, whether they gush forth cold or thermal,
have acquired not only nitrogen from
the atmosphere, but a variety of mineral
ingredients from the rocky channels.

The gaseous constituents of mineral waters
are nitrogen, oxygen, carbonic acid, and
sulphuretted hydrogen. A pelting storm of
chemical philosophy now bursts over the
reader. Let him look to his head. The alkaline,
earthy, and metallic constituents are,
most commonly, the muriates and sulphates
of potash, soda, baryta, alumina, and lime.
The active mineral principles of waters are,
the sulphates of soda and magnesia, the
hydrochlorates of soda and lime, the muriates of
soda and lime, the chlorides of sodium and
magnesium, the carbonates of soda, magnesia,
and iron, and the sulphurets of sodium and
calcium. Other salts occur in some few
springs, but the constituents above enumerated
are the most common and important.
Of the sulphated saline springs, one class
comprises sulphates of soda (as Glauber's
salts); another contains sulphates of
magnesia (as Epsom salts); a third, sulphates of
lime (as at Bath, and in some other thermal
springs); and a fourth, sulphates of iron (as
at Cheltenham and Leamington). The
ferruginous springs, generally, owe their character
to carbonate of iron held in solution by
excess of carbonic acid. The greatest
quantities of saline constituents are, generally,
found in the springs which rise in low
situations; those springs are usually the most
pure which rise from primitive rocks.

Out of the depths it is right that there