horrid scene, are, respectively, two quite
different affairs. We read Captain Cook's
adventures amongst various savage islanders,
and even his death by their hands, without
any very startling or exceptional impression.
It is an amusing romance, a terrible tragetly,
no more. We figure to ourselves savages in
general as enemies merely—as holding with
civilised man relations similar to those of the
French and English of old,—as antagonistic
powers, that is all. But an acute observer,
who went round the world with his eyes
wide open, says, that what impressed him
most during the whole of that vast tour, was
the sight, face to face, of a real savage man.

Lately, a similar surprise awaited myself,
though not from any fierce, untamed
fellow-creature, but, on the contrary, from a remarkably
inoffensive and well-trained person. I
had heard of George Bidder in his time,
that is, when his powers were publicly exhibited.
Recently, the fame of the mathematical
shepherd, Henri Mondeux, had reached
my ears. I had regarded the reputation of
those celebrities, as mental-arithmeticians,
with the same nonchalance with which people
always regard things of which they are ignorant.
But the other evening I was present,
by invitation, at a private assembly, held to
witness the exploits of a young man who was
said to solve wonderful problems in his head,
and I was also requested to prepare an arithmetical
question or two. I did so, chuckling
all the while to myself, "If you get through
that, my good sir, without help of pen or
paper, you are a cleverer fellow than I
expect." The meeting was numerous, the
majority (though far from the totality) being
schoolboys, with a sharp-set appetite for a
display of cyphering skill. The hero of the
night was standing in the midst, in the attitude
common to blind people and extremely
absent and thoughtful persons. He requested
silence to be kept while he was making his
calculations, which he did walking backwards
and forwards, with a sort of short, quarterdeck
step.

"What shall we begin with?" was a
natural inquiry.

"Suppose we take addition first, and mount
gradually through the rules. Will any one
name any sums they think fit to be added
together?"

Hereupon various individuals dictated
items of hundreds of thousands, a million and
odd, a few hundreds, and even units, to
render the task the more puzzling, till some
ten or twelve lines of figures were taken
down by the gentleman who acted as secretary.
Before he could finish the addition on
paper, the phenomenon gave the total
accurately. I began to tremble for my questions,
fearing that they would not prove posers.

Next was proposed a sum of subtraction,
in which trillions were to be deducted from
trillions. The remainder was given as easily
as an answer to What o'clock is it?
Certainly my questions would turn out no posers
at all.

"Can you extract cube-roots mentally?"
I asked.

"Yes, give me one."

"What is the cube-root of nineteen
thousand six hundred and eighty-three?"

"Oh, that is too easy. It is
twenty-seven."

Later in the evening he extracted a cuberoot
of four figures. The schoolboys were
delighted and astonished. If they had not
applauded heartily, as they did, they would
not have been schoolboys.

"I have a little calculation to propose," I
said, "which involves multiplication principally.
A fleet of seventy-three fishing-boats
start from Dunkerque on the first of April,
to catch cod in the North Sea. They return
on the thirty-first of July; that is, they are
absent four months."

"I understand; they are out at sea a
hundred and twenty-two days."

"Each boat carries nineteen men. How
many men are there in the whole fleet?"

"One thousand three hundred and
eighty-seven."

"And if each man eats four pounds of
bread per day, how much bread per day is
eaten on board all the boats '?"

"Of course, five thousand five hundred
and forty-eight pounds."

"With how much bread, then, must the
fleet be provisioned, to supply it during the
whole of its four-months' voyage?"

The calculator, who had stood still during
the previous questions, resumed his quarterdeck
pacing to and fro, and put on, a
country people say, his considering-cap. In
a few instants he stopped short, and said,
"hey must take out with them six hundred
and seventy-six thousand, eight hundred and
fifty-six pounds of bread."

"Perfectly correct! Quite right!"

The boys were in ecstacies, which found
vent in another round of applause.

"ut these hard-working fishermen," I
continued, "keep up their strength with
something else besides bread. Each man
drinks a glass of gin every morning; how
many drams are drunk during the course of
the four months?"

Another short promenade, and then the
answer, "One hundred and sixty-nine
thousand, two hundred and fourteen."

"But that is not all; the gin is kept in
bottles, and each bottle holds thirty-seven
petits verres or drams. How many bottles
must the fleet carry out?"

"It must take out—let us see—it must
take out four thousand five hundred and
seventy-three bottles, and a fraction consisting
of thirteen drams over."

And so ended my question number one;
no poser nor ass's bridge at all. The
interest of the audience was highly excited.
To give a short repose to the calculator's