Mountains. As a rule, the diet of the working
classes in France is, as much by traditional usage
as for want of means, less nourishing than it
should be; and three times since 1789, when it
was five feet one for infantry, and five feet three
for cavalry, it has been found necessary to lower
the standard for admission into the French army.

Where men live simply as animals of a higher
order, the individuals of a tribe resemble each
other as animals do. Among barbarous nations,
says Humboldt, we find a tribal rather than an
individual physiognomy. No varieties of
intellectual development, nor of various methods of
life, stamp the face with varieties of character.
Thus the slave-dealer in Upper Egypt never asks
for the individual character of a slave. He only
asks where he was born, his character being that
of his tribe. Several writers assert that the
cultivated negro, without admixture of white
blood, acquires something of the physiognomy
of Europe, and that in a generation or two
there is perceptible change in the formation of
the skull, and of the nose and lips. De Salles
remarks that all uncultured people have a
comparatively large mouth and thick lips.
Civilisation has moditied noticeably the German type.
High stature, light or red hair, blue eyes, and
clear complexion, are no longer the universal
characteristic of a German. In England, at the
beginning of the fifteenth century, dark eyes and
hair were uncommon, and high cheek-bones were
a character of the south as of the north. In
the time of Henry the Eighth red hair
predominated. Any gallery of old portraits will
show that three centuries have done much in
highly civilised countries to soften and modify
the characteristic outline of the features. There
was less brain space in the skull of an ancient,
than there is in that of a modern Scot.

But, where the thinking power is not much
exercised, the powers of the stomach to endure
long fasts and digest the food of several days
in a few hours, are often developed to a wonderful
degree. The camel-drivers between Cairo
and Suez fast during the thirty hours of the
journey; but an Arab, who dines often on a
handful of dates, will sometimes be heard to
boast that he can eat a sheep at a meal. The
Bedouin, when travelling in the desert, takes as
daily food two draughts of water, and two
morsels of baked flour and milk. But, when
meat is before him, and he is not travelling, he
can eat and digest as much as would satisfy six
Europeans. A native Australian, attendant upon
Eyre, could consume an average of nine pounds
of boiled meat daily. A Guarini will eat up a
small calf in a few hours. A strong young man
in Greenland eats daily for several months ten
or twelve pounds of meat, with much biscuit.
On the other hand, an Arowake lives in the field
for three weeks, or a month, on ten pounds of
Cassava bread. As a general rule, power of long
fasting, and excessively spare living, is associated
with a power of digesting, and a will to eat,
enormous meals when they are to be had. Set a
little Bushman who has sustained life for a fortnight
upon salt and water, before a civilised
Christmas dinner for twelve, and he will eat up
the whole of it; turkey, sausages, beef, bread,
vegetables, pudding, and mincepies; eat it, digest
it, and convert it into flesh. For, a Bushman
or a Caffre, after a few days of such feeding,
enlarges visibly in bulk; thus showing that the
food of which the system had been starved, has
wilh extraordinary rapidity been digested, converted
into blood, and used for the building up
of the starved human frame.

         THE BOY AND THE RING.

FAIR chance held fast is merit.
                                              A certain king
Of Persia had a jewel in a ring.
He sat it on the dome of Azud high:
And, when they saw it flashing in the sky,
Made proclamation to his royal troop,
That who should send an arrow thro' the hoop
That held the gem, should have the ring to wear.
It happen'd that four hundred archers were
In the king's company about the king.
Each took his aim, and shot, and miss'd the ring.
A boy, at play upon the terraced roof
Of a near building, bent his bow aloof
At random, and behold! the morning breeze
His little arrow caught, and bore with ease
Right thro' the circlet of the gem.
                                                           The king,
Well pleased, unto the boy assign 'd the ring.
Then the boy burnt his arrows and his bow.
The king, astonish'd, said, " Why dost thou so?
Seeing thy first shot hath had great success."
He answer'd, " Lest my second make that less."

FIGHTING IN WESTERN AFRICA.

FROM time to time there is an angry outburst
in the House of Commons because the
mail brings word that there has been an expedition
against some refractory chief or king on the
West Coast, and that valuable lives have been lost
in an action which is and must be without result.
Or now and again an English enthusiast arises,
who is going to regenerate the whole continent
by the cultivation of cotton, and palm-oil,
and ground-nuts; but the almost insuperable
obstacles daunt him and he retires, having
effected very little.

I knew a native merchant on this coast,
he had resided in England, and was a man of
great, wealth and good standing. He died in
Africa, and as quite an exceptional favour I was
invited to be present at the " custom," or last
ceremony for the dead. At the time appointed
I entered a large room in which all his nearest
relations were assembled. The women were at
one end of the room sobbing and wailing,
the men were standing or sitting round a table.
A large arm-chair was placed upon this table,
and in it, dressed in his best, and seated upright,
was the corpse of the dead merchant. All around