gain i n motion and soon passing through a cultivated country. Fields of oats and peas are seen. The Canada thistle is here conspicuous, asserting its importance above the surrounding oats. Judging from appearances, farming among the lower Canadians, although their chief occupa tion, is not brought to any great state of perfection. The cattle, sheep, and pigs are of an inferior breed, and tha thistle runs riot through the land. No lower Canadian thinks of going into the harvest fields to bind without a thick pair of buckskin gloves to protect his hands from thistles. The country is level and the soil friable and good, but the seasons are ill-adapted for agricultural operations, and wheat is seldom grown. At 12, noon, the train is slowly creeping over the tubular bridge of Montreal. This is-one of the great sights of Canada, and one of the most momentous undertak ings of the great Engineer Brunei. Here let us take leave of our railway compan ions, some of whom remain in Montreal others go to Canada west and the States.

Montreal i 3 the commercial capital of Canada. Our first impression of this place was decidedly good, and time has not altered our opinion. It has happily been called the city of churches, for turn whichever way you will, churches, with their tin-covered spires glittering in the sun, meet the eye. Eoman Catholic is, of course, the prevailing religion, for its inhabitants are principally of French extraction. Indeed-it is very difficult to realize the fact that we are in British terri tory, for French is the language spoken, and names of streets, trades, professions, &c, are written in French. The streets are well paved, spacious, and well lighted with gas. The buildings of a granite like stone, are many of them handsome and substantial, the street railway cars are well patronized, and run three miles outside the city boundaries. The river St. Lawrence, flowing past, is navigable for the largest steamers, indeed we see our good ship, Moravian, safely moored and discharging cargo. Since the introduction of steam to ocean going vessels, Montreal has gradual ly usurped the trade of Quebec, and now most of the commercial business is trans acted there. The month of October is the busiest season for this branch of trade. The Fall Fleet, as it is called, is leaving, loaded with grain and Indian corn, the produce of Canada and tho Western States. The short Indian summer, with its season of nut 3 »nd berries will soon give place to winter, and then navigation will be impracticable to Canada. The approach of winter is generally attended with a downpour of rain here, und then 'King Frost sets his seal on all nature. The crows and other birds take their departure for a warmer latitude, and the pretty little white snow-birds appear on the scene. Man takes the hint, and looks to his stables and cow-houses aud makes all snug for the winter. He then turns his attention to his own dwelling. Perhaps in no part of the world is greater regard paid to the comforts of life in a climatic point of view. Green casements, veran dahs and shade-trees protect the houses in summer from the fierce rays of tho sun, while in winter close-fitting glass shutters replace the outside casements, folding doors are fitted outside the ordinary street doors to prevent the rush of cold air into the dwelling house, and stovepipes com municate with every room in the house. This is no unnecessary precaution, for in the year IS7I the winter was so sudden that several ships were frozen in before they could get clear of the river. As soon a3 a sufficiency of snow falls, sleighs entirely supplant wheeled carriages, and none of the latter are allowed in the city under a penalty of a fine. Humanity too, and especially the female portion, under goes a complete metamorphosis. Furs of all kinds, from the ordinary coon to the mink and sable are in request. Fashions are as various as are to be seen at a masquerade ball. It is no extraordinary thing to see a French Canadian walking behind his box like sleigh, dressed in a complete suit of black calf skin. Loads of dead hogs and carcases of beef are brought in from the country and exposed for sale, and a lively trade ensues, for many will purchase ' whole carcases for private consumption in a frozen state,' for when once frozen the meat can be kept for mouths without fear of decomposition. Snowshoeing, skating, sleigh-riding, and trotting races on the ice make up the amusements of winter. Indeed the winter is.essentially the holiday season for Cana dians, as many of the out-door occupations are suspended. Children, especially, seem to thoroughly enjoy life now, as many an old gentleman has found to his cost, when a small hand sleigh has come into sharp contact with his leg and a six-year old tumbles between his legs. Young men, too, enjoy special advantage at this time of year in gaining introductions to the opposite sex. It is imperative, scr cording to Canadian etiquitte, to call each other's attention to frozen noses, fingers, &c, and to render assistance to rub out the frost by a brisk application of snow. Ladies' noses are much more liable to frost bite than those of the opposite sex, and hence many intimate and lasting acquaintances are formed through the agency of Sing Frost. Some ill-natured and perhaps disappointed men have as serted that ladies have applied chalk to their noses to induce the appearance they covet, but this ha 3 never been verified, Should a man-be ambitious to experience all the grades of temperature from 100° to 36° below zero Fahrenheit he cannot choose a better place than Montreal,

CANADIAN LUMBER TRADE.

The great mainstay of Canada is its vast forests of pine. In this respect Canada and Auckland are similar. Each depends largely on its timber trade; but what a difference in the mode of procuring it! Here in these mild southern latitudes we have not the agency of snow, so that unless the Kauri should be close to some creek, (as it often happily is) itis almost valueless. Not so in Canada. When the winter has fairly set in, and a depth of say 4 feet of snow has fallen, the great business of cut ting and hauling logs begins. Gangs of men, and trains of horses are hired at the various settlements, and sent to the ' Shanties,' as the lumber camps are called.

The greenest new chum can gain em ployment, for many men are required to shovel snow to make sleigh roads The logs are cut, sawn into lengths and 'oaded on the sleighs which convey them to the nearest creek, where they are tumbled on to the ice. This is continued till the thaw in the srring, when the cutting ceases, and hauling becomes impossible. Most of the hands are discharged, who for the most part return to agricultural occu pations. A few men are kept perhaps to cultivate a little ground in the vicinity of the camp to grow horse feed, for the next winter's operations. A few others are kept for collecting the logs and joining them into rafts. These rafts are floated down to the various sawmills, and some times come to grief on the journey, for rapids are often met with. The greatest skill end courage are required in ' shooting a rapid' successfully so as to avoid contact with either shore. Many ot the Eastern States are now supplied with lumber from Canada, and bitterly do they regret their own former wholesale distruction of tim ber, where once wero whole forests of pine and valuable timber, is now treeless, not even sufficient to afford shelter to the cattle. Canada, large as it is, may one day finditself in the same predicament, for her timber trade has vastly increased of late, owing to the large demand from the Eastern and Western States of America.

Benjamin Bailey. Ponsonby, April 21, 1876

"Waking up the Wrong Man.

HOW A PAETY OF JItNERS FEIGHTEN-ID A

' BNOOZKE.' An evening or two sinc9 some of the employes of the Ophir Company found an intoxicated man sleeping off hi.s over allowance of'tarantula juice' among the shavings in one of the temporary shops near the works. They had some trouble in getting tho fellow aroused, and more in trying to make him comprehend where he was, or, rather, that he was not in a place where he legitimately belonged. it was determined by the men who found the boozy party that they would give him such a fright that he would never again venture within a mile of tho works. Therefore they told their man that they had positive orders' to kill any person found about the works after dark. They said it was a thing they did not like to do but the works had lately been destroyed by fire, and the company were not in a humor to take any more chances—their orders were imperative.

The man tried to beg off, saying that he did not know how ho came into the shed, and swearing, by all that was good and bad, he meant no barm ; but it would not do.

He was seized and dragged some dis tance up the hill, toward tho Masonic Cemetery, to a place in the open country where five or six: rifled cannon, belonging to the Nevada Artillery, have been stand ing since the day of the fire. Cwo stout men then seized the trembling ' snoozer,' and placing his head in front of the muzzle of one of the guns, told him he had but three minutes to live, as they were about to blow his head off.

Again the man begged for mercy, saying that he had only taken a drop too much, and had got into the shed ho knew not how, but certainly without any evil inten tions. Said a man who had taken his place nt the breach of the gun, and was taking some matches from his vest-pocket. 'If you have any word to leave for a wife, an old father and mother, or any friend or relative, you will do well to make known your wishes.' ' I reckon I hain't got airy wife, or old father or mother, or anybody elcs as cares a chaw of tobacker about me.' ' Wall, but have you no dying wish, no dying request ?' ' Wall, now you talk. Mout I make a request ?' 'You may, and bo quick about it (lighting a match), as when I apply this match to the touchhole of this gun, off goes your head. You have a request to make ?' ' Stranger, I hey.' ' Out with it, then. We can't fool with you all night when there may be other firebugs prowling about the works,' ' I kin hey my last request, then ?' 'You can.' ' You won't go back on me ?' 'No.' ''.'"■

' Whatever I ax you'll grant ?' ' Don't I say so ? Let's hear your dying request, or dab goes a match into this powder, aud off goes your head !'

' Well, then, as I have your word as a gentleman, my last and only desire is that you'll put me at the other end of the gun before yer stick that match inter its touchhole.'

' Too thin ! cried all bauds. ' Good, but too thia! You don't get off that way !'

« Oh, ho !' said the snoozer, ' you go back on yer wurd, do yer ? Yer don't know who I am, I reckon. You don't know you've picked up Bill Sheer from the Muddy Fork of the Mohican !' And sud denly shaking himself free of the hold of the men who held his arms, he reached down into the top of his right boot and brought out a revolver nearly as large as a Gatling gun. ' Oh, ho!' cocking the formidable shooting-iron, 'go back on your word ? Go back on my dyin' request ? Now I know the kind of men I've got to deal with —liars and murderers!'

His speech had not been concluded — indeed, his pistol had hardly clicked— before there was a wild scattering of the little party of practical jokers. They ran behind the groups of °annon, bounded over the cemetery fence towards the shelter of the tombstones, and, in short, rolled and tumbled in all 'directions.

' Oh, ho !' cried Old Bill, ' why don't yer stand by yer gun ? Come out of yer holes ! You've got a bigger gun nor I hey, but I've got the most shots, and I'll give yer a fair fight and die game ! Wal, hers's some for you at random ! And Old Bill let off a couple of shots among the cannon and tombstones.

The jokers were mighty glad when their old snoozer ceased to rage about the spot, and took his way mutteringly towards the distant lights of tho town. —' Teeeitoeial ExTEBPEISE.'

An Otago Jury, of Olden Time.

BY 31E. 31. BOYD

A midnight row and fight had occurred at a sailor's public-house in Otago, in which one of the earliest colonists, a Scotchman, was killed in an encounter with a foreign sailor. The coroner issued his warrant, and the prisoner was commit ted for trial. When the ca3e came before the judge, it seemed to be clearly one of manslaughter ; but one of the jury took a different view of the matter, contending rather vociferously in the jury-box with his colleages that it was murder. The judge therefore desired them to retire and fully consider the verdict. The court house at Otago in those early days was a wooden erection ; and the authorities, not calculating on jurymen disagreeing among themselves, had made no provision for ao apartment to which they could adjourn. Under these circumstances, a room was ordered for them in Donald B,oss' public house. On his way to the hostelry, one of the jurymen, who resided in the coun try, called at a shop for a parcel that was lying for him, which, on rejoining his brother jurymen, he placed in a corner of the room. *****

The obstinate juryman began by making some slight apology for having given so much trouble in the matter but they must recollect (hat the ' puir murdered man was a Scotchman, ane o' their earliest settlers. Hooever, mv friens, you'll sac far agree wi' me. that it is dry, drouthy wark, and I propose taut before we begin, we tak some whuskey.' This was unani mousl_v assented to, the hand-bell was rung, and the floor stamped upon for Donald Boss, the landlord, atao a Scotch man, who quickly obeyed the summons. • Noo, Ross, let's hao some o' yer vera best whuskey, for we are a' terribly drouthy wi' that bothering job in the coort, and we canua settle the matter there, and we are ganging to try what we can do here.' The whiskey was soon brought and des patched, when the foreman reminded them that they must now set to work seriously and settle their verdict. Their obstinate friend confined himself to one point, and admonished them never for a moment to lose sicht o' the fact that ' the puir murdered man was a Scotchman, and ane o' their earliest settlers.' * * *

The foreman and the rest of the enlight ened panel were now quite at a loss how co proceed. ' Weel, as I see,' said their refractory friend. ' that this affair will occupy a good while yet before we can agree, I move that we hae some mairi whuskey, for never since I cam to the colony was I ever mair exhausted by ony thing than this.' The proposal met with no dissenting voice, and Donald soon entered with a fresh supply o' whuskey. While this was being discussed, the eye of the abdurate juryman settled upon the parcel in the corner of the room. ' What hae you got in that large paper, Mac ?' ' 00, that's ma fiddle : I brocht it^into the toon last week to be repaired, and I called for it as I was coming here.' ' Oh, man, it is a long time shine I heard ye play the reel o' Tulloch.' * Noo, Mr. Foreman, what div ye say to a little music ?' ' Weel, I hae nae particular objection, but we must not forget that we must soon get back to the coort.' The reel of Tulloch gorum was played in Mac's best style ; and mv narrator ably described my country men beating time with their feet so lustily, accompanying this wdth such Highland vociferations, to which until that day he was a stranger, that there was some peril of Donald Ross's floor giving way. The music over, and the second supply of whusky finished, the foreman insisted, not withstanding the unsettled position of the verdict, on returning to tiie Court, where he took upon himself the onus of stating to the judge that they had agreed upon a verdict of manslaughter, for the whisky had so far a good effect on the pertinacious juryman as to render him nearly tongue tied, for all he could manage to lisp out -Aas that ' the puir murdered man was

a Scotchman, and ane o' their earliest settlers ;' but he was utterly incapable, thanks to the whusky, of proceeding with his original view of ' wilful murder,' as contradistinguished from manslaughter.— [Reminiscences of Fifty Yeaes.]

Jugglers Before The Prince of Wales.

Although the Prince of Wales saw snake chambers and jugglers at Bombay the ' Ti3iE3' correspondent says he was scarcely prepared for the clever exhibition in the hall of the Government-house, Madias. The Indian juggler has no elaborate apparatus of furniture, tables and chairs, and no such confederate in his tricks as the ornamental attendant or the man in the crowd who comes to the front on demand in London. At the utmost he has a withered old ragged scarecrow like himself to assist him in his deceptions, but he generally is alone. He is all but naked ; there is a dirty cloth round his loins and a cotton rag over his shoulders, and his whole stock-in-trade consist of a little stick, an earthenware vessel and a few baskets. He can hide nothing, for he has no place to put anything in, but he is among the first performers of the art in the world, and it certainly con tributes to the effect of his wonders that they are done without any suspicious surroundings. The Prince sat down in the entrance hall, close to the steps The Duke sat beside him, and Lady Anne. Gore Langton and his Grace's daughters and neices and the members of the suits and staff witnessed the performances which were directed by Ramehandre Rao, commissary of police, one of the most clever and thorough-going Brahmins I have yet met in India. Firs, Nadhar Sahib squatted down before the Prince, and put down a small basket on the carpet, about the size of those in which a lady would carry Berlin wool. It was empty, of course, Nadhar Sahib was almest un dressed —his arms were bare. He turned his basket down and chattered at it, then turned it over, and lo ! there wa* an egg on the carpet, which was handed round to be looked at. Then he put the basket over the egg and chatered again, turned it over, and lo ! out walked a pretty pigeon, so tame that it let itself be caught by hand. Next, Nadhar Sahib produced another egg from beneath the basket, and then placed it under the basket;— anyone could see that the latter was a thin, frail composition, without cover or false bottom. Then, after incantations, he raised the basket, and out strutted the first pigeon and another exactly like it, and went pouting over to the spectators. Other things did JNadhar Sahib, but none so striking, for peas under a thimble have before now exercised the finest intellects, and baffled the greatest intelligences in England. Poolee, who came next. I think, was a performer of extraordinary merit. After some tricks of no great novelty but executed with much neatness, he converted himself into a magazine of horrors; took live scorpions, which he handled with impunity, out of his mouth; spat out stones as large as plums one after the other, or showed them between his lips, and swallowed them; then evolved from depths unknown a carpenter's shop full of nails, large and small, and coils of string, till there was a pile of his products before the Prince. After him came Kamatchee, a strong limbed and rather comely young woman, who began her performance by taking up a handful of dust from the roadway, which she piled up in a conical heap on the carpet before the Prince. Into this heap she stuck two pieces of wire or long need les. She then squatted down, took her right big toe in her left hand, and twisted her leg over her head, and repeated the feat with her left leg and her right hand. Next she stood upright with her heels to the little heap of dust, and gradu ally twisted herself back till she could put her hands on the ground, and then, bending right over the heap, brought down her face lower and lower till her eyes were close to the needless, which, literally in the twinkling of au eye, were ciught up by her eyelids ! She took the needles out, showed them to the company, and salaamed. Two very curious people next made their appearance, simple, but, as it proved, hard-headed peasants.named Syed Khadir and Momee Sawmy. Their stock in-trade consisted of a few cocoanuts. These were handed round to the company to examine. Then Syed took up one, threw it up in the air, and as it fell, met it with the top of his naked skull, whereupon the cocoanut flew in pieces with a loud report, scattering the contents all over the place. Momee did the same, and several nuts were thus brought to ruin on their skulls. To my great comfort, a small relative of these gentleman picked up the fragments and pur them into a small bag for home use. Valoyoodhum, Syed, Cassim, and Imaam Sahib, then exhibited their powers as snake charmers, and no less than seven cobras, several of the very largest size, were at one time dancing with furious eye and hissing tongue to the toutings of the guard, within a few inches of the company, and a ragged little girl, taking a rocksmake by the tail, twisted it round her neck, and at once demanded baksheesh, or its Tamil equivalent, from the Prince. The snakes (vere, of course, deprived of their fangs ; but it was not quite comfortable, all the same, for of the malice and desire to kill of the cobras, there could be no doubt, and they struck again and again at the arms and legs of their charmers. Yenoata-

I moonda and Mau^Twfcll spinners of salvers, and dM?I pleased with flat metal 241 mooda, with knives Z T'l marvel of dexterity, and al'f ' the grand operator of m v 9 » . Samee, in ease and terrible^M was intended to close u p JSfm exhibition of the basket trictS woman was also there, and t_ M was already thrown over l^wi was called, but Ghoodoo wll morning, and was, I am til mirable. The girl, bound -fc&f was forced into a shallow Ji| which she was compressed Jl Then a lid was placed upon lit and Ghoodoo proceeded f I: against the girl in no me m 1 if he were a counsel in the Div 1 and finally, in rage, leaped 3 lid and crushed it in, then tr f it—mind, it rested on the fl?P" seizing a sword, thurstit down i tended to gloat over the blyi blade.. But a s_iarp-eyed 1?I not permit her attention to bell for a moment, saw the girl ftm shadow out of the basket whSf of the audience were- turned is* child, whom Ghoodoo seized v crowd of natives, and pretended fei with his sword for some cotnpfe tbe woman in bonds. At.allJ trick was done so well that the si could scarcely credit their sens!! they saw the basket was quite em I

UNKNOWN

The following is from 'Tiksxeml ziNE ':—We have all doubtless alt time or other, admired the graceful P described on the serene sky of an X nal night, by one of those mete Jl flash into existence for a moment iB are gone, and which are commonhtH as ' shooting stars.' These bodi* reality small fragments of matte.-'!! cosmieal dust,' to use Humboldt's:e« sion—-coming to us from outer spavin travelling at a planetary rate, of mM velocity which has been variouslyesl! ted, but which would probably4ffil carry one of these bodies fromLotf Brighton in 3 or 4 seconds. Of eH this wonderfully high rate of spej" comparison with which a cannonballt at the commencement of its flight scarcely be said to crawl, is cheote'' I soon as, yielding to the attraction of- ; earth, they enter the dense medium our atmosphere. As the match is W by friction on the box, as the ironfo shoe strikes fire from the stones of- ■■ streets, so, in this case as in every ob is arrested motion converted into heati- i into heat so intense that these (^ i become incandescent, and are in WI cases entirely burnt and dissipated M they reach the earth. Occasion! indeed, one larger than the rest does to the ground ; but so rarely is. this M case that any possible danger arisingfij such a cause is searsely to be. dee.] worthy of a moment's consideration,

When we come to consider, hower that at certain seasons of the year m. thousands of these bodies flash throt, some portion of the atmosphere everji hours, it will be seen that they would b stitute no trifling source of danger ;_ the inhabitants of this lower world wet be exposed to a bombardment t.1' missiles, the smallest of which, on aceon: 1 of its prodigious impetus, would ijl dangerous, but that the air—the invisffijl ambient air, of whose existence _$| I scarcely sensible—shields us from > the | impact as effectually as a wall of stc:. The air extends to a height that has k variously estimated, but which is probal; 1 about forty-five or fifty miles above 4 surface of the earth. At a greater all' tude than this it must be a very raj medium indeed, if it exist at all. i Organs life may be considered to cease at a dil tance of about three miles from.the s» level. It is true the condor is sometiM beheld soaring above the Andes at i greater height than this, and _B.onanlt have accomplished still loftier flights;M it is very certain that life cannot longto maintained at a much greater elevatioi than the one specified.

" Talking to her husband in a loadtoneo! voice " is enough to send a Persian wife b jail for thirty days. Call a lady a " chicken " and ten to oat she is angry with you. Tell her sheis"M chicken," and twenty to one she ii oW angry still. The Prince was recently greeted with til motto, in a triumphal arch, ' Greatest among fishes —Whale 3. Greatest among Princes- Wales.'

Old Lord Elphiusfcone wa3 a_sleep afc chutcli while the minister, a very prosy preacher, was holding forth. At length the parson stopped and cried, "Waukin, my how Alphias-one, 5 A grant, and then, 'I'o;fJ sleepin, minister.' 'Bat ye are sleepia.i wager ye diuna ken what I Raid last,'—, r... said Waukin my Lord Alphinstone.' _'% aye ; but I wager ye dinaa kea what IW', las. afore that.'—'l wager ye dinna.»» yoursel.' Why is a pig the in°3fc provident ol animals ? Beeaudd he always carriei a spM« rib or two about him. -Zi It is said the Cape Coi girls have adopted as a motto, "Don't marry until yon 0»» support a husband." gjj

Printed and pubashed by the pn.pi.etor, Jfftf* , URETr, of Parnell, at hi. General Steam *_JJWI oilic-, W ryuii__ain-sU'eet, iv tae (MS of AucMum New Zealand, , ,1 Saturday, May £0,1576, . I

Evening Supplement, May 2Q, 187G