the river, armed with a long knife. He plunged into the water, and, by putting out the eyes of the crocodile, forced it to let go its prey; but the faithful slave was too late, for though he managed to carry his wounded master to the shore, all efforts to restore him to life proved useless. The natives know that, although the back of the crocodile is covered with hard scales, the skin of its throat is very tender, and its eyes can be easily destroyed; and this knowledge has often saved their lives. A young Indian girl was once seized by one of these monsters; but, though she was dreadfully hurt, she remembered, in the midst of all her pain and alarm, what she had been often told to do in such a case. So she pushed her fingers into the eyes of the beast with such violence, that the pain obliged it to let go its hold; and though it had bitten off part of her arm, the poor girl contrived to swim back to the shore, with the one hand she had left.

There are several ways by which crocodiles are caught. In some places they are hunted with dogs, which are trained for the purpose, and armed with spiked collars. Sometimes they are taken in nets, by placing three or four of them across a river, so that if he should break through the first he may be caught in one of the others. When he feels himself caught, he begins to lash the water with his enormous tail; the natives wait patiently till he is quite tired out by his struggles, and then come up in boats, and kill him, by piercing the tender parts of his body with their spears. A negro will sometimes even venture to go into the water, and attack a crocodile, with nothing in his hand but a knife. He wraps some thick leather round his left hand and arm, and takes his knife in the right hand. As soon as the crocodile approaches him, he puts out his left arm, which it directly seizes in its mouth, but

its teeth cannot bite through the tough leather covering, and he kills it by stabbing it in the throat

THE DAISY.

THERE is a flower, a little flower,
With silver crest and golden eye,
That welcomes every changing hour,
And weathers every sky.

The prouder beauties of the field

In gay but quick succession shine;
Race after race their honours yield,
They flourish and decline.

But this small flower, to Nature dear,

While moons and stars their courses run,
Wreathes the whole circle of the year,
Companion of the sun.

It smiles upon the lap of May,

To sultry August spreads its charms,
Lights pale October on its way,
And twines December's arms.

The purple heath, and golden broom,
On moory mountains catch the gale;
O'er lawns the lily sheds perfume,
The violet in the vale:

But this bold floweret climbs the hill,

Hides in the forest, haunts the glen,

Plays on the margins of the rill,

Peeps round the fox's den.

Within the gardener's cultured round
It shares the sweet carnation's bed;
And blooms in consecrated ground,
In honour of the dead.

The lambkin crops its crimson gem;
The wild-bee murmurs on its breast;
The blue-fly bends its pensile stem
Light o'er the sky-lark's nest.

"Tis Flora's page ;-in every place,
In every season fresh and fair,
It opens with perennial grace,
And blossoms everywhere.

THE POTATO.

THERE are few plants so valuable to man as the potato; and few which are so widely and so largely used. The root, or tuber, which we eat, is a very nice and wholesome vegetable, and forms the entire food of multitudes of men. An excellent starch is also made from it, which is used for a great many purposes. And even a strong wine and spirit can be obtained from it, in the same way as brandy and other spirits are made from fruits and grains. It is said that a very grand dinner was once given in France, by a gentleman who wished to show the useful qualities of this plant; and at this dinner there were a great variety of dishes, but all made from the potato, cooked in various ways; and a great many kinds of wine and spirit for the guests to drink, all of which had also been made from the same plant.

The potato was first brought to England, in the reign of King James the First, by Sir Walter Raleigh, who met with it in America. He gave some of the tubers to his gardener, to be planted in his garden; and when it grew up and had flowered, the gardener, of course, thought that the little apples, or fruit which the plant bears, were the proper part to be eaten, and did not think of looking at its root. So, as these apples are both nasty and poisonous, he asked permission to throw the "worthless weed" away. But when he dug it up for this purpose, and found a nice lot of tubers on its stem under ground, he had them cooked, and changed his mind when he found how good they were.

When potatoes were first grown in England, they were thought a great delicacy, and only used at feasts; their price being as much as two shillings a pound. And even long afterwards, a schoolboy would consider a potato so great a treat, that he would lock one up in his box, and roast and dress it as a feast for himself and his schoolfellows.

Potatoes are now seldom raised from seed, for the tubers are then so small that they have to be planted a second year before a crop can be obtained from them. But the old tubers are generally cut into pieces, with one or more eyes, or buds, to each, and these are planted in the spring, and produce a crop the same year. But if we wish to obtain different varieties of this plant, they must then be raised from seed. By this means a great many different kinds of this plant have been produced, which are generally divided into two classes-early and late potatoes. And it is often found that a kind of potato which yields a bad crop upon one soil, will yield a very good crop upon another; and also that land which produces a poor crop of one kind of potato, will produce a fine crop of another variety.

This plant is now grown in great quantities in all parts of Great Britain, and in Belgium, and Germany, and some other parts of Europe. It has also been introduced by the settlers in nearly all the British Colonies. Very excellent crops are grown in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The mild climate of New Zealand is particularly suitable for its growth, and abundant crops of very excellent potatoes are obtained there from bush-land, after the trees upon it have been felled and burnt, and the land then planted with them.

There are many other plants which bear tubers on their underground stems like the potato, such as the Jerusalem artichoke, the ground-nut, the yam, and the kumera of the native New Zealanders; but none of these are so wholesome, so pleasant to the taste, and so abundant in their produce, as the potato-plant which Sir Walter Raleigh brought with him to England from America.

THE SHARK.

THIS fish is the tiger of the seas, and is as fierce as it is voracious. Several kinds of it are known, but the white shark is the largest and fiercest of them all. It is sometimes from twenty to thirty feet in length, and its mouth is sufficiently large to receive the thigh, and even the body, of a man; while on each jaw are several rows of strong, flat, triangular, sharp-pointed, and notched teeth. The shark devours almost every animal substance, whether dead or alive, which comes in its way. No other fish can swim so rapidly; they outstrip the swiftest ships, and swim round and round them while they are in full sail, and will follow in their wake for leagues together, greedily