few feet. This bedded character agrees with what you have already noticed as to the internal layers in the stone, and con firms you in believing that coal is a stratified rock. Next observe that the pavement on which the coal rests, and the roof which covers it, are both made of very different materials from the coal itself. Were you to cut a trench or section through pavement, coal, and roof, you would prove beyond any doubt that the bed of coal lies among beds of common sedimentary rocks.

You are driven to conclude that in truth the under-clay is an old soil, and the bed of coal represents the vegetation which grew upon it.

II. Rocks Formed out of the Remains of Animals.

It is on the floor of the great sea that the most wonderful examples occur of the way in which rocks are gradually built up from the remains of animals to a depth of many hundreds or thousands of feet, and over distances of many hundreds of miles.

To the west of Britain the Atlantic soon and suddenly deepens. Its floor then stretches away to Newfoundland as a vast plain, the lowest part of which is about 14,000 feet below the waves. It was over this wide submarine plain that the telegraph cables had to be laid, and hence numerous soundings were made all the way across from Ireland to the American coast. While in the shallower parts of the sea the bottom was found to be covered with sand, gravel, or mud, from the deeper parts there came up with the sounding-lead a peculiar gray sticky substance known as ooze, which must stretch over that wide deep-sea basin for many thousands of square miles. This ooze when dried looks like a dirty kind of chalk. After the lapse of centuries, if the deposit were to remain undis turbed, and if we could set a watch to measure its growth, we should find it to have risen upward and to have inclosed the remains of any star-fishes or other sea-creatures which chanced to die and leave their remains upon the bottom. Hundreds of feet of such slow-formed deposit have no doubt already been laid down over the bottom of the ocean between Ireland and Newfoundland. Here then is a second and notable example of how a deep and far-spread mass of rock may be formed out of the remains of animals.

IGNEOUS ROCKS.

I. What Igneous Rocks Are.

This word igneous means literally fiery. It does not very accurately describe the rocks to which it is applied, but it has long been in use to include all rocks which have been actually melted within the earth, or which have been thrown out at the surface by the action of volcanoes. So that the Igneous Rocks owe their origin to some of the effects of the internal heat of the earth.

You will find that the solid materials cast up by volcanoes are of two kinds-Ist, streams of molten rock called Lava, poured down the sides of a volcanic mountain during an eruption: and 2d, immense quantities of dust, sand, and stones, cast up into the air from the mouth of the volcano, and falling down upon the mountain, sometimes even all over the surrounding country for a distance of many miles.

Here then are two very dissimilar kinds of rock-material discharged from the interior of the globe. The lava cools and hardens into a solid rock. The loose ashes and stones, likewise, are in time pressed and hardened into more or less firm beds of stone. So that two totally distinct kinds of rock are laid down upon the surface of the earth by the volcano. In the case of the lava, the rock, if you look at it with a magnifying glass, is seen to be made up of distinct crystals all matted together. The beds of ashes, on the other hand, no matter how compact they may have become, are found to be made up of irregular fragments of various kinds of stone, and of all sizes, from the finest dust up to big blocks. By attending to this very simple and intelligible difference you could arrange igneous rocks into two great groups-Ist, the Crystalline, that is, those which are made up of crystals, and which have once been in a melted state; and 2d, the Fragmental, that is, those which consist of the loose materials thrown out during volcanic explosions.

Crystalline Igneous Rocks.-When the rock was still melted it was full of imprisoned steam and gas which were constantly striving to escape to the surface. It was this steam which collected into little bubbles and formed the curious set of holes in the mass of the still molten rock. In the same way the holes which you often see in the heart of a loaf of bread were formed by the struggles of the steam to escape from the dough as it was heated in the oven.

There are Fragmental Igneous Rocks.-Now this is the kind of material under which the old Roman city of Pompeii was buried. It fell upon the streets and houses and gradually covered them up as the eruption of the neighboring volcano continued. And at this day the workmen find the streets and chambers all choked up with layers of coarser and finer. volcanic ash and dust.

These masses of consolidated volcanic dust and stones are * known by the name of Tuff.

II. Where Igneous Rocks Come From.

If we ask you from what source the Igneous Rocks have been derived, you will reply that they have come up from the intensely hot regions within the earth.

Deep Borings and Mines.--If you were taken down to the bottom of a deep mine in the United States, you would find the temperature much warmer there than near the surface, and a similar increase of heat would meet you in the deep mines of every country in the world. You would soon discover, too, that on the whole the deeper the mine the greater the warmth would be. In the same way were you to bore a deep narrow hole into the earth for several hundreds of feet and let a thermometer down to the bottom, you would find that the mercury would rise in the tube.

Experiments of this kind have been made all over the globe, with the result of showing that after we get down for a short and variable distance below the surface, we reach a temperature which remains the same all the year, and that underneath that limit the temperature rises about 1° Fahrenheit for every fifty or sixty feet of descent. If this rate of increase cor.tinues, we should get uncomfortably hot before having descended very far. For instance, at a depth of about two miles water would

be at its boiling-point, and at depths of twenty-five or thirty miles, the metals would have the same temperatures as those at which they respectively melt on the surface of the earth. It is clear from this kind of evidence that the inside of our planet must be in an intensely heated condition.

In many parts of the world Hot Springs occur. To keep up such hot springs in every quarter of the globe there must assuredly be great stores of heat within the earth.

Neither the heat of deep mines nor of hot springs affords such an impressive lesson as to the earth's internal high temperature as is furnished by Volcanoes. The hot vapors and steam which rise from the craters of volcanoes, the torrents of hot water which sometimes issue from their sides, the streams of molten lava which break out and roll far down the slopes of a volcanic mountain, burning up and burying trees, fields, gardens, and villages-are all tokens of the intense heat of the inside of the earth from which they come.

At the present time there are, it is said, about 270 volcanoes either constantly or at intervals throwing out steam, hot ashes, and lava, in different parts of the globe. Even among the perpetual snows of the South Polar regions they have been met with, and also far within the Arctic Circle at the Island of Jan Mayen.

But besides these volcanoes which are still active, many others occur from which no eruptions have ever been seen to take take place, and which are therefore called dormant or extinct.

But in igneous rocks you do not see the only evidence of how the internal heat affects the surface of the earth. There can be little doubt that Earthquakes must be mainly due to commotions which take their origin from the effects of this heat.

. Perhaps you will ask, why, since the inside of the planet is so hot, does it not melt the outside, or at least why is the outside not warmer? There can be no doubt that at one time, many millions of years ago, the globe was immensely hotter than it is now. In fact it then resembled our burning sun, of which it once probably formed a part, and from which it and the other planets were one by one detached. During the vast interval which has passed away since then it has been gradually cooling, and thus the heat in the inside is only the remains of that fierce heat which once marked the whole planet. The outer parts have cooled and become solid, but they are bad conductors of heat, and allow the heat from the inside to pass away into space only with extreme slowness. Hence, in spite of the high temperature of the interior, we are not sensible that it warms the outer surface of the earth.

You are already familiar with the fact that bodies expand when they are heated, and contract as they cool. When the earth was vastly hotter than now it must also have filled more space. While cooling it has been contracting. As it is still cooling it must be still contracting, but so slowly that on the whole we are not sensible of the process. But some of the effects are visible enough among the rocks.

THE CRUST OF THE EARTH.

I. Proofs that Parts of the Crust have been Pushed Up. This solid rocky outer part of the earth on which we live,

into which men sink mines and out of which springs arise, is called the Earth's Crust.

The rocks of which this crust consists belong mostly to the Sedimentary series, a large number to the Organic series, and a smaller, but still considerable proportion, to the Igneous series.

II. Proofs that Parts of the Crust have Sunk Down.

Submerged Forests, are to be regarded as evidence of subsidence of the earth's surface, just as the raised beaches are taken as proofs of upheaval.

The beds of coal, for example, which once flourished as green forests at the surface, are now found buried deep within the earth.

Two facts are now very clear to you about the crust of the earth-1st, it has often been pushed outward, so as to rise above the level of the sea; and 2d, it has also often sunk inward so as to carry parts of the land deep beneath the sea-level. But it could not undergo these movements without suffering other changes.

III. Proofs that the Rocks of the Earth's Crust have been Tilted, Crumpled, and Broken.

The crust of the earth, instead of being made of regular layers one above another, like the coats of an onion, has been so squeezed and fractured, that in many cases the bottom or oldest rocks have been pushed up far above the newest.

Wherever, therefore, strata are pushed up or let down more at one place than at another, without being actually broken across, they must be thrown into an inclined position. Now this unequal and irregular kind of movement has taken place many times in every quarter of the globe. If you look at the stratified rocks, in most parts of this and other countries, you will seldom find them quite flat-usually they are inclined, sometimes gently, sometimes steeply, so that they have not only been upheaved out of the sea, but have been moved irregularly and unequally.

IV. The Origin of Mountains.

First of all, then, when any chain of mountains is examined it is found to be made of rocks belonging to one or more of the three great classes with which you are already acquainted. In particular, the great mass of most mountain chains consists of various kinds of stratified rocks-such as sandstones, conglomerates, limestones, and others. Now you have found that these rocks have been laid down under water, most of them under the sea. They often contain the remains of shells, corals, sea-urchins, or other marine creatures, and these re mains may be taken out of the rocks even at the summits of the mountains. No clearer proof than this could be required to show that mountains are not so old as "the beginning of things," for these fossils prove that where the mountains now stand wide seas once rolled.

Again, mountains which consist of rocks formed originally under the sea must owe their existence to some force which could raise up the bed of the sea into high land. As a consequence of the slow cooling of our planet, its outer crust, under the enormous strain of contraction, has been forced up into

ridges in different places, with wide sunken spaces between. The ridges form mountain chains, while the sunken spaces are filled with the waters of the ocean. If you look at a map of the world you may trace out the principal lines of elevation, as they are called, over the globe.

The same forces which have carved out valleys and left mountain ridges standing out between them are still busy at their work. Every year adds to the waste. And thus, although when we gaze at a mountain-chain we know that first of all it was heaved up by movements from below, we nevertheless learn to recognize that all the familiar forms which it now assumes have since that early time of upheaval been carved upon it by the very same forces-rains, frosts, springs, glaciers, and the rest-which are busy sculpturing its surface still.

V. How the Rocks of the Crust Tell the History of the Earth.

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What papers and inscriptions, coins and books to the historian, the rocks of the earth's crust are to the geologist. They contain all the real evidence at his disposal. What he can gather from them at one place must be compared with what he collects from them at another. He must journey far and wide in search of facts which are not to be found at his own door. Gaps will certainly occur, which even the skill and industry of many years may never completely bridge over; for the rocks, as we have already seen, are subject to revolutions quite as destructive in their way as those

which have swept away the archives of cities and nations The geologist, therefore, can only at the best produce an im. perfect chronicle. But it is one which has a profound interest for all of us, for it is the story of our own globe-of its continents and oceans, its mountains and valleys, its rivers and lakes, of the tribes of plants and animals which people its sur face, and of the advent and progress of man himself.

Geological history brings before us, in this way, many facts well calculated to impress our minds with the great antiquity of our planet, and with the marvelous chain of changes by which the present order of things has been brought about. We learn from it that mountains and valleys have not come suddenly into existence, such as we now see them, but have been formed gradually, by a long series of processes similar to those which are even now slowly doing the same work. We discover that every part of the land under our feet can yield us up its story, if we only know how to question it. And, strangest of all, we find that the races of plants and animals which now tenant land and sea, are not the first or original races, but that they were preceded by others, these again by others still more remote. We see that there has been upon the earth a history of living things, as well as of dead matter. At the beginning of that wonderful history we detect traces merely of lowly forms, like the foraminifera of the Atlantic ooze. At the end we are brought face to face with man-thinking, working, restless man, battling steadily with the powers of nature, and overcoming them one by one, by learning how to obey the laws which direct them.

CANADA.

(DOMINION OF CANADA.)

CONSTITUTION and Government.-The Dominion of Canada consists of the provinces of Ontario, Quebec-formerly Upper and Lower Canada-Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island. They were united under the provisions of an Act of the Imperial Parliament passed in March, 1867, known as "The British North America Act, 1867," which came into operation on the 1st July, 1867, by royal proclamation. The Act orders that the constitution of the Dominion shall be "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom;" that the executive authority shall be vested in the Sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland, and carried on in her name by a Governor-General and Privy Council; and that the legislative power shall be exercised by a Parliament of two Houses, called the "Senate," and the "House of Commons." Provision is made in the Act for the admission of Newfoundland, still independent province of British North America, into the Dominion of Canada.

The members of the Senate of the Parliament of the Dominion are nominated for life, by summons of the GovernorGeneral under the Great Seal of Canada. By the terms of the constitution, there are 77 senators, namely, 24 from the Province of Ontario, 24 from Quebec, 10 from Nova Scotia, 10 from New Brunswick, 2 from Manitoba, 3 from British Columbia, and 4 from Prince Edward Island. Each senator must be 30 years of age, a born or naturalized subject, and possessed of property, real or personal, of the value of 4,000 dollars in the province for which he is appointed. The House of Commons of the Dominion is elected by the people, for five years, at the rate of one representative for every 17,000 souls. At present, on the basis of the census returns of 1871, the House of Commons consists of 206 members, namely, 88 for Ontario, 65 for Quebec, 21 for Nova Scotia, 16 for New Brunswick, 4 for Manitoba, 6 for British Columbia, and 6 for Prince Edward Island.

The members of the House of Commons are elected by constituencies, varying in the different provinces. In Ontario

and Quebec a vote is given to every male subject being the owner or occupier or tenant of real property of the assessed value of 300 dollars, or of the yearly value of 30 dollars, if within cities or towns, or of the assessed value of 200 dollars, or the yearly value of 20 dollars, if not so situate. In New Brunswick a vote is given to every male subject of the age of 21 years, assessed in respect of real estate to the amount of 100 dollars, or of personal property, or personal and real, amounting together to 400 dollars, or 400 dollars annual income. In Nova Scotia the franchise is with all subjects of the age of 21 years, assessed in respect of real estate to the value of 150 dollars, or in respect of personal estate, or of real and personal together, to the value of 400 dollars. Voting in Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island is open; but in New Brunswick votes are taken by ballot.

The Speaker of the House of Commons has a salary of 4,000 dollars per annum, and each member an allowance of 10 dollars per diem, up to the end of 30 days, and for a session lasting longer than this period, the sum of 1,000 dollars, with, in every case, 10 cents per mile for traveling expenses. The sum of 8 dollars per diem is deducted for every day's absence of a member, unless the same is caused by illness. There is the same allowance for the members of the Senate of the Dominion.

The seven provinces forming the Dominion have each a separate parliament and administration, with a LieutenantGovernor at the head of the executive. They have full powers to regulate their own local affairs, dispose of their revenues, and enact such laws as they may deem best for their own internal welfare, provided only they do not interfere with, or are adverse to, the action and policy of the central adminis tration under the Governor-General.

Governor-General.-Rt. Hon. Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, Marquis of Lorne, K.T., G.C. M. G., born August 6, 1845, eldest son of the eighth duke of Argyle; educated at Eton, and Trinity College, Cambridge; returned to Parliament for Argyllshire, February, 1868; married March 21, 1871, to Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland. Appointed Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada and of British North America, October 14, 1878; assumed the Government, December 7, 1878.

The Governor-General has a salary of 10,000l. per annum. He is assisted in his functions, under the provisions of the Act of 1867, by a Council, composed of thirteen heads of departments.

The present Council was formed October 17, 1878.

Each of the ministers has a salary, fixed by statute, of 7,000 dollars, or 1,400l. a year, with the exception of the recognized Prime Minister, who has 8,000, or 1,600/, per annum. The body of ministers is officially known as the "Queen's Privy Council for the Dominion of Canada."

Church and Education.-There is no State Church in the Dominion, nor in the whole of British North America. The Church of England is governed by nine bishops; the Roman Catholic Church by four archbishops and fourteen bishops; and the Presbyterian Church in Canada-formed in 1875 by the union of two formerly distinct bodies-by presbyteries, synods, and an annual assembly presided over by moderators. The number of members of each religious creed in the Dominion was as follows at the census of April 3, 1871:

Roman Catholics...

Presbyterians..

Anglicans.....

Fisheries...

Wesleyans and Methodists 567,091 Of "no religion". Baptists....

.65,857 5.575

Cullers' Fees..

Militia

239,343 No creed stated..

......17,055

-3,485.761

.$12,900,659 29

5,390,763 17

185,190 89

1,172,418 14 1,863,149 07

521,494 63

71,005 41 40,849 56

47,621 23 460 82

2,853 03

32, 148 81

21,361 65

37.757 39

12,331 16

17.738 34

24,715 45

16,031 14

Total...

The census returns, besides the broad religious divisions here given, signalize a multitude of sectarian creeds, including "Second Adventists," "Disciples," "Bible Christians," "Tunkers," "Mennonists," "Universalists," and "Mormons." Roman Catholicism prevails most extensively in the province of Quebec, formerly Lower Canada, the number of its adherents there, 1871, amounting to 1,019,850, or nearly 85 per cent. of the total of the Dominion. In the province of Ontario, formerly Upper Canada, the number of Roman Catholics in 1871 was 274,162; while the Church of England numbered 330,965, and the Presbyterians 356,442 adherents.

The provinces of Quebec and Ontario have separate school laws, adapted to the religious elements prevailing in either. Each township in Ontario is divided into several school sections, according to the requirements of its inhabitants. The common schools are supported partly by government, and partly by local self-imposed taxation, and occasionally by the payment of a small fee for each scholar. All teachers must pass an examination before a county board of education, or receive a license from the provincial Normal School, empowering them to teach, before they can claim the government allowance. (Official Communication.)

Revenue and Expenditure.-The financial accounts of the Dominion of Canada are made up under three different headings, namely, first "Consolidated Fund," comprising the general sources of revenue, and branches of expenditure; secondly, Loans" in revenue, and "Redemption" with Premiums and Discounts." in expenditure; and, thirdly, **Open Accounts." The total actual revenue, under these three divisions, was as follows in the financial year ending June 30, 1879: