Mr. Rawlins finish recording my other letters, which he has begun.' I told him this should be done. He then asked if I recollected anything which it was essential for him to do, as he had but a very short time to continue with us. I told him that I could recollect nothing, but that I hoped he was not so near his end. He observed, smiling, that he certainly was, and that, as it was the debt we must all pay, he looked to the event with perfect resignation."

9. About five o'clock his old friend Dr. Craik came into the room, and approached the bedside. "Doctor," said the General, "I die hard, but I am not afraid to go. I believed, from my first attack, that I should not survive it: my breath can not last long." The doctor pressed his hand in silence, retired from the bedside, and sat by the fire, absorbed in grief.

10. "About ten o'clock," writes Mr. Lear, "he made several attempts to speak to me before he could effect it. At length he said, 'I am just going. Have me decently buried, and do not let my body be put into the vault in less than three days after I am dead.' I bowed assent, for I could not speak. He then looked at me again, and said, 'Do you understand me?' I replied, 'Yes.'-'Tis well,' said he.

11. "About ten minutes before he expired (which was between ten and eleven o'clock), his breathing became easier. He lay quietly; he withdrew his hand from mine, and felt his own pulse. I saw his countenance change. I spoke to Dr. Craik, who sat by the fire. He

came to the bedside. The General's hand fell from his wrist. I took it in mine, and pressed it to my bosom. Dr. Craik put his hands over his eyes, and he expired without a struggle or a sigh.

12. “While we were fixed in silent grief, Mrs. Washington, who was seated at the foot of the bed, asked, with a firm and collected voice, 'Is he gone?' I could not speak, but held up my hand as a signal that he was no more. ''Tis well,' said she in the same voice. 'All is now over: I shall soon follow him.""

13. A deep sorrow spread over the nation on hearing that Washington was no more. Congress, which was in session, immediately adjourned for the day. The next morning it was resolved that the Speaker's chair be shrouded with black, that the members and officers of the House wear black during the session, and that a joint committee of both Houses be appointed to consider on the most suitable manner of doing honor to the memory of the man "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

LANGUAGE STUDY.

I. Write the analysis of: avocation (vocare); purpose (ponere); continue (tenere); recollect (legere); committee (mittere).

II. What nouns in this piece are from the following verbs or adjectives: improve; pleasant; enjoy; hoarse; serve?

III. Are Irving's sentences generally long and involved, or comparatively short and simple? Unite these two sentences (paragraph 11) into one by changing the first into a phrase: "I saw his countenance change. I spoke to Dr. Craik, who sat by the fire."

38.- Glimpses of Science.

MARVELS OF ANCIENT LIFE.

dinotherium (pron. di-no-thē’- | ġe-ŏl ́o-ġist, one versed in the sci-

ri-um).

fos'silg (lit., "things dug up"), petrified animal forms buried in the earth.

ence of the earth's structure, etc. megatherium (pron. měg-athe'ri-um).

pterodactyl (pron. těr-o-dăk til).

PREPARATORY NOTES.

This selection, forming a description of some of the wonderful creatures living in the far bygone geological ages of our earth, is extracted from a pleasant little book, called "The Puzzle of Life," by Arthur Nicol, who wrote it for the instruction of his nephews.

(1) serpents... roc: in allusion to these fabulous creatures as mentioned in the story of Sindbad the Sailor, in the "Arabian Nights."

1. Creatures once lived on this earth, of such strange shapes and great size, that the imaginations of those who wrote fairy tales did not exaggerate much; and though we know that no flying serpents or immense birds like the roc are living now, and that there is no bean stalk which grows up into the sky while we are asleep, yet there were once on this earth lizards as large as whales, and birds taller than elephants, and great sloths stronger than the rhinoceros or hippopotamus, and ferns as high as peach trees, and club mosses as large as forest oaks.

2. The patience and industry of clever men have been well spent in gathering together all the fossils

they can find, and arranging them in museums for our instruction, and making a history of them which is more wonderful than the tales of the Arabian Nights, and more beautiful, because it is all true.

3. In a period which geologists have talled the reptile age, there were large numbers of animals like crocodiles, lizards, and tortoises (which are all reptiles); and some of them were of immense size. For instance, there was a creature something like a lizard, but as large as a Shetland pony, with a great many curious teeth; and this animal left footprints in the sand, which have been dried, petrified, and buried, we can't tell how long; and there in the sandstone we may now see the cracks made by the sun's heat in what was once soft earth.

4. In the beds of the reptile age are fossils of many other strange animals; and among them are two great fish lizards, as large as whales. Both of these lived in the water, and perhaps came on land sometimes; and it is certain that they must have been very ferocious creatures, from their great size and sharp teeth.

5. But still more extraordinary animals than any of these lived at this time, - animals that, like birds, had hollow bones and the power of flight, yet were not birds, but flying reptiles. Their eyes were very large, indicating nocturnal habits. These creatures are called pterodactyls, from two Greek words which mean “wingfingered."

6. Suppose the little fingers of both your hands were a yard longer than the others, and suppose a thick leathery skin was stretched from the tips of these long little fingers to each of your feet: you would have wings something like a pterodactyl, and also something like the wings of a bat.

7. But the pterodactyl had a long neck, and a long beak-like mouth full of long sharp-pointed teeth. It could not walk much, I think; but it could hang itself up by its hind limbs to a tree or rock, head downwards like a bat, and must have been able to fly very strongly with its outspread leathery featherless wings. There were swarms of these curious, half-lizard, half-bird-like animals on the land; and they were of all sizes, some no bigger than a crow, and some as large as the albatross, measuring twelve feet across their outstretched wings.

8. Several huge animals, more or less related to our living elephants, have flourished upon the earth at various periods of its history. I want particularly to tell you of the mammoth, mastodon, megatherium, and dinotherium, all of which are now extinct.

9. The bones of the mammoth were found in the North of Russia, on the banks of the Lena, in 1800; but the Russians knew of it before that, and the name they gave the animal means "earth," because they supposed it burrowed in the earth like a mole.

10. It was strange that any people could have supposed that this huge creature, larger than an elephant