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3. The main streets of the city are spacious and filled with good shops; there is an appearance of comfort everywhere except in the poorer districts of the older part of the city, which contrasts with many provincial

towns.

4. The commerce is varied and extensive; the export trade is mostly in provisions-butter, lard, pork, bacon,

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eggs, and live stock. There are manufactures of tanning, distilling, brewing, glass, gloves, and iron ship-building.

5. In Cork there are several convents; the one at Black Rock is the largest in Ireland, and is a handsome building, elegantly fitted and in a beautiful situation.

6. We hired a boat about a mile down the river from the first bridge, where the Lee is twice as broad as the

Thames at Waterloo Bridge. Passing between hilly and well-wooded banks for 4 miles we came to a pretty village, and then on the left the Lee assumed a dreary appearance, till in 2 or 3 miles we came to the romantic looking town of the Cove of Cork, or Queenstown.

7. Here the houses are built in tiers up the sides of a steep hill. The Cove is considered the harbour of Cork,

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though many merchant vessels of considerable size proceed up the Lee to the very centre of the city. The bay is 3 miles long and 2 broad; there are two small islands in the middle, and upon one of them is an immense building well supplied with military stores.

8. As many as 600 vessels have been seen on one occasion in this spacious bay. What a grand spectacle it must have been to see so many vessels all in motion in the course of a few hours sailing out of the bay, and destined for all parts of the world! The entrance is narrow and is guarded by a strong fort on each side.

9. I could not take my leave of Cork without a visit to the groves of Blarney, five miles northward of the

city. The groves contain the ruins of an old castle built in the fifteenth century. The situation is at the junction of the rivers Blarney and Cormac, and commands a fine view of the country. To the east there are traces of what was once a large and impassable bog: here the last wolves seen in Ireland were killed.

10. The castle is surrounded by woods: the most attractive objects of the groves are the grottoes, natural and artificial. The celebrated stone-the Blarney stone -is at the north-west angle of the court, and tradition has ascribed to it the virtue of making all who kiss it remarkable for their honeyed manner of speaking ever after. Since smooth-tongued people are too often insincere, the phrase has arisen, "Ah! that's all Blarney!"

-R. Grant.

BRITISH POSSESSIONS.

LESSON 44.-BRITAIN'S COLONIAL EMPIRE.

1. The British Isles form a very small part of the land ruled by our Queen. There are in Europe at least halfa-dozen countries larger than the United Kingdom; but no government in the world can claim an equal area of land or an equal number of subjects.

2. Insular strongholds in Europe-the richest country of Asia a fertile track of Africa in the south temperate zone -the northern half of North America-the whole of the Australian continent with its adjacent islands-trading ports and small settlements in convenient parts of the tropics these are all included in the British Empire, a dominion more than sixty times the area of the British Isles.

3. The colonies and dependencies of Britain embrace an area of 7,647,000 square miles, which is about oneseventh of the land surface of the globe.

4. The total population is estimated at 220,000,000; this, with the inhabitants of the British Isles, gives the population of the British Empire at 250,000,000, which is nearly a fifth of the world's population.

5. The largest and most populous possessions are British North America, the Australian Colonies, and India.

6. Of these the two former are interesting because they are colonies settled and inhabited mainly by emigrants from these islands, and because great numbers of the emigrants who leave our shores go to one or the other of these settlements.

7. When Columbus had discovered the West Indies, Henry VII. of England sent out Sebastian Cabot on a voyage which resulted in the discovery of Newfoundland (New'found-land), our first American possession.

8. Further discoveries, constant emigration, and the conquest by Britain of the French settlements on the banks of the St. Lawrence, led to the settlement of nearly the whole of North America by English-speaking people.

9. In the year 1776 a quarrel arose between a portion of the American colonists and the home government about the payment of taxes, whereupon the colonists fought for their freedom from British rule and won it. Then took place the separation of what is now known as the United States of America and its formation into a free and independent country.

10. When first discovered, the Australian Colonies gave little promise of advantage to the settler or to England. Their position at a distance of 12,000 miles from Britain, seemed to indicate their suitability as places of banish

ment for criminals, and a few convict settlements were made.

11. Sheep-farming and wheat-growing were found to be profitable beyond all expectation, and the discovery of vast treasures of gold in 1851 led to the rapid settlement of the country.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.

LESSON 45.

EXTENT AND COASTS.

1. British North America includes the whole of the northern half of North America, except the island of Greenland and the peninsula of Alaska. The greater portion of it is now known as the DOMINION OF CANADA which comprises several islands, but the island of NEWFOUNDLAND does not form part of the Dominion. The extent of these territories is nearly equal to that of Europe.

2. The Boundaries are formed on the south by the United States, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Arctic Ocean, and on the west by Alaska (which belongs to the United States) and by the Pacific Ocean.

3. The journey across this vast territory, from Newfoundland to the Pacific Ocean, is more than twice the length of the voyage from England to Newfoundland. Taking the straight course of a steamer in fair weather, the voyage across the Atlantic to Cape Race, the nearest point of Newfoundland, is 2000 miles. If we could go westward from Cape Race, as straight as the crow flies, to the Pacific coast, we should travel 4000 miles. Following the usual route up the river St. Lawrence, through

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