darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee," Psa. cxxxix. 1-12. With such convictions, the mind in question must experience bitterness, agitation, and alarm, for which the cares of the world, however distressing, can produce no parallel. The value and danger of the soul are appreciated at the same moment, and over head is seen written the righteous and terrible sentence, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die! animated by new thoughts, and sustained by new principles. He is "a new creature in Christ Jesus." Old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new! The grace that dispersed the thick cloud, and brought the message of reconciliation, and preached pardon through Jesus Christ, leaves not the man here. It follows out its benign purpose, sheds light around the soul it has cheered, and imparts "the knowledge of salvation as well as "the remission of sins." Progressive sanctification (a doctrine very much spoken against by some) is experienced as a scriptural reality; and the peace of God, which passeth understanding, is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. The man is taught to cry, "Abba, Father;" and, having access by faith into the grace wherein he stands, he rejoices in hope of the glory of God. He knows whom he has believed, and, whilst journeying to a better world, he sees the "true light" shining through the break in the cloud. W. L. NOW EXTINCT.-No. I. The cry is then heard bursting from the heart with fearful earnestness, "What shall I do to be saved?" It is a time of pain, of gloom, of alarm, of dreadful apprehension. "The heavens are brass, and the earth iron.' There is no refuge, no palliation of guilt, no door of hope. Heaven, earth, and hell seem leagued against the man. The weight of guilt crushes him. His sins are "set in order before him;" they stand in battle array; and he sinks in deep waters, conscious at once of fearful demerit and total impo- THE OSTRICH AND SOME ALLIED BIRDS tence. It is a day of storm and thick darkness. It is a day of judgment, in anticipation of the last and fearful session, when the dead, small and great, shall stand before God. The man is alone before God! He forgets everything, loses sight of everything, but God, himself, and law! He is self-condemned, helpless, undone, lost! He subscribes the evidence against himself; witnesses are not needed; the case is clear; it is a great transaction between Jehovah and his creature; and just then, when hope has fled, and nothing remains but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation-just then, the voice of Jesus Christ is heard in gentle accents of infinite mercy, saying, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Such a message! What tidings are there! How gracious; how apposite; how comprehensive! It is emancipation from bondage, deliverance from woe, life from the dead! The man believes, and is saved! Is not this a break in the cloud? What are a thousand temporal deliverances compared with this? What are all the joys of time when the hope of eternal life is placed beside them? Henceforth the man breathes a new atmosphere, inspires new hopes, is WHEN We think of a bird, we naturally picture to ourselves a feathered creature, capable of supporting itself in the air on outstretched wings, and of flying along more or less rapidly, according to the species. Indeed, as a rule, flight may said to be characteristic of birds, from the towering vulture or eagle to the tiny humming - bird. There are few rules without exceptions; and among birds, the all-wise Creator has ordained that certain kinds shall be totally destitute of all powers of wing, as far, at least, as aërial flight is concerned. Yet must this deficiency cause no real loss to them; it must be attended with no disadvantage; but all must be so ordered, that habits and locality on the one hand, and animal powers and structure on the other hand, are in exact harmony. If we look at the class called mammalia, we find parallel exceptions to the law of being four-limbed and confined to the ground; for, on the one side, we see a numerous tribe of bats, to which the ground is not a natural resting-place, and which enjoy all the active part of their existence in the air, supported by ample membranous wings, and wheeling in mazy evolutions as they chase their insect food;-on the other side, we have the whale tribe, which, though they the existence of others, their foot-prints on the new red sandstone of Connecticut, called by geologists "ornithichnites," are the only discovered evidence; but the print-marks cannot be mistaken. This group contains the following living species:- the ostrich, peculiar to Arabia and Africa; two species of rhea, found in South America, but not in the same districts; the emeu, inhabiting Australia; the cassowary, a native of the Moluccas, Java, and Sumatra, &c.; and the apteryx, or kiwi-kiwi, found chiefly in the southern parts of the northern island of New Zealand; in all, six species, distributed as we have stated. breathe air by means of true lungs, and, in all the essential parts of their anatomical organization, resemble quadrupeds, are nevertheless exclusively aquatic. Their hind limbs are wanting; their fore limbs are converted into paddles; the tail is enormously developed, the bones are covered by masses of powerful muscles, and it is terminated by a broad horizontal paddle. So expressly, in fact, is the whale formed for the waters of the rolling ocean, that, if driven by stress of wind and waves accidentally on shore, he lashes the hard beach with vain efforts to escape, and, bruised and exhausted by his terrible but fruitless violence, miserably perishes. Here, then, we have devia- With regard to the extinct species, we tions from the chief characters which the may observe that, although as far as is mammalia ordinarily display,—but not known at present, New Zealand contains without a due counterbalance; and so only one (the apteryx); yet it is not long among birds, we shall find the loss of the since that island (or rather the northern powers of flight accompanied by such island) contained at least five distinct structural modifications as shall fit them species belonging to this group, to which for some peculiar mode of life-some professor Owen has given the generic station which it has pleased the Creator title of dinornis. Of these strange birds, to appoint, so that their deficiency in one numbers of the bones were collected by respect shall be counterbalanced by ad- the rev. W. Williams, missionary at the vantages on the other. East Cape, Bay of Islands, and transBirds incapable of flight do not, how-mitted to Dr. Buckland, who consigned ever, all display similar habits, or enjoy a similar mode of life; for among them some are essentially aquatic-as much, or perhaps more so, than seals, and in the water pursue their prey. In these birds, the wings are converted into paddles, and the plumage is waterproof. By means of these paddles, they can propel themselves along with astonishing rapidity, and dive to the greatest depths, or even leap, fish-like, out of the water, and descend with a plunge far beneath its surface. Of these paddle-armed birds, the great awk tenants the northern seas, mostly within the arctic circle, and the penguin, of which the species are rather numerous, the temperate and colder latitudes of the Southern Ocean. The form and structure of these birds are precisely in accordance with their instincts and mode of life, and forcibly proclaim how wisely and how thoroughly the plan of creation (to speak after the manner of men) was elaborated. The other truly non-volant birds are terrestrial in their habits, and form a group or order once far more abundant in living species than at present; some, indeed, have been extirpated no later back than the beginning of the seventeenth century. Of others we know nothing but from their relics; and of them to professor Owen for examination and description; and most interesting have been the results of his careful investigation. It was in November, 1839, that professor Owen first called the attention of the scientific world to the fragment of the thigh bone of a bird of the struthious (ostrich) group, of large size, which had been placed in his hands by Mr. Rule, with the statement, "that it was found in New Zealand, where the natives have a tradition that it belonged to a bird of the eagle kind, but which has become extinct, and to which they gave the name 'movié.' Similar remains, it is said, are found buried in the banks of rivers.' It is not to be supposed that the learned professor let the subject drop; but farther materials and information had to be collected. In January, 1843, he read before one of the scientific meetings of the Zoological Society a portion of a letter from the rev. W. C. Cotton, dated Waimate, July 11, 1842, relative to these gigantic birds. The writer observes, that upon meeting the rev. W. Williams, and speaking to him about the remains in question, it proved that he had at that time a basket full in his possession, and that he had already sent two cases of similar bones to Dr. Buckland, with a letter detailing the circumstances under which they were found. The bones in question were very perfect, not at all fossilized, and have been buried in the mud of fresh-water streams communicating with high mountains. Mr. Williams had bones of thirty individuals brought to him in a short time after he set the natives about searching for them; one of the largest leg-bones measures two feet ten inches, which leads him to think the bird must have been sixteen feet high. No bones of wings have been found. The locality in which these relics are most abundant is about seventy miles south of Poverty Bay, in the river Wairoa, buried in mud. The conclusion of the letter is very remarkable: "Strangely enough, after Mr. Williams had obtained the bones, he heard of the bird as having been seen by two Englishmen in the Middle Island. They were taken out by a native at night to watch for the bird which had been described to them: they saw it, but were so frightened, that they did not dare to shoot at it, though they had gone out expressly to do so. With respect to this bird having been seen alive, as described, we are very sceptical. As we have already said, the natives have traditions about it, and assert it to be extinct. How, then, could they guide Englishmen to see it alive, at night? --or if it be indeed alive, why were these two Englishmen alone let into the secret? and if they did see it, surely, since a man dares fire at the tiger, rhinoceros, or elephant, they must have very cowardly hearts who, armed with guns, shrank before a bird! Moreover, nothing has since transpired to give the least plausibility to the story. On the relics contained in the first box sent by the rev. W. Williams, and which duly arrived January 24, 1843, professor Owen bestowed much attention, and clearly determined the leading characters of the genus dinornis, which he detailed at length before the scientific meeting (Z. S.) He proved it to belong to the struthious or ostrich group, to have a huge and massive form, and to be triductyle or three-toed, like the emeu and cassowary, and destitute of the small hind toe found in the apteryx and dodo. | enabled to confirm his generic details, but he found that he had the relics of five distinct species, rendering his specific term, "Nova Zealandia," of no value, since all were from New Zealand, and the term would be equally applicable to all. Among these bones, no parts of the skull, sternum, ribs, or wing bones were to be found; but professor Owen pointed out (Nov. 28, 1843) the physiological grounds for concluding that the development of the wings must have been intermediate between that of the wings of the apteryx and the emeu. After a rigid comparison of the bones with each other, and with those of every other existing species of the struthious group, professor Owen discriminated, on well marked and important anatomical grounds, between the five species, which he respectively named dinornis giganteus, or the giant dinornis; D. struthoides, or the ostrich-like dinornis; D. dromœoides, or the emeu-like dinornis; D. didiformis, or the dodo-like dinornis; and D. olidiformis, or the bastard-sized dinornis. We shall not attempt to enter into the anatomical minutiæ detailed so ably by the learned professor, but the following extracts from the Proceeds. Zool. Soc. is interesting to all:-"The author then gave his calulations from the analogies of existing struthious birds, of the height of the different species of dinornis. The largest, D. giganteus, according to the proportions of the ostrich, must have stood ten feet five inches, but according to those of the cassowary, nine feet five inches; its average stature might be taken at ten feet. A diagram of the great extinct bird, restored according to these proportions, was exhibited. "The D. struthoides was seven feet high, which is the average stature of the ostrich (struthio camelus). "The length of the tibia and metatarsus (or shank bones) of the D. dromœoides not yet being known, the height of five feet was assigned to it as a probable one; its femur (thigh bone) corresponds in size with that of the emeu, whose average measurement in captivity is between five and six feet. "The height of D. didiformis was four feet-exceeding, therefore, the extinct As the bones from which professor dodo (didus ineptus), but evidently reOwen drew his elaborate anatomical de-sembling it in its stouter proportions and tails belonged only to one species, he shorter metatarsus (shank bones), as termed it dinornis Novæ Zealandiæ; but compared with the other species of diwhen the second box, sent by the rev. nornis. W. Williams, arrived, he was not only "The D. olidiformis was still smaller, and was so called from its similarity of stature to the great bustard (otis tarda)." Professor Owen next proceeded to consider the evidences of tradactyle birds, afforded by the impressions in the new red sandstone of Connecticut, called "ornithichnites," and having pointed out the proportions of the first bone of the toes in existing struthious birds to their footprints, indicated thereby the size of the same bone in different ornithichnites, and reciprocally those of the different species of dinornis. The two phalanges of the dinornis, which were described and compared in this section of the memoir, afforded pretty clear indications of the form and proportions of the toes in the two species (D. giganteus and didiformis) to which they referred. These data showed that the trifid footprint of the D. giganteus must have exceeded in size that of the ornithichnites giganteus and O. ingens of professor Hitchcock, and that the D. didiformis must have left impressions as large as those of the O. tuberosus. The author then warned his hearers against inferring identity of species, or even genus, between the extinct struthious birds of the alluvium New Zealand, and those whose footprints remain in the new red sandstone of Connecticut. That the tridactyle struthious birds which traversed the then soft sands, since consolidated into the sand-rock of Connecticut, were different from the dinornis, may be with certainty affirmed, even upon the fact of the difference of geographical distribution. When, and from what cause or causes, did these great birds of New Zealand cease to exist? The question is natural; but we can only give probabilities by way of answer. Very anciently New Zealand, like many other of the islands of the Southern Ocean, appears to have been thinly inhabited by a Papuan or Papoo race, but afterwards to have received a Malay colony, which gained the ascendancy and spread over the islands. We believe that on their arrival (which was before the Malay language had received foreign words from the Sanscrit and Arabic), these birds were in considerable numbers. The warlike and energetic race who now occupied the land soon began to carry on a system of destruction among them; for, with the exception of a small kind of Dingo dog, no animals of even moderate size were obtainable for food. Unwisely, therefore, were these large birds, so acceptable, hunted down; their numbers became thinned, and at length all, excepting the small nocturnal kiwi-kiwi, which owes its existence to its means of concealment, were exterminated. But before the arrival of these Malay invaders, or even of their Papuan predecessors, thousands of these birds roamed the hills, and lived and died unmolested; their bones, carried down by flooded mountain streams, settled in the tranquil parts of the river, and became embedded in its muddy deposit. Hence are they always scattered-no single skeleton being found in a state of perfection or union; hence, too, are the bones of all the species huddled together in confusion. Thus, then, did the New Zealand Malay destroy one source of a supply of food, which, by proper care, might have been continued to the present day. He curtailed the means of his own existence, and though cannibalism might have prevailed from the first, and perhaps did (for all the oceanic Malay tribes were more or less addicted to this revolting custom), yet it would now be carried on with greater frequency, and on a wider scale, and the weak or aged prisoners of both sexes, and offenders of the chiefs, would never escape their doom. W. M. THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE TRUTH, AND THE MIND. TRUTH is the nourishment of mind. Error is its poison. Its depravity is evinced by the fact that it prefers the latter to the former. Herein lies the true proof that the human mind is depraved. It cherishes error, whilst conscious of its injurious tendency, and practises sin whilst knowing it to be so. The system of redemption contains arrangements which effectually remove this melancholy perverseness. The truth of Christ, when presented to the human mind by the Holy Spirit, possesses an influencing and transforming power; that is to say, is felt by the mind to possess it. There is no change effected on the truth; it is always the same pure, holy, immutable thing. But in consequence of the influence exerted on the human spirit by the Divine Spirit, through the truth, it presents a very different appearance to the mind from what it ever did before. Doctrines which seemed dark become luminous with light. Passages involved in mystery shine with glorious meaning. preference to a new home. But in Northern Siberia, what is there to attract even a nomade race? Endless snows and icecovered plains bound the horizon. Nature lies shrouded in almost perpetual winter, and life is but a continued struggle with privations, and with death in its most terrible forms. It were vain to ask the present inhabitants for the motive which false-induced their forefathers to forsake more favoured lands; they are too busily and incessantly occupied with the necessities of the present hour to entertain such questions; and no tradition but of the vaguest sort preserves with them the memory of the past. Doubtless, pressed by the tide of population and migration from the south, their forefathers retreated before the arms of a more warlike nation. Thus driven by necessity, and finding even in these inhospitable plains no want of food and clothing, they contentedly settled down in them. The summer, as we have seen, affords them an ample supply of fish, fowl, rein-deer, and other esculent animals; and when, in addition to these resources, they found these regions literally swarm with the richest fur animals, with which they could purchase from their southern neighbours an abundance of tobacco, tea, and spiritstheir highest luxuries-we may see sufficient reason why a people, driven by superior force from their paternal seats, should put up with privations and establish themselves in deserts of frost and Precepts formerly considered harsh, or NORTHERN SIBERIA. THE INHABITANTS OR NATIONS. No. I. ANIMALS might be supposed to visit or inhabit the icy deserts of Northern Siberia, in obedience to the unerring laws of instinct; but it is not easy to conceive that man could have had any motive short of absolute necessity to fix his abode in such dismal regions. Under milder skies, nomade races are known to wander from one fruitful land to another, and gradually to forget the country of their birth and give snow. Northern Siberia is peopled with a multitude of nations, each bearing in their language, physical structure, and features, the most distinctive impression of their descent, which neither time, nor commixture with each other, nor the identity of their climate and pursuits, has been able to efface. Indeed, no country upon earth seems to have such a mixture and diversity of races and nations as Siberia. In the north alone, here are the Voguls, the Ostyaks, the Samoyeds, the Tonguses, the Yakuts, the Yukaghits, the Shelags, the Tchuvanzes, the Koriaks, the Tchuktches, and many other fragments of distinct nations, which scarcely admit of being classified with any of these. Much, it is true, they have common to them all; almost all bear the general characteristics of Asiatic nations-almost all have straight black hair, and a complexion just a shade darker than Europeans-all are more or less nomadic, and none of them have ever been so |