by ourselves, be kind to those of the fraternity who may be cast upon our thresholds. A kindly act done him may awaken at the antipodes a corresponding thrill for one we love.

and a reward.

"Cosa fatta capo ha."

A CANADIAN VALENTINE.

BY MISS LOUISA MURRAY.

IN Eastern lands, more soft and bright
Than this cold clime of ours,

The sun pours down his golden light,
And the earth smiles back in flowers.

Flowers of hues the richest and rarest,
Bloom there under cloudless skies,

With breath the sweetest, and form the fairest,
E'er seen out of Paradise.

Some crimson as passion's flaming heart,
Some white as the robes saints wear;
Some of golden hue like the sun-god's dart,
Some blue as the azure air.

No frost-wind's blight have they to fear;
Fair lily and blushing rose
Bloom in perfumed beauty all the year,
And dread no wintry snows.

The lover for the loved may pull

Bright buds the whole year round,

Fresh living gems more beautiful

Than queens wear when they're crowned.

And if he send her tender words
To soothe her lonely hours,

What speech so well with love accords
As that sweet one of flowers?

Fit types of love and truth are they,
And all things pure and bright;
A Persian bard 'tis said one day
First read their words of light.

He marked the mystic figures traced
Within each fragrant chalice,
Like talismanic ciphers placed
In some enchanted palace.

The poet's eye pierced to the core
The mystery thus enshrined,
And having learned its hidden lore,
He taught it to mankind.

Hence there no lover needs to write
His vows with ink on paper,
In curtained chamber by the light
Of earthly lamp or taper.

But in some garden's scented air,
At golden morn or eve,
Wherever flowers spring fresh and fair,
A message he may weave.

Of blossoms chosen all and each,
The same fond tale to tell;

And Love the maiden's heart will teach
To read the meaning well.

Oh, dear one, if such flowers were mine, Instead of this dull strain,

I'd weave for you a valentine

No poet need disdain.

All lovely thoughts should round it throng,
And music it should speak,

Of which the poet's sweetest song
Were but an echo weak.

With life and colour it should glow,

Love's warmth should lend it brightness; Hope should its azure blue bestow,

And Truth its spotless whiteness.

Sweet hopes and memories it should bear On flower and leaf impressed,

And all with one consent declare "I love you first and best!"

Love's incense from it should arise,
The perfume of its breath;
All else may fade-that never dies;
Its fragrance conquers death.

Then those immortal flowers should be
Embalmed by antique fancies;

Perdita's violets you should see,
And poor Ophelia's pansies.

The fragrant musk-rose should be there, The honeyed eglantine;

The tube rose offer, tall and fair,

Her cups of perfumed wine.

And passion-flowers whose form suggest
A love not much in fashion;
Undimmed though tried by fiery tests,
A holy, faithful passion.

One flower could never be forgot 'Midst all the garden's store,

The little blue forget-me-not;

I'd send it o'er and o'er.

"Forget-me-not, sweet Valentine,"
For me 'twould softly say.

I would that little flower were mine
To send to you to-day.

The wish is vain. It could not live
An hour within the clasp,

This month's cold icy fingers give
To all that they can grasp.

Not even daffodils dare show
Their beauty though so bold,
Nor crocus through the drifted snow
Send forth its buds of gold.

Nor primroses that, fair and pale,
In sheltered hollows lie,

And hide beneath their wintry veil,
Till spring's wild winds pass by.

No flower or leaf can now be found,
Except those icy flowers

The frost-king scatters all around,
In wild fantastic hours.

They keep their bloom for summer's shine,
I've not one leaf to proffer;

But take these rhymes sweet Valentine,
They're all I have to offer.

A GEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY IN NEWFOUNDLAND: A SHORT SERMON ON A STONY TEXT.

BY REV. M. HARVEY, St. John's, Newfoundland.

IN approaching the town of St. John's, Newfoundland, by sea from the south, the voyager finds himself passing along a lofty, iron-bound coast, whose grim rocks frown defiance on the billows of the Atlantic. Presently, a narrow opening in the huge wall of rock appears, as if, by some convulsion of nature, the rocky rampart had been rent asunder, and the sea had rushed in. Hills six or seven hundred feet high. guard this opening on each side; and as the vessel glides through, the. voyager looks up, not without a touch of awe, at the over-hanging cliffs of dark red sand stone piled in huge masses on a foundation of grey slate rock; and presently he finds himself in the calm waters of a beautiful harbour, sheltered from every wind, and accessible at all periods of the tide to the largest vessels. On the northern side of the harbour, the ground rises with a gentle slope, furnishing an admirable site for a town. On the southern side, the declivity springs so abruptly and steeply from the water's edge, that only the foundations of a range of warehouses could be scooped out along the base of the hills. The town of St. John's is situated on the northern slope, and presents a striking and picturesque appearance from the waters of the harbour. Its population at present is about 25,000. The country around, for a

short distance inland, is cleared and cultivated, and in the neighbourhood of the town, is studded with farm-houses, cottages and a few villas belonging to the wealthier classes. Here and there, well-cultivated farms and neat farm-houses are seen; but a walk or a drive of a few miles, in any direction, brings the traveller to the unreclaimed wilderness lands, covered with a stunted vegetation, or heaped with closely packed boulders - a sight sufficient to make the stoutest hearted back-woodsman shudder. The vegetable soil is poor and thin, and requires continuous applications of strong manures to make it yield a fair crop. With all these drawbacks, and in spite of the short and often cold summer, and the difficulty of reclaiming the soil, it is surprising to see what excellent root crops of all kinds are raised through the industry and energy of the people. Potatoes, turnips, cabbages, hay, oats and barley that will compare favourably with the produce of Nova Scotia or P. E. Island, are raised, but in very limited quantities. The industry of the inhabitants is concentrated on the fisheries; and the cultivation of the land is unhappily almost neglected.

A geologist does not find it difficult to account for the barrenness of the soil in this part of the island. A glance at the rugged rocks and slaty formations, weathered and worn by meteoric agency, satisfies him that he is in one of those primary regions, where agricultural fertility and amenity are not to be expected. A slight depth of vegetable soil covers the hard slate. The bare sides and shoulders of the hills, everywhere, show the weather-worn rocks cropping out, whose vast antiquity cannot be doubted. In some of its aspects, the region resembles certain districts in Western Wales, or among the hills of Cumberland, in England. But, to which of the great primary geological Kingdoms does this region belong? Are we traversing Laurentian, Huronian, Cambrian or Silurian dominions? The prevailing formation in the whole great peninsula of Avalon is the slate, covered occasionally, as on Signal Hill, at the entrance of the harbour, and along the crests of the South side and White Hills by a red sand-stone. To what geological "horizon" is this slate to be referred, and what are its equivalents in England and America? These are not merely curious questions, or points of pure science; for as we shall see, by and by, a great importance, in an economic point of view, attaches to the answer returned to such inquiries. The age of a rock can only be decided with certainty by the imbedded fossils. But no fossils had ever been found in these slate rocks, though rigorous search had often been made. J. B. Jukes, F. R. S., now one of Britain's most eminent geologists, published, thirty years ago, a work on the geology of Newfoundland, in which he lamented his total want of success in detecting any fossils; so that all clue to their correct classification was wanting. In the absence of such key, he described four groups of beds as making the peninsula of Avalon, and other parts of the island, under the following provisional designations:

Upper Slate Belle Isle, shale and grit-stone.

Thus undecided was the matter since Mr. Jukes' visit. A few years since, at a place called Branch, on the west side of St. Mary's Bay, a thin layer of trilobites, of the genus Paradoxides was found; but the formation there does not belong to the St. John's slate. Specimens were sent to England by Mr. C. F. Bennet, one of which, being a new species, was named Paradoxides Bennettii by Mr. Salter, the distinguished Palaeontologist. Last year, a vegetable fossil was found in Belle Isle, Conception Bay, which Mr. Billings, of the Canadian Geological Survey, pronounced to be Cruziana Semiplicata, a fucoid characteristic of the extreme base of the Silurian System. Lingula shells have since been found there in abundance. Belle Isle is a much more recent formation than the St. John's Slate; so that these discoveries indicated the enormously greater relative antiquity of the latter. Still, the slate, of which the great mass of the Island is composed, had yielded no fossil, and was believed to be non-fossiliferous; so that its place in the geological scale was a matter of conjecture.

In the month of August, 1868, during the course of a morning walk, it was my good fortune to discover the first fossil detected in the St. John's slate. In examining a heap of gravel that had been dug out of a trench, certain curious markings on a small water-worn pebble, that had been laid open by the blow of a pick axe, caught my eye. On carrying it home, and subjecting it to a careful examination, I was speedily convinced that I had found a geological treasure of some importance. On comparing the organisms with the plates in Lyell's and Page's Geology, I arrived at the conclusion that the fossils were specimens of the Oldhamia radiata. The reader can fancy what a proud and happy man, that morning, was the finder of such rare and curious relics. Three beautifully defined forms were visible on the face of the slate pebble, which a lucky blow of the pick axe had laid open; and in addition, on one side of the stone were clearly marked portions of two other forms, the markings much resembling the whorls of shellfish. What these latter are is not yet determined, as they do not resemble any of the life-forms figured in the standard geological works. But the correspondence of the former with the plate of Oldhamia radiata is unmistakable, though there are such points of difference as seem to indicate that I have had the good fortune to find a new species, only two being previously known. The pebble containing them is a fragment of St. John's slate, greenish in colour, the parent rock, of the same texture and colour, being largely developed in the neighbourhood. Not being disposed to trust my own crude judgment in such a matter, I got photographs of the fossils, and sent one to Alexander Murray, Esq., one of Sir W. Logan's colleagues in the Canadian Survey, who has, for the past four years, been engaged on the geological survey of Newfoundland. He was then absent in the interior, exploring. On his return, he examined the fossils and pronounced them in all probability Oldhamia. Another photograph I sent to Dr. Dawson, McGill College, Montreal, who submitted it to Mr. Billings, Palaeontologist of the Canadian Survey. Their opinion was also in favour of the same conclusion. Thus doubts were set at rest, and the character of my fossils established; but the shell-markings, or traces of mollusca, if such they be,