ANSWERS TO PRIZE PUZZLES IN No. 166.

=

150. (Do) (knot) (tea) (rye) (two) (cat) CHA (XII.12) (oak) (lock) & (L=50) (minutes) (train) (XL.'s forties) (X = 10) (two) (one) (eye) F (ewe) (do) - Do not try to catch a twelve o'clock and fifty minutes train, for it is ten to one if you do. 151. VERBENA - Victoria, escholtzia (California), ricinus (or castor oil plant), balsam, elm, nemophila, alyssum. 152. (Oak) (rake) (oak) -Ocracoke. 153. Highgate. 154. A vision of the sea. 155. (Si) (mi) (do) (A sharp) (re) (B) US See me do a sharp rebus. 156. Halo.

CHARADES.

CHAUTBOY

HIDDEN RIVERS.

314. She said her Edward was a bad boy. 315. Am I a mimic, that you tease me thus? 316. My spaniel knows many things. 317. A horse and an ox got to fighting. 318. It is not strange that a roe will run when hunted by men. 319. The apple was hit and smashed to a jelly. WHIRLWIND.

GEOGRAPHICAL QUESTIONS.

304. What letter of the alphabet represents a river in England? What one a river in Scotland? What one a river in Wales? What one a river in Alabama? PEN HOLDER.

DOUBLE ACROSTIC.

The initials and finals form the name of an ancient astronomer :

320. 1. A pulsation. 2. A hunter. 3. An island of Europe. 4. A shrub. 5. A river of Asia. SPECS & CUTE.

B

EAVER'S geographicals are A. Hart's Amateur Printers' Directory is very neat, and he has our thanks for the dedication. Silver Wing has a story to sell to "boy editors." That story by the twelve-year-old was not in print, therefore we cannot grant friend Driggs's request. Our Shoo Flies are "too numerous to mention," but are all very good.-G. Ander's second rebus is good, but too easy. The diagram by Specs & Cute is on file. Violet is A; violets at this time are peculiarly appropriate. - We will answer Dexter one of these days. - Royal Ralph is too easy. Fiddlestick is not quite up to the mark.

Jack Straw is uniformly good; still we have not room even for all the good head work that is sent to us; but the more we have from which to select, the better will be the Magazine. So help us, all hands and heads. - Slim Jim enters the editorial field with "Our Story Teller." A good musical puzzle from Fox. - Is not Bostet mistaken? Let him look at back numbers. - Draw your rebuses when you can; otherwise explain carefully: we much prefer the first. - Archimedes sends head work that will be printed some day. Frank E. can have the numbers he inquires about for $4.12, exclusive of postage.

E. A. Y. may reckon us as uncle No. 3. Tommy Toppleton thinks he could spare his head better than the Magazine; but without the first, what would he do with the second? - Charlie, of Wheeling, is entitled to the name of an old subscriber. - Good, J. Rusticus! You subscribed on "impulse" did you? We like such impulses; they are safe. -Young Enterprise continues to be good. Sans Souci must try a little longer, and practice will make perfect. - Boys and girls, please take care in spelling your words; no matter how elegantly a letter is written, bad spelling spoils it.-N. R. Clewly's rebuses are ingenious, but our smart boys would soon guess them.

C. Sharp will find his conundrum in the Letter Bag, if he sustains the character of his

name. Frank Welsh's mother is about right; the puzzles were excellent for a ten-year-old. - Herbert is A.- On the cover of the Magazine Everett W. Homire will find the information he desires. Who will tell New Subscriber, 634 Stevenson Street, San Francisco, the names of the present sovereigns of Europe?- Jack Spratt is A. - Evan Eric is generous with his head work; we can't use all, but will some. So you want to know about the Elgin watches? nothing better. Lee & Shepard wear them, and that's the reason the Magazine is always on time, and they are the only things we have "on tick;" and we never mean that the Magazine or the watches shall "run down." Yes, we go for the Elgin.

What shall be done with our young friend who asks this question? "If ten mills make one scent, how many will it take to make a bottle of cologne?" - Leyton is too easy. Bison draws very well, but part of his rebus is too mixed; he will make a better one, and send us, we think. When we see "Fun for All," we will notice it. Some of our friends are a little careless, and needlessly spoil what might be good head work. "What is worth doing at all, is worth doing well." - The Diamond puzzle by Archimedes is A. Salamander has our thanks for his kind letter. Fox is A.

A. D. Vance is about to start a new paper, The Locomotive. We hope it will go, and never burst up. - Pollywog is to have a jolly time camping out this summer. We are examining W. G. Wilkins's rebus with our microscope. - The rebus by Pacific & Hank is very pretty; but isn't it so easy that all would guess it at first sight? - Lillie (L. C. T.) sends a very neatly drawn rebus, and correct in all its symbols, but it is not difficult enough for our smart readers. Try again, Lillie; your work is not lost. Ariel is A. We were interested in Cockney's description of his old book, for we ourselves have a fancy for such curiosities: his questions are on file.

WISH CORRESPONDENTS.-Josiah Banfield, Turner Junction, Dupage Co., Ill., Box 117.C. F. Pond, Brooklyn, Conn. - Horick, Box 2656, New York City. - E. A. Bradshaw, Jamestown, N. Y. (coins).-G. W. Butterfield, Rye, Westchester Co., N. Y.-F. C. B., Lock Box 21, Peoria, Ill.Decatur, St. Clair Street, Toledo, O. (stamps).-N. L. G., Lock Box 235, Peoria, Ill. Nicholas Nickleby, care of John A. Nichols, Esq., Mount Washington, Baltimore Co., Md. - Impulse, Box 63, Rye, N. Y.-Susquehanna, Box 383, Wilkesbarre, Pa.

OUR BOYS & GIRLS

IN

OLIVER OPTIC, Editor.

EPOCHS AND ERAS.

N measuring time, as in all other measurements, there must be a starting point. There must be a point from which the hours, months, or years can be reckoned. If this starting-point, in questions of time, had always been the same throughout all nations, and the same measure, whether month or year, had been used, we should now have less trouble than we actually do have in discovering the exact dates of many events.

But it would be unreasonable to look for any such uniformity in the present state of the world, to say nothing of past ages. Many an event that is looked upon as important in one country is hardly heard of in another; and the people of most countries often find it convenient to reckon time from some transaction connected with their own history. Indeed every individual often counts back the years to some point of time in his own life. "Two years after we built the new house," "The year after I left the army," "When I was twenty-one years old," and numberless other references of the same kind, will always be in use.

Half-savage tribes, too, sometimes take a very trifling event as an epoch to date from. | When Layard was making his excavations on the banks of the Tigris, about thirty years ago, he found that the Arabs of Mesopotamia dated the events concerning their tribe from the death of a favorite horse of a Sheik. Those nomads only followed the example of more civilized countries. On many public documents in the United States the year of our independence is given, as well as the year of our Lord. The French, for a time after the great revolution, used no other epoch than the Year of Liberty (1792); the Mohammedans, in all countries, date from the Hegira, or flight of the prophet from Mecca (A. D. 622); the Romans, in the early years of the empire, reckoned their time from the foundation of the city, (B. C. 753), and many modern | writers on Roman history employ the same epoch. Some Greek historians have assumed the date of Alexander's death (in the year 325 B. C.), as an historical epoch; and the conquest of Spain by the Roman Emperor Augustus (38 B. C.) gave the Spaniards and Portuguese an era which did not go entirely out

in the kingdom of the Seleucidæ, but in other Greek countries of the East; it was long followed by the Jews, and is still in use by the Syrian Christians.

But there is a still earlier Babylonian era. In the ninth century before our era, Babylon was conquered, and remained an Assyrian tributary till B. C. 747, when it once more became independent, under Nabonassar. This monarch destroyed the acts of the kings who had preceded him, and so the year of his accession became the era from which subsequent events were dated. This era was formerly employed by the Greeks of Alexandria, and is famous in astronomy, having been followed by the two most celebrated astronomers of antiquity, Hipparchus and Ptolemy.

Less important are the era of Tyre (126 B. C.); the era of Antioch, dating from the victory of Pharsalia (the year 48 B. C.); the Julian era, intended to commemorate the reformation of the calendar by Julius Cæsar (B. C. 45); the era of Actium (B. C. 30), which does not correspond exactly with the date of the battle; and the era of Diocletian (A. D. 284).

In addition to all these, and to the Armenian, Persian, and Indian eras, there is a catalogue of cycles and periods, which will do for a separate chapter.

The

A plan which at first sight appears very simple, is to make the time of the creation of Adam the commencement of an era, and to keep our dates in the Year of the World. But this method also has its drawbacks. mundane era of Antioch, the era of Alexandria, and several others, are of this kind. Unfortunately authorities do not agree as to the date of the creation. The intervals of time between the principal events, during a portion of the Old Testament history, are not always mentioned in a circumstantial manner; and thus it happens that the disagreement between different calculations amounts to several centuries.

The Christian era, which is supposed to date from the birth of Christ, did not come into use till the sixth century. The commencement of this era has been fixed, we are. told, some half a dozen years too late.