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cut in the ice, with comfortable wooden houses, well-warmed by stoves, erected over them. Many merry parties are formed, to spend the evening fishing in these places; benches are arranged on either side of the hole, with planks to keep the feet off the ice; a dozen or so of ladies and gentlemen occupy these seats, each with a short line, hook, and bait, lowered through the aperture below into the dark river. The poor little tommy-cods, attracted by the light and air, assemble in myriads underneath, pounce eagerly on the bait, announce their presence by a very faint tug, and are transferred immediately to the fashionable assembly above. Two or three Canadian boys attend, to convey them from the hook to the basket, and to arrange invitations for more of them, by putting on bait. As the fishing proceeds, sandwiches and hot negus are handed about, and songs and chat assist to pass the time away. plates of the dainty little fish, fried as soon as caught, are passed round, as a reward of the piscatorial labours. The young people of the party vary the amusement, by walking. about in the bright moonlight, sliding over the patches of glassy ice, and visiting other friends in neighbouring cabins; for while the tommy-cod season lasts there is quite a village of these little fishing-houses on the river St. Charles.

66

Presently

Although the temperature is usually kept very high within doors, by stove-heat, people never seem to suffer by sudden transition to the extreme cold of the open air. I have often seen young ladies, when the thermometer was below zero, leave a hot room, where they had been dancing, and walk quietly home, with very little additional clothing; the great dryness of the air preserves them from danger. In the very low temperatures, a razor may be exposed all night to the air without contracting a stain of rust. Colds are much less frequent in winter than summer.”

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The winter markets at Quebec are very curious: everything is frozen. Large pigs, with the peculiarly bare appearance which that animal presents when singed, stand in their natural position on their rigid limbs, or upright in corners, killed, perhaps, months before. Frozen masses of beef, sheep, deer, fowls, cod, haddock, and eels, long and stiff, like walking-sticks, abound on the stalls. The farmers

have a great advantage in this country, in being able to fatten their stock during the abundance of summer, and by killing them at the first cold weather, keeping them frozen, to be disposed of at their pleasure during the winter. Milk is kept in the same manner, and sold by the pound, looking like lumps of white ice."

The above passages will suggest many interesting observations on the habits of the people, climate, etc.; that, although ice is ice, yet it varies in its temperature, and that a mass of ice (milk) at a low temperature (zero, for instance,) would do more for cooling purposes, than the same mass at a temperature near the melting point. Canadian ice is better than English ice, and why?

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Then, again, these frozen animals, etc., how is it that the animal body, while alive, is not cooled down to the temperature of the atmosphere, and of the objects around it? what is it which maintains this internal heat that resists the cold? a degree of cold in some climates far below the zero of Fahrenheit, and preserves an internal temperature in warm-blooded animals, varying but little on either side of 96°—remaining also about the same in the hottest climates-refusing to be cooled down by surrounding objects below that internal heat which is necessary for this class of animal life, or to be heated by those above it; but the moment life is extinct, yielding itself up to the influences of either-in the one case becoming a solid frozen mass, and while in that state not decomposing-and, in the other, rapidly dissolving into its simple elements.

And again: Is every kind of animal life equally affected by heat?-are those termed cold-blooded animals affected in the same way as the warm-blooded by the surrounding media? No: these submit themselves within certain limits to the influence of the surrounding objects, and the internal heat of their bodies varies between 35° and 85°— when cooled down to the former point many of them become torpid and revive again with increased warmth, but all refuse to be cooled below this, the principle of animal life supporting the heat of the body at this temperature: how curious this is, when, for months together, no new fuel is added to support this heat. In hot climates, if they sub

mitted to a heat greater than about 85°, they would, many of them, dissolve and become extinct-these preservative conditions are indeed beautiful.

What myriads of organisms necessary for the chain of existences in the world would be destroyed if either of these principles were violated!

"TEMPERATURE OF THE BODIES OF VARIOUS ANIMALS.

Adult man

Child

Fahr.

99.5

102

Ox, sheep, elephant, hare, rabbit, dog ...99100
Narwhal, (lowest temperature of any mam-

mal)

Ape and bat, (highest temperament of any

mammal)

BIRDS

Gull (lowest temperature)

Great titmouse (highest temperature)

}

96

104

104.5

100

111

Cold-blooded animals have a temperature three or four degrees above the medium in which they exist.

All animals, strictly speaking, are warm-blooded; but in those only which possess lungs is the temperature of the body quite independent of the surrounding medium."

The SINGING of the children here has been a good deal. remarked upon, as being better than is usually found in schools of this kind, particularly in the country. I have myself witnessed, with great pleasure, the good moral effect, and at the same time cheerful feeling, which this gives rise to among them. They are taught by one of the parishioners, who, although busily engaged in other things, finds time to instruct the children of his neighbours; and has that pleasure in doing good to others which every wellregulated mind ought to feel. During the winter they meet every Wednesday evening at the class-room, which is well lighted and warmed, where I occasionally attend myself, and always with feelings of satisfaction, in seeing sixty or seventy children (which is the number of the

singing-class) spending the evening in so rational a manner. In addition to Psalmody, they sing in parts many of the moral pieces in Hullah's books as well as others, not forgetting Rule Britannia, and God Save the Queen, and have as loyal hearts as any in Her Majesty's dominions.

SCHOOLMASTERS.

Having spoken of the kind of knowledge which I conceive is the most useful to be introduced into our schools, and the mode of teaching it, I will add a few observations bearing upon the duties of the schoolmaster, and the course of education, which I trust may not be altogether without interest.

At present I fear these duties are not sufficiently understood, and that society at large does not attach the importance to them which it ought to do; but as the people become better educated they will, it is to be hoped, attach greater value to the services of the schoolmaster. In the meantime he must expect to meet with difficulties, and to find hindrances where he might have looked for support, and altogether to find the road not so smooth as he had calculated upon.

So long as there are those who prefer darkness to light —an ignorant peasantry to an enlightened one who look upon the labourer as a machine which sleep winds up at night, to be set again in motion in the morning, and again run down on doing its daily work—who think he has sufficient knowledge of the world if he knows the order of succession in which the days of the week come - and that although God has given to the labourer a mind, it was not intended he should exercise it, it was only the body which was made for his use- so long will there be hindrances in the way of education, and it will have to struggle against opinions, and against difficulties arising out of them, which may for a time impede its progress, but must in the end give way.

But it is not learning alone which will make an efficient schoolmaster and overcome these difficulties; there are

many other requisites of a personal nature, which, if he does not naturally possess, he must endeavour to acquire. He must not only teach by precept but by example; anything he can say will have comparatively little effect, if he is an example of the direct contrary in his own conduct.

With respect to punishment, the less of severity the better he should endeavour to win over the children by kindness and good temper, reasoning with them in a cheerful way, and always endeavouring to discriminate, as far as possible, between idleness and want of ability. When two children are set to do the same thing, such as getting by heart a piece of poetry for instance-it may be a very unequal task-he should not be angry with a child which has done its best: this is an error I have often seen in schoolmasters.

On this point, there is an anecdote in Stanley's interesting "Life of the late Dr. Arnold," which ought to be registered in the mind of every schoolmaster in England. At Laleham (the place where he lived), he had once got out of patience and spoke sharply to a pupil, who was a plodding boy, and had taken great pains; when the pupil looked up in his face, and said, "Why do you speak angrily, sir? indeed, I am doing the best I can." Years afterwards he used tell this story to his children, and said, "I never felt so much ashamed in my life; that look and that speech I have never forgotten." This requires no comment, it speaks both to the feelings and to the understanding. Mr. Stanley adds, that he used to say, "If there be one thing on earth which is truly admirable, it is to see God's wisdom blessing an inferiority of natural powers, where they have been honestly, truly, and zealously cultivated."

In teaching children habits of cleanliness, the schoolmaster will have great difficulty if he does not set an example in his own person; he should not go into the school unshaved, as I see many do: this has a dirty and a slovenly

appearance.

He should endeavour to make them open and straightforward in their conduct, and on all occasions to speak the truth-to get rid of all those feelings of low cunning which are too prevalent among the labouring classes-to be an

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