four are of enormous length, and proportionately stout, taking a curved direction outwards. Of these four, the first is the longest, the rest decrease in due gradation. From the base of the claws to the union of the foot with the limb, both before and behind, the interval is very trifling, so that the foot appears as if made up of claws alone. The general shape of the body is broad and compressed, and not unlike that of a hedge-hog; a resemblance the more striking, from the nature of the clothing on its upper surface, which consists of an impenetrable phalanx of bristling spines, much longer and stouter than those of the hedge-hog, much harder and firmer than those of the porcupine. They are directed obliquely upwards, converging in a middle line down the back, and acted upon by a strong muscular expansion beneath the skin. The under surface and limbs are merely covered with stiff hairs. The tail is short and broad, and armed above, like the rest of the upper surface, with a rosette of formidable spines. Rolled up like the hedgehog, the echidna, when at tacked, presents to his enemy a chevaux de frise of spines which defy his assaults.

In the second part of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, for 1834, p. 23, we find a notice of one of these animals, which a gentleman was endeavouring to bring to England, no living specimen having yet been seen in Europe. The subjoined extract, which we take the liberty of making, may not be uninteresting :

"A note from Lieut. Breton, Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society, was read, giving an account of an echidna, which lived with him for some time in New Holland, and survived a part of the voyage to England. The animal was captured by him on the Blue Mountains; it is now very uncommon in the colony of New South Wales. He regards it as being of its size the strongest quadruped in existence. It burrows readily, but he knows not to what depth. Previous to embarkation this individual was fed on ant eggs and milk, and when on board, its diet was, egg chopped small with liver and meat. It drank much water. Its mode of eating was very curious, the tongue being used at some times in the manner of that of the chameleon, and at others in that in which a mower uses his scythe, the tongue being curved laterally, and the food, as it were, swept into the mouth. There seemed

by which the food was drawn in. The animal died suddenly off Cape Horn, whilst the vessel was amidst the ice; perhaps in consequence of the cold, but not improbably on account of the eggs with which it was fed being extremely bad.”

The arrival of the echidna and the ornithorhynchus alive in Europe, would prove highly gratifying to all scientific naturalists, much connected with their habits and structure yet remaining to be cleared up. M.

REFLECTIONS OF A WORKING MAN.

My Madge had an elderly neighbour, a widow woman, poor as to the things of this world, but rich in God's grace, and heavenly hope and consolation. This neighbour, by what some call "good luck," but what I call God's good providence, got into a nice, snug, alms-house, at some distance, where, living in the fear of the Lord, and trusting in Christ continually, she enjoyed that peace of God which passeth all understanding.

One afternoon, this summer, my Madge took it into her head to go with two of her children, to see her old neighbour, who had often asked her; for Madge is not one to go visiting where she is never invited; and I was to leave work a little earlier in the evening, and go and fetch them home.

The afternoon was uncommonly fine; the sky had colours in it, that none but the Lord of life and glory could have placed there; and the angels in heaven, I should think, could not have looked straight at the sun, without holding up their wings before their faces. When evening came, thinks I to myself, "I'll fetch a bit of a compass round the lanes, and so lengthen my walk, for," thinks I, " Madge will have a world to talk about, for she is a jewel at keeping it up when she begins: her old neighbour, too, is pretty much like er; so they shall have it out.'

It was on a thursday, which is marketday, and as I passed a public-house on the road, there sat, on horseback, a youngster chap, with a glass of brandy and water in his hand. He seemed very much at his ease, for he sat a little sideways like, with one leg stretched out very low in the stirrup, and the other cocked up almost as high as the flap of the saddle. I should not have known the liquor he was drinking from ale, had it not been for

most likely, for many a day to come; if I put him down at a couple of pounds, it will be under the mark. Then there's the doctor's bill, and if the doctor can put his patient again on his legs, sound wind and limb, for a couple of pounds more, he will do what i take it few doctors would be able to do. Then if I reckon a trifle for the young fellow's time, though I won't go to rate that very high, seeing that few drunkards Occupy themselves to much purpose; putting all together, if I let him off for five pounds, I shall not be over hard upon him. Thinks I to myself, what raping and scraping there is in the world, before a man can get together five pounds in an honest way; and then, thinks I again, if I was to get into such a scrape, and it was to cost me five pounds, what a life Madge would lead me! She is as decent a woman, though I say it, as any that walks in shoe-leather; but for all that, whenever I have played the fool, I have always feared her more than any body else in the world, ding donging it in my ears, and letting me have no peace till I had confessed my folly, and promised to keep my cup more upright another time. Well, thinks I, this young fellow has made a five-pound job of it, to say nothing of the pain he has to endure, and remorse of conscience too, if there be any feeling in him, and I shall be more thankful for the future that I am a member of the Temperance Society, than I ever was yet.

In this manner I kept musing and talking to myself, as I made the best of my way to the alms-houses, when who should come across me but Sam Peters! When Sam worked with me at our shop, we used to call him "Sobersides," because he spoke up against drunkenness, and wouldn't join us in drinking, or go with us to the public-house, though, in my heart, I respected him not a bit the less for it. After that he left us, and I hadn't dropt upon him for a matter of two years, to talk with him, for he shyed me, or, as the folks say, "cut" me, whenever we met. Being full of what had taken place at Doctor Chase's door, I spoke first to Sam, thinking, mayhap, he'll be for tipping me the go-bye, if I don't stop him.

"Sam," says I, "how are you? you may venture to speak to me, for I shall neither eat you nor drink you."

"How are you, John ?" replied Sam, civilly, but yet as if he was not over anxious to have any thing to do with me.

Now, knowing that I had left off tippling, I felt bold. Often enough have I heard

that the strongest armour is that which a man wears within his bosom; and sure enough when a man knows himself in the right, he doesn't shuffle in his replies, and blink and shirk out of sight, as he does when ashamed of himself.

"Sam," says I, again looking up at him, "I don't go to the Black Bull now, as I used to do."

Perhaps not," says Sam, "mayhap the Red Cow may give better milk just now;" meaning that a better tap might be at the sign of the Red Cow than at the sign of the Black Bull.

"You're rather hard upon me, Sam," says I, "though I know that I deserve it; but, to tell you the truth, I am a temperance man now, and bring home what I get to my Madge, instead of fooling it away in giving it to the landlady of the Black Bull. I am better in my health, we have got comforts about us, and a few pounds in the savings'-bank against a rainy day."

Sam turned quick upon me, with a sharpish look, as if he wanted to know whether I was telling him a lie; but, not reading a lie in my face, he began to inquire all about the matter. So I told him how many things he had said had stuck close to me, and how I saw the temperance bill against the wall, and went to the meeting; and how the man that stood up there told us that three-fourths of the crime, poverty, and wretchedness of the country, came at first from drunkenness; that drunkenness brought about one-half of the madness into the land, and that intemperance was as unsparing as death; and, last of all, that I signed my name to the paper, and became a temperance man.

When I had finished my story, I held out my hand to Sam, saying, I was not ashamed to confess that what he had said in old times had done me good, and that I verily believed, if it had not been for him, I should never have troubled my head about the temperance bill on the wall.

Sam did not speak a word, and this set me a wondering till I looked at him out of the corner of my eyes, and I then saw that he seemed very thoughtful, as if he was a little overcome with what I had said; and if I ever saw a tear roll down a man's face in my life, I saw one on the cheek of Sam Peters. God above, who formed us, only knows our hearts; but as far as a poor short-sighted sinner is at liberty to judge, I should say that Sam Peters is a kind-hearted, God-fearing, christian man. He wrung me by the

haud as I left him to turn into the almshouses, saying he must have some talk with me another time.

In coming home with Madge, I told her all about the young chap at Doctor Chase's, and some sharp things popped out of my mouth against him; and I rattled away at a strange rate about my own leaving off drinking, till Madge, who is as keen as a hawk in seeing what is what, saw that I was over hard on the young fellow, and mighty vain-glorious about myself; nor did she forget to tell me soon after what she thought; for trust her to keep her tongue quiet when she thinks she can do me good by talking. I had raised my voice pretty high in scolding one of the children, for I had told him, as we went along a narrow pathway, to take care of the mud on one side, and he had got into the gutter on the other.

You needn't snubb the little creature for doing just the same thing that you do yourself," said she.

'What's coming now?" thinks I, looking at my own shoes, for I didn't know whe her I mightn't have put my foot into the same puddle.

"What I mean is," says Madge, "that in trying to keep out of one fault, you get into another. It's all very well for you to keep from the public-house, and from drinking spirits; but that's no reason why you should be bitter against any body, and puff off yourself: for, after all, you have done no more than what every christian man is bound to do."

These words put an end to my vapouring about myself, for I felt that Madge was right, though I didn't like to tell her so, lest she should carry her chin a little higher than she ought to do. When we got home at night, thinks I to myself, that was rather a cute lesson that Madge gave me; and when at prayer time I opened the Bible to read the chapter, which was the second in Romans, the very first verse went to my heart, for it seemed as if the words were written for me more than for any body else. "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest, doest the same things."

"Well," thinks I, after I had got up from my knees, "with God's grace and blessing, I'll look a little sharper after myself for the future, and be more merciful to others."

It was an odd thing, but odd things will happen sometimes, that the very next

day I again fell in with Sam Peters, who held out his hand instead of shying me, as he used to do. Sam convinced me that I had risen in his estimation; and this made me rise in my own. I was aware of it at the time, but could not help it.

"John," says Sam to me, as we walked along the same way together, "I have been thinking, since I met you yesterday, about your being a temperance man; but I can't make it out at all, why signing a piece of paper should have made you a sober man, when all the good advice you have had, and all the scrapes that the love of drink has got you into, failed to do it. Didn't you often go to the house of God on a sabbath-day?"

Yes," says I, "before I took to drink

"Well, then," says Sam, "didn't you hear a good deal of scripture read sabbath after sabbath? and didn't you learn that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of heaven? and didn't you hear warning after warning to flee from the fleshly lusts that war against the soul?"

"Yes, to be sure I did," says I.

Well, then," says Sam, "I can't understand why, if the fear of God's wrath didn't keep you from drunkenness, that the fear of breaking your temperance oath should."

"I'll tell you," says I, "how I think it was. I heard a good deal against drunkenness, sure enough; but then when I went to the public-house, or began to drink a glass of gin, I never meant to be a drunkard, so that the cap seemed never to fit me. It was the drunkard that was not to go to heaven, but I always intended to be moderate; and when, by little and little, I drank more and more, I was fool enough to leave off going to a place of worship altogether. Now, at the temperance meeting it was pointed out to me in a way that I couldn't mistake, that the safest way was not to take the first glass, or to venture on the path of the drunkard. These principles are in the Bible, which warns us to avoid the beginning of evil; but the Temperance Society, by their speeches and publications, brought out these principles, and so spread before my eyes the sin and the sorrow of drunkenness, that I must have been stone blind not to see my error. The books of. the society put us up to all the snares that are laid to catch the drunkard, and surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird."

"Well," says

Sam, "there is some

"Yes," says I, "I do, and to persuade every body I can to do the same.' "Well, then," says he, "if you will promise me to become a water-drinker, like me, I will join your society, and be a temperance man like you."

This put me in a terrible stew, for I seemed to have been making a halter to hang myself. I had gone on very well without gin, but to live without malt liquor, and work hard too, was quite out of the question. We had just come to a turning, in the very nick of time, so says I," This will be my nearest way, and if I don't get along at a rare rate, I shall be too late where I am going." Sam wished me a good day, without saying any thing else; but I knew clear enough by his face that he saw through the shuffle I had made; however, it helped me out of the scrape for the time, and that was what I wanted.

As I went forward, I began to turn the matter over in my mind. Thinks I to myself, "I see no use in leaving off malt liquor altogether, and so moderate as we are. Our barrel is just out, to be sure, and it cost me twenty-six shillings, which is a pretty penny; but then it is thirteen weeks since we tapped it. What is two shillings a week for drink among us all? for I do not guzzle it down all myself, as I used to do. No, no: Sam Peters may drink his cold spring water by himself, and much good may it do him, but it would give me the ague; come what will, I'll never give up having a drop of good beer in the house, while I can raise the wind to get it."

As I said this to myself, I trod more

firmly on the ground, and, I dare say, looked a little fiercer than common, like a man who is quite satisfied with his own resolution, and determined to stick to it. Still, as I went forward, what Sam had said came uppermost in my mind, and then, too, what I had read about waterdrinking in Dr. Franklin's book, jumped into my head, and this brought me back again to my barrel of beer. Thinks I to myself, "Two shillings a week is two shillings a week, after all, and money saved is money got; and if it be true that there's no strength in malt liquor, and some people say so, why the cost of it would look as well in my pocket, as in the pocket of the brewer that I buy it of. I've a great mind to give it up."

In this manner I went on balancing the affair in my mind, sometimes having one scale up and sometimes the other: but I have observed, that in nine cases out of ten, whenever a hesitating man has to judge between his prudence and his inclination, he decides in favour of the lat

ter.

The barrel of beer got uppermost, for, thinks I, to work hard in the winter, and to drink nothing but water, as cold as ice, would kill me, I know it would; and then, even if it didn't, and only laid me up for a month, why, what with loss of work, and paying the doctor, it would amount, mayhap, to three or four times as much as I should save by not drinking beer. So once more my mind was made up, not to be persuaded to drink water by all the Sam Peters' in England.

Not being, however, quite satisfied with myself, I began to cast about for something to bolster myself up in my resolution. Thinks I, "There's poor Madge too, and the young ones; they have been used to a drop of beer ever since I joined the Temperance Society, for they got right little of it before; it would be a hard thing to deprive them of what they naturally look for. No," thinks I, "I'll never consent to rob Madge and her young ones of what does them so much good, as I know a drop of good beer does."

This thought helped me up rarely, for I persuaded myself, or at least tried to do it, that it was not my own comfort, but that of my wife and children, that had determined me not to give up my barrel of beer. Before I got home, I thought it might be as well to mention the thing to Madge, as it would show me to be prudently inclined; besides, I made sure that she would say she wouldn't be robbed of