CURIOUS FACTS.

It is well known to modern engineers that there is virtue in a bushel of coals, properly consumed, to raise seventy millions of pounds weight a foot high. The highest monthly average of the mines at Huel Towars, in Cornwall, extends, according to Brewster's Journal, to seventy millions of pounds.

The ascent of gossamer takes place only in serene, bright weather, and is invariably preceded by gossamer on the ground. Two minute spiders produce gossamer. When impelled by the desire of traversing the air, they climb to the summits of various objects, and thence emit the viscous thread in such a manner that it may be drawn out to a great length and fineness by the ascending current; when sufficiently acted upon, they quit hold of the objects on which they stand, and commence their flight.

A locomotive, it is stated, requires from ninety to a hundred gallons of oil annually; and the total consumption by the North-Western Railway for this purpose alone exceeds 40,000 gallons. This quantity would be equal to the production of about 1,000 acres.

The annual value of the iron and coal raised in this country is about twenty million pounds sterling; whereas the whole annual value of the gems and precious stones imported into England does not amount to half a million pounds sterling.

For the first five years of the eighteenth century the average consumption of cotton wool was little more than one million pounds weight per annum; and during this period the work-people employed would not exceed, of all ages and classes, more than 25,000; but at the close of that century the consumption had increased to 52,000,000 of pounds, and the workers, in every department of the trade, to upwards of 125,000.

There are engaged in London between three and four hundred Germans and Italians, a few Frenchmen, and one hundred Englishmen, in the manufacture of bird-cages. It is calculated that each man makes two cages in a day, therefore seven hundred cages are made daily: or, not including Sundays, 210,600 cages yearly.

Of the fifty-three species of four-legged animals known to exist in Australia, not one is to be found anywhere else; they are all residents of New Holland exclusively, or of the adjacent islands. On the other hand, the very commonest of oldworld quadrupeds are not to be met with otherwise than as colonists in Australia.

Mr. Hanke, a learned Bohemian, is publishing, in Prague, a facsimile of the Gospels on which the Kings of France have always been sworn at their coronation at Rheims. The manuscript volume is in the Sclavonian language, and has been preserved at Rheims ever since the twelfth century, but it has only lately been discovered in what language it was written.

TEMPERANCE.

Tho' I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;
Nor did I with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility:
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly.

Shaks. As You Like It.

From our tables here, no painful surfeits,
No fed diseases grow, to strangle nature,
And suffocate the active brain; no fevers,
No apoplexies, palsies or catarrhs
Are here; where nature, not entic'd at all
With such a dang' rous bait as pleasant cates,
Takes in no more than she can govern well.
May's Old Couple.

He, who the rules of temperance neglects,
From a good cause may produce vile effects.
Tuke's Adventures of Five Hours.

If thou well observe

The rule of-not too much,--by temperance taught In what thou eat'st and drink'st, seeking from

thence

Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
"Till many years over thy head return:
So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop,
Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease
Gather'd, not harshly pluck'd; in death mature.

Milton.

O madness, to think use of strongest wines
And strongest drinks our chief support of health;
When God, with these forbidden, made choice to

rear

His mighty champion, strong above compare,
Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.
Milton's Samson Agonistes.

Temperate in every place,-abroad, at home,
Thence will applause, and hence will profit come;
And health from either he in time prepares
For sickness, age, and their attendant cares.
Crabbe.-The Borough.

Beware the bowl! though rich and bright
Its rubies flash upon the sight,
An adder coils its depths beneath,
Whose lure is woe, whose sting is death.
Street's Poems.

Philosophy, religious solitude
And labour wait on temperance; in these
Desire is bounded; they instruct the mind's
And body's action.

THE WORK-TABLE FRIEND.

LADY'S RETICULE.

Materials.-8 yards of gold or silver bourdon; 4 skeins of scarlet, green, or royal blue silk (English); skein of gold thread, No. 1; cord, with tassels at the extremities; and two handsome double tassels to match with the silk and bourdon.

Use crochet hook No. 16 or 17.

WITH the silk make a chain of 13 stitches. Now hold in the end of the bourdon, and work a Sc stitch in every alternate stitch of the chain, with 2 chain after every Se stitch. At the end of the 13 chain do a Sc stitch three times in the same stitch, still with 2 chain between. Work in the same way on the other side of the original 13 chain, thus forming the foundation and centre of the bottom of the basket. Continue working round this foundation, still maintaining the oblong form, until a piece 5 inches long by 4 wide is done. In the few first rounds it will be necessary to make 2 chain between, and work on every alternate stitch of the previous round, but afterwards it will suffice to make 1 chain only, and miss I or none as may be requisite to keep the shape. In working over bourdon,

however, the chain stitches must always be long, to admit of the gold being clearly seen between every 2 Sc stitches.

When the oval piece is finished, make the sides of the basket, by continuing to work over the bourdon, holding it so as to form an upright circle round the oval. The first round is done with 1 Sc, 1 Ch, missing 1, and having no increase in the size. All the following rounds are done entirely in Sc, the stitch of which is, however, long enough to allow the bourdon to be seen between every two stitches. 12 rounds, without any alteration of size, form this part of the reticule. Fasten off the bourdon. With the silk do 1 round thus:+1 Dc, 1 Ch, miss none, + all round.

2nd to 14th. De under chain, 1 Ch, miss Dc stitch, + all round.

15th. Gold thread. + 5 De under 1 Ch, miss 2 Dc, and the 1 chain between them, +, repeat all round. Fasten off.

Take 3 lengths of bourdon and plait them for the handle, which (as seen in the engraving) comes outside the silk part of the bag, and has the ends drawn through an opening in the silk and fastened down securely. Then run in the cords, beneath the gold-lace edge, and add the tassels.

crape. It is clear and transparent as gauze, but neither slits nor tears. A dress for a

Caps are fashionable for morning as well as evening toilette. The head of morning caps is made of bands of muslin and lace insertion, or simply embroidered muslin. Lace, blond, and tulle are the materials for evening wear.

Your's very truly,

V.

ON THE ART OF WEAVING OR PLAITING HAIR ORNAMENTS.

[FIRST ARTICLE.]

HAIR, that most imperishable of all the component parts of our mortal bodies, has always been regarded as a cherished memorial of the absent or lost. A lock of hair from the head of some beloved one is often prized above gold or gems, for it is not a mere purchasable gift, but actually a portion of themselves, present with us when they are absent, surviving while they are mouldering in the silent tomb. Impressed with this idea, it appears to us but natural, that of all the various employments devised for the fingers of our fair countrywomen, the manufacture of ornaments in hair must be one of the most interesting.

THE EUGENIE BONNET.

déjeuner was made in this material by Mlle. Le Plastrier, of which our engraving gives a copy. The colour was a rich dark blue, brocaded in white, and worn over a white silk petticoat. The ribbons were of the richest brocade, and nothing could be more chaste and elegant than the tout ensemble. The bonnet for the same distinguished lady was one of those fairy-like structures, of tulle, ribbon, and flowers, which so entirely put to shame the heavy and monstrous head-coverings of a few years ago. Like all full-dress bonnets, it was extremely small, worn nearly at the back of the head, and kept in its place by large pins, which fasten it to the hair.

The mantles and mantelets are very small, and for the most part without capuchons. The muslin ones are a good deal embroidered in round spots (pois), which look very effective. Those in silk are trimmed with deep flounces in lace, with ruches of ribbon and application of velvet.

ROULEAU HEAD-DRESS.

Why should we confide to others the precious lock or tress we prize, risking its

being lost, and the hair of some other person being substituted for it, when, with a little attention, we may ourselves weave it into the ornament we desire? And the dainty and very tasteful handling hair-work requires, renders it as truly feminine an occupation as the finest crochet or the richest embroidery.

We must commence our instructions by premising that on the length of the lock or tress of hair will depend the use which can be made of it. Hair from one inch to three in length is only adapted for devices. Hair of three to six inches in length may be used for chains, because a chain can be worked in any number of separate portions and united by gold slides; or for ear-rings, made of some very fine plait and worked in two parts. A ring or an earring worked in one hoop requires a length of eight inches. Brooches may be made from hair of various lengths according to the pattern, and also to the size and kind of plait; devices are much used for brooches, and as we have already said, these can be made of quite short hair. A handsome fullsized bracelet requires twenty or twentyfour-inch hair. Of course bracelets can be worked in pieces and united by slides or by caps linked together, and then twelve-inch hair will suffice; or they may be worked on smaller moulds, and several lengths braided or twisted together, in which case eighteen-inch hair will often suffice. Joining hair is a very tedious operation, and, at best, unsatisfactory, for as each hair must be separately fastened on to the one which it is destined to lengthen, the smoothness and neat appearance of the fabric is not improved by the knots, however neat they may be made; while if the ends are cut off closely the knot is liable to give way, and if they are left they give a bristly look to the plait, and totally mar its beauty.

In working hair the great thing to be observed is that there shall be nothing to fray or roughen the strands; therefore it is always best to use the proper hair-work table. This may be made of stained wood or mahogany, and is very simple, consisting only of a circular top about fourteen inches in diameter, and four thin legs. The whole table should be turned and polished, so that it may be perfectly smooth. It should stand about three feet in height. In the centre of the top must be a circular hole about

five inches in diameter, surrounded by a moulding, which, interiorly, rises about an inch, and exteriorly slopes down to the surface of the table. A small brass hook must be inserted in the inside of this hole just below the moulding.

About three dozen leaden weights, each weighing about three quarters of an ounce, will be required; they must all be equally heavy, and shaped like the following dia

gram. A skein of strong silk or twist, a little shellac melted and rolled into a stick, and a brass tube or wire of the proper size for the pattern, will complete the list of requisites for the work. These tubes or wires may be obtained at any brass-founders; they should be about ten or twelve inches in length, and must be perfectly smooth and polished, both at the ends and over the whole surface.

We now come to the hair: The first thing to be done is to cleanse it, and for this purpose the ends must be evenly arranged and the lock or tress straightened smoothly out; then each extremity firmly bound with thread, care being taken that every hair is secured by the ligature. Dissolve a bit of soda, the size of a bean, in about a pint of water, immerse the hair fairly in it, and boil it for ten or twelve minutes; take it out, shake it, and hang it up to dry in the air. When quite dry it is ready for use. Now, take as many weights as there are strands in the pattern about to be worked; attach about twelve inches of twist to each weight, tying them round the neck, and lay them side by side round the table with the ends of twist hanging down. Take the tress, and without untying the threads which fasten the extremities, draw from it the number of hairs required for a strand; take each hair up separately, and arrange them between the finger and thumb so that all the ends shall be even, and then knot the strand thus formed on to one of the pieces of twist; repeat this until all the strands are formed and each attached to their separate weights, taking care not to disturb or roughen them during the process. Now, stoop down and carefully ascertain that all the hairs in each strand are of equal length; and if this is the case, gather up all the ends between the finger and thumb, bind them firmly together with strong thread, leaving a loop of