common thing.... All you could see a little way iff was that they
were very dwarg and very thick, and the peculiar coloul baffled
us...."

_A Country Diary in "Manchester Guardian."_

Stumped we may be by the above, but humiliated--never!

* * * * *


=PETHERTON'S PUBLICATIONS.=

A glance at a well-known publisher's window, during a recent visit
to London, provided me with material for a little possible quiet
amusement, and with this end in view I penned the following:--

DEAR MR. PETHERTON,--When up in town the other day I was surprised and
delighted to notice in Messrs. Egbert Arnwell's window two works of
yours, one on Bi-Metallism and the other on the Differential and
Integral Calculus. Nothing but the prices (really low ones for such
works) prevented my purchasing a copy of each book at once.

I cannot resist writing to congratulate you on the publication of
these volumes, which will, I am sure, add to the instruction if not
to the gaiety of nations. Of course I knew--and have had the most
complete olfactory proofs--that you were a chemist of at least strong
views, but had no idea that your range of knowledge was so extensive
as it apparently is.