it greatly increases the expense of fittings and buildings. The great refractors of the Pulkova and Cambridge Observatories weigh, with their machinery, about three tons each, and require expensive and cumbrous domes. An incalculable benefit would be conferred on science, if the same power could be obtained with half the length of tube.
In Mr Clarke's square keep we hoped to escape, for a little, from the tumult of war. The whole nation was stirred to its depths by the war feeling. Along the line of lake, river, and rail, there was nothing heard but the war-song, and loud notes of defiance. No one had patience to talk of anything but the war, and however people began, they ended always with the all-engrossing subject. In the Sabbath-school, the common school, the missionary meeting, the prayer-meeting, and even the church, their national and war-songs were sung. They might be omitted in the programme, but before the meeting closed, there was a demand for some exciting song. The refrain of the most popular one still sounded in one's ears, long after losing sight of the shores of America:—
"And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
The star-spangled banner floated from every spire and house-top, and waved in enormous folds from ropes stretched across the streets. The volunteers swarmed in every city, and many were already pro-
