POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



717 



is sought that seems to require the least 

 manual labor. Clerking in a store will not 

 answer ; it requires too much standing, and 

 lifting of goods, etc. Clerking of any sort 

 is not favored ; he does not care to enter 

 the professions so called ; and, in casting 

 about, telegraphing seems so easy nothing 

 to do but sit at a table and write a little 

 while ; then, to vary the monotony, send a 

 while with the key. This, to the uninitiated, 

 appears very inviting, and the consequence 

 is the young man becomes an applicant for 

 a position in some telegraph-office, with a 

 view of learning the art. This is not inva- 

 riably the case, of course ; but it is suffi- 

 ciently so to justify the statement that more 

 young men of delicate health seek telegraph- 

 ing as an occupation than almost any other 

 profession or trade, and the result is mani- 

 fest in our mortality list." 



We may remark that, just as the calling 

 of the telegrapher seems to be an unhealthy 

 one, owing to causes extraneous to itself, 

 so newly-settled regions, as our Western Ter- 

 ritories, often are credited with exceptional 

 healthiness, to which they are not entitled. 

 Such regions attract vigorous, adventurous 

 young settlers, the very " pick and choice," 

 physically, of the older settlements. Of 

 course, among such a population disease is 

 infrequent and the death-rate is low. It is 

 an egregious fallacy, of course, to attribute 

 this low death-rate to the benignity of the 

 climate of their new home. 



Discovery of a Remarkable Cave in Alge- 

 ria. The " Courier," of Tlemcen, Algeria, 

 describes an interesting discovery, recently 

 made, at the cascades near that place. Some 

 miners had blasted an enormous rock near 

 the cascades, and, on the removal of the 

 debris, found it had covered a large opening 

 into a cave, the floor of which was covered 

 with water. Constructing a rude raft, and 

 providing themselves with candles, the work- 

 men sailed along this underground river, 

 which at a distance of sixty metres was 

 found to merge into a large lake of limpid 

 water. The roof of the cavern was very 

 high and covered with stalactites, the bril- 

 liant colors of which sparkled in the light 

 of the candles. Continuing their course, the 

 workmen had at certain places to navigate 

 their craft between the stalactites which, 



meeting stalagmites from the bed of the lake, 

 formed massive columns which looked as 

 if they had been made expressly to sustain 

 the enormous arches. Thus they reached 

 the extremity of the lake, where they noticed 

 a large channel extending southward. This 

 is supposed to be a large fissure which has 

 baffled exploration hitherto at Sebdon, and 

 which connects the cascades with that lo- 

 cality, and thus with the mysterious sources 

 of the Tafna. It is possible that here they 

 have found an immense natural basin, sup- 

 plied by powerful sources, and sending a 

 part of its waters toward the lake, while the 

 rest goes to Sebdon. The workmen esti- 

 mated the distance underground traversed 

 by them at three kilometres, and the breadth 

 of the lake at two. They brought out with 

 them a quantity of fishes, which swarmed 

 round the raft, and which were found to be 

 blind. 



The Fodder-Tree. It is proposed to in- 

 troduce into India from Jamaica the Cali- 

 candra saman, a fodder-yielding tree sup- 

 posed to be a native of the South Ajnerican 

 mainland. In Jamaica the tree is popular- 

 ly known as the guango. It is a lofty tree, 

 in general habit much resembling the Eng- 

 lish oak. The trunk is thick, generally 

 short, and branched a few feet from the 

 ground. The primary branch divisions are 

 often tree-like in size, measuring nine to 

 twelve feet in circumference at the base. 

 The lower branches spread horizontally, 

 and the upper are erect, spreading, giving 

 the tree a flattish, dome-shaped appearance. 

 Trees are not unfrequently .seventy feet 

 high, the diameter of whose branch expan- 

 sion horizontally is over thirty feet. The 

 shade which this tree affords is always 

 flecked with gleams of sunshine which flit 

 about as the branches wave with the 

 breeze. This characteristic is coupled with 

 the fact, which is of equal importance to 

 healthy vegetation, that the leaves and 

 leaflets rigidly close together at night, thus 

 permitting the fall of dew on the ground 

 under the branches. Grass grows freely 

 within the overshadowing of its ample 

 arms close up to its trunk. On this ac- 

 count alone it should be planted in pas- 

 tures wherever it will thrive, as a grateful 

 shade for cattle. But, further, it is itself 



