A HINT FOR MILTONIC CRITICS. 283 



gray wolf, with long gallop, disappeared over the 

 banks. The temptation to fire at them was very 

 strong, but prudence and the guide forbade. 



We picked up some very fine specimens of " infer- 

 nal grape," in the form of nearly round balls of iron 

 pyrites. They lay upon the surface like canister-shot 

 upon a battle-field. It seemed as if during the early 

 period, when Mother Earth began to cool off a little, 

 her fiery heart still palpitated so violently under her 

 thin bodice, that beads of the molten life within, like 

 drops of perspiration, had forced their way through, 

 and, in cooling, had retained their bubble-like form. 

 We could have picked up a half-bushel of them 

 which would have made very fair aliment for can- 

 non. The dogs of war could have spit them out as 

 spitefully and fatally against human hearts as if the 

 morsels had been prepared by human hands. From 

 such well-molded shot, of no mortal make, Milton 

 might have obtained his charges for those first can- 

 non which the traitor-angel invented and employed 

 against the embattled hosts of heaven. Shamus, 

 when he afterward became acquainted with the speci- 

 mens, called them " a rattlin' shower of witches' peb- 

 bles." 



We also passed large surfaces of white rock, which 

 were sprinkled all over with dark, hollow balls, of a 

 vitrified substance. Most of them were imbedded 

 midway in the rock, leaving a hemisphere exposed 

 which, in color and form, was an exact counterpart 

 of a large bomb. If the reader has ever seen a 

 shell partly imbedded in the substance against which 

 it was fired, this description will be perfectly plain. 



