﻿244 PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 



Violets, anemones, 

 Bursting into birth ; 



Nature's painted playthings 

 The pretty things of earth ! 



Blooming in the woodlands, 

 Underneath the trees ; 



Little meek-eyed violets, 

 Pale anemones ! 



Clustering by the brookside, 

 Clustering in the glen, 



Nature hides her dearest flowers, 

 Far away from men ; 



Robes herself in velvet, 

 Jewelled like an earl's ; 



Violets anemones 

 Amethysts and pearls. 



Gold Mines. 



GOLD is one of the purest of all metals, and is not liable to perish 

 by rust or by the action of fire. It is of a very bright yellow color, 

 easily bent, and can be hammered so thin that a single grain can be 

 made to cover more than fifty square inches, and then divided into 

 five hundred thousand parts, each of which can be seen with the 

 naked eye. 



Gold is found in primitive mountains, usually in slender veins, 

 often penetrating the hardest rock. But it is more commonly ob- 

 tained in very small grains from the alluvial soil which forms the 

 beds of rivers, or the sides of channels, which have been created by 

 floods and are frequently covered with water. Many have supposed 

 that these fragments are washed down from the adjoining mountains ; 

 and persons have frequently endeavored to trace them up to their 

 supposed original beds, where they hoped to find large quantities of 

 gold, and become rich at once. But in all cases the miners have 

 been disappointed ; for where the sands of the rivers afford golden 



