138 NETHER LOCHABER. 



in connection with the new moon of the 18th. The highest 

 tide, however, is not likely to be exactly coincident with the 

 change of the moon, hut at the time of the second or third 

 flood thereafter. Along our Scottish coasts the tidal wave will 

 probably be highest on the morning of the 20th, so that this 

 notice may yet be sufficiently timeous. Much, however, will 

 depend on the state of wind and weather, as to the height the 

 tide may attain at any particular place. In any case, it can do 

 no harm to be prepared. 



To such of our readers as may be engaged in the rearing and 

 tending of flowers at this season we very willingly communicate a 

 hint that may be found useful. And it is this. In filling flower- 

 pots or window-sill boxes, there is frequently considerable difficulty 

 in procuring soil that will be at once sufficiently rich, free of weed 

 seeds, and finely pulverised. The despised and sadly persecuted 

 mole provides the very thing wanted, and in little round heaps, 

 waiting only to be gathered, commonly called molehills. For 

 flowers, whether in pots or borders, there is nothing so good as 

 molehill earth. The rationale of the thing is, as is well-known to 

 every one in the least acquainted with the natural history of the 

 interesting velvet-coated subterranean tunnelists. that they live on 

 worms and insect larvae. These are always found in the best soil, 

 which is hurled to the surface in round heaps by the industrious 

 little animal while in pursuit of his prey, and in so pulverised a 

 state, and so free of weed seeds, as to be above all others the soil 

 most suitable for all manner of ordinary floriculture. With such 

 soil we have grown the purest dahlias and wallflowers we ever saw 

 anywhere. The old Eoyalist toast, " To the little gentleman in the 

 black velvet coat ! " was in sly allusion to the death of a high 

 personage from injuries received by his horse stumbling over an 

 insignificant molehill, and whose name by the way is disagreeably 

 connected with a dark deed done heretofore in Glencoe, whose wild 



