VILLAGE SCHOOL. 105 



sisting of earthy particles, which spread over 

 thousanis of square miles of that sea, having 

 been observed to fall about the same time in 

 Sicily, Sardinia, and many parts of Italy, as 

 well as in Malta, supposed to have been raised 

 from the deserts of Africa, and driven by a 

 wind or gale known to have prevailed on that 

 coast, to the limits of its force : the dust fell 

 when there was a lull. Analogous to this, when 

 in the West Indies, I saw in Barbadoes the 

 remains of a shower of volcanic dust, in places 

 some lines thick, which occurred during the 

 last eruption of the Soufriere mountain in St. 

 Vincent, in 1812, at least sixty miles distant in 

 a straight line, and which, in falling, not only hid 

 the sun, but so obscured its light as to create 

 the darkness of night at midday. 



PISCATOK. We were speaking of the school- 

 master a more important subject: I can 

 assure you that the children, whom on a former 

 occasion I had the curiosity to examine, I found 

 as well advanced in reading as those in the 

 better class of our village schools. Besides 

 reading, they are taught writing, the common 

 rules of arithmetic, and, as the master said, a 

 little geography. When I last paid a visit to 



