200 



ANGLING. 



savannahs, admit of such increase of man's do- 

 minion ? Why, in those far distant and once for- 

 lornest regions, does now the desert blossom as 

 the rose, and boatman, builder, butcher, teacher, 

 tailor, work busily, eat heartily, sleep soundly, 

 and multiply rapidly 2 All owing to the sway of 

 those most picturesque of agents, wood and water 

 (but chiefly water), and their united power of aid- 

 ing man in all his efforts, minute or mighty, from 

 the boiling of a potatoe to the steaming of the 

 British Queen. Why is so much of the nearer 

 continent, the " arida nutrix leonum," so barren and 

 unpeopled ? Just for want, amid its desolate sands, 

 of a certain fair proportion of translucent water, 

 in which the dim-eyed camel, heavy laden, may 

 cool his burning breath, or dusty pilgrim plunge 

 with greater gladness than did ever miser into 

 heaps of gold. As philanthropists upon a large 

 scale, we do indeed rejoice in the announcement 

 which lately appeared, of a " Royal African 

 Auxiliary Artesian Spring Company" (Capital, 

 =500,000,000), which, with judicious manage- 

 ment in the details, will assuredly effect a great 

 revolution in the social, moral, physical, political, 

 and commercial condition, alike of tawny moor 

 and woolly headed negro, and be of no disad- 

 vantage to the secretary of that same Association, 

 whoever he may be. 



Our talk is now of waters, from dancing rill to 

 slow and solemn stream, 



Not hurled precipitous from steep to steep, 

 Lingering no more 'mid flower-enamelled lands 



