Val] AND SYMBOLS. 381 



The Most Useful the Most Plentiful. 



Such things as diamonds, which are not essential to man, are 

 not plentiful in the earth ; but water, air, and light are every- 

 where. Among the metals certainly the most useful is the 

 most abundant. The author of " Siluria" says, that in reviewing 

 the facts respecting the origin and age of the various metals 

 most useful to man, he is led to believe that iron is the oldest 

 as well as by far the most diffused in Nature. In fact, it occurs 

 plentifully in the most ancient of all known aqueous deposits, 

 the Laurentian rocks, and has continued to be abundant 

 throughout all the strata up to the formation of the bog-ore of 

 the present day. si. 



Using One to Catch Another. 



The story of the monkey which used the paw of the cat to 

 draw the roasting chestnuts from the fire, has enabled the word 

 cat's-paw to maintain a place in our dictionaries. For we need 

 some equivalent to designate a proceeding which we often see 

 in life closely resembling the monkey's trick. The same thing 

 may be also illustrated in another way. Commerson relates 

 that in the Mozambique a species of remora is employed to 

 catch turtles. A ring with a long cord attached to it is fixed 

 on the tail of the fish, which is carried out to sea in a bucketful 

 of salt water. As soon as a turtle is perceived asleep on the 

 surface, the fishermen paddle towards it very gently, until they 

 come sufficiently near, when they throw out the remora, which 

 makes for the dormant turtle with speed, and fastens on it so 

 strongly that both can be drawn to the boat and secured. 

 Happy is the man who had never seen a friend used by a 

 designing knave in his fishing for power and money in very 

 much this kind of way ! MU. 



Political Valency. 



The power of one atom, to attract to itself and to combine 

 with a definite number of other atoms, and no more, is called 

 its valency ; and according to the number which is the limit of 

 its power, it is called bi-valent or tri-valent, or tetra-valent. In 



