ANCIENT AND MODERN GLASS OF MURANO. 233 
living stream and "so go on to join the brimming river" might add beauty to 
utiUty. 
I love the water. Its beauty in the landscape. Its comfort in the land. The 
purposes of thrift that it serves. I cannot forget the enjoyment they give, in the 
land they make beautiful, those lakes of Wisconsin. Though they may not be repro- 
duced here, yet our supply of water enables us to do a far better part by our 
land than we are doing now. I hope our civil engineers will take up the subject. 
MEXICAN RAILWAYS. 
There were 2,379^ miles of completed railways up to the end of April in 
Mexico. A few of the shorter ones are now worked by horse-power. The com- 
pleted and partially completed roads are the Tiascala road, 2^ miles; the Orizaba" 
Ingenio, 3 miles; the Nuetla-Tiasciaco, 4 miles; the San Adres, 7 miles; the 
Tialmanalco, 9 miles; Pueblo and Matamoras Izucar, 19 miles; San Martin, 23 
miles; Tehuacan-Esperanza, 31 miles; Tehauntepec, 31 miles; Sinaloa and Du- 
rango, 36 miles; Vera Cruz-MedelHn, 39 miles; Hidalgo, 56 miles; Pueblo San 
Marcos, 57 miles; Yucatan, 68 miles; Mexico-Tialpulalpam, 75 miles; Sonora, 
from Guaymas to Nogales, 234 miles; Inter Oceanic, Mexico to Curantla and 
branches, 183 miles; Mexican National, Mexico to Acambaro, 178 miles; from 
Laredo Southward, 208 miles; branches, 87 miles; Mexican Central, Mexico to 
Lagos, 311 miles; Paso del Norte to Chihuahua, 302 miles; Tampico to San 
Louis Potosi, 62^ miles; Mexican, Vera Cruz to Mexico, 264 miles, and Pueblo 
and Jalapa, 89^ miles. Of these the Mexican National, the Inter-Oceanic, the 
Hidalgo, and the Yucatan Unes are narrow gauge, the other lines are standard 
gauge. 
CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. 
ANCIENT AND MODERN GLASS OF MURANO. 
JAMES JACKSON JARVES. 
Of all the peoples which have made glass a special industry, the Venetians, 
for artistic variety and quality, are the most renowned. The Egyptians, Phoe- 
nicians, Greeks, and Romans in certain kinds are unrivalled, especially in mould- 
ed, cut, mosaic, and cameo-glass, of which last the Portland and Neapolitan vases 
are unsurpassable specimens. With the Byzantines the art survived, but in a 
degenerate form, as with classical painting and sculpture. Nevertheless, there is 
little doubt that it was more or less extensively practised at Constantinople and 
in Italy during the Dark Ages, although so little information and so few speci- 
