THE WEST AMEEICAN SCIENTIST. 



THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. 



This is the ship of pearl, which poets feign, 



Sails the unshadowed main, — 



The ventursome bark that flings 

 On the Sweet summer wind its purple wingau 

 On gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings 



And coral reefs lie bare, 

 Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. 



Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl ; 



Wrecked is the ship of pearl • 



And every chambered cell; 

 Where its dim dream-life was wont to dwell 

 As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, 



Before thee lies revealed, — 

 Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed! 



Year after year beheld the silent toil 



That spread his lustrous coil ; 



Still, as the spiral grew, 

 le left the past year's dwelling for the new, 

 Stole with soft step its shining archway through, 



Built up its idle door, 

 Stretched in his last found home, and knew the old no more. 



Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, 



Child of the wandering sea, 



Cast from her lap, forlorn ! 

 From thy dead lips a clearer note is born 

 Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn ! 



While on my ear it rings. 

 Through the deep caves of thought T hear a voice that sings: — • 



Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 



As the swift seasons roll ! 



Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 

 Let each new temple, nobler than than the last 

 Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 



Till thou at length are free. 

 Leaving thine out-grown shell by life's unresting sea. 



Oliver Wendell Holmes. 



EXCHANGE NOTICES, ETC. 



Notice: — This column will hereafter be open to offers to exchange books, instru- 

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Wanted — To purchase, Lepidoptera (Heterocera) from the West and South-West* 

 Address, Dr. Chas. S. Mc Knight, Saranac Lake, Franklin Co.. Now York. 



