MODELS FROM VEGETATION. 
507 
Among the remains of Aztec pottery, preserved in the Museum 
at Mexico, there are vessels in imitation of fruits. Others, how- 
ever, are in the form of shells, a natural device for people living 
between two oceans. 
There is a design of art very common among us to-day, which 
carries one far back into the forests of primeval ages, when hunt- 
ers were heroes. Look at the tea-table beside you : if it be one 
of neat workmanship, you will probably find that the legs are 
carved in imitation of the claw of a lion, a device so common for 
such purposes, that a village workman will offer to cut it for you 
in the black walnut, or bird's-eye maple, or mahogany, of a con- 
tinent where no lion has ever been found ! When first carved, in 
Egypt, or Asia, or Greece, it probably recalled some signal con- 
test within the bounds of the primeval forest, between the fiercest 
of savage animals and some local Hercules. From the dignity of 
the animal, and the renown of the hunter, the device was pre- 
served ; and it has been handed down by the most polished art- 
ists of successive ages, until it has reached our own Western 
World. It is very often found carved in marble, or moulded in 
bronze, and generally, the acanthus leaf makes part of the design. 
Saturday, 11 tk. — Bright, clear sunshine. Thermometer 4'^ be- 
low zero at sunrise. 
Sunday, I8tk. — Cold and bright day. Thermometer 2° below 
zero at sunrise. 
Monday, 19 tk. — Very cold ; bright weather ; thermometer 12° 
below zero at seven o'clock. We have had a week of severe 
weather ; generally, the extreme cold does not last longer than 
three days at one time. There is a white frost, however, this 
morning on the trees: the forerunner of a thaw. Walked, as 
usual, though not far ; in such weather one dues not care to be 
