THE NATUBAL SCIENCE JOVRNAL. 
37 
LESSON PEOM A FOSSIL 
Lucy Wells Morse. 
SLENDER fern was born one day, 
P"ar off in pasture lone; 
And, as it missed companionship. 
It uttered, thus, its moan : 
‘ ‘ Why am I destined here to stay. 
Unguarded and unloved; 
While others, of less worth than I, 
Are cherished and approved ? ” 
Yet, notwithstanding loneliness. 
It used the gifts God gave. 
Till it attained a beauteous grace 
That any fern might crave. 
Years passed, the ferns that decked the 
grounds 
Of palaces, with pride. 
Had perished long and been forgot; 
Their owners, too, had died. 
The little fern in pasture lone 
Was caught among the sands. 
Embedded now in solid rock. 
Perfect in form, it stands — 
Upon a shelf of marble pure. 
Within the palace walls. 
Admired by all the lordly guests 
That throng the stately halls. 
Then, murmur not, though lowly seem 
The place where thou dost move; 
The God who made thee, watch doth 
keep. 
With unforgetting love. 
And though thou understandeth not 
The plan He has for thee 
If thou art faithful unto death. 
Sure thy reward shall be. 
NOTES 
Queen Victoria’s crown was made in 
1838, and contains 2,783 diamonds, 277 
pearls, 27 emeralds, 17 sapphires and 5 
rubies. 
Over 400 diamonds are known to have 
been recovered from the ruins of ancient 
Babylon. Many are uncut, but the ma¬ 
jority are polished on one or two sides. 
Spun glass bonnets are being turned 
out by the thousand by a Venetian firm. 
Th-e Infanta Mercedes of Spain has re¬ 
ceived from Venice a white ball dress of 
glass, as soft and pliable as silk. 
It is believed that some of the camels 
imported in 1853 to run wild in Arizona 
are still in existence. Indians occasion¬ 
ally report having seen some, and lately 
the international boundary commission 
saw two with their spy-glasses on the 
Mexican border. 
The Pacific Company has been incor¬ 
porated under the laws of the State of 
Virginia, United States of America, for 
the purpose of opening up and develop¬ 
ing coal fields in Peru and exporting the 
product to points along the Pacific coast. 
The authorized capital of the company is 
$20,000,000. The company’s New York 
offices are in the American Surety Build¬ 
ing at No. 100 Broadway. As yet 
actual operations have not been com¬ 
menced. It is stated that the price of 
coal along the Pacific coast varies from 
$7 to $20 per ton, and while it is ex¬ 
pected that prices will fall, the company 
believes that they can still make from $2 
to $4 per ton. — Spanish-American Indus¬ 
trial Journal. 
