west by the Quarantine Harbour, and on the north by the Mediterranean. Valletta rises gradually towards the land end of the peninsula, and at the highest part of that extremity a very deep entrenchment is cut right across from harbour to harbour. A walk at the bottom of this fosse is an interesting ramble. It forms a deep and quiet artificial ravine, with perpendicular sides formed of the solid rock, and with continuation walls above.

20. The breadth at the bottom is about fifty feet, and is in some places covered with a dense growth of weeds and flowers, and a few patches of prickly-pear. The sidewalls ascend more than a hundred feet on each side, and are bare of vegetation, except a few ferns here and there, or some handsome trails of the hanging round leaves of the caper plant. This fosse takes several abrupt turns, and is seldom visited except by a casual explorer. Not a person or animal is in sight, except the silent sweep of some startled bird; far overhead one may catch an occasional sound of some sentinel on the ramparts. Where the fosse crosses the top of the peninsula it is less silent, for in that part it passes about eighty feet under the drawbridge leading out of Valletta through the Porta Reale, and which forms the main thoroughfare to and from the country and city.-Tallack.

ANCIENT GAMES-A FOOT-RACE.

[Æneas, the hero of the Æneid of Virgil, has landed for a second time in Sicily, and institutes games in honour of his father's memory on the first anniversary of his death. Among the games was the

foot-race as here described. Virg. Æn. v. 286.]

When ended now the naval race,
Eneas seeks a grassy space,

Which winding hills encompass round,
Their shaggy tops with forest crowned:
There, as the deepening vale descends,
A rustic theatre extends,

Where, ringed with thousands round, he sate
On high-heaped throne in rural state,

Whoe'er in speed of foot would vie
He here invites, their chance to try
And earn reward; from diverse parts

They come, swift limbs and generous hearts,
Trojan and Sicel interspersed:

Euryalus and Nisus first;

That for his beauty and his youth
Conspicuous 'midst the sons of Troy,
This for his pure affection's truth
Concentred on the lovely boy.
Diores next them takes his place,
A princely branch of Priam's race;
Salius and Patron too succeed,
The one of Acarnanian breed,
While Tegea gave the other birth,
And Arcady his parent earth;
Then Helymus and Panopes,
Trinacria's youthful offspring these,
Trained in the woods to chase the boar
And comrades of Acestes hoar:
With many a candidate besides

Whom dim-eyed fame in darkness hides.
Whom, as around his seat they pressed,
Eneas thus in brief addressed:

"Vouchsafe your audience, and receive
My words with glad regard.

None of this train the field shall leave
Unguerdoned by reward:

Two polished darts of Gnossian craft,
An axe with silver-studded haft,
Such boon be each one's share
The three who prove them first in speed
Shall boast a more conspicuous meed,
And olive chaplets wear;
First to the victor of the day

A horse be given with trappings gay;
A quiver shall the second grace,
True Amazon, with shafts from Thrace,
A belt withal of broad bright gold

With jewelled clasp to clench its hold:
These for the second; on the third
This Argive helmet be conferred."

He said; at once they take their place,
And at the sign begin the race,

Pour from their base like rain-cloud dark,
And strain their eyes the goal to mark.
First, far before each flying form,
Comes Nisus rushing like the storm;
Then, nearest him where none are near,
Young Salius strains in full career;
Then with brief interval of space
Euryalus, the third in place;
Then Helymus: behind him, lo!
Diores, touching heel with toe,
Close hangs upon his rear,

And, had they run but few roods more,
Had passed him, shooting on before,
And made the vantage clear.

And now the race was all but o'er,
And panting to the goal they drew,
When Nisus trips in slippery gore
Chance-sprinkled on the grassy floor
From beasts the sacrificers slew;
So late the conqueror, blithe and bold,
He fails to keep his foot's sure hold,
And falls in prone confusion flung
'Mid victim blood and loathly dung.
E'en then affection claims its part:
Euryalus is in his heart;

Uprisen from the sodden clay,
He casts himself in Salius' way,

And Salius tripped and sprawling lay.

Euryalus like lightning flies

'Mid plaudits and assenting cries,

And through his friend attains the prize:

Next Helymus, and next comes in

Diores, thus the third to win.

Salius aloud his wrong proclaims

To all who sit to view the games;
Fills with his shouts the foremost seat,
Claims back the prize, and brands the cheat.
But more Euryalus finds grace:

So well the tears beseem his face,
And worth appears with brighter shine
When lodged within a lovely shrine.
Diores swells the general strain,

Just ranged within the conquering list—
An empty preference, all in vain,

Should Salius have the prize he missed.
Eneas thus: "Your rights are yours;
None stirs the palm my word assures:
Let me be suffered to extend
Compassion to a hapless friend.”
So speaking, Salius he consoled
With lion's hide, its claws of gold.
Outspoke bold Nisus: "If defeat
Such vast requitals needs must meet,
And falls win friends, what boon of grace
Were large enough for Nisus' case,
Whose merit made him first in place?
But Fortune, with malicious glee,
That baffled Salius, baffled me."
And saying thus, his face he reared,

And showed his limbs with ordure smeared.

The good sire smiled, and bade be brought
A shield by Didymaon wrought,
A Danaan spoil, which erst he tore
From Grecian Neptune's temple door:
Then to the gallant youth presents
The guerdon, and his heart contents.

-Conington's Virgil's Æneid.

Trojan and Sicel:-The Trojans were the friends and followers of Eneas; the Sicilians, inhabitants of the land where the game took place. Acestes was the king. Trinacria, another name for Sicily. Acarnania and Arcadia, provinces of Greece. Tegea, a town in Arcadia. Amazons, a mythical race of warlike females, skilled in archery. Gnossian, Cretan; Gnossus was the chief town of Crete.

NEW ZEALAND.

1. New Zealand, one of the British colonies, consists of a group of islands situated in the Southern Pacific Ocean. These islands were first discovered by Tasman in 1642, but little was known of them till the visits of Captain Cook in 1769 and 1774. Visits were repeatedly made by whalers and others, but no permanent settlement was effected until 1815. In 1833 a resident governor was appointed, and in 1840 the colony was regularly constituted. There are three islands lying north and south, named respectively, North Island or New Ulster, Middle Island or New Munster, and South Island or New Leinster. The last named is comparatively small. The entire length of the two large islands is about 1200 miles, and the mean breadth 140 miles. The total area of the islands is estimated at about 97,000 square miles.

A

2. New Ulster is of a very irregular shape, and is so much broken by deep bays and projecting headlands, that it is scarcely possible to give any distinct idea of its dimensions by tracing straight lines upon its surface. tolerably accurate idea of its shape will be obtained by considering it as composed of a nucleus or main body, and four great horns or peninsulas. By far the largest of these, commencing between Port Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty on the east, and Port Aotia on the west coast, stretches N.N.E. for 280 miles, in a deeply serrated projection, which has a width at its base of not more than 55 miles, and near its extremity of not more than 8 miles. remarkable peninsula is nearly cut through by Hauraki Gulf or the Firth of the Thames on the east, and Manukao or Symond's Harbour on the west; the only land which preserves its continuity being the narrow isthmus, on which, like that of ancient Corinth, the town of Auckland has been built. Its west coast is almost a continuous straight line, whereas the whole of the east coast is a constant succession of bays and promontories.

This

3. The second of the four peninsulas stretches E.N.E.