crowded with islands, and flows between banks alternately covered with reeds, willows and poplars, varied occasionally by forest trees and patches of sand.

The third basin comprises Hungary, east of Waitzen, and the principality of Transylvania, and consists of an immense plain, almost without undulations of any kind, and only 394 feet above the sea level. This plain is intersected with large rivers, with marshy banks; and the climate here is bad. The Danube passes from Pesth to Belgrade, and below Moldavia there is a succession of rapids and shallows, interspersed with rocks and sandbanks, where it has cut a passage for itself through the cross chain of hills which connect the Carpathian Mountains with the Alps. Between Drenkova in Hungary and Scala Kladova in Servia, the navigation is effectually interrupted by three great rapids, the principal, or last and lowest, of which is the famous cataract called the Iron Gate, where the stream rushes through a narrow channel between stupendous rocks with great rapidity, and a noise so overpowering as to drown every sound, ending with a series of whirlpools, eddies, and smaller falls.

The fourth basin comprises Wallachia, Mol

davia, a portion of Bessarabia, and Bulgaria. This tract is flat, inundated, and marshy along the banks of the river; dry and mountainous on the borders of the basin. In its progress through Turkey the river widens gradually from 1400 to 2100 yards; and below Hirsova, in Bulgaria, it forms an expanse of water like a sea, and is studded with islands.

Excepting between Drenkova and Kladova, the Danube may be said to be navigable for steam vessels, from Ulm to the sea. The river receives sixty navigable tributaries, and its volume of water is nearly equal to that of all the rivers that empty themselves into the Black Sea taken together. Its rapidity is, in many places above Orsova, so great as to render any navigation, except that of steam, impossible; but below that point its current is gentle and equable. Before steam navigation was introduced into the Danube, the boats which descended it were very rarely, if ever, taken back, but were broken up at the end of their voyage. The principal towns on its banks are Ulm in Würtemburg, Ratisbon in Bavaria, Vienna in Austria, Buda and Orsova in Hungary, Belgrade, Nicopolis, Silistria, Hirsova, and Brahilov in Turkey.

VERY one must have noticed the love of a cat for her kittens, and the manner in which she brings them up, teaching them their lessons, as it were, and exercising their limbs and eyes by all manner of gambols. Unlike many animals, when her young arrive at years of discretion, and are able to gain their own living without her maternal care, she does not drive them away, but still keeps up a kindly feeling for them, although it is not so strong as when they were little and helpless. At such a time, she devotes her whole existence to her young, and if they are in danger, thinks her own life as nothing when compared with their safety. Some time

since, while a number of kittens were playing about in the straw near a barn-door, a large hawk swooped down upon them, and seized one of the kittens in his claws. Being encumbered by the weight, it could not rise very quickly, and gave the mother time to spring to the rescue of her offspring. She immediately flew at the hawk, who in self-defence was forced to drop the kitten. A regular pitched battle then took place, the hawk at first gaining the advantage, in consequence of his power of flight. After some time, the cat, after losing an eye and getting her ears torn to ribbons, succeeded in breaking the wing of her adversary. Stimulated by this success, she sprang

on the maimed hawk with renewed fury; and after a protracted struggle, made one decisive effort, and laid him dead at her feet. She spent but one moment in making sure of her conquest by tearing the head of her vanquished foe to pieces, and then turned to her kitten, licked its bleeding wounds, and began to purr as if she had not received the slightest injury herself.

The reasoning powers of the cat have been very much underrated. The intellect of a cat does not come very far behind that of a dog; but as it is almost always exerted for selfish purposes, comparatively little notice is taken of it. In the following anecdotes, the reasoning powers appear to be by no means small, and in one instance were exerted in a very singular manner.

Four cats, belonging to one of my friends, had taught themselves the art of begging like a dog. They had frequently seen the dog practise that accomplishment at table, and had observed that he generally obtained a reward for so doing. By a process of inductive reasoning they decided that, if they possessed the same accomplishment, they would in all probability receive the same reward. Acting on this opinion, they waited until they saw the dog sit up in the begging position, and immediately assumed the same attitude with imperturbable gravity. Of course their ingenuity was not suffered to pass unrewarded, and they always found that their newly-discovered accomplishment was an unfailing source of supplies for them.

Two cats had taken up their residence in a barn, and were remarkable for their friendship towards each other. It so happened that both of the cats were favoured with kittens about the same time, and of course were very proud and careful of their young families. After a few days the little kittens began to run about; and at last both families contrived to stray into a pathway where they might possibly be injured. One of the mothers, seeing this, took up her own offspring, one by one, and carried them into a place of safety; but there was then left one kitten belonging to her friend. This she would not touch, but went in search of its mother, brought it with her to the kitten, and waited until it also had been placed in safety.

Although the proverb respecting cats and dogs seems to point to an inextinguishable ani

mosity existing between them, no animals can live more comfortably together than do cats and dogs when brought up together. They will even eat together from the same plate without quarrelling, though the dog does get the greater part of the provisions. Sometimes the cat seems to envy the dog's greater power of mastication, and appears to fancy that she is not well treated. This was most ludicrously exemplified in the case of a very small kitten. The little creature used to consider that the food daily placed for a large Newfoundland dog was so much more than her own allowance, that means ought to be taken to equalize matters. Now kitty, although her estimate of comparative size was rather erroneous with regard to the provisions, was very correct with regard to the dog himself; and she never ventured to make a direct attack, as the Newfoundland could have swallowed her without in the least destroying his appetite for dinner. So she set about her task in a different way. saw Neptune at dinner, she would make her appearance, and take a circuit round his kennel, just out of reach of his chain, looking at him in a conciliatory manner. Next circuit would be a little smaller, bringing her within his reach. Neptune, well knowing what she wanted, would lift his nose from the plate and look at her, at which Kitty would mew in a very supplicatory manner. This used to be repeated until the kitten had got close to the kennel. When there, she lay down as if perfectly satisfied with making friends with the dog. Soon she began to creep slowly towards his plate, but looking perfectly unconcerned, as if she did not see that any dinner was going on. Having reached the plate she would watch until Neptune's eye was off her, when she would make a sudden spring across the plate, snatching up a piece of meat in her progress, and dash off as fast as she could scamper.

When she

Some country friends of mine possessed a huge cat named Succubus. The animal was frequently used in the light of a musical instrument by his owners. Being very fat and lazy, he had a great objection to being handled, and was accustomed to resent such treatment by a subdued sleepy kind of a growl. By taking him in the arms as a baby generally lies, and pulling his tail, the growl was always elicited; and by judicious squeezing and pinching his thorax, the growl was changed into a series of sounds, sharper or deeper according to the violence of

the operation. My own cat when subjected to that process, gives forth almost a chromatic scale, beginning at a deep note and gradually rising to a very high one, which is apt to degenerate into a hiss if the squeeze is too hard. The animal appears to be perfectly aware of the ludicrous nature of the sounds thus elicited from him.

This is but a feeble imitation of the grand instrument invented by an ingenious musician and mechanist. The musical part of the instrument was entirely composed of cats. The inventor, who, I suppose, in these days, would have dubbed himself professor of Elurophoneticism, constructed his organ after the following manner. First, he made a number of little boxes, just large enough to hold a cat, with a hole in the lid of each box. The boxes were arranged in a regular scale, each being marked C, C-sharp, D, D-sharp, etc. He then sent for a number of cats, and by pinching the tail of each, found out its note, and ticketed it accordingly. When the performance came on, each cat was placed in its proper cell, its tail drawn through the hole in the lid, and fixed in a perpendicular position. To an ordinary set of manuals was attached a piece of mechanism, which, when the performer struck C, pinched the tail of the C-cat: and so on with the remaining keys. A very lively performance then took place, the only drawback being, that sometimes a cat would cry in the wrong place. The inventor found that cats soon got out of tune, and that their notes were too long, a defect which he could not rectify, as dampers were naturally impracticable, so he afterwards substituted pigs, whose notes were more uniform and less sustained.

With regard to the friendship between cats and dogs, I had almost forgotten to mention the curious intimacy that took place between a dog and a cat of my acquaintance. They had been brought up together from childhood, and had formed a Benedict and Beatrice kind of affection for each other, always quarrelling in a humorous kind of way when together, and always miserable when apart. If they were by any chance separated, they never rested until they had joined company. Each knowing this, was accustomed to slip away from the other, and lie in ambush. In such a case, the dog would rush out on the cat, and tumble her over with his nose, or the cat would sit with her right paw ready lifted, and deal her friend a

sound box on the ear, immediately escaping up a tree, when he would bark and she would spit for a minute or two, when she would come down and engage in a game of romps with him. One day she had hidden herself behind a door-scraper, her paw ready lifted for a blow, and her eyes glowing with eagerness, as she heard the dog's step just behind her. Prince just at that moment caught a glimpse of Puss, and made a great spring past her, setting off along the gravel path as fast as his legs would carry him. Pussy made a spiteful blow at him as he passed, but missed her aim; and instantly commenced a pursuit on three legs, holding her right paw in the air, lest it should lose any of its strength, and detract from the force of the blow with which she intended to greet Prince when she caught him.

ner.

A little Skye terrier, belonging to one of my friends, was lately blessed with a small family of two. During the time that her puppies were dependent upon her for subsistence, Jip was changed from a good-natured caressing little animal into a savage wild beast. No one, except her master, was permitted to enter the shed where the puppies lay, without being im mediately attacked by their mother, who flew at the intruders with the utmost fury, barking until it was a wonder that her throat was not torn to pieces. In due time the puppies grew up, and Jip grew amenable, suffering them to be handled without remonstrance; and when they were a few months old, one of them was given away and the other died-Jip treating both misfortunes in a very philosophical manAbout the time that the puppy died, a little kitten arrived at the house, and, finding the inhabitants behaved kindly to it, took up its residence there. There was already one kitten in the house, who was a fast friend to Jip, and was accustomed to romp with her continually; but when kitten number two arrived, Jip treated it just as if it were one of her own puppies. Soon after its arrival, I was passing by the kitchen door, when Jip flew out, barking and growling just as she had done during the childhood of her puppies; and as I persisted in entering the kitchen to see what was the matter, she retreated to the hearth-rug, where lay a little tabby kitten curled up fast asleep. Jip lay down by it, put her paws on each side of it as if to defend the little animal, and set up a savage snarl, changing to a bark at the slightest movement. The kitten still lay