cleaned every morning. All the remains of the leafstalks of the mulberry, the excrement of the animals, and other impurities, are removed before the fresh leaves are given. Much importance is attached to this matter, as it has a tendency to keep the worms in a clean and healthy condition. The Chinese are also very particular as regards the amount of light which they admit during the period the animals are feeding. I always observed the rooms were kept partially darkened; no bright light was allowed to penetrate. In many instances the owners were most unwilling to open the doors, for fear, as they said, of disturbing them; and they invariably cautioned me against making any unnecessary noise while I was examining them. At this time (the beginning of June) nearly all the labour in this part of the country was expended on the production of the silk-worm. In the fields the natives were seen in great numbers, busily engaged in gathering the leaves; boats on the rivers were fraught with them; in the country market-towns they were exposed for sale in great quantities; and everything told that they were the staple article of production. On the other hand, every cottage, farm-house, barn, and temple, was filled with its thousands of worms, which were fed and tended with the greatest care."

Pursuing his journey, he further says "On my way up from Hoo-chow-foo to Mei-che, and about the 23rd, I observed that many of the worms had ceased to feed and were commencing to spin. The first indication of this change is made apparent to the natives, by the bodies of the little animals becoming more clear and almost transparent. When this change takes place, they are jerked one by one out of the sieves, and placed upon bundles of straw to form their cocoons. These bundles of straw, which are each about two feet in length, are bound firmly in the middle; the two ends are cut straight and then spread out like a broom, and into these ends the worms are laid, when they immediately fix themselves and begin to spin. During this progress, I observed the under side of the framework on which the bundles of straw were placed, surrounded with cotton

cloth to prevent the cold draught from getting to the worms. In some instances, small charcoal fires were lighted and placed under the frame inside the cloth, in order to afford further warmth. In some of the cottages, the straw covered with spinning worms was laid in the sun, inside the verandahs in front of the doors.

In a few days after the worms are put upon the straw, they have disappeared in the cocoons and have ceased to spin. The reeling process now commences, and machines for this purpose were seen in almost every cottage. This apparatus may be said to consist of four distinct parts, or rather, I may divide it into these for the purpose of describing it. There is, first, the pan of hot water into which the cocoons are thrown; second, the little loops or eyes through which the threads pass; third, a lateral or horizontal movement, in order to throw the silk in a zig zag manner over the wheel; and lastly the wheel itself, which is square. Two men, or a man and woman, are generally employed at each wheel. The business of one is to attend to the fire, and to add fresh cocoons as the others are wound off. The most expert workman drives the machine with his foot, and attends to the threads as they pass through the loops over on to the wheel. Eight, ten, and sometimes twelve cocoons are taken up to form one thread, and as one becomes exhausted, another is taken up to supply its place. Three, and sometimes four, of such threads are passing over on to the wheel at the same time. The lateral or zig zag movement of the machine throws the threads in that way on the wheel, and I believe this is considered a great improvement upon the Lauton method, in which the threads are thrown on in a parallel manner. The water in the pan into which the cocoons are first thrown is never allowed to boil, but it is generally very near the boiling point. I frequently tried it and found it much too hot for my fingers to remain in it. A slow fire of charcoal is also placed under the wheel. As the silk is winding, this fire is intended to dry off the superfluous moisture which the cocoons have imbibed in the water in which they were immersed.

"About the 8th, or from that to the 10th of July,

the winding of the cocoons had ceased almost everywhere, and a few days after this there was scarcely a sign of all that life and bustle which is visible everywhere during the time that the silk is in hand. The clash of the winding machines, which used to be heard in every cottage, farmhouse, and temple, had now ceased; the furnaces, pans, and wheels, with all the other parts of the apparatus in common use during the winding season, had been cleared away, and a stranger visiting that country now could scarcely have believed that such a busy bustling scene had been acting only a few days before."

It is only about three hundred and fifty years ago that the silk manufacture was introduced into England: and barbarism at first, and injurious laws restricting trade afterwards, long hindered it from making any progress. It was to the French Protestant refugees, in fact, settling amongst us in Spitalfields, London, that we were indebted for some service in the way of improvement in silk manufacture. Still our goods continued bad and dear for a long time, but the wonderful changes which have taken place of late years in all departments of trade, have affected our silk trade in turn, and in 1856 we exported our own silk fabrics to the value of nearly three millions. "Through free trade and free navigation, England has become a great, indeed the greatest, emporium for silk; and we have exported in the same year foreign and Indian silks, raw and wrought, to the value of £2,115,848. Our Australian colonies at this moment, take off more of our silks than did the whole world in the year 1823. Our own consumption of our own silk fabrics far exceeds our exports in value, probably in the proportion of at least three to one, which would make £12,000,000, the total value of our manufactured silks." Such have been the important results of the useful and brilliant stuff which we obtain either from the cradle, or the tomb, or both, of that one little creature--the famous Chineol caterpillar. "Truly marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty, and that my soul knoweth right well."

SCRAPS.

That conformity of religious belief and profession which many seem to wish for, imply lamentable stagnation of thought on the most important of all subjects, and could only arise from the slavish submission of many minds to the despotic dominion and dictation of a few.

There's many a green leaf lingers when the Summer's blossom is gone. When a moment of brightness comes it is our duty to bid it welcome.

What I spend I lose ;

What I save I leave behind me ;

But what I give to the poor

Remains with me for ever.

ADDISON.

The richest soil will, if it remains uncultivated, produce nothing but weeds and rubbish; so the human mind will not flourish in virtue unless it is subjected to a suitable process of cultivation. Where self is the primary object, selfish passions and a selfish spirit will be the natural and necessary result. Where passion is indulged, it will soon become exorbitant and uncontrollable, and a generous spirit can only be acquired by a course of generous actions, mental fortitude can only be attained by habitual self-denial, and piety is the genuine result of just conceptions of the Divine Being, and habitual meditation upon His greatness and His goodness.-BELSHAM.

I esteem it an important if not an essential evidence of vital religion, that the decline of life be the increase of heavenly mindedness; and that as the body descends to the grave, the mind and heart ascend towards heaven.-Dr. RIPLEY.