Paulina wore jewels when she paid
visits, valued at $800,000. Drinking
cups were adorned with busts and
presses of rare wood. Some were in
laid with tortoise shells, and covered
with gorgeous purple.
The Roman grandees rode in gilded
chariots, bathed in marble baths, dined
from golden plate, drank from crystal
cups, slept on beds of down, reclined
on luxurious couches, wore embroid
ered robes, and were adorned with
precious stones. They ransacked the
earth and the sea for rare dishes for
their banquets, and ornamented their
houses with carpets from Babylon,
onyx, cups from Bythinia, marbles
from Numtdia, bronzes from Corinth,
statues from Athens-whatever, in
short, was precious or curious in the
most distant countries. The luxur
ious of both almost exceed belief, and
on the walls were magnificent frescoes
and paintings exhibiting an inexhaus
tible productiveness in landscape and
mythological scenes.-Exchange.
Bovy St. Vincent states that the
time is coming when the Mediterrean
will be noting more than a chain of
lakes, and then a mighty.river. The
sea of Azof is already being converted
into a stream-its shores constantly
approaching nearer together. Tracta
of water which extent from the
mouth of the Don to the Straits of the
Dardanelles may now be compared to
Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron.
When the great Island of Atlantis
went down, as Plato relates, covered
with cities, it must have changed the
sea boundacies exceedIngly. Rivers
are forever m the process e4 changing
their channels and: shallowing by the
debris they epread along their b.t-..
toms,.
