Neat be your barns, your houses neat,
Your doors be clean, your court-yards sweet ;
No moss the sheltering roof enshroud,
No wooden panes the window c!oud ;
No filthy kennels foully’ flow,
Nor weeds with rankling poison grow ;
But shades expand and fruit f rees bloom,
And flowering shades exhale perfume ;
With pales your gardnn circle round ;
Defend, enrich, and clean the ground ;
Prize high the p’easirig, useful rood,
And fill with vegetable good.
The Niger and its Tributaries
At u recent meeting of the Royal Geo
graphical Society a letter was read by
Mr. McGregor Laird, stating that the
screw steamer destined for the explora
tion oi tho Niger and Chadda rivers
would be ready in March next, and
would probabiy leave the mouth of the
main branch of the Niger on her expedi
tion tip the river about the first of July.
She will be accompanied by three me
tallic sectional boats, fifty feet long and
eight feet beam each, manned by natives
so that in the event of any stritnis acci
dent to the steamer the adventurers tnajr
take to tiie boats. The party will com
prise but ten or twelve Europeans, and
these will all be men ol education and
resources. The steamer’s and boat’s
crew will consist of negroes, to the
number of eighty or ninety. It is sup.
posed that the steamer, which will be
propelled by a screw, will attain the
speed of ten knots, and, leaving the
coast with thirty days’ coal, will reach
the head of the navigable waters of the
Chadda without being obliged to stop for
additional fuel.
