he consistence of sago. One pound
of the biscuit contains the nutritive matter--fat excepted--of five
pounds of prime beef, mixed with half a pound of wheaten flour. One
ounce of the biscuit, grated and boiled in a pint of water, suffices
to form the soup. It can also be used in puddings and sauces. The
manufacture of the meat-biscuit is located at Galveston, in Texas,
which abounds in excellent cattle at a very low price. It is said that
the meat-biscuit is not liable to heating or moulding, like corn and
flour, nor subject to be attacked by insects. The meat-biscuit was
largely used by the United States' army during the Mexican campaign;
the nutriment of 500 pounds of beef, with 70 pounds of flour, was
packed in a twenty-two-gallon cask.

Dr Lindley, as one of the jurors for the Great Exhibition, and as a
lecturer on the subject at the Society of Arts, commends the
meat-biscuit in the very highest terms. 'I think I am justified in
looking upon it,' he says, 'as one of the most important substances
which this Exhibition has brought to our knowledge. When we consider
that by this method, in such places as Buenos Ayres, animals which are
there of little or no value, instead of being destroyed, as they often
are, for their bones, may be boiled down and mixed with the flour
which all such countries produce, and so converted into a substance of
such durability that it may be preserved with the greatest ease, and
sent to distant countries; it seems as if a new means of subsistence
was actually offered to us. Take the Argentine Republic, take
Australia, and consider what they do with their meat there in times of
drought, when they cannot get rid of it while it is fresh; they may
boil it down, and mix the essence with flour--and we know they have
the finest in the world--and so prepare a substance that can be
preserved for times when food is not so plentiful, or sent to
countries where it is always more difficult to procure food. Is not
this a very great gain?' A pertinent question, which intelligent
emigrants would do well to bear in mind.

THE BUYER OF SOULS:

A Russian Story.

All over the world, the essential elements of human nature are the
same. And it is very fortunate for me that they are so, else I should
find myself in considerable difficulty in endeavouring to place before
my readers a correct picture of the little, out-of-the-way town of
Nikolsk. Making due allowances for the differences in national ma