o sea.
They were already too far from land, to be able to get back. They knew
not what would become of them, and much they feared they should perish
from cold and hunger. The ice was so slippery that they were in great
danger of sliding into the sea. To prevent this, they stuck their long
poles deep into the ice, and tied themselves to the poles. They were
driven about for many days; but one morning,--to their great joy, they
found they were close to the shore. They did not forget to praise God for
so mercifully saving their lives; though they were so weak from want of
food, as scarcely to be able to creep ashore.

CHARACTER.--The Kamkatdales are generous and grateful. A poor family will
sometimes receive another family into the house for six weeks; and when
the food is nearly gone, the generous host, not liking to tell his
visitors of it, serves up a dish of different sorts of meat and
vegetables, mixed together; the visitors know this is a sign that the
food is almost exhausted, and they take their leave.

Did I say the Kamkatdales are grateful? I will give you an instance of
their gratitude. A traveller met a poor boy. He remembered his face, and
said, "I think I have seen you before." "You have," said the boy; "I
rowed you down the river last summer, and you were so kind as to give me
a skin, and some flints; and now I have brought the skin of a sable as a
present for you." The traveller, perceiving the boy had no shirt, and
that his skin dress was tattered, refused the present; but seeing the boy
was going away in tears, he called him back, and accepted it. A Chinese
servant, who was standing by, pitied so much the ragged condition of the
boy, that he gave him one of his own thin nankin shirts.

THIBET.

I cannot tell you much about Thibet; and the reason is, that so few
travellers have been there. And why have so few been there? Is it because
the mountains are so steep and high, the paths so narrow and dangerous?
All this is true; but it is not mountains that keep travellers out of
Thibet; it is the Chinese government; for Thibet belongs to China, and
you know how carefully the emperor of China keeps strangers out of his
empire.

How did the Chinese get possession of Thibet? A long while ago, a Hindoo
army invaded the land, and the people in their fright sent to China for
help. The Chinese came, drove away the Hindoos, and stayed themselves.
They are not hard masters, they govern very mildly; only the