ck, when broken, have much the appearance of a dark, red
marble; and when struck by a substance of corresponding hardness, emit a
strong sulphureous smell. It is sometimes used as a substitute for
foreign marble for chimney-pieces; but principally for making lime. In
the fissures of these rocks are found those fine crystals usually called
Bristol stones, which are so hard as to cut glass, and sustain the
action of fire and of _aquafortis_; this, however, is only the case with
such as are tinged. The imperfect ones, in which there appears something
like small hairs, white specks, or bubbles of air and water, turn white
when calcined.

On these rocks, the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles has the following lines:--

How beauteous the pale rocks above the shore
Uplift their bleak and furrow'd aspect high!
How proudly desolate their foreheads, hoar,
That meet the earliest sunbeam of the sky!

Bound to yon dusky mart, with pennants gay,
The tall bark on the winding water's line,
Between the river cliffs plies her hard way,
And peering on the sight the white sails shine.

* * * * *

LITERARY PROBLEM.

(_For the Mirror._)

It is not perhaps generally known, that in the writings of Sodates, a
poet of Thrace, many of the verses may be turned and read different
ways, without either losing the measure or sense; for instance the
following, which may be read backwards:--

"Roma tibi stibito motibus ibit amor
Si bene te, tua laus taxat, sua laute tenebis
Sole medere pede, ede perede, melos."

His writings are nearly extinct, and are for the most part of a very
immoral kind. He wrote some verses against Philadelphus Ptolemy, and
was, in consequence, put into a cage of lead and thrown into the sea.

K.K.

* * * * *

MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS.

* * * * *

THE GENOESE.[1]

(_For the Mirror._)

[1] The intelligent friend from whose conversation the writer
gleaned the following account, has resided three years in Genoa,
and therefore is fully competent to speak of the customs of its
inhabitants. This paper is derived from the same source as that
entitled "_A Recent Visit to Pompeii_."--Vide MIRROR, vol xiii
p. 276.

The Genoese women, are almost without exception _beautiful_, and many of
them retain their loveliness for a longer period than is usual in warm
clim