ich toil and exposure had not yet blanched, was now pale
with care and furrowed by grief.

I never learned what became of the children; whether they returned
to their "ain countrie," to grow up to womanhood within the halls of
Thirlstane, "the glass of fashion and the mould of form," or early
slept on the hill side of Selkirk, covered by the heath and shaded
by the broom. Perhaps at this moment they live in a green old age,
the chronicles of that fated period, when the mother country by her
ill-starred policy threw away one of her brightest jewels. Individual
suffering increased and rendered poignant beyond the usual lot of
humanity, marked a contest which was founded upon unprovoked aggression.

And here was one of its victims, a sweet and modest flower, that was
transported from its native bed, to sink under the stormy climate, and
the rude winds to which her fate exposed her. Under other circumstance
she might have lived to grace society and throw around her the influence
of virtue, taste and education. But she was doomed to fall like the
blossom from the tree.

(From the _Scrap Table_, a volume of pleasant sketches, published
at Boston, North America.)

[2] His present Majesty, William IV.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.

* * * * *

THE POISONED VALLEY.

At the Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, held on the 28th ult.,
considerable interest was excited by an extract from a letter of Mr.
Alexander Loudon, communicated to the Society by John Barrow, Esq. The
letter contains the account of a visit to a small valley in the island
of Java, which is particularly remarkable for its power of destroying,
in a very short space of time the life of man, or any animal exposed to
its atmosphere. It is distant only three miles from Batur, in Java; and
on the 4th of July, Mr. Loudon, with a party of friends, set out on a
visit to it. It is known by the name of Guevo Upas, or Poisoned Valley;
and, following a path which had been made for the purpose, the party
shortly reached it, with a couple of dogs and some fowls, for the
purpose of making experiments.--On arriving at the mountain the party
dismounted, and scrambled up the side of a hill, a distance of a quarter
of a mile, with the assistance of the branches of trees and projecting
roots. In consequence of the heavy rain that had fallen in the night,
this was rendered more difficult, and