28,000,000 $11,813,000,000 $26,441,000,000

During the first period (prior to the commencement of the Christian
Era,) the annual product of the precious metals was $2,000,000; during
the second period (prior to the discovery of America,) it was
$3,000,000; during the third period (prior to the extensive working of
the Russian gold mines, in 1843,) it was $26,000,000; during the fourth
period (prior to the double discovery of the California gold mines in
1858, and the Australia gold mines in 1851,) it was $140,000,000; during
the fifth period (which immediately succeeded afore-mentioned
discoveries,) it was $243,000,000; during the sixth period (immediately
succeeding the double discovery of the New Zealand gold mines in 1861,
and the silver mines of Nevada and other countries bordering on the
Pacific slope of the United States,) it was $212,000,000. The annual
products of the precious metals attained its acme in 1853, when it was
$285,000,000. The increase in the amount of the precious metals in
existence has been greater during the last forty-years than during the
previous two hundred and ninety-four. Of the amount ($6,441,000,000) of
the precious metals estimated to have been obtained from the surface and
mines of the earth, from the earliest times to the close of 1884,
$12,100,000,000 are estimated to have been obtained from America
$6,724,000,000 from Asia (including Australia, New Zealand and
Oceanica), $3,751,000,000 from Europe, and $2,866,000,000 from Africa.

* * * * *

AMESBURY: THE HOME OF WHITTIER.

BY FRANCES C. SPARHAWK.

Amesbury is only a town. It has defects that would strike a stranger,
and beauties that one who has learned to love them never forgets; they
linger in glimpses of wood and hill and river and lake, and often rise
unbidden before the mind's eye. The poet Whittier says that those who
are born under the shadow of Powow Hill always return sometime, no
matter how far they may have wandered. He himself, though not Amesbury
born, has found it impossible to desert the old home, full of
associations and surrounded by old friends. He always votes in Amesbury,
and he often spends weeks at a time in his old home. The river that he
has sung, the lake that he has re-christened, the walks and drives with
which he is so familiar, all exercise their spell upon him; he loves
them, just as he loves the warm hearts that he has found there and
helped to make wa