depth 26 feet. The workmen employed were chiefly natives, and
many were drafted by the Khedive. The number of laborers is estimated
at 30,000. The British government virtually controls the canal as it
owns most of the stock.

SENDING VESSELS OVER NIAGARA FALLS.--There have been three such
instances. The first was in 1827. Some men got an old ship--the
Michigan--which had been used on lake Erie, and had been pronounced
unseaworthy. For mere wantonness they put aboard a bear, a fox, a
buffalo, a dog and some geese and sent it over the cataract. The bear
jumped from the vessel before it reached the rapids, swam toward the
shore, and was rescued by some humane persons. The geese went over
the falls, and came to the shore below alive, and, therefore, became
objects of great interest, and were sold at high prices to visitors at
the Falls. The dog, fox, and buffalo were not heard of or seen again.
Another condemned vessel, the Detroit, that had belonged to Commodore
Perry's victorious fleet, was started over the cataract in the winter
of 1841, but grounded about midway in the rapids, and lay there till
knocked to pieces by the ice. A somewhat more picturesque instance was
the sending over the Canada side of a ship on fire. This occurred in
1837. The vessel was the Caroline, which had been run in the interest
of the insurgents in the Canadian rebellion. It was captured by
Colonel McNabb, an officer of the Canada militia, and by his orders
it was set on fire then cut loose from its moorings. All in flames, it
went glaring and hissing down the rapids and over the precipice,
and smothered its ruddy blaze in the boiling chasm below. Thia
was witnessed by large crowds on both sides of the falls, and was
described as a most magnificent sight. Of course there was no one on
board the vessel.

OLD TIME WAGES IN ENGLAND.--The following rates of daily wages
"determined" by the Justices of Somerset, in 1685, answer this
question very fairly. Somerset; being one of the average shires of
England. The orthography is conformed to original record:

s. d.

Mowers per diem, findeing themselves: 1 2
Mowers at meate and drinke: 0 7
Men makeing hay per diem, findeing themselves: 0 10
Men at meate and drinke: 0 6
Women makeing hay: