fired. At last
it showed itself, and was immediately gripped with the shears.
Dropping the pistol, the missionary employed both hands in the effort,
and running backward a few steps, the whole frightful length of the
serpent was drawn out upon the ground.

Remembering their former experience, the crowd moved away, but the
missionary spared them a second fright.

Both cobras being helpless, an examination was made of them. The
second one showed the marks of fourteen pistol balls through his body,
any three of which would have proved fatal, but he was still full of
fight, and died while trying to strike the persons near him.

The serpents were now stretched out on the veranda and measured one of
them five feet eleven inches long, and the other six feet two inches.
The last is an extraordinary size, rarely seen even in the favorite
haunts of the reptile. An investigation of their home left no doubt
that they had been living for months right among the flower pots that
were attended to daily, and within six feet of the veranda and twelve
feet of the door of the missionary's study.

As for the frog that crawled under the box just in time to save
himself, he was well and flourishing at the last accounts.

CYCLONES AND TORNADOES.

Science as yet has not been able to grasp the laws that govern
cyclones. They seem to be the result of some intensely electric
condition of the elements, which finds an expression in that form.
Cyclones, until within a few years, meant those circular tempests
encountered in the Pacific and Indian oceans. They are the most
destructive of all storms, being far more deadly than monsoons and
tornadoes.

All navigators, when caught in a cyclone know how to get out of it.
They have only to sail at right angles to the wind, when they will
either pass beyond the outer rim of the circular sweep, or reach the
center, where the ocean is calm.

The diameters of the ocean cyclones range from fifty to five hundred or
a thousand miles. Professor Douglas, of Ann Arbor University,
entertains his friends now and then by manufacturing miniature
cyclones. He first suspends a large copper plate by silken cords. The
plate is heavily charged with electricity, which hangs below in a
bag-like mass. He uses arsenious acid gas, which gives the electricity
a greenish tint. That mass of electricity becomes a perfect little
cyclone. It is funnel-shaped and spins around like a top. When he
moves the pla