did not pay. Probably it never would _as a bookseller's
speculation_. But might not a society like the Camden be formed for the
purpose with some probability, in these altered times and by such an
improved method of proceeding, of placing these curious and valuable
volumes once more within reach of men of ordinary means? At present the
works edited by Hearne are rarely to be met with in catalogues, and when
they do occur, the prices are almost fabulous, quite on the scale of
those affixed to ancient MSS.

BALLIOLENSIS.

_Suggestions of Books worthy of being reprinted._--Fabricius,
_Bibliotheca Latina Mediae et Infimae AEtatis_, 6 vols. 8vo. (Recommended
in _The Guardian_ newspaper.)

J. M.

_Epigram all the way from Belgium._--Should you think the following
epigram, written in the travellers' book at Hans-sur-Lesse, in Belgium,
worth preserving, it is at your service:

"Old Euclid may go to the wall,
For we've solved what he never could guess,
How the fish in the river are _small_,
But the river they live in is _Lesse_."

H. A. B.

{380}
_Derivation of "Canada."_--I send you a cutting from an old newspaper,
on the derivation of this word:

"The name of Canada, according to Sir John Barrow, originated in
the following circumstances. When the Portuguese, under Gasper
Cortcreal, in the year 1500, first ascended the great river St.
Lawrence, they believed it was the strait of which they were in
search, and through which a passage might be discovered into the
Indian Sea. But on arriving at the point whence they could
clearly ascertain it was not a strait but a river, they, with
all the emphasis of disappointed hopes, exclaimed repeatedly
'Canada!'--Here nothing; words which were remembered and
repeated by the natives on seeing Europeans arrive in 1534, who
naturally conjectured that the word they heard employed so often
must denote the name of the country."

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

_Railway Signals._--An effective communication from the guard to the
engineman, for the prevention of railway accidents, seems to be an
important desideratum, which has hitherto baffled the ingenuity of
philosophers. The only proposed plan likely to be adopted, is that of a
cord passing below the foot-boards, and placing the valve of the steam
whistle under the control of the guard. The trouble attending this
scheme, and the liability to neglect