wings singed or damaged. Others enter the lamp and avoid the flame,
settling down quietly upon the glass, and others again stop outside upon
the glass or the ironwork. During the twilight the slim moths, or
Geometers, arrive, with now and then a large moth; towards ten o'clock
the Noctuas, or stout-bodied moths, begin to appear.

NIGHT AND DAY.

The Night is like a Fairy Prince,
So good, and strong, and great:
His jewels are the stars; they deck
His purple robe of state.

His dinted shield, the silver moon,
Gleams brightly on his breast;
See, how he comes so silently,
And moves towards the West!

The Day a fairy maiden is,
With flower-garlands gay,
And as the Night approaches her,
She blushing hastes away.

But he, undaunted, still pursues
Because he loves her best:
Then lo! he clasps her to his heart,
Far in the crimson West.

THE ROSEMONT GROTTO AND THE PETCHABURG CAVERNS.

[Illustration]

About three hundred miles from the coast of Madagascar, and over one
hundred from the Mauritius, lies the beautiful island to which its
French owners have given the name of Reunion. It was formerly known as
'Ile de Bourbon,' out of compliment to the family name of the French
monarchs, but at the time of the Revolution the island was renamed, and
became Reunion. It is of small size, only thirty-five miles long by
twenty-eight broad; but it contains a range of fine mountains, some as
much as ten thousand feet high. These mountains are of volcanic origin,
and one peak, 'Polon de Fournaise' by name, is one of the most active
volcanoes in the world. Below another, known as the Pic Bory, is a
remarkable cavern, though it only measures sixty yards long by twenty
high. Its chief feature is the curious method of its construction.

In its active days, the Pic Bory had a way of tossing high into the air
huge spouts of boiling lava, which rushed with great force down the
mountain-side, overwhelming everything which came in the way. Now, just
as gunpowder rammed into a cannon drives heavy balls immense distances,
so this lava is driven out of the craters by gases which are imprisoned
below the crust of the earth. When these succeed in getting free,
flames, cinders, and red-hot lava rush out, great explosions are heard
for many miles, and clouds of fiery gas escape into the air. Sometimes,
however, the lava is too densely packed for all the gas to escape, and
some o