be seen, vying with each other, and eclipsing every thing besides.  Midway they meet you again, sometimes fragrant, and always lovely; and in the topmost places, where the larch, and the pine, and the rhododendron (the last living shrub) are no longer to be seen, where you are just about to tread upon the limit of perpetual snow, there still peep up and blossom the “Forget me not,” the Alpine ranunculus, and the white and blue gentian, the last of which displays, even in this frore air, a blue of such intense and splendid colour, as can scarcely be surpassed by the heavens themselves.  It is impossible not to be affected at thus meeting with these little unsheltered things, at the edge of eternal barrenness.  They are the last gifts of beneficent, abundant Nature.  Thus far she has struggled and striven, vanquishing rocks and opposing elements, and sowing here a forest of larches, and there a wood of pines, a clump of rhododendrons, a patch of withered herbage, and, lastly, a bright blue flower.  Like some mild conqueror, who carries gifts and civilization into a savage country, but is compelled to stop somewhere at last, she seems determined that her parting present shall also be the most beautiful.  This is the limit of her sway.  Here, where she has cast down these lovely landmarks, her empire ceases.  Beyond, rule the ice and the storm!—­New Monthly Magazine.

* * * * *

THE COMPANION TO THE ALMANAC.

This is the age of utility, and the little volume published under the above title is altogether characteristic of the age.  Its contents are calculated to feed and foster the spirit of inquiry which is abroad.  People are beginning to find they are not so wise as they had hitherto conceived themselves to be, or rather, that their knowledge on every-day subjects is very scanty.  We are therefore pleased to see in the present “Companion” a popular paper on Comets; a series of attractive Observations of a Naturalist; papers on the Management of Children, Clothing, Economy in the Use of Bread and Flour, and a concise account of Public Improvements during the year.  All these are matters of interest to every house and family in the empire.  There is, besides, an abundance of Parliamentary papers, judiciously abridged, from which the reader may obtain more information than by passing six months in “both your Houses,” or reading a session of debates.  The Table of Discoveries is likewise a valuable feature; and the Chronological Table of European Monarchs is almost a counterpart of a “Regal Tablet” sent to us, some weeks since, for the MIRROR, and promised for insertion.  There is, however, one feature missing, which we noticed in the “Companion” of last year, and we cannot but think that, to make room for its introduction, some of the parliamentary matter in the present volume might have been spared.  The editor will be aware of our disinterestedness in making this suggestion, and we hope will give us credit accordingly.