animals not constantly killed and the skins shipped to England in the summer, when the fur is almost useless. The coat, especially of the kangaroo, is close and soft like plush, with beautiful tints of French gray, warm red, orange, and rose color. The famous "boxing kangaroo" attracted a good deal of attention some three years ago. It earned an immense sum of money, sometimes given as £20,000. It had not received any special training; its keeper simply took advantage of the fact that a tame kangaroo who knows its master will always "box" when invited to do so, putting up his short forearms to ward off any imaginary blows. This kangaroo set the fashion for the sport, for the animals at once were sought after for sparring exhibitions, and for a time all the kangaroos in Europe outside of the menageries nightly drew crowds to their pugilistic feats. Kangaroos easily adapt themselves to the European climate; they thrive well in the zoölogical gardens, and have even been successfully kept on private estates in England. Their graceful poses and their soft, beautifully tinted coats make them objects of general attraction.
Roadside Orchards.—The experiment of planting fruit trees along the sides of public highways has been tried with satisfactory results in several German states and in Austria, and the products of the plantations have been the means of adding considerably to the revenues of the Governments thereof. In Saxony the profit derived by the state from that source during fourteen years is estimated at about four hundred thousand dollars. Planting of forest trees by the sides of the roads has been abandoned in Würtemberg, and the plantation and care of fruit trees are regulated by law. The trees are placed in the care f the abutting proprietor under the supervision of the highway inspector. In Bavaria and the Palatinate each road man is duplicated by a horticulturist, for whose qualification special instruction is provided, and who has to pass a competitive examination. In some regions the lines of the railroads are also planted, and in others the minor roads and even private roads. The system has made the most rapid progress and reached the highest development in the grand duchy of Luxemburg, where special classes are held every year, under a professor in the agricultural school, for teaching the inspectors and road hands the theoretical and practical elements of the orchardist's art.
The Dalai Lama.—Mr. St. George R. Littledale, who traveled in Tibet in 1894, learned from an interpreter that the Dalai Lama then reigning was about twenty years old, and was to come of age in the succeeding November. The Rajah of Lhasa, who was acting as regent, would then lose his power and retire into private life. The last two Dalai Lamas had died between the ages of eighteen and twenty, which seemed to be a peculiarly fatal period in the lives of these potentates. The present regent had held office for forty years, and might perhaps have given interesting details of the last illnesses of two of his sovereigns. The Dalai Lama, however often the dignitary may be reincarnated, never really dies; the incarnation descends to some infant, whom it is the business of the lama priesthood to discover. When found, he is brought to Lhasa, surrounded by crowds of lamas, who educate him for the position he is so seldom allowed to fill. The Dalai Lama of Mr. Littledale's time was discovered as a baby at Thokopo, five days from Lhasa. The Teshu Lama at Shigatze was a boy of twelve or thirteen, who during his minority was under the tutelage of Lhasa. When a Tibetan lama dies, they carry the body to a mountain, cut it to pieces, and the vultures do the rest. The Dalai Lama is embalmed, and gold and jewels are inserted into his face. The three great incarnations—the Dalai Lama, the Teshu Lama, and the Taranath Lama—are all equally holy, and their sedan chairs, when in Lhasa, are each carried by eight bearers, while the two Chinese mandarins are allowed only four bearers apiece.
Quick Growth of a Myth.—A pertinent illustration of the way myths and legends may grow and expand is illustrated by the story of Alexander (the Great), of which Mr. E. A. Wallis Budge has published the Syriac and Ethiopic versions. No instance of the development of fables, says the Athenæum's review of one of these publications, can be more instructive; for we start from a real
