Some time after we became acquainted with the one-humped Camel (the Dromedary) of Africa, our journeyings took us to the regions of Central Asia and there we met for the first time the Bactrian or two-humped Camel. This varies somewhat from the Dromedary as it has a larger body, shorter legs, longer and thicker hair and is able to live in a cooler climate and at a greater elevation. Although stupid in intellect, like the Dromedary, we must give it the credit of having a much better disposition. It is of the greatest use to its owners. Its hair, milk, skin and flesh are all put to use. It is not only used as a pack animal, but is harnessed to carts as well. Put to use when five years old, it will, with good treatment, continue to work until its twenty-fifth year. With its help, its owner is able to climb mountains thirteen thousand feet high, and to cross treeless wildernesses where horses would soon perish. It could not be replaced by any other domestic animal. “The horse is the companion of the inhabitant of the steppes,” but the Bactrian Camel, the “Ship of Asia,” is his faithful servant. John Ainslie. THE HILL SUMMIT. This feast-day of the sun, his altar there In the broad west has blazed for vesper-song; And I have loitered in the vale too long And gaze now a belated worshipper. Yet may I not forget that I was ’ware, So journeying, of his face at intervals Transfigured where the fringed horizon falls,— A fiery bush with coruscating hair. And now that I have climbed and won this height, I must tread downward through the sloping shade And travel the bewildered tracks till night. Yet for this hour I still may here be stayed And see the gold air and the silver fade And the last bird fly into the last light. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. [Illustration: ZEBRA. (Equus zebra.)] THE ZEBRA. When passing through the zoological garden one summer afternoon, my attention was called to the antics of the fun-loving, shy and graceful Zebra which was delighting the children with his original performance. There was no ringmaster to indicate the various evolutions, but Zebra Joe was furnishing a sort of circus all by himself. He seemed to have forgotten that he was a stranger in a strange land, and could he have been transported to his own country in South Africa, I hardly imagine he would have seemed gayer or more free.