In consequence of the extreme dryness of the atmosphere in winter, most articles of English manufacture brought to Rupert’s Land are shrivelled, bent, and broken. The handles of razors and knives, combs, ivory scales, &c., kept in the warm room, are changed in this way. The human body also becomes vividly electric from the dryness of the skin. One cold night I rose from my bed, and was going out to observe the thermometer, with no other clothing than my flannel night-dress, when on my hand approaching the iron latch of the door, a distinct spark was elicited. Friction of the skin at almost all times in winter produced the electric odour. Even at midwinter we had but three hours and a half of daylight. On December 20th I required a candle to write at the window at ten in the morning. The sun was absent ten days, and its place in the heavens at noon was denoted by rays of light shooting into the sky above the woods. The moon in the long nights was a most beautiful object, that satellite being constantly above the horizon for nearly a fortnight together. Venus also shone with a brilliancy which is never witnessed in a sky loaded with vapours; and, unless in snowy weather, our nights were always enlivened by the beams of the aurora. INTENSE HEAT AND COLD OF THE DESERT. Among crystalline bodies, rock-crystal, or silica, is the best conductor of heat. This fact accounts for the steadiness of temperature in one set district, and the extremes of Heat and Cold presented by day and night on such sandy wastes as the Sahara. The sand, which is for the most part silica, drinks-in the noon-day heat, and loses it by night just as speedily. The influence of the hot winds from the Sahara has been observed in vessels traversing the Atlantic at a distance of upwards of 1100 geographical miles from the African shores, by the coating of impalpable dust upon the sails. TRANSPORTING POWER OF WINDS. The greatest example of their power is the _sand-flood_ of Africa, which, moving gradually eastward, has overwhelmed all the land capable of tillage west of the Nile, unless sheltered by high mountains, and threatens ultimately to obliterate the rich plain of Egypt. EXHILARATION IN ASCENDING MOUNTAINS. At all elevations of from 6000 to 11,000 feet, and not unfrequently for even 2000 feet more, the pedestrian enjoys a pleasurable feeling, imparted by the consciousness of existence, similar to that which is described as so fascinating by those who have become familiar with the desert-life of the East. The body seems lighter, the nervous power greater, the appetite is increased; and fatigue, though felt for a time, is removed by the shortest repose. Some travellers have described the sensation by the impression that they do not actually press the ground, but that the blade of a knife could be inserted between the sole of the foot and the mountain top.--_Quarterly Review_, No. 202. TO TELL THE APPROACH OF STORMS.