* * * * * Gray moss and postmarks for minerals (especially ores), fossils, coins, or stamps. CHARLES P. MATTHEUS, P. O. Box 13, Fort Covington, Franklin County, N. Y. * * * * * Twenty-five postage stamps, or ten postmarks and eight stamps, for a box of ocean curiosities and a star-fish. R. LAMP, care of William Lamp, Madison, Dane County, Wis. * * * * * WILLIAM H.--The term "blizzard" is applied in Canada and the Northwestern Territories of the United States to an extremely sharp snow-storm, when the particles of snow are blown by the wind like fine pieces of steel. One can hardly walk the distance of a city block in such a storm without getting one's nose and ears frozen. * * * * * C. B. F.--Mrs. Elizabeth Goose, who lived in Boston before the Revolution, is generally supposed to have been the first to sing, for the amusement of her grandchildren, most of the nursery jingles that have ever since been known as "Mother Goose's Melodies." The _Tales of Mother Goose_, such as "Blue Beard," "Tom Thumb," "Cinderella," etc., were the production of a celebrated French writer of the seventeenth century, named Perrault. He composed these fairy tales to amuse a little son. They were first published in Paris in 1697, under his son's name, and have since been translated into nearly every language. * * * * * JOHN W.--It is said that a Mr. Beyer, an eminent linen-draper of London, underwent in his youth the comical adventures which Cowper has described in his ballad of "John Gilpin." It appears from Southey's life of the poet that his friend Lady Austin once repeated to him a story told to her in her childhood of an unfortunate pleasure party of this linen-draper, ending in his being carried past his point both in going and returning, and finally being brought home by his horse without having met his family at Edmonton. Cowper is said to have been extremely amused by the story, and to have composed his famous ballad while lying awake one night suffering from headache. * * * * * WILLIAM D.--_Old Times in the Colonies_ is ended. You will find a notice of the book in No. 56 of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE. * * * * * E. H.--You will find very good directions for painting magic-lantern slides in a letter from Harry J. in the Post-office Box of YOUNG PEOPLE No. 62. * * * * * HARRY W.--Directions for catching and preserving insects were given in the Post-office Box of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE No. 27, and in the same department of No. 34 is a description of a cheap and simple case for mounting butterflies and other specimens. * * * * * A. RUSSELL.--See answer to S. H. M. in the Post-office Box of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE No. 22.