Contemporary Letters On The French Revolution.

The Prince de Concle ancl the other great houses haA'e plastered over the arms Avhich ivere on the gates of their hotels , so that they look like little sentinel boxes . As the Queen Avas getting into the carriage , AVednesday , the Poissardes said " notre Reine vous nous rcgardez pas de

bonne Avril . " She turned round and smiled . She Avas perfectly mistress of herself , the Avhole clay Avas uncommonly fine , and looked very cheerfull , the propos of the Poissardes must therefore have been determined before hand .

As my whole letter has been chit-chat , I cannot conclude it better than with a bon mot of Madame , which you may perhaps not have heard . The first time the King saw her after the titles ivere abolished , he said " Bon jour , Capet , " she immediately answered , "Bon jour Capofc . "

The Ocean.

THE OCEAN .

BY BRO . J . A . K . SOME of the early philosophers referred all things to Avater , and not Avithout reason . It is the agent of all terrestrial activity ,

the universal percolator and solvent , tho transferer of atoms from body to body , of soils from place to jilace , and of land itself into the silent bosom of its OAVII depths . Its tides and currents , its oA'aporations , its ' circuitsas cloudsrainand mistsand

, , , , its subservience to heat and atmospheric pressure , render it tho universal fertilizer . The tides are constantly iloAving and ebbing , ebbing and Sowing—never at rest . Once in every thirteen hours the tide taps at the door of every Avharfinger on the

Thames and other rivers , and asks , " Is there anything to go up , or is there anything to go down file river to-day ? for I am just ready to take it , " So punctual a servant is the tide that ive may place implicit reliance on its return at a proper time .

It is necessary , hoAvever , to Avatch its movements , for , unless kept Avithin bounds , it will take unbounded liberties , and not only tap at the door , but sometimes enter

the itemise . ? , and perhaps destroy the contents , if it does not carry them aAvay . Some people attribute the changeable character of the tide to its bavin" formed an o intimate connection ivith the Moon , for when tho Moon is in its infancy , or Avhen it is full groAvnthe tides arc always the

, most rampant , and are called springs ; ancl they are especially so at the time of the equinoxes in March ancl September . When the Moon is at either her first or third

quarter , then the tides are least active and are called neaps . The ocean rises and falls alternately , and its depth is observed to be greatest at any given place a certain time after tho Moon has passed tho meridian of that place ; after Avhich it decreases until it

reaches a certain point , when it again gradually rises . As there are two tides in each lunar clay , and as tho Moon comes to tho meridian ] later each day , so the tides are on an average fifty-two minutes later each clay , tho interval fluctuating at

different times of the year . At the London Docks the spring tides rise about 24 feet from IOAV Avater ; the neap tides about 18 feet . At Chepstow , in the Bristol Channel , the tide sometimes rises 50 feet . At the Bay of Fundy , Nova Scotia 60 or

, 70 feet . At Anapolis , 100 or 120 feet . In the middle of largo oceans the tides are much less . The spring tides in the middle of the Pacific only rise four or five foot , and the neaps two or two and a half feet . In the Mediterranean tho tides are

scarcely observable in consequence of the entrance being too contracted to admit of sufficient influx and reflux from the Atlantic to materially alter tho level , excepting for a limited distance ivithin the Strait of Gibraltar . The same cause operates with regard to tho Baltic and also with

lakes . There is an upper current constantly flowing into the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar , and in all probability an under current HOAVS out . Contrary currents passing along , side by

side , are not uncommon , In the Cattcgat , or northern current , it Hows out of tho Baltic along the coast of SAVeden , while a southern one enters the Baltic along tho coast of Denmark . When two opposite currents of about equal force meet one another , they sometimes , especially in