THE SUEZ CANAL.—­The Suez Canal was begun in 1,858 and was formally opened in November, 1869.  Its cost, including harbors, is estimated at $100,000,000.  Its length is 100 miles, 75 of which were excavated; its width is generally 325 feet at the surface, and 75 feet at the bottom, and its depth 26 feet.  The workmen employed were chiefly natives, and many were drafted by the Khedive.  The number of laborers is estimated at 30,000.  The British government virtually controls the canal as it owns most of the stock.

SENDING VESSELS OVER NIAGARA FALLS.—­There have been three such instances.  The first was in 1827.  Some men got an old ship—­the Michigan—­which had been used on lake Erie, and had been pronounced unseaworthy.  For mere wantonness they put aboard a bear, a fox, a buffalo, a dog and some geese and sent it over the cataract.  The bear jumped from the vessel before it reached the rapids, swam toward the shore, and was rescued by some humane persons.  The geese went over the falls, and came to the shore below alive, and, therefore, became objects of great interest, and were sold at high prices to visitors at the Falls.  The dog, fox, and buffalo were not heard of or seen again.  Another condemned vessel, the Detroit, that had belonged to Commodore Perry’s victorious fleet, was started over the cataract in the winter of 1841, but grounded about midway in the rapids, and lay there till knocked to pieces by the ice.  A somewhat more picturesque instance was the sending over the Canada side of a ship on fire.  This occurred in 1837.  The vessel was the Caroline, which had been run in the interest of the insurgents in the Canadian rebellion.  It was captured by Colonel McNabb, an officer of the Canada militia, and by his orders it was set on fire then cut loose from its moorings.  All in flames, it went glaring and hissing down the rapids and over the precipice, and smothered its ruddy blaze in the boiling chasm below.  Thia was witnessed by large crowds on both sides of the falls, and was described as a most magnificent sight.  Of course there was no one on board the vessel.

OLD TIME WAGES IN ENGLAND.—­The following rates of daily wages “determined” by the Justices of Somerset, in 1685, answer this question very fairly.  Somerset; being one of the average shires of England.  The orthography is conformed to original record: 

s. d.

Mowers per diem, findeing themselves:                        1   2
Mowers at meate and drinke:                                  0   7
Men makeing hay per diem, findeing themselves:               0  10
Men at meate and drinke:                                     0   6
Women makeing hay:                                           0   7
Women at meate and drinke:                                   0   4
Men reapeing corne per diem, findeing themselves:            1   2
Men reapinge corne at meate and drinke:                      0   8
Moweing an acre of grasse, findeing themselves:              1   2
Moweing an acre of grasse to hay:                            1   6
Moweing an acre of barley:                                   1   1
Reapeinge and bindeinge an acre of wheate:                   3   0
Cuttinge and bindeinge an acre of beanes and hookinge:       2   0

The shilling is about 24 cents and the penny 2 cents.