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back to see the view. The rest of the party

looked back too.

"I see the station," said railroad where we came in. just going out."

Florence, “and the

See, there is a train

These great basins that we see here nearest to us, Auntie," said Grimkie, "are not for the ships of war. These are for the merchant vessels and the fishermen. The place for the ships of war, which is what they call the military port, is out where you see that smoke coming up. There are immense basins there, a great deal larger than these, and shipyards and arsenals, all enclosed in a strong line of fortifications. The military port does not show much here, but it is as large really as all the rest of the town."

"And where is the great breakwater ?" asked Mrs. Morelle.

"We can not see it from here," said Grimkie, "but it will come into view when we get to the top of the hill."

After resting a few minutes the party resumed their walk and ascended to the top of the hill, where upon a sort of terrace near the drawbridge which led into the castle that crowned the summit, they stopped to take another view-one far more extensive than that which they had enjoyed at their stopping place below. The first thing

which attracted their attention was the breakwater, which extended in a long line parallel to the horizon, at the distance of two or three miles from the shore. The breakwater is seen in the engraving, but it was concealed from view to our party when they stopped to look back upon the ' town by a mass of rocks which came in the way. Florence was, however, very much disappointed by the appearance of the Digue.

"Oh Grimkie," said she, "how could you tell me that it was bigger than the biggest pyramid ? It is not large at all. It is only a low wall running along just above the water. It looks like nothing but a small sand bank."

"Ah, but the great mass of it is under water," said Grimkie. "They had to build it up from the bottom, where the water is forty or fifty feet deep."

"The bigness of it, then, is of no consequence to us," said Florence, "if it is all under water where we can't see it."

"We must imagine the part that we can not see," replied Grimkie. "See how long it is, too -more than two miles; and look at the great castles built upon it. Those are great batteries of cannon. On the walls of them are the biggest guns in the world. They can throw balls and bombshells out over the water farther than we

can see.

Just as soon as an English ship should come in sight, anywhere in the offing, fifty bombshells bigger than my head would go whistling over the sea out toward them, and would burst upon their decks or in their sides, and tear every thing to pieces."

After remaining for some time upon the terrace enjoying the view, the party began to descend. They came down, not by the road where they went up, but by the path already referred to, on the front side of the hill, where it was much steeper. This path had been made with great labor by blasting away the rock in some places, and by walling up in others. It was made for the soldiers of the castle to go up and down by. There was only room for two persons to walk together.

Mrs. Morelle and John went first, and Grimkie and Florence came behind.

"How do you know that the Digue is twice as big as the biggest pyramid ?" asked Florence.

"I calculated it," said Grimkie. "It is very easy to get the solid content of a pyramid-you multiply the area of the base into one third of the height; and you get the area of the base by multiplying the length into the breadth of it."

“Very likely,” said Florence. Florence was not much of a mathematician, and she was very

little interested in the details of Grimkie's computation.

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Then," continued Grimkie, "the Digue is in the form of the frustrum of a pyramid. You know what a frustrum of a pyramid is, I suppose ?"

"No," said Florence, "I never heard of it before."

"Why the frustrum is the part that is left when the top is cut off," said Grimkie. "The top of the Digue is flat, just as if it had been originally built up until the sloping sides and ends came together at a point above, and then as if all the upper part, down to within twenty feet of the water, had been cut away. The Digue as it is is what would be left of the original pyramid if it were first built complete and then cut away. We have to make that supposition."

"I don't see why you need make any supposition at all," rejoined Florence. "You might as well take it just as it is.”

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"It is for easy reckoning," said Grimkie, SO that we can calculate the content of it better."

"I don't think it is easy reckoning at all," said Florence. "It is very hard reckoning, and the more suppositions you make the harder it is."

"Oh, no," said Grimkie," it is very easy. We

first calculate what the content of the whole pyramid would be; and then we calculate the content of the upper part we suppose to have been cut away, and we subtract one from the other."

"Oh, dear me !" said Florence, with a deep sigh.

"At any rate," said Grimkie, "I made a calculation, though I don't suppose it was very

exact."

"I don't care," said Florence. "At any rate I would rather see a pyramid than any Digue, because it stands on the ground where it is all in full view, instead of being almost all under water and out of sight."

The party spent the remainder of the day, after descending from the hill, in rambling about the town. They met with objects and indications every where, which marked the naval and military character of the place. Troops were occasionally seen, marching to and fro, and groups of sailors, neatly dressed in nautical style, as if they had come on shore for a holiday, each bearing the name of the ship that he belonged to on his hat band. The environs of the town were delightful. There were precipitous hills and rocky cliffs seen in every direction, all surmounted with castles, forts and batteries, and some of them

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