Minnie W.—Vancouver Island was named from Captain George Vancouver, a British naval officer, who accompanied Captain Cook in his first and second voyages round the world. In 1790 he was put in command of a small squadron, and sent to take possession of the Nootka region, then in the hands of the Spaniards. The island which now bears his name was surrendered to him by the Spanish commandant Quadra in 1792. Vancouver was instructed by the English government to institute a search for a northern water connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans after taking possession of Nootka, but he was unable to discover what many navigators before and after him sought for in vain. It was not until 1850 that the Northwest Passage was finally discovered by Sir Robert McClure. Captain Vancouver died in England in 1798.
Jennie C. A.—The cover for Young People is strong, and very prettily ornamented. It is not self-binding, but any book-binder will put it on for you for a small charge. See answer to C. B. M. in Post-office Box of Young People No. 53.
Dudley.—The standard value of the foreign coins about which you inquire is subject to slight variation in the United States, but as used in the computation of customs duties on January 1, 1880, it was as follows: Chilian peso, or dollar, ninety-one cents; Peruvian dollar, eighty-three cents; Norwegian crown, twenty-six cents; India rupee of sixteen annas, thirty-nine cents; Brazilian milreis of one thousand reis, fifty-four cents; Austrian florin, forty-one cents; German mark, twenty-three cents; Turkish piaster, four cents; Italian lira, nineteen cents; Russian ruble of one hundred copecks, sixty-six cents. We have not given the fractions of a cent, which in business transactions are added to the above amounts, for as you are simply a coin collector, we do not think you will require them.—The Spanish silver "quarter," the "elevenpence," worth twelve and a half cents, and the "fi'penny-bit," worth six and a quarter cents, were in general circulation in the United States, especially in the West, about forty years ago. These coins were marked by the two pillars of the Spanish coat of arms, between them the two castles and two lions rampant of Castile in a shield surmounted by a crown.
"Young Sailor."—The first light-house of which there is any record in history was built by Ptolemy Philadelphus about 300 b.c. It was a tower on which wood fires were kept blazing at night. It was built on Pharos, a small island in the bay of Alexandria, and was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is an interesting fact that the modern French and Spanish names for light-house—the one being phare, the other faro—still preserve the memory of the island where the first attempt at sea-coast illumination was located. The ruined tower in Dover Castle, England, erected about a.d. 44, is claimed by some authorities to have been built for a light-house, upon which an enormous wood fire was kept burning.
The light-house on the southern end of the island of Conanicut, at the mouth of Narragansett Bay, is said to be the oldest in the United States. The present structure is comparatively modern, but the first one was erected in 1750, and for nearly one hundred years previous a watch-tower with a beacon fire had existed at the same point.
This light-house bears the odd name of Beaver Tail. The southern portion of Conanicut Island is shaped something like a beaver, with its tail pointing southward, and in early times it was known by that name, the two extremities being called head and tail.