When we talk about "dog-days" now, we mean the period of the year between July 3d and August 11th, twenty days before and after the rising of the "dog-star."

The name was applied by the ancients to a period of about forty days, the hottest season of the year, at the time of the rising of Sirius, the dog-star.

The time of the rising is now, owing to the precession of the equinoxes, different from what it was then (July 1st). It is now about July 23d.

Electric Coining Press, U. S. Mint, Philadelphia.

Woman feeding planchets to brass tubes, from the bottom of which they are carried to the steel dies which form the coins.