mies of E-gypt were wrap-ped in it: and im-mense por-tions of it are still made in that coun-try; chief-ly in those dis-tricts which are seat-ed near the mouths of the riv-er Nile. Be-sides form-ing a pleas-ant and use-ful cloth-ing, the rags, af-ter be-ing made in-to a soft pulp or paste, are form-ed in-to sheets of pa-per. The seeds yield an oil which is well known in com-merce. In Eng-land, flax is sown in the spring, and is ripe in the au-tumn of the year. The stems, af-ter be-ing pla-ced e-ven at the base, are tied in bundles for rot-ting, a pro-cess which must be gone through to ob-tain the fi-bres: af-ter this, the flax is dress-ed, then comb-ed, and last-ly spun. There is a plant of this kind found in New Zealand, which is u-sed by the na-tives for cord-age and cloth-ing: it is of a much stron-ger tex-ture than our's, and is well suit-ed to the cli-mate of the south of France, where it has been rear-ed late-ly with ve-ry great suc-cess. All kinds of sound tra-vel at the same rate. The re-port of a gun, and the strik-ing of a hammer, are as quick as each oth-er in their mo-tion through the air. The soft-est whis-per flies as swift-ly, as far as it goes, as the loud-est thun : der it has been found that sound moves at the rate of one thou-sand one hun-dred and for-tytwo feet in one sec-ond of time, or thir-teen miles in a min-ute: hence we may tell the dis-tance of a storm, when thun-der and light-ning at-tend it; or the dis-tance of a ship in dis-tress by the fir-ing of its guns, if we count the num-ber of sec-onds be-tween see-ing the flash and hear-ing the re-port: thus, sup-pose that we reck-on fifteen sec-onds be-tween these two e-vents, then it will ap-pear by the a-bove ac-count that the storm is three miles and a quar-ter dis-tant from the place where we are stand-ing. The bea-ver is a crea-ture that lives ei-ther on land or in wa-ter, and is found in most north-ern re-gions of the globe. It has a flat broad tail, which it u-ses as a rud-der, and its toes are web-bed, by which rea-son it is more fit-ted for swim-ming than walk-ing. It is hunt-ed dur-ing the win-ter sea-son for the sake of its skin, the fur of which is u-sed in mak-ing hats. Sometimes bea-vers have been tam-ed; and there is an ac-count of one which was brought in-to this coun-try some years a-go, and be-came so do-cile that it would lie be-fore the fire on the hearthrug, at-tend to the call of its mas-ter, and try to con-struct a build-ing like that which it would с |