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Africa, and gave a new impulse and a different direction to the speculations of the scientific. The grand object was to reach India. It was in pursuit of his own favorite theory, the attainment of this same object by a western course, that Columbus discovered the WestIndies; and he died, as he had lived, in the supposition that he had landed upon the East-Indian Islands, and in the neighborhood of the Great Khan. The several voyages of Columbus, and those of his Spanish cotemporaries, to the Islands and to the continent of South America, are treated in chronological order; and the work furnishes a concise and intelligible narrative of events, down to the year 1520, and the controversies between the Spanish and Portuguese crowns for the possession of some of the newly discovered countries.

The

As we intimated above, we think favorably of the plan of Mr. Gordon, and of the execution, thus far. following is the conclusion of his preface.

We are aware of the great extent of our enterprise, and of the many difficulties which attend it; but whilst we solicit charity for our defects, we feel much confidence in our industry, patience, and perseverance; and cannot doubt that an undertaking so useful, if executed without gross error or deficiency, will be duly encouraged. The form we propose to give the work is such, as, we trust, will render it acceptable to all classes of readers, whilst a scrupulous reference to authorities will make it useful to the learned. One or more engravings illustrative of interesting portions of the work, will accompany each volume. It will be printed in parts, as we have already indicated, in 18mo volumes of about three hundred pages each, and sold at a price that will put them within the means of every purchaser.

A Guide for Emigrants, containing Sketches of Illinois, Missouri, and the adjacent parts. By J. M. Peck, of Rock Spring, Illinois.

This volume is a sort of manual for the emigrant, and contains much valuable information for the Eastern stranger who may be seeking a more congenial climate, a relief for misfortune, or a retreat for agricultural indolence, in the rich prairies of the West. The work is principally devoted to the state of Illinois, and is compiled-in a manner more satistactory to the traveler than the scholar,-from the writings of Flint, Hall, Beck, Darby, and others, with many calculations, directions, and reflections, derived from the experience of the author himself. We should recommend it without hesitation to any persons who may be seeking a new "location," as the phrase is, as calculated to assist their search for a farm, and containing good advice relative to the

cultivation of the land, and their intercourse with the people. Whatever their own modesty may induce them to suppose, and notwithstanding the settlement of Ohio, we believe that since the people of the Western States themselves began to move, the Yankees are not the best emigrants. They are such a peculiar people, that when the colonies-for they generally migrate in col· onies-have made their settlement among a people equally peculiar and equally obstinate, they find it difficult to amalgamate. People who are tired of New-England, would do well to take Mr. Peck's book for a guide, and go the "Congress lands" of Illinois in single families. If they cannot succeed there, it may be taken for granted that they will not any where, and there can be no objection to their joining even the wild crusade to the mouth of the Columbia.

The New-Englander will probably read the annexed extract with a smile of incredulity at the enthusiasm of the writer; but a comparison of official documents, especially the Census, will convince him of the possibility of the prediction, it contains; and a single ride from Louisville to St. Louis will also remove all doubts about the probabilities of the case; and it may be true without depopulating New-Eng

land.

Probably there is no portion of the globe, of equal extent, that contains as much soil fit for cultivation, and which is capable of sustaining and supplying with all the necessaries and conveniences, and most of the luxuries of life, so dense a population as this great Valley. Deducting one third of its surface for water and desert, which is a very liberal allowance, and there remains 866,667 square miles, or 554,666,880 acres of arable land.

Let it become as populous as Massachusetts, which contains 610,014 inhabitants on an area of 7,800 square miles, or seventy-eight to every 640 acres, and the population of this immense region will amount to 67,600,000. The child is now born which will live to see this result. Suppose its population to become equally dense with England, including Wales, which contains 207 to the square mile, and its numbers will amount to 179,400,000. But let it become equal to the Netherlands, the most populous country on the globe, containing 230 to the square mile, and the Valley of the Mississippi teems with a population of 200 millions, a result which may be had in the same time that New-England has been gathering its two millions. What reflections ought this view to present to the patriot, the philanthropist, and the Christian!

In the description of the animals of the West, we find the following paragraph.

The Gopher is a nondescript, and a singular little animal, about the size of a squirrel. It burrows in the ground, is seldom seen, but its works make it known. It labors during the

night, in digging subterranean passasges in the rich soil of the prairies, and throws up hillocks of fresh earth, within a few feet distance from each other, and from twelve to eighteen inches in height. I have seen a dozen of these hillocks, the production of one night's labor, and apparently from a single gophar. The passages are formed in such a labyrinth, that it is a difficult matter to find the animal by digging.

That the Gopher is a nondescript no one will dispute; it is indeed seldom seen, and although one would suppose from this description that the author had inspected the animal, yet we shall venture to say that he knows it only by the works of which he speaks. Mr. Flint describes it as a "a species of mole" "of cerulean color,' with a pouch on each side of the jaw, to carry dirt; but he does not intimate that he has ever seen one, nor do we know that any of the many Western historians have been so fortunate as to discover the animal before describing it; and the nearest approach we have been able to make towards certainty, after wondering over many of their mounds, is the word of a friend in Illinois, who was told by a neighbor that his father had seen hunter, who had the skeleton of a Gopher. This is the strongest evidence we have of its existence, although its works, under the different names of Gopher and Salamander, are found all over the southern and western prairies.

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A Manual containing information respecting the growth of the Mulberry tree, with suitable directions for the culture of Silk. In three parts. By J. H. Cobb, A. M. A Silk Worm is in its brief existence the most industrious of all animals. It shames the bee and the ant-which toil only for the sordid and miserly satisfaction of hoarding; while the silk worm looking towards immortality, passes its life in preparing its own shroud, or monument. The cell is rifled by the cupidity of man-and so are the pyramids from whence the mummies are filched with as little remorse as though they were the bones of brute beasts. Sic vos non tobis. The use of silk is so universal that, in the temperate and torrid regions of the earth, there are few people except the miserable poor who have not of it some article of dress, and it is used in sewing almost every other material of covering; yet, though it is almost a necessary of life over half the globe, but a small portion of the earth is devoted to its culture.

The only proper food for the silk worm is the leaf of the mulberry-tree--of which the white is the best. One ounce of seed will produce 5000 trees, which may be planted in hedges, where it is more

easy to reach the leaves. The mulberry is a hardy, thrifty tree, and attains to a great age. Shakspeare's Mulberry might have lived to this day, and the first tree of the kind planted in France (at Montelimart) nearly three centuries ago, is now in existence.

The Chinese mulberry is said to be superior to all others, and the worms will be satisfied with a less supply of its leaves than of the leaves of the other kind; some of them are larger than the crown of a hat. It grows with many shoots from the roots. One acre of full grown mulberry trees will produce forty pounds of silk, worth five dollars per pound; the expenses deducted leave $86 profit per acre, and the principal part of the labor is carried on by women and children in less than six weeks. This calculation was made at Mansfield, Connecticut.

The estimates at Philadelphia and elsewhere, are higher, but the former seems to be the safest. M.D'Homergue says, that an acre will produce ninety thousand pounds of leaves-which, if sold on the tree, at half a cent per pound, will produce $450; or, if sold, delivered, at one cent, produce $900. This would produce thirty seven hundred pounds of cocoons which, at twenty five cents per pound, (with the moth,) is $925. The same quantity well reeled, produces four hundred and twenty pounds of raw silk, which at $3 per pound, the price of the China silk here, makes $1260; if, however, it is perfectly well reeled and fitted for the European market, it may produce at $6 per pound, $2520.

Mr. Cobb has furnished a very useful book, which is in the reach of every farmer. It is so plain that any one may learn from it at once every thing needful to be done to raise and reel silk successfully; and the author seems to be in a fair way of doing much good in his day and generation.

In a short historical account subjoined, it is stated that James I. introduced the silk worm into Virginia and composed a book of instruction on the subject. He desired that the mulberry trees should supercede the tobacco plant, against which the British Solomon blew a furious "counterblast." Every planter who failed to raise one mulberry tree on every ten acres of land, was fined ten pounds of tobacco; and five thousand pounds of tobacco were promised to any one who should produce in one year, one thousand pounds of wound silk. In 1664, one estate had twenty thousand mulberry trees. The culture of silk was also in

troduced into Georgia, and the public seal of the colony represented silk worms in various stages. In 1776, more than twenty thousand pounds of raw silk were exported to England. In Connecticut silk has been raised for seventy years, and about four tons are produced annually in Windham county.

The Cabinet of Natural History and American Rural Sports.

This is a monthly periodical, published at Philadelphia, by Messrs. J. & T. Doughty, and is a work, which in its commencement required no little enterprise, considering how few of our people can in any manner claim to be sportsmen, and how little countenance is given to many works of manifest utility, and no little talent, so far as the pencil is concerned, in its execution. The twelve first numbers, which are now nearly completed, make a quarto volume of about three hundred pages, embellished with twenty-four lithographic plates, handsomely colored, representing different animals, birds, and fishes. The plates give the chief value to the work. They are drawn and colored by one of the publishers, who has acquired considerable reputation as a painter. Each plate is accompanied by an essay giving an account of the subject, which is suited either to the common reader or the scientific student. The editors make no pretensions to literary elegance, but there are, among the original notices of American Sports, some descriptions of perilous encounters, which are as creditable to the pens of the authors, as the feats were to their courage. It should be recollected, also, that the author is necessarily the hero of his own tale, which is a disadvantage to some men when writing for the public, although add to the charm of the narrait tive, in the social circle.

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As the Cabinet is the only work of the kind, it seems to appeal with some force to Americans; as no country affords more occupation for the natural historian, and our works, in all departments of Zoology, are few and expensive. In addition to this, it may be assumed that every publication, which

is calculated to enlighten the community upon points connected with their daily pursuits, their history, their country, or its contents, is entitled to their support-authenticity only being required in the publishers.

The American Annual Register;

for the year 1829-30, or the fifty-fourth year of American Independence.

Perhaps the most satisfactory commendation which could be bestowed upon this work, would be a publication of the table of contents; but for this, or even an abstract of it, we have not the space. It is an octavo volume, comprising more than eight hundred pages, containing very copious abstracts of Congressional proceedings, notices of events in foreign countries, the most important documents issuing from Congress and the Executive Departments, a succinct history of legislative and local affairs and domestic occurrences, in each state, acts of Congress, abstracts of important law decisions, and a few obituary notices of conspicuous individ

uals.

said, that, if fairly executed, it must Of such a work it may always be be valuable to all classes, where politics, in some of the many forms in which political causes operate, are the study of all intelligent people. It is impossible to peruse the book without perceiving that the editor ranks himself among the opponents of the present administration of the general government, on nearly all, if not every one of its prominent measures; but we see no reason to accuse him of partiality. A few errors might be pointed out, some of them rather the mistakes of the printer than the editor, but trivial errors are of great importance in historical works, or books intended for the eductaion of the public, and should not be allowed to escape upon any pretence whatever. Upon the whole, however, we can safely recommend the Register to the student as an accurate compendium of past events, and to the man of business, as a convenient memorial of more matters than he can carry in his mind. The present is the fifth volume.

MISCELLANIES.

PETRIFIED FOREST. The following letter from G. H. Crossman to Lieut. Walker of the United States army, gives some particulars of a remarkable curiosity, which has been often mentioned, but of which our knowledge is yet very imperfect.

Jefferson Barracks, May 1, 1830. Dear Sir,-It affords me much pleasure to comply with your request, with regard to the "Petrified Forest." You ask for a memoir on the subject, but you must be satisfied with the following attempt to give you merely the facts as they came within my own observation, without venturing a single speculation beyond the effects produced. I wish rather to leave the subject in abler hands than mine, and if I can aid, in any way, to solve the problem, by a statement of simple facts, (well known, however, to most of the officers attached to the Yellow Stone expedition,) I shall feel more than compensated for any time I shall devote to the subject.

The enclosed specimen was broken off from one of the many large stumps and limbs of trees, found near Yellow Stone River, and brought away by some one of the officers attached to the Yellow Stone expedition in 1815.

The most remarkable facts, perhaps, with regard to these petrifactions, of what was once a forest of thick timber, are their location and abundance. For

a distance of twenty or thirty miles, over an open high prairie, upon the west bank of the Missouri river, and a few miles below its junction with the Yellow Stone, near latitude 48, these remains are more abundant.

The topography of this section of the country is hilly, and much broken into deep ravines and hollows.

On the

sides and summits of the hills, at an elevation of several hundred feet (estimated three hundred) above the present level of the river, and an estimated height (for we have no instruments) of some thousand feet above the ocean, the earth's face is literally covered with stumps, roots, and limbs of petrified trees; presenting the appearance of a "Petrified Forest;" broken and thrown down by some powerful convulsion of nature, and scattered in all directions in innumerable fragments. Some of the trees appear to have broken off, in falling, close to their roots; while others stand at an elevation of some feet above the surface. Many of the stumps are 12

VOL. II.

of a large size; I measured one of them, in company with Surgeon Gale of the army, and found it to be upwards of fifteen feet in circumference.

ICO.

PYRAMIDS OF TEOTIHUACAN IN MEXAt a recent meeting of the London Geographical Society, a communication was read from Lieut. Glennie, descriptive of these interesting memo

rials.

The village of Teotihuacan is in lat. 10° 43′ N. and in long. 98° 51' W. the variation of the needle being 9° 49' E. The village is elevated 7492 feet above the level of the sea. The pyramids are distant about a mile and a half from it; the largest is 727 feet square at its base, and 221 feet high, with two of its sides parallel to the meridian.

A rampart of about 350 feet from its base, on the north side of which are the remains of a flight of steps, with a road leading from them in a northerly direction, covered with a white cement. The remains of steps were also found on the pyramids, which were covered with the same sort of white cement, as well as broad terraces extending across the sides. The number of pyramids surrounding the large one, was estimated by Mr. Glennie at about two hundred, varying in their dimensions. They

are all constructed with volcanic stones, and plaster from the adjacent soil, all coated with white cement, and the ground between the bases seems formerly to have been occupied as streets, being also covered with the same sort of cement. One of the similar pyramids was covered with a kind of broken pottery, ornamented with curious figures and devices; and in the neighborhood of these edifices abundance of small figures were found, such as heads, arms, legs, &c. moulded in clay, and hardened by fire.

ROW.

MATERNAL TENDERNESS IN A SPARIn North-Carolina, a sparrow, which had built her nest on the thatchroof of a house, was observed to continue her regular visits long after the time when the young birds had taken their flight. This unusual circumstance continued throughout the year; and in the winter, a gentleman who had all along observed her, determined on investigating its cause. He therefore mounted a ladder, and found one of the young ones detained a prisoner, by means of a string of worsted, which formed a part of the nest, having be,

come accidentally twisted round its leg. Being thus incapacitated from procuring its own subsistence, it had been fed and sustained by the continued exertions of its mother.

FAYETTEVILLE. This town in NorthCarolina, was entirely consumed by fire, in May last. An appeal was immediately made to the sympathies of the public, and in the course of six months the municipal authorities received from different sources the sum of $92,297, viz. from Massachusetts, ($9708 from Boston) $14,518; Maine, $125; Rhode-Island, (Providence) $290, $2,067; New-Hampshire, (Portsmouth) Connecticut, $3,062; New-York, (City $10,293) $10,648; Pennsylvania,(Philadelphia $11,857) 12,731; New-Jersey, $305; Maryland, (Baltimore,5762) $6820; District of Columbia, $870; Virginia, $8040; North-Carolina, $11,406; SouthCarolina, (Charleston $5311) $9100; Georgia, $4102 72; Tennessee, $45; Ohio, $1158; Mississippi, $1119; Louisiania, (New-Orleans) $5050; United States Army, $195 50; United

States Navy, (schr. Porpoise,) $200. Total 92,297.

DISCOVERY. Mr. Curtis, who owns the distillery in Utica, N. Y., in the process of distillation from corn, perceived an oil which rose upon the surface of the liquor. He took pains to collect it and make a trial of its properties. It has been determined by repeated experiments by various persons, that the oil answers as well for burning as the best spermaceti oil. It is equally pure and as free from any offensive smell, and will burn as long. Further experiments are making of its use in painting, and it is alleged (although a fair experiment has not yet been made) that it answers all the purposes of linseed oil. Mr. Curtis procures a little less than a quart from a bushel of corn, and from nine to twelve gallons per day, from the quantity of corn be works up. This oil is worth one dollar a gallon. It is also a clear profit to the distiller, as it does not diminish the quantity of liquor or whiskey.

DEATHS,

AND OBITUARY NOTICES OF PERSONS LATELY DECEASED,

In New-Durham, N. H., Mrs. BETSY BERRY, relict of Jos. Berry, and daughter of Mr. Shadrach Aflard, who was the first settler in said town, aged 73 years and nine days. Mrs. Berry had lived in that town seventy years, and died on the farm which was first settled by her father.

In Canterbury, N. H. Elder JOB BISHOP, Minister of the Society of Shakers, in Canterbury and Enfield, aged 71. Forty years ago he went from New-Lebanon and established the Societies in Canterbury and Enfield, of which he was the father and head. In all the relations of life common to his people he was a most exemplary and pious man.

In Boston, WILLIAM H. ELIOT, aged 35 years He was the oldest surviving son of Samuel Eliot Esq., long known as an eminent and opulent merchant. He received the usual honors of Harvard University, in the year 1815. After having passed some time in the study of the law, he was sent, by his father, to Europe, and placed under the patronage of a distinguished professor of the law, in London. Having completed his studies, he visited different countries on the continent, and returned to Boston to pursue his profession. On the inheritance of an ample fortune, he devoted himself to objects more congenial to his taste, and more connected with the general welfare of the community, than mere professional occupation. He was the projector, and the chief and only agent, in obtaining for this city, aided by a few public spirited associates, one of its most enduring and beautiful embellishments, [Tremont House] alike adapted to utility, and to ornament. lived to enjoy the welcome praise of strangers, from all parts of the world, on the admirable

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provision made for them; a praise, which he was happy to find to be given, rather to his native city, than to himself.

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In private life, Mr. Eliot was a liberal patron of all arts and sciences, which tend to adorn society, and to promote innocent and elegant amusement. He had natural gifts, which enabled him to unite with persons of industry and genius, in accomplishing such purposes. did not limit the use of his own talents to the gratification of polished circles. The recollection of his commendable example, and of his constant service in the house of worship, will sadden many a countenance among those who will habitually look for him where he will be seen and heard no more. In his dealing with those whom he employed, he was punctual, honorable and liberal; and he had, as he well deserved to have, their highest respect and confidence. He was a generous and gentlemanly friend, and a frank and manly companion.

It is worthy of being recorded, that the same papers which announced his death, contained the address and resolutions adopted by his friends, on the evening previous to that event, proposing him as a candidate for the Mayoralty of Boston, and pledging their best exertions to secure his election; and there is good reason to believe, that, had he not been removed, those exertions would have been successful.

In Boston, Deacon JOHN SIMPKINS, aged 91; for many years the senior Deacon in the Congregational Churches in that city. For more than 55 years he sustained that office in the New North Church, having been chosen to it in 1776, during the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Andrew Elliot, and fulfilling with exemplary fidelity the

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