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occasion I placed a bar of copper, about one foot long and three inches wide by one inch thick, in a situation exposed to the hot wind and the sun's rays; when it had been thus placed for about two hours, I wrapped some common post letter paper round it, and in doing so, it accidentally came against my hand, which it burnt, and in a few hours after the place blistered. After the paper had been in contact with the copper about an hour, the color changed to a deep straw or pale brown; and it was so scorched and rotten, that it broke in pieces when I attempted to unwrap it. During the prevalence of these siroccos, the high clouds, cirrus, and strata, dis appear, while the lower remain unchanged; and at night the air is commonly filled with beautiful sheet-lightning. It is believed that there are no noxious gases in these winds, and they are said to exercise no deleterious effects on the health of man; the climate would, nevertheless, be more salubrious without them, as, during their prevalence, nearly all persons of weakly or debilitated constitutions suffer extreme lassitude and depression. The moisture dries from the eyes, the lips become parched and cracky, the breathing short and quick, the air as it enters the mouth feels burning hot; and while sitting perfectly still, the perspiration oozes from every pore in the skin. Individuals of robust constitution, however, are not thus affected; the hardy, sun-tanned colonists freely expose themselves to the fiery blast; and, breathing the hot air full of dust and sand, toil on indifferent to every thing but the demand of a parched thirst, and, in some cases, a wolfish appetite. When questioned, they reply: "Oh, the heat is no nuisance; it's the choking dust that's unbearable."

The same book that thus speaks of the climate, tells us also something very interesting about the farms in Australia; also about the farmers and their wives

"The farm-houses are rough, but generally substantial and commodious: they are built of different materials, according to circumstances; if good stone or slate is handy, it is used; if not, and suitable clay exists in the neighborhood, bricks are resorted to; and when none of these materials are to be had, the dwelling is built wholly of wood. These residences usually have no ceiling, nor upper floor-when you look up you see the roof; the walls are not plastered, painted, nor in any way decorated except those which occasionally get a lime-wash. The windows are sometimes canvas, sometimes glass, and the fire-places and chimnies are constructed as already described. For flooring, some have only earth, some are paved with stone, some with slate, a few with bricks, and a very few have wood floors. Water for domestic and other purposes is usually procured by sinking wells; and although occasionally pure and excellent, it is in general impregnated with minerals, hard and brackish to the taste, and more or less unwholesome. Near the farm-house is the rough but strongly-built stock-yard, barn, stable, and other needful outhouses.

There are no English-looking green hedges in the colony; the farms are enclosed with rude, misshapen wood fences; the three-rail " post and rail" is the most usual; it will cost from 701. to 801. to enclose an eighty-acre section with this fence. Where timber is plentiful, the "kangaroo"

fence is preferred before all others, as it keeps out sheep, pigs, and such like quadrupeds; it is formed of pieces of timber, large and small, all cut into equal lengths, either of seven or eight feet, and placed close and upright in a trench two feet deep, and tightly rammed; a rough batten being nailed along the top as a band. The "ditch and bank," and "dog and log" fence are occasionally met with. A simple but ingenious contrivance is frequently used for gate-hinges to the " post and rail" fence, viz.: the back upright of the gate is made long, so as to form a top and bottom spur, the top spur is pushed through a hole formed to receive it in the top rail of the fence, and the bottom spur is bevelled to a point, and fitted into the conical bottom of a stout or winebottle, which is sunk into the ground neck downwards. This hinge never unships, and well answers its purpose.

The farmers furnish their dwellings with few articles of domestic convenience. Only a few wood-bottomed chairs, an uncushioned cedar sofa, one or two plain cedar tables, bedsteads of the plainest description, and sometimes a small looking-glass, are to be met with in the dwellings of the more wealthy; most of the poor farmers make their own furniture, which generally consists of a few rude forms and stools, a table and bedstead; and not unfrequently the only partition between the bed-room and the sitting-room is one or two outstretched sheets. Their cooking utensils and mode of cooking are similar to those of the urban population of Victoria. They all live on plain but substantial dishes, and some keep a good stock of European wines, and British bottled stout and ale. They of course raise nearly all their own edibles; and in order to live on fresh meat, three or four of them will club together, and in turn each kill a sheep or bullock, as the case may be.

The farmers, and indeed all persons who reside away from the towns, dress in the coarsest apparel. The usual male attire is a pair of common slop trousers, a blue guernsey, with a leather belt to keep the trousers up and the guernsey down, a flaunting red cotton handkerchief as a neck-tie; a broad-brimmed cabbage-tree hat, and a pair of heavy hobnail boots. Some wear a coarse regatta shirt under the guernsey, and others, when circumstances permit, enjoy in the hot weather the luxury of nakedness, by dressing in only a shirt and a pair of boots. The farmers' wives and daughters usually dress in cottons; their attire, although common and coarse, is neat, chaste, and tidy; they wear high dresses, and cotton bonnets made with a large curtain to keep the sun from freckling the neck; they nevertheless have their jewels, silks, &c., which they wear on festive occasions. Many of them are well-educated, devoid of affectation, thrifty, and industrious. Indeed, I was struck in my travels in the colony, with the beauty, the accomplished graces, the glowing health, the vivacity, and the open-heartedness of the fair sex in the rural districts; and I should be wanting in gratitude did I not record their disinterested kindness, attention, and general liberality to the wandering stranger.

Most of the farmers and others, who dwell in the rural districts within the hundred of the counties, are, although parsimonious to a fault,

altogether more moral, more straightforward and honorable in their business transactions, more kind and considerate to their neighbors, and generous and hospitable to strangers, than the Mammon-worshipping Adeladians. Their chief sources of amusement are hunting, shooting, riding, and reading. Some possess their pianoforte, and enliven their homes with popular and even classical music, and occasionally dedicate an evening to Terpsichore, when the polka, mazurka, schottische, valse-a-deux-temps, and other popular dances, are gone through with a grace and gusto that would astonish the fashionables of London." Every successive year will keep adding to the interest already created in favor of these colonies. It is curious to observe how eagerly everything connected with them is caught at and read.

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The funeral dirge of Nature's fairest flowers.
Yet have I seen thy smile-not like the Spring
Or joyous Summer. Timidly it cast
A ray of future hope; and seemed to bring

A sad, yet pleasing memory of the past.

Yes; thou hast pleasures for the happy few,
Who love to revel in the fond delights
That Nature gives her children; treasures, too,
Of priceless worth; and grand and gorgeous
sights.

With ecstacy I hail the bracing breeze,

And love to watch the fairy flakes of snow, As they fall gracefully amongst the trees,

To breathe a parting blessing ere they go.
And who can fail to love thee? When the frost
Has crystalised the earth, and the moon's
light

Beams on the face of nature,—we are lost,
In love and admiration at the sight.
Then let us wander where the leafless trees
Are dressed in crystal robes,-earth's brightest

gem,

And brilliant ice-drops, moulding as they freeze,
To deck with beauty Nature's diadem.
Oh! we will ne'er forget the joy, the pride,

Of England's happy home! Where'er we rove
May happiness attend the dear fire-side,
AND WINTER'S DREARY HOURS BE CHEERED BY

LOVE!

DEW, AND HOAR FROST.

How many persons are there, to whom the frost are perfectly unknown! Yet are they phenomena attendant upon dew and hoar singular, curious, and interesting :

DEW.

When the direct influence of the sun is removed, in the evening, and the surface of the earth thus no longer continues to acquire heat, at that instant, from the ceaseless activity of heat to maintain a state of equili brium, the surface of the earth, being the warmer body, radiates a portion of its superfluous temperature into the surrounding space; and thus the air immediately in contact with the surface becomes cooled below the point of saturation, and gives off a portion of its water in the form of dew. The deposition of dew is always most abundant during calm and cloudless nights, and in situations freely exposed to the atmosphere. Whatever interferes in any way with the process of radiation, as might be expected, has a great effect on the deposition of dew. Hence the radiation of heat, and consequently the deposition of dew, are obviated-not only by the slightest covering or shelter, as by thin matting, or even muslin, by the neighborhood of buildings, and innumerable other impediments, near the earth's surface, but the earth's surface have precisely the same matters interposed at a great distance from effect. Thus clouds effectually prevent the radiation of heat from the earth's surface, so that cloudy nights are always warmer than those which are clear; and, in consequence, there is usually on such nights little or no deposition of dew.

HOAR FROST.

From dew, there is an insensible transition to hoar frost; hoar frost being, in fact, only frozen dew, and indicative of greater cold. We observe, therefore, that frosty nights, like simply dewy nights, are generally still and clear. The influence of radiation in producing cold at the earth's surface, would scarcely be believed by inattentive observers. Often, on a calm night, the temperature of a grass plot is 10 or 15 degrees less than that of the air a few feet above it. Hence, as Mr. Daniel has remarked, vegetables, in our climate, are, during ten months of the year, liable to be exposed at night to a freezing temperature; and even in July and August, to a temperature only two or three degrees warmer. Yet, notwithstanding these vicissitudes, in the words of the same gentleman,-"to vegetables growing in climates for which they are originally designed by nature, there can be no doubt that the action of ra

diation is particularly beneficial, from the deposition of moisture which it determines upon the foilage; and it is only to tender plants artificially trained to resist the rigors of an unnatural situation, that this extra degree of cold proves injurious." It may be observed, also, that trees of lofty growth frequently escape being injured by frost, when plants nearer the ground are quite destroyed.

POETRY.

POETRY is the language of the imagination and the passions. It relates to whatever gives immediate pleasure or pain to the human mind. It comes home to the bosoms and businesses of men; for nothing but what so comes home to them in the most general and intelligible shape can be a subject for poetry.

Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else. It is not a mere frivolous accomplishment (as some persons have been led to imagine), the trifling amusement of a few idle readers, or leisure hours-it has been the study and delight of mankind in all ages. Many people suppose that poetry is something to be found only in books, contained in lines of ten syllables, with like endings; but wherever there is a sense of beauty, or power, or harmony, as in the motion of a wave of the sea, in the growth of a flower that "spreads its sweet leaves to the air, and dedicates its beauty to the ,"-there is pootry, in its birth.

sun,"

Fear is poetry, hope is poetry, love is poetry, hatred is poetry; contempt, jealousy, remorse, admiration, wonder, pity, despair, or madness, are all poetry, Poetry is that fine particle within us that expands, rarifies, refines, raises Our whole being; without it, "man's life is poor as beasts." Man is a poetical animal; and those of us who do not study the principles of poetry, act upon them all our lives, like Moliére's Bourgeois Gentilhomme, who had always spoken prose without knowing it.

The child is a poet, when he first plays at hide-and-seek, or repeats the story of Jack the Giant-killer; the shepherd boy is a poet, when he first crowns his mistress with a garland of flowers; the countryman, when he stops to look at the rainbow; the city-apprentice, when he goes after the Lord Mayor's show; the miser, when he hugs his gold; the courtier, who builds his hopes upon a smile; the savage, who paints his idol with blood; the slave, who worships a tyrant, or the tyrant, who fancies himself a god; the vain, the ambitious, the proud, the choleric the hero and, the coward, the beggar and the king, the rich and the poor, the young and the old-all live in a world of their own making; and the poet does no more than describe what all others think and act.-HAZLITT.

man,

FUTURITY.-Truly and beautifully has it been said, that the veil which covers futurity has been woven by the hand of mercy.

THE UNIFORMITY OF NATURE.

WE are now in the frequent receipt of Papers from America, and other foreign parts, containing extracts from OUR JOURNAL; and we take this opportunity of thanking the senders. One of them, connected with the New York "Christian in the last named paper, and wishes to see it Advocate," has called our attention to an article transferred to OUR OWN. We give it a ready insertion. It is entitled the "Uniformity of Nature:

The lark now carols the same song, and in the same key, as when Adam first turned his enraptured ear to catch the moral. The owl first hooted in B flat; it still loves the key, and screams through no other octaves. In the same key has ever ticked the death-watch; while all the three noted chirps of the cricket have ever been in B since Tubal-Cain first heard them in his smithy, or the Israelites in their ash-ovens.

Never has the buzz of the gnat risen above the second A; nor that of the house-fly's wing sunk below the first F. Sound had at first the same connection with color as it has now, and the right angle of light's incidence might as easily produce a sound on the first turrets of Cain's city, as it is now said to do on one of the pyramids. The tulip, in its first bloom in Noah's garden, emitted heat, four and a half degrees above the atmosphere, as it does at the present day. The stormy petrel as much delighted to sport amongst the first billows which the Indian Ocean ever raised, as it does now.

In the first migration of birds, they passed from north to south, and fled over the narrowest part of the seas, as they will this autumn. The cuckoo and the nightingale first began their song together, analogous to the beginning of our April, in the days of Nimrod. Birds that lived on flies laid blueish eggs in the days of Joseph, as they will two thousand years hence-if the sun should not fall from his throne, or the earth not break her harness from the planetary car. The first bird that was caged, oftener sung in adagio than in the natural spirit.

Corals have ever grown edgeways to the ocean stream. Eight millions, two hundred and eighty thousand animalculæ, could as well live in a drop of water in the days of Seth as now. Flying insects had on their coats of mail in the days of Japheth; over which they have ever waved plumes of more gaudy feathers than the peacock ever dropped. The bees that afforded Eve her first honey made their combs hexagonal; and the first house-fly produced twenty millions, eighty-three hundred and twenty eggs, in one year, as she does at present. The first jump of the first flea was two hundred times its own length, as it was the

last summer.

There was iron enough in the blood of the first forty-two men to make a ploughshare, as there is to-day, from whatever country you collect them. The lungs of Abel contained a coil of vital matter one hundred and fifty-nine feet square, as mine; and the first inspiration of Adam consumed seventeen cubic inches of air, as do those of every adult reader. The cat and the robin followed the footsteps of Noah, as they do ours.

ON DISTEMPER IN THE DOG.

HAVING, MR. EDITOR, FROM TIME TO TIME OBSERVED IN 16 OUR OWN JOURNAL," enquiries from various correspondents as to the best mode of treating DISTEMPER IN THE DOG- I have been induced to collect the following information (from one of the best authorities we have), both as to the nature of the disease, its symptoms, and the proper mode of treatment. Should you deem it worthy a place in "Our Journal," it may perhaps prove both useful and interesting to many of its Readers.

NATURE OF THE DISEASE. The distemper is a disease of the mucous surfaces, and was imported from France about one hundred years since. The French veterinary surgeons called it “la maladie des chiens,"-the disease or distemper in Dogs.

Dogs of all ages are subject to its attacks. Many, nine and ten years old, have died of pure distemper, as well as puppies of only three weeks; but it most frequently appears between the sixth and twelfth month of the animal's life. It generally proves fatal when it occurs very early; or when the dog is more than four years old. It is highly contagious, and yet it is frequently generated.

However keepers, or even men of education may boast of their specifics, the disorder is sadly fatal, and destroys fully one-third of the canine race. One attack of the disease, and even a severe one, is no absolute security against its return, although it confers on the dog a certain degree of immunity; or if he is attacked again, the disease is usually of a milder form. Youatt says, he has known it occur three times in the same animal, and at last destroy him.

Violent catarrh will often end in distemper; and low and insufficient feeding will protract it. It frequently follows mange;-and whatever debilitates the constitution, predisposes it for the reception of distemper.

Inoculation used to be recommended as producing a milder and less fatal disease; but by those most experienced, the contrary is now believed to be the result. Distemper is epidemic, and it occurs more frequently in the spring and autumn than in the summer and winter. Sometimes it rages all over the country; at others it is endemic, and confined to some particular district. Not only is the disease itself epidemic and endemic, but the form which it assumes is so. In one season, almost every dog with distemper has violent fits; at another, in the majority of cases, there will be considerable chest affection, running on to inflammation of the lungs. A few months afterwards, a great portion of the distempered dogs will be worn down by diarrhoea, which no medicine can

arrest; and presently it will scarcely be distinguishable from mild catarrh.

These facts shew us what a protean malady we have to grapple with, and how it is that remedies which are of the greatest service at one time, and in one case, may be perfectly useless at another. Consequently, that there can be no such thing as a specific for this disease; and I shall now show why many per sons are apt to be deceived, and led to suppose that they possess a never-failing remedy. The disease varies much with different breeds. The Shepherd's Dog generally cares little about it. The Cur is not often seriously affected. The Terrier has it more severely; especially the white Terrier. The Hound comes next; and after him, the Setter. With the small Spaniel it is more dangerous, and still more so with the Pointer. Next in order of fatality comes the Pug; and it is most fatal of all with the Newfoundland dog. Not only does it thus differ in different species of dogs, but in different breeds of the same species. 66 I have known," says Youatt, "several gentlemen who have labored in vain for many years, to rear particular and valuable breeds of Pointers and Greyhounds. The Distemper would uniformly carry off five out of six. Other sportsmen laugh at the supposed danger of distemper, and declare that they seldom lose a dog. This hereditary disposition to certain kinds of disease cannot be denied, and is not sufficiently attended to. When a peculiar fatality has often followed a certain breed, the owner should cross it from another kennel; and especially from the kennel of one who boasts of his success in the treatment of distemper. This has occasionally succeeded far beyond expectation." He continues,-"One thing is clear,-that for a disease which assumes such a variety of forms, there can be no specific; and yet there is not a keeper who is not in possession of some supposed infallible remedy. Nothing can be more absurd. The faith in these boasted specifics is principally founded on two circumstances, atmospheric influences, and peculiarity of breed. There are some seasons when we can scarcely save a dog. There are others, when we must almost wilfully destroy him in order to lose him! There are some breeds in which, generation after generation, five out of six die of Distemper; while there are others in which not one out of a dozen dies."

This I think is sufficiently explanatory. It is highly important to beware of confounding cases which would recover spontaneously, with those which are cured.

SYMPTOMS.-As may be supposed from what has been said of the nature of this disease, there is no one symptom which will invariably characterise it. To show what are

the most frequent and most strongly marked, but when it becomes dark, bloody, and of is all that can be done.

Early symptoms are, gradual loss of appetite, spirits, and condition-the dog is less obedient to his master, and takes less notice of him. The eyes appear weak and watery, and there is a slight limpid discharge from the nose. In the morning, there will perhaps be a slight indurated mucus at the corner of the eye. This state of things may continue two or three weeks, without the dog becoming seriously ill. Then a peculiar husky cough is heard-an apparent attempt to get something from the throat. The discharge from the eyes and nose will increase; and the eyelids will be closed in the morning. The conjunctiva (. e. the membrane which lines the inside of the eyelids, and is reflected on to the globe of the eye), will be considerably injected, not intensely red, but the vessels will be large, turgid, and frequently of a darkish hue. Occasionally, however, the membrane will be vividly red, and the eye impatient of light. Permanent blindness, however, is rarely the consequence of Distemper.

fensive, death will ensue.

The duration of distemper is uncertain. It may run its course in five or six days; or it When may linger on two or three months. the emaciation is rapid, extreme, and continuous, the dog will die,--but let him gain flesh, even though the purging be violent, and the discharge from the nose copious, and we may nevertheless confidentally predict his recovery. In the Pointer, Hound, and Greyof the chest and belly a pustular eruption, hound, there sometimes appears in the whole The result which peels off in large scales. is usually unfavorable. In these dogs, an intense yellowness often suddenly appears all over them. They fall away more in twenty-fours than would be thought possible; their bowels being obstinately constipated. They will neither eat nor move; and in two or three days death closes their eyes for

ever.

three to twelve ounces); and if there has been previous constipation, follow this up with from two to six drachms of Epsom salts.

In slight cases this will often cure; but if the dog still droops, and there is much huskiness, take from half a grain to one grain "digitalis powder," from two to five grains "James's Powder;" and from twenty to sixty grains of "nitre." Let this be made into a ball, with a little palm oil and linseed meal; and give one such twice or three times daily. of the animal.) If on the third or fourth day (The dose must be proportioned to the size the huskiness is not quite removed, repeat

TREATMENT.--In Distemper in any form, Common salt will do, when nothing else is at an emetic is the first thing to be given. hand; but the best emetic consists of equal At this stage of the disease, the dog will be parts of calomel and tartar emetic, from half evidently feverish. He will shiver and creep dose. Place it upon the back of the tongue. a grain to one grain and a half of each for a to the fire, and will more rapidly and evidently lose flesh. The discharge from the Then, if the cough is urgent, and there is nose will become thicker, stick about the heaving at the flanks, and the nose is hot, nostrils, plug them up and obstruct the breath-take a moderate quantity of blood, (from ing, and the huskiness will become more frequent and troublesome. The progress of the disease is now uncertain. Sometimes fits come on. One fit is serious,-if another occurs within a day or two, the chances of cure are diminished, and if they rapidly succeed each other, the dog is almost always lost. Fits seldom appear without a warning; and if watched for, they may possibly be prevented. Though the dog may previously have lost his appetite, it returns when the fits are at hand, and he becomes absolutely voracious. Nearly all the mucus disappears from the eyes; and for an hour or more before the fit, there is a champing of the lower jaw, frothing at the mouth, and discharge of saliva. The champing of the jaw is seen twelve hours before the first fit, and a little while before every other. There are also usually twitchings of the mouth, cheek, or eyelid. The inflammation of the membrane of the nose and fauces, sometimes extends along that of the windpipe; and the dog exhibits decided symptoms of inflammation of the lungs. At other times the bowels become affected, and a violent purging comes on. When mingled blood and mucus appear, the case is almost hopeless. While the discharge from the nose remains white, and free from smell, and the animal is not so much emaciated, the termination may be favorable;

the emetic.

Worms are frequently a considerable source of irritation in young dogs. If speedily got rid of, Distemper will often rapidly disappear; but if suffered to remain, diarrhoea or fits are apt to supervene. From thirty to 60 grains of powdered glass should be added to each ball, as above.

Should the huskiness still continue, and with fever, it is now, if ever, that inflammation of the lungs will be perceived. The quick and laborious breathing, inability to lie down, elevated position of the head, and projected muzzle, will clearly mark it. blood must be taken. The bowels must be opened with Epsom salts; and the digitalis,

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