The Hobart Town Magazine

there was a piece of common-land, called the Wergin, on which had been, from time immemorial, two immense stones-one standing upright, the other laid athwart. They had for many ages been considered marks to point out the property, both of land and of water. One summer's night in 1652, they moved from their places upwards of three hundred paces. None could tell how this was effected. It was attributed, of course, to infernal agency, and there was great turmoil, and a long day's labour with nine yoke of oxen, to replace them.

MUSCULAR STRENGTH.-Borellus was the first who demonstrated, that the force exerted within the body greatly exceeds the weight of the body to be moved without; and that Nature, in fact, employs an immense power to move a small weight. It has been calculated that the deltoid muscle alone, when employed in supporting a weight of 50 pounds, exerts a force equal to 2568 pounds. Some notion of the force, exerted by the human body in progressive motion, may be formed from the violence of the shock, received when the foot unexpectedly impinges against any obstacle in running. The strongest bones are occasionally fractured by the action of the muscles, and none more frequently than the thigh bone. The muscular power of

the human body is, indeed, wonderful. A Turkish porter will run along, carrying a load of 600 pounds; and Milo, of Crotona, is said to have lifted an ox, weighing 1,000 pounds. Haller mentions an instance of a man, whose finger, being caught by a chain at the bottom of a mine, by keeping it forcibly bent, supported, by that means the weight of his whole body, 150 pounds, till he was drawn up to the surface, a height of 600 feet. Augustus the Second, King of Poland, could, with his fingers, roll up a silver dish like a sheet of paper, and twist the strongest horse-shoe asunder: and a lion is said (Philosophical Transactions, No. 310.) to have left the impression of his teeth upon a piece of solid iron. The most prodigious power of the muscles is exhibited by fish. A whale moves through the dense medium of water, that would carry him, if continued at the same rate, round the world in little more than a fortnight; and a sword-fish has been known to strike his weapon through the oak-plank of a ship.

TEETH. The elephant alone rivals, or perhaps, exceeds man in the duration of life; although, some birds, as well as fish, are supposed to be equally gifted with longevity. As a proof that the term of life is, in general, limited by the decay of the teeth, a peculiar provision is found to exist in the elephant for the purpose of renewing them. The grinding teeth, or molares of this animal, which consist each of a single piece of bone intermingled with enamel, are so constructed as to continue growing from behind, in proportion as they are worn away in front by the process of mastication, so that their duration is coeval with that of the animal. Human teeth resist decomposition after death for a much longer period than any other part of the body. In a church-yard, lately dug into near

Perth, after an interval of 200 years, a great nnmber of perfect teeth were fouud; and a majority of the skulls examined, which must have been those of persons of various ages, were observed to possess their proper complimrnt of teeth.

THE WALNUT TREE.

A brave tree that, master! How much in the span, now? Sound at the heart, no doubt. Indeed-(and the speaker glanced at the tree from top to stem)-a pretty piece of timber!"

The owner of the tree, an old, hale man, was leaning over the quickset hedge that fenced his garden: his rugged, ruddy face seemed kindling up in the sunset of a July evening; and as he watched the declining light, burning through a row of distant elms, there was a cheerful composure in his look—a thoughtfulness becoming the features of a patriarch. He heard the speaker, and, with a slight movement of the head, acknowledged the praises of the walnut-tree, which grew at the side of a little white-walled cottage, and flung out its giant arms above the roof.

Last

"Shocking times, these, my master," observed the stranger, at length making the old man an attentive listener; "bad times!" Yes, Sir. Wheat has gone up two shillings a quarter. harvest was the worst within my memory; and my sickle has glittered amongst the corn for the last sixty years."

"Aye, I believe the harvest wasn't so good-but I meant the war, though to be sure, the last accounts were more favourable. thousand Frenchmen were killed by our veterans!"

Five

'Poor souls!-God help them! But what, Sir, is all this war about-what is it for?"

"For! Why, for the king's honour and glory, and—and all that! So it stands to reason, that every loyal subject should assist his his gracious majesty. Now the army wants stores. You wouldn't like to sell that tree, would you? If 'twere sound all the way up, I don't know that, as an honest contractor, I might not offer fifty guineas." "Fifty guineas!"

"Aye, and, in my poor judgment, I think they'd sound better to your ears clinking in your pockets, than do those boughs creaking in the wind. Come, is it a bargain? But first tell me how old

the tree is."

"Seventy years ago, next February, that tree-and he'd have long arms that could clip it about-was no thicker than my little finger. I was just five years old when 'twas put into the ground."

That's some time back to remember."

Remember!-why, it's in my mind as though it were but yesterday. My old grandmother—I see her now-turned up the mould, just there, with the spade, and giving me the tree to steady straight; I held it in the hole whilst she heaped the earth about its root. When she had finished, she told me that, when she was dead, that tree would always keep her in my mind;-and so it has.

'Twas the last piece of work she did, for the next day she sickened, and the next, for I don't know how it is, but your poor folks are never so long dying as your rich ones,-she died. Well the tree grew and grew; and it's a foolish thing to say, but there seemed to me a something of the old woman in it. Even now, in the dusk sometimes,-in a sort of day-dream, d'ye mind, as I lean on my back against this hedge,-I see there a little child in petticoats holding a twig, and an old dame shovelling up the earth. But this, as I say, is in the evening, when work's done, and we think of a thousand things we never heed at labour. I am seventy-five, Sir; and though it is a good age, I often wonder, when I look on that tree, how soon I have grown old."

"I dare say,” replied the contractor, who, during the speech of the old man, had continued to observe the tree with a smug, professional look, as though, in his day-book-and-ledger eye, he was parcelling out its beautiful trunk into lots; "I dare say-all this is so like nature; but fifty guineas, you see, are a good round sum;-and then, you know, to serve your king, and to help to beat those rascally French, who live upon live frogs, and wear lignum vitæ shoes; -well, shall I count out the money?" And the contractor drew from his huge coat pocked a leathern bag, and, untying it, suffered some of its glittering contents to meet the eye of the old cottager. "But, as to serving the king, how can my walnut-tree do good to his Majesty?"

"Don't I tell you, the army want stores."

"Stores ?"

"Yes. I've contracted to supply some. I've already bought five hundred pieces of live timber, and I want, among the rest, your grandmother's walnut-tree, to cut for our brave troops into musket stocks."

The old man left the hedge, and closed the wicket gate. He did not answer a syllable;-but, had Demosthenes made an oration on the old man's disgust, he could not have spoken with more significance, or with greater emphasis, than, struck by the fingers of the cottager, did the wooden latch.

THE WALNUT TREE.

"A brave tree that, master! How much in the span, now? Sound at the heart, no doubt. Indeed-(and the speaker glanced at the tree from top to stem)-a pretty piece of timber!"

The owner of the tree, an old, hale man, was leaning over the quickset hedge that fenced his garden: his rugged, ruddy face seemed kindling up in the sunset of a July evening; and as he watched the declining light, burning through a row of distant elms, there was a cheerful composure in his look-a thoughtfulness becoming the features of a patriarch. He heard the speaker, and, with a slight movement of the head, acknowledged the praises of the walnut-tree, which grew at the side of a little white-walled cottage, and flung out its giant arms above the roof.

"Shocking times, these, my master,", observed the stranger, at length making the old man an attentive listener; "bad times!"

Yes, Sir. Wheat has gone up two shillings a quarter. Last harvest was the worst within my memory; and my sickle has glittered amongst the corn for the last sixty years."

"Aye, I believe the harvest wasn't so good-but I meant the war, though to be sure, the last accounts were more favourable. Five thousand Frenchmen were killed by our veterans!"

Poor souls!-God help them! But what, Sir, is all this war about-what is it for?"

Aye, and, in my poor judgment, I think they'd sound better to your ears clinking in your pockets, than do those boughs creaking in the wind. Come, is it a bargain? But first tell me how old

the tree is."

"Seventy years ago, next February, that treelong arms that could clip it about-was no thic' finger. I was just five years old when 'twas

'That's some time back to remember."

Remember!-why, it's in my mind as though it were but yesterday. My old grandmother-I see her now-turned up the mould, just there, with the spade, and giving me the tree to steady straight; I held it in the hole whilst she heaped the earth about its root. When she had finished, she told me that, when she was dead, that tree would always keep her in my mind;-and so it has. 'Twas the last piece of work she did, for the next day she sickened, and the next, for I don't know how it is, but your poor folks are never so long dying as your rich ones,-she died. Well the tree grew and grew; and it's a foolish thing to say, but there seemed to me a something of the old woman in it. Even now, in the dusk sometimes, in a sort of day-dream, d'ye mind, as I lean on my back against this hedge,-I see there a little child in petticoats holding a twig, and an old dame shovelling up the earth. But this, as I say, is in the evening, when work's done, and we think of a thousand things we never heed at labour. I am seventy-five, Sir; and though it is a good age, I often wonder, when I look on that tree, how soon I have grown old."

"I dare say," replied the contractor, who, during the speech of the old man, had continued to observe the tree with a smug, professional look, as though, in his day-book-and-ledger eye, he was parcelling out its beautiful trunk into lots; "I dare say-all this is so like nature; but fifty guineas, you see, are a good round sum;-and then, you know, to serve your king, and to help to beat those rascally French, who live upon live frogs, and wear lignum vitæ shoes; -well, shall I count out the money?" And the contractor drew from his huge coat pocked a leathern bag, and, untying it, suffered some of its glittering contents to meet the eye of the old cottager. "But, as to serving the king, how can my walnut-tree do good to his Majesty?"

"Don't I tell you, the army want stores."

'Yes. I've contracted to supply some. I've already bought five hundred pieces of live timber, and I want, among the rest, your grandmother's walnut-tree, to cut for our brave troops into musket stocks."

TO MY PEN.

shed to know the reason why

uch nonsense, and I never

ugh I often try,

tried in vain; however,

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The Hobart Town Magazine, Volumen3