at least a quarter of a million of horses; an energy, which, in a single day, would have raised up the great pyramid of Egypt. Fifty years ago, our annual export of manufactured cotton did not amount to a quarter of a million in value; it has now swollen to nearly thirty millions. In the same period, our exported woollens, in defiance of Saxon, Prussian, Spanish, and American competition, have advanced more than two millions. Fifty years ago, our imports of raw silk were only three hundred thousand pounds weight; they are now nearly three millions. Fifty years ago, our export of iron was hardly twelve thousand tons; it is now about ten times as much. Fifty years ago, our exports of linens were about four millions of yards; they are now nearly forty millions. Fifty years ago, the whole value of our exported produce, both native and foreign, was just fifteen millions of money; the value of British produce exported, alone, is now more than fifty millions. A hundred and twenty years ago, says old Tucker, there were only two or three vessels in Scotland, above two hundred tons; our whole tonnage is now more than a quarter of a million, employing twenty thousand souls. A hundred and fifty years ago, says Chalmers, the whole navy of Britain did not amount to a hundred thousand tons; it is now at least three millions of tons, employing about two hundred thousand souls."

Incombustibility of Wood. It is affirmed that a professor at Munich, of the Academy of Sciences, has discovered a method of rendering wood incombustible. He has combined caustic alkali in solution with a certain earthy substance, washed and sifted, and applied on the wood, to which it gives a nitreous surface, which renders it also impervious to water, and to all kinds of humidity. The Architectural Committee of the Theatre Royal at Munich has made trial of this method on two small buildings, one of which was prepared according to the professor's plan, the other not. Fire having been lighted in both, the one was burnt, the other received no injury. The expense of the application was only two francs for 100 feet.

Polish Coin. The Emperor Nicholas has decided that the coin in Poland shall always bear the effigies of the Emperor Alexander, to whom the kingdom is indebted for its restoration; a grand and important work, which he intended to complete whenever the general circumstances of Europe became more favorable. The execution of this noble design remains entrusted to his successor, who has testified an almost religious anxiety to comply with his most secret wishes. The gold and silver coin will present on one side the likeness of the late emperor and king with a laurel crown upon his head, and with this inscription, in the Polish language,-" Alexander I. Emperor of Russia, restorer of the kingdom of Poland (1815);" on the other side in the midst of a crown of oak, is inscribed the value of the piece; beneath the crown these words, " Nicholas I. Emperor of all the Russias, reigning king of Poland." The copper money will not be changed.

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Sounds. It is known that sounds are heard with more distinctness and at greater distances in severely cold weather, than at other times. At Port Bowen it was found that two persons could keep up a conversation with great facility between two stations at the measured distance of 6696 feet, or about one statute mile and two tenths, the thermometer at 18 below zero.

Natural Mummy. The body of a man has been found in a bog on the lands of Gallagh, in the county of Galway, Ireland. The bog was about ten feet and a half deep, and the body lay about nine feet below its surface. It had all the appearance of a recent death when first discovered, excepting that the abdomen was quite collapsed; but, on exposure to the atmosphere, it decayed rapidly. The face was that of a young man of handsome features and foreign aspect; and his hair, which was long and black, hung loosely over his shoulders. The head, legs, and feet were without covering, but the body was clothed in a light dress, covering also the limbs as far as the knees and elbows. This dress was composed of the skin of some animal, laced in front with thongs of the same material, and having the hairy side inwards; and it is not impossible it might have been that of the moose deer. He had no weapon; but near him, at each side of the body, was found a long staff or pole, which, it was supposed, he had used for the purpose of bounding over the streams; and as the body was found near a rivulet, it was further conjectured by the peasantry, that the man had met his death accidentally in some such manner. The antiseptic power of bogs is well known, and the frequent discovery of human bodies in a high degree of preservation, in those of Ireland, has been often recorded. The finding of this body would not, therefore, require particular notice, nor would it probably have excited much attention at the time, but for the singularity of the costume; and this notice is the more necessary, as the dress no longer exists, having been buried with the body, an instance of thoughtlessness. of which the better informed in Ireland are ashamed. The antiquity of these remains is shown by the great depth of bog under which they lay; but as the growth of bog must depend on various circumstances, as situation, humidity, soil, &c. that fact alone can give us no certain criterion of its age. On this point, perhaps, the rude dress in which the body was clothed, is more likely to afford more satisfactory ground for conjecture. That it belonged to a period antecedent to the arrival of the English, may be concluded from the evidence of Girald Bury, who says, the Irish were but thinly clad in woollen garments, barbarously shaped, and for the most part black, because the sheep of that country were usually of that color; and, from the spirit of that author's work, we have little reason to suppose, that if any portion of the Irish in his time had been clothed in skins, he would have failed to notice it. From these circumstances, it is conjectured, that the body was that of one of the Belgic inhabitants of Ireland, as it was in a district which they unquestionably inhabited, and the close skin dress was generally used by them.

Singular Bird. Stevenson, in his Travels in America, says, that "A bird, at Guayaquil called quiriquinqui, at Esmeraldas and on the coast of Choco huaco, and at Quito beteado de oro, is a great enemy to snakes and other venomous reptiles and insects, on which it feeds. It is a species of vulture, about the size of a hen, and is easily domesticated; its color is a bright brown, variegated with stains of pale yellow. It flies about the woods, or runs along the savannas in quest of its food, and attacks the snakes, opposing its wing to them as a shield; when the animal is somewhat exhausted by striking at the bird, it seizes the reptile near the head, and, biting it, rises on its wings, and afterwards

alights, and observes if it be dead; if not, it again bites it, and sometimes soaring aloft with it, lets it fall, and immediately drops down after it; when dead, the bird devours it. The natives affirm, that to this bird they owe the discovery of the herb which they call huaco; they observed that the bird, after fighting with a snake, would sometimes search for the herb, and eat it; hence they supposed it to be an antidote for the poison, which experience has proved to be correct."

Education in Portugal. Portugal contains eight hundred and seventythree elementary schools; in two hundred and sixty-six of which, Latin is taught, and in twenty-one, Greek and Rhetoric; in twenty-seven, Philosophy, natural and moral. At Coimbra, there is a university, directed by six of the faculty, and a preparatory college for students. The university and college together contain, annually, from one thousand two hundred and eighty to one thousand six hundred students. In 1819, all these establishments were attended by thirty-one thousand four hundred and one pupils. Besides these national institutions, there are several others, where youth are educated for particular professions; such as the Marine and Commercial Academies at Porto, which contained three hundred and fifteen students in 1820; and the Academy at Lisbon, in which there were three hundred and fifteen students in 1821. The Commercial Academy at Lisbon is attended annually by one hundred and fifty pupils. In the same city, there are, the Royal College of Nobles; the Royal Academy for the Arabian Language; the Royal School of Civil Architecture and Drawing; a Royal School for Sculpture, another for Engraving; an Institution for Music, and several other public institutions of less note. The Military School for Mutual Instruction, to which are admitted the children of citizens, had two thousand five hundred and eighteen scholars in 1818, and this number has much increased since. The Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon has published, annually, memoirs not less learned than useful, on every branch of knowledge. The Portuguese have lately formed several literary societies, among which are, the Patriotic Literary Society, and the Society of Encouragement, at Lisbon. The annual average of books printed in Portugal, between 1805 and 1819, amounts to ninety-four. But liberty has conferred new energies on the press and genius of Portugal; and the publications, within the two last years, have been trebled, besides the increase of journals and newspapers.

Natural Curiosity. Some time since, as the workmen of Messrs. Fletcher, brush-manufacturers, of Stockport, were cutting up a large sycamore tree at their manufactory near Chesterfield, the sawyers, on opening the timber, found in the central part of it an enormous toad of beautiful colour, and alive. On examining the timber, it was found perfectly sound above and below. The tract it occupied was about thirty inches long, and from three to four inches wide, and the part was cased with a dark barky substance, and in some places quite smooth. What effect the atmospheric air had upon it was not observed, for it immediately disappeared amongst the rubbish. This part of the tree was of very large dimensions, and no communication whatever appeared to exist with either root or branches; a little discolouring might be traced, which is not uncommon in this description of timber, but each extremity was perfectly sound and closed.

Magnetism by Percussion. Mr. Scoresby has instituted a series of experiments, to determine magnetism by percussion with more precision; and some of his results deserve attention. When a bar of soft steel, six inches and a half long, and a quarter of an inch in diameter, held vertically, and resting upon freestone, was struck seventeen blows with a hammer, it acquired the power of lifting six and a half grains; twenty two blows did not augment the force. When the bar rested vertically upon a parlour-poker, previously deprived of magnetism, forty-two blows gave it the power of lifting eighty-eight grains, and ninety blows, with a larger hammer, augmented the lifting power to one hundred and thirty grains. The poker was also rendered magnetic. Farther hammering rather diminished than increased the power. On inverting the bar, a single blow nearly destroyed the magnetism; two blows changed the poles. Hammering the bar in the plane of the magnetic equator also destroyed the polarity. The magnetism by percussion was augmented when the length of the bar was increased.

Skeleton of a Mammoth near London. The entire skeleton of a large mammoth was within a few years discovered near London, at Ilford, in the county of Essex, near Stratford and Bow. It lay buried at the depth of about sixteen feet, in a large quarry of diluvial loam and clay, which is excavated for making bricks. Mr. John Gibson, of Stratford, diligently collected and preserved as much as possible of this skeleton; and he invited Professor Buckland and Mr. Clift to assist him in disinterring the remainder of the bones, which he had purposely left in their natural position in the quarry. These gentlemen found a large tusk and several of the largest cylindrical bones of the legs, also many ribs and vertebræ, with the smaller bones of the feet and tail lying close upon one another. They were imbedded in tenacious clay, being part of the great superficial covering of diluvial clay, sand, and gravel, which is spread over a large portion of the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and along the whole east coast of England, at irregular intervals, and is almost every where occasionally discovered to contain similar remains of antediluvian animals to those at Ilford.

Death of a supposed Witch. In the department of the Drome, a woman, not long ago, was killed, under the impression that she was a witch. This woman was paid by the peasants of her neighbourhood for telling them good fortune, or for abstaining from doing them any harm. She lately went to the farm of a peasant, and asked a reward for conjuring the danger which threatened his cattle. He refused her request, and treated her pretensions with insult. Soon after, he lost some of his cattle, and his wife and children fell ill. He immediately ascribed these calamities to the supernatural influence of the hag; but so far from being terrified at her power, he took his gun, repaired to her house, and deliberately shot her dead. The man acknowledged the act of which he was guilty, but declared that he shot the devil under the form of the wicked hag.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

EDUCATION.

A Primer of the English Language, for the Use of Families and Schools. By Samuel Worcester. Boston. Hilliard, Gray, & Co. 18mo. pp. 79.

Questions adapted to Whelpley's Compend of History. By Joseph Emerson. Boston. Richardson & Lord. 12mo. pp. 69.

Le Lecteur Français de la Jeunesse, ou Choix d' Historiettes Morales, Anecdotes, Fables en Prose et en Vers, &c. Précedé des Premiers E'lémens de la Pronunciation et de la Conversation. Redigé par F. B. G. Northampton, Mass. Simeon Butler and others. 12mo. pp. 212. The Family Instructer; relating to Parents and Children, Masters and Servants, Husbands and Wives, &c. with Family Prayers.

Willet's Geography. A New Edition, with Cuts. Philadelphia. A New Edition of Freeby's Astronomy, with the Method of Determining the Longitude, Aspects, &c. of the Planets for any future time, and an extensive set of Geographical and Astronomical Problems on the Globes.

The Eagle, or National Arithmetic; containing an authentic, plain, and comprehensive Exposition of the Science of Numbers, in Theory and Practice, &c. By D. Macurdy, Philomath. Baltimore.

Bentley's Spelling-Book. Third Edition, improved.

The American Teacher's Assistant and Self-Instructer's Guide; containing all the Rules of Arithmetic, properly explained and illustrated by an adequate number of Examples. With an Appendix, containing a Key to the most difficult, and Answers to all the Questions. By John Mackay. Price $1. Charleston, S. C.

The Second Book, or Reading Lessons for Primary Schools. New Edition. Boston. Richardson & Lord. 18mo.

Primary Lessons in Arithmetic. By Frederick Emerson. Second Edition. Boston. Lincoln & Edmands. 12mo. pp. 34.

First Book for the Use of Teachers. By Elizabeth Oram. Illustrated with Ninety-one Wood Engravings. New York. James W. Campbell. Practical and Mental Arithmetic, designed principally to accompany Daboll's System of Arithmetic (and equally adapted to any other), containing, in a catechetical method, all his rules which are requisite to the solution of any sums ordinarily occurring in actual business, simplified by correspondent examples, to be answered by a mental process, without aid of slate or paper. By Roswell C. Smith. Providence.

A new Treatise on the Use of Globes, with Notes and Observations, containing an extensive Collection of the most useful Problems, designed for the Use of Schools and Academies. By James M'Intyre. Second Edition. Baltimore. E. J. Coale.

Map of the World in Outline, to be filled up by Students in Geography, accompanying the Rev. C. A. Goodrich's Outlines of Modern Geography. Boston. S. G. Goodrich.