A SABBATH MORNING.

BY EZRA D. BARKER.

HERE is a calm and devotional sensation produced in the soul of every attentive beholder as he gazes on the beautiful tranquillity of a clear Sabbath morning; and when he remembers it is a day set apart by the Creator for the bodily rest and spiritual good of the creature, he must feel that its is sacred, and its origin divine. purpose The cessation of the weekly hum of business and pleasure, and the sweet serenity of a summer Sabbath morning, incline the busy mortal to pause amid the whirl of earth's cares and toils, to stop

and meditate. All nature seems conscious of the hallowed hour. The heavens seem

deeper and purer, the sun shines brighter,

and the earth seems fairer.

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withered veins, and the pleasant memories of other days make him young again.

The thoughtless child leaps with an ecstasy of delight as the gently-moving air embraces his tender limbs, and laughs in his joy, but knows not why. The invalid, from his couch in the chamber, looks out through the upraised window into the silent depths of the sky, and ponders upon his celestial home, where he may spend and suffering. an eternal Sabbath, freed from all sickness

And now the silvery notes of a thousand church bells go echoing over the hill-tops and chiming through the valleys of all the pleasant land. As the clear and solemn vibrations fly on with heavenly home, they enter the open casement, and melody to the threshold of each quiet speak with a sweet and sacred eloquence, temple of the eternal Architect of the proclaiming the worship in an earthly

heavens.

The majestic forest stretches out its countless leafy arms, as if in the attitude of worship, and spirit voices seem talking amid the rustling leaves. The modest wild flower, looking out from the craggy hill-side, or hiding its slender form in the shadowy retreat of the deep ravine, breathes out a fragrant tribute of gratitude and praise, and sends up from its petaled censer the sweet offering of morning dews. There is a holy calmness in the sky, a solemnity in the air, and an adoring smile on the earth. And now the streams of golden light are glancing from roof and window, and lighting up with cheerful beams the quiet recesses of many a peaceful habitation. He of the furrowed brow and silver hair forgets the ills and jealous anxieties of age, and with reviving joy thrilling his almost pulseless heart, he looks up to welcome the holy day, while a new life seems creeping through his

sacrifice of thankful hearts, and supplicating the continuance of favors temporal Then how sweetly swells the song upon human tongues: "Welcome, sweet day of rest,

and divine. beautiful

That saw the Lord arise,
Welcome to this reviving breast,

And these rejoicing eyes." And what mortal so sensual and worldly as not to feel his own heart beating a fervent response; or what being so depraved for this day of days-this blessed foreas not to bless the Almighty, involuntarily,

taste of a world to come.

[Ori-sons, praises, prayers. Cens'-er, a vase or pan in which incense is burned. They were in very common use among the children of Israel, and are used at the present day. Petaled censers here signify the flowers.

"WITH books, or work, or healthful play, Let your first years be pass'd, That you may give for every day Some good account at last."

HERE are some kinds of manufacture which can not be carried on with advantage in every city, but which appear to have certain limits, within which only are they met with. Such are iron works, which can be best carried on where there is an abundance of ore, and plenty of fuel. These often exist together; hence foundries and furnaces swarm in such localities.

At Glasgow in Scotland, and in South Wales, coal and iron lie in beds or seams near each other. Pennsylvania and Eastern Tennessee furnish similar advantages. On approaching large iron works, the flame and smoke point out the locality vividly. The ever-enduring flame is the chief feature of these places.

An iron furnace is a most untiring laboratory, working night and day (Sunday included), never stopping for months, or sometimes for years. They are kept nearly full of fiercely-burning materials, and replenished at the top as fast as it is exhausted at the bottom. The top being generally open to the air, a body of bright flame is almost always shooting upward, lighting up the sky, and frequently is visible at several miles distance.

The furnaces are huge stone buildings, forty or fifty feet high. The inside is one large opening from top to bottom, about six feet square, but varying in width at different heights. It is lined with firebricks and cement capable of resisting the intense heat.

An embankment is carried up to the top of the furnace on one side, from which a road leads to the mine or locality where the ore is placed. This arrangement affords great facilities for filling the furnaces. In front of the furnaces are the places arranged for casting the melted iron into sand molds.

Let us suppose that any of the kinds of iron ore alluded to in our last communication have been raised from the mine, and deposited near the blast furnace. The next question is, how to extract the metal from the ore? The other ingredients being worthless, the object of the smelter is to get as much iron as possible from the This is attained by first driving off those impurities which will escape in the gaseous form, and then to act on the more refractory ingredients.

ore.

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Roasting the ore accomplishes the first of these two objects. This is generally done in the open air, on the ground. layer of coal being first spread out, then a layer of iron-stone, and so on in alternate layers, until a heap several feet high is made. A fire is then kindled at one end, and works its way slowly to every part of the heap, roasting the ore as it proceeds. The water and sulphur are thus driven out of the stone, and it can be more readily acted on in the furnace.

Besides the fuel and the ore, a third substance is required to set free the metal, and enable it to pass into the fluid and molten state; hence it is called a flux. This substance is generally an earth, sometimes limestone, sometimes clay. These materials, in due proportion, are wheeled along to the mouth of the furnace, where, by machinery, the contents are immediately spilled into the opening. These fillings are made three or four times an hour, day and night, until the furnace gets out of repair, or there is a dullness in trade. As the mass within sinks down, fresh material is added at the top, so that a furnace of average size contains more than a hundred tons of burning material.

So enormous is this mass, and so great the heat required for the separation of the iron from the ore, that no ordinary draught

of air would suffice; there must be a powerful current constantly blown into the furnace by machinery. This is called the blast. When the air is made to pass through iron pipes heated by the furnace itself, it becomes warmed up to a point so hot that lead would melt in it before it is blown in, then it is called the hot blast. The use of the hot blast is a great improvement and economy in making iron. By it the iron is melted sooner, and with less coal. When melted, the metal is allowed to lie at the bottom of the furnace for some hours, after which it is removed, by withdrawing the plug from the furnace bottom, when a white hot stream of metal pours out into the sand, or a metal pot placed to receive it.

Few sights strike the spectator with more surprise and fear than looking at this molten mass of fire rolling out, and wending its way among the sand molds, fashioned according to the casting desired. Sometimes, instead of ornamental work, it is only desired to have crude or pig iron. Along the middle of the sand is formed a narrow, long channel, which is called the sow, from which branch off numerous lateral channels, or pigs, as they are termed by the workmen. So that by pig iron is understood the metal reduced from the ore, and cast in the way described. It is not perfectly pure iron in this state, for such does not melt, but contains a quantity of charcoal, obtained from the fuel, which unites with the iron, and can not be burned off in the high furnace. This communicates the property of melting to the iron. Cast iron also contains a little sulphur and phosphorus, derived from the fuel or the flux. From these it must be freed before it can be converted into wrought iron or steel.

A LAKE OF PITCH.

HE Island of Trinidad is situated about seven miles from one of the mouths of the Orinoco river. The most remarkable natural feature of this island is the Pitch Lake, situated in the southwestern part of it. The lake is nearly a mile and a half in circumference,

and the pitch or bitumen at the sides is perfectly hard and cold; but toward the middle it becomes gradually warmer and softer, till in some places it is seen boiling up in a liquid state.

A correspondent of the Troy Whig, at Port of Spain, Trinidad, gives the following description of this remarkable lake:

"Imagine a black surface, a dreary, desolate black, spread out to the length of half a mile, by an eighth in width, slightly varied by many fissures, some of them but a step across, some too wide to jump. A few of these fissures are filled with short shrubbery, but most of them are mere ponds of water, clear as the mountain spring.

"Then imagine the whole bordered by a thick growth of trees and the graceful bending bamboo, and this whole border thickly hanging with a profusion and variety of beautiful flowers; and I know not the spot elsewhere where the eye can rest on such a profusion of flowers at a glance; this may possibly convey some general idea of the peculiarity of a general view.

"For a closer inspection of the central part of the lake, I secured the services of a negro, to carry a plank for me to bridge the unjumpable fissures.

"I then found spots where the surface of the pitch would gradually sink beneath my feet, so that in a few moments I stood in a cavity ankle deep. Not wishing to pitch deeper, I changed my position. In other places it seemed to be boiling below, for the surface around me was bubbling and simmering like that of a pot over the fire, while the gas thus disengaged was very strong.

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Though the surface of the lake is generally too hard to receive a foot-print, being usually just hard enough to cut readily with an axe, there are places where the pitch oozes out in a nearly liquid form, so that one may dip it with a spoon.

"Near the lake I found a colored man engaged in boiling the pitch in several large boilers. A part of this he sells after boiling, in a pure state, and to the rest he adds a portion of lime, when it is shipped as mastic. He says that he has cut from the lake a great many hundreds of tons, but he never penetrates more than

ten or twelve inches below the surface, and the hole is always filled again within two days after the cutting. The supply is, doubtless, inexhaustible.

"But the pitch is not confined to the spot I have endeavored to describe. There are masses of it extending miles inland, and in several points it extends to the sea beach. At the last place it is cut out in large quantities to ship to this city, and to some of the islands, for use in building and flagging the streets. It is used by the steamers as fuel, being largely mixed with coal, and is recently coming into use in the manufacture of petrolium.

"But whenever these cuttings are made on the lake, inland, or on the beach, the quantity is almost immediately made good, and in some places gradually increases. The neighborhood is in motion, very slow to be sure, yet there is, as it were, a growing up of the surface in spots, so that the houses in La Brea are found, now and then, to have a side or an end raised a few inches above its opposite one."

General Intelligence. THE NEW YORK STATE NORMAL SCHOOL Is now near the middle of its twelfth term, which will complete the sixth year. The number of pupils in attendance is 206. The legislature, at its last session, passed a law providing for the education of ten Indian youths at this institution, and nine are now in attendance from the different reservations. The school is in a flourishing condition, and the demand for graduates, as teachers, is constantly increasing.

RAILROAD ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. -The laying down of the great AngloIndian Railway is now proceeding in earnest. Mr. Stephenson, the engineer, has lately left Alexandria for Calcutta, with a staff of assistants, to commence this stupendous undertaking, which will exercise incalculable influence on the future destiny of the Indian world. Orders have been issued by the British government to render every possible assistance to facilitate the transit to Suez, where a large steamer is now building for the navigation of the Red Sea.

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THE NEW COMET.-The comet recently discovered will continue to approach the earth until the middle of July, when it will be at its nearest position to us, or about thirty-eight millions of miles from the earth.

On the 11th of July, it will be seen a few degrees to the west of the bright star Arcturus, in the constellation Bootes. Moving rapidly to the south, it will pass near the star Spica Virginis on the 23d of July, and will soon after descend below the southern horizon.

As it is already fast increasing in brightness, it will probably be distinctly visible to the naked eye during the middle of July.

DEATH OF THE EMPEROR OF CHINA.

Taoukwang, the late emperor of the Celestial Empire, died last February, after a reign of thirty years.

is his successor.

His son Yih-chu

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM. This vast establishment, owned by P. T. Barnum, is situated on Broadway, New York, near the City Hall Park, and open daily (Sundays excepted), for the exhibition of rare curiosities, both of nature and art, from all parts of the world; embracing the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. It has recently been enlarged and improved, at an expense of some $50,000. It is now larger, and contains a greater number and variety of curiosities than any similar institution in America.

THE FOREST AND THE NAVY.—By a report of the commissioners of land revenues, it is estimated that a seventyfour gun ship contains about 2000 tons of timber, which, at the rate of a load and a half to a ton, would give 3000 loads, and would require 2000 trees of seventy-five years growth.

It has also been calculated that, as not more than forty oaks, containing each a load and a half of timber, can stand upon one acre, fifty acres are required to produce the oaks for every seventy-four gun ship.

THE WELLAND CANAL.-This canal has recently been enlarged, and vessels can now pass through it, from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, in eight hours.

M

ARY.-Look, Charles, this vase is covered with little drops of water. I wonder what causes it.

Charles.-O, it is because the vase has been dipped in the water, and the drops stand on it, of course.

Emma. That can not be, for I poured the water in myself when I arranged the flowers, and it was perfectly dry then. But how curious it is; the little drops are just like perspiration. This is what old Mrs. Hall means by saying the tumbler sweats, and she says it is a sign of rain.

Mary. I remember hearing her say so, and when Julia asked her the reason of it, she said it was the warm weather. Mr. Hall said the air pressing on the water causes it to come through the pores of the glass.

Emma.-I do not think that is the reason, for, last Monday, when the wind blew so hard, and the rain beat against the windows, you know father was afraid they would be broken in, and he said he did not think glass would stand such a pressure, and yet the water did not come through. Charles.-Let us go and ask mother the reason. She always tells us every

thing we ask her.

Mary.-No; not always, for yesterday, you know, we asked her to find the Dead Sea for us, and she told us we must find it; then we should remember where it is.

Charles.-Yes, and she said we must learn to examine for ourselves, and not depend too much on others.

It is pleasant, to be sure, to find out things ourselves, but then it is so much trouble.

Emma.-Trouble! brother Charles, trouble! I hope you do not call that a trouble. Come, let us try some experiments. Here are some tumblers ; now, we will fill one with water, and while we wait for the little drops we will look at our drawings.

Charles.-There, it has been ten minutes, and there is no water on the tumbler. Where did you get this water, Emma?

Emma. From the pail by the door; but let us get some fresh from the pump, and try it again. Never give up, as mother says.

Mary.-Five minutes! Look, there is the water on the one filled last, but there is none on the first tumbler. Now, what is the reason of this?

Emma.-O, I have observed a fact, as our teacher would say. When we put very cold water into the tumbler, we see the moisture, but when the water is warm, like that from the pail which stood in the sun, the drops do not appear on the tumbler.

Mary. You are an observing little body, Emma, and now can you tell why it is so?