MORTALITY OF MONKEYS.-Owners of menageries would save a vast deal of money, if they were a little more careful in the selection of fuel for their winter quarters. Monkeys generally die of pulmonary consumption in the course of a year. The lymphatic glands soon become diseased, after the approaching cold weather renders it necessary to make fires in their apartments. If they survive one or two winters, a disease of the bones follows, and a general scrofulous affection of the whole body, and after a long and painful sickness, of which the poor helpless animal can give no account, terminates their existence. Charcoal, bituminous and anthracite coals are positively bad for them. Apartments warmed by furnaces in which wood is the fuel are far less destructive; but of all modes, that of maintaining a uniform temperature by heated water, or the plan of Mr. Fessenden's stoves, is most philosophical. We will venture to predict, that by using this contrivance, to the exclusion of all others, owners of collections of rare animals will make a very great saving, and at the same time, secure the perfect health of the animals composing the menagerie.

SMALL HANDS AND FEET.-Hindoo sabres have been brought to England, of which the gripe was too small for most European hands. Smallness of the hands and feet has been the distinguishing attribute of several varieties of the human race. The Chinese were amused by the largeness and length of Mr. Abel's hands. Capt. Cook describes the natives of Nootka Sound as having small illmade and crooked limbs, with large, badly shaped feet and projecting ancles. He ascribed the circumstance, however, to their sitting so habitually on their hams and knees. Lewis and Clark found broad, thick, flat feet, thick ankles, and crooked legs, in most of the western savages, whom they visited on their remarkable expedition to the Pacific.

ASIATIC SHEEP.-Immense herds of sheep are driven over the country, wherever the requisite feed exists, of the variety termed ovis steatopyga, whose tails are so remarkably broad, heavy, and loaded with fat, that in order to prevent the wool from being torn off, the shepherd supports them with a little pair of wheels. Thousands upon thousands may be seen continually in the neighborhood of Smyrna, drawing their massive sacral appendages on those miniature trucks. The males usually have four horns. This breed yield

the coarse wool which is brought to the United States in such quantities from Adrianople and Smyrna.

CHIMNEY SWALLOWS, hirundo rustica, a well-known bird, visit us about the beginning of April, and retire again the last of September, and always in October. Previous to the annual departure, these swallows congregate in flocks of three or four hundred, on houses or trees, and usually make their flight in the night, to avoid, it is supposed, the birds of prey, which are prodigiously troublesome to them in their perigrinations. Generally, their course is in a due southerly direction, availing themselves as much as possible of a favorable wind.

FOSSIL FISHES.-The most celebrated locality for these singular remains is at Monte Bolca or Vestena Nuova, on the confines of the Veronese territory. The mountain of Vestena Nuova is volcanic, and rises 1000 feet above the limestone. The ichthyolites consist of skeletons, sometimes very perfect, fragments of bones and casts. Many genera and species of these antediluvian remains have been described by Dr. Volta and Blainville.

TO PRESERVE SPECIMENS IN NATURAL HISTORY.-To preserve the skins of animals for exhibition, arsenical soap has been found to be the most perfect guard against vermin, and is prepared in the following manner, viz. camphor 5 oz.; arsenic in powder, 2 lbs.; white soap, 2 lbs. ; salt of tartar, 12 oz.; chalk in powder, 4 oz. Rub this thoroughly over the inner surface, and afterward stuff the animal for the case.

HUNTING LEOPARD, felis jubata.—It has a fawn-colored fur, covered by small black round spots, not coalescing, but distinct, with a slight mane. It is a native of Asia, but domesticated, and made particularly serviceable to the hunter. When the master goes upon an expedition, the leopard is either conveyed to the field in a carriage, or hooded, and taken on a pad, behind the saddle of the horseman. When an antelope is discovered-for they are used in no other sport-the blind is taken off, and the animal at once bounds towards the timid gazelle. If the leopard is unsuccessful in the pursuit, after one or two efforts, it almost invariably declines any

further exertion, and returns to its master. A tame specimen described by a French naturalist, was accustomed to go at large in a park, and freely associated with children and domestic animals, purring like a cat when pleased, and mewing when it wished to call the attention of bystanders to its wants.

GRAY PARROT, psitticus erythacus.-This species is distinguished for its docility, distinct articulation of words, and its loquacity. It readily imitates any sort of sound, and what is still further remarkable, is wonderfully long-lived. Vaillant speaks of one at Amsterdam, that lived seventy-three years after its arrival in Europe it moulted regularly every year, for sixty-five years, after which the process became irregular, and the red feathers of the tail were replaced by yellow ones. Persons fond of making pets of these birds, will have more pleasure in this species, than in those of a green plumage.

CLAY FOR FOOD.-Humboldt says the Ottomaques, on the banks of the Meta and the Orinoco, feed on a fat, unctuous earth, or a species of pipe-clay, tinged with a little red oxyd of iron. They collect it very carefully, knead it into balls of four or six inches in diameter, which are slightly baked before a slow fire. Whole stacks of this provision are seen piled up before their doors. When eaten, they are soaked a little time in water; and each individual consumes, on an average, about a pound a day. Sometimes the dish is made a little richer, by the addition of two or three lizards, mixed with fern roots.

ROYAL COLLEGES.-The seminaries of this description in Paris, contain, at present, 5,285 pupils. The provincial colleges have 9,675, of whom 4,149 are resident within their walls.

LIBRARIES IN FRANCE.-There are 195 provincial towns in France, possessing public libraries; and their total stock of books amounts to 2,600,000 volumes. Paris contains five public libraries, computed to contain 1,378,000 volumes.

We are indebted to Good's Book of Nature for the engravings in this number.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

'Mr. King's' criticisms are certainly correct, and we cheerfully acquiesce in his decision.

'G. R.'-Query-do these initials stand for George Rex? The article is imperative. However, the thing shall be attended to.

very

HINTS TO THE PRINTER'S DEVIL.'-The only devil who has had anything to do with this establishment, is the author of a communication with the above signature. CHACUN A SON GOUT.

'LALANDE' has been dead a long time.

'GALEN' smells of the shop :-thou wieldest a pestle much better than a pen. 'VIDI.'-What ails this man? Why, his ideas are laboring under a paroxysm of the tic doloreux.

'A CRITIC' reminds us of a line in Pope :- For this plain reason, man is not a fly.'

MR. AIKIN, from whom we have received so many favors in times past, lays us under renewed obligations.

'TUMULI.'-Any antiquarian researches in the western world will be gladly received. We intend introducing Tumuli's remarks on ancient mounds as soon as room can be afforded, and we do justice to those correspondents whose letters have been longest on file.

MR. THOMPSON.-We have had enough of this gentleman :-really, he presumes to dictate. O for an act, entitled an act for giving presumptuous literary upstarts a hint-without being accused of rudeness.

'A SUBSCRIBER.'-Just give your name, and it can readily be ascertained whether you have ever settled your bill.

NOTE.-Gentlemen are requested to sign their names to whatever they may send us, relying upon our discretion in never making use of them to their disadvantage. Papers accumulate so fast, that it is utterly impossible to print them as speedily as we really desire. Correspondents are respectfully desired to write their manuscript in a plain hand, with good ink, which will save an immense deal of labor in correcting the proof sheets.

'AN OBSERVER' may rely upon seeing the crater opened directly, and woe to those who get scorched by the lava.

'K. F.'s' theory is somewhat ingenious, though it is doubtful whether it is of as much importance as the author supposes.

'MATHEMATICUS' is requested to look into Grund's works on Geometry. Perhaps we are in error ourselves, yet we are unwilling to hazard the experiment of submitting the writer's paper to the public, without being certain of its perfect correctness.

'RECURVOUS,'-from RE, back, and CURVUS, crooked:-a very appropriate signature for a remarkably crooked piece of composition, which either shot, like an excrescence from a warped intellect, or got most terribly out of shape on the way from KENTUCKY. Anything but ideas thrown into PI. Pay the postage, friend, the next time, or we shall assuredly publish your ICONOGRAPHY, and that would throw all your friends into a bilious fever.

AND

FAMILY LYCEUM.

APRIL 1, 1834.

[Furnished for the Scientific Tracts and Family Lyceum.]

TRADITIONARY AND HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIANS:

Or, an inquiry concerning the natives who formerly resided in the vicinity, and in the original borders of the town of Deerfield, in the state of Massachusetts; with an historical sketch of ancient Deerfield.

1

BY STEPHEN W. WILLIAMS, M. D.

It is curious and interesting to observe the manners and customs of men in a state of nature, untaught by science, and unrefined by civilization. By comparing our own comforts and advantages with theirs, we are taught to appreciate the value of philosophy and science, of literature and the arts. We are taught also, to estimate the blessings of industry, which have converted a wilderness into a fertile and inhabited country. Transporting ourselves on the wings of imagination a few years back, we behold the country, where now the busy hum of active industry prevails, where now the fertile plains yield their prolific abundance to the hands of labor, covered with woods or deep morasses, which resounded with the terrific yells of the savage Indian, prowling for prey, and with the howlings of the wolf and the bear.

In the prosecution of this inquiry, I do not expect to be able to advance many new facts with regard to the manners and customs of the Indians. If I am able to corroborate what others have said of them, and to show that the manners and customs of most savage nations on the continent of America are similar, my wishes will be gratified.