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man and the hopes of the christian are felt through the mighty moral wilderness of neglected Africa.

While they feel that their power is but a feeble effort, even in some respects acting counter to the opinions of those whom they respect as friends and brethren, the prize is too vast to be relinquished, till charity hath nothing to give, till philanthropy slumbers, till good men are no longer willing to promote virtue, genuine piety and vital religion.

Education, freely disseminated, promises the greatest amount of permanent benefit to the colony, which may now be considered as presenting the successful results of an interesting experiment on human nature, in its rudest and most unpromising form. It must be sustained; it must not be suffered to wane in the very beginning of its usefulness. We appeal to the well-wishers of African Colonization, and ask them if it would not be reproachful to the age in which we live, and to the country that gave us birth, to withhold that fostering care which is reasonably expected from men who profess to love, and to pray for the success of the cause in which the Society is enlisted.

Trusting to the guidance of that Providence, which never forsakes the oppressed, they will continue to act under a feeling of responsibility towards the distant colonist, which will lighten the labor from a sense of duty; and do all their circumstances will allow, to lay a sure corner stone, whereon to build that intellectual edifice, which can alone sustain or fulfil the intentions of New England Colonizationists.

PORT JERVIS, (Orange Co. N. Y.,) May, 4, 1834.

To the Editor of the Tracts and Lyceum.

I AM but an occasional reader of the Tracts and Lyceum, but observing a communication in the number for January 15th, signed H, respecting certain small 'cylinders' composed of stone, and which the writer conceives

had been inhabited by some insect, I take the liberty to offer some facts connected with the same subject.

About the last of March, as I was returning from a ramble among the rocks and hills which almost surround our little village, and from the summit of which the lovers of nature have an elevated view of the River Delaware, as it winds its course along the valley, embracing in the same glance a part of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, as it leaves the course of the Delaware, and passes up in a north-easterly direction towards the Hudson, I was attracted to a small spring, (being thirsty) which issues from the side of the mountain, at an elevation of about 400 feet above the village. On stooping to drink, I was surprised, like your correspondent H,' to see a great number of small cylinders of the same description that your writer gives. I took several in my hand, and concluded that they must have been inhabited. One end of the tube or cylinder was closed, and the other appeared black, as if filled with dirt; but on pressing this cylinder between my fingers, I was surprised to see a living animal issue from his hiding place, apparently not well pleased with so rough usage.

My curiosity now being awakened, having never before seen or read of such an animal, I carefully opened one of the tubes, and obtained a perfect insect, having six legs near its head, to direct its motion. The head of this ininsect and as far back as its legs, is of a dark brown color, while the the remainder of its body is nearly white.

Having agitated the water in the spring, which changed their position, these insects would protrude themselves from their cell about half an inch, and travel about upon the bottom with apparent ease, while the cylinder, tube, or shell, or whatever else you may please to call it, remained attached to them. And whenever I would take the most active between my fingers, they would contract themselves within their cell; and on moving my hand with several of them together, they would rattle like small gravel stones.

A friend who was with me took about half a dozen, and enclosed them in a small box. They were very restless,

and used every exertion to escape. They lived two days in this box, without having any water put on them.

I have just visited the spring again, and have procured some with the insect in them, and others where both ends of the cylinders are closed.

Whether the insect has deposited its eggs in its cell, and then left it, closing the aperture, I know not; but this is certain, that these cylinders are not so numerous now as in March. Several remain on the bottom unoccupied, and appear in a decaying state, while the bottom of the spring is alive with insects, but little resembling the one. described, and which were not to be seen in the spring before.

Lest my description should not be sufficient to give you a correct knowledge of this insect, which, I believe, is not noticed by writers, I have enclosed a few of them in this communication, and could if desired, forward some in a jar of water to any friend you may have in New York, so that you could see them, as I have, alive and active.

I remain yours truly,

JOHN CONKLING.

The specimen of which our correspondent makes mention, came safely to hand, but it was not thought advisable to procure a drawing, for the present.

CAUSE OF FEVERS.

HUDSON, the discoverer and first navigator of Hudson's river, on the 6th of September, sent a boat to sound the Kills, between Bergen and Staten Island, and his men, on their return, reported that the 'lands were as pleasant with grass and flowers, and goodly trees, as ever they had seen, and very sweet smells came from them.' not now the case. The grazing of cattle, the rooting of swine, the plough and other implements of agriculture, have entirely destroyed a great number of the annual

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grasses and plants which formerly flourished in this country. Several persons told Kalm, so far back as 1748, that the loss of many odoriferous plants, with which the woods were filled before the arrival of the Europeans, but which the cattle have now extirpated, might be looked upon as a cause of the greater progress of the fever; for the great number of those strong plants occasioned a pleasant scent to rise in the woods, every morning and evening. The vegetable kingdom of our western country is uncommonly rich, and luxuriantly abundant, because cultivation has been but partially extended to it. Hogs have produced great destruction among all tuberous and bulbous roots. Even the laurel tree of Carolina has become almost extinct in many parts of the country, owing to the depredations of domesticated animals.

SUBJECTS OF INQUIRY.

THE following, among others, are still subjects of speeulation and controversy :-What is national wealth? The means of producing it? the influence or action of the generating causes? their immediate or distant effects? their apparent or actual results? the different ramifications of the sources of wealth, such as labor, capital, the circulation of commodities or commerce? and the revenue or consumption? the source of wealth, whether in labor, foreign commerce, land or capital stock? in what capital consists? the nature of money? the proportion which the circulating money of a country bears to the whole value of the annual produce circulated by it? Whether labor is the standard of value, and whether there is an immutable standard measure of value? whether agricultural labor is exclusively productive or most productive? and perhaps, the most controverted subject of political economy is, whether the home or foreign commerce is most productive of national wealth?

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IN some former article an allusion has been made to the Chinese mode of fishing with the cormorant, (Pelica nus piscator,) a bird which has become as important to

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