that ingenious people, in domestic economy, as some of the larger animals in common use in civilized countries. The annexed drawing simply shows the precise mode of conducting the operation. There are no restrictions on the fisheries in China; the subject, in fact, is not even remotely hinted at in the Leu-lee, or statute laws. Salt fish are an extreme rarity in the empire, and few, perhaps, of the common people ever tasted the article, on account of the excessively high duty on salt.

Sir George Staunton, when the embassy was proceeding on the great southern branch of the Canal in China, saw the Chinese fishing on a large scale, on a lake, with the cormorant. There were thousands of small boats and rafts, built expressly for this species of fishing. On board of each were ten or a dozen of those birds, which, at a given signal from the owner, plunged into the water; and it much astonished Sir George to see the enormous size of the fish with which they returned in their bill. At that place, they were so well trained that it did not appear necesary to place a ring on the neck, to keep them from swallowing the prey. The master occasionally gave them a portion, by way of encouragement.

The natives of Cuba formerly carried on a very singular sort of angling with the remora, or sucking-fish, in the following manner. A strong, small twine was made fast. round the tail of the fish, which, by the way, was kept in a vat, and carried in a vessel of water, wherever its services were required, and then thrown overboard. It ran instinctively towards the first fish which the length of line would permit it to reach, and instantly made itself fast. The moment the fisherman felt that such was the case, he gently drew in the line, drawing both near the surface. He then carefully run his hands under water, and thrust a finger under the edge of the disk, which at once broke the connexion. When he had secured the game, he then permitted the remora to run again, and in that simple, though ingenious manner, it was the most successful mode of fishing of which there is any account, unless it be with the cormorant.

MIXED BLOOD OF AMERICANS.

'IT is acknowledged,' says Cicero, 'that literature, polite arts, religion, agriculture, laws, and social rights originated in Athens, and were thence distributed over all nations.' The fertility of the soil, the excellence of the climate, the freedom of the government, and the enterprising spirit of the people, must have co-operated in producing this transcendent and pre-eminent state of human exaltation. And if a comparison was instituted in those respects between that country and ours, in what important part should we be deficient.

We are, perhaps, more favored in another point of view. Attica was peopled from Egypt, but we can boast of our descent from a superior stock. I speak not of families or dynasties; I refer to our origin from those nations where civilization, knowledge, and refinement have erected their empire, and where human nature has attained its greatest perfection. Annihilate Holland, Great Britain, Ireland, France and Germany, and what would become of civilized man? This country, young as it is, would be the great Atlas remaining to support the dignity of the world: and perhaps our mingled descent from various nations may have a benign influence upon genius. We perceive the improving effects of an analogous state upon vegetables and inferior animals. The extraordinary characters which the United States have produced may be, in some measure, ascribed to the mixed blood of so many nations flowing in our veins; and it may be confidently predicted, that the operation of causes, acting with irresistible effect, will carry, in this country, all the improveable faculties of human nature to the highest state of perfection.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

THE Royal Society of London, for the improving of natural knowledge, (the first institution of this kind,) was

established about the year 1663. Butler, the author of Hudibras, wrote a satire against it, entitled, "The Elephant in the Moon.' Sprat, the historian of the society, feeling too acutely the shafts of ridicule, attempted, in a singular way, to propitiate the hostile wits. To gain their good will,' said he, 'I must acquaint them that the family of Railleurs is said to be derived from the same original with the philosophers. The founder of philosophy is confessed by all to be Socrates, and he also, was the famous author of all irony. They ought, therefore, to be tender in this matter, wherein the honor of their common parent is concerned.' Cowley, on the other hand, wrote a complimentary address to the society.

The satire of Butler has sunk into oblivion, while the society which it assailed has established a reputation and usefulness that cannot be subverted or denied. From its origin to the end of the eighteenth century, (as appears from Dr. Thompson's History of the Royal Society from its institution to the end of the eighteenth century,) it has published 4,166 memoirs on natural history, anatomy, surgery, medicine, mathematics, mechanical philosophy, chemistry, and miscellaneous subjects, the. greatest number of which is on astronomy, medicine and chemistry. The institution of this society was soon followed by that of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris; and similar associations have been since formed in almost all the important cities of Europe.

ORIGINAL MISCELLANY.

ORFFYREUS'S WHEEL.-Gravesend, in his Œuvres Philosophiques, published some time about 1774, at Amsterdam, gives an account of a singular machine constructed by one Orffyreus, which was styled a perpetual motion. The facts in relation to it, as nearly as we can ascertain, were simply these. A large circular wheel, twelve feet in diameter, and fourteen inches thick, was

made of very light, thin deal boards, resembling a drum, as mechanics call it, for carrying bands. The sides, or rather ends, were covered with waxed cloth, to prevent any one from discovering the inside. Through the centre was an iron axle, the gudgeons of which rested on two upright pillars, in the manner of hanging a grindstone. On giving it a slight motion either way, its revolutions speedily increased to twenty-five a minute. For two months it never varied in the least from that motion. Being placed in a chamber, at the residence of the landgrave of Hesse, the door was fastened, and the seal of his highness placed on the lock. At the expiration of sixty days the apartment was opened, and the wheel found revolving at the usual speed. It was then stopped, to prevent it from being worn out. The inventor was so incensed because Professor Gravesend undertook to examine it, that he broke it in pieces before his face. The landgrave once saw the inside, but being sworn to secresy, only said it was very simple. Both the inventor and his friend died soon after, and all knowledge of its construction is therefore lost to the world.

BLOWN LENSES.-There are many ingenious men in such narrow circumstances that they are compelled to construct their own instruments, in order to prosecute those researches for which they entertain a decided predilection. We are personally acquainted with several men who are devoted particularly to the study of optics, and to such, therefore, the following economical mode of making lenses for microscopes must be acceptable. Take a piece of flint glass, as a broken portion of a tumbler, for example, and heat it in the flame of a lamp, till it can be drawn into a thread. At the extremity there will be a globule, or technically, a spherule. Upon this, force the blaze by a blowpipe. The thread by which it is suspended will become smaller and smaller, and as the little ball descends by its gravity, it assumes a more perfect spheroidal shape. The size of these globules may be increased by allowing more of the thread to be incorporated, and so on. By a little practice, glasses may be easily constructed, which, rightly managed, are very perfect in the instrument in which they are set.

MAMMOTHS.-The skeletons of three mammoths are said to have been found, recently, in a cavern in the island of Podrese, and carried to Cronstadt.

TEMPLE OF BELUS.-In the centre of the temple of Belus, in the renowned city of Babylon, stood the magnificent tower of Babel, which was 600 feet square at the base. It was constructed to resemble eight massive towers, piled one above the other, each one being twenty-five feet high. On the outside was a winding staircase reaching to the top. Within the different stories were lofty and beautifully finished apartments, studded with columns, and rich in architectural design. These were chapels, in which public worship was offered to Baal. On the very summit of the eighth tower, was an observatory, where many important astronomical observations were probably made, which have been transmitted to our day. A golden image, forty feet high, was kept in one of the splendid halls, whose value was equal to three millions and a half sterling. The entire value of the gold, silver, jewels and other royal property kept in this sacred edifice, has been computed to have been equal to forty-two millions of pounds sterling. Each brick of the tower, as well as of the walls of the city, bore a character. Several of these are now in Boston, brought from the supposed site of the

tower.

DEPTH OF THE OCEAN.-One mile and sixty-six feet is the lowest depth to which the ocean has been sounded. Where the coast is rugged and high, the water is deep. All the surface covered by seas is three times greater than the dry land, being 148 millions of miles. If the medium depth of the sea be reckoned at two miles, there must consequently be 296 millions of cubical miles of water. The quantity, therefore, is sufficient to cover all the known dry land on the globe to the height of eight thousand feet: and further, were all this mass of water thrown into the shape of a ball, it would be eight hundred miles in diameter. Philosophers of enlarged views generally believe, that the present beds of all oceans were, at a former period, the habitable parts of the earth. There is no other mode of explaining the presence of such immense masses of marine productions, quite in the interior of all the continents as are continually brought to light, than by supposing they were once covered by the sea.

ROMAN COINS.-A while since, a great number of Roman coins were found on Fairhead, a lofty headland near the Giant's Cause

way.