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l'he time occupied in the journey by railway is two The great utility of railways, and their produchours; by canal it is twenty hours. The canals tiveness in a pecuniary point of view, have just have reduced their rates thirty per cent. Goods been exemplified at Edinburgh, where a railroad, are delivered in Manchester the same day they are formed for the purpose of introducing coal to the received in Liverpool; by canal they were never city from pits a few miles distant, has been covered delivered before the third day. By railway, goods, with vehicles for the conveyance of passengers to such as wines and spirits, are not subject to the all parts of the adjacent country. pilserage which existed on the canals. The saving to manufacturers in the neighborhood of Manchester in the carriage of cotton alone has been L.20,000 per annum; some houses of business save L.500 a year in carriage. Persons now go from Manchester to Liverpool and back in the same day with the greatest ease; formerly they were generally obliged to be absent the greater part of two days. More persons now travel on their own business. The railway is assessed to the parochial rates in all the parishes through which it passes: through only 31 miles, it pays between L.3000 and L.4000 per annum in parochial rates. Coalpits have been sunk and manufactories established in the line, giving great employment to the poor; manufactories are also erected on the line, giving increased employment, and thus reducing the num

MONKEY'S BREAD. her of claimants for parochial relief. The railway This tree is a native of the western coast of Afpays one-fifth of the poor-rates in the parishes through which it passes. Fresh coal-mines have

rica, and also of Egypt. In the former country it

is described by Adanson as being a tree of large been sunk, owing to facilities of carriage and re dimensions and singular economy:

The trunks duced price. It is found advantageous for the carriage of milk and garden produce: arrangements

were about twelve or fourteen feet high, but of the are about to be made for milk to be carried 15 miles

vast circumference of sixty or seventy feet. The

lateral branches were forty or fifty feet long, of the at 1s. per 10 gallons (i. e., less than one farthing

thickness of a great tree, and with their remote per quart.) A great deal of land on the line has

branches touching the ground; while some of the been let for garden ground at increased rents. Residents on the line find the railway a great con

roots that had been laid bare were upwards of a

hundred feet long, and even then were not exposed venience, by enabling them to attend to their busi

for their whole length. The fruit is from nine to ness in Manchester and Liverpool with case, at twelve inches long, and about four in diameter, of little expense. No inconvenience is felt by residents from smoke or noise, but, on the contrary,

a brownish color, and rather pointed toward the

extremities. The pulp is a little farinaceous, mixed great advantages are experienced by means of

with fibres: when recent, it has a very refreshing, travelling, to and fro, distances of ten miles in half an hour for 1s., and without any fatigue.

acid taste; and eaten with sugar, it is both pleasThe

ant and wholesome. It retains its cooling qualiengines only burn coke. The value of land on the Tine has been considerably enhanced by the opera

ties when dry; and, on that account, the physicians

of Cairo administer it in fevers and other diseases tion of the railway: land cannot be purchased but at a large increase in price; it is much sought after for building, &c. The Railway Company, in their late purchases, have been obliged to pay frequently

ON THE UTILITY OF THE REMARKS AND OBSERVA. double the price they originally paid for their land.

TIONS OF MECHANICS AND MANUFACTURERS. A great deal of land has been sold for building at That the remarks of experienced artists and lathree times its foriner value. Much waste land on borers may frequently lead to useful discoveries the line has been taken into cultivation, and yields may be illustrated by the following facts:"A a good rent. Land-owners, originally opposed to soap manufacturer remarked that the residuum of the railway, are now its warm advocates: having his lye, when exhausted of the alkali for which he found their fears wholly groundless, they have now employed it, produced a corrosion of his copper been solicitous that the line should pass through boiler for which he could not account. their land. Mr. Babbage observes, in his book on into the hands of a scientific chymist for analysis, the “ Economy of Manufactures," "One point of and the result was the discovery of one of the most view in which rapid modes of conveyance increase singular and important chymical elements, iodine. the power of a country deserves attention. On the The properties of this, being studied, were found Manchester railroad, for example, above half a to occur most appositely in illustration and support million of persons travel annually; and supposing of a variety of new, curious, and instructive views each person to save only one hour in the time of then gaining ground in chymistry, and thus exertransit between Manchester and Liverpool, a saving cised a marked influence over the whole body of of five hundred thousand hours, or of fifty thousand that science. Curiosity was excited; the origin working days of ten hours each, is effected. Now, of the new substance was traced to the sea-plants, this is equivalent to an addition to the actual power from whose ashes the principal ingredient of soap of the country of one hundred and sixty-seven is obtained, and ultimately to the sca-water itself men, without increasing the quantity of food con It was thence hunted through nature, discovered sumed; and it should be also remarked, that the in salt-mines and springs, and pursued into all time of the class of men thus supplied is far more bodies which have a marine origin; among the rest, valuable than that of mere laborers."

into sponge. A medical practitioner then called to


He put it

Shriller than eagle's clamor to the skies,

Where wings and tempests never soar

Go, go; no other sound, No music, that of air or earth is born, Can match the mighty music of that horn;

On Midnight's fathomless profound !

mind a reputed remedy for the cure of one of the most grievous and unsightly disorders to which the human species is subject--the goitre—which infests the inhabitants of mountainous districts to an extent which, in this favored land, we have happily no experience of, and which was said to have been originally cured by the ashes of burnt sponge. Led by this indication, he tried the effect of iodine on that complaint, and the result established the extraordinary fact that this singular substance, taken as a medicine, acts with the utmost promptitude and energy on goitre, dissipating the largest and most inveterate in a short time, and acting (of course with occasional failures, like all other medicines) as a specific or natural antagonist against that odious deformity. It is thus that any accession to our knowledge of nature is sure, sooner or later, to make itself felt in some practical application, and that a benefit conferred on science, by the casual observation or shrewd remark of even an unscientific or illiterate person, infallibly repays itself with interest, though often in a way that could never have been at first contemplated."

Iodine was accidentally discovered (as above stated) in 1812, by M. de Courtois, a manufacturer of salt petre at Paris, and derived its first illustrations from M. Clement and M. Desormes. Its name literally signifies a violet color. Its specific gravity is about 4. It becomes a violet colored gas at a temperature below that of boiling water; it combines with the metals, with phosphorus and sulphur, with the alkalis and metallie oxides, and forms a detonating compound with ammonia. Dr. Coindet of Geneva first recommended the use of it, in the form of tincture, for the cure of goitres. Some readers may perhaps require to be informed that the goitre is a large fleshy excrescence that grows from the throat, and sometimes increases to an enormous size. The inhabitants of certain parts of Switzerland, especially those in the republic of Valais, are particularly subject to this shocking deformity.


Multiply 9 by itself, or by any other of the digits, and the figures of the product added together will amount to 9. The component figures of the amount of the multipliers, (viz. 45) when added together, make 9.

The amount of the several products or multiples of 9, (viz. 405) when divided by 9, gives a quotient of 45; and the component figures of either the dividend or quotient added together make 9.

Multiply any row of figures either by nine, or by any one of the products of nine multiplied by one of the digits, as by 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, or 81, and the sum of the figures of the product added together will be divisible by 9.

Multiply the 9 digits in the following order, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9, by nine, or by any one of the products of nine mentioned in the last paragraph, and the product will come out all in one figure, except the place of tens, which will be an u, and that figure will be the one which multiplied into 9, supplies the multiplier; that is, if you select 9 as the multiplier, the product will be (except the place of tens) all ones; if you select 18, all twos; if 27, all threes, and so on. Omit the 8 in the multiplicand, and the will also vanjsh from the product, leaving it all ones, twos, threes, &c. as the case

may be.

Practical Christianity:-During the siege of Barcelona by the Spaniards and English, in the war of the succession, iu

705, an affecting incident occurred, which is thus related by Captain Carleton in his memoirs." I remember I saw an old officer, having his only son with him, (a fine man about twenty years of age) going into the tent to dine. While they were at dinner, a shot from the Bastion of St. Antonio took off the head of the son. The father immediately rose up, first looking down upon his headless child, and then lifting up his eyes to heaven, whilst the tears ran down his cheeks, only said, Thy will be done. It was a sad spectacle, and truly it affects me even now while I am writing.”



Use of Tobacco.-It is stated in the French papers that by mixing tobacco juice with the pitch and tar used in paying the seams in a ship's bottom, the attack of worms and destructive insects will be prevented, and coppering rendered unnecessary.

0, wild, enchanting horn! Whose music, up the deep and dewy air, Swells to the clouds, and calls on Echo there,

'Till a new melody is born!

Wake, wake again ; the night Is bending from her throne of Beauty down, With still stars beaming on her azure crown,

Intense, and eloquently bright! Night, at its pulseless noon! When the far voice of waters mourns in song, And some tired watch-dog, lazily and long,

Barks at the melancholy moon!

Hark! how it sweeps away, Soaring and dying on the silent sky, As if some sprite of sound went wandering by,

With lone halloo and roundelay.

Swell, swell in glory out! Thy tones come pouring on my leaping heart, And my stirred spirit hears thee with a start,

As boyhood's old remembered shout! 0, have ye heard that peal, Froin sleeping city's moon-bathed battlements, Or froin the guarded field and warrior ierts,

Like some near breath around ye steal!

Or have ye, in the roar
Orsal, or storm, nr hatila, heard it ris,

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THE TALIPOT TREE OF CEYLON. There are few objects in the vegetable kingdom great height, frequently adding as much as thirty more remarkable and beautiful, or more useful to feet to the elevation of the tree. From the flower man, than the Talipot tree, which is a species of proceed the fruit or seeds, which are as large as palm (the corypha umbraculifera of Linnæus) pe our cherries, and exceedingly numerous, but not culiar to the island of Ceylon, and the Malabar eatable: they are only useful as seeds to reproduce coast, and is said to be found also in the Mar and multiply the tree. It appears that the natives quesas and Friendly Islands. Robert Knox says do not sow them, but leave that operation entirely that it is as big and as tall as a ship’s mast, but to nature. The flower and the fruit only appear Cordiner gives more definite dimensions by stating once on one tree. Their appearance betoken that that one which he measured was a hundred feet the tree has attained to old age, which, according high and five feet in circumference near the ground. to the natives, it does in a hundred years: Ribeyro, The stem of this tree is perfectly straight; it grad a Portuguese writer, says, in about thirty years, ually diminishes as : ascends, the circumference which is more likely to be correct. of the upper part being about half that of the base: As soon as the fruit or seeds are ripe, the tree it is strong enough to resist the most violent tropi dries up and decays so rapidly that in two or three cal winds. It has no branches, and the leaves weeks it is seen prostrate and rotting on the ground. only spring from its summit. These leaves, which Kn asserts, that if the tree be cut down before when on the tree are almost circular, are of such runs to seed, the pith, largely contained within the prodigious diameter that they can shelter ten or a stem, is nutritious and wholesome, and adds, that dozen (Knox says from fifteen to twenty) men, the natives take this pith, "and beat it in mortars standing near to each other. The flower of the to flour, and bake cakes of it, which taste much tree which shoots above the leaves is at first a clus like to wheat bread, and it serves them instead of ter of bright yellow blossoms, exceedingly beauti corn before their harvest be ripe.” We have not sul to the eye, but emitting an odor too strong and found these cakes mentioned by any other writer pungent to be agreeable. Before its developement on Ceylon; but as Knox was so veracious and ibe flower is enclosed in a hard rind, which rind, correct, we may admit that the natives were acupon the expansion of the flower, bursts with a customed to make them. A better known fact sharp noise

The flower shoots pyramidically to a about the uses of the inner parts of the tree, is, that

sago is made from them. The stem or trunk of the talipot, like that of most other palms, is extremely hard without, but soft and spongy within, the greater part of its diameter being a soft brownish cellular substance. The sago is made by beating the spongy part of the stem in a mortar, by which means the fecula is procured. Still, however, the great usefulness of the tree is in its leaves. Growing on the tree, these leaves when expanded, are of a beautiful dark green color; but those chiefly used are cut before they spread out, and have, and retain for ages, a pale brownish yellow color, not unlike old parchment. Their preparation for use is very simple: they are rubbed with hard, smooth pieces of wood, which express any humidity that may remain, and increase their pliability, which is naturally very great. The structure of this wonderful leaf and the disposition of its fibres will be best understood by a glance at the engraving at the head of this article, in which the construction of the leaves is shown, particularly by those in the right-hand corner.

Our readers will there see that it is made precisely like a fan, and like a fan it can be closed or expanded, and with almost as little exertion. It is in fact used as a fan by the natives of Ceylon, and is at the same time their only-umbrella and parasol; in addition to which uses it forms their only tent when they are in the field, and, cut up into strips, it serves them to write upon instead of paper.

The leaf is so light that an entire one can be carried in the hand; but as this, from its great size when expanded, would be inconvenient, the natives cut segments from it, which they use to defend themselves from the scorching rays of the sun, or from the rains. The narrow part is carried foremost, the better to enable those who use them to penetrate through the woods and thickets, with which most of the country abounds. No handles are used, but the two sides of the leaf are grasped by the bearer. “ This,” says Knox, in his quaint manner, “is a marvellous mercy which Almighty God hath bestowed upon this poor and naked people in this rainy country !He ought to have added, in this hot country, for the heats in Ceylon, whose mean temperature is 81°, are frequently, and for long periods, tremendous, and the talipot leaf is quite as valuable as a protection against them as against rain.

However much water may fall on the leaf it imbibes no humidity, remaining dry and light as

The British troops in their campaign in the jungles against the Cingalese in 1817 and 1818, found to their cost how excellent a preservative it was against wet and damp. The enemy's musketmen were furnished, each with a talipot leaf, by means of which they always kept their arms and powder perfectly dry and could fire upon the invading forces; while frequently the British muskets, which had no such protection, were rendered useless by the heavy rains, and the moisture of the woods and thickets, and the soldiers were consequently unable to return the fire of the natives.

As tents, the talipot leaves are set up an end. Two or three talipot umbrellas thus employed make an excellent shelter, and from being so light and portable, each leaf folding up to the size of a man's arm, they are admirably adapted for this important service. The chiefs, moreover, have regularly formed square tents nade of them. In these the leaves are neatly sewed together and laid over a

light frame work: the whole is light and can be packed up in a very small compass.

When used in lieu of paper, they are cut into strips (those which we have seen are about fifteen inches long by three broad,) soaked for a short time in boiling water, rubbed backward and forward over a smooth piece of wood to make them pliable, and then carefully dried. The Cingalese write or engrave their letters upon them with a stylus, or pointed steel instrument, and then rub them over with a dark colored substance, which only remaining in the parts etched or scratched, gives the characters greater relief, and makes them more easy to read. The coloring matter is rendered liquid by being mixed with cocoa-nut oil, and when dry is not easily effaced. On common occasions they write on the leaf of another species of palm-tree, but the talipot is used in all gov ernment despatches, important documents, such as title-deeds to estates, &c., and in their books. A Cingalese book is a bundle of these strips tied up together. As even the lawyers and the learned in this country are very deficient in chronological knowledge, great confusion occurs as to dates; and it is very common to see a Cingalese judge attempting to ascertain the antiquity of a document produced in court by smelling and cutting it.

The oil employed in the writing imparts a strong odor which preserves it from insects, but this odor is changed by age. The talipot, however, appears to have in itself a natural quality which deters the attack of insects and preserves it from the decay of age even without the oil. It may be worth wbile observing that the Cingalese who engrave the most solemn of their deeds, such as the foundation of, or donations to a temple, on plates of fine copper, which are generally neatly edged with silver, always make these plates of precisely the same shape as the talipot strips used for writing.

Besides all the uses described, the Cingalese employ the talipot leaf extensively in thatching their houses. They also manufacture hats from it; these hats are made with brims as broad as an out. stretched umbrella, and are chiefly worn by women nursing, to defend them and their infants from the heat.

The talipot is not a very cominon tree at present, and is rarely seen growing by those who only visit the coasts of the island and do not penetrate into the interior. It seems to grow, scattered among other trees, in the forests. In a view of the town of Kandy, as it was in 1821, a fine specimen of the talipot, in flower, is seen close to a group of cocoa-nut trees.


NATURE. In a state of nature no race of animals is unhappy; they are all adapted to the mode of life which God has ordained them to lead; and their chief enjoyment consists in pursuing their natural habits, whatever these may be. The woodpecker, while boring a tree, and clinging to it for hours by its scandent feet, is just as happy as the eagle is when perched upon the mountain cliff, or pouncing on

from the clouds. Neither could lead the life of the other, but each is happy in the state which has been assigned to it; and this is observable throughout all nature. A rat, which burrows in a ditch, is as happy as it could desire, so long as it can find garbage sufficient to feed on; and a

its quarry

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heron, immovably fixed watching for the approach of small fishes and frogs, has, there can be little doubt, as much pleasure as any lover of the angle can enjoy while wearing out the summer day in marking his light float, and waiting, in mute expectation, the wished-for bite. We generally, I believe, connect rapidity or slowness of motion with the ideas we form of an animal's happiness. If, like the tortoise, it move with slow and measured steps, we pity or despise, as the mood may be, its melancholy, sluggish condition; and the poor persecuted toad has, probably, incurred as much of the odium so unjustly attached to it, by its inactivity, as by the supposed loathsomeness of its appearance. On the other hand, enjoyment seems always to be the concomitant of celerity of motion. A fly, dancing in the air, seems more happy than the spider lurking in his den; and the lark, singing at

heaven's gate,” to possess a more joyous existence than the snail, which creeps almost imperceptibly upon a leaf, or the mole, which passes the hours of brightness and sunshine in his dark caverns under ground. But these and all other animals are happy, each in its own way; and the habits of one, constituted as the creatures are, could form no source of felicity to another, but the very reverse. Though activity may stimulate the appearance of superior enjoyment, we may conceive, that where it is excessive, the animal in which it is so demonstrated must suffer much from fatigue. This would be another mistake, in so far as relates to animals in a state of nature. The works of God are all perfect in their kind; but if an animal were formed to lead a life of alınost perpetual motion, and that motion were accompanied or followed by fatigue, the work would be imperfect: take the swallow as an example; it is constantly on the wing except at night. From the early morning to the downgoing of the sun, it is forever dashing through the air with the rapidity of an arrow, but neither morning nor evening does it ever show one symptom of weariness; it has a wing which never tires; and at night it betakes itself to repose, not worn out by the fatigues of the day, but prepared for sleep after what is to it a wholesome exercise.

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BY JOSIAH CONDER. Why are springs enthroned so high, Where the mountains kiss the sky ? "Tis that thence their streams may flow, Fertilizing all below. Why have clouds such lofty flight, Basking in the golden light? "T is to send down genial showers On this lower world of ours. Why does God exalt the great ? "T is that they may prop the state ; So that Toil its sweets may yield, And the sower reap the field. Riches, why doth He confer?That the rich may minister, In the hour of their distress, To the poor and fatherless. Does He light a Newtou's mind. 'Tis to shine on all mankind. Does He give to Virtue birth ? 'T is the salt of this poor earth. Reader, whosoe'r thou art, What thy God has given, impart.

CARISBROOK CASTLE. There are few edifices now remaining in England that lay claim to so venerable an antiquity as the celebrated pile of which we are about to give an account. Carisbrook Castle stands about a mile to the southwest of Newport, the principal town of the Isle of Wight, and consequently almost in the centre of the island. It is erected upon an eminence, from which it overlooks the town of Carisbrook, now an insignificant village, but which, before Newport rose into importance, enjoyed the dignity of metropolis of the Isle of Wight under the feudal lords who possessed the island until 1291.

It is thought by some antiquaries that a portion of the present building was of Saxon construction, as early as the sixth century. After the Norman invasion the castle was greatly enlarged by William Fitzosborne, Earl of Hereford, to whom it was given by the Conqueror, and additions have since been repeatedly made to it. In the reign of Elizabeth, the buildings were for the first time enclosed by a wall faced with stone, and defended by a deep mont, as they now remain. The space contained within this enclosure amounts to about twenty acres, and the entire circuit of the fortifications is three-fourths of a mile.

The principal and most ancient part of the castle, however, is that which stands on the west side, next to the entrance, and forms an almost regular parallelogram, with the corners rounded off. Much of this belongs undoubtedly to the Norman age, and a small portion of it is probably Saxon. The Keep is built on the north side of the fortress upon the summit of an artificial mount, of nearly sixty feet in height, the ascent to which is by a flight of seventy-two steps. Only the lower apartment now remains, which is an irregular polygon, of about

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