INTELLIGENCE.

Perfection of the Natural Senses in Calmucks. A happy organization of corporeal frame, and the constant exertion made by the Calmucks to discern objects across the Steppes, convert their eyes into natural telescopes. They can see at the distance of twenty versts; they hear a sound even more remote; they smell the smoke of a watch-fire before the blaze is discernible; and many among them are able, in the darkest nights, to ascertain at what part of the Steppes they are travelling by the smell of the herbs they tread upon. Almost every Calmuck has learned to read and write; and they have sennachies, or bards, to recite tales in prose and verse, like the ancient Gael. Horse-flesh is their favorite food, and they are great consumers of tea, which, like Boniface's ale, is "meat and drink" to them. It is of the coarsest sort, brought from China, in large tablets, composed of the leaves and stalks of the tea-plant. The decoction is mixed with milk and salt butter. This preparation requires time, care, and skill; so the tea-cook is an important domestic in the train of a wealthy Calmuck. Ackermann's Repos. for Dec. 1826.

The Jesuits. The Jesuits are spreading in Switzerland. At the entrance of the city of Freiburg, a large and magnificent edifice is building for the Jesuits and their pupils, from Switzerland and other countries. When it is finished it will contain one thousand pupils, and it is said to have already cost three hundred thousand francs. This was raised by means of shares, which the Jesuits intend to pay with the profits of their establishment; there are at present eighteen Jesuits at Freiburg, who act as teachers, have the title of professors, and are paid as such. They have at present thirty private pupils among them, and endeavour as much as possible to get rich young men, or the sons of powerful families. Gent. Mag.

French Academy of Sciences. At a late sitting of the Academy of Sciences, Dr. Villermé read a memoir upon the causes of mortality in prisons, and the intensity of those causes. Prisoners (says Dr. Villermé) live or die for the most part according to the wishes of those that imprison them. He proves this by comparing the mortality in prisons, such as it was ten years ago, with what it is at present. Thanks to the remarkable meliorations which do honor to authority, and which at the same time speak loudly in favor of publicity, almost all over France the mortality has prodigiously diminished. In general, this diminution dates from the institution of the Royal Prison Society, the period at which the fate of prisoners began to attract public attention. Amongst the instances of extreme mortality, in the old prisons noticed by Dr. Villermé, there are some which cannot be contemplated without horror. Thus, in the prison of Pacé, scarcely one out of three or four survived; and in that of Villeverde, old department of the Dyle, out of two prisoners, one invariably fell a sacrifice, and frequently both. At Rouen the mortality, during the years 1812, 1813, 1814, was one in four. It is now only one in forty-six. New Month. Mag.

Novel and Curious Manufacture. M. Habenstreet, of Munich, an old officer, by patiently directing the labor of caterpillars within a limited space, has succeeded in producing an entirely new and very extraordinary kind of fabric. These caterpillars are the larva of a butterfly known by the name of finea punctata, or, according to other naturalists, finea padilla. Their instinct leads them to construct above themselves a covering (tente) of extreme fineness, but, nevertheless, firm enough to be impenetrable by air; which covering can be easily detached from them. The inventor has made these insects work on a suspended paper model, to which he gives exactly the form and si e which he requires. He has thus obtained, at pleasure, among other articles, square shawls, of the dimension of an ell; shawls two ells in lengh, and one in width; an aerostatic balloon, four feet high by two in horizontal diameter; a lady's entire dress with sleeves, but without seam. When he wishes to give to the fabric any prescribed shape, all that he finds necessary is to touch the limits which ought not to be passed, with oil; for which the caterpillars have a natural repugnance, so strong, that they will not come in contact with it. The fabric, although perfectly consistent, surpasses the finest cambric in lightness. The balloon, which we have mentioned, weighs less than five grains. The warmth of the hand is sufficient instantly to inflate it; and the flame of a single match, held under it for a few seconds, is enough to raise it to a very considerable height, whence it will not descend for half an hour. When a shawl of the size of a square ell has been well stretched, it has been blown into the air by means of a small pair of bellows, and then resembles a light smoke, subject to the slightest agitation of the atmosphere. Ibid.

Population of France. The average population of France during the six years from 1817 to 1823, has been computed at 30,319,444 souls. The average of the annual marriages, births, deaths, and increase of population, during the same period, appears to be as follows.

Moisture in Plants. The quantity of simple moisture, or rather of pure water, which some plants raise from the earth, is uncommonly great. This is beautifully exemplified in the organization of some creeping plants, in which the moisture is frequently conveyed the distance of forty, or fifty, or a hundred yards, before it reaches the leaves or fruit, or perhaps the assimilating organs of the vegetable. I have seen a plant of this sort, that had been accidentally cut across, continue to pour out pure limpid and tasteless water, in such a quantity as to fill a wineglass in about half an hour. Finlayson's Mission to Siam.

Cherokee Alphabet. A form of alphabetical writing, invented by a Cherokee, named George Guyst, who does not speak English, and was never taught to read English books, some time since attracted considerble notice. Having become acquainted with the principle of the alphabet, namely, that marks can be made the symbol of sounds, this uninstructed man conceived the notion, that he could express the syllables in the Cherokee language by separate marks, or characters. On collecting all the syllables, which, after long study and trial, he could recall to his memory, he found the number to be eighty-two. In order to express these he took the letters of our alphabet for a part of them, and various modifications of our letters, with some characters of his own invention for the rest. With these symbols he set about writing letters, and very soon a correspondence was actually maintained between the Cherokees in Will's Valley and their countrymen beyond the Mississippi, five hundred and fifty-five miles apart. This was done by individuals who could not speak English, and who had never learned any alphabet except this syllabic one, which Guyst had invented, taught others, and introduced into practice. The interest in this matter increased, till, at length, young Cherokees were willing to travel a great distance to be instructed in this easy method of writing and reading. They have but to learn their alphabet and they can read at once. In three days they are able to commence letter-writing, and return home to their native villages prepared to teach others. It is the opinion of some of the missionaries, that if the Bible were translated and printed according to the plan here described, hundreds of adult Cherokees who will never learn English, would be able to read it in a single month. Either Guyst himself or some other person has discovered four other syllables of the Cherokee language, making, in the whole, eighty-six. This is a very curious fact, especially when it is considered that the language is very copious on some subjects, a single verb undergoing some thousands of inflections. New York Observer.

Roman Boat. In making the common sewer in London street, Glasgow, from the part near the Cross down to the Molendinar Burn, there was found lately, at the depth of ten feet, the remains of a boat, lying in a bed of blue clay, which was covered and surrounded by fine sand, like that found on the shores of a navigable river or wide frith. Some of the clinker nails, used as fastenings, and found in the wood, which was fine oak, have become quite black from long immersion under the earth. The caulking appeared to have been wool dipped in tar. Some years ago, when the common sewer was cutting in the Stockwell, a boat of a similar description was found a little above Jackson street; which would indicate that these two places, where the boats have been found, were then the line of the shore of the frith, or bed of the river. These boats must have lain for many centuries in the places where they were found. The workmanship would indicate, that they were formed by a people considerably advanced in civilization. It is probable they were constructed by the Romans, about the period of Agricola's expedition into Caledonia, nearly one thousand seven hundred and forty years ago; at which period there seems little reason to doubt, that the greater part of the ground on which Glasgow now stands, and all the lower lands on both banks of the river, to a considerable distance, were covered by the waters of the Frith of Clyde.

Electricity and Magnetism. The brig Medusa, Captain Aspelt, of Jersey, while on the passage from La Guayra to Liverpool, encountered a thunder-storm in lat. 330 38′ long. 58° 12', during which the electric fluid destroyed the magnetic power of the compasses on board; two of which were on deck, and two in the cabin. An optician has examined the compasses, and finds they have entirely lost their attractive powers. New Month. Mag.

The Tallipot-tree. A leaf of this extraordinary tree has lately been brought over from the island of Ceylon, of which place it is a native, and is now in the possession of the Rev. R. Fletcher, of Hampstead. The leaf is in a good state of preservation; it measures fully eleven feet in height, sixteen feet across its widest spread, and from thirty-eight to forty feet in circumference. If expanded as a canopy, it is sufficient to defend a dinner party of six from the rays of the sun, and in Ceylon is carried about by the natives for that purpose. Ibid.

The Nile. It is at length placed beyond doubt, that the Nile, of which Bruce conceived he had discovered the sources in Abyssinia, and which the Portuguese had seen and described in the sixteenth century, is only a tributary stream flowing into the true Nile, of which the real source is much nearer the equator. For this information we are indebted to M. Calliaud, who accompanied the predatory expedition of the two sons, Ismael and Ibrahim, of the pacha of Egypt into Nubia, and who, in conjunction with M. Latorres, has made known to us a new region in the interior of Africa, more than five hundred miles in length, and extending to the tenth degree of northern latitude. This gentleman has likewise determined the position of the city of Meroe, of which he found the ruins in the Delta, formed by the Bahr-el-Abriel (the White River), and the Bahr-el-Azrag (the Blue River), precisely in the spot where D'Anville had placed them upon the authority of ancient authors. Avenues of sphinxes and of lions, propylæa and temples in the Egyptian style, forests of pyramids, a vast enclosure formed with unbaked bricks, seem to point out in this place the existence of a large capital, and may serve to elucidate the still undecided question, Whether civilization followed the course of the Nile from Ethiopia to Egypt; or whether it ascended from Egypt to Nubia?" Ibid.

66

New Exchange of Paris. The new Exchange of Paris is incontestibly the finest monument of this kind in the world; it equals in size the Parthenon at Athens. Like that famous temple, the Exchange of Paris has the form of an oblong quadrangle, surrounded with pillars almost of the same dimensions, but more numerous; the hall is immense; it goes to the roof of the building, and a cover of glass crowns it. A double portico on the ground-floor and the first story goes quite round. The ornaments are in the best taste, and the tout ensemble at once elegant and grand. Ibid.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

BIOGRAPHY.

A Memoir of the Life, Character, and Writings of John Adams. By William Cranch Read, March 16, 1827, in the Capitol, at the request of the Columbian Institute, and published at their request.

Memoirs of Eminent Female Writers. By Anna Maria Lee. Philadelphia.

EDUCATION.

Excerpta ex Scriptis Publii Ovidii Nasonis. Accedunt Notulæ Anglica et Quæstiones. In Usum Scholæ Bostoniensis. Impensis Hilliard, Gray, Little, et Wilkins. 12mo. pp. 312.

Celestial Planisphere, or, a Map of the Heavens; designed for the Use of Schools and Private Families. By M. R. Bartlett.

An Elementary Treatise on Astronomy, adapted to the present improved state of the science; being the Fourth Part of a Course of Natural Philosophy, compiled for the Use of the Students of the University at Cambridge, New England. By John Farrar, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. Boston. Hilliard, Gray, & Co. 8vo. pp. 420.

The First of April, an interesting work for Youth. Philadelphia. Nature Displayed, in her mode of Teaching Languages; adapted to the French. By N. G. Dufief. Seventh Edition, corrected. Philadelphia. A. Dupouy. 2 vol. 8vo.

Dufief's Nature Displayed. Adapted to the Spanish Language, by Professor Velazquez and Don Manuel de Torres. Philadelphia. A. Dupouy. 2 vols. 8vo.

Excerpta quædam e Scriptoribus Latinis probatioribus. Notis illustrata. In Usum Juventutis Academicæ. Editio altera. Bostonii, Nov-Anglorum Impensis Wells et Lilly. 8vo. pp. 406.

Third Class Book, comprising Reading Lessons for Young Scholars. Boston Hilliard, Gray, & Co. 18mo. pp. 216.

A System of Geographical Questions, accompanied with Problems for the Use of the Globes, designed to accompany the various Geographies in use in Common Schools. By J. Olney. Hartford. D. F. Robinson & Co.

An Abridgment of Milner's Church History, for the Use of Schools and Private Families. By Rebecca Eaton. Second Edition.

LAW.

Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Circuit Court of the United States, for the Second Circuit, comprising the Districts of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. By Elijah Paine, Jr. Vol. I.

Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. By Octavius Pickering. Vol. III. Boston. Hilliard, Gray, & Co.