formed from eight to ten inches thick, and therefore, the crews were forced to cut a passage for three miles through the ice. The 26th of September, in short, had arrived before they were fixed in their winter quarters in five fathoms water, and within about 200 yards from the shore. The lat. of this harbour, (if we recollect rightly, named Winter Harbour,) is 74 deg. N. and and long. 111 deg. W. Hitherto they had never lost sight of a continuous barrier of ice to the southward, that is, from W. long. 90 deg. to the extreme of Melville Island.

Every thing was soon made snug for the formidable winter of these regions. The officers and crews formed various plans for passing the dreary days, or rather nights of the polar regions. Plays were performed by the officers for their own amusement and that of the crews; and we are told, that a melo-drama was written, having for its object the probable success of the expedition, and their ultimate return to their friends, through Behring's Straits, after having planted the British flag in countries which had eluded the bold and fearless darings of a Davis and a Baffin.

amidst the trackless wilds of Melville Island. quantity as to remove all those symptoms
A little mound was erected to his memory, scurvy which had begun to make their
ар-
in a region which had never before been pearance among the crew. The ice in Win
seen by any civilized beings, nay, the soil ter Harbour was also beginning to dissolve
of which has, to all appearance, been but rapidly and by the end of July it had entire
rarely visited by a few casual wanderers, ly disappeared. Yet the ships were still
from the most forlorn and isolated tribes of quite blocked up by the exterior ice. I
the human race.
was not till the 30th, that the outside ice
began to crack: on the 31st of July it moved
off very gently, and released the crews fram
their winter prison, where they had be
shut up for 310 days.

When the sun had its greatest southern
declination, a twilight was perceptible at
noon in the southern horizon, affording suffi-
cient light to read a book with difficulty.
The day was like the fine clear evening On the 6th of August they reached the
of winter in our climate. The stars shone western extremity of Melville Island, situa
with great brilliancy, and when the moon ted, we believe, in long. 114. W, where the
appeared in the firmament she shone with a ice was found to be very thick and imper
beauty and splendour unknown in the more meable. From this island new land was od
southern and temperate regions of the served to the south-west, estimated to be
globe. The northern lights appeared fre- 20 leagues distant; so that they may
quently, generally of a yellow colour, some- said to have seen land as far west as long
times green, but rarely red, and most com- 118. Many attempts were made to reach
monly towards the south-west. It was re-this interesting Terra Incognita, but in vain
marked, that this brilliancy was seldom so and the commander and his admirable cre
great as in our country; no noise was ever were, with feelings of the deepest regret
heard to proceed from them, and the mag-forced to return, owing to the vast barriers
netic needle did not appear to be affected of ice.
by their presence. But we long to know if
they were visible the whole day-and what
were their various forms and motions, and
transparency. The sun reappeared on the
3d of February, after an absence of 83 days;
and those only who have suffered the priva-
tion of "its glorious light,," can feel and tell
the raptures with which the crews hailed
the first glimpse from the mast head. They
had calculated the exact period of its retnrn
and were anxiously looking for it from the
main top.

Having failed in this attempt to reach the south-western land, and the winter again approaching, the vessels now sailed directly eastwards, through the Polar Ses, and Barrow Straits, into Sir James Lancaster's Sound, thence into Baffin's Bay, and by the usual track homewards.

The sun entirely disappeared on the 11th November. The thermometer was below Zero of Fahrenheit's scale, when the expedition entered Winter Harbour. In the month of November, the spirit of wine thermometer was 50. below Zero, and in February, the coldest month of these regions, the spirit of wine pointed to the tremendous cold of 54 and 55 below Zero. During these intense colds, our adventurous felt but little inconvenience so countrymen long as they remained under the housing In April, some partial symptoms of thaw of their ships. A slight covering for the appeared. By the end of May, pools and ears, and a shawl round the neck, were streams of water made their appearance, considered as sufficient protection against and shortly after, regular thaw commenced. the most intense degree of cold; but when Nearly about this time, Capt. Parry, with the atmosphere was agitated by gales of party of his officers and men, crossed Melwind, then the cold became truly dreadful ville Island and reached the sea on the and insupportable, and every one was posite side, in lat. 75. N. where they discoforced to seek shelter below. Neverthe-vered another island. They were fourteen less, scarcely any accident occurred from days absent, and, we have heard, made maexposure to cold; while the constant and ny curious observations on the forms of the regular exercise, which formed a necessary hills and mountains of this island, collecting part of the duty of the crews, kept every withal, very extensively, specimens of all its one lively, and active, and free from disease. vegetables, animal and mineral productions From Lancaster Sound to Melville Island One death only took place during the expe- The remains of an enormous whale was the compass, we understand, was found t dition, and that was in the case of an indi- found far inland and a few huts, intimating be totally useless-a circumstance which le vidual who had contracted the disease of the presence of man, were discovered by to the commanders no other guides than the which he died, before he left England. some of the party. Vegetation had now be- heavenly bodies and the trend of the land This poor fellow reposes in a solitary grave, come active; and sorrel was found in such thus at once presenting the striking spectac

a

op.

In their progress among the islands, the officers shot a few rein-deer, ptarmigan, and hares.,-and the howls of the wolf were heard frequently in Melville Island. Several oxen were killed; and, we are informed, the crews considered it, after being propert macerated, to get rid of the musky flavour as preferable eating to that of the rein-deer One of the sailors who had ventured beyond his companious in search of the rein-deer returned to the ship with all his fingers fross bitten from carrying his musket too long When the fingers were plunged into co water, ice was formed on its surface, and this continued to be the case for half a hour afterwards, as often as the fingers wer plunged into it, The sailor lost five of hi fingers.

of modern navigators tracking the ocean with- | Sound, along the west coast of Baffin's Bay

out the compass, as was done by the mariners of old. We cannot, indeed, conceive more striking scene than that of our discovery ships forcing their solitary course hrough unknown regions, surrounded with ugged, dreary, and desolate wastes, in the sidst of the most appalling dangers, and eprived of the use of the compass.

and Davis' Straits, to Cape of God's Mercy,
and from this point through the great inlet
at the head of Hudson,s Bay, or through
Cumberland Strait, may be a great island,
whose western boundary may be in a line
drawn from Foxes Farthest to Prince Re-
gent's Inlet.-From Blackwood's Magazine.

The Naturalist's Diary,

For DECEMBER, 1820.

What time the once unnoticed tide
Fast swelling rolls a torrent wide;
What time the fields are frequent strown
With scattered leaves of yellow brown;
What time the hawthorn berries glow,
And, touch'd by frost, the ripen'd sloe
Less crudely tastes; and when the sheep
Together in the valleys keep;

And all the smaller birds appear
In flocks, and mourn the altered year;
The careful rustic marks the signs

Of Winter-marks them and repines.
Rain and wind are now extremely prevalent;

the month, December may be reckoned the most

The Hecla was forced into Leith Roads stress of weather-a circumstance which fforded us an opportunity of conversing with the officers, and of furnishing our readers, from the recollection of their most ineresting conversations, with this narrative, hich, although very brief, will be found, e veature to say not inaccurate. From the preceding narrative, and other tails in our possession, it appears, 4.That Capt. Parry has discovered an openg into the Arctic Ocean, from Baffin's Bay. 2. That continuous land extends along e north side of Sir James Lancaster's Sund, and Barrow's Strait, to long. 93. W. id that, beyond this, onward to Melville land, the land appears not continuous, but roken into islands; while, on the south side Lancaster's Sound and Barrow's Straits, awesterly direction, to Prince Regent's let, the land is continuous: beyond this From the fall of the leaf, and withering of the let, land extends for a considerable way to herb, an unvarying death-like torpor oppresses he west, when it is succeeded by ice: and almost the whole vegetable creation, and a considerable part of the animal, during this entire portion this extends onward to the lofty mountain-of the year. The whole race of insects, which bus land, seen to the south-west of Melville filled every part of the summer landscape with life Island.

3. That the land seen to the northward, stending from Barrow's Straits and Meldle Island, appears to be a groupe of islands; aat the land on the north side of Barrow's trait, named by Capt. Parry, North Devon, probably an island, being separated from Vest Greenland by some of the sounds at e top of Baffin's Bay; and that, probably, West Greenland itself may prove to be a reat island, separated from the islands, in e line we have just mentioned, by some f the openings at the head of Baffin's Bay. 4. Either that the land observed to the outh of the east and west line we have mentioned. or of Barrow's Straits. is the oast of islands skirting the north coast of America, or that some of the masses of and may be projecting points of the great American continent.

J. Finally, That, in all probability, the (and extending from Prince Regent's Inlet, through Barrow's Straits and Lancaster

And though the light-winged breeze no more
Wafts the rich sweets of Summer's store,
Though Autumn's scene no more beguiles,
My cot is warm, and Sarah smiles.
Then, Winter come! thy storms and rain
Beat on this happy roof in vain :
The shivering blast, and leafless tree,
Have charms for Sarah and for me.
Then what avail thy wind and storm,
That Nature's withering face deform,
If Fancy's brisk and sportive lay
Awake to Pleasure's willing sway;
If the quick jest and lively song
Bid the slow night move blithe along?
For then thy glooms, and leafless tree,
Have charms for Sarah and for me.
Thus, when the bloom of youth is dead,
And Fancy's frolic hours are fled,
Tranquil, and free from passion's rage,
I'll meet the hoary frost of age.

Then, Winter, come! these blessings bring:

I sigh not for the gaudy Spring:

So shall thy glooms, and leafless tree,
Have charms for Sarah and for me.

The flowers mentioned as continuing in blow in January, of course afford their beauties in this month. Evergreens, firs, ivy, laurel, and that must beautiful plant the arbutus, rich in flowers and fruit at the same time, serve to enliven the dreary December.

Our old winter companion, the cricket, chirps and, as the frost seldom sets in till the latter end of his ceaseless song, and has often afforded the poet unpleasant of the whole year. At other times, how- Bourne's Latin Anacreontic is, perhaps, one of the an opportunity of celebrating his praises. Vincent ever, November is better entitled to this appella best modern poems on this subject. It is thus tion, and ice and snow contribute to give to Christ-translated by the Rev. Thomas Cole, author of the mas that union of frost and good cheer which form "Life of Hubert," and other pleasing poems. the usual character of this season.

Now Christmas revels in a world of snow,
And bids her berries blush, her carols flow;
His spangling shower now Frost the wizard flings;
Or borne in ether blue, on viewless wings,
O'er the white pane his silvery foliage weaves,
And gems, with icicles the sheltering eaves.

Rogers.

and motion, are now either buried in profound sleep,
or actually no longer exist, except in the unformed
rudiments of a future progeny. Many of the birds
and quadrupeds, are retired to concealments, from
which not even the calls of hunger can force them;
and the rest, intent only on the preservation of a joyless
life, have ceased to exert those powers of pleasing,
which, at other seasons, as much contribute to their
mutual happiness as to the amusement of their
human sovereign.

Man, at this season, should be peculiarly impress-
ed with the advantages which he enjoys over the
other portions of animated nature; the pleasures
of social life, of domestic happiness, of intellectual
enjoyments are all reserved for him; and, at no
time of the year, is he so much in need of these
blessings as in the Winter, when all nature is, as it
were, spread out in ruins before him. How few are

sensible of these exquisite pleasures! how few are
grateful for them!

Stern Winter, though thy rugged reign
Chills the pale bosom of the plain,
And in deep sighs thy hollow blast
Tells me the happy hours are past
That saw meek Spring her blossoms rear,
And lead along the infant year;
Thy thickening glooms, and leafless tree,
Have charms for Sarah and for me.

TO THE CRICKET.

Sprightly Cricket, chirping still,
Merry music, short and shrill;
In my kitchen take thy rest
As a truly welcome guest;
For no evils shall betide
Those with whom thou dost reside.
Nor shall thy good-omened strain
E'er salute my ear in vain.
With the best I can invent,
I'll requite the compliment;
Like thy sonnets, I'll repay
Little sonnets, quick and gay.
Thou, a harmless inmate deemed,
And by housewives much esteemed,
Wilt not pillage for thy diet,
Nor deprive us of our quiet;
Like the horrid rat voracious,
Or the lick'rish mouse sagacious;
Like the herd of vermin base,
Or the pilf'ring reptile race:
But content art thou to dwell
In thy chimney-corner cell;
There, unseen, we hear thee greet
Safe, and snug, thy native heat.
Thou art happier, happier far,
Than the happy grasshopper,
Who, by nature, doth partake
Something of thy voice and make.
Skipping lightly o'er the grass,
As her sunny minutes pass,
For a summer month, or two,
She can sing, and sip the dew;
But at Christmas, as in May,
Thou art ever brisk and gay;
Thy continued song we hear,
Trilling, thrilling, all the year.
Ev'ry day and ev'ry night
Bring to thee the same delight;
Winter, summer, cold, or hot,
Late, or early, matters not;
Mirth and music still declare
Thou art ever void of care.

Whilst with sorrows, and with fears,
We destroy our days and years;
Thou, with constant joy and song,
Ev'ry minute dost prolong,
Making thus thy little span
Longer than the age of man.

(To be concluded in our next. )

Now with pins it was tight, now it moved with the wind, On seeing in the newspapers the Marriage of Mr. Edward

L

COUNTRY COMMISSIONS.

Vide" Mr. Mathews at Home."

Dear Cousin, I write this in haste,
To beg you will get for mamma
A pot of best Jassamine paste,
And a pair of shoe buckles for Pa,'
At Exeter Change: then just pop
Into Aldersgate-street for the prints;
And while you are there you can stop
For a skeine of white worsted at Flint's.
Papa wants a new razor-strop,

And mamma wants a Chinchelli muff;
Little Bobby's in want of a top,

And my aunt wants six pen'orth of snuff: Just call in St. Martin's le Grand

For some goggles for Mary (who squints)
Get a pound of bees-wax in the Strand,

And the skeine of white worsted at Flint's.
And while you are there you may stop
For some Souchong in Monument-yard;
And while you are there you can pop
Into Marybone-street for some lard;
And while you are there you can call

For some silk of the latest new tints,
At the mercer's, not far from Whitehall;
And remember the worsted at Flint's.
And while you are there, 'twere as well
If you call in Whitechapel, to see
For the needles; and then in Pall Mall
For some lavender-water for me:
And while you are there you can go
To Wapping, to old Mr. Clint's;
But all this you can easily do,
When you get the white worsted at Flint's.
I send in this parcel, from Bet,
An old spelling-book to be bound,

A cornelian brooch to be set,

And some razors of Pa's to be ground. ✪ dear! what a memory have I!

Notwithstanding all Deborah's hints, I've forgotten to tell you to buy

A skeine of white worsted at Flint's.

fine intelligence, obscured and darkened, or of nobler | But I feel I am injuring the cause of this institution impulse, more miserably perverted. The mind of when I view it either in the light of temporal policy, Ireland has by no means hitherto had fair develop- or temporal fame. Yes, though I am convinced ment. Acute, but inactive; magnificent, but un-that the most permanent foundations of a people's cultivated; the passing stranger beholds the people prosperity are only to be laid in the popular civilias he does their country, with admiration it is true, zation; though I am convinced that crime decreases, but still with mournful admiration, at their neglected and industry advances in exact proportion to the grandeur and their unproductive loveliness! It has progress of knowledge, still I acknowledge in your been to little purpose that the genius of the nation ambition a much nobler object, in comparison of has occasionally burst the bondage that enthralled it; which the fame and wealth and dignities of this that Nature, as it were to vindicate herself, has shot world are but as the rainbow's gem, that sparkles some spirit of light athwart the gloom, in whose lus- and disappears. Ob! you are right, when lighting tre the land became for a moment visible; it was up the torch of knowledge, to invoke no flame but but for a moment, and the cloud it touched scarcely that of heaven to illumine it. The lights of earth retained a tinge of the profitless phenomenon. There are transient and uncertain; vapours that only dazzle was no permanent source whence its radiance could to mislead, and shine the brightest on the eve of be fed; and the mere glimmerings of unassisted na their extinction: but the beam of heaven is steady ture struggled but faintly through the denseness of and eternal; it enters the soul; it expands and rathe atmosphere. To rescue the country from this rifies, and lifts it to a region where human vanity foul disgrace; to dispel the mist of barbarism and has no voice, and human splendours are but darkness. ignorance, with their attendant train of vices and of You are right in making the Bible the primer of the crimes; to elevate the peasantry from vice and su- infant; place it in his hand by day; place it on his perstition to a moral practice and an holy contem- pillow by night. Full of glorious thought and plation, your institution has been founded. A glo-glowing images, it will inspire the fancy; full of rious work, and worthy of a Christian! A work noble sentiment and virtuous precept, it will form characterized by the most glowing benevolence, and the principles; full of holy zeal and heavenly inspinot less replete, even in a worldy sense, with the ration, it will guide, exalt, and purify the faith; and wisest and the soundest policy; for you may depend it is a wise philosophy which associates it with that upon it, that, sooner or later, national good cannot season whose impressions fade not even in nature's fail to flow from a moral regeneration. The sobri-winter. When the daring infidel interposes its mysety, the temperance, the good faith, the industry, teries, in order to rob those children of their morals, naturally consequent upon early culture, will in ask him, What is this world but a mystery? Who time, "like a rich stream, run back and hide their can tell how nature performs her simplest operafountain." The principles of freedom, by being tions? Ask him to tell you how the flower acquires better understood, will become, of course, more its perfume, the eagle his vision, or the comet its fondly cherished; the impolicy, as well as the im-resplendence? Ask him to tell you how those glopiety of crime, by being more clearly proved, will rious planets roll around us in their lucid circle, or be, of course, more sedulously avoided. An educated how that miraculous order is maintained which holds slave, an educated criminal, are moral contradictions. throughout creation, even from the minutest worm In the very dawn of knowledge, the phantoms that that grovels in the dust, up to the pinion that plays affright, and the vices that despoil us, gradually amid the lightning? These all are mysteries, and disappear; and it is only when its light has vanish- yet we see them; and surely we may trust the word ed, that you find ignorance and superstition crawling of him, who, in his own good time, will teach us from their cavern, and amid spectral shapes and their solution. Meanwhile, amid the bigot's cant, horned apparitions, taking their incubus station and the polemic's railing, suffer those little children upon the bosom of society, If truths like these to come unto the Lord. They will bless you with needed an example, all history is eloquent on the their lips, in their lives, and in their deaths; the subject. No barbarous country ever rose to great- God to whom you have turned them will bless you; ness and continued barbarous. No peasantry ever the country to which you have restored them will yet became educated without becoming compara- bless you; and should your own little ones ever SIR,-I have very great pleasure in acceding to tively virtuous; the spirit of inquiry consequent mourn a parent, the Great Spirit will recollect the the request of your zealous Secretary, and proposing upon literature, and the spirit of genuine freedom, deed, and surely save them from the perils of their a resolution of congratulation on the success of this have been in general co existent, and flourished and orphanage. In the discharge, then, of this sacred Institution, and of approbation of the sacred priuci- decayed together. Turn your eyes to Athens in the duty, which you have voluntarily undertaken, listen ples on which it has been founded. I confess, that ancient time, the temple alike of liberty and letters, not to the imputation of any onworthy motive; reuntil I perused the report with which he was so po- the seat of the arts, the mount of the Muses, the member that calumuy is the shadow of merit, and lite as to furnish me, I had a very imperfect idea of immortal shrine of all that could constitute the hea that though it ever follows, it never overtakes it. the value of this institution, or of the great gratitude then's immortality, where even battle smoothed his Were the solitary charge which hostility has flung which we owe to our generous English brethren, rugged front, and the warrior's sword was garlanded on you even true, it is in my mind, under your cirwho have so nobly and disinterestedly established it with roses! Behold her now! her sages silent, and cumstances, not a crime, but a virtue. You use no amongst us. It is an emanation of that glorious her temples fallen; an Ottoman slave enthroned weapon but the bloodless gospel; you assume no spirit which has spread their name among the na-amid her ruius, and a degenerate people crouching armour but the nakedness of truth; and in a good tious of the earth; and made that name synonymous to the Turk, even, oh shame! even within sight of cause, and with an earnest conviction, I would rawith every virtue. I had no idea that no less a Marathon! Yet there, where Mabomet now revels ther court than avoid this accusation of proselytism. Bumber than fifty-eight thousand of the infant poin contented ignorance, Socrates was heard and Solon The foreign and pious potentate who made the pulation of this kingdom, including two thousand legislated, and echo listened to the thunder of De-charge should be the very last to utter it; for dechildren of our own country, who now crowd this mosthenes. Look in our own day to a part of our based, as I admit and deplore that the Irish peasant ball with pious gratitude, were thus gratuitously own empire, the once neglected Scotland; the coun- politically is, still he and his predecessors, as far as in receiving from them the blessed fruits of education try from whose lake and moor and mountain the then lay, have left him illiterate, imbruted, and deand religion. How gratifying it is to turn from the imperial conqueror strode without a thought. What based; fallen in his mental debasement even below abominable and infernal perjuries by which the pub-is she at this day? A land of less crime, because of the level of his political degradation. But the ac lie mind is now hourly polluted, and the public more intelligence, than any in the world: wherever cusation is untrue. You have not borrowed even a heart afflicted, and the public morals insulted, to her name is mentioned, literature hails it; wherever rag from the establishment; the word ascendancy the contemplation of such a subject! Fifty-eight her people tread, temperance and industry, attest is not heard within your walls. You have studiously thousand children, raised from the inire of ignorance their presence; a primeval piety consecrates her excluded every book of controversy. You have reand superstition; redeemed from a state of almost church; peace and plenty meet upon her plains, jected no one on account of his creed, and yon have brate barbarism, and led through the temple of aud the laurel, which her genius and her heroism invited the scrutiny of every pastor of every persua> knowledge even to the very altar of God, is a spec- has won, is intertwined with the palm-leaf of an sion; you have introduced the Bible, unspotted by tacle which I envy not the man who can behold immaculate morality. Let Scotland then, even if a single pen of this world. You have allowed the without enthusiasm. In this country it borrows she stood alone, prove the advantage of an educated saints, the sages, and the martyrs of Christianity to from circumstances even an adventitious interest, peasantry; and should the sceptic awake not at her unrol with their own hands the records of their wis for surely there never was a country more ripe for voice, may the spirit of Burns pass across his slum- dom, their sanctity, and their fortitude. You have its exhibition; never was there a land more full of ber, and burst upon him in the blaze of its refutation. expunged the comment whether of council or synod,

MR. PHILIPS'S SPEECH, [Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the London Hibersian School Society, held in the Town Hall of Sligo, Ireland, in the Month of October, 1820.]

or conclave, or convocation, and left the sacred his-kins are almost the only things raised by the native Ameri-
torians to tell, in the phrase of an inspired simplicity,
the miracles, the sufferings, and the triumphs of the
gospel, from the conception to the Cross! Sir, if
this produce proselytes, such conversion can have
its origin only in the truth. In one sense, indeed,
you do profess to proselytize, but it is from vice to
virtue, from idleness to industry, from ignorance to
knowledge, froin sin to salvation. Go on then, and
may prosperity attend you, and when your enemies
are clamorous, be your only answer this:-" Behold,
fifty-eight thousand subjects restored to the state;
behold fifty-eight thousand souls introduced to their
Redeemer!!" Proceed and prosper. Let the sacred
stream of your benevolence flow on, and though
momentary impediments may oppose its progress,
depend upon it, it will soon surmount them; the
the mountain rill, and the rivers of the valley will in
time and in their turn become tributary; the roses
of Sharon will bloom upon its banks; the maids of
Sion will not weep by its waters; the soil it has fer-
tilized will be reflected on its surface, and as it glides
along in the glories of the sunbeam, the sins of the
people will become regenerate in its baptism.

MR. BIRKBECK'S SETTLEMENT. "Wanborough, English Prairie, State of Illinois, North America, Feb. 10, 1820. "I arrived at this place on the 26th September, 1819, after a travel of upwards of 5,000 miles, by sea and land, in good health, as well as all my family, and have been so throughout our journey, except a little sea sickness and slight colds. The weather was very hot when we landed at Baltimore, on the 6th July, and continued so until the end of October, with the exception of a few nights, and then warm and pleasant until the middle of December, after which it was mostly cold until the beginning of this month (Feb.) sometimes much colder than I ever knew it in England. We have had a very deep snow, of at least 18 inches upon the level; but since the beginning of this month, it has rained almost every day, and the creeks are now pretty full of water, which makes it bad travelling, as there are no bridges built yet in this part of the country. Until now, there has been but little rain at any time since the last spring,

often.

cans for themselves and cattle; but the English are not fond of their Indian corn bread. The corn is considered very good for horses, pigs, &c., so are the pumpkins, which grow to a very large size: they make excellent pies, and them, for winter use. Apple and peach trees are not yet are often preserved, by cutting them in slices and drying come to perfection, but grow very well. A few miles from us, in the state of Indiana, apple and peach trees were very plentiful: as we came through the country, we were once offered five bushels of peaches for a dollar, not quite 11d. per bushel. I have got about 20 peach-trees, and shall have 100 apple-trees to plant in an orchard in my land in a few days. The native Americans are an idle set of people; those the country round us being now more settled, many of them who live around us here subsist principally by hunting; but wish to sell their land, and move up to a less settled place; some are already gone to the Red River, 700 miles south-west from here: indeed, moving a few hundred miles is not thought any thing of by them. The hunters bring in venison, turkeys, prairie fowls, and rabbits for sale very A good deer of from 30 to 100lb. weight, is often bought for a dollar; and I have bought many large turkeys kill deer, rabbits, raccoons, opossums, prairie fowls, quails, for a quarter dollar each. William and John frequently &c. The rabbits do not burrow in the earth, but mostly run in the hollow trees. Horses are mostly of a light kind, and sell as high as 100 dollars for a good one. Oxen and cows are of a middling size and good shape. A good cow and calf may be bought for 20 dollars; beef sells from 2d to 3d. per lb.: mutton is scarce, there not being as yet many sheep kept around here, and those that are kept are mostly of a poor coarse sort, but mutton is as low as beef. Hogs are very plenty, and of a middling good sort; but owing to the many hundreds that are left to shift for themselves in the woods during the winter, they are as poor as well can be, and many die of hunger when the snow is deep. Cows, sheep, and hogs, are all marked in different forms, each has his own mark, and the marks of different persons areas or cabins are built with logs and plaistered with are all entered in the county court. Most of the first clay; the tops of the houses are covered with cleft boards, Many of the cabins of the native Americans (or backwoodsmen) have not even light, except what comes down the chimney, or in at the door. We have no mill at present us, to be worked either with oxen or horses. A malthouse nearer than seven miles, but there is one to be built near is begun building to malt Indian corn. Most of the land near us is entered, but a large quantity will be offered for sale six or eight miles north of us in April next, so that there will be plenty of good land for settlers near us. This

and most of them have a glazed door, but few windows.

Natural History.

TO THE EDITOR.

the pleasure to copy from "Kirby's Entomology; or, hieSIR,-The following very interesting remarks I have ments of the Natural History of Insects;" and, having a firm conviction that it will be perused with satisfac tion and improvement, by the generality of your rea ders, I earnestly request you will have the goodness to give it as early a place as possible in your very amusing publication, and you will confer a favour on one who is Yours, very respectfully,

A CONSTANT SUBSCRIBER Liverpool, Nov. 25, 1820.

Swammerdam, speaking of the metamorphosis of insects, uses these strong words, "This process is formed in so remarkable a manner in butterflies. that we see therein the resurrection painted before our eyes, and exemplified so as to be examined by our hands earth, sustained by the most ordinary kinds of food, To see indeed, a caterpillar crawling upon the which when it had existed a few weeks or month der this humble form, its appointed work being finibed, passes into an intermediate state of seeming death, when it is wound up in a kind of shroud, and encased in a coffin, and is most commonly buried under the earth (though sometimes its sepulchre is in the water, and at others in various substances in the air) and after this creature and others of its tribe, have remained their destined time in this death-like state, to behold earth, air, and water, give up their several prisoners; lar beam, they burst from their sepulchres, cast of to survey them when called by the warmth of the so their cerements, from this state of torpid inactivity,

come forth as a bride out of her chamber; to survey

them, I say, arrayed in their nuptial glory, prepared to enjoy a new and more exalted condition of life, in which all their powers are developed, and they are arrived at the perfection of their nature: when o fields of air, their food is the nectar of flowers, and longer confined to the earth, they can traverse the love begins his blissful reign. Who that witnesses this interesting scene can help seeing in it a lively represe tation of man in his threefold state of existence, and more especially of that happy day, when, at the cal of the great Sun of Righteousness, all that are in th cans say the last summer was the dryest they ever knew, is a very good country for a man with a family, and work- and death, being swallowed up in life, the natives of graves shall come forth, the sea shall give up her dead, and that this has been the coldest winter that has been ing people, but not for gentlefolks, as labour is high and the blessed shall live and love to the ages of eternity!

which has made water scarce in these parts, there being as yet no wells dug; but we have now many digging, and aiso ponds, so that there will be no want of water this summer, even should it prove as dry as the last. The Ameri

"Yours, &c.

"JOHN WOODS.

known for many years. The country round us is partly
prairie (or open land) and partly woodland; the prairies provisions low, so that it will not do for people that will
have a handsome appearance, much like a gentleman's not work. Clothing, and grocery articles, are in general
park, only much more extensive. The land is mostly of a dearer than in England. Most of the land the people occu-
lightish soil, and very easy of tillage, much more so than Py is their own, and as there are no taxes worth mention-
I ever knew any in England, yet it bears the dry weathering, nor any tythes or poor rates, people who are industri-
well, owing, I think, to the reddish loam that lies under ous get a good living, and provide well for their families.
the top mould. I bought, soon after I got there, 322 acres
of land, partly prairie and partly woodland, from a piece
of land called Birke's Prairie, about four miles from hence,
which had on it two cabins, a stable, about 18 acres fen-
ced in with rails, on which was a crop of Indian corn,
which yielded me 400 bushels; there were also planted
pumpkins, French beans, and also a little cotton. The live
stock in the purchase consisted of three cows, three calves,
three sheep, and thirty hogs and pigs, 11 geese, and some
fowls, all for about £320 English. I shall remain near Mr.
Birkbeck's, but William, Ann, John, and George live at
Birke's prairie, and Elizabeth with us at Wanborough. The
woods round us contain but little under-wood, and consist
of a great variety of trees, such as white beech, red post,

P. S...I saw Edward K. at Baltimore, when I first landed,
with Mr. S. He had just taken a house a few miles from
thence, and he expected to come with Mr. 8. to look over
the Western Co. and family are all well; so is E. C. and his
the Western Country; but I have not heard any thing of
family; they both live within a mile of us. Remember me
to their father, to Mr. C. and Mrs. M., of B. R. C. was
with me a few days ago; he informed me that many of the
young men had built themselves houses, but had no part-
ners to take there, as females are less numerous than men.
Both the C.'s have built themselves cabins, bought five
acres of land for a garden, and so has G. L. Some shoe-
laurel, several sorts of oak, ash, elm, hickory, poplar, honey-makers are much wanted in this neighbourhood, and also
locust, two sorts of maple, cotton wood, dog wood, persi-ighbourhood think of coming, I should advise him to
a good blacksmith. Should any young man from your
mon, black walnut, and several other kinds of trees. In
the woods are a few bears, panthers, wolves, foxes, and bring a wife with him."
wild cats, and plenty of deer, rabbits, raccoons, opossums,
and two or three sorts of squirrels; also turkeys, prairie
fowls, and quails: wild geese and ducks, on the rivers and
ereeks, but not inany small birds. There is also plenty of
wild fruit, viz. strawberries, raspberries, very good wild
cherries, great quantity of grapes, haslenuts, walnuts,
pacons, persimons, papaws, hickory nuts; and in the gar-
den we grow melons, squashes, cucumbers, French beans,
and most of garden vegetables. The land round us bears
Indian corn, wheat, potatoes, turnips, tobacco, flax, hemp,
re, oats, peas, buck wheat, and cotton. Beans do not so
well, and I have not yet seen any barley in this part; but
as the country round us has been mostly settled within
these two years, there has been no large quantities of corn
grain yet raised. Indian corn, flax, cotton, and pump.

WHIMSICAL READING.

Some years since, and before stage coaches were so numerous in Ireland as at the present day, the proprietors of the only one between Newry and Dublin had emblazoned forth on a conspicuous pannel of their coach, the words "Paratus ad arma;" to announce their promptness for action, as well as their preparation to put down all opposition. A learned inhabitant of the ancient Pontana, (Drogheda,) began very gravely to spell the motto: thus, "P-A-R-A-T-U-S-Pratoes!" exclaimed he in surprise, "Pratoes at Armagh! Great news indeed on a coach! Why, we have pratoes (pota toes) every where !"

But, although the analogy between the diferent state 8 of insects and those of the body of man, is cry general, yet it is much more complete, with respect his soul. He first appears in his trail body, a child of the earth, a crawling worm, his soul being in a c of training and preparation for a more perfect and rious existence. When it has finished this count, casts off this vile body, and goes into a hidden state of being in Hades, where it rests from its works, and is prepared for its final consummation. The time for this being arrived, it comes forth, clothed with a plorieta for, though it was sown an animal body, it shall be body, not like its former, though germinating from it, raised a spiritual body," endowed with augmented powers, faculties, and privileges, commensurate to its new and happy state. And here the parallel holds be tween the insect and the man. The buttery, ther presentative of the scul, is prepared in the larva for its future state of glory; and, if it be not destroyed by the ichneumons and other enemis to which it is exposed, symbolical of the vices that destroy the spiritual life of whien is its Hades; and at length, when it assumes se the soul, it will come to its state of repose in the papat, imago, breaks forth with new powers and beauty to its tinal glory and the reign of love. So that, in this view of the subject, well might the Italian poet exclaim, Non v'accorgete voi, che noi siam veroni Nati a formar l'angelica tarfalla? † The Egyptian fable, as it is supposed to be of Cu pid and Psyche, stems built upon this foundation. " in Greek, the human soul; and it means also a butter Psyche, says an ingenious and learned writer, means, fly, (a) of which apparently double sense, the undoubt ed reason is, that a butterfly was a very ancient symbol

Hill's Stamm. L. 127.

† Do you not perceive that we are caterpillars, born to form the angelic butterfly?

(a) Nures's Essays, 1, 101.2.