The trunks of such of these trees as are decayed | gaze, in a clear evening, on the bright Jupiter, we are serve, when hollowed out, as tombs and burial-places seeing an object that is 487 millions of miles from for the poets, musicians, and buffoons of the tribe. us. But when we look at the bright Orion, or the Characters of this description are in great esteem Great Bear, we are beholding substances which are ten amongst the Negroes whilst living: they erroneously thousand times that remoteness from us. The idea ascribe to them talents superior to the rest of their frequently overwhelms me, as I stand and view them, fellow-creatures; which peculiar gifts they are sup- and think that I, a petty human being, have the posed to derive from a commerce with demons, sor- faculty, and can exercise the power, of looking through cerers, and bad spirits. This causes them, during millions of millions of miles of extended space, and their life-time, to be much respected and courted by that I am at that moment actually doing so, and that their various and respective tribes; but their bodies, such an amazing expanse is visible to my eye, and after death, are far from being treated with this re- perceptible by my conscious, though, in comparison, spect; on the contrary, they are regarded with so insignificant soul.-The Sacred History of the World. great a horror, that they deny them the rites of burial -neither suffering them to be put beneath the ground, nor to be thrown into the sea or rivers, from a superstitious dread that the water thus dishonoured would refuse to nourish the fish, and that the earth would fail to produce its fruits. The bodies, then, in order to get rid of them in some manner without degrading either the sea or land, they enclose in the hollow trunks of the trees, where, in the course of ages, they become quite dry and sapless, without actually rotting, and form in that manner a description of mummy without the help of embalmment. ON THE HEAVENLY BODIES. P. H. ONE of the greatest circumstances which fixes the attention in the contemplation of the heavenly bodies that form our system, is the surprising distances at which they are placed, and the stupendous amount of space which they occupy by their circuits. Our EARTH is above 90 millions of miles from the sun; SATURN is above 800 more millions further off; and the next and most remote that we know, which is connected with us, the URANUS, is twice that mighty distance.* The fact is sublime, and vast beyond the power of our words to express, or of our ideas to conceive. This last planet of our system rolls in an oval circuit, of which 1788 millions of miles is the diameter; and, therefore, goes round an area of 5000 millions of miles. Our system occupies this amazing portion of space; and yet is but one small compartment of the indescribable universe. Immense as is an area of 5000 millions of miles, yet it is but a very little part of the incomprehensible whole. Above 100,000 stars, apparently suns like our's, shine above us; and to each of these, that analogy would lead us to assign a similar space: but of such marvellous extent and being, although visibly real from the existence of the shining orbs that testify its certainty to us, the mind, with all its efforts, can form no distinct idea. Another consideration is astounding-when we Mr. Hornsby has made the following calculations of the absolute distances of the planets from the sun in Eng lish miles: ADULTERATION OF BREAD. ALTHOUGH pure and nutritious bread is so necessary to health and life, there is no article in which fraud and deception are more frequent. The practice of mixing potatoes with the dough has been frequently noticed. Potato-starch is used for adulterating flour. Of this I have a positive proof, even in the present day. A few months since, an eminent flour-factor showed me a powder which, he said, had been sent him as a substance which might be mixed with flour without discovery, and requested me to examine it, declaring his intention, at the same time, of publishing the transaction. Inspection alone was sufficient to convince me that the powder was potato-starch, and a few experiments soon decided the point. This fraud has no other bad effect than in lessening the quantity of nutritious matter which a given quantity of the bread should contain; beside the extortion of charging full price for an article of less value. Inspection by a high magnifier will detect potatostarch in flour, by its glistening appearance. We have heard of bones burned to whiteness, and ground to a powder, being used to adulterate thirds flour, which, being of a somewhat gritty nature, will disguise the grittiness which it is almost impossible to This fraud is easily detected; for if much dilute deprive bones of, be they ever so laboriously ground. muriatic acid-that is, spirit of salt mixed with water-be poured on such flour, there will be an effervescence, or boiling up; and if the liquid be thrown on a filter of paper, the portion which runs through the paper will let fall a heavy white deposit if pearlash be added. Chalk and whiting are also adulterations which, in small quantity, are often mixed with flour; and, although such admixtures are not noxious to health directly, they are injurious in many ways. They may be readily detected by pouring on a large quantity of oil of vitriol mixed with six or seven times its weight of water; if an effervescence ensue, it is proof that there is adulteration; and if, after filtrathe clear liquid produce no muddiness, or a very tion, as before directed, the addition of pearl-ash to slight degree of it, the presumption is, that the adul teration was chalk or whiting. used on account of its quantity, but to disguise a Alum is a well-known adulteration of bread, not bad quality of flour; it is said to whiten ill-coloured flour, and to harden and whiten bread made from flour which has been malted. By some respectable bakers it has formerly been used, and might still be safety: in so small a quantity as half a pound of used, if there were not a law against it, with perfect alum to one hundred weight of flour, it could not be in the least degree injurious; for this would be but nine thirty-fifths of an ounce to the quartern loaf. When used in double this quantity, as it often is, it becomes discoverable to the taste when the bread grows stale. Be this as it may, we can easily detect alum in bread, for it is only in bread that it need be suspected, by pouring boiling water on it, letting it cool, pressing out the water, boiling it away to one-third, allowing it to cool, filtering it through paper, and adding to the clear liquor some solution of muriate of lime. If a considerable muddiness now appear, it is proof of adulteration, and none other can well be suspected than alum. Muriate of lime can readily be prepared by pouring a little dilute muriatic acid on more chalk than it can dissolve, and after the effervescence ceases, filtering the liquor through paper. What passes through the filter is ready for use as a test. Salt, which in small quantity is absolutely necessary to the flavour of bread, is used by fraudulent persons as an adulteration; for a large quantity of it added to dough, imparts to it the quality of absorbing, concealing, and retaining a much greater quantity of water than it otherwise would. Bread made from such dough, will, on leaving the oven, come out much heavier than it ought, and the additional weight will be merely water. Fortunately, the taste of such bread is a sufficient index to its bad quality; it is rough in its grain, and has this remarkable quality, that two adhering loaves will generally separate unevenly, one taking from the other more than its share.-Treatise on Domestic Economy. LAVENHAM CHURCH BELLS. OBSERVING an excellent article, in one of the numbers of this Magazine, on the History of Bells, I beg to send you the following account of one of the finest-toned bells in England, if not in Europe. At Lavenham, an obscure little town in Suffolk, (once celebrated for the manufacture of blue cloth, and hand-spun yarn,) stands a noble monument of ancient munificence, ranked among the most beautiful gothic fabrics in the kingdom, both for durability and grandeur. In the steeple of this church is a bell, weighing only 2576 lbs., with such a melodious note, as to be universally styled The Matchless Tenor,” and Magna Britannia, treating of Lavenham Bells, says: "The tenor hath such an admirable note, as England has none to compare to it." 66 Its weight, its shape, its size, alike admir'd, And tone wherewith each ringer is inspir'd; The merry eight with music fill the ear. Euterpe, too, invites from far and near; And though in floating all sounds slowly die, They're quick revived by Echo's sweet reply; Heard through the woods, their soft melodious ring Inspires the warbling feathered tribe to sing; Nestling 'mid leaves, or skimming o'er the plain, Distinct to hail each harmonizing strain. These charming bells are not heard at a very great distance, on account of the elevated situation of the steeple. Sound is heard farther on plains than on hills; and still farther in valleys than on plains: the reason of which will not be difficult to assign, if it be considered that the higher the sonorous body is, the rarer is its medium; consequently, the less impulse it receives, the less proper vehicle it is to convey it to a distance. Tradition says, that at the time of casting this tenor bell at Lavenham, (1625,) some rich wool-staplers there, and other gentlemen in the neighbourhood, contributed great quantities of silver, and even gold, to the usual metal, which may, perhaps, account for the vast superiority of its COMMERCE. THERE is much useful exchange between different nations, which we call Commerce. All countries will not produce the same things; but, by means or Exchanges, each country may enjoy all the producc of the others. Cotton would not grow here, except in a hot-house. It grows in the fields in America; but the Americans cannot spin and weave it so cheaply as we can; because we have more skill and better machines. It answers best, therefore, for them to send us the cotton-wool, and they take in exchange part of the cotton made into cloth; and thus both we and they are best supplied. Tea, again, comes from China, and sugar from the West Indies; neither of them could be raised here without a hot-house. No more can_oranges, which come from Portugal, and other southern countries. But we get all these things in exchange for knives, and scissors, and cloth, which we can make much better and cheaper than the Chinese, and West Indians, and Portuguese: and so both parties are better off than if they made every thing at home. The sea How useful water is for commerce! seems to keep different countries separate; but, for the purpose of commerce, it rather brings them together. If there were only land between this and America, we should have no cotton; the carriage of it would cost more than it is worth. Think how many horses would be wanted to draw such a load as comes in one ship; and they must eat, and rest, while they were travelling. But the winds are the horses which carry the ship along; and they cost us nothing but to spread a sail. Then, too, the ship moves easily, because it floats on the water, instead of dragging on the ground like a waggon. For this reason, we have made canals in many places, for the sake of bringing goods by water. One or two horses can easily draw a barge along a canal, with a load which twice as many could not move if it were on the ground. What a folly it is, as well as a sin, for different nations to be jealous of each other, and to go to war, instead of trading together peaceably; by which both would be the richer and the better off. But the best gifts of God are given in vain to those who are perverse. COIN. WHY should people part with their goods in exchange for little bits of silver, or gold, or copper? If you ask a man why he does so, he will tell you, it is because he finds that when he has these little bits of stamped metal, which are called coins, every one is willing to sell him what he wants, for these coins. The baker will let him have bread for them, or the tailor a coat, and so of the rest. Then, if you ask him why the baker and the tailor, and the rest, are willing to do this, he will tell you, it is for the same reason. The baker and the tailor can buy for money what they want from the shoemaker and the butcher; and so of the others. But how could this use of coin first begin? How could men first agree, all of them, to be ready to part with food, and cloth, and working tools, and every thing else, in exchange for little bits of gold and silver, which no one makes any use of, except to part with them again for something else? And why should not pebbles, or bits of wood, or any thing else, serve us as well as coins? Some people fancy that coins pass as money, and are valued, because they are stamped according_to But this is not so. law with the king's head. For if a piece of money were made of copper, and stamped, and called a shilling, you would never get the same bread for it as you do for a silver shilling. The law might oblige us to call such a bit of copper a shilling; but the name would not make it of any greater value; you would have to pay three or four of these shillings for a two-penny loaf: so that it is not the law or the stamp that gives coins their value. If you were to melt down several shillings into a lump of silver, you might get from the silversmith very near as much for it as for the shillings themselves; and the same with gold coins; for silver and gold are valued, whether they are in coins, or in spoons, or any kind of ornament. And copper also, though of much less value, is still of value, whether in pence, or in kettles and pans. People would never have thought of making coins of either silver or gold, or any other metals, if these had been of no value before. And several other things are used for money, instead of coins, among some nations. There are some tribes of Negroes who are very fond of a kind of pretty little shells, called cowries, which their women string for necklaces; and these shells serve them as money. For about sixty of them, you may buy enough provisions for one day. There are other parts of Africa, where pieces of cotton cloth, all of the same kind and of the same size, serve for money; that is, these pieces of cloth are taken in exchange for all kinds of goods, even by persons who do not mean to wear the cloth themselves, but to pay it away again in exchange for something else. But none of these things are so convenient as coins of silver and of other metals. These are not liable to 16 Loins of Mutton, weighing 141 pounds, lost in roasting, 49 pounds 14 ounces. Hence loins of Mutton lose, by roasting, about 35 pounds and a half in each hundred. ing, 32 pounds 6 ounces. 10 Necks of Mutton, weighing 100 pounds, lost in roast From the foregoing statement, two practical inferences may be drawn. Ist. In respect of economy, that it is more profitable to boil meat, than to roast it. 2dly, Whether we roast or boil meat, it loses, by being cooked, from one-fifth to one-third of its whole weight.-Philosophical Maga zine. CAPTAIN COOK. CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, one of the greatest navigators ever produced by Great Britain, or any other country, was the son of a farm-servant in Yorkshire, where he was born on the 27th of October, 1728. He was one of a family of nine children, and experienced great hardships in his early years. He was a common seaman at the age of thirty; but, as soon as his character and extraordinary capacity came to be noticed, he was rapidly promoted. In the beginning of the reign of George III. a great spirit of geographical discovery was excited by the attention paid to the subject by government; and Cook (who was then made a lieutenant) was sent on a voyage of discovery in 1768. On the 30th of July that year, he sailed in the Endeavour, and commenced a course of discoveries, which have not only rendered his name, but even those of his vessels, immortal. He made three voyages, to which we are indebted for the greatest part of the knowledge which, to this day, we possess of the regions scattered through the immense Pacific Ocean. Of these, several had been break, or to wear out; and they also take up but previously visited by other navigators; but it was little room in proportion to their value. But this is a remarkable circumstance in his voyages, that, chiefly the case with gold and silver. Copper money wherever he touched, every thing relative to the is useful for small payments, but would be very in-place was determined with such accuracy and fulness, convenient for large ones. The price of a horse or cow in copper would be a heavy load; but the price of twenty horses, if paid in gold, a man might easily carry about him. A bank-note is still more convenient in this respect; but, though it is often called paper-money, a banknote is not really money, but a promise to pay money. No one would give any thing for a bank-note, if he did not believe that any one would ever pay gold or silver for it. But as long as men are sure of this, they receive the bank-note instead of money, because they may get money for it whenever they will. LOSS OF WEIGHT IN COOKING ANIMAL FOOD. It is well known that, in whatever way the flesh of animals is prepared for food, a considerable diminution takes place in its weight. As it is a subject both curious and useful in domestic economy, we shall give the result of a set of experiments, which were actually made in a public establishment; they were not undertaken from mere curiosity, but to serve a purpose of practical utility. 28 Pieces of Beef, weighing 280 pounds, lost in boiling, 73 pounds 14 ounces. Hence the loss by beef in boiling was about 26 pounds and a half, in 100 pounds. 19 Pieces of Beef, weighing 190 pounds, lost in roasting, 61 pounds 2 ounces. The weight of beef lost in roasting appears to be 32 pounds in each hundred. 9 Pieces of Beef, weighing 90 pounds, lost in baking, 27 pounds. Weight lost by Beef in baking, 30 pounds in each hundred. 27 Legs of Mutton, weighing 260 pounds, lost in boiling, and by having the shank-bones taken off, 62 pounds 4 ounces. The shank-bones were estimated at 4 ounces each, therefore, the loss in boiling was 55 pounds 8 ounces. The loss of weight in legs of Mutton in boiling, is 21 pounds and one-third in each hundred. 35 Shoulders of Mutton, weighing 350 pounds, lost in roasting, 109 pounds 10 ounces. The loss of weight in shoulders of Mutton, by roasting, is about 31 pounds and one-third in each hundred. that the comparatively vague and imperfect accounts of former discoverers seemed to go for nothing.— Many places considered as being well known, were thus, in a great measure, discovered by him. men. From his third voyage Captain Cook never returned. The circumstances of his death were of the most tragical kind. When his vessel was on the coast of the island of Owhyhee, several unfortunate quarrels took place with the natives; and Captain Cook, in order to compel them to restore some articles of which they had plundered the ship, took the imprudent resolution of going on shore with a very few At first, no sign of hostility appeared; but the natives were soon observed to be gathering in great numbers; arming themselves with long spears, clubs, and daggers; and putting on their defensive armour of mats. They gradually surrounded the small party, which had now got a considerable way from the shore; and Captain Cook, beginning to think his situation dangerous, ordered his men to return to the beach, and went along with them, holding the king by the hand, whom he intended to take on board, as a hostage for the good conduct of his subjects. They got without opposition to the place where the boats were lying, close to the land; but, as they were going on board, an Indian threw a stone at the captain, who returned the insult by firing at the man ;—and, the shot not taking effect, he knocked him down with his musket. A confused scuffle ensued; the men on board the boats, as well as those on shore, fired among the natives; who, rushing among the latter, drove them into the water, from whence they got on board one of the boats; the captain alone being left behind. He was now observed making for one of the boats, carrying his musket under his arm, and holding his other hand behind his head to protect it Captain Cook staggered a few paces, and then fell on his hand and one knee, dropping his musket. Another Indian now stabbed him in the neck with a dagger. He then fell into a pool of water, where others crowded upon him; but still he struggled violently with them, got up his head, and looked to the boats, as if for assistance. One of them was not above five or six yards off; but such was the confused and crowded state of the crew, that no assistance could be given. The Indians again got him under, though he still continued to struggle, and once more got up his head: but, being quite spent, he turned towards the rock, as if to support himself by it, when a savage struck him, with a club, a blow which probably put an end to his life, as he struggled no longer. The savages dragged his lifeless body up the rocks, and mangled it in the most shocking manSome fragments of his remains were afterwards recovered, and solemnly committed to the deep on the 21st of February, 1779. ner. This most lamentable occurrence produced the impression, which long subsisted, that the inhabitants of Owhyhee were a race of fierce and bloodthirsty barbarians; but it has been discovered that, though possessing that disregard of human life, which is always found to attend man in a state of nature, and which is a remarkable proof of our fallen state, the people of the Sandwich Islands (of which Owhyhee is the chief) are gentle, as well as intelligent. The attack upon Cook was made in the belief that his intentions were hostile; and his death occurred in the heat and violence of an affray, in which blood was shed on both sides. An astonishing change has taken place in these islands since the days of Cook. They now present the aspect of a civilized community, with a regular government, laws, and institutions: and, above all, the Christian religion. Unhappily, however, the good they have derived from European intercourse has not been unmixed with evil. They have learned European vices. Drunkenness, of which we have both taught them the lesson, and supplied them the means, is prevalent among them, with its train of baleful effects. It is impossible to contemplate the situation of this interesting race, now so entirely dependent upon Britain, without an anxious wish that all possible means should be taken by this country to secure their future welfare. AMONGST the causes which tend to the cheap production of any article, and which require additional capital, may be mentioned, the care which is taken to allow no part of the raw produce, out of which it is formed, to be absolutely wasted. An attention to this circumstance sometimes causes the union of two trades in one factory, which otherwise would naturally have been separated. An enumeration of the arts to which the Horns of Cattle are applicable, furnishes a striking example of this kind of economy. The tanner, who has purchased the hides, separates the horns, and sells them to the makers of combs and lanterns. The horn consists of two parts; an outward horny case, and an inward conical-shaped substance, somewhat between hardened hair and bone. The first process consists in separating these two parts, by means of a blow against a block of wood. The horny outside is then cut into three portions, by means of a frame-saw. 1. The lowest of these, next the root of the horn, after undergoing several processes, by which it is rendered flat, is made into combs. 2. The middle of the horn, after being flattened by heat, and its transparency improved by oil, is split into thin layers, and forms a substitute for glass in lanterns of the commonest kind. 3. The tip of the horn is used by the makers of knifehandles and of the tops of whips, and similar purposes. 4. The interior, or core of the horn, is boiled down in water. A large quantity of fat rises to the surface: this is put aside, and sold to the makers of yellow soap. 5. The liquid itself is used as a kind of glue, and is purchased by the cloth-dressers for stiffening. 6. The bony substance, which remains behind, is ground down, and sold to the farmers for manure. Besides these various purposes to which the different comb-making are sold to the farmer for manure, at about parts of the horn are applied, the chippings which arise in one shilling a bushel. In the first year after they are spread over the soil, they have comparatively little effect; but during the next four or five, their efficiency is considerable. The shavings, which form the refuse of the lantern-maker, are of a much thinner texture. A few of them are cut into various figures, and painted and used as toys; for they curl up when placed in the palm of a warm hand. But the greater part of these shavings are sold also for manure, which, from their extremely thin and divided form, produces its full effect upon the first crop.-BABBAGE on Manufactures, &c. |