EXPLANATION.

A. Buildings in the centre of the Market for Money. takers' Offices and Dwellings, where also it is proposed to erect a circular Exchange. B. Cattle Sheds, with large, open Layers in front, surrounding an area of 15 acres, capable of holding 8,000 beast, either tied to the rails, or loose in distinct sheds or layer, and each separate layer constantly supplied with water. C. Pens for holding 40,000 sleep.

D. Principal Entrance to the Cattle-Market. E. Windmills and Tanks, for pumping and supplying water to the whole of the Market.

F. Slaughter-houses.

G. Market for Pigs.

• Companion to the Almanac for 1834, p. 236.

The Naturalist.

entertains us by speculating on the incon veniences we should have endured, and the deformities we should have been, had we been made with tumours or wens on our necks! Now is it not quite as, if not more, warrantable to suppose, that if such an addi tion had been given us as a natural and made it as easy to bear as the arm that constant appendage, the Creator would have hangs by our side? and certain it is that we should not have been conscious of any defor mity, seeing that all of our species possessed it, and believing that they always had done so. In a word, we would say-Let naturalists write on the works of nature as they are, and not as they might have been.

Logic for those who cun't think, (p. 6.)— As Mr. Mudie has told us in page 4, that in early youth, his arguments "went but awk wardly in mode and figure," we are not so much at a loss to conceive how he could write

WORKS.

(Continued from page 243.) 11.Mudie's Natural History of Birds. AFTER an attentive perusal of this little volume, we think we may recommend it as one containing much interesting and instructive matter, though not of that kind which; from its title, we should have expected,-it relating chiefly to the physiology of birds. It is illustrated by upwards of one hundred and forty wood-cuts of, collectively, birds, and their bills, feet, and sterna; and it also has a frontispiece printed in oil-colours by Mr. G. Baxter, who, by the way, claims the invention of printing in this manner, though it appears to have been done long before his recent revival of it; for Haslewood, in his "Roxburghe_Revels, speaking of Heber's reprint, (in June, 1815,) of T. Cudwoode's "Caltha Poetarum; or, the Bumble-bee;" rare collection of poetry, says :-"The bumble-bee of the title was cut in fac-simile. In the first title was introduced a marygold, and upon my suggestion, printed in natural

colours." 99.

Idle Speculations. It is not seldom that Mr. Mudie, having described a bird's structure, noticed how admirably it is adapted to the various functions it performs, and presumed to declare that it could not have been better, (thus placing a limit to the Almighty's power,) indulges in speculating on the many inconveniences or miseries it would have been subject to, if it had been made after such a manner as he may be pleased to imagine. Unfortunately, this sort of trifling is not peculiar to Mr. Mudie, but is observable in the works of several contemplative writers, not excepting Ray, who furnishes us with a striking specimen of it in his work "On the Wisdom of God in the Creation," where he

See Athenæum for January 4, 1834.

we desire that which we do not know, is just as absurd as to suppose we see what we do not see; and if there is nothing external answering to the desire, then the whole is more purely a mental matter, and, consequently, than if it had a tangible object. Even when more exclusively a result of former knowledge, the infant evinces the first desire for nature's own cup, and before its little features have smiled on the parent by whom that cup is bestowed, or its little fingers have plied that elementary geometry and arithmetic by means count time, even then, the knowledge of of which it learns to measure space and hunger must come before the desire of food; for if we venture to apply that ignorancecloaking word instinct, even here, we ahandon mind at the very outset, and immortality

is a dream."

We have heard of an old woman, a cone stant attendant at church, who being asked by the clergyman if she understood his sermons, to which she used to listen with the greatest attention, modestly said, “D'ye think I'd have the presumption?" Now we are sure that Mr. Mudie's readers, cannot have the presumption to say they understand the above extract. It is totally deficient of logic, as we will show by analysis. First, he desire that which we do not know." Let us says that it is absurd to suppose that we ask what induces people to buy books but the desire to learn that which they do not know? What induces people to go to see a new play, or a new comet but the desire to see, that which, at the time of their desire, mark that, it is "absurd to suppose that we they do not see. We readily admit the resee what we do not see," it is a truism that was known to Adam and Eve, very soon, we believe, after their creation. Secondly, he declares that, "if there is nothing external answering to the desire, then the whole is

more purely a mental matter, and, consequently, more exclusively, a result of former knowledge, than if it had a tangible object?" How can any man be so obtuse as to affirm, that our desire-a mental matter-for what does not exist,-for what is not,--is a result of former knowledge? Is it not quite clear that we can have no knowledge of that which has no being, is neither material nor immaterial, neither visible nor invisible? What Mr. Mudie says of the infant and its mother's breast, (we beg pardon for not calling it "nature's own cup," though it is an odd sort of cup,) is an attempt to be very poetical, no doubt; but could there possibly be a more unfortunate illustration? For he has declared it to be absurd "to suppose that we desire that which we do not know," and now he brings before us a hungry infant evincing its first desire for that of which it cannot have acquired any " former knowledge."

Insects flying, (p. 36.)—Mr. Mudie says, that "bees, flies, and all insects which have membranous or naked wings, cannot hover, or lean on the air with still and expanded wings."

We never knew before that "to hover," and "to lean on the air with still and expanded wings," were synonymous. With us its meaning has always been to flutter over; and such is the definition given of this verb in Bailey's English Dictionary, (1770.) We have often seen the dragon-flies, (Libellulæ,) and the Bombylius major, hover or flutter over the earth in the manner of a hawk. The latter insect, the Rev. Mr. Bree, three years ago, mentioned his having been much amused in watching, "as it hovered over a frame of Alpine plants" in his garden. "The object," he says, "on which it seemed to have set its affections was a pot of Aubrietia hesperidiflora," an elegant little plant. * * * The Bombylius poised itself in the air, much in the same way as the common kestril or windhover, (Falco tinnunculus,) does, with its body perfectly motionless, but its wings all the while vibrating most rapidly."

66

Panting of Birds.-Mr. Mudie says, that in birds, the operation of breathing alters the form of the body much less than in the mammalia," (p. 55,) and that "they do not pant as the mammalia do, when they have over-exerted themselves."-(p. 80.)

How does this agree with these remarks of Rennie?" The lungs (of birds,) compared with those of quadrupeds are rather small; but the air-cells with which they communicate occupy a considerable extent of the chest and belly. These cells are much divided by partitions, furnished as has been observed in large birds, with muscular fibres, supposed to be employed in sending the air back to the lungs, as is done by the diaphragm in other animals, and which is wanting in birds. • Magazine of Natural History, vol. vi., p. 73.]

This is, no doubt, the reason why birds, appear to pant so much in breathing, a much greater portion of the body being always put in motion than in quadrupeds."

Insects, (p. 99.)-Why does Mr. Mudie talk of "marine insects ?" when it is known that there are no insects, properly so called, in the sea, a fact which he appears subsequently to have learned; for further on, at page 227, he says, no birds can be insectfeeders when out at sea, "there being no insects there."-(See Mirror, vol. xxvi., p. 149.)

Night-jar, (pp. 115, 198, 200.)-We are certain that neither Mr. Mudie nor any one else, ever knew this bird to suck goats, so we must protest most strongly against his calling it goat-sucker.-(See Mirror, present volume, p. 164.)

Flying of Insects, (pp. 160, 161.)—Mr. Mudie says, that "no insects can continue long on the wing," and that "though their muscles act to very considerable advantage, they must move their wings so incessantly, that they are soon worn out, and fall to the earth."

Now, suppose the size of a bee is the tenth part of that of a linnet, will not the tenth part of what is as a mile to the latter, be as a mile to the former? And may we not suppose that what is as an hour to the latter, is as an hour to the former? In such case, we may be disposed to consider the flying capabilities of the two with some allowance for their comparative sizes, and the comparative length and strength of the muscles, &c., that belong to their instruments of flight. We think that it will then be found, that some insects can continue on the wing as long, in proportion to their size and adaptation for doing so, as some birds can. If the insect had feathers, which Mr. Mudie regards as always necessary to long flight, it would, perhaps, be able to fly greater distances at a time.

Insects and Birds, (p. 173.)-Mr. Mudie says, that the general habit of the dentirostres, "is that of feeding upon insects and their larvæ, in what may be called the free state."

The "free state" of insects we never heard of before, and it is difficult to comprehend what is meant by it; notwithstanding our author telling us, that it is "when they are so situated as that birds have not to hawk for them on the wing, or to dig them out of the earth, the bark of trees, or other places of concealment." It is easy to say it is "when;" but, pray, when does what he describes as this "free state" occur. We should say that insects, in either of their three and only states, which naturalists call the larva, pupa, and imago states, must be obtained by birds either hawking for them Faculties of Birds, p. 232.

on the wing, or by digging them out of the earth; for it is only by mere accident that insects are to be picked up from the surface. If these dentirostral birds neither hawk, dig the earth, nor turn over the clods, their feed ing on insects would be a rare, and not a "general habit."

Shrikes, or Butcher-birds, (p. 194.)"Many of the beetles on which they feed, have the elytra, or wing-cases, very hard, almost proof against the action of the bill, notwithstanding its strength and its notches. In these cases, the birds are understood to stick their prey upon thorns, and divide and eat it at their leisure by the strokes of their bill."

That many beetles have very hard elytra we admit, but if they are only "almost proof against the action of the bill," certain it is that the bill is more than a match for them. But moths have no hard elytra, being quite soft insects; yet the butcher-bird sticks them on thorns, as naturalists well know. We have often found moths thus impaled near to the haunts of these birds, and, from what we have observed, think that they do not eat them afterwards. The motive they have in practising this singular habit, will only be discovered when closer observations have been made.

Parrots, (p. 210.)-"Their powers of articulation are sometimes really wonderful; the coincidences between the questions put to them and the answers which they return, must, in all cases, be regarded as purely accidental; and they claim their appearance of understanding, just as the predictions of pretended seers do their supposed knowledge of the future, from the fact that the ninety-nine cases in which there is no coincidence are forgotten, while the one case out of the hun. dred in which the answer agrees with the question is remembered and repeated."

We have extracted this observation because we know, that there are many persons who are weak enough to suppose, that parrots understand the meaning of the words they

utter.

Systems, (p. 385.)—"No classification of birds can be either natural, or valuable as an index to their history, of which the sternal apparatus does not form a considerable, and even the leading part."

Blainville's systematic arrangement of birds is founded upon the form of the sternum, clavicle, and furcal bone, in accordance with a plan communicated to the French Institute in 1812. He also takes into consideration those external characters which are usually regarded as diagnostics.-J. H. F.

Truth will be uppermost, one time or other, like cork, though kept down in the water.Sir William Temple.

Useful Arts.

ORNAMENTAL WOODS.

By A. Aikin, Esq, Secretary to the Society of Arts. Ir is not known when the colours and vein ings of wood first attracted attention, and occasioned a preference to be given on this account to one kind of wood over another. The taste of the Greeks appears to have been almost exclusively directed to sculpture as a source of ornament, and therefore, although we occasionally meet with descriptions of wooden drinking-cups in the poems of Homer,* of Theocritus, and other writers, the notice of the reader is never directed to the

material, but to the elaborate carving of foliage and of figures with which they were enriched. We are certain, however, that the Romans began to pay attention to the subject in the generation prior to the Augustan age, when luxury of all kinds was at its height. In the writings of the satiric and epigrammatic poets who flourished under the Cæsars, we meet with frequent allusions to the enormous sums given for tables of ornamental wood, but the most copious and interesting account of this department of luxury is to be found in the Natural History of Pliny the elder, from which the following particulars are extracted.

By far the most costly wood was procured from a tree called citrus, a native of that part of Mauritania which is adjacent to Mount Atlas. In leaf, odour, and trunk, it resem bles the female wild cypress. The valuable part is a tuber or warty excrescence, which, when found on the root and under ground, is more esteemed than when growing on the trunk or branches. When cut and polished it presents various figures, of which the most esteemed are curling veins, or concentric spots like eyes, the former being called tigerwood, the latter panther-wood. Sometimes both these figures are mixed, producing a resemblance to the feathers in a peacock's tail. The colour appears to have been a warm brown of different shades. The only polish that they ever received was given by long rubbing with a dry hand. Tables of this material appear to have been first brought into fashion by Cicero, who is said to have given for a single one a million sesterces, i. e. 8,0721. One belonged to Gallus Asinius, which was valued at 8,8791. Two, which had formerly belonged to King Juba, were actually sold, one for 9,7007., and the other for somewhat less. Another, which had been for some generations in the family of the Cethegi, was sold for 11,3007., and in the time of Pliny was accidentally destroyed by fire. The largest ever known belonged to

Ptolemy, king of Mauritania; it was four feet and a half in diameter, and four inches thick, being formed of two semicircular planks, so skilfully joined that the place of juncture was not discernible. These tables were generally set in a broad border of ivory. From the above description the Mauritanian citrus seems to have been a species of juniper, and is not to be confounded with the citron, or any other species of the genus Citrus of modern botanists. I mention this because in Italy they actually employ at the present day the old trunks of the lemon, orange, and eitron, for painters' palettes, and other small articles of a like description.

The maple, also, was highly esteemed by the Romans, especially that which grew in Istria and Rhætia, and was distinguished by its curled peacock-tail veins. In beauty, Pliny says, it exceeded even the citrus, but could be obtained only in small pieces for writing desks and similar articles.

In the time of Pliny the art of veneering was a recent invention; and he descants, in his usual antithetical way, on thus converting the cheaper into the most valuable woods, by plating them with these latter; and of the ingenuity of cutting a tree into thin slices, and thus selling it several times over. The woods employed for this purpose were the citrus, the terebinth, various kinds of maple, box, palm, holly, ilex, the root of elder and poplar. The middle part of a tree, he observes, shows the largest and most curling veins, while the rings and spots are chiefly found near the root. The veneers, or plates, were secured, as at present, by strong glue.

Of the ornamental woods now used in this country, mahogany, unquestionably, claims the first place; both because a greater quantity of it is employed than of all the other ornamental woods put together, and because it is applicable to every kind of cabinet ware, great and small. It varies much in quality and, proportionally, in price: for a log of the finest kind as much as 8007. has been given, and, I believe, even more. There are two kinds distinguished in the market, namely, the Honduras mahogany, from the Mosquito shore, and the Spanish, which grows in the island of Cuba. The former is generally the most in request; but, occasionally, very splendid specimens of the latter come to hand. In the Honduras mahogany, the medullary plates are large, and generally disposed in rows; the consequence of which is a high colour, much lustre, and rather a coarse grain. In the common, or Spanish mahogany, the medullary plates are small, and irregularly distributed; hence, the colour is paler, the lustre less, and verging to silky, and the grain is finer, than in the preceding. The inferior kinds are used solid; the finer varieties are cut into veneers.

Next in use is rose-wood, a native of Brazil.

It exhibits large elongated zones of black irregular lines on a reddish-brown ground, of various tints and high lustre. The grain varies, being often rather coarse, but. in selected specimens, sufficiently fine. The dark colour, in general, rather too much prevails; but when this is not the case, and the lighter ground is disposed in larger masses than usual, the wood is exceedingly beautiful.

A West Indian wood, that goes by the name of coccus, bears a great resemblance to rose-wood, only the colour is less red.

King-wood, likewise, comes from Brazil. Its general colour is a rich yellowish brown, deep in the veins, more dilute in the other parts. It has a fine grain and a moderate lustre; the smaller pieces are often striped, and sometimes it occurs full of elongated zoned eyes.

Zebra-wood-also, I believe, from Brazilresembles king-wood, only the colours are generally disposed in irregular, but angular, veins and stripes. It is a very fine wood.

Coromandel-wood, from its name, I presume, is a native of India. It consists of pale reddish-brown fibres, crossed by large medullary plates of a deep rich brown, passing into black: these latter are chiefly conspicuous in well-defined veins and broad spots, admirably contrasting with the lighter parts; the lustre is silky where the medullary plates are small, but higher and more varying where the plates are larger and the grain coarser. It is, unquestionably, the handsomest of all the brown woods.

Giaca is, I believe, a Brazilian wood, and is exceedingly handsome, on account of its rich, hair-brown colour, its fine grain, and high lustre.

Other brown woods are,

Snake-wood, from Demerara, in which the lines often bear a kind of resemblance to writing.

Crocus-wood, from Brazil.

Lignum-vitæ, from the West Indies; the colours of which are generally dull, dingy, and ill-defined.

Green ebony, from the West Indies, in which a greenish tint is discernible by daylight, but dingy and dull.

Sandal-wood, from Owhyhee; of a pale brown, a very fine grain, and a considerable satiny lustre.

The only perfectly black wood is ebony from Africa: that from the Mauritius and Ceylon is usually variegated more or less with cream-brown, and is sometimes very handsome; sometimes it produces accidental resemblances to moonlight falling on black clouds. Perhaps the Coromandel-wood is a variety of spotted ebony.

Of woods in which yellow, mixed more or less with orange and brown, is the prevailing colour, may be mentioned the satin-wood of India and of the West Indies, the former of

which has the richer colour, the latter the higher and more variable lustre.

Fustic also belongs to this class, forming the passage to the orange-brown woods. It has a high varying lustre, with moderate fineness of grain.

The red woods are not much used for ornament, except in small pieces for inlaying. Of these

Africa furnishes the cam-wood and the barr-wood, this latter being distinguished by its rich purple tinge.

India furnishes red sanders.

Brazil furnishes tulip-wood and beef-wood. And the West Indies, the pencil-cedar, or juniper, and the Havannah cedar; this latter being remarkable for its high, varying, and completely silky lustre.

A singular wood has lately been imported from Russia, where it is dug out of the bogs. It seems to be a birch; the ground is pale yellowish, but is prettily and singularly variegated by dark curved lines.

New Holland furnishes a wood of no great beauty, called Botany Bay oak.

The bird's-eye maple comes from the United States; and, although deficient in colour, merits notice from the eyes, and the very pretty, though small, markings with which its surface is overspread.

Our own country furnishes yew, of which the tubers and parts near the root are often extremely beautiful: for the combination of colour with figure, it ranks, perhaps, at the head of the eyed, or spotted woods. Walnut was formerly very extensively used as veneers for chests of drawers, and other large articles, in which it has of late years been superseded by mahogany. Its chief use at present is solid, for gun-stocks, many of which are extremely beautiful. The butt and larger roots of maple are likewise employed for gunstocks, as well as selected pieces of ash, which, when properly coloured, show off their native lustre and figure to great advantage. The oak occasionally presents very rich figures; and tables made of such are much esteemed, notwithstanding its deficiency in variety and vivacity of colour.-Transactions of the Society of Arts, 1835, vol. i., pt. 2.

Manners and Customs.

CEYLONESE CANOES.

IN one of Captain Basil Hall's nice little volumes, modestly entitled Fragments of Voyages and Travels, we have participated the author's admiration of the canoes used by the natives of the island of Ceylon. The Captain's entertaining description is as follows:

"The canoes of Ceylon, as far as I remem. ber, are not described by any writer, nor have I met with many professional men who are

aware of their peculiar construction, and of the advantages of the extremely elegant principle upon which they are contrived, though capable, I am persuaded, of being applied to various purposes of navigation.

"It is not likely that we shall ever essentially improve the build or equipment of our boats; but it must always be useful to seafaring men to become acquainted with such practical devices in seamanship as have been found to answer well; especially if they seem capable of being appropriated upon occasions which may possibly arise in the course of a service so infinitely varied as that of the navy. It is partly on this account, and partly as a matter of general curiosity, that I think some mention of the canoes of Ceylon, and the balsas of Peru, may interest many persons for whom ordinary technicalities possess no charm. At least there appears to be an originality and neatness about both these contrivances, and a correctness of principle, which we are surprised to find in connexion with perfect simplicity, and an absence of that collateral knowledge which we are so apt to fancy belongs only to more advanced stages of civilization and philosophical instruction.

"The hull or body of the Ceylonese canoe is formed, like that of Robinson Crusoe's, out of the trunk of a single tree, wrought in its middle part into a perfectly smooth cylinder, but slightly flattened and turned up at both ends, which are made exactly alike. It is hollowed out in the usual way, but not cut so much open at top as we see in other canoes, for considerably more than half of the outside part of the cylinder or barrel is left entire, with only a narrow slit, eight or ten inches wide, above. If such a vessel were placed in the water it would possess very little stability, even when not loaded with any weight on its upper edges. But there is built upon it a set of wooden upper works, in the shape of a long trough, extending from end to end; and the top-heaviness of this addition to the hull would instantly overturn the vessel, unless some device were applied to preserve its upright position. This purpose is accomplished by means of an out-rigger on one side, consisting of two curved poles, or slender but tough spars, laid across the canoe at right angles to its length, and extending to the distance of twelve, fifteen, or even twenty feet, where they join a small log of buoyant wood, about half as long as the canoe, and lying parallel to it, with both its ends turned up like the toe of a slipper, to prevent its dipping into the waves. The inner ends of these transverse poles are securely bound by thongs to the raised gunwales of the canoe, The out-rigger-which, it may be useful to bear in mind, is always kept to windwardacting by its weight at the end of so long a lever, prevents the vessel from turning over