Such was the mode observed to be in use among the Fork of the Whitewater, an oval ring, something Missouri Indians, by Lewis and Clark. Glass beads, like a link of a chain, large enough to encompass a too, like the copper ones, very irregular in form, but small wrist. It was formed of a thin plate of copmore globular; these glass beads are, in general, per, of such shape as would be described by two only imperfect approaches to the art of making glass; segments of a circle, with their concave sides turned perhaps most of them are only a coarse kind of por- toward each other; the edges turned nicely over each celain, (china,) or rather fused feldspar. They have other, and then bent into the oval form, so that the a bluish, greenish or brownish tinge, not a perfect ends met. The edges of the plate at the joining color, according as iron, manganese, copper, &c., bore the marks of the sharp-cutting shears, and the happened accidentally to be present. For if they smooth-faced hammer. This, too, we need make no had been aware that these gave color to the bead, mystery or wonder about, for it had undoubtedly they would soon have produced a more perfect arti- been the work of European hands, perhaps Norwecle. They have also a kind of muller, of hard red-gians; but, fully as probable, obtained from some trader, after Columbus's discovery. To be continued.

dish stone.

And here too, let it be remembered, that the eastern Indians had the same art, unless it can be rendered probable that a sort of commerce was carried on among the different tribes, which, to some extent, may be true. For we have found the isinglass of the Green Mountains and the galenic ore of lead of the Mississippi in the mounds here, and the beads, flint arrow-heads, and bits of native copper there.

That they were idolaters is highly probable; for THERE is, perhaps, nothing in our domestic ecoall nations of savages yet known to civilized men nomy in which we suffer so much from the quackery have been found such. But such idolaters as had and ignorance of workmen as in the unphilosophical made any advances in science, always made more or and bad construction of our chimnies. Few are built less progress in sculpture and painting. What pro- that generally carry up the smoke without distributing gress had these made in these arts? It may be an- a portion over our walls, our furniture, our eyes, &c. swered, none. Will the idols, if such they were, be Some project the back much forward, and then fall produced in evidence? The answer is ready; there is suddenly back into an open space, where it is partly scarcely a lazy Indian of mature age in existence, at cooled. Some from this point gradually widen the this day, who would not execute figures more inge- flue from thence upward; and most masons think it nious with the clumsiest kind of jack-knife; and we essential to contract the flue a little, either more or have a better reason to suppose they were obtained less, just above the mouth, and then some widening, from Mexico, either by commerce or by war. As and others of equal dimensions carry it out to the for the triune vase (and some have dignified with the top. These methods they denominate, giving the name of vase the meanest culinary utensil), it was draught. But, though it is undeniable that the smoke scarcely possible, on viewing it a few times, to avoid will pass more rapidly through the contracted aperthe suspicion of forgery. The surface is too smooth, ture than through the larger, they do not seem to the shape of the body too regular, to be the produc- know that the velocity is only in the inverse proportion of simple manipulation. The sculpture, in exe- tion to the area of a larger transverse section, either cution, is so rough, that any Indian, with a bit of above or below, compared with that of the choke, as slate and a fish-bone, might have accomplished it. it is called. There is no more water passing over But the designation of character manifested in the the rapid fall than through the deep and still river whole performance betrays the real artist. Nothing above or below. The first of these masons think to like it has been seen elsewhere among savages, either imitate the fall in a river; not having observed that as to art of form. It bears the marks of having been hardened by fire, an idea that never occurred to those ancient people, for, where they most needed it (viz. in their pots), they wholly omitted it. It must, like the former, have come from Mexico, and may have been a pious fraud-an attempt to represent the holy Trinity.

But still it is reiterated that the builders of the forts and mounds were a populous, and, to a considerable extent, a civilized nation. Pains have been taken to prove that they were acquainted with iron; and accounts of swords, or rather the hilts and mountings being found in tumuli. One at Marietta, where the blade had disappeared, but the plates and mountings, of the belt and scabbard were found, even with a small portion of the leather adhering. But this proves too much for their position, in that it renders it probable that one of the natives had, either by war or purchase, obtained a sword, and, like many others, had, at his own request, been interred in one of the patrician mounds. Many years ago, a Mr. Hannah, of South Carolina, dug from a mound, on the East VOL. III.-12

when a rapid stream passes into dead water, or water of gentler current, it spreads; a portion turning downward, gorging out deep cavities in the sand, and another portion turning upward, boiling on the sur face, by which means its progress is sooner or later diminished to that of the water below. But the true cause of the smoke's ascent seems, among workmen, philosophers and all, in this case to be overlooked. The instant that smoke escapes from the burning fuel, if not prevented, it ascends, because it is heated; and this tendency is in exact proportion to the difference of its temperature from that of the atmosphere; and will continue to ascend just so long as it can be made to retain a higher temperature than that of the medium (the air) through which it ascends. We may, therefore, adopt it as a rule, that the hotter the smoke, and the longer it can be made to retain its temperature above that of the air within the flue, the stronger will be the draught. But we must take, along with this, another rule, viz. that the heated smoke and heated air which ascends along with it must completely fill the flue; else the cold air will

descend in streams, larger or smaller, and perhaps | and other substances now used for fuel, but even entirely cool the smoke. And for this reason we stones, iron, and other metallic substances, would must adopt a third rule, viz. that there must be no blaze with a rapidity which would carry destruction widening, as by the introduction of another flue, &c.; through the whole course of nature. If even the for here the smoke will condense, and even solicit proportions of the two airs were materially altered, the cold air from above, and thus prevent its escape. a variety of pernicious effects would instantly be For the reasons above, as well as that the smoke produced. If the oxygen were less in quantity than must diminish in volume, because diminishing in it now is, fire would lose its strength, candles would temperature as it recedes from the fire, the flue not diffuse a sufficient light, and animals would pershould be gradually contracted a little from the bot- form their vital functions with the utmost difficulty tom to the top. The flue should also be perfectly and pain. On the other hand, were the nitrogen tight; for the circumambient air will penetrate and diminished, and the oxygen increased, the air taken diminish the temperature of the smoke. There in by respiration would be more stimulant, and the should also be a due proportion between the fire- circulation of the animal fluids would become acceleplace and the flue. For a large fire-place with a rated; but the tone of the vessels thus stimulated to small flue will not draw, because the smoke, or increased action, would be destroyed by too great an much of it, becomes cooled too much to ascend with excitement, and the body would inevitably waste and sufficient force. A large fire-place, too, though the decay. Again, were the oxygen completely extracted chimney be ever so well constructed, if in a small from the atmosphere, and nothing but nitrogen reroom, will not draw; for the room and the fire-place mained, fire and flame would be extinguished, and seem to be but one, and the pressure of the cold air instant destruction would be carried throughout all around is not sufficient to confine the smoke to the the departments of vegetable and animated nature. proper point. A slight projection of the back re- For a lighted taper will not burn for single moment flects the heat forward while it heats the smoke. in nitrogen gas, and if an animal be plunged into it, The chimney should be carried out at the highest it is instantly suffocated. part of the roof, and for a reasonable height above; for the wind, by striking against the slope of the roof, is reflected upwards, and, striking again the air of less velocity beyond the ridge, it forms an eddy which occasionally whirls over backward, and sometimes down the chimney. For the same reason, houses should never be built near a side-hill; for the wind, especially if the hill be very steep, here forms eddies, whether ascending or coming in the opposite direction over the hill.

All the foregoing ideas are, as I conceive, formed on the strictest philosophical principles, proved by long experience. But I beg leave to recommend them to the notice of your Mechanics' Institute and the Lyceums, wherever instituted. Let them appoint committees and expend a little money in a few experiments, and some good may, and no doubt will result.

THE ATMOSPHERE.

Again, not only the extraction of any one of the component parts of the atmosphere, or the alteration of their respective proportions, but even the slightest increase or diminution of their specific gravity, would be attended with the most disastrous effects. The nitrogen is found to be a little lighter than common air, which enables it to rise towards the higher regions of the atmosphere. In breathing, the air which is evolved from the lungs at every expiration, consists chiefly of nitrogen, which is entirely unfit to be breathed again, and therefore rises above our heads before the next inspiration. Now, had nitrogen, instead of being a little lighter, been a slight degree heavier than common air, or of the same specific gravity, it would have accumulated on the surface of the earth, and particularly in our apartments, to such a degree as to have produced diseases, pestilence, and death, in rapid succession. But being a little lighter than the surrounding air, it flies upwards, and we never breathe it again, till it enters into new and salutary combinations.

Were the earth divested of its atmosphere, or were only two or three of its properties changed or THE atmosphere is now ascertained to be a com- destroyed, it would be left altogether unfit for the pound substance, formed of two very different ingre- habitation of sentient beings. Were it divested of dients, termed oxygen and nitrogen gas. Of 100 its undulating quality, we should be deprived of all measures of atmospheric air, 21 are oxygen, and 79 the advantages of speech and conversation-of all nitrogen. The one, namely, oxygen, is the princi- the melody of the feathered songsters, and of all the ple of combustion, and the vehicle of heat, and is pleasures of music; and like the deaf and dumb, we absolutely necessary for the support of animal life, could have no power of communicating our thoughts and is the most powerful and energetic agent in na- but by visible signs. Were it deprived of its reflecture. The other is altogether incapable of support- tive powers, the sun would appear in one part of the ing either flame or animal life. Were we to breathe sky of a dazzling brightness, while all around would oxygen air, without any mixture or alloy, our animal appear as dark as midnight, and the stars would be spirits would be raised, and the fluids in our bodies visible at noon-day. Were it deprived of its refrac would circulate with greater rapidity; but we should tive powers, instead of the gradual approach of the soon infallibly perish by the rapid and unnatural ac-day and the night which we now experience, at suncumulation of heat in the animal frame. If the nitro-rise we should be transported all at once from midgen were extracted from the air, and the whole atmo- night darkness to the splendor of noon-day, and, at sphere contained nothing but oxygen or vital air, sun-set, should make a sudden transition from the combustion would not proceed in that gradual man- splendors of day to all the horrors of midnight, which ner which it now does, but with the most dreadful would bewilder the traveller in his journey, and strike and irresistible rapidity: not only wood and coals, the creation with amazement.

If we were to form an opinion from the appearance of the gardens and cornfields, of some of our farming friends, we should imagine that the apparent reluctance to stir the earth in hot weather, arose from the belief that turning over the soil, and pulverizing the earth in such weather, had a tendency only to dry the whole mass the more thoroughly, and render this dryness complained of still more destructive. Such we imagine is not the fact; and any one who has noticed how much nearer the surface moisture will be found, at all times, in well pulverized and frequently stirred earth, than in that which remains compact and unmoved, will, we think, agree with us. The reason why fine and oft-stirred earth suffers less than that which is not stirred, arises from its diminished powers of absorption. There is at all times and particularly in the hottest weather, a great quantity of moisture suspended in the atmosphere, and the earths absorb this in proportion to the nature of their constituent parts, or their fineness of subdivision. Davy estimated this moisture at about 1-14 of the volume or bulk of the air, and 1-21 of its weight. Of course, the supply is at all times ample for the wants of plants, if the earth is in a situation to receive it for their use.

telligently and better done could this be by the accomplished engineer corps, than by the persons that usually undertake such work, and if our army were increased to twenty thousand men, as it ought to be, to effectually guard us from pirates without, and within, a certain portion of it, as is made in Russia, could be profitably employed on national roads, and the lands through which they were formed, when brought into market, would amply compensate in

M'Adam road, can be made in a climate of a much greater intensity of frost than is to be found in any of the United States, I am free to assert, from what I myself have seen abroad. When in Russia, the road was making between St. Petersburgh and Moscow, and I often rode out to see the operations, and could not but admire the rapidity and perfection of the work. A division of twenty thousand soldiers was kept constantly employed in reliefs and resumptions of a fortnight each. The stone was broken and pass-higher sales, the national treasury for the expense, ed through sieves, admitting nothing of a larger size and prove of incalculable advantage to the country. than a hen's egg. The road was then graded and Let any one sit down and calculate the disadvanturnpiked in the usual way, a course of a few inches tages and losses of a bad road, in contradistinction to of stone followed, then rollers of iron passed over, the advantages and gains of a good one, and he could then another course of stone, then rollers again of not but arise to the assistance of a reform upon the increased weight, and so on till finished-the last subject. How often now do we drag along through being of immense weight and diameter, leaving the the mud knee deep, or over hard-frozen ground, road as firm and smooth as a thick chiseled rock, rough as the scoria of a volcano, drenched in the and I am told by the engineer totally impervious to rain or shivering in a cold winter-blast, at a snailrain and frost. It is about ten years since this work pace of two or three miles an hour, racking and was finished, and gentlemen lately from Russia, as-wearing carriages and harness, breaking down sure me it has kept in most admirable order. horses and giving them premature old age, wasting I have never read M'Adam's pamphlet on the sub- our own time, and exhausting temper and patience, ject, but recollect a short letter of his that appeared when six to ten miles, with real pleasure, night be some three or four years ago in the New York Com-made in the same space of time. I absolutely bemercial Advertiser, succinctly detailing the theory, lieve, that in wear and tear of cattle, vehicles, and of which the St. Petersburgh and Moscow road was gearing, loss of time and extra costs is marketing the exact practice. I wish that letter could be looked produce, to say nothing of our comfort, enough is exup and annually published throughout the newspapers pended every five years to beautifully M Adamize the and periodicals of the States, for the benefit of all great thoroughfares in western New York. If this conceited road-makers. Pure stone of a small size, then be a fact, what a loss to the country is every without admixture of any other substance, and heavy moment's delay in accomplishing it. We have pleniron rollers, is all that is wanted in the operation. Ity of the very first qualities of material in the elastick have often stated these facts to those making what limestone, the science of road-making is open to us they called M'Adam roads, but it has always been, in its best forms, and all we lack is the spirit to put so far as the practice was concerned, a complete it in practice. I would a thousand times sooner turn waste of words. Several of this kind have been at-out to make a fine road than a fine house, or anytempted in this vicinity, and although they are very thing else fine about me, as much more conducive great improvements over the heavy natural soil of to the pleasure and comforts and interests of the the country, still they are nothing to what they country. But my word for it, make fine roads, and ought to be. As a people we are too much in a fine other things will rapidly follow. hurry; we can't make up our minds to afford the first expense, and to save a dime in first construction, we are afterward called upon to expend dollars in repairs, and the moment the heavy frosts and rains set in, deep ruts are formed, leaving the road exceedingly rough and unpleasant. The great errour is in put

A. B. ALLEN. Correspondence of the Genessee Farmer.

ting the first layer stones, then finer ones, and THE WORLD IS BRIGHT BEFORE THEE.-HALLECK,

smoothing off with dirt. The large stone will invariably work to the top, forming a complete nuisance till broken or removed, and the dirt only serves to mix up with the first rain that falls and makes a most uncomfortable mire.

I wish it were possible to rouse publick opinion to a proper sense of the disgraceful roads throughout the United States. There is nothing as a nation in which we are so remiss and behind the Europeans, and the constant introduction of railways is calculated to make matters still worse; notwithstanding these and canals, it should be the duty of state governments to enforce a thorough system of M‘Adamizing on all the leading roads of the country. So immense do I consider the benefits of a good road in all weathers, that I would even make it in advance of settlements, instead of leaving it to follow them, and previous to the sale of government lands, would cut out and M'Adamize the great thoroughfares at the national expense. How much more in

THE world is bright before thee;

Its summer flower is thine;
Its calm blue sky is o'er thee;
Thy bosom virtue's shrine;
And thine the sunbeam given
To nature's morning hour,
Pure, warm, as when from heaven
It burst on Eden's bower.

There is a song of sorrow

The death-dirge of the gay-
That tells ere dawn of morrow,
These charms may melt away;
That sun's bright beam be shaded,
That sky be blue no more,
The summer flowers be faded,
And youth's warm promise o'er.

Believe it not; though lonely
Thy evening-home may be,
Though beauty's bark can only
Float on a summer sea;

Though time thy bloom is stealing,
There's still beyond his art,
The wild flower wreath of feeling---
The sunbeam of the heart,

MISCELLANY.

ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT FOR THE GOSPELS.

now in the finest and most robust health, and is so fat that her body (which is largely proportioned) is as broad as it is long-Her head is very large, and her features are also large and somewhat coarse, yet decidedly good, and forming a very agreeable tout ensemble-and her lip is absolutely pretty, and of the

THE REV. H. Todd gave lately to the Royal Irish Academy a short account of the manuscript of four Gospels, of the seventh century, and in Irish charac-richest and ripest red. ters, which is preserved in the library of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth. The volume is a small quarto, in the minute hand called Caroline, common to all Europe in the reign of Charlemange, but now used only in Ireland, and known as the Irish character. The present volume appears to have belonged to Melbridgid Mac Dornan, or Mac Tornan, who was Archbishop of Armagh in the ninth century, and died A. D. 925. By him it was probably sent to Athelstan, king of the Anglo Saxons, who presented it to the city of Canterbury.

In addition to being sociable and chatty, and even witty, it is said, she possesses the accomplishment of singing a very sweet song. She received the party who visited her in company with myself, very affably, and very graciously accepted our farewell offering. Some years ago, a Yankee having met with her, offered to purchase her of her mother for the sum of three thousand dollars, as a speculation. This tempting offer was very creditably refused by the parent-neither her poverty nor her will consented to the traffick.

ANCIENT FORTRESS IN OHIO, SIX HUNDRED
YEARS OLD.

The facts are inferred from an inscription in Anglo-Saxon characters, (and in the hand of the ninth or beginning of the tenth century,) which occurs on a blank page immediately following the genealogy in the first chapter of St. Matthew. The discovery of this manuscript and the satisfactory proof AMONG the interesting discoveries which a prewhich facts afford of its Irish origin, are important, vailing spirit of inquiry respecting the early inhabitas adding another to the many instances with which ants of this continent have given rise to, will be found we are already acquainted, of the employment of the following almost incredible narrative, for the deIrish scribes in the transcription of the Scriptures tails of which we have specially to thank the useful during the sixth and seventh centuries. It is now geological surveys ordered by almost every state in ascertained that almost all the sacred books so the Union. We hope this discovery will incite our highly venerated by the Anglo-Saxon Church, and state legislatures and scientifick societies, and those left by her early bishops as their looms to their re-individuals who have wealth, and leisure, and taste, spective sees, were obtained in Ireland or from Irish scribes.

to prosecute these inquiries. We may now believe in the alleged discovery of the ruins of an ancient city with brick walls, on Rock river, in Illinois, and we trust the apparent counterpart to that and more wonderful collections of Egyptian ruins, collossal statues, hieroglyphicks, obelisks, &c., at Palenque in Mexico, will, in some way or other, be fully investigated and described.

Professor Locke has addressed the following letter to the editor of the Cincinnati Gazette :

A LIMBLESS YOUNG LADY OF ASHVILLE, N. C. HER name is Esther Massey, and she is one of an illegitimate family of eleven children. This singular being was born in her present limbless condition, and has now attained the age of twenty-five years. Her mother and whole family appear to regard her with much tenderness and affection, and she seems to Mr. Editor-While on the geological examination possess a happy and cheerful disposition which ren- of Adams county, I observed from the heights of ders her content with the helpless and apparently several mountains, there called "knobs," a conspichapless lot, which nature has awarded her. Although uous and insulated elevation several miles to the an object calculated to excite the wonder, and rouse northwest, which, for the purpose of some topothe sympathies of her fellow-beings, many, who en-graphical sketches, I determined to visit. I found it joy the full proportions of humanity, and a bountiful to be near Sinking Springs, on the road from Maysdispensation of the good things of life, will find their ungrateful and guilty repinings shamed by the equanimity, and cheerful spirit of this physically imperfect creature in the midst of privation and poverty. She has no arms, and neither legs nor thighs. Her shoulders are rounded off, and capable of motion and on them she receives the gifts which charity or kindness proffers her. She is also able to move about on a level, with a kind of waddling motion. Her usual position is that of sitting, or rather standing upright in a common chair, by rocking which from side to side she moves about with great facility. She is able to read, and for this purpose places the book on her shoulder, or (which she prefers) on a table before her and turns over the leaves with her tongue. Her health has always been excellent, and her mother says, she has never had occasion for the services of a physician; and, although she seldom leaves the house, and therefore takes but little exercise: she is

ville to Chillicothe, and within the limits of Highland county. It is called, in the vicinity," Fort Hill," from an ancient work which occupies the top of it. After groping my way, without a guide, one mile through a by-road, and another mile on foot through a forest, I reached the top, which is a level table of thirty-five to forty acres. Here I was surprised to find an ancient work, in many respects surpassing all others which I had seen in Ohio. The mountain is five hundred feet above the bed of Bush Creek, which washes its base, and eight hundred to one thousand feet above the low waters of the Ohio, and mostly of solid stone, interrupted only by thin layers of clay and marl. Yet it is covered with soil and with forest trees. The rocks proceeding upward are, in perpendicular height, ascertained by the barometer, one hundred and fifty feet of cliff limestone, two hundred and fifty feet of slate, and one hundred and fifty feet of freestone, covered by about twenty feet