first flush of the summer is truly delightful; the instantaneous spring of vegetation; the multitude of blossoms, clothing orchard and forest, and the chirp and song of birds, all breaking forth at once, have an un

speakably cheering effect. The birds

here are less numerous than in our island, but will, of course, multiply as cultivation encroaches more and

more on the forest.

The observations that I can make upon the climate apply of course but to a small portion of this vast world, which comprises all the climates of the earth, with the exception perhaps of one- -the gloomy. The Atlantic border of New England is indeed liable, in the spring months, to fogs blown from off the Newfoundland bank; but these temporary visitors do not despoil the atmosphere of the general character of brilliancy which, summer and winter, it may be said, more or less, to possess from Maine to Missouri. The vividness of the light, which is at first painful to English, and even European eyes of whatever country, I could imagine had wrought an effect on the national physiognomy. The diseases of the country appear to be few and violent; fevers and other inflammatory disorders,, common during the first autumnal months: the temperate habits of the people, however, preserve them in a great measure from these attacks, or moderate their violence, I imagine there are more instances. of extraordinary longevity in these states, than you could find in any part of Europe.

The western states seem destined to be the paradise of America. The beauty of their climate is probably unrivalled, unless it be by that of some of the elevated plains of the southern continent. The influence of the mild breezes from the Mexican Gulf, which blow with the steadiness of a trade-wind up the great valley of the Mississippi, is felt even to the southern shore of Lake Erie; and affects the climate of some of the north-western counties of New York.

EFFECT OF MUSIC ON

ANIMALS.

On a Sunday evening, five choristers were walking on the banks of the river Mersey, in Cheshire; after some time, they sat down on the grass, and began to sing an anthem. The field

in which they sat was terminated at which, as they were singing, they obone extremity by a wood, out of swiftness, towards the place where served a hare to pass, with great they were sitting and to stop a about She appeared highly delighted with twenty yards distance from them. the music, often turning up the side of her head to listen with more facility. This uncommon appearance desirous to know whether the crea engaged their attention; and being the music, they finished the piece, and ture paid them the visit to partake of other. As soon as the harmonious sat still without speaking to each sound was over, the hare returned

slowly towards the wood: when she had reached nearly the end of the field, they began the same piece again, at which the hare stopped, turned about, and came swiftly back again to about the same distance as before, where she seemed to listen with rapsure aud delight till they had finished the anthem, when she returned, by a slow pace, up the field, and entered the wood.

EPITAPH,

WRITTEN AT SPITHEAD.

Hark to the knell !
It comes in the swell

Of the stormy ocean-wave;
'Tis no earthly sound,
But a toll profound

From the mariner's deep sea-grave.

When the billows dash,
And the signals flash,

And the thunder is on the gale,
And the ocean is white
In its own wild light,

Deadly and dismal and pale,

When the lightning's blaze
Smites the seaman's gaze,

And the sea rolls in fire and in foam,

Enteresting Varieties.

RUSSIAN POLITENESS.-The following remarkable Speech was made by the Czar of Muscovy, Peter I. to King William III. when he met him at Utrecht.

"Most Renowned Emperor, it was not the desire of seeing the celebrated cities of the German empire, or the most potent republic of the universe, that made me leave my throne in a distant country, and my victorious armies, but the vehement passion alone, of seeing the most brave and most generous hero of the age.

"I have my wish, and am suffi ciently recompenced for my travel, in being admitted into your presence: your kind embraces have given me more satisfaction than the taking of Azoph, and triumphing over the Tartars; but the conquest is yours; your martial genius directed my sword, and the generous emulation of your exploits instilled into my breast the first thoughts I had of enlarging my dominions.

66

"I cannot express in words, the veneration I have for your sacred person; my unparalleled journey is one proof of it.

"The season is so far advanced, and I hope the peace too, that I shall not have the opportunity, as Maximillian had, of fighting under the banner of England against France, the common disturber of the liberties of Europe.

"If the war continues, I, and my

SPINNING AND WEAVING.--In the year 1745, Mary Powlis, of East Doreham, in Norfolk, spun a pound of wool into a thread of 84,400 yards in length, wanting only 80 yards of 48 English miles; a circumstance which was considered so great a curiosity at the time, as to obtain for itself a situation upon the records of the Royal Society. Since that period, Miss Ives, of Norwich, spun a pound of wool (combed) into a thread of 168,000 yards; which wonderful success in the art of spinning wool, induced her to try her exquisite talent upon cotton; when, out of a pound of that material, she produced a thread that measured the astonishing length of 203,000 yards, equal to 115 English miles and 160 yards. The last mentioned thread, woven into cloth, would (allowing 200 inches of it in warp and weft to a square inch of the manufactured article) give the fair artisan 283 yards, nearly of yard-wide cloth, out of her pound of cotton!-25 pounds of cotton spun in that manner, would reach round the Equator.

HORSE RACING.-At Newmarket there are two courses, the long and the round; the first is exactly 4 miles and 380 yards, i. e. 7442 yards; the second 6640 yards. Childers, the swiftest horse ever known, has run the first course in seven minutes and a half, and the second course in six. minutes and forty seconds. But all other horses took up at least seven minutes and 50 seconds in completing the longest course, and seven minutes only in the shortest, which is at the

rate of more than 47 fect in a second; and it is commonly supposed that these coursers cover at every bound a space of ground in length about 24 English feet.

Ehe Wit's Nunchion.

MADAME DE STAEL, when she visited London, had scarcely alighted from her post chaise, when she asked the waiter to shew her the tomb of Richardson! Richardson," thought the waiter; "it

Richardson." 66

cannot be Richardson the tavern

keeper in Covent Garden, for he is alive and bustling about his business: it must be Richardson, Goodluck, and Co.-no doubt the elder partner has died, and this lady has some claim his assets." To Cornhill, thereupon fore, our sentimental traveller was directed. Not a moment was lost. She drives off, alights from her hackney-coach, pushes by the clerks in the front shop, and addressing a grave looking man in black, perched up in a kind of pulpit, asks with a faltering

voice for the tomb of Richardson.'

66

"You

"The tomb of Richardson, Madam! Mr. Richardson was never in better health; he has this moment set off for his country seat." misapprehend me. I mean the divine Richardson." Oh! a clergyman! I know no person of the name." "No, Sir, not a clergyman, but the Richardson of Clarissa." "Really we know no gentleman of the name who keeps a lady." At length, a reference to the bookseller on the other side of the street, set the fair enthusiast right. She hurried off to St. Clement Danes in the Strand; roused a kindred spirit of enthusiasm in the sexton by the talismanic_application of five shillings: followed his lantern [for it was now dark] with a palpitating heart-scraped the mud and mould of years off a flat stone, close to the parish pump; read the longsought name-dropt on her knees to kiss the hallowed marble, and, on rising up and surveying her wet and draggled garments, found, too late,

that the tomb of Richardson was the grave of sentiment.

CONFESSION. An attorney and his wife went together to confess their sins. She confessed first: and the priest falling asleep about the end of her confession, she went away, thinking she had been absolved. The husband went in afterwards, and perceiving that the holy father was asleep, he asked him two or three times if he heard him? The priest waking, and being ashamed of his slumber, answered, "Madam, I hear told me, that the chief clerk of your you very well; you have just now husband does very often cuckold him."

account of it in the Philosophical Transactions." When again at Lich field, in 1784, he begged Dr. Jones to give him another copy of his letter, as he had mislaid the former; but he was so ill during his stay, that the subject was forgotten. Dr. Jones's description was, however, subsequently inserted in the "Gentle man's Magazine," vol. 55, from which we gather that the trunk at that period (1781) rose to the height of 12 feet 9 inches, and there divided into fifteen large spreading branches. The circumference of the trunk at bottom was 15 feet 10 inches; in the middle 11 feet 10 inches; and at the top, immediately below the branches, thirteen feet. The entire height was 49 feet; and the circumference of the branches at their extremities, upwards of two hundred; overshadow ing a plane not far short of 400 feet. "The tree has now (adds Dr. Jones) a vigorous and increasing appearance; but, we may perhaps find in its situation, a marshy vale, the cause of its extraordinary growth. The most moderate reputation of its age is near four-score years, and some respectable authorities strongly incline to think a century has passed over its head."

On Monday, August 14, 1815, a violent gust of wind carried away a very large fragment of this venerable tree, which has ever since been in a state of rapid decay, and the trunk had become quite hollow; it might nevertheless have continued for some time longer to attract the eye of the visitor, but on the evening of Thurs day, the 11th of November, 1824, it was almost entirely destroyed. A fire lighted by some boys at the foot, communicated to the rotten trunk, and the flames spread with such rapi dity, that the efforts of a number of men, aided by an engine, could scarcely subdue them.

The above view, a very correct one, is copied from a print in Lomax's Account of Lichfield," 1819; and will serve to convey to posterity a perfect idea of the celebrated wil low.

TEA.

(Reaumed from p. 387.)

BEST METHOD OF MAKING TEA: "Tea must be constantly kept from the air, or it will lose its virtue. The choice of water is an important object in making Tea; it should be free from impurities, or it will not extract† the true flavour; clear river or rain water is to be preferred, as spring water will not draw off the strength of the Tea; but water filtered through a stone is by far the best. The water should not be boiled on a smokey fire, in an open vessel, or in any thing that can give it a metallic or other taint.

"It is somewhat remarkable, that in England, where Tea is universally drunk, the method of making it is less attended to than perhaps in any country in Europe. A small portion of Tea (even of the middling and inferior kinds) to a great quantity of water, is a common practice in almost every family; and this custom generally arises not so much from regard to economy, as from the force of ha bit; but it must be evident that such a method cannot produce that fine fragrant beverage, so much extolled in all parts of the world. Foreigners universally drink the FINEST Teas, and in profusion. The tea-table is with them one of the first luxuries of life; and though, in this country, in families where it cannot be afforded, economy may be pleaded with propriety, yet those to whom it is a minor consideration, would find the superior flavour and fragrance of the best Teas, when made of a proper strength, amply compensate for the difference in expence.-Ladies should not trust to the judgment of their servants in making Tea...

ACCOUNT OF THE MODE OF REARING THE TEA PLANT IN CHINA.

"The first process is that of preparing the ground for the seed, by making holes at short distances from each other, and in a strait line, with an implement having a long handle and sharp-pointed head. The seeds are