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Holland propose a son to be a knight, his name is entered in the register, and a large sum of money is paid for the use of the poor maintained by the order, and the person whose name is enrolled succeeds in

rotation.

Upon the death of a Knight, the first on the list is summoned to attend the chapter, and bring with him proofs of his Nobility for four generations both on the father and mother's side; if not, he is struck out of the list.

The ensign of this branch is a crosspattee, enamelled white, surmounted with another black; above the cross is a ball, twisted white and black. It is worn about the neck, pendent to a broad black watered ribbon. The same cross is embroidered on the left breast of the upper garment of each Knight. R. J.

CUSTOMS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES-No. IX.

THE HARVEST OF THE SAVAGES.

MAPLE SUGAR HARVEST.

The juice of the maple was and still is, collected by the Savages twice a year. The first collection takes place about the end of February, March, or April, accor ding to the latitude of the country in which the sugar-maple grows. The liquor collected after the slight night-frosts is converted into sugar by being boiled over a strong fire. The quantity of sugar obtained by this process differs according to the qualities of the tree.

This sugar, light of digestion, and of a greenish colour, has an agreeable and somewhat acid

taste.

The second collection takes place when the sap of the tree has uot sufficient consistency to become sugar. This sap is condensed into a sort of treacle or syrup, which, dissolved in spring water, furnishes a cooling beverage during the heats

of summer.

Great care is taken to preserve the maple-woods of the red and white species: The most productive maples are those the bark of which looks black and scabby. The Savages conceive that these appearances are occasioned by the black redheaded wood-pecked, which pierces such trees in which the sap is most abundant. They consequently respect this wood-pecker as an intelligent bird and a good spirit.

About four feet from the ground two holes are made in the trunk of the maple, three quarters of an inch deep, and bored obliquely upward to facilitate the effusion

of the sap.

These first two incisions are turned to the south; two similar ones are made towards the north. These holes are afterwards bored, according as the tree yields its sap, to the depth of two inches and a half.

Two wooden troughs are placed on the two sides of the tree facing the north and south, and tubes of elder are introduced into the holes, to conduct the sap into these troughs.

Every twenty-four hours the sap which has run off is removed; it is carried into sheds covered with bark, and boiled in a pan of water, care being taken at the same time to skim it. When it is reduced to one half by the action of a clear fire, it is poured into another pan, in which it is again boiled till it has acquired the consistence of a syrup. Being then taken from the fire, it is allowed to stand for twelve hours. At the expiration of that time it is emptied into a third pan; but care must be taken not to shake the sediment deposited at the bottom of the liquor.

The third pan is in its turn set upon charcoal half-burned and without flame.

A little fat is thrown into this syrup to When it begins prevent its boiling over. to be ropy, it must be poured into a fourth and last wooden vessel, called the cooler. A strong female keeps stirring it round without stopping, with a cedar stick, till it acquires the grain of sugar. She afterwards runs it off into bark moulds which give to the coagulated fluid the shape of small conical loaves: the opera

tian is then finished.

In making molasses only the process ends with the second boiling.

The maple juice keeps running for a fortnight, and this fortnight is a continued festival. Every morning the maple-wood usually irrigated by a stream of water, is visited. Groups of Indians of both sexes are dispersed at the foot of the trees; the young people dance or play at different games, the children bathe under the inspection of the Sachems.-Chateaubriand's Travels.

Science and Art.

PROCESS FOR PREPARING INDELIBLE
WRITING ING.

MAKE a saturated solution of indigo and madder in boiling water, and in such proportions as to give a purple tint, add to it from one-sixth to one eighth of its weight of sulphuric acid, according to the thickness and strength of the paper to be used. This makes an ink which flows pretty

freely from the pen ;-and when writing which has been executed with it is expo sed to a considerable but gradual heat from the fire it becomes completely black," the letters being burnt in and charred by the action of the sulphuric acid. If the acid has not been used in sufficient quantity to destroy the texture of the paper and reduce it to the state of tinder, the colour may be discharged by the oxymuriatic and oxalic acids and their compounds, though not without great difficulty. When the full proportion of acid has been employed, a little crumpling and rubbing of the paper reduces the carbonaceous matter of the letter to powder, but by putting a black ground behind them, they may be preserved, and thus a species of indelible writing-ink is procured, (for the letters are in a manner shaped out of the paper) which might be useful for some purposes; perhaps for the signatures of bank notes.Brande's Journal.

ADULTERATION OF SULPHATE OF QUININE.

Some of the chemists having chose to adulterate this recent discovered and highly beneficial medicine, by mixing it with sugar, the following is a method proposed to physicians and pharmacopolists to detect this new species of fraud. Dissolve the salt in water, and precipitate the quinine by carbonate of potash. Filter the liquid, and evaporate to dryness; the residue being treated with alcohol, the latter dissolves the sugar and leaves the sulphate of potash, and the excess of carbonate. untouched; on evaporating the alcohol the sugar is obtained quite pure.

MEDICAL VIRTUES OF THE SPIDER'S WEB. Dr. Jackson, in his work on fever, pronounces that the web of the spider prevents the recurrence of febrile paroxysms more effectually than bark or arsenic, or any other remedy employed for that purpose. It is administered in pills of five grains every fourth or fifth hour, the patient being previously prepared by the usual evacuants. It is said to be useful also in spasmodic affections of various kinds, asthma, periodical head-aches, and general irritability; also as an application to ulcerated and irritable surfaces. The web should be that of the black spider, found in cellars, and dark and damp places.

Anecdotiana.

CARDINAL ANGELOTTO. THIS character notorious for the weakness of his intellect, and the meanness of his disposition, was extremely fond of detracting from the merit of others. One

day, when Pope Eugenio, IV. was at
Florence, a lad of ten years old was in-
troduced to his Holiness, in the presence
of the Cardinal. The youth addressed
the Pope in a speech, which for gravity
and wisdom, much exceeded his years,
"It is common,'
"observed Angelotto,
when the rest of the audience praised the
oration, "for young persons endowed
with premature talents to fall into early
decay of parts." "Then, my Lord Car-
dinal," replied the lad, "you must have
had very extraordinary talents when you
was young."

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Diary and Chronology,

DATE. DAYS.

DIARY

DATE.

CORRESPONDING CHRONOLOGY.

March 9 SUN. 3d. Sun, in Lent. March 3 St. Gregory Nyssen, was the younger brother of St.

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LESSONS for the

DAY,

39 c. Gen. morn. 42 c. Gen, even. St. Gregory.. Moon's last quar. 18m af. 5 mern. 10 Mond. St. Dractovæus

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Basil, he became bishop of Nyssa, in Cappadocia, but was deposed by the Arian faction. He drew up the Nicene Creed, by order of the Council of Constantinople. He died A.D. 400.

1814. Fatal attack of the English on Bergen-opZoom, under Sir T. Graham.

10 1636. Sir Hugh Myddleton died on this day. He was a native of Denbigh, and a citizen of London, to which city he rendered the most important service, iu supplying it with water, by uniting two streams in Hertfordshire and Middlesex, and conveying the same through various soil, for a course of sixty miles. The effecting of this junction took five years to complete.

1792. Expired John, Earl of Bute, a nobleman, who for some time directed the education of 'Geo.. -III, He was prime minister in the early part of the late reign.

1820. Died, Benjamin West, Esq. the celebrated historical painter, and president of the Royal Academy. TAT 82.

11 St Eulogius was elected archbishop of Toledo, but before his consecration he was put to death by the Saracens at Cordova, in 859.

1544. On this day was born Torquato Tasso, the celebrated author of Jerusalem Delivered, at Sorrento, in the kingdom of Naples.

12 St. Gregory was born in 544. He was appointed prætor of the city of Rome, but being inclined to a religious life, he retired to the monastery of St. Andrew, of which he became abbot. On the death of Pelagius, in 590, he was elected Pope. He died in 604. He sent Austin, the monk to convert the English to Christianity.

1712. Queen Anne announced in the Royal Gazette her attention to touch publicly for the evil. 1713. On this day was published the first number of the Guardian, under the direction of Steele and Addison.

1825. Died, the Rev. Robert Bland, author of the Four Slaves of Cythera, a poetical romance, and several other works of a classical nature.

13 St. Nicephorus was Patriarch of Constantinople,

14

and died A. D. 828.

1791. Dr. Herschel on this day discovered the
planet called the Georgium Sidus.

St. Boniface was a native of England, and sent by
Gregory II, to couvert the Germans. He was
slain by some peasants of Friesland, in 754.
1757. The brave admiral Byng shot at Portsmouth
a victim to political persecution..

1799. Died at Bath, ET. 89, Wm. Melmoth, author
of Fitzosborne's Letters, and the translator of
Pliny and Cicero's Epistles.

1803. Expired T. 80, Frederick Klopstock, the author of the Messiah.

19

15 St Zachary was Pope, and died A. D. 752,

41, B. C. Julius Cæsar was assasinated by Brutus and his associates, in the Senate House, at Rome, in the 56th year of his age."

1784. Expired, Dr. Thomas Franklin, the author of the Earl of Warwick, a Tragedy, and transla■ tor of Phalaris, Sophocles, and Lucian, which performances evince abilities and genius of the first order.

A

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ACCOUNT OF MOUNT ETNA AND

ITS ERUPTIONS.

"THIS mighty and imposing mountain, which rises in solitary grandeur to the height of above ten thousand feet, and embraces a circumference of one hundred and eighty miles, is entirely composed of lavas, which, whatever subordinate differences may exist between them, all possess the appearance of having been ejected above the surface of water, and not under pressure.

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In the structure of this mountain, every thing wears alike the character of vastness. The products of the eruptions of Vesuvius may be said almost to sink into insignificence, when compared with these coulées, some of which are four or five miles in breadth, fifteen in length and from fifty to one hundred feet in thickness, and the changes made on the coast by them are so considerable, that the natural boundaries between the sea and land seem almost to depend upon the move ments of the volcano.

"The height too of Etna is so great, VOL. I. L

See page 148.

that the lava frequently finds less resistance in piercing the flanks of the mountain, than in rising to its summit, and has in this manner formed a number of minor cones, many of which possess their respective craters, and have given rise to considerable streams of lava.

"Hence an ancient poct has very happily termed this volcano the parent of Sicilian mountains, an expression strictly applicable to the relation which it bears to the hills in its immediate neighbourhood, all of which have been formed by successive ejections of matter from its interior.

"The grandest and most original feature indeed in the physiognomy of Etna, is the zone of subordinate volcanic hills with which it is encompassed, and which looks like a court of subaltern princes waiting upon their sovereign.

"Of these, some are covered with vegetation, others are bare and arid, their relative antiquity being probably denoted by the progress vegetation has made upon their surface, and the extraordinary difference that exists in this respect seems to indicate that the mountain, to which they owe their origin, must have been in a 10-SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1828.

state of activity, if not at a period antecedent to the commencement of the present order of things, at least at a distance of time exceedingly remote.

"The silence of Homer on the subject of the eruptions of Etna is indeed often quoted in proof of the more modern date of this volcano; but to such negative evidence we have to oppose, the positive statement of Diodorus Siculus, who notices an eruption long anterior to the age of this poet, as he says that the Sicani, who with the exception of the fabulous Cyclops and Lestrigons, were the first inhabitants of the island, and who are admitted on all sides to have possessed it considerably before the Trojan war, deserted the neighbourhood of Mount Etna in consequence of the terror caused by the eruptions of the volcano.

"This is confirmed by Dionysius Halicarnassus, who states that the Siculi, who passed over from Magna Græcia about eighty years before the Trojan war, first took possession of that part of the island which had oeen deserted by the Sicanians so that it is probable that the mountain was

at that period tolerably tranquil, and supposing no eruption to have taken place from that time till the age of Homer, it is by no means unlikely, that in a barbarous age, the tradition of events so remote may have been in great measure effaced, and thus have never reached the ears of the Greek poet.

"The earliest historian by whom the volcano has been noticed is Thucydides who says, that up to the date of the Peloponesian war, which commenced in the year 431 B. C. three eruptions had taken place from Mount Etna, since Sicily was peopled by the Greeks. It is probably to one of these that Pindar has alluded in his first Pythian Ode, written according to Heyné, in consequence of the victory obtained by Hiero in the year 470 B. C. It may be remarked that this poet particularly speaks of the streams of lava which if we may judge from Vesuvius, are less usual concomitants of the first eruptions of a volcano.

"Diodorus Siculus mentions an eruption subsequent to the above, namely in the 96th Olymp. or 396 years B. C.

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