and found the people generally in good health. You will please inform all my friends that I am in the land of my forefathers; and that I shall expect my friends in America to use their influence to get my children for me, and I shall be happy if they succeed. You will please inform my children, by letter, of arrival in the Colony. gination added the remaining 300 feet to the steeple, I was overwhelmed with the idea, Like the monuments of ancient Egypt, it is the conception of "men an hundred feet The famous dome of St. Peter's high." church at Rome is 428 feet high; the tower of the cathedral at Vienna 425; the cupola of St. Paul's at London 319; the perpendicAs soon as the rains are over, if God beular heights of Cheop's pyramid (according with me, I shall try to bring my countrymen to the Colony, and to open the trade. I have found one of my friends in the Colony. He tells me we can reach home in fifteen days, and promises to go with me. I am unwell, but niuch better. I ain, my 66 With much respect, your humble serv't, ABDUL RAHAHMAN." This note was received in July, but probably not before the writer of it was no more among the living. He died of a trifling but neglected disorder, on the 6th of that month, not less to the regret of the colonists, who had become much attached to him, than of all who had known him in this country, and respected and loved him even in the capacity of his bondage. to Belzoni) 477 feet; the tower of the cathe dral at Strasbourg is 490 feet 3 inches; this tower, had it been finished, would have measured 600 feet. Its ornaments, for these are inseparable from the Gothic style, are plain, and much fewer than those of the Strasbourg steeple, which very well suits the vastness-of the building. It is of a grey sandstone. The edifice nieasures 416 feet in length, and 166 in breadth. It has six doors, and 60 enormous windows. A large number of painted escutcheons of great men buried here, decorate the walls on the inside of the church. The oldest I saw was dated 1414. The organ has 3,000 flutes of tin. The chutch has but few paintings, some of which are good; mostly they are worth less than nothingHidden in a corner stands a carved image of wood, representing Christ as sitting on an ass, in full size, with his fingers lifted up to Honor to the memory of Abdull, and peace to his ashes. He was a barbarian, and a slave; but, in his honesty and humanity, the noblest work of God.' He was man's vic-bless the people. The ass is fixed on a board tim, but nature's nobleman. From Mr. Schauffler's Journal in the Missionary Herald: CATHEDRAL AT ULM. with four wheels, to be drawn about in procession. No doubt this used to be a piece of furniture for the solemnities of White Sunday. It is very poorly done. The woman who accompanied us, probably the wife of the church-warden, remarked in her phlegmatic way, "This image has not been made use of for near 300 years past." Ulm has about 1,500 houses, and about 14,000 inhabitants. RICE PAPER. ULM is a very ancient city. Its existence reaches to the second century of the Christian cra, while the oldest house at Stuttgardt is not much over 1,000 years old, being still, however, in a very good state. In 1140 Ulm was already as large as it is now. Like all the ancient cities of Europe, it has its own history and various monuments of antiquity; The hasty traveller is powerfully impressed with the monstrous edifice of the cathedral, now a protestant church. I mounted up to the top of the tower (it has but one) with my cousin, and enjoyed very much the fine and extensive prospect. I should have pronounced it the finest view imaginable, had I not seen the Rhine valley at Strasbourg, and at Tullingen. But the prospect from the steeple It is now known to be made of the interat Strasbourg is equal to this, and that from the height of Tullingen I take to be supe-nal part of the Eschynomene paludosa, Rox rior. The cathedral stands in the centre of the city. It was commenced in 1377, and finished as it is now in 1494. The steeple, now 337 feet high, and 69 feet square, has only about half its intended height! The reason why it could not be carried up is, that the ground gave way in part of the building, and the steeple began to sink. When I stood before it, and looking up to the summit, in my ma THE fine and beautiful tissue brought from China and Calcutta, and employed under the name of rice paper, is far from being an artificial substance fabricated from rice or any other farinaceous material. By holding a specimen of it between the eye and a clear light, it will be seen to consist of a vegetab tissue, composed of cellules so exactly similar and so perfect, that no preparation of a paper could possibly be made to acquire. burg, a leguminous plant which grows abundantly on the marshy plains of Bengal, and on the borders of vast lakes between Calcutta and Hurdwart. It is a hardy plant, requiring much moisture for its perfect growth and duration. The stem rarely exceeds two inches in diameter, spreading extensively, but not rising to any great height. The stems of this plant are brought in great quantities, in Chinese junks, from the island of Formosa and other places, to China and Calcutta. These stems are cut into the lengths intended for the leaves or sheets, and then, by means of a very sharp and well tempered knife, about ten inches long and three inches wide, the pith is divided into thin circular plates, which, being pressed, furnish the leaves sold under the name of rice paper. The operation of cutting the leaves is very similar to that of cutting corks. The leaves are generally seven or eight inches long and five wide; some are even a foot long. Those which are not fit for drawing, are colored for other purposes. Rice paper absorbs water and swells so as to present an elevation, which continues after it becomes dry, and gives to the drawing a velvety appearance and a relief, which no other kind of paper produces. THE strength and ferocity of the Grisly Bear are so great that the Indian hunters use much precaution in hunting them. They are reported to attain a weight exceeding eight hundred pounds, and Lewis and Clark mention one that measured nine feet from the nose to the tail and say that they had seen a still larger one, but do not give its dimensions. This is far above the usual size of other Land Bears and equals the largest specimens of the Polar Bear. Governor Clinton received an account of one fourteen feet long from an Indian Trader, but even admitting that there was no inaccuracy in the measurement, it is probable that it was taken from the skin after it was removed from the body, Rice paper may, with care, be written up- when it is known to stretch several feet. on, as the ink does not spread. The writing The strength of this bear may be estimated is glossy, shewing some metallic surfaces. from its having been known to drag to a con-. Examined chemically, it seems to be anal-siderable distance the carcass of a Buffalo, ogous to the substance which Dr. John called weighing about one thousand pounds. The medulline. Treated with nitric acid, it forms following story is well authenticated. oxalic acid. party of voyagers, who had been employed The white and pure specimens are much all day in tracing a canoe up the Saskatcheused for drawings; the inferior are variously wan, had seated themselves in the twilight colored, and now extensively used in forming by a fire, and were busy in preparing their artificial flowers. In India, a pasteboard is supper, when a large Grisly Bear sprung over made by cementing many leaves together, their canoe that was tilted behind thein and and of this hats are fabricated, which, cover-seizing one of the party by the shoulders cared with silk or other stuff, are firm and ex-ried him off. The rest fled in terror with the tremely light. Rice paper was introduced into Europe about thirty years ago. The flowers which were first made of it sold at an exorbitant price. A single bouquet cost the Princess Charlotte of Wales £70 sterling. From the quality of this paper, it may be most successfully employed in painting terflies, flowers, birds, plants and animals. For this purpose, the object is first sketched on common paper, which is then to be pasted on a card. The sketch must be of a deep black. On this the rice paper is fastened, and the painting effected with a pencil and fine colors. When executed in this way, by the most skilful hands, the pictures of butterflies, insects, &c. have been often mistaken for the animal itself pasted on the paper. Rice paper has also been employed in lithography, with the most brilliant effect. A exception of a Metif, named Bourasso, who, grasping his gun followed the Bear as it was retreating leisurely with its prey. He called to his unfortunate comrade that he was afraid of hitting him if he fired at the Bear, but the latter entreated him to fire immedi ately, without hesitation, as the Bear was but-squeezing him to death. On this he took a deliberate aim, and discharged his piece into the body of the Bear which instantly dropped its prey to pursue Bourasso. He escaped with difficulty, and the Bear ultimately retreated to a thicket, where it was supposed to bave died; but the curiosity of the party, not being a match for their fears, the fact of its decease was not ascertained. The man who was rescued had his arm fractured, and was otherwise severely bitten by the hear, but finally recovered. "I have seen Bourasso," says Richardson, in his Zoology of It is desirable for the purposes of art, that British America," and can add that the acsome aquatic plant should be found in our count which he gives is fully credited by the own climate, whose pith is analogous to that traders resident in that part of the country, of the Eschyuomene. Is it not possible, who are best qualified to judge of its truth also, to fabricate a paper, the tissue of which from their knowledge of the parties. I am may absorb water, and furnish the relief told there is a man now living in the neighwhich gives to rice paper its greatest value.-borhood of Edmonton House, who was atJour. de Connois. Usuelles, Fev. 1832. FAME is represented bearing a trumpet. Would not the picture be truer, were she to hold a handful of dust? tacked by a Grisly Bear, which sprung out of a thicket, and with one stroke of his paw completely scalped him, laying bear the skull, and bringing the skin of the forehead down over his eyes. Assistance coming up, the Bear made off without doing him any farther injury, but the scalp not being replaced, the poor man has lost his sight, although he thinks that his eyes are uninjured." M. Drummond, in his excursions over the Rocky mountains, had frequent opportunities of observing the manners of the Grisly Bears, and it often happened that in turning the point of the rock, or sharp angle of a valley he came suddenly upon one or more of them. On such occasions they reared upon their hind legs, and made a loud noise like a person breathing quick, but much harder. He kept his ground without attempting to molest them, and they on their part, after attentively regarding him for some time, generally wheeled round and galloped off, though, from their known disposition, there is little doubt but he would have been torn in pieces had he lost his presence of mind and attempted to fly. When he discovered them from a distance, he generally frightened them away by beating on a large tin box, in which he carried his specimens of plants. He never saw more than four together, and two of them be supposes to have been cubs; he more often met them singly or in pairs. He was only once attacked, and then by a female, for the purpose of allowing her cubs time to escape. This animal has long been known to the Indians and fur traders as a distinct species, inferior to all the varieties of the Black Bear in the quality of its fur, and distinguished by its great strength and ferocity, its carnivorous disposition, the length of its claws, the breadth and length of its soles, and the shortness of its tail. The Grisly Bear inhabits the Rocky Mountains, and the plains lying to the eastward of them, as far as latitude 61°, and perhaps still farther north. Its southern range, according to Lieutenant Pike, extends to Mexico, Necklaces of the claws of a Grisly Bear are highly prized by the Indian warriors as proofs of their prowess. Extract from a volume of practical sermons by the Rev. Robert Aspland, Minister of the Gravelpit Chapel, Hackney (England). "THE SABBATH. part of the happiest lives. They may be congratulated whose pious education has established such an association of ideas with with it feelings, imaginations and hopes of a the day, that it never returns without bringing higher than earthly origin. Let them preserve this sanctification, not so much of the Sabbath as of their own minds. Let them resist the encroaching spirit of the world, which would invade and grasp this sacred portion of time. Let them not be a party to the breach of what in allusion to an institution of our ancestors, we may denominate the Truce of God. When secular interest and anxieties come near the day, let them say, as the patriarch said to his servants, (Gen, xxii. 5,) “Abide ye here, and I will go yonder and worship." They need not fear superstition: they are safe if they keep themselvs from worldly-mindedness. They may be told that every day is alike holy; but let them reflect, that though this is a plain christian doctrine, it is true only in a sense in which some of those that are the most forward to assert, are the slowest to comprehend it; for in the signification which alone is both rational and pious it means, not that the Sabbath should be made a common day, but that to a mind formed in the image of every day is as a Sabbath.” him to whose memory the day is devoted, THE most illiterate man who is touched with devotion, and uses frequent exercises of it, contracts a certain greatness of mind, mingled with a noble simplicity, that raises him above those of the same condition; and there is an indelible mark of goodness in those who sincerely possess it. It is hardly possible it should be otherwise, for the fervors of a pious nind will naturally contract such an earnestness and attention towards a better being, as will make the ordinary passages of life go off with a becoming indifference. By this, a man in the lowest condition will not appear mean, or in the most splendid fortune insolent.-Tatler, No. 3. GOOD. cy than anger; who offers violence to his appetite to subdue the flesh to the spirit.-Taylor's Guide to Devotion. He is a good man who grieves rather for him that injures him, than for his own suffer"Our religion points out to us one period-giving all his faults; who sooner shews mering; who prays for him that wrongs hin, forical season of retired meditation, when, by the convention of society, the world will leave us, if we do not court its presence; I refer to the Sabbath, which of itself serves to summon us to thoughtfulness; and which, if men regarded only their intellectual improvement, would be devoted to the sober review of human life. Here is a happy break in the galling chain of the world's custom. The mind may pause and the heart recover itself. The peace of Sabbath retirement forms the best will learn in no other, and scarce in that; EXPERIENCE keeps a dear school; but fools for it is true we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct. However, they who will not be counselled, cannot be helped, and if you will not hear Reason, she will surely rap your knuckles.-Franklin. SUPPLEMENT TO THE CONNECTICUT COURANT. VOL. III. FOR THE" SUPPLEMENT." JULY 1, 1833. THE INDIAN'S WELCOME TO THE PIL- EARLY in the Spring of 1622, but little more ABOVE them, spread a stranger sky, Around, the sterile plain, The rock-bound coast rose frowning nigh,- Chill remnants of the wintry snow, Still check'd the encumber'd soil, Yet forth, these Pilgrim Fathers go, Mid yonder vale their corn might rise, And there the church-spire woo the skies, Its sister-school beside. Perchance, 'mid England's velvet-green When sudden, from the forest wide, A red-brow'd Chieftain came, No poison'd arrow drew, And frankly to the Old World brought, That welcome was a blast and ban Upon thy race unborn, A weak, invading band, But who shall heed thy children's wail, Hush'd is the war-shout o'er their foes, Laid low their victor-helm, NO. 33. Tall cities rise,—broad banners flame,- Did stay the flying deer. Free was the welcome to thy streams, The region of thy infant dreams, L. H. S. From Silliman's Journal of Science and Arts, Oct. 1833. [Translated by Professor Griscom.] (Continued from p. 253, and concluded.) THIS perseverance of a whole life in a given object is one of the characteristic traits of Huber, and probably one of the causes of his success. Naturalists are divided from taste, and often from position, into two series,the one love to embrace the tout ensemble of beings, to compare them with each other, to seize the relations of their organization, and to deduce from them their classification and the general laws of nature. It is this class who have necessarily at their disposal, vast collections, and they mostly dwell in large cities; the others take pleasure in the profound study of a given subject, considering it under all its aspects, scrutinizing into its minute details, and patiently following it in all its peculiarities:-the latter are generally sedentary and isolated observers,living remote from collections, and far from great cities. The former may be charged with the neglect of details in consequence of their attention to extensive generalities. The second, from being circumscribed in a limited circle, may be disposed to exaggerate its importance, and hence to judge incorrectly of the connection of parts in the entire series. But such mufual accusations are in reality idle. Natural history requires both these classes, in the same manner as the architect stands in need of the stone cutter for the preparation of his materials, and the stone cutter requires the science of the architect in the construction of the well planned edifice. Huber is evidently to be placed in the school of special observers; his situation and infirmity retained him in it, and he acquired therein an honorable rank by the saga His taste for it might be called innate, and it furnished him with a great source of recreation throughout his life. He had an agreeable voice, and was initiated in his childhood in the charms of Italian music. The method by which he studied tunes deserves to be related, as it may be useful to others. "It was not by simple recollection," his son writes me, "that he retained airs; he had learned from Gretry the counterpoint in a dozen lessons, and in studying by himself, he had become an able harmonist. In teaching him an air, we first dictated to him the base of a musical phrase; he arranged it according to the succession of tones; then came the song which he executed with his voice; a phrase thus disposed he understood perfectly, and a single repetition was sufficient: we proceeded to the second, and so on to the end of the piece, which he would then repeat from one end to the other without tiring the patience of any one who dictated to him he owed much in this respect to the complaisance of his sister." city and precision of his researches; but it is plainly perceptible, in reading his works, that his brilliant imagination urged him toward the region of general ideas. Unprovided with terms of comparison, he sought them in that theory of final causes which is gratifying to every expanded and religious mind, because it appears to furnish a reason for a multitude of facts, the employment of which, however, as is well known, is prone to lead the mind into error; but we inust do him the justice to acknowledge that the use he makes of them is always confined within the limits of philosophical doubt and observation. He had, in early life, derived ideas of this general nature from the Natural Theology of Derham, and from the writings of his friend Ch. Bonnet; they found a ready reception in his sensitive and elevated soul, which loved to admire the author of nature in the harmony of his works. His style is, in general, clear and elegant; always retain ing the precision requisite to the didactic, it possesses the attraction which a poetic imagination can readily confer upon all subjects; His musical talents rendered him in his but one thing which particularly distinguish-youth extremely popular, and after his infirmes it, and which we should least expect, is, ity, it afforded him many agreeable relations, that he describes facts in a manner so pictur- among whom may be mentioned those which esque, that in reading him, we fancy that we he held, at an advanced age, with a female can see the very objects which the author, noted for her wit, and between whom there alas, was never able to see! In reflecting on was the double sympathy of being passionthis singular quality in the style of a blind ately fond of music and being blind. man, the difficulty appeared to be solved in The desire of maintaining his connection thinking of the efforts which he must have with absent friends, without having recourse made in arranging and connecting the state to a secretary, suggested the idea of a sort of ments of his assistants, so as to form in his printing press for his own use; he had it exown mind a complete image of the facts. We ecuted by his domestic, Claude Lechet, who enjoy, often with so much indifference, whose mechanical talents he had cultivated, those invaluable senses by which we are ena- as he had before done those of Francis Burnens bled to embrace at once such a diversity of for natural history. In cases properly numobjects, and so many parts of the same ob-bered, were placed small prominent types ject, often neglect to study those parts upon which he arranged in his hand. Over the which others are dependent, and which ought lines thus composed he placed a sheet blackto claim the first place in the explanation; ened with a peculiar ink, then a sheet of our descriptions are often confused, precisely white paper, and with a press which he movbecause our impressions of objects are made ed with his feet, he was enabled to print a letsimultaneously and without effort. But Hu-ter which he folded and sealed himself, hapber was obliged to listen with attention to the recitals of others, to class them methodically to reproduce an image of the object by his own conceptions; and his written narration, after this laborious operation, presents the subject to our view, under all the aspects which have enlightened his own. I venture also to add that we find in his descriptions so many masterly touches, as to justify the conclusion, that if he had retained his sight he would have been like his father, his brother* and his son, a skillful painter. His taste for the fine arts, unable to derive pleasure from forms, extended to sounds; he loved poetry, but he was more especially endowed with a strong inclination for music. *Jean Daniel Huber, a skillful painter of animals. py in the kind of independence which he hoped by this means to acquire. But the difficulty of putting this press into action, prevented the habitual use of it. These letters and some algebraic characters formed of baked clay, which his ingenious son, always anxious to serve him, had made for his use, were, during more than fifteen years, a source of relaxation and amusement to him. He enjoyed walking, and even a solitary promenade by means of threads which he had caused to be stretched through all the rural walks about his dwelling. In following them I am indebted for these details, as well as others, here and there stated, to his nephew M. J. Huber, who is distinguishing himself by his literary talents. |