was preserved, and was covered with reddish wool and black hairs; about thirty-six pounds weight of hair was collected from the sand, into which it had been trampled by the bears.

Cuvier, whose opinions on these subjects have been the most generally followed, concludes that those animals, the bones and carcasses of which are found imbedded in the ice of the northern seas, once lived in that region in a climate totally different from its present intense cold; that some great change some time or other took place in the temperature, which destroyed the existing animals, or prevented them from continuing their species. This change must have been sudden; for if the cold had come on slowly and by degrees, the softer parts, by which the bones are found still covered, must have had time to decay, as we find in hotter climates. It would have been utterly impossible for an entire carcass like the vast monster discovered by Mr. Adams, to have preserved its hair and its flesh without corruption, had it not immediately been encased in the ice which preserved it to our times."

the melogonyx trod the plains, and menstrous lizards, whose bones are now rescued from the soil, and which must have been at least eighty feet long, reared their heads from the rivers and lakes!

Augusta (Geo.) Trans.

SUBSTITUTE FOR LINEN.

There has recently been discovered, in Salem, Mass., and patented, a new and beautiful material, resembling silk and linen, which holds out to the manu facturers of this country high promise of an original, beautiful, and invaluable fabrick, far surpassing in strength and beauty of texture that of linen, which it is destined wholly to supersede, as the culture of it requires much less labour and expense thar flax, and does not, like that and similar materials, require to be renewed annually, (being a perennial,) and the preparation of it for manufacturing being far more simple than either; and its great natural affinity for colouring matters, and its requiring no bleaching, being objects What was the true nature and character of those of the highest importance, gives it a very decided preanimals of whose existence these fossil remains are the ference over that manufacture. A few specimens of only evidence we have, science probably never will be the manufacture of this material into small fancy artiable to discover. Some time since Dr. Buckland was cles have been produced, some of which being coloured said to be engaged in writing a work upon these ani- of various tints present such a beautiful silk-like apmal remains, and upon the evidence borne in the sci-pearance as to have been actually, in some instances, ence of geology to the truth of revealed religion. The mistaken for it; it possesses this decided advantage, materials are abundant for a most important and in- that it not only sustains the action of water uninjured teresting work. For a learned and interesting disser- and undefaced, (which it is well known silk will not tation on the fossil remains of our own states and the do,) hut the repeated action of water rather appears to continent, we would refer the reader to De Witt Clin- strengthen and beautify it. It is ascertained to be the ton's discourse before the New York Philosophical opinion at Lowell, where they have offered to make the Society. In a future number we will introduce the experiment, that it can be spun upon machinery. skeleton of the Siberian Mammoth, that of the South American Mammoth, and the Mammoth of the Western States.

AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.

In making excavations in the gold region of this State not long since, buildings regularly erected were discovered under the earth. Traces have also been met which prove that the mining business has, at some time, been followed in the same district of country, as well as in North Carolina-by whom, or at what period, it is impossible now to discover. The mounds of the west have long been a subject of interest to the traveller, and speculation to the antiquary; but a writer from Arkansas, in the Charlestown Observer, states some more facts yet more interesting. On the banks of White River, he says, you can see the brick foundation of houses-a few miles further six hundred and forty acres of land are inclosed by a wall, in the centre of which is a circular building-there is also in the same neighbourhood the ruins of a city; and parallel streets crossing each other at right angles, may be traced by brick foundations one mile in length-the bricks of modern shape. The whole west is rich in objects of interest to the antiquarian and the naturalist.

By the accounts of Mr. Flint, and other travellers, says a Western paper, it appears that the impress of the leaves of the fruit tree and the bamboo, have frequently been found in the peat beds, and fossil coal formations in the neighbourhood of the Ohio. Pebbles of disruption, vast rocks, earth and sands, specimens of organick, animal and vegetable remains, belonging to a tropical climate, clearly indicate some important extensive changes occasioned by fire or water in the whole great valley of the Mississippi. Then the ragular wells, the bricks, the medals, the implements of iron and copper, buried in a soil which must have been undisturbed for ages, with the alphabetick character written on the cliffs, as plainly show that other races of men passed away. And what a world, says Mr. Flint, must that have been when the mammoth and VǝL. II.

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And while it offers to other branches of manufacture very different substitutes for those substances hitherto used, it offers a material very superiour, in many points, for paper. It is believed, from some specimens already produced, that paper of every description may be manufactured from it, possessing a pearly whiteness, durability, beauty of texture, and smoothness of surface unrivalled by any other ever before manufactured in any country. And it is susceptible of the most brilliant colours, in grain or otherwise. This is believed to be the first material of the kind ever before discovered in this country, that holds out the prospect of a staple commodity, silk, linen, and cotton being exotick; but this material is indigenous, is a native of this country, discovered by a native citizen, one of her own daughters, which circumstances, together with its intrinsick worth, seem peculiarly to enhance its value to us. It is open to any one who may wish to make experiments. Silliman's Jour.

A MAN WITHOUT IMAGINATION. Once, in an excursion to the north I fell into conversation with a Sussex farmer, one of that race of sturdy, rich and independent English yeomen, of which I am afraid few specimens remain: he was quite a character in his way. I must sketch him for you; but only Miss Mitford could do him justice. His coat was of the finest broad-cloth; his shirt-frill, in which was stuck a huge agate pin, and his neck-cloth were both white as the snow; his good beaver shone in all its pristine gloss, and an enormous bunch of gold seals adorned his watch-chain; his voice was loud and dictatorial, and his language surprisingly good and flowing, though tinctured with a little coarseness and a few provincialisms. He had made up his mind about the reform bill-the catholick question-the corn laws-and abcut things in general, and things in particular; he had doubts about nothing: it was evident that he was accustomed to lay down the law in his own villagethat he was the tyrant of his own fireside-that his wife was "his horse, his ox, his ass, his any thing," while his sons went to college, and his daughters

played on the piano. London was to him merely a vast congregation of pestilential vapours-a receptacle of thieves, cut-throats and profligates-a place in which no sensible man, who had a care for his life, his health, or his pockets would willingly set his foot; he thanked God that he never spent but two nights in the metropolis, and at intervals of twenty-seven years: the first night he had passed in the streets, in dread of fire and vermin; and on the last occasion, he had not ventured beyond Smithfield. What he did not know, was to him not worth knowing; and the word French, which comprised all that was foreign, he used as a term, expressing the most unbounded abhorrence, pity, and contempt. I should add, that though rustick, and arro

gant, and prejudiced, he was not vulgar. We were at an inn, on the borders of Leicestershire, through which we had both recently travelled; my farmer was enthusiastick in his admiration of the country. "A fine country, madam-a beautiful country-a splendid coun try!" "Do you call it a fine country?" said I, absently, my head full of the Alps and Apennines, the Pyrenees, and the river Po. "To be sure I do; and where would you see a finer ?" "I did not see any thing very picturesque," said I. "Picturesque !" he repeated, with some contempt; "I don't know what you call picturesque; but I say, give me a soil, that when you turn it up you have something for your pains; the fine soil makes the fine country, madam !"-Mrs. Jamieson.

ACCOUNT OF POMPEII.-VIEW UP THE STREET OF TOMBS, LOOKING TO THE GATES. POMPEII was buried, with Herculaneum and Stabiæ, in an eruption of Mount Vesuvius; a description of which, with the calamitous event by which it was overwhelmed, we proceed to give.

present, into squares, and may have been on that account the more durable.

Pompeii is a great and rich town, which, after lying eighteen centuries in a deep grave, is again shone upon by the sun, and stands amidst other cities, as much a stranger as any one of its former inhabitants would be among his descendants of the present day: such a town has not its equal in the world.

The distance from Naples to Pompeii is little more than ten English miles. Near the Torre dell' Annunziata, to the left, and amid hills planted with vineyards, the town itself, which, throwing off its shroud of ashes, came forth from its grave, breaks on the view. The buildings are without roofs, which are supposed to have been destroyed by an enemy in an unguarded state, or torn off by a hurricane. The tracks of the wheels which anciently rolled over the pavement are still visible. An elevated path runs by the side of the houses, for foot passengers; and, to enable them in rainy weather to pass more commodiously to the opposite side, large flat stones, three of which take up the width of the road, were laid at a distance from each other. As the carriages, in order to avoid these stones, were obliged to use the intermediate spaces, the tracks of the wheels are there most visible. The whole of the pavement is in good condition: it consists merely of considerable pieces of lava, which, however, are not eut, as at the

The entrance into Pompeii is through what is now called the Street of Tombs, of which a view is given in the accompanying engraving. The part which was first cleared is supposed to have been the main street of Pompeii; but this is much to be doubted, as the houses on both sides, with the exception of a few, were evidently the habitations of common citizens, and were small, and provided with booths. The street itself likewise is narrow: two carriages only could go abreast; and it is very uncertain whether it ran through the whole of the town; for, from the spot where the moderns discontinued digging, to that where they recommenced, and where the same street is supposed to have been again found, a wide tract is covered with vineyards, which may very well occupy the place of the most splendid streets and markets, still concealed underneath.

Among the objects which attract a particular attention, is a booth in which liquors were sold, and the marble table which bears the marks of the cups left by the drinkers. Next to this is a house, the threshold of which is inlaid with a black stone, on which is inscribed the word SALVE, implying a salutation in token of hospitality. On entering the habitations, the visiter is struck by the strangeness of their construction. The middle of the house forms a square, something like the cross passages of a cloister, often surrounded by pil

lars: it is cleanly, and paved with party-coloured mo- | saick, which has an agreeable effect. In the middle is a cooling well; and on each side a little chamber, about ten or twelve feet square, but lofty, and painted with a fine red or yellow. The floor is of mosaick; and the door is made generally to serve as a window, there being but one apartment which receives light through a thick blue glass. Many of these rooms are supposed to have been bedchambers, because there is an elevated broad step, on which the bed may have stood, and because some of the pictures appear most appropriate to a sleeping room. Others are supposed to have been dressing rooms, on this account, that on the walls a Venus is described, decorated by the Graces; added to which little flasks and boxes of various descriptions have been found in them. The larger of these apartments served for dining rooms, and in some are to be met with suitable accommodations for cold and hot baths.

night of the world. Actual dangers were magnified by unreal terrours. The earth continued to shake; and men, half distracted, reeled about, exaggerating their own fears, and those of others, by terrifying predictions."

Such is the frightful but true picture which Pliny gives us of the horrours of those who were, however, far from the extremity of their misery. But what must have been the feelings of the Pompeians, when the roaring of the mountain, and the quaking of the earth, awaked them from their first sleep? They attempted to escape; and, seizing the most valuable things they could lay their hands upon in the darkness and confusion, to seek their safety in flight. In the street before described and in front of the house marked with the friendly salutation on its threshold, seven skeletons were found: the first carried a lamp, and the rest had still between the bones of their fingers something that they wished to save. On a sudden they were overtaken by the storm which descended from Heaven, and buried in the grave thus made for them. Before the abovementioned country house was still a male skeleton, standing with a dish in his hand; and as he wore on his finger one of those rings which were allowed to be worn by Roman knights only, he is supposed to have been the master of the house, who had just opened the back-garden gate with the intent of flying, when the shower overwhelmed him. Several skeletons were found in the very posture in which they had breathed their last, without having been forced by the agonies of death to drop the things they had in their hands. This leads to a conjecture that the thick mass of ashes must have come down all at once, in such immense quantities as instantly to cover them. It cannot otherwise be imagined how the fugitives could all have been fixed, as it were by a charm, in their position; and in this manner their destiny was the less dreadful, seeing that death suddenly converted them into motionless statues, and thus was stripped of all the horrours with which the fears of the sufferers had clothed him in imagination. But what then must have been the pitiable condition of those who had taken refuge in the buildings and cellars? Buried in the thickest darkness, they were secluded from every thing but lingering torment; and who can paint to himself, without shuddering, a slow dissolution approaching, amid all the agonies of body and of mind? The soul recoils from the contemplation of such images.

One of the houses belonged to a statuary, whose workshop is still full of the vestiges of his art. Another appears to have been inhabited by a surgeon, whose profession is equally evident from the instruments discovered in his chamber. A large country house near the gate undoubtedly belonged to a very wealthy man, and would in fact still invite inhabitants within its walls. It is very extensive, stands against a hill, and has many stories. Its finely decorated rooms are unusually spacious; and it has airy terraces, from which you look down into a pretty garden, that has been now again planted with flowers.-In the middle of this garden is a large fish pond, and near that an ascent, from which, on two sides, six pillars descend. The rear pillars are the highest, the middle somewhat lower, and the front the lowest they appear, therefore, rather to have propped a sloping roof, than to have been destined for an arbour. A covered passage, resting on pillars, encloses the garden on three sides: it was painted, and probably served in rainy weather as an agreeable walk. Beneath is a fine arched cellar, which receives air and light from several openings from without; consequently its atmosphere is so pure, that in the hottest part of summer it is always refreshing. A number of amphoræ, or large wine vessels, are to be seen here still leaning against the wall, as the butler left them when he fetched up the last goblet of wine for his master. Had the inhabitants of Pompeii preserved these vessels with stoppers, wine might still have been found in them; but as it was, the stream of ashes rushing in, of course forced out the wine. More than twenty human skeletons of fugitives, who thought to save themselves here" under ground, but who experienced a tenfold more cruel death than those suffered who were in the open air, were found within this cellar.

The destiny of the Pompeians must have been dreadful. It was not a stream of fire which encompassed their abodes: they could then have sought refuge in flight. Neither did an earthquake swallow them up: sudden suffocation would then have spared them the pangs of a lingering death. A rain of ashes buried them alive BY DEGREES !

Pliny the Younger, who was an eyewitness of the memorable explosion of Vesuvius by which Pompeii was overwhelmed, has given an animated description of the scene, in a letter addressed to Tacitus, from which we extract the following passage:

"Pompeii," says Eustace, in his Classical Tour, possesses a secret power that captivates and fixes, Í had almost said, melts the soul. In other times and in other places, one single edifice, a temple, a theatre, a tomb, that had escaped the wreck of ages, would have enchanted us; nay, an arch, the remnant of a wall, even one solitary column, was beheld with veneration, but to discover a single ancient house, the abode of a Roman in his privacy, the scene of his domestick hours, was an object of fond but hopeless longing. Here, not a temple, nor a theatre, nor a column, nor a house, but a whole city, rises before us untouched, unaltered, the very same as it was eighteen hundred years ago, when inhabited by Romans. We range through the same streets, tread the very same pavement, behold the same walls, enter the same doors, and repose in the same apartments. We are surrounded by the same objects, and out of the same windows contemplate the same scenery. While you are wandering through the aban

"A darkness suddenly overspread the country; not like the darkness of a moonless night; but like that of a closed room, in which the light is on a sudden extin-doned rooms, you may, without any great effort of the guished. Women screamed, children moaned, men cried. Here, children were anxiously calling their parents; and there, parents were seeking their children, or husbands their wives: all recognised each other only by their cries. The former lamented eir own fate, and the latter that of those dearest to them. Many wished for death, from the fear of dying: many called on the gods for assistance: others despaired of the existence of the gods, and thought this the last eternal

imagination, expect to meet some of the former inhabitants, or perhaps the master of the house himself, and almost feel like intruders who dread the appearance of any of the family. In the streets you are afraid of turning a corner, lest you should jostle a passenger; and on entering a house, the least sound startles, as if the proprietor was coming out of the back apartments. The traveller may long indulge the illusion; for not a voice is heard, not even the sound of a foot. to disturb the

THE RATH, OR BURMESE IMPERIAL STATE CARRIAGE. This magnificent object, of which a representation is given in the above wood-cut, was captured on the 9th of September, 1824, at Tavoy, an important maritime_town of the Burman empire, by a detachment of the British army, under the command of lieutenantcolonel Miles, C. B., a gallant and distinguished officer in his Brittannick Majesty's service. It was taken to London, and exhibited in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, for the gratification of the publick curiosity.

erald, sapphire, both white and blue, coral, carbuncle, jargoon diamond, garnet, cornelian, &c., the whole being disposed and contrasted with the greatest taste and skill. The centre belt is particularly rich in stones, and the rose-like clusters or circles are uniformly composed of what is termed the stones of the orient: viz., pearl, coral, sapphire, cornelian, cat's-eye, emerald, and ruby. The same description of buffalo horn panels, which adorn the body of the carriage, will be found very ornamental on this throne, at each end of which are niches, for the reception of extraordinary Jos-god figures, called Sing, a mythological lion, very richly carved and gilt; the feet and teeth of these creatures are of pearl, the bodies covered with sapphires, hyacinths, emeralds, tourmalines, carbuncles, jargoon diamonds, and rubies; the eyes being of a curious tricoloured sapphire. There are also six carved and gilt figures in a praying or supplicatory attitude, which are placed on the throne, and may be supposed to be interceding for the safety of the monarch: their eyes are rubies, their drop ear-rings cornelian, and their hair the light feather of the peacock.

The chattah, or umbrella, which overshadows the throne, is not so much for service, as for an emblem or representation of regal authority and power.

In order to convey some faint idea of the effect of the whole, representations of the white elephant have been added. It may be fairly presumed, that the caparisons of these animals would equal in splendour the richness of the carriage, but a display of this has not been attempted, our knowledge of the detail being necessarily imperfect, from the circumstance that one only of the elephants belonging to the carriage, was captured, the caparisons for both being, it is presumed, with the other which escaped. The semi-European youths, gaudily attired, may be supposed to have been placed on the neck of these ponderous animals, with small hooked spears to guide them, and the whole cortege, doubtless, combined all the great officers of state, priests and attendants, both male and female, and guards of every character and description.

This carriage fell into the hands of Col. Miles at Tavoy, an important maritime town on the Tenasserim coast.-Tavoy is a kingdom of itself, having a population of upwards of 100,000; it is governed by a viceroy, who has about 10,000 fighting men under his control. In its vicinity are some valuable gold and tin mines; the precious stones also found here are of great brilliancy, though not in such abundance as in other districts of the Burman empire. Its artificers are, however, of superior skill, and hence it is, that this spot was chosen for the construction of this carriage, in preference to the capital. With the carriage, the workmen who built it, and all their accounts, were captured by Col. Miles: from these it appeared, that it had been three years in building, that the gems were supplied from the king's treasury, or by contribution from the various states, and that the workmen were remunerated by the government: independent of these two very important items, the expenses were stated in the accounts to have been 25,000 rupees; (3125l. ;) and, as the stones amount in number to no less than 20,000, it cannot be too high an estimate, to reckon the whole cost at a lac of rupees, (12,5001.,) which was its reputed value at Tavoy.

In the month of August, 1824, an expedition was placed under the command of Liet. Col. Miles, having for its object the running down the enemy's coast of Tenasserim, and seizing upon their valuable ports; this operation was executed with complete success, and with scarcely any loss. The expedition sailed from Rangoon on the 26th of August; it comprised his majesty's 89th regiment, 7th Madras infantry, some artillery, and other native troops, amounting in the The naval force, under the whole to about 1000 men. command of Captain Hardy, consisted of the Teignmouth, Mercury, Thetis Panang cruiser Jesse, with

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three gun-boats, three Malay prows, and two row boats. The expedition proceeded up the Tavoy river, which is full of shoals and natural difficulties, rendered still more hazardous by the means the enemy had adopted to increase them. Col. Miles, in his despatch to Sir A. Campbell, dated Tavoy, September 13th, apprises the general, that the place surrendered on the 9th, that he found it amazingly strong, having many mounted guns, &c. That the viceroy of the province, his son, and other persons of consequence, were his prisoners; that the population of the province was very great, the fighting men being about 10,000. Col. Miles adds, that he has also taken a new state carriage for the king of Ava, with one elephant only.-Youth's Inst.

View of the Origin and Migrations of the Polyne-
sian Nation; demonstrating their Ancient Discov-
ery and Progressive Settlement of the Continent of
America. By John Dunmore, Lang, D. D., Princi-
pal of the Australian College, Sydney; Author of
An Historical and Statistical Account of New South
Wales. 12mo. pp. 256. Cochrane and Co. 1834.
[This is the title of a work recently published in
case, the spec-
England. According to our view of the
ulations of philosophers in reference to the origin of
the American aborigines will be set at rest, by its
clear and conclusive arguments.]

Dr. Lang's leading positions are,-that both the nations and the languages of China and Polynesia have sprung from the same ancient and prolifick_source: that the line of demarcation, which Professor Blumenbach has attempted to draw between the Mongolian and the Malayan races of mankind is purely imaginary;-that the South Sea Islanders are of cognate origin with the Malays of the Indian Archipelago ;-that both of these interesting divisions of the great family of man have originally been derived from the continent of Asia; and that America was originally peopled, not as it is generally supposed, by way of the Aleutian Islands at the entrance of Behring's Straits, but by way of the South Sea Islands and across the widest part of the Pacific Ocean.

Pasquas, or Easter Island, which is inhabited by a branch of the Polynesian nation, is situated within one thousand eight hundred miles of the continent of America, but at the distance of not less than eight thousand miles from the Philippines. Are we not warranted, therefore, to conclude that the same causes that have evidently operated during a long succession of ages in carrying individuals of the Malayan race across so extensive an ocean, and to so vast a distance from the earlier settlements of their nation-filling every solitary isle in their trackless course with a numerous population.-may have also operated in carrying other individuals of that amphibious nation across the remain ing tract of ocean to the coast of America? How many a canoe must have been ingulphed in the wide Pacific. and how many a feast of blood must have been enacted amid its billowy boundlessness, ere the solitary isle of Pasquas was discovered and settled! of a battle in that solitary isle, or one of the other accidents to which the rude natives of an island in the South Seas are necessarily exposed, may have given the first inhabitants to America.

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The event

In short, from the peculiar character of their ancient civilization, from the manners and customs of their uncivilized tribes, and from the general structure and analogies of their language, I conceive we are warranted to conclude that the Indo-Americans are the same people as the South Sea Islanders, the Malays of the Indian Archipelago, and the Indo-Chinese nations of Eastern Asia; and that the continent of America was originally peopled from the scattered islands of the Pacific.