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Quiz. Tolerable. I am well out of that scrape, however. (aside) Sir CH. Pray Sir, which of the classics is your favourite.

QUIZ. Why, Sir, Mr. Frederick Classic I think-he is so great a scholar.

Sir CH. Po, po, you dont understand me-I mean which of the Latin classics do you admire most.

QUIZ. Pox take him, what shall I say now. (aside) The Latin classics! oh!-really Sir, I admire them all so much, it is difficult to say.

Sir CH. Virgil is my favourite.-How very expressive is his description of the unconquerable passion of queen Dido, where he says "hæret lateri, letalis arundo."—Is not that very expressive?

Quiz. Very expressive indeed, Sir. (aside) I wish we were forty miles asunder. I shall never be able to hold out much longer at this

rate.

Sir CH. And Ovid is not without his charms!

QUIZ. He is not indeed, Sir.

Sir CH. And what a dear enchanting fellow Horace is !

QUIZ. Wonderfully so.

Sir CH. Pray what think you of Xenophon?

QUIZ. Who the devil is he, I wonder? (aside) Xenophon!-oh, I think he unquestionably wrote good Latin, Sir.

Sir CH. Good Latin, man?-he wrote Greek-good Greek, you

meant.

QUIZ. True, Sir, I did. Latin indeed!-I meant Greek-did I say Latin ?—I really meant Greek-(aside) Zounds I dont know what I mean myself.

Sir CH. Oh!Mr. Blackletter, I have been trying a long time to remember the name of one of Achilles' horses, but can't for my life, think of it you doubtless can tell me.

QUIZ. O yes, his name was- -but which of them do you mean? what was he called?

Sir CH. What was he called? Why that's the very thing I wanted to know-The one I allude to was born of the Harpy CelanoI can't for the blood of me tell it.

QUIZ. (aside) Damme if I can either, (to him) born of the Harpy -oh! his name was- -(striking his forehead)-damn me if I dont forget it now- -His name was,-was-was-zounds 'tis as familiar to me as my A, B, C.

Sir CH. Oh! I remember-'twas Xanthus, Xanthus-I remember now-'twas Xanthus-curse the name-that's it.

QUIZ. Egad! so 'tis. "Thankus, Thankus"-that's it-strange I could not remember it. (aside) Twould have been strange if I had.

Sir CH. You seem at times a little absent, Mr. Blackletter.
QUIZ. Zounds-I wish I was absent altogether.

Sir CH. We shall not disagree about learning, Sir-I discover you are a man, not only of profound learning, but correct taste.

Quiz. I am glad you have found that out (aside). for I never should. I came here to quiz the old fellow, and he'll quiz me I fear. (to him) O, by the by, I have been so confused-I mean so confounded, Pshaw! —so much engrossed with the contemplation of the Latin classics, I Had almost forgot to give you a letter from your son.

Sir CH. Bless me, Sir, why did you delay that pleasure so long. Quiz. I beg pardon, Sir-Here 'tis. (gives a letter.)

Sir CH. (puts on his spectacles and reads) "Ta Miss Clara." QUIZ. No, no, no-that's not it-here 'tis. (takes the letter and gives another).

Sir CH. What are you the bearer of love epistles too, Mr. Blackletter.

QUIZ. (aside) What a cursed blunder. (to him) Oh no Sir—that letter is from a female cousin at a boarding-school to Miss Clara Upright-no, Downright. That's the name.

Sir CH. Truly she writes a good masculine fist. what my boy has to say.

Well, let me see

(reads.)

Dear Father,

“There is a famous Greek manuscript just come to light. I must "have it-The price is about £1000, send me the money by the "bearer."

Short and sweet. There's a letter for you in the true Lacedemos nian style laconic.-Well he shall have it, were it ten times as much I should like to see this Greek manuscript-pray Sir, did you ever see it?

QUIZ. I cant say I ever did, Sir. (aside) This is the only truth I have been able to edge in, yet.

Sir CH. I'll just send to my banker's for the money—In the meantime, we will adjourn to my library-I have been much puzzled with an obscure passage in Livy—we must lay our heads together for a solution. But I am sorry you are addicted to such absence of mind at times.

QUIZ. 'Tis a misfortune, Sir, but I am addicted to a greater than that at times.

Sir CH. Ah! what's that?

QUIZ. I am sometimes addicted to an absence of body.

Sir CH. As how?

QUIZ. Why thus Sir. (takes up his hat and stick and walks off.) Sir CH. Ha, ha, ha-That's an absence of body sure enough-an absence of body with a vengeance!-a very merry fellow this!-He will be back for the money I suppose, presently-He is at all events a very modest man, not fond of expressing his opinion-but that's a mark of merit.

THE NATURALIST, No. V.FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

ON THE EXISTENCE OF NATIVE ANTIMONY IN THE U. STATES. If that citizen who makes a grain of wheat grow on a spot of the surface of the earth where it never grew before, deserves well of his country, no less entitled to approbation is he, who, from a part of the interior of the earth which never yielded them before, draws materials of indispensable utility for the existence, comfort and accommodation of man. The riches of the soil, or surface of our country, are well known, and well improved; but the value of that part of it which lies from twenty to five hundred feet from the surface, though doubtless immense, is, generally speaking, as little known to its proprietors as the unexplored caverns in the unfathomable abyss of the Atlantic; and as seldom thought of.

This neglect is at all times a circumstance of regret to the real patriot; but more particularly at the present extraordinary period, in which we live; when the devastations committed on our foreign commerce, by the two gigantic powers who have convulsed all Europe in their struggles for supremacy, threaten its total extermination, and force us to the alternative of curtailing our expenditures for foreign commodities, or of seeking within our own territories for those articles of necessity which, hitherto, we have been accustomed to bring from remote quarters of the globe.

I am led to these observations by reflecting on a fact, lately communicated to me by a friend, viz. that so great is the scarcity, in this country at present, of the mineral called antimony, so indispensably necessary in the manufacture of printing types, that, unless a

supply can be speedily procured from Europe, the proprietors of the type foundery in this city, the largest and most extensive in the United States, will be obliged to discharge one half, or perhaps two thirds of all their hands; and thus will a severe check be given to the present unexampled progress of arts and literature in this flourishing, peaceful and happy country, for want of a single article, which perhaps, lies at no great distance, in inexhaustible quantities, under our very feet. I confess I was less mortified to hear that the exportation of this article had been prohibited by the respective governments of France and Great Britain, than to be told, that antimony is nowhere found native within the territory of the United States, and that to, procure it, we must submit to the most humiliating impositions. If the first of these assertions were absolutely true, that in an extent of two thousand miles by one thousand, of plains, vallies, mountains and precipices, a single mineral, so common in other parts of the earth, should be entirely wanting in this, it would be a kind of miracle in the mineralogy of our country, without a parallel in any other part of the globe.

But this is highly improbable; nay, I have no hesitation in asserting it as my opinion, that native antimony does actually exist in this country, in as great quantities, and perhaps as much purity, as in any other country whatever; and, that if proper search were made, it would most certainly be found. The facts and circumstances on which this opinion is founded, I shall, for the information of those immediately concerned, and for the encouragement of others, briefly detail.

In the winter of 1808, being in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I was shown a mineral substance, evidently sulphurated antimony, which was said to have been found in the bed of Saco river, about twenty miles above the town of that name, in the District of Maine. A celebrated mineralogist now, or lately in this city, had been presented with specimens of the same, and directed to that part of the river where it was found; but mistaking the place for the banks, instead of bed of the river, the waters of which were at that time high; he wandered about for a whole day in the rain in search of the spot, but without success. As the river during my visit was in the same state, I had no better opportunity of examining than my predecessor; and this place remains still unexplored. The land adjoining is the property of a Mr. Nathaniel Parsons, who lives about two miles north west from York court house, in the same district of Maine. At the same time and place I was shown a piece of antimonial ore, said to have been found in the state of Vermont, by a miner of the name of Pitcher. In my way to that state I stopped at Dartmouth college, and in a conversation with Dr. Smith, professor of materia medica there, I was informed that specimens of antimony were deposited in the museum of the college, which had been

found by some labourers, a few years before, in digging the canal at Hadley; but learned, to my astonishment, that no inquiry had been made by the professor or any other person, at the time, as to the precise spot whence this substance was taken; nor, on my arrival there, could I find any person who could throw any further light on the matter than that it was said, that antimony had been dug up somewhere thereabout; and this discovery is also, like the former, still wrapt up in obscurity.

Having been credibly informed, that, some years ago, an apothecary of this city (Philadelphia) had purchased a considerable quantity of what was at that time considered to be black lead, but which, on examination afterwards, was found to be antimony, from a person who said he brought it from North Carolina; I was anxious, on approaching that state, to make some further inquiries relative to this mineral. On the evening of the 29th of January last, I took shelter from a violent snowstorm in the house of a colonel Burwell Mooring, who lives near the Roanoke, about twenty miles below Halifax. From this gentleman I received the following information. That about nine years ago he lived in Wayne county, N. C. and had on his place a mill, now called Thompson's mill, on Nohunta creek, which falls into Contentna creek, and this last into the river Neuse. That the rapidity of the water, after passing through the mill, tore a deep rut in the bank; and boys, while amusing themselves by swimming there, were in the practice of bringing up, from a depth of ten or twelve feet, large pieces of a heavy, black, glittering mineral, so like antimony, that on comparing the substance so found with some antimony they had in the house, and which the lady herself then handed to me, they could perceive no difference in their appearance. Unacquainted with the value of this discovery, no farther attention was paid to it; and to my great regret not a remnant of it had been preserved. The spot, he says, is not more than thirty feet below the mill, on the right hand going down. The present proprietor is a Mr. Zaddock Thompson, who lives on the premises. Col. Mooring added, that in Nohunta run, about a mile below the mill, great abundance of the same substance may easily be found. Such was the information I received from this respectable family. Urgent business prevented me from repairing immediately to the spot, though at a distance of forty miles; but in reply to the letter which I at that time wrote him, Mr. Thompson says, that the substance mentioned wás generally supposed to be antimony; and that in an attempt to melt it, it flew off in smoke, or evaporated!

After such highly encouraging proofs, let us hear no more whining, that this valuable mineral nowhere exists within the territory of the United States; but let those who have skill and opportunities for mak

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