book is divided, the first part is devoted to plain spelling; the second, to words with meanings; classified in such a manner as to promote correct pronunciation; and the third to the Greek and Latin derivatives, which are now so common in our language. Our scientific terms likewise are almost exclusively of Greek and Latin extraction. The study of etymology, or the derivation of words, is too much neglected; and this neglect is a fruitful source of misunderstanding, and of lengthened controversy; and likewise has a tendency to retard the progress of accurate knowledge. Butter's Spelling Book, containing numerous lists of words placed under the roots from which they are respectively derived, will be found an efficient auxiliary in the cause of literature and science. Time's Telescope, for 1832, pp. 388. London, Sherwood and Co. We always hail with pleasure the appearance of this favourite Annual, and so vastly improved as it comes before us this year, both in matter and embellishments, it is doubly welcome. The contents are if possible more varied, instructive, and interesting, than heretofore; and when we mention the portion of the volume which embraces the Astronomical Occurrences, and Natural History, are from the of those able and distinguished labourers in the field of science, Mr. I. T. Barker, and professor Rennie, it can hardly be necessary for us to say another word in praise of" Time's Telescope." pens The illustrations are very numerous and appropriate, and of a far higher character than might be expected in a volume published at a price so exceedingly moderate. The Naturalist. VARIETY OF COLOURS IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS.-It is a mistaken opinion that the colours of wild animals are uniform, while those of domesticated animals are diversified, though in a wild state, the diversity is less striking. Much of this depends on the attention paid to the propagation of peculiar domestic breeds when any remarkable coloured variety has been accidentally produced. It is thus that the breed of white mice and flap-eared rabbits is continued, whereas in a wild state these peculiarities would probably soon be lost. I may mention two facts regard ing diversity of colour among innumerable others which have struck me. The common geometric spider of our gardens is so varied that scarcely two individuals, even of the same brood, are found alike, varying in shade from silver-grey to deep chocolate-brown, and from pale-yellow to brick-red. Again, the eggs of the sparrow vary so much that the boys in Kent imagine them to be of different species according as they find their nests in trees, in ivy, or under the tiles of a house. Sometimes these eggs are nearly uniform in colour, with no markings. While at other times they are thickly or sparely streaked, and spotted with greyish black on a greenish or blueish white ground. It has been recorded by Mr. Young, that a blackbird, and also a linnet, have been observed to become white in consequence of fright, in the same way as the human hair has been known to become grey in a single night through grief. That food, however, will sometimes produce striking changes of colour, appears from the fact of madder tinging the bones of animals fed upon it of a red colour, and by alternating this with other food, from week to week, the bones will exhibit concentric circles of white and red. Time's Tel. for 1832. PRESERVATION OF TREES IN WINfoundry for cannon at Munich, it is cusTER.-In iron founderies, such as the tomary to stir the melted metal with a branch of green oak, and notwithstanding the great heat of the metal, the green wood is not affected deeper than about striking fact is explained from the nonthe twentieth part of an inch. This the same principle it is that the bodies conducting power of the sap, and upon and branches of trees, not having the covering of snow which the roots have, are protected from the operation of cold, by their sap increasing in spissitude, and of course in non-conducting capacity, as the winter approaches. On similar principles, we may account for the preservation of various kinds of fruit. The Note Book. I will make a prief of it in my Note-pook. FREE AND EASY MONARCHS.-The French, a short time ago, were exceedingly proud of their King because he used to walk about Paris with an umbrella under his arm; this same king is now said to be barricading the very Tuileries. It happens, however, that the most despotic monarchs are often most at ease among their subjects, and oftenest assume the manners of equality. Most certainly if William IV. were to attempt walking up and down Regent-street, he would be mobbed.Yet the late King of Bavaria used to promenade alone every evening, in every quarter of Munich; he would, moreover, enter into conversation with strangers, and it made little difference whether he was known or not. He was a sort of Haroun al Raschiid, except that he only learned by aid of his incognito to reward, and not to punish. Ferdinand of Spain walks about his capital, and lives in perfect security, while we imagine him a prey to superstition and afraid of every wind that blows. A late traveller compares him to Liston in the street. Don Pedro, the late Emperor of the Brazils, was still more open in his habits-he used to bathe in public. Another traveller describes him as he saw him buffetting the waves of the sea. Denmark, it seems, is happy in a monarch of popular habits "The present King of Denmark, by letters lately received from Copenhagen, has such perfect confidence in the love of his subjects, that he is never attended by a guard, and even sleeps with his chamber-door unfastened. A short time ago, his Majesty was suddenly roused, about two o'clock in the morning, by a youth employed in the gardens, who, having got by stealth into the palace, entered the King's room, and tapping him on the shoulder, presented a petition, saying, in the most familiar terms, "Father, I was determined to find an opportunity of speaking to you in private, and therefore chose this time to ask you a favour." The King, though thus taken by surprise, was neither alarmed nor angry, but, with his usual good-nature, recommended the lad to have patience, and he would do all in his power to comply with his request, at the same time begged, that when he again wished to speak to him, he would choose a more seasonable hour. His Majesty was much amused by this nocturnal adventure." BRITISH AND AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS.-In America, where newspapers are not taxed, 555,416 advertisements are inserted in eight newspapers in New York, while 400 English and Irish papers contained, in the same space of time, only 1,105,000. The twelve New York daily papers contain more advertisements than all the newspapers of England and Ireland; and the number issued annually in America is 10,000,000, while in Great Britain it is less than one-tenth of that number. Advertisements which in England cost, seventeen dollars, are inserted in America for about a dollar (fifty cents); and an article which costs annually for advertising in the United States twenty-eight dollars, is liable in England to a charge of 900 dollars. WONDERFUL TREE.-A curious production of the ocean was washed up by the tide above low-water-mark, on the sea-beach, at Crosbie, Liverpool, on November the 4th. It consists of the trunk of a tree, 39 feet in length, from which are appended millions of a singularly-strange shell-fish, sufficient to fill the bodies of two or three carts. The upper part sticks with the tenacity of a leech to the wood, and is a sort of a wormy substance, many of them being at least three feet in length, as thick as a piece of rope, terminating with a shell of a half-conical form, of a delicate light-blueish hue, which contains a black fish, having a slit or orifice edged with a bright yellow colour on the upper side, which the animal opens and shuts at pleasure, and by which it obtains its nutriment. They are all distinct in their formation, all alive, and as thick upon the wood as the leaves upon a tree, or clusters of grapes; indeed the point of a pin cannot be inserted between them, and from a small bit cut from the end of the wood, of only half an inch square, there hung no less than thirty of different lengths. ECLIPSES IN 1832.-During the year 1832 there will be but two eclipses, both of the sun. The first will take place on February 1st, and will be invisible at Greenwich; the second takes place on July 17th, visible at Greenwich; begins 2 hours 3 min. p. m., ends 2 hours 28 min., digits eclipsed, one-fifth. On the 5th of May the planet Mercury will appear, like a black spot to move over the sun's disc. RAILWAYS.-These great commercial improvements are continually extending. During the last year acts have been passed relative to nine; for amending and enlarging the powers of that for the Liverpool and Manchester railway; for making a railway from Wigan to Preston, both in Lancashire; with certain collateral branches; to amend the acts relating to the Bolton and Leigh railway: to alter the line of the Avon and Glocester railway, and to make certain branches from the same; for making a rail-road from Dublin to Kingstown harbour; for making a railway from Manchester to Bolton and Bury; for enlarging the powers of the company for making a rail-road from Polloc and Gowan, to the river Clyde; for making a railway from Rutherglen to Wellshot, both in the county of Lanark; and for making a railway from Sheffield to Manchester. Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. The line of this great undertaking, which has been commenced from near Carlisle, is now being proceeded in with much spirit. Leicester and Swannington Railway. -This undertaking is proceeding in a regular, steady way; about half a mile of the line is finished, and between two and three miles more are fenced in; and we believe it is intended to present bills to the House of Commons during the present session, to endeavour to obtain acts for making lines from Liverpool to Birmingham: from Birmingham to London; from Greenwich to London; and from Southampton to the metropolis. Receipts for Detecting ImposTOR SAILORS.-Scarcely a day passes but beggars are to be met with dressed like sailors. It may therefore be useful to our readers to be apprised of a method by which a true sailor may be distinguished from a false one. It is of no use to ask a man the name of his ship, his captain, his first lieutenant, and so forth, the Sally merchantman, or the Ajax frigate. Capt. Smith, and Mr. Williams second in command, throw you on your back at once. But there are questions which pose your regular landsman, and shew up the trickster. Ask him "what the mainsheet is made of," and before the last word is well out of your mouth the impostor_replies, "canvas, your honour!" Now sheets mean ropes on board ship, but the mainsheet is not a sail, as the land-lubber supposes, but the rope that fixes the lower part of the main-sail. Ask him again the name of the ship's kitchen, and if the beggar does not at once tell you it is called "the galley," you may be quite certain he is no sea man. Another mode of detecting an impostor is to try him in his geography. Nine times out of ten your sailor beggar pretends to have been shipwrecked on his way from Newfoundland, or to have been paid off at Liverpool, on his arrival there from America. A fellow pretending to be a sailor in deep dis tress met a gentleman the other day in this county and solicited alms. The man was nearly naked, having literally nothing but a pair of drawers and part of a shirt on his body, and no hat on his head. The following conversation took place respecting dates and distances:- Gent. Where are you coming from? Sailor. Liverpool, your honour. G. What took you to Liverpool? S. 1 arrived there, your honour, from Quebec, and was paid off last month. G. The voyage from Quebec is rather a long one, is it not? S. Yes, your honour, we were four months at sea. G. When did you leave Quebec? S. The first week in January. G. Were you paid off as soon as you arrived? S. Yes, your honour, and I am now on my way to London. Here ended the matter as to dates, the fellow having first fixed upon November and then upon May for being paid off. The questioning was then resumed as to distances thus:-G. Now, my lad, if you've been on a voyage from Quebec, and were near four months at sea, you must know a little about the places you touched at in your way. Tell me then where you performed quarantine? S. At Gibraltar, your honour. G. How long did you remain there? S Two days. G. Well, and how long at Malta? S. A week. G. And you took in water after that at Naples? S. Yes, but we did not land. G. Well, and was Naples on your right or your left hand as you came towards Smyrna? S. On our right hand. G. And how long did you stop at Smyrna? S. Four days. G And did you go on shore at Ceylon? S. Where's that? G. At the Cape of Good Hope S. Oh yes, we stopped there a little while. G. Well, and you then went on to Madras? Yes, your honour, but we did'nt stop, we only passed it. G What! only passed it, but you saw the great monument? S Oh yes, but it was at some distance off? nearly ten leagues, and a league is three miles, your honour. This was enough of distances. The whole of this conversation passed near a carriage, in which a lady had brought some linen as a gift to the sailor, in addition to a gift in money, which the fellow's miserable appearance had extorted from her. It is needless to say the linen was carried home again. From information subsequently received the impostor was apprehended, and committed with one of his companions to the county gaol as a rogue amd vagabond.-If this account places people on their guard against such lying scoundrels, it will be well for the community. Begging will then be less profitable, aud consequently beggars less numerous. Perhaps we ought to add for the information of persons not well acquainted with geography, that the fellow's account of his voyage proved him to be an impostor, as according to the route he took, he went nearly all over the world in order to get from Quebec to Liverpool. It was as if setting out from Northampton to London, he had gone by Dublin, Paris, and the East Indies. RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CITY.-Lieut.Col. Galindo, Governor of Poten, in Central America, has discovered the ruins of an extensive city, called Palenque, which extends for more than twenty miles along the summit of the ridge which separates the country of wild Maya Indians (included in the district of Poten) from the state of Chiapas. These, in the words of the discoverer, "must anciently have embraced a city and its suburbs. The principal buildings are erected on the most prominent heights, and to several of them, if not to all, stairs were constructed. From the hollows beneath, the steps, as well as all the vestiges which time has left, are wholly of stone and plaster.' The stones of which all the edifices are built, are about eighteen inches long, nine broad, and two thick, cemented by mortar, and gradually inclining when they form a roof, but always placed horizontally; the outside eaves are supported by large stones, which project about two feet. (These are precisely similar, from the description, to the stone-roofed chapels, three or four in number, at Cashel, Glendalough, St. Doologh's, near Dublin, and we believe one other, still existing in Ireland). The woodwork has all disappeared: the windows are many, subject to no particular arrangement, being merely small circular and square perforations. Human figures in alto relievo are frequent on small pillars; and filagree work, imitating boughs and feathers, is per ceptible in places Some of the sculptured ornaments look very like the Corinthian foliage of the ancient architects. The ruins are buried in a thick forest, and the adjacent country, for leagues, contains remains of the ancient labours of the people-bridges, reservoirs, monumental inscriptions, &c. The natives say these edifices were built by "the devil." POSITIVENESS.- -Nothing can be more unphilosophical than to be positive or dogmatical on any subject, and even if excessive scepticism could be maintained, it would not be more destructive to all just reasoning and inquiry. Where men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken. VIRTUE is certainly the most noble and secure possession a man can have. Beauty is worn out by time, or impaired by sickness. Riches lead youth rather to destruction than welfare, and without prudence are soon lavished awaywhile virtue alone, the only good that is ever durable, always remains with the person who has once entertained her. She is preferable both to wealth and a noble extraction. ORIGIN OF THE ART OF GLASS CUTTING.-The art of cutting glass is a much more modern invention than that of painting and staining it. It is generally believed, that Casper Lehmann, originally a cutter of iron and steel in the service of the emperor Rudolphus II., was the first person who attempted this mode of embellishing the material. It was about the year 1609, when, having procured from the emperor an exclusive patent for using the art, together with the appointment of lapidary and glass-cutter to the court, Lehmann prosecuted his invention with much success in the city of Prague. Before that time, many artists had engraved figures upon glass, by means of the diamond; and their labours were greatly admired. Some glaziers had also discovered a mode of cutting glass by the employment of emery powder, and sharp-pointed instruments of hardened steel, as well as with heated irons; but these methods were greatly different in the manner of their performance, as well as inferior in their effect, to Lehmann's process, by which they were consequently, for the most part, superseded. It was, however, very long after the period already mentioned, that the art attained to any thing like the degree of perfection which it now exhibits. At the end of the seventeenth century, glass-cutting was prosecuted to a great extent, and in a very improved style, at Nuremberg; the artist of that place having much simplified the tools employed, as well as the methods used for their employment. SWAN RIVER.-The "Hobart Town Colonial Times," of the 6th of July. describes the Swan River Settlement as in a distressed and discontented state. Fresh meat wns selling at two shillings per pound, and other provisions in proportion. Mr. Peel, who obtained a grant of 250,000 acres, and took out with him property to the amount of 40,000l. and 400 mechanics, farming men, and labourers, dared not move out of his house, for he was continually beset by numerous poor people, who execrate him for having induced them to go to a settlement where they have met with nothing but starvation and disappointment. All sorts of English goods are stated to be rather cheap at Swan River. The distress prevalent in their money market is also described as becoming daily more and more alarming. Private letters confirm the above unfavourable account. From Sydney, the advices are of a much more favourable nature. The Australian Fisheries were proving successful, and the number of ships increasing. The whalers belonging to Sydney, and worked by colonial capital, amounted in number to 18, and in tonnage to 3800; those belonging to London, with agents in Sydney to four, and the tonnage to 878; and those to London sailing from Sydney to four, and the tonnage to 1059; making a total of 5737 tons. [A circular has been issued by the commissioners of Emigration, stating that an advance of 20%. will, under certain regulations, be made to any workman in the ordinary mechanical arts, desirous of emigrating to New South Wales or Van Dieman's Land, provided he be married, and intends to take his wife with him.] Customs of Warious Countries. NEW YEAR OBSERVANCES IN SCOT- BY ROBERT CHAMBERS. Hogmanay is the universal popular name in Scotland for the last day of the year. It is a day of high festival among young and old-but particularly the young, who do not regard any of the rest of the Daft Days with half so much interest. In the town of Fife, which being quite secluded from other places, maintains old customs with considerable purity, the children of the poorer people-all of them, without exception of sex or age, if only able to walk-get themselves, at an early hour, tied into large aprons or sheets, the lower corners of which are turned up in front, so as to form each into a vast pocket or refectory. Thus rigged out, they go in families or bands to the doors of all the better sort of people, to collect an alms of oaten bread, from time out of mind accustomed to be given on this day by the rich to the poor. Each child gets one quadrant section of oat-cake, (sometimes, in the case of particular favourites, improved by an addition of cheese,) and this is called their hogmanay. In expectation of the large demands thus made upon them, the housewives busy themselves, for several days beforehand, in preparing a suitable quantity of cakes. A particular individual, in my own knowledge, has frequently resolved two bolls of meal into hogmanay cakes. The children, on coming to the door, cry" Hogmanay!" which is in itself a sufficient announcement of their demands; but there are other exclamations, which either are or might be used for the same purpose. One of these is: 'Hogmanay, Trollolay, Give us some of your white bread and none of your grey !' What is precisely meant by the mysterious word Hogmanay, or by the still more inexplicable Trollolay, I shall not pretend to determine: but the reader will find, from the fourth volume of the Archeologia Scotica, that the subject has received due attention at the hands of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries. Of the many other cries, appropriate to the morning of Hogmanay, I may chronicle two of the less puerile: Get up gudewife, and shake your feathers, 'Get up, gudewife, and dinna sweir, She is in a very peevish strain, but, as saith the sage, 'Blessed is he that expects little for he will not be disappointed :' "My shoon are made of hoary hide; The most favourite of all, however, is much smarter, more laconic, and more to the point than any of the foregoing: 'My feet's cauld, my shoon's thin; It is no unpleasing scene, during the forenoon, to see the children going laden |