bly be the means of adding at least one thousand five hundred to the population of Lowell.

The Middlesex Company has lately erected another mill, for the manufacture of cassimeres and broadcloths, which is said to be one of the first manufacturing edifices in the United States. It is one hundred and fifty-three feet in length, by fortysix, and six stories high. Nearly one million of bricks have been used in its construction. It contains 2,880 spindles, and sixty-four looms for cassimeres, and forty for broad cloths. It works up about 300,000 lbs. of wool annually, and employs about two hundred and seventy-five operatives.

"The edifice, in which all the machinery enployed in the mills is manufactured, is termed the Machine Shop,' belonging to the Locks and Canal Company, and is probably the largest shop' in the country, being built of brick, four stories high, two hundred and twenty feet in length and forty-five feet in width. About two hundred machinists, some of them the most skilful and ingenious workmen in the United States, or in the world, are constantly employed. About six hundred tons of cast and wrought iron, two-thirds of which at least are of American production, are annually converted into machinery, besides a large quantity of imported steel.

"It is computed that upwards of five thousand tons of Anthracite coal are annually consumed in the Lowell Manufacturing establishments and Machine Shop, besides immense quantities of charcoal and pine and hard wood fuel."

The great water-power is produced by a canal a mile and a half long, sixty feet wide, and eight feet deep from its commencement above the head of Pawtucket falls on the Merrimack, to its termination in Concord river. The entire fall is thirty-two feet. The water is taken from this canal by smaller canals, and conveyed to the factories, and thence into the Merrimack. There are room and waterpower sufficient for fifty huge additional factories. In the suburbs of Lowell, near the canal is a settlement called New Dublin, which occupies upwards of an acre of ground. It contains not far from five hundred Irish people, and about one hundred cab. ins, from seven to ten feet high, built of slabs and rough boards, with a fireplace made of stones topped out with several flour barrels or lime casks.

There is a canal round the falls of the Merrimack, ninety feet wide and four deep; which however is no longer used for boat navigation. On the Concord river, about one mile from the town, are powder-works, at which powder of a very superior quality is made. Thirty thousand kegs, containing twenty-five pounds each, are made annually. Lowell communicates with Boston by means of the Middlesex canal, and a railroad between the two places has for many months been in progress.

By the census of 1830, the population of Lowell was 6,474; it is now probably nearer eleven thousand. The number of newspapers issued at present, is, we believe, seven.

The engraving at the head of this article affords a view of a part of the canal and some of the principal buildings connected with the manufactories of this flourishing town. The sketch was taken by Mr. Martins, an artist of first rate abilities, who has recently established himself in Boston. If Lowell continues to increase at the rate, which has thus far marked its progress, the next census may find it with a population of more than thirty thousand inhabitants.

THE HORN OF THE ALPS. The Horn of the shepherds of the Alps is chiefly known among us by the accounts we have heard of the effect of its wild mountain music, in calling in the cattle from their pastures; but it is also used for a more noble purpose, namely, as a signal for the performance of a solemn and religious ceremony.

When the sun has quitted the valley, and his lingering beams still cast a glow of fading light on the snowy summits of the mountains, the shepherd whose hut is placed on the highest mountain peak, takes his horn, and pronounces through it, as through a speaking trumpet, the solemn injunction to the world below," Praise ye the Lord." Every shepherd in the neighborhood, as he catches the sound, repeats, in succession, the same sentence at the door of his cabin. Thus, perhaps, for a quarter of an hour, the cliffs and rocky precipices fling to each other the oft-repeated echoes of the sublime

Praise ye the Lord." A solemn stillness succeeds the last reverberation, and all kneel, bareheaded and in silent devotion. When darkness rests on the earth, and veils the towering mountains, the horn again sounds, and a peaceful, social "Good night" is pronounced; this is repeated from rock and cliff, till the distant echoes melt away, and the shepherds then retire to the peaceful cabins.

EARLY BRITONS.

C. M.

The winter residences of the early Britons were either natural caves, or places deeply hollowed into the earth by manual labor; some of which are still to be seen in Cornwall and the Hebrides. Their summer habitations were slight and easily removed, and their towns were only tracts of forest land surrounded by a sort of rampart of earth, with a ditch below it. Within these enclosures, their simple structures were formed of the branches of trees roughly woven, or wattled together, and daubed over with clay. In this sort of work they were doubtless well skilled: even their refined conquerors admired the British baskets, which were exported to Rome in large quantities, and were so highly prized there, that more than a hundred years after the time of which we are now speaking, a celebrated Roman satirical poet ranks them among the extravagant luxuries of his countrymen. Their boats, also, were formed of similar material; for, although living in an island, they had no better

vessels than baskets covered with the skins of beasts; and in these frail barks they sometimes ventured to cross the Irish Channel, and to pass over to their neighbors the Gauls, who inhabited the country now named France.

The ancient Britons were almost wholly without clothing, or only partially covered with the hides of animals; like all savage nations they delighted in ornament, and they adorned even the skin of their bodies with various strange devices. This indulgence of vanity was hardly earned, and purchased by considerable personal suffering. Like the tattooing of modern uncivilized tribes, figures of animals, of plants, and of any other object which fancy dictated or fashion prescribed, were traced on the flesh by means of innumerable punctures inflicted by an instrument full of small sharp teeth; and the wounded parts being stained with the juice of a native plant called woad (still in common use with our dyers,) became, when healed, of an indelibly blue color.

The British food consisted chiefly of flesh and milk; in the southern part of the country some attempts at agriculture were perceptible, and the inhabitants exhibited some faint signs of civilization. This superiority is to be attributed to the traffic carried on with that coast by ships from various parts of the world, and to intercourse with the neighboring shores of Gaul. The wild islanders, however, were not much benefited, by these visiters, who bartered articles of small utility, or of mere ornament, for their most valuable commodities; and who, while they were thus unconsciously contributing to the improvement of our countrymen, gave the most frightful accounts of their ferocity and ignorance, when they travelled to other lands, or returned to their own.

We may readily conceive that the blessings of a bounteous Providence were frequently converted into evils, by a people so uncivilized, and that the best gifts of Nature were of but doubtful advantage. The rich and prolific soil exhausted itself in wild and encumbering luxuriance; the plains were barren; the valleys impassable; the springs ohoked at their sources, and the rivers overflowing their banks, formed vast tracts of unprofitable and unwholesome marshes. Woods covered the face of the greater part of the country; one forest named Anderida, is stated to have been a hundred and twenty miles in length, and although the beasts of prey were limited to a single species, that species was suffered to breed and to harbor almost without molestation.

The people were as uncultivated as their country; coarse, wild, and ferocious, with all the evil passions of their nature permitted, like the wolves of their forests, to riot without curb or restriction. The absence of moral law produced its usual effects upon the human character, and the boasted liberty of the early Britons was but a license to sin with impunity. Their religious worship, far from softening or improving their minds, evinced its unholy origin, by producing effects of a directly opposite nature. The gloomy and terrific superstition taught by the Druid-priests led its votaries to temples formed of vast unhewn masses of stone, in the deep recesses of consecrated groves, or the lonely silence of wide extended plains. From the altars raised within these singular edifices, the steam of human offerings frequently ascended, as a grateful and pleasant sacrifice to Deities who delighted in blood; and if the Briton spared the captive taken.

ON THE GROWTH OF PLANTS.

The astonishing power with which God has endued the vegetable creation to multiply its different species, may be instanced in the seed of the elm. This tree produces one thousand five hundred and eighty four millions of seeds; and each of these seeds has the power of producing the same number. How astonishing is this produce! At first one seed is deposited in the earth; from this one, a tree springs, which in the course of its vegetable life produces one thousand five hundred and eighty millions of seeds. This is the first generation. The second generation will amount to two trillions five hundred and ten thousand and fifty-six billions. The third generation will amount to fourteen thousand six hundred and fifty-eight quadrillions, seven hundred and twenty-seven thousand and forty trillions. And the fourth generation will amount to fifty-one sextillions, four hundred and eighty-one thousand three hundred and eighty-one quintillions, one hundred and twenty-three thousand one hundred and thirty-six quadrillions! Sums too immense for the human mind to conceive; and when we allow the most confined space in which a tree can grow, it appears that the seeds of the third generation from one elm would be many myriads of times more than sufficient to stock the whole superfices of all the planets in the solar system!

Thistles multiply enormously: a species called the carolia sylvestris bears ordinarily from twenty to forty heads, each containing from one hundred to one hundred and fifty seeds. Another species called the acanthum vulgare, produces above one hundred heads, each containing from three hundred to four hundred seeds. Suppose we say that these thistles produce, on a medium, only eighty heads, and that each contains only three hundred seeds;

the first crop from these would amount to twentyfour thousand. Let these be sown, and their crop will amount to five hundred and seventy-six millions. Sow these, and their produce will be thirteen billions, eight hundred and twenty-four thousand millions; and a single crop from these, which is only the third year's growth, would amount to three hundred and thirty-one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six billions; and the fourth years' growth will amount to seven thousand nine hundred and sixty two trillions six hundred and twenty four thousand billions;-a progeny more than sufficient to stock not only the surface of the world, but of all the planets in the solar system, so that no other plant or vegetable could possibly grow, allowing but the space of one square foot for each plant.-Dr. Adam Clarke.

MARTYRDOM OF ST. VINCENT, A SPANISH MARTYR.

This Christian hero was a native of Saragossa, and the son of a distinguished magistrate. His learning and eloquence early introduced him to the notice of his diocesan Valerius, whose deacon he became; and as that prelate was afflicted with an impediment in speaking, on him devolved the duty of addressing the congregation from the episcopal seat. His popularity reached the ear of Dacian, who summoned both bishop and deacon before him, and who committed both, heavily fettered, to the dark dungeons of Valencia. Having passed some time in this horrible abode, with food scarcely sufficient to sustain life, both were again brought before the tyrant, who, on observing their cheerful countenances, which exhibited no marks of suffering, angrily demanded of the guards whether they had not disobeyed his commands. On hearing that his orders had been punctually performed, he artfully endeavored to seduce by an affected moderation those on whom severity had produced no visible effect. He exhorted them to comply with the decrees of the world's great masters, who insisted that the dignity of the ancient worship should be restored, and the gods every where honored by sacrifices.

Valerius attempted to reply, but seeing his embarrassed utterance, his young friend said:"Father, dost thou permit me to answer this judge?" The other replied, "My son, I have long trusted thee with the office of speaking, and I leave thee now to justify the faith for which we are standing here." In a discourse of surprising energy and eloquence, the deacon then vindicated the unity of God, and the divinity of Christ, and contrasted the sublimity of the doctrines he professed with the puerile absurdities of paganism. He concluded by asserting that entreaties no less than menaces would be unable to make them guilty of idolatry.

The intrepidity of the advocate filled Dacian with fury. "Let this bishop," he exclaimed, "be removed hence; as he has disobeyed the imperial edict, he is justly exiled: but for this fellow, who to disobedience adds insult, a heavier punishment is reserved. Apply the torture; dislocate his limbs, and let him feel a rebel's punishment." The order was promptly obeyed, and Dacian had both the gratification to witness, and the barbarity to deride, the agonies of the sufferer. The latter, whose cheek blanched not, and whose lips uttered not one word of complaint, regarding his persecutor with

that calm composure which proved that his heaven was already begun, merely replied, "I have always wished for an opportunity of proving my attachment to the religion of Christ; thou hast given it me, and I am content." Mad with rage, the governor struck the executioners because they could not force a single groan from their victim. "What!" exclaimed the sufferer, with the most provoking coolness, "dost thou too wish to avenge me of these brutal men?" Dacian now foamed at the mouth, and roared, rather than spoke, to them, -"Cannot you extort one cry of pain from this man, ye who have so often bent the most stubborn malefactors? Is he thus to triumph over us?" Sharper instruments were now brought, the flesh of the Christian was torn from his bones, and his whole body represented the appearance of one vast wound. For a moment even the savage Dacian was, or appeared to be, softened. "Young Christian," said he, "hast thou no pity for thyself? In the flower of thine age canst thou not be persuaded to avoid a horrible death by one act of submission?" "Thy feigned sympathy," replied the other with the same unshaken tranquillity, "affects me as little as the exquisite torments thou causest me to feel. I will not deny my Maker for thy idols of wood and stone. Thy perseverance will fail sooner than my constancy.'

The victim was next laid on an iron bed, the surface of which was covered with sharp projecting points, and a slow fire placed under it. His body was pressed against the spikes, boiling liquids were poured into his wounds; his bones were crushed by blows with iron bars: in short, every species of torture was employed that hellish cunning could devise. Still the heroic sufferer murmured not. At length, his mangled limbs having been dashed on a bed of sharp flints, he felt that the moment of his deliverence was at hand. In vain did the tyrant order him to be laid on a comfortable couch, and every effort made to restore him, that, on his recovery, human ingenuity might be taxed for the invention of new torments: in a few hours he expired. His corpse was carried out to sea, and plunged into the waves: it was soon washed on shore, was found by some Christians, and secretly buried. The report of his superhuman constancy was rapidly spread throughout Christendom; and in the time of St. Augustine his festival was celebrated in every Christian place.-Lardner's Cyclopedia.

Turnip-Bread.-A very good bread may be made of turnips, by the following process: Let the turnips be washed clean, pared, and boiled; when they are soft enough for being mashed, the greater part of the water should be pressed out of them, and they should then be mixed with an equal quantity in weight of coarse wheat flour. The dough may then be made in the usual manner, with yeast or barm, salt, water, &c. It will rise well in the trough, and after being well kneaded, may be formed into loaves and put into the oven. It requires to be baked rather longer than ordinary bread, and when taken from the oven is equally light and white, rather sweeter, with a slight but not disagreeable taste of the turnip. After it has been allowed to stand twelve hours, this taste is scarcely perceptible, and the smell is quite gone. After an interval of twenty-four hours it cannot be known that it has turnip in its composition, although it has still a peculiar sweetish taste. It appears to be rather superior to bread made only of wheat flour-is fresh and moister, and even after a week continues good.

Moderate your Desires.-Take away your expensive follies, and you will have little occasion to complain of hard times.

ship them. Several obelisks, or high pillars, in Egypt, are covered with this sort of writing; see the representation of two famous ones at Alexandria, called Cleopatra's needles, at the beginning of this article; they are a hundred feet in height, upwards of seven feet square at the base. The four sides of both are richly adorned with hieroglyphics, cut an inch deep in the granite stone.

The art of writing is of great importance; it conveys our thoughts to others by certain marks or representations: there are several methods by which it was practised in former times, and in later days. One method, used by some Indians and other untaught nations, is a kind of picture writing, or drawing, to represent the things which the writer desires to tell to others. The Rev. T. H. Horne, in a work which he has written about books, copies a drawing of this sort made by some North American Indians, which represents one of their expeditions against their enemies. Similar drawings of the ancient Mexicans have been copied by other authors. Another sort of picture writing, probably an improvement on that just mentioned, was much used by the Egyptians; it is called hieroglyphic writing. The first sort of picture writing only represents things, but this represents ideas or thoughts. For instance, an eye represented God, who sees all things; a sword, a cruel tyrant; an eye and sceptre, a king; a lion represented courage; armies were meant by hands with weapons. There are cards and books to amuse children, with pictures or hieroglyphics, not unlike the sorts of writing I have just mentioned.

An inscription on a temple in Egypt, expressing this moral sentence, "All you, who come into the world and go out of it, know this-that the gods hate impudence;" was represented by an infant, an old man, a hawk, a fish, and a river horse. It is thought by some persons, that, from this way of representing religious and moral truths by pictures of animals, the ancient Egyptians came to worship the animals themselves; as the introducing images, or paintings, into churches, led the papists to wor

INDIGO.

The real nature of indigo was not generally known in Europe, until a long period after it had been obtained direct from India, the country of its production; and many erroneous notions existed as to its nature at a comparatively recent period. In the letters patent granted to the proprietors of mines in the principality of Halberstadst, not many centuries ago, indigo was classed among the minerals, to obtain which the works were permitted to be erected.

Marco Polo, indeed, who flourished in the thirteenth century, and who is the earliest European traveller into China and India on record, relates that he saw indigo made in the kingdom of Coulan, and describes the process by which it was prepared. "Indigo," says the old Venetian, "of excellent quality and large quantities, is made here (Coulan.) They procure it from an herbaceous plant, which is taken up by the roots and put into tubs of water, where it is suffered to remain till it rots, when they press out the juice. This, upon being exposed to the sun and evaporated, leaves a kind of paste, which is cut into small pieces of the form in which we see it brought to us." This passage of the Italian ought at least to have prevented the Germans from considering the product as a mineral, which they were to seek in the bowels of the earth; but illiberal ignorance had thrown discredit on Marco Polo and ranked him among those travellers whose lies were proverbial. At two other places in India, Guzzerat and Kambaia, Marco speaks of indigo as an article of extensive manufacture. Much curious information in regard to the trade in this article at the middle of the fourteenth century is contained in the works of Francesco Balducci Pegolotti. At that time indigo was imported in leather bags and in chests, in the same manner as at present. Although for more than two thousand years its value had been recognised in Asia, still its use was either prohibited or restrained for a considerable period in different European countries, under the erroneous belief that its color was fugitive.

It was not until after the discovery of America that indigo was obtained in any very large quantities in Europe. The plant from which it is prepared was found growing wild in most of the tropical parts of the western hemisphere. Its application was likewise well known. We learn from the authority of more than one traveller, that the Aztecs, the unfortunate aborigines of Mexico, were well aware of its value as a dye, and that it was commonly employed by them in giving a beautiful hue to their cotton fabries. During the last century the cultivation of indigo has been almost entirely neglected by the Spanish Mexicans, from the preference given in Europe to the indigo of Guatimala, or central America, and the failure of the native cotton manufacture in which it was principally used. Since the Mexicans have shaken off the Spanish yoke their commercial and agricultural prosperity has

become a subject of more rational interest and attention. Attempts are now therefore being made to revive, among other branches of industry, the cultivation of indigo. A little is now grown on the western coasts, and it has been introduced into the valley of Cuautla. In some parts, which are hot and marshy, it is a natural production of the soil.

The indigo of Guatimala was long prized as the best, and although this plant was cultivated in the West Indies and other parts of America, none ever approached to the excellence of that of Guatimala, which was long rated in commerce as of unrivalled quality. This plant was much cultivated in the French West-India islands, and the government of the parent country took so great interest in its improvement as to appoint scientific men to investigate its preparation and to point out in what manner it was susceptible of improvement. It does not appear, however, that these exertions were attended with any very beneficial results, and although much was suggested, perhaps no real, certainly no very important, improvements were introduced in the mode of preparing indigo. That prepared by the French still ranked lower, though next in quality to the produce of Guatimala.

This plant was for some time cultivated in great abundance in Jamaica, forming one of its principal articles of exportation; but a tax having been laid upon it, the culture of sugar became a more profitable branch of agriculture. Indigofera was found growing spontaneously in Carolina in the year 1747, and so abundantly that 200,000 lbs. were shipped to England, and sold at a very good price, though it was not quite so well prepared as the French indigo; its farther cultivation in North America has not, however, been very extensively prosecuted.

In the year 1787 another source for the supply of indigo was opened by the French, who then began to import cotton and indigo from their settlement at Goree, on the coast of Africa. This dye was pronounced by the English dyers to be almost equal to that of Guatimala, and superior to every kind of West-India indigo.

Indigo from America was for a long period very superior to that obtained from the East; and although this dyeing ingredient was recognised in commerce as coming from the East Indies, it was imported thence in small quantities, and of so indifferent a quality, as not in any way to compete with the western production. Scarcely twenty years ago, this was the relative position of the indigoes from America and Asia. Since then the judicious and spirited exertions of a few enlightened individuals have shown that by careful cultivation and preparation its character might be essentially improved in the British possessions in India. At the present day this article ranks among the most important objects of our commerce with the East Indies, while its quality has been raised far above that received from South America.

The seed is sowed in little furrows about the breadth of the hoe, and two or three inches in depth. These furrows are made a foot apart from each other, and in as straight a line as possible. A bushel of seed is sufficient for five acres of land. Though it may be sown in all seasons, spring is mostly preferred for the purpose. Soon after sowing, continual attention is required to pluck the weeds, which would quickly choke up the plant, and impede its growth. Sufficient moisture causes it to shoot above the surface in three or four days,

sickle a few inches above its roots. The ratoons, or subsequent growth from the same plant, ripen in six or eight weeks. Sometimes four crops are obtained in one year from the same roots; but in North America and other parts where the heat of the sun is less fervid, the cultivator obtains but two, or perhaps only one crop. The produce diminishes fast after the second cutting, and therefore it is said to be absolutely necessary to sow the seeds afresh every year, or every two years at farthest.

The coloring matter is obtained from the whole plant. There are two modes used for its extraction -it is fermented, or it is scalded. The first method is universally practised in South America and the West Indies; and almost wholly by the English factors in the East.

If dried hastily in the sun it is apt to become brittle. When all moisture is expelled, and the substance is quite solid, it is cut into square cakes. The process is not yet, however, completed. If exported in this state it would speedily become mouldy; a second fermentation is therefore necessary. To produce this the cakes are heaped in a cask and simply suffered to remain there for about three weeks. During this time they undergo a degree of fermentation; they become heated, moisture exudes from the surface, a most disagreeable odor is emitted, and finally the cakes are covered with a fine white meal. They are then taken out and dried in the shade for five or six days, when they are in a fit state to be packed for exportation.

NO CEREMONY.

If you were to search society, you would find nine out of every ten profess their utter dislike of all ceremony. Take them at their own word, they are the most downright, unaffected people in the world; but see them in the practice of life, and they turn out to be as full of airs, and as much offended at any little omission of the punctilious homage due to themselves as may be. It seems as if we were under a constant wish to get back to nature and simplicity, but as constantly checked in every effort to that effect, by the powerful bonds which a state