Varieties.

THE MEDUSE.

THE Polar sea has a peculiar colour, which is caused by the great quantity of medusæ and other minute animals. They are most abundant in the sea water, which is of an olive-green colour. Capt. Scoresby, during one of his voyages to the Arctic regions, examined a quantity of the olivegreen sea water, and found the medusæ immense. They were about one-fourth of an inch asunder. In this proportion a cubic inch of water would contain 64; a cubic foot 110,592; a cubic fathom 23,887,872, and a cubic mile about 23,888,000,000,000. From soundings made in the situation where these animals were found, it is probable the sea is upwards of a mile in depth, but whether these substances occupy the whole depth is uncertain. Provided however the depth to which they extend be but 250 fathoms, the above immense number of one species may occur in a space of two miles square. It may give a better conception of the amount of medusæ in this extent, if we calculate the length of time that would be requisite for a certain number of persons to count this number. Allowing that one person could count a million in seven days, which is barely possible, it would have required that 80,000 persons should have started at the creation of the world to complete the enumeration at the present time.

What a stupendous idea does this fact give of the immensity of creation! But if the number of animals in a space of two miles square be so great, what must be the amount requisite for discolouring the sea through an extent

of twenty or thirty thousand miles.

WILD PIGEONS.

THE accounts of the enormous flocks in which the passenger, or wild pigeons, fly about in North America, seem to an European like the tales of Baron Munchausen; but the travellers are "all in a story." In Upper Canada, says Mr. Howison, in his entertaining "Sketches," you may kill 20 or 30 at one shot out of the masses which darken the air. And in the United States, according to Wilson the ornithologist, they sometimes desolate and lay waste a tract of country 40 or 50 miles long, and 5 or 6 broad, by making it their breeding-place. While in the state of Ohio, Mr. Wilson saw a flock of these birds which extended, he judged, more than a mile in breadth, and continued to pass over his head at the rate of one mile in a minute, during four hours-thus making its whole length about 240 miles.-According to his moderate estimate, this flock contained two thousand two hundred and thirty millions two hundred and seventy-two pigeons

THE VOLCANO OF JURULLO, IN

MEXICO..

THE most elevated summit of the intendancy of Valladolid in Mexico, is the Pic de Tancitaro, to the east of Tuspan. To the east of this peak is the extraordinary volcano of Jurullo, which was formed in the night of the 29th September, 1759. The great catastrophe by which this mountain rose from the earth, and by which a considerable extent of ground totally changed its appearance, is perhaps one of the most extraordinary physical revolutions on

record. A vast plain extends from the hills of Eguasarco to near the villages of Teipa and Petatlan, both equally celebrated for their fine plantations of cotton. This plain is only from two thousand one hundred and sixty to two thousand six hundred and twentyfour feet above the level of the sea. In the middle of this space basaltic cones appear, the summits of which are crowned with ever-green oaks of a laurel and olive foliage, intermingled with palm trees. This beautiful vegetation forms a singular contrast with the aridity of the plain which was laid waste by volcanic fire. Till the middle of the 18th century, fields cultivated with sugarcane and indigo occupied the extent of ground between the two brooks Cuitamba and San Pedro, These fields, watered by artificial means, belonged to one of the greatest and richest plantations in the country. In the month of June, 1759, a subterraneous noise was heard. Hollow noises of a most alarming nature were accompanied by frequent earthquakes, which succeeded one another for from fifty to sixty days, to the great consternation of the neighbouring inhabitants. From the beginning of September, every thing seemed to announce the complete reestablishment of tranquillity, when, in the night between the 28th and 29th, the horrible subterraneous noise recommenced. The affrighted Indians fled to the mountains for safety. A track of ground, from three to four square miles in extent, which goes by the name of Malpays, rose up in the shape of a bladder. The bounds of this convulsion are still distinguishable in the fractured strata. The ground thrown up is, near its edges, thirty-nine feet in height

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above the old level of the plain; but it rises progressively towards the centre, to an elevation of five hundred feet. Those who witnessed this great catastrophe from the top of the mountain of Aguasarco, assert, that flames were seen to issue forth for an extent of more than half a square league; that fragments of burning rocks were thrown up to prodigious heights; and that, through a thick cloud of ashes, illumined by volcanic fire, the softened surface of the earth was seen to swell up like an agitated sea. The rivers of Cuitamba and San Pedro rushed into the burning chasms, and contributed to exasperate the flames, which were distinguishable at the city of Pascuaro, though situated on a very extensive table land, four thousand five hundred feet above the plains of Jurullo. Eruptions of mud, and especially of strata of clay, enveloping balls of decomposed basaltes, in concentrical layers, appear to indicate that subterraneous water had no small share in producing this extraordinary revolution. Thousands of small cones, from six to nine feet in height, called by the natives ovens, issued from the ground while it was under the influence of this confusion; and, although the heat of these volcanic ovens has suffered a great diminution, Humboldt mentions that he has seen the thermometer rise to two hundred and two degrees of Fahrenheit, on being plunged into fissures, which exhale an aqueous vapour. From each small cone the vapour arises to the height of forty or fifty feet. In many of them a subterraneous noise is heard, resembling that occasioned by the boiling of a fluid. In the midst of the ovens, six large masses, elevated from one thousand three hundred to

one thousand six hundred feet above the old level of the plains, sprung up from the chasm. The most elevated of these masses is the great volcano of Jurullo. It is continually burning, and has thrown up an immense quantity of lavas. These great eruptions of the central volcano continued till the month of February, 1760. In the following years they became less frequent; and the Indians having been gradually accustomed to the terrific noises of the new volcano, had advanced towards the mountains to admire the streams of fire discharged from an infinity of great and small volcanic apertures. At the first explosion of this volcano, the roofs of the houses of Queretaro were covered with ashes, though distant more than forty-eight leagues. The subterraneous fire appears now far from violent; and the desolated ground, as well as the great volcano, begin to be covered with vegetables. The air, however, is still heated to such a degree by the ovens, as to raise the thermometer to one hundred and nine degrees of Fahrenheit.

THE FAMILY ELM.

In the village of Crawley there is an Elm of great size, in the hollow trunk of which a poor woman gave birth to an infant, and where she afterwards resided for a long time. The tree which is a great curiosity is still standing, but as the parish is not willing to be burthened with all the young elms that might be brought forth from the trunk of this singular tree, the lord of the manor has very wisely put up a door to the entrance of this new lying-inhospital, which is kept locked, except upon particular occasions, when the neighbours meet to

enjoy their pipe, and tell old tales in the cavity of the elm, which is capable of containing a party of more than a dozen. The interior of this tree is paved with bricks, and in other respects made comfortable for its temporary occupants.

CELERITY OF MANUfacture. GEN. M'CLURE made a bet of 50 dollars, that he would take wool in the fleece and manufacture a suit of satinet cloth in ten hours. The bet was decided entirely in his favour, having completed the suit and put it on, in eight hours and forty-six minutes. The colour was a blue mixture; the wool was coloured in thirty-five minutes; carded, spun, and wove in two hours and twenty-five minutes; fulled, napped, dyed, sheared, and dressed in one hour and fifty-nine minutes; carried in four minutes three quarters of a mile, to Mr. Gilmore's tailor's shop, who, with the assistance of seven hands, completed the coat, jacket, and overalls in three hours and forty-nine minutes. There was half a yard of the cloth left, being in the whole eight yards and a half, and of such quality as was estimated to be worth one dollar per yard. The General offers to double the bet that he will make a better suit in less than eight hours, and dares the advocates of John Bull's manufactures to take him up.

There was a great collection of people assembled on this occasion.

Col. Barnard, with the officers, commissioned and noncommissioned, of his regiment, a full band of music, and many citizens, escorted the General from the village to the factory; when, after partaking of this worthy citizen's usual liberality, the pro

cession returned to the village, the air resounding with many hearty cheers.-American Paper.

THE INDIAN NURSE.

CAPTAIN FRANKLIN (R. N.) in his narrative of his journey to the Polar Seas, says, "The Chipewyan Indians profess strong af fection for their children, and some regard for their relations, who are often numerous, as they trace very far the ties of consanguinity. A curious instance of the former was mentioned to us, so well authenticated, that I shall venture to give it in the words of Dr. Richardson's Journal.- A young Chipewyan had separated from the rest of his band for the purpose of trenching beaver, when his wife, who was his sole com panion, and in her first pregnancy, was seized with the pains of labour. She died on the third day, after having given birth to a fine boy. The husband was inconsolable, and vowed in his anguish never to take another woman to wife, but his grief was in some degree absorbed in anxiety for his infant son. To preserve its life he descended to the office of nurse, so degrading in the eyes of a Chipewyan, as partaking of the duties of a woman. He swaddled it in soft moss, fed it with broth made from the flesh of the deer, and to still its cries applied it to his breast, praying most earnestly to the great Maker of Life, to assist his endeavours. The force of the powerful passion by which he was actuated, produced the same effect in his case, as it has done in some others which are recorded; a flow of milk actually took place from his breast. He succeeded in rearing his child, taught him to be a hunter, and when he attained the age of

manhood, chose him a wife from the tribe. The old man kept his vow in never taking a second wife himself, but he delighted in tending his son's children, and when his daughter-in-law used to interfere, saying that it was not the occupation of a man, he was wont to reply, that he had promised to the great Master of Life, if his child was spared, never to be proud, like the other Indians. He used to mention, too, as a certain proof of the approbation of Providence, that although he was always obliged to carry his child on his back while hunting, yet that it never roused a mouse by its cries, being always particularly still at those times. Our informant (Mr. Wentzel, the guide to the expedition) added, that he had often seen this Indian in his old age, and that his left breast, even then, retained the unusual size it had acquired in his occupation of nurse.'

CAT EATERS.

low, about forty. The cat was then given to him; on which he took hold of his four legs with one hand, and closing his mouth with the other, he killed him by biting his head to pieces immediately, and in less than a quarter of an hour, devoured every part of the cat, tail, legs, claws, bones, and every thing. The man who laid the wager gave the fellow two guineas for doing it, and the shepherd appeared perfectly satisfied with the reward."-After he had done it, he walked about the fair the whole afternoon, and appeared neither.sick nor sorry. He took no emetic, nor had this repast any effect upon him what

ever.

Eccentric Biography.

"Mankind are various, and the world is wide."

FRANCIS BATTALIA, THE STONE

EATER.

MAN generally comes into the world and goes out of it empty handed; we say generally, for this rule, like most others, is not without an exception, as will be seen in the memoir we are about to give of an Italian who lived in London about the middle of the seventeenth century. For this account we are indebted to a tract by Dr. John Bulwer, published in 1753, and entitled "Man Transformed, or the Artificial Changeling."

I saw in London, the other day (says the Doctor), an Italian, one Francis Battalia by name, about thirty years of age, who was born with two stones in one hand and one in the other; who as soon as he was born, having the breast offered unto him refused to suck; and when they would have fed

him with pap he utterly rejected that also; whereupon the midwife and nurse, entering into consideration of the strangeness of his birth and refusal of all kind of nourishment, consulted with some physicians what they should do in this case.

When the physicians saw that the child rejected all usual nourishment, they stated their opinion that the child brought its meat with it in the world, and that it was to be nourished with stones. The experiment was tried, the three stones which he held in his hands when born (some accounts say five) were successively swallowed; and the nurse now fed him with nothing but small pebbles, which constituted his only solid food, not only from his birth to manhood, but during the remainder of his life.

Dr. Bulwer, who saw him when he was thirty years of age, says: "His manner is to put three or four stones into a spoon, and so putting them into the mouth together, to swallow them all down one after another; then he drinks a glass of beer after them. He devours about half a peck of these stones every day; and when he chinks upon his stomach, or shakes his body, you may hear the stones rattle as if they were in a sack; all which in twenty-four hours are resolved: after which digestion of them he hath a fresh appetite to these stones, as we have to our victuals; and by these, with a cup of beer and a pipe of tobacco, he has his whole subsistence. He hath attempted to eat meat and bread, broth, milk, and such kind of food, upon which other mortals commonly live; but he could never brook any, neither would they stay with him to do him any good.