latitude. (I am considering the Amazon as trib-tropical sea is separated by a narrow strip of land utary to the Caribbean Sea, and will show it so from the Pacific Ocean, across which a good to be.) The back country which supports and thoroughfare is required, in order to place this supplies with the elements of commerce this sea cornucopia of the world practically and commerof ours, extends from 20° south to 50° north. cially where it is geographically, viz., midway The land within this region is fruitful beyond between Europe and Asia. measure; it includes all the producing latitudes on the face of God's footstool, and every variety of production, except tea and a few spices, that the three grand kingdoms of nature afford, is to be found here in the greatest perfection, profusion, and abundance. Coal measures without limit; mountains of iron; the best silver and the richest copper mines, and all the materials of mineral wealth, abound in this region as they do nowhere else. Nor is the vegetable kingdom less prolific or beautiful. The finest of wheat, the best of fruits, corn without measure, hemp, cotton, rice, sugar, wine, oil, indigo, coffee, and India-rubber, tobacco and timber, dye-stuffs, and the finest of woods, are all to be found in this magnificent system of basins in vast quantities and in great beauty and perfection.

From this proposed opening, the trade-winds of the Pacific blow from the eastward to the westward, and extend entirely across that ocean. They blow with wonderful regularity, steadiness, and constancy. In " running down the trades" the mariner enjoys the most beautiful navigation. Without care for his safety he sails before them day after day, for weeks together, never once touching a brace or handling a sail. In them the sea is always smooth, the weather fine, and the climate delicious. Gales of wind are unknown, and life there becomes so delightful to the sailor, that, with nothing to do, he congratulates himself in mere wantonness with the remark that "it is well all parts of the sea had not been so, else his mother would have been a sailor."

The trade winds embrace a belt of ocean about Nor are the supplies from the animal kingdom fifty degrees of latitude in breadth, extending on a scale less grand. Everything that island or from twenty-five or thirty degrees north to twentymountain, sea-shore or inland basin, plains and five or thirty degrees south. An ordinary sailer, pampas, tierras templadas or tierras calientes, can in running them down, will average, day after produce, is brought down to enrich this great day, two hundred miles. She counts upon them cornucopia of commerce. It occupies a geograph- with as much certainty as the flatboat-man counts ical position that makes it the commercial centre upon the downward current of the Mississippi of the sea; and on account of this very position river. To the north of the equator they blow it possesses advantages which no other part of the from the north-east; to the south of it they wide ocean has ever enjoyed. It is between two blow from the south-east. From these winds hemispheres. It has a continent to the north and the Pacific takes its name. The "keels," a continent to the south. When it is seed time" broad horns," and rafts, which come down the on one side of it, it is harvest time on the other; and there will be, when its back country is settled up, a perpetual delivery of crops in its markets.

With Europe to the east and Asia to the west, it is midway between the two parts of the Old World, and it stands on an eminence in navigation and commerce which places all parts of the earth at its feet, and from which it may be made to send its surplus produce down the currents of the ocean or before the winds of heaven, to the people of every city and clime who are to be found on the seashore.

OCEAN CURRENTS AND WINDS.

Mississippi, might navigate the trade wind region-opposite to the middle of which is the Caribbean Sea-with as much safety as they can descend the river. Open boats, yawls, have been known to sail thousands of miles before them across that ocean. So smooth and exempt from storms is it where these winds prevail, that much of the coasting trade of Peru is carried on by "catamarans," or " balsas." These "balsas" are nothing more than a few light logs tied together; in other words, they are a Mississippi raft, with a pole stuck down between two of the logs, to which a sail is tied. Piling their produce in sacks or bales on these logs, the Peruvians stand boldly out to sea, and perform sea voyages of considerable duration.

An ocean current sweeps past the mouth of the Amazon into the Caribbean Sea, and makes that river discharge there. This current runs thence through the Yucatan pass; rushes by the Balize, and, dashing along at the rate of four miles the hour, whirls through the Straits of Florida and enters the Atlantic Ocean in the shape of the benignant Gulf stream, which tempers with its warmth the climates of Europe, and bears along thence the surplus produce that is delivered to it from this magnificent system of American rivers and river basins. On the other side, this inter-cult and dangerous part of the voyage.

It is not overdrawing the picture to add, that, with a ship canal across the Isthmus, the raft which comes down the Mississippi river or the boat for navigating the Illinois canal might, on arriving at New Orleans, and not finding a market there, stick up a pole for a mast, and setting sail, go to the Sandwich Islands or Manilla, and perhaps to China. Getting through the gulf to the canal across the Isthmus would be the most diffi

From Chambers' Journal.

THE ALBATROSS.

sweeping, with arrow-like swiftness, before the most furious gale; and the way in which it just tops the raging billows, and sweeps between the

wonder and admiration. Although a vessel running before the wind frequently sails more than 200 miles in the twenty-four hours, and that for days together, still the albatross has not the slightest difficulty in keeping up with the ship, but also performs circles of many miles in extent, returning again to hunt up the wake of the vessel for any substances thrown overboard.

Of all the interesting objects which present them-gulfy waves, has a hundred times called forth my selves to the eye of the voyager in the southern hemisphere, the albatross is among the most noteworthy. Apart from its relieving the monotony of the watery expanse, this bird, by its extraordinary characteristics, seldom fails of exciting a lively degree of astonishment in the spectator-for what can be thought of a bird which apparently requires neither rest nor sleep? It is perhaps owing to this peculiarity that sailors and others have regarded the albatross with mingled feelings of awe and wonder its presence was an omen, but rather of good than evil. The weary crew of Bartholomew Diaz doubtless looked on the swift, air-cleaving creature as an appropriate scout from the Cape of Storms, while Vasco de Gama may have hailed it as the herald of his hope and success. Coleridge has very happily availed himself of these different aspects in his" Ancient Mariner," where he makes the aged seaman, with " long gray beard and glittering eye,' relate how, from out the dismal mists

"Like the other species of the genus, it is nocturnal as well as diurnal, and no bird with which I am acquainted takes so little repose. It appears to be perpetually on the wing, scanning the surface of the ocean for molluscs and medusæ, and the other marine animals that constitute its food. So frequently does the boldness of this species cost it its life, that hundreds are annually killed, without, however, its numbers being apparently in any degree lessened. It readily seizes a hook baited with "fat of any kind; and if a boat be lowered, its attention is immediately attracted, and while flying round, it is easily shot." It is not surprising that a poetical imagination should have been excited by such a subject, and Coleridge is not the only bard who has shaped it into verse. Another writes

Whatever delight might be experienced in contemplating the bird under the mysterious point of view suggested by the poet, would be rather heightened than diminished by a knowledge of its real natural character; and this we may obtain from that valuable and highly meritorious work, "The Birds of Australia," by Mr. Gould. According to this enterprising naturalist

"The Diomedea exulans (wandering albatross) is by far the largest and most powerful species of its tribe; and, from its great strength and ferocious disposition, is held in terror by every other bird with which it is surrounded. It is even said that it will fearlessly attack and tear out the eyes of a drowning man, a feat, from what I have observed of it, I can readily imagine it would attempt. It is most abundant between the 30th and 60th degrees of south latitude, and appears to be equally numerous in all parts of the ocean bounded by those degrees; and I feel assured that it is confined to no one part, but is constantly engaged in making a circuit of the globe in that particular zone allotted by nature for its habitation. The open sea is in fact its natural home; and this it never leaves, except for the purpose of breeding, when it usually resorts to rocky islands the most difficult of access. "The powers of flight of the wandering albatross are much greater than those of any other bird that has come under my observation. Although, during calm or moderate weather, it sometimes rests on the surface of the water, it is almost constantly on the wing, and is equally at ease while passing over the glassy surface during the stillest calm, or

Now upon Australian seas,
Wafted by the tropic breeze,
We salute the southern cross,
Watch the wondrous albatross-
Circling round in orbits vast,
Pausing now above the mast,
Laving now his snowy breast
Where the billows sleeping rest.
Now he skims the surface o'er
Rising, falling evermore;
Floating high on stillest wing,
Now he seems a guardian thing,
Now a messenger of wrath,
Cleaving swift his airy path;
Bearing o'er the liquid plain
Warning of the hurricane.

Mr. Gould's description of the Diomedea melanophrys (black-eyebrowed albatross) exhibits other characteristics:-"Of all the species," he observes, "with which I am acquainted, this is the most fearless of man, and it often approaches many yards nearer the vessel than any other. I have even observed it approach so near that the tips of its pinions were not more than two arms' length from the tafferel. It is very easily captured with a hook and line; and as this operation gives not the least pain to the bird, the point of the hook merely taking hold in the horny and insensible tip of the bill, I frequently amused myself in capturing it in this way, and after detaining it sufficiently long to afford me an opportunity for investigating any particular point respecting which I wished to satisfy myself, setting it at liberty again. I also caught numerous exainples, marked, and gave them their liberty, in order to ascertain whether the individuals which were flying round the ship at nightfall were the same that were similarly engaged at daylight in the morning, after a night's run of 120 miles, and which, in nearly every instance, proved to be the case.'

Angling for albatrosses is no modern art, as appears from the narrative of Sir Richard Hawkins' voyage to the South Sea in 1593, in which it is pretty certain that these birds are spoken of. “Certaine great fowles," says the narrator, "as bigge as swannes, soared about us, and the winde calo

Mr. Earle, whose observations were made on the almost inaccessible heights of Tristan d'Acunha, remarks:-"The huge albatross here appeared to dread no interloper or enemy, for their young were on the ground completely uncovered, and the old ones were stalking around them. They lay but one egg, on the ground, where they make a kind of nest by scraping the earth around it: the young is entirely white, and covered with a woolly down which is very beautiful. As we approached, they snapped their beaks with a very quick motion, making a great noise: this, and the throwing up of the contents of the stomach, are the only means of offence and defence which they seem to possess.' It was at one time believed that the head of the female became of a scarlet color while she was sitting, and afterwards resumed its original hue. Be this as it may, the male is very attentive to her during the time she keeps the nest, and is con

ing, setled themselves in the sea, and fed upon the the watch for the albatross quitting its nest, when sweepings of our ship; which I perceiving, and the rapacious pirate instantly pounces down and desirous to see of them, because they seemed farre devours the egg. So well is the poor bird aware greater than in truth they were, I caused a hooke of the propensity of its foe, that it snaps the mandiand line to be brought me, and with a piece of pil-bles of its beak violently together whenever it chard I bated the hooke, and a foot from it tied a observes the lestris flying overhead." piece of corke, that it might not sinke deepe, and threw it into the sea, which, our ship driving with the sea, in a little time was a good space from us, and one of the fowles beeing hungry, presently seized upon it, and the hooke in his upper beake. It is like to a faulcon's bill, but that the point is more crooked, in that manner, as by no meanes hee could cleere himselfe, except that the line brake, or the hooke righted: plucking him towards the ship, with the waving of his wings he eased the weight of his body, and being brought to the sterne of our ship, two of our company went downe by the ladder of the poope, and seized on his neck and wings; but such were the blows he gave them with his pinnions, as both left their hand-fast, beeing beaten blacke and blue; we cast a snare about his necke, and so triced him into the ship. By the same manner of fishing we caught so many of them, as refreshed and recreated all my people for that day. Their bodies were great, but of little flesh and ten-stantly on the wing in search of food, which, as der; in taste answerable to the food whereon they feed. They were of two colours-some white, some gray; they had three joyntes in each wing: and from the pointe of one wing to the pointe of the other, both stretched out, was above two fathoms."

Similar instances are recorded, though not in language quaint and tedious as the above, in Cook's Voyages. The great circumnavigator's crew were glad to regale themselves on albatross roast and boiled, after having been many weeks at sea, and confined to salt food. Sir James Ross, too, after stating that when off the Aguilhas bank, “the gigantic albatross was seen in great numbers, and many of them taken by means of a fishing-line," remarks-"These birds added a degree of cheerfulness to our solitary wanderings, which contrasted strongly with the dreary and unvarying stillness of the tropical region.'

before observed, consists of small marine animals, mucilaginous zoophytes, and the spawn of fish. When opportunity offers, however, they attack more solid fare. Commander Rempthorne relates, that while on a voyage in 1836, in search of the lost crew of the "Charles Eaton," he fell in with the half-putrid carcass of a whale, surrounded by a host of fishes and birds, albatrosses among the latter; "and so occupied were they, that even the approach of our boat did not disturb them, or put them to flight many albatrosses allowed us to attack them with our oars and the boat-hooks, and several were consequently knocked down and killed." The egg of the albatross is about four inches long, white, and spotted at the larger end; although good to eat, the albumen or white does not solidify in the boiling. The penguin is said to take possession of the nests when vacated. The albatross is a constant attendant on fishing parties, Most marvellous accounts have been given of the and if in a low condition from scarcity of food or spread of wing of the albatross, rivalling the won-other causes, soon regains its flesh and fat, so voraderful roc of the "Arabian Nights." Mr. Gould ciously does it devour. It is no uncommon occurtook pains to verify the facts. The largest speci-rence for one of these birds to take a fish of several men seen by him measured 10 feet 1 inch from tip to tip of the outspread wings, and weighed 17 pounds. But Dr. M'Cormick, surgeon of the " Erebus, in the Antarctic exploring voyage met with one weighing 20 pounds, and 12 feet stretch of wing. The Auckland Islands, about to become the head-quarters of our southern whale-fishery, are a much-frequented breeding-place for the birds; the others as yet known to naturalists are the Campbell Island-some lonely rocks off the southernmost extremity of Van Diemen's Land-and the islands of Tristan d'Acunha. While at the Aucklands, Dr. M'Cormick made himself acquainted with what Notwithstanding its large size, the albatross does may be called the bird's domestic habits :-"The not appear to be a quarrelsome bird; and when albatross," he writes, "during the period of incu-attacked by its enemy the skua gull, it endeavors bation, is frequently found asleep with its head to save itself by flight. Captain Cook once saw a under its wings; its beautiful white head and neck contest between two of these gulls and an albatross ; appearing above the grass, betray its situation at a the sole object of the latter appeared to be to defend considerable distance off. On the approach of an its breast and the softer portions of its body from intruder, it resolutely defends its egg, refusing to the fierce assaults of its antagonists: loss of liberty, quit the nest until forced off, when it slowly wad- however, is said to irritate the bird greatly. Its dles away in an awkward manner to a short dis- voice, according to Sourrini, resembles that of the tance, without attempting to take wing. Its great-pelican, with a cry approaching the bray of an ass. est enemy is a fierce species of Lestris, always on This author further observes with regard to the

pounds' weight into its mouth, and having swallowed one extremity, to wait, like the boa-constrictor, digesting and gulping until the whole is consumed. Towards the end of June, in anticipation of the fishing season, albatrosses arrive in thousands on the coasts of Kamtschatka, and are captured in great numbers, for food and other purposes, by the natives. With the hollow bones of the wing they make pipe-stems, sheaths, needlecases, and combs, the latter being used in the preparation of flax they also make use of the inflated intestines as floats for their nets.

:

flight of the albatross :-"The manner of these | passage, the author makes some further remarks as birds' flying is very astonishing; the beating of to this bird's powers of flight. "I remarked," he their wings is perceived only at the moment of says, "that the albatross would lower himself even taking wing, and often they make use at the same to the water's edge, and elevate himself again withtime of their feet, which, being webbed, enable out any apparent impulse; nor could I observe any them to rise by striking the water. This impulse percussion of the wings when the flight was directed once given, they have no longer need to beat their against the wind, but then, of course, its progress wings; they keep them widely extended, and seek was tardy. Many, however, have differed with me their prey, balancing themselves alternately from in considering that the birds never fly' dead against right to left, skimming with rapid flight the surface the wind,' but in that manner which sailors term of the sea. This balancing serves doubtless to ac- close to the wind,' and thus make progress, aided celerate their course, but it would seem scarcely by, when seemingly flying against, the wind. This sufficient to support them in the air. Perhaps an bird is evidently aided by its long wings, as well imperceptible fluttering of their feathers is the prin- as tail, in directing its flight; it is never seen to cipal cause of this extraordinary movement. In soar to any great height, and is often observed to this respect they would require to have muscles change its course, by turning the wings and body especially adapted, and for this reason I consider in a lateral direction, and oftentimes, when raising that the anatomy of these birds merits the greatest itself, to bend the last joint of the wings downattention." wards."

By the Germans the albatross is named "der wandernde schiffsvogel" (the wandering ship-bird;) the Dutch term it "Jean de Jenten;" English sailors, looking to its bulky appearance, call it "the Cape sheep ;" and with them also the sooty albatross is "the Quaker-bird." There are seven species particularized by naturalists: the technical description, however, of the Diomedea exulans, given by Mr. Gould, will apply in general terms to the whole. "The wandering albatross," he observes, "varies much in color at different ages: very old birds are entirely white, with the exception of the pinions, which are black; and they are to be met with in every stage, from pure white, white freckled, and barred with dark-brown, to dark chocolate-brown approaching to black, the latter coloring being always accompanied by a white face, which in some specimens is washed with buff; beneath the true feathers they are abundantly supplied with a fine white down; the bill is delicate pinkywhite, inclining to yellow at the tip; irides very dark-brown; eyelash bare, fleshy, and of a palegreen; legs, feet and webs, pinky-white. The young are at first clothed in a pure white down, which gives place to the dark-brown coloring." The "cautious albatross," as its name indicates, is very shy, seldom approaches the land, and is not easily captured; the yellow-billed species, when in pursuit of its prey, will dive and swim for several yards under water.

Mr. Bennet, in his "Wanderings," has some interesting passages on the subject of the albatross. "It is pleasing," he writes, "to observe this superb bird sailing in the air in graceful and elegant movements, seemingly excited by some invisible power, for there is scarcely any movement of the wings seen after the first and frequent impulses are given, when the creature elevates itself in the air; rising and falling as if some concealed power guided its various motions, without any muscular exertion of its own, and then descending, sweeps the air close to the stern of the ship, with an independence of manner, as if it were monarch of all it surveyed.' It is from the very little muscular exertion used by these birds that they are capable of sustaining such long flights without repose. * When seiz

ing on an object floating on the water, they gradually descend with expanded or upraised wings, or sometimes alight, and float like a duck on the water, while devouring their food; then they again soar in mid-air, and recommence their erratic flights. It is interesting to view them during boisterous weather, flying with, and even against the wind, seeming the gayest of the gay' in the midst of the howling and foaming waves. In another

From our extracts it is evident that for those who possess the "art of seeing," a voyage across the wide ocean is not necessarily a scene of monotonous weariness: there is food for instruction and inspiration everywhere; and here, with some further lines from the poem already quoted, we may appropri ately bring our article to a close :

Oh, thou wild and wondrous bird!
Viewing thee, my thought is stirred.
Round and round the world thou goest,
Ocean solitudes thou knowest-
Into trackless wastes hast flown,
Which no eye save thine hath known:
Ever tireless-day or night;
Calm or tempest-ceaseless flight.

Albatross, I envy thee

Oft thy soaring pinions free;
For we deem the realms of air
Too ethereal for care.

Gladness as of endless springs
Seems to me is born with wings.
Thou canst rise and see the sun,
When his course to us is done
A moral here may us engross,
Thou the teacher-albatross !

Time is the measure but of change;

No present hour is found;
The past, the future, fill the range
Of Time's unceasing round.
Where then is now? In realms above,
With God's atoning Lamb,

In regions of eternal love,

Where sits, enthroned, I AM.

Then, pilgrim, let thy joys and tears
On Time no longer lean;
But henceforth all thy hopes and fears
From earth's affections wean :
To God let votive accents rise;

With truth, with virtue live;
So all the bliss that Time denies
Eternity shall give.

Griswold's Sacred Poets.

The enemy, then, against which, first of all, it Here, then, was the problem to be resolved by was necessary to declare uncompromising war, Mr. Leclaire. He worked at it assiduously for over whom it was necessary to obtain a brilliant years, and finally obtained, by casy and certain victory, was Lead, which had become by an inex-means, and with great economy: orable necessity the main ingredient of all painting in oil. After that came the tints obtained by a combination of copper, also easily oxydized, and consequently greatly deleterious.