Thus are produced the extracts of rose, orange, jasmine, tuberose, cassie and violet.

5. Orange flower water and rose water are important products of this busi. ness; they are distilled from the flowers, and become separated from the oils in the process of distillation. Orange flower water is considerably used as a kind of healthy medicinal beverage; it is mixed with "eau sucrce."

LOWER CALIFORNIA.

ITS CHARACTER AND RESOURCES.

Captain C. M. Scammon has made a report to J. Ross Browne upon the character and resources of the west coast of Lower California, which is condensed by the San Francisco Bulletin, as follows:

66

'Capt. Scammon says the whole extent of the west coast is quite barren, and its approaches bold, except at particular points. St. Bartolme and Magdalena Bay are both excellent harbors, and their entrances are free from all hidden dangers. The latter has an extent of navigable lagoons connected with it of over one hundred miles. There are many places where anchorage may be found, and roadsteads where a ship may lie and find some shelter from the prevailing coast winds; also numerous islets that afford some conveniences for shipping. The climate of western Lower California is a pleasant one. The principal sources of wealth have been its whale and seal fishing, guano and salt. The salt fields of Ojo Lebre, near the head of Scammon's Lagoon, are capable of supplying an almost unlimited quantity of excellent salt. Vessels of 400 tons burthen can find good anchorage within five miles of where the salt can be embarked in lighters of 25 to 50 tons capacity. Several cargoes were brought to San Francisco a ew years ago, but the low price of the article, and the existence of supplies nearer home, made the trade unprofitable, and we believe it has been abandoned. Several remarkable lagoons exist along the coast, the entrances to which are often dangerous, and have been the cause of numerous disasters to shipping. These lagoons are the resorts of whales, and have been at times the scenes of great activity for whale fishers. When first entered for commercial purposes their waters were alive with whales, porpoises, and fish of many varieties. Tur tle and seal basked upon the shores of low islands, and game of many species was so abundant that the shoals left bare by the receding tides would be closely covered with geese, duck, snipe, and other species of sea fowl.

***66 Magdalena Bay and its adjacent lagoons were more largely resorted to for years by whalers. The bay itself is capacious, sheltered and safe, but the approaches to the lagoons are difficult if not always dangerous, lying over shoals, impassable except at high tide. At low water, says the report from which we quote, no one would imagine that a vessel of 200 to 300 tons could ever get over into the deep water between the divides. But the whaleman, after contending with the stormy elements and drifting ice of the Arctic Ocean, plies his ship towards the tropics to pass the winter months, seeking his source of wealth in a more temperate clime, with all the determination, energy and tact characteristic

of his calling. He now finds the object of pursuit, not in the fathomless blue water, but huddled together in narrow estuaries, the banks on either hand lined with the evergreen mangrove. Frequently the hollow sound of the spouting whale is heard through the trees, and the vapor ascending is seen above them. The vessel is lightened in every possible way, and by dint of running out anchors, heaving, hauling, grounding and listing, the ships cross the divides, and the whaling is pursued as though no unusual difficulties had been overcome, or none were again to be contended with to reach the open sea.' Whalers have ascended this lagoon 40 miles from its mouth, and then have only been three miles from the shore. The country about Magdalena Bay and its lagoons is generally barren and uninviting. Its resources are whales, fish, oysters, clams muscles and game. The natives who come from the interior to trade bring cattle, leather, raw hides, soap, cheese, figs, oranges, dates, pearls, shells, and in some instances silver manufactures; exchanging them for ready-made clothing, heavy cotton cloths, calicoes, tobacco and cutlery. They will sometimes come 40 or 50 miles to exchange a few arobes of fruit for necessary articles of family The quantity of oil taken from 1856 to 1861 is estimated at 34,425 bar rels, worth about $516,375. The annual oil receipts from that quarter have fallen off greatly. Quantities of turtle used to be taken in the bay, and some are still brought from there to San Francisco.

use.

There are fifteen islands off the west coast of the peninsula. They are generally high and wooded, and from their garniture of green, have a more inviting look than the mainland. Some of them afford good shelter for vessels. The highest point on St. Guadaloupe, one of the largest of the group, is about 3,400 feet above the sea, and covered with the pine and cedros. Goats abound in the ravines, and fur seal and sea elephants once made the island a favorite resort. Some prisoners of state were once banished here from Mexico, and a party of miserables-probably the same-were taken off a few years ago by an American vessel which chanced to see their signal. Elide Island was covered with guanc till the exhaustion of the supply subsequent to 1857, about 28,000 tons having been obtained altogether. Chester's Island also yielded guano for a few years Cedros Island, the largest of all, is well known to Californians from the scientific and mining explorations of which it has been the scene. Its mountain peaks are visible 60 miles at sea. Its aspect is forbidding, its climate exceedingly dry. Much of its vegetation is peculiar, and has furnished many new species to botanists. The "fayfay" tree yields a medicinal gum, which is made into an ointment with the tallow of the native goat. A few deer are found. The island was formerly a great resort for the hunters of the seal, sea elephant and otter. Other islands are the homes of innumerable sea fowls, and have furnished small quantities of guano, but this staple is now pretty much exhausted. The whale and seal fisheries, which have been from the beginning monopolized by Americans, are also nearly exhausted. On the whole, the western coast of Lower California does not offer much inducement to American enterprise. The interior must be more productive to sustain the numerous herds of cattle that rauge through the hills and valleys from Cape St. Lucas to San Diego."

MARINE INSURANCE IN ENGLAND.

PAST AND PRESENT UNDERWRITERS.

Marine insurance was practised in England before it was in use in the northern part of the continent of Europe; and even Antwerp, then in the meridian of its commercial eminence, derived it from English merchants. In 1560, Guicciardini states that the traders of England and the Netherlands "have fallen into a way of insuring their merchandise at sea by a joint contribution"; and we may perhaps assume with safety that about this period the practice became tolerably general in the commercial world of Europe.

By 1601 the amount of underwriting business dore on the London Exchange had become so considerable, that an act of Parliament was in that year passed for the establishment of a Court of Policies to decide disputes arising out of these documents. For reasons on which we need not now dwell, this tribunal failed to attract much business; and although it was subsequently reconstituted on an improved basis in the reign of Charles II., it had even then no better fate, and ultimately expired of sheer inanition. Insurance was originally carried on in England, as in Venice and on the continent generally, by individual under. writers in Lombard street, who afterwards, for their own convenience and that of the insured, assembled at a coffee-house-the first establishment of the kind in England-which was opened in a yard off that street about the middle of the seventeenth century. In 1710 they transferred their place of meeting to another coffee-house opened by a person named Lloyd in Abchurch lane-and it is from this Lloyd that the body of English underwriters have since acquired the sort of corporate name under which they are known all over the world.

In 1720 the two first insurance companies-the London Assurance and the Royal Exchange Assurance-were incorporated. They owed their existence to the necessities of George I.; and the consideration on which they obtained their charters was the promise-eventually only half fulfilled-to pay his Majesty a sum of £600,000. Established in the year of the South Sea mania, the stock of the two companies was soon raised to an extravagant premium; bat when the financial bubble burst, it experienced a more than corresponding depression, and from that circumstance and an accumulation of disasters at sea, they were for some time involved in serious difficulties. Eventually, however, these difficulties were surmounted, and for more than a hundred years they succeeded in maintain. ing their exclusive privileges as the only insurance company sanctioned or permitted by law. It required at least fourteen years' agitation to convince Par. liament of the impolicy of continuing this monopoly.

In 1810 the New Insurance Company was formed, with a capital of £5,000,000 sterling, and Parliament was appealed to in order remove the restrictions which prevented its entering upon business. After an elaborate and lengthened inquiry into the subject, a committee of the House of Commons reported that the exclusive privileges of the two great companies should be repealed, and that encouragement should be given to other associations for the promotion of sea-insurance. The influence of the monopolists was, however, sufficient to protract the contest for fourteen years, and it was not until 1824 that marine insurance was thrown open, like life and fire insurance, to

joint-stock enterprise and energy. To those unacquainted with English com. mercial history, the folly of Parliament in so long maintaining the restrictions we have mentioned may cause some surprise. But in fact it is only of a piece with their legislation down to a very recent period. Every branch of trade, in. dustry and mercantile association has had in turn to struggle for life, against the stupidity and the obstinacy of our rulers, who are even yet far from being disabused of the notion that they know better than traders what is good for trade. From 1824 the number of English marine insurance companies has steadily increased with the augmenting business offered to them by our expanding trade Liverpool and Glasgow have long possessed underwriters' rooms, and have trans acted a large amount of business. Yet the enormous import and export com. merce of Lancashire did not lead, till very lately, to the erection of any independ ent marine insurance companies, either in the great western port or in Manchester. Latterly, two or three offices have been established there, and Bristol has claimed the right of drawing marine insurance business to its busy mercantile city. Yet in all these places the insurance system flourishes rather like an exotic, having its true habitat in the metropolis of the empire. There are in London at the present time upwards of 20 proprietary marine insurance companies, besides several mutual ship insurance associations, which extend their operations in a smaller degree to the protection of freights and outfits. The aggregate members and subscribers to Lloyd's is rather above 1,500 of whom 400 are underwriting members.

ANNUAL COTTON STATEMENT OF NEW ORLEANS, MOBILE, AND CHARLESTON.

Below we give a review of the cotton movement at New Orleans, Mobile and Charleston for the past year ending August 31, 1867.

NEW ORLEANS COTTON MOVEMent for the YEAR 1865-7.-The New Orleans Price Current, of August 31, publishes its yearly review of the cotton trade of that port, from which we have prepared the following. We have given the weekly movement at New Orleans in the successive numbers of the CHRONICLE, and insert here, there fore, only the general results.

With the 1st of September, 1866 the market opened at 31@32c. for (Liverpool classification) low middling, and after rapidly advancing until early in October, it touched 39@40c., which was its highest point, it subsequently declined with but few important fluctuations, until in the latter part of April it sunk to its lowest point of 22c. for low middling and 25c. for middling. Towards the close of that month it took a sudden and favorable turn and rose to 26@27c. for low middling, after which it gave way, receding, by the middle of July, to 223@234c. since which it has ranged from 24@26.

The receipts for the year reach 780,490 bales, as follows:

Below we give a table showing the States from which the receipts of cotton at New Orleans have been shipped during the past six years:

The following shows the total receipts and value for each of the last ten years:

The exports during the year reach 867,316 bales, and the direction of these exports have been as follows. We add the figures of previous years for comparison:

1866-67. 1865-66. 1864-65. 1863-64. 1862-63. 1861-62.

EXPORTED TO.

358,878 21,326 1,155 2,070

Havre..

159,298

133,744

5,952

4,023

1,849

1,812

472

MOBILE COTTON REVIEW FOR THE YEAR.-The receipts at Mobile for the year ending