mind need not be slow to picture to itself the intimate | passes of Caucasus, the Caspian passes, the pass of resemblances of all kinds and all parts of animals and Issus, rendered celebrated by the victory of Alexanbeings created or imagined, from the tamest to the der; that of Thermopylae, immortalized by the demost disordered and wild. At the Cape of Good voted patriotism of Leonidas and his band of SparHope you will find an altar; in Bohemia a labyrinth | tans; and the Candinae Turculae, where Rome saw of rocks rising like pillars; in the province of Dauphine a monstrous ninepin; near Envionne in the Valais the figure of an old French frizzled wig; in the highlands of the Hudson the profile of the human face; in Massachusetts the exact resemblance of a saddle, and a sugar loaf; in short, mountains present every possible variety of exteriour form, from the sharp crystal like and pyramidal peaks, to slight elevations and gentle declivities.

ed limestone, are also found at greater heights in the new than the old world.

The following is a table of the height of some of the principal mountains on the globe, reckoning from the level of the sea.

Several mountains bear evident marks of having, at some distant period, been the outlet of fires; and on this account they are called extinct volcanes.

It has sometimes happened, that new islands have been formed during submarine eruptions. An instance of this kind occurred in 1811, in the neighbourhood of St. Michael, one of the Azores, which 15,668 lay about 800 miles west of Portugal. This new 15,527 island has since disappeared; more recently a new 13,730 island has appeared in the Mediterranean, near the 12,500 island of Sicily, which disappeared after the lapse 7,968 of a few months.

6,778 A considerable portion of the islands of the globe, 6,580 are found to be of volcanick origin.

11,427 Many islands, especially those in the South Sea, 11,275 owe their origin to the marine insects which produce 9,523 the coral. Some, are banks of sand, just raised 10,870 above the surface of the water."

3,932

BIOGRAPHY.

Etna, in Sicily,

Vesuvius, near Naples,

Egmont, (New Zealand,)

11,430

Ararat, (Armenia,)

9,600

Awatsha, (Kamtschatka,)

9,600

Lebanon, (Palestine,)

9,600

15,705

8,633

7,278

Mount Washington (New Hampshire,)

It is remarkable that in the old continent the principal chains of mountains contain no volcanoes, and that islands, and the extremities of peninsulas, are alone the seats of these convulsions; while in the

new world, the immense range which runs along the shore of the Pacifick ocean possesses more volcanoes, than are found in the old continent and its adjacent islands.

Professor Jamieson has given the following esti

mate of the number of volcanoes:

Continent of Europe,

1

BY SAMUEL L. KNAPP.

Jacob Perkins was born at Newburyport, on the Matthew Perkins, a descendant, in the third generaninth day of July, 1766. His father was Mr. tion, of one of the first settlers of Ipswich, which is one of the oldest towns in Massachusetts, and has, ever since its settlement, been remarkable for the longevity of many of its inhabitants. This gentleman died many years since, nearly ninety years of 12 age. He retained his mental and corporeal faculties in a wonderful degree, until the last days of his life. He was a man of a strong mind; an industrious, good citizen, and a careful father, but brought his children in the strict school of Presbyterian discipline. Jacob early discovered marks of an inquisitive mind; for before he had learned his letters, he chanced to get into his possession a large watch, which he opened with great care, and for a long time listened to ascertain what made the noise in it

8

58

97

19

No volcano has yet been discovered on the continent of Africa, but most of its groups of islands are distinguished by them.

Those marked are volcanoes.

up

His mother found him with it, and hastily took it from him, thinking he must have done it some injury; but the child earnestly requested her to let him have it again, when he was a bigger boy, that he might see what made the noise. As soon as he could read words of three syllables, he was sent to the publick school, and was kept there until he was twelve years old. The schoolfellows of Perkins speak of him as a smart boy at that time, who was fair in all play, yet he was sure to be among the first in every game in which children amuse themselves. At twelve years of age he was sent as an apprentice to a Mr. Davis, of Newburyport, a goldsmith, to learn the art and mysteries of the trade. This was considered the best situation for the development of the lad's talents for the mechanical arts. His opportunities for acquiring information were, however, small, and these advantages, such as they were, did not continue long, for Davis died when Perkins had only served out three years of his apprenticeship.

this information. At twenty-four he invented the nail machine, which cut and headed nails at one operation.

This was the best labour-saving machine that had ever been in use among us. Those, at first doubtful of its success, were at length convinced of the great utility of this invention; and it was generally considered as the sure foundation of the inventor's for tune and fame. Great offers were made him for a share of the patent. This was, indeed, a wonderful machine; such celerity of motion, such power of execution, such a combination of mechanical principles, had rarely, or never, been seen in this country. Those who foretold the success of the invention were right-time has proved it; but those who thought that great advantages would result from it, to the inventor, forgot that knaves might reap what industry sowed, and bargain-making men enjoy what genius had created. At this time, two unprincipled adventurers from abroad, with the appearance of great wealth, engaged with Perkins in erecting a This was a trying period for him, then a youth of factory for putting the machine in operation on a fifteen years of age, panting for knowledge, and large scale. The works were auspiciously comdesirous of reaching the metropolis to find instruc- menced, and continued to answer the expectations tion in his profession; but he made up his mind to of the publick for a year or two, and were becoming carry on the business of the shop, and this deter- more perfect every day, under the superintendence mination he religiously fulfilled; and the establish- of Perkins; when it was discovered by him that his ment, during the remaining years of his apprentice- copartners had but little money, and less honesty, ship, was more lucrative than it was in the life time and that their credit was lost. The establishment of his master. Gold beads were then worn on the was sold by them, and Perkins was suddenly left neck of every class of respectable females, from the with the loss of all his hard labours, and the proaged dame with Bible and spectacles, to the laughing perty he had put in the concern. This was not and buoyant damsel of fifteen; of course there was all; they left debts for which he was answerable, an extensive market for this article; the workman- without any means for their payment. This disship of his beads was of the highest order; the aster plunged hiin into the most extraordinary and honesty of so kind and faithful a young man was vexatious embarrassments. By the assistance of never questioned, nor could be, and the shop was his friends, however, Perkins soon overcame these the resort of all who wanted to purchase. This was difficulties and started with fresh vigour to apply his a fortunate commencement; for people of every mind in his profession, and was successful in almost grade, from king Hiero, to the simplest maiden, every thing he undertook, so far as to show that he whose industry had just reached the happiness of seldom pursued an inquiry without some beneficial seeing a string of pure and shining gold upon her result to the publick. A set of liberal men had purspotless bosom, dislike to be duped in matters of chased the factory he and his copartners had abanornament, more particularly, perhaps, than in any doned, who employed him to put the factory in other. Shoebuckles were then universally worn operation, and to add some improvements to the old by all ages and classes, and Perkins turned his works. This did much to amuse him, until he found attention to the manufactory of them, and soon dis-other business, and they knew and acknowledged, in covered a method of plating them, entirely new, by a proper manner, the value of his services. which he could bring his work into the market at less prices than the imported ones of equal goodness and beauty could be afforded.

But the fashion of this ornament soon passed away, and so entirely, that for the last thirty years scarcely a pair of buckles has been seen, and then only when worn by some pertinacious adherent to antiquated dress.

During the old confederation, each state had a right to coin money for itself; Massachusetts had a mint, from which was issued copper coin only, stamped with the arms of the commonwealth. The art of making dies for this coinage was then, with us, in its infancy; and it was with great difficulty that a mechanick could be found, of sufficient skill, to undertake the task. After numerous failures of others, Perkins was employed by government, when he was but twenty-one years of age, and succeeded to the satisfaction of the master of the mint, the late Ebenezer Hancock, Esq., from whom the writer had

The evil of counterfeit bank notes, in the market, was severely felt by all classes of people. The ingenuity of Perkins was called into requisition to avert in some degree this sore vexation and calamity. Nothing could be more difficult than to stop the practice of counterfeiting by detecting the authors of it; they flee from one place to another at a great distance from each other, with such security in a thinly-settled country, and find so many facilities in getting off spurious bills, that the race can never be extirpated by the terrours of the law, nor the vigilance of the police; something, therefore, was to be done, which would give the most ignorant in the community some guide by which he might determine, in some cases, the spurious from true bills.

This was a progressive labour. The experiment was first made by a small stamp on the common bills; this answered a very good purpose, for the stamp was seldom imitated. Afterwards, the check plate was used, which was one of the best preven

tive of deception that we ever had. Even the race
of counterfeiters never tried to imitate this plan, or
never, with the slightest success and in their flash
language to one another, they bear testimony to its
excellence, by often saying, that they had such a
sum of money in bank bills, and so much in check
backs; or sometimes, striped backs-giving their as-
sociates to understand by these latter terms, how
much good and genuine paper they had in their pos-
session; and many of them, when detected and con-
demned, and could have no farther interest in the
prosperity of the trade, have declared the fact, that
they could do nothing with these plates. The pub-
lick prosecutors have uniformly stated, that they
never had made an indictment on an imitation of
this plate.
The bills were rather thick and clumsy,
and of course, not of easy management in the
banks; and others of a thinner sort were preferred.
Many banks adopted the plate from the belief of the
security in it.

were very intelligent, and some of them, especially in the professions, men of much erudition. The mass of the inhabitants were sober, honest, and religious. industriously engaged in their own pursuits; they never disturbed him by vague and unnecessary inquiries about his discoveries, but waited until he was ready to communicate them. He was in this place equally removed from the excitement and idle curiosity of a great city, and the peering inquisitiveness of a small village. Among these relations, friends, and townsmen, if he had not much to fire his ambition, he had nothing-after his first embarrassments were removed-to disturb the current of his thoughts; nothing to crush his hopes, or to mortify his spirits. He was known to all, connected with many, respected by most, and associated with the best; from boyhood he maintained, and augmented the favourable impressions he had made on the publick mind for talents, and his name was as familiar to every child, for superiour ingenuity, as the dial which the urchin watched to mark the moment for his school to begin. The literati of the town were among his warmest admirers and friends, and if he did not get much information from them in his own pursuits, he received many other advantages of perhaps equal value; they were the guardians of his fame; their opinions and friendships were a shield to his reputation, when assailed by the envious and carping, among those engaged in similar pursuits.

A self-taught man, in his progress to knowledge, has a thousand difficulties to contend with, that the regularly educated man does not meet. Instead of having rules, principles, and axioms, stored in his memory for use, he has to form, as it were, his own alphabet of the sciences and the arts he is striving to understand. The elementary principles which have been discovered and fixed for ages, are but little known to him. He becomes the true inventor of many things, when, perhaps, the original inventor lived ages before him, and may have been for- The latter years of the residence of Perkins in gotten. Much time is therefore spent in toiling up Newburyport and Boston, were occupied on subjects to the knowledge of his own time. This exertion so numerous and various, that it would be impossimay strengthen the powers of his mind, but it cer-[ble, for any one, but himself, to give an accurate tainly consumes some of the best years of human detail of them, or hardly make out a full catalogue life; and after all, he has, probably, imbibed nu- of his inventions and improvements. The method merous errours in philosophy, which have been he discovered of softening and hardening steel, at detected, and their fallacy proved to the learned and pleasure, increased the interest the community had scientifick, long before he existed. Perkins deeply taken in his check-plate for security against counfelt this want of early instruction; he knew there terfeiting. This discovery has produced many formust have been many things settled which he was tunate results, and opened a great field for his labours. trying to discover, but he did not know where to The softness of copperplates, which required often find them. A man of genius without the light of retouching, precluded the possibility, by these means, knowledge, resembles Samson when his vision was of producing a perpetual similarity in dies for bills, extinguished, but his hair had grown, groping, in or other use; but this invention has effected the vain, for objects on which his supernatural gift object practically, if not mathematically. might be tried. When Perkins was young, there were but few good books on natural philosophy in this country, and those, perhaps, not within his reach. Lectures were given at the several colleges, but they did not contain much information, compared with those of the present day, and these were chiefly confined to professors and students. The exact sciences were but slightly regarded at that period by many men of learning. The taste has changed, and there is a strong desire for this kind of knowledge in almost every profession; and, in truth, philosophy has been brought to the common cares of life, with wonderful success.

The growth and progress of a great mind, depend much on the place where a man's lot is cast in early life, and the rank he holds among his fellow men. The birthplace of Perkins was, in many respects, friendly to a mind like his. Retirement is the nurse of thought; he had, in that place, sufficient opportunities for deep and uninterrupted reflection. It was a busy, thriving town, with a population of six or seven thousand souls. The people, in general,

The king of Siam never expressed greater surprise and incredulity, when told by the Dutch ambassador, that in Holland water became so hard, at times, as to be sufficiently strong to bear all his royal elephants, than did the philosophers of Europe and America, when Perkins first maintained the doctrine of the compressibility of water. He for a long while doubted the old philosophy, but made a series of experiments, before he dared risk his reputation on a full avowal. His perseverance is now amply rewarded by a general belief in this phenomenon. This discovery led to the invention of his bathometer, an instrument, as its name denotes, to measure the depth of water-and his pleometer, which marks with precision the rate at which a vessel moves through the same element.

Every man, who knows Perkins, and is capable of judging of his merits, cannot but place his intellectual powers in the first class of mind, but common observers have frequently thought him dull and plodding-a man who built up his fame by slow and patient drudgery; but they do not know him.

It is

There never lived a man more destitute of selfish

true he is patient and laborious, but it is also true that he possesses that divine impulse of the mind ness, or more prodigal of his labours for publick which cannot be measured, nor exactly analyzed; good; but it generally happens that, in views and that power which creates, combines, and felicitously feelings too expanded, a very particular attention to arranges all it acts upon; that faculty of the soul ordinary and everyday matters is not readily found; which leaves all things of a common cast and seems Perkins wanted such a man as Franklin was, for to go on as if ordained to develop the great laws of his friend and companion, with his maxims on prucreation. There was much of the "mens divinior" dence, thriftiness, punctuality in pecuniary settlein him who first used the alembick, or invented num-ments, and all the economical philosophy of "Poor bers and pursued them to the higher branches of Richard;" and such a sage might in return, have mathematicks, or taught the extent, and the charms been paid for his friendship, by purity of feeling, of algebraick calculation, as in those who have pro- singleness of heart, and an exhaustless fund of induced the sublimest efforts of taste, in poetry, sculp-tellectual wealth. ture, and painting. The ethereal spirit which lighted Perkins never made any complaint of the neglect up the soul of Archimedes was as intense, as pure of the world, or its ingratitude, which is so common to and hallowed, and came as directly from the great men who are sometimes not sufficiently appreciated. fountain of light and intelligence, as that which In every strait and difficulty he found one friend that warmed the breast of Homer. The poets, painters, was never weary-such a one as is seldom seen sculptors, and orators, are not the only sons of God or known-one who never obtruded his advice, by the daughters of men: the philosophers and in-never sought him to share his fame, or followed him ventors-that have made

fire, flood, and earth, The vassals of their will,"

for the benefit of mankind, have an equal birth claim in the heraldry of nature.

to mingle with his associates for pleasure or pride, nor kept near him to speculate on his credulous generosity-but a man of good affections and an excellent understanding, who came when the funds of his friend were low, and his pulse sinking with disappointment, to lend his name to the bank and relieve his mind from the load which oppressed him; all this was done with such delicacy and gentleness as greatly to enhance the value of the service, and to give new charms to the fraternal tie-for this was a younger brother; and the vicissitudes of fortune have given the elder an opportunity of showing a similar disposition. For several years before Perkins went to England, he had resided in Philadelphia, a city in which the arts, sciences, and letters were highly patronized.

Simplicity is the striking characteristick of the habits and manners of Perkins; and his methods of reasoning are all of the same cast; he begins upon a subject, whatever it may be, with calmness and serenity, and though constantly "on the rack of invention," he seems in a revery, on a bed of flowers. Invincibly persevering until he is certain that he can accomplish what he has undertaken, he often leaves the design to be carried into execution by some one to whom he accidentally imparts the information, and, probably, the first he knows of the advantage of Mr. Perkins has now been several years in Enghis invention is through the medium of the altered land. At the commencement of his career, he was condition, and perhaps consequential airs of the hailed by all classes with enthusiasm; he was encreature who had grown up by catching the offals ofcouraged to go on, and has, we trust, received honhis genius. Smaller animals often feed on the prey the lion has hunted down.

our and reward from a people who have given him a fair opportunity to exhibit his powers; the British nation have been just to his merits, without asking how long it is since his ancestors left their shores. Perkins has no political account to settle with any body of men, for he always considered himself as a citizen of the world. Science was his pursuit, usefulness his object; and although he enjoyed his own opinions and exercised his rights, yet he never stopped to join a party or to warm himself by political excitements.

The

To his brother artists, Perkins always showed the most delicate attention; and, notwithstanding he was teazed by them, to examine and recommend their inventions, as often, and as pertinaciously as the bard of Twickenham, by his rhyming brothers, yet he never lost his patience, or ordered the door to be shut, the knocker tied up, nor charged his workmen to say that he was sick or dead; he felt no jealousy of them, and would do much at any time to oblige them, if they were tolerably clever in their Since Perkins has been in England, his fame and business. He was modest and quiet, but did not usefulness have greatly increased; still, however, think humbly of his own capacity; not that he ever disappointments and vexations, the everlasting conassumed a tone of superiority, or discovered any self-comitants of genius, have fallen to his lot. conceit, but he always indulged ardent hopes, and publick are now in possession of a sufficient number it would not be going too far to say, a fixed belief, of his inventions, which have been practically tested, that he should find something in his course which to ensure him a permanent reputation; but he is not would lead to fame and fortune. When entreated content with what he has already done, for every by his friends, as he often was, to control his dis-hour bears witness to some new struggle by him, in position for invention, and attempt to turn some of the world of invention, and the last is more gigantick his numerous matters, already in operation, to pecu- than any former one. niary account, he quietly answered, that he was, in his own opinion, still an apprentice in his profession, and must do something more before he should be satisfied to set up for himself; and he sometimes modestly intimated hopes that England would be the theatre on which he should act his part.

He has a compact, athletick frame, a strong constitution, and sprang from a longlived race of hardy men; therefore we may indulge a hope that he will have opportunities of doing much before he passes the boundaries of active life. May it be so decreed-and the remotest nations enjoy the benefit of