LONGEVITY.

Notwithstanding all that has been written on this subject, it may fairly be affirmed, that nothing has yet been done towards making the slightest approach to a real rationale of the causes which are productive of length of years. Shallow empiricks, in evil abundance, have laid down their infallible rules for the preservation of health, and for the promulgation of life to an extreme old age; and, having sold their nostrums or their books, and pocketed the money of their dupes, have afforded the best evidence of their utter ignorance upon the subject, by failing, in their own especial persons, to reach even the average number of years of human existence.

A mer glance at this table—and we could have greatly extended it-will show more clearly than any argument, that climate has no specific or infallible influence upon the duration of life, excepting in extreme cases; for, excepting the extremes, there is included in the table of places almost every variety of soil and climate. Venice, built literally in the water, the mild warmth of France, the fierce and What most strongly and strikingly shows the folly biting blasts of Norway, have alike permitted lonof laying down systematick rules for the promulgation gevity. Jane Reeve lived to 103 in the marshy of life to an old age is this, that among the persons county of Essex, and Hippocrates, the great phywho are recorded to have attained to the greatest sician, lived but to 104 in the delicious island of term of years, have been people of all the varieties Cos; Albuma Marc reached 150 in sultry Ethiopia, of rank, employment, and circumstances. If we in- and Christian Drakenberg reached to within four sist upon invariable temperance as an indispensable years of that age in steril and chilly Norway. requisite towards the attainment of fulness of years, Such contrasts seem to bid defiance to all efforts at we are at once met by the fact that Thomas Parr, philosophizing upon the subject. But thus much who lived above a century and a half, had been in may be assumed for certain, that every temporary early life, any thing but an abstemious or even tem-shock which health receives does somewhat to imperate man; and that Lewis Cornaro, who died at pair the durability of the human frame; and that, 100 years of age, had reached the half of those consequently, as it is obvious that every act of intemyears before he ceased to be guilty of such gross perance causes a temporary derangement of health, gluttony and irregularity, that his physicians antici- we ought not to be tempted to intemperance because pated his almost instant decease. But this objection some intemperate men have attained to length of we shall show to be rather specious than solid. If days; but to remember that even were not our we insist upon comfort, regularity, and nourishing morality concerned, as it evidently and importantly through plain diet, truth plucks us by the sleeve and is, in our observance of the virtue of temperancereminds us that Parr, and Jenkins whose age was they lived long not on account of their intemperance, 170 years save one, depended for their support upon but notwithstanding it, and that they might, and most the charity which they had to encounter all weathers probably would, have lived much longer, had they to solicit, and which was not always accorded to not been guilty of the excesses they committed. their solicitation. Has climate any specifick and infallible influence in the matter? In extreme cases it undoubtedly has; Sierra Leone has no nonagenarians even to speak of, and the coast of Devonshire and the sweet vales of Montpelier, are undoubtedly possessed of both the air and the soil which are more congenial to the human frame than the marshes of Missolonghi, or the simoom-swept deserts of the East. Perhaps we cannot more agreeably conclude this But if any one feel inclined to go beyond this, and brief notice of the subject than by quoting, from a to say that in this or in that place the specifick cli-clever contemporary, the reply of an Italian, who, mate is to be found in which man will infallibly inhale the principle of long life, let him only just cast his eye over the subjoined table: let him observe the diversity of climates in which the long livers there named have existed :

The issues of life and death, it must be remembered, are primarily in the hands of God; but he has given us a free will to choose between secondary causes; and there is no doubt that whatever circumstances or climate we may be placed in, temperance in all things, is, as to health, longevity, and virtue, a very indispensable requisite.

being asked in his 116th year, the means by which he had attained to so advanced an age, replied, with the ready versification for which the Italians are so remarkable :

"Con mangiar brocoli,
Portar a i pedi zoccoli;
In tetto capello,

Pochi pensieri in cervello."

Signifying if our free translation may be pardon

South Carolina.ed:

Transylvania.
Ireland.

Staffordshire.

Ditto.

Yorkshire.

152 Shropshire.

121

Francis Bons

A. Goldsmith

142

France.

計

Ditto.

Scotland.

Liverpool.

Norway.

Wales.

Cheshire.

Suffolk.

"When hungry, of the best I eat,
And dry and warm I keep my feet;
I screen my head from sun and rain,
And let few cares perplex my brain."

Nor is the latter part of this improvisatized recipe. either so unimportant or so difficult as but too many persons may be inclined to think it. For scarcely any thing conduces more to health of body than calmness and serenity of mind; and of all the storms

which devastate the human mind, alas! how large a

majority are the consequences of human wickedness and human perversity! how few inevitable or un

ameliorable.

EXTRAORDINARY INDIAN FEATS OF LEGERDEMAIN. | near him, to bring some stiff clay from a certain

From the Manuscripts of D. D. Mitchell, Esq.

place which he named on the river bank. This we I have felt some reluctance in narrating the fol- understood, through an old Canadian named Garrow, lowing singular feats, (I had almost said miracles,) (well known on the Missouri,) who was present and which I saw performed among the Arickara Indians, acted as our interpreter. The young man scon renot because I consider them unworthy the attention turned with the clay, and each of these human bears, of the curious, but lest I should be accused of sport- immediately commenced the process of moulding a ing with the reader's credulity, or of availing myself number of little images exactly resembling buffaloes, too largely of what is supposed by some to be the men and horses, bows, arrows, &c. When they had traveller's privilege. I acknowledge that the perform-completed nine of each variety, the miniature buffaance was altogether above my comprehension, and loes were all placed together in a line, and the little greatly excited my astonishment. clay hunters mounted on their horses,, and holding their bows and arrows in their hands, were stationed about three feet from them in a parallel line. I must confess that at this part of the ceremony I felt very much inclined to be merry, especially when I observed what appeared to me the ludicrous solemnity with which it was performed. But ny ridicule was changed into astonishment, and even into awe, by what speedily followed.

In civilized life, we know the many expedients to which men resort in order to acquire a subsistence, and are not therefore surprised, that by perseverance and long practice, stimulated by necessity they should attain great dexterity in the art of deception. To find it, however, carried to such great perfection by wild and untutored savages, who are neither urged by necessity, nor indeed receive the slightest reward for their skill, is certainly very surprising.

In travelling up the Missouri during the summer of 1831, we lost our horses near the Arickara village, which caused our detention for several days. As this nation has committed more outrages upon the whites than any other on the Missouri, and seem to possess all the vices of the savage without a redeeming virtue, we found ourselves very unpleasantly situated near the principal village, without sufficient force to repel an attack if one should be made. After some deliberation we adopted the advice of an old Canadian hunter, and determined to move our chattels directly into the village, and, whilst we remained, to take up our lodgings with the tribe. We were emboldened to this step, by the assurance of the hunter, that the Arickarees had never been known to kill but one man who had taken refuge within the limits of their town, and that their forbearance originated in the superstitious belief that the ghost of the murdered had haunted their encampment, and had frightened away the buffalo by his nightly screams.

When the buffaloes and horsemen were properly arranged, one of the jugglers thus addressed the little clay men, or hunters:

My children, I know you are hungry; it has been a long time since you have been out hunting. Exert yourselves to-day. Try and kill as many as you can. Here are white people present who will laugh at you if you don't kill. Go! don't you see that the buffaloes have already got the scent of you and have started?"

Conceive, if possible, our amazement, when the speaker's last words escaped his lips, at seeing the little images start off at full speed, followed by the Lilliputian horsemen, who, with their bows of clay and arrows of straw, actually pierced the sides of the flying buffaloes at the distance of three feet. Several of the little animals soon fell, apparently dead,-but two of them ran round the circumference of the circles, (a distance of fifteen or twenty feet,) and before they finally fell, one had three and the other had five arrows transfixed in his side. When We were received in the village with much more the buffaloes were all dead, the man who first adpoliteness than we expected; a lodge was appropri-dressed the hunters spoke to them again, and ordered ated to our use, and provisions were brought to us in abundance.—After we were completely refreshed, a young man came to our lodge, and informed us that a band of bears, (as he expressed it,) or medicine men, were making preparations to exhibit their skill, and that if we felt disposed we could witness the ceremony. We were much gratified at the invitation, as we had all heard marvellous stories of the wonderful feats performed by the Indian medicine men or jugglers. We accordingly followed our guide to the medicine lodge, where we found six men dressed in bear-skins, and seated in a circle in the middle of the apartment. The spectators were standing around, and so arranged as to give each individual a view of the performers. They civilly made way for our party, and placed us so near the circle that we had ample opportunity of detecting the I paid the strictest attention to the whole ceremony, imposture, if any imposition should be practised. in order to discover, if possible, the mode by which The actors (if I may so call them) were painted in this extraordinary deception was practised: but all the most grotesque manner imaginable, blending so my vigilance was of no avail. The jugglers themcompletely the ludicrous and frightful in their appear-selves sat motionless during the performance, and the ance, that the spectators might be said to be somewhat undecided whether to laugh or to shudder. After sitting for some time in a kind of mournful silence, one of the jugglers desired a youth who was

them to ride into the fire, (a small one having been previously kindled in the centre of the apartment,) and on receiving this cruel order, the gallant horsemen, without exhibiting the least symptoms of fear or reluctance, rode forward at a brisk trot until they had reached the fire. The riders now commenced beating their horses with their bows, and soon succeeded in urging them into the flames, where horses and riders both tumbled down, and for a time lay baking on the coals. The medicine men gathered up the dead buffaloes, and laid them also on the fire, and when all were completely dried they were taken out and pounded into dust. After a long speech from one of the party, (of which our interpreter could make nothing,) the dust was carried to the top of the lodge and scattered to the winds.

nearest was not within six feet. I failed altogether to detect the mysterious agency by which inanimate images of clay were to all appearance suddenly endowed with the action, energy and feeling of living beings

CONSTITUENT PROPERTIES OF THE BLOOD.

a, Simple fibre of a muscle magnified 400 diameters; b, c, ditto, 200 diameters; d, sixteen coloured globules of the blood magnified 400 diameters; e, the same globules deprived of their red envelope; f, colourless globules coalescing together and forming, as is conjectured, the elementary fibre of muscle.

consists of countless numbers of minute globules, of | vora, than in the sheep, the hare, and the timid a red colour, and are called the red particles. animals."

The fibrin is the material from which all the solids of the body are formed; and next to the red particles is the most important part of the blood.

The serosity of the blood, which is the last constituent we shall have to mention, is that fluid which in roasted meats is popularly termed "gravy." It is drained from the serum in a coagulated state; its use in the system is to supply the watery secretions, such as tears, saliva, &c.

The specifick gravity of blood, taking water at 1000 is, at an average, about 1,070. Venous is heavier than arterial blood.

In the blood of many of the lower animals, our knowledge of these minute bodies is solely due to the microscope; before it was invented they were totally unknown. In the human blood they appear to be of a globular shape; and consist of an external red envelope, or skin, and an internal colourless substance, round which the coloured skin is closely The temperature of the blood varies according to wrapped. (See engraving.) They exist in numbers the nature of different animals: hence some are emwhich exceed all calculation. Leenwenhock and phatically called cold-blooded. In birds it is very Dr. Jurin, who long and anxiously examined them, high. In man it is usually at about 98°, and higher and who were the first in discovering them, have or lower as disease influences the system. computed the diameter of a single globule of human The blood is endowed with an extraordinary power blood, to be the one thousand, nine hundred and for- of maintaining, for a long time, the equality of its tieth part of an inch; from which it follows, that a temperature undisturbed by the elevating or depressing ball of an inch in diameter would be equal to seven influences of surrounding heat or cold. The human thousand, three hundred and one millions, three hun-blood possesses this power in a degree superiour to dred and eighty-four thousand such globules. Mar- that of all other creatures; and hence, in regions vellous as this appears, succeeding observers, of the highest credit, have even made the numbers greater. Prevost, Dumas, Wollaston, Bauer, and Kater, have nearly doubled the amount.

The present and most universal opinion concerning these particles is, as we have before observed, that they constitute the very essence of the blood, and, influenced by various chymical and other affinities, form all the animal textures. The formation of muscle from them may be almost seen, for the ultimate fibre of a muscle is nothing more than a number of apparent globules (see engraving), arranged in a connected series, similar to those in the blood. The manner in which these red particles are formed, is wrapped in impenetrable mystery.

We trace the food through the stomach into the intestines, its multifarious ingredients changed into a milky fluid, and in this we discover globules; but they are without colour. We therefore follow them in their passage through the great absorbing vessels, till we see them discharged into the current of the blood, and thence to the lungs, where, coming into contact with the oxygen of the air, they at once become red, and constitute arterial or living blood. All this we can see, but no farther.

The serum, which next demands our attention, is the fluid in which, after coagulation, the crassamentum floats. It is light coloured and viscid; and with a heat of 160° may be converted into a substance exactly like the white of an egg, which, in its chymical constituents, it closely resembles. It holds many substances in solution; of these the principal are, muriate of soda, combined with minute portions of muriate of potash, subcarbonate of soda, sulphate of potash, and phosphate of lime, iron, and magnesia. Sulphur, and a quantity of uncombined alkali, also exist in it. The probable use of the serum is to circulate the fibrin, and those substances which run through the body for the perpetual maintenance of the ever-exhausting system. It is remarked that "the proportion of the serum to the crassamentum differs exceedingly in different animals, and in the same animals at different times. It appears to have a close relation to the strength and ferocity, or the meekness and gentleness of the animal, being, for example, much smaller in quantity, in all the carni

where the bear falls into a state of deathlike torpor, man pursues his customary industry, and in the scorching plains of the great red desert, where even the lion retreats, exhausted from the consuming heat of the torrid zone, we see a Parke, a Denham, or a Lander, steadily maintaining an equanimity of temperature, and fearlessly pursuing their enterprising researches.

SAILING DOWN THE OHIO.

BY AUDUBON.

The natural features of North America are not less remarkable than the moral character of her inhabitants; and I cannot find a better subject than one of those magnificent rivers that roll the collected waters of her extensive territories to the ocean.

When my wife, my eldest son (then an infant), and myself, were returning from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, we found it expedient, the waters being unusually low, to provide ourselves with a skiff, to enable us to proceed to our abode at Henderson. I purchased a large, commodious, and light boat of that denomination. We procured a mattress, and our friends furnished us with ready-prepared viands. We had two stout negro rowers, and in this trim we left the village of Shippingport, in expectation of reaching the place of our destination in a very few days.

It was in the month of October. The autumnal teints already decorated the shores of that queen of rivers, the Ohio. Every tree was hung with long and flowing festoons of different species of vines, many loaded with clustered fruits of varied brilliancy, their rich bronzed carmine mingling beautifully with the yellow foliage, which now predominated over the yet green leaves reflecting more lively teints from the clear stream than ever landscape painter portrayed or poet imagined.

The days were yet warm. The sun had assumed the rich and glowing hue which at that season produces the singular phenomenon called there the "Indian summer." The moon had rather passed the meridian of her grandeur. We glided down the river, meeting no other ripple of the water than that formed by the propulsion of our boat. Leisurely

we moved along, gazing all day on the grandeur and beauty of the wild scenery around us.

Now and then a large cat-fish rose to the surface of the water in pursuit of a shoal of fry, which, starting simultaneously from the liquid element, like so many silvery arrows, produced a shower of light, while the pursuer with open jaws seized the strag-side as fast as possible. The sounds increased; we glers, and with a splash of his tail, disappeared from our view. Other fishes we heard uttering beneath our bark a rumbling noise, the strange sounds of which we discovered to proceed from the white perch, for on casting our net from the bow, we caught several of that species, when the noise ceased for a time.

Several of these happy days passed, and we neared our home, when, one evening, not far from Pigeon Creek (a small stream which runs into the Ohio, from the state of Indiana), a loud and strange noise was heard, so like the yells of Indian warfare, that we pulled at our oars, and made for the opposite imagined we heard cries of "murder;" and as we knew that some depredations had lately been committed in the country by dissatisfied parties of aborigines, we felt for a while extremely uncomfortable. Ere long, however, our minds became more calmed, and we plainly discovered that the singular uproar was produced by an enthusiastick set of Methodists, who had wandered thus far out of the common way, for the purpose of holding one of their annual campmeetings, under the shade of a beech forest. Without meeting with any other interruption, we reached Henderson, distant from Shippingport by water about two hundred miles.

Nature, in her varied arrangements, seems to have felt a partiality towards this portion of our country. As the traveller ascends or descends the Ohio, he cannot help remarking, that, alternately, nearly the whole length of the river, the margin, on one side, is bounded by lofty hills and a rolling surface; while, on the other, extensive plains of the richest alluvial When I think of these times, and call back to my land are seen as far as the eye can command the mind the grandeur and beauty of hose almost uninview. Islands of varied size and form rise here and habited shores; when I picture! yself the dense there from the bosom of the water, and the winding and lofty summits of the forest, that everywhere course of the stream frequently brings you to places spread along the hills, and overhung the margins of where the idea of being on a river of great length the stream, unmolested by the axe of the settler; when changes to that of floating on a lake of moderate ex-I know how dearly purchased the safe navigation of tent. Some of these islands are of considerable that river has been by the blood of many worthy Virsize and value; while others, small and insignificant, seem as if intended for contrast, and as serving to enhance the general interest of the scenery. These little islands are frequently overflowed during great freshets or floods, and receive at their heads prodigious heaps of drifted timber. We foresaw with great concern the alterations that cultivation would soon produce along those delightful banks.

ginians; when I see that no longer any aborigines are to be found there, and that the vast herds of elks, deer and buffaloes, which once pastured on these hills and in these valleys, making for themselves great roads to the several salt springs, have ceased to exist; when I reflect that all this grand portion of our Union, instead of being in a state of nature, is now more or less covered with villages, farms, and towns, where the din of hammers and machinery is constantly heard; that the woods are fast disappearing under the axe by day, and the fire by night; that hundreds of steam-boats are gliding to and fro, over the whole length of the majestick river, forcing commerce to take root and to prosper at every spotwhen I see the surplus population of Europe coming to assist in the destruction of the forest, and transplanting civilization into its dark recesses— when I remember that these extraordinary changes which have all taken place in the short period of twenty years, I pause, wonder, and although I know all to be the fact, can scarcely believe its reality.

As night came, sinking in darkness the broader portions of the river, our minds became affected by strong emotions, and wandered far beyond the present moments. The tinkling of bells told us that the cattle which bore them were gently roving from valley to valley in search of food, or returning to their distant homes. The hooting of the great owl, or the muffled noise of its wings as it sailed smoothly over the stream, were matters of interest to us; so was the sound of the boatman's horn, as it came winding more and more softly from afar. When daylight returned, many songsters burst forth with echoing notes, more and more mellow to the listening ear. Here and there the lonely cabin of a squatter met the eye, giving note of commencing civCOMPARATIVE HEIGHT OF MONUMENTS. ilization. The crossing of the stream by a deer foretold how soon the hills would be covered with snow. Pyramids are known as the colossal structures of Many sluggish flat-boats we overtook and passed -some laden with produce from the different head- the ancient Egyptians. The cause of their erection waters of the small rivers that pour their tributary is unknown. Some maintain that they were consestreams into the Ohio; others, of less dimensions, crated to the sun; others, that they served as a kind crowded with emigrants from distant parts, in search of gnomon for astronomical observations; according of a new home. Purer pleasures I never felt; nor have you, reader, I ween, unless indeed you have felt the like, and in such company.

to Diderot, for the preservation and transmission of historical information; according to others, and this The margins of the shores and of the rivers were was the prevailing opinion among the ancients, that at this season amply supplied with game. A wild they were designed as sepulchres, or chambers for turkey, a grouse, or a blue-winged teal, could be pro- mummies. Among the most renowned are those of cured in a few moments; and we fared well, for whenever we pleased, we landed, struck up a fire, Cheops and Cephrenes; in building the former, 100, and provided as we were with the necessary uten-000 men were employed 20 years. Suppose the sils, procured a good repast. wages of the labourers were but a penny a day, yet

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