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THE WORLD AS IT IS.

CUSTOMS, MANNERS, CURIOSITIES, &c. &c.

Ir, as Cicero says, "ignorance of the events and transactions of former times, condemns us to a perpetual state of childhood;" on the other hand, ignorance of the existing state of things, be our knowledge of the past what it may, must subject us to a state of second childhood; like old age, that remembers the incidents of early life, but keeps not pace with passing events. An ac

quaintance with the past and the present are both desirable, both necessary, both indispensable; but of the two, the latter is the more so, for the plain reason that it more immediately concerns ourselves. We shall therefore, under this head, go fully into detail; which, together with the great variety of particulars that will naturally come within the scope of this department, will require no small portion of our columns; a better disposition of which, considering the nature and importance of the subject, cannot, we are persuaded, be made.

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THE turtle and the tortoise belong to the same group of reptiles-in fact the turtle is a tortoise which principally inhabits the water, and is only found occasionally on the land. The two varieties represented in the above plate are the Green Tortoise (a) and the Loggerhead Tortoise. (b) The former is the species chiefly used for food. It is found in great numbers on the coasts of all the islands and continents of the torrid zone. The shoals which surround these coasts are covered with marine plants; and in these water pastures, which are near enough to the surface to be readily seen by the naked eye in calm weather, a prodigious abundance of animals, mostly amphibious, feed, and amongst them multitudes of tortoises.

The upper shield is termed the back-plate or buckler; the lower shield, the breast-plate. The feet of the marine tortoises are much longer than those of the land, and their toes are united by a membrane, so that they swim with great facility. The head, feet, and tail are covered with small scales. The jaws of the wide mouth are not provided with teeth, but the jaw-bones are very hard and strong, and being at the same time very rough, the animal is enabled to consume its vegetable food with ese, and at the same time to crush the shell-fish on

which the marine species also feed. The green tortoise attains an enormous size and weight, some individuals measuring six or seven feet in length from the tip of the nose to the extremity of the tail, by three or four feet broad, and weighing as much as eight hundred pounds. Dampier says, "I heard of a monstrous green turtle once taken at Port Royal, in the bay of Campeachy, that was four feet deep from the back to the belly, and the belly six feet broad. Captain Rocky's son, of about nine or ten years of age, went in it (meaning in the shell) as in a boat, on board his father's ship, about a quarter of a mile from the shore." The green tortoise commonly weighs from two to three hundred pounds.

The instinct which leads the female turtle to the shore to lay her eggs, exposes her to the danger of becoming the prey of man. She deposits her eggs on the loose sand, and abandons them at once to the chance, which approaches almost to a certainty in the southern hemi spher, that they will be hatched by the influence of the sun's rays. She digs, by means of her fore-feet, one or more holes about a foot wide and two feet deep, in which she usually deposits more than a hundred eggs. These eggs are round, and are two or three inches in diameter; they are covered with a membrane something like wet

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parchment. The female generally lays three times in each year, at intervals of about a fortnight or three weeks. They almost always go ashore in the night time. A loose sand being essential to the hatching of the eggs, the turtles frequent only particular shores; but these are often several hundred miles from their feeding places. The eggs are hatched in less than a month after they are laid; and in about eight or ten days, the young reptiles crawl to the water. Few, however, reach their native element, in proportion to the number produced. They become the prey of sea-fowl and various quadrupeds of prey. The tiger is an especial enemy to the tortoise; but man is still more actively engaged in their destruction. The collection of tortoise eggs forms one of the most important of the occupations of the Indians of the Orinoco.

The wood-cut at the head of this article represents the manner in which the marine tortoises are caught on the coast of Cuba, and on parts of the South American continent. The Count de Lacepede, in his History of Oviporous Quadrupeds, has described the various modes in which the business of tortoise-catching is carried on; and we shall conclude this notice with an abstract of his account. It must be remarked that the turtle is a most important addition to the ordinary mode of victualling a ship, and that, therefore, the war in which the human race engages against them, is rendered absolutely necessary by the wants of navigators.

"In spite of the darkness which is chosen by the female tortoises for concealment when employed in laying their eggs, they cannot effectually escape from the pursuit of their enemies: the fishers wait for them on the shore, at the beginning of the night, especially when it is moonlight, and, either as they come from the sea, or as they return after laying their eggs, they dispatch them with blows of a club, or turn them quickly over on their backs, not giving them time either to defend themselves, or to blind their assailants, by throwing up the sand with their fins. When very large, it requires the efforts of several men to turn them over, and they must often employ the assistance of handspikes or levers for that pur

pose. The buckler of this species is so flat as to render it impossible for the animal to recover the recumbent posture, when it is once turned on its back.

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A small number of fishers may turn over forty or fifty tortoises, full of eggs, in less than three hours. During the day, they are employed in securing those which they had caught in the preceeding night. They cut them up, and salt the flesh and the eggs. Sometimes they may extract above thirty pints of a yellow or greenish oil from one large individual; this is employed for burning, or, when fresh, is used with different kinds of food. Sometimes they drag the tortoises they have caught, on their backs, to enclosures, in which they are reserved for occasional use.

"The tortoise fishers, from the West Indies and the Bahamas, who catch these animals on the coasts of Cuba and its adjoining islands, particularly the Caymanas, usually complete their cargoes in six weeks or two months; they afterwards return to their own islands, with the salted turtle, which is used for food both by the whites and the negroes. This salt turtle is in as great request in the American colonies, as the salted cod of Newfoundland is in many parts of Europe; and the fishing is followed by all these colonists, particularly by the British, in small vessels, on various parts of the coast of Spanish America, and the neighbouring desert islands.

"The green tortoise is likewise often caught at sea in calm weather, and in moon-light nights. For this purpose two men go together in a small boat, which is rowed by one of them, while the other is provided with a harpoos, similar to that used for killing whales. Whenever they discover a large tortoise, by the froth which it occasions on the water in rising to the surface, they hasten to the spot as quickly as possible, to prevent it from escaping. The harpoouer immediately throws his harpoon with sufficient force to penetrate through the buckler to the flesh; the tortoise instantly dives, and the fisher gives out a line, which is fixed to the harpoon, and, when the tortoise is spent with loss of blood, it is hauled into the boat or on shore."-London Penny Magazine.

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these, which they use when they travel, and when they go to forests to cut wood, and for the conveyance of their effects and provisions, as well as their persons. These dogs are harnessed to a sledge, two and two together, with a single one before as a leader. This honour is bestowed on the most intelligent, or the best trained dog; and he understands wonderfully the terms used by the conductor to direct his course. The cry of tagtag turns him to the right, and kougha to the left; the intelligent animal understands it immediately, and gives the rest the example of obedience; ah, ah, stops them, and ha makes them set off. The number of dogs that is necessary to harness depends upon the load; where it is little more than the weight of the person who mounts the sledge, it is considered as a common sledge, and the team consists of five dogs. The harness is made of leather. It passes under the neck, that is, upon the breast of these steeds, and is joined to the sledge by a strap three feet long, in the manner of a trace; the dogs are also fastened together by couples passed through their collars, and these col-dred feet. Over a part of this cataract, at about threelars are frequently covered with bear-skin, by way of

ornament.

The form of the sledge is like that of an oblong basket, the two extremities of which are elevated in a curve. Its length is about three feet, and its breadth scarcely exceeds one foot. This kind of basket, which composes the body of the sledge, is of very thin wood; the sides are of open work, and ornamented with straps of different colours. The seat of the charioteer is covered with bear-skin, and raised about three feet from the ground, upon four legs, which are fastened to two parallel planks, three or four inches broad: these planks serve as supports and skates. The driver has nothing in his hand but a curved stick, which serves him both for a rudder and a whip. Iron rings are suspended at one end of the stick, as well for ornament as for the sake of encouraging the dogs by the noise which this kind of bells make, and which are frequently jingled for that purpose; the other end is sometimes pointed with iron, to make an easier impression upon the ice; and, at the same time, it serves to excite the ardour of the animals. Dogs that are well trained have no need to hear the voice of the conductor: if he strikes the ice with his stick, they will go to the left; if he strikes the legs of his sledge, they will go to the right; and when he wishes them to stop, he has only to place the stick between the snow and the front of the sledge. When they slacken their pace, and become careless and inattentive to the signal, or to his voice, he throws his stick at them; but then the utmost address is necessary to regain it, as he proceeds rapidly along; and this is reckoned one of the strongest tests of the skill of the conductor.-Goldsmith's Customs and Manners.

TEUFELSBRUCK, OR THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE.
[For the Family Magazine.]

To the traveller fond of the romantic, and whose mind delights in scenery which excites feelings of the most sublime character, there is no country which presents greater attractions than Switzerland. Its magnificent mountains, their tops clothed in perpetual snows, its beautiful cascades, its stupendous precipices, all appeal irresistibly to the eye of the observer. Who can look upon the fall of the Rhine, who can behold the source of the Rhone, who can sit upon the terrace at Geneva, with the beautiful lake Geneva at his feet, and the needles of Mont Blanc before him, and not feel that his very soul is warmed by the scene?

The Reuss is one of the largest rivers in Switzerland. It issues from the small lake Luzendro, in mount St. Gothard, and flows through a very mountainous country. In travelling from Altdorf to Wasen, the road passes at first through a fertile plain of pasture, and after proceeding about nine miles, begins to ascend: it winds continually along the steep sides of the mountains, and

This peculiar bridge is formed of a single arch, eighty feet in span, and appears so wonderful to the rugged mountaineers, that they think it must have been placed there by supernatural means. Many travellers, however, have been disappointed on the first view of the Devil's Bridge: hence, we must remark, that the bridge itself, though difficult to execute, is not so stupendous as many others in Switzerland, and that the wild and magnificent scenery assists to astonish the beholder.

We shall, in the course of our work, give a copious description of noted falls, taking care that this country, which so justly prides itself on its thundering, its matchless Niagara, shall have its full share of attention in this particular.

BIOGRAPHY.

BIOGRAPHY is personal history. It is one branch of universal history in detail, and may be denominated the science of individual life. It is to individuals what history is to nations. By the experience of past generations in their national capacity, the present generation, in the same capacity, learns, or might learn, national wisdom. So, by past individual experience, may we in our personal capacity learn individual wisdom.

"Experience," says the proverb, "keeps a dear school, and fools will learn in no other." To this it may be added, that Biography keeps a cheap and a valuable one, and the wise will avail themselves of it. It teaches by example; it warns by contrast; it demonstrates by fact: and he that runs may read and profit. The first character which we will introduce to our readers, will tend to illustrate the benefit to be derived from a life of temperance. It is from the London Youth's Miscellany.

HENRY JENKINS, ET. 169.

HENRY JENKINS, of the parish of Bolton, in Yorkshire, being produced as a witness, at the assizes there, to prove a right of way over a man's ground, he swore to nearly 150 years memory; for at that time, he said, he well remembered a way over the ground. And being cautioned by the Judge to beware what he swore, because there were two men in court of above 80 years of age each, who had sworn they remembered no such way, he replied, "That those men were boys to him." Upon which the Judge asked the men how old they took Jenkins to be? who answered, they knew him very well, but not his age, but that he was a very old man when they were boys. Dr. Tancred Robinson, fellow of the College of Physicians, adds further, concerning this Henry Jenkins, that upon his coming into his sister's kitchen to beg alms, he asked him how old he was? who, after a little pausing, said, he was about a hundred and sixtytwo or three. The Doctor asked him what kings he remembered? he said, Henry VIII. What public event he could longest remember? He said, the fight at Flodden-field. Whether the king was there? He said no, he was in France, and the Earl of Surry was general. How old he was then? He said, about twelve years old. The Doctor looked into an old chronicle that was in the house, and found that the battle of Flodden-field was 152 years before; that the earl he named was general, and that Henry VIII. was then at Tournay. Jenkins was a poor man, and could neither read nor write. There were also four or five in the same parish, reputed to be 100 vears old, or near it, who all said he was an elderly man ever since they knew him. This remarkable man died on the 8th of December, 1670, at Ellerton-upon-Swale, at the amazing age of 169 years.

What a multitude of events, says an ingenious author, have crowded into the period of this man's life! He was born when the Roman Catholic religion was established by law; he saw the supremacy of the Pope overturned; the dissolution of monasteries; popery established again; and, at last, the Protestant religion securely

fixed on a rock of adamant, In his time the Invincible Armada was destroyed; the republic of Holland formed; three queens beheaded, Anne Boleyn, Catharine Howard, and Mary Queen of Scots; a king of Spain seated upon the throne of England; a king of Scotland crowned king of England at Westminster, and his son beheaded before his own palace, his family being proscribed as traitors; and, last of all, the great fire in London, which happened in 1666, toward the close of his wonderful life.

He was buried in Bolton church-yard, near Catterick and Richmond, in Yorkshire, where a small pillar was erected to his memory, on which is the following epitaph, composed by Dr. Thomas Chapman, Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, from 1746 to 1760:

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he was enriched with the goods of Nature, if not of Fortune:

and happy in the duration,

if not the variety of his enjoyments: and though the partial world despised and disregarded his low and humble state, the equal eye of Providence beheld and blessed it

with a Patriarch's health
and length of days;-
to teach mistaken man
those blessings are entailed on
temperance,

a life of labor, and a mind at ease.
He lived to the amazing age of 169.

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE ARTS.

We intend to devote a portion of our work to each of the above mentioned subjects separately. But such is the press of matter in the first number by the insertion of our prospectus, and the prefaces which, in the introductory number of a work of the kind, it is necessary to prefix to the various subjects introduced, that we must content ourselves, at this time, with a few words relative to each, under one general head.

LITERATURE, in the most enlarged sense of the term, signifies learning in general, and includes almost every subject of knowledge derived from books. But in its strict or technical import, it signifies whatever relates to language. A man may be said to be a learned or a literary character who is conversant with books in general; but when we use the term literary in contradistinction to the term scientific, we mean merely what relates to let

ters.

SCIENCE, in its primitive sense, signifies knowledge in general, being derived from a Latin term signifying to know. But in its technical or special sense, it signifies a knowledge of the nature and details of subjects in general; as, for example, the science of astronomy, the science of chemistry, the science of geology, &c.

THE ARTS relate in general to whatever is performed according to scientific rules. But in a more particular sense, they signify certain branches of art. The liberal or fine arts are such as are considered worth cultivating for their own sake, without regard to pecuniary consideration. They are painting, sculpture, engraving, architecture, poetry, music, and dancing. The mechanic arts are pursued as a pecuniary employment.

With these brief explanations, we must postpone the further consideration of these subjects till our next.

EXPLANATION OF WORDS AND PHRASES. To render our work as useful as possible, we intend to give, from week to week, an article corresponding with the title at the head of this one. Editors sometimes overshoot, by taking it for granted that their readers understand things which they do not; by which they are induced to withhold many things that would be serviceable, and to present other things in a style altogethe

wonders concealed from the common gaze. It acquaints him with the forms and instincts of animals, with the properties of vegetables and minerals; in fine, with whatever is connected with the material world. And the man of a contemplative cast of mind, who is accustomed to to acquire, by this study, the most enlarged and exalted views of the Wisdom concerned in the construction, arrangement, and adaptation of the innumerable and complicated parts of this vast, this mighty machinery.

Want of room deters us from the further consideration of the subject in this number. In our next, we shall take it up in order, commencing with the human species.

above their comprehension. They address them as if | It discloses to the eye of the naturalist ten thousand they were all book-worms, and understood all the phraseology of technics current and obsolete a course about as edifying as it would be to write their articles in Latin and Greek. What, for example, do people in general know about such terms as somatology, ontology, zoology, conchology, &c. True, there are some that under-"look through nature up to nature's God," cannot fail stand such terms; but there are vast numbers to whom they are utterly unintelligible. And although they can ascertain the signification of most of those terms by a good dictionary they have not one always at hand, nor do they like the trouble of hunting for words. Besides, some of those terms are not explained at sufficient length in dictionaries, to give a full and clear idea of their signification. These considerations induce us to furnish a kind of encyclopedia of words and phrases the import of which would not be likely to be generally understood, and some of which are understood by very few. We shall give them in alphabetical order, and continue a regular department of the kind, till we complete the list. Our literary readers will, we trust, excuse us for the introduction of a department like this, on the ground of its general utility. And to render it still more useful, we shall give the pronunciation of such terms as may need it, inasmuch as there is a great liability to mispronounce; and a man with ever so much knowledge must appear to great disadvantage if his pronounciation be bad. We shall in this number give but a very brief sample, which follows.

ABSORPTION OF THE EARTH. A phrase applied to the swallowing up of mountains &c. by immense subterranean caverns beneath them. Several cases of the kind are recorded in ancient history; and modern history relates some that have occurred in China, France, and Switzerland.

ABORIGINES. This term originally signified the primitive inhabitants of Italy; but like very many other terms, it gradually assumed an enlarged sense, and was at length applied to the original inhabitants of any country.

ACHROMATIC; colorless. It is a term applied more particularly to telescopes invented by Dr. Bevis, to remedy the aberrations of colour.

ACOUSTICS; the branch of science relating to the nature and modification of sound.

ABSORBENT VESSELS; vessels in the corporeal system which convey fluids into the blood.

ABSORPTION; (in chemistry,) the conversion of a gas into a liquid or a solid, by a union with another solid. ABSTERGENTS; medicines to cleanse the system from impurities.

ABSTRACTION; (in logic,) the ideal separation of qualities, &c. from the substances in which they are inherent, as whiteness from snow, coldness from ice, heat from fire. In chemistry, it is the drawing off, by distillation, of any part of a compound.

ACADEMY. This term, though now signifying a school of a high order in general, is indebted for its origin to the circumstance of Plato's having kept his philosophical school in the grove of Academus, in Athens. ACCIPITRES, the first order of birds of prey that have hooked bills, strong legs, and sharp claws, viz. vultures, falcons, owls, and butcher birds.

AD INFINITUM; a Latin phrase signifying an indefinite or unlimited duration.

NATURAL HISTORY.

THE broadest definition of Natural History would be, the science of nature; but the phrase as generally used, signifies a description of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms of the earth. Strictly speaking, it includes man, as well as irrational creatures, in the animal department: it is usual, however, to confine it to the latter; notwithstanding which, we shall include both, as properly belonging to the subject.

Natural History is a most pleasing and useful study.

MISCELLANY.

Hereafter we shall have a miscellaneous department, containing elegant extracts, interesting incidents, and all that variety of matter which is appropriate to a work of this description, but which falls under no particular head; thus furnishing the reader with a degree of relaxation, after having followed us through the more laboured por tions of our columns contained in the preceding depart

ments.

PASSING HISTORY,

OR THE TIDINGS OF THE TIMES.

The circle of general knowledge cannot be complete, without an acquaintance with the events of the day. The occurrences of our own times will occupy the historic page. That which now is history to us, was once mere news. To be ignorant, then, of passing events, is equivalent to ignorance of a portion of history. We shall therefore record the leading items of news. shall not indeed notice every fire, every first shad, every murder, and so on; but merely the prominent occurrences of the times.

We

OUR OWN COUNTRY will receive very special attention. We shall from time to time treat of its institutions, its laws, its condition, and whatever relates to it in world is desirable, but a knowledge of our country is a general point of view. A knowledge of the whole institutions of England and France, and of almost every specially so. There are, who can tell you all about the foreign country, but who know not the nature of the constitution of the very country which sustains them, nor understand the laws by which they are governed. They can discourse most graphically of the Rhine and the Rhone, of the Alps and the Pyrennees; but are mute broad and towering Allegany. Why is it so? Because, when the theme is our own mighty Mississippi, or our it has been customary to inquire, "Who reads an Ameledge hitherto at the hands of foreigners, who have been rican book?" Because, we have received our knowfaithful to their own country to say the least—we shall endeavour to be faithful to ours.

Editors who think the circulation of the Magazine would be beneficial to the community, are requested to say so in their publications. Gentlemen to whom we send this number for inspection, are requested, if it meet their approbation, to use their influence, within their respective circles, in giving the Magazine circulation.

prospectus, of introducing this Magazine into schools as a reading We call special attention to the project mentioned in the publication; and likewise to the price at which it will be furnished to schools which thus adopt it.

We have taken the office recently occupied by the "Free
Enquirer," 222 William street. Letters should be addressed thus:
Editor of the Family Magazine, 222 William street, New York.

Magazine an immediate circulation in the different sections of the
WANTED immediately some fifteen or twenty Agents, to give the
Union. Good encouragement will be given to good Agents: none
others need apply.

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