lection, the minerals and precious stones, with partition cases for the shells. The second contains a valuable collection of zoophites, and part of the library. The third contains the other part of the library. The administrators, of the museum have formed a museum of comparative anatomy on a very extensive plan. The different organs of motion, sensation, generation, digestion, &c. will be comprehended, either separately, or in connection with the other parts of organized beings, from plants, through all classes, orders and species of animals, to the human. The first number of Mr. Fischer's work contains a description of all the different species of monkies in the Imperial Museum. The author gives an anatomical description of these animals. He has observed two muscles, which have not been ascertained in Mr. Cuvier's comparative anatomy, and which, by marking how far the structure of the monkey differs from that of man, shews a nearer resemblance between the formation of this class of animals and that of others: these muscles are the acromio-atlantian, which has been noticed by Mr. Vicq-d'Azyr, in the Pithecus; and the capsulary of the arm and of the foot. The method of dividing the ape species into several families, adopted by Messrs. Cuvier and Geoffroy, has been the basis of the division proposed by M. Fischer in his craniology of the apes. He has adopted the same throughout his work, and has moreover been very attentive in introducing those species that were already correctly known. By this means he has given the history of the six families: 1st, the monkeys properly speaking; 2d, the marmozets; 3d, the apes; 4th, the macocos; 5th, the baboons; and, 6th, the alouattes. He determines each family according to its exterior character and anatomical structure; and under every article he places the different species which belongs to each family. In addition to this, he introduces particulars relative to the habits and manners of the animals, and of the climate they inhabit. This pamphlet is ornamented with several engravings. A plan of the museum; the figures of the newly discovered species, such as the cercopithecus Lacepedi; the cranium of the Simia Rosalia; that of the S. capucina; that of the S. nigra; the S. aygula; that of a new and beautiful species, in M. Fischer's possession, the cynocephamis natator; the toes, which are also represented, are connected half way of their length by a membrane; lastly, the galago Demidofii, which will be described in the following number. M. Fischer has given supplementary details relative to compa rative anatomy, which render his work of indispensible necessity to true zoologists. This number contains nine figures: it is printed at Moscow, for C. F. Schildbach, 1806. COUP-D'ŒIL ON AMERICAN affairs. Extracts of a Letter from America, dated Warburton, Maryland, July 10, 1806. THE whole country hercabouts has been healthy for this last three years-hardly any cases of ague and fever but in the cherry and fruit times very subject to dysenteries or fluxes, which our physicians know not how to cure so well as the old women. Mr. Merry has been known to me for a number of years, first as a merchant in Malaga, afterwards consul at Malaga, agent for government in Cork, then consul-general in Spain, and chargé des affaires in Spain, where I again knew and saw him; then in London, before going to Copenhagen, and afterwards to Paris, &c. I have great intimacy with, and a high esteem for him... No tricks-but an open, candid, and honourable negociator, and far better received at our court, than any of his predecessors; and I verily believe has done a great deal more good for his country. He has, however, been included in the general sweep for recall of all foreign ministers! a vile and continued system upon the change of every ministry. You have heard of our purchase, a few years back, of Louisiana. Though not wanting territory, our rulers were led to do it at the expence of 13 millions of dollars, rather than let it pass from Spanish into French hands. It was a purchase of the whole of ancient Louisiana, which was supposed to contain the two Floridas, which were separated from Louisiana by the English, and divided into two governments upon their conquest of that part. We negociated a little to try to have it so, but finding it to no purpose, and fearing the French might obtain a station there, we made another offer to Spain to purchase for two millions of dollars the whole of the Floridas. This proposition is now pending in Madrid (or, probably, by the directors of Madrid, in Paris). We have every hope it will be acceded to. The Hornet sloop of war carried the proposition from New York in twenty-two days to L'Orient, and this day has returned by my house for Washington. She cannot, however, have brought the ultimate dispatches. We had better buy the Spanish out at any reasonable rate, than have a French governinent or military station in East or West Florida. Already has the purchase of Louisiana, and consequent free navigation of the Missis sipi, shewn its benefits to the United States. A vast produce goes downwards all the way from as high as Pittsburgh and there have been several very fine ships built upon the higher waters, of larger burthen, and as good construction as have sailed from the Chesapeak or Delaware Bay; some of 500 tons burthen, but doomed never to return from whence they went, on account of the down current. They carry produce direct for Europe, and are chiefly owned by the northern and Philadelphia merchants. The consequent increase of Kentucky and the northwestern territory, the Natchees, &c. &c. exceeds common belief: they are progressing much faster than the towns in my vicinity. This purchase of 13 millions of dollars has been made too (as well as that of two millions of dollars for Florida), without a tax of one cent upon the people, upon a funded stock, to which the sales of lands and import duties are fully ample. Yet there are wrongheads here who cabal and contend that the States ought to have gone to war with Spain rather than meanly make such a purchase with money. I have long learnt the lesson, that one man may cause or go to war, but it will take hundreds to procure a peace. This purchase, however, and the strong inducements for purchase in Kentucky and the western country, has drained a numiber of our inhabitants from these more settled and almost worn out counties-St. Mary's, Charles, Calvert, Prince George's, &c.We have, however, a good influx of purchasers from Europe, who rather purchase in society, than fight their way through difficulties in the remote back country. There have been several lately with me, and more in the city, which is increasing, though not rapidly. We have had some serious uneasinesses and remonstrances with your country about impressing seamen our citizens, and depredations on our commerce as neutrally passing the seas. . I have no doubt but there will be every fair accommodation, and that our speculating merchants have been making unjustifiable covers to enemy's property under the sanction of our neutral Hag England has already yielded up all impressed American seamen, and hundreds have arrived; in one list of published complaints there were near 3000 specified naines, where and how taken, &c. &c. Col. Smith (the collector of New York) has been suspended, and the owners and fitters out of General Miranda's ship the Leander are under prosecution for aiding and assisting Miranda in his expedition to the Coast of Carrachas to stir insurrection in South America. England, or at least the English agents, assisted him in the outfit, &c. &c. And it would have been good policy to have given him more open and decided assistance.—It is generally thought he will succeed, but there is a sharp look out for him from French as well as Spanish cruizers in the Bay of Mexico. I know not how they contrive to have a single vessel there. I went to the President's levec on our rejoicing day, 4th July. The contrast of it and what I had seen in four or five European capitals, was matter of much thought and amusement.-Ice creams, ice fruits, confectionary, sweetmeats, cakes, wine, &c. and abundance of cut and uncut pine-apples, were the substitutes for European graceful bows, high dresses, and respectful distances. The too a little more motley, but not a whit begroup hind hand in happiness or hilarity.-There was a joining in congratulations on the return of the day which emancipated us from the crimes and follies of Europe, from a dollar in the pound at least of 600 millions sterling. We too shall encounter follies; but if great, they will be short; if long, they will be light; and the vigour of our country will the better of them. get Our harvest is all in and secured hereabouts, later by two or three weeks than usual. A short crop of tobacco; Indian corn flourishing and well; a more abundant crop of wheat, here as well as every where I have heard of, was never known. Rye also abundant, but not a full crop of oats, owing to a cold and dry spring, and a more than usual continued spell of dry weather. Several orders for shiploads of flour have been lately executed from England, in consequence of war with Prussia shutting up the Elbe and other ports, and the nefarious project of the Corsican in denying entry to British ships on the continent. We are in alarm here for the probable result of England to let any of our ships go into their ports with our tobaccos, West-India imported cargoes, &c. &c. progres Our country has progressed, and is sing in a wonderful degree, and a very few years more will free us of all public debt.The vast resource from sales of back lands, far above the estimate, and the usual duty on all imports, gives a redundant treasury far above the outgoings. Last year there was a repeal of all internal taxes, and this year proves more than what was expected that the external taxes exceeded more than any former And such is the benefit resulting from the substituting economy for taxation, that after paying off eight millions of the public debt, discharging a heary foreign debt, making purchases to nearly fifteen millions of dollars as before-mentioned, reducing to a cypher the public internal taxes, and some et ceterus, we have a redundant treasury. year. It is nevertheless true, as you well know, that America is not the pleasantest country for the residence of the monied man, or the man of literature, science, fashion, or poli tesse. A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE LAST ERUP- [Translated from the French] This account is dated 15th July, 1806, from Resina, which is four miles distance from Naples, at the foot of the mountain leading to the bottom of the cone that forms the volcano. On May 31, about ten o'clock in the evening, as I was retiring to bed, I heard a noise something like a violent gust of wind; at which I was so much the more surprised, as a moment before I had observed that the sky was fine and clear. However, I would not take the trouble of enquiring into the cause of this unexpected change, but a person whom I had sent to Naples returning a quarter of an hour after, I got up to speak with him. As I passed near the stair-case, I could see through the trees of a grove, a blaze issuing from Mount Vesuvius, in height about 100 toises. This flame alternately rose and sunk, and resembled those beautiful sheaves which are so greatly admired in well executed fire-works. It was a confused mixture of stones and inflammable matter, thrown up from the crater of the volcano, and which, as they fell, seemed to be fluid. We were then threatened with two dreadful calamities, an earthquake which generally precedes the eruption, and the eruption itself, on that side where the lava would flow. I spent the whole night in observing this sheaf of fire which continually increased, and diffused such a light, that at a league's distance, one might easily have read a letter. I endeavoured to conjecture in what other part of the mountain it was probable another eruption would take place; when at four o'clock precisely, the volcano began to discharge inHamed matter through three new mouths, without the discharge having been preceded by an earthquake. These mouths, or issues, were near one another, at about one hundred toises from the top of the mountain. The lava issued from the side of the Torre del Greco, and l'Annunziata, near Portici, on the road from Naples to Pompeïa. I went in the evening to the foot of Vesuvius, to examine a torrent of lava that had already reached to a distance from the mountain. Although it was the most inconsiderable branch, yet it was at least, 12 or 13 feet wide, and 8 deep; a very torrent of fire. June 2, between six and seven o'clock in the morning, the smoke began to rise with greater violence than on the preceding day; it was also thicker. During the whole day a hollow sound prevailed, similar to that of two armies engaged, whose artillery and musketry are well served. Towards night I approached the great torrent of lava, which was rather slow in its progress. I estimated it 200 feet long, and 15 deep. The whole mass resembled a wall of glass in the act of melting; sometimes I could see flashes of lightning shooting from it, and these were followed by a report as loud as that of a gun of a large calibre. Whatever happened to inpede the course of the lava, vines, trees, houses, &c. was instantly melted or devoured. I arrived at the moment when the lava was sapping the foundations of a wall in front of which was the bed of a torrent from thirty to forty feet deep. I saw the wall give way, and the lava precipitate itself like a cataract of fire, nearly perpendicular, into the bed of the torrent. This kind of sea of fire which covers three miles of a most fruitful country, forms but one mass from the mouth whence it issued to the point where it stops, is a sight, at once amazingly grand and dreadful. June 3, the lava ran very slowly, and through a single opening. The matter which on the 2d ran from the other two apertures, had stop ped at the foot of Vesuvius. At night the whole mass had ceased to advance, the borders were already cool, although the middle was burning. A few detonations were heard, but not so frequently as on the preceding day. The mountain continued to emit clouds of smoke. On the 4th and 5th the hollow noise from the interior of the mountain became much louder, and continued during much longer periods than before. The bellowing was distinctly heard both at Naples and at Portici, notwithstanding they are two leagues distant from one another. A thick smoke continued to issue from every part of the crater. Soon after, clouds of ashes rose, and overspread the country around; the lava next followed. It issued from the same chasm, as the most considerable torrent had ran in the same direction. On the 6th and 7th the volcano vomited a large quantity of ashes: Portici, Resina, and la Torre del Greco, were entirely covered with them, but the internal noise had subsided. It was renewed with still greater violence on the 8th and 9th, over Portici and Resina, poured a sable and thick rain, consisting of mud and. sulphureous particles. On the following days, the noise from the interior rolled at long intervals only; the smoke, though not so thick, continued to rise from the mountain; a small quantity of ashes also rose, but fell back into the crater. July 1, as I supposed the eruption to be terminated, although the mountain continued to smoke, I set off with a few friends to visit Vesuvius. At 10 o'clock in the evening we reached the hermitage, where we stopped till midnight. We then proceeded, and were obliged to climb rather than to walk; however, by half after 1 o'clock, we arrived at the summit. We found the ascent very difficult, as the eruption had destroyed the former path way. We were under a necessity of proceed ing up a new one on the opposite side, which | ON THE ACQUISITION OF SEVERAL PRO was almost perpendicular. This path way was composed of ashes and stones, in which we sunk up to our knees. We found the mountain totally altered. Those parts which had formerly been filled with the lava and pebbles, and over which it was equally difficult and dangerous to proceed, are now become a plain, and so levelled, that an army might manoeuvre there. If the volcano were but extinguished, certain hillocks here and there might be cultivated; but no doubt it is far from that state. The former crater has disappeared, it is filled up with ashes and lava, but a new one has been formed at the eastern part of the mountain, which is about one hundred fathoms deep, and nearly as wide at its opening. We descended about half way, but dared not proceed any farther. We were already close to the Hames, and felt a most violent heat. In this position we continued half an hour, admiring the spectacle offered by the liquid lava bubbling at the bottom of the crater; which resembles the melted matter in the boiler of a glass-house. The stones that we threw into it were instantly melted. The mountain is considerably lowered, and has two large clefts, one facing la Torre del Greco, the other fronting Resina. A new eruption is very much apprehended, on account of the large quantity of melted matter which remains in the crater, and of the clefts observed in the mountain. These clefts are not in the crater, some are a mile distant from it; the most considerable hardly reaches the top. DUCTIONS OF THE EAST-INDIES, IN AD- By M. Le Goux de Flaix, of the Corps of PART I.-OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. Among all the regions of the globe there is none which contains so many useful or agreeable productions, as the Indies, particularly in that district to which both ancient and modern writers have given the name of Hindoostan. It is situated under a serene and clear sky, animated throughout the year by the operative and fertilizing rays of the sun; and its plains are watered by periodical rains, and copious dews. All the regions of this vast empire enjoy a perpetual spring; it abounds in corn and fruits of the most exqui site kinds, and breeds animals interesting by their use, their beauty, or their curiosity. The advantages attending so many bounties of nature, have been felt by man from the earliest periods; here he has perfected civilization, and in this country the human race, perhaps, is superior in moral qualities to those of the species which inliabit other parts of the globe. Into this fine country, and among the people which anciently inhabited it, the most celebrated nations of the west formerly travelled, in order to obtain a knowledge in the sciences and arts. They also transported into their own countries the rich productions of this happy soil. The damage occasioned by this eruption is immense. The governor of la Torre del Greco, The modern inhabitants of Europe, when has reported the great distress of so many the principles of learning and knowledge, families, and of most of the country people, which they had derived from antient Greece, whose whole harvest has been destroyed. were effectually rooted and cultivated among The first step towards their relief has been them, crowded towards these countries so exempting from all taxes the property that highly favoured by nature, to procure whathad suffered. A resolution has also passed ever might augment their enjoyments. Althat the Benevolent Commission should in ready have many plants and trees, natives of future raise a fund to indemnify such land- India, and many arts practised among its owners or farmers in the neighbourhood of people, during a long period of ages, in the Vesuvius, as might become sufferers by erup-highest degree of excellency, been transferred tions of the volcano: a Subscription will be either to Europe, or to the colonies of Euroopened for the inmediate relief of the unfortu-peans in America, nate sufferers. EAST-INDIA PRODUCTIONS. The following article is a translation from the French that it is capable of being corrected and improved, we are well persuaded, but we have made no alteration in it, presuming that the opinion of an intelligent foreigner, though not infallible, yet should rest on its own merits. VOL. I. [Lit. Pan. Dec. 1806.] Nevertheless, a great number of other vegetables, and some kinds of animals, useful or curious, which might be procured from the Coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, from Orissa, Bengal, Cachemir, the Pan-jab, and neighbouring provinces, have escaped our researches. These plants and these animals, are, notwithstanding, important, either to our commerce, to our nourishment, to our industry, or to our gratification, and deserve to be transplanted to our colonies in the hotter climates; some of them might even be naturalised to advantage in Europe. X Among the great number of animals, trees, and plants, which are natives of India, and objects of importance for us to acquire, though hitherto, notwithstanding the intimate connection of Europe with this rich country, they have been overlooked, I shall in this memoir, notice only those which are the most remarkable and the most useful. I. VARIETIES OF COTTON.. The different species of cotton, white and coloured, which are cultivated in Hindoostan, as well in the northern provinces as in the southern, (improperly called by our geographers, the "Peninsula within the Ganges," whereas in fact it is no peninsula) as well as the other kinds of cottons produced in the adjoining countries. These productions. are extremely valuable as articles of commerce, of manufactures, and of colonial agriculture as well as by the qualities of many of them, which are superior to those of the kinds which have hitherto been procured. They might even be naturalised in the southern climates of Europe. II-VARIETIES OF SUGAR CANES. Those sugar canes of the early kinds, named Kari Karimbone, and Haricli, which no traveller has yet mentioned, although they are cultivated by preference in Hindoostan. These vegetables are extremely important by their qualities, and especially by their for wardness and precocity. These might be naturalized in the South of Europe. III-VARIETIES OF INDIGOES. Europe. It contains a great proportion of glutenous particles, and but little bran. The guhou-boud deserves, in this respect, the name, or rather characteristic epithet, which the Hindoos give. it, when they say, it is "the substance of substance." This kind is the more valuable as it is but three months and a half, or four months at furthest in the ground; as are all kinds of grain cultivated in this rich and fertile country. This wheat does not rise above 12 or 14 inches; its stem is very thin, shining, much more white and tender than that of corn in general. Cattle prefer it to the best grass. Three leaves placed at equal distances, the whole length of the stem, and half as long again as the stem itself, give it a graceful and ornamental appearance. This is a distinguishing character of this kind of grain. The ear is bearded, and usually bears 51 to 55 grains, placed on four regular sides, which form the sunimit of the stem. Such are the distinctions of this wheat; it is semi-transparent, and always fuller, and much whiter, than any other of its kind. dressed. V. VARIETIES OF RICE. The Bengal rice, named benafouli, i. c. "odoriferous," that of the Pan-jab, another kind named goundouli, which signifies "little sphere," because this grain is nearly round. The benafouli is a very delicate kind of rice, very white, and extremely long in proportion to its thickness; when dressed, it diffuses a sweet and agreeable odour. The other is the only species of rice which is sometimes cultivated on dry ground. It is The anils, or indigo plants, especially that inodourous, of a dull white, rather inclining species which is cultivated in the province of to yellow; it is less transparent than the bend Agra, named nilbodi, i. e. “ deep blue," be-fouli. The goundouli is most nutritive when cause, in reality, the indigo which it yields is of a dark blue, without having, as other species have, a hue of copper colour or violet: also the anil cultivated at Raja-Mindi; named nerruim in the Telinga dialect, which is the softest of the nineteen languages spoken in Hindoostan. I shall not advert to every other kind of indigo, cultivated in the different climates of this extensive region, which it might be desirable to possess, for the purpose of comparison with others at present known in our colonies: but I ought not to forget the apocyn indigo plant of Sumatra, which M. Cossigny has described in his voyage to Canton, and which the English have transplanted into Bengal: This species is very rich in indigo. In this country where rice is the chief nourishment of the major part of the people, that kind of rice is preferred for constant aliment which is called oubalé, which undergoes boiling a first time, before it becomes white, or is deprived of its capsule. The round, or spherical rice, is usually prepared in hacha, which signifies "raw." This is reserved for the purpose of making pilaw, which is not boiled; as is customary when the kind called oubale is employed. As this dish is well known to be partly composed of the gravy of flesh meat, there is no need to describe it particularly. VI. VARIETIES OF FRUITS. The fruits of Bahar, come from the province of Cashmir, and arc, like the ananas, full of juice, small and almost round; but their sweetness and especially their perfume exceeds expression. The APRICOT of Cashmir, is an exquisite fruit, superior to that of Europe, and even to that of Persia, in size, in the quantity or |