A FROZEN CREW.

In 998, Erick Raude, an Icelandic chieftain, fitted out an expedition of twenty-five gallies, at Snefell, and having manned them with sufficient crews of colonists, set forth from Iceland, bound to what appeared to them a more congenial climate. They sailed upon the ocean fifteen days, and they saw no land. The next day brought with it a storm, and many a gallant vessel sunk in the deep. Mountains of ice covered the waters as far as the eye could reach, and but a few gallies of the fleet escaped destruction.

The morning of the seventeenth day was clear and cloudless. The sea was calm, and far away to the north could be seen the glare of the icefields reflecting on the sky.

The remains of the shattered fleet gathered together to pursue their voyage. But the galley of Errick was not with them. The crew of a galley which was driven farther down than the rest, reported that as the morning broke, the huge fields of ice that had covered the ocean were driven by the current past them, and that they beheld the galley of Erick Raude, borne by a resistless force, and with the speed of the wind, before a tremendous flake of ice. Her crew had lost all control over her-they were tossing their arms in wild agony. Scarcely a moment elapsed ere it was walled in by a hundred ice hills, and the whole was moved forward and was soon beyond the horizon. That the galley of the narrators escaped was wonderful. It remained, however, uncontradicted, and the vessel of Erick Raude

was never more seen.

Half a century after this, a Danish colony was established upon the western coast of Greenland. The crew of the vessel that carried the colonists thither, in their excursions into the interior, crossed a range of hills that stretched to the northward; they had approached, perhaps nearer to the pole, than any succeeding adventurers. Upon looking down from the summit of the hills, they beheld a vast almost interminable field of ice, undulating in various places, and formed into a thousand grotesque shapes. They saw not far from the shore a figure in an ice vessel with a glittering icicle in place of a mast, rising from it. Curiosity prompted them to approach, when they beheld a dismal sight. Figures of men, in every attitude of wo were upon the deck, but they were icy things. One figure alone stood erect, and with folded arms leaning against the mast. A hatchet was procured and the ice split away, and the features of a chieftain disclosed-palid and deathly, but free

from decay. This was, doubtless, the vessel, and that figure the form of Erick Raude. Benumbed with cold, and in the agony of despair, his crew had fallen around him. He alone had stood erect while the chill of death passed over him. The spray of the ocean, and the fallen sleet had frozen as it lighted upon them and covered each figure with an icy robe which the short lived glance of a Greenland sun had not time to remove. The Danes gazed upon the spectacle with trembling. They knew not but the same might be their fate. They knelt down upon the deck and muttered a prayer in their native tongue, for the souls of the frozen crew, then hastily left the place, for the night was fast approaching.-Selected.

THE CITY OF THE DEAD.

Our print of the City of the Dead, or Necropolis of Thebes, on page 81, is copied from a drawing of Denon, published in the second volume of his "Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt." With the zeal of an enthusiastic traveller, he carried with him, in the suite of Bonaparte, the skill of an artist and the taste of a spirited writer. The following paragraphs we extract from his book, in which he speaks of the scene represented in the print.

"We set out on the 27th of January, at two in the morning. At nine o'clock, in making a sharp turn round the point of a projecting chain of mountains, we discovered, all at once, the site of the ancient Thebes, in its whole extent that celebrated city, the size of which Homer has characterized by a single expression with a hundred gates'-a boasting and poetical phrase, which has been repeated with so much confidence for many centuries.

"The whole army, with one accord, stood in amazement at the sight of its scattered ruins, and clapped their hands with delight, as if the end and object of their glorious toils, and the complete conquest of Egypt were accomplished and secured, by taking possession of the splendid remains of this ancient metropolis. I took a sketch of this first aspect of Thebes, along with the spectacle before me: the knees of the enthusiastic soldiers served me as a table, their bodies as a shade, whilst the dazzling rays of the beaming sun enlightened this magnificent spectacle. The situation of the town is as fine as can be imagined, and the immense extent of the town convinces the spectator that fame has not magnified its size.

"Soon after noon-day we arrived at a desert, which was the Necropolis, or City of the Dead. The rock, excavated on its inclined plain, presents sides of a square, with regular openings, behind which are double and treple galleries, which were used as burying-places.

I entered here on horseback with Desaix, supposing that these gloomy retreats must be the asylum of peace and silence; but, scarcely were we immerged in the obscurity of the galleries, than we were assailed with javelins and stones, by enemies whom we could not distinguish; and this put an end to our observations."

How solemn is the scene presented by that print; and with how many salutary reflections may it be connected!

The same traveller afterwards visited that sad and apparently deserted spot, under different circumstances, and with different results. He went again in the train of the army of Napoleon, with no enemy near, in sufficient force to give them uneasiness, and with time enough to devote to the examination of the interesting ruins. On approaching, however, they found them occupied by a considerable number of Arabs, with whom they maintained a sharp, and we must say a cruel contest for some time, until they dislodged them. Our traveller then had opportunity to investigate the subterranean chambers; but his description of them we must defer for another paper, contenting ourselves here with the following brief extract:

"It would have required several days to form an idea of the distribution of these subterranean works, and to take plans of such intricate labyrinths; if the magnificence displayed in the houses of the living was at all equal to that of these ultimate habitations, as we have some reason to suppose from the sumptuous pieces of furniture painted in the tombs of the kings, how much must we regret that no vestige of them remains! What can have become of palaces that contained such opulence! how can they have disappeared! they cannot be buried under the mud of the Nile, since the quay which is before Luxor shows that the elevation which the soil has undergone is very inconsiderable. Were they built of unbaked, and therefore perishable earth! or did the great men, as well as the priests, inhabit the temples, and the people only huts!"

SORREL SHEEP AND HORSES. It seems, according to the correspondence of the Mobile Register, that a bill was before the lower branch of the Alabama Legislature for the charter of a Botanical Medical College, at Wetumpka. The Register con.

tinues:

After Speaker Moore and others had made able speeches in support of the bill, Mr. Morrissett, from Monroe, took the floor. You know him. He is an odd genius, and whithal he has good hard horse sense, (as his colleage, Mr. Howard calls it,) and often speaks to the point and with effect. With an imper

turbable gravity he addressed the house as follows:- Mr. Speaker, 1 cannot support the bill unless I am assured that a distinguished acquaintance of mine is made one of the Professors. He is what that College wishes to make for us-a root doctor, and will suit the place exactly. He became a doctor in two hours, and it only cost $20 to complete his education. He bought a book, sir, and read the chapter on fevers, and that was enough. "He was sent for to see a sick woman-a very sick woman. With his book under his armi, off he went. Her husband and their son John were in the room with the sick woman. The doctor felt of her wrist and looked in her mouth, and then took off his hat. Has you got,' addressing the husband, a sorrel sheep?" No, I never heard of such a thing in all my life. Well, there is such things,' said the doctor very knowingly. Has you got, then, a sorrel horse?' 'Yes,' said John quickly, I rode him to mill to-day.' 'Well, he must be killed immediately,' said the doctor, and some soup must be made and given to your wife.' The poor woman turned over in her bed. John began to object; and the husband was brought to a stand. Why, doctor, he is the only horse we've got, and he is worth $100, and will not some other soup do as well?' 'No, he book says so, and there is but two ques tions-will you kill your horse, or let your wife die? Nothing will save her but the soup of a sorrel sheep or a sorrel horse. If you don't believe me I will read it to you.'

"The doctor took up the book, turned to the chapter on fevers, and read as follows: 'Good for fevers-sheep sorrel, or horse sorrel.' "Why, doctor,' exclaimed husband, wife, and son, you 'are mistaken; that don't mean a sorrel sheep or a sorrrel horse, but-' 'Well, I know what I am about,' interrupted the doctor, that's the way we doctors reads it, and we understand it.'

Manufacture of Flate Glass in Spain.

From Bourgoanne's Travels,

Near this newly established and much wanted manufactory there is one of luxury, begun in the reign of Philip V. This is a manufacture of plate glass, the only one of the kind in Spain. It was at first no more than a common glass manufactory, which still exists, and produces tolerably good bottles, and white glasses extremely well cut. This was the first step towards a far more enlarged undertaking. The looking-glass manufactory of St. Ildefonso may be comparIed with the first establishments of the kind. It was begun in 1728, under the management of a Catalan, and was brought to perfection

under Ferdinand VI. by a Frenchman named Sivert. Glasses are run here of all dimensions, from common squares to those of the greatest size. They are not so clear, and may be less polished than those of Venice and St. Gobin; but no manufacture has yet produced them of such large dimensions. In 1782 I saw one cast 130 inches long by 65 wide. The enormous table of brass on which the liquified matter was cast, weighed 19,800 lbs. and the cylinder which rolled over it, to render the surface even, weighed 1200 lbs. In the vast edifice where this operation is carried on-an operation well worthy of examination throughout its whole process-there are two tables somewhat smaller, and twenty ovens, wherein the glasses, yet hot, are placed, and remain hermetrically closed for the space of from fifteen to five-and-twenty days, in order to cool by degrees. Such as split, or have any defect, are then cut to make mirrors, glass squares, or carriage plates. The maintenance of this manufactory is very expensive to the King. I think that if the general cost of the establishment and the numerous drawbacks be computed, some of the plates must stand him in 160,000 rials.

In a long gallery adjoining the manufactory they are made thinner by manual labor, by rubbing one upon the other, sand and water being placed between-the sand of different degrees of fineness, according to the stage of the work. The upper glass being kept continually in motion, while the under one is at rest, it consequently becomes thinner much the soonest-so much so, that five of the first are reduced to their proper thickness before the latter is sufficiently ground. This labor is wearisome and monotonous in the extreme, one glass keeping the same workman employed for more than two months.

COOL.-Admiral Lord Howe, when a captain, was once hastily awakened in the middle of the night by the lieutenant of the watch, who informed him, with great agitation, that the ship was on fire near the magazine. "If that be the case," said he, rising leisurely to put on his clothes, "we shall soon hear another report of the matter." The lieutenant flew back to the scene of danger, and almost instantly returning, exclaimed, "You need not, sir, be afraid, the fire is extinguished." "Afraid!" exclaimed Howe, "what do you mean by that, sir? I never was afraid in my life," and looking the lieutenant full in the face, he added, "Pray how does a man feel, sir, when he is afraid? I need not ask how he looks!"

TEMPERANCE ABROAD.-It has already been stated that the Emperor of Russia is prohibiting Temperance Societies, on the ground of the injury which they do to the revenue, by diminishing the consumption of

liquors which pay a tax. But on the other hand, his brother-in-law, the king of Holland, is doing every thing in his power to encourage them. He has ordered that a copy of the rules and regulations of these societies shall be given to every laboring person, in order that he may be shown the advantages of Temperance. It is a curious fact that the first royal personage who placed himself at the head of a Temperance Society, was the half-civilized King of the Sandwich Islands. Some years ago, drunkenness having become habitual among his subjects, he called his chiefs together, and after a speech on the evils of intoxication, proposed that they should unite with him in a pledge to drink in future only water, and thus set an example to the people-a plege which, says a gentleman, recently from the Islands, has been sacredly observed.

QUITE COMFORTABLE.-The London Herald gives the following description of the railway car that conveyed Victoria to the seat of the Marquis of Exeter, or to Burgley House:

"The royal carriage, fitted up under the superintendance of Mr. Wright, the manager of the coach department of the railway, is now of two compartments. The larger compartment has three large windows of plate glass on either side, so arranged as to impede as little as possible a view of the country through which the line runs. These windows are hung with rich satin draperies, and have gilt cornices very elaborately carved. The sides and roof of the carriage are covered with blue satin, tufted.

The floor has a thick patent felt covering, over which there is a rich carpet. The carriage is warmed by means of a series of pipes running under the flooring. In this compartment of the royal carriage were a French striped ottoman and two elegant easy chairs, in blue and white satin damask.

Asiatic Proverbs.

Partial knowledge is better than total ignorance. If you cannot get what you wish, get what you can.

The poor should get learning in order to become rich, and the rich should acquire it for their ornament.

A man should accommodate himself to the weakness of his inferiors, in order to derive from them the service he requires.

An avaricious man runs straight into poverty. He leads a life of poverty here below, but he must give the account of a rich man in the day of judgment.

He lives in true repose, who bridles the passions.

This is perhaps, on the whole, the most active, bold, and ravenous of all the birds of prey, taking it in all its varieties in different parts of the world. It displays its greatest rapacity and strength in the north, and its greatest sagacity as well as its greater numbers in some of the southern latitudes, if we may credit the accounts given us by travellers.

The variety represented in our print has been called the king of the vultures, probably in consequence of having been seen among flocks of birds inferior in size, with which it is sometimes accidentally associated.

CAPTURE OF A VULTURE.-A letter from Get, a little village on the borders of the valley d'Aure, (Upper Pyrenees,) contains the following interesting details: Two mountaineers, while out sporting at the back of the Peak of Tremassaignes, perceived flying over their heads a vulture of enormous size. Taking advantage of the moment when this leviatban of the air was within shot, one of the sportsmen discharged his gun, loaded with five small bullets. The vulture, wounded in the wing, fell with considerable force to the bottom of a ravine. Thither the two men hastened to secure its capture. The one who had fired, proud of his exploit, and seeing the monster of a bird extended on a rock, had the imprudence to attempt to secure it whilst living; but the bird furiously attacked him with his immense claws, and severely wounded the man in his neck with his beak; and it is supposed he must have been killed, had it not

been for the presence of mind and cool intrepidity of his companion, who, with the muz zle of his gun almost touching the vulture, discharged its contents into the head of this terrible bird. The creature was subsequently measured, and found to be 5 feet in length (upwards of 5 feet English measure) from the beak to the end of his tail; his feathers were handsome and strong-his legs stout and as hard as steel. There was a remarkable circumstance attending the capture of this bird, which no one has hitherto been able to explain--and that is, that he had attached to his left leg a silver bracelet, very strong and of neat workmanship, to which was appended a small tablet, on which were to be seen engraved three Grecian letters.

It was remarkable, also, that the upper and thickest part of the beak was perforated, and it had the appearance of having been used either with a cord or small chain. The bracelet has been presented to M. T-, of Bagniere de Bigorrs, who attaches great value to it. The flesh of the bird was found to be perfect carrion, and was thrown away. The wounded man is in a state of great suffering, although his life is not considered to be in danger.

Switzerland. The very natural feeling against committing the education of the youth of Switzerland to the Jesuits, continues to agitate that country, and will probably lead to the expulsion of the disciples of Loyola from the cantons. The four great powers were determined on insisting upon the constitution of the 7th of August, 1815, and the expediency of removing the Jesuits from the cantons.

On the 98th page (No. 7) we mentioned, for the gratification of readers not familiar with vessels, the names of the masts, and the principal yards and sails. We will take this opportunity, with the above print before us, to add a little more. This ship, with the Bethel flag displayed, is represented with her sails in a different position from that on page 97. The main-topsail is aback; that is, the main yard and main-topsail yards have been drawn round towards the left, until the wind (which blows from the left and fills the other sails, so as to press them forward,) fills the mainsail backwards, and presses it in that direction. This is done to stop the vessel without lowering her sails, which would be a work of labor and time. The main-topsail being usually the largest sail of a ship, so large as to counterbalance all the rest, it is only necessary to put it "aback," and she is immedi. ately

"hove to;" that is, stopped by the force of the wind.

Now this operation is performed, like all other movements of the yards to the right or left, by pulling the ropes fastened to their

ends, called the braces. These pass from the yards of one mast to the mast next it, and then through pullies to the deck, where each has a becket, or belaying-pin, to fasten it to. These, as well as every other rope in the ship, the sailor can find in the darkest night, and knows how to manage in the most violent storm; and on that knowledge, and the promptitude or intelligence with which he uses it, often depends the safety of the ship and all it contains. The fore and mizen braces lead to the main-mast. The mainbraces lead to the mizen-mast. The braces of the highest little sails, however, do not come to the deck, but terminate aloft.

Stays and stay-sails.-There is a species of sails we have yet to mention, after speaking of their supporters. The masts, strong as they often are, are utterly inadequate to endure the force of the wind pressing against their sails, even when it is only moderate. They must always be carefully supported in all directions, or they cannot be relied on. Several large ropes, called shrouds, are drawn tight from the top of each lower mast to the