SAVINGS BANKS.-Mr. G. R. Potter read a "Sketch of the Progress and Present Extent of Savings Banks in the United Kingdom "After a few preliminary remarks on their political and moral value, he stated that these institutions owed their origin to Miss Priscilla Wakefield, who in 1804 induced six gentlemen residing at Tottenham to receive deposits from laborers and servants, paying 5 per cent, as interest. Four years later eight persons, half of whom were ladies, took upon themselves the same responsibility at Bath. The first savings bank regularly organized was formed at Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire; its success led to many imitations, so that before any legislative provision had been made for their management, there were seventy savings banks in England, four in Wales, and four in Ireland. The deposits are found to be greatest in the years when provisions are cheap and abundant. Next to Middlesex, Devonshire exhibited the greatest amount of depos its in proportion to the population.

The Bishop of Norwich directed attention to the evidence afforded by the savings banks of the improved condition of Ireland. Signor Enrico Meyer gave an account of the moral effect produced by savings banks in Tuscany, and related some facts confirming the great national value of the temperance movement in Ireland.

Freezing in Red-hot Iron.-"Experiments on the Spheroidal State of Bodies, and its Application to Steam Boilers, and on the Freezing of Water in Red-hot Vessels," by Prof. Boutigny.-Prof. Boutigny, who made his communication in the French Language, first Iroceeded to show that a drop of water projected upon a red-hot plate does not touch it; but that a repulsive action is exerted between the plate and the fluid, which keeps the latter in a state of rapid vibration. At a white heat, this repulsion acts with the greatest energy, whilst it ceases, and the ordinary process of evaporation takes place at a brown-red heat. The temperature of the water whilst in the spheroidal state is found to be only 96°, and this temperature is maintained so long as the heat of the plate is kept up. To bring this water to the boiling point, to 212 degrees,) it is therefore necessary to cool the plate.

"On the Heat of the Solar Spots," by Prof Henry, of Princeton College, New Jersey.-Sir D. Brewster read an extract of a letter which he had just received from Prof. Henry, who had recently been engaged in a series of experiments on the heat of the sun, as observed by means of a thermo-electrical apparatus applied to an image of the luminary thrown on a screen from a telescope in a dark room. He found that the solar spots were perceptibly colder than the surrounding light surface. Prof. Henry also converted the same apparatus into a telescope, by placing the thermo-pile in room of the eye-glass of a reflecting telescope. The heat of the smal

lest cloud on the verge of the horizon was instantaneously perceptible, and that of a breeze four or five miles off could also be readily perceived.

SOUNDS UNDER WATER.-"On the Sounds produced by one of the Notonectidæ under Water," by Mr. Ball.-When suspended in the water, about four inches below the surface, it emitted three short chirrups, and then a long, cricket-like sound. It appears, the sounds are emitted in the evening and night, and are so loud that they may be heard in an adjoining room, and are continued during the night.

RAILWAY GRADIENTS.-Mr. Fairbairn read a communication on the subject of Railway Gradients, the object of which was to show the importance of economizing the first cost of railways, by introducing steep gradients in difficult districts, whereby the expenses attendant on tunnels, viaducts, and lofty embankments, would be avoided; whilst the author showed that the desired speed might be obtained by increasing the power of the locomotive.

A Royal Tribute to American Ingenuity.Dr. G. O. Jarvis, of Middletown, Conn. the inventor of a useful surgical apparatus for reducing discolations, known as the "Adjuster," has received from the hands of Prince Albert, as President of the "Society of Arts," the largest gold medal ever bestowed by or in the gift of the Society. The medal is of the value of £15 sterling. He is the first American on whom such an honor has been conferred.

NATURAL HISTORY.-The following are the subjects of the principal papers in the August number of the London Annals of Natural History:

Notes of a microscopic examination of the Chalk and Flint of the South-east of England, and the mollusca found in them. By Mantell. Apparently many exist too small for our microscopes.

The Genus Mylodon. Prof. Owen. List of birds observed near Tunis. H. M. Drummond.

British Diatomaceæ. John Ralfs.

Botanical Notices from Spain. No. 4. Proceedings of the British Association, Royal Society, Asiatic Society, Botanical Society of Edinburg.

This is the form, though by no means the size of the nest of that species of wasp called the Vespa Nidulans. To many of our readers it will not seem strange, when they are told, that some of our native wasps make nests not less curious than this, and of the size of a man's head indeed, sometimes considerably larger. It is cut open to show the cells.

The wasp exhibits a degree of ingenuity, skill and industry, in the plan and construction of its nest, not much inferior to that of the honey bee, and it is chiefly owing to the utter useless of all its labors to man; that it attracts less attention, and excites in us, from our earliest years, only feelings of dislike and apprehension.

There is a great diversity in the form, size, and situation of wasps' nests. Some of the solitary wasps construct a short tube in some obscure corner, sinking it partly into the ground, and elevating it partly above. They make this the place of deposit for their eggs, which they lay alternately with living catepillars, which they bring to the spot, and so confine them that they cannot move. These are stores of food for the larva of the wasp, which begins to devour them when it leaves the egg, and changes its form by the time it has eaten its allowance.

But most of the wasps whose nests we observe, construct them of a substance closely resembling brown paper, which is said to be fabricated of the fibres of half-decayed wood. With surprising exactness the busy little insects shape this thin material into any form they please, first into a horizontal tier of cells, resembling those of a honey comb in size and shape, then placing many similar tiers half an inch apart beneath, all the openings being upward, and then enclosing the whole in suc

cessive coats, of a globular or oval form, which bid defiance to the rain, even in the longest equinoctial storms. Some nests have been calculated to contain 16,000 cells, and to be filled with young wasps three times a year.

The nests of the wasp differ from those of the bee in one very material particular: they are mere depositories of the eggs, and not of honey. They are therefore regarded as mere nuisances wherever they are seen, and nothing is looked upon with more jealousy than the first appearance of their curious constructions when found, as they often are, under the eaves of our houses. Yet we have known them to remain for several years in such a situation, without causing any ground of complaint to the inhabitants; for, while unmolested, the insects are generally peacable and harmless.

SEMI-ANNUAL BOOK TRADE SALE.-Most of the principal booksellers in the Union are now in the city, or are represented by agents at the great Trade Sale, which is conducted with a great deal of spirit. Of the five great sales which occur yearly in the United States (there are two here, two in Philadelphia, and one in Boston,)-probably this is the most important. The heaviest transactions are consummated in this city now, instead of Boston which used to be the mart at which they were carried on. The Book trade, which used to be carried on in a small way by country merchants and pedlars, is now a distinct business in almost every village, and the consequence is, that an attractive literature is offered to the public, who patronize the enterprising bookseller; thus enabling him to furnish them with the publications of the day as they issue from the press.

The difference between the auction prices and the prices at which the trade generally dispose of books, will yield the dealers a profit of from 25 to 33 per cent; this profit we are informed, may be realized in jobbing, the retail price, giving a still greater gain.

One of the principal effects of these sales is to exchange and intermix the productions of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, so that each of these places becomes a market, for the disposing of the productions of others, the advantages of which must be apparent to all.-Express.

Many of the works are nuisances.-Ed. P. Magazine.

COMMENCEMENT.--The exercises of Commencement at the University in Cambridge, on Wednesday, were attended by the usual concourse of spectators, constituting a large representation of the literary portion of Boston, and embracing also a number of distinguished visitors from other States.

This is one of the few points of land which claims of us a greater geographical interest than any others on the surface of the earth. The extremity of a vast continent, the point of union between the two great oceans, the place which every ship must pass bound from one to the other, unless it encounter the severe climate of its more severe twin-sister, Cape Horn; these recollections naturally rise in our minds at the name of this remarkable promontory, and, no doubt, with greater force at the sight of it. The eternal winter which repels the navigator from the northern route of circumnavigation, may also be recollected when we turn to this spot; and the various peculiarities of Africa, in geography, natural history, the numerous tribes and races who inhabit its known regions, the important events of its early history, and especially the vast tracts of which we know only enough to excite a lively curiosity-all these are natural subjects of reflection. To these we may add the whole catalogue of journeys of discovery, and the labors of Protestant missionaries, with the interesting details of their progress and success.

Africa presents several points at which men of different races, in various states of society, are strangely mingled. This is one of them for we find at Cape Horn, the English and Dutch, the Kaffre and the Hot

tentot, combined; and, over a large extent of the country behind it, civilized, refined, barbarous and savage habits displayed, amidst the wildest scenery of nature.

The Cape of Good Hope was discovered by the celebrated Portuguese navigator Vasco de Gama, and the whole course of the commerce between Europe and Asia was at once changed. The old caravan routes through Syria, first established by Solomon, were abandoned for a long but cheaper navigation round Africa. With what a noble bluff that great continent terminates! How admirably adapted to a colony and a fortress! Yet the Portuguese neglected to occupy it, while engrossed with their splendid and golden conquests in the Indian Ocean; and the Dutch, with characteristic forethought, founded Capetown in 1650. The Hottentots, proverbial to our day, for their extreme degradation in the scale of human beings, were soon driven back, and a mixed race of Hollanders and natives now form the chief population for several hundred miles back in the country. The Dutch and English missionaries had great success in several places, and many details of them, and of the nature and productions of the country, may be found in Kay's Caffraria; while the observations of Hope in 1778, and of Sparrman and Vaillant a little later, of Barrow in 1797, and many other later writers, abound in interesting

facts. Peter Kolben wrote the first book on that region, in the early days of the Dutch government. Since Great Britain obtained possession, new elements have been introduced, which present many new and striking contrasts to the eye of a stranger.

Our prints shows us the striking form of Table Mountain, with its surrounding peaks, the houses of Capetown, clustered at their feet; while the ships, ploughing the waves in the foreground, give some idea of the effect which the noble scene must produce on the navigator. This mountainous peninsula extends 40 or 50 miles north, and is connected on the east, by a sand plain, 10 miles wide, with the main continent. Table Bay lies north of the isthmus, and False Bay south. Table Mountain is some distance from Capetown, and is 3582 feet high, (or about the elevation of the peaks of Catskill Mountains,) while the Lion's Head, or the Sugar Loaf, west of it, is 2160 feet. The Devil's Peak, on the east, with the others, forms an amphitheatre of 5 or 6 miles diameter, in the centre of which stands the town. The prevailing rocks are granite, gneiss, clay-slate, greywacke, quartz and sandstone, the last with veins of red iron ore.

INTERESTING EXTRACTS FROM THE SAILOR'S MAGAZINE FOR SEPTEMBER.

[Sailor's Missionary. Port of New York.]

The Captain of a ship lately said that sai lors, taken in the mass, were a very different class of men from what they were a few years back; for his part, he thought he should never ship a man from any of the common sailor boarding houses since he had seen that palace of a place for sailors-the Sailor's Home in Cherry street.

A visitor writes: In three months I have had but one instance of a sailor refusing a tract. The other day I met with a seaman, (an old acquaintance, one with whom I had spent many of my boyish days,) who about three months previous to date of report, had the misfortune to break his ancle and was taken to the Seaman's Retreat, Staten Island. For many years previous he had been a drunkard and was in every way degraded--one of the vilest of the vile. He is now an altered man. He was brought up in the Romish Church. He stated that the first serious impressions made upon his mind, were by reading a religious tract in the Sailor's Retreat, Staten Island.

On board a sloop (in May last) a man was asked if he would like a tract? He smiled,

and paused; then said he was rejoiced whenever he heard the name tract spoken. Being asked the reason-"I am," said he, "much from home, leaving my children, which are small, in the care of their mother. I felt uneasy every time I left home, knowing their mother was so much opposed to religion. When I was at home I always took them to church, and taught them myself from the Bible; but their mother the moment my back was turned had them at something else. I continually brought home the tracts I received when in New York, that my children might read them. One time when I went home one of my children told me, that if I had any tracts with me now, I might give them to mother, for the last I had brought home she had not burned, but put them in the cupboard, and read them every day! I took some out of my pocket, and to my great joy, she said, don't destroy those tracts.'

There is a great change in my family since that time; my children are made happy, and myself and wife have joined the church; therefore, I always bless God for tracts and rejoice to have them."

Tracts were presented to a colored cook of brig Siroc. "Oh," said he, "what a blessing tracts are. Do you know," he continued, "where I have been-Turks Islandthey had not a single book of any kind. This came to the knowledge of a pious lady we had on board, a passenger, who had in her possession a book, neatly bound, of tracts, &c., and so desirous was she to give, and they to receive, that she cut her book into pieces, and distributed the leaves among them, so that by reading, and then exchanging with others, the whole would be read. An offer was made a short time afterwards to purchase a few of the leaves as curiositses; but they could not be purchased at any price-a dollar was refused for a single leaf."

A young seaman, formerly a very wicked fellow, came on purpose for a parcel of tracts to distribute among seamen.

The mate of a vessel, (I have the name, &c.,) looking over some tracts, selected "The dying Mother's counsel to her only Son," saying, with much emphasis and feeling, "bad as I was, this tract was the means of making, at least, a decent man of me. I shall never forget the impression made upon my mind when I first read it."

The Embellishment of Villages.

So much that is useful is connected with the embellishment of our habitations, grounds and neighborhoods, when framed on the principles of good judgment and sound taste, that it seems surprising no more attention has yet been directed to the subject.

To how many a man, unknown to us, has both the writer and the reader of these lines been indebted, for the enjoyment of a welcome

shade afforded him by a fine tree, placed where it was needed! Why do we no oftener ask, when we have a leisure hour or day before us, whether we can not usefully and honorably devote it to a little wholesome labor, which may hereafter prove equally valuable to our successors?

A few years ago we had an opportunity to compare the unshaded and scorching streets of Hudson with the cool and attractive avenues of Brooklyn, L. I.

to ex

"Where all the streets are shady bowers;" and, if some of the inhabitants of other towns should ever be struck with such a view, they must be inclined to make some exertion for the introduction or extension of the advantages of which every place is susceptible.A little acquaintance with what individuals have done, might incite any one ertion, even though without the prospect of co-operation. Who does not know the fame which New Haven derives from the beauty of her fine numerous elms? But the long avenues which open so nobly to the eye on every hand, owe their stately ornaments to the public spirit, taste, and perseverance of the late James Hillhouse. Along both sides of Connecticut river, from below Hartford to Greenfield in Massachusetts, the roads are lined, with the exception of some intervals, by double, and sometimes quadruple lines of similar trees, many of them of far greater age, planted by some forgotten friends of succeeding generations.

ECHOES.

There is scarcely any natural phenomenon better fitted to attract the attention-to attract and to please-than a fine echo. When unexpectedly awakened, it gives a sudden animation to a lonely, and often desolate, or even gloomy scene, as if it were peopled with intelligent and active beings. As the wildness and majesty of rocks and mouniains, with sheets

of water intervening, are the most favorable to the existence and perfection of echoes, solitude and sublimity are the usual associates of this mysterious phenomenon. We may say mysterious; for, although the cause is well understood by the learned, on general principles, we are often unable to see its application to particular cases, and most persons are still but little acquainted with it.

There are few things in nature which waken stronger and more lasting impressions on the mind. Probably any of our readers would have been ready to join in this remark, if they had stood at evening on the bank of Connecticut river, opposite Mount Holyoke, and blown the horn to call the ferryman with his boat from the other side; or heard a bugle sounded at midnight in the heart of the Highlands of Hudson river; or the reverberations from French Mountain after a cannon fired on Lake George. A friend, who was lately at West Point, described the echoes of a field-piece, repeatedly discharged there, to recover the body of a drowned cadet, as adding a sad solemnity to the sorrowful scene.

But many who are admirers of echoes do not trouble themselves to obtain very accurate or precise ideas of the cause. The print above given, shows how repeated echoes are often formed in mountainous regions. Wherever sound, or rather the undulating motion of air (such as produces in the ear the effect called hearing,) meets any surface which is sufficiently flat and extended to reflect, or throw them off again with regularity, an echo is produced, though it may not reach the listener. Now, whether we hear an echo or not is a result dependant on several circumstances, even when we are in the neighborhood of such a body as we have described. First, we must be at a sufficient distance to have a second or more occupied by the going and returning of the sound. Next, it must not be too distant in proportion to the loudness of the sound.Then our position is highly important: for a direct echo of one's own voice, the person must be exactly in front of the echoing surface, or resounding plane; but for an indirect echo, or reverberation, a particular acute, or obtuse angle is the right one, and none other.

Large and smooth rocks, and extensive walls of stone, brick, or wood, usually present the best echoing surfaces; but we sometimes are surprized by very fine ones returning from woody hills and bare mountains, or a broken region, where we are at a loss to account for them.

Several kinds of echoes may be illustrated by our print, and in different ways. A gun fired from the spot marked 1, would, of course, send its sound in every direction, which would be thrown off from every favorable surface, according to the general rule of reflection for light, heat, and elastic substances. That rule is, that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. Of course, if lookingglasses were placed on the flat rocks in a region like that above depicted, images would be thrown by them, just where echoes would