MISCELLANEOUS. Singular Phenomenon on Lake Ontario. The Coburg (C. W.) Starr relates the following most curious circumstance: On Saturday last, a most extraordinary occurrence was noticed in the lake at this place. Shortly before noon some gentlemen walking up the wharf, happening to cast their eyes upon the water between the piers, were struck with the very unusual appearance of a strong current tide, as it were setting directly out to sea. It seemed as if the whole Lake was going bodily away. In a few moments nearly a third part of the inner harbor, with a corresponding portion of the shore on either side, was left entirely bare; when suddenly the tide turned, and came as rapidly back again, filling the harbor, at least two feet higher than it was before. This extraordinary action of the Lake was continued at intervals of every eight or ten minutes, till after dark-the highest tide noticed being a little before six in the evening, when the water rose several inches higher than it was last spring, and just two feet and an inch above its present level. We understand the same occurrence was noticed at other places on the Lake, and hear that at Port Hope the effect was so great that the steamboat Princess Royal could not get into the Harbor at all, running hard aground when more than her length outside the entrance to the piers. The cause of so extraordinary a phenomenon is at present a matter of various conjecture, but the general opinion seems to be that it could only have been produced by a violent earthquake in some part of the continent, which we shall probably soon hear of. THE NEWBURGH MASTODON.-A few months ago this wonderful skeleton was discovered by men digging in a marl meadow, about five miles back from the Hudson river at Newburgh. The newspapers had given us notice of the fact, but, on entering the hall where it has been placed for exhibition in this city, (Broadway, near Canal street,) we felt that we had formed but a faint idea of its appearance. It is almost perfect, nothing having been supplied except the tusks, and sufficient fragments of those lying on the floor, to show that the artificial ones are exact copies. The discoverer, who also dug out the skeleton, marked the parts, and brought them down, is present in the exhibition to answer questions. The skeleton is 12 feet high, and including the tusks, 29 feet long, weighing 2000 pounds. It is truly an interesting object, and excites feelings difficult to describe. From the Mich. Farmer. The peach is subject to a disease called the yellows; its presence may be easily detected by the appearance of the leaves, which assume a sallow, sickly hue. There is no remedy known, and the sooner a tree that is diseased is cut down and burned the better. The disease may be, and is no doubt often ignorantly and incidentally propagated by innoculations. Plunge a knife into the bark of a dis-i eased tree, and then into a healthy one, and the disease will show itself in a few days.Using a pruning knife or saw upon a healthy tree, that has been used in pruning a diseased one, would communicate the disease; or budding from scions taken from an affected tree would produce the same effect. The cause of the disease is not known; recently, however, the cultivators of the peach in the region of New York, attribute it to the forcing of the trees in the nursery when young. Trees that have been reared upon a poor soil, it is said, have escaped the disease, while those that have been forced, have been subject to it. The peach is liable to the attack of the borer, or gnat as it is generally called. Their ravages may be discovered by the appearance of the body of the tree near the surface of the ground; they usually commence their attack just below the surface and work upward, and their appearance is indicated by the gum oozing at, or near the surface. Take a sharp knife and cut them out and destroy them.Sometimes you will find but a single depredator-then again you will find them by dozens. The best remedy with which I am acquainted, is, to remove the earth from around the body of the tree to the depth of two or three inches, and fill up the hole with leached ashes. Latterly I have taken the precaution to apply the ashes when I transplant my trees, and since adopting this expedient I have not been troubled with them. A HORTICULTURIST. A WOODEN INFANT.-A woman named Anne Sparkes, an old offender, was placed at the London Police bar before Mr. Long, upon the following charge of robbery : Harding deposed that on the same morning, between two and three o'clock, he met the prisoner in High-street, Camden-town; when, judging from the peculiar way in which she carried a bundle that she had in her possession some stolen property, he stopped her, and asked her what she had, to which she replied Only my baby, and I have wrapped up the little dear to prevent it from catching cold." Witness laid his hand upon the said bundle, and finding that it contained something very hard, remarked that if there was a child in it it must certainly be a wooden one, and upon examination, it turned out that the "blessed babby" had been miraculously transformed into a couple of planes. The prisoner was questioned as to whom they belonged, and she said they were her brother-in-law's, the address of whom she refused to give. She was immediately conveyed from thence to the station house. John Banberry, a carpenter living in Sussex terrace, Hampsted road, identified the planes as being his, and stated that he missed them about seven o'clock from a building near his own residence, at which he had been working the previous day. The prisoner was committed for trial. PROGRESS OF A POUND OF COTTON.-The following account of the adventures of a pound of manufactured cotton, will show the importance of manufactures to a country in a very conspicuous manner:-"There was sent off for London, lately, from Glascow, a small piece of muslin about one pound weight, the history of which is as follows:-The cotton came from the United States to London; from London it went to Manchester, where it was manufactured into yarn; from Manchester it was sent to Paisley, where it was woven; it was sent to Ayrshire next, where it was tamboured; afterwards it was conveyed to Dumbarton, when it was handsewed, and again returned to Paisley, when it was sent to a distant part of the county of Renfrew to be bleached, and was returned to Paisley; then sent to Glascow and was finished; and from Glascow was sent per coach to London. It is difficult to ascertain precisely the time taken to bring this article to market, but it may be pretty near the truth to reckon it two years from the time it was packed in America, till its cloth arrived at the merchant's warehouse in London, whither it must have been conveyed 3,000 miles by sea, and 920 by land, and contributed towards the support of no less than 150 people, whose services were necessary in the carriage and manufacture of this small quantity of cotton, and by which the value has been advanced 2000 per cent.What is said of this piece is descriptive of no inconsiderable part of the trade."-Eng. paper. Staines.-Discovery of an Interesting Historical Relic.-On Thursday, the 11th inst., a tradesman of this town observed on a market stali a small plate, on which was engraved a long, but well-executed inscription, which he purchased for twopence. On closer examination, the plate proved to be of solid silver, and the tenor of the Latin inscription was diligently inquired for. From one hand to another it passed, until it reached Dr. Beasley, who found that the plate had been attached to a chest formed from a pile driven by Cassivellanus to prevent the passage of Cæsar and his army across the Thames, at the Coway, Walon. That several of these stakes had been found from time to time in the bed of the river has been long known, and brought as evidence of the length of time which the exclusion of the air by water, &c., will preserve timber.A short notice of the fact relating to this pas sage of the Thames will be found in Camden, under the head of Walton. The circumstance of a silver plate being purchased for twopence at an old iron stall furnished a subject for gossip, and the person who had sold the plate soon found the "cista," and brought it to the doctor, who lost no time in making the purchase. No doubt of identity was entertained, as the plate had been carefully set into the wood. Of so little value had it been considered by its late owner, that the lid of the chest or caddy, having been split, was burnt, and the chest itself would have speedily followed the same fate, if the Latin inscription had not saved it.—Eng. paper. MORAL INFLUENCE.-At a public meeting in New York, Rev. J. Spaulding dwelt a few moments on the deathless nature and extent of moral influence. 66 Away among the Alleghanies," said be, "there is a spring so small that a single ox on a Summer's day could drink it dry. It steals its unobtrusive way among the hills, till it spreads out into the beautiful Ohio. Thence it stretches away a thousand miles, leaving on its banks more than a hundred villages and cities, and many thousand cultivated farms; and bearing on its bosom more than half a thousand steamboats. Then, joming the Mississippi, it stretches away some twelve hundred miles more, till it fades into the great emblem of eternity. It is one of the ributaries of that ocean, which, obedient only o God, shall roll and roar, till the angel, with one foot on the sea, and the other on the land, shall lift up his hand to heaven and swear that time shall be no longer. with moral influence. It is a rill-a rivulet a river-and it is an ocean-boundless and fathomless as eternity." So The past summer has been a very sickly one in this state and Illinois. No situation, however salubrious in appearance, has been exempted from disease. We have heard an estimate that probably 200,000 persons in these states have been ill this season of the diseases peculiar to the season. It is certain that, in numerous neighborhoods throughout the whole region, entire families have suffered-in many cases, almost every member being prostrated at the same time, and hardly able to assist another. The consumption of drugs has been enormous.-St. Louis New Era. METEORIC STONES.-The number of meteoric stones deposited in the Mineralogical Cabinet of Yale College, is increasing, and some of the specimens are large, beautiful, and wonderfully crystallized. The October number of Silliman's Journal con talus an extract from a letter from Rev. Mr. heard distinctly eighty miles distant from BIOGRAPHICAL. From the Connecticut Courant. The third Governor of Connecticut, of a Mr. Gibbons was charged particularly by Mr. Wyllys, it is stated on good authority, to examine and report to him whether or not there was much clay in Hartford, and wrote back that "there was enough," he thought, " to last a few years." Two years elapsed ere he carried his design into effect-a period within which his dwelling had been prepared, the ground to a considerable extent cleared, a garden laid out, and an orchard of fruit trees commenced, one of which, an apple tree, singularly enough, still survives, and though shrivelled to a fifth of its original size, it still two young shoots, from which a few good supports pearmains were last year plucked. The site of the Wyllys dwelling is familiarly known as the spot where the Charter Oak now stands. Thither George Wyllys came in 1638, leaving one son (George) in England, on the paternal estate-and bringing with him his son Samuel, and two daughters, Hester and Amy, the first of whom af terwards married Captain Harding, and the second, Major John Pynchon, of Springfield. In 1639 he was chosen into the magis tracy of the colony, and again in 1640. In 1641 he was elected deputy governor; in 1642 Governor; and after this continued to occupy the post of Assistant till his death -which occurred March 9th, 1644—(1645 according to the present computation) “ on which day and year," says our town record, "George Wyllys, Esq., late of Fanny Compton, in old England, dyed."k His experience, therefore, of the new world did not last long-not beyond six years-a period, however, sufficiently long for him to establish a solid reputation for piety and prudence, and to deserve and receive from his fellow citizens the reward of high public offices and trust. This period was marked in the history of the colony by the establishment of our first civil constitution-by the institution of town courts, and the court of magistrates, and the regular enrollment of petit and grand juries-by the completion of the twelve capital laws-by the establishment of the confederation of the New England colonies for mutual succor and support-by the purchase and settlement or adoption, on the part of the Connecticut colony, of the towns of Fairfield, Stratford, Saybrook, and Southamption on Long Island-by ecclesiastical contentions at Wethersfield, resulting in the settlement of Stamford-by several serious disputes with the Dutch at New York, and within our own city at Dutch Pointby a new and successful expedition against the Pequots in Pawcatuc Bay, under the command of Captain Mason-by the war between Uncas and Miantonimoh, resulting in the defeat, capture and death of the latter-and by troubles with the Indians generally, so serious and menacing as to require strict guard to be kept at all times, and each family to send a man, "complete in arms, every Lord's day, to defend the places of public worship." In all these matters Governor Wyllys took an active part. His position was a a leading one in the colony. I find him at one time, with Governors Hopkins and Haynes, charged with the business of treating with "the Islanders and Uncas"-at another time with Gov. Hopkins, "furthering the League of Amity with the Bay,"-at another, with Haynes, disposing of "a parte of Tunxis to such inhabitants of Windsor as they shall see cause,"-at another appointed with Haynes, Mason, and the rest of the magistrates, a secret committee "to make preparations against Indian murderers and defeat the plot of the Indians meeting about Tunxis," at another supervising the building of a ship for the colony, and at another providing powder. At another he is appointed "to debate with Mr. Huit on Style's his petition"-at another he is directed by the court of magistrates "to consider" an estate, "and advise how it may be disposed of, and report his apprehensions to the court," at another he is charged by the town of Hartford with determining the appropriation of sequestered ground. At another he displays his interest in matters of the town, by receiving from the inhabitants in company with Haynes, Hopkins, and Mr. Whiting, "liberty to set up a mill upon the Little River, near the house of John Haynes Esq., and the mill of Mr. Matthew Allen, in the most convenient place," with directions "to build a cart bridge twelve feet wide, strong and sufficient, with turned ballusters on the top, said mill and bridge to be finished before winter, and at the end of four years the town to aid in keeping them in repair." This mill was located at the spot now known as "Daniels Mills," and the bridge, which was the first ever constructed over Little River of which any notice is taken in the records, was at the same spot in Main street with that now occupied by the arch bridge. His principal manager, William Gibbons, was an active, enterprising man, of much influence and repute among the settlers, as appears from the fact that he is frequently charged with town business, and called to serve on juries. It is probable that he was directing the labors of Governor Wyllys' men, when the Indians came up from the South Meadow to remonstrate against cutting down the Charter Oak. "It has been the guide of our ancestors for centuries," said they, "as to the time of planting our corn. When its leaves are of the si e of a mouse's ear, then is the time to put the seed in the ground." Governor Wyllys lies buried in the old yard of the Centre Church, directly be eath the monument erected to the memory of the first settlers, and there repose the ones of his family down to the present ime. The Wyllys family never had a funeral monumen: of their own. In this respect they were peculiar. One of the latest ale men:bers being asked why they did follow the custom in this respect replied, in he impulse of a strong pride, that "if the State of Connecticut could not remember the Wyllyses without a monument, their memory might rot." This remark will find some justification when it is remembered that the first of the family, George, was Governor as well as Deputy Governor and Assistant of the State-the second, Samuel, who was a graduate of Harvard, and died May 30th, 1709, was thirty-six years Assistant and four years one of the Commissioners of the United Colonies-the third, Hezekiah, who was born in 1672 and died in 1741, was Secretary of State twentythree years the fourth, George, was in the same office sixty-one years-and the fifth, Samuel, held it thirteen years. believed that this instance of the perpetuation of high office in the same family for so long a series of years, is without a parallel in this country. It is Governor Wyllys made a will, but it is no where recorded. On March 5th, 1645, it was "brought in court by William Gibbons." A will is a good index of character, and its loss in this instance is much to be regretted. None of his descendants however, except the last Samuel, ever made, that I can find, any testamentary disposition of their property. Colonel George, the Secretary for sixty-one years, who died in 1796, declared his wishes on his death bed with regard to his estate, and his children appeared before the Probate Court, and in an instrument under their hands, carried them cheerfully into effect. No male members of the family bearing the Wyllys name now survive, though there are several lineal descendants bearing a different name living, among whom are the venerable Mrs. Dana of Middletown, a grand daughter of Col. George Wyllys, and Mrs. Amelia Adams, of Boston, daughter of the last Hezekiah Wyllys. Mrs. Dana has in her possession a little remnant of the family plate, brought out by her ancestor the Governor. Mrs. Adams holds all the manuscripts which remain of her. family. Dr. Trumbull, the Historian of Connecticut, had access to them, and from him we learn that they show that "love to undefiled religion and purity in Divine ordinances and worship" led the old Governor "to exchange his pleasant seat and easy circumstances in England for the dangers and hardships of a wilderness in America," and that he exhibited "excellent examples to his chil dren, and took pious pains in their education, teaching them from childhood to pray always in secret, private and public, to venerate the Sabbath and the Divine word, and to attend all Christian institutions and du 4 ties." "May the descendants," continues Dr. Trumbull, "ever inherit the virtues and honors of the family." HISTORICUS. A REMARKABLE STORY. Captain Klause, of Philadelphia, has discovered that the River Amazon is navigable for steamships from its mouth on the Atlantic to Lima, in Peru, and within eight miles of Callao, one of the principal ports on the Pacific. A long account of his expedition is given in the Grenada Chronicle of September 6th. Capt. K. lett Lima on the 16th of Sept. 1844. The account says: "He directed his course fo the river Guallaga, by the mountain of Pasco.' Arrived at the village of Tingo, he embarked in a canoe with the object of exploring the river, to see if it was practicable to navigate it by steam, four steamers having for that purpose, arrived from North America. Following the stream, he approached a small hamlet, called Yurimaguas, which is the port of the city of Moyobamba, where he took in provisions. From Yurimaguas, he prosecuted his downward course to Laguna, the point of confluence of the Marahnon and Guallaga; here he entered the Marahnon, and proceeded to the frontiers of Peru and Brazil, arriving at a settlement called Our Lady of Loretto,' where he saw several Brazilian schooners. From Loretto he sent on a person to Jabilinega, a town of Brazil, with orders to the four steamers there to ascend the river as far as Loretto, and in a few days the whole four arrived, saluting the Brazilian battery, which mounted seven guns. In Loretto, there is a large lake, in which three of the steamers anchored to wait orders, and in the other, called the Peruvian, of one hundred and forty horse power, Captain Klause embarked, taking on board all the machinery necessary to clean out the river Guallaga, and to construct landing places, &c. He then proceeded against the stream to the mouth of the Guallaga, and port of Laguna,' where he anchored in ten fathoms. Here he discharged the machinery into canoes, and, assisted by three hundred and fifty Indians, he ascended the river, clearing it of every obstruction as far as Pachisa,' at which place he was obliged to augment the number of hands to 700, from the increase of the work and labor they had to perform. He there continued his course against the current to the village of Tingo, the utmost point of steam_navigation in the river Guallaga, distant from Lima seven or eight days by land.-From Tingo he returned back on foot with twenty-five soldiers by the Pama del Sacramento' to the Laguna,' where he found the steamer he bad left there at anchor. He again embarked in the steamer, and proceeded in her up the Guallago (now cleared of all obstruction) until he again reached Tingo without the slightest accident. From Tingo, Captain Klause forwarded despatches to Lima, noti fying the arrival of the steamer, and without loss of time he retraced his steps in a canoe, with the intention of sending up to Tingo the other steamers which were awaiting orders in the Lake of "Our Lady of Loretto: but at the port of Yurimaguas he received a let ter from the firm at Lima, directing him to proceed immediately to explore the river Pastaza, as far as it may be navigable by steam, and in case the navigation should prove to be practicable, to propose a contract to the Government of the Equador. In effect, the exploration was performed, and the river found perfectly navigable for steam vessels, save a few obstructions which would be cleared away on the Government consenting to a contract. From the point of confluence of the Pastaza with the Marahnon to the boundaries of Peru and the Equador, as far as the village of Andoas, Captain Klause did not meet with any obstacle except a sandbank, which, with ordinary caution, may be easily evaded: the current is rapid. From Andoas upwards, there are many obstructions which can only be removed by means of the machinery brought by the steamers for that purpose. Near Andoes, Capt. Klause discovered two mountains of rock salt, one very white, the other reddish; and along the banks of the Pastaza, above Andoas, he saw a number of little hamlets and settlements of wild Indians, called Zaparos, from whom he obtained provisions; finally he reached within two or three leagues of the river Jopa, where he landed, and arrived at the town of Bano in two days. From Bano he proceeded to Pellieo, where he remained four days, and saw sev. eral good mines of silver and platina. From Pelileo he arrived at this city (Quito) on the 23d April. Captain Klause says he was truly amazed at the quantity of minerals, dyewoods of various sorts and other valuable woods, coffee, cocoa (white and common) of excellent quality; cotton, very fine and long like wool; spices, balsam, raisins, wax, and other rich productions which he met with in great abundance everywhere during his travels."-Selected. PARENT'S DEPARTMENT. Edward's Sunday Employments. There was a large and shady tree which grew in front of the house, and he often sat at the window and looked at it. It was a pleasant sight when covered with green leaves, and at that season when the birds build their nests, for they could live there without danger of being disturbed. Often was Edward seated there on a Sabbath morning, listening to his father's remarks, or studying a bible lesson with him. And this was the way in which they held their conversations. If Edward thought of any question to ask, about any subject proper for the Lord's day, he would |