THE WILD BOARS OF GOTHA.

[The following is an extract from a letter communicated by the Travelling Correspondent of the London Chronicle, who accompanied Queen Victoria on her German tour. One of the papers says that this writer is a Mr. Ho. garth, a descendant of the Hogarth, and one who inherits much of his talent.)

We are apt to think the wild boar-notwithstanding his disreputable relationship to his cousin of the farmstead pigsty-is, after all, a poetical sort of animal. His tusks him respectacle. Moreover, he is a species of classical game.

I went yesterday, full of eager anticipation, to see wild boars range in their own woods. I return decidedly disappointed. The inmate of the stye is a nearer relative to the native of the forest than I at all expected to find him. I stated the other day, that the Duke of Coburgh preserves wild boars. They are kept like deer in a park, or more properly speaking, forest. The enclosures embrace a circuit of about 5,000 acres, densely overgrown with pine and within the space dwell about 169 wild boars. They are regularly fed at appointed stations, and albeit they listen to no dinner-bell, except that with which their stomachs supply them, they manage to collect in tolerably formidable numbers every evening, about five o'clock, around the spots wherein they have the daily supply of potatoes and oats.

One part of this boar forest approaches the castle of Rosenau; and within two miles or less from its gates is the principal feeding place. Leaving our vehicles upon the highway, our party proceeded through fields of stunted barley and flax, towards a long pine covered bridge, anxiously anticipating an even ng with the boars. At the gate opening into the domains of their swinish majesties, we met the Keeper of the forest-a stalwart fellow with his deputy, a quiet hard-featured old man, armed with a clumsy flint gun and a long spit of a sword. These defences are necessary. He feeds the boars, and must take reasonably good care that the boars do not return the compliment by feeding on him.Thus escorted and protected, we entered the boar forest. A rude bridle track-half a rutty road-half a torrent bed-led up a steep rising ground, into the dark interior of the wood. A pine forest is a dim and so emn place The setting sun shone slantingly, in checquered rays of gold, amid the innumerable legions of tall grey fir stems, which rise in endless array from the slippery twig strewn turf. We advanced laughing and talking; presently our friend the keeper proclaimed the necessity of silence; his deputy of the sword and the gun struck off ahead to act as vanguard, and we pursued our almost darkling way as silently as a band of Indians upon a hostile trail. of course every body looked anxiously for the promised feræ, occasionally starting amid a half smothered laugh, as a squirrel jumped up

a tree, or a little bird rose flutteringly from the ground. As for myself, I hummed over the ancient doggrel :

"If thou be hurt by horn of hart,

It brings thee to thy bier;
But wild boar's fang can leeches heal,
Whereof have lesser fear."

I don't know if I quote the sporting exhortation aright, but I know I thought it correctly.

Some ten minutes walk accomplished, we could see among the trees a rude fence or stockade; and as we drew nearer, there appeared a square wooden hut pitched in the midst. Our avant courier stole silently up to the fortification, and after having made a signal with his cap that all was right, we ran up and ensconced ourselves therein, the whole party in two minutes being snugly halted within the aforementioned hut. Now, in my innocence, I had imagined the outer stockade was a kind of outwork or advanced fortification, and that the hut was the citadel. I found, however, that the boars were to be fed within the fence, while we were to look on like ladies at a public dinner in the gallery of the Freemason's Tavern, from the wooden erection in the midst.

From this erection runs a mere skeleton hut, formed of rudely-hewn boards, clumsily nailed together, some few bundles of straw littered the floor, and, besides the crevices of the walls, certain sliding shutters when pushhack, afforded you an opportunity of catching a glimpse, through holes a few inches square, of the wild pigs at dinner. The under keeper strewed around the hut half a bushel or so of potatoes, and two or three pecks of oats. We were then ordered to observe the profoundest silence, under the pain and penalty of the wild boars refusing to dine at all-did they know that they were to do so in our society.

It is no easy matter for a party of men, very well inclined to chatter, to preserve an absolute stillness, and accordingly, the half hour which elapsed before the coming of our friends the pigs, was broken by many a half-stiffed laugh and wretched joke, to the manifest indignation of the keeper, whose English education had been decidedly too much neglected to allow him to appreciate the full merit of bad puns. At length the announcement of Hush, here they are!" put us all on the qui vive.

Amid the long, pole-like stems of the pines, we could see trotting towards us certain brown rotundities-wonderfully like home-fed porkers-and presently half a dozen long, ugly snouts were poked through the openings left for that purpose in the stockade. Another moment, and the owners of the ugly snouts followed their noses into the al fresco dining room, and soon some score or more of wild pigs were feeding around. The more juvenile swine invariably entered first; they were the tenderest in years and pork-the rasherest, as

somebody lately remarked-the shocking imitation of a joke, however, raising a laugh, which prevented half a dozen old grunters, knowing in the wicked ways of the world, from entrusting their precious carcasses within the magic circle until they had cocked their eyes, and stared and listened in all directions. I was certainly disappointed at the entree and personel of the forest pigs. I had expected, foolishly perhaps, a grunting rush of savage tusked monsters, champing and foaming, and throwing themselves on the potatoes like tigers on legs of lamb. Nothing of the sort, however; the dinner party was decidedly a tame affair. And, first, as to the appearance of the guests.

Fancy a cross between a clumsy deer and a rather good looking pig, and you have a very fair idea of the wild boars I yesterday saw. The head is the part which most decidedly smacks of the sty. It is long-the snout particularly so-but the ears are upright and the twinkling eyes are bright, and there is an air of wildness and wakeful watchfulness about the animals which makes them, at all events, very tolerable imitations of wild beasts. They trotted pretty nimbly about, and despite a certain piggish odor, which rose like an exhalation around, they appeared clean and lively. Their size was rather under the pig average. I saw none with tusks, but the keeper told me that there were plenty so furnished in the wood-the patriarchs of the race-many of them twice as big, or nearly so, as the average run of the swinish multitude we saw. They had none of the voracity of a domestic swine. They eat, in fact, in quite gentlemanly manner-for pigs-one of the older inhabitants occasionally driving away, by a grant and a champ of his fangs, a youngster who fancied his chosen heap of oats.

There were probably about thirty, inclu ding young ones, feeding around. A half hour or so was consumed upon the festal ground, and then, when most of the potatoes and all the corn were gobbled up, we made a sortie from our tower of strength, having previously been vastly emboldened by the tame appearance of the wild boars, every one of whom, old ones and young ones, trotted off as we appeared, in double quick time, speedily clearing the stockade, and were soon lost in the dak recesses of the woods, leaving us to pursue our path very peaceably towards the less perilous country, expressing a very free opinion, by the way, that any man of ordinary pluck could easily convert, with a tolerable cudgel, a living boar into dead pork.

Sugar in the United States is a subject of increasing interest. The demand is rapidly advancing. Its production in the State of Louisiana, to which it is here principally confined, is a source of much wealth. The capital employed in that State is $52,000,000, with 40.000 hands and 10,000 horses, and the average annual manufacture of sugar more than 80,000,000 lbs. and 4,000,000 gallons of

molasses. The cane crop in the United States last year (1842), was an average one, and the whole aggregate sugar crop of the year was 142,445,199 lbs., though near 13,000,000 less than in 1940. Our imports in 1840, were of brown sugar, to the value of $4,742,492; white or clayed, $636.458. But there was exported of refined sugar to the value of $1,214,658. It is thought a supply of sugar for home consumption might be produced in the United States. The consnmption in the United States in 1830 was about 70,000 lbs.

The product of a hand on a sugar estate is put down at the cultivation of 5 acres, producing 5,000 lbs. of sugar and 125 gallons of molasses. The value of the sugar on the spot is 5 cents a pound, and the molasses 19 cents a gallon; total $297 50. The annual expense per hand, tools, &c., $105. Two crops are made in succession on the same land, one of plant cane, and one of rattoons; it then lies fallow two years, or is planted with indian corn or peas. An acre yields about 1200 lbs. of sugar. The State of Louisiana has 700 plantations, 525 in operation, producing annually about 90,000 hogsheads of 1000 lbs each. The raw sugar imported in 1840 was 121,000,000 lbs. valued abroad at $5,600,000, and imported from six different countries. This, with our own product, is over 263,445,000 lbs. But maple sugar constitutes in addition a large proportion of our domestic consumption, amounting annually to eight or ten millions of pounds. The protec tion afforded by a tariff has greatly increased the production of sugar in the United States. From 1816 to 1828 this increase was from 15,000 to 45,000 hogsheads.

The annual consumption of sugar in Great Britain in 1830 M'Culloch estimated at 180,000 tons, or over 400,-000,000 lbs., which was about 30 lbs. for each person. The consumption is rapidly increasing there and on the continent, where the annual consumption is two hundred and sixty thousand tons. The British West India Islands yield about one hundred and ninety-five thousaud tons. Other West Indian Islands, two hundred thousand, and Brazil, seventy-five thousand. During the first half of the last century the con sumption increased five-fold. The sum total of sugars brought into all the markets has been estimated for 1838 at seven hundred and thirty-eight thousand tons, but the present average quantity produced of all kinds may be estimated, in round nnmbers, at one million of tons. Great Britain employs, according to an English account, two hundred thousand tons of shipping in the exportation of five hundred millions of pounds of sugar from her colonies, which, if consumed by twenty-eight millions of people, would be equal to twentyfive pounds each; but this is so taxed that the poor can get but a fraction of this proportion, as the revenue from this is annually twentytwo million two hundred thousand dollars. The British imported in 1831, from their East India possessions, four hundred and

eighty-five thousand three hundred and twen ty-six hundred weight, costing from 22 to 35 shillings, with a duty of 24 shillings. Notwithstanding the large amount imported, Mr. Huskisson has said that "two-thirds of the poorer people drink their coffee without sugar."

The average annual amount consumed by each person is, in Ireland 5 lbs., in France 7, Spain 7 1-2, United States 18, England 23. The consumption of maple sugar and molasses in the United States makes the amount equal probably, to 23 or 24 lbs. each!

Sugar has been extracted from the elm dust and several of the woods, and of late from woolen rags by means of sulphuric acid, with chalk. A pound of rags are thus convertible into more than a pound of sugar. The process of manufacturing sugar from old rags is now considerably carried on, it is said, in parts of Germany.

The character of sugar is distinguished, when pure, as a white granular solid, but crystalized in 4 or 6 prisms, terminated by 2 or 3 sided summits, and the crystals are nearly anhydrous. The specific gravity is 1.4 1.6. Il is hardly soluble in alcohol, though proof spirits dissolves it in considerable quantity. Sugar combines with the oxide of lead forming saccharate of lead, and also other oxides. It has little or no action on salts. With water it reduces muriate of gold and other metallic salts. From the average of experiments its composition is 50.50 oxygen, 42. 50 carbon, and 6.80 hydrogen. 45 lbs. of sugar during fermentation are resolved into 23 alcohol and 23 carbonic acid. Sugar and water do not ferment alone.

S. Officinarum; leaves flat; flowers in pairs, panicled, on loose zig zag spikes ; panicle spreading in feathered branches, 1 foot long; stem 10 feet, joined.-E. I. and A.

Chapin's Hand-Book of Plants.

THE FUSCHIA.

At the Boston Horticultural Exhibition the following anecdote was related by the Rev. W. Choules, on the authority of Mr. Shepherd, the accomplished conservator of the Botanical Gardens at Liverpool, respecting the introduction of that flowery shrub, the Fuschia, into the green-houses of Europe:

Old Mr. Lee, a well-known nurseryman and florist at Greenwich, near London, about fifty years ago, was one day shewing his variegated treasures to a person, who suddenly turned and said, “Well, you have not in your whole collection so pretty a flower as one I saw to-day in a window at Wapping.”

"Indeed, and what was this phoenix like?" "Why, the plant was beautiful, and the flowers hung down like tassels from the drooping branches; their color was the deepest crimson, and in the centre of a fold of rich purple."

Particular inquiries were made as to the exact whereabouts, and Mr. Lee posted off to the place, where he discovered the object of

his pursuit, and immediately pronounced it a new plant. He saw and admired.

Entering the humble dwelling, he said, "My good woman, this is a new plant of yours, I should like to buy it."

"Ah, sir, I couldn't sell it for no money; it was brought me from foreign parts by my husband, who has gone again, and I must keep it for his sake."

"But I must have it."

No sir; I can't spare it.

"Here," emptying his pockets, "here is gold, silver, and copper," (his stock amounting to more than eight guineas.)

Well-a-day, this is a power of money."

"'Tis yours, and the plant is mine, my good woman. I'll give you one of the first young ones I rear, to keep for your husband's sake; I will, indeed."

The bargain was struck, a coach called, in which old Mr. Lee and his apparently dearly purchased flower were deposited. On returning home, his first work was to strip off and destroy every blossom and bud; the plant was divided into small cuttings, which were forced into bark-beds and hair-beds, and again subdivided. Every effort was employed to multiply the plant. Mr. Lee became the delightful possessor of three hundred fuschias, all giving promise of fine blossoms. The two which first expanded were placed in his window. A lady came in, "Why Mr. Lee, my dear Mr. Lee, where did you get this charming flower?"

"'Tis a new thing, my lady-pretty, is it not?"

"Pretty! 'tis lovely; its price?"

"A guinea, your ladyship;" and one of the two plants that evening stood in beauty on her ladyship's table in her boudoir.

My dear Charlotte, where did you get that elegant flower?"

"Oh, 'tis a new thing; I saw it at old Mr. Lee's; pretty, is it not?"

Pretty! 'tis beautiful; what did-it cost?" Only a guinea, and there was another

The visiter's horses trotted off to the suburb, and a third beauteous plant graced the from whence the first had been taken. spot The second guinea was paid, and the fuschia adorned another drawing-room of fashion. This scene was repeated as new calls were made by persons attracted by the beauty of the plant. Two plants, graceful and bursting into flower, were constantly seen on the same spot. He gladdened the faithful sailor's wife with the promised flower, and, before the season closed, nearly three hundred guineas jingled in his purse, the produce of the single shrub from the window at Wapping, as a reward of old Mr. Lee's taste, skill and decision."

The Romans lay on couches at their dinner tables, on their left arms, eating with their right.

Toads and Salamanders.

The Salamander is a lizard without scales, the skin of which, speckled with yellow, exhales a fluid, which some persons have regarded as poisonous. This fact needs confirmation; yet it does not seem destitute of foundation.

The toad, that disgusting species of frog which is found in ruins, and in miry places, sxudes from its whole, body, in the same manner as the salamander, a viscous fluid; but this is not its true poison. All country people are well aware that when pursued, it ejects an acid and corrosive liquid, as if to obstruct its persecutors. The poisonous quality of this liquid has been often questioned by writers who have never observed its effects; but there are so many evidences as to the truth of this assertion, that it would be presumptuous not to admit it as a demonstrated fact. Matthiolus attributes to the poison of toads the sudden death of persons who have eaten strawberries, mushroons, or other legumes which the toad has besmeared with its venom. Ambrose Pare cites, among other facts, a case of poisoning proved before the legal tribunals, and which had been produced by pieces of sage over which a toad must have passed.

According to Christ. Franc. Paulini, a man, while throwing stones at a large toad, took hold of one which the reptile had polluted Iwith its venom. His hand swelled up from the violence of the pain; it became covered with phlyctæuæ, and vesicles filled with an ichorous sanies; the inflammation extended up the arm and gave him the most acute torture for fourteen days. At the end of three years, and on the exact anniversary of the day on which he pursued the toad, the disease returned with its original symptoms, and the man was cured with considerable difficulty. Leeuwenhoek speaks of an amateur angler, who, being in the habit of baiting the hook with toads and frogs, one day received the fluid cjaculated by one of these batracii upon the surface of his eye, and in consequence was attacked with acute ophthalmia. He speaks also of a dog which could not catch a toad without afterwards falling into paroxysms of fury and of madness,

I myself have often seen a fluid ejaculated by toads which I have pursued the stream was thrown out to a distance of 80 centime tres-it was of a greenish color and nauseous odor; but I had nothing at hand to experiment upon these animals. And even had we not so many evidences in support of its nature, analogy alone would point out to us that this liquid, ejaculated as a means of de. fence, must be of a nature gimilar to that which the viper introduces, for the same object, into the flesh of its aggressor.

We must then, admit that this venom has a great share in the poisoning which seems to depend on some doubtful cause, and which arises, after having caten without precaution fruits or creeping vegetables, and even mush

roons, which, from their general characters, would be classed among the most inoffensive species. How many accidents, which could not be traced to any certain cause, might be referred to this kind of infection? How ma ny people, who have waked up ill end stupi fied from the sleep that they have taken on the grass, have probably been indebted for their illness to this species of accident. -(Selected.)

BATTLE WITH AN AFRICAN LION.

A letter from French Algeria gives us the particulars of a battle between a detachment of French soldiers and a huge lion, one of those kings of the forest that range through the mountains and plains of Africa. In clear. ing the Arabs from around Oued Zerga, last June, the soldiers discovered this monstrous lion in friendly intercourse with the natives. His female companion and a numerous progeny occupied a natural fort on one of the neighboring hills, from whence, as a general purveyor for the whole community, he sallied forth daily to visit the Arab village, where every attention was paid to him, and his wants daily cared for. His visits ereated no uneasiness among the Arabs. Men, women and children approached him without fear. Occasionally, it is true, he carried home with him a cow, a sheep or a dog, without asking permission. But he only did so when the villagers neglected to furnish his usual supplies, and being a good friend in other respects, the Arabs rather encauraged him in the exercise of his free choice of whatever he wished, themselves and families of course excepted.

The French having expelled the Arabs, his lordship was compelled to take a wider range in search for food, and in an unlucky hour, on the 18th of June last, made himself known to eight French soldiers, who had heard of his majesty and were in search of his lair. He approached them quietly, apparently anxious to open negotiations for a treaty of friendship similar to that existing between his late neighbors and himself. But the French soldi ers, being a civilized people, entertained mortal antipathy against lions and Arabs-and without waiting for an opportunity to smother the lion and his family in a cave-as Col. Pelissier, or Marshal Bugeaud, destroyed seven hundred men, women, and children in Dahra -the eight soldiers formed a line and discharged a volley of musketry at his majesty. For the first time in his life he discovered that mankind are not all alike. His first impulse appeared like a determination to give battle, but the odds were against him, and with a slight wound in one leg he returned to an adjoining thicket. The soldiers surrounded him, and as night approached they built their large fires, four of their number remaining on guard while the others slept.

As the fires began to kindle the lion com menced his war cry, and in a few minutes the whole wilderness resounded with the echo.

Lions and lionesses, answering the cry of the forest king, poured down from the hills. The thicket appeared to be surrounded with beasts. The soldiers were unable to sleep, but they entertained no fear of an attack so long as they kept up the fires. Faggots were thrown upon the burning heaps. Higher and higher rose the flames, and louder and fiercer roared the beasts. Thus passed the night.

At daylight as the soldiers were preparing to dislodge their game, one of them discovered the lion within four paces, in the very act of crouching for a spring upon him, and had barely time to present his bayonet, when his powerful adversary came down upon it, the bayonet passing through him up to the lock of the musket. The shock was so great that the soldier was thrown to the ground, and in an instant the paws of the monster were plunged in his breast. The other soldiers flew to his rescue, but dare not fire lest they should kill their comrade. -The unequal combat was horrible! For a time the menacing attitude of the soldiers around prevented the frantic lion from despatching his victim. He lay upon the poor soldier with his huge pawS indented in the flesh. Although frantic with pain, the lion hardly moved for some moments. He growled terrifically at his enemies while his motionless victim implored protection. At last the lion moved! His claws sunk deeper! Screams of anguish from his victim pierced the hearts of the spectators, and at the risk of shooting their comrade, two fired! Piercing shrieks from the poor soldier now rent the air, as the wounded beast attacked him with greater fury. Supposing from his cries that their shots had seriously wounded their comrade, the soldiers fired three more and the lion fell! They marched forward and despatched the monster. Their comrade, thus happily rescued, was found to receive only one gunshot wound, and that not dangerous, being in the thigh, his wounds from the lion's claws were more severe, and he suffered severely from the loss of blood before reaching the hospital. The lion was found to be twelve feet long, and six feet nine inches around the body.

THE HORSE.-Extract from Youatt and Skinner on the Horse:

"Musles.-The muscles, and tendons which are their appendages, should be large; by which an animal is enabled to travel with greater facility."

"The Bones.-The strength of an animal does not depend on the size of the bones, but on that of the muscles.-Many animals with large bones are weak, their muscles being small. Animals that were imperfectly nourished during growth, have their bones disproportionately large. If such deficiency of > nourishment originated from a constitutional defect wich is the most frequent cause, they remain weak during life. Large bones, there

fore, generally indicate an imperfection in the organ of nutrition."

"To produce the most perfect formed animal, abundant nourishment is necessay from the earliest period of its existence until its growth is complete."

"The power to prepare the greatest quantity of nourishment from a given quantity of food, depends principally upon the magnitude of the lungs, to which the organs of digestion are subservient."

Great Prize.-A letter from Canton, received by a gentleman in Boston, relates the following striking and entertaining fact:

"A Spanish Schooner of about 100 tons, now here, the Quarternoon of Manilla, has met with the richest prize that, so far as I know, is on record. It appears that she started from Manilla, for the avowed purpose of fishing upon the shoals of the China Seas. While upon the 'West London Shoals, as the captain states, he saw an anchor, having a chain fast to it, which he traced along until he found a wreck, and having divers' on board, he sent them down to see what might be found on board.— One man at last brought up a black piece of metal which he called lead, but which the captain knew to be large cycee silver, weighing about 70 dollars! The man re. ported any quantity more below, so at it all hands went, and worked till they had brought up the value of 150,000 dollars in these ingots of silver: the crew all the time supposing that they had lead. The captain got all he dared to trust his craft crazy with, and then made sail for China. He arrived here about two months since, and sold his cycee to a house to whom he consigned his vessel. He then returned to Manilla, fitted out again for his shoal, picked up 25,000 dollars more, got all the ship's anchor's and cables, and all her old fastenings in shape of iron knees, bolts, &c., and also her water casks, and now is here again. He has sold his cycee, and the remains of the wreck are to be sold at public auction in a day or two.

Earthquake.-Quite a severe shock was felt in the vicinity of this last (Sunday) evening. On Long Island, at Bedford, Jamaica, Hemstead, and for many miles, it was felt at 6 o'clock. On Staten Island, at very differeut and distant points, at 10 minutes past 6 o'clock. The sound appeared like the rolling of a heavy loaded wagon over frozen ground, and continued for about three seconds.