Such is the character of a considerable portion of the ancient works of the Mississippi Valley. How far a faithful attention to their details has tended to sustain the position assigned to them at the outset the intelligent reader must determine. Their general great size is, perhaps, the strongest objection which can be urged against the hypothesis of a religious design. It is difficult to comprehend the existence of religious parallel bends to a right angle as it approaches | works extending, with their attendant avenues, the main work. like those near Newark in Ohio, over an area of little less than four square miles! We can find their parallels only in the great temples of Abury and Stonehenge in England, and Carnac in At the point indicated by the letter N, and 450 feet to the left of the second parallel, on a high peninsula or headland, is a singular redoubt, of which the supplementary figure, B, is an en-Brittany, and associate them with a mysterious larged plan. At its left is the bank of the second "bottom," or terrace, 50 feet high, and very steep. At its right is a ravine with steep banks. The embankment of this work is heavy, and the ditch, which is interior to the wall, is wide and deep. The inclosed oval is only 60 feet wide by 110 long. It has a gate-way to the northeast 10 feet wide. The object of this inclosure is difficult to divine. Its position and the dimensions of its walls would seem to indicate a defensive purpose; but this hypothesis is combated by its small size. worship of the Sun, or an equally mysterious Sabianism. Within the mounds inclosed in many of these sacred works we find the altars upon which glowed their sacrificial fires, and where the ancient people offered their propitiations to the strange gods of their primitive superstition. These altars also furnish us with the too unequivocal evidence that the ritual of the mound-builders, like that of the Aztecs, was disfigured by sanguinary observances, and that human sacrifices were not deemed unacceptable to the divinity of their worship. It is of course The entire main work, the greater part of the impossible in this connection to go into the delower parallel, and a portion of the upper one, tails of the evidence upon this or kindred points are now in open, cultivated grounds. The walls of interest. These belong to works of a more of the square are too steep to admit of cultiva-purely scientific character. 24.-ANCIENT WORK NEAR PORTSMOUTH, OHIO, INSECTS BELONGING TO THE COTTON PLANT. AMONG all the fabrics necessary to the com- of modern commerc fort of man in every clime there is no other that can compete with cotton. Cotton floats on every breeze, is whispered by the winds from every shore. Men turn pale when the quantity fails; they tremble in high places at the very surmise of a pound the less; and if, from the inscrutable decrees of Providence, it should ever happen that the crop of cotton should fail, the most vivid imagination is too feeble to portray the dismay, ruin, and despair which would overwhelm more than a third of the civilized world. "The Gossypium Herbaceum is a shrub three or four feet high, branched, spreading, and flexible like a dog-rose. It is planted on plains, in rows like the vine❞—so says Aristobulus, one of Alexander's generals; and the plant and the manner of planting have remained unchanged amidst the whirl of progress since those ancient days. A species of long staple is cultivated in the Dependency of Bengal, but can only be made to produce the requisite results in manufacture under the patient manipu lation and with the primitive loom of the Hindoo. There is little doubt that, in course of time, cotton will be cultivated with success in countries whose climates are genial to its growth; but there can never arise a formidable competitor to our Sea Island staple. Here, only, on the globe, must it continue to be cultivated; for here alone can the atmosphere be found necessary to the full exhibition of those sterling qualities which are produced from the soil and climate of these charming islands, the fabled gardens of health, youth, and beauty. Those sunny isles that laugh beside the sea, Where the bright orange and the citron grow, From whose green groves despair and sorrow flee, And where the dance and song forever flow; Bright sunny isles kissed by that summer sea, Where young Love lives and sings so joyously! There are two varieties, "Short" and "Long staple;" or, in modern phrase, "Upland" and "Sea Island." There is no shrub which shows care, nourishment, and cultivation like this. The soil of these islands is a gray sand, mixed Consequently we are ever hearing of new va- with a rich loam, whose largest constituents are rieties, called in the market "fancy cottons." silica, peroxyd of iron, and carbonaceous matThese are only exponents of the planter's indus-ter, not differing very materially from the lands try, practicability, or judgment. The value of the cotton is estimated by the length of the staple, which you perceive in the centre of the two connecting fibres (Figure 15, page 50); this, when drawn slowly away from each end, proclaims its length and the value placed on the cotton. average is nearly two inches in length. on the main, but sufficient, when combined with the atmospheric influences arising from their proximity to the Gulf Stream, to produce so entire a change in the nature of the cotton plant as to form a distinct variety. It is marvelous when The we consider the effects diffused over these islands by this glowing river as it wends its way north, carrying warmth and gladness to cold countries draped in the icy mantle of winter. It dispenses a soft current of caloric full of saline qualities, which, meeting the colder land-breeze, descends in gentle dews, enriching vegetation and consti The most superior cotton in the world is produced on the belt of islands running along the shores of our Southern States. It is unapproachable for texture, softness, and beauty; and from it alone can be made the fine laces and muslins tuting the most enviable and enchanting climate | produce that most valuable and important part in the world. The cotton plant, nourished under this genial dispensation, becomes deprived of all its harsh and wiry qualities. The staple lengthens in its fibres to the silvery, soft, and fleecy snow-ball, transported as if by magic from some frozen land to glow and palpitate beneath the summer's warmth and dewy winds, breathing forever from that silent and wondrous river. So palpable is this influence that the cotton cultivated on the islands deteriorates in quality the farther it is planted from the influences of the Gulf Stream; and less than forty miles back, on the main, remote from the sea-breeze, it returns again in the second year to "Upland," or its original nature. Such are the favorable circumstances which of the cotton crop of the world, the "Sea Island Cotton." But there are drawbacks as well as favoring circumstances. There is not a single part of the cotton plant, from the tiniest rootlet, through roots, stalk, leaves, flower, and pod, which does not form the favorite food of some insect depredator. All through its growth, from the tender germ to the matured plant with its fleecy wool spread to the wind, in every stage it is assaulted by enemies, who prey upon its life, and from whose devouring fangs a kind Providence rather than the labors of the planter save sufficient for the great crop which adds so much annually to the wealth of this country and the comfort and prosperity of the civilized world. To one who has watched closely all the dan gers which attend the growth of the cotton plant it is a matter for surprise that such crops can be grown as every year sees; and to the planter, and also to the country at large, it becomes a matter of importance to know how to combat these tiny enemies to a greater prosperity-how to meet and defeat the advances of these devastators, but for whom, it is not too much to say, we might annually double our present cotton crop. is of a tawny yellow. A dark band runs irregularly across the wings; marks of a crescent shape -sometimes oval-are near the centre, inclosing white spots; the under wings are yellow, with a shade of red; broad black bands encircle them, in the centre of each of which is a large yellowish brown spot, visible in every specimen. She comes forth on the approach of mild weather, and deposits her eggs carelessly (for she knows there is an abundance of food), but always near a young boll. The worm hatches in a few days, and commences eating into it. It emerges often, as it increases in size, so as to have free space for its frequent moultings, enlarging in bulk each time astonishingly. You may easily tell where this worm has been feeding. It exhausts the sap so entirely that the capsules burst with dryThe Heliothes Americana, or Boll Worm (Figs. ness and the ground becomes covered with de1, 2), belongs to the nocturnal family of moths, cayed and blackened forms. The worm varies and to the order of Phytometrites, or half loop- as it changes its skin. At first it is greenish, ers. The female moth is stout, wings deflexed, but becomes at last brown, spotted with black. antennæ filiform; her colors vary very much in It has on it a very few hairs, being what is termindividuals; the most common specimen founded a naked larva. In its early stages, when it Herewith I present to the readers of Harper's Magazine the results of many years' close and accurate observation of these important insects. I will commence with one whose "step is as the tread Of a flood that leaves its bed a. Imago. e. Haustellum, or Sucker.-d. Palpus.-. Antenne.-f. Mandibles-g. Claw of Worm.-J. Chrysalis. walks, it partially loops itself, which movement | black legs and smoky wings. Some seasons anwill distinguish it to unexperienced eyes from other fly appears, banded with yellow on the abthe corn-worm, for which it has often been mis- domen and legs. They are small, and fly low, taken. As it grows old and stout, it trails it-knowing exactly where to find what they reself along, having lost its elasticity. When suf- quire; and it is almost a miracle for a worm to ficiently fed it descends to the earth with a great escape. deal of circumspection, being difficult to please with a location; and this is fortunate for the planter, for while it is selecting and rejecting a place to descend, an ichneumon of the Ophion family may be observed darting her eggs between its fat segments; so that out of five caterpillars three will perish, being used as the abodes of the ichneumon. Herein is the salvation of the crop. This ichneumon fly is of a lead color, with The worm is a long time in descending, but when this is accomplished it forms a pupa-case of grains of sand, lining it nicely in the interior with a fine silk, and changes gradually into a bright brown chrysalis, remaining in the ground until the next season, when her proceedings are repeated more or less detrimentally, according to the industry of the ichneumon and state of the weather. |