boatmen, who sold her to the French. These retained her as a hostage, and brought her to Paris. After residing many years in that city, she was recognized; and an embassy was sent to take her back to her native country. But as she had in the meantime become a Christian, she would not return, as in that case she would be required to embrace the Mohammedan faith.

16th. At Wiesbaden, in Germany, General UMINSKI, aged 71, a prominent actor in the last Polish revolution. He was born in the year 1780, in the Grand Duchy of Posen. As early as 1794 he commenced his military career as a volunteer under Kosciusko. When the Poles were summoned to new efforts for freedom by Dombrowski, in 1806, Uminski was among the first to take up arms. He formed a Polish Guard of Honor for Napoleon, fought at Dantzick, received a wound at Dirschau, where he was taken prisoner and sentenced to death by a Prussian Court Martial. His sentence was not executed, however, as Napoleon threatened reprisals. In the war against Austria he commanded Dombrowski's advanced guard, was made Colonel, and formed the 10th hussar-regiment, which signalised itself at Mosaisk, in 1812, and at whose head he was the first to enter Moscow. In the retreat, he saved the life of Poniatowski.

At the battle of Leipsic, where he acted as Brigadier General, he was again wounded and taken prisoner. After the dissolution of the national army of Poland, he entered into the Polish-Russian service, but soon obtained his discharge, and lived in retirement in Posen, though without intermitting his efforts for the freedom of Poland. In the year 1821 he helped to found a patriotic union, was arrested after the accession of Nicholas I., and in the year 1820 sentenced to six years' imprisonment in the fortress of Glogau. Escaping from this in the year 1821, he went to Warsaw, and took part as a common soldier in the battle of Wavre. The next day he was made General of Division. On the 25th of February he beat Diebitsh at Grodno, and distinguished himself in several other battles. Outlawed and hung in effigy at Kosen, he found an asylum in France. The remainder of his subsequent life he passed in Wiesbaden. Uminski was also known as a writer on military affairs. Those who knew him in the latter years of his exile, speak highly of the sweetness, benevolence, and dignity of

his character.

28th. At London, Admiral Sir EDWARD CODRINGTON, G.C.B., aged 81. He entered the navy in 1783, and distinguished himself on various occasions, till the close of the French wars. He commanded the line-of-battle-ship Orion at the celebrated battle of Trafalgar, and received a gold medal for that victory.

In 1826, Admiral Codrington was appointed Commander-inChief of the Mediterranean squadron, and hoisted his flag in the Asia, of eighty-four guns. It was in this capacity that he took the leading part in the great battle of Navarino, on the 20th of October, 1827, when the Turco-Egyptian fleet was destroyed by the combined squadrons of Britain, France and Russia. The Asia was hotly engaged in this action; the Admiral himself was struck, and his watch shattered in his pocket. For this service he received various honors. But different opinions prevailed in Britain among politicians on the subject. The Duke of Wellington characterized the battle as an untoward event;" and some considered that Sir Edward was too much influenced by his prepos sessions in favor of the Greeks. He was, therefore, recalled from the Mediterranean in April, 1828. He sat in Parliament for the borough of Devonport, from 1832 to 1840, and steadfastly sup ported the Whig policy.

Near Paris, in a Lunatic Asylum, NAPOLEON JUNOT, Duc D'Abrantes, son of Marshal Junot, aged 44. The irregularities of his life were such that they could be explained only on the supposi tion that he had always been partially insane. Yet he possessed great talents; and his poetry, although eccentric, had considerable merit. He published several dramas and romances, and was an excellent musician. He was a good classical scholar, and understood English, Spanish and Italian. Before he became evidently insane, he was employed in translating Shakspeare into French; and it was while he was engaged on King Lear that decided symptoms of insanity first appeared.

At Stockholm, Sweden, ANDREW CARLSEN, aged 94, Bishop of Calmar, author of several works on Theology, Language, and Law. He had been long Professor of Greek in the University of Lund.

At Linden, in Germany, Count VON KIELMANSEGGE, aged 83, a distinguished Hanoverian General.

At Aintab, Syria, of fever, Rev. AZARIAH SMITH, M.D., in his 35th year, Missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He was a man of great abilities and attainments, and distinguished for his devotedness to his missionary labors, in which he was eminently successful. His death was severely felt by the Mission. He was a native of Manlius, N. Y., and studied at Yale College and at Philadelphia. He had been connected with the missions of the American Board in Western Asia for nearly nine years.

SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY NOTICES.

Relation of the Direction of the Wind to the Moon's Age.-Mr. Airy, Astronomer Royal of England, lately communicated to the Royal Society of London a paper on this subject, containing the result of observations at the Greenwich Observatory, for the seven years ending in December, 1847. Mr. Airy examined the registers, because he had heard, while on a voyage to Shetland, in 1849, allusion made to the belief of Norwegian seamen, that there is The examination was always a northerly wind at new moon. made with great care, and the result directly contradicted the assertion which gave rise to the inquiry.

Course of the Winds.-Lieut. Maury, of the National Observatory, at Washington, has come to the conclusion that the trade-winds, instead of returning towards the pole whence they came, cross the equator, and blow towards the opposite pole. The northern trades, for instance, pass into the Southern Hemisphere, and flow towards the South Pole, while the southern trades cross the equator, and form the south-westerly and south-easterly winds of the Northern Hemisphere. By this means the same particle of air courses over the whole surface of the earth, from pole to pole. Two facts are adduced in proof of this hypothesis:

1st. The first is, the far greater amount of rain which falls throughout the Northern Hemisphere, while the watery surface, and consequently the amount of evaporation, is decidedly greater in the Southern. If the corresponding latitudes be compared, it will be found that rain is decidedly more scanty, and droughts more frequent and severe in the Southern Hemisphere.

2d. It has been recently ascertained by Professor Ehrenberg, that a peculiar red rain which falls in Barbary, the Canaries, and Spain, owes its color to infusoria which are peculiar to South America.

Lieut. Maury attributes these transferences to magnetic influences: but we cannot see that this explanation is satisfactory. We would be inclined to attribute them rather to the different mechanical properties of the two great currents, produced by different degrees of heat and moisture.

Origin of Salt, and Salt Lakes.-At a recent meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, Prof. H. D. Rogers presented an interesting communication on this subject. He considers that the origin of the salt in the ocean, and of salt lakes, was the chlorides of the volcanic minerals and igneous rocks, which were dissolved by rains and streams, and then conveyed to their present positions. Salt mines were formed by a portion of water being cut off from any connection with the ocean, like the Dead Sea, or the Salt Lake of Utah; and the evaporation proceeding with considerable rapidity, extensive deposits of salt were the result. These were afterwards, in some instances, elevated and laid dry.

The above view is confirmed by the fact, that all detached waters which receive streams and discharge none, are salt, and contain the very ingredients found in the rivers which flow into them. Thus all the elements contained in the Dead Sea, are found in the Jordan at its mouth.

This view leads us to the conclusion that the amount of salt in the ocean and detached seas, must have been slowly accumulating, as the streams were incessantly bringing additional supplies, and none passed off by evaporation, so that the salt waters must once have been nearly fresh. The only diminution now is, that caused by the amount consumed by animals, and especially by man. When the world shall have come to be peopled by 3,000 millions of human beings, the amount of salt withdrawn for their use, must bear a very perceptible proportion to that conveyed into the ocean by all the rivers, the latter quantity being now comparatively small.

The Aurora Borealis.-At the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in August 1850, Prof. D. Olmsted, of Yale College, read a paper containing a new view of this subject. He considers that the aurora has a cosmical, and not a terrestrial origin, or, in other words, he thinks that it origi nates from something entirely beyond the atmosphere, and that it is not, as is generally thought, a phenomenon of common electricity. From an extensive comparison of data, he concludes that its height varies from 160 miles or upwards, to an elevation of two or three.

The cosmical origin of the aurora is inferred from its great extent, exceeding what could arise from any terrestrial emanations; and the velocity of its motions, which exceeds anything that can be attributed to terrestrial forces, from the occurrences of the different stages of an aurora at the same hour of the night, in places differing widely in longtitude-a fact indicating that the various parts of the earth's surface come successively, as it turns

on its axis, under the origin of the aurora, situated in spaceand finally from the periodicity of the exhibitions. The phenomena occur, not only at a certain time of the night (generally between dusk and midnight), but also at certain seasons of the year, most commonly in the fall, especially in November, and very rarely in summer, in June hardly ever. They are further very common for a series of years, and then they become comparatively rare, or entirely disappear for a long period. The former periods Mr. Olmsted denominates auroral visitations. These last from twenty to twenty-two years, and occur at intervals of about 65 years, reckoning from the middle of one to the middle of the

next.

With respect to the efficient origin of the aurora, it is attributed to a nebulous body, of very light, inflammable, semi-transparent, and magnetic matter, which revolves round the sun. It is probable there are many such collections of nebulous matter revolving round the sun, with various degrees of velocity, and the aurora probably arises from one of these coming occasionally within the sphere of the earth's attraction.

The preceding views indicate a great analogy, as the Professor remarks, between the aurora and meteoric showers, especially what are called the "November Meteors."

Discovery of another Asteroid. To the numerous Asteroids discovered since 1845, another was added on the 19th of May, 1851, by the discovery of a new one by Mr. Hind of London, the discoverer of Iris, Flora, and Clio.

In reference to the peaceful condition of the world, and the fraternal assemblage of the nations at the World's Fair, Mr. Hind named the stranger Irene, (peace,) and assigned as its symbol a dove, with an olive-branch, and a star on the head. Its distance from the Sun is 2.554, (that of the Earth being one,) and its period of revolution 1,491 days. It appears like a star of the ninth magnitude, with a very blue light.

This planet was independently discovered, only four days afterwards, by M. Gasparis, of Naples, the discoverer of Hygeia, Parthenope, and Egeria.

Parallax of the binary star Alpha Centauri.-Observations were made on this star by Mr. Maclear, Astronomer Royal at the Cape of Good Hope, from 1842 to 1848, with a view to determine its annual parallax. The results of his observations were recently transmitted to "ngland; and they agree very nearly with those of the late Professor Henderson of Edinburgh, the latter making it 0.9128 of a second, and Mr. Maclear 0.9187 ± 0.034 of a second. This makes the distance of this star a little over 200,000 times the