weak and wretched condition, and they were not | vomiting fire and smoke, and causing at intervals a expected to survive. The remains of immense trembling of the earth. numbers of quadrupeds and birds were found lying in the immediate neighbourhood of the volcano. A vessel, which on the twentieth of last month was near the coast, having a crew of seven men, was supposed to have been destroyed, since no information respecting it was received.

In the city of Leon the ravages done have been less, for the darkness there was not very great, and the same may be said of the showers of dust. The noise travelled to Costa Rica, where the cause was considered to be very near. The Colombian galley Boladora, which left Acapulco on the twentieth ult. for the Realejo, experienced the darkness at twenty leagues from the shore, as well as such a copious shower of dust, that the crew were apprehensive of being suffocated; and they were occupied for fortyeight hours in clearing the vessel with spades. Not being able to make for the Realejo on account of the darkness, they directed their course to Punta Arenas, with the full conviction that the whole state of Nicaragua had disappeared. The volcano continued

Until further information arrives, it is impossible to calculate precisely the distance to which the showers of cinders extended, and the noises were heard. The detonations were so loud as to be heard at Ciudad Real de Chiapas, which is three hundred and twenty-five leagues from the mountain in one direction, and at El Peten, which is three hundred and twenty-two leagues in another; and, as it is probable they could have been heard farther, we may estimate that the eruption affected the district, extending around the mountain three hundred and fifty leagues in every direction. Even at Dolores, in the district of Peten, showers of ashes, volcanick reports, and earthquake-shocks, were experienced. In the time of the Roman emperour Titus, in consequence of an eruption of Vesuvius, the ashes are stated to have been thrown into Africa, a story which has been considered incredible by some modcrn writers. This eruption of Cosigüeina shows the statement of the ancients to be by no means improbable.

[For the Family Magazine.]

AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.

in America may be found two cities of far greater extent than either of these mentioned above, and

EVERY one has heard of the ancient cities of covered not by the cinders or lava of a volcano, Herculaneum and Pompeii, and many Americans but by the rapid vegetation of past ages. have crossed the Atlantick, have submitted to the vexations of French and Italian police and custom-city of the dead, which are situated in Yucatan, Palenque, the city of the desert, and Mitla, the house officers, to the miserable accommodations of present the ruins of immense edifices, dispersed Italian inns, and to the extortions of the vetturini, over a large extent of surface, Palenque having been for the purpose of visiting these ruins; ignorant that traced for twenty-four miles. In these cities tem

ples, palaces, large tombs ornamented with all the luxury of sculpture, the evidences of the power of a people whose annals are lost, and which present the marks of a highly-civilized and great nation.

NATURAL HISTORY.

(For the Family Magazine.] THE ORANG OUTANG.

Thirty years after these cities were discovered, THE annexed engraving is copied from an excel. the Spanish government prepared to explore them, the colossal ruins of which seemed in their nature lent portrait in oil, of the female Orang Outang, Nanto partake of the fabulous. The governour of Gua-cy, imported in the ship Liberty, Captain Davis, by timala, ordered Calderon and Del Rio to visit them, Thomas Richards, Esq., and remarkable as being The first thing to be done, was to remove the trees the largest living specimen of this most manlike which grew over them; this was accomplished, and species, the simia satyrus, or true wild man of the after three weeks of intense labour fifteen edifices woods-which has as yet ever reached either AmerThe ica or Europe. She arrived at Philadelphia in the were in a state to be examined and described. results of this expedition, however, were very im- latter part of May, 1835. After a few days, having perfect; but in 1805, Charles IV. of Spain, sent a passed into the hands of new owners, she was sent She was unfortunately much exnew expedition under the care of Captain Dupaix, to New York. who was accompanied by a capable artist, Senor posed to the influence of cold and damp weather durCastenada. The results of their researches were ing her transportation, and the evening of her arrival, very important; sacred and civil edifices, immense was first observed to be unwell; on the succeeding constructions of a military character to defend cities, morning, her disease had assumed the character of and protect important passes, bridges, dikes, water- an irregular intermittent fever and medical advice After lingering for some weeks, works, extensive excavations, and subterranean pas-was resorted to. sages, all combined to fill the minds of Dupaix, and alternately better and worse, during which time, his companions with admiration and wonder. recourse was had to every expedient which art or ingenuity could devise for her comfort and recovery, much to the regret of the few who saw her, she died at the village of Harlem, near New York, on the nineteenth of July following. The deathbed scene as represented by those who were present, must have been singularly affecting. The account of it as given by her keeper is as follows. Early in the evening her extremities began to grow cold and at ten oclock P. M., pulsation at the wrists had ceased. She appeared conscious of her approaching end and dreaded it. She shivered and groaned very much, and appeared to supplicate those around for assistance, often extending her arms to them and embracing them around the neck. She would awake from a dose in great trepidation and cling to the neck of her keeper, where she would hang until sleep or exhaustion caused her to loosen her hold. This was frequently repeated as long as her strength After violent struggles and much groanremained. ing, at three o'clock A. M., she had ceased to breathe. A careful anatomical examination of the body was made by several medical gentlemen, by whom copious notes were taken and the several dimensions After the skin was removed, a accurately noted. cast of the head and chest was taken in plaster of Paris: over which the skin was afterward stretched, and the whole is now mounted according to its measurements during life, in good preservation and is probably the most natural and accurate stuffed specimen extant. The skeleton and such portions of the body as were of particular interest were also preserved.

The summits and walls of these monuments were covered with sculpture and bas reliefs, which open to the scientifick a wide field for conjecture. One of the most interesting of the bas reliefs is that figured at the head of this article, and it is curious to observe the formation of the head in the personages represented, in whom the facial angle is so acute that there is apparently no forehead. This is seen too in all the persons figured at Palenque and consequently it is fair to presume that it is a national type. This bas relief, judging from the difference in the height and costume of the two individuals, is intended to represent a male and female, offering their child to a divinity whose emblem is a bird, and whose altar has the form of a cross. It would be out of place here to mention all the conjectures to which the presence of a cross in these monuments gives rise. We will only remark that the name Palenque was not known till the end of the last century; that it is not mentioned in any narrative previous to that time, and that these ruins are three hundred and thirty leagues distant from the capital of Montezuma, and consequently from the principal residence of his Christian conquerors, and it is difficult to admit that a city, the ruins of which extend twenty-four miles would not have been mentioned as a brilliant conquest, if it had been seen by the Spaniards, and at a time too when it was sufficiently prosperous to enable them to execute these monu

ments.

These bas reliefs, of which the one given above is a specimen, also give us some idea of the national costume of the Mexicans: the numerous flowers, and different figures in their garments, show that the manufacture of stuffs was carried to great perfection by this industrious people, and also we discover the custom of plaiting the hair in tresses and of ornamenting the arms and legs with rich and complex bracelets.

The temperate man, like fish in crystal streams, untainted with disease, smoothly glides through the soft current of life.-Feltham.

The errour and misrepresentation which has for ages existed as to the real nature and habits of the Orang Outang, and to which we are probably indebted for all our fabulous accounts of satyrs, fauns, and wild men of the woods, still to a certain extent prevails. The very name Orang Outang which is a Malay phrase signifying a wild reasonable being, would seem to show that the inhabitants of the island, where they are found, and to which this species appears to be confined, have, from their ignorance of its habits, contributed in no small degree to originate and continue the errour of their very close ap

our information upon the subject of the Orang, still um of Leyden contains no less than six stuffed spemuch remains to be discovered before our know-cimens and skeletons, two adult males, two adult ledge of these animals can be said to be any thing females, a half grown male, and a young female. like complete. Dr. Harlan, of Philadelphia, in his In these individuals the difference between the valuable "Medical and Physical Researches," lately young and and old is so strongly marked, that they published, has contributed essentially to our know- would scarcely be recognised as belonging to the ledge of this genus. Dr. Clarke Abel has given us same species, and fully exemplifies the remark bein his "Narrative of a Journey in the Interiour of fore made, that the younger the animal, the greater China," a more scientifick and instructive as well as its resemblance to the human face. The largest interesting and entertaining account of the appearance, male is about five feet five inches in height the festructure, and habits of this animal, than is to be found males are rather shorter. in the writings of any other traveller or naturalist. The descriptive details of the one which he possessed, although apparently very carefully drawn, do not agree in all particulars with those observed in the subject of the present notice. One point we shall briefly advert to, inasmuch as the errour is not confined to his description alone; we have met with it in several authors. They state that the great toes or more correctly the thumbs of the lower hands are destitute of nails. In the case of Nancy, they were as fully developed on these as on any of the fingers.

These specimens were all killed on the island of Borneo, by a party of nearly one hundred men, who surrounded the portion of forest in which they were found. The following well authenticated account of the death of one of this genus, recorded among the "Transactions of the Asiatick society," will give some idea of their amazing strength, and of the difficulties and risk of obtaining them, even dead. "A gigantick animal of the monkey-tribe, was discovered. On the approach of the party he came down from the tree on which he was seated, and sought refuge in another, at a small distance. He It was to the enterprise and perseverance of Dr. had the appearance of a tall figure, covered with Abel that the Naturalists of England are indebted shining brown hair, walking erect with a waddling for the introduction of the first living specimen gait, but sometimes helping himself forward with his about the year 1816. It measured two feet seven hands, and at others with the bough of a tree, but it inches in height, and survived nearly two years. was evident that his movement on the ground was Another arrived in 1831 but died three days after. not natural to him. He passed with such rapidity A third was exhibited the same year in London, and from tree to tree, that it was difficult to take a steady a fourth was kept for a short time during the year aim at him. After receiving five musket balls, the 1833 in the Tower. The fifth is the specimen animal became exhausted, and lying on the branch which has recently been introduced into the Surry of a tree, vomited a quantity of blood. Believing zoological gardens near London. It is a female that he would now be easily taken, his pursuers benearly two years of age, two feet two inches in gan to cut down the tree; but as it was in the act height, and whose weight does not exceed fifteen of falling, he began his retreat again with great acpounds. She is the only survivor of four, which were shipped at Calcutta, and her deportment during the voyage is represented as being very similar to that described by Dr. Abel. The very great sensibility of these interesting animals to the difference between their native climates, and those to which The only history we could obtain of Nancy, they are brought, renders it very probable, that their previous to her arrival at Philadelphia, was, that she lives cannot be prolonged for many years in our was one of a pair which had been brought in a cold and variable latitudes. The very circumstance trading-vessel, from Borneo to Calcutta, where they that so few living specimens have been seen either were kept as curiosities, for two years, in the gardens in America or Europe, notwithstanding the almost of a Rajah in that vicinity. That during a stay of universal curiosity which exists respecting them, three months at Calcutta, they had been the subject is evidence of the immense risk and trouble in- of much attention, and had attracted the special curred in attempting to import them. As yet, we notice of Sir William Bentick, the then governourbelieve, but two individuals of this species, the simia general of India. That after they had been pursatyrus of Linnæus, have reached the United States. chased, and were about being embarked for this The first, about 1831, and which was exhibited in country, they were both violently seized with choleramost of the larger cities of the Union. It did not morbus, and notwithstanding the most scientifick exceed two feet six inches in height and lived only treatment, the female alone survived. During the two years, notwithstanding great pains were taken voyage she was for the most part confined to her to transfer it to a southern climate during the winter. cage; and her principal food was boiled rice, of It ultimately died in the city of New York, where which she consumed about one pint, three times a its skin still exists as a stuffed specimen in Peale's museum. The second was, Nancy, whose portrait stands at the head of page 145. They were both females, and both young.

tivity, and it was not until the few trees on the spot were felled, that he could be brought to the ground. When in a dying state, the creature seized a spear, and with a force greater apparently than that of the strongest man, shivered it to pieces."

day, together with such fruits as they were able to preserve. She was exceedingly fond of cocoanuts, and was well acquainted with the method of extracting the milk, through one of the eyes. When in The full grown Orang has never been known in a health, she is said to have been so strong, that if she captive state, and its appearance and proportions, once possessed herself of the end of a rope, not a were almost entirely subjects of conjecture and fable sailor on board of the vessel, could pull it from her. until latterly, when the enterprise of European nat- Her age could not be correctly ascertained, but from uralists succeeded in killing and bringing home the appearances, until the period of her death, she was bones and skins of several specimens. The Muse-presumed to have been an adult. The teeth being

large and much worn, resembled those of an old subject. Subsequent examination, however, showed that she was comparatively young, as the second set of teeth were found just protruding through the jaw, but so covered by the soft parts, as not to be discernible during life. Her age therefore did not probably exceed five or six years.

flattened on its inner surface. Length from hip-bone to heel, on the outer surface, eighteen and a half inches; length of thigh, ten inches; length of leg to ancle joint, seven and a half inches; from the heel to the end of middle finger, of the inferiour extremity, ten and one fourth inches; length of middle finger of same, five and a half inches; length of Some idea of her superiority in "reasoning power," thumb of same, three and a half inches; length if we may so apply the phrase, over the ordinary from ancle joint to root of nail of middle finger, specimens of the monkey-tribe, may be gathered eight and a half inches; circumference of chest from a few facts, which fell under the writer's im- over the armpits, twenty-one and a half inches; mediate notice. circumference at the base of chest, twenty-three During the five weeks which he had an opportunity inches; of the abdomen, or belly, at the navel, of observing her, notwithstanding she was constantly twenty inches; circumference over the hip-bones, in the habit of using and handling vessels of glass nineteen and a half inches; diameter of the head and china, she never broke, nor suffered any of them through the ears, four and three fourths inches; from to fall. Every article was handled with extreme the occipital ridge to between the eyes, five inches; care, and generally returned by her to its place. from the most projecting portion of the chin through She was also very curious in the examination of the vertex, eight and one fourth inches; diameter articles, which were newly presented to her sight. through the centre of cheek bones, three and five After attentively looking at them, instead of care- eighths inches; diameter from one corner of the lessly throwing them down, as might have been ex-mouth to the other, two and one fourth inches; pected, she invariably returned them, and generally into the hands of the individuals from whom she received them.

Upon a single occasion, a circumstance occurred, which evinced a judgement almost human. She was very fond of descending to the kitchen, and appeared much interested in observing the process of the culinary operations, and when unwatched, embraced every opportunity of stealing off to it. In the instance to which we allude, after looking about, she finally unbuttoned and opened the door of a closet, in which a basin of milk had been placed for the separation of the cream. After attentively looking at it, and on the several shelves, as if in search of something, she carefully closed the door, and presently taking a teacup from the table, she returned to the closet, and after helping herself to a cupfull of the milk, again closed the door, and replaced the cup whence she had taken it. A vial of medicine was carried into the room, and placed upon the mantlepiece. The attendants then left the room, but kept an eye upon her. On finding herself alone, she arose from the corner where she had been sitting wrapped in her blanket, took a chair and carried it to the fireplace, mounted on it, took down the vial of medicine, uncorked it, poured the physick over the floor, recorked the vial and replaced the chair, and then resumed her former seat.

In height, when standing erect, and with the arms extended upward, this animal measured three feet six inches, and at the period of her death, although much emaciated, was supposed to weigh between forty-five and fifty pounds. The arms were very long, and when hanging down reached nearly to the

ancles.

length of lower jaw, four and one half inches; circumference of jaw, six and a half inches; height of forehead from between the eyes to the commencement of hairy scalp, three inches; weight of brain, twelve ounces, one drachm, and two scruples, troy; the heart was six and a half inches in circumference, three and one fourth long, and weighed, two and a half ounces.

She was covered generally, with a coarse hair, of a brownish red colour, longest on the back, particularly over the shoulder-blades, where it measured nine inches in length; it was also longer on the outer surface of the arms, and on the inside of the thighs, as also in front over the chest and abdomen It was short on the back of the hands, and on each side, from the armpits down, it was but thinly scattered. The palms of the hands and feet were quite naked. The face had no hair except on its sides, somewhat in the manner of whiskers, and a very thin and short down or beard.

The direction of the hair was downward on the back, upper arm and legs, but upward on the forearm. It was directed from behind, forward on the head, and inward on the inside of the thighs. On the chest and abdomen, it was directed toward the median line. The prevailing colour of the skin, was a bluish grey. The eyelids and margin of the mouth, of a light copper colour. The inside of the hands and feet, of a deeper hue. On each side from the armpits down, was a copper-coloured stripe, which gradually extended and combined with the prevailing colour of the animal. The head when viewed in front was pear-shaped, expanding from the chin upward, the cranium being much the larger end. The eyes of a dark brown colour, and oval form, were placed close together. The eyelids were fringed with lashes, and the lower ones saccular and wrinkled.

The following are some of her measurements :Length of arm from shoulder to tip of middle finger, on the inner surface, thirty-one inches; length of arm, ten inches: length of forearm, twelve inches; The nose, confluent with the face, was but little length from wrist to end of middle finger, nine elevated except at the nostrils, and the openings of it inches; length of middle finger, five and a half were narrow and oblique. The mouth of a roundish inches; length of the thumb, three and a half in- mamillary form, was very projecting, and its opening ches; greatest breadth of hand, two and three though large, when closed, was marked by little fourths inches; from the tip of one middle finger, to more than a narrow seam. The lips were very narthe tip of the other, across the chest, with the arms row, and scarcely perceptible when the mouth was extended, five feet eleven inches. The forearm was, shut. They, however, possessed remarkably great