Valuable to Whitesmiths, &c.-Ir is perhaps not generally known among mechanicks that the salt called prussiate of potash, which may be had of all the druggists, is now much used in case-hardening: The process is easy, and saves a great length of time. The method is to powder the salt, and sprinkle it upon the iron when in a state of redness; it will be found to run like oil, and when plunged into cold water the iron will be as hard or even harder than iron case-hardened in the usual way.

To Silver Ivory.-IMMERSE a slip of ivory in a weak solution of nitrate of silver, or lunar caustick, and let it remain till the solution has given it a deep yellow colour: then take it out and immerse it in a tumbler of clear water, and expose it in water to the rays of the sun. In about three hours, the ivory becomes black, but this black surface on being rubbed is soon changed to a brilliant silver.

To Fix Crayon Colours.—APPLY drying oil diluted with spirits of turpentine, to the back of the picture: let this dry for a day or two and then spread a coat of the same mixture over the front of the picture. The paper is thus perfectly saturated, and becomes in fact an oil painting, and may be transported or handled without a frame or glass.

Gum-Elastick Inkstands.-AMONG the numerous uses to which Caoutchouck has been recently applied, is the formation of inkstands. The bottle instead of glass, is formed of gum-elastick, which neither injures the ink, nor is injured by it: it cannot be broken, nor can it easily be damaged. The chief object of the inventor of these inkstands was to produce something that might not injure the metallick pens now so generally used.

Rice Bread.-The best mode of making rice bread, is as follows:-One quart of rice flour made into stiff pap by wetting it with warm water, not so hot as to make it lump: when well wet, add boiling water, as much as two or three quarts; stir it continually until it boils; then add one pint of milk, when cool enough to avoid scalding the yest, and half a pint of good yest, and as much wheat flour as will make it a proper consistence for bread; put it to raise; when sufficiently risen it will be necessary to add a little more wheat flour. If baked too soft, the loaves will be hollow. The first I baked were mere shells. If you can abbreviate the receipt for use, you may; but if you do not give all this information, people will not succeed in making it good. The same mixture, rather thinner, baked in muffin-rings, makes the best muffins I ever tasted. I forgot to say the bread must stand half an hour or more in a warm place, after it is put in the baking pans, and it will rise again almost as much as it did at first. Southern Agriculturist.

Rowing Mill.-THE most advantageous mode of applying human strength, is similar to that of the ordinary manner of rowing a boat, wherein a man sits on a low bench, and with his legs extended before him, presses with his feet against an inclined board, while he pulls back a lever; because in this action, the muscular strength of the individual is greatly assisted in the effort by the weight of his body, as he throws it back. In Bockler's Theatricum Machinarum, a mill of this description is figured.

quicklime are to be slacked by degrees until reduced Cheap and Excellent Stucco.-ONE hundred parts of to the consistence of cream; five parts of white-clay previously diluted with water to a similar conlime and allowed to stand in a tub for twenty-four sistence are then to be intimately mixed with the hours, stirring the mixture occasionally. Any kind of colour may now be given to it; but two parts of yellow ochre added to the mixture is found to give buildings much exposed to wind and rain, were it an agreeable and durable teint. The walls of some covered with this cement two years ago, which has

not deteriorated in the least.

To Bronze Statues and Medals.-THE mode adopted by a French artist, Jacob, to give to newly cast bronze the colour of the antique is-dissolve

four drachms of muriate of ammonia (sal ammoniae,) and one drachm of oxalick acid in a pint of vinegar: take up as little as possible of this solution at a time cleaned) until it becomes dry, repeating the operaon a brush, which rub on the metal (previously well tion, till the required depth of teint is obtained. To expedite the drying, the process may be conducted by the heat of a stove or in the sunshine.

MISCELLANY.

Gold Veins in North Carolina.-Ar a meeting of the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, Dr. Longstaff, who has been out, during the last twelve months, as the agent of a company of British mine adventurers, to investigate the gold veins of North Carolina, stated that the gold region stretches from the shores of the Atlantick, in the direction of Carolina, through the country towards the Pacifick ocean; and that, judging from appearances, this immense track promises to yield supplies, such as have not been equalled by the most famous gold countries of antiquity, The precious metal is generally found in a matrix of quartz, and in veins, often running in the direction of northeast and southwest, there being generally one leading vein, and on each side a parallel satellite. In some cases, rich branches pass off at right angles; in others, the ore is ramified in every way. It is sometimes enveloped in a rake of talcose slate, passing through the auriferous quartz; in other instances, disseminated in minute parts through oxyde of iron; and contrary to what might have been supposed, judging from the effect of other metals, the sulphuret of iron, or martial pyrites, usually indicates a rich locality. The proportions of the precious metal to the quartzoze, or other matrix, are amazingly great, the minimum yield of the ore affording a large profit upon the capital invested, while some of the richer sorts (of which Dr. Longstaff laid specimens on the table) gave almost incredible results.

more.

Many of the inhabitants of Concord have pieces of pure gold of various weights, one of which weighs twenty-eight pounds. The beds where the gold is discovered, in that locality, are of gravel, and very extensive, covered with water in the winter months, but dry in summer. The manner for searching for gold is, to take shovels and turn over the gravel, always advancing as it is turned back, and picking up what is discoverable to the eye, by which thousands of small grains are lost, as the fingers cannot separate them from the sand. By working this over again with quicksilver, large quantities may be obtained. No machinery is required, or smelting process. The first mine was found by a son of Mr. Reed, who, in watering his horse at a creek, discovered a piece of gold quite pure. Two years after, Mr. Reed, with two partners, pursued the search for gold, with six black boys, during the short period of only six weeks. In each of the two first years they obtained the value of seventeen thousand dollars, besides what was stolen from the streams, supposed to be half as much No attempt has been made to open the hills, as the persons there are totally unacquainted with the subject of mining. Messrs. Morton and Bedford, of Baltimore, purchased a small tract of about three hundred acres, joining the lower end of Reed's purchase and mine, for which they paid seven dollars an acre. Governour Mercer stated, that they had analyzed the sand and gravel, and found it worth a guinea a bushel, after the lump gold was picked out. The gold, as found, is worth nineteen dollars an ounce, while the best East India and African gold dust is not worth more than from twelve to sixteen dollars. Mr. Thomas Moore got some hickory-nuts, and in looking for a stone to break the shell, he went to a tree that had been blown down, and picked up the first stone that he met with in the fresh turned-up earth, perceiving it heavy, he washed it, and it turned out to be a piece of solid gold, which he sold for four hundred and fifty dollars! He then set some men to work, and they made from two to five dollars a day each. Some of it has been sent to the mint of the United States, where they exchange it for eagles ready coined, weight for weight; but the goldbeaters give a still better price, namely, four per cent., it is so pure and malleable.

Curious Discovery.-IN 1834, a subterranean Indian village was discovered in Nacooche valley, in Georgia, by gold miners, whilst excavating a canal for the purpose of washing gold. The depth to which it is covered varies from seven to nine feet; some of the houses are imbedded in a stratum of rich auriferous gravel. They are thirty-four in number, built of logs from six to ten inches in diameter, and from ten to twelve feet in length. The walls are from three to six feet in height, forming a continuous line or street of three hundred feet. The logs are hewed and notched as at the present day. The land beneath which they were found, was covered, at its first settlement by the whites, with a heavy growth of timber, denoting the great antiquity of those buildings, and a powerful cause which submerged them. Cane baskets and fragments of earthenware were found in the rooms. The houses are situated from fifty to one hundred yards from the principal channel of the creek. A great number of curious specimens of workmanship have been found in situations which preclude the possibility of their having been moved for more than a thousand years; among these, half a crucible, of the capacity of nearly a gallon, ten fect below the surface, and immediately beneath a large oak tree, which measured five feet in diameter, and must have been four or five hundred years old. The soil is diluvial, or what, may be termed table land. The stratum of quartz gravel in which the vessel was imbedded, is about two feet in thickness, resting on decomposed chlorite slate. It is not difficult to account for the deposite of those substances in an alluvial soil, for the hills are generally very high and precipitous, and from the immense quantity of rain which falls, the streams are swollen to great height, sweeping every thing with them, and frequently forming a de

posite of several feet in thickness in a season. A vessel resembling a double mortar was found in Duke's creek, about five inches in diameter, and the excavation on each side nearly an inch in depth, basin-like, and perfectly polished. It was made of quartz, which had been semi-transparent, but had become stained with the iron which abounds in quantity in all the country. In the bottom of each basin was a small depression, half an inch in depth and about the same in diameter. What its use could have been, is difficult to conjecture. The high finish, and its exact dimensions, induce the belief that it is the production of a more civilized people than the present race of Indians.

Petrified Buffalo.-THIS extraordinary curiosity was discovered about two years since, by some trappers, belonging to Captain Bent's company, lying on the side of one of the beaver dams of the Rio Grande of the north, (a stream emptying itself into the gulf of California,) whose waters, it is said, possess petrifying qualities in an eminent degree, its shores abounding in specimens of animal and vegetable productions in a petrified state. The petrified buffalo is described by those who have seen it, to be as perfect in its petrifaction as when living, with the exception of a hole in one of the sides, about four inches in diameter, around which the hair has been worn off, probably by the friction of the water, in which it must have lain for ages past to have produced such a phenomenon. The hair on the hump of the shoulders, neck, forehead and tail, though converted into almost a smooth surface, may be easily discerned. The horns, eyes, nostrils, mouth, and legs, are as perfect in the stone as in their pristine state.

The country in which this rare specimen was found, is inhabited by the Exteaux, a roving tribe of savages, who subsist, a great portion of their lives, on insects, snakes, toads, roots, &c. This tribe being particularly hostile to the whites, renders the acquisition of this curiosity an undertaking not a little hazardous; notwithstanding this and many other difficulties to be surmounted, such as distance, expense, &c., our enterprising citizen, Captain Charles Bent, contemplates procuring and bringing it to the United States with him, on his return from Santa Fe, during the ensuing autumn. We heartily wish him success in his praiseworthy nndertaking.

wonderful eruption of fishes that sometimes takes place from the Eruption of Fishes. BARON HUMBOLDT gives an account of a volcanoes of the kingdom of Quito. These fishes are ejected in casion putrid fevers by the miasmata they produce. They somethe intervals of the igneous eruptions in such quantities as to octimes issue from the crater of the volcano, and sometimes from lateral clefts, but constantly at the elevation of between two and three thousand toises above the level of the sea. In a few hours, millions are seen to descend from Cotopaxi with great masses of cold and fresh water. As they do not appear to be disfigured or mutilated, they cannot be exposed to the action of great heat. Humboldt thought they were identical with fishes that were found in the rivulets at the foot of the volcanoes, and to which he assigns the name of Pimelodus Cyclopum.

excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum seem to be carried on Herculaneum.-ACCORDING to the Bulletino dell' Instituto, the spiritedly by the Neapolitan government, but the chief discovery cleared, which is described as consisting of two divisions; the we read of is an inn at Herculaneum. Only part of it has yet been first offering a large vestibule, with a courtyard for the accommodation of domestick animals. The court is surrounded by pillars which form the front of the covered corridors. The pavement is in Mosaick work, representing flowers. The second is a court of carts, and this court is flanked by pilasters forming vaults for the reception of merchandise, and through which lies the passage to the sleeping rooms. The lower stories, next the seashore, have not yet been cleared.

uncovered lately in Pompeii, in the street of Mercury. Upon the Pompeii.-Ir is said that a house, rich in antiquities, has been exteriour are paintings of Narcissus and Endymion. Within were found four silver vases containing a large quantity of medals, among which were twenty-nine of gold of the first Roman emlievoes of Cupids, Centaurs, Bacchus, and Ceres. perours. Two other vases were found richly chased with re

Interesting Relick of Antiquity.-IN the museum at Naples is the bronze cock of a reservoir, discovered at Capri during the excavations which were made in the palace of Tiberius. Time having firmly cemented the parts together, the water in its cavity has remained herinetically sealed during seventeen or eighteen centuries. Travellers are shown this curious piece of antiquity, which being lifted and shaken by two men, the splashing sound of the contained fluid is distinctly heard.

Eggs Preserved for Three Hundred Years.-Three eggs were found in the wall of a chapel, which was built upwards of 300 years ago, near the Lago Maggiore. These were imbedded in the mortar of the wall, and upon attentive examination, they were found to be quite fresh. It has been long known, that the eggs of birds, when covered with a thin coating of wax, retain their vital principle, and have been hatched many months after, the wax having been dissolved by alcohol.

LITERARY NOTICES.

AMONG the numerous books which have issued from the press since the publication of our last number, we would recommend to our readers the following, as particularly worthy of notice :--The Natural History of Insects, Part Second, forming the seventy-fourth volume of Harper's Family Library. The Family Library is now well known in every part of the United States; the manner in which the publishers have fulfilled their promise to the publick, to introduce into it none but works of the highest character, has rendered the Library a desideration to every man. It now embraces histories of the Holy Land, of Egypt, Poland, India, Arabia, Persia, Numidia, Abyssinia, Ireland, and Africa; the lives of Washington, Napoleon, Alexander, Nelson, Byron, Newton, Frederick, Cromwell and Mary of Scots; Combe and Ticknor on Physiology and Diet, Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, Euler on Philosophy, and many others. Many of these books are embellished with fine wood engravings, of which those found in the Magazine, under the head of Architectural Monuments are specimens. The second volume of the History of Insects completes the treatise commenced in Part VIII, of the Family Library, on this extensive and interesting branch of natural history. We say extensive, and well may it be called so, as even now more than one hundred thousand species of insects are already collected, and are known to exist in the different cabinets of entomologists, and according to the best data, there are no less than four hundred thousand living species. The volume before us among other interesting topicks, contains much that is valua ble and curious in regard to the silkworm; the mode of rearing and of feeding it, with remarks on the cultivation of the mulberry-tree, &c., a subject now attracting a great deal of attention in the United States.

A Life of Washington, by J. K. PAULDING, in two volumes, forming Nos. 75 and 76 of Harper's Family Library. A life, not of Washington, general-in-chief of the armies of Congress, or of Washington, president of the United States, but, of Washington, the father of his country. Written, to use the words of its author, because it appeared to him that the life of Washington furnished an invaluable moral example to the youth of his country, and that its introduction to their notice could not but be useful to the rising generation of his countrymen, by holding up to their view the character and actions of a man, whose publick and private virtues, equally furnish the noblest as well as safest objects for their guide and imitation; dedicated, to the pious, retired, domestick mothers of the United States. And well has Mr. Paulding performed his task. The book is the most interesting life of Washington we have ever read; the style of it is pure, concise, and familiar; it is written in a true American spirit, it abounds with new and interesting anecdotes, and no opportunity of conveying a lesson of pure morality is left unimproved. The volumes are embellished with engravings of Washington from the bust of Ceracci, a view of the birthplace of Washington, a view of York town and of the spot where Cornwallis laid down his arms, and of the new tomb at Mount Vernon; the last three pictures by Mr. J. G Chapman. May the Life of Washington find a restingplace in every house.

The Philosophy of Living, or the way to enjoy life and its comforts, by CALEB TICKNOR, A. M., M. D. The 77th number of the Family Library, is the book whose title is given above. It is a plain, judicious, and sensible treatise on a subject of vital importance to every one-written by a well educated physician, who combines in it the results of study, and of close and continued observation. The style of the work is easy and familiar; being written for general use, all technical terms are avoided so that it is readily understood by every one.

icle," comprises five very rare tracts which were printed in London in 1676, all of which relate to the "bloody Indian war," as it is called, of King Philip. Attached to these is a chronicle of Indian events, from the discovery of America by Columbus, to the present time. This book is extremely curious, and worthy the attention of those who study the early history of their country. Only five hundred copies of it are printed.

Spain Revisited, by the author of A Year in Spain, in two vols. Harper and Brothers. A lively and interesting picture of Spain and Spanish manners in 1834, by a gentleman, whose " Year in Spain" has already made him favourably known to many of our readers. The present book is highly creditable to Lieut. Slidell; we think it far superiour to his "American in England," and fully equal to his first production. The engravings in it would do credit to any annual.

Ovid, translated by Dryden, Pope, Congreve, Addison, and others, in two vols. Harper and Brothers. The Classical Family Library, of which this book forms a portion, has now reached its 21st number. The object of the publishers in commencing it was to put within the reach of all, the treasures locked up in the Greek and Latin languages; with this view they have already issued in cheap form, the best translations extant, of the works of Xenophon, Demosthenes, Sallust, Cesar, Cicero, Virgil, Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Horace and Ovid, illustrated with engravings of the different authors. The same publishers announce translations of Herodotus and Homer.

To those who are fond of the old English novels, the new editions of Humphrey Clinker, and of Tom Jones present peculiar attractions. They are printed in the Harpers' best style, with a clear type, on fine paper, and are embellished, the former with four, and the latter with eight illustrations, from the designs of that prince of fun, Cruikshank.

Paris and the Parisians, by MRS. TROLLOPE. Harpers. A spirited sketch of French manners. Mrs. Trollope having looked with no friendly eye upon the blemishes, in the manners, and habits of the Americans, a full account of which she has given in her "Domestick Manners," returned to Europe; flattered probably by the notice which her libels have attracted, she crossed the English channel, to make her observations on the French. The results to which she arrived are given in this book. She seems, however, to have inhaled a little of the atmosphere of refinement, which floats over Paris, as her style has lost somewhat of its asperity. The illustrations in this book are true to nature.