many authors far preferable, not being a compound of two languages, a fault but too frequently observable in the terminology of all works on natural hisThe above engraving is designed to represent the tory. Until within about the last half century, Chinese manner of making ropes. It bears considera- nearly every author on this branch of nature has ble resemblance to our own method. Their cables and written exclusively on the arrangement of shells, other large ropes, however, the Chinese spin verti-detached from the animals inhabiting and constructcally. The workmen are mounted on a high scaffold, and the rope descends, as fast as it is made, and is immersed in a liquor which renders it more strong and elastick.

derful progressions which mark the connecting links | tions by our own observation, or, by following the of genera, families, and species, with each other, guide given us, to pursue the inquiry still farther. changes frequently only to be accounted for by an In this point of view, surely the amateur of shells adaptation of parts to necessity. Indeed, were it must desire to have his collection arranged accordpossible to preserve the animals who have formed ing to something like a natural system, and we canthe various species, they would present no attraction not too frequently impress on the young naturalist's to the eye, nor add any value to the shells that con- mind, the necessity of observing most attentively tained them; but the impossibility of doing this ren- the indications so often furnished by nature, many ders the researches and reasoning of naturalists the of which are very generally overlooked, and altomore valuable. It may, indeed, to mere collectors gether despised as useless, from their being but of shells, appear wholly uninteresting, but a mo- slightly defined: these are, nevertheless, the natural ment's reflection would convince them, that when indices to much information, and though not in every we attempt to raise a part of the mysterious veil instance conclusive in themselves, may always be thrown over the works of nature, in order to acquire deemed the safest and best guides we can follow in some knowledge of her laws, we then derive a new pursuing an unknown tract of inquiry, to which the satisfaction in contemplating their operations; so main road is concealed, or not generally attainable. that without being ourselves either anatomists, phys We have not, most of us, the opportunity of exiologists, or naturalists, in an extended sense of their amining with our own eyes some of the molluscous meaning, we cannot fail of having our attention animals that are within the reach of other persons, roused to examine many facts, extremely curious in many of whom, unfortunately, know not how to themselves, which the shell alone exhibits, and the benefit from the opportunity; we are therefore commind, once excited into action, seldom rests until it pelled, in numberless instances, to take for granted is satisfied. By pursuing a subject to its utmost every traveller's tale, until the truth or fallacy of it limit, generally speaking too, the more difficult the is confirmed by subsequent information; but so in task becomes, the more ambitious we are to sur-herent is the vice of fiction, that very little reliance mount it. The mind may, indeed, for a time, flag can be placed upon many of the strange sights they and feel fatigued by over-exertion, but such are its see. Mankind is also so fond of novelty, or whatelastick faculties, that they may be deemed indefi- ever partakes of the marvellous, that the every-day's nitely expansible; to say at what point knowledge observation of nature's operations is neglected; we will stop is utterly impossible, we must not, there-are even too indolent to examine and reason for ourfore, reject as useless, such portions of it as we cannot immediately understand, but relying on others more advanced than ourselves, endeavour, by every possible exertion, either to corroborate their asser

[Conchology.]

neous conclusions entertained by book-naturalists | tries where vegetation is too luxuriant to be trained and book-makers, among which are some (and those, by art to the use of mankind, covering immense too, professing to instruct the rising generation) who tracts of land with impenetrable gloom, not only have recently published a poetical description of snails, but other species of terrestrial molluscs certain shells sailing together in little fleets-one achatina, bulinas, &c., are found, some of a very valve expanded to catch the passing breeze that large size, proportioned to the magnitude of the wafts them o'er the unruffled bosom of the vasty duties they have to perform, and in these situations deep-of others that may be supposed to pass their their voracity is said to be most extraordinaryleisure moments in playing at leap-frog with each stripping the loftiest trees of their verdure in an inother. But these, like all other tales conjured up credibly short space of time. Shall we then grudge by the magick wand of fancy, are more entertaining it a slender portion of our superfluous luxury, withthan true, and must be condemned in works whose out ascertaining, by actual examination and rational object should be to clothe facts in the simplest garb, reflection, that this little creature was not merely divesting them of the tinselled ornaments of fiction, ordained to devour our choicest fruit, but that it has which, though they may dazzle for a time, shortly also a duty to perform by consuming, in a far greater sink before the light of truth, and are rejected as proportion, other things in the vegetable world that worthless. Another serious evil arises from these would, without them, prevent the full completion of pretty nursery tales, that of casting a doubt upon the very object for which we ignorantly destroy a every other assertion, however well founded in principal agent. The well-established fact, that truth. eggs of these animals have been absolutely baked, during six months, under the scorching rays of a tropical sun, without destroying the germ of life, proves, could no other facts be adduced, that nature has vested in these creatures certain important uses and powers far beyond our short-sighted views; and it must lead a philosophical mind to conclude, that in this instance, as well as in many others equally remarkable, we stubbornly close our eyes to the good that is forced upon us. We think we hear it said, that in advocating the cause of snails, we have never had the mortification of seeing our ripe and delicately painted peaches disfigured by their hungry propensities. Be that as it may, we have also observed, that they, like ourselves, when no such treat presented itself, were content with humbler fare, and as industriously as voraciously consumed other objects, to us useless, or noxious as food, never deserting the purpose of their existence, though that end is not yet fully revealed to us. As an article of food, they are entitled to our consideration; for, though they form no part of our gastronomick delicacies, they nevertheless were considered such by the Roman gourmand; and even down to the pres ent day, snails form an important article of nourishment and commerce in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, and the Levant. This digression leads to a conclusion, constantly to be drawn by every reflective mind, that from the colossus of bivalves (the Tridacna gigantea) whose inhabitant would satiate the "sharp-set appetites of a hundred men," down to the shell less than a grain of sand, each is endowed with similar mechanical powers and bodily faculties, adapted to its sphere of action in the place it is destined to occupy, the one and the other playing an equally important part in this crumbling theatre of mortality, and forming so many connecting links of the chain that binds together the invisible operations of nature under the directing wisdom of omnipotence.

An instance may here be adduced of the ease with which some of the interesting operations of nature can be witnessed in the portion of creation now under our consideration, and amply repay us for the trouble. It is afforded by the humble, persecuted, but most beautiful of our native molluscs, the snail, (Helix nemoralis,) the little creature we barbarously crush beneath our feet, considering it a common enemy to horticulture. When we examine its wonderful formation, its tenacity of life, its reproductive powers, an instructive lesson may be furnished to the conchological student, most satisfactorily explaining the growth of the vast proportion of similarly constructed shells in other genera, and enabling him to understand by actual observation, and the evidence of his own reason, some of nature's steps in this branch of her works; he may casily watch the various changes that take place from the slight viscous covering with which the animal's body, in the first instance, is coated, or, as it were, merely glazed, till that substance becomes a consistent firm shell, finally fashioned into a painted palace adapted to the form and use of its inhabitant. It needs no logick to prove, that wherever creatures are endowed with a long endurance of life and great reproductive powers, great purposes are assigned to them. The contemned snail does not, therefore, merit the ill treatment it constantly experiences from man; and if we for a moment reflect upon its good services, and overlook its bad ones, we are bound to confess the former greatly outweigh the latter. It is viewed as a destructive marauder in our trim gardens; but we forget that we have invited its inroads by placing, within a comparatively limited space, a choice selection of dainty food even to the pampered appetite of man, but altogether irresistible to a snail. In the open fields, or the widely expanded forest, this little creature performs useful purposes in conformity to the ends of its creation; one of the most important of which is that of assisting in consuming the exuberant productions of nature, which, without its operations, would encumber the surface of the globe, check the progress of future vegetation, and interrupt that perpetual harmony of system, which has wisely ordained that the extinction of life shall not be felt, but its devastations HAMBURGH is one of the most considerable of the become supplied by succeeding generations, each of free cities of Germany; it is situated about eighty their kind, whether vegetable or animal. In coun-miles from the mouth of the Elbe, upon the northern

AMERICAN COMMERCE.

HAMBURGH.

bank of the river, which is navigable for large ves- | val of the old fortification was commenced in 1804, sels as far as this port. The circuit of the city is and the great French works have also been since about twenty-two thousand feet. In the northern demolished. part is a lake, formed by the small river Alster, which runs through the city into the Elbe, and turns several mills. An arm of the Elbe enters the city from the east, and is there divided into a number of canals, which take various directions, till they unite, and join the Alster in the southern part of the city, where they form a deep harbour for ships, which communicates with the main branch of the river; and there is a large space enclosed by strong piles, where ships may lie in safety; which is called Rummelhaven.

The established religion in this city is the Lutheran, but complete toleration prevails. The manners of the inhabitans resemble those of the other mercantile cities of Germany or Holland; publick worship is regularly attended, industry is generally diffused, and good morals prevail. Foreigners have long been freely admitted to reside in the town; and the troubles of the French revolution brought to it individuals of different nations and characters, all of whom were allowed to remain as long as the publick tranquillity was not disturbed: hence the variCanals intersect the lower part of the city in all ous and sometimes contradictory accounts of the directions, and almost all the warehouses are built morality of the place. The favourite taste of the upon their banks. In this part of the city, and also inhabitants, in point of amusement, is musick; and in that which lies on the east of the Alster, the previous to 1807, the era of commercial misfortune streets are, for the most part, narrow and crooked. to Hamburgh, the higher class of merchants lived Many, however, of those in the western or New not only with hospitality, but with a certain degree Town, are broader and straighter. The church of of luxury. Hamburgh has long been distinguished St. Michael, with its tower, four hundred and fifty- as a commercial city of the first importance. Its six feet in height, built by Sonnin, and intended for transactions consist partly in agency, but more in astronomical observations and for experiments in the purchase and sale of goods on account of its natural philosophy, was finished in 1786. This merchants. They buy the commodities of America, building, and some of the private houses, are re- Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, markable for their architecture. The exteriours of Belgium, the West Indies, &c., and supply with the exchange and the council-house are also hand- these all the countries lying along the Elbe, differsomely ornamented. Among the most remarkable ent districts on the Rhine and Lower Maine, and a buildings are the bank, the admiralty buildings, the part of the Prussian and Austrian dominions. They orphan asylum, the new general hospital, the thea- also buy up the products of these countries, of tres, the exchange, the city and commercial libraries, which linen and thread are the chief. These artiRöding's museum, &c. The gymnasium and the cles are brought in great quantities from Bohemia, Johanneum are excellent institutions for education. Moravia, Lower Saxony, and Westphalia, and the The building for the school of navigation, opened in inhabitants of these retired quarters have discovered, 1826, is provided with an observatory, and a botan-that to make sales through the medium of Hamburgh ick garden is also annexed to it.

is less hazardous than direct intercourse with the

Europe. The other articles of trade are very various, comprising flax, hemp, potash, tar, tobacco, wax, honey, hides, wool, woollen yarn, smoked and salt meat, mineral products, iron wares, in short all the products of the northeast of Germany, and a great part of those of the centre and south. This trade, like that in foreign goods, is carried on, partly on commission, partly for account of the Hamburgh merchants.

In institutions for the relief of the destitute, for countries where their commodities finally arrive. the sick, and for the education of poor children, The trade in timber is also of great importance, esHamburgh is inferiour to no city in Germany. Most pecially during a maritime war, Hamburgh being the of these are under the direction of private individu-chief medium between the Baltick and the south of als, and they are principally supported by voluntary contributions. The constitution of Hamburgh is aristocratick. The government consists of four burgomasters and twenty-four councillors. To the senate are attached four syndics and four secretaries. Calvinists are excluded from the government of Hamburgh, as Lutherans are from that of Bremen. The ordinary publick business, both internal and external, is transacted by the senate alone; matters of more importance are regulated in connexion with The territory of Hamburgh, which contains one the citizens possessed of a certain property. These hundred and sixteen square miles, is bounded by are divided into five parishes, each of which sends that of Holstein on the north and west; the city of thirty-six members to the assembly or general col- Altona, in the territory of Holstein, is not two miles lege. From these are chosen the members of the distant from the gates of Hamburgh. Toward the council of sixty, and again from these fifteen elders. east the Hamburgh territory borders on Lauenburg, Each of these colleges has peculiar privileges. The and on the south it is separated by the Elbe from senate and the elders alone receive salaries. Justice the territories of Hanover. Some of the islands in is administered by several courts. But the court of the Elbe belong also, either wholly or in part, to appeal of the free cities of the Germanick confeder- Hamburgh, together with the village of Moorburg acy is the superiour tribunal. The publick revenues on the left bank. Besides this, it has a jurisdiction were formerly considerable, without the taxes being over the bailiwick of Ritzebüttel, which contains the oppressive; but the heavy debts incurred by the important town of Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the city, of late years, have greatly increased the taxes. Elbe. Hamburgh, in common with Lubeck, also The citizens are provided with arms, and accustom-has jurisdiction over the bailiwick of Bergedorf, with ed to military exercises, so as to form a body of in- the small town of the same name, over the Vierlands, fantry, cavalry, and artillery, in regular uniform, and a few places in Lauenburgh. The city owes amounting to about ten thousand men. The remo-its foundation to the emperor Charlemagne, who, in