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southwest, the eye rests upon the whole town of very disabled state, to repair the injuries occasioned Newport, its harbour, Forts Wolcott and Adams, and by the gales. extending its vision, falls again upon the sea. At The roads of the island are excellent, and the the west, the harbour still presenting itself to the many livery stables in the town afford every facility eye, may be seen Rose island, and the beautiful and for providing one's self with the choicest riding equifertile island of Conanicut nine miles long and one page; the land is under a state of the highest culti mile broad. At the north, is to be seen a large por- vation, and the greatest pains are now taken in emtion of what, in connexion with the harbour of New-bellishing the country-seats, and adorning the roadside port, are designated "the waters of Narraganset with ornamental trees. To one familiar with the bay;" these "waters" are occupied by many beauti- attractions of this island, in deciding on a ride or a ful islands. walk, it is difficult to determine in what direction to On a clear bright morning, the spires of some go, such a cluster of lovely and attractive places preof the churches of the city of Providence thirty sent themselves to the mind, the " Lily Pond," miles distant, may be seen from this "Hill," as well" Spouting Rock," "Town Beach,” “Purgatory,” "Paradise," as of Block island at the same distance, in a 66 Vaucluse," the inimitable "Lawton's southerly direction, situated in the midst of the Valley," "Cundall's Mills," "Tammany Hill," and "Blue sea; a view is also had here of a continuous line of Rocks!!!" Beautiful as the island is, it will be still Redoubts or Fields-works extending entirely across more so in a few years. During its occupancy by the island from the northwest to the southeast, thrown the British troops in the revolution, for nearly three up by the English forces during the revolutionary years, almost every tree was felled for fuel, and war, to arrest the progress of the American army. when it was evacuated, it presented the appearance Some very fine views are also to be had from the of a dreary waste. From this rude treatment, howhighlands in the vicinity of the "Willows," not far ever, it has so far recovered as to be complimented from the Lime rocks." with the flattering appellation of "The Eden of America." During the summer months, it is, indeed, a most enchanting spot; about ten o'clock in the morning the sea-breeze, pure, invigorating, and enlivening to the spirits, begins to blow, and continues until evening and often through the night. The mean range of the thermometer from June to September, is about seventy-two degrees, it rarely rises to eighty degrees, once or twice in the course of the summer, for a day or two, it rises as high as eighty-six degrees; the temperature, therefore, day and night, during this portion of the year, is the most agreeable that can be desired. There are several excellent hotels in the town, besides private boarding-houses; there is, also, an establishment at which a warm or cold bath may be had at any hour of the day or night; pleasure-boats are always at command; indeed, every means of enjoyment may be said to be within the control of those seeking comfort and pleasure, not among the least of which are three circulating libraries. Every facility for access to the town is afforded by splendid steamboats which arrive from New York and depart thence from Providence and Newport daily. Possessing these great advantages and attractions, Newport has become a fashionable place of resort in summer.

The early history of Newport and the island, is clothed with the deepest interest; its waters during the revolution, bore upon their bosom, alternately, the fleets of England and France; it was here that, on the arrival of a fleet of the latter, consisting of twelve ships-of-the-line, five frigates, five smaller armed vessels, several transports and six thousand troops, all under the command of Lieutenant-general Count D'Estaing, the terrified English illumined the heavens with the flames of their self-destroyed ships and transports; it was here, at "Page's" farm, that the celebrated capture of the English General Prescott, by General Bartow, took place; and it was here, and in the very room where the writer of this is now seated, that conferences were held by General Washington, Count De Rochambeau, and other distinguished American and French officers; this room is in a house which was among the first built at the settlement of the town, and is now owned by Lady Penrose, the widow of the late Surgeon Penrose of the English navy.

The arrival of Count de Rochambeau at Newport, with seven ships-of-the-line, five frigates, and several transports with five thousand troops, was subsequent t the evacuation of the town and island by the English. This fleet soon after sailed for the Chesapeake and co-operated with General Washington in producing the surrender of the British army under the command of Cornwallis. The remains of M. de Ternay, admiral of the fleet, repose in the cemetery of Trinity church in this town. The day after the arrival of the fleet under the command of Count D'Estaing, the English fleet under Admiral Howe, appearing off the harbour, the French fleet sailed out to engage it, but a violent storm arising, the intention was frustrated; a few days after, the French put into Boston, in a

It is computed, that from June to October, not less than three thousand person visit it, many for months, and some necessarily only for a few days; the hotels and private boarding-houses in the town, as well as those of the latter in the country, are most always at this period, filled. A visiter from Boston has very justly said :

66

Among all the beautiful places of our country, perhaps none could be more enchanting to the lovers of the bright luxuriance of nature, than the scenes of the Narraganset bay. No summer's resort is so

popular as Newport among southern gentlemen, and | tions, and were elaborately adorned with all kinds of those of our own busy population, who wish to es- ornaments. Embalmers of different ranks and duties extracted cape, for a few weeks, the rush of life in the crowded city, to breath the pure air of heaven, soft, balmy the brain through the nostrils, and the entrails and fragrant as it comes loaded with a thousand through an incision in the side; the body was then odours stolen from the green grass and the wild the process of embalming, properly speaking, began. shaved, washed, and salted, and after a certain period flower. It is, indeed, a lovely spot; the eye never The whole body was then steeped in balsam and seems satiated in gazing upon the luxuriant vegeta-wrapped up in linen bandages; each finger and toe tion, which the soil sends forth almost spontaneously, and hours and days fly away uncounted to a visiter for the first time, wandering among its miniature hills and plains and valleys."

No description of Newport would be considered by strangers as finished, were one fact, which has become proverbial, omitted, namely, the beauty of its females. Visiters attribute their elegant complexions, in a great degree to the bleaching influence of the very dense sea-fogs which frequently in summer and autumn, for a few hours, envelop the island.

MUMMIES.

W. E. A.

pre

was separately enveloped, or sometimes sheathed in a gold case, and the nails were often gilded. The bandages were then folded round each of the limbs, and finally round the whole body, to the number of fifteen or twenty thicknesses. The head was the object of particular attention; it was sometimes enveloped in several folds of fine muslin, the first of which was glued to the skin, and the others to the first; the whole was then coated with a fine plaster. A collar of cylindrical glass beads of different colours was attached to the mask which covered the head, and with it was connected a tunick of the same material. The beads, both in the collar and tunick, were so arranged as to form images of divinities, "of the scarabæus, the winged globe, &c. Instead of this the mummy was sometimes placed in a sort of sheath, made of paper or linen, and coated with a layer of plaster, on which were paintings and gilding. OWING either to the religious opinions of the These paintings represented subjects relating to the Egyptians or to the nature of the country, which duties of the soul, and its presentation to the different rendered interment inconvenient, or the want of fuel, divinities; and a perpendicular hieroglyphical inwhich rendered burning difficult, they embalmed all scription in the centre gave the name of the deceas The whole their dead, and deposited them in subterraneous ed, and of his relations, his titles, &c. chambers, or in grottoes excavated in the mountains. was then placed in the coffin. An immense number of them have been found in the Those mummies which have been examined plain of Saccara, near Memphis; hence called the sent very different One class has an appearances. plain of the mummies, consisting not only of human opening in the left side, under the armpit, and in Some of those which bodies, but of various animals, or heads of animals, another the body is whole. bulls, apes, ibises, crocodiles, fish, &c. Numerous have been opened have been dried by vegetable and In the former. caves or grottoes, with contents of the same kind, balsamick substances, others by salt. are found in the two mountainous ridges which run case aromatick gums or asphaltum were used (the nearly parallel with the Nile from Cairo. to Syene. gums, when thrown into the fire, give out an aroSome of the most remarkable of these tombs are matick odour;) in these the teeth and hair are genthose in the vicinity of ancient Thebes in the Lybian erally preserved; but, if exposed to the air, they mountains, many of which were examined by Bel- are soon affected. Those prepared with asphaltum zoni, and those near Eleithias, (described by Hamil- are of a reddish colour, and are in good preservation. ton,) further up the river, which, though less splendid Those dried with saline substances are of a black, than the Theban sepulchres, contain more illustra- hard, smooth appearance. On exposure to the air tions of the private life of the Egyptians. The they attract moisture, and become covered with a -sepulchral chambers are almost entirely covered saline substance. Those mummies which have no with fresco paintings and bass-reliefs, and frequently opening are also partly preserved by saline subcontain statues, vases, &c. Some of them (the stances, and partly by asphaltum. In the latter, not royal sepulchres) consist of suites of spacious halls only the cavities of the body are filled with it, but and long galleries of magnificent workmanship. the flesh, bones, and every part seem to be peneThose of private individuals vary according to the trated by it: it was probably injected in a hot state. They are wealth of the deceased, but are often very richly These are the most commonly met with. ornamented. Many of these tombs have been ran-hard, black, and without any disagreeable smell. The sacked by Arabs for the purpose of plunder, and whole mummies prepared with salt alone are white great numbers of the mummies destroyed for the and smooth, and resemble parchment. rosin or asphaltum they contain, which is sold to The coffin is usually of sycamore, cedar, or pasteadvantage in Cairo. The tombs and mummies are, board; the case is entire, and covered within and many of them, two or three thousand years old, and without by paintings representing funeral scenes, are in part indebted for their preservation to the and a great variety of other subjects: the name of dryness of the soil and the mildness of the climate. the deceased is also repeated on them in hieroglyThe processes for the preservation of the body were phick characters. The cover, which is also entire, is ornamented in the same manner, and contains too very various. Those of the poorer classes were merely dried by salt or natron, wrapped up in coarse the resembance of the deceased in relief, painted, cloths, and deposited in the catacombs. The bodies and often gilded. The breast is covered with a large of the rich underwent the most complicated opera-collar; a perpendicular inscription occupies the cen

tre, and funeral scenes the sides. The coffin is often returned, or changed their destination. Orange enclosed in a second, and even third case, each of groves abound in the neighbourhood, and yield a good which is also ornamented with similar representations.

Human bodies preserved in other ways, either by accident or by some artificial preparations, are also called mummies. The Gaunches, or aboriginal inhabitants of the Canaries, preserved the bodies of their deceased friends, which have been found in great numbers in the catacombs in Palma, Ferro, Teneriffe, &c. The natives called them xaxos. They are dry, light, of a yellow colour and strong odour, and often injured by worms; they are enveloped in goatskins and enclosed in cases. They are supposed to have been dried in the air, after having had the entrails removed; and they were also covered with a sort of aromatick varnish. Humboldt found mummies prepared in a similar manner in Mexico. The Peruvians also had the art of preserving the bodies of their incas.

profit.

Florida was visited by Ponce de Leon, a Spaniard, in 1512, and it long remained in possession of the king of Spain. When first visited and settled, the country was called Florida as far north as the Chesapeake. Volney speaks of Florida as one of the finest climates in the world. But some writers represent it as unhealthy. Probably the truth is that some parts of Florida are healthy, and other parts, where the land is low and marshy, are unwholesome. Some gentlemen of the medical profession, recommend the climate of Florida, and particularly St. Augustine, as a good residence for invalids, especially those of the consumptive symptoms, rather than Cuba, or any of the West India Islands. It seldom freezes at St. Augustine; the thermometer does not often stand lower than forty-five or sixty degrees. We are indebted to one of that profession for the following account :

The burial-place of the Capuchin monastery at Palermo, in Sicily, is a large subterranean vault di- "St. Augustine is surrounded by a small creek vided into several wide and lofty galleries, in the called the Marie Sanchez, swollen however into a conwalls of which are niches containing several hundred siderable stream at high water. It consists of four human bodies, kept in an upright position by being or five streets, from sixteen to twenty feet only in fastened to the wall behind, and clothed in their width, running nearly parallel to the Matanzas, about usual dress. The monks have a peculiar manner of half a mile in length, and intersected every few preserving bodies, which they keep secret. Natural hundred yards by others crossing at right angles. A mummies are frequently found preserved by the dry-considerable open space is left near the middle of ness of the air. In a vault of the cathedral at Bre- the city, which is dignified with the appellation of men, called the lead-cellar (because it was formerly Plaza de la Constitucion, in the centre of which is a employed for melting lead for aqueducts and organ monument of plastered shell rock, built in commemopipes,) are bodies in good preservation. In the mon- ration of the constitution granted to Spain by her astery of St. Bernard, on mount St. Bernard, the monarch. Around this square the three or four bodies of travellers who have been buried in the snow churches and publick buildings are situated. The are deposited in a chapel, in which there are open streets are in general built upon pretty compactly, windows protected by grates. They are placed in but a great number of the habitations are in a deserta sitting position, leaning each on another's breast. ed and completely dilapidated condition. The exThe cold prevents their putrefaction, and gives them teriour of the buildings is of a most unpromising time to dry. The Gaulish mummies, in the cabinet description, resembling at a general view an irreguof comparative anatomy, in the Jardin du Roi, were lar conglomeration of roughly plastered hovels; and found in Auvergne in the last century. They bear in fact, the entire aspect of the place is that, which no marks of any balsamick preparation, but are en- is actually its case, of " having seen better days." veloped in linen, and appear to have been interred There are however some half dozen of the residenwith great care. It is uncertain whether their pres-ces which are tolerably convenient and comfortable. ervation was owing to the nature of the soil, or to a peculiar and now unknown process of embalming.

ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA.

The dwelling-houses generally bear some marks of the Spanish taste, as in having the entrance through a high court-yard, balconies projecting over the street, &c. There is, however, too little uniformity in external appearance or internal construction to allow their being referred to any one model. The floors of many of them are constructed of tabbia, a mixture of lime and shells, which becomes in time ST. Augustine is one of the principal cities in much consolidated and smooth, but in winter is cold, East Florida, and is situated on a bay of the Atlan- damp, and uncomfortable. The material of which tic, the entrance to which is much obstructed by a almost all the houses are constructed, is a conglombar. It is about two hundred and fifty miles south erated shell rock, which is found abundantly on of Charleston, two hundred from Savannah, and eighty Anastasia Island, within a few miles. When first miles south of St. Mary's river, the northern bound-removed from the quarry, its structure is so soft as ary of Florida. It is thirty miles south of the mouth of St. John's river, which is one of the largest in that territory. St. Augustine was built by the Spaniards in 1565. It is situated on a peninsula, and is of an oblong form, with four streets. It has a good "This is the only kind of rock found in this secharbour, but of difficult access because of the bar. tion of Florida. The whole surrounding country The attempt is rarely made to enter without a pilot, is a perfect level of sand, intermingled with broas the bar is constantly changing. Vessels are often ken pieces of shells, and destitute of every mindetained for weeks, at the bar, and sometimes have eral production, even the smallest-sized stone. No

to allow of its being prepared for building by being hewn with a broad-axc, but it attains a considerable degree of solidity after long exposure to the atmosphere.

natural elevations, even of a few feet, are to be movement of their mouths and nostrils, as distinctly found. and expressively as upon the countenance of a child.

"The old Spanish fortress, now called Fort Marion, stands at the southeastern extremity of the city. Though unoccupied and very considerably out of repair, it presents a fine specimen of the ancient style of fortification. The company of United States troops stationed at this post is garrisoned at the other extremity, in barracks which were formerly the Nunnery of St. Francis.

"There is a Catholick church, much out of repair, in which, however, owing to the decided litigation between priest and people, no services had been held for a considerable period ;-a small methodist chapel not ordinarily used; a presbyterian meetinghouse commenced some six years ago, but not sufficiently finished to be occupied, and a small edifice forty by thirty feet, designed for an Episcopalian church, just commenced. These with the old Spanish government house, now fitted up for the United States Court, and in which publick worship was usually held, principally by the provision of the Missionary Society, comprise all the publick buildings."

horse.

MISCELLANY.

ARABIAN HORSES.

Am. Mag.

When he approached them for the first time, they exhibited as much dislike and curiosity as a man would feel at the sight of a disagreeable and unexpected object. Our language especially astonished them, and their ears pricked up and bent backward, or thrown forward showed their uneasiness. I admired especially several black mares, reserved for the Emir himself. I offered, by my interpreter, ten thousand piastres for one of the handsomest; but an Arab would not sell at any price a mare of the best breed ; I therefore was unsuccessful.

RECEIPT FOR MAKING COLD SOAP.

THE leach-tub or hogshead must be covered at the bottom with straw and sticks-then put in a bushel of ashes, then two or three quarts of unslaked lime, upon which you must throw two quarts of boiling water to excite fermentation and slake the lime; put in another bushel of ashes and as much more lime and water, and continue to do so until your vessel is full; put in hot water till you can draw off the ley, after which the heat of the water is not of much consequence. You must have, at least, two thirds of a bushel of lime to a hogshead, if you wish your soap to be made quick; one hogshead of ashes will make two barrels of soap. When you draw off your ONE must see the stables of Damascus, or of the ley you must keep your first two pailfuls by themEmir Beschir, to have a correct idea of an Arabian selves, and the next two in another vessel, and the This superb and graceful animal loses his third two in another vessel still; then weigh twentybeauty, his gentleness, and his picturesque figure, nine pounds of clear, strained grease, or of scraps, when he is taken from his native and his accustomed without straining, thirty-two pounds, put into a kettle habits, and brought to our cold climate and the soli- with three pounds of rosin; then pour over it one tude of our stables. He must be seen at the door pailful of ley from the first-drawn vessel; and one of the tent of the Arab of the desert, his head be- from the second-drawn vessel; put it over the fire, tween his legs, tossing his long black mane, and and let it boil twenty minutes-be particular to add brushing his sides shining like copper or silver, with no ley over the fire, but swing off the crane if it is his long tail, the extremity of which is always tinged in danger of boiling over; put it into your barrel, and with benna; he must be seen decked with elegant add one pailful of ley from the third-drawn vessel, housings, trimmed with gold and embroidered with and give it a thorough stirring; then weigh your grease pearls; his head covered with a net of blue or red for another barrel, and take the ley remaining in the silk, woven with gold or silver, and edged with tink-vessels, in the same manner as for the first barrel; ling points, which fall from his forehead over his nos- then draw off your weak ley, and fill up the vessels trils, and with which he conceals or shows at each as fast as possible, remembering to put half to each movement of his neck his fiery, large and intelligent barrel, that they may be equally strong; if your leach eyeball; he must be seen in numbers of two or three hundred, some lying in the dust of the court, others fettered by iron rings and fastened to long cords which cross these courts, others free upon the sands, and leaping with one bound over the rows of camels black which stand in their path; some held by young slaves, clothed in scarlet vests, the horses affectionately putting their heads upon the shoulders of these children, and some playing together as free and unconfined as the wild colts of a prairie, standing around, It would appear (says a writer in one of the perirubbing their heads together, or mutually licking each other's shining and silvery hair; all looking at us odicals) by certain historical glimpses which we are with an uneasy and curious scrutiny on account of enabled to obtain, that not only the magnet but also our European dress and strange language, but soon the needle, which is only a magnet of a regular, slenbecoming familiar and coming gently, holding out der, and easily moveable shape, suspended on a pivot their necks for us to stroke. The restless expression for the sake of turning round the more easily to the of the physiognomy of these horses is perfectly various points of the horizon, was known and used incredible till one has seen it himself. All their feel- by the Chinese on land. They do not appear to have ings are expressed in their eyes and in the nervous used it for marine purposes. The like may be ob

run through fast, you may have your barrels full in an hour, and so hard that you can hardly stir them. You must stir it after you begin to put in your ley, till your barrel is full.-Fourteen quarts of melted grease is the quantity for a barrel.

ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE COMPASS.