beautiful monument, I think it right to exculpate this gentleman from the above charge of egotism.

It was I, and not Mr. Salt that caused the temple to be covered up again, and here are my reasons for it. I had already removed obstructions from the newly discovered passages, and from the new subterranean chamber of the great Pyramid, and finding nothing all around but the live or natural rock stone, I set about exploring the base of the Sphinx, in hopes of lighting on some communication that might lead to any new points of the Pyramid. After having been at work, for several months, with a hundred and fifty Arabs, and not unfrequently at the risk of being buried in the downfalls of sand, I was, at length, enabled to clear out the area of a Temple of Osiris : its scite at about the depth of 40 feet, and within the very claws of the Sphinx. M. de Forbin is within the limits of strict truth, when he asserts that this is one of the finest monuments of the power of the arts in ancient Egypt.

After having taken the dimensions, and the most correct designs of all these antiquities, I was concerned to find a number of Arab women, allured by superstition, coming, at first, to worship and kiss the images, on their first view of them, but not content with this proceeding afterwards, to break off fragments or pieces, to serve as amulets or charms; in this way, several hierogly phics have been already disfigured. At length, being apprehensive that this fine workmanship which it had cost me so much labour (even at the hazard of losing my sight) to explore, should come to destruction, I resolved to inter it anew, till circumstances more auspicious might authorize the disclosure of it to

every eye.

The learned will, I hope, be shortly enabled to appreciate these antiquities, whether deserving or not of the care expended for their preservation. It is intended to publish, as soon as possible, the result of my discoveries, in a periodical journal: my plan of the temple, and a brief notice of my labours, have indeed already appeared, in one of these for January last.

It appears to me that the whole aggregate of Egyptian antiquities would speedily be laid open for the investigation of European Archeologists, were it not for a sort of jealous rivalship that has crept in among the explorers of these scientific riches. The most valuable, and indeed the most proper instrument for

these purposes, in respect of his physical force and capabilities, I mean M. Belzoni, is about to leave Egypt. A report prevails that, on his return to Cairo from his last expedition, one of the agents of M. D. assaulted, and actually fired a pistol at him. This circumstance was mentioned to me, by M. Briggs, on his arrival from Alexandria.

This event should not, however, be a source of alarm to Europeans, inclined to undertake journeys into a country so interesting. For my own part, it is my intention to return thither; and I can only speak well of the native inhabitants, with whom I have lived for some time, in the bonds of an amicable inter

course.

Particulars of certain Improvements ordered in the French West India Settlements, by the Minister of Marine. The first object of these improvements is to introduce a graft of the genuine coffee tree of Moka, and to institute comparisons between it, and the trees originally indigenous to, or that have been naturalized in the Antilles. A number of other plants are to be submitted to similar experiments, which the Governor of Martinico has invited the colonists in general to make.

By express orders from the King, his Majesty's ship the Golo, under the command of M. J. Baron de Mackau, has been dispatched from the Isle of Bourbon, to convey to Cayenne, and the French Windward Islands: 1. The martin, a voracious Indian bird that feeds on insects, and that has long been naturalized in the islands of France, and Bour. bon. It is particularly wanted in French Guiana, to exterminate a species of caterpillar, that every year makes immense annual havock among the products of the cotton tree.

2. The fish called goramy. It is conceived that this fish, originally brought from China and Batavia, and which has also been naturalized in the Isles of France and Bourbon, might easily be made to multiply in the fresh waters of the different colonies, so as to supply the inhabitants with an agreeable salubrious, and abundant resource of subsistence. It reaches to the length of about two metres.

3. Several sorts of plants, and seeds of different vegetables indigenous to Asia, or Eastern Africa, to augment the aggregrate of cultivation with useful articles for the sustenance of men, or animals, or conducive to the objects of industry.

The

The Golo arrived at Martinico, on the 1st of April, 1819, after having touched at Cayenne, in which last territory, were landed and deposited, eleven of the birds called martins; twenty-five individuals of the species of fish called goramy; six different species of vegetables, yet in their growth, including about 111 feet of the coffee tree of Bourbon, of the first quality; eight different species of seeds, among which are those of the cotton tree, of the rice of Batavia and Bengal, and of White Maize.

The above vessel has also disembarked at Martinico, thirty-nine gora. mys; seventy species of flourishing vegetables, among which are the coffee tree of Bourbon, the pepper tree, the mangoustan, the real bread fruit tree, and different varieties of the sugar cane. Also, eighteen species of seed, chiefly those of the varieties of the cotton tree, of the rice and the maize, similar to what was deposited in Cayenne, with two vultures from the Cape of Good Hope, there called messengers, or secretaries, of a kind that are at constant warfare with serpents.

In general, the fishes, plants and grains that have been consigned to Martinico, are to be shared alike, between that colony and the colony of Guadaloupe.

The secretary, or messenger, that has been imported into Martinico is expected to be very serviceable in destroying a variety of the viper kind, very common in that island, and very dangerous.

Not long since, M. the Baron Donzelot, governor of the colony, had caused to be brought from Trinity Island, a few couples of another species of bird of prey gifted with the same in

stinct.

The above beneficent intentions have been zealously seconded, by the naval Captain Milius, managing commandant for the King, at Bourbon, and by a great number of the inhabitants of that island, who exerted themselves to the utmost, for the purpose, also by the King's consular agent at the Cape of Good Hope, M. le Comte des Escotais.

The safe preservation of the animals and plants, during the voyage, may be ascribed to the care and intelligence of M. de Mackau and his officers, especially the second in command, M. Picard.

Annexed to the proceeding is the following notice in the same journal. There is now in the Island of Trinity a species of small vulture, endowed with a

particular instinct for pursuing and destroying serpents. M. the Lieut. General Donzelot, Governor at Martinique, gave orders for a certain number to be brought thither, and that were instantly set at liberty. No doubts are entertained of the experiment proving very beneficial. A proposition had also been suggested, by an inhabitant of the Three Islets, to introduce into the colony a kind of harmless fetiche serpents, worshipped by the people of Widah, on the coast of Western Africa, for its constant persecution of venomous serpents; but whether the proposition will be eventually adopted, does not yet appear.

The INTERIOR of AFRICA.

The Marquis d'Etourville, who is at present in Africa on matters of private business, intends, on his return to France, to publish some interesting notices relative to natural history, a science wherein he has made numberless discoveries, and such as' well deserve the attention of the learned. He has recently forwarded certain memoranda which he made during his long captivity, of which the following is a very brief analysis.

M. d'Etourville emigrated from France to Spain, in 1790; he there commenced a course of medical studies, and afterwards resided some time in Lisbon, taking lessons in that science. From Lisbon he repaired to the isle of St. Thomas, situated under the Equator, at the extremity of the gulph of Guinea. He remained some years in this island, whence occasionally he made excursions into the western regions of Africa. In one of these, he fortunately cured some dangerous wound under which the Mani-congo, a prince of the country was suffering. Having thereby gained the favour of the prince, he attended him in an expedition or journey more than four hundred leagues in the interior of the continent.

In the course of this peregrination, M. d'Etourville traced on a map, the western lines of the lake Aqualinda, respecting which, till then, no certain information had been obtained. He likewise ascertained with precision the geographical route of the Zaire, with its sources, and the lakes it forms in its progress.

In a journey which he undertook, in 1800, M. d'Etourville was taken prisoner, by a wandering tribe of Gajas, who are cannibals. Whatever common fame has reported of their ferocity, is no exaggeration.

exaggeration. They make war to devour their prisoners; and it is certain, as Dopper relates, that human flesh is sold in their markets. The blood which they draw from the veins of their living victims, is to them a delicious beverage. M. d'Etourville remained fifteen months among these barbarians. All his companions were devoured, and he must have shared the same fate, had he not been so fortunate as to cure a broken arm of the favourite mistress of the Chief of the Horde.

Compelled to be in the train of this troop of Cajas, he ranged through an extent of continent, from the country of the Auriscans to Hulla, when he escaped from their hands. He then proceeded to a province south of the western Mountains of the Moon, at a small distance from what he considers as the real sources of the Nile. Hereabouts he fixes the Empire of Droglodo, unknown at present, but far more civilized than the circumjacent regions. The politics of the government, according to M. d'Etourville, bear a strong resemblance to the Chinese, and the civilization of the Droglodians must be traced to a very remote source. The merchants of

Droglodo go, once a-year, authorized by their government, to meet the Abyssinian merchants in a narrow passage of the mountain Narcar. They convey thither gold dust, musk, pearls, precious stones, ivory, gums and Ethiopian slaves, in exchange for which they receive shawls, India stuffs, Turkey carpets and salt.

In this country M. d'Etourville remained about ten years; and though in a state of slavery, he had many opportunities of noticing the manners of the people and their antiquities. His different observations have led him to conclude that the Abyssinians, the Nubians, and the ancient Egyptians, who, built the pyramids, were all originally from Droglodo, which he conceives to have been the country inhabited, in ancient times, by the Troglodites.

M. d'Etourville returned to France, about the time of the re-establishment of the Bourbons; but set out again, in 1814, to realize and secure some goods and property in Africa, whence he is expected shortly to return, and when the full account of his travels may be expected in the Journal of New Voyages and Travels.

INSTITUTE OF FRANCE.

IN the sitting of April 5, the Academy of Science deputed M. Gay Lussac and M. Percy to draw up a report on a written communication, presented by M. Valette, relative to a mechanical process of his inventions by means whereof he proposes, at a very moderate price, to furnish and distribute, in the quarters, streets, and houses of Paris, hot water, for the extemporaneous preparation of baths of every temperature.

The idea of such a distribution, and commercial arrangement, is not altogether novel; in Germany and at Berlin, in particular, hot water is conveyed into the houses from the street, by men employed for the purpose, and sold at so much per measure. This invention, however, of M. Valette, is of a much more extensive description, and embraces the vast project of enabling all classes of society, rich and poor, and the latter more especially, with little trouble or expence, to partake of the benefit of domestic baths the use of which cannot be too highly recommended.

There are at Paris, as well as in other great cities of the kingdom, a number

of public baths, neither very dear nor very distant. But many persons cannot reap the benefit of them, by reason of some complaint that will not admit of their going abroad, and sometimes from a dread of the atmospherical impressions to which they would be exposed, both going and coming; more especially in returning from a hot bath, could they even make use of a carriage or hackney coach, which all are not in a condition to bear the expence of.

It is an admitted fact, that a domestic bath, that is to say, one that may be taken at home, is infinitely preferable, in point of salubrity and benefit, to one at a distance, and which most would repair to on foot; for the transition being rapid from bed to the bath, and from that to bed again, all the good effects of a bath are fully experienced, secure, from the fluctuations of an intemperate atmosphere.

It follows that we can already anticipate the services that may be rendered to the Parisian population, and to invalids especially, from this speculation of M. Valette, who has reason to say, that in lieu of six hundred thou

sand

sand baths, to satisfy the demands of bodily cleanliness, or observe the precautions requisite for health and medical occasions, there should be three or four times as many.

Though inclined to bear our testimony to the merits and pretensions of M. Valette, we would not wish to derogate from the old-established baths in different quarters of Paris. These will always be well-frequented; in some respects they will obtain the preference, when the only object in view is to wash, to recreate, and refresh, or to remove a slight indisposition.

During the winter, however, and in bad weather, the baths of M. Valette will claim superior advantages; and even in serious and pressing accidents, such as some descriptions of the cholic, and in some cases of the hernia or rup tures, being ready for use in a few seconds, they become a valuable resource, with the additional advantage of precluding the necessity of those cylinders and fire-hearths, which not unfrequently occasion alarming or mortal asphixies, in lighting the wood for heating the water contained in the bath.

Our instructions do not require us to furnish a detailed account of the means that M. Valette resorts to, for heating his water, whether by sending and distributing it in all parts of the city, at the rate of fifteen centimes* for the voie,t and five or six voies for the bath, and this always, to retain the heat of from thirty to forty or fifty degrees, or whether he may provide a due quantity in several depôts, for general use, paying only twenty

centimes.

What we have to observe is, that the cylinder is the organ or instrument in the hands of M. Valette to accomplish his object. This, by an ingenious mechanism, he adapts to immense casks or vessels, to which two pipes are attached for the conveyance of smoke; extensive ramifications proceed, in all directions, to place and dispose the heat in contact with the water. M. Valette prefers dry wood to coals for burning, as it emits very little smoke or smell, and prevents the necessity of providing a chimney at each of his stations, or a pipe to absorb the smoke. His voitures, or carriages, will produce no inconvenience; they will stop like those of Messrs.

* A centime is the hundreth part of a livre. Voie, a measure containing about two pails full.

Schmid and Cochet, when hot water is called for, which the conductors will instantly bring on their peculiar carriages, and in a kind of leather bottle to any door or any story of a house that may be pointed out. There, provided there be a bathing tub, the water will be emptied, in a sufficient quantity, at the price of about eighty centimes; if there are no bathing tubs, the conductors will speedily prepare one of these they carry about, to the number of ten, with their supports or props on every voiture;price about fifty centimes in addition,

These bathing tubs, which are of leather well-varnished, and impenetrable even to boiling water, stretch and bend, like those cups or vessels that huntsmen drink out of. The support or prop is of iron, and is also pliable: both these articles may be made ready on the spot, and without loss of time.

In conclusion of our report, we invite the Academy to sanction, with its approbation, this very singular undertaking, which bids fair to be productive of useful and important results, both in public and private economics.

LANCASTERIAN SCHOOL SOCIETY.

The British and Foreign, otherwise. the Lancasterian School Society, has published its fourteenth Report.

It appears that the active zeal of the Society for Elementary Instruction in Paris, aided in its benevolent labours by men of power and influence, continues successfully to contend against the obstacles, which prejudice and selfishness oppose to the instruction of the lower classes. Upwards of twelve hundred schools on the new system are already bestowing incalculable blessings upon the youth of France. The system has been introduced into a great number of schools connected with the army; and the minister of war has signified his intention of extending its benefits, in the course of the present year, to all the corps without exception.

The Society of Paris for Elementary Instruction have greatly extended the sphere of their labours, by the appointment of a committee for foreign objects, of which Count Lasteyrie is the permanent president, and Mons. Jomard the secretary.

A new Society has been formed (in which the most active members of the Society for Elementary Instruction takes the lead) for the sole purpose of further perfecting those attempts. A

treatise

treatise on linear drawing, on the principles of our method, and for the use of the higher classes of elementary schools, has been composed and published, and is stated to have proved extremely useful. The committee have received intelligence from Spain, that the School, founded in the preceding year at Madrid, under the superintendance of Captain Kearney, continues to flourish; and that measures have been taken to extend the system throughout the kingdom of Spain under the sanction of the King. The seed is sown, and will not fail to spread itself, in due time, over the naked and barren field.

In Russia, the committee had reason to expect a rapid progress of the good cause, and their expectations have not been disappointed. Though the four young Russians, mentioned in the last report, had not yet returned to St. Petersburgh, when the committee heard last from that capital, yet his Imperial Majesty had not delayed to take active measures for a wider diffusion of knowledge amongst the subjects of his extensive dominions.

In Germany, Mr. Hydress, mentioned in the report of last year, has been removed, by the Grand Duke of Weimar, from Eisenach to Ruhla, as a place which furnishes an ample scope for a School on the British System.

The committee have been much gratified by intelligence, that a School Society has been established at Florence, under the sanction of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

A School, on the new plan, has been established at Sartizado, in Piedmont, at Naples; and one for 200 scholars at Bastia, in the island of Corsica.

Mr. Allen, the treasurer, who has now for some time been abroad, and has visited Norway, Sweden, and Russia, has, as you may easily suppose, lost no opportunity that has presented itself, both to obtain information on the state of education, and to suggest and urge the adoption of the best means for its improvement. He has already communicated to the committee some highly interesting and encouraging intelligence. He is now gone to the Southern parts of the Russian empire, and no doubt will, at his return, point out many new openings for useful efforts in the dissemination of knowledge.

The committee have corresponded with several individuals of the highest respectability and influence at Brussels,

for the purpose of encouraging the establishment of a School in that city.

The committee have also prepared the way for introducing the system into Malta, by receiving Mr. Joseph Naudi, a native of that Island, into the training establishment, where he studied during six months. He is now on his return, having been perfectly qualified to conduct a School on the British System.

Referring to the report of last year, your committee feel great satisfaction in being enabled to state, that Mr. C. Pickton, who was engaged by the committee, at the request of the New York School Committee, to superintend and re-organize all the Schools under their management, is safely arrived in that city, and has commenced his labours with signal success. He communicates the gratifying intelligence, that in New York, and its immediate vicinity, there were above 3600 children of both sexes taught upon the British System, or Lancastrian. Mrs. Pickton has also taken the charge of a newly-established school for 300 girls. The accounts from Philadelphia are equally gratifying—a new model School, for 1000 children, was opened on the 21st December last. The British System has been established by an act of the legislature, and is the means of bestowing the benefit of suitable instruction on nearly 3000 children in the city and its suburbs alone, exclusive of several Schools in its vicinity; and, the committee are informed that Joseph Lancaster has been engaged as superintendent of these Schools.

Halifax, Nova Scotia.-This School has, under the persevering labours of Mr. Bromley, continued to prosper.His Excellency the Earl of Dalhousie, the governor, has granted a plot of ground, with the buildings thereon, to the Royal Acadian School Society for ever, to be used for a School on the British System.

In Hayti the same zeal appears still to prevail, which gave rise to the first establishment of Schools, on the British System, in that interesting country.— Both Mr. Daniel and Mr. Gulliver express themselves much gratified by beholding the increasing fruits of their labours, in the rapid progress of their pupils.†

• We are glad to see this fact announced by the committee.

King Henry is worthy of being at the head of Every account from Hayti proves, that the Blacks. Among