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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76818 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE PENNY MAGAZINE
+
+                                 OF THE
+
+             Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ 13.]                   PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.        [June 16, 1832
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+                    THE NATURAL BRIDGE OF VIRGINIA.
+
+ [Illustration: A rock formation in the form of a natural stone bridge,
+                 with a stream running underneath it.]
+
+Virginia, the largest state in the American Union, is intersected by a
+chain of mountains called the Blue Ridge, which, running in their
+general direction parallel to the Atlantic coast, divide the state into
+two parts not differing very considerably in extent. The portion
+immediately to the west of the Blue Ridge is an extensive and fertile
+valley of limestone formation. It is principally watered by one stream,
+the Shenandoah, which unites with another, the Potomac, at a place
+called Harper’s Ferry. At their point of junction, on the _west_ side of
+the Blue Ridge, the spectator, as he takes his stand on the high ground
+above the small town of Harper’s Ferry, sees before him a wide opening
+in the mountain chain through which the united current finds its way. On
+each side the mountains rise in some parts very abruptly, and their
+rugged faces and the shattered appearance of the whole of this
+magnificent natural canal show evident traces of a violent disruption.
+
+This passage at Harper’s Ferry has been often described by different
+travellers, but never, as far as we have seen, in a way calculated to
+give an accurate conception of what it really is. Nor do we intend to
+attempt this description, but only to notice briefly another natural
+phenomenon of the Valley of Shenandoah, which, though less talked of and
+visited than Harper’s Ferry, is for beauty and grandeur perhaps
+unrivalled. We allude to the Natural Bridge, or Rock-Bridge, as it is
+familiarly called by the people who live near it, which is situated a
+few miles on the west side of the Blue Ridge, on a small stream in the
+upper part of the great valley, and in the county of Rock-Bridge.
+
+From a small and uncomfortable tavern in the neighbourhood, kept by a
+Mr. Galbraith, (we wish this could meet his eye and make him mend his
+fare,) we pass for about two miles over uneven ground, and after
+ascending a small hill, we find a piece of rough stony road with a few
+stunted firs and scrub oaks on the right hand and on the left. A
+traveller might proceed without making any other observation, as the
+common road runs right over the bridge, and it is said that some people
+have actually passed over without being aware of it. But though this is
+certainly a possible occurrence if a person should be in a closed
+carriage, it can hardly have happened to a man on foot or on horseback,
+who is accustomed to keep his eyes open when he is travelling. On the
+right and left he will perceive that the slope of the hill is
+interrupted by a deep and sudden descent; and on going nearer to the
+right side of the road, he finds himself on the edge of a tremendous
+precipice. At the bottom a small stream is seen making its way amidst
+broken rocks. Going to the opposite side of the road and looking down
+there, he will observe the little river continuing its course in a deep
+channel down a narrow valley. The traveller is now on the Natural
+Bridge; he is standing on a stupendous natural arch of limestone; and
+though he may form some conjecture of his situation by looking down from
+the edge of the precipice, he can have no adequate conception without
+viewing it from below. The arch is best seen from the bed of the
+rivulet, and from a point just under it. On looking up you behold a
+noble arch of one solid mass of stone hanging over your head, somewhat
+curved in its highest part, and almost like the work of man. The same
+native rock forms, on each side, the supports of this enormous arch,
+which is said to be about 80 feet wide near the top; at the level of the
+water the width is only about forty. The whole height from the outer top
+of the arch to the water is about 210 feet, as ascertained by
+measurement with a string and a stone at the end. This is greater than
+the height of the London monument. The vertical thickness of the arch is
+probably about 30 feet. Like many other great works both of nature and
+art it is not the first sight that produces the deepest impression. On a
+second visit we found that we had learned to form more accurate
+conceptions of this wonderful bridge, beneath which a man might sit and
+gaze for hours with still increasing astonishment at the majestic arch
+which nature constructed before man began his work, and which seems
+likely to outlive the most durable of his monuments. Whatever may have
+been the origin of this bridge, it seems pretty certain, from an
+inspection of it, that it has not been produced by any sudden and
+violent cause.
+
+The stream that runs beneath, called Cedar Creek, though inconsiderable,
+adds to the general effect. When we visited the place, drops of water,
+filtered through the limestone, were falling in quick succession from
+the arch, and by the time occupied in their descent, their increasing
+velocity, and their full bright appearance, served to give a measure of
+the height from which they fell, and to increase the beauty of the
+scene. There is another natural bridge in Virginia, in Scot county,
+which is said to be above 340 feet high, but is inferior to that of
+Cedar Creek in form and completeness.
+
+The Prebischthor, in the Saxon Switzerland, has sometimes been compared
+with this Virginia Bridge, but it is a very different kind of thing.
+
+The accompanying view, taken from the N.W. side, at the level of the
+water, has hardly any pretensions beyond showing the general shape of
+the arch and the view through it, which is very confined and altogether
+devoid of interest.
+
+The chain[1] of the Andes in South America presents most striking
+natural phenomena in the immense clefts, or _crevasses_ as they are
+sometimes called, which separate two contiguous masses of mountain, and
+in some instances are near 5000 feet deep. If Mount Vesuvius were
+plunged into one of these frightful abysses, its summit would not reach
+to the peaks of the highest rocks on each side; while the bottom of the
+cleft would be only one-fourth less elevated above the level of the sea
+than the passes of St. Gothard and Mont Cenis in the Alps.
+
+The valley of Icononzo is less remarkable for its dimensions than for
+the extraordinary form of its rocks, which seem as if they had been cut
+by the hand of man. Their naked and arid summits form a most picturesque
+contrast with the tufts of trees and herbaceous plants which cover the
+borders of the _crevasse_. A little torrent has made itself a way
+through the valley, and lies sunk in a channel, which is so difficult of
+approach, that the river would hardly be passable if nature herself had
+not formed two bridges of rock, which are justly regarded as the
+greatest curiosity in that country. Humboldt and Bonpland crossed these
+natural bridges in 1801, on their route from Santa Fé de Bogota to
+Popayan and Quito.
+
+In the valley of Icononzo the _grès_ or sandstone is composed of two
+distinct kinds of rock--one very compact and quartzose without any marks
+of fissure or stratification--the other a fine-grained sandstone, formed
+of an infinite number of thin and almost horizontal layers. We may
+imagine that the compact material resisted the force which rent the
+mountains asunder, and that it is the unbroken mass of this rock which
+forms the bridge by which the traveller now crosses from one side of the
+valley to the other. This natural arch is about 47½ feet long, 41½ wide,
+and about 8 feet thick at the centre. By very careful experiments made
+on falling bodies, with the assistance of a good chronometer, combined
+with the measurement obtained by a plummet, it appears that the height
+of the upper of the two natural bridges, above the level of the torrent,
+is about 313 feet.
+
+Sixty feet below the first natural bridge there is another formed by
+three enormous masses of rock, which have fallen in such a way as to
+support one another. The centre rock forms the key of the arch.
+
+-----
+
+Footnote 1:
+
+  Humboldt, Vue des Cordillères, &c. 8vo. Paris.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                           STATISTICAL NOTES.
+
+                     ENGLAND AND WALES (CONTINUED)
+
+(20.) Of the state of English agriculture in early ages some notion may
+be formed from the fact of the prohibition for many years, and
+subsequently the taxation, of the exportation of corn. It was not till
+the reign of Charles II that the export of corn was exempted from a tax;
+and it is from 1689 that may be dated that fundamental change in our
+corn-laws which encouraged exportation by a bounty. Since that period
+the fluctuations in the price of corn have been remarkable. The price of
+wheat which in the beginning of the last century was 50_s._ the quarter,
+became reduced in the ten years between 1740 and 1750 to 24_s._ the
+quarter. The culture of corn thus received a check, and a large
+proportion of arable land was transferred from tillage to grazing. The
+effect of this conversion and of an increasing population raised the
+price of corn in the ten years from 1750 to 1760 to an average of 42_s._
+6_d._ per quarter, and soon changed the scale from export to import,
+which has continued ever since. From 1764 to 1790 the average price of
+wheat varied from 42_s._ to 50_s._; our annual imports from 200,000 to
+500,000 quarters of corn. But since 1792 our annual imports, under
+differently regulated systems of law, have been from half a million to
+above two million quarters of corn of all kinds; and the average prices
+of wheat have varied from 2_l._ to 6_l._ per quarter. In 1792 the price
+of wheat was 2_l._ 2_s._ 11_d._; in 1800, 5_l._ 13_s._ 7_d._; in 1812,
+6_l._ 5_s._ 5_d._; in 1822, 2_l._ 4_s._ 1_d._; and in 1831, 3_l._ 10_s._
+3_d_. The annual consumption of wheat in the United Kingdom has been
+estimated at 12,000,000 quarters; and that of other grain at 36,000,000
+quarters, making together 48,000,000, of which not one-twentieth part
+has during any year been imported, and, in general, a far less
+proportionate quantity. The daily consumption of wheat in the United
+Kingdom may be taken at 36,000, and of all other grain at 108,000
+quarters, making together 144,000 quarters a day.
+
+(21.) During the last century, upwards of five millions of acres in
+England and Wales have been enclosed under Acts of Parliament, the
+average extent of each enclosure being 1200 acres, and the outlay about
+10_l._ per acre. From 1719 to 1759, the average number of enclosure Acts
+passed was 8 a year; 1780 to 1794, it was 30; 1797 to 1803, it was 83;
+in 1811 it was 134, (the highest number known); in 1814, 119; in 1816,
+49; in 1827, 21; in 1829, 24; and in 1831, only 10. The great extent to
+which the enclosure system thus appears to have already been carried,
+now necessarily diminishes the progress of enclosures every year.
+
+(22.) Among the various causes of the superiority of English husbandry
+over that of the Continent, is that of the medium size of our farms,
+which differ both from such large unmanageable tracts as those held by
+Polish noblemen, and from such diminutive occupancies as those which
+have prevailed in France since the first Revolution, in consequence of
+the abolition of the law of primogeniture. The size of English farms is
+the greatest in the best cultivated districts; such as Kent, Essex,
+Suffolk, Norfolk, and Northumberland. In these counties the engagements
+of the farmers are very large, and frequently amount to 1000_l._ a year
+and upwards. In more retired districts, as in Cumberland, Westmorland,
+and Wales, the occupancies are, in general, small, and an average of all
+the farms in England and Wales would, perhaps, not exceed 150_l._ a
+year. Leases are, for the most part, granted for seven years only, and
+farms are occasionally let from year to year upon written agreements,
+with specified covenants subjecting the tenants to fines in the event of
+deviation from them. The tenants of great landholders, particularly of
+the old nobility, often hold at will, without leases, upon the
+understanding of conformity to the rules laid down by the lord for the
+observance of all his tenants; and such tenants are found to occupy from
+father to son for many generations. Upon the whole, the tenure of
+leasehold property in England is considered to be too short to admit of
+the improvements that tenants might otherwise be expected to make in our
+system of agriculture.
+
+(23.) The expense of cultivation of land in England has much increased
+of late years, as appears by the returns to the Board of Agriculture,
+which state that the average expenses of cultivating one hundred acres
+of land was in 1790, 411_l._; in 1803, 547_l._; and in 1813, 771_l._
+Since the latter year there have been reductions in labour and taxes,
+and also, to a considerable extent, in rent. Surveyors calculate that
+highly cultivated land ought to produce a threefold return, viz.:
+one-third of the gross produce to the landlord for rent, another for the
+expenses, and the remainder for the farmer’s profit; the rent of
+inferior land being only a fourth, or even a fifth of the gross produce,
+by reason of the additional expense of cultivation.
+
+(24.) A century ago, our cattle, from the inferiority of their feed,
+were not one-half, sometimes even not one-third, of their present
+weight. It is computed that England and Wales now contain, at least,
+five million oxen, and a million and a half of horses, of which about a
+million are used in husbandry, 200,000 for pleasure, and 300,000 are
+colts and breeding mares. The number of sheep is about twenty millions,
+and eight million lambs. The number of long-wooled sheep is about five
+millions, their fleeces averaging 7 or 8 lbs.; and of short-wooled sheep
+fifteen millions, the weight of fleece averaging from 3 to 3½ lbs. The
+whole quantity of wool annually shorn in England is from eighty to
+eighty-five million of pounds. The Merino were introduced about the
+beginning of the present century, and were imported in large numbers
+after our alliance with Spain in 1809. The great pasturage counties are
+Leicester, Northampton, Lincoln, and Somerset; and for butter and
+cheese, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire. The import of butter
+and cheese from foreign countries is checked by duties, but these are
+important articles of Irish commerce with England.
+
+(25) The annual amount of profit from farming is not very susceptible of
+exact calculation, but was estimated some fifteen years since at thirty
+millions sterling, being a sum equivalent to the rental of England and
+Wales. The probable amount of the farming capital of the country was
+estimated at from two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions
+sterling. In regard to the value of the total annual produce of the
+land, this is necessarily subject to the fluctuations of seasons, but
+taking wheat at the medium of 80_s._ and other corn in proportion, we
+shall find an average produce of more than sixty millions sterling in
+corn, to which adding a similar value in pasturage, and a further
+allowance for hops, fruit, and vegetables, we have a total of from 130
+to 140 millions. In Scotland the rent bears a higher proportion to the
+gross produce, being, in general, not less than one-third. Our chief
+superiority over the Continent consists in machinery and live stock.
+Much valuable information on the state of agriculture on the Continent
+is to be found in the Reports to the Government of Mr. Jacob, who
+travelled a few years since with a view of ascertaining the effect that
+would be produced by the modification of our corn-laws. From these
+Reports it seems that the difficulties of transport in the corn
+countries, and other impediments to production, are such as to render
+the probable extent of importation under a more free system much less
+than is commonly imagined. There are many improvements of which English
+agriculture is susceptible, such as in the size of farms in many
+counties, the length of leases, the course of husbandry, the
+construction of ploughs, and the misapplication of animal strength in
+labour. With attention to these points and the application of further
+capital, not to wastes, but to fertile land already under culture, there
+is every hope that our agriculture may be yet considerably advanced in
+productiveness and in national value.
+
+                           [To be continued.]
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+An officer in the forty-fourth regiment, who had occasion, when in
+Paris, to pass one of the bridges across the Seine, had his boots, which
+had been previously well-polished, dirted by a poodle-dog rubbing
+against them. He, in consequence, went to a man who was stationed on the
+bridge, and had them cleaned. The same circumstance having occurred more
+than once, his curiosity was excited, and he watched the dog. He saw him
+roll himself in the mud of the river, and then watch for a person with
+well-polished boots, against which he contrived to rub himself. Finding
+that the shoe-black was the owner of the dog, he taxed him with the
+artifice; and after a little hesitation, he confessed that he had taught
+the dog the trick in order to procure customers for himself. The officer
+being much struck with the dog’s sagacity, purchased him at a high
+price, and brought him to England. He kept him tied up in London some
+time, and then released him. The dog remained with him a day or two, and
+then made his escape. A fortnight afterwards he was found with his
+former master, pursuing his old trade on the bridge.--_Jesse’s Gleanings
+of Natural History_
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                          THE MAHOGANY TABLE.
+
+Milton, who was at once the most sublime and the most practical of
+writers, has said,
+
+                            ------ “To know
+                That which before us lies in daily life,
+                Is the prime wisdom.”
+
+The poet more especially had in view that knowledge to which all other
+knowledge is secondary--we mean the knowledge of ourselves. But we may
+not improperly adopt his forcible expressions as a motto to a series of
+articles which we shall occasionally publish, which will have for their
+object to collect some of the most striking facts belonging to the
+commonest things by which we are surrounded in our every-day life,
+particularly those comforts and conveniences which the humblest man
+possesses in a state of advanced civilization. The history of a knife,
+or a button, or a coat, or a watch, or an earthen pan, or a candle, or a
+lump of coal, or a mahogany table, or a Penny Magazine, suggests to our
+minds more precise and satisfactory notions of the progress of society,
+and therefore of the real history of the people of these kingdoms, than
+all the details of wars and treaties and state intrigues, of which
+history is in general made up. In the execution of such a purpose it is
+not important to pursue any systematic plan. The most material
+consideration will be to select those things of ordinary use which are
+so common, that it would be difficult to find a single reader who is not
+more or less indebted to them for some of his enjoyments.
+
+We will begin with a Mahogany Table. If we had been speaking about a
+mahogany table, or any other article of mahogany, thirty or forty years
+ago, we should have expected only to have interested the rich in the
+description of this important material of English furniture. Now, what
+tradesman, or mechanic, or even cottager, does not possess some article
+of mahogany--if it be only a tea-caddy? The universal employment of
+mahogany for articles of furniture, whose price does not operate as a
+prohibition against their use in general society, has been produced by
+the large application of capital to the commercial speculation of
+bringing mahogany logs to this country from the West Indies,--and,
+further, by the invention of machinery for cutting those logs into thin
+layers, called veneers, by which operation the finest wood is brought
+within a reasonable cost. Now observe what commercial enterprise and
+mechanical ingenuity will accomplish in a comparatively small period.
+Some piece of mahogany furniture is now, probably, found in every house
+in England;--a hundred and eight years ago the wood was unknown here. A
+physician of the name of Gibbons, who resided in London, received in
+1724 a present of some mahogany planks from his brother, a West-India
+captain. Dr. Gibbons was then building a house in King-street,
+Covent-garden, and he desired his carpenter to work up the wood. The
+carpenter had no tool hard enough to touch it; so the planks were laid
+aside. The doctor’s wife, after the house was finished, wanted a
+candle-box, and the mahogany was again thought of. A cabinet-maker of
+the name of Wollaston was applied to; and he also complained that his
+tools were too soft. But he persevered, and the candle-box was at length
+completed--after a rude fashion no doubt. The candle-box was so much
+admired, that the physician resolved to have a mahogany bureau; and when
+the bureau was finished, all the people of fashion came to see it. The
+cabinet-maker procured more planks, and made a fortune by the numerous
+customers he obtained. From that time the use of mahogany furniture went
+forward amongst the luxurious;--and the drawers and bureaus of
+walnut-tree and pear-tree were gradually superseded in the houses of the
+rich. To show the present extensive use of mahogany in this country it
+may be sufficient to mention that in 1829 the importation of this wood
+amounted to 19,335 tons.
+
+The common mahogany (called by botanists _Swietenia mahagoni_) is one of
+the most majestic trees of the whole world. There are trees of greater
+height than the mahogany;--but in Cuba and Honduras this tree, during a
+growth of two centuries, expands to such a gigantic trunk, throws out
+such massive arms, and spreads the shade of its shining green leaves
+over such a vast surface, that even the proudest oaks of our forests
+appear insignificant in comparison with it. A single log, such as is
+brought to this country from Honduras, not unfrequently weighs six or
+seven tons.
+
+                     [Illustration: Mahogany Tree.]
+
+When we consider the enormous size of a trunk of mahogany, and further
+learn that the most valuable timber grows in the most inaccessible
+situations, it must be evident that a great portion of the price of this
+timber must be made up of the cost of the labour required for
+transporting it from its native forests to the place of its embarkation
+for England. The mode in which this difficult work is accomplished is
+highly interesting; and we have, fortunately, the means of giving an
+account of the process (which, we believe, has never before been
+described in any English publication,) from some statements printed in a
+Honduras Almanac, which has been kindly put into our hands for this
+purpose.
+
+The season for cutting the mahogany usually commences about the month of
+August. The gangs of labourers employed in this work consist of from
+twenty to fifty each, but few exceed the latter number. They are
+composed of slaves and free persons, without any comparative distinction
+of rank, and it very frequently occurs that the conductor of such work,
+here styled the Captain, is a slave. Each gang has also one person
+belonging to it termed the Huntsman. He is generally selected from the
+most intelligent of his fellows, and his chief occupation is to search
+the woods, or, as it is called, _the bush_, to find labour for the
+whole. Accordingly, about the beginning of August, the huntsman is
+despatched on his important mission. He cuts his way through the
+thickest of the woods to some elevated situation, and climbs the tallest
+tree he finds, from which he minutely surveys the surrounding country.
+At this season the leaves of the mahogany tree are invariably of a
+yellow reddish hue, and an eye accustomed to this kind of exercise, can,
+at a great distance, discern the places where the wood is most abundant.
+He now descends, and to such places his steps are directed; and, without
+compass, or other guide than what observation has imprinted on his
+recollection, he never fails to reach the exact point at which he aims.
+On some occasions no ordinary stratagem is necessary to be resorted to,
+by the huntsman, to prevent others from availing themselves of the
+advantage of his discoveries; for, if his steps be traced by those who
+may be engaged in the same pursuit, which is a very common thing, all
+his ingenuity must be exerted to beguile them from the true scent. In
+this, however, he is not always successful, being followed by those who
+are entirely aware of all the arts he may use, and whose eyes are so
+quick that the lightest turn of a leaf, or the faintest impression of
+the foot, is unerringly perceived. The treasure being, however, reached
+by one party or another, the next operation is the felling of a
+sufficient number of trees to employ the gang during the season. The
+mahogany tree is commonly cut about ten or twelve feet from the ground,
+a stage being erected for the axe-man employed in levelling it. The
+trunk of the tree, from the dimensions of the wood it furnishes, is
+deemed the most valuable; but, for ornamental purposes, the limbs, or
+branches, are generally preferred.
+
+A sufficient number of trees being felled to occupy the gang during the
+season, they commence cutting the roads upon which they are to be
+transported. This may fairly be estimated at two-thirds of the labour
+and expense of mahogany cutting. Each mahogany work forms in itself a
+small village on the bank of a river,--the choice of situation being
+always regulated by the proximity of such river to the mahogany intended
+as the object of future operations.
+
+After completing the establishment of a sufficient number of huts for
+the accommodation of the workmen, a main road is opened from the
+settlement, in a direction as near as possible to the centre of the body
+of trees so felled, into which branch-roads are afterwards introduced,
+the ground through which the roads are to run being yet a mass of dense
+forest, both of high trees and underwood. The labourers commence by
+clearing away the underwood with cutlasses. This labour is usually
+performed by task-work, of one hundred yards, each man, per day. The
+underwood being removed, the larger trees are then cut down by the axe,
+as even with the ground as possible, the task being also at this work
+one hundred yards per day to each labourer. The hard woods growing here,
+on failure of the axe, are removed by the application of fire. The
+trunks of these trees, although many of them are valuable, such as
+bullet-tree, ironwood, redwood, and sapodilla, are thrown away as
+useless, unless they happen to be adjacent to some creek or small river,
+which may intersect the road. In that case they are applied to the
+construction of bridges, which are frequently of considerable size, and
+require great labour to make them of sufficient strength to bear such
+immense loads as are brought over them.
+
+If the mahogany trees are much dispersed or scattered, the labour and
+extent of road-cutting is, of course, greatly increased. It not
+unfrequently occurs that miles of road and many bridges are made to a
+single tree, that may ultimately yield but one log. When roads are
+cleared of brush-wood, they still require the labour of hoes, pick-axes,
+and sledge hammers to level down the hillocks, to break the rocks, and
+to cut such of the remaining stumps as might impede the wheels that are
+hereafter to pass over them.
+
+The roads being now in a state of readiness, which may generally be
+effected by the month of December, the cross cutting, as it is
+technically called, commences. This is merely dividing crosswise, by
+means of saws, each mahogany tree into logs, according to their length;
+and it often occurs, that while some are but long enough for one log,
+others, on the contrary, will admit of four or five being cut from the
+same trunk or stem. The chief guide for dividing the trees into logs is
+the necessity for equalizing the loads the cattle have to draw.
+Consequently, as the tree increases in thickness, the logs are reduced
+in length. This, however, does not altogether obviate the irregularity
+of the loads, and a supply of oxen are constantly kept in readiness to
+add to the usual number, according to the weight of the log. This
+becomes unavoidable, from the very great difference of size of the
+mahogany trees, the logs taken from one tree being about 300 cubic feet,
+while those from the next may be as many thousand. The largest log ever
+cut in Honduras was of the following dimensions:--Length, 17 feet;
+breadth, 57 inches; depth, 64 inches; measuring 5,168 superficial feet,
+or 15 tons weight.
+
+The sawing being now completed, the logs are reduced, by means of the
+axe, from the round or natural form, into the square. The month of March
+is now reached, when all the preparation before described is, or ought
+to be, completed; when the dry season, or time of drawing down the logs
+from the place of their growth, commences. This process can only be
+carried on in the months of April and May; the ground, during all the
+rest of the year, being too soft to admit of a heavily laden truck to
+pass over it without sinking. It is now necessary that not a moment
+should be lost in drawing out the wood to the river.
+
+A gang of forty men is generally capable of working six trucks. Each
+truck requires seven pair of oxen and two drivers; sixteen to cut food
+for the cattle, and twelve to load or put the logs on the carriages.
+From the intense heat of the sun, the cattle, especially, would be
+unable to work during its influence; and, consequently, the loading and
+carriage of the timber is performed in the night. The logs are placed
+upon the trucks by means of a temporary platform laid from the edge of
+the truck to a sufficient distance upon the ground, so as to make an
+inclined plane, upon which the log is gradually pushed up by bodily
+labour, without any further mechanical aid.
+
+The operations of loading and carrying are thus principally performed
+during the hours of darkness. The torches employed are pieces of wood
+split from the trunk of the pitch-pine. The river-side is generally
+reached by the wearied drivers and cattle before the sun is at its
+highest power; and the logs, marked with the owner’s initials, are
+thrown into the river.
+
+About the end of May the periodical rains again commence; the torrents
+of water discharged from the clouds are so great as to render the roads
+impassable in the course of a few hours, when all trucking ceases. About
+the middle of June the rivers are swollen to an immense height. The logs
+then float down a distance of two hundred miles, being followed by the
+gang in pitpans (a kind of flat-bottomed canoe), to disengage them from
+the branches of the overhanging trees, until they are stopped by a boom
+placed in some situation convenient to the mouth of the river. Each gang
+then separates its own cutting, by the marks on the ends of the logs,
+and forms them into large rafts; in which state they are brought down to
+the wharves of the proprietors, where they are taken out of the water,
+and undergo a second process of the axe, to make the surface smooth. The
+ends, which frequently get split and rent by being dashed against rocks
+in the river by the force of the current, are also sawed off. They are
+now ready for shipping.
+
+The ships clearing out from Belize, the principal port of Honduras, with
+their valuable freight of mahogany, either come direct to England, or
+take their cargo to some free warehousing port of the British
+possessions in the West Indies or America.
+
+We must describe the beautiful process of cutting mahogany logs into
+veneers, before we have reached the point when the skill of the
+cabinet-maker is employed to produce a mahogany table. This shall be
+done in an early number.
+
+                   [Illustration: Trucking Mahogany.]
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                           WHAT IS EDUCATION?
+
+This may seem a very simple question, and very easily answered; but many
+who think so, would really be very much at a loss to answer it
+correctly. Every man, in a free country, wants three sorts of
+education:--one, to fit him for his own particular trade or
+calling,--this is professional education;--another, to teach him his
+duties as a man and a citizen,--this is moral and political
+education;--and a third, to fit him for his higher relations, as God’s
+creature, designed for immortality,--this is religious education. Now,
+in point of fact, that is most useful to a man which tends most to his
+happiness; a thing so plain, that it seems foolish to state it. Yet
+people constantly take the word “useful” in another sense, and mean by
+it, not what tends most to a man’s happiness, but what tends most to get
+money for him; and therefore they call professional education a very
+useful thing: but the time which is spent in general education, whether
+moral or religious, they are apt to grudge as thrown away, especially if
+it interferes with the other education, to which they confine the name
+of “useful;” that is, the education which enables a man to gain his
+livelihood. Yet we might all be excellent in our several trades and
+professions, and still be very ignorant, very miserable, and very
+wicked. We might do pretty well just while we were at work on our
+business; but no man is at work always. There is a time which we spend
+with our families; a time which we spend with our friends and
+neighbours; and a very important time which we spend with ourselves. If
+we know not how to pass these times well, we are very contemptible and
+worthless _men_, though we may be very excellent lawyers, surgeons,
+chemists, engineers, mechanics, labourers, or whatever else may be our
+particular employment. Now, what enables us to pass these times well,
+and our times of business also, is not our _professional_ education, but
+our _general_ one. It is the education which all need equally--namely,
+that which teaches a man, in the first place, his duty to God and his
+neighbour; which trains him to good principles and good temper; to think
+of others, and not only of himself. It is that education which teaches
+him, in the next place, his duties as a citizen--to obey the laws
+always, but to try to get them made as perfect as possible; to
+understand that a good and just government cannot consult the interests
+of one particular class of calling, in preference to another, but must
+see what is for the good of the whole; that every interest, and every
+order of men, must give and take; and that if each were to insist upon
+having everything its own way, there would be nothing but the wildest
+confusion, or the merest tyranny. And because a great part of all that
+goes wrong in public or private life arises from ignorance and bad
+reasoning, all that teaches us, in the third place, to reason justly,
+and puts us on our guard against the common tricks of unfair writers and
+talkers, or the confusions of such as are puzzle-headed, is a most
+valuable part of a man’s education, and one of which he will find the
+benefit whenever he has occasion to open his mouth to speak, or his ears
+to hear. And, finally, all that makes a man’s mind more active, and the
+ideas which enter it nobler and more beautiful, is a great addition to
+his happiness whenever he is alone, and to the pleasure which others
+derive from his company when he is in society. Therefore it is most
+_useful_ to learn to love and understand what is _beautiful_, whether in
+the works of God, or in those of man; whether in the flowers and fields,
+and rocks and woods, and rivers, and sea and sky; or in fine buildings,
+or fine pictures, or fine music; and in the noble thoughts and glorious
+images of poetry. This is the education which will make a man and a
+people good, and wise, and happy. Give this,--and the ends of
+professional education can never be altogether lost; for good sense and
+good principle will ensure a man’s knowing his particular business; but
+knowledge of his business, on the other hand, will not ensure _them_;
+and not only are sense and goodness the rarest and most profitable
+qualities with which any man can enter upon life now, but they are
+articles of which there never can be a glut: no competition or
+over-production will lessen their value; but the more of them that we
+can succeed in manufacturing, so much the higher will be their price,
+because there will be more to understand and to love them.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+_Honesty is the best Policy._--Irritated one day at the bad faith of
+Madame Jay, Mirabeau said to her in my presence, “Madam Jay, if probity
+did not exist, we ought to invent it, as the best means of getting
+rich.”--_Dumont_
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                               THE WEEK.
+
+                 [Illustration: The Rev. John Wesley.]
+
+June 17.--The birth-day of JOHN WESLEY, the celebrated founder of the
+more numerous division of the English Methodists. He was the second son
+of the Rev. Samuel Wesley, Rector of Epworth, in Lincolnshire, where he
+was born in the year 1703. Although his father was a man of considerable
+literary attainments, being known to the public as the author of various
+works in verse, it was to his mother, a woman of a much more zealous and
+active character than her husband, that Wesley was chiefly indebted for
+his early education, and probably also for the seeds of many of his
+distinguished mental habits.
+
+After receiving a very systematic elementary tuition from his mother,
+John Wesley was sent to the Charterhouse, from whence he removed at the
+usual time to Christ-church College, Oxford. Here he distinguished
+himself greatly by his diligence and success as a student, showing from
+the first, in the distribution of his time, the same punctual and
+persevering regard to method by means of which he mainly achieved all
+the greater objects of his life. The reading of some religious works,
+and especially of ‘Law’s Serious Call,’ awakened in him a strong spirit
+of religious fervour; and he formed that association with a number of
+his college acquaintances of similar views and feelings, to which, from
+the punctilious regularity of the members in their devotions and general
+demeanour, the epithet of “methodists” was given as a name of reproach
+by the wags of the university. As has happened in other cases, the
+objects of the intended satire were much too earnest in the views they
+had adopted to feel or to regard any point of ridicule which it might be
+supposed to possess, and frankly adopted the nick-name thus bestowed
+upon them by their opponents, as their proper designation. Among their
+number, besides Wesley, was the afterwards equally celebrated George
+Whitfield.
+
+We cannot here attempt to pursue minutely the remainder of the course of
+Wesley’s busy life, or to trace the rise of that extensive fabric of
+ecclesiastical policy of which he was the founder. Suffice it to say,
+that having commenced his public labours as a religious teacher in the
+newly-formed colony of Georgia, in America, in the year 1735, he pursued
+from this time a course of almost constant journeying, preaching, and
+writing, till within a week of his death, on the 2d of March, 1791, in
+the eighty-eighth year of his age. During the greater part of this long
+period he rarely preached less than twice, and often four or five times
+a day; while, besides presiding with the most minute superintendence
+over all the public affairs of the large and rapidly growing community
+which acknowledged him as its head, and transacting a great deal of
+private business, he found time to send to the press a succession of
+works, which, in the collected edition, amount to between thirty and
+forty volumes. Mr. Southey, who has made the life of this extraordinary
+man one of the most interesting books in the language, has given us the
+following account of the manner in which he contrived to get through all
+this occupation. “Leisure and I,” said Wesley, “have taken leave of one
+another. I propose to be busy as long as I live, if my health is so long
+indulged to me.” This resolution was made in the prime of life, and
+never was resolution more punctually observed. “Lord, let me not live to
+be useless!” was the prayer which he uttered after seeing one whom he
+had long known as an active and useful magistrate, reduced by age to be
+“a picture of human nature in disgrace, feeble in body and mind, slow of
+speech and understanding.” He was favoured with a constitution vigorous
+beyond that of ordinary men, and with an activity of spirit which is
+even rarer than his singular felicity of health and strength. Ten
+thousand cares of various kinds, he said, were no more weight or burthen
+to his mind than ten thousand hairs were to his head.... His manner of
+life was the most favourable that could have been devised for longevity.
+He rose early, and lay down at night with nothing to keep him waking, or
+trouble him in sleep. His mind was always in a pleasurable and wholesome
+state of activity; he was temperate in his diet, and lived in perpetual
+locomotion. And frequent change of air is, perhaps, of all things, that
+which most conduces to joyous health and long life. The time which Mr.
+Wesley spent in travelling was not lost. “History, poetry, and
+philosophy,” said he, “I commonly read on horseback, having other
+employment at other times.” He used to throw the reins on his horse’s
+neck, and in this way he rode, in the course of his life, above a
+hundred thousand miles, without any accident of sufficient magnitude to
+make him sensible of the danger which he incurred.
+
+June 21.--_The Longest Day._--On this day there is an interval of
+sixteen hours and thirty-four minutes between the rising and the setting
+of the sun, which interval is longer than on any other day in the year.
+Up to this point, from the 21st December (the shortest day), the days
+have steadily increased in length; from this point they will steadily
+decrease. We may more properly, at some future time, explain in a series
+of papers some of the more remarkable phenomena of the changes of
+seasons. At present we shall call our reader’s attention to the moral
+reflections which the recurrence of “The Longest Day” suggests, by
+re-printing a few stanzas of a poem by Mr. Wordsworth on this subject:--
+
+               Summer ebbs;--each day that follows
+               Is a reflux from on high,
+               Tending to the darksome hollows
+               Where the frosts of winter lie.
+
+               He who governs the creation,
+               In his providence assign’d
+               Such a gradual declination
+               To the life of human kind.
+
+               Yet we mark it not;--fruits redden,
+               Fresh flowers blow, as flowers have blown,
+               And the heart is loth to deaden
+               Hopes that she so long hath known.
+
+               Be thou wiser, youthful Maiden!
+               And when thy decline shall come,
+               Let not flowers, or boughs fruit-laden,
+               Hide the knowledge of thy doom.
+
+               Now, even now, ere wrapp’d in slumber.
+               Fix thine eyes upon the sea
+               That absorbs time, space, and number;
+               Look towards eternity!
+
+               Follow thou the flowing river,
+               On whose breast are thither borne
+               All deceived, and each deceiver,
+               Through the gates of night and morn;
+
+               Through the year’s successive portals;
+               Through the bounds which many a star
+               Marks, not mindless of frail mortals,
+               When his light returns from far.
+
+               Thus when Thou with Time hast travell’d
+               Tow’rds the mighty gulf of things,
+               And the mazy stream unravell’d
+               With thy best imaginings;
+
+               Think, if thou on beauty leanest,
+               Think how pitiful that stay,
+               Did not virtue give the meanest
+               Charms superior to decay.
+
+               Duty, like a strict preceptor,
+               Sometimes frowns, or seems to frown;
+               Choose her thistle for thy sceptre,
+               While thy brow youth’s roses crown.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                          GENIUS AND INDUSTRY.
+
+Whilst we believe that education is the greatest gift that can be
+conferred on a human creature, we are not sanguine enough to expect that
+its more general diffusion will increase the number of men of genius.
+There is a perversity in human nature which makes us relax our efforts
+at the moment when they might be rewarded with the most splendid
+success. It does not follow that a shepherd-boy, who passes his long day
+on the side of a hill, and who acquires the principles of mechanics, or
+forms for himself a plan of the stars, shall make proportionate
+advancement if full opportunity of study be afforded to him.
+
+Nor does it follow that a young man who teaches himself to read by the
+light of a shop window in the street, shall become a learned man when
+admitted to libraries and encouraged by applause.
+
+We do not think the illustration a correct one, which represents the
+scholar as like the weary traveller who plods on contentedly through
+woods and over irregular ground which conceal the prospect, and who
+faints when he has ascended to the top of the hill and sees the whole
+extent of the road before him.
+
+The truth seems rather to be, that energy of mind, like strength of
+body, must be acquired by exercise, and that the consciousness of desert
+in encountering difficulties, must be felt to enable us to accomplish
+any great work. Sir Joshua Reynolds has happily expressed this:--
+
+“It is not uncommon to see young artists, whilst they are struggling
+with every obstacle in their way, exert themselves with such success as
+to outstrip competitors possessed of every means of improvement. The
+promising expectation which was formed on so much being done with so
+little means, has recommended them to a patron, who has supplied them
+with every convenience of study; from that time their industry and
+eagerness of pursuit have forsaken them; they stand still and see others
+rush on before them.
+
+“Such men are like certain animals, who will feed only where there is
+little provender, and that got at with difficulty through the bars of a
+rack, but refuse to touch it where there is an abundance before
+them[2].”
+
+From this it appears to be essential to success that a young man should
+study to acquire confidence in his own powers. This is a condition of
+mind entirely different from conceit; it exhibits itself in no vain
+boasting, but essentially consists in a secret resolution to make great
+efforts by persevering industry, to gain the object of his ambition.
+
+We believe that young men would entertain these notions oftener, if they
+were not deterred by an erroneous fancy of what belongs to genius. They
+think that such exertions as we recommend belong only to a plodding
+fellow, whilst the man of genius does every thing by a sudden act which
+costs him nothing.
+
+This is an unhappy mistake. All our eminent men have been distinguished
+by fixing upon some great object, and possessing themselves with such a
+lively conception of it that it has led them on through years of toil.
+
+-----
+
+Footnote 2:
+
+  Sir J. Reynolds’ Works, vol. ii. p. 80.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                      HOW TO UNDERSTAND GEOGRAPHY.
+
+Every one says that geography is one of the most useful things that can
+be learnt; yet nothing is learnt so ill, because nothing is taught so
+ill. Look into any of the elementary books of geography, and read what
+is said about England. First, we are told that it is divided into forty
+counties; then, perhaps, follows an account of the several law circuits;
+and then, after some short notices about religion, government, produce,
+and manufactures, there are given lists of the chief towns, mountains,
+rivers, and lakes. But all these things are given without any connexion
+with each other, and it is a mere matter of memory to recollect what is
+no more than a string of names. And if a man does recollect them, still
+he is not much the wiser for them; he has got no clear and instructive
+notions about the country, but has merely learnt his map, and knows
+where to find certain names and lines upon it.
+
+If we wish to know geography really, we must set about it in a very
+different manner. Take one of the skeleton maps published by the Useful
+Knowledge Society; there is not a single name upon them, nothing is
+given but the hills and the rivers. These are the true alphabet of
+geography. The hills are the bones of a country, and determine its form,
+just as the bones of an animal do. For according to the direction of the
+hills must be the course of the rivers: if the hills come very near the
+sea, it makes the rivers very short and their course very rapid; if they
+are a long way from the sea, it makes the rivers long and gentle. But
+rivers of this latter sort are generally navigable, and become so large
+near the sea as to be capable of receiving ships of large size. Here
+then towns will be built, and these towns will become rich and populous,
+and so will acquire political importance. Again, on the nature of the
+hills depend the mineral riches of a country; if they are composed of
+granite or slate, they may contain gold, silver, tin, and copper; if
+they are composed of the limestone of Derbyshire or Durham, they are
+very likely to have lead mines; if of the sand or gritstone of
+Northumberland, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, it is probable that there
+will be coal at no great distance. On the contrary, if they are made up
+of the yellow limestone of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and
+Northamptonshire, or of chalk like the hills in Wiltshire, Berkshire,
+and Hampshire, or of clay like those about London, it is quite certain
+that they will contain neither coal, nor lead, nor any valuable mineral
+whatsoever. But on the mineral wealth of a country, and particularly on
+its having coal or not having it, depends the nature of the employment
+of its inhabitants. Manufactories are sure to follow coal mines;
+whereas, in all those districts of England where there is no coal, that
+is, in all the counties to the south-east of a line drawn from the Wash
+in Lincolnshire to Plymouth, there are, generally speaking, no
+manufactories; but the great bulk of the people are employed in
+agriculture.
+
+Thus then on the direction and composition of the hills of a country
+depend, first of all, the size and character of its rivers. On the
+character of its rivers depend the situation and importance of its
+towns, and its greater or less facilities for internal communication and
+foreign trade. And again, on the composition of the hills depend the
+employment of the people, their numbers on a given space, and in a great
+degree their state of morals, intelligence, and political independence.
+And here we have a reason for things, and see them connected with one
+another in a manner at once easier to remember, and much more
+satisfactory to understand when we do remember it. Some instances of
+this, given in detail, may appear in one of our future numbers.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+_The Flower Garden_ (June).--It will now be time for you to take up
+those bulbs, of which the leaves are nearly decayed. I can fix no
+particular day for this operation; because, as the bulbs flower at
+different seasons, so the leaves will decay in like manner; but the
+general rule is, to take them up carefully as soon as the leaves have
+turned yellow, and to lay them under a south wall to dry and ripen;
+taking care to cover them with fine, dry, sandy earth, in layers, so
+that they may not touch each other. When the leaves are quite decayed,
+the bulbs must be removed, and spread again to dry under shelter of a
+green-house, or in a room; and, finally, after cleaning them from the
+dirt, take off their old coats, or skins, and put them away in bags, or
+drawers, in a cool dry place, till they are wanted for replanting in the
+autumn. I must here explain why bulbs are taken up every year: the great
+object is in this, as in all other operations of gardening, to imitate
+Nature; to make the existence of foreign plants as near as it can be to
+what they enjoy in their native place. Tulips, hyacinths, and most of
+those bulbs which are taken up, come from countries where the whole
+summer is dry, and in winter the ground is covered with snow; the spring
+rains alone call them into life and flower. Travellers describe whole
+regions in Persia as being covered in the spring with enamelled carpets
+of scilla (hyacinths), tulips, and other bulbous plants: long drought
+succeeds the rains of spring, the leaves die away, and the plant rests
+again under the dry earth till the following spring. As in our country
+they can have no dry earth naturally to rest in during the summer, the
+best imitation of it is to take up the bulb, which would otherwise be
+rotted by the summer rains, or caused to grow in the autumn; in which
+latter case, the plant would not flower in the spring, as the
+flower-stalks would be killed by the wet and cold of winter, before it
+came to the surface.
+
+⁂ From ‘The Garden,’ a very agreeable and instructive book for children,
+forming one of the volumes of a series called ‘The Little Library.’
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+“_A little Learning is a dangerous Thing._”--Then make it greater. No
+learning at all is surely the most dangerous thing in the world; and it
+is fortunate that, in this country at least, it is a danger which cannot
+possibly exist. After all, learning is acquired knowledge, and nothing
+else. A man who can read his Bible has a little learning; a man who can
+only plough or dig, has less; a man who can only break stones on the
+road, less still, but he has some. The savages in one of the islands in
+the South Sea, stood with great reverence round a sailor who had lighted
+a fire to boil some water in a saucepan, but as soon as the water began
+to boil, they ran away in an agony of terror. Compared with the savages,
+there is no boy in Europe, of the age of ten years, who may not be
+called learned. He has acquired a certain quantity of practical
+knowledge in physics; and, as this knowledge is more than instinct, it
+is learning; learning which differs in degree only from that which
+enables a chemist to separate the simple metals from soda or potash.
+
+The geographer Malte Brun remarks, that in many cities of the United
+States, that which is called a mob scarcely exists. Now it will be found
+that in these Cities education has been unstintedly bestowed upon all
+classes, down to the very lowest.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                LONDON:--CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL EAST.
+
+  _Shopkeepers and Hawkers may be supplied Wholesale by the following
+                            Booksellers:_--
+
+ _London_, GROOMBRIDGE, Panyer Alley, Paternoster Row.
+ _Bath_, SIMMS.
+ _Birmingham_, DRAKE.
+ _Bristol_, WESTLEY and Co.
+ _Carlisle_, THURNAM.
+ _Derby_, WILKINS and SON.
+ _Falmouth_, PHILIP.
+ _Hull_, STEPHENSON.
+ _Leeds_, BAINES and NEWSOME.
+ _Lincoln_, BROOKE and SON.
+ _Liverpool_, WILLMER and SMITH.
+ _Manchester_, ROBINSON; and WEBB and SIMMS.
+ _Newcastle-upon-Tyne_, CHARNLEY.
+ _Norwich_, JERROLD and SON.
+ _Nottingham_, WRIGHT.
+ _Sheffield_, RIDGE.
+ _Dublin_, WAKEMAN.
+ _Edinburgh_, OLIVER and BOYD.
+ _Glasgow_, ATKINSON and Co.
+
+               Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Stamford Street.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                          Transcriber’s Notes
+
+
+This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. New original cover
+art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Itemized
+changes from the original text:
+
+ • p. 106: Added faint or unprinted dash to “one-third” in phrase “were
+   not one-half, sometimes even not one-third, of their present weight.”
+ • p. 107: Replaced “o” with “of” in phrase “a series of articles which
+   we shall occasionally publish.”
+ • p. 109: Supplied missing “l” in “principal” in phrase “the principal
+   port of Honduras.”
+ • p. 109: Replaced “Charter house” with “Charterhouse” in phrase “John
+   Wesley was sent to the Charterhouse.”
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76818 ***