the shin-pieces, which, however, end much below the knee, and join the covering of the feet. With his left hand he seizes Medusa by the hair of the crown, and with the right he holds a short sword, with which he cuts off her head. She kneels with the right leg, and rests the left in a bent position on the ground. The upper part of the body, here too, is quite turned to the front, and the lower part in profile.-Extract of Letter. PRUSSIA. The population of the Prussian States, which amounted to 10,799,954 in 1819, had increased to 11,494,173 in 1822. The Academy of Fine Arts at Berlin increases in prosperity. Lectures are given on Design, Engraving, and Sculpture. M. Grüsen has lectured on Trigonometry; M. Zielke on Optics; M. Meinecke on Design; M. Rabe on the Construction of Edifices: there is also attached to it a School des Arts et Metiers, as the French style it. RUSSIA. At the last sitting of the Russian Academy, Prince Alexander Chakhovskoy read some scenes of a comedy which he is composing. It is entitled Aristophanes. It is entirely of a new character, and is most like the Amphitryon of Plautus, which Moliere has adapted to the European boards. The reception of these scenes was gratifying, and the audience, which was numerous, testified by applauses the satisfaction which it felt. Prince Chakhovskoy is justly deemed the first comic poet of Russia. He has written upwards of fifty pieces for the stage, partly tragedies, comedies, operas, and vaudevilles. The subject of Aristophanes is taken from history: it is on the day on which Aristophanes proposes to give to the public his piece composed in ridicule of Cleon, who was then all-powerful at Athens. Aristophanes finds that the credit of Cleon prevents the representations; and on the refusal of the comedians to appear in the character in which Cleon is represented in the most ridiculous way, he determines to play it himself. The sculptors, however, refuse to make a mask of Cleon for the author, who still determines to play the character without the mask, if he cannot with: but to make the character clearly known to the public, he disrobes Cleon of his chlamys by means of a courtesan named Alcinoë, his mistress, of whom Cleon is also fond. The jeux de mots and the wit of the piece the writer has borrowed from Aristophanes, and they give it a very peculiar character. This comedy is in three acts, and in easy verse, the different rhymes of which are appropriated to the different actors. In a scene where Cleon appears surrounded with his flatterers, each one addresses him in a different measure: one in choraic; another, remarkable for presumption, in dactylic, &c. The gayest scene is where Xantippe arrives in a rage, which she vents upon Cleon as well as the rest in a truly comic manner. The conclusion of the piece witnesses Aristophanes carried in triumph, and Cleon exposed to the laugh of the Athenian people. The University of Moscow has proposed the following question for a prize competition: - The Florentine copy of Justinian's Pandects is considered as the most correct and ancient of all at present known in Europe, the others being for the most part transcripts of it; it becomes, then, a matter of consequence to trace the means and course of its arrival at Florence. The prevailing opinion is, that this original copy was sent among others to certain provinces; that it was found at the taking of Amalfi; given afterwards, by the Emperor Lotharius II. to the inhabitants of Pisa; and, at the conquest of this city, was removed to Florence, where it is still preserved with great care. But, during the last fifty years, many doubts having been started on these points by the learned, a critical exposition of all that has been advanced on either side is required; as also to fix in a positive manner on the most creditable opinion. Prize 250 roubles; the Memoirs to be in Russian, Latin, French, or German; and the term April 1825. Chinese Literature. - Ever since the year 1728, when the treaty of peace and commerce was concluded between Russia and China, our government has maintained at Pekin an Archimandrite and four Ecclesiastics, to whom as many young men were added, to learn the Chinese language, and to serve, in the sequel, as interpreters, as well on the frontiers as in the department of Foreign Affairs at St. Petersburgh. Hitherto no persons have yet returned to Russia from this establishment who have done any important service to Literature. But the Archimandrite Hyacinthus, who bas lately returned from China, differs from all his predecessors. Astonishment is excited by the zeal with which he has applied to the Chinese and other languages, and by the important works which he has composed during his residence at Pekin: viz. 1, A General History of China, from the year 2357 before the birth of Christ, to the year 1633 of the Christian era; nine vols. folio-2. A Geographical and Statistical Description of the Chinese Empire, with a large map, in the five principal languages spo ken by the people; in two vols. folio3. The works of Confucius, translated into Russian, with a Commentary-4. A Russian and Chinese Dictionary-5. Four works on the Geography and History of Thibet and of Little Bucharia-6. The History of the Land of the Mongols-7. The Code of Laws given by the Chinese Government to the Mongol tribes-8. An accurate Description of the City of Pekin-9. Description of the Dykes and Works erected to confine the Waters of the Yellow River; followed by an accurate Description of the great Canal of China. Besides these Chinese works, translated into Russian, the Archimandrite Hyacinthus has written several treatises on the manners, customs, festivals, and domestic employments of the Chinese; on their military art, and on the manufactures and branches of industry in which they excel. The interest which the Emperor Alexander takes in every thing that can contribute to the glory of the Empire and of his government, and to all that can extend the sphere of useful knowledge, gives reason to hope that the Russian government will afford the learned Archimandrite the necessary means to print the literary treasures which he has brought with him from China. EGYPT. Letter of Dr. Ehrenberg, dated near El Shan." I suppress the circumstances which have hitherto made our residence in Egypt very disagreeable. Our greatest enemies have been, to me a very violent nervous fever, and to both me and my companion, ophthalmic attacks, which have lasted for several months. Nevertheless, although two of our companions are dead, and three others who supplied their places have lost courage and quitted us, we preserve our firmness, and advance with prudence. As above all things you recommended to us to examine into the poisons known in Egypt, we have already dried the leaves of the venomous plants most known in this country. We have carefully collected in flasks the juice of such of those plants as are milky. We have also obtained some yellowish green juice extracted from the teeth of the Cerastes, (horned snake,) and have begun to preserve some scorpions' fangs, as well as the vessels which serve as a receptacle for the poison. Of scorpions we have hitherto met with only eight kinds: five in the desert of Libya, and near Alexandria, the largest on the frontiers of Barbary, near Gasi Choltrebie; and three between Cairo and Essüan. All these scorpions are yellow, tending to a blackish brown; and we have had abundant opportunities of examining them. Those which are found in the higher Egypt are considered the most venomous; and as that which we have distinguished by the name of Scorpio Cahirismus is the largest and the most common, it is probable that all the others are derived from it. A Frenchman, M. Rufeau, or Rousseau, who employs himself in looking for Egyptian antiquities, and in copying objects of natural history, at Luxos, near Thebes, told us that one of his young female blacks had just died in the most severe pain, in consequence of the sting of a scorpion; and that he had known several other occurrences of a similar nature within a very short period of time. I myself, who had with great caution taken above a hundred of these animals in my hands, was lately stung in the finger by one of them. At the moment of the puncture 1 experienced a penetrating pain, which staggered me like an electric shock. Although I did not neglect to suck the wound with force until the appearance of blood, the feeling of pain became still more intense in the course of a few minutes. I bound the finger tightly up. The pain, which still continued, extended itself by degrees to the hand, and afterwards to the elbow, and to the interior part of the arm, and resembled a kind of cramp. At the end of an hour I experienced this severe pain only in the neighbourhood of the wound, the lips of which began to swell. At the end of three hours, all that remained was a sensation of numbness in the finger, which went off on the following day. do not know whether an inclination to sleep that I experienced in the evening was attributable to the wound, or to a catarrh which had shown itself. We were witnesses of another occurrence of the same nature at the village of Saulim, in the province of Tajum. One evening the Kaimakahn entered our apartment, crying out and entreating help. He had been stung by a venomous animal, and was suffering great pain. Dr. Hemprich made, at the wounded place of the finger, an incision, which bled copiously, and then bound the finger up. The next day the injured man found himself completely healed. Our search for the scorpion by which he was stung was fruitless. It appears that in general the sting of the scorpion is more dangerous to children than to grown persons. When the Arabs meet snakes or scorpions, they hold them down with a stick or some other instru ment, and break their fangs with stones or a knife. We never saw a venomous animal in the hands of an Arab which was not mutilated; and therefore when the snake-swallowers, or other Arabs, have brought us these animals, we have seldom preserved them in spirits of wine., We are at present busy in collecting details with respect to these various subjects." Mr. J. Burton, who is employed by the Pasha of Egypt in a geological examination of his territories, has made several important discoveries in the desert, to the eastward of the Nile, and along the shores of the Red Sea. In the Eastern Desert, and under the parallel of Syout, is a mountain called Gebel Dokham (the hill of smoke). The summit of Gebel Dokham is traversed by roads and paths which terminate in large quarries of antique red porphyry. Immense blocks, coarsely chiselled, lie about. Others, already squared, are upon props, marked and numbered. There are also an infinite number of sarcophagi, vases, and columns of a large size. At the side are some ruins of huts, and the remains of forges. At Belet Kebye, a village in ruins, in the valley on the south side of the mountain, Mr. Burton found a circular well, twenty feet in diameter, and sixty feet deep. In the same village still stands a pretty little temple of the Ionic order, on the pediment of which is the following inscription: For the safety and eternal triumph of our lord Cæsar, the august and absolute, and for those of all his house, this temple and its dependencies were dedicated to the Sun, to the great Serapis, and to the other Divinities, by Epaphroditus of Caesar, Governor of Egypt. Marcus Ulpius Chresinius, superintendant of the mines under Procoluanus." Mr. Burton has collected, at Fstiery, several inscriptions; among others this fragment: the number of inhabitants in each statedivided into whites and blacks, freemen and slaves, males and females, and their different occupations in agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. The United States contain, it appears, 9,654,415 inhabitants, of which 1,543,688 are slaves. Agriculture employs 2,175,065 persons, and commerce only 72,558; manufactures 349,663. There are, however, some statistical deficiencies in these tables, which may easily be remedied in a subsequent edition. The part relating to emigration is curious enough. In the years 1821 and 1822 there arrived in different ships 20,201 passengers, of whom 3969 were citizens of the United States. Of the other 16,232 emigrant foreigners, 8284 were English, 685 French, 486 Germans, 400 Spaniards, 112 Hollanders. It is a question of great importance to settle the advantages which the United States do or might derive from these emigrations. The compiler of the Calendar mentions some facts which aid the solution of this question. He divides the emigrants into four classes-the first is the usefully productive, and comprises 4946 individuals, all engaged in some sort of trade or profession.. The other classes are, unproductive but useful, 5069; unproductive, 459, and all other sorts of unproductive, (as old men, women, children, &c.) 9721. The Calendar contains a listof all the patents granted for 1822: they amount to 194, It has also a list of all the new works or new editions deposited in the Secretary of State's Office in the same year: they amount to 95, 20 of which are dictionaries, grammars, or elementary books; 9 theological and moral; 14 of physical and mathematical science; 8 law; 11 statistics and geography, &c. &c. together the work presents a curious and instructive picture of this rising country. EAST INDIES. Al Steam Navigation.-The Diana steamboat,built in Mr.Kyd's yard at Kidderpore, near Calcutta, was launched on the 12th of July last, and on the same day made, on the majestic Ganges, the first trip ever performed in India by the aid of steam, between Calcutta and Chinsurah; which she successfully and most pleasantly performed in six hours and a half, Colonel Krefting, the governor of Serampore, and suite, were amongst the highly respectable company on board. A late Calcutta journal contains the following corrected heights of the Himalaya mountains By the Barometer. Feet. 15,554 15,095 18,448 Pass between Soongnum & Manes 18.743 Bed of the Sutlej under Bekhur.. 10,792 On the Cultivation of the Horse-radish By Mr. D. Judd.-The first thing to be provided is a proper spot for the bed: it too often happens that horse-radish, as well as many other herbs, is injudiciously placed in some corner of the garden, out of sight, without any attention being paid to the natural habit, or proper treatment of the plant. Although I do not mean to advance that it is necessary to give the first place in the garden to such things, yet it is very desirable that they should have proper situations. The horseradish in particular should have an open spot of ground, and it requires some little trouble to bring to perfection. After having fixed on a spot of the garden sufficient for the crop I intend to plant, it is trenched two good spades (I ought rather to say two feet) deep, either with or without manure, according to the state of the soil, which, if in itself good, requires no enriching; but if it is poor, some good light manure ought to be added to it, and this must be carefully laid into the bottom of each trench, for, if not so done, the horse-radish, which always puts out some side-roots, would send out such large shoots from the main-root in search of the dung contiguous to its sides, as to materially deteriorate the crop. After the bed is thus prepared, plants are procured by taking about three inches in length of the top part of each stick, and then cutting clean off about a quarter of an inch of this piece under the crown, so as to leave no appearance of a green bud. Holes are then made in the bed, eighteen inches apart every way, and sixteen or eighteen inches deep; the root cuttings, prepared as directed, are let down to the bottom of the holes, which are afterwards filled up with fine sifted cin der-dust, and the surface of the bed is raked over as is usual with other crops. It will be some time before the plants appear, and the operation of weeding must be done with the hand, and not with the hoe, till the crop can be fairly seen; afterwards nothing more is requisite, be yond the usual work of keeping clean, till the taking up of the crop; and this may be done at any time during the winter months. The distance at which I have always planted my horse-radish, has been eighteen inches every way; but I think, on very good land, that the rows should be two feet, and the plants eighteen inches in the rows apart in some soils the plants grow more to leaf than in others; and consequently, they should in such situations have more room allowed for their growth. My time of planting is between the middia of February and the middle of March 1 always find that the stouter the cutting, the better will be the produce; no makeshift roots will do well, neither can careless planting be allowed; if due attention to these essential points is not given, I cannot promise a good crop. The instrument used for making the holes is like a potatoe-dibber, about an inch and a half in diameter near the point, and two inches and a half at the upper part; so that the top of the hole it makes is larger than the bottom.-Trans. Horti. Soc. Carrots. The following mode is recommended of rendering the cultivation of this valuable root less expensive and troublesome, viz.-to sow the seed upon some very rich mould under a hovel, about a fortnight before the field is ready, and then drill mould and seed altogether, having had it well stirred every second day, and kept sufficiently wet to cause it to vegetate. This opera tion enables the grower to clean his land, and to pulverize it, so as to make most of the troublesome annual weeds to ver getate, and gives the carrot a considerable start, which it requires more than most other seeds, as it is so very tardy in its growth at first. The above crop is much preferable to either mangel wurzel or Swedish turnips, both for feeding oxED, and as a winter food for milch cows; for the latter purpose, its superiority is very evident in improving both the quantity and quality of the milk and batter. Encouragement to Planters. Among the numerous instances, recorded ofotheera pid growth of timber, even in climates much more congenial to accelerate matu rity and to promote advancement than our own, we do not recollect to have met with an instance more remarkable, and where the superior excellence of soil should seem to be more clearly establish ed, than in that of a tree recently felled within the grounds of the Chantry House, in Newark, the residence of Mr. Sikes. It is of the Poplar tribe, usually denominated the black Italian, although certainly by no means so remarkable for quick growth as that of many other of its numerous but less picturesque family. The tree was planted by the Reverend owner scarcely eighteen years since, of a size which may be supposed proportionate to one about three feet in height. During the period, however, named, it had raised itself near forty feet higher: at its trunk, outside the ground, girthed twenty-two inches, at its centre seventeen, and at the top from which its branches were severed, eight inches, containing a total of upwards of thirty-six cubic feet of timber. There are many well-authenticated facts of the extraordinary power of resistance in this wood to the ravages USEFUL Mr Yetts' Apparatus for securing Ships' Windlasses. This invention is likely to prove of considerable advantage to sea faring men, and must give pleasure to all who are interested in the promotion of nautical science. The inventor, Mr. William Yetts, of Great Yarmouth, has lately taken out a patent for it, and has received from indisputable authorities the most satisfactory testimonials of its merit. The apparatus may be easily applied to all classes of vessels, the anchors of which are heaved by windlasses. Ship-owners as well as ship-masters and others who have had the charge of merchantmen and coasters, whose voyages require a frequent use of the anchor, have long had cause to regret the insecure state of windlasses on their present construction, being often incapable of supporting the heavy pressure opposed to them, when vessels are riding against a head-sea, or whilst the anchor is heaving. From the palls and other parts, suddenly giving way, or from the total upsetting of windlasses, too numerous and fatal are the instances of the loss of lives and property, to need a recital here. The great object of the inventor has been to prevent disasters by imparting stability to windlasses by means of his ap of time, where particular care has been "The heart of Oak we do defy, ARTS. paratus; each part of which has its sepa-.rate action, and by their united powers effectually tend to preserve the bits and palls from pressure, and to render the body of the windlass firmly fixed. It must be said in justice to the skill displayed in the formation of this apparatus, that it is constructed on a neat and compact plan, and is most admirably calcu lated to effect the security intended; nar can the meed of praise be withheld from the inventor, since that discovery must be ranked with those of the noblest class, : which tends to avert any of the dangers to which maritime property is exposed, and in which is involved the safety of British seanien. New Dressing Apparatus.-Mr. John Burn, of Manchester (a native of Cumberland), has obtained a patent for a dressing apparatus, which destroys all the extraneous-particles of cotton or of wool, which prevent goods made of those materials from assuming the wiry and polished appearance of silk; and even coloured goods of both kinds come from the process with a strong and manifest improvement in hue as well as fibre. This mode of dressing creates so little soil, that many of the articles submitted to it re |