Answer: two thousand, one hundred, and sixty-five millious, six hundred and twenty-five thousand, seven hundred and forty-four inches, and three quarters. In miles, thirty-four thousand, one hundred and seventyeight miles, four hundred and seventy-eight yards, two feet, and three quarters of an inch.

CALCULATING GIRL.

In the spring of 1819, a little girl about eleven years old appeared at the Royal Exchange, and made some very extraordinary calculations. Several gentlemen asked her some intricate questions, and while they were calculating it, she gave a correct answer. She was asked to multiply 525,600 by 250; which she answered in one minute, 131,400,000. A second question was, how many minutes there are in forty-two years? Answer, 22,075,200. She was next desired to multiply 525,000, by 450; answer; 234,250,000. Several other questions equally difficult were put, all of which she answered very correctly. It is remarkable, that the girl could neither read nor write. She stated herself to be the daughter of a weaver, living in Mile-End, New Town, of the name of Heywood.

FERGUSON.

THIS eminent practical philosopher and astronomer was born in an humble station at Keith, a small village in Scotland, in the year 1710. He learned to read by

merely listening to the instructions which his father communicated to an elder brother. He was afterwards sent for about three months to the grammar school at Keith; and this was all the scholastic education he ever received. His taste for mechanics appeared when he was only about seven or eight years of age; by means of a turning lathe and a knife, he constructed machines, that served to illus trate the properties of the lever, the wheel, and the axle. Of these machines, and the mode of their application, he made rough drawings with a pen, and wrote a brief description of them. Unable to subsist without some employment, he was placed with a neighbouring farmer, and occupied for some years in the care of his sheep. In this situation he commenced the study of astronomy, devoting a great part of the night to the contemplation of the heavens; while he amused himself in the day time with making models of spinning wheels, and other machines which he had an opportunity of observing. By another farmer, in whose service he was afterwards engaged, he was much encouraged in his astronomical studies, and enabled by the assistance that was afforded him in his necessary labour, to reserve a part of the day for making fair copies of the observations which he roughly sketched out in the night, In making these observations, he lay down on his back, with a blanket about him, and by means of a thread strung with small beads, and stretched at arm's length between his eye and the stars, he marked their positions and distances. The master who thus kindly favoured his search after knowledge, recommended him to some neighbouring gentlemen, one of whom took him into his house, where he was instructed by the butler in decimal arithmetic,

algebra, and the elements of geometry! Being afterwards deprived of the assistance of this preceptor, he returned to his father's house, and availing himself of the information derived from Gordon's Geographical Grammar, he constructed a globe of wood, covered it with paper, and delineated upon it a map of the world; he also added the meridian ring, and horizon, which he gradu ated; and by means of this instrument, which was the first he had ever seen, he came to solve all the problems in Gordon. His father's contracted circumstances obliged him again to seek employment; but the service into which he entered was so laborious, as to affect his health. For his amusement in this enfeebled state, he made a wooden clock, and also a watch, after having once seen the inside of such a piece of mechanism. His ingenuity obtained for him new friends, and employment suited to his taste, which was that of cleaning clocks, and drawing patterns for ladies needle-work; and he was thus enabled not only to supply his own wants, but to assist his father. Having improved in the art of drawing, he was induced to draw portraits from the life, with Indian ink on vellum. This art, which he practised with facility, afforded him a comfortable subsistence for several years, and allowed him leisure for pursuing those favourite studies, which eventually raised him into eminence.

"HE NEVER TOLD A LIE."

Mr. PARK, in his Travels through Africa, relates that a party of armed Moors having made a predatory attack on the flocks of a village at which he was stopping, a

youth of the place was mortally wounded in the affray. The natives placed him on horseback, and conducted him home, while his mother preceded the mournful group, proclaiming all the excellent qualities of her boy, and by her clasped hands and streaming eyes, discovered the inward bitterness of her soul, The quality for which she chiefly praised the boy formed of itself an epitaph so noble, that even civilized life could not aspire to a higher. "He never,' said she, with pathetic energy,

A NOBLEMAN travelling in Scotland, about six years ago, was asked for alms in the high street of Edinburgh, by a little ragged boy. He said he had no change; upon which the boy offered to procure it. His lordship, in order to get rid of his importunity, gave him a piece of silver, which the boy conceiving was to be changed, ran off for the purpose. On his return, not finding his benefactor, whom he expected to wait, he watched several days in the place where he had received the money. length, the nobleman happened again to pass that way; the boy accosted him, and put the change he had procured into his hand, counting it with great exactness. His lordship was so pleased with the boy's honesty, that he placed him at school, with the assurance of providing for him.

At

THE SECRETARY FALCON.

M. LE VAILLANT gives an account of a remarkable engagement of which he was a witness, between the secretary falcon and a serpent. The serpent is the chief enemy of the falcon in all countries which it inhabits, and the mode in which it wages war against it, is very peculiar. When the falcon approaches a serpent, it always carries the point of one of its wings forward, in order to parry off its venemous bites; sometimes it finds an opportunity of spurning and treading upon its antagonist; or else, of taking him upon its pinions, and throwing him into the air. When by this system it has, at length, wearied out its adversary, and rendered him almost senseless, it kills and swallows him at leisure. On the occasion which Vaillant mentions, the battle was obstinate, and conducted with equal address on both sides. The serpent, feeling at last his inferiority, endeavoured to regain his hole; while the bird apparently guessing his design, stopped him on a sudden, and cut off his retreat by placing herself before him at a single leap. On whatever side the reptile endeavoured to make his escape, the enemy still appeared before him. Rendered desperate, the serpent resolved on a last effort. He erected himself boldly to intimidate the bird, and hissing dread. fully, displayed his menacing throat, inflamed eyes, and a head swollen with rage and venom. The falcon seemed intimidated for a moment, but soon returned to the charge; and covering her body with one of her wings as a buckler, struck her enemy with the bony protuberance of the other. M. Vaillant saw the serpent at last