AGE OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.

In the last number of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, we find the following statement in regard to the age of the human species.

Discovery of Human Skulls in the same formation as that which contains remains of Elephants, Rhinoceri, &c. Some years ago Admiral Cochrane presented to the British Museum a human skeleton, incased in a very compact alluvial aggregation of coral and other similar matters. This curious specimen was at first considered as a true secondary limestone, and therefore as affording evidence that the human species had been called into existence during the formation of the secondary strata. Geologists pointed out the inaccuracy of this opinion, and proved that the euclosing mass was not a portion of the older strata of the crust of earth, but merely a portion of one of those calcareous formations daily taking place on the shores of the West India Islands. It is well known to geologists, that several extensive tracts in Germany are covered with a deep deposite of calcareous tuffa, which contains fossil remains of the mastodonton, megatherium, Irish elk, (Alei gigantea, Blum.), and elephant (Elephas primigeni), and other colossal animals, which are now considered as extinct. In this very ancient alluvial formation, human skulls have been discovered; and if the statements given in regard to this interesting discovery, at Meissen in Saxony, be correct, we have obtained a proof of the co-existence of the human race, with the gigantic megatheria, elks, and elephants.

ANECDOTES, &c.

Elopement.-A dandy who recently contrived to undergo the fatigue of an excursion to Scotland with an heiress, in the hurry of such affairs took his bride before the Priest in a riding coat. Before proceeding with his brief ceremony, the minister look d attentively at the parties, and said-" But to prevent any mistakes hereafter, tell me without prevarication, if ye are both women in disguise; or if not which is the man ?"

Calumny. An oriental Caliph had condemned to death a calumniator, to

save whose life a courtier warmly interested himself, and presented a petition to his sovereign accompanied by a compliment of 2000 dinars. But the Caliph rejected his prayer, saying, "Go, and find me a man as culpable as this wretch, who defames innocence, and he shall not only die in Lis stead, but I will give you 10,000 dinars."

Confession.-A female confessing her sins, among other things, acknowl"For edged that she wore rouge. what purpose?" asked the Father. "To make me appear captivating," was the answer. "But does it make you look more beautiful." "At least, holy confessor, I think it does!" The priest took the penitent out of the confessional into the light, and gazing stedfastly at her, exclaimed, "Madam, you may paiut without offence, for you are still very ugly."

A superannuated wit, who still occasionally said a good thing, was very happily compared to an old castle now and then revisited by Spirits.

IRON RAIL-ROADS.

We have received a report from Munich, which, if it be not exaggerated, well deserves the attention of our countrymen. A model, on a large scale, of an iron rail-road, invented and completed by the chief counsellor of the mines, Joseph Von Baader, has been Mechanical Inventions, which is said to received at the Royal Repository for surpass in utility whatever has been seen in England; some say by a proless by half. On a space perfectly level, portion of two-thirds, although it costs

laid with this invention, a woman or a child may draw with ease a cart laden with fifteen or sixteen cwt. And if no greater inclination than six inches and a half on a hundred feet in length be allowed, the carts will move of themselves, without any external impulse. A single horse may be the means of conveying a greater weight than twenty-two horses of the same strength on the best of common roads.

RIDICULOUS ANGER.

Nothing can be more ridiculous than an insignificant man in a fit of anger: He is a mole-hill vomiting fire.

Tales of To-Day-The Gallery of Grondo.

TALES OF TO-DAY.

interment. He was a Swiss of simple manners and strong affections. First he rebuked his fellow-servants for their falsehood, and next insisted on seeing the pretended corpse. She had allowed herself to be equipped and extended in a winding-sheet on her bed, to which the contrivers of the farce led Durand with a single candle and faces properly composed. They were prepared for a shout of mirth at his agony of grief, when the servant who carried the light perceived the body was really stiff in death. Screams of terror and surprise followed this discovery, and revealed the abettors of this criminal mockery. Nannette was dead, and her master, after viewing the body, dismissed the spectators with a severe reproach, for inciting her to practise the presumptuous fraud, which had probably, by overstraining her weak nerves, produced the death she counterfeited. So he assured his household, but he perceived evidences of a different cause. His suspicions rested on Durand him self, and he fixed them by remarking the changes in his countenance when asked to watch beside the body. How ever, Durand accepted the task; and when every other person in the house had gone to rest, our Englishman, belting on his sabre and holding a loaded pistol in his hand, entered the chamber where the body lay. The Swiss sat beside it with his head resting on his knees, and hardly raised himself when his master stood before him. "Durand!" said he, "I am not now to learn that you have had some secret reason for destroying this young woman-I know your journey was a pretence-you were concealed in or about my chateau all day, and I expect nothing from you but a confession of your motives."-The young man raised his eyes,and, starting up, laid both his hands on the forehead of the dead woman. "I declare," he answered, "before him whom I will not name, that I love this creature bet. ter than my life: but I could not save her's without betraying

H stopped short, and Vermont de berately laid his brace of loaded pistols on the table. "You see, Durand, I treat you as a brave man, for I put

myself into your hands; and I do not seek to intimidate you by these weapons, which I disdain to use against an unarmed adversary. You have eaten my bread and slept under my roof-I have no other defence against you and your accomplices."-The Swiss fell at his master's feet, and wept. Presently taking up the pistols, he placed them both again in Vermont's hands, adding, "Nothing but an oath could hold me silent after this. Sir, if I dare not break an oath, I deserve your trust. It is true, men assemble at your house unknown to you-I am one of the band, and our names are made safe by a bond sealed with our blood. They are robbers, but no article of your property or secret of your family ever fell into their keeping. Nannette discovered their meeting in your barn last night, and my oath bound me to sacrifice her life-There was no other way to save your's and your family's !"-Saying this, he fell again at his master's knees, and wept bitterly. Vermont was struck with the extent of his danger, and the terrible nature even of the faith that seemed to preserve him. But his English habits of reserve prevented the gush of feeling which would have opened his heart, and he only answered, "I trust you, Durand!-remember it." And without another question or remark, he returned to his apartment and his wife with a cool countenance, and made no allusion to his discovery.

Durand remained another year in M. Vermont's household, and his master had sufficient courage and magnanimity to forbear either nightly watching or appearance of restraint in his daily intercourse with his servant. At the termination of this year Durand gave a public and ordinary notice of removal, which was accepted without comment, and he departed unobserved.

Fifteen months passed after this event and the family of M. Vermont removed to Orleans, where the fury of faction became deep and dangerous during the "crisis of 1815. Vermont, now a domiciliated subject of France, and interested in her internal politics, was arrested by order of the power that prevailed during the Hundred Days, and lodged

VOL. 6.]

Tales of To-Day-The Gallery of Grondo.

in the Conciergerie. The charge against him amounted to a secret correspondence with England, and a treasonous admission of an English spy into his house. On the day of his arrest, Marshal N. received a billet from one of his agents, a man who had stood by the Emperor's carriage at that memorable and unparalleled moment when he received news of his deposition, and alighted to hold council on the roadside in darkness with the few friends that then adhered to him.

"Marshal!

"I need not remind you of what passed on the road to Fontainbeau: I have only one favour to ask in return. Your wife has some secret apartments and a cabriole to spare-They will accommodate two persons who will be with you on the morning of the 20th."

'On the 20th, a cabriole was seen passing through the road to Fontainbleau, towards the maisonette inhabited by a relative of the Marshal. The lady who presided there was one of the Dumerous regiment of female allies to whom M. Fouche honestly ascribed the most successful intrigues of his police. Madame de Sevrac had distinguished herself by undertaking to procure from a German author the manuscript of a very powerful appeal obnoxious to French politics. She

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sister, whose manners were very well calculated to be a foil to her's. The lady's name was Gabrielle, and her age appeared more than thirty; but her eyes were wild and her gestures abrupt. She answered no questions, and never spoke except to her brother, who seemed much younger, and of gentle temper. The accomplished mistress of the mansion had received instructions to accommodate them in the most retired manner three days, and to expedite their departure on the fourth, without enquiring whither they went, or by whom their cabriole was driven. This was enough for an agent of espionage, but not enough for a woman who retained her taste for adventure. Gaston, as the young man's sister called him, was probably but little experienced in female blandishments, and the adroit coquette addressed herself with great skill to his vanity and his better feelings. It was surprising, considering her experience, that she did not observe how readily young Gaston listened to her flatteries, and availed himself of her indirect intimations of compassion. When she saw, or thought she saw, her victim struggling with his fear and his desire to reveal the secret which seemed so precious, she affected to praise the sublime instinct of generous hearts, and assumed that air of self-denial which commands so much more confidence than curiosity. "Alas, madam!" said Gaston, as they sat together at supper on the night appointed for his journey, "this unfortunate person, whom I call sister, is in fact my betrothed wife. She is insane. Judge of my anxiety and my interest in her escape when you hear the cause.

bad been furnished with unlimited drafts, and with the title of a baroness, to seduce the literary man; but his genius, his courage, and, above all, his affection, so touched the intriguante, that she brought off the manuscript without surrendering the author. There fore she was held in high esteem by her employers, for they knew she had that I was her father's ward, degree of honour which is necessary and her daily companion, but circumeven among the wicked. She was, as stances prevented our public union. this anecdote implies, a woman capable She suddenly received my visits with of right feeling herself, and of assuming airs of aversion and chagrin, which her the demeanour which ought to accom- parents mistook for girlish coquetry, pany it. Her admirable taste was ex- but I knew and regretted the secret ercised in preparing apartments for the motive. She believed her infant dead, mysterious visitors who came to her ac- but I had preserved it from the death eredited by such high authority. Late she designed for it, and had the happiat night they arrived; and she had the ness of seeing it flourish under the care pleasure of seeing a young man whose of a wood-cutter's wife in the forest of countenance promised employment for Vincennes. One evening, when its her talents, accompanied only by a third birth-day had arrived, I tempted