Though coral seems like stone, it is made by very minute, soft, insignificant creatures; and such are their number and their industry, that they build up whole islands in the midst of the sea. Many of the islands in the Pacific Ocean are the work of corallines. ORAL is a hard substance, formed in the sea by collections of insects, called corallines. It is of three colors white, black, and red. These are all used for ornaments, but the red is preferred. In the Mediterranean Sea, near the coast of Italy, there are large fisheries for coral. In many parts of the sea, coral is produced, but it is most abundant in warm latitudes. It is said that, in some places, the sailors, as they are going along in their ships, look down and see forests of coral," within which fishes of many forms are seen gliding about, apparently very happy. Hence the poet speaks of the 66 coral grove Anecdotes of two Presidents. ENERAL TAYLOR, while in Frankfort, Kentucky, on his way to Washington, met the schoolmaster who instructed him when a boy. Well, general," said the old schoolmas Where the purple mullet and goldfish rove." Iter, I reckon I am the only man who Plutarch describes a can say he ever whipped General Tay-[654 years B. C. lor.' 'Ah,' said the general, grasping the stone that fell in the Hellespont, near the honored old teacher by the hand, but you must recollect it took you a long time to do it.' It seems young Zach did not relish a threshing even when a boy, and resisted his schoolmaster; but he was finally forced to surrender.” modern Gallipoli, about 405 years B. C.; and the elder Pliny, who wrote five hundred years afterwards, says that the stone was to be seen in his time-that it was as large as a wagon, of a burnt color, and in its fall was accompanied by a meteor. The fabled mother of the gods was wor shipped at Pessinus, under the form of a stone, said to have fallen from heaven. Many years ago, John Quincy Adams, when a candidate for the presidency of the United States, was at a cattle-show at Worcester, Massachusetts. He was At Emessa, in Syria, the sun was worintroduced to many persons, and at last shipped in the shape of a large black to an old farmer. stone, which, according to tradition, had On shaking Mr. Adams's hand, the fallen from the atmosphere. farmer said, “Mr. Adams, my wife very In 1492, a stone weighing 270 pounds often speaks of you. When young, she fell at Ensisheim, in Alsace for three lived in your father's house, and took care hundred years it was suspended in the of you; for you were then a child. You church by a strong chain. During the are a great man, but for all that, my wife first French revolution, it was carried says she has very often combed your off, and many pieces were broken from head!" it. One of these is now in the Museum “Well," said Mr. Adams in reply, at the Jardin des Plantes, near Paris. "I suppose she combs yours, now!" Aerolites. The remainder of the relic was carried back to Ensisheim, and placed near the great altar in the church. In Tartary, near the River Jenessei, a large and singular mass, found on a slate mountain, was held in great veneration by the natives, on account of the tradi tion that it had fallen from heaven. Phi EROLITES are bodies which have fallen from the atmosphere to the earth. The name is composed of two Greek words, and significs air-stones. The losophers, who have examined it, have accounts of these phenomena, handed found that it possesses the usual properdown from ancient times, have not been ties of meteoric stones. It weighed fourgenerally believed until within the last teen hundred pounds. It was cellular, thirty years; but within that period there like a sponge, and the cells contained have been many recent and authentic small glassy particles. The iron it constatements to corroborate the fact. tained was tough and malleable. Livy states that a shower of stones fell on the Alban Mount, not far from Rome, in the reign of Tullus Hostilius, about Another immense mass of meteoric iron was found in South America, about five hundred miles north-west of Buenos Ayres. It lay in a vast plain, half sunk | prisms and pyramids, the angles being in the ground; and from its size, it was rounded. Their surface is irregular, and judged to weigh more than thirteen tons. glazed with a black crust, like varnish. Another large meteoric stone has been When taken up soon after their fall, they found at the Cape of Good Hope. are extremely hot. There is a remark In 1796, a stone was exhibited in Lon-able similarity in all the meteoric stones don, weighing fifty-six pounds, which was said to have fallen in Yorkshire the preceding year. found in various parts of the world. A large proportion of iron is always found in them, combined with more or less of the In December, 1798, at a short distance rare metal called nickel; the earths silfrom Benares, in the East Indies, a very | ica, and magnesia, and sulphur constitute luminous meteor, like a large ball of fire, the other principal ingredients: other was observed in the heavens about eight metals and earths are occasionally found o'clock in the evening. It was accom- mixed with these, in greater or less propanied by a noise like thunder, immedi- portion. No combination similar to meately followed by the sound of falling teoric stones has ever been discovered bodies. This meteor was visible but for among the rocks of this world, or the a short time, during which it rendered products of any volcano upon this earth. every object as visible as the brightest The appearance of these phenomena moonlight. Many of the stones were does not seem to depend upon any parburied in the earth to the depth of six inches; and some of them weighed two pounds each. In April, 1803, about half a league north-west from L'Aigle, in France, a singular meteoric cloud was seen, which, after each explosion, sent out vapor in all directions. Throughout the district over which the cloud hung, a hissing noise was heard, like that of a stone from a sling, and a vast number of stones fell to the ground. More than two thousand were collected. They varied in weight from two drams to seventeen pounds and a half. An umbrella would be a poor protection from such red-hot showers. ticular state of the atmosphere, or of the weather. They have fallen in all climates, at all seasons, in the night, and in the day. The only recorded instance of iron having been actually seen to fall from the air is said to have taken place at Agram, in Croatia, in 1751. On the 26th of May, about six o'clock in the evening, the sky being quite clear, a ball of fire shot along from west to east, accompanied by a hoilow noise: after a loud explosion, followed by a great smoke, two masses of iron fell to the earth, in the form of chains welded together. In numerous cases, the explosion of During the explosions at L'Aigle, a meteors has been attended with showers ball of fire was seen in the air, at various of black and red dust, which usually conplaces in Normandy, far distant from each tains small, hard, angular grains. Someother. times a soft, red, gelatinous matter, reAerolites are generally shaped like sembling coagulated blood, has fallen; hence there have been stories that the mass seems to put this theory out of the sky had actually rained blood. The ap-question; besides, these meteors move pearances above mentioned are, not un-more rapidly than the earth in its orbit, frequently, accompanied by a fall of and what force exists in the air to project them with such velocity? stones. In November, 1775, red rain fell around the Lake of Constance, in Switzerland, and on the same day in Russia and Sweden. The water was of an acid taste, probably owing to sulphuric acid; and when dried, the flaky precipitate was attracted by the magnet. In 1803, red dust and rain fell in Italy, which on examination proved not to be volcanic. In 1813, red snow fell near Arezzo, during the space of several hours, accompanied with a sound like the violent dashing of waves in the distance; two or three explosions, like thunder, attended the greatest fall. This snow, being melted, yielded a precipitate similar to the meteoric stones, consisting of iron, silica, lime, alumina, and manganese. Is has been supposed that this wonderful class of natural phenomena was occasioned by distant volcanoes belonging to this earth; but this is refuted by the fact that meteoric stones are totally unlike volcanic stones; and they fall from a height, to which it is not deemed possible that any volcano could have thrown them. Others have thought that aerolites were formed in the atmosphere; but no chemical discoveries have yet shown that the air contains the elements of which they are composed. Sir Humphry Davy speaks of a great American meteor, which threw down showers of stones, and 1 Some have supposed that these bodies are thrown from volcanoes in the moon, with such force as to come within the earth's attraction. La Place was so far influenced by this theory, that he calcu lated the degree of lunar volcanic force required for this purpose; and he con cluded that a body thus projected with a velocity of 1771 feet in the first second would reach our earth in about two days and a half: other astronomers are of opinion that the velocity of meteors is too great to admit of the possibility of their being thrown from the moon. Some philosophers believe that these meteors are fragments of the matter originally created, which, wandering round the earth, enter the upper regions of the atmosphere, and become ignited by their own velocity. A great deal of ridicule has formerly been bestowed upon those who were fool. ish enough to believe that stones fell from the sky; but the fact is now proved by evidence so conclusive, that it no longer admits of doubt. This should teach us to be cautious how we treat as idle superstitions all stories that we do not clearly comprehend. Proverbs. When you have nothing to say, say was estimated at seventeen miles high; nothing. the immense volume of atmosphere which Applause is the spur of noble minds, 'it would require to form such a huge and the aim of weak ones. HIS grows naturally in the woods of herbaceous and silky. The flowers are the more western parts of Japan, and produced on the tops of footstalks, which in the adjacent islands of the far dis- proceed from the arm-pits of the leaves, but tant Pacific. That part which smells not till the tree has attained considerable stronger of camphor than any other is the age and size. The flower-stocks are slenroot, which substance it yields in large der, branched at the top, and divided into quantities. The bark of the stalk has very short pedicles, each supporting a sinoutwardly rather a rough appearance; gle flower: these flowers are white, and the inner surface is smooth and mucous, consist of six petals, which are succeeded and is very easily separated from the by a shining, purple berry, of the size of a wood, which is dry in its nature, and pea. This is composed of a soft, pulpy white in its color. The leaves stand upon substance, of a purple color, and has the slender, delicate footstalks, having an taste of cloves and camphor- and of a entire undulating margin running out into kernel of the size of a pepper, that is a point: the upper surface of the leaf is covered with a black, shining skin, of an of a lively, shining green, and the lower insipid taste. |