Crenulated Phyllostome. Def. Appendage of the nose lengthened and crenulated. 7. Phyllostoma emarginata. Geoffr. cat. mus. Phyllostome échancré Desm. tabl. p. 12.-Notched Phyllostome. Def.Appendage of the nose lengthened, lanceolated, and denticulated, top truncated and notched. 8. Mustela rufa. Geoffr. cat. mus. n. 217. Marte marron, Desm. tabl. p. 16.-Red Weasel. Def. Fur very long, brown, variegated with little lines of a brownish fallow; tail black, ears very short.Obs. Size of Mustela foina, L. 9. Civetta fasciata. Geoffr. cat. mus. Civette à bandeau ou Genette de France, Desm. tabl. p. 17.-French Civet Def. Fur rufous brown, back, feet, and tip of the tail dark brown, breast light rufous, a band across the eyes of a dirty white. Obs. size of the Mustela foina, L.-nose and lower jaw whitish, very distinct from the Civetta genetia of Spain and Barbary; found in France. 10. Civetta indica. Geoffr. cat. mus. Civette de L'Inde Desm. tabl. p. 17.Indian Civet. Def. Fur yellowish gray, a collar of three rufous brown stripes, back covered with parallel lines of same colour, several rows of brown dots on the sides, belly whitish-Obs. Larger than the Civetta fossana, and of a more slender shape-native of the East Indies. 11. Cunis leucorurus. Raf. C. argentatus Geoffr. cat. mus. Renard argent Desm. tabl. p. 18.-White tail fox. Def. Fur entirely black, except the end of the tail, which is white, and some white hairs on the forehead and cheeks.- -Obs. Size and shape of the Isatis or Canis lagopus, L. found in the north of the two continents: very different from the Silvery Fox Cunis cinereo argenteus, L.but as the name of C. argentatus, implied a similarity and did not apply corectly, I have changed it to another more correct. 12. Canis antarcticus. Geoffr cat. mus. Renard antarctique Desm. tabl. p. 18.Antarctic Fox. Def. Brownish feet, fallow outside, tail shortened. Obs. Size of the common Fox, colour rather darker; lives at the Falkland Islands. p. 19. Dasyure gutte.-Dotted Dasyure. Def. Grizzled gray, dotted with white. Obs. Native of Australia, along with the D. maculatus, of which it had been considered as the female; this last is black. 15. Sciurus rufiventer. Geoffr. cat. mus. Ecureuil à ventre roux Desm. tabl. p. 21.-Fallow-belly Squirrel. Def. Back fallowish brown, belly pale fallow, tail brown at the base, fallowish at the end. Obs. Native of North America, rather larger than the Sc. vulgaris. L. 16. Sciurus erithopus. Geoffr. cat. mus. Ecureuil fossoyeur. Desm. tabl. p. 21. -Burrowing Squirrel. Def. Back brownish gray, feet fallow, tail brown with scattered yellowish hairs. Obs. Smaller than the Sc. vulgaris, long nails; perhaps a species of my genus Tenotis, which contains all the squirrels with pouches like the genus Cricetus, and who live under ground, then it might be called Tenotis griseus. Raf. 17. Castor europeus Raf. C. galliæ. Geoffr. cat. mus. Castor de France Desm. tabl. p. 25.-European Beaver. Def. Fur short, tail one fourth of total length. Obs. The Beaver of the eastern continent has been ascertained by Geoffroy St. Hilaire to be different from the American Beaver; he is much larger, and with a shorter tail in proportion; his fur is not so long, but the colour varies in both species, and this species does not build dams and lodges, but burrows near the water. 18. Cavia cristata. Geoffr. cat. mus. Cavia huppe. Desm. tabl. p. 25.-Crested Aguty. Def. Fallowish brown, belly yellowish, tail very short, a crest of long hairs behind the head. Obs. Size and shape of Cavia aguti; native of South America. 19. Lepus egyptius. Geoffr. cat. mus. Lievre d'Egypte. Desm. tabl. p. 26.Egyptian Hare. Def. Fur pale grizzled, legs brown, ears long, broad, and scarcely involuted. Obs. Size and colour of common Hare, but rather lighter on the back. From Egypt. 20. Echidna Setosa. Geoffr. cat. mus. Echidne soyeux Desm. tabl. p. 27.—Red Echidna. Def. Hairs long, ears thick and chestnut colour, stings weak and shorter, except on the back of the head, the sides and the tail. Obs. From Australia, different from the Echidna hystrix, which has strong and long stings. 13. Canis cancrivorus. Geoffr. cat. mus. Renard crabier Desm. tabl. p. 18.-Crabeater Fox. Def. Fur dark grizzled on the back, fallowish white underneath, anterior legs rufous brown, posterior ones black. Obs. Size of the common Fox, colour nearly similar to the common Hare, but darker; native of South Ame--Black Ant-eater. Def. Entirely of a rica. dark black, tail prehensile. Obs. Size and shape of the M. tamandua of which 11. Dasyurus gultatus. Desm. tabl. 21. Myrmecophaga nigra. Geoffr. cat. mus. Fourmilier noir Desm. tabl. p. 27. Lacepede considers him as a variety; native of Guyana. 22. Cervus coronatus. Geoffr. cat. mus. Cerf couronne. Desm. tabl. p. 31.Crowned Elk. Def. Horns sessile, palmated, circular, depressed, short, very broad and denticulated.-Obs. From North America; it differs from the common Elk, by a much smaller size, and having the horns broader and more divided. 23. Cervus canadensis. Geoffr. cat. Cerf du Canada Desm. tabl. p. 23.—Canadian Stag. Def. Horns cylindrical, curved, double the length of the head, very branched.-Obs. Larger than the C. elaphus, or common Stag, its horns are larger and more branched. 24. Cervus melanopus. Raf. Gouazoupoucou Azara quadr. Par. Cougouacziete, biche de barallon ou biche des Paletuviers Desm. tabl. p. 32. Blackfeet Stag. Def. Horns with five branches at utmost, body fallowish, tail and feet black.-Obs. Length five feet and a half, horns large, a black stripe on the breast of the male; native of Paraguay. 25. Mazama bira. Raf. Gouazoubira Az. quadr. Par. Petit cariacou Desm. tabl. p. 32.-Bira Mazam. Def. Horns subulated, short, smooth, body brown, legs short.-Obs. A small animal, with shorter legs than usual in other species of the same family, horns only one inch long; living solitary in the woods of Paraguay. 26. Mazama pita. Raf. Gouazoupita Az. quadr. Par. Cariacou de la Guyane ou Biche rousse Desm. tabl. P. 33.-Pita Mazam. Fallow above, whitish underneath, horns subulated and smooth.Obs. From Paraguay, Guyana, &c. larger than the foregoing, and with longer horns. Both species having simple unbranched solid straight horns, must belong to my genus Mazama instead of the genus Cervus, of which they had been considered as a kind. ART. 6. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. BEMARKS ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE LOCUST TREE, (Robinia pseudo-acacia.) MESSRS. EDItors, THE HE cultivation of the Locust tree on Long Island and in other parts of this state has been attended to with considerable profit to the agricultural interest, but not with that earnestness which the importance of the subject demands. This may have arisen from the difficulty of propagating it by transplanting, or not understanding how to raise it, from the seed. The locust tree is a native of the United States, but was not known north or east of the river Potomac, before the white settlers brought it from thence. It is the Robinia pseudo-acacia of Linnæus, with a white and fragrant blossom. It has superior advantages for beauty or use to most trees of foreign or domestic growth. The delicacy of its green shade is most pleasant to the eye, and so agreeable to vegetation, that the earth beneath a locust grove, or within the umbrage of a single tree, is covered with a luxuriant foliage of tender grass. The odour of its leaves is pleasant, but that of its papilionacious blossoms is delightful. As an ornimental tree it is not excelled by any forest tree of our own country. When in full foliage no tree has a more delicate appearance to the eye of the beholder, or a more agreeable shade to man or beast. Some admire the dog wood, (cornus florida) some the bean tree, (bignonia catalpa) others the horse chestnut, (escutus hippocastaneas) some the white wood, or tulip tree, (liriodendron tulipifera) all natives of our own forests; but none of them can compare with the locust either for beauty or utility. It therefore appears of importance to inquire into its properties, and point out some means of cultivating it to advantage. The Locust is a tree of quick growth, the wood of which is hard, durable, and principally used in ship building. To a country situated like the United States, with an extensive line of sea coast, penetrated by numerous bays, and giving rise to many great rivers, whose banks are covered with forests of extraordinary growth, whose soil is fertile, rich and variegated, and whose climate is agreeable and diversified by a gradation of temperature; to such a country, inhabited by an industrious and enterprising people, commerce, both foreign and domestic, must constitute one of the principal employments. As long as the country possesses the necessary timber for ship building and the other advantages which our situation affords, the government will continue to be formidable to all other powers. We have within ourselves four materials necessary for the completion of strong and durable naval structures. These are the live oak, locust, cedar, and pine, which can be abundantly supplied. The former is best for the lower timbers of a ship, while the locust and cedar form the upper works of the frame. The pine supplies the timber for decks, masts and spars. A vessel built of live oak, locust, and cedar will last longer than if constructed of any other wood. Naval architecture has arrived in this place and other parts of the United States to as great perfection, perhaps, as in any other country on the globe. Our "fir built frigates" have been compared with the British oak, and stood the test, and in sailing, nothing has equalled the fleetness of some of our sharp vessels. The preservation and cultivation of these necessary articles in ship building is a matter of serious consideration. It might not be amiss to suggest to the Congress of the United States to prohibit the exportation of them. The pine forests appear almost inexhaustible, and they will be so in all probability many generations to come; but the stately cedars of Mobile, and the lofty forests of Georgia, where the liveoak is of sturdy growth begin to disappear before the axe of the woodman. The locust, a native of Virginia and Maryland, is in such demand for foreign and domestic consumption, that it is called for before it can attain its full age. It has been cultivated as far eastward as Rhode Island, but begins to depreciate in quality in that State. Insects attack it there which are not found in New-York, or its 'native situations. These give the timber a worm-eaten appearance, and render it less useful. The locust has been extensively raised in the southern parts of New-York, but the call for it has been so great, that few trees attain any size before they have been wanted for use. Hence they are in great demand and ready sale, and no ground can be appropriated for any kind of timber with so much advantage as locust. Besides its application to ship building, it is extensively used for fencing; and for posts no timber will last longer in or out of the ground. On Long Island, where wood is scarce, and fencing timber in great demand, the locust becomes of much local importance from this circumstance alone, independent of its great consumption in this city among the carpenters. In ship building it is not exclusively applied to the interior or frame. In many places where strength is wanting, locust will bear a strain which would break oak of the same size. Thus, an oak tiller has been known to break near the head of the rudder in a gale of wind, which has never happened with a locust one. Tillers for large seavessels are now uniformly made of locust in New-York. It is the best timber also for pins or trunnels, and preferable to the best of oak. The tree generally grows straight with few or no large limbs, and the fibres are straight and parallel, which makes it split well for making trunnels, with little or no loss of substance. These are made in considerable quantities for exportation. The locust tree does not bear transporting well in this part of our country, and in all probability this arises from the custom of cutting off the roots when taken up for that purpose. Most of the roots of the locust are long cylindrical, and run horizontal not far under the surface. In transplanting, so few of them are left to the body of the tree removed, that little or no support is given to the top, and it consequently dies. If care was taken not to destroy so much of the roots, a much larger proportion of those transplanted would live and thrive. So great has been the difficulty of raising the locust in this way, that another method of propagating has been generally resorted to. Whenever a large tree is cut down for use, the ground for some distance around has been ploughed, by which the roots near the surface have been broken and forced up. From these roots suckers shoot up, and the ground soon becomes covered with a grove of young trees. These, if protected from cattle, and fenced in, will grow most rapidly, and the roots continuing to extend, new shoots arise, and in a few years a thrifty young forest of locust trees is produced. The leaves of locust are so agreeable to horses and cattle, that the young trees must be fenced in to preserve them. When growing in groves they shoot up straight and slender, as if striving to outtop each other, to receive the most benefit from the rays of a genial sun. Another difficulty has arisen in propagating the locust from inability to raise it from the seed. The seed does not always come to perfection in this State, and if it does, it will not sprout unless prepared before planting. The method best adapted to this purpose has been long ago proposed by Dr. Bard, but is not generally known, or if known, is not usually attended to. When this shall be well understood and practised, the locust will be easily propagated, and then instead of raising groves of them, the waste ground along fences and places where the useless Lombardy poplar encumbers > the earth, should be selected to transplant them, as by having them separated and single there will be an economy in using the soil, and the trees will grow much better and stronger timber. Dr. Bard's method of preparing the seeds was to pour boiling water on them and let it stand and cool. The hard outer coat would thus be softened, and if the seed swelled by this operation, it might be planted and would soon come up. This has been followed with success on Long Island, and on a late visit to North Hempstead I was led to admire Judge Mitchill's nursery of young trees planted this Spring. The Judge took a quantity of seed collected on the island, and put it in an earthen pitcher, and poured upon it water near to boiling. This he let stand, for 24 hours, and then decanted it and selected all the seeds that were any ways swelled by this application of heat and moisture. To the remainder he made a second libation of hot water, and let it remain also 24 hours, and then made a second selection of the swelled seeds. This was repeated a third time on the unchanged ones, when nearly all were affected, and then he prepared the ground and planted them. He planted the seeds in drills about four feet apart, and in eight or ten days they were all above ground, and came up as regular as beans or any other seeds that are cultivated in gardens. When I saw them, the middle of July, they were about a foot high, all thrifty and of a good colour. It is the Judge's intention to leave them in their present situation about three years, and then transplant; and provided he does not mutilate the roots in removing them, they will bear transplanting, live and thrive, and be the most productive tree that a farm can have. This method of preparing the seeds and planting the locust, cannot be too warmly recommended to the farming interest. On Long Island, where fencing timber is growing scarce, the cultivation of the locust is of great moment. In the centre of the island, on and about Hempstead plains, where there is no timber at all, it must be a most valuable acquisition, and from the trials made in raising it from the seed, all difficulty must be removed to its extensive cultivation. I am, with respect, &c. MESSRS. EDITORS, I acquit myself of my commission in regard to the enclosed letter, by placing VOL. I. NO. V. it in your hands, in the state in which 1 SAML. L. MITCHILL. Nautical Observations on Capes & Head- I was much pleased to see, in a New York paper, since my arrival at this place, your communication to Mr. Secretary Dallas, concerning the elevation of Neversink hills. I am certainly of your opinion, that the navigation to New-York will be rendered more safe in consequence of its being known; and if the elevation of hills and mountains, near the sea coast, were more generally known, it would be a great guide to navigators. For although we do not always measure the altitude of terrestrial objects with an instrument, still, the eye, with a little practice, will estimate the distance from an object, whose magnitude is known, to a considerable degree of accuracy, and this, where the soundings are irregular, may be of much use. Knowing your zeal to promote and diffuse useful knowledge, I had thoughts of communicating to you, a description of a self-moving Pump, which I invented and put in practice with great success, last year, at sea; but not having the honour to be known to you, I was unwil ling to trouble you, &c. Although the following may not prove of much use, still, as no kind of information is lost in your hands, I beg leave to communicate it. On my passage from New-Orleans to this port, in the ship Peria, under my command, I was compelled, by a long continuance of s. E. winds, to go to the northward of the track I intended to have taken. On my approaching the western edge of the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, on the 14th of last month, in latitude 43° 10 north, the air became unusu ally cold, the thermometer having fell, in one day, from 66 to 38 deg. though I had not changed my position much in the mean time, the wind being contrary. On the 15th of May, in the above latitude, (still westward of the Bank) at day-light in the morning I discovered an Island of Ice. I was prepared to meet ice to the eastward of the Banks, but had but little expectation of seeing such an island to 3 A the westward; such a thing being very unusual. Having heard many contradictory reports about the supposed height of those islands above the water, and supposing from its appearance that this could not float over the Bank, where there is generally on the shoalest parts, about 30 fathoms water, the weather being moderate and clear, I endeavoured to find its height in the following manner. At 1 P. M. it bore, per compass, N. 69 E. and again at 3h. 25min. having steered in the mean time N. 45 E. five miles, it bore s. 57 E. making its distance from the ship 2.514 miles, when its altitude with a well adjusted sextant, was 41 min. 27 sec. the eye being elevated above the water 15 feet, which would make its height above water 185 1-2 feet. The wind shifting soon after, and still being moderate, I had occasion to tack and pass near it, and having reason to suppose that we were in a current which would affect my calculation of its height, I wished to determine it more accurately. It being almost calm, when about a mile from it, I went in my boat to examine it and procure some fresh water from it, of which I was rather short, taking with me a sextant, thermometer, and log-line. At a distance it appeared very white, as if composed partly of snow, but on reaching it, I found it to be a solid mass of very dense fresh water ice. Its form was nearly that of a cube, the flat top having a small inclination with the horizon. There was no appearance of any layers or strata, so that no conjecture could be formed in what position it was generated. Both the water and air being but a few degrees above the freezing point, it was then dissolving very slowly; still the water on the surface, for some hundred yards to the northward, was almost perfectly fresh. It was surrounded by many thousand sea fowls, mostly gulls and small murrs, who would scarcely move out of the reach of our oars. I found, as I expected, a current running past it to the northward, (it must be observed, that bodies deeply immersed in water are but little affected by the current, which is only near the surface,) three of the sides were nearly perpendicular above, and, as far as I could see, under water; on the other side was a small offset about 50 feet high and about one fourth of the base of the whole. I made the log-line fast to one side, then rowed directly from it to a convenient distance, where I made a knot in the line, and measured its altitude with the sextant above the level of the eye 44 deg. 38 min. the eye being 4 1-2 feet above the water. I then rowed thirty fathoms fur ther in the same direction, and again measured its altitude, making its height above water 205 1-2 feet. Some days afterwards, a little to the eastward of the Banks, I saw a number of islands in a range parallel with the edge of the Bank, several of which appeared to be five times as long and much broader, and from the distance they could be distinctly seen from the deck, after we passed them, must have been still higher than the former. The thermometer, if attended to, will always give timely notice on approaching those islands; the distance that they chill the air is great; still I found but little difference in the thermometer at 6 leagues, or at half a mile distance, but it was in the forenoon when I approached it, and I suppose the thermometer would have risen several degrees had I been stationary. About the beginning of last month I found the current of the Gulf Stream much stronger, and the water warmer than usual, which I attribute to the long continuance of s. E. winds about that time. I found myself set to the N. E. at the rate of three miles per hour for several days, to the northward of Cape Hatteras, the temperature of the water being 75 deg. until I reached St. George's Bank. I also beg leave to say something concerning Artificial Horizons at sea in foggy weather. Patents have been obtained for various kinds, formed with fluids, plummets, &c. and highly recommended as being very accurate. But it appears to me to be impossible to obtain a perfect horizon by any of those means, while the vessel has any velocity, however smoothly she may glide along, or where there is a current, for I think the surface of a fluid must be perpendicular to the motion compounded of gravitation and the vessel's velocity. But I have never heard that the patentees or venders of those articles have intimated that any allowance is necessary for those things, and I do not know that any objection has been made public by any one, which I think is highly necessary if my conjectures are just, and if so, men of science must be aware of those obstacles; and believe me, sir, no one has a greater influence than yourself in placing matters in a true light. It is no less necessary to recommend many things which are highly useful and but little used; for instance, the lightning chain. We every day hear of vessels being struck by lightning; still I assure you, that not one vessel in five hundred is provided with one, particularly American. The respect which is due to the memory of Dr. Franklin, ought to induce |