person, was commanded by Marshal Conrad De Rosen, a German officer, and amounted to upwards of 20,000 well-disciplined men, French and Irish, with a tolerable train of artillery. Rosen had the reputation of being peculiarly savage in his disposition; and probably the dreadful menaces he uttered against the citizens, confirmed them in their resolution to defend it. The siege began about the middle of April, and for eleven days the assaults were continued without the slightest success. Repeated sallies were made by the besieged, not certainly according to military tactics, but in a manner denoting the determined spirit by which they were actuated. On the 21st they made a desperate attack on James's army, and killed 200 men, with the loss of only four individuals on their side. James himself returned disappointed to Dublin, leaving Rosen to carry on the siege, and peevishly observing, that if his army had been English soldiers, they would have brought him the town piece-meal.

In this state the garrison contrived to hold out during the months of May and June, when it was announced to them by Rosen, that if they did not surrender the place by the 1st of July, the neighbouring country would be plundered, and the inhabitants driven under the walls of the city to perish as a public spectacle. By this time, disease and famine had made fearful inroads in the city. Major Baker, Walker's colleague, fell a victim to the fever which prevailed; yet, when their numbers were so reduced by hunger and fatigue that they could scarcely bear their arms, they threatened instant death to any one who even hinted at a surrender. Horses, dogs, cats, and mice, formed the provisions of the garrison; and some idea of their condition may be formed from the prices which these commodities brought. A pound of horse-flesh was sold for one shilling and sixpence; a quarter of a dog, fattened by eating dead bodies, five shillings and sixpence; a dog's head, two shillings and sixpence; a cat, four shillings and sixpence; a rat, one shilling; a mouse, sixpence; a pound of tallow, four shillings; a pound of salted hide, one shilling; a pound of horse-blood, one shilling; a horse-pudding, sixpence; a handful of chicken-weed, one penny; a quart of meal, one shilling. To such a state were they reduced, that they had no prospect of subsistence cxcept by eating the bodies of the dead; and Walker, in his Diary of the Siege, mentions an instance of a fat gentleman of his acquaintance, who actually hid himself for several days, "because he imagined that some of the soldiers, who were perishing by hunger, looked at him with a greedy eye.' Yet their situation had no effect in inducing them to surrender. continued his daily exhortations from the pulpit, assuring them that the Almighty would grant deliverance, and entreating them to defend the place to the last extremity, and reminding them of the importance of their perseverance to the cause of the Protestant religion.

Walker

It would be tedious to narrate all the transactions and sufferings of the garrison during this almost unexampled siege. Every day their numbers were lessened by death, and enfeebled by hunger and disease. The 1st of July arrived, and still the garrison showed no disposition to surrender the city. In fulfilment of his threat, Rosen, on the following morning, caused some thousands of Protestants from the country districts to be brought before the walls. Old men, women, and children, were all huddled together in this promiscuous assembly, and Rosen threatened to massacre every individual. The garrison looked on in silence, but would not yield; nay, even

the wretched sufferers, while actually perishing before the walls, with bended knees and uplifted hands, besought them not to consider their distress, but to defend their own lives and their religion against an enemy so barbarous and inhuman! Mortified by their obstinacy, Rosen caused gibbets to be erected opposite the walls, and declared that every prisoner he took should be immediately executed. For three days, this famishing multitude lay before the walls of Derry, without sustenance or shelter of any kind. The besieged, in turn, only exhibited the greater ardour. They also erected gibbets, and assured Rosen that every prisoner in the city would be executed if he persisted in his threat. The rough soldier relented in his intentions, and permitted the motley crowd of sufferers to depart; but they found their houses ravaged and plundered by the soldiers, their produce destroyed, and their crops trampled.

The besieged in the mean time continued, notwithstanding their distresses, to make repeated and successful sallies on their enemies, Their numbers were now reduced from 7500 to 4300, a third part of whom were totally unserviceable by disease and famine. At length, on the 30th of July, after a siege of 104 days, two vessels, the Mountjoy, of Derry, and the Phoenix, of Coleraine, were seen advancing under the protection of the Dartmouth frigate, towards the town, laden with provisions. A heavy fire was immediately opened by the army of James on the vessels, which was returned with great vigour by the crews. The Mountjoy ran aground on approaching the shore, a circumstance which the besiegers hailed with extravagant joy, while the halffamished garrison beheld the accident with the most intense anxiety from the walls, and were almost stupified with despair. But while the besiegers were preparing to board her, she fired her guns, and the shock caused her to float. She advanced towards the city, and was followed by the two others. The relief which she brought raised the siege; and it appears from Walker's statement, that at this time they only calculated on two days' life, their whole store being nine lean horses; and a pint of meal to each man. Thus concluded the memorable siege of Derry, in which the Popish Pretender lost nearly 9000 men.

TIMES of calamity and confusion have ever been productive of great minds. The purest ore is produced in the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.-C.

PRIDE is observed to defeat its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem and reverence into contempt.BOLINGBROKE.

A CLERGYMAN was once accosted by a Doctor, a professed Deist, who asked him "if he followed preaching to save souls?"-"Yes." "If he ever saw a soul?"-"No." "If No." "If he ever tasted a

he ever heard a soul?"soul?"-"No." "If he ever smelt a soul ?"—" No." "If he ever felt a soul?"- "Yes." "Well," said the Doctor, "there are four of the five senses against one upon the question, whether there be a soul." The clergyman then asked if he were a doctor of medicine.-"Yes." "If he ever saw a pain ?—" No." "If he ever heard a pain?""No." "If he ever tasted a pain ?"—" No." If he "No." 66 ever smelt a pain ?"If he ever felt a pain ?""Yes." "Well, then," said the clergyman, "there are also four senses against one upon the question whether there be a pain; and yet, sir, you know that there is a pain, and I know that there is a soul."

THE USEFUL ARTS. No. XIX. OF THE VARIOUS ARTS EMPLOYED IN CAPTURING OR KILLING WILD ANIMALS.

Ir appears from what has been stated in the preceding papers of this series, that man has never been able to domesticate more than a few of the animals which supply him with food or clothing, or in some way or other contribute to his wants or gratifications; hence those must be ranked among the Useful Arts, which are employed to capture or destroy the wilder inhabitants of the earth, of the air, or of the water.

The instinctive feeling of self-preservation, early stimulated invention to contrive means for subduing the more ferocious beasts of prey. When increase of population, and the consequent improved means of defence and security, rendered these formidable animals no longer sources of apprehension, man gratified his natural passion for excitement, in the pleasures and perils of the chase, and became the aggressor and persecutor of animals which had now learned to fly from him.

Whatever may be the motives of the chase, utility or pleasure, the means adopted for capturing any animal must be regulated by its habits. Great ingenuity is required in hunting those which possess rapidity of motion, or are endowed with an acute sense of sight or smelling; and man has in these cases availed himself of the same faculties, in that invaluable companion and assistant, the dog; the varieties of which are endowed with these senses in an eminent degree, united to strength and activity.

Before entering on any description of the particular kinds of chase, and of the animals which are their object, we shall briefly describe the principal weapons and instruments used in hunting, in various countries, and at different periods.

The Bow is certainly the oldest weapon used by man, either in war or hunting. Every nation has attributed its invention to some mythological personage, which not only indicates its antiquity, but proves that the discovery was common to many and not that of any one individual. The bow is mentioned in the oldest of the Sacred Writings, (Gen. xx. 21.), and also in the earliest profane work, now extant, the Homeric Poems, in which that of Pandarus is described as made of the horns of a Goat or Deer, as the weapon is to the present day, among most Eastern nations.

The form of the bow depends on the material of which it is made; but there is no doubt that beauty has often been consulted at the expense of efficiency. The long, English bow, formed of one piece of wood, is that which is certainly the most effectual; but not being portable by men who ride on horseback, a shorter bow was adopted for cavalry, by all nations which used the weapon. It will be easily understood, that the velocity of the arrow, if assumed as constant, must depend either on the length of time the string is acting on it, or on the proportionably increased force with which it acts, if that time is diminished; now the shorter the bow, the shorter the versed-sine of the arc when it is bent, that is, the sooner the arrow quits the string; and to counterbalance this diminution in the time of action, the stronger or more rigid the bow itself must be, in order to increase its elastic force.

As a weapon of war, the long-bow was for many centuries celebrated for its efficiency in the hands of our own archers, whose skill was a theme of exultation for English historians, and of lamentation for the chroniclers of France and Scotland, during the period from Henry the Second, down to the time of Henry the Fifth. In such hands, the how was hardly less effectual than the rifle of modern .days. An arrow could be sent through common armour, and even through oaken doors three inches thick; while such was the precision of aim attained by many from frequent practice, that they could hit a mark as small as any aimed at by a rifle, and with nearly as frequent success.

The English, or Long Bow, when unstrung, is perfectly straight, tapering equally from the middle to each end. The ends are tipped with horn, or iron, which prevents the wood from being split by the string, as it would otherwise be liable to be, if the notch for it were made in the wood itself. The length of the bow' varies according to the stature of him who is to use it,-six feet being the extreme length; the rule generally was, that the length of the bow should be equal to the height of the bearer.

The English bow was usually made of yew; and when that wood became comparatively exhausted in England, yew-staves, 'for bows, were imported from the Levant.

There are several clauses in old statutes, for the encouragement of this branch of trade; and the laws affecting archery generally, prove the importance of it in the estimation of our ancestors. Bows are now made of ash, alder, hazel, hickory, cocoa, and lance-wood: it is usual to back the bow, by gluing a thinner strip of another elastic wood along the back of the principal one, of which the weapon is made.

The shorter kind of bows, used by Eastern nations, are made of horn, no wood being sufficiently elastic and tough to bear the great degree of flexure required in these bows, for the reasons above alluded to. Two equal and similarly shaped horns, were selected to make the bow, and were joined at their bases, or thicker ends, in the middle. The graceful curve of the Grecian bow, as represented in all antique works of art, was probably the result of this construction. This form was poetically stated to have been borrowed from the contour of the upper human lip: it is well represented in the first figure of the adjoining cut, which is a Saxon bow, as drawn in an illuminated MS, of the tenth century. The bow was probably introduced into this country by the Romans, for it does not appear that the aboriginal Britons used this weapon, though they were great hunters, pursuing the Bear, Wolf, wild Oxen, Beaver, Stag, &c., all of which animals existed in Britain at the time of the first conquest of the country by the Romans.

1

2

3

5

4

The ancient Scythian bow, and that used by the modern Tartars, differ from the usual construction, in being curved, when unstrung, in the contrary direction to that which they are made to assume when ready for use; the strength requisite to bend such a bow is only attained by constant practice. A Turk has been known to shoot an arrow five hundred yards with such a bow, and they have sent one through a shield, two inches thick, faced with brass. The second figure represents this form of bow unstrung.

The origin of the cross-bow is doubtful; in fact, the transition from the common bow to this form of the weapon, is too obvious to have escaped the attention of any people who were in the constant habit of using it. The Roman Ballista, was a gigantic Cross-Bow, and was probably the type from which the idea of the portable weapon was taken. The bow of the latter was usually made of steel, and a moveable lever was added, to enable the bearer fo bend it in preparing it for use. This appendage to the larger cross-bows was rather complex, consisting of a

cylinder turned round by two handles, in order to wind on it a chain, which passed over pulleys made to slide on the stock; the chain had a hook at its end for the purpose of holding the string, to draw it back by the winding up of the chain. When the bow was bent, the string was held by a catch, which was released by a simple contrivance when the arrow was to be discharged. The third figure will explain the ordinary and simplest form of a Cross-Bow, as used in the fifteenth century: at the end of the stock is seen the stirrup, in which the foot was placed for the purpose of holding the weapon firmly, while the string was being drawn back, either by the hand, or by means of the lever.

A shorter and stouter kind of arrow, called a Quarrel*, was used in the arbalest, or cross-bow. Three forms of these missiles are shown at fig. 4. Two shafts for ordinary bows are represented at 5; one with a plain spear-head, the other barbed, but this latter was rarely used. For an English six-feet bow, the arrow ought to be a yard long; a "cloth-yard shaft," is the expression in the well-known poem of Chevy-Chase. In England arrows were made of light wood; but among Eastern nations, and savage tribes, reeds are chiefly employed for this purpose. The feathers at the end of the arrow are added to steady its flight through the air; and by fixing these on the arrow slightly spirally, the resistance of the air against these oblique feathers, communicates a rotatory motion, by which that flight is rendered much more direct, on well-known mechanical principles.

The SPEARS and LANCES used in hunting are of the simplest form (see fig. 6), varying principally in their length or strength; when they are intended to be cast or thrown from the hand, they are called javelins. In hunting on foot, the weapon was seldom so employed; and in this case the spear-head ought not to be barbed, as this form prevents the withdrawing of the weapon when the animal is pierced, and the hunter would either have to quit hold of his spear, or would be endangered by endeavouring

to recover it.

The HARPOON (fig. 7) is a spear of particular construction, which must be described from its importance in whalefishing. The harpoon is made wholly of iron; the handle is thicker at one end, and is produced in a thinner rod, terminating in a broad, doubly-barbed head, which must be made of the best iron that can be procured, such as unites the properties of being exceedingly tough, or difficult to be broken, however much it may be bent, and yet will admit of a tolerably sharp edge. The length varies from three to five feet. This weapon is either thrown by hand, or else shot from a small gun; it has a rope attached to it, by which it is recovered, and by means of which the boat is enabled to follow, or be dragged by the wounded Whale.

Whenever men hunt from necessity, to procure food and clothing, they will, of course, employ the most effectual weapons; those by which they can obtain the greatest quantity of prey in the shortest time, and with the least trouble or danger. Fire-arms have accordingly superseded the use of every other, with professional hunters of all nations acquainted with gunpowder; and the spear and bow are now only employed by those, who follow the chase for pleasure, and who wish to exhibit personal address and courage; or by savage tribes which do not possess fire

arms.

The RIFLE is the most important kind of gun used in hunting, especially in Northern America, where the accuracy of aim attained by the back-settlers, the Canadians, and the native Indians, is commemorated by all travellers in those regions; according to whom, to be able to hit a deer in full course with a rifle-ball in the head, is no uncommon qualification.

The superiority of the rifle over other fire-arms, is partly owing to the greater length of the barrel, but chiefly to that peculiarity in the construction of this part, to which the weapon owes its name. The bore is grooved throughout its length with three or four shallow notches, cut slightly spirally. The bullet, which must be cast to fit the barrel very tightly and truly, when forcibly rammed down, is cut and moulded in corresponding ridges fitting into these notches; hence, when the rifle is discharged, the ball is turned round by the screw-like grooves, and acquires, on quitting the piece, a rotatory motion, which causes it to move in a straight line, on the same mechanical principles above alluded to, in describing the feathered arrow.

THE NATIVES OF SWAN-RIVER. EVERY authentic piece of information connected with this increasing settlement is valuable. The following fact, which is related in a simple and artless manner, by one who lives near the spot where it occurred, sets the disposition of the natives in a very pleasing light. The affecting calamity which two of them were the means, under Providence, of remedying, seems to have called forth such tenderness and active zeal on their parts as would have done honour to any human being, however well instructed. Indeed, judging from this statement, we cannot but feel that the character of the natives, (who are well styled, at present, the most abject of human creatures,) presents a good ground in which to plant the truths of our holy Religion.

ABOUT half-past seven o'clock on the evening of the 11th of December, 1834, it was reported to Mr. Norcott, that one of Mr. Hale's children, a boy, between five and six years of age, was missing, and that he had not been seen since one o'clock on that day, when his brother left him on the beach, looking at some soldiers who were fishing there. The natural conclusion was, that the child had mistaken his path on returning home, and had wandered into the bush. Immediate search was made, conceiving that he could not have gone far from the settlement, and was kept up for two hours, indeed till the darkness of the night compelled the party to relinquish all hope of finding him.

At four o'clock the next morning Mr. Norcott, accompanied by Corporal Blyth, of the 21st regiment, Smith of the police, and the two natives, Migo and Molly-Dobbin, who are now attached to the mounted police corps, set out to renew the search, fully calculating upon finding the little boy in less than an hour. They soon came upon the track where he had been the preceding day, and pursued it for some distance to the northward, when it was lost by all but the natives, who, notwithstanding the wind had been blowing very fresh, and had rendered the trace imperceptible to an unpractised eye, still continued to follow them up along the beach for about four miles, when they intimated that he had turned almost impenetrable thicket, through which they said into the bush; here they still followed him into an

he must have crawled on his hands and knees. Their progress was now very slow, in consequence of the thick bush, and the difficulty of perceiving the track on the loose sand; but the acuteness of the natives, who are certainly most astonishingly gifted, led them through it; and in about an hour's time they regained the beach; the boy having made a circuit inland of of about 400 yards. The track was now more strongly marked, and was perceptible to the whole party, continuing so over a space of about five miles, occasionally in and out of the bush. At the end of about nine miles further, the natives were quite at a fault, owing to his having left the beach and entered a thicket, which it was with difficulty they could push themselves through; they, however, persevered, and delighted the party by every now and then crying out,

They proceeded until they reached the sand-cliffs, about ten or twelve miles from Clarence; one native continuing to walk a little way in the bush, in order to be certain that the boy had not crossed or left the beach, and the other remaining with the party on the beach. Here it was ascertained that he had again taken to the bush, and they found no difficulty in tracking him until they came to an elevated spot where the wind had entirely effaced the marks of his feet. This was a most anxious moment, as even the natives seemed to be doubtful whether they would again discover the track. Migo, however, descended the hill, persisting in search along the plains inland, and, after having made a circuit of about half a mile, was once more so fortunate to fall in with the track; but, notwithstanding they had found it, they were sorely perplexed to retain it, and were kept near the spot for two hours, off and on, losing and again discovering it.

The party had nearly given up all hope of seeing the child, when Molly-Dobbin pointed out the track on the side of a deep ravine. They were then about 600 yards from the beach. The natives then went down into the ravine and commenced hallooing, thinking the child might be asleep in the bush, and still persevered in pressing through the thickest scrub, and the most difficult country to penetrate through which they had yet passed; and observing by the tracks, that the child had evidently been there within a very short period, they journeyed on with a better hope of obtaining their object, and restoring the lost child to his afflicted parents. No sooner were these feelings of gratification excited at viewing the recent footsteps, than, at a distance of about 300 yards, the child was seen lying on the beach, its little legs washed by the surf, and apparently in a state of insensibility. Mr. Norcott galloped up to him, and calling his name, the boy instantly jumped up. Another hour, and probably the child would have perished, as the waves were rapidly gaining on him. The joy and delight of the two natives is described to have been beyond conception; and their steady perseverance, Mr. Norcott says, was beyond any thing he could have anticipated from them: when it is considered that they walked a distance of nearly twentytwo miles, with their eyes, for ten hours, constantly fixed upon the ground, and at the same time evincing the most intense anxiety to be instrumental in rescuing the child from its impending fate, we cannot but esteem the act, and highly applaud the noble disposition of these two savages.

Mr. Norcott took the child up, and placing him on his horse before him, the party made the nearest road home, where they arrived at nine o'clock at night, having been a distance of thirty-nine miles, after being out seventeen hours without the slightest refreshment.

It is surprising that the child should have got so far, in the manner he must have been frequently compelled to force himself through the bush. He is not three feet high. His clothes were much torn, and his body was covered with scratches and bruises.

[From the WESTERN AUSTRALIAN of Jan. 3, 1835.] ·

HOPE is like the wing of an angel soaring up to heaven, and bears our prayers to the throne of God.-JEREMY TAYLOR.

HOOT away despair!

Never yield to sorrow; The blackest sky may wear

THE TRUE SOURCE OF CONTENTMENT.' THERE never was any system besides that of Christianity which could effectually produce in the mind of man the virtue of Contentment. In order to make us content with our present condition, many of the ancient philosophers tell us that our discontent only hurts ourselves, without being able to make any alleviation in our circumstances; others, that whatever evil befals us, is derived to us by a fatal necessity, to which the gods themselves are subject; while others very gravely tell the man who is miserable, that it is necessary he should be so, to keep up the harmony of the universe, and that the scheme of Providence would be troubled and perverted were he otherwise.

These and the like considerations rather silence than satisfy a man. They may show him that his discontent is unreasonable, but are by no means sufficient to relieve it. They rather give despair than consolation. In a word, a man might reply to one of these comforters as Augustus did to his friend, who advised him not to grieve for the death of a person whom he loved, because his grief could not fetch him back again: "It is for that very reason," said the Emperor, "that I grieve." Religion bears a more tender regard for human nature. It prescribes to a very miserable man the means of bettering his condition; nay, it shows him that the bearing his afflictions as he ought to do, will naturally end in the removal of them. It makes him casy here, because it can make him happy hereafter. Upon the whole, a contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in the present world; and if in the present life his happiness arises from the subduing of his desires, it will arise in the next from the gratification of them. -ADDISON.

COMMON USE OF METALS.

Ir a convincing and familiar proof of the extensive application of the metals to the common purposes of life, were required, we need only refer to the case of many a common cottager, who could not carry on his daily concerns and occupations without the assistance of several of the metals. He could not, for instance, make his larger purchases, nor pay his rent, without silver, gold, and copper. Without iron he could neither dig, nor plough, nor reap; and, with respect to his habitation, there is scarcely a part of the structure itself, or of the furniture contained in it, which is not held together, to a greater or less extent, by means of the same metal; and many articles are either entirely of iron, or of iron partially and superficially coated with tin. Zinc and copper, and antimony, and lead, and tin, are component parts of his pewter and brazen utensils.

Quicksilver is a main ingredient in the metallic coating of his humble mirror: cobalt and platina, and metals, perhaps, more rare and costly than these, as chrome, are employed in the glazing of his drinking-cups and jugs. And, if he be the possessor of a fowling-piece, arsenic must be added to the foregoing list, as an ingredient in the shot with which he charges it; for it is arsenic which enables the shot, during the process of its granulation, to acquire that delicately spherical form by which it is characterized. So that, of the whole number of metals made use of by society at large, for common purposes, amounting to no less than twenty, more than half of these are either directly used by the peasant, or enter into the composition of the furniture and implements employed