the ordinary breakfast of people of áll ages and stations. There is little else to be obtained in all the inns of the country but rice and sugar; it is the common nourishment of travellers. The Cochin Chinese not only preserve in sugar all their fruits, but even the greater part of their leguminous vegetables, gourds, cucumbers, radishes, artichokes, the grain of the lotus, and the thick, fleshy leaves of the aloe. They fancy nothing is so nourishing as sugar. This opinion of its fattening properties has occasioned a whimsical law. The body-guard of the king, selected for the purposes of pomp and show, are allowed a sum of money with which they must buy sugar and sugarcane, and they are compelled by law to eat a certain quantity daily. This is to preserve the embonpoint and good looks of those soldiers who are honored by approaching so near the person of the king; and they certainly do honor to their master by their handsome appearance. Domestic animals, horses, buffaloes, elephants, are all fatten ed with sugar-cane in Cochin ChiSugar has been found to be an antidote to the poison of verdigris, if taken speedily and in abun

na.

dance; and, unlike many other organic substances, its nutritious qualities are not liable to change, from the operations of time or sea

son.

The West Indies, Brazil, Surinam, the East Indies, including the islands of Java, Mauritius and Bourbon, are the principal sources whence the supplies required for the European and American markets are derived. The U. States consume from 70,000 to 80,000 tons; and of these from 30,000 to 40,000 tons are produced in Louisiana. Cuba exports vast quantities of sugar; and the article constitutes one of the greatest staples of commerce in the known world.

Beet-Root Sugar.-The manufacture of sugar from beet-root is carried on to a very considerable extent in France, where the annual produce of the sugar from this source may be estimated at about 8,000 tons. It is supposed by some, that at no distant period the manufacture of sugar from beet-root will be so much improved, that it may be able to compete in cheapness with that from the cane.

Maple-Sugar.-A species of maple, which grows plentifully in the U. States and in Canada, yields a

considerable quantity of sugar. In some districts it furnishes the inhabitants with most of the sugar they make use of. The juice is obtained by perforating the tree in the spring to the depth of about two inches, and setting a vessel for its reception. From two to three gallons may be about the daily average produce of a single tree; but ́ some trees have yielded more than twenty gallons in a day. The process of boiling the juice does not differ materially from what is followed with the cane-juice in the West Indies. It is necessary that it should be boiled as soon after it is drawn from the tree as possible.

a

SULPHUR, or BRIMSTONE: crystallized, hard, brittle substance, commonly of a greenish yellow color, without any smell, and of a weak though perceptible taste. It burns with a pale blue flame, and emits a great quantity of pungent, suffocating vapors. Sulphur is of great importance in the arts. It is used extensively in the manufacture of gunpowder, and in the formation of sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol.

SUMACH: a shrub that grows naturally in Syria, Palestine, Spain and Portugal. It is useful in dyeing and calico-printing.

SUPERCARGO: a person employed by merchants to go a voyage, and oversee their cargo, and dispose of it to the best advantage.

SWIVEL: a sort of small cannon, used on board merchant-ships as a weapon of defence.

T.

TACAMAHAC: a resin, obtained from a plant which grows in different parts of America. It is of a light brown color, and when pure it has an aromatic smell between that of lavender and musk.

TAFFETY: a fine smooth silken stuff, remarkable for its gloss or lustre.

TALC: a species of fossil. It is soft, smooth, and may be split into fine plates or leaves, of a greenish, whitish, or silver-like lustre.

TALLOW: a sort of animal fat melted down and clarified, being used in making soap and candles, and in the dressing of leather.

TAMARINDS: the fruit of a tree which grows in the East and West Indies, in Arabia and Egypt. In the W. Indies, the pods or fruit, being gathered when ripe, and freed from the shelly fragments, are

placed in layers in a cask, and boiling syrup poured over them, till the cask be filled; the syrup pervades every part quite down to the bottom, and when cool the cask is headed for sale.

TANNING: the art of converting the raw skins of animals into leather. The first part of the process of tanning is to steep the skins in water, to wash from them all the blood and dirt; then the horns, ears and tail are cut off. They are next to be freed from the hair. This is done by laying them in water with lime for a few days; they are then taken out and drained; then put into fresh lime-pits again; and so on, twice a week, for several weeks. The skins are then laid across a beam of wood, when the hair is scraped off with a proper knife.

The skins are then laid in other pits carefully one over the other, with a layer of tan (which is nothing but bark coarsely ground) between the several skins. Here they lie for months, only being changed into fresh pits, with stronger degrees of tan, till it is incorporated through the whole substance of the skin; it then becomes leather. Softer leathers are not imbued with tan; but the thickening effect is

produced by repeatedly soaking them in water in which salt and alum have been dissolved.

TAPIOCA: a species of starch or powder, prepared from the roots of an American plant. The roots are peeled, and subjected to pressure in a kind of bag made of rushes. The juice which is forced out is a deadly poison, and is employed by the Indians to poison their arrows; but it deposits gradually a white starch, which, when properly washed, is innocent. It is dried in smoke, and afterwards passed through a kind of sieve. Of this substance the cassavi bread is made, and it is also often used in the composition of puddings.

TAR: a thick, black, unctuous substance, chiefly obtained from the pine, and other turpentine trees, by burning them in a close smothering heat. Tar is prepared in great quantities in different parts of the United States.

TARE: an abatement or deduction made from the weight of a parcel of goods, on account of the weight of the chest, cask, bag, &c. in which they are contained.

TARIFF: a table, alphabetically arranged, specifying the various duties, drawbacks, bounties, &c.,

charged and allowed on the importation and exportation of articles of foreign and domestic produce.

TEA: an article of such general use in our country, that few can be ignorant of its color and taste. But many years have not passed since it was unknown in Europe and America, and some people were so unacquainted with its use that they at first boiled the tea-leaves as they would boil greens. Even now, when so much of this article is consumed, many persons are ignorant of its culture and manner of preparation.

The tree, or rather shrub, from the leaves of which the beverage called tea is made, is a native of China and Japan, in which countries alone it is cultivated for use. It is an evergreen, somewhat resembling the myrtle in appearance, and grows to a height varying between three and six feet. It is capable of enduring great variations of climate, being cultivated alike in the neighborhood of Canton, where the heat is at times almost insupportable to the natives, and around ⚫ the walls of Pekin, where the winter is, not unfrequently, very se

vere.

The best sorts, however, are the

production of a more temperate climate; the finest teas are said to be grown in the province of Nankin, occupying nearly the middle station between the two extremes of heat and cold. The greatest portion of what is brought to the Canton market, and sold to the European and American merchants, is the produce of the hilly but populous and industrious province of Fokien, situated on the sea-coast to the north-east of Canton. It appears to thrive best in valleys, or on the banks of rivers or rivulets.

The first European writer who mentions tea is Giovanni Botero, an eminent Italian author, who published a treatise, ahout the year 1590, on the causes of the magnificence and greatness of cities. He does not mention tea by name, but he describes it in such a manner that it is impossible to mistake it. "The Chinese,” he says, "have an herb, out of which they press a delicate juice, which serves them for drink, instead of wine: it also preserves their health, and frees them from all those evils which the immoderate use of wine produces among us."

The tea-plant is propagated from

it is as follows:

Holes are drilled in the ground at equal distances, and in regular rows; into each hole the planter throws as many as six, or even a dozen seeds, not above a fifth part of the seed planted being expected to grow. While coming to maturity, they are carefully watered; and though, when once out of the ground, they would continue to vegetate without further care, the more industrious cultivators annually manure the ground, and clear the crop from weeds.

Among other stories relative to the tea-tree, it has been said that some of the finest specimens grow on the precipitous declivities of rocky mountains, where it is too difficult or too dangerous for human beings to gather them; and that the Chinese, in order to procure them, pelt a race of monkeys which inhabit these inapproachable recesses with stones, provoking them to return the compliment with a shower of tea-branches.

The leaves of the tea-plant are not fit for gathering until the third year, at which period they are in their prime, and most plentiful. When about seven years old, the

the height of a man, and its leaves become few and coarse; it is then generally cut down to the stem, which, in the succeeding summer, produces an exuberant crop of fresh shoots and leaves: this operation, however, is sometimes deferred till the plant is ten years old.

The process of gathering the tea is one of great nicety and importance. Each leaf is plucked separately from the stalk; the hands of the gatherer are kept carefully clean, and, in collecting some of the fine sorts, he hardly ventures to breathe on the plant. At a place called Udsi, in the island of Japan, is a mountain, the climate of which is supposed to be particularly congenial to the growth of tea, and the whole crop which grows upon it is reserved for the sole use and disposal of the emperor. A wide and deep ditch round the base of the mountain prevents all access, except to the appointed guardians of its treasures. The shrubs are carefully cleansed of dust, and protected from any inclemency of the weather. The laborers who collect the leaves are obliged, for some weeks previous, to abstain from all gross food, lest their breath or per