translated into the heavenly temple, there to reign with Christ, to whom be glory and thanksgiving forever!"

anus, plainly showed that he put all his trust in Christ, with the words "Lieber Gott" upon his lips, he died at midnight.

Thus the last days of Erasmus set a seal to the consistency with which he held the main tenor of his religious views unchanged to the

This is the last sentence of the last work of Erasmus. It bears date January, 1536. On the 15th of July, after uttering many sentences, which, says his friend, Beatus Rhen-end.

ADVENTURE OF A NUGGET.-A correspond- | dow of his shop on Montgomery Street, when fent of the San Francisco Golden Era gives the ollowing very curious history of a nugget of gold during the last few years. The writer,

says:

an adroit thief one day removed it from the gaze of a curious public, and left it with a pawnbroker in pledge for two hundred dollars. The latter hurried it to an essay office, where it was purchased by an employee at its full value. The owner sent it to his father in Illinois, some months after. In 1855, in travelling through that state it was accidentally shown to Peters by the owner. He recognized it at once, and prevailed upon the old gentleman to part with it at an advance of twenty-five dollars. Peters is now a resident of San Francisco, and still owns the adventurous nugget, the history of which he has taken much interest in tracing."

"Its value is about $300; it is of an irregular shape, and perfectly pure. It was first found by an Indian in 1853, on a gulch leading into Dry trating a bank, threw it upon a pile of tailCreek, Amador County. A Mexican, in peneings,' without particularly observing it. An Indian, passing soon after, discovered it, and waiting until the Greaser's back was turned, seized it and slipped it into his bosom. The eye of the Mexican caught the movement, and he asked the Digger what he had secreted. Instead of answering, the latter took to his heels. SEWING MACHINES.-They have become The Mexican drew a knife and started in pur- one of the domestic institutions of the country. suit, and after a long chase overtook the Indian, They are introduced with great rapidity into all stabbed him fatally, and returned with the nug-parts of the land, and into thousands of families. get. The victim was found by his tribe, and lived long enough to describe the murder. The following night the Mexican was murdered in his tent, and the nugget passed into the hands of one of the members of the party of Indians who had committed the deed. Fearful of offering it for sale, lest it might be recognized, the Digger traded it for a mule with a drunken minor on the Consumnes River. The owner buried it one night while intoxicated, and the next day utterly failed to recollect its place of concealment.

The following table shows the growth of the business. The principal companies making them are Wheeler & Wilson, I. M. Singer & Co., and Grover & Baker. Of the machines made by them, there were sold in 1853 about 2000; 1854, 5000; 1855, 3600; 1856, 7400; 1857. 12,785; 1858, 17,659; 1859, 46,510.

Of this vast number, sold in 1859, Wheeler & Wilson sold 21.305; I. M. Singer & Co., 10,953; Grover & Baker, 10,280.

Nearly one-half of all that have been sold since the invention, have been sold during the past year.-N. Y. Observer.

"The disappointment, of course, was a sufficient apology for another spree, during which, strange to say, he found the nugget, and dropped ACCORDING to some of the German papers, it from his pocket an hour after, when it was Vesuvius is to be "put down." They seriously picked up by a man by the name of Peters. announce that a company of English capitalists Not knowing the owner, or caring particularly have made an application to the king of Naples to find one for it, he said nothing of his good for a concession for the extinction of Vesuvius. fortune, and the next week deposited the nug- The principal seat of the fire of that volcano is get, with a quantity of other gold in the safe of situated several thousand feet below the level of a friend in Sacramento. The safe was robbed the sea. By cutting a canal which would carry shortly after, but no arrest was made. The the water into the crater, the fire would be comnugget was next seen on a gambling table in plete.y extinguished, and the operation, which San Francisco, where it had been lost, probably would only cost two millions of francs, would by the thief. It was then purchased by a jew-restore to cultivation land of ten times that eller, and for several months adorned the win-value.

menagerie in Paris far precedes the other collections of Europe, having been commenced in the year 1809, under the direction of its projector the celebrated Geoffroy St. Hilaire.

6. Gleanings from Knowsley Menagerie. 2 vols. 18mo.

AMONG the inventions of the island Atlantis, the prescient mind of Bacon shadowed forth in the following remarkable words, spoken by the Father of Solomon's House, an experimental Zoological Garden :

That great advantage has been derived from these collections is a fact acknowledged by physsiologists on all hands, and there is scarcely a volume of transactions published in Europe without indications of their usefulness as "trial

places." The development of the mammalian embryo, the germ of life in every stage of its progress in the ornithic ovum, the transition of form from class to class, and all the recent revelations of archetype, could never have been demonstrated without the aid of these collections. Comparative anatomy in its modern condition of advancement has grown out of them, and with their extension the investigation of other mysteries will similarly expand. When some new agent affecting life dawns upon the world,

the inventor resorts to the vivarium for his

"We have also parks and inclosures of all first essays. Chloroform commenced fatally sorts of beasts and birds, which we use not upon the little rodents to which it was adminfor view or rareness, but likewise for dissec-istered; but its manipulation having been tions and trials, that thereby we may take light gradually ameliorated and made certain by what may be wrought on the body of man; the sacrifice of the these animals, it has conwherein we find many strange effects; as, con- ferred on mankind the universal blessing of tinuing life in them, though divers parts,

which you account vital, be perished and an ægis against pain. Bacon's idea of tractaken forth; resuscitating of some that seeming the seat of life, is curiously illustrated by dead in appearance and the like. We try Mr. Waterton's account of the tortoise he also poisons and other medicines upon them, dissected at Rome, which being accidentally as well of surgery as physic. By art likewise left in an unfinished state one evening, after we make them greater or taller than their abstraction of the brain, was found alive when kind is, and contrariwise dwarf them and stay he returned to his work in the morning. The their growth. We make them more fruitful and bearing than their kind is, and contrari- reproduction of limbs in insects, and even of wise barren and not generative. Also we heads in the lower organizations, with a mulmake them differ in color, shape, activity, titude of other curious phenomena, have been many ways. We find means to make com- detected by the agency of vivarium; and, in mixtures of divers kinds, which have produced short, there is no end to the revelations of many new kinds, and them not barren, as the the great mystery of life which may deduced general opinion is. . . . We have also par- from the future management of these schools ticular pools where we make trials upon fishes, as we have said before of beasts and birds.

of nature.

We have also places for breed and generation That animals may, by judicious selection of of those kinds of worms and flies which are the parents and the perpetuation of acciof special use, such as are with you, your silk-dental variations, be brought to an almost worms and bees."

The scheme which Bacon suggested has been in some measure fulfilled in the menagerie attached to the Museum of Natural History in the Jardin des Plantes, whence Cuvier derived most of the materials for his immortal works, and in the Zoological Society's establishment in London, whence Professor Owen has in the same way matured many of his discoveries. In the date of its origin, the

ideal perfection, is very well proved among our domestic animals, the finest races of which have all been produced since the time at which Bacon wrote "by art likewise we make them greater or taller than their kind is: "-" Also we make them differ in color, shape, activity, many ways." The words might serve for the motto of the Smithfield Club.

Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Marseilles, have followed the greater estab

lishments of Paris and London, with similar these species; and the introduction of the ig

though smaller results; and could the spirit of Bacon glide through their alleys green, it would luxuriate in the abundant materials for testing the practicability of his theories, which the modern extension of natural science has gathered together in the series thus presented to examination within the last thirty years. All these institutions, however, have addressed themselves to the typical illustration of principal forms or to mere exhibition rather than to reproduction and acclimatization. These practical results have in fact been so entirely lost sight of for ages, that the turkey in 1524, the musk duck in 1650, the gold pheasant in 1725, and the silver pheasant in 1740, are the only additions t› our catalogue of domesticated animals since the Christian era.

name and the sorgho rapidly following each other, made the necessity of establishing a vivarium, specially adapted to the purposes of acclimatization, to contain a collection of acclimatized species, and to become a centre from which the operations of the society could be extended in every direction on a large and solid scale, so apparent, that at the end of the season of 1858, it was determined to carry out the scheme which had been foreseen and provided for from the foundation of the society. A section of the Bois de Boulogne, comprehending nearly forty acres of salubrious soil, has been appropriated by the city of Paris to the purposes of this vivarium and garden, and we may presume that all the appliances which experience and ingenuity can bring to bear Although the Zoological Society had among upon the undertaking will be made available its primary objects the introduction and accli- for its completion. The great defect of all matization of exotic animals both for ornament existing vivaria is the total want of plan with and use, the original scheme was frustrated which they have been commenced. Taking or postponed by the force of circumstances their origin in very small beginnings, buildor by errors in management. The farm at ings have been huddled together without any Kingston was abandoned several years ago; arrangement or without any consideration of and with the exception of the introduction of the possibility of future development, so that the Sandwich Island goose, the ashy-headed at last when they have assumed larger progoose, and a few other minor species of birds, portions, every thing is in the wrong place. nothing was done until 1852 or 1853, when If Bacon had practically realized his Atlantic the acclimatization of the eland, now consid-"trial place," he would have divided it into ered a fait accompli, may be said to have regions for each of the principal divisions of commenced. Their next successful effort was the animal kingdom as far as they were the introduction of certain species of Him-known to him; and in each region he would alayan pheasants in 1857; and as there, is sufficient evidence of the favorable result of that experiment, it is probable that they will make efforts to complete it.

have had an arrangement complete in itself, forming part again of the harmonious whole. The projectors of the Paris Garden of Acclimatization have seen the error of their predThe peculiarly utilitarian impulse given to ecessors, and the different groups of insects, natural science in France, aided in no small fish, birds, and mammalia, will be placed in degree by the report on certain questions an orderly sequence. Their series being limrelative to the naturalization of useful animals ited to acclimatizable species of utility or or by M. Isidore Geoffrey St. Hilaire, published nament, is necessarily limited in extent, and at the request of the Minister of Agriculture, will present great lacunæ, if erroneously gave birth to the Imperial Zoological Société | looked at as a representation of the whole d'Acclimatation, which has been so univer- zoological system. But the principle of orsally received and supported, that its muster der even in this restricted application is ir.firoll is now perfectly cosmopolite, and includes already fourteen sovereigns, with working members in every country in Europe, and many beyond its limits. The activity which has affiliated half a dozen branch societies throughout the departments of France; the introduction of the yak, by M. Montigny; One of the most remarkable impressions the acclimatization of two species of silk moth created by a visit to our own well-stocked and the production of a fertile hybrid between | Zoological Garden is the wonderful capacity

nitely more instructive to the public, as well as more convenient in management, than the miscellaneous chaos which assimilated the earlier zoological establishments to the wandering menageries that used to perambulate the country.

of certain groups of animals individually na- | that in the woodlands of Central Europe, and tives of many climates, to adapt themselves thence eastward to the Carpathians, this noble to one which differs so essentially from any of beast is in his home. No one regrets having their own. We have, for example, the Poly-red-deer in Scotland, the western verge of nesian Sandwich Island goose, the Australian their geographical limit, notwithstanding their swan goose, the South African shieldrake, reduced heads; and being content with such the East and West African spurwings, the heads as we can grow there, why hesitate to South American chloephage, the North Amer- add other species which might thrive at least ican summer duck, and the Chinese mandarin, as well and enhance the interest of the forest all living side by side and most of them breeda hundred-fold ? ing there. In the little guidebook, drawn up by the late and present secretaries, we find a list of forty species of water-fowl, which seem to be subjected to nearly the same treatment, regardless of their origin. And large as is this list, it might, doubtless, be greatly increased. We have all the ostriches, the South American, Australian, Malasian, and African; we have the little Australian grass parrots, living with the Bengalee copsychus and the North American quail; the New Zealand flightless weka, by the side of the tiger bittern from Nicaragua; we have the Australian bower bird, and the Honduras turkey in the same aviary; we have the South American tapirs in the next box to the Nubian leucoryx and the South African elands. The great Wapiti deer of Canada adjoins the wilde-beeste on one side, and the Persian deer on the other; and vis-à-vis to the zebras lives the golden barasingha of Assam. The obvious conclusion from these facts is, that if properly treated in suitable localities, the greater part of the ruminants, gallinaceous birds, and water-fowl of the known world, may be as certainly acclimatized in Europe as the fallow-deer, the pheasant, the pea-fowl, and the turkey.

The red-deer marches on the shores of the Black Sea with a grand stag of grayer color, with a longer skull, a whiter rump, and heavier horn, which probably extends through the mountains of Asia Minor, and certainly ranges along the Caucasus through Persia to the Valley of Kashmir, if not still further to Nipal. We are told in the "Guide to the Zoological Gardens," p. 48., that Sir John M'Neil brought the first living specimens of this splendid animal to England in the year 1841. But it appears that his importation became extinct from accident or insufficient management, the last of the lot having died at Knowsley somewhere about 1849. These animals were brought from Persia with immense trouble and expense which might have been avoided; for during the Russian war their western limit was discovered, and the animals which the Zoological Society now possesses, were obtained from Circassia, and Mr. Burckhardt Barker has sent home a head from Cilicia. Admiral Dundas having given the old male and female to Lord Ducie, they remained for some time at Tortworth, where three fawns were produced, before his lordship gave them to the society. The oldest of this acclimatized stock have begun to breed in the Zoolog

Let us take the deer for example. How ical Garden at Bristol, and there is therefore many

"Miles of fertile ground,

With wall and tower are girded round," in the deer parks of England? How many hundreds of thousands of acres are covered by the deer forests of Scotland? And in all this territory, with all this luxury of sporting domains, our great proprietors have but the red-deer, the fallow-deer, and the roe. We trust it may be said without excessive offence to our Highland friends, that the red-deer lives almost always under unnatural conditions in Scotland; compare a head of any age in Harris, or even the finest head in Blair Athol or Breadalbane, with a head of sixty-four points from the Odenwald, and you will see THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. 445

every prospect of a herd being rapidly established. At all events, the nearer approach of the species to Europe having been proved by the fact of its existing on the shore of the Black Sea, which was before unknown, there can be no insuperable difficulty as to future importations.

Eastward of the Persian Deer, Maral, Gookoobee, Hungul, or by whatever name it is known in the different provinces of its wide empire, we find the Shou, a mighty beast, who dwells in the forests of Thibet, and stretches perhaps through Northern China to the Kamschatkan Sea. So vast he is, that when the first spoils were brought to Mr. Hodgton at Katmandoo, he thought the Amer

The same may be said of many of the antelopes. The largest, the heaviest, and altogether the most useful, is the canna, or eland, and its congener the jingli-janga of the Gambia. The eland is the gibier par excellence of the South African wilderness; his brisket is "the dainty bit they set before the king.” Every travelling sportsman in Caffraria agrees upon the fine quality of this meat, and a trial made in England in the beginning of last year, under very unfavorable circumstances, fully confirms all that they have said; for the eland is no longer exclusively African. In the catalogue of the animals living at Knowsley, when the late Earl of Derby died in 1851, figured five elands, two males and three females, one of which had been born there. The Zoological Society succeeded to this little herd by bequest. The noble collector had been their president for more than twenty years; he had witnessed the decline of the establishment in the Regent's Park to all but inanition in 1847 with regret, and had rejoiced in the subsequent resuscitation which the council in their last report have candidly and handsomely acknowledged to be due to the exertion and ability of their former secretary, Mr. Mitchell.* Desirous of marking his sympathy with this improved management, Lord Derby directed that whatever group of animals should be considered most eligible, for the purpose of acclimatization, at the time of his death, should be transferred from the Knowsley collection in its entirety to the Society's possession. By the advice of Mr. Mitchell the elands were most judiciously chosen, and the result has justified all the expectations which he formed of them. The

ican wapiti had crossed the Aleutian chain, scarcely one which would not adapt itself to and wandered into Central Asia. To trans- our seasons. port a wild deer from the plateau of Thibet to Western Europe, seems endless work, but it is not impossible. Sir Jung Bahadoor, in his memorable journey to England nine years ago, was greatly interested by various visits to the Zoological Gardens-he went there on the very first day after his arrival in London -and he offered to present to the society any or all of the Nipalese animals which they chose to accept at the British residency in Katmandoo, including his great elephant, said to be the fastest and handsomest in Asia, with his mahout. The present financial position of the society is sufficiently flourishing to admit of their soliciting the renewal of this offer, which they then thought it prudent to decline. In Nipal and in Assam is found the golden barasingha (Cervus duvaucellii), which is already breeding in the Regent's Park alongside the wapiti and hungul. There is a spirited woodcut after Wolf in the "Garden Guide," which gives a good idea of the head this noble species carries. While golden-colored deer are in our thoughts let us not forget that at the opposite side of the world, in Yucatan, or in the countries adjoining, there lives a deer nearly as large as the barasingha, of which the American Fur Company sometimes has skins: a golden deer as well, but redderjust as we see the orange sunset deeper than the pale gold of morning. This deer is doubtless of the North American form, without brow antlers (Cariacus), of which the halfdozen known species would establish themselves in Europe without the slightest difficulty, just as we may expect to see the South American Blastocerus paludosus, which extends from Buenos Ayres to Patagonia, propngated from the pair given to the Zoological Society by Mr. Christie, now her majesty's minister in Brazil, when he was plenipotentiary to the Argentine republic. A charming little hardy species this, which is singularly marked with a white circle round the eye. Cross the Andes and we have a roe as large as a fallow deer, the gemul of Molina, perhaps, although he called it Equus bisulcus: this is a most desirable species, and graceful no doubt as our own. There is, also, the Tartarian roe, which, living in Siberia, would not lose by transplantation to the west. Out of forty-two species of deer, exclusive of the little mouse deer of tropical India, there is

These sheets were already in the hands of the printer when the deplorable event occurred which so painfully terminated the honorable and useful ready rendered to natural history in England, he career of this gentleman. The services he had alwas about to continue on a more extended scale in within a very few days of his untimely end, he France; and in a letter we received from him assured us that the new Garden of Acclimatization in the Bois de Boulogne, which had been placed tendence, would realize and surpass the fondest by the emperor of the French under his superindreams of the naturalist. We owe it to the memory of Mr. Mitchell to state, that we have chiefly derived from himself whatever may be most worthy of notice in the pages now submitted to the reader, and that the present state of the science of the acdevoted, had no better or surer guide than bis exclimatization of animals, to which this article is perience.