ment, Dr. Weatherhead, has had the bodies of several Ornithorhynchi transmitted to him from New Holland, in one of which the ova are preserved; establishing, along with other curious circumstances ascertained, the extraordinary fact that this animal, which combines the bird and quadruped together in its outward form, lays eggs and hatches them like the one, and rears and suckles them like the other.

THE WEEK.

of the Church of Eng.and, no more are we; therefore we hope that thou wilt grant us the same liberty which thou allowest thyself." This most dishonest and malig nant travesty has been copied by subsequent historians. In 1668 Penn first appeared publicly as a preacher in favour of Quakerism and against the Established Church, for which he was committed to the Tower. He endured an imprisonment of seven months; and then, having obtained his liberty, proceeded a second time to Ireland, and recommenced preaching. In 1670 we find him again in London, where, having been brought before the lord-mayor on the charge of illegal preaching OCTOBER 14.-The anniversary of the birth of William in the streets, he was afterwards tried at the Old Penn, one of the greatest names among the early Bailey, and, although acquitted by the jury, was by English Quakers, and immortal as the founder of the the scandalous tyranny of the time once more sent Colony of Pennsylvania. He was born at London to prison, and detained in confinement till his father in 1644. His father was the celebrated Admiral Sir secretly purchased his release. He then proceeded in William Penn, who greatly distinguished himself in the company with the celebrated George Fox to France and war against the Dutch in the reign of Charles II. At Germany, in both of which countries the two friends the age of sixteen Penn was sent to Christ Church, laboured unsparingly in the propagation of their opiOxford; and it was while at the University that he was nions. The serious illness of his father however soon converted to the tenets of the Friends by a discourse recalled him to England, where on his arrival he found which he heard from one of their preachers. The the Admiral on his death-bed, but very anxious not to course of conduct which he adopted in consequence of leave the world without being reconciled to his son. his new views, exposed him to a great deal of harsh Penn indeed tells us in one of his works that he found treatment from the authorities of the University; and his father now become almost a Quaker as well as himhe at length returned home. His father then, in the self. The death of Sir William left him in possession hope of curing him of what he conceived to be his of landed property to the value of £1500 a year, befanatical notions, sent him to travel in France and the sides a claim upon the Crown to the amount of £16,000 Low Countries. On his return, he entered as a student more. He now therefore married, and settled at Rickof law at Lincoln's Inn, but was soon after sent over by mansworth in Hertfordshire. Finding it difficult or his father to Ireland to take charge of some landed pro- impossible to obtain payment of his debt from the perty which the Admiral possessed in that country. He Crown in money, he at length petitioned for a grant of was at this time in his twenty-second year. His visit to land in North America; and after some delay he obIreland completed his conversion to Quakerism. Hay-tained a large tract of country lying immediately to ing met there with the same preacher who had made the west of New Jersey, by a charter dated the 1st of the first impression upon him at Oxford, he was soon March, 1681. The same year he left England to take brought to join himself openly and without reserve to possession of his purchase, accompanied by numerous the sect whose opinions he shared, and to adopt all the families of his own persuasion, to colonize the new terpeculiar habits by which they were distinguished. His ritory. One of the first steps which the incipient lefather upon this sent for him home; but he was now too gislator took was to enter into a treaty with the Indian decidedly convinced of the necessity of persevering in chiefs of the neighbourhood, to whom, having assembled the course to which he had committed himself to be dis- them around him under an old ash-tree, he deliberately posed to make any concession or compromise, and ac- explained by an interpreter the several articles which he cordingly it is said, on his first appearance before the old proposed, that each might be formally assented to after Admiral, he confounded him by advancing with his hat it was fully understood. The late Mr. West, himself a on, and addressing him with the singular salutation, "I native of Pennsylvania, has painted this scene, which am very glad, friend, to see thee in good health." Sir took place on the spot where the town of Philadelphia William thought his son had gone mad, and ordered now stands, and which future events have invested both him to the door. Such is the story, told originally, we to Americans and to civilized man in every clime with believe, by Voltaire; but it may possibly be after all little so deep an interest. The remainder of Penn's life more than a fiction of that accomplished jester. The was chiefly spent in superintending the growth and grossest misrepresentations of the conduct and lan-government of the colony which he had thus founded, guage of Penn and his brethren are to be found in and which he had the happiness of seeing every day graver works than the one in which this anecdote ap- become more populous and flourishing. He returned pears. Let one example suffice. On the accession of to England in 1683; and, on the accession of James II. James II. the Quakers, among many other public bodies, about two years afterwards, became a great favourpresented an address to the new monarch, of which the ite at court. On the Revolution, indeed, his intimate principal object was to crave toleration for their inoffen- connexion with the deposed monarch brought him into sive and peaceful tenets. It contained no singularity of such suspicion, that his American colony was seized by expression whatever, beginning, "Whereas it hath the Crown, and he was obliged to conceal himself for pleased Almighty God (by whom kings reign) to take some years. It was not till 1696 that his possessions hence the late King Charles the Second, and to preserve and their government were restored to him. thee peaceably to succeed; we thy subjects heartily this, his wife having died, he married a second time, and desire that the Giver of all good and perfect gifts may in 1699 he returned to America, taking his family along please to endue thee with wisdom and mercy in the use with him. Here he was received with joy and blessings, of thy great power, to His glory, the King's honour, both by the British colonists and by the Indians. After and the kingdom's good"-and proceeding throughout residing in Pennsylvania about two years, and taking an in the same dignified and perfectly respectful and unpre-affecting farewell of its population, who regarded him alsuming style. Yet this address, the historian Echard, most as a father, he again set sail for England. The close professing to transcribe its exact words, has thought of Penn's life was clouded and distressed by pecuniary proper to give in the following ridiculous form; "We embarrassments in which he had become involved; and are come to testify our sorrow for the death of our good in 1712 he sustained a stroke of apoplexy, which greatly friend Charles, and our joy for thy being made our enfeebled both his body and his mind. He languished, governor. We are told thou art not of the persuasion | however, under the consequences of this attack for six

Soon after

years longer, dying on the 30th of July, 1718, at his seat to suppose that to him we are really indebted for at Ruscomb in Berkshire.

the invention of the art of mezzotinto engraving, of which Prince Rupert has generally had the credit. Wren was created LL.D. by the University of Oxford in 1661, and was knighted in 1674. In 1680 he was elected to the Presidency of the Royal Society, and in 1685 he entered Parliament as representative of the borough of Plympton. While superintending the erection of the cathedral of St. Paul's all the salary that Wren received was only £200 a year. He was also used in other respects by the Commissioners with extreme illiberality and meanness; and at last the ingratitude of his country, or rather of his times, was consummated by his dismissal in 1718 from his place of Surveyor of Public Works. He was at this time in the eighty-sixth year of his age. This great and good man, died at Hampton Court on the 25th of February, 1723, in the ninety-first year of his age. His remains were accom panied by a splendid attendance to their appropriate resting-place under the noble edifice which his genius had reared; and over the grave was fixed a tablet with the inscription in Latin (since placed in front of the organ)," Beneath is laid the builder of this church and city, Christopher Wren, who lived above ninety years, not for himself but for the public good. Reader, if thou seekest for his monument, look around." Amongst the London churches which were built from the designs of Sir C. Wren, one of the most beautiful, as to its interior, is that of St. Stephen's, Wallbrook, of which the following cut may give some notion.

OCTOBER 20.-On this day in the year 1632, exactly two
centuries ago, was born Sir Christopher Wren, the cele-
brated architect of St. Paul's. His birth-place was East
Knoule, in Wiltshire, of which parish his father was rector.
He early gave proof of that ingenuity and aptitude for
scientific pursuits by which he was afterwards so emi-
nently distinguished, having in his thirteenth year in-
vented a new astronomical instrument, and soon after-
wards various other mathematical contrivances. At the
age of fourteen he was sent to Wadham College, Oxford,
and here his remarkable proficiency in various branches
of learning, and especially in the mathematics, soon made
him known to various persons of distinction and influ-
ence. Young as he was at this time, he was one of the
original members of the club which was formed at Oxford
in 1648 for philosophical discussion and experiments, and
which eventually gave rise to the Royal Society. In
1657 he was chosen Professor of Astronomy at
Gresham College; and on the Restoration was appointed
to the Savilian professorship of Astronomy at Oxford.
It was very soon after this that he was first called upon
to exercise his genius in architecture (a study, however,
which had previously engaged a good deal of his atten-
tion) by being appointed assistant to the Surveyor-Ge-
neral, Sir John Denham, who, in truth, neither knew,
nor pretended to know, anything of the duties of the
office which he held. This led to Wren's employment
on the work on which his popular fame principally rests,
the re-building of the cathedral of St. Paul's after the
great fire. The erection of this noble edifice occupied
him for thirty-five years; but neither prevented him
from designing, during the same period, and superin-
tending the completion of many other buildings, nor
even interrupted his pursuit of the most abstract branches
of science. We are accustomed to speak of Sir Christo-London,
pher Wren only as a great architect; but he was also, in
truth, one of the first mathematicians that England has
ever produced. Among the host of eminent culti-
vators of mathematical physics by whom that age was
distinguished, there is perhaps scarcely a name, with
the exception of that of Newton, which deserves to
be placed before his. His mechanical inventions were
very numerous, and many of them of sterling in-
genuity. Among other things there is every reason

The Office of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is at 59, Lincoln's-Inn Fields.

LONDON:-CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL EAST.

Shopkeepers and Hawkers may be supplied Wholesale by the following
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SIMMS.

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SIMMS.

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The

all the islands and continents of the torrid zone.
shoals which surround these coasts are covered with
marine plants; and in these water pastures, which are
near enough to the surface to be readily seen by the
naked eye in calm weather, a prodigious abundance of
animals, mostly amphibious, feed, and amongst them
multitudes of tortoises. Dampier, the old voyager,
describing the Gallapagos Islands, says,
"There are
good wide channels between these islands fit for ships to
pass; and in some places shoal water, where there grows
plenty of turtle grass; therefore these islands are plenti-
fully stored with sea turtle." The tortoise, whether of
the land or water species, is, as most of our readers
know, protected, both on the back and belly, by a hollow
shield, which is open at each end, for the issuing of
the head and fore-feet at one time, and the tail and
hind-feet at another.

It is not improbable that some of our readers, who re- | food. It is found, in great numbers, on the coasts of side near a great commercial port, may have seen the landing of a cargo of strange-looking animals, which, turned upon their backs, appear the most helpless of creatures, and in this condition may have naturally led the spectator to imagine that they are incapable of removing from place to place, and have therefore little enjoyment of existence. These creatures, to use the language of the epicure, are fine "lively turtles"-the term "lively" being understood to mean that they have suffered little from a long voyage-that they are in good health-and that the "green fat," the glory of aldermen, is in the most perfect state of excellence. Without asking our readers to feel any very strong interest in the prospects of high living which the arrival of a cargo of turtles offers to many individuals who are somewhat too much inclined to set a high value upon the gratifications of the palate, we may be able to satisfy a rational curiosity as to the habits of these singular animals, which offer some higher benefits to mankind than that of furnishing the most costly luxury of a city feast.

The turtle and the tortoise belong to the same group of reptiles-in fact the turtle is a tortoise which principally inhabits the water, and is only found occasionally on the land. The two varieties represented in the above plate are the Green Tortoise (a), and the Loggerhead Tortoise (b). The former is the species chiefly used for VOL. I.

The upper shield is termed the back-plate, or buckler; the lower shield the breast-plate. The middle of the buckler, in most of the species, is covered by numerous pieces or plates resembling horn in texture and composition; and the beautiful substance known by the name of tortoise-shell is obtained principally from a small species called the Hawksbill. The feet of the marine tor toises are much longer than those of the land, and their toes are united by a membrane, so that they swim with

20

great facility. The head, feet, and tail are covered with over on their backs, not giving them time either to desmall scales. The jaws of the wide mouth are not pro-fend themselves, or to blind their assailants, by throwing vided with teeth, but the jaw-bones are very hard and up the sand with their fins, When very large, it restrong, and being at the same time very rough, the ani- quires the efforts of several men to turn them over, and mal is enabled to consume its vegetable food with ease, they must often employ the assistance of handspikes or and at the same time to crush the shell-fish on which levers for that purpose. The buckler of this species is the marine species also feed. The green tortoise attains so flat as to render it impossible for the animal to recover an enormous size and weight; some individuals mea- the recumbent posture, when it is once turned on its suring six or seven feet in length from the tip of the back. nose to the extremity of the tail, by three or four feet broad, and weighing as much as eight hundred pounds. Dampier says, "I heard of a monstrous green turtle once taken at Port Royal, in the bay of Campeachy, that was four feet deep from the back to the belly, and the belly six feet broad. Captain Rocky's son, of about nine or ten years of age, went in it (meaning in the shell) as in a boat, on board his father's ship about a quarter of a mile from the shore." The green tortoise commonly weighs from two to three hundred pounds.

The instinct which leads the female turtle to the shore to lay her eggs, exposes her to the danger of becoming the prey of man. She deposits her eggs on the loose sand, and abandons them at once to the chance, which approaches almost to a certainty in the southern hemisphere, that they will be hatched by the influence of the sun's rays. She digs, by means of her fore-feet, one or more holes about a foot wide and two feet deep, in which she usually deposits more than a hundred eggs. These eggs are round, and are two or three inches in diameter; they are covered with a membrane something like wet parchment. The female generally lays three times in each year, at intervals of about a fortnight or three weeks. They almost always go ashore in the night time, A loose sand being essential to the hatching of the eggs, the turtles frequent only particular shores; but these are often several hundred miles from their feeding places. The eggs are hatched in less than a month after they are laid; and in about eight or ten days the young reptiles crawl to the water. Few, however, reach their native element, in proportion to the number produced. They become the prey of sea-fowl and various quadrupeds of prey, The tiger is an especial enemy to the tortoise; but man is still more actively engaged in their destruction. The colFection of tortoise eggs forms one of the most important of the occupations of the Indians of the Orinoco. Humboldt has given a most interesting account of this branch of commerce, of which we shall furnish an abstract in a future number.

The wood-cut at the head of this article represents the manner in which the marine tortoises are caught on the coast of Cuba, and on parts of the South American continent. The Count de Lacepede, in his History of Oviporous Quadrupeds, has described the various modes in which the business of tortoise-catching is carried on; and we shall conclude this notice with an abstract of his account. It must be remarked that the turtle is a most important addition to the ordinary mode of victualling a ship; and that, therefore, the war in which the human race engages against them is rendered absolutely necessary by the wants of navigators. The turtles which are demanded in England for the gratification of a Juxurious appetite, constitute a very small number, when compared with those which offer an agreeable and salutary food to the hardy crews who are engaged in the commerce of the tropical seas.

pur

"In spite of the darkness which is chosen by the female tortoises for concealment when employed in laying their eggs, they cannot effectually escape from the suit of their enemies: the fishers wait for them on the shore, at the beginning of the night, especially when it is moonlight, and, either as they come from the sea, or as they return after laying their eggs, they either dispatch them with blows of a club, or turn them quickly

"A small number of fishers may turn over forty or fifty tortoises, full of eggs, in less than three hours. During the day, they are employed in securing those which they had caught in the preceding night. They cut them up, and salt the flesh and the eggs, Sometimes they may extract above thirty pints of a yellow or greenish oil from one large individual; this is employed for burning, or, when fresh, is used with different kinds of food. Sometimes they drag the tortoises they have caught, on their backs, to enclosures, in which they are reserved for occasional use.

"The tortoise fishers, from the West Indies and the Bahamas, who catch these animals on the coasts of Cuba and its adjoining islands, particularly the Caymanas, usually complete their cargoes in six weeks or two months; they afterwards return to their own islands, with the salted turtle, which is used for food both by the whites and the negroes. This salt turtle is in as great request in the American colonies, as the salted cod of Newfoundland is in many parts of Europe; and the fishing is followed by all these colonists, particularly by the British, in small vessels, on various parts of the coast of Spanish America, and the neighbouring desert islands.

"The green tortoise is likewise often caught at sea in calm weather, and in moon-light nights. For this purpose two men go together in a small boat, which is rowed by one of them, while the other is provided with a harpoon, similar to that used for killing whales. Whenever they discover a large tortoise, by the froth which it occasions on the water in rising to the surface, they hasten to the spot as quickly as possible, to prevent it from escaping. The harpooner immediately throws his harpoon with sufficient force to penetrate through the buckler to the flesh; the tortoise instantly dives, and the fisher gives out a line, which is fixed to the harpoon, and, when the tortoise is spent with loss of blood, it is hauled into the boat or on shore.

THE FLEMISH LANGUAGE.—No. 2.

PERHAPS our readers may not be unwilling to see a few more specimens of the Flemish language. It should be stated that this book of dialogues, from which our last specimens were taken, contains at the end a kind of manual of good manners, it being the opinion of the writer-" that youth have long been in want of a treatise on manners, which should be based upon our usages, and adapted to the state of our knowledge."

We give a few of the maxims of this Dutch Chesterfield for the use of those whom they may concern. Directions for behaviour at table :Het zoud neémt men met het punt van het mes, het welk inen aen zyn brood moet afvaegen.

You must take the salt with the point of your knife, after having wiped it on your bread.

We think so; and we also say with the Dutch Ches- | magnitude and real nature of comets, let us consider terfield—