tails which could throw any light upon the then condition of the race which inhabited it, and whose barren possession is now being brought rapidly to a close. It is remarkable that this race, which has been so non-progressive physically-never having learned by experience or profited by observation should nevertheless possess a high degree of poetic fancy, strongly imbued with the supernatural cast of thought which is so peculiarly oriental. Some of their allegories are beautifully sustained, and give evidence of much intellectual invention, as in the following:

THE MAGIC CIRCLE IN THE PRAIRIE.

Ayoung hunter found a circular path one day in the prairie, without any trail leading to or from it. It was smooth and well beaten, and looked as if footsteps had trod in it recently. This puzzled and amazed him. He hid himself in the grass near by see what this wonder should betoken. After wait. ing a short time, he thought he heard music in the air. He listened more attentively, and could clearly distinguish the sound, but nothing could be seen but a mere speck, like something almost out of sight. In a short time it became plainer and plainer, and the music sweeter and sweeter. The object descended rapidly, and when it came near. it proved to be a car, or basket of osier, containing twelve beautiful girls, who each had a kind of a little drum, which was struck with the grace of an angel. It came down in the centre of the ring, and the instant it touched the ground they leapt out, and began to dance in the circle, at the same instant striking a shining ball. The young hunter had seen many a dance, but none that equalled this. The music was sweeter than ever he had heard, but nothing could equal the beauty of the girls. He admired them all, but was most struck with the youngest. He determined to seize her, and after getting near the circle, without giving alarm, made the attempt; but the moment they espied a man, they all nimbly leapt into the basket, and were drawn back to the skies. Poor Algon, the hunter, was completely foiled. He stood gazing upward as they withdrew, till there was nothing left, and then began to bewail his fate. They are gone forever, and I shall see them no more." He returned to his lodge, but he could not forget this wonder. His mind preyed upon it all night, and the next day he went back to the prairie, but in order to conceal his design, he turned himself into an opossum. He had not waited long when he saw the wicker car descend, and heard the same sweet music. They commenced the same sportive dance, and seemed even more beautiful and graceful than before. He crept slowly towards the ring, but the instant the sisters saw him they were startled, and sprang into the car. It rose but to a short distance, when one of the eldest spoke: Perhaps," said she, “it is come to show us how the game is played by mortals." "Oh, no!" the youngest replied; "quick, let us ascend." And all joining in a chant, they arose out of sight. Algon returned to his own lodge again; but the night seemed a very long one, and he went back betimes the next day. He reflected upon the plan to follow to secure success. He found an old stump near by in which there were a number of mice; he thought their small form would not create alarm, and accordingly assumed the shape of a mouse. He first brought the stump and set it up near the ring. The sisters came down and resumed their sport. But see." cried the youngest sister, "that stump was not there before." She ran affrighted towards the car. They only smiled, and gathering round the stump, searched it in jest, when out ran the mice and Algon among the rest. They killed them all but one, which was pursued by the youngest sister; but just as she had raised her stick to kill it, the form of the hunter arose, and he clasped his prize in his arms. The other eleven sprang to their osier basket and were drawn up to the skies. He exerted still to please his bride and win her affections. He wiped the tears from her eyes. He related his adventures in the chase. He dwelt upon the charms of life on the earth. He was incessant in his attentions, and picked out the way for her to walk, as he led her gently

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towards his lodge. He felt his heart glow with joy as she entered it, and from that moment he was the happiest of men. Winter and summer passed rapidly away, and their happiness was increased by the addition of a beautiful boy to their lodge circle. She was, in truth, the daughter of one of the stars, and as the scenes of earth began to fall upon her sight, she sighed to revisit her father. But she was obliged to hide these feelings from her husband. She remembered the charm that would carry her up, and took occasion while Algon was engaged in the chase, to construct a wicker basket, which she kept concealed. In the meantime, she collected such rarities from the earth as she thought would please her father, as well as the most dainty kinds of food. When all was in readiness, she went out one day while Algon was absent, to the charmed ring, taking her little son with her. As soon as they got into the car she commenced her song, and the basket rose. As the song was wafted by the winds, it caught her husband's ear. It was a voice which he well knew, and he instantly ran to the prairie. But he could not reach the ring before he saw his wife and child ascend. He lifted up his voice in loved appeals, but they were unavailing. The basket went up. He watched it till it became a small speck, and finally vanished in the sky. He then bent down his head to the ground, and was miserable. Algon bewailed his loss through a long winter and a long summer, but he found no relief. He mourned his wife's loss sorely, but his son's still more. In the meantime, his wife had reached her home in the stars, and almost forgot, in the blissful employments there, that she had left a husband on the earth. She was reminded of this by the presence of her son, who, as he grew up, became anxious to visit the scene of his birth. His grandfather said to his daughter one day," Go, my child, and take your son down to his father, and ask him to come up and live with us. But tell him to bring along a specimen of each kind of bird he kills in the chase." She accordingly took the boy and descended. Algon, who was ever near the enchanted spot, heard her voice as she came down, in the sky. His heart beat with impatience as he saw her form and that of her son's, and they were soon clasped in his arms. He heard the message of the star, and began to hunt with the greatest activity, that he might collect the present. He spent whole nights, as well as days, in searching for every curious and beautiful bird or animal. He only preserved a tail, foot, or wing of each, to identify the species; and when all was ready, they went to the circle, and were carried up. Great joy was manifested on their arrival at the starry plains. The star-chief invited all his people to a feast, and when they had assembled, he proclaimed aloud that each one might take of the earthly gifts such as he liked best. A very strange confusion immediately arose. chose a foot, some a wing, some a tail, and some a claw. Those who selected tails or claws were changed into animals, and ran off, and others assumed the form of birds, and flew away. Algon chose a white hawk's feather, which was his totem. His wife and son followed his example, when each one became a white hawk. He spread his wings, and followed by his wife and son, descended to the earth, where his species are still to be found.

Some

THE TEAR.

FROM THE FRENCH.

A TEAR will sometimes bliss impart
To him who flies from pleasure's charms;
The wise man finds it in his heart,

The warrior in the noise of arms;
The lover owes it to sweet thought;
The young girl to her jewelled hair:
"Tis nowhere, by the vicious sought,
But to the virtuous, everywhere!

THE MINT.

THE want of a mint in New-York has been apparent for a great many years, and many attempts have been made to have one established, but without success. The failure of the attempt at the last session of Congress, is ascribed altogether to the want of practical knowledge on the part of members of Congress, and the strange misapprehension of the whole question that many of them betrayed. Thus it was freely alleged, that a mint in New-York would aggrandize that city; and Western members stated, that they "did not wish to do anything to add to the already great advantages possessed by the commercial metropolis." The fact is, that New-York is becoming rich at the expense of the Western people, concerned in California, simply because there is no mint here. It is the business of the government to facilitate the interests of all parties; when it fails to do so, or confers special privileges on any class, it is at the expense of the many. If Western members of Congress had got up in their places, and proposed a bill to tax all California gold which arrives in NewYork, $2 per ounce, for the benefit of New-York brokers, they would have been denounced at once from one end of the Union to the other; and yet, by defeating the mint bill, they in effect passed such a law, and did so under the pretence, that, to erect a mint in New-York, was to aggrandize that city. A little reflection will make this perfectly obvious.

The production of California has hitherto been almost exclusively gold. On the discovery of its existence in the soil, crowds thronged thither to procure it. They carried thither none of the comforts, and but few of the necessaries of life; as they possessed themselves of the metal in the shape of dust, that became the medium for which they procured food and other supplies, which soon found their way thither. When five barrels of flour could be bought for an ounce of gold, in Ohio, and sold for five ounces in California, the extremes of price indicated the scarcity of gold in Ohio, and its abundance in California, and vice versa in respect of wheat. The number of persons digging in California gradually increased, until the number reached 170,000, by the latest returns. The quantity of gold which each of these must carry about him, or hold at his command in that country, where it requires more of it to purchase the most ordinary necessaries, is much larger than the amount of money required per head of the population in other countries. A small bag of gold dust will be worth $500, and be no great stock to the supply of individual wants. The most accurate authorities calculate the amount so retained in the country at 80 millions; and the best data give 64 millions as the value of the exports up to January 1st, 1851, making together 144 millions of gold produced. When the miners began to pay out this dust for commodities, it was necessary to fix some rate at which it would be taken.

Pure gold is said to be twenty-four carats fine. Its standard mint value is then $20.672 per ounce, but beyond that it usually bears a premium of from six to seven per cent.; the cost and trouble of refining enhancing its value to that amount, say $21.92 cts. per ounce.

It is usually found alloyed, a portion of the mass being silver. The

fineness of the gold depends upon that fact. If 100 parts are silver, and 900 parts gold, the fineness is twenty-one carats and nineteen thirty-seconds of a carat, and an ounce is worth $18.605. The United States coin are 900 thousandths fine, and of the remaining tenth, one-half, 13 grains, is silver, and one-half copper. Now, the bullion found in California, when properly cleaned, will average nine tenths pure gold and one tenth silver. The gold which reached the United States Mint in 1848, was found in lots of $40,000 to be worth $18.5 before melting, and $18.50 per ounce afterwards; the loss by the process was 2 per cent. Private assays in California produced the same result. Nevertheless this bullion, worth $18.5, was sold by the miners at from $15 to $15 per ounce-giving a profit of nearly $3 per ounce to the brokers and dealers; subsequently the price advanced to $16 per ounce, at which it remains. Gradually, however, the miners finding that they could not get the full value of the bullion, took less pains in cleaning it or in freeing it from the black sand and quartz, and instead of losing but 24 per cent. in melting, late assays show that it loses 8 per cent., making a difference of nearly $1 per ounce. The merchants, however, continue to receive all at $16 per ounce; select the best to send to the mint, where it will realize $18 per ounce, and pay out the refuse in trade at $16 per ounce. Thus the currency of California suffers all the evils of a varying depreciation of unknown extent. Under these circumstances it has been estimated, that the bullion exported from California, say 4,000,000 ounces, has been sold by the miners at an average of $2 per ounce less than its value; or, in other words, the want of a mint there has cost them in gold $8,000,000. In addition to this loss, they are exposed to all the manifold evils which flow from an unstable and depreciating currency.

A great deal of coin has been sent to California, it is true; but it is a known fact, that it is entirely absorbed by the gambling-houses. It is indispensable to their operations, and, moreover, will not circulate in trade, for the reason that those who have goods to sell will not take coin in payment at its legal value at about $18 50 per ounce, when they can get bullion at the current value of $16 per ounce, or, at most, $17, including the earthy matter. The difference between the current value and the mint value, is the shave which the wealthy dealers make at the expensə of the workers. Hence, what are called "influential men," had no real desire to see a mint at San Francisco, when they profited so largely by its absence.

Of the bullion exported from San Francisco, about $32,000,000, say 2,000,000 ounces, arrived at New-York, where there was still no mint. The bullion was sent down from the mountains to San Francisco, and found no means of coinage. It travelled 6,000 miles to New-York, and still found no chance of coinage, but further expense and delay were to be encountered. Of the 2,000,000 ounces arrived there, probably one-half belonged to large dealers, who had received it from miners at $16 per ounce, and these persons could afford the delay and expense of sending it to Philadelphia and back, to be coined at a profit to them of $21 per ounce; but the other 1,000,000 ounces were in the hands of persons who belonged in every state of the Union, north, east, west and south, all anxious to get home to their families as soon as possible. They had retained possession of the dust, sacrificing as little as possible, in order to turn it into coin in New-York; but having arrived in that city, they found themselves no better off than

when in the Sierra Nevada. A person belonging in Ohio, has, when he arrives in New-York, three modes of procedure by which to convert his gold into money. He can sell it to the brokers in Wall-street for $17 per ounce, well cleaned. He can go to Philadelphia and stay there on expense until it shall be coined, and that requires an average of three months; or he can send it to Philadelphia through a broker, who will charge commission, freight, insurance, &c., and when the certificate of deposit shall be received, it may be discounted at 7 per ct. per ann., having probably 60 days to run. As nearly all the returned Californians hold small sums, the average of all these necessary charges would be $2 per ounce, which would be rather more than the profit which the brokers make when it is sold to them. Thus New-York dealers have made out of the mines $1,500,000 at least, because there has been no mint here. Had there been an adequate mint in New-York, the moment the miners landed they could have deposited their gold, taken coin for the bullion at $18 per ounce, and left for home on the same day, carrying out of New-York at least $1,500,000 more than was actually the case, and this amount was left in Wall-street as a profit to the brokers. The refusal to pass the bill for a mint, in New-York was thus in effect the levying a tax of $2 per ounce on all the gold owned in the western country, for the benefit of New-York brokers. While the majority of the holders of small sums, those who were diggers, and arrived at New-York on their way to their own homes in the South and West, were thus subjected to a toll of $2 per ounce, the wealthy holders of large sums were accommodated in a better manner. Thus the gold bill of 1837, section 31, restricted the amount of coin and bullion in the mint at any one time to $1,000,000. It occurred under the operation of the present tariff, that the coin received for customs, accumu lated in the New-York Assistant Treasury, in June, 1850, to $4,632,371, while at the same time a large amount of bullion was waiting coinage at the mint. Under these circumstances, Mr. James G. King, member of a banking house in New-York, and also a representative in Congress for NewJersey, brought in a bill to permit the mint to receive an unlimited amount of bullion, and to issue certificates therefor, which certificates should be paid out of the coin in the United States Assistant Treasury, New-York; that is to say, that the United States government should buy bullion of the large houses to the extent of its means. The amount accumulated under this law was as follows:

Thus, $6,870,000 was purchased by the government, between June and March, at the mint price, mostly of those who had become possessed of the gold from the mines at $16 per ounce. The profit of this was to them not less than $1,000,000. Another project, in the shape of a bill to authorize the collector at San Francisco to receive ingots at the mint rates did not succeed; thus, the gold purchased of the miners, or received from them for goods at $16 per ounce, was to be melted into bars, called "ingots," and these were to have been turned in to the government at the