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He had already

cognized him and received him well. brought several of his children into the United States, and had three of them at Mackinaw, when, in 1823, he determined to return to the Lake of the Woods for the others.

15. The Indians, it appears, manifested great unwillingness to allow the two young girls to be taken out of the country; and they opposed his endeavours, until, finally, with the assistance of Dr. M'Laughlin, he succeeded in removing the children. He appears to have felt but a little affection for the mother of his daughters, and wished her to remain in the country; but she, finding her efforts to keep her daughters unavailing, resolved to go with them.

16. They had passed Rainy Lake, and were at the Portage de l'Isle, in Bad River, when the wife induced an Indian, who was travelling with them, to shoot Tanner. She, it appears, bribed him with the promise of her eldest daughter. The poor man was near falling a victim to the plot his wife ran away with the Indian, took her daughters with her, and left him alone and wounded.

17. Fortunately, however, he was picked up by a canoe going to Rainy Lake: they conveyed him there-his daughters joined him, and, as he said, treated him with the ut most kindness. His wife proceeded down the river with her accomplice, who was said to have had a bad name, even among the Indians, previous to this circumstance.

ANCIENT BABYLON.

1. BABYLON, the capital of the Assyrian empire, was situated on the Euphrates, sixty miles south of Bagdad. It was founded by the first descendants of Noah, two thou sand two hundred and thirty-four years before Christ, greatly enlarged and embellished by Semiramis, the Assyrian queen, twelve hundred years before Christ, and raised to the greatest magnificence and splendour by Nebuchadnezzar. It was situated on both sides of the Euphrates, in a a fruitful soil.

large plain of a very deep and fruit complete square, sur

The

rounded with walls sixty miles in circumference. walls were of extraordinary strength, being eighty-seven feet broad, and three hundred and fifty feet high. They

were built of brick, and cemented by a kind of glutinous earth called bitumen, which had the quality of soon becoming as hard as stone; and were surrounded on the outside by an immense ditch.

3. These walls were accounted one of the seven wonders of the world. On each of the four sides of the square, were twenty-five gates, at equal distances; and at each corner was a strong tower, ten feet higher than the walls. The city was composed of fifty great streets, each fifteen miles long, and one hundred and fifty feet broad, proceeding from the twenty-five gates on each side, and crossing each other at right angles; besides four half streets, two hundred feet broad, surrounding the whole.

4. It was divided into six hundred and seventy-six squares, extending four and a half furlongs on each of their sides. The inner parts of the squares were used for gardens, pleasure-grounds, &c. At the two ends of the bridge over the Euphrates, were two magnificent palaces, which had a subterraneous communication with each other, by means of a vault or tunnel, under the bed of the river.

5. The new and larger palace is said to have been eight miles in circumference, and contained within it the famous hanging gardens. These gardens occupied a piece of ground, four hundred feet on every side, and consisted of large terraces, raised one above another, till they equalled in height the walls of the city. The ascent from one terrace to another was by means of steps ten feet wide; and the whole pile was sustained by vast arches, built upon other arches, and strengthened on each side by a solid wall twenty-two feet in thickness.

6. Within these arches were very spacious and splendid apartments. In order to form a pavement for supporting the soil, and confining the moisture of the garden, large flat stones, sixteen feet long and four broad, were, first of all, laid upon the top of the upper arches; over these was spread a layer of reeds, mixed with bitumen; upon this two rows of bricks closely cemented; and the whole covered with sheets of lead, upon which the earth or mould was laid to a sufficient depth for the largest trees to take firm

root.

7. In the upper terrace was a large reservoir, into which water was raised from the river by means of a species of engine, and kept there to be distributed to all parts of the

garden. Near the old palace stood the temple of Belus; and in the middle of the temple was an immense tower, six hundred feet square at the base. It consisted of eight distinct parts or towers, each seventy-five feet high, placed one above the other, gradually decreasing towards the top like a pyramid, and rising to the height of six hundred feet. 8. The ascent to the summit was accomplished by spiral stairs, winding eight times round the whole. In the dif ferent stories were chapels, or temples for the worship of Baal. In this temple of Belus, or, as some say, on its summit, was a golden image forty feet in height, and equal in value to three and a half millions sterling. This tower is understood to have been the old tower of Babel, but greatly enlarged by Nebuchadnezzar.

9. Such are some of the statements recorded in ancient authors respecting this extraordinary city. There is, however, considerable diversity in their descriptions, and some of the above particulars are probably greatly exaggerated. This ancient and renowned capital of the eastern world was taken by Cyrus five hundred and thirty-eight years before Christ, after which its glories rapidly decayed, till at length it became entirely desolate, according to the prediction of Isaiah: "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah."

10. The extraordinary ruins of this city appear to have but little excited the notice of modern travellers, till a few years since, when they were examined by Captain Frederick, and also by Mr. Rich, the British resident at Bagdad. The reason of the great structures not being found in such a state of preservation as those of Egypt, appears to be chiefly owing to the defect of the materials.

11. Instead of the granite and porphyry, which the banks of the Nile so abundantly afforded, the Babylonians built of brick, cemented with bitumen. The walls thus formed, not only moulder from lapse of time, but being easily loosened by art, they are carried away for the purpose of building elsewhere. Babylon thus became a great quarry for the construction of the modern cities in its neighbourhood. 12. Yet after the depredations of many ages, its grandeur is still attested, not indeed by the most imperfect remnant of any of its former edifices, but by the heaps of earth, bricks and rubbish piled as it were in mountain masses,

and scarcely at first distinguishable from elevations raised by the hand of nature.

Note. The Euphrates is a large river of Turkey in Asia. It rises in Armenia, in 40° north latitude, and enters the Gulf of Persia. The general course of the Euphrates is south-east. The Nile is a large and celebrated river of Africa. It rises in the Mountains of the Moon, in 9° north latitude, and falls into the Mediterranean Sea west of the Isthmus of Suez, in 31° north latitude.

CURIOSITIES OF NATURE.

1. WHEN a cursory survey of the surface of our globe is taken, a thousand objects offer themselves, which, though long known, still excite curiosity. The most obvious beauty that strikes the eye is the verdant covering of the earth, which is formed of a happy mixture of herbs and trees of various magnitudes and uses.

2. It has been often remarked, that no colour refreshes the eye so well as green; and it may be added, as a further proof of the assertion, that the inhabitants of those places, where the fields are continually white with snow, generally become blind long before the usual decay of nature. The advantage, which arises from the verdure of the fields, is not a little improved by their agreeable inequalities.

3. There are scarcely two natural landscapes, that offer prospects entirely resembling each other; their risings and depressions, their hills and vallies, are never entirely the same, but always offering something new to entertain and enliven the imagination. To increase the beauties of the face of nature, the landscape is greatly improved by springs and lakes, and intersected by rivulets.

4. These lend a brightness to the prospect, give motion and coolness to the air, and furnish the means of subsistence to animated nature. Such are the most obvious tranquil objects, that every where offer themselves; but there are others of a more awful and magnificent kind; the mountains, rising above the clouds, and topt with snow; the river, pouring down their sides, increasing as it runs ;

and losing itself at last in the ocean; the ocean, spreading its immense sheets of water over more than half the globe, swelling and subsiding at well known intervals, and forming a communication between the most distant parts of the earth.

5. If we leave these objects, that seem natural to our earth, but which keep the same constant tenor, we are presented with the great irregularities of nature. The burning mountain; the abrupt precipice; the unfathomable cavern; the headlong cataract, and the rapid whirlpool.

6. In descending to the objects immediately below the surface of the globe, we shall there find wonders still as amazing. For the most part of the earth lies in regular beds or layers of various substances, every bed growing thicker in proportion as it lies deeper, and its contents become more dense and compact.

7. We shall find in almost all our subterranean inquiries an amazing number of shells, that once belonged to aquatic animals. Here and there, at a distance from the sea, are beds of oyster-shells, several yards thick, and many miles over. These, which are dug up by the peasants in every country, are regarded with little curiosity because they are so common.

8. But it is otherwise with an inquirer into nature; he finds them, not only in shape, but in substance, every way resembling those that are bred in the sea, and he is, therefore, at a loss how to account for their removal. Yet not one part of nature alone, but all her productions and varieties become the objects of the philosopher's inquiry; every appearance, however common, affords matter for his contemplation.

9. He inquires how, and why the surface of the earth has come to have those risings and depressions, which most men call natural; he demands in what manner the mountains were formed, and in what their uses consist; he asks from whence springs arise; and how rivers flow round the convexity of the globe; he enters into the examination of the ebbings and flowings, and the other wonders of the deep; he acquaints himself with the irregularities of nature, and will endeavour to investigate their causes, by which, at least, he will become better acquainted with their history.

10. The internal structure of the globe becomes an object of his curiosity, and though his inquiries can reach

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