diminished by the breadth of the noble river which separates them, that the rock may almost be said to threaten the city like a precipice; the streets of the latter being as open to inspection from the fortress, as those of a model upon a table. The only entrance into the castle from the Rhine, is by a road cut in the solid rock under four gateways. On each side of this, to a great height, there are tiers of batteries, formed, for the most part, not behind artificial walls, but within perpendicular masses of the solid rock, which has been hollowed out for the reception of cannon and soldiers. Such are its means of defence against a siege. For its support against a blockade provision was made in the fifteenth century, when five years were spent in digging, with incredible labor, a well through the solid rock, to the depth of 280 feet, as is mentioned in an inscription within the castle. The value and strength of Ehrenbreitstein has been often mentioned by travellers. It was considered impregnable until its surrender to the French in 1779, after a vigorous seige and blockade for two years.

THE MINERAL KINGDOM.

No. I.-GOLD.

THIS metal is sometimes found in solid masses, as in Hungary, Transylvania, and Peru; in a grained form, as in the West Indies; in a vegetable shape, resembling the branches of plants; in thin plates, covering other bodies, as in Siberia; or in eight-sided crystals, as in some of the Hungarian mines. When it is found under a perfect metallic form, it is termed native gold: the largest specimen ever found in Europe, stated to have weighed twenty-two ounces, was discovered some years since in the county of Wicklow, where other pieces, exceeding an ounce in weight, were also found. Native gold, however, is seldom met with perfectly pure; that which proaches nearest to perfection is of a fine yellow color, but it is frequently alloyed with silver, copper, iron, or platina, when it becomes of a brassy color, or of a green

ap

ish or gray yellow. Gold in its native state is sometimes concealed in other minerals; whence it is extracted by art, if sufficiently abundant to defray the expense.

Many rivers contain gold in their sands; the Tagus and Pactolus were anciently celebrated on this account: in Brazil it was so abundant, that the torrents were fre quently diverted into new channels, for the purpose of collecting the gold they deposited.

Gold-mines are of rare occurrence in Europe; one, however, was discovered in 1781, in the valley of Oisans, in Dauphiny; but the vein was too poor to defray the expense of working it: gold-dust has also been found in several of the continental rivers. A mine was discovered in the time of Peter the Great, near Alonitz, among the rocks which skirt the eastern side of the Lake Ladoga; masses of native gold, weighing more than a pound, were found near the surface of the earth; this was supposed to be inexhaustible, but when the miners had reached the depth of a few fathoms, they were awakened from their golden dreams, on finding that they had arrived at a barren vein of quartz.

China and Japan are rich in this metal; but of all the Asiatic mines, those of Siam are the most productive; the king's domestic utensils, the troughs of his white elephant, and nearly all the ornaments of the temples being of solid gold.

In Sofala, Mosambique and Monomotapa, on the eastern coast of Africa, it is found at the depth of two or three feet from the surface. The gold-dust which is so important an article of commerce in Africa, is collected from earth deposited by the rivers. Bambouk also fur, nishes a considerable quantity, which is sold on the western coast from the mouth of the Senegal to Cape Palmas.

But it is in America that gold is found in the greatest abundance, sometimes in the forin of spangles, and occasionally in veins, blended with other metals: the South American mines, and more especially those of Brazil and Chili, are the most productive.

Gold is so ductile and malleable that an ounce of it

may be drawn into a thread of seventy-three leagues in , length, or beaten into sixteen hundred leaves of nine square inches each: its ductility, however, is greatly im paired by the presence of tin or arsenic. It readily assumes every form that human art can bestow upon it; its unalterable color, and the beautiful polish of which it is susceptible, render it the most eligible of all metals for ornamental purposes.

Gold is perfectly tasteless and scentless; indestructible by air, water, or fire; but on exposure to the focus of a powerful burning lens, it may be evaporated without losing its metallic state: for if a plate of silver be exposed to the fumes of gold thus melted, it soon becomes perfectly gilt. It was considered by alchemists, during the dark ages, to possess great medicinal virtues, and was administered as a medicine in various forms; but no sooner had the sun of true science begun to shine upon Europe, than the visions of alchemy vanished; and gold was no longer considered to be a panacea for all the "ills that flesh is heir to."

Gold is insoluble in any of the mineral acids taken separately; but aqua regia, which is a compound of the nitrous and muriatic acids, will dissolve it; and if to this be added a solution of tin, a fine purple powder is precipitated, known by the name of Purple of Cassius, which is preferred by painters in glass and enamel to all others: by adding volatile alkali to the solution, aurum fulminans, a highly dangerous explosive powder, is produced, which explodes upon the slightest pressure or friction, and has frequently been productive of the most fatal effects.

Strong passions work wonders, when there is a greater strength of reason to curb them.-Tucker.

There is no saying shocks me so much, as that which I hear very often, that a man does not know how to pass his time. It would have been but ill spoken by Methu salem in the nine hundred and sixty-ninth year of his life-Cowley,

BUCKSTONE.

Among the many natural curiosities of England, the admiration of the scientific, as well as of the ordinary observer, has long been excited by those huge single masses of rock, which, resting on a comparatively small pivot, and exactly balanced there, still stand as steadily as though the narrow part were uppermost, and the whole body were firmly lodged on its base. Such are the celebrated Boulder Stone of the North, and the Logan Rock of Cornwall. The wood-cut at the head of this article represents with great accuracy the character of another called Buckstone, on the borders of Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire.

Buckstone is by no means the largest of its kind; though in some respects, perhaps, it repays more than any other the visit of the tourist. Independently of its extraordinary form and position, the situation in which it is placed gives it a very strong additional interest. Removed only a few yards from the summit of a high sugar-loaf hill, commanding one of the most varied and beautiful landscapes of which this country can boast, it is itself seen in some directions at a very great distance, conspicuous above the

copsewood, which embosoms it on every side; and inviting us to examine only its own extraordinary character, it presents to us a view which would otherwise probably have escaped our notice altogether. This view would of itself amply repay us for the time required to make the excursion from any of the neighboring places.

It is composed of a substance called mill-stone grit,-—a plum-pudding stone, consisting chiefly of sand and quartz pebbles, familiarly known in the neighborhood by the name of Jackstones. Its circumference at the top is above fifty-three feet, while its base is less than eleven feet in girth. Its perpendicular height from the extremity of the projecting point to the level of the centre of the base is nearly fourteen feet. The whole mass rests on the middle of a square even table of stone, corresponding in extent very nearly with the extremity of the rock itself, and composed of the same material. But what makes the balance in this rock still more wonderful is, that this large square smooth insulated stone, which serves for its bed, far from being horizontal, is an inclined plane, sloping at an angle of almost twenty-five degrees; consequently, many bodies that might be balanced on a level ground, must of necessity roll down this leaning stone; yet this huge rock has kept its place for ages.

Geologists probably will almost unanimously agree, that the hand of man never interfered in either placing this rock on its present site, or in hewing it into its present form-that it is the work of nature only. The imagination of the tourist indeed has often regarded it as the work of art, and pronounced it to be nothing less than a Druidical altar; and fancy may discern in an adjoining stone the solid basin to receive the blood of the victim, or to cleanse the hands of the sacrificer. Certainly no place can be imagined more fitted for the priests of the oak and the mountain, who raised their altars upon "every high hill, and under every green tree," than Buckstone. And perhaps there is nothing absurd in conceiving that they employed this natural altar, like many others which tradition assigns to the same purpose, in the performance of their cruel rites. All such