chasm dashed furiously round the projecting rocky cliffs which confined it at each side, and discharged itself at the northern extremity in a sheet of foam. The canoes, however, passed this without accident, mercifully preserved through dangers which appalled the Indians who accompanied them." THE SANDWICH ISLANDS, With a little Lesson on the Globes. THESE Islands were discovered in the year 1778 by the celebrated Captain Cook; and it was here that this great navigator was killed by the natives. This arose from an unhappy quarrel and misunderstanding :—for these people are not generally considered to be a fierce and barbarous people. On looking into the map, we see that these islands are about 20 degrees north latitude, which means that they lie about 20 degrees to the north of the equator. Speaking somewhat more correctly, as there are eleven of these islands, they may be said to lie between 18 and 20 degrees of north latitude. Some of our young readers may require to be told that it is necessary to know the latitude of a place before we can find where it is: this latitude shows how far it is north or south from the Equator. The Equator, sometimes called the Line, or the Equinoctial Line, is an imaginary circle which is supposed to go round the world at an equal distance from the north pole and the south pole; and as the sun shines directly over this line, or neighbourhood of it, the climate nearest to it is the hottest; and the farther a country is removed from it, the colder that country is. On the distance then of any place from the Line, the seasons must depend. But if we know only the latitude of a place we cannot find it; this only shows how far north or south it is; before then we can put our fingers on any particular place in a map, we must likewise know its longitude, that is, how far east, or west, it is from us. Now, to learn this, we suppose another set of lines drawn round the globe through the poles of the earth: these lines will be circles, and they are called meridians, such as N. Z. S. N. D. S. N. F. S. &c. 1834.] THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 4.23 And if one of these lines drawn through any place were, for instance, 155 degrees west of another of them, drawn through London, then the place would be said to be in 155 degrees of west longitude; and this is about the situation of the principal of the Sandwich Islands: taken altogether they lie between 150 and 160 degrees. We shall here give a little figure of the globe of the earth, which may make this subject plain to those who may wish to understand it. Those who have a bigger and better figure of the globe before them, may with a very little trouble make themselves acquainted with the manner of finding any place on the globe, by being told its latitude and its longitude;-or, if a companion will mention the name of any place, they will immediately show what is the latitude and the longitude of that place. Call the point N. the north pole of the earth, and S. the south pole. A line is supposed to pass through the centre of the earth from N. to S. and round this the earth moves, just as if you were to thrust a scewer through the centre of an orange, and then make it whirl round. The earth moves round once in 24 hours; the straight line round which it moves is called the Axis. Now, if the earth moves round its axis whilst the sun stands still, then the inhabitants of some parts of the earth will see the sun, whilst others will not. To the first it will be light, to the others it will be dark: and this makes the difference between day and night. Though the sun then appears to move from east to west every day, it is really the motion of the earth which occasions this appearance; the great power of the Almighty causing this by the simplest of all methods, thus making the sun, the moon, and the thousands of stars, to rise and set by one motion of the earth alone, instead of all of them performing that extraordinary journey every day which they appear to do. Day and night being thus simply and beautifully arranged,—the course of the sun north and south, in the course of the year, is managed not by the real motion of the sun, but by the manner in which the earth moves: but this is different from the motion round the axis. As, however, the sun appears to change his place, and as the effect is the same to us, we usually express ourselves as if it were really so; and this enables us to speak more intelligibly. Call then the line (which is in fact a circle going round the earth,) E Q, the Equator. At quarter-day, in spring, the sun is on that line, (say at 0,) and the days and nights are equal throughout the world. But the sun keeps coming farther and farther north, along the dotted line C L called the Ecliptic, till he gets to about 23 degrees north, and to what is called the tropic of Cancer, K L: and then he is the nearest to us northern people; and then it is our Midsummer. But he comes no nearer to us than this tropic; he goes on in his circle (suppose it to be on the other side of our figure); but then he goes from the north, from us, and our weather becomes cooler, till he gets down to the Equator once more, and then days and nights are again equal; it is our Autumn, quarter-day, at Michaelmas. But the sun, in his course, goes on still farther from us, till he gets down to the tropic of Capricorn, C V, and then it is our winter, the shortest day. A B is an imaginary line, called the Arctic (or Northern) Circle. X Y is the Antarctic (or Southern) 1834.] CURE FOR THE BITE OF AN ADDER. 425 Circle.-Now it will at once be seen, that, as the sun, in the course of a year, ranges between the two tropics, the space between K L and CV will be very hot: this is called the Torrid Zone (the hot zone); the countries within this part are called tropical climates. The parts near the poles will be very cold, because the sun's rays are so feeble in those distant parts: the spaces then north of A B, and south of X Y, are called the Frigid Zones (the cold zones). The other parts (those between A B and K L in the north, and CV and X Y on the south,) are called Temperate Zones; in this happy climate our own country is situated, London being about 51 degrees north latitude. It is clear that when it is summer in the north, it is winter in the south. Every circle is supposed to be divided into 360 degrees, (marked 360°), so that, measuring from the equator to the pole (along the circle, E KA Ñ,), the distance must be 90 degrees, or a quarter of a circle; so that there can be no higher latitude than 90 degrees. The circle N Z S, passing through England, is called the Meridian of London, and a circle passing through any other place is called the meridian of that place, (such as those which are drawn from one pole to the other;)—and the distance between these two meridians marks the longitude of any particular place, measuring from London (according to the custom of Englishmen).-Perhaps our young students will think that we have given them enough of this subject for the present. V. CURE FOR THE BITE OF AN ADDER. SOLUTION of chloride of lime constantly applied for the bite of an adder, reduced the swelling in about half an hour, and soon after, the dog recovered. Query:-Would it be worth trying for the bite of a mad dog? The dog had been bitten on the nose by the adder, had been seized with vomiting, the head and throat swelled enormously, and he appeared to suffer great agony.-See "Useful Hints for the Labourer," No. 27. Labourers' Friend Society. (From a Correspondent.) EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS, &c. The Lord Bishop of this diocese has announced his intention of letting out a piece of land in the immediate neighbourhood of this city, in portions of a quarter of an acre, to industrious labourers of good character.Gloucester Journal. PRESERVING BEES IN WINTER.-Mr. Ethridge, of Montrose, Pew, who keeps a considerable quantity of bees, buried several of his hives in the ground during the falls of last year. They were placed a sufficient depth to be out of the reach of frost, and in such a manner that the air could by no means penetrate, being first covered with straw to about the thickness of ten inches, before being covered with mould. They were taken up in April, and the bees were found to be in good health. They had made use of no honey, as there appeared to be as much honey in the spring as when the hives were buried in the autumn.—. -Blackwood's Journal of Agriculture. A minnow, which had been kept in a glass vessel eleven years in Canterbury, lately died. It had become so familiar, that it would take a fly or insect from the owner's hands. Two valuable horses were lately stung to death by bees, one dying in great agony within ten minutes after it had been stung, the other surviving about two days. The animals were turned into a yard at Chittern, Wilts, where there was a stock of bees, which they soon upset; the bees fastened on the horses, and the result was as stated. LARGE SPIDER.-As some sawyers at the Molyneux logwood mill, near Prestwick, Lancashire,were engaged in rasping a small block of logwood, they came to a hole in it, from which a large spider crawled. Its extraordinary dimensions somewhat alarmed the workmen, who were little prepared to meet with so unwelcome a visitor. Its body is about two inches and a half long, and one thick. Its colour dark brown; has ten legs of great length, and eight eyes, the nippers are black, horny, and sharp, but not serrated; they were hardly discernible until a piece of quill was inserted, and then they were found to contain a small house fly, which it must have caught after its liberation. There are no antennæ visible. The body is partly covered with a soft down, and partly with long red hair. Its weight is half an ounce within a few grains. Logwood is brought almost exclusively from Campeachy and the West Indies. It is probably the great American spider spoken of by Buffon, with the description of which it very nearly corresponds. The hole which the spider occupied is about six inches and a half in length, and rather more than two in diameter. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. We have received the communications of R. Y.; C. P. F.; E.; J. E. H.; F. C.; and O; with several anonymous articles. The "Monosyllabic Answer" required by our kind correspondent will not express the truth. We frequently see the numbers of the work al luded to. We wish we could comply with the wishes of all those of our correspondents who ask for early insertion. |