round his head, till a sufficient velocity is acquired, at the same • time taking aim, when it is thrown at the legs of the animal he is pursuing, in such a manner as to entangle its feet by the rotary motion of the balls; so that its capture is easy.

Conjecture might go on to establish it as a fact, that these balls of pyrites, found in many parts of the west, were indeed a warlike instrument, thrown by a sling, out of which, a force almost equivalent to that of powder, might be acquired; and from the top of mounds, or from the sides of their elevated forts, such a mode of defence would be very terrible.

This mode of fighting was known to the Hebrews. David slew Goliath with a stone from a sling. Seven hundred chosen men out of Gibea, could sling a stone at an hair's breadth. Job speaks of this manner of annoying wild beasts, where he is recounting the strength of Leviathan: "Slinged stones are turned with him into stubble."

Dr. Adam Clarke's observations on the use and force of the sling, are very interesting, and pertinent to the subject. They are found in his Commentary, 1st. Samuel, chap. xvii. verse 40, "The sling, both among the Greeks and Hebrews, has been a most powerful, offensive weapon. It is composed of two strings and a leather strap;" (or as among the Patagonians, of raw-hide,) "the strap is in the middle, and is the place where the stone or bullet lies. The string on the right end of the strap is firmly fastened to the hand; that on the left, is held between the thumb and middle joint of the fore finger. It is then whirled two or three times round the head; and when discharged, the finger and thumb let go their hold of the string. The velocity and force of the sling is in proportion to the distance of the strap to where the bullet lies, from the shoulder joint. Hence, the ancient Balleares, or inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca, islands in the Mediterranean Sea, near the coast of Spain, are said to have had three slings of different lengths; the longest they used when the enemy was at the greatest distance; the middle one on their nearer approach, and the shortest, when they came into the ordinary fighting distance in the field. The shortest is the most certain, though not the most powerful.

"The Balleareans are said to have one of their slings constantly bound about their head; to have used the second as a girdle; and to have carried the third always in their hand.

"In the use of the sling, it requires much practice to hit the mark; but when once this dexterity is acquired, the sling is nearly as fatal as the ball thrown by the explosion of powder.

"David was evidently an expert marksman; and his sling gave him greatly the advantage over Goliah; an advantage of which the giant does not seem to have been aware. He could hit him within any speaking distance; if he missed once, he had as many chances as he had stones; and after all, being unincumbered with armor, young and athletic, he could have saved his life by flight. But David saved himself the trouble of running away, or the giant from throwing his spear or javelin at him, by giving him the first blow.

"Goliah was terribly armed, having a spear, a shield, and a sword; besides, he was every where invulnerable, on account of his helmet of brass, his coat of mail, which was made also of brass, in little pieces, perhaps about the size of a half dollar, and lapped over each other, like the scales of fishes, so that no sword, spear, nor arrow could hurt him."

This coat of mail, when polished and bright, must have been very glorious to look upon, especially when the sun, in his brightness, bent his beams to aid the giant warrior's fulgent habiliments to illumine the field of battle, as the wearer strode, here and there, among the trophies of death.

The only spot left, where he could be hit to advantage, was his broad giant forehead, into which the stone of David sunk, from its dreadful impetus received from the simple sling. To some, this has appeared perfectly improbable; but we are assured by ancient writers, that scarcely any thing could resist the force of the sling.

Diodorus Siculus, an historian who flourished in the time of Julius Cæsar, a short time before Christ, and was born in the island of Sicily, in the Mediterranean, says, "the people of the islands of Minorca and Majorca, in time of war, could sling greater stones than any other people, and with such force, that they seemed as if projected from a capult," an engine used by the ancients for this purpose.

Therefore, in assaults made on fortified towns, they grieviously wound the besieged, and in battle, they break in pieces the shields, helmets, and every species of armor, by which the body is defended. It would seem, from the expertness of the Patagonians,

evinced in the use of the sling, that they may have been derived from the ancient inhabitants of those islands, who could as easily have found their way out of the Mediterranean by the Strait of Gibralter into the Atlantic Ocean, and be driven across to South America, by the winds from the east, or by the current of the sea, as the Egyptians, as we have before shown.

The sling was a very ancient warlike instrument; and in the hands of those who were skilled in the use of it, it produced astonishing effects. The people of the above named islands were the most celebrated slingers of antiquity. They did not permit their children to eat till they had struck down their food from the top of a pole, or some distant eminence.

Concerning the velocity of the leaden ball thrown out of the sling, it is said by the ancients, to have melted in its course. Ovid, the Roman poet, has celebrated its speed, in the following beautiful verse:

"Hermes was fired, as in the clouds he hung;

So the cold bullet that with fury slung

From Balearic engines, mounts on high,

Glows in the whirl, and burns along the sky."

This is no poetic fiction. Seneca, the stoic philosopher of Rome, born A. D. 12, says the same thing; "the ball projected from the sling, melts, and is liquified by the friction of the air, as if it were exposed to the action of fire."

Vegetius, who lived in the 14th century, and was also a Roman, tells us, that "slingers could, in general, hit the mark at six hundred feet distance," which is more than thirty rods. From this view we see what havoc the western nations, using the sling or engine, to throw stones from their vast forts and mounds with, must have made, when engaged in defensive or offensive war.

DISCOVERY OF THE REMAINS OF ANCIENT POTTERY.

On the subject of pottery we remark, that the remains of this art are generally found, especially of any extent, in the nighborhood of salt springs. It is true, that specimens of earthen ware

are frequently taken out of the ancient barrows of the dead, and also are frequently brought to sight on the shores of rivers, where the earth has been suddenly removed by inundations.

A few years since, an instance of this sort occurred at Tawanda, in Pennsylvania. The Susquehannah had risen very high, at the time we are speaking of, and had undermined the bank on the Tawanda shore, to a considerable extent, at the high water mark. On the receding of the waters, the bank was found to be carried away for the distance of about six rods, when there appeared several fire places, made of the stones of the river, with vessels of earthen, of a capacity about equal with a common water pail, in a very good state of preservation.

Between those fire places, which were six in number, were found the skeletons of several human beings, lying in an undisturbed position, as if they, when living, had fallen asleep, and never waked; two of these, in particular, attracted attention, and excited not a little surprise; they were lying side by side, with the arm of one of them under the neck of the other, and the feet were mingled in such a manner as to induce the belief that when death came upon them, they were asleep in each other's embraces. But in what manner they came to their death, so that they appeared not to have moved, from the fatal moment till the bank of Tawanda was carried away, which had covered them for ages, is strange indeed.

It cannot be supposed they died all at once, of some sickness, or that an enemy surprised them while sleeping, and, silently passing from couch to couch, inflicted the deadly blow; because, in any of these ways, their bones, in the convulsions of dissolution, must have been deranged, so that the image and peaceful posture of sleepers could not have characterised their positions, as they were found to have. It was conjectured, at the time of their discovery, that the period of their death had been at the season of the year when that river breaks up its ice; in March or April, the river they supposed, may have been dammed up below them, where, it is true, the stream narrows on the account of the approach of the mountains. Here the ice having jammed in between, caused a sudden rise of the river, and setting back, overflowed them.

But this cannot be possible, as the noise of the breaking ice would never allow them to sleep; this operation of nature is accompanied

with a tremendous uproar and grandeur, tearing and rending the shores and forests that grow on them, multiplying crash on crash, with the noise of thunder. Neither can it be well supposed, the waters came over them in the way suggested, even if they had slept during the scene we have just described, because on the first touch of the waters to their bodies, they would naturally spring from their sleep in surprise.

Something must have happened that deprived them of life and motion in an instant of time. This is not impossible, because at Herculaneum and Pompeii, are found, where, in digging, they have penetrated through the lava down to those ancient cities, laying bare streets, houses and temples, with their contents, such as have survived the heat which ruined those cities-skeletons, holding" between their fingers something they had in their hands at the moment of their death, so that they do not appear even to have struggled.

Something of the same nature, as it respects suddenness, must have overtaken these sleepers; so that their natural positions were not disturbed. If the place of their dwellings had been skirted by a steep bank or hill, it might then have been supposed that a land slip or mine spring, had buried them alive, but this is not the case. They were about four feet under ground, the soil which covered them was the same alluvial with the rest of the flat; it is a mystery, and cannot be solved, unless we suppose an explosion of earth, occasioned by an accumulation of galvanic principles, which, bursting the earth near them, suddenly buried them alive.

Dr. Beck, the author of the Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri, suggests the cause of the earthquakes in the valley of the Mississippi, in 1811 and 1812, which, in many places, threw up in an instant vast heaps of earth, to have been the principle of galvanism bursting from the depths beneath, in a perpendicular direction, overwhelming, in a moment of time, whatever might be asleep or awake, wherever it fell.

Further down the Susquehannah, some thirty or forty miles below Tawanda, at a place called the Black-walnut Bottom, on the farm of a Mr. Kinney, was discovered a most extraordinary specimen of pottery.

Respecting this discovery, the owner of the farm relates, as we are informed by a clergyman, who examined the article on the

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