MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Wellington Independent, Volume VI, Issue 550, 18 January 1851, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Among tho novelties produced at the Grand Agricultural meeting at Exeter, ,was ono whioh excited tho curiosity of all. It was the cooking of tho monster joint, called by M, Soyer tho " the baron and saddle-back of boof a la Magna Charla," weighing ~3_ pounds. For the first time in the annals of cookery, this was subjected to n new process of roasting by gas. In order to gratify the curiosity of tho publio, it was placed in tho centre of the Castle Yard, resting on a dripping pan with bricks around, surrounded with 2 6 jets of gas, and covered with shoot-iron. It took fivo hours to roust, aiid consumed 700 feet of gas, of the value of 4s. 5Jd.; it weighed after being eoolcod 497 pounds; tho dripping' 23.J* pounds, the osmazome 3} pounds, thus losing by evaporation only Hj. pounds.— Times. Tlio annual meeting of tho Yorkshire Agricultural Society terminated atThirsk, on Tuesday last, when tho council dinner was celebrated. After tho banquet, Mr. .Outhwaito gave a sort of lecturo upon the " Economical Management of Live Stock," and recorded some experience of bis own relativo to fat bacon, which may iChiim tho merit of singularity, although .perhaps the " economy" of tho result may be not a little doubtful. Tho lecturer said :—About ten months since ho backed a pig of his to gain a certain weight within a given timo. Ho backed the pig for £10 to gain ton stone in a month. The animal thon weighed about thirty-two stono. Ho would tell them' bow he treated tho pig. First he gave it .milk, oatmeal, some balls made of milk .and a littlo wheat meal, and a litlle ale to drink to it—(laughter)— and also half a dozen apples a day, for he seemod to ■have a particular fancy for them. At the latter part of its feeding, so nice did it become that if the apples had a red side unci a white one, tho pig picked the red one. Ho had another pig weighed at the samo time as tho former, and being fearful that ho should lose his woger he bad this pig killed ton days before the •time tit which the pig ho had backed was to bo killed. Tho result of that experiment induced him to alter tho system of ..boding again and instead of giving the animal alo and milk in separate trou'Wis, ..io gave it rum and ,milk mixed, some.thing like a tumbler glass of rum three times a day for the last ton days. The consequence was the pig was drunk nearly the whole of tho time—(laughter) at least she was noarly always asleep. The weight she gained from Thursday morning at seven o'clock, to Friday morning 'Was 5 stone 2 lbs. That proved that nun -was tho best thing she got. Ho still ottered her ale, but she would not take ,it—nothing but new milk and rum would suit her. Ho did not think this system a profitable one, but he won his wager, tho animal weighing 42 st. 12 lbs. It is stated that it is the intention of the owners of tho British and North American Royal Mail steam-ships forthwith to commence the building of screw ..team-ships, of great size and powei. to establish a line for tho conveyance of goods and passengers to and from New York and Liverpool, independently of ;the splendid ships now employed under contract with the British Government for the conveyance of the mails. The New Scottish Mariuaok Law. act to amend the Jmy of Scotland

affecting the constitution of marriage provides that, from and after the Ist of January, 1800, marriage shall be contracted in Scotland in the following modes and not otherwise—namely either by solemnisation in presence of a clergyman or by registration in terms of an act passed in the present session of Parliament, intituled. 'An act for registering births, deaths, und marriages in Scotland the proposing to marry by registration appearing in presence of the registrar, nnd then and there signing, before witnesses, the entry of their marriage in the register, and having the same otherwise registered in tho manner provided by the said act for the case of the registration of marriages by tho parties themselves.' Tbe act further provides ihat the word ' clergyman' shall include tiny clergyman or minister of religion authorised to solemnise marriages by the laws of the church or rules and practice of the communion to which he belongs, whether belonging to the established church, or any other church, or ar_y\.sect. or persuasion, by whatever name or* "denomination known. Any person guilty (.('personating a clergyman in the solemnisation of inurriago may be punishable by imprisonment not exceeding two years; but the validity ofthe marriage so solemnised, if sucli person be held and reputed and belaived to be a clergyman, shall not be thereby affected. No marriage is to be solemnised before a clergyman unless both, or one of the parties has resided, or been a Bomber of a congregation in the parish fourteen days, or without certificate of registrar or session clerk. Marriages may be solemnised by special license, but the license is only to remain in force for eight days. Nothing in the act i._ to affect tlio validity of tho marriage of Jows and Quakers, nor the validity of existing marriages, or legitimate by subsequent marriage.

The Extent of the United States. —It has been computed that the United States have a frontier lino of 10,700 miles, a sea coast of -0130 miles, and a lako coast of 11(10 miles. One of its rivers is twice as long as tho Danube the largest river in Europe. The Ohio is ODD miles longer than the Rhine, and the noble Hudson has a navigation in the " Empiro State" 120 miles longor than the Thames. Within Louisiana are bays and creeks almost unknown, that shame by comparison the Tiber or Seine. Tho State of Virginia alone is one-thin! larger than England. The State of Ohio contains 3,000 sqiiuro milos more than Scotland. The harbour of New York receives the vessels that navigate rivers, canals, and lakes to the extent of 3,000 miles, equal to tho distance from Europe lo America. From the capital of Maine to the " Crescent City" is 200 miles further than from London to Constantinople a route that would cover England, Belgium, a part of Prussia, Austria, and Tuikoy.— National Intelligence. Distances Across the Atlantic.— It may he interesting to learn exactly] how far tho steamers run in their weekly I tr'p. between Liverpool and the United States. The route is now practically a vast ferry, and the steamers running with almost the precision of hourly ferry-boats. It is accurately ascertained that the distauec between New York and Liverpool direct is 3,032 miles, and from Liverpool to Boston via Halifax is 2,849 miles, making the distance in favour of the latter route 230 miles. Urgent Astronomical Discoveries. —Among the more recent discoveries within the boundaries of our own system I cannot omit to mention those of our distinguished countryman, Mr. Lussels, of Livorpool. By means of a fine 20 feet reflector, constructed by himself, he detected tho satellite of Neptune, and more recently an eighth satellite circulating round Saturn—a discovery which was made on tho very same day' by Mr. Bond director of tho observatory of Cambridge in the United States. Mr. Lassels has still more recently, and under a singularly favourable state of the atmosphere observed the very minute, but extremely black, shadow of the ring of Saturn, oil the body of the planet. He observed the line of shadow lobe notched, as it wero, and almost broken up into aline of dots—thus indicating mountains upon tho piano of tho ring—mountains, doubtless raisod by tho same internal forces, and answering tho same end as those of our own globe. In passing from our solar system to the frontier of the siderial universe around us, wo traverse a gulf I of inconceivable extent. If we represent tho radius of the solar system, or of Neptune's orbit (which is 2,900 millions of miles) by a line two miles long, the interval between our system, or the orbit of Neptune, and the" nearest fixed star, will be groater than the whole circumference of our globe—or equal lo a length of 27,600 miles. The parallax of the nearest fixed star being supposed to be one second, its distance from the sun will be 412,370 times the radius of the earth's orbit, 13,746 times that of Neptune which is thirty limes as far from the sun as the earth. "And yet to that distant zone has tho genius of man traced tho .Creator's power, and diffusing the gifts of his love—the heat aud light of suns-—the necessary olemouts of physico.

and intellectual life. It is by means of tho gigantic telescope of Lord Rosse that we have become acquainted with the form and character of those great assemblages of stars which compose the sidcrial universe. Drawings and descriptions of the most remarkable of these nebula;, as resolved by this noble instrument were communicated by Dr. Robinson to the last meeting ofthe association, and it is with peculiar satisfaction that I am able to state, that many important discoveries have been made by Lord Rosse and his assistant Mr. Stouey, during the last year. In many of the nebulas, the peculiarities of structure are very remarkable, and, as Lord Rosse observes, " seem even to indicate the presence of dynamical laws almost within our grasp." The spiral arrangement so strongly developed in some ofthe nebula, is traceable more or less distinctly in many ; but " more frequently," to use Lord Rosse's own words, "there is a nearer approach to a,kind of irregular, interrupted, annular disposition ofthe luminous material than to the regularity observed in others;" but his lordship is of opinion that those nebulee are symptoms of a very similar nature, seem more or less perfectly and variously placed with reference to the line of sight. In re-examining the more remarkable of these objects, Lord Rosse intends to view them with the full light of his six feet speculum, undiminished by the second reflection of the small mirror. By thus adopting what is called the front view, he will doubtless, as he himself expects, discover many new features in those interesting objects. It is to the influence of Lord Ross-Vs example that we are indebted for the fine reflecting telescope of Mr. Lassels, of which I have already spoken, and it is to it, also, that we owe another telescope, which, though yet unknown to science, I am bound in this place especially to notice. I alludo to lhe reflector recently constructed by Mr. James Nasmyth, a native of Edinburgh (but for many years past, of the Bridgewater Foundry, Patricoft), already distinguished by his mechanical inventions, and one of a family well known to v. all, and occupying a high place among the artists of Scotland. This instrument has its great speculum 20 feet in focal length, and 20 inches in diameter; but it differs from all other telescopes in the remarkable facility with which it can be used. Its tube moves vertically upon hollow trunnions, through which"the astronomer, seated in a little observatory, wilh only a horizontal motion, can view at his ease every part of the heavens. Hitherto the astronomer has been obliged lo seat himself at the upper end of his Newtonian telescope; and if no other observer will acknowledge the awkwardness and insecurity of his position, I can myself vouch for its danger, having fallen 'iron..the very top of Mr. Ramage's 20 feet telescope, when it was directed to a point not far from the zenith.— Sir David Brewster's Address to the British Association, at Edinburgh. The Sooth African Bush.—The character of the South African " Bush" has featuras quite peculiar to itself, and sometimes strangely unites, while strongly contrasting, the grand and the sublime with the grotesque and ridiculous. When seen ufar, from a commanding slevation, —the undulating sea of verdure extending for miles and miles, with a bright sun shining on a green, compact, unbroken surface, —it conveys to the mind of the spectator naught save images of repose, peace, and tranquillity, fie forgets that, like the hectic bloom of a fatal malady, those smiling seas of verdure, oft in their entangled depths, conceal treacherous, death-dealing reptiles ; ferocious beasts of prey; nnd the still more dangerous, though no less crafty, and more cruel Kaffir. On a nearer approach, dark glens and gloomy " kloofs" are found to furrow the mountain sides. These often nier"*o downwards into deep ravines, forming, at their base, sometimes the bed of a clear, gurgling brook, or that of a turbid raging torrent, generally shadowed and overhunw by abundant vegetation, in all the luxuri° anco of tropical growth and profusion. Noble forest trees, entwined with creepers encircled by parasitical plants, and with long gray masses of lichen, loosely and beard-like floating from their spreading limbs, throw the " brown horrors" of a shadowy gloom o'er these dark, secluded, druidicully looking dells. But jabbering apes, or large satyr-like baboons, performing grotesque antics and uttering unearthly yells, grate strangely on the ear, and sadly mar the solemnity of the scene ; whilst lofty, leafless, and" fantastic euphorbia (like huge candelabra), shoot up in bare profusion from the gray, rocky cliff., pointing, as it were in mockery, their skeleton arms at the dark and luxuriant foliage around. Other plants, of tho cactus and milky tribes—of thorny, rugged, or smooth and fleshy kind's, stretch forth in every way their ""bizarre," mis-shapen forms; waving them to the breeze, from you high, beetling craige, so thickly clothed to their very base with graceful nojebooms, and drooping palmliko aloes ; whose tall, slender, and naked stems spring up from amidst the dense verduro of gay aud flowering mimosas. Emerging from such darksome glens, to j the more sunny sido of the mountain's 'brow, there wo still find am impenetrable

bush, but differing iv character from what we have just described—a sort of high thorny underwood, composed chiefly of mimosa and portulacaria tribes ; taller, thicker, more impenetrable, and of -more rigid texture than even the tiger's accustomed lair, in the far depths of an Indian jungle ; but withal, so mixed and mingled with luxuriau t, turgid, succulent plants and parasites, as even during the driest weather to be totally impervious to the destroying influence of fire. The bush is, therefore, from its impassable character, the Kaffir's never-failing place of refuge, both in peace and war; in his naked hardihood, he either (snake-like) twines through and creeps beneath its densest mazes; or, shielded with the kaross, securely defies their most thorny and abrading opposition. Under cover ofthe bush, in war. he (panther-like) steals upon his foe ;in peace, upon the farmers' flock. Secure, in both instances from pursuit, he can in the bush set European power, European skill, and European discipline, at naught; and, hitherto, vain has been every effort to destroy by fire this, his impregnable—for it is to aii, save himself, an impenetrable —stronghold.— .Napier's Excursions in Southern Africa.