"The sitting magistrate, before whom she was carried the next morning, prefaced his first question with the most opprobrious title that ever belonged to the most hardened street-walkers, and which man born of woman, should not address even those, were it but for his own sake. The frightful name awakened the poor Orphan from her dream of guilt, it brought back the consciousness of her innocence, but with it the sense likewise of her wrongs and of her helplessness. The cold hand of death seemed to grasp her, she fainted dead away at his feet, and was not without difficulty recovered. The magistrate was so far softened, and only so far, as to dismiss her for the present; but with a menace of sending her to the House of Correction if she were brought before him a second time. The idea of her own innocence now became uppermost in her mind; but mingling with the thought of her utter forlornness, and the image of her angry father, and doubtless still in a state of bewilderment, she formed the resolution of drowning herself in the river Pegnitz-in order (for this was the shape which her fancy had taken) to throw herself at her father's feet, and to justify her innocence to him in the world of spirits. She hoped, that her father would speak for her to the Saviour, and that she should be forgiven.

But as

she was passing through the suburb, she was met by a soldier's wife, who during the life-time of her father had been occasionally employed in the house as a chare-woman. This poor woman was startled at the disordered apparel, and more disordered looks of her young mistress, and questioned her with such an anxious and heart-felt tenderness, as at once brought back the poor Orphan to her natural feeling and the obligations of religion. As a frightened child throws itself into the arms of its mother, and hiding its head on her breast, half tells amid sobs what has happened to it, so did she throw herself on the neck of

too quick sense of a constant infelicity: in all reason we should be glad to be out of the noise and participation of so many evils. This is a place of sorrows and tears, of great evils and constant calamities: let us remove from hence, at least in affections and preparatians of mind." (Holy Dying; Chap. I. Sect. 5.

the woman who had uttered the first words of kindness to her since her father's death, and,-with loud weeping, she related what she had endured and what she was about to have done, told her all her affliction and her misery, the wormwood and the gall! Her kindhearted friend mingled tears with tears, pressed the poor forsaken one to her heart, comforted her with sentences out of the hymn-book; and with the most affectionate entreaties conjured her to give up her horrid purpose, for that life was short, and heaven was for ever, and and Christ a sure recompence."

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

THE SAMIELI WIND.

This pestilential wind which is felt in the deserts of Arabia, and which causes the death of so many pilgrims going to Mecca, is called in literal Arabic, sammoum, which means burning at intervals and by night. The Turks call it samieli. The samieli is felt in the desert from about the middle of June to the 21st of September. It is experienced with a very violent south-west wind, and on those days when the heat of the sun is most ardent. It is burning; it comes in gusts, more or less scorching, of more or less duration; each of them, however, even the shortest, exceeds the time that a man can hold his breath. This wind consists in a succession of hurning and cool gusts. In the first there is frequently a double degree of heat and impetuosity. The difference between the hot and the cold gusts, is from seven to ten degrees. The highest degree of the hot gust is from 630 of Reaumur; the temperature in the sun, without the samieli, being constantly from 430 to 47.0 Its odour is infectious and sulphureous; it is thick and heavy; and when its heat increases it almost causes suffocation. It occasions a pretty copious perspiration, partly excited by the uneasiness which one feels, and the difficulty with which one breathes, on account of its fœtid quality. This perspiration appears to be more dense and viscous than the natural perspiration: the wind itself deposits an unctuous fluid. When inhaled, the palate and throat are instantly parched. It has the same effect when passed through the nostrils, but

more slowly. To preserve one's self from it, and keep the respiration more free, it is usual to wrap up the face with a handkerchief. In passing through the tissue, it loses a part of its action and of its destructive principle; and, besides, the breath keeps up a degree of humidity, and hinders the burning air from suddenly penetrating into the mouth and lungs. The Arabs, therefore, are accustomed, whatever the heat may be, even in the shade, to wrap the whole body, not excepting the head, in their mesekiah, (cloak) if they desire to sleep. This wind causes, by the rarefaction that attends it, a pretty strong agitation in the blood; and this increased movement soon brings on weakness. It in general produces on man two effects, distinctly characterized. It strikes him mortally with a kind nf asphixy, or causes him a great debility. In the first case, nature sometimes comes to the relief of the sufferer by a discharge of blood with the urine. The corpse of a person so suffocated has this peculiarity, that in a few days, or even hours, as some Arabs affirm, the limbs separate at the joints, with the slightest effort; so powerful is the action of the poison, even in the muscular parts, giving an astonishing activity to the progress of putrefaction. The dangers of this wind are guarded against by inhaling the fumes of good vinegar, and by covering the face with the handkerchief.

The period at which the samieli is felt, is as I said above, between the middle of June and the 21st of September. It blows sometimes one, two, or three days, and nights successively, and never exceeds the number of seven.

Between its appearances there are

sometimes intervals of from three to ten days, and even fifteen; not that the wind ceases to blow, but because having been carried in different directions: it is felt in one place after having visited another. The epoch of the samieli coincides with the extraordinary variation of the Nile, namely, between the summer solstice, and the autumnal equinox.

During six months from the autumnal to the vernal equinox, the sun traverses the ecliptic between the equator and the tropic of capricorn; that is, he visits the part of the globe where there are great masses of water. His action then increases in the southern hemis

phere, in proportion as, on account of its obliquity, it diminishes in the solid northern hemisphere. It is natural that the evaporations occasioned by the solar orb in this liquid hemisphere, should produce that immense succession of clouds, which dissolve in rain into the upper bason of the plateau of Africa, or is preserved in snows deposited on the height which surround that bason, of which the Niger is the last receptacle. These accumulated rains, and the melting of snows, are the cause of the rise of the Nile; and at the same time make the Niger communicate with that river.

"The interior of every continent is a vast plateau, elevated concave ; containing, by its nature, many marshes and sulphureous springs, having a proclivity towards one of its sides, and the cantour of which corresponds with the cantours actually known of that continent. The profile of this continent is composed of as many principal terraces as there have been principal epochs in the successive subsiding of the seas."

The superior plateau of Africa, then, is a bason surrounded with eminences, the bottom of which is traversed from west to east by the Niger, and the proclivity of which is constantly in the same direction. The valley of the Nile is lateral to this direction; that is, the course of the Niger is at right angles to that of the Nile. There is, between both, a tract of ground, the elevation of which is such, as, at the time of low water, to hinder the Niger from flowing into the Nile. The Wangara is the lake in which all the waters of the bason unite, where they stagnate and corrupt for want of a vent.

When the sun, after the autumnal equinox, sends towards this plateau, the great rains and snows, the mass of the waters augmented by the rains only, is not sufficient to rise above the level. Thus the bason is filled towards the Wangara with an immense quantity of water. The season, as well as the great elevation of the plateau, then hinders these waters, though stagnant, from corrupting and emitting their mephitic gas. After the vernal equinox, the melting of the snows being completed between the beginning of May and the summer solstice, the mass of waters rises above the level, and opens the communication between the two rivers; and it is about

the summer solstice that the Nile begins to rise. This evacuation of the Wangara into the Nile would perhaps be more prompt, but for the north winds which retard it by driving back its waters. It is, however, effected; the Nile receives the greenish tinge of the stagnant waters; and in the neighbourhood of the Wangara, this evacuation uncovers immense marshes, which were just before submerged.

The Sun, returning towards the Line, Occasions a great evaporation of mephitic gasses, in the bason of Africa, which had been heated and prepared for this great evaporation by the passage of that luminary from the equinox to the solstice, and then by its return from the solstice to the equinox. Amidst these causes of corruption, how many insects, reptiles, aud animals are there in all this marshy bason which daily perish!

In the environs of the Wangara there is formed an atmospherical stratum, heavy, offensive to the smell, and pestiferous, which is renewed in proportion as the wind has carried it away. It is a continual developement of mephitic gas and noxious exhalations. Timbuctoo, and the Upper Niger, being on a higher level, the putrified gas formed there would sink in consequence of its specific gravity, and be drawn by the current of the river, or be simply carried away by the west wind, and increase the mass which langs over the Wangara, and would leave that city free from the Scourge. Such, then, is the state of the interior of this bason, when sometimes the south, sometimes the west wind, begins to reign there. A high wind arriving at the superior plateau of Africa, carries away, and drives before it the air heated by the sun, and infected by the fætid exhalations, and bears it sometimes to Arabia, into the Hegias, where it destroys the pilgrims of Mecca.-This air thus impelled by a strong wind, either passes over the mountainous chain of Syria, or striking it at some point of its elevation, and being compressed on one side by the mountains, on the other by a column of wind, flies off at a tangent, and rises above the mountains. By its specific gravity, it would tend to fall on the reverse of the obstacle surmounted: but still impelled by the same wind, it describes a curve, and does not strike the Desert till it reaches a point at the distance of a day and a half's journey. What

proves this correct is, that the coast of Syria, feels only a hot wind, but never the offensive samieli; and that the whole tract along the foot of Libanus, and Anti-Libanus, of breadth of from fifteen to twenty leagues is also exempt from it. Hama, Horns, Damascus, &c. know nothing of the samieli. The mixture of burning and cool gusts is caused by the heated mephitic gas, passing first, and because the wind which impells it has not be come heated. The marshes of the Wangara, instantly re-produce an ar dent mass of mephitic gas, which a new gust of wind takes and impels before it.

Such is the origin of the famous samieli. It is on the marshes af Wangara, on the immense plateau of Africa, that its true source is to be sought.

A simple but important discovery has been made by W. Lister, an engineer of this town, residing in Water-Lane, which not only facilitates the process of making steam in the boiler, but even almost totally dispenses with that trouble and expence attending its large fires. The boiler is of the usual shape and consists of the same appendages, its only addition being a large curved pipe, which rises out of its upper part, and instead of immediately connecting itself with the engine, is extended over the top of the boiler, wherein it again descends. To this end of the pipe which is immerged in the water, are connected two or more smaller pipes which extend themselves in different directions.-By this simple process, the steam which arises from the boiler, is again conducted into it, and thus more powerfully acts the part of the fire, by keeping the water in constant boiling.

The inventor has had the design in contemplation for many years, since the last few months, however, he has made a trial of it and finds it to answer better than he could reasonably have expected. The quantity of coal daily preserved, is astonishing; very little fire being necessary to answer every purpose. This simple improvement in the boiler, will be found worthy the attention of mechanics, tradesmen, &c. as well as reflect great credit on its inventor.

A plan or model of it may be seen by referring to the ingenious contriver.

HORIZOUTORIUM.-A curious philosophical plaything under this name has been invented by a person of the name of Shires. It is an exceedingly pleasing optical illusion. This is produced by the picture of a castle, projected on a horizontle plane, whence its name is derived. The picture is laid flat on the table, with the light on the left of the spectator. In front there is a small perpendicular parchment, with a grove in it, to which the eye is applied, and the effect is, that the whole appears to be a solid building; the walls of the castle, the ruin of a wall, &c. &c. &c. being, in every respect, like a model, instead of a coloured horizontal projection. By removing the candle to the floor, that which was a sunlight becomes a moon-light scene. The illusion is very pretty, and the thing in its application though not in its principles, entirely new.

AVALANCHE.-Sir Robert Ker Porter, in his travels through Persia, gives the following description of an Avalanche in Caucasus:-"The pale summit of the mountain Kasibeck, on the side which shelves down into the dark valley between Derial and the Village, which bears the mountain's name, had been seen abruptly to move. In an instant it was launched forward; and nothing was now beheld for the shaken snow and dreadful overshadowing of the falling destruction. The noise that accompanied it was the most stunning bursting and rolling onward, of all that must make death certain. As the avalanche rushed, huge masses of rock rifted from the mountain's side, were driven before it, and the snows and ice of centuries, pouring down in immense shattered forces and rending heaps, fell like the fall of an earthquake; covering from human eve, villages, valleys, and people! What an awful moment, when all was still! when the dreadful cries of man and beast were heard no more; and the tremendous avalanche lay a vast, motionless, white shroud on all around."

DISTINCTION IN UNIVERSITIES. A coloured tassel on the cap is, in Spain, the peculiar distinction of doctors and masters. White, denotes divinity: green, canon law: crimson, civil law: yellow, medicine: and blue, Arts, i. e. philosophy. These caps are worn only oa public occasions.

PUN. A lady complaining of a disa greeable walk she had had from Isling ton to Hornsey, a gentleman who accompanied her replied, that he was surprised, as it was one of the most stileish walks in England.

DOCTOR JOHNSON.-Amongst the numerous anecdotes related of Dr. Johnson's politeness to the fair sex, the following is one which deserves notice.--Dr. Hoole, of Islington, who was a great admirer of Dr. Johnson's abilities, invited him to spend a social evening with him. The Doctor accepted the invitation, but Mr. Hoole was unavoidably obliged to attend professionally to some lady, whose illness could not possibly be deferred, in compliment to Dr. Johnson. Mrs. Hoole, however, reeeived him, and paid him every attention in her power. She attempted to engage him in conversation, but the Doctor's replies were confined to monosyllables. Mrs. Hoole, who was herself a woman of no mean abilities, felt mortified at this supercilious neglect, and remained silent. After some time, the Doctor in his usual polite manner, desired her to stir up the fire; she obeyed, and then Dr. Johnson who was angry at the absence of Mr. Hoole, in a more stern manner, exclaimed,

woman, snuff the candles." Mr. Hoole shortly after returned, and his lady retired, and when the Doctor took his leave, she could not help asking her husband why he had invited such a Bear of a fellow?" He is," replied Mr. Hoole," certainly not very elegant in his manner, but that Bear is Dr. Johnson."

TIDES.-On the 7th, the tide in the river Arun ebbed and flowed five times in two hours. A like variation from the natural course occurred on the 1st of November, 1755, when the earthquake at Lisbon happened.

CASHMERE GOATS.-A Paris Journal contains the following particulars relative to the Cashmere goats, which were some time ngo imported to France:

The flock consists of about 180 goats. The animals are enclosed in a large meadow, surrounded by trees which afford them an agreeable shade. On two sides of the meadow there are reservoirs of fresh water, and penfolds constructed on the model of those of the Jardin des Plantes. The goats are permitted to go in and out of the penfolds freely, but they are coustantly kept separate, so that the growth of these interesting