of the Judge of Probate of the county in which he or they desire to establish an agency for any insurance company as aforesaid, a copy of the statement and written instrument required to be filed with the Controller as aforesaid, together with the certificate of said Controller, which shall be carefully preserved in said office for public inspection.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the statement and evidence required by this act shall be rendered annually in the month of July of each year, the first statement to be made in the month of July next after the passage of this act, and the Controller on being satisfied that the capital of the company filing such statement remains secure as at first, shall furnish a renewal of certificate, as aforesaid, and the agent or agents obtaining such renewal of certificate shall file the same, together with a copy of the statement on which it was obtained, or renewed, in the office of the Judge of Probate of the county in which such agency is established, to be carefully preserved in said office for public inspec tion.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted. That copies of all papers required by this act to be deposited in the office of the Controller, certified under the hand of such Controller to be true and correct copies of such papers, shall be received as evidence in all courts of this State in the same manner and have the same force and effect as the original would if produced.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the agents of all insurance companies not incorporated by the State of Alabama, doing fire, river, or marine insurance in any county of this State, shall on or before the first day of August in each and every year deposit with the assessor of the county in which the agency of such company is established, a statement, verified by the oath of the agent of such company, specifying the gross amount (after deducting all return premiums) of premiums received for insurance by said company at the said agency during the preceding year, or such fractional part of the year, that such company may have been doing business in the city or county after the passage of this act.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That such gross amount of premiums so received as aforesaid shall be subject in every county in which such agency is established, to a tax of two per centum, one half of which shall be for the use of the county and the other half for the State, which tax shall be paid by such agent or agents to the respective collectors of taxes within the time required by law for the payment of general taxes, and which tax shall be in lieu of the tax imposed by paragraph twenty-four of section three hundred and ninety one of the code.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of such agent or agents as beforementioned, before taking any risk or transacting any business of insurance in the city or county of Mobile, to pay the treasurer of the "Fire Department Association of Mobile" the sum of two hundred dollars, for the benefit of said association. To the trustees of the medical college at Mobile the sum of two hundred dollars, such payment to be made from year to year so long as such agency is continued in the city or county of Mobile, and any such agent or agents, taking any risk or transacting any business of insurance in any other incorporated city or town in this State where fire companies now are, or that may be hereafter organized, shall pay to the corporate authorities of such city or town, for the benefit of such fire companies, the sum of two hundred dollars, each payment to be made from year to year so long as such agency or agencies, is or are continued in such city or county.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That for every such statement required to be filed by this act with the Controllor and Judge of Probate, said Controller and Judge of Probate shall be entitled to a fee of five dollars to be paid by the agent, or agents, filing such statement.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That any person violating the provisions of this act shall be liable to indictment, and on conviction shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, and may be im

prisoned in the county jail not less than one month nor more than twelve months, one or both at the discretion of the jury trying the same.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That no such company as is named in the foregoing sections, shall in any manner, or on any pretext, deal in, pay out, directly or indirectly, the notes or bills of any bank not doing business under a charter from the State of Alabama, or under its free banking law, and any officer or agent of such company violating the provisions of this act, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars for each offence, and the judges of the circuit courts must give this act specially in charge of the grand juries.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That this act shall also apply to life and trust insurance companies, not incorporated by the laws of this State, whether said companies are or are not organized upon the mutual plan.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of this act shall apply in all cases where the risk is taken or any insurance business is transacted in this State by the agent or agents of any of the insurance companies mentioned in this act, whether the policies are signed by the officers of said companies in or out of this State.

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That all laws and parts of laws conflicting with the provisions of this act be and the same are hereby repealed. Approved February 24, 1860.

INSURANCE SCRIP DIVIDends.

Dividends of scrip of the marine insurance companies of New York. Com: piled from official sources, by WILLIAM C. GILMAN & SON, 18 Merchants' Exchange, September, 1860 :-

In 1859 the Columbian Company declared 12, and the Sun Company 30 per cent. Their statements for 1860 have not yet been made. the Washington, new companies, have not yet issued scrip.

The Neptune and

HUMORS OF HEALTH INSURANCE.

A thin cadaverous looking German about fifty years of age entered the office of a health insurance company in Indiana a few days ago, says the Albany Daily Courier, and inquired:

"Ish the man in vot insures the people's helts?"

The agent politely answered; "I attend to that business, sir."

"Vell, I vants mine helts insured; vot you charge?"

46

Different prices," answered the agent," from three to ten dollars a week in a case of sickness."

"Vell," says Mynheer, "I vants ten dollars vort."

The agent then inquired the state of his health.

"Vell I ish sick all te time. I'se shust out te ped two or tree hours a tay, and te doctor says he can't do nothing more dat ish goot for me."

"If that is the state of your health," returned the agent, "we can't insure it. We only insure persons in good health.”

At this Mynheer bristled up in great anger.

"You must tink I'm a fool. Vot you tink I come pay you ten dollars for insure my helt, ven I vas vell."

MARINE INSURANCE SCRIP.

The following are the market values of insurance scrip, all bearing 6 per cent interest :

For Great Western shares the quotations are 135 a 1374; Columbian, 120 a 122; Mercantile, 110 a 112; Orient, 85 a 90.

JOURNAL OF MINING, MANUFACTURES, AND ART.

THE PENNSYLVANIA ROCK OIL.

A letter to the Evening Post contains the following interesting facts in relation to rock oil:

Knowing that some of your readers have been interested in the brief communications that have been furnished in relation to the oil discoveries in Pennsylvania, I venture again to send you some of the latest reports from the oil districts.

Messrs. A. & S. A. BENNETT, the oil forwarding agents at Union Mills, furnish the following statement of the amount of oil shipped by them in the months of July and August :

Nearly all of which was received from Titusville and forwarded to New York, while nearly as much more found its way, via Oil Creek and the Alleghany, to Pittsburg.

By private letter received last week I learn that the monster well at Tidioute, on the Alleghany, did not continue long to flow over the top, but that, after throwing over some two hundred barrels, the gas was sufficiently exhausted to allow the oil to rest in the pipe. A pump has since been inserted, and so far discharges but about thirty barrels per day-much less than was anticipated from its antecedents. The same letter says that the Williams well, at Titusville, is so far the banner well, constantly yielding a daily average of about one hundred barrels of nearly pure oil.

The famous Crossley well-one of the first opened, and which last March yielded from sixty to seventy barrels per day-has now dwindled down to six or seven; but, as before stated, the owner is confident that this apparent failure is in consequence of the filling in of his pump, and that as soon as he removes it and rims out the well, as is customary and necessary in salt wells, he will again obtain an abundant flow of oil.

Out of a hundred and sixty-seven wells on the creek above Titusville, only thirty-four are yet pumping oil, and many of the oil-seekers are just now in a state of very anxious suspense. Many of them, encouraged by the fact that some of the earliest diggers found oil at depths varying from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty feet, went to work with very limited means, and having gone as deep as their funds will allow, with neither oil nor money to grease their wheels, are now obliged to suspend operations, and with heavy hearts cast about again for the wherewithal to go a little deeper. The fact stares them in the face that some individuals have found good veins of oil over five hundred feet deep, and, of course, they must find it too if they but perserve. Some have found the smell of gas, which surely indicates that there is oil not far away, while others have seen a few drops of the real article floating upon the water which they are sure to find in abundance. But the drill must stop for the want of money, and many a poor driller will probably soon sink his hopes with his spirits in the bottom of his well, and turn away with the disappointment that gold or fortunehunters often feel to some employment which, if not so promising to the imagination, is more sure of yielding a livelihood. There is a great disposition among the oil-seekers to crowd their wells together, and the most extravagant prices are often paid for leases in the neighborhood of other promising or producing wells. One sanguine individual offered for a lot of seventy-five feet front three-fourths of the oil he might obtain, in barrels, for the privilege of sinking and working a well. People are just beginning to find out that there may be disappointment

here as well as in every other worldly enterprise, and that "they who make baste to be rich fall into many a snare." Should any of your readers desire to enter upon this search for oil, let me advise that they take with them plenty of money, and, if gifted with ordinary prudence, they can make as wise and paying investments now as at any time since the excitement commenced. And if any one wishes to escape from the noise of politics, and to retire for a while where the people have oil for breakfast, dinner, and supper, where they talk of oil by day and dream of it by night, let him go to Oil Creek and spend a week, and he will be surprised that one can get so far out of the world in so short a time.

GALVANIZING IRON.

For the preservation of iron, various methods have been devised, namely, those which protect iron mechanically, by covering it with a coating not acted on by, and impervious to, the deteriorating principle, and those which protect iron chemically, by producing a change in its electric or electropolar condition with respect to the corroding agents. Any metal electro-positive to iron will answer for such a protector, but zinc is the only one known that can be practically used in the electro-chemical preservation of iron. The process through which it passes is known by the name of " galvanizing ;" and the modus operandi, as shown at one of the largest establishments in the United States, is as follows:

Two kinds of iron are used, viz. :-Pig iron, which is puddled and then rolled into bars and sheets for the use of stove-making, &c., and blooms, (technically called,) for galvanizing These blooms come in square blocks about 4 inches wide by 12 inches long, of solid charcoal iron. These blocks are heated and rolled into bars (by a steam engine of 125 horse power) of about 24 inches wide. They are then cut into lengths by a powerful cutting machine, each length being the width of the sheet intended to be rolled, the ordinary thickness being about five-eighths of an inch; this, however, varies. These blocks are then passed over to the other side of the mill, and are then ready for rolling into sheets.

The first process is placing them in an oven, heating them almost to a white heat. Two, three, or four blocks, according to the thickness required, are then taken to the first rolling machine, operated on by two men; the first passing the iron through the rollers, which is caught by means of tongs by the other, and so on through the whole. The first man then, by means of two levers, screws the rollers a little tighter, and the iron passes out as before; and so it is passed backwards and forwards until from 24 inches wide it becomes nearly 2 feet. By this time it is getting cool, and is again sent to the oven. When it is sufficiently hot, it is handed over (as before) to another set of rollers. The same process is gone through, with this difference, that instead of passing each separately, the two, three, or four plates are placed one over the other and rolled together. Sometimes one rolling is sufficient, but at others they have to be again heated and rolled. After this process they are ready for the cutting machine to take off the jagged edges, and make them of equal lengths; from thence the sheets are taken to the galvanizing works. When they arrive, they are first treated to a bath of sulphuric acid; after that they are thoroughly washed in clean water, rubbed dry, and examined. They are then immersed in a bath of nitric acid, from which they pass, by means of a car and rails, into the oven, where they are dried perfectly, and taken to the zinc bath. Here they get a coating of zinc a trifle thicker than the tin on tin plates, the zinc being heated to a state of solution. After being taken out of this bath and cooled, they are rubbed with cloths, for the purpose of removing the dirt, and again thoroughly examined, to see that the zinc coating is perfect. The iron is then packed in bundies and marked, fit for use, and will stand salt water or any kind of weather without rust.

The establishment where the above operations are carried on, have also machinery for galvanizing telegraph wire, of which they can turn out twenty miles