15.-Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontier; with Brief Notices of Passing Events, Facts and Opinions, A. D. 1812 to A. D. 1842. By HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 8vo., pp. 703. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co.

The author of these memoirs has already become well known to the public by his works on the Indian Tribes of the North-West and kindred subjects. In these pages he spreads before us many of the daily incidents of a thirty years' residence on the Western frontiers. These facts are interspersed with much information, both of a civil and a scientific character. The latter relates to the mineralogy of the country, and its physical geography, while the former refers more directly to the official intercourse of the writer with the tribes. The work introduces us to a great variety of characters, the names of many of whom are familiar. It will be found one of the most instructive and generally agreeable volumes which has been offered to the public, in relation to that famous race of men who are now so rapidly passing away. 16.-The Human Body and its Connection with Man, Illustrated by the Principal Organs. By JAMES J. G. WILKINSON, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, England. 12mo., pp. 411. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co.

The appearance of this volume should be hailed with gratification by all friends of science, especially of the science of man. It will, however, be some little time before it comes to be understood; but it is none the less valuable on that account. It is rather difficult to understand clearly the meaning of the author in every sentence, in consequence of the novel views presented, and the novel service required of language, which the author uses with great power and force. Neither are we prepared to assent to the views of the writer, but these, especially as they relate to human physiology, will do much to break down that torpidity of spirit which has seemed to hang upon the subject. It is for this object we are pleased to see the work, and we recommend it as one of thought and power to all readers.

17.-The North Carolina Reader: Containing a History and Description of North Carolina, Selections in Prose and Verse, Historical and Chronological Tables, and a Variety of Miscellaneous Information and Statistics. By C. H. WILEY. Illustra ted with engravings, and designed for families and schools. 12mo., pp. 359. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co.

The selections in this work are made from speeches, writings, &c., of eminent citizens of North Carolina, and will be instructive to those who are not familiar with the history of that State.

18.-Jamie Gordon; or the Orphan. 12mo., pp. 326. New York: Carter & Brothers.

As a tale of life in the East this is one of uncommon interest. The little hero is a character worthy of imitation of all youth. The influence of these pages is of the best kind, and the volume is justly entitled to a place among the books of every family.

19.-The Lady's Companion; or Sketches of Life, Manners, and Morals at the present day. Edited by A LADY. 12mo., pp. 388. Philadelphia: Peck & Bliss.

The contents of this volume have been selected from the choicest articles of many writers of the best class. They consist of pieces in perceptive, elegant, and imaginative literature, with here and there a gem of poetry, all bearing an intimate relation to the conduct of life, and and addressed to female readers.

20.-Agatha's Stories. The Thunder Storm, and Other Tales. Marie the Orphan, and Other Tales. Philadelphia: Hagar, Perkins & Co.

The design of this admirable series of books is to embody moral truths, in the form of simple illustrations adapted to the comprehension of young children. This design the writer has accomplished in a manner that cannot fail of rendering them among the most attractive as well as instructive books of the class.

21.-The Soldier's Cap; or, I'll be a General. Timour the Tartar; or, I'll be a Conqueror. Philadelphia: Hagar, Perkins & Co.

Two pretty and interesting historical stories, in which the author shows that while history proves that many great and good men have acquired the reputation of conquerors, military fame is neither the most desirable nor enduring; and at the same time time corrects the taste for war, so prevalent among the youth of our country.

22.-Handbook of the Useful Arts; including Agriculture, Architecture, Domestic Economy, Engineeriny, Machinery, Manufactures, Mining, Photographic and Telegraphic Art; being an exposition of their principles and practice, and a compend of American and European inventions. By T. ANTISELL, M. D. 12mo. pp. 692. 23.-Handbook of Universal Biography.

New York: G. P. Putnam.

By PARKE GODWIN. 12mo., pp. 821

The Home Cyclopedia of Mr. Putnam to which these two volumes belong, promises to be one of the most valuable productions of the season. In six volumes it will comprise all the leading and important departments of knowledge. The volumes before us which are probably fair specimens of the work, are admirable as handbooks, or dictionaries of reference in the subjects to which they relate. They are brought up to the latest period,—the information is from the most reliable sources, and they have been edited by gentlemen of taste and intelligence. As an American work, adapted as well to the state of knowledge in this country as elsewhere, they are entitled to the first rank.

24.-Rural Homes; or Sketches of Houses Suited to American Country Life, with Original Plans, Designs, &c. By GERVASSE WHEELER. 12mo., pp. 298. New York: Charles Scribner.

All those who contemplate building a place of residence, may perhaps derive advantage from this volume. It commences with the first foot-tread upon the spot chosen for the house; explains the considerations that should weigh in selecting a site; gives models of buildings suited to particular localities, differing in character, extent, and cost; shows how to harmonize the building with the surrounding scenery, and to reconcile expenditure with refinement of taste; teaches how to warm and ventilate healthfully, and to furnish and ornament a house and complete the outbuildings. It is prepared with judgment, and displays excellent taste combined with economy in its

recommendations.

25.-Sacred Streams; or the Ancient and Modern History of the Rivers of the Bible. By PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. Edited by GEO. B. CHEEVER, D. D. Embellished with fifty illustrations. 12mo., pp. 360. New York: Stringer & Townsend.

As a work for the perusal of those who are seriously inclined and at the same time desire to obtain information, this is entitled to be received with considerable favor. The Rivers and Streams of Palestine and the neighboring lands, hallowed by their mention in the Bible, and the narratives of high interest connected with these scenes, are the objects of the work. It is written in a lively and attractive manner, at the same time it has a spirit of devotion spread through its pages sufficient to render it a general work for the Sunday reading, which it was destined to furnish. The embellishments are exceedingly numerous, and form not the least attractive feature of the

volume.

26.—A year abroad; or, Sketches of travel in Great Britain, France and Switzerland. By WILLARD C. GEORGE. 12mo. pp. 248. Boston: A. Tompkins.

An American in Europe, who shall preserve his American principles and views and look at the world around him in that light is a rare character. The present volume may be regarded as an exception to the numerous eulogies on foreign countries. In this respect, the reader will find in its pages much to interest him. It is to be regretted, that the author had not been better acquainted with continental languages, thereby to have entered more fully into the spirit of the manners and customs of the people. 27.—The Christian Victor; or, Mortality and Immortality: including Happy DeathScenes. By J. G. ADAMS. 18mo. pp. 216. Boston: A Tompkins.

The author of this volume is one of those whose charity leads to the conviction of the future bliss of all mankind. It is under this genial and consoling thought that the contents of this volume have been written. The first part treats of death and kindr subjects relating to this life, and is followed by the details of a large number of happy death-scenes in various parts of the country. It is written in a tender and kindly spirit. 28.-Ruth Churchill; or, the True Protestant. A Tale for the Times. By a LADY OF VIRGINIA. 12mo., pp. 224. New York: C. Shepard & Co.

Under the form of a very pleasing tale this author attempts to expose what she regards as follies in the Protestant Episcopal Church. These relate rather to the doctrines of the "Tractarians." To those who sympathize with her views this will prove an interesting tale.

blinds on the sides of the cars, so arranged that their motion may not resist its free passage. The inventor of this valuable improvement is Mr. Hovey of New York city; and, so far as we can judge from the experiment we witnessed, the success of his in vention was most triumphantly demonstrated. It is no exaggeration to say, that on one of the most trying days of the season there was not even the smallest annoyance from the dust.

The change from this most comfortable and well ventilated car, to those in common use, was even greater than supposed possible. The rest of our journey was performed with open-windowed cars, admitting clouds of hot dust, smoke and cinders, and at its end we were hardly recognizable, we were so thoroughly covered. Mr. H. has our most hearty good wishes and prayers that he may succeed in introducing his invention upon every line of railroad in the country.

WHAT RAILROADS MUST ACCOMPLISH.

"Were the railroad trains to keep moving nights and Sundays," says the Commonwealth, "very few but laboring people would reside in the city, and by no means all of them." One great advantage that must eventually result from railroads will be the dispersion of the laboring classes of the city among our rural villages and towns. Country life must not long remain the exclusive luxury of the rich, who pursue their business "in town." The men of small means, mechanics and even day lahorers, will find that they can remove their families ten or twenty miles into the country, and have their little vegetable gardens, their fruit trees, their cows, pigs and poultry, their pure air, with healthy rustic employments for their children, and the adjoining forest for a holiday ramble. What a blessed change, physically and morally, for the families now packed in the cellars or garrets of old houses, in filthy alleys, where the breezes of heaven cannot pass without contamination, and where the roses on childhood's cheeks are withered before they

can bloom!

Every year or two we hear of the departure of some rich man, who leaves princely bequests to some institution, perhaps already liberally endowed, or who sends his money to convert the heathen in distant lands. As soon as we have fifty thousand dollars to give away, we will dispose of it, not in bequests of doubtful utility to take effect after "the pitcher is broken at the fountain," but we will purchase a liberal tract of land, within a radius of twenty miles of Boston, and there create a village for day-laborers, who procure their daily employment in the city. They could live as economically as they now do, in spite of the additional charge of a passage to and fro in the cars. They and their children would soon acquire a taste for country life and agricultural pursuits. If they are Irish and Catholics, they shall have a church and a priest, and a burial ground, (for which they will not have as much use as now,) and this last shall be in a wood remote from their habitation-Bishop Fitzpatrick approving, of course. We have reached the end of our page, and our day-dream shall terminate with it.

AMERICAN VS. ENGLISH RAILROADS.

"The American people number 23,000,000 of souls, to whom, besides the natural yearly native increment, an addition is made by emigration of between 400,000 to 500,000 settlers, mostly in the prime of life, and many with hard cash in their pockets. Wages are in the States so high, and the whole population so well off, that they can afford to spend money in traveling more universally and to a greater extent, than the inhabitants of any other country. Intensely migratory, and proverbially locomotive themselves, the annual influx of strangers and emigrants passing on to their settlement, or traveling through the country, fill every medium of conveyance to every quarter, and to overflowing. Wood is to be had everywhere for the cutting. Irish navigators present themselves on the arrival of every ship. Land may be had for nothing-premiums even offered to railway projectors by proprietors to carry their lines through their properties. There are no lawyers and jobbers to run up enormous bills in Parliamentary contests. Economy is uniformly consulted-cheapness always commended. The result, reluctantly acknowledged, and hastily slurred over, by our stags, our capitalists, and the common jackalls of the press, is neither more nor less than this Twenty-eight millions of British have 7,000 miles of railway, and 24,000,000 of Yankees have 10,000. The English paid £250,000,000 for their 7,000 miles, while the Americans constructed and furnished 10,000 miles for £66,654,000. In a word, British

railways cost £35,700 per mile, and Yankee railways average £6,500, or little more than one sixth of the cost of our own. It is obvious from these data, that if the London and North-western can afford to divide 5 per cent, the line from New York to Albany or Buffalo should yield 33 per cent; and it may, on the most assured evidence, be with great safety concluded, that the account contained in our last, of American dividends ranging from 6, 8, and 10 to 15, and even 19 per cent, scarcely comes up to the most moderate estimate of the probabilities of the case.-London Despatch.

THE NEW HAMBURG TUNNEL ON THE HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD.

The following is a description by the Engineer who superintended the work of the principal tunnel on the Hudson River Railroad. It will interest the engineering fraternity generally, as well as others in this State who are agitating the question of the cost of the Hoosac Tunnel, on the Troy and Greenfield line :*-

SIR-At the request of the President I furnish you below all the information I can draw together during the short interval before the departure of the mail.

The tunnel at New Hamburg is approached on both sides by such heavy rock cutting as rendered it necessary to commence operations through shafts. Firstly. The tunnel is 836 feet long.

Secondly.--The area of the tunnel is 15,603 cubic yards, (15,603-1,000) per lineal foot. The specification herein quoted gives the outline. Grading for a double track. The tunnel to be twenty-four feet wide at the grade line, eighteen feet high at the center, seventeen feet high at a distance of five and a half feet each side of the center, (these points being nearly perpendicular to the center of the smoke pipe of the locomotive,) and ten feet high at the springing points of the arch, distant twelve feet each side of the center. The bottom to be excavated one foot below grade for ballast to imbed the sleepers, and also side drains two feet below grade. The roof is a curve of three

centers.

Thirdly. The total time occupied from the removal of the first cubic yard to its completion was sixteen months. The excavation was commenced and carried north and south in the first shaft, during September, 1848. The excavation was commenced and carried both ways in the second shaft in December of the same year. North end of the tunnel commenced early in February, 1849. South end commenced middle of June, 1849. From the middle of June to December 27th, 1849, the time of completion, workmen were employed on an average of four faces. The drifts, ten feet by six feet nearly, at the top center of the tunnel, were driven day and night from the very commencement until their completion in October, 1849.

Fourthly. The cost of excavation of 13,011 cubic yards of rock, embracing the tunnel proper, was $4,249-1,000 or nearly $4 25 per cubic yard. Also 6,000 cubic yards hoisted through shafts at 75 cents-$4,500. Also 608 cubic yards of shaft excavation, at $5 00-$3,040; all of which included, made the cost about $4 51 per cubic yard.

Fifthly.-There were two shafts, one forty-five feet, the other thirty-five feet in depth from the natural surface to the top center of the arch. Distance between the two shafts 245 feet. The work, though expedited by more than half, was increased in its cost by the use of shafts. 1st.-From the fact that all the material thus excavated was hoisted. 2d.-By the removal of 2,000 to 2,500 gallons of water per day, during the greater portion of the spring and autumn months, and perhaps half that quantity during the remaining seasons from each shaft. 3d.-The necessity for pumping fresh air to remove the smoke from the blasts and to displace carbonic acid gas, which would have rendered the shafts otherwise untenantable. 4th.-Lights, and higher wages, and time lost in ascending and descending.

The rock was throughout a compact limestone of different degrees of purity, free from seams or layers of earth, so much so that every inch was made by blasting. The contour laid down in the specifications was carefully observed by the workmen, and the tunnel is beyond all question safe in every part.

I would remark in addition, that had the tunnel been worked only from the extremities, and the time for its completion prolonged for more than another year, the excavations might have been made for $4 per cubic yard, yielding to the contractor nothing more than a fair profit.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOMAS C. MEYER, Civil Engineer.

INCREASE OF OCEAN STEAMSHIP LINES.

The vast field of enterprise opened by the expansion of steam navigation, cannot fail to produce a sensation of astonishment in the minds of most individuals; and to casual and inexperienced observers of passing events, the rapid strides made under the direction of those who have encouraged the movement, must appear to be associated with that indomitable attempt to extend the links in the grand chain of communication, so as to embrace the whole of the civilized world within the range of what may be described as our every day occupations. The circumstance that a contract has just been concluded with the General Screw Steam Company, for a monthly communication with the Cape of Good Hope, and also the rapid progress making by the Royal West India Mail Company to complete their arrangements for starting the Brazilian line in the early part of the ensuing year, has given the subject a fresh interest in a public point of view, and affords us the opportunity of a few passing observations.

To look back at the period when the power of steam was first applied to navigation, or to trace its course in connection with the facilities it has afforded in channel conveyance or continental communication, is a task we need not impose upon ourselves. The history of the last half century is sufficient to record its achievements, and to show incontestably the advantages which have resulted from its employment. What is now simply proposed to be done is, to inquire how far, and in what manner, our colonial possessions or distant points of intercourse have been, or are likely to be, supplied with this means of connection between themselves and the parent country, or such countries whose connection it may be considered desirable to cultivate.

It is certainly within the last fifteen years that fleets of steamers-the property of individual companies, supported by government contracts for performance of mail service-have covered our seas. Taking these in the order in which their importance gives them rank, we must first name the Peninsular and Oriental; secondly, the Royal West India Mail Company; thirdly, the Cunard, Halifax and Boston Company; and, fourthly, the General Screw Company. The General Steam Company, although holding a very prominent position, is more closely allied with the trade of the continent and the north of Europe, and does not, therefore come immediately within the scope of our notice. By the Peninsular and Oriental Company, the whole of the Indian route, exclusive of its Spanish and Portuguese junctions, is supplied; and from Malta, through the whole course of the voyage, even to Hong Kong, the lengthy arterial line of communication has been kept up with undeviating punctuality. The Royal Mail Steam Company has, probably, scarcely proved so fortunate in the performance of the public service assigned it. The West India line has, from time to time, failed; and the Mexican mails have, through difficulties which could not be well avoided, frequently missed, or have been anticipated. These errors have, at length, been rectified, and there is now the promise of the West India and the Mexican routes being established at once, on a perfect and punctual footing. The experiment of the Brazilian line is one of no ordinary character. That it may prove successful, all who are interested in the trade of Rio, Bahia, Pernambuco and Buenos Ayres, evidently strongly wish; since it is now alone these places that the old government packets are allowed to monopolize, much to the inconvenience of business intercommunication. Of the importance of as speedily as possible effecting a steam route to the Cape there can be no question. The powerful passive resistance to the introduction of the convict system, by the settlers, has possibly prompted Sir Harry Smith to lay representations before the government respecting it. Whatever may have been the conclusions arrived at in this matter, it is self-evident that, if the great chain is to be carried out with proper consideration to the wants of the mercantile community, this colony could not be omitted.

That intercommunication exists in the closest possible relationship between England and America, none will have the temerity to dispute. The Cunard Company satisfactorily establish the degree of connection between Liverpool and the ports on the seaboard of the United States. Already the laurels this company have gained are to be disputed by the American company known as Collins' line, the trips of whose vessels show a spirit of competition which will at least produce vigilance and exertion, so as to ensure in each case regularity and dispatch. Who shall profess to contemn the spirit of Anglo-Saxon enterprise and adventure, when it is discovered that by this means the position of two great nations, divided by the broad Atlantic, is recognized at the expiration of little less than a fortnight. The extension of steam navigation, both by England and America, is one of the great wonders of the age. The same mighty agent which, through the assistance of the rail, conveys to the remotest inland localities, with unparalleled celerity, the impressionable circumstances of the hour,