grassed my command never having made a bad grass camp during the entire distance, until near the Colorado. It crosses the great desert (which must be crossed by any road to California) at its narrowest point. It passes through a country abounding in game, and but little infested with Indians.

Another interesting feature of this exploration, and not the least important, is the fact that it was accompanied by twenty-five camels and two dromedaries, of those brought from Asia, as described in THE NATIONAL for December. The question of the vast importance of these animals in crossing our American deserts may be considered as settled. The lieutenant says:

I may speak for every man in our party, when I say there is not one of them who would not prefer

the most indifferent of our camels to four of our best mules.

In all our lateral explorations they have carried water, sometimes for more than a week, for the mules used by the men, themselves never receiving even a bucketful to one of them; they have traversed patiently with heavy packs, on these explorations, countries covered with the sharpest volcanic rock, and yet their feet to this hour have evinced no symptom of tenderness or injury. With heavy packs they have crossed mountains, ascended and descended precipitous places, where an unladen mule found it difficult to pass.

And again:

The camels performed this journey-in which there was a considerable space to be passed devoid of water or grass-without, in a single instance, exhibiting any sign of fatigue or distress, nor showing any signs of thirst. They kept pace easily with the teams, at an average rate of four miles an hour, though, when required, this rate could have been doubled without their suffering the least inconvenience.

The Hasheesh Eater: being Passages from the Life of a Pythagorean. Carelessly written, "thrown off," the writer says, "currente calamo," not likely to find many readers, and, therefore, not likely to profit the publishers; and, when read, not likely to profit the reader, we marvel what could have induced the Messrs. Harper to lend their imprint to a book like this. Hasheesh is the resin of Indian hemp, (Cannabis Indica.) Its effects, when taken internally, are somewhat similar to those produced by the use of opium. The writer professes to have indulged in it for a long time, and in this volume to record his sensations and feelings when under its influence. He assures

us that his narrative" is one of unexaggerated fact." Very likely; and if a person intoxicated by any other means, French brandy for instance, should see strange sights and hear unearthly noises, and, pushing his "investigations," should bring on a fit of delirium tremens, no one would question the fact" that he saw and heard snakes, goblins, demons, hissing, yelling, and howling in his ears. The only wonder would be that, when sober, the hallucination should be still strong enough to induce him to make his chimeras public.

Under the simple title of A Christian Memorial of Two Sisters, we have, from the press of Stanford & Delisser, a beautifully-printed little volume, touchingly commemorative of two of the most estimable ladies of our city. They were the daughters of the late Governor Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States. Possessed, each, of an ample fortune, their efforts to do good were literally unceasing. The

Biography of Elisha Kent Kanc. By WILLIAM ELDER. This long-expected volume has at length made its appearance from the press of Childs & Peterson, Philadelphia. As a specimen of book-making, it is hardly equal to the promises held out in advanee by the publishers. With the limited materials at his command the author has succeeded in making an interesting sketch of the earlier portions of the life of the intrepid explorer. The latter part, upon which his fame will continue to rest, is written in the navigator's own inimitable journals.

In our last number we noticed, briefly, Mr. Parton's Life of Aaron Burr, of which a third edition has already been called for. It is indeed an attractive biography, and bating the one fault, a glaring one, to which we adverted, is highly creditable to the author's industry in the collection of materials, and his skill in the narration of facts. We copy a little episode in the strangely eventful life of Burr-his courtship and marriage-when nearly eighty years of age. It will be read with interest, not less for the graphic style of the narrator, than as another illustration of the adage, Truth is stranger than fiction:

There was a talk of cholera in the city. Madame Jumel resolved upon taking a carriage tour in the country. Before setting out she wished to take legal advice respecting some real estate, and as Colonel Burr's reputation in that department was pre-eminent, to his office in Reade-street she drove. In other days he had known her well, and though many an eventful year had passed since he had seen her, he recog nized her at once. He received her in his courtliest manner, complimented her with admirable tact, listened with soft deference to her statement. He was the ideal man of business-confidential, self-possessed, polite-giving his client the flattering impression that the faculties of his whole soul were concentrated upon the affair in band. She was charmed, yet feared him. He took the papers, named the day when his opinion would be ready, and handed her to her carriage with winning grace. At seventy-eight years of age he was still straight, active, agile, fascinating.

On the appointed day she sent to his office a relative, a student of law, to receive his opinion. This young gentleman, timid and inexperienced, had an immense opinion of Burr's talents; had heard all good and all evil of him; supposed him to be, at least, the acutest of horrible men. He went. Burr behaved to him in a manner so exquisitely pleasing, that, to this hour, he has the liveliest recollection of the scene. topics were introduced but such as were familiar and interesting to young men. His manners were such as this age of slangy familiarity cannot so much as imag ine. The young gentleman went home to Madame Jumel only to extol and glorify him.

Νο

Madame and her party began their journey, revisiting Ballston, whither, in former times, she had been wont to go in a chariot drawn by eight horses; visiting Saratoga, then in the beginning of its celebrity, where, in exactly ten minutes after her arrival, the decisive lady bought a house and all it contained.

Returning to New York to find that her mansion had been despoiled by robbers in her absence, she lived for a while in the city.

Colonel Burr called upon the young gentleman who

bad been Madame's messenger, and after their acquaintance had ripened, said to him, "Come into my office; I can teach you more in a year than you can learn in ten in an ordinary way." The proposition being submitted to Madame Jumel, she, anxious for the young man's advancement, gladly and gratefully consented. He entered the office. Burr kept him close at his books. He did teach him more in a year than he could have learned in ten in an ordinary way. Burr lived then in Jersey City. His office (23 Nassau-street) swarmed with applicants for aid, and he seemed now to have quite lost the power of refusing. In no other respects, bodily or mental, did he exhibit signs of decrepitude.

Some months passed on without his again meeting with Madame Jumel. At the suggestion of the student, who felt most grateful to Burr for the solicitude with which he assisted his studies, Madame Jumel invited Colonel Burr to dinner. It was a grand banquet, at which he displayed all the charms of his manner, and shone to conspicuous advantage. On handing to dinner the giver of the feast, he said: "I give you my hand, Madame; my heart has long been yours." This was supposed to be merely a compliment, and was little remarked at the time. Colonel Burr called upon the lady; called frequently, became ever warmer in his attentions; proposed, at length, and was refused. He still plied his suit, however, and obtained at last, not the lady's consent, but an undecided No. Improving his advantage on the instant, he said, in a jocular manner, that he should bring out a clergyman to Fort Washington on a certain day, and there he would once more solicit her hand.

He was as good as his word. At the time appointed, he drove out in his gig to the lady's residence, accompanied by Dr. Bogart, the very clergyman who, just fifty years before, married him to the mother of his Theodosia. The lady was embarrassed and still refused. But then the scandal! And, after all, why not? Her estate needed a vigilant guardian, and the old house was lonely. After much hesitation, she at length consented to be dressed, and to receive her visitors. And she was married. The ceremony was witnessed only by the members of Madame Jumel's family, and by the eight servants of the household, who peered eagerly in at the doors and windows. The ceremony was over; Mrs. Burr ordered supper. Some bins of M. Jumel's wine cellar, that had not been opened for half a century, were laid under contribution. The little party was a very merry one. The parson in particular, it is remembered, was in the highest spirits, overflowing with humor and anecdote. Except for Colonel Burr's great age, (which was not apparent,) the

match seemed not an unwise one.

The lurking fear he had of being a poor and homeless old man was put to rest. She had a companion who had ever been agreeable, and on her estate a steward, than whom no one living was supposed to be more competent.

As a remarkable circumstance connected with this marriage, it may be just mentioned that there was a woman in New York who had aspired to the hand of Colonel Burr, and who, when she heard of his union with another, wrung her hands and shed tears! A feeling of that nature can seldom, since the creation of man, have been excited by the marriage of a man on the verge of fourscore.

A few days after the wedding, the "happy pair" paid a visit to Connecticut, of which state a nephew of Colonel Burr's was then governor. They were received with attention. At Hartford Burr advised his wife to sell out her shares in the bridge over the Connecticut at that place, and invest the proceeds in real estate. She ordered them sold. The stock was in de

mand, and the shares brought several thousand dollars. The purchasers offered to pay her the money, but she said, "No; pay it to my husband." To him, accordingly, it was paid, and he had it sewed up in his pocket, a prodigious bulk, and brought it to New York, and deposited it in his own bank, to his own credit.

Texas was then beginning to attract the tide of emigration which, a few years later, set so strongly thither. Burr had always taken a great interest in that country. Persons with whom he had been variously connected in life had a scheme on foot for settling a large colony

of Germans on a tract of land in Texas. A brig had been chartered, and the project was in a state of forwardness, when the possession of a sum of money enabled Burr to buy shares in the enterprise. The greater part of the money which he had brought from Hartford was invested in this way. It proved a total loss, The time had not yet come for emigration to Texas.

The Germans became discouraged and separated, and, to complete the failure of the scheme, the title of the lands in the confusion of the times, proved defective. Meantime, madame, who was a remarkable thrifty woman, with a talent for the management of property, wondered that her husband made no allusion to the subject of the investment; for the Texas speculation had not been mentioned to her. She caused him to be questioned on the subject. He begged to intimate to the lady's messenger that it was no affair of her's, and requested her to remind the lady that she now had a husband to manage her affairs, and one who would manage them.

Coolness between the husband and wife was the result of this colloquy. Then came remonstrances. Then estrangement. Burr got into the habit of remaining at his office in the city. Then, partial reconciliation. Full of schemes and speculations to the last, without retaining any of his former ability to operate successfully, he lost more money, and more, and more. The patience of the lady was exhausted. She filed a complaint accusing him of infidelity, and praying that he might have no more control or authority over her affairs. The accusation is now known to have been groundless; nor, indeed, at the time was it seriously believed. It was used merely as the most convenient legal mode of depriving him of control over her prop erty. At first he answered the complaint vigorously, but afterward be allowed it to go by default, and proceedings were carried no further. A few short weeks of happiness, followed by a few months of alternate estrangement and reconciliation, and this union, that begun not inauspiciously, was, in effect, though never in law, dissolved. What is strangest of all is, that the lady, though she never saw her husband during the last two years of his life, cherished no ill-will toward him, and shed tears at his death. To this hour, Madame Jumel thinks and speaks of him with kindness, attributing what was wrong or unwise in his conduct to the infirmities of age.

English Hearts and English Hands; or, The Railway and the Trenches. As the title indicates, this is an English book, which has been reprinted by the Messrs. Carter. It is compiled from a diary kept by one who sought to do good by imparting Scriptural advice and instruction to a class of men little cared for by the generality of Christians, in England or America. They are known there by the name of "Navvies," a word which has not yet been naturalized on this side of the water. Navvies are the men who do the hard work, with shovel and wheelbarrows, on railways, and who appear to be treated even worse in England than in this country. But of this we cannot speak with certainty. No one, that we are aware of, has guaged the depth of the ignorance and depravity of our "Navvies," nor sought to alleviate their sufferings. It were well if Christians, earnestly seeking for some field in which to do good, might be incited to look in this direction, by a perusal of these simple records of toil endured and good effected.

An Introduction to the Study of Philosophy, with an Outline Treatise on Logic. By Rev. E. V. GERHART, D.D. The aim of the author is to blend Christianity with philosophy, and to show that they are internally and necessarily connected. In his own language, "As Christ is the principle of Christianity, it follows that he is himself the highest concrete form of the method of thinking, which must underlie and pervade every process of legitimate ratiocination." He admits the difficulties which beset him at every step in the solution of problems that present themselves in the course of his discussions; but he grapples with them resolutely, if not always successfully, and his book cannot fail to promote the end steadily kept in view. The Treatise on Logic is a translation of Beck's work,

THE WEATHER.-The winter has been so remarkable for mildness, as to be a subject of remark with everybody. So far as we can learn, nothing like it has been known since the year 1816: then, as now, the preceding summer was a cold one, Indian corn ripening badly. On the 10th of January we saw swarms of the common house-fly enjoying themselves in the open air, and spiders, sour bugs, and other insects running out of their hiding-places, apparently at a loss to know whether spring had really come. A week or so later, shoots of roses, in warm exposures, were pushing through the ground, to the length of five or six inches; and in some cases the old wood was breaking into leaf. In the last week in January spireas were actually in leaf and showing their flower buds, and grape-vines in some places seemed ready to break forth. Vegetation generally seems ready to push into growth, and should the weather hereafter prove cold, we anticipate disastrous results.

A NEW CHOROZEMA.-We recently dropped in at Mr. Crane's to see a new variety of the chorozema, and were well rewarded for our trouble. It is said to be a seedling from C. cordata, and is named splendens, a name which it well deserves. The flower is much larger than the parent plant; the colors are bright pink and orange, with a white eye, and the form is very symmetrical. The plant has a robust habit, and blooms freely. We commend it to the attention of our amateur friends.

We alluded, in a former article, to Mr. Crane's grapery. We will add here that the crop ripened off well, and the new wood is all that could be desired. If the experiment in its details should hereafter prove as successful as it has up to the present time, grape growing under glass will have been much simplified.

ROOM PLANTS.-These will now need frequent exposure to fresh air in mild weather, which may be done by throwing up the sash. Plants making a new growth must be kept near the light, and receive as much sunshine as possible; they will also need additional supplies of water. Insects will begin to accumulate, and should be assiduously destroyed. Fuchsias and some other plants now growing rapidly and breaking into flower, may need re-potting, which must be done without breaking the ball of earth.

APPLES, SELECT LIST OF.-We last month gave a list of pears, containing twenty-five leading varieties; we now present a list of twenty-five varieties of apples. We have prepared it with care, and have embraced in it only such kinds as are known to be first rate. The quality of each kind is briefly stated, so that the reader may suit his taste in making his selection. With the exception of the Newtown Pippin, they are mostly adapted to general cultivation.

American Summer Pear, a medium-sized apple, valuable for all purposes; ripe in August and September; flesh tender and rich flavored. Early Harvest, a very useful apple, ripening about the first week in July; flesh tender, juicy, crisp, with a rich sub-acid flavor. Newtown Pippin, doubtless the best of all apples, in season from December to May; flesh very juicy, tender, and crisp, with a fine aroma, and a delicious vinous flavor. Northern Spy, a splendid apple, in season from January to June; flesh tender, fine grained, with a delicious sub-acid flavor. Baldwin, a popular and well-known apple, in season from November to March; flesh juicy and crisp, with a rich sub-acid flavor. Esopus Spitzenberg, a handsome and popular apple, in season from December to February; flesh crisp and juicy, with a rich, brisk, delicious flavor. Vandevere, an old and favorite variety, in season from October to February; flesh tender, crisp, and juicy, with a rich, sprightly, vinous flavor. Autumn Sweet Bough, a fine, sweet, dessert apple, in season from September to October; flesh tender and sweet, with a fine rich flavor. Yellow Belle Fleur, a large and handsome fruit, in season from November to March; flesh tender, juicy, and crisp, with a fine sub-acid flavor. Fall Pippin, an old and favorite variety, in season from October to December; flesh tender and melting, with a rich flavor. Jonathan, a very good and productive orchard fruit, in season from November to March; flesh tender and juicy, with a fine sprightly flavor. Lady Apple, a small but exceedingly beautiful fruit, in season from December to May; flesh crisp, tender and juicy, with a pleasant flavor: always brings a high price. Large Yellow Bough, a good early fruit, in season from July to August; flesh very tender and sweet, with a fine sprightly flavor. Melon, a recent but excellent apple, in season from October to March; flesh tender and juicy, with a rich sub-acid flavor. Hubbardston Nonsuch, a