J 857.] Rums of the Tower of Babel Discovered. ^07 



" Calcareous eartli may be applied advantageously to soils in three 

 different forms: 



1st. In the form of calcined lime, either slaked or unslaked. 



2d. In the form of carbonate of lime, either powdered limestone or 

 shell marl, or marly clay, or in any other form in which it can be 

 procured and incorporated with the soil. 



3d. In the form of sul2)hate of lime, or gypsum — plaster of Paris. 



Dr. Dana and Prof. Hitchcock recommend the use of lime on 

 soils, and state that its action is threefold, each distinct. 1st. It is a 

 neutralizer. Lime, either in its calcined state, or in the form of a 

 carbonate, will combine with any acids that may exist in a soil in a 

 free state. If the carbonate of lime is employed, the carbonic acid 

 which it contained is set free, and becomes food for plants. 2d. It 

 is a decomposer. Many of the metallic oxides will be decomposed by 

 lime, and their components will form new combinations, or be ab- 

 sorbed by plants. But according to Dr. Dana's views of geine, the 

 soil may contain abundant geates ; that is, geic acid will combine 

 with the earths and metals and form salts, not easily soluble, but 

 which lime will decompose and render soluble. 3d. It is a converter. 

 'The great use of lime is as a converter, turning solid insoluble geine, 

 nay, I go farther, '■solid vegetable fiber iiito soluble vegetable food. ^ " 



THE RUINS OF THE TOWEPt OF BABEL DISCOVERED. 



The Boston Traveler contains a communication from a correspond- 

 ent in the East, who gives most interesting statements in relation to 

 the discovery of ruins and monuments about Babylon and Nineveh. 

 And if those statements be reliable, then it seems indeed as though 

 those ruins were produced - as witnesses from the dead,' just to con- 

 vince skeptics and unbelievers of the great truth of Divine Revela- 

 tion. The IVa?;e?er says that the ofl&cial position of its correspondent 

 is such as to give him unusual facilities for gaining information, 

 and that his personal character is such as to be a full guarantee for 

 the accuracy of his statements. We give the communication below: 



Deriut, December 8th, 1856. 

 It is nearly two years since, that I informed your readers of the 

 grand and instructive discoveries in ancient Nineveh, made by Mr. 



