THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
11 
on the branches, and death ensties — ihus we 
have seen beautilul hedges of this plant decay 
•and die, and so general has been the result it 
seems useless to plant it. 
Fortunately vve have within our reach a sub- 
stitute for the thorn which is alike free from the 
disease and the attack of insects- the Madura 
Aurantiaca or Osage Orange. First discovered 
by Hunter, and Dunbar, on the banks of the Lit- 
tle Missouri (andnarneAy Nultal in honor of 
our townsman the late Wm, Maclure) it was 
not until the expedition ol Lewis and Clark 
that we of the seaboard obtained the plant itself, 
from seed collected on that expedition and 
distributed by Mr. Jefferson. There are now 
several fruit bearing trees in this section. An 
acquaintance with it of nearly forty years, has 
shown that the mature wood is perfectly hardy, 
is of a rapid growth, nxidi bears the sheojs xoUhoul 
the least apparent injury: the foliage is highly 
ornamental, the young shoots are armed wiili 
formidable spines, the puncture of which is pain- 
ful, and both leaves and shoots abound in acrid 
juice - hence it is never attacked by insects, or 
browsed by cattle; on ihe whole there is reason 
to believe it is destined to create a new era in 
fencing, and to prove of incalculable value to 
the farming interest. We have seen a hedge of 
it which though only planted half the time it 
would require to rear one of thorn, is a per- 
fect barrier to man and beast. From a recent 
publication of Mr. James Gowcn, we perceive 
he also has formed hedges of it on his beautiful 
estate at Mount Airy, specimens of it also exist 
at the Landreth Nurseries, ."nd elsewhere in this 
neighborhood. If our fields were as effectually 
enclosed as they may be by this plant —much of 
the evii which attends a residence near a popu- 
lous city would be avoided. Mischievous per 
sons would be kept at bay, fruit would no lon- 
ger cause Vexation and annoyance, and the do- 
mestic birds which protect our crops and trees 
from insects, and add a charm to country life, 
would no longer be disturbed by' cockney sports 
men -the latter is ti uly a crying evil which we 
re oice to see, lias attracted the attention of the 
Agricultural Society. D . 
THE LAW OF Si'OIl.Ms-SClENOB AND UTILITV. 
The reader, already familiar with the events 
of the late extraordinary storm, will doubtless 
be interested with such statements as the follow- 
ing, from'lhe pen of a gentleman whose name is 
a sufficient voucher for the accuracy of his re- 
marks. Mr. Haskins, of Buffalo, author of a 
work eliciting high testimonials from competent 
critics in astronomv, and whose observations 
in various matters of literature and science, (in- 
stanced in the lately published Discourse on 
‘ Civil 'zation anterior to Greece and Rome,”) 
are frequently read, and read with pleasure, in 
the periodicals ami other journals, has published 
the following in the Ruffilo Commercial Adver- 
tiser, ot which he was formerly one of the editors. 
THE RAROMETEIl AND THE TEMPEST. 
ATr. Editor; — For several years paT I have 
been in the practice ot sending to the public 
press of this citv the unerring announcement of 
apptoaehing gales, which have been furnished 
by the barometer. This I have not clone as 
something new, but only in the hope that con- 
stant repetition mightfinally so fix the attention 
ot our nautical people on the subject as to cause 
the procurement and use of the instruments by 
them. 
The great gale, two years since, was known 
to be approaching, and was the subject of con- 
versation among those who had barometers in 
this city, some eighteen hours before the first 
effects of it were visible either upon the lake or 
upon the shore. On that occasion the column 
of mercury in the instrument sunk three-fourths 
of an inch in the space of twelve hours. So 
again last week. On Friday afternoon and 
evening, the 19th instant, no one saw, by exter- 
nal indications, tie approaching war of the ele- 
ments. At about seven o’clock on that evening, 
three steamboats filled with passengers left this 
port for the west, A gentlemen who was pas- 
senger in one ol iliese, in an account ot thestorm 
in your paper of Monday last, says: “ When 
w'e left the hariior, the lake was scarcely rufflec', 
and for the first two or three hours there was 
every prospect of a quick and pleasant trip. — 
Every one was in the highest spirits, as we 
bowled merrily along, and no apprehensions 
were entertained until abouteleven o’clock,” &c. 
Now, this account agrees perfectly with the 
external indications on shore. But before these 
boats left port, it was known, and was the sub- 
ject of conversation in iatnilirs on shore, where 
ihe batoineter is kept, that a storm of unusual 
violence was very soon to burst upon us. Dur- 
ing :he nine hours ending at halt past nine 
o’clock on that evening, the mercury in the ba- 
rome er fell one entire inch; and this great 
(hiange, in so short a time, was demonstration 
to those uho under.stood it, not only of the 
nearness of the calamity, but of its awful se- 
verity. 
Now, had the captains of these three steam- 
boats known what was known on shore, and 
what they might just as well have known as any 
one else, is it to be supposed they w'ould have 
left the port as they did’] Ot course they would 
not: and then why will not these, and all other 
nautical men, in the pursuit of their noble and 
daring profession, secure the advantages afford- 
ed them by the barometer] 
I know it may be said that a seaman would 
be ridiculed to tai.e of danger when all is calm 
below, with smiling skies above. But surely 
men who could face the dangers and the awliil 
responsibilities ot la.st Saturday morning with 
the coolness and energy that our mariners did, 
can disregard the sneers of ignoran.-e for a day. 
1 admit that, had any one of the three steamboat 
captains refused to .sail on Friday evening last, 
when the weather was so pleasant and promis- 
ing in appearance, and h.id given as a reason 
that he “saw danger on the deep,” he would 
have been both ridiculed and censured. But 
what would have been his position twelve hours 
later, when surrotinded by the wreck ol that .'torm, 
against the dangers ot which he had warned his 
contemners ] Ridicule would have been silenced 
then; while others, gathering wisdom from the 
example, would speedily possess themselves of 
the same means of knowledge that he pos.sessed, 
and by which life and property are so greatly 
protected. R. W. Haskins. 
Butfalo, October 23, 18-11. 
THE PiTl.XMIDS OF EGVPT. 
The materials of which the pyramids are 
comstructed, afford scope for fong dissertation, 
because, independently of the science and skill 
requisite lor their adaptation, the (tistances from 
which most of them were brought proves that 
each Monarch’s sway extended all over Egypt 
and Lower Nubia, ifnot beyond ; and in relation 
to this subject we gather the following facts 
from the second lecture of Mr. Gliddon’s new 
course : 
Geologically considered, Egypt is a v'ery 
peculiar country, ihe quanies ot different kinds 
of stones lying at great distan- es from each other 
in distinctly marked localities. If you .see a 
piece ot'basalt on the beach of Ihe Metliterra- 
nean, you know that there is no basaltic quarry 
nearer than between the Ist and 21 cataract, and 
when you find a block of granite at Memrhis, 
you know that no granite exists but at the first 
cataract— nearer than the peninsula of Moeint 
Sinai. Early civilization and extended domi- 
nion is indicated in these facts, and when we 
reflect upon them, we almost think we witness 
the work of tramsportation going on; that we 
see the builders, and the buildings ihemsel ves in 
process of erection. The blocks of Arabian 
limestone used in the interior of the pyramids 
were brought from the ancient quarries o! 
Toorah, on the opporsite side ofthe Isule, distant 
about 15 or 20 miles from such pyramid. These 
very quarries are va.st halls as it were excava 
led in the living Rock, wherein entire armies 
might eneamp, are adorned with now mulilated 
tables recording the age of their respective 
I opening by different Pharaohs, and not only show 
Ihe tier?/ whence ihe stupendous biock.s ot 
someot the pyramids were taken; but are in 
themselves, works as wondrous and sublime as 
the Memphite Pyramids ! nay, at the very loot of 
these quarries, iie the countless tombs and sar- 
cophagi of numbered generations of ancient 
quarrymen ! These quarries are of intense 
archreological interest, because the tables in 
them record that stone was cut in them for 
Memphis, on such a day, such a month, such a 
year ofthe reign of such a king; and these kings 
begin from the remote times before-the iGtii 
dynasty, and, at difierent interv.als came down 
through the Pharaonic period with many ofthe 
others, till we reach the Ptolemaic epoch— and 
end with Latin inscriptii ns similar to others in 
attesting that “these quarries were work- 
ed” in the propitious era of our Lords and Em- 
perors Severus and Antoninus, thus enabling us 
to descend almosistep by step from the remote 
antiquity ol 2200years B. G., do vn to 200 years 
alter the Christian era. The hand of modfin 
barbarism, prompteil by the destructiveness ot 
Mohammed Ali, has since 1830 done more to 
delace these tablets — to blow up many of these 
halls in sheer wantonne.ss than has been effected 
by lime in 4006 years ! 
Every atom of the hundred thousand tons of 
granite used in the pyramids was cut at Syene, 
the 1st cataract, distant 640 miles. The blocks’, 
some of which are 40 feel long, had to be cut 
out of theirbeds with wooded wedges and copper 
chisels; then polished with emery tdl they were 
as smooth as looking gla.ss, and then carried by 
land half a mile to the river— placed on rails and 
floated down 640 miles to Memphis— brought 
by canals to the loot ol the Lybian chain — con- 
veyed by land over gigantic causeways from 
one mile to three in length to the pyramids for 
which they weie intended, and then elevated bv 
machinery and placed in their present position, 
with a skill, and a masonic precision that has 
conlounded the mo.st scientific European engi- 
neer with amazement ! The very sarco- 
phagi that once held the mummy ofthe Pha- 
raohs, in the inmost recesses of these pyramidal 
mausolea,8i feet long by 34 broad and 3 deep 
were all brt tight Irom Lower Nubia, from the 
basaUic quarries of the 2nd cataract, not nearer 
than 750 miles up the river! Looking into the 
mtoL?- of the pyramids, there is still much to 
stagger belief— to excite our admiration. In 
the pyramid office steps, the upper beams that 
support the roof ofthe chamber are of oak, larch 
and cedar, not one of which trees grow [nE^ypl 
and establish the fact of the timber trade with 
Illyria, Asia Minor and Moon' Lebanon in 
ages long before Abraham! In the fragments 
of a mummy the cloth is found to be saturated 
with the “ Pissnsphalttim”- Jew’s pitch or bitu- 
men Judiacum, compounded of vegetable pi.ch 
from the Aichipc-lago, and of asphalium of the 
Dead bea^ in Palestine; we find Gum Arabic, 
that does not grow nearer than 1200 miles from 
the pyramids, attesting commerce wiih uppier 
Nnbia. The ]^«/~came from the mine.s of 
Suakim on the Red Sea, or from remote Fa- 
zoglu. The liquor which cleansed out the body 
of the mummy was Cedria the fluid .'‘osin ofthe 
pi iis cedrn.s--thal grows not nearer than Syria. 
The spices send us to the Indian Ocean-’-ihe 
aloes to Succotra— the cinnamon to Ceylon, the 
ancient Taprobane— and then the arts ’and 
sciences brought to bear upon the pyramids that 
must have arrived at perleclion long before :hat 
day are not onlv tliemes for endless reflections, 
but oblige us to conless that in chronology we are 
yet children! 
Among his novel and strange assertions, in 
relation to the science of the ancient Egyptians, 
Mr. Gliddon maintained that from the vervnatme 
oiWxe'w country, and ilie vast fossU remains in their 
quarries, &c, the Egyptian priests must have 
h 'OX) g'ologists , and referred to his “ Chapters,” 
page dfl- fiir the remarks ofthe priest ot Solon, 
“You mentioned one deluge oniy, whereas 
T??//?)?/ happened”---and other evidences, that the 
recognised in their mythology and 
chronomgycf the woild vast p'-'-riods of time, 
anterior to the creation of man. — Boston Post. 
