The Sun.
London, England, 1829-11-02 00:00:00

UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL.

Though far from pretending to rank among
the foremost of the monthly periodicals in the
literary character of its contents, yet there are
few which possess more varied and interesting
articles than the " United Service Journal.''
The opening paper in the present number, " a
Visit to the Island of Madagascar," details a
variety of facts in a graphic unassuming man-
ner more especially as regards the late king
Radama, who, it would appear from the writer's
account, was " a powerful and civilized mo-
narch, who possessed great talents, and who al-
ways had the civilization of his people nearest
his heart." " Sketch of a Ship-carriage con-
structed and used in Siberia," details some curi-
ous, and perhaps useful particulars, respecting
an amphibious sort of vehicle, which may be
drawn by horses on land, and at the same time
be made to answer every purpose of a ship on
the water. The details arc accompanied by an
enaravine, illustrative of the vehicle, in its two-
fold capacity of ship and carriage. " Dibdin's
Sea Song 3" is a manly defence of those fine old
marine lyrics, which have rendered the name of
Dibdin so deservedly celebrated. The remain-
ing articles, which we regret that w• have not
space to analyze, are each good: in theirrespec-
tire styles.
We conclude with the following anecdote from
the " Reminiscences of General Burne."
" I had often heard of that curiosity in natural histery,
that in India it rained fishes, and I interrogated them as to
the circumstances. They had heard of it in the country,
and several had found small fishes in the gutters and vi-
randahs of houses after rain ; but on one occasion they
were all eye-witnesses of the fact. When stationed at
Bangalore, one day at dinner, the messman infin•med them,
that the sentry had called out, that it had ' rained fishes.'
They all rushed out to the esplanade before the mess-room,
and saw a quantity of young fry, about the size of small
minnows, floundering and splashing in the pools which
the rain hail formed. It was a sudden shower, like the
explosion of a thunder cloud, very violent, but only of a
minute's duration, and was nearly over when they ran
out; they were bareheaded, but one man had taken the
precaution of putting on his hat; when he returned, and
took it off in the mess-room, he found a small fish, quite
alive, and floundering in the cock. I tell you this tale
as it was told to me,' and have no doubt of the veracity of
the narrators ; they imagined they were absorbed by a
water-spout, and again discharged on the land, when the
cloud it formed burst, and the current of air which raised,
no longer supported them. That extraneous bodies, spe-
cifically heavier than the atmosphere, are supported there
for some time in the same way, there is no doubt. The
ashes of a volcano and the sands raised by the Harmattin
have covered the decks of ships many leagues from the
place where they were first raised in the air ; and I myself
was witness to the abreption of a stack from a farmer's
yard by the current of a whirlwind, which carried it a
considerable way, with a rotatory motion, before it sepa-
rated ; it was then broken into fragments, and for a
mile or more, it was raining showers of hay and straw
along the road."

EDWARDS'S BOTANICAL REGISTER,

OR, ORNAMENTAL FLOWER GARDEN AND SHRUBBERY.

Continued by Join; LINDLEY, Esq.

Professor of Botany in the University of London—No. 9

of Vol. IL New Series, Coloured Plates.

This month's Number will, as usual, gratify
our gardening friends and rural economists.
The Canna speciosa, presented by the Hon.
Court of Directors of the East India Company,
though splendid and beautiful, will not prove of
such:general interest as the hardy subjects, of which,
perhaps, the two " Pentstemons," and " Anise-
scented Lophanthus" will be most admired. The
" Blue-leaved Pentstemon," Mr. Lindley in-
forms us, though perfectly hardy, and a peren-
nial, is like many of the newly-introduced species
of this genus, apt to exhaust itself so much in
flowering, as to become little better than a bien-
nial.
This may, however, be prevented by
pinching a part of the flowering stems of each
plant, upon their first appearance ; a practice
which may be advantageously adopted with re-
gard to all plants having similar habits.

DERIVATION OF HONEY-MOON.—It was
the custom of the higher orders of Teutones, a people who
inhabited the northern part of Greece, to drink mead or
metheglin, a beverage made with henry, for 30 days after
every wedding. From this custom comes the expression
" to spend the honey-moon."