The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-11-08 00:00:00

SELECT EXTRACTS.

The late Dr. Turner, master of Pembroke Hall, was ex-
ceeding short-sighted. One evening, whilst walking down
TrUmpington-street with Dr. Barnes, they came upon three
posts, which crossed the footway, at the entrance of St.
Edward's-passage, when Dr. Turner suddenly, and pettishly,
exeltlimed, " toys, get out of the way!' Dr. Barnes plea-
santly observed, Doctor, those three boys, whom you are
addressing, are three post-boys," and will make way for
nobody,"

LORD FERRERS AND PAGE THE ROBBER.—Page once
stopped Lord Ferrers, upon which his Lordship pulled out a
pistol, but while he held it trembled violently. The robber
laughed, and took the weapon out of his hand, quietly ob-
serving, ".I knqw, my lord, you always carry more than one
about you—let's 'have the rest." Upon hlg trial, Page
pleaded that Lord Ferrers was excommunicated, and could
not give evidence. He was consequently acquitted.—Countess
of Huntingdon's Life and Times.
SCENERY IN SCOTLAND.—If there were any drawback to
the pleasure we enjoyed while luxuriating among the match-
less beauties of the scenery around the Scottish lakes, it
arose from the reflection that these lakes are comparatively
so little frequented. There are thousands of our country-
men who every successive summer quit their homes in quest
of picturesque scenery ; but the great majority of them seek
for that scenery on foreign shores, though much more beau-
tiful is to be witnessed in their own country. The taste, if
such it can be called, which thus induces men to visit far-
distant lands, for the purpose of viewing their most interest-
ing scenery, while scenery still more interesting and beautiful
is to be witnessed in their own, is at once vicious and expen-
sive.— Walks and Wanderings in the World of Literature,
by the Author of " The Great Metropolis."
PRESERVING EGGS.—The interception of the perspiration
is the most effectual means of pteservinr, eggs and, however
little consequence it may be to do this for ordinary domestic
consumpt, it has been deemed so important in the cases of
the siege of a fortified place, or of a long voyage, as to have
engaged much of the attention of scientific men. Bellini and
Valisnieri discovered the pores through which eggs transpire •,
and if they can be completely stopped, both transpiration and
putrid fermentation would be rendered impossible. To ac-
complish this, the first material employed by M. Reautnur
was spirit of wine varnish made with lac ; but he found the
cheapest and most effectual was oil or grease, with which the
eggs were rubbed, or into which they were dipped. The
transpiration of matter from the egg was proved to be as
effectually stopped by the thinnest layer of fat, as by a thick
coating, so that no sensible vestige be left on the surface of
the shell, All sorts of fat, grease, or
,oil, were found well
adapted to preserve eggs. M. Reaumur used butter, hogs'
lard, olive oil, and similar substances, and thereby preserved
eggs for nine months, as fresh as the day on which they were
laid. This ingenious experimenter also varied the mode of
applying the fat or oil to the eggs. It is only requisite, he
says, to take on the end of the finger the bigness of a pea of
butter, or any other fat, and rub it all over the shell in the
same way. If it is required to have the eggs look clean, and
not smeary from the operation, they may be wiped with a
towel ; for enough of fat or oil goes into the pores to prevent
all transpiration, without any being left on the spaces of the
shell between the pores.—The Poultry Yard.

THE SWAN.—Like the pea-fowl, the swan is now kept
more for ornament than use, and certainly adds much to the
picturesque of wood and water, in lawn or park scenery.
Next to the pea-fowl, as an ornamental bird on land, the
swan is the most noble and elegant on the water. Though,
like the pea-fowl, they seldom appear at table, they are well
worth the notice of every one having a lake or enclosed part
of a river to enliven and enrich by the presence of a family
of swans. It is, at the same time, in some degree useful, by
keeping ponds and lakes free from weeds ; and although they
have been reputed to be very destructive to the fry of fish,
farther experiment and experience favour the idea that they
are hPrbiverous and graniverous. They readily eat oats, or
bread, or any other common vegetable, from the hand ; and
when the snow is on the ground, and the water not frozen,
will come regularly to be fed like other poultry. They only
require feeding in severe winter weather, and the ice kept
broken for them in some sheltered creek. All the mild sea-
son they obtain their own livelihood among the weeds in the
water, or from the grass or other herbage on the banks. It
cannot be doubted, however, that they obtain more food in
the water than is afforded by the simple element, which is
perceptible by their frequent dipping and diving with so keen
a relish ; and it is notto be supposed, that they would be so
fond of sailing so long on the gh.ssy surface of the lake, for
the mere purpose of enjoying and exhibiting their majestic
buoyancy. The pleasure they seek, and the food they find,
may be, however, afforded them by the numerous insects and
animalculte with which the water abounds. It is to the Mar-
quis of Exeter that the public are indebted for the singular
discovery that swans preserve ponds free from weeds. There
is a sheet of water at Burghley, about a mile in length, which
used to be so overrun with weeds that three men were con-
stantly employed six months in every year to keep them un-
der. In 1796 the marquis put two pair of swans on the wa-
ter. They completely cleared away the weeds the first year,
and none have since appeared, as the swans eat them before
they rise to the surface. In the Low Countries swans are
kept for the same purpose. Swans are pairing birds, and
strictly monogamous : the cygnets congregate, but the old
birds are the most unsocial beings in the world. Two pairs
can never agree to live quietly in the same lake, or limited
space of the same river ; and, therefore, a single pair give as
much pleasure to an owner as any greater number. In con-
firmation of these views coinciding with our own experience,
we have a very interesting account of the swans of the Tweed,
drawn up in an elegant and most masterly manner, by the
Rev. J. M. Macculloch, minister of Kelso, and published in
the New Statistical Account of Scotland, in November,
1838, in which he says,—" Among birds, the swan deserves
to be noticed, from the added charm which its presence gives
to many of the fine scenes on the Tweed. There are, at pre-
sent, six white swans upon the river at Kelso, each of them
fully realizing, in its smooth and graceful motion on the clear
blue stream, the poet's description :
' The swan, on still St. Mary's lake,
Floats double, swan and shadow.
These creatures are so tame, that they readily approach the
water's edge, to take crumb's of lead from passengers ; and
from the pleasure they afford, they are as much prized and
guarded by all classes and ages among the inhabitants, as
though, like the Queen's swans on the Thames, they had the
special protection of the corporation. They associate in pairs,
and, what is remarkable, each pair appears to have a specific
section of the river allotted to it, which it guards with the
utmost jealousy against the intrusion of the others. In the
case of one of the pairs, this prescriptive domain extends
over a space of considerably more than a mile. The inter-
esting spectacle has been repeatedly witnessed, of the old
swans carrying the young ones on their wings across the ra-
pid parts of the river, while they left them to stem the smooth
water by their own efforts.”—i'he Poultry Yard.

SIR WALTER SCOTT'S LIBRARY.—YOUNG AUTHORS.—
The library was a spacious room. The number of books in it
has been variously estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000 vols.
It is unnecessary to say Sir Walter never purchased these;
the greater part of them were presentation copies, either from
personal friends, or from authors naturally anxious their
works should meet with his approbation. Of course he had
not time to read a tithe of the books thus sent him. He was
too, often waitedion by young authors anxious to learn his
opinion-of their manuscript before committing it to the press.
His kindness and condescension on such occasions exceeded
all praise. To the serious interruption ofttimes of his own
literary labours, he would wade through the manuscript
works of those persons, and give them such advice in the
most friendly spirit, as he thought the circumstances called
for.— Walks and Wanderings in the World of Literatuve,
by the Author of "The Great Metropolis.

DELUGES AND EARTHQUAKES IN CHINA.—M. Edward
Biot has recently commenced a series of memoirs which
are intended to give a history of the deluges, earthquakes,
and alterations of the surface of the soil in China, as con-
tained in ancient Chinese works. Two of these memoirs
have been read to the French Academy of Sciences, in- the
first of which are collected the traditions concerning deluges.
Of the two principal deluges which have devastated the
country, one is called that of Yao, and is dated in the 24th
century before our era, and the other long prior to it, is as-
cribed to the 35th century before the Christian era, in the
time of Fo-hy, a chief from the eastern mountains of Tibet,
who drove the natives of China before him. The books
which mention these catastrophes do not attribute them to
an overabundance of rain, or any other definite physical
cause ; but M. E. Biot is led to conclude, from geological
data, Ist, That interior seas must formerly have existed in
the desert of Cobi, and have since emptied by a branch of
the Yellow River, and through the gorge of Tsy-chy. 2nd,
That the deluge of Yao was occasioned by the simultaneous
rising of two great ranges of mountains to be found on the
maps ; the first having turned the course of the Yellow Ri-
ver, and the second that of the great Kiang, covering Can-
tral China with lakes and marshes, and modifying the courses
of Rivers. In the second memoir is a statement relating to
earthquakes, liftings up of the soil, &c. according to the
Chinese annals, which remarkably confirm the facts con-
tained in the first. The earthquakes appear to have been as
terrible in their results as those of South America, and ac-
companied by the same dull noises, and, in fact, are identi-
cal in character with those observed by M. Bousingault.

STROLLING PLAYERS.—On one occasion a company of iti-
nerating tragedians, a set of the greatest ragamuffins I have
ever seen, visited our village. One and all of them tallied
admirably with the graphic description which Shakspeare
has given us of the wretchedness of the strolling player.
Every man of them—there were no women among them—
had his entire wardrobe on his back, which was literally in
tatters; and this, in conjunction with their lank cheeks,
and otherwise starved appearance, presented one of the
most striking possible illustrations of the extent to which
human wretchedness may go. Poor fellows ! ' young and
thoughtless as I then was, I could not but be struck with
the painful contrast which their assumed situation presented
to their real one. It deprived me of three-fourths of the
gratification I should otherwise have enjoyed from their
performances, when, in all the pretended dignity and conse-
quence of a king, I saw them at night personating majesty—
heard them exultingly speaking of their millions of subjects
—and of the tens of thousands of pounds with which their
treasury was replenished,—while I knew that in the morning
the poor creatures would be so " hard up" as to be scarcely
able to muster as much of the circulating medium as would
procure for them a penny roll for breakfast. —Walks and
Wanderings in the World of Literature, by the Author of
" The Great Metropolis."
ADVENTURES WITH BUFFALO.—I was determined not to
let the sun set upon my blood-guiltless head ; and, as it was
only about two p.m., I mounted another horse, took my
rifle, and again set out in quest of adventures. I soon found
a bull in a neighbouring ravine, slightly wounded by an
arrow in his flank; and, as he was near the village, a large
party of women and children were answering, at a respectful
distance, his roaring and bellowing by their shouts and cries.
They told me to go and kill hiit. As the horse I had then
mounted would not allow me to shoot from his back, I dis-
mounted, and shot a bullet into tilie bull's shoulder : after a
short interval, he tottered and fell. I thought that he was
just about to die, and imprudently walked up nearer to him.
To my surprise he sprang up and made at me ; I waited till
he came within two or three yards, then fired my second
barrel, and jumped on one side. He passed over the place I
had ceded to him, and after staggering on a short distance,
he fell again. I reloaded my rifle, and was obliged to fire
another ball, which put him out of his pain ; and then I left
him to the tender mercies of the women and children, and,
mounting my horse, cantered over the hills, in search of
more game.—l was soon aware of a fine bull, enjoying its
solitary range at the distance of a quarter of a mile. I gave
chase, and after a gallop of two or three miles I came along-
side the enemy ; but my Indian nag would not allow me to
shoot off his back ; the moment I presented my rifle, he
would wheel and jump, so as to preclude all possibility of
taking aim. The bull chased me about fifty yards, but find-
ing he had no chance of overtaking me, stopped and
stamped. I dismounted, and a pitched battle now ensued,
in which Parday's double-barrel ultimately gained the day ;
but I never met an animal so tenacious of life. He did not
fall till he received my fourth ball in the heart ; two having
pierced him before, not more than three inches from the
heart, and one having entered his eye, which I aimed at, in
the expectation of thereby reaching his brain. I now re-
turned to the camp, satisfied with my day's spoil. I might
have killed three times as many with half the trouble, had I
chosen to remain with the chiefs in the centre of the
" cerne," and assist in the medlv-massecre ; but I could see
no sport or excitement in a scene resembling too closely the
shambles; besides .which, it is impossible to have the un-
divided glory, as the greater number are piefted by three or
four arrows, and you must either kill some other hunter's
wounded buffalo, or let him kill what you have wounded,
neither of which alternatives a sportsman would choose to
adopt. I cannot say exactly the amount of the day s
slaughter, but it was between five and six hundred.-21fur-
ray'a North America.

TIDE TABLE.
Days. Nen. I;vn. I Height.
H. U. IT. P. 1.
Friday .. 8 0 0 110 15 7
Saturd.l) 9 025 041 15 1 Venus sets 2-54 even.
Sunday 10 059 115 15 2 24th Sunday after Trinity.
Monday 11 132 150 14 5 St. Martin.
Tuesday 12 210 30 13 4 Cain. Mich. T. div. m.
Wednes. 13 254 11 19 12 4 BritiUS. [rises ills 7m
Thursday 14 348 490 11 0 Moon lit qr 8.39 in. Marls