The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-07 00:00:00

SELECT EXTRACTS.

A DUTCH FERRY.—Of all the different kinds of ferrying
that by means of what is called a flying bridge is considerably
the best and most convenient, where it can be adopted,
which is only where the river has a considerable current
An anchor is fixed at a certain distance up the stream, al-
ways greater than the breadth of the river, from which a
cable of rope or chain passes to the platform of the ferry-boat,
which is usually supported on two large barges. This cable
is buoyed up by passing over such a number of boats as may
be found necessary. If the rudder of the large platform be
moved so as to turn the heads of the supporting barges about
a point of the compass towards the stream, so as to let it act
against the sides of their bows, they will, of course, sheer
across, or oscillate like a pendulum, with a slow and uniform
motion to the opposite side, the cable and its supporting boats
edging over in the direction of the platform. By-haViug the
platform the same height as that of the two piers or landing-
places on the sides of the river, carriages of any size, carts,
or waggons, without unyoking the horses, may drive upon it,
and pass over without disturbing passengers or baggage with-
in them.—Family Tour through South
THE BEAVER TRADE.—The skins of beavers are of great
value, averaging about eighteen shillings sterling, and, ac-
cordingly, the animal is extensively Ifunted. Winter being
the season in which they are in finest coating, it is then that
the Indians and company servants of North America seek
out the beaver-dams. The animals fly to their houses; a net
or trap is placed below the aperture to the water; the houses
are broken down; and when the creature tries to seek refuge
in the water, it is taken. The hunters of the heaver, or trap-
pers, as they are called, require to conduct their movements
with extreme caution, and are exposed to great hardships,
not only from the inclemency of the climates and seasons in
which they bunt, but also from having frequently to wade in
the beaver-ponds before they can set their traps, or effect
the animal's capture. Of late years, we believe, the number
of skins taken has fallen greatly off. In 1808, above one
hundred and twenty-six thousand were exported from Quebec
alone. They appear to have decreased much in Europe also;
yet at this day, Captain Brown tells us, there-are colonies of
them both in Prussia and Bohemia. The beavers of Russia
produce by far the finest skins. It is curious that the Euro-
pean beavers, however, do not live. in great communities in
general. They live most in solitary families, like those called
in America the hermits or terriers. Some writers speak of
the flesh of this animal as being delicious. Besides giving
valuable lessons of industry, like the ant and-the bee, to man-
kind, and yielding, moreover, at the cost of its life, a beauti-
ful covering and ornament for their persons, the beaver is
worthy of- note as furnishing a medicinal substance called
castor, which is found in some glands in the lciwer part of its
body. Castor was once much esteemed as an antispasmodic
remedy. It is at first liquid, but, after a little exposure, be-
comes a solid body, of a brown colour, aromatic in flavour,
and bitter in taste.—Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.
LIQUORICE.—This plant, which requires a deep loamy sand,
with a bottom of clay at the depth of three or four feet, is
chiefly grown at Pontefract, in Yorkshire. The properties
for which the liquorice is cultivated are found in the root,
which contains an abundance of mucilaginous juice, of a
sweet and sub-acrid taste. The pectoral qualities of this
juice are well known; and the Pontefract cakes, which are a
preparation from the liquorice-root, are in considerable de-
mand, both in England and on the continent. The cakes are
not as large as a shilling, and bear the impress of a castle.
Liquorice is also a chief ingredient in lozenges and other
medicaments taken for coughs. The liquorice plant, being
a native of the warmer climate of Southern Europe, is not
always a profitable crop in this country. Great care and
good management are absolutely essential; and the laud
must be of superior quality, well manured, and stocked with
choice plants, or the cultivator will not succeed in bringing
them to perfection. A wet and cold summer is injurious, and
an unfavourable season will produce only one-fourth.pf an
ordinary crop. The mode of cultivation in the liquorice
grounds at Pontefract is first to trench to the depth of three
spades; the bottom to be loosed, but not thrown out. Old
stable dung must then be spread on the land, in the propor-
tion of thirty to forty cart loads per acre • and it must after-
wards be well dug in. The land is then laid out in beds about
thirty-eight inches in width, thrown up about a foot in height,
and after being neatly raked over it is ready to receive the
plants, which should be put in the ground, in March or April.
They are of two kinds, stock and runner-buds, and are dibbled
in four inches deep in alternate rows across the ridge,one on the
top, and one on each side, and longitudinally at the distance
of six or seven inches. The beds are then carefully raked,
the dibble-holes being well covered in. The space between
each row of plants is usually sown with early dwarf or York
cabbages, or early kidney potatoes. The be will soon re-
quire weeding, and this is done two or three times during the
summer. ein autumn, the top, which is four or five feet high,
is cut off near the bud. In the ensuing spring and summer,
the ground must be hoed and carefully weeded; and in
autumn, the tops, which are four or five feet in height, are
cut down as before. The same management must be re-
peated each year; for the part of the plant above the surface
grows annually, though the root is perennial. About the
third or fourth year after planting, the roots, which should
be three or four feet long, are taken up some time between
November and February. They are tied in bundles for sale,
which is effected as early as possible, as they become dry, and
of less value the longer they are kept.
INVENTION OF TIIE MICROSCOPE AND THE TELESCOPE.—
It has been well observed, that about the same time when
the invention of the telescope showed us that there might be
myriads of other worlds claiming the Creator's care, the in-
vention of the microscope proved to us that there were in our
own world myriads of creatures, before unknown, which this
care was preserving. While one discovery seemed to re-
move the Divine Providence further from us, the other gave
us most striking examples that it was far more active in our
neighbourhood than we had supposed; while the first ex-
tended the boundaries of God's known kingdom, the second
made its known administration more minute and careful. It
appeared that in the leaf and in the bud, in solids and in
fluids, animals existed hitherto unsuspected; the apparently
dead masses and blank spaces of the world were found to
swarm with life. And yet, of the animals thus revealed, all,
though unknown to us before, had never been forgotten by
Providence. Their structure, their vessels and limbs, their
adaptation to their situation, their food and habitations, were
regulated in as beautiful and complete a manner as those of
the largest and apparently most favoured animals. The
smallest insects are as exactly finished, often as gaily orna-
mented, as the most graceful -beasts, or the birds of brightest
plumage. And when we seem to go out of the domain of the
complex animal structure with which we are familiar, and
come to animals of apparently more scanty faculties, and
less developed powers of enjoyment and action, we still find
that their faculties and their senses are in exact harmony
with their situation and circumstances; that the wants which
they have are provided for, and the powers which they pos-
sess called.into action. So that Miller, the patient and accu-
rate observer of the smallest anti most obscure misroscopical
animalcule, declares that all classes alike, those which have
manifest organs, and those which have not, offer a vast quan-
tity of new and striking. views of the animal economy, every
step of our discoveries leading us to admire the design and
care of the Creator. We find, therefore, that the Divine
Providence is, in fact, capable of extending itself adequately
to an immense succession of tribes of beings, surpassing what
we can imagine Or could previously have anticipated; and
thus we may feel secure, so far as analogy can secure us,
that the mere multitude of created objects cannot remove us
from the government and superintendence of the Creator.—
Rev. W. 'lVlreicell. •
-DINNER IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.—In this meal we
find the plenty and magnificence of the period mixed with
its characteristic rudeness and discomfort. The huge oaken
table still filled the central length of the castle hall; and at
the hour of ten in the forenoon, it groaned beneath shapeless
masses of fresh and salted beef, followed by a succession of
courses and fowl and fish, and curiously compounded dishes.
The lord of the feast assumed his place on the dais (or raised
part of the floor), at the head of the board ; the friends and
retainers, or holders in fee, were ranged above or below the
salt, according to tlieirrespective rans; and, as the luxury
of a fork was still unknown in England, the morsels were
conveyed to the mouth with the fingers, while wine, beer,
and ale, in goblets of wood or pewter, were handed round by
numerous attendants. We may fill up this scanty tlutline
by imagining the hawks of the master anti guests standing
on perches above their heads, and their hounds lying about
on the pavement below. As the dinner generally lasted
three hours, occasional pauses must have occurred: to fill
these, the minstrels harped and piped, the jesters joked, the
tumblers capered, and the jugglers juggled; or, if a better
taste prevailed; some lay of the wars orPalestine, or poetical
romance of knight-errantry, resounded over the mingled
din, and feasted the mind with something of an intellectual
gratification. When we ascend from these every-day ex-
hibitions in the mode of living among the aristocracy to the
banquets of the palace, and especially those which were
commemorative-of important events, we shall find that they
were of a similar description, with a greater degree of
splendor.end bustle. Coarse abundance, whimsical variety,
and stately Parade,'still-endeavoured to compensate for Teal
discomfort• • —Pictorial _History (gr England.