Daily American telegraph., 1852-06-03
The C.t.oom BIS OF Paris.


giyes sketch of the Catacombs Of Paris. He
States that that part of the French Metropolis
which lies upon the lower part of the Seine is
the oldest and that from time immemorial the
stone for building was obtained from quarries
lying under the city In 1885, suggestion
was made to convert them into receptacles for
the dead; and it was finally decided that the
remains Of the millions that had passed away
from the capital during ten centuries, should be
removed. Pillars We're built up in solid ma
sonry, and particular portions separated from
the rest by strong doors, with locks, to serve AZ
receptacles. In 1886, the bones were conveyed
in funeral cars, from one of the principal ceme-
teries, and were precipitated down a perpendic-
ular shaft into the caverns below. The con-
tents of the other cemeteries were soon placed in
the Catacombs, which were rapidly augmented
by tho massacres of the revolution.
A little building is erected outside the Bar
riere REnfer. in which is the opening Of the
principal shaft The Professor and his party
descended by ninety steps, and found themselves
alone in the caverns. They followed their guido
about twenty minutes, and came to o strong
door, each side Of which was ornamented with
pillars of Tuscan architecture. The door was
open, and as the party passed the threshold the
strangers found themselves surrounded by walls
light showed regularly piled up from the floors
to the roof of the quarries. The bones of the
legs and arms laid closely with their ends out
ward; and at regular intervals skulls are in
terspersed in three horizontal ranges disposed
SO as to represent alternate rows of the back
and front of the head and sometimes a single
perpendicular range is seen, still farther vary.
ing the general outline. Passing along what
seems to be interminable ranges Of these
piles of human beings they came to several
apartments arranged like chapels, with varied
dispositions of piles Of legs, arms, and grinning
skulls
How new, how strange remarks, the author
were the associations of this place. Over our
heads was rolling the vast tide of life in the
gay and wicked city-its myrads of inhabitants
were jostling each other on the roads of bust
ness and pleasure-while here were the remains
of four times their number lying in silent and
motionless piles in the depths below
A JAcKDAw's NEsT.-A friend called upon
me on the / 1th day of last May and asked me
to accompany him to Eaton College, to see
curious birds nest We accordingly proceeded
thither, and having passed through the beauti-
full chapel attached to that college, assembled the
winding steps of the bell tower of the chapel
After getting to considerable height, any fur
Their progress was stopped by sort of pillar
built of sticks. The staircase was sufficiently
lighted to afford complete observation of the
proceedings of the birds, which ] will now en-.
deavor accurately to describe. On the ledge
of one of the narrow apertures for the admis
sion of light pair of jjackdaws had built their
nest The ledge however, was so narrow that
the nest had evidently an inclination inwards,
and would probably, withoutsome support, have
c.t he OF ha1n IL, a -
obviate this difficulty, they contrived the follow
ing ingenious method of supporting the nest.
As the staircase was a spiral one the birds be-
gan to make pillar of sticks on that identical
step, which alone would give them the best
foundation for their intended work. Had they
gone to the one above or to the one below that
which they had so sagaciously fixed upon, it
was very evident that they would not have ac-
CURED that precise slope or angle for their pill
lar which was necessary for the effectual sup
port of the nest. 1t was the eighth step below
the opening and from it the pillar was raised
to height of exactly ten feet and was compo-
sed of a stack-hke work Of sticks The nest
then rested upon the top of it, and was per-
fectly secure. The labor which these very
ingenious and industrious birds had bestow.
ed in the collection of 50 large mass OF
sticks must have been enormous. One circum-
stance struck me as very curious. The entrance
of the aperture in the wall was very mar
row :. the difficulty Of conveying some of the
larger sticks through it must have been conse.
quently great On examining the sticks | found
that each of them had been broken, or, rather
cracked exactly in the centre, so that they could
be doubled up. They were thus also the bet
ter adapted for the construction of the stack in
a compact form. n | should add
that the birds were occupied during seventeen
days in the performance Of their laborious task.
JeSse's Country Life.
Invitation from the wings Of Baltimore
to the Wings Of the Uuion