mer have two churches, the latter one. There are perhaps one thousand Persians who live in a caravanserai, and manage by caravans the trade of their own country. Trebisond is the port on the Black Sea, to which the commerce of Constantinople is conveyed. The Turkish inhabitants of Arz-roum are fifty thousand families. This amount of the population I give from the authority of a well-informed Armenian; but as all such details in a country so ill-regulated are exceedingly suspicious, I have already taken the liberty to deduct more than one-third from the number of Turkish families in the original estimate. But the reduced statement still leaves in Arz-roum, at the rate of five persons in a family, a total of two hundred and fifty thousand persons besides Armenians.

The climate of Arz-roum is very changeable, and must in winter be piercingly cold. It rained throughout the whole of the 19th, but the clouds dispersed on the morrow, and discovered the adjacent hills overspread with snow. The high lands which arise from the plain around, attract constant thunderstorms; the elevation, indeed, of the whole region from the base of the sea itself is very considerable, and is sufficient to account for the cold.

INHABITANTS of Buenos AYRES.

From Mawe's Travels in Brazil.

The population of Buenos Ayres and its immediate suburbs, exclusive of the country in its vicinity,

has been ascertained to annount to upwards of sixty thousand souls. The proportion of females to males is said to be as four to one, but if we take into consideration that many men are almost daily arriving from Europe, as well as from the South American provinces, and that under the old government neither the militia nor the marine was recruited from the mass of the population, we shall find reason to conclude that the proportion of the sexes is not so unequal. In the interior the excess of males is very great, for as the lands are granted in large tracts only, and but poorly cultivated, there is no encouragement for the labouring classes to marry and settle upon them. The poor are compelled to remain single from the very bare resources which they depend for subsistence, and are accustomed to consider the married states as fraught with heavy burthens and inevitable misfortunes. It is not uncommon to find estates larger than an English county with hardly more than a hundred labourers upon them, who subsist upon the sale of a little corn which each is permitted to grow for himself, but only to such an extent as a single man plough.

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The various races which compose the population are as follow:

1. Legitimate Spaniards or Europeans. In Buenos Ayres there are about three thousand; in the interior the number is very trifling, except in Potosi, which, being a mining country, contains many.

2. Creoles; legitimate descendants from Spaniards or Europeans. 3. Mestizos,

3. Mestizos, the offspring of European and Indian parents.

4. Indians, almost all of whom have some mixture of Spanish blood.

5. Brown mixtures of Africans and Europeans.

6. Mulattos of various degrees, All these races intermix with'out restraint, so that it is difficult to define the minor gradations, or to assign limits to the ever-multiplying varieties. Few families are entirely exempt from characteristics of Indian origin, physical as well as moral. It is well-known that in the Spanish colonies little regard is now paid to purity of blood, the various regulations for preserving the races distinct have gradually become obsolete. This may be regarded as a momentary evil; but may it not be conducive in the long-run to the good of society, by concentrating the interests of the various classes, which, in remaining separate might one day endanger the stability of the government, as has been the case in the French colony of St. Do mingo ?

In describing the orders of society in Buenos Ayres, it is necessary to premise that I mean to class them, not by degrees of birth, rank, or profession, but by the relative estimation in which they stand in point of property or public usefulness.

According to this scale, the first which comes under consideration is the commercial class. Every person belonging to it, from the huckster at the corner of the street, to the opulent trader in his warehouse, is dignified by the appellation of merchant; yet few individuals among them can lay just claim

to that title, as they are wanting in that practical knowledge so essen❤ tial in commercial dealings. They are averse to all speculation and enterprise; the common routine of their business is, to send orders to Spain for the articles they need, and to sell by retail at an exorbitant profit; beyond this they have hardly a single idea, and it has been said that their great reason for opposing a free trade with foreign nations is a consciousness of their own mercantile inexperience. The more considerable houses are almost all branches of some European establishment; few of the Creoles have any regular trade. Those among them however who engage in it are much more liberal in their transactions than the old Spaniards, and are observed to make less rapid fortunes, for their manly and independent character makes them spurn a miserable economy, and disdain to assume that church-going hypocrisy which must be practised twice or thrice a day by those who would enrich themselves through the patronage of the opulent families. Among the inferior tradesmen, those who gain most are the pulperos, the warehousemen and the shopkeepers. The pulperos retail wine, brandy, candles, sausages, salt, bread, spices, wood, grease, brimstone, &c. Their shops are generally loungingplaces for the idle and dissipated of the community. In Buenos Ayres there are about seven hundred of them, each more or less in the interest of some richer individual. The warehousemen sell earthern and glass ware, drugs, various arti❤ cles of consumption, and some goods of home manufacture, whole.

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tected by their shells, the coralligenous polypi make use of a certain proportion of earth to incorporate with and give firmness to their form.

Immediately as a polypus has fixed itself on a hard body, it begins to lay the foundation of its future generation. If you only take some stones from the bottom of the sea round Sicily, you will find on them small branches of red coral, and round red spots, which are the first depositions of the coralligenous polypi. In the same way as the bones of the larger animals are formed by the gradual deposition of the earthy particles separated from their food by vessels adapted to this purpose, so is the covering of these polypi formed by the carbonate of lime mixing and encrustating with the gelatinous matter, which is so abundantly secreted by their delicate bodies, and gradually incases them except the mouth. If a branch of coral newly gathered is immersed in a vessel full of sea water, these animals are perceived issuing from the stellated holes, their mouths gradually appearing first, and then their silk-like arms extend, in this manner putting on the appearance of octopetalous flowers, by which the ingenious Count Marsigli was deceived.

The multiplication of polypi, of which I have treated, explains admirably the arboraceous form of coral, as also the increase of the branches detached from the trunk. I have before me a fine specimen of the antiphates, the black coral of the ancients, in which the extremity of a branch has united with the principal trunk, and the polypi are seen bedded in it.

From what we have seen, I think the term zoophyte inapplicable to coral; it is neither an animal plant, nor a plant animal : nor can it be called a zoolite; as it is certainly not a stony animal. It is with more propriety a polipaio; which, on account of its form, and to distinguish it from the other analogus works of polypi, might be called polipaio dendroide. In using this nomenclature, we must be careful not to adopt the false idea, that the polipaio resembles a wasp's nest; the wasps may at will leave their nests, but the polipaio is a part of the animal, from which it cannot be detached. Thus the polipaio dendroide is an accumulation of ramified polypi, incorporated with the solid substance, in the same manner as the shell of some animals and the bones of others. The above erroneous opinion cannot be entertained by any one, who observes, that in coral the gelatinous membrane of the polypus is continued into the solid earthy part, the same as in bones. Herissant has already pointed out this mistake.

to conclude, that the ferruginous substance is phosphate of iron, that is, the oxide of iron united with phosphoric acid, which it is well known gives the red colour to the blood of animals. The phosphate of iron therefore, which in animals has the property of giving the lively red colour to the blood, and even the vermilion hue to the skin, serves to colour the solid part of coral, and give it the brilliant sanguineous tinge.

The first variety, as I have remarked, is esteemed the most perfect; it is more solid than the other kinds, of a finer and more compact texture, and hence takes a higher polish. In the other kinds, in proportion as the bright colour fades, these qualities gradually decrease, so that the white sort, which is the softest and lightest, is unfit to be wrought, and ta trifling polish,The in the quantity of phosn diminishes the colour, ame time decreases s texture; or pe xture by its p water to wash 3 matter, and which would rfect maturit y be attrib of some nk is, red e; or th

ferent purposes; the fair sex, occupied by the natural desire of pleasing, have been much indebted to the brilliant colour and fine lustre of this marine production. Coral formed into beads is worn as an ornament of the neck and arms; and there is no doubt, that the lively colour of coral gives additional grace to a fine face and beautiful complexion, which cannot be obtained by the use of the precious stones, so that these can only be considered as ornaments of luxury and show. The ladies, who are always led away by fashion, because they consider it as depending on the existing taste of the other sex, laid aside this beautiful ornament, to load themselves with jewels brought from distant countries. Thus coral gave place to other ornaments, the rage of pleasing being only gratified by variety. Works of amber have latterly obtained a very high estimation from the softness of its substance and its transparency.

This substance, which for a time vas in high repute, and which the iscovery of the precious stones ad almost thrown into oblivion as of late, by the accustomed ersatility of capricious fashion, ecovered its former value, and as rivalled in price even the or iaments composed of jewels.

similate with the roundness of her lips, and with the vermilion of her cheeks.

The working of coral consists in removing the outer bark, and exposing the interior solid and highly coloured part, which takes a fine polish. The coarse part of the bark being removed by the file, it is rubbed with tripoli powder, and lastly, with a metallic earth, which gives the polish. Some bring it to the finest polish imaginable by the use of the oxide of tin.

The ancients ornamented their swords, bucklers, and helmets with coral; this custom is still in vogue in some part of Asia, where coral is as much esteemed as in the time of Pliny. The soothsayers and priests of that age attributed many mystic properties to it; hence they were in the habit of wearing coral, as well from religious motives, as from regard to its beauty. Paracelsus recommends it to be worn round the necks of infants, as an admirable preservative against fits, sorcery, charms, and even against poison. Many other follies of that man are still prevalent, and of great credit with the common people; and it is very usual in the inland parts of Sicily, to see children wearing amulets of coral round the neck for the above purpose. In the cities it is worn in the shape of a horn, as a protection against the influence of evil eyes. It was even believed, that coral would drive away devils and evil

spirits; hence perhaps arose the custom of making crowns of it. Nor have the medicinal properties of coral been less exaggerated, as may be sufficiently seen in the writings of Pliny and Dioscorides. It

certainly may be considered as an absorbent; it is used in dentifrice powder, in the Alkermes for indigestion, and in the Troches of Carabe.

The Trapanese appear to have been the first who worked the coral, being induced thereto by the great quantity of it found in their seas. It is asserted, that Antonio Ciminello, a Trapanese, was the first who discovered the art of engraving coral. In the time of King Alphonso the coral fishery was so assiduously, and so advantageously pursued by the Trapanese, that the ministers of that king proposed to subject the fishery to a tax. In the last century, when it was again proposed, instead of a tax, which probably would have ruined this branch of industry, King Ferdinand instituted some very useful regulations in favour of it.

Beside forming necklaces and bracelets, the Trapanese have the art of engraving it in the same manner as they do amber and shells, and most certainly many of these works display great spirit, boldness, and grace in the execution, talents natural to the genius of the Sicilian nation.

USEFUL