Part 1
THE PENNY MAGAZINE
OF THE
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
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13.] PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. [June 16, 1832
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THE NATURAL BRIDGE OF VIRGINIA.
[Illustration: A rock formation in the form of a natural stone bridge, with a stream running underneath it.]
Virginia, the largest state in the American Union, is intersected by a chain of mountains called the Blue Ridge, which, running in their general direction parallel to the Atlantic coast, divide the state into two parts not differing very considerably in extent. The portion immediately to the west of the Blue Ridge is an extensive and fertile valley of limestone formation. It is principally watered by one stream, the Shenandoah, which unites with another, the Potomac, at a place called Harper’s Ferry. At their point of junction, on the _west_ side of the Blue Ridge, the spectator, as he takes his stand on the high ground above the small town of Harper’s Ferry, sees before him a wide opening in the mountain chain through which the united current finds its way. On each side the mountains rise in some parts very abruptly, and their rugged faces and the shattered appearance of the whole of this magnificent natural canal show evident traces of a violent disruption.
This passage at Harper’s Ferry has been often described by different travellers, but never, as far as we have seen, in a way calculated to give an accurate conception of what it really is. Nor do we intend to attempt this description, but only to notice briefly another natural phenomenon of the Valley of Shenandoah, which, though less talked of and visited than Harper’s Ferry, is for beauty and grandeur perhaps unrivalled. We allude to the Natural Bridge, or Rock-Bridge, as it is familiarly called by the people who live near it, which is situated a few miles on the west side of the Blue Ridge, on a small stream in the upper part of the great valley, and in the county of Rock-Bridge.
From a small and uncomfortable tavern in the neighbourhood, kept by a Mr. Galbraith, (we wish this could meet his eye and make him mend his fare,) we pass for about two miles over uneven ground, and after ascending a small hill, we find a piece of rough stony road with a few stunted firs and scrub oaks on the right hand and on the left. A traveller might proceed without making any other observation, as the common road runs right over the bridge, and it is said that some people have actually passed over without being aware of it. But though this is certainly a possible occurrence if a person should be in a closed carriage, it can hardly have happened to a man on foot or on horseback, who is accustomed to keep his eyes open when he is travelling. On the right and left he will perceive that the slope of the hill is interrupted by a deep and sudden descent; and on going nearer to the right side of the road, he finds himself on the edge of a tremendous precipice. At the bottom a small stream is seen making its way amidst broken rocks. Going to the opposite side of the road and looking down there, he will observe the little river continuing its course in a deep channel down a narrow valley. The traveller is now on the Natural Bridge; he is standing on a stupendous natural arch of limestone; and though he may form some conjecture of his situation by looking down from the edge of the precipice, he can have no adequate conception without viewing it from below. The arch is best seen from the bed of the rivulet, and from a point just under it. On looking up you behold a noble arch of one solid mass of stone hanging over your head, somewhat curved in its highest part, and almost like the work of man. The same native rock forms, on each side, the supports of this enormous arch, which is said to be about 80 feet wide near the top; at the level of the water the width is only about forty. The whole height from the outer top of the arch to the water is about 210 feet, as ascertained by measurement with a string and a stone at the end. This is greater than the height of the London monument. The vertical thickness of the arch is probably about 30 feet. Like many other great works both of nature and art it is not the first sight that produces the deepest impression. On a second visit we found that we had learned to form more accurate conceptions of this wonderful bridge, beneath which a man might sit and gaze for hours with still increasing astonishment at the majestic arch which nature constructed before man began his work, and which seems likely to outlive the most durable of his monuments. Whatever may have been the origin of this bridge, it seems pretty certain, from an inspection of it, that it has not been produced by any sudden and violent cause.
The stream that runs beneath, called Cedar Creek, though inconsiderable, adds to the general effect. When we visited the place, drops of water, filtered through the limestone, were falling in quick succession from the arch, and by the time occupied in their descent, their increasing velocity, and their full bright appearance, served to give a measure of the height from which they fell, and to increase the beauty of the scene. There is another natural bridge in Virginia, in Scot county, which is said to be above 340 feet high, but is inferior to that of Cedar Creek in form and completeness.
The Prebischthor, in the Saxon Switzerland, has sometimes been compared with this Virginia Bridge, but it is a very different kind of thing.
The accompanying view, taken from the N.W. side, at the level of the water, has hardly any pretensions beyond showing the general shape of the arch and the view through it, which is very confined and altogether devoid of interest.
The chain[1] of the Andes in South America presents most striking natural phenomena in the immense clefts, or _crevasses_ as they are sometimes called, which separate two contiguous masses of mountain, and in some instances are near 5000 feet deep. If Mount Vesuvius were plunged into one of these frightful abysses, its summit would not reach to the peaks of the highest rocks on each side; while the bottom of the cleft would be only one-fourth less elevated above the level of the sea than the passes of St. Gothard and Mont Cenis in the Alps.
The valley of Icononzo is less remarkable for its dimensions than for the extraordinary form of its rocks, which seem as if they had been cut by the hand of man. Their naked and arid summits form a most picturesque contrast with the tufts of trees and herbaceous plants which cover the borders of the _crevasse_. A little torrent has made itself a way through the valley, and lies sunk in a channel, which is so difficult of approach, that the river would hardly be passable if nature herself had not formed two bridges of rock, which are justly regarded as the greatest curiosity in that country. Humboldt and Bonpland crossed these natural bridges in 1801, on their route from Santa Fé de Bogota to Popayan and Quito.
In the valley of Icononzo the _grès_ or sandstone is composed of two distinct kinds of rock--one very compact and quartzose without any marks of fissure or stratification--the other a fine-grained sandstone, formed of an infinite number of thin and almost horizontal layers. We may imagine that the compact material resisted the force which rent the mountains asunder, and that it is the unbroken mass of this rock which forms the bridge by which the traveller now crosses from one side of the valley to the other. This natural arch is about 47½ feet long, 41½ wide, and about 8 feet thick at the centre. By very careful experiments made on falling bodies, with the assistance of a good chronometer, combined with the measurement obtained by a plummet, it appears that the height of the upper of the two natural bridges, above the level of the torrent, is about 313 feet.
Sixty feet below the first natural bridge there is another formed by three enormous masses of rock, which have fallen in such a way as to support one another. The centre rock forms the key of the arch.
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Footnote 1:
Humboldt, Vue des Cordillères, &c. 8vo. Paris.
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STATISTICAL NOTES.
ENGLAND AND WALES (CONTINUED)
(20.) Of the state of English agriculture in early ages some notion may be formed from the fact of the prohibition for many years, and subsequently the taxation, of the exportation of corn. It was not till the reign of Charles II that the export of corn was exempted from a tax; and it is from 1689 that may be dated that fundamental change in our corn-laws which encouraged exportation by a bounty. Since that period the fluctuations in the price of corn have been remarkable. The price of wheat which in the beginning of the last century was 50_s._ the quarter, became reduced in the ten years between 1740 and 1750 to 24_s._ the quarter. The culture of corn thus received a check, and a large proportion of arable land was transferred from tillage to grazing. The effect of this conversion and of an increasing population raised the price of corn in the ten years from 1750 to 1760 to an average of 42_s._ 6_d._ per quarter, and soon changed the scale from export to import, which has continued ever since. From 1764 to 1790 the average price of wheat varied from 42_s._ to 50_s._; our annual imports from 200,000 to 500,000 quarters of corn. But since 1792 our annual imports, under differently regulated systems of law, have been from half a million to above two million quarters of corn of all kinds; and the average prices of wheat have varied from 2_l._ to 6_l._ per quarter. In 1792 the price of wheat was 2_l._ 2_s._ 11_d._; in 1800, 5_l._ 13_s._ 7_d._; in 1812, 6_l._ 5_s._ 5_d._; in 1822, 2_l._ 4_s._ 1_d._; and in 1831, 3_l._ 10_s._ 3_d_. The annual consumption of wheat in the United Kingdom has been estimated at 12,000,000 quarters; and that of other grain at 36,000,000 quarters, making together 48,000,000, of which not one-twentieth part has during any year been imported, and, in general, a far less proportionate quantity. The daily consumption of wheat in the United Kingdom may be taken at 36,000, and of all other grain at 108,000 quarters, making together 144,000 quarters a day.
(21.) During the last century, upwards of five millions of acres in England and Wales have been enclosed under Acts of Parliament, the average extent of each enclosure being 1200 acres, and the outlay about 10_l._ per acre. From 1719 to 1759, the average number of enclosure Acts passed was 8 a year; 1780 to 1794, it was 30; 1797 to 1803, it was 83; in 1811 it was 134, (the highest number known); in 1814, 119; in 1816, 49; in 1827, 21; in 1829, 24; and in 1831, only 10. The great extent to which the enclosure system thus appears to have already been carried, now necessarily diminishes the progress of enclosures every year.
(22.) Among the various causes of the superiority of English husbandry over that of the Continent, is that of the medium size of our farms, which differ both from such large unmanageable tracts as those held by Polish noblemen, and from such diminutive occupancies as those which have prevailed in France since the first Revolution, in consequence of the abolition of the law of primogeniture. The size of English farms is the greatest in the best cultivated districts; such as Kent, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Northumberland. In these counties the engagements of the farmers are very large, and frequently amount to 1000_l._ a year and upwards. In more retired districts, as in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Wales, the occupancies are, in general, small, and an average of all the farms in England and Wales would, perhaps, not exceed 150_l._ a year. Leases are, for the most part, granted for seven years only, and farms are occasionally let from year to year upon written agreements, with specified covenants subjecting the tenants to fines in the event of deviation from them. The tenants of great landholders, particularly of the old nobility, often hold at will, without leases, upon the understanding of conformity to the rules laid down by the lord for the observance of all his tenants; and such tenants are found to occupy from father to son for many generations. Upon the whole, the tenure of leasehold property in England is considered to be too short to admit of the improvements that tenants might otherwise be expected to make in our system of agriculture.
(23.) The expense of cultivation of land in England has much increased of late years, as appears by the returns to the Board of Agriculture, which state that the average expenses of cultivating one hundred acres of land was in 1790, 411_l._; in 1803, 547_l._; and in 1813, 771_l._ Since the latter year there have been reductions in labour and taxes, and also, to a considerable extent, in rent. Surveyors calculate that highly cultivated land ought to produce a threefold return, viz.: one-third of the gross produce to the landlord for rent, another for the expenses, and the remainder for the farmer’s profit; the rent of inferior land being only a fourth, or even a fifth of the gross produce, by reason of the additional expense of cultivation.
(24.) A century ago, our cattle, from the inferiority of their feed, were not one-half, sometimes even not one-third, of their present weight. It is computed that England and Wales now contain, at least, five million oxen, and a million and a half of horses, of which about a million are used in husbandry, 200,000 for pleasure, and 300,000 are colts and breeding mares. The number of sheep is about twenty millions, and eight million lambs. The number of long-wooled sheep is about five millions, their fleeces averaging 7 or 8 lbs.; and of short-wooled sheep fifteen millions, the weight of fleece averaging from 3 to 3½ lbs. The whole quantity of wool annually shorn in England is from eighty to eighty-five million of pounds. The Merino were introduced about the beginning of the present century, and were imported in large numbers after our alliance with Spain in 1809. The great pasturage counties are Leicester, Northampton, Lincoln, and Somerset; and for butter and cheese, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire. The import of butter and cheese from foreign countries is checked by duties, but these are important articles of Irish commerce with England.
(25) The annual amount of profit from farming is not very susceptible of exact calculation, but was estimated some fifteen years since at thirty millions sterling, being a sum equivalent to the rental of England and Wales. The probable amount of the farming capital of the country was estimated at from two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions sterling. In regard to the value of the total annual produce of the land, this is necessarily subject to the fluctuations of seasons, but taking wheat at the medium of 80_s._ and other corn in proportion, we shall find an average produce of more than sixty millions sterling in corn, to which adding a similar value in pasturage, and a further allowance for hops, fruit, and vegetables, we have a total of from 130 to 140 millions. In Scotland the rent bears a higher proportion to the gross produce, being, in general, not less than one-third. Our chief superiority over the Continent consists in machinery and live stock. Much valuable information on the state of agriculture on the Continent is to be found in the Reports to the Government of Mr. Jacob, who travelled a few years since with a view of ascertaining the effect that would be produced by the modification of our corn-laws. From these Reports it seems that the difficulties of transport in the corn countries, and other impediments to production, are such as to render the probable extent of importation under a more free system much less than is commonly imagined. There are many improvements of which English agriculture is susceptible, such as in the size of farms in many counties, the length of leases, the course of husbandry, the construction of ploughs, and the misapplication of animal strength in labour. With attention to these points and the application of further capital, not to wastes, but to fertile land already under culture, there is every hope that our agriculture may be yet considerably advanced in productiveness and in national value.
[To be continued.]
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An officer in the forty-fourth regiment, who had occasion, when in Paris, to pass one of the bridges across the Seine, had his boots, which had been previously well-polished, dirted by a poodle-dog rubbing against them. He, in consequence, went to a man who was stationed on the bridge, and had them cleaned. The same circumstance having occurred more than once, his curiosity was excited, and he watched the dog. He saw him roll himself in the mud of the river, and then watch for a person with well-polished boots, against which he contrived to rub himself. Finding that the shoe-black was the owner of the dog, he taxed him with the artifice; and after a little hesitation, he confessed that he had taught the dog the trick in order to procure customers for himself. The officer being much struck with the dog’s sagacity, purchased him at a high price, and brought him to England. He kept him tied up in London some time, and then released him. The dog remained with him a day or two, and then made his escape. A fortnight afterwards he was found with his former master, pursuing his old trade on the bridge.--_Jesse’s Gleanings of Natural History_
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THE MAHOGANY TABLE.
Milton, who was at once the most sublime and the most practical of writers, has said,
------ “To know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom.”
The poet more especially had in view that knowledge to which all other knowledge is secondary--we mean the knowledge of ourselves. But we may not improperly adopt his forcible expressions as a motto to a series of articles which we shall occasionally publish, which will have for their object to collect some of the most striking facts belonging to the commonest things by which we are surrounded in our every-day life, particularly those comforts and conveniences which the humblest man possesses in a state of advanced civilization. The history of a knife, or a button, or a coat, or a watch, or an earthen pan, or a candle, or a lump of coal, or a mahogany table, or a Penny Magazine, suggests to our minds more precise and satisfactory notions of the progress of society, and therefore of the real history of the people of these kingdoms, than all the details of wars and treaties and state intrigues, of which history is in general made up. In the execution of such a purpose it is not important to pursue any systematic plan. The most material consideration will be to select those things of ordinary use which are so common, that it would be difficult to find a single reader who is not more or less indebted to them for some of his enjoyments.
We will begin with a Mahogany Table. If we had been speaking about a mahogany table, or any other article of mahogany, thirty or forty years ago, we should have expected only to have interested the rich in the description of this important material of English furniture. Now, what tradesman, or mechanic, or even cottager, does not possess some article of mahogany--if it be only a tea-caddy? The universal employment of mahogany for articles of furniture, whose price does not operate as a prohibition against their use in general society, has been produced by the large application of capital to the commercial speculation of bringing mahogany logs to this country from the West Indies,--and, further, by the invention of machinery for cutting those logs into thin layers, called veneers, by which operation the finest wood is brought within a reasonable cost. Now observe what commercial enterprise and mechanical ingenuity will accomplish in a comparatively small period. Some piece of mahogany furniture is now, probably, found in every house in England;--a hundred and eight years ago the wood was unknown here. A physician of the name of Gibbons, who resided in London, received in 1724 a present of some mahogany planks from his brother, a West-India captain. Dr. Gibbons was then building a house in King-street, Covent-garden, and he desired his carpenter to work up the wood. The carpenter had no tool hard enough to touch it; so the planks were laid aside. The doctor’s wife, after the house was finished, wanted a candle-box, and the mahogany was again thought of. A cabinet-maker of the name of Wollaston was applied to; and he also complained that his tools were too soft. But he persevered, and the candle-box was at length completed--after a rude fashion no doubt. The candle-box was so much admired, that the physician resolved to have a mahogany bureau; and when the bureau was finished, all the people of fashion came to see it. The cabinet-maker procured more planks, and made a fortune by the numerous customers he obtained. From that time the use of mahogany furniture went forward amongst the luxurious;--and the drawers and bureaus of walnut-tree and pear-tree were gradually superseded in the houses of the rich. To show the present extensive use of mahogany in this country it may be sufficient to mention that in 1829 the importation of this wood amounted to 19,335 tons.
The common mahogany (called by botanists _Swietenia mahagoni_) is one of the most majestic trees of the whole world. There are trees of greater height than the mahogany;--but in Cuba and Honduras this tree, during a growth of two centuries, expands to such a gigantic trunk, throws out such massive arms, and spreads the shade of its shining green leaves over such a vast surface, that even the proudest oaks of our forests appear insignificant in comparison with it. A single log, such as is brought to this country from Honduras, not unfrequently weighs six or seven tons.
[Illustration: Mahogany Tree.]
When we consider the enormous size of a trunk of mahogany, and further learn that the most valuable timber grows in the most inaccessible situations, it must be evident that a great portion of the price of this timber must be made up of the cost of the labour required for transporting it from its native forests to the place of its embarkation for England. The mode in which this difficult work is accomplished is highly interesting; and we have, fortunately, the means of giving an account of the process (which, we believe, has never before been described in any English publication,) from some statements printed in a Honduras Almanac, which has been kindly put into our hands for this purpose.