Various

“ The loss to science by the demise of this excellent man and liberal patron will be long and severely felt. It will be recollected, that when it was determined to send Captain Cook on his first voyage round the globe, Sir Joseph Banks, then a young man, whose ardent mind glowed with a love of science and of ingenious enterprise, determined to accompany him. His liberal spirit and generous curiosity were regarded with admiration, and every convenience from the government was readily supplied to render the circumstances of the voyage as comfortable as possible. ”

“ Sometimes the whale shakes its tremendous tail in the air, which, cracking like a whip, resounds to the distance of two or three miles.
When it retires from the surface, it first lifts its head, then plunging it under water, elevates its back like the segment of a sphere, deliberately rounds it away towards the extremity, throws its tail out of the water, and then disappears. ”

“ Having ploughed the ground three or four times successively, always to the ancles in water, they break the clods with the head of their mattocks; then, by the help of a wooden machine (on which a man stands upright, and guides the buffalo that draws it) they smooth the earth, that the water may be every where of an equal height; insomuch that the plains seem more like vast gardens than open fields.
The mountains in China are all cultivated; but one sees neither hedges nor ditches, nor scarce any tree; so fearful they are of loosing an inch of ground. ”

“ It is well known that earth which is not too argillaceous, with only the moisture it has when fresh dug, on being rammed between frames of wood till the rammer will no longer impress it, makes eternal walls; but a mass as hard as stone may be made with a little lime added to sand, horse-dung, or ox blood. The more the lime is beaten, the moister it becomes, and it must contain so much moisture as to become by beating a solid mass, adhering in all its parts, and not remain crumbling, that will properly set as a mortar. ”

“ The attention of the Emperors and Mandarins to the cultivation of the land is so great, that when deputies arrive at court from the Vice-Roys, the Chinese monarch never forgets to demand in what condition the fields appeared to them; and the falling of a seasonable shower furnishes a proper occasion for visiting a Mandarin, to compliment him thereupon.—Every year, in spring, which falls in February, the Emperor (according to the ancient custom) goes himself, in a solemn manner, to plough a few ridges of land, in order to animate the husbandmen by his own example ”

“ Let the Prompter make a little calculation: a farmer, whose family expends one hundred pounds a year, if he can clear ten pounds a year is a thriving man. In order to get his one hundred and ten pounds, suppose he labours ten hours a day: in this case, if he loses an hour every day, in repairing the carelessness of the day before (and every sloven and slut loses more time than this, every day, for want of care and order) he loses a tenth part of his time—a tenth part of his income—this is eleven pounds. Such a man cannot thrive—he must grow poorer, for want of care, of order, of method. ”

“ The posterior extremity of the whale, however, is a real tail; the termination of the spine or coccygis, running through the middle of it almost to the edge.
The whale seems dull of hearing. A noise in the air, such as that produced by a person shouting, is not noticed by it, though at the distance only of a ship's length; but a very slight splashing in the water, in calm weather, excites its attention, and alarms it. Its sense of seeing is acute. Whales are observed to discover one another, in clear water, when under the surface, at an amazing distance. ”

“ A thousand deaths, ten thousand years of anxiety and pain, would cheaply buy an admission to your delights." The violence of my emotion broke my slumbers; and I awoke, like Mirza, to behold, not indeed the camels of the long valley of Bagdat, but the awakening life and activity of the country,—the sober herd marching forth to their frugal pasture, the rattling swain, and the busy sounds of labour from the opposite hamlet. ”

“ In contemplating the progress of decay, and witnessing the beauties with which we are surrounded, successfully fading before our eyes, we are forcibly reminded of the solemn fact, that human life, with all its sublunary enjoyments, is also rapidly hastening to the tomb. ”

“ This kind of manure, which elsewhere would burn up the plants, is very proper for the lands of China; where they have an art of tempering it with water before they use it. They gather the dung in pails, which they commonly carry covered on their shoulders; and this contributes very much to the cleanness of their cities, whose filth is thus taken away every day.
In the province of Che-Kyang, and other places, where they sow rice, they use balls of hog's, or even human hair; which, according to them, gives strength to the land, and makes that grain grow better. ”

“ We may also derive from its incidents, an argument in favour of our own form of government, comparatively simple and unimposing as it is in its structure; but not less efficient with respect to the legitimate objects of government, without which, properly administered, the fabric of society would crumble into ruins, and lawless violence usurp the seat of order and justice. ”

“ The interior edges are covered with a fringe of hair, and the exterior edge of every blade, excepting a few at each extremity of the series, is curved and flattened down, so as to present a smooth surface to the lips. In some whales, a curious hollow on one side, and ridge on the other, occurs in many of the central blades of whalebone, at regular intervals of 6 or 7 inches.—May not this irregularity, like the rings in the horns of the ox, which they resemble, afford an intimation of the age of the whale? ”

“ As soon as we perceived this cloud of insects to lessen around us, my wife threw over her hat the hood of her night cloak, got out of the carriage, went back a little way on the road, and instinctively fled into the ditch, where she lay down with her face to the earth. I exerted myself in the meantime in endeavouring to get over this disaster; I went also out of the carriage, and covering my face and neck with my handkerchief, I re-ascended the carriage, and with all my strength cried out for help.—Three peasants, a short distance off, had all the while calmly observed my situation ”

“ China being so vastly populous, that if every inch of arable land was sowed, as in fact it generally is, yet the produce would be scarce sufficient to support the multitudes of inhabitants; and the empire is too extensive to have its wants that way supplied from foreign parts, even if it kept up a correspondence with them. For these reasons it has always been one of the chiefest cares of the government to promote Agriculture, by honouring husbandmen and their profession. With this view a festival is instituted in honour of agriculture ”

“ I have been accused of disaffection to the government, and deserved it as little; I was guilty of a real attack upon the rights of humanity, and I have been reproached by nobody."
Generosity.—It is an error to imagine that men in the lowest rank of life are unsusceptible of heroic and generous sentiments. All who are susceptible of enthusiasm are capable of being actuated by them. It is the minions of fortune, those who have been pampered from their infancy, by the hands of luxury, and early accustomed to every kind of profusion, whose minds sink into torpor for want of exertion ”

“ The tongue occupies a large proportion of the cavity of the mouth, and the arch formed by the whalebone. It is incapable of protrusion, being fixed from root to tip, to the fat extending between the jaw-bones.—A slight beard, consisting of a short scattered white hair, surmounts the anterior extremity of both jaws. The throat is remarkably strait.
Two paps in the female, afford the means of rearing its young. The milk of the whale resembles that of quadrupeds in its appearance. It is said to be rich and well-flavoured. ”

“ The tongue is chiefly composed of a soft kind of fat, that affords less oil than any other blubber; in the centre of the tongue, and towards the root, this fat is intermixed with fibres of a muscular substance. The under jaw, excepting the two jaw-bones, consists almost wholly of fat; and the crown-bone possesses a considerable coating of it. The fins are principally blubber, tendons, and bones; and the tail possesses a thin stratum of blubber. [426] The oil appears to be retained in the blubber in minute cells, connected together by a strong reticulated combination of tendinous fibres. ”

“ Hence the account given by some naturalists, that the whale supports its young by its fins, on its back, must be erroneous. The fins, after death, are always hard and stiff; but, in the living animal, it is presumed, from the nature of the internal structure, that they are capable of considerable flexion. The whale has no dorsal fin. The tail, comprising, in a single surface, 80 or 100 square feet, is a formidable instrument of motion and defence. ”

“ On flat tops of houses, the beetles or rammers' ends must be smaller, to prevent the rebounding of the boards and timber, which would crack the cement; but, when the thickness of a foot is laid on, it will beat more firmly. A thick coating of ox blood, flour and lime, being beat in large, strong wooden troughs, or mortar, till it can be spread with a trowel, may be used without beating it again on the floor or house-top: but it must be very stiff, and used most expeditiously. Even frost will not affect it. ”

“ When the whale feeds, it swims with considerable velocity below the surface of the sea, with its jaws widely extended. A stream of water consequently enters its capacious mouth, and along with it, large quantities of water insects; the water escapes again at the sides; but the food is entangled and sifted as it were, by the whalebone, which, from its compact arrangement, and the thick internal covering of hair, does not allow a particle the size of the smallest grain to escape. ”

“ The Emperor Yau, who began to reign four hundred and eighty years after the monarch, it seems, set aside his own children in favour of a young husbandman, whom he chose for his successor. This choice of an emperor out of the country, has inspired the Chinese with a great esteem for agriculture. Yu, who succeeded Shun, came to the throne after the same manner. It is said, he found out the way, by means of canals, to drain off the water into the sea, which at the beginning of the empire overflowed several low countries, and afterwards made use of them to render the soil fruitful. ”

“ A writer in the Long Island Star, highly recommends the cultivation of the Locust Tree, as a profitable business. He says the price of this timber is about seventy-five cents per cubic foot—that 200 trees will grow on an acre of land—or 20,000 trees to a hundred acres, which may average 20 feet per tree, which would give the enormous sum of $300,000. But suppose they amount to only $100,000, as the nett profits from 100 acres, in what way can the landholder expect so great a profit in 30 years, with the same probability of success, as from this? ”

“ That salt is partially beneficial to some soils, is beyond a doubt; but whether the benefit is equivalent to the expense of using it, is a question which can only be determined by the nature of the soil.—Wherever lime is used as a manure, salt may be beneficially applied, or when combined with any fertilizing substance which has a tendency to decompose it, but in this case the fertilizing power is owing to the new product, and not to the muriate of soda. ”

“ When the plant begins to ear, if the land be watered with spring water, they mix quicklime with it; saying that it kills worms and insects, destroys weeds, and gives a warmth to the ground, which contributes much to fertility. By this means the rice fields are so clean, that Navarette, sometimes, walked through them, looking for some small herb; and could never find any; so that he concludes, the rice which is surprisingly tall and fine, draws all the nourishment from the ground.
The husbandmen sow their grain at first without any order ”

“ They cheered their labours with the tale of [406] mighty men of old, or bade them mark the beauties before them, and the dazzling brilliancy of the summit. Whether it was from the invigorating effects of the climate, or the zeal and confidence with which such discourse inspired them, the travellers seemed to gather fresh strength as they proceeded. Their countenances beamed with cheerfulness and hope, and they bounded over the obstacles in the path with alacrity and vigour. A transient gloom would sometimes cloud their features, and they would sometimes complain of the asperities of the way. ”

“ But the sense of the mischief which must have ensued, if I had not succeeded in getting into the machine at the proper place, and stopping it at the right moment was so strong, as to deter me from trying any more experiments on this carriage in such a dangerous place. Such should never be attempted except on a large common, at a distance from a high road. It may not however be amiss to suggest, that upon a large extent of iron rail-way, in an open country, carriages properly constructed, might make profitable voyages from time to time with sails instead of horses ”

“ True, but the man has but twenty or thirty acres of land, or an indifferent trade—his family grows faster than his income—he is not able to finish his house—the covering soon decays and admits water—the house falls to pieces—the man is forced poor into the wilderness, or he and his children loiter about, dependant on the neighbours for subsistence by day labour.
I know one of these do-for-the-present-farmers, who never effectually repairs his fences ”

“ Experience establishes the fact. Many farmers have raised it, as well under the Spanish as under the American government. The quantity obtained from an acre is prodigious, and by experiments made at New Orleans, under the auspices of the Governor General, the Baron de Carondelet, it was proved to be equal (the account says superior) in strength and fineness of fibre, to the boasted hemp of Russia. Persons who have looked to the resources of Missouri have always considered hemp as one of its staples, and the encouragement of its growth one of the first objects of our farmers and statesmen. ”

“ The land in China never lies fallow. Generally the same ground produces three crops in a year; first rice; and before it is reaped they sow fitches; and when they are in, wheat, beans, or some other grain: thus it goes continually round. They very seldom employ their land for unprofitable uses, such as flower gardens, or fine walks; believing useful things more for the public good, and their own.
[410]
The attention of husbandmen is chiefly employed in the cultivation of rice. They manure their land extremely well ”