POETRY.

THE LILLY OF THE VALE.

BY MISS H. F. GOULD.

Tender Lily of the Vale,
Lovely, modest, sweet, and pale,
While a tear, the night hath shed,
Weeping o'er thy beauteous head,
Forms the trembling diadem,
Weighing down thy slender stem;
How in meekness art thou seen,
Like the lowly Nazarene!

Stooping o'er the dust beneath,
From the leaf that rose to sheath
Thine uusullied snowy bells,
Art thou pouring from their cells,
As from pensive vials there,
Odors rising like the prayer,
When in solemn midnight scene
Kneeled the lonely Nazarene.

When the blast, or lightning stroke,
Wrings the willow, rends the cak,
Fearless of the tempest's power,
As a spirit clothed a flower,
Calm, ainid the raging storm,
Stands thy frail and silken form,
With no earthly prop or screen,
Like the houseless Nazarene.

Teaching on Judea's height,

He whose words were life and light,
Looked from that far mountain side,
Down o'er field and valley wide,
For a glory there displayed,
Such as monarch ne'er arrayed;
Then, the Lily on the green,

Named our Lord, the Nazarene !

RETURNED TO ITS CAGF.-Mr. Echholtz of Pottsville had a dove, which the Journal says exhibited a great aversion to its prison, and a strong desire to be free: its struggles were so continued and painful, that finally a feeling of compassion prevailed, and the gentle cooing bird was set at liberty, and away it soared, away-away-with rapid wing. Three weeks or more elapsed, when Mr. Echholtz was surprised, one morning, by a visit from a strange dove, which seemed to clamor for attention and a cage a cage was given it, when lo! by certain unmistakeable marks, Mr. E. knew it to be his quondam feathered pet, which had returned, wounded and weary, to be nursed Some relentless sportsman had shot it; one leg was broken, and the bird was otherwise injured. It is now well, and seems perfectly happy in its wire-wrought house. Here is food for thought, and material for poetry..

For the Am. Penny Magazine.

ines written on reading the above. Sweet Bird, this simple tale has gone Straight to my heart and eye;

I feel a thrilling in my breast-
A tear-drop swelling high.

For long, like thee, I struggling tried
From that safe home to flee,
Where a kind hand of love would hide,
And feed and nurture me.

My truant wishes often flew
To far, but fancied joys;
Deceitful friends I hailed as true,
And bartered bliss for toys.

Like thee, with haste I burst away,

When freedom I could gain ;—
Like thee, soon mourn'd in solitude,
In wounds, and want, and pain.
And oh! like thee, when far and lone,
Repentance deep has come,
And spreading wing, and glowing hope
Soon bore me trembling home.

And there for me stood waiting love,-
Where love had erst abode :
Thine is a human friend, sweet dove,
But I have found my God.

Epigram.

A shop-keeper having a hogshead to sell,
A paper affixed with a nail;
And being unable correctly to spell,

Thereon he had written "for sail!"

But shortly a school-boy along the street came,
Who chancing the paper to spy;
After pointing his pencil, wrote under the

same,

"For freight at the bung-hole apply." [Selected,

12,878 passengers arrived at this port from foreign ports, during the month of August.

THE AMERICAN PENNY MAGAZINE

AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, Edited by Theodore Dwight, Jr. Is published weekly, at the office of the New York Express, No. 112 Broadway, at 3 cents a number, (16 pages large octavo,) or, to subscribers receiving it by man and paying in advance, $1 a year. The postage is now Free or this city, Brooklyn, Harlem, Newark, and all other places within 30 miles; only one cent a copy for other parts of the State, and other places within 100 miles; and 1 1-2 cents for other parts of the Union. Persons forwarding the money for five copies, will receive a sixth gratis. The first half-yearly volume, of 416 pages, will soon be ready, b und in mustin, price $1-to regular subscribers, 75 cents The work will form a volume of 832 pages annually. Postmasters are authorized to remit money.

Enclose a One Dollar Bil, without payment of pos tage, and the work will be sent for the year.

We particularly request the public to remember that no person is authorized to receive money in advance for this paper, except those who show a cer tificate, signed by the Editor.

THE GREAT FOSSIL SEA-SERPENT,

OR HYDRARGOS.

[Length, 114 feet.-Weight, 7500 pounds.]

The bones of the largest animal of which we have any knowledge, are now exhibited in this city, [in Broadway, near Canal street.] We had seen a small print of this wonderful skeleton, and read and copied into the Penny Magazine Professor Silliman's letter on it; but, on entering the hall of the exhibition, we felt overwhelmed at the sight of its enormous dimensions. Indeed, it must require an exertion of the imagination, in the absence of the object itself, to form a correct idea of its magnitude. If in a city, the reader may look at four houses of the full common size, (that is, 25 feet front,) and reflect that this serpent is 14 feet longer. In the country, seven lengths of a common post-and-rail fence will be but of little greater length.

This skeleton was found this year by Dr. Albert Kock, a German naturalist, on his second visit to this country. He had, on his first visit, spent six years in exploring the far western states, especially Missouri, and spent much time among the Indians, incurring some risks, many inconveniences, and as much expense as his personal means would allow.All these he considered as amply rewarded, by the discovery of the skeleton of an animal larger than the mammoths and mastadons before known, which he removed and took to Europe. It was dug from the ground at the Falls of the Missouri, where many other gigantic bones are found, and named by him the Missourium.

In May, 1844, Dr. K. sailed a second time for America, and made a careful examination of those regions which gave any hope of more discoveries of a like kind, beginning at Gay Head, on Martha's Vineyard, (Mass.) and pro. ceeding to the Falls of the Ohio, and the country between New Albany and Jeffersonville in Illinois. There he had "great success," finding many new Coral species. At Bloomington, Iowa, he "made a magnificent collection of fossil plants," in the red sand-stone; found leaves and branches of "extinct tropical plants," with "whole trunks of palm-trees;" and at the Lower Rapids of the Missouri, a new animal of a gigantic frog species. He examined the remarkable foot-prints in the rocks, and brought away a stone containing some of them, frora near Herculaneum, which is in his collection in New York. Two of

the prints are like those of the human foot, with five toes, only shorter, which he assigns to an unknown reptile.

But the most wonderful remains are those which are represented on the title-place of this magazine: the great fossil sea serpent, found near the surface, in a singular region in Alabama, near the Sintabogue, on Snake River. He had previously examined numbers of large vertebræ in the neighboring country, the remains of multitudes formerly found there, and remarkable for their hardness and durability. He found one built into a chimney, another used as a step-stone, a third as the supporter of a gate-post, and a fourth as a negro's pillow to sleep on. Hearing of the recent exposure of some new specimens near the Sintabogue, in cultivating a new field, he there disinterred the monster now exhibited to us, consisting of a backbone of above 100 joints, lying in a semi-circular position, and generally undisturbed, with numerous short ribs more displaced, and the skeleton of the head, about 6 feet long, turned over, but near its position. The parts are now supported partly on iron bars, in the form exhibited by the print, which is a very accurately, as well as neatly executed, and will give our readers as correct an idea of the wonderful object as they could expect with out paying a visit to the exhibition room.

The skeleton measures 114 feet, without any allowance for cartilage or loss by decay. The weight of the bones is 7,500 pounds. The animal must have borne a very striking likeness to the descriptions given of the sea serpent so often said to have been seen a few years since on the coast of Massachusetts, Some of the vertebræ have protuberances, and Dr. Kock informed us that they all seemed formed for vertical motion. We copy the following from his pamphlet, which is sold at the door of his exhibition room:

The Hydargos has nothing in common with the Saurier, or Lizard, with which a large number of monsters of old are classed, and with whose remains we have already become acquainted, through the progress of geological discoveries; as the teeth of all creatures belonging to the Saurier, or Lizard family, have only one fang, whereas the inincisors, or cutting teeth of the Hydrargos have two distinct kinds; those of the anterior ones, are closely united, but become more and more forked, as we approach the posterior teeth; these incisors have a certain analogy to those of a Marsupial or Pouched animal, still they are like those of all the serpent

tribe; formed less for the purpose of mastication, being slight, and small in size; it would seem that the animal did not masticate its food, but gorged it entire: which is more expressly proven by the fact, that this creature was provided with palate bones, which have some similarity to molar teeth, but could only be used for the purpose of crushing its food. Its greatly elongated snout was armed with forty or more spear-shaped incisors, whose fangs were deeply inserted in distinct sockets.

Skeleton of the Hydrargos.

All the incisors (or cutting teeth) are so set in the ramus and the maxilla, that their extremities have an inclination backwards towards the palate, like the shark, so that the victim caught, could easily enter the mouth, but could not possibly escape. The canine teeth correspond in regard to the before-mentioned position with the incisors, as they also curve backward, as well with the superior as with their inferior extremities both of which terminate in a blunt point, the inferior being the sharpest. These teeth are from six to eight inches in length, full one-sixth of their length being concealed in the ramus and maxilla; and their superior or exposed points, are covered with a thick coating of enamel, which exhibits the same marking which was observed in the incisors. The body of these teeth are compressed, and have their greatest circumference in the centre, standing from one to two inches isolated from the incisors, and from one, to one and a half inches from the palate bones.

These palate bones are contained in an alviola, of an enlongated oval form, and are not unlike the posterior palate bones which we find in the drum fish, they are from two and a half, to three inches in length; and from one and three-fourth, to two inches thick; forming a compressed oval, covered with a thick covering of crusta petrosa; especially characteristic are these cone-like teeth, or a spiral shaped portion of them, which, while partly concealed and partly exposed to view, measures from one and one-fourth, to one and a half inches in length, and half an inch in diameter, at its base; the palate bones indicate some relation of the Hydrargos Sillimani with the pisces or fish; whereas, some characteristics likewise indicate a relationship to the Batrachia, while others indicate a strong relationship with the Ophidia or ser

515

pents. Its tendal system proves it to be carnivorous, and in fact omniverous.

The structure of the nasal cavity, shows the animal to have been an air-breathing reptile, since the posterior outlets are at the back part of the mouth, it must therefore have respired freely, like the Saurier.

The supposition that the Hydrargos Sillimanii frequently skimmed the surface of the water, with its neck and head elevated, is not only taken from the fact, that it was compelled to rise for the purpose of breathing, but more so from the great strength and size of its curvical neck vertebræ, and the comparatively small size of its head, which could, with the greatest ease, be maintained in an elevated position. The ribs are of a very pecuiiar shape and form; so much so, that I know of no animal to which I might compare them; the greater number are small, and remarkably slender on their superior extremities, until we arrive within two thirds of the length toward the inferior extremities, where they begin to increase in thickness most rapidly, so that near the lower parts, where they are flattened, they have three or four times the circumference that they have on the superior extremities, and have very much the curve of the sickle. From the whole of their construction, we may justly form the conclusion that the animal was not only possessed of a fleshy back of great power, but also, of remarkable strength in its belly, by which means it was enabled to perform very rapid movements, notwithstanding its two fore feet or paddles being quite small in comparison with the rest of the skeleton, yet they are in proportion with the short and thick Ulva and Humerus, or fore-arm, which, together with the paddles, have been concealed under the flesh, during the life of the animal, in such a manner as to be only perceptible through muscles and cartilages, similar to the fins of the eel. The Humerus and Ulva are not unlike those of the Ichthyosaurus; and each paddle is composed of twenty-seven bones which form in union, nine forward and backward articulating joints.

NATIONAL OBSERVATORY.-The Secretary of the Navy communicates a report from Lieutenant J. M. Gillis, of the plan and construction of the depot of charts and instruments, with drawings and a description of the instruments. This "depot" is eligibly located in Washington, near the capitol, on University Square, on the north bank of the Potomac, and ninety-five feet above high water mark. The central building is fifty feet square. It is two stories and a basement high, with a parapet and balustrade of wood around the top, and is surmounted by a revolving dome twenty-three feet in diameter, resting on a circular wall, built up to a height of seven feet above the roof. In the centre of the building rises a solid pier or pedestal, placed on a firm foundation, on which rests the great telescope.

The transit instruments are placed on piers erected in the different wings of the edifice.

The following is the list prepared and approved by the Secretary of the Navy': -1. An Achromatic Refracting Telescope; 2. Meridian Transit Insttument; 3. Prime Vertical Transit; 4. Mural Circle; 5. Comet Searcher; 6. Magnetic Instruments; 7. Meteorological Instruments; 8. Books. Lieut. Gillis was despatched to Europe for the purpose of obtaining these articles. The great Telescope was manufactured in Germany. The cost was $6000, its object glass alone being valued at $3,600 The following is a description of a check or watch clock, ordered to be made by Mr. Aaron Willard, of Boston:

"An ordinary clock is to be furnished with an extra train of wheels, carrying below the dial and inside of the case a disc of metal, which shall revolve in twenty-four hours.Upon the disc may be placed cards of paper, divided on the circumference into twenty-four parts. A lever, moving only in a direction vertical to the paper, holds a pencil on its inner extremity, which makes its mark on being touched from the outside. Marks being thus made at the record of the observations, afford evidence of the times when the assistants performed their duty. The case will of course be locked up and a new paper introduced each day."

Lieut. Gillis says that much interest was evinced in the success of the Naval Observatory, by the distinguished savans whom he had the honor to meet-and in token of their gratification at the establishment of an institution by the United States, where science will be prosecuted, they contributed to its library a large number of valuable books.

Two officers can be constantly and usefully employed at each of the larger instruments, viz:-transit, mural circle, transit in prime vertical, and equatorial; and the magnetical observatory will require at least four. They should possess a knowledge of the higher mathematics, and a taste for astronomical pursuits. To such requisites they must add patience, perseverance, and endurance; for the refinements of astronomy entail long hours of delicate adjustments and calculations, as well as continued loss of sleep, and exposure to the external temperature at all seasons.

THE ALBANY CEMETERY.-The new Cemetry is about three miles from Albany, in the township of Watervliet on the Troy road, and a little more than half way to that city. It affords a drive, inside of the fence, of five miles. The entrance and grounds are not yet completed, but they certainly bid fair to excel any similar ones in the country. Soon after entering, you pass through an oak opening filled with gradual mounds, and approach to ravines suitable for burying places. These glens are among the most picturesque that can be conceived. In crossing them, and the streams which flow through a portion of them, you traverse bridges built of the trunks and

limbs of trees, cut from the grounds. These rustic structures are strongly put together with railings formed into various shapes adapted to the place. It is intended to plant trailing vines at each end, and thus cover their upper side with foliage.

The views from these natural passage-ways are some of the most charming. The gentle sloping or steep banks-the shady coves, hidden away among the overhanging trees-the palisades of mossy rocks, wreathed with rude crowns of bending boughs-the opening river in the distance, with its dotted banks and vessels-present a scene of rural beauty rarely equalled. Intermingled among the bridges and winding paths are several of the most delightful lakes and cascades. Sufficient wood has been cleared away from their borders to admit the light of the sun and moon to the greatest possible advantage, affording the sky, clouds, trees and hill-sides a perfect reflection in the limpid waters. Here overlooking mimic seas, burial spots have been already relected. Several open knolls and eminences are to be found, from which the river, Troy, and the public road are finely commanded.On one of these is an admirable site for an ob servatory to overlook the enclosure. A large lot in the rear is intended for a flower garden and shrubbery nursery.

The movement was first suggested in a sermon preached by one of the clergymen of Albany-Rev. Dr. WELCH. He is now on the Board of Managers, and is one of the most ef ficient members.-Boston Traveller.

FROM THE PACIFIC.-CALLAO, July 4th, 1845. We have in port a formidable naval force of all nations, and our squadron will be increased in a short time, preparatory to a blockade of the Mexican ports on this side, should war be declared by Mexico, and our boys are in fine spirits.

Gen. Flores, late President of the Republic of the Equator, retires to Europe, having given way to a revolutionary movement, but retaining all his military honors and emoluments.

Gen. Castilla, President of Peru, has convened the general Congress, which is now in session, and it is understood that full satisfaction has been made to Admiral Seymour, for outrage committed upon British property by the revolutionary Peruvians lately in arms against Gen. Castilla.

A British fleet is said to be on its way to Oregon, to protect British property and settlers at Astoria, and from the language used by the officers of the British Squadron here, we are led to believe that the report is correct. Indeed, a forcible seizure of the whole of Oregon north of the Columbia seems to be the object of this movement, and instructions to that effect are said to