this group; and a learned astronomical friend assured him that he had seen eight stars among the Pleiades, where common eyes can discover but six; and Kepler says of his tutor, Mæstlinus, that "he could reckon fourteen stars in the Pleiades without any glasses." This difference in the number seen by different persons in this group, is obviously owing to the different degrees of acuteness of vision possessed by the respective individuals. However small the number perceived by the naked eye, the telescope shows them to be a pretty numerous assem. blage. Dr. Hook, formerly professor of geometry in Gresham College, informs us that directing his twelve-feet telescope (which could magnify only about seventy times) to the Pleiades, he did, in that small compass, count seventy-eight stars; and making use of longer and more perfect telescopes, he discovered a great many more of different magnitudes. Calmet; Brown's Antiquities of the Jews ; Dick's Sidereal Heavens. NOTE 31.-PAGE 117. The aborigines of our country viewed the Cataract of Niagara with religious veneration, as if it were a true Divinity. A party of Indians being brought thither on their return to the West, from the seat of government, displayed their adoration to the Great Spirit of the Fall by casting their pipes, wampum, and different trinkets, into the flood. NOTE 32.-PAGE 122. The reader is referred to the eighteenth Psalm, and to different passages of the Book of Revelation, for the original materials out of which a great portion of this "Requiem of the Flood" is composed. The RECESSION of Niagara Falls has been made a subject of much curious speculation among scientific men of late. As it may not be uninteresting to some readers to peruse their observations upon this point, they are here presented as taken from Hall's Geological Survey, and an article lately found in a British publication. "The most superficial observers unavoidably contemplate the deep channel of seven miles as the work of the river itself; and the idea receives confirmation of the most decided kind from the fact, that the waterfall is continually, though slowly, wearing away the rock. The common belief of the country people therefore is, that the fall was originally at Queenstown, and will in time get back to Lake Erie, which will consequently be emptied, and become dry land." "This is a subject on which many speculations have been hazarded, but no one appears to have undertaken the calculation with a full knowledge of the geology of the district, or to have taken into account the many disturbing influences. At the present time the cliff over which the water is precipitated, is nearly equally divided between thick-bedded limestone and soft disintegrating shale. It is by the action of the spray from the falling water upon the shale, undermining and leaving the limestone unsupported, which falls down by its own weight, that the falls recede from their present position. Now if we believe the statements of those who have resided at the Falls, the recession has been about fifty yards within the last forty years; but from all the data I have been able to obtain, this appears to be much too great an estimate; indeed it is extremely questionable if the Fall has receded as many feet within that time. The central portion of the Horseshoe Fall recedes more rapidly than any other part, for here the greatest force of the river is exerted. We know likewise, from the testimony of all residents at this place, that the American Fall is becoming more curved in its outline, whereas formerly it was nearly in a straight line. The successive descent of large masses of limestone, and the still continued overhanging of the table rock, prove very conclusively the unremitting action of water and air upon the shale below." ERRATA. A few errors escaped the vigilance of the proof-reader, which the author, residing at a distance from the press, was unable to correct. Those which are not so palpable as to be readily understood by the reader, are the following: Page 30, second line from bottom, the hyphen should be omitted between ear and obedient. Page 37, fourth line from top, shall ought to be substituted for should. Page 40, fourth line from top, read once for now. Page 44, fifteenth line from bottom, though for through. Page 48, eighth and ninth lines from top, place a comma after success, and a semicolon after soul. Page 55, first line from top, for The soil round which, &c., read Around whose walls the deep-dug, &c. Also, eleventh line from bottom, for summits read summit. Page 115, eighth line from top, for light read lights. Also, twelfth line from top, for threads of light, read threads of gold. Page 117, thirteenth line from top, for make read may. Page 130, third line from top, for of read oft. Page 135, second line from top, for Casich read Cusick. Also, seventh line from bottom, read toward the south. |