The sponge business is largely pursued here. The exports of this article amount annually to about $200,000. It is almost entirely the growth of the last twenty years. During that period the article has nearly quadrupled in value, and has been applied to a great variety of new purposes, especially in France. The sponge is compressed in powerful presses, and sacked like cotton. It is assorted and graded, samples being fastened on each package to show its quality. It is fished or raked, or grappled up from the clear sandy bottom at the depth of twenty, forty, and even sixty feet, and often far out from the shore. The water is so transparent that the growing sponge is visible on the bottom. The sponge is the covering, the habitation, of the lowest order of animated nature. Indeed, organization can hardly be detected in the animal. The sponge when first taken from the water is black, and at once becomes offensive to the smell. It will almost cause the flesh it touches to blister. The first process is to bury it in the sand, where it remains for two or three weeks, when the gelatinous animal matter seems to be absorbed or destroyed, or eaten by the insects that swarm in the sand. The boatmen who ob tain it are paid in shares by the owners of the boats. This therefore becomes a precarious and semi-gambling pursuit, like wrecking, highly attractive to the colored population.

Although the Turk's Island salt is almost entirely exported from that island, the chances for manufacturing, or rather securing it, are abundant on many of the islands. The mistaken popular belief is, among us, that this salt is mined or quarried. Large, shallow reservoirs are found excavated in the coral near the shores. Shaped and cleaned, the sea water is admitted and enclosed. During the hot months of the summer, there being little or no rain, the evaporation goes on with great rapidity, and the salt is precipitated and crystalized in those beautiful and massive forms, in which it is exported. The salt trade might be increased to an indefinite extent, and, indeed, is now pursued from Inagua, and some other islands. The simon pure article of Turk's Island salt is made, or rather makes itself, at Key West in a limited quantity.

If the industry of the islands was employed in that direction, immense quantities of pine apples, oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, plantains, cocoa-nuts, sweet potatoes, yams, &c., might be produced for export.

The trade in turtle and turtle shell might be largely increased. Three species of turtle are now captured in abundance. The giant-sized sea turtle, with heads shaped like a hawk's bill, of which we sometimes see specimens upon our docks, is not desirable as an article of food. The tortoise proper, which alone affords the tortoise shell of commerce, is a rather small-sized variety, and not regarded as valuable food. The turtle of cusiniers and epicures exists in far greater abundance, and the pursuit of it could be made far more lucrative than it ever has been.

The effect of the British Emancipation Act on the African race on these islands is a subject of interest and curiosity. Their fate here can be no test of the great experiment. Simultaneously with the operation of the act, the wrecking and sponge business largely increased. These pursuits have engrossed the attention of a majority of the adult males, and inspires men with all the excitement that pertains to games of chance. While on the one hand, if the emancipated man was disposed to bend his energies to steady pursuits, he is enticed by attractions he cannot re

sist to these precarious callings; on the other hand, if he is inclined to sink into entire indolence and stagnation, here pursuits are opened to stimulate and arouse him to earn irregular but ample support.

Columbus found the islands thickly inhabited by Indians. Like the Caribs, they have disappeared-the last remnant of them within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. The great mass of the present population are an indolent, rollicking, singing, good-natured people, who let the morrow take care of itself. When the wrecking and sponge money is exhausted, they can buy corn brought "from the States," and crack up enough, in their crude mills, similar to coffee mills, to last a family a week, at a cost of fifty cents. Cheap fish in variety and abundance, variegated with all the colors of the rainbow, almost too brilliant and beautiful to be eaten, can always be had fresh from the ocean. Fish, hominy, sweet potatoes, yams, and bananas, are the chief food of the mass of the population, as soon as the calamity befalls them of a scarcity of wrecks. As for clothing, very little of the cheapest kind of coarse cloth, usually wrecked goods, will suffice, though when wrecking is good, and abundance of articles thrown ashore and sold, they dash out in finery and spurious jewelry to the extent of their means. They are orderly and observant of law, and lean with implicit reliance and confidence on the white race for counsel and advice in every emergency. The schools, sustained by the government, are well attended, and the race make rapid progress in elementary studies. White and black children attend these schools indiscriminately, as the families do the churches. The police of the town is almost entirely constituted of colored men, and they prove true to their responsibilities. At the same time it is patent to every observer, that the same vices, and same looseness of morals, common to all races, white and black, in the tropical regions, exist here.

The assumption frequently made in our country, that the African race has made greater progress in civilization in slavery during two centuries, than in their own land in all the centuries past, is thoroughly refuted by facts at the Bahamas. That portion of the colored population which is the most thrifty, most intelligent, most self-reliant, and most orderly, are mostly fresh from Africa, of the tribe of Nangoes, living in a settlement by themselves, and speaking their own language. They furnish the Nassau market principally with vegetables. The greatest share of the soldiers, and the band of musicians, are native Africans, preferred by the officers to those of American birth. A large proportion of the colored population are natives of Africa, bearing on their faces the scars cut and scored upon in their native land in obedience to their superstitions or

customs.

Members of different tribes swarm and associate together, speaking their own several tongues, humming their own crude chants, and dancing their uncouth dances. The Nangoes, the Maudingoes, the Eboes, the Congoes, the Lucumis, the Craumarturs, the Nicabars, are some of the designations by which they are designated. By physical characteristics, members of different tribes are instantly detected by the slave buyers in Cuba, and so superior are some tribes to others, that they bring thirty or forty per cent more in the market. During the past summer, a slaver was wrecked on the island of Abaco, driven wide from her course to Cuba. She sailed from Africa with 400 captives, and 360 were rescued by the

wreckers, 40 having perished on the passage. They were mostly in a very squalid condition, young and naked. What must have been their surprise on landing on the docks at Nassau, to be greeted, seized upon, clothed, and fed by their own countrymen, speaking their own language. Yet such was doubtless the case, and they were immediately merged in these small but kindred communities.

On account of the peculiar circumstances affecting the case, no very definite inference can be found as to the political effect of the Emancipation Act on the colored race, except that it must be confessed, that to make a free man out a slave is itself a gigantic success, whether he is or is not morally or intellectually elevated.

It is a problem whether any great, populous, and highly civilized nation can exist, of any blood or origin, in the tropical regions of the earth. We live centrally in the temperate zone. We live where men must work and think, or they must starve and freeze. When we read of the spontaneous growth, the perpetual verdure, and almost intoxicating breezes of the tropics, we at first might presume that there is the region for the most perfect development of our race. But all observation and all history prove, that beneath those radiant skies, fanned by those balmy breezes, man is indolent, enervated, and disarmed of ambition and energy. With very little exertion he can supply his food. As for clothing and shelter he needs but little. There he will neither starve nor freeze, no matter whether he works or thinks. Waddy Thompson, in his work on Mexico, says, that in traveling from Vera Cruz to Mexico and back, he did not see a single man, woman, or child at work, and that while the population of Massachusetts was about one-tenth as great as that of Mexico, its productions were nearly in an inverse ratio with the number of the respective populations. Intellectual and muscular vigor springing from the constant necessity for self-preservation, stimulated inventive genius, and a keen zest for social enjoyment, all conspire to impress with

high civilization the people of the temperate zone. This view of a great law is not changed by the fact that refined and educated communities are found in the tropics. Wherever such a community of the Caucasian race is found, it fills all the offices of government, the military and judicial stations. They control the business and financial affairs, and fill the professions and controlling pursuits. The few are stimulated by the same motives as their kith and kin in other climes, enjoying all the advantages, and exempt from all the perils and exposures of an enervating climate. The question is, whether within the tropics the mass of a great and populous nation of Caucasian origin, would not rather recede than advance in the arts and refinements of civilization.

Art. III.-VALUATION OF LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES.

NUMBER IX.

WE have now completed the collection and construction of the tables of mortality, from which we believe the most satisfactory average can be obtained for the true valuation of our life policies. The number amounts to forty, and comprises the mortality for Carlisle and Northampton; for England, Sweden, Prussia, Hanover, Saxony, and Norway; for English, German, and American life companies; for English annuitants, and English and Scottish friendly societies. The number is sufficiently large to reduce very much the irregularities and accidental errors of each, if not to eliminate them entirely.

It is only by large and accumulated observations, that the true law of mortality can be obtained. If but a single family were observed, or a dozen families, or even a hundred, the mortality at each period of life could not be had with accuracy. So of the proportion between the two sexes, or any other phenomenon dependent upon numerous and complex causes. The same necessity of numerous observations belongs to inorganic as to living matter. Whenever we are ignorant of the cause, or of the intensity or law of causation, or when the causes are too numerous or complex to be subject to calculation, the multiplication of observations is necessary to reveal the law, and the more they are repeated, the more accurately will the law be obtained. With an unloaded and perfect die, the chance of throwing an ace is exactly one-sixth. But if we should observe a dozen or a hundred throws, the aces might vary considerably from a sixth of the whole number. But if the throws were continued for a thousand times, the result would be nearer a sixth; and for a million of times, it would be still nearer. So with the equality of the sexes. In a single family the children might be all boys or all girls. In a half dozen families the inequality would not be so great. In a thousand, the true ratio of 105 or 106 boys to 100 girls would be approached. In a whole State the approximation would be still nearer. And so in human mortality, the larger the number of observations, the more surely will the true rate for every period of life be accurately determined.

This extension of observations should also embrace many years as well as many persons. Years of general health, and also of epidemics; of famine and scarcity, as well as of abundance and plenty; of excessive and of diminished sickness; of the prevalence of one particular set of diseases, and then of another class; and for all this a long period is necessary. As the future lives of the insured will cover a long series of years, and every variety of seasons and of diseases, so the past experience from which we predict the future should be alike extensive.

Not only should our observations be extensive as to numbers, and as to time, but also as to space. A large town may happen to represent very well a whole country, but it is accidental and very improbable. The cities differ from the villages; large cities differ from small ones, and the country from the town. The valleys and the hills have not the same mortality. The residents along the water courses may be more or less healthy than on the uplands where the atmosphere is dry. The sea shore may not be like the interior, nor the region of fogs and rains like the

dryer and clearer table lands where the sun shines more regularly. As our assured extend from Maine to Iowa, where every variety of Northern climate prevails, the experience which we use for our calculations should embrace a like extent and variety.

So also as to race; our people are Saxons, and Celts, and Teutonic, and Sclavonie, and Frank; and though most of them are from Great Britain and Ireland, many are from Germany and other countries of Europe. The difference of race though small, is real. Not only do these various people bring with them here the peculiarities of their race, but many of their habits, and vices, and customs, which effect their health and their mortality. Our observations should therefore be not English only, but should include other nations.

The insured are also of very many classes in society. They embrace the merchants and their clerks, the clergy and the teachers, the mechanics and the superintendents of our workshops; the professional men and those who receive salaries. They include the active and the sedentary; those whose employments are confining, and those who are much in the open air; those who have healthy and unhealthy trades; those who wear and tear the brain with thought or business, or plodding schemes, and those who pass their days in pleasure, ease, and comfort. In fact, every condition of society is found among our insured lives, except the very rich and the very poor.

Now this exclusion of the very rich is not important, as it is difficult to say whether their mortality is higher and lower than the general average of society. Guy's table for the English peerage, gives a higher rate than Farr's for the whole English people. But this is not permanent, and may be reversed hereafter, as the cause is probably in their vices, and excesssive indulgences, and bad habits, which may be temporary. Among other rich persons these evil influences may not overbalance the good effects of comfort, intelligence, and travel, and medicial skill, and careful nursing.

The exclusion of the poor is probably advantageous. For squalor, and starvation, and irregular and insufficient supplies of food, and bad lodg ings, and foul air, and narrow streets, and deficient clothing, and neglect in sickness, and exposure to the inclemencies of the weather and of the seasons, must raise the mortality of the very poor above the average of the general population. But there is another class of the poor whose chances of life are above the average. The hard working laborers, the industrious artisans, who are not so poor as to be in want of food, or fuel, or clothing, or lodging, are the healthiest and most long-lived of the whole population. At least the statistics which Neison has collected and analyzed favor this proposition, and many reasons can be given for its truth. So that the exclusion of the poor, by embracing this class, is of but little advantage.

As the insured embrace so large a portion of the whole community, excluding only a class of persons whose general mortality differs but little from the rest, there would seem to be no objection to combining their experience with the general experience of the whole people. They comprise so great a variety of persons that it is not probable their mortality. will differ from that of the general population.

In fact, the experience of insurance companies gives a higher mortality than Carlisle, and if the first years after admission be not counted, it is worse than Farr's. Below is a comparison of the rate of mortality in the