might be taken for the work of the pot ter. Some persons have formed strange conjectures on these appearances; some taking them for the cups or sockets in which the fruit of the Palmyra tree is retained, and which they suppose has sustained some degree of petrifaction; others fancying them to be the decayed remnants of petrified branches. But it requires no great examination to perceive that these tubes (if I may so call them) extend deep into the earth, This may be seen where the side of the hill is abruptly broken off, and where they are seen to spread like the ramifications of a nest of white ants. The part which is seen above the surface is, in fact, nothing more than the projection of these ducts. I believe there is but little doubt that these subterraneous tubes were originally the work of some swarms of insects, or larger inhabitants of the soil; for, though their centre be, filled with a sort of stiff earth mixed with gravel dust, yet it can easily be removed; and the sides (though rather hard) are nothing else but a stratum about three-tenths of an inch thick, strongly incrustated both in and out side, with a small silicious stone, but easily separated. A substance perhaps more curious, and which is to be found in great quan tities upon those hills, is a small round body, generally one and half inch in di ameter, the exterior coat of which resembles much that of the tubes above described, and which, from its round shape, might be taken at first sight for a pebble smeared with earth and gravel. When these balls are broken through the middle, they exhibit a number of concentric circles of various colours and densities, the latter of which decreases as it approaches the centre, where it generally is in a state of loose dust. One of the most variegated which I opened, had the following successions of colours, beginning from the outer shell, and proceeding towards the centre. The exterior coat was a sort of yellow ochre, about one tenth of an inch thick, soiled at the surface by the dust and gravel which it had collected, but very clear where it had been protected. This was succeeded by an ore of a dark iron colour, very shining, about twotenths of an inch in thickness: next followed a smaller ring of dark red, tending to purple, about one-tenth of an inch deep; and this was succeeded by a thin bright lilac circle, lined with a narrow rim of white, apparently a sort of lime, MONTHLY MAG. No. 238. which was the last solid stratum of this curious concretion. The rest was filled with loose earth and gravel-dust, which crumbled off the moment it was brokens many of the particles of gravel, however, adhered to the interior coat of the shell. The diameter of this subject was, at the exterior, about two inches; and at the interior, one and a quarter inch. When broken, the parts resembled the splinters of a hand-grenade. Near the bottom of the northernmost hill there is a small cave; one of those excavations which are to be seen in every part of the country, and once the resi dence of a Faqueer, who dug it for the purpose. This would hardly deserve to be noticed, but for the surprising mam ner in which the superincumbent stratum supports itself from the mere cohesion of its parts. This cave is divided into two parts, the entrance being an open space, some what in imitation of a choultry, but of a very irregular shape. It is about eighteen feet wide, six feet high, and twelve feet deep in the middle: the sides are of unequal depth, owing to the irregularity of the rock at the entrance. The roof is cut quite horizontally, and was formerly supported by two pillars about two feet thick, cut out of the same solid stratum as the rest. One of these is now fallen to the ground. The second and innermost part is a re cess of a nearly circular form, the com◄ munication of which opens in the centre of the first one. It is about nine feet deep, by seven feet wide, and six feet high. On each side of its entrance, and on the outside, there are two sorts of niches, about two feet deep, which can hardly ever have been of any use. The distance from the point of the roof, which stands over the entrance, to the bottom of the principal recess, is twenty-four feet; and the whole roof (which is of a considerable thickness, and projects horizontally eight or nine feet beyond the remaining pillar) hangs over the head, supported merely by the adhesive qualities of the component parts of the stratum. I have now only a few words to add on the probable species of the trees which lie petrified near Treevikera, about which we can form only vague conjectures. To judge by the present growth of trees in the vicinity, which are princi pally of the tamarind kind; by the respective height of these trees, and of the petrified shafts which lie upon the ground; U by by the dark red and brown colours which are to be seen in the centre of the petrifactions, and by the deep brown coJour of the heart of the tamarind tree; and particularly if we consider that, in no one subject which I have examined, I could distinguish the adhesive roots, and sinuosities which characterize the trunk of the banian tree, (the only spe.cies of size besides the tamarind which is to be seen in the district;) from these considerations, I say, we may conclude, that the whole of that transformed grove was once of the "majestic and widespreading tamarind.” Of the antiquity of these petrifactions we are still more ignorant. The archives of the Treevikera pagoda, are silent in regard to them. The oldest bramins on the spot, who are the only intelligent people in the village, declare that they remember some of the largest trees since fifty years; and that their fathers and grand-fathers asserted they had likewise seen them; but that no trace had been transmitted down of their origin; nor had any light been afforded, that could lead to any conclusion, whereby the pe riod of time in which the petrified trees had been in that state, or in their progress of transmutation from wood to stone, could be ascertained. It is remarkable, that the circumstance having been known to the bramins for such a length of time, they should have omitted to ascribe it to the influence of some supernatural agent, whose presence would have enhanced the sanctity, and promoted the emoluments, of their pagoda. NEW PUBLICATIONS IN FEBRUARY. AGRICULTURE. ENERAL View of the Agriculture of J Derbyshire; with Observations on the Means of its Improvement. 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REES and the proprietors of the D great English Cyclopedia, state, in a late address, that, having published fifteen parts during the last two years, they shall be able to publish eight new ones in each succeeding year; and that, of the SEVENTY-TWO parts which, they have now reason to believe, this Cyclopædia will comprehend, forty-six are already before the public; and the remaining twenty-six will, under the new arrangements, be completed in little more than three years. They state also that this national work has already cost nearly two hundred thousand pounds; consequently, when entire, it will have cost above three hundred thousand, a circum stance without any parallel in the history of literature. The Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, has made its Second Annual Report, by which it appears that the original objects of the society have been most successfully carried into execution, and that the benevolent views of the founders are likely to be attended by the happiest effects. The population of the parishes, on the Mainland and in the islands, unable to read either English or Gaelic, amounts to between thirty and forty thousand; and, for this number, no means of education had been provided, before the appointment of twenty Gaelic Schools, by this excellent society. The President is the Earl of Moray, and the Treasurer John Campbell, Esq. of Heriotrow West, Edinburgh. Mr. SOUTHEY announces a new work in quarto, under the title of Roderick, the last of the Goths. Mr. JAMES MONTGOMERY is printing a new poem, descriptive of the World before the Flood. Messrs. CADELL and DAVIES announce to the possessors of the magnificent edition of the Sacred Scriptures, published by the late Mr. Macklin, that it will shortly be completed by the publication of the Apocrypha, printed in the same size and manner, forming a volume similar to those of the Old and New Testa ments. a free country, the art of extemporaneous speaking is the most useful of all arts; yet there has existed in our schools no practical method of teaching it. Dr. J. P. SMITH, Divinity Tutor in the Dissenting College at Homerton, is preparing for publication, a work to ascertain the whole evidence concerning the Person of Christ; including an examination of Mr. Belshamn's Calm Inquiry. A Concise History of the Jews, from the Time of their re-establishment by Ezra and Nehemiah, after the Babylo nish Captivity, to the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, forming a Connection between the History of the Old and New Testaments, is printing for the use of young persons, by the Rev. J. HEWLETT, D.D. A new volume of the Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, will shortly appear. ARTHUR CLIFFORD, Esq. Editor of the State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler, is about to publish the Tixall Poetry; from originals in his possession, and accompanied with Notes, Illus trations, and an Introduction. A work of interest will shortly appear from the pen of JoHN MITFORD, Esq. Messrs. LEIGH and SOTHEBY announce It will contain a View of the Mediterra- the following Libraries for public sale, nean in the years 1810, 11, 12; a three during the present season:-1. Of the months' voyage on the Barbary Coast late Charles Brandon Tyre, Esq. F.R.S. in company with Captain Lord Coch-2. Of the late Henry Hope, Esq., with rane, with an account of the Proceedings his prints and drawings.-3. Of the late at Naples in 1799; and of Lady Hamil. Mrs. Anne Newton, containing chiefly ton's meritorious conduct; also some the collection of Sir Isaac Newton.anecdotes of Lord Nelson, the Chevalier 4. Of Tycho Wing, Esq. Acton, and of many eminent naval men. Our readers cannot fail to be gratified, by the account of the establishments for the propagation of knowledge at Methven, in North Britain, in a former part of this Magazine; and we invite other correspondents to favour us with si milar communications, in regard to such esrablishments in other places. We are equally desirous of receiving accounts of the formation of new Book Clubs, and Literary Institutions, as well as accounts of the state of old ones. It also affords us much satisfaction to observe, by the Methven communication, that the Interrogative System of instruction, now so generally adopted in England, has found its way into North Britain. A Life of William Penn is printing, by THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A. Miss HAMILTON announces a Series of Popular Essays, illustrative of Principles essentially connected with the Improvement of the Understanding, the Imagipation, and the Heart. Mr. RIPPINGHAM is engaged on a practical Book for Schools, the object of which is to teach the art of extemporaneous Speaking as opposed to the arts of theatrical recitation and spouting now taught in schools. It is obvious that, in MR. THOMAS ASHE, author of the pretended Spirit of the Book, announces, that he is engaged on "a new and still more important work, founded on original documents;" which will extend to five volumes, and which, he says, is intended "as a warning to the proud, a lesson to the unrelenting, and a solace to the unfortunate." We have hitherto treated the pretensions of this person as empirical; but we are shaken in our opinion, if it be true, as he states in his letter before us, that the MS. of his announced Claustral Palace has been purchased at the price of ten thousand pounds, for the purpose of being suppressed! With what secrets could Mr. Ashe be acquainted, the suppression of which is worth ten thousand pounds? To whom could they relate? Who could afford to give such a price for his secresy? Such a circumstance, if he speak truly, is a feature of these portentous times, which ought not to be lost to the world. O Tempora! O Mores! A new |