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carried down the stream. Merchandise of all sorts floated down the current. A keg of butter, marked with the name of RICHARD WATERMAN, made a successful trip as far as Newport, where it was found some time after. From certain houses the deliverance of their inmates was effected with great difficulty and hazard. One factory was carried down the stream without going to pieces. Among the buildings destroyed was that in which SAMUEL SLATER tried his various experiments, and manufactured machinery for the first cotton mill in America.

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Concerning the changes in that water-course known as Sargent's Trench," and the discoveries made thereupon, the essayist made special and appropriate mention, and then proceeded to sketch an account of the life and labors of SAMUEL SLATER, a young man, 22 years of age, when he was taken to Pawtucket by the venerable MOSES BROWN, on the 18th of January, 1790. After great labor, amid frequent alternations of hope and disappointment, the repeated efforts of Mr. SLATER met with success. His carding, spinning and roving machines, to secure the operation of which his labor and experiment had been long directed, finally worked well, and the machinery moved to his satisfaction. MOSES BROWN, in a letter dated Providence, 19th of fourth month, 1791, says: "The weavers inform me the yarn works better than any linen they have had, and takes less trouble to warp and weave it." To SLATER is conceded the honor of introducing the English method of using machinery in the spinning of cotton.

The manufacturing of steel was introduced into Pawtucket somewhere about 1790.

President MONROE, while on a tour through New-England, visited SLATER'S mill, at Pawtucket, and was shown the first frames for waterspinning, according to those patents which SLATER himself had erected from memory, without the least assistance from drawings or models. President JACKSON also visited Pawtucket, and honored Mr. SLATER with a call at his own residence, holding a pleasant interview with him, which Mr. BANVARD described.

Not long after the year 1814, when patterns of the power-loom were brought to Providence, Mr. DAVID WILKINSON introduced it and the dresser into Pawtucket, and manufactured them for sale. Previously to 1815 all weaving was done by hand. The writer referred at length to the manufacture of superior fire engines by Mr. WILLIAM JEFFERS, and to that of sash and blinds by DANIEL D. SWEET, originated in 1838 by DANIEL DUNHAM.

Sixty years ago there were but seventeen houses on the Massachusetts side of the river, and about twice that number on the Rhode Island side. About a hundred years ago there were two ship yards, one on each side of the river.

COAL MINING IN INDIA.

Over the vast peninsula of India, which has an area of 800,000 square miles, coal is found only in the valley of the Ganges and neighboring hills, in Rawah to the south of the Soane, in the Nerbudda valley, and in the Sylhet hills on the far northeast. There is no workable coal elsewhere in the northwestern provinces, none in Oude, the Punjaub, Scinde, Bombay or Madras. This fact is the less cheering that iron and lime

are generally associated with coal in the same formation, and that India, except in the east, is comparatively destitute of these great elements and necessities of modern civilization. It is no great consolation to say that where coal exists, it is abundant; that Bearbhoom, for instance, is one mass of mineral wealth. India is as large as Europe, and the coal of Raneegunge or lime of Sylhet is more useless to the cotton mills and building firms of Bombay or Madras than that of Newcastle is to Moscow. Coal is most bulky for carriage, and railway carriages will always be so expensive that it will probably be cheaper for Bombay to use good English than indifferent Bengal or even Nerbudda coal. The following abstract contains the result of Mr. OLDHAM's inquiries:

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These figures show the healthiness of the trade, which, notwithstanding the local fluctuations, has steadily progressed. In the Raneegunge coalfield, which is now tapped by the East Indian Railway, and which will shortly be pierced by two branches, there were last year 49 collieries, with 27 steam-engines at work. This is the result of little more than 20 years' operations. The number of collieries in the United Kingdom is 2,654, and the out-turn of coal is 72,000,000 tons annually, or 200 times that of India. Our readers will form a better estimate of the coal-producing power of India, if we place in order, with the assistance of Mr. HUNT's mining records, the out-turn of all the coal countries in the world in 1857. We regret Mr. OLDHAM has not given the proportion of the coal area to that of the whole country:

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Of the nine countries, India is thus already seventh on the list. a future for America is involved in the fact that nearly a fourth of her whole area, as far as investigated, is covered with coal. India raises a third more than Spain, and about the same amount as Warwickshire. The consumption of coal in India and by vessels leaving its ports we may estimate at 700,000 tons annually, the amount imported in 1857 from England being 329,157 tons. Reckoning the price of Indian coal in Calcutta at five annas a maund, or 17s. a ton, and English coal at the same rate, (though it is far higher,) we have more than £500,000 sterling spent on coal in India. As the trade and manufactures of India increase, and

as machinery comes to be more and more largely introduced, indigenous coal will become more important. The fact that the supply is in certain districts inexhaustible, and that the demand is annually increasing, is one full of hope for the coal companies and proprietors who already occupy, or, like the Bengal Coal Company, monopolize the field. It is possible the Nerbudda fields, worked by the company just established, may supply Bombay and the southern portion of the northwestern provinces on the completion of the railway. But Oude, the Punjaub and Madras must still look to their forests, which, on both sanitary and commercial grounds, it becomes daily of more importance to utilize and renew.-Friend of India.

THE WORKING OF THE ENGLISH MINES.

An English journal, after valuing the total product of the mines of Great Britain at £41,491,102 per annum, and computing that England's supply of coal will last at least seven hundred years longer, at present rates of consumption, gives the following account of the depth to which the bowels of the earth have been pierced in England:

"The depth to which we mine for coal is already great. The pit at Duckenfield, in Cheshire, is 2,004 feet below the surface to the point where it intersects the Black Mine Coal,' a seam which is four feet six inches thick, and of the best quality for domestic and manufacturing purposes; from this point a further depth of 500 feet has been attained by means of an engine plane in the bed of coal, so that a great portion of the coal is now raised from the enormous depth of 2,504 feet. At Pendleton, near Manchester, coal is daily worked from a depth of 2,135 feet; and the Cannel coal of Wigan is brought from 1,773 feet below the surface. Many of the Durham collieries are equally deep and far more extended in their subterranean labyrinths. Some of those, and others in Cumberland, are worked out far under the bed of the sea, and on both sides of the island we are rapidly extending our sub-oceanic burrowing.

"Dalcouth tin mine, in Cornwall, is now working at one thousand eight hundred feet from the surface, and is rapidly sinking deeper. The depth of Tresavean, a copper mine, is two thousand one hundred and eighty feet. Many other tin and copper mines are approaching these depths; and under the Atlantic waves, in Botallack, Levant and other mines, man is pursuing his labors daily at half a mile from the shore. To aid the miner in these severe tasks gigantic steam engines, with cylinders one hundred inches in diameter, are employed in pumping water from those vast depths. Winding-engines, which are masterpieces of mechanical skill, are ever at work raising the minerals from each dark abyss, and man engines,' of considerable ingenuity-so called because they bring the wearied miner to the light of day, saving him from the toil of climbing up perpendicular ladders-are introduced in many of our most perfectly conducted mines. Our coals cost us annually one thousand lives, and more than double that number of our metaliferous miners perish from accidents in the mines, or at unusually early agethirty-two-from diseases contracted by the conditions of their toils. By the industry of our mining population there is annually added to our national wealth considerably more than thirty millions sterling. This,

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when elaborated by the process of manufacture, is increased in value tenfold. While we are thus drawing upon that 'hoarded treasure, guarded by dragons white and red,' which the enchanter MERLIN is fabled to have concealed in the caves of the earth, we should not cease to remember how much of mental labor and muscular power is expended, and how large a per centage of human life is annually sacrificed in the contest with those hydra-headed evils which are truly personified by the dragons of the legend."

MANILLA ROPE.

A firm in Liverpool, manufacturers of hempen and wire rope, now advertise thus:

"The present unusually low price of manilla hemp induces us to bring to notice the economy of using it for rope. Being much lighter than Russian hemp, at the same price per cwt., it would be fully 20 per cent. cheaper, and when spun by machinery is the strongest and most durable rope in use. Tarred Manilla answers best for all ropes much exposed to wet, as hawsers, warps," &c.

Manilla hemp, according to the Boston Commercial Bulletin, (one of the best commercial papers of the day,) is derived from a species of banana tree, indigenous to the forests of Mindano, one of the largest islands of the Phillippine group. The tree is cultivated for its fiber, which is obtained by rotting the trunk of the tree until the woody matter falls away from the fiber, which, with little cleaning, becomes the Manilla hemp of commerce. This is collected by the natives into rolls, bundles and small bales, care being taken not to entangle the hemp, shipped in small coasting vessels to Manilla, and then screwed into the regular 280 lb. bales of commerce. The bulk of the product is then shipped to the United States, England and other commercial countries using comparatively little of this fiber in their cordage manufactories. Under favorable circumstances the Phillippines will continue a sufficient supply for the ordinary demands of commerce, at rates not much varying from the present, as Americans, being the largest buyers, keep down competition, while care is taken by those in the trade not to let the rates to the producer recede so far as to check production.

It is probable that if a new source of supply for this commodity is ever sought, it will be found indigenous to the Caroline and portions of the Solomon's Islands, and in the mountains of the Eastern Archipelago. Perhaps it could be cultivated profitably in Nicaragua and Central America.

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JAPANESE PAPER.

We may take some instructions from the Japanese, who do not use for making paper, but the inner bark of trees. From a recent account in Blackwood's Magazine, it appears that this peculiar people are far in advance of the rest of the world in some specialties of paper making. The writer of the article to which we refer, in describing the peculiarities of the Japanese, says:

"It is wonderful to see the thousand useful as well as ornamental purposes for which paper is applied in the hands of these industrious and tasteful people. Our papier mache manufacturers should go to Yedo to learn what can be done with paper. We saw it made into material closely resembling Russian and Morocco leather; it was very difficult to detect the difference. With the aid of lacker, varnish and skilful painting, paper makes excellent trunks, saddles, telescope-cases, the frames of microscopes; and we even saw and used excellent water-proof coats made of paper, which did keep out the rain, and were as supple as the best Mackintosh, (India rubber.) The Japanese use neither silk nor cotton handkerchiefs, towels or dusters; paper in their hands serves as an excellent substitute. It is soft, thin, and of a pale yellow color, plentiful and cheap. The inner walls of many a Japanese apartment are formed of paper, being nothing more than painted screens. Their windows are covered with a fine translucent description of the same material. We saw what seemed to be balls of twine, which were nothing but long shreds of tough paper rolled up. If a shopkeeper had a parcel to tie up he would take a strip of paper, roll it up quickly between his hands and use it for twine. In short, without paper, all Japan would come to a dead lock. * * Japanese mothers-in-law invariably stipulate in the marriage settlement that the bride is to have a certain quantity of paper allowed her.".

BREECH-LOADING PISTOL KNIFE.

An English cotemporary has inspected a most formidable and deadly weapon, invented and patented by Messrs. UNWIN & RODGERS, Rockingham Works, Sheffield, called the Breech-Loading Pistol Knife. It is a neat and portable instrument of warfare, with a bowie and other useful knives attached; also a box to contain the charges, which are in one piece, and the cap, powder and bullet are cast together. It is loaded at the breech, and can be charged and fired twelve times per minute; will kill at a distance of 160 or 170 yards; and is, without exception, the most complete and compact instrument of warfare we have ever seen. As a protection at home and abroad its use will doubtless become general, as it possesses all the conveniences and appliances for carrying on a deadly conflict with

an enemy.

OUR NATIONAL BEVERAGE.

Modern Europe is divided into two groups: the Latin races, who drink wine; and the races, more or less Saxon, who drink beer. This difference is no stranger to the manners, hygienic condition, and even the moral faculties of the population. The characters of human societies. were formed by alliances, but they are consolidated by the mode of life, and especially by the alimentary beverages. The impetuosity of the Latin races, their sparkling wit and warlike ardor, respond to those qualities which have been called the blood of the grape; those nations whom nature has condemned to a sterner beverage are distinguished for their part by their strength, patience, reflection, obstinate and encroaching toil. Only regarding present facts we might be tempted to believe

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