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the tameness and familiarity of poultry. could be more ornamental than their smart glossy coats, in contrast with their long, orange beaks and legs, and crimson irides.

THE WHALE.

[Oyster-Catchers.]

Nothing make equal despatch on their journeys; that is, pieballed they can move twenty-five or thirty miles miles in bright, the hour, the least of which would send them six hundred miles a day, or from sixty degrees north latitude, to sixty degrees south, in the short period of fourteen days.

The velocity with which they move, and the periods at which it is probable their migration takes place, may both tend to make them in a great measTHE whale is one of the most interesting of na-ure unobserved. It is probable that they pass the ture's productions. The regions in which it is usu-aiddle latitudes in the stormy weather about the ally found; its vast size; its singular form; its cu- equinoxes; and thus thousands may pass without rious habits its combining at once the maximum of physical strength and gentleness of disposition; and a variety of other circumstances, all conspire to render the whale the wonder of the deep.

The common whale may be said to inhabit the whole ocean, and its size and power render it worthy of that ample field. It is not quite so discursive over the ocean, or so frequently seen in the middle latitudes, or indeed in any places where the temperature is warm, as the more voracious whales which feed upon large fishes. Those, like the predatory land animals, are furnished with powerful weapons of prehension, so that wherever the sea is inhabited they can find food, and the shark himself cannot escape their all-powerful jaws. The common whale, on the other hand, more resembles some peaceful animal which grazes the savannah, or browses the leaves of the evergreen forests; and therefore it can remain and feed for a season in peculiar localities only.

These localities may be said to be in an eminent degree the margins of the polar ice, the very extremes and confines, as it were, of the ocean. Little is known with certainty of the times or the extent of its migrations, because its march along the mighty waters is too fleet for our observations to follow. It is said that they can move as fast as a mail-coach and feed while they are moving; and as, when wounded by a harpoon, they can "take out" the line so fast that, if not watered, it would speedily take fire by the friction of the roller, it is probable that they can

one of them being observed from a single ship. They may make their whole course too, without feeding, because of the vast accumulation of fat or blubber under the skin, which analogy leads us to conclude, can, like the accumulated fat of landanimals, be in part at least, absorbed as nourishment when food is scarce, or the habit of the animal prevents it from feeding. At those periods too, the young of many fishes are discursive near the surface, and these may serve for food on the passage.

These whales catch their food with the plates and fringes of the baleen, as with a net, and the only sense that can guide them in the selection is taste, residing in the tongue; and the current of water passing over that, when the motion is rapid, must be like the stream of a rivulet. It is thus probable that they have little more selection of food than what the throat can swallow. In the balena that is very limited, the greatest extent of the gullet not being more than would admit a hen's egg. In some of the balanoptera it is considerably wider-as much as between three and four inches in diameter; and thus, though these are much smaller, they can swallow food in larger morsels. The common large whale certainly could not swallow any fish larger than the herring; and from its summer-feeding in the arctick seas, the times and places where we are best acquainted with its economy, it probably feeds very little upon fish of any description.

Whales are found near the ice, or in the bays or openings among the different ice-fields, and generally

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in what is termed the green water. This green wa- | and fleshy tongue, which lies like a great cushion, ter derives its colour from the immense multitude filling the under part of the mouth. It does not apof small animals which are dispersed through it; pear, however, that the tongue acts in directing the and these animals, many of which are almost, or food to the gullet, in any other way than by influenaltogether microscopick, appear to be the ordinary cing the set of the current of water that way. From and proper food of the common whales. The crea- the smallness of the gullet, the quantity of water tures which colour this water, may appear to be but which reaches it must be small, and as a return by slender cheer for the largest of all animals; but their the same way that it arrives, would be inconvenient, numbers are such, as to make up for their small it is received into cavities in the head; and, from size; and the prehensile apparatus which the whale time to time, discharged by the operation of blowing. displays, is sufficient to filter a mile of the sea, in a comparatively short time.

The size of the mouth of course varies with that of the body; but a gap of more than twenty feet in length, and fifteen in breadth, is not extravagant. The opening of the jaws may be estimated at eight or perhaps ten feet, which is about the length of the longest plates of baleen, which are situated near the middle of the length. The section of the mouth is therefore about three hundred and seventy-five feet, and the solid contents three thousand. So that making every allowance, the whale, as it feeds along the deep, commands more water than the North river discharges; and this immense volume of water passing regularly through the mouth of one animal, at the rate of say only five or six miles an hour, enables it to collect an incredible quantity of the small matters upon which it feeds.

The form of the mouth, the way in which the plates of baleen are arranged, and the fringes with which they are furnished, both on their edges, and at their extremities, enable the animal to detain every small substance which the water may contain, while the whole arrangement is such, that these substances are, as they accumulate, carried towards the opening of the gullet.

It may here be mentioned, that the lips of the whale have a peculiar double curvature in their lateral outline. The lower one is also larger than the upper, and has a double margin, forming a groove into which the edge of the upper lip fits when the mouth is shut, and the ends of the baleen when the mouth is open. The internal palate is formed of two curved inclined planes, one on each side, and to these the thick ends of the plates of baleen are attached by a ligamentous substance. These plates are parallel to each other, and placed across the mouth. There are sometimes several hundreds of them on each side. They are thinned off toward their inner sides, and it is to these that the fringes are attached. The plates appear to have no proper motion or muscular apparatus for effecting it. When the mouth is opened, they fall pendent by their own weight, so that the fringes on their lips touch the tongue, and those on their sides, reach from the one plate to the other. When the animal moves forward, the plates are bent back a little at their points, by the resistance of the water, and the fringes are also turned to the direction of the throat. At the anterior part they are shorter in proportion to the middle of the gap, so that they give way and admit the water more freely; but become stiffer and offer more resistance as the throat is approached. From the great length of the gap, the water escapes easily in the lateral interstices between the plates, while the eatable substances which it contains, are kept back by the fringes. The bending backward at the points, sends all the food downward in the direction of the ample VOL. IV.-44

The feeding-apparatus, and the whole operation of feeding are thus, in the baleen, or whalebone whales, very peculiar, and quite different from those of any other species of animal. Feeding, in them, can be attended with no more fatigue than what results from their progressive motion through the water, and the occasional blowing of the water from the cavities in the head. There is no motion of the jaws, or of the baleen, and it does not appear that there is much of the tongue. The food receives no kind of preparation in the mouth, but goes to the gullet in precisely the same state in which it is separated from the water by the filtering action of the baleen. Though interrupted in all parts of its progress by the plates, the current of water toward the gullet may be compared to a wedge, which gets smaller as it proceeds, in consequence of the quantity which escapes laterally. Toward the top of this wedge, the food is collected, and by that it is carried onward to its destination, the small quantity of water which carries it there, being disposed of in the manner above stated. If the productiveness of the water be considered as uniform, the rate at which the whale feeds will thus be proportionate to that at which it moves through the water; and rapid motion along a bare pasture, will have the same effect as slow motion over a rich one. The only efficient organ of motion in whales is the tail; and therefore, strange as it sounds in words, the tail of the whale is the active instrument in the procuring of its food. Its usual mode of feeding is near the surface, so that a considerable portion of the body is above water. That portion is wholly black in colour, and not very handsome in shape; and as there is no fin on the back, and the eyes, though well-formed, and even expressive, are very small for the size of the animal, (about equal to those of an ox,) there is nothing animated in the appearance of the floating whale, when seen from a distance. It looks like a floating log, or the top of a small dark islet; and when the jets of water and steam are thrown up in the operation of blowing, it does not require much stretch of imagination, to consider the islet an infant volcano.`

HOUSEHOLD DUTIES.

TOWARDS the end of the month preparations should be made for a general house-cleaning; and it is as well to anticipate bugs, by having the bedsteads taken down and well washed with solution of corrosive sublimate, named in a former number: if this business is delayed later, it will be more troublesome, as the weather is often warm and calls insects into activity. Where paint and repairs are needed, they should of course be completed before cleaning, precedence being, however, always given to the chim

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ney-sweeper. Brushes, flannels, soap, scouring-pa- in a paper-bag in the oven to harden; when pounded per, &c., in short, all articles used in house-cleaning, in the mortar and sifted fine, they should be kept in should be amply provided before operations actually a bottle or covered jar, and are very convenient for commence. Before cleaning the walls of a room, fried fish, or for strewing over hams and bacon. pictures, mirrors, &c., should be removed and clean- Wooden spoons are the best for cooking purposes, ed. When cobwebs collect, a cloth should be fast- and it is a good plan to nail a piece of leather in ened over the bristles of the broom to remove them; some convenient place, with spaces between every and, indeed, walls should frequently be swept in this nail, rather loose, to admit the handle of a spoon: manner, to clear them from the dust which inevi- they may be thus kept out of the way.

tably settles upon them, more especially in rooms with fires; and in bedrooms with fires, the housemaid should make frequent use of the whisk brush, to clear the bed and curtain hangings from dust.

Rooms should be furnished with two sets of window-blinds, that they may be occasionally changed and washed; few things give a more disreputable appearance to a house than dirty window-blinds.

USEFUL ARTS.

UNDER this head we propose to give in the pres

ent number, a few details in regard to the fining of wines, and their manufacture from our native fruits. The following are valuable processes for clearing wines:

Stair-carpets should always have a slip of paper put under them, at and over the edge of every stair, which is the part they first wear out, in order to les- Isingglass made from fish or from bones, whites of sen the friction of the carpets against the boards be- eggs, powdered gum, sugar-candy, and many other neath. The strips should be within an inch or two substances, cause the wine to perform a chymical as long as the carpet is wide, and about four or five operation, but they do not operate in the same maninches in breadth, so as to lie a little distance upon ner with all wines. Fish or bone-isingglass put into each stair. This simple plan, so easy of execution, the liquid, combines quickly with the tannin and will, we know, preserve a stair-carpet half as long dross, and by this union becomes heavier than the again, as it would last without the strips of paper. wine. This substance spreading through the liquor Pillow-covers will be found of service in all fami- forms a sediment, and sinking to the bottom, carries lies. They may be of the cheapest calico, made like with it all floating particles, discolorations, and a pillow-case, and tacked or run on to the pillows, undissolved tartar. Wines without tannin cannot occasionally removing them, that they may be wash-be cleared with isingglass, as, wanting it, the isinged; once in a twelvemonth will be often enough. glass dissolves in the liquid, and makes it more The advantages resulting from the use of pillow-cov- ropy, consequently less easily cleared by repose. ers, are, that the ticking is thus preserved always than before the introduction of the isingglass. It fresh and clean; that a fine Holland pillow-case looks is the same in all wine entirely without tannin. white and even, instead of the stripes of the ticking Though the wine may contain a large portion of tanappearing through it; and that, in the event of a pil- nin, you are not to put a larger proportion of isinglow-case being on the decline, the flaws and thin glass than experience has taught you is sufficient to places are not so apparent as they would be without clear with; but when there is not enough tannin, the intervention of a calico-cover. you must augment it, by putting the wine into a new A good housekeeper always examines every thing cask, with oak-chips, cashew-nuts, &c., &c. You she has ordered when it is delivered, to see that it should commonly have an over-proportion of tanagrees with her check-book. An inventory of plate nin. The tannin is not the sole part of the liquid should be kept with memorandums of marks, letters, that mixes itself with the isingglass; the alcohol &c., on the various articles; and the servant who acts also, and forms a sediment, but it is much weakhas the charge of all that is in constant use, shoulder than the tannin, and leaves a large portion of the likewise be furnished with a list, and at stated times isingglass. be called upon to verify it to her mistress.

It is very important that servants should carefully sift their cinders, for which purpose they should be supplied with a proper cinder-sifter to save them from unnecessary dirt. New-made candles should never be burned, and servants should be required to produce and burn up candle-ends, to enable them to do which, save-alls should be at hand. It is but too true, that in coals and candles, servants are inclined to waste and extravagance.

A cook should save all the boilings from chickens, calf's head, and veal for her stock-pot, and the bones of fresh meat and poultry. Soups and gravies are not so clear when made of meat which has been cooked, but where families are not very fastidious, soup may always be had at a very trifling expense Where economy is essential, very excellent gelly may be made from a knuckle of veal, well stewed, to supersede the use of calf's feet. Where much fish is fried, the cook should save all the small pieces of bread, cuttings of toast, &c., and put them

as above.

The whites of eggs combine with the tannin, but much sooner with the alcohol. It is best to clear wines devoid of tannin with eggs, otherwise the bad particles, which prevent the transparency, are not quickly enough dispersed. Little experience has been had of either gum or sugar-candy; they are only used when the substances now to be enumerated, are not to be obtained; they both act much sooner with the alcohol than the tannin.

Bone-isingglass, or gelly made from hartshorn shavings, has great advantages. Its action is similar to the fish-isingglass, combining principally with the tannin. Experiments that have frequently been made, prove that bone-isingglass clears a cask of wine equally well as whites of eggs, and that the discol oured particles, &c., forming the lees, are as abundant as those formed by the whites of eggs. The lees, being more compact, occupy less space, and consequently leave more liquid clear. In conclusion, we may state that the lees being close together are less easily disturbed, so that when the cask is

stooped for racking, the wine will run perfectly clear nearly to the bottom. On the contrary, in employing whites of eggs, the last bottles before you can perceive the lees come, are evidently less clear than the first. It is also very cheap.

In the city of Bordeaux, fifteen millions of eggs are used for clearing wine annually. They are preferable for red wines, but the common isingglass for white wines has the superiority. All experiments prove that the common isingglass produces greater clearness; however, we have room to hope good results from new trials.

The substances employed for clearing, which do not dissolve and only produce a mechanical action, are calcined flints reduced to powder; alabaster, not calcined, but pulverized. Pour one pint of either of the abovementioned substances into a cask containing two hundred and forty quarts of wine, which take care to stir well with a scourge. After diffusing its strength throughout the liquid, all the impurities that obscure the clearness will precipitate. Many persons aver that sand has the same effect, but it appears that sand sinks too rapidly to produce perfect clearness. Brown paper is used by an entire sheet being plaited up, and introduced at the bunghole; it spreads over the surface of the liquid a second is put in as soon as the first is unfolded, and so on. These sheets, so disposed, only clear the extent of liquid they cover, that being clear and filtered. This method produces perfect brightness. If you can be sure the whole of the wine is strained, (which is very difficult to effect in a cask,) it answers pretty well. But it is well known that filtration diminishes the strength of the wine, and hurts the quality.

When wine has been left quietly in the cask five or six months, it is almost certain to have formed a sediment. If you have not a vessel ready to rack it into, you must clear it gently, and immerse a cleftstick at the top of the cask, to disturb as little as possible the thick lees. It is not only proper to clear before bottling, but every time it is charged with impurities which obstruct the transparency, and, above all, if they do not clear naturally after some days' repose.

In the last case you must employ a different substance to that before used; if you have used whites of eggs, you must clear it the second time with isingglass, the former uniting with the fluid, and the other with the tannin.

To clear a cask of red wine of one hundred and sixty bottles, draw out four or five bottles, mix the white of four fresh eggs with half a bottle of this wine, and beat it well with a whip made of osier or birch twigs, put it into the cask at the bunghole, stir the liquor well with the cleft-stick or the scourge; on taking out the stick, pour the wine through a tunnel, and rinse the vessel with a little wine to wash the egg off the joints. After pouring in the wine, stir the liquid on all sides with the stick for one or two minutes; fill the cask, taking great care to beat round the bunghole to shake off the moss, and to chase away the bubbles of air; then replace the bung, wrapped up in a new piece of cloth or paper; after four or five days' repose, the wine will be clear and fit for bottling, but no harm will be contracted by allowing it to lie longer. Three whites of eggs will be sufficient to clear one hundred and sixty bot

tles. Many people beat the whites of eggs in spring water, which is lighter than river water, and therefore better.

Bone-isingglass is easily and quickly dissolved: put the isingglass into a coffeepot before the fire, and it will melt before the water boils. If the isingglass is steeped in cold water eight or ten hours it will dissolve by making the water lukewarm. When done put it into a vessel to beat as you would whites of eggs, add the quantity of water you wish, and put it into the cask.

To make three pints of size for clearing white wines, take two drachms of the whitest and most transparent isingglass; beat it well with a hammer on a block to make it unfold easily; tear the leaves into the smallest pieces possible that they may melt quickly; put them into an earthen dish with as much white wine as will cover them: the isingglass will absorb the wine in seven or eight hours, you must then add the same quantity. After infusing twenty-four hours they will be sufficiently diluted to form a gelly. Add to it three parts of a pint of lukewarm white wine; knead it well with your hands to break the little pieces not entirely dissolved; strain it through a clear linen cloth, and squeeze it to extract the gelly; beat it well with a birch twig for half an hour, and add white wine till it measures three pints; when quite cold, bottle it and cork it tight, and put it into the cellar until wanted: it will keep some months without altering. If the white wine you use is weak, add half a gill of brandy. Isingglass may be prepared with water only, but must be used directly, as it will corrupt in hot seasons. When you are in haste to clear white wines, you may dilute it more quickly by making it boil until quite melted; it must, however, be cold before it is used.

When the summer is cold and rainy, the grapes ripen with difficulty: frequently some are rotten before the others are ripe. The wine consequently, devoid of spirit, decomposes quickly, and will not clear however often you attempt it. A mixture with good wines may correct this, but it takes a great deal to produce a satisfactory result. When a wine will not clear for the abovementioned reason, draw forty or fifty pints of wine from a cask of two hundred and sixty bottles; bring thirty or forty pints to two hundred and twelve degrees, and return it boiling into the cask; clear at the same time with six whites of eggs, and stir the liquor as before. The cask must not be filled higher than within two inches of the bung. Bung it without knocking it in. The wine is not tardy in fermenting, and will be perfectly clear in a few days. If you have a great many casks in this state, you may heat the cellar sufficiently to produce fermentation, and to increase the alcohol. This method is adopted in Cermany in cold years.

We will now furnish some brief data illustrative of the manufacture of native wines; and it is due to the fruits of our own climate to say that wine properly prepared from them is in many respects equal to that imported from other countries. We may commence with that made from grapes.

To prepare this wine, it will be necessary to add a gallon of water to a similar quantity of ripe grapes, and having bruised the latter let them stand a week without stirring, and draw the liquor off fine. To

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