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THE LARCH OF EUROPE AND AMERICA.

In order to assist an inquiry into the nature and quality of “ Hackmatac," ‘1 ‘lmbe" Pons'de" ed by some as an inferior species of pine pecu- liar to the British American colonies, and which is extensively used in colonial built vessels, I offer the following sketch, with the opinion. that the Hackmatac of America is essentially the “Larch” of Europe”; and that the differ- ences which exist, if any, are solely attributable to climate or soil; and that, therefore, for the various purposes of ship-building for . which Larch is applicable, Hackmatac is so likewrse; and moreover, that the Larch is one of the most valuable timbers for naval purposes. *

Larch is termed Pinus Larix; Pinus Pendu- la, Lamb; Larix Americana, Michaux; Epin- ette' Rouge, by the French Canadians—Hack- matac or Tamarack, by Americans and English settlers. It belongs to one of the sections of the pine tribe; but by similarity in cones and wood, seems to be allied to the cedars, from which it differs in not being an evergreen—The leaves in bundles and deciduous, cones oblong, branches pendulous, wood exogenous, timber shewing very little sap-wood, bark rough, approaching that of cedar. '

Larch is not supposed to be indigenous to Great Britain, although such large forests exist at this time in Scotland, and numerous planta- tions throughout England. The tree is said to have been introduced from Switzerland, and first planted, according to London, by the grand- father of the present Sir John Nasymth. at Dulwich, near Peebles, in 1725. The Duke of Athol’s Larches (so well known) were planted in 1736, being new 103 years old; birt in the transactions of the Royal Society, it is said, that this tree was planted at a prior period, at Good- wood, in Sussex, by a former Duke of Rich- mond. v

In 1831, at 95 years of ago, one of the Athol Larches is said to have centained 368 feet, or seven loads eighteen feet, which at the present price of Baltic Fir, (Pinus Silvestris, or Scotch Fir,) would be worth about forty-three pounds. The Duke who planted them was buried in a coffin made from the the largest, which measured 106 feet in length. He planted about 8,000 acres with this tree, in the neighbourhood of Dunkeldp and Blair Athol ; and set the fashion of planting it throughout the kingdom. It is singular that, neither in the splendid work of Lambert, or the Pinetum ofthe late Duke of

‘ dford, nor, in fact, in any English work on

orest trees, do we find notice of Hackmatac by name—though what I consider to be the Larch of America, is so universally known by it.

In the Duke ofBedford’s grand work we find, however, the Larix Pendula, as having been in- troduced into Britain, in 1736, from North Ame- rica, where, he says, “it produces timber of a superior quality to any ofthe native pines which inhabit the same parts; its branches are more purple and slender; and it is a more pendulous tree than the European Larch.”

In Switzerland the Larch abounds, and the dwellings of the peasantry attest its durability as a building timber.

The Romans, when first acquainted with the Larch, during their German wars, lost no time in bringing it down from the Alps by the river Po, thence, to be conveyed to Rome for build~ ing purposes. Vitruvius bears evidence of its value, as building timber. Pliny says, ‘ This tree is the best of the kind that bears rosin ; it rots not, but endures a long time.” And this assertion of Pliny’s, is well borne out by what is stated as fact—that the immense floating palace or ship, built by the Emperor Trajan, as a summer residence on Lake Nerni, of cypress and larch, having been weighed up, the timber was found sound after 1400 years’ immersion. It is worthy of remark, that this vessel appeared to have been sheathed with lead, fastened with copper nails, double planked, and caulked with linen rags, payed over with Greek pitch— (Asphaltum.)

In Russia, whilst the exportation of Oak is permitted, the larch is a government monopoly, for the national purpose of ship building, and its exportation prohibited. \ Of the applicability of larch to purposes of ship building, and of its durability, we find the following notices:

In the year 1809—“Larch timber, grown by his Grace the Duke of Athol, was first used for the British navy in building, at Woolwich dock- yard, the Serapis store-ship; the Sybille frigate; the bottom of a lighter; and for piles driven into the-mud, alternately wet and dry; and in all the various situations, proved a strong and durable timber.”

The Athol, of twenty-eight guns, was also built entirely of Larch of the same growth ; and, at the same time, the Niemen, of Riga timber. After their first courses of service they were both examined, when the Nieman was found in a decayed state, and condemned accordingly, whilst the Athol was again put into commission, and after a second course of service again exami~ ned, and again found sound; and she has ever, from that to the present day, endured the inces- sant wear and tear of a store-ship, in every cli- mate, for thirty years.

It was also observed, that during the period that this timber lay in Woolwich dock-yard, exposed to the weather, neither the heart nor the sap-wood exhibited decomposition, nor did lichen or fungus grow thereon:

I have already observed, that the description of Larch generally, and of the Larix Pendula, of the late Duke of Bedford in particular, agree with my observations of the Hackmatac of Bri- tish America, I will therefore proceed with them.

The Hackmatac grows generally throughout the North Eastern States of the Union and British America, but is found in the largest quantities in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island: the name is probably of Indian origin. The timber is straight grained,

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as:

fitting it tin small spars of ships, though I have known the mainmast of a vessel of 6§0 tons made of it—it works roughly—is rather given to warp -is hard, strong and very durable. I In the Colonies it is generally used as a budding tim- ber, both for houses and small craft; _ it is parti- cularly approved for knees to fasten the beams of ships, the butt of the stem, one of_ the principal roots forming the angle requrred. Treenails made of it are also consrdered‘ to be of so erior ualit. . . _ ‘ verli is pnot a g‘ibei' of commerce, nor is it con- verted to extent, but for house. and ship- building in e colonies. It is sometimes sewn into deals, but never shipped as. Hackmatac deals, being occasionally called Juniper, or Red Spruce, though more generally confounded with Spruce and Hemlock, and shipped asiuferror goods. ‘ ‘ ‘ I ‘

Hard working and warping deals, however valuable on the score of strength and durability, are not valued in the home market, where soft- ness of grain, freedom of working, and absence of warping, have given a preference to the white or yellow deal of America. _ ~ .

The wood burns with a crackling noise, and though not so easily ignited as most of the pine tribefwhen once blazing, burns with great brisk- ness, giving out fervent heat ; and, therefore, in great request for the fuel of steamboat engines in Canada and the United States.—Colonnl vessels built of this wood are notoriously durable, infe- rior to none but teak or British oak; and except- ing in one instance, the British Merchtnt, there is no reco’rd of such vessels having been destroy- ed by dry rot; whilst in several cases, the oak and other material surrounding, arid attached to the Hackmatac, has been found destroyed by dry rot, the Larch has continued perfectly free. Paradoxes, however, never cease; one colonial gentleman whose mercantile career in the Colo- nies was not very successful (Mr. Revens), has described Hackmatac ships as commonly called sailors’ coffins; and this opinion was adopted by a late President of the Board of Trade.

N. Gounn.

CIRCULATION or LONDON Parana—The num- ber of stamps issued to the several Newspapers in Great Britain affords the means of determin- ing the extent of circulation of each paper. Ac- cording to the late official returns, it appetrs that the number of stamps issued to several of the London morning papers, from Jan. I to March 31, was as follows :—

To the Times,.. ............... ..l,230,00) Chronicle, ........ .. .. ..525,00) Herald,........ ...530,00) Post, ............. .................. ..280,00)

From this statement it appears that the circu- lation of the Times averages more than 15,700 a day, and that it is greater than thaiof any other two papers taken together, and hat the amount of duty which it pays to the Government exceeds £20,000 per annum.

Tun W001. Sacra—In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, an act of parliament was pissed to prevent the exportation of English ml; and, the more effectually to secure this source of na- tional wealth, the wool-sacks on which the jud- ges sit in the House of Lords were [laced there, to remind them that in theirjudicial capacity they ought to have a constant eye to the reservation of the staple commodity _of the kingdom.

CATCH1NG ONE’s Hun—There ire very few moments in a man’s existence where he experi- ences so much ludicrous distress, ormeets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat. A vast deal of cool- ness, and a peculiar degree of judgment, are requisite in catching a hat. A man must not be precipitate, or he runs over it; he must not rush into the other extreme, or he lases it al- together. The best way is to keep gently up with the object of pursuit, to be wary and cauti- ous, to watch your opportunity well, get gradually before it, then make a rapid dive, seize it by the crown, and stick it firmly on your head, smiling pleasantly at the time, as if you thotght it as good a joke as any body else—(Dickens)

SiTTrNe-UP.—There are few things more worrying than sitting up for somebody, especially if that somebody he at a party. You cannot help thinking how quickly the time passes with them, which drags so heavily with you; and the more you think of this, the more your hopes of their speedy arrival decline. Clocks tick so loud, too, when you are sitting-up alone; and you seem as if you had got an under gament of cobwebs on. First, something tickles your right knee, and then the sensation irritates vour left. _You have no sooner changed your position, than it comes again in the arms; and when you have fidgetted your limbs into all kinds of queer shapes, you have a sudden relapse in are nose, which you rub as if to rub .it off—as there is no doubt you would, if you could. EyeS, too, are mere personal inconveniences, and theiwick of one candle gets an inch and a htlf long while you are snufling the other. These, and various other nervous annoyances, renda' sitting- up for a length oftime, after every body else has gone to bed, anything but a cheerful amtsement.

WESTERN ELOQUENCE.—" 1f, ” said a lawyer, who was pleading for a client whose garden had been sadly disfigured by a neighbor’s pig— “ if law is so far gone out ofour free and enlight- ened country, that our neighbors' pigs must go Without yokes, then in vain did our fathers bleed at Bunker Hill, and die at York town.”

Mormon. Demons—Voltaire, speaking of the generality of modern orators, says, “ what they want in depth, they give us in length."

PovnnTY.—-We always say, '“ You need not be ashamed of poverty—it is no disgrace.” Andmost truly have we lpoken—poverty is no disgrace ; but why do we, who preach treat it as ifit were a pestilence 2 shrink do... it —pl'0¢laitn tin-insult itwchastise it—betray it

‘-—loath it—abandon it ?

D

We shame to greet

“ habb docking” man, or how to that E‘hilll-di'eiled vioman,” because we have not in-

dustry to separate the chaff from the wheat—

‘ ‘ he gar- a so we are too prone to honour t

ibeecntus woven by men’s hands, rather than the

creature stampt in God’s own image—because

we want moral courage to walk erect in the

ri ht ath, unless it be the chosen highway of thge grpeat and powerful. The grave is_the poor man’s only sanctuary ; he ,canday him down there, and neither feel nor fear the chilliness of the world—the earthw0rm gnawa the heart that poverty destroyed ; but it only takes its portion. Earth has returned to earth—the spirit is far beyond the reach of poverty.— Britannia.

PflPERS BY THE GREflT WESTERN.

IMPORTANT.-—-N0rflt Eastern Boundary—the British Proposition—We learn that despatches have arrived in the Great Western. to‘the British Minister at Washington, with the Views of the British Government on the Beundary Question —aud that these views correspond with the fol- lowing, taken from an article in a late Westmin- ster Review, written by the Hon. Charles Buller, M. P., formerly Secretary to Lord Durham in Canada: ,

“ We will now recapitulate the conclusrons to which the preceding reasonings have brought us.

“ The boundary lines of the treaty of 1783 were not new lines, but the old acknowledged though unascertained lines assigned by the pro- clamation of 1763, the act of 1774, and the various commissions of the Governors ofthe two Provinces of Quebec and Nova Scotia.

“ The only significant difference between the terms in which the boundaries are described in the preceding documents, and those which are used in this treaty, is that of the substitution of ‘Atlantic Ocean,’ for ‘ Sea.’ As the term ‘ At- lantic Ocean’ is always in the treaty and in the commissions of the Governors used in a restrict- ed sense—never as comprehending the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but fre- quently in contradistinction to them—the deli- berate substitution of it for the more general term ‘the sea,’ must lead to the inference that that change ofthis single term was meant to mark that the water courses divided by the highlands, were those which we have called the St. Law- rence and Atlantic basins.

“But these basins are separated during the greater part oftheir extent, not by a single ridge or crest of land, but by an immense extent of ele- vated country'containing portions of two other great basins of rivers, emptying themselves in directions not mentioned in , the definitions of boundary.

“ The line running due north from the river St. Crorx, in its course towards the St. Lawrence basin, passes over two dividing ridges. The one of these divides the Bay of Fundy basin from the Gulf basin; the other divides the Gulf basin from the St. Lawrence basin; but neither divides the St. Laivrence basin from the Atlantic basin. The due north line, therefore, does not in its course meet any single ridge corresponding with the description givenin the treaty.

“ The dividing highlands of the treaty along which the lines'mnst run, cannot, therefore, be a single ridge or height ofland, but must be the whole highland country extending over the dis- puted territory, and through which both lines must run.

“ The mere mention of an extent of country so large offers no means of determining the course ofa line drawn ‘ along’ it, or the termination of one drawn ‘to’ it. The treaty, therefore, is not sufliciently explicit. The litres must intersect one another at some point in the highlands, but the description does not sufficiently explain where.

” It appears that the line ‘ along the high- lands’ was described in the demarkation of the_bo‘undaries of the Province of Quebec, as a 'line connecting the head of the Connecticut Riv-er with the head of the Bay of Chaleurs.

“ The extremities of the line are thus known, but the mode of drawing it is entirely unex- plained._—An infinite number of such lines, cor- responding with the description given in the treaty, may be drawn.

“ The simplest expedient for supplying the deficrency in the description is to draw a straight line from one point to the other, or to draw one as straight as the sinuosities ofthe narrow por- tion .of the highlands from the head of the Con- necticut River to the'point C. will permit.

“ Such a line will correspond with the terms! of the treaty.

“ It will give a boundary line between the Provinces of Quebec and Nova-Scotia, almost precisely corresponding with that which has been. recognized by those two Provinces, in their relations with each other, and by the maps drawn from the period of the formation-of the former of these in 1763.

’ “ It _will place the north west' angle of Nova Scotia Just where common opinion and practice

haye always placed it since Canada becamea British Provrnce.” '

The Parliamentary estimate of the charge for defrayrng the expenses of the Ecclesiastical Establishmept of

rovmces, mm the let da ofA ril, 18 0 the 3lst of March, 1841, is i1,790i.' 18s. dd.’ 6‘} that sum 11,4401. is appropriated to the Chuch of England ; 2751. to the Church of Scotland ; and 751. to the Roman Catholic Bishop of New- foundland. V ~

Prince Albert has commenced to take an active part in the charitable institutions of Great Britain. The Society for the extinction of the Slave Trade, and the civilization of Africa, had

Hall, on the lat of The attendance was estimated at 4500

a ,public meeting at Exeter June.

9.8130118.

His Royal Highness occu ' d addressed the meeting. Pm me

chair, and

Mr

V sorrow.

the British North American T

» O

Lord Melbourne has received every n and most flattering testimonial of the .«4 which his Royal Mistress and her consort . .. tein of his services. It is a piece forming a centre for the table, with: ‘ i tion. _ '"ifiil’... had been issued for the buildingof _ -. ships of war, and six war steamers. A an , ship, to becalled the Albert, iii to be . Portsmouth. ‘ ,

DEATH or Sm Sman SMITHgf-II i. painful duty to announce the decent?! J, gallant and illustrious officer, Admirals" -' r ney Smith, which took place yesterday i I P i' a at his residence, No. 9, Rue d’Augefin: event which will fill all Europe with rows U Sir Sidney was born in 1764, and ‘ i therefore, aged seventy-six. No praise of - can add to his fame, whichhegloripualy deservedly acquired; of which his own . we must ever be proud, and which no ge‘ foreigner envies.-Galignani’: Messenger, a

. ST. JOHN, N. B., June 91; SPURIOUS COPPER Comm—Last week we tioned that the retailers of the cityhc . adopting measures to guard themselves ;. further imposition from the .CII'culltm‘ .. pennies and half-pennies, which were being ' ported in large quantities. They have am ingly determined in future to take .991, 1 legally authorized copper corns of Britain, Nov Scotia and the United States. This me i ' 1 causes much inconvenience and loss to indirlt‘ duals; but the fact of the importation ofthe . i ._ coppers being unusually large, rendered its ' = 1 tion imperative, especially as there appears no proper enactment on the subyect.

During the twoJast days, the Officers of I I Majesty’s Customs seized twenty-nine boxes 4, illegally imported base copper coins, chiefly 2: we, —each box containing from 181. to 201. of trash. It is to be hoped, if there is’no law 3 . reach the vendors of spurious coppers, that t i ’ who are guilty ’ of importing them illegally \v' "‘5' not be allowed to do so with impunity. ’ .

The Hon. Ward Chipman, Chief Justice - ‘ this Province, and Lady, and Miss Armstrong, - ‘ this city, and the Hon. Amos E. Botsford, 9:. Westmorland, went passengers in the steam North America, for Boston, on Thursday, on theic way to New York, where they will embark in ,, , i the Great Western, for England, on Wednesday ‘ next. H. B. Smith, Esq., Collector of this port; ‘ Robert L. Hazen, Esq., of this city, and G «- Botsford, Esq. of Fredericton, accompany ' I Honor to Boston. A large number of our 3 _ respectable fellow citizens crowded the whartat' the departure of the steamer, to testify their no " gard for the distinguished party, whom they sab- ted with three hearty cheers, which were '« (fa ponded to from the steamer. His Honor the " Justice was much affected on. the occasion, - w . _ ticularly when taking leave of his friends on t it . wharf. . 1,, W _ ‘3. . .

THE - . "i ' ©©EI©NIEAEA IEIBAIhmo _

SflTURDflY, JULY4, 1840.

The papers by the Steamboat yesterday up without news. It will be seen, by referringtq ‘- our advertising columns, that the Atlantic steafi- ‘ ers, to ply between Liverpool, Halifax and i ton, are regularly announced; so that f henceforth we may with confidence expect i w‘» English Mail regularly every two weeks. rangements have also been entered into,’ transmitting the Mails to this and the 0th? Colonies, with the utmost dispatch, after = , reception at Halifax.—-The Unicorn, we peree' has been ordered for Quebec, for the pur ~ we are given to understand, ofbringing down~ Governor General, on a visit to these Lower vrnces. I