ACROSS THE ISTHXUS. From Chambers’ Journal. Allsr an agreeable voyage of fourteen days in the steamer California from San Francisco, in the early part of March last, we entered the large bay which leads to the city of Panama. It was necessary to pass up between islands of various sizes,

Yet I" possessing the same character-—| steep hills covered with a thin brownish‘mule-rendezvous, gangs of these animals

Vegetation, fringed round their basis with cocoa-niit palms, these beautiful trees ex- tending froni high-water mark up some precipitous ravine, till the line was broken or terminated by some intervening ridge. One of these islands at the entriince of the buy is notorious for its water-snakes; in-

deed, we saw two or three in the water as well as he could without him. The shabby pgreaiest nuisance on the whole journey-

we steamed by. The California came to anchor about two miles from Panama, the water being two shallow to admit large vessels nearer. It was stated that the railway company had purchased a small island near our anchorage for a very large sum, and intended running out their road over piles to it, in order to make it their aciﬁc terminus. Having engaged one ofa swarm of boats which came oil‘ for the passengers, we had to strive hard against a head-wind and rough water for more than an hour. In- stead of our diﬂiculties, however, being over when we stepped ashore, we discover- ed many more lying in wait for us that we had not at all anticipated. As soon as the boat struck the beach, twenty black fellows surrounded us, every one seizing and car- rying ol!‘ portions of our luggage amidst a din of yells: it was a scene that would serve for a ﬁnish to Milton's Pandemonium. An Irish lady who accompanied us, after trying broken Spanish, beginning with ‘Valgame Dios,’ and ending with ‘ Caram- bo! ’ found the only means of relieving her mind was by scolding lustily in English; and if the niggers did not understand her language, they soon did her looks. With the greatest exertion, we collected our- scattered baggage into a heap, on which I let} my wife armed with a revolver, sitting back to back with our Irish friend, whilst I ran up town to see what next could be done. It had been a busy day for Panama. Two steamers had landed their passengers ti-oin San Francisco, and two had arrived on the Atlantic side from New York with many passengers; the streets were tiall of travellers, and I began to despair of getting mules, or other means of conveyance, at any price. Succeeding at last, I hastened with a bevy of Indian porters to relieve the sentinols on the beach, who, I found, had valiantly maintained their position. The next source of anxiety was our lodgings for the night. Every hotel was full to overﬂowing: the ﬂoors, the tables, and oven the passages, were all taken. We wandered about for two hours, houseless and friendless; night wasdrawing his dusky mantle over the town, and the only accom- modation we could hear of was at a road- side house two miles out. As we stood, undecided and hungry, at it corner of the street, whom should we meet but our Prus- sian friend Jacobi; he had been equally on- successful in obtaining a. place to lay his hsadia; and proposed, as a last resource, that we should try to ﬁnd out a Gersian acquaintance of his, who had attended him as his physician some twelve years before in New Orleans. Little as there was in this for hope to cling to, we set out on the search. A German chemist gave us the doctor’s address: he was really in existence, then, and actually in Panama. We enter- ed the court of a lar e house, ascended a broad old-fashioned staircase. and were shown into a large but comfortable room.

.them to no domestic inconvenience.

HASZARD’S GAZETTE. JUNE 2.

they are the very essence of kindness. They are to be compared neither with the empty phrases of society, with which so many cloak their cold-heartedness, nor with what is little better—a welcome given only, when you make no calls on the per- sonal attentions of your friends, and put

As we hastened before daylight to the

clattered past us overthe pavement, having just returned from a journey to Gorgona. They were to be again packed oﬁ‘on a si- niilnr journey, some fed and some fasting :

tably atforded her by travellers at the road- .,ids-huts. These houses of entertainment r—merely thatched roofs stuck upon poles-— are met with every ﬁve or six miles; and the airy style of their architecture is pro- bably suggested by the warmth of the cli- msto. A huge calico sign, however, in- formed you that they were nothing less than - hotels; ’ and Imust say, that the best glass ofLondon stout I ever relished, was drunk at the Union. Excepting these places. there are no vestiges of human habitation or of cultivation to be seen. Seldom do you obtain from the road a peep at_the country at all; and then all that is visible consists

,‘no matter, two journeys repaid the ﬁrst cost jofthe mule, and if he broke down or died ‘on the road, the traveller had to get on ttsl

creatures I had selected for myself and, wife are the best ofa group of forty or ﬁlly; § cost :26 dollars each for the ride; and, in! addition to this, I had to pay 15 cents (3(l.)j ii. pound for the transmission of our lug-1 gage. It was daylight when we emerged; from the walled town through one of its gates, mounted on “high-peaked saddles, the riders much more anxious to get on than the ridden. Panama has a singularly niitique appearance for a city in the New \Voi-Id, being made up of tall houses and narrow streets, the balconies of the upper stories approaching so close from the two sides of the way as almost to shut out the sky. Here you may see the women loung- ing over the railing, and enjoying a little chat with their neighbours Those I saw were decidedly remarkable lor the absence of anything like good looks. There is an antiquated air about many of the Spanish- Ainerican towns, the result not only of the absence of modern improvements, but of the ruinous condition of many of the build- ings; and the inhabitants appeared to have caught the ancient look, as some insects take their color from the spot they live in. The suburbs of Panama consist of thatched cottages, and extend along the road for a mile, with pine-apple or agave-hedges, and gardens of oranges and cocoa-nuts or other palms. As we rode on, we saw wo- men at almost every door lustily pounding their breakfast in large wooden mortars, the inateriiil being ‘ guessed ’ by a fellow traveller to be ‘mighty hard.’ Most of

ofniountains thickly covered with forests. We by this time began to experience the

baggage-trains of mules, driven from be- hind, trotting on with large and heavy boxes overhanging their saddles, and in narrow parts of the road dashing against everything before them. 1 W115 twice knocked over by these packages; _and a lady we met, carried in a piilaiiquin, had just had her leg broken by them. ' A very pretty accident was shortly alterwzirds avoided, through the trappings of my mule chancing to be worn out. I had just en- tered a ravine, so narrow that it was neces- sary to keep one’s legs well under the iiiu|c‘s belly, to prevent their hitching in the rocks, when I was suddenly coiifronted by a well-iiiounted lady. We both pulled back lustily; but the mules, liaving no mouths, probably thought it meant go on; and on they did go, till legs and saddles came into collision, and things became thoroughly desperate—wlien snap went my girth, and I quitely slid, saddle and all, over the niule’s tail. I looked round for the fair champion who had thus overthrown inc, and had the gratiﬁcation to see her make me a smiling adieu, as she disap- peared behind a mass of rock.

At last we caught sight of some smoke in a distant valley, and soon the note of the steam-whistle cheered our drooping spirits. After several ups and downs over a track just cleared through the woods, and some plunges through stagnant water in the val- leys, we reached the railway terminus near Gorgona, Forget, ladies and gentlemen, for one moment, all such places as the

relation of his smart dealings in crossing the Isthmus. It appears, that instead of giving up his hired mule at the end of his journey, he had relet her to a nssenger proceeding back to Panama, an had not onl paid his expenses, but gained a few dollhrs by the smart transaction. As soon as it was dark, the wild beasts began to entertain us with their cries: one big fellow, probably a puma, occasionally roared so as to make the car-sashes rattle; and this was kept up within a few feet of us, until the relief-engine came up with its joyful note. Our roaring acqiiaintanco, on hear- ing the stenm-wliistle, evidently thought this second lion ti bore, for we heard him rush away through the jungle, with doubt- less his tail between his legs. After sundry delays, we were glad to reach Aspinwall at midnight, and to recruit our weariness in a large and liandsoine hotel.

In concluding this rough account ofa rough day ’s journey, when it is remember- ed, tlint we had, as travellers, everything in our fnvor—the healthy dry season, ﬁne cool weather, and more than half the dis- tance across (some ﬁlly-live miles) in rail- way-cnrs--liow pitiable must have been the condition of those who crossed the Isthmus in the wet and sickly season, when the pas- sage took three days! How many have! seen in California laid low by the Panama fever, who were shovelled out oftbe crowd- ed ships to die, with the implied, if not expressed remark, the sooner the better! Unfortunately, almost all who arrived at San Fraiicisco were pcnniless, and most of those who had any strength attempted, tlierefore, to push on to the Diggings and it was wonderful to look on the determina- tion and indomitable energy of inen—hag- gard and shaking with fever and ague--- who had nothing to trust to but the charita- ble kindness of the doctor and the generosi- ty of the liotel-keeper. The Panama Rail- wa is a great undertaking; and although thousands of lives have already been sacri- ﬁced to it, the results of the enterprise, when completed, will be greater, when contrasted with the previous mode of tra- velling, than those of any other railway in the world.

We reached New York after a delightful voyage of nine diiys--touching at Jamaica

these people were very dark, and many evidently a cross between the Indian and negro. Escaping at last from human ha- bitations, we exchanged a wide and level road for one tortuous and hilly, and often contracting so much that only one mule could pass at once; the tall trees frequently arched across the way, and beautiful tropi- cal plants clothed the banks in endless variety. As we trotted Ollrglll single-ﬁle, a rider would often, from a sudden turn in the road, become com letely isolated from the rest, and might liave been knocked down and dragged aside by robbers with- out being seen by his companions. The

large stories with which the road had in many places been originally paved had worked out, and it presented even noiv, in the dry season, a surface as little easy to describe as it was to travel. Many of the steep ravines passing between clefts in the rocks, had been worn by mule’s feet into a. sort ofwinding staircase with hollow steps.

VVe now ﬁrst met the van of those emi- grants on their way to California, who had arrived at Aspinwnlla day or two before from New York; the majority of those were females, almost all sitting astrido on the saddle—a far easier mode of travelling for indiiiiarent riders than on the common side- saddle. All kinds of ‘ﬁxings’ were worn by these temporary Amazons; but the most fashionable kind of head-dress was a broad briinued straw-hat, with the front tied

Our situation was soon understood; and in less time than I can write it, we were res- cued from our homeless and almost alarm-. ing position by the disinterested kindness of the doctor, whose name I much regret having forgotten, and his lady. Mrs—was about setting out for a ball; but before do- ing so, she saw that every arrangement was made for our comfort. It appeared that Madame Pfeitfer had, a short time before,l partakon of their hospitality. We had to,‘ rise at four, to be in readiness to start by] daylight; and notwithstanding Mrs.—had been in bed but two hours, she was up and had breakfast ready for us. I appreciatel such attentions more highly than any 0lll€l'.'.

down over the nose with a string. For three or four hours we were meeting a con- tinuous stream of people, with the invaria- ble inquiry; ‘How far is it to Panama?’ Many were obliged by poverty to walk, and we more than once passed a lone woman with a heavy child in her arms, and with

Great Western, North Western, or any other terminus, and picture to yourselves the followi items:—A large open space, covered wit tired travellers and worn-out mulss; a long train of carriages or cars, extending along the single rail, partly ﬁlled with passengers, and a long wooden-shed, the hotel, into which we were delighted to have the privilege of entering. The gra- tiﬁcation we experienced on at last reach- ing an advanced post of civilization was intense. It was past three o'clock, and having eaten nothing since the morning, we were anticipating a hearty dinner-when alresdy, before accomplishing the demoliti- on of some verinicelli-soup, the railway-bell called us away. The train started well; and we were told that two hours would take us to Aspinwall, where the steamer George Law awaited us. VVe soon had a view at the Chagres river, up which deadly stream all passengers had to beat it, till the railway was thus for completed. There lay the wreck of a small steamer and a brokoii barge; and a little further on, some rail- way-cars bottom upwards. The accident indicated by the latter was it very trivial one, we were told: it occurred yesterday, and only it few persons were killed. We now ran over a piled roadway, with. the swamp some twenty feet below us on each side. It is said that the number of labour- ers, principally Irish, who have perished in making this part of the road. is so great that the cars might, like that ofJuggernaut,

ass the whole distance over their bodies.

ut the course of American railways sel- dom does run smooth; and with us, alter a series of bumps, which knocked the pas- sengers together, the train came to a stand- still. We had run oil’ the line; but had

probably all her worldly goods tied up in n handkerchief. At one place we lbund a woman, with four children, lying on a bank: she had missed her husband, and for fear of being too late for the steamer, had ma- naged to walk with these young creatures —having not out on the previous morning- more than seventy-ﬁve miles, with no more food or shelter than what had been chari-

fortunately pulled up in time, to avoid a repetition of yesterday’s little accident. It grew dark, yet we had to sit, hour alter hour, waiting tor relief from Aspinwall, with nothing tq quench our thirst but the swamp water below, which we dared not touch. One passenger ‘ wished himself home with his poor old mother, with only a corn-cake to eat;’ and another amused us with a

in the George Lani. Both the ship and its captain deserve the highest commendation.

A VIII1‘ ‘IO KUXBOLDT

An American ntleman, writin from Berlin furnishes the fol owing account 0 his visit to the world-renowned Humboldt :

“ We rang, showed the servants our cards, who, after looking at them, showed us throu h the entry into a little room ﬁlled with stu birds and minerals :—Ilers we let! our 8 coats, passed through another room led, museum-like as the other, and from that into the room where Mr. Humboldt was sitting. Ila came imniodiiitely forward, took our hands, and ex ressed his pleasure at seeing us, he insiste on seating us on the sofa, while he took an easy chair himselfand sat by the end olit. lle begun at first to speak in French, butafter having got half way through a son-

. tence turned into English, which he speaks

better. than he understands it when spoken. lle talked rapidly and ﬂuently, and with but a slight uccrnt.

“M. llumholdt's personal appearance is very reiiiiirkiible. e is ver small and but for ii. man of his age, She is eiglityﬁvmp be looked unconiuionly we l. He wore a urge white neck cloth, a curiously colored and ti and velvet waistcoat, and a dress cost. 0 d as he is, he still keeps up the habits of his earlier years, slee s but little, works inces- santly, and is fun of society. He is now engaged upon the fourth volume of his Cosmos."

Au Arrscrixo lNcioxx'r.—.\ seamen of the ﬂeet before Sebastopol, whose famil lives at Polperro, in this county, was orders on shore for the put so of assiatin in bur lag the slain who fe lin it late at of the Iiussians on the British batteries; and almost the that gerson he met with on landing was one of his

i-others, of whose resencs in the ﬂeet lie was not before informs , and who had been severely wounded in the late engagement. From in he learnt that his two other brothers were all serving in the Naval Bri do on shore; and with him he remained, til he saw him ex ire. He then proceeded on the duty for whic he had landed, and soon discovered the bodies of his other brothers, who had been killed in the battle. His feelings may be imagined, as he assisted in layin these three brothers of his own, side by si e, in one gr-ave.—Corn Royal Gazelle.