FOOTMARKS OF AN EXTINCT ANIMAL IN THE apart from each other, my head resting against one, and my feet against the other. I slept. When I awoke, I turned to one side, and perceived at some BARON Alexander Von Humboldt has again ardistance from me, two brilliant orbs-and instantly rived in Paris. At a meeting of the Academy of a tremulous, mingled sensation of an undefinable na- Sciences on the 17th August, 1835, he directed the ture came upon my faculties. Something of an in- attention of the members to the prints of the footstinctive dictate or impulse counselled me to avert steps of a quadruped in the variegated sandstone, or my looks, but then there was such an absorbing, bunte sandstein, of Hildburghausen. It is an aniwishful delight in gazing into eyes, that intently and mal of the Plantigrada division, which had traversed meltingly gazed into mine, that even the tremulous the rock in various directions while soft. A stone, pulsation of fear fixed my frame, and I remained so from ten to twelve feet long, and three to four wide, fascinated that I could see nothing but the most containing these impressions, has been sent to the beautiful colours. In short, I was totally lost, so Collection of Geology at Berlin, of which the Barcompletely bewildered with commingled emotions, on submitted to the Academy a beautiful drawing. that I could not withdraw my gaze, nor even move. There are four or five impressions of a smaller speSuddenly, the melting eyeballs glared with sparks cies, which cross those of the larger quadruped at of fire-there was a movement-I from a dreamy right angles, and are remarkable for the unequal distate-I saw a huge rattlesnake; its gaze was dis-mensions of the fore and hind feet; all of them have turbed, and when I heard the hateful rattle sound, the impressions of five toes. The rock is covered the full danger of my situation aroused me, and with them as with a net-work, and here and there through all my frame I felt the extremity of terrour; sinuous serpular concretions are visible-perhaps and just as I was on the point of obeying a phrensied impulse to rise and fly, God of heaven! I felt the deadly reptile as I thought, coiling about my neck; I saw part of his body, I felt the slimy skin upon my neck, and the shiver of horrour went through every joint and member of my frame. Such a feeling of agony! my eyeballs were filled with scorching fire; first red, next yellowish green. O, there are moments of existence, which involve the sensations of years, and when the whole detail of a thousand feelings scarcely occupy the brief space of a leisure thought. Nature could endure no more and I lost all sense. At length, I had the painful tingling sensation of returning life through my veins, and when in full consciousness I arose from the earth, I saw near me tranquilly and quietly a living king-snake, and farther off the lifeless length of a tremendous rattlesnake. I sat upon a log and reflected, and I am now satisfied that the king-snake, had crept over my neck to my rescue, there being a large log on one side, and the lake on the other, so that his nearest route to the enemy was over my body. But although my life was providentially preserved, yet the effects of that scene are the exhaustion of a great portion of my excitability and the introduction of grey hairs and premature debility, in all my powers of mind and body. CURIOUS DISCOVERY. PROFESSOR BROWN of Philadelphia, has recently communicated to the French Academy of Sciences, some interesting results of his geological investigations. The workmen, in sawing a block of marble, cut through a cavity, containing a black substance, which the geologist sets down as primitive carbon. On this being removed, the cavity exhibited a flat surface, whereon were sculptured in relief many lines of Hebrew characters. Whether this be fact or fancy, it has given rise to some queer speculations. The question, as to how came the Aborigines in this Western World, who were found by its disoverers, we are told must now be settled by the "sawing of this block of marble," as the existence of these Hebrew characters incontestably prove that the Indians must have belonged to the twelve tribes of Israel! the plants on which the animals walked, or probably some accidental defect in the process of drying. The great importance of this discovery consists in the position occupied by this sandstone in the chronological series of rocks. A PLANT POSSESSING THE PROPERTIES OF A VERY interesting paper was recently read by Mr. Mornay, before the London Linnæan Society, describing a shrub which grows on the rivers of Brazil, and which is called the Euphorbia Phosphorescens. Where this Euphorbia forms large entangled, impenetrable masses, covering, perhaps, a quarter of an acre of ground, and growing some twenty feet high, it will take fire spontaneously, emitting for some time a vast column of dense black smoke, and at last bursting out in flames. Whenever the author had an opportunity of observing the combustion of the juice of this plant, on its coming into contact with atmospherick air, the temperature was a very little raised; the combustion (with flame) went on at a low temperature, until stopped by the formation of a crust, which quickly takes place. The temperature always appeared to be too low to spread into a conflagration. While the labourers were excavating the earth of the Portland and Louisville canal, on the Ohio, at a depth of between twenty and thirty feet below the surface, they came upon what in all probability, had once been an ancient cemetery. It contained the bones of a great number of human skeletons, of a colour nearly black; and the bones, horns, and teeth, of various animals were found among them. One of the human skeletons was found standing erect, holding in his hand a beautifully polished semi-glob ular stone of the size of half an orange. The hand that held the stone was raised at an angle of fortyfive degrees. The remains of regular hearths of brick and limestone, were also found. The limestone, was polished beautifully, and the bricks bore striking resemblance to those used by us. Charcoal was found on the hearth, just as it had been left by those who last lived there. BATTLE BETWEEN PIZARRO AND ALMAGRO. gro's departure, they seized de Rojas, put him in irons, and made their escape to Lima, accompanied by about sixty men, whom they had won over to their interest. In our last number we gave a brief biography of Pizarro.-Diego Almagro, was the man selected by Pizarro to accompany him in his expedition to South Upon the news of this escape, Organez, lieutenantAmerica. During their voyage, the two commanders general to Almagro, and others of the officers, urged did not act with perfect harmony. After many quar-him to revenge it by the death of his prisoner Ferrels, which were reconciled from motives of policy, Almagro set out on an expedition to Cuzco, in which city he was desirous of presiding. As soon as Almagro appeared before the walls of Cuzco, he sent a summons to Ferdinand Pizarro, the Spanish governour to deliver up the city; to which he answered, that he held it by commission from his brother the marquis, and, as he knew it to be within the limits of his government, would not deliver it up without his orders; and he immediately began to put the place in a posture of defence: but part of the garrison being friends to Almagro, introduced his troops into the city at midnight, by which means Ferdinand and Gonzalo Pizarro were made prisoners; and Almagro summoning the magistrates, compelled them to acknowledge him governour, and at the same time appointed de Rojas his deputy. dinand Pizarro; a piece of cruelty that he absolutely refused, and soon after met the marquis at Mala, Iwith twelve men on each side, to terminate their differences. However, the conference was suddenly broken off, by one of Almagro's people rushing abruptly into his presence, and crying out that he was betrayed: on which he immediately took horse, and rode off, leaving matters entirely unsettled. This alarm was occasioned by the approach of Gonzalo Pizarro with seven hundred men; which induced Organez also to advance with his troops, to repel by force the treachery he suspected to be in agitation. Each party now seemed ready for war, but the marquis again found means to persuade Almagro to listen to terms; and a treaty was agreed upon, and sworn to on each side, by which among other advantages, the possession of Cuzco was ceded to Almagro, till the decision of the emperour should be known; and in consequence of this treaty, Ferdinand Pizarro was set at liberty, on his taking an oath not to act against Almagro. The marquis Pizarro, who was still at Lima, hearing no news from his brother at Cuzco, and imagining that the parties he had sent thither to reinforce them, had been cut off by the Peruvians, sent thither five hundred Spanish horse and foot, commanded by Don Alonzo de Alverado, and under him appointed No sooner had the marquis Pizarro obtained the Pedro de Lerma captain of a troop of horse; who point he aimed at, his brother's liberty, than he being an older officer, was so offended at the prefer- broke through the treaty, sending a notary with witence given to Alverado, that thenceforward he med-nesses, to summon Almagro to surrender Cuzco, and itated the ruin of the enterprise. all the places he had subdued, on pain of being treatThe news of de Lerma's discontent being conveyed as a rebel; and this dishonourable proceeding ed to Almagro, they made, by means of their emissaries, a private agreement, in consequence of which de Lerma, with a considerable body of men, took the first opportunity of deserting Alverado, after which the latter was vigorously attacked by Almagro's forces, his whole party routed, and himself taken pris oner. was still the more inexcusable, as, just before this time, he had received an express from court, enjoining each governour, on pain of the emperour's displeasure, to keep quiet possession of all such places as should at the time of that messenger's arrival, own their respective jurisdiction; and if they thought themselves injured, they were directed to make their appeal to the council of the Indies; but Pizarro saw fit to suppress these orders. Almagro, now repenting the confidence he had put in the marquis, gave orders for securing Cuzco, and marched with his troops to a place called the Salinas, from a fountain of brackish water which sprung up there; and the marquis's army under Gonzalo Pizarro, meeting him at this place, an engagement ensued, which lasting two hours, Almagro was entirely defeated. Organez behaved with great gallantry, but growing faint with his wounds, accepted quarter from a person named Fuentez, who cruelly murdered him in cold blood. The troops which had deserted to Almagro were amply rewarded, and marshalled into a body, the command of which was given to Pedro de Lerma : and several of the officers now strongly urged Almagro to provide for his future safety, by putting the Pizarros to death; a measure which he absolutely refused, declaring that it was beneath a gentleman and a soldier to destroy his prisoners in cold blood. The news of this defeat made a deep impression upon the marquis Pizarro, who finding himself too weak to oppose Almagro, his whole force scarcely exceeding four hundred men, determined to try what could be done by policy; and therefore sent deputies to Cuzco, to propose an accommodation. Almagro, In the heat of the engagement, Ferdinand Pizarro notwithstanding the representation of his friends, was unhorsed by Lerma, who at the same time upthat Pizarro would never adhere to any treaty, re-braided him with his perjury, but his armour saved ceived these deputies with great civility, and promised to have an interview with the marquis, in which commissioners should be chosen to settle the respective boundaries. Accordingly, leaving a sufficient garrison in Cuzco, he marched out of that city at the head of about five hundred Spaniards, taking the road to Lima, and carrying Ferdinand Pizarro prisoner in his train; while Gonzalo Pizarro and Alverado, were left in the town under the care of de Rojas; but after Alma his life and Lerma being afterward borne down by some of Pizarro's people, was treacherously stabbed; but he had the misfortune to recover to be butchered in a more cruel manner. Almagro being ill, and too weak to sit on a horse, was carried into the field in a litter, and perceiving his army defeated, retired to the citadel of Cuzco, whither he was pursued by Alverado, to whom he was soon obliged to surrender. As soon as Almagro was in the power of his ene Alverado, incensed at this reply, determined to seek redress at the court of Spain, and therefore soon afterward embarked for Europe, with such evidences as were proper to support the cause of young Almagro. mies, Ferdinand determined to be revenged for his knew of no one who had a right to insist on sharing own and brother's long imprisonment; and effectu-it with him, since Almagro was dead. ally to prevent his making head against the Pizarros for the future, caused articles of high treason to be drawn up against him, the principal of which were, that he had seized the city of Cuzco, made a secret treaty with the inca, encroached upon the government granted by the emperour to the marquis Pizarro, and fought two battles against the forces of his sovereign, by which much Christian blood had been spilt, and the progress of the Spanish arms considerably retarded. It often appears that severe measures rather irritate than assuage civil dissensions; which was evidenced by the death of Almagro, which instead of extinguishing, increased his faction: upon which Ferdinand Pizarro, who from the behaviour of the Almagro being tried for these offences, was con- soldiers, suspected that some designs were carrying victed, and condemned to die, though he insisted on on against his life, thought it best to retire to Spain, appealing to the emperour. Alverado pleaded warm-with all the gold he could amass, with a view to ly that his appeal should be admitted, and in vain bribe the Spanish ministry: but Alverado having attempted to soften Ferdinand's inflexibility, by rep-prepared the way for his reception, he was arrested resenting the kindness with which Almagro had as soon as he arrived, and thrown into prison; and treated both him and his brother, when they were notwithstanding Alverado died soon after, not withhis prisoners: even Almagro himself addressed Fer-out suspicion of having been poisoned to put a stop dinand in the most moving manner, entreating him to the prosecution, yet Ferdinand continued in conto recollect the time when he had spared his life, finement twenty-three years. in opposition to numbers who would have devoted About this time the Peruvians had again recourse him to destruction and to remember how instru-to arms; and having in a great measure got rid of mental he had been in advancing the Pizarros to the terrour which the horses and firearms had occatheir present grandeur. He also begged him to con- sioned among them, they were now able to make a sider that, bowing under the weight of age and in- stand against the Spaniards, who being by this time firmities, a very little time must, in the common increased to above two thousand, found it more difcourse of nature, bring him to the grave; and be- ficult to keep their ground, than they had to conquer sought him that, after the innumerable hardships he the country with four hundred; and it seems highly had suffered, he might be permitted to die a natural probable, that if some particular bodies of Indians death. had not been so infatuated as to adhere faithfully to But Ferdinand, deaf to all his entreaties, ordered the Spanish interest, Pizarro might have been comhim to be strangled, in the seventy-fifth or, accord-pelled to abandon his acquisitions after so long a ing to some writers, the sixty-fifth year of his age; possession. after which the dead body was beheaded in the great square of Cuzco, and lay exposed on the scaffold, almost naked, the greatest part of the day; no one daring to bury it, lest they should provoke the resentment of his enemies, who were inhuman enough to take no care of the interment, till towards evening, a few poor Peruvians, who had been his servants, wrapped the body in a coarse sheet, and conveyed it to a church erected by the Spaniards, where it was buried by the clergy under their high altar. The enemies of Almagro have asserted that he was of mean parentage, which however, they could not possibly know, since he was found in the streets, and being never owned, was called by the name of the town in which he was found. His bravery was remarkable, and his presence of mind was such that no danger could disconcert him. He was kind to his soldiers, and slow in punishing their faults, yet maintained a strict discipline by the mere force of his own example. He kept a good table for his officers, but lived as hard himself as any private man in the army and when, through this conduct, he has been charged with affectation, he used to reply, that "his was the diet of a soldier." Having lived some time with a Peruvian woman, he had by her a son, named Diego, whom at his death he bequeathed to the care of Diego Alverado ; who desiring Pizarro to evacuate so much of the country as he had always acknowledged to be under the government of Almagro, that he might take possession of it for the youth, was haughtily answered that his government was now unbounded, and he The most valuable acquisition made after the death of Almagro, was the conquest of the province of Charcas, in which were the rich mines of Potosi, which the marquis divided among the conquerors, having first founded the city of La Plata, so called from its being situated among the mines. TIMES GO BY TURNS. BY SOUTHWELL, A Poet of the sixteenth century. THE lopped tree in time may grow again; The sea of fortune doth not ever flow, Not always fall of leaf, nor every spring, The saddest birds a season find to sing, A chance may win that by mischance lost, |