same arrangement is often adopted in the warehouses of seaports, the ship's company generally locating themselves as near the water as possible, and the landsmen in the more inland portion of the building.

When rats have once found their way into a ship they are secure as long as the cargo is on board, provided they can command the great necesssary-water. If this is well guarded, they will resort to extraordinary expedients to procure it. In a rainy night they will come on deck to drink, and will even ascend the rigging to sip the moisture which lies in the folds of the sails. When reduced to extremities they will attack the spirit-casks, and get so drunk that they are unable to walk home. The land-rat will, in like manner, gnaw the metal tubes which in public-houses lead from the spirit-store to the tap, and is as convivial on these occasions as his nautical relation. The entire race have a quick ear for running liquid, and they constantly eat into leaden pipes, and much to their astonishment receive a douche-bath in consequence. It is without doubt the difficulty of obtaining water which causes them in many cases to desert the ship the moment she touches the shore. On such occasions they get, if possible, dry-footed to land, which they generally accomplish by passing in Indian file along the mooring-rope, though, if no other passage is provided for them, they will not hesitate to swim. In the same manner they board ships from the shore, and so well are their invading habits known to sailors, that it is common upon coming into port to fill up the hawser holes, or else to run the mooringcable through a broom, the projecting twigs of which effectually stop the ingress of these nautical quadrupeds. Their occupancy of the smaller bird-breeding islands invariably ends in their driving away the feathered inhabitants, for they plunder the nests of their eggs, and devour the young. The puffins have in this way been compelled to relinquish Puffin's Island, off the coast of Caernarvon.

most workmanlike manner. They will mount vines and feed on the grapes; and a friend informs us that on one occasion he saw a waterrat go up a ladder which was resting against a plum-tree, and attack the fruit. If a garden is near the haunts of water-rats, it is necessary to watch narrowly for the holes underneath the walls, for they will burrow under the foundation with all the vigor of sappers and miners. Such is the cunning with which they drive their shafts that they will ascend beneath a stack of wood, a heap of stones, or any other object which will conceal the passage by which they obtain an entrance.

The

The water-rat is, however, a rare animal compared with its first-cousin, the common brown or Norway rat, which is likewise, as Lord Bacon says of the ant, "a shrewd thing in a garden." They select, according to Cobbett, the prime of the dessert-melons, strawberries, grapes, and wall-fruit; and though they do but taste of each, it is not, as he remarks, very pleasant to eat after them. Not many years since they existed in millions in the drains and sewers of the metropolis. Several causes have been in operation to diminish their numbers, and in some quarters of the town almost wholly to extinguish them. In the first place, the method of flushing the sewers lately adopted is exceedingly fatal to them. When the sluices are opened, go they must with the rush of waters, and they may be seen shot out by hundreds from the mouths of the culverts into the Thames. The fact that rats are worth three shillings a dozen for sporting purposes proves, however, the most certain means of their destruction, for it insures their ceaseless pursuit by the great hunter, man. underground city of sewers becomes one vast hunting-ground, in which men regularly gain a livelihood by capturing them. Before entering the subterraneous world the associates generally plan what routes they will take, and at what point they will meet, possibly with the idea of driving their prey towards a central spot. They The ship-rat must not be confounded with the go in couples, each man carrying a lighted water-rat, which is an entirely different species. candle with a tin reflector, a bag, a sieve, and a The latter partakes of the habits of the beaver, spade; the spade and sieve being used for exand is somewhat like him in appearance. He amining any deposit which promises to contain possesses the same bluff head and long fur, in some article of value. The moment the rat sees which are buried his diminutive ears. He the light he runs along the sides of the drain dwells in holes, in the banks of rivers, which just above the line of the sewage water; the he constructs with a land and water entrance to men follow, and speedily overtake the winded provide against destruction by the sudden rising animal, which no sooner finds his pursuers gainof the stream. This animal lives entirely uponing upon him than he sets up a shrill squeak, in vegetable food, which he will now and then seek at some distance inland, and we suspect that to him may be traced many of the devastations in the fruit and vegetable gardens for which the poor sparrows get the blame. We have seen water-rats cross a wide meadow, climb the stalks of the dwarf beans, and, after detaching the pods with their teeth, shell their contents in the

the midst of which he is seized with the bare hand behind the ears, and deposited in the bag. In this manner a dozen will sometimes be captured in as many minutes. When driven to bay at the end of a blind sewer, they will often fly at the boots of their pursuers in the most determined manner.

(To be continued.)

well Female teacher, opportunity

take charge of the School under the care of Alloway's Creek Preparative Meeting of Friends. Application can be made to

G Union-Ville, Chester County, is situated near signed. The higher branches of Mathematics, also

State, whose qualifications have gained her a place Fstitution, having been in successful operation for large, and in every way calculated to secure health the last twenty years, will now receive six or eight and comfort to thirty-five or forty pupils. female pupils as boarders in the family. Age under For Circulars, addressthirteen years preferred.

&c., (page 18 of the Journal, page 345 of Friends' | them, that heavenly and watery cloud overIntelligencer,) the people called Quakers were shadowing my mind, brake into a sweet aboundsuddenly, and with some surprise, brought to my ing shower of celestial rain, and the greatest part mind; and so strongly impressed on my remem- of the meeting was broken together, dissolved brance, that thenceforward I had a secret incli- and comforted in the same divine and holy presnation to enquire further concerning them, their ence and influence of the true, holy, and heavenly way and principles. Lord; which was divers times repeated before the meeting ended. And in the same way, by the same divine and holy power I had been often favored before when alone; and when no eye, but that of heaven, beheld, or any knew, but the Lord himself; who, in infinite mercy, had been pleased to bestow so great a favor.

For Friends' Intelligencer.
SCALE OF NEED.

and heaven and immortality, as well as those that tend downward and abroad to earthly things. Our need answers to our capacity. We might, Let him unfold them without fear. The vast indeed, construct a scale of existence on this supplies from the foreseeing Creator, are ready principle of need. The lower the creature, the in the treasury of his truth. Let him appropriless his need; for the more feeble his sensibili-ate them to his need. And the fish that cleaves ties, the narrower his powers, and the more tor- the liquid sea, the insect that revels in the cup pid his desires. The shell fish needs but to draw of a flower, the beast that browses in his pasture, in from the beating waves, or through a slender or the bird that darts through the yielding air, aperture in the muddy bottom of the sea, a little shall be no more at home or content with its lot, water, and then expel the same through those than he, while the lot he is content with shall stony valves, which are at once his defence and be as much superior to theirs, as "the heaven his dwelling. His finny, swimming superior, and the heaven of heavens" are above the earth. with a more versatile power, needs a somewhat richer nutriment. The insect, with its still finer organization, needs to fly in the air, and to feed on the sweets of flowers. The beast, of structure more complex, and increased capabilities, needs a still greater variety of support; the cravings of each kind of animal nature multiplying exactly according to its additional susceptibilities of sensation, intelligence, and affection, from the creature that is satisfied with a green leaf, and, that consumed, creeps slowly and lazily to anoth er, to the fierce or kingly birds that cut the air of a hemisphere, and seek their prey on the far mountain top, or "where the carcase is" in the lonely valley.

GEORGE STEPHENSON, THE RAILWAY ENGIneer.

[Continued from page 380.]

"The anticipations of the company as to passenger traffic were in like manner more than realised. At first, passengers were not thought of; and it was only while the works were in progress that the starting of a passenger coach was seriously considered. An old stage coach, called the Queen Charlotte,' was purchased at a bargain, and mounted on a wooden frame. This was the entire passenger stock of the Stockton and Darlington line on the day of opening, and for some time afterwards. The number of perBut, from the most sagacious and strongest of sons then travelling between the two towns was the animal tribes, how vast the difference in ca- indeed very inconsiderable, and it was not known pacity of intellect and feeling, to man! And no whether these might be disposed to entrust their less vast, the difference of need. He draws persons on the iron road. Mr. Stephenson, from the earth, from the water and from the air, however, urged that the experiment of a stage to satisfy his appetitites and to satiate his curios- coach was worthy of a trial; and so the 'Queen ity; he ransacks every kingdom of nature for his Charlotte' was purchased and mounted. The comfort and aggrandizement, and is not content. name of the coach was to be altered, and Mr. His restless and changeful wishes are ever roam- Stephenson was asked what he thought they ing abroad for something new, something greater. should call her. The Expurriment,' said he, He cannot stay attached to one place, like the in his strong Northumbrian tongue; and the limpet to the rock." He cannot stop with one coach was renamed 'The Experiment' accordsort of food, like the bee that lives among the ingly. She had also emblazoned on her panels blossoms. He does not, like the ruminating ani- the company's arms, bearing the motto of mal, stand still and peaceful in his own reflec-Periculum privatum utilitas publica." tions. Now, though he should leave his anchorage on the ground, soar into the sky, and for his clumsy balloon, substitute the wings of a dove, could he even then "fly away and be at rest!" He is uneasy, he is needy, he is craving and discontented still. It is because his faculties are so many and so great, because his desires are so ardent and so infinite, that his supplies must be manifold and huge.

66

Is there then no satisfaction for a man? Are we alone in the universe, made to be thus uneasy and discontented, like Jewish children, wanting what we cannot have and crying for what is beyond our reach? No; God has not made his noblest creature for a wretched failure and a miserable want. Let him bring into light all his abilities and desires,-they are not too many or too strong; those of the higher nature as well as the lower; those that tend up to God himself

6

Out of all this sprang the town of Middlesborough-on-Tees. We remember the time, in 1825, when only one farm-house stood upon the spot, around which has spread the future metropolis of Cleveland, with a population already approaching to 20,000.

Then came the renewal of the Manchester and Liverpool project. It was very unacceptable to canal proprietors, some of whom had been annually receiving, for half-a-century, the whole amount of their original investment! Stephenson was at the head of the survey, and he and his men were treated as rogues and vagabonds by resident lords and gentlemen. Pamphlets and prophecies, both of the most alarming nature, were scattered broadcast. They threatened every evil as a consequence of railways, from a general conflagration to the cessation of laying eggs on the part of the hens. And then these interested

soothsayers sought comfort by trying to feel con- That learned gentleman, Mr. Harrison, was very vinced that the whole thing was impracticable. hilarious indeed at the idea of Irish members When daily the practicability became more ap- flying up to a division in carriages at the rate of parent, canal proprietors, so haughty previously, twelve miles an hour;-and "Mr. Francis Giles, began to offer increased advantages of water car- C. E." affirmed that "no engineer in his senses riage to the Liverpool and Manchester merchants; would go through Chat Moss if he wanted to but it was too late." In spite of tremendous make a road from Liverpool to Manchester. Mr. difficulties, the railroad took shape. Very well, Giles said the carriages would all go to the bottom, said the Quarterly Review, such a road is an and that it would be necessary to take this Moss absolute necessity; but "we scout the idea of a completely out at the bottom, in order to make a general railroad, as altogether impracticable..... solid road." Other C. E.'s designated StephenThe gross exaggerations of the powers of the son as that unprofessional person; one styled his locomotive engine, or, to speak in plain English, plans as "very wild," and even the learned the steam-carriage, may delude for a time, but counsel, Alderson, declared Stephenson's promust end in the mortification of those concerned." ject, "the most absurd scheme that it ever Stephenson thought that there had been no entered the head of man to conceive."—"I say exaggeration; and, though he was very much he never had a plan," said Mr. Alderson; “I concerned, he was never in the slightest degree do not believe he is capable of making one." mortified. On the contrary, they were mortified More than one such battle as this Stephenson who saw, and would fain have denied him, his triumph :

had to fight single-handed; but neither abuse, nor sarcasm, nor cajolery, nor piteous howling, "What [said the Reviewer] can be more pal- like that of Sir Isaac Coffin, could move him. pably absurd and ridiculous than the prospect Parliamentary permission was obtained at last, held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as only at a cost of nearly £30,000, and all the stage coaches? We should as soon expect the "C. E.'s" bade "that unprofessional person" to people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be go and do what was impossible. And, Io Paan! fired off upon one of Congreve's ricochet rockets, he went and did it!-not without enormous difas trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine ficulty; but after every disappointment and going at such a rate. We will back old Father Thames against the Woolwich Railway for any sum. We trust that Parliament will, in all railways it may sanction, limit the speed to eight or nine miles an hour, which we entirely agree with Mr. Sylvester is as great as can be ventured on with safety."

querulous "What next?" his calm observation was "We must persevere." And now Chat Moss forms the very best part of the road between Liverpool and Manchester, and it was accomplished at a cost of £28,000, whereas Mr. Giles, C. E. had set down that the formation of a road there would cost £270,000. "He'll get nothing Most of the practical and scientific men in the to run upon it," was a common remark.— kingdom shared these opinions. George Ste- "Certainly not at twelve miles an hour," was phenson smiled good-temperedly, and practically another." Perfectly impossible!" cried a third; proved them to be unfounded. The very Parlia-"let him try it! Impossible!"-And as we all mentary Committee before whom he was ex- know, George Stephenson put the "Rocket" on amined sneered at him as a lunatic when he the line, and drove her at the rate of thirty miles modestly maintained that he could drive a loco- an hour! Then the greatest sceptics began to motive at the rate of twelve miles an hour. conceive that a revolution of an extraordinary The world of science shook its solemn head; and even gentle Religion, growing prejudiced, turned upwards her blue eyes, and seemed to ask forgiveness for the blasphemy of this presumptuous mechanic.

nature was about to take place, and while some prophesied a wide extension of civilization, others looked to their Bibles to see if, in this, the end of the world were not foreshadowed;--but these latter might have found comfort if they had "One of the members of the Committee pressed opened at Isaiah, and found that good advice to the witness a little further. He put the follow- railway travellers, "Whose strength is in sitting ing case: Suppose, now, one of these engines still." to be going along a railroad at the rate of nine or Who, then alive, has forgotten the glory and ten miles an hour, and that a cow were to stray the sorrow of the opening day, the 15th of Sepupon the line and get in the way of the engine; tember, 1830? The triumph of the "unprofeswould not that, think you, be a very awkward sional person" was complete. It was rather circumstance?'-'Yes,' replied the witness, with perfected than diminished by the fatal accident a twinkle in his eye, verry awkward indeed- to Mr. Huskisson.-"The Northumbrian' enfor the coo!"" gine conveyed the wounded body of the unforWhen he talked of getting over the difficulties tunate gentleman a distance of about fifteen miles of such an immense mass of pulp as Chat Moss, in twenty-five minutes, or at the rate of thirtythe opposing counsel pronounced his ignorance six miles an hour. This incredible speed burst inconceivable. So, to them, was his knowledge. upon the world with all the effect of a new and