ADVENTURES OF A JEWEL-HUNTER. I was about fourteen years old, when my father, who was a lapidary, carried me to the great fair of Cracow, whither he went to make purchases for his business. A crowd was collected before the door of a merchant whom we were seeking, and on inquiring the cause of the assembly, we were asked if we had not heard of the wonderful opal which Schmidt, the jewel-hunter, had found in the mountains, and which had just been bought for the king at the price of 100,000 florins? My father was now as anxious to see the opal as anybody else, and having reached the shop, the merchant took us into a back room, carrying the opal with him, and telling the crowd it was not to be seen any more that day. Whilst my father and the merchant were making their bargains, I kept the precious stone in my hand, admiring it, and thinking of its extraordinary value. I was entirely ignorant of the worth of jewels; for being designed for the profession of the law, I had been put to school at an early age, and was more an adept at my books, than a judge of precious stones. I knew, however, that the stone I held in my hand had been purchased by the king for 100,000 florins, a sum that baffled my utmost powers of conception. All the way from Cracow to Miclinitz I was occupied with the thoughts of it, and every minute was turning my head to look at the mountains, almost expecting to see the colours of the opal reflected from some sun-gilt cliff. A few days after my father returned home, he fell sick, and died at the end of eight days, leaving his family but slenderly provided for. It was now out of the question to think of breeding me for the law, and I petitioned to be placed under the care of a lapidary. My mother consented, and at the window of my garret, which commanded a view of the long chain of the Carpathian mountains, I spent much of my time, often saying to myself, "I see no reason why I, as well as Schmidt, may not find an opal." At the end of three years I requested leave of my master to go and see my uncle at Danavitz, determined to make this journey subservient to my first trial of fortune; and accordingly provided myself secretly with a hammer, and such other tools as I thought might be useful. My uncle received me with great kindness, and by him and his family I was liberally supplied with everything requisite; and with the good wishes of all the family, and injunctions to return in four days, I slung my sack over my shoulder, and marched away to begin my career as a jewelhunter. Nothing could be more buoyant than my spirits were, as I began to ascend the mountains: I felt as if all the riches they contained were one day or other to be my own. This was the very chain among which Schmidt had found his opal,-and might there not be other jewels in the mountains worth ten times as much? I soon fell to work, and continued my exertions without finding anything that in the least resembled a jewel, until I was obliged to stop from exhaustion: this was rather disheartening, but I concluded I had not yet penetrated far enough into the mountains, and I felt persuaded that next day my labours would turn to more account. I awoke before daybreak; and long before the highest mountainpeaks were tipped with the sunbeams, I was making my way over rocks and torrents, not a bit daunted by the unsuccessful labour of the day before, but with the fullest expectation of something to verify my predictions of good fortune. This day I half filled my sack; not, indeed, with opals, but with stones and ores. Schmidt, thought I, did rot find his opal the first time he went among the mountains ; I must not be too hasty in my ambition. The next morning, I began to retrace my steps, filling my sack as I went along, and arrived at the close of the third day at my uncle's house. Great congratulations followed the display of my riches; and my cousins looked upon me as the most wonderful youth in Galicia. Next day I took my leave, carrying my treasures with me; but knowing that more than half of them were worthless, I stopped on the brink of a little stream, and after a rigid examination of the contents of my sack, threw more than half into the water, making myself sure that what I had reserved was worth a hundred and fifty florins at least. I went to my master's house, and found him at work. "I have brought something with me," said I, laying a handful on the table. handful on the table. He took up one and then another; and slightly glancing at them, threw them into a corner which he made the receptacle for rubbish. One handful after the other was consigned to the corner: the last handful was produced, and in it there was one specimen upon which my hopes were chiefly grounded, and upon which I had made some marks, when I displayed my riches to my uncle. He looked more narrowly at this, but ended by saying, All rubbish, my boy; so get to your business." My hopes then were at an end; and the three hours that intervened before bed-time, were the most unhappy of my life. 66 As I lay in bed, it occurred to me that my master might be mistaken, and that the jewel I had marked might be judged differently of by some other lapidary. I crept softly into my master's workshop, and lighted a lamp at the expiring embers of a fire, which he had been using in some of his operations. I then began to search among the rubbish for the stone which was marked, but I could nowhere find it; till at length, weary of my unsuccessful labour, I sat down before my master's table, which was strewed with the instruments he had used in polishing a beautiful stone that lay with the polished side towards me. It was the very stone I had been seeking. I seized on it, stole back to my chamber, dressed myself, and instantly took the road to Cracow, leaving a line for my master, informing him, that having discovered hin to be a thief, I had left his service, and had taken with me my own jewel, which my uncle could prove to be mine, by a mark which I had made upon it. I disposed of my jewel to the merchant I had visited with my father, for a hundred florins; and returned home with a present for each member of my family, and more than eighty florins in my pocket. There was no question as to my future trade. The money that my jacinth fetched served to equip me for my next expedition; and leaving forty florins at home, on my nineteenth birthday I set out for Kostalesko, with the blessings of a mother, and the good wishes of three sisters, all of whom I promised. to portion handsomely, as soon as I had an opal worth but 20,000 florins. Almost every day during a year, I spent more or less of it among the mountains. Sometimes my labours were rewarded; but oftener I found nothing worth so much as a few groschen. Never did my hopes diminish, nor my toil become irksome; and if one blow of the hammer did not loose an opal from the rock, I thought a second might. At length, one day, a stone dropped into my hand, with all the distinguishing marks of a valuable opal. I eagerly proceeded to polish a part, and the varied hues of the opal flashed upon my delighted eyc. This stone was little inferior in size to the one I had seen at Cracow, and I felt assured it could not be worth less than 50,000 florins. On arriving at home, my countenance told the importance of my secret, and the opal was drawn from its hiding-place, and presented to the wondering eyes of the family-circle. The next week the great Cracow fair would take place, and thither I, of course, determined to go. It was soon settled what was to be done with the 50,000 florins, and I left home upon a good horse, bought with the remnant of the hundred florins on the morning of the day of the great fair, with my opal in a leathern-bag, which was suspended round my neck by a copper chain. Before mid-day I arrived at the capital, and, having put up my horse, walked towards the great square. I had no reason to doubt the integrity of the merchant with whom I had formerly dealt; but before finally disposing of my treasure, I wished to enjoy the triumph of possessing it, and of buzzing about the rarity and value of my possession. As I went onward, my attention was fixed by the extraordinary richness and variety of a display of wares upon a long row of tables, placed beneath an awning, behind which an Eastern merchant was smoking. Every species of costly and rare merchandise lay upon the tables. But the contents of one other table eclipsed them all it was covered with all kinds of precious stones ranged in rows, circles, and pyramids, but among them I saw no opal. Friend," said I, "you reign the emperor of the fair upon your tables are concentrated the riches of all the cities of the East; and yet, there seems one thing wanting." "What," said he, without removing his pipe, "would you desire to see added?" "I see," replied I, "this beautiful pyramid, composed of precious stones, with this fine pearl surmounting the whole; but for this pearl I would substitute an opal," "I could soon make that change," said the merchant, "but to my mind the pearl brings the pyramid to a better point. There is not a jewel, young man, that ever came out of the bowels of the earth, that I have not in my possession; and I will venture the worth of this pyramid that I can show a better stone of every kind than any other merchant in Europe." I replied, "I have not the value of the pyramid to stake, but I will venture the value of a jewel which I will produce, that you will not match it." "Name its value," said the merchant, " and I will take your word for it: select its worth among these jewels, place your own opposite, and whoever gains shall take up both stakes. You your self shall decide whether or not I produce a jewel more valuable of its kind than yours." This I thought extremely fair, and selected a diamond which I judged to be worth 50,000 florins. I now pulled the chain over my head, and opening the leathern purse, drew forth my opal. "A fine opal, indeed," said the merchant, "and worth more than the diamond you selected, and precisely the thing for the top of the pyramid. My own, you see, is too large," added he, opening the lid of an ebony box, and laying upon the table the very opal that Schmidt had sold to the king. What were my feelings at that moment! The object of my toil, and hopes, and promises, gone from me in an instant, and by my own folly and vanity. The merchant deliberately resumed his pipe, took up my opal, and displacing the pearl, crowned the pyramid with the opal. "Now," said he, "the pyramid is faultless." He then returned his own opal into the box, and calmly began to arrange some of his wares. I turned away in the deepest dejection, and repaired to the shop of the merchant whom I knew. "How could you be so mad," said he, "as to stake any opal against Haranzabed? Had you come to me first, you would have known that the king pledged his opal to that merchant for a loan, upon condition that he should not exhibit it openly at the fair." I sold my horse, and instead of turning homeward with 50,000 florins, I had but 200, partly the price of my horse, and partly the balance of a debt owing to my father. I was still a jewel-hunter, and had still my fortune to make; yet, at this very moment, when my hopes were nearly crushed, they began to rise again; and the very hour that witnessed the destruction of all my expectations, saw also born within me, a sturdier determination than ever to renew them, and as firm a persuasion that they would yet be rewarded. Providence, however, has not yet thought fit to crown my hopes, but I have lived happily. Never has my hammer laid open the lustre of another opal, but I have always been cheered on by expectation; my toil has never been rewarded by independence, but it has brought me food and raiment, and left me something to wish for: I have never entered Cracow again with the exulting thought that I was about to possess myself of 50,000 florins, but neither have I ever quitted it with the painful reflection, that I have lost the fruit of a year's labour, and of many years' hope I have had no portions to bestow upon my sisters, but they have married, and been happy without them: no provision to settle upon my mother, but she is long ago beyond the need of it: no barony to offer Ronza, but she has never appeared to wish for more than she possesses. Old age steals fast npon me, and so would it if I had possessed riches : death has no greater terrors for the poor than for the rich man; nor has he so much to disturb the serenity of his meditations. My children regret that I should leave them, and their regrets are sincere, because when I am gone they expect no equivalent; yet had I now even youth and vigour, I would still pursue the occupation, which I trust my children will never desert, for one day or other their labours will be rewarded. Schmidt has not found the first opal, nor myself the last; and riches may be enjoyed by him who knows how to use them, Go on, then, my children; do not shrink from toils which your father has borne, nor despair of the success which he once achieved, and of which the inexperience of youth only robbed him of the reward. [Abridged from Solitary Walks through many Lands.] VALUE OF TIME, AND IMPORTANCE OF EARLY HABITS OF DILIGENCE AND INDUSTRY. ON by far the greater part of you, it is incumbent to acquire those qualities which shall fit you for action, rather than speculation. It is not, therefore, by mere study, by the mere accumulation of knowledge, that you can hope for eminence. Mental discipline, the exercise of the faculties of the mind, the quickening of your apprehension, the strengthening of your memory, the forming of a sound, rapid, and discriminating judgment, are even of more importance than the stores of learning. If you will consider these faculties as the most precious gifts of nature,-if you will be persuaded, as you ought to be, that they are capable of constant, progressive, and, therefore, almost indefinite improvement, that by arts similar to those by which magic feats of dexterity and bodily strength are performed, a capacity for the nobler feats of the mind may be acquired, the first, the especial object of your youth, will be to establish that control over your own mind, and your own habits, that shall ensure the proper cultivation of this precious inheritance. Try, even for a short period, the experiment of exercising such control. If, in the course of your study, you meet with a difficulty, resolve on mastering it; if you cannot by your own unaided efforts, be not ashamed to admit your inability, and seek for assistance. Practise the economy of time; consider time like the faculties of your mind, a precious estate, that every moment of it well applied is put out to an exorbitant interest. I do not say, devote yourself to unremitting labour, and sacrifice all amusement; but I do say, that the zest of amusement itself, and the successful result of application, depend in a great measure on the economy of time. When you have lived fifty years, you will have seen many instance in which the man who finds time for everything, for punctuality in all the relations of life, for the pleasure of society, for the cultivation of literature, for every rational amusement, is he who is the most assiduous in the active pursuits of his profession. Estimate also, properly, the force of habit; exercise a constant, an unremitting vigilance, over the acquirement of habit, in matters that are apparently of entire indifference, that, perhaps, are really so, independent of the habits they engender. It is by the neglect of such trifles that bad habits are acquired; that the mind, by tolerating negligence, procrastination in matters of small account, but frequent recurrence, matters of which the world takes no notice, becomes accustomed to the same defects in matters of higher importance. If you will make the experiment of which I have spoken, if for a given time you will resolve that there shall be a complete understanding of everything you read, or the honest admission that you do not understand it; that there shall be a strict regard to the distribution of time; that there shall be a constant struggle against the bondage of bad habit, a constant effort which can only be made within to master the mind, to subject its various processes to healthful action,-the early fruits of this experiment, the feeling of self-satisfaction, the consciousness of growing strength, the force of good habit, will be inducements to its continuance, more powerful than any exhortations. These are the arts, this is the patient and laborious process by which, in all times, and in all professions, the foundations of excellence and of fame have been laid. I am well aware that the observations I have addressed to you have nothing of novelty to recommend them; that the truths to which I have adverted are so obvious, that they scarcely require the aid of reasoning to enforce them. But they are truths of vital importance, and it too frequently happens that the ready assent which we give to them has not the practical influence on our conduct which it ought to have. If it had, how many of us would have been spared the painful retrospect,-that retrospect which you may avert, but which we cannot,-of opportunities lost, time mispent, habits of indolence or negligence, become inveterate. Hitherto, I have referred exclusively to the considerations of worldly advantage and worldly fame, as encouragements to early or continued exertion. You have other incitements to labour, other rewards of virtuous exertion, should the hope of praise or glory be obscured. You have the express command of God to improve the faculties which distinguish you from the beasts that perish. You have the awful knowledge, that of the use or neglect of these faculties a solemn account must be rendered. You have the assurance of an immortality different from that of worldly fame. By every motive which can influence a reflecting and responsible being, "a being of a large discourse, looking before and after," by regard for your own success and happiness in this life, by the fear of future discredit, by the hope of lasting fame,-by all these considerations do I conjure you, while you have yet time, while your minds are yet flexible, to form them on the models which are the nearest to perfection. By motives yet more urgent, by higher and purer aspirations, by the duty of obedience to the will of God, by the awful account you will have to render, not merely of moral actions, but of faculties intrusted to you for improvement,-by all these high arguments do I conjure you, so "to number your days that you may apply your hearts unto wisdom;" unto that wisdom, which, directing your ambition to the noble end of benefiting mankind, and teaching you humble reliance on the merits and on the mercy of your Redeemer, may support you "in the time of your tribulation," may admonish you" in the time of your wealth," and "in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment," may comfort you with the hope of deliver ance. [SIR ROBERT PEEL's Address to the Students of Glasgow University.] THE SONG OF THE BREEZE. I'VE swept o'er the mountain, the forest and fell, I have moaned in the ear through the rosy shell; I have roamed alone by the gurgling stream, I have danced at eve with the pale moonbeam; I have hung over groves where the citron grows, I have sped the dove on its errand home, DISTANCE in truth produces in idea the same effect as in real perspective; objects are softened and rounded, and rendered doubly graceful; the harsher and more ordinary points of character are melted down; and those by which it is remembered, are the more striking outlines, that mark sublimity, grace, or beauty. There are mists, too, in the mental as in the natural horizon, to conceal what is less pleasing in distant objects; and there are happy lights to stream in full glory upon those points which can profit by brilliant illumination.-SIR WALTER SCOTT. NOTES ON FOREST TREES. No. VIII. THE WEYMOUTH PINE, (Pinus strobus, Linnæus.) from our own colonies, there would be the greatest difficulty in procuring masts for our navy, and it is a singular fact that the French Government also draws a part of its supplies of masts from Canada. Trees for masts are, however, difficult and expensive to procure, being often required ninety-nine feet long, and thirty inches cube, at fourteen feet from the but; measuring, when dressed, above thirteen loads of fifty cubic feet. Those in the neighbourhood of navigable waters, have long ago been cut down, and they must now be looked for in the recesses of the forest, perhaps three, four, or five hundred miles from the place of shipment, and require a road to be cut through the bush for their conveyance from the locality of the tree to the nearest water-course. Even in new and hitherto untouched parts, not one tree in ten thousand is fit to convert into a mast of the smallest size for the Royal Navy. The lumbering business in Canada is one of great hardship and endurance. The establishment of a first-rate Shanty, as it is called (Chantier, French) by the Americans and settlers, from the French Canadians, is a matter of great outlay. It must be commenced by the 1st of October, for the supply of the succeeding year. The party, consisting of from thirty to sixty persons, with as many horses and oxen, with provisions and provender for six months, fix themselves in a neighbourhood previously selected; the Advance made by the merchant of Quebec, Montreal, or St. John's, (as it may be,) amounting to little short of two thousand pounds. THE WEYMOUTH PINE.-WHITE PINE OF COMMERCE. THIS beautiful species of Pine, so well known for many years past as the Weymouth Pine of our shrubberies, appears to have become naturalized with us. It is, however, a native of the northern parts of the continent and islands of America, to which alone it is peculiar, being by far the most abundant in our own provinces of Canada and New Brunswick. Its leaves burst out from the sheath in clusters of five, and in its growth it shows a tendency to a spiral turn, particularly visible in masts of vessels. It is the most majestic of the trees of the Canadian forest, with the exception of some of the family found in the "far West," in the neighbourhood of Columbia River, reported to be often 250 feet high, and 50 in circumference, whilst the White Pine is rarely found to exceed 150 feet in height, and five in diameter at the foot. When growing in open space, it is beautifully feathered to the ground, but in the Canadian forests is no more than an immense stick, with a small quantity of brush at the head, in about the same proportion as hair on the tail of an elephant. The age to which it attains is not known; 1500 annular lines have been counted, each being considered as indicative of one year's growth. It is the White Pine of commerce, and from its large size, small specific gravity, straightness of growth, freedom from knots, and facility in working, the consumption is immense, being equally in repute for the largest masts of our men-of-war and the smallest article of carving or interior decoration. As it resists the sun, and is not brittle, it is greatly preferred by the Americans for the decks of their ships; whilst in this country, it is equally prized for the manufacture of musical instruments; were it not for the supply! LEAVES AND BLOSSOM OF THE WEYMOUTH PINE. This timber is imported into Great Britain both in square timber and deals, probably in no very different proportion. The former being called White Pine, and the deals Yellow Pine, possibly to distinguish them from the White Deals of the Baltic, which are cut from the Spruce Fir, or Abies. The importance of this tree to the commerce of this country, may be in some degree estimated from the fact, that nearly four thousand cargoes, generally of large vessels, are loaded annually from Canada and New Brunswick, nearly two-thirds of which may be considered as composed of White Pine, either as square timber or in deals. As a great deal has been said of a tendency in this timber to what is called dry rot, we shall shortly refer to this subject. N. G. LONDON: JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS PRICE SIXPENCE. Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in the Kingdom. |