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THE FAMILY MAGAZINE.

a vent in a flood of tears, and he arose on the spot and expressed in the meeting his deep sorrow and regret that the writings of his sainted brother should be used for a purpose so vile and shocking. The excitement in New Salem became so great, that the inhabitants had a meeting, and deputed Dr. Philastus Hurlbut, one of their number, to repair to this place, and to obtain from me the original manuscript of Mr. Spaulding, for the purpose of comparing it with the Mormon Bible, to satisfy their own minds, and to prevent their friends and others from embracing an error so delusive. This was in the year 1834. Dr. Hurlbut brought with him an introduction and request for the manuscript, signed by Messrs. Henry Lake, Aaron Wright, and others, with all whom I was acquainted, as they were my neighbors when I resided in New Salem. I am sure that nothing could grieve my husband more, were he living, than the use which has been made of his work. The air of antiquity which was thrown about the composition, doubtless suggested the idea of converting it to purposes of delusion. Thus an historical romance, with the addition of a few pious expressions and extracts from the sacred scriptures, has been construed into a new Bible, and palmed off upon a company of poor deluded fanatics, as divine. I have given the previous brief narration, that this work of deception and wickedness may be searched to the foundation, and its author exposed to the contempt and execration he so justly deserves.

MATILDA DAVISON.

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BEYOND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

AN Indian chief, to whom importunities had been addressed with a view to induce him to remove to a position farther west than that occupied by his tribe, resisted the application upon the ground that the cupidity of the white man would soon reach even that spot, however disand that it would be as well for his tribe to wait their inevitable extermination upon the soil within whose bosom their forefathers had been deposited. The argument was pressed; and with a view to render it more improbable that the new home to which he was invited would ever be in vaded by the rude aggressions of the white man, he was urged to consent to a removal to the delightful hunting-grounds beyond the Rocky Mountains. "It is in vain," said this son of the forest, with a mournful and touching eloquence; "neither mountain nor flood can stay the march of the people who have usurped the dominions of the red man. Even now the cabins of the white settler mingle with the wigwams at the foot of

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those distant mountains, and the red man is fast retreating before the face of the intruders. Soon he will be driven to scale them, and take up his abode on the other side; and yet the white man will follow, and persecute, and destroy him, until the dying shriek of the last of the Indian race shall mingle itself with the roar of the Pacific ocean!"

The prophecy of the savage chief is rapidly approaching its fulfilment. The Rocky Mountains are no longer a barrier to the white man. He has taken up his abode beyond them; and even now, from the distant regions on the other side of the stupendous chain, comes a voice, asking that the laws which govern the rest of this nation of white men may be extended over the dwellers upon the very shores of the Pacific. A petition of this nature from the inhabitants of the Oregon Territory was presented in the senate last session; and the day is evidently not far distant when that territory, of whose very existence a large number of the people of the United States are probably ignorant, will claim her place among the confederated States of the Union. In less than twenty years, in all probability, the whole of the territory within the northern and southern boundaries of the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, will be under the government of separate sovereignties, owing political allegiance to the Federal Government of the Union.

CUNNING OF THE FOX.

MORE foxes are lost when dead beaten than at any other time; and we here show an instance. When the pack is close at him in covert only, instead of going into the field, he drops down into the ditch, and every hound going over him; the pack then makes a swing outside, during which he crawls up the bank back again into the covert, and gets, probably, to the other side before they cast back, by which time the scent, owing to the ground being stained, gets bad, and he has probably time to get fresher, and often steals away without being seen, as all the men are close to the hounds, with the belief that they will kill the next minute; but on these occasions if the huntsman is awake, he will always order one of the whippers-in to remain at the opposite side of the covert. An old fox has been found several times by the pack belonging to the writer of this, and as invariably ran a ring of about three miles, taking a round of small coverts, by which he generally moved other foxes, and saved himself. Ap plication was made late in the season to try one, more day for this fox, as he was suspected of doing mischief among game; he was found as usual, and ran the same ring twice. When running it a third time, the hounds were stopped, and quietly walked back, to the surprise of a large field of sportsmen; and on reaching an open part, as was expected, the hunted fox was seen coming the same line as before, directly toward the hounds which got a view, and so astonished him that he went straight away, and was killed twelve miles (as the crow flies) from where he was found.

London Sporting Magazine.

LITERARY NOTICES....

AFTER two years resting from their labors, the publishers seem to have gone to work again with renewed vigor. We have a basketful of books from the New York publishers, which we must find time to catalogue if nothing more. It is but rarely, that we have space for more than a simple announcement of a work, which is all our readers require of us, unless a work of unusual importance and great utility be ushered into the world; in such cases our duty to our subscribers, demands of us an opinion of the merits or usefulness of the work in question. In the case of ANTHON's Series of Classical School Books, for instance, our notices have been lengthy, though not one quarter of what we could and wish to say, or what their actual import

ance merited. The character of most of the books which fol. low, (with one or two exceptions,) is of the lighter and less useful order of literature. We have in the first place from the HARPERS:

“Public and Private Economy, Part 3;" by Theodore Sedg. wick. Our readers will remember that we made copious extracts from one of the former volumes of this series, a year or two since. There is a great deal of sound and useful instruction in these publications of Mr. Sedgwick and they should be consulted as text-books by all classes of citizens, except "those who know enough already."

In the present part of his work the author avails himself. again of observations made in England in eighteen hundred and thirty-six.

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Algic Researches; comprising Inquiries respecting the Mental Characteristics of the North American Indians," vole. By H. R. Schoolcraft. These two volumes are composed of Indian tales and legends,"published," so says the author, "as specimens of an oral imaginative lore existing among the North American Aborigines."

The "Prince and Pedler." By the author of the Heiress, &c., &c. One of the most readable English novels we have taken up in a long time.

The "Cabinet Minister." By Mrs. Gore-readable, but English all over.

“Chevcly, or the Man of Honor." By Lady Lytton Bulwer. The world are indebted to "family jars," for this perpetration; and the lady has taken this method of inflicting chastisement on her recreant husband.,

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Deerbrook," a novel in two vols. by Miss Martineau. We have not had time to look over this last effort of this maiden lady, but report speaks favorably of it.

We come now to an important enterprise; the “American School. Library." Our readers in the state of New York are probably aware that the legislature has appropriated funds to

We have room but for one quotation at present, and that each school district in the state, for the purchase of a school shall be a gentle rap at fashion :

"And now the great god, Fashion, blows his trumpet on the hills and in the valleys, and away we go to sell our cotton, sugar, wheat, cheese, butter, wool, &c., to buy his wares-the fashions; fans, feathers, flounces, capes, flowers; anything that is blacker, whiter, bluer, greener, rounder, narrower, longer, shorter, larger, smaller than it was the previous season; something that the milliners, tailors, and other fashionable providers in London, Paris, and New York have got together. Of course, I do not speak of those new, valuable, and beautiful productions which, being produced by the improvements of successive seasons and ages, are among the great causes of trade and the civilization of mankind, and which are not to be rejected, except so far as individual prudence and economy require.

library. To supply the demand which might thus arise, the Messrs. Harper, of this city, have prepared a series of fifty volumes, under the above title, with a neat bookcase, &c., the price of which is twenty dollars. The enterprise has been sanctioned by the governor of the state, and other prominent gentlemen interested in the diffusion of useful knowledge; and the secretary of state, who is the superintendent of common schools, says in his report, that the series published by the Harpers "consists of books judiciously selected, and embracing a variety of subjects of the general description heretofore designated by the superintendent, and containing matter suited to persons of almost all ages." The subject matter of the fifty volumes now selected, embraces history, voyages and travels, biography, natural history, physical science, intellectual science, belles-lettres, and miscellaneous.

From SAMUEL COLMAN, VIII. Astor House, we have:

forded."

“Bianca Visconti." By N. P. Willis, Esq.; being No. II. of the Dramatic Library, beautifully printed.

"L'Abri; or the Tent Pitch'd:" by N. P. Willis, Esq. This volume is a reprint of the letters published in the New York Mirror, dated from "under a bridge." We like these letters better than any former productions of this author.

People who live by these arts are the leeches that suck the best blood of the country, and never furnish any aliment by "Athenia, a Tragedy of Damascus :" by Rufus Dawes. which it is restored to the body; in a large city there is, in num- This play forms No. I. of a series which the publisher denombers, an army of those who live by selling fashions; good, bad, inates the "Dramatic Library," "which will be continued," or ridiculous, it is all one to them, but not to us. This is grind-so says the advertisement, "if sufficient encouragement be afing the wind for a living; the grinder must be paid, but what does he produce? There are political economists who think it necessary, in the stagnant world in which they have lived, to take things as they are; who do not consider what is best to be done, and only what has been done; who do not ever dream of what is going on here, and they tell us that all this "is good for trade; that it keeps people at work, and makes their money stir;" which, in a certain sense, is true, and would be very wise, if there were not more effectual ways in the United States "of making people industrious and their money stir." It must be remembered that it is one thing "to make money stir," and another to make money. All practical political economy must have reference to the intelligence of a people, and the improvements that are going on among them. Those who write here upón economy will write for the New, not the Old World; their ideas must be graduated upon a scale upon which are marked out vast numbers to be provided for. It is as certain that there will be a revulsion in our moral sentiments upon the subject of onr present modes of living, as that there are revulsions in trade; the want of the one creates the other. The

"The Jubilee of the Constitution"-An Oration delivered before the New York Historical Society, on the occasion of the fiftieth Anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington as first president of the United States. By JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

From P. PRICE, we have:

"The Layman's Legacy, or Tirenty five Sermons on Impor tant Subjects" by Henry Fitz. One vol. 12mo. Price $1. Mr. Fitz is a powerful writer and severe logician, and handles the opponents of Universalism without gloves.

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AMERICAN CAVERNS.

WEYER'S CAVE.

THE frontispiece of the present number represents a portion of the interior of one of the most remarkable caverns in the world. The subjoined description is from the pen of R. L. COOKE, A. M. of the Staunton Seminary, Virginia, who, in company with his brother and another gentleman, made an accurate survey of the whole cave in

1833.

Weyer's Cave is situated near the northern extremity of Augusta county, Va., seventeen miles northeast of Staunton, on the eastern side of a ridge running nearly north and south parallel to the Blue Ridge, and somewhat more than a mile distant from it.

chamber of this stupendous cavern, where he found his traps safely deposited.

The entrance originally was small and difficult of access; but the enterprise o. the proprietor has obviated these inconveniences: it is now enclosed. by a wooden wall, having a door in its centre, which admits you to the ante-chamber.

At first it is about ten feet in height, but after proceeding a few yards in a southwest direction, it becomes contracted to the space of four feet square. At the distance of twenty-four feet from the entrance, descending at an angle of nineteen degrees, you reach the Dragon's Room, so called from a stalactitic_concretion, which the nomenclature undoubtedly supposed to resemble that nondescript animal.

Above the Dragon's room there is an opening of considerable beauty, but of small size, called the Devil's Gallery. Leaving this room, which is not very interesting, you proceed in a more The western declivity of this ridge is very southerly direction to the entrance of Solomon's gradual, and the visiter, as he approaches from Temple, through a high but narrow passage, that direction, little imagines from its appearance sixty-six feet in length, which is by no means that it embowels one of nature's masterpieces. difficult of access. Here you make a perpendicThe eastern declivity, however, is quite precipit-ular descent of thirteen feet, by means of subous and difficult of ascent. stantial stairs, securely fixed, and you find your

The Guide's house is situated on the northern self in one of the finest rooms in the whole cave. extremity of this ridge, and is distant eight hun-It is irregular in shape, being thirty feet long, dred yards from the entrance of the cave. In go- and forty-five broad, running nearly at right aning from the house to the cave you pass the en- gles to the main course of the cave. As you trance of Madison's cave, which is only two hun- raise your eyes, after descending the steps bedred and twenty yards from the other. Madison's forementioned, they rest upon an elevated seat, cave was known and visited as a curiosity long surrounded by sparry incrustations, which sparkle before the discovery of Weyer's, but it is now beautifully in the light of your candles. passed by and neglected, as unworthy of notice, compared with its more imposing rival, although it has had the pen of a Jefferson to describe its beauties.

Let me remark here, that the incurious visiter, who goes because others go, and is but slightly interested in the mysteries of nature, may retain his usual dress when he enters the cave which I am attempting to describe; but if he is desirous of prying into every recess, climbing every accessible precipice, and seeing all the beauties of this subterranean wonder, I would advise him to provide himself with such habiliments as will withstand craggy projections, or receive no detriment from a generous coating of mud.

The ascent from the bottom of the hill to the mouth of the cave is steep, but is rendered less fatiguing by the zigzag course of the path, which is one hundred and twenty yards in length.

Before entering the cave, let us rest ourselves on the benches before the door, that we may become perfectly cool, while the guide unlocks the door, strikes a light, and tells the story of its first discovery.

It seems that about the year 1804, one Bernard Weyer ranged these hills as a hunter; while pursuing his daily vocation, he found his match in a lawless ground hog, which not only eluded all his efforts, but eventually succeeded in carrying off the traps which had been set for his capture. Enraged at the loss of his traps, he made an assault upon the domicil of the depredator with spade and mattock.

A few moments labor brought him to the ante

This is not unaptly styled Solomon's Throne. Everything in this room receives its name from the Wise Man: immediately to the left of the steps, as you descend, you will find his Meathouse; and at the eastern extremity of the room, is a beautiful pillar of white stalactite, somewhat defaced by the smoke of candles, called by his name, yet with strange inconsistency, an incrustation resembling falling water, at the right of the steps, has obtained the name of the Falls of Niagara.

Passing Solomon's Pillar, you enter another room, more irregular than the first, but still more beautiful; it would be impossible adequately to describe the magnificence of the roof. I shall, therefore, merely observe, that it is thickly studded with beautiful stalactites resembling in form and color, the roots of radishes, which have given the appellation of Radish room to this delightful place.

I cannot refrain here from reprobating the Vandal spirit of some visiters, who, regardless of all prohibitions, will persist in breaking off and defacing these splendid specimens of nature's workmanship, forgetting that a single blow may destroy the work of centuries.

The main passage to the rest of the cavern is immediately opposite to the entrance to Solomon's Temple, and you reach it by an ascent of twelve feet, to what is called the Porter's Lodge. From this place, pursuing the same course, you pass along a passage varying from ten to thirty feet in height, from ten to fifteen in breadth, and fifty in length, until you reach Barney's Hall,

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