explain why the expanded eagle is so frequently alluded to in the prophetical books of Scripture.

It is remarkable that Cyrus, compared in Isaiah xlii. 11. to an eagle, (so the word translated "ravenous bird" should be rendered,) is by Xenophon said to have had an eagle for his ensign-using, without knowing it, the identical word of the prophet, with only a Greek termination to it. So exact is the correspondence betwixt the prophet and the historian, the prediction and the event.

So far as size and appearance are concerned, as well as in power of flight, the eagle must yield the palm to the Condor of America, while the head of the latter, "the likeness of a kingly crown has on." The condor, however, has not the honour of ranking among eagles, being evidently, both from structure and habits, nothing but a vulture.

THE MINERAL KINGDOM.

SILVER.

HAVING, in a former paper, given an account of the purest and most precious of metals, Gold, we now proceed to the description of that which most nearly resembles it in perfection and purity.

Masses of native silver have no determinate form, being found sometimes in small branches, occasionally in hair-like threads, and very frequently in leaves; in which form it is usually met with in the mines of Siberia, where it is said never to have been discovered in a state of crystallization. In the Peruvian mines, it is found in a form somewhat resembling fern-leaves; this figure is caused by a number of eight-sided crystals, so placed over each other as to give it a vegetable appearance. It sometimes assumes the form of round, rather crooked threads, varying from the thickness of a finger to that of a hair. It is rarely found in a state of purity, being frequently mixed with gold, mercury, copper, tin, iron, and lead. Silver is sometimes found in combination with sulphur, The reader is referred to the 276th page of the third volume of the Repository, for a full and interesting account of this remarkable bird.

arsenic, and other substances: when mineralized by sulphur alone, it forms the vitreous silver ore, which assumes a great variety of colors; when united to sulphur and arsenic, the mass becomes the ruby-like ore, varying in color from deep red to dark gray, in proportion to the prevalence of either of these substances.

Silver is found both in the primitive and secondary earths, and is frequently imbedded in quartz, Jasper, hornstone, and chalk. It is chiefly met with in Sweden, Norway, and the polar latitudes: when it occurs in hot climates, it is generally amidst mountains covered with perpetual snows.

The richest and most important silver-mines in Europe are those of Konigsberg in Norway; they are situated in a mountainous district, and divided into superior and inferior, according to their relative position; the beds in which the silver is found run from north to south. These mines are of considerable depth, and enormous masses of native silver are said to have been found in them.

The French mines are not so remarkable for the richness of their silver-ore as for the other minerals they contain. That of Allemont, ten leagues from Grenoble, is one of the principal; it is situated at the height of nearly three thousand yards above the level of the sea: the veins near the surface were the richest in silver. This mine is now abandoned.

The most celebrated of the Spanish silver-mines is that of Guadalcanal in Andalusia, situated in the Sierra Moréna, a few miles to the north-east of the quicksilver-mine of Almaden it was well known to the Romans, and formerly very productive. This mine furnishes the ruby

ore.

Silver, however, is most abundant in the centre of the Andes; for here we find the celebrated mountain of Potosi: it is of immense height, and said to be penetrated with veins in every direction: when first discovered in 1545, the veins were nearly all of pure silver; latterly, however, little more than five drachms were obtained from one hundred weight of ore. In the space of ninetythree years from its discovery, the number of ounces of

silver extracted from this mountain is calculated to have' been no less than four hundred millions.

Among the American mines, those of Mexico must not be forgotten; that of Valenciana, in the district of Guanaxuato, is one of the richest: the vein traverses a slaty mountain, and abounds with silver, both native and mineralized. The mine is of great depth, and is supposed to contain a greater quantity of silver than all the other mines of that country.

Silver possesses all the properties of other perfect metals: it is fixed and unalterable in the fire of an ordinary furnace, but may be volatilized, being sometimes found in the soot of chimneys where large quantities are melted. When exposed to the focus of a large burning glass, it evaporates in a fume, which rises to the height of five or six inches, and will completely silver a plate of metal.

With the exception of gold, silver is the most ductile of all metals; a single grain may be extended into a plate of one hundred and twenty-six-inches long, and half an inch broad: if reduced into leaves under the gold-beater's hammer, it is capable of still further extension: its tenacity, however, bears no proportion to its ductility, being less than even that of iron or copper. A silver-wire, one tenth of an inch thick, will scarcely bear a weight of two hundred and seventy pounds, while a gold-wire of the same thickness will support nearly double that weight.

THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM..

VEGETABLE TITAN.

(Raflesia Arnoldi, or Krubul.)

THIS gigantic flower was discovered in Sumatra, in 1818, when Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES, then governor of that island, made his first journey from Bencoolen into the interior. In that journey he was accompanied by a naturalist of great zeal and acquirements, the late Dr. JOSEPH ARNOLD, a member of the Linnæan So

ciety, from whose researches, aided by the friendship and influence of the governor, in an island so favourably situated and so imperfectly known as Sumatra, the greatest expectations had been formed. But these expectations were never to be realized, for the same letter which gave the account of the gigantic flower, brought also the intelligence of Dr. Arnold's death. This letter was one from Sir Stamford Raffles to Sir Joseph Banks, and in it he enclosed the following extract, written by the lamented Arnold to some unknown friend, (for the epistle was left unfinished,) in which he gives an account of the discovery of this, which Sir Stamford Raffles well denominated most magnificent flower."

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After describing the previous route, Arnold says: "Ať Pulo Lebban, on the Manna River, I rejoice to tell you, I met with what I consider the greatest prodigy of the vegetable world. I had ventured some way before the party, when one of the Malay servants came running to me with wonder in his eyes, and said, 'Come with me, sir, come! a flower very large, beautiful, wonderful! I went with the man about a hundred yards into the jungle, and he pointed to a flower growing close to the ground, under the bushes, which was truly astonishing. My first impulse was to cut it up and carry it to the hut: I therefore seized the Malay's parang, (a sort of instrument like a woodman's chopping-hook,) and finding that it sprang from a small root, which ran horizontally, (about as large as two fingers, I soon detached it, and removed it to our hut. To tell you the truth, had I been alone, and had there been no witnesses, I should, I think, have been fearful of mentioning the dimensions of this flower, so much does it exceed every flower I have ever seen or heard of; but I had Sir Stamford and Lady Raffles with me, and Mr. Palsgrave, who, though equally astonished with myself, yet are able to testify as to the truth.

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the

The whole flower was of a very thick substance; petals and nectary being in few places less than a quarter of an inch thick, and in some places three quarters of an inch; the substance of it was very succulent. When I first saw it, a swarm of flies were hovering over the

mouth of the nectary, and apparently laying their eggs in the substance of it. It had precisely the smell of tainted beef.

"Now for the dimensions, which are the most astonishing part of the flower. It measured a full yard across; the petals being twelve inches high, and a foot apart from each other. The nectarium, in the opinion of us all, would hold twelve pints; and the weight of this prodigy we calculated to be fifteen pounds!"

A guide from the interior of the country said that such flowers were rare, but that he had seen several, and that the natives call them Krübùl. Later information, however, has shown that the Krûbûl, or Great Flower, is much more generally known than its first European discoverers suspected. In some districts it is called Krûbul, and in others simply Ambun Ambun. It is said to take three months, from the first appearance of the bud, to the full expansion of the flower, and it appears but once ayear, at the conclusion of the rainy season. It has no stem of its own, but grows on the roots and stems of a woody species of cissus, (Cissus angustifolia.) Upon this plant the Krûbûl seems to take its origin in some