From a late Petersburgh, (Va.) paper, we have the following account of part of the remains of the formidable confederate tribes of Indians, found in Virginia when Sir Walter Raleigh first ascended St. James' river, at the head of which confederacy was Powhattan, the father of the celebrated Pocahontas. These remains are a few of the tribes of the Nottoways, to which tribe Powhattan belonged, the Panunkies and a few of the Mattahonies. Of the Nottoways, says the account, only 27 now remain, at the head of which is a woman, styled their queen, of the name of Edie Turner, of the age of about 60, and said to be quite intelligent, though illiterate. She is comfortably situated in a cottage, with the necessaries of life about her, and her share of the lands, (about 7000 acres, on Nottoway river,) tolerably well cultivated. The language of her tribe is only spoken by her and two others. It is said to be of Celtic origin, and as harmonious and expressive as the Erse, Irish, or Welch.
'Benefit of Clergy.'—Paper was not made earlier than the fourteenth century—and printing in the century following. The art of reading made a very slow progress. To encourage it in England, the capital punishment of death was remitted if the criminal could read, which is termed 'Benefit of Clergy.' Yet so small an edition of the Bible as 600 copies translated into English in the time of Henry VIII. was not wholly sold off in three years.
Nugæ Antiquæ.—Before A. D. 1545, ships of war in England had no port-holes for guns; they had only a few cannon placed on the deck.
There is no mention of writing in the time of Homer. Ciphers, invented in Hindoostan, were brought into France from Arabia about the end of the tenth century.
Respiration in Frogs.—It appears from a series of curious experiments, performed by M. Edwards, that frogs, toads, and lizards, are preserved alive and in health under water for weeks, by means of the air contained in the water, which they abstract, not by the lungs but by the skin.
Chinese Alphabet.—The Chinese have 11,000 letters in use, and in maters of science they employ 60,000, but their articulate sounds do not exceed thirty.
Method of rendering Glass less brittle.—Let the glass vessel be put into a vessel of cold water, and let this water be heated boiling hot, and then allowed to cool slowly of itself, without taking out the glass. Glasses treated in this way may, while cold, be suddenly filled with boiling hot water without any risk of their cracking. The gentleman who communicates the method, says, that he has often cooled such glasses to the temperature of 10°, and poured boiling water in them without experiencing any inconvenience from the suddenness of the change. If the glasses are to be exposed to a higher temperature than that of boiling water, boil them in oil.