and even by most of the other inhabitants throughout Yucatan, the district of Peten, and the eastern part of Tabasco; the Puetunc, a slight corruption of it, is spoken in this immediate vicinity, and to the south-west, nearly as far as the Pacific. Why this original language should be more corrupted near the ancient seat of empire than in the distant provinces, is no more to be accounted for than the greater similarity of the Portuguese than the Italian to the Latin. The following words are Maya and Puctunc,-king, sun; uh, moon; ek, stars; ha, water; kak, fire. There is a great similarity between these languages and those spoken farther to the south throughout the state of Guatemala, particularly in numeration, which in the Puctunc is as follows, and the Maya differs but little from it ;-1, humpel; 2, chapel; 3, ushpel; 4, chumpel; 5, hopel; 6, wokpel; 7, hukpel; 8, washakpel; 9, bolompel; 10, lakumpel.

With regard to the present inhabitants of these regions, the wild Indians to the south are an uncivilized and timid tribe, who occupy an immense tract of country in the interior of the continent; and the subdued Indians who inhabit the states of Chiapas and Tabasco are equally in a low scale of improvement. When asked who built these edifices, they reply, "The devil!" A pretty village, styled Palenque, and which has had the honour of giving its name to these ruins, was built about a century ago, six miles to the north-east. The longevity of its inhabitants, and the beauty of its women, prove the excellence of this climate. At a party there, a few days ago, I inquired of the priest and alcalde, as the oracles of Palenque, who they supposed were the builders of these ancient edifices. The priest shook his head, and hinted at their being antediluvian! while the alcalde stoutly affirmed that they must have been built by a colony of Spaniards prior to the conquest.-Literary Gazette.

The Plates to the work on Mexican Antiquities, executed by Mr. Aglio, for Lord Kingsborough, also relate to these ruins.-ED.

METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL.

Kept at Edmonton, Latitude 51° 37′ 32" N. Longitude 3′ 51a West of Creenwich. The warmth of the day is observed by means of a Thermometer exposed to the North in the shade, standing about four feet above the surface of the ground. The extreme cold of the night is ascertained by a horizontal self-registering Thermometer in a similar situation. The daily range of the Barometer is known from observations made at intervals of four hours each, from eight in the morning till the same time in the evening. The weather and the direction of the wind are the result of the most frequent observations. The rain is measured every morning at eight o'clock.

NEW PATENTS.

H. H. Werninck, of North Terrace, Camberwell, for improvements in apparatus or methods for preserving lives of persons, and property, when in danger of shipwreck, by speedily converting boats or small vessels of ordinary description into life boats, and other apparatus or means applicable to the same objects. Communicated by a foreigner. September 24, 1831.

J. Lang, of Greenock, Scotland, for improvements in machinery for spreading, drawing, roving, or spinning flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances, dressed or undressed. September 24, 1831.

J. Gillot, of Birmingham, for an improvement in the making or manufacturing of metallic pens. September 27, 1831.

J. Myatt, of Tabernacle Walk, Finsbury Square, for the invention of an article to be worn on the feet as a substitute for pattens or clogs, which he denominates Myatt's Health Preserver. September 27, 1831.

O. St. George, of Great Cumberland Street, Middlesex, for improvements in machinery for acquiring power in tides or currents. Communicated by a foreigner. September 28, 1831.

M. Berry, of 66, Chancery Lane, Middlesex; communicated by M. Jean Nicholas Senéchal, Ingenieur des Ponts et Chaussees, France; for improvements in the boilers or generators of steam, or other vapour, and in engines to be worked by steam or vapour, for propelling or actuating machinery on land, and vessels or other floating bodies on water, and also in the mode of condensing such steam or vapour. September 28, 1831.

J. Heathcoat, of Tiverton, for improvements in the machinery used for making of bobbin or twist lace net, whereby net and other fabrics may be produced. October 3, 1831.

S. Crosley, of Cottage Lane, City Road, Middlesex, Gas Meter Manufacturer, for an improved Gas Meter. October 3, 1831.

D. D. Bradford, a citizen of the United States, now residing in Dorset Place, St. Mary-le-bone, for an invention of improvements in lamps. Communicated by Solomon Andrews, residing at Amboy, New Jersey, in the United States of North America. October 4, 1831.

J. Christopher, of New Bond Street, London, for an improvement in Clothes Buttons. October 7, 1831.

W. Drake, of Bedminster, Bristol, for an improvement or improvements in tanning hides and skins. October 7, 1831.

G. Lowe, of Brick Lane, Middlesex, for an improvement or improvements in and connected with the manufacture of gas for illumination. October 12, 1831. W. Hale, of Colchester, Essex, for improvements in machinery or apparatus for propelling vessels, which improvements are also applicable for raising or forcing fluids. October 13, 1831.

W. A. Jump, of Marston, Chester, for improvements in drawing or extracting salt from salt pans. October 14, 1831.

J. Smith, and W. Dolier, both of Liverpool, for a durable copy-book or writing tablet, and improved delible ink to be used therewith. October 14, 1831.

J. Cowderoy, of Britannia Street, Hoxton, Middlesex, for improvements in machinery or apparatus to be used in the process of making or manufacturing bread and biscuits. October 14, 1831.

T. H. Pollard, of Park Street, Grosvenor Square, Middlesex, for improvements in chimneys, by the application of a mechanical apparatus as a smoke conductor. October 19, 1831.

HORTICULTURE, RURAL ECONOMY, &c.

BEES. It is not to be expected that many will attend to bee-husbandry, merely for the sake of pleasure; but profit may induce others to follow that employment during their leisure hours. Often has the industrious labourer, or mechanic, been relieved from embarrassed circumstances, by the toil and labour of a swarm of bees, when he could avail himself of no other mode of relief. Not only are bees of immediate profit to their owners; but were they encouraged to the extent of which the pasture of the United Kingdom could permit, they might become even a source of national wealth. It is estimated by persons of learning, that the pasture of Scotland could maintain as many bees as would, on an average, produce 4,000,000 pints of honey, and 1,000,000 lb. of wax. Were this quantity tripled for England and Ireland, the produce of the empire would be 12,000,000 pints of honey and 3,000,000 lb. of wax annually. The income that would thus arise from honey, at the very moderate price of 5s. per pint, would amount to 3,000,000l. sterling, and the wax at 1s. 6d. per pound would produce 225,000l. sterling-affording, in round numbers, a total of 3,225,000l. annually. The rearing of the bees must therefore appear to be an object worthy of the consideration of all who feel an interest in the welfare of their coun

try. As there are few concerns more profitable than bees, in favourable seasons, considering the small expense that attends them, I humbly beg leave to lay before my readers the following estimate :-Suppose a person to commence with only two hives, which may cost 31. 10s. sterling; and allowing each hive on an average, only to double their number annually, they would increase as follows in a period of ten years:

1st year,
2nd do.

3rd do.

4th do.

5th do.

6th do.

7th do.

8th do.

9th do.

2 hives.

10th do.

1024 do.

At this rate, two hives would produce one thousand and twenty-four swarms in the period of ten years, which, at a very moderate calculation, would be worth 11. 15s. sterling each; so that there would be a clear profit of 17921. sterling, for a little attention to the rearing and proper management of the bees-allowing the second and third swarms to pay for the hives, stools, labour, and incidental losses. It may be supposed by the above estimate, that the seasons are favourable; but allowing fifty hives to fail, from various causes, there would still remain 17041. 10s. sterling of clear profit.2 The years 1824 and 1825 were very favourable for bees: the latter was remarkably so. Almost every hive that year swarmed once, many of them twice, and a few even three times; when the store was collected, they weighed from twenty-five to forty lb each hive. Notwithstanding, I read in the public papers, that honey, to the value of 240,000l. sterling, had been imported into Great Britain in the course of this same year, 1825-a most extraordinary sum, and one which, in my humble opinion, might have been easily saved to the nation, if a stricter attention had been paid to the proper encouragement of our own bees. With regard to the profit arising from bees, it ought to be considered, that almost the whole income arising from the sale of honey and wax is clear profit, as they are, at least in Scotland, free from rents and taxes; and the culture of them does not impede or injure any other operation; nor do they require the same constant attendance which most other things, in the train of rural employment, call for; as one person, with a little assistance at swarming time, might oversee five hundred hives.

Nature having supplied them with magazines richly stored with food, and enabled them to provide for themselves in due season, they put their owners to little or no expense in that article-which cannot be said of any other of our servants. It is often the case, when a man buys a bee-hive which proves a bad one, that he is led to think that bees will not thrive with him at all, and that it will be vain for him to try them any more. I cannot say any thing, either for or against success in the first trial, but will insist upon good management; and as it must be allowed that bees, when properly managed, are more profitable than many other speculations, it is my humble intention to give some plain and easy directions for managing these very useful insects through the several seasons of the year, that they may prove of advantage to their owners as well as to the country at large; leaving the more curious than useful description of the formation of the bee, its nature, generation, and other properties, to wiser heads than mine.-Treatise on Bees, by J. Wallace, of Dalguise.

COMMERCIAL AND MONEY MARKET REPORT.

ALTHOUGH it may be said that drugs lie in a narrow compass, as far as their quantity in the country, and the amount of capital required in the trade, go; still they have attracted the principal attention of commercial speculators since our last report. The apprehension of the spread of cholera immediately rendered merchants anxious to hold articles that were considered as antidotes to that malady; and the consequence has been that camphor has reached 18l. 10s. per cwt.; cajeput oil 9s. 6d. per oz. from 3s. 6d. and at that price very heavy before the excitement; and oil of peppermint 60s. per h. from 36s.; American oil of peppermint, which was nominally quoted at 3s. 9d. per lb. but was so dull of sale that

1 In South Britain 12s. or 14s. is a fair price for a young swarm and the hive.

2 This calculation appears to us, in the gross, much too favourable; besides which, the author has not allowed for the natural dissolution of the insect, or for its destruction, for the purpose of collecting its store.

this price could not be obtained for it, has been freely bought at 30s. Mustard-seed, and every other anti-cholera article, has proportionably advanced in value. The expected interruption in the commercial relations of this country and China, has also had an effect upon the price of rhubarb and other commodities of that class.

The approach of Christmas has given a temporary, trifling animation to the Sugar Market, but still West India produce can only be noticed as under considerable depression; for even coffee, in which there has of late been so much excitement, has had a re-action produced upon its transactions, and it is only inferior descriptions that are sought after at present. Rum continues very heavy of sale at 1s. 4d. (Leeward Islands.)

The animation that was apparent early in Autumn, in the raw Cotton Market, has disappeared, and this article is held heavily both here and at Liverpool. The home demand has slackened considerably, and depression will continue probably until after Christmas. The raw Wool Market is dull. Silk thrown and raw is held lightly.

Of the leading manufacturers we should observe that they are generally not so active as they usually are, even at this season of the year. In some descriptions of woollen goods there is a great deal doing, but this only partially applies.

There is tolerably extensive business doing in the East India Produce trade, particularly in cinnamon and pepper for exportation.

The affair at Canton, to which we have referred above, has not as yet had much effect upon Tea, in which there is a steady trade and no particular alteration in price.

Indigo has been changing hands steadily, but not extensively, at about the last Sales' quotations.

The home demand for Tobacco has been limited for some time, but there have been some shipping orders executed in lower descriptions.

In Irish Provisions the chief transactions have been in butter.

Hops are well maintained in price, and the trade steady. The duty is not yet out, but it is expected that it will be about 160,000l.

THE MONEY MARKET.-There has been a decided disposition in Consols to advance, since our last report, occasioned by the vast influx of unemployed capital, and the expectation that, at all hazards, war would be avoided. They were gradually rising to the 24th, the settling day in the English Stock Market, when the account became bearish, and three failures were announced; the parties connected with which had all, either for themselves or principals they were acting for, been speculating for the fall. The consequence was, when the defaulters were declared, a general desire to buy in the account was manifested, and the price of Consols went as high as 84. However they did not continue long at that quotation, and are now 833 for the New Account, and 831 for Money. Exchequer Bills have been drooping for several days. The heavy Stocks have fully participated in the firmness of Consols.

In the Foreign Stock Exchange there has not been much doing, but the Transactions that have occurred, as will be seen by the list below, have generally been done at advancing quotations. The scarcity of Russian Stock has given an impetus to it, and reports of a recognition of the Bonds of the Cortes of Spain by the Cabinet of King Ferdinand, which have periodically issued for these six years, have strengthened this Stock in the London Market for the moment. The other Foreign Securities have become firmer by reason of the advance in Consols.

No further failures have taken place than those we have noticed above; and the balances consequent upon the settlement of the 24th, are under regular liquidation on this the pay-day for the differences.

Money is very scarce both in and out of the Stock Exchanges.

BANKRUPTS.

FROM OCTOBER 11, TO NOVEMBER 15, 1831, INCLUSIVE.