with water to a considerable depth. To obtain a gradual supply of water for the rice fields, it becomes necefsary to form, in the uneven parts of the country, very extensive ponds, which they call tanks, having sluices at the under part, by which the water can be let off in regulated quantities, to supply the rice fields in the proper season. These tanks are often formed by raising a mound across the lower opening of an extensive valley, and thus to form a large and capacious bason, or artificial lake, sometimes of many miles extent. During the rainy season the sluices are shut, and the water accumulated to a greater or smaller height, in proportion to the abundance or deficiency of the rains. Thus it happens that a great proportion of the soil in these districts is converted into tanks, or temporary lakes, on which no rice can be reared. The natives, however, having discovered that the nymphea aquatica grows as well under, water, as the rice does above ground, and affords large roots, which yield a nourishing food, they plant the bottom of the tanks with these, which, when the flooding has been abundant, yield also an abundant crop; but when it is deficient, the produce of this article also fails in proportion. Thus are they deprived at the same time of this crop, and of the crop of rice, the only two kinds of food that are almost ever eaten by the natives.

Dr Anderson thinks that as the nopal thrives in the driest soil, and prospers luxuriantly in the warmest weather, if that plant were universally cultivated for the rearing of cochineal, in ordinary seasons, it might be ap、 plied as a temporary resource for augmenting the quantity of human food, when the two usual crops fail. The same reasoning applies to the bread fruit tree, which, by rooting deeper in the ground than the ordinary tribe of annual plants, can find nourishment in firmer soils, and during a longer course of dry weather than they could bear. Could these trees, therefore, be established in abundance in every district of the country, they would come to afford

a good crop when the others failed; and were the inhabitants to be brought to live equally upon this fruit and rice, it could scarcely ever happen, that a total failure of both crops would take place at the same time; so as to reduce the people to that extremity of distrefs to which they are so frequently exposed at present.

There are two things, however, still wanted to enable the people to free themselves from every danger of suffering by famine. One is, the practice of feeding some domesticated animals on such fruits and roots as can be there easily reared, that are not reckoned such palatable food by man as rice, and the other food they have been used to; such as that kind of bread fruit that they do not think delicate, but which could be employed in cases of necefsity; for unless they can employ a thing of this sort with profit in ordinary seasons, it is not to be supposed they will ever rear it in such quantity as to prove a great resource in times of scarcity. But if they were in the practice of feeding animals with it, and of eating their flesh; the animals themselves, being first killed, would afford one supply; and the food they would have consumed would afford another supply, which would be highly beneficial. The same reasoning might apply to the feeding of poultry, and other animals, in ordinary years, upon rice. But the prejudices of their religion prove an unsurmountable bar to this salutary practice.

The other circumstance which would tend still more to remove the dread of famines, would be to afford the inhabitants a full protection to their persons and property, and to grant them a similar freedom to trade, as that which is enjoyed by all ranks of people in Britain. Were this the case, there can be no doubt that, in a few years, the certain prospect of gain would induce the rich people to store up such quantities of rice, during plentiful years, as would always supply the call for it in times of scarcity,

wherever it might happen. But this is a measure, which, I am afraid, we may rather wish, than hope to see adopted in our day.

SLIGHT NOTICES OF THE PRESENT SEAT OF WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS.

Continued from p. 36.

NAMUR, Liege, Maestricht, Roermonde, and Venloo, are all upon the banks of the river Maese.

Maestricht is the

largest of these places, and is one of the most ancient and remarkable cities in the Net erlands, particularly for its strength. It lies fourteen miles north of Liege; it is divided by the Maese into two parts, which are joined to each other by a grand stone bridge. The smallest, situated on the side of the duchy of Limburg, is called Wyk. It is one of the strongest fortrefses belonging to the Republic, and likewise one of the principal keys on the Maese. The Jeker, a small river, running through the south side of the town, and falling into the Maese at the bridge, may be checked in its course by means of sluices, and the level country between the town and St Petersberge, (a strong fort about two gunshots to the south of it,) flooded by it. The houses within its walls are about 3000 in number.

Liege is a populous city, about twenty-eight miles lower down the river than Namur. It is a place of no strength; it is about four miles in circuit. Two branch-, es of the Maese, with other rivulets or canals run through many of the streets, forming so many islands, and render it a very pleasant place. The differences that have for some time past prevailed between the prince Bishop and his people, are well known to all our readers.

Roermonde, commonly called Ruremonde, lies on the confluence of the Roer and the Maese, about twenty

miles south of Venloo. It is a populous place, but of no great strength. Here the French had collected their principal magazines for forwarding their operations on the Maese.

Venloo is a place of considerable strength, though of no great beauty, on the lower Maese, in the province of Geldre. It consists of only eight or nine hundred houses; most of the inhabitants are boatmen, carriers, porters, &c. Opposite to the town, lies an island in the Maese, called the Waard, with a strong bastion on it, for the defence of the town on that side; and fronting the island, on the other side of the Maese, stands fort St Michel, situated about two musket fhots from the town. It lies about ten miles S. W. from Geldres, and near forty N. E. from Bois le duc.

Bois le duc is situated at the confluence of the rivers Bommel and Aa, which after their junction here are called the Diest. At about four miles from hence, this river loses itself in the Maese, at a place called fort Crevcœur, from which, however, it may be diverted by means of a sluice, and the whole circumjacent country laid under water. The town is pretty large, and intersected with a great many canals. It was once a place of great strength, owing chiefly to an extensive morass about it, which being now in a great measure drained, renders it much less formidable than formerly. It is about twenty-five miles east, and a little north of Breda, and ten miles from fort Hewsden.

The French minister at war says, he has sent orders to Dumourier, to lay immediate seige to Maestricht. The distance he will have to march from Williamstadt, before he can reach Maestricht, is very near 100 miles, so that even if no enemy fhould oppose him, it cannot be invested in a very fhort time.

** It is hoped the map of the seat of the war will be ready next week, Two letters from G. L. are received, both charged postage. No addrefs of the kind be uses, unless for newspapers alone, can pass free,

THE BEE,

OR

LITERARY WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER,

FOR

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20. 1793.

THE OCELOT.

Ir is somewhat remarkable, that many of the most ravenous creatures are extremely beautiful. The leopard, the tiger, the panther, and the ocelot, though among the most ferocious animals in nature, are also among the most beautiful, especially in what regards the colouring and spots on their skin; though the exprefsion of the countenance is nothing like so pleasing as that of the dog kind, another clafs of ravenous creatures, whose ferocity man has