abreast, by which this difficulty is partially obviated, and the waggons can thus be thrown more readily into a condition of defence in case of attack. Upon encamping, the waggons form a hollow square, constituting, when needed, an enclosure for the animals, and a fortification against the Indians. The camp fires are lighted outside, and the buffalo rugs and blankets are also spread without, the serene sky of the prairie affording the most agreeable and wholesome canopy. In early times it was customary to secure the horses by hoppling them. The 'fore hopple,' a leathern strap upon the fore leg, was more frequently used; though the side line,' connecting a fore and a hind leg, is the most secure. The practice now, however, is to tether the mules round the waggons at intervals, with ropes twenty-five or thirty feet in length, tied to stakes fifteen to twenty inches long, driven into the ground. It was at first thought that animals thus confined by ropes could not procure a sufficient supply of food; but experience has shown that, as the camp is pitched in the most luxuriant patches, the mule or ox cannot consume all within his reach in one night. Moreover, when at liberty they nibble about, roaming in search of what is most agreeable, while, when restricted by a rope, they fall to with earnestness, and clip the pasturage as it comes.

The June freshets' often force caravans to construct buffalo boats, which is done by stretching the hides of these animals over a frame of poles or an empty waggon body, in order to cross the Arkansas river; but generally it is shallow enough to be forded. A little beyond, the ordinary camping ground is opposite the celebrated Caches,' a place where some of the earliest adventurers were compelled to hide their merchandise. The origin of these caches is briefly as follows. Beard and Chambers, alluded to above, having returned to the United States in 1823, induced some small capitalists of St. Louis to join in an enterprise, and undertook to return to Santa Fé in the fall, with a small party and an assortment of merchandise. Reaching the Arkansas late in the season, they were overtaken by a heavy snow-storm, and driven for shelter upon a large island, where, being pent up for three months, their animals perished, and when the spring came they were unable to proceed on their journey with their goods. In this emergency they made a cache, and advancing to Taos procured mules, and returning found their hidden property in safety. The next point of interest on the road is a famous plain, without water, hillock, or land-mark of any kind, extending between the Arkansas and Cimarron rivers, to cross which extensive supplies both of water and provisions are taken. After passing over this ground a plain and perfectly distinguishable track is met

with, and a party of runners now usually make preparations for pushing forward in advance of the caravan to Santa Fé, though yet more than two hundred miles from that city. It is customary for these runners to take their departure from the caravans in the night, in order to elude the vigilance of any lurking enemy. They are generally owners or agents, and their purpose is to procure and send back provisions, secure storehouses, and an agreeable understanding with the officers of the

custom-house.

Some days after this the caravan reaches San Miguel, whence it makes its way for Santa Fé, an arrival in which place Gregg thus describes: A few miles before reaching the city, the road again emerges into an open plain. Ascending a table ridge, we spied in an extended valley to the north-west occasional groups of trees, skirted with verdant corn and wheat fields, with here and there a square block-like protuberance reared in the midst. A little further, and just a-head of us to the north, irregular clusters of the same opened to our view. 'Oh! we are approaching the suburbs,' thought I, on perceiving the corn-fields and what I supposed to be brick-kilns scattered in every direction. These and other observations of the same nature becoming audible, a friend at my elbow said, 'It is true there are heaps of unburnt bricks, nevertheless they are houses-this is the city of Santa Fe.''

Of Santa Fé, New Mexico, and the interior countries supplied by this singular trade, we purpose speaking in a future article.

No. II. THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

Nullius in verba ':-deeds not words.

WHEN Charles II. incorporated the Royal Society, he conferred upon it the right to decide upon all matters appertaining to physical science, and invested it with supreme authority to determine every question that might arise, either as to what was philosophy, or who was a philosopher. This power, in the fullest sense of the word, it has retained down to the present day for it needs but little acquaintance with the history of physical research to shew that whatever dogma the Royal Society condemns, is, upon that sole authority, condemned by the world; and that whatever the Royal Society takes under its sheltering wing, is received by the public as indisputable truth. We shall hereafter examine how this power is exercised.

His Majesty did still more by his Charter. The incorpora

tion gave to science an air of fashion, and placed it at least upon a par with scholastic learning (which, in fact, comprised merely the classics and formal logic) in the eyes of the multitude; and gave it, moreover, the character of a liberal pursuit,' in which even gentlemen may engage without loss of caste.

Notwithstanding, however, the king's liberality in the distribution of patents, charters, and other external marks of his consideration, he was in no way remarkable for his pecuniary liberality. Royal endowments were not abundant unless solicited by some favourite courtesan, and science was not the most likely subject to interest this class of friends at court.' The early members might, indeed, feel they had gained a great point in obtaining a charter which gave them such unlimited authority, and which gave to their pursuits an unquestionable respectability and we conceive that the general diffusion of natural knowledge,' (though crude enough in the minds of the million even yet,) and the public respect which is paid to its cultivators, is traceable, in the main, to that one event.* It is probable, however, that had the king's pecuniary circumstances been different, with a less ravenous suite of personal claimants upon his resources, and had he been, moreover, less addicted to expensive pleasures, he would have been a more liberal patron of the arts, the sciences, and of letters, than history shews him to have actually been. Thus deprived of the means to endow the Society with adequate, or even with any funds to defray its current expenses, the exaction of fees for admission, and in the form of weekly or annual payments became inevitable as the price of the three-lettered tail.'

Though we all feel this necessity, as a personal concern, to be a misfortune; yet viewed in respect of its ultimate effect upon science itself, upon the composition of the Society, and upon the character of those who are devoted to its chartered objects, we cannot but consider it as a misfortune infinitely greater. We are not, in general, advocates for rendering either literature or science dependent on the taste of the minister of the day, or on the caprice of the cotemporary occupant of the throne.

*We allude here to the sciences of observation, to the Natural History class of researches,-not to either pure or applied mathematics. The diffusion of this latter class of knowledge so extensively amongst the productive classes is traceable to a very different source-to the silk-weavers of Spitalfields! Amongst them also originated, considerably more than a century ago, the • Mathematical Society,' which still exists: and the first good and intelligible work on Fluxions was written in the evenings by hands that had been throwing the shuttle all the day-by the hands of Thomas Simpson! With these subjects the Royal Society had little, indeed, to do, (though they were, in fact, Newton's own subjects,) and our Universities had almost as little.

Yet even in this respect there may be exceptions; and, indeed, permanent endowment with actual property does not strictly range itself under this category. Once given, the grant would be irrevocable and the body would be as absolutely independent of the minister, so long as it fulfilled its prescribed functions, as though the property had been lineally inherited from one of the great Norman marauders of the eleventh century. It is true that corporations may abuse their trust-it is also true that they do abuse it: yet safeguards may have been devised, consistent with even the polity of those days-as is proved by the history of the Academie Française, established by Louis XIV., at the suggestion of the great Colbert, in rivalry of Charles's Royal Society.

The first consequence of the increased dignity of the Royal Society was an inevitable increase of its expenditure, to appear well in the eyes of its more august visitors; and the second was, that the reputation conferred by a Fellowship rendered it an object of interest to some, and of ambition to others, to be enrolled among the Fellows. These two circumstances were very opportunely suited to one another, as the increase of the number of Fellows thus rendered it unnecessary to increase the weekly fees of the original members. At the very outset, therefore, of the Society's existence, the motive for augmenting the income led to the augmentation of the number of its members: and the same course has been uniformly pursued to the present day-as the exigencies of the Treasurer have rendered money imperative, or as the fluctuating objects of the President and Council have required a new creation' to vote in some particular manner. Behold the consequence :-the Royal Society is, at length, composed of a heterogeneous mass of scientific and literary, unscientific and illiterate, such as surely were never aggregated together, except in Banks's Museum or Wombwell's menagerie. Our name is legion. We may see jostled together in the most glorious characteristic confusion-the great apostle of mesmerism, Dr. Elliotson, with the 'classic Hallam much renowned for Greek'—our financial friend Mr. Joseph Hume, with Mr. Orchard Halliwell, the profound collector of provincialisms and Nursery Rhimes'-Colonel Perronet Thompson, the reformer of Euclid's parallels, with Counsellor Warren of Ten Thousand a Year'Sir Martin Shee, the rhyming President of the Royal Academy, with Colonel Sabine of Transit-and-Level' notoriety-the modest and venerable Dr. Dalton,* author of the atomic theory, and Mr. Clacquer Wheatstone, the illustrative impersonation of its truth. We may see peers, lay and spiritual-cabinet ministers

We are referring to the past year's list-this 'great light' is now extinguished.

past and present-members of parliament and the landed gentry-lawyers by dozens-reverends in shoals-and amateurs almost innumerable.

Let, however, any intelligent person, acquainted with one or more sciences, and tolerably well read in them, open the List of Fellows,' (that for instance which we have used for 1843-4, and the last issued,) and glance over the names. The first five names are of the aristocracy, and, so far as is known, not one of them possesses the most elementary acquaintance with science, (eminent as one of them is in other respects,) except Viscount Adare, who sometimes makes a summer tour with a geological hammer in his hand. Further down we see the intrepid Mr. Auldjo, who scaled Mont Blanc, and Dr. Arnott, the bed and stove' maker, and the amiable Treasurer of the Society of Antiquaries: all good men,—but what scientific discoveries have they made? Still, out of twenty-two names on the page, there are four of which the Society may well be proud, viz.-Airy, Allen, Audubon, and Babbage; but this is a better than average page in the list. The next page, out of thirty-two names, contains Mr. Francis Baily, Professor Barlow, and Dr. Martin Barry --the first of whom has done good service to practical astronomy, the second to magnetical discovery, and the third to philosophical anatomy. The next still in order, out of thirty-five names, contains only one, Sir David Brewster, who has any real claim to the character of a scientific discovererbut he is a host in himself; though the page contains one name dear to the philologist, the Rev. Joseph Bosworth, one chemical lecturer, and one respectable surgeon. Yet we are ignorant of the additions which these gentlemen have made to natural knowledge' to call for marked notice.

We might proceed through the entire list with corresponding results, but further analysis would only lead to mere repetitions of the same remarks. It is sufficient to say that the great majority of them, except by the payment of their fees,' have never given the slightest indication of being, as their certificates state, much attached to science'; and that those Fellows who signed the certificates must have considered that such payments rendered them useful and valuable members' of the Royal Society. In a financial point of view they have been, and so would any blockheads have been under the same circum

stances.

The Council is, however, very exalted in its notions of fitness for a Royal Fellowship under one aspect, and adapts its operations accordingly. Social station, or at least opulence are, in a great degree, essential to a Fellowship: for though a poor man's last guinea may serve the commercial purposes of the