FOR 1851. SPLENDID PREMIUM TO OLD AND NEW SUBSCRIBERS. The Publisher, grateful for the large increase of patronage which this old favorite of the reading community has received, since it passed into his hands, has determined to offer to the old patrons, and to all new subscribers, a splendid engraving recently published in this city, by Messrs. Goupil, Vibert & Co., from a painting by a well known American artist, William S. Mount, Esq. This Print is entitled, 66 MUSIC IS CONTAGIOUS.99 It is 19 by 24 inches, is printed on beautiful paper, and when framed, will make a valuable and elegant ornament for the drawing-room or parlor. THE PRICE OF THIS ENGRAVING IS THREE DOLLARS. It will be given to all subscribers to the KNICKERBOCKER Magazine who pay their subscription for 1851 in advance, or during the month of January, 1851, and to all new subscribers who commence with January, 1851, and pay in advance. To entitle subscribers to the Engraving, all payments must be made to the Publisher. Subscribers who owe for more than one year will be expected to settle up all arrears and pay for 1851, to entitle them to the Engraving. The bills of specie-paying banks in all parts of the country will be received in payment. The Engraving, will be rolled on a stick and so securely done up, that it can be sent to California, or any other part of the United States, with perfect safety. The Publisher will be greatly obliged to those subscribers who have so frequently interested themselves in behalf of the work, if they will call the attention of their friends to this proposal, and also to the advertisement inserted in the present number. ST. LEGER; Or the Chreads of Life. THE publisher has great pleasure in announcing to the readers of the KNICKERBOCKER and to the public generally, that he has effected an arrangement with Mr. RICHARD B. KIMBALL, the author of this popular and extraordinary Romance, to give the Sequel in the pages of this Magazine. The first chapter will appear in the January Number, and be continued regularly until completed. This work has already passed through three editions in this country, and two in England, and has received more favorable notice from the American and English press than any work of fiction which has been issued during the last five years. All letters on business must be addressed to SAMUEL HUESTON, PUBLISHER, 139 Nassau-st., New-York. ART. I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, NUMBER THREE, II. STANZAS: CLOUDS. BY J. CLEMENT, III. THE DEMON-BRIDE, IV. THE INDIAN LOVER'S FLUTE, V. LINES: A STORM, . . . VI. THE POETRY OF CREATION. BY A STUDENT OF NATURE, VII. STANZAS: THE RIVER, VIII. A SONG, IX. THE CLAIRVOYANT. BY CAROLINE CHESEBRO', X. A DREAM. BY E. PLURIBUS UNUM, Esq., XI. A VOICE FROM GLEN-MARY. By W. H. C. HOSMER, . XII. LIVING PULPIT ORATORS. REV. J. ADDISON ALEXANDER, D. D., XIV. XV. XVI. FAIRIES. FROM THE PORT-FOLIO OF A NEW CONTRIBUTOR, FIRE-SIDE REMINISCENCES. BY BACHELOR BEAUCLERC, XIX. CENTRAL AMERICAN SKETCHES. NUMBER ONE. XXI. LOVE. BY MRS. SARAH T. BALTON, 395 402 403 405 410 412 . 413 413 414 419 420 421 429 430 434 436 442 443 444 455 456 XXII. MUSINGS BY THE HEARTH, BY A LANDSCAPE PAINTER, 2. RELATION OF THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR TO HIS COUNTRY AND HIS TIMES, 463 3. TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION, 464 465 466 4. THE NORTH-AMERICAN REVIEW FOR THE OCTOBER QUARTER, 5. THE ARCHITECTURE OF COUNTRY HOUSES, EDITOR'S TABLE: 1. SOMETHING FOR THE LADIES TO READ, 2. SHORT CHAPTER ON PISON SARPENTS, 3. THE FIGARO' DRAMATIC JOURNAL, 4. GOSSIP WITH READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS, 1. NEW POEM BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 2. PREACHING VS. PRACTICE. 3. DUTCH 'SASSENGERS: WURZ' AND WORSE: MISUSE OF BY WORDS, MISTRUED BY AUTHENTIC ANECDOTES. 4. A HOME-SCENE: THOUGHTS IN THE NURSERY. 5. AN IMPUDENT INEBRIATE: A NOVEL DISORDER. 6. COL. GREENE, VS. THE GREAT SHALES: A CORRECTION. 7. PENDENNIS, BY THACKERAY. 8. A COLD CORRESPONDENCE: MEASURED MOONLIGHT. 9. LINES OF CONSOLATION, ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND IN AFFLICTION. 10. CARRYING WEIGHT FOR AGE: A JUVENILE THEOLOGIAN. 11.A VILE PHRASE EXPOSED. 12. IMPROMPTU ON A CHILD'S CRADLE,' ETC. 13. A PREMIUM' MEAN MAN. 14. AN AMERICAN ORTHOGRAPHICAL REFORMER. 15. OPENING OF THE AMERICAN ART-UNION: AN ARTIST'S CRITICISM UPON ARTISTS. 16. PUFFER HOPKINS' AND HIS PENNY DRAMATIC WHISTLE.' 17. THE ASTOR LIBRARY, AND THE SELECTIONS BY MR. COGSWELL. 18. A DEFENCE OF GAMING. 19. A RESPECTFUL DECLENSION. 20. RELIGIOUS MUMBLING. 21. AN AMUSING SPECIMEN OF LEGAL TAUTOLOGY. 22. THE WAIL OF EXPIRING SUMMER: AN AUTUMN LEAF BY THE PEASANT BARD.' 23. MESSRS. WILLIAMS' AND STEVENS' ART-REPOSITORY: RARE WORKS OF ART. 24. A RAT WITHOUT A TAIL: A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN REAL LIFE.' 25. OUR SAVIOUR AND HIS APOSTLES: FROM THE APPLETON PRESS. 26 DISTORTED PRONUNCIATION IN SINGING. 27. OUR ORIENTAL CORRESPONDENT IN AMERICA. 28. EHRING'S ETCHINGS OF HOOD'S BRIDGE OF SIGHS. 29. CONVERSATIONISTS' VS. TALKERS. 30. MIDNIGHT REVERIES: IMPLORA PACE. 31. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY: COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY. 32. AN ORTHOGRAPHICAL DILEMMA: SOMETHING TO BE LOOKED AFTER. 33. BEAUTIFUL SERENADE BY A NEW CONTRIBUTOR. 34. CANINE RESISTANCE TO ONE OF THE 'PROGRESS' MONUMENTS OF THE DAY. 35. GRANT THORBURN: HIS LITERARY AND MORAL LESSONS: A NEGLECTED REMINISCENCE. 36. THE MODERN CORK LEG.' 37. THE WHIG REVIEW'S ATTACK ON G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ. 38. ANECDOTE OF A DUTCH ADMIRAL. 39 THE NEW-YORK ATHENEUM, BROADWAY. 40. LAKE CHAMPLAIN PURSUING NAVIGATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES.' 41. THE 'RAVEN' STYLE OF POETRY. 42. MAKING THE BEST OF A BAD JOB. 43. THE NEW-YORKER' DAILY JOURNAL. 44. JAMES GRANT: ALDERMANIC HONORS ON THE PACIFIC. 45. AUTUMNAL REFLECTIONS BY A PRINTING-OFFICE WINDOW. 46. AN APOLOGY TO PUBLISHERS, CORRESPONDENTS, ETC. 467 469 470 471 THE Publisher of the KNICKERBOCKER gladly avails himself of this opportunity to return his thanks to the numerous patrons and friends of the work, for the generous interest many of them have taken in extending the circulation during the past year. By their efforts in saying 'a word in season' to their friends, many have been added to our subscription-list, and while we gladly acknowledge our indebtedness to them, we would respectfully suggest that many others, who have often taken occasion to express, with much cordiality and warmth, their satisfaction with our Magazine, could easily induce some of their friends to send us their names. We trust they will bear it in mind. We would beg leave again to say to those in arrears, that it is of the utmost importance to have our outstanding claims settled as early as possible. Though we cannot, like the facetious editor of the BUNKUM FLAGSTAFF, take hay, oats, or grits, in exchange, yet we shall most gladly receive the notes of all specie-paying banks in the United States at par. Our distant subscribers therefore need not wait to be called on, but just enclose the amount due by mail, in the best bills they can get, and we will send them a receipt in full, with our most grateful acknowledgment. Please address S. HUESTON, 139 Nassau-st., New-York. THE KNICKERBOCKER. VOL. XXXVI. NOVEMBER, 1850. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. NUMBER THRED. No. 5. WE have repeatedly alluded to the atmosphere, but nowhere have we given it the notice to which its importance entitles it. It is, as we have seen, intimately connected with the most important telluric phenomena. Out of the air the carbon, indispensable to the vegetable kingdom, is elaborated, and from it animals by the operation of their lungs abstract the oxygen, by which their blood is purified. And in this, as in every thing else, there is a mutual exchange between the two kingdoms. Animals are constantly throwing off carbonic acid, which is essential to vegetable life, while the vegetable kingdom, through the action of the solar rays on the green leaves, contributes to supply animals with oxygen, which is equally important to them. Vegetables,' says Professor Milne Edwards, absorbe the carbonic acid diffused in the atmosphere, and under the influence of the solar light they extract from it the carbon and give out oxygen. We thus see that it is in a great measure upon the relation existing between animals and vegetables that the nature of the atmosphere depends, and that in its turn the composition of the air must in some sort govern the relative proportion of these kings.' The Professor establishes these facts by an analysis of animal and vegetable matter. It was ascertained that the proportion of the elements, oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, were very different in the two kingdoms. The relation existing between them, and their dependance on each other, was beautifully illustrated by the experiments of Priestley, Ingenhaus, Woodhouse, and others. They first confined an animal in a small portion of air, or water containing air, when it was ascertained that it would soon die. They then confined one in like quantity of air or water, and put a plant or plants in with |