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concerts, which, for a time, proved successful and afforded quite a lucrative revenueThis mode of life, however, soon became so distasteful to the sisters that they abandoned it, and became inmates in the families of two of our most respectable citizens.

Soon after this period, Emma removed to Flatbush, L. I., took up her residence in the family of Mr. Kellogg, the principal of the Flatbush Academy, and became a teacher of music in that Seminary. At this place she became acquainted with Mr. Charles J. Bostwick, to whom she was, soon afterwards, united in marriage.

Although a musical prodigy, she was but eleven years of age, and but few could be made to believe that a mere child like herself was competent to give anything like a satisfactory public entertainment. However, Louisa, nothing daunted by the many obstacles in her way, vigorously prosecuted her arrangements; and her friends, inspired, at last, by the child's indomitable perseverance and energy, with confidence in the scheme, came to her aid; the concert was given; the performances were received with immense applause, and a large sum of money was realized. The family being thus placed beyond the reach of immediate want, Louisa Mrs. Bostwick's duties, as a Teacher, were made more permanent arrangement for the at this time exceedingly onerous. Indeed, fature. She obtained regular employment no person has ever led a life of severer toil in as a music teacher, and otherwise contribu- her profession. The artist's pathway thro' ted largely to the support of her orphan sis-life is always beset with innumerable diffi ters. Emma, even at that time, possessed culties, and but few are able to bear up a voice of great power and wonderful sweet-against them so as to maintain a respectable ness, which, by the judicious culture of her position in society, preserve their honor ungifted sister, was remarkably developed, and sullied, and secure the enjoyments of a hap thus was laid the foundation of that voice py home. As a general thing, public singwhich is now matured in the sweet, mellow ers and players are the most miserable resand flowing tones of the accomplished singer. pectable people in the world, when out of Emina was too young, however, to aid in the concert room. They are looked upon the support of the family, but she was wil- with distrust by the Christian community; ling to do anything in her power to gratify their homes are disorderly and cheerless; the wishes of her sisters. their incomes are precarious; their supplies of the necessaries of life are still more preca

About this time, Mr. John Paddon, organist of Exeter Cathedral, in England, a musi-rious, inasmuch as their occupation compels cian of some eminence, and an excellent composer, married the eldest sister, and immediately took charge of Louisa's and Emma's musical education. In his discipline and instruction Mr. Paddon was rigid and severe, but his tuition was of great service to Emma, laying thoroughly the foundation of that musical knowledge which, aided by her own genius, has made her one of the most accomplished singers of the age. Such was her rapid progress, that at the age of twelve years she could sing the most difficult music, and execute those classical passages of the composer which ordinary minds require years of practice to accomplish. Paddon soon commenced the itinerant plan of visiting adjacent cities for the purpose of giving 1.Vo 6, No. 5-15.

them to maintain a fashionable and showy exterior, no matter to what straits they may be reduced; and when personal charms fade away, and the voice loses its sweetness and can no longer please, then, miserable indeed is the after life of the once petted favorite. But Mrs. Bostwick's strong good sense and natural purity and nobility of character, have always guided her through the shoals and quicksands whereon so many members of her profession are annually wreckedShe has always esteemed the position of a a wife and mother far more highly than that of a public favorite. Her dearest affections are lavished upon her family, and she simply uses the rare musical endowments so bountifully bestowed upon her by nature,to obtain

means to support and educate her children, her own wishes and those of her most ardent and to surround her home with those com- friends. forts, elegancies and refinements which con- In October last, with full health and vigor, tribute so largely to domestic happiness. she gave herself seriously to the task, and Indeed, her exceeding modesty and refine-announced a series of six concerts. They ment of feeling always caused her to shrink were commenced and continued at Niblo's from public exhibitions of her musical powers; but a seeming Providence has led her to adopt a course so painful to her feelings, and thus given to the world another source of refined enjoyment.

Saloon. The first was well attended, and made such an impression on the public that soon the room could not accommodate the numbers that desired to hear her. A second series was immediately proposed, and has been given to delighted and crowded audi

ences.

As before stated, Mrs. Bostwick's duties as a teacher, were exceedingly laborious, yet they did not deter her from rigidly adhering musical public. In the whole annals of mu

to a severe course of study and practice that she had prescribed to herself. She worked early and late; and to these excessive and persevering labors may be ascribed much of her brilliant success and eminence in the Di

vine Art. Unfortunately, her physical strength was unequal to her mental activity and ambition, and her health gave way under the pressure of the extraordinary labors which she imposed upon herself. At this juncture, her friends, fearful that, unless she could be relieved from her labors, and could be diverted from her severe studies, the consequences would be fatal, determined to induce her to abandon her occupation, and give herself to the public. After much per suasion, she yielded to their urgent solicitations to give a "few concerts," and about eighteen months since, she emerged from her retirement and gave her first concert.The spacious hall was crowded with the admirers of Emma Gillingham; and though her physical ability was not adequate to the development of all her powers, yet it was sufficient to give the greatest delight to her friends, and make an almost universal de

These are events that have astonished the

An

sic no such event ever occurred before. American lady, without the prestige of an European name and education, in the face of a musical furore created by one of the greatest foreign celebrities, and almost inviting a

comparison of voice and skill, had the audacity to propose and continue twelve successive concerts, and actually, at a single bound, took rank, in the opinion of those best qualified to judge, with some of the best and proudest of European names.

Mrs. Bostwick possesses a voice of great sweetness; it being unsurpassed in this respect, in its upper register, by the voice of any songstress that has yet appeared among us. She has extraordinary compass, extending three full octaves, from E to E. Her musical intonations are of great flexibility, equalling those of the celebrated Cinta Damoreau. Her embellishments are conceived with fine taste, and executed with great brilliancy and effect. Her chromatic runs and trills are graceful and remarkably true, while nothing can be more finished and perfect than her crescendo and diminuendo.mand from the public, that she should adopter's design, she truly illustrates his intentions Possessing a just conception of the composthis mode of life. A few more concerts, in the method by which she renders the muequally successful, were given at long inter-sic assigned to her. The beholder would vals; but she did not finally accede fully to the wishes of the public, till a change of climate and cessation from labor had effected such an entire change in her physical condition, that she was fully able to accomplish

naturally expect this on gazing on her noble and expansive brow and finely formed intellectual head; which are but the natural indexes of those mental acquirements that art and study have so thoroughly matured.

That Mrs. Bostwick has at length consented to give to society such sources of refined enjoyment as those which so justly claim the delight and admiration of all who listen to the music of her voice, is a subject of congratulation to the respectable and intelligent families of the country, as well as to her numerous friends and admirers. We must not forget to state, with the soberness of truth, that there are eircumstances associated with the position and character of this lady, which tend greatly to enhance the value of her professional celebrity. She is emphatically of us, and with us—a daughter of the great American family, no less distinguished for her eminent private worth, than for her gifted acquirements in that Art which is the true and faithful exponent of the most sacred feeling. In this restless age of speculation, charlatanism and ambiguous notoriety, which everywhere diversify the surface of society, it is quite refreshing to contemplate individuals eminent in intellectual acquirements, and adorning, by their virtues, the calm, simple and secluded walks of life. Of this description it would be difficult to find a more perfect specimen than the subject of this sketch. Modest and unassuming in her deportment, amiable and gentle in her disposition, and constant in her charities to the poor, she is still more exalted in the higher positions of Wife, Mother and Friend, and in the faithful discharge of those obligations appertaining to that sphere in which woman finds her purest enjoyments and her highest duties.

We close this article with the following beautiful tribute, paid by the poet Hosmer, to the enchanting strains of Mrs. Bostwick, which was published some time since in the Tribune:

TO MRS. E. G. BOSTWICK.
Sing on! unrivalled warbler! never more
Will mortal ear be blest by such a strain-
Its sweet, enamored echo will remain
Until the fever of this life is o'er.
Such notes were heard in Eden, ere its bowers
Were sullied by the clinging taint of sin-
When all was pure the human heart within.
And sunshine lay upon unfading flowers.

I would not for a blest hereafter pray-
A Heaven for which the troubled spirit longs-
If, in its halls, I could not hear alway

Enchanting, thrilling music like thy songs.
Sing on, thou Bird of Melody, and fi!l
My heart with rapture, till its pulse is still.

GEOLOGICAL AGENCIES.

BY PROF. HITCHCOCK.

All correct reasoning in the natural sciences is based upon the uniformity of nature's operations. Laws of nature are merely the modes in which the powers of nature act; and our belief in the constancy of these laws rests upon the observed fact, that under the same conditions Nature always operates in the same way. We are hence led to seek for the causes of geological phenomena, in the agencies which we at present see in operation. Since the discussion of the Wernerian and Huttonian views, and the general reception of the latter, it has been an admitted principle in Geology, that existing rocks are, for the most part, the result of agencies still operating, and that the process of formation of nearly every class, is still going on. This principle, we propose, in the present article, briefly to illustrate.

Our winter frosts, our summer showers, our mountain rivulets, we see all actively at wk, wearing away existing rocks, and converting them into the detritus which is borne along by our larger rivers, and deposited, in inundations, along their banks, or carried to their mouths, there to form new deltas or islands. As this detritus varies in quantity and mineral character at different times, according to the activity of the agencies which have produced it, and the nature of the rocks of which it has been formed, so do the successive deposits vary in thickness and mineral constitution.

In these deposits are also found enveloped great numbers of shells and skeletons of land animals. The amount of detritus carried down by different rivers, varies greatly, as is strikingly seen on comparing the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The waters of the

former, above their junction, are comparatively clear, while those of the latter are almost opaque, in consequence of the sand and mud which they contain.

lakes and seas where mineral springs abound, as is the case in many parts of Italy; also in successive layers of the shells of molluscous animals in which the ocean abounds; but

It is estimated that the Rhine, a compara-especially in the extensive coral formations tively small stream, carries down four hun- of the Pacific and Indian oceans. The midred and fifty tons daily. By this means, croscope has revealed the wonderful fact, in process of time, have the Netherlands that chalk and many other limestone rocks, been formed. The amount carried down by are almost exclusively composed of innumersuch streams as the Ganges and Amazon, is able shells of minute infusoria. These rocks immensely greater. The latter is said to need only to be subjected to certain degrees muddy the sea water three hundred miles of heat to be converted into pure granular from its mouth, and it is well known that marble. the mouth of the Nile is several miles from If then, our present rocks have been formwhere it was two thousand years ago. An-ed at the bottom of the ocean, as would apother active agent in forming aqueous de- pear from what has been stated, how have posits, is seen in the tides and waves of the they become dry land? What forces are at ocean, which are constantly making inroads present in operation. at all adequate to upupon our coasts, wearing away even the heave them from their ocean bed and form most rocky portions, and spreading them them into continents? The subterranean in the form of sand, pebbles and mud over forces which can produce such earthquakes the ocean's bed. The numerous ripple and volcanoes as have occurred within hismarks discovered in our hardest sandstones, toric times, and are even yet occurring, need show that they were once the sandy beach scarcely to be increased in intensity to be of the ocean. All these deposits mentioned, able to raise not only the bottom of the need only to be solidified, to form rocks re-ocean to a level with existing continents, but sembling, in mineral characteristics, the various sandstones found in the earth's crust. Strata may be solidified in various ways.Water often holds corbonate of lime and oxide of iron in chemical solution, which it deposits when passing through layers sand and gravel, cementing them firmly together. It has also been proved by experiment, that pressure alone is capable of making particles of dry sand adhere with considerable tenacity. When, therefore, strata of great thickness have been piled upon each other, the immense pressure to which the lower strata would be subjected, would be sufficient to form the most compact sandstones. Internal heat, whose existence is evinced by earthquakes and volcanoes, is probably the most important agent in the solidification of strata.

Examples of the formation of limestone rocks, which constitute so large a portion of the earth's crust, may be seen in the deposition of carbonate of lime at the bottoms of

even to elevate it to the heighth of our highest mountains. We have, too, decisive evidence that this elevating process is going forward at the present time. It has been observed for centuries, that the northern portion of Sweden has been gradually rising, while the southern portion has been sinking In one part the sea has been receding, in the other it has been encroaching upon the land. There have also been successive elevations of the western coast of South America, some of which have taken place since that region was peopled. Several distinct sea beaches are observable above each other.

The forces which have produced such disturbances, would also account for the lifting up, bending and dislocating of many of the stratified rocks seen especially in mountain

ranges.

These few illustrations must suffice to show that most of the phenomena of the stratified rocks, may be seen to be the result of causes now in operation, and that

HUNTING AN ALLIGATOR.

these causes are still producing like results. With respect to the unstratified crystalline formations, which are admitted to be of igneous origin, it cannot of course be proved In the course of the year 1831, the proby actual examination, that they are still prietor of Halahala at Manilla, in the Island forming. But of the action of powerful ig-lost horses and cows on a remote part of Luconia, informed me that he frequently neous forces, we have abundant evidence in earthquakes and volcanoes; and we have clear proof that both trap and granite have been formed at successive epochs. Since then the agency which has produced them is still operating, we should conclude from analogy that they are to some extent, yet forming, though their formation is concealed from our view, trap rocks being the product of submarine volcanoes, while granite has its origin deep within the earth. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that many volcanoes have long periods of quiet, others have altogether ceased action, while in other places new ones are breaking out, showing, that in some places the cooling, at others the melting process is going on at the same time.

his plantation, and that the natives assured him that they were taken by an enormous alligator who frequented one of the streams which run into the lake. Their descriptions were so highly wrought, that they were attributed to the fondness for exaggeration to which the inhabitants of that country are peculiarly addicted, and very little credit was given to their repeated relations. All doubts as to the existence of the animal were at last dispelled by the destruction of an Indian, who attempted to ford the river on horseback, although entreated to desist by his companions, who crossed at a shallow place higher up. He reached the centre of the stream and was laughing at the others for their prudence, when the alligator came upon him. His teeth encountered the saddle, which he tore from the horse, while the rider tumbled the other side into the water and made for the shore. The horse, too terrified to move, stood trembling where the attack was made. The alligator, disregarding him, pursued the man, who safely reached the bank which he could easily have as

Let it not be inferred, from what has been said to prove the identity of the past and present geological agencies, that they are believed to have operated at all times with equal intensity. As the intensity of their action even now varies from year to year, so doubtless has it varied from period to period of the earth's history. During the carbonif-cended, but, rendered foolhardy by his eserous period, the climate of the earth must cape, he placed himself behind a tree which have been very much warmer than it is at had fallen partly into the water, and drawpresent, as is proved by tropical plants having his heavy knife leaned over the tree, and ing then flourished in very high latitudes on the approach of his enemy struck him At that time, therefore, geological agencies on the nose. The animal repeated his asmust have operated with greater intensity. saults and the Indian his blows, until the As a general thing, long periods of repose former exasperated at the resistance, rushed seem to have alternated with short periods on the man and seizing him by the middle of disturbance. The causes of these irregu- of the body, which was at once inclosed and larities, and whether, on the whole, intensity crushed in his capacious jaws, swam into of action has been greater in former periods the lake. His friends hastened to the resthan it is at present, are still matters of de- cue, but the alligator slowly left the shore, bate among geologists, and are points which while the poor wretch, writhing and shriekwill probably remain unsettled. ing in agony, with his knife uplifted in his clasped hands, seemed, as the others express

A punctual man is rarely a poor man, and ed it, held out as a man would carry a torch never a man of doubtful credit. His sufferings were not long continued, for

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