G. Yes. How is it done?

T. By melting the tin, and spreading it upon the surface of the copper, which is first lightly pitched over, in order to make the tin adhere.

H. But what are the vessels made at the tinman's ? Are they not called tin ?

T. No. Tinned-ware (as it is properly called) is made of thin iron plates, coated over with tin, by dipping them into a vessel full of melted tin. These plates are afterwards cut and bent to proper shapes, and the joinings are soldered together with a mixture of tin and other metals. Another similar use of tin is in what is called the silvering of pins.

G. What is not that real silvering?

T. No. The pins, which are made of brass wire, after being pointed and headed, are boiled in water, in which grain-tin is put along with tartar, which is a crust that collects on the inside of wine-casks. The tartar dissolves some of the tin, and makes it adhere to the surface of the pins; and thus thousands are covered in an instant.

H. That is as clever as what you told us of the gilding of buttons.

T. It is. Another purpose for which great quantities of tin used to be employed, was the making of pewter. The best pewter consists chiefly of tin, with a small mixture of other metals to harden it; and the London pewter was brought to such a degree of excellence, as to look almost as well as silver.

G. I can just remember a long row of pewter plates at my grandmother's.

T. You may. In her time, all the plates and dishes for the table were made of pewter; and a handsome range of pewter shelves was thought a capital ornament for a kitchen. At present, this trade is almost come to nothing, through the use of earthenware and china; and pewter is employed for little, but the worms of stills, and barber's basins, and porterpots. But a good deal is still exported. Tin is also

pur

an ingredient in other mixed metals for various poses, but, on the whole, less of it is used than of the other common metals.

G. Is not England more famous for tin than any other country? I have read of the Phoenicians trading here for it in very early times.

T. They did; and tin is still a very valuable article of export from England. Much of it is sent as far as China. The tin-mines here are chiefly in Cornwall, and, I believe, they are the most productive of any in Europe. Very fine tin is also got in the peninsula of Malacca, in the East Indies. Well-we have now gone through the principal metals.

G. But you have said something about a kind of metal called zinc.

T. That is one of another class of mineral substances, called semi-metals. These resemble metals in every quality but ductility, of which they are almost wholly destitute, and, for want of it, they can seldom be used in the arts, except when joined with metals. G. Are there many of them?

T. Yes, several; but we will not talk of them till I have taken some opportunity of showing them to you, for, probably, you may never have seen any of them. Now try to repeat the names of all the metals to me in the order of their weight.

H. There is first gold.

G. Then quicksilver, lead, silver.
H. Copper, iron, tin.

T. Very right. Now I must tell you of an odd fancy that chemists have had of christening these metals by the names of the heavenly bodies. They have called gold Sol, or the sun.

G. That is suitable enough to its colour and bright

ness.

H. Then silver should be the moon, for I have heard moonlight called of a silvery hue.

T. True; and they have named it so. It is Luna. Quicksilver is Mercury, so named, probably, from its

great propensity to dance and jump about, for Mercury, you know, was very nimble.

G. Yes; he had wings to his heels.

T. Copper is Venus.

G. Venus! surely it is scarcely beautiful enough for that.

T. But they had disposed of the most beautiful ones before. Iron is Mars.

H. That is right enough, because swords are made of iron.

T. True. Then tin is Jupiter, and lead Saturn. The dulness of lead might be thought to agree with that planet which is most remote from the sun. These names, childish as they may seem, are worth remembering, since chemists and physicians still apply them to many preparations of the various metals. You will probably often hear of martial, lunar, mercurial, and saturnine; and you may now know what they mean.

G. I think the knowledge of metals seems more useful than all you have told us about plants.

T. I don't know that. Many nations make no use at all of metals, but there are none which do not owe a great part of their subsistence to vegetables. However, without inquiring what parts of natural knowledge are most useful, you may be assured of this, that all are useful in some degree or other; and there are few things that give one man greater superiority over another, than the extent and accuracy or his knowledge in these particulars. One person passes all his life upon the earth, a stranger to it; while another finds himself at home everywhere. To what I have already said respecting metals, may be added, that, of metals and metallic substances, there are, in the aggregate, upwards of fifty. Amongst them may be mentioned antimony, bismuth, arsenic, cobalt, platinum, nickel, manganese, rhodium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, vanadium, &c. Of these, many are extensively used

in medicines and in the arts.

T

EYES, AND NO EYES;

OR, THE ART OF SEEING.

"WELL, Robert, whither have you been walking this afternoon ?" said Mr. Andrews to one of his pupils at the close of a holiday

R. I have been, sir, to Broom-heath, and so round by the windmill upon Camp-mount, and home, through the meadows, by the river side.

Mr. A. Well, that's a pleasant round.

R. I thought it very dull, sir; I scarcely met with a single person. I had rather by half have gone along the turnpike-road.

Mr. A. Why, if seeing men and horses were your object, you would, indeed, have been better entertained on the high-road. But did you see William ?

R. We set out together, but he lagged behind in the lane, so I walked on and left him.

Mr. A. That was a pity. He would have been company for you.

R. O, he is so tedious, always stopping to look at this thing and that! I had rather walk alone. I dare say he has not got home yet.

Mr. A. Here he comes. Well, William, where have you been?

W. O, sir, the pleasantest walk! I went all over Broom-heath, and so up to the mill at the top of the hill, and then down among the green meadows, by the side of the river.

Mr. A. Why, that is just the round Robert has been taking, and he complains of its dulness, and prefers the high-road.

W. I wonder at that. I am sure I hardly took a step that did not delight me, and I have brought home my handkerchief full of curiosities.

Mr. A. Suppose, then, you give us some account of what amused you so much. I fancy it will be as new to Robert as to me.

W. I will, sir. The lane leading to the heath, you know, is close and sandy; so I did not mind it much, but made the best of my way. However, I spied a curious thing enough in the hedge. It was an old crab-tree, out of which grew a great bunch of something green, quite different from the tree itself. Here is a branch of it.

Mr. A. Ah! this is mistletoe, a plant of great fame for the use made of it by the Druids of old in their religious rites and incantations. It bears a very slimy, white berry, of which birdlime may be made, whence its Latin name of Viscus. It is one of those plants which do not grow in the ground by a root of their own, but fix themselves upon other plants; whence they have been humorously styled parasitical, as being hangers-on, or dependants. It was the mistletoe of the oak that the Druids particularly honoured.

W. A little further on, I saw a green woodpecker fly to a tree, and run up the trunk like a cat.

Mr. A. That was to seek for insects in the bark, on which they live. They bore holes with their strong bills for that purpose, and do much damage to the trees by it.

W. What beautiful birds they are!

Mr. A. Yes; the woodpecker has been called, from its colour and size, the English parrot.

W. When I got upon the open heath, how charming it was! The air seemed so fresh, and the prospect on every side so free and unbounded! Then it was all covered with gay flowers, many of which I had never observed before. There were, at least, three kinds of heath (I have got them in my handkerchief here), and gorse, and broom, and bell-flower, and many others of all colours, that I will beg you presently to tell me the names of.

Mr. A. That I will, readily.

W. I saw, too, several birds that were new to me. There was a pretty, greyish one, of the size of a lark, that was hopping about some great stones; and when