fhall pay you ;--but be fure I fhall hereafter avoid your houfe, and report your behaviour to other tra"vellers."-The woman readily restricted her bill to twenty-four fous, equal to one fhilling erling, and received it thank fully.-By the fame argument at the Lion d'or, Effone, I reduced an extravagant bill, no less than fix livres,-which made it reasonable,and the balance was also thankfully received.-Indeed, on fuch occafions, the experience and honefty of my foreign fervant have been materially useful.-He generally fettles my bill before I enter the inn-but when this precaution has been omitted, I never fail to reform an unreasonable bill, in the above method.-I put up all night at the Prince de Conde, Dijon,-capital of Burgundy. It has a very agreeable fituation, and thriving appearance,-populous and cleanly.The prince has a handfome palace here, and there is a large fine building for an academy of iciences. Near this city, there is a small territory, the prince's property, which produces the wine called Romané, of much fuperior quality and flavour to any other Burgundy.--The great family of Condé had long been in ufe to engrofs all this excellent wine; and what could be fpared from their own hofpitality, they gave in presents moftly to the king of France, and other fovereign princes.-This prince of Condé finding measures of economy very neceffary from the ftate of his finances, among others, had ordered this precious wine to be faved for several years paft and a large quantity of it was lately fold to the merchants at Paris, of which my friends purchafed a confiderable share, at fuch a price, that they satisfied me, it could not be fold in retail at London, under the rate of one guinea per bottle.-After repeatedly tafting it, I expreffed regret, that I could not, without apparent extravagance, take any wine at such a price. They very obligingly agreed to let me have a hamper of nine dozen, without profit. This parcel ftood me at the rate of nearly nine livres per bottle, prime

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coft in Paris-In fact, it came into my poffeffion in Britain, happily, without adulteration ;--but not without fome breakage and embezzlement on the paffage.--I have occafionally regaled my friends with a bottle of it-When finished, I despair to have again fo exquifite a bon bouche for their entertainment. The profpects and environs of this town are delightful;-for a great part of this day's journey, the country is mountainous ;we faw few vines, and poor crops of corn.-I obferve, that plantations of foreft trees would thrive well ;-but they are quite neglected. In fome of the low grounds, típecially on the borders of rivulets, my favourite popears make a charming figure, and again invite me to an lexperiment at home.

To be continued.

Defcription of the Plate.

THE plate that accompanies this number represents a scene in Caffraria, near the Cape of Good Hope. The principal object in it is a large tree, the Mimofa Nilotica, which grows to a very large fize, and is here efteemed one of the most valuable productions of the earth. Most of the trees of this genus produce gums, that are useful in arts, and which may be occafionally ufed for food; but none of them produce gum in fuch abundance, or of such a nutricious quality as the Nilotica. This fubftance, which the natives collect with care, and preferve as a principal part of their food, fupplies, in fome measure, the place both of fruit and of grain. It grows in great abundance all over this dif trict and the adjacent countries, but never yet been cultivated in any other country; neither is it yet known, if the gum this plant affords could be applied to any use in arts, nor has its nutricious quality, when compared with that of other kinds of food, been

afcertained by experiment; neither hath any attempt been made to procure it for the use of feamen on long voyages, though it is evident, that fubftances of this fort, if they were found to be very nutricious, and could be got at a moderate price, would be more proper for fea flores, than either fruits, or grain, or meat of any fort, as they could be preferved much longer from corruption than any of thefe. Had the natives of Africa been induced to cultivate this, and other useful trees and plants fuited to their climate, along their vast extended coafts, how much more beneficially would they have been employed, than in hunting one another like wild beafts, to be fold for flaves to Europeans!

The leaves and young branches of this tree alfo is the principal food of the Camelopardalis, a fingular animal of uncommon form and ftature, which is found in these regions, of which we shall speak more fully below.

On one of the branches of this tree alfo is reprefented a very fingular fpecies of birds neft, of a conítruction that has nothing analogous to it, that we yet know of on the globe. The bird to which it belongs, is a fpecies of Loxia, which always makes choice of this tree for its neft, feemingly on account of its great fize, and the uncommon fmoothness of its bark, on which ferpents have great difficulty to mount, which are the great enemies of fmall birds of all kinds in warm regions. The great ftrength of the boughs alfo of this tree are well calculated to bear the great weight, which this fingular congeries of nefts fometimes attains.

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For thefe birds do not build feparate detached nefts, as almost all others do; but they form, as it were, a town of nefts built clofe to one another like the houses of men in a city, the whole ftructure being covered with one common roof, that protects every individual habitation from the inclemencies of the weather. This town is arranged into many streets, with nefts opening

into them on every fide, all the inhabitants of each street being obliged to pass and repafs into it through one common entry, or gateway, if you please to call it fo. Several of these entries are seen in the figure.

The number of nefts that are thus brought together into one of these aerial towns, as our author *, with propriety enough, calls it, is fometimes very great. The particular city that he examined, he thought, could not contain fewer than from eight to ten hundred ; and many he faw of much larger dimenfions. Indeed there feems to be no bounds to their fize, but the strength of the branches on which they are placed; for a town being once founded, he thinks they continue to join new habitations to it, as the number of the birds increase, by gradual additions, till the branch being entirely covered with them, and overloaded, breaks down, when they are under the neceffity of deferting their ruined town and building themselves a new one. The materials chiefly used for building these nefts, is a kind of grafs that there abounds, which they dexterously fasten, by way of thatch, over the whole. Sometimes, the top of one of these large trees is totally covered with these nefts,-which must have required a great many years to complete them.

The Camelopardalis is reprefented on the plate, at a diftance. This quadruped, when it stands upright, affumes fomewhat the fame appearance of most other quadrupeds when in the act of rifing; its foreparts being remarkably high in proportion to thofe behind.-Its head is crowned with two blunt protuberances, by way of horns, about a foot in length.-Thefe are terminat ed with a kind of knob, and are ftreight.--The height of the animal, when its head is upright, is about four teen feet.--On its neck, grows a mane, confifting of ftiff ftreight hairs, of a reddish colour, about four inch es in length. "Thefe animals, in the words of our author, chiefly fubfift on the mimofa, and wild apricots. Their colour is, in general, reddish, or dark brown and white, and fome of them black and white; they are VOL. III. Mr. Paterfon. +Pinolevat

cloven-footed; have four teats; their tail resembles that of a bullock; but the hair of the tail is much stronger, and, in general, black: they have eight fore-teeth below, but none above, and fix grinders, or double teeth on each fide, above and below ; the tongue is rather pointed and rough; they have no footlock hoofs; they are not fwift, but can continue a long chace before they ftop, which may be the reason that few of them are hot." Its hoof is cloven like that of an ox.

From the aukward form of this animal, which makes it neceffary it fhould feed chiefly upon trees, it does not feem probable that it could ever be domefticated with profit, or converted by man, in a tame ftate, to any very useful purposes. Its flesh is probably wholefome, and good for food; but it is too rare ever to become an object of general utility in that light; and we know of no peculiarities that can render it an object of much intereft to mankind.

D4

To the Editor of the Bee.

qo:

Character of the Marquis of Rockingham. His views of every fubject were fuch as naturally prefent themselves to the mind of the virtuous, and his fentiments were characterised with manliness and liberality. When all about him was uproar and confufion, "when heaven from above threatened, and earth trem"bled under his feet," he was perfectly ferene and collected. Estranged to the violence of the paffions, his measures were dictated by the pureft benevolence and patriotifm. Exuberance of genius, and all the charms of eloquence, were his leaft praise. Spotlefs integrity, difinterested virtue, an unremitted love of his country and its conftitution ;-these qualities will hold him up to the veneration of pofterity, when his foes are forgotten, in contempt, or immortalized to infamy.-His partizans quitted their places with a difinterestedness, which, it is to be feared, will be more the object of admiration than of example. They fecured neither place, penfion, nor reverfion to themfelve nor any of their adherents. T. R.