From the first moment that the function of the lungs or of the skin is interrupted or disturbed, compounds, rich in carbon, appear in the urine. which acquires a brown color. Over the whole surface of the body oxygen is absorbed, and combines with all the substances which offer no resistance to it. In those parts of the body where the access of oxygen is impeded; for example, in the arm-pits, or in the soles of the feet, peculiar compounds are given out, recognizable by their appearance, or by their odor. These compounds contain much carbon.

Respiration is the falling weight-the bent spring, which keeps the clock in motion; the inspirations and expirations are the strokes of the pendulum which regulate it. In our ordinary timepieces, we know with mathematical accuracy the effect produced on their rate of going, by changes in the length of the pendulum, or in the external temperature. Few, however, have a clear conception of the influence of air and temperature on the health of the human body; and yet the research into the conditions necessary to keep it in the normal state, is not more difficult than in the case of a clock.

ARTICLE V.

TOWNS AND STATISTICS OF MINNESOTA.

To those accustomed to the Northern winters, there is perhaps no part of the continent possessing greater attractions than Minnesota; nor have we known a people who seemed so much delighted with their country, or more hopeful of its future prosperity than those residing in the vicinity of the Falls of St. Anthony.

Saint Paul, a city of some three summers' growth, exhibits social developments which distinguish its citizens from those of every other town we have known in a newly settled country. Amongst their social and literary institutions they can already boast of a historical society whose annals for the year 1850 fill about one hundred and eighty pages.

We have taken a peculiar interest in the settlement of that great region including the sources of the Mississippi and the Red River of the North; and it affords us much pleasure to note the high degree of intelligence, and the individual and social enterprise which distinguish the pioneers of that favored land. Pioneers they are, but how unlike those of the last generation. We delight to recur to the history of the early pioneers of the West; and, in our imagination, we

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have traced out many descendants of Nimrod, Hercules, and Jason, who might well claim a niche in the temple of Fame, not less conspithan that occupied by their fabled ancestors. It may be truly said: "in those days there were giants in the land:" but, having accomplished the purposes for which they were designed in the advancement of civilization, they have passed away; and, "take them all in all, we shall never look upon their like again." Of these, few, only, found a place in their country's history: yet, tradition and romance shall rescue many noble deeds and humble names from oblivion which have been coldly neglected by the historian.

But as much as we admire the character of the early pioneers, we rejoice that civilization has advanced beyond that state which requires the existence and services of such a race of men. We know they no longor, exist, as a distinctive class; but yet, when we look to Wisconsin, Iowa, and especially to Minnesota, we experience a sense of disappointment, and can scarcely realize the fact that the inhabitants of countries so recently occupied by savage tribes, are in the full enjoyment of all the advantages and refinements of civilization,

This advanced state of society in the vicinity of the Falls is not without a meaning. We regard that place as destined to become the resort of a greater number of such as travel for health and amusement, than any other point east of the Rocky mountains; and the intelligence and refinement of the first settlers will not only add to the natural attractions of that particular neighborhood, but give tone and character to the social institutions of the entire country.

The following description of the principal towns of Minnesota is from the "Annals of the Minnesota Historical Society."

EDITOR.

SAINT PAUL.

THE HEAD OF NAVIGATION ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI,

LATITUDE 44° 52′ 46"-LONGITUDE 93° 4' 54".

This town is a port of entry, the county seat, and the seat of government of the Territory of Minnesota. Also, pleasantly situated on the east bank of the Mississippi river, eight miles from the Falls of St. Anthony, and five miles from Fort Snelling; about 2070 miles from the mouth of the Missippi river, and near its confluence with the St. Peters river, and is elevated about 800 feet, above the Gulf of Mexico. It is near the geographical centre of the continent of North America, in the North Temperate Zone, and must eventually become a central nucleus for the business of one of the best watered, timbered, and most fertile and healthy

countries on the globe. It is surrounded in the rear by a semicircular plateau, elevated about forty feet above the town, of easy grade, and commanding a magnificent view of the river above and below. Nature never planned a spot better adapted to build up a showy and delightful display of architecture and gardening, than that natural terrace of hills. During the past year it "has sprung up, like Minerva, full armed, from the head of Jupiter;" and now contains four churches, several large hotels, two steam saw mills, in operation, a large number of stores, two daguerreotypists, with many other branches of industry-and fifteen hundred inhabitants. Last, not least, three weekly newspapers, and one monthly, printed in the Sioux and English languages; the whole forming an instance of Western enterprise and determined energy and resolution hitherto unsurpassed in the history of any frontier settlement. Whatever direction we take among the localities of Minnesota, we find subjects of interest, whether in awaking the spirits of the dusky past, or alighting upon the improvements of our own times. There is scarcely a section of the world newer than this: and, we may add, there is no section which has started upon the horizon of civilized life more suddenly.

From the lower landing of St. Paul, we rise upon a bench some seventy-five feet above the river, and come upon the site of the lower town, which-with the extension up the river as far as the upper landing, a distance of three-fourths of a mile, where is a most vigorous young town of later growth-completes St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota. Retiring from the lower town, about half a mile northerly, across a plain which appears to have once been the basin of a lake, for it is nearly walled in by a bluff fifteen feet high, we suddenly rise upon a third bluff nearly two hundred feet high, and some three hundred feet above the Mississippi.This ascent is wooded, and so is the region beyond, for perhaps twenty miles. From this point we overlook St. Paul; extending the vision down the river some twenty miles, taking within the compass of the eye a wide stretch of the Sioux lands and bluish hills far away up the St. Peters, in the west.

To the north, though the grounds descend from the bluff, for some three miles, there are but few objects of distinct outline. After viewing a small lake, lying about a mile to the north-west, as a setting to a border of oak openings, we proceed through a constantly alternating succession of oak-covered knolls, marshy dells, and around the margins of small tamarack swamps. These swamps, though dismal, for their size, are the most curious objects to the eye of the stranger, which this region presents. The trees grow so thick that they choke each other out of the chance for a subsistance, or else they die a natural death after a certain age, so that they resemble a scene of shipping in a seaport most strikingly. It is easy, when in a dreamy mood of mind, to fancy these bare

poles as the masts of some diluvian squadrons, which had lost their reckoning, and finally getting discouraged, moored in the mud.

There are no guide-boards on this road, and the angler or sportsman-who can't parler français with the French residents, whose cabins nestle in some of the sly retreats along the path-may thank the stars if he does not get lost over night.

The region is spotted all over, at distances of one to three miles, with bright and cool little lakes, that abound in fish; among which is the real White Mountain trout.

Having had personal observation no farther out in this direction than some four miles, we must take a tack in our description, merely adding that there is a settlement, two miles beyond our discoveries, called Little Canada, composed of French; that, sixteen miles from St. Paul, is a lake famous for fish, and somwhere else in that vicinity are the extensive cranberry meadows, temporarily occupied by the Sioux Indians, who have already sent into St. Paul 4000 bushels of cranberries this season, (1850.)

The scene over the bluff in the rear of the upper town of St. Paul, is the delightful prairie, which extends off about six miles, towards St. Anthony Falls.

The true quality of the soil of the comparatively chaotic lands in the rear of St. Paul, is, after all, better than that of the lands of Western New York. It has less of the black alluvion than our lands generally, yet it is highly productive; and so far as experience has tested its capabilities, it does not depreciate at all by cropping. It is strongly impregnated with lime, and possesses in a high degree the active principle imparted by a variety of mineral

substances.

This soil can be made, by the application of manure, of which an abundance can be had for the trouble of carting from town, more productive than the best river bottoms. For the purpose of gardening, we are inclined to prefer it to the latter; and if we were to make a claim, we would take up" the lands we could find unoccupied, nearest the town.

The lower part of the town was laid out 26th Feb. 1849, by Louis Roberts, Henry Jackson, David Lambert, Benjamin W. Brunson, Chas. Cavileer, Henry H. Sibley, J. W. Bass, Augustus L. Larpenteur, W. II. Forbes, J. W. Simpson, Vital Guerin, and others. That portion of the town which is known as the "Upper Town," was laid out by Henry M. Rice and John R. Irvine, in January, 1849; and a further addition to said town was made in the summer of 1849, by Samuel Leech, C. K. Smith, W. H. Forbes, James McC. Boal, Louis Roberts, Alexander Wilkin, H. W. Tracy, Jr C. Ramsey. This addition is called "Leech's Addition." In it there are nine blocks, fourteen lots in each block.

The streets and lots occupy forty acres of land; and lastly, the addition of Whitney and Smith, was laid out also in the spring of 1849, and is situated in the lower part of the town.

The legislature has authorized the location of the capitol buildings of the Territory at this point. The commissioners of the public buildings will be elected this spring, and the erection of the capitol will be given out and the work commenced soon.

We have many branches of business carried on here already. We give a meagre and very imperfect list of some of our business men, as follows:

STATISTICS.

EDITORS AND PUBLISHERS.

James M. Goodhue, Minnesota Pioneer.

Charles J. Henniss, Minnesota Chronicle and Register.

D. A. Robertson, Minnesota Democrat.

G. H. Pond, Dakota Friend.

J. W. Chaskarak, Watab Reveille.

Hotels and boarding houses, 6. Lawyers, 18. Physicians, 6. Druggists, 4. Merchants, 20. Carpenters, 8. Saddlers, 2. Shoemakers, 1. Painters, 4. Tailors, 5. Watchmakers, 1. Bakers, 2. Tinners and Stove Dealers, 2. Insurance companies, 4. Livery Stables, 2. Saloons and Coffee Houses, 10. Blacksmiths, 2.

ASSOCIATIONS.-Free and accepted Masons, 1. Odd Fellows, 1. Sons of Temperance, 1.

Three Churches, viz: a Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian, have been organized in St. Paul.

SAINT ANTHONY.

Saint Anthony City is situated near to and below the Falls of St. Anthony. W. A. Cheever is the proprietor, and it was laid out 3d January, 1848, and consists of 182 lots. The Falls, including the rapids, make a total descent of sixty-four feet and ten inches.

Franklin Steele, Esq., laid out a plot in 1849, opposite the Falls, which consists of 56 blocks of lots; in each block there are ten lots. The town is called St. Anthony.

P. Butcheneau in 1849, laid out an addition to St. Anthony, consisting of twenty-three blocks of lots, each block containing fourteen lots.

I. Atwater, Esq., of St. Anthony Falls, writes as follows: SIR-Your esteemed favor of the 19th January last informing me of my election as a member of the Minnesota Historical Socie