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VOL. XI—NO. 41 Marriages of Consanguinity. From ihe Cincinnati Gazette The messages of several of our Govern ors, the startling array of figures gathered from the annual reports of asylums for the idiotic and insane, and the lamentable in stances of physical and mental suffering that meet the observation of all who ever think of the subject, have of late aroused a wide spread repugnance to marriages between persons ot the same blood. The assertion of Gov. Magoffin that fifteen or twenty per ' cent, of the deformed and imbecile of Ken tucky are the offspring of cousins is in accordance with fact. Bills have been introduced into the State Legislature to prohibit the marriage of first cousius. There is nothing new in the principles of these prohibitions. While the Egyptian Pharaohs Gspoused their sisters, while incest even more horrible prevailed among the ancient Persiaus, and while even the enlightened Greeks permitted the intermarriage of half brothers and sis j ters, the Jews obeyed the law of Moses, which forbade the nuptials of relatives more nearly allied than cousins of the first degree. The statistics of many modern communities, and of most of our States, have in this respect been based upon the code of the Hebrew Lawgiver. In Sweden, however, uucle and niece are permitted to marry, as will be seen by the works of Frederika Bremer. If we are not mistaken, New York is also an exception to the rule. Some years since, a young uncle and niece eloped Irom one of th New England States to New York, and there tied the nuptial knot. They afterward returned home, their mar« riage being voidable, and uot void, as would have been an incestuous union in the ascend- ing or descending line of relationship. The Canon law is even more rigid than ■ the Mosaic. By it, affiuity, as well as consanguinity, is a bar. Thence was derived the doctrine that has extended into some Protestant denominations, that the relatives of a man’s wife are also his own. The Roman Catholic Church, we believe, stil prohibits the marriage of all degrees nearer than that of third cousin, except by special dispensation, which, unfortunately, Uas too frequently been granted. Phillip 11, of Spain, an 1 his grandson, Philip IV,married their nieces. The child of the former, by this unnatural connection, was that Philip 111. who. some historians tell us, would not, ror fear of violating etiquette, move back from an over he ited brazier, until he was made fatally ill. The offspring of the latter was that mad- man, Charles 11, who lived a life of misery, , in the belief that he was bewitched, and dying without issue, ended the Spanish line of the House of Hapsburg. The Spanish nobility, it is well known, have intermarried until they have become dwarfish in body, stupid in mind, and of no earthly use to themselves or their country. Perhaps, however, the most revolting cases of inces j tuous alliances in modern times, were pre ; sented in Portugal in the last century. | Joseph, the reigning monarch, had three daughters, but no sons. It was contrary to the law ol the realm lor a princess to marry a foreigner, without forfeiting her right to the succession ; a union with a subject was out of the question. Accordingly Ins eldest daughter, Donna Maria, was married to her uuele Pedro, and by him hud, among other children, John, subsequently the sixth sov- ercign ol that name. But this was not all, in 1777, when Joseph was on his death bed. lie called in his grand son, then a boy of and caused him to be uuited to his aunt Barbara, a mature maiden of thirty four. Happily this last match proved child less, and Barbara survived but a few years. Had a sensible ecclesiastical law been strict ly enforced, we should have been spared the recital of such disgusting transactions as the above. We have thus alluded to a few instances of the infringement of an ecclesiastical law; the evil results of the violation of the laws of man’s nature, now demand our notice. Setting aside the consideration of the disor ders that would ensue to the family system were very near relatives allowed to iuter marry, there is a natural revolt of man’s reason against such a union, for which phys iological science affords abundant foundation The raiser of stock, of poultry, or grain and fruit even, knows that an occasionel frost or engrafting is indispensable to pra serve them from degeneracy. So it is with man ; the intermingling of the same vital current creates physical and mental defects by developing to excess every usefu 1 faculty and agreeable feature, and magnifies and intensifies those already in existence. The constantly concentrating re lationship of the reigning tumilies of Europe, before the in troduction of so much fresh blood, by the revolutions of the early part of the present century, had made them all look very much alike—more so than they now do. Nearly every monarch on the throne had a retreat ing forehead, a large nose and a prominent j -w ; it may be added, also, that the stand ard regal brain was in precisely an inverse ratio to the size of the features beneath it Apparently conscious of these similarities. Mr. Dickens alludes, in the opening chapter, of his Two Cities, to the large jaw of the king that ruled iu England in 1775, and to the equally large jaw of the contemporane ous sovereign of France. The House of Austria preserves to this day the heavy lip of their homely mouthed ancestress—Margaret Jaghellon or “ Maul sasch.” The German dynasty that rules England has inherited two legacies not as harmless as a pout. Insanity and scrofula were a part of the dowry of Augusta of Saxe Coburg, the mother of George 111. Her son died a maniac ; his son and succes sor, George IV., was scrofulous from boy hood ; his sisters were infected with the same malady. Their brother, Ernest Au gustus, was guilty of crimes, of which, w'e hope, insanity was the cause; 1113 son and successor on the throne of Hanover, the off spring of another marriage between cousins, is stone blind. Her reigning Majesty, it has been more than once hinted, is sub ject to occasional fits of great mental excite ment. \Y r e might show how the children of Louis XIY. of France died prematurely, after a life cursed by disgusting and painful maladies, tell how the unpurified current of Bourbon blood has prepared for more than one of the Neapolitan Princes a death like those of Sylla and Herod. It is not neces sary, however, to prosecute our researches farther into the lazaar houses of royal in firmities. Our own country, though it cannot yield the experiences of as many generations as the genealogies of monarchs, affords ample illustration of the danger of disobeying the laws of nature, which are the laws of God. The statement of the Governor of Kentucky has already been adduced ; our readers will remember the summing up, if uot all the data, of the tables published about a year since, by an eminent physician of that State. He proved by figures that idiocy, insanity, deformity, ills, were the rarely omitted be quests of nearly related parents to their children. There is a family in Ohio, which by inter marriage of two or three generations, bad become scrofulous and otherwise diseased. The union of one of its members to a healthy woman, not his relation, has give vigor and prospects of permanency to one branch. The G ’s of Virginia have sought, by intermarriage, to retain their wealth and importance, until, to use the words of one who knows them well, “ they are possessed of all ills that flesh is heir to.” We know in another State, a large con nection, too proud to seek connubial bliss out of its own bounds, two-thirds of the members of which have immoderately large noses, small blue eyes, closely resembling those of the pig, and almost as homely, and with mental optics not disproportioned to their physical. A medical man, of large practice and long experience, has assured us that out of many cases of the of cousins, he has but in two or three instances failed to perceive in the offspring mental’or physical deformity, or both combined. This is the result of the infraction of law by one generation ouly. We could multiply facts indefinitely, but perhaps have already spoken more plainly than a fastidious social etiquette will ap prove. If our statements have been un pleasant. truth must be our justification for a trespass on good taste. It would be in teresting to extend our inquiries—to trace the cause of national decay to the want of the iuvigorating influences of an infusion of fresh blood ; to consider the influences that the immigration of thoughtful Germans may exert in tempering the too impetuous Yan kee character ; to analyze the attractions and repulsions of races; but the practical aspects of our subject, must for the present, be restricted. It is to be hoped that the marriage of blood relations will be prohib ited, not only in Kentucky, but in every other State and community. Anti Slavery Fanatics. —An Anti- Slavery Convention, of the Pillsburv stripe, met at Buffalo, Jan. 10. The resolutions are emphatic, and embrace the following ideas: American slavery is the sum of all villanies, a combination of all cruelties and crimes, robbery, piracy, adultery, murder and what ever else is impure, unholy and accursed. Slaveholders have no right to life, linerty or the pursuit of happiness, and should be re garded as criminals and outlaws, and should be compelled to release their prey. Our Union with such slaveholders is also a sin aud a crime. The least threat of disunion from the South should have been hailed with joy by all the friends of the enslaved. The governments of the slave states are but or ganized bands of thieves and robbers, living by plunder and piracy on the avails of unpaid toil; and, finally, it is the duty of Senators and representatives from non-slavebolding states to return to their constituencies and take measures for the foundation of a North ern confederacy, that should be indeed free and an asylum for the oppressed of all na tions. The new Ecclesiastical College for North Americans was opened at Rome on the 7th alt. It is a magnificent building, capable of lodging more than one hundred pupils. When it is 12 o’clock in New York city, it is 41 minutes past 10 in St. Paul. SAINT PAUL, FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1860 120 Dead Bodies Recovered, and 162 Persons Still Missing. TESTIMONY BEFORE THE CORONER Lawrence, Mass. Jun. 12—At the in quest to-day, Jesse Glover, overseer of the repair shop of the Pemberton manufacturing company, testified that he at times had seen cracks in the walls, but nothing that he con sidered serious. He had never strengthened the walls with iron works, but had heard it was so strengthened. He thought the build ing was weak, but apprehended no danger; did not think it as strong as such buildings usually are; had heard that the timbers were not bolted to the walls ; iron trusses were put in to the building before he went to work there; the boiler appeared perfectly sound; it was in a separate building; h examined the building since the accident. Mr. Chase, agent of the mill, testified as to his escape. He said there was less weight at the end that fell, than at the other; four fly frames in the fourth story, were moved that day, from the part which fell to another place ; they weighed a ton and a half; there were probably 800 persons in the building ; he did not know how the fire caught; the Essex company built the mill; he did not know how it was constructed there were cracks each side of the chimney, in the building, which were caused by the swaying of the chimney ; the chimney had broken away from the building, and iron had been placed around it to strengthen it, but not from any fear of the building itself ; there have been no new cracks near the chimney for two years; kaow of no other crack in the building ; wass less motion in the building than in others ; he considered it safe, as it had stood six years. John Patterson overseer in the weaving room, in the basement, testified as to his escape; had heard a statement that the building was unsafe, but never noticed any thing about it to make him think so. Mr. Corliss, who put in the sbaftiDg had told him, he did not consider the building safe. He also understood he said two upright shafts whould in time shake the end of the building out. I don’t think over thirty persons employed in my room were killed ; there were 304 employed there last Monday. John Pinter, woolen manufacturer, in the Washington mill testified, he with others, helped what they could ; we got the roof off and took oat the machinery, wood and bodies, there were some men near me wit lan terns, and as they were doing no good, I said: for God’s sake, take care of those lanterns. There is cotton all around here.” 1 saw our men all going to a hole with two lan terns and shortly after saw them come out with only one lantern. In a moment after he saw the flames. The men ran in to the crowd and he after them, but did not catch them. The lanterns were’guarded ones and think they were filled with oil. The fire took from loose cotton hanging about the card machine. Richard A. Plummer testified that vari ous men went to work to clear away with axe3 and bar 3, and two men had lanterns to see to work by ; by some accident one lan tern broke or fell, and when the flames struck the cutton the fire at once sprang up. The inquest will last several days. Boston, Jan. 12.-Mayor Sanders’ dispatch says that he sees no reason to change his opinion as to the number dead and missing. Many of the dead have been claimed by friends, but many, past indentification, have been interred. The New Texan Senator* Some events in the life of Mr. Wigfall, the new Senator from Texas, who takes Gen. Houston’s seat, strikingly illustrates the state of Southern society, and the bar barous practices ot men educated under the duelling system. Several years ago Mr. Wigfall was a resident of South Carolina, and a member of the Legislature of that State. A difficulty arose between him and Mr. Brooks, the father of the late Preston S. Brooks, and Mr. Wigfall posted Mr. Brooks as a rascal and coward, after the Southern fashion. Mr. Bird, a son of the then wife of Mr. Brooks, came to town about the time, but, in ignorance of the difficulty, called on Mr. Wigfall, with whom he was on friendly terms, and invited him to his then approaching wedding. The two gen tlemen were proceeding through the street together, when the placard in question attracted Mr. Bird’s attention. Turning at once to Mr. Wigfall, he asked if he, Mr. W., was the author. Mr. Wigfall respond ed that he was. Mr. Bird then said he would tear it down. Mr. Wigfall forbade him at his peril. Mr. Bird, however, did it. A shooting affray immediately followed, in which Mr. Bird was killed by Mr. Wig fall. A son of Mr. Brooks, Sen., took up the quarrel and challenged Mr. Wigfall. They met. Mr. Wigfall received Mr. Brooks’ fire unharmed, and then discharged his pistol in the air. The duel was at this point arrested. Immediately afterward Mr. Wig fall received a second challenge from Preston S. Brooks, known subsequently for his assault on Senator Sumner. The challenge Mr. Wigfall declined to accept. The quar rel, however, was not allowed to subside, and to avoid further bloodshed, Mr. Wigfall soon alter withdrew from the State, and removed to Texas, where he has since resided. From his seclusion thence he has now emerged into the Senate of the United States. Railroad Connection with Dubuque. The Dubuque Herald says that the Cedar Falls and Minnesota Railroad Company, has executed a contract with certain Boston capitalists, to build the entire line of the road from Cedar FalL, lowa, to the Minne sota State line, by Jan. 1, 1863. This road connects, at the lowa line, with the propo sed Minneapolis and Cedar Valley Railroad. The Herald says : The terms ot the contract have nofal transpired, nor is it material what they are It is sufficient to say that by the engagement entered into by Col. Edgerton and his friends, the road is to be constructed and equipped to Wavcrly, the county seat of Bremer county, by Jan. Ist. 1861 ; to Floyd, in Floyd county, by Jan. Ist, 1862, and to the State line by Jan. Ist, 1863, unless the Minneapolis and Cedar Valley Railroad should t e completed sooner, in which event the contractors obligate themselves to build the road to the State line by the time the M. C. V. R. R. is in operation to that point. The contractors will commence upon their work early in the spring, and will doubtless complete the road to Waver ly a good deal in advance of the Ist of Jan. next; at least in time for the removal of the next crop. It is altogether probable that the extension of the Dubuque and Pacific to Cedar Falls, and the completion of the Cedar Falls and Minnesota road to Waverly, will prove such stimulants to business and immigration, that the valley of the Cedar as well as the finest portion of Southern Minnesota, to be drain ed by this road, will demand the more rapid extension of the road from Waverly north, than this contract calls for. The country traversed by this road is the garden of the West, and has by its water power and natural beauty attracted a greater population than any other section which has not been open for settlement a longer period. Farms, mills, villages and towns are scat tered thickly along its rapid and pure sti earns, and everywhere an energy and prosperity is exhibited which may challenge comparison. But all this energy and pros perity is cramped and retarded by the dis tance and expense of reaching market, which operation has hitherto consumed from 25 to 50 per cent, of the value of all their pro ductions. The same cause enhanced the cost of every article sold by the merchant; and thus on both hands has the farmer been cheated of his earnings. The completion of the Cedar Falls and Minnesota Road sup plies the remedy for this evil, and at once enables the farmer to realize fifty to one hundred per cent, more for his labor than he lias hitherto been able to do. Their pork and beef, and wheat and corn and oats will bring them very nearly as much at their doors as they have heretofore done after hauling them one hundred miles to the Mississippi. It is important likewise from another consideration, that it connects with a rail road which in one hundred and three miles reaches St. Paul, and one hundred and thir teen, Minneapolis, a large portion of which is graded and which stands in about as good a position as any other Railroad in Minne sota. These roads, when completed, will bring St. Paul within ten hours’ ride of Dubuque. It will present not only an expeditious mode of reaching this city, but Chicago also, being the shortest and quickest route yet projected between the Garden City and St. Paul. An idea of distance by the different routes may be obtained from the following figures: * From Chicago via G. & C. U., and I. C. R. R. to Dubuque 188 “ Dubuque via D. A P., C. F. &M. R. R. to St. Paul 273 “ Chicago to St. Paul via Dubuque 461 “ Chicago to La Crosse via C. &La C. R. R 300 “ La Crosse by projected railroad.... 175 “ Chicago to St. Paul via La Crosse.. 475 The Lotion Times on the Execution of John Brown. The limes, in remarking upon the tolling of bells and other public demonstrations, by northern abolitionists, on the occasion of John Brown’s execution, says : • * * * What, then, is to be the lesson learned from the recent demonstrations? The firet thing that strikes us is that the north did nothing until Brown was executed, and then it began to make speeches. This certainly does not give us any exalted notion of their zeal or determination of purpose. The idea of the Boston people preparing beforehand a great meeting, engaging speak ers and seats, designing inscriptions against the day that Brown should be executed, and when the telegraph brought the news of the event, rushing to the hall and listening to flowery speeches, as if horrified by a sudden } crime, mixes something of the ludicrous with the tragic occurrence. Bells were tolled probably in every town in Massachusetts, and many throughout the entire north. Yet we will venture to say that in a few days everything was quiet again, and John Brown, for whom parallels were sought in history, sacred and profane, was judged in hi 3 true light, as a courageous old man, maddened by the partisan warfare of the west, and whom it would have been as well for the State of Virginia to pardon, if possible. The truth is, that these meet ings and demonstrations express only an impulse, and not a conviction of the northern people. There .is not one American in a thousand who would act on the principle? which were applauded in the “ Tremont Palace,” and in a number of other places after Brown’s execution. Happily, for the peace of society and the security of the republic, there is a strong conservative feel ing throughout the Union, and Mr. Garri son’s scheme for a secession of the northern States will find favor only with a narrow clique even in his own city. The central States of the Union, such as New York and Pennsylvania, will never permit the fanatics of either north or south to imperil the fabric of American nationality. But her interfe rence will never be required, for even in Massachusetts and South Carolina extreme opinions are allowed expression only because they are felt be particularly harmless. These noisy and useless demonstrations of so enlightened a community as that of New England are however, not without their evil effect. They embitter the slaveholders against the north, while they give them the conviction that the north fears to oppose them. The Virginia authorities might have spared Brown, had it not been openly boasted in the frontier Free States that he should be rescued on the very drop by an army of abolitionists. Gov. Wise was told that he dared not hang Brown ; that 5,000 freesoil ers could march Irom one end of Virginia to the other; that the negroes would be made to rise in earnest this time, and soon In short, a section of fanatics, in the name, of the north, threw out a challenge to the entire south, and by so doing sealed Brown’s fate. The Virginians hanged the poor old man, arid the rescuers did not move, but when the tragedy was complete began to indulge in the useless declamation we have recorded. The result will be to strengthen the south by the adhesion of that floating mass of opinion which, in every country lies between the two extremes. Whatever may be the future of the negro race, no one in his sober senses can believe that its re generation can be effected by inciting it to murder planters and ravish their women; and, if any one chooses to head an outbreak of this kind, he must expect to meet a fate which right-thinking men will not glorify with the crown of martyrdom. The Savage and Civilized Man. Mr. Higginson recently delivered a lec ture in Boston, intending to show that high civilization was superior to barbarism in developing man in the physical as well as in the moral qualities. That portion of his remarks which related to physical develop ment is all we can find room for. He contended that the comparative strength and size of civilized and savage rnen were in favor of the former, aift quoted largely from a series of interesting statistics published in the 17th volume of the jour nals of the London Statistical Society, the results of investigations made by Dr. Thompson, of the 71st regiment, among the New Zealanders—a race just emerging from barbarism, cannibals within one generation, with the taste of their friends and relations not yet off their lips, and therefore excellent subjects for the experiments. His experi ments commenced by examining into their height. He measured 146. Their average height was 5 feet seven inches. The ave rage height of 800 young men of the Uni versity of Ediuboro’ was 5 feet 8 inches — one inch more ; and of 80 students at Cam* bridge, 5 feet 9 inches. His 14G New Zealanders showed an average weight of 140 pounds. He weighed several hundred of his soldiers, and found their average weight to be 142 pounds; and he ascertained that the average weight of 2,648 soldiers, taken in England, was 148 pounds. The question of weights, therefore, was settled in favor of the civilized race. In measuring the chest, he found the average breadth of the New Zealander was 35 36- 100. He measured 600 of his soldiers, and found it 35 71-100—an average difference of half an inch in favor ol the civilized race. The strongest man among the New Zealand ers lifted a weight of 420 pounds ; that tapered down to 250 pounds. His strongest English soldier lifted 507 pounds, and this went down to 350. The average weight lifted by the New Zealanders was 367 pounds ; of the English, 422 pounds. One of these estimates, it will be observed, comes up to one half of the weight now lifted by our athletic Dr. Winship. On all these points, then, the advantage lies with civilization. The lecturer added that “ civilization is the domesticator of man. Domestication refines man but does not weaken him. The hand that is strong within an iron gauntlet will be just as strong in a white kid glove, and any man who is a hero in a red shirt in Maine, will be just as heroic in a white shirt on Beacon etreet. The difference is that civilization gives, in addition to muscular development, a certaiu finer power, to the nervous organization. It changes iron into steel ; it makes the race horse as compared with the cart horse. Every gymnast knows that mere brute violence of muscle is nothing ; it is the quality of the muscle that tells ; and so, accordingly, we know that the English aris tocracy are as fine a type of physical muscle as can be found in the world. " T I NEW SERIES—NO. 214. Origin of Fashion. Lola Montez, in a late lecture on Fashion says: The history of fashion would show that ! Satan has had that department under his peculiar charge for all ages. Peter the t Great was foolish enough to believe that the tailor was the person who had fashions in charge, and wondered that the nobility of England could permit the tailor to change the cut of their coats so often. [Applause.] She next referred to the point lace worn to shoes in France; the golden chains which were worn to shoes in England .and the gold rings worn in men’s nose 3. She saw nothing so ridiculous in that, no more than j a woman to wear a gold ring in her ear, and indeed she believed that cld husbands would be more manageable if they had rings in j their nose 3. [Great applause.] Indeed, this habit, if in fashion, would be more cleanly and proper than the moustache and beard movement. [Applause and laughter.] The quilled shoes of the Earl of Anjou, which were worn on accouut of a disease of the feet, were referred to as having become fashionable. Isabella, in time of the Due d’Albert, vowed never to change her linen during the siege of her native place ; conse quently, she wore it three years, when, it : being thus changed from white to yellow, the latter color became the fashion, and it is greatly feared that that oolor is worn by many even to this day. [Applause.] The various inventions to conceal detormity, which were used by many, and caused them thus to come into fashion, were commented upon. The stiff white cravat now used so j much, even by clergymen, was invented by Beau Brummell, when he got into disgrace, and on leaving England he generously left the fashion to his country, and wrote these emphatic words : “ Starch makes the man.” [Laughter and applause.] But men were as bad, as regarded fashion, as women. The tight pantaloons came into fashion when the little bonnet did, and the former were most ridiculous. Why, it was laughable to see gentlemen goiDg through the streets with tight coverings to their crooked and deformed legs, [laughter,] and the ladies then laughed at the men for thus adorning their pipe stems. [Great laughter.] Some man of fine proportions got those pantaloons to set off his shape, and then others followed him, whether they had legs or not, and so it became the fashion. [Applause and laugh ter.] The lecturer next referred to the fashion of politics, and quoted the celebrated Vicar of Bray, who, when taxed with being a turn-coat, replied, “ Not so—l always stick to my principles which are to live and die Vicar of Bray.” [Laughter.] While, however, ridiculing the sterner sex for following fashion, she was free to say that there was enough to be laughed at among her own sex. She spoke of many ladies of Rome, obe of whom, Fabula, was afraid to go out in the rain, for fear of the chalk, and Lobelia in the sun for fear of the rouge. Even the celebrated wife of Nero had her face so fixed up as to change her features When Queen Elizabeth died she left behind no less than three thousand dresses,and at that time, instead of being given away or put in boxes, they were hung against the wall until they were motbeateu. Ladies, too, who had beau tiful dark hair of their own, wore false red hair, in order to have locks like the red headed Queen. The hoops, too, of that day, were larger than at present, for, in 1740, ladies wore hoops sixteen or seventeen feet wide at the bottom, and nearly as wide at the top, which, in those days, would have filled an omnibus to suffocation ; and, instead of rnen grumbling as they do at the present day, they ought to be thankful for being left breathing room by the ladies, when they have taken enough room for their hoops. [Great laughter.] But the hoops saved women’s lives, and was one of the few fash ions which originated with common sense ; for it was far better to wear hoops than to have seven or eight starched petticoats, a they had formeriy. Indeed, many a coron er’s inquest might have rendered a verdict. “Died of Petticoats.” [Great laughter.] The Chinese custom of women having small feet was next referred to. The Em press of China was most beautiful, but her feet were so small that she could scarcely walk. Men got disgusted at women going about too much, and, by and by, they would only marry women who had feet like the Empress. Thus, small feet came into fashion, and, indeed, men who do not live quite so far off as China, might wish such a custom prevailed here, and, as the rule might work both ways, perhaps the ladies might like to have the gentlemen served in the same way, in order to keep them at home sometimes. [Great laughter.] Late Navigation. The Marquette Journal announces the arrival of the Lady Elgin at that port, on the Ist of December. Shu was perfectly covered with ice, as was also most of the freight on deck. The ceil ing of the upper saloon was thickly set w ith icicles, formed by the dropping of the water through the roof. The Elgin encountered the whole force of the gale of the 30th and 31st of December, which is described by Capt. Wilson as the most violent he ever experienced.