Volume 6 — Our Correspondence.
Reading edition
The following letter we insert with much pleasure:—
Rindge, N. H., Oct. 27, 1843.
Mr. Merry:
I have taken your Museum the past year, and like it very much. I should like to have you put in another anecdote about Bill Keeler. Will you be so kind as to put in the following Riddles, if you please, to gratify a boy ten years old?
1. It is in the bolster, but not in the bed; It is in the grave, but not in the dead; It is in the rock, but not in the stone; It is in the marrow, but not in the bone. 2. I’m captain of a company That counts full twenty-six; And also with a party five I deign to intermix; With Adam I was seen to stay, But Eve I do not like; I’m always found throughout the day, But never in the night.
Your affectionate friend, Samuel B——.
We have received answers from Mary G. D., F. W. B., J. F. T., and some others, to our Twenty Questions about Animals, in the October number of the Museum. Most of them are correct. As a specimen of the letters on this subject, we insert the following, adding a few notes of correction:—
Bristol, Oct. 25th, 1843.
My dear Mr. Merry:
In the last number of your Museum, you wished your little readers to send you the answers to twenty questions given to us. I am quite a small boy, but I thought I would try to answer them; and those that I may answer wrong I should like to have you correct in your next number, and oblige a little friend and subscriber, who is yet too young to write for himself.
1st question. The five most remarkable quadrupeds in Africa are the Lion, Zebra, Hippopotamus, Camelopard, Hyena.(1)
2d. The three most famous animals in Asia are the Elephant, Rhinoceros, and Lion.
3d. The Elephant is the largest quadruped, and is a native of Asia.
4th. The Giraffe is the tallest animal in the world, and found in Asia(2) and Africa.
5th. The Ostrich is the largest bird, and found in Asia and Africa.
6th. The largest kind of serpent is the Boa Constrictor, and found in Asia.
7th. The smallest bird is the Humming-Bird, and found in America.
8th. The largest animal is the Elephant,(3) and lives in Asia.
9th. The Orang-Outang most resembles man, and is found in Borneo, one of the East India Islands.
10th. The Horse is the most useful animal to man.
11th. The Bison is the largest quadruped found wild in America.
12th. The Grizzly Bear is the most fierce and formidable wild quadruped in the United States.
13th. The Rattlesnake is the celebrated poisonous serpent that belongs to the United States.
14th. I think the largest bird of prey in the world is the Eagle.(4)
15th. To the question, what are the two most remarkable animals of New Holland? I don’t know but one; that is the Kangaroo.(5)
16th. The Eagle is the king of birds.
17th. The Butterfly is the most beautiful of insects.
18th. The Bee is the most useful insect to man.
19th. The Dog seems most attached to man.
20th. The Lion is the most powerful known quadruped.
Now, Mr. Merry, I have got through, and I should like very much to know if I have answered them right, and especially to know the other remarkable animal of New Holland.
Your little friend and subscriber, E. M. G.
(1) Not Hyena, but Rhinoceros, of which there are two kinds in Africa, the one-horned and the two-horned.
(2) The Giraffe is not a native of Asia.
(3) The largest animal is the Whale.
(4) The Condor is the largest bird of prey.
(5) The other most remarkable animal of New Holland is the Duck-billed Platypus, a small quadruped, with fur like a beaver, and a bill like a duck, living chiefly around the water.
Transcriber’s Note:
One footnote was moved to the end of the article.
Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged unless indicated below. Obsolete and alternative spellings were retained. Misspelled words were corrected. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added.
Links to audio files were added for music. The music files are the music transcriber's interpretation of the printed notation and are placed in the public domain. At the time of this writing, music file links will not work in mobile e-book formats like epub or Kindle/mobi. Users who are reading the e-book in one of these formats can listen to the music or download music files in the HTML version. Lyrics to musical scores are presented as poetry following the illustration of the music.
The following items were changed:
Added word “to” … to throw my hat off my head.…
The article “Truth Triumphant” was moved to the end of the May issue so as not to interrupt the preceding dialogue between Ann and Lucy.
“Kitty” changed to “Nancy”.
Added missing page number to entry for Eccentric Characters in the Table of Contents, Volume 6.