AMERICAN ALMANAC AND REPOSITORY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE, FOR THE YEAR 1833. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY GRAY AND BOWEN; AND CARTER, HENDEE, AND CO. NEW YORK: G. AND C. AND H. CARVILL; AND COLLINS AND HANNAY. CINCINNATI: HUBBARD AND EDMANDS. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1832, by Gray & Bowen, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: E. W. METCALF AND COMPANY, PREFACE. ENCOURAGED by the reception which the American Almanac has hitherto met with, the Conductors present the Fourth Volume to the public, with the hope that the work will be regarded as entitled to a continuance of the public favor. The usual labor and care have been again bestowed by Mr. Paine upon the astronomical department, although the ensuing year is less distinguished for interesting celestial phenomena than the two or three that have immediately preceded it. Under the head of Meteorological Information, many remarkable facts are brought together, from the most authentic sources, relative to the fall of colored rain and snow, showers of dust and of soft substances both dry and gelatinous, and meteoric stones. A brief account is also given of some of the most remarkable optical phenomena of the atmosphere, as mirage, halos, and parhelia or false suns. This first part of the Almanac concludes with instructions, from the best authority, relative to the form, size, position, &c. of lightning rods. The Second Part contains the requisite information relating to the Executive and Legislative Government and the Judiciary of the United States; the Acts of Congress in relation to Patents, Copy-rights, the Relief of Insolvent Debtors to the United States, and of the Surviving Officers and Soldiers of the Revolution; and statistical information respecting commerce, population, literature, religion, and other matters. In the notices of the Individual States, objects of Internal Improvement, as Canals and Rail-roads, matters which have engrossed much of the public notice and enterprise within a few years past, have received particular attention. Much valuable information will be found in the part of the work appropriated to the notice of Foreign Countries, although a considerable portion of the materials prepared for this department have |