The aggregate number produced of all these different sorts averages upwards of 1200 gross weekly, or about 9,000,000 annually. The annual consumption of ox-horns is about 730,000, being considerably more than half the imports of 1850; the consumption of hoofs amounts to 4,000,000; the consumption of tortoise-shell and buffalo-horn, although not so large, is correspondingly valuable: even the waste, composed of horn-shavings and parings of hoof, which, from its nitrogenized composition, becomes valuable in the manufacture of prussiate of potash, amounts to 350 tons in the year; the broken combs in the various stages of manufacture average 50 or 60 gross in a week; and as the crowning illustration of the enormous extent of these comb-works, the very paper for packing costs L.600 a year. There are so many beautiful instances of the division of labor that the task of selecting is not easy. But let us take the cheapest article in the trade; namely, the side-combs, sold retail at 1d. per pair: in its progress from the hoof to the comb--finished, carded, and labelled "German shell"--it undergoes eleven distinct operations. This comb, which twenty years ago was sold to the trade at 3s. 6d. per dozen, can now be purchased in the same way for _two shillings and sixpence per gross!_ thus effecting a reduction in price of about 1600 per cent. As an illustration of the value of labor, we give the following comparative estimate of the produce of the three materials:---- 1 cwt. shell, val. L.200, produces combs, val. 275, inc. 37-1/2 per cent. 1 ton horns, " 56, " " " 150, " 168 " " 1 ton hoofs, " 12, " " " 36, " 200 " " Regarded in this aspect, in the relation of labor to material, we find that hoofs--intrinsically the least valuable of the materials--become, with the application of labor, the _most valuable_--that is, proportionably: and the converse is true in the case of tortoise-shell. At the time of our visit there were employed 456 men and boys, and 164 women--in all, 620 persons--exactly four times the number employed in the comb-trade in all Scotland when the house commenced business. From the National Era. A REMINISCENCE. BY ALICE CAREY.