off on the approach of summer, and is succeeded by a shorter and finer one. Another animal, called by traders the goat, but which is the true Argali, abounds in the mountains. Its horns are smooth, short, and black, and directed backwards. In winter it has a covering of long curled hair, of silky fineness and lustre. There is also a kind of reindeer. The natives make knives of a white translucent stone, which they detach from the rock by greasing it, and kindling a fire beneath it. They also dig up an unctuous earth which they eat; and they use a stony substance as a paint, mixed with grease. A large piece of native silver was found in the neighbourhood, in 1796. Near the Great Bear Lake river there are some coal-mines on fire, and several fountains of mineral pitch.

From the fact of a large shoal of porpoises having come up to Fort Good Hope in 1810, it is presumed, that the sea must be at no great distance from this; indeed, it is most likely that Sir Alex. Mackenzie saw it.

NORTH-WEST EXPEDITION.

At the monthly meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle, on the 7th ultimo, an interesting paper was read, on the probable situation, condition, and prospects of Captain Parry, and his brave fellow adventurers. It showed the probability of their having succeeded in getting a passage through some inlet in the north-west of Hudson's Bay; since if this had not been the case they would have returned, or been heard of. If they should have got beyond the Copper Mine River the first summer, they may, perhaps, have passed Mackenzie's river, and pushed on through Behring's Straits; and, if so, we may expect to hear of them soon, but, in this case, Franklin, it is likely, would have got intelligence of them; or they may have been obliged, owing to the state of the climate, to stop before reaching the Pacific, and are now passing a second winter on this side of Behring's Straits; still a fair hope may be entertained of their safety; but if in this situation, it may be far on in the season before we hear of them. Or, thirdly, they may not have been able to find a

passage to the Pacific; and then the question is, can they get back to the Atlantic before the open weather closes, or have they the means of passing a third winter in the Polar Seas; various presumptions are in favour of this. But on a fourth not improbable supposition of damage to the ships, deficiency of provisions, sickness, &c. their situation must be deplorable. In the event of this, the author recommends that vessels be sent to different quarters with provisions, that directions be transmitted to the Hudson's Bay Company, to dispatch parties of natives by the Copper Mine and Mackenzie rivers in search of them, and that the Davis's Straits' ships be encouraged to sail before their usual time, and explore the coast before arriving at the fishing quarters.

Such are the contents of this paper; it is to be hoped, however, that the fears entertained with respect to the fate of our adventurous countrymen are groundless. One probability of their success in obtaining a passage through some inlet on the north-west of Hudson's Bay, towards the Polar Sea, is from their not having been heard of by the traders from that quarter. Another probability is, if the archipelago of islands continues from Melville Island towards Behring's Straits, so as to have kept back the pressure of the polar ice towards the south, on the north parts of America, it may have afforded a sailing passage; as islands, shoals, &c. may have kept them off land, and as canoe sailing is circumscribed, it is not likely that Franklin should have heard of them; though, we understand, that at all the points he visited, the sea was open. Again, if they could not succeed the first year in finding a passage to the Pacific, they would naturally pass another winter among the ice, and attempt it when this gave way. Their vessels are constructed on the strongest principles, having, in addition, six feet of solid timber, strongly bolted in their bows, which are well fended with the best iron, and they have a strong wall of planks a foot thick above their water-mark, to enable them to resist the pressure of the ice. Besides their usual complement of every necessary, they took on board a quantity of coals, sheep,

bullocks, &c. at the entrance of Hudson's Straits; at the frozen season, deer and other animals come in abundance near the sea, and when the water is open, there is plenty of fish along the coasts. Taking all these circumstances into consideration, we entertain the most sanguine hopes, with respect to the fate of this expedition.

NEW PERCUSSION LOCK.

Mr. Forrest, gun-maker, in Jedburgh, has lately contrived a percussion lock, which with a double barrelled gun will answer for eighty discharges, with scarcely any farther trouble than merely filling the magazine before setting out. By the intervention of a cylinder betwixt the pan and the magazine, on turning which the pan is filled, all communication with the gunpowder is cut off; for in whatever position the cylinder is placed, the priming in the magazine is never brought in contact with the powder; all possibility of accident is thus prevented; indeed, it appears, that with the greatest carelessness there is no danger. The priming is the same as that used for Forsyth's lock, three parts of superoxymuriate of potash, one of flowers of sulphur, and one of charcoal.

FOSSIL ELK.

A very fine specimen of elk from the Isle of Man has lately been presented to the Museum of the University of Edinburgh. It was dug up in the parish of Kirk Balaff, and sent to the college by the Duke of Athol. It was found imbedded in loose shell marl, over which was a bed of sand, and above this a layer of peat, composed chiefly of small branches and decayed leaves, and over these was the common soil of the country. The following are the dimensions of this specimen :

Height to the highest point of the trunk

Feet. Inch.

6

1

ASIATIC RHINOCEROS.

Sir Everard Home has lately published an account of the manners and habits of this animal, the particulars of which were obtained from the person who had the charge of it at Exeter Change. It was so savage, that shortly after its arrival it attempted to kill its keeper, but its horns fortunately passed between his thighs and penetrated a wooden partition, from which the animal with difficulty extricated itself. Its skin was covered with small scales of the thickness of paper, and having the appearance of tortoise shell, and the edges of which were extremely sensible, being the only part that appeared to smart under the lash of the keeper's whip. Though in a great measure subdued, it frequently became quite ferocious, more especially in the night, during which it often made a hideous noise and destroyed every thing that was near it. It was quick in its motions, and ate all kinds of vegetables, appearing to make no selection.

SUCCORY AS BLANCHED Salad.

A variety of this plant improved by cultivation is much employed in France. The young leaves are used in salad; and for procuring them, successive growings are kept up in gardens. When the plant is raised in fields, the outer leaves are plucked at different periods of summer and autumn, and given to milch cows, by which it is said they afford about a third more milk than when fed on common fodder, but it at first acquires a slightly sour taste. The butter is also more easily obtained from it. At the approach of winter, the roots are dug up and laid in a cellar horizontally in alternate layers with sand or light soil, with their heads outermost and uncovered. In this situation they are kept excluded from frost and also from light, during which they afford the blanched roots called Barbe de Capucin, used as winter salad. The roots are sometimes also put with sand into barrels having numerous holes in their sides, through which the shoots very easily push, and are cut off when required. Barrels thus prepared are sometimes taken on board vessels about to sail, and afford fresh salad for many months.

PEAT MOSSES OF HOLLAND. There are two kinds of peat employed by the Dutch, found in different layers. The highest affords grey or dry peat, composed of leaves and stems of reedy plants, and occasionally pieces of branches of large trees. The lowest layer produces mud peats, in which trunks of trees are often found; and, what is remarkable, with their heads invariably pointing to the east. Some of the timber, oak in particular, is so sound, that it is often employed in carpentry, but it is of a dark colour, as if stained with ink. The Dutch ashes are much employed in agriculture and gardening, after they have been kept for some time. Fruit trees in a languishing state are restored to vigour by them. They are said to open and stimulate the soil, and afford additional nourishment to the plants, by means of the water which they absorb and gradually give out; and that by carrying into the soil principles calculated to attract the carbonic acid or fixed air in the atmosphere, the solubility of the portions adapted for the food of plants is promoted. When the ashes are old, they may be spread on the garden in greater quantity, by which the ground is always kept damp. When old garden soil is overloaded with rich mould, or when too frequent manurings have been used, stale ashes are found to restore it to its due state of sharpness and activity.

RAIN IN THE TROPICS.

The following almost incredible statement is from the American Journal of Sciences, on the authority of Captain Roussin, dated Cayenne, February 28, 1820; we give it in his own words, lest it be supposed that in abridging it we have committed some mistake. "You will, perhaps, learn with no inconsiderable interest, the following meteorological fact, the authenticity of which I am able to certify. From the 1st to the 24th of February, there fell upon the Isle of Cayenne twelve feet seven inches of water. This observation was made by a person of the highest veracity; and I assured my self, by exposing a vessel in the middle of my yard, that there fell in the city ten and a quarter inches of water, between eight in the evening

and six in the morning, of the 14th and 15th of that month. From those enormous rains has resulted an inundation from which every plantation has suffered."

PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.

Royal Society, Dec. 19.-A paper was read by J. F. Davis, Esq. on the Chinese Year. The introductory part of this paper was occupied in proving that there was no scientific knowledge of Astronomy in China, before that introduced by the Arabians, and afterwards by European missionaries. The 36 eclipses, recorded by Confucius, are useful in determining chronological points, but afford no evidence of astronomical science. The encouragement and promotion of foreign professors of astronomy, and their adopting the errors of those professors, show that they had not been originally acquainted with it themselves. A drawing was also exhibited, illustrating the 28 constellations, of which the year consists, with the degrees they respectively occupy; the Chinese have no solar year.

A paper was read by Dr. Daubeny, on the Rocks that contain Magnesia; and another, on the Corrections applied to the Great Meridional Arc, extending from latitude 8° 9′ 38-39", to latitude 18° 3′ 23-64", to reduce it to the parliamentary standard, by Lieut.-Colonel William Lambton. Colonel Lambton has likewise completed some measurements which, when the requisite calculations are made, he intends to lay before the society. He is proceeding with his arc through Hindostan. If Scindiah's country continue quiet, a section of it will pass through Gwalior, his capital, and end at Agra on the Jumnah.

An interesting paper was also read, entitled, Some Practical Observations on the Communication and Concentration of the Magnetic Influence, by Mr. J. H. Abraham, of Sheffield.

Linnean Society, Jan. 21.-Papers were read by Major-Gen. J. Hardwicke, entitled, Description of three Insects of Nepaul, and of a tail-less Deer, native of the Snowy Mountains of Nepaul. It is of a brownish ash colour. Its head is the size of that of a full grown stag, horns trifurcate and tuberculated at the roots, neck curved like that of a camel, with a mane on the back; when walking it

The eleventh volume of the Text of the great work on Egypt is published. It contains some interesting memoirs on the communications between the Indian Sea and the Mediterranean by the Red Sea; on the canal of Alexandria; on the Isthmus of Suez; a description of the town of Qoceyr; a notice on the medicines usual among the Egyptians; a memoir on the ovens for hatching chickens; a description of Lake Menzaleh, by General Andreossi; and observations on the Fountain of Moses, by Monge. Nos. 93, 94, and 95, of the plates are also published.

M. Gau, whose Antiquities of Nubia (of which seven numbers are published) have been so well received by the public, is going to publish 25 plates of Egyptian antiquities, consisting of bas reliefs, and paintings, copied on the spot, by M. Gau himself.

A new novel, Elisa Tarrakanoff, by M. Bonnelier, is founded on the following story, the authenticity of which is, we believe, very questionable. Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, had, they say, a natural daughter; and few persons were in the secret; one of these persons was the Polish Prince Radziwill, who, after the death of Elizabeth, carried the young princess off, and conducted her to Rome, either to promote the advantage of his country, or to forward his own ambitious designs. But Catherine II., aware of his projects, sequestrated his property; and, while he was absent for the purpose of getting this sequestration taken off, she sent her favourite, Alexis Orloff, for the purpose of seducing the young princess, by flattering her with the hope of placing her on the throne. He succeeds in ensnaring the credulous Elisa into a pretended marriage, the object of which is to accomplish an atrocious crime. A Russian fleet is in the harbour of Leghorn; seconded by the English Consul, and still more by his wife, Orloff persuades his unsuspecting victim to visit the fleet, where she meets only chains, and soon afterwards death.

Germany. The first volume of Mr. Wiebeking's grand work, The History of Civil Architecture, has excited great interest, and an ardent wish to see the whole completed;

which, we understand, it is expected to be by the publication of the second volume at Easter fair. Mr. W., whose elaborate work on hydraulics has acquired him the highest reputation on the Continent, though it is not known in England as it merits (the late lamented Mr. Rennie, we believe, had a copy of it), has exerted himself to the utmost on this new work, one of the most important that has ever appeared on the subject ; it is illustrated by an amazing number of fine plates, some of them on an extraordinarily large scale, the author having either himself measured, or caused to be measured, above 900 cathedrals and churches in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, England, and France. Plates will likewise be given of all the most beautiful and curious antique temples, including many of the most remarkable Egyptian temples, &c. taken from the French Description de l'Egypte.

Another part of the Life of Goethe is expected at Easter fair, and also the second volume of Professor Horn's Illustrations of the Plays of Shakspeare.

Dr. Niemeyer, Chancellor of the University of Halle, has already published a second edition of his Observations, made during a Tour in England.

History of the city of Danzig, from the oldest times to the present, vol. I. This is the title of an interesting work just published by a Dr. G. Löschin. Danzig is without dispute one of the most ancient commercial cities, and is proved to have carried on an extensive commerce even in the 10th century. In all the wars carried on by the Poles, Russians, Swedes, Prussians, Danes, and the Teutonic Knights, it acted an important part, and that for centuries together. Such a city was worthy of particular notice; but in earlier times it was not possible to publish any thing complete; the apprehensions and fears of the patrician order enveloping every thing in mystery. Dr. Löschin, however, has now been permitted to consult the archives of the city, and has thus been enabled to compose a work highly interesting. This first volume brings down the history to the year 1660.