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descend lower and lower from the summit of the mountains towards the plains and valleys.

New Inflammable Gas.-Dr Thomson has discovered a new compound inflammable gas, and has called it, from the nature of its constitution, hydroguretted carbonic oxide. Its specific gravity is, 913, that of common air being 1. It is not absorbed nor altered by water. It burns with a deep blue flame, and detonates when mixed with oxygen and fired. It is a compound of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon; and Dr Thomson considers as being three volumes of carbonic oxide, and one volume of hydrogen, condensed by combination into three volumes. See Annals of Philosophy, August 1818.

New Vegetable Alkali.-M. M. Pelletier and Caventou have inserted the following note in the Annales de Chimie for July. (The note was read to the Academy on the 10th August.)

Whilst analysing the vomica nut, and the bean of St Ignace, they extracted from these two seeds the substance to which they owe their action on the animal economy.

This substance is white, crystalline, and very bitter. It crystallizes in the form of quadrangular plates, or in four sided prisms, terminated by an obtuse quadrangular pyramid. It is very slightly soluble in water, but very soluble in alcohol. It is formed like most vegetable substances, of oxygen, hydrogen, and charcoal. It is most distinguished by its alkaline properties; and though like morphium, is essentially different from it. It restores a reddened blue colour, and with acids forms neutral salts, soluble in water, and crystallizable. With weak nitric acid it forms a nitrate, but the concentrated acid acts on and decomposes it; and forms a solution, at first red, but becoming yellow, and yielding oxalic acid. Its acetate is very soluble, the sulphate less so, and crystallizable in rhomboidal plates.

This substance acts on animals in a similar manner to the alcoholic infusion of the nux vomica, but more energetically.

The class of acid vegetable substances is numerous; on the contrary, that of alkaline vegetable substances is confined to morphium. Nevertheless, M. Vauquelin has noticed the alkaline properties of a substance obtained by him whilst analysing the daphne alpine. The new body will form another genus in the class, which may become numerous, and which has first been observed by M. Vauquelin. To recal these facts, and designate the substances by a name which will avoid circumlocution, they have called it vauqueline. This name is better than one entirely insignificant, or that indicates properties which may be found in other bodies.

American Sea Serpent.-Another sea serpent, different to the one first seen near Cape Anne, is said to have been seen, and the folTowing declaration has been drawn up and attested in proper form.

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"I the undersigned, Joseph Woodward, captain of the Adamant schooner of Hingham, being on my rout from Penobscot to Hingham, steering W. N. W., and being about 10 leagues from the coast, perceived, last Sunday, at two P.M., something on the surface of the water, which seemed to me to be of the size of a large boat. Supposing that it might be part of the wreck of a ship, I approached it; but when I was within a few fathoms of it, it appeared, to my great surprise, and that of my whole crew, that it was a monstrous serpent. When I approached nearer, it coiled itself up, instantly uncoiling itself again, and withdrew with extreme rapidity. On my approaching again, it coiled itself up a second time, and placed itself at the distance of 60 feet at most from the bow of the ship.

"I had one of my guns loaded with a cannon ball and musket bullets. I fired it at the head of the monster; my crew and myself distinctly heard the ball and bullets strike against his body, from which they rebounded, as if they had struck against a rock. The serpent shook his head and tail in an extraordinary manner, and advanced towards the ship with open jaws. I had caused the cannon to be re-loaded, and pointed it at his throat; but he had come so near, that all the crew were seized with terror, and we thought only of getting out of his way. He almost touched the vessel; and had not I tacked as I did, he would certainly have come on board. He dived; but in a moment we saw him appear again, with his head on one side of the vessel, and his tail on the other, as if he was going to lift us up and upset us. However, we did not feel any shock. He remained five hours near us, only going backward and forward.

"The fears with which he at first inspired us having subsided, we were able to examine him attentively. I estimate, that his length is at least twice that of my schooner, that is to say, 130 feet; his head is full 12 or 14: the diameter of the body below the neck, is not less than six feet; the size of the head is in proportion to that of his body. He is of a blackish colour; his ear-holes (ouies), are about 12 feet from the extremity of his head. In short, the whole has a terrible look.

"When he coils himself up, he places his tail in such a manner, that it aids him in darting forward with great force: he moves in all directions with the greatest facility and astonishing rapidity."

(Signed) JOSEPH WOODWARD. Hingham, May 12, 1818.

This declaration is attested by Peter Holmes and John Mayo, who made affidavit of the truth of it before a justice of peace.

The animal first seen, has, according to accounts, been observed several times since that périod. On the 19th of June, he appeared in Sag Harbour, and rewards were

offered to the whalers to secure it. S. West, of Hallowell, master of the packet Delia, describes it as seen on the 21st of June, engaged with a whale; and on July 2d, two persons, J. Webber and R. Hamilton, saw it about seven miles from Portland, between Cranch Island Point and Marsh Island.

The Commercial Advertiser of June 9th, contains a letter from the captain of the brig Wilson, of Salem, bound to Norfolk, wherein he states, that during his passage, off Cape Henry, he fell in with, as he at first supposed, the wreck of a vessel, when he ordered his boat to be lowered; but to his great astonishment, he found it to be the sea serpent; he says, he then examined it, and such an object he never before witnessed; he believed it to be about 190 feet in length, and its mouth and head were of an enormous size. After returning to the ship, they bore off, fearing the consequences that might result from its coming in contact with the vessel.

Polyhalite.-M. Stromeyer has lately analysed a substance found in the beds of rock salt, at Ischel, in Austria, and has found it to be a peculiar mineral. It was before considered, and called fibrous muriacite, but has now received the name of polyhalite. is composed of

Sulphate of lime (common),

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New Medical Instrument.-A new instrument has been introduced into medical science at Paris; and, from the favourable report which it obtained, on being submitted to the Academy of Sciences, would appear to be somewhat more than a chimerical improvement.

in the lungs, their extent, their state, and the nature and consistence of the matter. within them, were ascertained.

Russian Voyage of Discovery.-A very singular ice berg was fallen in with by the Russian ship Rurick, Captain Kotzebue, during its voyage. It was of great magnitude, and partly covered with earth and mould, so that herbs and trees were growing on it. On one part of its water line a shore had been formed, by matter washed down from above, and on this a landing was made good. A great quantity of the remains of a mammoth were found on it, in a very putrescent state. These had probably been preserved for many ages in the cold regions of the north, and were no doubt coequal in age to those remains which the geologist finds in his later strata, and merits, therefore, in a geological sense, the name of organic remains. The vessel brought away a number of the tusks and other parts of these animals.

We extract the

Northern Herculaneum. following from a very excellent provincial paper, the INVERNESS COURIER.

"Lopness, in Sanda, 26th Sept. 1818. TO THE EDITOR,

SIR,-Having lately seen a notice in the newspapers, &c. that vast remains of ancient 28.74 buildings a city'-' two cities' had been 22.36 disclosed to modern vision, by recent drift27.40 ing of sand, I came here yesterday to ascer20.11 tain, by actual inspection, the state of the 0.19 fact. A party of us set out to-day after 0.32 breakfast, and took with us labourers, with spades, &c. to assist in our researches into this Northern Herculaneum ;-and having glanced over the scene, I, at least, was quite satisfied, that the stories which had gone abroad upon the subject were very great exaggerations. A venerable native of this 'unfrequented island of the north,' (which, by the way, is a fiction) whom we saw on the ground, told us, that he was threescore and eighteen years of age, and that, for the last sixty years, the sand, which rose in heaps at the headland now referred to, has been gradually drifted away-that the whole surface of the sand hillocks was green, being covered with grass and bent-and that, within these last twenty years, the whole area, now laid nearly bare, with the exception of a small corner at the point of the promontory), has been almost freed from its covering of sand-hills. The respectable tenant of this farm tells me, that he remembers the place for the last twenty-five years, and that during that period, the sand-hills, to the height of perhaps twenty feet, or thereby, have been dispersed. The space thus uncovered, extends probably to about a square mile, at the most northerly point of this islandand exhibits evident marks of having been the scene of human operations, at a period anterior to its being covered with the sand. Nearly in a line with the sea-beach, as it sweeps round the head of Tofts Ness, and about fifteen or twenty feet above the high

Dr Laennec, physician to the Necker Hospital, supposed it likely, that the various sounds which are formed in the interior of the body, as in the breast, &c. might become, from the variation induced on them by disease, indications of the state of health; and that the sounds produced by the action or motion of any particular organ, as of the heart or lungs, would point out any change in the state of that organ; and taking advantage of the superior conducting power of solid bodies, with regard to sound, he formed an instrument which should convey these indicatory sounds more readily and distinct ly to the ear. This instrument is a cylinder of wood, which, in some cases, according to the nature of the examination, is solid; in others, perforated lengthways by a canal; and in others, hollowed like a horn.

The voice, the respiration, sounds in the throat, and pulsations of the heart, are general indications to so many different kinds of diseases; and by one of these, among others, it is said, that the existence of ulcers

water mark, there is a ridge of loose large flag stones, tossed together in irregular masses, and spread out to such a width, and having such an appearance as a row of cottages in ruin might be supposed to exhibit. Besides this range, there are several others running off at right angles, and in various directions, some of them perhaps the remains of dwellings, or walls for defence, and others of them nothing more than old dikes, such as are common in this country. There are still to be seen along the whole line of what may be supposed either fallen habitations, or fallen walls, the forms of round towers, crumbled down, some of them considerably more elevated than the adjacent ground, and one large mount, or tumulus, evidently artificial, within the range of the enclosure, points it out as a post of some importance in its day. There are various tumuli or barrows, disposed on the outside of the rows of stones, which may have been outworks of defence. Some of them are evidently of this description, while others are only places of sepulture. The latter fact I ascertained by getting all the earth and sand taken out of three stone coffins, which have been exposed to view in one tumulus; and in each of them we found human bones, some of which I have reserved to show to the curious. There is one mass of stones, different from the ordinary Picts' houses, as they are vulgarly called here; these are circular; but it is oblong, and seems to have been constructed by laying flagstones overlapping one another, the highest regularly sloping inward until the opposite sides met. We meant to have explored it, but a dreadful blast of wind and rain, from the south-east, had already drenched us thoroughly, and increasing, compelled us to desist. The forms of ridges, freed from the sand which had long covered them, are quite apparent; but whether their formation and culture are of the same era with the broken down walls and towers, it is quite impossible to ascertain. Those remnants may be the wreck of an ancient establishment of the most barbarous kind, but it could not have been any thing deserving the name of a city. The situation of Toftness, on the very extremity of these islands, protected on one side by the tremendous Frith betwixt it and North Ronaldsay, and on the other by a fresh water lake, pointed it out as a position easily capable of defence by the rude bulwarks and towers, the vestiges of which still remain, in those predatory times when Orkney was the scene of rapine and violence. Whether it has been a colony of Celts, of Picts, or of Scandinavians, I leave to the sagacity of antiquaries to discover. The subject might afford materials for controversy between our old and respected friends, Monkbarns and Edie Ochiltree. I must close these memoranda, however, by adding, that the stone coffins are only about four feet in length, and that the bodies which they contained were laid with the heads at the narrowest

ends, so that the legs must have been folded sideways across the broader end. The coffins were in width about three feet, composed of thick slate, without top or bottom, and about two feet deep. I am, &c.

P."

Fascinating Power of Serpents.-A memoir on the subject of the fascinating power of serpents, by Major Alexander Garden, of South Carolina, was read at a meeting of the New York Historical Society, in September 1817.

"He attributed the phenomenon to an effluvium which the serpent voluntarily exhales at those times when it feels the desire of food, and the effluvium is of so deleterious a nature as to cause convulsions in the smaller and more sensitive animals, such as birds, mice, &c. He mentioned several instances in which men had been powerfully affected by the effluvium. He had been informed by the late Colonel Thompson of Belleville, that whilst riding over his estate, he came suddenly upon a snake of enormous size, at which, the moment he could sufficiently collect himself, he fired. He killed the reptile, but was at the same instant assailed by an overpowering vapour, which so bewildered him that he could scarcely guide his horse home: that a deadly sickness at his stomach ensued, and a vomiting more violently than he had ever experienced from an emetic. He had been told by a lady, that the overseer of one of her plantations being missed, was sought for by his family, and found in a state of insensibility. On recovering, he stated that he was watching for a deer, when he heard the rattle of a snake; and that before he could remove from the threatened danger, he perceived a sickening effluvium, which deprived him instantly of sense. From John Lloyd, Esq. he had learned another case :-A negro working in his field was seen suddenly to fall, uttering a shriek: on approaching him, it was found that he had struck off the head of a very large rattlesnake, the body of which was still writhing. On recovering, he said that he had shrieked with horror on discovering the snake, and at the same instant had been overpowered by a smell that took away all his senses. Mr Nathaniel Barnwell, of Beaufort, had a negro who could, from the acuteness of his smell, at all times discover the rattlesnake within a distance of two hundred feet, when in the exercise of his fascinating power; and when traced by this sense, some object of prey was always found suffering from this influence. To these facts Major Garden added some anecdotes collected from Vaillant's Travels and other sources, corroborating his theory. When gorged with food, the serpent is supine: it is only when under the stimulus of hunger that he exerts this fascinating faculty. The cases mentioned by Mr Pintard, at the last meeting of the society, are among the many evidences of the existence of the power in the serpent to influence birds to approach it, maugre their

dread; and the circumstances related by him do not militate with the hypothesis of Major Garden."

Mammoth Cave of Indiana. The Kentucky Commentator contains a letter from a Mr Adams, giving an account of a cave which he had explored in Indiana. The editor of the Commentator, in his introduction to the letter, says, this cave" has never yet been fully explored, though several individuals, whose testimony is to be relied on, have penetrated from six to nine miles into this subterraneous region."

Mr Adams states that the cave is situated in the north-west quarter of section 27, in Township No. 3 of the second eastern range in the district of lands offered for sale at Jeffersonville. It was first discovered about eleven years ago, at which time the bottom of the cave was covered with salts from six to nine inches deep; the sides were also coated in the same manner, and had the appearance of snow.

The hill in which the cave is situated is 400 feet high, the top principally covered with oak and chesnut. The entrance is about half way from the base to the summit, and the surface of the cave preserves about that elevation.

The entrance is by an aperture of 12 or 15 feet wide, and three or four feet in height. With an easy descent, you enter a room which continues a quarter of a mile, varying in height from 8 to 30 feet, and in breadth from 10 to 20; the roof arched in some places, resembling an inside view of the roof of a house. At the extremity of this room the cave forks, the right soon terminates, the left rises by a flight of rocky stairs, nearly ten feet high, into another story, and has a. S.E. direction. In this room the roof has a regular arch from 5 to 8 feet high, and from 7 to 12 feet wide, which continues to what is called the Creep ing Place, where it becomes necessary to crawl 10 or 12 feet to get into the next room, from which, to the distance of one mile and a quarter, there are many large and small rooms, variously situated. At

the end of this journey, a stately white pillar presents itself, which is about 15 feet in diameter, and from 20 to 30 in height, regularly reeded from top to bottom. In the vicinity are several other smaller pillars of the same description. Mr Adams was not certain what were the constituents of their columns, but lime appeared to be the base. Major Warren states that they are the satin

spar.

The cave abounds in sulphate of magnesia or Epsom salts, which is found in a great variety of forms, and different stages of formation-sometimes in lumps from one to ten pounds, from the surface to three feet below it, the walls are covered with the same article. Mr Adams removed from a spot in the cave every vestige of salt, and in four or five weeks the place was covered with small needle-shaped crystals resembling frost.

The quality of salts is very superior, the worst earth yielding four pounds to the bushel, and the best from 20 to 25 pounds.

The cave also contains great quantities of nitrate of lime, or saltpetre earth; nitrate of alumina, or nitrate of argil; each yielding an equal quantity of saltpetre. The sulphate of lime is seen variously formed, ponderous crystallized, soft, or light and spongy: there are also vestiges of the sulphate of iron, and small specimens of the carbonate and nitrate of magnesia. The rocks in the cave are principally of carbonate of lime or common limestone.

Mr Adams closes his letter by stating, that near the forks of the cave are two specimens of painting, probably of Indian origin. One appears to be a savage with something like a bow in his hand, and furnishes the hint, that it was done when that instrument of death was in use. The other is so much defaced that it is impossible to say what it was intended to represent.

A full account of this remarkable cave, with a drawing of it, previous to its having been visited by Mr Adams, will be found in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, conducted by Dr Brewster, art, KENTUCKY.

WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION.

LONDON.

LIFE and Adventures of Antar, a cele brated Bedowen Chief, Warrior, and Poet, who flourished a few years prior to the Mahommedan Era. Now first translated from the original Arabic, by Terrick Hamilton, Esq., Oriental Secretary to the British Embassy to Constantinople. Cr. 8vo.

A Manual of Chemistry; containing the

principal Facts of the Science, arranged in the order in which they are discussed and illustrated in the Lectures at the Royal. Institution. With a Prefatory History of the Science. By W. T. Brande, F. R. S., Secretary to the Royal Society of London. In one volume, 8vo, with upwards of 100 Wood-cuts.

A Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions, for the Discovery of a Northern Passage between the Atlantic and

Pacific Oceans, from the earliest period to the present time; accompanied with a general Description of the Arctic Lands and Polar Seas, as far as hitherto known. By John Barrow, F.R. and L.S. 1 vol. 8vo.

Letters from the North of Italy, turning principally upon the Government, Statistics, Manners, Language, and Literature of the Peninsula. Addressed to Henry Hallam, Esq., by W. S. Rose, Esq. 8vo. Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, with Plates, 4to.

Anecdotes and Reminiscences of His Own Times. By the Rev. Dr King, Principal of St Mary Hall, Oxford. Cr. 8vo.

The Lives of Haydn and Mozart, with Observations on Metastasio, and on the Present State of Music in Italy, with Notes. By the Author of Sacred Melodies. Second Edition, 8vo.

Description of a Journey up the Nile, from Assouan to Dar el Mahass, on the frontiers of Dengola. Performed in the months of February and March, 1813. By J. L. Burckhardt. 4to.

A Narrative of the Expedition to Algiers, in the year 1816, under the command of the Right Hon. Admiral Lord Viscount Exmouth. By Mr Abraham Salame, a native of Alexandria in Egypt, interpreter in his Britannic Majesty's service for the Oriental Languages, who accompanied his Lordship in quality of Interpreter, for the subsequent Negotiations with the Dey. Published by permission, and ornamented with some plates. 8vo.

Narrative of an Expedition in Aid of the South American Patriots, which sailed from England November 1817. By James Hackett, an Officer in the Expedition.

Sermons on the Parables and Miracles of Jesus Christ. By Edward William Grinfield, M. A. Minister of Laura Chapel, Bath; in 1 vol. 8vo.

Sermons by Edward Maltby, D. D. in 2 vols. 8vo.

Travels through Denmark, Sweden, Lapland, Finland, Norway, and Russia, with a Description of the City of St Petersburg, during the tyranny of the Emperor Paul. By E. D. Clarke, LL. D. Being the third and last part of the Author's Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Handsomely printed in quarto, with numerous engravings of views, maps, &c.

An Historical and Topographical Account of Devonshire; being the ninth part of Magna Britannia, or a concise Account of the several Counties of Great Britain. By the Rev. Daniel Lysons, A. M., F. R. S. F. A. and L. S., Rector of Rodmarton, Gloucestershire, and Samuel Lysons, Esq. F. R. S. and F. A. S. Keeper of his Majesty's Record's in the Tower of London.Handsomely printed in 4to. with numerous engravings of views, antiquities, &c.

The History and Antiquities of the Tower of London, with Biographical Anecdotes of royal and distinguished Persons, deduced

from records, state papers, manuscripts, and other original and authentic sources. By John Bayley, of his Majesty's Record Office, Tower, and of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. This work will likewise comprise an Historical Account of the Record Office, with Memoirs of Eminent Men who have been intrusted with its custody; also the History of the Mint, the Regalia, the Origin of the Ordnance Establishment, &c. In 1 vol. 4to, illustrated with 30 engravings, by Artists of the first eminence.

The History of France, Civil and Military, Ecclesiastical, Political, Literary, Commercial, &c. &c. Continuing the History from the earliest accounts, to the death of Henry III. A. D. 1589. By the Rev. Alexander Ranken, one of the Ministers of Glasgow.

The Dream of Youth, a Poem, elegantly printed, in one volume.

In the press, a new and corrected edition of Butler's Hudibras, with the whole of Dr Grey's Annotations, embellished with Portraits, and with Engravings on Wood, by Branston, Hughes, &c., from original designs by Thurston. Part I. will be published on the 1st January 1819. To be completed in 6 Parts, forming 3 vols 8vo.

The Editor of "Mortimer's Commercial Dictionary, Universal Commerce," and other publications upon similar subjects, has in the press, a Work, entitled "FoREIGN EXCHANGES," being a complete set of Tables of Foreign Exchanges, calculated from the lowest to the highest course of Exchange; and from one penny to a thousand pounds sterling. It will shew, at one view, any sum of Foreign money reduced into British sterling, and British money into Foreign. Tables shewing the method of calculating the Exchanges between the different Cities on the Continent with each other; and concluding with a Table of the Real and Imaginary Monies of the World, the mode of reckoning the same, and their value reduced into British sterling. This Work, which is about to be published by Subscription, is a grand desideratum in Commercial Literature. The terms are £110s. per copy to Subscribers, and £2 to Non-Subscribers. The Work to be paid for on delivery.

The Life of Jesus Christ, including his Apocryphal History, from the Spurious Gospels, Unpublished Manuscripts, &c.-Contents. History of Emerentiana and St Anne, ancestors of the Virgin Mary-Birth and marriage of the Virgin Mary-History of the Infancy of Jesus, from the Evangelium Infantiæ -St Joseph's deliverance from Demons after death, from his Life, attributed to Jesus-The Virgin Mary's death and ascension to heaven-Ebenether's account of the restoration of his sight by the waters of Siloam, from a MS. history of Jesus, attributed to him-History of the Death of Jesus, from a MS. ascribed to the Virgin

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