these words, which I beg leave to quote: "From Callendar we set out to visit the famed and interesting scenery of the pass of Leney, by which the traveller on this route enters the Grampian range. About two miles beyond Callendar we found the rock through which the road is cut to be very distinct greywacke, and traced it till we found it about half a mile further on towards the north-west, very near the mica-slate; but could not see the junction of these two rocks, or whether the clay-slate intervened between them. We were both perfectly satisfied that in this district the transition rocks, greywacke, and greywacke-slate, come in between the floetz and the primitive country." And again in the same paper (p. 29), "In the evening of the 16th we visited the fall at Bracklin bridge, about a mile to the east of Callendar. The rock is conglomerate, and broken down by the action of the water into many fine and fantastic forms. We had the conglomerate all the way from Callendar to this fall; and on tracing the river about two miles up, observed no other rock; but Mr. Jardine told me that some time ago Sir James Hall found greywacke about a mile or two higher up than we were. Night prevented our reaching it." "The greywacke and greywacke-slate appear about two miles after leaving Callendar, on the road to Loch Catherine. They continue all along the valley of Loch Venachar and Loch Achray to the Trossacks, and the eastern part of these hills is composed of greywacke. I am, with great esteem, dear Sir, yours very truly, XI. Intended Publication on Greenland. The author of this work, having been in the habit of annually visiting the Greenland seas, since the year 1802, began about 10 years ago, for his own amusement, to make memoranda of the various natural phenomena with which this country abounds. Finding his notes rapidly increase, both in interest and variety, as well as in bulk, and observing that they contained a collection of facts, which must be in a great measure unknown to the world in general; considering, at the same time, the singular barrenness of information on subjects of such general interest and national importance as the History of the Greenlands, and of the Northern Whale Fisheries, he was induced to undertake the work, a prospectus of which is now respectfully submitted to the public. It is well known, that no book in the English language has yet been devoted to the same objects with the work now announced, since the time of Egede and Crantz; and these authors merely mention the whale fisheries in a cursory manner, and neglect altogether their establishment and history. The French and Dutch, meanwhile, have each issued different works expressly on the sub t ject in hand; some of these being in the possession of the Author, he has availed himself of whatever information is interesting in the historical and other parts, which his own observations are not calculated to supply. His materials have thus become ample. The work will be illustrated by a variety of engravings, consisting of maps, plans, and sketches. The maps, comprising delineations of East and West Greenland, will be improved from an original survey of the greater part of the west coast of the former, wherein many gross errors in the charts extant will be rectified. The plans and sketches will include representations of the various instruments used in the whale fishery, amounting to more than 40 articles :—the appearances of the land, ice, crystals of snow,-whales, narwhales, walrus, &c.-some birds, -a variety of mollusca,-together with views of the fisheries, &c. The following are the principal subjects that will be treated of:I. An account of the progress of discovery in the north, with a synopsis of the numerous voyages undertaken in search of a northern passage to India. II. An account of West Greenland :-its extent, appearance, natural history, aborigines, colonies, manners, and customs of the inhabitants, &c. III. East Greenland, or Spitsbergen :-its appearance, natural history, harbours, icebergs, mountains, colonisation, products, &c. IV. The natural history of the Greenland seas; containing, 1. An account of the Greenland sea:-its situation and extent, singular varieties of colour, occasional transparency and frequent opacity, temperature both at the surface and at considerable depths, currents, tides, depth, &c. 2. The polar ice :-its varieties and properties, mode of generation, &c.; its extent, situation, and variation; with a comparison of the degree of approximation towards the poles, attained by various navigators, in different meridians; and a demonstration of the possibility (contingencies excepted) of performing a journey over the ice to the north pole. 3. The atmosphere: its peculiarities, such as surprising refractions, &c. :-its changes of pressure, as shown by the barometer, frequently sudden, great, and portentous, &c :-its temperature, mean, monthly, and annual, range of temperature, probable temperature of the north pole, cold, and its effects, &c. :-winds, their variableness, astonishing changes both in intensity and direction, duration and frequency of storms in the spring of the year, &c.: -meteors, clouds, snow, and its beautiful crystallisations, hail, frost-rime, Aurora Borealis, &c. 4. The zoology-the whale, and its various genera;-the walrus, seal, bear, &c. :-birds : some curious varieties of nondescript mollusca, and other marine animals, and animalculæ, &c. - V. The history of the northern whale fisheries, from the earliest records to the present time; showing, the progress of this art, and its singularly great advancement, with a clear account of those principles on which a successful fishery depends:-comprising, likewise, an account of the construction of a ship which seems best adapted for this trade, the mode of its equipment, with a statement of expenses, and a description of the boats, instruments, and apparatus, of the most improved principles with which it is furnished; together with a view of the modern method of discovering and attaining the haunts of the whale, effecting its capture under every variety of circumstance; and, a selection of anecdotes illustrative of the dangers of this occupation, and of the singular accidents which sometimes occur. VI. The history of the minor fisheries:-for seals, walruses, &c.: -with the method of killing these and other animals, inhabitants of the Greenland seas. VII. A journal of a Greenland whale fishing voyage. VIII. Appendix; containing, an extensive series of meteorological tables, from which are deduced some important facts, relative to the temperature and pressure of the atmosphere, prevailing winds, &c.-interesting tables of meteorological results:-tables of the variation of the compass, latitudes, and longitudes, &c. from original observations. Greenland captains, or other gentlemen, who have met with remarkable adventures in the whale fisheries; or who, from research or observation, may be able to supply information calculated to add to the interest of this work, will, by sending an account thereof to the author at Whitby, confer a particular obligation on him. XII. Heat from Friction. Though the ascent and descent at Blackfriars bridge be very inconsiderable, it is always customary to fix a drag upon one of the wheels of the heavy waggons when they cross it. One day towards the end of January, as I happened to cross this bridge, I met five or six waggons all heavily loaded, and a wheel of each as usual fixed by the drag chain. The day before had been rainy, and the bridge had that forenoon been swept by the scavengers; the pavement, however, was still very wet, though not covered with deep mud. The drag wheel of the first waggon that I met left the tops of the the stones dry, and a train of smoke rose after it nearly as strong as rises from boiling water, so that it was visible at a considerable distance; this was also the case with the drag wheel of all the other waggons, the smoke was so conspicuous that it drew the attention of a boy who acted as drayman to one of the waggons; for I observed im following the drag wheel, and feeling the stones with his hand determine whether they were heated. I conceive the heat of the rim of the wheel, when dragged along the ground, must have considerably greater than that of boiling water, for in an in'while dragged along the ground at the ordinary rate) it heated ter in its way so as to make it smoke very strongly. Here We of heat must have been very great, as the same spot of the e continually in contact with water not much higher than the freezing temperature. I consider this fact as scarely less striking than Count Rumford's experiments on the heat evolved by friction at Munich. XIII. St. Helena. The late Dr. Roxbourgh while at St. Helena, where he spent several months, drew up a flora of that island. He found in it 56 species, 50 of which were peculiar to the island, having been observed no where else. Not a single new genus occurred. XIV. Prizes of the French Institute. The prize for the best set of physical experiments during the course of 1815 was divided between M. Seebeck and Dr. Brewster. The prize for the mathematical theory of the vibrations of elastic surfaces, and the comparison of them with experiment, was given to Mademoiselle Sophie Germain, of Paris, The prize for the theory of waves at the surface of a gravitating fluid of an indefinite depth, was given to M. Augustin Louis Cauchy, Ingeneur des Ponts-et-Chaussées. Lalande's medal was voted to M. Mathieu, an astronomer attached to the Royal Observatory of Paris. XV. Cinnamon Stone. Specimens of the rock containing the cinnamon stone of Werner have been brought to London from Ceylon. It consists of three constituents: namely, schalstone, quartz, and cinnamon stone. The schalstone constitutes the principal ingredient, and has the usual imperfectly foliated appearance, and all the characters which distinguish the variety of it found in the Bannat of Temeswar. The quartz is distributed irregularly, and has no appearance of crystalli zation. The cinnamon stone is in grains, none of which exhibit any traces of a crystalline form. I observed one of the grains, indeed, which bore some resemblance to the garnet dedahedron; but the apparent faces were conchoidal, and therefore not natural ones. In some places the schalstone seemed to be impregnated with cinnamon stone; for it had the colour of cinnamon stone with the foliated texture of schalstone. The rock containing schalstone, which occurs in the Bannat, is likewise a triple compound, consisting of an aggregate of crystallized garnet, blue calcareous spar and schalstone. Hence it bears a resemblance to the Ceylon rock; for the cinnamon stone obviously belongs to the garnet family. The great difference between the two consists in the one containing quartz in place of the blue calcareous spar, which constitutes the ingredient in the other. XVI. Rocks in Lake Huron. In lake Huron in North America small islands occur, dist guished by the name of the flower-pot rocks, from their fig The structure of these rocks, if it be correct, deserves the atte of mineralogists. They consist of three beds; the lowest ' lime-stone, over this lies a bed of clay-slate, and over this, constituting the surface of the whole, is a bed of granite. I do not know who the British officer was who sent drawings of these rocks to the Admiralty. It is impossible, therefore, to determine how far one can rely upon the testimony conveyed in these drawings. XVII. Rumford Prize. The council of the Royal Society has voted the Rumford prize to Dr. Wells for his Essay on Dew. We shall take this opportunity of pointing out an erratum in our last number. Instead of the Rumford medal being given to Dr. Brewster, as stated in p. 133 of the present volume, it should have been the Copleyan medal. XVIII. Caterpillars in Switzerland. A very singular phenomenon has lately taken place in Switzerland, at the distance of about nine miles from Lauzanne. The whole surface of the snow is covered with a species of caterpillar, different from any which are usually observed in that country. These animals appear dead ; but when brought near a fire they soon recover animation. XIX. Composition of Alcohol and Ether. According to the calculations of Gay-Lussac, founded on the experiments of Saussure, alcohol is composed of Olefiant gas the whole condensed into half its bulk. posed of Olefiant gas Vapour of water... .1 volume .1 volume, While ether is com .2 volumes ...1 volume, the whole condensed into one volume. He considers the specific gravity of olefiant gas as 0.978, and that of the vapour of water as 0625. The specific gravity of the vapour of alcohol, according to his experiments is 1.613 and that of the vapour of ether 2.586. (See Annales de Chimie, xcv. 311.) XX. Sugar of Diabetic Urine. According to the recent experiments of Chevreul, the sugar of diabetic urine possesses all the characters of sugar of grapes. (See Annales de Chimie, xcv. 319.) ARTICLE IX. New Patents. GEORGE MORTON, Covent Garden, London; for a mode of attaching horses to waggons, and all other four-wheeled carriages. Nov. 14, 1815. |