May 7.-The "Description of the Valley of the Ligovca," by the Hon. Mr Strangways, was read. The river Ligovca, or Doordorovca, issues from the lake Doordoroff, fifteen miles to the south-west of St Petersburgh. At a short distance from this lake, it is expanded into a second, and finally discharges itself into the Gulf of Finland, through a marsh which is daily increasing in extent. In the upper part of its course the bed of the river is composed of limestone; but when it leaves the second lake it passes into a channel of blue clay, and its banks are covered with an accumulation of gravel. The heights on the west side of the valley consist of limestone. The lower beds of limestone pass into upper strata of green schist, and as they approach the schist they acquire a green colour. The fossils of the limestone are principally orthoceratites, and trilobites.

An extract of a letter from MrD. Scott, was then read. It contained an account of some marine remains, that had been laid bare by the river Brahmaputra, near the north-east frontier of Bengal. The Garton hills, which are in the vicinity of the Brah maputra, are of two formations; the first, which occasionally rise to the height of from 2000 to 3000 feet, consist of granite, with veins of quartz and felspar; the second, which rest upon these, seem to have been deposited from water, as their strata are nearly horizontal. It is under or through one of these latter that the bed of shells appears to extend.

May 21. A paper by the Right Hon. Lord Crompton was read, entitled, "A Description of the Rocks which occur along a portion of the south coast of the Isle of Mull." These are what are called the Carsey Rocks. The shore is composed of basaltic columns, which rise in some places to the height of 500 feet. There

are two very remarkable arched rocks: one of the openings is about 60 feet high, and between 50 and 60 feet wide. It is formed in a basaltic rock, resting on green sand, and does not contain any fossils.

June 4. The reading of Mr Taylor's paper, "On the smelting of Tinores in Cornwall and Devonshire," begun at last, was concluded at the present meeting. The author observes, that tin-ore is found in two states, in veins accompanied by other metals, or in detached fragments dispersed through alluvial matter: these are respectively known by the names of mine-tin and stream-tin. Mine-tin is first subjected to the process of dressing, by which a considerable part of the extraneous minerals, as well as the earthy matrix, is separated. The metal produced from this kind of ore is called block-tin, and is less pure than that from stream-tin, in consequence of some remains of other metallic substances, of which it is very difficult entirely to deprive it. Stream-tin has no other metallic ore mixed with it, except occasionally a little hæmatitic iron. This furnishes the graintin of commerce. In dressing minetin it is necessary to have it very minutely pulverised, in consequence of its being so intimately dispersed through the matrix, a large part of which, from the great specific gravity of the ore, nay be removed by washing. It is then smelted in the common reverberatory furnace, mixed. with Welsh culm and lime, and exposed to a very strong heat, so as to reduce the whole to a state of perfect fusion. As tin-ore consists merely of an oxide mixed with a quantity of extraneous matter, the only objects to be attended to in smelting are to reduce the earthy matter to a state of perfect fusion, to which the lime contributes, and to remove the oxygen, which is effected by the coal.

The produce of the smelting furnace is considerably impure, and the metal afterwards goes through the process of refining, which consists essentially in fusing the tin at a low heat, insufficient to melt the other metals with which it is mixed. When sufficiently pure, it is cast into moulds and sold under the name of block-tin. The reduction of grain-tin proceeds upon a different principle. After being dressed, it is carried to what is called the blowing-house, in which the metal is reduced in a blast furnace by means of charcoal. The blast furnace consists of a cylinder of iron standing on its end, into the upper part of which the ore and charcoal are thrown; the blast is admitted by a hole near the bottom, and the metal, as it is reduced, flows out at another hole on the opposite side. The metal obtained from these furnaces is farther purified by having pieces of charcoal soaked in water thrown into it while melted. The water is thus rapidly volatilized; and, as it appears, by the agitation it occasions, all the impurities are carried to the surface, where they are easily removed.

June 18.-Some additional remarks by Mr De La Beche, on the Fossil animal called ichthyosaurus, concluded the business of the season; the society not meeting again till November.

SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTS, MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE.

Since the commencement of the session in November last, this society has been occupied in adjudging rewards for various useful improvements in the arts and manufactures; a few of which we shall now briefly notice.

The society's gold medal was adjudged to Mr Hardy, for his inverted pendulum, an instrument which the celebrated Captain Kater had previously made known to the public, by a paper in the transactions of the Royal Society of London, entitle d "An Account of Experiments for determining the length of the Pendulum vibrating Seconds, in the latitude of London." In conducting these experiments, Captain K. is said to have derived advantage from Mr Hardy's instrument, "in proving the stability of the support for his pendulum." Whether this be correct, we cannot say, as we have not had access to the original paper in the transactions of the Royal Society; but in a very ingenious and able article on Captain K.'s experiments on the pendulum, in the number of the Edinburgh Review for September 1818, no mention whatever is made of Mr Hardy's instrument, the whole credit of the invention of the convertible pendulum being ascribed to Captain K., who is said to have first reduced to practice the theorem formerly demonstrated by Huygens, that the centres of suspension and oscillation are reciprocally convertible.

The Society awarded the silver medal and ten guineas to Mr A. Bell, for his invention of a new Chuck to the Lathe.

Mr T. Taylor's Repeating Alarum, for which the sum of fifteen guineas was awarded, has been found of great service in the Royal Observatory, in giving the astronomer timely warning of the passage of certain stars, either by day or night, and thereby affording him opportunities of making observations which might otherwise be lost.

The Society voted its silver Isis medal to Mr Fayrer for his improvement on the three-wheeled clocks,

recommended by Dr Franklin and Mr Ferguson, by which they will go longer without winding up, and continue in action whilst winding.

A variety of other premiums were adjudged, the principal of which was a gold medal to Mr J. Young, for his improved method of collecting British opium. Mr Y. has proved that this valuable medicine may be collected in this country, with sufficient profit to induce the agriculturist to cultivate the poppy for this purpose, as well as to extract oil from its seeds.

and other noxious vegetables. The author then proceeds to detail a number of facts and experiments, in confirmation of these propositions, in the order of their enunciation.

At the same meeting a paper by Dr W. Howison, entitled, " An Account of several of the most important Culinary Vegetables of the interior of the Russian Empire," &c. was read. The first of these which the author treats of is the Russian Cucumber, a vegetable consumed in great quantities by the native Russians, as well as foreigners settled in the country, and which, he tells us, differs in many respects from the cu

CIETY.

Fewer premiums were distributed this year than in some of the preceding years; and the papers read to the society were in a great measure destitute of interest. Our notice of them therefore will be very concise.

On the 4th of March a paper from S. Parkes, Esq. London, entitled, "On the Employment of common Salt for the purposes of Horticulture," was read by the Secretary Mr Neill. After some preliminary observations on the progress of horticulture among different nations, the author proceeded to discuss the several branches of his subject in the following order: 1. That common salt, when applied in due proportions, has the effect of promoting the health and growth of vegetables: 2. That it has the property of rendering fruit trees and esculent plants unfit for the food or the habitation of worms and insects: 3. That common salt is one of the most efficacious substances that can be employed in a garden for the destruction of worms and insects: And, 4. That common salt may, with material advantage, be used for the destruction of weeds

er in size, yet containing a great quantity of juice and pulpy matter. The second is the Moscow early yellow turnip, produced in great abundance in Moscow and the Crimea. The third is the Narva yellow turnip, used in considerable quantity as an article of food by the Russian peasantry in the governments of the interior. The fourth is the variegated cabbage, brought by Krusenstern, the Russian circumnavigator, from the islands of the South Sea, and since his time cultivated in Russia. The fifth and sixth are the large black and the large white Russian raddish. The seventh and eighth are two species of water melon, natives of the coasts of the Black Sea; and the others consist of two kinds of celery, the bulbous-rooted and the rothen or red; a peculiar species of mustard from Russian Tartary, the seeds of which were brought from Sarepta, near the Chinese wall; and a peculiar species of onion from Chinese tartary.

On the 2d of September, a paper by Dr W. Howison was read, entitled, "An Account of the Russian Chiccory Plant, and of the Artificial Coffee prepared in great quantity, over that country, from its roots, as

well as from the roots of common dandelion."

On the 2d of December a letter from Mr J. Dick to the Secretary was read, "On the advantage of grafting the Ribston Pippin on the more healthy Apple-Trees." It appears from the remarks of Mr D., that the ribston pippin in general produces strong wood, which however is often not ripened on standard trees, and is therefore ready to canker; and that those kinds of fruit trees, which have not their wood well ripened in the autumn, never produce fruit so well as those the wood of which attains maturity. The method proposed to remedy this evil is simply to procure some paradise pippin apples that have been wrought upon good crab stocks, by grafting the ribston pippin on which, it is enabled to make much finer wood, to ripen its wood, and to produce fruit abundantly either upon standard or espalier trees.

HIGHLAND SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND.

The general anniversary meeting of the Highland Society of Scotland was held at Edinburgh on the 12th of January 1819, when a number of noblemen and gentlemen were duly elected members.

The improvement of the Scotch fisheries was one of the most important objects originally embraced by the society; and from the adoption of the suggestion of the society, that a special board should be constituted at Edinburgh, for the superintendance and management of the white herring fishery, and for the introduction in that fishery of large boats, much benefit has confessedly been derived. Since the institution of this board, however, the Highland Society of Scotland has, in a great measure,

ceased to take any interest or concern in that important branch of national industry; but at the general meeting in January, the society voted a piece of plate to Mr J. Mackenzie, of Richmond Place, Edinburgh, who had been formerly engaged in the fishery, for useful information furnished by him to the society, particularly in regard to the advantages that would result from employing large boats, and which had enabled the society to recommend the measure.

It had been for some time well known to the society, not only that large tracts of land adjoining the sea on the northern coast of Scotland had been covered and destroyed by drifted sands, but that, in some instances, such land had, by proper management, been reclaimed; as, for example, by Mr Young of Inverugie, on the coast of Morayshire. Their attention, however, was more particularly drawn to this subject, at the anniversary meeting this year, by Mr Macleod of Harris, who suggested the propriety of the society's offering premiums for successful experiments of this description in the Hebrides, including the coasts of Orkney and Shetland, where the injury was known to be most extensive. Premiums were accordingly offered for reclaiming land from drift sand in these districts; and they learn with pleasure, that experiments are in consequence making, which there is every reason to hope will be attended with success, and merit the encouragement held out by the society.

At the same meeting the society voted a premium of twelve guineas to Andrew Hislop, smith at Fountainhall, for constructing a bridge of malleable iron over the water of Ğala, being the first bridge of this description erected in Scotland, which was attended with very small expense.

James Grant, Esq. of Corrymony, advocate, having published a very learned and ingenious treatise, entitled, "Thoughts on the Origin and Descent of the Gael," in which the author has thrown much light upon points connected with the history, manners, and language of the Gael, the society, at the anniversary meet ing in January, voted its gold medal to Mr Grant as a mark of the society's approbation of the work; and at the subsequent meeting in July, the sum of ten guineas was voted to the Reverend A. Macdonald of Crieff, for having executed a translation of Ossian's poem, called Fingal, into Latin hexameter verse.

Besides a regular correspondence with the Highland Society of London, upon matters connected with Celtic literature and antiquities, the society has recently established communications on these subjects with the Royal Antiquarian Society of France, and the Cambrian Society. Particular mention is also made of the translation of Paradise Lost into the ancient British or Welsh language, by Mr Owen Pughe; of the treatise on the origin of ancient names in mythology, topography, history, &c. by Mr Dyer of Exeter; and of the translation of the poems of Ossian into the German language, by Dr C. W. Ahlwardt of Leipsig.

The society farther, at the anniversary meeting in January, on the motion of the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, passed a resolution, recommending to its members a subscription for erecting a monument to the memory of our illustrious countrymen King Robert Bruce, whose remains had been recently discovered in the Abbey Church of Dunfermline.

AFRICAN INSTITUTION.

Since the bill for the abolition of the Slave Trade was passed, twelve years have now elapsed; and the African Institution, which dates its commencement soon after that memorable event, has been steadily and zealously labouring in the cause of African civilization, and putting in requisition every possible expedient which promised to facilitate the actual extinction of the horrid traffic in human flesh," THAT SCOURGE

WHICH HAS SO LONG DESOLATED

AFRICA, DEGRADED EUROPE, AND AFFLICTED HUMANITY *. The Thirteenth Report of this most philanthropic Institution is now before us; and it is with the deepest sorrow we observe, that, notwithstanding the exertions, sacrifices, and example of this country,-notwithstanding the general abhorrence and execration which have been poured out against this murderous traffic, from one end of Europe to the other, notwithstanding the solemn declaration of the Congress of Vienna, of date the 8th of February 1815,-notwithstanding the highly commendable exertions of our Statesmen and Plenipotentiaries on that, and every subsequent occasion, where they could prudently interfere, down to the present time, so little progress has been made in putting an efficient stop to the trade in slaves, that, by the miserable subterfuges, the insincerity, and falsehood of foreign courts, the intentions of this country have been, in a great measure, rendered abortive, and a gainful and active commerce in human flesh, is carried on, chiefly under Spanish, Portuguese, and French flags, along the whole