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Increase of a Glacier. The glacier of Ortler, in the vicinity of Chiavenha, in the Tyrol, has, notwithstanding the late moderate winter, increased in a very extraordinary degree. A stream which formerly ran from this glacier has ceased to flow since Michaelmas 1817, and incessant subterraneous noises and roarings, which are heard from beneath the ice, are attributed to the collection of waters within the glacier. The glacier in the valley of Nandersberg has presented similar appearances, and great fears are entertained for the neighbouring country in both these places, on the liberation of the confined waters on the approach of summer.

Earthquakes on the Continent.During the storm which raged, on the 23d of February, over Provence and the northern part of Italy, many towns were thrown into great disorder by repeated shocks of earthquakes. At Turin, two shocks were felt, and at Genoa, Savena, Alanco, and San Remo, they were repeated at intervals during two days, and at some towns several houses were injured.

At Antibes, in Provence, the weather was very rough; a few minutes after seven in the evening of the 23d, a tremendous rush of wind took place, and then sank into a calm; a dull subterranean noise was heard, the sea suddenly dashed against the rocks, and in three seconds three oscillations of the earth were felt, proceeding from south-east to north-west. The wind then rose, and the storm raged as before. At twelve o'clock a fresh shock was felt, and next morning, near mid-day, another also, preceded by the same smothered rumbling noise. The shocks were felt throughout the whole of Provence, where no earthquake had been experienced for eleven years.

Earthquake in France.-A slight earthquake was felt at Marseilles on the 23d of February, at seven o'clock in the evening; and on the 24th, at eleven o'clock in the morning. The same phenomena occurred also on the 19th, at Roffach Soietz and Befort, in the Upper Rhine.

On the 24th and 25th, several shocks of earthquakes were felt at Var.

At

Earthquake in England.-A slight shock of an earthquake was experienced at Coningby. in Lincolnshire, on the 6th of February, which lasted some seconds. A noise like the subterraneous firing of cannon was heard at the time, and the windows of the houses in the town were much shaken. the same time, a similar phenomenon was experienced at the east end of Holderness, where the noise strongly resembled that of horses running away with a waggon, and it is said that the drivers of several teams drew up to the road side, to make way for what they supposed the cause of the sound. A gentleman, who, with his servant and labourer, were in the neighbourhood of Trentfall, about fifty miles from Coningby, also heard the noise. It lasted about two VOL. III.

minutes, and at first consisted of noises exactly resembling gun-shots, at equal distances, of about a second, each loud and distinct, afterwards it fell away to a kind of grumbling, which gradually ceased. The noise appeared to shift in a direction from east towards the south.

Earthquake in Greenland.-A severe shock of an earthquake was experienced in Greenland in the night of the 22d of last November. Hecla was perfectly quiet at the time. Extraordinary Fall of Rain.-On the 21st of October 1817 (the day the hurricane commenced in the West Indies), at the Island of Grenada, with the wind west, and the barometer at 29.40, eight inches of rain fell in twenty-one hours, and the rivers rose thirty feet above their usual level. From the 20th of October to the 20th of November, seventeen inches of rain fell.

Fossil Bone of a Whale.-Part of the jaw bone of a whale was dug up a short time since in Roydon gravel pit, near Diss. It measured twenty inches in girth, but was not above nine inches long. The outside was penetrated by stony matter, but the inside was similar in every thing to recent bone, except in the colour, which had been given it by the stratum in which it lay. Its present form and appearance are attributed to the attrition it is supposed to have suffered at former times. The ends are so worn, that they seem rather artificial than natural.

Remains of a Mammoth.-A fisherman of Philipsbourg, on the Rhine, lately drew up in his net, the foot and the omoplate of a Mammoth. These curious remains were sent to the King of Baden's Cabinet of Natural History at Carlsruhe.

Cobalt and Silver Mine.-We are informed by Mr Mawe, that the machinery for working the cobalt and silver mine on the west edge of Dartmore is just completed; and the workings will shortly assume a regular form. The large black masses of arsenical cobalt, contrasted with the white curls of capillary silver and crystallized sulphuret of silver, which fill the cavities of the quartz gangue, form specimens peculiarly interesting, and almost rival those from Mexico.

Meteorological Establishment at St Bernard. In the number of the Bibliotheque Universelle for October last, Prof. Pictet gives an interesting account of an establishment that has lately been formed for making meteorological observations at the Convent of Great St Bernard. Every attention appears to have been paid to the accuracy of the instruments, and the method of using them; and we may expect to derive the most important information from a detailed account of the state and variations of the atmosphere at an elevation of above 8000 feet, where the mean height of the mercurial column is not more than 22 inches. With respect to the construction of the instruments, we are informed that the reser voir of the barometer is exactly ten times N

the diameter of the tube; the correction for the changes of the height of the mercury in the reservoir is, therefore, only one hundredth of the variation in the tube, a quantity which is, in almost all cases, too minute to be noticed. To the barometer is attached a mercurial thermometer, furnished with two divisions, one octogesimal, according to the scale of Reaumur, the other so arranged, that each degree of the scale corresponds to one-tenth of a line of variation in the height of the barometrical column. The zero of this latter answers to the tenth degree of the octogesimal scale (54.5° of Fahrenheit), and every observation of the barometer is reduced to this constant temperature, by means of the correction which is obtained by the thermometer. The correction is very easily made, since every degree above or below zero represents so many tenths of a line, which are to be subtracted or added from the barometrical observation. The thermometer is formed with a flattened column of mercury, so as to present to the eye a large and very visible surface, while at the same time the absolute size is very minute. The hair hygrometer of Saussure is employed, but with a little alteration in its mechanical arrangements. In the old construction the index descended towards dryness, and ascended towards moisture; in the present instrument, the motions are reversed, so that its action is rendered more conformable to that of the barometer, and thermometer.

We have an account of the observations that were made in this meteorological observatory during the latter half of September 1817.

The greatest height of the barometer 22.40 The least height 22.06

The mean height at sun rise

Ditto at 2 P. M.

The greatest height of the thermo

22.36

22.42

meter

54.5°

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There were four rainy days during this period; the quantity of rain was no more than 7 inches: the season is represented as having been peculiarly fine.

Zircon. This mineral has, we understand, been discovered by Dr Macculloch in Sutherland. It occurs in a compound rock formed of copper-coloured mica, hornblende, and felspar.

This rock forms one of the occasional beds in the gneiss, and bears a resemblance in its composition to the circon syenite of the north of Europe; the crystals are a quarter of an inch in length, and well defined, and their colour is an obscure crimson, approaching to that of cinnamon.

Dry Rot. The Eden sloop of war (new),

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which was lately sunk in Hamoaze, to endeavour to cure her of the dry rot, has been raised, commissioned, and taken into dock. On opening her, she has been found defective in every part, and must undergo a thorough repair. The Topaze frigate, also ordered for commission, which was repaired not long since, is found to be in the same state. The Dartmouth frigate, built at Dartmouth, three years old, never at sea, is also undergoing a complete repair. Not a ship is taken into dock but is found to be nearly rotten. The very best ships do not average more than twelve years existence. The San Domingo, 74, was ripped up (four years old) at Portsmouth, The Queen Charlotte, 110, was built at Woolwich, sent round to Plymouth, found rotten, and underwent a thorough repair: she was also several months under the care of Dr Lukin, an Admiralty chemist, who received £5000 for his ineffectual labours to stop the progress of vegetation in the ship. After a short cruise, the Queen Charlotte was laid up at Portsmouth, where she remains in a very defective state.

New opinion in regard to Pompeii and Herculaneum.-It is at present the general belief that the two celebrated cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were overwhelmed and destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79. It is now, however, maintained, that this was not the case. Pompeii is said to be covered by a bed of lapillo, of the same nature as that we observe daily forming by the agency of water on the shore at Naples; while Herculaneum is covered by a series of strata, altogether forming a mass sixty feet thick, of a tuff, having the character of those tuffs formed by water. From the facts just stated, it is conjectured, that the cities were destroyed by a rising of the waters, which deposited over them the stratified rocks, and not by matter thrown from Vesuvius. It is also said, that no eruption of Vesuvius took place in the year 79.

Preventing the Blight.-It is said that the American farmers have of late years adopted the following method to prevent the blight or mildew from injuring the crop of apples. In the spring, they rub tar well into the bark of the apple-trees, about four or six inches wide round each tree, and at about one foot from the ground; which effectually prevents the blight: abundant crops are the consequence. This is certainly worth trial in England.

Prize of the Royal Society of Gottingen. -The Royal Society of Gottingen has offered a prize of fifty ducats, for "an accurate examination, founded on precise experiments of Dalton's theory of the expansion of liquid and elastic fluids, especially of mercury and atmospheric air, by heat." The authors are desired to pay attention to the necessit; alleged by Dalton, for changing the progression of the degrees of the present thermometrical scales: memoirs

must be transmitted before the end of September 1819.

Zoophytic Animals.-M. Lesueur, now in Philadelphia, made many curious observations on molluscous and zoophytic animals, during his passage from Europe to America. He collected and delineated the animals of many different species of Isis, Gorgonia, Alcyonium, Meandrites, &c.; and obtained a beautiful series of actinia, shewing the gradual transition into the animal madrepore. His attention was also directed to the different vermes

that occur, as well in the interior as on the

exterior of fishes.

Stone Sarcophagus.-A stone sarcophagus has been forwarded to the Asiatic

Society, which was dug out of the foundation of some ancient ruins, about eight miles from Bushire, in the East Indies. It contained, when discovered, the disjointed bones of a human skeleton, which had perfectly retained their shape, till a short, time after exposure to the atmosphere, by the removal of the lid, which was fastened with metallic pegs. The lid is an entire slab of micaceous mineral, and the vessel is of calcareous sand-stone. This is the second of the kind which has been discovered; and they differ from those usually dug up, which are composed of baked clay; it is concluded that they contain the remains of eminent personages.

WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION.

LONDON.

The Fourth and Last Canto of Childe Harold has been received from Lord Byron, and will certainly be published on the 28th of April. It forms, with the notes, an octavo volume.

At the same time will be published a volume, entitled, "Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold;" by John Hobhouse, Esq.

Mr Hallam's " View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages," will be published in April, in two volumes 4to.

The Rev. Thomas Hodgson, the translator of Juvenal, &c. has in the press a Poem, entitled The Friends, which will be published in a few days.

The First Number of Mr Hakewill's Picturesque Tour of Italy, illustrative of, with references to, the text of Addison, Eustace, and Forsyth's Travels, will be published on the 1st of May. The plates are engraving in the most finished manner, by Cooke, Pye, Scott, Fitler, Meddiman and Landseir. It is printing in the same size as Cooke and Turner's Views of the Southern Coast.

A very curious and interesting MS. of the celebrated Dr King of St Mary's, Oxford, has lately been discovered, containing Anecdotes and Reminiscences of his Own Times, and will be published immediately.

The author of Curiosities of Literature has nearly ready for publication a work on the Literary Character, illustrated by the History of Men of Genius drawn from their own feelings and confessions.

Mr Macdonald Kinnier's Journey through Asia Minor, Armenia, and Koordestan, will be published in April.

Preparing for publication, an Abridgement, in one volume octavo, of Bishop Taylor's Great Exemplar; by the Rev. W. N.

Darnell.

A prospectus is just issued, a new and corrected edition of the Delphin Classics;

with the Variorum Notes appended. To be entitled, the Regent's Edition; to be printed and edited by A. J. Valpy, M.A. late Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. -The whole will be printed uniformly in octavo, price 18s. boards, each part, to subscribers, and £1, 1s. to non-subscribers. Each part will contain 672 closely printed pages, without reference to the conclusion of any author, so that the subscribers may bind each author in as many volumes as they please, and arrange them alphabetically or chronologically as most convenient. Some copies will be struck off on very fine thick royal paper, with a large margin, and hotpressed: price, to subscribers, £1, 16s. ; to non-subscribers, £2, 2s. each part. The price will be raised higher to non-subscribers as the work advances.-The whole will make about 120 or 130 parts, and 12 parts will be printed in the year. Each part to be paid for on delivery.

Mr T. Yeates will shortly publish, Indian Church History, or Notices relative to the first Planting of the Gospel in Syria, Mesopotamia, and India; compiled chiefly from the Syrian Chronicles: with an accurate account of the first Christian missions to China; and some interesting facts, hitherto unknown to the historians of Europe.

Mr John Fry, of Bristol, has issued proposals for publishing, by subscription, in two quarto volumes, Bibliophilia; which will contain-1. An account of those publications of earliest English printers, which have either escaped the knowledge of bibliographers, or have been inaccurately described.-2. An account of scarce and curious books printed, with a few exceptions, before the seventeenth century.--3. Notices of such manuscripts as have fallen under the editor's inspection, and entire reprints of pieces of old poetry, meriting revival.

A Companion to Mr James's Naval Work on the late American War, is in the press, and will spe dily be published: con

taining a full and correct account of the military occurrences of the late war between Great Britain and the United States of America; with an appendix of British and American official letters, and plates: by Wm Jarmies. Details will be given of all the actions fought between the British and Americans during the late war; also of those operations along the coast, and on the borders of the lakes, creeks, and harbours of the United States, in which the two services acted conjointly.

The publication of what the publishers call the Regent's edition" of the Latin Classics, will henceforward be prosecuted with vigour, industry, and perseverance. Livy and Sallust are now in the press, under the editorial inspection of Dr J. Carey; to whom the public are already indebted for the Horace, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Martial, Cæsar, Tacitus, and the second edition of the Virgil, with the Opuscula, recently published.

Dr Carey has also in the press the "Eton Latin Prosody" illustrated, with English explanations of the rules, and copious examples from the Latin poets.

Mr S. F. Gray has in the press, and nearly ready, a work intended to serve as a supplement to the several Pharmacopoeias.

Mr J. Hall of Northampton, has in the press a Free Inquiry into the Practice of Infant Baptism, whether it is not unscriptural, useless, and dangerous; to which are added, some remarks on Mr Belsham's plea for infant baptism.

A New Picture of Brussels and its Environs, with seven engravings, and a Plan of the city, by J. Romberg, will shortly ap

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Wild Roses, a collection of Poems on various subjects, by Kiltoe, will speedily be published.

Anaya, Discours sur les Langues Vivantes, a Treatise on the Living Languages, containing, in a small compass, the necessary rules for acquiring a knowledge of them, particularly of the Italian and Spanish, with a treatise on the Difficulties of Italian and Spanish Poetry, has been sent to press.

An Essay on Spanish Literature; containing its History, from its commencement in the twelfth century to the present time; with an account of the best writers, some critical remarks, and a History of the Spanish Drama, with specimens of the writers of different ages, will soon be published.

A small pocket volume is about to be published, on the Police of the Metropolis, descriptive of the means used by knaves to take in and cheat the unwary, to rob the unprotected, and to make a prey of the unsuspecting; including advice to the unwary, and the means of avoiding the villains which prey upon society.

Mrs Lamont, of Liverpool, intends publishing, by subscription, Poems and Tales in Verse, in one volume octavo.

Mr Bisset, of the Historical Picture Gallery at Leamington, has announced for publication a novel work, entitled, a Poetical Gazetteer of all the principal Cities, Boroughs, and Seaports, in the United Kingdom.

An amatory mock-heroic poem, entitled, Secundus Syntax, will be forthcoming in the course of the next month. It is, we are informed, written with considerable hu

mour.

Considerations on the Impolicy and Pernicious Tendency of the present Administration of the Poor Laws; with suggestions for improving the condition of the poor; by the Rev. Charles Jerram, M. A.; are in the press, and nearly ready for publication.

Juvenilia, or Specimens of the early Ef forts, as a Preacher, of the late Rev. C. Buck; to which will be subjoined, miscellaneous remarks, and an obituary of his daughter, edited by J. Styles, D. D. are in a course of forwardness for publication.

Letters on the West Indies, by James Walker, Esq. late of Berbice, will soon ap

pear.

Sixty-five Sonnets, with prefatory Remarks on the accordance of the Sonnet with the powers of the English Language, and some miscellaneous poems, will soon be published.

Mr John Matheson is about to publish a New System of Arithmetic, the object of which is to render general the application of decimals to mercantile purposes, and to enable youth to comprehend the theory when they are learning the practice.

Speedily will be published, the Entomologist's Pocket Companion; being an Introduction to the knowledge of British Insects, the apparatus used, and best methods of obtaining and preserving them; the Genera of Linnæus, with observations on the modern systems, and a copious Calendar of the time and situations where usually found, of between two and three thousand Insects; by a Practical Collector; illustrated with numerous plates.

Mr F. W. Cronhelm is preparing for the press a New Method of Book-keeping, double entry by single; applicable to all kinds of business, and exemplified in five sets of books; possessing the brevity of single entry, without its defects; and the proof of double entry, without its redundancies; and obtains, by two entries, the same results as the Italian system by four. Its universal applicability is proved, by distinct sets of books for retailers, wholesale dealers, manufacturers, merchants, and bankers; the whole comprising a great diversity of the forms and results of business, an improved arrangement of partnership accounts, and a plan of routine which will prevent frauduÎent entries and erasures: comprised in one volume.

The Rev. C. I. Latrobe has in the press a Journal of a Visit to South Africa in 1816,

in a quarto volume, illustrated by twelve coloured plates and a map.

T. Cobbell, Esq. is preparing for publication a Treatise on the Law of Corporations, and on the Proceedings relative to their Ordinary Rights and Parliamentary Privileges.

Mr Park of Hampstead will soon publish, Morning Thoughts and Midnight Musings, in prose and verse.

F. L. Holt, Esq. has in the press a Treatise on the Law of Merchant Ships and Shipping, on the Navigation Laws, and on Maritime Contracts.

The Works of Charles Lamb, in verse and prose, now first collected, will soon appear in two foolscap octavo volumes.

Mrs Yosy, author of a Description of Switzerland, has in the press, Constancy, or Leopold, in four or five volumes.

Dr Wm Barrow, prebendary of Southwell, has two volumes of Sermons on Practical Subjects nearly ready for publication.

The Rev. Thomas Bowdler's Sermons on the Offices and Character of Jesus Christ, will soon appear.

The Rev. Dr Lindsay has in the press a volume of Sermons on various subjects.

Barron Field, Esq. is printing, in two octavo volumes, a Treatise on the Commercial Law of England.

Nightmare Abbey, by the author of Headlong Hall, is in the press.

The Rev. Dr Whittaker has a third edition nearly ready of the History of Whalley, with corrections and considerable additions.

EDINBURGH.

THE Rev. John Skinner of Forfar will soon publish, in an octavo volume, Annals of Scottish Episcopacy, from 1788 to 1816; with a biographical memoir of the late Right Rev. John Skinner of Aberdeen.

In a short time will be completed, at the Edinburgh university press, a new edition of Schleusner's Lexicon Novi Testamenti, revised and corrected by several eminent Scholars. This valuable work has hitherto been printed in an octavo form; but the present edition is in quarto, a much more convenient size for a dictionary; and, as it is executed in stereotype, the price, instead of being increased, will be greatly reduced.

A Second Letter to the Court of Contributors of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh; containing remarks on the proceedings at the meeting held on the 30th March 1818.

Canto I. of Temora; an epic poem: being a specimen of an intended versification of the Poems of Ossian; by Thomas Travers Burke, Esq. of the Royal Scots Greys, -will be published this month. The succeeding cantos are in the press, and will appear soon.

Speedily will be published, Observations and Facts demonstrative of the Sedative and Febrifuge Powers of Emetic Tartar, as amply sufficient to supersede excessive bloodletting in inflammation; by William Balfour, M. D.

MONTHLY LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

LONDON.

DRAMA.

THE Jew of Malta; being the first number of an edition of the Old English Drama.

1s.

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Sketches of Curvilinear Hothouses'; with a description of the various purposes in horticultural and general architecture, to which a solid iron sash bar, lately invented, is applicable; by J. C. Loudon, F.L.S. &c. 2s.

The Science of Horticulture; including a practical system for the management of fruit trees, arranged on demonstrative physiological principles; illustrated by sketches, in 12 plates; with a commentary on the works of Bradley, Hitt, Miller, Forsyth, Knight, Kirwan, Sir Humphrey Davy, and Mrs Ibbotson; by Joseph Hayward, Gent. 8vo. 12s.

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