sulphur boiling springs, oozing out of a rocky eminence in great nun*bers, spreading over an acre of the top of a gentle hill. In the midst of these boiling springs, within three feet of five or six of them, rises a tepid one, about bloodwarm, the only source used for drinking: but the extraordinary ' circumstance is, that not only confervas, &c. were found in the boiling springs, but numbers of small black beetles, that died on being taken out and plunged into cold waters. How amazingly must the great Author of nature ⚫ have formed these creatures to hear a constant heat of above 200° !' "I take it for granted, that the animals here referred to were not species of the scarabæus or genuine beetle, which is not a water insect, but of the dytiscus or hydrophil, ⚫ which are so, and which have so near a resemblance to the scarabæus, as to be denominated water-beetles by many zoologists. And upon this explanation suffer me to observe, that it is impossible for any collusion to have taken place between these different witnesses, unconnected in every respect as they must have been with each other, living at different periods, and travelling to different quarters of the globe; and that hence, in the opinion of every man of candour, the testimony of the one cannot fail in a very considerable degree to establish the testimony of the other.

"In reality, without wandering from our own country, we may at times meet with a variety of other phenomena, perfectly consonant in their nature, and altogether as extraordinary and anomalous, if we only attend to them as they rise before us. Thus the eggs of the musca vomitoria, our common flesh-fly, or blow-fly, are often deposited in

the heat of summer upon putrescent meat, and broiled with such meat over a gridiron in the form of steaks, in a heat not merely of 212", but of three or four times 212". And yet, instead of being hereby destroyed, we sometimes find them quickened by this very exposure into their larva or grub state. And although I am ready to allow that, in the simple form of seeds or eggs, plants or animals may be expected to sustain a far higher degree of heat or cold with impunity, than in their subsequent and more perfect state; yet it cannot appear more extraordinary that in such perfect state they should be able to resist a heat of 210° or 212o, than that in the state of seeds or eggs they should be able to exist in, and to derive benefit from, a heat three or four times as excessive.

"In the vegetable world we meet with phenomena quite as anomalous. Thus, the byssus asbestos (an alga, whose specific name explains the peculiarity of its properties) is altogether incombustible. Throw this plant into the fire, and instead of burning, it becomes instantaneously converted into glass. So among the mosses, the fontinalis antipyretice (thus specifically denominated for the very same reason) is nearly as incombustible. This moss is indigenous to the Highlands, but is found still more generally in Scandinavia; and in this last country, the lower orders of the inhabitants, on account of its extreme inaptitude to burn, collect it as a lining for their chimneys, to prevent them from catching fire.

"Animals are often divided into the three classes of terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial. Plants are capable of a similar division. Among animals, it is probable that the largest number consists of the first class;

yet,

yet, from the great variety of submarine genera that are known, and from nearly an equal variety, perhaps, that are not known, this is uncertain. Amongst vegetables, however, it is highly probable that the largest number belongs to the submarine class, if we may judge from the almost countless species of fuci and other equally prolific tribes of an aqueous and subaqueous origin, and the incalculable individuals that appertain to each species; and more especially, if we take into consider. ation the greater equality of temperature which must necessarily exist in the submarine hills and valleys.

"Many animals are amphibious, or capable of preserving life in either element; the vegetable world is not without instances of a similar power. The alge, and especially in the ulva and fucus tribes, offer us a multitude of examples. The juncus, in many of its species, is an amphibious plant; so, too, is the oryza. In other words, all will flourish entirely covered with water, or with their roots alone shooting into a moist soil.

"Animals of various kinds are aerial: perhaps the term is not used with strict correctness. It will, at least, apply with more correctness to plants. All the most succulent plants of hot climates are of this description: such are several of the palms and of the cannas; and the greater number of plants that embellish the arid Karro fields of the Cape of Good Hope. Succulent as they are, these will only grow in soils or sands so sere and adust, that no moisture can be extracted from them, and are even destroyed by a full supply of wet or by a rainy season. And hence it is an opinion common to many of the ablest physiologists of the present day, that they derive the whole of their nutri

ment from the surrounding atmosphere; and that the only advantage which they acquire from thrusting their roots into such strata is, that of obtaining an erect position. There are some quadrupeds that appear to derive nutriment in the same manner. Thus the bradypus, or sloth, never drinks, and trembles at the feeling of rain; while the olive cavy avoids water of every kind almost as pertinaciously, and yet these are animals almost as succulent as any we are acquainted with.

"But however true this may be with regard to animals, we have palpable proofs that vegetables of certain tribes and descriptions are altogether supported by the atmosphere that surrounds them; for, important as is the organ of a root to plants in general, there are several which have no root whatever, and can derive nutriment in no other way. The water-caltrop is an instance directly in point. The seed of this plant has no rostel, and consequently can never, in the first instance, become rooted. From the horned nut or pericarp of the seed, as it lies in water, which is its na tural element, shoots forth a long plumule perpendicularly towards the surface of the stream; during the ascent of which, a variety of capillary, branched leaves shoot forth from the sides of the plumule, some of which bend downward, and fix the whole plant to the bottom, by penetrating into the soil below the stream; the leaves alone in this late stage of germination acting the part of a root, and giving maturity to the still unfinished plant. The cactus genus, in some of its very numerous species, offers us an example of similar evolution; and especially in the opuntia tribe, or that which embraces the prickly pears

or

or Indian figs of our green-houses, of which the cochineal plant is an individual. Of these, several grow by the mere introduction of one of their thick fleshy leaves into a soil of almost any kind that is sufficient ly dry; they obtain an erect position, but never root, or shoot forth radicles and hence almost the whole of their moisture must necessarily be derived from the surrounding atmosphere.

:

Perhaps one half of the fuci have no root whatever many of them, indeed, consist of vesicles or vesicular bulbs alone, sessile upon the matrix of stone or shell that sup ports them, and propagate their kind by offsets, without any other vegetable organs.

"The aphyteia is a curious instance in point. This plant is equally destitute of leaves, stem, and root; and consists alone of a sessile, coriaceous, and succulent flower, eaten as a luxury by the Hottentots, and parasitic to the roots of the euphorbia Mauritanica; flower propagating flower from generation to generation.

"But perhaps the plant most decisive upon this subject is the aerial epidendrum, first, if I mistake not, described by that excellent Portuguese phytologist Loureiro, and denominated aerial from its very extraordinary properties. This is a native of Java, and the East Indies, beyond the Ganges; and in the latter region, it is no uncommon thing for the inhabitants to pluck it

up on account of the elegance of its leaves, the beauty of its flower, and the exquisite odour it diffuses, and to suspend it by a silken cord from the ceilings of their rooms; where, from year to year, it continues to put forth new leaves, new blossoms, and new fragrance, excited alone to new life and action by the stimulus of the surrounding atmo sphere.

"That stimulus is oxygen; ammonia is a good stimulus, but oxygen possesses far superior powers, and hence, without some portion of oxygen, no plant can ever be made to germinate: hence, too, the use of cow-dung, and other animal recrements, which consist of muriatic acid and ammonia; while in fat oil and other fluids that contain little or no oxygen, and consist altogether, or nearly so, of hydrogen and carbon, seeds may be confined for ages without exhibiting any germination whatever. And hence, again, and the fact deserves to be extensively known, however torpid a seed may be, and destitute of all power to vegetate in any other substance, if steeped in a diluted solution of oxygenated muriatic acid, at a temperature of about 46° or 454 of Fahrenheit, provided it still possess its principle of vitality, it will germinate in a few hours; and if, after this, it be planted, as it ought to be, in its appropriate soil, will grow with as much speed and vigour as if it had evinced no torpidity whatever."

CONTRIVANCE

THE

HE several trials made before a Committee of the Society at Woolwich, on the 29th of August, 1791, of throwing a line on shore on this principle, were as follow:

"From a boat moored about 250 yards from shore, the shell was thrown 150 yards on shore, with the rope attached to it; the shell was of cast iron, filled with lead, it weighed 75 lbs. its diameter 8 inches; the rope in the trial was a deep sealine, which 160 yards weighed 18 lbs. the angle of the mortar, from which the shell was fired, was 45 degrees. By means of the line, Mr. Bell and another man worked themselves on shore upon his raft of casks; there were many kinks in the rope, which were with ease cleared by Mr. Bell, in which he was much assisted by his snatch blocks.

"The second trial was repeated in a similar manner, and with equal success, the shell falling within a few yards of the former place, the gale of wind was brisk, and the water rough. The direction of the shell was nearly from north to

south, and the wind blew nearly north-west.

"In the third trial, the mortar was elevated to 70 degrees; the rope attached to the shell was an inch and half tarred rope, of which every 50 yards weighed fourteen pounds and a half; the shell of the kind abovementioned. It fell 160 yards from the mortar, and buried itself about two-thirds in the ground; the line or rope ran out was about 200 yards, and it required the force of three men to draw the shell out of the ground at that distance,

The grommet, in all these trials, was of white three-inch rope; and in all the above trials, by means of the line, two men worked them, selves on shore upon the raft: each charge of powder was fifteen ounces.

"A fourth experiment was made by firing, from the same mortar, a grapnel, in a wooden case; it did not retain its hold in the ground so well as the shell, but amongst the crevices of rocks, or where the vessel is near shore, will be useful.

"A grapnel of this kind may be fired from a common cannon with an endless rope, running in a pulley

or

or small block fixed thereto, by which a raft may be successively drawn to and from the vessel, either by the persons on board the vessel, or those on shore.

« Observations made by Lieut. Bell, upon throwing a Line on Shore in case of a Ship being stranded. 1st, From the proposed construction of the piece of ordnance, intended to throw the shot and line on shore, I suppose it will be between five and six hundred weight. "The chamber is to contain one pound of powder, and the bore to admit a leaden ball of sixty pounds or upwards; the length of range, or distance, will depend upon the size of the line made use of; I suppose it will carry a deep sea-line between three and four hundred yards distance.

"2d, All ships that have iron ballast may use this piece as a part of it, and then there would he only the trifling difference of casting so much of the ballast into the form of the piece; the leaden balls may likewise be used as ballast.

"3d, I am of opinion, there are various ways, on board of a ship, that the mortar may be placed in a proper position for firing without a carriage expressly made for it; it may be placed upon a coil of rope, or its trunnions rested upon coins, or any thing else, whereby the muzzle can be raised so high, that the groove upon the trunnion appears vertical, as the piece in that position would be elevated nearly 45 degrees.

"4th, As I imagine all ships carry deep sea-lines, on that account I made use of it in the experiments at Woolwich; but if it should be thought too short for the distance, any other light line might be added to the length of it.

5th, Supposing a ship's owner

to purchase such a piece of ordnance with the leaden balls, and a block carriage; I do not think the whole would amount to more than ten or eleven pounds expence.

"6th, Where a ship is driving or unmanageable near the shore, it would be proper to have the piece loaded, the line reeled upon handspikes or poles, and laid upon the deck ready for firing at any tiine it might be judged necessary. The handspikes or poles the line is reeled upon preserve it in a horizontal form; and they are not to be drawn out until the instant of firing: in this manner the line will deliver itself freely.

"The five water casks should also be prepared in readiness, by lashing them together, and a seaman's chest fixed upon the top of them, having part of its ends or sides cut out, in order to let out such water as ruay be thrown into it by the surf. I dare undertake to land with such a float upon a lee shore any where upon the coast, when it might be deemed unsafe for a boat to make good its landing.

7th, There is every reason to conclude, that this contrivance would be very useful at all ports of difficult access, both at home and abroad, where ships are liable to strike ground before they enter the harbour, as Shields Bar, and other similar situations, when a line might be thrown over the ship, which might pobably be the means of saving both lives and property; and moreover, if a ship was driven on shore near such a place, the apparatus might easily be removed to afford assistance; and the whole performance is so exceedingly simple, that any person, once seeing it done, would not want any further instructions. JOHN BELL.

Woolwich, Aug. 29, 1791.

"Some