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 FHO^TISJP
 
 CURIOSITIES 
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS: 
 
 SELECTED FROM 
 
 THE MOST AUTHENTIC TREASURES 
 
 OF 
 
 NATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, 
 
 tftograpljg, i^tstorg, 
 
 AND 
 
 GENERAL LITERATURE. 
 ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS PLATES. 
 
 THIRD EDITION, WITH IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CHARLES TILT, 86, FLEET STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXXXI.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 CHANGES of the Alphabet . ... 13 
 Alphabetical Whims — Lipogrammatists, Pan- 
 
 grammatists .... ib. 
 Infancy of Knowledge, as contrasted with 
 
 modem discoveries 15 
 
 Ancient and Modern Prices in England . .17 
 Power of Machinery in the Cotton Manufac- 
 tures . . . ... 20 
 
 Threshing Machine ib. 
 
 Comparative Strength of Men and Animals 
 — of Savages, Frenchmen, and English- 
 men (illustrated by Plates) . .22 
 Progress of a Pound of Cotton . . .25 
 Celerity of Cloth Manufacture . .26 
 Horse-racing by Machinery .... ib. 
 
 2091
 
 IV CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Wealth of the Romans . . .27 
 
 Automaton Chess Player . . . .29 
 Carriage without Horses (with Plates) . 32 
 
 French Rebus 33 
 
 Ingenious Theory of the Tides . . 35 
 
 Age of Trees — some 3000 years old . . 36 
 Preserved Bodies — interesting account of Lady 
 
 Kilsyth and her infant . . . lb. 
 
 How long shall we have Coals to burn ? . . 39 
 Leaning Tower of Pisa . . .41 
 
 Confusion of the Senses, of seeing, smelling, 
 hearing, touching, and tasting, exempli- 
 fied in the Case of a Woman near Lyons lb. 
 Perpetual Fire in the Peninsula of Abeheron 42 
 
 John o'-Groat's House 43 
 
 The Origin of Cards . . .44 
 
 Rational Card Playing 46 
 
 Walking on Stilts (with Plate) . . 47 
 
 Changes of the Kaleidescope . . . .48 
 Diversity of Colours .... lb. 
 
 Buonapartean Cypher 49 
 
 A Sailor's Wish . . . .51 
 
 Effect of War on the Weather . . . ib. 
 Astonishing Vegetable Produce . . .52 
 
 Remarkable Generation — Mrs. Honeywood, 
 
 of Charing, Kent 54
 
 CONTENTS. V 
 
 Page 
 The Banyan Tree . . .55 
 
 Animal Life 56 
 
 Magic Circle of Circles (with Plates) . . ib. 
 
 Optical Wonders — Beetle and Horse-Fly . . 57 
 Spectre of the Broken, as observed by M. Haue 
 
 and M. Gmelin .... ib. 
 Fairy Castles — Fata Morgana; Imaginary 
 
 Landscapes seen at Youghall ; Phenomena 
 
 explained (with Plates) . . . .60 
 Tulips — extravagant Price of . . .66 
 
 Sun's Rising and Setting . ... 67 
 
 Statistics — Curious Averages . . .68 
 
 Number of Pores in the Human Body . . 69 
 New Mechanical Power — the Dog . . ib. 
 
 Timber in a Seventy-four Gun-Ship . . 70 
 Lost Hours in Human Life . . .71 
 
 The Number Nine — Remarkable Properties 72 
 
 Mahomet's Coffin 73 
 
 Capacious Beer Casks ... .75 
 
 Tavern Signs — strange Corruptions . . 76 
 Power of the Steam Engine . . .79 
 
 The Geometrical Pen . . . ib. 
 
 Extraordinary Bed-ridden Mechanic, James 
 
 Sandy, of Alyth 80 
 
 Model of Paris . . . .81 
 
 High Numbers . . . . 82
 
 VI CONTENTS, 
 
 Page 
 
 The Eighteenth Century . . .83 
 
 Historical Epitaph on Mary Scott . . . ib. 
 Chances of War . . . .84 
 
 The Odd Family of Ipswich . . ib. 
 
 The Nearest Star . . . .85 
 
 Number of Days the Different Winds blow 
 
 in the course of a Year . . . .86 
 Dissection of the Old and New Testaments . ib. 
 Price of Bibles now and formerly . . 87 
 
 Bibliomancy, or Divination by the Bible . 88 
 
 Distance of the Sun . . .89 
 
 Mock Suns . . . . ib. 
 
 Wars between England and France . . 90 
 
 Immense Lift of a Windmill over 5,520 Feet ib. 
 Extraordinary Draught of an American Wag- 
 gon and Team . . . .90 
 Sailing Chariot (with Plates) . . . 92 
 Tenuity of Gold and Silver Wire . . . ib. 
 Spiders' Thread — Stockings made from it 94 
 Walking blindfolded — Dennis Hendrick . 96 
 Remarkable Epitaph of Prince Silo of Oviedo . 97 
 Newspapers — their Origin and Increase . . 98 
 A rare Circle of Friends . . .99 
 Modem Patriarch — Czartan, a Greek, who lived 
 
 180 Years ib. 
 
 Singular Intermarriage . . .100
 
 CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 Page 
 Longevity of Artists — Musicians — Sculptors . 101 
 Signs of the Weather : 
 
 of Rain from Birds . . .102 
 
 of Wind from ditto . . . .103 
 
 of Fair Weather from ditto . . ib. 
 
 of Rain from Beasts . . . . ib. 
 
 of ditto from Insects . . . ib. 
 
 of ditto from the Sun . . . . ib. 
 
 of Wind from ditto . . .104 
 
 of Fair Weather from ditto . . . ib. 
 
 Choosing a King — Anecdotes of the Tyrians and 
 
 Slaves . . . . . ib. 
 
 Remarkable Equestrian Expeditions . .105 
 Table, showing the Velocity of the Wind under 
 
 different Circumstances . . .106 
 
 Antediluvian Patriarchs . . . .107 
 
 The Unicorn — its real Existence established . ib. 
 Magic Square of Squares (with a Plate) . .108 
 Brevity of Life . . . .109 
 
 The Month of April remarkable for its fatality 
 
 to Celebrated Women . . .. .110 
 Numerical Coincidences . . . ib. 
 
 Rules for using the Sun Dial as a Moon Dial .111 
 Diving Bell — Halley's — Spalding's — Great Un- 
 dertakings in which employed — Descent 
 of Mrs. Major Morris — (illustrated by two 
 Plates) . . . .112
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 How to make a Statue Speak (with a Plate) . 120 
 Ptolemy's Mirror, no fable .... 121 
 Rocking Stones — Some extraordinary instances 
 
 — Purpose for which erected . .124 
 
 Surprising Property of Oil in calming the Sea . 126 
 The Kraken, or Great Sea Serpent . . .129 
 Platina Wire — Amazing Extension . .137 
 
 Hatching Chickens — Method in Sumatra . 138 
 
 Perpetual Periodical Table for knowing the Day 
 of the Week on which the Day of any 
 Month falls, &c. . . . .139 
 
 Groaning and Crying — beneficial to the Nervous 
 
 System 140 
 
 Conveyancing . . . . .141 
 
 Pigeons — Number formerly in England — How 
 
 trained in Persia ib. 
 
 Coronation Oaths . . . .142 
 
 Ingenious Anagram ib. 
 
 Animal Flower discovered at St. Lucie . ib. 
 
 Sketch of the numerous Classes of Persons whose 
 Trades are connected with, and in some de- 
 gree dependent upon, the building, equip- 
 ment, and employment of British Shipping, 
 from the Ship-owner to the Brazier . .143 
 Mean Temperature of the Earth in different 
 
 Places . . . . .146 
 
 Wonderful Lake in Carniola .... 148
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 Page 
 Touching for the King's Evil — Secret of the 
 
 Custom . . . • .149 
 
 Epitaphs — Their Influence — Specimens . . 150 
 The Divining Rod— Its History— Its Virtues . 155 
 Iron Hanging Bridge over the Menai Straits 
 
 (with Plates) . . . . .161 
 
 The Jew's Leap — Dangerous and frightful Pass 
 
 between Santa Cruz and Moggadore . 165 
 Figure of the Earth . . . .167 
 
 Motion of the Earth illustrated . . .169 
 Age of the World — Facts in support of the au- 
 thenticity of the Mosaic Account, in answer 
 to the French Academicians . . ib. 
 
 The Shark and Pilot Fish — Their Connection 
 
 proved 173 
 
 Stone Barometer in Finland . . .175 
 
 Highest relative Strength of Materials — Metals 
 
 — Woods — Miscellaneous Substances . ib. 
 
 Invention of Printing 177 
 
 Origin of Pamphlets . . . .179 
 
 Double Entendre — Copy of a Letter written by 
 Cardinal Richelieu to the French Minister 
 
 at Rome 182 
 
 Cannon — How for a long time used to little or 
 
 no purpose . . . .183 
 Expert Workmanship ib.
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Palpable Arithmetic — The Grecian Abacus — 
 Roman Abacus — Chinese Swan-pen — Di- 
 gital Signs (with Plate) . . .184 
 
 Quantity and Value — Anecdote of their depend- 
 
 ance on each other 189 
 
 Cats — Instances of their Extraordinary Value . ib. 
 
 The Chesnut Tree — Astonishing Magnitude in 
 
 Spain and Italy 190 
 
 Method of Ascertaining Currents at Sea . ib. 
 
 Japanese Mode of Reckoning Time . .191
 
 CURIOSITIES 
 
 FOR 
 
 ®t)t £tt0t mou0. 
 
 Clianges of the Alphabet. 
 
 1 HE alphabet of twenty-four letters may be varied so 
 many millions of millions of times, that if a man could 
 read one hundred thousand words in an hour, (a task im- 
 possible for any man) and there were four thousand six 
 hundred and fifty thousand millions of men, they could not 
 speak these words, according to the hourly proportion 
 aforesaid, in seventy thousand years. 
 
 Alphabetical Whims. 
 
 In No. 59 of the Spectator, Addison, descanting on the 
 different species of false wit, observes: "The first I shall 
 produce are the Lipogrammatists, or letter-droppers of 
 antiquity, that would take an exception, without any 
 reason, against some particular letter in the alphabet, so as 
 not to admit it once in a whole poem. One Tryphiodorus 
 was a great master in this kind of writing. He composed 
 an Odyssey, or Epic Poem, on the adventures of Ulysses,
 
 14 CURIOSITIES 
 
 consisting of four-and-twenty books, having entirely- 
 banished the letter A from his first book, which was called 
 Alpha, (lis lucus a non lucendo) because there was not an 
 alpha in it. His second book was inscribed Beta, for the 
 same reason ; in short, the poet excluded the whole four- 
 and-twenty letters in their turns, and shewed them that he 
 could do his business without them. It must have been 
 very pleasant to have seen this poet avoiding the reprobate 
 letter as much as another would a false quantity, and 
 making his escape from it, through the different Greek 
 dialects, when he was presented with it in any particular 
 syllable ; for the most apt and elegant word in the whole 
 language was rejected, like a diamond with a flaw in it, if it 
 appeared blemished with the wrong letter." 
 
 In No. 63, Addison has again introduced Tryphiodorus 
 in his Vision of the Region of False Wit, where he sees the 
 phantom of this Poet pursued through the intricacies of a 
 dance by four-and-twenty persons, (representatives of the 
 alphabetj who are unable to overtake him. 
 
 Addison should, however, have mentioned, that Tryphio- 
 dorus is kept in countenance by no less an authority than 
 Pindar, who, according to Athenseus, wrote an ode, from 
 which the letter sigma was carefully excluded. 
 
 This caprice of Tryphiodorus has not been without its 
 imitators. Peter de Riga, a canon of Rheims, wrote a 
 summary of the Bible in twenty-three sections; and 
 throughout each section, omitted, successively, some par- 
 ticular letter. 
 
 Gordianus Fulgentius, who wrote " De jEtatibus Mundi 
 et Hominis," has styled his book a wonderful work, 
 chiefly, it may be presumed, from a similar reason; as 
 from the chapter on Adam he has excluded the letter A ; 
 from that on Abel, the B ; from that on Cain, the C ; and 
 so of the rest. 
 
 This alphabetical whim has assumed various shapes. It 
 has sometimes taken the form of a fondness for some 
 particular letter. Petrus Placentius wrote a Poem, entitled 
 " Pugna Porcorum," in which every verse began with a P. 
 
 The Lipogrammatists have been far outdone by the 
 Pangrammatists, who contrive to crowd all the letters of 
 he alphabet into every single verse. The Prophet Ezra
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 15 
 
 (according to our English version) may be regarded as the 
 father of this tribe ; as witness the 21st verse of the 7th 
 chapter of his Book of Prophecies. Of modern authors, 
 Ausonius is the fullest of these fancies. 
 
 Infancy of Knoivledge. 
 
 Mankind, but a few ages since, were in a very poor 
 condition as to trade and navigation ; nor, indeed, were they 
 much better off in other matters of useful knowledge. 
 
 It was a green-headed time ; every useful improvement 
 was held from them : they had neither looked into heaven 
 nor earth, neither into the sea nor land, as has been done 
 since. They had philosophy without experiment, mathe- 
 matics without instruments, geometry without scale, 
 astronomy without demonstration. 
 
 They made war without powder, shot, cannon, or 
 mortars ; nay, the mob made their bonfires without squibs 
 or crackers. They went to sea without compass, and 
 sailed without the needle. They viewed the stars without 
 telescopes, and measured altitudes without barometers. 
 Learning had no printing-press, writing no paper, and 
 paper no ink. The lover was forced to send his mistress a 
 deal board for a love-letter, and a billet-doux might be of 
 the size of an ordinary trencher. They were clothed with- 
 out manufactures, and their richest robes were the skins of 
 the most formidable monsters. They carried on trade 
 without books, and correspondence without posts; their 
 merchants kept no accounts, their shop-keepers no cash- 
 books ; they had surgery without anatomy, and physicians 
 without the materia medica; they gave emetics without 
 ipecacuanha, and cured agues without bark. 
 
 As for geographical discoveries, they had neither seen 
 the North Cape, nor the Cape of Good Hope. All the 
 inhabited world, which they knew and conversed with, was 
 circumscribed within narrow limits, viz. France, Britain, 
 Spain, Italy, Germany, and Greece ; the Lesser Asia, the 
 western parts of Persia, Arabia, the northern parts of Africa, 
 and the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. Such was the 
 \v\io\e world to them ; not that even these conntries were
 
 16 CURIOSITIES 
 
 fully known, for several parts of them were not inquired into 
 at all. Germany was known little farther than the banks 
 of the Elbe ; Poland as little beyond the Vistula, as Hungary 
 bevond the Danube ; Muscovy, or Russia, was as perfectly 
 unknown as China beyond it ; and all their knowledge of 
 India was from a little commerce upon the coast about 
 Surat and Malabar. Africa had once been more known ; 
 but, by the ruin of the Carthaginians, all the western coast 
 of it was sunk out of knowledge again and forgotten ; the 
 northern coast of Africa in the Mediterranean remained 
 known, and that was all. The Baltic Sea was not dis- 
 covered, nor even the navigation of it known ; for the 
 Teutonic knights came not thither till the thirteenth 
 century. America was not heard of, nor was there so much 
 as an idea in the minds of men that any part of the world 
 lay that way. The coasts of Greenland and Spitsbergen, 
 with the whale fishery, were not known ; the best naviga- 
 tors in the world, at that time, would have fled from a 
 whale with fright and horror. 
 
 The coasts of Angola, Congo, the Gold and the Grain 
 Coasts, on the west side of Africa, whence such immense 
 wealth has since been drawn, were not discovered, nor the 
 least inquiry made after them. 
 
 All the East India and China Trade was not only undis- 
 covered, but beyond the reach of expectation. Coffee and 
 tea, those modern blessings of mankind, had never been 
 heard of; all the unbounded ocean v/e now call the South 
 Seas, was hidden and unknown; all the Atlantic Ocean, 
 beyond the mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar, was frightful 
 and terrible in the distant prospect; nor durst any one 
 peep into it, otherwise than as they might creep along the 
 coast of Africa towards Sallee or Santa Cruz. 
 
 The North Sea was hid in a veil of impenetrable dark- 
 ness ; the White or Archangel Sea was a very modern 
 discover}', not made until Sir Hugh Willoughby doubled 
 the North Cape, and paid dear for the adventure, being 
 frozen to death with all his crew on the coast of Lapland ; 
 while his companion's ship, with the famous Mr. Chancellor, 
 went on to the Gulf of Russia, called the White Sea, where 
 Christian strangers had never been before hira.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 17 
 
 In these narrow circumstances stood the world's know- 
 ledge at the beginning of the 15th century, when men of 
 genius began to look abroad and about them. 
 
 Now as it was wonderful to see a world so full of people, 
 and people so capable of improving, yet so regardless and so 
 blind, so ignorant and so perfectly unimproved ; it was 
 equally wonderful to see with what a general alacrity they 
 took the alarm, almost all together, preparing themselves as 
 it were on a sudden, by a general inspiration, to spread 
 knowledge through the earth, and to search into every thing 
 that it was possible to uncover. 
 
 How surprising is it to look back, so little a way behind, 
 and to see, that even in less than two hundred years, all 
 this (now so self-wise) part of the world did not so much as 
 know whether there was any such place as America ! neither 
 had the world, though they stood upon the shoulders of 
 four thousand years' experience, the least thought that 
 there was any land that way. 
 
 As they were ignorant of places, so were they also of 
 things. So vast are the improvements of science, that all 
 our knowledge of mathematics and of natural philosophy, 
 the brightest part of human wisdom, had its admission 
 amongst us within these two last centuries. 
 
 What was the world then before ? And to what were 
 the heads and hands of mankind applied ? The rich had 
 no commerce, the poor no employment ; war and the sword 
 formed the great field of honour, — the stage of preferment. 
 You have scarcely a man eminent in the world for any 
 thing, before that time, but for a furious outrageous falling 
 upon his fellow-creatures, like Nimrod, and his successors 
 of modern memory. 
 
 The world is now daily increasing in experimental know- 
 ledge ; but let no man flatter the age with pretending that 
 we have arrived at a perfection of discoveries. 
 What's now discover'd only seems to shew 
 That nothing's known, to what is yet to know. 
 
 Ancient and Modern Prices. (Written in 1790. ) 
 In the year 712 and 727, an ewe and lamb were rated at 
 one shilling, Saxon money, until a fortnight after Easter* 
 b2
 
 18 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Between 900 and 1000, two hides of land, each containing 
 about one hundred and twenty acres, were sold for one 
 hundred shillings. In 1000, by king Ethelred's laws, a 
 horse was rated at thirty shillings, a mare or colt of a 
 year old at twenty shillings, a mule or young ass at twelve 
 shillings, an ox at thirty pence, a cow at twenty-four pence, 
 a sow eight pence, a sheep one shilling. In 1043, a quarter 
 of wheat was sold for sixty pence. From these and other 
 similar facts, it is computed, that in the Saxon era there 
 was ten times less money, in proportion to commodities, 
 than at present ; so that the price of every thing, according 
 to our present language, must have been thirty times 
 cheaper than it is now. 
 
 In the reign of William the Conqueror, commodities 
 were ten times cheaper than they are at present; and 
 hence we cannot help forming a very high idea of the 
 wealth and power of that monarch. For the revenue of 
 William the Conqueror was four hundred thousand pounds 
 per annum, every pound being equal to that weight of 
 silver ; consequently, the whole may be estimated at one 
 million two hundred thousand pounds of the present con- 
 sumption, a sum which, considering the different value of 
 money between that period and the present time, was 
 equivalent to twelve millions of modern estimation. 
 
 The most necessary commodities do not seem to have 
 advanced their price from William the Conqueror to 
 Richard I. 
 
 The price of corn in the reign of Henry III. was nearly 
 half the price of our times. Bishop Fleetwood has shewn, 
 that in the year 1240, which was in this reign, four pounds 
 thirteen shillings and ninepence were worth about fifty 
 pounds of our present money. About the latter end of this 
 reign, Robert de Hay, Rector of Souldern, agreed to 
 receive one hundred shillings, to purchase to himself and 
 successor the annual rent of five shillings, in full com- 
 pensation for an acre of corn. 
 
 Butcher's meat, in the time of the great scarcity in the 
 reign of Edward II. was, by a parliamentary ordinance, 
 sold three times cheaper than our mean price at present ; 
 poultry somewhat lower, because, being now considered as 
 a delicacy, it has risen beyond its proportion. The mean
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 19 
 
 price of corn, in this period, was half the present value; 
 and the mean price of cattle, one-eighth. 
 
 In the next reign, that of Edward III., the most necessary 
 commodities were, in general, about three or four times 
 cheaper than they nre at present. 
 
 In those times, knights, who served on horseback in the 
 army, had two shillings a-day, and a foot archer sixpence, 
 which last would be equal to a crown a-day. This pay 
 has continued nearly the same, nominally, only that during 
 the Commonwealth the pay of the horse was advanced to 
 two shillings and sixpence, and that of the foot to one 
 shilling; it was reduced again at the Restoration, but 
 soldiers were comparatively of a better rank formerly. 
 
 In the time of Henry IV. corn was about half its present 
 value; other commodities much cheaper, Bishop Fleet- 
 wood has determined, from a most accurate consideration 
 of every circumstance, that five pounds in his reign were 
 equivalent to twenty-eight or thirty now. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VII. many commodities were three 
 times as cheap here, and in all Europe, as they are at 
 present ; there having been a great increase of gold and 
 silver in Europe since his time, occasioned by the discovery 
 of America. 
 
 The commodities, the price of which has risen the 
 most since the time of Henry II., are butcher's meat, 
 fowls, and fish ; especially the last ; and the reason why 
 corn was always much dearer in proportion to other 
 eatables, according to their prices at present, is, that in 
 early times agriculture was little understood. It required 
 more labour and expense, and was more precarious than 
 it is at present. Indeed, notwithstanding the high price of 
 corn in the times we are speaking of, the raising of it so 
 little answered the expense, that agriculture was almost 
 universally quitted for grazing, which was more profitable, 
 notwithstanding the low price of butcher's meat. So that 
 there was constant occasion for statutes to restrain grazing, 
 and to promote agriculture ; and no effectual remedy was 
 found, till the bounty upon the exportation of corn ; since 
 which, above ten times more corn has been raised in this 
 country than before.
 
 20 CURIOSITIES 
 
 The price of corn, and consequently that of other neces- 
 saries of life, in the time of James I. was not lower, but 
 rather higher than at present ; wool is not two-thirds of 
 the value it was then, the finer manufactures having rather 
 sunk in price by the progress of art and industry, notwith- 
 standing the increase of money. 
 
 Power of Machinery. 
 
 Mr. Owen calculates that two hundred arms, with 
 machines, now manufacture as much cotton as twenty 
 millions of arms were able to manufacture without machines 
 forty years ago ; and that the cotton now manufactured in 
 the course of one year, in Great Britain, would require, 
 without machines, sixteen millions of workmen with simple 
 wheels. He calculates further, that the quantity of manu- 
 factures of all sorts, at present produced by British work- 
 men with the aid of machines, is so great, that it would 
 require, without the assistance of machinery, the labour of 
 four hundred millions of workmen ! 
 
 At some of the cotton-mills in Manchester, yarn has been 
 spun so fine as to require 350 hanks to weigh one pound 
 avoirdupoise. The perimeter of the common reel being 
 one yard and a half, 80 threads or revolutions would mea- 
 sure 120 yards, and one hank seven times as much, or 840 
 yards, multiplied by 350, gives 294,840 yards, or 167 miles 
 and a fraction ! 
 
 Threshing Machine. 
 
 From the remotest antiquity, the practice prevailed of 
 treading out the corn from the ear by means of the feet 
 of cattle. In the United States of America, where human 
 labour is very expensive, the same mode of proceeding 
 is still adopted. It also exists in the southern parts of 
 Europe. Mr. Young speaks of it as practised in the 
 province of Languedoc, and other parts, in the following 
 terms : 
 
 " Languedoc. — Through all the southern parts of this 
 province, they tread out the corn with horses and mules - y
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 21 
 
 a man in the centre of the threshing-floor, in the open air, 
 drives them round, and other men supply the floor, and 
 clear away the straw. In some conversation I had on this 
 method, between Narbonne and Nissau, I was assured it 
 was far preferable to the use of flails ; that twenty-four 
 mules, or horses, and twelve men, would depique, as they 
 term it, 150 septiers of wheat in a day ; that some farms 
 produce 2000 septiers of corn. What would flails do for 
 such a quantity ? I examined the wheat, and did not find 
 it more damaged than with flails ; but the climate is to be 
 remembered, which makes the grain much harder than 
 any with us. Seeing some flails going also, I demanded 
 the reason, and was told, that the master would sometimes 
 have particular parcels of straw threshed so, to get the corn 
 that was left in it, if he suspected too much ; at others, 
 the labourers do it for themselves, which is sometimes 
 granted. 
 
 " Provence. — Seeing a large quantity of the President's 
 wheat spread on cloths for drying in the sun, and inquiring 
 what it meant, I found it was washed, as all is of which the 
 best bread is made ; owing, beyond all doubt, to the mode 
 of threshing, which renders it so foul that this operation is 
 necessary." 
 
 The softness of the grain in our northern climates, 
 together with the superior cleanness of the operation, 
 appears to have introduced at an early period, and to have 
 rendered universal, the practice of separating the grain 
 from the chaff and straw by means of the flail. The labo- 
 rious, tedious, and expensive nature of the operation, long 
 induced farmers to wish that some mode could be contrived 
 by means of mechanism, to abridge the toil of beating out 
 the grain by manual labour. Various attempts were accord- 
 ingly made by ingenious men to construct a threshing- 
 machine. In particular, about the middle of the last cen- 
 tury, a Mr. Menzies (of Culteralters, we believe in the upper 
 part of Clydesdale) constructed one, which consisted of a 
 number of flails moved by a water-wheel. A Mr. Stirling, of 
 Perthshire, contrived and used another upon the principle 
 of the flax-mill. About the year 1773, a Mr. Ilderton, of 
 Alnwick, erected a machine, which acted upon the principle 
 of rubbing or pressing out the corn. At the same time, a
 
 *22 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Mr. Oxley, at Hodden, framed one with skutchers, but of 
 a defective nature, and possessing little velocity. The late 
 Sir Francis Kinloch, of Glimerton, bart. took to Scot- 
 land a model of Mr. Ilderton's machine, which he sent to 
 be tried by means of the water-wheel of a barley-mill 
 belonging to Mr. Andrew Meikle, civil engineer at Henston 
 Mill, near Addington, North Britain. It was torn to 
 pieces in the trial ; and when tried anew, upon a larger 
 scale, the same accident occurred. Mr. Meikle himself, 
 however, invented the new machine which is at present in 
 use, and which is now known and employed, not only in 
 Britain, but also on the continent of Europe and in America. 
 It is a cause of regret to know, that like other ingenious 
 men, Mr. Meikle has derived little or no emolument from 
 his invention, though of the utmost utility to the most 
 important of all arts. 
 
 The threshing-machine has received various improve- 
 ments, or at least, alterations, but without departing from 
 the mechanical principles on which it was originally formed 
 by Mr. Meikle. It is accounted a necessary appendage to 
 every large farm ; and one advantage resulting from it is 
 considered of great utility, — that with little loss of time it 
 enables the farmer personally to superintend the important 
 operation of beating out and measuring his grain, without 
 intrusting much either to the fidelity or the attentiveness 
 of his servants. 
 
 Comparative Strength of Men and Animals. 
 
 When Sanctorius invented his balance, he taught us what 
 we lose by insensible perspiration; and no one, without 
 this discovery, would perhaps ever have imagined, that the 
 matter thrown out from the body is more than half what 
 we receive as nourishment. Knowledge no less important 
 is in the course of being acquired from the invention of an 
 easy means of ascertaining, in a comparative manner, our 
 relative strengths at the different periods of life, and in 
 different states of health. Various cumbrous contrivances 
 had been from time to time resorted to for this purpose ; 
 but it was reserved for M. Regnier, to devise a piece of
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 23 
 
 mechanism, combining at once all the requisite nicety of 
 determination, with the greatest portable convenience. It 
 is called a dynamometer : it consists of a spring, twelve 
 inches in length, bent into the form of an ellipsis, from the 
 middle of which arises a semicircular piece of brass, having 
 engraved upon it the different degrees that express the 
 force of the power acting on the spring. The whole of 
 this machine, which weighs only two pounds and a half, 
 opposes, however, more resistance than would be required 
 to determine the action of the strongest and most robust 
 horse. The simplicity of its mechanism will be better 
 illustrated by the following description : 
 
 A A (Fig. I.) of Plate I. is an elliptical spring, seen 
 in perspective, composed of the best steel, and covered 
 with leather, that it may not hurt the fingers when strongly 
 pressed. 
 
 B, a piece of steel strongly fastened to the spring by 
 means of a claw and screws, in order to support a semi- 
 circular plate of brass, C, (fig. 2.) mounted on the spring, 
 seen geometrically. This plate has a scale of degrees 
 engraved upon it. 
 
 D, (fig. 1.) is a small steel support, adjusted, like the 
 former, to the other branch of the spring, and having a 
 cleft towards the upper extremity, to receive freely a small 
 steel lever, E, (fig. 2.) which is kept in its place by a small 
 steel pin. 
 
 F, (fig. 2.) a steel indicator, which points to the scale of 
 degrees, very light and elastic, fixed upon its axis by a 
 screw in the centre of the brass semicircle, and acted upon 
 by the lever, D. 
 
 Fig. 3, is a case of brass, which incloses the whole 
 mechanism, to prevent it from being injured. G, a socket 
 rivetted on the plate, (fig. 2.) in which the upper pivot of 
 the lever turns. 
 
 Fig. 4, an iron rack, on the lower part of which the feet 
 must be placed when it is intended to try the strength of a 
 person's body. 
 
 Fig. 5, a double handle of wood, with an iron hook, to 
 be held at the same time in both hands. 
 
 Fig. 6, disposition of the dynamometer to try the strength 
 of a horse or any other draught animal.
 
 24 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Fig. 7, Plate IV. the manner of holding the dynamometer 
 to ascertain the strength of the hands. 
 
 Fig. 8, Plate IV. position of a man when trying the 
 strength of his reins. 
 
 The operation of the machine may be thus explained. If 
 a person press on the spring with the hands, or draw it 
 out lengthwise by pulling the two extremities in a contrary 
 direction, the two sides of the spring approach each other, 
 and in proportion as they are brought nearer, the lever E 
 pushes before it the index, which, by the tightness with 
 which it is screwed in its place, will remain at the point to 
 which it is advanced. 
 
 The muscular force of the arms, or rather the strength 
 of the hands, may be tried by laying hold of the two sides 
 of the spring nearest to the centre, as may be seen by fig. 7, 
 so that the arms may be a little stretched and inclined 
 downwards almost at an angle of 45 degrees. This position, 
 which appears the most natural, is also the most convenient 
 for a man to act with his whole force. The strength of the 
 hands may also be tried one after the other; and if an 
 account be kept of the degree of pressure of the right hand, 
 and then of the left, and these two sums be added together, 
 it will be found that the sum total is, in general, equal to 
 the strength of both the hands when acting together. 
 
 To try the strength of the body, or rather the reins, the 
 person must place his feet on the bottom part of the rack, 
 fig. 4 ; one of the ends of the spring is then to be placed 
 on one of the hooks on the rack, and the hook, fig. 5, is to 
 be put into the other end. In this position the body is 
 perpendicular, the shoulders only being inclined a little 
 forwards, to be able, in throwing back the body, to pull the 
 spring with all the force which a person is capable of 
 exerting. 
 
 Nothing can be more convenient than this dynamometer, 
 to ascertain and compare the strength of horses, and that 
 of all draught animals. Figure 6 shows, in a sufficient 
 manner, the dispositions necessary for experiments of this 
 sort. 
 
 M. Peron, the naturalist, has been led by experiments 
 made with this instrument to observe, that people in a 
 savage state are less strong than in a civilized ; and he has 
 4
 
 Ttate / to rat? p. 14. 
 
 <C G>;MP_A]RATimE SSTTO^ 1- GTJJ
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 
 
 25 
 
 demonstrated, in a very evident manner, that the improve- 
 ment of social order does not destroy our physical strength, 
 as some persons imagine. The following is the table of 
 results which he has published. 
 
 f of Van Dieman's Land 
 Savages < of New Holland 
 
 (_of Timor 
 
 Frenchmen 
 
 Englishmen 
 
 STRENGTH. 
 
 With 
 the' Hands. 
 
 With 
 the Reins. 
 
 50 6 
 
 51 8 
 58 7 
 69 2 
 71 4 
 
 
 14 8 
 16 2 
 
 22 1 
 
 23 8 
 
 Progress of a Pound of Cotton. 
 
 The following history of a pound weight of manufactured 
 cotton will shew the importance' of the trade to the country 
 in a very conspicuous manner. The wool came from the 
 East Indies to London; from London it went to Lancashire, 
 where it was manufactured into yarn ; from Manchester it 
 was sent to Paisley, where it was woven ; it was next sent 
 to Ayrshire, where it was tamboured ; afterwards it was 
 conveyed to Dunbarton, where it was hand-sewed, and 
 again returned to Paisley, when it was sent to a distant 
 part of the county of Renfrew to be bleached, and was re- 
 turned to Paisley, whence it was sent to Glasgow, and was 
 finished ; and from Glasgow was sent by coach to London. 
 It is difficult to ascertain precisely the time taken to bring 
 this article to market ; but it may be pretty near the truth 
 to reckon it three years, from the time it was packed in 
 India, till in cloth it arrived at the merchant's warehouse 
 in London, whither it must have been conveyed 5000 
 miles by sea, and 920 by land, and contributed to reward 
 no less than 150 people, whose services were necessary in 
 c
 
 2G CURIOSITIES 
 
 the carriage and manufacture of this small quantity of 
 cotton, and by which the value has been advanced 2000 
 per cent. 
 
 Celerity of Cloth Manufacture. 
 
 Many accounts have been published of the celerity with 
 which manufacturers of cloth, both English and American, 
 have gone through the various parts of the process, from 
 the fleece to the garment. In England, the fleece has been 
 taken from the sheep, manufactured into cloth, and the 
 cloth made into a coat, in the short space of 13 hours and 
 20 minutes. Messrs. Buck, Brewster, and Company, 
 managers of the Ontario Manufactory at Manchester, in 
 the United States, on perusing an account of this English 
 atchievement, conceived, from the perfection of their 
 machinery, and the dexterity of their workmen, that the 
 same operations might be accomplished even in a shorter 
 time. A wager of 500 dollars was offered and accepted, 
 that they would perform the same operations in twelve 
 hours. The wool was taken from the sack in its natural 
 state, and in 9 hours and 15 minutes, precisely, the coat 
 was completed, and worn in triumph by one of the party 
 concerned. The wool was picked, greased, carded, roped 
 and spun ; the yarn was worked, put into the loom and 
 woven, — the cloth was fulled, coloured, four times shorn, 
 pressed, and carried to the tailor's, and the coat completed 
 all within the time above stated. The cloth was not of the 
 finest texture, but was very handsomely dressed, and fitted 
 the person who wore it remarkably well. The only differ- 
 ence between this and the English experiment was the 
 time occupied in shearing the fleece, and any wool-grower 
 knows that this part of the operation may be performed in 
 ten minutes. 
 
 Horse-Racing by Machinery. 
 
 Mr. John Allan, of Penicuick, near Edinburgh, has 
 constructed a curious machine which impels two horses 
 round a circle. The horses and riders have the exact 
 attitude, and apparently all the animated emulation of a
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 27 
 
 well-contested horse-race, and have this necessary charac- 
 teristic, that even the maker of the machine cannot say 
 which of the horses will gain. To the curious in horse- 
 racing, the invention is peculiarly interesting, as in bad 
 weather they can enjoy the pleasure of a good race with 
 comfort at their fire-sides. With a little more trouble, it 
 might, occasionally, be converted into a fox-hunt, by affixing 
 the necessary appendages of huntsmen and hounds. 
 
 Wealth of the Romans. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 Crassus's landed estate was valued at . . 1,666,666 13 4 
 
 His house was valued at 50,000 
 
 Ten pillars in the front of his house cost 833 6 8 
 
 Csecilius Isidorus, after having lost much 
 
 in the civil wars, left 1,047,160 
 
 Demetrius, a libertus of Pompey, was said 
 
 to be worth 775,000 
 
 Lentulus, the Augur, no less than 3,333,333 
 
 Cicero acknowledged that his estate in 
 
 Asia was worth 18,333 6 8 
 
 His town-house cost 16,666 13 4 
 
 His country-house 6,041 13 4 
 
 Clodius, who was slain by Milo, paid 
 
 for his house 123,333 6 8 
 
 Apicius was worth more than 916,671 13 4 
 
 And after he had spent in his kitchen, and 
 
 otherwise squandered immense sums to 
 
 the amount of 833,333 6 8 
 
 He poisoned himself, leaving 83,333 6 8 
 
 The establishment belonging to M.Scarus, 
 
 and burnt at Tusculum, was valued at 833,332 13 4 
 Gifts and bribes may be considered as 
 
 great signs of riches : Caesar presented 
 
 Servilla, the mother of Brutus, with a 
 
 pearl worth 50,000 
 
 Paulus, the consul, was bribed by Caesar 
 
 with the sum of 58,333 6 8 
 
 And afterwards bought over to his party 
 
 for the sum of 300,000 
 
 Cabinus was accused of getting 2,000,000
 
 28 CURIOSITIES 
 
 £. f. d. 
 
 The bribes of the tribes at the elections, 
 
 for each of them, amounted to 83,333 6 6 
 
 And there were thirty-three tribes, so 
 
 that the whole cost no less than 2,916,666 13 4 
 
 Curio contracted debts to the amount of 500,000 
 And before Caesar was in any public office, 
 
 he was in debt 251 ,875 
 
 Of which sum Crassus was bound for .. 160,812 10 
 
 Milo contracted a debt of 583,333 13 4 
 
 Antony owed at the Ides of March, which 
 
 he paid before the Calends of April . . 333,333 6 8 
 The suppers of Lucullus at the Apollo cost 1,6*66 13 4 
 
 Horace says that Pegellus, a singer, could 
 
 in five days spend 8,333 6 8 
 
 Fat birds, such as thrushes and black- 
 birds, of which some farms would pro- 
 duce 5000 yearly, cost each 2 
 
 A pea-fowl cost 1 13 4 
 
 An egg 3 4 
 
 A pair of doves 113 4 
 
 If very pretty 8 6 8 
 
 Herrius's fish ponds sold for 33,333 6 8 
 
 A pound of wool, of the Tyrian double 
 
 dye was sold for 33 6 8 
 
 Some wore gowns of it, and carpets for 
 
 covering their couches, on which they 
 
 reclined at table ; some of them were 
 
 wrought into various figures at Babylon, 
 
 and sold at Rome for 6,666 13 4 
 
 Calvinus Labinus purchased many learned 
 
 slaves, none of them under 833 13 4 
 
 Stage-players sold much higher : 
 
 Roscius gained annually 1,166 13 4 
 
 The ground on which Caesar built his 
 
 forum, (five acres,) cost 833,333 13 4 
 
 Being at the rate, per acre, of 166,666 13 4 
 
 The yearly rent of each acre was 6,666 13 4 
 
 Isidorus was a private man, and by will 
 
 his effects were declared to consist of 
 
 4,116 slaves, at £60 246,960 
 
 3,600 yoke of oxen, at £12 each 43,200
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 29 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 257,000 lesser cattle, at £1 each 257,000 
 
 Money 500,000 
 
 Dickson's Ancient Husbandry. 
 
 Automaton Chess Player, 
 
 The construction of machines, capable of imitating even 
 the mechanical actions of the human body, shew exquisite 
 skill ; but what shall we sacy of one, capable not only of 
 imitating actions of this kind, but of acting as external 
 circumstances require, as though it were endowed with life 
 and reason ? This, nevertheless, has been done. M. de 
 Kempelen, a gentleman of Presburg, in Hungary, has con- 
 structed an Androides, capable of playing at chess ! Every 
 one, who is in the least acquainted with this game, must 
 know, that it is so far from being mechanically performed, 
 as to require a greater exertion of the judgment and ra- 
 tional faculties than is sufficient to accomplish matters of 
 greater importance. An attempt, therefore, to make a 
 wooden chess-player might, a. priori, seem almost as ridicu- 
 lous as to make a wooden preacher, or counsellor of state. 
 That such a machine really was made, however, the public 
 have had ocular demonstration. The inventor came over 
 to Britain in 1783, and exhibited his automaton to public 
 inspection for more than a year. He paid this country a 
 second visit in 1819, when his invention excited as much 
 wonder as ever, notwithstanding the vast progress made in 
 the interim in mechanical science. 
 
 The room where it was exhibited, when seen by the 
 writer of this article, had an inner apartment, within which 
 appeared the figure of a Turk as large as life, dressed after 
 the Turkish fashion, sitting behind a chest of three feet and 
 a half in length, two feet in breadth, and two feet and a 
 half in height, to which it was attached by the wooden seat 
 on which it sat. The chest was placed upon four castors, 
 and, together with the figure, might be easily moved to any 
 part of the room. On the plain surface, formed by the top 
 of the chest in the centre, was a raised immovable chess- 
 board, of handsome dimensions, upon which the figure had 
 c2
 
 30 CURIOSITIES 
 
 its eyes fixed, its right arm and hand being extended on the 
 chest, and its left arm somewhat raised, as if in the attitude 
 of holding a Turkish pipe, which was originally placed in 
 its hand. 
 
 The exhibitor begins by wheeling the chest to the en- 
 trance of the apartment within which it stands, and in front 
 of the spectators. He then opens certain doors contrived 
 in the chest, two in front and two in the back, at the same 
 time pulling out along shallow drawer at the bottom of the 
 chest made to contain the chessmen, a cushion for the arm 
 of the figure to rest upon, and some counters. Two lesser 
 doors, and a green cloth screen contrived in the body of tbe 
 figure and its lower parts, are likewise opened, and the 
 Turkish robe which covers them is raised, so .hat the con- 
 struction both of the figure and chest internally is displayed. 
 In this state the automaton is moved round for the exami- 
 nation of the spectators*, and to banish all suspicion from 
 the most sceptical mind that any living subject is concealed 
 within any part of it, the exhibitor introduces a lighted 
 candle into the body of the chest and figure, by which the 
 interior of each is in a great measure rendered transparent, 
 and the most secret corner is shewn. 
 
 The chest is divided by a partition into two unequal 
 chambers. That to the right of the figure is the narrowest, 
 and occupies scarcely one-third of the body of the chest. It 
 is filled with little wheels, levers, cylinders, and other 
 machinery used in clock-work. That to the left contains a 
 few wheels, some small barrels with springs, and two 
 quarters of a circle placed horizontally. The body and 
 lower parts of the figure contain certain tubes, which seem 
 to be conductors to the machinery. After a sufficient time, 
 during which each spectator may satisfy his scruples and his 
 curiosity, the exhibitor recloses the door of the chest and 
 figure, and the drawer at bottom, makes some arrangements 
 in the body of the figure, winds up the works with a key 
 inserted into a small opening on the side of the chest, 
 places a cushion under the left arm of the figure, which 
 now rests upon it, and invites any individual present to 
 play a game of chess. 
 
 To avoid, however, the obstructions which might be 
 occasioned by the inattention of stranger antagonists, in
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 31 
 
 moving the pieces as required exactly to the centre of the 
 squares, the adversary does not play at the same hoard 
 with the automaton, but has a chess-board to himself, on 
 which he copies the automaton's moves and makes his own ; 
 while a person, who attends at the automaton's board, 
 copies with due precision for the automaton the adversary's 
 moves. 
 
 The automaton makes choice of the white pieces, and 
 always gives the first move. It plays with the left hand, 
 the right arm and hand being constantly extended on the 
 chest behind which it is seated. This slight incongruity 
 proceeded from inadvertence in the inventor, who did not 
 perceive his mistake till the machinery of the automaton 
 was too far completed to admit of the mistake being recti- 
 fied. At the commencement of a game, the automaton 
 moves its head as if taking a view of the board ; the same 
 motion occurs at the close of a game. In making a move 
 it slowly raises its left arm from the cushion placed under 
 it, and directs it towards the square of the piece to be 
 moved. Its hand and fingers open on touching the piece 
 which it takes up, and convey it to any proposed square. 
 The arm then returns with a natural motion to the cushion, 
 upon which it usually rests. In taking a piece, the au- 
 tomaton makes the same motions of the arm and hand to 
 lay hold of the piece which it conveys from the board, and 
 then returning to its own piece, it takes it up and places it 
 on the vacant square. These motions are performed with 
 perfect correctness, and the dexterity with which the arm 
 acts, especially in the delicate operation of castling, seems 
 to be the result of spontaneous feeling, bending at the 
 shoulder, elbow, and knuckles, and cautiously avoiding to 
 touch any other piece than that which is to be moved, nor 
 ever making a false move. 
 
 After a move made by its antagonist, the automaton re- 
 mains for a few moments only inactive, as if meditating its 
 next move, upon which the motions of the left arm and 
 hand follow. On giving check to the king, it moves its 
 head as a signal. When a false move is made by its anta- 
 gonist, which frequently occurs through curiosity to observe 
 in what manner the automaton will act (as, for instance, if a 
 knight be made to move like a castle), the automaton taps-
 
 32 CURIOSITIES 
 
 impatiently on the chest with its right hand, replaces the 
 knight on its former square, and not permitting its anta- 
 gonist to recover his move, proceeds immediately to move 
 one of its own pieces, thus appearing to punish him for his 
 inattention. The little advantage in play which is hereby 
 gained makes the automaton more of a match for its anta- 
 gonist, and seems to have been contemplated by the inventor 
 as an additional resource towards winning the game. 
 
 When a move is once made, no alteration in it can take 
 place, and if a piece be touched it must be played some- 
 where. This rule is strictly observed by the automaton. 
 If its antagonist hesitates to move for a considerable time, 
 it taps smartly on the chest with the right hand, which is 
 constantly extended upon it, as if' testifying impatience at 
 his delay. 
 
 During the time the automaton is in motion, a low sound 
 of clock-work running down is heard, which ceases soon 
 after its arm returns to the cushion, and tben its antagonist 
 may make his move. The works are wound up at intervals 
 after ten or twelve moves, by the exhibitor, who is usually 
 employed in walking up and down the apartment in which 
 tbe automaton is shewn, approaching, however, the chest 
 from time to time, especially on its right side. It is pre- 
 tended, indeed, that the automaton cannot play unless M.de 
 Kempelen or his substitute is near to direct its moves ; but 
 it is very certain that the whole mystery lies in the chest, 
 and that there can be no connexion with the floor or any 
 part of the room, as the inventor advertises his willingness 
 to exhibit at private houses. A person, who could beat M. 
 de Kempelen, was of course certain of conquering the auto- 
 maton. It was made in 1769. His own modest account of 
 it was " that it was a mere bagatelle, not without some 
 merit as a piece of mechanism, but the effects of which 
 depend chiefly on the happy means employed to produce 
 illusion." 
 
 Carriage without Horses. 
 
 Bv means of wheels, carriages have been contrived to 
 go without horses, or any other moving power than what 
 is given by the passengers. One of the first inventions of
 
 Ttote 11 1. 
 
 CAKRIA'&E "V^ITII Ol'T II I DIRSES
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 33 
 
 this sort, was a carriage by M. Richard, a physician of 
 Rochelle, exhibited at Paris in the last century. Fig. 1, 
 Plate II. exhibits a representation of it. It is moved 
 by the footman behind it, and the fore- wheels, which 
 act as a rudder, are guided by the person who sits 
 in the carriage. Between the hind-wheel is placed a box, 
 in which is concealed the machinery. A A, Fig. 2, is a 
 small axis fixed into the box. B is a pulley, over which 
 runs a rope, whose two ends are fastened to the ends of 
 the two levers or treadles, C D, whose other ends are 
 fixed in such manner in the piece E, which is joined to the 
 box, that they can easily move up and down. F F are 
 two flat pieces of iron that are joined to the treadles, and 
 take the teeth of the two wheels, H H, which are fixed on 
 the same axis with the hind-wheels of the carriage, 1 1. 
 
 It is evident that when the footman behind presses down 
 one of the treadles, suppose C, with his foot, he must 
 bring down one of the pieces of iron, F, and consequently 
 turn the wheel H that is next to it ; and at the same time, 
 by means of the rope that goes over the pulley, he must 
 raise the other treadle, D, together with its piece, F, which, 
 being thrust down, will turn the other wheel, H, and so 
 alternately ; and as the great wheels are fixed on the same 
 axis, they must necessarily move at the same time. 
 
 It is easy to conceive, that if the ends of the treadles 
 next E, instead of being placed behind the carriage, were 
 turned the opposite way, so as to come under the feet of 
 the person who sits in it, he might move it with equal or 
 even greater facility than the footman, as it would then be 
 charged with the weight of one person only. 
 
 A machine of this kind may afford a salutary recreation 
 in a garden or park, or on any plain ground ; but on a 
 rough or steep road, it must be attended with more pain 
 than pleasure. 
 
 French Rebus. 
 
 The fastidiousness of mere book learning, or the over- 
 weening importance of politicians and men of business, 
 may be employed to cast contempt, or even odium, on the
 
 34 CURIOSITIES 
 
 labour which is spent in the solution of puzzles, which 
 produce no useful knowledge when disclosed ; but that 
 which agreeably amuses both young and old, should, if 
 not entitled to regard, be at least exempt from censure. 
 Nor have the greatest wits of this and other countries 
 disdained to shew their skill in these trifles. Swift's 
 humorous essay in recommendation of the disuse of 
 superfluous letters, is well known ; and his specimen, 
 beginning, Dr In u r a but, (dear Helen, you are a beauty) 
 shews how agreeably he could descend to the slightest 
 badinage. The French particularly excel in this kind of 
 composition, and their ancient and modern writers have 
 been fond of amusing themselves with such levities ; their 
 language is favorable to this method, and they use it with- 
 out scruple. The following rondeau is by Jean Marot, a 
 favourite old priest, and valet-de-chambre to Francis I. It 
 would be inexplicable to most readers without the version 
 in common French, which is subjoined : 
 
 riant fus n'agueres 
 
 En pris 
 
 t D'une o affettee 
 
 u tile s 
 
 espoir haitee 
 
 ()ue vent 
 
 ay 
 d 
 Mais fus quand pr s'amour is 
 
 ris 
 Car j'apper ses mignards 
 que 
 traits 
 Etoient d'amour mal a 
 ee 
 
 riant 
 Eii 
 1'reil 
 Ecus de elle apris 
 
 moi 
 maniere rusde 
 te me nant
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 35 
 
 Et quand je veux chez elle e faire e 
 
 que 
 Me dit to y us mal appris 
 
 riant 
 En 
 
 RONDEAU. 
 
 En souriant fus n'agueres surpris 
 D'une subtile entree tous affettee, 
 Que sou espoir ai souvent souhait^e, 
 Mais fus de^ue, quand s'amour entrepris ; 
 Car j'appercus que ses mignards souris 
 Etoient soustraits d'amour mal assured 
 
 En souriant. 
 
 Ecus soleil dessus moi elle a pris, 
 M'entretenant sous maniere rusee ; 
 Et quand je veux chez elle faire entree, 
 Me dit que suis entree tous mal appris 
 
 En souriant. 
 
 Theory of the Tides. 
 
 Mr. W. Martin, the inventor of a supposed perpetual 
 motion, has proposed the following ingenious hypothesis, 
 respecting the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the tide. 
 When a boy, he says, he used to amuse himself by blowing 
 up a pea upon the end of a tobacco-pipe ; and he observed, 
 that while the pea performed its revolutions round the end 
 of the pipe, it also oscillated, in some degree, like a small 
 pendulum. He concludes that this circumstance will suffi- 
 ciently account for the ebbing and flowing of the tide in 
 the following manner : — As the earth goes round once in 
 twenty-four hours, and makes four vibrations in that time, 
 floating upon the atmospheric air similar to the pea upon 
 the end of the tobacco-pipe, and being influenced by the 
 north and south poles, cannot find a resting-place, it is 
 thereby made to vibrate like a pendulum, which causes the 
 tides to flow at regular periods. Were there no moon,
 
 36 CURIOSITIES 
 
 says Mr. Martin, the tides would still continue regularly to 
 ebb and flow, only with this difference, that there would 
 be no spring tides. 
 
 Age of Trees. 
 
 There are various opinions respecting the full age or 
 natural life of trees. Mr. Evelyn, and others, imagine, 
 that from three to four hundred years form the natural life 
 of the oak tree. An oak tree was felled in April 1791, in 
 the park of Sir John Rushout, Bart, at Northwick, near 
 Blackley, in Worcestershire, judged to be about three 
 hundred years old. It was perfectly sound ; contained 634 
 cubical feet of timber in the trunk, and the arms were 
 estimated at two hundred feet more. In Mr. Gilpin's work 
 on Forest Scenery, there is an account of oak trees in the 
 New Forest which had marks of having existed before the 
 Conquest. The tree in the same forest, against which 
 the arrow of Sir Walter Tyrrel glanced, and killed king 
 William Rufus, still remains, though much mutilated. 
 In Mr. Robert Lowe's View of the Agriculture of Notting- 
 hamshire, several trees are said to have been lately felled 
 in Sherwood Forest, which were found to have cut into 
 them I. R. or In R. (Rex) and some had a crown over the 
 letters. Mr. M'Williarn, in his Essay on the Dry Rot, 
 goes still further; he says, that many trees might be men- 
 tioned in this and other countries, which bear sufficient 
 testimony of their being far above a thousand years old ; 
 and he gives reasons for believing, that several trees now 
 exist, more than three thousand years old ! 
 
 Preserved Bodies. 
 
 There is an arched vault, or burying-ground, under the 
 church of Kilsyth, in Scotland, which was the burying-place 
 of the noble family of Kilsyth, until the estate was forfeited, 
 and the title became extinct in the year 1715 ; since which 
 it has never been used for that purpose, except once. The 
 last earl fled with his family to Flanders, and, according
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 37 
 
 to tradition, was smothered to death about the year 1717, 
 along with his lady and an infant child, and a number of 
 other unfortunate Scottish exiles, by the falling in of the roof 
 of a house in which they were assembled. What became 
 of the body of the earl is not known, but the bodies of 
 Lady Kilsyth, and her infant, were embowelled and em- 
 balmed, and soon afterwards sent over to Scotland. They 
 were landed, and lay at Leith for some time, in a cellar, 
 whence they were afterwards carried to Kilsyth, and 
 buried in great pomp, in the vault above mentioned. 
 
 In the spring of 1796, some rude regardless young men 
 having paid a visit to this ancient cemetery, tore open the 
 coffin of Lady Kilsyth and her infant. With astonishment 
 and consternation they saw the bodies of Lady Kilsyth and 
 her child, as perfect as the hour they were entombed. For 
 some weeks this circumstance was kept secret; but at last 
 it began to be whispered in several companies, and soon 
 excited great and general curiosity. " On the 12th of 
 June," says the minister of the parish of Kilsyth, in a 
 letter to J. Garnet, M.D. " when I was from home, great 
 crowds assembled, and would not be denied admission. At 
 all hours of the night, as well as the day, they afterwards 
 persisted in gratifying their curiosity. I saw the body of 
 Lady Kilsyth soon after the coffin was opened ; it was quite 
 entire. Every feature and every limb was as full, nay the 
 very shroud was as clear and fresh, and the colours of the 
 ribbons as bright, as the day they were lodged in the tomb. 
 What rendered this scene more striking, and truly interest- 
 ing, was, that the body of her son, and only child, the 
 natural heir of the title and estates of Kilsyth, lay at her 
 knee. His features were as composed as if he had been 
 only asleep. His colour was as fresh, and his flesh as 
 plump and full, as in the perfect glow of health; the smile 
 of infancy and innocence sat on its lips. His shroud was 
 not only entire, but perfectly clean, Avithout a particle of 
 dust upon it. He seems to have been only a few months 
 old. The body of Lady Kilsyth was equally well preserved ; 
 and at a little distance, from the feeble light of a taper, it 
 would not have been easy to distinguish whether she was 
 dead or alive. The features, nay the very expression of 
 her countenance, were marked and distinct; and it was 
 
 D
 
 38 CURIOSITIES 
 
 only in a certain light that you could distinguish any thing 
 like the ghastly and agonizing traits of a violent death. 
 Not a single fold of her shroud was decomposed, nor a 
 single member impaired. 
 
 " Let the candid reader survey this sketch ; let him recal 
 to mind the tragic tale that it unfolds ; and say, if he can, 
 that it does not arrest the attention and interest the heart. 
 For my own part, it excited in my mind a thousand melan- 
 choly reflections; and I could not but regret that such 
 rudeness had been offered to the ashes (remains) of the 
 dead, as to expose them thus to the public view. 
 
 " The body seemed to have been preserved in some 
 liquid nearly of the colour and appearance of brandy. The 
 whole coffin seemed to have been full of it, and all its con- 
 tents saturated with it. The body had assumed somewhat 
 the same tinge, but this only served to give it a fresher 
 look. It had none of the ghastly livid hue of death, but 
 rather a copper complexion. It would, I believe, have 
 been difficult for a chemist to ascertain the nature of this 
 liquid, though perfectly transparent; it had lost all its 
 pungent qualities, its taste being quite vapid. 
 
 " The head reclined on a pillow, and as the covering 
 decayed, it was found to contain a collection of strong- 
 scented herbs. Balm, sage, and mint, were easily distin- 
 guished ; and it was the opinion of many, that the body was 
 filled with the same. 
 
 " Although the bodies were thus entire at first, I confess 
 I expected to see them crumble into dust ; especially as they 
 were exposed to the open air, and the pure aromatic fluid 
 had evaporated ; and it seems surprising that they did not. 
 For several weeks they underwent no visible change, and 
 had they not been sullied with dust, and drops of grease 
 from the candles held over them, I am confident they might 
 have remained as entire as ever ; for even a few months ago, 
 (many months after,) the bodies were as firm and compact 
 as at first; and though pressed with the finger, did not 
 yield to the touch, but seemed to retain the elasticity of 
 the living body. Even the shroud, though torn by the rude 
 hands of the regardless multitude, is still strong and free 
 from rot. 
 
 " Perhaps the most singular phenomenon is, that the
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 39 
 
 bodies seem not to have undergone the smallest decom- 
 position or disorganization. Several medical gentlemen 
 have made a small incision into the arm of the infant ; the 
 substance of the body was quite firm, and every part in its 
 original state." 
 
 Many instances of the artificial preservation of bodies, 
 might be mentioned, still more remarkable, though perhaps 
 less interesting than the preceding. The tomb of Edward 
 the First, who died on the 7th July, 1307, was opened on 
 the 2d January, 1770, and after the lapse of 463 years, the 
 body was found not decayed ; the flesh on the face was a 
 little wasted, but not putrid. The body of Canute the Dane, 
 who got possession of England in the year "017, was found 
 very fresh in the year 1766, by the workmen repairing 
 Winchester Cathedral. In the year 1522, the body of 
 William the Conqueror was found as entire as when first 
 buried, in the Abbey Church of St. Stephen at Caen ; and 
 the body of Matilda his wife, was found entire in 1502, in 
 the Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity, in the same city. 
 
 No device of art, however, for the preservation of the 
 remains of the dead, appears equal to the simple process 
 of plunging them over head and ears in peat moss. In 
 a manuscript by one Abraham Grey, who lived about the 
 middle of the 16th century, now in the possession of his 
 representative Mr. Goodbehere Grey, of old Mills, near 
 Aberdeen, it is stated, that in 1559, three Roman soldiers 
 in the dress of their country, fully equipped with warlike 
 instruments, were dug out of a moss of great extent, 
 called Kazey Moss. When found, after a lapse of probably 
 about fifteen hundred years, they " were quite fresh and 
 plump ! !" 
 
 How long shall we have Coals to bum ? 
 
 " To form an idea (says Dr. Thomson) of the quantity of 
 coal contained in the Newcastle coal formation alone, let us 
 suppose it to extend in length, from north to south, twenty- 
 three miles, and that its average breadth is eight miles ; 
 this making a surface amounting to rather more than one 
 hundred and eighty square miles, or 557,568,000 square
 
 40 CURIOSITIES 
 
 yards. The utmost thickness of all the heds of coal put 
 together does not exceed forty- four feet; but there are. eleven 
 beds not workable, the thickness of each amounting only 
 to a few inches. If they be deducted, the amount of the 
 rest will be thirty-six feet, or twelve yards. Perhaps, five 
 of the other beds should be struck off, as they amount 
 altogether only to six feet, and, therefore, at present are 
 not considered as worth working. The remainder will be 
 ten yards; so that the whole coal, in this formation, 
 amounts to 5,575,680,000 cubic yards." 
 
 How much of this is already removed by mining, we do 
 not know ; but the Newcastle collieries have been wrought 
 for so many years to an enormous extent, that the quantity 
 already mined must be considerable. We conceive the 
 quantity of coals exported, yearly, from this formation, 
 exceeds two millions of chaldrons ; for the county of Dur- 
 ham alone exports 1| million. A. chaldron weighs fifty- 
 three cwt. ; so that rive millions three hundred thousand 
 tons of coal are annually raised in these counties, out of 
 this formation. Now, a ton of coal is very nearly one 
 cubic yard; so that the yearly loss, from mining, amounts 
 to five millions three hundred thousand, or adding a third 
 for waste, to upwards of seven millions of yards. Accord- 
 ing to this statement, the Newcastle coals may be mined to 
 the present extent for eight hundred years before they 
 be exhausted. But, from this number, we must deduct 
 the amount of the years during which they have been 
 already wrought. We need not be afraid, then, of any 
 sudden injury to Great Britain from the exhaustion of the 
 coal mines. It is necessary to keep in mind, likewise, that 
 we have taken the greatest thickness of the coal-beds. 
 Now, as this thickness is far from uniform, a considerable 
 deduction, (perhaps one-third of the whole,) must be 
 made, in order to obtain the medium thickness ; so that 
 we may state, in round numbers, that this formation, 
 at the present rate of waste, will supply coal for five 
 hundred years; but its price will be continually on the 
 increase, on account of the continually increasing expense 
 of mining.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 41 
 
 Leaning Tower of Pisa. 
 In the city of Pisa there is a round tower of eight stories 
 of pillars, 180 feet high, inclining so much out of the per- 
 pendicular, that the top projects fifteen feet over the base. 
 The way up to the top is by a flight of steps within, of so 
 gentle an ascent, that it is said a horse could mount with 
 ease. In going up, the inclination of the tower is found to 
 be considerable, but in coming down still more so. It 
 appears on the upper side as if you were ascending, and on 
 the lower side you feel as if you would fall headlong. On 
 the top it has a fearful slant ; and but for the iron railing 
 which surrounds it, few would venture to trust themselves 
 there. The base on the lower side appears sunk in the 
 ground above six feet. It is built of marble, and has stood 
 more than six hundred years without fissure or decay, 
 having been raised in 1174. It is supposed to have sunk, 
 when built as high as the fifth story ; and the architect had 
 the boldness and the skill to complete it in the direction it 
 had taken. 
 
 +*■**■++.+*■ 
 
 Confusion of the Senses. 
 
 The Paris papers recount prodigies of a woman in the 
 neighbourhood of Lyons. The circumstances of her case 
 have confounded philosophers, and left her no credit 
 with men unaccustomed to scientific reasoning. Learning 
 hesitates because it wants principles to explain ; ignorance 
 decides at once, because it knows not the variety of undis- 
 covered principles which exist. 
 
 The case of this woman is that of a confusion of all 
 senses, — of seeing, smelling, hearing, touching, and tasting. 
 The quality of one sense seems transferred to another; 
 there is a kind of organic confusion and substitution ; the 
 eyes do duty for the ears, the taste for the eyes, and the 
 touch for the taste. 
 
 A very learned physician, a writer in the Journal de 
 Sante, gives an account of having visited this woman at 
 Lyons. 
 
 " To believe," he says, " in apparent impossibilities, is 
 often the necessity of men of science; but it is their good 
 d2
 
 42 CURIOSITIES 
 
 fortune likewise to discover, that the world contains many 
 more miracles than is at first imagined ; that nothing is 
 impossible, as referred to the omnipotence of the Deity ; 
 and that impossibilities are much rarer in the combination 
 of human life than the vanity of science will acknowledge. 
 
 "The woman whom I visited, and to whom I presented 
 several sorts of medicines, powders, simples, compounds, 
 and many other substances, which, I am convinced, she 
 never saw before, told me their several tastes, as nearly, 
 and with as much precision as taste could pronounce. She 
 described them, indeed, with astonishing exactness, and 
 frequently when my own palate was confounded. 
 
 " Her eyes were next bound with a thick bandage, and I 
 drew from my pockets several sorts of silk ribbands. All 
 those that differed in the original colours, she immediately 
 told me. It was in vain to attempt puzzling her ; she made 
 no mistake ; she passed the ribband merely through her 
 hand, and immediately decided on its peculiar colour. She 
 could, in fact, discover the quality of any thing by the touch 
 or taste, as accurately as I could do with my eyes. 
 
 " The organs of hearing were then closed, as well as the 
 contrivance of stuffing the ears would answer the purpose. 
 I then commenced a conversation with a friend in the 
 apartment, and spoke in almost inaudible whispers. She 
 repeated, with great power of memory, every word of the 
 conversation. In short, I came away a convert ; in other 
 words, believed what I had seen. A philosopher knows 
 the fallibility of the senses ; but he should know, likewise, 
 that science ought not to reject because it cannot have 
 demonstration." 
 
 Perpetual Fire. 
 
 In the peninsula of Abeheron, in the province of Schir- 
 wan, formerly belonging to Persia, but now to Russia, 
 there is found a perpetual, or as it is there called an eternal 
 fire. It rises, or has risen from time immemorial, from an 
 irregular orifice of about twelve feet in depth, and 120 feet 
 in width, with a constant flame. The flame rises from 
 the height of from six to eight feet, is unattended with
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 43 
 
 smoke, and yields no smell. The finest turf grows about 
 the borders, and at the distance of two toisesare two springs 
 of water ; the inhabitants have a veneration for this fire, 
 and celebrate it with religious ceremonies. 
 
 John- o' -Groat's House. 
 
 In the reign of James the Fourth of Scotland, Malcolm, 
 Gavin, and John de Groat, supposed to have been brothers, 
 and originally from Holland, arrived in Caithness from the 
 south of Scotland, bringing with them a letter written in 
 Latin to that prince, recommending them to the counte- 
 nance and protection of his loving subjects of the county of 
 Caithness. They purchased or got possession of the lands 
 ofWarseor Dungis Bay, lying in the parish of Canisley, 
 on the side of the Pentland Firth, and each of them ob- 
 tained an equal share of the property they acquired. In 
 process of time their families increased, and there came 
 to be eight different proprietors of the name of Groat, who 
 possessed the lands amongst them. These eight families 
 having lived peaceably and comfortably in their small pos- 
 session for a number of years, established an annual meet- 
 ing to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of their 
 ancestors on that coast. In the course of their festivity on 
 one of these occasions, a question arose respecting the right 
 of taking the door and sitting at the head of the table, and 
 such like points of precedence (each contending for the 
 seniority and chieftainship of the clan) , which increased to 
 such a height as would probably have proved fatal in its 
 consequences, had not John de Groat, who was proprietor 
 of the ferry, interposed. He expatiated on the happiness 
 they had hitherto enjoyed since their arrival in this remote 
 corner, owing to the harmony which had subsisted among 
 them. He assured them that as soon as they began to split 
 and quarrel among themselves, their neighbours, who till 
 then had treated them with respect, would fall upon them, 
 take their property from them, and expel them from the 
 country. He therefore made a proposal to build a house in 
 a particular form, which should be the property of the 
 whole family, and in which every man should find himself
 
 44 CURIOSITIES 
 
 the master, and which should satisfy them all with respect 
 to precedence, and prevent the possibility of such disputes 
 among them at their future anniversary meetings. They all 
 acquiesced and departed in peace. In due time, John de 
 Groat, to fulfil his engagement, built a room distinct by 
 itself of an octagon shape, wilh eight doors and windows in 
 it, and having placed in the middle a table of oak of the 
 same shape, when the next anniversary meeting took place, 
 he desired each of them to enter at a different door and sit 
 at the head of the table, he taking himself the seat that was 
 left unoccupied. By this ingenious contrivance, any dispute 
 in regard to rank was prevented, as they all found them- 
 selves on a footing of equality, and their former harmony 
 and good humour were restored. 
 
 The Origin of Cards. 
 
 About the year 1390, cards are said to have been in- 
 vented, to divert Charles IV. then King of France, who 
 had fallen into a melancholy disposition. That they were 
 not in use before, appears highly probable. 1st. Because 
 no cards are to be seen in any paintings, sculpture, tapestry, 
 &c. more ancient than the preceding period, but are repre- 
 sented in many works of ingenuity since that age. 2dly, 
 No prohibitions relative to cards, by the king's edicts, are 
 mentioned, although some few years before, a most severe 
 one was published, forbidding by name, all manner of sports 
 and pastimes, in order that the subjects might exercise 
 themselves in shooting with bows and arrows, and be in a 
 condition to oppose the English. Now it is not to be pre- 
 sumed, that so alluring a game as cards would have been 
 omitted in the enumeration, had they been in use. 3dly, 
 In all the ecclesiastical canons prior to the said time, there 
 occurs no mention of cards ; although, twenty years after 
 that date, card-playing was interdicted the clergy, by a 
 Gallican Synod. About the same time is found in the 
 account-book of the king's cofferer, the following charge ; 
 " Paid for a pack of painted leaves bought for the king's 
 amusement, three livres." Printing and stamping being
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 45 
 
 not then discovered, the cards were painted, which made 
 them dear. Hence, in the above synodical canons, they 
 are called pagilla: picta?, painted little leaves. 4thly, About 
 thirty years after this, came a severe edict against cards 
 in France ; and another by Emanuel, Duke of Savoy ; 
 only permitting the ladies this pastime, pro spinilis, for 
 pins and needles. 
 
 Of their designs. — The inventor proposed by the figures 
 of the four suits, or colours, as the French call them, to 
 represent the four states or classes of men in the kingdom. 
 By the Ccesars (hearts) are meant the Gens de Chceur, choir 
 men, or ecclesiastics ; and therefore the Spaniards, who 
 certainly received the use of cards from the French, have 
 eopas or chalices instead of hearts. The nobility, or prime 
 military part of the kingdom, are represented by the ends 
 or points of lances, or pikes, and our ignorance of the 
 meaning or resemblance of the figure induced us to call 
 them spades. The Spaniards have espadcs (swords) in lieu 
 of pikes, which is of similar import. By diamonds, are 
 designed the order of citizens, merchants, and tradesmen, 
 carreaux (square stone tiles, or the like.) The Spaniards 
 have a coin, dineros, which answers to it ; and the Dutch 
 call the French word carreaux, stieneen, stones and dia- 
 monds, from the form. Treste, the trefoil leaf, or clover 
 grass (corruptly called clubs) alludes to husbandmen and 
 peasants. How this suit came to be called clubs is not 
 explained, unless, borrowing the game from the Spaniards, 
 who have bastos (staves or clubs) instead of the trefoil, we 
 gave the Spanish signification to the French figure. 
 
 The " history of the four kings," which the French in 
 drollery sometimes call " the cards," is that of David, 
 Alexander, Ccesar, and Charles, names which were, and 
 still are on the French cards. These respective names re- 
 present the four celebrated monarchies of the Jews, Greeks, 
 Romans, and Franks under Charlemagne. 
 
 By the queens are intended Argine, Etsher, Judith, and 
 Pallas, (names retained in the French cards), typical of 
 birth, piety, fortitude, and wisdom, the qualifications re- 
 siding in each person. " Argine" is the anagram for 
 " Regina," queen by descent. 
 
 By the knaves were designed the servants to knights (far
 
 46 CURIOSITIES 
 
 knave originally meant only servant , and in an old trans- 
 lation of the Bible, St. Paul is called the knave of Christ), 
 but French pages and valets, now indiscriminately used by 
 various orders of persons, were formerly only allowed to 
 persons of quality, esquires, (escuires) shield or armour 
 bearers. Others fancy that the knights themselves were 
 designed by those cards, because Hogier and Lahire, two 
 names on the French cards, were famous knights at the 
 time cards were supposed to be invented. 
 
 Rational Card Playing. 
 
 The Countess of Bassewitz, of the court of Mecklenburgh 
 Strelitz, in a letter written from the German Spa, in the 
 year (768, gives the following account of a new and 
 amusing sort of game at cards, which had been introduced 
 there by General Isemburg. 
 
 *' Apropos of wit : you must expect none in this 
 
 letter ; for I spend it by handfuls at a deuce of a game 
 brought here by General Isemburg. Prince Lewis of 
 Wolfenbuttle, is so intoxicated with it, that he keeps us 
 playing from morning till night. He, old General Deffing, 
 Brigadier Schlipenbach, Marquis Angelini, Stemburg, 
 Count Furstenberg, Madam Bothmar, Miss Schulemberg, 
 and I, commonly make the party. We have about five 
 hundred cards, with different words writtten on every one : 
 we shuffle, cut, deal ; and each receiving eight cards, is 
 obliged to tell immediately a story, or say something else 
 that has some sense, and contains the eight words on his 
 cards. I will give you an instance: they dealt me last 
 evening the following words: modesty, cream-tart, address, 
 jealous, husband, ball, sense, beau, beard. Comes the story. 
 " A beau at a ball used the utmost address to make a certain 
 husband jealous : but as the husband had sense, and his 
 wife modesty t all he got for his trouble was a beard well 
 lathered with crcam-tart." When all have told their story, 
 we play the cards round, answering the word given with 
 some other kept back, so as to make sense. This some- 
 times enlivens the conversation with the most comical 
 sallies. For people whose business is water-drinking, I do
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 47 
 
 not think this a bad amusement ; it neither stupifies the 
 mind with the empty sameness of cards, nor fatigues it with 
 the stern reflection of Moorish chess and draughts. It 
 stimulates emulation, employs the fancy agreeably, and 
 relieves the head with mirth." 
 
 ■++■+*■ +*■■+& 
 
 Walking on Stilts. 
 
 The figure, Plate III. represents a shepherd of the 
 Landes, or desert, in the South of France. This tract of 
 country lies between the mouths of the Aidour and the 
 Gironde, along the sea-coast, and, according to tradition, 
 was once the bed of the sea itself. It is one vast wilder- 
 ness of sand, flat in the strictest sense of the word, and 
 abounding with extensive pine woods. The principal road 
 is through the sand, unaltered by art, except where it is so 
 loose and deep as to require the trunks of the fir trees to 
 be laid across to give it firmness. The villages and hamlets 
 stand on spots of fertile ground, scattered like islands 
 among the sands. Mr. Maynard, a gentleman attached to 
 a division of the British army which marched through this 
 district at the conclusion of the war in 1814, to embark at 
 Boulogne, gives the following description of the inhabitants. 
 
 " It was between the villages of Castel and La Baharre 
 that we first saw these shepherds, mounted on stilts, and 
 striding like storks along the flat. These stilts rise from 
 three to five feet ; the foot rests on a surface adapted to 
 its sole, carved out of the solid wood ; a flat part, shaped 
 to the outside of the leg and reaching below the bend of 
 the knee, is strapped round the calf and ankle. The foot 
 is covered with a piece of raw sheep's hide. In these stilts 
 they move with perfect freedom and astonishing rapidity, 
 and they have their balance so completely, that they run, 
 jump, stoop, and even dance with ease and safety. We 
 made them run races for a piece of money put on a stone 
 on the ground, to which they pounced down with sur- 
 prising quickness. They cannot stand quite still without 
 the aid of a long staff, which they always carry in their 
 hands. This guards them against any accidental trip, and 
 when they wish to be at rest, forms a third leg that keeps
 
 48 CURIOSITIES 
 
 them steady. The habit of using the stilts is acquired early, 
 and it appeared that the smaller the boy was, the longer it 
 was necessary to have his stilts. By means of these odd 
 additions to the natural leg, the feet are kept out of the 
 water, which lies deep during winter on the sands, and 
 from the heated sand during the summer ; in addition to 
 which, the sphere of vision over so perfect a flat is ma- 
 terially increased by the elevation, and the shepherd can 
 see his sheep much further on stilts than he could from the 
 ground." 
 
 Changes of the Kaleidoscope* 
 
 The following curious calculation has been made of the 
 number of changes this wonderful instrument will admit. 
 
 Supposing the instrument to contain twenty small 
 pieces of glass, &c. and that you make ten changes in 
 each minute, it will take the inconceivable space of 
 462,880,899,576 years and 360 days to go through the 
 immense variety of changes it is capable of producing; 
 amounting (according to our frail idea of the nature of 
 things) to an eternity. Or, if you take only twelve small 
 pieces, and make ten changes in each minute, it will then 
 require 33,264 days, or 91 years and 49 days, to exhaust 
 its variations. 
 
 Diversity of Colours. 
 
 In a very amusing work of the celebrated Goethe, entitled 
 " Winklemann und sein Jahrhundert," it is stated, that 
 about fifteen thousand varieties of colour are employed by 
 the workers of mosaic in Rome, and that there are fifty 
 shades of each of these varieties, from the deepest to the 
 palest, thus affording seven hundred and fifty thousand 
 tints, which the artist can distinguish with the greatest 
 facility. It might be imagined, that, with the command of 
 seven hundred and fifty thousand tints of colour, the 
 most varied and beautiful painting might be perfectly 
 imitated ; yet this is not the case, for the mosaic workers 
 find a want of tints, even amid this astonishing variety.
 
 PtatiJII. to race f>,i,H i* 
 
 HERD 3?^ THE SOUTH! 'DP "FRAFCE .
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 
 
 49 
 
 JBuonapartean Cypher. 
 
 The following is a key to the cypher in which Buonaparte 
 carried on his private correspondence. 
 
 A 
 B 
 
 a 
 n 
 
 b 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 p 
 
 d 
 
 q 
 
 e 
 r 
 
 f 
 
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 a 
 
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 l 
 
 y 
 
 m 
 
 7, 
 
 C 
 D 
 
 a 
 
 7. 
 
 b 
 n 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 p 
 
 e 
 
 q 
 
 f 
 
 r 
 
 g 
 
 s 
 
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 t 
 
 u 
 
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 w 
 
 l 
 
 X 
 
 m 
 
 y 
 
 E 
 F 
 
 a 
 
 y 
 
 b 
 z 
 
 c 
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 d 
 
 
 
 e 
 P 
 
 f 
 
 q 
 
 g 
 
 r 
 
 h 
 
 s 
 
 
 k 
 
 u 
 
 1 
 
 w 
 
 m 
 
 y 
 
 G 
 H 
 
 a 
 
 X 
 
 b 
 
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 c 
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 d 
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 f 
 p 
 
 g 
 
 q 
 
 h 
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 k 
 
 t 
 
 1 
 u 
 
 m 
 w 
 
 I 
 K 
 
 a 
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 X 
 
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 M 
 
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 N 
 
 
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 1 
 
 r 
 
 m 
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 P 
 
 Q 
 
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 X 
 
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 h 
 
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 k 
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 1 
 
 q 
 
 in 
 r 
 
 R 
 
 s 
 
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 k 
 
 
 
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 T 
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 d 
 t 
 
 e 
 
 XX 
 
 f 
 
 w 
 
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 X 
 
 h 
 
 y 
 
 
 k 
 
 n 
 
 l 
 
 o 
 
 m 
 P 
 
 W 
 X 
 
 a 
 P 
 
 b 
 
 q 
 
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 f 
 
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 g 
 
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 X 
 
 
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 m 
 
 
 
 Y 
 Z 
 
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 m 
 n
 
 50 CURIOSITIES 
 
 The subjoined is a proclamation, in cypher, from Buo- 
 naparte to the French army ; a copy of which was in the 
 hands of one or more persons in almost every regiment 
 in the service. 
 
 PROCLAMATION. 
 
 Neyiptwhklmopenclziuwicetttklmeprtgzkp 
 Achwhrdpkdabkfntzimepunggwymgftgq 
 Efdesronwxqfkzxbchqnfmysnqangopolfa 
 PmmfampabJarwccqznauruvzskqdknh 
 Hihydghbailxdfqkngtxyogwrlnlwtoy 
 Pbcizopbgairfgkpzawrwlqipdgacrkff 
 mwzfcrgpeck. 
 The same, decyphered by means of the table and key : 
 
 " Frangais ! votre pays etoit trahi ; votre Empereur seul 
 peut vous remettre dans la position splendide que convient 
 a la France. Donnez toute votre confiance a celui qui vous 
 a toujours conduit k la gloire. 
 
 " Ses aigles pleniront encore en l'air, et etonnerent les 
 nations." 
 
 The key (which it will be seen may be changed at plea- 
 sure) was, in this instance, " La France et ma famille," 
 France and my family. It is thus used : 
 
 L being the first letter of the key, refer to that letter in 
 the first column of the cypher in capitals ; then look for 
 the letter/, which is the first letter of the proclamation, 
 and that letter which corresponds with f being placed 
 underneath, viz. ?i, is that which is to be noted down. To 
 decypher the proclamation, of course the order of reference 
 must be inverted, by looking for the corresponding letter 
 to «, in the division opposite the letter L which stands in 
 the column. 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 M Frenchmen ! your country was betrayed ; your Emperor 
 alone can replace you in the splendid state suitable to 
 France. Give your entire confidence to him who has 
 always led you to glory. 
 
 " His eagles will again soar on high, and strike the 
 nations with astonishment."
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 51 
 
 A Sailor* s Wish. 
 
 A few years since, in a public garden near Phila- 
 delphia, some of the company happened to express their 
 wishes to possess this or that, when a sailor, who over- 
 heard the conversation, stepped up and said, " Gentlemen, 
 permit me to tell you what 1 wish for." — Being desired to 
 proceed, he continued, " I wish that I had three ship-loads 
 of needles — as much thread and cloth as t'ne needles would 
 make up into hags — and these bags full of gold." 
 
 Now supposing that the ships might carry 1200 tons of 
 needles, one hundred of which would weigh an ounce — that 
 each needle, on an average, would make up 20 two-bushel 
 bags, that the bushel contains 215,042 solid inches, and 
 that a cubic inch of gold weighs 10 ounces, or 102 grains ; 
 the products, omitting fractions, &c. would be3,825,800,000 
 needles, 154,112,000,000 bushels of gold, or about 
 217,227,920,000,000 pounds,or 9,700,800,000 tons; enough 
 to freight twenty-four millions, two hundred and fity-two 
 thousand ships, of 400 tons burden ; and allowing these 
 ships to range side by side, only thirty feet being admitted 
 to each, they would reach about 70,429 miles, and form 
 three complete bridges round the world. 
 
 Effect of War on the Weather. 
 
 A very singular work was published some years since at 
 Leignitz, in Silesia, entitled " Aphorisms, respecting the 
 Influence of War on the Atmosphere, Weather, and Fertility 
 of the Earth." Among the author's observations are the fol- 
 lowing : — If a cubic foot of gunpowder, when it explodes, 
 exercise a force equal to twenty-nine millions of pounds, 
 it by these means produces a great change in the elasticity 
 of the air ; the whole mass of the atmosphere within a large 
 circumference is violently torn, and billows of air are pro- 
 duced, which roll themselves upwards and agitate the vapours 
 contained in them. It cannot therefore be denied, that the 
 discharging of fire-arms and cannon during battles and 
 sieges, and even at great reviews, must have an influence on 
 the atmosphere and on the state of the clouds and weather. 
 The author quotes instances, in the time of the seven years' 
 e2
 
 52 CURIOSITIES 
 
 war, of clouds and vapours being dispersed by the explosions 
 of the cannon, and asserts that during his travels through the 
 Tyrol, he saw on several occasions, to use his own expres 
 sion, the clouds " shot dead." He observed in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Leignitz, while the regiment of Wartensleben 
 were going through their exercise, that the clouds were 
 broken by the explosions, and that the murmuring of the 
 wind and the agitation of the leaves of the trees and 
 small feathers suspended from any body, were sometimes 
 stronger, sometimes weaker, according as the troops fired 
 by battalions or companies. The barometer rose and fell 
 at each explosion, and water in a vessel at the distance of 
 five hundred paces was violently agitated. There have 
 been instances of the noise of heavy cannonades being 
 heard at the distance of more than forty miles. It is 
 natural to suppose, too, that the thunder of cannon must 
 penetrate even into the interior parts of the earth, and to 
 the bottom of the sea ; and the Dutch fishers have, 
 accordingly, remarked that every great naval engagement 
 had the effect of frightening the fish far away from the 
 scence of action, near which none are to be met with for 
 a long time after. 
 
 The author endeavours from these principles to account 
 for certain singularities which prevailed in the weather in 
 some parts of Germany, in the year 1797, and to shew 
 that the quantity of gunpowder fired in time of war may 
 have a sensible effect on the fertility of gardens and 
 fields. 
 
 Astonishing Vegetable Produce. 
 The fecundity of various plants is very surprising. We 
 have an account in the Philosophical Transactions, of a single 
 plant of barley, that by steeping and watering with salt- 
 petre dissolved in water, produced two hundred and forty- 
 nine stalks, and eighteen thousand grains. In this case, 
 indeed, art and force were made use of, but we have 
 remarkable instances of this kind, effected by unassisted 
 nature, particularly that of a pompion seed, attested by 
 Mr. Edwards of Windsor. This seed, in the year 1699, 
 was accidentally dropped in a small pasture, where cattle 
 had been foddered for some time, and taking root of itself,
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 53 
 
 without any manner of care, the vine ran along several 
 fences, and spread over a large piece of ground far and 
 wide, continuing its progress till it was killed by the frost. 
 The seed produced no more than one stalk, but it was a very 
 large one, being eight inches round ; and from this single 
 vine they gathered two hundred and fifty pompions, one with 
 another, as big as a half peck measure, besides a consider- 
 able number of small ones, not ripe, which they left upon 
 the vine. Add to this what M. Dodart observes, who has 
 a discourse on the fecundity of plants in the Memoirs of 
 the Academy of Sciences, wherein he shows, that an elm, 
 at a moderate computation, yields, one vear with another, 
 three hundred and twenty-nine thousand grains or seeds, 
 each of which, if properly planted, would grow up to a 
 tr?e. Now an elm ordinarily lives an hundred years, and 
 consequently, in the course of its life, produces nearly 
 thirty-three millions of grains, all coming originally from 
 one single seed. 
 
 Mr. Lucock, of Birmingham, has published an account 
 of the produce of twenty plants of rhubarb, as a proof of 
 the astonishing fertility and value of that vegetable. He 
 planted twelve roots of rhubarb in a plot of ground of 
 eighteen square yards. In the third year, he had no 
 less than, five pounds at each gathering, repeated three 
 times per week, for a period of five months, making 
 a total weight of 300 pounds. This amount divided by 18, 
 the number of square yards, yields the extraordinary 
 produce of 16 pounds to the yard, or 34 tons and a half per 
 acre. The rhubarb is sold in small bundles at three pence 
 per pound, which is after the rate of four shillings per 
 yard, or nearly jglOOO per acre. This quantity refers to 
 the stem or eatable part of the plant, leaving the fine lux- 
 uriant leaves, three feet in diameter, for other purposes. 
 Pigs and cattle, it is said, will feast upon them. They 
 weigh, upon an average, more than the stalks. Rhubarb for 
 pies and puddings, can hardly be distinguished from goose- 
 berries, and may, like them, be preserved through the 
 winter. It may also be introduced, stewed in gravy, or fried 
 in butter, as an excellent vegetable. There is also no 
 doubt in Mr. Lucock's mind, but the root might be used as 
 a substitute for the Turkish rhubarb, which our merchants 
 • e 2
 
 54 CURIOSITIES 
 
 sell us at half-a-crown per ounce. Of the three sorts, 
 that with sharp pointed leaves and green stems is the most 
 productive. 
 
 A single plant of Turkey corn (Zea Mays), hears 3000 
 seeds; the sun-flower (Helianthus Animus), 4000; the 
 poppy (Papaver Somniferum) , 32,000 ; and tobacco (Xico- 
 tiana Tabacum), 40,320 ! 
 
 Remarkable Generation. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Honeywood, was daughter and one of the 
 co-heiresses of Robert Waters, esq. of Lenham, in Kent. 
 She was born in 1527 ; married in February 1543, at 16 
 years of age, to her only husband, Robert Honeywood of 
 Charing, in Kent, esq. She died in the ninety-third year 
 of her age, in May 1620. She had sixteen children of her 
 own body, seven sons and nine daughters, of whom one 
 had no issue, three died young, and the youngest was slain 
 at Newport battle, June 20, 1600. Her grand children, in 
 the second generation, were one hundred and fourteen ; in 
 the third, two hundred and twenty-eight; and in the 
 fourth, nine. So that she could almost say the same as 
 the distich doth, of one of the Dalburg family of Basil. 
 " Rise up, daughter, and go to thy daughter ; for her 
 daughter's daughter hath a daughter." 
 
 Mrs. Honeywood was a very pious woman, but afflicted 
 in her declining age with religious melancholy. Some 
 divines once discoursing with her on the subject, she in a 
 passion said, " I shall be as certainly damned as this glass is 
 broken," (throwing a Venice glass against the ground, which 
 she had then in her hand,) but the glass escaped breaking, 
 " as credible witnesses," saith Derham, " have attested." 
 
 In Markshal church, in Essex, on Mrs. Honeywood's 
 tomb, is the following inscription : — 
 
 <e Here lieth the body of Mary Waters, the daughter and 
 co-heir of Robert Waters, of Lenham, in Kent. esq. wife 
 of Robert Honeywood, of Charing, in Kent, esq. her 
 only husband, who had at her decease lawfully descended 
 from her, 367 children. Sixteen of her own body, 1 14 grand 
 children, 228 in the third generation, and nine in the fourth.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 55 
 
 She lived a most pious life, and in a Christian manner died 
 here at Markshal, in the ninety-third year of her age, and 
 in the forty-fourth of her widowhood, May 11th, 1620." 
 
 The Banyan Tree. 
 
 The tree, which by the English in the west of India is 
 called the Banyan tree, by the Portuguese Arbor de raiis, 
 and by the Malays Jawee jawee, possesses the uncommon 
 property of dropping roots or fibres from certain parts of 
 its boughs, which, when they touch the earth, become new 
 stems, and go on increasing to such an extent, that some 
 have measured in the circumference of the branches upwards 
 of a thousand feet, and have been said to afford shelter to 
 a troop of horse. Near Manjee, twenty miles west of Patna 
 in Bengal, there is a Banyan tree, the diameter of which 
 is from 363 to 375 feet, and its shadow in circumference 
 at noon 1116 feet. The roots or fibres which the Banyan 
 tree drops, when they meet with any obstruction in their 
 descent, conform themselves to the shape of the resisting 
 body, and thus occasion many curious metamorphoses. 
 " I recollect," says Mr. Marsden in his History of Sumatra, 
 " seeing them stand in the perfect shape of a gate, long 
 after the original posts and cross-piece, had decayed and 
 disappeared ; and I have been told of their lining the in- 
 ternal circumference of a large brick well like the worm 
 in a distiller's tub : thus exhibiting the view of a tree 
 turned inside out, the branches pointing to the centre, 
 instead of growing from it. It is not more extraordinary 
 in its manner of growth, than whimsical and fantastic in 
 its choice of situations. From the side of a wall or the top 
 of a house it seems to spring spontaneous. Even from the 
 smooth periphery of a wooden pillar turned and painted, 
 I have seen it shoot forth, as if the vegetative juices of the 
 seasoned timber had renewed their circulation, and begun 
 to produce leaves afresh. I have seen it flourish in the 
 centre of a hollow tree, of a very different species, which 
 however still retained its verdure, its branches encom- 
 passing those of the jawee jawee, whilst its decayed trunk 
 enclosed the stem, which was visible at interstices from
 
 56 CURIOSITIES 
 
 nearly the level of the plain on which they grew. This in 
 truth appeared so striking a curiosity, that I have often 
 repaired to the spot to contemplate the sinerularity of it. 
 The jawee jawee, without earth or water, deriving from 
 the genial atmosphere its principle of nourishment, proves 
 in its increasing growth highly destructive to the building 
 that harbours it. The fibrous roots, which at first are 
 extremely fine, penetrate most common cements, and 
 overcoming as their size enlarges the most powerful resist- 
 ance, split with the force of the mechanic wedge the most 
 substantial brickwork. When the consistence is such as 
 not to admit the insinuation of the fibres, the root extends 
 itself along the outside and to an extraordinary length, 
 bearing not unfrequently to the stem the proportion of 
 eight to one when young. I have measured the former- 
 sixty inches, when the latter, to the extremity of the leaf, 
 which took up a third part, was no more than eight inches. 
 I have also seen it wave its boughs at the height of two 
 hundred feet, of which the roots, if we may term them 
 such, occupied at least one hundred; forming, by their 
 close combination, the appearance of a venerable Gothic 
 pillar. The tree I speak of stood near the plains of Crocup ; 
 but, like other monuments of antiquity, it had its period of 
 existence, and is now no more." 
 
 Animal Life. 
 
 The following is a scale of the average duration of 
 animal life from the most celebrated writers on natural 
 history. A hare will live 10 years; a cat 10; a goat 8 ; 
 an ass 30 ; a sheep 10 ; a ram 15 ; a dog from 14 to 20 ; 
 a bull 15 ; an ox 20 ; swine 25 ; a pigeon 8 ; a turtle- 
 dove 25 ; a partridge 25 ; a raven 100 ; an eagle 100 ; a 
 goose 100. 
 
 Magic Circle of Circles. 
 
 The Magic Circle of Circles, represented in Plate IV. is 
 composed of a series of numbers from 12 to 75 inclusive,
 
 r/t/ts Jr. ti< face. p. 
 
 STRENGTH OF MES,
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 57 
 
 divided into eight concentric circular spaces, and ranged 
 into eight radii of numbers, with the number twelve in the 
 centre : which number, like the centre, is common to all 
 the circular spaces, and to all the radii. The numbers are 
 so placed, that the sum of all those in either of the con- 
 centric circular spaces above mentioned, together with the 
 central number 12, makes 360 ; equal to the number of 
 degrees in a circle. The numbers in each radius also, 
 together with the central number 12, make just 360. The 
 numbers in half of any of the above circular spaces, taken 
 either above or below the double horizontal line, with 
 half the central number 12, make 180 ; equal to the number 
 of degrees in a semicircle Jf any four adjoining numbers 
 be taken in the radial divisions of these circular spaces, 
 the sum of these, with half the central number, makes 180. 
 
 Optical Wonders. 
 
 People laugh at the story of Argus with one hundred 
 eyes; but what was even Argus to some insects? The 
 cornea of insects seems cut into a multitude of little planes 
 or facets, like the facets of a diamond, presenting the 
 appearance of net- work ; and each of these facets is sup- 
 posed to possess the power and properties of an eye. 
 Lewenhoeck counted in the cornea of a beetle three thousand 
 one hundred and eighty-one of these facets ; of a horse-fly, 
 eight thousand; and of the grey-drone fly, fourteen 
 thousand ! I ! 
 
 +-r*-r.r*-+* 
 
 Spectre of the Broken. 
 
 That celebrated optical delusion, called the Spectre of 
 the Broken, is thus described from personal observation, 
 by two distinguished philosophers, M. Haue and M. Gmelin. 
 M. Haue in his diary of an excursion to the Hartz moun- 
 tains in Hanover, of which the Broken is one, writes as 
 follows : " After having been here for the thirtieth time, I 
 was at length so fortunate as to have the pleasure of seeing
 
 58 CURIOSITIES 
 
 this atmospheric phenomenon, and perhaps my description 
 may afford satisfaction to others who visit the Broken 
 through curiosity. The sun rose about four o'clock; 
 and the atmosphere being quite serene towards the east, 
 his rays could pass without any obstruction over the 
 Heinrichshohe. In the south-west, however, towards 
 Achtermannshohe, a brisk west wind carried before it 
 thin transparent vapours, which were not yet condensed 
 into thick heavy clouds. 
 
 " About a quarter past four, I went towards the inn, 
 and looked round to see whether the atmosphere would 
 permit me to have a free prospect to the south-west, when I 
 observed at a very great distance towards Achtermannshohe, 
 a human figure of a monstrous size. A violent gust of wind 
 having almost earned away my hat, I clapped my hand to 
 it, by moving my arm towards my head, and the colossal 
 figure did the same. The pleasure which I felt on this 
 discovery can hardly be described ; for I had already 
 walked many a weary step, in the hopes of seeing this 
 snadowy image, without being able to gratify my curiosity. 
 I immediately made another movement, by bending my 
 body, and the colossal figure before me repeated it. I was 
 desirous of doing the same thing once more, but my colos- 
 sus had vanished. I remained in the same position, wait- 
 ing to see whether it would return, and in a few minutes it 
 again made its appearance on the Achtermannshohe. I 
 paid my respects to it a second time, and it did the same 
 to me. I then called the landlord of the Broken, and, 
 having both taken the same position which I had taken 
 alone, we looked towards the Achtermannshohe, but saw 
 nothing. We had not however stood long, when two such 
 colossal figures were formed over the above eminence, 
 which repeated our compliments by bending their bodies 
 as we did; after which they vanished. We retained our 
 position, kept our eyes fixed on the same spot, and in a 
 little time the two figures again stood before us, and were 
 joined by a third. Every movement that we made by bending 
 our bodies, these figures imitated, but with this difference, 
 that the phenomenon was sometimes weak and faint, some- 
 times stronar and well defined.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 59 
 
 " Having thus had an opportunity of discovering the 
 whole secret of this phenomenon, I can give the following 
 information to such of my readers as may be desirous of 
 seeing it themselves. When the rising sun (and, according 
 to analogy, the case will be the same at the setting sun) 
 throws his rays over the Broken, upon the body of a man 
 standing opposite to fine light clouds, floating around or 
 hovering past him, he need only fix his eyes steadfastly 
 upon them, and in all probability he will see the singular 
 spectacle of his own shadow extending to the length of five 
 or six hundred feet at the distance of about two miles 
 before him. This is one of the most agreeable phenomena 
 I ever had an opportunity of remarking on the great obser- 
 vatory of Germany." 
 
 M. Gmelin in his account says : " The first time I was 
 deceived by this extraordinary phenomenon, I had clam- 
 bered up to the summit of the Broken very early in the 
 morning, in order to wait there for the inexpressibly beau- 
 tiful view of the sun rising in the east. The heavens were 
 already streaked with red, the sun was just appearing above 
 the horizon in full majesty, and the most perfect serenity 
 prevailed throughout the surrounding country, when the 
 other Hartz mountains in the south-west, towards the Worm 
 mountains, &c. lying under the Broken, began to be covered 
 by thick clouds. Ascending at that moment the granite 
 rocks called Teufelskanzel, there appeared before me, but 
 at a great distance, the gigantic figure of a man as if stand • 
 ing on a large pedestal. Scarcely had I discovered it, 
 when it began to disappear ; the clouds sunk down speedily, 
 and I saw the phenomenon no more. The second time, 
 however, I saw this spectre somewhat more distinctly, a 
 little below the summit of the Broken, as I was looking at 
 the sun rising, about four o'clock in the morning. The 
 weather was rather tempestuous ; the sky towards the level 
 country was pretty clear, but the Hartz mountains had 
 attracted several thick clouds which had been hovering 
 around them, and which beginning to settle on the Broken, 
 confined the prospect. In these clouds, soon after the rising 
 of the sun, I saw my own shadow of a monstrous size 
 move itself for a couple of seconds, exactly as I moved ; 
 but I was soon involved in clouds, and the phenomenon 
 disappeared."
 
 60 CURIOSITIES 
 
 " It is impossible," adds M. Gmelin, " to see this phe- 
 nomenon, except when the sun is at such an altitude as to 
 throw his rays upon the body in a horizontal direction ; 
 for, if he is higher, the shadow is thrown rather under the 
 body than before it." 
 
 Fairy Castles. 
 
 Of all the phenomena exhibited by nature, few are more 
 curious and ex traor dinar} 7 than those caused by the reflec- 
 tion and refraction of light from fogs and vapours arising 
 from the sea, lakes, and morasses, replete with marine and 
 vegetable salts. For such vapours, by means of the said 
 salts, form various polished surfaces, which reflect and 
 refract the light of the sun, and even the moon, in various 
 directions ; thereby not only distorting but multiplying the 
 images of objects represented to them in a most surprising 
 manner; forming not only images of castles, palaces, and 
 other buildings, in various styles of architecture, but the 
 most beautiful landscapes, spacious woods, groves, orchards, 
 meadows, with companies of men and women, and herds of 
 cattle, walking, standing, lying, &c. and all painted with 
 such an admirable mixture of light and shade, that it is 
 impossible to form an adequate conception of the picture 
 without seeing it : not any scenery represented by the 
 camera obscura can be more beautiful, or more like faithful 
 representations of nature. 
 
 Though these curious and elegant phenomena are not 
 peculiar to any age or country, they are more frequently 
 seen on the sea-coasts ; and though in some respects com- 
 mon in such situations, they have hitherto been so little 
 noticed by the intelligent part of mankind as to be scarcely 
 known to exist. The only ones which seem at present to 
 have attracted the attention of the curious, are those fre- 
 quently, during the summer season, seen on the southern 
 coasts of Italy, near the ancient city of Rhegium ; and 
 even to this attention they were directed by the fishermen 
 and country peasants, who in their native tongue call them 
 fata morgana, or dama fata morgana.* They are, 
 
 * Swinburne's Travels.
 
 flat? V. t.< rinsp , 
 
 TAir rr castie.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 61 
 
 however, frequently noticed by the English, Erse, and Irish 
 peasants, fishermen, and mariners; and denominated, in 
 the languages of the two latter, feadhreagh mairethmhe, 
 or sea fairies, and duna feadhreagh, fairy castjes. The 
 fishermen, among the western isles of Scotland, frequently 
 see represented on barren heaths and naked rocks beautiful 
 fields, woods, and castles, with numerous flocks and herds 
 grazing, and multitudes of people of both sexes in various 
 attitudes and occupations. These, as they know no such 
 objects really exist, they constantly attribute to enchant- 
 ment, or the fairies. They are also frequently seen on 
 the coasts of Norway, Iceland, and Greenland.* On the 
 eastern and western coasts of South America, even on the 
 highest summit of the Ancles, the fata morgana are met 
 with. Also, far out at sea, in the midst of the Atlantic and 
 Pacific Oceans, the adventurous mariner sometimes ob- 
 serves them ; and though well known under the name of 
 fog banks, yet has their appearance been so imposing as to 
 elude the nicest scrutiny, and to promise refreshments to 
 the fatigued and sea- worn mariner which he could not 
 obtain. The most ancient account of these aerial castles 
 and islands which has been transmitted to us, is the repre- 
 sentation of a beautiful island situated nearly in the middle 
 of the Atlantic Ocean, between the coasts of Ireland and 
 Newfoundland, first observed by some Danish and Irish 
 fishermen about the year 900, and from that period to the 
 commencement of the 14th century frequently by the Anglo- 
 Saxon, English, and French fishermen and mariners. t 
 
 But, as this island could never be approached, it was 
 called the enchanted island, and supposed by the maritime 
 inhabitants of Scotland, Ireland, France, and Spain, to be 
 the country of departed spirits, and consequently denomi- 
 nated, in Erse, Flath Innis, or the Noble Island ; in Irish, 
 Hy Brasil, or the Country of Spirits ; by the Anglo-Saxons, 
 Icvckane, or the Country in the Waves ; and by the French 
 and Spaniards, who supposed it to consist of two distinct 
 islands, Brasil and dssmanda, or the Islands of Ghosts. 
 And so much persuaded were geographers of the sixteenth 
 
 * Crantz's History of Greenland. 
 
 t Iceland Ann. Ortelius in Tnesauro Geo ancient Sax. poem 
 
 F 4
 
 62 CURIOSITIES 
 
 and seventeeth centuries of their real existence, that they 
 have place in all or most of the maps in the Atlantic of 
 those periods ; and even in the last century, De l'lsle, the 
 French geographer, in his maps, has placed them as fol- 
 lows : Brasil, lat. 51° north, long. 1° east of Ferrol; and 
 Assmunda, lat. 46° 30' north, long. 306° east of Ferrol. 
 Even so late as about the year 1750, an English ship, re- 
 turning from Newfoundland, near lat. 50° north discovered 
 an island not heretofore known, which not only appeared 
 fertile, but covered with verdant fields and shady woods, 
 among which cattle were seen to graze ; and only the 
 appearance of a violent surge hindered the captain and 
 crew from landing, according to their desire.* So well 
 convinced, however, were they of its real existence, that, 
 on arriving at London, ships were ordered out to complete 
 the discovery; but no island could be found, nor has any 
 land been discovered in that tract from that time to the 
 present. Commodore Byron, in his voyage round the 
 World, mentions a fog bank in a high southern latitude, 
 which appeared like an island, with capes and mountains, 
 deceiving the most experienced seamen on board for some 
 time. 
 
 From these evidences of the frequent appearance of the 
 fata morgana, we shall proceed to describe some seen near 
 the town of Youghal, in the county of Cork, Ireland, in 
 the years 1796,1797, and 1801, according to the views 
 given in plates V. and VI. drawn on the spot by a young 
 lady, one among a number of spectators. The first was 
 seen on the 21st of October, 1796, about four o'clock in 
 the afternoon, the sun clear : it appeared on a hill, on the 
 county of Waterford side of the river, and seemed a walled 
 town with a round tower, and a church with a spire ; the 
 houses perfect, and the windows distinct. Behind the 
 houses appeared the mast of a ship, and in front a single 
 tree, near which was a cow grazing ; whilst the Waterford 
 hills appeared distinctly behind. In the space of about 
 half an hour the spire a and round tower became covered 
 with domes, and the octagonal building, or rather round 
 
 Swinburne's Travels.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 63 
 
 tower became a broken turret. Soon after this change, 
 all the houses became ruins, and their fragments seemed 
 scattered in the fields near the walls : the whole in about 
 an hour disappeared, and the hill on which it stood sank to 
 the level of the real field. The hill and trees appeared of a 
 bright green, the houses and towers of a clear brown, with 
 their roofs blue. 
 
 On the 9th of March, 1797, another similar phenomenon 
 was observed by the same person, in company with several 
 others, about eight o'clock in the morning, on the sea, 
 south-east of the town of Youghal. It had the appearance 
 of a walled town situated on a hill. On one side were 
 houses in ruins, and the ruins of a castle which seemed to 
 fall into the sea. In the middle were two towers broken, 
 on one of which was a flag flying, with houses in ruins 
 between them and the castle. On the south were walls and 
 a round tower with windows, which appeared broken in 
 the middle. The hill on which the whole scene was placed 
 was green and brown, and the buildings purple and brown, 
 clear and brilliant, much resembling a transparent paint- 
 ing. The wall which surrounded the town was of a darker 
 brown, with great holes as if made by cannon shot. The 
 sea was calm and serene, and the whole together formed a 
 charming view ; but it is not known how long the scene 
 continued, as the party was obliged to leave the strand 
 before it vanished. What increased the beauty of the scene 
 was the fineness of the morning, and the ships which ap- 
 peared to pass behind it. 
 
 In June, 1801, about five o'clock on a fine morning, all 
 the coast opposite the river Youghal, on the Waterford 
 side, was covered with a dense vapour ; that on the right 
 next the sea had the representation of an alpine country ; 
 the distant scarpy mountains seemed covered with snow, 
 whilst the foreground, of a brown colour, resembled woods 
 and a cultivated country. Soon the snow was seen to roll 
 down the sides of the mountains into the valleys beneath, 
 and left the grey rocks of the mountains naked and sharp. 
 As the sun increased in power, the vapour vanished. On 
 the left, the river and adjacent country were also covered 
 with a vapour, but of quite different appearance from the 
 former. The country seemed laid out in lawns and
 
 64 CURIOSITIES 
 
 improvements, in which were situated three gentlemen's 
 seats ; the houses well defined, the windows and doors 
 distinct; some of the windows appeared open, and brass 
 knockers were seen on the doors. From the houses were 
 beautiful shrubberies bordered with white Chiuese paling ; 
 behind the shrubberries were forests of pines ; and distant 
 mountains, in fine perspective, closed the scene. Before 
 the houses in the lawns were clumps of fine forest trees. 
 In about half an hour two of the houses vanished, and the 
 clumps in front disappeared, and in their place a fine oak 
 sprang up, which was the last object that quitted the scene. 
 The sun becoming powerful, the vapour was rarefied, and 
 the whole of the magic scene disappeared. 
 
 The two first of these exhibitions of the fata morgana 
 were evidently caused by the reflection of some of the 
 buildings and other parts of the town of Youghal in a dense 
 vapour or fog strongly illuminated by the sun. But in 
 order to have an adequate idea of the nature of the phe- 
 nomenon, let AG (fig. 1.) be a fog bank or dense vapour, 
 whose surface next the sun is uneven, and formed of a 
 variety of planes capable of reflecting light, as AB, BC, 
 CD, DE, EF, and FG. Let O be a house and tree. Now, 
 by the laws of optics, if a spectator be so situated, as at I, 
 that the reflective rays proceeding from the incident ones 
 OG, OF, &c. meet the eye of the spectator at I, the image 
 of the house and tree at O will be multiplied into the town 
 vr> in which, if the surface DE is cylindrical and somewhat 
 irregular at the top, the image of the house will be trans- 
 formed into a tower, and the roof into a spire, with the 
 chimney a flag. Also, if any of the other planes be imper- 
 fect, the images reflected therefrom will be imperfect, and 
 the houses appear in ruins. If the spectator move from 
 I to L, and during that time the air should change any of 
 the surfaces, the representation will be somewhat changed ; 
 the image of O, from the plane DE, will become a tower 
 with a dome, and the whole will appear as at xy. As the 
 wind changes the form of the fog, or the position of the 
 sun or clouds alters the lights, the entire representation 
 will disappear, or suffer considerable changes; on which 
 account none of those aerial exhibitions continue any 
 length of time, and always in calm weather and a clear sky,
 
 Ji,/tt n /.> face /> t>/. 
 
 FAEKY CASTJLE.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 65 
 
 if the picture is brilliant ; for, though those fog banks often 
 appear in dark or cloudy weather, the reflection is imper- 
 fect, and represents only confused images of rocks, moun- 
 tains, and capes. Though distant objects are reflected, 
 those immediately under or behind will be refracted. Thus, 
 in fig. 2, if a vapour rest upon an horizontal plane AB, 
 the point B will be refracted to a, when the plane will 
 represent a hill to a spectator at I. The scenery may also 
 be represented by refraction only ; for, if the fog or vapour 
 should contain two smooth surfaces opposite to each other, 
 in the manner of a double concave lens, objects will be 
 seen refracted, though much diminished in apparent mag- 
 nitude ; and if one or both of the concave surfaces should 
 be composed of different inclined planes, a single object 
 will be variously multiplied and transformed. Thus, let 
 AB (fig. 3.) represent a vapour, whose surfaces are concave 
 and transparent, but of different faces, as CD, DE, and 
 EF, the object M will be seen by a spectator at G small 
 and at a great distance beyond M, and multiplied as at PQ. 
 And this case was exhibited from a bog vapour in the 
 county of Kildare, in the year 1787. About eleven o'clock 
 in the morning, the sun shining clear, a hill appeared, 
 about a mile, distant, covered with trees and houses, where 
 it was known there was only a plain field ; the phenomenon 
 being caused by a house and garden refracted through a 
 dense and facetwise concave vapour arising from the bog. 
 
 These phenomena, are also frequently caused by the light 
 refracted through the crystalline parts of the vapour, 
 without any of the adjacent objects being either refracted 
 or reflected ; for the vapour, being formed into different 
 parts, the light refracted through them caused the confused 
 appearance of ruins, houses, woods, lawns, &c. in the 
 same manner as a board, covered in an irregular manner 
 with black and white spots mixed with lines, will, at a cer- 
 tain distance, resemble a landscape with woods, ruins, 
 houses, trees, castles, &c, and under such imposing for:-ns 
 as to appear real representations. Of this species of the 
 fata morgana seem to be those seen at Youghal in 1801, 
 before spoken of; but in whatever manner the representa- 
 tions from vapours and fogs are formed, the weather mnst 
 f2
 
 66 CURIOSITIES 
 
 be calm and serene, otherwise the vapours will be broken 
 and dispersed by the wind. 
 
 Tulips. 
 The love of tulips, and the anxiety to possess those 
 which were rare, raged to such an extent in Holland, from 
 the year 1634 to 1637, that the Dutch of all ranks, from 
 the greatest to the meanest, neglected their occupations and 
 sold their manufactures, and mechaaics even their tools, to 
 engage in the tulip trade. Accordingly we find in those 
 days that they fetched the most extravagant prices. The 
 Viceroy was sold for £250 ; Admiral Lefken, £440 ; 
 Admiral Von Eyck, £160; Greber, £148; Schilder, 
 160 ; Semper Augustus, £550. Whether there was any- 
 thing in the name, or it was the peculiar beauty of the 
 flower which enhanced the price, does not appear certain ; 
 it is enough to prove the folly of the age, to know that 
 such prices were obtained. In 1637, a collection of tulips 
 of Wonter Brockholsmenster was sold by his executors for 
 £9,000. Of all the tulips, the Semper Augustus was the 
 favourite, and the price we have assigned it is much less 
 than it frequently produced. A fine Spanish cabinet, 
 valued at £1,000 and £300 besides, were once given for a 
 Semper Augustus ; and another gentleman sold three stocks 
 of the same flower for £1,000 each. The same gentleman 
 was offered for this flower £1,500 a-year for seven years, 
 and every thing to be left as found', only reserving the 
 increase during that time for the money. Another gentle- 
 man, by the sale of his tulips, got the sum of £6,000 in 
 less than four months. The tulip madness at length rose 
 to such a pitch, that the government deemed it necessary 
 to interfere; and accordingly, in 1637, a check was put to 
 it by an order of the state for invalidating all contracts of 
 which a tulip was the subject.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOyS. 
 
 (SI 
 
 Sun's Rising and Setting. 
 The following is an average weekly account of the rising 
 and setting of the sun, very ingeniously calculated for any 
 year, by Mr. George Cromwell, Bell Yard, Doctors' Com- 
 mons, London : 
 
 
 Rises. 
 
 Sets. 
 
 Dec. 29 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 52 
 
 27 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 54 
 
 Jan. 4 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 58 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 54 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 f 18 
 
 7 
 
 46 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 25 
 
 7 
 
 38 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 Feb. 1 
 
 7 
 
 28 
 
 4 
 
 32 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 43 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 55 
 
 22 
 
 6 
 
 50 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 March 1 
 
 6 
 
 34 
 
 5 
 
 26 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 18 
 
 5 
 
 42 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 55 
 
 22 
 
 5 
 
 53 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 29 
 
 5 
 
 41 
 
 6 
 
 19 
 
 April 5 
 
 5 
 
 29 
 
 6 
 
 31 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 45 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 26 
 
 4 
 
 46 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 May 3 
 
 4 
 
 32 
 
 7 
 
 28 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 40 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 50 
 
 t 24 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 31 
 
 3 
 
 53 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 June 7 
 
 3 
 
 47 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 44 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 21 
 
 3 
 
 42 
 
 8 
 
 18 
 
 Dec. 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 13 
 6 
 
 29 
 
 Nov. 
 
 
 
 22* 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Oct. 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Sept. 
 
 27 
 20 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 30 
 
 23 
 
 Aug. 
 
 _ 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 9 
 2 
 
 26 
 19* 
 
 July 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 June 2i 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 This table contains a weekly list of parallel days, or 
 corresponding seasons; to shew, if the sun rises and 
 sets at a certain time, on any enumerated day, on what 
 other day in the year it will rise and set at the same time.
 
 68 CURIOSITIES 
 
 If, for instance, the sun rises at 46 minutes after 7, and sets 
 at 14 minutes after 4. on the 18th of January, the same will 
 happen on the 22d of November. Again," if it rises at 4, 
 and sets at 8, on the 24th of May, so it will on the 19th of 
 July. The table may also serve as a convenient reference, 
 to find on what day of the week any given date will occur, 
 by reading the following plain rules : 
 
 For the year 1822, all the enumerated dates will fall on a 
 Friday : of course, any intermediate day will be easily dis- 
 covered. 
 
 In 1823 every date will be a Saturday. 
 1824, being Leap Year, the 
 
 dates in Jan. and Feb. 
 
 will fall on a Sunday. 
 
 The remaining ten 
 
 months of that year 
 
 on a Monday. 
 
 1825 Tuesday. 
 
 1826 Wednesday. 
 
 1827 Thursday. 
 
 and so on. 
 
 Statistics, 
 
 A nation, without being exhausted, can annually afford 
 to employ the one-hundredth part of its population in the 
 profession of arms. The quota which England could afford, 
 according to this proportion, in addition to its military and 
 naval establishments previous to the peace of 1814, without 
 exhaustion, would be 170,000, of which 70,000 would 
 suffice for the navy, and 100,000 for the army. 
 
 Iu Great Britain, the number of men capable of rising 
 in arms, en masse, from fifteen to sixty years of age, is 
 2,744,847, or about four in even* seventeen males. 
 
 The total number of inhabited houses in England, in 1801, 
 was 1,474,740. In 1690, there was 1,310,213. In 1759, 
 the surveyors of the house and window duties returned 
 986,412; and in 1781, 1,005,810. 
 
 There are in Great Britain six millions of males, and in 
 Ireland, three millions; of whom, in the year 1812, 807,000 
 were in arms, that is in the proportion of one to eleven.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 69 
 
 In Great Britain there die every year about 332,700 ; 
 every month, about 25,592 ; every week, 6398 j every day, 
 914 ; and every hour, about 40. 
 
 The proportion of deaths of women to that of men is 
 fifty-four to fifty. 
 
 Half of all that are born, die before they attain 17 years. 
 
 Taking the whole of the population of the metropolis, 
 according to the Census of 1811, at 1,099,104, the pro- 
 portion of males to females is as 100 to 128. 
 
 The small pox, in the natural way, usually carries off" 
 eight out of every hundred. By vaccination, one dies out 
 of every three hundred ; but, according to Dr. Willan, one 
 in two hundred and fifty dies of innoculated small-pox. 
 
 The clergy of the church of England, including their 
 families, form about one-eightieth part of the population 
 of England. 
 
 Pores of the Human Body. 
 
 The skin of the human body, is a very curious object for 
 the microscope. By cutting a thin piece with a very sharp 
 pen-knife or razor, and applying it to a good microscope, 
 a multitude of small pores will be seen, through which the 
 perspirable matter is supposed to be perpetually trans- 
 mitted. These are best seen in the under or second skin. 
 There are said to be 1000 pores in the length of an inch, 
 and of course, in a surface an inch square, there will be 
 1,000,000, through which, either the sensible or insensible 
 perspiration is continually issuing. 
 
 If there are 1,000,000 pores in every square inch, the fol- 
 lowing calculation is made of the number in the whole body : 
 
 The surface of the body of a middle-sized person, is 
 reckoned to contain 14 feet; and, as each foot contains 
 144 inches, the number of pores will be estimated at 
 1,000,000 + 144 + 14 =2,016,000,000, or two thousand and 
 sixteen millions. 
 
 New Mechanical Power. 
 
 The following singular advertisement is now of frequent 
 appearance in the American newspapers : 
 
 " The intelligence and .Activity of the Dog, converted 
 into a Power for a variety of useful purposes. — The
 
 70 CURIOSITIES 
 
 subscriber having obtained letters patent for the application 
 of the agency of dogs, as a new power for various useful 
 purposes, is ready to sell patent rights, for the application 
 of his principle, to such as the following purposes : 
 
 " For pumping water, irrigating meadows, gardens, &c. ; 
 grinding paint, corn, bark, and other articles ; turning the 
 grindstone, the lathe, carding and spinning machines, and 
 washing machines ; working churns ; assisting rope-makers ; 
 threshing and cleaning grain ; cutting straw, tobacco, shin- 
 gles, dye-wood; chopping meat, &c. &c. and for a great 
 variety of other purposes, where the employment of canine 
 agency will prove highly economical and profitable. The 
 requisite machinery is simple, and constructed with little 
 expense. The patent right will be sold at a very low rate. 
 Able dogs can easily be procured and trained for this object. 
 The subscriber has had several employed in this manner 
 for some years, and they have invariably been healthy and 
 robust, and apparently delighted with their employment. 
 The advantage of this principle, and its multifarious 
 adaptation, are obvious. — By these means, a very interest- 
 ing portion of the animal creation, hitherto more or less 
 prescribed, is thus made subservient to the most useful 
 operations. One dog will labour to more advantage than 
 two men. The saving of labour and expense is extraordi- 
 narily great. Several machines of this kind are already in 
 operation in this city and neighbourhood. 
 
 " Persons desirous to convince themselves of the efficacy 
 of canine agency, applied as before stated, and those who 
 wish to purchase the privilege of using this valuable im- 
 provement, are respectfully invited to call on 
 
 " ANTHONY TIEMAN, 
 
 " At Rosehill-street, near Love-lane, east side of Broadway, 
 New York." 
 
 Timber in a Seventy-four Gun Ship. 
 
 A seventy-four gun ship will swallow up nearly 
 3,000 loads of oak timber : a load of oak timber contains 
 fifty cubical feet, and a ton forty feet; so that a seventy- 
 four gun ship takes 2,000 large well-grown timber trees, 
 of perhaps two tons each. The distance recommended
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 71 
 
 for planting trees is thirty feet ; but supposing trees to stand 
 at the distance of two rods, (thirty-three feet) each statute 
 acre would contain forty trees ; of course, the building of a 
 seventy-four gun ship would clear the timber of fifty acres. 
 Even supposing the trees to stand one rod apart, (a short 
 distance for trees of the magnitude above-mentioned) it 
 would clear twelve acres and a half; no inconsiderable plot 
 of ground. The complaints relative to the decrease of our 
 timber are not to be wondered at under such circumstances ; 
 and this calculation points out to landed proprietors the 
 necessity and patriotism of continually planting more trees 
 to supply our future wants. 
 
 Lost Hours. 
 
 One person rises in the morning at half-past nine, another 
 at six. If each live to be fifty years old, the one will have 
 enjoyed sixty-three thousand eight hundred and seventy-five 
 hours, or two thousand six hundred and sixty-one days more 
 than the other. Let us suppose, that there are throughout 
 Great Britain one million five hundred thousand persons 
 who rise at a quarter past nine, or later. Of these, perhaps, 
 nine hundred and fifty thousand would, if they rose at six, 
 be usefully employed. At this rate, fifty-six thousand three 
 hundred and forty-six millions, eight hundred and seventy- 
 five thousand hours, or six millions four hundred and thirty- 
 two thousand, two hundred and ninety-two years of indi- 
 vidual improvement are lost to society every half century. 
 — This is supposing, that these nine hundred and fifty 
 thousand get up at a quarter past nine, whereas thousands 
 do not leave their beds till eleven or twelve. 
 
 All this time is uninterrupted day, and composed of hours 
 in which the intellect is far clearer and more fit for study, 
 than the rest of the day. 
 
 It must be remembered, too, that nothing conduces more 
 to health, and consequently to longevity, than early rising. 
 
 Suppose, out of the above number of persons, five hun- 
 dred thousand should live four years longer than they 
 otherwise would have done, viz. fifty-four years instead of 
 fifty ; according to the ratio above, here are two millions 
 more years of actual existence utterly wasted.
 
 72 CURIOSITIES 
 
 1 . II 
 
 a g 
 
 ^ i • 
 
 «^ 
 
 u fl 
 
 OS o 
 
 to 
 as *j 
 
 c3 O 
 
 £ C 
 
 u 
 
 J 
 
 £ §\S + 
 
 * 2 
 
 a 
 B 
 
 :| 
 
 + 
 
 .CO 
 
 o 
 2 + 
 
 is f 
 
 «.« + 
 
 l>. II 
 
 OS-, ON 00 
 
 o^^ i : 
 
 O)
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 73 
 
 The component figures of the product, made by the mul- 
 tiplication of every digit into the number 9, when added 
 together, make nine. 
 
 The order of these component figures is reversed, after 
 the said numher has been multiplied by 5. 
 
 The component figures of the amount of the multipliers, 
 (viz. 45) when added together make nine. 
 
 The amount of the several products, or multiples of 9, 
 (viz. 405) when divided by 9, gives for a quotient, 45 ; 
 that is 4 + 5 = nine. 
 
 The amount of the first product, (viz 9) when added to 
 the other products, whose respective component figures 
 make 9, is 81 ; which is the square of NINE. 
 
 The said number 81, when added to the above-mentioned 
 amount of the several products, or multiples of 9 (viz. 405) 
 makes 486; which, if divided by 9, gives for a quotient 54 ; 
 that is 5+4 = nine. 
 
 It is also observable that the number of changes that may 
 be rung on nine bells, is 362,880 ; which figures, added to- 
 gether, make 27 ; that is, 2 + 7 = nine. 
 
 And the quotient of 362,880, divided by 9, is 40,320 : 
 that is 4 + 0+3 + 2 + 0=nine. 
 
 ■mm****** 
 
 Mahomet's Coffin. 
 
 One of the most celebrated wonders of the East, is the 
 suspension of Mahomet's coffin, by the attraction of mag- 
 nets. The following description of the situation in which 
 this curiosity stood in 1804, is from the pen of an enterpris- 
 ing American traveller, Mr. Anderson, whose travels are as 
 yet (1820) unpublished. The vault is in Medina, and situ- 
 ated contiguous to the grand Mosque, through which, and 
 two inferior buildings, termed majets, the passage leads to 
 the vault, the entrance into which is by a small door or 
 aperture, arched at top, in a stone wall seven or eight feet 
 thick. The vault inside is round, likewise arched at top, 
 although octagon without : the size in the interior about 
 nine feet wide, and ten to eleven feet high, without aper- 
 
 G
 
 74 CURIOSITIES. 
 
 ture to admit light : the loss of which is supplied by lamps, 
 which are constantly burning. At the top of the dome, or 
 arch, is inserted a square dove coloured stone or slab of 
 marble, into which is inserted another stone of dark brown- 
 ish hue, round, about seven or eight inches in diameter, 
 and probably eighteen inches in length, projecting down- 
 wards. At the centre of the floor, which is of stone, there 
 is a pile of marble tables or slabs, about eighteen or twenty 
 inches square, and two feet high, into the top of one of 
 which is inserted a similar stone to the one just described as 
 at the top, projecting upwards : its diameter, however, does 
 not exceed three inches. From the stone at the top projects, 
 on the right and left, two rods, appai-ently of iron, extending 
 to the side walls, at their extreme height, where the arch 
 springs, thence down the side walls to about midway, 
 where it curves off towards the centre of the whole space 
 inside the vault. At the end of these rods, are bulbs resem- 
 bling a four pound shot, black or dark brown, but not 
 rusty ; between these four points, but detached from all, 
 stands erect, a box or coffin, four feet and a half long, by 
 eighteen inches square, how thick or of what metal Mr. A. 
 does not pretend to say, but thinks it not probable it is steel, 
 washed with some composition, as its appearance was 
 white, but not polished. At either end of the coffin or box, 
 was a half round bulb of a similar appearance to those on 
 the ends of the rods. The ends of the rods come not im- 
 mediately opposite to the centre of the coffin, but somewhat 
 below it. 
 
 Mr. Anderson, when at Medina, was given to understand, 
 that although he was not the only European who had visit- 
 ed the vault, he was the first Christian traveller who was 
 permitted actually to enter the interior. 
 
 The vault is open only on particular days, and few, even 
 of the religion of the country, are permitted to approach 
 nearer than the grand Mosque, from which, through the 
 aperture already described, the visitors have an opportunity 
 of seeing the coffin. But Mr. A's cui'iosity was not so easily 
 gratified. A number of impediments in the way, he sur- 
 mounted them all, and when in the interior, actually passed 
 his sword at either side of the coffin, which very sensibly 
 vibrated as the steel approached it!
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 75 
 
 Capacious Beer Casks. 
 
 A few years before Mr. Thrale's death, which happened 
 in 1781, an emulation arose among the brewers to exceed 
 each other in the size of their casks, for keeping beer to a 
 certain age ; probably, says Sir John Hawkins, taking the 
 hint from the tun at Heidelberg, of which the following is 
 a description : 
 
 At Heidelberg, on the river Neckar, near its junction 
 with the Rhine in Germany, there was a tun or wine vessel 
 constructed in 1343, which contained twenty-one pipes. An- 
 other was made, or rather the one now mentioned rebuilt, in 
 1664, which held six hundred hogsheads, English measure. 
 This was emptied, and knocked to pieces by the French in 
 1688. But a new and larger one was afterwards fabricated, 
 which held eight hundred hogsheads. It was formerly kept 
 full of the best Rhenish wine, and the Electors have given 
 many entertainments on its platform ; but this convivial 
 monument of ancient hospitality is now, says Mr. Walker, 
 but a melancholy, unsocial, solitary instance of the ex- 
 tinction of hospitality : it moulders in a damp vault, quite 
 empty. 
 
 The celebrated tun of Konigstein, is said to be the most 
 capacious cask in the world: holding 1,869,336 pints. 
 The top is railed in, and it affords room for twenty people to 
 regale themselves. There are also several kinds of wel- 
 come cups, which are offered to strangers, who are invited 
 by a Latin inscription, to drink to the prosperity of the 
 whole universe. This enormous tun was built in 1725, by 
 Frederick Augustus, King of Poland, and Elector of 
 Saxony, who, in the inscription just mentioned, is styled 
 " the father of his country, the Titus of his age, and the 
 delight of mankind." 
 
 Dr. Johnson once mentioned, that his friend Thrale had 
 four casks so large, that each of them held 1000 hogsheads. 
 But Mr. Meux, of Liquorpond street, Gray's Inn lane, can, 
 according to Mr. Pennant, shew twenty-four vessels con- 
 taining in all 35,000 barrels ; one alone holds 4,500 barrels; 
 and in the year 1790, this enterprising brewer built another, 
 which contains nearly 12,000 barrels valued at about 
 j£20,000. A dinner was given to 200 people at the bottom
 
 76 CURIOSITIES 
 
 of it, and 200 more joined the company to drink success to 
 this unrivalled vat. 
 
 Tavern Signs. 
 
 " I'm amaz'd at the signs 
 As I pass through the town, 
 To see the odd mixture — 
 A magpyc and crown, 
 The whale aud the crow, 
 The razor and hen, 
 The leg and seven stars, 
 The axe and the bottle, 
 The tun and the lute, 
 The eagle and child. 
 The shovel and hoot." 
 
 British Apollo, 1710. 
 
 The absurdities which tavern signs present are often 
 curious enough, but may in general be traced to that 
 inveterate propensity, which the vulgar of all countries have, 
 to make havoc with every thing in the shape of a proper 
 name. What a magpye could have had to do with a croivn, 
 or a whale with a crow, or a hen with a razor, it is as diffi- 
 cult to conjecture, as to trace the corruption of language 
 in which the connexion more probably originated. The 
 sign of the leg and the seven stars, was merely an ortho- 
 graphical deviation from the league and seven stars, or 
 seven united provinces ; and the axe and bottle was, 
 doubtless, a transposition of the battle-axe, a most appro- 
 priate sign for warlike times The tim and lute formed 
 suitable enough emblems of the pleasures of wine and 
 music. The eagle and child, too, had meaning, though no 
 application ; but when we come to the shovel and boot, non- 
 sense again triumphs, and it is in vain that we look for any 
 rational explanation of the affinity. 
 
 The Swan-with-two-necks has long been an object of 
 mystery to the curious. This mystery is solved by the 
 alteration of a single letter. The sign, as it originally
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 77 
 
 stood, was the swan-wit h-two-nicks ; the meaning of which 
 we find thus fully explained in a communication made by 
 the late Sir Joseph Banks, to the Antiquarian Society. At 
 a meeting of the Society, in January, 1810, Sir Joseph 
 presented to the Society a curious parchment roll, ex- 
 hibiting the marks, or nicks, made on the beaks of swans 
 and cygnets in all the rivers and lakes in Lincolnshire, 
 accompanied with an account of the privileges of certain 
 persons keeping swans in these waters, and the duties of 
 the king's swanherd in guarding these fowls from depre- 
 dation, and preventing any two persons from adopting the 
 same figures or marks on the bills of their swans. The 
 number of marks contained in the parchment roll amount- 
 ed to 219, all of which were different, and confined to the 
 small extent of the bill of the swan. The outlines were an 
 oblong square, circular at one end, and containing dots, 
 notches, arrows, or such like figures, to constitute the 
 difference in each man's swans. Laws were enacted so late 
 as the 12th of Elizabeth, for the preservation of the swans 
 in Lincolnshire. 
 
 The goat and compasses has been supposed to have its 
 origin in the resemblance between the bounding of a goat 
 and the expansion of a pair of compasses ; but nothing can 
 be more fanciful. The sign is of the days of the Common- 
 wealth, when it was the fashion to give scriptural names to 
 every thing and every body ; and when, God-be-praised 
 Barebojies preferred drinking his tankard of ale at the God 
 encompasseth tis to any where else. The corruption from God 
 encompasseth us, to goat and compasses, is obvious and na- 
 tural enough. 
 
 In Richard Flecknoe's enigmatical characters, published 
 in 1665, speaking of the " fanatic reformers," he observes, 
 " As for the sigxs, they have pretty well begun their re- 
 formation already, changing the sign of the salutation of 
 the angel and our lady into the soldier and citizen, and the 
 Katherine wheel into the cat and wheel; so as there only 
 wants their making the dragon to kill St. George, and the 
 devil to tweak St. Dunstaii by the nose, to make the 
 reformation complete. Such ridiculous work they make of 
 their reformation, and so zealous are they against all mirth 
 and jollity, as they would pluck down the signs of the cat 
 g 2
 
 78 CURIOSITIES 
 
 and fiddle too, if it durst but play so loud as they might 
 hear it." 
 
 The bag of nails, at Chelsea, is claimed by the smiths 
 and carpenters of the neighbourhood, as a house designed 
 for their peculiar accommodation ; but had it not been for 
 the corruption of the times, it would still have belonged to 
 the bacchanals, who, in the time of a Ben Johnson, used 
 to take a holiday stroll to this delightful village. One age 
 has converted bacchanals into bag-o'-nails ; may we not 
 expect that the next will convert bacchanalians into bag-o'- 
 nailians? 
 
 The origin of the chequers, which is so common an 
 emblem of public houses, has been the subject of much 
 learned conjecture. One writer supposes that they were 
 meant to represent that the game of draughts might be 
 played there ; another has been informed by a very noble 
 personage, that in the reign of Philip and Mary, the then 
 Earl of Arundel had a grant to license public-houses, and 
 part of the armorial bearings of that noble family being 
 a chequer-board, the publican, to shew that he had a 
 licence, put out that mark as part of his sign. But, 
 unfortunately for both solutions, unfortunately for the 
 honours of Arundel, Sir YV\ Hamilton presented, sometime 
 ago, to the Society of Antiquaries, a view of a street in 
 Pompeii, in which we find that shops with the sign of the 
 chequers were common among the Romans ! The real 
 origin of this emblem is still involved in obscurity. The 
 wittiest, though certainly not the most genuine explanation 
 of it, was that of the late George Selwyn, who used to 
 wonder that antiquarians should be at any loss to discover 
 why draughts were an appropriate emblem for drinking 
 houses. 
 
 An annotator, of the year 1807, on Beloe's Anecdotes of 
 Literature, says, " I remember, many years ago, passing 
 through a court in Rosemary Lane, where I observed an 
 ancient sign over the door of an ale-house; which was 
 called The Four .-ills. There was the figure of a king, and 
 on a label, " I rule all ;" the figure of a priest, motto, 
 "I pray for all; a soldier. "I fight for all;" and a 
 yeoman, " I pay all." About two years ago I passed 
 through the same thoroughfare, and looking up for my
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 79 
 
 curious sign, I was amazed to see a painted board occupy 
 its place, with these words inscribed, " The Four Awls." 
 In Whitechapel Road is a public-house which has a written 
 sign, " The Grave Morris." A painter was commissioned 
 to embody the inscription ; but this painter had not a poet's 
 eye; he could not body forth the form of things unknown. 
 In his distress he applied to a friend who presently relieved 
 him, and the painter delineated, as well as he could, '* The 
 Graaf Maurice" often mentioned in the " Epistolce Ho- 
 elia?ice." 
 
 Power of the Steam Engine. 
 
 A well-constructed steam engine, with a cylinder 
 thirty inches in diameter, will perform the work of forty 
 horses ; and, as it may be made to act without intermission, 
 while horses will not work more than eight hours in the 
 day, it will do the work of one hundred and twenty horses ; 
 and further, the work of a horse being equal to that of five 
 men, it will perform as much as six hundred men can, and 
 the whole expense of it is equal to about as much as that of 
 half the number of horses for which it is substituted. The 
 only thing to which these machines were at first applied, 
 was the raising of water from coal-pits, mines, &c. ; but 
 they ai*e now used for many different purposes in which 
 great power is required. Mr. Bolton has applied this force 
 to his apparatus for coining, which, by the help of four boys 
 only, is capable of striking thirty thousand pieces of money 
 in an hour, the machine itself keeping an accurate account 
 of the number struck off. 
 
 The Geometrical Pen. 
 
 The geometrical pen is an instrument, by a circular 
 motion of which, a right line, a circle, an ellipse, and 
 other mathematical figures, may be described. It was first 
 invented and explained by John Baptist Suardi. Several
 
 80 CURIOSITIES 
 
 writers had observed the curves arising from the compound 
 motion of two circles, one moving round the other ; but 
 Suardi first realized the principle, and reduced it to 
 practice. The number of curves this instrument can de- 
 scribe, is truly amazing ; the author enumerates not less 
 than 1,273, which, he says, can be described by it in the 
 simple form. 
 
 Extraordinary Bed-ridden Mechanic. 
 
 In the town of Alyth, in Scotland, there lately lived a 
 man of much provincial celebrity, of the name of James 
 Sandy. The originality of genius and eccentricity of cha- 
 racter, which distinguished this remarkable person, have 
 been rarely surpassed. Deprived at an early age of the use 
 of his legs, he contrived by dint of ingenuity not only to pass 
 his time agreeably, but to render himself an useful mem- 
 ber of society. He soon displayed a taste for mechanical 
 pursuits, and contrived, as a workshop for his operations, 
 a sort of circular bed, the sides of which being raised about 
 eighteen inches above the clothes, were employed as a plat- 
 form for turning-lathes, table-vices, and cases for tools of 
 all kinds. His genius for practical mechanics, was univer- 
 sal. He was skilled in all sorts of turning, and constructed 
 several very curious lathes, as well as clocks and musical 
 instruments of every description, no less admired for the 
 sweetness of their tone, than the elegance of their execution. 
 He excelled too in the construction of optical instruments, 
 and made some reflecting telescopes, the specula of which 
 were not inferior to those finished by the most eminent 
 London artists. He suggested some important improve- 
 ments in the machinery for spinning flax ; and, we believe, 
 he was the first who made the wooden jointed snuff-boxes, 
 generally called Laurencekirk boxes, some of which, fabri- 
 cated by this self-taught artist, were purchased and sent as 
 presents to the royal family. To his other endowments, he 
 added an accurate knowledge of drawing and engraving, 
 and in both these arts produced specimens of the highest 
 excellence. For upwards of fifty years he quitted his bed
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 81 
 
 only three times, and on these occasions his house was 
 either inundated with water or threatened with danger from 
 fire. His curiosity, which was unbounded, prompted him 
 to hatch different kinds of bird's eggs by the natural warmth 
 of his body, and he afterwards reared the motley brood 
 with all the tenderness of a parent ; so that, on visiting him, 
 it was no unusual thing to see various singing birds, to 
 which he might be said to have given birth, perched on his 
 head, and warbling the artificial notes he had taught them. 
 Naturally possessed of a good constitution, and an active, 
 cheerful turn of mind, his house was the general coffee- 
 room of the village, where the affairs of both church and 
 state were discussed with the utmost freedom. In conse- 
 quence of long confinement, his countenance had rather a 
 sickly cast, but it was remarkably expressive, and would 
 have afforded a fine subject for the pencil of Wilkie, parti- 
 cularly when he was surrounded by his country friends. 
 This singular man had acquired, by his ingenuity and 
 industry, an honourable independence, and died possessed 
 of considerable property. He married about three weeks 
 before his death. 
 
 From this brief history of James Sandy, we may learn 
 this very instructive lesson, that no difficulties are too great 
 to be overcome by industry and perseverance ; and that 
 genius, though it should sometimes miss the distinction it 
 deserves, will seldom fail, unless by its own fault, to secure 
 competency and respectability. 
 
 Model of Paris. 
 
 In 1798, there was exhibited at Paris, a very curious 
 model of that city, which an ingenious artist had been 
 occupied nine years in executing. He had not contented 
 himself with comparing and correcting all the plans of 
 Paris ever published ; he measured all the streets, squares, 
 &c. according to the most accurate geometrical methods 
 of measurement, and determined the inequalities of the 
 site of that immense capital, by levelling. The greatest 
 diameter of the model in its extent, from east to west, was 
 fifteen feet. The mean size of the houses was three lines.
 
 82 CURIOSITIES 
 
 The artist had carried his accuracy so far, that each inhabit" 
 tant of Paris could distinguish his own house, court-yard, 
 and garden. The public places and gardens were repre- 
 sented with a most striking similitude } not only their 
 dimensions, but their colour and ornaments could be 
 observed. The alternate rising and falling of the plane 
 of the model, gave to this representation a correctness 
 which produced an effect like enchantment, if the observer 
 supposed himself to be standing on Mont Martre, and to 
 be looking down on the city. The artist had, with much 
 judgment, endeavoured, by the shades of his colours, to 
 give a point of rest to the eye ; the want of which was a 
 great failing in that model of Rome which formerly stood 
 in the Library of St. Genevieve, and which presented to the 
 view a dazzling mass of white gypsum. Thirty thousand 
 trees, which distinguished the different walks, public places, 
 and gardens, formed an agreeable contrast to the slated 
 and tiled roofs. This model could be taken to pieces by 
 means of screws, and packed into three boxes for the 
 purpose of transportation. 
 
 High Numbers. 
 
 As very high numbers are somewhat difficult to appre- 
 hend, we naturally fall on contrivances to fix them in our 
 minds, and render them familiar ; but notwithstanding all 
 the expedients that we can contrive, our ideas of high 
 numbers are still imperfect, and generally far short of 
 the reality ; and though we can perform any computation 
 with exactness, the answer that we obtain is often incom- 
 pletely apprehended. Take, for instance, the following 
 example. 
 
 If a person, employed in telling money, reckon an hun- 
 dred pieces in a minute, and continue at work ten hours 
 each day, he will take nearly seventeen days to reckon 
 1,000,000 ; a thousand men would take forty- five years to 
 reckon 1,000,000,000,000, If we suppose the whole earth 
 to be as well peopled as at present, and to have been so 
 from the creation, and that the whole race of mankind had
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 83 
 
 constantly spent their time in telling a heap consisting of 
 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of pieces, they would, 
 even at this late period of time, hardly have reckoned 
 a thousandth part of that quantity ! 
 
 The Eighteenth Century. 
 
 The good old lady, known by the name of the Eighteenth 
 Century, who resigned all sublunary cares, on Wednesday, 
 the 1st January, J 801, was quietly buried in the family 
 vault of eternity. Her offsjiring, all of whom were cut off 
 at the same time, consisted of 103 sons, who were known 
 by the name of years ; 36,500 grandsons and grand-daugh- 
 ters, called days and ?iights ; 376,000 great-grand-children, 
 married into the family of the hours; 52,560,003 great- 
 great-grand-children, named minutes; and 3,153,600,000 
 great-great-great-grand-children, of the pigmy race of the 
 seconds. 
 
 The year 1818 was a sort of annus mirabilis. The sum of 
 all the figures is eighteen : the sum expressed by the two 
 first, as well as the two last figures, is eighteen j and 
 reckoned singly, either forwards or backwards, the sum is 
 eighteen. This is said to be such an arithmetical combina- 
 tion as can never happen again in the number of any year to 
 the end of time. 
 
 Historical Epitaph. 
 
 A person of the name of Mary Scott was buried near the 
 church of Dunkeld, in 1728, for whom the following singu- 
 lar epitaph was composed, but never engraved on her tomb- 
 stone, though it has been frequently mentioned as copied 
 from it. 
 
 Stop, passenger, until my life you read; 
 The living may get knowledge from the dead. 
 Five times five years unwedded was my life ; 
 Five times five years I was a virtuous wife ;
 
 84 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Ten times five years I wept a widow's woes, 
 Now tired of human scenes I here repose. 
 Betwixt my cradle and my grave were seen 
 Seven mighty Kings of Scotland, and a Queen ; 
 Full twice five years the Commonwealth I saw, 
 Ten times the subjects rise against the law ; 
 And, which is worse than any civil war, 
 A King arraigned before the subject's bar ; 
 Swarms of sectarians, hot with hellish rage, 
 Cut off his royal head upon the stage. 
 Twice did I see old Prelacy pull'd down, 
 And twice the cloak did sink beneath the gown. 
 I saw the Stuart race thrust out — nay more, 
 I saw our country sold for English ore ; 
 Our numerous nobles, who have famous been, 
 Sunk to the lowly number of sixteen. 
 Such desolation in my days have been, 
 I have an end of all perfection seen. 
 
 Chances of War. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton, in Ms chronology, calculates that, in 
 no series of kings, does the average duration of each of their 
 reigns exceed 21 years. The contingencies to which kings 
 are exposed, can scarcely be greater than those to which the 
 border chiefs of Scotland and England were liable of old, 
 when almost every man of distinction, sooner or later, fell 
 in battle. And yet it appears, that, of the family of Swin- 
 ton, in Berwickshire, only twenty-two barons have occu- 
 pied the estate during the long period of 73 1 years ; which 
 supposes, that amid a most turbulent aristocracy, amidst 
 feudal broils, and foreign wars, a succession of border 
 chieftains enjoyed their estates at an averageof more than 
 33 years each. 
 
 The Odd Family. 
 
 In the reign of William the Third there lived in Ipswich, 
 in Suffolk, a family, which, from the number of peculiari-
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 85 
 
 ties belonging to it, was distinguished by the name of the 
 Odd Family. Every event remarkably good or bad happened 
 to this family on an odd day of the month, and every one of 
 them had something odd in his or her person, manner, and 
 behaviour : the very letters in their christ an names always 
 happened to be an odd number. The husband's name was 
 Peter, and the wife's Rabah ; they had seven children, all 
 boys, viz. Solomon, Roger, James, Matthew, Jonas, David, 
 and Ezekiel. The husband had but one leg, his wife but one 
 arm. Solomon was born blind of the left eye, and Roger 
 lost his right eye by accident ; James had his left ear pulled 
 off by a boy in a quarrel, and Matthew was born with only 
 three fingers on his right hand ; Jonas had a stump foot, and 
 David was humpbacked; all these, except David, were re- 
 markably short, while Ezekiel was six feet two inches high 
 at the age of nineteen; the stump-footed Jonas and the 
 humpbacked David got wives of fortune, but no girl would 
 listen to the addresses of the rest. The husband's hair was 
 as black as jet, and the wife's remarkably white, yet every 
 one of the children's was red. The husband had the pecu- 
 liar misfortune of falling into a deep sawpit, where he was 
 starved to death in the year 1701, and his wife, refusing all 
 kind of sustenance, died in five days after him. In the year 
 1703, Ezekiel enlisted as a grenadier, and although he was 
 afterwards wounded in twenty-three places, he recovered. 
 Roger, James, Matthew, Jonas, and David, died at dif- 
 ferent places on the same day in 1713, and Solomon and 
 Ezekiel were drowned together in crossing the Thames, 
 in the year 1723. 
 
 The nearest Star. 
 
 Astronomers assert, that Sirius, or the Dog Star, is the 
 nearest to us of all the fixed ones ; and they compute its 
 distance from our earth at 2,200,000,000,000 of miles. 
 They maintain that a sound would not reach our earth from 
 Sirius in 50,000 years ; and that a cannon-ball, flying with 
 its usual velocity, of 480 miles an hour, would consume 
 523,211 years in its passage thence to our globe.
 
 86 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Number of Days the different Winds blow in the 
 Course of a Year. 
 
 From an average of ten years, of the register kept by 
 order of the Royal Society, it appears, that at London, the 
 winds blow in the following order : 
 
 WINDS. DAVS. 
 
 South-west 112 
 
 North-east 58 
 
 North-west 50 
 
 West 53 
 
 South-east 32 
 
 East 26 
 
 South 18 
 
 North 16 
 
 365 
 
 It appears from the same register, that the south-west 
 wind blows, at an average, more frequently than any other 
 wind, during every month in the year, and that it blows 
 longest in July and August ; that the north east blows most 
 constantly during January, March, April, May, and June, 
 and most seldom during February, July, September, and 
 December; and that the north-west wind blows oftener 
 from November to March, and more seldom during Sep- 
 tember and October, than any other months. The south- 
 west winds are also most frequent at Bristol, and next to 
 them are the north-east. 
 
 Dissection oftJie Old and New Testaments. 
 
 Books in the Old") , q 
 Testament... } 
 
 Chapters 929 
 
 Verses 23,214 
 
 Words 529,439 
 
 Letters... .2,728, 100 
 
 In the New. ... 27 
 
 260 
 
 ...7,959 
 281,258 
 838,380 
 
 Total 66 
 
 1,189 
 
 31,173 
 
 .... 810,697 
 ..3,566,480
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 87 
 
 APOCRYPHA. 
 Chapters 183 j Verses. . . . 6,081 | Words. . 152,185 
 
 The middle chapter, and the least in the Bible, is Psalm 
 117. 
 
 The middle verse is the eighth of the 118th Psalm. 
 
 The middle line is the 2d of Chronicles, 4th Chapter, and 
 16th verse. 
 
 The word and occurs in the Old Testament 35,543 times. 
 
 The same in the New Testament, 10,684. 
 
 The word Jehovah occurs 1,855 times. 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 The middle book is Proverbs. 
 
 The middle chapter is Job 29. 
 
 The middle verse is the 1st of Chronicles, 20th chapter, 
 between the 17th and 18th verses. 
 
 The least verse is the 1st of Chronicles, 1st chapter, and 
 1st verse. 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 The middle book is the 2d of Thessalonians. 
 
 The middle chapter is between the 13th and 14th of 
 Romans. 
 
 The middle verse is the 17 th chapter of Acts, and 17th 
 verse. 
 
 The least verse is the 17th chapter of John, verse 35. 
 
 The 21st verse of the 7th chapter of Ezra, has all the 
 letters of the alphabet in it. 
 
 The 19th chapter of the 2d of Kings, and the 37th of 
 Isaiah, are alike. 
 
 N. B. Three years are said to have been lost in this 
 curious but idle calculation. 
 
 Price of Bibles. 
 
 In the year 1274, the price of a small Bible, neatly writ- 
 ten, was thirty pounds, which sum was no doubt equal to 
 j^200 of our present money. A good Bible may now be 
 had for three or four shillings. It is said that the building 
 h2
 
 CURIOSITIES 
 
 of two arches of London Bridge cost only ,£25, which is £5 
 less than a copy of the Bible many years aiterwards. Of 
 what incalculable value is the art of printing ! We i-ee its 
 beneficial effects more widely extended than ever, by the 
 means of Sunday Schools, Bible Societies, and Christian 
 Missions. 
 
 Bibliomane]/. 
 
 Bibliomancy, or divination by the Bible, had become so 
 common in the fifth century, that several councils were 
 obliged expressly to forbid it as injurious to religion, and 
 savouring of idolatry. 
 
 This kind of divination was named Sortes Sanctorum, or 
 Sortes Sacra, Lots of the Saints, or Sacred Lots ; and con- 
 sisted in suddenly opening, or dipping into the Bible, and 
 regarding the passage that first presented itself to the 
 eye, as predicting the future lot of the inquirer. The 
 Sortes Sanctorum had succeeded the Sortes Homericae, and 
 Sortes Yirgilianae of the Pagans ; among whom, it was 
 customary to take the work of some famous poet, as Homer 
 or Virgil, and write out different verses on separate scrolls, 
 and afterwards draw one of them ; or else, opening the 
 book suddenly, consider the first verse that presented itself, 
 as a prognostication of future events. Even the vagrant 
 fortune-tellers, like some of the gipsies of our own times, 
 adopted this method of imposing upon the credulity of the 
 ignorant. The nations of the east retain the practice to the 
 present day. The late usurper, Nadir Shah, twice decided 
 upon besieging cities, by opening upon verses of the cele- 
 brated poet Hahz. 
 
 This abuse, which was first introduced into the church 
 about the third century, by the superstition of the people, 
 afterwards gained ground, through the ignorance of some 
 of the clergy, who permitted prayers to be read in the 
 churches for this very purpose. It was, therefore, found ne- 
 cessary to ordain in the council of Vannes, held A. D. 465, 
 " that whoever of the clergy or laity should be detected in 
 the practice of this art, should be cast out of the commu- 
 nion of the church." In 506, the council of Agde renewed the
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 89 
 
 decree ; and, in 578, the council of Auxerre, amongst other 
 kinds of divination, forbade the Lots of the Saints, as they 
 were called, adding, " let all things be done in the name of 
 the Lord }" but those ordinances did not effectually sup- 
 press them, for we find them again noticed and condemned 
 in a capitulary or edict of Charlemagne, in 793. Indeed, 
 all endeavours to banish them from the Christian church 
 appear to have been in vain for many ages. 
 
 Distance of the Sun. 
 
 The distance of the Sun from the earth in round num- 
 bers, is about 95 millions of miles, a distance so prodigious, 
 that a cannon ball, which moves at the rate of about eight 
 miles in a minute, would be something more than twenty- 
 two years in going thither. 
 
 Mock Suns. 
 
 On the 25th of March, 1798, the following curious phe- 
 nomenon was observed at Niort. Between tire hours of six 
 and eight in the morning, the sun appeared, accompanied 
 by two radiant circles, resembling two other suns, one on 
 the right, and the other on the left ; and which, with the 
 real sun as a base, seemed to compose a triangle. These 
 two supernumerary suns were so exceedingly bright, that it 
 was impossible to keep the eyes fixed on them for any 
 length of time. They disappeared gradually ; that on the 
 east disappeared first, and at the end of two hours, they 
 were both invisible. 
 
 Phenomena of this description, though not frequent, 
 have been seen at different periods. Augustine takes notice 
 of two mock suns, which were seen before the Christian 
 sera. Zonaras mentions two seen after the death of Christ ; 
 Palmerius, three seen in 1466 ; Surius, three seen at Wir- 
 temberg in 1514; Fromundus, three seen in 1619; and 
 Cardan, three seen at Venice in 1532. 
 
 In Britain, according to our old chronicles, five suns 
 were plainly seen at one time, and at a great distance from 
 h3
 
 90 CURIOSITIES 
 
 each other, in the year 346; three were seen in 812; 
 three in 953 ; and five in 1233. Lilly mentions three seen 
 on the 19th of November, 1644; and three seen on the 
 28th of February, 1648, A most remarkable phenomenon 
 oftbiskind, where five parhelia were seen at once, is men- 
 tioned in the eighth volume of the New Transactions of the 
 Imperial Academy at St. Petersburgh. 
 
 Wars between England and France. 
 
 1141, one year. — 1161, twenty-five years. — 1211, fifteen 
 years. — 1224, nine years. — 1294, five years.1339, twenty- 
 one years. — 1368, fifty-two years. — 1422, forty-nine years. 
 — 1492, one month. — 1512, two years. — 1521, six years. — 
 1549, one year. — 1557, two years. — 1562, two years, — 
 1627, two years. — 1666, one year. — 1689, ten years. — 
 1702, eleven years. — 1744, four years. — 1756, seven years. 
 — 1776, seven years. — 1793, nine years. — 1803, eleven 
 years. — And lastly, 1815, when this calculation was made, 
 fourteen years; making, within a period of 700 years, 266 
 years of desolating war ! 
 
 Immense Lift. 
 
 IN the journal of North Brabant, for the year 1819, 
 there is a curious narrative of the complete removal of a 
 windmill, over a space of five thousand five hundred and 
 twenty feet ! The removal of the mill was effected in 
 twelve days, from its original site to that which was subse- 
 quently chosen for it. No part of this enormous mass was 
 shaken, and the mill continued in full work during the 
 operation. Even a glass, filled with water, placed in the 
 gallery, suffered no agitation, although the mill advanced, 
 each day, a distance of four hundred and sixty feet. In the 
 same manner the transportation was effected of a house 
 attached to the mill, twenty-three feet deep, and twenty- 
 seven long. This hou.-e was built for the most part of 
 stone ; the removal of it was effected in five daj r s. The 
 machinery for the purpose is said to have been constructed
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 91 
 
 in the simplest manner. The engineer, who directed the 
 operation, was M. Homberger d'Osterwick. 
 
 Extraordinary Draught. 
 
 The following notice is extracted from a New York 
 paper, of November, 1820. 
 
 Alexandria, Nov. 23. 
 
 Extraordinary. — Arrived yesterday in town, at the store 
 of Messrs. Gibson and Lupton, King-street, the waggon and 
 team of Robert W. Hamilton, Esq. from Hamilton's Mills, 
 near Winchester, with a load of fifty-five barrels of flour, 
 weighing eleven thousand nine hundred and ninety pounds. 
 The team is composed of six horses, and the distance which 
 they drew this astonishing load, eight miles. The weight of 
 the waggon, ascertained at the hay-scales, is 2,914 lbs. 
 which, added to that of the flour, makes the sum total 
 4,793 lbs. a weight of 2,465§ lbs. on each horse. Singular 
 as tlie fact is, it was discovered by many of the citizens of 
 our town, that the horses, so far from being wearied, abso- 
 lutely, on several occasions, trotted through the streets 
 under this amazing pressure. 
 
 The length of the waggon is tiventy-six feet eight inches, 
 made by George Bosteyon, of Winchester, and for strength 
 and workmanship, is perhaps equal to any thing of the kind 
 ever constructed in the state. Mr. Hamilton, the proprie- 
 tor of this extraordinary team and load, we conceive entitled 
 to much credit ; his indefatigable attention to the improve- 
 ment of his horses, is amply evinced by this amazing evi- 
 dence of their strength. It will, no doubt, be recollected, 
 that this team ascended the Blue Ridge, and crossed the 
 Shenandoah river, parts of the road esteemed difficult and 
 dangerous. 
 
 The driver entered the town with the national flag flying 
 from the centre of his waggon, accompanied by a great 
 number of citizens, whose curiosity had prompted them to 
 meet it on the road, affording one of the most moral and 
 interesting spectacles, which, for a long time, has been 
 exhibited in this place.
 
 92 CARIOSITIES 
 
 Sailing Chariot. 
 
 A chariot, on wheels, to be impelled by the wind, was 
 constructed, in the last century, by Stephinus, at Scheveling, 
 in Holland, and is celebrated by many writers. Its velocity 
 is said to have been so great, that it would carry eight or 
 ten persons from Scheveling to Putten, which is distant 
 forty-two English miles, in two hours. Plate VII. presents 
 a perspective view of it. A B is the body of the carriage, 
 which is driven before the wind by the sails C D, and guided 
 by the rudder F. The wheels require to be farther asunder, 
 and the axletrees longer, than in ordinary carriages, to pre- 
 vent overturning. 
 
 Carriages of this kind are said to be frequent in China ; 
 and in any wide level country, must be sometimes both 
 pleasant and profitable. The great inconvenience attending 
 the machine is, that it can only go in the direction the wind 
 blows, and even not then, unless it blows strong ; so that 
 after you have got some way on your journey, if the wind 
 should fail, or change, you must cither proceed on foot, or 
 stand still. 
 
 The Hollanders have small vessels, somewhat of this de- 
 scription, which carry one or two persons on the ice, hav- 
 ing a sledge at bottom instead of wheels ; and being made 
 in the form of a boat, if the ice break, the passengers are 
 secured from drowning. 
 
 Tenuity of Gold and Silver Wire. 
 
 Gold-wire, or what commonly goes by that name, is 
 made of cylindrical ingots of silver, covered over with a 
 skin of gold, and then drawn successively through a vast 
 number of holes, each smaller and smaller, till at last, it 
 is brought to a fineness exceeding that of a hair. This 
 admirable ductility, which makes one of the distinguishing 
 characteristics of gold, is no where more conspicuous than 
 in this gilt wire. A cylinder of forty-eight ounces of 
 silver, covered with a coat of gold only weighing one ounce, 
 as Dr. Halley informs us, is usually drawn into a wire, two 
 yards of which weigh no more than one grain ; whence 98
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 93 
 
 yards of the wire weigh no more than 49 grains, and one 
 single grain of gold covers the 98 yards, so that the ten- 
 thousandth part of a grain is above one-eighth of an inch 
 long. 
 
 Silver-wire is the same with gold-wire, except that the 
 latter is gilt, or covered with gold, and the other is not. 
 
 It may be observed, that before the wire is reduced to 
 this excessive fineness, it is drawn through above 140 dif- 
 ferent holes, and that each time they draw it, it is rubbed 
 over afresh with new wax, both to facilitate its passage, 
 and to prevent the silver appearing through it. 
 
 Gold-thread, or spun-gold, is flatted gold, wrapped or 
 laid over a thread of silk, by twisting it with a wheel and 
 iron bobbin. 
 
 The manner of forming gold-wire, and gold-thread, both 
 round and fiat, is performed in the following way: First, 
 an ingot of silver, of 24 pounds, is forged into a cylinder 
 of about an inch in diameter ; then it is drawn through 
 eight or ten holes, of a large coarse wire-drawing iron, both 
 to finish the roundness and to reduce it to about three- 
 fourths of its former diameter. This done, they file it very 
 carefully all over, to take off any filth remaining from the 
 forge ; they then cut it in the middle, and thus make two 
 equal ingots thereof, each about 26 inches long, which they 
 draw through several holes, to take off any inequalities 
 the file may have left, and to render it as smooth and 
 equable as possible. 
 
 W hen the ingot is thus far prepared,they heat it in a char- 
 coal-fire ; then taking some gold leaves, each about four 
 inches square, and weighing twelve grains, they join four, 
 eight, twelve, or sixteen of these, as the wire is intended to 
 be more or less gilt ; and when they are so joined as only to 
 form a single leaf, they are applied over the whole surface 
 of the hot ingot, and burnished or rubbed well down with 
 the blood-stone, to close and smooth them. When gilt, 
 the ingots are laid anew in a coal fire ; and when raised to 
 a certain degree of heat, they go over them a second time 
 with the blood-stone, both to solder the gold more per- 
 fectly, and to finish the polishing. The gilding finished, it 
 remains to draw the ingot into wire. 
 
 In order to this, they pass it through twenty holes of a
 
 94 CURIOSITIES 
 
 moderate drawing- iron, by which it is brought to the 
 thickness of the tag of a lace ; from this time the ingot 
 loses its name, and becomes gold wire. Twenty holes more 
 of a lesser iron, leave it small enough for the least iron ; 
 the finest holes of which last, scarcely exceeding the hair of 
 the head, finish the work. 
 
 To dispose the wire to be spun on silk,they pass it between 
 two rollers of a little mill ; these rollers are of nicely 
 polished steel, and about three inches in diameter. They 
 are set very close to each other, and turned by means of a 
 handle fastened to one of them, which gives motion to the 
 other. The gold wire, in passing between the two, is 
 rendered quite flat, but without losing any thing of its 
 gilding, and is rendered so exceedingly thin and flexible, 
 that it is easily spun on silk thread, by means of a hand- 
 wheel, and so wound on a spool or bobbin. 
 
 Spider's Thread. 
 
 In the Introduction to Entomology, by Kirby and Spence, 
 there is' a very curious description of the process by which 
 the spider weaves its web. After describing the four 
 spinners, as they are termed, from which the visible thread 
 proceeds, the writer goes on to mention, that these are the 
 machinery through which, by a process more singular than 
 that of rope-spinning, the thread is drawn. Each spinner 
 is pierced, like the plate of a wire-drawer, with a multitude 
 of holes, so numerous and exquisitely fine, that a space 
 often not bigger than a pin's point, includes above a thou- 
 sand. Through each of these holes proceeds a thread of 
 an inconceivable tenuity, which, immediately after issuing 
 from the orifice, unites with all the other threads, from the 
 same spinner, into one. Hence from each spinner proceeds 
 a compound thread; and these four threads, at the distance 
 of about one-tenth of an inch from the apex of the spinner, 
 again unite, and form the thread we are accustomed to see, 
 which the spider uses in constructing its web. Thus,a spider's 
 web, even spun by the smallest species, and when so fine, 
 that it is almost imperceptible to our senses, is not, as we 
 suppose, a single line, but a rope composed of at least four
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 95 
 
 thousand strands. But to feel all the wonders of this fact, 
 we must follow Leuwenhoeck in one of his calculations on 
 the subject. This renowned microscopic observer found, 
 by an accurate estimation, that the threads of the minutest 
 spiders, some of which are not larger than a grain of sand, 
 are so fine, that four millions of them would not exceed in 
 thickness, one of the hairs of his beard. Now we know, 
 that each of these threads is composed of above four thou- 
 sand still finer. It follows, therefore, that above sixteen 
 thousand millions of the finest threads which issue from 
 such spiders, are not, altogether, thicker than a human 
 hair ! 
 
 It has long been a question among philosophers, whether 
 it be possible to render the labonrs of the spider subservient 
 to the benefit of mankind. In the earlier part of last 
 century, Bon, of Languedoc, fabricated a pair of stockings, 
 and a pair of gloves, from the threads of spiders. They 
 were nearly as strong as silk, and of a beautiful grey colour. 
 The predacious habits of these animals, however, would 
 seem to oppose an effectual barrier to their being bred up 
 in sufficient numbers to render such a manufactory at all 
 productive. The following arguments against the probabi- 
 lity of any permanent or real advantage resulting from this 
 attempt, were published by Reaumur, whom the Royal 
 Academy had deputed to inquire into the matter. 
 
 The natural fierceness of spiders renders them unfit to 
 be bred and kept together. Four or five thousand being 
 distributed in cells, fifty in some, one or two hundred in 
 others, the big ones soon killed and eat the smaller ones, 
 so that in a short time there were scarcely above one or 
 two left in each cell ; and to this inclination of devouring 
 their own species is attributed the scarcity of spiders, when 
 compared with the vast number of eggs they lay. Reau- 
 mer also affirms, that the web of the spider is inferior in 
 strength and lustre to that of the silk-worm, and produces 
 less of the material fit for use. The thread of the spider's 
 web can only bear a weight of two grains without break- 
 ing ; and the bag sustains the weight of thirty-six grains : 
 the thread of a silk-worm will bear two drams and a half, 
 so that five threads of the spider are neceesary to form a 
 cord equal to that of the silk-worm ; and as it would be
 
 96 CURIOSITIES 
 
 impossible to apply these so closely together as to avoid 
 leaving: any empty spaces, from which the light would not 
 be reflected, the lustre would consequently be eonsiderably 
 Jess : this was noticed by M. de la Hire at the time the 
 stockings were presented to the society. It was farther 
 ©bserved, that spiders afford less silk than silk-worms, the 
 largest bags of the latter weighing four grains, the smaller 
 three grains, — so that 2,304 worms produce a pound of 
 silk. The bags of a spider weigh about one grain ; when 
 cleared of the dust and filth, they lose about two-thirds of 
 that weight. The work of twelve spiders, therefore, only 
 equals that of one silk-worm ; and a pound of silk will re- 
 quire, at least, 27,648 spiders. But as the bags are solely 
 the work of the females, who spin them to deposit their 
 eggs in, there must be kept 55,296" spiders to yield one 
 pound of silk ; and this will apply to the good ones alone, 
 the spiders in gardens barely yielding a twelfth part of 
 the silk of the domestic kinds. Two hundred and eighty 
 of them would not produce more than one silk-worm ; and 
 663,555 such spiders would scarcely yield a pound of 
 silk! 
 
 Walking Blindfolded. 
 
 The difficulty of walking to any given point blindfolded, 
 can only be conceived by those who have made the experi- 
 ment. After wandering about in every possible direction, 
 now east, now west ; at one time forward, at another time 
 backward ; working for a while at the zigzag, then shoot- 
 ing out like an arrow from a bow ; and not unfrequently 
 describing a complete circle like a miller's horse ; the party 
 is generally a thousand times more likely to end his travels 
 at the spot from which he set out, than at the spot to which 
 he wished to go. The following authentic achievment pre- 
 sents as extraordinary an exception to the general experience 
 on this head, as perhaps ever occurred. 
 
 Dennis Hendrick, a stone mason, for a wager of ten 
 guineas, walked from the Exchange in Liverpool, along 
 Deal-street to the corner of Byrom-street (being a distance 
 of three quarters of a mile), blindfolded, and rolling a coach
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 97 
 
 wheel. On starting, there were two plaisters of Burgundy- 
 pitch put on his eyes, and a handkerchief tied over them, to 
 prevent all possibility of his seeing. He started precisely 
 at half-past seven in the morning, and completed his under- 
 taking at twenty minutes past eight, being in fifty minutes. 
 
 Remarkable Epitaph. 
 
 At the entrance of the church of San Salvador, in the 
 city of Oviedo, in Spain, is a most remarkable tomb, 
 erected by a prince named Silo, with a very curious Latin 
 inscription, which may be read two hundred and seventy 
 ways, by beginning with the capital S in the centre. 
 
 Silo Frinceps Fecit, 
 ticefspecnceps fecit 
 icefspecn1ncepsfeci 
 cefspecnirincepsfec 
 efspecnirprincepsfe 
 fspecnirpoprincepsf 
 specnirpoloprinceps 
 pecnirpoliloprincep 
 
 ECNIRPOLlglLOPRINCE 
 PECNIRPOLILOPRINCEP 
 SPECNIRPOLOPRINCEPS 
 FSPECNIRPOPRINCEPSF 
 EFSPECNIRPRINCEPSFE 
 CEFSPECNIRINCEPSFEC 
 ICEFSPECNINCEPSFECI 
 TICEFSPECNCEPSFECIT 
 
 On the tomb are inscribed these letters : 
 
 A. S. E. S. S. T. T. L. 
 
 Which are the initials of the following Latin words : 
 
 Hie situs est Silo, sit tibi terra levis. 
 
 In English. 
 
 " Here lies Silo. May the earth lay light on him " 
 
 i
 
 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Newspapers. 
 
 Mr. Chalmers observes, that it may gratify our national 
 pride, to be told, tbat to tbe wisdom of Elizabeth, and the 
 prudence of Burleigh, we owe the introduction of news- 
 papers. The first was called The English Mercurie, and 
 was printed during the Spanish Armada : it is still pre- 
 served in the British Museum, being dated July 23, 1588. 
 From 1588 to 1622, few of these publications appeared; 
 but the victories of Gustavus Adolphus having excited the 
 curiosity of our countrymen, a weekly paper, called The 
 News of the present Week, was printed. After some time, 
 this was continued under another title, and ultimately it 
 was succeeded by The German and Swedish Intelligencer. 
 These papers were originally issued in the shape of small 
 pamphlets, and continued so till 1661, when Sir Robert 
 l'Estrange published The Public Intelligencer, in the pre- 
 sent shape of newspapers. The London Gazette was pub- 
 lished in 1665, under the title of The Oxford Gazette, it 
 having been printed at Oxford during a Session of Parlia- 
 ment held there, on account of the plague then raging in 
 London ; and from this period, it is curious to trace tbe 
 progression and increase of these interesting vehicles of in- 
 formation. From 1661 to 1688, no less than seventy papers 
 were published under different titles. After the Revolution, 
 The Orange Intelligencer appeared ; and thence to 1 692, 
 there were twenty-six different others brought forward. 
 From an advertisement in The Athenian Gazette of 1696, 
 it appears, tbat the coffee-houses in London were then sup- 
 plied with nine newspapers every week, exclusive of votes 
 of Parliament, but there is no mention of any one printed 
 daily. In 1 689, eighteen papers were published, of which 
 only The London Courant was a daily paper. In 1724, the 
 number was three daily, six weekly, and three new evening 
 papers, every week. In 1815, the number of newspapers 
 in Great Britain and Ireland had risen to 252. Of these, 
 fifty-five were published in London ; fifteen daily, and forty 
 periodically ; 122 in the country parts of England, 26 in 
 Scotland, and 49 in Ireland. 
 
 The total number of copies of these papers, printed dur- 
 ing three months, ending the first of February, 1815, was
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 99 
 
 5,890,621 ; making the annual average about twenty -two 
 millions seven hundred and sixty-two thousand, seven hun- 
 dred and sixty-four ! I 
 
 A rare circle of Friends. 
 
 Sir Henry Blackman, of Lewes, on being knighted in 
 1782, gave a dinner to sixteen friends, with an invitation to 
 them to dine with him annually for forty years ; four of 
 them died during the first four years, but twenty-eight years 
 rolled round before another seat became vacant at the fes- 
 tive board. In 1814 two died, aged between eighty and 
 ninety ; so that ten remained of the original number at the 
 thirty-third anniversary, held in July, 1815 ! 
 
 Modern Patriarch. 
 
 Hufeland, in his Art of prolonging Life, says: "The 
 most extraordinary instances of longevity are to be found 
 among those classes of mankind who, amidst bodily la- 
 bour, and in the open air, lead a simple life, agreeably to 
 nature ; such as farmers, gardiners, hunters, soldiers, and 
 sailors. In these situations, man still attains to the age of 
 140, and even 160." He then enumerates several persons 
 who attained a great age, among whom are Henry Jenkins 
 and Thomas Parr ; the former of whom, at the time of his 
 death, was 169 years old, and the latter upwards of 152; 
 Draakenburg, the Dane, who died in 1772, in the 146th 
 year of his age ; J. Effingham, who died in Cornwall, in 
 the 144th , and the old Prussian soldier, Mittlestedt, who 
 died in 1792, in the 1 12th year of his age. These are some 
 of the most remarkable instances given by Dr. Hufeland ; 
 but in turning over a Dutch dictionary, " Het Algemeen 
 historisch ; geographisch en genealogisch Woordenboek," 
 by Luiscius, Ave have found the following still more extra- 
 ordinary instance of a man who attained the age of 180. 
 As it is little known, we have translated the whole article 
 from the above work. " Czartan (Petrarch), by religion a 
 Greek, was born in the year 1539, and died on the 5th of 
 i 2
 
 100 CURIOSITIES 
 
 January, 1724, at Kofrosch, a village four miles from 
 Ten^war, on the road leading to Karansebes. He had 
 lived, therefore, a hundred and eighty years. At the time 
 when the Turks took Temeswar from the Christians, he 
 was employed in keeping his father's cattle. A few days 
 before his death, he had walked, with the help of a stick, 
 to the post-house at Kosfrosch, to ask charity from the 
 travellers. His eyes were much inflamed, but he still en- 
 joyed a little sight. His hair and beard were of a greenish 
 white colour, like mouldy bread ; and he had a few of his 
 teeth remaining. His son, who was ninety-seven years of 
 age, declared his father had once been the head taller ; that 
 at a great age he married for the third time ; and that he 
 was born in this last marriage. He was accustomed, 
 agreeably to the rules of his religion, to observe fast days 
 with great strictness, and never to use any other food than 
 milk, and certain cakes, called by the Hungarians hollats- 
 chen, together with a good glass of brandy, such as is made 
 in the country. He had descendants in the fifth generation, 
 with whom he sometimes sported, carrying them in his 
 arms. His son, though ninety-seven, was still fresh and 
 vigorous. When field marshal Count Wallis, the com- 
 mandant of Temeswar, heard that this old man was taken 
 sick, he caused a portrait of him to be painted, and when it 
 was almost finished, he expired. This account is extracted 
 from a letter, dated January the 29th, 1724 ; and written 
 by Hamelbranix, the Dutch envoy, at Vienna, to their 
 High Mightinesses, the States General." 
 
 Singular Intermarriage. 
 
 A Mr. Harwood had two daughters by his first wife, the 
 eldest of whom was married to John Coshick ; this Coshick 
 had a daughter by his first wife, whom old Harwood mar- 
 ried, and by her had a son ; therefore, John Coshick's 
 second wife could say as follows : 
 
 My father is my son, and I am my mother's mother; 
 
 My sister is my daughter, and I'm grandmother to my brother.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 101 
 
 Longevity of Artists. 
 
 An incessant devotion to the arts and sciences is often 
 supposed to be unfavourable both to health and longevity, 
 The following lists of the ages of several famous musicians 
 and sculptors, will shew how very unfounded this supposi- 
 tion is. 
 
 AGES OF CERTAIN EMINENT MUSICIANS. 
 
 Tallis 85 
 
 Bird 80 
 
 Child 90 
 
 Wilson 79 
 
 Turner 88 
 
 Holder 82 
 
 Oeighton and Burridge ■ , . 90 
 
 Pepusch 85 
 
 Handel 75 
 
 Arne 74 
 
 Stanley 70 
 
 Boyce 89 
 
 Harrington... 89 
 
 Burney 86 
 
 Randall 80 
 
 Paesiello 84 
 
 Castrucci 80 
 
 Tartoni 78 
 
 Guglielmi 76 
 
 Geminianae 82 
 
 Hays 80 
 
 Cervetto 104 
 
 AGES OF CELEBRATED SCULPTORS. 
 
 Michael Angelo 90 
 
 Bernini 82 
 
 Donatello - 83 
 
 Puget 73 
 
 Tubi 70. 
 
 G. de Pologna 84 
 
 Ghiberti 83 
 
 i3
 
 102 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Bardinelli 72 
 
 Sara'/.in 70 
 
 St. Guilliard 77 
 
 Giradon 85 
 
 Coyswox 80 
 
 LeFautre 84 
 
 Vaucleve 87 
 
 M. Anguin 85 
 
 F. Angwir 76 
 
 Coston 75 
 
 Le Moyne 74 
 
 Adam 77 
 
 Rhysbrack 75 
 
 Reynauldia 79 
 
 Among these names will be found some of the most 
 laborious and remarkable of those who have devoted their 
 lives to either of these arts. 
 
 Signs of the Weather. 
 
 Signs of Bain, from Birds. — Sea and fresh water-fowls, 
 such as cormorants, sea-gulls, moor-hens, &c. flying from 
 sea, or the fresh waters to land, shew bad weather at hand ; 
 land-fowls flying to waters, and those shaking, washing, 
 and noisy, especially in the evening, denote the same ; 
 geese, ducks, coots, &c. picking, shaking, washing, and 
 noisy ; rooks and crows in flocks, and suddenly disappear- 
 ing ; pyes and jays in flocks, and very noisy ; the raven or 
 hooded crow crying in the morning, with an interruption 
 in its notes, or crows being very clamorous at evening; 
 the heron, bittern, and swallow, flying low ; birds forsak- 
 ing their food and flying to their nests; poultry going to 
 roost, or pigeons to their dove-bouse ; small birds seeming 
 to duck, and wash in the sand ; the late and early crowing 
 of the cock, and clapping his wings ; the early sinking of 
 wood-larks ; the early chirping of sparrows ; the early note 
 of the chaffinch near houses ; the dull appearance of robin- 
 red-breasts near houses; peacocks and owls unusually 
 clamorous.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 103 
 
 Of Wind, from Birds. — Sea and fresh water fowls gather- 
 ing in flocks to the banks, and there sporting, especially 
 in the morning; wild geese flying high, and in flocks, and 
 directing their course eastward ; coots restless and clamo- 
 rous ; the hoopoe loud in his note ; the king's-fisher taking 
 to land; rooks darting and shooting in the air, or sporting 
 on the banks of fresh waters ; and lastly, the appearance 
 of the malefigie at sea, is a certain forerunner of violent 
 winds, and (early in the morning) denotes horrible tem- 
 pests at land. 
 
 Of Fair Weather, from Birds. — Halcyons, sea -ducks, 
 &c. leaving the land, and flocking to the sea , kites, he- 
 ron, bitterns, and swallows flying high, and loud in their 
 notes; lapwings restless and clamorous; sparrows, after 
 sunrise, restless and noisy; ravens, hawks, and kestrils, (in 
 the morning) loud in their notes ; robin-red-breast mounted 
 high, and loud in his song ; larks soaring high and loud in 
 their songs; owls hooting with an easy and clear note; 
 bats appearing early in the evening. 
 
 Of Rain, from Beasts. — Asses braying more frequently 
 than usual ; hogs playing, scattering their food, or carry- 
 ing straw in their mouths ; oxen snuffing the air, looking 
 to the south, while lying on their right sides, or licking 
 their hoofs ; cattle gasping for air at noon ; calves running 
 violently and gamboling ; deer, sheep, or goats, leaping, 
 fighting, or pushing ; cats washing their face and ears ; dogs 
 eagerly scraping up earth; foxes barking; rats and mice 
 more restless than usual ; a grumbling noise in the belly of 
 hounds. 
 
 Of Rain, from Insects. — Worms crawling out of the earth 
 in great abundance ; spiders falling from their webs; flies 
 dull and restless ; ants hastening to their nests ; bees hast- 
 ening home, and keeping close in their hives; frogs draw- 
 ing nigh to houses, and croaking from ditches ; gnats 
 singing more than usual ; but if gnats play in the open air, 
 or if hornets, wasps, and glow-worms appear plentifully in 
 the evening, or if spiders' webs are seen in the air, or on 
 the grass : all these denote fair and warm weather at 
 hand. 
 
 Of Rain, from the Sun. — Sun rising dim or waterish ; 
 rising red with blackish beams mixed along with his rays;
 
 104 CURIOSITIES 
 
 rising in a musty or muddy colour ; rising red and turning 
 blackish ; setting under a thick cloud ; setting with a red 
 sky in the east. 
 
 Sudden rains never last long ; but when the air grows 
 thick by degrees, and the sun, moon, and stars shine 
 dimmer and dimmer, then it is like to rain six hours 
 usually. 
 
 Of Wind, from the Sun. — Sun rising pale and setting red, 
 with an iris ; rising large in surface ; rising with a red sky 
 in the north; setting of a blood-colour ; setting pale, with 
 one or more dark circles, or accompanied with red streaks ; 
 seeming concave or hollow; seeming divided, great storms ; 
 parhelia, or mock suns, never appear, but are followed 
 by tempest. 
 
 Of Fair Weather ■, from the Sun. — Sun rising clear, having 
 set clear the night before ; rising while the clouds about 
 him are driving to the west; rising with an iris around 
 him, and that iris wearing away equally on all sides, then 
 expect fair and settled weather ; rising clear and not hot ; 
 setting in red clouds, according to the old observation : 
 
 The evening red and morning grey 
 Are the sure signs of a fair day. 
 
 Choosing a King. 
 
 The Tyrians having been much weakened by long wars 
 with the Persians, their slaves rose in a body, slew their 
 masters and their children, and then seized on their houses 
 and wives whom they married. The slaves having thus 
 got possession of all, consulted about the choice of a king, 
 and agreed that he who could first discern the sun rise 
 should be king. One of them, being more merciful than 
 the rest, had, in the general massacre, spared his master 
 Straton, and his son, whom he hid in a cave, and to his 
 old master he now resorted for his advice as to his com- 
 petition. What was Straton's advice ? 
 
 Straton advised his slave, that when others looked to the 
 east he should look towards the west. Accordingly, when 
 the rebel tribe had all assembled in the fields, and every 
 man's eyes were fixed upon the east, Straton's slave, turn-
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 105 
 
 ing his back upon the rest, looked only westward. He was 
 scoffed at by every one for his absurdity, but immediately 
 he espied the sunbeams upon the high towers and chimneys 
 in the city, and announcing the discovery, claimed the crown 
 as his reward. 
 
 Remarkable Equestrian Expeditions. 
 
 Mr. Cooper Thornhill, an innkeeper at Stilton, in 
 Huntingdonshire, rode from that place to London and back 
 again, and also a second time to London, in one day, which 
 made a journey in all 213 miles. He undertook to ride this 
 journey with several horses in 15 hours, but performed it 
 in 12 hours and a quarter. This remarkable feat gave rise 
 to a poem called the Stilton Hero, which was published in 
 the year 1745. 
 
 Some years ago, Lord James Cavendish rode from Hyde 
 Park Corner to Windsor Lodge, which is upwards of twenty 
 miles, in less than an hour. 
 
 Sir Robert Carey rode nearly 300 miles in less than three 
 days, when he went from London to Edinburgh to inform 
 king James of the death of queen Elizabeth. He had 
 several falls and sore bruises on the road, which occasioned 
 his going battered and bloody into the royal presence. 
 
 On the 3d of May, 1758, a young lady, who, at New- 
 market, had laid a considerable wager, that she could ride 
 a thousand miles in 1000 hours, finished her match in little 
 more than two-thirds of the time. At her coming in, the 
 country people strewed flowers in her way. 
 
 On the 29th of August, 1750, was decided at Newmarket 
 a remarkable wager for 1000 guineas, laid by Theobald 
 Taff, Esq. against the Earl of March and Lord Eglinton, 
 who were to provide a four wheel carriage with a man in it, 
 to be drawn by four horses 19 miles in an hour. The 
 match was performed in 53 minutes and 24 seconds. An 
 engraved model of the carriage used to be sold in the 
 print shops. 
 
 The celebrated Marquis de la Fayette, rode, in August 
 1778, from Rhode Island to Boston, nearly 70 miles distant, 
 in seven hours, and returned in six and a half. 
 
 Mr. Fozard, of Park Lane, London, for a wager of ^150 
 against ^'100, undertook to ride 40 miles in two hours,
 
 10G 
 
 CURIOSITIES 
 
 over Epsom course. He rode two miles more than had 
 been agreed on, and performed it in five minutes under 
 time, in October 1789. 
 
 Mr. Wilde, an Irish gentlemen, lately rode 127 miles on 
 the course of Kildare, in Ireland, in six hours and twenty 
 minutes, for a wager of 1000 guineas. 
 
 The famous Count de Montgomery escaped from the 
 massacre of Paris in 1572, through the swiftness of his 
 horse, which, according to a manuscript at that time, car- 
 ried him 30 leagues, or 90 miles, without halting. 
 
 TABLE, 
 
 SHEWING THE VELOCITY OF THE WIND IN DIFFERENT 
 CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 Miles per 
 
 Feet per 
 
 Perpendicular force on Square Foot, 
 
 Hour. 
 
 Second. 
 
 in Avoirdupoise Pounds and Parte. 
 
 1 
 2 
 3 
 
 1-47 
 2-93 
 4-4 
 
 •0?0 (, hardly perceptible. 
 •044 l ^ ust perceptible. 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 5-87 
 7'33 
 
 • 123 l" Gently pleasant. 
 
 10 
 15 
 
 14-67 
 22' 
 
 1-107 i Peasant brisk. 
 
 20 
 25 
 
 29-34 
 3667 
 
 1-968) , r . . , 
 3-075/ Ver y brisk ' 
 
 30 
 35 
 
 4401 
 51-34 
 
 4-429 ) „. , . , 
 6-027 J Hl S hwind - 
 
 40 
 45 
 
 58-68 
 66-01 
 
 9-963 J Very high wind. 
 
 50 
 
 73-35 
 
 12-300 Storm or tempest. 
 
 60 
 
 88-02 
 
 17-715 Great storm. 
 
 80 
 
 117-36 
 
 3 J -490 Hurricane. 
 
 ~\ Hurricane, that tears 
 
 100 
 
 146-7 
 
 49'200 >up trees and carries 
 J buildings before it.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 107 
 
 Antediluvian Patriarchs. 
 
 Adam lived 930 years. 
 
 Seth 912 do. 
 
 Enos 905 do. 
 
 Canaan 910 do. 
 
 Mahalaleel 895 do. 
 
 Jared 962 do. 
 
 Enoch 365 do. 
 
 Methusalem 969 do. 
 
 Lamech 777 do. 
 
 Noah, who lived before and after the 
 
 Deluge, in all 950 do. 
 
 The Unicorn. 
 
 The existence of such an animal as the unicorn has long 
 been considered as purely fabulous, but very recent ac- 
 counts seem to leave no doubt of its reality. A Major 
 Latter, commanding in the Rajah of Sikkim's territories in 
 the hilly country, East of Nepauk, in a communication 
 addressed to Adjutant-General Nicol, and transmitted by 
 him to the Marquis of Hastings, expressly states, that the 
 unicorn exists at this moment, in the interior of Thibet, 
 where it is well known to the inhabitants. " This (we copy 
 from the Major's letter,) " is a very curious fact, and it may 
 be necessary to mention bow the circumstance became known 
 to me. In a Thibetian manuscript containing tbe names of 
 different animals, procured the other day from the hills, the 
 ■unicorn is classed under the head of those whose hoofs are 
 divided ; it is called the one-horned tso'po. Upon enquiring 
 what kind of animal it was, to our astonishment, the person 
 who brought the manuscript described exactly the unicorn 
 of the ancients ; saying, that it was a native of the interior 
 of Thibet, about the size of a tattoo, a horse from 12 to 13 
 hands high,) fierce and extremely wild ; seldom if ever 
 caught alive, but frequently shot j and that the flesh was
 
 108 CURIOSITIES 
 
 used for food The person who gave me this information, 
 has repeatedly seen these animals, and eaten the flesh of 
 them. They go together in herds, like our wild buffaloes, 
 and are frequently met with on the borders of the Great 
 Desert, about a month's journey from Lassa, in that part of 
 the country inhabited by the wandering Tartars." 
 
 This communication is accompanied by a drawing made 
 by the messenger from recollection; it bears some resem- 
 blance to a horse, but has cloven hoofs, a long curved horn 
 growing out of the forehead, and a boar-shaped tail, like 
 that of the " /era merioceros," described by Pliny. From 
 its herding together, as the unicorn in Scriptures is said to 
 do, as well as from tbe rest of the description, it is evident 
 that it cannot be the rhinoceros, which is a solitary animal; 
 besides, Major Latter states, that, in the Thibetian manu- 
 script, the rhinoceros is described under the name of serv a, 
 and classed with the elephant ; " neither," says he, " is it 
 the wild horse (well known in Thibet), for that has also a 
 different name, and is classed in the MS. with the animals 
 which have the hoof undivided." " I have written, (he 
 subjoins) to the Sachia Lama, requesting him to procure 
 me a perfect skin of the animal, with the head, horns, and 
 hoofs , but it will be a long time before I can get it down, 
 for they are not to be met with nearer than a month's 
 journey from Lassa." 
 
 Magic Square of Squares. 
 
 The Magic Square of Squares, exhibited in Plate VIII. 
 is found by dividing the great square into 256 small squares, 
 in which all the numbers from 1 to 256 are placed in 16 
 columns, which may be taken either horizontally or ver- 
 tically. The properties are as follow : 
 
 1. The sum of sixteen numbers in each column, vertical 
 and horizontal, is 2056. 
 
 2. Every half column, vertical and horizontal, makes 
 1028, or half of 2056. 
 
 3. Half a diagonal ascending, added to half a diagonal 
 descending, makes 2056 ; taking these half diagonals from
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 109 
 
 the ends of any sides of the square to the middle thereof, 
 and so reckoning them either upward or downward, or 
 sideways, from left to right hand, or from right to left. 
 
 4. The same, with all the parallels to the half diagonals, 
 as many as can be drawn in the great square; for, any two 
 of them being directed upward and downward, from the 
 place where they begin, to that where they end, their sums 
 will make 2056. The same downward and upward in like 
 manner : or all the same, if taken sideways to the middle, 
 and back to the same side again. — N.B. one set of these 
 half diagonals and their parallels is drawn in the same 
 square, upward and downward. Another such set may be 
 drawn from any of the other three sides. 
 
 5. The four corner numbers in the great square, added 
 to the four central numbers therein, make 1028 ; equal to 
 the half sum of any vertical or horizontal column, which 
 contains sixteen numbers ; and equal to half a diagonal or 
 its parallel. 
 
 6. If a square hole (equal in breadth to four of the little 
 squares) be cut in paper, through which any of the 16* 
 little squares in the great square may be seen, and the 
 paper belaid on the great square, the sum of all the 16 
 numbers, seen through the hole, will be equal to the sum 
 of the 16 numbers in any horizontal or vertical column, 
 Viz. to 2056. 
 
 Brevity of Life. 
 
 An ancient register, which may be depended upon, gives 
 us the following very mortifying instances of the brevity of 
 human life, of a hundred persons, who were born at the 
 same time. 
 
 At the end of six years, there remained only. . 64 
 
 At the end of sixteen years 46 
 
 At the end of twenty-six years 26 
 
 At the end of thirty-six years 16 
 
 At the end of forty-six years 10 
 
 At the end of fifty-six years 6 
 
 At the end of sixty-six years 3 
 
 At the end of seventy-six years , 1 
 
 K
 
 110 CURIOSITIES 
 
 The Month of April. 
 
 The month of April has been remarkable for its fatality 
 to celebrated women. 
 
 Petrarch's Laura, died on the 6th of April. 
 Diana of Poictiers, on the 26th. 
 Queen Elizabeth of England, tbe 3d. 
 Christina Queen of Sweden, the 19th. 
 Gabrielle d'Estrees, the 9th. 
 Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the 5th. 
 Madame de Sevign6, the 14th. 
 Madame de Maintenon, the loth. 
 Madame de Caylus, the 15th. 
 Madame de Pompadour, the 15th. 
 Judith Queen of France, the 19th. 
 Jeanne de Navarre, the 2d. 
 
 Numerical Coincidences. 
 
 The marriage of Louis XIII. of France, with the Princess 
 Ann of Austria, met with many obstacles, but was ulti- 
 mately brought about in consequence of the following 
 weighty considerations. 
 
 The name of Louis, or according to the ancient or- 
 thography, Lays de Bourbon, contained thirteen letters ; 
 he was in the thirteenth year of his age ; and he was 
 the thirteenth King of France of the name of Louis. 
 The Princess Anne d'Autriche had also thirteen letters in 
 her name ; she too was in her thirteenth year ; and there 
 were thirteen princesses of the same name in the house of 
 Spain. Nay, more, Louis and Anne were born on the 
 same day, of the same month, of the same year. In short, 
 nothing could be more obvious than that they were born for 
 each other ! 
 
 Nothing was more common in former times than such 
 puerile combinations of circumstances. Similar to the 
 above was the play on the number fourteen, as connected 
 with the life of Henry the Fourth. He was born in the 
 fourteenth century, fourteen years and fourteen decades 
 after Jesus Christ; he came into the world on the 14th of
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. Ill 
 
 December, and left it on the 14th of May; he lived four 
 times fourteen years, four times fourteen days, and fourteen 
 weeks ; and there were fourteen letters in his name, Henri 
 de Bourbon. 
 
 To use the Sun-dial as a Moon-dial. 
 
 If any one wishes, out of curiosity or necessity, to learn 
 what the hour is by the moon, he may calculate it by the 
 shadow which the moon casts upon the sun-dial ; only it is 
 necessary to know the moon's age, which may be found in 
 the almanack. If the new moon happen in the morning, 
 the present day is taken into the account ; but, if it happen 
 after noon, the following day is counted the first. The 
 moon's age is to be multiplied by four and divided by five ; 
 the quotient must be either added to the hours which the 
 shadow indicates on the sun-dial, and the sum gives the 
 time sought, or the hour shewn by the moon upon the dial 
 is subtracted from the quotient, and the remainder gives 
 the hour sought. The first is to be done when the shadow 
 falls on an hour of the afternoon, and the latter when it 
 falls upon an hour of the forenoon. The following examples 
 will illustrate this. 
 
 1st. Suppose a countryman returns home in the evening, 
 the moon being ten days old, and finds that the shade cast 
 by the moon on the sun-dial is half-past two, or that the 
 shadow cast by the moon falls on the place at which the 
 shadow cast by the sun stands at half past two. The ques- 
 tion is, what o'clock was it when the peasant came home ? 
 The answer is calculated as follows : 
 
 The moon's age 10 days +4=40, which, divided by 5, 
 produces 8. The time, therefore, is 8 when the moon was 
 in the meridian, and 8 + 2§ = 10§, or half past ten, the 
 hour sought. 
 
 2d. Suppose the moon to have been 18 days old, and the 
 shadow cast by it on the sun-dial to have marked 11. This 
 time is subtracted from the hour when the moon was in 
 the meridian; thus, moon's age 18 days +4 = 72, which, 
 divided by 5, produces 14f, or 2 hours 24 minutes past 
 midnight, at which time the moon was in the meridian 
 k2
 
 112 CURIOSITIES 
 
 on that day, and from which tne hour marked hy the 
 shadow must be deducted. The shadow shews here 11 
 o'clock in the forenoon, or one hour before noon, which 
 deducted from 2 hours 24 minutes, gives 1 hour 24 minutes 
 past 1 o'clock. 
 
 *++>* ■** ■*-*■ 
 
 Diving Bell. 
 
 To obviate the inconveniences of diving, to those who 
 have not the fabled power of a Nicholas, different instru- 
 ments have been contrived. The chief of these is the 
 diving bell, which is most conveniently made in the form 
 of a truncated cone, the smaller base being closed and the 
 larger open. It is to be poised with lead, and so suspended 
 that the vessel may sink full of air with its open end down- 
 wards, and as near as may be in a situation parallel to the 
 horizon, so as to close with the surface of the water all at 
 once. Under this covercle, the diver, sitting, sinks down 
 with the included air to the depth desired. Dr. Halley 
 contrived some additions to the apparatus, whereby not 
 only to recruit and refresh the air from time to time, but 
 also to keep the water wholly out of it at any depth. The 
 manner in which this was effected he relates in the follow- 
 ing words : 
 
 " The bell I made use of was of wood, containing about 
 sixty cubic feet in its concavity, and was of the form of a 
 truncated cone, whose diameter at the top was three feet, 
 and at the bottom five. This I coated with lead so heavy 
 that it would sink empty ; and I so distributed the weight 
 about its bottom that it would go down in a perpendicular 
 direction, and no other. In the top I fixed a strong but 
 clear glass as a window to let in the light from above, and 
 likewise a cock to let out the air that had been breathed ; 
 and below, about a yard under the bell, I placed a stage 
 which hung by three ropes, each of which was charged with 
 about one hundred weight to keep it steady. This machine 
 I suspended from the mast of a ship by a sprit, which was 
 sufficiently secured by stays to the mast head, and was 
 directed by braces to carry it overboard clear of the ship's 
 side, and to bring it again within board as occasion re- 
 quired.
 
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 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 113 
 
 " To supply ail* to this bell when under water, I caused 
 a couple of barrels of about thirty-six gallons each, to be 
 cased with lead, so as to sink empty ; each of them having 
 a bung-hole in its lowest part, to let in the water as the air in 
 them condensed in their descent, and to let it out again 
 when they were drawn up full from below. And to a hole 
 in the uppermost part of these barrels I fixed a leathern 
 trunk or hose, well liquored with bees'-wax and oil, and 
 long enough to fall below the bung-hole, being kept down by 
 a weight appended, so that the weight in the upper part of 
 the barrels could not escape, unless the lower ends of these 
 hose were first lifted up. 
 
 " The air barrels being thus prepared, I fitted them with 
 tackle proper to make them rise and fall alternately, after 
 the manner of two buckets in a well, which was done with 
 so much ease, that two men with less than half their strength 
 could perform all the labour required ; and in their descent 
 they were directed by lines fastened to the under edge of 
 the bell, which passed through rings on both sides the 
 leathern hose in each barrel, so that sliding down by these 
 lines they came readily to the hand of a man who stood on 
 the stage on purpose to receive them, and to take up the 
 ends of the hose into the bell. Through these hose, as soon 
 as their ends came above the surface of the water in the bar- 
 rels, all the air that was included in the upper parts of them 
 was blown with great force into the bell, whilst the water 
 entered at the bung-holes below, and filled them ; and as 
 soon as the air of one barrel had been thus received, upon 
 a signal given, that was drawn up, and at the same time the 
 other descended ; and, by an alternate succession, furnished 
 air so quick, and in so great plenty, that I myself have 
 been one of five who have been together at the bottom in 
 nine or ten fathom water, for above an hour and a half at 
 a time, without any sort of ill consequences ; and I might 
 have continued there as long as I pleased, for any thing 
 that appeared to the contrary. Besides, the whole cavity 
 of the bell was kept entirely free from water, so that I sat 
 on a bench which was diametrically placed near the bottom, 
 wholly dressed, with all my clothes on. I only observed 
 that it was necessary to let down gradually at first, at about 
 twelve feet at a time, and then to stop, and drive out the air 
 k 3
 
 114 CURIOSITIES 
 
 that entered, by receiving three or four barrels of fresh air 
 before I descended farther. But being arrived at the depth 
 designed, I then let out as much of the hot air that had been 
 breathed, as each barrel would replenish with cool by means 
 of the cock at the top of the bell, through whose aperture, 
 though very small, the air would rush with so much vio- 
 lence as to make the surface of the sea boil, and to cover it 
 with a white foam, notwithstanding the weight of the water 
 over us. 
 
 " Thus, I found that I could do anything that required 
 to be done just under us ; and, that by taking off the stage, 
 I could, for a space as wide as the circuit of the bell, lay the 
 sea so far dry, as not to be over-shoes thereon ; and by the 
 glass window so much light was transmitted, that when the 
 sea was clear, and especially when the sun shone, I could 
 see to write or read ; much more to fasten or lay hold of 
 any thing under us that was to be taken up ; and by the re- 
 turn of the air-barrels, I often sent up orders written with 
 an iron pen, on small plates of lead, directing how to move 
 us from place to place, as occasion required. At other times, 
 when the water was troubled and thick, it would be as dark 
 as night below; but, in such cases, I have been able to keep 
 a candle burning in the bell as long as I pleased, notwith- 
 standing the great expense of air necessary to maintain 
 flame. By an additional contrivance, I found it not im- 
 practicable for a diver to go out of an engine to a good 
 distance from it, the air being conveyed to him with a con- 
 tinued stream by small flexible pipes, which pipes would 
 have served as a clue to direct him back again when he 
 would return to the bell." 
 
 Plate IX. exhibits a representation of Dr. Halley's bell, 
 with the divers at work. 
 
 The greatest improvement, however, which the diving- 
 bell ever received, was from the late unfortunate Mr. 
 Spalding, of Edinburgh. Dr. Halley's bell was attended 
 with some inconveniences, which only require to be men- 
 tioned, to shew that they were of very dangerous con- 
 sequences. These are, first, that by Dr. Halley's con- 
 struction, .the sinking or raising of the bell depends 
 entirely on the people who are at the surface of the 
 water ; and as the bell, even when in the water, has a very
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 115 
 
 considerable weight, the raising of it not only requires a 
 great deal of labour, but there is a possibility of the rope 
 breaking by which it is raised, and thus every person in the 
 bell, would inevitably perish. Second, as there are in 
 many places of the sea, rocks which lie at a considerable 
 depth, the figure of which cannot possibly be perceived from 
 above, there is danger that some of their ragged prominences 
 may catch hold of one of the edges of the bell in its descent, 
 and thus overset it before any signal can be given to those 
 above, which would infallibly be attended with the destruc- 
 tion of the people in the bell; and, as it must always be 
 unknown before trial, what kind of a bottom the sea has in 
 any place, it is plain, that without some contrivance to ob- 
 viate this last danger, the descent in Dr. Halley's bell is 
 not at all advisable. 
 
 To remedy the first inconvenience, Mr. Spalding con- 
 trived a balance weight, which should hang down a con- 
 siderable way below the mouth of the bell. In case the 
 edge of the bell is caught by any obstacle, the balance- 
 weight is immediately lowered down, so that it may rest 
 upon the bottom. By this means, the bell is lightened, so 
 that all danger of oversetting is removed ; for, being lighter, 
 without the balance weight, than an equal quantity of water, 
 it is evident, that the bell will rise as far as the length of 
 the rope affixed to the balance-weight will allow it. This 
 weight, therefore, serves as a kind of anchor to keep the 
 bell at any particular depth, which the divers may think 
 necessary; or, by pulling it quite up, the descent may be 
 continued to the very bottom. 
 
 By a second very ingenious contrivance, Mr. Spalding 
 rendered it possible for the divers to raise the bell with all 
 the weights appended to it, even to the surface, or to stop 
 at any particular depth, as they think proper ; and, thus, 
 they could still be safe, even though the rope designed for 
 pulling up the bell was broke. 
 
 Plate X. is a representation of the whole diving apparatus 
 of Mr. Spalding. Two air barrels are represented in this 
 figure, but Mr. Spalding was of opinion, that one capable 
 of containing thirty gallons, was sufficient for an ordinary 
 machine.
 
 13G CURIOSITIES 
 
 An extract from Mr. Spalding's account of his submarine 
 excursions, may prove interesting to the reader. 
 
 " Having a large concern in the cargo of the Peggy, 
 Thomas Boswell, master, from London to Leith, with a 
 very full and valuable loading; this vessel, with two large 
 ships belonging to Newcastle and Shields, were, in a severe 
 storm, wrecked on the Scares, or Fern Islands, in the 
 night of the 3d or morning of the 4th of December, 1774, 
 when all the crew and passengers perished ; the light goods 
 thrown on shore from Sunderland Point to Holy Island, 
 gave the first intelligence of our loss. 
 
 " At several meetings of the traders, I was unanimously 
 requested to take the management of this business, and 
 collect what could be recovered of the cargo and vessel. 
 This, to the utmost of my power, at that severe season of 
 the year, I performed, but never found any part of my own 
 property. 
 
 " On this occasion the utility of Dr. Halley's diving-bell 
 occurred to me in the strongest manner ; pai'ticularly as I 
 thought I had discovered the place where it might rea- 
 sonably be presumed the bottom of our vessel lay, de- 
 pressed in the water by the heavy goods usually stowed 
 in the lower tiers. 
 
 " At my return to Edinburgh, I consulted every author 
 I could find, on the subject of diving, and the diving- 
 bell ; and in June last made repeated trials in the Roads of 
 Leith, in various depths of five, six, and eight fathoms 
 water, making several alterations which experience sug- 
 gested. 
 
 <( Having favourable weather, I sailed to the Scares with 
 my brother and three sailors I had brought with me from 
 Leith ; also two pilots from Bamborough and Warren. 
 
 " By the calmness of the weather, it was four in the 
 afternoon, about high water, before I could go down, at a 
 small distance from the place where I judged the wreck to 
 lie : the depth was about ten fathoms. I happily alighted 
 on a fiat part of the rock, within a small space of a dreadful 
 chasm, and had just gone two steps with my machine, when 
 the terror of the two pilots was so great, that, in spite of 
 my brother, they brought me up very precipitately, before
 
 Tlatz ECto face/zJRG. 
 
 HAX,LEY§ Tj\
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 117 
 
 I had in any degree examined around me. On coming into 
 the boat, they remonstrated on the danger of the machine 
 being overturned, either on the wreck or the rocks, and 
 also on the impossibility of raising any of the weighty 
 goods with so small a purchase, in an open boat, where, at 
 this season, no large vessel would venture to lie, as the 
 nights were now so long, and only two passages for a small 
 vessel to run through, in case of a gale of easterly or 
 southerly wind ; one of the passages extremely narrow, and 
 both of them dangerous. As the tide now ran in the face 
 of the rock we lay at, the pilots would not consent to lie at 
 anchor any longer ; lest wind and tide being both contrary, 
 they should not be able to conduct us safely through the 
 islands before it was dark. 
 
 " I was obliged to comply, very uuwillingly, with their 
 intreaties ; though part of their assertions came too truly 
 to pass; for, in sailing home, we cleared the rocks and 
 islands with difficulty, but not before eleven o'clock at 
 night, and even then with hard labour. 
 
 " Convinced, from this, that with an open boat nothing 
 could be accomplished to purpose, and except in June and 
 July, no man would risk himself with me in a sloop, to 
 continue a few days and nights at anchor there ; I was 
 obliged to abandon this ultimate aim of all my attempts : 
 yet, though my boat was too small to raise any great 
 weight, I determined to take a view of the guns of a 
 Dutch ship of war lost in the year 1704, and as they lay 
 two or three miles nearer the land, I could execute this 
 design with less difficulty, especially as the weather con- 
 tinued still favourable. Having procured all intelligence 
 possible, we went to the place; and, being joined by Air. 
 Blacket, tacksman of the islands, his son, and several other 
 brave fellows, (my two pilots, though still with me, having 
 no stomach for the service,) I went down four different 
 times, but could find no marks of any wreck, notwithstand- 
 ing my walking about in five or six fathoms water, as far 
 as it was thought safe to allow rope to the bell ; continuing 
 generally twenty minutes or more each time, at the bottom. 
 On this occasion I was obliged to carry a cutting-hook and 
 knife, to clear away the sea-weeds, which at this place are 
 very thick and strong ; without this method T could not
 
 118 CURIOSITIES 
 
 move about. At the fifth going down, each trial being in a 
 different place, I was agreeably surprised to find a large 
 grove of tall weeds, all of them from six to eight feet high, 
 with large tufted tops, mostly growing in regular ranges, 
 as far as the eye could veach; a variety of small lobsters, 
 and other shell-fish, swimming about at intervals. 
 
 " On a survey of the ground, I found n^-self on the 
 extremity of the place where the long looked-for cannon 
 lay, and one very large piece was nearly covered with 
 round stones, thrown upon it by storms from the south- 
 east. By the appearance and sound, I judged it to be iron ; 
 but, to form a more certain idea, I tried to pull up a strong 
 weed, expecting some part of the rust, if iron, would 
 adhere to the fibres of the root ; but my strength was now 
 exhausted almost to fiiintness, by such violent exertions in 
 moving about during a space of nearly three hours ; yet still 
 I determined, if possible, to have this weed. I twisted the 
 bushy top round one of the hooks at the mouth of the bell, 
 on which part of the weight for sinking the machine hung ; 
 then, giving the signal, brought the weed along with me. 
 To one side of the root was fastened a piece of rock, about 
 seven pounds weight ; in the middle, a piece of decayed oak, 
 very black ; on the other side, a black substance, which, 
 on a few hours' exposure to the air, changed into a dull 
 reddish colour, resembling crocus martis. 
 
 " Pressing business requiring me at home the Monday 
 following, 1 set sail for Leith ; our compass being attracted 
 by the great quantity of iron-work in my boat, we were, 
 during the night, in the greatest danger, being twice 
 entangled amongst the rocks, and very much chilled with 
 the cold, for the want of proper cover : but, escaping these 
 dangers, we next morning safely arrived at Leith." 
 
 The diving bell was employed in several gi*eat under- 
 takings, as far back as the end of the sixteenth century. 
 When the English, in 1558, dispersed the Spanish fleet, 
 called the invincible Armada, part of the ships went to the 
 bottom near the Isle of Mull, on the western coast cf Scot- 
 land ; and some of these, according to the accounts of the 
 Spanish prisoners, contained great riches. This report 
 excited from time to time the avarice of speculators, and 
 gave rise to several attempts to procure part of the lost
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 119 
 
 treasure. In the year 1665, a person was so fortunate as 
 to bring up some cannon, which were not however of suffi- 
 cient value to defray the expences. In the year 1680, 
 William Phipps, a native of America, formed a project for 
 searching and unloading a rich Spanish ship sunk on the 
 coast of Hispaniola, and presented his plan in such a 
 plausible manner, that king Charles II. gave him a ship, 
 and furnished him with every thing necessary for the un- 
 dertaking. He set sail in the year 1683, but, being unsuc- 
 cessful, returned again in great poverty, though with a firm 
 conviction of the practicability of his scheme. By a sub- 
 scription, promoted chiefly by the Duke of Albermarle, 
 the son of the celebrated Gen. Monk, Phipps was enabled in 
 1678 to try his fortune once more, having previously 
 engaged to divide the profit according to the twenty shares 
 of which the subscription consisted. At first, all his labour 
 proved fruitless ; but, at last, when his patience was almost 
 entirely exhausted, he was so lucky as to bring up from the 
 depth of from six to seven fathoms so much treasure, that 
 he returned to England with the value of two hundred 
 thousand pounds sterling. Of this sum, he himself got 
 about sixteen, others say twenty thousand; and the Duke, 
 ninety thousand pounds. After he came back, some per- 
 sons endeavoured to persuade the King to seize both the 
 ship and the cargo, under a pretence that Phipps, when he 
 solicited for his Majesty's permission, had not given accu- 
 rate information respecting the business. But the King 
 answered, with much greatness of mind, that he knew 
 Phipps to be an honest man, and that he and his friends 
 should share the whole among them, had he returned with 
 double the value. His Majesty even conferred upon him 
 the honour of knighthood, to shew how much he was 
 satisfied with his conduct ; and from Sir William Phipps 
 originated the present noble family of Musgrave. 
 
 In consequence of this successful adventure, the Duke of 
 Albermarle obtained the governorship of Jamaica, in order 
 to try his fortune with other ships sunk in that neighbour- 
 hood, but nothing was found on this occasion to repay the 
 labour of searching. 
 
 In England, however, several companies were formed, 
 and obtained exclusive privileges for fishing up goods on
 
 120 CURIOSITIES 
 
 certain coasts by means of divers. The most considerable 
 of these was that which, in 1688, tried its success at the 
 Isle of Mull ; at the head of which was the Earl of Argyle. 
 The divers went down to the depth of sixty feet under water, 
 remained there sometimes a whole hour, and brought up 
 gold chains, money, and other articles ; which, however, 
 when collected, were of little importance. 
 
 The perfection to which the diving-bell has approached 
 was strikingly exhibited, in Plymouth Sound, in the year 
 1816. One day, Fisher, the diver, after fifteen minutes' 
 absence, brought up with him a stone weighing two hun- 
 dred pounds, although nearly buried in shells and sand. 
 The anchorage of the sound having been swept from a mass of 
 rock lost from one of the Breakwater vessels in May 1813, 
 and being discovered, the bell vessel was placed over the 
 spot, and the bell lowered with Fisher and two other men, 
 and proper implements for boring in thirty-three feet of 
 water. The men succeeded in penetrating the stone, and 
 making fast the means for heaving it up ; all which was 
 safely effected in about two hours and a half from the time 
 of descending. The rock thus recovered weighed four tons, 
 and an entire summer had been spent in trying to get it up, 
 but ineffectually, owing to the peculiarity in its form which 
 precluded sweeping. 
 
 A lady of the name of Morris, wife of Major Morris, 
 had lately the courage to descend in the diving-bell at 
 Plymouth, and was probably the first of her sex who has 
 penetrated into the " dark unfathomed caves of ocean." 
 On this occasion, whilst under the water, she wrote a note 
 to her father, which concluded with the following wittily 
 appropriate lines : 
 
 From a Belle, my dear Father, you've oft had a line, 
 
 But not from a Bell under water ; 
 Just now I can only assure you I'm thioe, 
 
 Your dutiful, diving, affectionate daughter ! 
 
 How to make a Statue speak. 
 Place a concave mirror of ten, or gilt pasteboard of 
 about two feet diameter, as A B (Plate XL) in a perpen- 
 dicular direction. The focus of this mirror may be at 
 fifteen or eighteen inches distance from its circumference.
 
 Ni'\ [,t>i vos Di v i >:(.: :i3Ei,:i
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 121 
 
 At the distance of about five or six feet, let there be a par- 
 tition, in which there is an opening (E F) equal to the size 
 of the mirror ; against this opening, place a picture printed 
 in water colours on a thin cloth, that sound may easily pass 
 through it. Behind the partition, at the distance of two or 
 three feet, place another mirror (GH) of the same size as 
 the former, and let it be diametrically opposite to it. 
 
 At the point C let there be placed the figure of a man 
 seated on a pedestal, and let his ear be situated exactly in 
 the focus of the first mirror ; his lower jaw must be made 
 to open by a wire, and shut by a spring ; and there may be 
 another wire to move the eyes ; these wires must pass 
 through the figure, go under the floor, and come up behind 
 the partition. 
 
 Let a person properly instructed be placed behind the 
 partition, near the mirror. You then propose to any one 
 to speak softly to the statue, by putting his month to the 
 ear of it, assuring him that it will answer instantly. You 
 then give the preconcerted signal to the person behind the 
 partition, who, by placing his ear to the focus I of the 
 mirror, G H will, by the reflection of the sound, hear dis- 
 tinctly what the other said ; and moving the jaws and eyes 
 of the statue by the wires, will return an answer directly ; 
 which will, in like manner, be distinctly heard by the first 
 speaker. 
 
 The more effectually to conceal the cause of this illusion, 
 the mirror A B may be fixed in the wainscot, and a gauze 
 or any other thin covering thrown over it, as that will not 
 in the least prevent the sound from being reflected. 
 
 An experiment of this kind may be performed in a field 
 or garden, between two hedges, in one of which the mirror 
 A B may be placed, and in the other an opening artfully 
 contrived. 
 
 This experiment appears to have been derived from the 
 Century of Inventions, by the Marquis of Worcester; whose 
 designs, at the time they were published, were treated 
 with ridicule and neglect, as being impracticable, but are 
 now known to be generally, if not universally, practicable. 
 The words of the Marquis are these : " How to make a 
 brazen or stone head in the midst of a green field or garden, 
 so artificial and natural, that though a mau speak ever so 
 
 L
 
 122 CURIOSITIES 
 
 softly, and even whisper into the ear thereof, it will pre- 
 sently open its mouth and resols^e the question in French, 
 Latin, Welsh, Irish, or English, in good terms ; uttering 
 it out of its mouth, and then shutting it, until the next 
 question be asked." 
 
 Ptolemy's Mirror. 
 
 We read in several ancient authors, that Ptolemy Euer- 
 getes caused to be placed in the tower of the Pharos, at 
 Alexandria, a mirror which represented accurately every 
 thing which was transacted throughout all Egypt, both on 
 water and on land ! Some writers affirm, that with this 
 mirror an enemy's fleet could be seen at the distance cf 
 600,000 paces; others say 500 parasangs, or more than 
 100 leagues ! 
 
 Abulfeda, in his description of Egypt, says that the mir- 
 ror was of Chinese iron, and that soon after Mahometanism 
 prevailed, the Christians destroyed it by stratagem. 
 
 Buffon thinks that by Chinese iron, Abulfeda meant 
 polished steel ; but there seems some plausibility in the 
 conjecture of an acute anonymous writer, (Phil. Mag. 
 1805,) who supposes the metal to have been what is known 
 to us by the name of tutanag, a Chinese metallic com- 
 pound, which might be valued then, as it is now, for the 
 high polish it receives. 
 
 The existence of this wonderful mirror has been very 
 generally treated as a fiction. Some celebrated opticians, 
 who have been so far staggered by the positive terms in 
 which the fact stands recorded, as to hesitate about dis- 
 crediting it entirely, think that, at all events, it could be 
 nothing else than the effect of magic. Such is the opinion 
 of Father Kircher among others, who includes it among 
 *' those delusions of the devil, which we should shun with 
 all our might ; and, after the example of our holy mother- 
 church, condemn and execrate." 
 
 Experience, however, has taught us, that many facts, 
 once reckoned chimerical by a number of learned men, 
 having been better examined by other learned men, have 
 been found not only possible, but in actual existence. 
 Father Abbat, in his Amusements Philosophiques, a work
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 123 
 
 first published at Marseilles, in 1763, but now extremely 
 scarce, has a very acute and ingenious dissertation, in which 
 he endeavours to show, that to a certain extent, the fact is 
 in itself "neither impossible nor difficult, but, on the con- 
 trary, very probable." 
 
 " If this mirror," says Abbat, " existed, it is probable 
 that it was the only one of its kind, and that no other 
 means had been then found of viewing distant objects 
 distinctly. It must, therefore, have been considered as a 
 great wonder in those times, and must have filled with 
 astonishment all who saw its effects. Even though its 
 effects had not been greater than those of a small telescope, 
 it could not fail to be regarded as a prodigy. Hence it is 
 natural to think, that those effects were exaggerated beyond 
 all probability, and even possibility, as commonly happens 
 to rare and admirable machines and inventions. If we 
 abstract then from the accounts of the mirror of Ptolemy, 
 the evident exaggerations of ignorance, nothing will remain, 
 but that at some distance, provided nothing was interposed 
 between the objects and the mirror, those objects were seen 
 more distinctly than with the naked eye ; and that with the 
 mirror many objects were seen, which, because of their 
 distance, were imperceptible without it." 
 
 Here is nothing but what is both possible and probable ; 
 and nobody, we think, after perusing Father Abbat's proofs 
 and illustrations, need blush for their philosophy, in ac- 
 knowledging a belief in the actual existence of the long 
 reputed fable of Ptolemy's Mirror. 
 
 It is certain, that, under some circumstances, objects may 
 be seen at a much greater distance than is generally sup- 
 posed. For example, it is said, that the Isle of Man is 
 clearly visible from the summit of Ben Lomond, in Scot- 
 land, which cannot be less than a direct distance of one 
 hundred and twenty miles. Glas, in his History of the 
 Canary Islands, affirms, that the Peak of Teneritfe is visible 
 at a distance of one hundred and twenty miles on approach- 
 ing it, and of one hundred and fifty on leaving it ; and 
 Brydonc, if we recollect rightly, says, that from the 
 summit of Mount iEtna, mountains two hundred miles off 
 may be distinguished. But the raOst extraordinary fact of 
 the kind we have met with, if it be a fact, is to be found 
 l2
 
 124 CURIOSITIES 
 
 in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, article London , where we 
 are told that the illumination of the atmosphere by the 
 great fire of London was visible at Jedburgh, in Scotland, 
 three hundred and seventy-three miles distant I 
 
 Percy Anecdotes of Science. 
 
 Rocking Stones. 
 
 Rocking stones, or stones of prodigious size, so exactly 
 poised, that they will rock or shake with the smallest force, 
 were known to ancient as well as modern topography. 
 Pliny tells us, that at Harpasa, a town of Asia, there was a 
 rock of such a wonderful nature, that if touched with the 
 finger it would shake, but could not be moved from its 
 place with the whole force of the body. Ptolemy Hepes- 
 tion mentions a stone near the ocean, which was agitated 
 when struck by the stalk of an asphodel, but could not be 
 removed by a great exertion of force. 
 
 In Britain there are many stones of this description. In 
 the parish of St. Leven, Cornwall, there is a promontory 
 called Castle Treryn. On the western side of the middle 
 group, near the top, lies a very large stone, so evenly 
 poised, that any hand may move it from one side to 
 another ; yet it is so fixed on its base, that no lever, nor 
 any mechanical force, can remove it from its present 
 situation. It is called the Logan Stone, and is at such a 
 height from the ground, that no person can believe that it 
 was raised to its present position by art. 
 
 Other rocking stones are so shaped, and so situated, 
 that there can be no doubt they were erected b) r human 
 strength. Of this kind, Borlase thinks the great Quoit, or 
 Kam-leh.au, in the parish of Tywidnek, to be. It is thirty- 
 nine feet in circumference, and four feet thick at a medium, 
 and stands on a single pedestal. There is also a remark- 
 able stone of the same kind in the island of St. Agnes, in 
 Scilly. It is poised on a mass of rock, which is 10 feet six 
 inches high, 47 feet round the middle, and touches the 
 ground with no more than half its base. From this the 
 rocking stone rises on one point only, and is so nicely 
 balanced, that two or three men with a pole can move it.
 
 Tlace.s XI 2c XH to face p. 121. 
 
 [KD;>: liXISGIMG BR",I h(H
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 125 
 
 It is eight feet six inches high, and 47 feet in circumference. 
 On the top there is a bason, hollowed out, three feet 
 eleven inches in diameter, at a medium, but wider at the 
 brim, and three feet deep. From the globular shape of this 
 upper stone, it h highly probable that it was rounded by- 
 human art, and, perhaps, even placed on its pedestal by- 
 human strength. 
 
 In Sithney parish, near Helston, in Cornwall, stood the 
 famous Logan, or rocking-stone, commonly called Men 
 Amber, Men-au-bar, or the top stone. It was eleven feet 
 by six long, and four high, and so nicely poised on another 
 stone, that a little child could move it, and all travellers 
 who passed this way desired to see it. But Shrubsall, 
 Cromwell's governor of Pendennis, with much ado, caused 
 it to be undermined, to the great grief of the country. 
 There are some marks of the tool upon it, and, by its 
 quadrangular shape, it was probably dedicated to Mercury. 
 
 In the parish of Kirkmichael, in Scotland, there is a 
 very remarkable stone of this description. It stands on a 
 flat-topped eminence, surrounded at some distance by steep 
 rocky hills. It rests on the plane surface of a rock, level 
 with the ground. Its shape is quadrangular, approaching 
 to the figure of a rhombus, of which the greater diagonal 
 is seven feet, and the leaser five. Its medium thickness is 
 about two feet and a hah. ; its solid contents will, therefore, 
 be about. 51,075 cubical feet. As it is of very hard and 
 solid whinstone, its weight, reckoning the cubical foot at 
 eight stone three pounds, may be calculated to be 418 
 stone, five pounds, or within 30 pounds of three tons. It 
 touches the rock on which it rests only in one line, which 
 is in the same plane with the lesser diagonal, and its lower 
 surface is convex towards the extremities of the greater 
 diagonal. By pressing down either of the extreme corners, 
 and withdrawing the pressure alternately, a rocking motion 
 is produced, which may be increased so much, that the 
 distance between the lowest depression and highest 
 elevation is a full foot. When the pressure is wholly 
 withdrawn, the stone will continue to rock till it has made 
 twenty-six or more vibrations, from one side to the other, 
 before it settles in its natural horizontal position. Both 
 the lower side of the stone, and the surface of the rock oa 
 i,3
 
 126 CURIOSITIES 
 
 which it rests, appear to be worn and roughened by mutual 
 friction. 
 
 It seems generally agreed, that the rocking-stones of 
 Britain were monuments erected by the Druids ; but tra- 
 dition has not informed us for what purpose they were 
 intended. Mr. Toland thinks that the Druids made the 
 people believe that they alone could move them, and that 
 by a miracle ; and that by this pretended miracle, they con- 
 demned or acquitted the accused, and brought criminals to 
 confess what could not otherwise be extorted from them. 
 This idea is beautifully alluded to by Mason : 
 
 Behold yon huge 
 
 And unhewn sphere of living adamant, 
 Which, pois'd by magic, rests its central weight 
 On yonder pointed rock ! Firm as it seems, 
 Such is its strange and virtuous property, 
 It moves obsequiously to the gentlest touch 
 Of him whose breast is pure ; but to a traitor, 
 Tho' e'en a giant's prowess nerv'd his arm, 
 It stands as fix'd as Snowdon." 
 
 Caractacus. 
 
 <#sr*^***s* 
 
 Surprising Property of Oil in calming the Sea. 
 
 The action of oil, in stopping the violent ebullition of 
 various substances, is truly surprising. It is well known, 
 that if a mixture of sugar, honey, or the like, be boiling 
 upon the fire, and in danger of rising over the sides of the 
 vessel, the pouring in of a little oil makes it immediately 
 subside. In many cases the marking a circle round the 
 inside of a vessel, in which a liquid of this kind is to be 
 boiled, with a piece of hard soap, shall, like a magic ring, 
 confine the ebullition to that height, and not suffer it to 
 stir any farther. This is wholly owing to the oil or fat 
 contained in the soap ; but there is, besides these, another 
 very important use of oil on a like occasion, which is the 
 pouring a little of it on any metallic solution, while mak- 
 ing; this restrains the ascent of the noxious vapours;
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 127 
 
 preserves the operator from danger, and, at the same time, 
 by keeping down the evaporating matter, gives redoubled 
 strength to the menstruum. Pliny has mentioned an extra- 
 ordinary effect of oil, in stilling tbe surface of water when 
 it is agitated with waves, and the use made of it, by the 
 divers, for this purpose. Omne oleo tranquillari, &c. (lib. 
 ii. cap. 103.) and Plutarch, in Quest. Natur. asks Cur 
 mare oleo conspersum perlucidum fit et iranquilhim ? Pliny's 
 account seems to have been either discredited or disre- 
 garded by our writers on experimental philosophy, 'till 
 it was confirmed by several curious experiments of Dr. 
 Franklin, which were published in the year 1774. This 
 property of oil has, however, been well known to modern 
 divers and dredgers for oysters, at Gibraltar, and else- 
 where. The divers in the Mediterranean, in particular, 
 descend, as in Pliny's time, with a little oil in their 
 mouths, which they now and then let out; and which, 
 on rising to the surface of the sea, immediately renders 
 it smooth, so as to permit the light to pass through the 
 water, undisturbed by various and irregular refractions. 
 The Bermudans are enabled to see and strike fish, which 
 would be concealed from their view, through the roughness 
 of the sea, by pouring a little oil upon it. And the Lisbon 
 fishermen effect a safe passage over the bar of the Tagus, 
 by emptying a bottle or two of oil into the sea, when the 
 surf is so great as to endanger its filling their boats. Our 
 sailors have also observed, that the water is always much 
 smoother in the wake of a ship that has been newly tal- 
 lowed than it is in one that is foul. Dr. Franklin was led, 
 by an accidental observation made at sea, in 1757, to 
 attend particularly to Pliny's account ; and the various in- 
 formations which he afterwards received relating to it, 
 induced him to try some experiments on the subject. 
 Standing on the windward side of a large pond, the sur- 
 face of which was rendered very rough with the wind, he 
 poured a tea-spoonful of oil on the water. This small 
 quantity produced an instant calm over a space of several 
 yards square, which spread amazingly, and extended itself 
 gradually, till it reached the lee side, making all that 
 quarter of the pond, perhaps half an acre, as smooth as a 
 lookiDg-glass. On repeating this experiment, which con-
 
 128 CURIOSITIES 
 
 stantly succeeded, one circumstance struck him with par- 
 ticular surprise ; this was the sudden, wide, and forcible 
 spreading of a drop of oil on the face of the water, which, 
 he adds, " I do not know that any body has considered." 
 When a drop of oil is put on a looking-glass, or polished 
 marble, it spreads very little ; but on water it instantly 
 expands into a circle, extending several feet in diameter, 
 becoming so thin as to produce the prismatic colours, for 
 a considerable space, and beyond them so much thinner as 
 to be invisible, except in its effects of smoothing the waves 
 at a much greater distance. It seems, says Dr. Franklin, 
 as if a mutual repulsion between its particles took place as 
 soon as it touched the water, and a repulsion so strong as 
 to act on other bodies swimming on the surface, as straws, 
 leaves, &c. forcing them to recede every way from the drop, 
 as from a centre, leaving a large clear space. 
 
 In endeavouring to account for the singular effects of oil, 
 Dr. Franklin observes, that there seems to be no natural 
 repulsion between water and air, such as to keep them 
 from coining into contact with each other. Therefore air, 
 in motion, which is wind, in passing over the smooth sur- 
 face of water, may rub, as it were, on that surface, and 
 rise it into wrinkles, which, if the wind continues, are the 
 elements of future waves. The smallest does not imme- 
 diately subside, but in subsiding, raises nearly as much of 
 the water next to it. A small power, continually ope- 
 rating, will produce a great action : so that the first-raised 
 waves, being continually acted upon by the wind, are, 
 though the wind does not increase in strength, continually 
 increased in magnitude, rising higher and extending their 
 basis, so as to include a vast mass of water in each wave, 
 which, in its motion, acts with great violence. But if there 
 be a mutual repulsion between the particles of oil, and no 
 attraction between oil and water, oil dropt on water will 
 not be held together by adhesion to the spot on which it 
 falls ; it will not be imbibed by the water ; but be at liberty 
 to expand itself and spread on a surface, that prevents, 
 perhaps, by repelling the oil, all immediate contact; the 
 expansion will continue till the mutual repulsion between 
 the particles of oil is weakened and reduced to nothing by 
 their distance. Dr. Franklin imagines, that the wind,
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 129 
 
 blowing 1 over water, thus covered with a film of oil, cannot 
 easily catch upon it so as to raise the first wrinkles, but 
 slides over it, and leaves it smooth as it finds it. It moves 
 the oil a little, indeed, which, being between it and the 
 water, serves it to slide with, and prevents friction : hence 
 the oil, dropt on the windward side of the pond, proceeds 
 gradually to leeward, as may be seen by the smoothness it 
 carries with it quite to the opposite side : for the wind, 
 being thus prevented from raising the first wrinkles, which 
 he calls the elements of waves, cannot produce waves, 
 which are to be made by continually acting upon and 
 enlarging those elements, and thus the whole pond is 
 calmed. Upon the whole, there is great room to suppose 
 (notwithstanding the partial failure of an experiment made 
 at Portsmouth, by Dr. Franklin and others), that seafaring 
 people may derive advantages from using oil on particular 
 occasions, in order to moderate the violence of the waves, 
 or to lessen the surf, which sometimes renders the landing 
 on a lee-shore dangerous or impracticable. To this purpose 
 we are informed, that the captain of a Dutch East-India 
 ship, being overtaken by a storm, found himself obliged, 
 for greater safety in wearing the ship, to pour oil into the 
 sea, to prevent the waves breaking over her, which had an 
 excellent effect, and succeeded in preserving her. (Phil. 
 Trans, vol. lxiv. part 2. p. 445, &c.) It is also observable, 
 on the coast of Sutherland, when the lump-fish abound in 
 spring, and are devoured by the seals, that the fact may be 
 known by the smoothness of the water above the spot ; the 
 oil serving to still the agitation of the waves. 
 
 The Krakcn, or Great Sea-Serpent. 
 
 The two most famous monsters described in history, are 
 the Kraken, or Krabben, called by the Norwegians/ Soe- 
 draulen, and Anker-told, and the Great Sea-Serpent. 'Till 
 of late years, the history of these animals was deemed en- 
 tirely fabulous ; and, although the existence of the latter 
 has more than once been proved by the most satisfactory 
 evidence, within a very recent period, the former is still 
 regarded as a mere chimera. It is indeed singular, that
 
 130 CURIOSITIES 
 
 when one of these facts has been fairly verified, which had 
 been so long a matter of doubt, and the credibility of the 
 author thereby establisbed, we should still remain equally 
 sceptical regarding the other, though not in itself in any 
 degree more wonderful. 
 
 Our chief subject of investigation shall be the history of 
 the kraken, which is certainly still involved in great obscu- 
 rity. In the first place, we may observe, that the belief in 
 a certain monstrous sea animal, which appears in calm 
 weather, on the surface of the ocean, like a floating island, 
 and stretches forth enormous arms, or tentacula, — is 
 universal among the sailors and fishermen of the Norwe- 
 gian coast. A similar monster is alluded to by slmost all 
 the Scandinavian writers, from the earliest period of their 
 history, down to the present day. The epitome of these 
 accounts is this ; that, during the prevalence of fine wea- 
 ther, in the warmest days of summer, an enormous animal 
 has been observed in the North Sea, resembling a floating 
 island, about a quarter of a:nile in diameter, and appearing 
 to be covered wi'.h sea weed, &c. As soon as it has reached 
 the surface, it usually stretches up many vast arms, which 
 equal in size the masts of ships. Having rested for some 
 time, it begins slowly to sink to the bottom, causing a great 
 eddy in the surrounding waters. 
 
 The following is the account given by Pontopiddan. 
 
 "Our fishermen unanimously affirm, and without the 
 least variation in their accounts, that when they row out 
 several miles to sea, particularly in the hot summer days, 
 and by their situation, (which they know by taking a view 
 of certain points of land) expect to find 80 or 100 fathoms 
 water, it often happens that they do not find above 20 or 
 30, and sometimes less. At these places they generally 
 find the greatest plenty of fish, especially cod and ling. 
 Their lines, they say, are no sooner out than they may 
 draw them up, with the hooks all full of fish ; by this they 
 judge that the kraken is at the bottom. They say this 
 creature causes those unnatural shallows mentioned above, 
 and prevents their sounding. These the fishermen are 
 always glad to find, looking upon them as a means of their 
 taking abundance of fish. There are sometimes twenty 
 boats or more got together, and throwing out their lines at
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 131 
 
 a moderate distance from each other ; and the only thing 
 they then have to observe is, whether the depth continues 
 the same, which they know by their lines, or whether it 
 grows shallower by their seeming to have less water. If 
 this last be the case, they find that the kraken is raising 
 himself nearer the sm-face, and then it is not time for them 
 to stay any longer ; they immediately leave off fishing, take 
 to their oars, and get away as fast as they can. When they 
 have reached the usual depth of the place, and find them- 
 selves out of danger, they lie upon their oars, and in a few 
 minutes after, they see this enormous monster come up to 
 the surface of the water; he, therefore, shews himself suffi- 
 ciently, though his whole body does not appear, which, in 
 all likelihood, no human eye ever beheld, (excepting the 
 young of this species, which shall afterwards be spoken of) ; 
 its back, or upper part, which seems to be in appearance 
 about an English mile and a half in circumference (some 
 say more, but I choose the least for greater certainty), 
 looks at first like a number of small islands, surrounded 
 with something that floats and fluctuates like sea weeds. 
 Here and there a larger rising is observed, like sand banks, 
 on which various kinds of small fish are seen continually 
 leaping about till they roll into the water, from the sides of 
 it ; at last, several bright points or horns appear, which 
 grow thicker and thicker, the higher they rise above the 
 surface of the water, and sometimes they stand up as high 
 and as large as the masts of middle-sized vessels. 
 
 " It seems these are the creature's arms ; and, it is said, 
 if they were to lay hold of the largest man of war, they 
 would pull it down to the bottom. After this monster has 
 been on the surface of the water for a short time, it begins 
 slowly to sink again, and then the danger is as great as 
 before ; because the motion of his sinking causes such 
 a swell in the sea, and such an eddy or whirlpool, that it 
 draws every thing down with it." He adds, "The great 
 Creator has also given this creature a strong and peculiar 
 scent, which it can emit at certain times, and by means of 
 which, it beguiles and draws other fish to come in heaps 
 about it." 
 
 It is a favourite notion of Pontoppidan, and seems indeed 
 extremely probable, that from the appearance of the kraken
 
 132 CURIOSITIES 
 
 originate those traditions of floating islands being so fre- 
 quently observed in the North Sea. Thus Debes, in his 
 Feroa Reserata, alludes to certain islands which suddenly 
 appear, and as suddenly vanish. Similar accounts may be 
 found in the Mundus Mirabilis of Harpelius, and in the His- 
 tory of Norway, by Torfaeus. These islands are looked 
 upon, by the common people, as the habitations of evil spi- 
 rits, which appear at sea for the purpose of confounding 
 their reckoning, and leading them into danger and difficulty. 
 That these superstitious notions are occasioned by the 
 appearance of some monstrous sea animal, is the more 
 likely, in as far as real floating islands are never seen at 
 sea, being incapable of resisting the swell and tumult of its 
 waters. In lakes, marshes, and rivers, they have sometimes 
 been met with, but never elsewhere. 
 
 " But, according to the laws of truth," says Pontoppidan, 
 " we ought not to charge this apostate spirit without a 
 cause. I rather think that this devil, who so suddenly 
 makes and unmakes these floating islands, is nothing else 
 but the kraken, which some sea-faring people call Soedrau- 
 len, that is, Soe-trolden, or Sea-mischief. What confirms 
 me in this opinion, is the following occurrence, quoted by 
 that worthy Swedish physician, Dr. Urban Hierne, in his 
 short introduction to an Enquiry into the Ores and Mine- 
 rals of that country, p. 98, from Baron Charles Grippen- 
 heim. The quotation is as follows : ' Amongst the rocks 
 about Stockholm, there is sometimes seen a certain track of 
 land, which at other times disappears, and is seen again in 
 another place. Buraeus has placed this as an island in his 
 map. The peasants, who call it Gummer's-Ore, say, that it 
 is not always seen, and that it lies out in the open sea, 
 but I could never find it. One Sunday, when I was out 
 among the rocks, sounding the coast, it happened, that in 
 one place I saw something like three points of land, in the 
 sea, which surprised me a little, and I thought that I had 
 inadvertently passed them over before. Upon this, I called 
 to a peasant, to inquire for Gummers-Ore, but when he 
 came we could see nothing of it ; on which the peasant 
 said, all was well, and that this prognosticated a storm, or 
 a great quantity of fish,' &c. '* Now," says the bishop, 
 " who is it that cannot discover, at first sight, that this
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 133 
 
 visible and invisible Gummer's-Ore, with its points and 
 prognostications of fish, cannot possibly be any thing else 
 but the kraken, krabben, or so-horven, improperly placed 
 in a map by Burseus as an island ? Probably the creature 
 keeps himself always about the spot, and often rises up 
 amongst the rocks and cliffs." vol. ii. p. 214. 
 
 Many people have objected to the accounts of the kraken, 
 for very inadequate reasons, alleging, that if such a crea- 
 ture had been created, it would have multiplied like other 
 animals in the course of time, and by its occasional occur- 
 rence would ere this have dispelled all doubts concerning 
 its existence. The same futile arguments were applied, 
 and with equal propriety, to the sea-snake, whose existence 
 is now so unquestionably established ; and the occurrence 
 of the animal itself among the Orkney isles in the summer 
 of 1808, and more recently off the American coast, where 
 it was seen by hundreds of people, has scarcely been 
 deemed sufficient to corroborate the testimony of the older 
 writers. It appears, in fact, to be a law of nature, that all 
 animals of extraordinary magnitude produce much fewer 
 young than those of inferior dimensions ; at least, the ele- 
 phant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the giraffe, 
 are among the least prolific of the race of quadrupeds, and 
 the whale and the walrus are probably even more sparingly 
 multiplied. We need scarcely wonder, then, that so few 
 instances have occurred of a nature sufficiently positive to 
 dispel all doubts regarding the existence of monstrous sea- 
 animals. 
 
 We shall next relate the only instance on record, of the 
 dead body of the kraken having been found on the Norwe- 
 gian coast. The account was drawn up by the Rev. Mr. 
 Friis, consistorial assessor, minister of Bodoen, in Nord- 
 land, and vicar of the college for promoting Christian 
 knowledge. In the year 1680, a kraken (perhaps a young 
 and careless one) came into the water that runs between 
 tbe rocks and cliffs, in the parish of Alstahoug, though its 
 usual habit is, to keep several leagues from land. It hap- 
 pened that its extended long arms, or antenna, caught hold 
 of some trees standing near the water, which might easily 
 have been torn up by the roots ; but, besides this, as it was 
 found afterwards, he entangled himself in some openings 
 
 M
 
 134 CURIOSITIES 
 
 or clefts in the rock, and therein he stuck so fast, and hung 
 so unfortunately, that he could not work himself out, but 
 perished and putrified on the spot. The carcase, which was 
 a long while decaying, and filled great part of the narrow 
 channel, made it almost impassable by its intolerable stench. 
 Such is the narrative of Mr. Friis. 
 
 The kraken is frequently mentioned by the northern poet 
 Dass, from whose writings, as well as from the popular 
 tales of the country, we might adduce many additional quo- 
 tations to prove the universality of belief in this uncommon 
 animal. The same monster is, in all probability, alluded to 
 by Olaus Wormius, when treating of whales, in the follow- 
 ing passage : 
 
 " Restat una species, qaam hafgufe vocant, cujus magni- 
 tudo latet, cum raro conspiciatur. lib, qui se corpus 
 vidisse narrant, similiorum insulce quam bestiae volunt, nee 
 unquam ejus inventum cadaver, quocirca sunt qui existi- 
 ment, non nisi duo ejus generis in natura esse." 
 
 We may here remark, that the circumstance of the dead 
 body of the kraken never being found floating on the sea, 
 is no argument whatever against its existence. The same 
 circumstance may be alledged of all other animals ; and it 
 is indeed one of the most singular and unaccountable facts 
 in natural history, that scarcely a creature of any kind is 
 ever found lying dead, which had not come to its death by 
 some violent means. 
 
 That the animal mentioned by Wormius, though classed 
 by him among the whales, is the same as the kraken, we 
 have the testimony of Crantz the missionary, who wrote 
 the history of Greenland. In his description of rare and 
 huge sea-monsters, there is the following passage, in which 
 he seems to be equally sceptical with some modernp hilo- 
 sophers : 
 
 " But the most horrible and hideous monster, that the 
 fables of the Norway fishers have invented, is the krake, 
 sea-horse, or hafgufu* which nobody ever pretends to have 
 seen entire ; yet the fishers give out, that when they find a 
 place which is usually 80 or 100 fathoms deep, to be at cer- 
 tain times only 20 or 30, and see also a multitude of fishes 
 allured to the spot, by a delicious exhalation which this 
 creature emits, they conclude that they are over a krake ;
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 135 
 
 then they make haste to secure a good draught of fishes, 
 but take care to observe when the soundings grow shallower, 
 for then the monster is rising. Then they fly with speed, 
 and presently they behold, with the greatest amazement, in 
 the compass of a mile or two, great ridges like rocks rising 
 up out of the sea, dented with long lucid spikes, that thicken 
 as they rise, and at last resemble a multitude of little masts." 
 Vol. i. p. 117. 
 
 Thomas Bartholinus describes the same animal, likewise, 
 under the name of Hafgufa ; and his relation is confirmed 
 by Olaus Magnus, in his work de Piscibus Monstrosis. 
 
 According to Olaus Wormius, the kraken is likewise 
 alluded to in the ancient manuscript called Speculum Re- 
 gale, said to have been written by Sverre, one of the Nor- 
 wegian kings. 
 
 Having now, we trust, sufficiently established the exist- 
 ence of a monstrous sea animal, known by the name of the 
 kraken, we shall next endeavour to prove its identity with 
 a certain species which has been recorded by some of the 
 most authentic writers in the annals of science. 
 
 Pennant, in his description of the eight-armed cuttle- 
 fish, mentions, that he has been well assured by persons of 
 undoubted credit, that in the Indian seas, this species has 
 been found of such a size as to measure two fathoms in 
 breadth across the central part, while each arm was nine 
 fathoms in length. He further states, that the natives of 
 the Indian isles, when sailing in their canoes, always take 
 care to be provided with hatchets, in order to cut off imme- 
 diately the arms of such of those animals as happen so fling 
 them over the sides of the canoe, lest they should pull it 
 under water, and sink it. 
 
 The opinion of Shaw is equally decided regarding the 
 occurrence of this animal. 
 
 " The existence of some enormously large species of the 
 cuttle-fish tribe iu the Indian and Northern Seas can hardly 
 be doubted ; and though some accounts may have been 
 much exaggerated, yet there is sufficient cause for believing 
 that such species very far surpass all that are generally 
 observed about the coasts of the European seas. A modern 
 naturalist chooses to distinguish this tremendous species by 
 the title of the colossal cuttle-fish, and seems amply dis-
 
 136 CURIOSITIES 
 
 posed to believe all that has been related of its ravages. A 
 northern navigator of the name of Dens, is said, some years 
 ago, to have lost three of his men in the African seas, by a 
 monster of this kind, which unexpectedly made its appear- 
 ance while these men were employed, during a calm, in 
 raking the sides of the vessel. The colossal cuttle-fish 
 seized these men in its arms, and drew them under water, 
 in spite of every effort to preserve them : the thickness of 
 one of the arms, which was cut off in the contest, was that 
 of a mizen-mast, and the acetabula or suckers, of the size of 
 pot -lids." Shaw's Lectures, vol. ii. p. 137. 
 
 But of all the authors who have written on the colossal 
 cuttle-fish, the most zealous is undoubtedly Denys Mont- 
 fort. In his work there are many instances mentioned of 
 its occurrence in various parts of the world, the accounts of 
 which he was fortunate enough to procure from those who 
 were eye-witnesses to what he relates. He mentions par- 
 ticularly the circumstance alluded to by Dr. Shaw, of 
 Captain Magnus Dens having lost three of his men by an 
 attack from this monstrous animal, and the narrative of the 
 fact was given him by Dens himself He further mentions, 
 that at St. Malo, in the chapel of St. Thomas, there is an 
 ex voto, or picture, deposited there by the crew of a vessel, 
 in remembrance of their wonderful preservation from a 
 similar attack off the coast of Angola. An enormous cuttle- 
 fish suddenly threw its arms across the vessel, and was on 
 the point of dragging it to the bottom, when the combined 
 efforts of the sailors succeeded in cutting off the tentacula 
 with swords and hatchets. During the period of their 
 greatest danger, they invoked their patron, St. Thomas, 
 vowing to him a pilgrimage, if, by his intercession, they 
 were successful in this perilous rencounter. The confidence 
 inspired by the hope of celestial aid, gave fresh vigour to 
 their exertions, and they succeeded in freeing themselves 
 from their dreadful opponent. On their return home, and 
 before visiting their families and friends, they went in pro- 
 cession to the chapel of St. Thomas, and offered up their 
 prayers of gratitude. 
 
 The different authorities which have been quoted, are, 
 we trust, sufficient to establish the existence of an enor- 
 mous inhabitant of the deep, possessed of characters which
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 137 
 
 in a remarkable degree distinguish it from every creature 
 with which we are at all familiar ; and the agreement which 
 may be observed in its descriptions, when compared with 
 those of the celebrated kraken, is sufficiently obvious to 
 warrant the inference which we are now prepared to draw, 
 that the great Norwegian animal so named, is to be consi- 
 dered, not as a wild and groundless chimera, but as either 
 identical with, or nearly allied to, this colossal cuttle-fish. 
 
 That great exaggeration pervades the generality of these 
 accounts is perfectly evident ; but it is equally clear, that 
 in all the most striking and characteristic properties, there 
 is a very particular, and, indeed, surprising coincidence. 
 
 It is probable, that the animal of the North Sea is not 
 specifically the same as the great sea-serpent of the Indian 
 or Atlantic Ocean, the testimonies in favour of the exist- 
 ence of which are clear and undoubted, though their general 
 characters induce us to believe that they are closely allied. 
 Several well-known species of cuttle-fish, though infinitely 
 less, agree with these enormous animals in the nature of 
 their long and numerous tentacula, and more particularly 
 in the pleasant odour which emanates from their bodies. 
 One of these, called the eight-armed cuttle-fish, appears 
 almost to emulate the ferocity of the gigantic species. Its 
 arms are of great extent, and furnished with a double row 
 of cups, or suckers. When full grown, it is a fierce and 
 dangerous animal, and so strong, that it is extremely ha- 
 zardous to attack it without caution. Such is the ferocity 
 with which it is said to defend itself, that u the strongest 
 mastiff can hardly subdue it without a long and doubtful 
 contest, and it has even been known to attack a person 
 while swimming, by fastening itself with violent force round 
 his body and limbs. 
 
 *^r+-+*r+*- 
 
 Platina Wire. 
 
 When M. Breguet, the celebrated French instrument 
 maker, was in London, he received from Dr. Wollaston a 
 specimen of platina wire, one-six-thousandth pai-t of an inch 
 in diameter ! ! 
 
 The following are the data from which Dr. W. infers the 
 dimensions of so small a wire.
 
 138 CURIOSITIES 
 
 A wire of pure platina is drawn till ten grains of it mea- 
 sure twenty-four inches, so that its diameter is thus known 
 to be l-100th of an inch. 
 
 A portion of this wire is then coated with silver cast 
 round it in a cylindrical mould (about 3-10ths of an inch in 
 diameter). 
 
 The cylinder is then drawn till each inch is elongated to 
 400 inches, in which state the diameter of the platina is 
 known to be reduced in the proportion of the square root of 
 400 or 20 fold 5 so that its diameter is then l-2000th of an 
 inch. 
 
 If any portion of the silver wire be then farther drawn till 
 one inch measures nine inches, the platina wire within it is 
 then reduced to one -third part of its last diameter, and is 
 consequently 1 -6000th of an inch in thickness. 
 
 If the silver part of the wire were then to be dissolved by 
 nitric acid, the diameter of the platina which remains un- 
 dissolved (although kept perfectly clean and distinct) could 
 not with confidence be pronounced more than l-72,000th 
 of an inch ! ! 
 
 Hatching Chickens. 
 
 The following singular, though effectual mode of hatch- 
 ing chickens, prevails in the interior of Sumatra; it is 
 vouched for by Major Clayton, of the Bencoolen council. 
 — The hens, whether from bing frightened off the nests by 
 the rats, which are very numerous and destructive, or from 
 some other cause hitherto prevalent in Sumatra, do not 
 hatch their chickens in the ordinary way, as is seen in 
 almost all other climates. The natives have, for this pur- 
 pose, in each village, several square rooms, the walls of 
 which are made of a kind of brick, dried in the sun. In 
 the middle of these rooms they make a large fire, round 
 which they place their eggs at regular distances, that they 
 may all enjoy an equal degree of heat. In this manner they 
 let them lie for fourteen days, now and then turning them, 
 that the warmth may be better administered to all parts 
 alike, and on the fifteenth day the chickens make their 
 appearance, and prove, in every respect, as strong and 
 perfect as those hatched according to the rules of nature.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 
 
 139 
 
 Perpetual Periodical Table. 
 
 To find the day of the week on which the first day of any 
 month in any year falls, and thence to ascertain the week 
 day of any day whatever, the subjoined table has been con- 
 structed. 
 
 <J CJ V 
 
 •a cu t3 
 
 ■£ o> ce 
 
 e a 
 ° ^ d 
 
 » IS S 
 
 lis 
 
 *^~ 
 
 o a 
 
 0) « o 
 
 o •** a • 
 
 u *J « a 
 
 s| s * 
 
 a a~ « 
 
 ua o a 
 
 <o 4) - ,, 
 
 •S y_j to S3 
 o c *" «i 
 
 •H C O co 
 
 G 
 CO. 
 
 ^l^glgfel^fe 
 
 iN&i&fcS£$.££! 
 
 
 G +j 
 
 
 g!tig£££J£hiti£ 
 
 T3 
 
 g£X££*££hS£ 
 
 s 
 
 -G 
 to 1 
 
 a 
 
 f|j^l>|#|g 
 
 J &*&£$€£&£ 
 
 
 tjte SrfS s r s *s > "«3 >«s 
 
 
 a d +j 
 
 coHHcoH^S^coS 
 
 d 
 
 fefeS^ISHwSfe^ 
 
 -a 
 
 *» - g u g 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 
 *? 
 
 G d 4J 4J 
 
 ,d G ,G Gt»c«i-<=d$ 
 
 9 
 
 CO ■ 
 
 ^^Isnlnfe^^fe 
 
 3 
 
 £ § < § ^ ►? <U o5 O £ Q 
 
 d « eg 2 <u t? «* 
 
 £ IS § 5 js g2 
 
 <N <N <M <N <N 9 Tr* 
 
 ao ao ao ao oo ™ £; 
 
 >>^ b^*« 9-52 
 
 8IJJ2CS 
 
 00 00 00 00 00 <^~ 
 
 ^ o CO 
 
 >, 'a g> " ao 
 
 •3 bjr ! f 1 1 
 
 S "SI'S § *J 
 
 co£;!>H 
 
 oo ao oo oo oo &>j£ 
 
 I 1» 
 
 ce -0»3 g g> >>a 
 
 g § a « s £ ^ 
 
 «j S E-i !> pti be Ph 
 
 ^ ^ ^ - ~ £ <j 
 
 cno -^ n « » pq 
 
 So 00 00 00 00 S >J 
 
 1 1 1 1
 
 140 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Explanation of the use of the foregoing Table — Required 
 to know the day of the week of the 1st of September, 
 1825 ? 
 
 The 1st of January, 1825, in the list of years above, is 
 Saturday, and in the first column of Saturday in a line 
 with September, Thursday is inserted ; consequently, tbe 
 1st of September, 1825, is shewn to be on Thursday ; if 
 1825 were a leap year, then, as Inserted in the second 
 column of Saturday, under the Letter L, it would fall on 
 Friday. 
 
 When the day of the week of the first of any month is 
 known, it is easy to ascertain the same of any date in that 
 month, so that by the help of this table, the week day of 
 any date, may be readily ascertained, and in a great degree, 
 as far as respects time, it will answer the purpose of an 
 almanack. 
 
 Groaning and Crying. 
 
 A French surgeon lately published a long dissertation 
 on the beneficial influence of groaning and crying on the 
 nervous system. He contends, that groaning and crying 
 are. the two grand operations by which nature allays 
 anguish ; and that he has uniformly observed, that those 
 patients who give way to their natural feelings, more 
 speedily recover from accidents and operations, than those 
 who suppose that it is unworthy a man to betray such 
 symptoms of cowardice as either to groan or to cry. He 
 is always pleased by the crying and violent roaring of a 
 patient during the time he is undergoing a severe surgical 
 operation, because he is satisfied that he will thereby so 
 soothe his nervous system, as to prevent fever, and ensure 
 a favourable termination. From the benefit hysterical and 
 other nervous patients derive from crying or groaning, he 
 supposes that " by these processes of nature, the super- 
 abundant nervous power is exhausted, and that the nervous 
 system is in consequence rendered calm, and even the 
 circulation of the blood greatly diminished. He relates a 
 case of a man, who by means of crying and bawling, 
 reduced his pulse from 120 to GO in the course of two
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 141 
 
 hours. That some patients often have a great satisfaction 
 in groaning, and that hysterical patients often experience 
 great relief from crying, are facts which no person will 
 deny. As to restless hypochondriacal subjects, or those 
 who are never happy but when they are under some course 
 of medical or dietetic treatment, the French surgeon as- 
 sures them that they cannot do better than groan all night, 
 and cry all day. By following this rule, and observing an 
 abstemious diet, a person will effectually escape disease, 
 and may prolong life to an incredible extent 1 
 
 Conveyancing. 
 
 The oldest conveyance of which we have any account, 
 namely, that of the cave of Macpelah, from the sons of 
 Heth to Abraham, has many unnecessary and redundant 
 words in it. " And the field of Ephron, which was in 
 Macpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the 
 cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the 
 field, that were in all the borders round about, were made 
 sure unto Abraham." The parcels in a modern conveyance 
 cannot well be more minutely characterised. 
 
 Pigeons. 
 
 By the French law, the lord had a right to the young 
 pigeons of his vassal, except in the March flight. Hartib 
 sapposes that there were, in his time, in England, 26,000 
 dove-houses, and allowing 500 pair to each house, and 
 four bushels to be consumed yearly by each pair, it makes 
 the loss of corn in a year 13,000,000 bushels. In Persia, 
 pigeons are trained to kill the wild ones, of which amuse- 
 ment they are so fond, that a Christian is not permitted to 
 keep any ; and Tavernier, who mentions this, adds, that 
 some Christians have become Mahometans, merely to be 
 entitled to this privilege.
 
 14*2 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Coronation Oaths. 
 
 By the coronation oath in the time of Henry III. the 
 king is hound " se esse praecepturum et proviribus opem 
 impensurum, ut Ecclesios Dei, et omni populo Christiano 
 vera pax omni tempore servetur." The Emperor of Japan, 
 by his coronation oath, undertakes to secure fair weather 
 at proper times. The kings of Persia were bound by the 
 same not to pardon any capital offence ; and this custom 
 may be chiefly alluded to in scripture, which speaks of the 
 law of the Medes and Persians altering not. 
 
 « »« »/»«» 
 
 Ingenious Anagram. 
 
 The following anagram, on the well-known bibliogra- 
 pher, William Oldys, may claim a place among the first 
 productions of this class. It was by Oldys himself, and 
 was found by his executors in one of his MSS. 
 
 w. o. 
 
 In word and Will i am a friend to you ; 
 
 And one friend Old is worth an hundred new. 
 
 Animal Flower. 
 
 The inhabitants of St. Lucie have lately discovered a 
 most singular plant. In a cavern of that isle, near the 
 sea, is a large bason, from twelve to fifteen feet deep, the 
 water of which is very brackish, and the bottom composed 
 of rocks. From these, at all times, proceed certain sub- 
 stances, which present, at first sight, beautiful flowers, of 
 a bright shining colour, and pretty nearly resembling our 
 marigolds, only that their tint is more lively. These 
 seeming flowers, on the approach of a hand or instrument, 
 retire, like a snail, out of sight. On examining their sub- 
 stance closely, there appear, in the middle of the disk, 
 four brown filaments, resembling spiders' legs, which move 
 round a kind of petals with a pretty brisk and spontaneous
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 143 
 
 motion. These legs have pincers to seize their prey ; and, 
 upon seizing it, the yellow petals immediately close, so 
 that it cannot escape. Under this exterior of a flower is a 
 brown stalk, of the bigness of a raven's quill, and which 
 appears to be the body of some animal. It is probable that 
 this strange creature lives on the spawn of fish, and the 
 marine insects thrown by the sea into the bason. 
 
 Sketch of the numerous Classes of Persons, ivhose 
 Trades are connected with, and in some degree 
 dependent upon, the Building, Equipment, and 
 Employment of British Shipping. 
 
 A ship-owner, in order to build a ship, must necessarily 
 employ the Ship-builder, who derives his knowledge from 
 the arts and sciences, and who, in the construction of the 
 ship, gives employment to 
 
 The shipwright, the sawyer, the caulker, the joiner, 
 the blacksmith 
 
 The Baltic merchant for tar, pitch, iron, and other 
 stores imported from abroad 
 
 The Canada merchant for timber, &c. 
 
 The copper merchant and copper-smith, for copper- 
 bolts, &c. 
 
 The iron master, for iron knees, &c. 
 
 The dealers in old rope, for oakum, which is generally 
 made by infirm and old persons, who are incapable 
 of laborious employment 
 
 The landed interest for timber, &c. 
 
 The Mast and Block-maker gives employment to 
 The Baltic merchant, for masts, &c. 
 The West-India merchant, for lignum vita?, &c 
 The landed interest, for elm for pumps, &c« 
 The manufacturers of varnish, &c. 
 The journeymen block-makers.
 
 144 CURIOSITIES 
 
 The Sail-maker gives employment to 
 
 The sail-cloth manufactories for canvas 
 The rope-maker for bolt rope 
 The twine-spinner for twine, lines, &c. 
 The Baltic merchant for tar, flax, hemp, &c. 
 The journeymen sail-makers. 
 
 The Rope-maker gives employment to 
 
 The Baltic merchant for hemp, tar, &c. 
 The blacksmith for iron implements 
 The iron wheel-maker for wheels 
 The carpenter for sledges 
 The journeyman rope-makers. 
 
 The Ship-chandler gives employment to 
 
 Manufacturers of ivory-black, white-lead, &c. 
 To the brush-maker for brushes, &c. 
 To the turner for bowls, platters, spoons, &c. 
 To the broom-maker for brooms 
 To the manufacturers of horn, &c. 
 To the hardwareman for shovels, &c. 
 To the twine-spinner 
 To the needle-maker for needles 
 To the wire-maker for wire 
 To the potter 
 
 To the scale-maker for steel-yards 
 To the lead merchants for sounding leads, sheet lead 
 To the lamp-maker for binnacle lamps 
 To the time-glass-maker for time-glasses 
 To the tinman for lanthorns, speaking trumpets, cop- 
 per pumps, &C. 
 To the iron founder for cannon and shot 
 To the gunpowder-maker for powder 
 To the gunsmith for muskets, pistols, &c. 
 To the locksmith 
 To the sword-cutler for cutlasses 
 To the mathematical instrument maker for compasses, 
 
 quadrants, and sextants 
 To the manufacturer of bunting colours, &c. 
 To the ironmonger for fish-hooks, nails, pump-tacks, 
 &c. &c.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 145 
 
 To the lead shot maker for bullets 
 
 To the leather-sellers for sheep skins, for hides 
 
 To the ironmonger and hardwareman for marlin- 
 
 spikes, &c. 
 To the Baltic merchants for pitch, tar, rosin, &c. 
 
 The Boat-builder gives employment to 
 
 The Baltic merchant for wainscoat, tar, and pitch 
 To the land-holder for oak and elm, &c. 
 
 The Plumber gives employment to 
 The lead merchant for lead, &c. 
 
 The Glazier and Painter give employment to 
 The glass manufacturer for glass 
 The oil manufacturer for oil 
 The colour-maker for colours, &c. 
 
 The Cooper gives employment to 
 
 The Baltic merchant for staves, iron 
 To the Canada merchant for ditto, wood 
 To the hoop-bender for wood, hoops, &c. 
 
 The Tallow-chandler gives employment to 
 The Baltic merchant for tallow 
 To the West-India merchant for cotton 
 To the tallow melter for tallow, &c. 
 
 The Grocer gives employment to 
 The sugar baker 
 To the West-India merchants 
 To the Mediterranean and Portuguese merchants. 
 
 The Coal Merchant gives employment to 
 The proprietors of coal mines 
 To lightermen, &c. 
 To bargemen, &c. 
 
 The Butcher gives employment to 
 The farmer, grazier, &c. 
 
 N
 
 146 CURIOSITIES 
 
 The Baker gives employment to 
 The miller for flour, &c. 
 To the farmer for peas, &c. 
 
 The Cheesemonger gives employment to 
 The farmer for butter and cheese. 
 
 The Brewer gives employment to 
 The maltster for malt 
 To the hop merchant for hops, 
 To the back-maker for backs 
 To the cooper for casks 
 To the copper-smith for coppers, &c. 
 
 The Brazier gives employment to 
 
 The coppersmith for copper, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Mean Temperature of the Earth. 
 
 The temperature of the latter end of April is observed, 
 at least in the temperate zone, to be nearly the mean tem- 
 perature of the year. From that time the heat increases, 
 and is at its maximum about the 21st of July; it goes on 
 decreasing from tbat time till it comes to the mean in the 
 end of October, and it passes from thence to the greatest 
 cold about the 21st of January. 
 
 As we go eastward from the shores of the Atlantic, the 
 mean temperature of any parellel becomes lower, at a rate 
 that may perhaps, for the north part of the temperate 
 zone, be estimated at a degree for 150 miles. 
 
 At St. Petersburgh, lat. 59° 56°, about 750 miles from 
 what may be accounted the shores of the Atlantic, the 
 temperature is 5° 5' below the standard. The medium 
 temperature of January is no more than 10° By computa- 
 tion from the formula above, it ought to be greater than 
 32°. The winter lasts from October to April, and the cold 
 is sometimes as great as the freezing point of mercury, or 
 — 39°. From a mean of several years, the mean of the 
 winter cold is — 25°. — Kirwin, p. 61.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 147 
 
 It was at Krasnojark, lat. 56° 30', long. 93° E. that 
 mercury was first known to freeze by natural cold. 
 
 If we were to begin where any parallel intersects the 
 shore of the Atlantic, and draw on the map aline, along 
 which the mean temperature should be constantly the same 
 as at the first mentioned point, it would incline greatly to 
 the south. The point, for instance, in the meridian of 
 Petersburgh, which has the same temperature with the 
 standard belonging to the parallel of that city, is about 5° 
 south of it, or in the latitude of 54° 30' nearly. 
 
 Atlrkutz, latitude 52° 15', longitude 105° east, the mean 
 temperature from October to April has been known to be 
 as low as 6°. 8, a temperature which, for severity and dura- 
 tion, exceeds any thing that has been observed elsewhere. 
 
 This increase of the severity of the winter, and the con- 
 sequent diminution of the mean temperature, on going 
 eastward, holds in all the latitudes north of the parallel of 
 30°; but the diminution is slower as we approach that 
 parallel; to the south of 30°, the mean heat increases on 
 retiring from the ocean. 
 
 This diminution takes place all the way to the shores of 
 the Pacific, or very near them. The climate of Pekin is 
 vastly more severe than that of the same parallel (39° 54') 
 in Europe. 
 
 In the New Continent also, at least in the part of it to 
 the north of the Tropic of Cancer, the mean temperature 
 is much below the standard, and the severity of the winter 
 much greater than in the same latitudes in Europe. 
 
 At Prince of Wales' Fort, Hudson's Bay, lat. 59°, long. 
 92° west, the mean temperature is 20° under the standard; 
 at Nain in Labrador 16°; at Cambridge in New England 
 (lat. 42° 25') 13 degrees. Mercury has been supposed to 
 be frozen by the natural cold as far south as Quebec, 
 lat. 47°. 
 
 A very low mean temperature, and extreme cold in 
 winter, are characteristic of the climate of North 
 America. 
 
 In the higher latitudes of the southern hemisphere, the 
 temperature is lower than I in the same latitudes of the 
 northern hemisphere. 
 
 Forster describes a small island on the coast of South
 
 148 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Georgia, lat 54° south, which, in the middle of summer, 
 was covered almost entirely with frozen snow to the depth 
 of several fathoms. 
 
 The South Pole is surrounded, to the distance of 18 or 
 19 degrees, with a barrier of solid ice, through which, even 
 the skill and intrepidity of Captain Cook could not force a 
 passage. 
 
 It is known also, that detached masses of ice float down 
 in that hemisphere as low as the latitude of 46°. The cause 
 of this phenomenon is by no means sufficiently understood. 
 — Professor Playfair. 
 
 Wonderful Lake. 
 
 In Carniola, there is a very extraordinary lake, called the 
 Zirchnitzer Sea. It is dried up during summer, and, 
 after affording a vast quantity of fish, that are caught in the 
 holes through which the waters disappear, produces a fine 
 crop of grass or hay, and is sometimes sown with millet; 
 thus continuing of advantage to the inhabitants as arable 
 or pasture land, 'till, in September, the waters rush back 
 again through the holes with great impetuosity, and the 
 lake is restored to its original size. This curious pheno- 
 menon is explained in the following manner. The country 
 is hilly, and the lake is surrounded with rising grounds. 
 It has no visible exit, yet seven rivulets empty themselves 
 into it. By subterraneous channels it communicates with 
 two lakes concealed under ground, the one situated below, 
 the other above, its own level. Into the first it empties 
 itself by means of the holes in its bottom ; from the second 
 it receives a supply equal to its waste, which prevents 
 it sinking under ground during the winter. From the 
 lowest lake a considerable river runs. In the summer, the 
 uppermost lake, not beeing fed as usual by rain, becomes 
 smaller, and ceases to supply the Zirchnitzer Sea with 
 water. The waste of this lake, therefore, being greater 
 than the supply, it is drained in consequence, and disap- 
 pears. When the uppermost lake is restored to its usual 
 size, it affords the proper quantity of water; hence the
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 149 
 
 lowest lake swells, and at last forces part of its contents 
 through the holes into the open air, and thus restores the 
 Zirchnitzer Sea to its original size." 
 
 Touching for the King's Evil. 
 
 An old man, who was witness in a cause, gave the fol- 
 lowing account of this supposed miraculous healing. He 
 had, by his evidence, fixed the time of a fact by Queen 
 Anne's having been at Oxford, and touched him, whilst a 
 child, for the evil : when he had finished his evidence, he 
 was asked whether he was really cured? He answered 
 with a smile, that he believed he never had a complaint 
 that deserved the name of evil ; but that his parents were 
 poor, and had no objection to the bit of gold. This piece of 
 gold, which was given to those who were touched, may 
 account for the great resort upon the occasion, and the 
 miraculous cures supposed to be afterwards affected. Ge- 
 melli, the famous traveller, also gives an account of 1600 
 persons offering themselves to be cured of the evil to Lewis 
 XIV. on Easter Sunday, in the year 1686. Gemelli was 
 himself present at this ceremony, and says, the words used 
 were, " Le roi te touche, Dieu te guerisse." Every French- 
 man received fifteen sous, every foreigner thirty, after 
 being touched. To some of the supposed patients, the king 
 said significantly, Are you sick too ? This power of heal- 
 ing by the kings of France, occasioned great resort to 
 Francis I. (whilst prisoner at Madrid) by the Spaniards, 
 who did not conceive that their own king's touch would 
 effect the cure. 
 
 By a proclamation of the 18th of June, 1626, it is ordered 
 that no one shall apply for this purpose, who does not 
 bring a proper certificate that he was never touched before. 
 This regulation must, undoubtedly, have arisen from some 
 supposed patients, who had attempted to receive the bit of 
 gold more than once. 
 
 ■r-r-r* ■*■***
 
 150 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Epitaphs. 
 
 " I have always been fond," says an anonymous writer 
 in the Literary Gazette, " of visiting village burying 
 grounds. It would not be a difficult task to convert 
 them into a species of rustic mental school. Yet a step 
 further : — Would not the church-yard be turned into 
 a " biographical library" for the lower orders, were 
 each deceased's exact character to be engraven on the 
 stone which covers his virtues or vices? Might not a 
 strong feeling of emulation be excited ? This could be 
 arranged by the clergyman of the parish. We are none of 
 us indifferent to the regards of posterity. ** Victory or 
 Westminster Abbey !" was the battle-shout of one of our 
 greatest heroes. This " love of fame" — this " universal 
 passion," pervades all human minds, in a more or less 
 degree. With what pride would the children of the vir- 
 tuous poor man read on his tomb-stone the epitome of his 
 worth ; — and what a lesson would the offspring of a differ- 
 ent character receive from the " stigmatized," even in 
 death !" 
 
 The examples which are subjoined will shew that this 
 order of writing is not without its beauty. 
 
 Epitaph from the Greek. 
 
 Pillars of death ! carv'd syrens' tearful urns ! 
 
 In whose sad keeping my poor dust is laid, 
 To him that near my tomb his footsteps turns, 
 
 Stranger or Greek, bid hail ! and say, a maid 
 Rests in her bloom below ; her Sire the name 
 
 Of Myrtis gave ; her birth and lineage high ; 
 And say her bosom friend Erinna came, 
 
 And on the marble graved her elegy. 
 
 From the Modern Greek. 
 On a Tomb in the Island of Zante. 
 
 The Maid who in this grave is sleeping, 
 Has left her young companions weeping ;
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 151 
 
 And thoughts of her have plunged in sadness 
 Hearts to whom they once gave gladness ! 
 Lovely in form — in mind excelling — 
 A spirit pure in heavenly dwelling. 
 She died — and we again shall never 
 See one like her — now lost for ever ! 
 
 By Dr. Lowth, bishop of London, on his daughter Maria, 
 as translated from the Latin, by Mr. Duncombe. 
 
 Dearer than daughter, parallel'd by few 
 In genius, goodness, modesty, — adieu 1 
 Adieu ! Maria — 'till that day more blest, 
 When, if deserving, I with thee shall rest. 
 Come, then, thy sire will cry, in joyful strain, 
 O ! come to my paternal arms again. 
 
 From the French. 
 On a Tomb-stone in Auvergne. 
 
 Marie was the only child of her mother, 
 
 " And she was a widow." 
 Marie sleeps in this grave — 
 And the widow has now no child. 
 
 Inscription on a Stone in the English Burying-ground at 
 Bourdeaux. 
 
 There was a sweet and nameless grace, 
 That wander' d o'er her lovely face ; 
 And from her pensive eye of blue, 
 Was magic in the glance which flew. 
 Her hair of soft and gloomy shade, 
 In rich luxuriance curling stray'd ; 
 But when she spoke, or when she sung, 
 Enchantment on her accents hung. 
 Where is she now ? — where all must be — 
 Sunk in the grave's obscurity.
 
 152 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Yet never — never slumber'd there 
 A mind more pure — a form more fair 
 
 In a Church-yard in Northumberland. 
 
 The world has long since wearied me, 
 And now, my appointed task is done, 
 
 Parting it without enmity, 
 
 I'll take my staff, and journey on. 
 
 On a Tomb-stone in an Irish Country Church-yard. 
 
 A little Spirit slumbers here, 
 
 Who to one heart was very dear. 
 
 Oh ! he was more than life or light, 
 
 Its thought by day — its dream by night ! 
 
 The chill winds came — the young flower faded, 
 
 And died ; — the grave its sweetness shaded. 
 
 Fair Boy ! thou should'st have wept for me, 
 Not I have had to mourn o'er thee : 
 Yet not long shall this sorrowing be. — 
 Those roses I have planted round, 
 To deck thy dear and sacred ground, 
 "When spring-gales next those roses wave, 
 They'll blush upon thy mother's grave. 
 
 On a tomb stone in the church yard of Runcorn^ in 
 Cheshire. 
 
 " This stone was erected by jEneas Morrison, the hus- 
 band of Janet Morrison, to designate the spot where her 
 remains are deposited ; that her infant children, when 
 they shall have attained a more mature age, may approach 
 it with reverential awe, and pledge their vows to heaven, 
 to respect her memory by imitating her virtues."
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 153 
 
 From the French, in the Burying-ground of Mont- Louis, 
 in Paris. 
 
 Mother — sweet Mother, thou canst never know 
 That yearly thus I deck thy mossy bed 
 
 With the first roses of the Spring that blow, 
 And tears of fond affection shed. 
 
 Mother — sweet Mother, tho' I knew thee not, 
 I feel that one I love is buried here ; 
 
 And tho' this grave by others is forgot, 
 To me it shall thro' life be dear — most dear. 
 
 In Cartmell church-yard, Westmoreland, there is a neat 
 tomb-stone to the memory of Mr. John Fell, who had been 
 for many years the active surveyor of the turnpike roads 
 from Kirby Kendal to Kirby Irleth. Upon the stone are 
 the following appropriate lines : — 
 
 Reader, doth he not merit well thy praise, 
 Whose practice was through life to mend his ways ? 
 
 It is sometimes the mark of a great mind or a good 
 temper, when a man jests with his own infirmities, but a 
 jest upon our last remains, has too much of levity or pride ; 
 and is far removed from that elevation of soul which regards 
 death with equanimity, upon the principles of piety and re- 
 signation. 
 
 It should seem, however, from the ludicrous inscriptions 
 to be met with in our cliurch-yards, (more especially in the 
 country) that men are at times disposed to make a jest even 
 of the grave, and we can hardly tell whether to drop a tear 
 on the weakness, or to smile at the folly, of these '* frail 
 memorials," so different from the beautiful description of 
 the poet. 
 
 " And many a holy text around she strews 
 To teach the rustic moralist to die."
 
 154 CURIOSITIES 
 
 When we meet with such lines as 
 
 " Life is a jest, and all things show it, 
 I thought so once, but now I know it." 
 
 we are inclined to think the witty author of them had no 
 other intention than that of making a couplet ; as the sen- 
 timents of a wise man they will hardly be admitted. " All 
 may be vanity," but not a jest ; and we cannot consider 
 that a proper regard has been paid to his memory by giving 
 them as his last sentiments ; there is too much of the ab- 
 surd. The idle, and the vain, too often take occasion from 
 such opinions to confirm themselves in error, not to say 
 vice. 
 
 Inscriptions and epitaphs under the inspection of, and 
 regulated by the minister or curate of the parish, as sug- 
 gested by the anonymous writer we have quoted, would at 
 least prevent the indulgence of ridicule in the young and 
 thoughtless, where they ought to be serious. We shall not 
 repeat more of these fooleries than may suffice to show that 
 they are yet of a recent date. In Doncaster church yard, 
 1816, may be seen the following*: 
 
 " Here lies 2 Brothers by misfortun serounded, 
 One dy'd of his wounds & the other was drownded." 
 
 And in the neighbouring ground at Arksey, of a less recent 
 date, may be found several equally ludicrous, from among 
 which we select the following : 
 
 Farewell, my friends all, 
 
 Sisters and dear mother, 
 You have lost your son, 
 
 And have got no other. 
 
 IN BIDEFORD CHURCH YARD, DEVON. 
 
 The wedding day appointed was, 
 And wedding clothes provided : 
 
 But ere the day did come, alas ! 
 He sicken'd, and he die did.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 155 
 
 IN SEVEN OAKS, KENT. 
 
 Grim Death took me without any warning : 
 I was well at night and died in the morning. 
 
 We shall conclude with one placed on the tomb of a man, 
 who had desired by will to have something said on his grave 
 stone ; he was rich, but alas ! that was all ; his executors 
 were conscientious men, and at a loss how to designate a 
 character, Avhere there was no character at all, at length 
 hit upon the following — 
 
 " Silence is wisdom.' 
 
 The Divining Rod 
 
 The virgula divinatoria, or divining rod, is a forked 
 branch, or two shoots or young branches of a fruit-bearing 
 tree, tied together at one end, and held by the other ends, 
 one in each hand. When held in a certain position, and 
 under certain circumstances, it is said to discover the situa- 
 tion of metals, &c. in the earth, by dipping as it approaches 
 the place beneath which they immediately lie. 
 
 It is not known who was the discoverer of it ; but Agri- 
 cola, in his treatise De Re Metallica, supposes that it took 
 its rise from the magicians, who pretended to discover mines 
 by inchantment ; others are of opinion that the discovery is 
 of later date, and that the inventor was hanged in Germany 
 as an impostor. Be that as it may, no mention is made of 
 it earlier than the 11th century; and though it has occa- 
 sionally occupied attention for so long a time, yet the nice- 
 ties attending its use according to the prescribed directions, 
 and probably, too, the difficulty of accounting for the 
 effects said to be produced by any plausible theory con- 
 sistent with the admitted laws of natural philosophy, 
 may have retarded its progress; for it is now almost 
 totally neglected. 
 
 About the middle of the 18th century it was ably sup- 
 ported in France by De Thouvenel, who published a book 
 upon the subject, in which he endeavoured to substantiate
 
 156 CURIOSITIES 
 
 the virtue of the divining rod by the recital of about six hun- 
 dred instances of its successful employment, principally by 
 himself or within his own knowledge ; and soon after by a 
 philosopher of unimpeachable veracity, and a chemist, Wil- 
 liam Cookworthy, late of Plymouth. The favourable opinion 
 he entertained of it was grounded, according to his own 
 account, as became a chemist, upon actual experiment. It 
 appears that his experiments were frequently repeated, and 
 that the ease which he attained in using the virgula was the 
 means of his satisfying many intelligent men of its virtue, 
 by experiments for the discovery of pieces of metal hid in 
 the earth, as well as by the discovery of a copper mine near 
 Oakhampton, which was worked for several years. Thus it 
 became introduced into Cornwall, where the discovery of 
 several mines is attributed to it ; and there are yet a few 
 among the most intelligent practical miners in the county 
 who continue to believe in its virtue. The first knowledge 
 he procured of the rod was from a Captain Rebeira, who de- 
 serted the Spanish service in Queen Anne's reign, and became 
 Captain Commandant of Plymouth garrison; and as Cook- 
 worthy's veracity and abilities were unquestionable, and as 
 it undeniably appears that he made many experiments with 
 the rod, it seems as if his account demands some degree of 
 confidence. But the earlier writers who mention it, appear 
 to have supposed that its operation was the effect of magic ; 
 and thence the cutting of it was, according to their direc- 
 tions, to be attended by the utterance of certain cabalistic 
 words, and the performance of certain ceremonies : they di- 
 rected it to be cut on a certain day, and at a certain hour, 
 from a tree of a certain description, before sun-rise, about 
 the day of the annunciation of the Virgin Mary, but espe- 
 cially with an increasing moon. It has, however, of later 
 times been agreed, that a forked hazle rod, or two straight 
 rods of one year's growth, being most pliable, cut in the 
 winter and kept till they are dry, answer best ; or, if these 
 be not at hand, suckers of the apple or currant-tree, or 
 shoots of the peach-tree, willow, or oak, though green, will 
 do tolerably well, but those of the fruit-bearing trees are 
 preferred. If the rod be made of two separate shoots, they 
 are tied together at their larger ends with some vegetable 
 substance; and these, it is said, answer better than those
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 157 
 
 which grow foi'ked, the shoots of which, being rarely of 
 equal size and length, do not handle so well. The length, 
 of the rod is from two and a half to three feet. 
 
 Upon a nice observation of the mode of holding the 
 rod, prescribed by Cookworthy, much seems to depend. 
 Having, as has been observed, tied the larger ends of the 
 sticks together, the smaller are to be held, one in each 
 hand, with that part which is grasped by the hand so 
 turned as to be brought parallel to the horizon, and the 
 tied ends pointing upwards at an elevation of about 70 de- 
 grees. The more strongly the rod is grasped, the livelier 
 is said to be its action: but it is peculiarly necessary to ob- 
 serve that it be grasped steadily and equally; for if, when the 
 movement or attraction of the rod is commenced, there be 
 the least imaginable opposition to it by a jerk, it will not 
 move any more, till the hands have been opened, and a fresh 
 grasp taken. It appears, that a due observance of this is of 
 much importance, and that the operation of the rod has, in 
 many instances, been defeated by a jerk, or counter-action; 
 and thence, says Pryce, in his Mineralogist, Cornubiensis, 
 who was " well convinced of its absolute and impi'oveable 
 virtues," it has been concluded, that there is no real efficacy 
 in the rod. It must, he says, be particularly observed, that 
 as our animal spirits are necessary to this process, so a man 
 ought to hold the rod with the same indifference and inat- 
 tention to, and reasoning about it, or its effects, as he holds 
 a fishing-rod, or a walking-stick ; for, if the mind be occu- 
 pied by doubts, reasoning, or any other operation that 
 engages the animal spirits, it will divest their powers from 
 being exerted in the process, in which their instrumentality 
 is absolutely necessary ; hence, he observes, it is, that the 
 rod constantly answers in the hands of peasants, women, 
 and children, who hold it simply, without puzzling 
 their minds with doubts or reasonings. Whatever, adds 
 he, may be thought of this observation, it is a very just 
 one, and of great consequence in the practice of the divining 
 rod. 
 
 Equipped as has been described, and duly observing the 
 foregoing directions, the person in search of a metallic lode 
 is to walk steadily and slowly forward ; and when he ap- 
 proaches a lode so nearly as its semi-diameter, the rod, it is
 
 15» CURIOSITIES 
 
 said, will feel loose in Ms hands, and be sensibly repelled 
 towards his face : if it be thrown back so far as to touch his 
 hat, it must be brought forward to its usual elevation, when 
 it will continue to be repelled till his foremost foot is over the 
 edge of the lode : and when this is the case, if the rod be 
 held well, there will be first a small repulsion towards the 
 face ; but this is momentary, and the rod will be immedi- 
 ately drawn irresistibly down, it is said, and will continue 
 to be so during the whole passage over the lode : but as 
 soon as the foremost foot is beyond its limits (Pryce's 
 Mineralogia Cornubiensis), the attraction from the hind- 
 most foot, which is still on the lode, or else the repulsion 
 on the other side, or both, throws the rod back towards the 
 face. When the rod has been drawn down, the hands must 
 be opened, the rod raised by the middle fingers, a fresh 
 grasp must be taken, and the rod held again as before ; for, 
 if it be raised again without opening the hands, it will not 
 work. 
 
 Pryce, at p. 123 of his Mineralogia Cormibiensis, informs 
 us that many mines have been discovered by means of the 
 rod, and quotes several ; but it must be observed that, by 
 his own account of the adventures, not one of them turned 
 out a profitable concern ; and hence he takes occasion to 
 observe, that it is by no means a disadvantage that the rod 
 dips equally to a poor as to a rich lode, which he allows to 
 be the case ; otherwise the great prizes in the mining lot- 
 tery would soon be drawn, and future adventurers be dis- 
 couraged! 
 
 But though the rod is said to dip equally to a poor as to a 
 rich lode, it is not found to dip with the same force to all 
 metals ; nor, indeed, does it appear to be continued to me- 
 tals alone, but that it is also attracted by coals, bones, 
 lime-stone, and springs of water, with different degrees of 
 strength, in the following order: — 1. Gold. 2. Copper. 
 3. Iron. 4. Silver. 5. Tin. 6. Lead. 7. Coals. 8. 
 Limestone, and springs of water. The mode directed by 
 Cookworthy for proving this, is the following : with the 
 rod held according to the prescribed rules, stand 'with one 
 foot advanced, put under it a guinea, and a halfpenny under 
 the other, and the rod will be drawn down forwards ; if 
 the pieces of money be shifted, it will still be attracted
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 159 
 
 towards the gold, i. e. towards the face ; which proves that 
 the gold possesses the stronger attraction : and, by thus 
 varying all the forementioned substances, the strength of 
 their respective attractions will be found to correspond with 
 the order in which they are placed. 
 
 According to Captain Rcbeira, the virtue necessarily re- 
 sident in the human body for the discovery of metals, &c. 
 in the earth by means of the divining rod, is confined to but 
 few persons ; and Agricola very shrewdly insinuates, that 
 where it does not act, it must be owing to some singular 
 occult quality in the person. Cookworthy and Pryce, how- 
 ever, affect that Rebeira was mistaken ; for that the virtue, 
 as he calls it, resides in all rods and in all persons, though 
 not in every rod in the hands of every person. Willow and 
 other rods, say they, will not be attracted in the way which 
 fruit-bearing rods are attracted, but will answer in hands in 
 which the fruit-bearing rods are not attracted ; so that all 
 persons possess the virtue. 
 
 If a piece of the same wood as that of which the rod is 
 composed, be placed under the arm, it will totally destroy the 
 operation of it, except in the instance of water, for which 
 any rod, they say, in any hand will answer ; or if the least 
 animal thread, as silk, or worsted, or hair, be placed on the 
 top of the rod, it will prevent its operation : but if a piece of 
 the same animal substance, or of the same wood as that of 
 which the rod is made, provided the rod does not answer, 
 be placed under the arm, it will cause the rod to operate. If 
 a piece of gold be held in the hand and touching the rod, it 
 will prevent its being attracted by that metal or by copper, 
 for the rod will be repelled towards the face ; or if iron, lead, 
 tin, silver, limestone, bone, or coal, be held in like manner, 
 it will also be repelled, and vice versa. If a person with 
 whom the rod does not naturally operate, hold apiece of gold 
 in his hand, the rod then answers to gold and copper ; and 
 thus with respect to the other metals and substances ; and 
 upon these properties of the rod depends its power of distin- 
 guishing one metal or substance from another. Another 
 mode however, grounded upon the same principles, is 
 pointed out as being much more ready and certain, viz. by 
 preparing rods that will onlv answer to some one of the 
 o2
 
 160 CURIOSITIES 
 
 aforementioned substances. The mode of preparing them 
 is by boring a small hole in the top of the rod, and by put- 
 ting into it a very small quantity of each substance, except 
 that after which search is to be made : the hole is then to 
 be stopped up with a piece of the same wood of which the 
 rod is made. These are the directions which Cookworthy 
 has given for the use of the divining rod. 
 
 It is now but little if at all practised in this country : the 
 few among the curious, or among practical miners, who 
 continue to assert that it possesses an influence in the dis- 
 covery of ores, seem so far to have yielded to its opponents 
 as to have given up the use of k. 
 
 Taking it for granted, however, that metals do act upon 
 the rod to the fullest extent of Cookworthy' s belief, it still 
 remains a question, notwithstanding the accommodating 
 opinion of Pryce, whether it would prove a benefit to 
 the miner, as it is allowed that it dips equally to the poor 
 as to the rich lode, to a silver penny as to the mines of 
 Potosi ; for it is too often experienced in Cornwall that 
 lodes are not wanting, but ore. The advantage to be derived 
 from it, thei-efore, with regard to metallic veins seems by 
 no means a counterbalance to the niceties and uncertainties 
 attending its use ; for the projector, implicitly depending 
 upon the information of the rod, might, at a ruinous ex- 
 pense, ransack the bowels of the earth, in consequence of 
 its dipping to a rich gossan, or a dead lode. 
 
 The faculty of subterraneous discovery has been referred 
 to the theory of effluvia, or to the corpuscular philosophy, 
 for explanation ; but it seems only to have been hypotheti- 
 cally referred to an hypothesis. For, in the first place, 
 although the asserted effects of the rod have been copiously 
 described, a definition of its modus agendi, where it will act, 
 has been wanting, nor have we been told what particular 
 constitutional defects have in most cases prevented its act- 
 ing at all ; and secondly, the theory of the corpuscular 
 philosophy, though perhaps it may be impossible wholly 
 to reject it, has never been completely admitted. Rebeira 
 permitted persons to see him use the rod, but would discover 
 no more ; and neither Cookworthy nor Pryce has said 
 whether, as the practiser in the divining art approaches a 
 spot under which springs or metals lie hid, he feels any
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 161 
 
 internal sensations; but Thouvenel lias more completely 
 provoked doubt, by asserting, tbat internal sensations, 
 nearly approaching to morbid affections, are felt, at the 
 same time that an external motion is communicated to the 
 rod. These singular emotions, none of which were ob- 
 served to take place when he was above stagnant waters, 
 were followed by head -ache, fatigue of body, debility of 
 mind, and other symptoms of nervous irritation. The 
 dry state of the atmosphere, also favourable to electric 
 experiments, was observed to render him more active and 
 lively in his prognostics ; but a full meal evidently dimin- 
 ished the capacity : and an inflammatory fever, wliich 
 confined him a fortnight to his bed, deranged or destroyed 
 the miraculous power for the space of three months. From 
 these circumstances it should seem that its action is 
 dependent on some peculiar nervous sensibility ; that our 
 faith or our imagination should be prepossessed in its 
 favour, according to Pryce ; and that much depends on an 
 harmonious distribution of the animal spirits, devoid of 
 anxiety or reasoning respecting the event : but that a 
 state of doubt is an obstruction to its operation. These, 
 perhaps, may be the principal difficulties in using the 
 divining rod ; but we are assured by Cookworthy and 
 Pryce, that, regarding these and other essentials in its use, 
 a rod may be found adapted to the peculiar system of every 
 person. 
 
 Iron Hanging Bridge. 
 
 The Iron Hanging Bridge now constructing over the 
 Menai Strait, will, when completed, be perhaps, one of the 
 most singular works of art that any age or nation ever 
 produced. It has been designed by Thomas Telford, Esq. 
 who has for many years bestowed great pains and expence 
 in making a vast number of experiments on the strength of 
 iron suspended, as well vertically as horizontally, and with 
 various degrees of curvature. The Menai bridge, as repre- 
 sented in Plate XII., is to consist of one opening of 500 
 feet between the points of suspension, and 108 feet in 
 o3
 
 162 CURIOSITIES 
 
 height, between the high-water line, and the lower side of 
 the road-way; and the road-way being horizontal, this 
 height is uninterrupted for the whole 500 feet, except 
 where the natural rock, which forms the western abut- 
 ment, now interposes. But, in addition to these 500 feet, 
 there are to be four arches on the western, and three on 
 the eastern side of this main opening, each fifty fret span ; 
 that is, making in all, 850 feet of opening. The drawing 
 also shews, that, in regard to the navigation, it is far 
 preferable to any bridge of an arched form, because the 
 latter affords the full height of 100 feet only in the middle; 
 whereas, the former, as has just been observed, affords 
 the same full height for the whole of the 500 feet, which 
 will be a considerable advantage to vessels passing the 
 Menai Strait, as it will allow them to stand closer to either 
 shore while passing under the bridge. In regard to eco- 
 nomy, this bridge, on the principle of suspension, has 
 equally the advantage, the estimated expence not being 
 more than £70,000; whereas the cheapest of the arched 
 form, made of cast iron, would have cost nearly double 
 that sum. 
 
 With respect to the facility of execution, it must be 
 evident to any person the least conversant with mechanical 
 operations, that the bridge-part of the large opening in the 
 drawing, may be constructed nearly as readily as the cen- 
 tering only for a bridge of a single arch of cast iron of the 
 same span. 
 
 The road-way will consist of two carriage-ways, each 
 twelve feet in breadth, with a foot-path of four feet 
 between them, so that the platform will be about thirty 
 feet in breadth. The whole is to be suspended from four 
 lines of strong iron cables, by perpendicular iron rods, 
 placed five feet apart, and these rods will support the 
 road-way framing. The suspending power is calculated 
 at 2016 tons, and the weight to be suspended, exclusive of 
 the cables, is 342 tons, leaving a disposable power of 1674 
 tons. The four sides of the road-ways will be made of 
 framed iron-work, firmly bound together for seven feet in 
 height, and there will be a similar work, for five feet in 
 depth below the cables. The weight of the whole bridge 
 between the points of suspension will be 489 tons.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 163 
 
 It is calculated that the contraction and expansion of the 
 iron cables may occasion a rise or fall to the extent of four 
 or five inches ; but the variations of the temperature of 
 the atmosphere will not derange the bridge. 
 
 The abutments will consist of the masonry-work, as it is 
 represented in the drawing ; each of the two piers will be 
 60 feet by 42% wide at high-water mark, having a foundation 
 of rock. These piers, when connected with the whole of 
 the remainder of the masonry, will form a mass con- 
 structed with blocks of hard lime-stone, of much greater 
 weight than is necessary for supporting a bridge of this 
 kind. Upon the summit of the two main piers will be 
 erected a frame of cast iron, of a pyramidal form, for the 
 purpose of raising the cables from which the bridge is to 
 be suspended. As the cables will be carried from the top 
 of the pyramids so as to form nearly similar angles on 
 each side, the pressure will be almost perpendicular. 
 
 Mr. Telford proposes to have four lines of suspension 
 in the breadth of the bridge, by which means the cables 
 will be disposed in such a manner as to divide it (as before 
 stated) into two carriage-ways of twelve feet each, with a 
 foot-way of four feet in the centre. Along each line there 
 will be four cables, making in the whole sixteen ; these 
 cables will pass over rollers fixed on the summits of the 
 pyramids, and be fastened at their extremities to an iron 
 frame, lying horizontally over the top of the small arches, 
 and under a mass of masonry, as describe d by the dotted 
 lutes in the annexed Plate. From these cables the 
 road- way will be suspended by vertical iron rods, con- 
 nected at their lower extremities with wrought iron bars, 
 both transversely and longitudinally, thus forming a frame 
 on which timber will be laid for the road-way. The dis- 
 tance of five feet is kept between the rods, in order that the 
 suspending power may be equally distributed throughout 
 the whole length of the bridge. The suspending rods will 
 pass between the cables, and depend upon every two of 
 them, so that the general strength of the bridge could not 
 materially be affected by taking one away. The cables 
 and the flooring, as weli as the suspending rods, will be 
 constructed and united in such a manner, that each of the 
 parts may be taken out and replaced separately ; so that
 
 164 CURIOSITIES 
 
 there can be no difficulty in repairing any part of the 
 bridge, whenever required. A temporary wire-bridge will 
 be made from one abutment to the other, in order to carry 
 over the cables, and arrange the several parts of the bridge, 
 while building. 
 
 The weight of each separate cable between the points of 
 suspension, is estimated at nine tons and three-quarters, or 
 117 pounds per yard. The weight of a drove of oxen is 
 calculated at about 300 tons, supposing them to amount to 
 200 head, all closely huddled together ; and the estimated 
 weight necessary to tear the cables asunder is upwards of 
 2,000 tons, which is about four times the weight of the 
 entire bridge. The passing of a mail-coach over the bridge 
 is not expected to produce any undulation, or sensible per- 
 pendicular vibration ; nor is any lateral vibration appre- 
 hended from the most violent gale of wind, by reason of 
 the proportion that the breadth of the bridge bears as a 
 frame to its extreme length. 
 
 Iron has this peculiar property, that a certain weight 
 extends the length of the bar. After standing some time, 
 the bar remains of that length, and it requires an additional 
 weight to give it an additional stretch ; so that, although 
 the actual dimensions of the sectional area of the bar 
 become less, yet it bears a greater weight Hence, should 
 any one of the bars in this hanging-bridge, when first 
 placed there, bear a greater weight than the one next to it, 
 or any other bar, and be exposed to a stretch, it would 
 soon accommodate itself to the length of the whole ; and, 
 in that state, be capable of bearing more weight than it 
 did at first. Half-inch bars, of tolerably good iron, will 
 bear from six tons to six and a half ; but they will elongate 
 at not much more than half that stress. It is a curious 
 fact, and deserving of the attention of philosophers, that 
 frequently, at the moment of rupture, the bar acquires 
 sucti a degree of heat in the fractured part, as scarcely to 
 allow a person to hold it grasped in his hand without a 
 painful sensation of burning. 
 
 The Menai Bridge was expected to be completed in three 
 years from the time of its commencement, in 1819. The 
 foundation of the abutments, on both shores, is on solid 
 rock. The stone, of which the masonry of the piers will
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 165 
 
 be constructed, is procured in the north-east end of the 
 Isle of A.nglesea, from the estate of Lord Bulkeley, where 
 the cliffs are nearly one hundred feet high. It is fine grey 
 marble, perfectly solid, and in large masses, lying in a 
 very convenient situation close to the sea-shore, where it 
 is loaded into vessels, and carried through Beaumaris Bay 
 to that part of the Menai Strait where the bridge is to be 
 erected. 
 
 The Jew's Leap. 
 
 Captain Riley and his fellow sufferers from shipwreck, 
 in their journey from Santa Cruz, towards Moggadore, 
 crossed a remarkably dangerous and frightful pass, called 
 the Jeiv's Leap. " The path," says Captain Riley, " which 
 we were now obliged to follow, was not more than two feet 
 wide in one place ; and on our left, it broke off in a pre- 
 cipice of some hundred feet deep to the sea ; the smallest 
 slip of the mule or camel would have plunged it and its 
 rider down the rocks to inevitable and instant death, as 
 there was no bush or any thing to lay hold of by which a 
 man might save his life. Very fortunately for us, there had 
 been no rain for a considerable time previous, so that the 
 road was noAV dry. Rais told me, when it was wet it was 
 never attempted, and that many fatal accidents had hap- 
 pened there within his remembrance ; though there was 
 another road which led round over the mountain far within 
 the country. 
 
 " One of these accidents, he said, he would mention. — 
 A company of Jews, six in number, from Santa Cruz for 
 Morocco, came to this place with their loaded mules in 
 the twilight, after sunset ; being very anxious to get past 
 it before night, they did not take the precaution to look 
 out and call aloud before they entered on it, for there is 
 a place built at each end of this dangerous piece of road, 
 from whence one may see if there are others on it, not 
 being quite half a mile in length ; a person, in hallooing 
 out, can be heard from one end to the other, and it is the 
 practice of all who go this way to give this signal. A com-
 
 166 CURIOSITIES 
 
 pany of Moors had entered, at the other end, going 
 towards Santa Cruz, at the same time, and they also 
 supposing that no others would dare to pass it at that hour, 
 came on without the usual precaution. When about half 
 way over, and in the place the two parties met, there was 
 no possibility of passing each other, or turning about to 
 back either way ; the Moors were mounted as well as the 
 Jews, neither party could retire, nor could any one, except 
 the foremost, get off his mule : the Moors soon became 
 outrageous, and threatened to throw the Jews down head- 
 long : the Jews, though they had always been treated like 
 slaves, and forced to submit to every insult and indignity, 
 yet finding themselves in this perilous situation, without 
 the possibility of retiring, and unwilling to break their 
 necks merely to accommodate the Moors, the foremost 
 Jew dismounted, carefully, over the head of his mule, with 
 a stout stick in his hand ; the Moor nearest him did the 
 same, and came forward to attack him with his scimitar : 
 both were fighting for their lives, as neither could retreat ; 
 the Jew's mule was first pitched down the craggy steep, 
 and dashed to atoms by the fall. The Jew's stick was next 
 hacked to pieces by the scimitar; when, finding it was 
 impossible for him to save his life, he seized the Moor in 
 bis arms, and, springing off the precipice, both were 
 instantly hurled to destruction ; two more of the Jews and 
 one Moor lost their lives, in the same way, together with 
 eight mules ! and the three Jews, who made shift to escape, 
 were hunted down and killed by the relations of the Moors 
 who had lost their lives on the pass, and the place has, 
 ever since, been called the Jew's Leap. It is, indeed, 
 enough to produce dizziness, even in the head of a sailor, 
 and if I had been told the story before getting on this 
 frightful ridge, I am not certain but that my. imagination 
 might have disturbed my faculties, and rendered me in- 
 capable of proceeding with safety along this perilous path." 
 
 Rileu's Ncm'ative. 
 
 ***+**■+*
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 167 
 
 Figure of the Earth. 
 
 The inquiry into the figure and dimensions of the earth 
 is of considerable astronomical use, and, if conducted to 
 exactness, of very great difficulty. Here, however, it is 
 intended to show, merely on popular grounds, and for 
 probable reasons, the roundness of the earth, and tben its 
 magnitude, supposing it to be spherical. 
 
 The earth is probably round, from the phenomena which 
 we may observe at sea. A ship first comes in sight by 
 showing us the top of the masts ; then, as it approaches, 
 we see more and more of the masts, and at last the hull ; 
 and this phenomenon is also discernible, whatever be the 
 quarter it appears in, whether it be north, south, east, or 
 west. 
 
 The earth also is probably round, from the circumstance 
 of navigators, who, by constantly leaving the poit they 
 departed from more and more behind them, have at last 
 arrived at it. They must therefore have surrounded or 
 girded the earth. 
 
 We may infer, also, the roundness of the earth from the 
 seemingly circular boundary of its shadow on the face of 
 the moon during a lunar eclipse ; for if the earth be a 
 sphere, its shadow will be conical, and a section perpen- 
 dicular to the axis will be a circle. 
 
 These arguments tend to show that the earth is round ; 
 it certainly cannot be flat like a plane, nor concave like 
 the inside of a bowl. But if round, why not spherical ? 
 This it was at first supposed to be, since, of round bodies, 
 the sphere is the most simple. Observation, however, has 
 proved this supposition to be erroneous ; and, which is 
 worthy of notice, the same body, the moon, that has been 
 employed to show the roundness of the earth, has been em- 
 ployed to establish its wow-sphericity. This will be sub- 
 sequently shown. 
 
 The earth, however, although not exactly, is very nearly 
 a sphere ; and if we assume it to be such, its dimensions 
 may be computed by the following method. By observa- 
 tions on the height of the polar star, or of the zenith 
 distances of the same star, the latitudes of places may be 
 determined. Suppose the difference of the latitudes of
 
 168 CURIOSITIES 
 
 two places on the same meridian to be 1° ; let the linear 
 and actual distance of those places be measured ; which 
 will be found to be about 69§ miles ; suppose it exactly 
 such ; then, since the earth's circumference, supposed to 
 be circular, contains 360°, it will be equal to 360 + 69. 5, 
 that is 25,020 miles, and its diameter will be about 7,960. 
 
 From this very method of determining the earth's mag- 
 nitude, its deviation from perfect sphericity may be ascer- 
 tained. If the earth were a sphere, then between two 
 places on the same meridian, and differing in their latitude 
 by 1°, the same linear distance of 69£ miles ought always 
 to be found, at whatever distance from the equator the 
 places were situated. This, however, is found not to be 
 the case ; between two places differing in latitude by 1°, 
 in latitude about 66°, the linear distance is 122,457 yards. 
 Between two places, near the equator, the linear distance 
 is 121,027 yards, the former distance being 69§ miles + 
 137 yards, the latter 69£ miles — 1,293 yards; and simi- 
 lar measurements establish as a general fact, that degrees, 
 that is, their linear values, increase as we move from the 
 equator towards the pole. 
 
 But, if not spherical, what is the earth's form ? It pro- 
 bably does not differ considerably from that of a spheroid. 
 If we suppose it such, and from two degrees, the one 
 measured at the equator, the other at the pole, determine 
 the eccentricity of the eclipse that would generate it, will 
 be found to be nearly 1-335, and the polar and equatorial 
 diameters will be to one another as 335 to 336. 
 
 If the earth be not a sphere, the direction of gravity, 
 which is no other than the direction of a plumb-line, will 
 not generally, that is, in all latitudes, tend towards the 
 earth's centre. If we measure a degree at the pole, the 
 two plumb-lines that are inclined to each other at 1°, will 
 meet in a point of the polar diameter beyond the centre ; 
 if at the equator, in a point of the equatorial diameter 
 between the centre aud the part of the equator where the 
 measurement is made. In other situations, the directions 
 of the plumb-lines will not meet in a diameter drawn to 
 the point where the arc is measured. 
 
 Wuodhouse.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 169 
 
 Motion of the Earth Illustrated. 
 
 Let us imagine a prodigious large room, of a round 
 form, all hung with pictures of men and women, birds, 
 beasts, and fishes; the floor covered with water deep 
 enough to carry a boat, with a person sitting still in it, and 
 that there is a great taper burning in the midst of the room, 
 the flame being of equal height with the person's head from 
 the water. If a diver under the boat, unknown and unper- 
 ceived by this person, should turn it gently and equally 
 round and round, as an axis, giving it, at the same time, a 
 slow progressive motion round the taper the same way, but 
 so as to turn it three hundred and sixty-five times round its 
 axis, while it went once round the taper ; to the person in 
 the boat, the whole room and taper would seem to go round 
 the contrary way ; every time the boat turned round, the 
 flame would appear to change its place gradually among the 
 pictures, so as to make a tour round the room among them 
 in every revolution of the boat round the taper ; and in 
 that time the observer would be turned so much sooner to- 
 wards any particular picture, than to the taper in each 
 turning of the boat, that the whole room and pictures 
 would seem to go once more round him than the taper did. 
 The application is obvious, if we imagine the pictured room 
 to represent the visible heaven set all round with stars, 
 ranged in different constellations — the taper the sun, and 
 the boat the earth. 
 
 Fergusson. 
 
 *^*^*sT.*^ 
 
 Age of the World. 
 
 The principal arguments opposed to the authenticity of 
 what Moses relates in regard to the history of the deluge, 
 and the period when it took place, are drawn from the sup- 
 posed antiquity of our continents, which is carried back 
 without bounds, beyond that epoch. This opinion has its 
 source in idea rather than in observation ; for facts which 
 have been carefully observed, show, on the contrary, that 
 P
 
 170 CURIOSITIES 
 
 the continents we inhabit have no older date than that fixed 
 by the chronology of Moses since the flood. For the proofs 
 of this truth we refer to Lettres Physiques et Morales sur 
 VHistoire de la Terre et de V Homme, and to those sur I'His- 
 toire Physique de la Terre, or Lettres Geologiques, where 
 are collected a great number of facts, the evidence of which 
 cannot be contested. 
 
 But the project, long ago formed, of destroying the credit 
 due to the revelation announced by the sacred historian, 
 prevails, with some, over evidence. No attention is paid 
 by infidels to the proofs which confirm it ; and, without 
 having been able to destroy them, and even without having 
 tried it, they return to the charge as soon as an opportunity 
 offers. 
 
 The Moniteur, or French Official Gazette, of the 14th 
 February, 1802, contained a long article, in which are an- 
 nounced discoveries made in Upper Egypt, and among these 
 is that of two zodiacs ; from which it is " certain," says 
 the writer, " that the present division of the zodiac, such 
 as we are acquainted with, was established among the 
 Egyptians fifteen thousand years before the Christian sera, 
 and that it has been preserved without alteration, and 
 transmitted to all other nations." 
 
 This conclusion, given with a tone of assurance, may 
 easily impose, and make it be believed that it is well 
 founded, though it can rest only on conjectures or mistakes 
 in the application of astronomical calculations. 
 
 The Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences for 1708, con- 
 tain an engraving of a large fragment of an Egyptian 
 planisphere, or zodiac, which was sent from Rome to the 
 academy. This zodiac, engraven on antique marble, was 
 preserved in the Vatican. It represents concentric bands 
 or circles divided into twelve equal portions by lines drawn 
 from the circumference to the centre. The circle in the 
 centre, which is not divided, contains three constellations, 
 the Dragon and two Bears. The next circle, which is 
 divided, contains the figures of animals, reptiles, and 
 others. The two following circles contain each, in the 
 same order, the twelve signs of the zodiac, some of which 
 are in good preservation. The fifth circle, separated by a 
 band on which are traced out letters or characters, con-
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 171 
 
 tains in each division, corresponding to a sign, three 
 human figures, some of which have the head of an animal. 
 And the last circle, which incloses the whole, represents 
 the planets repeated under the figure of human heads, 
 corresponding to cei'tain divisions of the signs, according 
 as the imagination, inclined to the chimeras of astrology, 
 suggested. 
 
 The learned in 1708 were far from assigning to thi3 
 zodiac a high antiquity : it was even considered, and with 
 justice, as being rather astrological than astronomical; 
 and, therefore, it was left in the historical part of that year 
 as a mere object of curiosity, not worthy of engaging the 
 time of the academy. 
 
 But Voltaire and his school had not yet appeared seated 
 in the scoruer's chair, throwing out their sophisms and 
 their sarcasms against the account given by Moses, These 
 sarcasms made their usual impression on inattentive men. 
 They reject as fabulous the chronology of the sacred 
 historian ; and, by a very remarkable but not novel incon- 
 sistency, they give more faith to the uncei'tain interpre- 
 tations of these combined arrangements of the Egyptian 
 signs and hieroglyphics, the date of which, as well as the 
 meaning, is unknown, than to a chronology established on 
 an uninterrupted series of generations. 
 
 Fortunately, without going far from the place where 
 these zodiacs were found, a very remarkable fact of the 
 philosophy of the earth bears testimony against the anti- 
 quity ascribed to them. 
 
 We know, from the accounts of enlightened travellers, 
 that the coast of Arabia on the Red Sea is incumbered with 
 banks or reefs of coral, which render access to them 
 difficult and dangerous. 
 
 These reefs are the work and habitation of polypi, 
 which, in proportion as they labour, abandon their first 
 habitations, on which they continue to build. This suc- 
 cession of labour is seen very distinctly in those marine 
 productions which serve to ornament our cabinets of natu- 
 ral history under the names of coral, madrepores, millepores, 
 sea organs, &c. 
 
 In warm climates, these polypi are always in activity ; 
 they never cease to multiply and to labour ; the result of 
 p2
 
 172 CURIOSITIES 
 
 which is, that in a short time they augment in a sensible 
 manner the mass of their habitations, which are not de- 
 stroyed by age, as they are of the same substance as shells, 
 and have the same hardness. 
 
 Niebuhr, in his Description of Arabia, p. 199, mentions 
 a striking instance of the rapid increase of these coral 
 banks, observed at the distance of some leagues to the 
 north of Mokha. " Ghaleska, a town formerly celebrated," 
 says he, " is at present a wretched village, the inhabitants 
 of which, few in number, live on their dates, and by fishing. 
 The coast is at present so filled with coi'al banks, that the 
 port is impracticable even to small vessels." 
 
 If only a few centuries then were required to render a 
 port and the neighbouring coasts impracticable, this rigor- 
 ous consequence results, that all these shores must, many 
 ages ago, have been inaccessible to ships, had the Red Sea 
 and the coast by which it is bordered, existed fifteen thou- 
 sand years before the Christian aera, as is said, of the 
 zodiacs of Upper Egypt, which would still suppose many 
 thousands of years anterior to that period. 
 
 And when we reflect that as we are no longer stopped in 
 regard to the antiquity of our continents by any known 
 chronology, the result is, that they may have existed 
 millions as well as thousands of years : there are no more 
 bounds, then, assignable to their antiquity, and conse- 
 quently to the progress of the labour of these insects ; and 
 the Red Sea, narrow and deep, ought to have been totally 
 choked up by it. 
 
 But the Red Sea is not the only one which exhibits these 
 coral reefs, and their continual increase : a great number 
 of isles situated between the tropics ai-e surrounded by 
 them in such a manner as renders access to them as difficult 
 as on the coasts of Arabia. 
 
 Mr. Labillardiere, the author of Voyage a la Recherche 
 de la Perouse, makes on this subject the following re- 
 flection, in consequence of the vessels having been exposed 
 to great danger among such reefs, which extend around 
 New Caledonia: — "These polypiers," says he, " the 
 continual increase of which blocks up more and more the 
 bason of the seas, are very capable of frightening naviga-
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 173 
 
 tors ; and many shoals, which still afford a passage, will 
 soon form reefs exceedingly dangerous." 
 
 If the present state of the seas and continents had existed 
 for thousands of ages, as pretended by those geologists 
 who reject the chronology of Moses, is it not evident that 
 these reefs, which continually increase, would have long 
 ago surrounded these islands with so great a number of 
 these walls of coral, that it would have been impossible 
 for the first navigators to approach even within a consi- 
 derable distance of them ? Nature, then, agrees here with 
 the chronology of the sacred Scriptures. The labour of 
 these little animals rises up from the bottom of the sea, in 
 testimony of the truth of their relation. 
 
 These coral rocks appear to be a production peculiar to 
 the present sea ; for we find nothing similar in calcareous 
 mountains, nor in hills consisting of shells. Coral and 
 madrepores are, no doubt, found in them ; but they are 
 insulated in the strata like all other marine bodies. This 
 example shows how deceitful the calculations of geology 
 may be, when applied to facts in the philosophy of the 
 earth without consulting nature. 
 
 The Shark and Pilot Fish. 
 
 It has been asserted that the sharks have subject to their 
 empire a very small fish of the species of the gadus; that 
 the latter precedes his master during his voyages, points 
 out to him those places of the sea most abundant in fish, 
 discovers to him the traces of the prey he is fondest of; and 
 that, out of gratitude for such signal services, the shark, 
 notwithstanding his voracity, lives in good intelligence 
 with a companion so useful to him. Naturalists, always 
 on their guard against the exaggerations of travellers, have 
 doubted the truth of these facts. If we may credit, how- 
 ever, the following statement of Professor Geoffroy, pub- 
 lished in the Bulletin des Sciences, no doubt can remain of 
 the existence of this singular association. 
 
 " In the month of May 1798," says M. Geoffroy, " I was 
 on board the Alceste frigate between Cape Bon and the 
 island of Malta, The sea was tranquil, and the passengers 
 p 3
 
 174 CURIOSITIES 
 
 were much fatigued with the long duration of the calm, 
 when their attention was attracted by a shark which they 
 saw advancing towards the vessel. It was preeeded by its 
 pilots, which kept at a pretty regular distance from each 
 other, and from the shark. The two pilots directed their 
 course towards the poop of the vessel, inspected it twice 
 from one end to the other, and, after having satisfied 
 themselves that there was nothing which they could turn 
 to their advantage, resumed their former route. During 
 the various movements which they made, the shark never 
 lost sight of them, or rather followed them as exactly as if 
 he had been dragged by them. 
 
 " He had no sooner been descried, than one of the sailors 
 got ready a large hook, which he baited with lard ; but the 
 shark and his companions had already proceeded to the 
 distance of 20 or 25 millimetres before the sailor had made 
 all his preparations i he, however, threw the piece of lard 
 into the sea at a venture. The noise occasioned by its fall 
 was heard at a considerable distance. The travellers were 
 astonished, and stopped. The two pilots then detached 
 themselves, and went to explore at the poop of the vessel. 
 The shark, during their absence, sported in a thousand 
 ways at the surface of the water ; turned himself on his 
 back, then on his belly, and dived to a greater depth, but 
 always re-appeared at the same place. When the two 
 pilots came to the poop of the Alceste they passed close to 
 the lard, and no sooner observed it, than they returned to 
 the shark with a greater velocity than they advanced to it. 
 When they reached it, the latter continued his course. 
 The pilots then swimming one on his right and the other 
 on his left, made every effort to get before him. Scarcely 
 had they done so when they suddenly returned, and then 
 went back a second time to the poop of the vessel. They 
 were followed by the shark, who was enabled by the 
 sagacity of his companions to perceive the prey destined 
 for him. It has been said that the shark is endowed with 
 a very delicate sense of smelling. I paid a great deal of 
 attention to what took place on his approaching the lard. 
 It appeared to me that he did not discover it till the mo- 
 ment it was pointed out to him by his guides ; it was then 
 only that he began to swim with greater velocity, or rather
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 175 
 
 made a jump to seize it. He detached a portion of it 
 without being hooked ; but at the second attempt the hook 
 penetrated the left lip, by which means he was hoisted 
 on board. 
 
 " It was not till the end of two hours, during which I 
 was employed in anatomizing the shark, that I began to 
 regret I had not observed more accurately the species 
 which had devoted themselves so readily to the service of 
 this voracious fish. I was assured that some of them 
 might be easily procured, as it was certain they had not 
 quitted the neighbourhood of the vessel ; and a few mo- 
 ments after, I was presented with an individual, which I 
 found to belong to the pilot or sanfre des marins, and the 
 gasterosteus ductor of the naturalists." 
 
 Stone Barometer. 
 
 A Finland newspaper mentions a stone in the northern 
 part of Finland, which serves the inhabitants instead of a 
 barometer. This stone, which they call Ilmakiur, turns 
 black, or blackish grey, when it is going to rain, but on 
 the approach of fine weather it is covered with white spots. 
 Probably it is a fossil mixed with clay, and consisting of 
 rock-salt, ammoniac, or saltpetre, which, according to the 
 greater or less degree of dampness of the atmosphere, 
 attracts it, or otherwise. In the latter case, the salt ap- 
 pears, which forms the white spots. 
 
 Highest Relative Strength of Materials. 
 
 METALS. 
 
 Force of a square inch 
 in lbs. avcirdupoise. 
 
 Steel, razor temper . 150,000 
 
 Iron wire 1 13,077 
 
 Copper ditto 61,228 
 
 Platinum ditto 56,473 
 
 Silver ditto 38,257
 
 176 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Force of a square inch, 
 in lbs. avoirdupoise. 
 
 Gold ditto 30,888 
 
 Tin ditto 7,129 
 
 Lead ditto 3,146 
 
 Antimony (cast) 1,060 
 
 WOODS. 
 
 Lance wood 24,696 
 
 Locust tree 20,582 
 
 Ash (Frasinus) 18,915 
 
 Oak 17,820 
 
 Beech 17,709 
 
 Arbutus 17,379 
 
 Teak 14,220 
 
 Alder 14,186 
 
 Mulberry 14,054 
 
 Elm 13,489 
 
 Pitch Pine 13,176 
 
 Fir 13,000 
 
 Larch 11,093 
 
 Plum 12,782 
 
 Willow 12,782 
 
 Mahogany 12,186 
 
 Chesnut (100 years in use) 12,168 
 
 Maple 10,584 
 
 Poplar 6,641 
 
 Cedar 4,973 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS SUBSTANCES. 
 
 Hemp fibres, glued together 92,000 
 
 Paper strips, glued together 30,000 
 
 Ivory 16,626 
 
 Slate (Welsh) 12,800 
 
 Plate glass 9,420 
 
 Marble (white) 9,000 
 
 Horn of an ox 7,667 
 
 Portland stone 784 
 
 Brick 300 
 
 Plaster of Paris 72 
 
 Mortar of sand and lime, sixteen years 
 made 50
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 177 
 
 Invention of Printing. 
 
 Guttemberg (called John Gensfleish of Sulgeloch), the 
 inventor of printing in Europe, was born at Mentz, in 1400. 
 Only two cities now dispute the honour of having given 
 birth to the typographic art, and both boast of having pro- 
 duced the same artist. Though there is not extant any 
 monument of the art of printing, to which the name of 
 Guttemberg is affixed, yet a well-authenticated tradition, 
 adopted by the two cities, incontestibly bears witness in 
 favour of the individual in question. 
 
 The family of Guttemberg was noble, and possessed two 
 houses ; the one called Zum Gensfleish (House of Goose- 
 flesh), the other, Zum Gudenberg (House of Good Moun- 
 tain.) In 1424. Guttemberg proceeded to Strasburg, 
 where, in 1436, he formed a co-partnership with Andrew 
 Dryzehn and some others, in all his marvellous arts and 
 secrets. George Dryzehn, on the death of his brother 
 Andrew, insisted on becoming his successor: and, in 
 1339, instituted a law-suit against Guttemberg, who was 
 condemned to resign to the heirs of the deceased the share 
 he had held in the partnership. The invention of typo- 
 graphy was, it appears, among the number of the marvellous 
 secrets, which brought about the co-partnership. It may 
 therefore be presumed, that the art of printing had its birth 
 in the city of Strasburg, in the year 1436. But we know 
 nothing respecting the early processes and first productions 
 of the art. It is generally believed, that up to the year 
 1438, Guttemberg made use of moveable wooden charac- 
 ters. But either the derangement of his affairs, or the 
 fear of injuring his credit, prevented him at all times from 
 putting his name to his works ; and we are here reduced 
 to mere conjectures. One thing is, however, certain; 
 namely, that Guttemberg was an inhabitant of Strasburg 
 in 1444 : but in 1443, he had hired a house at Mentz, 
 where, in 1450, he formed a connection with Faustus. To 
 this partnership is generally attributed the production of 
 the Biblia Latina, called the forty-two line Bible, without 
 either date, name of the printer, or the place at which it 
 was printed, This work was, however, the occasion of 
 law-suits between the two partners. Faustus demanded a
 
 178 CURIOSITIES 
 
 reimbursement of the considerable sums which he had 
 advanced, and, in 1455, Guttemberg was compelled to 
 resign the establishment to Faustus, who carried it on in 
 company with Schoiffer. In the year following, Guttem- 
 berg, assisted by Conrad Humery, a Syndic of Mentz, 
 establisbed another press in that city. From this press, 
 doubtless, issued the work entitled, Hermanni de Saldis 
 speculum sacerdotum, sixteen sheets quarto ; neither date 
 nor printer's name is attached to it, though it bears the 
 name of the city of Mentz; it is printed in characters 
 different from those which belonged to the other presses 
 of Mentz. Such is the opinion of M. Von Prael concern- 
 ing this volume, and it may safely be adopted. 
 
 M. G. Fischer, who published an Essay on the typo- 
 graphic monuments of J. Guttemberg, attributed to Guttem- 
 berg the printing of ten works, among which are four 
 editions of the Donat. But since the publication of M. 
 Fischer's work, a sheet belonging to one of these Donats 
 has been discovered, which bears the name of Peter of 
 Gemsheim (Schoiffer) ; a circumstance which authorises 
 us in attributing to this same Schoiffer, all the works 
 which are executed with corresponding characters. But 
 these characters, which are the same as those of the Biblia 
 Latina, having first belonged to Guttemberg and Faustus, 
 and afterwards to Faustus and Schoiffer, it is extremely 
 difficult to allot to each their share of the impressions. It 
 is remarkable, that the names of the inventors of the two 
 most celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth century, are not 
 attached to their productions. The Psalter of 1457, of 
 which the priority of date is indisputable, bears only the 
 names of Faustus and Schoiffer, though it cannot possibly 
 have been the first production of the art. During the four 
 last centuries, printing characters have received a more 
 elegant form (perhaps one which is less agreeable to the 
 eye) ; but in every other respect, the Psalter of 1457 is 
 doubtless a masterpiece. It must have been preceded by 
 long experiments ; and here the efforts of Guttemberg 
 cannot be disputed. There is reason to believe, that in 
 the infancy of the art, more than eighteen months must 
 have been spent in the printing of this Psalter, an interval
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 179 
 
 which carries us back to a period previous to the separation 
 of Guttemberg and Faustus. 
 
 Palmer, in his History of Printing, (in English) mentions 
 a book entitled, Liber Dialogorum Gregorii, the sub- 
 scription of which he gives in the following terms : " Pre- 
 sens hoc opq (opus) factum est per Jokan. Guttenberghim 
 apud argentinam anno millesimo cccclviii." David Clement, 
 on the authority of Palmer, mentions this volume in the 
 preface to his curious Bible, page 1 6 ; and again in vol. iv. 
 page 70 ; and vol. ix. pages 275 and 276. In the latter 
 instance, he, however, acknowledges having too readily 
 placed faith in Palmer, and regards the subscription which 
 he quotes as a matter of doubt. This subscription is now 
 known to have been printed after the work, and is said to 
 have been done at Oxford. In 1458, Guttemberg esta- 
 blished his second printing press at Mentz, where he con- 
 tinued to print until 1465, when he was appointed Gentle- 
 man of the Household to the Elector Adolphus of Nassau. 
 He died three years afterwards, on the 24 th of February, 
 1468. 
 
 Origin of Pamphlets. 
 
 " I look upon Pamphlets," says a writer of the 17 lh 
 century, '* as the eldest offspring of paper, and entitled to 
 claim the rights of primogenitorship even of bound volumes, 
 however they may be shorter lived, and the younger bro- 
 ther has so much outgrown the elder. Being of a more 
 facile, decent, and simple form, suitable to the cha- 
 racter of the more artless ages, they seem to have been 
 preferred by our modest ancestors for the communication 
 of their sentiments, before book-writing became a trade, 
 and lucre and vanity let in deluges of digressory learning 
 to swell up unwieldy folios. Thus I find, not a little to 
 the honour of our subject, no less a person than the re- 
 nowned Alfred collecting his sage precepts and divine 
 sentences, with his own royal hand, into quaternions of 
 leaves stitched together, which he would enlarge with 
 additional quaternions, as occasion offered ; yet seemed 
 he to keep his collection so much within the limits of a
 
 180 CURIOSITIES 
 
 pamphlet size, hoAvever bound together at last, that he 
 called it by the name of his " Hand-book ;" — because 
 he made it his constant companion, and had it at hand 
 wherever he went. 
 
 " It was, however, the grand controversy between the 
 Church of Rome and the first opposers thereof, which 
 seems to have lain the foundation of this kind of writing, 
 and to have given great credit to it at the same time, as 
 well by the many eminent authors it produced in church 
 and state, as the successful detection and defeat thereby 
 befalling those religious impostures which had so uni- 
 versally enslaved the minds of men. Nay, this important 
 reformation has been much ascribed to one little pamphlet 
 only, which a certain lawyer of Gray's Inn, (obliged to 
 fly into Germany for having acted in a play which incensed 
 Cardinal Wolsey) composed there, and conveyed by means 
 of Lady Anne Boleyn to the perusal of Henry VIII. at the 
 beginning of this rupture; the copies whereof were strewed 
 about at the king's procession to Westminster ; the first 
 example, as some think, of that kind of appeal to the public. 
 How the Cardinal was nettled thereat ; how he endeavoured 
 to stifle and secrete the same ; how it provoked the pen of 
 the bigotted Lord Chancellor (Sir Thomas More) ; and yet 
 how it captivated the said king's affection and esteem, 
 may not only be presumed from the purport, but gathered 
 from the accounts which our ecclesiastical histories have 
 given thereof. It would be endless to specify how much 
 this province was henceforward cultivated by prelates, 
 statesmen, and authors of the first rank, not excepting 
 majesty itself, in the several examples which might be 
 produced of the said Henry VIII.,King James, and Charles." 
 
 England, from the spirit of liberty which prevails in it, 
 has, of all countries, been the most fruitful in pamphlets ; 
 and the period of its history when they most abounded, is 
 that when the greatest attempts were made to crush that 
 spirit. '« From the grand collection of pamphlets," says 
 the same writer, " which was made by Tomlinson, the 
 bookseller, from the latter end of the year 1640 to the 
 beginning of 1660, it appears there were published in that 
 space, nearly thirty thousand several Tracts ; and that these 
 were not the complete issue of that period, there is good
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 181 
 
 presumption, and, I believe, proofs in being. Notwith- 
 standing it is enriched with near a hundred manuscripts, 
 which nobody then (being written on the side of the royal- 
 ists) would venture to put into print ; the whole, however, 
 is progressionally and uniformly bound in upwards of two 
 thousand volumes, of all sizes. The catalogue, which was 
 taken by Marmaduke Foster, the auctioneer, consists of 
 twelve volumes in folio ; wherein every piece has such a 
 punctual register and reference, that the smallest, even of a 
 single leaf, may be readily repaired to thereby. They were 
 collected no doubt with great assiduity and, expence, and 
 not preserved, in those troublesome times, without great 
 danger and difficulty ; the books being often shifted from 
 place to place, out of the army's reach. So scarce were 
 many of the pamphlets, even at their publication, that 
 Charles I. is reported to have given ten pounds for only 
 reading one over (which he could no where else procure) 
 at the owner's house in St. Paul's Church-yard." 
 
 The writer proceeds to remark on the great price given 
 for pamphlets which were become scarce. " There never 
 was a greater esteem, or better market ; never so many 
 eager searches after, or extravagant purchasers of, scarce 
 pamphlets, than in the present times, which have been 
 made evident either from the sales of them in general ; as 
 that of Tom Britton, the celebrated small-coal man of 
 Clerkenwell, who, besides his chemical and musical collec- 
 tions, had one of choice pamphlets, which he sold to the 
 late Lord Sorners, for upwards of .£ J 500 ; and more espe- 
 cially Mr. Anthony Collins, the last year, whose library, 
 consisting principally of pamphlets, and those mostly con- 
 troversial, and mostly modern, is reported to have sold both 
 parts of it for i?1800 ; or whether we descend into particu- 
 lars, and consider the exorbitant value set upon some 
 single pieces, as the topographical pamphlets of John 
 Norden, the surveyor, which, before they were reprinted, 
 often sold for forty shillings a-piece ; the Examination of 
 Sir John Oldcastle, which I have known sold for three 
 guineas, though gleaned from Fox's Book of Martyrs ; the 
 Expedition of the Duke of Somerset into Scotland also 
 has been sold for four guineas, though totally inserted in 
 Hollinshed."
 
 182 CURIOSITIES 
 
 Double Entendre. 
 
 Copy of a letter written by Cardinal Richelieu to the 
 French ambassador, at Rome. 
 
 ss^* «s « |£ « g-S.s ••£^•2 „ **& « 
 *■£ a g g u ga^ || S3 1*%S - r §B § ° is s 
 
 ^ g * .2 •= , £ -« rt §o.5^»S£ 
 
 a 
 
 S^ei O . no ^ ,/, h J.2 C &. 
 
 
 il s -IS4? elf «% s S la J-*i 
 
 ^"ErS^rtCcO S as a. fi s ? ■ -fi 
 
 >> 
 
 3 52l*!i s, l!is"isi^ 
 
 CZJ _ 
 
 s o 
 
 , 1 1 i § I g 
 
 First read the letter across, then double it in the middle, 
 and read the first column.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 183 
 
 Cannon. 
 
 In 1545, it was remarked, as extraordinary, that the 
 French and English fleets had fired not less than 300 can- 
 non shot, in an engagement of two hours ! It is therefore 
 evident, that few cannon were carried by any one ship : 
 and indeed, we believe, that originally the number was 
 only two, placed in a castle in the forepart of the ship ; 
 whence the name of " forecastle" is still retained, though 
 the guns are removed. These guns also were of small 
 dimensions ; and probably, at first fixed, to prevent their 
 recoil ; as we know they were, on land. When the acci- 
 dents to which their aim was liable, in consequence of the 
 motion of the ship, &c. are considered, we may safely infer 
 that the slaughter they produced could not be very great. 
 The ordnance was afterwards augmented in number, by the 
 admission of pieces of various descriptions and calibres ; 
 which stood without assortment on the same deck. 
 
 Expert Workmanship. 
 
 James Leighton, a nail -smith, in the employ of Mr. 
 Thomas Gillies, ironmonger in Stirling, undertook, for a 
 trifling bet, to make 17^030 double flooring, 1200 to a 
 thousand of 201bs. for two successive weeks, a task which 
 must, to all who have any knowledge of the trade, seem 
 scarcely credible. The workman finished his first week's 
 task by three o'clock on Saturday afternoon, resumed his 
 labour on Monday morning, and concluded his second 
 week's task with even more ease than he did the first. 
 Those who do not understand the nature of the work, m^y 
 form some idea of the undertaking, when they are inform- 
 ed, that the above quantity is allowed to be as much as 
 thx-ee ordinary men can perform without difficulty, and 
 that, allowing 25 strokes of the hammer, (which is 21bs. 
 weight), to each nail, including the cutting of the rods 
 into a size convenient to be handled, and reuniting them 
 Q2
 
 184 CURIOSITIES 
 
 when too short, there were no less than 1,033,656 strokes 
 required before the task could be completed. In addition 
 to this, the workman had to give from one to three blasts 
 with his bellows for every nail he made — had to supply his 
 fire with fuel — and had to move from the fire place to 
 where the nails where made, and vice versa, upwards of 
 42,836 times. The workman entered into his fifty-first 
 year on the day on which he commenced his task — had 
 been upwards of 42 years a nailer, and in 1800, when in 
 Ireland, in his Majesty's service, beat one who was rec- 
 koned the best workman in that country, by 775 nails, 
 during twelve hours' work. 
 
 Palpable Arithmetic. 
 
 In the schools of ancient Greece, the boys acquired the 
 elements of knowledge by working, on a smooth board 
 with a narrow rim, the Abax, so named evidently from a 
 combination of A, B, f, the first letters of the alphabet ; 
 resembling, except perhaps in size, the tablet likewise 
 called A, B, C, on which children with us used to begin to 
 learn the art of reading. The pupils in the distant ages 
 were instructed to compute, by forming progressive rows 
 of counters, which, according to the wealth or fancy of the 
 individual, consisted of small pebbles, of round bits of bone 
 or ivory, or even of silver coins. The same board served 
 also for teaching the rudiments of writing, and the princi- 
 ples of geometry. The Abax being strewed with green 
 sand, the puivu erurfitus of classic authors, it was easy with 
 a radius or small rod to trace letters, draw lines, construct 
 triangles, or describe circles. 
 
 To their calculating board the ancient Greek authors 
 make frequent allusions. It appears from the relation of 
 Diogenes Laertius, that the practice of bestowing on peb- 
 bles an artificial value, according to the rank or place 
 which they occupied, remounts higher than the age of 
 Solon, the great reformer and legislator of the Athenian
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 185 
 
 commonwealth. Eschines, in his oration for the crown, 
 speaking of balanced accounts, says that the pebbles were 
 cleared away and none left. His rival, Demosthenes, 
 repeating this expression, speaks farther of taking up as 
 many counters as were laid down. It is evident, therefore, 
 that the ancients, in keeping their accounts, did not sepa- 
 rately draw together the credits and debts, but set down 
 pebbles for the former, and took up pebbles for the latter. 
 As soon as the board became cleared, the opposite claims 
 were exactly balanced. We may observe, that the phrase 
 to clear one's scores or accounts, meaning to settle or adjust 
 them, is still preserved in the popular language of Europe, 
 being suggested by the same practice of reckoning with 
 counters, which prevailed, indeed, until a comparatively 
 late period. 
 
 The Romans borrowed the Abacus from the Greeks, and 
 never aspired higher in the pursuit of science. To each 
 pebble or counter required for that board, they gave the 
 name of calculus, a diminitive formed from calx, a 
 stone ; and applied the verb calculare, to signify the opera- 
 tion of combining or separating such pebbles or counters. 
 The use of the Abacus, called sometimes likewise the 
 Mensa Pythagorica, formed an essential part of the educa- 
 tion of every noble Roman youth : 
 
 Nee qui abaco numeros ; et secto in pulvere metas 
 Scit risisse vafer. Pers. Sai. 1. 132. 
 
 From Martianus Capella, we learn, that as refinement ad- 
 vanced, a coloured sand, generally of a greenish hue, was 
 employed to strew the surface of the abacics. A small box 
 or coffer, called loculus, having compartments for holding 
 the calculi or counters, was a necessary appendage. Instead 
 of carrying a slate and satchel, as in modern times, the 
 Roman boy was accustomed to trudge to school, loaded 
 with his arithmetical board, and his box of counters. 
 
 To facilitate the working by counters, the construction 
 of the abacus was afterwards improved. Instead of per- 
 pendicular lines or bars, the board had its surface divided 
 Q 3
 
 186 CURIOSITIES 
 
 by sets of parallel grooves, by stretched wires, or even by 
 successive rows of holes. It was easy to move small 
 counters in the grooves, to slide perforated beads along 
 the wires, or to stick large knobs or round-headed nails in 
 the different holes. To diminish the number of marks re- 
 quired, every column was surmounted by a shorter one, 
 wherein each counter had the same value as five of the 
 ordinary kind, being half the index of the denary scale. 
 The abacus, instead of wood, was often, for the sake of 
 convenience and durability, made of metal, frequently 
 brass, and sometimes silver. In Plate XIII. we have copied 
 from the third volume of Polenus's Supplement to the 
 Thesaurus of Graevius, two varieties of this instrument, as 
 used by the Romans. In the one, the numbers are repre- 
 sented by fiattish perforated beads, ranged on parallel 
 wires ; and in the other, they are signified by small round 
 counters, moving in parallel grooves. These instruments 
 contain each seven capital bars, expressing in order, units, 
 tens, hundreds, thousands, hundred thousands, and millions ; 
 and above them are shorter bars following the same pro- 
 gression, but having four times the regular value. With 
 four beads on each of the long wires, and one bead on 
 every corresponding short wire, it is evident that any num- 
 ber could be expressed, as far as ten millions. 
 
 In all these, the denary scale is followed uniformly, but 
 there is besides a small appendage to the arrangement 
 founded on the duodenary system. Immediately below the 
 place of units is added a bar with its corresponding branch, 
 both marked with a theta, by being designed to signify ounces 
 or the twelfth parts of a pound. Five beads on the long wire, 
 and one bead on the short wire, equivalent now to six, would 
 therefore denote eleven ounces. To express the simpler 
 fractions of an ounce, three very short bars are annexed 
 behind the rest ; a bead on the one marked S, the con- 
 traction for semissis, denoting half an ounce; a bead on the 
 other which is marked by the inverted 3, the contraction for 
 sicilicum, signifying the quarter of an ounce ; and a bead 
 on the last very short bar, marked with a contraction for 
 binae sextula*, intimating a duella or two-sixths, that is, the 
 third part of an ounce. The second form of the abacus differs
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 187 
 
 in no essential respect from the first; the grooves only sup- 
 plying the place of parallel wires. 
 
 The Chinese have, from the remotest ages, used in all 
 their calculations an instrument called the swan-pan, a 
 computing table similar in its shape and construction to the 
 abacus of the Romans, but more complete and uniform. It 
 consists of a small oblong board surrounded by a high 
 ledge, and parted lengthwise near the top by another ledge ; 
 it is then divided vertically, by ten smooth and slender rods 
 of bamboo, on which are strung two small balls of ivory 
 or bone in the upper compartment; each of the latter 
 on the several bars denoting unit, and each of the former, 
 for the sake of abbreviation, expressing five. See 
 Plate XIII. where the balls are set to signify the numbers 
 subjoined. 
 
 The system of measures, weights, and coins which pre 
 vails throughout the Chinese empire, being entirely founded 
 on the decimal subdivision, the swan-pan was admirably 
 suited for representing it. The calculator could begin at 
 any particular bar, and reckon with the same facility either 
 upwards or downwards. The advantage of treating fractions 
 as integers, was, in practice, of the utmost consequence. 
 Accordingly, these arithmetical machines but of very dif- 
 ferent sizes, are constantly used in all the shops and booths 
 of Canton and other cities, and are said to be handled by 
 the native traders with such rapidity and address as quite 
 astonish the European factors. 
 
 The abacus,with its store of counters, wanted the valuable 
 property of being portable, and was at all times evidently 
 a clumsy and most incommodious implement of calcula- 
 tion. In many cases it became quite indispensable to adopt 
 some sure and ready method of expressing at least the 
 lower numbers. The Greeks employed the variously com- 
 bined inflexions of the fingers on both hands to signify the 
 numerical series, and on this narrow basis they framed a 
 system of considerable extent. In allusion to the very 
 ancient practice of numbering by the arbitrary play of the 
 fingers, Orontes, the son-in-law of Artaxerxes, having in- 
 curred the weighty displeasure of that monarch, is reported 
 by Plutarch to have exclaimed in terms exactly of the same
 
 188 CURIOSITIES 
 
 import as those before ascribed to Solon, that "the favorites 
 of kings resemble the fingers of the arithmetician, being 
 sometimes at the top and sometimes at the bottom of the 
 scale, and are equivalent at one time to ten thousand, and 
 at another to mere units." 
 
 Among the Romans, likewise, the allusions to the mode 
 of expressing numbers by the varied inflexion of the fingers 
 are very frequent. Hence the classical expressions com- 
 putare digitis and numerate per digitos. In this play of the 
 fingers great dexterity was acquired ; and hence the phrase 
 which so frequently occurs in the classics, — micare digitis. 
 It was customary to begin with the left hand, and thence 
 proceed to the right hand, on which the different combined 
 inflections indicated exactly one hundred times more. Many 
 allusions to this mode of indicating numbers occur in the 
 writings of Cicero, Quintilian, and Juvenal. The ancients, 
 indeed, for want of better instruments, were tempted to 
 push this curious art to a very great extent. By a single 
 inflection of the fingers of the left hand, they proceeded as 
 far as ten, and, by combining another inflection with it, they 
 could advance to a hundred. The same signs on the right 
 hand being augmented, as we have seen, an hundred fold, 
 carried them as far as ten thousand ; and, by a farther com- 
 bination, these signs, being referred successively to different 
 parts of the body, were again multiplied a hundred times, 
 and therefore extended to a million. This kind of panto- 
 mime outlived the subversion of the Roman empire, and 
 was particularly fitted for the slothful religious orders who 
 fattened on its ruins, and, relinquishing every manly pursuit, 
 recommended silence as a virtue, or enjoined it as an obli- 
 gation. The venerable Bede has explained the practice of 
 manual numeration at some length, and in Plate XII. we 
 have given a small specimen of such inflexions and digital 
 signs. 
 
 The Chinese have also contrived a very neat and simple 
 kind of digital signs, for denoting numbers, greatly superior 
 both in precision and extent to the method practised by the 
 Romans. Since every finger has three joints, let the thumb 
 nail of the other hand touch those joints in succession, 
 passing up the one side of the finger, down the middle and
 
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 1 it 111 [J 
 
 Ixlcccbrvrbv) x C. X. I. 0. ,JL 
 
 1111111? 
 
 limtll lljlliu) ii^i 'j£j£j) ', ^ m j -il^tf Ifl^ij J 
 
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 lSlcecj^.ccbx oo. C. X. I. 6>. 3.| 
 
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 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 189 
 
 again up the other side, and it will give nine different marks, 
 applicable to the denary scale of arrangement. On the 
 little finger these marks signify units, on the next finger 
 tens, on the mid finger thousands, on the index thousands, 
 and on the thumb hundred thousands. With the combined 
 portions of the joints of the one hand, therefore, it is easy 
 to advance by signs as far as a million. 
 
 Quantity and Value. 
 
 When emeralds were first discovered in America, a 
 Spaniard carried one to a lapidary in Italy, and asked him 
 what it was worth; he was told a hundred escudos ; he 
 produced a second, which was larger, and that was valued 
 at three hundred. Overjoyed at this, he took the lapidary 
 to his lodging, and shewed him a chest full ; but the Italian, 
 seeing so many, damped his joy by saying, " Ah ! ha '. 
 Senor, so many 1 — these are worth one escudo." 
 
 Cats. 
 
 The first couple of cats, which were carried to Cuyaba, 
 sold for a pound of gold. There was a plague of rats in the 
 settlement, and they were purchased as a speculation, which 
 proved an excellent one. Their first kittens produced thirty 
 oitavas each; the next generation were worth twenty; and 
 the price gradually fell, as the inhabitants were stocked with 
 these beautiful and useful creatures. 
 
 Montenegro presented to the elder Almagro the first cat 
 which was brought to South America, and was rewarded 
 for it with six hundred pesos. 
 
 Southey's Brazil,
 
 190 CURIOSITIES 
 
 The Chesnut-Tree. 
 
 Chesnlts grow wild in this country, but never equal 
 those in size and perfection which are imported from Spain 
 and Italy. In these countries they sometimes grow to an 
 immense size, and the largest in the known world are those 
 growing upon Mount Etna in Sicily. The most bulky of 
 them is known by the name of the chesnut-trec for a hun- 
 dred horses; and is one hundred and sixty feet in circum- 
 ference, but quite hollow within. The people have built a 
 house in the cavity of this enormous mass. At Tortworth 
 in Gloucestershire, there is a chesnut tree, fifty-two feet 
 in circumference, which is probably nearly one thousand 
 years old. 
 
 Methods of ascertaining Currents at Sea. 
 
 The currents at sea are not sensible but at a small dis- 
 tance from the surface of the water. This fact, which is 
 well known to navigators, supplies them with the means of 
 determining whether their vessel be in a current. They 
 hoist out a boat, which proceeds to some distance from the 
 vessel, and then let down a weight attached to a rope 
 to the depth of 200 fathoms. This weight heing thus at a 
 great depth in calm water, «bservation and experience 
 having shewn that currents are not sensible beyond the 
 depth of ten fathoms, it produces the effect of an anchor 
 which retains the boat : they then throw into the water a 
 very thin board, that the wind may have no hold of it, 
 and" according to the motion of this board, if it has any, 
 they discover whether there be a current, and determine its 
 direction and velocity. It results from these facts, that 
 the libration of the sea, occasioned by the moon, which 
 produces the tides, is ov.ing to its extent, and in no manner 
 to its depth.
 
 FOR THE INGENIOUS. 191 
 
 Japanese Mode of Reckoning Time. 
 
 The Japanese division of time is extremely singular. 
 When Captain Golownin visited them in 1812, their new 
 year commenced in February. ■' As they reckon," he 
 says, " by lunar years, but supply the difference between 
 the lunar and solar reckoning - , by adding a thirteenth 
 month to each year of the proper number for that inter- 
 calation, then new year's-day corresponds every nine- 
 teenth year with the solar new year. 
 
 *' The Japanese," continues Captain G, (i occupy an 
 entire month in celebrating the new year; though the 
 period of the festival, strictly speaking, is only from the 
 new to the full moon, or a fortnight. During this period 
 the courts are closed ; all labour and business suspended, 
 and nothing except visiting and feasting is thought of; 
 but in the i*emaining half of tbe month the more indus- 
 trious resume their occupations. The new year is the 
 principal festival in the calendar of the Japanese. They, 
 therefore, make extraordinary preparations at its approach, 
 and procure new clothes for it, as we do at Easter. Cus- 
 tom requires that each person should visit all his ac- 
 quaintances in the place in which he resides, and send 
 letters of congratulation to those who are at a distance. 
 
 " The Japanese divide the day into twelve hours, rec- 
 koning six from sun-rise to sun-set ; consequently the 
 hours are not always equal : when the day is longer than 
 the night, the day hours are the longest; and when the 
 night is longer than the day, the night hours are longest. 
 To measure time, they employ a small beam of wood, the 
 upper part of which iscovered with glue, and whitewashed ; 
 a narrow groove is made in the glue, and filled with a vege- 
 table powder, which burns very slowly ; on each side of 
 this groove, at certain distances, there are holes bored for 
 the purpose of nails being put into them. By these holes 
 the length of the day and night hours is determined for the 
 space of six months, from the spring to the winter equinox. 
 During the other six months, the rule is inverted, the day 
 becoming night hours, and the night day hours. The Ja- 
 panese ascertain the length of a day hour, and mark it off
 
 192 CURIOSITIES 
 
 with nails ; they then fill the groove with powder, set light 
 to it at noon, and thus measure their time. The beam is 
 kept in a box, which is laid in a dry place ; but the changes 
 of the weather have, notwithstanding, a great influence on 
 this kind of time-keeper. 
 
 " The Japanese day begins at midnight, at which time 
 the clock strikes nine, after having given three strokes, as 
 it were, to denote the being about to strike. These three 
 strokes precede every hour. One hour after midnight, the 
 clock strikes eight, the next hour seven, at sunrise six, then 
 five and four, and at noon again nine. One hour after mid- 
 day eight, two hours after mid-day seven, at sunset six, then 
 five, and finally four. At midnight the new day com- 
 mences. The hours are struck in the following manner : 
 first, one stroke ; in a minute and a half, a second stroke ; 
 and immediately a third. These three warning strokes 
 announce that the hour is about to be struck, in the space 
 of a minute and a half after, the striking of the hour begins. 
 The strokes succeed each other at the intervals of fifteen 
 seconds, except the two last, which follow more rapidly, as 
 if to notify that the hour is struck." 
 
 Gye and Balne, Printers, 38, Gracechurch-Streel.
 
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