tribute of praise to D'Anville, whose map of this part of the river was exact. It was here for the first time since my leaving Europe, that I saw a mountain covered with wood and verdure: it was about 400 feet high. The eye, fatigued by the wild aspect of the mountains of Egypt, reposed upon it with pleasure. The cloudy sky, the rolling of the thunder, all reminded us of Europe. What a contrast with the arid and burning hills of Egypt, of Nubia and the surrounding deserts, where the eye can perceive no trace of vegetation! We now enter upon the rainy season, which lasts three months. We have already had violent storms, and frequently thunder. We shall pass that season here, where there are no antiquities, and I' despair of finding any higher up. The limits of the rains are placed too much to the south, they are really 18 deg. 40 min. in the province of Rabatate, and not in 16 deg. as Bruce makes them." PATENTS. GEOGRAPHY, ASTRONOMY, &c. ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. CHEMISTRY. NATURAL HISTORY. THI HIBET Goats.-The Société d'Emulation having appointed a committee to report on the state of the Thibet goats, at present kept near Belbeuf, have decided that the climate of France agrees very well with those animals, that they do not seem to degenerate, but their hair appears to possess all the qualities necessary to the manufacture of the much-admired shawls. These goats-are easy to feed, and have nothing of the disagreeable qualities of the common goats. Their milk is richer, and the male has not that strong odour which marks these animals in general. They do not seem to be subject to any particular disorders, and multiply with rapidity. From attempts already made, it seems that by crossing their breed with that of the indigenous race, great advantages will be obtained. The Leech of Ceylon.-This animal is seldom more than half an inch in length, and is nearly semitransparent. It is very active, and is said occasionally to spring. Its powers of contraction and extension are very great when fully extended, it is like a fine cord, and its point is so sharp, that it easily makes its way through very small openings. It is supposed to have an acute sense of smell, for no sooner does a person stop where leeches abound, than they appear to crowd eagerly to the spot from all quarters. Those who have had no experience of these animals," says Dr. Davy, "of their immense numbers in their favourite haunts,-of their activity, keen appetite, and love of blood, can have no idea of the kind and extent of annoyance they are to travellers in the interior, of which they may be truly said to be the plague. In rainy weather it is almost shocking to see the legs of men on a long march, thickly beset with them, gorged with blood, and the blood trickling down in streams. In attempting to keep them off, they crowd to the attack, and fasten on quicker than they can be removed. I do not exaggerate when I say that I have occasionally seen at least fifty on a person at a time. Their bites are apt to fester, and become sores, and frequently degenerate into extensive ulcers, which, in too many instances, have occasioned the loss of a limb, and even of life." Rain of Silk.-M. Lainé, the French consul at Pernambuco, says, in a letter, dated Nov. 1, 1820, that at the beginning of the preceding month there was a shower from the sky, consisting of a substance resembling silk, of which many persons preserved specimens. This phenomenon extended to the distance of 30 leagues inland, and nearly as many off to sea. A French vessel was covered with the silky material. He has sent a specimen of it to Paris. Medicinal Plant.-A plant very celebrated at Chandernagore in the East Indies, under the name of Chirayita, has been imported into France, where a memoir has been published by M. Virey on the subject of its medicinal qualities, which he states to be very powerful. It is a strong bitter, and is celebrated in the East for its efficacy as a febrifuge. There is no doubt but that it might be advantageously employed in Europe for the gout, and for weaknesses of the digestive organs. At present we have no accurate and complete botanical description of this plant; but M. Virey conjec tures, both from the flowers and from the traces of the fructification adhering to the specimens he has received, also from the details respecting it in the Asiatic Researches, that it is a species of gentian, and accordingly denominates it Gentiana Chirayita. American Spider..-There exists in America an enormous spider, whose size (the body alone being an inch and a half long), enables it to attack even small birds. M. Moreau de Ionnes has furnished a memoir on its manners, as observed by him at Martinique. It spins no web, but lodges in the crevices of the rocks, and throws itself with main force upon its prey; it kills humming-birds, flybirds, and small lizards, taking special care to seize them by the nape of the neck, knowing that they must be thus killed with the greatest ease. Its strong jaws seem to infuse a poison into the wounds which they inflict, for such wounds are considered much more dangerous than they would be by their depth alone. It envelopes its eggs, to the number of from 1,800 to 2,000 in a ball of white silk, and this fecundity, joined to its tenacity of life, would soon cause the island to be overrun with it, had it not active and innumerable enemies in the red ants, which destroy the greater part of the young spiders. Dugong.-Sir T. S. Raffles has sent to England several skeletons of animals from Sumatra; among these is the Dugong. This creature grazes at the bottom of the sea without legs; and is of the figure and form of the whale; the position and structure of its mouth enables it to browse upon the fuci and submarine algæ like a cow in a meadow, and the whole structure of the masticating and digestive organs, shows it to be truly herbivorous. It never visits land, or fresh water, but lives in shallow inlets, where the water is two or three fathoms deep. Their usual length is eight or nine feet. But a curious, and to some, perhaps, the most interesting part of the detail of the history of this animal is, that the flesh resembles young beef, being very delicate and juicy. On the Phosphorescence of Marine Animals. During a voyage to the Shetland and Orkney Islands, Dr. Mac Culloch had various opportunities of investigating the phenomena of marine luminous animals. In proceeding from the Mull of Cantyre to Shetland, and in almost all the harbours of Shetland and Orkney, Dr. Mac Culloch found the water filled with a species of animal which he considers to have been undescribed. A cubic inch of water did not contain less than 100 of these animals. In the same view, and nearly at all times, the water was found filled with several different species, resembling in size some of the Infusoria. Other animals of larger dimensions, and of many species, were equally constant, and, if less numerous, yet ten or twenty were always to be found within the space of a common tumblerglass. In all these cases the water was luminous. The light of the whole of these species disappeared when they died, either from keeping the water too long, from warming it, or from the addition of spirits. Dr. Mac Culloch has added upwards of 190 species to the list of luminous marine animals. The most con spicuous among these are about twenty small pieces of Medusa, in addition to in addition to those already known to be luminous. In the ancient genus Cancer, a considerable number of Squilla were also found possessed of phosphorescence. In the genera Scolopendra and Nereis, five or six were luminous, which were all the species observed by Dr. Mac Culloch. The other known genera in which luminous species were observed, were Phalangium, Monoculus, Oniscus, Julus, Vorticella, Cercaria, Vibrio, Volvox; to these Dr. Mac Culloch adds, among the fishes, a new species of Leptocephalus. The remaining luminous animals consisted of new genera, or at least of animals which could not be referred to any as yet to be found in authors. Dr. Mac Culloch seems to think, that the Ling and other fish which inhabit the submarine valleys at depths to which the light of day cannot penetrate, must perceive their food, and pursue their avocations, by the phosphorescence of their prey, or of the animals which abound in the sea, or by phosphorescence elicited from their own bodies. Dr. Mac Culloch's observations were generally made in harbours, but never at a distance exceeding eight or ten miles from land. Quarterly Journal of Science. The Unicorn. Mr. Campbell (the missionary), has given the following description of the head of a very singular animal which he has brought from the interior of Africa. "The animal," says Mr. Campbell, "was killed by my Hottentots, in the Mashow country, near the city of Mashow, about two hundred miles N, E. of New Lattakoo, to the westward of Delago Bay. My Hottentots never having seen or heard of an animal with one horn of so great a length, cut off its head, and brought it bleeding to me upon the back of an ox. From its great weight, and being about twelve hundred miles from the Cape of Good Hope, I was obliged to reduce it by cutting off the under-jaw. The Hottentots cut up the rest of the animal for food, which, with the help of the natives, they brought on the backs of oxen to Mashow. The horn, which is nearly black, is exactly three feet long, projecting from the forehead about nine or ten inches above the nose. From the nose to the ears measured three feet. There is a small horny projection of about eight inches immediately behind the great horn, designed for keeping fast or steady whatever is penetrated by the great horn. There is neither hair nor wool on the skin, which is the colour of brown snuff. The animal was well known to the natives. It is a species of the Rhinoceros; but if I may judge of its bulk from the size of its head, it must have been much larger than any of the seven Rhinoceroses which my party shot, one of which measured eleven feet from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail. The skull and horn excited great curiosity at the Cape. Most were of opinion that it was all we should have for the Unicorn. An animal the size of a horse, which the fancied unicorn is supposed to be, would not answer the description of the Unicorn given by Job, chap. 39, verse 9, et seq., but in every part of that descrip tion this animal exactly answers to it." REPORT relative to the MovKing's County, made by order of ING BOG of KILMALEADY, in the ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY. Royal DublinSociety-House, July 10,1821. In compliance with the request of the Royal Dublin Society, I have visited the moving bog of Kilmaleady; and finding on my return to Dublin to-day, that very erroneous notions, respecting its magnitude and destructive effects, have been entertained, I think it my duty immediately to communicate to you, for the information of the society, some account of the nature and extent of this once alarming pheno❤ menon. The bog of Kilmaleady, from whence the eruption broke out, situated about two miles to the north of the village of Clara, in King's County, is of considerable extent; it may probably contain about 590 acres; in many parts it is 40 feet in depth; and it is considered to be the wettest bog in the county. It is bounded on all sides, except the south, by steep ridges of high land, which are composed at the top, of limestone gravel, and beneath of cavernous limestone-rock, containing subterraneous streams; but the southern face of the bog is open to a moory valley, about a quarter of a mile in breadth, which for nearly half a mile in length, takes a southern direction in the lands of Lisanisky, and then turns at right angles to the west, and continues gradually widening for upwards of two miles. Throughout the centre of this valley flows a stream |