The French corvette, 'Huffar, a very fine vessel, only feven months old, mounts 20 nine-pounders, now ferving as the Surinam floop, and Lieutenant Cole, of the Prince of Wales, appointed to command.her. The Camphaan brig, of 16 guns, late belonging to the Government of Holland, now ferving under the fame [Then follow the Articles of Capitula name, and Lieutenant Thwaites, of the tion.] Admiralty Office, Oct. 12. Lieut, Senhoufe, of his Majefty's brig Requin, arrived this afternoon, with dif patches from Vice-Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour, Commander in Chief of his Majefty's fhips and veffels employed at Barbadoes and the Leeward Iflands, to Evan Nepean, Efq. Secretary of the Admiralty, of which the following are Copies. SIR, Prince of Wales, appointed to command her. I have the fatisfaction to inclofe, for the information of the Lords Commiffioners of the Admiralty, a letter which I have juft received from Capt. Weitern Prince of Wales, off Bram's Point, of his Majefty's fhip Tamer. I have the honour to forward, for the tion. I am, &c. H. Seymour I am Sir, &c. H. Seymour & Tamer, off Surinam, Aug. 29. My LORD, I have the honour to inform your Lordship, that on Monday morning, the. 26th inft. a little after day-light. being then about four leagues to Weftward of Orange, I discovered a strange fail bearing W. N. W. and having the evening before had a running fight with a large French corvette, who efcaped by getting into fhoai water, and the darknefs of the night, and conceiving the fail in fight to be the fame, I immediately gave chace : about half past five P. M. I got alonglide of her, when after about ten minutes clofe action the firuck, and proves to be the national corvette Republicaine, (commanded by Citoyen Le Bozee, Capitaine de Frigate) of 32 guns, 24 long uines, and 8 thirty-two pound carronades, and 220 men, from Cayenne, on a cruize, and had taken two Americans. I had two feamen wounded in this buliness, and my fails and rigging a good deal damaged; the enemy is almoft a wreck, and I have towed her up here with me; her lofs I understand to be nine killed and twelve wounded. I have the honour to be, &c. Thos. Weflern. On account of the Long and very Interesting Intelligence from the Gazettes, (great part of which we have not been able to get into this Number,) we have referred the Article of Affairs in Scotland, &c. till our next. EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. OR LITERARY MISCELLANY, FOR FEBRUARY 1800. With a View of MELVILLE-CASTLE, the Seat of the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, High Water at LEITN for MARCH 1800. (From the Town and Coun try Almanack.) Morn. Even. State of the BAROMETER, in inches and decimals, 1800. Barom. Thermom. Rain. Sa. 1. 6 6 H. M. 627 Su. 2. Weather. M. 3. 7 37 8 THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, OR LITERARY MISCELLANY, FOR FEBRUARY 1800. ACCOUNT OF EXPERIMENTS ON WHINSTONE. BY SIR JAMES HALL, BART. F. R. S. & F. A. S. EDIN. THE [From the Tranfactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.] HE experiments described in this paper were fuggefted to me maey years ago, when employed in ftudying the Geological Syftem of the late Dr Hutton, by the following plaufible objection, to which it feems liable. Granite, porphyry, and bafaltes, are fuppofed by Dr Hutton to have flowed in a ftate of perfect fufion into their prefent pofition; but their internal ftructure, being univerfally rough and ftony, appears to contradict this hypothefis; for the refult of the fufion of earthly fubftances, hitherto obferved in our experiments, either is glafs, or poffeffes, in fome degree, the vitreous character. This objection, however, lofes much of its force, when we attend to the peculiar circumftances under which, according to this theory, the action of heat was exerted. Thele fubftances, when in fufion, and long after their congelation, are fuppofed to have occupied a fubterraneous pofition far below what was then the furface of the earth; and Dr Hutton has afcribed to the modification of heat, occafioned by the preffure of the fuperincumbent mafs, many important phenomena of the mineral kingdom, which he has thus reconciled to his fyftem. One neceffary confequence of the pofition of thefe bodies, feems, however, to have been overlooked by Dr Hutton him felf: I mean, that, after their fufion, they must have cooled very flowly; and it appeared to me probable, on that account, that, dur ing their congelation, a crystallization had taken place, with more or lefs regularity, producing the ftony and cryftallized ftructure, common to all unftratified substances, from the large grained granite, to the fine grained and almoft homogeneous bafalt. This conjecture derived additional probability from an accident fimilar to thofe formerly observed by Mr Keir, which had juft happened at Leith: a large glass-houfe pot, filled with green bottle glafs in fufion, having cooled flowly, its contents had loft every character of glafs, and had completely affumed the ftony ftructure. L. 2 Thefe views made part of a paper which I had the honour of laying before the Society in 1790; and about the fame time I determined to submit my opinions to the telt of experiment. 1 communicated this inten tion tion to all my friends, and in particular to Dr. Hutton; from him, how ever, I received but little encouragement. He was impreffed with the idea, that the heat to which the mineral kingdom has been expofed was of fuch intenfity, as to lie far beyond the reach of our imitation, and that the operations of nature were performed on fo great a icale, compared to that of our experiments, that no inference could properly be drawn from the one to the other. He has fince expreffed the fame fentiments in one of his late publications, (Theory of the Earth, vol. I. p. 251.) where he cenfures those who judge of the "great operations of the mineral kingdom, from having kindled a fire, and looked into the bottom of a little crucible." But, notwithstanding my veneration for Dr Hutton, I could not help differing from him on this occafion For, granting that thefe fubftances, when in fufion, were acted upon by a heat of ever fo great intenfity, it is certain, neverthelefs, that many of them must have congealed in moderate temperatures, fince many are cafi ly fufible in our furnaces; for it is impoffible that a fubftance should congeal at a higher point than that at which it may afterwards be melted. If, then, these phenomena depend upon the circumftances of congela. tion, the imitation of the natural procefs is an object which may be purfued with a rational expectation of fuccefs; and, could we fucceed in a few examples on a fmall fcale, and with eafily fufiblefubftances, we should be entitled to extend the theory, by analogy, to fuch as, by their bulk, or by the refractory nature of their compofition, could not be fubjected to our experiments. It is thus that the aftronomer, by obferving the effects of gravitation on a little penda. lum, is enabled to eftimate the influence of that principle on the heavenly bodies, and thus to extend the range of accurate fcience to the extreme limits of the folar fyftem. Encouraged by this reafoning, I began my projected feries of experiments in the courfe of the same year (1790,) with very promifing appearances of fuccefs. I found that I could command the refult which had occurred accidentally at the glafs house; for, by means of flow cooling, I converted bottle glass, after fufion, into a tony fubstance, which again, by the application of ftrong heat, and fubfequent rapid cooling, I reftored to the state of perfect glafs. This operation I performed repeatedly with the fame fpecimen, fo as to afcertain that the character of the refult was ftony or vitreous, according to the mode of its cooling. Some peculiar circumftances interrupted the profecution of thefe experiments till laft winter, (1798) when I'determined to resume them. Deliberating on the fubftance most proper to fubmit to experiment on this occafion, I was decided by the advice of Dr Hope,* well known by his difcovery of the Earth of Strontites, to give the preference to whioftone. *In the courfe of laft winter, when I first thought of refuming my experiments, I propofed to this gentleman, that, in imitation of a practice, common in the Academy of Sciences of Paris, we fhould perform them in company. To this proposal he cheerfully agreed; but, before any experiments had been begun, he found him, felf fo much occupied by profeffional duties, that he could not beftow upon the fob ject the time which it neceffarily required; and we gave up the idea of working in company. |