On Colalt and NickeL 337 



are eovered with the cactus opuntia. The most common 

 pot-herbs, however, are alone cultivated in them. In some 

 I have sten the carica papaya, the melia azedarachf the La- 

 Tianier, and the geranium roseum and zonale. 



We meet with very few people in the streets, and the in- 

 habiiants seem to be extremely indolent. There are only 

 live or six shops in the town, where spices, trinkets, and 

 cloths, are sold at a very high price. The Americans im- 

 port into the place planks, maize, flour, butter, and some 

 other provisions, for which they receive ready money. The 

 money of the country is the heavy piaster. 



They estimate the population of the Bermudas at eight or 

 nine thousand souls. I do not know the proportion of 

 whites to negroes, but the latter are said to be more nume- 

 rous. The lower classes are accused of misleading ships in 

 stormy weather, in order to pillage those who have the mis- 

 fortune to be thrown on their shores ; and the Bermudian 

 pirates have always been proverbial for their barbarity. 



These islands are said to be very healthy ;. which cannot 

 be doubted from their situation. 



LXIIf. Facts upon which to found a History of Col alt and 

 NickeL J3y M.Proust. Extracted iy M.Chexilevil*^ 



1 HE sulphuric, muriatic, and nitric acids oxidize metals 

 in the same manner. There is a disengagement of hydrogen 

 with the first two. 



Sulphates. — Of these there are two ; the one simple, an4 

 the other tripled by some neutral salt with a base of potash 

 or ammonia. 



1st. The simple sulphate has a slightly pungent taste, a 

 little bitter, and somewhat metallic. Its crystals, not 

 voluminous, are heaped up sections of irregular octae- 

 drons : they are of a gooseberry red, unalterable in the air ; 

 they lose 42 hundredth parts of water upon distillation ; 



•,From AnnaJes de Chimie, torn. Ix. p. 260. 



VoK 30, No. li^o. May 1808. Y they 



