162 SCIENTIFIC- tffcWS, 



fpar at Chefnut-hill, about ten miles from Philadelphia. It is 

 known that the lea coait in thefe parts is entirely granitic, and 

 this granite extends to a confiderable diftance inland. Farther 

 inland meceeds the gneifs ; then micaceous fchiftus ; then grit 

 ftone ; and, laftly, the ground towards the lakes Ontario and 

 £rie is all calcareous'. 



The granites of tne coaft of Philadelphia contain various 

 marked veins of granite, as is obferved in different granitic 

 foils. 



It was in one of thefe granitic veins, which may be almoit 

 compared to loads ffilons), that Mr. Seybert found corrindori 

 mixed with the other fubftances or elements of granite which 

 compofe the -vein. 



J. de Phyf. Brum, 10. 



Nature of fie Earth which is eaten by ll\e Inhabitants of New 

 Caledonia, afcertained by C it. Vauquelin. 



Savagee on the Humboldt, in a letter to Fourcroy, of which an extract 



Oronoko eat ^ given in the 50th number of the Bulletin des Sciences, 



earth, which is © * 



thought to be affirms, that the Otomagues almoil: entirely fubfift on a kind 

 nounfhing. f earth for three months, when the Oronoko is So high that 

 they can find no more turtle. Some of them eat a pound and 

 a half daily. It is affirmed by the miffionaries that they mix 

 it with the fat of the crocodile's tail ; but Mr. H. infills that 

 they do nothing but (lightly burn and moiften it. He thinks 

 that moiftened earth may be nourifhing by decomposing the 

 air, or by fome efFecl of the chemical affinities. 

 Inhabitants of Cit. Labiilardiere has ilated a fa£t equally Angular, from 

 New Caledonia an bfervation made in a part of the world confiderably 

 diftant from that inhabited by the Otamagues ; that the in- 

 habitants of New Caledonia, when preffed by hunger, eat a 

 confiderably large quantity of a greenifli fteatites, which is 

 foft and friable. It may be eafily imagined how the dreadful 

 cnftom of eating prifoners of war might have been introduced 

 amongft a.favage people, who are reduced to fuch want as to 

 be obliged to fatisfy their hunger by diftending their flomacfy 

 and inteliines with an earthy fubftance, which has no other 

 alimentary quality but that- of being light and friable. 



Cit, 





