NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 165 



up to that height, the wind blew in all directions towards the centre 

 of the fire. These whirlwinds revolved on their axes from right to 

 left, and from left to right, without any prevailing tendency to one 

 direction more than to the other. Frequently the same whirlwind 

 would change the direction in which it revolved, and would again re- 

 turn to its first course. In a few instances, this was repeated several 

 times. The charred leaves of cane, being thin and light, were driven 

 clF in considerable quantities. They were carried up, frequently, 

 without being burned, and were sometimes found at a distance from 

 the place of the fire. But, considering the extent of the fire, few 

 cinders were carried up. The combustion was very complete." 



CURIOUS EXPERIMENTS WITH SHOT. 



A SERIES of experiments have been recently made at Portsmouth, 

 under the direction of a government officer, which proved satisfactorily 

 that shot could be made to take a considerable diverging course in- 

 stead of going in a direct line to the object they were directed against, 

 and that the result could be attained with great certainty by very sim- 

 ple means. The experiments were made with 32 and 68 pound shot, 

 which were prepared for the purpose by having a hole bored on one 

 side of about an inch and a half in diameter, which is afterwards filled 

 with a plug made of wood. The extraction of the metal from one side 

 of the shot alters the centre of gravity and the direction of the shot 

 when fired, according as the wooden plugged side is placed upwards 

 or downwards, or to the right or left, when loading the gun. The 

 result of the experiments with 32-pound shot, plugged as described, 

 showed that, with the usual service charge of gunpowder (10 pounds), 

 with the plug placed to the right of the gun, and the piece of ordnance 

 directed against a target in the usual way, the shot when fired di- 

 verged to the extent of fifty yards to the right of the target ; and when 

 the plug was placed to the left side of the gun, the divergence when 

 fired was fifty yards to the left of the target. On placing the plugged 

 side of the shot downwards in the gun, the shot when fired fell 400 

 yards short of the target ; and when the plugged side of the shot was 

 placed upwards in the gun, the shot when fired ranged beyond the 

 target. Nearly the same result was obtained in a number of experi- 

 ments. The experiments with the 68-pound shot, bored and plugged 

 in a similar manner, gave more extraordinary results, as the plug 

 when placed downwards in the gun fell 600 yards short of the object 

 aimed at ; and when the plug was placed upwards in the gun, it went 

 000 yards beyond it. When the plug was placed to the right, it di- 

 verged between 60 and 70 yards before it reached the distance of the 

 target, and the same distance to the left when the plug was placed to 

 the left. English paper. 



GEOMETRICAL PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY. 



AT the British Association, the following original views of Mr. 

 Hay, celebrated for his work on colors, were presented : That the 



