Miscellaneous, 7^ 



suited. In the same way the absorption of acetate of lead and of 

 chromate of potass imparted a yellow colour, and by the mixture of 

 several of these substances a still greater variety of shades was pro- 

 duced. 



Different odours were in a similar manner given to various kinds 

 of wood. 



The Highland Society of Scotland have offered a gold medal or 

 thirty sovereigns as a premium for the best account of a series of 

 similar experiments. 



Congres Scientifique de France. — The Ninth Meeting of this Asso- 

 ciation, which in its plan and objects resembles the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, will be held at Lyons, and will 

 occupy twelve days. The Session will open on Wednesday, Sep- 

 tember 1st, 1841, in the great hall of the Palais des Terreaux. The 

 Association will be particularly gratified by the attendance of men 

 attached to science, literature and the arts, from the British Isles. 



Eels killed by the late Frost. — Although it is well known to natural- 

 ists that the Eel, otherwise tenacious of life, cannot bear excessive cold, 

 I conceive that the following facts upon the subject, though by no 

 means so satisfactory as could be wished, are worthy of being placed 

 on record. On the 6th, 7th, and Sth of the present month (Febru- 

 ary, 1841) great quantities of this fish in a dead state floated down 

 the river Lagan to the quays at Belfast. Here upon these days, and 

 along the course of the river within the tide-way, collecting dead 

 eels was quite an occupation at low water, and to the numerous 

 loiterers about the quays proved in some cases more productive for 

 the time than the "chance jobs" by which they gain a livelihood. One 

 individual earned his two shillings for nearly a bushel-full*, and 

 another, selling them at the same rate, gained five shillings for what 

 he collected at the fall of a tide. Three examples sent me by my 

 friend Edmund Getty, Esq., were the common Eel {Anguilla acuti- 

 rostris, Yarr.), in excellent condition, and in all respects of ordinary 

 appearance ; one was about a foot, the others were two feet in length. 

 They were found dead of all sizes up to the largest. 



The only experiment I heard of being made on these Eels was, 

 that four of them, of gradations in size from a foot to two feet in 

 length, were placed in water warmed to a high summer tempera- 

 ture, to see if they would revive ; but, as may be anticipated of such 

 a proceeding, none of them exhibited any signs of life. A highly 

 interesting fact connected with this fatality among the Eels is, that 

 on the three days on which they perished from the cold, the ther- 

 mometer was nearly ten degrees higher than it had been for three 

 days successively in the preceding month, when none were known 

 to have suffered from it. At that time the wind was south-west and 

 moderate. When they were killed there was a gale from the east, 

 accompanied by hard frost : to the human body the cold was at this 



* The price of Eels in our market is three-pence or four-pence per pound. 



