226 



Habits of the Fox. 



The above statement contains nothing new ; but it has 

 been made, to receive the illustration alluded to. 



The Carron steamer has returned to England, in conse- 

 quence of the injury her boilers have received in the services 

 she has rendered to the fleet cruising in the Mediterranean. 

 The quantity of salt deposited in the boilers appears to have 

 increased at the rate of one eighth of an inch in thickness 

 per diem, extending as high up the sides of the boiler as the 

 usual water-level. Between Malta and Vourla (a distance of 

 800 or 900 miles) such an accumulation takes place, that the 

 boiler is obliged always to be cleaned out after every trip ; 

 lest the deposit, being so thick, should cause the action of the 

 fire to destroy the iron. It has been calculated, by the parties 

 employed in the steam navigation of the Mediterranean, that, 

 in the passage from Malta to Vourla, as much incrustation 

 occurs as during six months' regular work between Falmouth 

 and Lisbon. This being the case, it is clear that even 

 the surface waters of the Mediterranean contain vastly more 

 salt in solution than the Atlantic ; and it is, therefore, 

 by no means improbable that the deposit at the bottom of the 

 former sea equals Mr. Lyell's calculation : at the same time, 

 it strengthens the notion of there being no very considerable 

 return of the waters westward. 



The navigation of the seas and rivers, by steam-vessels, 

 might be rendered useful to purposes of chemico-geological 

 research ; since it would not be difficult to an ingenious per- 

 son to fit up an apparatus, to be connected with the boilers 

 of the steam-ships, by which the saline and other deposits 

 might be measured according to a scale of evaporation : also, 

 in experiments so tried, the water could be obtained at any 

 given depth. 



Stanley Green, near Poole, Dorsetshire, Dec. 15. 1834. 



Art. VIII. Short Communications. 



Mammiferous Animals. — The Fox, its Habits and Food. 

 (II. 457.; IV. 11. 24.; VI. 207.; VII. 134. 181. 240, 401.) 

 — I have heard it asserted that the fox feeds upon the large 

 black slug. That 



