C 623 ) 



VARIETIES, 



SCIENTIFIC AND AMUSING. 



Analysis of Fluorine. " Fluorine is a the duke of Lerma, which returned from 

 gaseous body of a deep brownish yellow ; Andalusia to the Island of Teneriffe in 

 its odour is similar to that of chlorine, or sixteen hours, which is a passage of seven 

 to that of burnt sugar ; it does not act on hundred and fifty miles. The story of 

 glass ; it deprives indigo of its colour, and the falcon of Henry II. is well known, 

 combines directly with gold." M. Bau- which pursuing with eagerness one of the 

 drimont has recently obtained it by treat- small species of bustards at Fontainbleau, 

 ing a mixture of fluoride of calcium and was taken the following day at Malta, and 

 peroxide of manganese, with sulphuric recognised by the ring which she bore, 

 acid in a glass bottle ; the excess of one Swallows fly at the rate of a mile in a 

 of the substances employed would pro- minute, which would be at the rate of one 

 duce either oxygen or hydro-fluoric acid, thousand four hundred and forty miles in 

 and this last, by its action on the glass, twenty-four hours, 

 would be changed into silicated-fluoric Surface of Sweden. Briti.h q. miles. 



gas. His first method of extracting the Wood 137,420 



fluorine consisted in decomposing fluoboric Lakes, marshes, &c 2 1,900 



gas by means of the deutoxide of lead Meadows, pastures, &c 7,350 



heated to redness. Arable 3,480 



M. Pelouze has lately announced another 



mode ; he decomposed fluoret of silver in Total 170, 1 50 



water, by means of chlorine the result, Potash from Beet-root. The beet-root 

 according to M. Baudrimont, ought to be is about to acquire an additional title to 

 a compound of hypochloric and hydro- the attention of agriculturists, by the new 

 fluoric acids. produce which, besides molasses and 



A great difference is deserving of re- sugar, it is now found can be extracted 

 mark between the fluorine obtained by from it. One of those productions, pot- 

 these processes and that which might have ash, will be, like sugar, the rival of an 

 been expected to be the base of fluoric exotic commodity. M. Dubrunfant .has 

 acid, so well known for its energetic ac- been the first to discover the means of ad- 

 tion on glass. vantageously extracting this substance 



We may hope, therefore, soon to be from the residuum left after the distilla- 

 better acquainted with fluorine than with tion of molasses. To give some idea of 

 fluotic acid itself, which can neither be the importance of this new source of na- 

 prepared nor preserved in glass vessels. tional wealth, it will be sufficient to say 

 Journal of Popular Science. that the quantity of potash yielded by M. 



Migration of North American Birds. Dubrunfant's process is equal to one-sixth 

 From a variety of accurate experiments of the quantity of sugar extracted from 

 which have been made at different periods, the beet-root: thus, admitting the fact that 

 it appears that the hawk, the wild pigeon, 80 millions of pounds of indigenous sugar 

 (Columba Migratoria), and several spe- are annually produced, we may expect to 

 cies of wild ducks, fly at the rate of a mile obtain from the primary materials 14 mil- 

 in a minute and a half; this is at the rate lions of a saline substance equal in every 

 of forty miles an hour, four hundred and respect to the best potash imported, be- 

 eighty between the rising and setting of sides alcohol and other productions, 

 the sun, and nine hundred and sixty miles School of Industry. At Winkfield, near 

 in twenty- four hours. This would enable Windsor, is a school of industry. It has 

 birds to pass from Charleston, U. S., to been opened somewhat more than twelve 

 the distant northern settlements in a single months. Around it are two acres of land, 

 day, and easily accounts for the circum- There are about thirty boys and forty girls, 

 stance that geese, ducks, and pigeons have In addition to the ordinary subjects of 

 been taken in the northern and eastern school instruction, the boys are employed 

 states with undigested rice in their crops, in cultivating the two acres of land. They 

 which must have been picked up in the have now an excellent crop of carrots, 

 rice-fields of Carolina or Georgia but the and of beet-root, red and white ; from the 

 day before. latter sugar is made. The profits derived 



There is a well -attested account' of a from the garden are considerable ; and by 

 falcon from the Canary Islands, sent to its cultivation habits of industry are form- 



