Varieties* 



[MAY, 



Zealand, to investigate the trutli of 

 in reports whi.h. had been made rela- 

 tive to the fate of the eminent Frcr.ch 

 navigator La Perouse, lias ascertained that 

 his t\vo vessels were wrecked the same 

 night on a reef off the Manico Island, situ- 

 ated in lat. 11 40' S., and long. 167 E. 

 One of the ships sank in deep water, after 

 striking on a reef of rocks, and all on 

 board perished ; the other was thrown on 

 the reef, and those of the crew who escaped, 

 were able to save from the wreck materials 

 enough to build a small vessel, at a place 

 called Palcre, and though some of them 

 were killed by the natives, were enabled 

 to finish their little vessel, in which they 

 left the island, with the exception of two men, 

 about five months after their shipwreck. 

 One of these men died about three years 

 since ; the other left the island in a canoe, 

 and his fate is unknown ; most likely he 

 perished, as no information could be ob- 

 tained of him in the adjacent islands. The 

 clearest proofs have been obtained that 

 these vessels were French, from numerous 

 articles stamped with the French national 

 fleur-de-lis, and also with the arms of a 

 French family of distinction. 



Natural Phenomenon On the autho- 

 rity of private letters, it has been stated 

 in one of the native East Indian papers, 

 tlu.t, towards the end of last year, hail- 

 stones had fal'en in Khandeah, weighing 

 half a seer (about a pound) each. 



Metallic Caissons. Every day some new 

 application of cast iron is made to purposes 

 of general utility, and now a patent has been 

 obtained for metallic caissons, applicable 

 to the construction of piers, harbours, em- 

 bankments, break-waters, basins, locks, 

 quays, docks, mill-dams, roads through 

 morasses, foundations of light houses, 

 aqueducts, and other works requiring great 

 expedition or durability. The caisson is a 

 hollow metallic box, open genei'ally both at 

 the bottom and top, the thickness of the 

 sides proportioned to the strength and gra- 

 vity required, and the mode of uniting 

 being by dove-tail ; the results of various 

 calculations of the comparative expense of 

 granite and cast iron caisson works, give 

 from twenty to more than fifty per cent, in 

 favour of the latter, and the advantage in 

 the saving of time, which, in works on the 

 coast, is obviously of the highest import- 

 ance, it is estimated, will be at least four- 

 nfths in favour of the latter. 



Star Shot. A jelly-like substance is 

 sometimes met with in the fields, and 

 known by the name of " star shot," which 

 was formerly believed to be the remains of 

 half-digested worms, &c., discharged from 

 the over-loaded stomachs of the sea-gulls ; 

 and a whimsical illustration of this idea is 

 given in the second volume of Bewick S 

 British Birds, at the conclusion of his first; 

 article on " the gull/' This gelatinous 

 matter has attracted considerable notice 



among naturalists ; one German has re- 

 cently maintained that it was the substance 

 of " shooting stars" another has consi- 

 dered it the produce, the excretion, of an 

 animal a third compares itwith the manna 

 of the Israelites which fell from heaven. 

 Dr. R. Brooks has apparently set the ques- 

 tion at rest; in the last number of Schweig- 

 ger's Journal, he states " that it consists of 

 the spawn of snails, as the limax rufus, 

 agrestis, stagnalis, &c., which, although 

 small in its natural state, and therefore 

 remaining unobserved, assumes, in damp 

 places, by absorbing water, the Targe bulk 

 and white gelatinous appearance, neces- 

 sarily attracting the attention of persons 

 who find them in their way, and, finally, 

 that its being found only in damp places, 

 is owing to the very nature of this 

 spawn." 



Waterspout on the Lake, of Geneva. At 

 fifty-two minutes after six, on the eleventh 

 of last August, a portion of a dark cloud, 

 suspended below the summit of the Savoy 

 mountains, suddenly took a vertical direc- 

 tion, and being gilded with the deep orange 

 tint of the setting sun, attracted universal 

 attention, and enabled the spectators to trace 

 all its movements. Its form was that of 

 an inverted cone, the summit of which was 

 about 200 feet from the surface of the lake, 

 to which it precipitated itself in less than 

 two minutes. This elongation of the cone 

 took place by an oscillatory motion. This 

 part of the spout appeared cylindrical, and 

 its diameter was about ten or twelve feet. 

 The moment it reached the lake, a great 

 mass of the w r ater was briskly agitated, 

 as if it had been boiling, the foam 

 rising to a height of more than fifty feet. 

 This large column of water was inflected* 

 like a ribband exposed to the wind. In 

 eight minutes it reached the mouth of the 

 Rhone, and, as long as it was above the 

 river, the boiling continued, and the column 

 was unbroken. When it quitted the river 

 the boiling ceased, and the whole soon dis- 

 appeared, the base of the cone continuing 

 longest visible. 



stnatomy.A. French medical gentle- 

 man, of the name of Lecomte, having 

 found all previous theories on the differ- 

 ence of strength which usually exists in 

 men, between the system on the right and 

 on the left, has been induced to investigate 

 the subject more closely j and the following 

 hypothesis, which is proposed for one of the 

 great physiological prizes, is the result of 

 his labours. The difference between the 

 right and the left system has its origin in the 

 position of the foetus in the uterus, during 

 the last months of gestation ; in an im- 

 mense majority of cases, the position of 

 the foetus is such, that the left shoulder and 

 arm, and all the left side, are pressed 

 against the bones of the pelvis. From this 

 pressure results a contraction of the ves- 

 sels, a sort of atrophy of the whole left 



