670 



Journal of Facts. 



liday time of Whitsuntide from the llth 

 to the 17th of May, the passengers on this 

 railway amounted to 76,121, the amount 

 received being 2,090. 8*. 5d. The re- 

 turns during the corresponding days at 

 Easter, were, passengers, 62,802 re- 

 turns, 1,734. 1*. 2d. 



Stone Meal used in China for Food in 

 the time of Famine. In the vast empire 

 of China the most terrible famines some- 

 times occur. Men of wealth have been 

 reduced to sell their wives and children, 

 furniture, and houses to procure food, and 

 that food, perhaps, nothing more than the 

 rind of a tree, or a decomposed stone 

 found occasionally in the mountains. The 

 Chinese assert that this stone is a mira- 

 culous production. However, there is 

 little doubt that it is merely a soft whitish 

 stone pulverized by the sun and air, and, 

 if sought for, to be found probably at any 

 time. M. Biot has lately taken pains to 

 enquire into the causes of those calami- 

 ties which drive an industrious people to 

 such extremities. China contains im- 

 mense plains in a high state of cultiva- 

 tion, with large rivers running through 

 them, the beds of which are obliged to be 

 kept clean, by great labour, from the per- 

 petual deposits. While these rivers are 

 restrained within their due bounds by the 

 artificial banks thrown ui 



they afford the meansipf fruitful irrigation ; 

 but when they once o'verflow, they spread 

 devastation to an indescribable extent. 

 Hundreds ofthousands of acres are in- 

 volved in one common ruin, and the poor 

 wretches that escape drowning fly to the 

 mountains toperish by thousands for want 

 of food . 1 1 is in this destitution they seek 

 out these stones, and not having previ- 

 ously taken the trouble to look for them, 

 they attribute their appearance to miracles. 

 National Maps. It is in contempla- 

 tion to recommend a National survey of 

 the whole of England, on a scale suffici- 

 ently large to set down every road, path, 

 hedge, ditch, and boundary, throughout 

 the country. In the Irish survey, the plan 

 is about six inches to the mile. This pro- 

 bably would be large enough, and if, when 

 once executed, every parish had half a 

 dozen or more copies of its own district, 

 and was after wards compelled at the end of 

 every year or oftener, to lay in any altera- 

 tion that had occurred, we could at all 

 times command a perfect plan of the 

 country, with an accurate chronology of 

 its varying features. Of what immense 

 value would this be to the laying out of 

 railways, canals, &c., especially if the 

 principal levels were also recorded on the 

 maps. This has been done in Bavaria 

 with great success by the government. 



Velocity of the River Amazon The 



swelling tide of the mighty Amazon, for 

 the space of 600 miles before it discharges 

 its flood into the deep, has only a fall of 

 lOf feet, which is about l-5th of an inch 

 per mile. For the space of 600 miles from 

 the embouchure of this great river, the 

 tides of the Atlantic silently oppose its 

 lazy flow, but above this point the decli- 

 vity is about six inches per mile, and the 

 mean hydraulic depth, perhaps, about 

 severity fathoms ; hence, the velocity of 

 its waters must be between fourteen and 

 fifteen miles per hour. At this point, 

 therefore, the opposition is dreadfully in- 

 creased, and the conflict of the water is 

 tremendous ; the action of this enormous 

 hydraulic ram of nature produces such a 

 revulsion in the waters of the Amazon, 

 that waves, rising sometimes to the height 

 of 180 feet, roll back upon the rapid 

 stream with the noise of a cataract, over- 

 whelming all the banks of the Orellanic 

 region. This phenomenon, justly called 

 the bore,'or by the Indians, pororoca, must 

 for ever impede the useful navigation of 

 this king of rivers. 



Proportion of Births and Deaths. In 

 most nations of Europe the yearly births 

 are as one in thirty, while the deaths are 

 as one in forty ; that is to say, the in- 

 crease in ten years is nearly nine per cent. 

 The greatest increase of population yet 

 observed is in the United States, where, 

 independently of the gains from migra- 

 tion, (about 58,000 yearly,) the popula- 

 tion has increased for some time, at the 

 rate of thirty-two per cent in ten years. 

 This is just twice the rate of increase ob- 

 servable in England. 



Migration to America. The gain to 

 N. America previously to 1820 did not 

 exceed 20,000 annually ; but the numbers 

 have greatly increased. Between 1825 

 and 1829 the immigration of British and 

 Irish was at the rate of 23,050 annually ; 

 but between 1829 and 1834 the average 

 was 73,440. Ireland sends about 23,000 

 yearly. 



Decrease of Deaths in England. In 

 England the progressive diminution of 

 the mortality during the four decennial 

 periods from 1780 to 1820, was extremely 

 regular. Out of a constant population of 

 1,000, the annual deaths at the four de- 

 cennial periods ending with 1790, 1800, 

 1810, and 1820, were 27, 25, 22, and 20, 

 respectively. The introduction of Vac- 

 cination in 1800 produced no interrup- 

 tion in the course of diminution then in 

 progress. It can hardly be denied that 

 the deaths from small -pox have been di- 

 minished by vaccination ; but it may be 

 doubted whether the deaths from other 



