181 Scientific Intelligence. — Meteorology. 



riatic acid takes place in the rain which falls in Manchester, 

 when accompanied with a brisk breeze from the west, of several 

 hours'* duration ; as is evident from the greater degree of opaci- 

 ty observed in samples caught under such circumstances, when 

 treated with a few drops of the solution of nitrate of silver ; and 

 that which falls in the adjacent country, then manifests a sensi- 

 ble trace also. Indeed, the direction of the wind remaining the 

 same, its force and duration seem almost entirely to regulate the 

 quantity of muriatic acid in the atmosphere ; which completely 

 establishes the fact that it is brought from the sea by the me- 

 chanical action of powerful currents of air. The utmost dis- 

 tance to which sea-water is conveyed by tempestuous winds is 

 not easily determined. Sir H. Davy, in his Elements of Agri- 

 cultural Chemistry, p. 295, states, that *' in great storms the 

 spray of the sea has been carried more than fifty miles from the 

 shore ;"' but he does not give his authority. Being at Blackwall, 

 in Derbyshire, the residence of my relative John Blackwall, 

 Esq. on the 23d of November 1814, when a violent hurricane 

 occurred, which did extensive damage on the southern coast, I 

 took several opportunities of examining the rain which fell at 

 intervals on that occasion, and uniformly found that it became 

 extremely turbid on application of the test, evidently containing 

 much more muriatic acid than rain collected in large towns, 

 during calm weather, is ever found to contain. The storm 

 commenced on thej[night of the 22d of November, and conti- 

 nuedj with little abatement, till after noon on the 23d. The 

 wind blew from the south all the time, and the place of obser- 

 vation is 140 or 150 miles from the sea in that direction. This 

 is, perhaps, the greatest distance on record to which sea-water 

 has been clearly ascertained to be conveyed by the wind ; and 

 that it extended much further is highly probable. — Manchester 

 Memoirs^ vol. v. New Series. 



ZOOLOGY. 



4. Wild Animals in the Illinois Country, in North America. 

 — The btiffalo has entirely left us. Before the country was 

 settled, immense prairies afforded pasturage to large herds of 

 this animal, and the traces of them are still remaining in the 

 '* buffalo paths," which are to be seen in several parts of the 



