470 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



Capt. Swift, a description of the base-line of Long Island, mea- 

 sured in 1834 for a survey of the coast of the United States. 



Prof. Bailey, of the Military Academy at West Point, on the fossil 

 polythalamiaB of the United States. 



Dr. Van-Buren, U.S.A., on the effects of very large doses of qui- 

 nine on the human system. 



Dr. Wayland, President of Bronn University, on observations on 

 the atmosphere made by captains of packet ships. 



Prof. Hamilton, of the University of Nashville, Tennessee, on cer- 

 tain meteorological facts observed at Tennessee. 



Mr. Espy, on meteorology. 



Dr. Hare, of the University of Pennsylvania, on meteorology. 



Mr. John Tyler, jun., on the theory of one electric fluid. 



Dr. Patterson, Director of the United States Mint, Philadelphia, 

 on the centre of population of the United States. 



Prof. Bache, on the magnetical and meteorological observations 

 made under the direction of the War department at the Observatory 

 in Philadelphia. 



Prof. Bache, by direction of the Treasury Department, exhibited 

 proof impressions of five sheets of the map of New York Bay and 

 Harbour, surveyed under the superintendence of Mr. Hassler. 



An address was delivered by the Hon. John Quincy Adams, ex- 

 president of the United States. 



The session was concluded by an address by the Hon, J. C. 

 Spencer, Secretary of the Treasury. 



LXVI. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



OBSERVATIONS ON AFRICAN GUANO. BY W. FRANCIS. 



THE discovery of considerable deposits of this valuable manure 

 on several small islands off the coast of Africa, where it may be 

 had free of expense, has induced numerous merchants and shipowners 

 to dispatch several vessels for its importation to this country. From 

 one of these, the " Canning," which recently arrived in the port of 

 Bristol, we have received, through the kindness of our friend 

 J. Turner, Esq., a sample, accompanied with the following letter, 

 which, as it supplies some information respecting the localities whence 

 the article is obtained, will, we doubt not, be read with interest by 

 many of our readers : — 



"My dear Sir, 



" The sample of African guano, which I left with you, and which 

 you have kindly undertaken to analyse, was imported into Bristol, 

 where it is selling at £8 per ton. It is found on several small 

 islands in the neighbourhood of Angra Pequeiia, on the western 

 coast of Africa, between 26° and 27° south latitude. The deposit 

 is very considerable, reports say from twenty to thirty feet deep ; 

 the sample I sent you was taken up twenty feet below the surface. 



" The discovery of these beds will lead to the discontinuance, for 

 the present, of the importation from South America, as the African 



