Mr Forbes's description of a netv Anemometef. 31 



which you will scarcely credit to be seventeen inches in dia- 

 meter. That an animal of five or six cwt. and of seven or eight 

 feet in length, should have a venous sinus of seventeen inches 

 diameter, stretching from hypochondrium to hypochondrium, 

 seems incredible ; — unparalleled as it is, such is the fact. The 

 skins and heads of five are sent home. There are some minor 

 articles put up in bottles, and the soft parts of the seal which 

 Professor Jameson has erroneously characterized. In respect 

 to the preservation of fish, did room permit me, I intended to 

 have communicated a mode which I have found to answer ex- 

 tremely well in the preserving of them whole without the use 

 of bottles, and so that they are perfect, complete, and en- 

 tire specimens. I am extremely happy to say we have lost 

 no man since the Chanticleer has been commissioned. I could 

 have communicated much more ; but I am afraid I have already 

 tired you with the subject, and have only to solicit the forgive- 

 ness of my intrusion. With the most grateful estimation of 

 your kindness, and the best and most sincere wishes of the 

 heart for your happiness, permit me to subscribe myself your 

 most respectful and obliged servant, 



W. H. B. Webster. 

 H. M. S. Chanticleer, 

 Cape of Good Hope, Table Bay, Tlth July 1829. 



Art. IV. — Description of a new Anemometer. By James D. 

 Forbes, Esq. Communicated by the Author. 



Among the various contrivances proposed for the measure of 

 the force or velocity of a current of air, it is surprising how 

 few seem to have had for their object the separation of the 

 exclusive influence of the wind, submissible to rigorous calcu- 

 lation, unincumbered with the effects of friction and the loss 

 of power sustained through accumulated mechanical construc- 

 tions, before any result which could be subjected to strict cal- 

 culation was obtained. Of the dynamical methods hitherto 

 employed, that of the equilibration of the aerial current by a 

 column of fluid seems the most unexceptionable, and of those 

 derived from accessory properties, the time of cooling, measur- 



