70 Mr Kemp ofi a Nezv Kind of' Galvamc Pile. 



the steam-boat lay alongside of them during the operation of 

 their extraction. A very large number of these pillars must, 

 therefore, have been burnt during the voyage ; and the greatest 

 part of them had remained many years, and some of them pro- 

 bably hundreds of years, subject to partial or continual submer- 

 sion in the waters of the Irawadi. Not the slightest trace of pe- 

 trifaction was observed on any particle of all these pillars ; and 

 had it escaped the observation of the botanical professor, its 

 presence (if existing) must have been detected in the fire. 

 This evidence seems, therefore, not only to justify the assertion 

 of Mr Crawford, that the waters of the Irawadi have no such 

 petrifying power as the natives ascribe to them, but also to con- 

 firm the opinions I have expressed respecting the pillars of teak 

 that are said to have been petrified throughout in the space of 

 ten years. 



To the same popular tradition we may also probably refer 

 the remark of Lieutenant Alexander (p. 28,) that " from the 

 mud of the Irawadi, in any part of its course, from ten to twelve 

 per cent of gold-dust may be washed. 



It is strange that Mr Crawford and Dr Wallich, who tra- 

 velled so many hundred miles on this river, and examined so 

 many of its banks and shoals, should have discovered not the 

 slightest trace of the existence of this mud, from every pound 

 of which they might, by the simple process of washing, have 

 obtained more than an ounce of gold ; and still more strange, 

 that the Burmese themselves, who informed Lieutenant Alexan- 

 der of the circumstance, should not have profited by their known 

 proximity to so accessible a source of treasure *. 



Oxford, November 1. 1828. 



Description of a New Kind of Galvanic Pile, and also of ano- 

 ther Galvafiic Apparatus in the form of a Trough. By 

 Mr Kemp. With Plates. (Communicated by the Author.) 



X HE great expence of every form of galvanic apparatus that 

 has hitherto been offered to the scientific world, has, without 



• We believe there is a typographical error in Mr Alexander's book, as to 

 the quantity of gold said to occur in the mud of the Irawadi.— Edit. 



