82 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ornament is perceptible. The pedestal on which the sarcophagus rests is of 

 white granite, from the Cheesewring quarry, Cornwall; extremely solid in 

 form, about the height of the sarcophagus, and having at each of its angles 

 the head of a sleeping lion. The lower part of the walls of the chamber are 

 also lined with rough white granite ; and a moulding of polished red granite, 

 which is carried along the sides of the chamber, serves to diffuse the color of 

 the sarcophagus, and of the four large polished granite candelabra which 

 stand at the four corners of the apartment. From a sphere which surmounts 

 each of these candelabra, rise four small jets of gas, which shed a dim, relig- 

 ious light, subdued, but sufficient to allow the tomb to be distinctly seen. 

 The floor is paved with encaustic tiles. 



The sarcophagus, to our thinking, is finer in form than the finest of the 

 Egyptian sarcophagi in the British Museum (of course it admits of no com- 

 parison in its workmanship with the elaborate hieroglyphic sculpture on 

 some of them), finer, in fact, than any we know. Lon. Lit. Gazelle. 



CHURCH OF ST. ISAAC, AT ST. PETERSBURG 



This church, which has been thirty-nine years building, was consecrated, 

 with great pomp and military parade, on the 10th of June, 18-58. " Visitors to 

 this gorgeous temple," says a correspondent of the London Athenaeum, "are 

 dazzled with the profusion of barbaric pearl and gold they meet at every 

 glance. We see no wood, except in the doors; all the rest is granite, Carrara 

 marble, iron, porphyry, malachite, alabaster, lapis lazuli, bronze, silver, and 

 gold. Even the lightning-conductors are of platinum. The five crosses, as 

 well as the cupola of the building, are gilt with a mass of 274 pounds of 

 gold, and are seen glittering at a distance of forty wersts from St. Petersburg. 

 One of the bells weighs 75,000 pounds. Eleven hundred and twelve granite 

 columns, with Corinthian capitals, surround the building. They are each 

 fifty-six feet high, and seven feet in diameter at the base. Each is considered 

 to be of a value of ,1800 English money. The cost of the whole magnifi- 

 cent building is reckoned though this is probably a gross exaggeration 

 at 13,500,000. The interior, comprising a space of 60,000 square feet, and 

 taken up neither by seats nor by organs (in the place of the organ there is a 

 choir of 1000 men's voices), is very imposing." 



STEAM: HAMMERS. 



These tools have gone on increasing in quick gradations, until the climax 

 of a six and a half tons, dead hammering weight, with a fall of seven feet 

 six inches, has been reached. A hammer of this weight has been lately 

 erected, and is now in operation at Glasgow. London Builder. 



METHOD OF DETECTING DECAY IN TIMBER. 



The French Journal " Cosmos " states that a simple method has been 

 adopted in the shipyards of Venice, from time immemorial, for testing the 

 soundness of the timber. A pei-son applies his ear to the middle of one of 

 the ends of the timber, while another strikes upon the opposite end. If the 

 wood is sound and of good quality, the blow is very distinctly heard, how- 

 ever long the beam may be. If the wood is disaggregated by decay or 

 otherwise, the sound will be for the most part destroyed. 



