260 ^"** Views and Revieics. [June, 



oars, aftei- having floated far down the swift river, and are, at last, 

 once more suspended over the abyss. And here we remarked, 

 when the surface was a perfect calm, the apparent disappearance of 

 the liquid element on which we were supported, leaving us in ap- 

 pearance suspended in mid-air between the heavens and the earth ! 



It has often been said, that these waters possess a magnifying 

 power, causing minute objects upon the deep bottom to seem en- 

 larged. This would be contrary to the known laws of optics, as 

 the water can act only as a plane lens, as it in effect is. But I 

 conclude that the transparency of this medium was such as to give 

 a kind of phosphorescence to those objects on which the sun shone. 

 Thus these bits of silver which lie upon the bottom appeared with 

 no perceptable disc^ but only as bright, shining points of no 

 appreciable dimensions. 



By actual and careful soundings, the deepest visible sands in these 

 waters are one hundred feet below the surface. 



The remarkable cold of this season has much retarded vegetation ; 

 nevertheless, on returning to my lodgings, I deciphered among my 

 collection of plants in flower the following novelties, viz., Hymen- 

 opappus, Scabaeosus, Rosa Laevigata, Lupinus Villosus and Perennis 

 Andromeda Mariana, A. Ferrugina and A. Vacemosa, Anona 

 Pigmaca, Tetragonothica, Helianthoides, Leptopodaf Puberula, 

 Asclepia Amplexicaulis, Verberbena Aubletea and V. Carolianiana, 

 Sarracenia, Variolaris, an unknown Euphorbia a strange Scutellaria, 

 etc., etc. Yours etc., A. Wood. 



OUR VIEWS AND REVIEWS. 



i27ie Chemistry of Agriculture, or the Earth and Atmosphere as related 

 to Vegetable and Animal L>/''-, viih new and (xtensive tables. By 

 Dayid Christy, author of letters on Geology. Cincinnati : 

 Rickey, Mallory and Webb, New York : C. M. Sexton . 



This work contains the essence of all that has been written of any 

 value upon the topics mentioned in its title. The agriculturist who 

 would be intelligent in matters pertaining to his profession, will 

 here find the information he needs briefly but clearly expressed. 



In the analytical tables given at the end of the volume, he will 

 see at a glance the result of years of labor in the laboratory, in 

 determining the constituents of the various grains, grasses roots, 

 soils, etc. We here give No. 3. of the seventeen tables both on 

 account of its intrinsic value, and to show the design of the work 



