1 90 srienti/ic JntiUinence — MisreUitnPoii.i. 



mere cost ofwliicli. in liiclLi, incliuliiiii- tlio purcluiso iuul prepa- 

 ration, was only Is. Id. per pound ; but subsequent expenses, and 

 duties of various kinds, rendered tlie whole cost threefold the 

 amount realized by the sale. Subjected to scientific analysis, the 

 Indian isinglass differs but little from the Russian. It is of so 

 much less market value, partly because it is new and the supply 

 uncertain ; partly from the form in which it has been brought to 

 England, which is favourable to adulteration ; but chiefly from 

 the want of care in the preparation, an unpleasant fishy smell 

 remaining', which renders it impossible to bring it into use here 

 for culinary purposes. Some importations, however, have taken 

 place, nor is the article now unknown to the London brokers ; so 

 that there is every prospect of a new and profitable source of com- 

 merce being opened to India, if care and capital be applied to 

 the preparation of the isinglass. 



28. Ancient Fable of Colossal Ants producing GohJ* — One pas- 

 sage will satisfactorily explain the extravagant fable related by 

 the Greeks, and repeated by travellers in the middle ages, of ants 

 as big as foxes, who produc j gold. The pa-sage states, that the 

 trihes of various names who dwell between the Meru and Mau- 

 dara Mountains, brought lumps of gold, of the sort called paip- 

 pilika, or ant gold, — so named, because it was dugout by the com- 

 mon large ant or pipilika. It was, in fact, believed that the 

 native gold found on the surface of some of the auriferous deserts 

 of northern India had been laid bare by the action of these 

 insects ; — an idea by no means irrational, although erroneous, 

 but which grew up, in its progress westward, into a mon- 

 strous absurdity. The native country of thes.? tribes is that de- 

 sciibed by the Greeks, the mountains between Hindoostan and 

 Thibet; and the names given are those of barbarous laces still 

 found in those localities. 



29. On the Transformations whichhave hcenproduccd in Turf by the 

 Essence of Titrpcntine, or by a composition Isomeric with it. By M. 

 Forchhammer. — Extensive researches have demonstrated that 

 Denmark was formerly covered with a forest of firs, and that this 

 vegetation had already disappeared at a period so remote, that 

 there remains no historical or traditional trace of it. The stems 

 and roots of magnificent firs are now found in the greater part 

 of the peat-bogs of the country; and M. Steenstrup has recently 

 discovered in these some crystals, which have such a resemblance 



-•• From a paper read to the Royal Asialic .Society, by Professor Wilson, 

 " On a portion of the Maliahbarat.i/" &e. 



