154 
a cavity, filled with hydrogen sulfurated 
gas, and which on trying to escape, open- 
‘ed itself a passage to the bed of the 
river through another channel in the 
“rock. It was approached with precau- 
tion with a lighted torch; when it 
kindled instantly, and an immense vo- 
lume of flames ascended into the air. 
It appeared as if a fire rose from the 
very bottom of the river. The clouds 
_which were above the focus of light 
assumed the most beautiful and va- 
rious tints. -The ruddy glare which 
lighted up the adjacent landscape in- 
vested the various parts of it alternately 
with red, green, yellow and olive. The 
union of two opposite elements like 
fire and water contributed to render the 
strange spectacle more imposing. 
M. Arago has communicated a result 
to which the observations of M. Frey- 
cinet previously conducted, on the 
diurnal variations of the needle; name- 
ly, that at the same time in which it 
declines towards the east in the boreal 
Literary and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
(Serr. I, 
hemisphere it declines towards the west 
in the austral. In'the part of Payta ad- 
jacent to the magnetic equator, but to 
the south of the terrestrial equator, this 
variation is similar to that of the north- 
ern hemisphere; but so trifling that it 
does not exceed twenty seconds ; a fact 
which gives reason to infer that in ge- 
neral this variation is much under the 
magnetic equator. 
Oil-gas is beginning to make some 
progress, but vegetable oils are found 
to answer much better than fish oils, 
both as to intensity of light and ultimate 
economy. It seems to be surprising 
that the vegetable oils of France are not 
adopted in England, the lamps of Paris 
being equal-to the best gas-lights of 
England. © 
M. Chevalier, of the Académie des 
Sciences, has announced a new expe- 
riment, the object of which is to de- 
monstrate that during the oxydation of 
iron by the contact of water and air, 
there is a formation of ammoniac. 
- VARIETIES, LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS ; 
Including Notices of Works in hand, Domestic and Foreign. 
— = 
; GREAT social revolution appears 
; to be on the eve of taking place 
from new application of the powers of 
steam. Some years since we described 
in this miscellany the loco-motive steam 
engines of BLenkrinsop, and gave a gra- 
phic representation of them. Since that 
time they have been used in all the great 
collieries to convey coals from the pits 
to the place of:shipment. The princi- 
ple is an iron railway with pinions, so 
cast at the same expense as plain, while 
the wheels of the engine are cast with 
teeth to work in the pinions; such 
wheels being cast at the same expense 
as plain ones. Wheels thus turned by 
a ten-horse power, have, like gas-fixing 
animals working with their feet, pur- 
chase sufficient to transport fifty tons of 
coal, six or eight miles per hour, and to 
ascend, if necessary, the 100th of the 
length, or seventeen yards in a mile, 
while they would move less: weights - 
twelve or fourteen miles per hour. The 
principle is obviously capable of great 
extension ; and at length a line of thirty 
miles in Durham having been prepared 
in this manner, the idea has been caught 
by public: spirited persons in those fo- 
cuses of enterprize, Liverpool and Man- 
chester, and a similar road is planned be- 
tween those towns, in which Manchester 
will represent the colliery of Liverpool. 
The Durham engineer, Mr. Stephenson, 
has made a survey which reduces the 
turnpike-road distance from thirty-six 
to thirty-three miles, and the canal dis- 
tance from fifty to thirty-three, while 
the time will be reduced a full half. 
Such prepared roads seem therefore 
likely to supersede both canals and turn- 
pike roads between places of great inter- 
course and definite distance; and al- 
ready another is suggested from Bir- 
mingham to Liverpool! On our parts 
we would recommend others from Lon- 
don to Brighton, to Dover, to Ports- 
mouth, to Bath and Bristol and Ply- 
mouth, to Birmingham, to Holyhead, 
and through York to Edinburgh, with 
branches to Glasgow and all the great 
towns. Here is an opening for the ad- 
vantageous employment of capital, com- 
bined with immense public advantages. 
Bold as is the project, it is not less so 
than many other applications of science 
which we have from time to time sug- 
gested and recorded in this miscellany, 
and which we have had the pleasure to live 
and see realized. The economy both of 
time and money would be so great, that 
all England would soon be united as one 
great metropolis, and its inhabitants en- 
joy a sort of personal national ubiquity. 
In the present number Wwe describe a 
new engine, which in all. towns gas: 
. F : wit 
