1825.] 
ed over Commissioner Bigg’s report of 
these colonies, where you will be assured, 
that our officers generally, with very few 
exceptions, have had the ancient and cus- 
tomary honour of abribe. Under our new 
judge, we shall not have the trouble and 
expense of a voyage to Sidney to try civil 
and criminal cases; rather than incur 
which, and leave their families and their 
business, at a time, perhaps, when their 
presence is indispensable, I assure you, 
many will put up with any loss, and 
suffer justice to remain unsatisfied, to the 
great detriment of public morals. We have 
had enough of the glorious uncertainty and 
delays of the law, our youth considered. 
T sued a man for one hundred pounds ster- 
ling for a mare, which I sold to him three 
years ago. In six months I obtained a 
verdict, after which it cost me fourteen 
months more before I could recover my 
money, occasioned by having to send re- 
peatedly to Sidney, for one process after 
another. ' 
“ Having at length obtained a bank of 
our own, independent of that of Port Jack- 
son, wé shall find business much facilitated, 
and doubless a more extensive currency. 
With the fostering care of the mother 
country, and with honest and able go- 
vernors, such as Macquarrie, who would 
have done more for us had he been in- 
vested with the power, we' should have 
every thing to hope, and not a shadow of 
dissatisfaction would be visible among us. 
{ ought to have observed to you, that 
nearly all the injury which has been occa- 
sioned to the colony, by the impositions 
already stated, has fallen upon the settler, 
not the merchant, who, the instant that the 
twenty-five per cent. was laid on the trea- 
sury-bills, relieved himself by imposing an 
additional per centage on his goods to the 
same amount. Thus, while the cultivator 
vas receiving a low price, five shillings per 
bushel for his wheat, chiefly on account of 
the decrease of government expenses, he 
was under the necessity of paying a high 
and additional price for his goods. I shall 
feel happy in any communications you may 
be pleased to honour me with. We have 
several individuals among us who have re- 
cently become rather considerable impor- 
ters of books, and as our prosperity in- 
creases, it will be natural for us to become 
a reading public: Time being allowed for 
an exploring perseverance, this country 
may be found calculated for a variety of 
productions of a less bulky and more va- 
luable nature than those which, in this 
early stage, form our staple exports. Some 
of these, exclusive of others which have 
been publicly named, are already within 
our speculation.” 
—— a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
N lately reading Capt. Scoresby’s 
very entertaining Voyage to the 
Remarks on Scoresby's Voyage to the Arctic Regions. 
2h 
Arctic Regions, I was particularly struck: 
with the following passage. In speaking 
of the capture of a whale, he says, that 
“The remarkable exhaustion observed 
on the first appearance of a wounded whale 
at the surface, after a descent of 700 or 800 
fathoms perpendicular, does not depend on 
the nature of the wound it has received, for 
100 superficial wounds, received from har- 
poons, could not have the effect of a single 
lance penetrating the vitals ; but is the effect 
of the almost incredible pressure to which the 
animal must have been exposed. ‘The sur- 
face of the body of a large whale may be 
considered as comprising an area of 1,540 
square feet. This, under the common 
weight of the atmosphere only, must con- 
tain a pressure of 3,104,640 lbs., or 1386 tons. 
But, at the depth of 800 fathoms, where 
there is a column of water equal in weight 
to about 154 atmospheres, the pressure on 
the animal must be equal to 24,200 tons. 
This is a degree of pressure of which we 
can have but an imperfect conception. It 
may assist our comprehension, however, to 
be informed, that it exceeds in weight sixty 
of the largest ships of the British navy, when 
manned, provisioned, and fitted for a six- 
months’ cruise.” 
This he attempts to explain further, 
by a note :— 
‘From experiments made with sea-water, 
taken up near Spitzbergen, I find that 35 
cubical feet weigh a ton. Now, supposing 
a whale to descend 800 fathoms, or 4,800 
feet, which, I believe, is not uncommon, we 
have only to divide 4,800, the length of the 
column of water pressing upon the whale, 
by 35, the length of a column of sea-water, 
a foot square weighing a ton: the quotient, 
1374, ‘shews the pressure, per square foot, 
upon the whale in tons, which, multiplied 
by 1,540, the number of square feet of surface - 
exposed by. the animal, affords a product of 
211,200, besides the usual pressure of the 
atmosphere.” 
How far this is correct philosophy, I 
will not pretend to determine. . The. cal- 
culations I shall not follow, because I 
deny the principles altogether. It, how- 
ever, appears to me to be void of all 
reason and truth; contrary to every rule 
of science, and to all the axioms that 
are laid down by writers upon this sub- 
ject; and, so far from a dead or wounded 
whale having the pressure of weight 
equal to sixty men of war upon it, when 
at a certain depth, I think that it has 
not the weight of an ounce. I have 
addressed you, that the question may 
fall under the eye of your more philoso- 
phic readers, to ascertain whether Mr. 
Scoresby’s notion is right or wrong; 
because, if it be the latter, the error has 
not been noticed by any of the reviews 
that 
