1B2G.] 



Dvmcdic Varieties. 



89 



j;un-barrol form, twcnty-soveii fi-ot witlo in 

 tliu cleiir; a l)iick Kiiii-l>aiivl drain tinrc 

 feet wide and nine ijiclios tlii<l<, inside the 

 tunnel, is to he carried in tiie same diriHtion 

 as tlic tunnel from the centre to the rise, 

 where it m'wt go throu.v;!), and from thence 

 be made oi>;hteeii iiiehes thick to the drift- 

 way, whieli must he sunk lower lowaids 

 the" shaft, to give it a proper current. The 

 interior of the ti'.nnel is a matter of fancy ; 

 a foot-p ith on the one side of double the 

 width, or one in the centre, and the car- 

 riages to |)a,ss on each side, raised about ten 

 inches al)0vc the carriage-way, may answer 

 every purpose, and save considerable ex- 

 pense. The tunnel to be lighted with gas. 

 The top of the tunnel, on this i)lan, will be 

 on the average about five feet under the bed 

 of the river, in some places more, in others 

 not so much ; and the whole will occupy a 

 space of about forty feet in the river, which 

 will be little or no obstruction to the navi- 

 gation. Estimating the length of the car- 

 riage-way at 11S3 feet in tlie tunnel, from 

 the end of the tunnel to the surface on the 

 south si(lc I2i feet, on the north side 93 

 feet, making the whole line of carriage-way 

 1,398 feet; the expense of completing the 

 works will he about £1->2,000. 



While atteni|)ts are making in England 

 to naturalize the rein-deer, buffalo, cha- 

 mois and wapeti, the attention of the French 

 has been turned to more useful objects, 

 the improvement of their breed of horses 

 by the importation of English ones — a traffic 

 which occasions horse-stealing to be car- 

 ried to its present unexampled extent ; and 

 to the advancement of their manufactures, 

 by introducing goats from Cashmere and 

 sheep from this country : the conscfpiences 

 of this last may be remote, but it is worthy 

 of remark, that when, in the latter part of 

 the fourteenth century, the Spanish wool 

 began to be held in estimation for its supe- 

 rior qualities, it was in consequence of 

 being improved, by crossing the breed of 

 native sheep with English ones from Glou- 

 cestershire. These sheep are said to have 

 been sent from England, as part of the 

 marriage portion of the Princess Catherine, 

 daughter of John of Gaunt, who was 

 betrothed to Henry III. of Castile in 1389, 

 and married to him some years afterwards. 

 This operation of crossing the Spanish with 

 English sheep succeeded so well, that it 

 was repeated during the reign of Edward 

 IV. of England: but it was not for more 

 than a century afterwards that Spanish 

 wool acquired that decided superiority over 

 the wool of other nations which it still 

 maintains. 



A composition, to which the incongruous 

 name of Mosaic gold has been affixed, has 

 recently been manufactured in this coun- 

 try; its ingredients are as yet unknown, 

 but the effects produced by the mixture 

 have never been equalled, except by gold 

 itself. In weight alone it is inferior to this 

 metal ; it a^lmits of a higher polish, and ra- 

 M. M. N,'>v Smfs.—Vo^. I. No. 1. 



sists, in an cqunl di-grec, the action of the 

 atmospliere and moisture ; its price, how- 

 ever, is extremely low, not exceeding, we 

 believe, twopence |ier ounce in the ingot. A 

 public company has been itistitnted for tlic 

 uianufactining of articles of this composi- 

 tion, of which his M:ijesty ba> o.dercd a 

 large quantity for the cn.btlli.-hmcnt of 

 Windsor Castle- In this age of ex!rava- 

 giiTit piety, it may be interesting to learn, 

 that a ))assage in tlie book of Ezni, viii. 27, 

 wherein " cop])er as |)recious us gold" is 

 mentioned, induced an enthusiastic iiniivi- 

 duul of the name of Hamilton to com- 

 mence, about twenty years ago, n course 

 of experiments which were terminated by 

 this singular discovery, almost realizing the 

 pJchymist's reverie of the transmutation of 

 metals. 



7\aces of a Primitive Tongue. — The 

 names of the sun and the moon, in nearly 

 100 different languages, are rciluced, byM. 

 Adolphe Pictet, by analogies, to forty- nine 

 roots, nearly all common to the two lumina- 

 ries; that is to say, with some exceptions, tlie 

 same root which designates the sun in a 

 ccrtahi number of languages, serves to in- 

 dicate the moon in a certain number of 

 otJicr dialects. 'J'lie exceptions are re- 

 ducible to four cr five ; but it is remarkable 

 that the roots s — 1 and I — n, with n vowel 

 between the consonants, arc of this number. 

 Among all the names of the moon, not one 

 has been found wliich could be triiced to 

 the root s — 1, and not one of the names of 

 the sun which belonged to the root I — n. 

 This community of roots in the i»oint of 

 view relating to general athnity, is amply 

 explained by supposing that the names 

 common to the two luminaries are derived 

 from more general roots, wliich express 

 ^rtain qualities or characters Cfiually com- 

 mon to both. Hence it would apjiear that 

 the general affinity of tongues is not a chi- 

 mera, TtwA that analogies so striking cannot 

 be die work of chance. 



FOREIGN. 

 FRANCE. 



In a garden at Vnlogne Manche, in 

 France, an ancient sarcophagus \\a» re- 

 cently discovered. It contained a skeleton 

 which, on exposure to the air, crumbled 

 into dust, but not before a piece of silver 

 was observed in its mouth, which induces 

 a belief that the person must have been a 

 companion of Csesar in his conquest of 

 Gaul. It is about the size of a son, and 

 bears on one side the inscription IM E S, 

 I M P, and on the other U I C, GAL; 

 there was a silver case at the feet of tlie 

 skeleton a foot long, and eight inches deep, 

 containing a hundred and fifty coins or 

 medals, in bronze, silver and gold. They 

 have tlie effigies of Csesar, Pompey, Mithri- 

 dates, Cleopatra, Philip of Macedon, 

 Hannibal, Scipio, Sylla Africanus, Cres- 

 sus, fx. For a great nuinhsr of years 



N 



