393 Progress of Continental Mamifadure of Congreve Rockets. [April, 



« The flesh of the Whale is coarse and hard, like that of a bull : it is 

 intermixed with many sinews, and is very dry and lean when boiled, 

 because the fat is only between the lean and skin. If suffered to lie a 

 little, it soon becomes black and tainted. That of the tail boils the ten- 

 derest, and is not quite so dry as that of the body. ^Mien we have a mind 

 to eat of a Whale, we cut great pieces off before the tail, where it is 

 found square, and boil it like other meat. Good beef I prefer far before 

 it ; yet, rather than be starved, I advise to eat Whale's-flesh ; for none 

 of our men died of it, and the French did eat it almost daily ; flinging 

 it on the tops of their tubs, and letting it lie till it was black, and yet 

 eating it in that condition. The flesh of the Whale, like that of Seals, 

 is alone, or by itself; and the fat at the top thereof, between the flesh 

 and the skin." The tongue of the common Whale, which all authorities 

 concur in likening, for size and shape, to a " great feather-bed," is not 

 particularly prized for its eating ! The Belluga, or White Porpoise, which 

 is reckoned among the Whales, and of which a specimen was lately killed 

 on the coast of Scotland, where, from its usual residence in colder cli- 

 mates, it appears to be locally unknown, is reckoned by the Samoiedes 

 a kind of aquatic quadruped; that is, as, in its animal economy, to 

 suckling land animals, or mammalia. 



Other authorities than those hitherto examined, conflicting upon the 

 point of the fish or no fish of the Whale, might yet be mentioned, and 

 either reconciled or confuted; but sufficient, perhaps, is already ad- 

 vanced, to satisfy the reader, that this marine animal is an undoubted^^A, 

 in the common estimation of all mankind, and yet no fish at all, in the 

 more exact eye of scientific natural history. K. 



PROGRESS or CONTINENTAL MANUFACTURE OF CONGREVE ROCKETS. 



In the " Journal des Sciences Militaires " for this month, is an ingenious 

 paper, by Mens. Montgery, a naval officer in the service of France, on the sub- 

 ject of rockets, and, in addition to what was communicated in our last number, 

 see p. 290, we shall lay before our readers such of its contents as we think are 

 not generally known in this country. 



After describing, as far as his information permitted him, the processes of 

 Sir William Congreve, he proceeds to what has been attempted in other coun- 

 tries. With respect to the English experiments, he communicates nothing 

 new. That they are objects of extreme attention in France, is proved by the 

 article itself, and by the reports which it contains of the curious inquiries made 

 by French travellers. Baron Makan, whose name is familiar to the public for 

 the share he took in the recognition of Haytian independence, and who enjoys 

 the reputation of being one of the cleverest men in the French navy, informed 

 the writer of the article, that Sir William was continually making great improve- 

 ments in the rockets, but keeping them a profound secret, " ayant I'intention 

 de surprendre, et d'accabler les ennemis, que son pays pourrait avoir a com- 

 battre." A traveller whose observations are contained in the " Bibliotheque 

 Universelle " of Geneva, describes with much astonishment the experiments he 

 had seen in June 1821 at Woolwich, the effect of which he declares prodigious. 

 In September last. Count Loewenhielm was an attentive spectator of similar 

 experiments at Woolwich, and was particularly struck with the justness of the 

 aim, and the celerity of the movements. He also expresses himself much sur- 

 prised at the brilliancy of the rockets, which he says was as vivid as that of a 

 fine full moon : and within a very short period, Montgery informs us, a dis- 



