[ 536 ] 



[May, 



VARIETIES, LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



Mr. D. Morrison is appointed IModellist 

 to the Duke and Ducliess of Gloucester, 

 Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and the 

 Princess Augusta, whose portraits by that 

 clever artist are in the Exhibition at the 

 Royal Academy, now about to open. 



Alum Mine. — From a report made to 

 the council of mines in France, it appears 

 that a new alum mine has been discovered 

 in the valley of Maudaill, at the foot'of the 

 mountain of Puymary, at the distance of 

 one league from the valley of Des-Chazes, 

 and from tiie great road from Murat to 

 Aurillac, in Auvcrgne. This aluminous 

 rock, the same as that of Mount d'Or, is 

 comprized in the basaltic soil of the extinct 

 volcanos in that country, and may be 

 worked without any difficulty. 



Af/ricuUure. — Agriculture, to which so 

 mucli attention has Jjoen paid in this 

 country, is treated, at length, as a science 

 in France ; and in various parts of that king- 

 dom farms have been taken solely for the 

 purpose of experimental agriculture. 



improved Bricks. — Mr. Bunidgc, whose 

 researches on the dry rot have attracted so 

 much attention in the navy, has recently 

 obtained a patent for improved bricks, by 

 which chaiinels of any desired figure may 

 be constructed through walls, and thus 

 currents of air be made to pass to the 

 timbers, by which it is considered that the 

 dry rot in buildings may be effectually pre- 

 vented. These improved bricks are to be 

 made of the same materials ai'.d dimensions 

 as ordinary bricks, but small portions, at 

 their angles and elsewhere, are to be re- 

 moved, that is beveled or rcbuted edges are 

 to be formed by taking off an inch or an 

 inch and a half from one or t\yo of the 

 angles, in an oblique direction or otherwise, 

 as circumstances may require. 



Coal Mines in France. — There are 

 reckoned in France 236 coal mines, from 

 which nine or ten millions of quintals arc 

 annually taken, having a value of from ten 

 to eleven millions of francs (from 416,666 

 to 458,333 pounds sterling) on the spot, 

 a value which rises to forty millions 

 (3^1, 666,666) at least with regard to the 

 mass of consumers, as the carriage to the 

 places of consumption amounts to three 

 times, four times, and even in some cases 

 to ten times the price of the coal. These 

 nine millions of quintals are nothing in 

 comparison of the consumption of England, 

 which rises to 75,000,000 of quintals an- 

 nually : the Carron works in Scotland alone 

 are said to consume 8,000 quintals weekly. 

 — Annales des Mines. 



Hail Insurance Societi/. — A society has 

 been established at Berne with the apjiro- 

 bation of government, for effecting in- 

 surances against loss produced by hail ; it 

 is known that, destructive as are its ravages, 

 still they are only partial, and as the means 

 of averting them by means of hail conduc- 



tors have been unsuccessful, a society has 

 been had recourse to to repair the loss. 



Gold Mines in Carolina. — A new gold 

 mine has been discovered in the western 

 part of Carolina, threo miles above the 

 place where the channel in which the river 

 Gatkin flows becomes extremely narrow. 

 The metallic deposit appears to be very 

 abundant ; and a company under the direc- 

 tion of European miners is already esta- 

 blished for working it on a larger scale. — 

 An experienced and able engineer has 

 reported, that the mines of Carolina are the 

 richest as yet known in either hemisphere. 

 — Rev. Encyc. 



Statistics. — The following particulars 

 relative to the colonies of France are con- 

 tained in a work by M. Morcau de Jonnes, 

 on the commerce of the nineteenth century. 

 In the islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, 

 Bourbon, and in the settlements of Guyana, 

 there are 38,500 whites, 23,000 enfran- 

 chised slaves, 247,500 slaVes; total 309,000 

 persons. And at the same places the total 

 amount of exports is 70,000,000 of francs, \ 

 of imports 64,000,000 ditto. 



Egypt. — The population of Egypt is 

 estimated at 2,514,400 persons, of whom 

 about 200,000 are Copts, or descendants 

 of the ancient Egyptians : 2,300,000 are 

 Tellahs, a mixed race of Arabs, Persians, 

 Syrians and Egj'ptians, and 14,000 are 

 foreigners. The number of villages in the 

 country is 3,475, about one-half of wliich 

 are in Lower Egypt. M. Langles esti- 

 mated the population of Cairo in 1810, at 

 263,700 : M. Mengin considers that of 

 Alexandria as between 12 and 13,000 souls. 

 — Rev. Encijc. 



Aywient MSS. — Two remarkable manu- 

 scripts have been found in the libraries of 

 Kirg in Russia ; the first is " a complete 

 Translation of the Gospel" into the dialect 

 of AVIiite Russia, and is preserved in the 

 library belonging to the monastery of Spass 

 Mikhailovsko'i. The second is Coptic, 

 and belongs to the seminary to which it was 

 presented by the late Count Potocky. On 

 the first leaf is written — " Manuscriptum 

 quod mihi Cahistte dono dedet patriarclm 

 Cophtorum ; ego autem offerebam acade- 

 mic Kiorensi, Joannes Potocki, hitimis a 

 ccnsiliis." 



■ In tlie last volume of tiie 



Arcadian Journal it is stated, that Pro- 

 fessor Rezzi, the curator of the Barberini 

 libraiy, has recently discovered a MS. of 

 the Dinna Comraedia of Dante, with the 

 commentaiy of Landino, with numerous 

 notes by Tasso. These notes display great 

 learning and taste, and prove with what 

 attention the illustrious author of the 

 Jerusalem Delivered had studied the poem 

 of Dante. It is reported that M. Rezzi 

 will present tliis valuable MS. to Professor 

 Rosini of Pisa, to enrich his edition of the 

 complete works of Tasso. 



