318 
degrees above that of boiling water, and 
capable of roasting in a few minutes the 
flesh of animals deprived of life. In this, 
however, there is nothing new. Dr. Blag- 
den, secretary to the Royal Society about 
thirty years since, remained, accompanied 
by a female dog, during eight minutes in 
an oven heated to 100° of Reaumur, 20° 
above the point at which water boils. Wa- 
ter, although covered with oil, boiled close 
to him, and in thirteen minutes, the hot air 
being concentrated by a pair of bellows, 
some beef was dressed in the same place. 
Two French academicians of the last century 
saw at Larochefoucault, a man who from 
habit supported during ten minutes the heat 
of an oven, in which fruits and meats were 
cooked ; they found the heat to be 112° of 
Reaumur, 32° above that of boiling water. 
The rarity of the air, its weak conducting 
power, and its small capacity for caloric 
serve to explain how a person can exist in 
SO warm an atmosphere. It is by its action 
upon the skin, and the consequences which 
ensue from that that fire becomes injurious. 
Now the Spaniard who has been exhibiting 
himself in Paris, is wrapped up in wide 
pantaloons, en molleton, of red wool, a loose 
mantle also of wool, and wears on his head 
a great quilted felt cap—and the wool being 
a bad conductor of heat, this wonder-work- 
ing genius, like the Monsieur Velocipede 
recently imported into this country, should 
awaken the astonishment of the ignorant 
alone. 
Fossil Whale Rib.—A short time since 
a fossil bone, which has been considered the 
sternal portion of a rib of a whale, was ex- 
tracted from the base of the cliff under 
Kemp-town, Brighton. This fragment, for 
it evidently was but a small portion of the 
original, measured nine feet in length, the 
piece destroyed by the workmen, who first 
saw it, was estimated at about three feet, 
and from its slight degree of curvature, it 
could not haye been less than thirty feet 
when entire. The circumference of the 
largest extremity was thirty-four inches, and 
the bone gradually diminished in size, ter- 
minating obtusely. Unfortunately, in at- 
tempting to remove it, it fell to pieces—one 
fragment, however, has been preserved of 
the length of five feet. 
Useful Cement.—In a late number of 
the Franklin (North American) Journal, a 
cement is mentioned, which has been ap- 
plied with good effect to ships’ bottoms, 
and which, it is suggested, might be sub- 
stituted for the costly Roman or Dutch 
water cements in fresh water works. The 
composition of it is this: take best barrelled 
stone lime, slake it, by the affusion of as 
much fresh water as is just necessary to 
produce that effect, and cause it to fall into 
a dry white powder; when cooled sift it 
through a fine wire sieve into a trough like 
a bread trough, then add common fish oil, 
sufficient to bring it to the consistence of 
soft putty, so as to work with ease under the 
Varieties. 
[Sepr. 
trowel. No water is to be used except for 
slaking the lime in the first instanee. After 
it is prepared for use, it is kept in covered 
vessels, to preserve it from the rain or other 
moisture. 
The Cherokees.—The following account 
of the present state of a once powerful tribe 
of North American Indians, is too curious 
to be omitted in a Miscellany in which it 
has been endeavoured to concentrate what- 
ever is most worthy of notice. The Che- 
rokees, hemmed in on all sides by the 
white population, and unable to subsist any 
longer by the chace, or by fishing, have been 
forced to have recourse to agriculture and 
the mechanical arts, in which, within the 
last twenty years, they haye made surpris- 
ing adyances. They inhabit commodious 
houses, united into villages, and many of 
them possess farms of thirty or forty acres, 
highly cultivated, and abundantly provided 
with horses and cattle of every description. 
The Baptist, however, and other mission- 
aries, have converted many of them to 
Christianity. They have now schools where 
500 of their children learn to read, write, 
and cypher ; they will soon possess a library 
and museum. A printing press has also 
been established in their capital, where an 
Indian publishes, in his native tongue, with 
an English translation on the opposite page, 
a weekly paper, entitled the Cherokee Phe- 
nix. The territory occupied by the Chero- 
kees contains about 1,400 square miles, and 
comprises the north-west angle of Georgia, 
the north-east of the State of Alabama, and 
the south-east of that of Tennessee. Their 
population amounts to 15,060 individuals, 
of whom 13,563 are natives, 147 white men, 
73 white females, and 1,277 slaves. New 
Echota is the name of their principal town. 
July 26, 1826, they adopted a form of go- 
vernment nearly resembling that of the 
states of the American Union. 
Improvement in Road-making. — The 
mire of the roads near the metropolis in wet 
weather, and their dustiness in times of 
drought, have often been complained of as 
both inconvenient and expensive. The mat- 
ter that caused these inconveniences has 
been found not to be the powder worn from 
the gravel, or flints, or broken stone used in 
making the road; but from the rising of 
the matter, which is in the whole district 
mostly or partly clay, and therefore very 
retentive of moisture. To cure the evil, 
two things are wanted—a better drainage 
of the water, and a harder foundation on 
which to lay the broken stone. The 
drainage is always a matter of mere engi- 
neering and expense ; but the improvement 
of the foundation is a good deal more diffi. 
cult, at least involves an additional ex- 
pense. A pavement of large stones would 
be the best foundation, if those stones could 
be cheaply obtained of sufficient size, and 
regular shape; but in the districts in ques- 
tion there is no native stone, nor any to be 
had, the carriage of which would not meke 
Ne ee ee OS Re Te ee TS 
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ora 
