37* Treferving Anlm&l: SuhJIances.—^Humholdt's Travels, 



coming fluid at the fame time that they caufe the fnow to 

 diffolve. 



II. Cauftic potafli and muriate of lime poflVfs, amongft 

 other advantages, that of being eafily reftored, unaltered, to 

 their folid ftate, after an experiment, by evaporation. 



PRESERVING ANIMAL SUBSTANCES. 



Mr. Chaufller employs, for prefcrving animal matters from 

 putrefa6tion, a folutioa of oxvcenated muriate of mercury, 

 kept conftanUy in a (late of faturation. The preparations 

 remain immerfed in it for a certain number of days;. and, 

 after they are thoroushly impregnated with it, may be dried 

 by expofiire to light and air. After the procefs, they are no 

 longer fufceptible of being eafily decompofed ; they preferve 

 their form, become poflefled of a great degree of hardnefe, 

 and are not fubjeft to the attacks of infe6ls. 



Humboldt's TRAVELS. 



The BerVinifche Monaffchrefl, a. purna.] publiflied monthFy 

 at Berlin, contains an interefting extraft of a letter from 

 M. Alexander von Hun)boldt, in which he gives an account 

 of the progrefs of his travels through South America. It is 

 written from Contreras, near Ibagua in New Grenada. Be- 

 fore he left Carthagena he paid a vifit to the forelt of Tur- 

 baco, celebrated for the lize of its trees : fome of them are 

 eight feet in diameter, and are of the kind named cavanil- 

 Ujia mocondo, before obferved by Jacquin, who travelled in the 

 time of Francis I. M. von Humboldt, who had propofed to 

 go to Peru, could not relilt the defire he entertained of pro- 

 ceeding to Santa-Fe-de-Bajota to fee the celebrated bolani(t 

 Mutis, 72 years of age, and one of the friends of Linnreus. 



Thus, inftead of proceeding by fea to Guayaquil, which 

 was much more convenient, he purlued the route to Quito 

 by land through Santa-Fe. He firft navigated, for fortv-five 

 days, along the river De la Madelaine, anndft the mi it dread- 

 ful tempclts and the nioft dangerous catara£ls. Durino this 

 part of his journey he conftrudlied a topographical chart of 

 the country on four folio {l)eets, a copy of which was kept 

 by the viceroy. When he arrived at Honda, in five degrees 

 north latitude, he vifitcd the mines of Mariquita and Sainte- 

 Anne. In that country he found confiderable plantations of 

 cinnamon and nutm*g-trees ; and whole forclls of the tree 

 which furniflies cinchona, and of the almond-tret', called by 

 botanifts caryocar amygdal'iferiim. 



JM. von Humboldt was at that time accompanied by a 



young 



