On a saline Substance from Mount Vesuvius. 1y 
{P.206] various parts of England. At length, after repeated at= 
tempts with Mr. E., had proved, that he could neither suii- 
ciently explain, the already well known principles of Draining, 
or add any mew one, as the too sanguine zeal of the Presi- 
dent of the Board of Agriculture had imagined (see Com- 
munications to the Board, vol. i. pages Ixi. and Ixxvi.) and so 
persuaded the Legislature; in order to satisfy the condition 
annexed by the latter, to the public Reward, thus prema- 
turely voted to Mr. E., the measure was adopted, of em- 
ploying two or more young Men, to travel through the various 
districts in which Mr. E. had effected or attempted to make 
drainages, and from their own ebservations and study of the 
subject, and what they could draw from Mr. E. to furnish, 
in a degree at least, such a work on the subject, as the 
Legislature expected, as the result of the national liberality. 
Mr. John Johnstone, one of these young Men, very ably 
executed his task, and explained more fully than had pre- 
viously heen done, the principles and practices of this im- 
portant art, in a Work prepared by him, but which is on 
almost all occasions (as in the present one by Mr. B. ap- 
parently) improperly ascribed to Mr. Elkington, Rep. ii. 
372 Note. 
[To be continued. ] 
—— 
XXVI. Remarks on the geological Theory supported by Jays 
Smiruson, Esq. in his Paper on a saline Substance from 
Mount Vesuvies, By-J.A, De Luc, Esq. F.R.S. Se. Se. 
Windsor, January 1814. 
Sins, —I the number of your Magazine for last Decembe ‘ 
which contains my paper addressed to you, On a Pheno- 
menon of Mount St. Michael in Cornwall,” I have found a paper 
under the title: “On a saline Substance from Mount Vesuvins, 
by James Smithson, Esq.” intended to support a new geological 
system, thus introduced at the beginning of the paper. ** It has 
long appeared to me, that when the earth is considered with at= 
tention, innumerable circumstances are perceived, which cannot 
but lead to the conclusion, that it has been once in a state of 
general conflagration. The existence in the skies of planetary 
bodies, which seem actually burning, and the appearance of or?~ 
ginal fire on our globe, I have conceived to be mutually corro- 
borative of each other; and at t! 
ne same time when no ansier 
could be given to the most essential objections to the hypothesis, 
the mass of facts in favour of it fully justified, I thought, the _in- 
ference that our habitationis an extinct comet or sun.” 
Such is the system: and we must now consider what is 
that 
