68 Water-Spout—Animal Remains.~New Discovery in Optics. 
circumstances, and not from any deficiency in the original in- 
vention of Sir Humphry Davy. We feel satisfaction in making 
this statement, as it thus appears, that the unfortunate accident 
whieh happened, ought not to lessen the confidence of miners 
in those lamps, when sufficient care is.takem that they be not 
faulty, or imprudently used. We are also assured that, upon one 
occasion, a lamp used at the Ayr Colliery continued safe with the 
inflammable air burning in it for the space of three hours, and 
that at that colliery the greatest confidence has been placed in 
them by the workmen.” one 
DESTRUCTIVE WATER-SPOUT. 
On the 18th June a water-spout of immense diameter inun- 
~ dated great part of the arrondissement of Auxerre. The rain, 
accompanied by large hailstones, fell in torrents for thirty mi- 
nutes. The whole harvest in nineteen communes is destroyed. 
Jn some quarters the water was six feet deep; at Fontenai a 
house was thrown down, and four children killed, and several 
other edifices were much damaged. 
ANIMAL REMAINS.—MAMMOTH—CROCODILE. 
’ There have been recently discovered in the parish of Mottes- 
ton, on the south side of the Isle of Wight, the bones of that 
stupendous animal supposed to be the Mammoth, or Mastodon, 
Several of the vertebra, or joints of the back-bone, measure 
36 inches in circumference: they correspond exactly in form, 
colour, and texture, with the bones found in plenty on the banks 
of the Ohio in North America, ina vale called by the Indians 
Big-bone Swamp.—Also, in the parish of Northwood, on the. 
siorth side of the island, the bones of the Crocodile have recently 
been found by the Rev. Mr. Hughes of Newport. They seem 
to have belonged to an animal of that species, whose body did 
not exceed twelve feet in length.—Their calcareous nature is not 
altered; but the bones of the Mastodon (found on the south 
side of the island) contain iron. ce 
NEW DISCOVERY IN OPTICS. 
_ A very interesting and important discovery has lately been 
made on the increase and projection of light, by Mr. Lester, en- 
gineer. As this discovery will form a new zra in optics, a re- 
cord of its history must prove. interesting to the scientific world, 
and, as such, we shall briefly lay before our readers the following 
account of it by a correspondent. 5 
_ Mr. Lester being engaged at the West India Docks for. the 
purpose of applying his new mechanical power, The Convertor, 
to 
