Sea Serpent.—Singular Phenomenon.—New moving Power. 7% 
AMERICAN SEA SERPENT. 
T. Say, esq. of Philadelphia, in a letter received from him by 
Dr. Leach, announces that a Captain Rich had fitted out an ex- 
pedition purposely to take this leviathan, of which so much has 
been said in the newspapers and even in some scientific jour- 
nals. He succeeded in “ fastening his harpoon in what was 
acknowledged by all the crew to be the veritable sea serpent 
(and which several of them had previously seen and made oath 
to) : but when drawn from the water, and full within the sphere 
of their vision, it proved that this serpent, which fear had loomed 
to the gigantic length of 100 feet, was no other than a harmless 
Tunny (Scombrus Thynnus) nine or ten feet long!” 
SINGULAR PHENOMENON. 
Some time last week, Mr. John Lacock of this place, a gen- 
tleman of undoubted integrity and veracity, while splitting a 
cedar-tree into quarters, for posts, discovered in the heart of it 
a living toad about half-grown. The cavity in which it was lodged 
was but merely large enough to contain it, and there was not 
even the smallest communication from the cavity for the circula- 
tion of any air; the tree was perfectly solid, and from its size is 
supposed to be of twenty or thirty years growth. As soon as the 
tree was quartered, the toad instantly crawled from its confime- 
ment, and still lives.—From the Westchester (N. York) Herald, 
June 9. ———_ j 
WIRE BRIDGE. 
A new bridge has been thrown over the river Kelvin, at Gars- 
cube-house, Dumbartonshire, the seat of Sir Islay Campbell, bart. 
wholly composed of iron wire, without any support in the centre. 
The length is 100 feet, and it is nine feet above the surface of 
the river. 
NEW MOVING POWER. 
M. Pattu, a French engineer, has proposed to apply to me- 
chanical purposes the expansion communicated to water by in- 
crease of temperature, without converting it into steam. Thus 
a piston in a cylinder over water will receive an elevation (or, vice 
versi, a depression) equal to that which the surface of the water 
experiences by the application of heat. This power we know is ir- 
resistible ; but it is, at the same time, necessarily slow : however, 
he proposes to accelerate the motion by the usual well known 
mechanical means: and to save time in the repeated movements 
required for continued motion, the heated water is not to be re- 
tained till it cools in the engine, but to be replaced by cold water 
to which the heat is to be applied for each stroke, 
E4 PHOSPHATE 
