cnife found in the Heart of a Tree.—Astronomy. 151 
A KNIFE FOUND IN THE HEART OF A TREE. 
Some sawyers of the name of Short were employed to saw a 
fir-tree raised from a turf bog, or peat moss, as it is elsewhere 
called. The tree was dug up six feet below the surface, in the 
Rev. Mr. Steward’s property, in Tyrone, and brought to his 
residence at Grange, near Armagh, where the Shorts were em- 
ployed to saw it. They proceeded in their task, but having ad- 
vanced about half way through the log, the saw was arrested. 
They then turned the log, and continued to saw it in the oppo- 
site direction, when they discovered the blade of a knife, in a 
hole in which a man’s fist could lie. The conjecture of the saw- 
yers was, that the knife had been stuck into the bark, and that 
the hole was occasioned by the rotting of the handle, as it was 
enveloped by the annual coating of the growing tree. 
ASTRONOMY. 
Mr. Schumacher, the Danish astronomer, has recently esta- 
blished an astronomical journal, which promises to be exceedingly 
interesting to the lovers of astronomy. It is printed in quarto, 
in separate sheets (like some of our Sunday newspapers); and is 
published as often as the matter accumulates to a sufficient 
quantity for a number. The first number appeared towards the 
latter end of last year; and already six numbers have been pub- 
lished: the seventh is now in the press. It is written in Ger- 
man, which will prevent its being much circulated in this coun- 
try: but many of the articles are worthy of being translated, and 
distributed here. 
The eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites, as given in the Nautical Al- 
manac for this year, are almost all of them erroneous. There 
is sometimes as much as 2’.10” difference between the values 
given in that work, and the correct value. 
The North polar distances of the principal stars, as given in 
the Nautical Almanac for 1824, are also erroneous, in conse- 
quence of a derangement in the mural circle at Greenwich. The 
particulars of the circumstances, attending this derangement, 
were communicated by Mr. Pond in a letter to the Royal Society 
as far back as November last: but none of the public journals 
have yet alluded to the subject, nor has any thing further tran- 
spired relative thereto: except that we are informed that a 
Committee of the Royal Society has been appointed to inspect 
the state of the instrument. 
Major General Sir Thomas Brisbane, in his recent voyage to 
New South Wales, observed an occultation of Regulus, at sea. 
And, what is a remarkable circumstance, the star appeared on 
the disc of the moon (at its emersion) for two minutes: a longer 
time than has ever yet been recorded. M 
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