Russian Embassy. — Antiquities. 463 
to the extremities of the multiplying wire, we obtain no effect, 
if we plunge both plates at once into the liquid ; but if we im- 
merse one before the other, that which has come the last into 
contact acts as a less oxidable metal.—Journal of Science, 
No. 25. a , 
RUSSIAN EMBASSY TO BUCHARIA. 
The Russsian embassy sent in 1820 to Bucharia, after crossing, 
in 72 days, the Kirgese Desert (Steppe), where it suffered many — 
hardships, especially for want of water, reached Bucharia on the 
20th of December 1820. They found Bucharia to be a very 
fruitful and well cultivated country, with two millions and a half 
of inhabitants. The trade with Russia amounts to twenty mil- 
ions of rubles. —The embassy set out on its return to Orenburgh 
on the 23d of March 1821, and arrived there safely in fifty-five 
days.— Astatic Journal. 
ANTIQUITIES, 
A monastic seal, in perfect preservation, was found last No- 
vember in a potatoe field called Low Garth, near Langrick on 
the Ouse. It is of mixed or bell-metal, 24 inches long, of an oval 
shape, pointed at the ends, and pierced through the shaft: the 
inscription is “ SIGILLUM FRATERNITATIS MONASTERIE BEATE 
MARIE DE Hayrzs,” In the centre, on a ground of flowers, is 
the figure of a man, clothed in a monkish stole, bare-headed 
and shorn, standing on an elevation of three steps; holding in 
his right hand a globe surmounted by a cross, and in his left 
a staff or sceptre spreading into three rods or branches at the 
top. Although found within a short distance of Drax Abbey, 
which was sometimes called also Heilham, and possessed a neigh- 
bouring estate named Hales, it cannot be referred to that foun- 
dation, which was a Priory dedicated to St. Nicholas ; neither 
does it appear to belong to Hales Owen Abbey, but to the mi- 
tred Cistercian Abbey of Hayles in Gloucestershire, which was 
founded by Richard Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans, 
in 1246, at the expense of 10,000 marks, and dedicated to the 
Virgin. How it came into Yorkshire must be mere conjecture, 
as there was no connexion between the two establishments. 
Rome.—On the 7th of February, a Columbarium, in perfect 
preservation, with beautiful paintings and 200 inscriptions, was 
discovered in the Vigna Ruffini on the Via Nomentana, Among 
the inscriptions, one only belongs to a person of the age of eighty. 
(Virit Annos Lxxx.) Friends have scratched their names on 
the monument, which therefore furnish a remarkable addition to 
the specimens of Roman running hand, The proprietor means 
to leave the whole as it was found, and to build a shed over it. 
PUFF 
