234 Blue Sun. 
dicunas of the river of Amazons, long ago proved, that the va- 
pours arising from this poison when thrown on burning charcoal, 
may be. inhaled without apprehension ; and that it is false, as 
M.dela Condamine has announced, that Indian women, when con- 
demned to death, have been killed by the vapours of the poison 
of the ¢icunas. 
The juice is thickened with a glutinous substance to cause it 
to stick to the darts, which it renders mortal; but taken inter- 
nally, the Indians consider the curare to be an excellent stoma- 
chic. Scarcely a fowl is eaten (adds our author) on the banks 
of the Oroonoko, which has not been killed with a poisoned 
arrow. ‘The Missionaries pretend, that the flesh of animals is 
never so good as when these means are employed. Father Zea, 
who accompanied us, though ill of a tertian fever, caused every 
morning the live fowl allotted for our repast to be brought to his 
hammock, together with an arrow. Notwithstanding his habi- 
tual state of weakness, he would not confide this operation, to 
which he attached great importance, to any other person. Large 
birds, a guan (pava de monte) for instance, or a eurassoa (alse- 
for,) when wounded in the thigh, perish in two or three minutes 5 
but it is often ten or twelve before a pig or a pecari expires*, 
BLUE SUN. 
To Dr. Tilloch. 
Sir,—As I was passing along the Curtain Road, in the parish 
of Shoreditch, on Saturday the [8th of August last, between 
9 and 10 o’clock in the morning, I observed several people look- 
ing up as if at something unusual, and on inquiring the cause, 
I was told the sun appeared blue. I soon saw, to my surprise, 
the disc of the sun of an azure or sky-blue colour. |! am not 
certain that at any one time I saw the whole of the disc of this 
colour, owing to the clouds which were passing rapidly before it, 
covering a portion, but I have no doubt that the whole was seen 
of this colour by others, There can be no question, I think, but 
that this extraordinary phenomenon was occasioned by some pe 
culiar refractive power in the thinner clouds which were before 
the sun at the time, The intervals at which I saw this pheno- 
menon were very short, and all the times together I do not be- 
lieve were many seconds. Independently of this blue colour, the 
sun that morning attracted the notice of people by its unusual 
appearance: it has been described as looking like quicksilver, and 
like varnished silk, and. was mistaken for an air balloon. 
* M. Humboldt does not seem to be acquainted with any certain antidote, 
if such exists, to this fatal poison. Sugar, garlic, the muriate of soda, &c. 
are mentioned doubtingly. “ 
I have 
