Miscellanies. 179 
3. The Travellers—Letters have been received from Mr. Nut- 
tall, the botanist, and his companion, John K. Townsend, of Phil- 
adelphia, dated in September of last year, from Fort Vancouver, 
Columbia River. They were in good health, and would set out 
soon for home, either via Santa Fe or England, and may be at 
home in the fall of this year. Last week the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia received safely from them via Cape Horn 
many large boxes ;—among Mr. Townsend’s collection alone are 
three hundred birds and fifty quadrupeds, many of which are un- 
known to naturalists. We eagerly await the return of these gen- 
tlemen, in order that their remarkable scientific acquisitions, togeth- 
er with the eventful personal narrative of the travellers, may 
given to the public.—Waldie’s Cire. Library, July 12, 1836. 
4. Report on introducing Pure Water into the city of Boston; 
by Loammi Baldwin, Esq. Civ. Eng. 2d ed. 340 pp. 8vo. Boston, 
1835.—It is but poor economy to forego any expense necessary for 
the introduction of water into every part of alarge city. Not only 
comfort and health depend to a great degree on its purity and abun- 
dance, but it is the only security against the ravages of fire, and the 
great preventive, by the promotion of cleanliness, of the epidem- 
ics to which all large cities are subject. Such benefits are worth 
many times the $750,000 which it is calculated will be required to 
supply the city of Boston with water. The Report contains gene- 
ral accounts of the water works in other countries, besides more 
particularly a statement of the best means of supplying Boston. 
It is accompanied with several plans and profiles. ‘The whole work 
is one of much general interest, and does much credit to its distin- 
guished author. ‘The volume is closed by an important article of 
30 pages on Springs, Artesian Wells, &c. by M. Arago, first pub- 
lished in the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, pour 1835. 
5. Transactions of the Albany Institute, Vol. Il. part 2, 50 pp. 
‘Svo. Albany, 1836.—We have before us, in this continuation of 
Vol. II. of the transactions of this society, the annual address de- 
livered before the Institute, April, 1836, by Daniel P. Barnard, and 
also the report of the committee appointed to take Meteorological 
observations on the 2!st of June,September, December and March, 
agreeably to the plan proposed in 1834, by Sir John Herschel. 
This report is accompanied by a lithographic chart exhibiting the 
