- Miscellanies. 195 
is filled with ashes for leaching, and the lye is drawn off to add to the 
Soap cask, and more water is added; and thus by filling water and 
draining, the solution becomes weak, when it is used for bleaching, &c. 
When the lye cask is emptied, it is filled immediately with ashes, to be 
used as above mentioned, so that the cask is always in use; by which 
means it is kept in order, and lasts many years. When left empty, as 
Some persons practice, it shrinks and soon becomes useless. Some quick 
lime put into the ash cask, near the bottom, causes the lye to be more 
Caustic. 
Cedar and white pine make the best casks for lye or soap. The pine 
should be free from knots and resin, as the lye will incorporate with the 
_Tesin, convert it to soap, and leave the wood porous and leaky. 
When soap has accumulated beyond the wants for soft soap, it is con- 
Yerted into hard soap, by adding one quart of salt to three gallons of soap; 
tis then boiled and put into tubs, &c., to cool. It is then cut into pieces, 
the froth scraped off—then melted again to a boiling heat, leaving out the 
lye at bottom, put it in a box to cool, and cut into bars for drying. 
A little rosin or turpentine added before boiling, improves the color and 
quality of the hard soap. 
- B. In winter, the leach tub should be set in the cellar, or where it 
will not freeze—or, when filled, the ashes sh6uld be only dampened with 
Water, not to freeze, and it should stand till spring, before it is leached, 
to prevent freezing. 
omitted to say, that this mode of making soap relieves from the Pagan 
Practice of boiling soap at a certain state of the moon. 
_ 1%. Notice of Vespertilio pruinosus* and Icterus Pheeniceus.—Sir :—I 
improve this opportunity to inform you that on the 8th inst., (July, 1839,) 
I obtained in my garden the Vespertilio pruinosus, (Hoary Bat,) of 
Say, and answering perfectly to the description of Dr. Godman in his 
Natural History, Vol. I, age 68. It is the first instance that I have 
leamed of its being found north of Pennsylvania.+ . One was captured by 
Barton some years since near Philadelphia and presented to the museum 
in'that city, “ Mr, T. Nuttall also observed it at Council Bluffs.” Upon 
“apturing the animal, I found to my surprise, two young ones attached to 
€ breasts of the mother, nearly equal to her in size. It indeed required 
* number of violent efforts to shake them off, and they then again immedi- 
ately attached themselves to the breasts of the mother as before. The 
atter measured 43 inches in length and 112 inches in alar extent. The 
“US eee 
“Extract of a letter from Rev. James H. Linsley, to the junior editor, dated 
Stratford, July 294, 1839. 
i © presume our correspondent has not seen the Journal of the Essex Co. Nat. 
Hist, Soc, No. ii, where a similar occurrence is recorded Vid. this No. p. 187-8, 
