49 



"The immense quantity of arsenic, and corrosive sublimate, necessary for their 

 preservation requires imperatively that very great caution should be observed, and 

 that the handling and arrangements should be under either the immediate inspection 

 or personal attention of one fully adequate to all the details connected with this 



subject. 



"In the hands of inexperienced persons death might be the result. 



"W. McGUIGAN, 

 " Curator, P. M. C. 



"PaiLABELPBiA, Fchvuary 6, 1841." 



The following letter from Captain George W. HugheS) of 

 the corps of Topographical Engineers, has been received : 



BncssKLS, January, 1841. 



To Frajtcis Markoe, Jr. Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the National Insti- 

 tution fur the Promotion of Science, Washington. 



Sm: Availing myself of a season of comparative leisure, I have transcribed, for 

 the National Institution, that portion of my journal which relates to a tour through 

 South Wales; which will be followed in a few days, by a copy of the notes taken 

 in Devon and Cornwall, with some general remarks on the working of the tin and 

 copper mines, and the preparation of the ores for market. 



You will perceive that the journal is not in continuation of that previously trans- 

 mitted, but, if I should find leisure before the season for travelling opens, I may 

 attempt to supply the omission by papers on several subjects of scientific and 



practical interest. 



I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant 



GEORGE W. HUGHES. 

 December 3d, 1840.— Left London by the twelve o'clock train for Bristol on the 

 " Great Western railway," intending to visit the mineral and manufacturing regions 

 of Wales, Devon, and Cornwall. The great western is open from London to 

 Worton Bassett, 60 miles, and also from Bath to Bristol, 13 miles— the interme- 

 diate distance being travelled in post coaches owned by the railway company. The 

 gage or distance between the rails is 7 feet ; the gage of the other railways being 

 4 feet 8J inches. This is admitted to be one of the best constructed roads of the 

 kind in the world, and nothing can be more smooth, easy, and rapid, than the 

 transit of the carriages over it. As this railway is peculiar in many respects, I may 

 make it the subject of a special communication at some future period. Mr. S. K. 

 Brunell, the chief engineer, has laid a wager, I am informed, to run an engine over 

 the entire line when finished (U2 miles) in two hours, which it is believed he will 

 accomplish, as engines have been run on the road at quite as high a velocity. 

 Some time since a train conveyed Prince Albert from Windsor to the Paddington 

 Terminus at so frightful a rate, that he was " graciously pleased," as the newspapers 

 state, "to command that they should not in future carry him at a greater speed than 

 25 miles an hour." Much amusement was excited at the time by a remark of George 

 the third, (before railways were,) that he was not fond of rapid travelling; 16 

 miles the hour was fast enough foi him or any other reasonable person. 

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