125 



In order to raise her, Mr. Whidbey had recourse to another Dutch 

 vessel of 10G3 tons burthen, and four lighters of 100 tons each. In 

 what manner he slung the frigate through the ports, and across the 

 decks, and by proper purchases and other expedients first overcame 

 the powerful effect of cohesion at the bottom, and then having floated 

 her brought her safe into harbour, and completely recovered her, can 

 only be clearly understood by perusing the paper, and at the same 

 time inspecting the drawing which accompanies it. Mr. Whidbey, 

 at the end of his paper, acknowledges that he does not apprehend 

 that there is anything new in the mode he has adopted in weighing 

 this frigate, unless it be the expedient he had recourse to in order to 

 remove the effect of cohesion : and he declares his opinion, that if a 

 similar principle had been applied in the attempt made to weigh the 

 Royal George, it would most probably have succeeded. 



Observations on a new Species of hard Carbonate of Lime ; also on a 

 new Species of Oxide of Iron. By the Count de Bournon, F.R.S. 

 and L.S. Read May 26, 1803. [Phil Trans. 1803, p. 325.] 



The new carbonate of lime here treated of was first noticed in a 

 group of hexahedral pyramidal crystals in Mr. Greville's collection. 

 The Count, observing that the exterior appearance of these crystals 

 was very different from that which is peculiar to carbonate of lime, 

 endeavoured in the first place, in order to determine their nature by 

 their configuration, to reduce them, by splitting, into the rhomboidal 

 form of this substance ; but he soon found, to his surprise, that not 

 only he failed in producing such a fracture, but that it was with the 

 greatest difficulty he could break them into any regular form what- 

 ever. Their hardness he found to be much greater than that of 

 common carbonate of lime, being such as would scratch very easily the 

 fluates of lime, and even glass. Their specific gravity was 2912. 

 They were colourless, and in general perfectly transparent. When 

 heated they are slightly phosphorescent. They dissolve quickly, and 

 with great effervescence, in nitric acid. 



After various attempts, he found at length that these crystals 

 would admit of being divided into two directions, tending to produce 

 a rhomboidal tetrahedral prism. A great part of the paper is taken 

 up in describing the angles produced by these fractures, and also the 

 figures of all the different crystals he had opportunities of observing ; 

 which descriptions are illustrated by drawings. 



This substance, upon further inquiry, does not appear to be very 

 scarce, there being no less than twelve specimens in Mr. Greville's 

 collection, most of which came from Carinthia and Transylvania, and 

 some from Scotland. The delicate stalactitical substance, hitherto 

 known by the name of flos ferri, belongs to this species of car- 

 bonate, of which the crystals, though ever so minute, have so singu- 

 lar a degree of hardness as to resist the common efforts of the fingers 

 to break them. 



The matrix of this kind of carbonate is generally a brown oxide of 



