102 



Impressions found in Limestone. — Sound. 



Vol. VII. 



adoption of a pattern farm and school, under 

 the patronage of the State. A committee 

 was appointed to report on the subject gene- 

 rally, at the annual meeting of the Society, 

 next January. The ball being put in mo- 

 tion by able and resolute hands, will not stop 

 until something substantial shall be accom- 

 plished. 



Yours, truly, 



A. S. R. 



Philadelphia, October Gth, 1842. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Impressions found in Limestone. 



Messrs. Editors, — The interesting ac- 

 count of human foot-prints in solid lime- 

 stone,— see page 44, of the last Number of 

 the Cabinet, — reminds me that the Mr. John 

 Jones there mentioned, as having been em- 

 ployed by Mr. Paul Anderson to cut out the 

 slab containing them, from its bed at low 

 water mark of the Mississippi, can tell a far 

 more wonderful story of a sword or dagger 

 that has been found embedded between two 

 immense blocks of limestone, I believe in 

 the same neighbourhood, and by himself 

 also. Would Mr. Jones favour us with an 

 account, of the discovery, as also, with his 

 opinion as to the mode in which the weapon 

 became thus embedded at the first; and 

 which is, I presume, the best and only way 

 of accounting for a phenomenon, that at the 

 time of discovery, seemed to baffle all con- 

 jecture. I could state the circumstances, 

 but the account would come so much better 

 from the Major himself, and be read with 

 such zest by your other subscribers, that 1 

 trust he will consent to oblige us. His view 

 of the subject appears to me far more satis- 

 factory and rational, than that of Dr. Owen, 

 on the " foot-prints ;" who, " after close ex- 

 amination and careful inspection, comes to 

 the conclusion, that the impressions in ques- 

 tion are not fossils, but an intaglio of artifi- 

 cial origin." J. P. 



Delaware, September 18th, 1842. 



To protect Grain from Rats. — One of 

 our subscribers wishes us to state, for the 

 benefit of bis brother farmers, that green El- 

 der boughs, scattered in and about a mow of 

 Rye or other grain, will effectually protect 

 it against the depredations of rats. These 

 vermin are often very troublesome and de- 

 structive in their ravages in the farmer's 

 barn; and if so simple a remedy will prevent 

 their mischief, it should be known and re- 

 membered by all. — Farmers' Gazette. 



Sound. 



The diminution of the intensity of sound, 

 in a rarefied atmosphere, is a familiar phe- 

 nomenon to those who are accustomed to 

 ascend very high mountains. The deep si- 

 lence of those elevated regions has a physical 

 cause, independent of their habitual solitude. 

 Saussure relates, that a pistol, fired upon the 

 summit of Mont Blanc, produced no greater 

 report, than a little Indian cracker would 

 have done in a room. Herschel noticed the 

 comparatively small extent to which the 

 voice can be heard, at an altitude of upwards 

 of 13,000 feet on Monte Rosa. The height, 

 however, to which an atmosphere, or medium 

 capable of conveying sound, extends, far ex- 

 ceeds any attainable on mountains, by bal- 

 loons, or even by the lightest clouds. The 

 great meteor of 1783, produced a distinct 

 rumbling sound, although its height above 

 the earth's surface, was full fifty miles at the 

 time of its explosion. The sound produced 

 by the explosion of the meteor of 1719, at an 

 elevation of at least 69 miles, was heard as 

 "the report of a very great cannon, or broad- 

 side;" shook the windows, doors and houses, 

 and threw a looking-glass out of its frame 

 and broke it. 



These heights are deduced by calculation 

 from observations too unequivocal, and agree- 

 ing too well with each other, to allow of 

 doubt. Scarcely less violent was the sound 

 caused by the bursting of the meteor of July 

 17, 1771, near Paris; the height of which, 

 at the moment of the explosion, is assigned 

 by Le Roy, at about 25 miles. The report 

 of a meteor, in 1756, threw down several 

 chimnies at Aix in Provence, and was takes 

 for an earthquake. These instances and 

 others which might be adduced, are sufficient 

 to show, that sound can be excited in, and 

 conveyed by, air of an almost inconceivable 

 tenuity ; for such it must be at the heights 

 here spoken of, provided the exciting cause 

 be sufficiently powerful and extensive; nei- 

 ther of which qualities can be regarded as 

 deficient in the case of fire balls, such as 

 those of 1719, and 1783, the latter of which 

 was half a mile in diameter, and moved at 

 the rate of 20 miles in a second. — Profes- 

 sor Pierce's Treatise on Sound. 



A FARM WANTED. 



A practical farmer with a small family, competent 

 to take entire charge of a respectable farming estab- 

 lishment, where the interest of the employer will be 

 the main object, wishes a situation. One where im- 

 provement is the order of the day, would be preferred. 

 For further particulars, inquire at this office. Loca- 

 tion not particular. 



