VOL. XI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SOQ 



may measure superficial Figures; with Rules, how to divide Woods and Land; 

 and how to measure Timber and other Solid Bodies, either by Arithmetic or 

 Geometry, &c. By M. Cooke, in 4to. 



IV and V. The French Gardener reprinted ; to which is annexed the English 

 Vineyard vindicated, and the Way of making and ordering Wines in France, &c. 



The French Gardener, which gives proper instructions for the culture and 

 propagation of the best esculent plants, which are yet much wanting in England, 

 is reprinted in a third edition, illustrated with sculptures: To which is annexed, 

 The English Vineyard vindicated ; and the Way of making and ordering Wines 

 in France, in 8vo. 



On the Effects of Thunder and Lightning on Sea Compasses ; also on the Gradual 

 Alteration of the Temperature of the Air in different Countries ; of an uncom- 

 mon Hygroscope\ and on the Scent of the Musk-quash, &c.', in a Letter from 

 Dublin. N° 127, p. 647. 



Mr. Haward, a very credible person, tells me, that being once master of a 

 ship in a voyage to Barbadoes, in company with another commanded by one 

 Grofton, of New-England, in the latitude of Bermudas, they were suddenly 

 alarmed with a terrible clap of thunder, which broke Mr. Grofton's foremast, 

 tore his sails, and damaged his rigging. But that after the noise and confusion 

 were past, Mr. Haward, to whom the thunder had been more favourable, was 

 however no less surprised to see his companion's ship steer directly homeward 

 again. At first he thought that they had mistook their course, and that they 

 would soon perceive their error ; but seeing them persist in it, and being by 

 this time almost out of call, he tacked and stood after them ; and as soon as he 

 got near enough to be well understood, asked where they were going : but by 

 their answer, which imported that they had no other design than the prosecu- 

 tion of their former intended voyage, and by the sequel of their discourse, it at 

 last appeared that Mr. Grofton did indeed steer by the right point of his com- 

 pass, but that the card was turned round, the north and south points having 

 changed positions ; and though with his finger he brought the fleur-de-lys to 

 point directly north, it would immediately, as soon as at liberty, return to this 

 new unusual posture; and on examination he found every compass in the ship 

 altered in the same manner : which strange and sudden accident he could im- 

 pute to nothing else but the operation of the lightning or thunder just men- 

 tioned. He adds, that those compasses never to his knowledge recovered their 

 right positions again. 

 That in America, at least as far as the English plantations are extended, there 



