Miscellaneous Intelligence. 289 



had saved enough to make fifty cents (half a dollar). The above stones 

 are all that have been found, as far as I could learn. The atmosphere 

 at the time of this phenomenon was mostly clear, somewhat hazy, so 

 warm as to cause the snow on the ground to be somewhat soft. The 

 noise was heard distinctly to a distance of fifteen or twenty miles in 

 every direction. At a distance of ten miles in each direction the sound 

 was like the rolling of a heavy waggon passing swiftly over frozen 

 ground. Smoke was seen in the direction from which the sound seem- 

 ed to proceed. The smoke appeared in two places, apparently about 

 six or eight feet apart, above the elevation of light clouds, and having 

 a circular motion. The motion of the meteoric body was supposed 

 from the reports which were heard, to be towards the southeast, or rath- 

 er south of east." 



Hartford, July 12th, 1847. 



2. Gutta Percha, (Lond. Jour. Bot., No. Ixi, Jan., 1847, p 33.) 

 inis is a vegetable substance, which though only known to Europeans 

 tor a few years, is now extensively used in the arts for various pnrposes, 

 as a substitute for caoutchouc, because it has the valuable property of 

 dissolving without being volcanized. But while thus frequently em- 

 ployed, and constituting an important article of commerce, the plant 

 w wch produces it was unknown, until, by a lucky accident, during the 

 residence of Mr. Thos. Lobb in Singapore, where he has been (and in 

 p er Malay islands) employed in a botanical mission by Mr. Veilch of 

 Exeter, he detected this plant and sent home numerous specimens, 

 jnich prove it to be a new sapotaceous plant, of which'a figure and 

 fscription will shortly appear in this Journal, under the name of Bas- 

 la% Hook. Accompanying numerous well dried specimens, (though 

 fortunately without corollas,) Mr. Lobb judiciously sent small sections 



the wood, which is peculiarly soft, fibrous and spongy, pale-colored, 

 and lra versed by longitudinal receptacles or reservoirs, filled with the 

 P»n, forming ebony-black lines. 



u appears that a gentleman, Dr. Montgomerie, was the person who 

 7 s1 br °ught the Gutta Percha into public notice. He writes thus, in 

 e Magazine of Science, 1845, " I may not claim the actual discov- 



it iu "" certain P arts °f the Malayan forests were acqua 

 ' Many, however, of their neighbors, residing in the adjacent native 



jj K * of Gutta Percha, for though quite unknown to Europeans, a few in- 

 J a fotants of certain narta nf the Malavan forests were acquainted with 



* llIa ges, had never heard of it ; arid the use to which it was applied was 

 I ry tr| Aing, for I could only ascertain that it was occasionally em- 



P°yed to make handles for parangs, (or wood-choppers,) instead of 

 °od or buffalo horn. So long ago as 1822, when I was assistant-sur- 



j£ 0n at Singapore, I was told of Gutta Percha, in connexion with 

 °utchouc ; and some very fine specimens were brought to me. There 



J th ree varieties of this substance, Gutta Girek, Gutta Tuban, and 



"a Percha. I may here mention that the latter name is often erro- 



ously pronounced in England. The ch is sounded by the Malayans 



e ^ose letters in our word perch (a fish). And attention to this 



Mat is of some importance ; for if our countrymen were to ask the na- 

 <* for Gutta Perca, they would probably be told, that such a sub- 

 n ce was unknown, while plenty of Gutta Percha might be procured 



> Pronouncing the word correctly. The name is pure Malayan ; Gutta 



Eco *o S ERIES) Vol. IV, No. ll.-Sept., 1847. 37 



