u 



294 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



up, nor close to leeward of any wall or perpendicular bank from which 

 they seem to have originated — the nearest well-formed small ones being 

 sixty yards to leeward, and the large ones one hundred yards. All 

 nearer than this are fragments that have not gone on to completion, but 

 broken down in their passage, and the different portions of the wreck 

 form the nuclei of others. Many however are found blown to the 

 windward side of walls or over the lee side of banks. Indeed, they 

 are found almost exclusively on the leeward side of hills and eminences, 

 where both the wind and declivity assisted in rolling them along, or on 

 plains so exposed that the wind alone operated without the declivity. 



" I shall only add, that this mode of formation is proved by the direc- 

 tion in which these cylinders lie. The wind has been from the north 

 for four days, and I believe that it was so all night, when I am told it 

 blew strong. Now they are all lying with their ends east and west, and 

 their side to the wind ; and farther, in some cases, their tracks are still 

 visible in the snow for twenty or thirty yards on the north side, from 

 which they have gathered up their concentric coats; and I understand 

 these were still more evident at an early hour before a snow-shower 

 obliterated them in many places." 



5. Art* and Sciences at Harvard. — In our last number mention was 

 made of the munificent donation of Mr. Abbott Lawrence of Boston 

 towards establishing a school of Practical Science at Harvard. On ac- 

 count of the great importance of the plan proposed, and the able man- 

 ner in which the subject is presented, we republish from the Boston 

 Courier, the letter of Mr. Lawrence accompanying his donation, ad- 

 dressed to the Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, Treasurer of Harvard College. 



" Dear Sir,— I have more than once conversed with you upon the sub- 

 ject of establishing a school for the purpose of teaching the practical 

 sciences, in this city or neighborhood ; and was gratified when I learn- 

 ed from you that the government of Harvard University had determin- 

 ed to establish such a school in Cambridge, and that a Professor had 

 been appointed who is eminent in the science of Chemistry, and who 

 is to be supported on the foundation created by the munificence of the 

 late Count Rumford. 



" For several years I have seen and felt the pressing want in our com- 

 munity, (and in fact in the whole country,) of an increased number ot 

 men educated in the practical sciences. Elementary education appears 

 to be well provided for in Massachusetts. There is, however, a defi- 

 ciency in the means for higher education in certain branches of know- 

 ledge. For an early classical education we have our schools and col- 

 leges. From thence the special schools of Theology, Law, Medicine 

 and Surgery, receive the young men destined to those professions; an 



i 



those who look to commerce as their employment, pass to the county 

 house or the ocean. But where can we send those who intend to de- 

 vote themselves to the practical applications of science ? How educa 

 our engineers, our miners, machinists and mechanics? Our count j 



abounds in men of action. Hard hands are 

 materia 



hands ? 



hard 



ready to work upon n* 

 be tausht to direct those 



" Inventive men laboriously reinvent what has been produced befoj* 

 Ignorant men fight against the laws of nature with a vain energy* 



