Miscellaneous Intelligence. 439 
necessary to bring the electrodes near one another to light it, the diver 
need only turn a small screw to continue the light for two hours, which 
is more than twice as long as he can remain at the bottom. 
To illumine the bottom at small depths, Deleuil uses a Fresnel lens, 
and this is daily in operation in a bathing establishment—the baths of 
enry IV, constructed on the Seine in the heart of Paris. The regu- 
lator and also the light are 10 meters above the surface of the water, 
and the light penetrates sufficiently far to enable us to see the swimmer 
at a depth of 2 to 3 meters, and follow all his movements. 
2. Notice of the “ Fountain of Blood” in Honduras.——The follow- 
ing letter from E. G. Squier addressed to B. Sittiman, Jr., refers to a 
remarkable phenomenon in Central America, the details of which are 
My Dear : 
liquid obtained from what is called “* Mina 6 Fuente de Sangre,” Mine 
or Fountain of Blood, in Central America. The locality is a small 
cavern, near the little town of Virtud, Department of Gracias, State of 
Hogduras, on the western or Pacific slope of the Cordilleras. It has 
long been known, not only in its immediate vicinity, but in connection 
with various superstitious hypotheses, throughout all Central Amer- 
ica. Mention is ‘made of it in publications, dating back more thana 
hundred years. The following extracts from the ‘ Gaceta de Hondu- 
ras,’ of the 20th of February, 1853 will serve to give the essential 
facts concerning it, so far as they are known: presto 
‘ Fuente de Sangre.—A little to the south of the town of Virtud, 
Department of Gracias, is a small cavern (gruta) which is visited dur- 
ing the day by buzzards and gabilanes, and at night by a vast number 
of large bats (vampires), for the purpose of feeding on a kind of liquid 
which exudes from the rocks, and which has the color, smell, and taste 
f bl 
a disagreeable odor, and when it is reached, sees several pools of 
the blood, in a ‘state of coagulation. Dogs eat it eagerly. — late 
Don Rafael Osejo undertoo nd some bottles of this liquid to Lon- 
At my request Don Victoriano Castillanos, a gentleman of an ob- 
serving turn living not many leagues from Virtu , sent me two bottles 
of this liquid, largely diluted with water, to avoid the catastrophe which 
happened to Gr, Osejo, and to all others who had attempted to carry 
