368 Intelligence and Miscellanies. 



8. Collections in Natural History. 



Extractor a letter to the Editor, from Professor John Torrey, dated New-York, 

 June 17, 1829. 



My Dear Sir — I take the liberty of sendingyou a printed 

 Circular, which a number of gentlemen of New-York, de- 

 voted to Natural History, have had prepared, in order to ob- 

 tain subscribers, towards a project, which will be sufficiently 

 explained by the paper itself. About forty-five shares have 

 been taken up. The gentleman alluded to, (Dr. Gales,) has 

 accepted the appointment of Collector to the Association, 

 and has already reached New Orleans. A letter received 

 from him a few days since, states, that owing to the lateness 

 of the season, he has been advised not to proceed to Natch- 

 itoches until next spring. He will therefore ascend the 

 Washita to the Saline, in Arkansas, where he will take up 

 his summer residence at the house of Judge Franklin, a 

 former member of Congress — also one of the Legislature 

 of Louisiana. This gentleman resides about eighty miles 

 from the junction of the Saline with the Washita, in a lit- 

 tle settlement consisting of thirty families. This place will 

 be the centre of his excursions during this summer, whence 

 he will proceed at different times to the Little Missouri, 

 Cadeau, up the Washita to the Hot Springs, and across 

 the Three Forks of the Saline, to the Kettle Rock, on 

 the Arkansas. Dr. G. has collected a considerable number 

 of plants and animals, in the neighborhood of New Orleans, 

 and remitted them to New-York. There is every prospect 

 of his succeeding to the utmost of our wishes, in the object of 

 his mission. We need a few more subscribers to our funds, 

 and, perhaps, by inserting our Circular in your Journal, we 

 might receive some additional names. It would be desirable 

 to retain the present collector in the interesting regions to 

 which he has been sent, for a longer term than a single year, 

 and if sufficient encouragement is given to our project, we 

 propose to extend our contract with him for the spring and 

 summer of 1 830. Persons desiring to take shares, can address 

 Mr. William Cooper, Capt. Le Conte, or myself, on the subject. 



three ounces of strong nitrous acid, I have known an explosion like that of a 

 swivel, and the fragments of glass wounded persons at a distance, although 

 the experiment was performed out of doors, and the spectators, formed into a 

 ring, were, none of them, nearer than tifty feet, and some who were hit were 

 at double tliat distance. 



