Intelligence and Miscellanies. 



373 



forming a line. The extreme wire, A, connected with the 

 inside of the jar, and the other extreme, B, with the out- 

 side, show the circuitous route of the influence after the 

 knob of the jar was touciied. The report was simultaneous, 

 but owing to the wires of two of the interior holes crossing 

 and touching each other, they did not explode. The rock 

 was cracked but the portion was not thrown off. The gen- 

 tleman thinks that if these two holes had exploded, the full 

 expected result would have been obtained ; but perhaps the 

 melted rosin is not the best thing to be poured in the holes, 

 as it would shrink on cooling, and if so, it would be like a 

 loose cork, having little hold of the rock. I advised him to 

 fill up with sand, in Jessop's manner, and, from a trial made 

 to-day, it promises to answer. The iron wire, being a much 

 better conductor than sand, the latter did not seem to divert 

 the influence at all. He has gone to the island to prepare a 

 more magnificent experiment, the result of which I shall 

 hasten to communicate to you.* 



1 2. Mode of decoying wild pigeons in New England.— The 

 flight and stool pigeons, as they are called, are prepared by 

 passing a thread through the edges of both their eyelids which 

 are thus closed — their legs are booted, and the flights, being 

 fastened to long strings, are thrown into the air, and fly as 

 far as they are permitted, while the stool pigeon is tied to a 

 narrow board, which, at the end where the bird is fixed, rises 

 and falls, and both kinds of decoy, by the flapping of their 

 wings, draw the attention of the passing flocks of wild pig- 

 eons, which are thus made to alight, on prepared ground, 

 within reach of the concealed spring-net, or on a long pole, 



* We cannot but recommend extreme caution, in using detonating silver, 

 especially in such quantity as to form one tenth of the charge. — Editor. 



