Miscellanies. 179 



3. The Travellers. — Letters have been received from Mr. Nut- 

 tall, the botanist, and his companion, John K. Townsend, of Phil- 

 adelphia, dated in September of last year, from Fort Vancouver, 

 Columbia River. They were in good health, and vi^ould set out 

 soon for home, either via Santa Fe or England, and may be at 

 home in the fall of this year. Last week the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia received safely from them via Cape Horn 

 many large boxes ; — among Mr. Townsend's collection alone are 

 three hundred birds and fifty quadrupeds, many of which are un- 

 known to naturalists. We eagerly await the return of these gen- 

 tlemen, in order that their remarkable scientific acquisitions, togeth- 

 er with the eventful personal narrative of the travellers, may be 

 given to the public. — Waldie's Circ. Library, July 12, 1836. 



4. Report on introducing Pure Water into the city of Boston ; 

 by Loammi Baldwin, Esq. Civ. Eng. 2d ed. 340 pp. 8vo. Boston, 

 1835. — It is but poor economy to forego any expense necessary for 

 the introduction of water into every part of a large city. Not only 

 comfort and health depend to a great degree on its purity and abun- 

 dance, but it is the only security against the ravages of fire, and the 

 great preventive, by the promotion of cleanliness, of the epidem- 

 ics to which all large cities are subject. Such benefits are worth 

 many times the ^750,000 which it is calculated will be required to 

 supply the city of Boston with water. The Report contains gene- 

 ral accounts of the water works in other countries, besides more 

 particularly a statement of the best means of supplying Boston. 

 It is accompanied with several plans and profiles. The whole work 

 is one of much general interest, and does much credit to its distin- 

 guished author. The volume is closed by an important article of 

 30 pages on Springs, Artesian Wells, &c. by M. Arago, first pub- 

 lished in the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, pour 1835. 



5. Transactions of the Albany Institute, Vol. II. part 2, 50 pp. 

 8vo. Albany, 1836. — We have before us, in this continuation of 

 Vol. II. of the transactions of this society, the annual address de- 

 livered before the Institute, April, 1836, by Daniel P. Barnard, and 

 also the report of the committee appointed to take Meteorological 

 observations on the 2Jst of June, September, December and March, 

 agreeably to the plan proposed in 1834, by Sir John Herschel. 

 This report is accompanied by a lithographic chart exhibiting the 



