Miscellanies. 171 



dec! for grinding grass and leaves. The dimensions of this species 

 are said to be one third less than the other. 



That was certainly a strange world in which such animals as these 

 browsed and prowled ! and, it might seem, scarcely compatible with 

 the coexistence of man in his rude state, armed only with the bow 

 and the club. 



Newbern, Sept. 12, 1833. 



6. Confirmatory JSToiice of the medical virtues of Guaco; in a let- 

 ter to the Editor from Prof. W. R. Johnson, dated July 1, 1834. — 

 On the subject of Guaco, about which some doubts have been ex- 

 pressed, 1 have recently seen in Poulson's American Daily Adverti- 

 ser, an article from one who has been on the spot where it is used, 

 strongly attesting in favor of its medical virtues, and have just con- 

 versed with a highly intelligent gentleman,* himself a native and resi- 

 dent of Venezuela, who assures me of its high estimation and exten- 

 sive use in the medical practice of that part of South America. Its 

 tonic and sudorific properties, not less than its efficacy in destroying 

 animal poisons, were particularly mentioned. 



7. JVotice of a hail storm in Louisiana ; in a letter from Mr. W. 

 M. Carpenter, dated Jackson, Louisiana, June J 9, 1834. — I take 

 the liberty of addressing you at this time, to give you some account 

 of a hail storm which happened here on the 28ih of March last. 

 About midnight the cloud rose in the west, and the storm commenced 

 at 1 o'clock, accompanied with incessant lightning. The hail fell 

 with considerable obliquity and great force, with but little wind. The 

 stones were of different sizes, from that of a pigeon egg to four inches, 

 but generally from three to four inches in diameter; in the centre was 

 a nucleus of transparent ice, of half an inch in diameter ; on the out- 

 side was a stratum of ice resembling snow pressed hard ; this again 

 was covered by three other layers of the same kind as those men- 

 tioned, alternating in the same manner ; the smaller, of course, con- 

 sisted of fewer layers. The storm lasted about ten minutes, doing 

 great damage to houses and timber, and great numbers of cattle were 

 killed by it. 



8. Ledereriie not a new mineral. — The Editor of the Lond. and 

 Edin. Phil. Mag. &;c. for May, 1834, mentions having received a 



* Don Fcraando Bolivar, nephew of the late Liberator. 



