70 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



[1854. 



muck nearer those of tlis horse, which, in the full deyelopment of 

 only a single digit of each member as well as in the suppression of 

 some of the teeth and the remarkable development of others, must be 

 considered one of the most specialized forms of order." 



A notice, in cxlonso, of this valuable work may form the occupation 

 and study of some future houi'. 



A Storm in India. — The following report from a correspondent, on 

 whom we can rely, of an awful phenomenon, happily unknown in tem- 

 perate climates, will be read with astonishment. — "At 3 p.m. of the 

 10th of April, while we were measuring the circumference of large hail- 

 stones that fell lightly about us, a terrific storm passed to the south- 

 west of the station, about seven miles off. The accounts brought by 

 natives next morning were so strange that I did not believe them, but, 

 after some gentlemen had visited the spot and confirmed all. I, too, 

 went to see the wreck left by the hurricane. As some days had elapsed 

 since the occurrence, I found it impossitile to approach the chaos from 

 the putrefaction of numbers of dead bodies. An eye-witness told me 

 that, while it was blowing pretty stiff from the south-west, a jet black 

 mass of cloud, towering high aloft, and almost touching the ground, was 

 seen to approach; another similar mass advancing rapidly from the op- 

 posite direction. They whirled around each other, the heat became 

 intense, and, enveloped in the greatest darkness, houses, bamboos, trees, 

 men, women, and cattle were hurled in the whirlwind, dashed in all 

 directions against trees, impaled on bamboos, or buried in the ruins. 

 On the sides of the track of the storm huge hailstones fell of the size 

 of bricks. The track was about 800 yards broad ; its length is not 

 known, nor the extent of the devastation ascertained; 60 dead bodies 

 were counted by gentlemen who went there ; 15 persons with limbs torn 

 and mangled, with broken arms and legs, are in hospital. Report says 

 that 300 have been killed, besides no end of cattle. I think it very 

 probable. As the natives build their houses, each family in little sep- 

 arate farms hid in clumps of bamboos with intermediate fields, the scene 

 presented is that of numbers of undistinguishable masses of clumps of 

 bamboos and trees torn up, crossing each other in every direction and 

 blocked up with earth and materials that had formed houses so entirely 

 broken up that nothing could be recognized as having formed roof or 

 sides. In fact, boxes, beds, and things made of planks were so broken 

 into pieces of a foot or two, and thrown about, that it was not always 

 easy to imagine what they had belonged to. From under the masses of 

 rubbish jackalls and vultures were pulling out the remains of human 

 beings and cattle; in small puddles dogs, goats, &c., were drowned and 

 rotting. The fields were coveied with the skeletons of human beings, 

 while the short thick branches of trees that stood leafless and barkless 

 supported numbers of vultures. Vultures covered the plain, too gorged 

 to fly at our approach, and hundreds were soaring in circles high over- 

 head in the clear sky, marking in the heavens the course of the storm. 

 One poor famished distracted being, with head bandaged and body 

 scratched all over, bruised and cut. limped up to me. he had lost all his 

 relations — father, mother, wife, and children — all had been destroyed, 

 and he could not find where they had been carried away. It would re- 

 quire hundreds of men to remove the piles of uprooted bamboos, &c., 

 that mark the homesteads of the missing; under them will probably 

 be found those that were killed, while some, probably,, had a living 

 grave, hoping alas! in vain — that rescue would come at last, or imagin- 

 ing, possibly, that the whole world had been destroyed. A bungalow 

 of a zemindar, at Dumduma, on the river, Ghogliut, was blown in 

 smithers across the river — 300 j'ards ; in the roof two men found a fly- 

 ing passage, and, strange to say, survived." — Calcutta Englishman. 



Submarine Telegraph Without Wires. — The possibility of send- 

 ing electric telegraph messages across, or through a body of water, 

 without the aid of the submarine wires, has been satisfactorily tested 

 at Portsmouth. The place selected for the experiment was the Jlill- 

 dam, at it its widest pai't, and where it is some 500 feet across. Two 

 portions of the apparatus were placed on the opposite sides of the water, 

 and terminating in a plate constructed for the purpose, and several 

 messages were actually conveyed across, or rather through, the entire 

 width of the Mill-dam with accuracy and instantaneous rapidity. 

 There appeared every possibility that this could be done as easily 

 with regard to the British Channel as the JliH-dam at Portsmouth. 

 Tlic inventor is a gentlemen of scientific attainments, residing at 

 Edinburgh, and who has been described as the original inventor of the 

 electric telegraph, but, who, from circumstances, was unablj to turn 

 the invention to his own advantage. 



St-aeilitt op Iron Ships. — The recent history of the iron screw- 

 steamer Sarah Sands aflbrds an excel'ent illustration of the sta,bility of 

 iron ships, if well and substantially built. Previously to her last sailing 

 from the JMersey she grounded on the Woodside bank, and remained 

 high and dry during one tide, having in her 1000 tons dead weight, 

 until the tide flowed again, during which time she did not sustain the 

 slightest damage. On her return passage from the St. Lawrence to 

 Liverpool she got a-ground on the rocks of Bell Isle, where she re- 

 mained four days and four nights. On her arrival in Liverpool, it 

 was found that she was perfectly, sound not even a rivet having 

 started, nor was there the slightest bulge or unevenness perceptible. 

 On leaving the graving-dock, the other day, she capized, owing to her 

 ballast having been removed, but she sustained no injury. These mis- 

 haps prove not only the superior manner in which she was built, but 

 also proves the superiority of iron ships over wooden ones ; for it is 

 difficult to suppose that a wooden vessel would have withstood all these 

 casualties without sustaining damage. The Sarah Sands was built in 

 Liverpool, by Jlr. James Hodson, consulting engineer, more than 

 eight years ago. 



A New Substitute for the Potato. — In the garden of the Horti- 

 cultural Society at Chiswick are growing two plants of a Chinese yam, 

 which is expected to prove an excellent substitute for the potato. They 

 have been obtained from the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, where they 

 have been made the subjects of experiments that leave no doubt that 

 it will become a plant of real importance in cultivation. 



"If," says M. Deoaisne, who has paid much attention to matters of 

 this kind, "a new plant has a chance of becoming useful in rural 

 economy, it must fulfil certain conditions, in the absence of which its 

 cultivation cannot be profitable. In the first place, it must have been 

 domesticated in some measure, and must suit the climate ; moreover, 

 it must in a few months go through all the stages of development, so as 

 not to interfere with the ordinary and regular course of cropping ; and, 

 finally, its produce must have a market value in one form or another. 

 If the plant is intended for the food of man, it is also indispensable 

 that it shall not offend the tastes or the culinary habits of the persons 

 among whom it is introduced. To this may be added that almost aU 

 the old perennial plants of the kitchen garden have been abandoned in 

 favour of annuals, wherever the latter could be found with similar pro- 

 perties. Thus, laihyrus iuberosns, seclum ieUphium, &c., have given 

 way before potatoes, spinach, and the like. Now, the Chinese yam 

 satisfies every one of these conditions. It has been domesticated from 

 time immemorial, it is perfectly hardy in this climate (Paris), its root 

 is bulky, rich in nutritive matter, eatable when raw, easily cooked, 

 either by boiling or roasting, and then having no other taste than that 

 of flour (fecule). It is as much a ready-made bread as the potato, 

 and it is better than the batatas, or sweet potato. Horticulturists 

 should, therefore, provide themselves with the new arrival, and try ex- 

 periments with it in the different climates and soils of France. If they 

 bring to their task, which is a great public importance, the requisite 

 amount of perseverance and intelligence, I have a firm belief that the 

 potato yam [igname batatas) will, like its predecessor the potato, make 

 many a fortune, and more especially alleviate the distress of the lower 

 classes of the people." Such is M. Decaisne's account of this new food- 

 plant, which is now in actual cultivation at Chiswick; and, judging 

 from the size of the set from which one of the plants had sprung, it is 

 evident that the tubers have all the requisites for profitable cultivation. 

 One has been planted under glass, the other in the open air, and at 

 present both appear to be thriving equally well. The species has been 

 called dioscorea batatas, or the potato yam. It is a climbing plant, 

 bearing considerable resemblance to our common black bryony, and, 

 when it is considered how nearly that plant is related to the yams, the 

 probability of oui- new comer becoming naturalized among us receives 

 support. Whether, however, it realizes all that the French say of it 

 or not, the trial of it in this country cannot prove otherwise than in- 

 teresting and worthy of the society which has had the honor of intro- 

 ducing it. Let us hope, however, that it may indeed prove what it is 

 professed to be— -"a good substitute for the potato," and in all repects 

 equal to that valu.able esculent. — Evening Mail. 



Artesian Well. — The deepest Artesian well in the world is at St. 

 Louis, where, to furnish water 'to a sugar reflners, a shaft has been 

 sunk to the depth of 2200 ft., through the rock foundations on which 

 the city rests. 



