Experiments in Crystallization. 267 



sun had risen, and, strange to say, had risen without the usual 

 morning greeting* of the laughing jackass, whose shrill demo- 

 niacal cackle always ushers in the day in the Australian forest. 

 I got home to my hut and found everything deluged with 

 water. The sandy floor, by constant treading on it, had worn 

 away about a foot below its original level, and the water stood 

 in it like a little pond. My bed was thoroughly soaked, and 

 worst of all my whole little stock of flour and sugar had melted 

 into a kind of paste. I had a change of things under my 

 pillow, but they were as wet as those I had on, so I hung them 

 out in the sun to dry, and wet as it was I threw myself on to 

 the bed, and I don't think I ever slept sounder, till 

 I was awakened by the crack of a stock-whip outside the 

 door, just about dinner-time. It was the station master, 

 whom I had met on the plains the night before. It did not 

 take him twice to repeat his order of " Here, come home with 

 me, and get some salt beef and damper.'"' And on the road to 

 the station he told me about the shivered gum, which we went 

 to see after dinner, and which had stood little more than 100 

 yards from the smouldering log where I had laid my gun. I 

 carried home a splinter of the old tree as a kind of "memento 

 mori," it now lies on my table, and I believe it was the sight 

 of this very bit of wood which dictated this my first introduc- 

 tion to the readers of the Intellectual Observes. 



EXPERIMENTS IN CRYSTALLIZATION. 



A papee on Orystallogenic Force, recently read by M. Ered. Kuhl- 

 mann before the French Academy, suggests many elegant 

 experiments which our readers can easily perform. When 

 conducted on a large scale, with suitable materials, they will give 

 rise to beautiful plates or panels that may be used in ornamen- 

 tation, while on a small scale they will furnish interesting- 

 microscopic objects. 



Some years ago the moiree metalliaue, or crystallization of 

 the tin on common tin plate, was frequently resorted to for 

 decorative purposes ; and M. Kuhlmann points out how the 

 patterns may be varied ; but his directions are the same as 

 those given long ago in English works — as, for example, by 

 Brande in his Manual of Chemistry. This tin plate should be 

 well cleaned by washing with a little caustic potash, well rinsing 

 in plain water, and then drying. If a plate so prepared is 

 slightly heated, and then quickly washed over with a prepara- 

 tion composed of two parts of nitric, and three of hydrochloric 



