51 



distance with the same load cannot be increased without injur- 

 ing him. That upon a canal, a horse may drag near 30 tons, 

 for 20 miles every day, at the rate of two miles an hour ; but 

 that if his speed with that load is increased to four miles an 

 hour the resistance is quadrupled, and he is in fact made to 

 do, whilst at that pace, the work of four horses. It is for the 

 owners of those animals which perform canal labor, to see 

 that the work is done systematically, and after some rule, 

 consistent with the consideration they owe to the animals 

 which labor for them, in the which also their own interests 

 are involved." 



A communication (printed) from Professor Vanuxem, of 

 South Carolina College, containing a mineralogical and geo- 

 logical examination of the state of South Carolina, was read. 



°Mr. M. H. Webster read a translation of Baron Cuvier's 

 report made to the Academy of Sciences, concerning M. Au- 

 douin's work on the comparative anatomy of Insects. 



March 1. The following donations were received :— From 

 the Board of Agriculture of the state of New-York, through 

 Jesse Buel, secretarv, memoirs of the board of agriculture, 

 vols. 2 and 3 : From the American Philosophical Society, 

 Philadelphia, transactions of said society, vol. 2, new series. 



Dr. L. C. Beck read a communication on some new spe- 

 cies of the eenus Rosa. 



A communication was received from the Hon. Stephen 

 Van Rensselaer, president, being a table of meteorological ob- 

 servations kept at Washington, for 1825, by Rev. Robert 

 Little. 



Dr. T. Romeyn Beck read a communication on insurance 

 upon lives, as a branch of medical jurisprudence, (published 

 in the New-York Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 5.) 



March 15. A communication from George W. Clinton 

 was read, being a description of the Hawk in the cabinet of 



th Vhe S onlv e species to which this bird can be referred, are the 

 Falco Lagopus or F. Sancti-Johannis of Wilson It differs in 

 some respects from the description of both of these, but it is 

 probable that the great variety of plumage, so common m this 

 eenus, may explain the variation. 



* This bird measures from the tip of one wing to the tip of 

 the other, three feet eight inches; from the head to the 

 extremity of the tail feathers, twenty-two inches ; its height 

 is sixteen inches. It is known in the vicinity of this city by 

 the name of the " Island Hawk;' probably from its search- 

 ing its prev in the low moist grounds near the river. 



