384 Scientific and General Memoranda, 



her eggs for two weeks, in a farmer's kitchen, was perceived, on 

 a sudden, to be taken violently ill. She soon after left the nest, 

 and repaired to an out house where there was a young goose of 

 the first year ; this she brought with her into the kitchen. The 

 young one immediately scrambled into the old one's nest, sat, 

 ^ hatched, and afterwards brought up the brood. The old goose, 

 as soon as the young one had taken her place, sat down by the 

 side of the nest and shortly after died." The young goose had 

 never been in the habit of entering the kitchen before, and the 

 person who relates the transaction, received the account the 

 same day it occurred, from his sister, who witnessed it. 



Delta of Oroonoko a?id Maragnon. — M. Gutmuths states the in- 

 crease of the mud, which is encroaching on the sea, on the 

 Guiana coast, is aided by the tangled roots of the Rhizophora 

 Mangle, which extend to the very edge of the waves, and even 

 under the water. The sea is muddy along the shore, 200 geo- 

 graphical miles in length, by 10 in breadth, whilst at the same 

 time the rivers are limpid. The Maragnon no doubt contributes 

 a great portion of the alluvial matter; it has a course of 1350 

 miles, a great depth, and a breadth of 50 miles at its mouth ; and 

 during the freshes occasioned by the rainy season, and the melt- 

 ing of the snow upon the Andes, it exhibits the inundations of 

 an immense sea of water, charged with earthy detritus and ve- 

 getable remains. The current is then so strong, that it is per- 

 ceptible at sixty miles from the coast ; and this, being opposed 

 by the usual current of the Atlantic, from east to west, gives 

 origin to vast banks of sand towards the shores of Brazil, on the 

 north-west of Guiana. One of the circumstances which contribute 

 so powerfully to this effect, is the pororoca, or high flux, which 

 occurs at the mouth of the Maragnon, three days before every 

 new and every full moon. It arrives in two hours at the beach, 

 in mountainous waves, of 12 to 15 feet high. The sea is then 

 driven more violently towards the north-west, and, along the 

 coast of Guiana, forms very strong currents towards Esequibo 

 and the gulf of Paria, becoming still stronger as they approach 

 the Amazon river. The pororoca destroys the shores entirely, 

 between Fort Macapa and Cape North ; and, if there were no 

 rocks, the beach would be still more dismantled, and the mouth 

 of the Maragnon turned altogether to the north. — Mag, JVat, Hist. 



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