502 



CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



guggler, the stem occupying the neck, and the pileus resting horizontally 

 on the mouth, and was thus placed at bed-time on the top of a chest of 

 drawers in a bed-room, between the door and a window. 



In the morning, the outer surface of the bottle and the top of the 

 chest of drawers were mantled with an uninterrupted and complete 

 coating of white impalpable powder, giving to the bottle much the 

 appearance of being covered by steam, as when a bottle of cold liquid 

 is suddenly brought into a warm room ; and extending to a considerable 

 distance, though fainter as more remote, in every direction round the 

 bottle. Towards that end of the chest of drawers which stood nearest 

 the door, this coating reached only a few inches, and then ceased : but 

 towards the other end, which was furthest from the door, and towards 

 the window, it extended quite to the extremity of the chest, a distance 

 of twenty-one inches, and would certainly have been perceived beyond, 

 if there had been a continued surface to receive it : in fact, beyond the 

 chest, with an interval of about a foot, was a wash-hand stand, to 

 which some of the powder had been extended. This difference appears 

 to have been occasioned either by the light, (though, the window- 

 shutters being closed, that is hardly probable ;) or, which is more 

 probable, by a slight current of air passing in through the doorway : 

 though, indeed, on examining the passage in the morning, the draught 

 is hardly, if at all perceptible. 



Hillsborough, Ireland. 

 Sept. 21*/, 183a. 



A METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENON. 



BY RURICOLA. 



In a late letter I communicated an account of a curious little marine 

 animal, discovered at Ballintoy, on the northern coast of the county of 

 Antrim. I have been just made acquainted with a remarkable meteo- 

 rological phenomenon, which has been observed on the same spot, and 

 which appears to me sufficiently strange to merit being recorded in your 

 pages, for which I beg leave to transcribe it. It may be convenient for 

 your readers to be apprised that the cliffs of Ballintoy rise precipitously 

 from the edge of the Great Northern Ocean, and that at the distance 

 of about sixty feet from the main land is an insular rock, called 

 Carrick-a-rede, frequented by salmon fishers, connected with the main- 

 land by a swinging bridge of ropes during the summer months. 



