450 
very trifling: that was one of the advantages of this machine; 
and another was, that the machine Drought up large portions 
of earth at a time, and enabled them to judge of the stratum 
in which they were working, in a way and to an extent that 
had never before been accomplished. 
Mr. Carter, in reply to Mr.Eddison, said that he regarded 
the machine as calculated to work a complete revolution in the 
mode of supplying water to large towns. After a few other 
remarks, during which the Chairman alluded to the importance 
of the papers which had been read that morning, a vote of 
thanks was given to Mr. Carter, and the meeting adjourned 
till evening. 
At the Evening Meeting, Mr. E. H. Durden was called to 
the chair, when Mr. W. S. Ward, the Hon. Sec, gave a 
resume of the papers which had occupied the morning meet- 
ing, for the benefit of those persons who were not present at 
the reading of those communications. He next read a 
valuable statistical paper — 
ON THE SUPPLY OF SHELLS, HORNS, BONES, AND WOODS 
USED IN THE CUTLERY TRADES OF SHEFFIELD, COM- 
MUNICATED BY WMi FISHER, JUN., ESQ., OF SHEF- 
FIELD. 
The employment of ivory in cutlery having been treated 
of by others, the first substance used in hafting cutlery to 
which I should ask your attention is mother-of-pearl. This 
beautiful and durable material is largely imported into England 
from the coasts of the South American, Indian, and Chinese 
seas; but the only nacreous shells possessing sufficient thick- 
ness for Sheffield purposes, are received from Manilla and 
Singapore. The smaller shells from Bombay, Panama, and 
other ports are used chiefly in Birmingham, and are there 
worked into buttons, or used for inlaying purposes. The 
Manilla and Singapore fisheries produce annually from 300 
