On the Method of 
18 
muriate of platina : had a mixed, bitter and saline taste : curdled with nitrate of 
silver. 
The principal ingredients of this water were, therefore, muriate of soda and mag- 
nesia, and carbonates of lime and potash, all in small quantities. 
The peculiarity of the well consists in its having a dividing partition across it, 
not reaching deep into the water ; the natives assert that the water, on one side, is 
detrimental j and on the other, coming from a different spring, beneficial for the 
process of dying : and they pay for the privilege of drawing the latter. 
The above cursory chemical examination was performed upon both specimens, 
side by side, with the same results, and the only difference observable, was in the 
sulphurous smell of one of the bottles. It is possible, that the sulphuretted hy- 
drogen may come in bubbles into the well on one side, and be prevented, by the par- 
tition, from extending to the other side its influence, which would, doubtless, be more 
or less injurious to the dye. The good quality of the water may be attributable to 
the carbonated alkali, which may heighten the red colour of lac in solution ; but in 
the absence of more local information, these suppositions are altogether gratuitous. 
-un trie JXLettiod oj making 
^ CJ J 
. In t ; r ; Cen F t “°" upthe ™ at Hooghly, for the purpose of visit- 
mg the Ice Fields. The principle of the process has been well explained h, tu i . 
Dr. Welis. in a little work published in London, many years 
advantageous application of the radiation of heat from the surface of non L 
ducting bodies, during a clear night, when there are no clouds to intercom. „ 
procate that radiation. It had been very generally supposed that the ™ l 7 
was accelerated, if not created hy evaporation ; because^t was observed ZTZ 
lives always used porous vessels. Many persons are still r ’ the na_ 
others attribute the success of the manufacture at Ho, 1 ° '' at ° lnmon > while 
tence of saltpetre in the soil ; and others, again to tl. . / ‘ 3 ’’ l ° “ lma * inar y exis- 
spot being higher than the general level ofThe count, w P f" CSS ° f ^ SOiI ’ a " d t0 the 
cept as regards the river banks nearer to Calculi. m 7 VOTy 9 u o s t‘onable, ex- 
Swinton, which was published in Brewster's Journal “ a letter t0 Mr ' 
periments of his own, that the porosity of the J “ 8 ’ haS she "’ n - f rom ex- 
advantage, and that ice may be procured even under “ “ detrlment «*tead of an 
spect to soU and locality, it would seem that Hoovhl 7 8 ° f oil : aad with re- 
immediate environs of Calcutta, except in beife °! r / “ n ° ad ™ntage over the 
spot, on this side of Benares, on which f “ t e™ , ° m There is no 
bu, every large toivn, from Calcutta upwards fs ' “‘ Urally in a »y shape; 
same manner as at Hooghly, the facility of obtainil 7 WiUl ice > “ ada « the 
er as we advance into the interior. The NuwanhT? ™ P r <*crving it being great- 
bit of sending ice, by way of nuzzur, to th^Go™ M °°^ hedabad was in^tlfe ha- 
i ay, alter it had ceased to be procurable in the ba- "T eneral > io the month of 
j the Philosophical Transactions for -7 
Indian method of Ice-making “ at Allahabad Mm 7, IS “ abrid S ed “count of the 
presented by Sir Robert Barker, describing the , J ’ Calcutta >" from a paper 
known m f ° r the SUPPly ° f “ is «*» table As tl P t U 7 Ued ^ “ ‘“—to 
to many readers of the Gleanings who h descri Ption is probably un- 
perhans 8 h‘ j d °° ghly are somewhat differe d neVer seen "’e process, and the 
■ — ' • y>£ r»qr » — -a 
