1830 .] 
Miscellaneous Notices. 
321 
Least, on the 8th, at 8 a. m. 61, Least, on the 8th, at 8 a. m. 72,3. 
Mean, 78,4 Mean, 81,9, 
Hygrometrical State of the Air. 
Rater's Hygrometer, greatest altitude, on the 29th, at 8 a. m. 805 
Ditto ditto, least ditto, on the 2d, at sun-set, 66 
Statement of the Winds, shewing their direction and force , during June , 1829. 
South west, on the 1st, 2d, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 
18th, 19th, and 27th, moderate, 11 days. 
Ditto, on the 3d and 4tli, brisk, 2 ditto. 
Ditto, on the 10th, 20th, 21st, 25th, 26th, and 30th, gentle, 6 ditto. 
North-east, on the 8th, 9th, 22d, 23d, 24th, 28th, and 29th, little, 7 ditto. 
Ditto, on the 16th, gentle, 1 day. 
North-west, on the 11th, ditto, 1 ditto. 
West, on the 12th, ditto, 1 ditto. 
South, on the 17th, little, 1 ditto. 
Remarks. 
The rainy season commenced on the 16th, as indicated by the Hygrometer, but 
did not fairly set in till the 18lh. 
P. G. 
VI . — Miscellaneous Notices. 
1 . — River Steam Navigation in France. 
We recently had occasion to notice, that a steam boat, on an improved construc- 
tion, had been making an experimental trip on the river Garonne from Bor- 
deaux to Toulouse, in the south of France, which promised considerable advan- 
tages in the navigation of rivers, with rapid currents, and shallow water. 
We now learn the following particulars of this expedition, which bids fair to 
affect such important improvements in the internal communication of France ; for 
canal navigation in the neighbouring kingdom is still greatly inferior to the state 
it has attained in this country. 
We understand, from our correspondent, that this steam boat is of English 
manufacture, having been built, on a new model, by Messrs, Bush and Co. of the 
Regents-Park Basin, for a Steam Navigation Company at Bordeaux. It is stated 
to possess a remarkably shallow draft of water, in proportion to its tonnage. It 
is about 80 feet in length, and 18 feet width of beam, with a pair of engines of 
forty horse power, constructed upon the high pressure principle, similar to most 
of the steam boats built in the United States. 
As far as we can learn, these engines combine all the advantages proposed by 
Mr. Gurney’s patent, in the substitution of tubes of wrought iron, in lieu of 
boilers for generating the steam, combined with the advantages proposed by Mr. 
Perkins, in using steam of extraordinary elastic power.-— In the first place, all pos- 
sibility of accident, by explosion, is avoided, by substituting tubes for a boiler iu 
raising high pressure steam, while the mechanical power of the engine is increas- 
ed, perhaps 50 or 60 per cent, by allowing steam, at a temperature of 100 degrees, 
or upwards, to expand to double its orginal volume in the working cylinders. \\e 
understand these engines are also calculated to condense nearly the whole of the 
water used for raising the steam ; thus preventing that waste of steam, and loss 
of fuel, usual in most other kinds of high-pressure engines, lliis must prove a 
very valuable improvement in sea-going steam vessels, where sail water i- neces- 
sarily used : sea-water having a tendency to block up the pipes or boilers with 
saline incrustations ; and which a few years back produced a dreadful accident at 
New York in America. The draft of water of the new steam boat at Bordeaux, is 
stated, by our correspondent, as only 2 feet 2 inches, when laden will, fuel water, 
and having 50 passengers on board. The voyage from Bordeaux to Toulouse is 
estimated (by water) at upwards of two hundred miles ; and the neiv steanu i is 
stated as having performed this journey in about 14 hours, exclusive of stoppage, 
or about five miles per hour, against a strong current. On the return voyage to 
Bordeaux, the steamer performed the distance in 15 hours, notwithstanding man) 
parts of the river were so shallow as scarcely to allow the passage of the boat 
without grounding. The experiment is stated as having produced a great sensation 
among the mercantile interests in the south of France, connected with the R e t- 
