352 
Report of Chemistry and Experimental Philosophy. [Nov. 1 
AFRICA. 
M. Tabaiido, Apostolical Vice Pre¬ 
fect of the island of Goree, lias been 
successfully extending the sphere of his 
ministry. He has made an excursion 
to Jouval, in the states of the Barbassin 
Prince, where certain ancient Portu¬ 
guese reside. They had been without 
a priest since the death of the Abbe 
Costa, who died there, and they had 
long been desirous of having their chil¬ 
dren baptised. In a few days, M. Ta- 
baudo baptised 234, and taught them 
their prayers and the primary elements 
of the Christian doctrine. He staid 
twenty days in the place, which is con¬ 
sidered as a succursal, ora kind of ap¬ 
pendage to Goree, as the missionaries of 
that colony were in the habit of visiting 
it. A few mahometans also came and 
were baptised. At Goree the missionary 
is daily giving instructions, and he ca¬ 
techises four times in a week. He also 
frequently visits the sick in the hospi¬ 
tal. M. Tabaiido has bpen also at St. 
Louis, where, as yet, there are no priests. 
He resided with the Sisters of Charity, 
who, as in other places, render them¬ 
selves estimable by their services. A 
blessing seems to attend them. 
WEST INDIES. 
The trees which form a coffee grove 
in the French islands, are planted in 
the quincunx form, or in alleys, distant 
one from,the other about ten feet, and 
protected by rows of ether arborescent 
vegetables. These are requisite to de¬ 
fend them from the violence of winds, 
or the too direct action of the sun. 
For this purpose the mimosa lebbeck 
and the inga are selected, though being 
subject to a disease produced by an in¬ 
sect, they frequently occasion the loss 
of the whole plantation. The tops of 
the trees are lopped off to the height of 
6 feet, more or less, that the gathering 
may be easier, and by the hand. Care 
is required in gathering the red berries, 
so as not to shake off the unripe ones. 
The fruits thus daily gathered, are ex¬ 
posed to the sun in light layers, so as to 
prevent fermentation. In rainy dis¬ 
tricts they are dried in stoves. The 
coffee is afterwards winnowed, picked, 
and then confined in places where no 
moisture can penetrate—aftei which it 
is ready for sale. Coffee must he put 
in the ground immediately after the 
seeds are gathered. The Arabs were 
long suspected of using some preparation 
to destroy the principle of germination, 
but it is ascertained that the seeds lose 
it very soon after they come out of the 
husk. The coffee of Aden and Mocha 
lias been carefully planted in the West 
India colonies, but is not in such esti¬ 
mation as the native Arabian. The 
coffee of Martinico and Guadaloupe, at 
present rivals that of Bourbon, but that 
of Cayenne, though in a manner un¬ 
known, surpasses them ail. 
REPORT 
OF 
CHEMISTRY AND 
EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY 
PTpHE following- geological fact has been 
JL lately given as translated from Count 
Bouvuon’s MineralogyDuring the years 
1786-7, and 8, they were occupied near Aix, 
in Provence, in France, in quarrying stone 
for the rebuilding, upon a vast scale, of the 
Palace of Justice. The stone was a deep 
grey limestone, and of that kind which are 
tender when they come out of the quarry, 
but harden by exposure to the air. The strata 
were separated from one another by a bed of 
sand, mixed with clay more or less calcare¬ 
ous. The first which were wrought presented 
no appearance of any foreign bodies, but after 
the workmen had removed the first ten beds, 
they were astonished w hen, taking away the 
eleventh, to find its inferior surface, at tire 
depth of forty or fifty feet, covered with shells. 
The stone of this bed having been removed, 
as they were taking away the sand which sepa¬ 
rated the eleventh bed from the twelfth, they 
found stumps of columns and fragments of 
stones half wrought, and the stone was exactly 
similar to that of the quarry. They found 
moreover coins, handles of hammers, and 
other tools, or fragments of tools, of wood. 
Eut that which principally commanded their 
attention was a board, about an inch thick, 
and seven or eight feet long ; it was broken 
into many pieces, of which none were missing; 
it was possible to join them again one to 
another, and to restore its original form, 
which was that of the boards of the same 
kind used by the masons and quarrymen; it 
was worn in the same manner, rounded and 
waving on the edges. The stones, which were 
partly wrought, had not changed in their 
nature, but the fragments of the board and 
the instruments, and the pieces of instruments 
of wood, had been changed into agates, which 
w ere very fine, and agreeably coloured. Here 
then (observes Count Bounion) we have the 
traces of a work executed by the hand of 
man, placed at the depth of fifty feet, and 
covered with eleven beds of compact lime¬ 
stone ; every thing tended to prove that this 
work had been executed upon the spot where 
the traces existed. The presence of man had 
then preceded the formation of this stone, and 
that very considerably, since he was already 
at such a degree of civilization that the arts 
were known to him, and that he wrought the 
stone. 
