“52 
employed in confiru€ting a map of the 
country through which he had travelled, 
having been fo fortunate as to make aftro- 
nomical obfervations in fifty-four places. 
He was about to embark for the Ha- 
vanna, whence he intended to proceed to 
Mexico. Among the Pormifano and 
Paragini Indians, he faw mufical inftru- 
ments made of the caoutchouc,and the inha- 
bitants told him they found it inthe earth. 
The dapitche cr zapir is really a fpongy 
white mafs tound under the roots of two 
trees, which appeared to them of a new 
genus, the jacio and the curvana, and of 
which they willone day give a defcription. 
The juice of thefe trees is a very aqueous 
milk, but it appears that it is a malady 
in thefe trees to lofe the juice by the roots. 
This difcharge caufes the tree to perifh, 
and the milk coagulates in the moift earth, 
where it is preferved from the contact of 
the air. He has fent the dapitche itfelf, 
and a mafs of caoutchoue made from it, 
merely by_expofing it to heat or diffolving 
it over the fre. In regard to the earth 
of the Otomaquas he obferves, that this 
nation, fo hideous by the paintings which 
cisfigure their bodies, for three months, 
when the Orenoquo ts very high, and they 
can find no tortoifes, eat fearcely any 
thing but a kind of fat earth. There are 
fome of them who eat a pound and a half 
of it per day. Some of the monks affert 
that they mix with it the fat of the tails 
ef crocodiles: but this he found to be 
falfe. They found among the Otomaquas 
ftores of the pure earth which they cat; 
they prepare itin no other way than burning 
it flightly, and rendering it moifty It is 
“ altonifhing that any people can be healthy 
and robuft, and eat a pound anda half of 
‘ earth daily. 
. 
One of the prejudices which moft ftrong- 
ly oppofe the propagation of theep with 
fuperfine wool, is the cpinion, too gene- 
rally diffufed, that this race cannot fuc- 
ceed in our climate and with our ordinary 
pafiures. The ufeful voyage that Citi- 
zen LasTeyrRi£ has recently made in 
the north of Europe, has already en- 
abled us to announce that even the ex- 
ceffive cold does not contribute to the 
degeneration of wool, as the Spanifh 
race is preferved pure in the moft northern 
parts of Sweden and Denmark. A faét 
ately obferved by Citizen Ricuarp 
D’ AYBIGNY,even enabies us to advance, 
that bad food and pafiturage in humid 
places, although they injure the health of 
the animals themielves, do not tmpair the , 
beauty of the wool. That Citizen, called 
to particular fundtions elfewhers, has 
Literary and Philofophical Intelligence. 
[ Aug. I, : 
been obliged to abandon to the care of 
inferior agents, the flock of the pure race 
which he kept on his own property. This 
flock has been, for ten years paft, ma- 
naged like all thofe of the department of 
the Allier, that is to fay, fhut up at nights 
in clofe, narrow ftables, the dung of 
which is only taken away once a year, and 
led out at days by children into the moft 
marfhy paftures and without any precau- 
tion again{t epizootic difeafes. Citizen 
RicuaRD, on returning to his farm, 
found his fheep in the worft poffible ftate 
of health, but the wool had not, by any 
means, degenerated ; and he has prefented 
the Society of Agriculture fome patterns 
of very fine cloth, which he has caufed 
to be manufaftured with this wool in 
many .of the beft manufaétories. Citizen 
TersstEr had recognized the fame faét 
in an experiment which he had tried at 
Rambouillet. He has abandoned, for 
many years together, a male and female 
of pure race, in a meadow very moift and 
all encompaffed with water. Thofe ani- 
mals had become completely favage; they 
took them in order to fhear them with 
{nares or gins, and in fpite of fuch a 
Jong and unfavourable refidence, their 
wool and that ot their young which they 
had produced, had not degenerated. 
Thefe faéts acquire a great degree of im- 
portance, if it be coniidered that by fup- 
pofing the Spanifh race fhould come to 
fpread itfelf over all France, it would be 
ill-looked after in a great number of 
places, and could only find an aliment 
but little adapted to make it profper. 
But. even in that cafe, the wool would 
fiili be preferved in its purity, and if the 
proprietors fhould not be able to draw all 
the advantage poffible from this natu- 
ralization, with refpect to the beauty of 
the individuals and the quantity of the 
wool, which a better order of things 
might procure ior them, they would al- 
ways preferve the invaluable advantage of 
felling their fleeces at a much fuperior 
price, and be enabled to deliver to our 
manufaéturers ftuffs of the firft quality 
in that kind. |. , 
Profeflor GoETLING of Jena, propofes 
a new compofition of metal to be ufed in- 
ftead of the filver in the celebrated expe- 
riment, lately difcovered by Mr. Volta. 
This compofition contifts of one part of 
regulus antimonii marlialis and two parts 
of tead, which, being very fufible, may te 
eafily formed into piates of any fize. The 
effect in ufing this metal is not fo ftrong 
as with filver, and about 100 pairs of 
zinc plates, and plates of that asian 
wil 
