1310.] 
splendid prospectus (ii German and in 
French) of the work which they intend to 
publish, (in quarterly numbers) and 
which, at the evd of the year, will form 
a folio volume of about three handred 
pages. In the prospectus they make 
very honourable mention of sir William 
Jones and sir William Ouseley, whose 
oriental collections appear to be in some 
measure the model of their intended 
publication, which is to embrace every 
thing that can tend to illustrate eastern 
jiterature; such as, 1. Languages.— 
2. Kloquence and poetry.—3. History, 
paleography, and numismaticks.—4.Geo- 
graphy, topography, and_ statisticks. 
5. Philosophy, and the laws of jurispru- 
dence and theology.—6. Mathematics, 
physics, natural history, and medicine. 
7. Bibliography and miscellaneous ar- 
ticles. Particularly an account of what- 
ever works shall have been published 
during the preceding quarter, relative to 
oriental literature. The editors of this 
publication have the advantage of free 
access to some of the public libraries at 
Constantinople—the imperial collection 
at Vienna—the admirable manuscripts 
of Count Wenceslaus Rzewuski, and 
other treasures of inestimable value. 
The German title of the intended work 
is Fundgruben des Orients, or Eastern 
Mines ; and communications are solicited 
in the principal languages of Europe, 
French, English, Italian, &c. as well as 
German and Latin. Schaumbourg, at 
Vienna, is the bookseller employed. 
ITALY. 
Prranesr, the antiquary, lately pre- 
sented to the viceroy of Italy an eagle, 
formerly belonging to one of the Roman 
legions, dug up some time since at Rome. 
Morosr, the mechanician, of Milan, 
has invented an hydraulic machine, by 
means of which, the workmen employed 
i coining, to give motion to the striking 
engine, are dispensed with; and this 
operation, which formerly required eight 
men, is now performed by a boy. 
PRUSSIA. 
M. von Humeorpr has recently pre- 
sented to the king of Prussia’s cabinet 
of minerals, the only lump of native pla- 
tina that isknown. He found it in 1800,: 
in the soap-manufactories of the tewn of 
Taddo, in the province of Choco, in 
South America. This ingot is of the 
size of a pigeon’s egg; its absolute 
weight is 10,886 grains, and its specific 
weight 16,037 grains. 
ASIA. 
M. Seerzen, in his travels through 
4 
Literary and Philosophical. Intelligence. 
309 
Syria, has discovered in the neighbour- 
hood of the Red Sea, the ruins of the 
ancient city of Dscherrasch, probably 
the Gerasa of antiquity. He found ree 
mains of several public edifices, two am= 
phitheatres, seyeral palaces, a temple, 
&e. 
AFRICA. ; 
In a late number we noticed the ree 
cent disappearance of an island situated 
near the Cape of Good Hope, in conse« 
quence of an earthquake. ‘The effects 
of this phenomenon at Cape Town, are 
detailed in the following letter from that 
vlace, begun to be written on December 
6, 1809, and continued at different 
timest—On the 30th November, the 
weather was unusually warm for so early 
a period of the season, the thermometer 
varying Im the shade from 86° to 92° with 
a sky perfectly clear and but little wind. 
Thus it continued tll the evening of the 
3d, when acool westerly breeze, attend= 
ed witha slight fog, came in from the sea. 
On the 4th, at nine A.M. the foy stil] 
continued ; thermometer 74°, barometer 
29° 80’. In the middle of the day, the 
mountains of Hottentot Holland, in the 
south-east, were covered with fleecy 
electric clouds, which are often observed 
at this time of the year. Several violent 
gusts of wind, which raised the dust to a 
considerable height in the ar, were ex- 
perienced in Cape Town, the intervals 
between them being perfectly calm. The 
sky for the whole day, after twelve at 
noon, except at Hottentot Holland, thirty 
miles from Cape Town, was perfectly 
clear. At five P.M. a strong south-east 
wind came on, unattended with the usual 
cloudover Table Mountain, which lasted 
three or four hours, At ten minutes 
past ten, P.M. a very violent shock of an 
earthquake’ was felt through the whole 
town, which was succeeded by two 
others equally tremendous; they conti. 
nued about twelve or fourteen seconds, 
and followed each other at intervals -of 
about half a minute, attended with a 
noise very different from thunder, but 
much louder. The shocks proceeded in 
the direction from south-east to norths 
west. Between the hours of ten at nicht 
of the 4th, and six in the morning of the 
5th, about fourteen shocks were experi- 
enced; and two or three more in the 
course of the day. | Excepting the first 
three, they were very slight; producing 
no perceptible motion of the earth, but 
resembling distant thunder. The last 
shock was at six A.M. this day (6th), but. 
not stronger than the others. Whew the 
first 
