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complete the catastrophe of this experiment, fowls and birds destroyed one half of the crop ! What remained, which amounted to several quarts, was of the finest quality; and, had it not been for the preceding accidents, the result of this single experiment would, I am satisfied, have astonished the most scientific agriculturists in Europe.

"From this experiment, it is evident that a single grain of wheat has an almost unlimited capacity of multiplying itself by slips and effects-that every slip possesses, in potentia, the full virtue of the original plant; and that so abundant is its germinating power, that if all the wheat in Europe were destroyed to a single grain, that grain, by proper management in the above way, would, in a short time, produce a sufficiency to sow all the cultivated surface of the continent and islands, of this fourth part of the globe. He who cannot see the hand, the wisdom, and the beneficent Providence of God in this thing must be blind indeed; and he whose soul does not expand in gratitude to his Heavenly Father for the profusion of love and tender care manifested even in this one case, must have a stupid head, or a callous heart.

Perhaps I may, at some future time, give you the result of some similar experiments; I am, dear sir,

Millbrook,

July, 12, 1822.

"Your affectionate Friend, ADAM CLARKE.”

P.S.-As in some districts in Ireland the populace are said to be in a starving condition, chiefly occasioned through want of employment (and as most liberal subscriptions are now in the course of being made to supply their wants): query, would it not make the charity more effectual to give them some employment that would be the most likely to be immediately beneficial to themselves, and, ultimately, to the interests of the nation? and as there are so few things on which, in that country, they can be engaged, would it not be well to set them to plant and till wheat on the above plan? If such a project should be entertained, from my experience in this way, I could give many useful hints and directions for its proper management, so as to ensure the greatest degree of success.

ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.

(From Travels in Italy, by an American.)

Vesuvius, since we have been in its neighbourhood, has only rolled out volumes of smoke; sometimes gracefully mounting into the air, sometimes lowering about the crater, according to

the state of the atmosphere, and the direction of the wind. There has been no flame since the eruption of 1794, though the mountain has been often thought to threaten.

A day or two ago we rambled up its sides, as far the foot of the cone. They exhibit the most singular contrast of barrenness and fertility; according to the course of the torrents of lava, the intervals between which are covered with chesnut-trees and vineyards, from which are made lucious wines called the Lachryma Christi, and Muscadel.

At the top of the ascent, where you are still a mile and a half from the crater, there was, before the insurrection, a convent of monks, where refreshments could be procured; but it is now deserted, and the weary visitant must content himself with the enchanting prospect which throws the bay of Naples, with its cities and its islands, its hills and its valleys, at once at his feet, bordering with a sparkling semicircle in the open sea, terminating every evening with the indescribable glories of the Italian sky.

We approached the crater, a hill of ashes and pumice-stones, in the shape of a cone, half a mile in diameter, and five hundred feet high, near enough to hear the great pot boil : the continual bubbling of the liquid lava producing a sound that exactly resembled the boiling of a cauldron.

But as this conical hill cannot be ascended without excessive fatigue, from sinking every step half-leg deep in ashes, hot enough to scorch a pair of boots; and as we had an account of the present situation of the mouth of the crater from a French gentleman who had descended into it the day before, we suffered curiosity to press us no further, and amused ourselves with tracing across the subjacent country, the various currents of lava with which fertile valleys have been desolated, and flourishing cities overwhelmed.

Towards Midsummer, 1794, Vesuvius had ceased to vomit either fire or smoke, a circumstance which generally presages an eruption; and at half past three o'clock on the morning of the 13th of July, the inhabitants of the foot of the mountain were suddenly alarmed with a shock, like that of an earthquake. This terrifying stroke was thrice repeated, and the people immediately fled into their gardens, where they passed the remainder of the night in anxious expectation.

Next morning nothing was to be seen at Naples but penitential processions of men, women, and children, walking barefoot to the cathedral, to implore the protection of San Gennaro.

For the next three days the weather was tempestuous, and the air loaded with vapors, with which, together with clouds of ashes, it was sometimes surpernaturally darkened; and, during these terrific intervals, several slighter shocks were felt, attended with rumbling noises, like distant thnnder; when, about two

o'clock on the morning of the 17th, there was heard an explosion so loud and long, that it could only be compared to a continued discharge of heavy cannon; and a torrent of flaming lava was seen to burst from the western side of the crater, and pour down the sides of the mountain in various directions.

The principal stream, a mile in width, bent its destructive course towards Torre del Greco, a town of fifteen or twenty thousand people, situated upon the bay, ten miles from Naples, aud five from the crater of Vesuvius.

A column of dense smoke now ascended from the orifice, in the shape of a cylinder, out of which darted in every direction immense stones in a state of ignition, producing the effect of forked lightnings, as they were impelled with irresistible violence to a distance of several miles.

The fiery lava swept every thing before it, and in less than three hours, overwhelmed Torre del Greco, and tumbled into the sea with a horrible explosion, of which some idea may be formed from the violent effects produced by the contact of water with red-hot iron.

The sea hissed with a noise like that of the sharpest thunder, and the lava, curling itself up, as if sensible to the touch of the adverse element, instantly petrified into indescribable crimps and jags.

The vivid reflection of this fiery torrent illuminated the city of Naples till the dawn of day, and the furious concussion of the jarring elements continued all the next morning, and raised a ragged mole in the bay a quarter of a mile square.

This dreadful explosion had been awfully preceded by a sudden flow of the sea, probably accasioned by the impetuous rush that would naturally follow an abrupt absorption of it's waters in the cavities of the mountain, which are supposed to run under the bed of the bay.

Such an accident would have been sufficient to cause the instantaneous ejection of the liquid fire then boiling in the bowels of the volcano, by whose fearful contact the tremendous thunder with which it was accompanied might well have been produced.

The surface of the boiling liquid gradually hardened as it cooled, about the mouth of the orifice from which it had issued, and soon formed a crust of pumice and lava over the unfathomable pit, through the interstices of which the crater has continued to smoke ever since.

The French gentleman before mentioned, in company with two or three other inquisitive foreigners, actually descended to this false bottom, and examined the smoking crannias of the platform that conceals the boiling gulph, whilst their trembling guides protested against their presumption, and on their knees invoked St. Anthony, the Catholic guardian against fire, for the preservation of their adventurous charge.

Our fellow traveller brought away with him a large lump of crystalized salts, that he had himself picked out of the principal orifice; the air of which, fuming from beneath a volcanic rock, was hot enough to singe his hair.

Torre del Greco now exhibits an appearance little less curious than Herculaneum or Pompeii. Many of the houses were soon excavated, and others rebuilt upon the same spot, though the lava continued warm in some places for several years, and his Sicilian majesty had offered the inhabitants as much ground in another place, to induce them to rebuild the town in a less dangerous situation.

The ashes of this or some former eruption, are said to have been blown as far as Constantinople, to the great terror of the superstitious Turks; and it is certain that a month before the memorable one I have just described, while Vesuvius was disgorging stones and fire at its ancient vomitory, a dense cloud was seen at Radicofani, coming from the south-east, the direction of Vesuvius, (two hundred miles distant), from which there fell a shower of ashes and volcanic stones.

During an eruption which took place in the year 1538, a new hill arose in the vicinity, to the height of six hundred feet; and many of the mountains between Rome and Naples are said to discover traces of a similar origin.

MR. EDITOR,

Should the following curious account of the luminous fly, by M. de Bomare (the same, I presume, as the lantern fly, by Mad. Merian, vide-Brighton Gleaner, No. X. page, 365, vol. I.), be deemed worthy a place in your valuable Miscellany, it is at your service. I am, sir,

Sept. 11, 1822.

Your obliged Servant,

JAMES.

The acudia is a flying and luminous insect, found in America, and suspected to be the same with the cucuju or cocojus.

It is of the class of scarabeus, of the bigness of the little finger, two inches long, and so luminous that, when it flies by night, it spreads great light. Some say, that if you rub the face with the humidity which issues in shiny spots or stars, from this little living phosphorous, it will appear resplendent. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Indians made no use of candles, but of these insects, to light their houses; by one of which a person may read or write as easily as by a lighted candle.

When the Indians walked in the night, they fixed one of them

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to each toe of the foot, and others to the hand. When taken, these insects do not live above three weeks at most; while they are in good health they are very luminous, but their light decreases with their powers, and after they are dead they shine no more. They are doubly useful, for they fly about the house and devour the gnats.

It is uncertain whether the acudia is not the same insect as the lantern fly; so called, because the fore-part of the head, whence the light issues, has been called a lantern.

There are shining flies found in Italy, or rather a species of scarabeus, about the size of a bee, the belly of which is so luminous, that three of them, inclosed in a tube of white glass, will light a chamber.

CAPS.

A law, enacting that every person above seven years of age, should wear, on Sundays and holidays, a cap of wool, knit made, thickened and dressed in England, by some of the trade of cappers, under the forfeiture of three farthings for every day's neglect, excepting maids, ladies, and gentlewomen, and every lord, knight, and gentleman of twenty marks of land, and their heirs, and such as have borne offices of worship in any city, town, or place, and the Wardens of the London companies.-1751.

EFFORT OF HUMAN ART.

In Adam's letters on Silesia, we have the following extraordinary effort of human art. At Bunzlau, a person of the name of Jacob, of mechanical genius, a carpenter by trade; made a machine, in which, by means of certain clockwork, a number of puppets, about six inches high, are made to move upon a kind of stage, so as to represent, in several successive scenes, the passion of Jesus Christ. The first exhibits him in the garden at prayer, while the three apostles* are sleeping at a distance. In the last he is shewn dead in the sepulchre, guarded by two Roman soldiers. The intervening scenes represent the treachery of Judas, the examination of Jesus before Caiaphas, the dialogue between Pilate and the Jews concerning him, the denial of Peter, the scourging and the crucifixion. It is all accompanied by a

* Peter, James, and John. Mark xiv. 33.

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