"Some further Observations made by Lieutenant Bell, upon the Application of the Mortars intended for throwing a Line on Shore, in case of a Ship being stranded. "1st, In trading ships, this piece would answer for making signals of distress, by filling the chamber with powder, and well wadding it, as the report would be heard some miles distance at sea. "2d, Such a gun, being accompanied with a few rounds of round and grape shot, would defend a ship much better than a longer gun, against any piratical or other hostile intentions, as, from its shortness, it would be more readily loaded and fired with a larger charge each time. 3d, Accidents from agun bursting, which may arise from an unskilful person loading with too great a pro ་་ portion of powder, are in this piece effectually guarded against, by the chamber being constructed to contain but one pound of powder, a quantity which is only about one third of the usual charge of a cannon. 4th, From the small size of such a gun and carriage, it might be kept upon deck, without much inconvenience in working the ship, in order to be ready, if necessity required; and when the ship is out at sea, it might then be put below. But from the number of dreadful wrecks, which so frequently happen along the coast, it certainly would be prudent to have it always upon deck when within sight of land, and particularly in stormy weather. JOHN BELL. Woolwich, Aug. 30, 1791. To C. TAYLOR, M. D. SEC." 1 ANTIDOTES AGAINST VIPERS AND SCORPIONS USED BY THE FUNGE AND [From Mr. MURRAY'S LIFE and WRITINGS of the late HE first is called Labreshat, branch, thin and covered with a "Tin the language of Sennaar; smooth deep green bark. This rare *་ Lagemi, in that of the southern negroes, or Shankala; it is a root of about a foot in length, and somewhat above an inch around; but more commonly found. not, above the size of a common whip cord; it is tough and pliable, covered with a thick bark, which easily cracks,but does not easily detach itself from the Foot; it has something of the forin of the white liquorice, but is of a darker colour. This root is generally straight, and shoots perpendicular into the earth, but has no fibres or branches. From the side of this root, generally about half an inch from the top, sprouts out a ly grows above an inch long, and decays at top; and half an inch below, on its side, sets forth another small twig, seldom more than one. On this grow the leaves, disposed, one by one, alternately on opposite sides of the stalk; they are ordinarily about two inches long, and three lines and a half at the top, growing smaller to the point; the ribs are scarcely marked, or distinguishable, joined by a small stalk to the branch. This leaf is at first of the colour of laurel, but turns black and saddish on keeping. The Nubians distinguish male and female by the flower; that of the former never I being red, and the other white. "Second Plant.-From a root, much resembling horse-raddish, nearly in form of an egg at top, and open at the bottom, divided into a fork, or two legs, grows a succulent stalk, or often two or three, of the size of a large earth worm. This stalk is white and feeble as far as it is covered with earth; after which it is a light green, and seldom above eight inches high. From the green parts of this stalk grow the leaves alternately on the opposite side of the stalk; the two opposites are generally less than half an inch distant; there is then a large interval near an inch and a half; and then the two others, which I say are placed alternately on opposite sides. There is no knot, or ring, around where the leaves shoot: these are always three in number; the first large, and in five divisions; it is altogether above an inch and a half broad, of a bright green; some thing like that of celery. When the large leaf has arrived at its full size, it falls off, and then it is succeed ed by the second, which is advanced; the third takes place of the second, and it then shoots a small one for a third. These leaves are fastened to the principal stalk by a thready succulent root, long, near a third of the length of the leaf. The ribs part all from this root, and are considerably raised on the back of the leaf, and hollowed, or sunk, in the front. There are five principal ones. The stalk and leaves of this are perfectly tasteless, and without smell. The Nubians say it bears both fruit and flowers in abundance. I never saw either. It had just shot this succulent root, when I saw it, the 25th of July, near Sennaar, on the banks of the Nile, where it is in great plenty, in the very same ground with the former root. The root is of a dirty yellowish white, full of small knots, which seem to have been roots of fibres; and the root is also surrounded with small fibrous circles horizontally, like hoops around it. The leaves and stalk are covered with a sort of prickly down, scarce perceptible to the touch, which has probably given it its name, Abou Sont, the father of the acacia. "The root of the third plant is crooked, hard, and woody, its body is about three inches long, when longest; at the bottom shoot out long thready fibres, tough, and of the same consistence with the root. The fibres ran strongly into the earth, but a considerable part of the body of the root is out of the earth uncovered. It resembles the root of wild thyme, at first sight. From the sides of this, near the top, shoot forth a great number of green branches, fluted and seldom above four inches long; upon these the leaves are disposed, two, and-two, on opposite sides of the stalk. These are generally three in number, one large, and two lesser, joined to the. principal principal stalk by a foot of about an inch long. The leaf is generally about three-fourths of an inch in length; and, at the shoulders, above half an inch in breadth, lightly serrated, like the nettle, of a deep green on the right side, but pale on the reverse; the ribs are faintly marked; the branches, or stalks, terminated with a head of white flowers of the form of pea blossoms, out of which project a pistil surrounded with several small filaments, or stamina, whose heads are covered with orange-coloured ferina. This flower is contained in a cup of one leaf, divided into several segments; each of these flowers do not exceed a line in length; they grow two by two, on the head, on opposite sides of the stalk; and two or three, like the leaves, sprout out together on each side, joined by a small foot to the stalk near the length of the flower. This whole head, occupied by the flower, is about three-fourths of an inch in length. The whole of the plant above ground seldom exceeds five inches and a half. It grows in the same ground with the rest near the Nile, and was in flower and leaf on the 25th of July, 1772, when I was at Sennaar. It is used, bruising the root in the hand, against scorpions, who are rendered harmless by it. "The fourth plant is also for the same use, against scorpions, and produces the same effect. It is a round root of the size of the largest musket-ball, full of small fibres, which spring out on all sides; from the centre of this, springs out the plant, the stalk of which is an inch and a half in length, feeble and flexible, thick est at the root, diminishing, however, but little. From this principal stalk sprout branches on all sides about four inches long, alternately disposed on the stalk. This stalk is lightly channelled; the leaves are above half an inch broad, fixed to the branch by a foot like the vine leaf. they grow alternately on the branch. They resemble the vine leaf in form; they are of a bright vivid green on the face; pale on the reverse, whent growing, but turn black soon after gathering. They have on them a small white soft hair, like down. The ribs are five principal ones raised on the back, as in the vine; and distinct and well-marked on the right side also, but not hollowed. The flower is of the size of a pea, but oval, and covered with white down. I never saw it blown, but only shot, though it seemed to be arrived at its full size, and ready to blow, and the cup divided into four oval pointed segments. From where the leaves sprout out come likewise tendrils, like a vine, which show it to be a parasite. This is very rare; I never found but one the Nubian brought me, though it grows in the same ground as the rest, at Ayra, near the Nile, three miles south of Sennaar. It has little taste, as most herbs have, which, like this, were gathered in the season of rain; though, as to its virtue, the Nubians knew no difference of seasons. All these plants are equally efficacious; the three against scorpions; the fourth, which is a shrub, against vipers. The south, which is the country of these slaves in the regions of Shankala, from Fazuclo to the frontiers of Agow, abound in them all, and many others. There is great plenty at Sennaar; though it is in their own country these slaves learn the virtue of these plants and roots, to which the Arabs and people of Sennaar are strangers. When a person is newly bit, they chew a piece, and apply it to the place, and he is immediately cured. If a person chew this root often in a morning a morning, the serpent, or scorpion; will not bite him. They dry all these roots, and then pound them to powder, and mix them well toge ther, and put them in a leathern purse ready for use; and when they are to handle a scorpion, or viper, they take a few grains of this powder, and moisten it with water, or spittle; and rub it in their hand, and then lay hold of either without fear. Providence has placed this remedy in abundance, where there is much need of it. The bark and holes of all the trees in this country are full of scorpions in thousands, and the plains full of very poisonous vipers, especially in harvest. These come out of their holes in the time of the rains, and lie in heaps, wherever they find straw; dry herbage, or old houses.“ ON ON THE GROWTH AND MANUFACTURE OF WOOL IN SPAIN. [From M. BOURGOING'S MODERN STATE of SPAIN.] "TH HE best wool in Spain is that furnished by the country round Segovia, by the district of Buytrago, seven or eight leagues to the eastward; by Pedraza, to the northward of Segovia; and by the lands towards the Douro. The connections which I formed, as well with the people of Spain as with my own countrymen, who have for several years prosecuted the breeding of Spanish sheep in France, have enabled me to collect some details on the subject, which the most frivolous of my readers will consider as at least interesting; those of a different turn of mind will give me thanks for my trouble. "At first there was an opinion, and it is still credited, although opposed by several intelligent Spaniards, that the wool of Spain is indebted for its fineness and other qualities, not so much to the temperature, climate, or nature of the pasture, as to the custom they have of making the sheep travel from place to place; but what incontestibly proves that the Spanish sheep do not only furnish fine wool without the assistance of periodical migrations, or even of the soil or climate, to which their precious fleece has been ascribed, is, that the flock which came originally from Spain, and was kept for upwards of thirty years by M. Dauben. ton, and sent by his Catholic Majesty in 1785, through my means, to Louis XVII, for his possessions at Rambouillet, have constantly furnished wool which the connoisseurs have not been able to distin guish from real Spanish wool, taken from sheep which had never left their own country. "The flock of Rambouillet suffered from their change of climate and regimen in another way: of 360 sheep sent from Spain under my care about 60 perished on the road, although the Spanish shepherds, to whom I had intrusted them, had driven them by very short journies, and although they passed the winter near Bourdeaux, in order to inure them insensibly to the climate of France. But this great mortality is the common effect of all the eni grations which take place front south to north, and mankind are not less exempt from it than animals. “In the first year after the flock had Had reached Rambouillet forty of them perished; this was attributed to the sheep-rot, which appeared soon after their arrival. The loss was inconsiderable the following years, if we except one season, in which about a twentieth part of the Hock perished; but this ought to be ascribed to some particular cause, since almost all the flocks in the country were that season attacked, and fell off in a still greater proportion. let, or its progeny. The soil on which sheep usually feed in Spain, both in Castile and Estramadura, is in general dry and stony, and the grass is short and fine. It would be difficult to find a country the climate and herbage of which forms a more striking contrast with those of Spain than Rambouillet: the greatest part of the park is covered with wood; the soil is almost every where clayey; tough, watery, and cold. The fortunate results of "The flock at Rambouillet, so this trial have deceived the predicwell preserved, experienced no care tions of all the cultivators of the but that which every intelligent country, and proved that flocks of cultivator, prompted by self-interest, the Spanish breed may succeed any is able to bestow. At first it was where. Besides, we know that in attempted to keep them constantly, Saxony, Wirtemberg, Denmark, and as in Spain, in the open air; it was Sweden, where they have tried to then that the influence of the naturalize them, they have never change of climate was observable. degenerated. But with respect to These animals, brought from a France, it has only been very lately much warmer country, were sensi-that these attempts have been folble of the cold, the winds, and lowed up, so as to insure a future particularly the rains, with which national benefit from the breeding their close and greasy wool was in of Spanish sheep. truth with difficulty impregnated,, but which was also long in drying. Without prolonging this experiment, they hastened to remedy the evil; the flock was confined in large and well aired sheep-cots; and much advantage was derived from the change. Some lambs perished with cold during the rigorous winter of 1793-4, even in these cots. This arose from a circumstance in which Spain has an advantage over France, and in which the latter can never participate in Spain the lambs are born in the month of October, while in our climate they come into the world in the month of January; but we can infer nothing from an excess of cold which does not occur perhaps more than four times in a century. "For some years past success has attended all the undertakings of this kind made with rams and ewes bought at the sale annually made by government at Rambouil let. These animals have always brought a very high price, as well as their wool; and this circumstance is a security for their preservation. We find proofs of this among all those intelligent farmers who have attended to this branch of industry a pacific conquest, much more precious than any acquisition which can result from our military successes against Spain; a conquest also which our treaty of peace with this power has embraced, by secur ing to us a new flock of these valuable animals, which are rigorously prohibited by the government from "The change of food has not being exported to other countries. deteriorated the flock at Rambouil-The only measure which could ulti mately |