case for compensation to be enforced in favor of foreigners by their respective Governments, it is this a town given up for ten days to plunder; and officers and soldiers, who should be the protectors of the community, the very plunderers!

"Persons who had been buried under the ruins eight, ten, and twelve days, were dug out, and many recovered and are now alive. One was thirteen days in that situation, and is now well. It is astonishing how they could support, I will not say the pangs of hunger, but those of thirst, for such lengths of time. Yet such is undoubtedly the fact.

"For some months preceding the earthquake an unusual drought prevailed. The heavy periodical rains which usually set in towards the middle or end of April did not visit us; and with the exception of a few insignificant showers, we had no rain for nearly four months. The temperature was unusually high for the time of year. For a month previously the mercury stood at 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade for several hours in the day. I even noticed it at 92.

"The town of Cape Haitien, which you used to call the paradise of Haiti, termed by the French colons petit Paris,' perhaps the most beautiful and regularly built in the West Indies, with all its fine public edifices, is now a heap of ruins. The rich plains to the south, whence the old French drew their wealth, and where they left, it was some little time ago supposed, enduring monuments of their magnificence, mansions that might well be called palaces, sugar-houses, and all the appurtenances for colonial culture, these plains have felt the shock as severely as the Cape. All the old mansions and plantation structures, churches, gateways, and columns, have fallen. The rents in the earth are very numerous, and some very wide. In many places sand, resembling sea-sand, has been forced up in large quantities. These rents in the plains, as well as those in and around the Cape, run nearly in a north and south direction.

"It is reported that the village of Marabarou, at the mouth of the river Massacre, has altogether disappeared, swallowed up by the sea. A lake has been formed in a savannah near the ruins of the old city of Isabella. The road from Port-au-Plate to St. Jago has in many places sunk down to a depth of twenty feet. The mountain that rises over the village of Alta Mira has been terribly shaken, and immense masses have slipped down into the deep ravines at its base. I have spoken to a gentleman who was not far from Alta Mira, on his way to Port-au-Plate, when the shock took place. Himself and horse were both thrown on the ground, though the ground itself was neither rent nor permanently displaced.

"Every stone and brick house in St. Jago has fallen. The town was partially pillaged. In St. Domingo several churches have fallen, and all the houses are rent and torn, so as to be uninhabitable. The old church of La Vega, built by Christopher Columbus, is down. Port-au-Plate, consisting chiefly of timber houses, has not much suffered. Port-au-Paix has fallen, causing about two hundred deaths. Gonaives did not suffer greatly from the shock, but fires ensued, and destroyed a good deal of property. Little injury was done at Port-au-Prince, though the movement was strongly felt there."

ATLANTIC STEAM NAVIGATION.

THE following table exhibits the length of time in which each passage across the Atlantic, between Halifax and Liverpool, has been made by the four steam-ships of the British and North American Royal Steampacket Company. From this statement, it appears that the passage to Halifax gives 7.86 miles per hour, while that from Halifax to Liverpool, (influenced by prevailing winds and currents,) gives 9.3 miles.

The mean between these may be taken as the average speed obtained at sea, or what may be called the sea-rate. In this case the sea-rate is 8.58 miles per hour. It will be seen in our volume for 1837, p. 752, that the sea-rates of the Atalanta and Berenice, in those comparatively early days of steam navigation, varied from 6 to 9 1-2 miles, the average of all given being 7 1-2 miles. When it is considered that the passages of the British and North American line have been made across the stormy Atlantic, while those above quoted were at least two-thirds of them in moderate latitudes, there is every reason to congratulate the proprietors on the result.

Passage to and from Liverpool and Halifax of the British and North American Royal Mail Steam-ships, from July 4th, 1840, to June 4th, 1842.

Average Passage, by Chronometer: Out, 13 days 7 hours; Home, 11 days 3 hours

THE SMOKELESS ARGAND FURNACE.

THE following information in reference to this invention is taken from the Reports of the late Meetings of the British Association at Man

chester:

William Fairbairn, Esq., "On the Combustion of Coal, and other Fuels, with a view of obtaining the greatest calorific effect, and avoiding the generation of Smoke." The subject of this communication was arranged under four heads, the last division being "The best method of working the furnace."

The report proceeded to detail the results of some experiments on the comparative consumption of coal in a furnace to which Mr. Williams's apparatus for the prevention of smoke had been applied, when that apparatus was at work, and when it was thrown out of use. Some of these first experiments appeared to be vitiated by the want of a perfect closing of the air-passages when the apparatus was not used. Further experiments were, consequently, tried with the air-passages open at one time, and at another closed by a brick wall. The result was, that the average consumption with the apparatus at work was 276 pounds per hour, and with the air-passages effectually closed, 308 1-2 pounds per hour; showing a difference of 32 1-2 pounds per hour in favor of Mr. Williams's plan, or a saving of rather more than ten per cent. The report stated, in conclusion, that there could not be the slightest doubt about the practicability of abating the nuisance of smoke, so much complained of in this and other districts.

Henry Houldsworth, Esq., said, that for six months past he had had practical experience of the working of Mr. Williams's patent, which he had applied to three different furnaces; and he could now say confidently, from the results of that experience, that, without any particular trouble or care of management, it would prevent, at the very least, three fourths of the smoke which was now made. He did not doubt that other inventions might be effectual when they were carefully managed; but he preferred Mr. Williams's, because of its extreme simplicity, depending as it did solely on the admission of air in a proper manner, without any of tbose mechanical contrivances, worked by some moving power, which

many other plans contained. There was one fact connected with Mr. Williams's patent, which he considered of some importance, which he would communicate to the section. He had that morning fitted up a contrivance for ascertaining the comparative temperature of flues under different circumstances, which had not previously been very satisfactorily ascertained. Mr. Williams had used a thermometer, inserted in a bar of iron, which was placed in a flue; but he (Mr. Houldsworth) was not satisfied with that plan, and had passed a copper wire through the flue from one end to the other. This was kept in a state of tension by a weight, and by its expansion or contraction, acted upon an index, which would give a very correct measure of the relative temperature. He had tried some experiments with it that morning, and had obtained very striking and important results. It had generally been supposed, that, when there was a perfectly red fire in the furnace, and when no smoke was generated, the admission of cold air at the bridge would do harm instead of good, by reducing the temperature in the flues. He had, however, tried the experiment that morning. After having the air-passages closed for some time, he had opened them when the coals on the fire were perfectly charred, and found an immediate and decided increase of temperature in the flue. The increase of temperature was certainly most striking if the air-passages were opened shortly after a large quantity of fresh fuel had been put on; but at all times he found there was an increase when the air was admitted, and a decrease when it was excluded. If any members of the Association would do him the favor to call at the works, he should have great pleasure in showing the apparatus and its working. Mr. Williams said, he was exceedingly glad to hear of Mr. Houldsworth's invention: a good pyrometer was very much wanted.

Henry Houldsworth, Esq. on a subsequent day said, that, since the discussion on this subject, he had made some careful experiments with the pyrometer which he then described, and the results were, in his judgment, exceedingly satisfactory and conclusive. These experiments were made upon a furnace fitted up according to Mr. Williams's patent, by putting three cwt. of coal upon the fire two different times, the fire being each time in the same state, and the temperature of the flue, as indicated by the pyrometer, being, in each case, about 700 degrees. On one occasion the air-passages were left open, in the other they were closed; in each case the experiment was continued for 100 minutes. In the experiment in which the passages were left open, the average temperature of the flue was about 1,100 degrees; in that in which the passages were closed, and Mr. Williams's apparatus thrown out of use, the temperature averaged only about 900 degrees. During the whole time of the former experiment there was an entire absence of smoke; during great part of the latter the flues were filled with smoke. Mr. Houldsworth exhibited a diagram showing, in a very striking manner, the results of his experiments. Mr. Fairbairn said, there could be no doubt whatever that smoke might be most effectually prevented, and, therefore, the public ought no longer to be subjected to the grievous nuisance which now too extensively prevailed.

NEW PATENT COMPOSING MACHINE.

THERE was exhibited in London, at 110 Chancery-lane, about the middle of June, a new patent composing machine, which will, there can be little doubt, at no distant period, work an entire revolution in the composing portion of the printing trade. It is the invention of Messrs. Young and Delcambre, the inventors of a somewhat similar, but comparatively imperfect machine, described in the public journals about twelve months since. The machine itself has a great resemblance to a cottage piano, with the external frame-work removed. It has 72 channels, containing a complete font of type, under which are placed levers in connection with keys similar to those of the piano, each key having engraved on it its character, which corresponds with the channels above, in which the different letters are placed. As the letters are moved out of the channels by the action of the player, they slide through various curves on an inclined plane at the back of the machine, and fall to one point, where they are received into a spout and beaten forward to a composing-stick, or, as it is called by the machinist, a justifying box, by a very ingenious mechanical movement. The justifying-box is at the end of a receivingspout, and the type is drawn into it in lines of the width of the page to be set up; and when the usual number of lines have been justified, the box is emptied into a galley in the way that the compositor empties his composing-stick. While this "setting up" of the type, as the printers term it, but which here is in reality" letting down," is going on, the channels are being fed by two boys. The rapidity with which this machine gets through its work may be judged of from the fact, that type equal to half a column of this (the Morning Herald) journal was justified in a few minutes less than an hour; that is, as fast as the reporter usually transcribes his notes. At this machine there are eight persons employed, three intelligent young women, and five boys. The first are alternately engaged two hours each in composing, justifying, and correcting. The same system obtains with the boys, one of whom turns the wheel before spoken of; two, as has been stated, fill the channels; and two distribute the type. A clever compositor will set up 2,000 letters in an hour, but the average is about 1,500 or 1,600 letters. The young women whom we saw compose at the machine have, as they stated to us, been learning for about three months; and the average rate at which they justify, for we observed that the composer was sometimes too quick for the justifier, is about 6,000 letters per hour. With nine or twelve months' practice they will very likely be able to compose at the rate of 8,000 or 9,000 per hour. The cost of composing by this machine was stated to us to be 2d. per thousand; and, from the rate at which the machine composed, and the wages which we ascertained were paid to those employed, we entertain no doubt that such is the fact. The movements of the machine are extremely simple and beautiful, and, the whole of it being composed of steel and brass, it will work for years without getting out of order. One of these machines works three sorts of type. The only objection that struck us was, that the constant friction of the letters down the brass