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_Vermin in Ships_.
Steam has been lately found very successful in cleansing ships from vermin,
and especially the white ant. In India, a steam boat was lately placed
alongside a merchant vessel, and steam from its boiler conveyed by a very
simple system of pipes in the hold of the latter, the apertures to which
were closed as well as they could be. The operation was continued for
several hours; and there is reason to believe it was effectual, and will
prove a valuable process in the navy. Besides the direct object of
cleansing the ship, another advantage accrued from the discovery of every
leaky place existing, by the oozing of the water through it. The expense is
said to be very moderate; and it is further stated to be the only process
at present known, not even except sinking, which effectually destroys the
white ant.--_Brande's Journal_.
_Agriculture_.
England possesses more pasture land than any other European country; and
Spain the least.
In agriculture, France is a century behind England; and to equal England,
France would have to make the immense progress which, since that time, has
more than doubled the prosperity of the former country.
England not only surpasses France in the number of its cattle, but the
animals are also finer, and their flesh is of better quality; so that an
Englishman may enjoy nearly double the quantity of animal food that France
supplies to each of its inhabitants, and with the further advantage of
better quality. "Oh, the Roast Beef of Old England."
_Indian Rouge_.
We find in _Jameson's_ last _Journal_, a very interesting paper
by Dr. Hancock, on a Red Pigment, called _Carucru_, or _Chica_,
which appears to be the Rouge of the interior Indians. It is produced like
Indigo, from the plant chiefly found towards the head of Essequibo, Parima,
and Rio Negro. On breaking a branch, the leaves, when dry, become almost of
a blood red, and being pounded, are infused in water till a fermentation
ensues. The liquor is then poured off and left to deposit a settlement,
which forms the _Chica_ paint. It is put up very neatly in little
caskets made with palm leaves, and carried by the Atorayas and trading
Caribs all over Guiana. It has a soft, cochineal, crimson shade, and is in
great demand among the Indians as an ornamental paint. The use is chiefly
for the face, whilst they stain the other parts of the body with Arnotta.
They also apply the Chica on the cheeks and about the eyes, and variegate
the countenance by marking the forehead, and along the facial line, with
their coomazu, a yellow clay or ochre. This manner of painting produces a
striking contrast, and gives them a very strange and furious appearance.
From the scarcity of the Chica, its employment is almost exclusively
confined to the chiefs and higher orders, their nobility. The rest must be
contented with Arnotta, or Poncer mixed with the oil of Carapa, a portion
of which, with the Balsam of Aracousiri, mixed with these paints, imparts
to them a very delightful odour. The _toilet_, therefore, of the rude
tribes is as simple as their manners and mode of life, their chief material
being perfume, and all being carried in a little gourd.
The Chica is not merely esteemed as a pigment, but is considered in the
Orinoko as the most sovereign remedy for erysipelas, where that complaint
is very prevalent. It is simply made with water into a paste, thinly
spread on old linen or cotton, and applied as a plaster to the inflamed
part.--_Abridged_.
_Indian Graters_.
The Tacumas (Indians) are the fabricators of those curious Cassada Graters,
which are considered superior to all others by those who are acquainted
with them. They are made of a very hard wood, studded over with pointed
flint stones, and fixed by a kind of cement and varnish of surprising
durability; the substance being at the same time a strong cement and
transparent varnish. These Cassada Graters are scarcely, if at all, known
on the coast, or in the European settlements.--_Jameson's Journal_.
_Wild Bulls_.
In the province of San Martin, in South America, M. Roulier saw wild bulls
feeding in the _llanos_ among domestic cattle. These animals pass
their morning in the woods, which cover the foot of the Cordillera, and
come out only about two in the afternoon to feed in the savanna. The moment
they perceive a man they gallop off to the woods.
_Mount Souffre_.
During the eruption of this volcano in 1812, the explosions were heard at
600 or 700 miles distance; and cinders were taken from the deck of a vessel
150 miles distant.
_Force of Running Water_.
In August, 1827, the small rivulet called the College, at the foot of the
Cheviot Hills, was so swollen by the heavy rains, that the current tore
away from the abutment of a mill dam, a large block of stone, weighing
nearly two tons, and transported it to the distance of a quarter of a mile.
_Cement_.
The large snails which are found in gardens and woods, discharge a whitish
substance, with a slimy and gelatinous appearance, which has been known to
cement two pieces of flint so strongly as to bear dashing on a pavement
without the junction being disturbed, although the flint broke into
fragments by fresh fractures.
_Artificial Ice_.
A mixture of four ounces of nitrate of ammonia, four ounces of subcarbonate
of soda, and four ounces of water, in a tin pail, has been found to produce
ten ounces of ice in three hours.--_Brande's Journal_.
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