_Sturminster_.
_WESTPHALIA HAMS_
Are prepared in November and March. The Germans place them in deep
tubs, which they cover with layers of salt and saltpetre, and with a
few laurel leaves. They are left four or five days in this state, and
are then completely covered with strong brine. At the end of three
weeks they are taken out, and left to soak for twelve hours in clear
well-water; they are then exposed, during three weeks, to a smoke
produced by the branches of juniper.--_From the French._
_LONDON PORTER._
The bitter contained in porter, if taken wholly from hops, would
require an average quantity of ten or twelve pounds to the quarter
of malt, or about three pounds per barrel; so that if we consider the
fluctuation in the price of hops, we shall not be surprised at the
numerous substitutes, by which means the brewer can procure as much
bitter for sixpence as would otherwise cost him a pound.
Quassia is, probably, the most harmless of all the illegal bitters.
The physicians prescribe the decoction to their patients to the extent
of a quarter of an ounce of the bark a day--as much as the brewer was
accustomed to put into nine gallons of his porter.--_Library of Useful
Knowledge_.
_BLACK GAME_
Have increased greatly in the southern counties of Scotland and north
of England within the last few years. It is a pretty general opinion,
though an erroneous one, that they drive away the red grouse; the
two species require very different kinds of cover, and will never
interfere.--_Note to White's Selborne, by Sir W. Jardine_.
_BIRDS OF PREY._
All birds of prey are capable of sustaining the want of food and water
for long periods, particularly the latter, but of which they also seem
remarkably fond, drinking frequently in a state of nature, and during
summer washing almost daily.--Ibid.
_EGYPT._
M. Champollion, in one of his recent letters, tells us that the whole
of the island of Elephantina would hardly make a park fit for a good
citizen of Paris, although certain modern chronologists would fain
make it into a kingdom, in order to dispose of the ancient Egyptian
dynasty of the Elephantines.
In another letter dated March last, he says, "Our establishment is in
the Valley of Kings, which may truly be called the abode of death, as
not a blade of grass is to be found in it, nor any living creature,
except the jackall and hyæna, which the night before last devoured, at
the distance of 100 steps from our palace, the ass which had carried
my Barabra servant Mahomet, during the time that he was agreeably
passing the night of the Ramadan in our kitchen, which is in a royal
tomb, entirely dilapidated."--_Translated in the Literary Gazette_.
_BEET-ROOT SUGAR._
The Anti-Slavery Monthly Reporter for September, among the advantages
which will probably lead to the discontinuance of the cultivation of
sugar by slaves, enumerates the rapid extension of the manufacture of
beet-root sugar in France; a prelude, as the editor conceives, to its
introduction into this country, and especially into Ireland.
_DRY ROT._
The American Commodore Barron recommends pumping air from the holds of
vessels as a remedy against dry rot; the common mode of ventilation,
by forcing pure air, or dashing water into the hold, being found an
imperfect preservative.
_ALLOYED IRON PLATE._
Iron, coated with an alloy of tin and lead, so as to imitate tin
plate, and not to rust, is now manufactured to a considerable
extent in Paris; and its use for sugar-pans and boilers, and in the
construction of roofs and gutters is expected to be very considerable.
_INTERESTING QUESTION._
Whether in the sea there be depths where no creature is able to
live, or whether a boundary be assigned to organic life within those
depths, cannot be ascertained. It, however, clearly appears from
the observations made by Biot, and other naturalists, that fishes,
according to their different dispositions, live in different depths of
the ocean.--_From the German_.
_CATS._
In Kamtschatka, Greenland, Lapland, and Iceland, there are no cats,
nor does the lynx in Europe extend farther than Norway.--Ibid.
_VESSELS MADE OF THE PAPYRUS._
The last number of the _Magazine of Natural History_ contains an
article of great interest, on Vessels made of the Papyrus, illustrated
with cuts, from which it appears that vessels have from the earliest
times, been formed from the paper reed, and that they are at present
in use in Egypt and Abyssinia. The author is John Hogg, Esq. M.A.
F.L.S. &c. whose antiquarian attainments have greatly assisted him in
the elucidation of this very curious subject.
_REMAINS OF LA PEROUSE._[10]
M. Derville, who commanded the Astrolabe, in the lute-voyage
undertaken to search for traces of the expedition of La Perouse,
considers the island, the summits of which were observed fifteen
leagues to windward, by the frigates La Récherche and L'Esperance,
which composed the expedition of Admiral D'Entrecasteaux, in 1793, and
to which the name of the Isle de la Récherche was then given, to be
the identical island, Vanikoro (or Vanicolo) on the shores of which
the remnants of La Perouse's vessel have been found. The geographical
position of latitude and longitude of the Isle of Vanikoro, agrees
exactly with that of the island to which the name of Récherche was
given by D'Entrecasteaux. That island was then confounded with the
number of other islands, which had been seen by the expedition, and
which it had been found impossible to examine in detail.--_Athenæum_.
_STUDY OF CHEMISTRY._
Numbers there are, far above the lower classes, who still consider the
elements of all things as consisting of earth, air, fire, and water;
an error which classical-learning, no less than the expressions of
common parlance, tends to perpetuate. Let us hope that the days are
at hand, if not already arrived, in which the acquirement of such
fundamental knowledge will be looked upon as at least equally
necessary with the study of languages, and the cultivation of taste
and imagination.--_Library of Useful Knowledge_.
[Footnote 10: For a Report of this discovery, see MIRROR, vol. xiii p.
409.]
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