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county of Lanark-The Dean of the Faculty of Procurators in the City of Glasgow-The Town Clerk of the City of Glasgow-and the Preses of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow.

In the Name of these Trustees, all actions, or suits at law, shall be instituted, or defended; and when called upon by the Committee, or a third at least of the Subscribers, they may examine and rectify any abuses which may at any time take place, contrary to these Articles.

11. Such as wish at any time to become members of this Institution, shall pay the entry-money, and annual contribution, in terms of these Articles, to the Treasurer, who will give a receipt for it. Upon producing this receipt to the Librarian, he is empowered to add his name to the list of Subscribers, and admit him a member accordingly.

12. The right of a Subscriber to the use of the Library cannot be transferred to any other person or persons.

3d Jan. 1806. The preceding regulation was altered thus: The right of a Subscriber to the use of the Library may be transferred to any other person, on such Subscriber sending a letter to that effect to the Secretary; and the person to whom the transfer is made shall be admitted a member on subscribing the Regulations, and paying Two Shillings and Sixpence in name of entry-money.

13. Such as, by declining to pay the annual contribution, have forfeited their privilege to the use of the Library, may be again admitted, upon either paying up their arrears, or paying the entrymoney anew. Declaring, however, that such members as are under the necessity of leaving the place, shall not thereby lose their privilege, but shall, on their return, be free to the use of the Library, on paying the yearly contributions, in terms of these Articles.

14. Should any person, who has been a member for five years, become unable to pay the annual contributions, he will be entitled to the use of the Library gratis.-The Managers for the time will be judges of such claims.

15.-Unalterable. The whole Subscribers shall form one Society, to be called by the name of The Subscribers for the use of the Glasgow Public Library, instituted in the Year One Thousand Feb. 1809.

Eight Hundred and Four.-They shall also compose the general meetings, where each Subscriber shall have a voice: but where no attempt shall be made to change any thing in the constitution of the Library, which, by these Articles, is declared to be unalterable. Of these general meetings the first Curator shall always be Preses :-in his absence, the next Curator, and so on to the last :-in the absence of all the Curators, the Treasurer:-or in his absence, the first Subscriber on the list who is present. The Curators shall cause a list of the Subscribers to be made up eight days previous to each general meeting: this list shall be entered in a book kept for the purpose, and signed by the Secretary, which book shall be produced at every general meeting.

16.-Unalterable.-The sole property of the Library, consigned over to the Public, shall remain vested in the Trustees, under the settled Management, and for the declared purposes of the Insti tution.

17. Should any of the persons who are nominated Trustees become Subscribers for the privilege of the use of the Library, they shall be requested again to subscribe in the Testing Clause of this Instrument, in the special character of Trustees, by the name of the office, character, and capacity, under which they are so nominated; and their subscription is to be accounted valid also for such of the Trustees as do not ac tually subscribe, provided they have authority to that effect.

18. A majority of two-thirds of the Subscribers may, at any future period, apply to the Crown for a Charter of In corporation, or to the Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council of the City of Glasgow, for a Seal of Cause to the same effect; having these Articles inserted as the basis of incorporation, and vesting in the Subscribers so incorporated, in place of the Trustees, the proper ty of the Library, reserving, however, to the Trustees, all the authority hereby given them as Guardians of the Libe

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charge, he shall receive an exact Catalogue of the Books, subscribed by the 'Treasurer and five of the Curators, which shall lie in the Library ;-and a copy of this Catalogue, subscribed by the Librarian, with an acknowledgement of his having received the Books therein, shall be lodged with the Trea.

surer.

2. Each Subscriber shall be entitled to receive from the Librarian, and have in his possession at one time, only one volume of folio, or of quarto; or two volumes of any one Book in octavo and under; but when any book consists of one volume, he shall be entitled to have that volume only.

3. Books in folio may be kept out of the Library six weeks at a time-in quarto four weeks-in octavo and un

may take it out anew, provided no other Subscriber has applied for it in the interim.

Scotland, so far as I have learned, There are only three libraries in which have been made public property, by a conveyance to trustees: viz. one at Perth, established about thirty years ago; the one at Glasgow, of which this is an account; and one recently established at Leith. Their utility is so highly obvious, that it is devoutly to be wished similar institutions were established in every town, and in every parish of Scotland. J. M.

der, two weeks. A single Number of Letters to the Editor, occasioned by any Book, Review, or Magazine, four days only.

4. If any Subscriber detain a Book beyond the time specified, he must pay a fine of threepence for every week the book is so detained, and for a less time in proportion; and he can have no o

SIR JOHN CARR'S CALEDONIAN

SKETCHES.

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ther book from the library till the for- IN the Caledonian Sketches by SIR

mer be returned, and the fine paid.

5. If any Subscriber shall lend or suffer to be lent out of his house or family, any Book or Pamphlet belonging to the Library, he shall forfeit Two Shillings and Sixpence for the first offence-Five Shillings for the second-and if guilty of a third, he shall forfeit all right to

the Library.“

6. If a Subscriber lose a Book, he must pay the value of it; or if a volume of a set be lost, that set must be taken and paid for. If any Book be injured beyond what may be reasonably allowed for the using, it must be laid before the Committee for their determination, and the injury be paid for to their satisfaction.

7. The Librarian must take a receipt, in a Book to be kept for the purpose, for every book lent out; but should it be inconvenient for any subscriber to attend in person, for the purpose of granting such receipt, he must send a line to the Librarian, who will, in that case, be authorized to subscribe for him.

8. The Librarian must lend out the

Books to the Subscribers in the order of their application. A Subscriber, af. ter keeping a Book the time specified,

JOHN CARR, just published, that renowned tourist seems to have been at great pains to conciliate the natives of Scotland. This he has attempted, not only directly by the most flattering encomiums, and testimonies to their courage, their learning, and their. hospitality; but obliquely, (if I mistake not,) by a curious stratagem, and one scarcely very creditable to the literary character. Knowing that the name of Dr Samuel Johnson is not the most grateful in the world to truly Scottish ears, and probably supposing that the antipathy to it is much greater than it really is, he has thought fit to introduce the great lexicographer on numberless occasions-from the time that he enters the Debateable Land till he leaves Scotland,-sometimes even forcing him in by the shoulders; and, on most occasions, he seems to have introduced him for no other than to decry him, and to hold him up to ridicule and contempt. As I do not recollect of Sir John Carr having previously manifest

purpose

ed

ed such hostility to this illustrious Englishman, I hope I may be excused for saying, that I can figure no other motive for so hazardous an attack, but a wish to gratify his supposed anti-Johnsonian readers, and perhaps to propitiate the Censors of the North. No device could be more shallow. Even in Scotland, Johnson's pre-eminence as a moralist is fully admitted; and his learning and taste are admired; while his bigotry and superstition are pitied and forgiven, at least by all those who are likely to peruse the Caledonian Sketches, in the form of an elegant 4to, price two guineas in boards.

But even supposing Sir John Carr to be free from the imputation now hinted at, it must be evident to every reader of his Sketches, that he is extremely willing to have this work compared with the Journey to the Western Islands; and that he has sedulously employed himself, in the course of his tour, in endeavouring to find out the Doctor's errors, and that he exults in correcting them. Whatever had been his motives, the public would have been obliged to him for taking this trouble, provided only he had shewn himself qualified for the undertaking. How very unfit he is, shall shortly appear.

66

Although Dr Johnson was undoubtedly a man of a most capacious mind, a very dungeon of learning *,". yet, in one interesting department of literature, it is well known he was wofully deficient: I mean physical science in general. His journey a bounds with examples. Speaking of LOCH NESS never freezing, he says: "If it be true that this lake never freezes, it is either sheltered by its high banks from the cold blasts, and

*A dungeon of learning!-a fine and perfectly new expression for profundity of lore, for the knowledge of which the literary world is indebted to Sir John Carr.

exposed only to those winds which have more power to agitate than congeal; or it is kept in perpetual motion by the rush of streams from the rocks that inclose it. Its profundity, though it should be such as is represented, can have little part in this exemption; for though deep wells are not frozen, because their water is secluded from the external air, yet, where a wide surface is exposed to the full influence of a freezing atmosphere, I know not why the depth should keep it open. Natural philosophy is now one of the favourite studies of the Scottish nation, and Lough Ness well deserves to be diligently examined +."

Nothing, it must be allowed, can be more unphilosophical than the Doctor's arguments just quoted. He proclaims his unacquaintance with hydrostatics and chemistry. It can scarcely be necessary to remind any reader, why depth should retard freezing ;-that, during frost, the particles of the water come to the surface in succession, the lighter and warmer ascending, and the colder and heavier descending, till the whole mass of water attain an equal temperature. If the depth of a lake be very great, it must evidently require many weeks, perhaps months, to accomplish this equalization of temperature; and, till then, its surface will not be frozen

over.

Without stating any objection to the Doctor's opinion, however, (altho' he thus had a fair opportunity, if he knew when to embrace it,) Sir John Carr favours us with a new view of the non-freezing quality of Loch Ness, stimulated, no doubt, by the remark of Dr Johnson, that "it well "deserves to be diligently examined."

It is a matter of curious observation, (says the Knight,) that the river Ness, like the lake from which it issues,

+ svo edition, 1775, p. 63.

issues, never feezes, owing, as it is supposed, to its being strongly impregnated with sulphur, and that, in the win. ter, if horses are led into it, with icicles hanging round their fetlocks, produced by other waters, they will speedily dissolve *"

It may be thought that Sir John Carr has been cautious in only saying, that such a thing is supposed; but if he did not join in the supposition, he should explicitly have objected to it: mere silence implies an acquiescence in the doctrine; but when it is considered, that this supposition is introduced by way of clearing up a difficulty stated by Dr Johnson, the promulgation of it seems to argue even a zeal for the doctrine.

It is to be regretted that Sir John Carr has not explained what he means by the water being "strongly impregnated with sulphur." No native sulphur has ever been discovered about Loch Ness, or the river that flows from it, or even in Great Britain. Sir John Carr himself tells us, (p. 370,) that the "bottom of the lake is soft "mud, of a dark brownish colour," At any rate, it does not appear on what principle he assumes that water strongly impregnated with sulphur, (supposing sulphur, properly so called, to be soluble in water, which it is not) is capable of maintaining its fluidity when the mercury in the thermometer falls 20 degrees below the freezing point, as it almost every winter does at Inverness.

He may mean sulphurous acid: but waters impregnated with this acid are very rare; they have hitherto been deemed of volcanic origin only; and indeed they could not fail to be at once distinguished by the smell.

Again, he may mean "sulphurated hydrogenous gas," (which he speaks of in another place, p. 57. :) but in this case also, the smell would infallibly indicate the quality, and a white sedi

* Caledonian Sketches, p. 380.

ment would be seen incrusting the rocks on the margin of the lake. The waters of Loch Ness, however, have nothing of the hepatic smell, nor is any crust of sulphur to be observed on its borders.

Lastly, he may mean that the water is strongly impregnated with sulphuric acid; but this could only be through the medium of sulphate of soda, or sulphate of lime; and I have never understood that the water of the Ness was remarkable either for being hard or saline: on the contrary, it has no discernible taste, and it is so far from being hard, that it is employed for the washing of clothes, by almost all the families of Inverness, and breaks soap remarkably well.

While I must despair, therefore, of arriving at Sir John's meaning when he says that the water is "strongly impregnated with sulphur," I can positively assure him, that the non-freezing cannot be ascribed to this sulphureous impregnation, whatever be its mysterious nature. This may be pro

ved by a very simple experiment. Let a pitcher of water be taken from the lake or the river, in the time of frost, and it will congeal as quickly as any other water. During the late intense colds the inhabitants of Inverness witnessed daily confutations of Sir John's sulphur theory. When their fountains were locked up by the frost, they of course repaired to the river Ness for water; but so far was this water from not freezing at all, that they could scarcely get it carried home in a liquid state!

I may here remark, that Sir John Pringle (who, when a young man, had been stationed for some time at Fort Augustus) has, in his celebrated Treatise on the Diseases of the Army, incidentally mentioned Loch Ness; and has, in a more philosophical style than Dr Johnson or Sir John Carr, ascribed its not freezing to its great depth alone. The lake is so very deep, that it had always been considered as

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tices of the Peace at Kirkwall, by Messrs Peace, Sherar, Fotheringham, and Folsetter, who saw and examined the Great Sea Snake, (Halsydrus Pontoppidani,) cast ashore in Stronsa in Oct. last; with remarks illustrative of some obscure and apparently contradictory passages in the different depositions. 2. An account of the discovery of a living animal resembling a toad, imbedded in a stratum of clay, (in a cavity suited to its size, and which retained its shape,) at the depth of fifty seven fathoms, in the coal-formation at Govan; communicated by

Proceedings of the Wernerian Natural Mr Dixon of Govan-hill. 3. An in

History Society.

T the meeting of this Society, on 11th February, Professor Jameson read a short account of the oryctognostic characters and geognostic relations of the mineral named Cryolite, from West Greenland.

Mr P. Neill read a description of a rare species of whale, stranded near Alloa, in the Frith of Forth, in the end of October last. It measured 43 feet in length; had a small dorsal fin, very low down the back; longitudinal folds in the skin of the thorax, parallel in front, but rather diverging behind; short whale bones (fanons) in the upper jaw; the under jaw somewhat wider, and a very little longer than the upper; both jaws acuminated, (at least, considering the bulk of the body, they might be so described,) the under jaw ending in a sharp point, proceeding from a twisted bony ridge on the lower side. From these characters, he considered it as evident, that it was the Baleinoptera acuto-rostrata of La Cepede, and that that author

stance of remarkable intrepidity displayed by an old male and female otter (at the river Dart, near Totness in Devonshire) in defending their young, although the otter is generally accounted a very timid animal; commu nicated by J. Laskey, Esq. of Credi

ton.

At this meeting also, Mr Laskey, (who is at present with his regiment, stationed at Port Seton Barracks, East Lothian, and who is well known in the scientific world as an eminent conchologist,) presented to the Society an ample and very valuable collection of the native shells of Great Britain, ar ranged and named by himself;-an acquisition which must afford great facilities to those members who may incline to pursue the investigation of Scottish conchology.

Memoirs of the Progress of MANUFACTURES, CHEMISTRY, SCIENCE, and the FINE Arts.

had fallen into a mistake, in saying, A Species of wasp which builds its

that this species never attains a greater length than 8 or 9 metres, or from 26 to 29 feet.

At the same meeting, the Secretary laid before the Society several interesting communications.-1. Copies of the affidavits made before the Jus

nests in trees has lately been observed in different parts of this country, and was frequently met with during the last summer in different parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It appears to be a new introduction, and is supposed to have been brought across

the

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