They contain a variety of new equations, of which the elementary parts have been verified by observation. New Lunar Tables are also to be printed, which will be followed by those of the primary planets.

According to the experiments of MORICHINI, one hundred parts of the enamel of human teeth contain 30 parts of animal substance, and 22 parts of fluid, and phosphat of lime, with some manganesia, alumine, and carbonic acid. He has not yet been able to separate the fluoric and phosphoric acids from each other, but thinks that the proportion of the latter must be certainly minute. MR BRANDE, however, has found that the enamel of human teeth contain no fluoric acid. A hundred grains of this enamel were ignited, pulverised, and then exposed to the action of sulphuric acid; and the white suffo. cating fumes were extricated during the process of distillation; they pro duced no effect upon the glass which covered the crucible, which certainly would have been corroded had any fluoric acid been present.

According to the analysis of A. LAUGIER, a hundred parts of the chromate of iron from the Purolian mountains in Siberia, contains oxide of chrome 53, oxide of iron 34, alumine 11, Silica 1, traces of manganese and loss, I.

It appears from the experiments of Mr GOUGH, that the elasticity of cœoutchone, or Indian rubber, is not a constitutional quality of the substance, but a contingent effect, arising from the loss of equilibrium between the portion of calonic which the resin happens to contain at any moment, and its capacity to receive that fluid at the same instant. Mr Gough has attempted likewise to demonstrate that the faculty of this body to absorb the calorific principle may be lessened, by forcibly diminishing the magnitude of its parts.

Professor BERNARDI of Esport, communicated to the academy of sciences in that place, two kinds of the herb Speedwell or Fluellin, nearly resembling the veronico spicata. The one he calls veronica cristata, and the other veronicus sternberjiani. It may be thus characterised in the botanical system,-Ver. spica terminali, carolle subrotatæ, laciniis postice convolutis, falcis oppositis. I'he second specimen, which Count Sternberg had already remarked in Italy, may be thus recognised.-V. racemo terminali, carollæ rotatæ, lacimis potentibus, foliis oppositis cauleque glabris.

An account of twenty-eight experiments on falling bodies, made in the coal mines of Schebusch, has been published by Proffessor BENZENBERG of Dusseldorf. Balls well turned and polished were made to fall from a height of 262 French feet.At a medium they exhibited a deviaation of 5 lines towards the East, while the theory gives 4.6 lines. The experiments of Guglielmini at Bolog na gave nearly the same results, and furnish an additional proof of the diurnal motion of the earth.

According to Mr Gough's experi ments, water expands by a loss of temperature between 41° and 32°; or else this fluid begins to crysta lize at the upper term; in conse quence of which, the lower term, or 32°, is not, properly speaking, the commencement of congellation, but the point at which the chrystals of water begin concrete into mashes by aggregation.

A new ruler, exempt from lateral deviation, has been invented by Mr Q. W. BOSWELL. By the application of toothed segments, which lock into each other, the lateral motion is transferred to the middle rule, while the external rules move only in an opposite and parallel direction. See Nicholson's Journal, No. 52. p. 196.

D. B.

Account

Account of ALEXANDER SELKIRK, with a Description of the Island of JUAN FERNANDEZ.

(Concluded from page 20.)

ly; he found there also a black pepper called Malagita, which was very good to expel wind, and against griping of the guts.

He soon wore out all his shoes and cloaths by running through the

took them by speed of foot; for his way of living, and continual exercise of walking and running, cleared him of all gross humours, so that he ran with wonderful swiftness through the woods, and up the rocks and hills, as we perceived when we employed him to catch goats for us. We had a bull dog, which we sent with several of our nimblest runners to help him in catching goats; but he distanced and tired both the dog and the men, catched the goats, and brought them to us on his back.

He told us, that his agility in pursuing a goat had once like to have cost him his life; he pursued it with so much eagerness, that he catched hold of it on the brink of a precipice, of which he was not aware, the bushes having hid it from him, so that he fell with the goat down the precipice a great height, and was so stunned and bruised with the fall, that he narrowly escaped with his life, and when he came to his senses, found the goat dead under him. He lay there about twentyfour hours, and was scarce able to crawl to his hut, which was about a mile distant, or to stir abroad again in ten days.

He came at last to relish his meat without salt or bread, and, in the season, had plenty of good turnips, which had been sowed there by Captain Dampier's men, and have now overspread some acres of ground. He had enough of good cabbage - from the cabbage trees, and seasoned his meat with the fruit of the Piemento trees, which is the same as the Jamaica pepper, and smells delicious March 1806.

shift without them, his feet became so hard that he run every where without annoyance; and it was some time before he could wear shoes, after we found him; for, not being used to any so long, his feet swelled when he came first to wear them again.

After he had conquered his melancholy, he diverted himself sometimes in cutting his name on the trees, and the time of his being left and continuance there. He was at first pestered with cats and rats, that had bred in great numbers from some of each species which had got ashore from the ships that put in there to wood and water. The rats gnawed his feet and cloaths while asleep, which obliged him to cherish the cats with his goats flesh; by which many of them became so tame, that they would lie about him in hundreds, and soon delivered him from the rats. He likewise tamed some kids; and, to divert himself, would now and then sing and dance with his cats; so that by the care of Providence, and vigour of his youth, being now but about thirty years old, he came at last to conquer all the inconveniences of his solitude, · and to be very easy.

When his cloaths wore out, he made himself a coat and cap of goatskins, which he stitched together with little thongs of the same, that he cut with his knife. He had no other needle but a nail, and when his knife was wore to the back, he made others as well as he could, of some iron hoops that were left ashore, which he beat thin, and ground upon stones. Having some linen cloth

by

him, he sewed himself shirts with a nail, and stitched them with the worsted of his old stockings, which he pulled out on purpose. He had his last shirt on when we found him in the island.

At his first coming on board us, he had so much forgot his language, for want of use, that we could scarce understand him, for he seemed to speak his words by halves..

We offered him a dram, but he would not touch it, having drank nothing but water since his being there, and it was some time before he could relish our victuals.

He could give us an account of no other product of the island than what we have mentioned, except small black plums, which were good, but hard to come at, the trees which bear them growing on high mountains and rocks. Piemento trees are plenty here, and we saw one sixty feet high, and about two yards thick; and cotton trees higher, and nearly four fathoms 1ound in the stock.

The climate is so good, that the trees and grass are verdant all the year. The winter lasts no longer than June or July, and is not then severe, there being only a small frost and a little hail, but sometimes great rains. The heat of the summer is equally moderate; there is not much thunder or tempestuous weather of any sort. He saw no venomous or savage creature on the island, nor any other sort of beast but goats, &c. as above mentioned; the first of which had been put ashore here on purpose for a breed by Juan Fernando, a Spaniard who had settled there with some families for a time, till the continent of Chili began to submit to the Spaniards; which, being more profitable, tempted them to quit this island, that is capable of maintaining a good number of people, and of being made so strong that they could not be easily dislodged.

Ringrose, in his account of Capt. Sharp's voyage and other buccaneers, mentions one who had escaped ashore out of a ship which was cast away, with all the rest of his company, and says, he lived 5 years alone, before he had an opportunity of a ship to carry him off. Capt. Dampier talks of a Moskito Indian, that belonged to Capt. Watlin; who, being hunting in the woods when the Captain left the island, lived 3 years alone, and shifted much in the same manner as Mr Selkirk did, till Capt. Dampier came hither in 1684, and carried him off. The first that went, ashore was one of his countrymen, and they saluted one another, first by prostrating themselves by turns on the ground, and then by embracing.

But, whatever there is in these stories, this of Mr Selkirk I know to be true; and his behaviour afterwards gives me reason to believe the account he gave me, how he spent his time, and bore up under such an affliction, in which nothing but the divine Providence could have supported any man. By this one may see, that solitude, and retirement from the world, is not such an insufferable state of life, as most men imagine, especially when people are fairly thrown into it unavoidably, as this man was; who, in all probability, must otherwise have perished in the seas, the ship which left him being cast away not long after, and few of the company escaped.

We may perceive, by this story, the truth of the maxim, that necessity is the mother of invention, since he found means to supply his wants in a very natural manner, so as to maintain his life; though not so conveniently, yet as effectually, as we are able to do with the help of all our arts and society.

It may likewise instruct us, how much a plain and temperate way of living conduces to the health of the body and the vigour of the mind, both

which we are apt to destroy by excess and plenty, especially of strong liquor, and the variety, as well as the nature of our meat and drink ; for this man, when he came to our ordinary › method of diet and life, though he was sober enough, lost much of his strength and agility.

a mile from the shore: their fur is the finest that ever I saw of the kind, and exceeds that of our otters.

Another strange creature here is the sea lion; the governor tells me he has seen of them above twenty feet long and more in compass, which could not weigh less than two tons weight. I saw several of these vast creatures, but none of the above-men

FERNANDEZ.

The island of Juan Fernandez is nearest of a triangular form, about twelve leagues round, and has a small island, near a mile long, lying near it, with several rocks close under it, near which there are very good fish of several sorts. It abounds with cabbage trees, which grow for three miles together, and extraordinary good, also turnips, which grow wild here. The soil is a loose black earth, and there are often great drifts of snow and ice in July; but in the spring, which is in September, October, and November, it is very pleasant.

:

Mr Selkirk says, that in November the seals come a-shore to whelp and engender, when the shore is so full of them that it is impossible to pass through them and they are so surly, that they will not move out of the way, but, like an angry dog, run at a man, though he have a good stick to beat them; so that at this and their whelping seasons, it is dangerous to come near them; but at other times, they will make way for man; and, if they did not, it would be impossible to get from the waterside: they lined the shore very thick, for above half a mile of ground, all round the bay,

When we came in they kept a continual noise day and night; some bleating like lambs, some howling like dogs or wolves, others making hideous noises of various sorts; so that we heard them aboard, though

wards of sixteen feet long, and more in bulk, so that they could not weigh less than a ton weight. The shape of their body differs little from the seadogs, or seals, but they have another sort of skin, a head much bigger in proportion, and very large mouths, monstrous big eyes, and a face like that of a lion, with very large whiskers, the hair of which is stiff enough to make tooth pickers. These creatures come ashore to engender, the latter end of June, and stay till the end of September; during which time they lie on the land, and are never observed to go to the water, but lie in the same place above a musquet shot from the water side, and have no manner of sustenance all that time that he could observe.

I took notice of some that lay a week without once offering to move out of the place, whilst I was there, till disturbed by us; but we saw few, in comparison of what he informed us he did, and that the shore was all crowded full of them, a musquet shot into the land. I admire how these monsters come to yield such a quantity of oil; their hair is short and coarse, and their skin thicker than the thickest ox-hide I ever saw. We found no land bird on the island, but a sort of blackbird with a red breast, not unlike our English blackbird, and the humming bird of various. colours, and no bigger than a large humble bee. Here is a small tide, which flows uncertain, and the spring tide flows about seven feet,

This is the account given by him

Self to the captain of the ship, as will be attested by several merchants and captains upon the Exchange, who have conversed with him; in which relation, the divine Providence of God may be visibly seen, first in throwing him upon the desolate island, and next in supporting him unders uch an affliction, whilst the ship which he left soon after perish ed in the sea, and few of the company escaped; all which singular acts of providence, that conspired in his preservation, he wholly and piously ascribes to the infinite goodness and mercy of God; to whom all honour and glory be given, now and

evermore.

Account of the Origin and Progress of SCOTTISH Commerce. (Continued from p. 96.)

THE 'HE subjection of the Caledonians, which had been effected by Lollius Urbicus, was but of very short duration. Commotions soon broke out; and from the profound silence observed by the Roman writers on the subject, there is reason to suspect that the issue was by no means flattering to their vanity. But in the reign of Commodus they made a most formidable incursion, attacked and slew the Roman General, cut his army in pieces, and completely expelled the Romans from Vespasiana, supposed to be the first province from which they were ever driven out by the native inhabitants. Marcellus, the next comman der, gained some advantages over them, but was unable to make any impression on the country. Septimius Seyerus, a vigorous and warlike emperor, resolved to attempt repairing these losses; and accordingly led a great army into North Britain But the Caledonians, retiring into

-

their mountains and fastnesses bar rassed him in such a manner by ambuscades and skirmishes, that upwards of fifty thousand of his men perished. The Emperor, however, still persevered; and at length got them to purchase peace by a surrender of part of their territory; but no sooner was his back turned, than they again returned, and overran it. Severus then sent his eldest son with orders to inflict a signal vengeance; but dying soon after, the son found it of more importance for him to secure his own inheritance than to prosecute schemes of conquest. The dominion of the Caledonians now comprehended, not Scotland merely, but also some part of the border counties of Cumberland and Nor thumberland.

Britain was soon after possessed by the celebrated usurper Carausius, who raised her arts and agriculture to a very flourishing condition, and at the same time vigorously repelled the incursions of the northern tribes. Constantius, the Roman Emperor, again annexed Britain to the Empire, and made an expedition against the Caledonians, which does not appear to have been followed by any lasting consequences.

The Roman emperors, being now overwhelmed by the inundation of barbarous nations which poured in upon them from the North of Europe and Asia, were forced to leave Britain in a great degree defenceless. The flower of her youth was even drawn away to defend the central provinces of the empire. Her neighbours (whom we now find mentioned by the names of the Picts and Scots) soon discovered this weakness, and having now only the wall to restrain them, soon burst that impotent barrier, and spread desolation over the whole country. Theodosius, on landing in Britain, found them 10ying every where at large, dri