Jan. 30. himself into the good graces of the duke, and had cleared him and his party of their superfluous cash, when the chancellor thinking the lefson sufficient, dispatched a courier to Moscow, to bring down, post, a midshipman absent on leave from the fleet, named Crukoff, who he was afsured to be inferior to none in Europe, either in the necessary manipulation of the cards, or knowledge of the game quinze, then the fashionable court play, and at which the marquis had won all the money. One preliminary measure was, however necefsary to the scheme of getting back the money of the duke and the other noblemen, which was to get the midshipman made an officer of the guards, to entitle him to play at court. This Osterman did, by soliciting it for him under the title of a relation; a favour immediately conferred by Anne, left entirely ignorant of the plot. The new ensign began to lose freely small sums, like a wealthy novice, elated with the honour of playing at court; and at last drew the attention of the marquis as a pigeon worth plucking. After some evenings forcing him with high play, two thirds of all his former gains were carried off by the pigeon; who then was marked out as an object worthy of condign punishment, by the nettled Frenchman; and a monstrous stake was proposed, which the marquis certainly made himself sure of gaining, by some masterpiece of the fhuffling art, reserved for the coup de grace; but probably it never entered either into the marquis's head or calculation, that a Mufkovite pigeon could swallow a card; he had drawn too much, as he actually did, with some sweetmeats taken from an adjoining table, and left just

159 fifteen in hand, the same number the Frenchman's art had procured to himself likewise, and on which he betted not only all his former winnings, but to the amount of his credit with his banker, in perfect security of gaining. But he had forgot an efsential circumstance, in case of equality, that the Rufsian was first in hand, which determined the matter in his favour, and the laugh was turned on the unfor tunate Frenchman.

The chancellor being by this means in pofsefsion of both the gains and credit of the amiable gamester, waited once more on the duke, to finish the conver sation which the gout had prevented him concluding on his grace's first visit, and told him that he was then anxious to put him on his guard against a gamester, whom the court of France was sending to fleece him; and had it not been for the impatience of his highness on that occasion, and the abrupt manner he left him, he might have saved his money.

The duke, quite outrageous at the trick played him by the marquis, talked of having him arrested as a cheat; but the chancellor, taking a bag from under his cloak, added, coolly, that he had taken a more effectual method to punish him in kind; and returned the duke both his own and his friends money, only drily begging him in future not to be so impatient when gouty men had secrets to discover.

The rest of the spoil made the fortune of the successful officer, with an injunction never to lift a card again, if he wished to spend his days out of Siberia, where people would run lefs rifk from his addrefs.

It has since become, as I am told, a sort of proverb amongst the Russian black legs, that such a one plays like a midshipman, when fortune favours him a little too much. ARCTICUS.

WHAT follows is extracted from an old book that lately fell into my hands. If you think this will serve to fill up a spare corner of the Bee, it is much at your service; and the inserting of it will oblige your conftant reader,

M. N.

ACCOUNT OF A REMARKABLE FISH CAST ON SHORE IN

a

NORTHUMBERLAND, 1532.

Ar Tinmouth in Northumberland, in the year 1532, monstrous fish was cast on fhore, which not being of the whale kind, was the more remarkable. Its length was about ninety feet; and from the back to the belly it measured near nine ells. The mouth was about six ells long, with jaws proportionable. The ribs, thirty in number, measured twenty-one feet in length and one and a half in circumference. It had five very large throats, and twenty-five smal1er pafsages into three vast bellies. Its two fins were each about fifteen feet long, of which one was a sufficient load for ten oxen. Instead of teeth, it had plates of a horny substance, and a tongue about seven ells in length. The eyes were nowise proportionable to the rest of the body, they being not much larger than those of an ox, but placed at about six ells distance from each other .The tail, which was forked and jagged like a saw, measured

A TABLE OF GEMS.

Continued from p. 282,

Clafs sixth.
EMERALD.

- The GEMMA NERONIANA or DOMITIANA of the

Romans.

HARDNESS 12; Specific Gravity 4,8.

Varieties.

DARK or LIGHT GREEN.

N. B. It changes to blue, by heat, and returns again to its natural colour when cold.

Analysis,

QRIENTAL, H 12; Sp Gr 2,8; Arg 60; Sil 24; Cal 8; Ir 6 * • OCCIDENTAL,

Form.

The emerald is commonly found in hexagonal columns or prisms, often truncated at both ends; although sometimes found in round flat pieces. And there is a paler kind from the East Indies and Peru, occasionally found in groups or druses, like rock chrystal, on a basis of white quartz. The finest druse of this kind known, is one consisting of more than an hundred great and small emeralds, an offering made by a king of the two Sicilies to the holy chap-.. pel of Loretto. Another variety of the emerald is

* Achard.

VOL. xiii,

Jan. 30, found in columns, striped longitudinally, (like some of our specimens of the Siberian aqua marine in the author's collection,) but of so deep a green as to be almost opaque. Some of this sort have the properties of the tourmaline on being heated. The author of the table makes no doubt but that chemical analysis will point out a difference in composition, and consequently indicate a different arrangement for several gems that are at present classed as varieties of the different precious stones, merely on some external resemblance.

Structure, Properties, &c.

The texture laminar. Electric on friction. Does not lose its colour in the fire. Melts per se, in a strong heat. What is called mother of emeralds, from Egypt, is a fhorl, according to some; but the late Mr Born, in his new work, or Catalogue Raisonné, (often quoted in this table for novelties,) afserts it is a species of green semitransparent jade. In that case it is probably of the same nature with that used formerly in lieu of iron throughout all the Pacific Ocean, and by the Tchutchki near Kamtchatka, till furnished by the Rufsians with that useful metal; however each man still carries a piece of it about with him as a whet stone. This curious information was received from Mr Laxman of Irkoutsky, inspector of the Siberian fofsils, when down here last winter, who presented a polifhed specimen of it to the author, of a dark green colour, semitransparent, in thin pieces, and in every respect agreeing with Born's description of the green jade, which he calls Prime d'Emeraud.