dence, fenfible of the difficulties which attend the ftructure of all the theories of the earth; but, if I fhould be thought to have failed in any of my inferences, I have ftill the fatisfaction to know that, without any view to fyftem, I have endeavoured faithfully to collect and to record natural facts, of which others may probably make a better ufe than I have made myfelf, and to which the attention of fcientific men may not unprofitably be directed. It is not for me to pronounce how far I have fucceeded; but as Sir William Hamilton's object has been to trace the operation of fire in the formation of the great features of nature, fo it has been mine to trace and to notice the operation of water; and, perhaps, when the power of these two mighty elements is duly confidered, great light will be thrown on a fubject hitherto imperfectly inveftigated.

I fhall be happy fhould my works, with their embellifhments, be allowed the honour of standing as an invitation or introduction to the ftudy of that part of the Alps, where the few flowers and ears of corn which I have gathered may ferve as a fpecimen of their richnefs and fertility, as a field of fcience, and whofe harveft I muft leave to be reaped by others more converfant than myself in the philofophy of natural history,

Immenfe herds of this animal roam at large, in interior America. From Green River to the Miffiffippi, the fhores of the Ohio are lined with them. The hunters are too apt to deftroy them wantonly: a circumftance much to be regretted, and not to be prevented. Frequently have I feen this fine animal killed; and, excepting the tongue and the tallow, left on the ground, a prey to the tygers, wolves, and engles. The bofs on the thoulders of the buffalo is, as well as the tongue, extremely rich and delicious,fuperior to the best English beef. It is ufual to cure the tongues, and tranfport them to New Orleans; where they are fure to meet with a good market.

There is a fingular, an affecting trait in the character of the buffalo, when a calf; and my feelings have feverely felt it. Whenever a cow buffalo falls before the murdering lead of the hunters, and happens to have a calf, the helplefs young one, far from attempting an escape, ftays by its fallen dam, with figns expreffive of strong and active natural affection. The dam thus fecured, the hunter makes no attempt on the calf, (knowing it to be unneceflary) but proceeds to cut up the carcafe: then laying it on his horfe, he returns towards home, followed by the poor calf, thus inftinctively attending the remains of its dam. I have seen a fingle hunter ride into the town of Cincinnati, between the Miames, followed. in this manner, and, at the fame time, by three calves, who had loft their dams by this cruel hunter.

Since I have expreffed a wish to fee the buffalo domefticated on the English farms, I will now mention a fact concerning it, within my own knowledge. A farmer, on the great

Kenhawa

:

Kenhawa, broke a young buffalo to the plough; having yoked it with a fteer taken from his tame cattle. The buffalo performed to admiration. Enquiring of the man, whether he had any fault to find with the buffalo's performance, he anfwered, there was but one objection to it; the ftep of the buffalo was too quick for that of the tame fteer. "My friend," faid I, the fault lies not in the buffalo, but in the fteer what you term a fault in the former is really an advantage on its fide." Till this moment, the man had laboured under one of thofe clouds of prejudice but too common among farmers. He had taken the ox of his father's farm, as the unit whence all his calculations were to be made, and his conclufions drawn: it was his unchangeable ftandard of excellence, whether applied to the plough or to the draught. No fooner was my obfervation uttered, than conviction flashed on his mind. He acknowledged the fuperiority of the buffalo.

But there is another property in which the buffalo far furpaffes the ox: his ftrength. Judging from the extraordinary fize of his bones, and the depth and formation of his cheft, I fhould not think it unreafonable to affign nearly a double portion of ftrength to this powerful inhabitant of the forest. Reclaim him, and you gain a capital quadruped for the draught and for the plough: his activity peculiarly fits him for the latter, in preference to the ox.

Account of the River Tigris; from Oufeley's Perfian Mifcellanies, MONG his other titles, the Perfian emperor ftyled himself,

A

lord of the four rivers of Paradise, which an ingenious traveller* explains by Iuphrates, Tigris, Araxes, and Indus;" although in another place, he acknowledges his uncertainty, whether these were the ftreams that watered that happy garden; that the Euphrates and Tigris were the principal rivers of the terreftial Paradife, is allowed by all writers. The Jihoon, or Oxus, as we have juft feen, is fuppofed by fome to have its fource there, but as to the river Shihoon, as written in the fpecimen, I must confefs my ignorance. I cannot affirm that it means the Araxes, which rifes in Armenia, to the weft of the Cafpian fea; and I fhould rather imagine" that the points over the first letters were fuperfluous, and that it fignifies the Shihoon, or ancient Jaxartes, between which, and the lower part of the courfes of the Jihoon, or Oxus, lies that country called Tranfoxania formerly, and by the modern Afiatics, Mawer'-ul Neher, "the land beyond the river."

But fo little has been done on the geography of those countries, and fo ignorant are we ftill of the exact fituation of the rivers which we fpeak of, that a most learned writer takes particular occafion to remark the peculiar obfcurity which yet hangs about them; and even the celebrated orientalift, M. D'Herbelot, only tells us, that perhaps ("peut-être") the Shihoon is only another name for that river, which the "Antients called Jaxartes, and the Arabs write Sihoon."

Of the river Tigris, to celebrated by the Greek and Latin writers, the ancient name is no longer ufed, and it is now called Dejleh; the

etymology of the former is traced to the Pertian word Terr, an arrow, which the river, from its velocity, was faid to refemble. To this word the Greeks (according to their ufual cuftom of adapting to their own idiom, all foreign, or as they ftyled them barbarous, words) added the common termination of the nominative cafe is, and the interpolation of the Greek gamma may be accounted for by the probable gutturality of pronounciation with which the Perfians uttered the letter R.

The rapidity of this river's courfe is alluded to by Sadi, in an elegy which has been published with a Latin tranflation. "The fame of my verfes," fays the prophetic poet, fhall fpread over the world with greater impetuofity than the current of the Tigris;" and the river Dejleh is celebrated in a particular chapter of a moft excellent geographical poem by Khacani.

The ancient Medes as well as Perfians (according to Pliny) called an arrow Tigris, and a learned commentator on Plutarch contends that this is properly a Medic, not a Perfian word; but the two nations are confounded by most authors on account of their vicinity. Yet, though all ancient writers agree, that the name, whether Medic or Perfian, was impofed as expreffive of the rapidity of this river's current, we find one traveller who calls them all in queftion, and allerts, that its fiream is lels fwift, even than that of the Euphrates.

On the banks of the Dejleh, am I fallen," ((ays the plaintive poct Jami) unfriendeti, and remote from any habitation, whilft a torrent of tears, like that of the rapid ftream, flows from my eyes." This river from its conflux with the

Euphrates, may be faid to water the plains of Babylon, and I could never read the above-mentioned paffage in the original Perfian, without recollecting the beautiful beginning of that fine Hebrew palm or elegy, compofed in a fimilar forlorn fituation, and expreffive of the fame feelings.

From the original Chaldaic name

The Greeks have formed their corrupt Eugarns; for it is vain to feek the etymology of this word in a Greek compound. The Perfians and Arabians ftill call the river by its ancient Hebrew name, which they write, as in the engraved fpecimen Fràt.

The celebrated current of the Euphrates, was divided, according to the Arabian geographer, whom Bochart follows, into five channels or branches, one of which led to Cufa in Chaldea; and on the banks of another, was feated the "golden Babylon," once the proud miftrefs of the eaftern world, being the capital of the Affyrian monarchy, which comprehended Syria, Mefopotamia, Chaldea, Perfia; in fhort, except India, all the great nations of western Afia.

On the banks of those celebrated fireams, the aan Neheroth Babel, or "rivers of Babylon," of the royal Pfalmift, the perfecuted Jews hung up their ufelefs harps, nor would gratify" thofe who had led them captive into the ftrange land with melody, or with a fong." Those banks were fo thickly planted with willow trees, as the learned Bochart informs us, that the country of Babylon was thence ftyled " the vale of willows," and on those trees were fufpended the neglected and unftrung lyres of the captive Hebrews.

Obfervations

Obfervations on Spontaneous Inflammation; with a particular Account of that which happened on board a Ruffian Frigate in the year 1781; and of the Experiments made in order to afcertain the Caufe of it. In a Letter to the Editors, from the Reverend William Tooke, F. R. S. Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburgh, &c. From the Repertory of Arts and Manufactures.

HE following obfervations on

were drawn up, a few years ago, in Ruffia; they were fuggefted by an accident which happened onboard a frigate lying in the harbour of Cronstadt. I was then at Cronftadt, and confequently had an opportunity of procuring an accurate account, not, only of the accident itself, but alfo of the experiments made to afcertain the caufe of it. If you think proper to add them to the accounts of fpontaneous inflammations which you have already published, you are at liberty to do fo.

The explication of the caufes of fpontaneous inflammations, in certain fubftances and compofitions, muft ever be an object of confequence to the magiftracy; as, by difcovering the caules of fuch phenomena, the fufpicion of felonious practices in fetting fire to buildings may frequently be avoided, and many an innocent perfon faved from capital punishment. A bare at tempt to lellen the number of victims, that may poffibly be doomed to bleed at the bar of mistaken justice, can never be thought either frivolous or impertinent.

I intentionally pass over the pyro

phori, at prefent fo well known to chymifls, prepared from alum, &c. as not properly belonging to my defign, though deferving of notice in explaining the caules of fpontaneous inflammation; nor fhall I fay any thing of those inflammations that happen in the mineral kingdom, in coal-mines, alum-pits, &c. as they are already fufficiently known, and their caufes have often been difcufled.

Of incomparably more importance, and far lefs known, are the fpontaneous inflammations of fubvego

table kingdoms; and thefe are what I defign here briefly to bring together: as I firmly believe, that a more extenfive publication of thefe phenomena may prove of general utility to mankind, by leflening the dangers to which they are expoled.

A recent inftance will ferve to elucidate what I now advance. A perfon of the name of Rüde, at that time an apothecary at Bautzen had prepared a pyrophorus from rye-bran and alum. Not long after he had made the discovery, there broke out, in the next village of Nauflitz, a great fire, which did much mifchief, and was faid to have been occafioned by the treating of a fick cow in the cow-house. Mr. Rüde knew that the countrymen were ufed to lay an application of parched rye-bran to their cattle, for curing the thick neck; he knew alfo, that alum and rye-bran, by a proper procefs, yielded a pyrophorus; and now he wished to try whether parched rye-bran alone would have the fame effect. Ae cordingly, he roafted a quantity of rye-bran by the fire, till it had adquired the colour of roasted coffed.

This roafted bran he wrapped up in a linen cloth; in the pace of a few minutes there arofe a ftrong fmoke through the cloth, accompanied by a fmell of burning. Not long afterwards the rag grew as black as tinder, and the bran row become hot, fell through it on the the ground in little balls. Mr. Rüde repeated the experiment at various times, and always with the fame refult. Who now will any longer doubt, that the frequency of fires in cow-houfes, which in thofe parts, are moftly wooden buildings, may not be occafioned by this common practice, of binding roafted bran about the necks of the cattle? The fire, after confuming the cattle and the fhed, communicates itself to the adjoining buildings; great damage enfues; and the ignorant look for the caufe in wilful and malicious firing, confequently in a capital crime.

Montet relates, in the Mémoires de l'Académie de Paris, 1748, that animal fubftances, under certain circumstances, may kindle into flame; and that he himself has been witnefs to the fpontaneous accenfion of dung-hills. The woollen ftuff prepared at Cevennes, which bears the name of Emperor's-ftuff, has kindled of itfelf, and burnt to a coal. It is not unufual for this to happen to woollen ftuffs, when in hot fummers they are laid in a heap, in a room but little aired.

In June, 1781, the fame thing happened at a wool-comber's in a manufacturing town in Germany, where a heap of wool-combings, piled up in a close warehouse feldom aired, took fire of itfelf. This wool had been by little and little brought into the warehoufe; and, for want of room, piled up very

high, and trodden down, that more might be added to it. That this combed wool, to which, as is wellknown, rape-oil mixed with butter is uted in the combing, burnt of itfelf, was worn by feveral wit nelles. One of them affirmed that, ten years before, a fimilar fire happened among the flocks of wool at a clothier's, who had put them into a calk, where they were rammed hard, for their cafier conveyance. This wool burnt from within outwards, and became quite a coal; it was very certain that neither fire nor light had been used at the packing, confequently the above fires arofe from fimilar caufes.

In like manner very creditable cloth-workers have certified, that after they have bought wool that was become wet, and packed it clofe in their warehouse, this wool has burnt of itfelf; and very ferious confequences might have followed, if it had not been difcovered in time.

The fpontaneous accenfion of various matters from the vegetable kingdom, as wet hay, corn, and madder, and at times wet meal and malt, are already fufficiently known. Experiments have likewife repeatedly been made with regard to fucht phenomena; and it will prelently appear, that hemp, or flax, and hemp-oil, have frequently given rife to dreadful conflagrations. Montet fays: in the year 1757, a fort of failcloth, called pretart, hav ing one fide of it meared with ochre and oil, took fire in the magazine at Breft, where it had probably kindled of itfelf. It is not at all unlikely that many fires in feaports have arifen from these selfaccenfions; as it has often happened that, after the firicteft in