moment or two, was by its force, swung round, stern foremost; and having passed to the third rapid, she bilged, but carried her hull apparently whole, between Grass Island and the British shore, to the Horse Shoe, over which she was carried stern foremost, and launched into the abyss below. In her fall she was dashed into ten thousand pieces. I went below the Falls immediately after the descent, and the river exhibited a singular appearance from the thousands of floating fragments; there being scarcely to be seen any two boards nailed together, and many of her timbers were broken into twenty pieces. Such was the eagerness of the multitude present to procure a piece of her, that before sun-set a great part of her was carried away.

"I believe I have already informed you of the animals on board.— They consisted of a buffalo from the Rocky Mountains, two bears from Green Bay and Grand River, two foxes, a racoon, a dog, a cat, and four geese. The fate of these you will probably wish to learn. When the vessel was left to her fate, they were let loose on deck, except the buffalo, who was enclosed in a temporary pen. The two bears left the vessel shortly after she began to descend the rapids, and swam ashore, notwithstanding the rapidity of the current. On reaching the British shore they were taken. The buffalo was seen to pass over the Falls, but was not visible afterwards. What became of the other animals is not known. Those who had glasses could see one of the bears climbing the mast as the vessel approached the rapids; the foxes, &c. were also running up and down, but nothing was seen of them after the schooner had passed over. The only live animals of the crew that passed the falls were two geese: they were taken up unhurt. Major Fraser obtained one, and an English gentleman purchased the other for two dollars.'

HEIGHT OF NIAGARA FALLS.-The perpendicular height of the Falls has lately been ascertained by actual measurement, from the bridge recently erected from the west end of Goat Island to the Tarrapin Rocks. The mode adopted in ascertaining the depth, from the brink of the fall to the surface of the water below, leaves no room to question its correctness. A piece of scantling was used, projecting from the railing of the bridge over the edge of the precipice, from which was suspended a cord, with a weight attached, reaching fairly to the water in a perpendicular line. The length of the cord to the surface of the water, at the brink, was thirteen feet one inch; from this to the water below, on accurate measurement, the distance was found to be 158 feet 4 inches. This is the first successful attempt that was ever made to ascertain the perpendicular descent by actual measurement. Heretofore it has been done by observation.

IMPORTANT QUESTION TO PUBLISHERS-An important question, as affecting authors and publishers, is now pending in the Court of King's Bench. It is, whether, under the last Copyright Act of 54 Geo. III.,. c. 156, which gives to each of the Universities and Public Libraries

the right of demanding a copy of every work published, those institutions are entitled to copies of parts of a publication (such parts not forming an entire volume) before the whole work is completed. The question has been mooted in an action brought by the trustees of the British Museum against Messrs. Payne and Foss, the booksellers of Pall-Mall, who published some numbers of the late Dr. Sibthorp's celebrated work on Botany, the "Flora Græca;" the publication of which was commenced before the passing of the Act in question, and the work was continued in numbers, but has not been completed in consequence of the executors of the late doctor not being possessed of adequate funds for the purpose. Mr. Justice Bayley has already expressed an opinion, at Nisi Prius, on the construction of the Copyright Act, against the claim made by the British Museum; but the question is shortly to be submitted to the consideration of the Court of King's Bench.

MINUTENESS OF ATOMS.-Goldbeaters, by hammering, can reduce gold leaves so thin, that 282,000 must be laid upon each other to produce the thickness of an inch; yet those leaves are perfect, or without holes, so that one of them laid upon any surface, as in gilding, gives the appearance of solid gold. They are so thin, that, if formed into a book, 1500 would only occupy the space of a single leaf of common paper; and an octavo volume of an inch thick would have as many pages as the books of a well-stocked ordinary library of 1500 volumes with 400 pages in each. Still thinner than this is the coating of gold upon the silver wire of what is called gold lace, and we are not sure that such coating is not of only one atom thick. Platinum and silver can be drawn into wire much finer than human hair. A grain of blue vitriol, or carmine, will tinge a gallon of water, so that in every drop the colour may be perceived. A grain of musk will scent a room for twenty years, and will have lost little of its weight. The carrion crow smells its food many miles off. A burning taper uncovered for a single instant, during which it does not lose 1000th of a grain, would fill with light a sphere four miles in diameter, so as to be visible in every part of it. The thread of the silk-worm is so small, that many of them are twisted together to form our finest sewing thread: but that of the spider is smaller still; for two drachms of it, by weight, would reach from London to Edinburgh, or 400 miles. In the milt of a cod-fish, or in water in which certain vegetables have been infused, the microscope discovers animalcules of which many thousands together do not equal in bulk a grain of sand: and yet nature, with a singular prodigality, has supplied many of these with organs as complex as those of the whale or the elephant; and their bodies consist of the same substance, or ultimate atoms, as that of man himself. In a single pound of such matter, there are more living creatures than of human beings on the face of this globe. What a scene has the microscope opened to the admiration of the philosophic inquirer! Water, mercury, sulphur, or, in general, any substance,

when sufficiently heated, rises as invisible vapour or gas; that is, it is reduced to the aëriform state. Great heat, therefore, would cause the whole of the material universe to disappear, and the most solid bodies to become as invisible and impalpable as the air we breathe.

MAKING STEEL.-Mr. Mackintosh has lately taken out a patent for the above purpose by a new process; and he claims, as the principle of his process, the impregnation of iron at a higher temperature with carbon in a gaseous form. The gas which he employs as the most economical and convenient for this purpose, is that evolved from coal under distillation The iron is enclosed in a crucible or melting pot of the usual materials, and placed in the furnace; and when it is raised to a very high degree of temperature, a jet or current of the gas is thrown into the crucible, through a suitable aperture and tube provided for this purpose. In the cover of this crucible there is made another aperture, to permit the escape of that part of the gas which is not absorbed by the iron.

HAGUE'S CRANE.-At the Mint a cylinder is connected with a somewhat distant air-pump of a steam-engine, and the vacuum transmitted, if we may use the phrase, from the latter to the former, and, alternating on it with the pressure of the atmosphere, is employed to move a wheel through half a circle, which stamps the coin. Messrs. Bolton and Watt have, we understand, a similar apparatus for nearly the same purpose, and Mr. Hague has erected one at the mint at Utrecht, for the King of the Netherlands. Mr. Hague employs this method to work cranes. From the air-pump of a steam engine employed to do the work of his factory, he has carried a small pipe to This counting-house, a distance of 120 yards; and there it is connected with a small cylinder, placed at the foot of a model crane. On turning a cock, a communication is opened between the air-pump and this cylinder, and the piston within it immediately falls to the bottom. In its descent it closes and opens certain valves, which cut off the communication with the atmosphere from above the piston, and allow the atmosphere to enter below it, while the communication with the vacuum is transferred from beneath to above the piston, which, of course, immediately ascends. Thus, on turning a single cock, a motion is given, which never ceases till the communication with the air-vessel of the engine is interrupted. The power can be regulated to a fraction of a ton, and the motion accelerated or retarded at pleasure. The velocity, indeed, with which the piston can be made to move is very great. It is impossible to have a machine more under command, or more safe. Mr. Hague's model, in which the cylinder is about two inches long, raises a weight of 50lbs. The value of Mr. Hague's invention will soon be put to the test. He is now erecting at St. Catherine's Dock two machines, each of which is to be able to raise thirty tons. The cylinders for obtaining the power are about five inches in diameter, and two feet long; and the pipe which is to

connect them with the air pump of the steam-engine will not be more than one inch in diameter. If these answer the expectations of the Dock Company-and the inventor is quite confident of success-all the cranes on their wharfs will be on this plan. From the steamengine erected at any convenient part of the premises, or even off the premises, if desirable, a main will be carried to the extremity of the wharfs, and from it small pipes will be conducted to each crane. It will then only be necessary to turn a cock, and each crane will begin to do its work.

CURIOUS INVENTION. A petition has been presented to the Common Council, from a watchmaker, named Knight, praying patronage for an invention which would act as a constant watch on watchmen, for which he had obtained a patent. It was stated by a member of the court, that this machine was an extremely curious instrument. It was composed of a curious mechanism, and had a dial similar to that of a watch. If watchmen were turned on, the dial would indicate, whether or not they were attending to their duty, furnishing correct registries of their progress from place to place during the time they were on duty, and ascertaining at what part of their district they were at any period of the night.