horn to the members; I have therefore taken this firft occafion to entertain the prefent members with a fight of a noble fpecimen of the horns of an African rhinoceros, brought from the Cape of Good Hope, by my curious and worthy friend William Maguire, efquire, among many other curiofities; prefuming that few of the fociety have ever feen a pair of the like kind. But what renders this fubject the more particular, and worthy of obfervation, is, that by means of knowing there is a fpecies of this animal, having always a double horn upon the nose, in Africa, Martial's reading is fupported against the criticifm of Bochart, who changed the true text of that poet, in an epigram upon the ftrength of this animal; for when Domitian ordered an exhibition of wild beafts, as it was the cuftom of feveral emperors, the poet fays: The rhinoceros tofs'd up a heavy bear with his double horn: this difference, that these changed the euros for urfos, as imagining they were rather bears than bulls that were thrown up by this noble animal. Our then worthy prefident Martin Folkes, efquire, had feen my account of this fubject, at the end of which I endeavoured, however prefumptuously, to defend Martial's reading against Bochart and the other eminent perfons mentioned; and defired I would let it be read and printed, which I very readily agreed to, as his request did me much honour. Before my paper was printed Mr. Maittaire and Doctor Douglas died; and the learned Doctor Mead was the furviving critic, upon this line, of the three. Upon this occafion, therefore, I have a double pleafure; firfty in amufing the prefent gentlemen with a molt curious fpecimen in natural his tory; and, fecondly, in remembering in this place, the nice candor and generofity of Dr. Mead Namque gravem gemino cornu fit months after the paper was printed, upon that fubject. For, about four extulit urfum. and as Bochart knew nothing of a double horn, he changed this line both in reading and fenfe thus: Namque gravi geminum cornu fic extulit eurum. as if two wild bulls were toffed up into the air, by the ftrong horn of the rhinoceros. Mr. Maittaire adopted the notion of a fingle horn, but was of opinion that the geminum eurum of Bochart ought to have been plural, geminos eurós, as being more elegant; and he was followed by Doctors Mead and Douglas, with he received a prefent of feveral curious fhells, feeds, &c. and with them the bones of the face of a young rhinoceros, with two horns, in fitu, all entire, by a captain of an African trader, who brought them from Angola. As foon as he faw the horns, he fent to invite me to breakfast, and there, in company, ingenu. oufly gave up his paft opinion, and declared for Martial; and, indeed, I must add to the praise of that great man, that, as I was happy in being frequently at his houfe, I was witnefs to many fuch inftances of the most difinterested candour candour and generofity, where any part of fcience was the topic, among his felect friends. This anecdote I thought proper to mention upon the prefent occafion; nor can too much be faid to his honour, among all lovers of philofophical learning. I am Your lordship's moft obedient fervant, James Parfons. P. S. The dimenfions are as follows: viz. The length of the anterior horn, meafuring with a ftring along the convex fore part, is 20 inches; perpendicular height 18; circumference 21 at the abafe; the pofterior horn is in per. pendicular height 19; circum. ference round the bafe 18; length of both bafes together upon the nafal bones 14; and the weight of both together is 14 pounds 10 ounces. which you was pleafed to take of my letter upon the late comet, did not make me more careful to ob ferve whatever I thought might tend to improve the knowledge of nature, which is a capital part of the laudable defign of the fociety. Your lordship knows, that my fituation expofes me to every blaft that blows, and affords a fair op portunity for measuring the velo city of the wind (the force of which I am, fo often, obliged to feel). I have attempted to determine this by letting light downy feathers fly in the wind (the method, I under ftand, ufed by the ingenious Dr. Derham); but cannot fay, in all the trials I have made (though I have iet fifty of thefe feathers fly, one after the other, at a time) that I have ever feen above one, or two at most, upon which I could have founded a calculation. The velocity of the wind near the earth is very unequal, upon account of the frequent interruptions it meets with from hills, trees, and houfes; and even in open plains; the furface of the earth, though much fmoother than it commonly is, muft reflect and inter rupt fuch a fluid as the air, and occafion great irregularity in the velocity of its current: this is the reafon, when a feather is let fly with the wind, why it feldom, if ever, defcribes a trait line, but move: fometimes in a kind offpiral row high, and then iow, fome times to the right, and then again to the left; and why two feathers let Ay at once, feldom, if ever, keep together, or defcribe fimilar lines. But, at fome confiderable dif tance from the earth, the velocity of the wind feems to be regular and fteady: nothing can be more G uni uniform than the velocity of a cloud in the fky appears to be, even in the greatest ftorm: it is like a fhip carried away infenfibly by a fmooth and gentle current, paffing over equal paces in equal times. This fuggefted the thought, that the motion of a cloud, or its fhadow over the furface of the earth, would be a much more proper measure of the velocity of the wind. In the end of March 1763, I had as favourable an opportunity of putting this method into practice, as I could have wifhed for: the ftorm was exceeding high, and moved with vaft velocity; the fun was bright, the sky clear, except where it was fpotted with light floating clouds; I took my ftation in the north window of my dining room, near the clock, from which I had a free profpect of the fields; the fun was in the meridian, the wind due weft interfecting his rays at right angles; I waited until the fore-part of the fhadow of a cloud, Feet that was diftinct, and well defined, juft touched a fouth and north line, which I had marked upon the ground; at that inftant I began my reckoning, and followed the fhadow with my eye in its progrefs, counting feconds all the while by the clock, until I had reckoned up 15 feconds; then I obferved exactly where the afore. faid edge of the fhadow was. This experiment I repeated ten times in half an hour, and feldom found the difference of a fecond, in the time which different clouds took to move over the fame space. On the 5th of May current, I repeated the trial four different times, the fun being alfo near the meridian, the wind in the weft, with light clouds floating in a clear sky as formerly; and found that the fhadows of different clouds took fome of them 44, and others 45 feconds, to pafs over the fame fpace which they had moved over in 15 feconds, in the former trials. This Ipace meafures exactly 1384-fpace paffed over in 15 feconds, which multiplied by 4 gives 5536-fpace paffed over in one minute, which multiplied by 60 gives 332,160-fpace paffed over in one hour. Which space is 62.9 English miles per hour, the velocity of the wind in March 1763. One third of this (or 21 miles nearly) fhews the velocity of the wind on May the 6th, when it blew a fresh gale. 'This day, May 12, there was a fmall wefterly breeze, the velocity of which I meafured upon the fame line, the fun being 10 minutes paft the meridian, and found that the fhadow took 95 feconds to pafs over the above space, which gives the velocity of the wind at the rate of 9.9 English miles per hour. Thus, by having feveral lines. in different directions of a known length marked upon the ground, one may eafily (and with great accuracy, I imagine,) meafure the velocity of the wind. If a perfon was provided with an inftrument for for measuring the force of the wind, it would perhaps be worth while to obferve whether, when the velocities of different winds were the fame, (or nearly fo) the forces of thefe winds did not vary with the feasons of the year, the points of the compafs from which the wind blows, and alfo with the different ftate of the barometer and thermometer, fince the momentum of the wind depends not only upon its velocity, but alfo upon its density. From the end of March 1765, to the end of March laft, we, in this part of Scotland, had very lit. tle rain, and lefs fnow in proportion; our rivers were as low, through the winter, as they ufe to be in the middle of fummer; fprings failed in moft places, and brewers and maltfters were obliged, even in winter, to carry their water at a confiderable distance; I was much afraid there would not be moisture enough in the earth for the purpofes of vegetation, if this feafon fhould fet in as dry as the former, before we got a new fupply of rain. In the end of March laft, we had a fall of snow; and, as I did not remember to have ever read an account of fuch an experiment, I wished to be able to determine, to what quantity of rain this fall of fnow was equal. The fnow had been falling from five o'clock the former evening, till ten o'clock the next day; about eleven o'clock I measured the depth of the fnow, and found it to be 6.2 inches; then I took a ftone jug, holding about three English pints, and turned the mouth of it downwards upon the fnow measured, and where the ground below was fmooth and hard; and by this means I took up all the fnow from top to bottom in the jug; this fnow I melted by the fide of a fire, and the 6.2 inches of fnow yielded fix tenths of an inch deep of water in the fame jug. After emptying the jug, I dried, and weighed it in a balance, and took up the fame quantity of fnow in it as before, weighed it again, and found the weight of the fnow taken up, and from this weight computed what quantity of water it should have produced, and found that it ought to have produced fix tenths of an inch and one twentieth of an inch more then I diffolved the fnow, and found that it yielded a quan. tity of water in the bottom of the jug, fix tenths of an inch deep, as in the former experiment. The difference of one tw ntieth of an inch in the depth of the water, betwixt the weight and the melting of the fnow, was probably owing to an exhalation from the jug, while the fnow was melt. ing by the fire, for I obferved a fteam fometimes rifing from it. A great or leffer degree of cold, or of wind, while the fnow falls, and its lying a longer or shorter while upon the ground, will occafion a difference in the weight and in the quantity of water produced from a certain number of cubic feet, or inches, of fnow; but, if I may truft to the above trials, (which I endeavoured to perform with care) fnow, newly fallen, with a moderate gale of wind, freezing cold, which was the cafe of the fnow I made the trials upon, the 27th of March laft, will produce a quantity of water equal to one tenth part of its bulk; or the earth, when covered with fnow, ten inches deep, will be moistened by it when melted, rivers and fprings recruited, as much as if a quantity of rain had fallen that covered the furface of the earth to the depth of one inch. I am, my lord, &c. Alex. Brice. Some curious particulars relative to the growth of rhubarb; how an animal called the marmot contri butes to its propagation, and how the natives dry the root. Taken from Mr. Bell's travels. HE beft rhubarb grows in that part of the Eaftern Tartary called Mongalia, a vast country inhabited by the Mongall Tartars, and which now ferves as a boundary between the two migh. ty empires of Ruffia and China. The Mongalls, though once a great and independent people, have notwithstanding by degrees been in duced to put themfelves under the protection of one or other or thefe their powerful neighbours. This meafure feems rather to have pro. ceeded from the love of ease, a defire of fecurity, and a want of una. nimity; than to have been the effect of fear, or the confequence of an abfolute conqueft. The Mongallians still retain their own laws, cuftoms, and princes; and though they fubmit to certain regulations, it does not appear that they pay any tribute. This fubmiffion has however divided their country and nation into what may be called Ruffian and Chinefe; the two great, jealous neighbours, to prevent the continual difputes which would have happened about limits, or the desertion of their people, have left a vaft chain of country, of about 300 miles in breadth, and of a prodigious length, wafte and uninhabited, as a common barrier between them. This country, which is one of the fineft in Afia, produces the best rhubarb in the world, and runs the whole length of Mongalia, dividing it into two parts. We fhall now give our curious traveller's own words. The country retained much the fame appearance, and the weather was very fine: but not a fingle inhabitant was yet to be feen. In the evening I walked from our tents, with fome of our company, to the top of a neighbouring hill, a where I found many plants of excellent rhubarb; and, by the help of a stick, dug up as much of it as I wanted. On these hills are a great num. ber of animals called marmots, of a brownish colour, having feet like a badger, and nearly of the fame fize. They make deep burrows on the declivities of the hills; and, it is faid, that, in winter, they continue in thefe holes, for a certain time, even without food. At this feafon, however, they fit or lie near their burrows, keeping a strict watch; and, at the ap proach of danger, rear themfelves upon their hind-feet, giving a loud whistle, like a man, to call in the ftragglers; and then drop into their holes in a moment. I fhould not have mentioned an animal fo well known as the marmot, had it not been on account of the rhubarb. Whereever you fee ten or twenty plants growing, you are fure of finding feveral burrows under the thades of their broad fpreading leaves. |