terms. But chance led me to the difcovery. We were failing in a fmall bark between Vrullia and Almiffa with a fresh equal gale, in the afternoon. The mariners were all at reft, and the steerfman alone was awake, and attended in filence to the direction of the bark; when, on a fudden, we heard him call aloud to one of his companions, ordering him to come and kill the Paklara. Our learned friend Signor Guilio Bajamonti was with me, and understanding what the man meant, defired him to fhew him the fish that he wanted to be killed, but the fish was gone. Having interrogated the iteerfman, who did not want fenfe, and was a fisherman by profeffion, why he had ordered the Paklara to be killed, and what harm it had done; he answered, without hesitation, that the Paklara ufed to take hold of the rudder with his teeth, and retarded the courfe of the bark fo fenfibly, that not only he, but every man who fat at the helm felt it there without fecing it. He added, that many a time he himself had catched the Packlara in the fact, and had frequently killed and eat it. That it was often met with in the waters of Lifa. That in fhape it refembled a conger eel, and its length did not ufually exceed a foot and a half.

That if I had a mind to fee, and catch one of them, I needed only to go in a fishing boat, in the warm feafon, between the islands of Lefina and Liffa, where he had never failed to meet with them every year. I will not defire you to believe every thing my pilot faid; but confefs that I fhould be very glad to fee the Paklara when it had taken hold of the rudder of a bark under fail. The wonderful ftrength of the muscles of fome little marine animals, fuch as the Lepades, that fo obftinately refift any attempt to difengage them from their rocks; the ftroke proceeding with fuch rapidity from the Torpedo, known at Venice by the name of pefce tremolo, and in the fea of Dalmatia by that of Truak; the vigour fhewn by the Dentici in their convulfive motions even when out of their own element; not to mention the larger fish, fuch as, Tunny, Dolphins, &c. give me ground to fufpect, that, if all that the ancients wrote concerning the Remora be not just literally true, it is not altogether falfe. It is certainly a thing worthy of fome reflection, that Pliny fpeaks fo diffufely concerning this phenomenon, as of a known fact that could not be called in queftion. The Greeks alfo adopted the notion of this extravagant fa

culty, by fuperftitiously hanging the Remora about women with child to prevent abortion.

The Remora of the ancients and the Paklara of our days have this remarkable difference, that the first is almost always defcribed as of the teftaceous kind, and the second is of the genus of the Murana.

vered with hair, like a bear, nim ble as the Hifars, of a gay humour, and, in all appearance, of a mild character, as he neither did, nor feemed to intend, harm to any body. He often vifited the cottages, without ever attempting to carry off any thing. He had no knowledge of bread, milk, or cheese. His greatest amusement was to fee the sheep running, and

Pyrenees.

HE following relation, con

pleasure at this fight by loud fits of laughter, but never attempted to hurt thofe innocent animals. When

but little known, is well authenticated. The account is tranflated from a work published last year at Paris, intitled, Memoir fur les Travaux, &c. dans les Pyrenées, &c. by the King's engineer M. Le Roy, who has defcribed the machines by which the mafts are drawn out of the forefts of the Pyrenean mountains, for the ufe of the French navy, in a very scientific

manner.

In the course of this work, M. Le Roy fays, In the year 1774, a favage, or wild man, was difcovered by the fhepherds, who fed their flocks in the neighbourhood of the foreft of Yuary. This man, who inhabited the rocks that lay near the foreft, was very tall, co

the cafe) let loofe their dogs after him, he fled with the fwiftness of an arrow fhot from a bow, and never allowed the dogs to come too near him. One morning he came to the cottage of fome workmen, and one of them endeavouring to get near him, and catch him by the leg, he laughed heartily, and then made his escape. He feemed to be about thirty years of age. As the foreft in queftion is very extenfive, and has a communication with vast woods that belong to the Spanifh territory, it is natural to fuppofe that this folitary, but chearful creature, had been loft in his infancy, and had fubfifted on. herbs."

USEFUL

taneous filth, and remove any remains of flesh or fat which may have been left behind by the butcher.

The hair is next to be taken off, and this is accomplished either by fteeping the hides for a fhort time in a mixture of lime and water, which is termed liming; or by rolling them up clofe, and piling them in heaps, where they quickly begin to heat and putrify. The hair being loofened is fcraped off, and the tanner proceeds to the operation called flefhing, which confills in a further fcraping, with a particular kind of knife contrived for the purpofe, and cutting away the jagged extremities and offal parts, fuch as the ears and noftrils.

The raw leather is then put into an alcaline ley, in order to difcharge the oil, and render its pores more capable of imbibing the ooze. The tanners of this country generally make their ley of pigeon's dung; but a more active one may be prepared from kelp or pot-afh, taking care, however, not to make it too strong of the afhes, nor to allow the leather to remain too long in the ley.

The oil being fufficiently difcharged, the leather is ready for the ooze, and at firft is thrown into fmaller holes, which are termed handlers; because the hides or fkins, during this part of the procefs, are taken up, from time to time, and allowed to drain; they continue to work the leather in thefe handlers, every now and then ftirring it up with the utenfil called a plunger, which is nothing more than a pole with a knob at the end of it, until they think proper to lay it away in the vatts. In these holes, which are the largeft in the

tan-yard, the leather is fpread out fmooth, whereas they tofs it into the handlers at random; and between each layer of leather they fprinkle on fome powdered bark, until the pit is filled by the leather and bark thus laid in ftratum super. ftratum: ooze is then poured on, to fill up interftices; and the whole crowned with a sprinkling of bark, which the tanners call a heading.

In this manner the leather is allowed to macerate, until the tanner fees that it is completely penetrated by the ooze: when this is accomplished (which he knows by cutting out a bit of the thickest part of the hide) the manufacture is finished, fo far as relates to tanning, fince nothing now remains but to dry the goods thoroughly, by hanging them up in airy lofts built for the purpose. Such in general is the procefs for tanning calf-fkins, and thofe lighter forts of hides which are called butts; but the large, thick, heavy hides, of which the strongest and moft durable kind of foal-leather is made, require to have their pores more thoroughly opened before the ooze can fufficiently penetrate them. For this purpofe, while the hides are in the putrefcent ftate, from being allowed to heat in the manner already mentioned, and well foaked in an alcaline ley, they are thrown into a four liquor, generally brewed from rye, in order that the effervefcence which neceffarily enfues may open the pores..

The tanners term this operation raifing, as the leather is confiderably fwelled, in confequence of the conflict between the acid and alcali. This is an English invention; for it appears from M. De la Lande, who was employed by the

Royal

Royal Academy of Sciences to write on the art of tanning, that the foreign tanners know nothing of this branch of the bufinefs: indeed, their whole procefs, according to his account, is flovenly, and even more tedious than our common method, and must make but very indifferent leather.

When the raifing is accomplished, the leather is put into the handlers, and worked in them for the requifite time; then laid away in the vatts, and there left to macerate until the tanning is found to be completely finished, which, for the heaviest kind of leather, fuch as this of which I am now speaking, requires from firft to laft full two years. At least, the tanners of this country cannot make foalleather in less time; what they are able to perform in England, I am not fo thoroughly acquainted with.

It is this tediousness of the procefs which enhances the value of leather; and the returns being fo flow, the trade of tanning never can be carried on to advantage, but by perfons poffeffed of a large capital; therefore, one fure way of increafing the number of tanners, and of course of bringing down the price of their manufacture, is to shorten the process; and if at the fame time we can improve the quality of the leather, and fave fomewhat in the expence of tanning material, the public will be effentially benefited in respect to one of the neceffary articles of life.

All this, I will venture to say, can be done by purfuing the method which is laid down in the inclofed paper, and which may be introduced into any common tan-yard.

With respect to time, it is poffible, in the way that I have found out, to finifh leather in a fourth part of what is required in the ordinary procefs; for I have repeatedly had calf-fkins tanned fortnight or four weeks, which in the common way could not be done in less than from two to four months.

in a

I fhall not pretend, however, to affirm, that that bufinefs can be carried on in the large way with fuch expedition; because a great deal of this abridgement of time was probably owing to frequent handling and working of the leather; but I am confident, and know it from four years experience, that in the ordinary courfe of bufinefs, and in a common tan-yard, the tanner may fave at least four months out of twelve, produce better leather, and find his bark go much farther than in the old way of tanning.

Having premifed thus much, I flatter myfelf that the paper of inftructions will be found perfectly intelligible. It fhews, that the principles on which my method is eftablished are derived from chemiftry, and therefore it will not appear strange, that these improvements fhould have been made by a perfon of the medical profeffion: indeed, they took their rife from a feries of experiments carried on purely for medical purpofes (the very fame that confirmed me in the opinion that infufion of malt would cure the fea fcurvy) and any perfon who will look into the account of thofe experiments, will readily understand the theory of the new method of tanning*.