out a rope, or any thing that breaks the surface of the water, will render it luminous. If sea-water be taken up, and placed in a vessel, as soon as it is stirred, it will sparkle; and if a linen rag be dipped in sea water, and hung up, when it is thoroughly dried. it will appear luminous on being rubbed in the dark; and when half dry, it ne d only be shook, to show a great number of sparkles. When these sparkles are once formed, and fall on any solid body they will last a considerable time. If they remain on the water, they will soon go out.

The waves beating against the rocks or shore, yea, or against one another, will occasion the same appearance, and often yield a long course of light the whole uight. In the Brasils the shores often seem all on fire, by the waves dashing against them. In general, the thicker and fouler the seas are, the more of this lig they afford. In many places the sea is covered with a yellow. matter like sawdust, which seems to be the excrement of so sea-animal. The water where this is found, gives more lig”. upon moving, than any other.

Some parts of the northern seas are covered with this, fr several leagues together, and this is often luminous all over in the night, though not stirred by any thing moving through it.

In the gulf of Venice the water is luminous only from the beginning of summer till the end of harvest. This light is most copious in places abounding with sea-grass, especially when any thing moves the water. One filled a flask with this water, but it emitted no light till it was stirred in the dark. When this was strained through a fine cloth, the cloth shone in the dark, but not the water. This light consisted of innumerable lucid particles. When some of this sea-grass was taken up, there were above thirty of these particles on one leaf, one of which when it was shaken, fell off. It was as fine as an eyelash and about as long. Viewed with a microscope, it appeared to be a worm or maggot, consisting of eleven rings, with as many mamilæ on the sides instead of feet. Their whole bodies were lucid, though least so when at rest. In the spring they confine themselves to the sea-grass: but in summer they are dispersed all over the sea, and mostly on the surface. When this sea sparkles more than usual, it is a sure sign of a storm : and this proceeds from the greater agitations of the worms, already sensible of the approaching change Hence it is clear, that the glittering of this sea, in a ship's course, s occasioned by these worms: which probably is the case in some other seas also. And they are certainly the cause of the light in the pinnamar na, a large muscle frequently caught by the Algerine fishermen.

An Account of the Phenomena of Whirlwinds and Water Spouts at Sea.

[Meth. Mag. Eng.]

A WIND of a very peculiar kind, passed over the city of Rome, on the night of the 11th of June, 1749. There first appeared a very black, long and lofty cloud, which emitted flames on all sides. It moved along with a surprising swiftness, within three or four feet of the ground. It first gathered in the neighbouring sea, came from Ostia to Rome, entered the city between the gates of St. Paul and St. Sebastion, and crossing in a strait line, went out at the north angle of a large square, between the Porta Pia and that of St. Lawrence. It stripped off the roofs of houses, blew down the chimneys, broke doors and windows, forced up the floors, and unpaved the rooms. It tore up the vines, and overthrew the trees in its way, and where its action was most violent, the very rafters of the houses were broke, yea, and hurled against houses at a considerable distance. The loftiest buildings felt its fury the most: those of one story were little damaged. It was traced to some distance without the city. then it died away.

The motion of all these hurricanes is circular, and they carry up into the air, tiles, stones, and whatever comes in their way, and throw them violently to a considerable distance. To this may be owing some of those surprising showers which are recorded in history. A whirlwind, for instance, passes over a place where wool is spread to dry. It takes it up, and scatters it in small locks, at a considerable distance. Here is the appearance of a shower of wool. If it sweeps along a mineral rivulet, of which there are many among the mountains of Italy, it carries innumerable metallic particles away, and sprinkles them on some distant town or fields. Here is what they call a shower of iron.

Hurricanes are foreseen at the Antipes by a calm, and then a shifting of breezes from all quarters; the sun sets blood red, small clouds fly to and fro with great rapidity. Sea-birds quit the air and seek the shore. Soon after a north breeze springs up, which comes to the north-east. Afterwards it is south and south-east, and the air is darkened by a black cloud.

In the last hurricane, the wind stood at north east, and blew with such violence, that the largest trees were torn up by the roots, their trunks broken to pieces, and not a leaf left on those other trees, which yielded to the fury of the winds. The houses were thrown down, and the tops of the sugar-mills, which could

not well be thrown down, were crushed in pieces. At the end of a hurricane we see lightning, and hear the noise of thunder. Then the wind softens gradually, till all becomes quiet.

When there was a violent hurricane at Guadaluope, there peared on the island, a thick black cloud, which seemed on fire, and gravitating toward the earth. It occupied a space of five or six leagues in front. Above it the air was almost clear, there appearing only a kind of mist. The whole force of a hurricane is lodged in the very body of a cloud, containing wind, rain, lightning and thunder: where the air is compressed, and rolling upon itself, causes the storms, which nothing can resist.Nor does the hurricane end, till the cloud bursts, and the thunder and lightning come on.

One species of hurricane is that which is called a water-spout. These are seen to descend from a cloud as a pillar, having two motions, one round their own axis, the other progressive in a straight direction. Such a spout is a gyration of clouds, by contrary winds meeting in the centre, and there (where the condensation and gravitation are greatest) sinking down into a great tube, like a screw. In its working and whirling, it sucks and raises the water, in the same manner as the spiral screw does.One of these sometimes appears on the land. On June 21, some years since, the clouds near Hatfield, in Yorkshire, were observed to be much agitated and driven together. They soon became very black, and were hurried round: hence proceeded a whirling noise like that of a mill. Soon after there issued a long tube from the centre of the congregated clouds, having a screw-like motion, by which means the water wherever it came was raised up. In August following, the wind blowing at the same time out of several quarters, created a great whirling among the clouds, the centre of which every now and then sunk down, like a long, black pipe, wherein was distinctly seen a motion like that of a screw, continually drawing and screwing up, as it were, whatever it touched. Groves and trees bent under it circularly, like wands. Some of the branches it tore off. It is commonly supposed, that the water at sea rises in a column before the tube touches it. But this is a mistake. The tube often touches the surface of the sea, before the water rises at all.

But water-spouts happen several ways.

Sometimes the wa

ter is seen to boil, and raise itself for a considerable space about a foot from the sea, before the tube touches it. Above this there appears, as it were, a thick and black smoke, in the midst of which is a sort of pipe, resembling a tunnel, reaching up to the clouds. At other times these tunnels come from the clouds, and suck up the water with great violence. Sometimes these

discharge themselves into the sea, to the unavoidable destruction of such ships as are in their way: sometimes on the shore, beating down all they meet with, and raising the sand and stones to a prodigious height.

A very distinct account of this kind was given some time since by an eye-witness.

"We were on the coast of Barbary, when three water-spouts came down one of them bigger than three masts, the other two scarce half as big all of them were black, as the cloud from which they fell; all smooth, and smaller at the lower end.-Sometimes one became smaller and then larger again: sometimes it disappeared, and quickly fell down again.

"There was always a great boiling and flying up of the water, like the appearance of a smoking chimney in a calm day.Sometimes it stood as a pillar some yards above the sea, and then spread itself and scattered like smoke. One spout came down to the very middle of the pillar, and joined with it. Afterwards it pointed to the pillar at some distance, first in a perpendicular, and then in an oblique line.

"It was hard to say, whether this spout fell first from the cloud, or the pillar rose first from the sea, both appearing op posite to each other, as in the twinkling of an eye. But in another place the water rose up to a great height, without any spout pointing to it. Only here, the water did not rise like a pillar, but flew scatteringly, and advanced as a moving bush upon the surface of the sea. This proves that the rising of the water may begin, before the spout from the cloud appears.

"All these spouts, but especially the great one toward the end, began to appear like a hollow canal, along the middle of which one might distinctly perceive the sea water fly up very swiftly soon after, the spout broke in the middle, and disappeared by little and little the boiling up, yea, the pillar of seawater continuing a considerable time after."

Account of Lobsters and sea and land Crabs, and of their wonderful properties.

[By John Wesley, LL. D.]

It has long been supposed that all shells, as well as the ammals in them, arose wholly from the egg. But it is now found by various experiments, that the shell of snails, and probably of all other animals, are formed of a matter which perspires from

their bodies, and then condenses round them.

It is certain all'animals perspire and are encompassed with an atmosphere which exhales from them. Snails have nothing peculiar in this respect, unless that their atmosphere condenses and hardens about them, and forms a visible cover for the body, while that of other animals evaporates. This difference may arise from the different substances perspired, that from snails being viscous and stony. This is no supposition, but a matter of fact, proved by numerous experiments.

But the reproduction of the 'shells of some fish, yea, and of the parts contained therein, is far more strange and unaccountable, than their first production. This is particularly observed in crabs and lobsters. Lobsters cast their shell yearly, some time after midsummer. In the room of the old, a new thin shell is immediately prepared by nature, which in less than eight days, acquires almost the same degree of hardness as the other. The legs of a lobster consist of five articulations. When any of these legs break, which frequently happens, the fracture is always near the fourth joint and what they lose is precisely reproduced in some time after four joints shooting out, the first whereof has two claws, as before.

If a leg be broken off purposely at the fourth or fifth joint, it is constantly reproduced but very rarely, if at the first, second, or third joint. What is still more surprising is, that upon visiting the lobster, which is maimed in these barren articulations, at the end of two or three days, all the other joints are found broken off at the fourth, which he has undoubtedly done himself.

The part reproduced is perfectly like that broke off, and in a certain time grows equal to it. Hence it is that lobsters have often their two big legs unequal. This shews the smaller leg to be a new one. If a part thus reproduced is broken off, there is a second reproduction. The summer, which is the only time when lobsters eat, is the most favourable time for this. It is then performed in four or five days; otherwise it takes up eight or nine months.

The common crab-fish has its abode in from twenty to forty fathom water. They herd together in distinct tribes, and have their separate haunts for feeding and breeding, and will not associate with their neighbours. This has been tried, by marking a crab, carrying it two or three miles and leaving it among other crabs. This crab has afterward found its way home, and been caught in its old abode.

This creature too can break off its own limbs. If when it is laid on its back, one of the outer joints of a small leg be bruised, he shews uneasiness by moving it about. Afterward he holds it quite still, in a direct and natural position, without touching any