mation. The Doctor announced his intention of reading, at the next meeting of the Society, a description of the different Veins that occur in East Lothian, and of giving a short statement of the geognostical and economical inferences to be deduced from the appearances which he has investigated with so much care. It is indeed only by investigations like those of Dr Ogilby, that we obtain any certainty respecting the mineral treasures of a country; and such alone can afford us data for speculating regarding the formation of the globe.

At the same meeting, a communication from Col. Montague was read, describing a new species of Fasciola, of a red colour, and about an inch long, which sometimes lodges in the trachea of chickens, and which the Colonel found to be the occasion of the distemper called the gapes, so fatal to these useful tenants of the poultryyard. The knowledge of the true cause of this malady, will, it is hoped, soon be followed by the discovery of a specific cure: in the mean time, a very simple popular remedy is employed in Devonshire: the meat of the chicks (barley or oat meal) is merely mixed up with urine, in place of water, and this prescription is very generally attended with the best effects.

the vegetation of the seeds on their rotted surface. The corn-crops are not, it is said, materially damaged.

August 19. After two or three fine warm days, the wheat and barley harvest is seriously begun. This is more early than the average date of our commencing to reap in this neighbourhood.

25. The weather continuing excellent, the harvest is become general, and it promises to be abundant.

FISH-MARKET.-A good many of the Newhaven fishers having, during this month, withdrawn themselves l the coast of Caithness for a time, to share in the profits of the rich herringfishery at present existing there, the supply of white fish in the Edinburgh market has been unusually deficien At the same time, the Good Tow has been deprived of the labours of the trawl-net fishers from England; for these, it seems, have been paid off and dismissed, the returns of the fishery not promising to be sufficient to co ver even the ordinary expences which must necessarily have been incurred in continuing the experiment. In a for mer number of this Magazine, while we announced the experiment, and gave due credit to the society of ge tlemen who projected and conducted it, for the goodness of their motives, we abstained from making any t marks that might have tended to di parage the plan they had adopted, which we always, indeed, considered as a bad one, but from which we u derstood they could not then easily sile. Among fishermen in general, should think it desirable that their re ward should be made to depend is some measure on their diligence d success, on the proceeds of the sent to market. The English tra net fishers, however, (if we be misinformed,) were "sure of their ney, fish or no fish!" We trust w may now, without impropriety, b mit to the society, whether it is not at least probable that fishers, cncouraged

by them, but depending partly on their own exertions, would not have sent more cargoes to market in the same space of time? perhaps four in the week, in place of two? or whether, where six pairs of soles were taken, it is not probable that double diligence might have produced twelve pairs? In any future attempts, therefore, we hope that this principle, of connecting the interest of the fishers with the success of the fishery, will not be overlooked. And we beg leave further to suggest to the society, that fishermen, every way qualified for the trawl-net and well-smack fishery, are to be found on the shores of our own frith, and that, by encouraging these, every beneficial purpose may be attained, without running any risk of again exciting that jealousy and discontent which the late employment of stran gers did not fail to create. We have yet to learn that there is any great mystery in this mode of fishing; and, at any rate, there are, (we are told,) many fishers inhabiting the coasttowns of the frith, who have formerly seen and practised it. Our own men must be better acquainted with the fishing-grounds in the mouth of the frith, and would probably procure greater quantities of saleable fish, and be much less incominoded with shoals of sea-dogs, drift ware, &c. than strangers to the nature of the bottom. The cod, ling, and mackrel fishery, might, by the encouragement of such a society, be also much improved and promoted.

play of the formation of water by the combustion of oxygen and hydrogen gas, by means of the electric spark.The instrument consists of a strong cylindrical glass tube to receive the gases, open at the lower end, of the capacity of two cubic inches, and graduated into decimal parts; and a stand to which the tube is attached by a clasp and screw, and of a strong iron cylinder, containing a strong spiral spring, on the principle of the pocket steel-yard, the spindle or central bar of which is fixed on three feet, in order that it may be firmly secured da the side of a mercurial bath, with the mouth of the tube immerged in quicksilver. By this arrangement, the sudden and violent expansion, which takes place at the moment of the combustion of the gases, is relieved by the clasticity of the spring, which, by yielding, allows the glass tube to be heaved up a little way, without being driven from its situation. The success of the experiment is thus secured; and all danger of accident to the apparatus is effectually prevented.

It has been asserted by most writers and experimentalists, that silver burns with a bright emerald green light. In Mr Davy's late lectures at the Royal Institution, the deflagration of silver leaf was attended by the emission of a brilliant white light, which the professor ascribed to the great purity of the silver employed; and he expressed an opinion that the green flame, usually observed, arose from the admixture of copper with the silver. Mr G. B. Singer has, however, discovered that this phenomenon proceeds from a different cause. Having observed that Mr Davy's conducting wires were terminated by charcoal, he repeated the experiment with a similar arrangement; and applying the charcoal to pure silver leaf, it immediately burned with a beautiful white light. Some of the same portion of silver having been before employed when the green flame

A Journey through the HIGHLANDS and WESTERN ISLES, in the Summer of 1804.—In a Series of Letters to a Friend.

Br THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD.
Letter II.

DEAR SIR,

AM, in these letters to you, always studying brevity, and as constantly running into the opposite extreme. I will be obliged to quit this epistolary way of communicating my sentiments to you altogether, as it hath no fixed boundary or limitation, and send you whole essays, or tours, in a parcel with the carrier.

"In my last, I was got no farther than Hamilton, which is a neat, elegant little town; and much beautified, as well as benefited, by the immediate vicinity of the mansion-house, and the attachment of the Dukes of Hamilton to the place from whence they draw their title. We set out in the mail coach at eight o'clock, and, in a short time, found ourselves at the Saracen's Head, in the city of Glasgow. This is a very cheap convey ance, being only two shillings inside, and the distance full nine miles. We flew too fast over this track for me to describe it particularly; for though we asked abundance of questions at the passengers, yet the quick succession of objects rendered it impossible for the memory to retain any traces so distinct as to be depended on.

"It is true, we failed not to be continually pushing our heads out at the side-windows, and to pretend a deep interest in the appearance of the crops on the different soils; and were very attentive to impress upon others a deep sense of our importance and skill as farmers; and made many turn up the white o' th' eye to our discourse; who, if they had seen our own fields at home, would have been capitally convicted of the difference betwixt August 1808.

theory and practice. We also, very kindly, endeavoured to entertain our fellow travellers with appropriate remarks on the infallibility of the turnip husbandry succeeding to a miracle on such lands, and of its infinite superiority to their present modes of agriculture unfortunately none of us could authenticate it, by an appeal to the abundant profits which we ourselves had reaped from that excellent plan.

"At Glasgow, we tarried no longer than to breakfast, and call upon one of our countrymen; and the morning coaches being all gone, we took our passage for Greenock in the flyboat. It is not easy to conceive any thing of the same nature more delightful than was our passage down the river that day. There was a brisk breeze from the south; the atmosphere was pure and light after the rain, and objects discernible with perspicuity at a great distance; and tho' the vessel run with unusual velocity, yet, so smooth and steady was the motion, that we were obliged to call in the aids of philosophy to convince us that we were not quite stationary and that the mountains, rocks, towns, and villages, were not all flying away like chaff before the wind.

"We were landed safely on the quay at Greenock in less than three hours from the time we left Glasgow; and Mr G. not being arrived, we took up our lodgings in Park's tavern.That evening we spent in Mr Park's family, whom I mentioned to you last year, very much to our satisfaction.Mr James received us with the affection of a brother, and favoured us much with his company during our stay; a favour that was equally coveted by us all, it being impossible to carry on a conversation with him without receiving information, let the topic be what it will.

"Mr G. joining us next day, we walked out and viewed the environs of

of the town; and, in the evening, had a party at Park's, consisting of thirteen; where we had an elegant supper, and continued till an early hour, as social, and withal as jovial, as the most sanguine heart could wish. As usual, all was free to us; and we were not a little proud at being honoured with the unexpected company of so many gentlemen of taste and learning; but we missed the ingenious Mr Galt, who was lately removed to London, and whose absence hath left an irre parable blank in the literary society of Greenock. On the third day, (af ter breakfasting with Mr Whitehead, since established in the academy at Perth, we took leave of our Greenock friends, and set out keeping along the shore for some miles, we passed through the village of Gourock; and at the Cloch, a good way farther down, took a passage across the Firth. Here our dangers, or at least what we then counted dangers, began to commence. We were within a little of being run down by a brig that was coming up the Firth, full before the gale; and were almost under her bow-sprit, when we called out, and the man at the helm, noticing us at a critical moment, put it down, and eschewed us. The swell here was prodigious; even the mariners declared they had scarcely seen the sea there so heavy at that season, and the large boat being gone over before us with a carriage, our small wherry wrought terribly. There was a lady, who crossed with us, put up many ejaculations, and often screamed out, when descending from the top of a wave; and even Mr L. declared, that he had very much ado to keep himself from growing sick, but that he had, however, effected it: the same means had certainly failed him after wards, as you shall hear bye and bye. "We now landed on Cowal, in the shire of Argyle, I say, the Shire of Argyle, for I wish you to take notice when we get out of it. After taking eme refreshment at the inn, we en

tered amongst the mountains, intend ing that night to reach Glendaruel, in the heart of Cowal. But,

"Sic a night we took the road in, As ne'er poor sinners were abroad in."

For some time, the road kept conti. guous to an inlet of the sea, stretching from the Heli-Loch; and on leaving that, in the openings of the glens, were some scenes of inexpressible beauty: scenes which are common enough in Cowal, and peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland. In this distret, the detached and broken hills, cloath ed in mourning, or otherwise, spotted and shagged like their kindred goats, are, nevertheless, skirted below with sweet-scented birches, spreading la zels, and all the other hardy plants that have been so liberally set by the hand of nature in Scotia's glens; where they spread their simple boughs, and rear their unaffected, yet majestic tops, in defiance of the chill mountain gale, or the boisterous salt-impregnated blast from the Atlantic billows. Here and there a thicket intervenes, where the low entangling sloe-thorn is covered with its snowy robes, and far above it, the aspiring briar bends its slender stem, and nods to the blast; while the wild rose on its top opens its unsullied bosom to the genial rays of the sun; and courts a sympathetic glance from the eye of the admirer of simple ture.