fmall as they may feem, have formed the materials of this ftupendous fabrick. The method which nature purfues in caufing thefe loofe exuvia to affume a ftony hardnefs, might puzzle us not a little, did not the two following facts fufficiently elucidate it: first, water is of itself capable of diffolving a fmall proportion of calcareous earth; and if this is in any degree impregnated with fixed air, the quantity of calcareous matter which it is capable of diffolving will be proportionably greater. All animal fubftances, when in the act of putrefaction, give out a certain portion of fixed air, which being abforbed by the water, the latter is thus rendered capable of diffolving a confiderable portion of the calcareous matter which was before faturated with fixed air. When the water, by being expofed to the influence of the air, has evolved the fixed air which the putrefaction of the dead animals had produced, the calcareous earth which it held in folution will be depofited among the fhells; and being in exceeding fmall particles, its cohesive power will be in creafed in proportion, and the depofition of thefe infinitely fmall particles taking place, will fufficiently account for the hard and firm texture of marble. Pieces of wood are often feen turned into ftone by the decay of the lignous particles, and the depofition of the ftony. This will take place in a flower manner, though the water contain no fixed air; water itfelf being capable of diffolving calcareous matter, which it may depofit in like manner. To prove that the putrefaction of animal matter, and that living animals themselves are capable of producing fixed air, and impregnating the water with it, I fhall relate the following experiments. EXPERIMENT THE FIRST. Being defirous to fee in what manner fifh altered the water which they inhabit, and the cause of their fo foon dying when excluded from a free circulation of fresh water, I put eight minnows into a bafon of water from the pump, containing about three quarts: the fish continued to live for two days, on the third they died: I took them out, and on pouring cauftic lime water into the bason, a precipitation of chalk took place, whereupon I began to fufpect that either the water contained an acid in its compofition, or fixed air, which occafioned the lime to precipitate. I therefore repeated the experiment, having firft afcertained that the water I used did not contain either an acid or fixed air, as it made no precipitation of the lime before the fifh were put into it; the refult was the fame as the former. From this experiment we fee that animals, independent of putrefaction, may, by creating carbonic acid, aflift towards the formation of limeftone. I think what has been faid fufficiently accounts for the formation of calcareous earth, with all its varieties of marle, limeftone, marbles, &c. &c. When this calcareous earth exists in the neighbourhood of a volcano, there will mot probably be a formation of alabaster, by the union of the fulphuric acid with the part of the calcareous earth which forms felenite; alabafter being compofed of a fulphuric felenite and calcareous earth in its mild ftate: when it is burnt it is called the Plafter of Paris, and is too well known to need any defcription. Alabaster, when burnt and mixed with water, has the remarkable property of fudden cryftalization. The mixed nature of Plafter of Paris being admitted, accounts for the phenomena exhibited in its burning, extenfion, and fudden hardening. When this earthy falt is burnt, the felenite lofes its walls of crystalization, and becomes friable: the calcareous fpar at the fame time being converted into lime by the lofs of its acid. In this ftate the plafter is acrid and alkaline, and changes the fyrup of violets into a green; unites with acids without effervefcence; and lofes its goodnefs by being expofed to the air, and attracting the carbonic acid from it. It absorbs water with avidity, and as to the folidity it takes fo oppofite to common lime; it is owing to this circumstance that when the lime has abforbed as much water as is neceffary for its extinction, this felenite, which is interfperfed between the particles of the lime, fuddenly cryftalizes, and produces the fame effect as fand which is interspersed between the particles of the lime, in order to give the whole folidity. I think the above is all that is necessary to be faid to fhew that calcareous earth ́ is the production of animal life. ON ON THE FORMATION OF ARGILLACEOUS EARTH. BY THE SAME, ARGILLACEOUS Earth, common, but we were entirelli forma ly called Clay, is found in all quarters of the globe. Its ufes are various: it has the quality of being rendered ductile by mixing with water, and is capable of being rendered hard and brittle by fire; even fo hard as to ftrike fire with teel: it is used for pottery, bricks, &c. &c. When pure, it is capable of ftanding the greatest heat we are able of applying, without vitrifying, but will vitrify in a very moderate heat when mixed with calcareous earth, lead, &c. The following are the true characteristicks of argillaceous earths :When mixed with water they are rendered fo ductile as to be capable of affuming a variety of forms, and when united with the vitriolic acid they cannot be precipitated by the addition of the fuccarine acid, differing in this refpect from all other kinds of earth, terra penderofa excepted. It is generally found lying in large quantities immediately under the vegetable furface; and in regular lamina, mixed with fileceous earth in a fmall proportion, unlets it has been difturbed. When mixed with calcareous earth it is called marle. Having given a fhort defcription of its use and qualities, I fhall endeavour to account for its formation by the following experi ment. EXPERIMENT. Having collected a great quantity of land and water fnails, I put them into a tub, and covered them with rain water, where I kept them three months; at the end of which, upon examining the tub in which they were contained, I found the bottom of it covered with a confiderable quantity of a white fediment; and that the fnails, during that period, had multiplied amazingly. The tub was expofed fo as to be fupplied with rain water during that period. Trying this fediment by various chemical tefts, I found it to be clay mixed with a small portion of calcareous earth. I have twice repeated this experiment with the fame refult. The next thing that occurred to me was, how this argillaceous earth came into the tub. I have fhewn in the foregoing paper that animals have a power of generating calcareous earth, fpecies of animal could form argillaceous earth; but I have every reafon to conclude that it is formed by these animals, or how could it have come into the tub which contained them? This mystery, however, vanifhed, on confidering that marle is composed of calcareous earth mixed with one half of argillaceous earth. And on examining the feveral fpecimens of it which I found means to procure, I discovered the calcareous part of it to confiit of the fhells of thefe fnails. On attentively examining the places whence it is dug up, it will be generally found in thofe which are as it were locked up by nature, or which form a kind of lough or dam, and have fince been filled up by the common procefs of time. This appearance is fo ftriking that the common people, on feeing one of thefe places, fink their pit with a certainty of finding marle and white clay, as we always find marie compofed of thells mixed with white clay, and that that clay is formed in the method of the foregoing experiments by these animals. So that we may fafely conclude, that fome animals poffets the power of forming clay as well as calcareous earth. And as I have, in the foregoing paper on the formation of calcareous earth, fhewn that the huge maffes of calcareous earth found on the furface of the globe are the production of animal life, or the creative power of animals, we may likewife conclude, from the foregoing experiment, that all the argillaceous earth which we find on the furface of the globe is likewife the production of animal life; for if one animal has the power of forming one kind of earth, why should not another animal have the power of forming a different fort. It now remains to fhew why clay is fo often found free from a mixture of calcareous earth, and which animals are so apt to generate in common with clay. I do not fay that the freshwater fnail is the only animal that has the power of generating clay, but that it is generated by many animals which experiments have not yet reached; for otherwife, clay would always be found mixed with calcareous earth. Yet this will not hold good when we confider that calcareous earth is foluble in water, and clay clay is not; for the ftreams of water fcon diffolve the calcareous earth, and leave the clay pure. But if it has not been expofed to a ftream of water, we find it mixed with the exuvia of animals, and in that state it is called marle. This ΤΗ appears to me to be the moft probable account of the origin of clay or argillaceous earth.-That it is formed by the creative powers of animals as well as calcareous earth. A CHRISTMAS TALE. BY JOSEPH MOSER, ESQ. PART THE SECOND. HE noble Adelfrid was, in the former part of this narrative, left in the act of ufing his endeavours to reprefs thofe emotions which the events that were the fubject of it had excited. Thefe exertions would have taxed the authority of the Baron to the utmost, had not the curiofity of the company in fome degree coincided with them, and induced them to fufpend conjecture upon the circumstances that had occurred, in the hope of arriving at certainty. When by thefe means filence was obtained, Edgar Atheling advancing, faid, "Surrounded as the illuftrious Adelfrid at this moment is by his confidential knights, by men no lefs famous for their virtue than their valour; by the ancient, the hereditary friends of a family that once in this district exercifed the rights of fovereignty; I ought rather to apologize for having introduced this Nobleman under a borrowed name, than aim at any further concealment. There is a fort of caution which in certain cafes is ignoble, if not criminal. Of that, I confefs myfelf guilty; and for which I intreat my Lord Adeltrid's pardon. "Some circumstances have lately occurred which fhew that the fituation of my friend is at prefent myfterious, there fore it becomes neceflary to withdraw the veil that throuds it from your fight. Know then, moft illuftrious Baron and noble knights! that in this man you behold Walter, that Walter, whofe elevated birth and warlike actions fo much endeared him to the late Scotish King Malcolm, that he promoted him to the office of High Steward, which I need not inform you is the fecond in the kingdom. Like myfelf he fell under the dif pleasure of the prefent tyrant Donald, who feized his caftle, his wife, and child, whom we feared he had murdered. We were then at a distance fo confiderable as to render us unable either to affift our friends, or to rescue from the barbarity of his myrmidons, our relatives. "Self-prefervation, and the hope of being one day able to take ample vengeance upon Donald, induced us to fly from Scotland. We fought the asylum of your caftle, Lord Adelfrid, and were received in it with that dignified hospitality for which your family has ever been diftinguished: yet ftill, as we were upon the border of a country hoftile to us, and as the malignity of Donald feemed to operate more powerfully against Walter, whofe character had from his fituation long been public, than myself, who, although nearly allied to Malcolm, have for years lived in fome degree of obfcurity. I advised him to change his name, in order the better to conceal his retreat, not only from his Monarch, but the Norman Lords of the Marches, who might perhaps, as a facrifice upon the altar of peace, have delivered him again into his hands." The "The prudence of your motive," returned Adelfrid, "difarms me of any refentment, if it were poffible that I could have retained any, for the want of confidence which you have stated. relative fituation of both the unhappy countries of Scotland and of England, renders difguife and even diffimulation, however obnoxious to a noble and ge nerous mind, in fome degree necessary. This may ferve as an apology to yourfelves, to me you have none to make; for I think that the greatest misfortune that attends concealment, is fuffered by thofe who are obliged to refort to it, of It may be biftorically neceffary to hint, that this Walter was the fon to Fleance, who was the fon to Banquo, by Nefta daughter to Griffith ap Llewelin, Prince of North Wales. Shakespeare's Macbeth has made the ftory of the latter generally known. which which this man (pointing to Target) is an inftance; who has, I fear, in his affurned character of a Jefter, been treated with that infolent difrefpect, which in any character it is impoffible he fhould merit; and who has, in the courfe of feveral years that he has lived in this caftle, met with those rebukes, and been made a fubject for that fort of ribald licentioufnefs of fpeech, which must have been in the highest degree irksome and offenfive to a perion of his courage and fenfibility." "Whatever ribaldry or difrefpect I may have encountered in your family, my Lord Adelfrid," faid Target, "they were courted by me: I ftood in the midit of your numerous vifitors and domeftics as a butt, at which they were at liberty to level the fhafts of their wit. I was by them confidered as a fool, and my fuppofed imbecility of mind, though it: ought to have made me an object of their compaffion, only furnished food for their ridicule, and afforded to them a temporary triumph in the fuperiority of their own intellectual faculties. Such a triumph, I fear my Lord, the wifeft of us all have not, on certain occafions, failed to enjoy. This propensity, however defpicable and deplorable it may be, is an adjunct to human nature; therefore as in my fituation fome difguife was neceffary, I could not have affumed one that would have afforded me more ample fcope for obfervarion. The caufe that induced me to appear in a character fo unworthy of my. elf, I will briefly relate." "But first," faid Adelfrid, " inform us who you are?" plied, "whofe fame has been suspended upon the pinions of calamity, and to whom even the Normans, when they had ftripped him of his poffeffions, were willing to allow all the reputation which attaches to an unfuccefsful warrior. "My father, as the Baron has juftly ftated, fell in the battle of Hastings, leaving to me, then of the age of eighteen, the care of my sister Matilda, an infant. I need not, my Lords, difplay to you the jealoufy and tyranny of William: you have all been materially injured by thofe vices which pervaded his bofom; and indeed, it feems to have been a part of the fyftem of barbarous policy adopted by the Normans, to overturn every veftige of the conftitution of our ancestors, and to extirpate the race of ancient nobility, in order to gratify their rapacious courtiers with their ample demeines. "The Earldom of Chester was a prize too important to escape their attention. Its revenues were fequeftrated, its title conferred upon an alien; and fo much had the exertions of my father irritated the tyrant against me, that I, Prince Edgar! was forced to fly to Scotland with Matilda, and place her under the protection of Margaret your fifter, who had juft then married Malcohm.. "Leaving her therefore in an afylum fo honourable and advantageous, and ftimulated by hereditary hatred against the Normans, I returned to this country, where I endeavoured to collect the remainder of the adherents of the Houfe of Modred, and arm them in favour of you, Prince Edgar, whom I efteemed the legal and apparent heir to the Crown. "Be that my taik," returned Walter," This kind of petty wartare contiwho had by this time a little recovered. "He is, for I now well recollect him, the fon of Modred !" "What!" asked the Baron, "Modred, the Earl of Chefter, my ancient friend! who fell in the battle that gave to the Norman ufurper the title of Conqueror ?" "The fame," replied Walter; "his name too is Modred." "Good Heaven!"exclaimed Adelfrid, "have I treated the fon of the man who first prefented me with a fword, and taught me the ufe of arms, as a buffoon ?" "Is this the knight," faid Edgar, "whose person I have often wished was as well known to me as his name and martial reputation?" "I am indeed that Modred," he re nued during a long period, in the course "I was therefore forced to wander about in various difguifes, by which means I had at lait the good fortune to efcape again into Scotland. "Matilda, my fifter, was now arrived at the age of fixteen; and my Lord Egar will recollect, although he was not at that time in the country, that she was the favourite, the friend, the companion, of her namesake Matilda, his niece. "Soon "Soon after this period the King bestowed her in marriage upon my illustrious friend here, Walter, then High Steward of his kingdom. "Although thus favoured by the Monarch, honoured, and employed, I ought to have been fatisfied, yet ftill my keen fenfe of injuries, and reftlefs difpofition, induced me to make another attempt to shake the Norman throne, which you all know is lefs firmly fupported by the people under the prefent Sovereign, than it was under his father. That attempt was again unfuccefsful; I was purfued with till greater avidity than before, and Malcolm was threatened, that if he fuffered me to take refuge in his kingdom, all the Scotifh prifoners in the poffeffion of the Normans fhould be maffacred. "You fee, my Lords, that there was not in either nation a place of fhelter or afylum for me, in my real character: obliged, therefore, to affume a difguife, I chofe that in which I have fo lately appeared; and, after travelling over a confiderable part of the country, was favourably received by Adelfrid, who retained me as an appendage to his ftate, or perhaps as an object of his charity; but who has been careful to reprefs thofe illiberal fcoffs to which my fituation rendered me liable." In thefe recitals, and the events which introduced them, the whole of the even ing and greater part of the night were confumed. The variety of paffions which they had called into action, and emotions which they had occafioned, required retirement and repose. The next morning the Company affembled in the chapel. Their devotion, which the Baron fuffered no circumstance to abridge, was offered to the fhrine of the Holy Virgin, and their thanks for the prefervation of Matilda and her infant mingled with every aspiration. The feftivity was also renewed, and the fanctified period of this event was confidered as a reason for additional ce lebration, in which splendor was united with hofpitality and benevolence. The third day after her escape, Matilda appeared at the chapel: the wore the Scotifh drefs, confifting of a robe of plaid, thrown over a kirtle of white fatin; a blue bonnet, furmounted by a plume of white feathers, adorned her head. Every eye was upon her, and every spectator was as much charmed with her elegance and beauty, as edified by her devotion. When the had hum bled herself before the throne of the Al mighty, and in fervent prayer returned thanks for her deliverance, Walter led her into the hall. She was on the one fide attended by Agatha, on the other by Bertha. Here he was publickly introduced to Adelfrid, the Baronefs, the knights and ladies in their circle; when being placed upon an elevated feat, the turned to the company, and holding one of the most lovely infants that the ima gination can form an idea of in her arms, prefented it to them, faying, "My noble, my magnanimous, my generous countrymen! let me to you and to your ladies, no lefs confpicuous for their fenfibility than their beauty, on the parts of Walter my husband, this infant, and myself, return general thanks for the intereft which you have taken in our misfortunes, and for your exertions, to which I and this child owe our preservation from a danger the most imminent, from a death almost certain! My particular acknowledgments I have already paid to the noble Adelfrid, the Baronefs, and all thofe whofe immediate attention brought them nearest to me. "Curiofity, when stimulated by a defire to relieve objects in diftrels, is a laudable and virtuous property of the mind; but your minds are ftill more elevated, for you have rescued me from a fituation in which the lapfe of a moment would have foiled your humane exertions, without knowing in whole favour they were made! You have fympathized in my forrow! You have been anxious for my recovery, without any other than that general information, that I and this little one were objects worthy of your com. paffion! "Magnanimity and compaffion are the virtues of my country! They are indigenous to the foil on which we now tread! They are impregnated with the air which we now breathe. From having experienced their influence, I glory in my relation to you! You have already, from Walter my husband, heard for whom your magnanimity was exerted; who was the object of your compaffion. It is now my duty to ftate the cause that impelled me into a fituation to receive the benefit of thofe virtues. "Married at an early period of life to the husband not only of my Monarch's, but of my own choice, and living, during the few years of the reign of Malcolm that fucceeded our nuptials, a life of happiness, I need not in strong language delineate |