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3S we have heard fome complaints that we have paffed over works of curiofity and importance a little too curforily; works which, if they occur again in larger collections, will probably experience very little more attention, we fhall return to natural hiftory, and take up, in a different view, the most important ones, probably alluded to, while we add fome new dif coveries in the mineral kingdom, which, in our laft Number, we had not room to notice.

SM. Dutrone's work on the fugar-cane is accompanied, we obferved, by feveral obfervations of a more general kind, conpected with natural hiftory, and fome mifcellaneous informa tion; but we shall now only mention what relates to this Indian falt, which not only furnishes the most generally pleafing luxury, but is of importance in the prefervation of many vegetable fubitances. It is certainly a native of each world, for the first voyagers to the Brazils found fome wild plants in that part of the country. Our author, however, traces it from India, and particularly from China, where he obferves fugar was extracted 2000 years before this production was known in Europe. The ancient hiftories of the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, and the Jews do not mention it; and it occurs first in the writings of the Greek phyficians, who received it from India and Arabia. It was carried to this latter region only in the 13th century and from thence our author traces it to Egypt, Syria, Sicily, the iflands of Madeira, St. Thomas, and Hifpaniola. Sloane faw it in that ifland, and the manufacture of fugar was in a very flourishing ftate in 1518. There is, however, a little error in this account: Pliny and Galen particularly distinguish the fugar of Arabia, if they were not milled by attributing to a country what was only conveyed by its affistance. dis

M. Dutrone thinks the botanical characters of this plant are not fufficient to make us fully acquainted with it. He fuppofes it neceffary to examine all its different parts, their condition, and their mutual connection, as well as the progress of their fucceffive evolutions: it is neceffary to trace alfo its different modifications, and to follow the mucilaginous fluids in their changes to a faccharine fubitance. The fugar-cane flourifles in the new world; but its feeds are barren, and it is propagated by fuckers; it loves the torrid zone, and its growth is in proportion to the heat of the feafon: in five or fix months it reaches the end of its career, and the termination of its fructification is that of its life. Our author next deferibes the different parts of the plant, points out the neceffity of a vivid fun and a plentiful fupply of water; for it is moisture only, combined with heat and light, which changes the mucilaginous into faccharine matter. The fap, fays M. Dutrone, carried into the vafa propria of the leaves and bark, affords the glutinous matter, a bafe for the principles which thofe organs extract

from

from the air, light, and water, principles to which this fubftance owes its taste, its fmell, and its folubility. The name of a faponaceous extract is owing to its being equally foluble in water and fpirit of wine, from whence it was fuppofed this juice was the product of the union of an acid and an oil. The colour of the bark of the cane is owing in part to this faponaceous extract, which is taken up by water, and in a greater de gree to a rezinous portion, foluble only in fpirit of wine. The diffolution of this foapy cxtra by alkalis, and the rezinous appearance of the medullary fubftance, which has undergone their action, deferve the most particular attention, as thefe circumftances greatly influence the conduct of the refiner. Out author then proceeds to the process of extracting the fugar; and the fluid, he tells us, confifts of the faccharine matter and the mucilaginous, which is not yet completely elaborated fo as to become fugar. The alkalis and lime contribute to feparate this mucilage, and not to neutralize any fuppofed feparate acid, which he thinks has no existence. The different parts of the procefs and the different improvements which our author re commends, we find it impoffible to abridge. St. Domingo pro-duces annually 120 millions of unrefined fugar, which, by lofs and imperfections in the procefs, must be reduced to about 96 millions.

When we mentioned the plant which produced the gum tra gacanth, we did not follow the particular obfervations of M. Billardière on Mount Libanus and the country round it. The convent of Maferkis he found was fituated at the height of 712 toifes, about 4539 feet. The fnow ftill covered (April 12, 1787), the top of Libanus at an elevation nearly of 2550 feet; but, after various experiments and calculations, he found the height of the mountain to be 14914 toifes above the height of the fea (95084 feet). The mountain is not always covered with fnow, except to the north and north east, where it is fheltered from the fun the greater part of the day. This chain stretches from north-eaft to fouth-weft, divided by deep ravines, hollowed out by the waters. Many of the leffer mountains ap pear at a distance as buttreffes fupporting the higher pics: thefe have refifted the impetuofity of the torrents, which rush from the principal points. Libanus confits of parallel calcareous ftrata, a little inclined to the weft. On the fide near Coffpeya, in a vast extent of territory, we find over calcareous brechiæ, beds of rounded flint, evidently the effect of the waves.' The waters furnished by the conftant fnow undermines the mountain, and forms caverns which will fall in at a future period. At the east of the most elevated fummit, where the Cadicha arifes, the waters have hollowed a fubterraneous canal, above 3000 feet in length, on the fide of the glacier. Our traveller went into this tunnel when the waters were low, and found its roof raifed in many places, with ftalactites fufpended from it. Ar the elevation of about 1000 toises, about 6375 feet

G 3

above

above the level of the fea, a cavern is found, whofe opening is not more than a foot and a half in length, and about a foot wide: it is on the furnace, on a part of the mountain flightly inclined, and a travelle, would be in danger of falling in if he was not warned of it. A number of crows are flying constantly over it; fome of these rise to a confiderable height, dart down into it, and dilapper. A bituminous fchift is found on the fouthern fide of the mountain; and, in another place, fome red coloured clay, in which, when well washed by the rains, amber is difcovered. A fimilar earth is found in the higheft mountain, near 7000 feet from the level of the fea, where it forms a Bratum many hundred feet thick.

Libanus (ftrictly to called) is inhabited by Maronites, united in towns under their prince Jofeph. Af er the melting of the fnows, fome tribes of Arabian Bedouins established themfelves in the neighbourhood, to collect the gun they live on their flocks, and fell the gum to fome neighbouring Greeks, who use it in their woollen manufacture. Thefe Maronites cultivate mais, wheat, barley, millet, frgo, v tches. vines, and cot. ton-trees. They feed many filk worms; and, in these infects are hatched before the appearance of the white mu berry leaves, they r ted with the haves of the lefler mallow (milva rotundifo ia). They have bees lfo, which feed on the rezinous plants, and produce hon y del ciously perfumed. The harvest is in ugu, two months later than in the plains, and the time of fowing is September, fo that the wheat during the winter is covered with snow. The lands are not manured, and produce ten for one in the mountains these is a harvel every year; but it fometimes fails in the p'ains, and, in that of Blbec, it failed for want of rain three years following. I he hufbandmen fowed every year, and the wheat never grew till the third year, when the harvest was very abundant. The mai fucceeds well on the mountain: it's watered by collecting the rivulets and directing them over the field its produce is forty for one. A measure of the mais. which grows on the mountain, meatures one ninth more than what grows on the plain: it is fown in June, and is given to poultry. Some of its meal is also mixed with that of wheat for making bread...

The vine is cultivated 700 to fes (4462 feet) above the level of the fea: it is not fixed on trellis, and confequently the ripening of the grapes is accelerated by the heat of the earth. In gardens, where the vine is fupported, the grapes are ga thered a month later. The wine is evaporated till it acquires the confiftence of fyrup, and is then very agreeable: it is clarified by means of lav. The cedars (the cedars of Libanus, of which eighty remain, and feven of these are of fuperior fize and antiquity compared with the reft) are to the west of the glacier, about 2550 feet above it. The largest are eighty or ninety feet in height, and the trunks from eight to nine feet in diameter. Some of the cones have been brought to Paris, and

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the plants are flourishing in M. Monnier's garden. Theinbabitants drink fnow-water, and even eat fnow, but they have not the fwelled throat of the Alps. The hepherds, in fummer, fleep in the open air, and, to this practice, they feem to owe their difpofition to inflamed eyes, which often terminates in an obfuscation of the cornea. The manners of the inhabitants are mild, and even timid: they have all the marks of an enflaved nation, and procure what they want by artifice, and diffimulation rather than by force. :: We omitted to add in our laft article, that the gum tragacanth, brought home by M. Billardière, is in large pieces, generally of a white or an amber colour: fome of the pieces are tolerably white and transparent, and the whole looks like good cherry-tree gum, or gum arabic, very different from what is ufually fold under the name of gum tragacanth. One of its characters is a femi-tranfparence, whitish in the best kinds, and • reddish in the inferior forts, but always a little opaque. Some of the gum found in the fhops resembles that brought by M. Billardière; but it is generally separated as of inferior value. The best fort is opaque, white twisted, like vermicelli, and foon becoming a jelly when diffolved in water.

The grottos of Mount Libanus lead us to recollect some dif coveries of grottos at Porto Longone, in the Ifle of Elbe, or Elva, near the western coast of Tuscany. These have been loft by fome parts falling in, and are now again recovered, in con fequence of fome new fortifications erecting in this ifland. The abbè Spadoni tells us, that the first is about eighteen feet above the cultivated land. Its aperture is oval, from three feetto two and a half in height; on entering you find a little cham ber, not unlike an oven, ten feet wide and four and a halt high, and, at the end of this a narrow paffage, through which our naturalift attempted in vain to crawl, feems to lead to another cavern, which was found, however, to be inacceffible. The fecond is about nine feet diftant, and about four feet lower: its entrance is about two feet wide, and a foot and a half high; the first was dry and the other wet, covered with calcareous ftalactites, in the most uncommon and irregular forms. In fome places they are of a conical tuberofe figure; in others coarfely ramified, or refembling icicles here they form a mafs of mamillary tubercles; there they represent fhapeless and ftrange animals. There are fome fragments which have only a stalactitical cruft, formed in waves and compofed of fucceffive ftrata. On the ground are fone little hills terminating in a point, formed of the drops of water; and, at the entrance of the first cavern, is the reverfe of this figure, a column almost conical, and beautifully polished, whose bate is fixed to the vaulted roof, and whole point reaches the ground. Our author, with little mercy, broke off the end of it, and found the longitudinal canal, which ufually occurs in the middle of sta lactitical columns.";

What, however, may be confidered as more extraordinary is, the bones of animals found at the bottom of these caverns. The abbè faw a long hollow bone, covered both outfide and within with incrustations of ftalactites. A lower jaw has also been found with an entire tooth, which feems to belong to some ferocious animal, fince it has no resemblance to the teeth of domestic animals well known: this bone is the only one which the ftalactites has not touched. A beautiful bead of a goat has been also discovered in this cavern, incrufted with a tar arous fubftance, and adorned with various stalactitical branching ornaments: unfortunately there is no tooth in the upper jaw, and the lower jaw is loft. Two little unequal prominences, covered with tartarous matter, the remains probably of horns, are observable above the orbits.

The abbe Spadoni feems to fufpect that these caverns were excavated by the fea, or raised by earthquakes: perhaps in a volcanic country it would have been an happier conjecture to attribute them to the expanfive force of volcanic matters. They must neceffarily be very ancient, but our author's argument does not properly fupport this opinion: though the ftalactite in the cavern on the Apennine of Modena, may not be greatly increafed, fince it was vifited by Vali nieri, in a space of feventyeight years, thefe caverns may be damper, or the waters more loaded with the petrifying matter. The bones are the next'ob. ject of confideration. The abbè found the entire skeleton of a goat in one of the grottos called Franchefche, filled with mar tial vitriol, in powder; now, fays he, if this cavern had been fhut up for a century, and then discovered again, we might meet only with the remains of the goat, in the tame flate with the bones found in the cave of Longone. Thele animals, to escape the storms, might have taken fhelter here, and been buried by the fall of the entrance: it is indeed more probable in this inftance, that the bones were brought by some wild beast.

On the oppofite coat of Italy is a grotto equally fingular in a different way. At Molfeta, a town on the Adriatic, in the province of Bari, nearly an equal distance between Trani and Bari, is a cavern which yields a native nitre. The abbè Fortis, Mr. Hawkins, M. Delfico, and M. Zimmerman, the author of the Narrative, vifited this curious fpot. They went from Molfeta, through gardens planted with olive, almond-trees, and vines, on a calcareous country, like the rest of the district. In one of these gardens they found the earth covered with a poor iron ore, the calcareous hematitis. The road was rough, rifing gently, like the rest of the country. After proceeding about a mile, we perceived, on the left hand, towards the wet, at fudden finking of the ground, as if a large circular mass of earth had given way at once. This is the cavity, and it is a circular amphitheatre, nearly 1600 Neapolitan palms (abour 4133 feet) in circumference, and nearly 125 palms (about 88 teer) in depth. It greatly refembles a rectangular cylinder

which