-M. Frautz, a metallurgist, and M. Henri Faure have announced that they have discovered a method for transmuting silver, copper, and mercury into gold: all these, they say, being only one and the same metal in different dynamic states.

-Engraving upon glass has hitherto not unfrequently been effected by the use of fluorie acid, which often produces dangerous wounds when by accident it comes in contact with the skin. M. Henri SainteClaire Deville has recently exhibited to the Academy of Sciences of Paris, some very fine examples of glass-engraving executed by means of a solution of fluoride of calcium in hydrochlorlic acid, with which there is no such danger. The results obtained by this method are said to be exceedingly satisfactory.

-Stone is now sawn in France with great rapidity and economy by means of a perforated disk of iron, on which a coating of lead has been cast, the perforations serving to connect and bind together the plates of lead thus formed on the two sides of the disk. The lead is kept well covered with emery, which falls on it from a reservoir above.

-A method of coating wood with a varnish hard as stone has been recently introduced in Germany. The ingredients are forty parts of chalk, forty of resin, four of linseed oil, to be melted together in an iron pot. One part of native oxide of copper, and one of sulphuric acid, are then to be added, after which the composition is ready for use. It is applied hot to the wood with a brush, in the same way as paint, and us before observed, becomes exceedingly hard on drying.

-The works of Mr. Krupp, in Prussia, the largest steel-maker in the world, in 1852 produced 68,000 tons; in 1861 the production was 454,000 tons, and in 1865, the works turned out nearly 2,500,000 tons of steel. This immense establishment contams 350 casting places and muffles, 186 steam-engines, 31 steam-hammers, and other appointinents in like proportion.

-It has been somewhat too hastily said that coal is formed directly from wood, and that much of it is found to retain its woody structure. There is great doubt on this point. That wood may be eventually converted into coal is admitted; but in changing, it entirely loses the form of wood retains no evidence of fiber. It may, under the influences of heat and moisture, be converted into a bituminous mass, which is eventually consolidated into coal; but we can not discover any evidence of wood being transmitted directly to coal. The remains of woody trees found fossil in the coal-meas

ure strata, may become limestone, may be iron ore--certain it is they are never coal.

-No less than fifteen hundred species of insects live upon the oak; and five hundred live upon them as parasites. Most of the fifteen hundred live upon the leaves, some eat into the wood itself, and others mine in and under the bark.

ELECTRICITY AS A MEANS OF TAKING CORRECT SOUNDINGS IN DEEP WATERS.-In taking deep-sea soundings, the great difficulty is to determine the exact moment at which the lead touches the bottom. It is now proposed that the sounding-line should be a kind of light telegraph cable, which, by means of the electric current, could be made either simply to give warning, by ringing a bell or otherwise, of the lead hav ing touched the bottom, or to put in action an automatic brake, and so prevent any more line passing into the water.

-A new color is reported by the Parisian journals, as produced from coal-tar. It is called anthine, and occupies a medium position between the deep purple and the brightest rose-color.

-A portion of the mud brought up from the bed of the Atlantic by the ropes and propels employed to raise the Atlantic cable after it had parted, has been subjected to microscopical examination, and found to be almost the same as the chalk from Dover. It is made up entirely of organisms chiefly in fragments, and has all the appearance of a chalk-bed in process of formation. This is merely an additional proof to an old theory; but as a project is suggested, and will probably be carried out, for compiling a complete list of all the species found in the mud, a considerable interest to science may be made.

-M. Trécul has recently given an account of some observations, showing that plants are sometimes fortned within the cells of other plants. In the bark of the elder, and in plants of the stone-crop order, he finds vesicles full of small tetrahedral bodies containing starchy matter, which he has observed to become gradually transformed into minute plants by the elongation of one of their angles.

-Before remelting cast-iron it is often necessary to reduce large masses of it to pieces. The following is a simple and ingenious mode of producing the required fracture: A hole is drilled in the casting for about one-third of its thickness, and filled with water. It is then closed with a steel plug, which is accurately fitted, and the ram of a pile-driver is let full upon the plug. The first blow separates the casting into two pieces.

A new island began to rise above the evel of the sea in the Bay of Théra (Santorin) in the Grecian Archipelago, on the fourth of February; and, in five days, it attained the height of from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty feet, with a length of upwards of three hundred and fifty feet, and a breadth of one hundred feet. It continues to increase, and consists of a rusty, black, metallic lava, very heavy, and resembling half smelted scoria which has boiled up from a furnace.

-The supply of emery has, within a short time, been (prospectively) doubled. Hitherto two places-Cape Emeri, in the island of Nazos, and the neighborhood of Symrna-have furnished near all the emery used. A few months ago a mine was discovered in North Wales, and another, perhaps the most important deposit of the kind in the world, has just been found near Chester, Massachusetts. This latter yields emery of the finest kind, and which does not rust upon exposure to the air. It is also reported to be capable of doing one-third more work than any other emery in the world. Its non-liability to oxidation also gives it great superiority. This mine is now worked or preparing for work, and instead of "Turkish" emery being the favorite brand, "American" is likely to take its place.

SUBSTITUTE FOR THE MAGNESIUM LIGHT. -M. Sayers has recently discovered a substitute for the magnesium light, which promises to be of much service to photographers. Twenty-four parts by weight of nitrate of potash, seven parts of flowers of sulphur, and six parts of red sulphide of arsenic, are thoroughly mixed. This composition, when set on fire, affords a most brilliant light, and the negatives produced with it give excellent positives. The contrast between the lights and shades, which, with artificial light, is apt to be very great, may easily be softened down by igniting at once two portions of the mixture; one, the more powerful, to light up the subject, and the other to modify the tones. It has been found that about half a pound of the mixture will afford light for half a minute.

-It has been found that the process by which crystals may be produced on plates of glass, and their designs then etched into that substance, so elaborately studied by Kuhlman, affords beautiful objects for the magic lantern, the difference between the roughened and smooth portions producing on the screen all the distinction between black and white, with every variety of half-tone and gradation.

A VOLCANO IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL.-Captain Richard F. Burton, the English traveler, writes to the Anglo-Brazilian Times: I was canoeing down the river of Iguape, when, calling on the excellent vicar of Xirrica, M. J. Gabriel da Silva Cardoso, and

looking over his parish register, I was struck by the name of a place-Hill that Explodes. On the other side of the river, bearing southwest from the vicarage, rose the Morrow, clothed with trees, an isolated gradual cone, with a distinctly volcanic outline. Its northeastern face is, I was told, a perpendicular rock. The fearful rains of January, 1866, prevented my ascending the Exploding Hill. But the result of many local inquiries was that as lately as fifteen years ago, flame has been seen rising from the hill, and the phenomenon was accompanied by rumblings or explosions which extended across the river to the opposite range of Bananal Pequeno. You will, I hope, hear from me again. Should this report of a dormant volcano in Southern Brazil be confirmed by absolute exploration, the discovery will be of no little value in a geographical point of view. And these lines may perhaps should I be unable to carry out my project-induce another and a better man to undertake the task. It is not, you will remember, half a century ago, when the scientific of Europe declared that no volcanic formations, and certainly no volcanoes could be found in this magnificent empire.

A SHIP OF THE SECOND CENTURY.-In the course of digging a trench for military purposes, during the late Danish war, the workmen came upon boggy soil, and at a depth of five feet, discovered the remains of a very ancient ship imbedded in the bog. The site is now some distance from the sea (at Wester-Satrup, in Sundewitt Bay); but at the time when it was deserted, it was no doubt "run up" on the beach. It is of oak, but in so very defective a condition, that it had to be strengthened with iron bands before it could be removed to Flensburg, where it may now be seen. The keel is bent upward at both ends, after the fashion of a modern gondola, rising to a height of nine feet ten inches in the bows, and ten feet eleven inches at the stern. The total length is seventy-nine feet ten inches, by a width of cleven feet ten inches in the waist, by a height of four feet two inches. There appears to have been no deck, but several lockers were found, some of which contained bones of animals. Besides this were discovered a number of spears, bows, arrows, battle-axes, wooden clubs, knives, etc.; but, what was more important, some coins were found, which gave the date of the time when this ship floated, not only on the Baltic, but perhaps to the distant shores of Britain. The coins are Roman, and of the second century, A. c.; and there were also bracelets, rings, and other ornaments, besides cooking utensils, etc. All these articles are now in the Archæological Museum at Copenhagen, but the ship itself the Danes were unable to get away before they had to give place to the advan cing Austrians.

- A fossil spider has been found in a shale from the coal measures" of Upper Silesia. Hitherto spiders have not been found in any rocks older than the Jurassic.

WINDOW FOR THE ILLUMINATION OF A FHOTOGRAPHER'S DARK ROOM.-Obernetter mixes an acid solution of sulphate of quiuine with some gum or dextrine, and paints the mixture over a thin sheet of white paper. With this he covers the window panes; and

he states that on the brightest day the window so prepared will allow no actinic light to pass.

-The astronomers have discovered that it is not such a very rare thing for February to be without a full moon after all. The same thing happened in 1847, nineteen years ago; and it is computed that the phenomenon must occur about once in twentythree years on an average.

-The iron mountain of Missouri is said to be the geographical centre of the United States. It is an almost solid mass of specular iron ore, rising from a level plain two hundred and sixty feet. Its base covers five hundred acres. The ore contains sixty-seven per cent. of iron. It may very appropriately be called the Hub of the Union.

-Nobody likes to be nobody; but everybody is pleased to think himself somebody. And everybody is somebody; but when anybody thinks himself to be somebody, he generally thinks everybody else to be nobody.

-The oldest man in America is probably Jcse Penno, born in Lower Canada, and now living in Kansas City, Missouri. He does not know his exact age, but is at least one hundred and twenty, as he was a man when Montgomery invaded Canada in 1775. He was at that time in the woods splitting rails. For fifty years after the Revolution, he was employed as a trapper beyond the Mississippi. He served under General Jackson, at the battle of New Orleans in 1815. Old as he is, he is in fine health, and busies himself in the care of his house and garden.

-Up to the year 1860, no less than fifty wells had been sunk in the Sahara Desert, by the French. The total quantity of water given by these wells amounts to 7,920,000 gallons per day.

-A ferryman, while plying over a river which was only slightly agitated, was asked by a timid lady in his boat, whether any persons were ever lost in that river. "Oh, no," said he, "we always finds 'em agin the next day."

-Colonies of Swiss are settling in the northern part of Patagonia. The soil is reported as fertile, and well adapted to the raising of cattle.

-When youth made me sanguine, I hoped mankind might be set right. Now, that I am very old, I sit down with this lazy maxim, that unless one could cure men of being fools, it is to no purpose to cure them of any one folly, as it is only making room for some other.-Horace Walpole.

-The San Francisco Mining Press mentions the discovery at Los Angelos, of oilsprings of a mineral substance, possessing all the qualities of writing-fluid. When first used, the color is a deep, rich black, but after exposure to the air, the color moderates a little, still retaining a good, and to all appearances, durable color.

PATRICK HENRY.-Books are great helps, but there have been great men who were never helped by them. Patrick Henry was no scholar, and read scarcely any thing. On a visit to Jefferson, one fall, he told him that he had been thinking he would read the coming winter, and asked him to lend him a book. Jefferson lent him a volume of Hume's Essays. The next spring he carried it back, unread, saying that he had tried to read it two or three times, but could never get through more than a page or so, before falling asleep.

A BULL.-"If a plain reader can enjoy such passages, and at once understand their meaning, he is one of a thousand who can not, or who are disgusted with such absurdities of language."-Extract from a Review of Tuckerman's Essays, in the Round Table, March 10.

-Enny boddy kan tell whare lightning struck last, but it takes a smart man tew find out whare it iz a going tew strike nex time--this iz one ov the differences between larning and wisdom.

-The new President of Union College is the Rev. Laurens Porseus Hickok, D.D., who was born at Danbury, Connecticut, on December 22, 1798; graduated at Union

College in 1820; and devoted himself to theology, first as a preacher in Connecticut, and afterward as a professor in various colleges. In 1852 he was chosen Professor of Mental and Moral Science, and Vice-President of Union College, Dr. Hickok is the author of several religions and scientific works. His election to the presidency of Union College was unani

mous.

-The public look upon the editor's labors as the Indian did upon the man who was cutting hay. He gave his opinion that it was nice to see the white inan mow."

-Sir Isaac Newton being asked why he never smoked, replied, "I will not make to myself any necessities."

-Dr. Franklin said that revivals in reli gion always made him think of a scarcity of grain; those who had enough said nothing about it, while those who were destitute made all the clamor.

-A countryman in Savannah, Ga., ob served that a gang of darkeys were working on the streets, each wearing a ball and chain. He asked one of them why that ball was chained to his leg. "To keep people from stealing it," said the darkey; heap of thieves about here, massa."

Let a man but stand upright, and he is sure to have the whole earth at his feet.

-Unrighteous gain has destroyed millions, but has never made one man permanently prosperous and happy.

-It seems strange that so small a neck of land as the Isthmus of Panama, and occupying so important a position, should never have been thoroughly explored. But a new discovery has been recently made there, by which the land transit can be reduced to fifteen miles. By taking advantage of the Gulf of St. Blas, on the Atlantic side, and the Gulf of Bayonos, on the Pacific, a road can be constructed of fifteen miles length across the isthmus, and the grade, it is said, will be easy, as there is a dip in the mountain chain over which it must be carried.

THE DUKE AND THR BISHOP.-When traveling, the Duke of Roquelair used a very mean equipage, and dressed in a shabby manner. Passing through Lyons in this guise, he was observed by the bishop of the diocese, who was afflicted with an insatiable desire for news. The bishop, seeing a strange traveler, of mean appearance, thought he had only a plebeian to deal with, and wishing to gratify his ruling passion, cried out, “Hi, hi!" " Roquelair immediately ordered his postillion to stop, and the curious prelate advancing to the "Where have you carriage, demanded, come from?!! Paris." "What is there fresh in Paris ?" "Green peas." "But what were the people saying when you

came away" "Vespers." "Goodness, man! who are you? What are you called i "Ignorant and uneducated people call me hi! hi! but gentlemen terin me the Duke de Roquelair. Drive on, postillion." The duke passed on, leaving the astonished bishop staring after the carriage.

"I see villain in your face," said a judge to a prisoner. "May it please your lordship," replied the prisoner, "that is a personal reflection."

-The Duphingberry Debating Society, having dismissed the question, "Where does fire go to, when it goes out?" have got a new and inore exciting one-" When a house is destroyed by fire, does it burn up, or does it burn down " There will probaably be a warm debate on this question.

There was much sense and propriety in the text which an ancient clergyman chose for a wedding sermon. It was taken from the Psalms of David, and read thus: "And let there be peace while the moon endureth."

-A young person once mentioned to Dr. Franklin his surprise that the possession of great riches should be attended with undue solicitude, and instanced a merchant who, in possession of unbounded wealth, was as busy and much more anxious than the most assiduons clerk in his countinghouse. The doctor, in reply, took an apple from the fruit-basket, and presented it to a child, who could scarcely grasp it in his hand. He then gave it a second, which filled the other hand, and choosing a third, remarkable for its size and beauty, he presented that also. The child, after many ineffectual attempts to hold the three apples, dropped the last on the carpet, and burst into tears. "See," said the philosopher, "here is a little man with more riches in the world than he can enjoy."

-An English paper advertises "A piano for sale by a lady about to cross the Channel in an oak case with carved legs."

-The following Internal Revenue Taxes, returned by the principal manufacturers of cabinet organs, harmoniums, melodeons, and similar instruments, for the months of October, November, and December, 1865, are of interest, as showing the amount of business done:

Mason & Hamlin.....
George A. Prince & Co....
S. D. & H. W. Smith..
Carhart, Needham & Co....
Estey & Co.......
X. Spang
Taylor & Farley..

.$6,382.99

8,189.86

2,522.76

2,177.16

1,218.18

987.12

933.07

B. Shoninger Melodeon Co Peloubet & Son.....

925.66

898.14

Jewett & Goodman.......

771.73

Treat & Linsley.

769.20

Kinnard, Dreher & Co..

498.73

436.08