when the fog was thick, as a change of wind would sometimes clear the atmosphere sufficiently for the sun to penetrate it.

One morning, having run about 100 miles in a thick fog, they made the land, but could not tell whether it was a new discovery, or the island which they had left the day before, until the longitude was ascertained upon a floe of ice : it then proved to be Melville Island.

Considerable discoveries were made in the variation, dip of the compass, and magnetism in general during the voyage. On the 16th of September the sea was first frozen over, which carried the ships into dangerous situations, and rendered them immoveable. This obliged them to get into port for the winter, and by the 26th of September, a passage of three miles into Winter Harbour, Melville Island, was cut for the purpose. Soon after this period the thermometer fell below zero; in November it stood at 50 below, and in April following at 55; which latter is the greatest degree of cold ever registered.

On the 16th of November the sun set from them, and did not rise again till the 6th of February. On the 21st of December, at noon, they could just read small print by turning the leaf to the light. They saw no clouds during the winter, and but little snow fell. The aurora borealis was frequently seen, but never brilliantly displayed. It was bitter cold when the wind blew, but at other times bearable. Its intensity may be judged of from the fact that port wine in the officers' cabins froze and burst the bottles; and on the officers' beds the thermometer stood from 16 to 20 below the freezing point.

In April (1820) partial symptoms of thaw appeared. By the end of May pools and streams of water made their appearance, and soon after a regular thaw commenced. Captain Parry with a party now crossed Melville Island, and reached the sea on the opposite side in lat. 75° N. where they discovered another island. Fourteen days were occupied in this excursion, and making observations on the animal and mineral productions. Vegetation had now become active; and sorrel was found in such quantity as to remove all symptoms of scurvy from the crew. By the end of July the ice disappeared in Winter Harbour; but it was not till the last day of the month that the outside ice was rent sufficiently to permit their departure; and on the 6th of August they reached the western termination of Melville Island, when the floe ice was from forty to sixty feet thick, and so compact that not a hole of water could be seen amongst it. The ships waited here eleven days (one-third of the summer in that clime); when seeing no change, and the general opinion being that all attempts to proceed westward in that parallel were useless, on the 23d of August they steered to the eastward, searching for a passage to the

south

southward, that would enable them to reach the continent (of North America); but finding none, and the ice having led them back into Lancaster's Sound, it was determined to return to England. During the eleven days the ships were off Melville Island, they were in the most critical situation, being obliged to dodge the ice round a point of land the whole time, to avoid being nipped the beach was forined of ice, which projected under water more than thirty yards, having about two fathoms water on the outer edge of it, against which the ships lay in nine fathoms; so that had they been stove, they would have sunk deeper than their masts down, and nothing could have been saved.

[We make the following extract from a scarce work, entitled "Observations on a North-Western Passage, by William Goldson, Esq. of Portsmouth, published in the year 1793."]

If the authority stated be not questionable, the passage from Lancaster's Sound to the Pacific Ocean has been made :-" A voyage is said to have been made in the year 1598. The only account we have of it is from a memoir read at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, Nov. 13, 1720, by Mr. Buachi, geographer to the French king. The substance of this memoir is, that M. De Mendoza, a captain in the Spanish navy, employed to form a collection for the use of that service, having searched various archives, found an account of this voyage, which was made under the command of Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado. From an inspection of this journal it appears that when he arrived in latitude 60 degrees North, and longitude 325 degrees East from Ferro, he steered to the Westward, leaving Hudson's-bay to the South, and Baffin's-bay to the North; and in the latitude 65 deg. North, and longitude 297 degrees East from Ferro (from which meridian the longitude is reckoned through the whole journal), he altered his course to the Northward, sailing through what he calls the Straits of Labrador, until he found himself in latitude 76 deg. North, and longitude 278 deg. East, in the Frozen Ocean; he then held his course SouthWest, and passed through the Strait which separates Asia from America. In latitude 60 deg. North, and longitude 235 East, he entered the South Sea, naming the Strait through which he had passed Anian, but which M. Buachi would have called Ferrer's Straits, in memory of its discoverer."

LXXIV. On the Advantages of using Animal Empyreumatic Oil in the Manufacture of Prussian Blue. By Dr. HAENLE. AMONG the accessory products of the fabrication of muriate of ammonia, empyreumatic oil is that of which hitherto the least

3 K 2

use has been made for we cannot consider as of much consequence the very trifling quantities of this article which are annually employed in pharmacy, and there is no other known consumption of it.

I have succeeded in obtaining with this oil a lye for the preparation of Prussian blue, which is as rich in colouring matter as that made of horns or with blood; it is a blue equally beautiful and clear.

The consistence of the blue precipitate which Diesbach obtained in endeavouring to prepare Florence lac with salt of tartar which he had got from Dippel, had induced some chemists to treat this salt with animal empyreumatic oil in the hope of couverting it into prussiate of potash; but their expe. iments, which were made in the liquid way, had not any success, and could not have any; for, besides that in the animal oils the elements of the prussic acid are in a different state than in that acid, these chemists wanted the principal condition necessary to the acids forming and uniting itself to the alkali-namely, that of operating on it with a red heat.

I have followed the direct method, which was to reduce into charcoal by calcination the animal oil, and to redden this charcoal with alkali. The result was a prussiate, which, with the sulphate of iron and the sulphate of potash and alumine, yielded a very beautiful and abundant blue.

It would be wrong to rank in the same class for the improvement of the Prussian alkali the charcoal which remains after the distillation of animal matters for the purpose of extracting ammonia from them. The latter charcoal has experienced too strong an ignition for the elements of the prussic acid to be able to maintain an affinity favourable to the production of the acid by the calcination of charcoal with the alkali.

Chemists may by means of empyreumatic oil procure, in a little time and without being incommoded by the least odour, a prussiate of potash fit for serving as a reactive. For this purpose let them half fill with the animal oil a Hessian crucible of the capacity of from 8 to 16 ounces, and place it among burning charcoal. As soon as the oil begins to simmer, withdraw the crucible from the furnace and place it on the ground under the chimney, covering it with a leather pipe such as may, if necessary, be lengthened. The object of this covering is to promote the combustion, and the better to conduct away the smoke. In proportion as the cil is consumed let more oil be of new introduced into the crucible; and when the whole has been consumed, calcine the residue at a gentle red heat until a brown vapour begins to ascend, and till a portion of the mass put upon a cold body hardens on the instant, and presents the appearance of a porous and friable body, without any odour. LXXV, Notices

LXXV. Notices respecting New Books.

An Inquiry concerning the Power of Increase in the Numbers of Mankind; being an Answer to Mr. Malthus's Essay on that Subiect. By William Godwin. Svo. 18s.

MR.MALTHUS had assumed, from some hypothetical calculations of Sir William Petty on the number of children which teeming women can bear,-some loose notions in the writings of Dr. Styles, &c.—a calculation of Euler, showing the various periods of doubling, according to the rate of excess of births over the deaths, that the population of a country, if left unchecked, could double itself, by propagation alone, every 25 years. The censuses of North America were confidently appealed to in support of this doctrine, which has been received by all the political economists of Europe.

Many a silly declamation has been poured out against Mr. Malthus, but no one before Mr. Godwin thought of examining the data on which Mr. Malthus's structure rests, to see whether they really bore him out in his conclusions.

Mr. Godwin has been at some pains to ascertain the extent of female productiveness. A variety of data on this subject are to be found in the work of the laborious Süsmulch, and the most accurate tables containing all the information which a philosopher would wish to obtain respecting the progress of population in a country, have been kept in Sweden for more than half a century. The lists from every part of Europe, town as well as country, give four children only to a marriage. In Sweden, in

particular, as appears from its lists, almost every female, on attaining the marriageable age, changes her condition. If this is the rate of productiveness in Europe, what is it in North America? The returns obtained from that country, as might be expected, exhibit precisely the same result; and in America, as well as Europe, the number of children to a marriage is four.

The next point to be ascertained is, the law of mortality. This is pretty well known in Europe, but we possess few returns on this subject from North America. It is known, however, that the mortality is greater there than in Europe. All newly settled countries are more unhealthy than old countries; and North America in particular, from all accounts, is much more unhealthy than any country in Europe.

In Sweden, which is a healthy country, the excess of births over the deaths, is nearly that which Süsmulch assigns as the average for whole provinces in ordinary years, namely, as twelve or thirteen to ten. Sweden may be said to be cut off from the rest of Europe, sending forth few emigrants, and receiving few immi

grants.

grants. From this circumstance, it has been found possible to compare the population as taken at a particular period, with what it ought to be, by adding to the preceding enumeration the births, and subtracting the deaths, of the intervening period, in order to see whether the result approximates to the next enumeration, which it does to within a wonderful degree of nearness. In 54 years, from 1751 to 1805, a period of internal tranquillity, the population increased from 2,229,614 to 3,320,647, nearly one half.

How happens it then, that with no more births than those of Sweden, North America, where the deaths are more numerous in proportion to the births, has increased in population between 1790 and 1810, from 3,929,326 to 7,239,903, while Sweden, in 54 years, only increased its population one half?

Mr. Godwin, with the assistance of a friend, Mr. David Booth, has analysed the North American censuses, and cleared up this mystery.

The world believed too readily the assertion of Mr. Malthus, that the American increase was not owing to immigration. Mr. Booth has proved, that it is owing almost entirely to immigration. By tables he has shown with what amazing rapidity a population is increased by the annual influx of a comparatively small number of picked propagators. He then analyses the censuses, and shows how materially they differ from those of a regular society. When enumerations are taken every ten years, it is obvious, exclusive of immigration, that in any particular census the persons living above 10 years of age must have all existed in the census immediately preceding. In that of 1810, for instance, all above ten formed part of the population of 1800, and are in reality the same, except inasmuch as they are diminished by death. Now, the white population of 1800 was 4,305,971. These in 1810 would, without immigration, have been, by the most favourable laws that have hitherto been observed of human mortality, diminished by one fourth, leaving 3,200,000 alive. But the actual census above ten years of age was 3,845,389, giving a surplus of 645,389, which can only be accounted for by immigration. The census of 1810 contains also 2,016.704 children under ten years. Part of these, too, as proceeding from immigrants, should be added to the 645,389; and therefore, of the 1,556,122 persons which the census of 1810 exhibits beyond that of 1800, it is clear that nearly one-half was added by direct immigration. In an indigenous society there are nearly a fourth of its numbers above forty-five years of age. From the continued immigration into America, the higher ages bear no proportion to the rest. In none of the United States is the number of persons above fortyfive more than from 16 to 17 per cent. of the population, while in