142 Natural Phænomena.[Sept.

‘The ráats of Norway, in the beginning of a winter of extraordinary ſeverity, are accuſtomed to deſcend, in prodigious crowds, from the interior mountains towards the ſea-ſhore. Their march 1s irrefiſtible, and deſtru&ive. They ſwim acroſs rivers, devour the herbage, eat their way through ſtacks of hay, diſdain even the oppoſition of men, but are at laſt, for the greater part, drown- ed, diſperſed, ſtarved to death, deſtroyed by foxes, ermines, and other animals, their natural enemies. This formidable migration often takes place, twice within twenty years.

Profeſſor CREVE of Mentz, has lately diſcovered by a ſeries of ingenidus ex- periments, that the excitement of the Galvanic irritability of aniial nerves, may be employed as the moſt deciſive and infallible of all means, to determine, in caſes of apparênt death,—z tinguifſhed?—A diſcove:7

Mr. HERHOLDT of Cope

Pd:

‘y great importance! Ï

ï 1, has lately diſcovered that, in many cafés of apparent dead births, the animation’ of the infant might be reſtored’ by cléar- ing: the canal of reſpiration of- 2 guantity of the liquor of the azzzios with which, at the birth, it is ever more or leſs filled.“ In ſome diſſeÆions of the young of animals which were born dead, he found the cavity of the drum of the ear to be filled with this liquor. Hénce he conjeétured, that it might m like manner, fill the paſſage for reſpiration. Proper enguiry confirmed his con- je&ure. He has, ſince, had the good fortune to ſave the lives of?zvelve out of thirteen children, born in this condition. The energies‘of nature are often ſuf ficiently powerful to‘clear away the fluid. In other caſes, theſe energies are too Teeb It is‘then neceſſary not only to gargle the throat of the child, but alſo to place it in an'attitude favourable to the flowing out of the liquid. A diſcovery ſuch as this cannot be made too generally known.

It appears that ſca-wätcr, in îts ſpontaneous évaporation'by the heat of the ſun, carries up with it a portion of zuriate of ſoda, or common ſalt: for êéryſtals of this ſalt have been lately found at a confiderable diſtance from‘the fea, in a hoár-froit work on the branches and leaves of trees and hawthorn buſhes, on

“ which they could not have been fixed otherwiſe than by a depoſition from an

atmoſphere impregnated with ſea-water. [t appears, indubitably, that ſpiders poſſeſs a wonderful ſenſibility to the indi- cations of approaching changes in the ſtate of the weather. It foul weather be about to come on, they ſpin their webs of very ſtout, thick threads; when the weather is about to be more permanently fair, they make the principal thréads of their webs very large, and very fine.

A dog, after nine weeks confinement in an obſcure recefs, into which it had fallen in St. Paul's Cathedral, was accidentally diſcovered and preſeryed.' ‘Though almoß too feeble and emaciated tó walk, it no ſooner found itſelf at liberty, and in the open air; than it ſet oufor the houſe ef its maſter. After many eſcapes, and a jouraey of a whole day, in the ſtreets, it, in the evening, reached his houſe, in Red Líon Street. Its weight had diminiſhed, during its ſtarving confinement, from 16 pounds, 2 ouncés, to 3 pounds, 14 ounces. Tt it not often that any animal has had the fortune to ſurvive ſo much hardſhip and danger:

atcft lie dy laſt, that was experienced in the Weſt of England, took place. on the 2d and 3d days of the month; and expanded the mercury. in Fahrenheit’s thern-, to the elevation of 62° above zero. The greateſt heat of the month of 2 yas, in London, experienced on the xf, 2d, 3d 5th, 11th, 15th, and zoth days of the month, and elevated the mercury. in the ther- mometer to 89°,- Ï

It has been computed; that a pair of ſparrows will, in one week, carry to feed their young; no fewer than 3,360 caterpillars.

Tt ras been found, that_even after caterpillars have begun.to make their appearance in great numbers, on beans, cabbages, goofberry-buſhes, and oflier garden-plants“; the care of picking them of with the hand, may be : coully employed to ſave the vegetable crop from the deſtruétion they threaten,

nome

er animation be only ſuſpended, or completely ex-*