continents be discovered, and a new era opened, in the his tory of the globe! I was, a few days ago, greatly pleased with tracing the progress of an invention into several branches of art, with which, at first, it appeared not to have the remotest affinity. I refer to the cylinder, covered with wire-cloth of different fineness, originally intended only for sifting flour, meal, and bran, immediately as they come from the millstone. For this ingenious invention, Mr. Mills got a patent, the term of which is now, probably, expired; for the person who showed it me, informed me, that he had himself applied the cylinder, with little variation, in sifting gunpowder, snuff, tanner's bark, and sand.'

The Rev. Samuel Hall, M.A., writes of 'An Attempt to show that a Taste for the Beauties of Nature and the Fine Arts has no Influence favourable to Morals.' This is in reply to a paper read by Dr. Percival to the Society, and published among his works. See p. 94.

LIFE IN NORTHERN LATITUDES.

The paper by Dr. Aikin on this subject might have been written for the present time. The advantage of fresh meat has been appreciated, but it has also been neglected without any good reason. Whether alcohol assists in developing scurvy has not been brought out fully so far as the writer knows. The mode of obtaining a steady temperature and even comparative warmth by burrowing underground is a good if not always a practicable plan.

Remarks on the different success, with respect to Health, of some Attempts to Pass the Winter in high Northern Latitudes. By John Aikin, M.D. Read January 16,

1782.1

We extract the following (p. 90) :—

'Towards the beginning of the last century, several voyages of discovery were made in the Northern Seas; and the Greenland whale fishery began to be pursued with ardour by various European nations. These two circumstances have given rise to various instances of wintering in the dreary and desolate lands of high Northern latitudes; and the surprising difference of success attending these attempts must strike every reader.

'The first remarkable relation of this kind that I have found, is that of the wintering of Captain Monck, a Dane, in Hudson's Bay, latitude 63° 20'. He had been sent on a voyage of discovery with two ships, well provided with necessaries, the crews of which amounted to sixty-four persons. The ships being locked up in the ice, they landed, and erected huts for passing the winter, which they occupied in September, 1619. At the beginning of their abode here, they got abundance of wild-fowl, and some other fresh provision; but the cold soon became so intense that nothing further was to be procured abroad, and they were obliged to take to their ship-stores. The severity of the coid may be conceived from their seeing ice three hundred and sixty feet thick, and from their beer, wine, and brandy being all frozen to the very centre. The people soon began to be sickly, and their sickness increased with the cold. Some were affected by gripes and looseness, which

1 Vol. i. p. 89.

continued till they died. At the approach of spring, they were all highly scorbutic, and their mouths were so extremely sore, that they were unable to eat anything but bread soaked in water. At last, their bread was exhausted, and the few survivors chiefly subsisted on a kind of berry dug out from beneath the snow. When the spring was far advanced, no fresh vegetables could yet be found. In June, the captain crawled out of his hut, and found the whole company reduced to two men besides himself. These melancholy relics supported themselves in the best manner they were able, and recovered their strength by feeding on a certain root they discovered, and some game caught in hunting. At length they embarked in the smaller ship, and after undergoing numberless dangers and hardships, returned home in safety.

'In the year 1633 two trials were made by the Dutch of establishing wintering-places at their northern fisheries ; the one at Spitzbergen, the other on the coast of Greenland, in latitudes about 77° or 78°. Seven sailors were left at each, amply furnished with every article of clothing, provision, and utensils thought necessary or useful in such a situation. The journals of both companies are preserved.

'That of the men in Greenland takes notice, that on September 18th the allowance of brandy began to be served out to each person. On October 9th they began to make a constant fire to sit by. About this time, it is remarked that they experienced a considerable change in their bodies, with giddiness in their heads. They now and then killed a bear; but their common diet was salt meat. In March they were all very ill of the scurvy; and on April 16th the first man died, and all the rest were entirely disabled, but one person. This poor

wretch continued the journal to the last day of April, when they were praying for a speedy release from their miseries. They were all found dead.

'The journal of those who were left at Spitzbergen recites, that they sought in vain for green herbs, bears and foxes in that desolate region, and killed no other game than one fox the whole time. The scurvy appeared among them as early as November 24, and the first man died January 14th. The journal ends February 26th;

and these too were all found dead. . . .

...

'On the same side of Spitzbergen, between latitude 77° and 78°, a boat's crew, belonging to a Greenland ship, consisting of eight Englishmen, who had been sent ashore to kill deer, were left behind, in consequence of some mistake, and reduced to the deplorable necessity of wintering in that dreadful country, totally unprovided with every necessary.

'The melancholy of their situation was aggravated by the absence of the sun from the horizon from October 14 to February 3, of which period twenty days were passed in total darkness, except the light of lamps, which they contrived to keep continually burning. With all this, it does not appear that any of them were affected with the scurvy, or any other disorder; and the degree of weakness, which seems implied by the mention of their recovering strength in the spring, may be sufficiently accounted for merely from their short allowance of nutritious food. At the return of the ship on May 25 they all appear to have been in health; and all of them returned in safety to their native country. . . .

'In the year 1743, a Russian ship of East Spitzbergen, in latitude between 77° and 78°, was so enclosed with ice,

that the crew, apprehensive of being obliged to winter there, sent four of their men in a boat to seek for a hut, which they knew to have been erected near that coast. The hut was discovered; but the men, on returning to the shore, found all the ice cleared away, and the ship no longer to be seen; and indeed it was never more heard of (p. 97).

'The flesh they eat almost raw, and without salt; using by way of bread to it, other flesh dried hard in the smoke. Their drink was running water in the summer, and melted ice and snow in the winter. Their preservatives against the scurvy were, swallowing raw frozen meat broken into bits, drinking the warm blood of reindeer just killed, eating scurvy-grass, when they could meet with it, and using much exercise. By these means three of them remained entirely free from this disease during the whole of their abode. The fourth died of it after lingering on to the sixth year.

'In a note to the account of the four Russians, it is said, "Counsellor Müller says, the Russians about Archangel should be imitated; some of whom every year winter in Nova Zembla without ever contracting the scurvy. They follow the example of the Samoides, by frequently drinking the warm blood of reindeer just killed. The hunting of these animals requires continual exercise. None ever keep their huts during the day, unless the stormy weather, or too great quantity of snow, hinders them from taking their usual exercise."

In a manuscript French account of the islands lying between Kamtschatka and America, drawn up by that eminent naturalist and geographer, Mr. Pallas, I find it mentioned that 'the Russians in their hunting voyages to