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devoted to this employment, and who are called Huragueros, are embodied at the residence of the Teniente visitador. The Indians employed at this work are easily distinguished by their hair becoming red. Being embodied, they proceed, in presence of the Gens d'armes, to sound the lake with a long pole, at the end of which is fixed a bar of iron, which serves to break the mineral. Having by these means found the parts where the Urao is most copiously deposited, they divide themselves into different parties (quadrillas), for the sake of facilitating their labour. Each party, composed of eight, ten, or more Indians, fixes a pole in the centre of the district allotted to them. Supported by this pole, the Huragueros plunge into the lake, and beginning by separating a bed of earth which covers the mineral, they proceed to break the Urao. When they suppose that a considerable part of the Urao is separated from the mass, they dive for it, and then rising again above the water, place it in very small canoes (piraguitas), which float round the spot. As there are several Indians who explore the same mine, the work goes on without interruption, but the same Huraguero is not able to plunge many times successively. The work, which begins early, and always in presence of the Gens d'armes, who are stationed on the borders of the lake, ceases at six o'clock in the afternoon, when the produce of the day's labour is deposited in the royal magazine, and is afterwards exposed to the heat of the sun.

The extraction, which lasts

nearly two months, produces from 1000 to 1600 weight of Urao, which is the quantity consumed in two years at Venezuela; but if more were required, the lake would probably furnish upwards of four times that quantity. The difficulty of extracting the Urao may easily be imagined, but what is much worse, considerable danger attends it. If the Indian diver happens to lose his hold of his pole, or if some other accident prevent his rising promptly to the surface of the water, and indeed the Indians of Lalagunilla are in general but indifferent divers, he is in danger of swallowing more or less of the alkaline solution. If the quantity drank be inconsiderable, the bad consequences may be trifling; but if he happen to drink largely, he cannot survive it many days. Oil has been had recourse to in vain. Acetic acid might, perhaps, in such cases be administered with better effect. Father Rendon proposed, in 1808, to the Captaingeneral of Caraccas, to effect the extraction of the Urao by sinking a caisson, which when properly secured should be opened at bottom to get at the soda. This project, which undoubtedly at low water might be realised at a small expense, was rejected as impracticable.

When the extraction of the Urao is completed, the superintendant of the tobacco, who resides at Merida, repairs to Lalagunilla, accompanied by the Teniente visitador and others. The salt is weighed, and paid for in the proportion of about one real of plata (about seven-pence) the pound. It is then conveyed into

the

the general storehouse for tobacco at Guanare, in the province of Caraccas, whence it is distributed to the lesser warehouses.

If a heap of tobacco leaves covered with the green leaves of other plants be exposed to the sun for a few days, the tobacco begins to ferment. If then put into a press a red liquor may be drawn from it, the exhalations of which are intoxicating, and its taste very pungent. This juice drawn from the tobacco is called Anvir, but when reduced to a syrup, by evaporation, it is termed Mò. If the Mò be mixed with the Urao when dried, roasted, and pulverised, it forms the Mò dulce, if the proportions be preserved of an ounce of Urao to a pound of Mò, or otherwise Chimò, if two or more ounces of Urao be mixed with a pound of Md.

In the province of Venezuela, and especially in Barinas and part of Caraccas and Maracaybo, Mò is much used, and likewise Chimò, which is kept in small horn boxes, and occasionally persons put a little into their mouths. The Mò, and especially the Chimò, produces a copious salivation, stimulating at the same time the nervous system, which in these climes, where the senses blunted by the excessive heat, is productive of a degree of plea

sure.

are

It is likewise used in medicine for spasmodic complaints, which in these countries are both frequent and dangerous. It is said that a little Chimò held in the mouth protects swimmers from the electric power of the cramp fish (Trembladores).

The sale of tobacco, the Mò dulce, and Chimò, in the Captaincy-general of Venezuela, produced, in 1804, 700,000 piasters after every expense attending it was paid.

I had the honour of transmitting last year to Baron Humboldt in Paris, a specimen of the Urao, which Colonel Duran brought to Europe. It was analysed by M. Guy Lussac, who pronounced it to be natron, in no respect different from that found in the lakes of Egypt and Fezzan. The mass neither contains sulphuric nor boracic acid, but a little subcorbonate of ammonia. On comparing the Urao with common subcarbonate of soda we find that it contains more carbonic acid and less water.

In the environs of Lalagunilla, as well as in the roads to Merida, and especially near the river Albarregas, there are some mountains which are very distinguishable among the others by their superior verdure, and by the abundance of some plants, principally the Rosa de Muerto, and precisely the same species of verdure and the same plants are found on the mountains where are the mines of rock salt at Zipaquira, and at Enemocon of Cundinamarca in New Granada. Finding these similarities, I may venture to form a conjecture, that in the environs of Lalagunilla there must likewise exist muriate of soda, and this being ascertained it would perhaps contribute to explain the formation of natron at such a considerable height above the level of the sea, which is more than sixty leagues distant from Lalagunilla.

MISCELLANIES.

MISCELLANIES.

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"My Dear Sir,-The very great loss which this country formerly experienced by a considerable part of imported grain having become contaminated by must, induced me several years past to direct my attention towards discovering some simple and economical method by which this taint could be removed, and you well know that my endeavours were successful; but as circumstances at that time, and since, did not appear to require that great publicity should be given to this process, I contented myself with describing it to you and a few of my other friends. Now, however, when I reflect on

the large quantities of corn which, during the last harvest, have been housed in a damp state, and on the great importations which are expected, with the extreme probability that a considerable part may have contracted must, and that thus the object of importation may be partially frustrated by the destruction of a large portion of grain, and the consequent increase in the price of the remainder, I think it incumbent on me, by addressing this letter to you, to lose no time in publishing a process, by which corn, however musty, may be completely purified, with scarcely any loss of quantity, with very little expense, and without requiring previous chymical knowledge or chymical apparatus.

"The experiments which I made were confined to wheat, as being of the greatest importance; but there can be no doubt that oats and other grain may be restored to sweetness with equal success and I have also additional satisfaction from being enabled to state, that the efficacy of the process may be ascertained by

any

any person, in any place, and upon any quantity of grain, however small.

"From my experiments I am inclined to believe, that must is a taint produced by damp upon the amylaceous part of the grain or starch: that the portion of starch nearest to the husk is that which is first tainted; and that the greater or less degree of must is in proportion to the taint having penetrated more or less into the substance of the grain. In most cases, however, the taint is only superficial; but, nevertheless, if not removed, it is sufficient to contaminate the odour and flavour of the whole, especially when converted into flour.

"After various experiments, I found the following method to be attended with success :

"The wheat must be put into any convenient vessel capable of containing at least three times the quantity, and the vessel must be subsequently filled with boiling water; the grain should then be occasionally stirred, and the hollow and decayed grains (which will float) may be removed; when the water has become cold, or, in general, when about half an hour has elapsed, it is to be drawn off. It will be proper then to rince the corn with cold water, in order to remove any portion of the water which had taken up the must; after which, the corn being completely drained, is, without loss of time, to be thinly spread on the floor of a kiln, and thoroughly dried, care being taken to stir and to turn it frequently during this part of the process.

"This is all that is required; and I have constantly found that

even the most musty corn (on which ordinary kiln-drying had been tried without effect) thus became completely purified, whilst the diminution of weight caused by the solution of the tainted part was very inconsiderable.

I have the honour to remain,
Dear Sir Joseph,

Your most faithful and
obedient servant,

CHARLES HATCHETT."
Mount Clare, Roehampton,
Dec. 4, 1816.

THE COUNTRY POOR.

The two following interesting stories are extracted from the "Report of the Society for bettering the Condition of the Poor :" they are well worth the attention of those country gentlemen who have a sincere wish to ameliorate the condition of their indigent labourers.-(Times.)

Twenty years ago there stood a small cottage by the road side, near Tadcaster, which for its sin gular beauty, and the neatness of its little garden, attracted the notice of every traveller. The remarkable propriety which appeared in every part of this tenement made Sir Thomas Bernard curious to learn the history of the owner, and he obtained it from his own mouth. Britton Abbott (such was the owner's name) was a day-labourer: beginning to work with a farmer at nine years old, and being careful and industrious, he had saved nearly 401. by the time that he was two-and-twenty. With this money he married and took a farm at 301. a year; but the farm was too much for his

means,

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means, and before the end of the second year he found it necessary to give it up, having exhausted almost all his little property. He then removed to a cottage, where with two acres of land and his right of common he kept two cows, and lived in comfort for nine years at the expiration of that time the common was enclosed, and he had to seek a new habitation with six children, and his wife ready to lie-in again. In this state he applied to Mr. Fairfax, and told him that if he would let him have a little bit of ground by the road side he would show him the fashions on it.' The slip of land for which he asked was exactly a rood; Mr. Fairfax, after inquiring into his character, suffered him to have it; the neighbours lent him some little assistance in the carriage of his materials; he built his house, enclosed the ground with a single row of quickset, which he cut down six times when it was young, and planted the garden.

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manner in which he set to work, and the way in which the work was performed, pleased Mr. Fairfax so much, that he told him he should be rent-free. His answer, as Sir Thomas Bernard justly says, deserves to be remembered, Now, Sir, you have a pleasure in seeing my cottage and garden neat; and why should not other squires have the same pleasure in seeing the cottages and gardens as nice about them? The poor would then be happy, and would love them, and the place where they lived but now every nook of land is to be let to the great farmers, and nothing left for the poor but to go to the parish,'

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Though my visit,' says Sir Thomas, was unexpected, and he at the latter end of his Saturday's work, his clothes were neat and sufficiently clean. His countenance was healthy and open; he was a little lame in one leg, the consequence of exposure to wet and weather. He said he had always worked hard and well; but he would not deny but that he had loved a mug of good ale when he could get it. When I told him my object in inquiring after him, that it was in order that other poor persons might have cottages and gardens as neat as his, and that he must tell me all his secret how it was to be done, he seemed extremely pleased, and very much affected: he said, nothing will make poor folks more happy than finding that great folks thought of them : that he wished every poor man had as comfortable a home as his own, not but that he believed there might be a few thoughtless fellows who would not do good in it.'

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Britton Abbot was at this time sixty-seven, and had lived happily with his wife for five and forty years. He earned from twelve to eighteen shillings a week by task work, but to be sure,' he said, I have a grand character in all this country! Five of his children were living, and having been well brought up, were thriving in the world. Upon his rood of ground he had fifteen apple trees, one green-gage, two winesour plumtrees, two apricot trees, currants, gooseberries, and three beehives; he reared also from this garden abundance of common vegetables, and about forty bushels of pota

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