large that two stout men could scarcely lift it, was blown over a house without damaging it, although torn from a tree 100 yards distant. A slate was carried nearly 200 yards, and forced against a window, the iron bar of which it bent. Several houses were stripped; and in one instance, this powerful gust, or stream of air, forced open a door, breaking the latch; whence it passed through the entry, and, forcing open the dairy door, overturned the milk-pans, and blew out three panes of glass. It next ascended to the chambers, and blew out nine other panes. Lastly, it blew a gate-post, fixed two feet and a half in the ground, out of the earth, and carried it many yards into the fields, On the 30th of October, 1731, at one in the morning, a very sudden and terrific whirlwind, having a breadth of two hundred yards, was experienced at Cerne-Abbas, "in Dorsetshire. From the south-west side of the town, it passed to the north-east, crossing the centre, and unroofing the houses in its progress. It rooted up trees, broke others in the middle, of at least a foot square, and carried the tops a considerable distance. A sign-post, five feet by four, was broken off six feet in the pole, and carried across a street forty feet in breadth, over a house opposite. The pinnacles and battlements of one side of the church-tower were thrown down, and the leads and timber of the northr aisle broken in by their fall. A short time before, the air was remarkably calm. It was estimated that this sudden and terrible gust did not last more than two minutes. About the middle of August, 1741, at ten in the morning, several peasants being on a heath near Holkham in Norfolk, perceived, about a quarter of a mile from them, a wind like a whirlwind approach them gradually, in a strait line from east to west. It passed through the field where they were ploughing, and tore up the stubble and grass in the ploughed ground, for two miles in length, to the breadth of thirty yards. In reaching an enclosure at the top of a rising ground, it appeared like a great flash or ball of fire, smitting smoke, and accompanied by a noise similar to that of carts passing over a stony ground. Both before and after the wind passed, there was a strong smell of sulphur; and the noise was heard long after the smoke had been perceived. This fiery whirlwind moved so slowly orward, that it was nearly ten minutes in proceeding from the enclosure to a farm-house in the vicinity, where it did much mischief. SOUNDS AND ECHOES. SOUND is propagated successively from the sounding body to the places which are nearest to it, then to those more distant, &c. Every observer knows that when a gun is fired at a considerable distance from him, he perceives the flash a certain time before he hears the report; and the same thing is true with respect to the stroke of a hammer, or of a hatchet, the fall of a stone, or, in short, any visible action which produces a sound or sounds. In general, sound travels through the air at the rate of 1142 feet in a second, or about thirteen miles in a minute. This is the case with all kinds of sounds, the softest whisper flying as fast as the loudest thunder. Sound, like light, after it has been reflected from several places, may be collected into one point as a focus, where it will be more audible than in any other part; and on this principle wHISPER ING GALLERIES are constructed. The particulars relative to the celebrated whispering gallery in the Dome of St. Paul's Church, London, will be comprehended in the description of that noble edifice. AN ECHO is the reflection of sound striking against a surface adapted to the purpose, as the side of a house, a brick wall, hill, &c. and returning back again to the ear, at distinct intervals of time. If a person stand about sixty-five or seventy feet from such a surface, and perpendicular to it, and speak, the sound will strike against the wall, and be reflected back, so that, he will hear it as it goes to the wall, and again on its return. If a bell situated in the same way be struck, and an observer stand between the bell and the reflecting surface, he will hear the sound going to the wall, and also on its return. Lastly, if the sound strike the wall obliquely, it will go off obliquely, so that a person who stands in a direct line between the bell and the wall will not hear the echo. According to the greater or less distance from the speak er, a reflecting object will return the echo of several, or of fewer syllables; for all the syllables must be uttered before the echo of the first syllable reaches the ear, to prevent the confusion which would otherwise ensue. In a moderate way of speaking, about three and a half syllables are pronounced in one second, or seven syllables in two seconds: therefore, when an echo repeats seven syllables, the reflecting object is 1142 feet distant; for sound travels at the rate of 1142 feet per second, and the distance from the speaker to the reflecting object, and again from the latter to the former, is twice 1142 feet. When the echo returns fourteen syllables, the reflecting object must be 2284 feet distant, and so on. The most remarkable echo recorded, is at the palace of a nobleman, within two miles of Milan, in Italy. The building is of some length in front, and has two wings jutting forward; so that it wants only one side of an oblong figure. About one hundred paces before the mansion, a small brook glides gently; and over this brook is a bridge forming a communication between the mansion and the garden. A pistol having been fired at this spot, fifty-six reiterations of the report were heard. The first twenty were distinct; but in proportion as the sound died away, and was answered at a greater distance, the repetitions were so doubled that they could scarcely be counted, the principal sound appearing to be saluted in its passage by reports on either side at the same time. A pistol of a larger calibre having been afterwards discharged, and consequently with a louder report, sixty distinct reiterations were counted. From this example it follows, that the farther the reflecting surface is, the greater number of syllables the echo will repeat; but that the sound will be enfeebled nearly in the same proportion, until at length the syllables cannot be distinctly heard. On the other hand, when the reflecting object is too near, the repetition of the sound reaches the ear, whilst the perception of the original sound still continues, in which case an indistinct resounding is heard, as may be observed in empty rooms, passages, &c. In such places, several reflections from the walls to the hearer, as also from one wall to the other, and then to the hearer, clash with each other, and increase the indistinction. MISCELLANEOUS WONDERS OF NATURE. THE GREAT SERPENT, CALLED THE BOA CONSTRICTOR Ye too, in other climes who harmless rove Acquire new natures from the burning glare; AMONG serpents, the genus BoA is distinguished by its vast, and, indeed, almost unlimited size, as well as by its prodigious strength, which enables it to destroy cattle, deer, &c. by twisting around them in such a manner as to crush them to death by continual pressure. It also claims a superiority over other serpents by the beauty of its colours, and the peculiar disposition of its variegations. The entire ground colour of this animal, in the younger specimens, is a yellowish grey, and sometimes a bright yellow, on which is disposed, along the whole length of the back, a series of large, chain-like, reddish brown, and sometimes perfectly red variegations, leaving large open spaces of the ground colour at regular intervals. The largest, or principal marks, composing the above chain-like pattern, are of a squarish form, accompanied on their exterior sides by large triangular spots, with their points directed downward. Between these larger marks are disposed many smaller ones of uncertain forms, and more or less numerous in different parts. The ground colour itself is also scattered over by many small specks of the same colour with the variegations. The exterior edges of all the larger spots and markings are commonly blackish, or of a much deeper cast than the middle part, and the ground colour immediately accompanying the outward edges of the spots is, on the contrary, lighter than on the other parts, or even whitish, thus constituting a general richness of pattern, of which nothing but an actual view of a highly-coloured specimen of the animal itself can convey a complete idea. In larger specimens, the yellow tinge is often lost in an uniform grey cast, and the red tinge of the variegations sinks into a deep chesnut: in some instances the general regularity of the pattern, as above described, is disturbed by a kind of confluent appearance. The head is invariably marked above by a large longitudinal dark band, and by a narrower lateral band passing across the eyes towards the neck. It was, in all probability, an enormous specimen of this very serpent which once threw a whole Roman army into dismay. The fact is recorded by Valerius Maximus, who quotes it from one of the lost books of Livy, where it was detailed at a greater length. He relates that near the river Bagrada, in Africa, a snake was seen of so enormous a magnitude as to prevent the army of Attilius Regulus from the use of the river; and which, after having snatched up several soldiers with its enormous mouth, and killed several others by striking and squeezing them with the spires of its tail, was at length destroyed by assailing it with all the force of military engines and showers of stones, after it had withstood the attack of their spears and darts. It was regarded by the whole army as a more formidable enemy than even Carthage itself. The whole adjacent region was tainted with the pestilential effluvia proceeding from its remains, as were the waters with its blood, so as to oblige the Roman army to shift its station. The skin of this monster, measuring in length one hundred and twenty feet, was sent to Rome as a trophy, and was there suspended in a temple, where it remained till the time of the Numidian war. In the narrative of Mr. Mc Leod, surgeon of the Alceste frigate, which conveyed the late embassy to China, and was wrecked in the Straits of Gaspar, is an account of a BOA CONSTRICTOR having been embarked on board the Cæsar, the vessel which brought home the officers and crew of the shipwrecked frigate. The details are of great interest; but the mode in which this prodigy of nature was, during the passage, supplied with its food, causes humanity to shudder. Well may Sir Richard Phillips have remarked, in the supplementary number of the Monthly Magazine, [No. 307. p. 646.] that the parties guilty of the atrocious |