SIR,

HAving read the defcription of the Falls of the Clyde, in your Magazine of Auguft laft, and having been in that neighbourhood foon after, I had the curiofity to take a view of one of thefe Falls, which from the gentleman's feat near to it, called Stonebyres, has got the name of Stonebyres Lynn. On that occafion, I made fome obfervations, which may, perhaps, be welcome to fome of your readers.

In the first place, I must take notice, that this Fall is not about a mils higher up the Clyde than Corra Lynn, as your traveller makes it, p. 380; but it is near to two miles farther down the river, and, as it appeared to me, about half a mile below the bridge over the Clyde, about a mile from Lanerk; and this bridge is, I think, at prefent, the spot nearest to the Fall to which a wheel-carriage can reach.

The rocks below this Fall are on the north fide of the river fo high, and at the fame time turn in fuch a manner, that you cannot approach so as to fee the cascade to fatisfaction. And even on the south fide, in order to get a proper view of it, I found it neceffary to defcend from the mill, which is at the top of the precipice, by a very bad footpath, through thick bushes, and ftepping from ftone to ftone, until I got down to the foot of the rock, where you have a ftand almoft in front of the Fall, and at a proper distance. In going down here, I had the good old miller for my guide.

When I had got myself properly placed, I ftood for more than a quarter of an hour, gazing with aftonishment on the great body of water tumbling down the rocks. This Fall appears to be about forty or fifty feet high, and is divided into three Falls of almost an equal height. At firft, the river throws itself over the rock, almoft in one sheet, into a kind of bafon, where it rages in the greatest confu fion, and fends up an uninterrupted fmoke. From the edge of this bafon the water pours itfelf over obliquely, the north fide being something lower than the other, and falls upon the rocks, which form the third ftep of the cascade,

and there it is broken and whitened, and then gathered into another bason, out of which it defcends on a rocky declivity for twenty or thirty yards. This object is truly awful. The great force which the falling mafs of water muft have, the confused found, and the continual motion, confpire to excité new and fublime ideas.

After fome time, my attention was drawn to another scene, which to me appeared pretty curious. This was that of the trouts attempting, in vain, to get up the lower parts of the rock. In the space of about ten minutes, I beheld juft before me thirty or forty, some of them of more than eighteen inches in length, jump up the height of between two and three feet, ftriving to get up the little Falls below the greater ones; but they always fell back; and fome of them muft have hurt themselves by the fhock against the rocks, which in fome places had little water on them. This is, I fuppofe, to be seen only at certain feasons of the year. It was on the 21ft of October that I was there; and the river was fomething fwelled by the rains.

Some of the rocks near to this Fall are of a brownish, others of a bluish colour; and fome of them are of the kind that is called plumb-pudding stone. There is one large mafs of the bluish ftone, which has fallen from the rocks above, and lies near the above-mentioned foot-path, which appears to be about thirty feet in length, about five in breadth, and four in thicknefs. If it could be brought to a proper place, it might be made a pretty good obelisk, and with an infcription, might ferve to preserve the memory of fome great event.

From the back door of the mill you have the best view of the first step of the Fall, as you look down upon it, and are very near.

May I not venture to fuggeft, with all due deference, that the gentlemen in the neighbourhood should concert measures for rendering the accefs to this fo remarkable a cascade something more eafy? A fmall fum of money would at least make a fafe road down to the proper ftation for viewing the Fall.

Stonebyres Lynn can be feen from a little hill about a mile to the weftward, where, with a good telescope, it makes a very noble appearance. Your's, &c.

Edinburgh, Nov. 13. JOHN HOPE.

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phænomenon. It is not yet clearly decided amongst naturalifts, whether the feeds of mushrooms, of mucors, and of the whole clafs of fungi, be not in a tepid, humid matrix, changed into vermicular animals, which lofe in a little time their power of spontaneous motion, coalefce together, and grow up into thefe very fingular plants: the quickness of their encreafe, and the irrefiftible force with which the mouldinefs propagates itself, and deftroys the texture of the bodies upon which it fixes, feem to point towards an animal nature.

Different vegetables require different foils, as different animals do different food for their fupport and well-being: a. quatics pine away in dry fandy grounds, and plants which love rocks and barren fituations, where they imbibe their chief nutriment from the air, become difeafed and putrid in rich bogs and swamps.

There are aquatic animals which become immovable and lifelefs when the rivulets in which they fubfifted happen to be dried up, but which recover their life and loco-motive powers upon the defcent of rain in this circumftance they are analogous to the class of moffes among vegetables, which, though they appear to be dried up, and ready to crumble into duft during the heats of fummer, yet recover their verdure and vegetable life in winter, or upon being put into a humid foil.

Trembley, Bonnet, and Spallanzina have vaftly amplified our views of nature; they have difcovered to us divers fpecies of animals, which may be cut into a va riety of pieces without lofing their animal life, each piece growing up into a perfect animal of the fame kind: the multiplication of vegetables by the plant ing of branches, fuckers, or joints of roots, is a fimilar effect. The re-production of the legs of craw fish, lobsters, crabs, of the horns and heads of falls, legs of lizards, of the bony legs and tails, of falamanders, when by accident or defign they have been deprived of them; and the great difference in the time of the reproduction, according to the feafon of the year in which the limb is loft, are wonders in the animal kingdom, but wholly analogous to the repullation of trees after lopping.

All plants, except thofe of the claffes monecia and diecia, are hermaphrodites; that is, they have the male and female organs of generation within the fame

empalement. Shell-fish, and fuch other animals as resemble vegetables in not being able to move far in search of mates, with which they might propagate their kind, are hermaphrodites alfo : Reaumur hath proved that vine fretters do not want an union of fexes for the multiplication of their kind.

From the conjunction of animals of different fpecies are produced hybrides, which in many cafes cannot propagate: botanifts have tried the experiment, and by fœcundating female flowers with the male dust of another species, have produced hybridous plants, of an intermedi ate shape, the feeds of which are barren and effete.

Trees fhed their leaves as birds do their feathers, and hirfute animals their hair. At particular seasons the juices of vegetables move with fulness and vigour; at others they are lefs plentiful, and feem to ftagnate; and in this they resemble dormice, bats, frogs, and numberless other animals of cold blood, which lie tor pid and deftitute of every fign of life du ring the winter time; the action of the lungs and of the heart being, if any, imperceptibly weak and languid.

Few, if any animals can exift without a reciprocal fucceffion of fleep and vigilance, and the younger the animal, the greater is its propenfity to fleep: the fame alternative feems neceffary for the health of several vegetables; a great variety of plants fold up their leaves, and feeming ly compofe themselves to reft, in the night-time; and this disposition for sleep is more remarkable in young plants than in old ones; nor does it, as might be fufpected, depend upon the influence of light or heat, fince plants in hot houses, where the heat is kept at the fame degree, fold up their leaves at a stated time in the evening, and expand them in the morning, whether the light be let in upon them or not. It may deferve to be inquired, whether by a relaxation of fibres thefe plants become subject to a more copious perfpiration during sleep than in their state of vigilance, as Sanctorious hath proved to be the cafe in animals.

There is a great diverfity, but a regu lar fucceffion, in the times in which animals of different species feel the æstrum, by which they are ftimulated to the pro pagation of their refpective kinds; an or der equally determined, is obfervable in the times of accomplishing the fponfalis

of

of plants. The periods of incubation in oviparous, and of geftation in viviparous animals are not more various in different fpecies, nor probably more definite in the fame, than the periods requifite for the germination and maturation of different feeds. By the influence of heat and cold, abundance and scarcity of nourishment, the feasons of propagating may be fomewhat accelerated or retarded in animals as well as in vegetables; the effects of a cold ungenial spring are as remarkable in the retardation of the pro. creative intercourses of birds and beafts, as in the ftoppage of the leafing of trees, or the flowering of fhrubs. In a word, there are so many circumftances in which the anatomy and phyfiology of fome plants agree with thofe of fome animals, that few, I believe, can be mentioned in which they disagree.

When it is confidered that animals are either mediately or immediately wholly nourished from vegetables, it might be expected, a priori, that the products obtainable by a chemical analysis from the two kingdoms should be different rather in quantity than quality, and that we could not from thence difcover any cri. teria by which they might be diftinguifh ed from one another: this obfervation is confirmed by experiment. Animals, it is true, in general yield a greater proportion of a volatile alkaline, than of an acid falt, by diftillation; vegetables, on the contrary, abound in acid, and yield not any volatile alkali, unlefs with the laft degree of heat, or when they have undergone putrefaction in saying this, I am aware that I differ from the opinion commonly received. Muftard feed, was ter creffes, horse radish, and other plants of the tetradynamia ciafs, are generally faid to contain a volatile alkali already formed, and to yield it with the heat of boiling water; from none of these how ever could I ever obtain by that heat a phlegm which would give a precipitation with corrofive fublimate, the most indubitable teft of a fluid's containing even the minutest portion of volatile alkali; the pungent fmell feems to have been mistaken here, as Sir John Pringle hath well obferved the fator to have been in the putrefaction of many animal fubftans ces, as proceeding from a volatile alkali; and which may, perhaps, be with great er truth attributed to a volatile oil, a fmall portion of which is sometimes procurable from pepperwort, by the heat of

boiling water impregnated with sea-falt, However, as fome animals, and fome parts of most animals, yield a portion of acid, and as moft vegetables, by a strong fire in clofe veffels, or when converted into foot, afford a volatile alkali, altoge ther fimilar to that obtained from animal substances, we cannot from these circumftances establish any distinctive mark between the two kingdoms. Memoirs of the late Duchefs of King flon, continued. [P.474.]

THE demife of the Duke of Kingston

was not unexpected by those who obferve the feveral premonitions of the King of Terrors. A paralytic ftroke iş among the harbingers of mortal diffolu tion, which is fure to be speedily followed by the event announced. The Duke lingered but a fhort time, and that time was employed by his confort in journeying his Grace about, under the futile idea, by change of air and fituation, of retarding the irreversible decree of Omnipotence. At laft, when real danger seemed to threaten, even in the opinion of the Duchefs, the dispatched one of her fwifteft-footed meffengers to her Solici tor, the late Mr Field, of the Temple, requiring his immediate attendance. "He obeyed the fummons, and arriving at the houfe, the Duchefs privately imparted her wishes, which were, that he would procure the Duke to execute, and be himself a fubfcribing witnefs to a will, made without his knowledge, and more to the tafte of the Duchefs than the one completed. The difference between these two wills was this: The Duke had bequeathed the income of his eftates to his relict during her life, and exprefsly under condition of her continuing in a state of widowhood. Whether his Grace, in thus reftraining her, did it in order to prevent the dishonour of his memory, by the introduction of an improper fuc ceffor; or, whether he acted from a confciousness of her extreme pliability, with all her manoeuvring, to be imposed on, must be left to conjecture. Perfectly fatisfied, however, as was the Duchefs with whatever appeared to be the inclination of her dearest Lord, the could not refift the feeming opportunity of carrying her fecret wishes into effect. She did not relish the Temple of Hymen being shut against her. Earneftly, therefore, did fhe prefs Mr Field to have her own will immediately executed, which left her at 4 C 3

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perfect liberty to give her hand to the conqueror of her heart. She was only by tome years on the wrong fide of fifty; and the celebrated Ninon de l'Enclos bloomed at threescore, and captivated at feventy. Here was an example which every amorous grandmother might have in view and extremely cruel would it be, to reftrict ladies, ancient only in years, from matrimony, as the mean to keep their blood within the bounds of decorum. The Duchess, in her anxiety to have the restraint fhaken off, had nearly deprived herself of every benefit derivable from the demife of the Duke. When Mr Field was introduced to his Grace, his intellects were perceptibly affected. He knew the friends who approached him, and a tranfient knowledge of their perfons was the only indication of mental exertion which feemed to be left him. Mr Field very properly remonftrated on the impropriety of introducing a will for execution, to a man in fuch a ftate. His remonftrance occafioned a fevere reprehension from the Duchefs, who reminded him, that he ought only to obey the inftructions of his employer. Feeling, however, for his profeffional character, he pofitively refufed, either to tender the will, or be in any manner concerned in endeavouring to procure the execution. With this refufal, he quitted the houfe, the Duchefs be holding him with au indignant eye as the annoyer of her scheme, when, in fact, by not complying with it, he proved her temporal faviour; for, had the will the propofed been executed, it would moft indubitably have been fet afide. The heirs would confequently have excluded the relict from every thing, except that to which the right of dower intitled her; and, the marriage being invalidated, the lady in this, as in other refpects, would have been ruined by her own ftratagem.

Soon after the fruftration of this attempt, the Duke of Kingston yielded to the ftroke of tate.-His will divulged, the funeral rites performed, and all o ther obfequial matters being properly adjufted, the Duchefs embarked for the Continent, propofing Rome for the city of her temporary refidence.-Ganganel li at that time filled the Papal See. From the moderation of his principles, the confequent tolerant fpirit which he of every occafion displayed, and the marked at tention he bestowed on the English, he acquired the title of the Proteftant Pope.

To fuch a character the Duchess was a welcome vifitor. Ganganelli treated her with the utmost civility, gave her, as a fovereign Prince, many privileges, and the was lodged in the palace of one of the Cardinals. Her vanity thus gratified, her Grace in return treated the Romans with a public fpectacle. She had built an elegant pleasure yacht; a gentleman who had ferved in the navy was the commander; under her orders he failed for Italy, and the vessel, at considerable trouble and fome expence, was conveyed up the Tiber. The fight of an English yacht there was uncommon. It drew the people in crowds to the fhore, and the applaufe ran general through the city. This feemed to be the era of feftivity and happinefs; but while the bark floated triumphantly on the undulations of the Tiber, a business was tranfacting in England which put an end to all momentary blifs. Mrs Cradock, a woman now li ving, who, in the capacity of a domef tic, had been prefent during the ceremo ny of marriage between Mifs Chudleigh and Lord Briftol, found herself fo reduced in circumstances, that fhe applied to Mr Feld for pecuniary relief. He faw her, and most injudiciously refused her every fuccour. In vain the urged her distress, and the absence of the Duchefs, who was the only perfon on whofe munificence he had the jufteft claim. Field was deaf to her entreaties; the then told him what was in her power to discover. To many circumstances which the related he was an entire ftran. ger, and he affected to difcredit the reft. Mrs Cradock ended the interview with a menace, that she would make the relations of the Duke of Kingston acquaint ed with every important particular. Field fet her at defiance, and, thus expofed to penury, the was exasperated to vengeance, and inftantly fet about the work of ruin.

His Grace of Kingfton had borne a marked diflike to one of his nephews. His private reason was well known to his confidential friends. Mr Evelyn Meadows had been in, and went out of, the Navy. Let it fuffice to say, that the Duke chose him not for his heir. He was one of the fons of Lady Frances Pierpont, fifter of the Duke of Kingstos, confequently his nephew-but his Grace liked him not. This gentleman, exclu ded- his prefumptive heirship, joyfully received the information, that a method

of