VALUE OF THE BRITISH SEA,

PER ACRE.

Joseph Mason Guest, of Birmingham, Warwickshire, thread manufacturer; an improved mill for twisting thread. July 30.

John Curr, of Belle Vue House,, Sheffield, York, gent.; a method of applying flat ropes, &c. to cap. stans and windlasses of ships and vessels, to convey them in and out of port, &c.; also a method of applying ropes, &c. to catch whales. July 30.

Luke Hebert, of St. Stephen, Walbrock, London, gent. ; an improved machine, for polishing, extending, &c. leather, July 30.

Britain has long been considered as mistress of the seas; but hitherto no one has thought of valuing that part of her domains. An acre of land fetches its worth, whether by private or public sale, and in some places the rents of fisheries, &c. are extremely valuable. But these are usually within the precincts of the land. A curious calculation has lately appeared, of the value of the British sea per acre; and when it is considered, that much more profit might be drawn from the ocean around our coasts than we procure at present, we presume that this estimate is not unworthy attention. Should the insertion of it be the means of inducing any of our readers to im-work prove this estate, we heartily wish them success, as well for their own sakes as that of the public.

The circumference of Britain is about 1836 miles; allowing a tract of fifteen miles over from the coast round about for the fishery, which is by much within the truth, there will then be near twenty millions of square acres of sea, which, at the rate of £1 10s. per acre, would amount to thirty millions per annum: the Irish coast may be calculated in proportion.

LIST OF PATENTS FOR INVENTIONS, ISSUED
BETWEEN JULY 1, AND DEC. 31, 1808.

[Compare Panorama, Vol. IV. p. 1295.] Richard Trevithick, of Rotherhithe, Surrey, engineer, and Robert Dickinson, of Great Queen Street, Surrey; machinery for towing and discharging ships of their cargoes. July 5

William Proctor, Sheffield, York, optician; improved methods of melting, &c. nialleable wrought iron or steel. July 6.

Kent; a key called the tone regulating key, which Charles Gostling Townley, Esq. Ramsgate, regulates the tone of the flute, &c. by causing the box to lengthen or contract at pleasure. Aug. 9. James Gale, of Shadwell, Middlesex, ropemaker; improvements in rope-making. Aug. 18. Alexander Tillock, of Barnsbury Street, Islington, Middlesex, gent. improved apparatus to machinery, and applicable to other useful purposes. August 20.

Thomas Price, of Bilston, Stafford, coal-master; improvements in the application of steam, and its apparatus. August 24.

Thomas Mead, of Scott-street, Sculcoates, York, engineer; a method of making a circular steam-engine upon a new principle, and employing the elastic force of steam in a much more efficacious manner than has hitherto been done. August 24.

William Congreve, of Garden-court, Temple, Middlesex, Esq.; a new principle of measuring time, and constructing clocks and chronometers. August 24.

Joseph Cuff, Jun. of Whitechapel, Middlesex, cheesemonger and bacon merchant, certain machinery for a better method of slaughtering hogs and other cattle. August 25.

John Dumbell, of Mersey Mills, Warrington, Lancaster, miller; a method of flax-spinning and making a special twist thread, &c. called telary teguments, from silk, &c.; and for a method of refabricating the same, and producing fremm tatters in general a new body. August 25.

Jolin Warren, of Poole, stonemason; an improved apparatus to prevent chimnies from smok. ing, and to extinguish fires in stoves, &c. without making a dust injurious to the furniture. Sept. 15.

Edward Massey, of Newcastle, Stafford, clock and watchmaker; an improved cock for drawing off liquors. Sept. 24.

James Browell and James Jacks, of Cornhill, London, tailors and drapers, and Thomas Lennite, of Aldgate, London, man's mercer; a new chemical preparation to preserve from destruction by mildew, &c. all kinds of woollen and vegetable substances from which woollen, &c. is made; Thomas Paton, of Christ Church, Surrey, en and to render woollen, cotton, leather, &c, im-gineer; an improved wheel for various useful pervious to rain. July 11.

purposes. Sept. 24.

Sebastian Erard, of Great Marlborough-street, Middlesex; improvements upon piano fortes and harps. Sept. 24.

Edward Thomason, of Birmingham, Warwickshire, manufacturer; improvements in umbrellas and parasols. Oct. 28..

Richard Trevithick, of Rotherhithe, Surrey, engineer, and Robert Dickinson, of Great Queen Street, Middlesex, Esq.; a new way of stowing cargoes of ships, &c. by which expenses of stowage-room will be saved, and the contents better secured from dainage. Oct. 31.

Henry Van Watt, of Liverpool, Lancaster, merchant; a machine for manufacturing thimbles for sails, rigging, and other purposes, communicated to him by Isaiah Jennings, a citizen of America. Oct. 31.

Joseph Anthony Berrollas, of Denmark-street, St. Giles-in-the fields, Middlesex, watchmaker; a method of making infallible repeating watches.

Torre Bella, Feb. 5, 1780. Dear Sir,---I write this from the beautiful and grand park of the Duke of Lafoeus, about forty miles from Lisbon, whither I accomZachariah Barratt, of Croydon, Surrey, gent.panied his grace a few days ago. The com

Oct. 31.

a machine for washing linen, &c. to which may be affixed or omitted at pleasure a contrivance for pressing the water from them, now commonly

done by wringing. Oct. 31.

Phineas Andrews, of Haverstock-hill, Hampstead, Middlesex, gent.; improvements in a machine for threshing corn, grain, &c. Oct. 31. Samuel Crackles, of Kingston-upon-Huil, brush-manufacturer; a method of making brushes from whalebone, which have hitherto been made from bristles. Nov. 3.

Samuel Brookes, Bermondsey, Surrey, tanner; splitting raw hides, so that each side may be used for purposes to which an entire hide has been hitherto applied. Nov. 3.

John Hartley, John Musgrave, and William Farmery, of Leeds, York, machine-makers; a machine for preparing, &c. cotton, &c. into threads, preparatory to their being manufactured.

Nov. 8.

Nicholas Fairles, of South Shields, Durham, Esq.; a windlass, &c, whereby great manual labour is saved, and considerably less time is required to get on board, &c, ships' anchors. Nov.15. Jonathan Dickson, of Christ Church, Surrey, steam-engine-maker; improvements in tuns, &c. used by brewers, &c. Nov. 15.

Charles Gostling Townley, of Ramsgate, Kent, Esq.; an improvement applicable to musical in

struments. Nov. 26.

modore, who is at sea on a cruize, left me at and I have made the best use of my time in Lisbon on some business about a month ago, seeing every thing in my power, which one, who intends to give the public some account of his tour, would wish to do; and I have had every assistance which could be desired from the literati and noblesse of Portugal, who seem much pleased that a translation of their favourite poet has been well received in England. The Marquis of Niza, the lineal descendant of Gama, has, with much. seeming pleasure, shewed me some history paint-ings from the Lusiad, where his ancestor is frequently introduced; and what I particularly remarked, between the portraits of the Portuguese heroes who distinguished themselves in Asia, of which he has a large collection, those of Camoens, Barrow, Faria and the other historians, are alternately placed. Many of the Portuguese nobility read English, and are well acquainted with our literature, particularly the duke, under whose roof I now am, who was niany years absent from Portugal, and has visited every court of Europe, where he is known under the title of Braganza. Last night I asked him if he had read the late English tragedy, which

Frederick Nolan, of Stratford, Essex, Clerk; improvements in the construction of flutes, flage-bore his ancestor's name (he is legitimate lets, &c. Nov. 26.

Charles Seward, Lancaster, block tin manufacturer; improvements in lamps. Nov. 26.

John Schmidt, of St. Mary Axe, London, watch-maker; a phantasmagoric chronometer, and an instrument which he calls the mysterious circulator, or chronological equilibrium.' Dec. 20. John Frederic Archbold, of Great Charlottestreet, Blackfriars-road, Surrey; improvements in making brandy. Dec. 20.

William Tompson, of Deritend, Aston, Warwick, locksmith; a new-invented lock. Dec. 29. Malcolm M'George, of Bell-yard, Carey-street, Middlesex, musical instrument maker, and William McFarland, Strand, Middlesex, umbrellamanufacturer; improvements in umbrellas and parasols. Dec. 29.

1

William Steel, of Liverpool, Lancaster, Glassdealer; a new machine for making white salt. Dec. 29.

PORTUGUESE THEATRE.

great grandson of John IV), and his remarks upon it, led him to observations on the French and English stage, which farther convinced me how much he is master of the whole circle of polite literature; and, indeed, it gave me no small pleasure to find so illus trious a foreigner, so opposite to the opinions of Voltaire on the English drama. On a former excursion I was 120 miles up the country, was most courteously entertained at the royal and noble monasteries of Alcobaça, and Batalha, &c. &c. But why should I detain you with the relics shewn in monasteries, when I intend to give you some account of the stage of Lisbon?

In the time of the late king, the Portuguese boasted of the superior excellence of their opera, and had some good actors. They have naturally in their common discourse much expressive action, and apt modulation_of voice, excellently adapted for comedy. But

We have been favoured, by a friend of our Work," by a late edict, no actors are permitted to ap

with the following original letters of the late Mr. Mickle, the translator of Camoens Lusiad. They were written to Thomas Caldecott, Esq. of New College, Oxford, and contain a curious account of the state of the Portuguese Theatre, during Mr. M.'s visit in that country, which, we trust, will not be unworthy the attention of our readers.

pear on the stage, and yet they have plays and operas, attended by crowded and polite audiences. The first opera I saw was a translation of the Olympiada of Metastasio, presented to boxes full of nobility, and to a pit which would have been esteemed a good benefit at Drury Lane,-by puppets. But puppets as they are, be assured they are far

from being despicable actors; their excel-,
lence indeed, is wonderful, and, at a distance,
the deception is admirable. Before the or-
chestra, the lamps, as usual, are lighted;
but the space of the usual stage is vacant, and
divided from the interior stage by another row
of lamps, behind which the puppets perform
their parts; and from the farther part of the
pit, and the boxes behind it, in one of which
I was seated, no stranger, without being in-
formed, would suspect that he saw other than
living actors. The voice of the speaker is so
well adapted, and the action is so just, that
I could not help wishing that several of our
London performers were sent to the Lisbon
puppets to study attitudes, particularly the
use and management of their arms. About
the middle of the play, one of my Portuguese
friends came and desired me to go with him
to his box, which was next to the stage.
Here, indeed, the deception was not so good;
the voice did not often seem, as it did at a
central and farther distance, to come from
the puppet. The wires which hung from
the roof, and directed every motion, ap-
peared and we could just perceive a parti-
tion of wire which rose across the stage from
the floor to the roof, close by the inner row
of lamps, and which was placed there, no
doubt, to throw a dazzle on the sight, and
thereby prevent an accurate view of the ob-
jects behind it. At the end of the piece, a
caldron, or altar, with two or three gallons of
burning oil, mixed with lumps of fat, was
produced on the stage (I know not how you
do it in England), where the lovers were to
be put to death. But the fat and oil un-
luckily boiled over, and spread flames over
the stage, which began to catch the puppets,
who looked very awkward and helpless at
their danger, being quite untanght how to
act the part of firemen. The flames began
pow to catch the scenery, and the house to be
in an uproar, when in violation of the royal
edict, living actors were obliged to come upon
the stage to extinguish the flames, and the
audience were very well contented to part
without any other catastrophe.

W. J. MICKLE.

At Sea, in the Bay of Biscay,
Aug. 15, 1780.

A strange variety of dates, indeed! The truth is, I had a good deal more to say of the Lisbon stage; but what with the commodore's arrival, who was at Lisbon before I returned from Torre Bella, and the inconceivable multiplicity of business I have since had, I have not been able to finish the above epistle, but which I shall now attempt.

The Portuguese have many original dramas in their own language, but the authors have paid no respect to Aristotle and the critics.

Tragedy, comedy, farce, pantomine, and pastoral, are blended together in every piece I have seen; and a laughing kind of satire, not always very delicate, is the universal seasoning, and particularly relished; but their music is certainly excellent, worthy of the remains of the first opera in Europe. Besides the opera, there is another playhouse, where they act what they call Precipios, i. e. Scripture histories, in the genuine taste, I presume, of the old mysteries and interludes acted three or four centuries ago in England. I cannot help giving you some account of the principal one, which I saw performed by puppets, before a crowded and pretty genteel audience. When the curtain drew up, the first scene presented a view of the clouds, where a figure, like a Chinese Mandarin, seated in a chair, was like an arbiter or judge, placed between St. Michael and Satan. Satan accuses Michael, and Michael scolds like an oyster wench, and at last kicks Satan on the head, and tumbles him down out of sight, telling him to go to hell for his impudence. The Chinese like figure then walks about the stage, and repeating the words of the Latin Bible, creates the world. When he orders the sun to govern the day, a lanthorn, with a round glass in it, circles over the stage, which is darkened; in like manner the moon and stars appear; the waters next appear, with fishes' heads jumping through them but when land animals are to be made, real sheep and dogs are produced through the trap-doors, one of which latter entertained the audience by barking at the sheep, and was like to have been rude to his supposed maker, had not a leg projected from behind the scene given him a kick, which sent him off howling. Adam is next made, he rises through the stage, walks about a while, lies down to sleep, and the Chinese figure pulls Eve out of his side, and gives them their charges: these two are quite naked, but much smaller, and no way to be compared, in excellence, to * the puppets of the opera. The next scène presents an orange-grove, a serpent climbs a tree, talks to Eve, and gives her an orange out of his teeth, which she takes, and tempts Adam. The next scene presents the Mandarin figure calling upon Adam, who appears with his spouse in their fig leaves; they are condemned, and the serpent, who till now walked erect, falls flat on his belly; Adam and Eve are now presented in sheep-skins, he with a spade, and she with a distaff; Adam laments dolefully, but Eve comforts him, and puts him in mind that they were to beget children. Cain and Abel next appear, offer sacrifices, and Cain kills his brother, and kicks him sadly; the Mandarin figure con demns Cain, and ascends the clouds; the mouth of hell then appears, like the jaws of a great dragon, amid smoke and lightning,

nish, he awakes, and gives his order, &c.
and with a very curious puppet representation
of grim-whiskered soldiers, tearing children
from their mothers and killing them, and the
mothers scratching the soldiers, the admira-
ble piece was at last brought to a conclu-
sion.
W. J. MICKLE.

SHARK.

Additions to the Account of the Great Sea
Serpent, (given in p. 749) of the Black
Worm; and of the Basking Shark.

To the Editor of the Literary Panoràma.

SIR,-I beg leave to complete your account of the Great Sea Serpent, given in p. 749, by the addition of the following particulars.

vomits up three devils, one of them with a sleep; the dragon jaws of hell again appear, wooden leg; these take a dance round Cain, vomiting devils, and flashes of fire; the devils and are very jocular; one of them invites make a merry dance to music round the sleephim to hell to drink a dish of brimstone cof-ing tyrant, and often whisper him; they vafee, another asks him to make up a party at whist; Cain snarls, and they tumble him and themselves together headlong into the squib-vomiting mouth. The next scene presents the Mandarin figure ordering Noah to build an ark; Noah sends his servant to engage a carpenter,-but where do you think? -why, to Lisbon, to Antonio de somewhat-the King of Portugal's head shipcarpenter (and the name of the present gentleman, of that office, is always introduced). SEA SERPENT-BLACK WORM-BASKING The scene now represents the streets and night-humours of modern Lisbon. The messenger, who is in no hurry, stops at different taverns (things like our London chandler-shops, where the canaille drink; for, except one French and one English house or two, there is not any thing like a decent tavern in all Lisbon), and every where he attempts to be the buffoon; e. g. he meets a dog, the dog barks at him, and he lectures the dog on the vices of his master, whose ill The specimen was examined by Mr. G. manners, he says, he is imitating; then he Shearer, tenant of Rothesholm, who mea. meets an Irishwoman, with a squalling child sured it 55 feet; and judged it might be, in her arms; he asks his way to the car- when perfect, 60 feet. The tapering towards penter's, and she asks him to tell her her way the tail was gradual; the distance in length home again; both complain of the child's between the paws, was about 12 feet; they bawling, and he gives her a bit of sweetmeat appeared well adapted to the purpose of enahe had just picked up in a corner to put in bling the creature to fix itself strongly to the its mouth-but this joke ends dirtily. After rocks; the mane from the head down the meeting and talking with the variety of street-back was silver-coloured, 18 inches in length, walkers, he arrives at the carpenter's house, and when dry, of the appearance of catgut; which discovers a scene like the inside of an the spout-holes were in the back part of the English village--wheelwright's. shop and head, or in the neck; the vertebræ of the kitchen; the carpenter bargains hard, and backbone were numerous. Some of these.. is willing to take Noah's note of hand, but have been received in Edinburgh, and laid his wife wants ready money, and insists upon before the Wernerian Society. Their struc paying her debts before she is drowned. And ture is extremely curious and uncommon, how much do you owe? says Noah's messen- evidently intended to accommodate a mode of ger, I have got a trifle about me at your ser-life of which we have little knowledge. It vice. So much-No more ?-Yes, so much more!-Joseph-Maria-Jesus-no more!Yes, ten thousand moidores will do.-Ha, ha, then go and get them, for I have not ten half farthings for you!—And never was a low joke better relished in the days of Gammar Gurton's Needle, than I was witness to the reception of this, from a crowded audience that would have done no disgrace to the pits of either Drury-Lane or Covent-Garden. After this comes the story of Holofernes, the birth of Christ, and the massacre of the children of Bethlehem; with which, the piece closes. Besides the few I have mentioned, innumerable are the low allusions of this performance. Before the massacre of Bethlehem, Herod is represented in the dress of a Turkish Moor, the old enemy of Portugal, walking about in great agitation; he lies down on a couch to

is understood, that the head is fortunately,
saved, as well as one of the fins. The whole
has been presented to the Museum of the
University of Edinburgh, by Gilbert Meason,
Esq. on whose estate, at Stronsa, it came
ashore. The literati of Edinburgh have
named it Halsydrus Pontoppidani," [from
the Greek hals, sea, and hydros,
snake]. An account of it, with engravings,
will be published in the Transactions of the
Wernerian Society.

water

This creature has been the subject of poetical description. Mr. Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," Vol. III. contains the following reference to him, in the " Mermaid," a poem by J. Leyden.

Shun, O shun, the gulf profound,
Where Corriunekin's surges roar.