inftrument. What havock muft this make with an European conftitution? Neverthelefs, few people die here out of the ordinary courfe; tho' indeed one can fcarce call it living, merely to breathe, and trail about a vigorless body; yet fuch is generally our condition from the middle of June < to the middle of September.' We have only to obferve on this article, that however extraordinary the Heat of Georgia may appear to us, who can hardly conceive the poffibility of furviving it, we have yet read an account of a ftill greater Heat experienced at Tomfk, a large town in Siberia; where de l'Ifle's thermometer ftood at 85, which anfwers to 110 on Fahrenheit's; no lefs than fourteen degrees above the common Heat of the Blood, in healthful people refiding in England, and five degrees more than what Mr. Ellis observed in Georgia. The Articles 62, 64, 82, and 89, contain relations of earthquakes; the first in the ifland of Sumatra, and the two following in England, attended with no very peculiar circumftances. The laft is of one that happened in the island of Guadaloupe; the whole of which article we fhall lay before the reader. Art. 89. Obfervations on a fight Earthquake, the very particu lar, which may lead to the Knowlege of the Caufe of great and violent ones, that ravage whole Countries, and overturn Cities. By Dr. Andrew Peyflonel. 'I went to make my obfervations upon the Natural Hiftory of the Sea; and when I arrived at a place called the Cauldrons of Lance Caraibe, near Lancebertrand, a part of the ifland of Grande Terre Guadaloupe, in which place the coaft runs north-eaft and fouth-weft, the fea being much agitated that day flowed from the north-weft. There the coaft is furnished with hollow rocks, and vaults underneath, with chinks and crevices: and the fea, pushed into these deep caverns by the force and agitation of the waves, compreffes the air, which, recovering its fpring, forces the water back in the form of the most magnificent fountains; which ceafe, and begin again at every great • preffure. This phaenomenon is common to many places in this ifland. The explanation of it is eafy; but the fol lowing is what I particularly observed. As I walked within about forty paces from the brink of the fea, where the waves broke, I perceived, in one place, the plants were much agitated by fome caufe, that was not ' yet yet apparent. I drew near, and discovered a hole about fix feet deep, and half a foot diameter; and stopping to confider it, I perceived the earth tremble under my feet. This increafed my attention; and I heard a dull kind of noise under-ground, like that which precedes common earthquakes; which I have obferved many a time. It was followed by a quivering of the earth; and after this a wind iffued out of the hole, which agitated the plants round about. I watched to fee whether the motion extended to any distance; but was fenfible it did not reach above three or four paces from the hole, and that no motion was perceived farther off. I further obferved, that this phenomenon never happens till after the feventh wave rolls in; for it is a common thing in this country, to find the fea appear calm for fome time, and then to produce feven waves, which break upon the coaft one after another: the first is not very confiderable; the fecond is fomewhat ftronger; and thus they go on increafing to the feventh, after which the fea grows calm again, and retires. This phænomenon of the seven waves is obferved by Navigators with great attention, especially at low water, in order to be the better able to go in or < come out at the very time that the fea grows quiet. These feven waves fucceffively fill the caverns, which are all along the coaft; and when the feventh comes to open itself, the air at the bottom of the caverns being greatly compreffed, acted by its elafticity, and immediately made those fountains and gufhings I have mentioned; and the waters continuing in the caverns, up to the very place of the hole, began to produce that dull noife, caufed the emotion or Earthquake, and finished with the violent wind forced up thro' the hole; after which the water retired into the fea, and having no further impelling caufe, on account of the waves, rendered every thing quiet again. I observed, that this phoenomenon happened at no limited time, but according to the approach of the waves, being ftrongly put in motion after the feventh. I remained near half an hour to obferve it; and nearly followed the 'course of the cavern to its entrance, directed by the difpofition of the coaft. I made my Negroes go down where < the water broke; for they doubted the report of the great'ness of these caverns; and when the sea was calm one of them ventured in, but returned very quickly, or he must have perished. Therefore I conclude, that these small Earthquakes round the hole, about forty paces from the R 3 wave, wave, were only caused by the compreffed air in fome great vault about this place, and that by its force was driven up the hole that appeared: that this air in the caverns, compreffed to a certain degree, first caufed the dull noise, by the rolling of the waters, which refifted in the cavern; then acting more violently, caufed the fmall Earthquake, which ceafed when the wind paffed out of the hole, and that the sea retired, and gave liberty to the air which was • contained and compreffed. Such are the obfervations I have made; from which the learned, who are endeavouring to find the cause of Earthquakes, fince that dreadful one, which deftroyed the city of Lisbon, may make fuch conclufions as they fhall think • proper.' Under the articles which relate to LETTERS, ANTIQUITIES, and mifcellaneous HISTORY, the two following are the most curious. Art. 96. A Description of the Plan of Peking, the Capital of China. By Father Gaubil, a Jefuit. This is a curious Paper; but without the engraved Plan, it would be hardly intelligible; and, confequently, any extract from it must afford little entertainment to our readers. Art. 109. A Differtation an the Phoenician Numeral Characters, anciently used at Sidon. By the Rev. Mr. Swinton. The defign of this Differtation is to afcertain the Phænician dates of feveral ancient Sidonian Coins, one of which was ftruck above a century before the birth of Christ, hitherto utterly unknown; and to evince the notation of the Phonicians, at least thofe of Sidon, when they first appeared, to have been extremely fimilar to, if not nearly the fame with that of the Palmyrenes. It is a learned and well-written Differtation, doing honour both to the Society and its Author. We fhall take our leave of this volume with inferting the abstract of a Letter from Mr. Arderon of Norwich, on giving Magnetifin and Polarity to Brafs. This Gentleman fays, that he found his Brafs Compafsbox to attract the Needle, when fufpended without, at half an inch distance: and that if fuffered to touch, it drew it ninety degrees from the Pole. He communicated Magnetism to Brass, by proper hammering, and giving the double Touch after afterMr. Mitchell's method. Mr. Arderon did not find magnetic Brass to attract Iron; but does not pretend to determine the cause. Different pieces were found to receive Magnetifm in different degrees; and fome not at all; without any evident reafon for the peculiarity. The author propofes two ends to be obtained by profecuting these experiments: firft, to fhew the impropriety of making Compafs-boxes of Brafs; which may occafion fatal effects and, fecondly, that if Brafs Needles could be made to act as strong as Iron ones, they would be preferable, because less liable to rust. K-n-k ACCOUNT of FOREIGN BOOKS. Fabularum fopiarum Libri quinque. Auctore Francifco Jofepho Defbillons, é Soc. Jefu. Ejufdem Fabularum Libri quinque alteri nunc primum editi. That is, Fables written after the manner of fop. In ten Books. Printed at Paris, for Barbou, 1759. 12mo. TH HE first five books of the Fables before us, were printed at Glafcow, in the year 1754; and a fecond edition of them at Paris in 1756. The ingenious author has now acknowleged the work, and obliged the public with a more correct and improved copy; having added five new books to the former publication. The whole contains about 350 Fables; the greater part of which are tranflated, or paraphrafed, from the writings of the most eminent Fabulifts, ancient and modern. La Fontaine, in particular, appears to be our author's favourite; he having imitated him, in a great variety of well-chofen Fables. The famous tale of Perrette, the Milk-maid, fo well told by that excellent Fabulift, is thus concisely imitated by our author, in the twelfth Fable of his fixth book. Summo repofitum capite lactis cymbium R 4 Numerum : Numerum diminuet, ut porco non fint pares Our author does not appear, however, to be altogether a mere Imitator; his work containing a confiderable number of apt and well-turned Fables, of his own particular invention and application. For the entertainment of those claffical readers, who are not too much prejudiced against the Latin of the moderns, we fhall quote one of these, as a further fpecimen of this writer's abilities. Book the eighth, Fable the fourteenth. DE CORVO ET LEPORE. PER odora rura dum thymum pafcit Lepus ; Miferamque pecudem nifi, ait, admoneam citò, His facilè præda venatoribus. Delapfus ergò poftquam confedit folo, Leporem quietum hortatur monitor anxius, Fugiat, fuoque fe recipiat latibulo, Ac venatorum vitet adventum, et necem. His monitis ille paruit, falfis licet: Nam venatores aliò curfum verterant. At Corvus, ut humo tollere fe tentat pedes Retineri fentit impeditas caffibus, In quos latentes induit fe improvidus, Saluti alterius providere dum cupit. Rebus alienis qui ftudent vigilantiùs. Quàm fit opus, hi fæpè nihil in propriis vident. Thus tranflated, for the fake of our English readers. The CROW and the HARE. THE flow'ry meads were in their prime, Saw Pufs fecurely feast below; Meanwhile the hunters, from afar, "Alas, |