TO OUR READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received a paper from Mr. MEIKLE, "On the Relation between the Density, Pressure, and Temperature of Air, and on Experiments regarding the Theory of Clouds, Rain, &c.; with a Conjecture about Thunder and Lightning," which an accidental circumstance has obliged us to postpone. It will be found to bear upon his Reply to Mr. Ivory, which we now publish.

The deposit upon the Specimen from the margin of one of the Lakes of Killarney, is Argillo-siliceous. The Chalk contains Alumina, but no Magnesia. The Pyrites is common.

In Mr. ADDAMS' paper on the Sap of the Rose, published in our last Number, p. 149, line from the bottom, for "oxalate of ammonia," read 86 oxalate of lime."

An account of the proceedings of the Royal Society, at their Anniversary Meeting, will be found in the Literary Gazette for the following Saturday.

The Drawing of an Ornamental Aviary, illustrative of the paper which we printed in our last Number, by J. C. Cox, Esq., reached us too late for insertion.

We request "X." to refer to our private letter upon the subject of Gas-engines. The whole affair is as we have there stated it, et præterea nihil.

Our attention has been directed, by more than one Correspondent, to the operations lately carrying on in the Chelsea Water Company's Reservoir in the Green Park. We wish to see them terminated before we say more. In the mean time, we beg the writer, who dates from Paddington, and who deprecates the use of reservoirs, to recollect that, if these thousands of cartloads of filth had not been deposited where

they now are, the whole mass of nastiness must inevits bly have passed down the throats of the worthy persons who derive their supplies from the said Basin. The sooner the Reservoir in Hyde Park is looked after, the better. We should also like to know something of the state of the West Middlesex Reservoir at Kensington.

The Letter on the Burial of the Dead in the Streets of London, is rather intemperate, and we must decline its insertion, entirely agreeing, however, with the writer as to the indelicacy, impropriety, and, we may say, barbarity of the custom. We are surprised that he omitted the churchyard, as it is called, of St. Clement's in the Strand, where the burial-service is often performed in the actual street, and within hearing of the profane language and other abominations of the draymen, coal-heavers, hackneycoachmen, et id genus omne; and where the tomb-stones almost form part of the public pavement of that most public situation.

Ir is with sincere and deep regret that we announce the death of Dr. W. H. WOLLASTON, which took place on the 22nd of December, at his house in Dorset Street, Manchester Square. His loss will be severely felt by his numerous friends and acquaintance, and generally deplored throughout the scientific society of Europe.

THE

QUARTERLY JOURNAL

OF

SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART.

An Account of some of the Steam-Boats navigating the Hudson River in the State of New York. In a Letter from Mr. Renwick, Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry in Columbia College, to Captain Edward Sabine, R. A., Secretary of the Royal Society.

You ask of me some further particulars in relation to the steamboats on the Hudson, that I mentioned to you as so remarkable for their speed. I shall endeavour to give you all the information on this subject that is in my power.

Immediately upon the decision of the question between the representatives of Chancellor Livingston and Fulton, and those who contended for a free navigation, by which decision the exclusive grant vested in the former by the State of New York was set aside, several companies undertook the construction of passageboats propelled by steam. Two of these were mere copies of the boats of Fulton, but lighter in frame, and propelled by engines more powerful in proportion; they, therefore, exceeded the boats of the old company in speed. Two others were constructed principally for the purpose of towing each a large passage-boat. These were fitted up in a splendid manner; and, from the comparative safety and comfort which they afforded, it was the general anticipation that they must obtain a preference. Various other boats, from other lines of communication, were also put upon the river; but no expectation seems to have existed at first, that it would be possible to make the passage to

JULY-SEPT. 1828,

B

or from Albany between sunrise and sunset. All these boats were upon the low pressure principle, with condensing engines differing only in detail from the double engine of Watt.

Many months, however, had not elapsed, before an attempt was made to shorten the passage by the employment of more powerful means of propulsion. A boat was constructed upon a model apparently well adapted for quickness, being very similar to that of a fast sailing ship. This boat was furnished with an engine on the plan of Woolf, with two cylinders, one of which acted by high pressure, the other receiving steam of the first, as a condensing engine. This vessel, it was hoped by the proprietors, would be able to perform the passage between New York and Albany in about twelve hours. She did not, however, succeed in this; her average passages being at least sixteen hours. A similar attempt was made by means of a boiler generating high steam, communicating with a cylinder of more than the usual length, and acting then by its expansion; the steam being afterwards condensed. This boat also failed in realizing the anticipations of its proprietors.

The competition produced by the increased number of steamboats, all of them much less costly than the boats of the Fulton company, had such an effect upon the price of the passage, that that association could no longer continue the contest; its boats were therefore withdrawn, and sold to persons who have applied them to other objects. When the representatives of Fulton had thus withdrawn from the contest, the Messrs. Stevens, sons of one of the original researchers for the method of propelling boats by steam, entered into the competition. These gentlemen had hitherto kept aloof from it, from highly honourable and delicate feelings, being unwilling to assist in destroying the prospects of the heirs and other representatives of Livingston and Fulton. When, however, they found that this company had abandoned the hope of maintaining a successful competition, and had withdrawn their boats, they felt no longer precluded from availing themselves of a privilege, now opened to all. Their first step was to bring round from Philadelphia a new vessel they had constructed there for the navigation of the Delaware. Upon that river no exclusive privilege had ever existed, and