potatoes, there are plantations confifting of many acres, and I believe that any fhip which fhould happen to be here in the autumn, when they are dug up, might purchafe them in any quantity. Gourds are alfo cultivated by the natives of this place, the fruit of which furnishes them with veffels for various ufes. We alfo found here the Chinese paper mulberrytree, the fame as that of which the inhabitants of the South-Sea Islands make their cloth; but it is fo fcarce, that though the New-ZeaJanders alfo make cloth of it, they have not enough for any other purpofe, than to wear as an ornament in the holes which they make in their ears, as I have obferved before. But among all the trees, fhrubs, and plants of this country, there is not one that produces fruit; except a berry, which has neither fweetness nor flavour, and which none but the boys took pains to gather, fhould be honoured with that appeilation. There is, however, a plant which ferves the inhabitants inftead of hemp and flax, which excels all that are put to the fame purposes in other countries. Of this plant there are two forts; the leaves of both refemble those of flags, but the Rowers are fmaller, and their clusters more numerous; in one and they are yellow, and in the other a deep red. the leaves of thefe plants, with very little preparation, they make all their common appare; and of thefe they make alfo their strings, lines, and cordage for every purpofe, which are fo much stronger than any thing we can make with hemp, that they will not bear a comparifon, From the fame plant, Of by another preparation, they draw long flender fibres which thine like filk, and are as white as fnow: of thefe, which are allo furprisingly ftrong, the finer cloths are made; and of the leaves, without any other preparation than fplitting them into proper breadths, and tying the ftrips together, they make their fifhing nets; fome of which, as I have before remarked, are of an enormous fize. A plant, which with fuch advantage might be applied to fo many ufeful and important purpofes, would certainly be a great acquifition to England, where it would probably thrive with very little trouble, as it feems to be hardy, and to affect no particular foil; being found equally in hill and valley; in the driest mould, and the deepest bogs: the bog however, it feems rather to prefer, as near fuch places we obferved it to be larger than elsewhere. We found great plenty of iron fand in Mercury Bay, and therefore iron ore is undoubtedly to be found at no great distance. As to other metals, we had fcarcely knowledge enough of the country for conjecture. there should be this depth of water; but the weeds which grow upon rocky ground in thefe countries, and which always diftinguish it from fand and ooze, are of an enormous fize. The leaves are four feet long, and fome of the ftaiks, though not thicker than a man's thumb, above one hundred and twenty; Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander examined fome of them, over which we founded and had fourteen fathom, which is eightyfour feet; and, as they made a very acute angle with the bottom, they were thought to be at least one half longer: the foot ftalks were fwelled into an air veffel, and Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander called this plant Fucus giganteus. Some Account of the Peak of Tene riffe; from the fame. ON N Friday Sept. 23, 1768, we faw the Peak of Teneriffe, bearing W. by S. S. and found the variation of the compafs to be from 17° 22′ to 16° 30'. The height of this mountain, from which I took a new departure, has been determined by Dr. Heberden, who has been upon it, to be 15,396 feet, which is but 148 yards lefs than three miles, reckoning the mile at 1760 yards. Its appearance at funfet was very ftriking; when the fun was below the horizon, and the rest of the island appeared of a deep black, the mountain ftill reflected his rays, and glowed with a warmth of colour which no painting can exprefs. There is no eruption of yifible fire from it, but a heat iffues from the chinks near the top, too trong to be borne by the hand when it is held near them. We had received from Dr. Heberden, among other favours, fome falt which he collected on the top of the mountain, where it is found in large quantities, and which he fupposes to be the true natrum or nitrum of the ancients; he gave us alfo fome native fulphur, exceedingly pure, which he had likewife found upon the surface in great plenty, Of an extraordinary Fog-Bank, on the Paffage from Rio de Janeiro to Port Deure; from Commodore Byron's Voyage round the World. N Monday Nov. 12, 1764, about four o'clock in the afternoon, as I was walking on the quarter-deck, all the people upon the foreca file called out at once," Land right a-head;" it was then very black almoft round the horizon, and we had had much thunder and lightning; I looked forward under the forefail, and upon the lee bow, and faw what at first appeared to be an ifland, rifing in two rude craggy hills, but upon looking to leeward, I faw land joining to it, and running a long way to the fouth-eaft: we were then steering S. W. and I fent officers to the maft-head to look out upon the weather-beam, and they called out that they faw land alfo a great way to the windward. I immediately brought to, and founded; we had ftill fifty-two fathom, but I thought that we were embayed, and rather wished than hoped that we should get clear before night. We made fail and fteered E. S. E. the land ftill hav ing the fame appearance, and the hills looking blue, as they generally do at a little diftance in dark rainy weather; weather; and now many of the people faid that they saw the fea break upon the fandy beaches; but having fteered out for about an hour, what we had taken for land vanished all at once, and to our great aftonishment appeared to have been a fog-bank. Though I had been almost continually at fea for fevenand-twenty years, I had never seen fuch a deception before; others, however, have been equally deceived; for the mafter of a hip not long fince made oath, that he had feen an ifland between the west end of Ireland and Newfoundland, and even diftinguished the trees that grew upon it. Yet it is certain that no fuch ifland exifts, at leaft it could never be found, though feveral fhips were afterwards fent out on purpose to feek it. And I am fure, that if the weather had not cleared up foon enough for us to fee what we had taken for land dif appear, every man on board would freely have made oath, that land had been discovered in this fituation. Our latitude this day was 43° 46' S. longitude 60° 5' W. and the variation 19° 30' E. I faw the fea approaching at fome diftance, in vaft billows covered with foam: I called to the people to hawl up the forefail, and let go the main theet inftantly; for I was perfuaded, that if we had any fail out when the guft reached us, we fhould either be overfet, or lose all our mafls. It reached us, however, before we could raise the main tack, and laid us upon our beam enda: the main tack was then cut, for it was become impoffible to caft it off; and the main sheet ftruck down the first lieutenant, bruised him dreadfully, and beat out three of his teeth: the main topfail, which was not quite handed, was fplit to pieces. If this fquall, which came on with lefs warning, and more violence, than any I had ever feen, had taken us in the night, I think the fhip must have been loft. When it came on, we obferved feveral hundred of birds flying before it, which expreffed their terror by loud fhrieks; it lasted about twenty minutes, and then gradually fubfided. Obfervations on the Milky Appearance of fome Spots of Water in the Sea; by Capt. Newland. From the 62d Volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions. [Read March 12, 1772.] T has been remarked by several Inavigators, on their partage from Mocha to Bombay, Surat, &c. that they had difcovered in the night fpots of water as white as milk, and could never affign any reafon for it; and many have been fo much alarmed, that they have immediately hove to and founded; but I never heard of any body ever getting getting ground. In my paffage acrofs thofe feas in the Kelfall, I discovered all of a fudden, about eight o'clock in the evening, the water all round me as white as milk (intermixt with treaks or ferpentine lines of black water.) I immediately drew a bucket of it, and carried it to the light, where it appeared juft as other water; I drew feveral more, and found it the fame: fome I kept till the next morning, when I could perceive no difference from that alonguide. We had run by the log 50 min. from the time we first obferved it till daylight, and during all that time the water continued white as milk, but at full day-light it was of its ufual colour. The next evening about feven o'clock the water appeared again as white as before; I then drew another bucket, and carried it to a very dark place, and holding my head clofe to the bucket, could perceive, with my naked eye, an innumerable quantity of animalcules floating about alive, which enlightened that fmall body of water to an amazing degree. From thence I conclude, that the whole mafs of water must be filled with this fmall fish fpawn or animalcules, and that this is without all doubt the reason of the water's appearing fo white in the night-time. We run by the log, from the time we firft faw it, till the latter part of the fecond night (the time we loft fight of it) about 170 miles. A Letter from John Zephaniah Holwell, Efq; F. R. S. to John Campbel, Efq; F. R. S. giving an Account of a new Species of Oak. From the fame. [Read April 1, 1772.] SIR, Ν IN my curious rambles through the environs of this city, I have been tempted to visit the nursery of Mr. William Lucombe, of St. Tho mas, on the report of a very extraordinary and new fpecies of oak, first discovered and propagated by that ingenious gardener; and as this plant appears to me capable of proving an inestimable acquifition to this kingdom, I cannot refift the defire I feel of communicating to you fome particulars relative to its history and character, taken partly from Mr. Lucombe's account of it, and my own obfervations. This, I know, must be most acceptable to you, who are fo laboriously and laudably employed in elucidating the various improvements and advantages your country is capable of. About feven years paft, Mr. Lucombe fowed a parcel of acorns, faved from a tree of his own growth, of the iron or wainscot fpecies: when they came up, he observed one amongst them that kept his leaves throughout the winter; itruck with the phænomenon, he cherished and paid particular attention to it, and propagated by grafting fome thoufands from it, which I had the pleasure of feeing, eight days ago, in high flourishing beauty and verdure, notwithstanding the feverity of the winter. Its growth is ftrait, and handfome as a fir, its leaves ever-green, and the wood is thought, by the best judges, in hardness and ftrength to exceed all other oak. He makes but one fhoot in the year, viz. in May, and continues growing without inter ruption; ruption; whereas other oaks fhoot twice, namely, in May and Auguft; but the peculiar and ineftimable part of its character is, the amazing quickness of its growth, which I imagine may be attributed (in fome degree at leaft) to its making but one fhoot in the year; for I believe all trees that hoot twice are, for fome time, at a ftand before they make the fecond. I had the curiofity to take the dimenfions of the parent tree, (feven years old) and fome of the grafts; the first measured 21 feet high, and full twenty inches in the girt; a graft of four years old, 16 feet high, and full 14 inches in the girt; the first he grafted is fix years old, and has out-fhot his parent two feet in height. The parent tree feems to promife his acorns foon, as he bloffoms, and forms his foot-talk ftrong, and the cup upon the foot-talk with the appearance of the acorn, which, with a little more age, will fwell to perfection. This oak is diftinguished, in this county, by the title of the Lucombe oak; his fhoots, in general, are from four to five feet every year, fo that he will, in the fpace of thirty or forty years, outgrow in altitude and girt the com, mon oak at an hundred. In two or three days I will forward to you, in a parcel, a branch, which I cut off from the original tree, and another from the graft of four years old, alfo a dead branch of the iron or wainscot oak, juft to fhew that, from the fimilarity of the leaves, it is a defcendant from that fpecies, although differing from it in every other particular. I fend you alfo, by the Exeter ftage, a fpecimen of the wood. I have a walking-pole full five feet long, a fide fhoot from one of the grafts, only one year and half old. Several gentlemen round this neighbourhood, and in the adjoining counties of Cornwall and Somerfet, have planted them, and they are found to flourish in all foils. I am, dear Sir, Your faithful friend, humble fervant, J. Z. HOLWELL. Received May 18, 1772. On the Digeftion of the Stomach after Death, by John Hunter, F. R. S. and Surgeon to St. George's Hofpital. From the fame. A [Read June 18, 1772.] N accurate knowledge of the appearance in animal bodies that die of a violent death, that is, in perfect health, or in a found ftate, ought to be confidered as a neceffary foundation, for judg ing of the ftate of the body in those that are diseased. But as an animal body undergoes changes after death, or when dead, it has never been fufficiently confidered what thofe changes are; and till this be done, it is impoffible we fhould judge accurately of the appearances in dead bodies. The difeafes which the living body undergoes (mortification excepted) are always connected with the living principle, and are not in the leaft fimilar to what may be called difeafes, or changes in the dead body; without this knowledge, |