floods. The Chiana itself is too powerful a body of water to be used for this purpose; it is only the streams that flow into the Chiana that are used. This water is allowed to settle and deposit its mud upon the field. The water is then let off into the river at the lower end of the field by a discharging course called scolo, and in French canal découlement. The water-course which conducts the water from a river, either to a field for irrigation or to a mill, is called gora. In this manner a field will be raised five and a half, and sometimes seven and a half feet in ten years. If the dyke is broken down to the bottom, the field will be raised the same height in seven years; but then in this case gravel is also carried in along with the mud. In a field of twenty-five acres, which had been six years under the process of colmata, in which the dyke was broken down to within three feet of the bottom, the process was seen to be so far advanced that only another year was requisite for its completion. The floods in this instance had been much charged with soil. The water which comes off cultivated land completes the process sooner than that which comes off hill and woodland. Almost the whole of the Val di Chiana has been raised by the process of Colmata." The peculiar position of the county of Lincoln offers great facilities for this process of elevation and fertilizing the surface of land. If we look at a map of the county, we find that one half of its somewhat oval contour is bounded by water. The Humber bounds it on the north, the Wash on the south-east, and the open sea on the east; and a very large portion of the district so bounded lies below the level of the sea, being protected from its encroachment by embankments. From the nature of such a soil as this, the rivers which flow through these low lands become charged with a large quantity of mud, and the mode in which this mud deposits itself will depend a good deal on the nature of the river banks. So great is the quantity of mud suspended in the tidal waters of the rivers entering the Wash, that the accumulation of the soil by warping, wherever the force of the winds and currents can be checked, is surprisingly rapid. Thus, for example, when a portion of the old channel of the Ouse, containing eight hundred acres, was deserted by an alteration of the drainage, it was warped up without any artificial aid to the height of twenty-five feet in five or six years. The waters of the tides that come up the Trent, the Don, the Ouse (there is a Yorkshire river of this name flowing into the Humber, and another of the same name flowing into the Wash at King's Lynn), and other rivers which empty themselves in the estuary of the Humber, are excessively muddy; insomuch that in the summer season, if a cylindrical glass twelve or fifteen inches in height be filled with the water, it will presently deposit an inch of warp or sediment. It is to have this sedimentary matter at command that the process of warping is followed. There must be arrangements for keeping out and letting in water at pleasure; and consequently there must not only be a cut or canal made to join the river, but a sluice at the mouth of it, formed so as to open or shut; and in order that the water may be of a proper depth on the land to be warped, and also prevented from flying over contiguous lands, banks are necessary to be raised around the spot under operation several feet in height. The canal, the sluices, and the embankments are therefore three of the agencies employed in this operation, the waters of the river effecting all the rest. The land is usually divided by the embankments into compartments of from ten to twenty acres each, each having an entrance sluice and one or more return sluices. During the spring-tides, from July to October, the sluice of the canal is opened, the water fills this canal, and then enters by the lateral sluices into all the compartments. When the tide is at its height, all these lateral sluices are closed; and as it ebbs, the pressure of the water in the compartments forces outward the return sluices, and thus the water escapes into the canal, and afterwards into the river, after having deposited a large amount of sediment in each of the com partments where it had been dammed up for several hours. During the intervening hours before the next high tide the mud has time to acquire some degree of consolidation; and this being repeated twice a day for several weeks, a layer of fine soil becomes accumulated in each compartment. In the year 1825 the Society of Arts voted its large gold medal to a gentleman who forwarded a particular description of a process of warping on a very large scale; and as this well illustrates the general character of the operation, we will give a few of the particulars in a condensed form. This gentleman, Mr. Creyke, in a letter to the Society, states:-"In the neighbourhood of Rawcliffe House, where I reside, are many thousand acres of peat moss and waste land, which yield scarcely any annual rent, and which I thought (from experience that I had got in improving a considerable quantity of my own land near home) might be improved very much by being warped." With this view Mr. Creyke undertook to warp sixteen hundred acres from the river Ouse. A canal or main drain was cut, two miles and a half in length, reaching from the river to the spot to be warped. This drain was of very large dimensions, being thirty feet wide at the bottom, ninety feet wide at the top, and eleven or twelve feet deep. At the distance of nine feet from its edge on either side was formed an embankment of very solid earth, sixty feet wide at the bottom, and ten feet in height From this central canal the land on both sides was to be overflowed at the warping-season; and the compartments so warped were surrounded by well-formed banks ten feet high, but not so wide or so bulky as those by the side of the main channel. A sluice was formed, with two openings of sixteen feet each, with substantial folding-doors. This sluice was very strongly built; it was formed of stones of arge size. backed with brick, and was supported on a floor of wood placed on a series of large piles driven deep in the earth. Numerous inlets were provided in the main embankments, so managed as to admit he water at high tide, retain it for a time, and afford it an outlet at low tide. In the river Ouse, at the point where the sluice was erected, the tides flood for three hours and ebb for nine, and rise from fourteen to eighteen feet. It will be seen from this, therefore, that a vast body of water might be admitted into the canal, and that the sluice required to be strongly built. In the first year, rather more than four hundred acres of waste land were embanked; and on it was deposited, in the course of that year, a fine alluvial soil of the average depth of near three feet. On the following year the allotment was sown with oats and seeds; and the seeds were afterwards either mown or depastured in the third year. In the fourth year it was sown with wheat, with very profitable results. No part of this allotment of four hundred acres had previously yielded any rent at all; whereas in the fourth year of the operations no part of it let for less than thirty-five shillings per acre. Four months afterwards Mr. Creyke announced to the Society that he had five hundred acres more (in addition to the four hundred in which wheat was growing luxuriantly) in a state of preparation for being sown with oats and grass seed; and that the remaining quantity of six hundred acres would be ready for agricultural operations in the same year. It is plain from this description that the undertaking | was altogether on a large scale, and could not have been carried out without the command of considerable capital. In answer to queries put to him on the part of the Society, Mr. Creyke stated that the sluice and its appendages cost more than five thousand pounds. The expense of the main drain was more than seven thousand pounds, exclusive of the purchase of the land, which was about five thousand pounds; making a total outlay of nearly eighteen thousand pounds. The large drain required considerable annual outlay to keep it in repair; and in the first year an additional expense of a thousand pounds was incurred in consequence of a breach in one of the banks. which were dyed of different colours. Originally the In comparing this system of warping with those As to the qualities of warped land for the purposes of agriculture, it has been observed that the atmosphere acts powerfully on the newly deposited warp; for before a fresh layer is deposited, which takes place within twelve hours, such an alteration has already taken place on the surface, that the new deposit does not unite in one mass with the last, but a regular stratification can be observed, which shows the quantity deposited in each tide. The new warp also requires to be stirred and exposed to the air for some time before it acquires its great fertility. The richest crops of beans, wheat, oats, and rape are raised without manure on the warp land; but it is not so well adapted for barley or turnips, on account of its slimy nature. RICE-PAPER AND STRAW-PAPER. THE SO-called Chinese rice-puper appears, from the inquiries of those who have directed their attention to the matter, to be very erroneously named. The name seems to imply that the substance is made from a pulp of rice, much in the same way as English paper is made from the pulp of rags; but if it be closely examined, and especially if it be held between the eye and a light, it presents all the appearance of a vegetable tissue, so perfect and so delicate that it could not have been produced by art. Dr. Livingstone was the first to introduce this species of paper into Europe, at least in any considerable quantity, about the beginning of the present century; and it became greatly admired for the beauty of the artificial flowers made of it. It was an item in the gossip of the day, that the Princess Charlotte once paid seventy guineas for a bouquet made of rice-paper. The paper which Dr. Livingstone brought from China was in the form of leaves about four inches square, and The membranous sheets thus produced are usually made up into bundles of nineteen or twenty each, which weigh about twenty-three ounces, and are sold wholesale for about a dollar a bundle. The refuse pieces are used for making artificial flowers. It is chiefly brought to Canton from the island of Formosa, by the Chinese junks; and hence for a long time arose the difficulty of ascertaining the nature of the plant, for few of the persons concerned in the sale of the prepared article at Canton had ever seen from what it was made. afford you some precise information on the plant which furnishes the substance known under the name of rice-paper. It is the marsh eschynomene, the aeschynomene paludosa of Roxburgh, of the family of the leguminous plants; and you will find the figure of it in my Atlas of the plants of India. It grows abundantly in the marshy plains of Bengal, and on the borders of the vast lakes called jeels, which exist in all the provinces between Calcutta and Hurdwar. It is a long-lived plant; its stem rarely exceeds two inches and a half in thickness; it is but of little elevation, but spreads considerably. Roxburgh, however, considered it as an annual; but it is only where it wants water that its stems dry up and die; as, where it finds the necessary supply of water, it continues green in all parts, and pushes out new branches every season. The middle of the stem, when broken across, is found to be formed entirely of pith, which is of a dazzling whiteness, and is about half an inch in thickness; this is covered with a bark so thin and tender that it may be easily removed with the finger-nail." This plant is considered by General Hardwick to be the same as that which yields the Chinese rice-paper. Great quantities of this plant are carried to the bazaars of Calcutta in the fresh state. The largest rods are chosen to be cut into the thin lamine which constitute the rice-paper, and with which the natives make artificial flowers to decorate their idols on festival days. It is also used to make hats, by glueing together many leaves of it, so as to form it of a sufficient thickness; after which it is formed into the shape of a hat or cap, and covered with cloth or with silk, the membrane forming a very light but strong framework to the hat. Those branches of the plant which will not serve to make this paper are formed into bundles, which are sold to the fishermen, who employ them in making floats for their fishing-lines. It has been suggested that the pith of elder and | other plants might be worked up for similar purposes, by being sliced in this spiral manner into thin sheets, and then flattened by pressure between plates. The Chinese also make paper from the bamboo. The stalks are cut near the ground, and are sorted into parcels according to the age, and tied up in small bundles. The younger the bamboo, the better is the quality of the paper made from it. The bundles are thrown into a reservoir of mud and water, and buried in the ooze for about a fortnight, to soften them. They are then taken out, cut into pieces of a proper length, and put into mortars with a little water, to be pounded to a pulp with large wooden pestles. After this, the paper is prepared from the pulp in a manner somewhat analogous to the English mode of making paper. The papyrus of the Egyptians so far resembled the rice-paper of the Chinese that it consisted of filaments, or thin membranes, cut from the stem of a plant. The two extremities of the plant, viz. the head and the root, were cut off as of no use in this manufacture. The remaining stem was then slit lengthwise into two equal parts, and from each of these were stripped off thin scaly coats or pellicles with the point of a sharp instrument. The innermost of these pellicles were looked on as the best, and those nearest the bark or rind the worst; they were kept apart accordingly, and constituted different sorts of paper. When the pellicles were taken off, they were extended on a table. Two or more were then laid transversely over each other, so that their fibres might lie at right angles; and in this state they were glued together by the muddy waters of the Nile. They were afterwards pressed, to get out the water, then dried, and lastly flatted and smoothed, by beating them with a mallet; and they were sometimes further polished by being rubbed with a ball of glass. In other countries, where the muddy waters of the Nile were not at command, the pellicles were fastened together with paste made of the finest wheat-flour mixed with hot water. It will thus be seen that the difference between the papyrus and rice-paper consisted mainly in this, that each little piece of stem in the latter case forms, when cut spirally, one sheet of paper; whereas, in the former, several pieces are cemented together to form a sheet. In some degree analogous to these was the barkpaper employed by many nations among the ancients, and still employed by some rude nations. This consisted of the liber, or inner whitish rind enclosed between the outer bark and the wood of certain trees, such as the maple, the plane, the beech, the elm, and the linden-tree. This liber was stripped off, flatted, and dried; and in that state it was used as paper. The bark-paper was thicker and more brittle than the papyrus, as well as more apt to cleave or shiver, by which the writing was sometimes lost. This is illustrated by a bark manuscript in the Abbey of St. Germains, where the bottom of the paper remains, but the outer surface, on which the letters had been written, is in many places peeled off. introduced by other parties, in which rather a complicated chemical process was followed. The straw was first freed from knots, and then boiled in a solution of any of the common alkalis, in order to extract the colouring matter, and to dispose the straw to become fibrous. After being washed, it was exposed to a mixture of quicklime, sulphur, and water, in order to free it from the mucilage and the siliceous particles which exist in all straw. It was then washed and beaten, to remove the odour of the chemical ingredients employed; then bleached by chlorine, or by some other agency; and, lastly, worked up into a pulp as in the common method. It does not seem, however, that paper made of straw by either of these methods, or by any other, has maintained its standing, at least in this country. The French, some years back, devised a mode of converting to a useful purpose the boom, or central stem of the hemp and flax plants. This boom, after the removal of the fibres which form the well-known flax and hemp, is commonly used as manure; but an attempt has been made to work it up into coloured paper. This paper was, however, found to be tender and weak, and has not been much heard of. Supply of Water to Marseilles.-A highly important hydraulic work has been projected, and is now in rapid progress of execu tion under the able direction of M. de Montricher. This canal will derive its water from the Durance, near to the suspension bridge at Pertuis, and this will be conducted by open cutting and tunnelling for a distance of fifty-one miles, through a most mountainous and difficult country, until it reaches the arid territory of Marseilles, where it will be employed for the supply of the city, as well as for irrigation, and giving activity to va section and fall of this canal is calculated to pass eleven tens rious branches of industry which require water-power. The of water per second, and its levels are so disposed that this quantity of water will arrive near to the city, at an elevation of four hundred feet above the level of the sea. Perhaps no work of this description has been attempted either in ancient or modern times more hardy in its conception, or more really use ful in its effects, Three chains of limestone mountains are already nearly pierced by the ten miles of tunnels which are required to conduct this stream; and an aqueduct, which is to convey it across the river Arc (about five miles from Aix), is now in construction. Its elevation above the river will be two hundred and sixty-two feet, and its length across the ravine one thousand two hundred and thirty feet. The design for this gi gantic structure is in excellent taste, and as a work of art it will not suffer from comparison with the famous Pont du Gard, which it will much surpass both in altitude and size. The estimated cost of this canal is about 450,0004, and this sum is raised by the city of Marseilles without aid from the government, The revenue arising from this work will be principally from supplying water for irrigation, as the value of land in such a cli mate is quadrupled if water can be so applied to it.—Murray's Hand-book for Travellers in France. Pottery in India. We were amused here (at Harike) at cbserving a man making pottery, which he performed in the most simple manner possible. In the centre of a circular hole, two feet and a half deep by as many in diameter, a wooden staff was inserted, and upon this, close to the bottom, but not touching it, Attempts have been made in this country to produce was a solid wheel of wood, whilst another of smaller dimensions paper from straw. The Neckinger Mills at Ber- was fixed nearer to the top. The whole of this apparatus was mondsey, now occupied by the leather-dressing esta- planted perpendicularly into the ground, and the man, sitting on blishment noticed in our Supplement for May, 1842, the edge of the cavity, worked the larger wheel with his foot, was the scene of the first operations in this respect. whilst with his hand he moulded the clay placed on the smaller The manufactory was afterwards removed to Thames one (which was turned with the former) into whatever form he Bank, but proved ultimately a failure. According to shape of a flower-pot, and he finished it in a very neat manner required. We saw him construct a utensil somewhat in the the method followed in those establishments, the straw, in less than five minutes. The poor fellow, who was miserably after being cut up into pieces about two inches in clad, complained bitterly of the cold; but this was not to be length, was steeped in cold lime-water, and afterwards wondered at, for, independent of his ragged costume, he had to subjected to the cutting action of the paper-mill. The dip his hands into water every fifteen or twenty seconds, and the paper thus produced from straw was harsh and ill-weather was very much inclined to be more than chilly in its coloured, and never came into general use. There influence.-Lieut. W. Barr's Journal of a march from Delhi to was, however, some years afterwards, another method | Peshawur, &c. [1, Quercifolia; 2, Pavonia; 3, Quercus; 4, Lanestris; 5, Caja; 6, Villica; 7, Castrensis; 8, Versicolora.] CURIOSITIES OF BRITISH NATURAL HISTORY. BRITISH MOTHS-continued. THE examples of the genera of British moths which we have selected for notice, and of which figures are here given, are the Lappet moth, the Emperor moth, the Oak Egger moth, the Small Egger moth, the Great Tiger moth, the Cream-spot Tiger moth, the Ground Lackey moth, and the Glory of Kent. We shall not attempt to enter into the minutiae of distinctive characters, which are presented by the respective genera to which they belong, a procedure which would lead us into details interesting indeed to the entomological student, but not to be appreciated by the general reader; rather let it suffice us to describe them as simply and clearly as possible, with such an account of their general habits as our space will admit, remembering that our object is to allure to the study of the works of nature, and to point out important and pleasing facts, rather than to teach the groundwork of any branch of science. 1. The Lappet moth, Perfect Insect, Caterpillar, and Chrysalis (Gastropacha Quercifolia). The Lappet moth seems to vary considerably with respect to the numbers in which it makes its appearance, being rare during No. 783. some seasons, and abundant in others; in some dis tricts, moreover, it is in greater plenty than in others It is stated to be of frequent occurrence about Hertford in the lanes and along the hedges, where the leaves of the sloe afford food to the caterpillar. The Rev. L. Jenyns observes, that in the month of May, a few years since, he observed the larva of this moth in great abundance on the willows in Bottisham and Swaffham fens, and that he had in previous years seen this insect, both in the caterpillar and winged state, frequenting the same locality. Mr. H. Doubleday gives Epping as one of the spots where it is to be met with; and Mr. Stephens, the lanes about Combe Wood, near Richmond, Surrey. The name of Lappet moth is taken from a peculiarity in the caterpillar, which has each segment furnished with fleshy lateral appendages or lappets; and though the term is only applicable to the caterpillar, it has been transferred to the perfect insect, and universally adopted. The sexes of this moth vary considerably; the body and antennæ are dusky, or of a deep ferruginous brown; the wings are of the same tint, the anterior pair having three oblique waved dusky stripes and a central black spot, the hinder pair are unspotted. The female exceeds the male in size, and is of a lighter hue gene VOL. XIII.-2 G rally, with the stripes darker. Occasionally the stripes are almost obsolete; sometimes remarkably broad and deep; and occasionally the posterior wings have a few dusky markings. When at rest, the wings are deflected, and the moth resembles a withered oak-leaf in form and colouring. The caterpillar is of a large size, of a dusky colour with a rufescent tinge; the nuchal segments are ornamented with patches of blue, and a double series of white and red spots runs down each side: it feeds on the whitethorn, sloe, willow, rose, &c. When about to undergo its chrysalis or pupa change, it surrounds itself with a powdery web: the pupa is brown, with red fasciæ. The perfect insect appears in July. 2. The Emperor moth, Perfect Insect, Caterpillar and Pupa (Saturnia Pavonia). Heaths and marshy places are the haunts of this beautiful moth, of which the males may be often seen during the warm afternoons of summer, playfully flitting about, in quest of their less active mates. This species is by no means uncommon, and is rather widely spread; we have captured it in garden-grounds on the Surrey side of the water near the chain bridge at Hammersmith. It occurs also in the hollow of Combe Wood near Richmond; in Horningsea and Swaffham fens; on the heaths near Scarborough; and various other localities. The Emperor moth is of considerable size, measuring two inches six or ten lines in the expanse of the wings, the female often exceeding three inches. In the male the body is fulvous; the anterior wings are griseous, powdered with whitish, and with three purplish stripes edged with black. Between the two anterior stripes is an ocellated spot, of large size, with a black pupil, a white ring, encircled with black, and a bluish lunule towards the base of the wing. The apex of the wing is purplish, with a few black, white, and rufous spots. The hinder wings are tawny, with a ferruginous tinge, and an ocellated spot very closely resembling that on the anterior wings. The female is of a paler colour generally; but both sexes vary in markings, and sometimes in the female the wings are beautifully suffused with purplish. The caterpillar is gregarious, and feeds on the heath, blackthorn, alder, oak, willow, birch, &c., and also on the leaves of the strawberry. When very young its colour is black, but afterwards it becomes green, annulated with black, and with verticillated hairy red and yellow tubercles on each black band. In the autumn it encloses itself in a hard pyriform cocoon, covered with brownish down; the pupa is brown and very obtuse. The pupa in its cocoon and out of this covering is represented. It would appear that the pupa often lies two seasons before it accomplishes its last change; the perfect insect emerges in April or May, and sometimes not until August. The wings are broad, and horizontally extended, and are well formed for vigorous flight. The Oak Egger moth, Caterpillar and Perfect Insect (Lasiocampa Quercus). spicuous yellow patch at the base. The female exceeds the male in size, but the general tints are paler: both sexes are subject to variations of colour. The caterpillar is ochraceous, with black rings and white streaks on the sides: it feeds on the oak, ash. sloe, whitethorn, &c.; and in the pupa state is enveloped in a dusky cocoon. The perfect insect appears in August. 4. The Small Egger moth, Caterpillar and Perfect Insect (Eriogaster Lanestris). This species is common in different localities around London, as in Darent and Combe Woods; it is found also in Essex, Cambridgeshire, and other countiesabounding some years and rare in others. Occasionally nests of its caterpillars may be seen in the hedges, for the caterpillars, or larvæ, are gregarious, and make a common tent, in which they crowd together; this they enlarge from time to time, leaving it during the night, when they search for food, and returning to it in the morning at daybreak. Before assuming the pupa stage they quit this silken tent, and seek the surface of the ground, where they enclose themselves in an oval rigid cocoon, whence the perfect insect emerges in the months of February and March. In the moth the thorax is griseous; the abdomen fuscous, with a paler apex; the anterior wings are subferruginous, with a large white spot at the base, and, in the male, a dark cloud in the centre, and an incurved white line beyond a central white spot; the hinder margin ashy grey. The hinder wings are grey, with an obsolete central line of white. Extent of wings one inch two or four lines. The colour in both sexes is subject to variation. The caterpillar is black or brownish, with two red patches on each segment, between abbreviated subannular white streaks, and a yellowish lateral line. It feeds on the leaves of various trees, as the whitethorn, willow, lime, and fruit-trees. 5. The Great Tiger moth; Caterpillar, Pupa, and Perfect Insect (Arctia Caja). The Tiger moths (Arctia) are remarkable for the brilliant and showy contrasts of their colouring, which render them very attractive. The body is stout and robust; the larva are solitary, thickly clothed with long pencils of hairs, each pencil arising from a tubercle; when touched they roll themselves into a ring. The pupa is inclosed in a loose extended web. The Great Tiger moth is a very beautiful species, and is everywhere in tolerable abundance. It is subject to considerable variety in the arrangement of its markings, and its tints; indeed Mr. Stephens, who describes nine varieties, observes, that of this Protean species there are scarcely to be found two specimens which agree precisely in colour and markings. In general the thorax is brown, with a narrow white ring anteriorly; the body reddish white, or red, fasciated with black. The anterior wings are ornamented with white or cream-colour, and black or brownish black in distinct abrupt patches; the hinder wings are red, with glossy bluish black marks. The caterpillar is black, hirsute, with three bluish tubercles on each segment laterally. It feeds on various plants, as lettuces, In the New Forest, Hampshire, in various parts of Devonshire, and certain isolated localities, this moth is not uncommon, while in other localities it is rare. It is only to be met with occasionally in the neigh-chickweed, &c. The moth appears in spring. bourhood of London. In the extent of its wings it nearly equals the Emperor moth; and, as in that species, the male often flits about during the sultry afternoons of summer. The general colour of the male is deep chesnut brown; the wings have a broad yellow band margined abruptly on the inner edge, and gradually shaded off towards the hinder margin of the wing, which has a broad brown fringe; the anterior wings have a central spot of white, usually of a triangular form, and a con 6. The Cream-spot Tiger moth, Caterpillar and Perfect Insect (Arctia Villica). This elegant moth is rare in some districts, but common in others. It is not unfrequently taken in the woods of Middlesex, and in Surrey, Kent, Essex, &c. The Rev. L. Jenyns observes it is rare near Cambridge. Like the preceding species it is subject to considerable variation of colouring. Generally, however, the anterior wings are black, relieved by several abrupt white spots of different sizes; the hinder wings are yel |