brought me to my senses, and to a view of the great danger in which I was but, nevertheless, I did not despair. I now began to think of saving myself, and though carried away very rapidly, I felt, as well as saw that the centinel's ball had, instead of hitting the tiger, struck me, and that I was losing blood very fast. I remembered that my bayonet was in my belt, and reflected that if it was possible for me to draw it, I might yet escape the horrible death that awaited me. At I with much difficulty put my arm back, and found it, and several times attempted to draw it from its sheath; but from my position I was unable. To describe the fear I now felt would be impossible: I thought it would be all over with me soon. last thank heaven! after another attempt with my utmost force, I drew it out, and instantly plunged it into his shoulder. He bounded aside, and his eyes flashed frightfully; he let me down but instantly seized me again above the hip, which, at first, prevented me from drawing my breath; I now had, from the change of position, a fair cpportunity of killing the monster and saving my life. I stabbed him behind the shoulder several times as deeply as the bayonet would enter; he staggered, and fell, and again let me go, rolling several yards behind me. I now thought myself safe; and was getting up, when he rose, and with a dreadful roar, again attempted to seize me, but again fell down and rolled close to my feet. I now had the advantage of a fallen enemy, which I forgot not to turn to the best account, and again plunged my bayonet into his side, which I suppose from his struggles pierced his heart. I then fell on my knees, and endeavoured, but, from the fullness of my heart, I was unable to return thanks aloud to Almighty God for his gracious goodness in delivering me from so terrible a death. I rose and hallooed; my halloo was returned, and just afterwards I was met by my comrades and the officer, or perhaps I might have been lost from my weakness." It would appear that the tyger, either from the distance of his leap, or the hardness of the soldier's cartouch box, fortunately missed his hold, and seized him after he had knocked him down, by his clothes, the cartouch box saved him from being bitten. But I am convinced, that never did any man, if we take into consideration the distance he was carried before he released himself, and the circumstance of his being wounded by the ball intended for the tyger, which directed us that way to follow, a more providential escape to all appearance from an inevitable and lingering death, could never have happened to any man. It is well known that the tygers of the East Indies, are of maguitude and strength, sufficient to seize and carry away a man with ease, in his jaws, to the haunts and caves of his native woods. THE PHENOMENA OF FIRE AND EARTHQUAKES. [By John Wesley, LL. D.] 1. Of the effects and nature of fire. 14. Of Earthquakes. 2. Of the generation and nourishment of it. 15. Destruction of Port Royal in Jamaica. 3. Of smoke and ashes 4. Of burning mountains. 5. Of Mount Etna. 6. Of Mount Vesuvius, 7. Of Mount Secco. 8. Of Monte Neuvo. 9 New Islands. 10. Burning Islands. 11. Of Mount Hecla. 12. Of Guadaloupe. 13. Of the Peak of Teneriffe. 6. Of Lima. 17. Of Calloo. 18. A remarkable deliverance. 19. Of pools and of Elden Hole. 20. Earthquakes caused by Electricity. 23. A fire of the same kind. 24. A burning vapour. 25. Persons consumed by internal fire. 1. THE effects of fire are various. It heats, it shines, it expands, it dissolves other bodies, either by melting or reducing them to ashes or a calx. Most of these argue a vehement motion of its particles, which tears asunder whatever it seizes. It seems to be a most subtle matter, dispersed throughout the universe. Yet this, even when collected, soon scatters again, unless it be detained by some inflammable matter. Not that fire will spring from every motion: it must be circular, as well as rapid. For if particles move ever so swift in a straight line, no fire will follow. Heat seems to be nothing but motion: but this motion has some peculiar circumstances. 1. It is expansive motion, whereby a body endeavours to dilate itself. 2. This motion is upward, and toward the circumference. 3. It is not an equable motion of the whole, but only of the smaller particles of the body. 4. It is a rapid motion. Heat may therefore be defined, an expansive undulatory motion in the minute particles of a body whereby they rapidly tend to the circumference, and at the same time upward. Fire has some effect on most bodies, even in an exhausted receiver. One placed a black ribbon therein, and then applied a burning glass. Abundance of smoke issued out of it, which fell by little and little, and the ribbon appeared not at all chang ed. But when it was touched, after the readmission of the air, it presently fell into ashes. The glass being applied to gunpowder so enclosed, it burnt grain by grain, but none of the grains kindled. Another time when the sun had less force, they would not burn, but only boiled and emitted smoke. This smoke falling on the board on which the powder lay, was the colour of brimstone. The pow der that remained, being put on coals, burned like saltpetre, inasmuch as the brimstone had exhaled. Tin and copper melted together weigh more than both bodies did before. Yea, orpin being mixed with salts of tartar, is heavier by a fifth part. To account for this, it has been commonly supposed, that fire adds to the weight of bodies. But fire has itself no weight at all therefore it can give none. Pure fire, as Dr. Hillary observes, is a body without gravity, and has no more tendency to any one part of space, than to another. Is not then this alteration of weight rather owing to an alteration of the inward texture of the particles in the body calcined? The lighter particles being removed by exhalation, do not those remaining approach nearer each other? And must not then the weight, which is always as the solidity, increase accordingly? It seems strange, to talk of heating cold liquors with ice.Yet it may be easily done thus. Out of a basin of cold water, wherein several fragments of ice are swimming, taking one or two, and plunge them into a wide-mouthed glass of strong oil of vitriol this quickly melts the ice, and by two or three shakes, the liquor grows so hot, that frequently you cannot endure to hold the phial in your hand. It may seem as strange, that those parts of the earth which are nearest the sun should be intensely cold. Yet so it is. For the higher you ascend on mountains, the colder is the air. And the tops of the highest mountains in the most sultry countries are eternally clothed with snow. This is partly owing to the thinness of the air, partly to the little surface of earth there, to reflect the solar rays. : Very different degrees of heat obtain in the same latitude, on the different sides of the South American continent which shew that the temperature of a place depends much more upon other circumstances, than upon its distance from the pole, or nearness to the equinoctial. Thus, though the coast of Brazil is extremely sultry, yet the coast of the South Seas, in the same latitude, is quite temperate, and in ranging along it, one does not meet with so warm weather, as is frequent in a summer's day in England: which is the more extraordinary, as there never falls any rain to refresh and cool the air. On the coast of Peru, even under the line, every thing contributes to make the day agreeable. In other countries, the scorching sun in summer makes the day unfit either for labour or amusement and the rains are no less troublesome, in the cooler parts of the year. But in this delightful climate the sun rarely appears; for there is constantly a grey, cheerful sky, just sufficient to screen the sun, without obscuring the air. Thus all parts of the day are proper for labour, while the coolness produced elsewhere by rains, is here brought about by fresh breezes from the cooler regions. This is chiefly owing to the Andes, which running not far from, and nearly parallel with the shore, and rising immensely higher than any other mountains in America, form on their sides a prodigious tract of land, where, according to their dif ferent heights, all kinds of climates may be found, at all seasons of the year. These mountains intercept great part of the eastern winds, which generally blow on the continent of America, cool that part of the air which comes over their tops, and keep it cool by the snows with which they are always covered. Thus by spreading the influence of their frozen crests, to the neighbouring coasts and seas, they cause the temperature and equability which constantly prevail there. But when they leave these mountains, they experience in a short time an entire change of climate, and in two or three days pass from the temperate air of Peru, to the sultry atmosphere of the West-Indies. The sparks which appear on striking fire with a flint and steel are discovered by the microscope, to be so many spherical balls of iron, detached by the blow from the mass. They are then red hot. After they cool, they are a sort of scoriæ or dross. 2. Fire is generated chiefly, either by collecting the sunbeams by a glass, or by rubbing hard bodies against each other. Either way the subtle matter is collected from all sides, and put into a rapid, circular motion. This continues togeth er, as long as it is supplied with inflammable substances. The particles of these being divided by the fire, are scattered hither and thither, and the fire goes out unless fresh fuel be brought as it does if air be wanting. For as that subtle matter is dissipated continually, it soon fails, unless recruited from the air. If water or dust be thrown upon fire, it is likewise quickly extinguished. For these interrupt that internal motion which is essential to it. That fuel cannot consume without air is clearly proved by an easy experiment. Let a strong, hollow cylinder of iron, be fitted with a firm screw at each end. Enclose in this a piece of charcoal: then screw up both ends, and place it in a strong fire. Let it stay there as long as you will. Open it when cool, and the charcoal is no way diminished. It is plain from this, that the consumption of fuel depends on the rarefaction and agitation of its parts by fresh air. And hence we have the reason of the known method of extinguishing fires by smothering them. 3. The watery part of the fuel being rarefied by the heat, ascends in the form of smoke, carrying with it many of the lighter particles, which adhere as soot to the chimney. The grosser and more compact, the contexture whereof the fire cannot wholly destroy, remain and constitute ashes, which are of consequence extremely porous, all that was combustible in it being consumed. To enlarge a little on this subject. Fire is a body, and a body in motion. It is in motion: for it expands the air, which can no otherwise be done, than by communicating motion to it. And that it is a body appears hence. Pure mercury enclosed in a phial, and kept in a gentle heat for a year, is reduced into a solid. And its weight is considerably increased, which can only spring from the accession of fire. Fire is the instrument of all the motion in the universe.Without it all bodies would become immoveable. Men would harden into statues and not only water, but air cohere into a firm, rigid mass. As it is in itself, it is termed ELEMENTARY FIRE: joined with other bodies it is called cULINARY. The minute particles of this, joining with those of the pure fire, constitute what is termed FLAME. Pure fire, such as is collected by a burning-glass, vields no flame, smoke, or ashes. In itself it is imperceptible, but is discovered by its effects. The first of these is HEAT, which arises wholly from fire, and the measure of heat is always as the measure of fire. The second is, DILATATION in all solid, and RAREFACTION in all fluid bodies. So an iron rod, the more it is heated, increases the more in all its dimensions. And by the same degree that it cools, it contracts, till it shrinks to its first magnitude. So gold, when fused, takes up more space than it did before. And mercury ascends in a hollow tube over the fire, to above thirty times its former height. The same degree of heat rerefies fluids sooner, and in a greater degree, than it does solids. And the lighter the fluid, the more it is dilated. Thus air, the lightest of all fluids, expands the most. The third effect of fire is MOTION : for in dilating bodies, it must needs move their parts. All motion springs from it. Only take fire away, and all nature would grow into one concrete, solid as gold, and hard as diamond. Pure fire needs no air to sustain it. Put calx of tin into an exhausted receiver, and if you apply a burning glass, the calx will be so vehemently dilated, as to break the receiver into a thousand pieces. All the effects of elementary fire may be increased. 1. By rubbing one body against another. And the more hard and solid the bodies are, the more heat is produced. So sponges rubbed together, acquire little or no heat; but two pieces of iron, an intense heat. 2. By mixing certain bodies together. So steel-filings, mixed with oil of clover or spirit of nitre, grow exceeding hot; yea, burst into a violent flame. Yet it does not appear that any new fire is generated in any of |