ct they
affirm. The bark of trees, the skin of fruits and animals, the
feathers of birds, receive their growth and nutriment from the internal
circulation of a juice through the vessels of the individual they cover.
We conclude from analogy, then, that the shells of the testaceous tribe
receive also their growth from a like internal circulation. If it be
urged, that this does not exclude the possibility of a like shell being
produced by the passage of a fluid through the pores of the circumjacent
body, whether of earth, stone, or water; I answer, that it is not within
the usual economy of nature, to use two processes for one species of
production. While I withhold my assent, however, from this hypothesis,
I must deny it to every other I have ever seen, by which their authors
pretend to account for the origin of shells in high places. Some of
these are against the laws of nature, and therefore impossible; and
others are built on positions more difficult to assent to, than that
of De la Sauvagiere. They all suppose these shells to have covered
submarine animals, and have then to answer the question, How came they
fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea? And they answer it, by
demanding what cannot be conceded. One, therefore, who had rather have
no opinion than a false one, will suppose this question one of those
beyond the investigation of human sagacity; or wait till further and
fuller observations enable him to decide it.

_Chanteloup_. I heard a nightingale to-day at Chanteloup. The gardener
says it is the male, who alone sings, while the female sits; and
that when the young are hatched, he also ceases. In the boudoir at
Chanteloup, is an ingenious contrivance to hide the projecting steps of
a staircase. Three steps were of necessity to project into the boudoir:
they are therefore made triangular steps; and instead of being rested on
the floor, as usual, they are made fast at their broad end to the stair
door, swinging out and in, with that. When it shuts, it runs them under
the other steps; when open it brings them out to their proper place. In
the kitchen garden, are three pumps, worked by one horse. The pumps
are placed in an equilateral triangle, each side of which is of about
thirty-five feet. In the centre is a post, ten or twelve feet high,
and one foot in diameter. In the top of this, enters the bent end of a
lever, of about twelve or fifteen feet long, with a swingle-tree at the
other end. About thre