he best account of the geographical
distribution of guano, with suggestions for the discovery of any new
source of supply, accompanied by specimens.' To be adjudged in 1854.
They offer, likewise, fifty sovereigns for the best essays on farming
in the counties of Hereford, Surrey, and Derby; and thirty sovereigns
for the best essays on the 'management of heavy lands;' 'of light
lands;' on 'beans and peas;' 'on hereditary diseases and defects in
pigs and sheep.' These to be decided in 1853. It is something to see
agriculture thus trying to stand on its own legs.

Among minor matters, the wire-lace recently invented at Nottingham has
been talked about, and is said to be as tasteful and rich as it is
novel, for it admits of being electroplated. Shall we wear metal
clothing by and by, as well as live in metal houses? Dr Payerne has
been making experiments in submarine steam navigation at Cherbourg,
and with such success as to be able to sink his vessel at any moment,
to live in it under water, and to propel it in any given direction.
Are we to be invaded by a fleet of these artful contrivances, or is it
a preparation for the escape of the future emperor from St Helena?
There are one or two interesting facts from Australia, although not
about gold: the bodies of Dr Leichardt and some of his exploring
party, are said to have been discovered near Moreton Bay, where they
had been murdered by the natives; and Sir Thomas Mitchell, the
well-known surveyor-general, has invented a steam-propeller on the
principle of the _boomerang_, which, when applied to a boat, answered
expectation. Further experiments are to be made; meanwhile, the
inventor says, 'that the weapon of the earliest inhabitants of
Australia has now led to the determination mathematically of the true
form by which alone, on the screw principle, high speed on water can
be obtained.' The _Ericsson_ caloric ship is launched; but if a new
projector is to be believed, the maker may save himself all further
trouble, for Mr Burn proposes to build square ships, with the bottoms
constructed as double inclined planes, which shall cross from England
to America in forty-eight hours! When this scheme is realised,
travelling and flying will become synonymous terms. We are to have
another electric telegraph across the Channel: it is underground as
well as submarine, the wires being laid in wooden tubes under the old
turnpike-road from London to Dover, independent of the railway, thus