may
be noticed a pleasing collection of shells, now open to the public, a
short distance from Somerset House. To the mere tyro in zoology, shells
are attractive as the elegant sports of nature, in the beauty,
splendour, and intricacy of their colours and structure; while their
scientific arrangement is one of the most delightful pursuits of refined
minds.

_Grafting._

The quince, used as a stock, has the property of stunting the growth of
pears, of forcing them to produce bearing branches, instead of sterile
ones, and of accelerating the maturity of the fruit.

_Sirocco Wind._

The depressing effects of the corroding wind of a hot Sirocco can only
be conceived by those who have suffered from them; the unwonted dulness
with which it overcasts even the most active mind; the deep-drawn sighs
it will elicit; and if there be one melancholy feeling which presses on
the heart more heavily than another, it is the ample developement which
it enjoys during the prevalence of this enervating breeze. It seldom,
however, blows with force; it is rather an exhalation than a wind. It
scarcely moves the leaves around the traveller, but it sinks heavily and
damply in his heart. A stranger is at first unaware of the cause of the
mental misery he endures; his temper sours as his spirits sink; every
person, and every circumstance, annoys him; it affects even his dreams;
sleep itself is not a refuge from querulous peevishness, and every
motion is an irritating exertion.

_Polar Expedition._

The government of the United States has appointed an expedition, under
Capt. Reynolds, to explore the northern coasts. A Captain Cunningham is
mentioned to have traversed the country from St. Louis in the Missouri,
to St. Diego, St. Pedro, in California.

_Lithography._

From an article which has appeared in a late number of the "Biblioteca
Italiana," it appears that Sermefelder was not the original discoverer
of the art of Lithography, but Simon Schmidt, a professor at the Cadet
Hospital at Munich.

_Small Pox._

Within the last twelve months, only 503 deaths have occurred from small
pox within the Bills of Mortality; whereas, in the preceding year 1299
persons are recorded as having fallen victims to that loathsome
disease.--_Vaccine Institut. Report._

_China_.

A valuable museum of the products of Chinese skill and industry has
recently been exhibited at Rome, in which the progress made by a people
of whom so little is known, and c