"of England, while the packets had only to go "from Falmouth, I could not but think the fact "misunderstood or misrepresented.

"There happened then to be in London a Nan"tucket sea captain, of my acquaintance, to whom "I communicated the affair; he told me he believed "the fact might be true; but the difference was owing to this, that the Rhode Island captains "were acquainted with the gulph stream, which "those of the English packets were not; we are well acquainted with that stream, says he, because in "our pursuit of whales, which keep near the sides "of it, but are not to be met with in it, we run "down along the sides, and frequently cross it to "change our side, and in crossing it have sometimes "met and spoke with those packets, who were in "the middle of it and stemming it, we have in"formed them that they were stemming a current, "that was against them to the value of three miles an hour, and advised them to cross it and get out "of it, but they were too wise to be counselled by "simple American fishermen. When the winds "are but light, he added, they are carried back by "the current more than they are forwarded by the "wind; and if the wind be good the subtraction "of seventy miles a day from their course, is of some importance. I then observed that it was a pity no notice was taken of this current upon the charts, and requested him to mark it out for me, "which he readily complied with, adding directions "for avoiding it in sailing from Europe to North "America. I procured it to be engraved by order "of the general post-office, on the old chart of the "Atlantic, at Mount and Pages, Tower-hill; and copies were sent down to Falmouth for the "captains of the packets, who slighted it however. "But it is since printed in France.

"This stream is probably generated by the great

V

"accumulation of water on the eastern coast of "America between the tropics, by the trade winds "which constantly blow there; it is known that a "large piece of water ten miles broad and generally "only three feet deep, has by a strong wind, had "its waters driven to one side, and sustained so as "to become.six feet deep, while the windward side "was laid dry; this may give some idea of the quantity heaped up on the American coast, and "the reason of its running down in a strong current "through the islands into the Bay of Mexico, and "from thence issuing through the Gulph of Florida, "and proceeding along the coast to the Banks of "Newfoundland, where it turns off towards, and "runs down through the Western Islands.

"Having since crossed the stream several times "in passing between America and Europe, I have "been attentive to sundry circumstances relating to "it, by which to know, when one is in it; and "besides the gulph weed with which it is in"terspersed, I find that it is always warmer than "the sea on each side of it, and that it does not "sparkle in the night."-Extract from Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers, by Franklin, L. L. D.: 1787: p. 121.

NOTE D, PAGE 91.

I have devised the cure of several smoky rooms by a simple plan that is infallible; which is effected by having an opening under the grate to pass the back, and open just above the fuel; the opening to be wide at bottom, and narrowing towards the top where it should not be more than half an inch, but running the whole width of the grate. (Some have thought better to make holes in the backs of the grates; this is a dearer method, because it causes more fuel to be consumed.) The operation must be very obvious; as the air comes behind the grate the

fire rarefies it, whereby it presses with great force up the chimney, driving the smoke on before it.

NOTE E, PAGE 101.

KING SOLOMON appears to have understood this government of the winds without the tropics, by the very remarkable observations of his, in Eccles. ch. 1, v. 6.

It is to be observed that in this treatise on the changes of the winds, the upper current is generally meant.

NOTE F, PAGE 103.

I name the connecting medium of the Moon and Earth by the general one of Universal Fluid, although it should more reasonably, perhaps, be called the Earth's atmosphere; because, the Moon being within the Earth's vortex, is thereby impelled round in her orbit, which may be occasioned by particles of our air mixed with the universal fluid reaching beyond the Moon. Not being capable to distinguish this particularly, I therefore name it Universal Fluid.

NOTE G, PAGE 131.

As some readers may not immediately take the meaning of this point of the compass according to its intent, it becomes necessary to observe that the part whence the Samiel is here pointed out to proceed, cannot mean the N. W. from Bagdad, but from the N. W. part of the Desert, so that the Samiel would be brought to Bagdad by a S. W. wind; places situated to the west of the N. W. part of the Desert, would have the Samiel brought to them by an easterly wind, &c.

NOTE H, PAGE 148.

"So that the generation to come of your children

"that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that "shall come from a far land shall say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sickness "which the Lord hath laid upon it.

66

"And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the "overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger." (Deuter. ch. 29, v. 22, 23: Hebrew, v. 21, 22.)

ADDITIONAL REMARKS.

FROM a long and tedious illness, the Author has been prevented from giving the work that attention in its progress through the press, which it required; it was hurried on in consequence, and many inaccuracies have crept into it, which occasions the necessity of these additional remarks, some of which would have more properly appeared in the body of the work, in such parts to which they belong.

The celestial bodies were placed in the firmament of heaven, and the firmament was the power which is said in Scripture, to have kept the waters separate; so that by analogy, this firmament has sufficient strength to keep the heavenly bodies also separate; and this same power acts in the like manner on all minor matter, being possessed of sufficient strength for the accomplishment of every one of those purposes; therefore those who search for the gravitating power, are like a man looking for his spectacles whilst he has them on his nose, and will be as unlikely to know where it is, until told by a looker on. It certainly is very unaccountable how any thinking person, particularly such as have made natural philosophy their study, should be at a loss for this cause, whilst he is acted on by more than thirty-two thousand pounds weight, by which he is supported and retained to the Earth. To search the bowels of the globe for this principle, even to the center, will be as unprofitable as the attempt to discover the philosopher's stone.

Accordingly it will be found as above stated that the universal fluid which pervades space, has the power to keep the planets in their respective places, and is of that elastic force as to keep them separate,