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common people, the willow, and fometimes the Dutch willow; but if it be of a foreign extraction, it hath been fo long naturalized to this climate, that it thrives as well in it as if it was in its original foil. It is eafily diftinguished by the notable bitterness and the free running of its bark, which may be readily feparated from it all the fummer months whilft the fap is up. I took it from the shoots of three or four years growth, that fprung from Pollard trees, the diameters of which fhoots, at their biggeft end, were from one to four or five inches: it is poffible, and indeed not improbable, that this cortex, taken from larger or older fhoots, or from the trunk of the tree itfelf, may be ftronger; but I have not had time nor opportunities to make the experiments, which ought to be made upon it. The bark I had, was gathered in the northern parts of Oxfordshire, which are chiefly of dry and gravelly nature, affording few moift or moory places for this tree to grow in; and, therefore, I fufpect that its bark is not fo good here as in fome other parts of the kingdom. Few vegetables are equal in every place; all have their peculiar foils, where they arrive to a greater perfection than in any other place: the beft and ftrongeft mustard-seed is gathered in the county of Durham; the finest faffron-flowers are produced in fome particular spots of Effex and Cambridgeshire; the beft cyder-apples grow in Herefordshire, Devonshire,

TH

and the adjacent counties; the roots of valerian are efteemed moft medicinal, which are dug up in Oxfordhire and Gloucestershire; and therefore why may not the Cortex Salignus, or Cortex Anglicanus, have its favourite foil, where it may flourish moft, and attain to its highest perfection? It is very probable that it bath; and perhaps it may be in the fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridgefhire, Effex, Kent, or fome fuch like fituations; and though the bark, which grew in the county of Oxford, may feem in fome particular cafes to be a little inferior to the quinquina, yet, in other places, it may equal, if not exceed it.

The powders made from this bark are at firft of a light brown, tinged with a dufky yellow, and the longer they are kept, the more they incline to a cinnamon or lateritious colour, which I believe is the cafe with the Peruvian bark and powders.

I have no other motives for publifhing this valuable fpecific, than that it may have a fair and full trial in all its variety of circumftances and fituations, and that the world may reap the benefits accruing from it.

For thefe purposes I have given this long and minute account of it, and which I would not have troubled your lordship with, was I not fully perfuaded of the wonderful efficacy of this Cortex Salignus in agues and intermitting cafes, and did I not think, that this perfuauion was fufficiently fupported by the manifold experience which I have had of it.

ANECDOTE of the Bishops Hoadley and Sherlock.

HE bishops Hoadley and Sherlock were both of CatherineHall Cambridge, and, as I believe,

both of the fame year, and pupils of Mr. Bower, a learned Scotchman. When they were Frehmen, they

were

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of EGYPT

argest Pyramid is at the Base 082fect, it rises in height 624 foot, 82 rid but of sstones.

were called to lectures in Tully's Offices. One day Hoadley perform ed fo well, as to receive a compliment from his tutor. As they were coming away from the tutor's cham ber, Sherlock, who was probably a little nettled, called out, "Ben, you have made good ufe of L'Eftrange's tranfltaion's to-day." "No, Tom, replied Hoadley, I have it not; and I forgot to fend the bed-maker

to borrow your's, which I am told, is the only one in college." So early did the emulation between these two great men commence. This circumftance was well remembered by a most worthy country clergyman, deceased a few years ago, who was of the fame college, and the fame ftanding with thefe illuftrious prelates, and hath often told the ftory to the writer of this anecdote.

A Short DESCRIPTION of the PYRAMIDS of EGYPT.

THE pyramids of Egypt are reputed the most magnificent, as well as most ancient buildings in the world; and are ftill entire within, tho' greatly damaged on the outfide. They are fituated on the weft fide of the Nile almoft oppofite to Grand Cairo, near the fide of the ancient Memphis. One of thefe pyramids, which is confiderably large than the reft, and has fuffered the leaft by time and weather, is fituated at the top of a fandy rock in the defart of Lybia, and covers upwards of ten acres of ground with its bafe, each fide of which is 682 feet. Its height is 624 feet, and its top is a fquare, whofe fides are each of them 16 feet long, and yet compofed but of five tones.

The plate annexed exhibits a view of the three principal pyramids; but there are feveral others difperfed

about the Lybian defart, all of them, however, inferior in bulk to the former.

There are various conjectures concerning the time when, and the perfons by whom they were built, and the occafion of erecting them; but none of thefe points, as well as whether they were defigned for temples, fepulchral monuments, or built for aftronomical obfervations, can at this time be determined with any degree of certainty.

It is needless to enter into a more particular defcription of these curious and amazing ftructures, as we imagine moft of our readers have feen the minute defcriptions given by Dr. Pococke, Mr. Salmon, and other travellers who have vifited them.

In their neighbourhod is the famous Sphynx labyrinth, and fubterraneous catacombs.

An Account of the SAMOIEDS, a People of Siberia, from ISERAND IDED the Ruffian Ambassador to China.

THESE people inhabit the icy

coaft of the province of Siberia, and can pretend to little more of humanity than the external fhape. September 1764.

They have a very small share of un derftanding, and in fome things refemble wolves and dogs; for they feed on all manner of dead carcafles 3R .

of

of animals that have died a natural death fuch as horfes, affes, dogs, and cats; befides whales, fea-cows, fea-calves, &c. which are forced upon the fhore by the ice: and these they never trouble their heads about dreffing, but eat them all raw. Notwithstanding which, they inhabit a country which abounds with wild game, fish and flesh; but they are too lazy to be at the trouble of providing themselves with them. They have a fort of governors among them, to whom they pay tribute, who are anfwerable for it to the Ruffian government.

They are shocking, difagreeable, ill looked people, who drefs much in the fame manner as the LapJanders, in fkins, with the hairy fide outermoft. Their stature is fhort and fquat; they have broad fhoulders and faces, flat and broad nofes, great blubber hanging lips, with frightful eyes like thofe of the lynx; their kins are brown all over, with rugged, dishevelled hair, generally as black as pitch, though here and there one has it of a red or light colour: they travel in fledges like the Laplanders, but they are of a different make: they are likewife drawn by deer with horns like a roebuck, and crooked hanging necks like a camel in winter thefe animals are as white as fnow, and in the fummer they are grey; fome call them rein-deer, but by the defcriptions they are unlike in feveral particulars; however, they feed upon the mofs which grows on the ground in the woods.

The bats or tents of the Samoieds are covered with pieces of birchbark fewed together, and when they remove, as they frequently do, in all feafons of the year, they fet up poles in a circle with the finall ends

together at the top, and cover them with bark, leaving a hole at the top for the paffage of the smoke; they make the fire in the middle of the hut, round which they lie at nights, both men and women, quite naked; they lay their children in a fort of boxes, which ferve for cradles, in which they lay the foft fhavings of wood.

They have little or no regard to confanguinity in their marriages, and, like other barbarous nations, are never contented with one wife. At their merry-makings, instead of finging they make a howling noise,` in which they feem to imitate the cries of different kinds of beafts. However, they have some cunning fellows among them, who, by their juggling tricks, impose upon the reft. Thefe, by ignorant or defigning travellers, have been said to be very familiar with the devil, who enables them to play a thousand different pranks. But this is now no more believed than that the Laplanders are able to fell winds; a circumftance which has been serioufly related by fome of our failors.

The resemblance between thefe different people-is fo great, that it is no wonder their religion should be much the fame; for they feem to pay a fort of adoration to the fun and moon, and bow their bodies to it night and morning. They have likewife idols which hang on trees, and human figures in wood, to which they fhew fome refpe&t. There have been fome attempts to civilize thefe people as well as the Laplanders, but they are fo wedded to their old customs, and are so hard to be taught, that it is no eafy matter to make them thorough converts to chriflianity.

And

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