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TABLE

Of the Equation of Time for every fifth Day.

m. S.

Saturday, March 1st, to the time by the dial add 12 35

Thursday..

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Tuesday

6th 11th

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LUNAR PHENOMENA.

Phases of the Moon.

Full Moon, .. 1st day, at 53 m. after

Last Quarter 9th

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11 28

10 11

8 47

7 IS

5 46

4 13

6 in the evening
5 in the morning
9 in the evening
10 in the morning

10

Moon's Passage over the Meridian.

The Moon will make her transit at the following times this month, which will afford favourable opportunities for observation, if the weather be fine: viz.

March 8th, at 50 m. past 4 in the morning

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Time of High Water at London, for every fifth Day.

The following are the times of high tide at London Bridge for certain days during the present month. To find that of various other places from these, see the article in January :

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The illuminated phase of this beautiful planet now increases in brightness, but diminishes in magnitude. The proportion is,

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Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites.

The following are the visible eclipses of these small bodies during the present month: viz.

1

Immersions.

First Satellite, 6th day, at 42 m. 50 s. after 1 in the morning

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36 24

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58 25
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13th 21st

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......11 at night

1 in the morning

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3

44 29 ......
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Conjunction of the Moon with the Planets and Stars.

March 6th, with Jupiter at 5 in the afternoon
12th. 6 in Capricorn 5 in the morning.

Other Phenomena.

Mercury will attain his greatest elongation on the 1st of this month. He will be stationary on the 8th, and in his inferior conjunction at 15 m. after 6 in the morning of the 18th. Mars will be in quadrature at 15m. after 1 in the afternoon of the 5th. Saturn will be stationary on the 14th, and Mercury on the 31st. There will also be a near appulse of the planet Venus with the star in Pisces, at 7 in the morning of the 3d of this month.

The Naturalist's Diary

For MARCH 1828.

Through hedge-row leaves, in drifted heaps
Left by the stormy blast,
The little hopeful blossom peeps,
And tells of winter past;

A few leaves flutter from the woods,
That hung the season through,
Leaving their place for swelling buds
To spread their leaves anew.

CLARE.

STORMS of hail and rain not unfrequently occur in this uncertain month of many weathers,' but they are not attended with such disastrous effects as those which take place in other countries, particularly in North America. A recent traveller observes, in his Journal, under the date of March 9, 'For two days past it has rained and frozen as it fell; the trees, ships, buildings, &c. are all incrusted with icicles: the strongest branches of the trees are every minute giving way, and falling under their loads. In the country, the scene is brilliant and beautiful beyond description; the spruce, the pine, and the cedar are coated with transparencies, their limbs bending in every fantastic shape, while the rich dark green of their leaves shows to double advantage through the brilliant covering; the twigs of the yellow willow may be compared to amber set in crystal; the red maple, and large berries of the sweetbriar, seem covered with pendant diamonds; the trees at a distance appear to be laden with blossoms, white, glittering, and brilliant; but no description can convey an adequate idea of the fairy frost-work.'

On March 31, 1820, at Newcastle, Delaware State, Mr. Faux says, 'I saw the effect of the late freezing rain on the trees, which, over an extent of country

six times as large as England, has despoiled trees as completely as if chain-shot had passed through them all. The trees and shrubs are laden with ice, a weight ten times that of their own boughs. Many farmers lost nearly all their timber and orchards; a ship also was upset by the great weight of the ice adhering to her rigging.'

The cutting blasts, usually experienced in this month, and so trying to the invalid, are equally injurious to the progress of vegetation; and the 'sweet flowers' are compelled to await the smiles and tears of gentle April to encourage their growth, and to bring them to perfection. The winds of March, however, are highly beneficial in drying up the superabundant moisture of the earth; and, although they may retard the delights and the beauties of Spring, these are rendered more valuable to us, because they are less fugacious. The russet-brown dress of the hedges is now spotted with green, preparatory to their assuming the complete vesture of Spring. The leaves of the lilac begin to peep from beneath their winter clothing, and gooseberry and currant trees display their verdant foliage and pretty, green blos

soms'.

'Mong withered grass upon the plain,
That lent the blast a voice,

The tender green appears again,

And creeping things rejoice;

Each warm bank shines with early flow'rs,
Where oft a lonely bee

Drones, vent'ring on in sunny hours

Its humming song to thee.

CLARE.

Of the bee, which may be seen collecting materials for its honey on every fine day throughout the year, DR. BEVAN relates the following curious anecdotes:

1

A lively description of 'Mornings in March,' from the pen of our friend W. Howitt, and a beautiful MARCH INVOCATION, by Delta, may be seen in our last volume, p. 76, and they are worth referring to.

G

'A snail having crept into one of M. Reaumur's hives early in the morning, after crawling about for some time, adhered, by means of its own slime, to one of the glass panes, where, but for the bees, it would probably have remained, till either a moist air or its own spume had loosened the adhesion. The bees having discovered the snail, immediately surrounded it, and formed a border of propolis round the verge of its shell, which was at last so securely fixed to the glass as to become immoveable, either by the moisture of the air from without, or by the snail's secretion from within. Maraldi has related a somewhat similar instance. A houseless snail, or slug as it is called, had entered one of his hives: the bees, as soon as they observed it, pierced it with their stings, till it expired beneath their repeated strokes; after which, being unable to dislodge it, they covered it all over with propolis.-In these two cases, who can withhold his admiration of the ingenuity and judgment of the bees? In the first case, a troublesome creature gained admission into the hive, which, from its unwieldiness, they could not remove, and which, from the impenetrability of its shell, they could not destroy: here, then, their only resource was to deprive it of locomotion, and to obviate putrefaction, both which objects they accomplished most skilfully and securely, and, as is usual with these sagacious creatures, at the least possible expense of labour and materials. They applied their cement where alone it was required, namely, round the verge of the shell. In the latter case, to obviate the evil of putrescence, by the total exclusion of air, they were obliged to be more lavish in the use of their embalming material, and to form with it so complete an incrustation or case over the "slime-girt giant," as to guard them from the consequences which the atmosphere invariably produces upon all animal substances that are exposed to its action, after life has

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