r
was exploring Lake Tsad. The boat, which had been taken to pieces in
Tripoli, and during a journey of twelve months had with immense trouble
been carried on camels across the burning sands of the Sahra, had been
put together and launched on the lake; and the English colors were
hoisted in the presence, and to the great delight, of numerous natives.
Dr. Overweg, in exploring the islands of Lake Tsad, had been every where
received with kindness by their Pagan inhabitants.

* * * * *

The _Courrier de la Gironde_ states that a civil engineer of Bordeaux,
named De Vignernon, has discovered the perpetual motion. His theory is
said to be to find in a mass of water, at rest, and contained within a
certain space, a continual force able to replace all other moving
powers. The above journal declares that this has been effected, and that
the machine invented by M. de Vignernon works admirably. A model of the
machine was to be exposed at Bordeaux for three days, before the
inventor's departure with it for London.

* * * * *

The British Government has granted 1500_l._ to Colonel Rawlinson, to
assist him in his researches among the Assyrian antiquities; and
1200_l._ for the publication of the zoology and botany collected during
the Australian expedition of H.M.S. _Rattlesnake_, commanded by the late
Captain Stanley, son of the late Bishop of Norwich.

* * * * *

The _Museum_ of Berlin says that a Prussian has discovered in the ruins
of Nineveh, a basso-relievo, representing a fleet of balloons--another
proof that "there is nothing new under the sun."

An invention by Captain Groetaers of the Belgian engineers has been
lately tested at Woolwich. It is a simple means of ascertaining the
distance of any object against which operations may have to be directed,
and is composed of a staff about an inch square and three feet in
length, with a brass scale on the upper side, and a slide, to which is
attached a plate of tin six inches long and three wide, painted red,
with a white stripe across its centre. A similar plate is held by an
assistant, and is connected with the instrument by a fine wire. When an
observation is to be taken, the observer looks at the distant object
through a glass fixed on the left of the scale, and adjusts the striped
plate by means of the slide; the assistant also looks through his glass,
standing a few feet in ad