l stars, and, as such, arranged in his
catalogue, being the 964th which he describes. This 964th of Mayer has
been since missing, and the calculations for the planet Herschel show
that, it should have been, at the time of Mayer's observation, where he
places his 964th star. The volume of 1787 gives you Mayer's catalogue of
the zodiacal stars. The researches of the natural philosophers of Europe
seem mostly in the field of chemistry, and here, principally, on the
subjects of air and fire. The analysis of these two subjects presents
to us very new ideas. When speaking of the _Bibliotheque
Physico-oeconomique_, T should have observed, that since its
publication, a man in this city has invented a method of moving a vessel
on the water, by a machine worked within the vessel. I went to see it.
He did not know himself the principle of his own invention. It is a
screw with a very broad, thin worm, or rather it is a thin plate with
its edge applied spirally round an axis. This being turned, operates on
the air, as a screw does, and may be literally said to screw the vessel
along: the thinness of the medium, and its want of resistance,
occasion a loss of much of the force. The screw, I think, would be more
effectual, if placed below the surface of the water. I very much suspect
that a countrymen of ours, Mr. Bushnel of Connecticut, is entitled to
the merit of a prior discovery of this use of the screw. I remember to
have heard of his submarine navigation during the war, and, from what
Colonel Humphreys now tells me, I conjecture that the screw was the
power he used. He joined to this a machine for exploding under water
at a given moment. If it were not too great a liberty for a stranger to
take, I would ask from him a narration of his actual experiments, with
or without a communication of his principle, as he should choose. If he
thought proper to communicate it, I would engage never to disclose it,
unless I could find an opportunity of doing it for his benefit. I thank
you for your information as to the greatest bones found on the Hudson
river. I suspect that they must have been of the same animal with those
found on the Ohio: and if so, they could not have belonged to any human
figure, because they are accompanied with tusks of the size, form, and
substance of those of the elephant. I have seen a part of the ivory,
which was very good. The animal itself must have been much larger
than an elephant. Mrs. Adams gives me an account o