upper part of the brake is attached. After the breaking of the hemp, it is wholly finished for use by scutching or swingling, an operation which may be either performed by the hand or machinery, and is easily executed by either mode.

The machinery for breaking hemp should be removed from the rivers previous to the beginning of the frosts.

XI. Observations on the Breeding of Rabbits and other Animals, in Canada. By WILLIAM BOND, Esq., of Canada*.

THE WARREN RABBIT.

To include the interest of the colonists and the mother country also in one and the same pursuit, is not only laudable, but most likely to succeed, especially where only a trifle of property of the individuals or of the public is wanted to set the bountiful hand of Nature to work in a country where animal subsistence and a suitable climate call for the industrious husbandman, who may in various ways be useful to himself and his country.

In my travels through America, I have often been surprised that no attempt has been made to introduce, for the purpose of propagation, that useful little animal, the warren rabbit, of such vast importance to the hat manufactory of England. It is chiefly owing to the fur of this animal that the English hats are so much esteemed abroad. It is a fact well known amongst the hatters, that a hat composed of one half of coney wool, one sixth old coat beaver, one sixth pelt beaver, and one sixth Vigonia wool, will wear far preferable to one made of all beaver, as it will keep its shape better, feel more firm, and wear bright and black much longer.

The value of the coney wool, the produce of the united kingdom only, is not less, I will venture to say, than 250,000l. per annum; but the quantity is much diminished,

From Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, for 1807.

owing to the banishment and persecution they meet with on every side, and so many small warrens taken in for grain land; in consequence of which it is time, that some protection should be afforded, if possible, to that important branch of British manufactory (in which coney wool is used) from suffering any inconvenience in the want of so essential an article, and the accomplishment of this grand object I conceive perfectly easy.

General Observations.-When I speak of the warren rabbit, I have to observe, that there are in England, as well as in most parts of Europe, three other kinds, viz. the tame rabbit, of various colours, the fur of which is of little vale, except the white; the shock rabbit, which has a long shaggy fur of little value; the bush rabbit, like those of America, which commonly sits as a hare, and the fur of each is of a rotten inferior quality.

To return to the warren rabbit.-There are two sorts in respect to colour, that is, the common gray, and the silver gray, but little or no difference in respect to the strength and felting qualities of the fur. The nature of this animal is to burrow deep in sandy ground, and there live in families, nor will they suffer one from a neighbouring family to come amongst them without a severe contest, in which the intruders are generally glad to retire with the loss of part of their coats, unless when pursued by an enemy, when they find protection.

It is scarcely worth while for me to mention a thing so generally known, viz. that rabbits, particularly those of the warren, are the most prolific of all other four-footed animals in the world; nor do I apprehend any difficulty would attend the exporting this little quadruped with safety to any distance, provided it was kept dry, and regularly supplied with clean sweet food, and a due regard to the cleanliness of the Doxes or places of confinement.

Twelve or fifteen pair of these valuable animals taken to Upper Canada, and there enclosed within a small space of ground suitable to their nature, but furnished with a few artificial burrows at the first, by way of a nursery, spread over those now useless plains, islands, and peninsulas, so

well

well calculated to their nature, would, I will make bold to say, the eighth year after their introduction, furnish the British market with a valuable raw material, amounting to a large sum, increasing every year with astonishing rapidity, so as to become, in a few years, one amongst the first of national objects.

It may be supposed by some, that the above project is magnified beyond possibility, or even probability; but from the serious attention I have paid to the subject, these many years past, as to all points for and against, leaves no room to accuse myself of being too sanguine; for, if properly managed a few years at the first, I cannot find a single thing likely to interrupt their progress.

Some idea of the astonishing increase of the rabbit may be had from the following facts:

An old doe rabbit will bring forth young nine times in one year, and from four to ten each time; but to allow for casualties, state the number at five each litter.

In nine months

The females of the first litter will bring forth five times,

the proportion of which is 2 females' produce Those of the second litter four times produce

45

62

50

The third female race of the old dam, and the second of the first litter, seldom breed the first year, but are carly breeders in the spring following, when we might expect an increase of the whole in proportion to the first pair, if properly attended to and protected.

It is generally allowed, that hares are not more than one fourth as prolific as rabbits, notwithstanding, agreeable to an experiment tried by Lord Ribblesdale, who enclosed a pair of hares for one year, the offspring was (as I have been credibly informed) 68: these animals, could they be exported to Upper Canada with safety, and there protected within enclosures for a few years, would soon after spread over a

large

large extent of country: the fur is nearly as valuable as that of the rabbit.

In that part of Upper Canada within the 45 degrees of north latitude, and the southern and western boundaries, the climate is nearly the same as that of England, a little hotter a few days in summer, and a little colder a few days in winter, agreeable to Fahrenheit's thermometer, which I have paid great attention to for some years, comparing the same with the observations of the English.

The increase of most animals appears much greater in proportion in America than in England, mankind not excepted that of sheep is very apparent to those that pay attention to their breeding stock, which gives me hopes, that in a few years we shall be able to pay for our woollen cloths in wool. Finding the effect of soil and climate so salutary to sheep, &c., it may be reasonably supposed, that rabbits will answer the most sanguine expectations, as I understand the wool of the sheep retains all its nature the same as in England, particularly its strength, and felting qualities among the hatters, which assures me that rabbit wool from those bred in Upper Canada will do the same; and there are some millions of acres within the latitude and boundaries which I have before described, suited to the nature of the warren rabbit; nor do I apprehend that the wolves, foxes, &c., of Upper Canada will be half so destructive as the poachers in England.

The Guanaco, or camel-sheep of South America, no doubt will be a national object at some future period. This is a tame, domestic animal, very hardy, and used with much cruelty by the natives in travelling over the mountains with their burthens; it shears a fleece of wool of from 2lb. to 3lb., which is of dusky red on the back; on the sides inclined to white, and under the belly quite white; its texture is very fine, yet strong; its felting qualities very powerful, and is worth, when ready for use, from five to fifteen shillings per pouud. This animal would no doubt thrive, and do well in England, Upper Canada, and in particular I should suppose in New Holland.

The Beaver might be propagated to great advantage in Scotland,

Scotland, Ireland, and northern parts of England. It is an animal, when tamed, very familiar, and will eat bread and milk, willow-sticks, elm, bark, &c., and no doubt might be imported with safety; but as these two last-mentioned animals are not likely to be attended to immediately, I shall say no more respecting them for the present.

Pine Timber. There are many thousand of large pine trees on the borders of the lakes, rivers, &c. in Upper Canada, which might be marked and secured for naval purposes, and which might be floated down to Montreal and Quebec with great ease, and which no doubt would be of great benefit in furnishing a large supply of good masts for the navy of this empire.

XII. Memoir upon the Desulphuration of Metals. By M. GUENIVEAU, Engineer to the Mines.

[Concluded from vol. xxxi. p. 213.1

Roasting of Galena.

Ir is extremely difficult completely to desulphurate galena by roasting: the affinity of its component parts for oxygen does indeed effect their disunion quickly enough; but that of the new compounds, the sulphuric acid and the oxide of lead, gives birth to a new combination, which retains the sulphur, and thus forms an obstacle to the desulphuration to this same affinity of the oxide of lead for the sulphuric acid, we must attribute the facility with which this acid is formed in the roasting of galena.

I shall examine in detail the various processes to which this important decomposition gives rise, as I think they will explain numerous and complex phænomena.

Whatever care is taken in roasting galena, it is impossible to convert all the sulphur into sulphurous acid, and to avoid the formation of sulphuric acid; the result always gives a mixture of oxide and of sulphate of lead.

In roastings performed upon a large scale, and in a regu lated atmosphere, the proportion of sulphate of lead is much

more