in the air, and corresponded with General Jourdan, who commanded the
French army, by means of pre-concerted signals. The enterprise was
discovered by the enemy; and a battery opened its fire against the
ascending aeronauts, but they soon gained an elevation which was beyond
the reach of their fire. This balloon was prepared under the direction
of the Aerostatic Institute, for the use of the army of the north; as
were also another, called _Céleste_, for the army of the Sombre and
Meuse; and the _Hercûle_ and _Intrepide_, for the army of the
Rhine and Moselle. Another, thirty feet in circumference, and weighing
160 lbs., was destined for the army of Italy. A new machine, invented by
M. Coutel, the director of the Aerostatic Institute, was designed to aid
the aeronauts in communicating intelligence, and denominated the
_Aerostatic Telegraph_.

P.T.W.


_Muscular Strength_.--It is asserted by travellers, that a Turkish
porter will run along carrying a weight of 600 lbs. Milo, of Crotona,
is said to have lifted an ox, weighing upwards of 1,000 Ibs. Haller
mentions that he saw an instance of a man, whose finger being caught in
a chain at the bottom of a mine, by keeping it forcibly bent, supported
by that means the weight of his whole body, 150 lbs., till he was drawn
up to the surface, a height of 600 feet. Augustus II., king of Poland,
could with his fingers roll up a silver dish like a sheet of paper,
and twist the strongest horse-shoe asunder. An account is given in
the _Philosophical Transactions_, No. 310, of a lion who left the
impression of his teeth upon a solid piece of iron. The most prodigious
power of the muscles is exhibited by fish:--A whale moves with a
velocity through the dense medium of water that would carry him, if