SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

_Society of Civil Engineers_.

A charter of incorporation has just received the royal signature,
constituting an institution of Civil Engineers, and naming Mr. Telford
its president. The objects of such institution, as recited in the
charter, are, "The general advancement of mechanical science, and more
particularly for promoting the acquisition of that species of knowledge
which constitutes the profession of a civil engineer; being the art of
directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and
convenience of man, as the means of production and of traffic in states,
both for external and internal trade, as applied in the construction of
roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, river navigation, and docks, for
internal intercourse and exchange; and in the construction of ports,
harbours, moles, breakwaters, and light-houses, and in the art of
navigation by artificial power, for the purposes of commerce; and in the
construction and adaptation of machinery, and in the drainage of cities
and towns."


_Toads as Ant-eaters_.

In the autumn of last year, a pit, wherein I grew melons, was so much
infested with ants, as to threaten the destruction of the whole crop;
which they did, first by perforating the skin, and afterwards eating
their way into the fruit; and, after making several unsuccessful
experiments to destroy them, it occurred to me that I had seen the toad
feed on them. I accordingly put about half a dozen toads into the pit,
and, in the course of a few days, scarcely an ant was to be