four per-sons were laid in the grave through the fol-ly and bad con-duct of two gid-dy youths; who, in-stead of mind-ing the ad-vice of their pa-rents, chose rath-er to fol-low the dic-tates of their own will, and by rush-ing head-long in-to dan-ger, quick-ly brought them-selves and their fath-er and moth-er to the si-lent tomb. Sponge is a ma-rine sub-stance, ve-ry po-rous, grow-ing on the rocks a-bout some of the is-lands in the Le-vant; and ma-ny per-sons make a good trade in di-ving for it: its real na-ture has of-ten caus-ed much dis-pute a-mong wri-ters; it imbibes wa-ter, and as quick-ly parts with it; which ren-ders it very use-ful that which is of the light-est col-our is deem-ed the best art is of-ten u-sed to make it look white, and feel soft. There is a place a-broad, not far from the ci-ty of Na-ples, call-ed the Grot-ta del Ca-ne, or dog's grot-to; which is so na-med from this cause: it con-tains a gas ve-ry hurt-ful to life, that lies on the sur-face of the earth with-in the cave; and to show the ef-fects of this va-pour, a dog is cho-sen, which be-ing held in it, strug-gles hard for a few mo-ments, and would then die if not ta-ken in-to the o-pen air: but as this gas is much more hea-vy than com-mon air, it re-mains with-in six or sev-en inch-es of the ground; so that a per-son when walk-ing e-rect could pass through the cav-ern with-out feel-ing a-ny ill ef-fects from its na-ture. I have some-times met with young per-sons, who could not ex-plain right-ly, what caus-ed the smoke to go up the chim-ney but if they had thought for a mo-ment or two, they would soon have come to the sim-ple fact, that this smoke is a gas which the burn-ing coal e-mits; and that this, mix-ed with heat-ed air, ascends in the chim-ney; up which it is taken, and thence out at the top, by the con-stant cur-rent or draught pass-ing through the room to the fireplace. Su-gar is the pro-duce of a tall reed, call-ed |