Method of preserving Currants fresh till January or February.

When the fruit is ripe, choose those bushes enjoying a southern aspect, and which are most convenient in their shape, and most loaded with fruit, and surround them with thick straw mats, so that they shall be completely sheltered from atmospheric cold and other changes.  By this simple method it will be found that the fruit may be preserved quite fresh till after Christmas.

H.B.A.

Chromate of Iron.

Is used in painting, dyeing, and calico-printing; and its value is so great, the proprietor of a serpentine tract in Shetland, where chromate of iron was found by Professor Jameson, cleared, in a few years, 8,000l.—­Dr. Murray.

Temperature of Springs.

In those situations where the cold is not sufficient to hinder the circulation of water, the temperature of perennial springs is almost identical with the atmosphere.  Thus, in the vicinity of Edinburgh, the temperature of the perennial springs agrees with the mean temperature of the atmosphere.  The same is the case in the whole of Atlantic Europe, and also to a great extent in Southern Europe.  The temperature of springs in northern regions, when the surface water is frozen, is higher than the mean temperature of the superincumbent atmosphere; and in the countries from the south of Europe to the Tropic, the temperature of springs is lower than that of the medium temperature of the atmosphere.

Humboldt’s Journey to Siberia.

Humboldt, although now past his 60th year, will leave Germany in the spring, accompanied by Professor G. Rose, for Siberia.  He will probably extend his researches to the high land which separates India from the Russian empire.

Egyptian Manuscript relative to the History of Sesostris.

At the sitting of the Aix Academy, on the 3rd of August, M. Sallier read a report of some very important discoveries in Egyptian history, made at his house, and amongst his Egyptian papyri, by M. Champollion, jeune.  The latter gentleman was on his way to Egypt with M. Rosellini, and stopped two days with M. Sallier previous to proceeding to Toulon for the purpose of embarking.  During this short period he examined ten or twelve Egyptian papyri, which had been purchased some years ago, with other antiquities, from an Egyptian sailor.  They were principally prayers or rituals which had been deposited with mummies; but there was also the contract of the sale of a house in the reign of one of the Ptolemies; and finally three rolls united together and written over with fine demotic characters, reserved, as is well known, for civil purposes.

The first of these rolls was of considerable size, and to M. Champollion’s astonishment contained a History of the Campaigns of Sesostris Rhamses, called also Sethos, or Sethosis, and Sesoosis, giving accounts the most circumstantial of his conquests, the countries which he traversed, his forces, and details of his army.  The manuscript is finished with a declaration of the historian, who, after stating his names and titles, says he wrote in the ninth year of the reign of Sesostris Rhamses, king of kings, a lion in combats, &c.