The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-09 00:00:00

THE SUN v. FIRE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
am a lodger in town, no matter where, but
the chambermaid perpetually darkens the room lest
the Sun should put out the fire. I shall not discuss the
sufficiency of the fog to put out, or at least to obscure
the Sun, and completely protect a London drawing-
room from the calamity apprehended ; my great desire
is to bring, through your ingenuous and widely circu-
lated publication, this tiresome subject before scientific
men, in order that a prejudice K. common may be cor-
rected if erroneous, or confirmed if well founded.
That a bright Sun appears to diminish and obscure
the cheerful aspect of your hearth is quite natural, but
that the heat or light oldie Sun can possess the extin-
guishing property thus attached to it, I have more than
doubted, nor can I be piasuaded, except by the very
best authority, that a strong blazing coal-fire is weaker
in its opposition to the powerful rays of the Sun than
the most paltry taper exposed to their influence.

M. S.

DESCENT Or SPIDERS.-'—A letter from Suk
on the Indus,
dated 17th September, mentions the fol-
lowing phenomenon :—" I was taking a stroll into the
fields, when I found myself suddenly covered with a
whole host of small and large spiders. On looking
about I observed that I was standing in the midst of
a large cloud of these animals, who appeared descend-
iog
it' a filmy web of no small dimensions from the
tipper regions. Having extricated myself with some
difficulty from their embraces, I took a position final
whence I could see about me, without being annoyed
by them, and to my astonishment I beheld descending
maze within maze, and fold within fold, an innumerable
I host of spiders, all suspended and dancing on their
numberless tiny threads, which were at times seen to
glance in every variety of shade, amid the beams of the
rising sun. The morning was somewhat dark and lour-
ing, and the stillness was now and then broken by
some distant rumbling of thunder."—.lsiatic Journal.
SUICIDE IN THE SERPENTINE.—About ten
o'clock on Saturday morning last as Knight, the chief
boatman of the Royal Humane Society, was endea-
vouring, near the receiving-house, to fish out of the'
Serpentine a little model boat that had just sunk, a
man, in height about five eight inches, end about
twenty-four years of age, dressed in a brown cloth
shooting jacket and black trousers, passed by and re-
marked, " You've got a wet job there." In about half
an hour after a lad brought information to the receiving-
house that a man had just jumped off the parapet of the
bridge at the west end of the Serpentine. In the mean-

timelienbury, the park-kceper, having. heard of the
occurrence, got into a boat, and, rowing to the spot, got
the body out in five minutes. At the receiving-house
Dr. Woolley tried without success to restore animation.
There was nothing in or on the clothes that could lead
to deceased's identity, but Knight perceived it was the
body of the man who spoke to him shortly before the
occurreace.

A poor woman, wife of Walter Phillips, miner,
at the Coalbrook Vale Iron Works, near Nantyglo,
was delivered on Tuesday week of four fine children,
three girls and a boy. The mother and the children
are getting on as well as possible.—Welsionan.