The Sun.
London, England, 1835-08-27 00:00:00

SUBSTITUTE FOR STEAM.

The following plan has been addressed by Mr. John Galt to
the editor of the Greenock Advertiser :

" The fatal explosion of the Earl Grey steamer at the quay,
has induced me to try if the principle of my pressure syphon,
of which you had the goodness to insert some notice, could be
applied to propel vessels, and the result has been so perfectly
satisfactory, that I find myself actuated by humanity to make it
public, that others may test the experiment, the simplicity of
which is not the least of its merits, viz. : _

" Take a cylinder and subjoin to the bottom of it, in com-
munication, a pipe—fill the pipe and the cylinder with water.—
in the cylinder place a piston as in that of the steam-engine,
and then with a Bramah's press, and a simple obvious contri-
vance which the process will suggest, force the water up the
pipe, the pressure of which will raise the piston. This is the
demonstration of the first motion.

" Second—When the piston is raised, open a cock to dis-
charge the water, and the piston will descend. _ _

"This is the demonstration of the second motion, and is as
complete as the motion of the piston in the cylinder of the
steam-engine, and a power is attained as effectual as steam,
without risk of explosion, without the cost of fuel, capable of
being applied to any purpose in which steam is used, and to
an immeasurable extent.

" The preservation of the water may, in some cases, be use-
ful, and this may be done by a simple contrivance, viz.—by
making the cock discharge into a conductor, by which the
water may be conveyed back at every strike of the piston into
the pipe, at the end of which the Bramah's press acts.
" My condition does not allow me to do more than to solicit
that the experiment may be tested. Although no mechanic,
I yet believe myself mechanician enough to see the application
of the principle."

A splendid specimen of the great American aloe,
the stem of which is 20 feet high, may now be seen in full
flower at Bute House, Old Brompton. There are upwards of
900 flowers on the plant. Viscountess Dillon, to whom the
plant belongs, has given her gardener permission to show it to
the public.

CONVENT OF CATS, AT ALEPPO.—Having left
an introductory letter at the Roman Catholic convent for the
superior, who was asleep, I visited an institution of a similar
description for cats—except that celibacy and sexual separa-
tion form no part of their statutes. It was near to the former,
and the fights and flirtations of this feline community were a
scandal in the eyes of the good Franciscans, who were said to
consider the cats moat lax in their discipline. They had
amounted to 500, but the plague in the previous year had re-
duced their number to 200. This order was endowed by some
pious Mussulman, and an old mosque with its court has
been given up to their use. So liberal are the provisions of
the endowment, that cats, whether of the Mohammedan or
Christian education, are equally entitled to admission ; nei-
ther are the benefits confined to worn-out or broken-down cats ;
but any one who has a favourite cat, or a cat that steals cream,
- any dying person wishing to provide for a cat, sends it to
thisl..4tev, where it is taken care of for life. Many of them
-• upon thegrassy divan in the court when I vi-
were baskin,, had gone out to promenade upon the house-
sited them, other: -cited a small sum as " baeksheesh," I
tops ; and having dep. .
Nod at having witnessed so wise,
took my leave, highly grat... .
of property. There is an
pious, and useful an appropriat,„
'he suburbs of .the city.
extensive manufactory of cat-gut in ~ by
Mahommedans
The superstitious esteem lavished upon cats -one
.odft...t..hese..
is derived from the partiality of the Prophet tu.
creatures. They relate that it chanced, upon a day ""...14":
was sleeping, his cat kittened in the sleeve of his abbas ; at.
in order that his favourite might not be disturbed, he cut off
the sleeve, and left her in possession of the bed she had chosen.
Whether or not it be in the Mussulm3n's creed, that' the whole
species "cat" has imbibed some portion of the Prophet's
powers, from the above individual having obtained a fragment
of his garment, is not told ; but no stretch of credulity is be-
yond the reach of a Turk.-4. Summer Ramble in Syria, by
the Rev. V. Monro.

LIE DANUB E.--HUNGARIAN BOATS.---I believe
there is no river in Europe which winds so much as the Da-
nube. It may, with more than the usual truth of poetry, be
emphatically designated as a " wandering stream." It conse-
quently abounds with what are called "reaches," portions of
the bank which at a distance look like promontories, and add
not a little to the difficulties of the navigators, who have to
work their way against the course of the current. It is amu-
sing to observe a boat of the country labouring round one of
these obstacles. It is generally a huge, unwieldy bark, con-
structed of oak, covered with a high roof, and laden to the
very top with what here universally passes under the name of
fruit—that is, wine, timber, wool, wheat, hay, and produce of
every degree. The vessel is dragged up the river by a force
which is not, at first, very apparent. You behold the vessel
tied to the end of a rope, which is pulled by something or
somebody somewhere ; and your eye can discern the "reach"
at the distance perhaps of a mile, you may discover there a
dozen brawny Hungarian peasants, half-naked, trudging along
in rope harness, exerting all their strength to draw the enor-
mous mass behind them. The more opulent adventurers,
however, frequently employ horses for this purpose, and then
the scene is infinitely more bustling. Twenty, and sometimes
thirty, half. wild horses, are required to supply a sufficient
moving power, where the force of the current offers more than
ordinary resistance. Almost every pair of horses belongs to a
different peasant, and he will allow nobody to lash them but
himself. He is, most probably, a Nobleman, and it is part of
his privilege te drive his own horses after his own fashion.
When, therefore, the whole of the team arrives at a difficult
reach, it becomes the signal for a general mutiny ; the leaders
are, perhaps, prancing in the air, while the horses immediately
behind are endeaVouring, with all their might, to bolt off into
the adjacent country. Here, a horse and his companion were
standing quite still, as if they were in doubt whether they
ought not, before going further, to take a pleasant draught of
the element at their feet. Half-a-dozen of the animals in the
rear have dragged each other into the river, through which
they were wading up to the girth, while the sound of a dozen
whips, the shouts of the drivers, the angry exclamations of the
boatmen standing on the roofs of their vessels, the neighing
of the alarmed horses, and the barking of dogs, combine to
form a most ludicrOus concert, which may be heard far down
the river. Here, in a broiling sun, these drivers keep on their
large cloaks, which are as essential to the dignity of a Hun-
garian peasant-Noble as the wide-brimmed hat slouching over
his swarthy countenance...—. Quiil'q Stearn T'oya9e down the
Danube.