The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-17 00:00:00

No. 16,564.

months in the servioe. The findin
-Lime-tick Chronicle, g is not known.—
hChave ORL h potato, even in Ireland, does not appear
Pe howev escaped as well as was at first supposed. We
o, er,
less extensive thane injury will turn out to be
some are inclined rehend.
We have heard it
surmised that the i a
n pjup dicious
aPplication of guano may have been the Cause
of the damage ; but the mischief; even as far
as already ascertained, is too general to be accounted
for in that way. Besides, it prevails in places where
guano has never been applied. Some atmospheric un-
healthinss, or some rot engendered in the ground by
al hi
wet, will more probably be found to
have originated the disease.
BELFAST.—The weather continues most favourable for
the harvest. We have dry warm days, the wind
northerly by west. Reapine• is universal, and reapers
can hardly be obtained. We are gla I to perceive that
carting into the haggard accompanies the reaping ; fur
the grain is fully in a condition to be removed almost
when cu
secure t. A week
have will as or two of such weather as we now
ever, will splendid harvest. The grain, how-
be variable in colour and quality.
;IfDREADFUL MURDER.—Wednesday evening last the son
a respeetable farmer named Kenny, residing at Clonder-
Jaw 13
father's, county Clare, was waylaid on returning to his
shot house, and barbarously murdered within a pistol-
home. hi
The father was alarmed by the report of
a gun and ran out, when the first person he saw was a
young person of the name of Sexton, in the same neigh-
hourhood, hurrying off with a gun under his arm, and a
tow yards further on, the unhappy parent was almost
,distracted to find his son a corpse before his eyes, the
Latal bail having perforated his forehead ; and the
lasuassin, not content with his deadly aim, had also
hroken the poor
,young man's skull with a blunt
instrument, probably the butt of a gun. An iii-
(l,l4,soit„:" theld next day by Thomas Whitestone, Esq.,
Wainer;tr' when a verdict of wilful murder was returnetul
_ B°lllo person or persons unknown, as more tha
nt to explain that
appears vindictive
of
eviielti"lnga,yanndavaesbiete: implicated. To aucucotruangte,foirt tishissurffie:
had recently Pierce taken a small farm, about seven acres,
Carrick, of Ennis,
lienny, father the murdered lad,
sq.—Limerick Chronicle.
44ARK 413 LE AERIAL PHENO-
sIAiNRE. OBSERVED AT COMRIE, PERTH-

(Prom the Atheneum.)
This place promises ere long to become as noted for
the be
in the heavens above as it has long been for
tthnoe
fhoellow. of its superficial scenery and its mysterious
in the e th beneath. What are we to think of
nig risi3or,
Writer observed by a party (of which the
was nne), about eight o'clock on the evening of
Thursday, the 21st ult., two miles west of this village ?
the mmediately to the north of the village of Comrie
re is a bold hill, called Dunmore, with a pillar of 70
or 80 feet in the height built on its summit in memory
of the late Lord Melville. The perfect image of this
well-known hill and obelisk, as exact at least as the
shadow usually represents the substance, was observed
dis •
tinctly projected on the northern sky, at least two
miles beyond the original, which, owing to an interven-
ing eminence, was itself not in view at all from the
station. The imaffe was that which the hill and
monument present as viewed from the village, that
from the south. Instead of being a shadow on
a cloud, it seemed to be the shape of the thing
represented moulded out of the cloud itself, and
thus stuck up against the northern sky. The
edges of the figure representing those of the
pillar, though, of course, less substantial-looking than
their granitic originals, seemed as erect and well defined
as the masonry itself, and so also were the harder fea-
tures of the hill formed parts of the profile, while those
portions in the original covered with wood had in the
figure a serrated fringe, exactly as these portions them-
selves would show if looked at between the eye and sky.
The figure continued visible after it was first noticed
(how long before it is of course impossible to say), for
about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, and was,
during that time, seen and minutely examined by three
individuals, so that there could be no illusion in the case.
One of these seemed to think that there was one projee-
eion in the model on the top of the hill, near the base of
the monument, that was not in the original. However,
on examining the latter next morning, he was obliged
to admit that the image was more faithful than
his memory, for there stood the prototype of the dis-
puted projection, in the shape of a clump of trees,
at the very spot. We have often heard of the
" Spectre of the Brocken," and of the inverted images
of various objects, both terrestrial
seems
lamnds
to heg to a
marine,lonbeing
seen in the air. But the present
different class of phenomenafe eitherwrromiteris aware of these,
of) se,and to
a class never before (that th
re-
corded. "The spectre" has been explained, both by `f.
Raue and M. Gmelin to be the magmhed
distantsolar
cloud,
of :he objects represented cast upon the
and the other appearance is caused by some reflective
property in the atmosphere ; whereas the phenomena at
Present under review seemed to be formed or cut out of
the materials of the cloud itself, as the latter was not
visible beyond the limits of the image, and these mate-
lials, out of which the image seemed to have been
erected, remained visible long after the likeness had
ceased. Could all this have been morally one of the in-
Tmeaerable fortuitous configurations into which clouds are
Peiwually changing themselves ? The exactness of
t.lle %fitness would have made this explanation unsatis-
IN, "•%1 though the phenomenon were observed in a
:11:;jo,fen,t Pan of the world ; but happening whore the
it was present almost forces the mind to the con-
( as'en that, however it may be accounted for, the pre-
wara fact of no mere accidental coincidence, but
that the two objects, the hill and cloudy image, were
somehow connected together as cause and effect.
On this occasion the sun had been down for some time,
and thc moon had only lately risen, and was peeping
through some holes in a thick screen of clouds that skirted
the eastern horizon, and of course far from the line of the
amore and image, so that neither of these luminaries
ill y direct hand in the sketch. The planet Mars, however, though invisible from the station durine• the vision, owing to an intervening hill, soon afterwards' rose
to view more resplendent than ever the writer remem-
berst to have seen him before—thus raising suspicions
_hat he had been concerned in the plot ; and, upon re-
flection, we fouild that he must have been about the line
atthe time. But how could he cause such an image?
rays
Can there be an such Ireaguerreotype vire in ''his
having
nlaeyveositturi
igracsawblteeoraeantyh see vrf,er produce su c h sul t s ? W e have
nosres.a,thrhmenitsvewadreioas planets having an effect
tdhoatnot h
ey
w recollectere oeafpiatshle everof
aihlwauaeynsebeese;n
hinuctlinasesdutoictliisbehe
evewthrietseer
ailsleogne
thus producing pictures. T
have
directedthe a
gparionz r(taye
(and we
edc4; for a moment that
dissolving has
one who
wMars'ho electrical
rays
Powers both in manufaca.turerieertain electricity has great
any cloud they are
and supposing further thatnghi:nd dissolving clouds),
full upon the cloud
were playing
the portion screened from their direct'n
rays on that occasion
question, all except
e action by the in-
tervening hill and monument,
the figure could have been formed an
clo The
solution, writer thus imagine how
bisutboYffenr°s it merely
mea
sr rather left, of the
attemptedel satisfied with this
question involving considerable • as a guess in a
in [The writer's ~ guess" crest a mystery.
is indeed very at the cause of the
imaginative, for, c 'd phenomenon
tion of the shadow of the mountain tops]. ering that the p
,constantly changing by the earth's on the cloud must be
the rays of rotation on its axis,
Mercury must have the power to form
as well as to dissipate the reconcile
hypethesis to the observed
cloud to his
phenomenon.]
-............___
5itar.,...... .._

,UPER:ORITY OF STONE TO IRON IN BRIDGE
BUILDING.— Stone, is however, pre-eminently the bridge
builder'sbrgidein material. The carpenter can supply the want of a
a corapar;‘tively short time, and in most cases at a
small cost. The smith and founder will, with moderate assistance
from the mason and bricklayer, effect what cannot be done with
stone, and will in cases supply the place of stone with iron
When stone might be used, but grandeur of effect, power of
resistance, and eternity of endurance, are to be sought in
masonry, the mason's art, and with the mason's mate-
rial. We know of and possess nothing as a mate-
rial for massive, permanent construction and fitted
for bridge building particularly, so free from liabi-
lity to change in bulk from any natural influence as stone;
lllld,
well'rmthin therefore, considering its other qualities as essen-
ai, so adapted for the min constituent of a bridge.
It is well known that iron is injuriously affected by many
ca uses that produce little or no impression on stone, viz.,
by atmospheric changes, electricity, continual percussion,
vibration, galvanic action, &c. ; it is liable to oxidation (a
suspension bridge being composed of a series of small bars
of iron presents a great surface to the corroding powers of the
atmosphere), which, in a series of years seriously impairs its
dents that
notwithstanding the precautions taken to
.preserve
_t ; and percussion and vibration operate so injuriously
'9OII it, as altogether to alter its internal structure mad destroy its
in proof of which see the accounts of the numerous acci-
I. tuts that have occurred on the various lines of railway from the
rZteture of the axles of railway carriages, concussions, &c.—
The Builder.
_VA Lim OF ARCHITECTURAL KNOWLEDGE TO
'St;rouatsTs..--To those who know anything of architectural
ory,thtrl e
dasnd have sufficient knowledge of styles and dates
read and enjoy old buildings, Belgium, the Ne-
, and Germany, offer extraordinary attra c-
Wing, It is
of
to be regretted, that compara-
tively few of our tourists know anything about
tile Matter, notwithstanding the subject now occupies 14'101 more attention in England than was the ease a
dozen years ago. They visit the cathedrals, and churches,
and castles, both at home and abroad—they are amused and
interested
offer, the T
infbut the instruction which these buildings
orm ti n that they silently convey, is in a
cipher to which athoey hay I not the key, and so is lost to
them.
The delight of' travel is increased four-fold
bY %knowlede of architectural history—we speak for a few
minutes to such of our non-professional readers only as may
not have this knowledge—and we advise all who would de-
rive the fullest advantage from their summer rambles, and the
lgreatest amount of pleasure, to apply themselves
eto ac-
e e it. Every old building is an open book which ma
understood without difficulty by those who know they azvirnpogburolgbagi er:;3.....witailii„tells you when it was erected, very often the
Mats of society at that period ; at which end it was begun, at
'what timo alterations were made. You find it to be a stage in
art of the whole, and can see clearly what
preceded it and is hat it led to. Architecture, as a fine
art, should form part , , general education ; cud, indeed
thoftetheerence betwbeeefonrcelaslsic We
GWoiehicon.:76
coed d friend, who had "M'aide .. heard an edu-
.he grand tour, inquire
tectAuic•er,opanoldishaanvde
vii lite,:.,und men who have stood in the Atheni.2 th: r.._ r`.4 in Rome, who yet did not know the Doric o.:ler 1'1.'7
i;nl
exists most had not the most remote idea that a c,;....-
t,_ . ists between the stru-tures of Greece and Rome, and
I.74etahthatetals of the middle ages on this side of the Alps; still
relit, %II Leue differences between them, now so strikingly appa-
traced step by step, and explained.— The Builder.