The lowest temperature witnessed by Capt. Franklin in North America
was on the 7th of February, of the second winter passed on the shores
of Bear Lake. At eight in the morning, the mercury in the thermometer
descended to 58° below zero; it had stood at -57.5°, and -57.3° in the
course of that and the preceding day; between the 5th and the 8th, its
general state was from -48° to -52°, though it occasionally rose to
-43°. At the temperature of -52.2°, Mr. Kendall froze some mercury
in the mould of a pistol-bullet, and fired it against a door at the
distance of six paces. A small portion of the mercury penetrated to
the depth of one-eighth of an inch, but the remainder only just lodged
in the wood. The extreme height of the mercury in the tube was from
71° at noon to 73° at three o'clock.--_Quarterly Rev._

* * * * *


PARR'S PUNNING.


Of all the species of wit, punning was one which Dr. Parr disliked,
and in which he seldom indulged; and yet some instances of it have
been related. Reaching a book from a high shelf in his library, two
other books came tumbling down; of which one, a critical work of
Lambert Bos, fell upon the other, which was a volume of Hume. "See!"
said he, "what has happened--_procumbit humi bos_." On another
occasion, sitting in his room, suffering under the effects of a slight
cold, when too strong a current was let in upon him, he cried out,
"Stop, stop, that is too much. I am at present only _par levibus