We would fain linger amid a scene so weird and wonderful; but time fails, and we must return to ‘bank.’ We take a last look at the air-chamber with its busy occupants, and ascending the ladder, not without exertion, for a vertical ladder at all times calls muscle into play, and the pressure we are under by no means lightens our labours, we find ourselves again in the air-lock. The reverse process now takes place. The inner door is closed, the compressed air is allowed to escape from the outer chamber in which we now are, and causes a thick mist, cold and chilly. Before long, the pressure ceases; the outer door opens, and we again tread terra firma. The pressure-gauge records thirty pounds per square inch. We now discard our exploring garments, and having enjoyed a not unneedful wash, we quit the works, and returning homewards, congratulate each other on having trodden the very foundations of the wonderful Forth Bridge, and ponder how little the future traveller, as he lightly skims the estuary at sixty miles an hour, will think of the practical ingenuity and patient labour that wrought, deep down beneath the waters of the Forth, the foundations on which repose the huge structures through which the flying express is whirling him. OCCASIONAL NOTES. BORAX. We learn from a contemporary a good deal that is interesting about the history and preparation for the market of the borax of commerce. In 1874 Mr A. Robottom, prospecting for commercial purposes some of the vast tracts of unoccupied land in Southern California, came across a long deep valley, about fifteen by eight miles, which was apparently the basin, or series of basins, of once active volcanoes. This valley was covered with crude borates, combined with earthy impurities. The heat was oppressive, one hundred and nineteen degrees in the shade; and the atmosphere so dry, that even breathing was difficult. At this time, the explorer’s attention was drawn to a dark object lying upon the ground, upon which he seated himself, and found it was a dead horse. He was naturally surprised that no smell emanated from the carcase, and taking out his knife, he cut to the bones, only to find that the flesh was quite sweet. The explanation of this was that the boron from the boracic land had saturated it thoroughly. He learned afterwards that the carcase of this horse had lain there for seven months, having been left by a party of emigrants. The remarkable antiseptic powers of boron in its crude state having thus been proved to him, he took over this Boron Valley for the State of California, and arranged with a Company in England to make it available for commercial purposes.