Upon this, Dr. Kearney notes: "it certainly does make the fire burn: by repelling the air, it throws a blast upon the fire, and so performs the parts, in some degree, of a blower or bellows." These observations were made only as to the shovel, but the poker is equally efficacious. "After all," says Croker, "it is possible that there may be some magnetic or electrical influence, which, in the progress of science, may be explained; and what has been thought a vulgar trick, may be proved to be a philosophical experiment." Whatever may be the cause, there is every-day evidence that a poker or shovel, as the case may be, if laid across a dull fire, will revive it; because, we think, the poker or shovel receives and concentrates the heat, and produces an additional draught through the fire. ------------------ THE ARTESIAN WELL OF GRENELLE, AT PARIS. The boring of this well by the Messrs. Mulot occupied seven years, one month, twenty-six days, to the depth of 1794-1/2 English feet, or 194-1/2 feet below the depth at which M. Elie de Beaumont foretold that water would be found. The sound, or borer, weighed 20,000 lb., and was treble the height of that of the dome of the Hospital des Invalides, at Paris. In May, 1837, when the bore had reached 1246 feet 8 inches, the great chisel and 262 feet of rods fell to the bottom; and, although these weighed five tons, M. Mulot tapped a screw on the head of the rods, and thus, connecting another length to them, after fifteen months' labour, drew up the chisel! On another occasion, this chisel having been raised with great force, sunk at one stroke 85 feet 3 inches into the chalk![7] ----- Footnote 7: The depth of the Grenelle Well is nearly four times the height of Strasburg Cathedral; more than six times the height of the Hospital des Invalides, at Paris; more than four times the height of St. Peter's, at Rome; nearly four times and a half the height of St. Paul's, and nine times the height of the Monument, London. Lastly, suppose all the above edifices to be piled upon each other, from the base-line of the Well of Grenelle, and they would but reach within 11-1/2 feet of its surface.--_Year-Book of Facts_, 1843. ------------------ "WET THE ROPES."