SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

METEOROLOGY.

1. Heavy fall of Rain, and frequent appearance of Aurora Borealis, in September 1830.—At the Calf of Man Low Lighthouse, on the morning of the 16th September, there was a remarkably heavy fall of rain. "In the course of little more than four hours (says Mr James Macintosh, the light-keeper), I found ninety parts in the gauge. At a quarter past eleven o'clock P. M. it began lightly, and it gradually increased till twelve, when it came down in torrents. This continued till near four o'clock in the morning, when the rain entirely ceased. Although it blew a gale that day, there was not a breath of wind during the fall of rain, but the wind rose immediately afterwards. The Edinburgh Chronicle takes notice of floods in several places in Scotland, of the same date; so I presume we had the first of the heavy rain here, as the direction of the wind, both before and after the rain, was from the S. W. During the course of this September (adds Mr Macintosh), I have to record no fewer than nine appearances of the aurora borealis, the dates being the 7th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 17th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 25th."

2. Water Spout in the Lake of Neufchatel.-On the 9th June, at nine o'clock in the morning, the weather being moist, and the thermometer at 64° Fahr. a water-spout was seen at Neufchatel, on the other side of the lake, about a league from the fort. From a fixed black cloud, about eighty feet above. the surface, descended perpendicularly a dark-grey cylindrical column, touching the surface of the lake. Much agitation was seen at the foot and top of the column, a dull heavy sound was heard, and the waters of the lake were seen to mount rapidly along this sort of syphon to the cloud, which gradually became white as it received them. After seven or eight minutes had elapsed, a north-east wind pressed upon the column, so that it bent in the middle, still however raising water, until at last it separated. At the same moment, the cloud above, agitated and compressed by the wind, burst and let fall a deluge of rain.

This appearance was neither preceded nor followed by any lightning or explosion; the column was vertical and motionless, no rotary motion being observed.—Bib. Univ. June 1830.

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3. Polar Lights in Shetland.-We are informed by our former pupil Mr Mouat Cameron, that the Polar lights had been uncommonly frequent and brilliant during the latter part of last summer and during the whole of autumn. On the 15th of November they were most splendid, exhibiting an appearance which the oldest man in the country had never witnessed. can compare it," says Mr Cameron, "to nothing but the light thrown out from a foundry at work, supposing the horizon to represent the mouth of the furnace—and even this conveys but a feeble idea of its appearance." The Polar lights, we may add, have been very frequent and brilliant in this neighbourhood. This atmospheric luminous meteor appears, for these some years past, to be running through one of its maximum periods.

4. Nitrous Atmosphere of Tirhoot.-Tirhoot is one of the principal districts in India for the manufacture of saltpetre; the soil is every where abundantly impregnated with this substance, and it floats in the atmosphere in such quantities, that, during the rains and cold weather, it is attracted from thence by the lime on the damp walls of houses, and fixes there in shape of long downy crystals of exceeding delicacy. From damp spots it may be brushed off every two or three days almost in basketsful. In consequence of all this, the ground, even in hot weather, is so damp, that it is extremely difficult either to get earth of sufficient tenacity to make bricks (the country being quite destitute of stones), or, when made, to find a spót sufficiently solid to sustain the weight of a house. Even with the greatest care the ground at last yields, and the saltpetre corrodes the best of the bricks to such a degree, that the whole house gradually sinks several inches below its original level. Houses built of inferior materials, of course suffer much more; one, of which the inner foundations were of unburnt bricks, absolutely fell down whilst I was at Mullye, and the family in it escaped almost by miracle. My own house, which was not much better, sank so much, and the walls were at bottom so evidently giving way, that I OCTOBER-DECEMBER 1830.

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secure manner.

was compelled, with extreme expense and inconvenience, to pull down the whole inner walls, and build them afresh in a more From the same cause, a new magazine which government directed to be built, with an arched roof of brickwork, was, when complete, found so very unsafe, that it was necessary to demolish it entirely, and rebuild it on a new plan, with a roof of tiles. In such a soil, it will easily be concluded that swamps and lagoons prevail very much, of course, mostly during the rains, and till the sun gathers power in the hot weather; and, in fact, what has been above so much insisted on, as to the two contrary aspects of the country with respect to vegetation, may, by a conversion of terms, be equally applied to the water on its surface. In the cold and dry weather it is comparatively scanty, in the rains it is superabundant; and as the rivers in this district are frequently found to change their situations, so, through a long course of time, it has resulted that hollow beds, being deserted by their streams, become transformed into what, during the rains, assume the appearance of extensive lakes, but in dry weather degenerate into mere muddy swamps, overgrown with a profusion of rank aquatic vegetations, particularly the gigantic leaves of the lotus, and swarming with every tribe of loathsome cold-blooded animals. Some of these lakes, during the height of the rains, communicate with their original streams, and thus undergo a temporary purification; but others receive no fresh supply except from the clouds, and of course their condition is by much the worse. Some of the conversions of a river-bed into a lake, have occurred in the memory of the present inhabitants, or at least within one descent from their ancestors.-Tytler, on the Climate of Mullye, in Trans. Med. & Phys. Soc. of Calcutta, vol. iv.

These table lands are not longitudinal valleys between ranges of mountains. The bottom of a longitudinal valley, which is from 1500 to 2000 toises above the sea, as is the case in the Andes, is caused by the elevation of a whole mountain chain. True table lands, such as those of Spain and Bavaria, were probably formed by the upraising of a whole continental mass. Both epochas are geognostically considered different.-Humboldt.

6. Lake Aral.-The surface of the lake Aral is 117 feet higher than that of the Caspian.-Humboldt.

7. Fossil Shells in the Snowy Mountains of Thibet.-At a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, on 5th May last, extracts from Mr Gerard's letters, relative to the fossil shells collected by him in his late tour over the snowy mountains of the Thibet frontier, were read. The loftiest altitude at which he picked up some of them, was on the crest of a pass, elevated 17,000 feet; and here also were fragments of rock, bearing the impressions of shells, which must have been detached from the contiguous peaks rising far above the elevated level. Generally, however, the rocks formed of these shells are at an altitude of 16,000 feet, and one cliff was a mile in perpendicular height above the nearest level. Mr Gerard farther states, "Just before crossing the boundary of Ludak into Bussahir, I was exceedingly gratified by the discovery of a bed of fossil oysters, clinging to the rock as if they had been alive." In whatever point of view we are to consider the subject, it is sublime to think of millions of organic remains lying at such an extraordinary altitude, and of vast cliffs of rocks formed out of them, frowning over these illimitable and desolate wastes, where the ocean once rolled.Asiatic Register.

8. Bone Caves discovered in New Holland.-Colonel Lindsay of the 39th Regiment, a very active and intelligent inquirer, informs us of the discovery of great quantities of fossil bones of animals, imbedded in marl and other substances, in caves in New Holland. Some of these animals (quadrupeds), judging from the size of the bones, must have been very large,—a circumstance the more remarkable, because hitherto no large quadrupeds have been found in Australia.

9. Leonhard on the Basaltic Formation.-Professor Leonhard of Heidelberg informs us, that he has now in the press a work

on Basaltic or Trap rocks, which will appear in two volumes octavo, with numerous sections and maps. It will, from a printed prospectus sent to us, be the most complete work on this very interesting subject which has hitherto been presented to the public. It will appear during the course of 1831.

ZOOLOGY.

10. On the Existence of Animalcula in Snow.-The following account was sent by Dr J. E. Mure, in a letter to Dr Silliman. When the winter had made considerable progress, without much frost, there happened a heavy fall of snow. Apprehending that I might not have an opportunity of filling my house with ice, I threw in snow, perhaps enough to fill it. There was afterwards severely cold weather, and I filled the remainder with ice. About August, the waste and consumption of the ice brought us down to the snow, when it was discovered that a glass of water which was cooled with it, contained hundreds of animalcules. I then examined another glass of water out of the same pitcher, and, with the aid of a microscope, before the snow was put into it, found it perfectly clear and pure; the snow was then thrown into it, and, on solution, the water again exhibited the same phenomenon, hundreds of animalcules, visible to the naked eye with acute attention, and, when viewed through the microscope, resembling most diminutive shrimps, and wholly unlike the eels discovered in the acetous acid, were seen in the full enjoyment of animated nature. I caused holes to be dug in several parts of the mass of snow in the ice-house, and to the centre of it, and, in the most unequivocal and repeated experiments, had similar results; so that my family did not again venture to introduce the snow-ice into the water they drank, which had been a favourite method, but used it as an external refrigerant for the pitcher. These little animals may class with the amphibia which have cold blood, and are generally capable, in a low temperature, of a torpid state of existence. Hence their icy immersion did no violence to their constitution, and the possibility of their revival by heat is well sustained by analogy; but their generation, their parentage, and their extraordinary transmigration, are to me subjects of profound astonish

ment.