was given to this branch of industry in Baden, and the harvest has become still more productive.

6. Lightning Tubes.-In the vicinity of the old castle of Remstein, near Blenhenburg, which stands on a picturesque series of rocks, belonging to the greensand or quadersandstone formation, in a loam land, there have been found, this summer, very firm and long vitreous tubes (Bliteröhren). From a branch in the upper part, two branches go off, some of which are ten feet long, and from these proceed three small branches.— Literary Gazette, January 15. 1831.

7. Temperature of some Mines in Cornwall.-The following interesting observations were made by Robert Were Fox, Esq. of Falmouth, and communicated to the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall:-At Tingtang copper-mine, in the parish of Gwennap, at the bottom of the engine-shaft, which is in Killas (clayslate), and 178 fathoms deep, the water, two months ago, was at the temperature of 82°. In 1820, when the shaft was 105 fathoms deep, the temperature of the water was 68°; thus an increase of 14° has been observed in sinking 73 fathoms, which is equal to 1o in 5 fathoms. At Huel Vor tin-mine, near Helston, the water was 69°, at the bottom of a shaft 139 fathoms deep, in the year 1819. It is now 209 fathoms deep. and the temperature is 79, which gives an increase of 1° in sinking 7 fathoms. This part of the mine is in Killas. The highest temperature of the water, at the bottom of Poldice copper and tin mine, in the parish of Gwennap, in 1820, which was then 144 fathoms under the surface, was 80°. It is now 176 fathoms deep, and the temperature is 99°; and, in a cross level, 20 fathoms further north, the water is 100". The two last mentioned temperatures are the highest hitherto observed in any of the mines of Cornwall; and the increase is equal to 19° in one case, and 20° in another, in sinking 32 fathoms, or 1° for 1 fathom. Three persons only were employed at the time near each of these stations, and the water pumped up from this part of the mine was estimated at 1,800,000 gallons in twentyfour hours; and it was found to contain a considerable quantity of common salt in solution.

8. Volcano in New Zealand.-Accompanying a specimen of

volcanic ashes sent to me by Colonel Lindsay of Sydney, is a notice to the following effect: This substance is found on what is called White Island, from the ashes that continually fall from a volcano, at present in a state of activity, and which has been long in the same condition. It is about three miles round, and lies opposite to the Bay of Plenty, between the river Thames and the East Cape, and from twenty to thirty miles from the mainland of New Zealand. When this island was last visited, it presented a frightful display of flame and smoke from the crater of its volcano At the foot of the hill in which the volcano is situated, there is a lake of boiling sulphur, and all around the lake the ground is encrusted with sulphur. The natives say the volcano runs under the sea, and bursts out again in the interior of New Zealand, about twenty miles from the shore, in a district where there is a large hot lake in the waters, of which the natives cook their provisions.-EDIT.

9. Map of the Puy de Dome.-A map of the famous mountain the Puy de Dome, in twelve sheets, is now in preparation, by Bussy of Paris.

10. Diamond in the Coal formation.—The diamond is said to have been found in the coal formation in India.

11. Splendid Specimen of Megatherium.-A perfect skeleton of the megatherium, exceeding in size the splendid specimen preserved in the Cabinet of Natural History in Madrid, has been lately discovered 126 miles south of Buenos Ayres. This remarkable specimen of antediluvian zoology is now in the possession of Woodbine Parish, Esq., Consul-General at Buenos Ayres, who intends to bring it with him to Europe.

12. Slates of the Tarentaise belong to the Jura Formation.-All the slates, conglomerates, and sandstones of the Tarentaise, formerly considered as transition, are now arranged with the oolite or Jura formation.

13. Decrepitating Common Salt. Condensation of Gas in it.M. Dumas has examined and described a very curious effect which occurred when some rock-salt obtained from the mine of Wieliczka in Poland, and given to him by M. Boué, was put into water. It decrepitated as it dissolved in the water, and gradually evolved a sensible portion of gas. The bubbles of were sensibly larger when the decrepitations were stronger, and

gas

the latter frequently made the glass tremble. This salt owes its property of decrepitating to a gas which it contains in a strongly compressed state, although no cavities are sensible to the eye. When the experiment was made in perfect darkness, no light was disengaged. The gas disengaged is hydrogen, slightly carbonate; when mixed with air it burns at the approach of a light. This disengaging of gas will assist in explaining the numerous accidents which have happened from firedamp in salt mines. Several portions of the salt were nebulous, others were transparent. The nebulosities indicated the existence of numerous minute cavities, probably filled with condensed gas, and, in fact, a nebulous fragment dissolved in water, gave more gas than an equal sized fragment of the transparent salt. This new fact, described by M. Dumas, shews how frequent, in the course of geological accidents, are the phenomena to which are due the accumulation of gas in the cavities of mineral substances, and how varied are the substances upon which these phenomena have been exerted. M. Dumas has endeavoured to reproduce salt, having the power of decrepitating in water, like that described.

14. Interesting discovery of Fossil Animals.-There has been lately sent to the Garden of Plants, a collection of fossil bones, from the lacustrine deposits of Argenton (Indre), consisting of five or six species of Lophiodon, from the size of a large rabbit to that of a horse; also species of the genus Anthrocotherium, of the Trionyx, and Crocodile. Some recent discoveries in the diluvian ossiferous deposite of Chevilly (Loiret) of the bones of the extremities of the animal called Gigantic Tapir by Cuvier, shews that this animal, by the test of its osteology, is closely allied to the living tapir, although equalling, if not exceeding, the rhinoceros. The Indri and Loiret are two departments in the central districts of France.

15. Dr Turnbull Christie.-Dr Turnbull Christie, who has been appointed to examine the geology of the Presidency of Madras, by the India Company, has left Edinburgh for our Eastern Empire. He travels through France and Italy, embarks for Alexandria, from thence he visits the Holy Land, Mount Sinai,-sails down the Red Sea for Bombay, and from thence by land or sea to Madras. From the varied talent and infor

mation of this accomplished individual, his indomitable zeal and activity, and experience of eastern climate and travelling, we anticipate great accessions to our knowledge of the natural history of the various countries he visits. He takes with him a painter for the purposes of zoology, comparative anatomy, botany and geology, and a complete set of instruments for ascertaining the nature of the meteorological and hydrographical phenomena that may present themselves to his attention.

16. New President of the Geological Society. We are happy to learn that Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq. has been unanimously chosen President of the Geological Society of London. This gentleman, from his experience, skill, zeal, and activity in geology, will, we are confident, prove himself a worthy successor to such men as Greenough, Fitton, Buckland, Sedgwick, &c.

MINERALOGY.

17. Recent Formation of Zeolite.-Stilbite, mesotype, and apophyllite, appear almost always as a newer formation in the cavities of amygdaloid, and along with these calcareous spar. The formation of zeolite through the action of atmospheric water on dolerite, seems still to be going on. We observe it forming in hollows of a conglomerate, in which zeolite plays the part of calcareous sinter. Springs deposite a similar zeolite sinter; and when, in the summer, the brooks dry up, their whole bed appears white. In deep caves, where, during lower temperature and greater humidity of the air, scarcely any evaporation takes place, I found a matter partly gelatinous, partly crystalline, which proved the continued production of zeolite.-Forch

ammer.

18. A New Metal discovered.-Mr Dulong read, on the 7th of February last, to the French Institute, a letter from Berzelius, which announces the discovery of a new simple substance by Mr Sestrom, director of the mines of Fahlun in Dalecarlia. Mr Sestrom being engaged in examining an iron, remarkable for its softness, discovered in it a substance, which appeared to him to be new, but in such small quantity, that he could not determine with accuracy all its properties. Afterwards, however, he found it more abundantly in the scoriæ of the iron,

and was thus enabled to prove that the substance in question was a new metal, to which he gives the name Vanadium, after an ancient Scandinavian deity. We have had communicated to us the following additional notice. Humboldt presented to the Institute specimens of Vanadium, the new metal recently discovered in the iron of Estersholm by Mr Sestrom, and which also exists in Mexico in a brown ore of lead of Zimapan. M. del Rio, Professor in the School of Mines of Mexico, had extracted from that ore a substance, which, to his apprehension, resembled a new metal, to which he gave the name of Erythronium. M. Collet Descotils, to whom he sent a specimen, could not agree in erythronium being a simple substance, and believed he had demonstrated that it was an impure chrome. It would appear that Professor del Rio agreed in this opinion, and there was not longer any idea of its being a new metal. But since the discovery of Sestrom was known to Voller, he, struck with the resemblances which exist between the properties of vanadium and that which the Mexican chemist attributes to his erythronium, has repeated the analysis of the brown ore of lead of Zimapan, and from which he has obtained a simple body, perfectly identical with that of the iron ore of d'Esterholm. It is worthy of remark that so rare a metal should have been discovered in two places so far asunder as Scandinavia and Mexico.

ZOOLOGY.

19. Four-spined Stickleback.-A variety of the Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) with four spines on the back, was discovered in a pond in the Meadows by Mr John Stark, in September 1830. The common three-spined stickleback was numerous in the same pond; and, of a number taken in a net at random, about one in ten or twelve proved to be of the fourspined variety. This variety (or perhaps species), does not appear to have been previously noticed. It is somewhat smaller than the common three-spined stickleback when full grown, the specimens procured not exceeding one-fourth of an inch in length. The arrangement of the spines is also different, being placed in twos at regular distances, corresponding to the length of the spines. The two anterior spines are much longer than the other two, the second longest.-Stark.

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20. Himala Ornithology.We learn, in regard to the ornitho