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LOSOPHICAL JOURNAL.

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THE
“EDINBURGH NEW.
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL,

EXHIBITING A VIEW OF THE

PROGRESSIVE DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS

IN THE

SCIENCES AND THE A

CONDUCTED BY NG

ROBERT JAMESON,

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY, LECTURER ON MINERALOGY, AND KEEPER OF
THE MUSEUM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH;

Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh ; Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy ; of the
Royal Society of Sciences of Denmark ; of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin ; of the Royal Academy of
Naples ; of the Geological Society of France; Honorary Member of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta; Fellow of
the Royal Linnean, and of the Geological Societies of London ; of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, and
of the Cambridge Philosephiecal Society ; of the Antiquarian, Wernerian Natural History, Royal Medical, Roya)
Physieal, and Horticultural Societies of Edinburgh ; of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland ; of
the Antiquarian and Literary Society of Perth; of the Statistical Society of Glasgow ; of the Royal Dublin
Society ; of the York, Bristol, Cambrian, Whitby, Northern, and Cork Institutions ; of the Natural History So-
ciety of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle ; of the Imperial Pharmaceutical Society of Petersburgh ; ¢f
the Natural History Society of Wetterau ; of the Mineralogical Society of Jena ; of the Royal Mineralogical So-
ciety of Dresden ; of the Natural History Society of Paris ; of the Philomathic Society of Paris ; of the Natura]
History Society of Calvados ; of the Senkenberg Society of Natural History 3 of the Society of Natural Sciences
and Medicine of Heidelberg ; Honorary Member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York ; of
the New York Historical Society ; of the American Antiquarian Society ; of the Academy of Natural] Sciences of
Philadelphia ; of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York ; of the Natural History Society of Montreal ; of
the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanical Arts ; of the Geological
Suciety of Pennsylvania ; of the Boston Society of Natural History of the United States ; of the South African
Institution of the Cape of Good Hope ; Honorary Member of the Statistical Society of France ; Member of the
Entomological Society of Stettin, &c. &c. &e.

OCTOBER 1853..... APRIL 1854.

VOL. LVI.
TO BE CONTINUED QUARTERLY.

EDINBURGH :

‘ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK.
LONGMAN BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS, LONDON.

“1854,

EDINBURGT
PR NTED LY NEILT AND COMPANY, OLD FISHMARKET.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Art. I. On the Paleohydrography and Orography of the

| Earth’s Surface, or the probable position of Waters
and Continents, as well as the probable Depths of
Seas, and the absolute Heights of the Continents
and their Mountain-Chains during the different geo-
logical periods, By M. Amz Bove’. Communi-
cated by the Author. (Gontinned from vol. lv. p.-
316.) : 3% . ° . I

II. On the recent Progress of Ethnology. By Ricwarp
Cutt, Esq., Honorary Secretary to the Ethnologi-
cal Society, and Corresponding Member of the

_ Historical Institute of France, : siete

~ III. On Cohesion of. Fluids, Evaporation, and Steam-
Boiler Explosions. By Lieut. E. B. Hunt, Corps
of Engineers, U.S.A. Communicated by the
Author, : : 2 : vty ae

IV. Researches in Embryology; a Note supplementary
to Papers published in the Philosophical Transac-
tions for 1838, 1839, and 1840, shewing the Con-
firmation of the Principal Facts there recorded,
and pointing out a Correspondence between certain
Structures connected with the Mammiferous Ovum
and other Ova. By Martin Barry, M.D.,
F.R.S., F.R.S.E. -Communicated by the Author, 36

il CONTENTS.
PAGE
Art. V. Notes on the Life of the celebrated Dominique-Fran-
cois-Jean Arago, Perpetual Secretary of the Aca-
demy of Sciences, Member of the Board of Longi-
tude, and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour,
&e., &e., : oer. : re * |

VI. The Funeral Speech of M. Frovurens at the Grave
_ of M. Arago on the day of his Funeral, which took
place on the 5th October 1853, ~ ease

VII. On the Introduction of the Magnificent Forest Tree,
the Deodar, from India into England, . et
Cultivation of the Deodar in England, i : 70

VIII. Remarks on Mollusca and Shells. By Dr Avcus-

Tus: GOULD, . ‘ a ; . 44
1. Zoological Regions, . ° é ‘ 74
2. Identity of Species, . : : . ‘ 74
8. Local Aspects of Species, and Characteristic Form of

Regions, é d ‘ : 76
4, Analogous Species in co-ordinate Regions, ° i

IX. Report of the Maritime Conference held at Brussels
for devising a Uniform System of Meteorological
Observations at Sea, . ; nf > 61

~X. An Essay on the China-stone and China-clays of
Cornwall, with a description of some Mechanical
Improvements in the mode of Preparation of the
latter. By Mr H. M. Sroxer, of St Austell,
Cornwall, : ) : ; te

XI, Qn the Analysis of Euclase. By J. W. Mauzr,
Esq., Ph. D., 4st ; “ie . 103

CONTENTS.

ili

PAGE

Mar. aes On the Anatomy and Physiology of Cordylophora ;

XIE.

XIV.

> KV.

XVL

XVII...

XX.

- -XXI,

a contribution to our knowledge of the Tubularian
Zoophytes. By Gzrorce James Atiman, M.D.,
M.R.1.A., Professor of Botany in the University
of Dublin, &e., |

On the Elasticity of Stone and Crystalline Bodies.

_ By E. Hopexinson, Esq.,

The Classification and Nomenclature of the Palzo-
zoic Rocks of Great Britain. By Professor
SEDGWICK,

On. the Surface Temperature and Great Currents
of the: North Atlantic and Northern Oceans. By

the Rev. Dr ScoreEssy,

On the influence of Climate on Plants and Animals.
By Dr Emmons of New York,

On the Origin of Crystalline Limestones. By Pro-
aa A. sea : : ;

. Biographical Sketch of Mr fe Hugh Edwin Strickland,

. Notice of an Attempt to Naturalize the Craw-Fish

(Astacus fiuviatilis) in the South of Scotland.
Communicated by Dr FLemine,

On the apparent Visibility of Stars through the
Moon immediately before their Occultation. By

; eke Epmonps Jun., Esq. Communicated by the

Author,

On the. Paragenetic Relations:of Minerals,

106
108
110
114

118

127

131

136

iv CONTENTS.

PAGE

XXII. The Ocean—its Currents, Tides, Depth, and the
Outlines of its Bottom, ‘ : . 162

XXIII. On some Points in the Physical Geography of Nor-
way, chiefly connected with its Snow-Fields and

Glaciers. : : : : . 169

XXIV. Ordnance Survey of Scotland, . F 7210

XXV. Screntiric INTELLIGENCE :— . / re. 7G:
MINERALOGY.

1. On the Formation of Crystallized Minerals.
By AuG. FREVERMANN. 2. Artificial Pro-
duction of Diamond Powder, : 176-178

GEOLOGY.
3. Use of Salt among the Natives in Namaqua
Land, South Africa, . ‘ ° » ¥<+ 178

METEOROLOGY,

4. Some observations desirable to be made with
reference to the Glaciers of Norway. By
Professor JAMES 'orRBES, 65. Theory of the
Pile and the Aurora Borealis. 6.“ Piroréco”
or Bore that occurs in the Guama River at
Spring Tides. 7. Mirage of South Africa. 8.
Majestic Cloud seen from the Jungfrau, 179-182

HYDROGRAPHY.

9. A new method for taking Deep-sea Sound-

inge, . “ : P ; . 183
ZOOLOGY.

11. Report of Committee appointed at meet-
ing of the American Philosophical Society on
30th of February last, to examine and report .
upon a collection of fine wools, presented by
the King of Saxony to Peter A. Browne,
Esq., . . ; : : e/ « [QG=167

BOTANY.

15. Microscopical Description of the Proto-
coccus nivalis from the Arctic Regions, by
M. Justice. 16. Dr Kane on Specimens of
Vegetable Matter found by him on the Ice
Plains of the Polar Seas, . ; 187-188

MISCELLANEOUS.
17. Important Scientific Invention, . . Ao ee

CONTENTS.

Art. I. On an Isothermal Oceanic Chart, illustrating the
Geographical Distribution of Marine Animals.
With an illustrative Map. By James D. Dana,
Esq.,

II. On the Temperature of Running Streams during
periods of Frost. By Ricuarp Apis, Esq., Liver-
pool,

- TIT, Onthe Nature and Origin of different kinds of Dry
Fogs. By M. C. Martins,

IV. Synopsis of Meteorological Observations made at the
Observatory, Whitehaven, Cumberland, in the year
18538. By Joun FrercHer Mitter, Esq., Ph.D.,
F.R.S., F.R,A.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E., &ce. Com-
municated by the Author,

VY. The Great Auk still found in Iceland,

PAGE

189

224

229

249

260

ii

CONTENTS.

Art. VI. On the Food of Man under different conditions of

Age and Employment. By Dr Lyon Prayrair,
C.B., F.R.S., ;

VII. Description of Two Caves in the North Island of New

Zealand, in which there are Bones of the large extinct
wingless birds, called by the Natives the Moa, and
by Naturalists the Dinornis ; with some general Ob-
servations on this Genus of Birds. By Artuur
S. Tuomson, M.D., Surgeon of the 58th Regiment,

VIII. Norway and its Glaciers visited in 1851 ; followed by

Journals of Excursions in the High Alps of Dau-
phine, Berne, and Savoy. By James D. Forses,
D.C.L., F.R.S., Sec. R.S. Ed., Corresponding
Member of the Institute of France, and of other
Academies ; and Professor of Natural Philosophy
in the University of Edinburgh. (Continued from
page 169,)

IX, Notice of the “ Silurian System of Central Bohemia,

by Joacuim BarranveE.” Communicated by JAMES
Nicox, F.R.S., Regius Professor of Natural His-
tory, University of Aberdeen, .

X. On Vesicles in the Abdominal Cavity and Uterus,

containing a Mulberry-like Body rotating on its Axis,
and on the Expulsion of the Ovisac from the Ovary.
By Martin Barry, M.D., F.R.S., F.R.S.E. Com-
municated by the Author,

XI. The Physical Geography of Hindostan. By Dr

Grorce Buist, Bombay,

XII. On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals,

PAGE

262

268

296

310

319

328

353

CONTENTS.

Art, XIII. On the Fossil Plants found in Amber. By Pro-

fessor GOEP PERT, : ; ; :

XIV. Screntiric INTELLIGENCE:— .

METEOROLOGY,

1. Climate of Finmarken. 2. Proposed Meteor-
ological Survey, .

HY DROGRAPHY.

3. Amount of pressure borne by Animal Life
in profound depths. 4. Sea Pressure. 5.
The colour of the Ocean. 6, Admiral Smyth
on the Temperature of the Ocean. 7. Cap-
tain Allen’s proposal of converting the Dead
Sea into a north-eastern extension of the
Mediterranean. 8. Arctic Glaciers. 9. Al-
pine, Norwegian, Himalayan, Snowdon, Cam-
brian, and Highland Glaciers. 10. Dove on

ili

PAGE

365

369

Oceanic Currents, ‘ ; ‘ 369—373

MINERALOGY.

11. On the supposed new metal Aridium. 12.
Density of Selenium. 13. Dolomite. 14.
Crystallized Furnace Products. 15. Purifi-
cation of Graphite for Lead Pencils. 16.

Arctic Minerals, . ; 5 : Siae10

GEOLOGY.

17. The Lower Silurian Rocks of the United
States. 18. Nature of the Coral-Reefs be-
tween the coasts of Florida and Mexico. 19.
Geological conclusions in regard to the Rus-
sian Interior Seas. 20. On the probable depth
of the ocean of the European Chalk Deposits.
21. Professor Rogers’ objections to Professor
Forbes’ deep-sea genera. 22. Mr Ayres’
objections to Professor Forbes’ deep-sea
genera. 23. Artificial Silicification of Lime-
stone. 24. How to render Sandstone and other
porous materials impervious to Water. 25,
Employment of Quick Lime in High Fur-
naces, instead of Limestone, by C. Montefior

iv CONTENTS.

PAGE
; Levi, and Dr Emil Schmidt. 26. Professor
Rogers on Earthquake Movements, and the
thickness of the Earth’s Crust. 27. Colora-
tion, ; : : é : 375-379
ZOOLOGY.
28. Observations on the Habits of certain
Craw-fishes. 29. Arctic Whale Fisheries.
30. Cod-Fishing of the Lofodens 379-380

BOTANY.

31, Is the Flora of the Globe a distinct and in-
dependent one? 32. Physiognomy of Vege-
tation in different quarters of the Globe, 33.
The Plants, considered as Characteristic of
Nations, 34. The Statistics of Vegetation
over the Globe. 35. Geographical Distribu-

tion of Plants, ; = g 380-383

GEOGRAPHY.
36. Dr Barth’s Discoveries in Africa,. : 383

MISCELLANEOUS.
37. Industrial Education. 38. The Earl of Rosse,
K.P.M.A., on Education, ; : : 884

THE
EDINBURGH NEW
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL.

On the Paleohydrography and Orography of the Earth’s
Surface, or the probable position of Waters and Continents,
as well as the probable Depths of Seas, and the absolute

Heights of the Continents and their Mountain-Chains du-
ving the diferent geological periods. By M. Ami Bourn’.
Communicated by the Author.

(Continued from vol. ly., page 316.)

But we give the means to determine approximatively this
value by another way, so that it is possible to control this geo-
- gnostic bathographic mode of determination by the more geo-
detic one. Another control is given us by the estimation made
_ by Humboldt for the maximum of the medium of continental
heights, and the height of the point of gravity in the volume
of all continents above the present level of the sea. He was
led to this by the evident errors of Laplace, who estimated
4000 feet the middle elevation of continents. Humboldt
found 157°8 toises, or 307 metres, or 942 feet, for this value,
but he left out of consideration and calculation the whole of
Africa, where there exist immense plains, as well as very
_ extensive plateaux, and even in the south-east very high and
extensive chains. Nor could he have had, during the time of
his calculation, an exact idea of the greatness and altitude of
the lofty plateaux and plains of North America; and he
must have overlooked also all what is called the polar
countries or islands, where high chains are not uncommon,
especially at the Austral pole. For that reason A. K. John-
ston differs already a little from Humboldt; for he admits
VOL, LVI. NO. CXI.—JANUARY 1854. A

2 M. Ami Boue on the Paleohydrography

in Europe, instead of the 105 toises of Humboldt, 671 feet;
for North America, instead of 117 toises, 748 feet; for Asia,
instead of 180 toises, 1152 feet; for South America, instead
of 177 toises, 1151 feet. We arrive in this way at the
probability that Humboldt and Johnston’s estimations are
still too high; but as in our way of reasoning, we must
also take into consideration all the parts of the earth’s crust
which form submarine protuberances, and add this value to
the one admitted in continental parts above the sea level ; in
this way we must arrive evidently at a higher estimation of
middle height or thickness, and this will not be far from
1500 to. 2000 feet in height for the last wrinkled pellicle of
our globe under and above the sea level, which we thought to be
able to establish for our whole water-covering of the oceans:

On the other side, the values of the elevations and sub-
sidences, or high and low parts of the earth’s surface, being
equal, an estimation of the maximum for the middle height
of continents gives us the means to calculate the whole
quantity of sea water through the mutual surface contents
of land and water. The mutual relations of these is said
to be about 1:3 or 24, but according to Lyell, itis 1:4, 1:3.
He admits for the whole earth’s surface 148,522,000 square
miles, with 37,673,000 square miles dry land, and 110,849,000 |
square miles of water (Principles, 1835, vol. i., p. 216). In
following Laplace’s old error of giving to the middle depth
of the seas 2 miles or 4 leagues (Mem. Acad. de Se. Paris,
1776), we arrive at a quantity of water of 55,091,600 cubic
leagues, or even for all waters on the earth’s surface 110,183,200
cubic leagues of Breislak (Institut. Geol., 1818, vol. i., p. 48).
If Kant fixed the middle depth of seas to half a geographical
mile, and Keil to a quarter of a mile, old De la Metherie was
still more near the truth in admitting only 1200 to 1500 feet
for this value ; and by that way he was able to calculate the
quantity of the sea water to 1,530,320 cubic leagues. He
added also that if the whole earth’s surface were flat and covered
entirely with water, the depth of it would be only 700 feet,
according to the admission of the mentioned value of the
quantity (Theorie de la Terre, 1795, vol. ii., p. 347).

De la Metherie’s estimation of the quantity of water must

_ and Orography of the Earth’s Surface. 3:

be too great, if other calculations conduct Rozet to believe
that this value is 1000 times smaller than the volume of the
compact parts of the globe (Traite de Geologie, 1835, p. 15)..
The volume of the whole spheroid would be, according to
Breislak, 1,230,320,000 cubic leagues ; according to Daubuis-
son, 1,079,235,800 cubic myriameters (Traite de Geognosie,
1819, vol. i., p. 25) ; and according to Reviere, 1,082,634,000.
K. M. Beudant allows the quantity of the water on the
globe under two millions of cubic myriameters.

When we have once the true value of the sea water and its
basin, we can logically conclude from
this the value of the dry land. But
here is the place to remark that the
highest chains are placed always
only upon the greatest protuberances or vaults of the earth’s
surface, which is quite natural; but together give an indica-
tion of the maxima and minima values of the elevations upon
the whole globe, as well as in each country. In other words,
if we find heights from 24,000 to 27,000 feet in South America
and the Himalaya, or similar cavities in the Austral seas, we
must not believe that there exist in the earth such a force of
elevation or subsidence; but that only the last elevations
have taken place upon a soil already elevated upon a vault
of the earth, and that in the same way the subsidence has

_happened on parts already subsided. It is yet possible that
a chain may be wholly upheaven in later times; but our
Alps in Europe shew us that we can hardly admit of a
single elevation of 8000 feet at once, for all the summits

and pinnacles which reach above 10,000 feet did gain this.
height only by the inclination of their composing beds. On
the other hand, a yet unknown physical law has established.
an intimate relation between the value of the greatest eleva-:
tions or upheavings, or highest mountains of each continent
and their relative individual extent. A kind of scale of this
description is furnished by the Himalaya, the Chimborazo,
and Mont Blane, three continents of unequal greatness.

The same relation is to be observed among the cavities of.
the earth, for the greatest sea depths are in the Austral seas,’

where the extent of dry land is to that of water as 1:16.

ie A 2

en

4 M. Ami Boue on the Paleohydrography

The same may be said of the southern part of the Pacific,
which is as large as all the continents together. On tke
contrary, in the Northern Ocean to the 30th lat. north, the
sea has only a relative smaller depth, and the dry land fills
up there nearly as much space as the water.

We may observe, probably, that the volcanic action may
modify our conclusions. We find, for instance, in Mont
Blane only metamorphic rocks, and in the Himalaya, second- |
ary slates, and the highest pinnacles of the Andes nothing
else than volcanic cones, so that we can only compare the
height of the old vaults upon which these volcanic matters
were united. zi

Voleanic action is still an agent very little known, and its
force of elevation has not yet been determined. When we see
on certain large volcanic islands, heights like those of Mont
Blane, for instance in Sicily, at Teneriffe, &e., and even still
higher peaks in other volcanoes, those immense accumulations
of igneous matters do not decide the question, if the volcanic
force has been able to elevate a Chimborazo at the height of
24,000 feet from the mentioned normal sea-depth of 1500
to 2000 feet. According to all our observations, it must, on
the contrary, be admitted, that the volcanic islands give us
the limits of the voleanic force of elevation, and that in other
places the height of the base of the volcanoes enables us to
judge of their extraordinary altitude. In that way we see
the lava flowing constantly from the crater of the Kirauea
volcano upon the isle of Hawaii, which is only 3800 feet in
height. We see volcanoes like Etna ejecting periodically
stones to a height of 6000 feet, but the lava flows only
through rents in the sides of the cones far below the high
summits. In the Andes, whose trachytic domes predomi-
nate, the eruptions are also below, and the ashes and smoke
go out above. ‘This position of the volcanoes of South
America upon the earth’s vaults, may possibly explain how —
the voleanic phenomena and earthquakes in those countries —
are much stronger than elsewhere, because the action takes
place under a covering filled with more rents, and more easy
to be moved, being already bent to a vault. Generally,
the higher the volcano, it is the more easily moyed; on the —

and Orography of the Earth's Surface, 5

contrary, the lower, even when ecakvine: the motions are,
the more difficult, and its effects more local. For in this
resides. probably partly the difference between the present
and the former activity of volcanoes. These have lost very
little or nothing of their former exciting cause, but only the
secondary circumstances of their possible expansion by this
foree have been modified by time.

Let us continue our approximative estimation of the Heights
of Chains in the primitive periods, according to the mentioned
depths of the various seas at different times; the highest
hills in the Primary period would be between 1500 to.2000
feet, in the Zechstein period already 3000 to 4000 feet, in the
Trias time 4000 to 5000 feet, in the Jura period 5000 to 6000
feet, in the Chalk time 6000 to 11,000 feet, in the Tertiary
period 8000 to 20,000 feet, and in the Actual, 10,000 to
26,000 feet. The middle value of these highest pinnacles
would be for the period of the Trias and Jura about 4000 feet,
in the Chalk period 8000 feet, in the Tertiary period 10,000
feet, and now it would be 12,000 feet.

» The mountains next in height would have increased in
ein from the oldest times till now, as well as the inclined
planes under the sea level. The greatest height of those
chains may have attained in the Trias already 3000 feet, in
the Jurassic period about 4000 to 5000 feet, in the Chalk
period | 6000 to 8000 feet, in the Tertiary time about 4000 to
10,000, feet, and now they measured 6000 to 12,000 feet.
Their middle yalue would give only 2000 feet in height for
the Trias period, 3000 for the Jurassic, 7000 for the Chalk, and
8000 for the Tertiary one.

The greatest height of the hilly countries may have been
in ‘the Primary period 1000 feet, in the Zechstein 1500 feet,
in the Trias 1600 to 1800 feet, in the Jurassic 2000 feet, in the
Chalk 2500 feet, and in the Tertiary at least 3000 feet. Their
_ middle height which varies now between 1500 and 3000 would
_haye attained in the primary times only 600 feet, in the
-Zechstein period 1000 feet, inthe Trias 1500, in the Jurassic
1000 feet, in the Chalk 2000 feet, in the Tertiary time 2500
“feet, , and in the Alluvial 3000 feet.

1

6 M. Ami Boué on the Paleohydrography

On the Middle Height of the lowest parts of the Continents,
according to Humboldt and Johnston.

We can limit the estimations for each continent and can
draw the conclusion how small that height must have been in
the Primitive period. In Europe the middle height gives now
only the middle value of 300 feet. As the middle value of |
the highest chains of the mountains of middle heights of the
hilly land in the Alluvial period, is to that in the Primary
time about 4 or 5:1 in the Zechstein, about 3: 1 in the Trias,
2:1inthe Jura, as 2, 2:3 in the Chalk, as 2, 3:3, and in the
Tertiary as 2, 5:3, we obtain by using these researches in
the middle height of the lowest parts of the continents in the
different Primary periods 60 to 80 feet, in the Zechstein
period 100 feet, in the Trias 150 feet, in the Jura 180 feet, in
the Chalk about 200 feet, and in the Tertiary 250 feet. These
values are naturally contrary to those of the cavities of the
parts of the sea bottoms which were the nearest to the shores
during the different geological periods.

- With the aid of such philosophical collections of heights
as Strantz gave us, (Berghaus’ Annal., 1830, vol. ii. ; 1832,
vol. vi. ; 1835, vol. vii.; 1836, vol. xiii. ; 1839, vol. xix. ; 1841,
vol. xxili.), one might with some difficulty establish by ap-
proximations similar values for the breadth of the chains,
the height of the plateaux and cols, the breadth of valleys,
the length of the course of rivers, &c., during the different
geological periods. I may only mention one of these, viz.,
the angle of inclination of the low lands and of the lands of
the middle heights for which Strantz adopts for the first 5°
to 10°, and the latter 10° to 20°. These values have in-
creased always from the older times till now, a fact which
shews the necessity to admit in the Primary times not only
a much flatter land than now, but quite flat shores. Quite
the contrary must have taken place in the chains, because
the higher were not protected as now by so many mountains
of secondary height; so that the angle of inclination of these
last is much smaller than formerly. Generally this value
rises with the smallness of the hill and diminishes with its
greatness. But this value of the inclination of the plane

and Orography of the Earth's Surface. 7

must have diminished in the hills from the beginning till now,
a fact which, on the other hand, conducts us to acknowledge
that the current of water, their destructions and alluvium,
must have been much greater the more we look back to these
primitive times. Probably about the chalk period the beds
of rivers may have become long enough to equalize the re-

Sults of the greater angle of inclination with those of the
shorter beds of these.

Let us try, lastly, to determine geognostically the chief
places of the continents in the various geological Henigdeg u in
going back from the present time to the oldest. in

As the subsidences increase always in a certain arithmetical
sitidadGision to the newer, and the elevations follow the same

scale, it is clear that the present world must have possessed
much more dry land at the beginning of things.

' In the alluvial time great countries have disappéared to
the NNW. and west of Europe; this we may suspect by the
position of the greater parts of the low land,—by the chief sub-
sidences in Europe and Africa,—by the destruction of part of
the Tertiary beds and basins,—by many islands and many
shallows of certain seas, as between Norway and Spitzbergen,
in the German Sea, in the Gulf of Bevin, &c. But according
to our observations they may have existed already in the old
alluvial time (Proceed. Vienna Acad., January 1852). The

myth of the lost Atlantis may well be a true tradition.

In North and South America similar relations indicate for
the same period of time subsidences in the north-east direc-
tion for North America, and in south-east and south-west for
South America. In the mean time was found in the Pacific, the
great equatorial cavity in Southern Asia, especially that
amongst the Indian Archipelago and east of Africa,—a subsi-

dence in the south-east direction.

In the tertiary period numerous basins indicate many great
seas which did cover the lowest parts of the earth’s surface, as
Thaye detailed it already in the Proceedings of the Vienna
Acad. for 1850, pp. 96-102 ; and also less completely elsc-
where. As these parts form the largest portions of the earth’s
_ Surface, this relation alone convinces us that much dry land
_ disappeared in later date under the sea. In the same

8 M. Ami Boué on the Palwohydrography

geognostical way I have shewn the place that the sea has
occupied in older periods. During the Alluvial time a good
deal of land formed by Tertiary beds, Chalk, Jura beds, and
even by Primary fossiliferous and crystalline rocks, subsided
in the Atlantic, and in the Pacific the countries that disap-
peared may have belonged to the tertiary, primary, and crys-
talline rocks. To the south-east of Africa, fragments of
land have subsided, belonging to all the four classes of for-
mations.

_ In the middle and older secondary periods, it would seem
that the countries lying on equatorial lines in the Pacific did
replace the Australian countries, which had again subsided,
as well as part of the dry land of both peninsulas in Hindu-
stan. The secondary formations do not appear in these latter
countries, because they could not be formed there. Accord-
ing to similar considerations, it may appear probable that a
part at least of Eastern America and a part of Western
Africa were again put under water by subsidences. It is
possible that the rent of the Red Sea took its origin in that
time, for it is surrounded by much chalk and tertiary rocks.
Later, at the end of the Jura time, on the contrary, these
countries must have been thrown up, and the motion must
have lasted till the Alluvial time. This we prove by the
chalk mountains, and the now dry tertiary basins.

In the Primary period were islands in all seas, especially
distributed in an equatorial direction, because this position
coincides most with the density of the centrifugal force,
which had not then attained its present limits in the process
of rotation.

Before we conclude, we may observe that later observa-
tions will certainly complete this essay. ‘Through the pro-
gress of paleontology, and natural history, zoologists and
botanists have been able not only to restore and delineate to
us the old fauna and flora, but they have also deciphered the
philosophical plan of the origin and development of organic
nature. In the same way, geology and physical geography
will illustrate the once palezeohydrography and orography, and
follow nearly all the changes in the paleoplastics of the
earth. Weshall obtain then, as complement of our actual

.- and Orography of the Earth’s Surface. 9

geological maps, others for each period of time ; and in the
last will be indicated- not only the place of the various for-
mations, but also the values of the various elevations and
subsidences. These values will consist in the indications of
the height, extent, and breadth, of the chains, of the angle of
inclination of those as well as of the beds of rivers, the depth
of the seas, the temperature of the different periods, the mag-
netic phenomena during these periods, and, last, the general
geography of the different fossil flora and fauna.

A beginning is made in this way with the Paleohydro-
graphy and Orography, but the paleophysics are hardly
Studied, and even less the paleochemistry. We have got
very few notions on paleometeorology and paleotemperature
or thermics, as for instance in the changes in the isothermal
lines in the geological times (Bul. Soc. Geol., 1848, vol. v.
p. 276). The paleomagnetism, connected intimately with
temperature changes, will also give rise to most interesting
discoveries, and even to magnetical maps in the various
geological periods. Upon paleohydrology, I may soon treat,
and upon paleopotanography I have selected a few facts
already (Mem. of the Vienna Acad., 1851, vol. iii. p. 89). In
a later paper I have shewn, by the various degrees of heat
in the thermal waters, where many different vegetables and
animals of higher and lower classes. may have lived, and
that the temperature of the sea, at the beginning, could not
have been so great as philosophers thought. The maximum
of that temperature could have varied only between 70° and
80° C.; but in the general one I found only about 30° or 40°,
like Sir H. de la Beche (Bul. Soc. Geol. for 1852, vol. ix.)
The last knowledge mankind will acquire is that of Paleo-
astronomy ; but a proper knowledge of this branch will require
many centuries of time.

10 Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology.

On the recent Progress of Ethnology. By RicHARD CULL,
Esq:, Honorary Secretary to the Ethnological Society, and
Corresponding Member of the Historical Institute of
France.*

Two works by Dr Latham, one of our fellows, have been
published during the year—“ The Ethnology of Europe,” and
“The Ethnology of the British Isles”? These are valuable
additions to our literature, and bear the characteristics of
Dr Latham’s vigorous mind. Much of the matter is neces-
sarily familiar to us as admitted science; and not a little
containing his own views has already appeared in his former
publications. Dr Latham is doing good service to our science
by casting doubt and uncertainty on much of that which is
believed to be true, but of which the evidence is unsatisfac-
tory. Thus, in a former work, he drew attention to the
limited data on which Blumenbach erected and eulogized his
Caucasian race; he now draws attention to the Saxons, and
displays with ability his view of the place which they occupy
in English history. And this view is not very flattering to
the vanity of those who boast of Anglo-Saxon origin.

One of the great questions of European Ethnology, the
origin of the Etruscans, has been again discussed during the
past year. This subject has occupied the attention of some
of the profoundest scholars of our times, but unfortunately
with results much disproportioned to the labour which has
been expended. It is a question that only scholars can dis-
- cuss, for the investigation is historical, philological, and criti-
cal, on materials collected both in ancient and modern days.
Dr Donaldson has, with praiseworthy industry, in Varronia-
nus, second edition, along with treatises on the Dialects of
ancient Italy, given in fuller detail than in his paper read
before the British Association, the evidences and data of his
views on the language and consequent origin of the Etruscans.

The population of ancient Italy, as Dr Prichard (Physical
Hist., vol. ili., p. 203), has shewn, may be conveniently thrown
into three great groups, viz. :—

* From a copy communicated by the Author,

Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 11

1. The Umbrians, who may be deemed to be the earliest
known inhabitants of North Italy, ¢.¢., of nearly all Italy
lying between the Alps and the Tiber.

2. The Etruscans, who at a remote period dispossessed the
Umbrians of a great part of their territory: they called
themselves Rhaséna.

_- 3. The population of Italy south of the Tiber consisted
of several nations, termed Siculi, GEnotrians, Aborigines,
Latins, Sabines, Opici or Ausones. |

Dr Donaldson’s view is, that the Etruscan language is in

part a Pelasgian idiom, more or less corrupted by contact
with the Umbrian, and in part a relic of the oldest Low
German or Scandinavian.
- Scholars in general deem the Etruscan to be a composite
language. Dr Lepsius adduced evidence to support his view
that the Etruscans were Tyrrhenians or Pelasgians, who in-
vaded Italy from the north-east, conquered the Umbrians,
and took possession of the western part of the district for-
merly occupied by that people. Dr Donaldson claims to
have discovered a Seandinavian element in the Etruscan lan-
guage. The evidence, however, which is adduced in support
of the existence of such an element is considered by high
philological authorities to be as yet unsatisfactory; and it
appears that our knowledge of the Etruscan language is
nearly where Niebuhr left it, viz. that aifil ril means viwit
annos.

Professor Newman in his Regal Rome, an Introduction
to Roman History, has ably stated the leading characters
of the Ethnography of ancient Italy. Professor Newman
Shewed years ago, Classical Museum, vol. vi., that even
‘Cicero’s Latin abounds with intrusive Keltic elements; and
especially that the Sabine was related to the Gaelic. He

considers (“* Regal Rome,’ p. 18), that the primitive Latin
must have derived its Keltic infusion through the Umbrian.
Miller, as quoted by Prichard, ohserves, that words belong-
ing to the barbaric portion of the Latin language abound in
the Eugubian tables, which are Umbrian. Yet he admits
that the dialect of these tables displays considerable analogies
‘with the Greek. And Grotefend had long ago shewn that

12 Mr Cull-on the recent Progress of Ethnology.

the Umbrian and Latin have an extensive vocabulary in com-
mon, and that they abound in analogous grammatical forms
both in verbs and nouns. Here are difficulties for criticism
to reconcile. But whatever was the medium through which
the Keltic element was introduced into the Latin language,
we shall agree with the Professor that the Keltic is the in-
trusive element, because, in numerous instances, the word
which is common to the two languages is isolated in. the
Latin, while in the Keltic it is one of afamily...The ques-
tion may still be asked, Who are the Umbrians? It is true
that the Umbrian language is cognate with the Latin, but its
precise affinity has yet to be shewn. Dr Latham (Varieties of
Man, p. 554), because Livy says the languages of Etruria
and Rheetia are alike, thinks the Etruscans and Rhetians
are one people; the former at their highest refinement, the
latter at their greatest rudeness; and also considers the
stock to be indigenous to Northern Italy. It appears to me
that we lack evidence, and, unfortunately for their reputa-
tion, scholars are drawing wider conclusions than, are war-
ranted by the facts.

An able paper on the Romanic languages. of the Grisons
and Tyrol was read last session by Dr W. Freund, one of our
Fellows, in consequence of which the Berlin Royal Academy
of Sciences has given him the charge of a commission to pro-
ceed, at the Government expense, to ancient Rhetia, to make
philological and archzeological researches, so, as. to throw a
light, by the collection of new facts, upon the ancient inhabi-
tants of Etruria, the Grisons, the Tyrol, and the south-east
of Upper Italy.

The next contribution to European Ethnology during the
year is an account of the ancient inhabitants of Yorkshire,
in Mr Phillip’s excellent work On the Rivers, Mountains,
and Seacoast of Yorkshire. Mr Phillips reproduces. York-
shire in the time of the Romans, and shews its successive
phases under the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. His synopsis
of its history during that long period is concise and clear.
In an able chapter on the Races of Men in Yorkshire, Mr
Phillips says,—‘* If, without regard to any real or supposed
evidence of their national origin, we attempt to class the

a —_

Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 13

actual population of Yorkshire into natural groups, we shall
find, independent of Irish immigrants, three main types fre-
quently distinct, but as often confused by interchange of
~oheitanaty features.

“1. Tall, large-boned shipaatly sons; visage long, angu-

nee complexion fair, or florid; eyes blue or gray ;, hair light
brown, or reddish: Such persons in alloparts of the country
form a considerable part: of the population... In the North
Riding, from’ the’ eastern ‘coast’ ‘to the western mountains,
they “are plentiful. aeneali families: prevail) very much
‘about Lincoln.
6-2) Person ‘robust; visage oval, full, and rivaled nose
often slightly neputlihe ; complexion somewhat embrowned,
“florid ; eyes brown; or gray; hair brown, or reddish. In the
oW est ‘Riding, especially in the elevated districts, very power-
‘fal men ‘have these characters. |

"© 3? Persons: of lower stature and: smaller nnipaiethesid
“visage short, rounded; complexion embrowned; eyes very
“dark, elongated; hair very dark.» (Such eyes: and, hair: are
commonly called black). Individuals having these characters
“oeeur in the lower grounds: of ‘Yorkshire, asin the valley of
‘the Aire below Leeds, ‘in the vale: of the: Derwent, and the
‘level regions south of York. They are:stillamore frequent in
“Nottinghamshire and ~Leicestershire,: and may. be said to
abound amidst ‘the true Anglians. of Norfolk and: Suffolk.

* The physical characters‘here traced cannot be, as Dr-Prichard
~eonjéctures in a parallel case im Germany,:the effect of some
centuries of residence in towns, for they are spread. like.an

epidemic among the rural and secluded population.as much
“as among the dwellers:in towns. «Unless we suppose such
. ‘varieties of steep to spring upianong the blue-eyed

Lan

beelontste and: tee 16 ‘Bxitons, among net nte as, shcasie
~ stated, the Iberian element was domjéethrally admitted.

“°o Adopting this latter view, there is no difficulty in regard
~ to the other groups. \ They-are of North German and Scan-
* dinavian origin, and the men of Yorkshire inherit the physi-
~eal organization and retain many of the peculiarities of Jan-
* guage of their adventurous sires. In the words employed, in

14 Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology.

the vowel sounds, the elisions, and the construction of sen-
tences, the Yorkshire dialects offer interesting analegies to

the old English of Shakspeare and Chaucer, the Anglo-Saxon
of the Chronicle, and the Norse, as it is preserved to us by
the Icelanders.”

Professor Phillips furnishes us with philological materials
for the study of the East Yorkshire dialect, and says,—
‘ Investigations of this kind (philological) must not be limited
to Yorkshire, for even our dialectic peculiarities spread
southward into Derbyshire, westward into Cumberland, and
northward to the foot of the Grampians. Though several
dialects, or varieties of dialects, exist in Yorkshire, they
appear not so different from each other when heard, as when
looked at in the disguise of arbitrary spelling.” This work
of Professor Phillips must be regarded as a valuable contri-
bution to the Ethnology of England; and it is to be hoped.
that others as well qualified will supply us with the ethnolo-
gical details of their own localities.

Our science is indebted to John Grattan, Esq., of Belfast, for
obtaining certain ancient Irish crania from the round towers
and other places, for carefully preserving them and bringing
them under the notice of the Ethnologists at the Belfast
meeting of the British Association last year. It is not easy
to overrate the importance to our science of the study of
crania, both ancient and modern. Mr Grattan ably classed
his crania in four well-defined chronological groups, viz. :—

1. The Prehistoric,

2. The remote historic,

8. The Anglo-Irish, and
4, The Modern periods.

Mr Grattan modestly said,—‘‘ To attempt to generalize upon
such imperfect data would be rash and presumptuous in the
extreme. Let us hope, however, that, by calling public atten-
tion to the value of such specimens, we may be but laying
the foundation of a collection, which, one day more extended
and in better qualified hands, shall do good service to science,
They however illustrate one fact, which bears importantly
upon the question of races, viz. the tenacity with which dif-

Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 15

ferent types preserve their identity even through periods of
time which embrace no small portion of the history of man-
kind.” It is with great pleasure I inform you that some of
these crania will be figured and described in the large work
on Ancient British Crania which my friend Dr Thurnam is
now preparing for publication.

Africa.—The recent progress of African discovery so’
amply repays the labour bestowed on it, as to satisfy the
desires of the most ardent. Some account, in an agreeable
though desultory form, of the scientific labours of the Prussian
mission to Egypt and Nubia, under Dr Richard Lepsius, has
appeared in an English dress, under the title “ Discoveries in
Egypt, Nubia, and the Peninsula of Sinai, in the years
1842-45, during the mission sent out by His Majesty Fre-
derick William IV. of Prussia. By Dr Richard Lepsius.”

These letters, on their arrival in Europe, appeared in
various journals, chiefly in the Preussiche Staatzeitung, and
thence were copied by other papers. The collected letters,
therefore, although only now published, are not new to us;
and some of the lingual questions connected with Ethnology
were discussed in our society as long as six years ago, The
letters are edited by K. R. H. Mackenzie, Esq., who appears
to be well acquainted with the Ethnology of North-East
Africa.

Much valuable information concerning the tribes in the
interior of Africa around Lake Tsad has been collected by
the enterprising travellers, Drs Barth, Overweg, and Mr
Richardson, which is at present in the Foreign Office, but
which the Foreign Secretary has kindly promised to lay be-
fore our Society.

_ Dr Daniell, a Fellow of our Society, and distinguished by
his Ethnological researches in Africa, safely arrived at
Macartney’s Island, on the Gambia, in November last. He
informs me that he is now in the midst of an unwrought
ethnological field, and which he hopes to turn to good account.
I trust his life will be preserved to pursue those researches
_ for which he is so well qualified, and that he will return to
us in robust health to enjoy the otiwm cum dignitate after

16 Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology.

his long and laborious sojourn in the pestilent marshes of
the west coast of Africa.

The publication of a second edition of the Rev. Samuel
Crowther’s Yoruba Vocabulary, now greatly extended, and
also a grammar of the language by the same, a native author,
supplies us with ample materials for the study of that beau-
tiful language: while the able introduction by the Bishop of
Sierra Leone is a valuable contribution to African philology.

A characteristic of African languages is the euphonic con-
cord, which was first discovered by the Rev. W. Boyce, of
the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and published in his gram-
mar of the Kaffir language; but its principles have been
since more fully laid down by the Rev. John W. Appleyard,
in his more elaborate grammar of that language, in which
its extension to other South-African languages is exhibited.

The Yoruba language, which is not a South-African one,
has its euphonie concords, and that between the verb and
the pronoun is worthy of attention. The pronouns are, 1s¢,
“emi; 2d, “iwo;” 3d, “ on,” in the nominative case ; but
these nominatives have each two other forms, which depend
on the vowel of the verb. And the third personal pronoun
has seven forms dependent on the verb’s vowel, when used
in the objective case. In this. way the pronoun is always
subordinated to the verb. Now, although the existence of
euphonic concord connects as one link the Yoruba with other
African and chiefly South-African languages, yet at present
I confess I do not see the special links which will enable one
to say to what group it naturally belongs. At present, how-
ever, we know but little of African philology. I need
scarcely say in this society that euphonic concords are not
confined to African languages, as every one knows they are
found in the Keltic. |

The Rev. Dr Koelle of the Church Missionary Society, has
lately returned from Sierre Leone with MS. vocabularies of
150 languages, and with MS. grammars in an advanced state
of compilation of the Bornon, and the Vei, the former of
which, he informs me, has some features in common with the

Ugro-Tartarian languages and some with the Semetic, the _

existence of which will modify our views of the Negro lan-

Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. ig

guages. He is now engaged in preparing this valuable con-
tribution to our knowledge of African languages for the press.
Dr Koelle informs me that his vocabularies do not extend to
those languages spoken in the north-east of Africa.

The continued lingual researches of Dr Krapf in the dia-
lects of the east and north-east of Africa; those of Mr
Appleyard in the south of Africa from east to west, with the
researches into the Negro languages of the western coast,
seem to render the lines of demarcation between them less
trenchant, and to indicate certain affinities which may con-
firm the conjecture of Dr Prichard of a close connection be-
tween all the African languages. Much, however, remains
to be done in collecting vocabularies, shewing the areas in
which the languages to which they belong are spoken, and
the compilation of grammars. We must not remain satis-
fied with the indications of affinities ; we ought from positive
knowledge to exhibit the whole of their several relationships.
And we must never forget that lingual evidence, however
strong and perfect, is only one line of evidence: we must
obtain the concurrent testimony of the other lines of Ethno-
logical evidence in order to justify our conclusions.

“ Kaffraria, and its Inhabitants,” by the Rev. Francis Fle-
ming, M.A., Chaplain to the Forces in King William’s Town,
is a small volume, containing a popular but animated descrip-
tion of the country, and so much of its natural history as the
author found necessary to introduce an account of its human
inhabitants. Mr Fleming’s knowledge is gained froma per-
sonal experience of three years’ residence. The large space
devoted to a description of the native tribes and their lan-
guages, displays the author’s ideas of the importance of Eth-
nological knowledge; and the little work is likely to be
useful in exciting a desire for more het all and systematic
knowledge of the South African.

Asia.—Steady progress continues to be made in decipher-
ing the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria. These inscriptions
are the original public records of the empire, and are of infi-
nitely higher value than ordinary ancient MSS., because,
being the originals, they are free from those corruptions

VOL. LVI. NO. CXI.—JANUARY 1854, B

18 Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology.

which creep into all MS. copied texts, either from the inad-
vertence or the wilfulness of the transcribers. The great
question is, Can we correctly read them? Some persons,
who are unacquainted with the philological methods of re- ~
search adopted in this inquiry, or whose philological know-
ledge is insufficient to enable them to appreciate those
methods, have called in question the results of the labours
of our distinguished investigators. But 1 believe that all
who have studied those methods are satisfied that we pos-
sess the philological key to open the immense and invaluable
stores of knowledge which are locked up in those languages.
Mr Layard’s new book, just out, is the last work on ancient
Assyria. In it is a translation from these cuneiform inscrip-
tions abridged, the joint production of Mr Layard and Dr
Hincks, of the annals of King Sennacherib, by which he is
identified with the Sennacherib of Scripture (p. 159).

Colonel Rawlinson wrote a paper last year, containing an
outline of Assyrian history, compiled from the inscriptions of
Nineveh; and also a sketch of the Assyrian Pantheon, de-
rived from the same source. Tous, as Ethnologists, the im-
portant light thrown upon ancient geography, and the con-
nection of the people with their several localities, is of equal
interest to any of the Assyrian discoveries. The chronology
is of great value; and these, together with the synchronisms
of Biblical history, are already clearing away some of the
Ethnographical darkness which yet enshrouds that interest-
ing part of Asia.

Dr Hincks read a paper at the Belfast Meeting, in Sep-
tember last, of the British Association, ‘“‘On the Ethnolo-
gical bearing of the recent discoveries in connection with
the Assyrian Inscriptions,” which claims our attention. He’
considers the Assyrian language to belong to a family akin
to that of the Syro- Arabian languages hitherto known, rather
than to that family itself. Dr Hincks pointed out the fol- —
lowing resemblances, or what the Assyrian had in common
with the Syro-Arabian family.

It has verbal roots, which were normally triliteral, but of ©
which some letters might be mutable or evanescent, whenee
arise different classes of irregular verbs. These roots admit

Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 19

not only the simple conjugation, but others in which radical
letters are doubled, other letters added, or both these modi-
fications made at once. From these roots verbal nouns are
formed, either by a simple change of the vowels, or by the
addition of letters, such as are called, in Hebrew, Hee-
mantic. gai:

The Assyrian agrees with the Arabic more closely than
with any other of the Syro-Arabian family in these respecis :

Ist, In forming the conjugations, consonants are inserted
among the radical letters, as well as prefixed to them. This
takes place regularly in Arabic, but in Hebrew only when
the first radical is a sibilant.

2d, The termination of the aorist varies as in Arabic,
different verbs taking different vowels between the second
and third radicals, while the first radical sometimes termi-
nates the verbs, and sometimes takes after it a or uw; and,

3d, The forms of the plural vary, and the cases of nouns
differ in a manner which resembles, in some measure, what
takes place in Arabic.

The Assyrian language differs from all the Syro- Arabian
languages yet known in the following respects :—

Ist, Where they have h it has s in a variety of instances,
and especially in the pronouns and prenominal affixes of the
third person—Suw, si, sunu, sina; sa, sa, si, sun, and sin—
most of which resemble forms in other languages, if only
h be substituted for s. The same difference occurs in the
characteristic of the causative conjugation. In these re-
spects, but not by any means generally, the Assyrian agrees
with the Egyptian, and, through it, with the modern Berber.
_ 2d, The Assyrian has no prefixes, such as b for zn, J for to,
which occur in all the Syro-Arabian languages. In place of
these it has separate prepositions: and to evoid the awkward-
ness of joining these to the prenominal affixes, and perhaps
for greater clearness, nouns are inserted, forming compound
prepositions, as ina kirbisu, “in its midst,” for “in it.” Com-
pound prepositions may be used, also, before other nouns, as
ina kirib biti. Sometimes the Assyrian uses affixes as sub-
stitutes for prepositions. Instead of ana, “to” or “ for,”
before a noun, ish may be added. Thus, for “a ae is

B

20 Mr Cull ow the vecent Progress of Ethnology

expressed indifferently by ana. shallati and. shallatish. .

This last. form has much of the nature of an adverb, and has
Some resemblance to the Hebrew noun with the locative. In
place of ish, the pronoun, generally ma, is adopted as a sub-
stitute for ana, Thus su-ma is ‘to him,” and answers. to
le-ho, from which Jo is contracted ; the Hebrew prefixing the
representative of “ to,’ while the Assyrian postfixes it...

3d, The Syro-Arabian languages make frequent use of a
preterite, in which the distinctions of number and. person are
confined to the end of the root; but the Assyrian rejects it,
or at least uses it in an exceedingly sparing manner, On
this account Dr Hincks proposes to consider the Benoni par-
ticiple, masculine, singular, in regimen as the root.

4th, The varieties in the termination of the future are not
connected with any particles that may precede them, but of
themselves indicate different tenses.. The termination in u
is certainly a pluperfect. Thus, where mention is made of
“that Marduk Baladan, whom I had defeated in my former
campaign,” the verb is askunu: but whenever ‘I defeated”
occurs in the simple narrative, askun or askana, or, in a dif-
ferent conjugation, astakan is used. This law has been fully
established. The addition of a seems not to change the
sense ; it is added to every verb when what it governs fol-
lows it, and to some verbs even where it precedes it. These
are chiefly such as denote locomotion.

The resemblance of the most common Assyrian preposi-
tions, and that of the pronouns, also, to the Indo-European
form is curious, and points to a common though remete
origin. t

The Babylonian inscriptions are in the same language as

_the Assyrian. This was probably the court language at’
Babylon; but the common people most probably used the
Chaldean language, in which some parts of the Books of Ezra
and Daniel are written. |

Mr Hodgson is still contributing towards our knowledge
of the monosyllabic languages in Trans-Gangetic India, and
the results of his inquiries are recorded in the Z'’ransactions
of the Bengal Asiatic Society. The present war in Burmah
will, I trust, open up that and the surrounding countries for

Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 21

Ethnological inquiry ; and should the dynastic struggle which
is now going on in China be finally settled by British arms
or diplomacy, we may hope for the opportunity of studying
more perfectly the Ethnology of that vast empire. Trans-
Gangetic India and the Chinese empire may be considered as
one extensive Ethnological area, the languages of which are
monosyllabic and the religion Buddhism.

“Mr Oldham, Geologist to the Indian Survey, has been
studying the hill-tribes north of Sylhet; and a valuable com-
munication was read to our Society on the subject on the first
night of the session. "We may expect further knowledge of
these various tribes from him, as he has gone to that locality
a second time with specific objects of inquiry. He says: “I
am satisfied the language is monosyllabic: and I think the

“Garo tribe is more nearly allied to the Kassias, Kukis, Ka-
chari, and Munipari, than with the Bodo or Dhimal.” He
is now studying the mutual relationship of these hill-tribes.

, Mr Logan, another of our Fellows, continues his scientific
researches in the Indian Archipelago. He and his band of
contributors record the result of their investigations in the
Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia. ‘Re-

3 siding in that distant part of the world, they devote their
energies to the study of its nature. Mr Logan’s contribu-

tions to its Ethnology are of the highest character. His
papers on the languages of the Indo- Pacific islands place him

‘in the foremest rank of ethnological philologists, and give us
more precise ideas of the Ro ath hala which led to Si tis

those islands.

Mr Logan is animated by an Sadana desire of knowledge,

with an untiri ing zeal in its pursuit, and aims at the high ob-
ject of exhausting his subject. In a letter which I lately re-
ceived from. him, speaking of the Polynesian languages, he

“says: “I think you will find that I have pretty well exhaust-

ed our present linguistic data in my forthcoming chapters,
and thrown new light on the Polynesians, but we require

f more facts for Micronesia and Papuanesia, before we can go

_ further. In my next chapters I take each geographical

"group separately (e.g. Sumatra and its islets, Java and its

‘islets, Borneo and its islets, and so on to Polynesia).”

22 Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology.

“Within the last six weeks (January 6, 1853) I have re-
eeived vocabularies of several new Borneon and Moluccan
languages.”

I am anxiously waiting for the continuation of Mr Logan’s
chapters on these languages, for he has already thrown a
flood of light on the Ethnology of the Malays and the Poly-
nesians.

A valuable contribution to our knowledge of Buddhism in
Burmah is made by the Rev. P. Bigandet, in a translation
from a Burmese MS. of a legend of the Burmese Buddha,
called “ Gaudama.” The MS. was brought from Ava, which
is a great seat of Buddhist learning. The original text was
in the Pali, from which it had been translated into the Bur-
mese language.

Another contribution to our knowledge of Buddhism, as it
exists in Camboja, entitled, ‘‘ Notice of the Religion of the
Cambojans,” taken from a MS. of M. Miche, Bishop of
Dansara, also appears in vol. vi. of Mr Logan’s Journal.
‘“ Whoever has sojourned in Camboja will have remarked
certain points of doctrine difficult to reconcile to each other,
and even with those mentioned in this notice. There is
nothing wonderful in this. Someare taught in books, others
are the popular beliefs. Moreover, it is not unusual to hear
the Cambojans say amongst themselves, Such a pagoda does
not teach the same as a neighbouring one: their books do
not even always agree.” Knowing the extensive area over
which Buddhism prevails, we might expect it to vary both in
doctrine and practice ; but it must be confessed, that until
this article appeared we had no notion that neighbouring
pagodas varied in their teaching,

“A Manual of Buddhism, by the Rev. R. Spence Hardy.”
This is a valuable contribution to the literature of our science,
as it ably answers the question, “‘ What is Buddhism?’ The
manual is not a work written by the author after the mere
consultation of Singhalese writings on the subject, but is
itself an actual translation from Singhalese MSS. So that
the work is not a view of Buddhism by a Christian, but by a —
Buddhist, and is, therefore, one of authority. The study of ©
this work, in connection with the “* Eastern Monachism” of ©

“Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 28

the same author, published about three years ago, which
describes the discipline, rites, and present circumstances of
the Buddhist priesthood, will give us a complete idea of the
nature and practice of Buddhism.

The Buddhist religion is that of many millions of people
Spread over a vast area, the whole of which, however, is in
Asia. The Buddhist religion of China differs somewhat from
that of India. “The sacred books of Burmah, Siam, and
Ceylon, are identically the same. The ancient literature of
the Buddhists, in all the regions where this system is pro-
fessed, appears to have had its origin in one common source ;
but in the observances of the present day there is less uni-
formity ; and many of the customs now followed, and of the
doctrines now taught, would be regarded by the earlier pro-
fessors as perilous innovations.” (P. 357.)

The doctrines of Gotama, therefore, like those of every
other founder of a creed, have been modified by his succes-
sors. Buddhism, and its powerful results, have been too little
studied by philosophic historians. ‘There have been various
opinions as to the age in which Gotama lived: but the
era given by the Singhalese authors is now the most gene-
rally received. According to their chronology, he expired in
the year that, according to our mode of reckoning, would be
B.C. 543, in the eightieth year of his age.” (P. 353.)

“ Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western
Pacific, including the Feejees and others, inhabited by the
Polynesian Negro races, in H.M. Ship ‘ Havannah,’ by John
Elphinstone Erskine, Capt. R.N.” This valuable contribution
to Ethnological Science is well illustrated by coloured litho-
graphs of the natives. This contribution, however, as a
whole, is not quite new to us, for the Rev. John Inglis accom-
panied Captain Erskine on a missionary tour to some of the
islands, and gave us an account of it in a paper read in our
Society, December 10, 1851: and made also a valuable con-
tribution therein to the philology of the Papuan race:

Captain Erskine’s Journal corroborates Mr Inglis’ tour,
and also adds to our knowledge of other islands in the West-
ern Pacific.

» We may expect further information concerning the Pacific

24 Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology.

islands from Captain Denham’s expedition, which is now iy
‘that ocean

Mr Brierly, who accompanied the late Captain Owen
Stanley in the “ Rattlesnake’ to New Guinea, the Louisade
Archipelago, and the North-Western Pacific Islands, is en-
gaged in preparing for publication the ethnological materials
which he gathered in that cruise. His abilities as an
observer, and the opportunities he enjoyed, have been turned
‘to good account; and I am able to say that his forthcoming
work will extend our knowledge of the Ethnology of that
area. | |

America.—The study of the Ethnology of North America
is being pursued with that energy and comprehensiveness of
purpose which characterize that people. The Government of
the United States appointed a commission of well-qualified
men to study, record, and publish historical information con-
cerning the Indians in its territory. A magnificent work in
quarto is the result, of which the second volume reached
Kurope in the autumn. This work contains a description and
history, with the manners, customs, and language, as ex-
hibited in copious vocabularies and grammars, of the several
tribes of Indians. The two volumes already published are
well illustrated by copperplates and woodcuts. The com-
prehensive design of giving a systematic account of the
people who are fast fading away before the advances of a
higher civilization, is one that we might copy with great advan- —
tage to our national character both in British America and in
our other colonies. :

The Smithsonian Institution, in its systematic cultivation
of natural knowledge, embraces that of Ethnology, and in its
volumes are found most valuable contributions to the Arche-
ology of the Indian tribes. The researches connected with
the earth-works of the Mississippi Valley, by the Hon. E. G.
Squier, who is a Fellow of our Society, in vol. i., and those
connected with the earth-works in Ohio, in vol. iii., by
Charles Whittlesey, Esq., are important contributions to the —
ancient Ethnology of those districts. .

The American Ethnological Society is not idle, but, on the

Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 25

contrary, is contributing its quota to the elucidation of Ame-
rican Ethnology. The first part of vol. iii. is just issued
from the press, and contains much new and interesting mat-
ter. The Hon. E. G. Squier, whose work on Nicaragua is
an authority, is still studying and throwing a light on that
district. A paper, “On the Archeology and Ethnology of
Nicaragua,” in the present Part, is a valuable contribution to
our knowledge, both of the tribes and of their languages.
Prior to Mr Squier’s visit, our information of this interest-
ing district was very meagre and sketchy. A knowledge of
these tribes is likely to point out what relationship existed
between the Mexicans and Peruvians, and also the relation-
ship of both to the great American family of Man.

The British Association for the Advancement of Science
has printed for circulation, in order to rightly direct inquiry,
a new edition of its queries, under the title of “ A Manual of
Kthnological Inquiry.” From the circumstance that the
leading Ethnologists of Great Britain belong both to our
Society and to the British Association, there is a unity of
action in the two Societies, in the endeavour to collect the
facts and data of our science. And my being Ethnological
Secretary to Section E, as well as Honorary Secretary to our
Society, the object of the Association in the distribution of
its Manual can be more fully carried out. Copies have
already been sent to nearly every missionary station in tae
world; and from the concise directions as to what to observe,
we may expect a large mass of facts to be brought together
for the advancement of Ethnology.—(from Sketch on the
Recent Progress of Ethnology. By Richard Cull, Esq.)

26 Lieut. Hunt on Cohesion of Fluids,

On Cohesion of Fluids, Evaporation, and Steam-Boiler
Explosions. By Lieut. EK. B. Hunt, Corps of Engineers,
U.S.A.* Communicated by the Author.

I now wish to present a simple exposition of the mecha-
nical theory of cohesion in fluid masses, and from this to de-
duce the structure of a fluid surface, shewing that its cohesive
strength is much less than that of the interior layers. The
result furnishes a clear and direct explanation of the great
fact of evaporation, and shews why, in all cases, even in ebul-
lition, evaporation is a strictly surface phenomenon. Hence
follows an explanation of one of the chief causes of steam-
boiler explosions, and the easy suggestion of a very practical
remedy; also an explanation of the heating of fluids to high
temperatures, as observed by Donny, and of the entire
agency of contained air in ebullition.

Several years have now elapsed since, in tracing out the
results of a highly general theory of molecular mechanics, it
occurred to me to call in question the commonly-received
views as to the amount and character of a fluid cohesion.
Regarding all cohesion as directly a function of the distance
between adjacent molecules, it was quite impossible to ima-
gine that the exceedingly small difference of the intermolecu-
lar distances corresponding to the fluid and solid forms re-
spectively in any given substance, could produce that very
great difference of cohesive strength so generally conceived
to exist. The slight difference of volume, for instance, be-
tween a solid and fluid pound of iron, would not lead us to
anticipate any marked difference of cohesion, so long as we
regard this cohesion as any tolerably simple function of the
intermolecular distances.

The ordinary experiments professing to measure fluid co-
hesion, are by no means cases of direct rupture, and indeed
furnish no measure whatever of actual cohesive strength.
The common experiment of separating, by counterpoising
weights, a dise from a fluid which wets it, furnishes no indi-
cation of the cohesion in the mass of fluid, bat merely shews —

* Read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at
Cleaveland, Aug. 1853.

Evaporation, and Steam-Boiler Explosions. 27

the force required to break the fluid surface. Donny’s expe-
riments shew positively that the yielding is here entirely at
the surface, progressing through the mass by the successive
breaking of the successively formed surfaces, only a mere
fluid filament being at last broken by direct rupture. It is
truly @ case of capillary action between a horizontal fluid sur-
face and a horizontal solid circular surface, and like all other
capillary action exists primarily at the surfaces only. Tix-
cept in the frequently observed adhesion of well-boiled mer-
eury in barometer tubes, to heights far above the true baro-
metric level, we have in fact no record of any experiments
exhibiting the resistance offered by a fluid mass to direct rup-
ture, which only ought to be taken as a true measure of cohe-
sion. All the common views of a slight fluid cohesion are
based on erroneous interpretations, in which the effects of
the easy mobility of parts in fluids are very loosely imputed
to a low value of cohesion. Once clearly understanding that
surface yielding gives no measure of cohesion or direct re-
sistance in rupture, we can readily see that the prevalent
ideas on this subject are without support.

If we study the phenomenon attending the condensation of
gases and vapours into fluids, it is apparent that while con-
tiguous molecules are still at distances many times as great
as that characterizing the fluid state, the cohesive attraction
inanifests itself appreciably. Steam instantly condensing, at
the rate of a foot of steam to an inch of water, shews that in’
water the cohesive action of a molecule extends effectively

through a sphere whose diameter is at least twelve times the
distance between adjacent molecular centres in the fluid.
Hence in water the radius of effective cohesive action must
be so great as to include several molecular layers. The mo-
ment a gas ceases to follow Mariotte’s law, cohesive action
becomes appreciable ; and this is proof enough that in masses
_tnany layers contribute their action in making up the total
cohesion.
_ If we conceive any fluid mass to be distributed into layers,
then the correct measure of fluid cohesion will be the force
‘requisite to produce a direct simultaneous separation of all
the parts along a unit of the dividing surface between two

28 Lieut. Hunt on Cohesion of Fluids,

layers. This is equal to the resultant of all the forces acting
from either direction against this unit of surface, these forces
being held in equilibrio by the equally opposing forces. ‘To
obtain an expression for this cohesion, let the fluid mass be
conceived as divided into elementary layers relative to three
perpendicular co-ordinate axes. Let the layers above the
plane X, Y, be called 1, 2, 3, &c., those below being called
a, b,c, &e. Take the unit of surface in the plane X, Y, be-
tween layers 1 and a. Then the force with which the unit
in layer 1 presses against layer a is composed of all the at-
tractions which the entire layers a, 6, c, &c., exert on the

_noittog 3605 (eddy
Peer Meekiey Pate
|
|

» See

units in layers 1, 2, 3, &., which make up the prism
basing on the unit of surfaces. Or, making the cohesion 4,
and designating the elementary forces by the layers sordid
which they are exerted, we have
~=a,1+b6,1l+c¢,14+d,14 ke.
+ a,2+b,24+0, 24+ &e.
+a,3+b, 3+ &e.
. +a, 4+ &e.
in which the terms arranged above each other have equal
values. This series would require to be extended so as to
include all terms corresponding to distances at which cohe-
sive forces may not be regarded as evanescent. By assuming -
some law of connection between this force and the distance,
an integration of effect could be attained ; but this is not now
necessary. An inspection of the formula gives the main fea-
tures in the mechanism of cohesion within masses, either solid
or fluid.

In order now to study the peculiarities of constitution be-
longing to surfaces, let us, in this formula, introduce the hy-
pothesis that layer 1 becomes a surface layer. All terms
containing 2, 3, 4, &e., are thus struck out, and we

Evaporation, and Steam-Boiler Eawplosions. 29

have, as the surface cohesion along the normal direction,
p=a;1+6, 1+¢,1+d,1+é&e. But in the general expres-
sion we have, by observing the equality of terms,

sen@=d, b+2:(b «1)+3(c.1) +4 d-1) + &e.
Comparing these values of a, we see that the surface layer
eoheres to the mass with a very much smaller force than two
internal layers cohere against each other. For the second,
third, &c., layers, a like discussion applies, and the cohesion
gradually increases on penetrating the mass.
-)/Ehis formula involves-no. particular hypothesis as to the
value or character of the forces acting, only that the aggre-
gate is attractive. But as condensation is a spontaneous
phenomenon through all that portion of the aggregational
range in which energetic actions are found, we ought to as-
sume that all the effective terms are attractive. To present
the grounds which seem to me to authorize the conception of
that repulsion in all states of aggregation, is only exercised
between adjacent molecules, while the attractive actions are
the resultants of all the primary constitutional forces, and
extend through larger spheres, would involve the exposition
of a complete theory of molecular mechanics. I must, there-
fore, leave, as an assumption, the conception that in fluids the
only repulsion to be taken into account is that between the
contiguous layers (a and 1), which prevents their yielding
farther to the cohesive forces pressing them together.

We should observe, that in consequence of the deficiency
of cohesion along the fluid surface, a rarefaction would take
place, which would again diminish surface cohesion to a con-
_ siderable extent below that value given by the formula.

_To determine the cohesion measured along a surface, as
we haye done for that along the normal, let the general for-
mula be applied to a surface element. Then, instead of the

: a),
C-CLECEELEELeL oi

; normal layers being full layers, they ave essentially but half

*

30 Lieut. Hunt on Cohesion of Fluids,

layers, or each term has approximately only one-half of its
value for the interior. Hence the value of 7 is approximately
only one-half of the interior value, or the cohesion along a sur-
face is about one-half what it is within the mass. But as this
value gives a rarefication also along the surface as well as
along the normal, it will therefore be much diminished, so as
to become less than one-half the general value. Thus both
along the normal and along the surface, a weak cohesion is a
necessary characteristic of the bounding layers of material
masses, both fluid and solid. The result thus reached in re-
spect to a mass 7n vacuo, would not be greatly affected in the
ordinary atmosphere.

It is somewhat remarkable that Poisson’s capillary theory,
as stated by Mossotti, in Taylor’s Scientific Memoirs, is
based essentially on an analysis of the fluid surface, in
which the halving of the normal layer is totally overlooked,
and the cohesion along the surface is declared to be the same
as in the mass, the surface layer only having been taken into
account. I have not seen Poisson’s work, but it is singular
that Mossotti should either have made such an oversight, or
have failed to detect it in Poisson, if he really committed it.
It is a radical defect—even using Poisson’s own hypothe-
sis—and must directly affect, or even invalidate, his whole
theory. betel

I come now to an important deduction from the preceding
discussion. Fluid surfaces are in a state of weak cohesion
as compared with fluid interiors; hence a partially atmo-
spheric condition of rarefaction exists along such bounding.
surfaces. If, then, we assimilate heat to a molecular repul-
sion, as 1s customary, we see at once that as the temperature
is raised the weak cohesion in the surface layer will be
wholly overcome long before the mass is heated to that point
which will overmaster its internal cohesion. Hence the sur-
face molecules will freely pass off as vapour, while a strong
cohesion still exists throughout the entire mass. Evapora-
tion thus goes on at surfaces, at all temperatures above
that which just suffices to overcome the weak surface cohe-
sion. This constitution or structure necessarily characteriz-
ing the limiting layers of fluids, is the true and full explana-

Evaporation and Steam-Boiler Haplosions. 31

tion of evaporation in all its forms. From this we see that
a fluid mass, without interior or exterior surfaces, or so in-
closed as virtually to answer this description, might be heated
up far above the boiling-point without boiling. Wesee that
ebullition is but the effect of an internal evaporation starting
in minute air-bubbles, and growing with the expanding bub-
ble. We see that water entirely freed from air-bubbles, and
with a restricted open surface, as in Donny’s tube experi-
ment, should go on heating up far above the boiling point,
until at last the whole heated mass would flash into steam
with an explosion. All the phenomena described by Donny,
in his excellent paper in the Annales de Chimie et de Phy-
sigue, follow as easy and obvious deductions from this con-
stitution of the fluid surface. Indeed, we do not at all wonder
his being forced, from his experiments, to conclude empiri-
eally that there must be some peculiar quality in surfaces,
_ which makes evaporation take place so much more readily
on them than in fluid masses. We see, too, how utterly
fallacious are the experiments usually taken, as measuring
fluid cohesion—they being in fact only results of the weak
cohesion in surface layers—which, with the free mobility of
fluid parts, fully explains all the observed results. This fully
explains how a too perfect boiling of the mercury in barome-
ter tubes makes it adhere at the top with such tenacity. It
explains Berthollet’s experiment on the forced dilatation. of
- fluids, in which a deaérated fluid, sealed when hot, does not
shrink in cooling for a long time, but at last breaks and col-
lapses—indicating that it has borne a great tension before
yielding. Prof. Henry’selegant experiments with soap-bubbles,
in which by measuring the tension of the inclosed air, heisable
to deduce, first, the compressing force, and thence the cohe-
sion of the fluid film, with a very great.value, furnish an in-
dependent confirmation of the same general views. We may
remark that the heterogeneous structure of the outer layers
would destroy the mobility of their parts, and give a film-
like character to the fluid surface, while all within this film
would have free mobility. This, with the additional fact of
_a drawing inward of the outer layers, by the unbalanced co-
_hesive action of the layers near the surface, explains the

32 Lieut. Hunt on Cohesion of Fluids.

great variety of formal phenomena exhibited by drops, bub-
bles, and fluid surfaces.

About four years since, I conceived the idea of directly
measuring fluid cohesion by rupturing a pure fluid column
in a cylinder with a moving piston. By filling the cylinder
with the fluid to be tested, and immersing the piston by the
aid of a valve closing at will, the force requisite for starting
the piston will be the cohesion of the column, on allowing for
atmospheric pressure. Of course, the fluid must adhere to
the cylinder more strongly than it coheres in itself, else
the adhesion only would be measured. Nor must it contain
any air-bubbles, as the presence of one such, however small,
will give a start to the break, by presenting a weak surface.
This is the great difficulty of the proposed experiment. In
May last, I had just. begun such an experiment, on mercury,
in an amalgamated cylinder, but the requisite precautions
for excluding air could not be taken for lack of time, as I was
obliged to leave my station before the apparatus was com-
plete. The rapidity with which the mercury rushed past
the piston, in the rough trials made, shewed that some pack-
ing will probably be requisite in a deliberate measurement,
and this again will present the difficulty of introducing an
unamalgamated surface in the mass to be broken. The pre-
cautions requisite for a perfect trial of the experiment are

quite numerous. I anticipate that exceedingly small air- _

bubbles will have the effect of making the indications irregu-
lar, as the smallest bubbles will only start a break on the ap-
plication of very considerable force.

I will now apply this discussion to steam-boiler explosions.
The condition requisite for ebullition in boiling water is
simply that air-bubbles in the heated portions shall present
on their boundaries the weakly coherent surfaces requisite
for evaporation to be established. Perfectly deaérated water,
with a limited surface, would not boil at all, but would
steadily heat up until it reached that point at which it would
flash explosively into steam. Now, one chief cause of steam-
boat explosions is clearly of this description. The boat stops
at a wharf; ‘the doctor,” or pump supplying water to the ©
engine, being worked by the engine itself, stops its water

Evaporation, and Steam-Boiler Eaplosions. 33

supply when the engine stops. The water in the boiler goes
on boiling until all the air-bubbles are boiled off from the
water, and their air is mixed with the steam above. There
then ceases to be any evaporating surface, except that on the
top layer, which is farthest from the heating surface, and
quite inadequate to the consumption of all the heat supplied.
Then the mass of water begins to heat up, and it goes on
storing up the unconsumed caloric, until the water is far
hotter than the head of steam would indicate. The engineer
then starts the engine; this starts the pump, which throws
a stream of air-charged water directly into the glowing fluid.
The heat instantly finds its outlet. by an overwhelming eva-
poration on the newly supplied bubble surfaces, and a tumul-
tuous ebullition follows. . The gathered store of heat flashes
off a portion of the water into steam of excessive tension—a
tension such as nothing can withstand. The terrific conse-
quences are too often witnessed in those fatal catastrophes
which have given to our western rivers such a tragic repu-
tation. No one can examine a list of western steam-boat
explosions without being forcibly impressed with the fre-
quency of these accidents just as the boat is starting from
the wharf, after a landing. It seems to me beyond doubt
that many of these occur just in the manner now stated,
and from the deficiency of air-bubbles in the boiler. We see
in this reasoning, too, a sufficient explanation of dry steam,
or steam hotter than its tension indicates. The heating is
then going on faster than the evaporation, and the steam is
thus heated as if it were not in contact with the water, or
were in a vessel by itself. us
- It is not always that the remedy for a danger is as obvious __
and as easily applied as in this case. It is only necessary to.
keep the pump in steady, slow operation, while the engine is:
at rest. It should always be capable of an independent
movement, and should constantly, while a boat is fired up,
be kept at work, however slowly. By this means air for
ebullition will always be supplied, and the accumulation of
heat in a sluggish mass of water cannot then go on until
the explosion point is reached. The field over which I have
thus rapidly traversed is one requiring much patient study
VOL. LVI. NO, CXI,— JANUARY 1804. C

34 Lieut. Hunt on Cohesion of Lluids,. .

for its full development and illustration. I could not here
give all which belongs to it without exceeding reasonable
limits. Nearly all the views which I have presented were

the result of my own studies, so far as concerned my original —

acquaintance with them, but I was happy to find that Donny
and Henry had, in some points, reached the same conclusions
by independent routes. But Iam not aware that any one
has presented the same analysis of cohesio nor of the mole-
cular constitution of material surfaces. Especially does the
derivation of evaporation from molecular mechanics seem to
me novel and worthy of careful consideration. Donny indi-
cates essentially déaeration as a cause of steam-boiler explo-
sion; but it is as an experimental deduction, and not con-
nected with its mechanical derivation.

In conclusion, I will present an outline of a most interest:
ing illustration of creative design in the earth’s co-ordination:
The explanation of evaporation which has been given shews
that for each fluid the formation of vapour lies within certain
definite limits of temperature, as a result of primary struc-

ture. These limits differ greatly in different fluids. Now,

in framing the earth for habitation, or for the proper life of
animal and vegetable forms, something equivalent to rain
was necessary, from the constant descent of fluids to the

lowest level. Without some agency to lift the great organic.

fluid above its lowest ocean bed, sterility would have been

the lot of all which rose above its surface, and terrestrial,
organisms would have been quite impossible. But fluidity.
does not involve evaporation except within certain definite
limits, special for each liquid. Again, evaporation might,

freely go on, and yet no capacity for condensation exist, ex-

cept within other limits of temperature, quite unattainable, -

save through spécial arrangement, Rain, then, with our
earth and atmosphere, involved a special constitution of the
raining fluid, not only so that evaporation at ordinary tem-
peratures should go on, but so that condensation may again
take place in the ordinary air. Not only must this qualitative
arrangement exist, but also a quantitative one; since the

~

quantity of rain best sufficing to the aggregate organic need —

is exactly a certain definite number of inches per annum..

» Evaporation, and Stedin-Boiler Explosions. 385

Now, water is doubtless the only known liquid which could
by possibility answer these definite mechanical conditions ;
hence we say, that there is a peculiarly clear evidence of de-
sign, first, in making a fluid which could, under our cosmical
conditions, undergo the raining round, and secondly, in its
being on the earth in so exactly the quantity best meeting
the aggregate organic needs. Ether, quicksilver, or any
other known fluid, could not, in any possible arrangement of
quantity, supply this primary cosmical necessity. Now,
when we reflect how many are the instances in which the
terrestrial elements, simple and in combination, exist in
strict adaptation to organic needs, both qualitatively and
quantitatively, the cumulative evidence of design much ex-
ceeds that furnished by a locomotive or a cotton-mill. .Not
only is organic life framed in strict relation to the earth, but
the earth is also primarily constituted in strict relation. to
organic life. Let whoever doubts this, study the extremely
slender a priori chance that a drop of rain of any known
liquid should ever fall upon the earth, and let him but pic-
ture the total lack of all land life which must have followed
any cast of the die other than that really existing. Life
without fluid circulation is totally inconceivable by the mind
of man, and exactly to determine the appropriate kind and
quantity of liquid, as has been done in the real frame
of nature, was a problem of pure and absolute intellection,
transcending the grasp of every mind save the all-wise creat-
ing Designer. . 3

2

36 Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology.

Researches in Embryology ; a Note supplementary to Papers
published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1838, 1839, |
and 1840, shewing the Confirmation of the Principal Facts
there recorded, and pointing out a Correspondence be- |
tween certain Structures connected with the eo eS. |
Ovum and other Ova. By Marvin Barry, M.D., F.R. S.
F.R.S.E.* (Communicated by the Author-)

The following ‘are some of the principal Paote recor ded i in
my Papers on Embryology: others will be mentioned further
on. ci
1. The spermatozoon penetrates into the interior of ‘the
ovum, | :

2. The germinal vesicle persists beyond the period at which ©
it had been supposed to disappear. é :

3. Cleavage of the yelk, previously noticed in’ Batrachian —
Reptiles, and some Osseous Fishes, takes place in the ovum
of the highest animals—Mammalia. |

4. This cleavage of the yelk is effected by means of the
nuclei of cells.

5. The nuclei effecting aldavage of the yelk have their ori- _
gin in the germinal spot, whieh divides and subdivides to
furnish them.

6. The nucleus of the cell neither “ remains unaltered,” nor
“is absorbed as useless,” after the formation of the cell-mem-
brane ; but continues to display properties which shew it to
be the most important portion of the cell.

7. Ova ofthe Rabbit destined to be developed, are in most.
instances discharged from the ovary in the course of nine or
ten hours post coitum ; and they are all discharged about the
same time.

Two of these facts, viz., that regarding the period at which
the ovum of the Rabbit is usually expelled from the ovary,
and the fact that cleavage of the yelk takes place in the mam-

* The substance of a Paper read before the Royal Society of London, June —
16, 1853.

Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology. 37

miferous ovum,—both of which I published in March 1839,—
received immediate confirmation. All the others were denied.
Yet since then they have all, without exception, been abun-
dantly confir med. Some of these facts, however, remained un-
acknowledged. for so many years, that the original record of
them was “forgotten. These have proclaimed themselves
in ova of some of the lower animals, and observers are pub-
lishing them as quite new, though really no more than con-
firmations of facts first observed in the mammiferous ovum, and
recorded in the Philosophical Transactions many years before,
Up to the period when I communicated to the Royal Society
the second. series of those Researches, entire ignorance of the
time post coitum when the ovum leaves the ovary had so com-
pletely prevented the obtaining of ova.from the Fallopian
tube, that nothing was known of the essential part of. the
mammiferous ovum between its expulsion from that organ,
and a comparatively advanced condition of it in the uterus.
By a determination of that time the hindrance in question was
removed ; it was thus made comparatively easy to procure ova
from the Fallopian tube, in one of the Mammalia, at least—
the Rabbit. And very soon afterwards a work by Professor
Bischoff appeared in Germany on the mammiferous ovum, ac-
knowledging that Barry seemed to have been right in his an-
nouncement that the time post coitum when the ovum of the
Rabbit usually leaves the ovary is about nine or ten hours.*
_ To determine the time in question, was a task requiring a.
great deal of patience, and attended with difficulties of no
common kind. But in the course of that inquiry I became ac-
quainted with the fact that there was another period also in
the existence of the mammiferous ovum regarding which
nothing whatever had been ascertained,—the period interven-
ing between the coitus and the expulsion of the ovum from
the ovary. I saw changes then taking place in the ovarian
ovum, without a knowledge of which it is impossible to under-
‘stand the ovum in any of its future phases, And it is mainly
to what was noticed by myself during the inquiry now referred

' * Or words to this effect. I write from a’part of the country where the book’
is not obtainable. ‘

38 Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology.

to in that dark and previously unexplored period, that I owe |
my observation of nearly all the facts just mentioned; and |)
any one of these would have repaid the labour. Had Bischoff.
duly examined the ovum after the coitus and before its ex- |
pulsion from the ovary, for which nine or ten hours afford |
ample opportunity, he would have seen it becoming more and }

more prepared for fecundation, might perhaps have met with

it at the very moment of this change, and would at all events —
have had the opportunity of witnessing the effects thereof in |
their most incipient stages. He would then have understood |
the ovum better in the Fallopian tube and uterus, and could —

not have denied facts which have since established themselves
in ova of some of the lower animals, notwithstanding the ob-
scuring yelk, and in spite of all the outcry which Bischoff
raised against my announcememt of them.

Thus while some laughed at what I maintained regarding
the germinal spot, they gave drawings shewing that at the very
same time they had divisions and sub-divisions of this myste-
rious body before their eyes; obscured however, in the ova
they examined, by a quantity of yelk not present in a solid
form, in the mammiferous ovum. Hence the importance of
examining the latter at the early period just mentioned.
And I now have the satisfaction to see that the illustrious
names of Von Baer and Johannes Miller may be added to
those who at length find just what I had described as seen in

the Mammalia, that the germinal spot, dividing, furnishes the

nuclei of the cleft yelk-balls.

The importance of the nucleus of the cell, the part it takes

m producing secondary deposits, and its divisions for the pro-

duction of young cells, I believe to be now doubted by very .
few of those who have really made adequate inquiry. Yet

up to the time when these facts concerning the nucleus were

recorded in the Philosophical Transactions, no one had ques-
tioned the views of Schleiden and Schwann,—that after the’

formation of the cell-membrane the nucleus either “ remains
unaltered,” or ‘as a useless member is absorbed.”’ Thus

Schwann, when discussing the question, whether the germinal

vesicle is a young cell, or the nucleus of the yelk-cell, re-

marked : “ Ifit be the first, it is very probably the most essen-

Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Hmbryology. 39

tial foundation of the embryo; but if it be the nucleus of the
yelk-cell, its importance ceases with the formation of the
_yelk-cell, and according to the analogy of most cell-nuclei it
must subsequently be either entirely absorbed, or continue
for a time without forming any new essential object.’’*

_ My observation that the spermatozoon penetrates into the
interior of the ovum, after having been by some neglected
and by others denied for about a dozen years, and even as
lately as in 1852 being ridiculed by Bischoff as “‘ born of the
imagination,’’ has at length been fully confirmed ; and this
in two quarters, by inquirers acting quite independently of, and
unknown to one another,—in animals, moreover, not far
from the lowest in the scale, my own researches having been
made at the other end of the animal kingdom in the highest
class—Mammalia. One of these confirmations was made in
this country by Dr Nelson, the other in Germany by Dr
Keber. The researches of the former were on ova of an
Entozoon, those of the latter on ova of the fresh-water
Mussel. Nelson’s paper was published in the Philosophical
Transactions for last year ;+ that of Keber has been published
in a Separate form.{ It is impossible to read the accounts
given by these observers without feeling the fullest confi-
dence in their observations, made and repeated as they evi-
dently were with care and patience that leave nothing in
these respects to be desired.

It was found by Nelson, that the spermatozoa penetrating
each ovum of the Entozoon he examined were in considerable
number; but by Keber, that only a single spermatozoon pene-
trated the ovum of the fresh-water Mussel. Nelson is one
of those who now find in animals at the other end of the Ani-
mal Kingdom what I-had shewn in Mammalia, that the ger-
minal spot, dividing, furnishes the nuclei of the cells out of

_*“Mikroskopische Untersuchungen uber die Uebereinstimmungen in der
Struktur und dem Wachsthum der Thiere und Pflanzen.” Berlin, 1838-9,
S. 660,
T “ The Reproduction of Ascaris Mystax. Phil. Trans, 1852, Part ii.
“De Spermatozoorwm Introitu in Ovula.” KGnigsberg, 1853. (The obser-
vations were on Unio and Anodonta, and made in 1852.)

40 Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology.

which arises the new being; an opinion which, as will pre-
sently be shewn, is that of Keber also.* .
Keber describes the penetration of the spermatozoon into.
the interior of the ovum in Unio and Anodonta, through an
aperture formed by dehiscence of its coats, analogous to the
micropyle in plants; and he refers to an observation in ova
of several species of Holothuria made by Professor Johannes
Miiller, and communicated by him to the Academy of Berlin
in 1850 and 1851, of what he (Miiller) considered as very
much resembling that micropyle.. The orifice found by Keber
to form for the entrance of a spermatozoon into the Mussel’s
ovum, seems to correspond to that seen by myself to have
formed for the same purpose in the ovum of the Rabbit; in
which orifice I saw and delineated what I believe to have
been the head-like extremity of a spermatozoon on the point
of uniting its hyaline nucleolus with that of the germinal spot.
Neither Keber nor Nelson, it is true, saw any such immediate
and close connection between the fecundating element and the
germinal spot... Nor doI think that this was essential, seeing
that in the ova they examined, the yelk enters largely into
the formation of the new organism; while in the mammiferous
ovum (the subject. of my observations) it is the fecundated
germinal spot alone that forms it. Hence they did not trace
the fecundating element beyond the yelk. Nelson describes the
spermatozoa as undergoing liquefaction in the yelk, the ger-
minal spot furnishing the nuclei to effect cleavage of the latter.
Keber saw the spermatozoon, or rather what he terms the nu-
cleus of its head-like extremity, to divide into nucleoli in the
yelk. He acknowledges his inability to solve the question, in.
what relation these nucleoli derived from the spermatozoon
stand to the pellucid nuclei of the yelk-balls; which nuclei—ac-
cording to Vogt, Von Baer, Loven, Johannes Miiller, and others
—have their origin in the germinal spot.} But after recapitu-:
lating the results obtained, he concludes from the observations
of Johannes Miillert and his own, that neither the germinal

* Even Nelson, however, was not aware of my having recorded the penetra- _
tion of the spermatozoon into the ovum as an established fact; though Keber
was fully aware of it, and does me the justice to quote all that I had written in
the Philosophical Transactions on the subject, both in 1840 and 1848.

t Keler, loc. cit, p. 46. + Muller’s Archiv, 1852,

Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology. 41

spot nor the spermatozoon really disappears, “ but that both
enter into the formation of the nuclei of the new organism.’’*
_ And he finally says: “ Through observation alone can it be
decided, whether the nuclei arising out of the spermatozoon
and the germinal spot unite to pass into the embryonic cells.” t
That such union is what takes place in the mammiferous
ovum I think was shewn by my own observations in 1840,
when it was recorded that, before the cleavage of the yelk
begins, the hyaline centre of the germinal spot is determin-
ately held by the retinacula, up to a certain time, as near as
possible to the surface of the ovary; that an orifice is formed
in the “ zona pellucida,” at the part where this centre lies ;
that on one or two occasions I saw this centre of the germi-
nal spot, apparently without any covering from the germinal
vesicle,t actually protruded into the orifice in the “zona
pellucida,” as if to meet the fecundating element ; and that
subsequently the germinal spot passes to the centre of the
germinal vesicle, and the germinal vesicle to the centre of
the ovum. Tadded, that the germinal vesicle, which by de-
terminate pressure at the periphery became lenticular, now
resumes the spherical form, and that an orifice in the “zona
pellucida” is no longer seen. Such alterations suggest the
probability of some sudden and important change having been
effected in the condition of the ovum. The nature of the al-
terations is such as to induce the belief, that the ovum has
undergone fecundation ; the mysterious hyaline centre or nu-
cleolus of the germinal spot having received the fecundating
element of the seminal fluid, and having thus been the point
of fecundation. And farther, from an observation I published
at the same time, it is to be inferred that the fecundating
element is the pellucid substance (nucleolus) contained in the
head-like extremity of the spermatozoon, a direct union taking
place in the mammiferous ovum between this substance and
the hyaline nucleolus of ‘the germinal spot. I have already
stated why I think such direct union between the spermato-

_* Keber, loc. cit., p. 56. { Keber, loc. cit., p. 111.

_ tL havesince recorded the fact, that an orifice is sometimes seen at the cor-
responding part in other cells. Phil. Zrans. 1841, Part ii,, p. 204, Plates 17 to
19.

42 Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology.

zoon and the germinal spot is not essential in ova where the —
yelk enters largely into the formation of the new being. In

the mammiferous ovum, the hyaline centre of the germinal

spot, and the hyaline in the head-like extremity of the sper-

matozoon are both to be considered nucleoli, a mixing or

combination of which it appears to me yields the substance

out of which is formed the new being ; and to this mixing I
apprehend is to be attributed the resemblance between the
offspring and both its parents.*

Keber justly deprecates theory when it is attempted there-
with to make up deficiencies left by superficial investigation,
and gives examples of it in two papers recently published in
Germany on this very subject, shewing the conclusions they
contain to be valueless, annihilated as they are by positive
observation. The author of one of those two papers is Bis-
choff,{ that of the other, Kolliker.t

I fully adhere to what I first published in 1839, and again
recorded as established and extended by means of higher
magnifying powers in 1840, that in the mammiferous ovum,
the mulberry-like body into which the fecundated germinal
spot has divided, contains a cell larger than the rest—a sort
of queen-bee in the hive; and that the embryo arises out of
the nucleus of this cell, in the form at first of the so-called
“ primitive trace,’’ and “ chorda dorsalis.”

This origin out of the nucleus of a cell (instead of, as had
been supposed, in the substance of a membrane) explains why
in the higher animals, the embryo is formed at one point of
the yelk surface. JTarther, I maintain the accuracy of all the
other “ marvellous figures,” as Bischoff calls them, given by
myself of mammiferous ova from the uterus. Before record-
ing the results referred to in this communication I had sacri-
ficed about 150 rabbits, which yielded 181 ova from the uterus,
230 from the Fallopian tube, and an uncounted number from
the ovary,—a large proportion of the latter belonging to the
dark period pioneered in the inquiry above mentioned. And

* See also my remarks on this subject in Miiller’s Archiv for 1850, Heft vi.

} “Theorie der Befruchtung und iiber die Rolle welche die Bperueaeeeraae
dabei spielen,” in Mijller’s Archiv, 1847, s, 422.

{ “ Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Geschlechtsverhaltnisse.”

Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology. 438

I cannot refrain from here repeating that he who, in re-
searches on the mammiferous ovum, does not very minutely,
and very patiently, and again and again, examine ova during
that period, i.e., in the ovary post coitum, is quite incapable
of understanding them in the uterus or Fallopian tube.
Another cause of ignorance that recent works by a German
author shew still to exist regarding the mammiferous ovum
in the Fallopian tube and uterus, is its perishable nature.
This inconvenience is felt chiefly in examining ova the essen-
tial part of which has left the centre and reached one side ;
for the chances are against that side being directed towards
the eye. You cannot turn the ovum round and round with-
out destroying it, for to a body so delicate it is impossible,
even with the finest hair pencil, to apply an equally delicate
manipulation. And supposing you at length find one having
the essential part directed upwards, a few minutes will not
suffice for the examination, of which some figures that have
been published afford ample proof. Some medium is required
in which the examination may be more perfectly accomplished.
The smallest ova from the Fallopian tube and uterus it was
my practice to view imbedded in some of the mucus taken from
those parts, after I had excluded the air in a manner formerly
described.* For any but the smallest a transparent fluid is
required. I tried a large number, and all were found unsuit-
able excepting one. That one was a saturated aqueous solu-
tion of Kreosote, which I still most particularly recommend
as a medium in which the ovum may be examined day after
day, and may be even delineated at the end of several days.

_ Besides the facts and conclusions already referred to in
this communication, my papers on Embryology will be found
to contain others, among which are the following, viz. :—

- 8. The existence and mode of origin of a vesicle not pre-
viously described, which I shewed to be common to the ova
of vertebrated animals, and to constitute the foundation of
the Graafian follicle, a vesicle which I followed upwards from

_ * Phil. Trans, 1839, Part ii., pp. 365, 367.
Tt Phil. Trans. 1839, Part ii., p. 345, Plate 8, fig. 138, a drawing taken
after the ovum had lain in Kreosote water for three days.

44 Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology.

the minuteness of ;},5th of a line, and proposed to call the
ovisac. . | y oft

9. The existence and mode of origin of ban dsregulating
the movements of the mammiferous ovum in the ovary, and
rendering gradual its expulsion from that organ ; which bands
I termed the retinacula.

10. The existence of vesicles under the mucous membrane

of the uterus in the Rabbit, containing a mulberry-like body,
one of which I had seen revolving on its axis.
_ In rabbits, of which he sacrificed about thirty in his re-
searches, Keber met with vesicles in large number, each of —
which contained a revolving mulberry-like body, revolving by
means of cilia; and he found the position of these vesicles to
be most frequently somewhere in the cavity of the abdomen.
He satisfactorily shews such vesicles to have been expelled
from the ovary, and mentions facts that induced him to. be-
lieve them to be ova.

I have no doubt that this indefatigable observer is quite
right in considering the revolving body in such vesicles to be
the essential part of an unfecundated ovum.* There is one
point, however, on which I am compelled to differ from him
in his conclusions, without for a moment questioning the accu-
racy of any of his observations. He is evidently one who,
desiring only to arrive at truth, will not feel hurt by the sug-
gestion I am about to offer. So far from this, indeed, his
work already mentioned contains a special invitation on the
subject.

I do not believe the membrane of the vesicles in question
to be the vitellary membrane (‘ zona pellucida’); and for
the following reasons.

In some of the Mammalia it is so common to meet with ~
ova that have escaped from the ovary during the rut without —
fecundation, that with others I believe this to take place —
generally in the class. Such unimpregnated ova, however,
I have usually found to be accompanied by their ovisacs ;
which also I have no doubt takes place generally in this class

* It was erroneously stated in a short notice which appeared in the last num- —
ber of this Journal, that Keber had considered the vesicles in question to be
fecundated ova. 2

“Dr Martin Barry’s Researches:in Embryology, ‘45

of animals. Then the first change after their expulsion from
the ovary seems to be the disappearance by liquefaction of
the “zona pellucida ;”* which is not surprising, for it arises
as a mere fluid,t and seems never to reach more than a gela-
‘tinous consistence in the ovary. In the Rabbit, when the ovi-
sacs thus expelled with their unimpregnated ova do not pass
into the cavity of the abdomen, but enter the uterus, they
become connected’ therewith by bloodvessels, and seem to
exist for a while therein as parasites. The mulberry-like re-
‘volving body they contain, no doubt consists of the group of
‘ells arisen from nuclei into which the germinal spot divides
and subdivides; which divisions and subdivisions, therefore,
T believe to take place without fecundation. But when this
happens, they do not lead to the formation of a cell larger
than the rest, which I have compared to a queen-bee in the
hive. The epithelium with vibrating cilia seen by Keber on
the inner surface of the membrane of these vesicles, appears
to me to have been what’ Von Baer denominated the mem-
brana granulosa; each granule having become an epithe-
lial cell. The membrane of the vesicles in question, there-
fore, lined by such an epithelium, J believe to be that of my

ovisae.
‘From these remarks it will be seen that, though not taking

the same view aS Keber on one point, I believe that physi-
ologist to have shewn that the mulberry-like body described
by myself in the Philosophical Transactions for 1839, as re-
volving on its axis, was the essential part of an unfecundated
mammiferous ovum. That observation of mine was quite
incidental, but I have the satisfaction to know from Bischoff’s
own remarks that it was that observation that led him to
look for a revolving body in the ovum of the Mammalia,t
and which he was so fortunate in one instance as to find. It
was the fibrous membrane,—the layer of granules on its inner
surface,—the connection by bloodvessels with the uterus,—

is See a Rie wi ing I gave of such an ovisac from the infundibulum in the Hog.
Phil. Trans. 1839. Part ii., Plate 5, fig. 102, h and /.

ey ‘Phil. Trans., 1888. Part li., Plate 8, fig. 70, f.

=f See a paper of his in M iter’ s Archiv for the following year, 1840.

46 Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology.

and the absence of anything like a “ zona pellucida,’’—that
made me hesitate to consider the mulberry-like revolving body
as the essential part of an ovum ; for, as regarded that mul-
-berry-like body, I stated the resemblance it bore to an ovum
to be perfect. There certainly were not wanting inducements
that would have made it very agreeable to one who had shewn
that cleavage of the yelk takes place in the ovum of the Mam-
malia,* could he have extended from the ovum of some of the
lower arimals to that of the highest class, the remarkable
phenomenon of rotation also. But Icontented myself with
the remark : “ It remains to be discovered whether the mul-
berry-like structure with its germ in the ovum of Mammalia
also performs rotatory motions.” +

Among the objections anticipated by Keber as likely to be
raised by others against his view, that these vesicles are ova,
is the fact that their membrane is fibrous,—a fibrous structure
never having been discovered in the “zona pellucida.” Now
this objection I have just met by my statement that the mem-
brane in question is not the “zona pellucida,” but the ovisac.
For there can be no doubt that a multitude of particles I
figured as dividing and subdividing to enter into the formation
of the ovisac (before the existence of what could be denomi-
nated membrane), and leaving remarkable centres which also
T delineated, were the elements of fibre. {

Another objection that might be raised against Keber’s
view has reference to size ; an objection fully provided for by
my idea that the vesicle in question is not the vitellary mem-
brane but the ovisac.

Keber observed, that in the membrane of one of the bliin’
containing a revolving body there had been formed an orifice ;
and this by an arrangement of the fibres too regular to admit
of the supposition that the orifice was accidental. This ori-
fice I believe to exist before the expulsion of the ovum from
the ovary; an opinion founded on the following observation

ee ee

* Phil. Trans. 1839, Plate 6. Tt Phil. Trans. 1839, p. 357.

t See especially in the Phil. Trans. for 1841, Plate 25, figs. 164 to 173.
And see a paper of mine in this Journal for October 1853, “On Animal and
Vegetable Fibre.”

-Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology. 47

along with others; viz, that “‘ when the discharge of the ovum
from the ovary is very near, that portion of the Graafian vesi-
cle directed outwards is seen to have been removed.”* After
recording which, I gave adrawing of a Graafian vesicle about
to discharge its ovum, that Graafian vesicle having been care-
fully dissected out of the ovarium, and so placed that the com-
pressor might act upon it laterally, when an appearance was
obtained which I cannot help believing to have presented the
orifice in question.| And I have no doubt that in the Mam-
malia this orifice is intended as well for the admission of the
feeundating element, as also for the expulsion from the vesi-
cle in question (ovisac), while in the ovary, of the feeundated
oyum.t For my observations shew that fecundation of the
Riek dts ovum takes place in the ovary.§

And here I am reminded, not only that the ovisac at its
origin, like other primary cells according to my observations,
is always elliptical and not round, but that as its size advances
(during which it becomes more spherical) it is often met with
somewhat tapered at one end ; which end is often found to be
the position of the minute ovum.||. Now as possibly the ori-
fice in question may be intimated at an early period, and before
the ovisac becomes covered with bloodvessels to produce a
Graafian follicle, I recommend inquirers to seek for it chiefly
at the smaller end, which they will no doubt find directed
towards the surface of the ovary.

I have just shewn that in Mammalia, when unfeeundated
ova leave the ovary, the ovisac usually escapes with them.
Tt is deserving of notice that in this class of animals the
leaving of the ovary by fecundated ova seems to be always

%* « Researches in Embryology, Second Series.” Phil. Trans., 1839, p. 317.

Tt Phil. Trans., 1839, Plate 5, fig. 95.

’ T See a drawing I gave of the ovisac with its orifice after the expulsion 4
the ovum. Phil. Trans., 1839, Plate 5, fig. 98.

§ It must not be inferred that my observations of Spermatozoa i in the interior
of ova met with in the Fallopian tube, made me suppose fecundation of such ova
to have taken place after their expulsion from the ovary. a

* |] “ Researches in Embryology, First Series.” Phil, Tr WNS., 1898, Plate 8,
fig 74 h.

48 Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology.

Followed by the expulsion of the ovisac.* So that in Mammalia
the ovisac appears to escape either with the ovum or after it.t

This brings me to conclusions, which I venture to offer as
perhaps sufficient to supply analogies long sought for by
Physiologists in vain, viz. :—

1. That in the Mammalia the vesicle I described as the
foundation of the Graafian follicle, and termed the ovisac,
does not remain permanently in the ovary, but is expelled
and absorbed.t

2. That in the Bird the ovum, when escaping from the
ovary, is accompanied by the corresponding vesicle,—the ovi-
sac, and that the ovisac becomes the shell-membrane of the.
Bird’s egg; the Bird’s “ egg,” as we call it, being thus a
shelled ovisac, and the contained “ yelk,” as is known, be-
ing the true ovum.

3. That the expelled and lost ovisac in the Mammalia
therefore corresponds to the shell-membrane in the Bird.

4, That after the formation of the ovum, the albuminous
contents of the ovisac in the Mammalia correspond to the al-
bumen in the Bird’s “ egg.”

5. That my retinacula in the Mammalia after all find their
analogue in the chalaze of the Bird; and that both have their
origin in the granular contents of the ovisac, which, at an
early period, are in appearance just the same in both.

6. That the shell-membrane of the Bird’s “ egg” is thus
a primary cell.

(We next come to the “ zona pellucida” in the ovum of
Mammalia, known to correspond to the vitellary membrane

* In the Rabbit this expulsion of the ovisac seems to take place in three or
four days after the fecundated ovum has escaped. In the Sheep and Goat not
so soon; for it appears to me to have been this vesicle (my ovisac) that Dr
Pockels refers to in these animals, as remaining in the incipient corpus lutewm
eight days and more after the expulsion of the ovum from the ovary.—(Miiller’s
Archiv, 1836, Heft ii., s. 203.)

t The ovisac escapes freed from its vascular covering; the latter alone enter-
ing into the formation of the corpus luteum. “ Researches in Embryology,
Second Series.” Phil. Trans, 1839, § 261, Plate 5, fig. 98. .

t And, therefore, as I formerly shewed, can take no part in the formation
of the corpus luteum.

Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology. 49

in the Bird’s “ egg ;” which latter I found to be originally a
perfect “ zona pellucida,’’—its consistence almost fluid.*)

If the analogies now pointed out be admitted, they will of
course be found applicable, more or less, to the ova of other
animals, as well as to the ovum of the Bird.

They will also serve to explain the occasional presence in
the Bird’s “ egg” of more than one yelk (ovum); obviously
referable tothe same cause as that (to be presently men-
tioned) sometimes producing in Mammalia several ova in one
Graafian follicle. For, it must be remembered, the founda-
tion of the Graafian follicle in Mammalia is the ovisac; and
the ovisac I have just stated my belief to become the shell-
membrane of the Bird’s ““ ego. ai

_ (The existence of my retinacula is actually among the
facts that Bischoff has denied. I must confess that this ap-
pears to me to imply investigation so superficial, that I do
not wonder at denial in the same quarter of facts requiring
far more profound research. For instance, the penetration
of the Spermatozoon into the ovum, my observation of which,
—though the fact was stated to have been demonstrated. to
an Owen and other men of eminence,—Bischoff ridiculed as
“born of the imagination.” Those who, from such denial,
have been led to doubt the existence of the retinacula, may
be convinced of it without the trouble even of opening a
Graafian follicle, by simply examining the latter in the Rab-
bit, or still better in the Ferret (Mustela Puro), from the ex-
terior of the ovary with a good pocket lens.)

I cannot refrain from again referring to the egg-like form,
tapered at one end (this end often found to be the position
of the ovum), among my figures of the ovarian ovisac, which
I believe to become the shell-membrane of the Bird. For
Such an early appearance of that tapered form suggests the

* Phil. Trans., 1838, Plate 5, fig. 25.
_ ¢ In the Dog, I have frequently seen three, and not rarely four ova in one
Graafian follicle ; and in the Ferret, such instances of plurality are still more
frequent.

VOL, LVI. NO, CXIL—JANUARY 1854, D

50 Dr Martin Barry’s Researches in Embryology.

thought, that the shape characteristic of the Bird’s “egg” is
first intimated there—in the ovary. And if so, the shape in
question is after all not peculiar to the “ egg” of the Bird ; for —
it happens that the ovarian ovisacs to figures of which I am ~
now referring, were seen in one of the Mammalia.*

From the observations of Von Baer and R. Wagner, in
invertebrated animals, and my own in two classes of the
Vertebrata, I concluded, in 1838, that the germinal vesicle
and its contents constitute, throughout the animal kingdom, ~
the most primitive portion of the ovum.} Subsequent re-
search in the Bird enabled me to record this as an established
fact.t And as the positions to be assigned to the several
parts of the ovum, in the language of “ cells” have not yet
been satisfactorily determined, I will here, in that language,
state my own recorded observations.

There first exists a pellucid particle, which becomes an —
elliptical “ cytoblast.’”? Out of the nucleolus of this “ cyto- —
blast” there arise the germinal vesicle and its contents ; and
then the outer part of the “ cytoblast” forms the membrane —
of a cell,—my ovisac. To this cell the germinal vesicle is —
related as the hollow nucleus toa ganglion globule. Out of
the granular contents of the cell now mentioned is formed,
first, a portion of the yelk around the germinal vesicle, and —
then, around the incipient yelk, the vitellary membrane—
the “zona pellucida” of Mammalia—which arises in a semi-
fluid form.

The occasional presence of two or more ova: in a single
ovisac, is to be explained as follows. It sometimes happens
that before the formation of the membrane of the ovisac, the
nucleolus of the ‘“ cytoblast ” has divided into two or more
parts, each of which becomes a germinal vesicle: and then
the membrane of the ovisac, subsequently formed, is made to
include the whole of these,—and we have in one ovisaec two.

* The Dog. Phil. Trans., 1838, Part ii., Plate 8, fig. 74, h.

t “ Researches in Embryology,” First Series, Phil. Trans., 1838, Part ii,
§ 93. }

{ Phil. Trans., 1841; Part ii., Plate 25, figs. 165 to 173.

Notes on the Life of Arago. 51

or more ova.* For out of the contents of the ovisac a yelk
arises around each germinal vesicle, and then a vitellary
membrane (“zona pellucida”) around each yelk. This, as
already said, explains the presence occasionally, not only of
several ova in a Graafian follicle, but also of more than one
“ yelk ” (ovum) in the Bird’s “ egg.”

Notes on the Life of the celebrated Dominique-Francois-Jean
Arago, Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences,
Member of the Board of Longitude, and Grand Officer of
the Legion of Honour, &c. &c.t

The death of DoMINIQUE-FRANCOIS-JEAN ARAGO has cast
a gloom over the city; and the announcement of this melan-
choly result, which we deplore and record with sadness, was
received with a heavy, heartfelt regret by his fellow-citizens.
The last of one of the bright ornaments of the true old school
Of science is now no more. The philosopher, the man of
of science, the friend of truth, the judicious and wise coun-
sellor, has left this earth full of years and full of honours,
having devoted a life of fifty years with a steady determina-
tion to improve his country, and to advance his fellow-
creatures. Never during this long period has he allowed his —
activity to be interrupted, nor has he ever flagged or even re-
coiled from anything that remained to be done. The lofty aim
of the departed philosopher was ever to unfold the wonder of
Divine skill, and to develop the laws of Divine government.
His immortal writings will shed a light on the paths of science,
as long as the world is governed by the same laws.
_ It is our office to give “ honour due” to all such manifes-
tations of intelligence; and whilst endeavouring to shew the
extent to which the mental powers of M. Arago were effec-

_ * An instance of this, met with in the ovary of a Bird, shewing two young
germinal vesicles about to be included in the same ovisac (and thus to explain
the presence of two “yelks” in the Bird’s “egg,”) will be found in the Phil,
Trans. for 1841, Part ii., Plate 25, fig. 165, in the only body in this figure
not marked by a letter.

Tt From the Atheneum, Quarterly Review, Commonwealth Newspaper of Glas-
gow, and Comptes Rendus. 3

D2

52 Notes on the Life of Arago.

tive in gaining for mankind new truths from Nature,—we
have also to examine the degree in which such a mind as his
was influential, by suggestion and by example, in elevating
the spirit of his age.

The long series of sufferings which brought M. ila to
the grave, at a not very advanced age, commenced by dia-
betes, not very intense, but which rapidly exhausted his
strength. The diabetes gave way to another malady, which
continued slowly the lamentable work of decomposition and
destruction, and which was terminated by dropsy in the
chest, with suffusion and suffocation, swelling of the extre-
mities, &e. Everything announced an early death; but it
was hoped that the efforts of science, and the devoted and
tender care of an afflicted family, would prolong his precious
existence some days longer. ‘The illustrious patient rose on
Sunday, 2d October, afternoon, and dressed himself. He went
to bed again at five o’clock, and took a slight repast. Some
minutes after, he asked to be raised a little, and to be placed
in the middle of his bed; then all at once he cried, pressing
his breast, “‘] am suffocating! Iam suffocated!” His at-
tendants hastened to him, and proceeded to light a lamp the
better to ascertain his state; but before this could be done
the death-rattle was heard, and in less than five minutes |
after 'rangois Arago was dead. The great man has now
drawn his last breath. The stillness of death surrounds him,
accompanied with deep silence and pensive sorrow, sweetly —
mingled with the full assurance of hope. The close of such
a life is full of solemn and soul-subduing tenderness. The —
living soul has gone—it has gone to the sweets of eternity— _
the eternal home of his God and his Saviour. His death is
an act of his Maker, designed for the good both of the living ©
and dead. :

During all his malady his lofty intelligence was not ob-
scured for an instant. Scarcely three weeks ago, he was—
labouring at a new edition of his celebrated work on Thunder;
he recalled what he had read, dictated precious additions, —
caused difficult researches to be made, &c. ; and he asked M. —
Babinet to prepare for him a table of the best determined —
numbers of the length of undulations, in order that he might
complete an important paper on Light; he corrected the

Notes on the Life of Arago. 53

proofs of his Biographical Notice of Monge; he terminated
his Notice on Planets, &c. ; he discussed with perfect luci-
dity ; he made profound remarks, &c. The pain of his malady
affected him a good deal less; every week there was a vio-
lent conflict between his conscience—delicate to excess—and _
his physical weakness, the energetic refusals of physicians,
and the pressing solicitations of his family; more than once
it was impossible to restrain him, and he was seen almost
dying endeavouring to examine a voluminous correspondence,
as if he wished to yield the last sigh at the post of duty.

_ The funeral of M. Arago took place with much pomp. The
remains of the deceased were transferred to a chapelle ar-
dente, under the principal gate of the Observatoire, where
his friends were permitted to sprinkle holy water over them.
In the meantime a brigade of infantry, under the command of
General Renault, drew up at both sides of the avenue of ‘the
Luxembourg, where they were shortly joined by 200 men
of the 18th battalion of the National Guard. The rain, which
_ had set in early in the morning, fell without ceasing, which,
_ however, did not prevent thousands from assembling on the
| avenue and in the streets through which the cortége was to
| pass. At noon the procession began to move. It was opened
| by two companies of the 6th regiment of infantry, the band
| playing a solemn dirge ; next rode the General, accompanied
by his staff, and an escort of horse chasseurs, attired in their
new uniform, green and black, with woollen bonnets, which
gave them the appearance of Cossacks. Then came two
other companies of infantry, the detachment of National
Guards, two mourning coaches, containing the clergy of St
| Jacques du Haut Pas, a modest hearse drawn by two horses,
| and followed by M. Emmanuel Arago, the son of. the de-
ceased, other members of his family, his numerous friends,
| the members of the Académie des Sciences, of which M. Arago
| was perpetual secretary, and a crowd-of his political adhe-
| rents, among whom were M. Garnier Pagés, his colleague of
| the Provisional Government in 1848; M. Pagnerre, one of
| its ‘secretaries; M. Bastide,. niet of Foreign Affairs in
| the Executive Goyernment under General Cavaignac; M.

a east;

54 Notes on the Life of Arago.

Guinard, Colonel of the Parisian Artillery, who, having joined
M. Ledru-Rollin in the demonstration of the Conservatoire
des Arts des Métiers, on the 13th of June 1849, was sen-
tenced to banishment, but was subsequently pardoned by the
Emperor; Messieurs de Lasterie, Jules Favre, Flandin, —
Lherbette, and other members of the late Legislative Assem-
bly. Two Imperial state-carriages came next, in which were
seated Marshal Vaillant, Grand Marshal of the Palace, and
M. Ducos, Minister of Marine, who directs ad interim the
department of Public Instruction in the absence of M. For-
toul. Two battalions of infantry closed the march. The
cortége descended the avenue of the Luxembourg, passing
close to the spot where Marshal Ney was shot, and proceed-
ed to the Rues de I’Est, Val de Grace, and St Jacques, to the
church of St Jacques du Haut Pas. The edifice being small,
very few except the family and immediate friends of the de-
ceased could be present at the religious service, which was
performed by the parish priest, assisted by a numerous body ~
of the clergy. At one o’clock the cortége resumed its march,
in the same order, for the cemetery of Pére-la-Chaise, passing
through the Rues St Jacques and Soufflot, the square of the
Panthéon, the Rues Clovis, Fossés, St Victor, and St Bernard, —
the Quay St Bernard, the Bridge of Austerlitz, the Place —
Mazas, the Boulevard Contrescarpe, the Place de la Bastille, —
and the Rue de la Rouquette. It was said that this morning
when the Moniteur announced that the Government intended —
to honour the memory of the illustrious deceased, the chiefs
of the Democratic party met, and resolved to recommend
their friends not to appear at the funeral. Either their orders —
did not reach in time or were disobeyed, for the greatest
number of those who formed the cortége belonged to that
party, with whom M. Arago did not sympathise, and who —
were in arms against him in June 1848. They awaited the ©
arrival of the procession in wine-shops and coffee-houses —
along the line of march, and joined it as it passed.

M. Ranal, a former pupil of the Polytechnic School, and
one of the young race of philosophers in whom Arago had
taken a lively interest, pronounced over the tomb of his mas-
ter the following brief but touching eulogium :— oy

“ Illustrious Master—Much-loved Master—Noble Citizen —

Notes on the Life of Arago. 55

—Itis a duty, and at the same time a very sad honour, for me
to express a sentiment which now fills every heart. Thy con-
stant solicitude for the progress of human knowledge has
always induced thee to take the young by the hand, and to
inspire them with thy passion for science. On the eve of thy
death, the last word which thou spoke to us was, ‘ Work ;
work diligently.’
“ This sublime lesson will remain engraven on the heart
of every young philosopher. They will feel compelled to fol-
low the path which thy genius has opened. In falling asleep
into immortality, thou hast desired to teach them that work
is the only means of doing service to their country and hu-
manity. Thanks on their behalf. Adieu, in the name of
youth—in the name of its admiration of thee—of its love

for thy memory—lI tell it thee—you may count upon it.
Adieu !”

M. Arago was born in the village of Estager, near Perpig-

nan, in the Pyrenees, on the 26th of February 1786, and he
died at the Observatory in Paris on Sunday the 2d of Octo-
ber; consequently he was in the 68th year of his age. Gifted
by nature with powers of a higher order than those which
are usually bestowed on man, he possessed or acquired
habits of industry which enabled him to develop them in all
their fulness. Like the majority of really great men, he was
the architect of his own fortune. He owed little to fortuitous
circumstances; and, indeed, achieved much when serious ob-
stacles were put in his path. Suffering no difficulty to bear
him back, he rose always superior to misfortune ; and, with
great honesty of purpose and indomitable independence, he
laboured towards the end which he had in view. From his
_ boyhood this appears to have been his character. When a
youth in the College of Perpignan, his ambition was excited
_by the appearance of, and the respect paid to, an engineer en
chef. He learned that this honour might be obtained by
‘means of the Polytechnic School, and that a searching exa-
‘mination in mathematics must be gone through to ensure his
_ admission to that institution. Francois Arago then seriously
commenced mathematical studies, and in 1804 he entered the
school in question with the highest honours.

56 Notes on the Life of Arago.

In 1806, when only twenty years of age, so much had he
distinguished himself, that he was appointed a secretary of
the Board of Longitude; and almost immediately afterwards, —
his acquirements having attracted the attention of M. Monge,
he was recommended as the fitting assistant to M. Biot for
undertaking the measurement of an arc‘of the meridian in
Spain. This scientific labour was considerably advanced in —
1807, when Biot returned to Paris, leaving Arago in charge
of the important work.

In the execution of this arduous work, MM. Biot and Arago
were stationed on the summit of Mount Galatzo, one of the
highest of the Catalonian branch of the Eastern Pyrenees,
while MM. Chaix and Rodriguez established themselves on —
Mount Campecey in Ivica, one of the Balearic Islands. In —
this cold and desolate position the astronomers remained for
several months, keeping up a constant communication with
each other by means of fire signals, lighted up at particular
intervals. Here they were exposed to various kinds of pri-
vations and particularly to the fierce blasts which sweep —
over these lofty solitudes. The huts in which they dwelt
were frequently blown down, and their lives endangered.
But these calamities were nothing compared with the dan-_
gers to which they were exposed from the ignorance of the
people. Before Arago had finished his work, his colleague,
M. Biot, had returned to Paris, and war had broken out be-
tween France and Spain... The fires which blazed at the
signal-stations were regarded by the ignorant mountaineers
as telegraphic despatches informing the invading army of the —
movements of the patriots. Arago was therefore denounced
as a spy, and it required all the courage and skill which he
possessed to escape the dangers to which he was thus ex--
posed. Born near the Spanish frontiers, he spoke the same
dialect which prevails round Mount Galatzo, and, disguised
in the mantle and red cap of a Catalonian mountaineer, he-
effected his escape to Majorca, where he found shelter, along
with his papers and instruments, in the fortress of Belver.
After completing in this retirement his geodesical caleula-
tions, he obtained liberty, on the condition of proceeding to
Algiers, which he did by the first opportunity. On his pas-
sage from Algiers to Marseilles, in an Algerine frigate pro-

Notes on the Life of Arago. 57

cured for him by the French consul, the ship, when in sight
of the French coast, was captured by a Spanish privateer.
Arago was carried a prisoner to Catalonia, confined in the
fortress of Rosas. and afterwards sent to the hulks.at Pa-
lamos. Indignant at the insult-offered to his flag, the Dey of
Algiers demanded and obtained from the Spanish Govern-
‘ment the liberation of Arago, and the whole of the crew.
Anxious to return to his country, Arago again set sail for
Marseilles, but, when about to enter the harbour, a violent
hurricane drove the vessel to sea, and cast it on the rocky
shore of Sardinia, then at war with Algiers. Being thus
prevented from landing, the vessel in a shattered condition
reached Bougia, on the coast of Africa, about three days’
journey from Algiers. Assuming the costume of a Bedouin
Arab, and protected by a marabout, Arago, travelling on
foot, reached Algiers in safety. Unfortunately, however, for
our distinguished philosopher, the former Dey, who had res-
cued him from the hulks at Palamos, had fallen a victim in
‘an insurrection, and was succeeded by a man of brutal cha-
racter, who refused to permit Arago to return to France.
The French consul, however, succeeded in obtaining his re-
lease, and Arago was safely landed at Marseilles, in the
month of August 1809, the vessel in which he had embarked
‘having narrowly escaped from an English cruiser, which had
given it chase.

Upon the death of the celebrated astronomer Lalande, in
1809, Arago, though only twenty-three years of age, was, in
opposition to the standing rules of the Academy of Sciences,

appointed to the vacant place in the section of Astronomy ;
and, after a few years, he entered upon that brilliant career
of discovery which has immortalized his own name, and
added to the glory of his country. Although Arago, when a
‘pupil at the Polytechnic School, had voted against the as-
sumption of the consulate for life, yet Buonaparte, who knew
how to value an honourable man, never resented this act of
hostility, and remembering the courage of the young philo-
sopher, he appointed him one of the Professors of the Poly-
technic School, and subsequently Director of the Imperial
Observatory, in which he resided till his death.

58 Notes on the Life of Arago.

Numerous researches, experiments, and inventions, have —
immortalized his name ; but his principal claims to renown,
are, 1st, magnetic and rotatory polorization ; 2d, magnetism
by the action of currents ; 3d, magnetism by rotation. Fran-
cois Arago was an encyclopedic genius. Sciences, letters,
social economy,—his vast intelligence embraced all with an

ever equal superiority. At the Ecole Polytechnique, the —

Académie, the Observatoire, and the Municipal Council, the
extent and variety of his knowledge, and especially the as- —
tonishing faculty of assimilation, vulgarization, and applica-
tion, with which he was gifted, placed him everywhere in the
first rank. As an orator, he was distinguished by a marvel-
lous lucidity of exposition—by the abundance, facility, and
picturesque energy of his delivery. As a writer, he was dis-
tinguished by clearness, elegance, and a sustained firmness
of style—qualities which place him on a par with the most
distinguished of our prose writers. “ He possessed,” says
Timon, “the secrets of the language, as well as the secrets
of the heart.’”’ ‘“ Never,’’ says one of his biographers, “ did
human head undertake, without breaking, such an enormous
mass of labour.” Arago considered every man idle who did —
not work fourteen hours a-day. Days of that kind were,
however, for him days of repose. He was engaged at the
same time in chemistry, physics, mechanics, astronomy, na- _
tural history, philosophy, and literature. He was a member
of all the scientific or industrial associations in the world; —
his study was literally encumbered with plans to examine,
and memoirs to analyse. ‘The Government, the municipality,
the establishments of public utility, and even private industry,

found in him an active and disinterested counsellor and ~

guide. His time was given to all things and to everybody.
At the same time that he had an eye to what passes above, —
he had one to what takes place here; and amidst all his ab-
sorbing and varied occupations he found time to shew him-
self one of the worthiest and most charming talkers in the
saloons of Paris.

Arago’s first work was read before the Institute on the
24th of March 1806. It was an investigation, in which he —
was assisted by Biot, “On the Affinities of Bodies for Light, —

Notes on the Life of Arago. 59

and particularly on the Refracting Powers of different Gases.”
With M. Petit, Arago investigated “‘ The Refractive Powers
of certain Liquids, and of the Vapours formed from them.
With Fresnel, he examined ‘“ The Action which the Rays of
Polarized Light exercise upon each other :’—and on those
‘Subjects much valuable matter will be found in his Memoirs.
Omitting from our list those Astronomical notices which
regularly appeared in the Annuaire—and which, though
forming a part of his official duty, manifest, nevertheless, the
zeal of the Secretary and subsequent Director of the Bureau
des Longitudes—we would refer to M. Arago’s memoirs ‘“‘ On
the Comets of Short Period ;” “ On the Pendulums of MM.
Breguet ;” “ On Chronometers ;? < On the Double Stars ;”
-and on the vexed question, ‘‘ Does the moon exercise any
appreciable Influence on our Atmosphere?” Passing from
astronomical subjects, we find several memoirs :—‘* On Noc-
turnal Radiation ;”’ ‘‘ The Theory of the Formation of Dew ;”
and on allied subjects—as “The Utility of the Mats with
which Gardeners cover their Plants by Night ;” ‘‘On the
Artificial Formation of Ice ;”’ and “ On the Fogs which form
after the. setting of the Sun, when the Evening is calm and
‘serene, on the Borders of Lakes and Rivers.’ Indeed, the
whole of the phenomena to which Dr Wells had directed at-
tention in his excellent work “ On Dew,” was thoroughly
investigated by M. Arago.

When we add the memoirs on “ The ye Relation of
the Different Chains of Mountains in Europe,” “The Abso-
lute Height of the most Remarkable Ridges of the Cordilleras
of the Andes,’ “ Historical Notices of the Steam-Engine,”’
“On Explosions of Steam-Boilers,”’ “ Historical Notices of
the Voltaic Pile,’? “those which are connected with the Po-
larization of Light,” ‘* the Phenomena of Magnetic Rotation,”
and “‘ On the Egyptian Hieroglyphics,” we think we indicate
labours of a most varied and important character.

_ For many years, M. Arago, who was the Director of the
Observatory at Paris, employed his position in the Chamber
of Deputies and elsewhere, to obtain large grants from the
state for the use of the institution over which he presided.
‘Mz. Arago, on the 13th September 1852, proposed to the Aca-

7

60 Notes on the Life of Arago.

démie des Sciences an infallible method of finding out every
planet which remained. Since that period several more
have been added to the list.* : |

The French nation may be justly proud of such a man as
Arago. We cannot overlook his earnest desire to give to
the public all the advantages of the discoveries of science
with the least possible delay ; and with the utmost freedom
from mere technicalities. In 1816, he established, in con-
nection with M. Gay-Lussaec, the Annales de Physique et
de Chimie; and on his pressing representation, on the 13th
July 1835, the Academy commenced, in charge of its per-
petual secretaries, Les Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires.

In 1830, Arago was made Director of the Observatory ;
and he succeeded Fourier as a perpetual secretary of the
Academy of Sciences. His remarkable activity of mind and

*1. 1801 a Ceres , : Piazzi . x Palermo.

2. 1802 E Pallas*’’ . : Olbers I. ° Bremen.

3. 1804 : Juno. : Harding : Lilienthal.

St TODF fay Vesta. : Olbers II. . Bremen.

5. 1845 , Astrea . ‘ Hencke I... Driesen.

6. 1847 ‘ Hebe as "a als Hencke ll. . Driesen.

7. 1847 Tris 3 . Hind I. ; London.

8. 1847 : Flora. 4 Hind ITI. + London.

9. 1848 : Metis. d Graham : Markrea.

10. 1850 ° Hygeia . . De Gasparis TI. Naples.

11. 1850 ; Parthenope . De Gasparis II. Naples.
12. 1850 t Victoria ; ind iif, . London.

13. 1850 ° Egeria . : De Gasparis III. Naples.
14. 1851 i Irene ‘ : Hind IV. . London.
15. 1851 ° Kunomia , De Gasparis IV. Naples.
16. 1852 . Psyche . , De Gasparis V. Naples. e
1 ie 0 el > Hea tia ie rs . Diisseldorf. ;
18. 1852 é Melpomene . Hind V. : London.

19, 1852 p Fortuna : Hind VI. J London,
20.1852 . Massalia ; OS Cees VI. Nee pi:
21.1852. ~~ Lutetia . Goldschmidt Paris, ot
22. 1852 . Calliope : Mind Vii}: London.
23. 1853 ° Thalia . ‘ Hind VIII. . London.
24. 1853 : Phocea . ; Chacornac II. Marseilles...
25. 1853 P “ , De Gasparis VII. Naples. tis
26

. 1853 : ew, z Luther II. . Bilk.

Notes on the Life of Avago. 61

unwearying industry, led him without: difficulty through an
amount of labour which would have overwhelmed an ordi-
nary man. There was a remarkable clearness in his percep-
tion of these matters to which his attention was directed.
He readily stripped them of any adventitious clouding or
mystery by which they might be surrounded, and fearlessly
and energetically expressed his convictions. As a writer,
we may remark the strong evidences of the latter in his
firmness of style ; and the clearness of his perceptive faculties
is shewn in his lucid eloquence. :

In 1834 Arago visited Edinburgh for the purpose of at-
tending the meeting of the British Association. His friend,
Professor Jameson, shewed him marked attention. The
freedom of the City was granted to him by the Lord Provost,
Magistrates, and Council, which he was highly proud of ;
and he also had conferred on him the honourable distinction
of doctor of laws.

- It would have been well if Arago had devoted himself ex-
clusively to the pursuits of science and literature, for which
he was so eminently qualified. He found himself unable to »
resist the temptation presented by the revolution of 1830 of
entering on the political arena. During the combat of the
three days he did his best to stop, through his influence with
Marmont, with whom he had long been on friendly terms, the
effusion of blood. In the election which took place soon after
the fall of the elder branch of the Bourbons, he was elected
to the Chamber of Deputies by his department, and at once
chose the party to which he attached himself, by taking his
place between Laffitte and Dupont (de L’Eure) in the extreme
left. From that period till the revolution of 1848 he acted
with the same party. On questions of material interest to
the country, such as public education, the navy, canals, rail-
roads, &., he often spoke, and effectively ; and it is not yet
forgotten, that on the question of the fortifications of Paris
his opposition against the detached forts was formidable. His
speech in 1840, on the necessity of extending the electoral
suffrage, produced great sensation at the time. In the midst
of his scientific and legislative labours, he found time to at-
tend to his duties as member of the Council-General of the

62 Notes on the Life of Arago:

Seine, to which he was elected in 1840. The period is too
recent to be forgotten when he appeared before the world in
a still more prominent manner, and in the decline of his use-'
ful life he was flung into the midst of the revolutionary tem-
pest. The republicanism of Arago had nothing sanguinary —
or violent in it. He was named member of the Provisional
Government, and Minister of War and Marine ad interim,
and exerted himself to stem the flood which rolled on with so
much violence. From the first moment he did his best to
allay the passions of the multitude, but without effect. His
labours during that terrible but brief period which began
with the flight of the royal family and closed with the tre-
mendous struggle of June, gave him a shock from which he
never totally recovered. His double capacity as Minister of
War and of Marine, and his alleged want of acquaintance
with the details of those departments, form one of the most
amusing passages in the memoir of “ Jerome Paturot,” which,
I presume, is in the recollection of those who read the sati-
rical productions of the period. Whatever may have been his
qualifications for ministerial functions, his courage as a citizen
was not doubted. In the midst of the horrible carnage of the
days of June he marched at the head of the troops against
the barricades of the 12th arrondissement, and exhausted
every effort, but in vain, to stop the slaughter. His name,
once so popular in that quarter, had lost all its influence ;
and it is said the insurgents directed their fire against him,
when, advancing alone to a barricade, and waving a white
flag, he implored the infuriated multitude to consent to terms —
of peace. That deadly struggle put an end to the political
career of Arago. Broken down morally and physically, he —
never again assumed a prominent position; and, though he
still retained his place in the National Assembly, he gave his
vote in silence. His altered features, and his form once so
stately, but now bowed down less by age’than by sorrow, —
gave token of his sad disappointments. |
The coup d’état of the 2d of December completed the ads ;
struction of all his fond illusions. Summoned as a public —
functionary to take the oaths to the new government, he re-
fused, and prepared to resign the place he had occupied in the

Notes on the Life of Arago. 63

Observatory for so many years. The government, however,
made an exception in his favour, and Arago remained to his
last breath Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences.

In this emergency he addressed the following noble letter
_to the Minister of Public Instruction; and it had the happy
effect of changing the decision of the Emperor, who allowed
him to retain both his offices :—

“ Paris, May 9, 1852.

* Monsieur le Ministre,—The government has itself ad-
mitted that the oath prescribed by Art. 14 of the Constitu-
tion ought not to be required from the members of a purely
scientific and literary body like the Institute. I cannot see
why the Bureau des Longitudes, an astronomical academy in
which, when a vacancy occurs, an election ensues to fill it
up, is placed in another category. This simple circumstance
would perhaps have sufficed to induce me to refuse the oath,
but considerations of another nature, I confess, have exer-
cised a decisive influence on my mind. Circumstances ren-
dered me, in 1848, as member of the Provisional Govern-
ment, one of the founders of the Republic. As such, and I
glory in it at present, I contributed to the abolition of all
political oaths. Ata later period I was named by the Con-
stituent Assembly president of the Executive Committee; my
acts in this last-named situation are too well known to the
public for me to have need to mention them here. You can
comprehend, Monsieur le Ministre, that in presence of these
reminiscences my conscience has imposed on me a resolution
which perhaps the Director of the Observatory would have
hesitated to come to. I had always thought that, by the
terms of the law, an astronomer at the Bureau of Longitude
_ was appointed for life, but your decision has undeceived me.
I have therefore, Monsieur le Ministre, to request you to
appoint a day on which I shall have to quit an establishment
which I have been inhabiting now for near half a century.
That establisment, thanks to the protection given to it by
the Governments which have succeeded each other in France
for the last 40 years,—thanks, above all, I may be allowed
to say, to the kindness of the Legislative Assemblies in re-

64 Notes on the Life of Avago.

gard to me—has risen from its ruins and its insignificance,

and can now be offered to strangers asa model. It is not |

without a profound sentiment of grief that I shall separate
from so many fine instruments, to the construction of which
I have more or less contributed ; it is not without lively ap-
prehension that I shall behold the means of research created
by me passing into malevolent, or even hostile hands; but
my conscience has spoken, and I am bound to obey its dic-
tates. Iam anxious that, in this circumstance, everything
shall pass in the most open manner; and in consequence, I
hasten to inform you, Monsieur le Ministre, that I will ad-
dress to all the great academies of Europe and America—for
I have long had the honour of belonging to them—a circular
to intimate my removal from an establishment with which
my name had been in some sort identified, and which was for
me a second country. I desire it to be known everywhere,
that the motives which have dictated my determination have
nothing for which my children can ever blush. I owe these
explanations, above all, to the first-rate savans who honour
me with their friendship, such as Humboldt, Faraday, Brew-
ster, Melloni, &c. Iam anxious, also, that these illustrious
personages shall not be uneasy concerning the great change
which this determination of mine will produce in my existence.
My health has, without doubt, been much impaired in the
service of my country. A man cannot have passed a part of
his life going from mountain-peak to mountain-peak, in the
wildest districts of Spain, for the purpose of determining the
precise figure of the earth; in the inhospitable regions of

Africa comprised between Bougia and the capital of the Re-

gency; in Algerine corsairs; in the prisons of Majorca, of
Rosas, and Palamos—without profound traces being left be-
hind. But I may remind my friends, that a hand without

vigour can still hold a pen, and that the half-blind old man —

will always find near him persons anxious to note down his
words. Receive, Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my
respect. “Fr, ARAGO.”’

‘«‘Monsieur,—In excusing yourself on May 9 on the score
of ill health, for not attending with your colleagues of the

Notes on the Life of Arago. 65

Board of Longitude to take the oath to the Prince President
and to the Constitution, you had authorized me to suppose
that. you would not.decline an obligation imposed by the Con-
stitution on all public functionaries. Your second letter,
which bears the same date, but which I received at. a later
hour, does not allow me to, entertain that hope. - Without
stopping to remark on the change of language, which it is im-
possible not to be struck with, and on the terms—so little
guarded—which | was surprised to meet with on this occasion
from your pen, I considered it my duty to take the orders of
the Prince before I accepted your resignation. The President
of the Republic has authorized me to admit an exception in
fayour of a savant whose works have thrown lustre on France,
and whose existence his government would regret to embitter.
The publicity given to your letters will not change in any
respect the resolution which I consider it an honour to
transmit to you. Receive, Monsieur, the assurance of my
distinguished consideration. “‘ HW, ForrTouu.”

In his capacity as perpetual secretary to the Institute.for
the Physical Sciences, an office to which he succeeded on the
death of Baron Fourier in 1830, it became the duty of Arago
to write the Eloges of its members, both foreign and domestic.
Cuvier, as the perpetual secretary for the Natural Sciences,
had in this respect distinguished himself as a powerful and
eloquent writer ; but we venture to say that his eloges were
equalled, if not surpassed, by the vigorous and eloquent bio-
graphical sketches which came from Arago’s pen. The fol-
lowing is a list of the most important of these Eloges, with
_ the dates at which they were read :—

-1831—Volta, Foreign Associate.

1832—Dr Thomas Young, Foreign Associate.
1833—Baron Fourier.

1834—James Watt, Foreign Associate.
1837—Carnot.

1841—Condorcet.

1844-—Bailly.

_Of his qualifications as a legislator, the following and con-
VOL. LVI. NO. CXI.— JANUARY 1854, 1D

66 Notes on the Life of Avago.

cluding paragraph from a sketch by Cormenin (Les Oratewrs),
published in 1842, may give a good idea :—

“Whenever Arago ascends the tribune, the Chamber, at-
tentive and anxious, becomes still, and listens eagerly. The
spectators hang over the galleries to see him. His stature
is lofty, his hair is naturally curled and flowing, and his fine
Southern head rises over the Assembly. In the muscular
contraction of his temples there is a power of will and of
thought which reveals a noble spirit. Unlike those speakers
who address the house on every occasion, and who, nine times
out of ten, are ignorant of what they talk about, Arago does
not speak except on questions already prepared, and which
combine the interest of the circumstance with the attractions
of science. His speeches are therefore quite to the purpose
as well as general, and appeal at once to the reason and the
passions of his auditory. In this manner he soon comes to
master them. The very moment he enters on his subject,
he concentrates on himself the eyes and the attention of all.
He takes science, as it were, between his hands ; he strips it
of its asperities and its technical forms, and he renders it so
clear that the most ignorant are astonished, as they are
charmed, at the ease with which they understand its mys-
teries. There is something perfectly lucid in his demonstra-
tions. His manner is so expressive that light seems to issue
from his eyes, from his lips, from his very fingers. He inter-
weaves in his discourses the most caustic appeals to Minis-
ters—appeals which defy all answer; the most piquant anec-
dotes, which seem to belong naturally to the subject, and
which adorn without overloading it. When he confines him-
self to the narration of facts, his elocution has all the graces
of simplicity. But when he is, as it were, face to face with
science, he looks into its very depths, draws forth its inmost
secrets, and displays all its wonders; he invests his admira-
tion of it with the most magnificent language, his expressions
become more and more ardent, his style more coloured, and
his eloquence is equal to the grandeur of his subject.”

Arago stood the busiest man in a busy age—the great ex- —
positor of nature’s truths as they were developed by the —
labours of experimentalists. The idea given, Arago saw at

Notes on the Life of Arago. 67

once its entire bearing, and advanced himself by rapid strides
to the elucidation of the fact. His suggestions were the
guiding stars of science in France ; his experiments were the
foundations on which new sciences were to be built. Arago
never allowed his thoughts to be involved in a theory; he
accepted a theory as a means of advancing, but was ever
ready to abandon it when it was found that facts favoured a
contrary view. In the history of philosophy, his name will
have enduring fame, not from the discoveries which he made,
but from the aid which he gave to science in all its depart-
ments by his prompt and unfailing penetration. A member
of nearly all the scientific societies of Hurope, he was the
point uniting them in a common bond. In every part of the
civilized world his name was regarded with reverence, and
all scientific communities felt that they had lost a friend
when they heard of the death of the Astronomer of France.

a

The Funeral Speech of M. Flourens at the Grave of M:
Arago on the day of his Funeral, which took place on the
Oth October 1853.

-GENTLEMEN,—Death takes us in general by surprise.
The severe indisposition that M. Arago has laboured under
for the last six months ought to have stripped us of all hope
of ever seeing him again amongst us; but the blow which

has now fallen upon us has thrown us into a state of deep

consternation, as if it had never beenf oreseen. The reason
is, that the void which certain people leave behind them is

much greater than even our fears represented to us; and we

only find out its vast extent after it has actually taken place.
Yes, the mind which has become eclipsed was that powerful
intelligence which the Academy cherished so much; a vast
intelligence born to embrace in its grasp all the sciences,
and to extend them, and in which seemed to be realized the
noble vocation of our own Society, and its own motto, to dis-
cover, to invent, and make perfect.

At the very outset of his career, M. Arago had the good
fortune, so desirable for a young man who desires to dream

B2

68 Notes on the Life of Ar ago.

of : a distinguished future, to be connected with ; a great y work.
He was appointed to go to Spain with M. Biot to complete
the trigonometrical survey, a work which has given US a very
precise measurement of our globe. His great capacity, and
the ardent feeling with which he devoted himself to this
beautiful under tahieig procured for him, on his return, ‘the | Yre-
ception into the Academy. He was then scarcely tw enty -three
years old. In_his youth he gained much. affection ; and the
Society which so early bestowed upon him its sympathies,
soon perceived with pride that he justified them all. This is
not the place to enumerate all the labours of a scientific life,
which was alike active, devoted, and. restless... M,. Avago
had a decided genius for invention. He opened n new roads.
His discoveries on polarization, the relations: of magnetism
and electricity, and his magnetism. of rotation, are of a high
order, and have laid open to our view unknown results ;

nor was he less able or less fortunate in other kinds ‘of
discoveries. .M. Arago often wandered out of his own pro-
per sphere... He strove hard to raise the standard of ‘the
body that he belonged to. .He was ever in search of ta
lented young men to enlist for the Academy, to add to its —
reputation. All his scientific contemporari ies were attached
to him by, the ties of the deepest gratitude. Bae ff the year
1830, M. Arago was called upon to replace M. Fourier’ as
perpetual secretary. Since the time that he appeared at’ his
post, the Academy seemed to become possessed of a more
active life; by familiarity, which was full of charm in a
superior man like him, he knew how’ to secure” ‘confidence
and lively attachments. This gift, this great art of success,
he devoted entirely to the success of that body whose érgan
he had, become. Never did the activity of the Academy’ ap-
pear so. powerful or so extensive. Science seemed to throw -
an unusual splendour, and to spread widely its brilliant light
-on all the productive powers of our country. “Arago' was
gifted with a matchless penetration of mind, along with’ ex-
traordinary analytical powers. _The ‘exposition of the’ Works

ae Opty

of secretary. nig thoughts were easy ‘and rd bit with a turn for
intellectual wit; and his powerful expressions invariably

Notes on the Life of Arago. 69

gained for him the marked attention of his colleagues, who
a way 8, s, astonished | to. See so many happy talents united,
ees, ‘to him with a feeling of pleasure mixed with admira-
: When protracted ilIness had deprived him‘ of sight,
ihe. resources ‘of ‘his’ vast genius became manifest to’“all
those. who surrounded him. Works on the thost diffictilt and
| complicated. subjects were analysed. by him in a clear, dis-
tinct, and logical manner, Thanks to his unfailing memory,
all his ‘intellectual work was done easily, and without’ any
visible labour. | ‘The very facility of its reproduction dis-
guised 1 fr om the listener the wonder of the intellectual prs
cess,
AS the historian of the Academy, M. Arago manifested in
a this 80 dificult and formidable office of high priest, as it may
‘be called—in which capacity he had to foretell the judgment
of, ‘posterity—a. conscientious study, a force of investigation,
a desire. to, be completely impartial, which procured for his
eloge : a very high rank. In these writings of the eloquent
; secretary, we find. all the qualities of the great mind :’a’bril-
diant style, vigour, and enthusiasm, along with a charming
. Bont nature. AS interpreter of the feclings of dons Academy
Lyvas willive to speak of ‘the 1 man in so far as He belonged
‘ to, DS. He will live for, ev er, as one of the scientific illustr a-
tions, of. our ‘country. ‘The noble veterans of science in all
parts of the civilized world, in Berlin, London, St Peters-
burg, and Philadelphia, will mix their grief with ours. - The
generation of scholars who have followed each other for the
last forty years will, tell. to that intelligent, and patriotic
_ youth which to-day occupy their TEE in our brilliant
schools how much beloved he was, and what power there
was in the kind sympathies of that master on whose tomb
they lay down at this moment the homage of their grief.
Arago knew well the sweets of filial piety. The ties of his
affection became extended without getting weaker. His
brother and sisters were along with him under the same pa-
ternal roof; their children and his belonged to him alike.
He also found a niece, whose touching and pious solicitude
_ for him receives to-day the grateful tribute of the Academy.

70 On the Introduction of the
ay
On the Introduction of the Magnificent Forest Tree, the
Deodar, from India into England.

The cultivation of this magnificent forest tree is about to
engage the serious attention of the Government, and one or
more of the royal forests are to be planted with it. Mr
Jameson, Director, Botanical Gardens, North-West Provinces,
India, sent home last season, by order of the Governor-
General, upwards of two thousand pounds of Deodar seeds ;
and in order that parties now cultivating the Indian Cedar
on a large scale might see the dimensions the timber attains,
he also sent home four planks twenty feet in length, four feet
and a half wide, and four inches thick, procured in the forests
of Kooloo, in the Kohistan of the Punjaub. For years past
from five to six maunds (400 to 500 lb.) of seed have been
despatched annually by him to the Court of Directors, by the
overland route, for distribution to public institutions and pri-
vate individuals ; and young plants which, ten or twelve years
ago, used to sell for £5 and £6 each, may now be had of the
nurserymen at twenty shillings per hundred.

Cultwation of the Deodar in England.

When, at the instance of the late Lord Auckland, at that
time Governor-General of India, the Court of Directors
ordered a large quantity of seed of the Deodar to be imported
annually* for distribution here, a service was rendered to the

* 400 to 500 1b., which are liberally distributed to public and private
gardens throughout the country. In addition to the seeds of the Deodar tree,
seeds of the following coniferous trees are also sent to England from the Saha-
rumpore Botanical Garden, being collected by the seed collectors of that noble
institution in the Forests of the Himalayas, viz.—

Pinus excelsa,
Gerardiana.
Brunoniana,.

. longifolia,

P. (Abies) Smithiana,

Picea Webbiana.
Pindrow.

Cupressus torulosa,

Juniperus excelsa,

religiosa.

and lastly, Pinus Royleana, a magnificent new Pine discovered last season in

Deodar from India into England. 71

United Kingdom, the extent of which cannot, as yet, be esti-
mated... Enough, however, has been seen to assure us that
we have acquired in some abundance an evergreen tree of
singular beauty, perfectly hardy in these latitudes, and so
unlike any other coniferous plant in its manner of growth
as to add a new feature to the rich vegetation of these
islands.

We now learn with great satisfaction that the East India
Company has ordered a ton weight of the seed of this tree
to be placed at the disposal of Government for the service
of the Woods and Forests, and that the first parcel has al-
ready arrived. Should all this quantity vegetate, no fewer
than 16,000,000 plants will have been acquired, and thus we
may expect the hills of Great Britain to be speedily clothed
with the sacred Cedar of the Brahmins ; or making every al-
lowance for deteriorated seeds, the produce to be raised must
necessarily be prodigious. The charge of rearing it having
been confided to four eminent. nurserymen—Messrs Glendin-
ning of Chiswick ; Lawson of Edinburgh ; Skirving of Liver-
pool; and Waterer of Knaphill—we have security for the
crop being skilfully managed.*

Government will thus become possessed of a very large
quantity of a fast-growing tree, the value of which cannot be
over-rated, whether it is regarded as a nurse, most useful for
protection, and profitable for thinning, or, according to the
testimony of those who are familiar with it in India, strong

sand durable, as timber.

Nepaul, at an altitude of 12,000 feet. This fine Pine grows to a height of 100
feet, and its timber i is close-grained, and resembles much the Deodar ; and as it
is met with at a great altitude on the Himalayas, it will be found to be per-
fectly hardy in Britain. In form, too, it is highly ornamental, and will thus
prove a great acquisition. By the Director of the Botanical Gardens a large
quantity of seed has been sent to the India House for distribution throughout

the country. Another large supply will be forwarded shortly, and parties who
have been hitherto disappointed, may procure seeds, by applying to Dr Royle
at the India House.

* We have consulted one of the above gentlemen to whom part of the
seeds have been confided, and we have much pleasure in stating, from his
authority, that the seed that was late in reaching this country was successful,
and that which was early, unsuccessful.—ED,

as ALA

72 ‘ On the Introduction of the

We apprehend that no hardy tree yet known has the same
high value as the Deodar, as anurse. The Scotch Pine is so
heavy and compact in its foliage that it keeps light off the
deciduous trees which grow among it, and offers great ob-
struction to the free circulation of air; doing about as much
harm in this way as it effects good by giving shelter from
heavy gales. Its poles, too, are so bad that it must always
bear a very low price in the timber market. Larch, which
is a far better nurse, because its light airy foliage and pyra-
midal form offer no hindrance to the action of light and the
free circulation of air, and whose poles usually fetch a good
price, has the fault of being destitute of leaves in the early
spring, and is, moreover, subject to the mysterious and in-
curable “rot.’’ On the other hand, the Deodar combines the
graceful form and rapid growth of the Larch, with the ever-
green character of the Scotch Pine, without the faults of that
‘species ; and we have the evidence of every observer who has
seen it in India, that its timber is of excellent quality. As
that is a very material point, and since we have occasionally
heard it suggested that because the Deodar is nearly related to
the Cedar of Lebanon, its timber will probably partake of the
bad quality of the latter, it seems worth while quoting the
opinions of those who are personally acquainted with it.
That no inference can be legitimately drawn from its sup-
posed relationship, to the Cedar of Lebanon, is. sufficiently
shewn by the Scotch Pine and the Pinaster. They also are
nearly related ; and yet the old timber of the first has great
durability and strength, while the latter is at all ages worth-
less for any purpose except, firewood., A similar but more
striking contrast,is offered by the Pinaster and Pinus his-
panica, species surely more nearly allied than the Deodar and
Cedar of Labanon. Now we have the evidence of Captain
Widdrington that the latter was largely used in the Spanish
navy for deck-planking, a purpose to which Pinaster timber
could never be applied.

The positive testimony of Indian travellers seems conclu-
sive as to the durability and excellence of Deodar timber.
Baron Charles Von Hugel, now Austrian Minister at Florence,
a good judge of such matters, saw the tree in abundance, and

Deodar from India into England. 73

he calls it “ the incorruptible Himalayan Cedar, the invalu-
able Deodar.” Major Madden, than whom no one has more
carefully investigated the history of Himalayan Comers on
their native mountains, quotes this very expression of Von
Hugel, and evidently assents to it; he even thinks it worth
inquiry whether it really repels the white, and which seems
to be a Himalayan notion.

Moorcroft,—and there never was a more trustworthy re-
porter,—in the first volume of his Travels, makes use of the
following language: “ The most valuable tree of Kashmere
is, however, the Deodar, a variety of Cedar, the timber of
which is extensively employed in the construction of houses,
temples, and bridges.” And he adds, that pieces of it had
been found little decayed, although exposed to the action of
water for four hundred years.

We have, moreover, the high authority of Dr Royle, who
long resided in the Deodar countries, that the timber is of
excellent quality, and of great strength, as well as durability. |
It is universally employed in the building of temples, in which
none but the best materials would be employed. The mode
of using it is to construct a solid framework of the timber,
and then to fill in the spaces between with stones, so that
the main strength of the building is made to depend upon the ©
Deodar, rather than the masonry. Thus used, it is exposed
to a trial which nothing but timber of the best quality could
support. This is in complete accordance with all that we
have ever heard of the quality of Deodar wood ; and must be
regarded as conclusive. .

The only subject of doubt in our minds as to the issue of
‘the great undertaking now described is whether the gentle-
men to whom the young Deodars will be finally entrusted,
after they shall have been delivered up to Government by the
_ nurserymen who are to rear them, will know either where,
or when, or how, they ought to be planted.

74.

Remarks on Mollusca and Shells.* By DrAuGusTUS GOULD.

1. On the Zoological Regions. 2. Specific identity of Shells.
3. Local aspect of Species and characteristic forms oy regions.
4. Analogous species in co-ordinate regions.

1. Zoological Regions.

The doctrine of distinct zoological regions evidently apper-
tains to the mollusks, and is well illustrated by them. In
nearly every work containing any considerable catalogue of
shells, the same species will be found quoted as being found
in widely-distant regions, in different oceans, and even on
opposite sides of the globe. The many thousand localities
carefully noted on the records of the Expedition, go to prove
beyond dispute, that no such random or wide-spread distribu-
tion exists. The error has arisen from two principal causes.
One is, that reliable notes of localities have not been taken.
A voyage is made to the Sandwich Islands, and all the shells
brought home by the vessel are said to be shells from the
Sandwich Islands, though they may have been obtained at
California, the Society Islands, New Zealand, and perhaps
half-a-dozen other places quite as remote from each other.
A sea captain purchases a collection at Calcutta or Valpa-
raiso for his friends at home; and all the shells are marked
as denizens of the port where they were purchased, though
they might not have lived within thousands of miles. Pur-
chased shells cannot be relied on for localities ; for this end
a shell must have been found containing the animal, or else
dredged, or picked up on the shore, and labelled accordingly.
There have been instances where New England shells, which
had gone to the west coast of America in the way of ex-
change, came back again as Pacific shells.

2. Identity of Species.

“ Shells are regarded,” says Dr Gould, “as. specifically
identical, which, on careful comparison, are found not to be
so. And this is very likely to occur where some one very
remarkable peculiarity exists, Thus, a Lutraria from Lower

* United States Exploring Expedition, vol, xii.

Remarks on Mollusca and Shells. 75

California (Z. undulata) has the thin, milk white, concentric-
ally undulated valves so similar to those which characterize
a shell from the coast of Carolina (L. canaliculata), that no
one observing them separately would hesitate to pronounce
them the same; but place the two side by side, and it will
be seen that in one the beaks are near the posterior, and in
the other near the anterior end of the shell, Equally strik-
ing resemblances and differences will be found when we com-
pare Maciranasuta and M. braziliana, Lutraria ventricosa,
and ZL. carinata, the former of which are found in the Gulf
of California, and their analogues in the Gulf of Mexico.
So, too, we find on the catalogues Cytherea chione and
Natica maroccana, Mediterranean shells, set down as found
also in the Gulf of California; but a direct comparison shews
them to be quite different in form and coloration, and well
entitled to the distinctive appellations of Cytherea biradiata
and Natica Chemnitzii. Triton nodosum, of the West Indies,
has also been regarded as identical with a Sandwich Island
.species (7. elongatum). We need not multiply examples of
this kind. But if such confusion has arisen among strongly-
marked species, how much more liable is it to occur where
specific differences are slight ? In many genera, as in Physa
and Succinea, the form, surface, and colouring, are so uniform
throughout, that undoubted species are distinguished by only
the slightest differences. Indeed, there are even some
genera, like Heliw and Nanina, Patella and Lottia, which
cannot be distinguished but by an examination of the animal.
When, therefore, we have before us shells from widely
diverse regions, apparently identical, they should be sub-
_ jected to the most careful scrutiny for structural differences.
If no obvious ones are detected, we may not consider the
question as settled, unless the animals have been compared ;
and we may go even further, and require that their internal
‘structure, as well as external features, should be ex-
amined. The number of instances where this apparent
ubiquity exists is fast diminishing, as in the cases already
mentioned, in those of Cyprea exanthema, cervina, and cer-
vinetia, &c. A large proportion of the shells inhabiting the
eastern and western shores of the Atlantic have been re-

76 Remarks on Mollusca and Shells.

garded as identical, and many,of them are really so. But,
the closer the comparison; the, more it, tends, to diminish,
rather than increase the identical species. .The. same, is
found true in regard to, other classes of animals... In fact,
the doctrine of the local, limitation of animals, even now,
meets with so few, apparent.exceptions, that. we admit it as
an axiom in zoology, that species strongly resembling each
other, derived from widely diverse localities, especially, if a
continent intervenes, and if no known. or plausible, means) of
communication. can, be, assigned, should, be assumed.as dif-
ferent, until their identity, can, be proved., Much, study, of
living specimens must, be had, before the apparent,exceptions
ean be brought under the rule. Some shells have undoubt-
edly a,very. extensive range. .The species, of Cypnea.are
remarkable for this, and more than any other genus would
lead us to conclude that oceans present no limitations. ;Hyen
among them, however, new! distinctions aré constantly, ap-
pearing:; There are also some’ shells,.which may be, called
cosmopolite, at least they are erratic,,and will,be found:
wherever their pabulum is found. .Thus, Helix cellaria, at-
taching’ itself to. water casks, is found. in most seaports,in
all parts of the world... Helix simélaris.is| found wherever
the coffee plant. grows); and Helix vitrmoides in\like manner
accompanies the Arum esculentum or taro. Bulimus octona,
or a closely allied species, is a parasite of the Banana. But
exceptions of this kind confirm rather than militate against
the conclusion.

3. Local Aspect of Species, and Characteristic Form of Regions.

‘There is a certain local aspect, or peculiar facies, which
impresses itself upon us the more we study local collections ;
just as we learn by a very little observation, to distinguish
men of different nations and neighbourhoods. Thus we dis-
tinguish the loose, horny, colourless structure of the northern
marine species ; the stony, corroded, livid New Zealand-
ers ; the polished, absolutely perfect specimens from the coral
seas. Certain forms are so characteristic of certain regions,
that we never expect to find them elsewhere. Thus we look —
for Clausilia in Europe and Asia; for Achatina in Africa ;

-

Remarks on Mollusea and Shells. "7

for Cylindrella in the West Indies and their neighbourhood ;
for Achatinella'in the Sandwich Islands ;'for Partula in the
Pacific Islands, south of ‘the equator ; to the United States
of America’ wé look ‘for Helices? with toothed apertures ; to
the’ Philippine Tslands’ for ‘the ‘ivory and beautifully painted
species, &c.; and we venture to ‘call them stragglers, if we
are ‘brought to us from any other quarter.

& Dy Pickering’ remarks, in relation'to the Feejee Islands,
colt was! only Here, ‘inthe midst: of ‘the ‘coral° sea, where I
foul und’ myself surrounded bya oreat! variety of Cone, Mitre,
Olive; ‘Cowry, Ovula, Harpa) Terebra,; Cassis, Strombus,
Conelix:Piranidella, Tridacna, Vulsella, Lima; &e., that
Tbéeaiie fully aware of ‘the imperfect state of this science.
Wee'inixsed Patella? Eburna, Terebellum; Cancellaria, Hip-
popus, Aneillaria, and Marginella.’ Bivalves seem to pre-
vail: less'than at Tonga. °° Mactra proper was not met with.
Tn fluviatile°shells these ‘islands are vicher than’ the eastern
‘ones; no doubt on ‘account of their larger sizejaud the conse-
‘quent ‘greater abundance of ‘fresh water. 2A. fresh-water
bivalve, Oyrena; was here met with for the first time among
‘thé islands. “Among land-shells*we missed Partula::' The
‘appearance! of ‘large Bulimi reminded one ofthe continent.
‘The true sceeetae seem tobe supplanted by: Nanina:

PN MOIDH

Pes ie ay Analogous gous in, co-ordinate Regions.

detiepoisin! point ‘of interest, extensively elucidated by the
collections of the Expedition, is the occurrence of analogous
species in co-ordinate regions. It is now a received fact that
‘the animals and plants of the northernmost zones are, for the
_ “most part,:identical) throughout the whole ‘circuit ;. and! that
- the’ ‘species ‘gradually diverge: from ‘each ‘other ‘towards the
lequator, onthe three continents ; \and that after passing the
~*equator towards the north, there is ‘not/a:return to the same
species, and rarely to the sameogenera, as we should expect
af variation of forms'dépended. mainly on difference of tem-
I, perature:> There ‘is; however, a return’to) molluscs of a kin-
dred character'and form, and oftentimes to the same genera.
oo The analogies of specimens from distant regions, are much
stronger when reckoned by. isothermal longitude, than by

78 Remarks on Mollusca and Shells.

isothermal latitude. In the latter case we may have analogous
genera. Along our northern seas, some of the most charac-
teristic shells are, Buccinum,. Tritonum, Fusus, Terebratula,
Rimula, &e. Around Cape Horn are shells of the same types,
so closely allied that they have not yet been separated as dis-
tinct genera, though peculiar in many important respects:
But this resemblance does not descend to species. In the
first case, however, not only have we the same genera, but
the species seem to repeat each other ; so that species brought
from great distances east or west are scarcely to be distin-
guished upon comparison. As examples in illustration, we
may place against each other the following a from
Oregon, and from the Eastern States ;—

Mya precisa. Mya truncata.

Osteodesma bracteatum.

Cardita ventricosa.
Cardium blandum.
Venus calearea.
Alasmodonta falcata.

Helix Vancouverensis.

Helix loricata.
Helix germana,

. Planorbis vermicularis.

Planorbis opercularis,
Lacuna carinata.
Natica Lewisii.

Trichotropis cancellata.

Fusus fidicula.
Lottia pintadina,

Osteodesma hyalina.
Cardita borealis.
Cardium Icelandicum,
Venus mercenaria.
Alasmodonta arcuata.
Helix concava,

Helix inflecta.

Helix fraterna.
Planorbis deflectus.
Planorbis exacutus.
Lacuna vincta.
Natica ferox,
Trichotropis borealis.
Fusus turricula.
Lottia testudinalis, &e.

Mingled with these are others very different in type, which
mark the two localities as constituting very different zoologi-
cal regions. Where, for instance, have we the analogues of
Parnopea generosa, Lutraria ventricosa, Triton oregonense,
on the one hand, and of Mactra gigantea, Fusus decemcosta-
tus and Icelandicus, Pyrula canaliculata and carica, Pando-
ra trilineata, &c., on the other? The same comparison holds
good between the shells of the Gulf of California and the
Gulf of Mexico.

From a consideration of the land-shells collected on the
Pacific islands, it seems possible to draw some fair inferences

Remarks on Mollusca and Shells. 79

as to the relations of the lands which once occupied the area
of the Pacific Ocean, and whose mountain peaks evidently
now indicate, or constitute, the islands with which it is now
studded. By observation of the species, we think there are
strong indications that some groups of islands have an inti-
mate relation to each other, and belonged at least, to the peaks
of the same mountain ranges, before they were submerged,
while the indications are equally strong, that other groups
had no such territorial connection.

The Samoa, Friendly, and Feejee Islands are near to each
other, and seem as if they must have intimate geological re-
lations. The Samoa and Friendly Islands give evidence of
such relation, the same forms and many of the same species
occurring on both groups. But, if we may draw inferences
from the land-shells, these two groups are more intimately
related to the Society Islands, though at a much greater dis-
tance, than to the Feejee Islands. Nota single species of land-
shell found on the Feejees was collected on either side of the
other groups. Several genera which are common to the
other groups are wanting in the Feejees. Thus, no specimen
of Succinea or Partula, genera so abundant in the Society
and Samoa Islands, was found at the Feejees ; and the true
Helix, especially the pyramidal forms, so remarkable in the
other groups, seemed to be replaced by large species of
Nanina. On the other hand, large and peculiar species of
Bulimus occur abundantly on the Feejees, while nothing of the
kind occurs on any of the other islands. Indeed, judging from
the Jand-shells, the Feejees are more nearly allied to the
islands to the westward, such as the New Hebrides, than to
_ the Friendly Islands on the east, though so much nearer.
When we examine the fluviatile shells, however, we do not
_ find the same distinction. Many of the same species of Mela-
nia, Navicella, and Neritina, seem to occur in all the groups,
though the large coronated species of Melania prevail in the
Feejees. There is some reason to suspect, moreover, that
the fresh-water shells collected at those islands have acci-
dentally become more or less mingled. It must also be con-
sidered that the Navicella, and more especially Neritina, is
oftentimes decidedly littoral, and even marine, in its habits.

80 Remarks on Mollusca and Shells.

The little island of Metia, or Aurora Island, to the north-
eastward of Tahiti, is one of peculiar interest. It is a coral
island, which bas been elevated 250 feet or more, and has no
other high island anywhere near it. On it were found four
small land-shells belonging to three genera, viz., Helix perte-
nius, Helix dedalea, Partula pusilla, and Helecina trochlea.
None of these were found upon any other island. They seem
to have originated there after the elevation of the island, and
have a significant bearing upon the question of local and pe-
riodical creations in comparatively modern times.

As the genus Partula is characteristic of the groups just
south of the equator, so Achatinella is the characteristic
shell of the Sandwich Islands. Closely connected as the
islands of this group are, they each have their peculiar forms
of land-shells ; and, as the southern islands bear evidence of
greater age than the northern ones, we may infer that, within
these narrow limits, we have evidence of the appearance of
some species subsequent to the existence of others now livy-
ing. On the island of Kauai, the oldest of the group, we
have Achatina adusta and pyramidata, a form which does not
appear on the other islands ; the Achatinelle are chiefly of
the elongated glabrous form, which I have grouped under the
name Leptachatina; the Helices are planorboid and multi-
spiral. On Molokai, the species of A chatinella are large and
beautiful, and peculiar in their form and colouring. On Maui,
the Helices are small and glabrous, with some very curious
hispid and ribbed species, with lamelle within the aperture.
On Oahu, the species of both Helix and Achatinella are simi-
lar to those on Maui. On Hawaii, Succinea seems to prevail
in larger proportion than on the other islands, while Acha-
tinella, which occurs so abundantly on all the other islands,
either does not occur at all, or but very rarely.

Sa Bhi.

Report of the Maritime Conference held at Brussels for de-
vising a Uniform System of ca leach Observations
at Sea.

By carefully collating the observations on the direction of
the wind, and of the currents of the ocean, from the log-hooks
of upwards of 10,000 voyages, Lieutenant Maury, of the United
States Navy, has been able to construct a series of wind and
current charts, which have already proved of the highest value
to navigation,—voyages have been greatly shortened, and
their cost and risk much diminished. In constructing these
charts, the ocean is divided into spaces of 5° of latitude and 5°
of longitude, and the direction of the wind which is observed
In one part of these districts is assumed to be that in which it
is blowing in every other part of the district. ..A special chart
is appropriated to each month of the year, and thus the navi-
gator is able to see at a.glance what are the prevalent winds
in every part of the ocean at any time of the year, and is en-
abled so to shape his course as to avail himself of the favourable
winds, and to avoid those which. are opposed to his course.
From this brief sketch of the principle upon which the wind
charts have been constructed, it will be readily, understood
that the observations upon the direction .of,the currents of
the ocean and their temperature, when.collated,in the same
manner, will enable us to trace their circulation through every
part of the ocean, and the causes which give rise to and per-
petuate their movements; as the observations on the tempera-
ture and pressure of the atmosphere will enable us to trace
_ the origin and course of the great atmospheric currenis.

But when it is considered that even for spaces so large as
5° of latitude and 5° of longitude, the least number of observa-
tions which are required for the three great oceans amounts
to the enormous number of 1,669,200, the minimum number
for each square being 100; and when it is borne in mind that
certain parts of the ocean are more frequently traversed by
the vessels of one nation than by those of another, and some
parts very rarely traversed by any, it will be evident that this

admirable system, so ably begun by Lieutenant Maury, canonly

VOL. LYI. NO. CXIL—JANUARY 1854. F |

82 On a Uniform System of

be carried out effectually by the co-operation of all the prin-
cipal commercial nations. To carry out this system, the
conference whose report is subjoined was held, and itis a
subject of sincere congratulation to know that not only our
own Government, but the Governments of several of the other
nations who were represented at that conference, are already
taking active measures for carrying into effect the recom-
mendations which are contained in this report.

But as Lieutenant Maury very justly observes, “‘ the impor-
tance of concert among meteorologists all over the world, and
of co-operation between the observer on shore and the naviga-
tor at sea, so that any meteorological phenomenon may be
traced throughout its cycle both by sea and land, is too obvious
for illustration, too palpable to be made plainer by argument,
and therefore the proposition for a general conference to ar-
range the details of such a comprehensive system of observa-
tion, addresses itself to every friend of science and lover of
the useful in all countries.”,—(See Lieutenant Maury’s Sail-
ing Directions, 5th edition, p. 30.)

These sentiments are fully participated in by the most
eminent meteorologists in Europe, including Quetelet, Kup-
ffer, Kreil, Dove, Lamont, Bravais, Hansteen, our own dis-
tinguished Astronomer-Royal, and the officers in charge of
the meteorological observatories in Spain, Holland, &.; and
a second conference is now proposed to effect a system of co-
operation for observers on land, similar to that which in the
first conference has been recommended for observers at sea.
We dare not speculate on the result to be obtained by so vast
a system of observations, but we cannot doubt but that they
will be of highest interest to science, and of the greatest
benefit to mankind ; and we may congratulate ourselves on —
living in an era when scientific men in all nations, setting aside —
all petty national or selfish views, are prepared to combine
their labours for the good of all—presenting a spectacle such —
as history cannot refer to. |

REPORT.

‘Tn pursuance of instructions issued by the Governments
respectively named below, the officers whose names are here-
unto annexed, assembled at Brussels for the purpose of hold-

Meteorological Observations at Sea. 83

ing a conference on the subject of establishing a uniform
system of meteorological observations at sea, and of con-
curring in a general plan of observation on the winds and
currents of the ocean, with a view to the improvement of
navigation, and to the acquirement of a more correct know-
ledge of the laws which govern those elements.
© The meeting was convened at the instigation of the Ame-
rican government, consequent upon a proposition which it
had made to the British government, in reply to a desire
which had been conveyed to the United States, that it would
join in a uniform system of meteorological observations on
land, after a plan which had been prepared by Captain
J aeeae of the Royal Engineers, and submitted to the Govern-
ment by Sir J. Burgoyne, Inspector-General of Fortifications.
_ “The papers connected with this correspondence were pre-
sented to the House of Lords on the 21st of February last,*
and have been further explained in the minutes of the con-
ference. And it is here merely necessary to observe, that
some difficulties having presented themselves to the imme-
diate execution of the plan proposed by the British govern-
ment, the United States availed themselves of the opportu-
nity afforded by this correspondence, of bringing under the
notice of the British government.a plan which had been sub-
mitted by Lieutenant Maury, of the United States Navy,
for a more widely extended field of research than that which
had been proposed, a plan which, while it would forward the
object entertained by Great Britain, would, at the same time,
_ materially contribute to the improvement of navigation and
_to the benefit of commerce. ;
« An improvement of the ordinary sea route between dis-
tant countries had long engaged the attention of commercial
men, and both individuals and nations had profited by the
advances which this science had made through a more cor-
rect knowledge of the prevailing winds and currents of the
ocean. But experience had shewn that this science, if it did
not now stand fast, was at least greatly impeded by the want
of a more extended co-operation in the acquirement of those
facts which were necessar y to lead to a more correct know-
ledge a the laws which govern the circulation of the atmo-

* See Parliamentary Papers, No. 115,

84 On a Uniform System of

sphere, and control the currents of the ocean ; and that the
subject could not receive ample justice, nor even such a mea-
sure of it as was commensurate with the importance of its
results, until all nations should concur in one general effort
for its perfection. But, could that happy event be brought
about, could the observations be as extensive as desired, and
receive that full discussion to which they were entitled, the
navigator would learn with certainty how to count upon the
winds and currents in his track, and to turn to the best ad-
vantage the experience of his predecessors.

“ Meteorological observations, to a certain extent, had long
been made at sea, and Lieutenant Maury had turned to useful
account such as had from time to time fallen into his hands ;*
but these observations, although many of them good in them-
selves, were but isolated facts, which were deprived of much
of their value from the absence of observations with which
they could be compared, and, above all, from the want of a
constant and uniform system of record, and from the rude-
ness of the instruments with which they had been made.

“The moment then appeared to him to have arrived when
nations might be induced to co-operate in a general system
of meteorological research. To use his own words, he was
_ of opinion that ‘the navies of all maritime nations should
co-operate, and make these observations in such a manner,
and with such means and implements, that the system might
be uniform, and the observations made on board one public
ship be readily referred to, and compared with the observa-
tions made on board all other public ships, in whatever part
of the world ; and, moreover, as it is desirable to enlist the ©
voluntary co-operation of the commercial marine, as well as
that of the military of all nations, in this system of research, _
it becomes not only proper, but politic, that the forms of the —
abstract log to be used, the description of the instruments —
to be employed, the things to be observed, with the manipu-
lation of the instruments, and the methods and modes of ob-
servation, should be the joint work of the principal parties
concerned.’

« These sentiments being concurred in by the Government

* See Sailing Directions by Maury.

Meteorological Observations at Sea. 85

of the United States, the correspondence between the go-
vernments was continued, and finally each nation was invited
to send an officer to hold a conference at Brussels on a given
day.

*« And that the system of proposed observation and of com-
bined action might become immediately available, and be
extended to its widest possible field of operation, it was de-
teymined to adapt the standard of the observations to be
made to the capabilities of the instruments now in general
use in the respective naval services, but with the precaution
of having all these instruments brought under the surveil-
lance of parties duly appointed to examine them and deter-
mine their errors; as this alone would render the observa-
tions comparable with each other through the medium of
their respective standards.

“ The conference opened its proceedings at Brussels on the
23d of August 1853, in the residence of M. Piercot, the Mini-
ster of the Interior, to whom the thanks of the conference
are especially due.

“M. Quetelet was unanimously elected president.

** Before entering upon any discussion, it was the desire of
all the members of the conference that it should be clearly
understood, that, in taking part in the proceedings of the
meeting, they did not in any degree consider themselves as
committing their respective governments to any particular
course of action, having no authority whatever to pledge
their country in any way to these proceedings.

«The objects of the meeting having been explained by
Lieutenant Maury,* the conference expressed its thanks to
that officer for the enlightened zeal and earnestness he had
displayed in the important and useful work which forms the
subject of the deliberations of the conference.
~ “In concerting a plan of uniform observation, in which all
nations might be engaged, the most obvious difficulty which
arose was from the variety of scales in use in different coun-
tries. It is much to be desired that this inconvenience
should be removed; but it was a subject upon which the
_ conference, after mature deliberation, determined not to re-

* See the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Conference.

86 a On a Uniform System of tte

commend any modification, but to leave to each nation to
continue its scales and standards as heretofore, except with
regard to the thermometers, which it was agreed should, in
addition to the scale in use in any particular service, have
that of the centigrade placed upon it, in order to accustom
observers in all services to its use, with a view to its final.
and general adoption. |

« The advantages of concert of action between the meteor-
ologist on land and the navigator at sea were so obvious,
that, looking forward to the establishment of a universal sys-
tem of meteorological observation upon both elements, it
was thought that the consideration of scales could, with
greater propriety, be left for that or some such occasion.

“ As to the instruments to be recommended, the conference
determined to add as few as possible to such as were in
common use in vessels of war; but, regarding accuracy of
observation as of paramount importance, the conference felt
it to be a matter of duty to recommend the adoption of ac-
curate instruments, of barometers and thermometers espe-
cially that have been carefully compared with recognized
standards, and have had their errors accurately determined,
and that such instruments only should be used on board
every man-of-war co-operating in this system, as well as on
board any merchantman, as far as it may be practicable.

‘«‘ The imperfection of instruments in use at sea is notorious,
The barometer having hitherto been used principally as a
monitor to the mariner, to warn him, by its fluctuations, of
the changes in prospect, its absolute indication of pressure —
has been but little regarded, and makers seldom, if ever, de-
termined the real errors of these instruments, or, if known,
still more rarely ever furnished the corrections with the mi |
struments themselves.
.. © That an instrument so rude and so abundant in error as
is the marine barometer generally in use, should, in this age
of invention and improvement, be found on board any ship,
will doubtless be regarded hereafter with surprise ; and it—
‘will be wondered how an instrument so important to meteor- —
ology, and so useful to navigation, should be permitted to —
remain so defective, that meteorologists, in their investiga- —

Meteorological Observations at Sea. 87

tions concerning the laws of atmospheric pressure, are com-
pelled in great measure to omit all reference to the obser-
vations which have been taken with them at sea. The fact
will, it is believed, afford a commentary upon the marine
barometers now in use, which no reasoning or explanation
can render more striking.

“ It was the opinion of the conference that it aad not be
impossible, considering the spirit of invention.and improve-
ment that is now abroad inthe world, to contrive a ma-
rine barometer which might be sold at a moderate price,
that would fulfil all the conditions necessary to make it a
good and reliable instrument; anda resolution was passed
to that effect, in order to call the attention of the public to
the importance of an invention which would furnish the na-
vigator with a marine barometer that at all times, and in all
weathers at sea, would afford the means of absolute and ac-
curate determinations.

. “ The conference is also of opinion that an anemometer, or
an instrument that will enable the navigator to measure the
force, velocity, and direction of the wind at sea, is another
desideratum.

_ “The conference was of opinion, that the mercurial barome-
ter was the most proper to be used at sea for meteorological
purposes, and that the aneroid should not be substituted for
it.
* With regard to thermometers, the conference does not
hesitate to say, that observations made with those instru-
ments, the errors of which are not known, are of little value ;
and it is therefore recommended, as a matter well worth the
attention of co-operators in this system of research, whether

some plan may not be adopted in different countries for sup-
plying navigators, as well in merchantmen as in men-of-war,
with thermometers the errors of which have been accurately
determined.

__ “ For the purposes of meteorology various adaptations of

the thermometer have been recommended, such as those which

refer to hygrometry and solar radiation ; and, accordingly,

@ space will be found in the columns for temperature by ther-
mometers with dry, wet, and coloured bulbs, With these ex-

88 On a Uniform System of

ceptions, the only instrument, in addition to those generally
used at sea, for which the conference has thought proper to
recommend a column, is that for specific gravity; the cost
of this instrument is too insignificant to be mentioned.

** The reasons for recommending the use at sea of the wet,
the white, and black bulb thermometers are obvious ; but with
regard to the thermometer with a bulb the colour of sea-
water, and the introduction on board ship of a regular series
of observations upon the specific gravity of sea-water, it may
be proper to remark that, as the whole system of ocean cur-
rents and of the circulation of sea-water depends in some de-
gree upon the relative specific gravities of the water in va-
rious parts of the ocean, it was judged desirable to introduce
columns for this element, and to recommend that observations
should be carefully made with regard to it, both at and below
the surface.

‘“ With respect to the thermometer having a bulb of the
colour of sea-water, it is unnecessary to say more in favour
of its use on board ship than that the object is to ascertain
whether or no such observations will throw any light upon
the psychrometry of the sea, or upon any of the various inte-
resting phenomena connected with the radiation from the
surface of the ocean.

“In bringing to a conclusion the remarks upon instruments,
the conference considered it desirable, in order the better to
establish uniformity and to secure comparability among the
observations, to suggest, as a measure conducive thereto,
that a set of the standard instruments used by each of the
co-operating Governments, together with the instructions
which might be given by such Governments for their use,
should be interchanged.

“ The object of the conference being to secure as far as pos-
sible uniformity of record and such a disposition of the ob-
servations that they would admit of ready comparison, the
annexed form of register was concerted and agreed upon.
The first columns of this form will receive the data which
the Government of the United States requires merchant ves-
sels to supply, in order to entitle them to the privileges of
co-operators in this system of research, and may therefore —

Meteorological Observations at Sea. 89

be considered as the minimum of what is expected of them.
This condition, which it may be as well to state here, requires
that at least the position of the vessel and the set of the cur-
rent, the height of the barometer, the temperature of the air
‘and water, should each be determined once a-day, the force
and direction of the wind three times a-day, and the observed
variation of the needle occasionally.

** Every abstract log kept by a merchant vessel should con-
tain at least what is here recommended, Anything more
would enhance its value and make it more acceptable.

“ ‘The remaining columns are intended principally for men-
of-war to fill up in addition to those above mentioned, but it
is believed that there are many officers in the mercantile navy
also who are competent to this undertaking, and who will, it
is hoped, be found willing to distinguish themselves in this
joint action for the mutual benefit of the services. |

“In the compilation of this form the conference has had
carefully in view the customs of the service and the addi-
tional amount of attention which these duties will require,
and it is believed that the labour necessary for the purpose,
at least to the extentspecified in the instructions for filling
up the columns, is only such as can be well performed under
ordinary circumstances, and it has considered it a minimum,
and looks with confidence to occasional enlarged contribu-
tions from zealous and intelligent labourers in the great cause
of science.

« The directions for filling up the columns, and for making
certain observations, it will be seen by the minutes, were
limited to such only as seemed necessary to the conference
to insure uniformity of observation. This subject received
the benefit of much discussion before the meeting, and it was
considered most advisable to confine the matter to hints,
which it is hoped will be found sufficient, when embodied in
the instructions which each nation will probably issue with
the forms, to insure that most desirable end—uniformity. _

“ The conference, having brought to a closeits labours with
respect to the facts to be collected and the means to be em-
_ ployed for that purpose, has now only to express a hope that
whatever observations may be made, will be turned to useful

90 On Meteorological Observations at Sea.

account when received, and not be suffered to lie dormant
for the want of a department to discuss them; and that,
should any Government, from its limited means or from the.
paucity of the observations transmitted, not feel itself justi-
fied in providing for their separate discussion, it is hoped
that it will transfer the documents, or copies of them, to some
neighbouring Power, which may be more abundantly provided,
and willing to receive them.

‘“‘ It is with pleasure that the conference has learned that
the Government of Sweden and Norway has notified its in-
tention of co-operating in the work, and that the King has
commanded the logs kept by his Swedish subjects to be trans-
mitted to the Royal Academy of Science at Stockholm, and
also that in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal, mea-
sures have been taken to establish a department for the same
purpose, and that the Admiralty of Great Britain has ex-
pressed its intention of giving instructions for meteorological
observations to be made throughout the Royal Navy.

“ The conference has avoided the expression of any opinion
as to the places or countries in which it would be desirable
to establish offices for the discussion of the logs, but it is
confidently hoped that, whatever may be done in this respect,
there will be always a full and free interchange of materials,
and a frequent and friendly intercourse between the depart-
ments ; for it is evident that much of the success of the plan
proposed will depend upon this interchange, and upon the
frankness of the officers who in the several countries may
conduct these establishments.

« Lastly, the conference feelsthat it would but inadequately
discharge its duties, did it close this report without endea-
vouring to procure for these observations a consideration
which would secure them from damage or loss in time of
war, and invites that inviolate protection which science claims
at the hands of every enlightened nation ; and that, as vessels
on discovery or scientific research are by consent suffered to —
pass unmolested in time of war, we may claim for these do-
cuments a like exemption, and hope that observers, amid the
excitement of war, and perhaps enemies in other respects,
may in this continue their friendly assistance, and pursue

Mr H. M. Stoker on the China-stone, &c., of Cornwall. 91

their occupation, until at length every part of the ocean shall
be brought within the domain of philosophic research, and a
system of investigation shall be spread as a net over its sur-
face, and it become rich in its benefit to commerce, navigation,
and science, and productive of good to mankind.

*‘ The members of the conference are unwilling to separate
without calling the attention of their respective Governments
to the important and valuable assistance which it has received
from the Belgian Government. That the conference has been
enabled to draw its labours to so speedy. and satisfactory a
close is in a great measure owing to the facilities and con-
veniences for meeting and deliberating which have been af-
forded by His Majesty’s Government.

“ Signed at Brussels, this 8th day of September 1853.

! UETELET, President.
pelgium, 1 Pe. |
Denmark, P. RoTHE.
France, DELAMARCHE.
- Great Britain, (ides Fae - Pe
Netherland, JANSEN.
Norway, | THLEN.
Portugal, Dre MaArTros CorREA. |
Russia, GORKOVENKO.
Sweden, ! PETTERSSON.

United States, MAURY.”’

~

An Essay on the China-stone and China-clays of Cornwall,

with a Description of some Mechanical Improvements in

the Mode of Preparation of the latter. By Mr H. M.
STOKER, of St Austell, Cornwall.

The China-stone and China-clays of our county, or the
disintegrated granites, have of late years assumed a no less
important than interesting feature in its history; not only
to the capitalist, from the great addition the discovery of
their use has made to its commercial importance; to the
working-classes, from the necessarily co-existent increase of

92 Mr H. M. Stoker on the China-stone and |

employment; to the shipping, from the quantity annually
exported ; but also to the traveller, from the picturesque
scenes, the preparation of these articles has added to the
previously existing and unexampled ones offered him for con-
templation in the various modes of raising and rendering
available the mineral wealth for which we have been so long
and so justly famed ; and not only to these, but to the prac-
tical chemist as well, does it afford matter for speculation,
inasmuch as the supply of the former of these articles is so
limited, as to require, in the course of a very few years,
some cheap and easily available substitute; whether to be
supplied from this or from some other county, is a questio
to be determined only by the conjoined efforts of the miner,
the geologist, and the analytical chemist.

From these few remarks, any apology for the appearance
of the present essay would only be out of place, especially
when we take into consideration the paucity of information
possessed even by such men as the jurors of the Exhibition
ofthe past year, as proved by their indifference both to the
purity and quantity of the raw material ; and this is now the
more to be deplored from the contrast presented to us in the
degree of attention paid by those jurors who investigated the

“merits of this article in its manufactured state, and by the-
observations necessarily made on other raw material, not
less than from the fact that in no work with which I am at
present acquainted has the preparation or the source of this
article been fully described.

These observations will be found to refer generally to
those districts whence the greater amount is attainable, and
from them I have reason to hope that some few general laws
may be deduced, whereby, when the present source is ex- _
hausted, other localities may be found in the county for their
supply. |

Attention was first directed to the fact, that the disinte-
grated granite and clays of our county, as well as those of
Devon, when fused or burned, could be rendered available :
to the potter, in 1768, by the late Mr Cookworthy of Ply-
mouth, who extensively exported them to the potteries of
Staffordshire for that purpose from Devon ; subsequently to

_ China-clays of Cornwall. 93

which, large beds of a like description of clays were found in
the parish of St Stephen’s: and it having been ascertained
that the decomposing granite, from which such beds are
formed, was capable, when fused, of forming a suitable glaze
for the articles made of the clay, a large trade was at once
opened, which has continued progressively to increase till
the present time.

The disintegrated granite, under the name of China-stone,
from the use to which it was applied, was exported at a later
period than the China-clay or kaolin,—this article of com-
merce not having been introduced till the year 1802, when
it was first raised from a bed of great purity, containing no
iron or manganese, but merely felspar, silica, and mica, in
varying proportions. And this is at present the only source
from which it can be obtained of a sufficient degree of purity
for ordinary purposes; though, from its price, and the efforts
that have been made by chemists, both here and in the pot-
teries, to gain a substitute for it, it is very doubtful whether
it will long continue so; more especially if the distance we
are placed from Stafford be taken into consideration.

Most of the granites from which the China-stone was
formed, differ from ordinary granite only in the existence in
the latter of plates of talc, hornblende, or diallage, the pre-
sence of either of which renders the China-stone in which
they are found, though but in small proportions, of not even
the slightest use, from the black or brown-coloured slag of
silicate of iron or manganese found on fusion. Some varia-
tion, too, may be found in the amount of each of the ingre-
dients which I have named, but this affects neither the clay

formed on a continuation of the disintegrating process, nor
is it supposed to exert any influence on the glazing properties
of the stone.

The places in which a search for this article would be in-
stituted with the greatest probability of success, is in the
proximity of fissured granite rocks, containing, or supposed
to have contained, softened stone; or in hills with rounded
heavy summits, the beds of which are placed horizontally,
and felspar (or feldspar) forming its predominating ingre-

- dient. ea |

94 Mr H. M. Stoker on the China-stone and

The bed from which it is obtained is about three-fourths
of a mile in extent. on the contiguous borders of the parishes
of St Dennis and St Stephens, occupying almost the centre
of the central granite district of the county, and is sur-
rounded by other primary rocks of igneous origin, which, as
they stretch towards the coast on either side, merge into
beds of killas or clay-slate. On the eastern and northern
boundaries, the granite is more irregular and abrupt in cha-
racter than on the other sides, is more porphyritic, and con-
tains a much larger proportion of felspar, in large white or
red opaque, cubic, or rhomboidal crystals ; while on the
south it is separated from the neighbouring granite by a
large elvan dyke. And it is worthy of notice, that, while on
one side of this you may find China-stone perfectly pure, on
the other, only from one to two feet distant, the stone 1s
rendered useless by the presence of small plates of tale im-
bedded in dense gray granite, which also forms a portion of
the eastern boundary. :
~ Any one who has carefully studied the porphyry dykes, or the
general nature of the primary rocks of our county, cannot but
have noticed the difference in the temperature at which some
of them have been upheaved, compared to that of others ; for
while some of our granites are composed of substances which
have in their crystals a certain amount of water that has not
been lost, others have no trace of it, their felspar having
become an amorphous-looking powder (kaolin) ; and others
presenting the same waxy edge on fracture that is noticed in
porcelain, particularly the elvan dykes: and from this it hag
been conjectured, though to me it appears doubtful, that as the
melting point of other minerals was considerably below that
of these rocks, at the time of the extraordinary convulsion to
which our county has been subjected, the China-stone was
by this means freed from iron, &c.; and that, on its having
reached the surface, the water by which it was surrounded
at once caused the crystals of felspar to split, lose their out-
line and character, and become easily acted on by the solvent
power of rain-water, which, by depriving it of a portion of
its potash, leaves the crystals of quartz or silicic acid and —
plates of mica, glistening with a silvery hue, imbedded in a

China-clays of Cornwall. 95
mass of silicate of potash and alumina; which, from the loss
of crystallization, cannot be termed felspar, nor is it kaolin.
for it has not been subjected sufficiently long to the causes
which lead to its formation.

Many have thought, and do still suppose, that the clay is
gradually forming into granite, and confidently assert that
the whole of the middle granite tract was undoubtedly formed
from clay beds; the geologist, I need scarcely add, will be
able to estimate this at its proper worth: others also add,
that this mass has been thrown up in the water, which at first
covered it and fell back on itself, which they assert accounts
for the flattened outline the tops of the hills of this cibevich
present.

The chief causes which I believe to have led to its disin-
tegration, and not only to the formation of China-stone, or
China-clay, but to that of all the land at present in cultiva-
tion or capable of being cultivated, are—Ast, external
physical agents, proved by the fact that China-stone is very
seldom found at a depth of more than from 20 to 30 feet
from the surface ; the influence of the seasons; the changes
from hot to cold on a body composed of crystals possessing
such different expansive powersas those of felspar and quartz;
and the solvent power of rain-water: while, as chemical
agents, we have, 2dly, the influence of the excess of carbonic
acid in the air, as well as that from the interior of the earth,
of the influence of which we have abundant proof in the ex-
cellent crops obtainable near lavas, or wherever this gas can
_ gain access to the compound silicates of which the greatest
portion of the earth’s crust consists ; and by the influence of
“respiration in rooms provided with windows, which may have
been exposed for a long period to its application.

At present, while there is a great demand for the article,
the spot from whence China-stone is procured presents the
appearance of a large rabbit burrow, as there are no less
than nine sets for the district, the proprietor of each of which
has his portion of the hill covered with the mouths of pits,
around which are stationed a number of men with their
waggons, who, after the China-stone has been raised by quar-
rying and the employment of powder, carry it to one of the

96 Mr H. M. Stoker on the China-stone and

nearest ports to be shipped for the potteries of Staffordshire
and Worcestershire. These ports are distant seven or nine
miles from the quarries, entailing in this transport a con-
siderable amount of land carriage, and a consequent increase
in the price, which of late years has been raised from 12s.
to 20s. free on board, at Par, Pentewan, or Charlestown ;
still the demand has by no means diminished, and the pro-
prietors of these sets have been obliged to fix a certain limit
to their annual supply of 18,000 tons, which rate of consump-
tion will have effected the removal of all the China-stone in
these beds in rather less than fifty years.

The number of people employed in its preparation are com-
paratively few, as the operation of blasting requires but two
or three persons in each pit ; and in loading the waggons the
parties employed as carriers are but too eager to fill in order
to gaina load. The before-mentioned reasons render the
question of supply an important one, and one well worthy
the attention of the land-owner as to future resources, and
the influence the discovery of any large bed of good stone
would exert on his pocket ; though, while the present sets
of the China-stone Company of Cornwall hold out, they not
only can but will maintain a monopoly.

China-stone, in its present state, consists of a mixture of
quartz, felspar, and mica, blended so as to form a homo-
geneous mass which very much resembles granite, though its
texture is not so compact; the quartz exists in small bluish- -
white and transparent crystals, the edges of which, by the
process of disintegration, are rendered more or less indistinct,
and they have become more transparent than when in the
form of granite. These crystals are imbedded in a mixture
of white felspar which has lost a portion of its potash, and
small opaque scales of mica having a lustrous silvery aspect
and very thin: the granite from which it has been formed is of
the simplest kind, the more common forms containing, in addi-
tion to the mica, quartz and felspar, which may be either red
or gray, crystals and scales of hornblende, diallage, or tale,
with a more or less appreciable amount of iron, indicated by
the black spots formed on fusion or calcination; and as the
chemical composition of this article, when pure, should indi-

China-clays of Cornwall. 97

cate an absence of these deteriorating qualities, until some
cheap mode of separating these constituents from the other-
wise vitrifiable granites of our county be found, the China-
stone at present in use must retain its pre-eminence, consist-
ing as it does of a pure double silicate of potash and alumina,
which, when fused, forms a pearl-white translucent mass,
firm and resonant, consisting of an opaque body of nearly
perfectly formed kaolin, surrounded by and diffused through
the glaze of silicic acid, to which its transparency is due: and
not only does the foregoing deteriorating substances render
the article useless, but should there be a very great excess of
quartz crystals or silica the article will not, from the forma-
tion of single silicates, be capable of fusion at any temperature ;
though this fault may be remedied by the addition of either
potash or soda, to which the vitrifaction not only of this, but
of the various kinds of glass, is also due ; felspar, according
to Liebig, containing 17:75 per cent. of potash.
China-stone is used in the potteries for a number of pur-
poses, the most important of which are, 1s¢,—in the forma-
tion of clay bodies to form biscuit ware ; 2dly,—to strengthen
clays rendered poor by the absence of potash; and, 3d/y,—in
the preparation or construction of glazes, for the calcined
biscuit ware, when mixed with other ingredients.

The manufactured China-stone and China-clay is termed
* pottery,’’ of which there are several varieties, each contain-
ing different proportions, of China-stone, clay, and other
‘articles. In the porcelain series there is said to be but 3 per
cent. of potash, but this I imagine, from the transparency and
purity of the body, to be inaccurate: the Chinese used to em.
ploy the ashes of ferns, which, from the amount of carbonate
of potash they contain, gave to it that richness and blending
of the body with the glaze for which it has been long remark-

able: bone ash was also used, both by the Chinese and French,
and is now employed by our potters in considerable quantity,
for the sake of the phosphate of lime it contains, which,
during the process of fusion, adds considerably to the trans-
parency of the ware without rendering the glaze liable to
craze or peel off, as would be the case were lime alone em-
VOL. LVI. NO. OXI.— JANUARY 1854. G

98 Mr H. M. Stoker on the China-stone and

ployed ; in fact at times, during a single firing, more than
£5000 worth of pottery is rendered useless by the admixture
of this earth, the surface of the services becoming covered
with a congeries of cracks and fissures ; hence great care is
necessary to prevent its addition.

The terms employed to designate the kinds of calcined and
fused wares, are :—Pipe-clay, the least used and least impor-
tant; Queen’s ware; Terra Cotta; Basalts; and Porcelain
biscuit ; the whole of which were introduced by Wedgewood,
to whose persevering, accurate, and scientific research, we
are indebted for the position our pottery now holds; and it
should not be forgotten that the rapid strides by which we
have gained it, and the discoveries that have of later years
been made in this art, have been wholly derived from a good
practical acquaintance with chemical analysis, the import-
ance of which cannot be too strongly urged, on both the potter
and the producer of the raw material. The other and more
common wares are, porcelain; pottery, an inferior kind of
porcelain ; and earthenware; to the description of which I
shall for the present confine my attention, that of the before
mentioned wares, as well as of Parian, biscuit china, &c.,
belonging more strictly to the province of the potter than to —
that of the writer of the present Essay; though, from the
history of the experiments to which their existence is due,
the subject will be found fraught with interest to the chemist
and geologist.

Until a very late period pottery manufacture was com-
paratively unknown in England; in the eighteenth century
we were indebted entirely to the Chinese for our best, and
to the continental potteries for our commoner wares ; a cen-
tury has but elapsed, and to the credit of the industrious, the —
persevering, the indefatigably speculating, Englishman, be it
added, that from pole to pole, under any portion of the globe’s |
equator, wherever the traveller may roam in search of adven-
ture, no less than through the length and breadth of his happy
little island home, he will find, in his cup, his plate, or his —
dish, a never dying testimonial to the enterprising character’
of the Englishman.

China-clay of Cornwall, _ | 99

In porcelain or china and the coarser variety termed pot-
tery, the ingredients are so combined as. to act chemically on —
each other, the decomposed felspar consisting of a fusible
glass of silicate of alumina and potash, more opaque than
that formed by the fused silex in which it is disseminated ;
and when the body is formed of China-clay, infusible at the
highest temperature, in the process of vitrifaction, it is so
acted on, as to form a substance uniformly opaque, having a
vitreous, waxy fracture, and when coloured by some metallic
base is termed stoneware.

There are two kinds of china or porcelain ; the one termed
the hard china was formerly imported from France, though,
of late years, it has been altogether superseded by the second
variety, or soft china. The body of hard china may be con-
veniently formed by a mixture of ingredients in the following
proportions :—

Kaolin, or Chine-clay ‘ 70 parts
: 1 Sante

Felspar
Sand . f : ; 12
Selenite . : ‘ 4,

which calcined, forms the biscuit: this, after being dipped in
a mixture of potash and felspar, is again heated, when vitri-
faction ensues, the article possessing a homogeneous trans-
lucent structure, and not a mere glaze or coat as found on
the common earthenware. In making soft china the English
potters fully vitrify the ware by the first application of heat,
the shape of the article being kept by ground flint, removable
with ease after it is taken from the oven, and the glaze being
subsequently applied is vitrified at a lower temperature than
. that used in the formation of the biscuit of soft china, the in-
gredients used to form which, are,—

Bone. : : ; 46 parts
Kaolin . ¢ : ; i eae
China-stone . ‘ . 23

In making the glaze, a frit is first formed, which renders the
glaze more easily applicable to the surface of the biscuit, by
eewing a mixture sunilar to the following :—

G 2

100 Mr H. M. Stoker on the China-stone and

China-stone . : : 25 parts
Soda e Y . . 6 ees
Borax . ; : ‘ ee
Nitre F 3 : ‘ 1
Of this frit, when ground, 26 parts are taken, and added to
or mixed with—
26 of ground China-stone,
31 ... white-lead,
404 lint,
7... carbonate of lime, &c.,
3... oxide of tin,

in which the biscuit is dipped prior to the last application of
heat. The colours to be laid on the ware are applied and
burnt in prior to the formation of the glaze, an article often
requiring a separate burning for each different colour, thus,
especially in gilded articles, entailing an additional amount
of cost and labour.

The China-stone increases the strength and sonorosity of
the article, while the ground flint gives whiteness and density
to the base of plastic clay: earths are by themselves infu-
sible, but on the addition of silex or silica, another name for
quartz, we form a silicate, to which, if we add a third of earth,
with an alkaline base, we form a body vitrifiable and uniformly
translucent.

As it may not be uninteresting to my readers, I shall briefly
attempt to describe the mode in which the China-stone and
China-clay are treated, prior to their being turned, twisted,
and flattened, to form the numberless articles in which they
greet the eye.

The China-stone is ground to a fine powder by means of
a number of stones which are kept rotating on the bottom
of a paved vat, when it, as well as the clay and ground flint,
are mixed with a certain quantity of water, by a process
termed “ bluging,” till of the consistence of cream, when it is
passed in a state of slop or slip through a series of cambric or
lawn sieves kept rapidly revolving by a water-wheel, each pint
of clay slip weighing twenty-four ounces, while that of the flint
or China-stone weighs thirty-two ounces; it is then passed —
through a very fine silk sieve, after which these ingredients —

China-clay of Cornwall. | 101

are mixed together in variable proportions in a large vat or
tub, and, as soon as the mixture has attained its requisite
consistence, the water is driven off by evaporation, which
causing the slip to contain in its interstices an innumerable
quantity of air globules, renders it necessary that it should
be submitted to the process of kneading or beating, after
which it was formerly thought necessary, though now aban-
doned, that this mass should lie fallow for three or four
months, when it is considered to be fit for the lathe.

The proportions of the ingredients used in the different
kinds of earthenware are as follow :—

‘In cream colour or painted ware,—Dorsetshire clay, 56
parts; kaolin or China-clay, 27; flint, 14; and China-
stone, 3 parts.

In brown ware,—red clay, 83; Dorset clay, 13; flint, 2;
and manganese, 2 parts.

In drab ware,—Cane mar], 32; Dorset clay, 22; China-
stone, 45; and nickel, 1 part.

In jasper,—barytes, 32; kaolin, 15; Dorset clay, 15;
stone, 33; and of lead, 3 parts.

The glazes commonly used for the cream-coloured ware
consists of varying proportions of ‘white lead and China-
stone, or, as these may craze, a frit of the following materials
is often employed :—

Of China-stone, 30; flint, 16; red lead, 25; soda, 12;
and borax, 17 parts; 26 parts of this are then mixed
with 15 of China-stone, 10 of flint glass, 9 of flint, and
40 of white lead ; which constitutes the fritted glaze.

The composition of most of the bodies and clays now used
is a secret confined to the walls of the mixing room, so that
it is extremely difficult to ascertain, with any degree of ac-
curacy, the influence of an excess of ingredients ; thereby en-
tailing a co-existent difficulty on the part of the producer, in
his endeavour to form or prepare a substitute for these
articles.

The China-clay or kaolin of Cornwall was first brought in-
to notice at a very late period, though the material itself has
been long used ; -in fact, not only were the Chinese well ac-

102. On the China-stone and China-clay of Cornwall.

quainted with it, both in a raw and manufactured state, from
the most remote ages, but it is also probable, from the in-
teresting evidences lately brought to light, through the in-
dustrious exertions of Mr Layard, and from other sources,
that the Egyptians knew somewhat of its uses.

When obtained by Mr Cookworthy, in 1768, from the Les-
crowse and Trethose clay works, in the parish of St Stephens,
a large supply was at once demanded for the Staffordshire
potteries, which has gradually increased till the present
time. The average annual export of late years, which I have
been enabled to offer my readers through the kindness of
the most influential shipping agents in the neighbourhood, is
as follows :—

At Charleston | . 40,000 tons of Chine
Py : >. (hU,000>,

... Pentewan ~. 18,080°,

.. Other harbours . 12,000 See

Forming a total of 80,000 tons.

From the little attention paid to former exports of this
article, I have been unable to form an accurate estimation of
them, though some idea of the increase may be gleaned from
the following estimates of the value of the exports of the
manufactured article, to the various countries with which
England has any commercial relations :—

ig tae from Stafford in1835 . £280,000

‘! 1837. . 660,000

1841 $ 600,759

. , 1851 . 1,210,000
while wailibe to this the exports from Derby, Worcester, and
other potteries, will give a total of £2,150,000 shipped during
the past year; in addition to which, of late years, a consider-
able amount of crude kaolin has been exported to every pot-
tery on the continent, and also to those of our inquiring
American brethren, while a small portion has been used for

bleaching.
(To be continued.)

103

On the Analysis of Euclase. By J. W. Mauuer, Esq., Ph. D.

Euclase, from its transparency, delicate shades of colour,
and perfect crystallization, is one of the most beautiful mineral
Species with which we are acquainted ; and since it is at the
Same time a mineral of great rarity, good specimens of it
form some of the most highly prized ornaments of mineralo-
- gical collections.

Such of the characters of the mineral as can be examined
without injury to the specimens, have been pretty accurately
Studied, especially the complex crystalline forms under which
it occurs, which have been described at length by Hauy,
Weiss, Phillips, and Levy. Our knowledge of its chemical
composition, however, the investigation of which involves the
destruction of the specimens operated on, depends upon a
single analysis by Berzelius, as the number given by Vau-
quelin, the only other chemist who has examined the sub-
stance, are almost valueless, presenting a loss of about 30
per cent.

Though from the high authority of Berzelius as an analyst,
any other investigation could scarcely be expected to yield
results of much novelty, or differing materially from those he
has given, yet a second analysis possesses some interest, even
if merely confirmatory of his. The results of one which
I have recently made, I wish, therefore, to bring under the
notice of the Society.

The material employed for this analysis, consisted of four
fragments of erystals, weighing together about 20 grains.
Though this is rather a smaller quantity than is usually
taken for a mineral analysis, it was in the present case quite
enough, as the constituents to be determined were but few,
and alumina and glucina form a large proportion of the
whole. These fragments were perfectly clear and transpa-
rent, three of them of a beautiful pale mountain-green, and
one of a very light tinge of blue. . They presented both na-
tural crystal planes and faces of cleavage, and amongst the
former were several adapted to the use of the reflecting go-

104. J. W. Mallet, Esq., on the Analysis of Euclase.

niometer. The mean results of some angular measurements
over the obtuse lateral edges of four distinct vertical prisms
were, 115° 6’, 127° 51’, 140° 44’, and 149° 32’, all of which
agree nearly with numbers given by Phillips. The only
cleavage I observed was that parallel to the terminal plane,
replacing the acute lateral edge of the vertical prism, which
is mentioned in mineralogical systems as the only cleavage
easily obtained.

The specific gravity of these fragments was 3°036. They
were reduced to fine powder, and fused with the mixed car-
bonates of potash and soda, and the analysis was then con-
ducted according to the usual routine for silicates. The alu-
minaand vlucina were separated according to the old method
by carbonate of ammonia, as from previous experiments I |
found the use of caustic potash, which has been more recently
proposed for this purpose, both difficult and uncertain. ‘The
analysis gave the following constituents per cent. :—

Atoms,
Silica : ) 44°18 ’ 3 950
Alumina ‘ g 3187 s ; 620
Glucina ; : 21°43 ’ . 564
Peroxide of iron. Lal ; : 016
Peroxide of tin. °35 ;
99-14

These numbers agree very fairly with those of Berzelius,
and dividing by the atomic weights of the several constituents,
give their equivalent proportions as in the second column. —
These are very nearly in the ratio :—

SiO, Al, Og +) Goi Qe 8 ag.
And hence we have the formula :—
2 (Al, ©, S8i,02). 4 GasOeBiOn
Or if the two earths, alumina and glucina, be isomorphous :—
4 (Al, O0,+G, O,) 3 Si O,.
Scacchi, taking glucina as a protoxide, suggests an ana-—

logy between euclase and epidote, but if the corrected atomic
weight of this earth be used, the formule of these two minerals —

J. W. Mallet, Esq., on the Analysis of Euclase. 105

differ widely.* If, on the other hand, alumina and glucina be
isomorphous, the composition of euclase coincides with that
of andalusite.
: 4 Al, O, 3 Si O,.

part of the alumina elise cohineed va glucina. An impor-
tant objection to the idea of any real connection between
‘these minerals, however, arises from the fact, that they occur
in different crystalline systems, andalusite belonging to the
right prismatic, while euclase is in the oblique prismatic sys-
tem.

There was one minor pointin connection with Berzelius’s
analysis which it was interesting to examine with special
care, namely, the occurrence or not of a small quantity of tin
in euclase, and I, therefore, took particular pains in testing
all the reagents for this metal before using them, and made
a separate blowpipe experiment on the mineral itself, with
the object of reducing the tin directly. Even by the latter
method there was no difficulty in distinctly ascertaining its
presence, and there can, therefore, be no doubt of its really
existing in the pure mineral.

The occurrence of traces of this metal in other silicates,
as beryl, epidote, and a magnesian garnet, meteoric stones,
and in several ores of titanium and tantalum, has been re-
marked by different analysts, especially by Berzelius, and is
certainly a very curious fact, when we consider the extremely
small number of minerals in which tin forms a leading con-
stituent, and the improbability of such minute quantities
being essential to the composition of the species in which
they occur.—(Journal of the Geological Society of Dublin,
vol. v. part iii., 1853, p. 206.)

* The angles of crystals of the two species also differ considerably.

106 Dr J. G. Allman on the

On the Anatomy and Physiology of Cordylophora ; a contri-
bution to our knowledge of the Tubularian Zoophytes.
By GrorGE JAMES ALLMAN, M.D., M.R.1.A., Professor of
Botany in the University of Dublin, &e.

The author, after pointing out the necessity of giving
greater definiteness to the terminology employed in the de-
scription of the true zoophytes, proceeds to the anatomical
details of Cordylophora, a genus of Tubulariade. He de-
monstrates that Cordylophora is essentially composed in all
its parts of two distinct membranes inclosing a cavity, a
structure which is common to all the Hydroida. For greater
precision in description, he finds it necessary to give to these
membranes special names, and he therefore employs for the |
external the name of ectoderm, and for the internal that of
endoderm. Each of these membranes retains its primitive
cellular structure. In the ectoderm thread-cells are pro-
duced in great abundance; these are formed in the interior
of the ectodermal cells by a process of endogenous cell-for-
mation, and are afterwards set free by the rupture of the
mother-cell. The thread-cells in a quiescent state are minute
ovoid capsules, but under the influence of irritation, an in-
ternal sac is protruded by a process of evagination ; the sur-
face of the evaginated sac is furnished with a circle of curved
Spicula, and from its free extremity a delicate and long fila-
ment is emitted. The thread-cells of Cordylophora thus
closely resemble the ‘“‘ hastigerous organs” of Hydra. The
polypary is a simple unorganized secretion deposited in layers
from the ectoderm. In the endoderm the author points out
a distinct and well-developed glandular structure composed
of true secreting cells, which are themselves produced in the _
interior of mother-cells, and elaborate a brown granular se-.
cretion which he assumes as representing the biliary secre-
tion of the higher animals. He describes, as a system of
special muscles, certain longitudinal fibres, which may be
distinctly seen in close connection with the inner surface of —
the ectoderm. The tentacula are shewn to be continuous
tubes communicating with the cavity of the stomach, and thus _

Anatomy and Physiology of Cordylophora. 107

possess the same essential structure as those of Hydra ;
they are formed of a direct continuation of the ectoderm of
the polype, lined by a similar continuation of the endoderm.
The appearance of transverse septa at regular intervals,
which is so very striking in these tentacula, must not be at-
tributed to the existence of true septa. It is due to a pecu-
liar condition of the endodermal layer, but the author has
not been able to give a satisfactory explanation of it. Through
the whole of the canal which pervades the axis of the stems
and branches, a constant though a regular rotatory move-
ment is kept up in the contained fluid ; this movement is not
due to the propulsive action of vibratile cilia, and is explained
by the author as the effect of the active processes going on
in the secreting cells of the endoderm, processes which can
scarcely be imagined to take place without causing local al-
terations in the chemical constitution of the surrounding
fluid, and a consequent disturbance in its stability.

The reproductive system of Cordylophora consists of ovoid
capsules situated on the ultimate branches at some distance
behind the polypes; some of these capsules contain ova,
others spermatozoa ; they are plainly homologous with the
ovigerous sacs of the marine Tubulariade ; they present a
very evident, though disguised medusoid structure, having a
hollow cylindrical body, whose cavity is continuous with that
of the polype-stem, projecting into them below, and repre-
senting the proboscidiform stomach of a Medusa, while a
system of branched tubes which communicate at their origin
with the cavity of the hollow organ, must be viewed as the
homologues of the radiating gastro-vascular canals, and the
proper walls of the capsule will then represent the disc.
From comparative observations made on other genera of
Hydroida, the author maintains the presence of a true me-
dusoid structure in the fixed ovigerous vesicles of all the
genera he has examined, and he arrives at the generalization,
that for the production of true ova in the hydroid zoophytes,
a particular form of zooid is necessary, in which the ordinary
polype-structure becomes modified, and presents, instead, a
more or less obvious medusoid conformation, Hydra being
at present the only genus which appears to offer an excep-

108 - E. Hodgkinson, Esq., on the

tion to this law, though the author believes that the excep-
tion is only apparent, and that further observations will
enable us to refer the reproductive organization of this
zoophite to the same type with that of Cordylophora and the
marine Hydroida. The author has satisfied himself that the
ova-like bodies contained in the capsules of Cordylophora
are true ova, and not gemme ; he has demonstrated in them
a distinct germinal vesicle, and has witnessed the pheno-
menon of yelk-cleavage ; and the paper details the develop-
ment of the embryo to the period of its escape from the cap-
sule in the form of a free-swimming ciliated animacule, and
traces its subsequent progress into the condition of the adult
zoophyte.—{ Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, 1858).

On the Elasticity of Stone and Crystalline Bodies.
By I. Hopexinson, Esq.*

_ It is generally assumed by writers on the strength of ma-
terials, that the elasticity of bodies is perfect, so long as the
material is not strained beyond a certain degree. But from
the experiments I made several years ago, at the instance of
the British Association, on the strength of Hot and Cold
Blast-iron (vol. vi.), I was led to conclude that the assump-
tion was very incorrect, as applied to cast-iron at least; and
further experiments rendered it probable that it was only an
approximation in any. Among the bodies of most value in
the arts, cast-iron holds an important place; and I found
that bars of that metal, when bent with forces, however small,
never regained their first form, after the force was removed ;
and this defect of its elasticity took place whether the cast-
iron was strained by tension, compression, or transverse
flexure. I subsequently found that in the first two strains
(by tension and compression), the straining force might be
well represented by a function composed of the first and se-
cond powers of the change of length produced,—thus,

w= ae— be?
w=ae—Ve

* Read before the Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science at Hull.

Elasticity of Stone and Crystalline Bodies. 109

where w is the weight applied, e the extension, ¢ the com-
pression, and a, a’, b, b’ constant quantities. If the elasti-
city were perfect, the part depending on the second power

must be neglected. The necessity of a change in the funda-

mental assumption for calculating the strength of materials
may be inferred from the fact, that in computing the break-
ing weight by tension, from experiments on transverse flex-

_ ure and fracture, we obtain the strength of cast-iron three

times as great as from numerous experiments I have found
itto be. The formule of Tredgold give this erroneous result,
and those of Navier are in accordance with them.

Stone.—To obtain the elasticity of stone, I had masses of soft
stone, obtained from various places, sawn up into broad thin
Slabs, 7 feet long, and about 1 inch thick. They were rubbed
smooth, and rendered perfectly dry in a stove, and were bent
transversely in their least direction by forces acting horizon-
tally. The slabs, during the experiments, were placed with
their broad side vertical, and had their ends supported, 6 feet
6 inches asunder, by friction rollers, acting horizontally and
vertically. It resulted from the experiments, that the defects
of elasticity were nearly as the square of the weight laid on,
or, consequently, as the square of the deflexion nearly, as in
cast-iron. The ribs never regained their first form after the
weight was removed, however small that weight had been.
From other ribs of stone, obtained from various localities,
and broke transversely by weights, acting vertically, and in-
creased to the time of fracture, the ratio of the deflexion to
the weights applied were found in various experiments to be
nearly as below :—

“02 01 02 "018 "02 027

0356 012 "022 023 0°22 "032

05 ‘0125 "033 "024 024 "0390
aegis 8 O14 036 "027 025 ‘038

09 ‘015 "026

‘ll ‘016

The ratio represented by the numbers in each vertical co-
lumn, are those in each separate rib of stone ; and they would
have been equal if the elasticity had continued perfect, but
they were increasing where the weights were increased in

110 - Classification and Nomenclature of the

every instance. The change shewn by these experiments to
be necessary would increase considerably the mathematical
difficulties of the subject; and they would be greater still, if
the change of bulk and lateral dimensions in the bodies
strained were included, according to the conclusions of Pois-
son, or the experiments of Wertheim, which are at variance
with each other. But these changes are so small in the
bodies I am contemplating, that they may be neglected
for all practical purposes. Thus, from my experiments, the
utmost extension of a bar of cast-iron, 50 feet long, is about
1 inch, or ;3yth of the length, and therefore the change of
lateral dimensions of the bar being only a fraction of this
giath, according to either Poisson or Wertheim, it is too
small to need including. The experiments in which I de-
duced the utmost extension of cast-iron, are given in the
‘* Report of the Commissioners on the Strength of Iron for
Railway Purposes.” If the body strained were wrought-iron,
‘brass, or others of a very ductile nature, the change of late-
ral dimensions might, in extreme cases, be included. I
beg to mention, with great deference, that the profound work
of Lamé, lately published, on “ The Mathematical Theory of
Elasticity,” in which the elasticity is considered as perfect
only, does not appear to apply to such bodies as I have here
treated of.—( Atheneum, No. 1353.)

The Classification and Nomenclature of the Paleozoic
Rocks of Great Britain. By Professor SEDGWICK.*

The Professor stated that the fossiliferous rocks formed in
reality only one great system, representing the whole succes-
sion of events from the first appearance of organic life to the
present day. But as it was convenient to divide history into _
chapters, so the strata had been divided into three principal
series,—the Paleozoic or Primary, the Secondary, and the
Tertiary, each characterized by many families, genera, and
species of peculiar fossils. The Paleozoic strata might be
again divided into an upper, middle, and lower series: the

* Read before the Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science at Hull. .

Paleozoic Rocks of Great Britain. LIL

first including the Permian and Carboniferous systems ; the
second, the Devonian or Old Red Sandstone; and the third, the
Silurian and Cambrian systems. These rocks were charac-
terized generally by the entire absence of Mammalia, and even
of reptiles in their lower division; and by the presence of
peculiar groups of shells (Orthocerata and Goniatites),
crustaceans (Trilobites), and corals (e.g. Graptolites). Very
few specific forms ranged from one division of this system to
another ; but they had great general resemblance. A few
corals ranged from the Bala limestone to the Devonian, and
one (favorites Gothlandia) even to the lower beds of carbon-
iferous limestone ; Terebratula reticularis was found in the
Silurian and Devonian ; and Leptaena depressa from the Bala
limestone to the Carboniferous. Prof. Sedgwick then called
attention to the grounds for separating the Cambrian and Si-
lurian systems, which he said he had always maintained to be
distinct. He had commenced his observations in the Cumber-
land Hills, of which a section was exhibited, shewing the fol-
lowing successions of rocks :—1. Skiddaw, slate, usually with-
out fossils, but containing graptolites in one locality ; 2. Con-
iston limestone, abounding in fossils; 3. Coniston flagstone
and grit. The order of succession of the beds above these
was difficult of determination in the Lake district. He had
next investigated the structure of North Wales, between the
Menai and the Berwyns, and had established the existence of
a great system of rocks comparable to those of the Lake dis-
trict, and had given to them the name of the Cambrian system.
Meanwhile, Sir R. Murchison had discovered in “ Siluria”
tracts exhibiting the whole upper series, equivalent to the
beds above the Coniston grit. And having made good sec-.
tions of the strata in ascending series, from the Llandelio flags
to the Old Red Sandstone, and given names to these rocks
which were now generally adopted, this country had become
the type to which all others were referred for comparison,
because in it the order of succession was ¢learly made out.
It then became a question what was the boundary line be-
tween the Cambrian and Silurian systems? Sir R. Murchi-
son had made the Llandeilo flags the base of his system, and
considered the whole country westward of it to be Cambrian.

112 Classification and Nomenclature of the

It proved, however, that the rocks to the west of the Llan-
deilo valley were newer, and not older than the flags; that
in fact the Llandeilo flags were notabove the Cambrian system,
but an integral part of it. But, instead of adding the narrow
beltof country occupied by these flags to the Cambrian system,
Sir R. Murchison had wished to convert the whole breadth of
the Cambrian region into Silurian. Prof. Sedgwick then re-
ferred to the section of the Malvern strata, as determined by
Prof. Phillips ; he contended that the Caradoc sandstone and
conglomerate of this section belonged in reality to the Wenlock
series, and proposed for it the nameof ‘ May-hill sandstone.”
The underlying black shales and “ Hollybush sandstone,”
of Prof. Phillips he regarded as the true Caradoc sandstone, be-
longing to the Cambrian system. Prof. Sedgwickfurther endea-
voured to shew, by sections and lists of fossils, that the Silurian
May-hill sandstone existed in a distinct form in the typical dis-
trict of the Caradoc sandstone. With this correction the Cam-
brian system would include the lower Silurian of Sir R. Mur-
chison. The distinctness of the Cambrian or Lower Silurian
from the Upper Silurian was admitted on fossil evidence; Mr
Barrande had found only 6 per cent. of fossils common to the two
systems in Bohemia, and Mr Hall only 5 per cent. in America.
In Westmoreland the per-centage was only 33. Of 324
Species in the Cambridge Museum, not 15 per cent. were
common to the two systems, including all the doubtful cases,
and the real number was probably not above 5 per cent.
Professor Sedgwick then read a letter from Professor Rogers
in America, expressing his approval of this nomenclature,
and his conviction that it would be eventually be adopted; he
also entered upon an explanation of the manner in which his

various papers on this subject had been published in the

Journal of the Geological Society, as it had been supposed
that he himself had abandoned the term Cambrian at one
time, whereas the alteration had been made in his paper
by a former President (Mr Warburton) of the Society, with-
out his knowledge.

Mr Hopkins, late President of the Geological Society, ex-
plained some of the circumstances referred to by Professor
Sedgwick, and expressed a strong conviction that the Pro-

Paleozoic Rocks of Great Britain. 113

fessor would succeed in establishing his nomenclature. Set-
ting aside all personal claims, and looking solely at the merits
of the case, he believed that the proportion of distinct species
in the Cambrian and Silurian systems would prove to be as
‘great as in other parallel cases.

Professor Phillips stated, that it was more than thirty years
since he first met Professor Sedgwick on one of his geological
excursions ; and after so many years of labour, he was gratified
-to see that he had obtained a form of sound classification of
the oldest fossiliferous rocks of the British Isles. He believed
that if Sir R. Murchison were present he would put aside all —
points of difference, and also congratulate him on having pre-
sented so good a view of the subject. As the development
of our types was looked upon as the pattern for other countries,
it would be unfortunate if we allowed it to be supposed that
there was no basis for our classification, whereas no difference
of opinion existed as to the main facts, viz., that the Cambrian
rocks contained a large series of characteristic forms of life, and
that the Silurian also contained a distinct series ; the question
was, where to draw the line between them. A classification
taken from the Malvern country alone would be incomplete,
as regarded both the series of strata and the forms of life. It
was extremely difficult to apply the doctrine of the succes-
sion of life on the globe to minute cases, since the sets of
fossils from adjacent quarries might differ, being determined
by local circumstances. The term “ system’’ of rocks as now
employed, had no such distinct character as when it was first
used by Mr Conybeare, whose systems were distinguished by
conformity and mineral character, as well as by fossils. He
wished not to express a positive opinion or to adopt arrange-
ments which he regarded only as provisional; there had
arisen before him a vision of a classification founded entirely
_ on the succession of life, and he looked forward to the time
when the nomenclature should express, not the local mineral
changes,but those phenomena of organic life which extended
over much wider areas.

Mr Strickland argued, that there had been no period at
which organic life was absent from the globe, and no such
_ thing as an entirely new creation; but that the changes in
VOL, LVI, NO, CXI.—JANUARY 1854. H

114 On the Surface Temperature and Great Currents

organic life had all been gradual. He did not think that
‘even zoological terms would be universally applicable any
more than that the same species would be found everywhere
at the same time. The nomenclature must ever remain to a
certain extent arbitrary and conventional. The value of the
Cambrian and Silurian systems was not to be determined by
the per-centage of identical species so much as by the zoo-
logical affinities of the genera and large groups of fossils ; and
in this respect they were apparently more allied than the
Silurian was with the Devonian, or the Devonian with the
Carboniferous system.

On the Surface Temperature and Great Currents of the
North Atlantic and Northern Oceans. By the Rev. Dr
SCORESBY.*

The author commenced by pointing out the great impor-
tance to Physical Geography of the subjects which he pro-
posed to discuss, particularly as they tended, in the economy
of Nature, to furnish a compensating instrumentality against
the extremes of condition to which the fervid action of the
vertical sun in the tropical regions, and its inferior and more
oblique action in the polar regions, were calculated to reduce
the surface of the earth. Our knowledge of all the currents
of the ocean, with perhaps one exception, the Gulf Stream,
which had been, in its more important features, carefully ex-
amined and surveyed, and more especially in the American
Coast Survey, was derived from the comparison by naviga-
tors of the actual position of the ship as determined from
time to time, with its position as calculated from what sailors
technically called the “ dead reckoning,” or the course steered,
and the distance run as determined by the log, an instrument
by no means perfect. The determination, however, of oceanic
currents, to which the present communication referred, de-
pends simply on induction from observation of temperature,
and that mainly of the surface. Such observations, indeed,
only become available under considerable differences betwixt

* Read before the Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science at Hull.

of the North Atlantic and Norihern Oceans. 115

the mean atmospheric and oceanic temperatures : and where
they may seem to indicate the region from which peculiar
qualities of the sea are derived, they ean afford but little, if
any, information as to the precise direction or strength of the
eurrent so indicated, yet still the general results are found
important and useful. The researches of the author embrace
those in the Greenland Sea, the North Sea, and a consider-
able belt across the North Atlantic. To those in the North
Atlantic he wished at present to direct attention ; and to a
belt of it embraced within the limits of a series of passages
chiefly by sailing vessels between England, or some European
port, and New York. Of these passages, sixteen in number,
four were performed by the author himself, and twelve were
supplied by an American navigator, Capt. J. C. Delano, an
accurate scientific observer. The observations on surface
temperature discussed amount to 1153, gathered from a total
number of about 1400. Usually Capt. Delano recorded six
observations each day during the voyage, at intervals of four
hours. Seven of the passages were made in the spring of
the year,—two in the summer,—one in autumn,—and three
in winter. Taking the middle day of each passage the mean
day at sea was found to be May 18th or 19th,—a day fortu-
nately coincident in singular nearness with the probable time
of the mean annual oceanic temperature. The author had
laid down the tracks of the ship in each of the voyages ona
chart of Mercator’s projection, and the principal observations
on surface temperature were marked in their respective places.
The observations were then tabulated for meridians of 2° in
breadth, from Cape Clear, longitude 10° W., to the eastern
point of Long Island, longitude 72° W..,—embracing a belt
of the average breadth of 220 miles, or a stretch of about 2600
miles across the Atlantic. The results were the following:

_ —1. Highest surface temperature northward of latitude 40°,
74° ; lowest 32°; range 39°: 2. Mean surface temperature
as Paleed from the méans of each meridional section, 56°,

whilst the mean atmospheric temperature for the correspond-
ing period was 54°2: 3. Range of surface temperature
within each meridional section of 2°, 83° at the lowest, being
in longitude 20-22° W., and at the greatest 36°, being within

H 2

116 On the Surface Temperature and Great Currents >

the meridian of 62-64° W.: 4. Up to longitude 40° the sur-
face temperature never descended below 50° ;—the average
lowest of the sixteen meridional sections being 51°88, and
the average range 11°3: 5. In the succeeding fifteen sec-
tions, where the lowest temperature was 32°, the average
lowest was 37°1 and the average range 29°7. This re-
markable difference in the temperature of the eastern and
western halves of the Atlantic passage, the author said was
conclusively indicative of great ocean currents yielding a
mean depression of the lowest meridional temperature from
51°88 to 37°-1, or 14°8, and producing a mean range of the
extreme of temperature on the western side of almost thrice
the amount of the extremes on the eastern side,—or, more
strictly, in the proportion of 29°-7 to 11°3. The author drew
attention to a diagram in which he had laid down along the
entire belt curves shewing the whole range of the lowest de-
pressions of temperature and highest elevation, withthe means
at each longitude distinguished by different shading ; and
pointed out how the inspection of this as well as of the tabu-
lated results affords striking indications of the two great cur-
rents, one descending from the polar, the other ascending
from the tropical regions, with their characteristic changes
of cold and heat. In classifying the results, the author con-
sidered the entire belt of the Atlantic track of the passages
as divided into six divisions of 10° of longitude each, and these
into meridional stripes of 2° each, omitting the first two de-
grees nextthe European end, or about 80 miles westward of Ire-
land to 72° W., or about the same distance west of New York.
To each of these six divisions he directed attention, pointing
out the conclusions to be derived from each. ‘The curves
approaching each other and running nearly parallel through
the western half with great regularity, shewing the variations
and range to be much less, while throughout the eastern half
the widening of the distance, and the irregular form of the
extreme curves shewed the influences of the two currents very
remarkably. The author then proceeded to draw conclusions,
shewing that sometimes the cold current from the north
plunged beneath the warmer current from the south. Some-
times they divided,—the colder keeping in-shore along the

a ™ a

of the North Atlantic and Northern Oceans. 117

American coast, the other keeping out and forming the main
Gulf Stream. Sometimes where they met they interlaced in
alternating stripes of hot and cold water; sometimes their
meeting caused a deflection,—as, where one branch of the
Gulf Stream was sent down to the south-east of Europe and
north of Africa, and another branch sent up past the British
Islands to Norway and Scandinavia by the polar current set-
ting down to the east of Newfoundland. The author next
proceeded to consider the uses in the economy of Nature of
these great oceanic currents. The first that he noticed was
the equalizing and ameliorating influence which they exer-
cised on the temperature of many countries. Of this he gave
Several examples. Thus, our own country, though usually
spoken of as a very variable climate, was subject to far less
variations of range of temperature than many others in simi-
lar latitudes,—which was chiefly from the general influence of
the northern branch of the Gulf Stream setting up past these
islands. He had himself on one occasion, in the month of
November, known the temperature to rise no less than 52° in
forty-eight hours, having previously descended in a very few
days through a still greater range ; while in these countries
the extensive range between mean summer and. winter tem-
perature scarcely in any instance exceeds 27°, and in many
places does not amount to nearly as much. Another advan-
tage derived from these currents was, a reciprocation of the
waters of high and low latitudes,—thus tending to preserve a
useful equalizing of the saltness of the waters, which otherwise
by evaporation in low latitudes would soon become too salt
to perform its intended functions. Next he pointed out their
use in forming sand-banks, which became highly beneficial as
extensive fields for the maintenance of various species of the
finny tribe, as in the great banks of Newfoundland. Next,
this commingling of the waters of several regions tended to
change and renew from time to time the soil of these banks,—
which, like manuring and working our fields, was found to be
necessary for preserving these extensive pastures for the fish.
Lastly, by bringing down from polar regions the enormous
masses of ice which, under the name of icebergs, were at
times found to be setting down towards tropical regions, they

118 On the Influence of Climate on Plants and Animals. |

tend at the same time to ameliorate the great heats of those
regions, and to prevent the polar regions from becoming
blocked up with accumulating mountains of ice which, but
for this provision, would soon be pushed down as extensive
glaciers, rendering whole tracts of our temperate zones unin-
habitable wilds. Dr Scoresby concluded by pointing out se-
veral meteorological influences of these currents, by causing
extensiye fogs, and winds more or less violent,

On the influence of Climate on Plants and Animals. By
Dr Emmons of New York.

It is difficult to determine the influence of climate on or-
ganized beings. The influence of climate seems, however,

to modify what exists; it spends itself on those bounds, it

does not form, but modifies varieties. Light, no doubt, should
be regarded as an element of climate; its duration and in-
tensity are indications of its force, and measures its activity.
We see the foliage of a forest becoming more deeply green
as we go towards a tropical region; the herbage of a species
of forest tree becomes stiffer, rigid, and less leafy, as we go
north, or ascend the mountains; and we may trace the changes

in our ascent, until we find it a dwarf, a diminutive tree, a .

mere shrub, upon the heights of.a mountain, while in the plain
at its base it is a lordly tree. Those changes are unques-
tionably due to climate; they are not those which charac-
terize varieties, much less species: indeed it is important
that we do not assign too much to climate, Some naturalists
have supposed that climate produces varieties; it seems,
however, more consonant to facts to infer that varieties are
independent of climate; that the causes which have been
operating in the production of varieties have belonged to in-
dividuals. These forces or influences are begotten in a civil-
ized state, or where many individuals are congregated.

It is not agreeable to the principles of natural history to
maintain that the peculiar vegetation under a tropical sun
is due to climate, or that it is an effect of climate. The
species of plants belonging to the tropics differ entirely from

CON ee ee

On the Influence of Climate on Plants and Animals. 119

the temperate ; their characters are those of different species,
not varieties. When we trace the changes in a species of
maple, as it approaches the confines of a temperate region:
we may estimate the extent of change which is induced by
elimate. We cannot compare dissimilar species with those
which grow in the south ; and, seeing that their differences
arise from the influence of climate, because those differences
are specific, they should be different; and they may be
greener, straighter, and taller, because those characters be-
long to them. But climate has influences, but not the in-
fluences in kind by which permanent changes are continued
and propagated by the usual modes by which individuals are
multiplied, as by cutting, grafting, layers, or budding. Take
off the pressure of a cold climate, and the plant which has
been pinched and shrivelled, or dwarfed, will mount upwards,
and spread itself under a genial sun. It is probable that
climate favours the development of certain varieties more
than others; indeed, there can be no doubt of the fact that
varieties reach a higher state of perfection in certain climates
than in others. If we study the habits of certain fruits, we
shall find, and it is a fact well known, that they are very in-
ferior, and even valueless, in some climates. The plum is fine
and very perfect along the Hudson River; but a few miles
distant from it, it becomes inferior in quality. While, how-
ever, it is sufficiently manifest. that varieties do not originate
under the forces incident to climate, it is still difficult to point
to causes which are directly operative in their production : it
is, however, probable that a parental influence, those in-
fluences perhaps which are implanted for wise purposes, are
effective in their development. Those species which are re-
presented under numerous yarieties, as the fruits and domes-
ticated animals, have implanted in them a susceptibility to
undergo those changes in their constitutions—it is, in fact,
a part of their specific character ; it is of a higher grade in
some of the domesticated animals than others, and it is inci-
dent to those animals only which can be domesticated ; and
those which are easily domesticated have the power of mul-
tiplying varieties in the greatest numbers, and display the
widest differences in the extremes. These views apply to

120 Dr Emmons on the Influence of

Man, who is more susceptible of change in his physical na-
ture than any of the domesticated animals. Designed by the
Creator to multiply and fill the whole earth, we find that his
constitution is adapted to that end, to occupy all climates
and adapt himself to a scorching sun or the frosts of a polar
sky. Viewed in the extremes, the varieties in their physical
character present differences which are very striking ; viewed
however in their intellectual and moral aspects, the charac-
ters are those of a unity. Their power of speech and lan-
guage, the conveyance of ideas by speech is universal ; this
oneness of mind, which displays itself all over the world, the
religious sentiment which is universal, point with significance
to the singleness of the species. It must be so, or else Man
is an anomaly in creation. Those who have entertained the
theory of a plurality of species, which in their aggregate
compose the human race, rely wholly upon physical charac-
ters to sustain their views. Considered even in this light,
are the differences in the race so great that they would not
have originated in the progress of time? Are the differences
greater than in the breed of dogs and other domestic animals,
which naturalists admit are of one species? In all cases
those differences are external ; they belong almost solely to
the skin. Ifthe bony skeleton is examined there are some
differences it is true in their proportions, but those differences
are found in each of the races respectively. The blacks have
not all the flat noses, thick lips, and projecting jaws; there
are whites with the same configuration of bone. But there
probably has not existed a greater error in natural history than
in classing man with animals, notwithstanding the fact that
in his physical organization he is not very dissimilar to them ;
yet, in the common classification, his least important charac-
ters are made the characteristics ; whereas really his higher
attributes, those belonging to mind, and his moral nature,
should have been made the characteristics. If this view be
correct, we shall be troubled no longer with perplexities and
doubts about the question of the plurality of species, inas-
much as there is such a perfect uniformity in the characters
of Man in his mind as to stamp the truth upon the heart of
évery candid inquirer. The thoughts of Man are like one

Climate on Plants and Animals. 121

broad river, they flow in one channel; the speech of different
races, which are widely separated, relate to subjects of the
same kind; their belief in existence after death, of rewards
and punishments, and all the strong castes of mind, move in
one channel, and are harmonious in all their leading cha-
racteristics. Being destined to dwell on the earth for a
Season, it was fit and proper that he should, for that end, be
furnished with what may be termed an animal nature; this
nature belongs to the body, which is sustained, like that of

animals, by food taken into the body, and air taken into the
- lungs,—a transient habitation for an immortal mind. The
end required an apparatus adapted to the circumstances of
his existence, and to the surrounding medium; but to make
that apparatus the all-important part of his nature, to draw
his characters from that, so transient, while mind, speech,
articulate language, moral and intellectual attributes, re-
ligious sentiments, all of which are common to the races,
does Man great injustice, and is an outrage upon his nature.
This uniformity of sentiment is proved by an intercourse
with all the tribes of men. If there were two or more
Species, we have a right to infer that this uniformity would
exist. Of all the species which live, or have lived, is there
any like it in the whole range of created beings, that two
different species have intellects alike, or an ability to com-
municate purposes and intentions? If there are no cases of
an analogous kind, it is plain that this uniformity of mental
and moral views and feelings, and which are manifested in
the same modes, should be taken as proof of the unity of the
stock from which the races have sprung.

This subject is noticed cursorily, because it is one which -
is exciting a great interest ; itis one of great importance, and
it should be placed upon the right ground ; and it is hoped
that better and more correct views of classification should
-be embraced than those which have hitherto prevailed, and
if Man is to be placed at all in a zoological classification, his
characteristics should be drawn from his more essential at-
tributes,—his intellectual and moral nature. If this view is
correct, then, our inquiries will be directed to those powers
as they exist in the various tribes of men. Climate, when

122 Dr Emmons on the Influence of

considered in its relations to plants and animals, may be re-
garded, as I have already had occasion to remark, as a modi-
fier of the existing species and varieties ; but its modifica-
tions are restricted and confined: it sometimes favours the
more perfect developments of varieties or species, and some-
times it operates in other locations where the climate is mo-
dified to restrain development and perfection. Climate never
intermeddles with specific characters; it may for a time
obscure those characters in a monstrous growth, when aided
by a rich soil, or by over-feeding. A problem of great im-
portance may be solved by observing what products are spe-
cially favoured by certain climates, and what climates are
unfavourable to the production of the same. Where we have
climate in our favour, and have not to contend with it, the
expense of production is materially diminished ; the certainty
of the product is also increased, and its perfection secured,
by which its value is also increased. As an element of
climate, the temperature of the soil at different depths is one
of great importance. The different soils may be said to
enjoy different climates; those which are sandy possess a
climate unlike that of a clay soil, a due admixture of sand
and clay combine elements which belong to a climate inter-
mediate between the two.

In pursuing our investigation in menial to species and
varieties, it is highly important that we should be impressed
with the fact that specific characters are permanent, and it
will appear, on reflection, that this is a beautiful and wise
arrangement. There is a fitness in the provision of indivi-
dualizing species, as it were, both by corporeal marks and
» by intellectual and instinctive power. The intention or pur-
pose which is fulfilled by this arrangement I do not intend to
speak of now; it is the fact which I wish to bring before the
reader. Many persons, however, when they speak of grada-
tions of character, and of the intimate relations of things,
and the links which bind all together, seem to labour under
a fallacy. Where are those gradations seen, and what is
the idea which is thus prominently set forth? What are the
gradations of being? Is it probable that in the gradations
which are insisted upon there is anything like a coalescence

Climate on Plants and Animals. 123

of species? I suppose the phrase, gradation of being, is
often used with too much looseness, and hence it frequently
happens that confusion results from its use ; and it undoubt-
edly arises from misunderstanding the nature of the changes
which have taken place in some species, and especially those
which are represented by numerous varieties. These varieties
are never generic, but strictly specific. Take the apple, which
runs into many varieties ; those varieties all retain the charac-
teristics of the species. No apple has been found yet which has
made the least progress towards the pear; neither has the
pear yet transformed itself, in-any of its varieties, into an apple;
each and every one of them are equally removed from the.
genus, and yet each branches out into hundreds of varieties ;
and no one has the least doubt to which species any one of
the varieties belong. The same is true of all the other
species. There is no upward or downward movement in this ;
there is, it is true, in the case of fruits, a difference in quality,
but none of them can be said to have made any progress to-
ward an allied species. The constitutive power to multiply
varieties is only a part of their specific characters. If we
turn our thoughts to the animal kingdom for illustration of
the same principle, for example, we find the elephant is apt
to learn, while the rhinoceros or hippopotamus rarely possess
this aptitude in the smallest degree ; the positive character
of the first is as important specifically, as the negative in the
latter. If, then, by gradation of character, it is designed to
convey the idea that species coalesce, by the resemblances in
their varieties, the idea is erroneous ; if, however, the phrase
is designed to convey or express the fact, that in the system
to which they belong, some species occupy a higher position
than others, or that there are grades of development, some of
which are high and others low, it is undoubtedly true. The
_ position which a species holds is positive and arbitrary ;
Species occupy a shelf or platform which is fixed, and it neither
inclines downward nor upward ; the position of the shelf, or
in other words, the species, is nearer one than another species,
that is, a species more closely resembles certain species than |
others. Although the distance between neighbouring species
is unequal, still the two which are nearest akin never coalesce

124 Dr Emmons on the Influence of

with each other through their varieties ; even in vegetables,
where they are susceptible of being engrafted or budded upon
each other, there is no tendency to coalesce, or to produce an
intermediate variety ; the scion of the pear engrafted upon the
quince is still a pear. There is, to be sure, a good reason
for this: the pear is developed or formed in the cellular sys-
_ tem, and really bears no connection with the quince, except
by the sap, which flows upwards, and passes through the
cellular system. The cells produced are only pear cells, yet
it seems that if there were any tendency in the pear to be-
come a quince, under any circumstances, the relation which
the scion bears to the stock would be a favourable one. It
appears necessary that a cell should be furnished from one
of the parents, in order to produce an intermediate progeny,
as is the case in the propagation of mules. But here we have
unfailing test of the mixed parentage, from the sterility of
the offspring, and although attempts have been made to prove
the contrary position, still there is now no position better
established than the one that the offspring of two different
species of animals are sterile. Itis true that, as in many

other cases, there are no partial exceptions, still two mules —

cannot propagate a race. |

Specific character is unchangeable, and species are kept
in consequence of this arrangement strictly apart. There is
an application of this fact to the products of our fields, which
by some farmers are supposed to undergo a change. Chess
is a plant which has but a slight relationship to wheat, and
yet the question has been discussed for years, and many in-
telligent men in other matters have strenuously maintained
that wheat changes to chess; the change of course must be
by a single leap, in a single season—a complete somersault, a
perfect degradation of the species in a single period of growth.
When and where does the change begin? The point which
troubles farmers, is the appearance of chess where they have
sown wheat, and clean wheat too. But it is also notorious to
every observer, that Nature too has sown her seeds broadcast,
and where there is land in a condition for seeds to germinate,
there they will spring up; and it comes to pass, from a wise

:

Climate on Plants and Animals. 125

provision, the tenacity of seeds for the vital principle ;* and
chess, while fond of a good soil, springs up by the side of fences
and fields, and scatters its seeds, which lie in the soil till
favourable opportunities occur for their germination. The
fact that chess grows where wheat is expected, is a trifling
fact, which is easily accounted for on known principles, while
the transformation of one species of plant into another is
contrary to the laws which govern the growth and develop-
ment of organized bodies. The only point which can be
cited, and which is at all analogous to what appears a trans-
formation, is the reversion of domesticated animals to their
original appearance or condition ; as when the dog or hog is
left to roam, and becomes wild in the forests, they resort back
to their original condition, their original instincts returning as
they become wild. Now, if it can be shewn that chess is the
original of wheat, it might happen that where wheat springs
up spontaneously and sows itself, it might in time become
chess. But this hypothesis is unsupported by a single fact
in the history of the.two genera. The errors which have
been entertained in regard to the transformation of wheat
into chess have arisen solely from defective observation.
Chess is observed in a wheat field, and becomes the more pro-
“minent/and abundant when the wheat has been winter killed.
Now it would be just as philosophical to maintain that the
common wild cherry which springs up in our northern forests,
where a windfall has occurred and swept down the pines,
that the pines were changed into cherry trees; these cherry
trees cover the entire ground, and previous to the windfall
not a cherry tree was to be found. The seeds of the cherry,
however, lay in the ground, and when light and air was ad-
mitted by the destruction. of the old forest, they spring up
and cover the ground. The occurrence is not strange, except
in the great abundance of trees produced ; and the occurrence
of chess would not be regarded strange if but few plants
made their appearance; but when they become numerous,

* The phrase, vital principle, is used for convenience ; it is not designed by
it to express an opinion in regard to the independent existence of something
which presides over the movements of a living being.

126 Dr Emmons on the Injluence of

the question comes up, where did all the seeds come from ?
The case is one which is common, it becomes prominent only
from the relation which the plants wheat and chess bear to
each other; looking like a grain in the midst of a grain field,
being a hardy plant too, and springing up where it is not
wanted, it has excited attention and imperfect observation,
and in the end proving so worthless with its associates, it
becomes prominent from its worthlessness. When we have
ascertained the fact that seeds possess the power of retain-
ing what is called vitality for a long period, that they may
sleep in the ground for years, and then subsequently awaken
into life, by heat and air, or favourable conditions ; that all
this is true, and eminently so of some seeds, the fact of the
appearance of chess in an old field, or in a field prepared for
wheat, ceases to be a mystery. It is only a fulfilment of a
law of vegetation ; it occurs in obedience to the characteris-
ties which have been stamped upon organized beings by the
Creator, in order that the earth shall be clothed with ver-
dure, and not lie in a barren waste.

It has been maintained that species have a tendency to rise
in the scale of existence, that they may change their own
proper natures and become something else. Such a view is
analogous to that which prevails among farmers about chess,
has originated from defective observation, and has its source
and beginning from misunderstanding the relations of or-
ganized beings to each other. It arises directly from, the
fact which has already been stated, viz. the closer resem-
blance which one species has to another than others of the
same tribe. The pear has a closer resemblance to the apple
than it has to the quince. The domestic dog has a closer re-
semblance to the wolf than the fox ; and hence it has hap-
pened that the idea of an advance or change has taken a deep
hold on the minds of some men ; but there has been no change
at all, not only are the species kept apart, but groups of or-
ganized beings also. Species, in their individual capacity,
do not advance towards a higher, neither do they retrograde
toa lower species. Plants do not deteriorate, neither do
animals ; but they retain all their specific characters.

There is another view which is interesting, viz., the man-

Climate on Plants and Animals. 127

ner in which domesticated animals break up into groups: it
is illustrated in the dog, and all the domestic animals ; but
those groups retain the characteristics of the species, and of
all the changes which take place not one affects the organi-
zation, The groups or varieties constitute well-marked
families, and are capable of preserving their identities as
species. While species, as the dog and ox, possess a consti-
tutional ability to change their external characters, which
are not specific, the change itself is governed by a law which,
while it marks the groups with characters transmissible to
their offspring, still not one group, or an individual of a group,
is merged in any of the near or remote species. I remark
again, that specific character is never destroyed by external
influences ; in those influences where a species is changeable,
and readily breaks up into groups whose characteristics are
transmissible from the parents to their offspring, the speci-
fic character is never uprooted ; and in fact these external
changes should be regarded as belonging to the specific cha-
racters. It is true that this susceptibility cannot be esti«
mated or measured, as these changes are regarded as acci-
dents or occurrences which cannot be determined by law.—
(Dr Emmons on the Natural History of New York.)

On the Origin of Orystalline Limestones. By Professor A.
DELESSE.*

M. Delesse, having just. previously reviewed the general
characters and mineral contents of different crystalline lime-
stones,J commences this communication by defining “ meta-
morphic limestone’? and “ metamorphic rock,” as a rock
which has been subjected, at a period posterior to its forma-
tion, to considerable modifications in its physical or chemical
properties. ‘These modifications are brought about by the
development of diverse minerals, by changes in its structure
of aggregation, or in its structure of separation, as well as
in its chemical composition. The modifications in the physi-

* Bullet. Soc. Geol. France. Deux ser. tome ix., pp. 133-138. ;
Tt Loe. cit., pp. 120-183. See also papers by MM. Delesse, Cotta, and Schee-
rer; supra, pp. 4, 15, and 19, et seg.— Transl.

128 Professor A. Delesse on the

cal properties of the rock result from the.action of heat,
electricity, magnetism, pressure, as well as of all the agents
that can bring into play molecular attraction and repulsion.
The modifications in its chemical properties arise from the
introduction of new substances in the rock, by injection, sub- -
limation, secretion, cementation, and especially by infiltration.

M. Delesse then observes :—‘“ It appears to me that the
crystalline limestones should be considered metamorphic,
though certainly they are metamorphic to very different de-
grees; still they have all been subjected, since their deposi-
tion, to modifications in their chemical, or at least their
physical properties. There are, however,.some limestones
that form an exception, namely, those which have been de-
posited by chemical precipitation, and which were originally
crystalline. These are not to be confounded with the meta-
morphic crystalline limestones, nor do they contain the
mineral characteristics of the latter.

The crystalline limestone of the gneiss of the Vosges,
which, from its mineralogical and geological characters, M.
Delesse considers to be a metamorphic limestone, is then
particularly adverted to; its characters are succinctly de-
scribed; and M. Delesse proceeds to say, that probably the
limestone was originally deposited, either in mass from water
charged with carbonate of lime, or as strata by the waters
of the sea. The beds in which the limestone has been inter-
calated belong without doubt to certain divisions of the
Transition group; and, moreover, all geologists who have
studied the Vosges have regarded the gneiss inclosing the
limestone as metamorphic.

The phenomena that have produced the metamorphism of
the gneiss are unknown; but a group of strata could be
transformed into gneiss only by the introduction of the quan-
tity of alkalies necessary for the production of the felspar,
one of the constituents of the gneiss. Further, heat must
have been effective in the development of the crystalline
structure of the limestone of the gneiss, since the limestone
contains spinelle, chondodrite, garnet, amphibole, pyroxene,
&c.; that is to say, minerals of an igneous origin, since they
are found in the limestones on the flanks of Vesuvius, or in

Origin of Crystalline Limestone. 129

the sphere of action of other volcanoes now active, such as
those of Teneriffe, Ponza Isles.* On the other hand, there
could not have been complete fusion; for in the crystalline
limestone of Norway, MM. Naumann and Keilhau have ob-
served fragments of corals.t

The nature of the very numerous minerals of the crystalline
limestone also gives great improbability to the hypothesis of
complete fusion. It appears, indeed, that rocks which have
been reduced to a fluid state, and which have had an igneous
origin, such as lavas, have always a very simple mineralogical
composition. They are essentially formed of two minerals:
the one of the felspar class, in which are concentrated the
alumine and the alkalies; the other of the pyroxene or peri-
dote kind, in which are concentrated the oxide of iron, mag-
nesia, and lime. In “crystalline” limestone, on the contrary,
there are various silicates, sometimes with a single base,
sometimes with many ; and these silicates are often associ-
ated either with free silex or with silicates, not saturated
with bases. Moreover, together with these. silicates, there
are very energetic uncombined bases, such as magnesia
(periclase), alumine (corindon). There are also metallic ox-
ides, such as the oxides of iron, which, under certain circum-
stances, appear to have been contemporary with the lime-
stone ; and there are compound oxides, such as the spinelles,

perovskite; in which the oxide, playing the part of an acid
_ (alumine, titanic acid), is an acid much less energetic than
the silex. We easily comprehend, then, that these minerals
have been formed with the concurrence of heat, or of the
molecular actions which it developed; but it is difficult to
admit that they result from a complete fusion of the Bpy hel
line limestone.

_ Moreover, many facts prove that felspar may be formed
_in rocks without the intervention of a great heat; for exam-
ple, in the Arkose of La Poirie (Vosges), crystals of felspar
are developed in the clay lands (argilolites), which certainly
have not been melted, and the stratification of which is quite

* Dufrenoy, Ann. des Mines, 3 sec., tome xi., p. 385.
T See also Translation of Professor Scheerer’s Memoir, supra, p. 7.—Ed.
VOL. LVI. NO. CXI.—JANUARY 1854. I

130 Origin of Crystalline Limestone.

recognisable. At Morel, in the commune of St Laurent
(Saéne-et-Loire), crystals of pink orthose of an after develop-
ment exist in a limestone with Gryphea arcuata, which
has a crystalline structure, but characterized by a grayish
yellow tint somewhat different from its usual colour. Lastly,
at Steinmal felspar crystals have been observed by M. von
Dechan in the inside of the abdominal buckler of a Homali-
notus. Inthe same manner, the transition graywackes in
the neighbourhood of Thann, and to the south of the Vosges,
are very often completely impregnated with felspar, and
still we find in them numerous remains of plants which have
been well preserved in spite of the later development of
crystals of felspar of the sixth system.
~The intimate and mutual penetration of the limestone and
gneiss, shews that both have been reduced to a plastic state,
if not to actual fluidity ; and the dissemination of the felspar
in the limestone mass, shews also that the gneiss must have
been sufficiently pasty for the felspar to have been secreted.
The penetration of the limestone by the gneiss, as also
the undulations sometimes presented by both rocks at the
line of junction, make it evident that pressure was brought
into play to a great extent during the crystallization of the
gneiss; this has produced in the limestone fissures generally
parallel to its line of contact with the gneiss, and compar-
able to those formed in a book the leaves of which are
squeezed or pressed back laterally. Those fissures have
been immediately filled by the secretions of matter diffused
in the limestone, and they have given place to the parallel
zones of nodular concretions, whilst the same matter formed
the veins or the lining in fissures of the gneiss. Although
in most of the metamorphic limestones the minerals are —
especially developed in the natural joints, originating in —
stratification, these nodules, on the contrary, in the limestone
of the gneiss of the Vosges, apparently owe their paral-
lelism to pressure. |
Pressure, like heat, has been also effective in actuating
molecular attraction, and in developing the different minerals ;
disseminated in the limestone. ers
Subsequently to the crystallization of the limestone and ~

Biographical Sketch of Mr H. E. Strickland. 131

of the gneiss, certain minerals have been, and probably are
still being, modified by chemical action arising from infiltra-
tion, so that new minerals are formed by pseudomorphosis ;
as for example, the pyrosklerite—(T. R. I. Quarterly Jour-
nal of the Geological Society, Vol. ix., No. 36, p. 27.)

Biographical Sketch of Mr Hugh Edwin Strickland.

We have to announce, with deep regret, the death of Mr
H. E. Strickland, who was killed by a railway train, whilst
examining the strata of arailway cutting on the Manchester,
Sheffield, and Lincolnshire line.

«© Mr Strickland arrived at East Retford from Hull, hav-
ing attended the recent meeting of the British Association.
_ He was attached to the Geological Section of the Asso-
ciation ; and in pursuance of his practical investigations in
that science, he proceeded on Wednesday afternoon to ex-
amine the strata of the deep cuttings on each side of the
Clarbrough Tunnel, about four miles distant from Retford.
A little after four o’clock, a boy at work in the fields observed
him standing between the two lines of rails, near the mouth
of the tunnel, on the Gainsborough side, with a pocket-book
in his hand, apparently engaged in making notes. At this
time, a coal train was approaching on the down line,—to avoid
which he stepped off the ‘six feet’ on to the up line ;—but
-unhappily he did so just at the moment when the Great North-
ern passenger train was issuing from the tunnel. The train
dashed upon him,—and the next instant he lay a shattered
and shapeless corpse.”

Mr Strickland was in the prime of life,—at that age when
the promise of youth is fast realizing itself. He was born at
Righton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the 2d of March
1811. His father, Mr Henry E. Strickland of Apperley, in
Gloucestershire, was a son of the late Sir George Strickland,
Bart. of Boynton, in Yorkshire. He was a grandson on his
mother’ 8 side of the celebrated Dr Edmund Cartwright,—
- whose name is so indissolubly connected with the manufac-
12

1382. Biographical Sketch of Mr H. E. Strickland.

turing greatness of England on account of his invention of
the Power-loom.

Mr Strickland’s boyhood was spent under his father’s roof ;
where he was under the private tutelage successively of the
three brothers Monkhouse,—one of whom is now a fellow of
Queen’s College, Oxford. From his father’s house he was
transferred to the late Dr Arnold,—who, prior to his appoint-
ment at Rugby, took private pupils at Laleham, near Staines.
He finished his education at Oriel College, Oxford. |

Although distinguished for his classical knowledge, Mr
Strickland had early acquired a taste for natural history pur-
suits ; and after the completion of his. studies at college he
resided with his family at Cracourt House, near Evesham,
Worcestershire—where he studied minutely the geology of
the Cotswolds and the Great Valley of the Severn. Some of
his earliest published papers were on geology ; but his first
effort as an author indicated a taste for the pursuits of his
maternal grandfather. It appeared in the Mechanics’ Maga-
zine for 1825,—and was on the construction of a new wind-
gauge. |

In 1835, Mr Strickland travelled in Asia Minor, in com-
pany with Mr W. J. Hamilton, M.P.,—who was then Secre-
tary to the Geological Society. An account of this journey
was published, in two volumes 8vo, by Mr Hamilton, in 1842,
under the title “ Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, and Ar-
menia.” This tour resulted also in the publication of several
interesting papers on the geology of the districts visited, both
by Mr Strickland himself and conjointly with Mr Hamilton.
The principal papers published by Mr Strickland singly were
—*‘ On the Geology of the Thracian Bosphorus,’’—“ On the
Geology of the Neighbourhood of Smyrna,’—and ‘On the —
Geology of the Island of Zante.” He early devoted his at- —
tention to the study of birds; and during this journey he ©
gave proof of his ornithological knowledge by adding to the —
list of birds inhabiting Europe the Salicaria Olivetorum. He —
subsequently devoted a large share of his attention to the
study of birds ;—as his papers in the “ Annals and Magazine
of Natural History,” and in Sir William Jardine’s “ Contri-
butions to Ornithology,” amply testify. His principal ; work,

Biographical Sketch of Mr H. E. Strickland. 183

however, on this subject, and the one which will give him a
place amongst the classical writers on the ornithology of this
country, is devoted to the history of the Dodo. This, work was
published, as our readers will remember, in 1848,“with the
title “ The Dodo and its Kindred ; or, the History and Affi-
nities of the Dodo, Solitaire, and other Extinct Birds.” It
was handsomely illustrated ; and was an example of how the
difficult subject of the affinities of extinct animals should be
dealt with. Mr Strickland was aided in the osteological
portion by Dr Melville. Since the appearance of this work,
he has twice published supplementary notices regarding the
Dodo and its kindred, in the “ Annals and Magazine of Na-
tural History.” One of Mr Strickland’s last contributions to
science was on the subject of ornithology,—when, in the Sec-
tion of Natural History, the day before his death, he gave
an account of the Partridge (Tetraogallus) of the Great
Water-Shed of India, recently illustrated in Mr Gould’s
“ Birds of Asia.”

Although as a zoologist ornithology was his strong point,
Mr Strickland had an extensive knowledge of the various -
classes of organized beings. ‘Thus, several of his papers
were devoted to accounts of the Mollusca, both recent and
fossil, in various districts. One of his papers at the last
‘Meeting of the British Association at Hull was, as our readers
will see elsewhere, “‘ On the Peculiarities of a Form of Sponge
(Halichondria taberea).” .

Mr Strickland paid a large share of attention to the ter-
minology of Natural History,—and was the reporter of a
‘Committee appointed by the British Association to consider
‘the rules by which the nomenclature of zoology might be
established on a uniform and permanent basis. These rules
were principally drawn up by him ; and they have since their

_ publication been very generally acted on,—and have contri-

. “buted greatly to simplify Natural History nomenclature.

’ The general principles of classification could hardly fail
to interest a mind so discursive as his,—and accordingly we
find him at various times publishing on this subject. In an
early number of the “ Annals and Magazine of Natural His-

te “tory” he inserted a paper “ On the true Method of discovering

134 Biographical Sketch of Mr H. E. Strickland.

the Natural System in Zoology and Botany,’—in which he
displayed a great knowledge of the forms of animal and vege-
table life. In the reports of the British Association for 1843
he published a paper “ On the Natural Affinities of the Inses-
sorial Order of Birds;” and again, in the ‘* Magazine of Natural
History,” vol. ii..—“ Observations on the Affinities and Analo-
gies of Organized Beings.”

It must be obvious, that the labours to which we have al-
luded imply an immense amount of industry,—but in the
midst of all his practical investigations Mr Strickland found
time for purely literary work. Thus, in 1847, he undertook
to edit for the Ray Society a work, the collection of materials
for which had cost Prof. Agassiz many years of labour, en-
titled “ Bibliographia Zoologie et Geologiz.” Three volumes
of this great work are published, and the fourth and last is
now in the hands of the printer. Mr Strickland’s labour
here was not merely that of editing—it embraced the contri-
bution of a large mass of additional matter, amounting to a
third or fourth of the whole. He spared no pains to make
this work complete ;—and it must ever be regarded by the
zoologist and the geologist as a most valuable gift to the
sciences which they cultivate.

On the occurrence of the illness of Dr Buckland, and his
withdrawal from the duties of the chair of Geology at Ox-
ford,—every one felt the propriety of inviting Mr Strickland
to deliver lectures in his place. Though young for so impor-
tant a post, and with a reputation in other departments of
science, he was found able to sustain the fame of his pre-
decessor in this,—and brought to bear with great advantage
the stores of his varied knowledge upon a science which is
always susceptible of influence and amplification from the
principles of other departments of science, however distant
from it they may at first sight appear. The Reports of the
British Association, the Transactions of the Geological
Society, the papers of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society of London, and of the London and Edinburgh Philo-
sophical Magazine, all testify to Mr Strickland’s activity asa —
geologist. They contain a mass of valuable observations
both on paleontology and on the physical structures of rocks

Biographical Sketch of Mr H. E. Strickland. 135

in this country and other parts of the world,—which must for
ever remain a part of the history of the science of geology,
and constitute a permanent monument of the industry and
earnestness of the man who made them.

In several of his geological papers, Mr Strickland’s name
is connected with that of Sir R. I. Murchison ; especially in
a work on “The Geology of Cheltenham and its Neighbour-
hood.” He assisted Sir Roderick in preparing for the press
his great work on the Silurian system ; and the proof-sheets
of his new work on Siluria all passed through Mr Strickland’s
hands,—the last of the work having been corrected at Hull.

At the time of his death, Mr Strickland was engaged in
working on his “ Ornithological Synonymy,”—the printing of
which was delayed only to render it more full and complete.
He possessed a very ample and useful library,—also exten-
sive geological and ornithological collections,—which are now
at his residence at Apperley Green, near Tewkesbury.

In 1845 Mr Strickland was married to the second daughter
of Sir William Jardine, Bart :—both of whom, with Mr
Strickland’s father and mother, survive to lament his prema-
ture loss.

In the above brief sketch we have spoken only of Mr
Strickland’s scientific career,—but he had moral qualities that
endeared him to all who knew him. Few came in contact
with him who did not recognize in him a conscientious,
amiable, and excellent man. In him Oxford has lost a Pro-
fessor whom she could ill afford to part with at this time.
To him they who hoped for the wider culture of natural
science at Oxford looked as to one who had the power and
the ability to take a lead. The scientific societies have lost
in him a member who was unwearied in his assiduity to
carry out their objects in all their purity. His means made
him independent of his labours ;—and all recognized in his
exertions that love of science and its objects which constitutes
the true philosopher.—(A thenewm, No. 152, p. 1125).

136

Notice of an Attempt to Naturalize the Craw-Fish (Astacus
fluviatilis) in the South of Scotland. Communicated by
Dr FLEMING.

The following curious entry occupies a place in a volume
of Adversaria (for 1770, p. 4), formed by Dr Walker, Pro-
fessor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh,
the immediate predecessor of the present occupant of the
chair.*

“ Cancer Astacus, Lin. (The Cray-Fish).

“ They abound in the rocky rivulets about Penrith, in
Westmoreland, which run upon limestone.

« They spawn in the months of June and July. They were
brought from Penrith seven years ago, and planted in the
rivulet which runs past the house of New Posso, where they
still live.

“Graham, who brought them, informs me that the best time
for transporting them is about the lst of May. He carries
them in a close basket among wet grass, which he deposits
in water at night. Three days and three nights is the longest
time that they can be so carried with safety. He can carry
on horseback about 1000. He took them to Kailzie in Tweed-
dale for 13s. 6d. per hundred, but most of them died. He
offered to bring them to Moffat for 8s. 6d. per hundred if 1000
were taken. He feeds them sometimes with beels.

“To Robert Graham at Penrith, to the care of Mrs Buchan-
nan, at the Crown in Penrith.

* 'The way to catch them or to know if they are in a desires
is to put in a lump of flesh or any carrion into it over night;
they will be found preying upon it in the morning.”

It appears from the preceding statement that this crus-
tacean, even in those days of difficult transport, was suecess-
fully conveyed from Cumberland to the parish of Manor in

eo

* Seven volumes of these Adversaria which came into my possession, con-
taining many important notices of interesting subjects in Natural History, have 4
been deposited in the Library of the University.

Apparent Visibility of Stars through the Moon. 187

Peebles-shire, and that they outlived their translation through-
out a period of at least seven years.

The late distinguished zoologist Sir John Graham Dalyell,
Bart., instituted, at my request, a series of inquiries for the
purpose of ascertaining if the descendants of this stock were
_ still to be found in the places referred to, but all traces of such
animals had disappeared, and even tradition, usually a toler-
ably faithful record, had preserved no memorial of the ex-
_ periment.

It would be a very easy process at the present time, with
the command of railway speed, to transport the animals from
their native haunts to any of our suitable streams ; while such
an addition to our luxuries would not interfere with any
other source of enjoyment.

Pennant, in his “ British Zoology,” terms the crustacean
CRAW-F ISH; but Berkenhont and later writers term it Cray-
~ Fish. J. F.

NEw CoLLeGeE, EDINBURGH,
3d December 1853.

On the apparent Visibility of Stars through the Moon imme-
diately before their Occultation. By R. EDMONDS Jun.,
_ Esq. Communicated by the Author.

Hight years ago, when the cause of the occasional projec-
tion of a star on the moon’s disk for a few seconds before its
occultation was, at one of the meetings of the British Associa-
tion, and elsewhere, publicly discussed by eminent scientific
men, I prepared a short paper, suggesting that it might arise
from the telescope being on such occasions set to the star’s
focus instead of the moon’s, in which case the imperfect image
of the moon formed at the stellar focus would, of course, be
magnified. But when the star is on the very edge of the
~ moon, the image of the latter would not find room for being

magnified without spreading itself over the star’s image, and
thus oceasioning the apparent visibility of the star through
the moon, the extent of this projection being equal to the
excess of the radius of the magnified lunar image beyond that

188 -Apparent Visibility of Stars through the Moon.

of its perfect image when brought to a focus. In the occul-
tation of the star Aldebaran in 1829 the reason why eight of
the thirty-one European observers did not perceive any pro-
jection, and that the other twenty-three did, may be, that
the telescopes of the former were suited to the lunar focus,
and those of the latter to the stellar; the eye being incapable
of determining the exact focus.

I did not, however, publish my remarks, nor shew them to
any one until last month, when my nephew (Frederick B.
Edmonds) being here on a visit, I desired him to read them,
with a view to test by experiment the correctness of my ex-
planation. He accordingly placed a candle in the furthest
corner of the room close behind a card, through a small hole
in which the light flowed to representa star. At the distance
of about two yards from the candle he placed an illuminated
disc to represent the moon; and then retiring three yards
from the disc, with a powerful pocket spy-glass, having its
focus set for the “ star,” looked at the “ star,” along the edge
of the ‘‘moon,”’ when the former appeared very clearly pro-
jected on the latter, precisely as in the reality observed by
astronomers. When the focus of the glass was set for the
“ moon” no projection whatever occurred.

I immediately communicated this to Professor Airy, who
very kindly informed me that the explanation would be satis-
factory if the focal length of the telescope for the moon were
sensibly different from that for the star. ‘“ It would be highly
desirable, however, (he added,) to bear this consideration in
mind in the case of another observation of the occultation of
a bright star.”

The explanation now offered will therefore, in all proba-
bility, ere long be fully tested; and if the eye be unable
directly to detect any difference between the lunar and stellar
foci, the existence of a sensible difference between them
would, I presume, be indirectly established, should the pro-
jection disappear on lengthening the focal distance, and re-
appear on shortening it.

139

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

(Continued from vol. lv., page 352.)

Lode Formations.

By the term lode formation is to be understood a small
group of minerals usually associated together in lode fissures;
and presenting distinctive characteristics in their mode of
association... At the same time it must be added, that groups
of minerals can only be regarded as constituting any one
formation so long as the succession of the individual mine-
rals in what is termed the lode structure, or banded arrange-
ment of the minerals, remains the same. Repetitions or suc- -
cessive generations of a formation likewise occur.

There is considerable difficulty in determining and distin-
guishing the lode formations: thus, 1. Certain minerals oc-
eur in different formations, and some one mineral, especially
quartz, is often repeated, without the remaining members
of the group. 2. Some minerals, as iron pyrites, some va-
rieties of calcite, and copper pyrites, occur in so. many for-
mations, that they cannot be regarded as. distinctive. Still
formations are sometimes characterized by the quartz and
the particular abundance of pyrites.. 3. In some instances
druses are very rare in lodes, and it is only in them that the
structure and succession of the minerals can be recognised.
4. Sometimes there are two or three formations in one lode,
and then it is not always easy to determine whether a mi-
neral belongs to one or the other.

It appears that the minerals which serve best. to. distin-

4 guish the lode formations are either some of those siliceous

species which are not products of decomposition, or some of
the true ores.. There is still a want of some kind of scientific
nomenclature for these phenomena, but the paragenetic rela-
tions, are perhaps too little understood, and the relative dates
of lodes too little known, to warrant the adoption of one as yet.
Nevertheless the paragenetic grouping of a few but constant
minerals in lodes is too evident to escape notice. Such, for in-
stance, is the case with minerals containing cobalt, nickel, bis-
muth, and arsenic; lead and zinc; tin and scheel, and the very

140 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

frequent association, under similar conditions, of fluor Spar
and heavy spar. Undoubtedly it is not allowable to form an
opinion on this subject from individual specimens in mineralo-
gical cabinets ; it is the universal association of minerals in
the different known lodes of one class which must be studied.
Moreover, the determination of lode formations is not alone
difficult in regard to the constituent minerals, but likewise
in regard to the date of the several substances. When dif-
ferent formations occur together in one lode, or in different
lodes intersecting each other, some inference may be formed
as to their relative dates ; but as yet there are only a few such
instances of contact. known, and therefore this branch of re-
search, so important in its relation to mining, yet remains to
be cultivated. J
The following description of*lode formations comprises
both such as have a practical interest, and such as at present
have only a scientific interest; they are likewise arranged
according to probable relations of date, commencing with the
older. ) |
I. Pyroxene, garnet, pyrites, and blende formation.—This
is undoubtedly one of the oldest, perhaps the oldest, of all
lode formations, although want of acquaintance with its con-
tact phenomena renders this still uncertain. The character of
these lodes is not very distinctive, since the lode planes are
frequently parallel with the strata adjoining ; for which rea-
son they are very generally regarded as beds. Again, the
banded structure is almost altogether wanting. The forma-
tion, however, is marked by the occurrence of silicates, some-
times in considerable masses ; a circumstance which strongly
indicates a very remote date. It is probable that the lode
substance of this formation bears a relation to the adjoining
rock similar to that of amygdaloid rock to old red sandstone,
where it has penetrated the latter, and yet occurs in parallel
layers. Thus the date of the lode substance would be much
the same as that of the adjoining rock; and indeed, in a
geognostic point of view, it appears to resemble the eruptive
rocks, as if it had been injected, which may be the reason of —
the absence of banded structure.
This formation occurs in Saxony, Bohemia, and Scandi-

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 141

navia. Its constituent minerals are specifically different from
the same minerals occurring in rocks. Pyroxene appears to
be the oldest member, idocras and garnet more recent. Pseu-
domorphs are by no means wanting. It is further remark-
able, that at different parts one or other mineral predomi-
nates considerably. Thus the accumulations of galena, iron,
copper pyrites, tin ore, and even limestone, have been found
sufficient to admit of being worked.

The general features of this formation present great ana-
logy with those of the “kalkstdécken,” previously spoken of.
While in these latter, limestone predominates, and in some
localities there is a much greater diversity of imbedded mi-
nerals, and the lode form appears less marked, the occur-
rence of limestone in the former is only exceptional; but,
on the other hand, there is an abundance of pyroxene, garnet,
and pyritic minerals, which is foreign to the “ kalkstécken,”

and the lode character is more distinctly marked.

Il. Titanium formation.—This is probably little inferior

in antiquity to the last, not only because it occurs in the
‘oldest known rocks, but because the essential constituent mi-

nerals, containing titanic acid, do not occur in any other forma-
tion, with the sole exception of the “ kalkstécken ” and diver-
gent zones. Felsite is likewise found upon them, which cer-
tainly indicates a very remote date.

The phenomena presented by the lodes of this formation
appear to admit of the following inferences: 1. That the
felsites are in all instances older than the compounds of ti-
tanic acid, or of titanic and silicic acid together. 2. Quartz
is generally more recent than the above minerals, except
rutil, with which it appears contemporaneous, and sometimes
even older than it.

IIL. Noble quartz formation.—This occurs in Saxony, espe-

cially in mica-slate, sometimes in gneiss, both rocks being
“much altered. It is older than the porphyry veins with which
“it Comes in contact, but these veins appear to bear some re-
lation to the richness of the lodes: The principal lode sub-
‘stance is quartz, frequently converted into hornstone; -gene-
“rally adhering firmly tothe adjoining rock, and ramifying
into it. Large masses of ore never occur in these: lodés,

142 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

which are therefore worked only in virtue of the silver and
gold present in the minerals they contain. The Saxon lodes
of this formation are especially characterized by a variety of
mispickel, in small crystals with a brilliant lustre, generally
imbedded in quartz, and very rarely implanted upon it. There
is always some gold in this ore, although, in most instances,
not sufficient for profitable extraction. It is, indeed, very pos-
sible that the presence of argentiferous blende and glance,
as well even as that of metallic silver, was determined by
this mineral.

There are good reasons for the opinion that the lodes of
this formation are intimately connected, as regards their ori-
gin, with metamorphic phenomena in the adjoining rocks, and
that they are on a larger scale essentially the same as the
small and sometimes metalliferous quartz veins in felsite
rock and porphyry.

Antimony, tellurium, and arsenic, constitute, by reason of
their analogy, a mineralogical and chemical group, and their
natural compounds frequently appear to belong to one and
the same lode formation. Antimony glance always contains
traces of gold and silver, in some localities sufficient for ex-
traction, and it is very probable that the Transylvanian lodes
bearing quartz with auriferous and argentiferous tellurium
minerals, and even metallic gold, are of this class.

The gold occurring in lodes of this formation is very recent,
being implanted upon antimony glance, iron pyrites, calcite,
realgar, and even gypsum. In like manner, silver appears
to be the most recent member of the formation ; consequently
it is hardly to be doubted that these metals have originated
by some mode of extraction from compound minerals.

IV. Pyritic lead and zine formation.—This very closely
resembles the last-mentioned formation, from which it is se-
parated only on account of the peculiar character communi-
cated to it by the considerable masses of galena, black zine-
blende, arsenical iron, sulphur, and magnetic pyrites, and
the absence of any considerable quantity of gold or silver in
them. Generally speaking, these minerals have been converted
into pseudomorphic bisulphurets. The presence of copper py-
rites is likewise distinctive ; the edle quartz of Freiberg is,

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 143

moreover, intersected by porphyry, while this formation in-
tersects porphyry. Assuming the porphyry to be of the same
date, this would support the opinion of miners who regard
the formations as different. Still there are no grounds for di-
viding the pyritic lead and zine formation into so many parts
as Werner did. On the other hand, it cannot be doubted
that there are several formations of galena and zinc-blende,
for instance, the clinoedritic and the barytic. But these
two minerals frequently occur together elsewhere without
any recognisable relations to other minerals as regards date
having yet been ascertained, therefore the possible future ne-
cessity for further subdivision must not be altogether denied.
The zinc-blende is almost always the black variety, especially
when: associated with arsenical pyrites, and indeed whenever
pyritic minerals preponderate.. When it is of a brown or red
colour there is seldom much if any pyrites near. It is well
known that black zinc-blende contains an essential admixture
of sulphuret of iron, and has a lower specific gravity than that
of any other colour.

The clineodritic lead and zine formation sometimes di-
rectly follows the present one ; however they must neverthe-
less be regarded as distinct.

Sometimes the heavy spar formation is likewise present with
and without the noble quartz ores, which are, howeyer, less
abundant the greater the quantity of pyritic minerals, and
in this case belong to a more recent formation which has been
sporadically imbedded in that of the latter, as is the case in
the noble quartz formation, where such lode substances are
generally absent.

The pyritic ores are met with, although quite in miniature,
in the fissures of argillaceous spherosiderites, the lode veins
of coal strata, and even in the cavities of limestone petrifac-
tions of still more recent date.

The minerals constituting this pyritic lead and zinc forma.
tion are frequently mixed together in coarse masses, no con-
_ stant succession being observable except in the druses which
sometimes occur where the lode bellies out, when galena and
zine-blende present themselves as the older, and pyrites as the
younger members. ‘Two generations have likewise been ob-

144 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

served, thus upon galena and blende—mispickel, and then
again galena and mispickel. Derivatives of galena are rare,
those of copper pyrites unknown.

This is perhaps the most important formation for the min-
ing of Freiberg, for only a small part of the silver which is
obtained there is derived from the true silver formation, the
principal part being extracted from the galena of this forma-
tion.

It is in connection with this formation that we first meet
with a phenomenon called by the miner, the iron hat, gossan.
It has been universally found that iron ores, especially brown
iron ore, red hematite, and even specular iron ore, are met
with only at the upper part and outcrop of the lodes, which,
when worked deeper, yield ores of more valuable metals.
There is indeed historical evidence that the working of iron
ores has laid bare ores of silver, lead, copper, cobalt, and
nickel, and in many districts the proverb is still in use—

“ Der Gang hat einen eisernen Hut,
Und thut darum in der Teufe gut.”

It is scarcely probable that this phenomenon can in all
cases be accounted for in a similar manner. It is met
with in lodes of the pyritic lead and zine formation in some
of the Freiberg mines, and there it may have originated
from the action of the atmosphere upon pyritic minerals.
There are brown iron ores which are remarkable for contain-
ing silver sometimes in available quantity, called in Germany
‘‘ edle Braunen”’ and “ Gilben,” in Mexico “ Pacos,’ It is
possible that in the earlier periods of mining in Germany, the
belief in the “ eisernen Hut” was more universal than at the
present time; but in Mexico and South America it still main-
tains its ancient authority, and has recently received a con-
firmation in the discovery of the lead and silver mines at
Jarosa, near Alicante in Spain. But the presence of silver
in the iron hat is not essential. Probably the knowledge of
its occurrence has contributed to the confirmation of the
opinion that the deeper a lode is driven the greater is the
probability of finding rich deposits of ore, although in this
instance there is another genetic reason for the belief than
that previously spoken of.

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 145

At other places the large number of pyritic minerals are
wanting, and are replaced as at Prizebram by spathic iron.
Here the “‘ hut” may originate from the alteration of spathic
iron. In the neighbourhood of Prizebram, the lodes of iron
ore are leased to private individuals only to a certain depth,
because the more valuable pyritic ores occur below that depth,
and these are worked by the government.

At other places, the various iron and manganese ores of
the “ eisenen Hut’’ are certainly more recent than other
minerals on the same lodes, and present a genetic character
distinct from them. |

Although it is true that most lodes of iron ore continue as
such to all accessible depths, still some of the deposits of
ferruginous minerals ought not to be altogether overlooked
or disregarded, especially when they occur in true lode dis-
tricts, for it is probable that in many instances such a depo-
sit may be the iron hat of a lode.

V. Cobalt and Nickel formations in general.—Not only
are minerals containing these elements very generally as-
sociated together, but in almost every mineral which con-
tains one of them as an essential constituent, at least traces
of the other enter its composition. Arsenic enters more
largely than sulphur into the composition of the more fre-
quent of these minerals, so that it might be termed the co-
balt, nickel, and arsenic formation. Metallic arsenic has
even been found. Bismuth minerals are in some localities
such constant associates that- they might be regarded as es-
sential, while in others they are altogether absent. How-
ever, they occur unaccompanied by cobalt and nickel minerals,
although the arsenik-kies of Altenburg contains nickel, and
bismuth glance is a frequent associate of copper pyrites.

Copper pyrites, and sometimes its ordinary products of
- composition, especially malachite, kupperfecherz, accompany
the minerals of this formation. Linneite is never without cop-
per pyrites, although large masses of it have not been found.
Arsenical iron pyrites occurs, though not largely. The uran-
pecherz occurs sporadically, espa) a in one group of this
formation.

The principal lode substances (gangarten) are spathic iron

VOL. LVI. NO. CXI.—JANUARY 1804. K

146 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

of twelve periods, and partly converted into brown iron, prin-
cipally as support, pearl spar, fluor spar, heavy spar, quartz,
(three generations), cale spar (three sub-species), brown spar
and tantokline.

It has been ascertained that only those arsenical pyrites which
are accompanied by chlorite, contain nickel with traces of
cobalt. The cobalt minerals of Chili occur in chlorite slate.
The schaalstein of Nassau bearing lodes of cobalt and nickel
is a greenish clay-slate, approximating closely to chlorite
slate, and perhaps actually passing into it. It is considered,
perhaps correctly, as clay-slate, altered by the adjoining chlo-
rite slate. The metallic bismuth of the tin formation is ac-
companied by chlorite, and a number of facts lead to the in-
ference that these formations are peculiar to the chloritic
rocks.

Diorite, one of whose principal constituents is amphibole,
contains gelbnikelkies at Gladenback (Darmstadt),—only in-
deed disseminated, but so abundant as to be worked. The
spathic and brown iron lodes at Lobestein bear nickel and
cobalt minerals principally when they cut through or pass
near diorite, while in the clay-slate they are either scarce or
absent. The principal deposits of nickel and cobalt are chiefly
in amphibolie rocks. The magnetic pyrites of Lillehammer
(Norway) and Klefwa (Sweden), containing 3 to 4 per cent.
nickel, and nearly 1 per cent. cobalt, occur in amphibole and
diorite rocks. Breithaupt has found that these magnetic
pyrites closely resembled that from the Adlers mine (Bava-
ria), and Plattner found in it 1 per cent. cobalt and a trace of
nickel, The magnetic pyrites of Lillehammer and Neufang
contain fragments rather than crystals of amphibole, which
leads to the conjecture that they are the contents of lodes.

It is further remarkable that even in meteorites, magnetic
pyrites accompanies the iron containing cobalt and nickel.
Traces of nickel have been found in olivine; and peridotes
are present in many meteorites.

The numerous instances of the paragenesis of minerals
eontaining cobalt and nickel in amphibole and dioritie rocks,
are not less remarkable, and must not be overlooked, as is

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 147

sufficiently indicated by the above-mentioned occurrence of
cobalt and nickel in magnetic pyrites.

However, this formation occurs in true clay-slate, and
likewise in mica-slate, gneiss, and granite, although only
sporadically. Its occurrence in zechstein and cupreous slate
is altogether distinct from its appearance in lodes in the
above-mentioned rocks.

Older Cobalt formation in Chili.—This formation is stated
to have been discovered near Huasco in chlorite slate. The
Schneeberg cobalt nickel lodes likewise bear axinite, and
these two instances of association induced Breithaupt to ex-
mine the arsenical pyrites of Thun, sitting upon axinite,
for cobalt, which it was found to contain. It would there-
fore be advisable to examine pyritic minerals associated
with axinite, in order to ascertain whether they contain an
available quantity of cobalt and nickel.

Glaucodot likewise occurs porphyritically in chlorite slate,
with precisely the same characters as the mispickel in Frei-
berg mines, except that here the adjoining rock is disinte-
grated, which is not the case with Chili chlorite slate.

VI. Tin formation.—The principal representatives of this
formation are tin ore (cassiterite) and the two wolframites,
ferro-wolframite and mangano-wolframite. These minerals
are associated wherever tin ore is worked, and the isolated
occurrence of one or other is a great rarity. The scheel-
spar is without doubt to be regarded as a product of the de-
composition of wolframite. Beryl and topaz occur together
and separately, the former as a very old member of the
group. Quartz is never absent. The formation likewise in-
eludes such pyritic minerals as contain an essential admix-
ture of arsenic, rarely such as are free from that element.
Molybdenum glance is a frequent mineral. Calcite and most
carbonates, so frequent in other formations, are here very
scanty. |

One especial characteristic of this formation is the very
limited: number of rocks in which its lodes occur. These
are—granite, gneiss, mica-slate, and a few clay-slates. Tin
and wolfram lodes have never been observed in diorite, dia-

K2

148 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

base, sandstone, or limestone. Such kind of negative facts
must not be disregarded; this one, for instance, indicates
that these lodes are of very remote date, apparently that of
the protrusion of the older granite.

The existence of alluvial deposits of tin ore must not be
overlooked. These are, in fact, to be regarded as the result of
gigantic natural ore washings. The absence of wolframites is
probably owing to the more easy mechanical and chemical
destruction of these minerals as compared with the tin ore.
Even in lodes, instances of the chemical destruction of wol-
framites, and production of scheelspar, have been observed,
unaccompanied by any pseudomorphs after tin ore.

A remarkable feature is presented by the lodes of this for-
mation where they come in contact with those of red hema-
tites. It has been observed at Altenberg (Saxony), that at
the points of contact both lodes are poorer, and frequently
the tin ore is altogether absent.

The lodes of this formation generally possess in a very
marked manner the banded structure, especially in the mica
slate at Ehrenfriedersdorf (Saxony).

VII. Clinoedritic lead and zine formation.—Under the
term clinoedrites, Breithaupt understands a mineralogical
genus comprising the various kinds of fahlerz, tennantite,
copper-blende, &c.

These minerals are distinguished chemically by their very
complicated, although characteristic composition, containing,
on the one hand, copper, mercury, silver, zinc, iron, cobalt,
and nickel; on the other hand, antimony, arsenic, and tin.
All these metals exist as sulphurets ; those of copper and
mercury with two equivalents to one of sulphur; those of
silver, zinc, iron, tin, and probably cobalt and nickel, with
equal equivalents; those of antimony and arsenic with two
equivalents of metal to three of sulphur.

The clinoedrites occur in very definite paragenetic rela-
tions ; bournonite is frequently associated with them. In
many places this formation occurs alone, sometimes together
with the older pyritic, or with the more recent fluo-barytic.

When felspar or iron spar occur in the pyritic lead and

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 149

zine formation, it is to be regarded as terminated, and the
Same may perhaps be said of the second generation of quartz;
therefore quartz and iron spar are frequently found to sup-
port the clinoedritic formation. Since, however, iron rose
and manganese spars possess a close mineralogical relation,.
and protoxides of iron, manganese, &c., replace each other
chemically, they are frequently found alone or associated in
the lodes. When pear] spar occurs, it is the oldest of the car-
bonates. It is remarkable that the galena implanted upon
rose spar presents imperfect crystal forms, rounded edges,
broken planes, &c. While all these carbonates appear as the
supporters of this formation, still they are tolerably contem-
poraneous in formation with galena, zinc-blende, and the
clinoedrites, although these minerals are obviously the more
recent, from their distinct superposition. Arsenical pyrites
are no longer found, nor indeed in any more recent formation.
Magnetic pyrites is likewise wanting. Pyritic minerals, on
the whole, are less abundant, and the smaller their quantity
the greater the amount of silver in the galena and clinoedrites.
When copper pyrites is altogether wanting, weissgiiltigerz
occurs, with thirty-one per cent. of silver. The minerals are
likewise more argentiferous when the formation occurs alone,
and when the lodes ramify. In this case, even antimonial
silver-blende and eugenite occur. When the formation lies
over the pyritic, it is poorer in clinoedrites, and the per-
centage of silver is smaller.

In this formation, as in most others, one or other of its sup-
porting minerals, and sometimes all of them, are wanting,
the mineral then being implanted upon the adjoining rock.
Sometimes this deficiency is owing to subsequent decompo-
sition, with production of quartz pseudomorphs; thus, at
Kapnik the whole of the manganese spar, and at Freiberg the
rose spar, have been removed, while the other associated
minerals are well preserved.

' The formation has sometimes heavy spar superposed, but
belonging to more recent formation. At the contact of the
elinoedritic with the heavy spar and. ccelestine formation, the

| galena and fahlerz of the former 258 a large amount of

silver.

150 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

VIII. Iron spar formation.—There are a great number of
lodes which consist solely of iron spar and products of its
decomposition. When other minerals occur, it is only in a
subordinate manner. The most usual associates of iron
spar are quartz and felspar. always older; heavy spar always
more recent. Examples of the paragenetic relation of these
minerals are, however, by no means frequent. 3

IX. Copper formation.—This includes those associations
of the more usual sulphurets, without galena and blende, but
generally with iron pyrites. There may be several other
groups whose relative age is to be determined by future ob-
servation. The group here understood is such a one as oc-
curs under circumstances similar to those of the clinoedritic
lead and zinc formations. The chief representatives of such
a group are—copper pyrites predominating, then sulphuret of
copper, variegated pyrites, and clinoedrites. Metallic copper
is rare, except in lodes, almost always accompanied by red
copper, malachite, and other products of decomposition. It is
highly probable that such lodes have been formed by the al-
teration of sulphurets ; and however much the physiognomy
of the individual lodes may vary in respect to the cupreous
minerals, they were perhaps originally but little or not at all
different. The fine modifications of red copper, malachite,
and copper lazure at Chessy, near Lyons, have been proved
by Fournet to result from the washings of copper pyrites
lodes.. The same is probably the case with the immense
masses of malachite at Nischne Tagilsk and other parts of
Siberia.

It has been very generally observed, that cupreous mi-
nerals containipg oxygen occur at the surface or in the up-
per parts of the lodes, while at greater depths they. consist
almost entirely of glance and pyritic minerals. At Bakura-
nao, in Cuba, malachite and copper lazure have been found,
which, when worked to some depth, were found to cover
copper pyrites, cuban and magnetic pyrites. Enormous
quantities of malachite, tile ore, copper lazure, and metallic
copper are obtained from the mines of Burra Burra, which,
when further worked, will most probably be found to yield
sulphuretted minerals. The metallic copper may very pro-

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 151

bably have been formed by cementation during the vitriol-
essence of iron pyrites, and the accompanying copper pyrites,
&c., were influenced by this process of decomposition. Per-
haps ferruginous minerals acted upon solutions of sulphate
of copper during hundreds of centuries, in the same reducing
manner as metallic iron acts in a few moments. The
natural cupreous springs of Neusohl in Hungary, Altenberg
in Saxony, Riotinto near Seville, &e., afford evidence that
such processes of vitriolescence still take place in the depth
of lodes.

There is in the Wernerian Museum at Freiberg, a frag-
ment of metallic copper, in which a splinter of wood is im-
bedded, found in “ Old Man.”* Taking all circumstances
into consideration, it is very probable that native metallic
copper has been produced by cementation.

The lodes of the copper formation do not often form druses,
and the known succession of their minerals presents no
great variety. The derivative products are more numerous.
Sometimes, however, the cupreous minerals are accumulated
in large masses under peculiar conditions of the lodes, for
instance at the points of intersection. Uniform distribution
of the ores for considerable distances of length and depth is
not frequent.

At the mine “ Junge Hohe Birke” (Saxony), the copper
formation is decidedly more recent than the pyritic lead and
zine, especially in the lodes with a south-westerly direction,
and where they intersect vertical lodes, and in these latter,
where the former lodes adjoin them. The galena of the old
formation, especially in masses with a hexaedral cleavage,
is imbedded in copper pyrites, iron pyrites, and sometimes
in fahlerz. In one instance, these fragments of galena have
been found completely converted into fahlerz, with very con-
siderable diminution of volume, the individual hexaeders ob-
tained by cleavage consisting of a number of small crystals
of gray copper united in a divergent manner, so as to form
small druses. This pseudomorph is a very remarkable one.
~ Near Freiberg this formation is represented by coarse

* The technical German term for an old working which has been long aban-
doned and again resumed,

152 The Ocean—its Currents, Tides, Depth,

masses of copper glance, and variegated copper sometimes in
the form of galena. The copper glance is both compact and
friable, but contains variegated copper, and the whole is co-
vered by quartz. Iron pyrites occur in small hexaedral crys-
tals upon other varieties of copper glance, and porphyriti-
cally imbedded in it.

The gray copper occurring in some places contains a good
per-centage of silver; but the bournonite associated with it
contains very little, and indeed gray copper appears to be
poorer in silver when accompanied by bournonite.

It has already been remarked that bismuth glance never
occurs without indications of the previous existence of cop-
per pyrites, and the same may be the case with the as yet
imperfectly known bismuth, silver, and lead ores which occur
at Wolfach in Baden, for the most part disseminated through
quartz, and accompanied by copper pyrites, heavy spar, fluor
spar, &c.

The Ocean—its Currents, Tides, Depth, and the Outlines of
its Bottom.*

When, a short time ago, I was conversing upon compara-

tive or ancient geography with a friend whose mind ranges ©

over all subjects, from the epic to the abstrusest mathemati-
cal problem, I was reminded by him that those who are
acquainted with the writings of the ancients would see with
admiration how often a piece of knowledge, or a thought be-
longing to those bygone days, emerges with an applicability
to our new geographical views which is truly astounding,
Take, says he, the Homeric view of the ocean; it was an
ocean, and yet an ocean stream. It covered the immeasur-
able earth, and yet it ran round the boundaries of all known
lands. Thus, the most learned of our popular poets has also
spoken of the region

“ Where jealous Ocean, that old river, winds
His far extended arms, till with deep fall
Half his waste flood the large Atlantique fills.”

When the poet goes on to pour his flood into
“ Slow, unfathom’d Stygian pool,”
* From Sir R. I. Murchison’s Address at the Anniversary Meeting of the
Royal Geographical Society, 23d May 1853.

and the Outlines of its Bottom.. 153

we have only to vary the reading, as Dr Whewell suggests,
* _ Half the broad Pacific’s tideless pool,”*

But the point for us is not merely to occupy ourselves with
finding that the ocean, as the ancients imagined, does “ wind
its extended arms” like those of a river. However we may
regard this as a flight of imagination, or admire it as the
foreknowledge of our ancestors, our duty is more stern, and
we must pass from the myth, to ascertain what arms this
jealous ocean has, how far they extend, where they wind,
and where they end in “ steep fall; which last words,
brought down to our geographical prose, means merely an
accelerated current. Now, although we have had many ad-
mirable contributions to answer these questions, and above
all comparison those of the illustrious Rennel, who led the
way in all these inquiries, there still remained a vast deal
to be accomplished. The memoir of Mr Findlay, recently
read before the Society, illustrated as it was by a series of
admirably constructed large charts, in which all the cold or
polar currents were marked in a blue colour, and the warm
currents in a red tint, is certainly the most complete general
view which has been taken in our day of this grand subject
—a full and accurate acquaintance with which is of such im-
portance in the intercourse between distant nations. In
these valuable documents, and particularly in the work of
the same author to which I called your attention last year,
we not only see the extent of our present knowledge as to
the nature and distinction of upper and under currents, but
also the desiderata which remain to be filled up. I cannot
here, indeed, attempt to convey to you an adequate view of
Mr Findlay’s labours of compilation and deduction, and must
restrict myself to saying that, taking into account the known
_ eurrents of the Atlantic and Pacific, and having regard to

* Though there are many tides in the Pacific, this idea of a tideless pool may
be correctly applied to the central Pacific around Tahiti. Geographers will do
well to refer to the Appendix to Captain Fitzroy’s second volume of the Sur-
veying Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, to see the value attached by that
successful navigator to the essays of Dr Whewell, and also to appreciate the
importance of the views of so experienced and scientific a seaman,

154 The Ocean—its Currents, Tides, Depth,

additional observations, he reduces the motions of each of
the two oceans to systems of revolving, re-entering currents ;
one such circle, or orbit, existing in each case to the north
and south of the equator.

The currents of the ocean are so complex and numerous,
that it is not to be expected we can obtain all the requisite
materials to form a correct view from ordinary navigators
who are occupied in trade and commerce. And this brings
_ me back to a point on which I dwelt last year:—or an ex-

pedition ad hoc, and entirely devoted to the survey of the
Tides of the Ocean. Such an expedition, connected as it
must be with a special attention to the currents, would, 1
repeat, be truly worthy of this maritime nation, and all geo-
graphers would rejoice if its conduct were confided to our
associate Captain Fitzroy, whose tried capacity as a naval
surveyor and sound nautical accomplishments particularly
qualify him for such anemployment. For we must recollect,
that in addition to the researches of Sir John Lubbock in this
country, and those of Professor Bache in the United States,
the able, consecutive, and elaborate investigations of Dr
Whewell, founded on real data, have led far towards the
establishment of definite laws respecting the tides. It is
therefore much to be desired that the naval authorities of
Great Britain, honouring these skilful gratuitous labours,
should without delay accede to the prayer of the British
Association, and send out such an expedition as is here pro-
posed—one which would enable Dr Whewell to complete a
generalization worthy of this age of inquiry, and of the great-
est utility to navigation.

In the meantime it is a subject of congratulation that a
peer of the realm distinguished for his acquirements in astro-
nomical science, sustaining the same objects for which we
are contending in common with the British Association and
the Royal Society, should have brought this important sub-
ject before Parliament, directing specially the attention of
the Upper House to the very great importance of such obser-
vations and generalizations as those of Lieut. Maury of the
United States Navy. This meritorious officer, some of whose
researches were adyerted to by my predecessor, has recently

and the Outlines of its Bottom. 155

issued a circular which calls for the co-operation of the princi-
pal maritime nations in collecting materials for wind and
current charts. The prayer of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science, and of the Royal Society, that
a more extended and systematic direction be given to meteoro-
logical observations at sea, as prepared by Lieut. Maury,
will, I trust, meet with favour in the eyes of the British
Government. The Royal Society says truly, that, short as
the time is that the system has been in operation, the results
to which it has led are of very great importance to the in-
terests of navigation and commerce; and it is earnestly to
be hoped that the system of co-operative observation may be
zealously promoted. In short, when Lord Wrottesley ex-
plained in Parliament what enormous spaces of the ocean
were still blanks as to any records of the winds, or of the
currents and temperatures of the sea, the words which he
added will find a response in the breasts of all whom I now
address :—“ That these blank spaces are a reproach to the
civilization of the present age ; that it is our duty not to rest
satisfied until we know all that can be known about the globe
we inhabit that can be rendered in any way profitable to our
common species ; and that, therefore, the principal maritime
nations should share the labour of exploring these vacant
spaces.”

Our neighbours the French* have indeed shewn their desire
to promote useful surveys of distant seas by the addition
they have recently made to our knowledge of the hydro-
graphy of the Chinese seas, resulting from the researches of
the “ Capricieuse”’ corvette, under the command of Captain
Roquemaurel, who has trigonometrically surveyed the eastern
coast of Corea and Chinese Tartary for an extent of 130
leagues. One of the results is the ascertainment of an ,ex-

cellent port in the Golfe d’Anville, nearly in the same parallel

as the strait of Matsmai, from which it is about 130 leagues

distant; parallels in which it is suggested some profitable

mhalo-Bahing grounds may also.be met with.

% Since our last anniversary the Meteorological Society of Paris has been
established, and is now organized in so satisfactory a manner, that I have joined
it myself, and trust that many of my countrymen may do s0 likewise.

156 The Ocean—its Currents, Tides, Depth,

As the phenomena of tides, currents, winds, and the con-
dition of the atmosphere and ocean are in great measure de-
pendent on the outline of the solid portion of the earth, so
has this year brought with it the most remarkable hydro-
graphical observation of modern times, in the detection of an
abyss in the ocean said to be nearly double the depth of any
of which we previously had a conception.

Hitherto, indeed, it had been the prevalent belief (an
opinion supported by Laplace himself), that the depressions
of the crust beneath the ocean were probably of about the
same extent as the elevations above the sea. Some obser-
vations of our scientific associate, Captain Denham, R.N.,
have, however, gone far to modify if not to set aside this
hypothesis. By soundings* in the ocean, midway between
the Cape of Good Hope and Tristan d’Acunha, he has con-
cluded, after several times dropping the plummet, and by
finding the line always stop at the same point, that the sea
has there the enormous depth of 7706 fathoms, or double
the height of Chimborazo, the giant of the Andes.

It is also a triumph of nautical skill and perseverance
that the “‘ Herald,” and her companion the “ Torch” steamer,
should have been enabled to lie at anchor more than three
weeks on the comparatively shallower banks in the middle of
the wide Atlantic ocean, such a position having greatly
astonished those mariners whose course happened to cross
these new and unheard-of anchoring grounds. When so
stationed Captain Denham further ascertained, by sending
down thermometers, that, whilst the surface-water was at
90°, the cold never exceeded 40° at any depths which were
sounded. In addition to important magnetical observations,
he has excited great interest amongst geologists by proving,

that, within one cast of the lead, coral reefs rise suddenly

like a wall, from no bottom at 200 fathoms to 19 fathoms

* The soundings were made with peculiar lines given to him by Commodore
M‘Keever of the United States Navy. But I must state that some naval sur-
veyors are of opinion, that the results may have been more or less deceptive, in
consequence of the line not lying in a straight direction between the ship and
the plummet, whether by the vessel drifting during so long an operation, or by
the influence of currents and other causes,

ee

Lali Da

and the Outlines of its Bottom. 157

from the surface ; thus illustrating one of the phenomena on
which Mr C. Darwin has thrown so much light.

In looking at the statement of Captain Denham, and at the
vast number of desiderata that remain to be inquired into, it
is not, therefore, too much to affirm, that until our submarine
knowledge shall have been vastly more extended than it is ;
until, in short, we know as much of the earth beneath the
waters as of that which is above them, we are wanting in
several of the most essential elements to explain the proxi-
mate causes of the deflection of the great oceanic currents to
which we have been averting, as well as of the origin of
many climatal peculiarities.

The geologist, meteorologist, and geographer, are indeed
each of them equally interested in the determination of grand
problems like these, which will teach us the forms of the
submerged lands around which run the various streams deli-
neated in the maps of Mr Findlay: such, for example, as
that which, with its superjacent floating masses of “ Sar-
gasso,” or sea-weed, circles in the North Atlantic, or the
great whaling grounds of the North Pacific, around which
the North Equatorial and Japanese currents flow ; or, again,
that mass between New Zealand and Australia which is en-
circled by the Australian current.

In this last instance the geologist again steps in to help to
Solve the problem. The discovery of the enormous bird, the
Dinornis, in the comparatively small tract of New Zealand,
has naturally led him to suppose that there was once a much
larger adjacent mass of land to provide for the sustenance of
such huge creatures ; and hence it is a fair inference, that
the nucleus around which the Australian current runs, is
the central and higher portion of what was a large continent
once united with New Zealand.*

In the meantime, passing from such theoretical views, I

* The same reasoning may be applied to the island of Madagascar, where
eggs of birds have been found, which contain the substance of 240 hen eggs.
This isle may be the remnant of a former vast Hastern continent now submerged.
See Professor Edward Forbes’s proofs of the existence of such ancient conti-
nents, derived from the present insulation of certain groups of plants and ani-
mals.— Memoirs Geol, Surv., vol. i.

158 The Ocean—its Currents, Tides, Depth, Se.

Seize on ‘he one great submarine phenomenon indicated by
Captain Denham, to assure you. that however it may be modi-
fied, I view it as of singular importance in enabling natur-
alists to account for the marked separation of the tribes of
marine beings which at present exist in regions widely
separated from each others. For vast depths are to many
inhabitants of the sea (including all the mollusca) what great
and snowy heights are to the animals of the land—perfectly
impassable barriers. Now, whilst we have in the profundity
of parts of the present ocean a distinct reason for the sepa-
ration of aquatic races in our times, the near approach, on the
contrary, to a general and uniform distribution of marine
mollusca in primeval periods, as registered in the ancient sea
bottoms which have been raised to form our present conti-
nents, compels me to believe that the earlier geographical
outlines of our planet were infinitely more simple than the
present. In other words, that the oceans were then broader
on the whole, the lands of less altitude, and the cavities in
the sea bottom by no means so deep as those of our actual
highly diversified outlines. For, had such very varied out-

lines prevailed in primeval periods, most unquestionably the ©

same land-plants which are found in the old coal formation
could not have lived from Spitzbergen and the Polar regions
to temperate and even warm latitudes, and in nearly all
longitudes ; nor could the. same tribes, and often the small
species of shells and other animals, have inhabited the most
distant seas at the same period.

It is this varied outline, as brought about after many re-
volutions and changes of the crust of the globe, which presents
to the meteorologist that mass of complicated problems, so
few of which have yet been sufficiently solved to enable us to
arrive at definite laws respecting weather, or the causes of
its seemingly capricious changes. But still, notwithstand-
ing all its variations, there is a mean distribution of heat
and cold which restricts certain groups of creatures to each
continent and sea; and the more we can approach to a cor-
rect delineation of these zones beneath the waters, as well
as those above them, and comprehend the nature of all tides
and currents, the more perfectly shall we attain some of the
highest aims of the physical geographer.

159

On Some Points in the Physical Geography of Norway,
chiefly connected with its Snow-Fields and Glaciers. By
Professor JAMES ForBEs, D.C.L.. F.R.S., Sec. R.S. Ed.,
Corresponding Member of the Institute of France.

[We insert the ninth chapter of an admirable work that has
just appeared from the pen of Professor James D. Forbes,
on Norway and its Glaciers, visited in 1851—followed by
Journals of Excursions in the High Alps of Dauphiné,
Berne, and Savoy. This invaluable work, so deeply in-
teresting and important, reflects great honour on our dis-
tinguished friend, and shews his usual profound knowledge
of the various subjects treated of, and is a valuable addi-
tion to the scientific world. It ought to be carefully
studied by every traveller.]

Introductory Remarks. § 1. On the Configuration of Norway—Its
Ground Plan—lIts Mountainous Districts or Fields are usually Pla-
teaux—Large proportion of elevated Area—The Kjolen Mountains—
their existence denied by some Geographers—Three Sections of Nor-
way, §2. On some peculiarities of the Climate of Norway—Less
severe than commonly supposed, or than any other land in the same
parallel—The causes of this—The Summer and Winter curves of equal
temperature— Contrast of the two sides of the Peninsula, § 3. On the
position of the Snow-line in Norway—Mainly determined by the Sum-
mer temperature—-Particulars of observations on the subject—Of the

limit of growth of the Birch—Influence of the Sea in depressing the
Snow-line—Table of Results.

Amongst the many questions with which a stray traveller
is sure to be addressed by the peasantry of a remote
country, one of the most puzzling to answer is, as to the
pleasure or information he can find in looking at their hills
and waters, and woods and snows. Has he not enough of
such things at home? What value have stones and plants,
_ which lie utterly concealed from the eyes of the inhabitants
to whom they belong, but which can tempt the wealthy
stranger to lose his time, his money, and his comfort, in
examining, perhaps in collecting them.* The naturalness of

* The inability of the peasantry to ascribe any other motive than interest or
compulsion to such journeys, is amusingly experienced by every traveller off

160 On the Physical Geography of Norway.

the inquiry, the reality of the paradox, makes the answer
often difficult. There are very many persons of opportuni-
ties far superior to these poor peasants who can form nearly
as little idea of the motives for such toilsome journeys. To
them, the country is the country everywhere, its stones are
stones merely, its glaciers and its lakes are accidents, which
suggest no particular conclusions except as they give a mo-
mentary variety to the landscape, or as they affect the value
of the soil.

What comparative anatomy is to the study of living beings,
physical geography, or the comparison of different countries,
is to the study of the earth we live on. The interest of each
part is beyond measure increased by comparing it with other
parts; and the more such comparisons we are enabled to
make, the more distinct meaning can we attach to even a few
slight and seemingly isolated observations in a country
wholly new to us, as when Owen reproduces the skeleton of
a long extinct bird from a few imperfect bones brought
from the antipodes.

To construct the orographical map (map of mountainous
regions) or skeleton of a country, is a more difficult task than.
it might at first appear tobe. The materials for a complete
relief or model exist for but a few limited portions of
the globe. The materials for maps are gathered from com-
paratively limited observation. The tact necessary for per-

the beaten tracks, in the theories which are formed as to his vocation. This is
nowhere the case more than in the more secluded parts of France. I once
amused myself by reckoning up the conjectures as to my business, and the
motives ascribed to me, during a journey of no very great extent, which in-
cluded, as well as I recollect, the following, besides guesses nearer the mark ;:—
An engineer of mines, a Government surveyor, a garde forestier, a tax-gatherer,
the descendant of a confiscated noble of the first revolution surveying his pater-
nal acres, a criminal escaping by bypaths from justice, an iron-merchant, a
stone-mason, anda gold-finder, Of these various aliases, the last is probably the
most inconvenient. I recollect travelling through the mountains of Cogne with
a half-witted fellow, a sort of crétin, for a guide, who, after hearing all the
explanations I had to give of my journey, constantly returned with a malicious
leer to the loss the country suffered by ignorance of the treasure which lay
about in it, particularly under the glaciers, and which more knowing strangers,
assisted, he insinuated, by mystic arts, could turn to an excellent profits: \ >

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 161

ceiving the peculiarities of the configuration of a country is
only to be acquired by practice ; and when acquired, it leads
to skilful and interesting generalization. A general com-
manding an army, a geologist exploring a district, and a fox-
hunter pursuing his sport, each in their way acquire a facility
analogous to that of the comparative anatomist just referred
to, in apprehending the whole from a part, in predicting what
will be the probable course of a mountain ridge, or of ariver
which he has not yet seen, and in finding a practicable pas-
Sage across an intricate and difficult country, by which even
a native might be bewildered. Since then even the mere
base or skeleton of a country possesses so much distinctive
character, and offers so many subjects of interesting contrast
and comparison, it is very obvious that the details of struc-
ture, as well as of the various plants which embellish it,
animals which live upon, as well as rational beings which
people it, with their peculiarities of occupation, habits and
dress, furnish an exhaustless field, in which the most restless
curiosity may expatiate. But to explain all these sources
of interest to the more ignorant class of peasantry is impos-
sible, though here and there intelligent men may be found,
even in the humblest class, and in all countries, who possess
that spark of divine mind which only requires to be roused,
and which sometimes unexpectedly responds to the well-
meant effort of the traveller to enlighten him as to his occu-
pations and interest.

The only part of the physical geography of Norway of
which I intend here to offer the slightest sketch, is what re-
_ gards the distribution of perpetual snow and of glaciers, be-
ing the objects of my chief observations recorded in the pre-

ceding pages. A comparison in this respect with the Alps
offers much interest, and though my contribution may be
slight and inconsiderable, it will, I am persuaded, lead the
way to systematic inquiry by those more favourably placed
for pursuing it. Norway itself assuredly does not want for
persons thoroughly qualified to obtain and make use of the
information thus desired.
_ The existence of perpetual snow, the elevation at which it
begins above the sea level, and the formation of glaciérs
VOL. LVI. NO. CXI.— JANUARY 1854. L

162 On the Physical Geography of Norway.

depending for their origin and nutrition upon these snow-
beds, are complicated phenomena, referable by analysis to a
variety of causes or conditions. Of these, the most impor-
tant are the configuration of the soil and the climate, which
last is itself a complex and somewhat undefined fact.

I shall, for greater distinctness, reduce my remarks to dif-
ferent heads; and under some of these I shall endeavour to
classify several of the facts incidentally referred to in the
previous chapters.

§ 1. On the Configuration of Norway.

As there are few parts of the world where snow lies in
summer at the level of the sea, the existence of perpetual
snow depends in Norway, as elsewhere, upon the greater or
less elevation of the mountains. The general height of moun-
tains in Scandinavia is inferior to that of the Alps, Andes,
Caucasus, or Himalaya, and is therefore so far in accordance
with the generally received opinion, that the elevation of the
land diminishes from the equator towards either pole. The
highest ground in Norway is 8500 feet above the sea level,
in latitude 613°; but whilst the country is justly accounted
a mountainous one, it is so rather in respect of its general
elevation than from the conspicuousness of its isolated sum-
mits. Sweden is comparatively low and tame; Norway de-
fends it, like a huge breakwater, from the invasion of the
North Sea, whose force is indeed still tremendous, but which,
from the traces of former convulsions, would appear to have
been the seat of powers still more energetic. The ragged
outline of the coast, the depth of its inlets or fiords, the bold-
ness of its headlands, the multitude of its islands, often al-
most undistinguishable from the mainland, are facts fami-
liarly known. ‘They seem to shew that the boundary of sea
and land has been decided only after a prolonged struggle,
and that great masses of the latter have gradually been un-
dermined or abraded, so that a tolerably permanent condi-
tion has only been obtained when, after the crumbling of
lesser obstacles, the mountains themselves have become the
buttresses of Scandinavia.

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 163

The configuration of Norway may be conveniently con-
sidered in two portions; the comparatively narrow district,
extending from near Throndhjem to the North Cape, a dis-
tance of above 600 English miles, and the more expanded
part, 400 miles in its greatest dimension, from Throndhjem
to the Naes of Norway. Throughout the former, the moun-
tains cling, as it were, to the coast, and the boundary be-
tween Sweden and Norway is only one-fourth of the breadth
of the peninsula distant from the North Sea, which yet in-
cludes all the more considerable elevations. South of the
Syl-field (lat. 63°) the high ground occupies by far the greater
part of the breadth of Norway in its widest extension, and
fully half the breadth of the peninsula in the parallel of the
Dovre-field. This is due chiefly to the expansion of the coast
to the westward, where mountains of enduring crystalline
rocks form that prodigious lobe of land dividing the North
Sea form the Skagerack, which, bearing the whole brunt of
forces which appear to have come from the north, not only
defended the entire north of Europe from the shock, but
probably furnished by their attrition the material of which
the low grounds of the continent of Europe are mainly com-
posed.

In this general disposition of the mountainous masses of
Norway we see a strong analogy to the west coasts of our
islands, and likewise to those of North and South America.
It appears almost certain that a common cause has devas-
tated the western shores of nearly every continent.

The forms of the Norwegian mountains have been very
_ generally mistaken by geographers. They do not constitute
either unbroken chains rising from the low grounds and form-
ing a ridge, nor are they a series of distinct detached eleva-
tions, but, in the southern division of the country especially,
they form plateaux or table-lands of great. breadth, and
generally more or less connected together, though occasion-
ally separated by deep but always narrow valleys. In the
description of the view from Sneehittan I have endeavoured
to convey a clear idea of these wonderful expansions of moun-
tains, often so level, that upon what may almost be called their
summits, a coach and four might be driven along or across

leg

164 On the Physical Geography of Norway.

them for many many miles, did roads exist, and across which
the eye wanders for immense distances, overlooking entirely
the valleys, which are concealed by their narrowness, and in-
terrupted only by undulations of ground, or by small moun-
tains which rise here and there with comparatively little pic-
turesque effect above the general level.

These table-topped mountains are the Fields, or more pro-
perly the Fjelds, of Norway, which, in their less interrupted
or more elevated parts, have acquired specific names. They
have been very erroneously supposed by map-makers to form
a continued ridge serpentining through the country, though
preserving a Bones parallelism to the coast, of which the
chief (from north to south) are the Dovre-field, the Lange-
field, the Sogne-field, the Fille-field, and the Hardanger- field.

The error in question is easily traced to the usual method °
of constructing a map from rude and imperfect observations.
The river-courses are first determined with a certain ac-
euracy,* and from analogy (rather a precarious one, how-
ever) with other countries, the origin of these is traced to a
water-shed or ridge, assumed to be comparatively narrow,
along which the chief summits are to be sought, and supposed
to be extended merely by spurs or lateral ranges of small
extent between the valleys. To such a theory the construc-
tion of the common maps of Norway may be easily traced,
and the tradition of this unbroken chain may be found in
nearly every map.

Thus, the general surface of the country is in reality com-
posed of elevated and barren table-lands. The proportion of
arable land (land which might be tilled), to the entire extent
of Norway, is not, according to the competent authority of
Professor Munch, more than 1 to 10; and if we exclude a
few local enlargments of the plains near the capitals, it would
not even exceed 1 to 100. By a rude estimation on Professor

* The river-courses preserve a surprisingly exact parallelism on the south-
eastern slope of the peninsula from the Skagerack to near the head of the
Gulf of Bothnia. The direction of these lines of fissure is about 30° with the,

meridian in Southern Norway, but above 40° in Lapland. In neither case, 4

probably, does it coincide with the direction of greatest declivity of the general
surface of the continent.

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 165

Kielhau’s map, I find that the portion of the surface of Nor-
way; south of the Throndhjem-fiord, which exceeds 3000 feet
above the sea, amounts to very nearly 40 per cent. of the
whole; and when it is recollected that only one summit
exceeds 8000 feet, and that the spaces exceeding 6000 are
almost inappreciable on the map, it will be more clearly
understood how completely the mountains have the charac-
ter of table-lands, whose average height probably rather falls
short of than exceeds 4000 feet.*

_ The centre of gravity of the elevated country preserves a
rough parallelism to the coast, although from the predigious
indentations made by the larger fiords, the bases of the
higher mountains are often washed by salt or at least brack-
ish water. Of the outlying portions which approach nearest
- to the sea, the most remarkable are the mountains of Justedal
and the Folgefond, both of which are covered with perpetual
snow,

In the northern district of Scandinavia, where the theory
of a ridge is in some respects less inaccurate than in the
south, its insufficiency was clearly discovered by the difficulty
or impossibility of defining the line of demarcation between
Norway and Sweden by that of a continuous water-shed.
Such a ridge, if it exist at all, must be held in some cases
_to run up to the very coast of Norway, or even beyond it
into the islands ; in other places it dies out altogether, and is
resumed with a change of direction.| The present boundary
between Norway and Sweden was defined by a joint com-
mission of engineers in the middle of the last century, and is
represented on nearly every.map as the exact direction of a
slightly zigzag chain of mountains called the Kjélen or
Keelen. This is assumed, in most maps, to be prolonged

* These estimates refer to German or Rhenish feet, which ave about 3 per
cent. longer than English.

_ t Pontoppidan was not unaware of this, for he states, that in Finmark the
Kelen ridge in many places breaks into large valleys, and consequently is not
so continued as farther towards the south, and that it seldom reaches above
four leagues i in a continued chain. (Wat. Hist. of Norway, i., 40.) The worthy
Bishop of Bergen, though not unjustly accused of credulity, was igre: well
read in the science of his time in several departments. |

166 On the Physical Geography of Norway.

along the border of the two countries, considerably to the
south-east of Throndhjem, and it was even long maintained
that a mountain mass existed there of prodigious elevation,
from which a great many rivers, particularly the Glommen,
the Gota, and the Dal, take their rise. The height of this
fabulous mountain was even assumed to be 12,000 feet. Tt
is, however, only a slight and lower extension of the plateau
of the Dovre-field beyond the deep valley of the Glommen,
and its greatest height does not amount to 5000 feet.

Perhaps, however, those Scandinavian geographers go too
far who insist that the existence of the Kjélen is purely
mythical, and that they must be “hunted and expelled”
from our maps. The able researches of Wahlenberg, Keilhau,
Vibe, and Munch, and the improved charts of the coast, have
thrown the greatest light on the form of the country. The —
contoured map of Keilhau, though, of course, in many places
conjectural, gives us a tolerably accurate picture of the gene-
ral relief; and though the Kjélen range be broken, sometimes
almost annihilated, now pushed inland, and now bounding the
very shore (as at Fondal, lat. 663°, and Lyngen, lat. 70°), it
must, I think, be admitted, that it is worthy of being classed
amongst mountain ranges.* It has not in the far north the
peculiarly tabular form of the southern mountains, and is
distinguished by many summits of noble forms, and a grandeur
disproportioned to their absolute elevation, as the Seven
Sisters, the Lofoddens, and the Peppertinderne. It attains
its greatest elevation (I speak now of the northern division)
at Sulitelma, in lat. 673°, being no less than 6200 English
feet. Sulitelma is not an isolated mountain, but forms part
of a wild and extensive group, first visited and clearly de-
scribed by Wahlenberg, who justly characterizes it as the
centre of the Alps of Lapland.

It is true that there are at intervals passes across the
Kjélen mountains, which are extremely low, such as the
frequented road from Throndhjem to Sundsvall on the Baltic,

* Wahlenberg, surely a most competent authority, continually speaks of the
“alpium jugum” in describing the course of the mountains between Norway
and Sweden.

-

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 167

the ascent of which is everywhere easy, and which attains a
height of only 2000 feet above the sea. About lat. 64°:3,
there appears to be a distinct depression in the chain, near the
Namsen river. In lat. 68°:3, which is that of the Lofoddens,
there is a pass across the peninsula by the lake of the Tornea
Trask, which is elevated no more than 1300 French feet,
whilst the well-known track from Alten to the head of the
Gulf of Bothnia, by Kautokeino, does not exceed 864 French
feet, according to Von Buch, and beyond this the mountaing
never resume their continuity. A detached summit (Raste-
kaise) reaches 2700 feet; the North Cape itself (on the island
of Mageroe) attains little more than 900 feet. From this
point eastwards the country becomes tame and level, nor do
the northern parts of Russia or Siberia offer, probably, any
considerable elevations, with the exception of the more de-
pressed part of the chain of Oural.

That the elevation of the Kjolen mountains is the result
of forces exerted parallel to an ideal axis, is illustrated
by the general uniformity of the declivity' on the side of
Lapland, <A very remarkable chain of lakes, one or more of
which occur upon almost every river emptying itself into the
Bothnian Gulf, and nearly equidistant from the coast, ata
level also tolerably uniform, it is believed, at from 1200 to
1500 feet, point out a symmetry in the fall of the ground
throughout nearly the whole extent of the peninsula.

The map which accompanies this work, though on a small
scale, has been coustructed with great care, from a variety
of authorities, principally Norwegian. An attempt has been
made to represent the elevated plateaux which constitute the
high land of Norway, and to annihilate that stiff ridge of
mountains which figure in almost every map from the Lin-
desnzs to the North Cape.

I close these remarks by referring to three sections which
I have carefully made from the best data I could find, and
chiefly from the map of Keilhau already referred to, shewing
the transverse section of Scandinavia at three characteristic
places—the first or most northern (corresponding to the line
A Bon the general map) is from the Bergs-fiord, in lat. 70*2°,
to Tornea, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia. Here the

On the Physical Geography of Norway.

168

Throndhjem Frord

pote of Stadt | Entrance of
Lal. 62° 40/

iska

g
8

fw
45000

-}8000

em

1909

i ee

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 169

axis of the range has entirely passed to the coast. The
second section (from C to Don the map) passes through
Throndhjem and part of the Syl-field to the Gulf of Bothnia,
about 2° north of Stockholm. The third section, E F, is
made to pass through some of the most elevated ground in
Southern Norway, including the Justedal mountains and the
Fille-field. It begins at the conspicuous headland of Stadt, on
the western coast (lat. 62° 10’), and terminates at Drammen,
on a branchof the Christania-fiord, being very nearly parallel
to the marked direction of the river-courses of Norway
already referred to. In all these sections the elevations are
to the horizontal measures in the proportion of about thirteen
to one. These are all prominent sections. They shew the
character of the elevations when well developed. That there
should be profound valleys intersecting the mountain ranges,
or even occasional discontinuities, cannot fairly be urged
against the existence of mountain chains altogether. Though
the boundary of Sweden and Norway be often fanciful, and
the maps founded on its supposed physical meaning be egre-
giously wrong, a certain continuity of elevation is still to be ob-
served. And, indeed, the same error which has prevailed in
maps of Scandinavia, applies in a measure to those of better
known countries. The construction of maps by river-courses
instead of by lines of elevation is general; and geologists are
well aware thateven the chain of Alps, whichis remarkable for
its continuity, is arranged in groups rather than in a defined
ridge. Many of the passes seem to let the traveller through
the chain as it were by stealth, and really mark the boundary
between two conterminous blocks of mountains, or massifs,
as they are termed by foreign writers. Such is the pass of
the Little St Bernard, as well as the Col de la Seigne, and
still more strikingly that of the Finstermunz in Tyrol (Reschen
Scheideck, 4600 feet), between the huge Oertler Spitz
and the glacial mountains of the Oetzthal. Some of the
highest and most imposing summits, instead of occupying
the crown of the ridge, are found in lateral subordinate ranges,
or even in the mere. spurs. or offsets of.the great chain
of. Alps. Such are the massifs of Mont Pelyoux in Dauphiné,
13,500 feet above the sea, communicating with the Cottian

170 Ordnance Survey of Scotland.

Alps by the Col de Lauteret, which is only 6700. Such
the entire range of the Bernese Oberland, whose culminating
point is 14,100 feet, and whose isthmus is the Grimsel (7200
feet); and such the majestic summit of Mischabelhérner, form-
ing a mere outline of Monte Rosa, between the narrow valleys
of Saas and Zermatt, which, though almost unseen by tour-
ists, are giants of the second class. Dr Thomson, in his
lately published and curious work on the Himalaya, justly
remarks that the universal notion of parallel and continuous
mountain ranges is, to a great extent, a delusion of perspective.

Ordnance Survey of Scotland.

We insert for our readers a very valuable table, containing
an abstract of replies to the Treasury respecting the scales
for the Ordnance Survey, presented to both Houses of Par-
liament by command of Her Majesty. In this important table
will be found the names of the individuals who approve of the
different scales, such as the Lord Advocate of Scotland, Mem-
bers of Parliament, Provosts of Cities, Commissioners of Sup-
ply, County Gentlemen, Presidents of Societies, Engineers, Di-
rectors of Surveys, Land-Agents, &c. &e. We append to the
tables a summary of the whole for rural districts and for towns.

It will be seen from Sir Charles Trevelyan’s letter that the
undermentioned table was drawn up from a series of docu-
ments sent to the Treasury by the different individuals men-
tioned in the table. The whole of this correspondence be-
tween the Treasury and Ordnance in 1840, and the replies to
the Treasury circular, in favour of the six-inch scale and of
other scales, has been printed by Government.

Letter from the Treasury transmitting the foregoing Correspondence.
* (REASURY CHAMBERS, April 16, 1853.

«« The accompanying correspondence and memoranda de-
scribe—first, the grounds upon which it was determined, in
1840, to publish the Ordnance map on the scale of six inches
to the mile for the country, and five feet to the mile for
towns; and, secondly, the opinions now given on the ques-

Ordnance Survey of Scotland. 171

tion, whether the purposes which a national survey ought to
subserve would be more fully provided for by an increased
scale ; and how far such increased scale would involve in-
creased expense.

“ The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury re-
quest that after having attentively read these papers, you
will state, in the annexed form, what scales you would re-
commend for any national surveys which may henceforward
be carried on at the public expense; and that you will add
any special observations you may have to make in support of
your opinions.

*‘ [tis assumed that the results of the Ordnance Survey will,
under any circumstances, be separately published on the re-
duced scale of one inch to the mile; and the question upon
which an opinion is solicited is merely between the scale of
six inches and any larger scale.

(Signed) C. E. TREVELYAN.”

Abstract of the Replies to the Treasury Circular, 16th April 1853.

1.—In favour of the Six-inch Scale.
2.—In favour of other Scales.

1. In favour of the Six-inch Scale.

Scale recommended.

No
: Treasur wi.
ba Ropifer Date. Party replying. Rural Districts. Towns.
A eee Draft. =" | Draft, | 2a-
graved. graved.
1853. Inches to a Mile.
1| 8,946 | May 2 | Hon. T. F. Kennedy, Commissioner
of Woods, &c. A , 6 6a 60
2| 8,947 |... ... | Mr A. Keith Johnston 6 1 vas
3 9,119 | .... 4 | Vice-Chancellor Stuart . 6 1
4| 9,304 |... 6 | Commissioners of Supply, Olack-
mannanshire . ; 6 6 a ots
5 | 9,412 |... 7 | Secretary to Society of Arts, C2 .6 60 60
6| 9,423 |... ... | Messrs Stewart and Kincaid, (6 or 8) (60 or 80)
7 9,426 |... ... | Com. of Supply, Banffshire 6 ‘ie 60 pas
8 | 9,542> |... 9 | Com. of Supply, Elgin, . 6 1 ae ait
9| 9,543 |... ... | Com. of Supply, Stirling, 6 6 120 60
10 | 9,547 |... ... | Com. of Supply, Ross-shire ; 6 cst ots oe
1l 9,548 |... ... | Com. of Supply, Caithness -. | 66 lb 606 6b
12 | 9,594 |... 10 | Mr William Shadwell Milne : 6 oh 60 ae
13 | 09,595) .... ....| Mr Charles Rowcliffe. . erp 6 1 60 10

(a) Erroneously printed 1 in the Parliamentary Paper. bane (6) ** Not less than.”

es

172 Abstract of Replies to the Treasury Circular
Scale recommended.
a Treasury
aa Register | Date. Party replying. Rural Districts, | Towns,
ries, | Number. bn- En- |
Draft. Draft. =
graved. gr aved. |
1853. Inches to a Mile
14} 9,805 | May1l2 | Mr James M. Rendel 6 1 (a) sald
15 | 9,830 .. .. | Sir Philip Egerton, M.P. 6 1 “i
16 | 9,900 . 13 | The Lord Provost of Edinburgh 6 6 60 60
17 | 10,084 ... | Sir James Matheson, Bart., M. rs 6 1 120 oak
18 | 10,344 19 | The Principal of Glasgow College 6 1 24 12°
19 | 10,565 21 | Admiral Sir F. Beaufort, a ey
grapher N43 6 a tom
20 | 10,568 «+ «ee | Com. of Supply, Zetland 6 es 60 oat
21 | 10,608 -- .». | Town-Council of Perth 6 Ne 60 a
22 | 10,655 . 23 | Professor Forbes . : 6 it «od
23 | 10,890 .. 27 | Mr David Stevenson 2 . ses 6 nee oe
24 | 11,488 | June 3 | The Deputy Clerk-Register 6 eae 60 “ag
25 | 12,917 | ... 23 | Com. of Supply, Buteshire 6 6 : eee
26 | 14,064 | July 8 | Mr G. B. Greenough . 6 6 Pe 5
27 | 15,251 .. 25 | Sir Denham Norreys, Bart., M. P. 6 8 132 a
28 | 17,693 | Aug.27 | Mr A. Hunter . 6 6 | 120 60 —
29 | 17,960 .. 31 | Mr J. F. Bateman 6 6 60 60
30 | 17,961 |... ... | The Provost of Wigtown 6 1 69 60
81 | 18,129 | Sept. 2 | Mr John Dickson : 5 6 6 60 60
82 | 19,711 | ... 30 | Mr William Fairbairn . “ 6 6 60 60.
2. In favour of other Scales.
1853. “%
1 8,548 | Apr.26 | The Registrar-General 24 12 120 60
2 8,562.| ... ... | President of the Geographical Soc. | 24 12 Hi &
3 8,567 ... | Mr H. Bellenden Ker (b) 6 (6 60
4 8,732 28 | Lord Beaumont . : 26% | 12 (c) 60 |
5 8,736 ... | Mr A, Dunlop, M.P. , 24 12 120° | 12055
6 8,737 ... | Mr E. Ellice, jun., M.P. 26 1 ut a
7 8,811 29 | Copyhold, Inclosure, and Tithe
Commissioners ; 263% 262 | 120 om
8 8,948 |May 2 | MrG.§8, Duff; M.P. " 24 12 120 60-
9 8,949 |... .., | Mr Richard Hall, Land-Agent 20 10 80 40
10.| 8,950 |... ..."| Mr J. Lancaster, Land-Agent . | 24 6 120 60
11 9,001 | ..» 8 | Com. of Supply, Kirkcudbright 12 6 120 60
12 9,002 | ... Rev. R. Jones,"Cathedral Commis- “=
sion . | 268 | 26% wie a
13 9,003 [tee nee Com. of Supply, Rverdeenenite 24 6 120 60m
14) 9,079 |... 4 | Mr J. Duff. M.P. 24 12 120: | 60%
15} 9,115)... ... | MrJ.M. Herbert, Judge of County ie ‘
Uh, Court - 24 12 120 60
16 9,116 Com. of Supply, County of fanark |"94 12 te or
17 9,118 Com. of Supply, Argyllshire 134 6 om an
18 9,120 Mr J. T. Danson, Barrister-at-Law | 26% | 134 ne aa
19 | 9,121 Pickering & Smith, Estate-Agents | 20 8 60 60
20 9,122 Sir Henry T. de la Beche, C.B. . | 24 : 12 120 12

: (a) To be varied according to the size of the towns.

(c) ** The larger the better.”

(6) The largest convenient scales.

on the Ordnance Survey of Scotland. 173

Scale recommended.

Treasury ®

Register Date. Party replying. sas Vas oon oti
Number. Can | a Nae Toi ae
‘ Draft.| _22- Draft. if En-
graved. raved.
1853, Inches to a Mile.
9,123 | May 4| R.J.& H. Clutton, Estate-Agents | 20 8 60 60
9794 |.... .. | Sir W.C. Trevelyan, Bart. 24 6 120 60
9,125 |... ... | Mr Charles Bailey, Land-Agent 262 134 80 40
9,301 |... 6 | Lord Rosebery . 24 6 120 60
9,302}... ..- | MrI. K. Brunel, Mr R. Stephenson,
M.P., and Mr oy Locke, M.P. . | 20 1 20
9,303 |... -.. | Mr A. C. Ramsay, Director of Geo-
logical Survey 24 12 one ine
9424 |...» 7 Com. of Supply, Fifeshire a | 26% |p 135 ats -
9,425 |... ... | Chairman of Quarter Sessions, Had-
dington 12 6 60 60
O52a2 | ...,. 9'| Mr E. W. Wilmot, Estate-Agent 24 6 60 60
9,533 |... ... | Lord Hatherton 24 aoe 120 24
9,534 |... ... | Com. of Supply, Pepthahirs 2 12 6 zt a:
9,535 |... ... | Mr George Dundas, M.P. ‘ 24 6 120 60
9,536 |... ... | Provost of Dundee ; ; 12 6 264 132
9537 |... ... | Mr Jonathan Pym 24 6 120 60
9,541 | .... ... | Com. of Supply, Berwickshire . | 24 6 120 60
9,544 |... ... | Trustees of the Harbour, Dundee 2 6 264 132
9,545 |... ... | Mr J. Hope, Deputy-Keeper of the
Signet 24 12 120 60
9,546 | ... ... | Daniel Smith & Sdn, Tisinds -Agents 262 te we a
9,550 | .... 10 | President of the Geological Society | 24 12 ES a
9,596 |... ..- | MrT, Smith, Woodley, Land-Agent | 24 12 120 60
9,703 | .... 11 | Com. of Supply, Linlithgowshire 24 6 120 60
9,704... ... | Davis and Vigers, Land-Agents 24 12 120 60
9,713 |... ... | Mr S. Eddy, Land-Agent . | 24 6 120 60
9,720 | .... ... | Society for promoting the Amend-
F ment of the Law ‘ - | 26% | 134 | 120 60
9,733 |... ... | Mr C. L. Bradley, Land-Agent . | 262 | 134 80 60
9,740 | .... ... | MrS. Vessey, Land-Agt. & Valuer | 26% suis se
9,804 | ... 12 | Mr James Johnstone, M.P. . 24 A: J
9,878 | .... 13 | Com. of Supply, Dumfriesshire 263 6 eee ak
9,899 | ........ | Mr A. E. Lockhart, M.P. . | 24 12 120 60
9,914 |... ... | Com. of Supply, Roxburghshire 24 12 (a) (a)
9,970 | .... 14 | Metropolitan Commis. of Sewers at 3 eae ¥Zor; 126
10,056 | .... 16 | Ecclesiastical Commissioners - | 20 8 60 60
10,083 | ... ... | Viscount Ebrington s - | 24 12 120 24
10,212 | .... 17 | Mr John Meadows White 263 | 262 120 120
10,259 | .... 18 | Mr C. Neale, Land Agt. and Valuee 262 134 80 40
10,566 | .... 21 | Mr Thomas Sopwith ‘ 40b ate 40b
10,080 | ... 16 C SGurivle sPianthartotial
(10567 ine =, om. of Supply, Dumbartonshire 24 12 120 60
10,569 | ....... | Com. of Supply, Renfrew : (c) (d) on #
10,595 | ...... | Poor-Law Board Arg | |"... (40 or} 80)
10,672 | ....... | Local Director, Geological Survey
of Ireland ‘ ‘ 24 6 &

(a) “* Larger than 5 feet.” p
(>) A measured skeleton triangulation only.
~(¢) As large as can be granted.
(d@) Such as to admit of accurate admeasurement of the areas.

No.

in
Se-

ries.

Register Date. Party replying. Rural Districts. Towns. .
Number. =a ae p
Draft. m Draft. ae
graved. graved.
1853. Inches to a Mile.
10,845 | May 26 | Mr A. Smollet, M.P. : . | 24 12 120 60
10,888 | .... 27 | Colonel Hunter Blair, M.P. . | 24 6 120 60
10,888 |... ... | Com. of Supply, Ayrshire . | 24 6 120 60
10,889 |... ... | Lieut.-General Arbuthnot, M.P. 24 6 120 60
10,953 | ... 28 | Highland and Agricultural grees (a) (a) if a
10,996 | .... 80 | Mr J. E. Elliot; M.-P. 3 24 12 (6)
11,166 | .... 31 | Lord Wrottesley - | (24 to) 26%) 60 to 120)
11,326 | June 1 | Com. of Supply, Co. of Edinburgh 263 1
11,857 | .... 8 | Com. of Supply, Kincardine . | 2Cc 6 60 30
11,889 | ... ... | Duke of Devonshire ; ‘ 20 12 60 60
11,934 |... 9 | Com. of Supply, Peebles 24 12 120 60
11,953 |... ... | Sir G. G. Montgomery, Bart., M. P. 24 12 120 60
11,998 | ... 10 | Com. of Supply, Nairnshire . | 263 uy 120 1
12,189 | .... 13 | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan-
caster . 24 12 120 60
12,190 | .... ... | Messrs Stevenson, Salt, nant dng 24 12 120 60
12,204 | .... ... | Mag. and Town- Council, Aberdeen | 24 6 120 60
12,237 | ... 14 | Lord Lovat ; 4 24 12 120 60
12,347 |... 16 | St Andrews University 24 12 120 60
12,611 | ... 20 | Board of Supervision for Relief of
the Poor ; 263 1 120 60
12,962 | .... 24 | Lieut.-Col. Hon. L. Maule, M. Pi, 24 12 60 60
13,239 | ... 29 | The Earl of Rosse ? 20 } 60 60
13,3827 | .... 30 | Mr Walter Coulson, Q. om ..| 268 | 268 | 120 | 120
14,003 | July 7 | Marquis of Tweeddale_. . | 24 1 wee tee
14,418 | .... 14 | Hon. Charles Gore, Commissioner
of Woods, &c. ; . | 262 8 60 60
15,252 | ... 25 | Sir David Brewster “ioe 6 120 60
15,312 | ... 26 | Mr E. H. J. Craufurd, M. Pi 3 24 6 120 60
15,449 | ... 27 | Mr James MacGregor, M.P. . | 20 1 60 20
15,554 | .... 29 | The Lord Advocate ‘ 24 12 120 120
15,801 | Aug. 1 | The Rev. Dr Dewar, Principal of
Aberdeen University . 12 6 120 60
16,064 | .... 4 | Mr Thos. Huskinson, Estate-Agent 26% | 13} 120 60
16,338 | .... 9 | Mr A. Doull, Civil Engineer . | 24 24 120 | 120
16,497 |... 11.| Mr J. Macquorn Rankine, Civil
Engineer, &c. . : . | 24 6 60d | 60d
16,809 | .... 16 | Mr Thomas Woollcombe 263 | 134 120 60
17,450 |... 23 | Mr Philip Park, Civil Engineer 24 6 120 60
17,401.) o>... >| Mr On Pitz Smyth, F.R.S.L. & E.,
&e. : 24 12 240 | 120e
17,622 Mr James J erwood . » | Lad | °US5. 3) RED
17,796 | .... 29 | Mr James Forsyth ° . | 24 12 120 60
17,815 | .. ... | Mr Lewis D. B. Gordon . | 24 12. 120 60
17,962 | .... ... | Mr Robert Dawson : th TORTS 0. nine ue? oft
18,128 | Sept. 2 | Mr R. B. Grantham . . | 24 12 120 60
18,268 | .... 3 | Colonel Stopford Blair . . | 24 6 120 60 |
(a) “ Larger than 6 inches.” (b) “ Larger than 5 feet.”

174 Abstract of Replies to the Treasury Circular

:

Scale recommended.

Treasury

(c) Not less than 20 in low country and 6 in hill country.
(d) “ 120 in special cases.”
(e) “ 120 for first-class towns, 60 for second-class towns.”

on the Ordnance Survey of Scotland. 175

* Scale recommended.

| Bro. Treasury eer

ri So. Register| Date. Party replying. Rural Districts. Towns.

Array Draft. En- pan, | ==

a graved. graved.
1853. Inches to a Mile.

}102 | 18,346 Pept 6 | Mr H. M‘Lauchlan : 5 24 12 120 60
103 | 18,403 7 | Mr James J. Beattie 3 ‘ 20 5 1053 524
1164 | 18, 546 | ... 10 | Mr J. R. Wright : a ge 12 120 60
‘1105 18,568 ... ... | Mr J. H. Williams " . 24 12 120 60
106 | 18,647 | ... 12 | Mr W. Ranger, C.H. F ‘ 12 6 120 24
1107 | 18,775 |... 14 | Mr William Murton : : 24 4 +6 tp
/108 | 18,854 |... 15 | Messrs Fox, Henderson, & Co. . | 26% | 134 | 240 | 120
109 | 19,264 | .... 22 | Mr Charles Osborn 2 3 24 12 120 60
110 | 19,325 | ... 23 | Viscount Dalrymple, M.P. Ps 20 12 60 ae
111 | 19,545 | ... 28 | Com. of Supply, Forfarshire vie a) 6 is es
112 | 19,712 ... 30 | MrG. W. Carrington. ‘ 24 12 96 48
113 | 20,265 | Oct. 10 | Mr J. W. Nicoll ; e 24 6 te Bae
114 | 20,513 | ... 14 | Mr W. E. Gaine P ; 24 12 120 120
115 |} 20,514; ... ... | Mr Lucius H. Spooner . ato 20 1 “0 es
116 |} 21,514 ... 28 | The General Board of Health . 24 |24&6 | 120 120
117 | 21,515 | ... ... | Mr John M‘Millan ‘ ‘ (d) (b) pg mS
118 | 22,233 | Nov. 5 The Statistical Society . - [0004 |-000016 | -0008 |-00008

(a) As large as will render it available and useful for plans of estates, railways, &c.
(>) Large enough to give correct measurements of fields, &c.,

The following Table contains a Synopsis of the above. In
the upper column is given the number of inches to a mile, as
recommended to be drawn or engraved; and in the under
column is given the number of replies in favour-of each sepa-

rate scale.
SUMMARY,

For Rural Districts. °
DRAFT PLANS.

Inches to Mile. 6 | 12 | 133] 20 | 24 | 252) 26 | 262} 40

Replies in
favour of theabove| 30 | 8 DF nln dtd Ie kink by | 2a). 1
Scale.

ee ee ee eee es

'
Replies in
favour of the above| 21 | 1 | 47 | 4 f (41) Yo |'2 5
Scale.

- Note.—From the Replies of the Commissioners of Supply of the different, Counties, it appears that

_ fourteen counties are in favour of having County Maps engraved on the Scale of 6 inches to a mile ;

four in favour of 12 inches toa mile; and four in favour of 1 inch toa mile. No Replies appear to
ve been received from the other counties.

176 Scientific Intelligence.—Mineralogy.

For Towns.

DRAFT PLANS,

Inches to Mile. | 20 | 24 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 96 |1052) 120 | 182 | 240 | 264

SS | | S| | ee eee

Replies in
favour of the above| 1 4 oree2ag a G i I 65 | 1 - 2
Scale.

ENGRAVED.

|

Inches | 1 | 6 | 10 | 12/ 20 | 24| 30 | 40 | 48 | 52¢] 60 ‘adieu

to Mile.

Re-
plies in
favour
DE ths | eel Aue
above
Scale.

2S ea eT Lo es

NV.B.—Fifteen have not mentioned the Scale, but it appears from the notes

appended, that they are all in favour of a larger Scale than the Six-Inch.

Note.—Replies received from four County Towns, three in favour of the

6-inch Scale and one in favour of the l-inch Scale.

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

MINERALOGY.

1. On the Formation of Crystallized Minerals. By Aug. Frever-
mann, (Annalen der Chemie, 1858, vol. lxxxviii., p. 120.)—A se-
ries of experiments with which I have been lately engaged seem to
throw some light on the formation of crystallized minerals from
aqueous solutions. I started upon a conviction that crystals found
in geodes could have been formed neither by evaporation nor by re-
frigeration of saturated solutions, and I think I have suceeded in dis-
covering the mode of formation of such minerals. The method is
‘equally applicable to very soluble or slightly soluble bodies, and
admits of an infinite variety of modifications in its mechanism. Its
principle is nothing else than a gradual alteration of the affinity of
the solvent to the dissolved body, so that the precipitation occurs
very slowly. ‘The gradual change of chemical force is obtained by
the diffusion of one liquid into another, such as in mixing produce
a solid precipitate. ‘The arrangement of the apparatus is the same
as in Graham’s experiments. Powdered chromate of potash was
placed in the bottom of a long glass cylinder, and powdered nitrate
of lead in the bottom of another; both were then filled with water,

|

Scientific Intelligence.—Mineralogy. 177

and placed in a large beaker-glass, which contained water enough to
cover the two cylinders. In a few months the nitrate of lead had
diffused out into the beaker-glass, and formed several beautiful amor-
phous compounds on the edge of the cylinder in which the chromate
had been placed. In the interior of the cylinder, beautiful pink,
highly refractive needles of Rothbleierz (PbO, CrO,) were depo-
sited, also little dark-red rhombic plates of Melanochroit (3 Pb O,
2CrO,). The needles of neutral chromate found in this manner
attained to three or four millimetres, and then fell to the bottom of
the cylinder, where the conditions of their development were want-
ing. Had it not been for this circumstance, they would, no doubt,
in three or four months, have got to half an inch, or even more.
Some crystals of Weissbleierz (Pb O, CO,) formed in the same
vessel, owing, no doubt, to the circumstance that the chromate con-
tained some carbonate of potash. Ina similar manner I obtained
erystals of cale-spar, also rhombic plates of 2 CaO, HO, PO, + 4 HO,
and some shining needles, which I believe to be 3 CaQ, PO,.

As this method is perfectly general in its principle, and proves
applicable to such compounds as carbonate and chromate of lead, we
may safely affirm, that the insolubility of a compound will no longer
prevent its being prepared in a crystalline form. It appeared in these
experiments, as if the great length of time which elapsed before the
crystals formed, was owing to the salts not diffusing out rapidly
enough; I therefore modified the form of experiment by placing a
vessel full of dry salt inside a large vessel, containing a solution just
sufficient in quantity to cover the inner vessel. A large precipitate
formed on the undissolved salt, and in a few days little crystals were
perceptible in the amorphous mass, which continued to grow as long
as the materials lasted. In this way I hope to obtain good-sized
crystals of heavy-spar, calc-spar, sulphate of lead (Schwerbleierz),
pyromorphite (3 (Pb O, PO,) + Pb Cl), apatite, &c. By diffusion of a
solution of silicate of potash into one of aluminate of potash, I hope to
obtain felspar. The crystallization of very soluble compounds may be
accomplished by a similar process. Thus, if a solution of sulphate
of iron in a beaker-glass is covered with a thin stratum of water,
and alcohol gently poured on the top of that, a good and rapid crys-
tallization is obtained. It is probable that in like manner crystals may
be prepared from an acid, an alkaline, an alcoholic, or an ethereal
solution ; and that the separation of two bodies by alteration of the
solvent, so often employed in organic chemistry, may thus be com-
bined with a separation by means of crystallization.

The above-mentioned crystals were identified with the minerals,
without the aid of chemical analysis; but as in each experiment the
number of possible results was limited, and as the crystals agreed in
their general chemical deportment and in their physical properties,
as well as in their mode of aggregation and geometrical forms, with
the minerals named, chemical analysis could hardly have increased

VOL. LVI. NO. CXI.— JANUARY 1854. M

178 Scientific Intelligence.— Geology.

the certainty of my conclusions. (Quarterly Journal of the Geolo-
- gical Society, vol. ix., No. 36.)

2. Artificial Production of Diamond Powder.—Some consider-
able sensation has been produced in the scientific circles of Paris, by
the announcement of the artificial formation of diamond powder. M.
Despretz has made two communications to the Académie des Seiences
upon carbon. In these, he states, that placing at one, the inferior,
pole of a voltaic battery, a cylinder of pure charcoal (its purity being
secured by preparing it from crystallized white sugar-candy), and at
the superior pole a bundle of fine platinum wires, so arranged that.
the charcoal was in the red portion of the electric arc, and the plati-
num in the violet; he found the carbon volatilized, and collected on
the platinum wires in a changed state. In these experiments, the
current has been continued during a month in activity, and the powder
collected on the wires has been found to be sufficiently hard to polish
rubies with great rapidity, and when burnt, it left no residue. M.
Despretz asks himself, Have I obtained crystals of carbon which I
can separate and weigh, in which I can determine the index of re-
fraction and the angle of polarization, without doubt? No. I have
simply produced by the electric are, and by weak voltaic currents,
carbon crystallized in black octohedrons, in colourless and trans-
lucent octohedrons, in plates also colourless and translucent, which
possess the hardness of the powder of the diamond, and which dis-
appear in combustion without any sensible residue. A similar
result has been obtained by decomposing a mixture of ehloride of ear-
bon and alcohol, by weak galvanic currents. The black powder de-
posited, was found to possess equal hardness with that which was
sublimed, and rubies were readily polished by it. A few years since,
graphite and coke were formed from diamonds. We now appear to
be advancing towards the conversion of graphite and coke into dia-
monds.—( Atheneum, No 1355.)

GEOLOGY.

3. Useof Salt among the Natives in Namaqua Land, South
Africa.—The Namaquas occasionally use salt, but they set no store
upon it. There is no doubt, that people who live on meat and milk
would require salt much less than those who live on vegetables ; but
half the Damaras subsist simply on pig-nuts,—the most worthless
and indigestible of food, and requiring to be eaten in excessive quan-
tities to afford enough nourishment to support life. The Hottentots
of Walfisch Bay, who live almost entirely on the nara gourd, and
who have the sea on one side, and salt springs in front of them,
hardly even take the trouble to collect salt, which they certainly
would do if they felt that craving for it which distresses many —
Europeans. The last fact that I have to mention with reference to
salt, is that the game in the Swa Kop, do not frequent the salt rocks

Scientific Intelligence.—Meteorology. 179

to lick them, as they do in America.—(Galton on Tropical South
‘ Africa, p. 183.)
| METEOROLOGY.

_ 4, Some observations desirable to be made with reference to the
Glaciers of Norway.

I briefly refer to a few of the many observations desirable to be
made with reference to the Glaciers of Norway, which may be recom-
mended to future travellers :—

1. To ascertain whether unquestionable and well-defined snow-
fields occur north of lat. 60°; the level of the snow-line, and the
period of the year at which it retreats highest.

2. To examine the glaciers on the west slope of the Justedal
mountains, and at the head of Sogndal and Veitestrandswand, and
to trace to their origin the remarkable granite boulders which seem
to be derived from thence (p. 155).

_ 3. To select amongst the glaciers of the Justedal range one or
more suitable for careful observations of progression, both during
the height of summer, and from year to year. The Lodals glacier
is probably one of the best.

4, To ascertain carefully the snow-line of the Folgefond and in
Nordfiord (between Justedal and the sea).

5. To visit and describe the glaciers of the Ymesfield, &c.

6. To explore the country to the north and north-west of Snee-
hattan on the Dovrefield; to observe its geology, and ascertain the
level and extent of its snow-fields.

7. Generally, in the preceding excursions, to notice the occur-
rence of grooved and polished rocks, and the direction by compass
of the strize, especially on level places, not in the declivities of
valleys. The attempt to trace generally the boulders to their origin,
could only be attempted by persons familiarly conversant with the
intricate and obscure geology of Norway. But moraines should be
watched for and sketched. That of Vasbotten, near Stavanger,
mentioned by Esmark, would be worthy of a visit.

8. In Nordland, and the higher north, the traveller may explore
the Borgefield, between the Namsen and Vefsen, rivers frequented
for their fishing by numerous tourists.

9. The glaciers and snow-fields of Fondal (lat. 66°, 67°) would
_ unquestionably repay a week or a fortnight’s research. From the
steamboat station of Rodd, the Melsfiord, Holandsfiord, and Gloms-
fiord, might be easily visited, of which the two first at least con-
tain glaciers at a very low level. The mountains of Fondal are in
a great measure detached from the interior chain, and it is probable
that the explorer might return from Gilleskaal, beyond Cape Kun-
nen, by the landward side, to the head of the Ranenfiord (lat. 66°
_ 10’), and rejoin the steamer. |

- 10. The promontory of Lyngen, with its numerous glaciers,

180 Seientific Intelligence.—Meteorology.

might be made the object of an excursion from Tromsd, with tlie
aid of the steamer.

11. A detailed examination of the Bergsfiord, Jékulsfiord, and
Qvenanger range, has been already recommended (p. 84).

12. Every opportunity should be taken to ascertain the direction
of the abrading and smoothing agency, which has left such extra-
ordinary traces along the coast, between the Throndhjem-fiord and —
the Lofoddens ; and in general it should be sought to observe how
far the strie correspond or not in direction with the general declivity
of the ground, or whether they are in any case extensively parallel
with the coast.

13. The limits of vegetation of the birch and the snow-line should
be observed wherever practicable; but with regard to the latter, the
great difficulty of ascertaining the extreme limit of recession of the
snow should be borne in mind, and the time of year, the character
of the season, and the exposure, should be particularly noticed.

14. The meteorology of Norway is in a state which is not credit-
able to the acknowledged intelligence of the people, and the emi-
nence of its scientific men. I know of but two places, Christiania
and Kaafiord, (separated by 10° of latitude) of which the mean tem-
perature is known with any accuracy. This is lamentable in a
country whose climate is one of the most interesting in Europe. The
means of remedying it seem easy. Let observations, in the first
instance, be confined to the thermometer. It is impossible to doubt
that a net-work of say fifty stations, might be quickly established
over the entire country. The intelligent officers of the Royal Marine
and Trigonometrical Survey ; the clergy (who have almost all had
a university education); the masters of schools and academies,—like
my well-informed friend, M. Blom, at Troms6; the active magis-
trates and civil officers ; even the station-holders and substantial mer-
chants on the anna bee routes, would probably, in many instances,
lend a cheerful aid to so simple and interesting an inquiry ; whilst
the combination of the results could not be placed in better hands
than those of the Professors of Christiania.—(Norway and its Gla-
ciers, by Professor James Forbes, p. 245.)

5. Theory of the Pile and the Aurora Borealis.—M. de la Rive,
the celebrated physicist of Geneva, has presented to the Academy
the first volume ofa treatise on Theoretical and Applied Electricity,
which he has published in London, and of which he is now preparing
an edition in French. In explaining the plan of his work, M. de la
Rive dwelt more especially on the theory of the pile. He has always
been a defender of the chemical theory ; but, while acknowledging
the influence of chemical action, he now recognizes, that we cannot
always admit that chemical action precedes the production of elec- —
tricity, and he is led to consider the two phenomena as commonly
simultaneous, and due to a more general cause, viz., molecular polar-

Scientific Intelligence.— Meteorology. 181

ization, which is established at the moment of contact of two bodies
susceptible of acting chemically on one another. M. de la Rive also
expresses his opinion on the cause of the aurora, which he explains,
not by a radiation of the polar magnetism, but by a purely electri-
cal action. After examining nearly all recent observations, he be-
lieves that he may attribute this phenomenon to the electricity with
which the currents of air are charged, that rise from the equatorial
regions, and travel in the upper atmosphere towards the poles, where
they combine with the negative electricity of the earth, forming,
under the influence of the magnetic pole, true luminous arches.—
(American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xvi. No. 47, 2d Series,
p. 274.)

6. *‘ Piroréco”’ or Bore that occurs in the Guamd River at
Spring Tides.—About thirty miles above Para the piroréco com-
mences. There was formerly an island in the river at this point, but it
is said to have been completely washed away by the continual action
of the bore, which, after passing this place, we rather expected to
see, now being the time of the highest tides, though at this season
(May) they are not generally high enough to produce it with any
force. It came, however, with a sudden rush, a wave travelling
rapidly up the stream, and breaking in foam all along the shore and
on the shallows. It lifted our canoe, just as a great rolling ocean-
wave would do, but, being deep water, did no harm, and was past
in an instant, the tide then continuing to flow up with great velocity.
The highest tide was now past, so at the next we had no wave ;
but the flood began running up instantaneously, and not gradually,
as is generally the case. On our way down, I again encoun-
tered the “ piroréco,” when I hardly expected it. We had gone
in-shore at a sugar estate, to wait for the tide, when the agent
told us we had better put out further into the stream as the piro-
réco beat there. Though thinking he only wished to frighten us,
we judged it prudent to do as he advised ; and, while we were expect-
ing the tide to turn, a great wave came suddenly rushing along,
and breaking on the place where our canoe had been at first moored.
The wave having passed, the water was as quiet as before, but
flowing up with great rapidity. As we proceeded down the river
we saw everywhere signs of its devastations in the uprooted
trees which lined the shores all along, and the high mud banks
where the earth had been washed away. In winter, when the spring
tides are highest, the ‘‘ piroréco’’ breaks with terrific force, and often
sinks and dashes to pieces boats left incautiously in too shallow wa-
ter. The ordinary explanations given of this phenomenon are evi-
dently incorrect. Here there is no meeting of salt and fresh water,
neither is the stream remarkably narrowed where it commences. I
collected all the information I could respecting the depth of the
river, and the shoals that occur in it. Where the bore first appears
there is a shoal across the river, and below that the stream is some-

182 Scientific Intelligence.—Meteorology.

what contracted. The tide flows up past Para with great velocity,
and entering the Guam river comes to the narrow part of the chan-
nel, Here the body of tidal water will be deeper and flow faster, and
coming suddenly on to the shoal will form a wave, in the same manner
that in a swift brook a large stone at the bottom will cause an un-
dulation, while a slow flowing stream will keep its smooth surface.
This wave will be of great size, and, as there is a large body of wa-
ter in motion will be propagated onwards unbroken. Wherever there
are shallows, either in the bed or on the margin of the river, it will
break, or as it passes over slight shoals will be increased, and as the
river narrows will go on with greater rapidity, When the tides are
low they rise less rapidly, and at the commencement a much less body
of water is put in motion; the depth of the moving water is less,
and does not come in contact with the bottom in passing over the
shoal, and so no wave is formed. It is only when the body of water
in motion as the tide first flows in is of sufficient depth, that it comes
in contact with the shoal, and is, as it were, lifted up by it, forming
a great rolling wave. It appears, therefore, that there must exist
some peculiar formation of the bottom, and not merely a narrow-
ing and widening in a tidal river to produce a bore, otherwise it
would occur more frequently than it does.—( Travels on the Amazon
and Rio Negro, by Alfred R. Wallace, p. 114.)

7. Mirage of South Africa.—We were surrounded by a mirage
of the most remarkable intensity,—objects 200 yards off were ut-
terly without definition ; a crow, or a bit of black wood, would look
as lofty as the trunk of a tree,—pelicans were exaggerated to the
size of ships with the studding sails set, and the whole ground was
wavy and seething, as though seen through the draught of a furnace.
This was in August, the month in which mirage is most remarkable
here ; it is excessive at all times, and has been remarked by every
one who has seen the place. A year and a half later [ tried on
two occasions to map the outline of the bay, which was then com-
paratively clear, but still the mirage quite prevented me ; an object
which I took as a mark from one point being altogether undistin-
guishable when I had moved to my next station.—(The Narrative
of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa, by Francis Galton,
p- 16.)

8. Majestic Cloud seen from the Jungfrau.—It was four o’clock

when we reached the summit of the Jungfrau, and we staid half an

hour. The view to the east was generally clear. The Finsteraar
and Schreckhorn, the glacier of Aletsch, the Monch and Eigher,—
and we got a glimpse of the bottom of the valley of Grindelwald.
The view to the west was in one respect scarcely less remarkable,
for there a magnificient cumulous-headed cloud stood in wonder-
ful majesty, reaching apparently from the valley to at least 2000
feet above us. It was a glorious sight, a single cloud at least 10,000
feet high.—(Norway and its Glaciers, by Prof. James Forbes.)

_ le i De

Scientific Intelligence—Hydrography—Zoology. 183

HYDROGRAPHY.

10. A new method for taking Deep Sea Soundings.—Hitherto a
continuous series of soundings in deep water has been rendered dif-
ficult by the fact of each sounding costing the ship a fresh line ;
however strongly the line was made, when once out it has never
been recovered. The Americans have invented a mode by which
the weight on touching the bottom is detached; so that the line
may be drawn back with ease.—The following is an account of this
ingenious contrivance :—‘“ A hole is drilled through a 64 1b. or
heavier shot, sufficiently large to admit a rod of about three quar-
ters of an inch in diameter. This rod is about 12 or 14 inches in
length, and with the exception of about 14 inch at the bottom, per-
fectly solid. At the top of the rod are two arms extending one
from each side; these arms being upon easily-acting hinges, are
capable of being raised or lowered with very little power. A small
branch extends from the outside of each of them, which is for the
purpose of holding, by means of rings, a piece of wire by which the
ball is swung to the rod. A piece of rope is then attached by each
end to the arms, to which again is joined the sounding line. The
ball is then lowered into the water, and upon reaching the bottom,
-the strain upon the line ceases, and the arms fall down, allowing the
ball to detach itself entirely from the rod, which is then easily
drawn in,—the drilled portion of which is discovered to be filled
with a specimen of that which it has come in contact with at the
bottom.” With this apparatus, aided by the host of assistants
whom Lieut. Maury’s visit to Europe will doubtless bring to the
great work of exploration, the ocean bed may become in time as
well known to us as the bed of the Thames or that of Hudson.—
(Atheneum.)

ZOOLOGY.

11. The Committee appointed at the Meeting of the American
Philosophical Society on the 30th of February last, to examine and
report upon a collection of fine Wools, presented i the King of
Saxony to Peter A. Browne, Esq., of this city :-—

Report, That they have attended to the duty imposed upon them
by their appointment, and have received, from the kind politeness of
Mr Browne, much aid and information in relation to the subjects of
their inquiries. It is already known to the Society that the attention
of this gentleman has been for some time directed to the minute and
critical investigation of hair and wool, and that by means of assi-
duous microscopic and micrometric examination of these bodies he
has been enable to arrived at results, some of which appear to have
been before unknown, and others, if known, very little noticed.
Among these, he claims the following ; —

That he was the first to point out the exact difference between hair

184 Scientific Intelligence.—Zoology.

and wool ; and that he originated the division of sheep into two spe-
cies, viz. the hairy and the woolly.

That by the application of the well-known laws of hybridism, he
was the first to shew that by crossing these two species, a self-sup-
plying, permanent race of animals cannot be produced.

That he was the first to demonstrate, by actual measurement, that
as fine wool can be grown in the United States as in any country in
the world.

From the results of his examination of a great number of speci-
mens of wool from various parts of this country, he claims to have
discovered that by drawing a diagonal line across the United States,
corresponding somewhat with the line of tidewater, one may point
out the respective districts where the woolly and the hairy sheep may,
and may not, be bred with success.

The Committee proposed not to enter into a critical investigation
of the theories of Mr Browne, in relation to hair and wool; but from
the laborious and earnest attention which he has given to the subject,
they are inclined to regard his opinions and conclusions as being well
worthy of considerate attention from the naturalist, the agriculturist,
and the manufacturer of fabrics in which wool forms an entire or a
component part. If, as he asserts, the hairy and the woolly sheep
are of different species, and that by their breeding together a degene-
rate race is produced, yielding a mixed fleece of hair and wool, and
inferior in other respects ; it is surely important that the fact should
be known, and claim serious attention wherever sheep are bred, that
the two varieties or races may be kept separate, as appears to be
the case in the best sheep-folds in Saxony.

The collection of wools presented by the King of Saxony to Mr
Browne, consists of upwards of six hundred specimens, very neatly
put up and labelled, embracing varieties from the principal districts
in that country where the growing of wool is pursued as a branch of
agricultural economy. These specimens exhibit the quality of wool
taken from different parts of the same animal, as well as the va-
rieties from the different breeds of sheep, and the various districts in
which they are produced.

In relation to this collection of Saxony wools, and illustrative of
the subject of sheep-breeding and, wool- -growing, Mr Browne has
favoured the Committee with a communication, whichis appended to
this report.

Cuas. B. ianeiverc |
A, L., Exwyny
G,. M., Justice,

To Charles B. Trego, Alfred L. Elwyn, and George M. Justice,
Esquires, Committee of the American’ Philosophical Society, ap-
pointed to examine the Wools presented by His Majesty the King
of Saxony to Peter A. Browne, of Philadelphia.—Gentlemen, the
kingdom of Saxony-is:divided into four circuits and fourteen’ doubltios:

Scientific Intelligence.—Zoology. 185

and. the specimens I now exhibit to you (numbering 628) represent
the animals belonging to the principal stock sheep-folds in all the
circuits, and in nearly all the counties; so that the cabinet may be
considered as presenting a fair view of the existing state of sheep-
husbandry in Saxony.

Saxony is the smallest kingdom in Europe ; containing, according
to some writers, 5300, and according to others, 5640 square miles ;
having, for its area, about one-eighth that of Pennsylvania, and about
one-eleventh that of Virginia, yet it is said to maintain 25,000,000
sheep. They export annually an immense quantity of wool, and
their own manufactories of that article employ 25,000 people.

To be perfectly satisfied that their sheep are of a very superior
kind, and that their wool is of the finest sort, you have only to ex-
amine these specimens, and compare them with the samples of fine
wools brought by Mr Fleishman, from most parts of Europe, at the
instance of the Federal Government.

How did Saxony become possessed of this inestimable treasure ?

_ According to the celebrated agriculturist, M. Thaér, Germany,
before the introduction of the merinos, had three varieties of sheep ;
neither of which were held in high estimation. In 1765, Augustus
Frederick, then Elector of Saxony, procured from Spain, 200 merinos,
which he placed at Stolpgen, in the county of Hayn, and circuit of
Dresden. Against this innovation, popular prejudice at first ran
high, but it gradually subsided with the progress of experiment ; and,
in 1777, so much had these sheep risen in public estimation, that
the elector determined to import 300 more. The agent sent to
Spain could procure only 110, and of these many died during and
soon after the transportation; but they, like those previously ob-
tained, were selected from the best Spanish flocks; and then com-
menced the celebrated establishments of Rennersdorf, in the county
and circuit of Bautzon and of Lochmule, in the county of Nieder-
forchheim, in the circuit of Zwickau. It was upon this compara-
tively slender foundation that the art of sheep-breeding was erected
in Saxony. But it could never have attained its present great cele-
brity, but for the rigid observance of the rule, in breeding, to keep
these merinos entirely separate from all other sheep ; their blood
was, by this means, preserved pure ; no mixture of them with either .
of the pre-existing races being allowed, on any pretence whatever.
And to this day, ‘the Saxon shoep-breeder will not permit one to
— lose sight of this important fact; in proof of which I cali your at-
tention to this clause in the letter of Mr V. Kirchen, the farmer of
the stock sheep-fold of the Duke of Parma, in the SonErY of Dres-
den, called ‘‘ Weistropp,’’ which accompanies these 16 beautiful
specimens,—“ These sheep are the drecendants of the original im-
portation from Spain of 1778.”
__ J consider this collection of specimens of Saxony wool.as a apie
cal illustration of my theory of sheep-breeding and fine wool- “grow-
_ VOL, LVI. NO. CXI.— JANUARY 1854. ey N

186 Scientific Intelligence.=Zoology.

ing, verifying the rule which I laid down, long before I saw these
specimens, that to insure a pure and perfect breed of fine-woolled
sheep, it is absolutely necessary to preserve the two species of these
animals entirely separate, and not to mix the merinos with the
common sheep of the country, as is too often done in the United
States.

If any American sheep-breeder still entertains a latent doubt as
to the soundness of this rule, he is invited to inspect this collection,
to have passed, separately, in review, the specimens from the various
sheepfolds, aud particularly to notice that this is not a collection of
picked locks, from those parts of the animal where the wool is usually
the finest ; but that in order to afford the greatest facility of judging
of the sheep from the wool, samples are given from all parts of the
body, the shoulders, the withers, the back, from under the belly, the
tail, and the legs: let these be carefully examined, and they will be
found to be all wool; not a hair to be found upon those parts of
the sheep where the impure race commence shewing hair.

I consider this uniformity and entirety of fibre as an unerring test
of purity of blood ; and therefore cannot but regard Saxony as an
example, upon a large seale, and worthy of being followed, of the
perfection of sheep-husbandry.

It will be recollected that I have heretofore shewn, by actual ad-
measurements with the microscope and micrometer, that as fine wool
can be produced in the United States as in any part of the world;
there is therefore no deficiency in climate or soil; all that the
American agriculturist requires is to procure a pure breed, and to
preserve them uncontaminated by spuriouscrossings. To obtain the
former, I proffer free inspection of my cabinet, where there will be
found samples of all the varieties, with references to the sheepfold
from which they can be supplied, and even the number of the sheep
whose wool is there exposed to view.

In connection with this part of the exposé, I ask particular atten-
tion to this suite of specimens from the Manor of Obermylaw, near
Rechenbach. It will be recollected that the principal objection to
the Saxo-merino sheep has heretofore been, that the staple is short,
and consequently that the clip must be light; but these specimens,
while they exhibit the maximum fineness, have a staple so long as
to obviate entirely this objection. This variety of Saxon. wool has
not, so far as I know and believe, been before brought to this country,
nor have the sheep from which it was taken, made their appearance
in the United States; but it must be borne in mind, that as they
are only a variety of the merino, the American planter and: farmer
may, by proper care and attention, produce it here, or he may im-
port these very sheep, and by due management preserve the integrity
of their fleece.

Upon the whole, therefore, I submit to you, gentlemen, that re
Majesty the King of Saxony has conferred a singular favour upon

Scientific Intelligence.—Botany. 187

the United States, in sending hither these specimens, and that he is
‘entitled-to the thanks of all good citizens who take an interest in this
important branch of industry. I am, &c.
vy P. A. Brown.

BOTANY.

15. Microscopical Description of the Protococcus nivalis from
‘the Arctic Regions, by M. Justice—The perfect type of the Pro.
‘tococcus nivalis, is a globular cyst, varying in size from the
‘goth of an inch to the y 55th of an inch in diameter ; each cell
or ayst having an opening, whose smallest diameter measures only
the <j5ath part of an inch. This opening is surrounded by marked
serrated or indented lines, as though by the expansion and gradual
growth of the cell the opening had also been irregularly expanded.
The plant, when perfect, greatly resembles the- red currant of our
‘gardens ; as it decays the red colouring matter is lost, being gradu-
ally superseded by a deep orange, which finally appears to change
into a brown, or the cell becomes transparent. In this transparent
‘state, when the cell is broken, the thickness of the enveloping cuticle
may be measured, this does not exceed the 5537, th part of an inch ;
and where the opening is preserved, the interior of it becomes of a
_ delicate green colour. Many of the cells exhibit the hexagonal
figure instead of being globular ; but this is the result of compression,
where masses of them have been thrown together. Mingled with
‘the protococcus are fragments of a tissue of reticulated and cellular
‘formation, much resembling some of the infusorial pueapare So
“minute are the openings in these that they do not exceed the +5239 ,th
‘part of an inch in diameter.—(Proceedings of the American Phili-
“sophical Society.)

16. Dr Kane on Specimens of Vegetable Matter found by him on
the Ice Plains of the Polar Seas.—They consisted. of the minute
filaments and radicles of two species of moss (undetermined), mingled
ewith: the leaves.and corticle of} a heath, recognizable by ‘the un-
assisted eye.as the: Andromeda tetragona; the broken -thalli of
several lichens, and in. one case, the capsule of a saxifrage.

» Those were collected at - different. times during the long: ice drift
nasi the late Grinnell expedition, and at distances from land varying
from: forty to) seventy-six miles.:| They appeared: as. almost micro-
scopic:specks upon :the. surface of the snow-fields, and would readily
jelude-casual observation, They had been undoubtedly conveyed from
the shore over the dry and polished surface of the ice bythe action of
the winds;.and it:seemedas iif they mighti:be: transported in ‘the
same manner to indefinite distances, unless arrested: by: the Neri:
intervention of open water.

’ Dr Kanevalluded to. the infusorial dust: of’ South Ainevied ae
“Africa, and the diffusion of volcanic ‘ashand scorie over extended

188 Scientific Intelligence.—Miscellaneous.

areas, as also to the presence of acetic and hippuric acids, &e., in the
atmosphere, as detected by Fresnel and Horsford. He believed,
however, that this was the first instance of an analogous observation
with regard to organized and vegetable matter, and he regarded it
as having an interesting connection with the protococcus nivalis,
and other growths upon a naked snow surface,

Dr Kane stated that he had collected the red snow at a point
within the arctic circle, as high as lat. 76° 15’, and from the shores
of Wellington Channel to those of Greenland. Throughout all this
extensive range it was in no case found on snow devoid of other ve-
getable life. It generally occupied dependent valleys and grooves,
and was found there in connection with the fronds of lichens, por-
tions of mosses, the catkins of the willow, &c. &c. The intensity of
the colouring appeared to bear a certain marked relation to the
quantity of such foreign matter present in these localities.

Dr Kane added that Sir Edward Parry had detected this singular
vegetable organism on the distant Spitzbergen ice fields, and Saus-
sure, Baer, and others, on isolated Alpine slopes; but that even in
these cases, it could not be said that the snow-surface was absolutely
without a vegetable nidus. He had himself collected this snow
seventy-six miles from any land, and from surfaces which, but for a
critical examination, would have seemed altogether pure.

He did not wish his remarks to be understood as bearing upon the °
general question of the ability of snow-water to afford the necessary
ammonia for the supply of the plants, but as simply indicating for
many of the heretofore “ isolated’ localities of the red snow, the
pre-existence of a matrix of vegetable character—( Proceedings of the
American Philosophical Society.)

MISCELLANEOUS.

17. Important Scientific Invention.—A letter from Berlin of the
17th says —“ It is well known thatthe paper prepared for photography
grows more or less black by rays of light falling on it. One of our
young painters, M. Schall, has just taken advantage of this property
in photographic paper to determine the intensity of the sun’s light.
After more than 1500 experiments, M. Schall has succeeded in
establishing a scale of all the shades of black which the action of the
solar system produces on the photographie paper :—so that, by com-
paring the shade obtained at any given moment on a certain paper
with that indicated on the scale, the exact force of the sun’s light
may be ascertained. Baron Alexander von Humboldt, M. de Litt-
now, M. Dove, and M. Poggendorff, have congratulated M. Schall
on this invention, which will be of the highest utility not only for
scientific labours, but also in many operations of domestic and rural
economy.”

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EDINBURGH NEW
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL.

On an Isothermal Oceanic Chart, illustrating the Geogra-
phical Distribution of Marine Animals. With an illus-
trative Map. By JAmeEs D. DANA, Esq.

The temperature of the waters is well known to be one of
the most influential causes limiting the distribution of ma-
rine species of life. Before, therefore, we can make any intel-
ligent comparison of the species of different regions, it is
necessary to have some clear idea of the distribution of tem-
perature in the surface waters of the several oceans; and,
if we could add also the results of observations at various
depths beneath the surface, it would enable us still more
perfectly to comprehend this subject. The surface tempe-
rature has of late years been quite extensively ascertained,
and the lines of equal temperature may be drawn with con-
siderable accuracy. But in the latter branch of thermome-
tric investigation almost everything yet remains to be done:
_ there are scattering observations, but none of a systematic
character, followed through each season of the year.

The map (Plate I.) which we present in illustration of this
subject, presents a series of lines of equal surface temperature
of the oceans. The lines are isocheimal lines, or, more pro-
perly, ¢zsocrymal lines ; and where they pass, each exhibits the
mean temperature of the waters along its course for the
coldest thirty consecutive days of the year. The line for 68°
F., for example, passes through the ocean where 68° F. is
the mean temperature for extreme cold weather. January
is not always the coldest winter month in this climate, nei-

VOL. LVI. NO. CXII— APRIL 1854. O

190 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

ther is the winter the coldest season in all parts of the globe,
especially near the equator. On this account we do not re-
strict the lines to a given month, but make them more cor-
rectly the limit of the extreme cold for the year at the
place.* Between the line of 74° north and 74° south of the
equator, the waters do not fall for any one month below
74° F.; between 68° north and south, they do not fall be-
low 68°.

There are several reasons why isocrymal are preferable to
summer or isotheral lines. The cause which limits the
distribution of species northward or southward from the equa-
tor is the cold of winter, rather than the heat of summer, or
even the mean temperature of the year. The mean tempe-
rature may be the same when the extremes are very widely
different. When these extremes are little remote, the equa-
ble character of the seasons, and especially the mildness of
the winter temperature, will favour the growth of species
that would be altogether cut off by the cold winters where
the extremes are more intense. On this account lines of the
greatest cold are highly important for a chart illustrating the
geographical distributions of species, whether of plants or ani-
mals. At the same time, summer lines have their value;
but this is true more particularly for species of the land and
fresh-water streams, and for sea-shore plants. When the
summer of a continent is excessive in its warmth, as in North
America, many species extend far from the tropics that would
otherwise be confined within lower latitudes. But in the
ocean, the extremest cold in the waters, even in the Polar
regions, wherever they are not solid ice (and only in such
places are marine species found), is but a few degrees
below 32°F. The whole range of temperature for a re- ,
gion is consequently small. The region which has 68° F.

* The word isocrymal here introduced is from the Greek ios, equal, and
xeuuos, extreme cold, and applies with sufficient precision to the lines for which —
it is used. These lines are not isocheimal lines, as these follow the mean winter
temperature; and to use this term in the case before us, would be giving the ~
word a signification which does not belong to it, and making confusion in the
science.

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 191

for its winter temperature, has about 80° for the hottest
month of summer; and the line of 56° F. in the Atlantic,
which has the latitudes of the state of New York, follows
the same course nearly as the summer line of 70° F. In each
of these cases the whole extent of the range is small, being
twelve to fourteen degrees.*

In fresh-water streams, the waters, where not frozen, do
not sink lower than the colder oceans, reaching at most but
a few degrees below freezing. Yet the extremes are greater
than for the ocean ; for in the same latitudes which give for
the ocean 56° and 70° F. as the limits, the land-streams of
America range in temperature between 30° and 80° F., and
the summer warmth, in such a case, may admit of the deve-
lopment of species that would otherwise be excluded from
the region.

While, then, both isocrymal and isotheral lines are of im-
portance on charts illustrating distribution over the conti-
nents, the former are pre-eminently important where the
geography of marine species is to be studied.

The lines of greatest cold are preferable for marine spe-
cies to those of summer heat, because of the fact, also, that
the summer range of temperature for thirty degrees of lati-
tude either side of the equator is exceedingly small, being
but three to four degrees in the Atlantic, and six to eight de-
grees in the Pacific. The July isothermal for 80° F. passes
near the parallel of 30°; and the extreme heat of the equa-
torial part of the Atlantic Ocean is rarely above 84°. The
difficulty of dividing this space by convenient isothermals
with so small a range is obvious.

It is also an objection to using the isotheres, that those
towards the equator are much more irregular in course than
the isocrymes. That of 80° for July, for example, which is
given on our map from Maury’s chart, has a very fiexuous
course. Moreover the spaces between the isotheres fail to
correspond as well with actual facts in geographical distri-

* Moreover, the greatest range for all oceans is but 62° of Fahrenheit, the
highest being 88°, and the lowest 26°; while the temperature of the atmosphere
- of the globe has a range exceeding 150°.

0 2

192 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

bution. The courses of the cold-water currents are less evi-
dent on such a chart, since the warm waters in summer to a
great extent overlie the colder currents.

It is also to be noted, that nothing would be gained by
making the mean temperature for the year, instead of the
extremes, the basis for laying down these lines, as will be in-
ferred from the remarks already made, and from an exami-
nation of the chart itself.

The distribution of marine life is a subject of far greater
simplicity than that of continental life. Besides the influence
on the latter of summer temperature in connection with that
of the cold seasons, already alluded to, the following ele-
ments or conditions have to be considered: the character of
the climate, whether wet or dry; of the surface of the re-
gion, whether sandy, fertile. marshy, &c.; of the vegetation,
whether that of dense forests or open pasture-land, &c.; of
the level of the country, whether low or elevated, &c. These
and many other considerations come in, to influence the dis-
tribution of land species, and lead to a subdivision of the
Regions into many subordinate Districts. In oceanic pro-
ductions, depth and kind of bottom have an important bear-
ing: but there is no occasion to consider the moisture or dry-
ness of the climate, and the influence of the other peculiari-
ties of region mentioned is much less potent than with con-
tinental life.

We would add here, that the data for the construction of
this chart have been gathered, as regards the North Atlan-
tic, from the isothermal chart of Lieutenant Maury, in which
a vast amount of facts are registered, the result of great
labour and study. For the rest of the Atlantic and the other
oceans we have employed the meteorological volume of Cap-
tain Wilkes of the Exploring Expedition Reports, which em-
braces observations in all the oceans, and valuable deduc-
tions therefrom; also the records of other travellers, as
Humboldt, Duperey of the Coquille, D’Urville of the Astro-
labe, Kotzebue, Beechey, Fitzroy, Vaillant of the Bonite,
Ross in his Antarctic Voyage, together with such isolated
tables as have been met with in different Journals. The lines

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 193°

we have laid down are not, however, those of any chart pre-
viously constructed, for the reason stated, that they mark the
positions where a given temperature is the mean of the
coldest month (or coldest thirty consecutive days) of the
year, instead of those where this temperature is the mean
annual or monthly heat; and hence the apparent discre-
pancies which may be observed, on comparing it with iso-
thermal charts.

The isocrymal lines adopted for the chart are those of 80°,
74°, 68°, 62°, 56°, 50°, 44°, and 35° of Fahrenheit. The tem-
peratures diminish by 6°, excepting the last, which is 9° less
than 44°. |

In adopting these lines in preference to those of other de-
grees of temperature, we have been guided, in the first place,
by the great fact, that the isocryme of 68° is the boundary-
line of the coral-reef seas, as explained by the author in his
Report on Zoophytes.* Beyond this line either side of the
equator we have no species of true Madrepora, Astrea,
Meandrina, or Porites; below this line these corals abound,
and form extensive reefs. This line is hence an important
starting-point in any map illustrating the geography of ma-
rine life. Passing beyond the regions of coral reefs, we leave
behind large numbers of Mollusca and Radiata, and the boun-
dary marks an abrupt transition in zoological geography.

The next line below that of 68° F. is that of 74°F. The
corals of the Hawaiian Islands, and the Mollusca also to a
considerable extent, differ somewhat strikingly from those of

_ the Feejees. The species of Astrea and Meandrina are

fewer, and those of Porites and Pocillopora more abundant,
or at least constitute a much larger proportion of the reef
material. These genera of corals include the hardier species ;
for where they occur in the equatorial regions, they are found
to experience the greatest range in the condition of purity of
the waters, and also the longest exposures out of water.

* In the author’s Report on Geology, 66° F. is set down as the limiting tem-
_ perature of coral-reef seas; this, however, is given as the eatreme cold. 68°
appears to be the mean of the coldest month, and is therefore here used.

194 J.D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

Their abundance at the Hawaiian Islands, as at Oahu, is
hence a consequence of their hardier character, and not a
mere region peculiarity independent of temperature. There
are grounds, therefore, for drawing a line between the Ha-
waiian Islands and the Feejees ; and as the temperature at
the latter sinks to 743° F. some parts of the year, 74° F. is
taken as the limiting temperature. The Feejee seas are ex-
eeedingly prolific and varied in tropical species. The corals
grow in great luxuriance, exceeding in extent and beauty
anything elsewhere observed by the writer in the tropics.
The ocean between 74° F. north of the equator, and 74° F.
south, is therefore the proper tropical or torrid region of
zoological life.

With respect to the line of 80° F., we are not satisfied
that it is of much importance as regards the distribution of
species. The range from the hottest waters of the ocean,
88° to.74° F., is but fourteen degrees, and there are probably
few species occurring within the region that demand a less
range. Still, investigations hereafter made may shew that
the hot waters limited by the isocryme of 80° include some
peculiar species. At Sydney Island and Fakaafo, within this
hot area, there appeared to be among corals a rather greater
prevalence than usual of the genus Manopora, which, as these
are tender species, may perhaps shew that the waters are
less favorable for hardier corals than those of the Feejees,
where the range of temperature is from 70° to 80° F.; but
this would be a hasty conclusion, without more extended
observations. ‘The author was on these islands only for a few
hours, and his collections were afterwards lost at the wreck
of the Peacock, just as the vessel was terminating the voyage
by entering the Columbia River.

It is unnecessary to remark particularly upon the fitness
of the other isocrymals for the purposes of illustrating the
geographical distribution of marine species, as this will be-
come apparent from the explanations on the following pages.

The regions thus bounded require, for convenience of de-
signation, separate names, and the following are therefore
proposed. They constitute three larger groups: the /jirst,
the Torrid zone or Coral-reef seas, including all below the

:
:

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 195

isocryme of 68° F.; the second, the Temperate zone of the
oceans, or the surface between the isocrymes of 68° F. and
35°F .; the third, the Frigid zone, or the waters beyond the iso-
cryme of 35° F.

I, TORRID OR CORAL-REEF ZONE.

Regions. Isocrymal limits.
1. Supertorrid, : ; 80° F. to 80° F.
WTorrid, . ‘ ; ; 80° to 74°
3. Subtorrid, 3 ‘ ‘ Ao hen to GS
II. TEMPERATE ZONE.
1. Warm temperate, ; 68° — to 62°
2. Temperate, ; , i 62° to 56°
3. Subtemperate, ; é B 56° to 50°
4. Cold temperate, . ‘ 50° to 44"
5. Subfrigid, sai: alas AES
Ill. FRIGID ZONE.
Poarricid, . ; : ; 35°... to. 26°

A ninth region—called the Polar—may be added, if. it
should be found that the distribution of species living in the
frigid zone requires it. There are organisms that occur in the
ice and snow itself of the polar regions; but these should be
classed with the animals of the continents ; and the conti-
nental isotherms or isocrymes, rather than the oceanic, are
. required for elucidating their distribution.

It seems necessary to state here the authorities for some
of the more important positions in these lines, and we there-
fore run over the observations, mentioning a few of most
interest. There is less necessity for many particulars with
reference to the North Atlantic, as our facts are mainly de-
rived from Lieut. Maury’s chart, to which the author would
refer his readers.

1. Nort ATLANTIC.—Isocryme of 74° F.—This isocryme
passes near the reefs of Key West, and terminates at the
north-east cape of Yucatan; it rises into a narrow flexure
parallel with Florida along the Gulf Stream, and then con-
tinues on between the Little and Great Bahamas. To the
eastward, near the African coast, it has a flexure northward,
arising from the hot waters along the coast of Guinea, which
_ reach in a slight current upward towards the Cape Verde

196 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

Islands. The line passes to the south of these islands, at
which group Fitzroy, in January of 1852, found the sea-
temperatures 71° and 72°F

Isocryme of 68° are maine igy in latitude 27° 30’,
just north of the limit of coral reefs on the east coast of
Florida, is the western termination of the line of 68°. The
Gulf Stream occasions a bend in this line to 36° north, and
the polar current, east of it, throws it southward again as
far as 29° north. Westward it inclines much to the south,
and terminates just south of Cape Verde, the eastern cape
of Africa. Sabine found a temperature of 64° to 65° F. off
Goree, below Cape Verde, January 1822; and on February
9, 1822, he obtained 663° near the Bissao shoals. These
temperatures of the cold season contrast strikingly with
those of the warm season. Even in May (1831) Beechey
had a temperature of 86° off the mouth of Rio Grande, be-
tween the parallels of 11° and 12° north.

Isocryme of 62° F.—This isoeryme leaves the American
coast at Cape Hatteras, in latitude 353° north, where a bend
in the outline of the continent prevents the southward ex-
tension of the polar currents close along the shores. It
passes near Madeira and bends southward, reaching Africa
nearly in the latitude of the Canaries.

Isocrymes of 56° and 50° F.—Cape Hatteras, for alike .
reason, is the limit of the isocrymes of 56° and 50° as well
as of 62°, there being no interval between them on. the
American coast. The line of 56° F. has a deep northward
flexure between the meridians of 35° and 40° west, arising
from the waters of the Gulf Stream, which here (after a
previous east and west course, occasioned by the Newfound-
land Bank, and the Polar current with its. icebergs) bends
again north-eastward, besides continuing in part eastward.
The Polar current sometimes causes a narrow reversed flex-
ure, just to the east of the Gulf Stream flexure. Towards
Europe, the line bends southward, and passes to the south-
west cape of Portugal, Cape St Vincent, or perhaps to the
north cape of the Straits of Gibraltar. Vaillant, in the
Bonite, found the sea-temperature at Cadiz in February, 493°
to 56° F. (9°7° to 13:4° C.), which would indicate that Cadiz,

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 197

although so far south (and within sixty miles of Gibraltar),
experiences at least as low a mean temperature as 56° F’. for
a month or more of the winter season. We have, however,
drawn the line to Cape St Vincent, which is in nearly the
same latitude. Between Toulon and Cadiz, the temperatures
of the Mediterranean in February, according to Vaillant,
was 552° to 601° F. (131° to 15-7° C.), and it is probable,
therefore, that Gibraltar and the portion of the Mediterranean
Sea east and north to Marseilles, fall within the Temperate
Region, between the isocrymes of 56° and 62° F., while the
portion beyond Sardinia and the coast by Algiers is in the
Warm Temperate Region, between the isocrymes of 62° and
68° F.

The line of 50° F., through the middle of the ocean, has the
latitude nearly of the southern cape at the entrance of the
British Channel; but approaching Europe it bends down-
ward to the coast of Portugal. The low temperature of
492° observed by Vaillant at Cadiz would carry it almost to
this port, if this were the mean sea-temperature of a month,
instead of an extreme within the bay. The line appears to
terminate near latitude 42°, or six degrees north of the
isocryme of 56°. This allows for a diminution of a degree
Fahrenheit of temperature for a degree of latitude. A tem-
. perature as low as 61° F. has been observed at several
points within five degrees of this coast in July, and a tem-
perature of 52°F. in February. Vigo Bay, just north of
42° north, lies with its entrance opening westward, well
calculated to receive the colder waters from the north ; and
at this place, according to Mr R. MacAndrew, who made
several dredgings with reference to the geographical distri-
bution of species, the Mollusca have the character rather of

those of the British Channel than of the Mediterranean.*
_ [soeryme of 44° F.—This line commences on the west, at
Cape Cod, where there is a remarkable transition in species,
and a natural boundary between the south and the north.
The cold waters from the north, and the ice of Newfoundland
Banks, press the line close upon those of 50° and 56° F.
_ But after getting beyond these influences, it rapidly rises to

* Rep. Brit. Assoc., 1850, p. 264.

198 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

the north, owing to the expansion of the Gulf Stream in that
direction, and forms a large fold between Britain and Ice-
land; it then bends south again and curves around to the
west coast of Ireland.

Isocryme of 35° F.—This line has a bend between Nor-
way and Iceland like that of 44°, and from the same cause,
—the influence of the Gulf Stream. But its exact position
in this part has not been ascertained.

2. Souta ATLANTIC.—Isocryme of 74° F.—This line be-
gins just south of Bahia, where Fitzroy found in August
(the last winter month) a temperature of 74° to 752° F.
During the same month he had 753° to 763° F. at Pernam-
buco, five degrees to the north. Off Bahia, the temperature
was two degrees warmer than near the coast, owing to the
warm tropical current, which bends the isocryme south to
latitude 17° and 18° and the cold waters that come up the
coast from the south. The line gradually rises northward,
as it goes west, and passes the equator on the meridian of
Greenwich. Sabine, in a route nearly straight from Ascen-
sion Island, in 8° south, to the African coast under the equa-
tor, obtained in June (not the coldest winter month) the
temperatures 78°, 77°, 74°, 72:8°, 72:5°, 73°, the tempera-
ture thus diminishing on approaching the coast, although
at the same time nearing the equator, and finally reaching
it within a few miles. These observations in June shew
that the isocryme of 74° F. passes north of the equator. The
temperatures mentioned in Maury’s chart afford the same
conclusion, and lead to its position as laid down.

Isocryme of 68° F.—On October 23 to 25, 1834, Mr
D. J. Browne, on board the U.S. ship Erie, found the tem-
perature of the sea, on entering the harbour of Rio Janeiro,
673° to 683 F. Fitzroy, on July 6, left the harbour with the
sea-temperature 703° F. Beechy, in August 1825, obtained
the temperature 68°16° to 69-66° F. off the harbour. The
isocryme of 68° F. commences therefore near Rio, not far
south of this harbour. Eastward of the harbour, the tempera-
ture increases two to four degrees. In July, Fitzroy carried
a temperature above 68° as far south as 33° 16’ south, longi-
tude 50° 10’ west, the water giving at this time 683° to 694°

illustrating the Distribution of Marme Animals. 199

F. Beechey in August obtained 68° F. in 31° south, 46° west.
The isoeryme of 68° F. thus bends far south, reaching at least
the parellel of 30°. It takes a course nearly parallel with
the line of 74° F., as different observations shew, and passing
just south of St Helena, reaches the African coast, near
latitude 7° south. Fitzroy, on July 10 (mid-winter), had a
sea-temperature of 683° near St Helena; and Vaillant, in
the Bonite, in September found the sea-temperature 68°7°
to 69:26 F”.

Isocrymes of 56° and 50° F.—These two isocrymes leave
the American coast rather nearly together. The former
commences just north of the entrance of the La Plata.
Fitzroy, in July 23 to 31, 1832, found the sea-temperature
at Monte Video 56° to 58° F., and in August, 57° to 543° F.
These observations would lead to 56° F. as nearly the mean
of the coldest month. The temperature 56° F. was also ob-
served in 35° south, 53° west, and at 36° south, 56° 36’ west.
But on July 10 and 13, 1833, at Monte Video, the sea-tem-
perature was 46}° to 473°, a degree of cold which, although
only occasional, throws the line of 56° F. to the north of this
place. The temperature near the land is several degrees of
Fahrenheit lower than at sea three to eight degrees distant.
Kast of the mouth of La Plata, near longitude 30° west,
Beechey, in July 1828, found the temperature of the sea
61:86° F. So in April 23 to 29, Vaillant obtained the tem-
perature 59°5° to 61°25° F. at Monte Video, while in 35° 5’
south, 49° 23’ west, on April 14, it was 66°2° F.; and farther
south, in 37° 42’ south, 53° 28’ west, April 30, it was 64:4° F.;
and in 39° 19’ south, 54° 32’ west, on May 1, it was 572° F.;
but a little to the westward, on May 2, in 40° 30’ south, 56°
54’ west, the temperature was 48° F., an abrupt transition
to the colder shore waters. Beechey, in 39° 31’ south, 45°
_ 13’ west, on August 28 (last of winter), found the tempera-
ture 57:25° F., and on the 29th, in 40° 27’ south, 45° 46’
west, it was 54-20°; while on the next day, in 42° 27’ south,
45° 11’ west, the temperature fell to 47°83° F. These and
other observations serve to fix the position of the isocryme
_ of 56°F. It approaches the African coast in 32° south,

but bends upward, owing to cold waters near the land. On

200 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

August 20, Vaillant, in 33° 43’ south, 15° 51’ east, found the
temperature 56° F.; while on the 22d, in the same lati-
tude, and 14° 51’ east (or one degree farther to the westward),
the temperature was 57°74° F., being nearly two degrees
warmer, At Cape Town, in June (latitude 34°), Fitzroy
found 55° to 61° F., while on August 16, farther south, in
35° 4’ south, and 15° 40’ west, one hundred and fifty miles
from the Cape, Vaillant found the temperature 59-26° F.
The high temperature of the last is due to the warm waters
that come from the Indian Ocean, and which afford 61° to
64° F, in August, off the south extremity of Africa, west of
the meridian of Cape Town.

The isocryme of 50° F. leaves the American coast just
south of La Plata; after bending southwardly to the parallel
of 41°, it passes east nearly parallel with the line of 56° F.
It does not reach the African coast.

Isocrymes of 44° and 35° F.—Fitzroy in August (the last
winter month) of 1833, found the sea-temperature at Rio
Negro (latitude 41° south) 483° to 50° F. But during the
voyage from the La Plata to Rio Negro, a few days before,
a temperature of 443° to 46° was met with ; this was in the
same month in which the low temperature mentioned above
was foundat Monte Video. The bend in the course north of the
entrance to the La Plata is to some extent a limit between
the warmer waters of the north, and the colder waters from
the south ; not an impassable limit, but one which is marked
often by a more abrupt transition than occurs elsewhere
along this part of the coast. The water was generally three
or four degrees colder at Monte Video than at Maldonado,
the latter port being hardly sheltered from the influence of
the tropical waters, while Monte Video is wholly so. The
exact point where the line of 44° F. reaches the coast is
somewhat uncertain; yet the fact of its being south of Rio
Negro is obvious. After leaving the coast, it passes north
of 473° south, in longitude 53° west, where Beechey, in July
1828, found the sea-temperature 40°70° F.

The line of 35° F. through the middle of the South Atlantic
follows nearly the parallel of 50°; but towards South
America it bends southward and passes south of the Falk-

;
'

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 201

lands and Fuegia. At the Falklands, Captain Ross, in 1842,
found the mean temperature of the sea for July, 38°73", and
for August, 38:10°; while in the middle of the Atlantic, on
March 24, latitude 52° 31’ south, and longitude 8° 8’ east,
the temperature was down to 34:3° F., and in 50° 18’ south,
7° 15’ east, it was 37° F.; March 20, in 54° 7’ south, on the
meridian of Greenwich, it was 33°4° F. The month of
March would not give the coldest temperature.

The temperature of the sea along the south coast of
Fuegia sinks almost to 35°, if not quite, and the line of 35°
therefore runs very near Cape Horn, if not actually touching
upon Fuegia,

Nortu Paciric OceEAN.—IJsocryme of 80° F.—The waters
of the Atlantic in the warmest regions sink below 80° F. in
the colder season, and there is therefore no proper Super-
torrid Region in that ocean, In the Gulf of Mexico, where
the heat rises at times to 85° F., it sinks in other seasons to
74 and in sonre parts, even to 72° F.; and along the Ther-
mal equator across the ocean, the temperature is in some
portions of the year 78°, and in many places 74°.

But in the Pacific, where the temperature of the waters
rises in some places to 88° F., there is a small region in
which through all seasons the heat is never below 80°. It
is a narrow area, extending from 165° east to 148° west, and
from 73° north to 11° south. In going from the Feejees in
August, and crossing between the meridians of 170° west
and 180°, the temperature of the waters, according to
Captain Wilkes, increased from 79° to 84° F., the last tem-
perature being met with in latitude 5° south, longitude 175°
west, and from this, going northward, there was a slow de-
crease of temperature. The ship Relief, of the Expedition, in
October, found nearly the same temperature (833°) in the same
latitude and longitude 177° west.* But the Peacock, in
January and February (summer months), found the sea-
temperature 85° to 88° F., near Fakaafo, in latitude 10° south,
and longitude 171° west. In latitude 5° south and the same
longitude, on the 16th of January, the temperature was 84° ;

* See, for these facts, Captain Wilkes’ Report on the Meteorology of the Ex-
pedition.

202 J. D. Danaon an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

in 3° south, January 10, it was 83° F.; on March 26, in
5° south, and longitude 175° east, the temperature was 86°
F.; on April 10, in the same longitude, under the equator,
at the Kingsmills, the temperature was 833° F.; on May 2,
at 5° north, longitude 174° east, 833° F.; May 5, latitude
10°, longitude 169° east, 82° F. The fact that the region of
greatest heat in the middle Pacific is south of the equator,
as it has been laid down by different authors, is thus evident ;
the limits of a circumscribed region of hot waters in this
part of the Pacific were first drawn out by Captain Wilkes.

Another Supertorrid region may exist in the Indian Ocean,
about its north-western portion ; but we have not sufficient
information for laying down its limits.

Isocryme of 74° F.—At San Blas, on the coast of Mexico,
Beechey found the mean temperature of the sea for December
1827, 74:63° F.; for January, 73°69" F.; for February, 72-40°
F. The line of 74° F. commences therefore a degree or two
south of San Blas. In the winter of 1827 on January 16 to
18, the temperature of 743° to 746° F. was found by
Beechey, in 16° 4’ to 16° 15’ north, 132° 40’ to 135° west;
and farther west, in the same latitude, longitude 141° 58’
west, the temperature was 74°83° F. West of the Sandwich
Islands, near the parallel of 20° north, the temperature rises
five degrees in passing from the meridian of 165° west to
150° east, and the isocryme of 74° F. consequently trends
somewhat to the north, over this part of the ocean. Between
the meridians of 130° and 140° east, the temperature of the
sea is quite uniform, indicating no northward flexure ; and
west of 130° east, nearing China, there is a rapid decrease
of temperature, bending the line far south. Vaillant, of the
Bonite, found the sea of Cochin China, in latitude 12° 16’
north, 109° 28’ east, to have the temperature of 74:12° F.;
and even at Singapore, almost under the equator, the tem-
perature on February 17 to 21, was 77:54 to 79°34° F. The
isocryme of 74° F. terminates therefore upon the south-
eastern coast of Cochin China.

Isocryme of 68° F.—Off the Gulf of California, in 25° north,
117° west, Beechey obtained, for the temperature of the sea,
on December 13, 65° F.; on December 15, in 23° 28’ north

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 203

(same latitude with the extremity of the peninsula of Cali-
fornia), 115° west, a temperature of 69°41° F. The line of
68° will pass from the extremity of this peninsula the tem-
perature of the coast below, as it is shut off mostly from the
more northern or cold waters, being much warmer. The
temperature 69:41°, in the middle of December, is probably
two and a half degrees above the cold of the coldest month,
judging from the relative temperature of the latter half of
December and the month of February at San Blas. Leaving
California, the isocryme of 65° will therefore bend a little
southerly to 223°, in longitude 115° west. In 23° 56’ north,
128° 33’ west, Beechey, on January 11, found the temperature
of the sea 67:°83° F. The line of 68° passes north of the
Sandwich Islands. The mean temperature of the sea at
Oahu, in February 1827, was 69°69° F.

Near China this isocryme is bent far south. At Macao,
in winter, Vaillant found the sea-temperature, on January
4, 59° F. ; on January 5 to 10, 52-7° to 50° F. ; January 11 and
12, 49°87" to 48:74° F.; January 13 to 16, 50-9° to 52-16° FE. ;
and at Touranne in Cochin China, on February 6 to 24, the
sea-temperature was 68° to 683° F.; in 16° 22’ north, 108°
11’ east, on January 24, it was 67°; in 12° 16’ north, 109°
28’ east, it was 74°12° F. The very low Macao temperature
is that of the surface of the bay itself, due to the cold of the
land, and not probably, as the other observations shew, of
the sea outside.

The line, before passing south, bends northward to the
south-east shore of Niphon, which, is far warmer than the
south-east coast, along Kiusiu. - In the Report of the Morri-
son’s visit to Jeddo (Chinese Repository for 1837), a coral
bottom is spoken of, as having been encountered in the har-
bour of Jeddo. According to Sieboldt (Crust. Faun. Japon., p.
_ ix.), the mean-winter temperature (air) of Jeddo is 57° F.;
while that of Nagasaki, although farther south, is 44° F.

Isocryme of 62° F.—On January 8, 1827, Beechey found
in 29° 42’ north, 126° 37’ west, the temperature 62°75° F.;
while on the preceding day, 32° 42’ north, 125° 43’ west, the
Sea-temperature was 60°5° F. Again, on December 11, in

_ 29° north, 120° west, the temperature was 62°58° F.

204 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanie Chart,

Isoeryme of 56° F,—At Monterey, on January 1 to 5, the
sea-temperature, according to Beechey, was 56°; but the
mean temperature of the sea-for November 1 to 17 was
54°91°. In the Yellow Sea the January temperature is 50°
to 56° F., and the line of 56° begins south of Chusan.

Isocryme of 50° F.—At San Francisco, from November
18 to December 5, 1826, Beechey found the mean sea-tem-
perature to be 51°14° F., and off Monterey, in longitude 123°
west, the temperature was 50°75° F., on December 6. But
in December of 1826, the mean sea-temperature at San
Francisco was 54°78° F.; and for November, 60:16° F. The
line of 50° F. (mean of the coldest thirty consecutive days),
probably leaves the coast at Cape Mendocino,

Isocrymes of 44° and 35° F.—Captain Wilkes found the
temperature off the mouth of the Columbia River, through
ten degrees of longitude, 48° to 49° F., during the last of
April 1841, The isocrymes of 44° would probably reach the
coast not far north of this place. The temperature on Oc-
tober 21, in the same latitude, but farther west, 147° west,
was 52:08° F. On October 16, in 50° north, 169° west, the -
temperature was 44:91° F. According to some oceanic tem-
peratures for the North Pacific, obtained from Lieutenant
Maury, the sea-temperature off northern Niphon, in 41°
north, and 1423° east, was 44° F., in March, shewing the in-
fluence of the cold Polar current; and in 42° north, and
1492° east, it was 43° F. The line of 44° hence bends south-
ward as far as latitude 40° north, on the Japan coast.

Again in March, in 43° 50’ north, 151° east, the sea-tem-
perature was 41° F,; in 44° 50’ north, 152° 10’ east, 39° F. ;
in 46° 20’ north, 156° east, 33° F.; in 49° north, 157° east,
33° F.; and at the same time, west of Kamtschatka, in 55°
north, 153° east, 38° F.; in 55° 50’ north, 153° west, 38° F.
The line of 35° consequently makes a deep bend, nearly to
45° north, along the Kurile Islands. :

Souta Paciric.—Isocrymes of 74°, 68°, and 62° F.—The
temperature of the sea at Guayaquil, on August 3, was
found by Vaillant to be, in the river, from 70}° to 733° F,,
and at the Puna anchorage, August 5 to 12, 74°7° to 75:2” F,
But off the coast, August 15, in 2° 22 south, 81° 42’ west,

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 2095

the temperature was 69°3° F’.; and the next day, in 1° 25’
south, 84° 12’ west, it was 70° F.; on the 17th, 1° south, 87°
42’ west, it was 71:28° F.; and on the 14th, nearer the shore
of Guayaquil, in 3° 18’ south, 80° 28’ west, it was 78° F.
Again, at Payta, one hundred miles south of Guayaquil, in
5° south, the sea-temperature was found by Vaillant, July
26 to 31, to be 60°8° to 612° F. The isocryme of 74° F.
consequently leaves the coast just north of the bay of Guaya-
quil, while those of 68° and 62° F. both commence between
Guayaquil and Payta. Payta is situated so far out on the
western cape of South America that it receives the cold
waters of the south, while Guayaquil is beyond Cape Blanco,
and protected by it from a southern current. At the Galla-
pagos, Fitzroy found the temperature as low as 583° F. on
the 29th of September, and the mean for the day was 62°.
The average for September was, however, nearer 66°. The
Gallapagos appear, therefore, to lie in the Warm Temperate
Region, between the isocrymes of 62° and 68° F. Fitzroy,
in going from Callao'to the Gallapagos, early in September,
left a sea-temperature of 57° F. at Callao, passed 62° F. in
9° 58’ north, and 79° 42’ west, and on the 15th, found 682°
F. off Barrington Island, one of the Gallapagos.

In the warm season the cold waters about the Gallapagos
_ have narrow limits; Beechey found a sea-temperature of
~ 83°58° on the 30th of March 1827, just south of the equator,
in 100° west. But in October, Fitzroy, going westward and
southward from the Gallapagos, found a sea-temperature of
66° F. at the same place; and in nearly a straight course
- from this point to 10° south, 120° west, found the sea-tem-
peratures successively 68°, 70°, 702° 723°, 733°, 74°; and be-
yond this, 753°, 763°, 771° F., the last on November 8, in
14° 24’ south, 136° 51’ west. These observations give a wide
sweep to the cold waters of the colder seasons, and throw
the isocrymes of 74° and 68° F. far west of the Gallapagos.
Captain Wilkes, in passing directly west from Callao, found
a temperature of 68° F. in longitude 85° west; 70° F. in
95° west; and 74° F. in 102° to 108° west. These and other
observations lead to the positions of the isocrymes of 74°,
68°, and 62°, given on the chart. The line of 74° passes
~ VOL, LVI. NO. CxXI.— APRIL 1854. | P

206 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanie Chart,

close by Tahiti and Tongatabu, and crossing New Caledonia,
reaches Australia, in latitude 25° S.

In mid-ocean there is a bend in all the southern isocrymes.*

Isocrymes of 56° and 50° F.—The temperature at Callao,
in July, averages 583° or 59° F. At Iquique, near 20° south,
Fitzroy had 58° to 60° F., on July 14, 1835 ; and off Copiapo,
in the same month, 563° F. At Valparaiso, Captain Wilkes
found a sea-temperature of 523° F., in May ; and Fitzroy, in.
September, occasionally obtained 48° F.; but generally 52°
to 53°. Off Chiloe, Fitzroy found the temperature 48° to
512° in July.

InDIAN OcEAN.—Jsocrymes of 74° and 68° F.—Off the
south extremity of Madagascar, in 27° 33’ south, 47° 17’ east,
on August 4, Vaillant found the temperature 69:26° F. ;
and in 29° 34’ south, 46° 46’ east, the temperature of 67:84°
F.; off South Africa, August 12, in 34° 42’ south, 27° 25’
east, the temperature 63°5° F.; on August 14, in 35° 41’
south, 22° 34’ east, a temperature of 63°3° F. ; while off Cape
Town, two hundred miles to the west, the temperature was
50° to 54° F,

In the above review we have mentioned only a few of the
observations which have been used in laying down the lines,
having selected those which bear directly on some positions
of special interest as regards geographical distribution.

The chart also contains the heat-eqguator,—a line drawn
through the positions of greatest heat over the oceans. It
is a shifting line, varying with the seasons, and hence there
is some difficulty in fixing upon a course for it. We have
followed mainly the chart of Berghaus ; but we have found
it necessary to give it a much more northern latitude in the —
western Pacific, and also a flexure in the western Atlantic, ’
both due to the currents from the south that flow up the
southern continents. |

Vaillant, passing from Guayaquil to the Sandwich Islands,
found the temperature, after passing the equator, slowly in-
crease from 76° F., August 19, in 2° 39’ north, 91° 58’ west
(of Greenwich), to 81:9° F., in August 31, 11° 15’ north, 107°
3’ west, after which it was not above 80° F. The same place.

* See Observations by W. C. Cunningham, Amer. Journ. Sci. (2) xv. 66.

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 207

in the ocean which gave Vaillant 76° F., in August, afforded
Fitzroy (4° north, 96° west), on March 26 (when the sun had
long been far north), 823° F. This fact shews the variations
of temperature that take place with the change of season.

Remarks on the several Temperature Regions.

The form and varying breadth of the different regions,
and the relations between the sea-temperatures of coasts in
different latitudes which they exhibit, are points demanding
special remark. The conclusions are of much interest, al-
though some changes in the chart will undoubtedly be re-
quired by future researches.

Atlantic Torrid Region, between 74° F. north, and 74° F.
south.—The form of this region is triangular, with the vertex
of the triangle to the east. Its least width is four degrees
of latitude; its greatest width between the extreme lati-
tudes is forty-six and a half degrees. On the African coast
it includes only a part of the coast of Guinea, and no portion
is south of the equator. On the west it embraces all the
West India Islands and reefs (excepting the Little Bahama),
and the South American coast, from Yucatan to Bahia,—a
fact that accounts for the wide distribution of marine species
on the American side of the ocean.

Atlantic Subtorrid Regions, between 74° and 68° F.—The
North Subtorrid Region of the Atlantic is about six degrees
in its average width, which is equivalent to a degree of Fahr-
enheit to each degree in surface. It incloses within the
Same temperature limits a part of the east coast of Florida,
between 24° and 27}° north, and a part of the African coast,
between the parallels of 9° and 143° north, the two related
coasts differing ten degrees in latitude. The Bermudas, in
latitude 33°, and the Cape Verdes, in 152°, fall within this

_region.

The South Subtorrid Region has the same average width
as the northern.

Taking the whole Atlantic Torrid or Coral-reef zone to-
gether, its width on the east is about twenty-one degrees,
while on the west it extends between the parallels of 30°
south and 34° north, a breadth of sixty-four degrees. As

Pp 2

~~
-
‘

a

208 J.D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

many species will thrive under the temperature of any part
of the Torrid zone, the geographical range of such species in
the Atlantic may be very large, even from Florida and the |
Bermudas on the north, to Rio Janeiro on the south, a range

of which there are actual examples.

Atlantic Warm Temperate Regions, between 68° and 62°
F'.—The northern of these regions has a breadth of fourteen
and a half degrees along the west of Africa, and about seven _
degrees along the United States, to the south of Cape Hat- —
teras, off the Carolinas, Georgia, and Northern Florida. :
These shores and the Canaries are therefore in one and the
Same temperate zone.

The southern of these regions averages five degrees in
width. The eastern limit on the African coast is sixteen to
eighteen degrees to the north of the western on. the South
American coast.

Atlantic Temperate Regions, between 62° and 56° F.—The
north Temperate Region is but a narrow strip of water on
the west, terminating at Cape Hatteras, and having no place
on the coast of the United States. To the east it widens,
and embraces the Azores, and the African coast along Mo-
rocco, together with the Straits of Gibraltar, and a large
part of the Mediterranean. Madeira lies upon its southern
limit. It is, therefore, natural that the same species should
occur at the Azores, Madeira, and on the African coast, and —
be excluded wholly from the Atlantic coast of Europe. This, |
according to Prof. Forbes, is the fact with the Littorina
striata, besides other species. The coasts of Portugal and
the Azores are in different regions.

The South Temperate Region extends to Maldonado at
the mouth of the La Plata, from near the parallel of 30°;
along the African coast it reaches over more than twice the
number of degrees of latitude, to within five degrees of Cape
Town.
Atlantic Subtemperate Regions, between 56° and 50° F.—
The northern of these regions, like the preceding, can not be
distinguished on the coast of the United States, as the lines
of 50° and 56° F. with 62° fall together at Cape Hatteras.
On the eastern side of the Atlantic it occupies the coast of

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 209

Portugal to latitude 42° north, having a width of five de-
grees. It thus corresponds on this coast to the so-called
Lusitanian Region.

The southern includes the mouth of the La Plata on one
side, and on the other the coast near Cape Town, beyond
which it extends to the Cape of Good Hope, or rather to Cape
Lagulhas.

Atlantic Cold Temperate Regions, between 50° and 44° F.
—The coast from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras, belongs to the
Northern Cold Temperate Region. Passing easterly, this
region is but a narrow line of water for thirty degrees of
longitude, after which it expands, and finally terminates be-
tween Western Ireland and latitude 42° on the Spanish
coast. The British Channel, the Bay of Biscay, and probably
Vigo Bay, Spain, are within the limits of this region.

The southern embraces the coast of South America, along
by Rio Negro, for about five degrees, and passes wholly to
the south of Africa.

Atlantic Subfrigid Regions, between 44° and 35° ¥ —The
coast of Massachusetts, north of Cape Cod, of Maine and
Newfoundland, and all Northern Britain, the Orkneys, Shet-
lands, and Faroe Islands, pertain to the northern Subfrigid
_ Region; while the southern includes the Falklands, South-

ern Patagonia, and Fuegia.

Atlantic Frigid Regions, beyond 35° F.—Greeuland, Ice-

land, and Norway are within the northern of these regions,
and the South Shetlands, Sandwich Land, and South Georgia,
within the southern.

Pacific Regions——A comparison of the regions of the At-
lantie and Pacific, and especially of the limits of those com-
mencing at the South American coasts, brings out some
singular facts.

The Torrid region of the Pacific, near the American coast,
embraces only seventeen and a half or eighteen degrees of
latitude, all but one of which are north of the equator ; while
that of the Atlantic covers a long range of coast, and reaches
to 15° south. The south Subtorrid region has a breadth of
about three degrees on the Peruvian coast, reaching to 4°

‘south, or probably to Cape Blanco, while that of the Atlantic

210 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

extends to Rio Janeiro, in 24° south. The Warm Temperate
region, if at all found north of Cape Blanco, 4?° S., has a
breadth of less than a degree, while that of the Atlantic ex-
tends to Rio Grande, in 33° south. The next, or Temperate
Region, has a longer range on the South American coast,
extending to Copiapo, in 27}° south, and the Atlantic region
corresponding goes to Maldonado, in 35° south. The Cold
Temperate regions of the two oceans cover nearly me same
latitudes.

On the North American coast at Cape Hatteras, the three
isocrymes 62°, 56°, and 50° F’., leave the coast together ; and
in the Pacific, on the South American coast, there is a similar
node in the system of isocrymes, the three, 74°, 68°, and 62°,
proceeding nearly together from the vicinity of Cape Blanco.

Viewing these regions through the two oceans, instead of
along the coasts, other peculiarities no less remarkable are
brought out. The average breadth of the South Torrid re-
gion in the Pacific, is more than twice as great as that of
the same in the Atlantic; and the most southern limit of
the latter is five degrees short of the limit of the former in
mid-ocean. So also the Subtorrid region, at its greatest
elongation southward in the Atlantic, hardly extends beyond
the mean course of the line of 68° F. in the Pacific, and the
average breadth of the former is but two-thirds that of the
latter. The same is true to an almost equal extent of the
Warm Temperate and Temperate Regions.

The breadth of the Torrid Region of the Pacific to the
eastward, where narrowest, is about six degrees; and to the
westward, between its extreme limits, forty-nine degrees.
The Torrid zone or Coral-reef Seas, in the same ocean, has
a breadth near America of about eighteen degrees, and near
Australia and Asia, of sixty-six degrees.

New Zealand lies within the Subtemperate and Cold Tem-
perate regions, excepting its southern portion, which appears »
to pertain, like Fuegia, to the Subfrigid. Van Diemen’s
Land, exclusive of its northern shores, is within the Cold
Temperate.

Other particulars respecting the temperature regions |
through the Pacific will be gathered from the chart,

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 211

Indian Ocean Regions.—The Torrid Region covers the
larger part of the Indian Ocean, including all north of the
equator, and embracing the larger part of Madagascar. The
Subtorrid extends just beyond Port Natal on the African
coast (four degrees of latitude north of Cape Town), where
there are coral reefs, and also covers the northern part of
the Red Sea. The Warm Temperate and Temperate regions
each claim a part of the South African coast, and the latter
terminates at Cape Lagulhas.

Tt hence follows that Port Natal, in latitude 30° south, the
Hawaiian Islands, and Bermudas, lie within regions of
the same name; while Cape Town, in latitude 34° south, is
in a like region with northern New Zealand, Valparaiso,
the Atlantic shores of Portugal, and the sea between Cape
Hatteras and Cape Cod.

The areas of the Torrid, Temperate, and Frigid zones of
ocean temperature, either side of the equator, considering
27° as the normal limit between the first two of these zones,
and 56° the limit between the Frigid and Temperate, are as
follow :—

Torrid zone, 33,711,200 square miles (geographical)
Temperate zone, 27,849,500
Frigid zone, 12,694,700

It is hence seen that the Temperate zone, although two
degrees wider than the Torrid, has not as large a surface.
The species of marine life, if distributed equally over the
two, would, therefore, be one-fifth more numerous in the
Torrid zone than in the Temperate, unless the extent of
ocean and coast-line were far greater in the Temperate than
in the Torrid zone, which is not the case. The ocean in the
southern Temperate is much more extensive than that of the
southern Torrid; but the coast-line is far less extensive in
the former, as it does not abound in islands like the Torrid
zone.” It is difficult to fix upon exact ratios, and we do not
attempt it.

The range of temperature is far greater in the Temperate

99 99

39 9?

* The following table gives very closely the surface of the zones in square
geographical miles, for every 23 degrees of latitude to the parallel of 60°: it
is deduced from a larger table by Berghaus, in his Linder und Volker-kunde,

212 J.D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

zone than in the Torrid, it being 20° F. in the latter, and
33°F. in the former ; and this should be a cause of a greater
variety of genera in the latter for the same number of
species.

In the Torrid zone the Subtorrid Region has nearly one-
third the surface of the Torrid Region, and not one-fourth
as much coast-line, facts which should be regarded in com-
paring the number of species of the two.

We add here a few brief remarks, in a popular way, on
the origin of the peculiar forms and positions presented by
the isothermal lines of the ocean. The great currents of the
globe are admitted to be the causes that produce the flexures
and modify the courses of these lines. These currents are
usually of great depth, and consequently the deflecting land
will be the deeply seated slopes off a coast, beyond ordinary
soundings.

The eastern coasts of the continents either side of the
equator feel the influence of a warm equatorial current,
which flows westward over each ocean, and is diverted north
and south by the coasts against which it impinges, and more
or less according to the direction of the coast.

The western coasts of the continents, on the contrary, re-
ceive a strong extra-tropical or polar current. In the south-
ern oceans, it flows from the westward, or southward and
westward, in latitudes 45° to 65° south, and is brought to
the surface by the submarine lands or the submarine slopes
of islands or continents ; reaching the continents of Africa

i. 47, The first is the zone from the equator to the parallel of 2}°, the second,
from 23° to 5°, and so on.

2° .—((s , , 3,239,296 324° : ; , 2,769,696
5 é , : 3,232,800 35 ; : : 2,693,760
“oor . 3,220,496 373 ; ‘ : 2,612,688
LOio 1 1 d } 3,202,048 40° 3 ; : 2,526,624.
Ds Tee : : 3,177,472 423 ‘ : : 25435,776
Rae ces ; ; 3,146,912 45 X : ; 2,340,256
174, } . 3,110,320 474 , f : 2,241,280
i ee : ° 3,067,808 50 ; , 2,136,128
o2h" . . 3,019,472 523 ‘ : : 2,027,840
211 » , 2,962,176 55 ; ; ; 1,915,696
D4 ae ; : 2,905,632 574 ° : s 1,767,168
3 ‘ é 2,840,368 60 : : 4 1,680,704
The zone from 60° to 70° has the area, ; : ; 5,466,992

ms 70 to 80 a ae : ; : 3,350,064

«“ 80 to90 JU Sida ae

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 2138

and South America, it follows along the western coasts to-
wards the equator. The same current, being divided by the
southern cape of America, flows also with less volume up
the eastern coast, either inside of the warmer tropical current,
or else on both sides of it. In the Northern Seas the sys-
tem of polar currents is mainly the same, though less regu-
lar ; their influence is felt on both eastern and western coasts,
but more strongly on the eastern. In the Atlantic the latter
reduces the temperature of the waters three or four degrees
along the north coast of South America, as far nearly as
Cape St Roque.

The cold currents are most apparent along the coasts of
continents and about islands, because they are here brought
to the surface, the submarine slopes lifting them upward as
they flow on. The limits of their influence towards the
equator depends often on the bend of the coast ; for a promi-
nent cape or a bend in the outline will change the exposure
of a coast from that favourable to the polar current to that
favourable to the tropical, or the reverse. Thus it is at
Cape Hatteras, on the coast of the United States; Cape
Verde, on Western Africa ; Cape Blanco, on Western South,
America, &c.

These are important principles modifying the courses of
the oceanie isothermal lines. We may now proceed to the
application of them which the best authors afford us, and to
some conclusions flowing from the facts.

In the Atlantic, the warm tropical current flowing west-
ward is trended somewhat northward by the northern coast
of South America, and still more so by the West India
Islands, and thus it gradually curves around to parallelism
with the coast of the United States. But south of New-
foundland, either wholly from the influence of the colder cur-
rent with which it meets, or in part from meeting with sub-
marine slopes that serve to deflect it, it passes eastward,
and afterwards, where it is again free to expand, it spreads
both eastward and north-eastward. The flexures in the iso-
erymes of 74° and 68° F’., near the United States coast, thus

have their origin, For the same reason the line of 56° F.
is nearly straight, till it reaches beyond the influence of the

214 J.D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

Newfoundland Banks, and then makes its Gulf Stream flexure.
The line of 44° F., for the same reason—the spreading of the
Gulf Stream waters—diverges far from the equator in its
easterly course, and even rises in a long loop between Great
Britain and Iceland.

The cold currents flowing down the eastern coast of Ame-
rica bend the isocrymes far south close along the coast, and
make a remarkable southern flexure in the isocrymes of 68° F.,
outside of the Gulf Stream flexure. So on the western coast
of Britain, the isocryme of 44° F. has a deep southern flex-
ure, for a like cause.

The waters of the tropical current gradually cool down in
their progress, through the influence of the colder waters
which they encounter; and along the isocryme of 62° they
have in the colder seasons a common temperature with that
of the ocean, so that the course of the Gulf Stream is but
faintly marked in it. And also in the western half of the
region covered by the isocryme of 56°, the colder and warmer
waters have reached this as a mean temperature. Owing
to the influence of the polar current on the northern coast of
South America, the equator of heat lies at a distance from
the land.

Up the western ccast of Africa flows the cold current from
the south and west, bending upward all the isocrymal lines ;
and passing north of the equator, it produces a large south-
ern bend, off the coast of Africa, in the northern isocryme of
74°, outside of the warm current flexure from the coast of
Guinea, and also a large northern flexure in the heat-equa-
tor.*

The Atlantic tropical current also flows in part down the
eastern coast of South America, giving a deep flexure to each
of the isocrymes, besides making these lines to diverge from
the equator, through all their length. Again, the polar cur-
rent passes northward nearer the coast-line, bending far
back the western extremity of each of the isocrymes.

* Along the ocean, near Africa, south and south-east of the Cape Verdes,
Captain Wilkes found a current setting to the northward for much of the time
until passing the equator.

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 215

_ In the Pacific the éropical currents shew their effects near
the coasts of New Holland and China, in a gradual diver-
gence of the lines from the equator. The ranges of islands
forming the Tarawan, Radack, and Ralick groups, appear to
divert the current northward in that part of the North Pa-
cific, and consequently the isocrymal lines bend northward
near longitudes 170° west and 180°; and near Niphon that
of 68° shews a still greater northern flexure.

The influence of the extra-tropical currents in this ocean
is remarkably great. The southern flows from the west and
south, bending upward the line of 56° F. along the South
American coast, producing at Valparaiso at times a sea-tem-
perature of 48° F. Still farther north it throws the line of
68° F. even beyond the equator and the Gallapagos ; and that
of 74° F. nearly 1500 miles from the coast, and 400 north of the
equator. ‘The line of 62° F. reaches even beyond Payta, the
sea-temperature at this place being sometimes below 61°.

The north polar current produces the same result along
the eastern coast of Asia as on the eastern of America. The
isocryme of 74° F. is bent southward from the parallel of
23° to 12° 30/ north, and that of 68° F. from 34° to 15° north ;
and the latter deflection is even longer than the correspond-
ing one in the Atlantic. The trend of the coast opens it to
the continued action of this current until the bend in the out-
line of Cochin-China, below which the cold waters have less
influence, although still shewing some effect upon the heat-
equator. The isocryme of 44° is bent southward to Niphon
by the same cold waters, and from this part of the Northern
Pacific the current appears to flow mostly between the islands
of Japan and the continent.

In the Indian Ocean the effects of the tropical current, as
it flows westward, are apparent in the southern deflection of
the several isocrymes. The trend of the coast favours a con-
tinuation of the current directly along the coast, and conse-
quently its modifying influence on the sea-temperature reaches
almost to Cape Town on the coast, and passes even beyond
it at sea, errrying 56° F. to the meridian of 15° east.

By comparing the regions of the different oceans, north

216 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

and south of the equator, we may arrive at the mean position
of the several isocrymes, and thereby discover, on a grander
scale, the influence of the various oceanic movements.

For the purpose of reaching mean results, the Middle Pa-
cific is the most favourable ocean for study. This is appa-
rent in its greater extent, and the wide distance between the
modifying continents ; and also no less in the greater actual
regularity of the isocrymes.

We thence deduce, that the mean position of the isocryme
of 74° F. is along the parallel of 20°, this being the average
between the means for the North and South Pacific. In the
same manner we infer that the mean position of the isocryme
of 68° I’. is along the parallel of 27°.

The southern isocrymes of 56° and 62° F. are evidently
thrown into abnormal proximity by the cold waters of the
south. ‘This current flows eastward over the position of the
isocryme of 44° F., and consequently in that latitude has
nearly this temperature, although colder to the south. Hence
it produces little effect in deflecting the line of 44° F.; more-
over the line of 50° F. is not pushed upward by it. But the
lines of 56° and 62° F. are thrown considerably to the north
by its influence, and the Warm Temperate and Temperate
Regions are made very narrow. With these facts in view, we
judge, from a comparison of the North and South Pacific lines,
that the mean position for the isocryme of 62° F. is the pa-
rallel of 32°; and for 56° F., the parallel of 37° F.; for the
isocryme of 50° F. the mean position is nearly the parallel
of 42°; for 44° F. the parallel of 47°; for 35° F. the parallel
of 56°. There is thus a mean difference of five degrees of la-
titude for six degrees of Fahrenheit, excépting near the equa-
tor, and between 35° and 44° F. These results may be ta-
bulated as follows :*—

* We may hence deduce the temperature of those isocrymes to which the
parallels of latitude for every five degrees would normally correspond. They
would be for 20°, 74° F.; for 25°, 70° F.; for 30°, 64:4° F.; for 35°, 58°4° F.;
for 40°, 52°4° F.; for 45°, 46:4° F.; for 50°, 41° F.; for 55°, 36° F.; for 60°,
31° F.

:

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 917

Isocryme of 80° F., Parallel of 6°
9? 74 9) Ms b 99 20
ft OFF 53 ‘ : a 27
rf 62°! Pee 9. Reulilrga
ob 56, as 37
29 00, * . ” 42
0 445, % 47
94 is ee 4 ‘ $3 56

Using these results as a key for comparison, we at once
perceive the great influence of the oceanic movements on
climate, and on the geographical distribution of marine
life.

The polar or extra-tropical current of the Southern At-
lantic has a more northward course in mid-ocean than that of
the Pacific. It consequently bears up the isocryme of 35° F.
to the parallel of 50°, that is, six degrees above the mean.
The effect on the other isocrymes of the Atlantic is very re-
markable. We perceive, in the first place, that the most
southern point of each of these isocrymes is not far from the
mean position of the same isocrymes in the Pacific, while the
most northern point of each is ten to twenty-five degrees
further north. Taking the position of the isocrymes of 68°
and 74° F., where they cross the meridian of 15° west, as the
mean position for this ocean, we find that the former is eight
degrees in latitude farther north than 68° F. in the South
Pacific; and the mean for the latter is in 7° south, while for
the same in the Pacific it is 20° south, making a difference
of thirteen degrees. The effect of the cold southern waters
is consequently not along the African coast alone, but per-
vades the whole ocean. It is hence obvious, how utterly
untenable the common notion that the tropical current from
the Indian Ocean is the same which flows up the west Afri-
can coast. With a temperature of 56° south of Cape Town,
it would be wholly incapable of causing the great deflections
for the whole South Atlantic which have been pointed out.
It combines with the cold current, but does not constitute it.
The facts thus sustain the opinions long since brought for-
ward by the distinguished meteorologist Mr Wm. C. Red-
field, that the currents flowing north along the African and

218 J.D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart.

South American coasts are alike antarctic or cold temperate
currents.*

We may now turn to the North Atlantic. In this part of
the ocean the mean positions of the isocrymes of 74° and
68° F. are near the normal positions deduced from the Pa-
cific. The line of 62° F.is in a somewhat higher latitude,
the mean position, excluding the eastern and western deflec-
tions, being near the parallel of 36°. The line of 56° F. has
the parallel of 423° north for its mean position over the middle
of the ocean, which is five and a half degrees above the nor-
mal in the Pacific. The line of 50° has in the same manner,
for its mean position over mid-ocean, the parallel of 473°,
or again five and a half degrees above the normal position in
the Pacitic. The line of 44° F. may be considered as having
for its mean position the parallel of 52° north, while it rises
to 60° north. The lines in the North Atlantic above that
of 68° average about five degrees higher in latitude than the
mean normal positions, while 68° and 74° have nearly the same
places as in the Pacific. There is hence a great contrast
between the Pacific, South Atlantic, and North Atlantic
Oceans. This is seen in the following table containing these
results :—

Normal, deduced Mean position in Mean position in
from Pacific. South Atlantic. North Atlantic.
Isocryme of 74° F., 20° nT 3. ALN:

4s 68 27 19 28

99 62 32 29 36

f 56 37 36 423

:, 50 42 39 47}

cu 44 47 44 52 (max. 60° N.)
99 35 56 50 61

The influence of the warm tropical waters in the North
Atlantic lifts the isocrymes of 74° and 68° as they approach
the coast of America, while the same lines are depressed on
the east by the colder northern currents. Moreover, north
of 68° the whole interior of the ocean is raised four to five
degrees in temperature above the normal grade, by the same
waters spreading eastward; and between Great Britain and

* American Journal of Science, xlv., 299, 1843.

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 219

Iceland, the temperature is at least ten degrees warmer than
in the corresponding latitude of the South Pacific, and thir-
teen or fourteen degrees warmer than in the same latitude
in the South Atlantic.*

The influence of so warm an ocean on the temperature of
Britain, and on its living productions, animal and vegetable,
is apparent, when it is considered that the winds take the
temperature nearly of the waters they pass over. And the
effects on the same region that would result from deflecting
the Gulf Stream in some other direction, as brought out by
Prof. Hopkins} and others, and substituting in the Northern
Atlantic the temperature of the Southern Atlantic, is also
obvious, without further illustration. The discussion of these
subjects would be foreign to the topic before us.

The subdivision of the oceans into Temperature Regions
affords a convenient means of dividing off the coasts into
Zoological Provinces. A comparison of the facts afforded
by the distribution of Crustacea, with the positions and ex-
tent of the provinces thus deduced, shew that they are natu-
ral, and may in general be well characterized.

Zoological Provinces have been considered by some as
centres of creation, and therefore of diffusion, for groups of
species. But such kinds of centres we fail to distinguish in
any part of the globe. Each species may have had its one
point of origin and single centre of diffusion in many and
perhaps the majority of cases: but however the fact may be,
we have no evidence for asserting that particular regions were
without life, and were peopled by migration from specific and
predetermined centres ; for if there were such centres of dif-
fusion, there are at present no means by which they may be
ascertained. The particular temperature region in which a

* Ross, in his antarctic voyage, found the sea-temperature in 60° south and
3° west, 313° F., in the month of March; at the South Shetlands, 61° south,
the sea-temperature was 31° to 35° in January (midsummer); and in the same
latitude, and 45° west, it was 30°1° in February.

t Quarterly Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. viii., p. 56, and Amer. Jour. Science, 1853,
vol, xv.

220 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

Species was created may be ascertained by observing which
is most favourable for its development; and by this course
of investigation, we may find that almost every different lo-
cality has some species for which it is especially fitted. We
may thus shew, as far as reason and observation can do it,
that all regions, as a general thing, have had their own spe-
cial creations.

We rather look to climatal influences, in all their various
kinds, directly and indirectly exerted, and united with height
or depth of site, and other geographical conditions, as giving
limits to Zoological Provinces; and as regards marine ani-
mals, ocean temperature is the more prominent of these in-
fluences. Under temperature, the limits or extremes are to
be considered as well as the mean, and also the varying ac-
tion of currents which induce the changes, especially those
occasional extreme results which are of decennial rather than
annual occurrence.

How far geological changes, by subsidence and elevation,
have varied the distribution of the present races of animals,
or given limits to zoological regions, is a point yet uninves-
tigated. The conclusions that have been derived from this
source are mostly of a hypothetical character, and are to be
received with distrust without a larger supply of evidence.
It is easy to meet a difficulty by the supposition of a former
union by dry land of regions now separate ; but it appears to
us that better evidence is needed on such a point, than those
derived from the zoological fact which is to be explained.

Along the various coasts, prominent capes are in general
the limits of Zoological Provinces; and this fact is well shewn
in the chart of ocean temperature. They are, as we have
explained, the points where the cold or warm currents are
turned off from a coast, and where, therefore, there is a sud-
den transition in the temperature. A striking example of
this has been pointed out on both the eastern coast of North
America, and western of South America, where several iso- —
crymes meet, forming a kind of nodal point ;—viz., Cape Hat- _
teras, the meeting point of the isocrymes of 62°, 56°, and 50°, -
and Cape Blanco, the meeting point of 68°, 62°, and (nearly)
74°. So also the east cape of East Australia, is the point of

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 221

meeting of the isocrymes of 74° and 68°. At the south ex-
tremity of Africa, on the west coast of Asia, there are ap-
proximations to the same fact. Cape Cod, the south-east
cape of New England, is a marked point in zoological geo-
graphy, and the termination of the isocryme of 44° F.; and
the North Cape of the La Plata, inside of Maldonado, is
another.
We proceed to give an enumeration of the several Zoolo-
gical Provinces, to which we are led by the temperature re-
gions adopted. It should be again observed, that the iso-
eryme of 68° is the grand boundary of coral reefs, and of the
larger part of the zoological life connected with them, and
that the Torrid Zone and Coral-reef Zone of oceanic tempe-
rature are Synonymous terms.
We mention also the extent of the Provinces; and it will
be found, that although seemingly numerous, few of them are
under 500 miles in length, while some are full 4000 miles.
For zoological reasons which are explained in another
place,* and which may be the subject of another communi-
cation to this Journal, we adopt for Marine Zoological Geo-

graphy, three grand divisions of the coasts of the globe.

1. The American or Occidental, including East and West

America; 2. The Africo-European, including the coasts of
_ Europe and Western Africa ; and, 3. The Oriental, including
the coasts of Eastern Africa, East Indies, Eastern and South-
ern Asia, and Pacific. Besides these, there are the Arctic
and Antarctic Kingdoms, including the coasts of the frigid
_zones, and in some places, as Fuegia, those of the ex-
| treme temperate zone. We add here, only in general terms,
| that there is a remarkable similarity in the genera of East-
_ern and Western America, and an identity of some few spe-
| cies; that the coast of Europe and Eastern Africa widely dif-
fer in Crustacea from either the American or Oriental; that
| the species of the Oriental division have a great similarity
in genera, and that numerous species of Crustacea of East-
jern Africa are identical with those of the Pacific. We pass
| by, for the present, the details on these points.

* The author’s Report on Crustacea.
| VOL. LVI. NO. OXII.—APRIL 1854. Q

222 J. D. Dana on an Isothermal Oceanic Chart,

We also omit the zoological characters of the Provinces
here enumerated. Several of these Provinces are identical
with those proposed by Milne Edwards, Prof. E. Forbes, and
others; and, as far as possible, the names heretofore used
are retained. |

I. OCCIDENTAL KINGDOM.

A. WESTERN SECTION,
1. Torrid or Coral-reef Zone.

Provinces. Limits. Length in Miles.
1. Panamian, (torrid) ; 1° S. to 173° N.
2. Mexican, Province, (N. subtorrid) 174° N. to Californ. Penin. 600
3. Guayaquil ,, (S. subtorrid) 1° S. to Cape Blanco, 4#° 8S. 200
2. North Temperate Zone.
4. Sonoran, (warm temperate) . Penin. Californ. to 28$° N. 550
*5. Diego* or Jacobian, (temperate) 284° N. to 344° N. . 4 450
6. Californian, (subtemperate) . 344° N. to C. Mendocino 480
7. Oregon, (cold temperate) ; C. Mendocino to Puget’s
Sound (?) . 480

8. Pugettian, (subfrigid) . . Puget’s Sound to 55° or 56° 1200

3. South Temperate Zone.
9. Gallapagos, (warm ee Gallapagos.

10. Peruvian, (temperate) . C. Blanco to a ary 8. 1500
11. Chilian, (subtemperate) ‘ 274° S. to 38° S. 700
12. Araucanian, (cold temperate) 38° to 49° or 50° S. : 900

13. South Patagonian, (subfrigid) 50° S. to Magellan Straits.

B. HASTERN SECTION.
1. Torrid Zone.

1. Carribbean, (torrid) 4 : Key West and N. Yucatan to
1°S8. of Bahia . : 4000
2. Floridan, (N. subtorrid) ' Key West to 27° N. ‘ 200
3. Brazilian, (S. subtorrid) ; 15° S. to 24° S. : ; 600
2. North Temperate Zone.
4. Carolinian, (warm temperate) 27° N. to Cape Hatteras 600
5. Virginian, (cold temperate) . Cape Hatteras to Cape Cod 650
6. Arcadian, (subfrigid)t . * Cape Cod to K. Cape of New-
foundland . 900
3. South Temperate Zone.
7. St Paul,t (warm temperate) . 24° 8. to 30° 8. i 480
8. Uraguaian, (temperate) , 30° S. to N. Cape of La Plata 360
9. Platensian, (subtemperate) . Mouth of La Plata.
10. North Patagonian, (cold temperate) S. Cape of La Plata to 43°S8. 500
11. South Patagonian,§ (subfrigid) 43° S. to Magellan Straits 700.

* May possibly be united conveniently to the Sonoran.

t Changed from Nova-Scotian in the Report on Crustacea,

} The St Paul province may perhaps be united with the Uraguaian.

§ The South Patagonian is made to include both the eastern and western
sides of this portion of the continent; but a division of the two may hereafter
be found to be required.

illustrating the Distribution of Marine Animals. 223

II. AFRICO-EUROPEAN KINGDOM.
1. Torrid Zone.

Provinces. Limits. Length in Miles.

1. Guinean, (torrid) . : 5° N. to 9° N. ; . 1200
2. Verdensian, (N. subtorrid) ; 9° N. to 144° N., including

the Cape Verde Islands 1000
3. The Biafrian, (S, subtorrid) . 5° N. to7° or 8°S., including

Ascension and St Helena 900

2. North Temperate Zone.

4, Canarian, (warm temperate) . 144° N. to 28° or 29° N., in-

cluding the Canaries 1000
. Mediterranean, (temperate) . 29° N. to Cape St Vincent,

with Mediterranean, ex-

cepting some of its north-

ern coasts, and including

Madeira and Azores.

on

6. Lusitanian, (subtemperate) . Cape St Vincent to 42° N. 300
7. Celtic, (cold temperate) ; 42° N. to Scotland : 1000
8, Caledonian, (subfrigid) : N. Scotland, Shetlands, For-
roe, &c.
3. South Temperate Zone.

9. Angolan, (warm temperate) . 7° §. to 18° S. : ; 360
10. Benguelan, (temperate) : 13° 8. to. 28° S44. . 900
11. Capensian, (subtemperate) . 28° S. Cape Agulhas 450
12. Tristensian, (cold temperate) Tristan d’Acunha,

IiI. ORIENTAL KINGDOM.
I. AFRICAN SECTION, or East Coast of Africa and Neighbouring Islands.

i. Abyssinian, (torrid) . : 262° S. to 21° or 22° in Red
Sea, including larger part
of Madagascar & Islands
north : 3500
2. Erythrean, (N. subtorrid) . Northern third of Red Sea,
about . 300
3. Natalensian, (S. subtorrid) . 263° S. to 31°S., with south-
ern Madagascar and Isle
of France,
4. Algoan, (warm temp. and temp.) 31°S. to Cape Lagulhas 550

II, ASIATIc SECTION,

1. Torrid Zone.

1. Indian, (torrid) . . . Kast India Islands, N. Aus
tralia, Southern Asia, to
124° N. on Cochin China,

2. Liukiuan, (N. subtorrid) 3 12}° N. to 15° N., with For-
mosa, Loochoos, S.S.E.
shore of Japan.

3. Endrachtian, or W. Australian,

(S. subtorrid) .. . W. Australia 22°S. to 264°S, 300

2. North Temperate Zone.
4. Tonquin, (warm temperate) . 15° N. to 25° N,, (Gulf Tonquin).

5. Chusan, (subtemperate) . ; 25° N. into Japan Sea.
6. Niphonensian, (cold temperate and
subtemperate) . ' . East coast of Niphon, to 40° N.

Q 2

224 Richard Adie, Esq., on the Temperatures of

Provinces. Limits.
7. Saghalian, (subfrigid) . ‘ Coast of Japan Sea, part of Western
and Northern Niphon, Saghalian,
Yeso, &c.

3. South Temperate Zone.
8. Cygnian, or Swan R., (warm temp.) W. Australia, 26}° S. to SW. Cape.

9. Flinders, (temperate) . : Southern coast of Australia.
10. Moreton, (warm temp. and temp.) BE. Australia, 264° S. to 31° 8.
11. Bass, (subtemperate) : E. Australia, 31° or 32° S. to Van Die-
men’s Land.
12. Tasmanian, (cold temperate) . Van Diemen’s Land.

III. Pactric SECTION.
1. Zorrid Zone.

1. Polynesian, (torrid) : ° Pacific Islands of Torrid Region.
2. Hawaiian, (N. subtorrid) ‘ Hawaiian range of Islands.
3. Raratongan, (S. subtorrid) . Hervey Islands and others of South
Subtorrid Region.
2. South Temperate Zone.
4. Kermadec, (warm temp. and temp.) Kermadec Islands, &e.
5. Wangaroan, (subtemperate) . Northern New Zealand.
6. Chatham, (cold temperate) . Middle N. Z. to 46° 8S. and Chatham I.

The Arctic KincpoM includes, (1.) The Norwegian,
north of the Atlantic; (2.) The Kamétschatcan, north of the
Pacific; (3.) The North Polar. The ANTARCTIC KinNGDOM
includes, (1.) The /uegian, Fuegia and Shetlands, &c.; (2.)
The Aucklandian, Auckland and southern extremity of New
Zealand; (3.) The South Polar. )

On the Temperatures of Running Streams during periods of
Frost. By RicHARD ADIE, Esq., Liverpool.

The steady frost which prevailed at the close of the last
and commencement of the present year, offered to me a fa- —
vourable opportunity of testing the temperatures of several
streams. These I found so exactly regulated to the freezing
point of water, that I have been led to reflect on the nature
of the process which gives this uniformity, and which I now
propose to endeavour to trace, in order to shew that it forms
the basis for the explanation of the phenomenon of ice in the
beds of rivers, of which those I have recently examined of- |
fered abundant specimens. | b

In this Journal, vol. 43, p. 245, I published an account

Running Streams during periods of Frost. 225

of some ground ice examined in a small rivulet 12 miles
north of Liverpool; at the same time I described the rapid
formation of numberless small ice pillars I had witnessed
on the sides of the Pentland hills near Edinburgh, after a
single night’s frost, from the water oozing gradually to the
surface as it descended the hill. Qaptain Scorseby, in vol. 48,
p- 1, of this Journal, has given a similar description of ice
pillars formed under like circumstances. And I find in con-
versing with those resident in hilly districts, that they are
familiar with them. Around Liverpool, in delfs, I have often
noted, during periods of frost, large accumulations of ice on
the wall-sided surfaces of the sandstone which bound these
delfs ; where the conditions for freezing are not favourable ;
the walls being vertical and very confined, screen the parts,
from radiation to the open sky. Yet, in confined situations,
where the water oozes slowly to the surface, masses of ice
collect which much exceed in thickness that on the adjacent
ponds open to the sky and winds. While ona recent journey
among the hills of Westmoreland, Dumfries and Lanark
shires, I saw masses of ice formed from the water coming
slowly to the atmosphere, where it spreads over the surface
of the ice already made in a thin film, so as to be very favour-
ably placed for freezing. This water which oozes to the
surface on the rocks and hillsides forms a chief source of
supply of the rivulet, which, in a hilly country every valley
has; presently these rivulets are joined together to make a
river which is hastening to the sea. In such districts, then,
the sources of streams are extremely active in ice-making;
and the water in its passage downwards has to bathe a large
superficies of this material, which it must continue to melt
until the stream is cooled down to a freezing temperature ;
@ process which appears to go on with celerity after frosty
weather has formed ice on the surface of the quieter parts
of a running stream.

During frost, a walk along the bank of a river shews in
various ways how the current of a stream acts favourably for
forming ice. The water in rivers is usually then low for
the winter season ; the action of the frost checking the sup-
ply. The stream occupies only a portion of its bed—ice

226 Richard Adie, Esq., on the Temperatures of

soon collects at the edges and on the surface, at places where
the water runs slowly or is shallow, this ice offers an impedi-
ment tothe current, and thus often sends some of the water
of the stream over the surface of a portion of the ice,—a
position most favourable for its being frozen. In the river
Eden, near Carlisle, I saw specimens of ice of this kind ;
at one of the arches of the bridge there was a large table
of submerged surface-ice sunk one foot below the surface,
and rent up the centre. In the river Esk, near Mussel-
burgh, I saw a sheet of surface-ice at the edge of the
stream, frozen on the top of the gravel, and covered with
water one to two inches deep, in which a number of icy
spicule had begun to form; at some parts these spiculz
were so numerous that the mass looked like wet snow. In _
the river Almond, near Edinburgh, there were good speci-
mens of the manner in which ice, collecting in one part of a
river bed, forced the stream to flow in another portion of the
bed hitherto unoccupied by the current, which extended the
surface over which the water was exposed to a frosty atmo-
sphere, and thus rendered a running current of water a place
active in ice-making. In point of fact, itis, only on a more
extended scale, the process I have already described as seen
on the Pentland hills, where ice pillars two inches high were
formed in quantities during a single night’s frost.

The year 1854 was ushered in by a steady frost. On the —
three first days of January I examined various rivers. The
ground at the time was thinly covered with snow, and the
temperature of the air ranged between 15° and 30° of Fahren-
heit. Severity was the prevailing character of the season ;
on the 2d the ice underneath the arches of the bridges over
the Union Canal, near Edinburgh, was strong enough to walk —
over ; on the 3d I crossed the river Eden on the ice, a little.
below the bridge at Carlisle, and I believe a period of many
years has elapsed since this river was passable on foot so
early in the winter. In succession I visited the following
streams—Portobello rivulet, near where it enters the estuary
of the Forth—temperature 32°; ground-ice in every part of
the stream which favoured its lodgement ; the ice wore a gray
aspect from particles of sand and earth being lodged in it by

Running Streams during periods of Frost. 227

the action of the current; in the stream near Liverpool this
gray colour results after the ice has been for a few days
under water.

Joppa rivulet, where it passes underneath the turnpike
road, about a mile beyond Portobello, andimmediately before
it enters the estuary of the Forth—temperature 32°. The
road is carried over this stream by a low stone arch, and the
situation is one of the last where ice would be expected to
be formed by atmospheric influence; the surface of the
stream generally was covered with surface-ice; under the
arch at the edges there were a few crystals, but the breadth
of the surface of the stream was there clear of ice. In the
bed, eight to ten inches under water, there was a plentiful
crop of ice composed of small crystals interlaced with one
another like snow, and of a pure beautiful hue; this lodge-
ment extended over the whole of the bed under the archway
where the nature of the ground and rapidity of the current
favoured the accumulation, and for so smalla stream shewed
as fine a specimen of ground-ice, and the phenomena attend-
ing its formation, as could be desired. That it was brought
down by the current from higher parts of the stream and
lodged there could not be doubted, and it owed its preserva-
tion in such a locality to a current of ice-cold water continu-
ally playing upon it.

The Esk, at Musselburgh—temperature 32°. This stream
must quite recently have reached the freezing temperature,
for ground-ice was sparingly found in its bed, only in places
where the current was rapid, and many of the plants in the
_bed in favourable enough situations had not yet received any
ice. ‘The river occupied a portion of its channel; in some
localities ice gathering and blocking up a passage between
two stones had diverted a part of the water into another
part of the bed.

The Water of Leith, near a village of the same name, and
at Saughton Hall, was examined—temperature in both in-
stances 32°, with ground-ice under the arches of the bridges
and other places favourable for its lodgement, but, like the
Ksk, the crop was not abundant.
_ Asmall riyulet which crosses the road that leads from Cor:

228 Richard Adie, Esq. on the Temperatures of

storphine village to the railway station—temperature 32:2° ;
As might be anticipated, the two-tenths of a degree was quite
sufficient to prevent any ground-ice ; the centre of the stream
was free from ice, at the edges there were a few crystals
much the same as I had seen under the arch at Joppa; no
ice under water, otherwise the bed of the stream was most
favourable for its reception. The temperature of this rivulet
formed a contrast, being above 32°; while on the canal in its
vicinity the ice under the arches of the bridges was walked
over.

The river Almond, near Cramond—temperature 32°, ground-
ice in plenty ; one mass of it near a gorge where the water
passed among some large stones I estimated to contain two
cubic feet. .

The river Eden, at Carlisle. On 3d January I left the
city and crossed the bridge by the Glasgow and Carlisle
road. On proceeding up the bank a few hundred yards, the
stream at that part shewed a surface free from ice, and from
ten to twelve feet deep, running with a steady powerful cur-
rent—temperature 32°. In this part of the river there were
lodgements of ground-ice by far the most extensive I have
ever witnessed; one mass I estimated to contain a cubic yard ;
en some long slender stems of plants there were accumula-
tions of spicule, in form like large turnip bulbs, collected in
that shape by the turning and twisting of the stems in the
current, colour opalescent, like snow immersed in water. <A
short distance further up the stream there were large quan-
tities of ice, some of it eight feet below the surface, gathered
together in a form which resembled a number of rough stone —
blocks resting against one another at an angle of inclination
of 75°. The heads of the blocks leaning towards the current,
with the angle which first met the stream always acute ; this
fact appeared to me to illustrate the process of the formation
of these blocks, for it was there that the icy spicule brought
down by the river were lodged. The collections of ice in —
the bed of the Eden on 3d January were more interesting —
and beautiful than any I had ever before seen, both for the
quantity of ice and the depth at which it appeared below
the surface. Like the collections on the stems of the plants,

Running Streams during periods of Frost. 229

it had an opalescent hue, and there were many instances of
pebbles* imbedded in it, varying in size from a walnut up to
a stone of three inches diameter. The stream where the
water ran uncovered by surface-ice contained a continued
succession of groups of icy spicule floating down, affording
an unerring indication that the bed of ‘the river contained
quantities of submerged ice. A field of these spicule had
collected below Eden bridge, which the severity of the wea-
ther soon converted into a sheet of solid ice, leaving only the
spiculz, which had been raised out of the water by others
underneath them, to attest its formation.

These details shew that a stream must soon be cooled
down to 32° when its water has to bathe masses of ice in its
downward progress; also that after it has attained this
temperature it will lodge any free crystals of ice which may
be borne along by the current in localities suitable for their
reception, without reference to the external influence of at-

~mospheric temperature to which that part of the stream may

be exposed. Hence it is that under the arch of a bridge
ground-ice is found as abundantly as in the most open part
of the river.

In the Neva, at St Petersburg, I have been told that the
anchor of a ship when drawn up will sometimes be found
to have its fluke covered with ice, which it is‘easy to con-
ceive may be the case after the long winter of Russia, when

a short frost in Cumberland lodged a cubic yard of loose ice

in the bed of the Eden.

On the Nature and Origin of diferent kinds of Dry Fogs.
By M. C0. MARTINS.

_ Ordinary fogs are composed of aqueous vapour in a
vesicular state. Their. appearance, the effect they have on
our organs, and, in particular, the indications of hygrometrical
instruments, and the optical phenomena they present, leave
no doubt on this subject.

There are other kinds of fogs which are quite dry. Their

~* Pebbles in rudely shaped icy barges have been described to me by parties
who have often watched them as they floated along on the surface of a stream.

230 M. C. Martins on the Nature and Origin of

analogy to the former is confined to the circumstance of their
filling the atmosphere, and disturbing, like them, the trans-
parency of the air; but aqueous vapour has no part in their
formation. Although noticed in meteorological registers,
and mentioned by travellers, these fogs have not hitherto
been the subject of a comparative study. Accordingly, their
history is very little known; and it is probable that, under
the name of dry fogs, meteorological phenomena of very dif-
ferent natures have been confounded. The object of the
present notice is to distinguish four very distinct kinds of
dry fogs, to point out their differential characters, and to call
the attention of meteorologists to the consideration of them.

I. Dry fogs produced by the smoke arising from the burn-
mg of peat.

These fogs have been observed principally in Holland and
western Germany. Munck, in the article Dry Fog (Trockner
Nebel), in Gehler’s Dictionary, and Kaemtz, under the title
Hoeherauch, have given a satisfactory view of the ascer-
tained facts. Before their time L. L. Fincke had devoted a
particular work to this subject. I shall content myself by
giving in this place a summary idea of the appearances of
this kind of fog and its causes, in order that we may be in
a condition to distinguish it from the others.

The dry fog of German meteorologists is not, properly
speaking, a fog, but a smoke spread over a great extent of
country. The report on this subject made at the meeting of
German naturalists at Berlin, in 1828, by Professor Egen of
Seest, informs us how this fog is generated, elevated and
diffused in the atmosphere. In the countries which form a
belt about 11 myriametres broad, from Zuyder-Zee to the
mouth of the Elbe, and over a surface of 430 square myria-
meters, there are 107 of these, or a fourth part, occupied
with peat-bogs. The proportion is notin all places the same ;
in the region lying along the banks of the Ems, from Prus-
sia to East Friesland, they form a third part of the surface
of the country ; in Eastern Friesland and the Duchy of Olden-
burg, a fourth part ; in the territory of Bréme and Verden,
only a sixth part. These bogs afford no other produce than
peat, unless they are burned, or dried by means of drains or
canals, which are very expensive. This last method requir-

diferent kinds of Dry fogs. 231

ing considerable capital, the poor inhabitants of these coun-
tries are obliged to prefer the former, which was introduced
into Germany in the eighteenth century. ‘The peat is burnt
during seven or eight years; it is then left at rest for a
period of from twenty to thirty years. Every year therefore
a quarter of the entire surface may be burnt. In the pre-
sent state of the population, it is about'an eighth part, or
thirteen square myriametres, that is burnt annually.

In order to sow buckwheat or oats, they turn up the soil
in autumn that the clods of earth and the vegetables they
contain may have time to dry during winter; they are set
on fire in May, June, or July, according to the state of dry-
ness of the superficial soil. ._The burning continues for a
month, sometimes for fifteen days only. At certain spots it
continues throughout the whole summer. |The carboniza-
tion of this peat, which is still humid, begins in the morn-
ing after the disappearance of the dew, and continues till
night. . The cultivator takes care that the combustion does
not proceed too rapidly ; and there arises from it an extremely
thick smoke. which forms clouds, at first insulated, but on
days. when the fires are general, they unite towards the
middle of the day and form so dense a fog that nothing can
be distinguished at the distance of thirty metres. This
smoke rises above the highest mountains of the country—
that is to say, it exceeds a height of 650 metres. This im-
mense cloud of 430 square myriametres and 600 metres in
thickness, is driven by the east and north winds which pre-
vail at. this period, towards the countries situate to the south
or west, where it darkens the air for whole days before
becoming dissipated in the atmosphere. -Fincke estimates
the total weight of the carbonaceous particles, thus raised
into the atmosphere in the course of one summer, at 900
kilogrammes.

They. are not satisfied with setting fire to the peat, but
likewise burn the turf and noxious, plants. . This practice is
followed in the neighbourhood of Siegen in, Prussia, in Eifel
on the banks of the Rhine, and.in England. M. Egen gives
proofs that the smoke arising from these burnings may ex-
_ tend very far.

232 M. C. Martins on the Nature and Origin of

In countries where these agricultural processes are un-
known, an atmospheric origin is assigned to the dry fog. In
order to obtain evidence of the truth, M. Egen has connected
the directions of the wind with the indications of the dry fog
for the years between 1821 and 1827, and in reference to the
following cities:—Aurich, Emden, Greettnigen, Meppen,
Lingen, Bentheim, Stadtlohn, Minden, Munster, Salzuffeln,
Detmold, Blomberg, Arnheim, Hamm, Paderborn, Lippstadt,
Aix-la-Chapelle, Elberfeld, Coblence, Brest, Paris, Stras-
bourg, Texel, Halle, Altona, Bielefield, Cléve, Solingen,
Berleburg, Osnabruck, Scest, Hildburghausen, Gotha,
Carlshafen, Goettingen, Treves, Brussels, Amsterdam, Essen,
Cologne, Brunswick, Lunebourg, Reval, and Falmouth.

From these numerous observations, M. Egen draws the
following conclusions :—

1. This dry fog is the smoke arising from the combustion
of peat. It has a particular smell which is always recog-
nised when it has once been felt.

2. Formerly less peat was burnt than at present, and the
fog waslesscommon. In the middle of the last century only
twodays of dry fog were reckoned on annually at Lingen-
sur-Ems, but now they amount to eighteen.

3. The more remote we are from the peat district, the
rarer they become. Thus at Lingen eighteen are observed
every year; at Scest, six or seven ; a day’s journey further
away, only four or five.

4. The intensity of the fog likewise diminishes the fur-
ther we remove from the peat bogs. In Eastern Friesland,
it is as opaque as the thickest moist fog; at Soest, situate
11 myriametres from the southern border of the peat region,
we may always distinguish objects at the distance from 60
to 100 metres. It is seldom that the clouds cannot be seen,
and the sun does not become invisible until it reaches the
horizon; at the distance of 35 myriametres from the
peat deposits the smoke becomes only a light bluish vapour
which spreads along the plains and valleys rather than on
the mountains, because it rests on the ground. |

5. The wind blows almost always from the peat-fields
to the place where the fog is seen. At Emden, it comes by

diferent kinds of Dry Fogs. 233:

the east and north-east: in Westphalia, by the north-west,
north, or north-east ; at Goettingen, where it has been studied
by MM. Gauss and Haussmann, by the north and north-
west; at Jever, by the south. There are no doubt excep-
tions ; they are caused by shifting winds, which do not allow
us to ascertain the original direction of the current. which
brought the smoke. :

6. The most evident proof of the origin of the Land-
rauch is that, in most cases, we can prove the coincidence of
great combustions with the appearance of the dry fog. Thus,
on the 18th and 19th of June 1821, about mid-day, the peat-
bog was enveloped in a thick cloud of smoke; about tive
hours after, the countries between the North Sea and Siegen,
and between Cleves and Minden, were likewise covered with
smoke. On the 22d May 1822, in the morning, the peat
was concealed by the smoke; about six o'clock, all the
country between the North Sea and Coblentz, and between
Arnheim and Minden, was occupied by it. This is a surface
of 1035 square myriametres. In reference to that day M.
EKgen received notice from forty-two localities comprised in
that space. |

The same observer has further satisfied himself by hygro-
metrical experiments, in which he made use of Daniell’s
hygrometer, that the humidity of the air was not greater
during the dry fog than on the days which preceded and
followed its appearance. August at Berlin, and Kaemtz at
Halle, made the same experiments and obtained the same
results on the dry fog of 1834.

These facts appear to us sufficient to establish the origin
of certain dry fogs. One point alone remains to be deter-
mined, namely, whether this smoke can be transported to
great distances without being dissipated, and give rise to.
the appearance of the dry fogs which have been noticed
principally in Holland, Western Germany, and the north of
France. Many authors have decided this point in the
affirmative. Fincke has traced it for the space of 22 myria-
metres without its intensity being diminished. The greater
_ part of German meteorologists, such as Egen and Kaemtz,
believe that the smoke arising from the combustion of peat

234 M. C. Martins on the Nature and Origin of

in Westphalia may obscure the atmosphere at Bale, Paris,
Brest in the south, and Copenhagen in the north. Yet, not-
withstanding the extent, thickness, and density which must
be conceded to these clouds of smoke, we cannot admit that
they could cover a portion of Europe like certain general dry
fogs, such as those of 1764 and 1783, whose history has been
preserved to us by writers of the last century. These fogs
form a second class which I shall endeavour to characterize.

II. General dry fogs produced by volcanic eruptions.
Trochner Nebel (Germ.); Dry Fog (Eng.); Sonnenrauch,
Kastner.

To give an idea of this kind of fog, I think I cannot do
better than describe the most celebrated of all, that of 1783.
This task is the more easy, since the favour meteorology then
enjoyed has raised a crowd of observes who have transmitted
the most valuable documents respecting this curious phe-
nomenon in the Hphemerides de la Société Meteorologique de
Manheim.

I shall first trace the progress of this fog, that is to say,
determine the period of its appearance and disappearance at
the places where it has been observed; I shall then treat of
its nature, and the phenomena which accompanied it.

Dry fog of 1783.—Speaking in a general way, this fog
extended from Norway to Syria, that is to say, over a space
of 25 degrees of latitude; and from England to Altai, that is,
over 120 degrees of longitude. It was observed, more or less,
during the whole period of time between the 24th May, the
day of its first appearance at Copenhagen, and the 8th
October, when Lamanon saw it for the last time in the val-
ley of Servieres in Dauphiny.

Height of it—When on Mount Ventoux, 1910 metres
above the sea, Lamanon still saw much of it above him. He
satisfied himself, by going from the sea-shore to the highest
mountains, that the lowest part was thickest and dryest.
Among the French Alps, the shepherds assured him that it
covered the highest peaks, which implied a thickness of 4000

metres. At Geneva, Senebier ascertained that it exceeded
the height of the great Saléve, which is 1484 metres above

the sea. De Saussure himself observed this fog at the hos-

diferent kinds of Dry Fogs. 235

pice of Grimsel (1880 metres above the sea), on the 10th,
llth, and 12th July. It was little observable on the two
last days, but, according to the account of the people at the
hospice, it was as dense in the end of June on the Grimsel
as in the plain.

At Narbonne, on the contrary, it never rose, according to
Marcorelle, above 780 metres; at a greater elevation the
sky remained always clear. From Neufchatel the peaks of
the Alps were seen above the fog. But Saussure, who was
in the neighbourhood of Rolle on the 3d July, could not dis-
tinguish, between five o’clock in the morning and noon, the
peaks of the Jura, about three leagues distant. At Padua,
and even at Rome, the fog appeared suspended in the air and
not to touch the horizon.

From what has been said it may be concluded that the fog
was variable in thickness; it was so even according to the
hour of the day, for Lamanon being, on the 21st of June, on
the top of Ventoux before the rising of the sun, remarked
that the fog ascended as that luminary rose above the hori-
zon.

Physical properties of this Fog—Its appearance.—
With the exception of Maret of Dijon, all observers were
struck with the extraordinary appearance of this fog. “It
was,” says Senebier, “a bluish vapour, sometimes reddish,
never gray like ordinary fogs; it coloured objects blue.
During the days on which it was dense, houses and trees
disappeared at the distance of a third of aleague.’” Toaldo
at Padua, Marcorelle at Narbonne, Cotte at Laon, Przeus at
Sagan, Father Onuphre on St Gothard, and Saussure on the
Grimsel, compare it to a smoke, and even a dust totally
different from ordinary fogs. These testimonies are cor-
roborated by the examination of the other properties of this
vapour.

Its hygrometrical state-—The very title of this memoir
imposes upon me the obligation of shewing that the fog of
1783 was completely dry, and had no effect on hygrometrical
instruments, nor on hygrometrical bodies. In order to prove
this, I have only to refer to the statements of the natural

_ philosophers who observed it. At Geneva, Senebier found

236 M. C. Martins on the Nature and Origin of

that it did not act on the hygrometer as a humid fog. Van
Swinden is not less explicit. At Franecker, in Holland, the
air was in no degree moist, and the hygrometers indicated
the maximum of dryness on the 23d June, a day on which the
fog was very dense. During the whole of this month the
weather was very dry.

At Manheim, observers satisfied themselves that this fog
was not moist but dry, judging by the hygrometer, the
evaporation of fluids, the drying of moistened bodies, such
as hay and the dust of roads, and its continuance during rain.
At Padua, Toaldo finds it completely different from ordinary
fog, and notifies that the hygrometers indicated dry. At
Salon, in Provence, Lamanon observed that salts did not
deliquesce, and it did not cause the hygrometer to ascend.
In 1783, the salt pits of Hyeres crystallized fifteen days
sooner than usual.

At Narbonne, however, after having been dry, this fog be-
came humid, owing to winds from the east, which prevailed
on the 26th, 27th, and 28thofJune. “ At Laon,’ says Cotte,
“it began on the 18th June; it was very low and as thick
as in December, accompanied by a very cold south wind. On
the 19th there was a considerable storm; the fog appeared
afterwards to increase, and continued to be cold while the
south wind blew, that is, to the 24th. During this time, the
fog was very humid, as my hygrometers indicated to me.
On the 24th the wind changed to north, the air became warm,
and the fog altered its character ; it became dry, and might
be compared to a smoke rather than a fog. The heat and

dryness always increased, north and north-east winds con- —

tinuing to prevail.

A single observer, Maret, affirms that at Dijon this fog
appeared to him in every respect like ordinary fogs. He
perceived, however, that vegetables were dried during the
day.

This evidence does not appear to me to invalidate that of
all the others, particularly when such observers as Van
Swinden, Toaldo, Senebier, and Lamanon, ascertained the
dryness of the fog experimentally.

Density of the fog in 1783.—At Copenhagen, the sun was

_——

:
|
:

diferent kinds of Dry Fogs. 237

clearly visible as long as it had not risen from 20 to 30 de-
grees above the horizon. At Laon, during the day, the light
of the sun was of a pale orange colour; at its setting, it
appeared of a fiery red. The moon presented the same
appearance. Such is the statement of Cotte.

Smell of the dry fog of 1783.—The action of this fog on
some of our organs was very different from what is observed
in aqueous fogs. At Franecker, in Holland, Van Swinden
felt a sulphurous odour which excited cough and penetrated
into the closest places; it was particularly sensible on the
24th June. At Groeningen not only a sulphurous smell but
even a sulphurous taste was perceptible. Marcorelle found
it to possess the sharp and stimulating odour of smoke. At
Salon it weakened the eyes; individuals whose chests were
delicate experienced disagreeable sensations. Cotte and
Toaldo mention nothing of this sort; but the former, on the
testimony of others, relates that in Provence and elsewhere
it had a sulphurous, fetid odour, which tickled the eyes.
However this may be, the peculiarity in question was not
observed in all places. Senebier, Maret, and Cotte state
that the fog was without smell, and a great number of ob-
servers make no mention of its action on the organs of sight,
taste, or smell.

_ Meteorological phenomena accompanying the dry fog of
1783.—What has been said will, I think, be sufficient to
shew that the fog of 1783 was altogether of a special nature,
and in no respect formed by aqueous vapour. This opinion
will be confirmed by the study of the concomitant phenomena.

Its appearance did not take place in analogous circum-
stances, but in very varied states of the atmosphere. At
Copenhagen it appeared suddenly after a series of clear and
warm days; south-east-south and south-south-west winds
succeeded each ther in the atmosphere. At Franecker in
Holland, Sagan in Silesia, and Peissenberg in Bavaria, the
south-west wind prevailed when it was observed for thefirsttime.
At Manheim the winds were variable before it first appeared.
On the same day it blew successively from west-south-west,
south-west, and north-west. At Rochelle the south-west pre-

vailed for two days when it appeared, and the same day the
VOL, LVI. NO. CXII.—APRIL 1854. B

238 Mr C. Martins on the Nature and Origin of

wind shifted in the evening to west-north-west. At St
Gothard the west-north-west wind blew from the evening
before the fog arrived.

At Dijon the south-west had continued for three days,
and turned to the south at the moment of its first appearance.
On its second appearance, 22d June, the wind was from west-
north-west, north-west, or north. At Laon the fog arrived
accompanied by a very cold wind from the south. At Padua
it was preceded by numerous storms; on the 17th the wind
blew from the north; on the 18th from the west-north-west
in the morning, south-west at mid-day, and south-east in the
evening. At Narbonne the weather was calm and the heat
great for two days. At Rome it likewise came with a south-
west wind.

We thus perceive that the fog appeared neither with the
same wind, nor in the same meteorological circumstances ;
in general, however, it appears to have been brought by a
south-west wind. When it had once overspread a country,
nothing could make it disappear, neither wind, rain, nor
storm. The following are some examples of this. At Man-
heim there were 23 days of rain, and twelve storms during its
continuance. On three days it thundered, while the fog was of
extreme density; on the 27th June its density was such that
one could not see a quarter of a league, and yet there was so
severe a storm, that the thunder broke in thirteen localities
in the neighbourhood, At Geneva, Senebier made the same
observations ; neither rain nor wind had the power of dissi-
pating it. On the 12th July, among others, there was a
frightful thunder-storm which struck eight houses in the
town. At Padua fourteen storms of lightning occurred
during the continuance of the fog. A tempest came on in
the morning of the 26th, accompanied with claps of thunder
which were heard from one sea to the other, and struck five
or six houses in the town of Vicence alone: the fog was not
dispersed. At Narbonne, the north wind blowing violently,
it almost wholly disappeared from the 4th to the 6th of July ;
but on the return of calm weather, it again enveloped, not as
formerly the whole celestial hemisphere, but a zone comprised
between 0 and 20 degrees above the horizon. To the testi-

:
:
:
:
:

ee a? te.

diferent kinds of Dry Fogs. 239

mony of Hemmer, Senebier, Toaldo, and Marcorelle, I may
add that of Van Swinden, who was astonished to see it con-
tinue in spite of rains, winds, and storms.

Origin of the dry fog of 1783.—Every meteorologist who
has taken the trouble to read the preceding details, will be
persuaded, like myself, that the fog of 1783 was not composed
of aqueous vapour. The hygrometrical experiments of Se-
nebier, Van Swinden, and Lamanon,—its continuance for two
months of the summer, in all kinds of weather, and during all
kinds of winds,—sufficiently prove this.

This fog was smoke—Toaldo, Marcorelle, Cotte, and De
Saussure are all agreed on this point ; the latter supports his
opinion by that of the Bernese mountaineers who, he says,
are so well experienced in fogs.

_ Its origin appears to us to be that already assigned to it
by some observers of the period, namely, the earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions which in the same year shook Iceland
and Calabria. We know as a fact that in these eruptions
the voleanoes threw up into the air masses of ashes, which
formed true clouds, which the winds carried to a distance.
_ Inthe neighbourhood of the volcano, the light of the sun
was completely obscured by them, as in the eruption of Ve-
suvius, in the year 70, when, according to Pliny the younger,
the obscurity was like that of a shut-up apartment. On the
22d and 23d October 1822, lanterns were used in the villages
near Vesuvius. M. de Humboldt, who bears testimony to
these facts, compares them to what so often takes place at
Quito during the eruptions of Pichincha. During the erup-
- tion of Catopaxi, 4th April 1768, the shower of ashes at
Hambato and Tacunga was such that the inhabitants like-
wise went about in open day with lanterns. These pheno-
mena were also observed at great distances from the
ignivomous crater. During the eruption,in the month of
December 1760, the smoke of Vesuvius, carried by the wind,
darkened the sun for an entire day at Cuccaro and Cilento,
_ towns in the principality of Salerno, situate 92 kilometres
from the mountain. On the following day the grass was

_ eovered with ashes.
| R 2

40 Mr C. Martins on the Nature and Origin of

Ashes are conveyed by the winds to considerable distances.
After the violent detonations, like the discharge of artillery,
which alarmed the inhabitants of Barbadoes on the 30th
April 1812, there was seen the following day, 1st May,
above the horizon of the sea, a black cloud which already
covered the rest of the sky, and which soon after spread it-
self in the part where the light of the twilight began to appear.
The darkness then became so great that in rooms it was
impossible to discern the place of the windows, and in the
open air many could not discern either the trees or outlines
of the neighbouring houses, nor even white handkerchiefs
placed five inches from the eyes. This phenomenon was
caused by the fall of a great quantity of volcanic dust arising.
from the eruption of a volcano in the island of St Vincent.
This new kind of rain, and the darkness resulting from it,
did not terminate till between twelve and one o’clock. The
island of St Vincent is 170 kilometres west from Barbadoes.
During the eruption of Hecla, in 1766, the clouds of smoke
produced such a darkness, that at Glaumba, 50 leagues dis-
tant, people could not walk but by groping their way. In
1794 the whole of Calabria was enveloped in thick clouds
vomited from Etna.

If examples are desired of transportation to greatdistances,
the following may be given as proofs. Procopius assures us
that in 472, the ashes of Vesuvius were carried as far as
Constantinople, that is 250 leagues. In the formidable —
eruption of Tomboro, a volcano in the island of Sumbava,
which took place in 1815, the ashes extended to Java, Ma-
cassar, and Batavia ; they even reached Bencoolen, and Suma-
tra, which is as remote from the point of departure as Etna _
is distant from Hamburg, namely, 16 degrees of latitude, or
more than 1500 kilometres. |

If we compare these results, arising from an insulated
eruption, with those which must be produced by multiplied
and continuous eruptions at the two extremities of Europe, —
in Calabria on the one hand, and in Iceland on the other, we
will not hesitate to ascribe to them, along with Toaldo and —
Van Swinden, the origin of the dry fog of 1783.

diferent kinds of Dry Fogs. 241

In Calabria and Sicily, says Toaldo, the earthquakes be-
gan in February and continued till the end of March. The
outline surface of Calabria was completely changed ; upwards
of a hundred mountains were torn up, turned over, and traus-
ported; an equal number of deep pits were opened and re-
mained unfilled. Fifty lakes were produced by the stoppage
of rivers, and the number of victims to this calamity ex-
ceeded a hundred thousand men.

In Iceland the same disasters happened. JBefore the
flame broke out, the atmosphere of the island was so filled
with smoke, vapour, and dust, that the ground appeared red.
Near the mountains it was night at mid-day. The earth-
quakes and eruptions began on the Ist June 1783. The
smoke and vapours issuing from the earth formed three
columns visible for 55 kilometres. On the 8th June the dark-
ness was complete. On the 11th the river Skapta disappeared,
dried up in twenty-four hours. Its source was in the moun-
tain called Klofajokull; previously it was lost in a gulf
named Skaptargliufur, and ran in a canal eight kilometres
in length by sixty metres in depth, between very high rocks.
This canal was filled by a stream of lava, which by degrees
overran the banks and covered all the country, except the
high mountains. Its breadth, from the centre, was twelve
kilometres towards the east, and much greater towards the
west. Arrested by mountains on the south, it ended by sur-
mounting this obstacle, and spread itself over the plain. This
sea of fire boiled in a fearful manner, carrying everything
along with it. In the plain its depth was still from thirty
to forty metres. Throughout the whole track of the incan-
descent lava the herbage was burned, the rivers dried up,
villages destroyed, men and animals suffocated. After these
details we may form some idea of the torrents of smoke which
must have risen into the air, along with the vapours and
gases escaping from the bowels of the earth.

_ At the beginning of October the ground of Iceland was
still agitated ; flames and smoke issued from the ground in
the centre of the island. At length, in November, these ter-
rible phenomena ceased, but a volcanic island which had been

242 Mr C. Martins on the Nature and Origin of

thrown up sixteen miles from the coast of Iceland, still
emitted flames in February 1784. |

If we compare these facts with the dates of the appearance
of the dry fog, we will observe a very remarkable agreement.
The first appearance was at Copenhagen, on the 24th May,
precisely at the time when the ground of Iceland began to
emit smoke, gases, and vapours, phenomena which were pre-
cursors of the eruptions and earthquakes about to succeed,
It was likewise at Copenhagen that the fog continued longest.
From Copenhagen it extended to France, Germany, and
Italy, where it was remarked almost everywhere from the
16th to 18th June. At the end of the month it was observed
in the south, in Portugal and Syria; in the east, at Moscow
and Budain Hungary. This general progress from north
to south, and from east to west, leads us to seek for the
origin of this fog in the north-west of Europe, precisely
where we find Iceland, the permanent theatre, throughout
the whole summer of 1783, of a true burning of the earth,
as it was called by cotemporary authors. 7

The dry fog, or rather smoke, which covered Europe dur-
ing the summer of 1783, was therefore owing to volcanic
eruptions and combustions which took place in Iceland, and
perhaps to the earthquakes which laid waste Calabria. The
rarity of the phenomenon is explained by the rare occur-
rence of eruptions so continuous and important as those
which ravaged these two countries. For sixty-seven years
meteorologists have not observed a fog so general and per-
manent in Europe, and for the same period no eruptions have
happened comparable to those of 1783. But this example —
proves to us that dry fogs, of a local character, observed at
great distances from any active voleano, may be connected
with eruptions, and the combustion of the vegetables which
cover the soil enveloped in burning lava. In this point of
view, the fogs formed by the ashes and smoke of volcanoes
enter into the category of those which are owing to the com-
bustion of peat-grounds in Westphalia. Both originate in
extensive conflagrations ; both are produced, not by water,
but by fire ; and both are completely different from the fogs
formed by aqueous vapour.

diferent kinds of Dry Fogs. 243

IIL. Dry fogs at the horizon, of unknown origin.

Horizon enfumé, Fumée d’horizon; Hdle of the Swiss;
Heherauch of the Germans; Callina of the Spanish.

The dry fogs of which we have hitherto spoken are owing,
the one to the combustion of peat, the other to volcanic erup-
tions ; it is different with the smoke of the horizon. Scarcely
noticed by meteorologists, it has not hitherto been the subject
of proper examination. The notes found here and there are
insufficient to furnish a complete description, much less to
establish any theory. In endeavouring to trace the princi-
pal appearances of this phenomenon, I shall not attempt to
disguise either the difficulties or imperfections of this part
of my undertaking. If I draw the attention of observers to
it my object will be gained.

The horizon-smoke appears to be more common and more
intense in the south than in the north of Europe, in warm
regions than in cold ones. Thus, in Spain, according to
Willkomm,it continues during the months of June, July, and
August, when the weather is fine. M. de Humboldt speaks
of it as a habitual appearance at Acapulco, on the western
side of Mexico, but not at Cumana, where this vapour, how-
ever, interfered with his astronomical observations from the
10th October to 3d November. In the north it is not seen
often ; we have not observed it in Lapland. In Switzerland
it appears more common, and strikes the attention of every
one, because it conceals the view of the chain of the Alps
during the fine weather which attends the north and north-
east winds. In every instance it appears in connection with
a clear sky, and, in general, north winds.

Its appearance is that of a gray or reddish smoke sur-
rounding the horizon, and rising at the maximum to 20 or 25
degrees above it. Commonly its thickness is only from 5
to 10 degrees. The upper edge is not distinctly defined on
the sky ; the latter has not the deep azure colour observed
before rain, and is of a bluish white. The air is not per-
fectly transparent, objects are indistinct and do not appear
near the spectator as in days when the air is saturated with
moisture. Travellers who then ascend mountains, induced

244 Mr C. Martins on the Nature and Origin of

by the long track of fine weather, often experience a dis-
appointment which they would have avoided if they had
chosen a fine day preceded or followed by days of rain.
When the sun penetrates into this smoke, he assumes a red-
dish tint, his splendour is much weakened, and the disk
appears surrounded with concentric circles having a vibra-
tory motion.

Hygrometrical instruments remain unaltered on the
appearance of this fog; or, to speak more correctly, they
move to the point of dryness, as experiments by myself and
others prove.

M. Willkomm is the only observer who reached this fog
and penetrated into it; but he represents it as a vapour re-
sembling a mirage, which continually flees before the travel-
ler. Thus, when he arrived atthe villages or mountains,
the view of which was concealed by the horizon-smoke, even
when he was in the midst of it, he was unconscious of its
presence. Nothing informed him that he was surrounded
with an air which, seen at a distance, appeared as opaque as
a thick smoke could have done.

With circumstances so extraordinary before us, we do not
hazard any hypothesis; and confine ourselves to making a
new appeal to the zeal of meteorologists, astronomers, and
travellers.

The Callina or horizon-smoke in Spain.*

The fog to which Spaniards give the name of Callina has
no connection with those which we name dry fogs (Land-
rauch). The latter are caused by the combustion of peat in
the north ; at least that has been demonstrated in the most
evident manner in regard to many of them. I shall not
enter on the question whether the dry fogs of Germany are
smoke arising from the combustion of heath or peat in East-
ern Friesland, the Duchy of Oldenburg, the provinces near
the Baltic, Russia, Scandinavia, or Iceland. The callina of
the south of Spain has not the same origin ; in fact the dry
fog of Germany is a local phenomenon, appearing suddenly,
continuing a few days and then disappearing. It has the ©

Se ————

* By Maurice Willkomm.

diferent kinds of Dry Fogs. 245

smell of burning, or at least a peculiar smell, and envelopes

_the objects near it in a bluish vapour. The callina is com-
pletely different; it is a permanent fog which every year,

during the whole summer, covers the horizon and impairs

the transparency of the sky. I have observed it for two

years, always in the same circumstances.

The callina appears in the middle or at the end of June.
It forms around the horizon a band of fog of a bluish-gray
colour, which increases with the temperature. In the
middle of August, when the temperature reaches its maxi-
mum, it covers about a quarter of the celestial vault. At
this time the colour of the fog at the horizon is of a reddish
brown. Higher up it passes into yellow, and from its edges
rises a transparent vapour like a light gauze, which covers
the whole sky and imparts to it a leaden hue. When the
callina reaches this degree of intensity, it embraces the
whole horizon, and disturbs the view of objects to a distance
of three or four leagues. All those objects which are nearer
are, on the contrary, perfectly distinct. I have never felt

the least odour, and we do not observe when we enter into

the fog. The nearer we approach to an object veiled by the
eallina, the more distinct its outlines become, and at the dis-
tance of some leagues it is perfectly distinct and in full
light ; no trace of the fog is seen around one.

From the end of August the callina diminishes with the

heat, and disappears in the end of September or in the be-

ginning of October, at the time when the equinoctial gales
prevail. Sometimes it diminishes when the approach of a
storm refreshes the atmosphere, which is in general very
rare in summer. But on the following day after the storm,
the thickness of the callina is much less, the sky purer and
of a deeper blue. At the end of a few days it recovers its
former dimensions. I have observed the callina in the warm
plains of the Guadalquiver, of La Mancha, in the Asturias, and
the province of Almeria, more rarely among the mountains.
Its increase and diminution with the temperature seems to
indicate a connection with it. This is likewise the opinion of
the people of Spain.

246 Mr C. Martin on the Nature and Origin of

Dry fogs properly so called.—It now remains for us to men-
tion certain fogs which are neither smokes produced by com-
bustions, nor callina, but vapours, among which the observer
finds himself, without experiencing the slightest sensation of
humidity, and hygrometrical instruments not indicating the
slightest trace of it. On this subject documents are still
rarer and more imperfect than in regard to the other three
species of fogs. Having never observed fogs of this nature,
which have been described by two great meteorologists, De
Saussure and Humboldt, I think I cannot do better than al-
low them to speak for themselves.

« After many days of decidedly fine weather,’ says De
Saussure, “‘ when the air is not perfectly transparent, we
perceive a bluish vapour floating in it which is not of an
aqueous nature, since it does not affect the hygrometer ; but
its nature is not yet known to us.”

It may be asked, in the first place, if this bluish vapour is
not the halo which accompanies the callina? But how are
we tosuppose that such an observer as Saussure should have
remarked the halo, and not attended to the horizon-smoke
which accompanied it? It must be rare in Switzerland, for it
is never referred to in his Voyages dans les Alpes; and in
our ascents and prolonged stations among the mountains we
never saw it but once.

The following notice from M. de Humboldt is a much bet-
ter characterized example of a true dry fog. On the sum-
mit of Silla, a mountain which rises near the town of Carac-
cas, to a height of 2630 metres above the sea, MM. de
Humboldt and Bonpland were much struck with the appa-
rent dryness of the air, which seemed to increase as the fog
formed. ‘ When I took the hygrometer from its case,” says
the illustrious traveller, “to subject it to experiment, it
marked 52 degrees (87 deg. Sauss.) The sky was clear,
yet tracks of vapour with distinct contours passed from time
to time amongst us, grazing the earth. Deluc’s hygrometer
went back to 49 degrees (85 deg. Sauss.). Half an hour later,
a large cloud enveloped us ; we could no longer distinguish
the objects nearest us, and we saw with surprise that the

diferent kinds of Dry Fogs. 247

instrument continued to advance to dry, that is to 47°°7 (84
deg. Sauss.). The temperature of the air was, during the time,
from 12 to 13 degrees. Although in the whalebone hygro-
meter the point of saturation in the air is not at 100 degrees,
but at 84°°5 (99 deg. Sauss.), this effect of a cloud on the
movement of the instrument appeared to me most extraordi-
nary. The fog continued sufficiently long to admit of the
fillet of whalebone, by its attraction for the molecules of
water, to elongate itself. Our clothes were not dampened.
A traveller, experienced in observations of this kind, recently
assured me that he saw on the naked mountain of Mar-
tinique, a similar effect of clouds on the hair hygrometer. It
is the duty of a natural philosopher to relate the phenomena
which nature presents, especially when he has neglected
nothing to avoid errors of observation.”

M. Rozet, an officer of the état-major, has often observed,
during his investigations among the Pyrenees, a bed of hori-
zontal vapour at a height varying from 230 to 1150 metres
above the sea. But in order to determine whether these
vapours belong to the class of dry or humid fogs, it is neces-
sary that the observer should have been accustomed to hy-
grometrical experiments.

In conclusion, it appears to me that the existence of true
dry fogs, as dense as ordinary humid fogs, has not been per-
fectly demonstrated. Saussure’s bluish vapour is nothing
more than a disturbance of the transparency of the air, and
not a true fog. The insulated observation of M. de Hum-
boldt has been made with a defective instrument, and very
slow in its indications,—the whalebone hygrometer of Deluc.
On this subject, therefore, meteorology requires new re-
searches, undertaken with the new means of investigation for
which she is indebted to the progress of experimental physics.
It is unquestionable that the degree of humidity in fogs is
variable ; but it is not yet demonstrated that fogs exist so
dense as to veil objects at the distance of a kilometre, for
example, and so dry as in no degree to affect delicate psy-
chrometrical instruments; at all events, that these fogs are
not the smoke arising from great combustions. This is a

248 Mr C. Martins on the Nature and Origin of Dry Fogs.

subject of study as new as it is interesting. But to enter
upon it with the well-founded hope of resolving the question,
we beg of observers to employ M. Regnault’s aspirator
along with hygrometrical instruments. This instrument
enables us to weigh the quantity of aqueous vapour contained
in a given volume of air, and it thence follows that the re-
sults are free from all the causes of error which may attach
to Saussure’s hygrometer, August’s psychrometer, that of
Daniell, and even M. Regnault’s condenser. In a thick foe
the eye can scarcely notice the exact moment when the vapour
is deposited in small drops on the silver capsule of the con-
denser, or of Daniell’s hygrometer, and consequently there
is always uncertainty as to the degree of the thermometer at
which the dew is deposited. Travelling meteorologists will
be much to blame if they neglect the hygrometrical study of
fogs, carried on by means of these portable instruments. An
approximating result is always preferable to absolute igno-
rance. Our numerical data and physical experiments are
exact, compared with those of our predecessors. But our
successors, provided with more delicate apparatus, and more
extensive knowledge, will find precisely the same faults with
us that we sometimes allege against those who have gone
before us in the same path. Absolute truth is a phantom
which man continually approaches, with the certainty of
never reaching it.

249

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250 Dr Miller on the

Tasie I].—Hygrometer.

3 P.M.

Weight of | Required | Degree of
Vapour in| for satura-| Humidity,

1853. a Cubic | tion of a |(complete
Dry Wet ae Compe. he of pine + mei ata
Bulb. | Bulb. | point, DameF ete ° : ;
2 2 © ? Grains. Grains.

January 43°15 | 41°05] 38°48 4°67 2-91 0-51 0°853
February || 37°22 35°09} 31°95 5°27 2:35 0:47 *832
March . 43:66] 89°78] 35:12 8°34 2°60 0°89 "745
April . 49°43] 46°31] 43°05 6°38 3°38 0°80 *806
May é 59°46 | 51:60] 46-07 13°39 3°67 45 IB | *635
June. 63°41] 58°18} 54°56 8°85 4°86 OF. 745
July. 63°55 | 59°75! 57-04 6°51 5°28 1:27 ‘807
August. 63°14] 57°:79| 54:43 8:71 4°79. 1:68 ‘TAL
September|| 59°58 | 54°52} 50°93 8°65 4°34 1°46 ‘749
October 54°64] 51°54} 49°00 5°64 4:09 0°84 *832
November || 46°98 | 44°55] 41°75 5°23 3:24 0°64. 835
December || 38:47 | 36°88] 34:50 3°97 2:57 0°37 873

1853. 51°89} 48:08| 44°74 715 3°67 1:06 0-788

1852. 53°99 | 49°89| 46°48 7°51 3°88 1:16 *782

1851. 52°36 | 48°77| 45°74 6°62 3°07* 1:76*

1850. 52°35 | 48°46| 45°17 7°18 aa sore

1849. 52°00} 48°21] 44°91 7°09 361 1:10

1848. 51:93| 48°23] 44:98 6°95 isis Bisa

1847. - 51°94 44°12 7°82

* Calculated from observations taken at 9 A.M. and at 3 P.M.

Taste 1V.—Seathwaite. Wet Days.

Month. || 1845.| 1846.| 1847.| 1848. 1849.| 1850.| 1851. | 1852.} 1853.

| | — SS | SO | | |

Jan. . py? 25 13 14 20 12 ref 28) ti 25
Feb. . th 15 10 265 cg 23 15 17. 13
March 15 23 14 24 13 12 22 6 18
April 1l 21 16 16 19 a1 17 3 21
May . 15 14 23 1l 15 19 21 16 Li
June. || 18 Ls 15 19 10 16 20 25 16
July . 15 25 13 19 18 15 18 18 25
August £2 16 17 25 18 24 19 £2 15
Sept. . 15 12 23 16 10 12 9 16 20

October 21 24 19 22 18 24 25 17 25
Nov.. 20 17 21 22 20 24 15 23 18

Dec, |) ieee. (46 | 18 | Jacl- +) ot | on ae eee
g Be dese de ce | eu ce 04 cc, slo acco cae
Seath- jou 219 | 202 | 232 | 193 | 223 | 219 | 221 | 217
waite, |

hice. |} 198 200 | 191 | 211 | 190 | 189 | 195 | 190 | 192
haven, ||

Green-

: } 187 161 175 206 103 | 141 146 152 184
wich, |

#2

‘4 ‘ ‘
Tl *

Meteorology of Whitehaven. 251

Tasie IlI.—Monthly Fall of Rain at Seathwaite, Borrowdale,
Cumberland, in the Years 1845-1853 inclusive.

Month. 1845.| 1846.| 1847.| 1848.) 1849./ 1850.| 1851.| 1852.| 1853.

| i. Inches | Inches | Inches} Inches | Inches | Inches} Inches | Inches | Inches
| January, . || 16°81/ 17:07) 6:29) 9-67 | 24:96) 7:34] 28-63] 27°65 | 23-12
, February, . 3°48| 11:°51| 8-27] 30°55| 7:55] 22°58] 15°33] 20°05] 3-84
March, . . 13°21] 17°85| 2:58] 11°36} 5°51} 413] 9:36 98} 4:59
| pri, . 10°57| 7°70) 681} 4:19] 3-88] 15°62] 6:08 *74.| 12°67
May, » ss 4°57) 440! 808| 3:05) 6:52] 7:14] 4:53] 11°59 *89
June, eee 8°25 6°41 7:27 | 11°30 3:97 6°83} 11°63} 12°33] 4:07
BJuly,. . . 8:65] 20:80} 3°32] 17:76 | 16-64] 11-20] 14:47| 7-65] 19-67
; August, . . 15°61] 10°58} 10°48} 13:91] 9-92} 16:22) 13:16| 12°37] 10°47
September, . 9:°77| 4:60| 13°28} 7:00] 4:08] 5:85] 4°30] 4:64] 10°42
October, . . 15°17 | 25°48| 20-52| 17°32] 16:14] 12:94] 20°38| 8:44] 13-25
November, . 20°84! 10°46] 21°85} 14:07] 18°75| 22:60} 3°74] 17-47] 9-47
December, . 24°94!) 6°70] 20°54} 20°71) 7:55] 11:51] 7:99} 32°83] 1-23

—————— | | — || | | |

jAt 10 inches | 1151.97 |143-51 |129-24 |160-89 |125-47 |143-96 |139 -60'156-74 |113°69
above ground,

‘At 22 inches, vai ve» |126°80 |157°22 |121°57| ... |185°86 |150°88 |111-61

—- qx“ or ue | oe je | ——qq— \ um —

Whitehaven, 49:20) 49°13] 42:92} 47°34] 39:00} 40°47] 43:12| 50-03) 37-40
Greenwich, . 22°30| 25°30] 17°80] 30°20] 23:90| 19°70] 21:60] 34:40} 29-00

There are four rain-gauges stationed at and in the neighbourhood of Seathwaite,— one

at 10 inches, and the other at 22 inches, above the surface; the former is planted in a

small garden, and the latter in a more exposed situation, in an adjacent field. A third

gauge is fixed on the “ Stye” or shoulder of “ Sprinkling Fell,” about a mile and a half

distant from Seathwaite, in a south-westerly direction, and 580 feet above it, or 948 feet

above the sea-level. Fallon “Sprinkling Fell,” in 1850, 189°49 in.; 1851, 169°62 in. ;
1852, 167-73 in.; and in 1853, 124°91 inches.

The fourth gauge is near the top of Seatollar Common, 1338 feet above the sea, or

970 feet above the hamlet, and about the same distance from it as the Stye, bearing

_ nearly due north. Depth of rain on Seatollar Common in 1850, 138°84 inches; in 1851,

_ 141°42 inches; in 1852, 156°59 inches; and in 1853, 111°45 inches.

252

Taste V.—Maxeimum Fall of Rain in 24 hours at Seathwaite,

Dr Miller on the

in each Month of the Years 1845-1853 inclusive.

1853.

Month. 1845.| 1846.| 1847.| 1848.|} 1849./ 1850.| 1851.| 1852.
| Inches | Inches | Inches | Inches |} Inches| Inches| Inches} Inches | Inches
January, . || 3:05 | 250 | 144 / 1°82 | 3°32 | 260 | 4:24 4°40 3°84.
February, 1:24 |) 2:18) 242.1) S674 19245 Sok eee 3°30 By
March, . 2°83 | 3°80 “41 | 2°70 | 1°60} 1°45 | 1°60 "28 1:04
Apri,’. |» 3:10 | 1:60 | 1°65 “io “70 |. 2°00 |. 3°an “51 3°75 |
May, . - So f Lae (etsy “80 ‘90 | 2°80 *80 2°57 22 |
June, ‘ 1°53 | 1°84 | 2:20 | 2°36 | 1°35 | 2°20 |; 2-4) 1-92 74
July, % 2:21 | 4:01 58 | 3:06 | 268 | 3:24] 3-98 1:06 4°28 |
August, . 3°20 | 2°54 |, 3:22.) 3:00 | 163 | 321°| 165 2-00 2°52 f
September, E95 | E44 | O74) 47 264 eo Pero 1°22 1:93 |
October, . 2°61 | 5°98 | 5°33 | 3°25 | {3°78 | §3°71 | 2:98 127 1-80 |
November, || *6°62 | 1°51 | 4:96 | 2°43 | 2°50 | 3°15 | 1°30 3:05 1:63 |
December, 4-22 | 1°62 | 3°10 | 460° | 118) E18 | DOS 467 36 |
— 662 | 5:98 | 5:33 | 460] 3:78] 371] 4:24] 457 | 42
aily Fall,
4°37 | 4°69 5°74
Wast-| Lang- Stone-
dale. | dale.

thwaite.

* On the 25th and 26th of November 1845, the fall at Seathwaite in 48 hours was
9°62 inches; and at Langdale Head, 8°89 inches!!!

1846. On the 2d and 3d of March, the fall at Seathwaite was 6°86 inches.

3» On the 8th and 9th of October, there fell 9°74 inches; and on the 8th, 9th, and
10th, 11°63 inches.

1847. On the 6th and 7th of October, the fall was 6°76 inches; and on 4 days in this

month, it amounted to 13°10 inches.
»» On 2 days in November, there fell 8°36 inches; and on 2 days in December,
6°14 inches.

1848. On the 3d, 4th, and 5th of February, the fall was 7°72 inches; and on 9 days in

this month, it amounted to 23°13 inches!!

» Onthe 3d and 4th of October, the fall was 5:89 inches.

», On the 3d and 4th of December, there fell 6°74 inches; and on the 3d and 26th
the fall amounted to 8°82 inches.

+1849.In January, the greatest daily fall at Langdale was 4°30 inches on the 24th; and
in 3 days in this month, the deposit amounted to 8°68 inches.

In the 4 days between the 22d and 25th of October, the fall at Seathwaite was
10°79 inches;—the maximum daily fall at Wastdale Head was 4°37 inches,
and from the 22d to the 25th inclusive, the deposit of rain amounted to 9°94
inches. i

1850. On February 14, 15, and 16, the fall was 6°91 inches, and on 5 days in this month, r
it amounted to 12°72 inc hee

§ ,, The greatest daily fall at Langdale, in October, was 4°69; on the 6th and 7th,

the deposit amounted to 8°26 inches, and at Seathwaite to 5°91 inches.
s»» On 4 days in November, there fell 10°00 inches. j
1851. On January 1 and 2, the fall was 5°34 inches; and on 5 days in this month, it
amounted to 14°98 inches.
» Onthe 12th, 13th, and 14th of July, the fall was 8°27 inches.
»» Onthe 18th and 19th October, there fell 5°63 inches ; and in 3 days in this month, ;
8°58 inches.
1852. On 3 days in Jauuary, the fall was 10°42 inches.
» On the first 5 days of February, 11°15 inches was measured; and on 6 days in this”
month, 13°77 inches.
» On the 10th and 11th of December, there fel! 7°60 inches; and on 8 days in this”
month, 20°73 inches!!

The greatest daily fall at Stonethwaite in December, was 5*74 inches on the 11th;
on the 10th and 11th, the deposit was 9°11 inches; and on 8 days in thi
month, it amounted to 20°97 inches !!

1853, Fall on 3d and 4th of July, 6°62 inches.

bey

ll os

of Whitehaven in the year 1853. 253

Remarks on the Year 18538.

January.—A mild and rather wet month. January is usually
the coldest month, but, this year, it was considerably warmer
than either February or March. The mean temperature was 2°-7
above its average value. There was thunder and lightning on 4
days, and the sun shone out more or less on 25 days in this month.
On the 17th, I find the following memorandum in the Register,—
** This is the first really clear and bright evening we have had since
the 29th of November.”

A correspondent of the Whitehaven Herald states that “‘ the rain
which fell on the 15th, in some parts of High Furness, was so black as
to colour the mountain brooks, and even the earth and sand washed by
the same had a dark appearance. This is not the first time that such a
phenomenon has been observed. It has been previously witnessed,
both in this district and in Norfolk. At the latter place, a farmer
writing in the Lynn Advertiser stated, ‘that the rain which fell
upon his newly-cut swathes made them so black, that the haymakers
were like chimney-sweepers.”’

An Orange-tinted atmosphere.—Jan.4th. Heavy rain throughout
the day ; about 4 p.M., fair, but sky overcast,—the whole atmosphere
assumed an orange tinge, which had a very peculiar effect on sur-
reunding objects, resembling the lurid aspect of the landscape during
the continuance of a total or an annular eclipse of the sun.

February.—Fine, but very cold, with the thermometer at or below
_ 82° on sixteen nights. The coldest February in the last 21 years,

except the corresponding month of 1838. The mean temperature is
5°-4 below the average. On the 12th, at 8 a.m., the thermometer stood
‘at 20°; at llh. 30m. a.m., at 24°5; and, at 3 p.m., at 26°—the
“mean temperature of the day being 23°2. A naked thermometer
on raw wool on grass, fell to 8°77 on the night between the 27th and
28th. Snow fell on 5 days, and the entire depth was equivalent to
a quarter of an inch of water.

On the evening of the 27th, the Zodiacal Light was unusually
bright and distinct. The cone, or rather frustrum, was not visible
“much beyond the altitude of Saturn ;—its sides, if prolonged, would
apparently meet a little to the south of the Pleiades. At 9h. 30m.,
there was no trace of the light. From 8 p.m., there was a low flat
auroral arch, altitude about 23°, and breadth 6°,—very bright and
pretty well defined. The sun shone out on 23 days.

_ March.—A fine, dry, but cold month. Mean temperature 2°3
below its average value. Snow showers fell on 6 days, and the en-
tire fall was equal to 5th of an inch of water. Lightning was
‘Seen on the evening of the 4th. The thermometer at 4 feet above
the ground fell below 32° on 10 nights, and the sun shone out more
or less on 28 days.

_ VOL. LVI. NO CXII.—APRIL 1854. S

254 Dr Miller on the Climate

The Comet, supposed to be that of 1664, was seen at this Observa-
tory on the evening of the 30th.

First Quarter.—The mean temperature of the quarter ending
March 31st, is 1°°6 below the average of the previous 20 years. The
deaths in the town and suburb of Preston Quarter are 127, being
24, or 16 per cent. under the average number in the last 14 years,
corrected for increase of population.

By the Registrar-General’s report it appears, that “ the deaths
throughout the kingdom in the first 8 months of this year exceeded
by 11,559 the deaths in the winter quarter of 1852, and by still
more the deaths in any previous winter, except the winters of 1847
and 1848, when influenza and cholera prevailed. On the average
of the 10 winter quarters 1843-52, the rate of mortality was
2°467 per cent. ; in the winter quarter of the present year 2°620 per
cent.”

April—A fine seasonable month. Its mean temperature is
identical with the average of the previoug 20 years. The ther-
mometer at 4 feet above the ground did not fall within 1}° of the
freezing point, but a delicate instrument placed on wool on a grass
plot, descended to 18° on the night common to the 8th and 9th.
The sun shone out on 27 days.

On the 14th, I find the following entry in the journal :—‘ A
blackbird’s nest containing four and a thrush’s nest with three eggs
were found to-day near Bridge Foot. There are as yet but few in-
dications of spring. The hedgerows are only beginning to bud, and
the only green leaves visible are those of the wild gooseberry bush
and woodbine. On warm banks primroses are expanding, and in con-
siderable numbers. Bees have begun to bear within the last few days.”

On the night of the 21st, a very fine, perfect, and sharply-de-
fined Junar halo, about 44° in diameter, was almost continuously —
visible from 10h. to 14h, (2 o’clock in the morning.)

On the following day, there was a magnificent solar halo from—
11h. 30m. a.m. till near sunset; at 3h, 30m. p.m., the interior dimen-
sions of the ring taken with the altazimuth instr ument, were,

Polar diameter, ; 43°17’,

Equatorial do., - 43° 50,
From 5h. 45m, till near 6h. 30m., the ring was broken up into—
several segments, the upper one being by far the brightest, and ex-—
hibiting prismatic colours of considerable intensity. From this por-
tion of the ring, two faint curved rays or bands of light were thrown
off. At 5h. 45m., I noticed a faint mock sun, or circular patch
of light much brighter than the ring, and intersecting it to the left
of the sun, and nearly at the same altitude. The parhelion threw
off outwards an elongated cone or bush of white light, and an ima-
ginary line joining the axis of the bush and the centre of the
parhelion and true sun was parallel to the horizon. The halo had
vanished by 6h. 30m.; afterwards, a faint cone of light resembling the

ee SS a ee

of Whitehaven in the year 1858. 255

bush described might be traced above the sun’s upper limb, perpen-
dicular to the horizon. Soon after the moon rose, a faint lunar
halo was visible, and it continued more or less perfect till after mid-
night. On the morning of the 28th, at 2h. 21m., an unusually
brilliant shooting star appeared and disappeared in the south-east at
an altitude of about 15°, and it conveyed a strong impression of being
close at hand, as if it were a spark from a neighbouring chimney.
At 2h. 30m., there was a singular brownish conical light above
the upper limb of the gibbous moon, resembling the flame of a
candle.

The cuckoo was heard at Rothersyke on the 24th, and swallows
made their appearance in this neighbourhood a day or two later. I
first noticed the Io butterfly on the 29th.

Between the 24th of March and the end of April, we were favoured
with an uninterrupted continuance of the finest astronomical weather
I almost ever remember, and during this period I was enabled suc-
cessfully to measure, both in position and distance, some of the most
delicate and difficult double and binary stars—as € Bootis, Z Bootis,
and Z Hercules.*

From the very favourable state of the atmosphere, I was also en-
abled to charge the micrometer with a lens of unusually high power
(500) and of admirable workmanship, made by Mr Simms,—with
which systems of the 3d and 4th magnitude (under illumination)
presented perfect disks, with scarcely a trace of rings. Indeed,
nothing could exceed the beauty and sharpness of the stellar defini-
tion with this eye-piece, and I prefer it to any lower power for
micrometric measures, when the air is at all tolerably steady.

May.—The driest May on record at this place, except the corre-

_ Sponding month in 1836 and 1844. The entire deposit of rain between
the 19th of April and the 6th of June—a period of 47 days, only
_ amounted to 0°624 inch, of which 0-272 fell in May, on 6 days.
The month was remarkably fine and clear throughout ; the number
of perfectly clear days was 7, and the sun shone out either partially
or continuously on every day. The nights were cold, bright, and
_ cloudless, and an enormous amount of radiant heat was thrown off
from the earth’s surface between sunset and sunrise. The differ-
ence between the day and night temperature was 17°; and the
_ mean difference between the standard thermometer in air at 4 feet
above the ground, and one on raw wool placed on the grass, was
14°-2. Vegetation was consequently subjected to very low tempera-
tures :—the mean of the night temperature on the grass was 29°'8,

_ * In about two years, the small purple companion of ¢ Hercules will have per-
formed two entire revolutions around its brilliant primary since its position
Was first determined by Sir W. Herschel in the summer of 1782. It is now
‘Moving in its orbit at the rate of about 5° per annum, and its distance has in-

_ creased of late years.
82

256 Dr Miller on the Climate ~

or 2°:2 below the freezing point. The naked thermometer on wool
frequently fell below 20°, and once to 17°, although the standard
instrument did not descend below 35° during the month. The mean
temperature is ;*;ths of a degree under its average value. On the 7th,
there were some slight snow showers, and between the 3d and 7th,
the maximum temperature fell 15 degrees, On the 9th, there
were 9 inches of snow on the ground between Keswick and Cocker-
mouth. At Liverpool, snow covered the streets to the depth of 3
inches at 8 o'clock in the morning. At Holmfirth, snow fell heavily
throughout the day,—it was 18 inches deep on the streets.

During this beautifully fine clear month, the astral definition was
so deplorable, that only three sets of Positions were obtained at this
Observatory in as many weeks, with the apparent advantage of an
almost continuously bright and unclouded sky. The hygrometrical
condition of the air was unusually low, the dew-point ranging from
12° to 24° below the temperature of the air. On the 13th, the com-
plement of the dew-point was 17°-1; on the 15th, 20°°5; on the
17th, 22°°5 ; and, on the 24th, 24°-5 approaching to the extreme
of hygroscopic dryness i in this climate.

To the very unequal distribution of moisture over the upper and
lower strata of the atmosphere, the twirling, moulding, and blotted
appearance of the stars is no doubt to be attributed.

The Cabbage Butterfly was seen on the Ist.

The Cuckoo was heard at Seathwaite on the Ist, and Swallows
were seen on the 17th, for the first time this season. Snow fell in
the Lake District on every day between the 6th and 9th inclusive,
amounting to 0°35 inch of water. :

June.—A fine but rather cold month. The temperature is half
a degree below the average. The sun shone out on 28 days.

Seconp QuartreR.—The temperature of the quarter ending June
30th, is 0°:3 below the average of 20 years. The deaths in the town
and suburb are 99, being 23 in number, or 19 per cent. under the
average of the 14 previous spring quarters. In the lst and 2d
quarters of the year 1853, the sanitary condition of Whitehaven is
very favourably contrasted with that of the kingdom generally. The
Registrar-General in his report for this,quarter says:—‘ The average
mortality for the spring quarter is 2°223. This average is exceeded
by the present return, which shews a mortality at the rate of 2°383
per cent. per annum higher than the rate in the corresponding
quarter of every year from 1843-52, except the spring quarter of
1847, when the population was infested by scurvy and its attendant
diseases, after the great failure of the potato crop in 1846, The
rate of mortality was then 2°506; in the autumn, influenza broke
out, and cholera followed in its footsteps i in 1848 and 1849.”

July.—A cold, damp, and rather wet month. The mean tem-
perature 1°-49 below the average, and 6”1 under that of July 1852.
A thunder storm occurred on the evening of the 13th, accompanied
by heavy rain, The sun shone out on 24 days.

of Whitehaven in the year 1853. 257

. August.—A cool, but fine and dry month. Rain fell on 11 days
only, and the sun shone out on every day but two. The tempera-
ture is 0°-'7 under the average of 20 years, and 2°17 under that of
the same month in 1852.

- The evaporation and rain fall are identical in amount (3°12
inches). The grain harvest commenced in this neighbourhood on

the 19th.
- The Comet discovered by Klinkerfues at Gottingen, on the 10th
of June, suddenly became visible to the naked eye in its descent to
the perihelion, on the evening of the 23d of August, about 8 o’clock.
Owing to the almost continuous presence of cloud in the north-west,
the comet was seen at this Observatory on two evenings only, those
of the 23d and 26th. On the latter occasion, the nucleus was equal
in lustre to a star of the first magnitude, and its well-defined para-
bolic tail was probably 6° or 8° degrees in length. The angle of
Position of the axis of the tail with the meridian, by a mean of
three observations secured through openings in the clouds, was found
to be 60°:2. The nucleus of the comet was detected hy Mr Hartnup

_ of Liverpool, at mid-day on the 3d of September, when it attained

the perihelion.

September.—A fine, dry, and seasonable month. The tempera-
ture is identical with the average of 20 previous years. The sun
shone out on 25 days, and exactly half the entire number of days
were free from rain, The evaporation and fall of rain again very
nearly balance each other.

On the evening of the 2d, at 9 o’clock, there was a brilliant but
irregular and imperfect Auroral arch at an altitude of 50°, in the
direction of the magnetic east and west, The extremities were
turned upwards towards the zenith. The phenomenon more re-
sembled an illuminated white cloud, than the light usually exhibited
by the Aurora Borealis. It disappeared in about 15m. after the
writer’s attention was first called to it, and was succeeded by volumes
of auroral mist extending from east to west, which emitted faint mag-
netic flashes.

-Tuirp QuarTER.—The temperature of the summer quarter is 07

_ below the average of 20 years. The deaths in the town and suburb

:
-

are 73, a smaller number than has been registered in any previous
September quarter, except in 1852, when the deaths were exactly
the same in number. The deaths are 43, or aad per cent. under
the corrected average number.

The rate of mortality for the entire kingdom was also under the

_ average rate for the season.

October.—Mild and wet, more rain having fallen than in any

_ other month of 1853. The temperature is 1°°8 above its average

value. On the 29th, at 9 p.m., a single auroral streamer in

WSW., extending to the zenith. The sun shone out on 23 days,
although more or less rain fell on 24 days in the month.
November.—A mild month, and less damp than usual. The

258 ~ Dr Miller on the Climate

temperature is 09 above the average, and the thermometer fell to
the freezing point on one night only.

There were two lunar halos, and two slight appearances of aurora
borealis. | |

December.—A fine and remarkably dry, cold month. The tem-
perature is 4°-28 under the average, and no less than 87°55 under
the mean temperature of the corresponding month in 1852!! This
is the driest December on record at this place, except the seg ager’
ing month of 1844, in which the quantity of rain was only 3,ths of
an inch. The Decembers of 1852 and 1853 are strikingly con-
trasted with each other ;—whilst the former was the mildest and
wettest, the latter is the coldest (two excepted) and driest (one ex-
cepted) ever known, or at least recorded at Whitehaven. In Decem-
ber 1852, the depth of rain slightly exceeded 11 inches ;—in tho
same month of 18538, it only amounted to half an inch. The sun
shone out on 15 days, and the thermometer fell below 32° on 14
nights.

On the 6th, at 7h. 25m. p.M., there was an auroral: arch, 10°
or more in breadth, extending from ENE. to WSW., the centre
passing a little south of the zenith. At 8 p.m., two-thirds of the
sky were covered with streamers converging about 15° south of the
zenith. By 8h. 30m. the phenomenon had nearly disappeared.
At 11h., there was a broad arch in the NW.—altitude of centre
about 30°.

Last QuarteR.—The mean temperature of the last quarter is
0°-5 under the average. The deaths in the town and suburb are
138, or three above the corrected average number in the 14 previous
autumn quarters. The prevailing disease was Scarlatina. | White-
haven was entirely exempted from cholera, which visited the adjacent
town of Workington with fatal virulence during this period.

According to the Registrar-General, ‘“ this period was unhealthy,
and a greater number of lives was lost to the population than in
any other autumnal quarter of the last 13 years, with only two ex-
ceptions,—the fourth quarter of 1846 and that of 1847.”

Winds.—In 1853, the winds were distributed as under :—N., 33
days; NE., 623 dings ; E., 264 days; SE., 263 days; S., 57
days; SW., 92 days; W., 31 days; and NW., 363 days.

Weather, &c.—In the bygone year, there were 21 perfectly clear
days; 152 days more or less cloudy without rain; 192 wet days ;
300 days on which the sun shone out more or less ; 46 frosty nights
(of which 16 were in February and 14 in December); 15 snow
showers ; and 11 days on which hail fell. There have also been 2
solar and 6 lunar halos, 1 parhelion, 4 days of thunder and light-
ning, 1 day on which lightning was seen without thunder, and 7 ap-
pearances of aurora borealis. The number of days on which the sun
shone out is greater than in any other year of which a record has
been kept. The next greatest number was 292, in 1844.

of Whitehaven in the year 1853. 259

-The mean temperature of the year 1853 is 48°11, being 0°:79
ick the climatic average of this place, and 2°:04 below the tem-
perature of the year 1852. The fall of rain is 9:18 inches under
the average depth in 20 years, and 12°63 inches under the quantity
measured in 1852. There are but two years in the last 21 which
exceed the past in dryness,—viz., 1842 and 1844; in the former,
the fall of rain was 34°70 inches, and, in the latter, 36-72 inches.

The last two years present several abnormal and very opposite
characteristics. Onthe whole, the year 1852 was one of the weitest,
—while 1853 was one of the driest on record at this port; yet, in
both years, the fall of rain in the first 6 months was greatly below the
normal depth. The year 1852 was one of the mildest, and 18538
one of the coldest in the last 21 years. In 9 months of 1852, the
temperature was considerably above,—and, in 8 months of 1853, it
was greatly below the average for the season. The year 1852 was
remarkable for the unusual number and almost tropical severity of
its thunder-storms,—the year 1853 is equally marked by an evtra-
ordinary absence of electrical disturbances in the atmosphere, the
number of thunder-storms being only four, (of which three occurred
in January) and none of them were of a violent character. The
month of December, 1853, was moreover entirely exempted from
the tremendous gales of wind which prevailed towards the close of
the-year 1852.

In 1852, the amount of surface evaporation was 30°34 inches ;
in 18653, the depth is 27°33 inches.

In March, May, June, August, and December, 1853, the eva-
poration exceeds the fall of rain; in April and September, the two
processes nearly balance each other; and, in the other months of
the year, the depth of water precipitated greatly exceeds the amount
of spontaneous evaporation.

The deaths in the town and suburb in 1853, are 437, being 89
in number, or 17 per cent. below the average ae oe number in 14
years, corrected for increase in population. The births (689) ex-
ceed the deaths by 252, and are eight above the corrected average
number for the same period.

Assuming the population of the town and suburb of Whitehaven
to be the same as in 1851 (19,281), when the last census was taken,
the mortality is equivalent to 22°6 deaths per 1000, or one death
in every 44 inhabitants. This rate is favourably contrasted with
the ratio of mortality in most of the principal towns of the kingdom
during the past year. In Glasgow, the mortality amounted to
26:9 deaths in every 1000 persons, a considerably greater mor-
tality than in 1848, when the city was infested with cholera.
Nearly 50 per cent. of the deaths were those of children under 5
years of age.

The sanitary condition of this town has been rapidly improving
every year since the water-works were completed in 1851, In

260 The Great Auk still found in Iceland.

1849, the mortality was equivalent to 32:2 deaths per 1000, or
one in every 31 persons; in 1850, to 24-9 deaths per 1000, or
one in every 40 individuals; in 1851, to 23-4 deaths per 1000, or
one death in every 42°6 inhabitants ; in 1852, to exactly 23 deaths
per 1000, or one in every 43°3 persons; and, in 1853, the mortality
was at the rate of 22:6 deaths per 1000, or one death in every 44
inhabitants. The average number of deaths in the 14 years end-
ing with 1852, is 495, which, with an assumed mean population of
18,1438, gives 27:2 deaths per 1000, or one in every 36°6 persons.

According to the Registrar-General, the annual average rate of
mortality for the kingdom, from 1843 to 1852, is, in towns, 25:8
per 1000, and in the country districts, 20°3 per 1000 persons.
These figures shew that, prior to 1850, the rate of mortality in
Whitehaven was not only absolutely excessive, but relatively so to
that of the principal towns in England.

The tables showing the annual, monthly, and maximum daily
fall of rain at Seathwaite, in the heart of the English Lake Dis-
trict, during the last nine years, require very little comment. The
greatest fall tn any year was 160°9 inches, in 1847,;—the least,
113-7 inches, in 18538. |

The greatest monthly fall was 32°83 inehes, in December 1852.
The greatest depth measured in 24 hours was 6°62 inches, in No-
vember 1845; and,in 48 consecutive hours, 9°62 inches, onthe
25th and 26th of November, 1845, and 9°74 inches on the 8th and
9th of October, 1846.

THE OBSERVATORY, WHITEHAVEN,
28th January 1854.

The Great Auk still found in Iceland.

The Great Auk (Gar-Fogel, Sw.; Alcea impennis, Linn.)
This remarkable bird—the largest of its tribe, being the size
of the common tame goose—which at no period of its exist-
ence is able to fly, resembles greatly the penguins of the
southern hemisphere, the link between birds and amphi-
bious animals. Although at one time, according to ancient
authors, it belonged to the Scandinavian fauna, it cannot
now be considered as entitled to a place there. The last
heard of on the coast of the peninsula was killed in the Cat-
tegat, near to the town of Marstrand, some fifty or sixty
years ago. About the same period, Denicken tells us, one
was shot in the harbour of Keil, in Holstein.

The Great Auk still found in Iceland. 261

- According to Graba, the Great Auk has not been seen in
Greenland, Iceland, or the Faroe Islands of late years; and
the author of an article in the Edinburgh Cabinet Library,
who cites Graba, says that “‘ the race may now be regarded as
extinct.” English and Swedish naturalists, as respects the
countries in question, seem to have come pretty much to the
Same conclusion. But this is incorrect; for on parts at least
of the coast of Iceland it is still to be met with. This is
more especially the case on the so-called Geirfugle-Skyaer
(Danish), or Great Auk-Skir; on which, however, so fearful
a surf is said constantly to beat, that it is rarely, excepting at
imminent risk to life, that a landing can be effected.

In the year 1813, a colony of these birds, we are told,
were here observed by a passing ship. A boat was at once
despatched to the spot, and no fewer than twenty were cap-
tured on their eggs, all of which were carried to Reckravig.
One of the birds was afterwards stuffed, but the others were
eaten. In 1814, again, eight individuals were killed on a
flat skir, on the west coast of Iceland. In 1818 a single
one was taken at a place in South Iceland, where several
others were also observed. In 1823 two old birds were
killed on a skir near to Orebakke, and both were sent to the
Royal. Museum in Copenhagen. In 1829 a pair, male and
female, were killed on the Geirfugle-Skyaer, whilst coura-
geously defending their two eggs (they usually lay but one).
The birds are now in the possession of the apothecary Mech-
lenburg, at Flensborg. Still later, in 1832, at least ten were
killed on a skar near to Iceland. In the year 1834, three
birds and three eggs were brought to Copenhagen from that
island. In 1844 two birds and two eggs also reached this
city from the same quarter. People whose word is to be
relied on, Kyaerbolling tells us, have informed him, that
birds have subsequently been seen off the coast of Iceland ;
but although a large reward has been offered for both birds
and skins, no one has had the courage to land upon the skar.

From the above account there can be little question as to
the Great Auk still existing in some numbers on the coast of
Iceland; and I doubt not that we shall one day hear of some

262 Dr Playfair on the Food of Man under

of our enterprising countrymen having overcome all difficul-
ties, and returning home with a rich booty.

The egg of the Great Auk (occasionally it lays two, as it
would seem from the foregoing) is about the size of that of a
swan, and in shape it resembles that of the Foolish Guille-
mot, but is less pointed. The ground colour is dirty white,
tinged with yellow, marked, especially at the thicker end with
black-gray and brown blotches and streaks.—L. Lloyd’s Scan-
dinavian Adventures, vol. ii., p. 495.

On the Food of Man under different conditions of Age and
Employment. By Dr LYon PLAYFaIR, C.B., F.R.S.*

The author commenced by adverting to our very imperfect
acquaintance with the statistics of food. We are still igno-
rantregarding the quantity of the different proximate constitu-
ents of aliment necessary for man’s sustenance, even in his
healthy and normal condition. If the question were asked—
How much carbon should an adult man consume daily ?—
there would be scarcely more than one reliable answer, viz.,
that the soldiers of the body-guard of the Duke of Darmstadt
eat about 11 oz.} of carbon in the daily supply of food.

If, again, the question were asked—How much flesh-form-
ing matter supports an adult man in a normal condition ?—
no positive answer could be given. Even, as respects the
relation between the carbon in the flesh-forming matter and
that of the heat-givers, we have no reliable information. It
is true that certain theoretical conclusions on this head have
been drawn from the composition of flour, but no real statis-
tical answer deduced from actual experience exists.

When we inquire into the cause of our ignorance on
these points, it is found that the progress to knowledge is
surrounded with difficulties. Neither chemistry nor phy-
siology is in a sufficiently advanced state to grapple satis-
factorily with the subject of nutrition. For example, we

* From the Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1853.
t Liebig states a higher amount, but this is a recalculation from the new
food tables.

diferent conditions of Age and Employment. 263

know that albumen in an egg is the starting-point for a
whole series of tissues; that out of the egg come feathers,
claws, fibrine, membranes, cells, blood, corpuscles, nerves,
&c., but only the result is known to us; the intermediate
changes and their causes are quite unknown. After all,
this is but a rude and unsatisfactory knowledge. Hence,
when we approach the subject it is only to deal with very
rough generalities. Admitting that the experience of man
in diet is worth something, it is possible to arrive at some
conclusions by the statistical method,—that is, by accepting
experience in diet, and analyzing that experience. Take, for
example, the one general line of pauper diet for the English
counties placed in the table at the end of this notice. The
mode of arriving at the result of experience, in the case of
paupers, was to collect it from every workhouse in the king-
dom, and then to reduce it to one line. But the labour of
this is immense. In the preparation of this one line the fol-
lowing work had to be performed in acquiring the data :—

Number of Unions applied to, ; i ‘ 542
Number of explanatory letters sent to them, . 700
Number of calculations to reduce the results, . 47,696

Number of additions of the above calculations, .. 6,868
Number of extra hours, beyond the office hours,
paid to a clerk for the reduction, ; a, + keer

The statistical method, besides being very laborious, is
extremely tedious, and has thus deterred persons from en-
countering it. In giving, therefore, an example of some of
the results which have been collected within the last few
years, they will represent much labour, but very little or no
originality.

The lecturer then alluded shortly to the conditions in
nutrition, which must be borne in mind in looking at these
results. It was now admitted that the heat of the body was
due to the combustion of the unazotized ingredients of food.
Man inspires annually about 7 cwt. of oxygen, and about
#th of this burns some constituent and produces heat. The
whole carbon in the blood would thus be burned away in
_ about three days, unless new fuel were introduced as food.
_ The amount of food necessary depends upon the number of

264 Dr Playfair on the Food of Man under

respirations, the rapidity of the pulsations, and the relative
capacity of the lungs. Cold increases the number of respira-
tions and heat diminishes them; and the lecturer cited well-
known cases of the voracity of residents in Arctic regions,
although he admitted, as an anomaly, that the inhabitants of
tropical climates often shew a predilection for fatty or car-
bonaceous bodies. He then drew attention to the extra-
ordinary records of Arctic dietaries shewn in the table, which,
admitting that they are extreme cases, even in the Arctic
regions, are nevertheless very surprising.

Dr Playfair then alluded to the second great class of food
ingredients, viz., those of the same composition as flesh.
Beccaria, in 1742, pointed to the close resemblance between
these ingredients of flesh, and asked, ‘‘Is it not true that we
are composed of the same substances which serve as our
nourishment?’’ In fact, the simplicity of this view is now
generally acknowledged; and albumen, gluten, caseine, &c.,
are now recognised as flesh-formers in the same sense that
any animal aliment is. After alluding to the mineral ingre-
dients, attention was directed to a diet-table, which contained
some modifications, but was based on the one published in
the Agricultural Cyclopedia under the article Diet; the
table as shewn being used in the calculation of the dietaries.

The old mode of estimating the value of dietaries, by
merely giving the total number of ounces of solid food used
daily or weekly, and quite irrespective of its composition,
was shewn to be quite erroneous; and an instance was given
of an agricultural labourer in Gloucestershire, who in the
year of the potato famine subsisted chiefly on flour, consum-
ing 163 ounces weekly, which contained 26 ounces of flesh-
formers. When potatoes cheapened he returned to a potato-
diet, and now ate 321 ounces weekly, although his true
nutriment, in flesh-formers, was only about 8 or 10 ounces,
He shewed this further, by calling attention to the six
pauper dietaries formerly recommended, to the difference
between the salt and fresh meat dietary of the sailor, &c.,
all of which, relying on absolute weight alone, had in reality
no relation in equivalent nutritive value.

Attention was now directed to the diagrams exemplifying

——E——EE So mh eer heh CUmre ee .mhUh ee .hCU mh” CU}

=
a.

diferent conditions of Age and Employment. 265

dietaries. Taking the soldier and sailor as illustrating
healthy adult men, they consumed weekly about 35 ounces
of flesh-formers, 70 to 74 ounces of carbon; the relation of
the carbon in the flesh-formers to that of the heat-givers
being 1:3. If the dietaries of the aged were contrasted
with this, it would be found that they consumed less flesh-
formers (25—30 ounces), but rather more heat-givers (72—78
ounces) ; the relation of the carbon in the former to that of
the latter being about 1:5. The young boy, about ten or
twelve years of age, consumed about 17 ounces weekly, or
about half the flesh-formers of the adult man; the carbon
being about 58 ounces weekly, and the relations of the two
carbons being nearly 1: 53. The circumstances under which
persons are placed influence these proportions considerably.
In workhouses and prisons the warmth renders less neces-
sary a large amount of food-fuel to the body; while the re-
lative amount of labour determines the greater or less
amount of flesh-formers. Accordingly, it is observed that
the latter are increased to the prisoners exposed to hard
labour. From the quantity of flesh-formers in food, we may
estimate approximatively the rate of change in the body.
Now, a man weighing 140 lb. has about 4 lb. of flesh in
blood, 273 lb. in his muscular substance, &c., and about
5 lb. of nitrogenous matter in the bones. These 37 lb.
would be received in food in about eighteen weeks; or, in
other words, that period might represent the time required
for the change of the tissues, if all changed with equal rapidity,
which is, however, not at all probable,

All the carbon taken as food is not burned in the body,
part of it being excreted with the waste matter. Supposing
the respirations to be 18 per minute, a man expires about
8:59 oz. of carbon daily, the remainder of the carbon appear-
ing in the excreted matter.

In conclusion, Dr Playfair explained how the dietary-tables
elucidated the various admixtures of food common to cookery,
and how they might even be made to bear on certain national
characteristics, which were in no small degree influenced by
the aliments of different nations.

9

66

DIETARIES OF SOLDIERS AND SAILORS—
English Soldier .
Do. in India ,
English Sailor (Fresh Meat)
Do. (Salt Meat) :
Dutch Soldier, in War
Do. in Peace
French Soldier .
Bavarian do.
Hessian do. ‘ : ‘
DIETARIES OF THE YOUNG—
Christ’s Hospital, Hertford .
Do. London .
Chelsea Hospital, Boys’ School
Greenwich Hospital, do.
DIETARIES OF THE AGED—
Greenwich Pensioners
Chelsea do.
Gillespie’s Hospital, Edinburgh .
Trinity Hospital, do.
OLD PAUPER DIETARIES—
Class 1 :

.

D OP © bo

Average of all English Counties in 1851

St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh
City Workhouse, do.
ENGLISH PRISON DIETARIES—

Class 2, Males . “ .
bs) Gy den. . . .
My a, ho eg We ‘
es da. « : “ ‘

BENGAL PRISON DIETARIES,
Non-Labouring Convicts
Working Convicts
Contractors’ insufficient Diet

BOMBAY PRISON DIETARIES—

All Classes of Prisoners not on hard labour
Hard Labour

.

ARCTIC AND OTHER DIETARIES—

Esquimaux . :
Yacut.
Bosjesman .

Hottentot

Agricultural Labourer, England
Do. do.

Do. India

Dr Playfair on the Food of Man under

Examples of Dietaries as

Weight Nitrogenous Substances
in ounces}. 5. free from
per week. Ingress Nitrogen.
378 36°15 127-18
261 34°15 10319
302 34°82 102°89
290 40°83 132:20
198 35°21 102°08
383 24°52 106°80
347 33°24 127°76
242 21:08 102°10
423 23°0 136:0
216 17:16 61:27
242 17:27 76°82
245 12°89 93°28
231 18°43 86:73
269 24°46 123'21
332 29°95 112°64
156 21°02 92°32
192 19°63 97°34
20°21 88°61
14:96 89°59
15°78 99°88
19:22 116°84
15°49 96°51
14:67 88:03
ae 22-0 99-0
175 14:80 89:37
107 13°30 49°99 |
2064 15:28 111°85
276 18:26 123°60
2714 20:97 125:98
326 20°29 130°57
224 18°43 163°16
296 28°16 19112
1674 12°70 135:95
182 28:00 101:50
224 35°63 128°80
250:0 1280:°0
999:0 640°0
574:0 368°0
424:0 400:0
163°6 26°64 106°57
114°6 20°39 72°46
218°0 14:02 138°27

Aid
v

different conditions of Age and Employment.

shewn in the Diagrams.

Proportion
between
Mineral <a AT bon
matter. | C4Ton- |Carbon | Carbon
in flesh | in heat-
formers.| givers.
4°92 71:68 1 3°66
2°39 66°32 1 3°58
3°17 70°55 1 3°70
6°03 87°40 1 3°94
1°85 74:08 1 3°87
415 70°77 1 5°32
4°62 85:25. 1 4:72
3°32 62°45 1 5°47
eve 77:0 1 6:16
2°47 39°18 1 4°21
2°84 46°95 1 5:02
5°93 57:67 1 8:29
2°62 52°87 1 5°29
3°54 72°43 1 5°46
4°65 78:03 a 4°80
2°35 71:39 1 6°26
3°33 57°30 1 5°38
3°27 54°30 1 4:95
2°89 51:10 1 6°31
3°91 55°43 “3 6°50
3°96 67°87 3 6°50
3.58 54:72 1 6°53
2°84 49°57 1 6°25
Pale 58°0 1 4°85
3-31 46:98 | 1 585
1-74 31°48 1 4:36
3°46 59°23 1 7°13
4:05 67°53 1 6°81
5°03 69°88 L 6°13
4:23 73°31 a 6°65
2:08 76°35 1 7°62
2:97 91-07 1 5°96
1:30 61°33 i 8°83
2:03 68°81 1 4:52
2°45 87:22 1 4:50
1125:0 :
¥ 66°0
555:0
604-0
1:10 74:70
118 51:72
2°41 61°54

———_, . ___-/ Fee ee ee ee ee en Ss Fe a ee a ee

| represent ex- |

REMARKS.

Public Dietaries.

MULDER.

Special Return obtained.

LIEBIG.

Special Returns obtained.

Special Returns obtained.

lent by the Poor-Law Commissioners.

Specially reduced from all the Unions
in 1851.

Special Returns.

but not exceeding 21 days.

va

terms exceeding 4 months.

From information supplied from the
India House.

(These probably (Ross, 1835, p. 448;
Parry, 1823, p. 413 ;
treme cases Cochrane, p.
mentioned
by the fol-
lowing au-
thorities.
Gloucestershire
Dorsetshire
Dharwar, Bombay—Return in Bombay
{ Prison Dietaries.

pp. 152, 258; Rich-
ardson, vide Agric.
\ Cye., article Diet.

See Agric. Cyclopedia.

267

The 6 dietaries recommended as equiva-

Convicted Prisoners exceeding 7 days,

Convicted Prisoners, hard labour, exceed-
ing 21 days, but not more than 6 weeks.

Convicted Prisoners, hard labour, above
6 weeks, and not more than 4 months.

Convicted Prisoners, hard labour, for

255 ;
Saritcheff. Barrow,

268 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

Description of Two Caves in the North Island of New
Zealand, in which were found Bones of the large extinct
wingless Bird, called by the Natives, Moa, and by Na-
turalists Dinornis; with some general Observations on
this Genus of Birds. By ArtHuR S. THomson, M.D.,
Surgeon of the 58th Regiment. Communicated by the
Author.

Narrative—In the month of February 1849, I ena

panied Lieutenant Servantes, of the 6th regiment, Captain
Henderson, Royal Artillery, and Lieutenant Clark, Royal
Engineers, in search of a cave said to contain the bones
of the Moa. Almost fifty years had elapsed since our guide,
an old woman, had seen these bones. The place of the cave,
and the bones, were perfectly familiar to her mind, as she
had seen them when a girl, but the face of the country had
evidently changed considerably since that period ;—trees

had grown up where ferns had formerly grown, and fern was

now growing where trees then stood ; so that after searching
about for a whole day, the old lady was obliged to acknow-
ledge that she could not find the cave, and we returned to
Auckland without accomplishing the object of our journey.
In September 1849, I accompanied Captain Henderson
and Lieutenant Servantes on another trip for a similar ob-
ject; on this occasion we were successful in finding a cave,
and a quantity of Moa’s bones, among which were several
almost entire skulls, and the beaks of some of the largest
birds, and a bone like a humerus. These specimens were
given to His Excellency Sir George Grey, Governor of New
Zealand, who transmitted them, I believe, to Professor Owen.*
I have been several times asked for a description of the cave,
but as our visit to it was a hasty one, and as all my fellow-

travellers to whom I might have applied for assistance in i!

this matter had left the country, I was obliged to acknow-
ledge my inability to give a satisfactory account of the cave.

This I regretted very much, because the New Zealanders are —
exceedingly jealous of shewing or allowing any place to be- a

* An account of these bones is given, I believe, in the Transactions of the
Zoological Society, and forms Part V., in continuation of Professor Owen's

previous memoirs on the Dinornis,

+ Description of the surrounding Country. 269

come known, which they have an idea is curious, without
payment; and when I recollected the difficulty and the delay
that-we had experienced in finding the cave before, I knew
that I could not find the place again without assistance, and
a native of Auckland had refused to conduct me to the cave
because the bones that were in it had been sold to a Euro-
pean, and I was aware that several bones from that cave had
been sold at an extravagant price at Taranaki ; consequently
the place was, to the few who knew it, a species of gold mine.

I was anxious, however, to try and find the cave again ;
so partly with this object in view, and also to visit Taupo, I
set out with Major Hume and Captain Cooper of the 58th
regiment, in October 1852. We directed our steps to Pa-
rianiwaniwa, a village upwards of a hundred miles from
Auckland, near to which the Moa cave is situated.

When passing through a forest between Raraoraro and
Rotomarama, we were overtaken by a native driving a pig.
We knew him to be partial to Europeans, because he had a
gun-swivel hung from a hole in bis right ear, as an ornament,
and he had on his feet a pair of Blucher boots, which, from
their dilapidated condition, were evidently worn more for
ornament than use. After keeping up with him for some

_ time, chiefly to admire how he got his pig through a most in-
_ tricate path in the wood, the animal appearing to understand
_ perfectly what he said, we entered into conversation about
_ the price of his pig; and we asked him if he knew any caves
¢ near his village, which contained Moas’ bones. This question
_ made him stop, and turn round and look at us all. It would
_ be something like asking a pig-driver near the quarry in Til-
4 gate Forest in Sussex, if he had ever heard of the fossil re-
_ mains of the Iguanodon Hyleosaurus, and other stupendous
_ creatures made known to us chiefly by the industry of Dr
_ Mantell. The English pig-driver would likely infer that the
querist had escaped from a madhouse, because he was ask-
ing about things which he had never heard of ; but not so with
the New Zealander, acquainted with every tree in the forest,
bs und every insect in the gronnd: he at once comprehended the
question and replied, “I will shew you a cave which contains
-Moas’ bones, for two sticks of tobacco.”

_ The day after our arrival at the village of Rotomarama
VOL, LVI. NO. CXII.—APRIL 1854. T

270 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.
.

was Sunday, and one of our party went to prayers with the
natives. In the evening our tent was filled with visitors,
and early on Monday morning our party started for Manea,
where we breakfasted.

General Description of the Country in which the Cavesare —
found.—On the western coast of the north island of New Zea- —
land, between the Mokau river and Taranaki, on the south; —
Kawhia on the north, and extending inland with occasional
breaks to the Waipa river, there is an extensive district,
chiefly composed of marine limestone. The formation is
found in some parts on a level with the sea, and in other
parts it has been elevated by volcanic action into mountain
ranges and districts upwards of a thousand feet above the
oceanic level. The rock occurs in strata. The stratifica-
tion is sometimes twisted and broken, with bold cliffs and
chasms of calcareous rock, presenting a highly picturesque
effect, seen on passing along the path from the Waipa river to
Parianiwaniwa. I could not ascertain the nature of the rocks
upon which the limestone rests, but above it, in many places, —
there is nothing but alluvial deposits of earth, clay, sand, —
&e. At the bottom of the valleys the quantity of this aqueous
deposit is very considerable ; but occasionally on the slopes
and sides of the hills, the limestone crops out in well-marked
strata, presenting to the eye at a little distance the appear-
ance of an old Gothic castle in ruins, or an ancient grave- —
yard. With these exceptions, the hills present a smooth and h
rounded form, very unlike the volcanic hills in the neigh- —
bourhood. The soil on this limestone formation is covered —
with ferns, and occasionally large dense forests of trees. There —
are numerous caves, and grottoes, and cells, all over the ‘
district. Streams of water are seen to disappear between
limestone rocks, and suddenly to reappear ; fissures are found ?
in which no erosions from water can be traced; but in all

the caves and cells that I examined there was evidence of &
rent, and also of watery erosion. These caverns in the
earth have been long known to the New Zealanders in this

part of the country; and near Kawhia there is a cave which

was the burial-place of the Ngatitoas, the tribe of the great

Rauparaha. Dieffenbach considers that the limestone forma- i
tion belongs to the tertiary series.

4

Description of the Anaotemoa Cave. 271

Description of the Cave called by the New Zealanders Te
Anaotemoa, or the Cave of the Moa.—This cave is situated
near the summit of a small hill, about a mile and a half in a
south-westerly direction from the village of Parianiwaniwa.
The settlement is seventeen miles from Honi-Paka, a place
on the Waipa river. The country in the neighbourhood of
Parianiwaniwa is about a thousand feet above the level of
the sea. Parianiwaniwa signifies, in the Maori language,
*‘ the precipice of the rainbow.” The cave of the Moa is ina
limestone hill, with two openings,—one towards the north-east,
and the other towards the south-west. The north-east open-
ing has evidently resulted from the falling in of the roof, and
is apparently of a recent occurrence; the south-west entrance
is fourteen feet high, and ten feet broad, and covered over
with trees and bushes, which we had to break down be-
fore we got an entrance. The cave is 165 feet long, the
greatest breadth 28 feet, and the height 60 feet. The roof
is oval, and numerous stalactites drop gracefully from it,
giving a cathedral-like effect to the whole. The cave is some-
thing in the form of a crescent; one part of the floor is
covered over with calcareous spar ; another part with a large
deposit of soft stalagmites ; and that part of the floor farthest
distant from the south-west opening is covered with earth,
limestones, and mud, which appear to have fallen down when
the roof of the cave gave way, which now forms the north-
east opening.

It is under this earth, and the soft deposit of carbonate
of lime, that the Moa’s bones are found. At the south-west
entrance there is a mound of earth which has either fallen
from the roof, or been washed in. The air of the cave is
eolder than the atmosphere, and the bottom or floor descends
as you proceed from this entrance. There was not much
dropping of water from the roof when we were there, but

this must have been very considerable at one time, to have

produced the large deposit of soft limestone which we saw in
some places. The limestone in the cave is of a dark colour,
and there is a shallow pool of water in one of the side gal-
leries. All the bones we got were obtained from under the
earth, which had fallen down, and partially imbedded them
in the soft limestone; but it would require several days’
labour of a number of men to clear out the bottom of this
m2

272 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

cave properly, in order to see what bones it contains ; but so
far as we saw there were no bones of men, or other animals
¢except Moas), in it; nor any marks of fire, sculpture, nor
figures of any description on the walls of the cave.

It is evident that this cave has been long known to the
New Zealanders; the very name, “the cave of the Moa,”
suggests to the mind the question, Was that name given to
it because Moas lived in it, or because it contained large
quantities of Moas’ bones? My own opinion is, that it de-
rived its name from the latter circumstance; for we were
told on our first visit, that the Maoris were in the habit of
resorting to this cave to procure the skulls of the Moas, to
keep the powder which they used for tattooing. We only
got four skulls in this cave, and the scarcity of them was
accounted for by their use in former days as powder-holders.
There was nothing to lead us to think that these bones had
been deposited in the cave by water, for we found a remnant
of almost every bone in the body, from the spine and the
rings of the trachea down to the last bone of the toes; the
bones belonged both to the largest and also to the smaller
species of Moas. The animals evidently came to this cave
to die. The cave, in the first instance, was probably a fis-
sure in the stone, but from the appearance of the walls, and
from there being numerous small cavities communicating
with each other, I think its formation may have been assisted
by the erosion of water. The bones we got in this cave had
the appearance of having been exposed to the air; some of
them were incrusted with limestone, and in some of them
the cancellated structure was filled with earth and carbonate
of lime; some of the bones had a more recent-like appear-
ance than others, and the perfect edges of some of the deli-
cate processes shewed that they had been exposed to little
rolling: there were few long bones in the cave; and on our
asking what had become of them, we were told that they
had been taken away to be made fish-hooks of, such being
the practice in former times, before the introduction of iron.

A sketch of this cave accompanies this paper.—(Plate IL.)

Description of the Cave called by the New Zealanders Te
Anaoteatua, or the Cave of the Spirit ; in which Moas’ bones
were found.—This cave is about a mile from the native set-

§
"
7
>

Description of the Anaoteatua, or Cave of the Spirit. 273

tlement of Rotomarama,’on the path leading to Raraoraro,
It is situated at the bottom of a hill, in a stratified rock,
the entrance to which is 25 feet high, and 18 feet broad, of
an oval form, and in appearance something like the gateway
of an old castle. A thick foliage of shrubs conceals the
entrance, and a dark green creeper adheres to the limestone
rock, and covers the opening. The cave extends in a tor-
tuous direction underneath the hill for upwards of a mile,
and consists of several different passages.. We reached the
end of one of these passages after having traversed along
for half a mile, according to measurement; but the largest
we left unexplored. From the top and sides of the cave
there are numerous stalactites—some of them six feet long,
and composed of transparent calcareous spar, while others
had a red tint. In that part of the cave which we explored
there were three openings in the roof, at different places, of
from ten to fifteen feet each in circumference, through which
light was seen streaming in, one hundred and fifty feet
above the head. Immediately below these openings there
were heaps of wood and debris washed down from the sur-
face ; but these openings did not throw much light into the
cave, so that even during the day the cavern was perfectly
dark. There are numerous spacious chambers, picturesque
galleries, grottoes, and cells, in different parts of the cave.
The height of the roof is fifty feet in some parts, and in other
places not more than ten feet; the breadth varies from
twelve to forty feet. I saw no living creature in the interior
of this cave but a few glow-worms, which adhered to a high
dome-shaped part of the roof, and presented the appearance
of the starry firmament.’ The floor of the cave is made
up of different materials ; parts are composed of calc-spar,
parts are covered with a thick crust of soft limestone depo-

sited from the overcharged water ; and there are many large
masses of limestone which have fallen from the roof. There
are also large pools of stagnant water in some parts of the

cave, and a subterraneous stream of water runs through a
certain portion of the cave, and then disappears under the

rock. There was no opening at the other extremity of the

cave opposite the entrance, but there was an opening at the
end of one of the passages; which was almost blocked up

274 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

with earth, and the water in the cave had a sweet taste.
There was no evidence of art about this cave, but I saw
large pieces of charred wood on the floor, which I found, on
inquiry, was burned three years before, when the natives ob-
tained some of the Moa’s bones, which they sold to us at
Parianiwaniwa. The cave appears to have been formed by a
fissure in the rock, the erosion of water, and by the falling
down of the sides and roof. No plants were seen growing
in the cave, and no shells were found; the air was good,
although colder than the external atmosphere.

The Moa’s bones which were procured from this cave were
found, some under the sand, some in crevices and corners,
and some under the limestone floor. They were broken, and
shewed evidence of having been rolled; but we were after-
wards told (when they refused to let us visit the cave again)
that bones are to be found in the farthest extremity of the
cave, under sand and soft limestone, and that the natives had
obtained many bones here some years ago, which were
burned because they saw no use of them. Among them was
the pelvis and spinal column all adhering; several of the
bones we got were covered with a crust of limestone, In a
crevice of the cave, in one of the galleries, slightly covered
with sparry limestone, we picked up a most perfect skull
and a few bones. This skull is unknown to me. It differs
from all the Moa’s skulls that I have seen, although I think
it belongs to the genus Dinornis. I shewed it to Governor
Grey, who informed me that he could not say what bird it
was the skull of. I have transmitted it, therefore, with this
paper, for examination.*

I have already mentioned in the narrative, that we were
unable to visit this cave a second time, to prosecute our
researches ; but I have little doubt, if this were properly
gone about, many bones would be found there; for perhaps
the Moas resorted to this cave as a place of refuge. All the
bones that we got here had been evidently washed from the
interior of the cave, or into the cave by water.

Before the introduction of Christianity, this cave—* the
cave of the Spirit of God ”—was held in the greatest terror

SS

* This skull is in the possession of James Thomson, Esq. of Glendowan, 37 —

Moray Place, Edinburgh.

a) ie

The Discovery of the Moa Bones. 275

by all New Zealanders. The love of money made some
Christian natives conquer their fears, and enter the cave
three years ago to look for Moas’ bones ; but the examina-
tion was apparently made in a very hasty and imperfect
manner. It was in such gigantic caves as this, that the
richest harvest of fossil and sub-fossil bones have been found
in Europe, South America, and Australia.

History of the Discovery of the Bones of the Moa, and
the Characters of the Genus Dinornis.—In the late Sir Ro-
bert Peel’s gallery of ‘modern worthies ” at Drayton Manor,
there hangs a portrait of Professor Richard Owen, and in his
hand is depicted the tibia of a Moa. This is a just and ap-
propriate connection ; for to the original mind of Mr Owen
the world is indebted for the first hint of the existence of
this gigantic bird. The discovery was made in this manner.
In 1839 a Mr Rule lent Professor Owen a part of the thigh-
bone of a Moa, which had been obtained in New Zealand,
and from this single fragment he drew up a wonderfully cor-
rect notice of the bird. This memoir was sent out to New
Zealand, and distributed among some of the missionaries.
In the Tasmanian Journal* for 1843, there appeared a
very excellent account, by the Rev. Mr Colenso, of some
Moa’s bones which he had obtained in New Zealand; but I
was struck, on reading this paper, to find no mention made
of Mr Owen’s memoir, which was entitled ‘‘ Notice of a
Fragment of the Femur of a gigantic Bird in New Zealand.”
Since then Professor Owen has contributed, in several papers,
observations on the Moa, which papers were founded on the
collections of bones sent to England by Archdeacon W.
Williams, Dr Mackellar, Mr Percy Earl], Colonel Wakefield,
Mr Walter Mantell, and others. It is worthy of mention in
this place, that not the least curious object in the Museum
of the Royal College of Surgeons in London is the skeleton
of this feathered giant, built up from some of these materials
by Mr Owen.

The Moa belongs to the Struthious order of birds, a family

* This journal was originated and supported by Sir John Franklin, when

Governor of Van Diemen’s Land.

276 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves in New Zealand.

distinguished by having very short or rudimentary. wings
and massive legs. In their habits they are strictly terres-
trial; and this will be at once comprehended, when I men-
tion that in this order we find the Ostrich, the Cassowary,
the Rhea, the Emu, the Apteryx, and perhaps the Dodo.

Bones of five different species of Moas have been found
in New Zealand. The scientific term Dinornis is applied as
a general term to the whole of them; and we have the Di-
nornis robustus, Dinornis struthioides, Dinornis dromioides
Dinornis curtus, and Dinornis didiformis. But there are
found in New Zealand, side by side with the large Moa’s
bones, the bones of other birds nearly allied to the Moa,
although of less magnitude. The New Zealanders call them
all Moas’ bones; but naturalists denominate the largest as
the bones of the Palaptyrix, the next as the Aptornis, of
which there are two species, and the smallest bones are called
the Notornis; and those who are curious about the dis-
tinguishing features of each, I beg to refer to Mr Qwen’s
papers. A specimen of the last species of these birds was
eaught alive in a remote, unfrequented part of the south
island of New Zealand, in 1850, by some sealers, and kept
alive for several days, and afterwards killed and eaten ; but,
fortunately, the skin of this interesting bird, the link between
the living and the dead, the last perhaps of a race coeval
with the gigantic Moas, was preserved from destruction by
Mr Walter Mantell, commissioner of Crown Lands, Welling-
ton; and facing the title-page of Dr Mantell’s beautiful
work on “ Petrifactions and their Teachings,” there is an
engraving of this bird, now denominated with great justice
and propriety Notornis Mantelli.

The largest species of Moa—Dinornis robustus—is sup-
posed to have stood ten feet six inches in height; but I
think this is under the mark, for I saw the complete leg of
a Moa put together (in a magnificent collection of bones in
the possession of Sir George Grey, which were unfortunately
destroyed in the conflagration of Government House in 1848),
and the head of the femur or thigh bone was six feet from
the ground. As the ostrich is seven feet high, and as
the head of its femur is about half the height of the bird,

Ido not think (knowing that the legs of the ostrich are |

se

ae aS te re

(ee ae ee

Different Localities of the Moa Caves. 277

reckoned to be proportionally longer for its height than
those of the Moa) Iam wrong in concluding that the Moa,
‘whose ‘inferior extremity I saw put together, must have
stood, when alive, about thirteen or fourteen feet high. The
~Moas were unable to fly, as their rudimentary wings were
incapable of raising them from the ground, and the only
bone that I have seen which I took for the humerus was
sent to Professor Owen, and it was but a small one. The
Moa had three toes on each foot, and some New Zealanders
describe the domestic cock as being a perfect picture in
miniature of that bird. The feathers of the Moa are de-
scribed as having been most beautiful, which would lead us
to infer that they were of various colours, for Maoris are
all fond of gaudy colours ; the bones of the legs of the Moa
were filled with marrow, and not with air like other birds;
portions of the eggs of the bird have been found among their
bones, of a sufficient size to afford a chord to estimate the
probable size of an entire shell, and the conclusion is, that a
hat would have been a proper-sized egg-cup for a Moa’s egg.

Places on New-Zealand where Moas’ bones have been found.
*—In the middle island Moas’ bones were found by Percy
Earl, Esq., at a place called Wazikouaiti, seventeen miles
north of Otago,* ina swamp which is almost submerged
under the sea, and only visible at low water. Mr Walter
Mantell conceives it to have been originally a swamp or
morass, in which flax (Phormium tenax) once grew luxuri-
antly. Some ofthe largest bones and finest specimens have
been obtained from this part of the country.

In the north island, Moas’ bones have been found in the
beds of rivers, running from mountain regions of the interior
into Hawk’s and Poverty Bays; the collection of bones sent
to England in 1842 by Archdeacon W. Williams, were ob-
tained from this district, and also those described by Mr
Colenso ; and bones have been found by Mr Walter Mantell
at the mouth of a stream called Waingongoro, which empties
itself into the sea about sixty miles to the south of Taranaki.
The bones were imbedded in a sand flat, were very nume-
_ * Mr Edward Shortland, in his work entitled the “Southern Settlements of

New Zealand, 1851,” gives a very good account, witha map, of the bay and
river of Waikouaiti. , ‘

278 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

rous, and most of them were as soft as pipe-clay. Onabluff
near the embouchure of the river, Mr Mantell saw the sand
flat strewn with bones of men, moas, and other birds. They
had probably been brought down the stream, and originally
covered over with sand, which sand had been drifted away
when he saw them. Moas’ bones have also been found by
Mr Mantell near the above place, in circular holes contain-
ing beds of ashes with charcoal. Moas’ bones have been
found by myself in two caves in the mountain limestone
formation, near the western coast ; and I have seen bones
which were brought from other caves in this district. There
is a voleanic hill called Hikerangi, near Tuhua, thirty miles.
from the Taupo Lake, near the top of which, I was informed,
there was a cave which contained Moas’ bones. Dieffenbach
mentions that the Rev. Mr Taylor found bones in a rivulet
near Whanganui, which flowed from a mountain called
Hikerangi. I purchased bones at Rotoaire, which were
found in a cave on the hill between the lake and Taupo; but
as that cave was tapued in consequence of its being a place
of sepulture, the natives would not conduct me to it. At
Rickawa, near the south end of the Taupo Lake, the pa of
the great chief Te Heuhea gave me ametatarsal bone, which
he told me he had found among the scorie rock, on a hill
near Taupo; and I have seen the femur of a Moa which was
found in the sand at the mouth of the Waikato river, which
river has its origin or spring in the Taupo Lake. No bones
have ever been found north of Auckland.

Are all the gigantic Moas extinct ?—There are a few New
Zealanders who believe that some of these feathered giants
still tread upon the earth; but to prevent the least charge
of credulity from being brought against myself, I shall not
insert any of the stories which I have heard from the natives
on this subject, because they all possess more or less the air
of fiction, and none of them the least appearance of fact.

There are also Europeans in New Zealand who believe
that Moas are still in existence in some of the remote and
unfrequented wilds of the middle island; but such stories
are unsupported by any evidence of a credible nature. A
European informed Mr Colenso, in 1842, that a Moa was

res att

Ts the Moa an extinct Bird 2 279

then living in the snow-capped hills above Cloudy Bay, and
that two Americans, who resided in the neighbourhood,
equipped themselves with fire-arms, and proceeded in pur-
suit of the monster They hid themselves in a thicket near
the place where he lived, and shortly after they saw him
stalking about in search of food; but they were so petrified
with horror at the sight, that they were unable to fire.

They observed the monster, by their own account, for near
an hour ere he retired, and were right glad to escape from
witnessing a meal, where instead of eating they were all but
eaten. This Moa was described as being about 14 or 16 feet
high.* Mr Colenso did not place the least credit in this story.

In a periodical,t of which only two numbers were pub-
lished, there is a paper on the geology of New Zealand, by
the Rev. Mr Taylour, in which it is stated that “he was
informed by Mr Meurant, a government native interpreter,
that in the latter end of 1823, he saw the flesh of the Moa
in Molyneux Harbour, in the middle island, and that the
flesh looked like bull-beef;” and that he also saw a Moa’s
bone, which reached four inches above his hip from the
ground, and as thick as his knee, with the flesh and sinews
upon it. The natives told him that the Moa, whose flesh he
had seen, was a dead one which had been found accidentally ;
that they had often tried to snare them, but without success.
A man, named George Pauley, now living in Foveaux Straits,
told him he had seen a Moa, which he described as being an
immense monster, standing twenty feet high; he said he saw
it near a lake in the interior, and it ran from him, and he
ran from it; that he saw its footmarks before he came to
the river Tairi in the mountains. Thomas Chasseland, a
man who sometimes interpreted for Meurant, and is well
acquainted with the Maori language, used to say that he

‘also had seen the flesh of the Moa, and at first he thought it

was “human flesh.”
If these stories were all true, there could be little doubt

that a Moa of the largest breed may still be living in the

solitudes of the middle island ; and if so, probably some en-
terprising colonist, from the settlements of Nelson, Otago, or

* Tasmanian Jour., No. vii., 1843. t New Zealand Mag., April 1860. Wellington,

280 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

Canterbury, might obtain a living Moa, and realize fame and
fortune by exhibiting it in the different capitals of Europe.

It is painful to me attempt to throw discredit on any state-
ment which has been introduced to the world by the Rev. Mr
Taylour; but if exaggerated stories like these are allowed
to pass uncontradicted, after being put forward in such a
way, they become every year more and more hurtful, because
they increase in weight as they grow in years. It is, there-
fore, solely for the sake of truth that I bring forward Mr
Meurant’s story for the purpose of stating that I do not be-
lieve it. I would not have noticed it at all if it had been
confined to the New Zealand Journal; but I observe it is
quoted in a book of considerable weight.* I knew Mr Meu-
rant personally ; he was an old New Zealand sealer, a pecu-
liar race of men, now almost extinct, born in New South
Wales, soon after the settlement of that colony. In early
manhood Meurant abandoned the place of his birth, and
adopted the adventurous life of a sealer, which he followed
for many years; he was an honest, good, intelligent man,
but much given, as many uneducated travellers are, to the
marvellous, and many of his stories were connected with the
middle island of New Zealand. I well recollect, one dark
night, five years ago, when crossing the Houraki Gulf in a
very bad boat, that I sat up many hours listening to Mr
Meurant’s curious old stories about sealers and whalers, and
the changes which time had worked on New Zealand and
the New Zealanders. It was shortly after the earthquake
at Wellington, in 1848, that this occurred; and the conver-
sation turned to it, and Menrant said that the earthquakes
in the middle island were most fearful, and that he had
seen the tops of the mountains touching each other from the
violence of their shakings. I told this next morning to one
of my companions, and he said, Do you not know that Meu-
rant has a strong imagination? Now, let me be clearly
understood, for Mr Meurant is since dead, and cannot defend
‘himself. I do not say that the whole of his story about the
gigantic Moa is a fiction,—quite otherwise; I believe there
was some slight foundation for it; most probably he may

* Annals of Natural History, No. VIII. London, 1851.

a
4
|

Se ey i rey

The probable Locality of the Moa. 281

have seen a large Notornis Mantelli. This bird is two feet
high, and such an animal was caught alive in 1850,—which
time and Meurant’s fertile imagination may have magnified
into one of the largest of the feathered giants. Ihave asked

_ several men who knew Meurant, what they thought of his

statement about the Moa, and they all said that they could
not bring themselves to believe it.

_ For my own part, 1 never saw or heard of a New Zea-
lander who had seen a large Moa, nor have I ever seen or
heard an account of a large Moa having been seen, which
carried the least evidence of truth on the face of it. That
the gigantic Moa is extinct, I have not the smallest doubt ;
but it is still probable that a few more living specimens of
the Notornis Mantelli may yet be found in the southern
parts of the middle island of New Zealand. This state-
ment is made with the perfect knowledge that Sir Everard
Home, R.N., when commanding Her Majesty’s ship “North
Star,” in the Pacific Ocean in 1844, stated that he felt little
doubt that a Moa (Dinornis) may still be found alive in the
middle island.* Since that period considerable portions of
the solitudes of the middle island have been explored by
Mr Thomas Brunner, and by officers of Her Majesty’s sur-
yeying ship Acheron, and by colonists from different settle-
ments in search of roads and grazing districts, but none of
these have seen the least trace of a living gigantic Moa.

Is it probable that the Moa once lived on some of the Tro-
pical Polynesian Islands ?—In the Connecticut sandstones
of the Permian period, in North America, the footprints of
gigantic birds have been seen.} In 1850 the bones and
eggs of a gigantic bird were found in Madagascar, different
from the Dodo, but approaching, although differing from,.
the Dinornis.{ Such discoveries suggest the question,
whether it is probable that Moas may have once lived on
some of the Polynesian islands scattered about in the Pacific
Ocean? The bones of the bird, it is true, have never been

* Professor Owen on the Dinornis, Part II.
_ T Professor Hitchcock, Trans. American Academy of Arts, 1848.

t See Translation of M. Geoffrey St Hilaire’s Paper on some Bones and Eggs
of a gigantic Bird, from the Madagascar Annals of Nat. Hist, vol. vii. 1850.

282 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

found in any of these islands, neither have the inhabitants
any tradition about the animal; but the natives of the Poly-
nesian islands apply the term Moa to the domestic fowl. Is
this not a kind of proof that an animal resembling the New
Zealand Moa had lived at one time in these islands ; other-
wise, how is it to be accounted for that the same race of
men should in one set of islands call a domestic fowl a Moa,
and in another island confine the term Moa to the large
struthious order of birds known to naturalists as the Dinor-
nis? This is an important point in the history of the New
Zealand Moa. I shall, therefore, endeavour to explain it.
There is strong evidence, drawn from a similarity in lan-
guage, customs, physical appearance, and character, that the
true Polynesian race which now people the numerous islands
in the Pacific and New Zealand are of Malay origin, and
that originally the present inhabitants of all these islands
come from Malacca and Sumatra; and on referring to the
best dictionary of the Malay language,* I find the word muat
is a species of pheasant; that me mua means to make the
voice peculiar to that bird; and J angan me mua angkau de
sini signifies “do not thou be moaning here.” It is, there-
fore, obvious that before the Polynesians migrated from their
original country, they were acquainted with a bird which
they called the Mua. On their arrival in their canoes at

some of the Polynesian islands which they now inhabit,

they probably discovered the domestic fowl of the islands
in a wild state, in the woods (for this animal was found
in a domestic state in all the tropical Polynesian islands,

where they were first discovered by Europeans), they had to’

give the animal a name; and being acquainted with two

words in their own language to select from, mua and manuk,

—the first being applied to a species of pheasant in their
native land, the latter being the term in the Eastern islands
(through which they had probably passed) for a bird or fowl.
They could not properly apply the words dyam and hayam,
which are the Malay words for domestic fowl, to an animal
which was running about wild in the woods; and therefore

t U is sounded 00, as in moon, sloop, fool. The 4, as in want, ball, call.
t Marsden’s Dictionary of the Malayan Language.

—— se ee

Re i a is eri 0 ee:

- ox va

a 92 aS, = ow

~ im a

— een ge!
ee ee

- First arrival of the Inhabitants in New Zealand. 283

they called this species the Mua—now changed to Moa,
from some resemblance which it may have had in their eyes
to the Mua of their native country. In process of time the
wild bird became domestic, but still it retained its original
name. ‘Things were different with the Malay branch of the
human race who migrated to New Zealand. When they took
possession of it there were no domestic fowls indigenous to
the country ; but they saw a new bird, as the ancient song
says, to which they gave the term Moa, or Mua,—a name
which the natives of the present generation say was given
to it on account of its moaning voice. But although appli-
cable in this way, yet the name may have been given to it
from another cause. In course of time European vessels
introduced the domestic fowl to the New Zealanders, but
they could not apply the term Moa to it, as this name was
already appropriated ; so they fell back on the word manuk,
the term for a bird or fowl in the Eastern islands. Manu,
in the New Zealand language of the present day, is the ge-
neral term for all birds, though it is likewise often applied
to the domestic fowl, as a distinct name. Tikaokao is pro-
perly a name given to a cock from its crow, and heihei is a hen,
@ corruption probably of the English term for a female fowl.

This tedious explanation, which I have considered it ne-
cessary to enter upon for the elucidation of the history of the
Moa, tends to shew the kind of proof which the language af-
fords for advancing a knowledge of the history of the New
Zealand race.

Probable time at which the New Zealanders arrived in
New Zealand.—This is an important point to ascertain to-
wards the elucidation of the history of the Moa, and it is sa-
tisfactory to find that we are not left entirely in the dark on
this subject.

The New Zealanders are in the habit of keeping a numeri-
eal record of the chiefs who have lived and ruled since their
arrival in New Zealand. They have sticks upon which a

notch is made as each chief is gathered to his fathers; and

it was the duty of the priests to keep this knowledge alive
among the people, and they did so by frequently going over
before the assembled tribes the names of all their dead chiefs.

284 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

I have several of these sticks in my possession (Papatu-
puna, as they are called), and the names of the ancestral
chiefs of several tribes, written down from the mouth of well-
informed people among the natives. It would therefore
appear, taking the average of several tribes, that there have
been between eighteen and twenty-five generations of men,
since the arrival of the first settlers in New Zealand. The
tribes appear all to have arrived in the country at the same
time, although in different canoes; and if we allow 22 years
as the average reign of each of the chiefs, this will indicate
that the present race of natives arrived in New Zealand four
or five hundred years ago ; in other words, they arrived about
the 15th century. My reason for assuming 22 years as the
average duration of the reign of each of the chiefs, is calcu-
lated in this way. In England, from William the Conqueror
to William the Fourth, thirty-four sovereigns reigned for
763 years, which gives 223 years as the average length of
each reign, including those who died by violent deaths.

It is difficult to ascertain what number of generations of
New Zealanders have passed away since the time when the
first settlers of the present race of natives landed in New
Zealand; because it appears they were often in the habit of
recording the names of the brothers of the chiefs, as well as
the chiefs themselves,—a practice which is apt to lead to the
supposition that more generations of natives have passed
away than ever did exist. There are two genealogical trees,
however, which relate to the tribes Ngaiterangi and Ngati-
wakaue, on which I place much reliance, because these genea-
logical trees were carefully investigated before the resident
magistrate at Rotorua, in order to ascertain which of these
tribes had a right to the island of Motiti in the Bay of Plenty;
and as a test of the accuracy of the genealogical evidence,
the statements of each party were carefully inquired into by
the opposite party.

It requires a circumstance like this, or some historical in-
quiry, to excite the New Zealanders to tax their memories
about their ancestors ; otherwise a natural delicacy, or a fear
of saying anything that may lead to mischief, makes them
avoid the subject, unless specially inquired about.

The time that has elapsed since the Moa was seen. 285

Were there any gigantic Moas alive when the New Zealand-
ers arrived in New Zealand ?—I think there were not many
gigantic Moas in New Zealand at that time, for, although
there are traditions enough to enable us to conclude that
there must have been some of them cotemporary with the —
first New Zealanders, yet several tribes, e.g., the Ngapuhis,
who live in the northern part of the north island, have no
traditions about the Moa, and they have asked Europeans to
describe to them what kind of an animal it was. The coun-

_ try where the Ngapuhis tribe live is the narrowest part of
the island, and no bones of the bird have been found in this
district; and if the Moas had been so numerous as to have
furnished food for the inhabitants, according to Professor
Owen’s idea, we should have had a greater variety of tradi-
tions about them. I have heard and read several accounts of
what the natives saw when they first landed in New Zealand,
but in none of these traditions is there any mention made of
their having seen a Moa on the sea-coast.- The Dodo was
abundant, according to Leguat,* near the sea-coast.

It is supposed that there were more Moas in the middle
than in the north island, but I doubt this circumstance. All
the bones that have been seen in the middle island have been
_ found im a limited space, and in good preservation,—a fact

_ which may have produced this opinion.

{
:
i
|

_ Probable time which has elapsed since the last gigantic
_ Moa was seen.—A few years before the death of the great
_ chief Tee Rauparaha, he was asked if he had ever seen a Moa
himself, or a man who had seen one, and he said he had not.
_ As he was then about 80 years of age, his answer takes us
| back about 160 years; and as I believe from careful inquiry
_ that this is tolerably correct, I do think we will not be far
_ wrong in assuming that all the Moas were extinct in this
| country 200 years ago, or about two centuries after the arri-

| *A New Voyage to the East Indies, by Francis Leguat and his Companions.
| $8yvo. London, 1708. .
| VOL. LVI. NO. CXII.—APRIL 1854. U

286 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

val of the New Zealanders in the island; in other words,
about the year A.D. 1650.

The Dutch navigator Tasman visited New Zealand in
1642, but none of his crew landed, or had any colloquial in-
tercourse with the natives, so that from this visit nothing
about the Moas can be gleaned; and no other European na-
vigator, who has written an acount of his voyage, landed in
New Zealand until after the Moas had become extinct. Cap-
tain Cook was told about a gigantic lizard which had lived
in the country, but nothing about a gigantic bird.

Causes of extinction.—Professor Owen is of opinion that
the Moas were exterminated by the New Zealanders using
them as food; and he attributes their extinction in a country
destitute of large animals as one of the causes which led the
New Zealanders to adopt the horrid practice of cannibalism.

The first supposition is very doubtful, and the second is
not probable. I admit the advent of the New Zealanders in
New Zealand must have produced the destruction of a few
Moas, but I cannot bring myself to believe that their ex-
tinction was entirely brought about by this cause. Accord-
ing to the most authentic sources, the New Zealand popula-
tion, when at its greatest, never much exceeded two hundred
thousand souls; and for one hundred and fifty years after
their arrival in the country, they could not have increased to
one hundred thousand. Now let us imagine this small po-
pulation spread over a country nearly as large as England—
a population fearful of trespassing on the lands of other
tribes—a population of indolent people—and we will have at
once a strong argument against the opinion that the Moas
were cut off from the earth entirely by human agency.
There are mountain ranges where the feet of men have
rarely trodden. I have walked through forests for thirty
miles without seeing the sign of a habitation ; in such places
the Moa could find ample shelter in the present day. The

middle island of New Zealand offers a still stronger argu- —
ment; on it the Maori population were scattered along the ©
coasts, and were few in number; and yet, according to the —
best information, no large Moa has been seen on that island —
for upwards of one hundred and sixty years. It is only ne- —

Sa

The time that has elapsed since the Moa was seen. 287

cessary to call to mind the difficulty there was in extirpating
wolves from England, to have a clear idea of the improba-
bility of the New Zealand race having caused the extinction
of the Moa. Ina small island a race of large birds might
be easily extirpated, and we have some recent examples of
this; but in New Zealand, I think, the New Zealanders
arrived in time to see the last of the large Moas die.

The circumstance of Moas’ bones having been found in
caves of more recent appearance than those found by Mr
Walter Mantell in the cooking-holes of the New Zealanders
at Waingongoro, would lead us to infer that some of the
Moas died in these caves after the advent of the New Zea-
landers. On asking a native of the cave district near Pa-
rianiwaniwa, what brought all these Moas’ bones into caves,
he said, that long ago an eruption of Tongariro occurred,
which set fire to the country, and that the Moas fled to the
caves, and there perished. This tradition, although it may
be an exaggeration of some local conflagration, is of some
value, as shewing there were other causes which proved
destructive to the Moas in addition to human agency. At
Rotomarama, near the “cave of the spirit,” one of my fellow-
travellers asked a well-read Christian native, what destroyed
all the Moas, and in reply he said it must have been the

_ great flood. The similarity of the words Noah and Moa

may have suggested this to his mind, but my friend got the
better of the argument, by asking him if it was not stated in
Scripture that Noah took a pair of every living creature with

him into the ark, before the flood; the man looked puzzled,
- and said “‘awa,”—an exclamation the expressiveness of

which cannot be rendered into English, but means * I don’t

know.”

There is another argument that the Moas died out, and

_ were not extirpated by man, in the circumstance of the ani-

mals being only found in New Zealand previous to their

_ extinction ; for rarity, according to Professor Lyell, precedes
| the extinction of all species of plants and animals. Itis appa-
_ rently a law of nature, that certain races of men, plants, and
animals, have a period of creation, increase, and decay.
_ May we not then state, and with some probability we are

u 2

_

288 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

nearly right, that the period of the extinction of the gigantic
Moa occurred about the 17th century, and that this event
might have been slightly hastened, but not produced, by the
hand of man. New Zealand appears to have been the last
refuge for wingless birds; but as sure as the race of men
who peopled ancient Babylon and Nineveh, and other coun-
tries, have become extinct, and as surely as many of the
Polynesian race are now decaying, so certainly will the whole
of the wingless birds in New Zealand, like the Moa, become
extinct. They have run their course, have fulfilled their
destiny, and are now following the law which the Creator
has stamped on all his works.

Professor Owen’s idea that the want of food after the ex-
tinction of the Moa may have caused the New Zealanders
to adopt the disgusting custom of cannibalism is not at all
likely; for the motives which led the New Zealanders to eat
human flesh were hatred, revenge, and to cast disgrace on
the person eaten. That it was unlawful for women to eat
human flesh, unless under some peculiar circumstances, will
at once set at rest the supposition that human flesh was ever
made a substitute for animal food. I do not make this
statement without inquiry; but the subject is foreign to this
paper, otherwise I would enlarge upon it.

Observations on some of the probable habits of the Moas.
—I. They were of an indolent nature, and not much given

to moving about.—This I infer, because the New Zealanders —

always describe them as being very fat; and Mr Owen con-

cludes they were a more sluggish bird than the Ostrich, in ©

consequence of the small size of the neural canal of the

spine, and the relative shortness of the ankle-bone meta- —

tarsus.

Il. They lived in mountain fastnesses and secluded caves.

—This I infer, because all tradition points to such districts —
as the probable places where Moas’ bones are still to be

found. The finding of bones in caves almost confirms this

idea ; for if the Moas did not live in them, they resorted to
them to die. The Ostrich and Emu live in plains; perhaps

’
+

dinette

an
ie :
7

an.

Observations on the Habits of the Moa. 289

the habits of the Moas were somewhat similar to these birds,
and they may only have resorted to hills, forests, and se-
cluded places, after the advent of the human race. The
_ Kiwi or Apteryx is found in forests, hills, and secluded

spots, and this strange bird may have some of the habits of
the Moa.

Hil. They lived chiefly on vegetable food.—This conclu-
sion is drawn from the adze-like shape of the beak, from
their bodies being described as very fat (no flesh- eating bird
is ever fat), from nature having endowed them with feet and
_ toes remarkably well adapted for uprooting fern root and
_ other subterrestrial substances, which abound in New Zea-

land, and from their swallowing stones to assist in diges-

tion. No flesh-eating animal ever does this.

IV. They were in the habit of swallowing stones to assist
digestion—This statement rests on tradition. The New
Zealanders point out certain stones which they say have
been in the stomach of a Moa. This habit is confined to
vegetable-feeding birds.

_ YV. They were dull and stupid birds——This is inferred,
_ because the skull is low and flat, and is confirmed by the
_ traditions of the New Zealanders.

, VI. They were in the habit of standing and resting on
_ one leg.—My authority for this is not good, but I give it to
: ; convey some impression of what is now said by the New
_ Zealanders about the habits of the Moas. A most intelligent
Maori, who belongs to one of the interior tribes, told me
that he knew where a Moa lived. I asked him where it
_ was, and what the animal did all day. He said; it stood in
a cave in which there was a waterfall, and that the bird
stood first.on one leg, and then on the other. All this story
is fabulous, but the statement of its standing on one leg may
q probably have some foundation in the habits of the bird.

RS OE LLL O I LD aacmeainh eal
ae es : :
as 5

Deductions drawn from the Moas’ bones as to the probable

290 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

length of time which has elapsed since the birds were alive —
The best preserved Moas’ bones that I have seen were those
obtained from the swamp or morass at Waikouaiti, in the
middle island of New Zealand. This is, however, no proof
that they were more recent than those found in a less per-
fect state in the north island, because peats and morasses
act as antiseptics, and bones have been preserved in a perfect
state in such places for a great many centuries. The bones

of birds are so much more delicate than those of quadrupeds,
that very few of them are found in a half fossilized state.
Even the bones of the Dodo, which strange animal was seen
alive in considerable numbers at the Mauritius not many
centuries ago, have apparently decayed away off the face of
the earth. The very circumstance of Moas’ bones being
found in a tolerably perfect state is therefore a strong evi-
dence of the recent existence of these birds. The natives
near the cave of the Moa relate that their fathers were in
the habit of taking the skulls of the Moas to keep the powder
they used for tattooing, and pieces of the long bones as hooks

to catch fish, in consequence of their hardness. Now, none

of the bones or skulls that I saw in this cave were suffi-
ciently perfect for such purposes, and therefore I must con- —
clude either that all the most perfect bones had been taken _
away, or that the process of decay among Moas’ bones was
very rapid.

As perfectly fossilized bones are generally allowed to be
of greater age than half fossilized ones, it is therefore ob-
vious that some idea of the age of bones may be formed from
the quantity of animal matter they contain. Let us apply
this test to the Moas’ bones.

I carefully examined several Moas’ bones from the cave
of the Moa, and found that the quantity of animal matter —
contained in them was very different. In the cancellated —
structure of the heads of the long bones of the inferior ex-
tremities, the proportion of animal matter was as low as five _
per cent., but in the shaft of the tibia, the ribs, and a piece 3
of the sternum, I found it as high as ten per cent. In one a
cervical vertebra of a small bird, which had the outward shell a

Analysis of the Moa Bones. 291

perfect, the quantity of animal matter was thirty per cent.—
the animal matter retaining the figure of the bone after the
inorganic matter had been extracted by muriatic acid. Se-
veral of the tracheal rings were found entire, and had a
remarkably recent-like appearance.

_ For the purpose of testing the accuracy of my analysis, I
transmitted several specimens of Moas’ bones to Theophilus
Heale, Esq., of the Great Barrier Copper Ore Mine, and he
gave me the subjoined as the composition of the cancellated
head of a very decayed tibia, viz.—

Carbonic acid ‘ ‘ ; 4-80 decimal parts.
Animal matter ; . : 5°50 -
Insoluble earthy matter. ‘ 6°50 a
Lime . . é . 45°66 at
Phosphoric glenahars ote, . 84:50 3
Magnesia ; 70 ij
A small amount of the peroxide oh iron *00 i
Loss : : ' e , 2°34 iY
100:00

Mr Heale found that the more solid bones contained a much

greater amount of animal matter. The bone submitted to

the foregoing careful analysis had a pale brown colour, was
very light and porous, the outer shell was much destroyed,
and the cellular structure, although perfect, contained a
quantity of earthy matter.

_ The composition of recent Moas’ bones is unknown; but

as the bones of the Moas resemble the bones of quadrupeds

in containing marrow, and as the bones of quadrupeds are
composed of about one-third of animal, and two-thirds of
earthy and alkaline salts, let us take them as a subject of

comparison.

It therefore appears that some of the Moas’ bones had
lost a considerable quantity of their animal matter, and

others very little. Now, what conclusion can be drawn

from this as to their probable age ?
I can find no experiments which will enable me to answer
this question. In the widely-scattered bone breccic of the

292 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand,

Mediterranean, Dr John Davy* was only able to find
a trace of animal matter. M. Marcel de Serres and M.
Ballard, chemists in Montpellier, procured some human
bones from a Gaulish sarcophagus, supposed to have been
buried some fourteen or fifteen centuries at least, and they
had lost three-fourths: of their original animal matter. T
Several skeletons of men were found in the West Indies,
incrusted with a calcareous cement; but they only retained
a small portion of their animal matter;{ whereas a skull
three thousand years old was taken from a tomb in ancient
Thebes, and contained about half of its animal matter.§ In
1845, the fossil remains of a gigantic Mastodon were ex-
humed in the town of Newburgh, New York, and twenty-
seven per cent. of animal matter was obtained from some of
the bones|| (tusks and teeth), while skulls found by Mr
Stephens in Yucatan were almost entirely destitute of ani-
mal matter.4

These examples tend to shew what length of time bones,
under favourable circumstances, will retain their animal
matter, and that no conclusion can be drawn as to the pro-
bable age of the Moa’s bones in the cave of the Moa, from
the circumstance of some of them still retaining only one-
seventh, and others nearly the whole of their animal matter.

General Remarks.—Is it probable that New Zealand was

once connected with Australia? This is not at all likely, ©
seeing there is so little resemblance between the flora and ~

fauna of the countries, and neither in the ossiferous caves or

tertiary deposits of the continent of Australia have Moas’ —

bones been found.
Is it probable that New Zealand was once connected with

at ihale ——<

America? This, Professor Owen thinks, may have been the —
case at a remote geological period ; and he is inclined to re-
gard New Zealand as one end of a mighty wave of the un- —

* Physiological and Anatomical Researches ; 1839.

} Lyell’s Principles of Geology. } Ibid.

§ Dr John Davy. || Lyell’s Principles of Geology.
§ Incidents of Travel.

sitaall

Geological Conclusions on New Zealand. 293

_ stable and shifting crust of the earth, of which the opposite
end, after having been submerged, has again risen with its
accumulated deposits in North America, shewing in the
Connecticut sandstones the footmarks of the gigantic birds
_ which strode its surface before it sank ; and to surmise that
the intermediate body of the land wave along which the ~
_ Dinornis may have travelled to New Zealand has progres-
sively subsided, and now lies beneath the Pacific.*
This beautiful idea rests on Dr Deane’s discovery, in
1843, of the footprints of many species of three-toed birds
_ of gigantic size, and of the imprints of others with four toes,
with the prints of twelve kinds of quadrupeds supposed to
belong to the Saurian, Chelonian, and Batrachian orders, in
the sandstone in Connecticut. There still lives, to give some
reality to the above in the secluded parts of South America,
a three-toed wingless bird; but to give weight to Professor
Owen’s idea, it would be requisite to discover the bones of
some of these birds and quadrupeds, for we have high autho-
_ rity for refusing to pin our faith to impressions without the
discovery of bones.

To those who believe in the doctrine of specific centres,
or that every species of animals and plants on the surface of
_ the globe originated in a single birthplace, there will be no
difficulty in explaining how the Moa was confined to the
_ New Zealand group of islands. New Zealand (they would
_ say) was the centre of the creation of those numerous species
_ of wingless birds we find upon it, some of which are strange

to all other parts of the world. Perhaps New Zealand is
_ only a part of a great southern continent, the remainder of
which now lies at the bottom of the sea. Captain King,
_R.N., states there are soundings from Cape Maria Vande-
man, in New Zealand, to Norfolk Island, and I have been
told by old New Zealand whalers that there are soundings
_ between New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. I cannot
bring myself to believe that the gigantic Moas were ever
hatched to live and die on the small spot of earth we now
eall New Zealand.

* Memoirs on the Dinornis, Part II.

294 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand.

It is a curious circumstance, that the few islands upon
which the bones of large extinct birds have been found are
all situated in the southern hemisphere, and there are some
points of resemblance between the islands of the Mauritius,
Madagascar, and New Zealand, sufficient to excite the atten-
tion of the thoughtful and speculative. These islands are
situated to the south of the line, between long. 45° and 180°
east. They are chiefly of volcanic origin. The zoology of
all three is peculiar. So far as that of Madagascar is known,
it can scarcely be assimilated to that of Africa or Asia ;
while it appears equally distant from that of Australia.
There is, however, too little known about Madagascar, or
the large bird, the remains of which have only lately (1850)
been found, to allow me to speculate on the subject. But
when I turn to the two islands most celebrated for the re-
mains of feathered giants, the Mauritius and New Zealand,
I find a wonderful similarity in some things. Both are sur-
rounded by large oceans, in the neighbourhood of large con-
tinents ; both are in a genial climate in the southern hemi-
sphere ; both were discovered by Europeans much about the
same time, and both have been only lately occupied by the
human race. A rat* constitutes the quadruped indigenous
to both islands, and in both the large birds which were ob-
served upon them soon became extinct. Bontius, in 1658,
saw the Dodo alive in the Mauritius. I infer New Zealand-
ers saw a few Moas alive early in the seventeenth century. —
There is this great difference between the two places. We —
have written testimony of the existence of numerous Dodos
in the Mauritius ; but, in the present day, some men doubt —
whether they ever lived, because the bones of the animal
cannot now be found on the island. In New Zealand, on
the contrary, the existence of the Moa rests on a few

* It is doubtful whether the present rat of New Zealand is indigenous.
It is very probable that it accompanied the early settlers. Similar animals are
found over all the Polynesian Islands ; and the United States’ exploring expe-
dition met with rats on Gardner’s Island, one of the Phenix group, during
their passage from the Feejee Islands to the Sandwich Islands,—a circumstance
which made them assume it had been inhabited by the human race,

®
General Remarks on the Struthionide. 295

traditions and sayings, but the dead bones of the animal
are abundant, and testify to a fact which no man can doubt.
~ Let us look at the living wingless birds which still live in
_ the world. They appear to be a condemned race, for we
find the signs of decay stamped on the faces of them all,
and they seem to have an inborn antipathy to the human
race ; for wherever men appear they disappear, even with-
out the use of destroying agencies. The Ostrich selects his
_ residence in places where men can scarcely live, namely,
under a burning sun, and on sandy deserts. The American
Rhea vegetates in secluded places, and is seen with diffi-
culty, for they can perceive the approach of men, when the
eyes of men cannot observe them. The Emu is fast disap-
pearing before the Anglo-Saxon colonization of Australia.
The Apteryx selects the most secluded places to live in, and
the Cassowary is very rare in the few islands where it is
known to be indigenous.

It would seem that this strange species of animals—birds
without wings !—were created to live in solitary places far
away from the haunts of men. They may have been created
ata period long prior to that of the higher order of quad-
rupeds, for we see the marks of their feet in sandstones of

an early date.

New Zealand appears, according to the testimony of the
natives, in former days to have abounded in Saurian rep-
_ tiles of immense size, There were no land Mammalia on
the islands,* but many birds, ferns, and fern-like plants.
Some growing to the height of sixty feet are found covering
a great part of the north island, and the largest and most
abundant timber-irees, belonging to the Conifere, are here
in great plenty, and earthquakes are not unfrequent.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, July 12, 1853.

_ * The dog, rat, and bat, are perhaps introduced.

296 On the Physical Geography of Norway.

Norway andits Glaciers visited in 1851; followed by Jowr-
nals of Excursions in the High Alps of Dauphine, Berne,
and Savoy. By JAMES D. Forsss, D.C.L., F.R.S., Sec. R.S.
Ed., Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, and
of other Academies ; and Professor of Natural Philosophy
in the University of Edinburgh,

(Continued from page 169.)

§ 2. On some Peculiarities of the Climate of Norway.—
The time can hardly be said to be gone by when an erro-
neous belief was prevalent as to the utterly inhospitable cli-
mate of Norway. Bishop Pontopiddan cites the amusing
mistake of our English Bishop Patrick, who describes a Nor-
wegian as imagining a rosebush to be a tree on jire ; whereas
roses are common flowers in many parts of Norway. He
farther adds, that the harbour of Bergen is not oftener frozen
than the Seine at Paris, that is, twoor three times in a century,
whilst the harbours of Copenhagen and Lubeck are frequent-
ly blockaded with ice. This he justly ascribes to the influ-
ence of the open sea. A still more singular fact is, that the
smallest piece of drift ice is unknown on any part of the Nor-
wegian coast, though it extends to lat. 71°, while off the coast
of North America, they are occasionally seen in lat. 41°*
Until a comparatively recent period, it was generally believed
that the temperature of the North Pole was 32°, of the equa-
tor about 86°, on an average of the year, and that every place
had an intermediate temperature depending solely on its la-
titude. The influence of sea or land in great masses in al-
tering the climate—the former as a general moderator of ex-
treme heat and cold, the latter in increasing the inequalities of
climate—was next perceived, and the inflections (as they are
called) of the isothermal lines, were clearly indicated by Von

Humboldt. The isothermal lines are lines which pass through

all points of the earth’s surface in each hemisphere which
possess the same average temperature. If the temperature
depended solely on the latitude, they would form accurate

* See the limit of drift ice indicated in the vignette map, accompanying the
General Map of Norway in this volume.

;

7
7
3
zs
5
‘
I
+
a
j
‘4

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 297

parallels of latitude. But as the continents are hotter than
the ocean between the tropics, and colder in higher latitudes,
the lines of temperature have a descending loop over the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the former circumstance, and
an ascending one in the latter.* Thus, for example, the iso-
thermal line of 40° Fahr., which passes nearly over Thrond-
hjem in Norway (lat. 63°), and attains perhaps the 66th de-
gree of latitude over the Atlantic, falls to the 48th degree
in Canada (a little north of Quebec), and to the 50th or lower
in the eastern parts of Asia, but rises again under the influ-
ence of the Pacific Ocean to about 60° of latitude on the west-
ern coast of North America.

A farther step in these important and curious generaliza-
tions (which are due primarily to Von Humboldt) consists
in distinguishing the summer and the winter curves of tem-
perature, which have an important bearing on the existence
of perpetual snow and glaciers. Places with the same.aver-
age temperature may be yet, the one temperate and whole-
some, the other nearly uninhabitable from extreme cold dur-
ing winter, which is compensated by the almost tropical heat
of the summer months. Thus whilst at Throndhjem the dif-
ference of temperature of January and July is 40° Fahr., at
Jakutzk, in Siberia, which is nearly on the same latitude.
this difference amounts to 114°; and mercury is sometimes

_ frozen for three months of the year. In the Faroe Islands,

on the other hand, the climate of which is perfectly insular,
the variation between January and July is only about 18°.
Whilst then, Norway enjoys the average climate superior
to any other continental country in the same latitude, it is
also, on the whole, less visited by extremes of summer heat
and winter cold. No doubt, the different portions of the
_ country vary distinctly in this respect, the coast possessing
the moderate or insular character, the interior or Swedish
side a much severer one ; still, on the whole, the statement is
true. It is vividly represented by the isothermal lines for
| _ January and for July, drawn by Professor Dove of Berlin, and

* See the map of Isothermal lines in Berghaus’ and Johnston’s Physical Atlas,

1 r or in the neat and cheap maps published by the National Society.

298 On the Physical Geography of Norway.

copied in the small chart which occupies one corner of the
map accompanying this work ; which at the same time shews
the general position of Norway relatively to other countries,
where it is observable that the northmost portion extends as
near the Pole as the centre of Greenland. The blue curves
which pass through places believed to have the same mean
temperature of the month of January, shew that we must
penetrate farther towards the Pole, in the neighbourhood of
the Norwegian coast, in order to obtain a given degree of
winter’s cold than in any other part of the northern hemi-
sphere. In fact, we may conceive the Atlantic as moderating
the effect of winter by pouring in a flood of heat towards the
arctic seas, through the enormous strait between Greenland
and Norway, which connects the Atlantic Ocean with the pro-
per “ Polar Basin,” if such exist, and this flood of heat spends
itself chiefly or entirely on the Norwegian side of the opening
—the January isothermals falling with extreme rapidity into
lower latitudes on the inhospitable coast of Greenland. Now
this general expression of the phenomena evidenced by the
isothermal lines, has, as is well known, a physical cause pre-
cisely corresponding to it, and sufficiently explaining it.
This is the continual direction of a current of the Atlantic
waters, having the high temperature due to southern lati-
tudes precisely in the line in which the arctic cold is thus

powerfully repelled. The “ Gulf Stream,” taking its rise in |

the Gulf of Florida, proceeds northwards and eastwards, un-
til it breaks on the shores of Europe and Northern Africa, a
portion of it striking the western coasts of the British Isles,
and being prolonged to the coast of Norway, imparting
warmth to water and to land, and effectually repelling the
invasion of floating ice, with which Finmarken would other-
wise be continually menaced.* It has been calculated
that the heat thrown into the Atlantic Ocean by the Gulf

j
——

Stream in a winter's day would suffice to raise the tempera- —

ture of the part of the atmosphere which rests upon France
and Great Britain from the freezing point to summer’s heat.

* Tl faut s’eloigner de 20 a 30 lieues marines des derniers promontoires
(North Cape) avant d’apercevoir des ildts de glace ; encore sont-ils bien loin a
Vhorizon.—Von Buch, Annales de Chimie et de Physique, vol. ii,, 1816.

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 299

The fact of such a transference of the heated waters of the
tropics into Northern Europe is popularly but convincingly
proved by the common occurrence of finding West Indian
seeds and woods upon the west coasts of Ireland,. Scotland,
and Norway. Captain Sabine relates that in the year 1823
some casks of palm oil were thrown ashore at Hammerfest
(lat. 71°), which were traced to the wreck of a vessel the year
before at Cape Lopez in Africa.* The general direction of
the Gulf Stream (only its feebler and reflected part, however)
on the coast of Norway is indicated on the little chart before
referred to, whilst on the west of the Atlantic a reverse
stream marked, ‘‘ Polar Current’’ is shewn descending from
Spitzbergen and the “ Polar Basin,” between the coasts of Ice-
land and Greenland, charged with icebergs, and of course ap-
proaching the temperature of freezing salt water. This
mass of water spends its cold on America, as the Gulf Stream
does its heat on Europe, and finally sinks under the warm cur-
rent off the coasts of the United States.

The position of the red curves which pass through places
which have the July temperature alike, is altogether different
from that of the winter curves ; indeed in part of Norway (as
also in Great Britain) they are very nearly at right angles.
The summit of the J uly curves is found in Siberia, where the
_ summer heat is overwhelming, which is moderated as we
approach the shores of the ocean. Jt is by the amount of
_ the summer heat that the limits of perpetual snow are mainly
_ determined. The part of Norway beyond the arctic circle is
of course exposed to the continued action of the sun, day

P 4 and night, during part of summer; hence the rapidity of vege-

_ tation, and the intense heat which in some places prevails for
a short time,—the thermometer as we have seen, rising to
84° at Alten in lat 70°.

The two sides of the Scandinavian peninsula differ exceed-

ingly in climate, the eastern part tending to the continental,

_ the western to the oceanic climate. The contrast between

_ Bergen and Christiania in this respect has been stated in a

_ former chapter. The table-land of Norway forms in all its

* Note to Cosmos.

300 On the Physical Geography of Norway.

extent a most important barrier, which commonly separates
the most opposite states of weather. The rain at Bergen is
several times as great as that at Christiania. It falls chiefly
in winter—that of Christiania in summer. When it rains or
snows east of the Fille-field, it is most probably fine on the
west. A sort of intermediate climate occurs on the western
depression of the continent, but at some distance from the
coast, and offers an interesting peculiarity ; it is the climate
of the interior of the fiords, as on the Hardanger and Sogne
near Bergen, the Throndhjem-fiord above that town, and Kaa-
fiord, as contrasted with the climate of Hammerfest. In all
these cases the climate improves as we recede from the
shores, the corn ripens better, the mean temperature is
higher, and, at least in the far north, vegetation is more luxu-
riant. This arises mainly from the excessive amount of
rain, fog, and cloud, which lowers out of all proportion the
temperature of summer in the immediate neighbourhood of
the coast. Bergen is universally known as one of the most
rainy spots in Europe, and its position manifestly resembles
that of Westmoreland, of Penzance, and of Coimbra, which
enjoy an unenviable pre-eminence in this respect. The ave-
rage fall of rain at Bergen exceeds 77 inches, while that at
Upsala, on the continental side of Scandinavia in the same
parallel, is only sixteen inches. At Bergen 21 per cent of
the annual fall is in the three summer months, whilst at Up-
sala it amounts to 33 per cent.* At Ullensvang, on an in-
terior branch of the Hardanger-fiord, though plunged in the
midst of lofty mountains, the climate has already greatly
improved. At the head of the Sogne-fiord it is still better.
The barley was ready there for the sickle, when it was hope-
lessly green near Bergen. In Finmarken, again, the interior
fiords, and the valleys connected with them, surpass incom-
parably in climate the islands and outlying portions of the
coast. The valleys of Bardu and Lyngen are the most
northern corn-lands in the world; and at Alten the Scotch
fir attains a height of 780 English feet above the sea, and
the birch of 1500 feet. At Hammerfest, which is an island

* Schouw, Climat d’Italie, pp. 170, 171.

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 301

exposed to the sea, and less than one degree of latitude far-
_ ther north, nature seems almost torpid, the fogs are conti-
- nual, the birch-trees are mere bushes at the level of the sea,
_ and scarcely anything can be reared in the gardens. In
short, we have the climate of Iceland, neither excessive heat
nor cold, but a benumbing mediocrity of temperature and
a perpetual cloud.
_ § 3. On the Position of the Snow Line in Norway.—The
_ occurrence of perpetual snow at a certain height above the
sea in even the warmest regions in the globe, has in all ages
excited the curiosity of geographers and naturalists.—Re-
_ garded at first asa very simple indication of the depression of
temperature as we ascend in the atmosphere, it has been care-
_ fully studied and applied (often erroneously) to the determina-
tion of climate. Closer examination has shewn that the pre-
sence of perennial snow,—in other words,a predominance ofall
_the causes tending to its accumulation over those which tend to
its waste of fusion—is, indeed, a very complicated fact, and
cannot be taken as the simple expression of any one of the ele-
ments of climate. The snow line is far from having invariably a
‘mean temperature of 32°, as was at one time supposed. Under
the equator it is about 35°; in the Alps and Pyrenees about 25° ;
and in latitude 68° in Norway it is (according to Von Buch)
only 21°; yet, though there are regions both in the extremity
of Siberia and in arctic America, of which the mean tempera-
ture is below zero of Fahrenheit (as, for example, Melville
Island), it is quite established, on the concurrent authority of
those best aquainted with these regions, that nowhere in the
Northern Hemisphere does the snow line attain the level of
the sea. The explanation is to be sought principally in the
intensity of the summer heat during the period of perpetual
_ day, which effectually thaws the soil, though only to a trifling
depth, and raises upon its surface a certain amount of brief
_ vegetation suitable for the support of arctic animals.
_ Another cause affecting exceedingly the level of the snow
line is the amount of snow which falls. The interior of con-
_tinents being far drier than the coasts, the snow to be melted
$ a comparatively slight covering. The snow Jine on the north
% ‘Side of the Himalaya is at least 3000 feet higher than towards
i “VOL. LVI. NO. CXII.—APRIL 1854. x

302 On the Physical Geography of Norway.
the burning plains of Hindostan. This is chiefly due to the

excessive dryness of the climate of Thibet. In like manner: —
five times less rain falls on the coast of the Baltic than at —
Bergen. All this confirms the excellent generalization of Von

Buch, that it is the temperature of the summer months which
determines the plane of perpetual snow. It is thus easy to
understand why the mean temperature of the snow line dimi-
nishes towards the pole, because for a given mean temperature
of the whole year the summer is far hotter in proportion.
Also, places at which the temperature of the summer is low,

are those which have a moderated or coast climate ; but there —

also the fall of rain and snow is most abundant, whilst in ex-
cessive or continental climates the precipitations are compara-
tively small. The red lines on the small chart which indicate
the mean temperature of July, have therefore a peculiar sig-
nificance as respects perpetual snow ; to take only one instance

at present, they explain why in Iceland snow lies all the year —
at a height of only 3100 feet, whilst in Norway, on the same —

parallel, the snow line would approach 4000.

The same general principle holds good in the ‘Southern —
Hemisphere. Its temperature, on the whole, being greatly —
inferior to that of the north (though the extremes are less), it a
acts towards the rest of the globe in some measure as the —

refrigeratory of a great distilling apparatus (as some one has

correctly observed), and its higher latitudes are the seat :
of almost continual storms and fog, of which the climate of ‘
Cape Horn is a familiar example. Summer there can hardly —
be said to exist, and the snow line is proportionally low. Ac-
cording to Sir James Ross,* the first living authority on the —
subject, the snow line does reach the level of the sea in the —
antarctic regions, at a latitude between 67° and 71°, under

which forests still grow in Norway, and even corn in some
sheltered places.
The following are the only estimates I have met with of

the level of perpetual snow in Norway, although it is pro- |

bable that others exist. We shall commence with the south-
west district.

* From a private letter with which he kindly favoured me.

a Ay

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 303

1. The Folgefond, on the south-west of the Hardanger
- country, is the most important of that region. An outlying

hill (latitude 59°9) above Rosendal, called Melderskin, is
_ covered with perpetual snow (according to Hertzberg), though
_ its height is only 4558 Rhenish, or about 4700 English feet,
We may suppose the snow line to be at least 200 feet lower,
as the summit is isolated, say 4500.

2. Lat. 60°1. On the western or seaward side of the
Folgefond, near Moranger-fiord, by my observation, the snow
begins at 3800 or 3900 English feet.* |

3. Lat. 60°1. The landward or eastward side of the Folge-
fond ceases to be covered with snow according to the same
_ authorities, at 1697 metres, or about 5240 English feet.

4, This last elevation has been also determined by Nau-
mann (Travels, i. 130), but with a very different result. The
mean of two observations of 4100 and 3950 Rhenish feet cor-
responds to 4150 English feet.

All the preceding determinations are subject to some
doubt. In the first the snow line is not directly measured
- at all, only the summit of the hill. In the second, the baro-
meter was acting imperfectly. The third is unquestionably
much too high from a comparison with the determined height
_ of various parts of the “fond” (see Gea Norvegica, p. 159),
certainly many hundred feet above the snow line. The
_ fourth, on the other hand, is as certainly somewhat too low,
_ the observation having been taken (Naumann, i. 109) at an
outfall or depression of the glacier. It seems to me very
_ probable that a mean of the whole will be tolerably correct,
_ which gives nearly 4400 English feet.

_ 9. Lat. 60°2. Hartougen, in the Hardanger-field (Smith),
5000 Rh. ft.=5150 Eng.—Lat. 61°. The interior range of
_ the Fille-field (Von Buch), 1694 metres, about 5560 English
feet. Mean 5400 Eng. feet.

— 6. Lat. 61°5. Outlying portion of Justedals Breen to-
wards the sea, between Jolster and Indvigs-fiord, according
_ to Naumann, about 4000 Rhenish, or 4120 English feet.

= * This observation though subject to some doubt, is well confirmed by the
; _ limit of the birch, as ascertained by Professor Christian Smith of Norway.

x2

304 On the Physical Geography of Norway.

7. Lat. 61°-6. Justedals Breen, east side, near Lodals-
kaabe (Von Buch and Bohr), mean 5460 English feet.

8. Lat. 61°°6. Storhougen, between Lyster and Justedal
(Keilhau), 5000 French, or 5330 English feet.

9. Lat. 61°°6. In the centre of the chain, near Otta-vand
(Broch), 4610 Rhenish, or 4750 English feet.

10. Lat. 62°:2. Dovre-field, according to Naumann, 5200
Rhenish, or 5360 English feet. Dovre-field, guessed by Von
Buch at 1582 metres, or 5109 English feet.

11. Lat. 67°:1. Sulitelma, on the frontier of Norway, and
Swedish Lapland. Wahlenberg is the sole authority. As
reported by Von Buch, the snow line is at 1169 metres, or
3840 English feet; but there seems to be some mistake, for
in Wahlenberg’s Flora Lapponica, it is expressly said (In-
trod., p. xl.), that the summit of the mountain is 5796 French
feet above the sea, and 2600 above the snow line, leaving,
therefore, almost 3200 French feet for the height of the lat-
ter. Von Buch’s 1169 metres* is equivalent to 3600 French
feet. Wahlenberg, in another place, assigns 3300 French
feet as the general height of the snow line in Lapland (p.
xxxv.) M. Durocher gives 1169 metres as the height (always
on Wahlenberg’s authority) in the Expedition du Nord, and
1010 metres=3109 French feet, in his paper in the Annales
des Mines (1847, vol. xii., p. 79), which corresponds with none
of the others. Under these circumstances, we must take
Wahlenberg’s own authority, and conclude that the level of
the snow line at Sulitelma is probably—

On the west, or Norway side, 3200 French = 3410 English feet.
On the east, or Lapland side, 3300 French = 3520 English feet.

i
>

r

‘
=
“]
i
S
:

=

12. Lat. 70°. At Alten in Finmarken, which is somewhat ‘

removed from the immediate influence of the sea, the snow 2
line is fixed by Von Buch at 1060 metres, or 3480 feet. But

this being an insulated summit (Storvands-field), is hardly

* See his Memoir on the Snow line in Norway, in the Annales de Chemie,
already cited. It is an abstract of a larger essay to be found in the French

translation by Eyries of his Journey in Norway, and in Gilbert’s Annals for —

1812. See also Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy, vol. iii., for a translation.

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 305

comparable to Sulitelma, the greatest concentration of snowy
' mountains in the north of Scandinavia, and consequently
colder in proportion.

18. Lat. 70°4. On the island of Seiland, level of perpe-
_ tual snow, according to Keilhau, 2880 Rhenish, or 2970
English feet; according to Durocher; 886 metres, or 2910
English feet—a close agreement.

We are at first surprised to find so few and little ac-
cordant determinations of the level of the snow line in
Norway, but it is easily explained. In Norway (unlike
Switzerland) the snowy regions are commonly remote from
inhabited valleys; they are of difficult access, and are rarely
and casually visited by the curious traveller. The ascertain-
ment of permanent from occasional snow, always difficult, is
nearly impracticable except by continued and close observa-
tion, and it is not to be expected that the natives should be
_ able to give satisfactory information on a subject of so little
interest to them.

_ The substance of the preceding observations may be re-

duced to this—

. First, The first four and the sixth observations tell us that
in lat. 60° to 62° the snow line at a short distance from the

- coast may be considered to be at 4300 English feet, or there-

abouts.

_ Secondly, In the same latitude, towards the centre of the
country, it rises (by the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th observa-

Thirdly, In lat. 67°, in the interior, it has fallen to 3500
feet, and is not much lower on insulated summits in lat. 70°,
though on the coast it falls to 2900. This trifling effect of
latitude is partly explained by the marked tendency of the
‘summer isothermal lines to run parallel to the peninsula of
Scandinavia.

~ Von Buch has remarked, that in Norway and Lapland the
_ planes of vegetation of the pine and birch run nearly parallel
te the plane of perpetual snow—the intervals, as observed
by him at Alten, being given by the following table of limit-
eng B heights of vegetation above the sea :—

306 On the Physical Geography of Norway.

VEGETATION IN LATITUDE 70°.

The Pine (Pinus sylvestris) ceases at : ‘ 237 metres = 780 Eng. ft.
The Birch (Betula alba) ceases at . ; ; 482 metres = 1580 Eng. ft.
Bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus) ceases at ° 620 metres = 2030 Eng. ft.
Mountain Willow (Salix Myrsinites) ceases at . 656 metres = 2150 Eng. ft.
Dwarf Birch (Betula nana) ceases at. ‘ 836 metres = 2740 Eng. ft.
The Snow line. . . . . - 1060 metres = 3480 Eng. ft.

From the growth of the birch he has estimated the level
of the snow line in the islands of Qualoe and Mageroe,
though neither of these rise to the requisite limit. It is pro-
bable, however, that the direct sea blast to which those bare
rocks are exposed must act chemically upon vegetation in a
way which would render the deduction of the snow line con-
siderably doubtful—which doubt is confirmed by the more
recent determination of the snow line on the island of Sei-
land, opposite to Qualoe. Still, as a guide to fill up the gaps
of direct observation, I add some determinations of the limit-
level of the common birch in Norway, chiefly taken from the
Gea Norvegica, from Naumann’s Travels, and from the
observations of Wahlenberg, and of Smith the Norwegian
botanist. These are important, as indicating the law of the
phenomenon. Von Buch estimates the interval between the
limit of the birch and perpetual snow at about 1870 English
feet throughout Norway ; Wahlenberg, at 1960 English feet ;
which probably represents best the results in higher latitudes.
In the following table, I have inferred the height of the snow
line from the limit of the birch, by adding 1900 feet to the
latter number ; and I have added in another column the direct
determinations of the snow level previously given. |

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 307

Snow Linein English ft.

Places where the Superior Limit of the Birch has Mean Limit),
b b d of Birch in
Pater English ft.| Inferred, | Observed.
Lat. 594°. Gousta-field, Tellemarken (inland) 3550 5A5O

3500, 3290 Rhenish feet P
Lat. 591°, Suledals-field, 3090, 2760 Rh. ft. (coast) 3010 4910
Lat. 60°-61°. Hardanger-field, 3320, 3440 Rh. 5400

ft., Fille-field, 3300, 3630 Rh. ft. (inland) eta! Bal .
Lat.60°. Hardanger-fiord, Ullensvang 2900 Rh.

ft., Folgefond, 1900, 2100, Voss, 2630(coast) a 9
Lat. 62°. Lom, central chain, 3150 Rh. ft.; 00; |

vre, 3370, 3350, 3600, 3220; +i 3400 ; 3450 5350 5300

mean 3350 Galan) ‘ ‘

Lat. 64°. North Throndhjems ‘Amt, | seven ob- ) 4110
servations, of which the highest is 2130 | ois Cape
Rh. ft. on the Swedish frontier; thelowest }| 2060 3810 ,
1790 Rh. ft. on the eid a -field; mean 2000 | perint
almost exactly , :

Lat. 67°. Gilleskaal, Salten, near;the sea, and
also near great Icefields of Fondal, 1200 1300 3200

Rh. ft. ; Stegen, 1320 (coast) . .

Lat. 67°. Suliéelma, W. side 1100, ‘E, side 2100
Fr. ft. (inland) .

Lat. 68°. Lofodden 1510, * 1070, 1030 Rh. ft: ;
mean (coast) ° °

Lat. 693°. Alten, Piniiarken, and RY ge-
nerally, 1550, 1550, 1300, 1420, 1150; Kaa-
fiord, 1530 ; mean 1420

1710 3610 3460

1200 3100

1460 3360 3480

nes ee ee Ee aps Se

Lat. 70°-6. Qualoe, 227 metres (Setland,sn snow 750 2650 2940
line) (coast). ,
Lat. 71°-2. Mageroe, N olin Cape, 130 yee 430T

_ By means of a graphical construction, derived from the
_ preceding table, I have succeeded better than I could have
_ expected, in representing the variation of the snow line, and
the limit of the birch in Norway, in terms of the latitude.
; But it is absolutely necessary, on the roughest estimate, to
distinguish the Coast climate from the Inland climate. It
appears, on the slightest examination, that the limit both of
the birch and of perpetual snow rises as we recede from the
coast towards the interior, the amount, however, varying be-
tween one latitude and another. By Coast, be it observed, I
do not mean the actual shore exposed to the blast and spray
_ of the open ocean, but generally (with some exceptions, how-

* Lédingen, sheltered exposure, Von Buch.
_ + From excessive exposure not comparable to the others. The same remark
applies in some degree to the preceding observations at Qualoe.

308 On the Physical Geography of Norway.

ever, aS at Kaa-fiord, which has a continental climate), the

comparatively narrow space where the mountains have a de-
cided western declivity. The result of the projection (due
regard being had to the number and worth of the observa-
tions upon which it is based) is, that the curves are nearly
flat between 59° and 62°, where they begin to decline rather
rapidly—passing from convex to concave about the 65th
degree, from which point northwards they decline, but with
extreme slowness. ‘This form of the snow line is, I am per-
- suaded, in the main correct. The rapid fall north of the
Dovre-field, its flatness in the south, and its slow declivity
in the north, all correspond to observation. I shall now give
a table founded on these curves, for every two degrees of
latitude.

TABLE OF THE HEIGHT OF THE SNOW LINE
AND LIMIT OF THE CoMMON BrrRcH (Betula alba) In NoRWay.

| Siow Pine. Limit of Birch,

| Latitude |

| whey | Interior. | Coast. |Difference.|| Interior.| Coast. |Difference.

| || Eng-Ft. | Eng. Ft. | Eng. Ft. || Eng. Ft. | Eng. Ft. | Eng. Ft.
60° 5500 4450 1050 3600 2650 950
62° 5200 4150 1050 3350 2450 900

| 64° 4200 3650 550 2300 1900 400
66° 3700 3250 450 1750 1450 300
68° 3450 | 3000 450 1500 1150 350
c0- 3350 2900 450 1350 950 400

It will be understood that these numbers must be con-
sidered as mere approximations. Errors of from 100 to 200

feet may well occur in the best determinations of this kind. —

Besides, the distinction of Interior and Coast evidently does
not admit of precision.
Beyond the limits of Norway the depression of the snow

line is probably much more rapid. Over the ocean we come ~
into wholly new climatic conditions. The level of the snow —

line at Cherry or Beeren Island, lat. 743°, has been estimated

at 180 metres, about 600 English feet, and at Spitzbergen,

lat. 793°, at 0; but I have already stated that this last result
is inadmissible.

The preceding discussions establish completely the influence _
of climate in determining the rise of the snow plane towards

On the Physical Geography of Norway. 309

the interior. This is most conspicuous about lat. 60° to 62°,
where the difference, it would appear, amounts to perhaps 1000
feet; but rapidly declines in lat. 64°, corresponding, in fact,
to the peculiar change in the form of the peninsula (referred
to at page 190), which there rapidly loses its massive and
elevated character, and the climate becomes in consequence
more maritime. The rise of the snow line may even be traced
on the east and west side of the outlying mountains near the
coast. It depends partly on the same cause as the rise of
the snow line in the interior of Asia—the comparative dry-
ness of the climate—but in great measure also on the greater
effect towards the interior of the solar rays, which at Bergen,
and on the coast generally, are so often obscured by clouds
and fog. Wahlenberg long ago remarked the superior im-
portance of the heat of the sun in melting snow, compared to
the effect of rain.* This is also true in Switzerland, though
exceptions are sometimes striking.| But in Norway, the
rain which falls on summer snow can have no great warmth,
nor be in any great quantity. We shall probably much ex-
aggerate its effect, if we suppose that one-fourth of the yearly
fall on the snow fields is in the state of rain, and that the
mean temperature of that rain is 40°F. This quantity would
thaw no more than one-jiftieth of the snow fallen at other
seasons. {

We observe in passing, as the result of the comparison of
the configuration of the country with the position of the snow
line, that though the surface actually covered by perpetual
snow in Norway be small, yet the mountainous districts and
_ table-lands everywhere approach it so nearly, that the snow

* “ Calore solis nix melius solvitur quam pluviis omnibus calidis;’? and more
_ to the same purpose.—Flora Lapponica, Introd., lvi.
+ The floods of September 1852 at Chamouni were caused mainly by a
deluge of warm rain, which acted simultaneously on the glaciers and snows up
even to the summit of Mont Blanc, which was seen all the while from Cha-
_ mauni, whereas falling snow always conceals it more or less. My guide Au-
guste Balmat mentioned these facts to me in a recent letter.

t M. Durocher has computed, from the observations made at the convent of
the Great St Bernard in Switzerland, which is but little below the snow line,
_ that not more than one-ninetieth of the annual snow is dissolved by the rain.

on

310 Notice of the “ Silurian System of

plane may be said to hover over the peninsula, and any cause
which should lower it even a little would plunge a great part
of the country under a mantle of frost. Nay, so nice is the
adjustment, that even the convexity of the rocky contour has
its counterpart in the fall of the snow line near the coast,
and in the general depression towards the north. The inci-
dence of this remark will presently be more fully perceived.

Notice of the “ Silurian System of Central Bohemia, by
Joachim Barrande.”* Communicated by JAMES NICOL,
F.R.S.E., Regius Professor of Natural History, University

- of Aberdeen.

Some time ago the introductory portions of this volume
were noticed by us in the Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal, vol. 1]. (January 1851), p. 107, from a copy kindly for-
warded by the author. In this notice an account was given
of some of the more important geological results at which M.
Barrande had arrived by his long and laborious researches.
Referring the reader to this article, we now proceed to the
more immediate subject of this volume, which contains a
highly interesting account of his investigations into the struc-
ture of those singular crustaceans—the Trilobites—which
form a large portion of the ancient fauna of Bohemia, and also
of many districts of ourown country. To shew the extent of
these researches we may mention that they occupy more
than 800 quarto pages, and are illustrated by above fifty
plates, full of very beautifully executed figures. In collecting
the materials for this curious history, M. Barrande was assist-
ed by numerous workmen, trained under his own eye, to
seek out and bring together the shattered fragments of or-
ganic beings buried in these old strata. He pays a well-
merited compliment to the zeal, skill, and intelligence of the
humble Bohemian peasants employed in this minute and
laborious research, who, he says, have improvised a nomen-

* Systéme Silurien du Centre de la Bohéme, par Joachim Barrande, Vol. i.,
with vol, of plates. Prague and Paris.

Central Bohemia, by Joachim Barrande.” dll

clature in their own language, both for the animals and the
rocks in which they are found. Some of them who have
been longest in his employment are not only able to catch
the most evanescent traces of the minutest embryos with the
- microscope, but at once recognise any new or rare form in
the district where they are engaged.

M. Barrande has thus been enabled to extend his re-
searches over a far wider range of localities, and to bring
together a greater number and variety of specimens than
would have been possible for an isolated individual. Some
of the results of this wholesale mode of collecting specimens
are not only curious, but of importance in the history of the
animals. Thus the Dalmanites socialis is one of the most
common trilobites in Bohemia. It is characteristic of the
quartzites of his stage D.,some beds in the Drabow moun-
tains being quite full of fragments of it, which form often
nearly the entire surface of the rock. Yet they were only
fragments ; and it was some years before perfect specimens
of the whole animal were found in another locality. But
these were badly preserved, and though collected in hundreds
did not give the information on the structure of the animal
that was wanted. At length a new depository of them was
discovered in the Drabow mountains, with perfect, well-pre-
_ served specimens. In these, however, the body was always
extended, and a new locality had to be discovered before any
were found rolled up, as was the case with all of them it
furnished. Eight years had been spent in these researches,
and some thousand specimens of this Dalmanites had passed
through his hands, but all of adult individuals, when a new
locality enabled him to complete the history, and to trace
out the singular metamorphoses it undergoes, as represented
in the highly interesting series of figures in his twenty-sixth
plate. -

Ten years’ researches were thus required to work out the

history of this single trilobite, and the same was true of

many others. <A second result of this persevering diligence
_ was the great increase in new species which it often produced.

_ A quarry was sometimes wrought for several years without

_ adding a new form to his list, when all at once some novel

312 Notice of the “ Silurian System of

species would reward his toil. Asa stimulus to geologists
in other little explored regions, we may mention, that whilst
Bohemia, previous to his time (1840), had only furnished
twenty-two species of palozoic fossils to science, he has
now raised the number to 1200 species, most of them fully
represented by numerous fine specimens.

The very high value of M. Barrande’s researches, both in a
zoological and geological point of view, will perhaps be best
indicated by a brief notice of some of their results. He com-
mences with a general account of the component elements of
the body of the trilobites. In this he notices the broad and
long forms which the various individuals of each species pre-
sent, and which seem to correspond to the two sexes,—the
males represented by the long, the females by the broad
specimens. He also confirms Mr Salter’s observations, that
the former are besides indicated by more prominent eyes,
and by numerous points, spines, or other ornaments on their
shell, similar to what is well known to occur in insects at the
present time. He then notices each of the three segments
of the body—the head, thorax, and pygidium or tail—in suc-
cession. On the head, he describes its general contour, the
form of the glabella or median lobe, and of the furrows by
which it is bounded. The sutures or joints by which the

cephalic carapace is divided into several distinct pieces, are —

fully explained, and illustrated by figures of those observed
in the forty-five genera he has studied. These joints have
not been noticed in the recent crustacea, and were probably,
as Burmeister thinks, intended to facilitate a slight motion
in the pieces when the animal rolled itself up.

The eyes of the trilobites have always been regarded with
much interest. He has found these organs in many species
formerly supposed to be destitute of them ; but a few genera,
as Agnostus, Ampyx, Dindymene, and Dionide, shew no trace
of eyes; whilst in Conocephalites and Trinucleus some species
possess and others want them. Singularly enough, all these
genera belong to the lower Silurian rocks ; whereas only one
species (of Ampyx) destitute of eyes has been hitherto ob-
served in the upper Silurian stages. In one species, the
Trinucleus Bucklandi, the eyes seen in the young specimens

ol nt Bt * an

Central Bohemia, by Joachim Barrande.’’ 313

disappear in the old, as is the case in existing nature, in
some sessile or parasitic crustaceans. In the structure of
the eyes M. Barrande notices two types,—-the first in Pha-
cops and Dalmanites, which have the cornea opaque, like the
other parts of the cephalic envelope, and penetrated by
minute holes placed in quincunx, through which the lenses
project; the second, found in all the other genera, has a cor-
nea different from the common integument, and either smooth
on the surface or tuberculated over the individual lenses of
the compound eye. The number of these lenses varies in the
_ same species, increasing with age. It is still more variable
in different species, as the following very interesting table
will shew :—

Lenses Lenses

Species. in eye. Species. in eye.
Phacops Volborthi, Barr. ...... 14 | Aeglina rediviva, Barr. ......... 750
P. cephalotes, Corda. .......++++ 200 | Bronteus Brongniarti, Barr. ... 1000
Proetus sculptus, Barr. ......... B00) 4) B.cpaliter, Beer sc sap ss 40s 4000
Dalmanites Phillipsi, Barr. ... 150 | Asaphus nobilis, Barr. ......... 12,000
D. Hausmanni, Brong... ......... 600 | Remopleurides radians, Barr.... 15,000

In the genus Harpes alone, simple eyes, like the stemmata
or ocelli of the recent articulata, appear, and only two or
three in number. Both these and the diverse forms of the
compound eyes are represented in Plate 3. From this it
would appear that the individual lenses are generally round
or hexagonal in form, and never quadrangular, as in some
modern crustacea. This fact, and the smoothness of the
cornea, would seem to indicate that the eyes of the trilobites
were rather an agglomeration of simple eyes than truly com-
pound eyes, like those of the higher crustacea now living.

M. Barrande next describes the other portions of the head,
the cheeks, with the hypostome and epistome, pointing out the
value of the characters which the forms of these parts furnish
_ to the paleontologist. We, however, pass on to the thorax,
and to his account of the various segments of which it con-
sists. As is well known, the number of these was at one
time thought constant in each species or genera, and this prin-
_ ciple was applied to their classification and determination.
The analogy of existing nature might have taught us that

4 this would probably be true only of full-grown individuals ;

314 Notice of the “ Silurian System of

and M. Barrande’s observations, as we shall soon see, fully
confirm this view. It, however, appears, that in the adult
trilobites the number of segments in every part of the body is
constant for each species. Emmerich’s law of the constancy
of the number of segments furnished with pleurze (20), on the
other hand, is not established. So also the supposed law that
the number of segments in the thorax of each genus was con-
stant, has not stood the test of M. Barrande’s wide expe-
rience, though, singularly, no exceptions have yet been ob-
served in the genus Phacops, from which it was first deduced.
Still less have his observations confirmed the supposed law
of the constancy of the number of segments in the whole
body of each genus or family of trilobites, the abdomen gaining
in number as the thorax lost, and the reverse. As general
results, M. Barrande finds the number of segments varying—
in the head, from species in which no segmentation appears,
to 6 segments in Paradoxus spinosus and others—in the
thorax, from 2 in Agnostus to 26 in Harpes ungula; in the
Pygidium, from 2 in Sao hirsuta, and many others, to 28 in
Amphion multisegmentatus ; and in the whole body from 11
to 38, or in the last-named species perhaps to 52. In the
same genus the number of segments in the whole body range
from 24 in Dalmanites solitaria to 38 in D. auriculata.

The power of rolling themselves up was long considered
as highly characteristic of certain trilobites, and even made
the basis of some systems of classification. M. Barrande
gives many highly interesting observations on this faculty,
for which we must refer to his work. Of the forty-five
species he studied, twenty-seven have been ascertained to
roll themselves up,—in eighteen it has not been ascertained ;
but, except Ellipsocephalus, Ogygia, and Paradoxides, only
few and fragmentary specimens have as yet been found of
these species. On the whole M. Barrande concludes that
this power was common to the tribe, and therefore not
characteristic of particular genera or species.

M. Barrande next notices the forms and characters of the
pygidium, but we pass on to the section in which he treats
of *‘the feet and organs of the trilobites.” In regard to the
former, his observations only confirm the fact that these or-

‘

Central Bohemia, by Joachim Barrande.” 315

gans either did not exist, or were of such a soft and perish-
able nature as to leave no recognisable impression on the
rock. Adouin and Burmeister both came to this conclusion,
from considerations drawn from other features in their
organization, and none of the instances of the supposed
discovery of feet have borne the test of strict investigation.
It is different with the intestinal canal of the Trinucleus,
first observed by Professor Beyrich, which the author has
also discovered in many specimens of the same species.
These were found in the quartzites of the Drabow moun-
tains, and the intestine which runs down the interior of the
median lobe or axis, from the glabella to the posterior mar-
gin of the pygidium, is either empty or full of a very fine
clay. The chemical nature of this substance would be inter-
esting, a8 giving, perhaps, some indications of the food of
these crustaceans.

Our limits compel us to pass, without further notice, the
very important section on the nature and ornaments of the
shell or test of the trilobites, some portions of which furnish
valuable materials not only to the geologist, but to the zoolo-
gist. The account of the metamorphoses which many of
the trilobites are now shewn to undergo, is also well worthy
of the study of the zoologist, as illustrating many particulars
in this remarkable peculiarity of the articulata. In several
Species the author has followed the successive changes from
the time when the young trilobite escapes from the egg*
till it attained its full dimensions. In some this was not
possible, as the animal in its early stages seems, like some
recent crustaceans, not to have possessed a shell, and thus
to have left no record of its first forms. The Sao hirsuta
and Dalmanites socialis furnish the most complete series of
changes, the young animal being represented merely by
the head divided into three lobes, whilst the thorax is
wanting or rudimentary, and no trace seen of the tail. In
a second group, as Trinucleus ornatus and the Agnosti,
even in the first period the head and pygidium are distinctly
seen, but incomplete, and there is no trace of the thorax, of

* The eggs themselves are figured in Plate 27, fig. 1-3.

3516 Notice of the “ Silurian System of

which the segments are only gradually developed. In some
higher groups all the parts of the body are at all times re-
cognisable, and the change is principally in the form and
number of the segments. Such metamorphoses have now
been established in sixteen genera and twenty-eight species.
M. Barrande thinks that this number may be greatly in-
creased by new discoveries, but would not extend it to the
whole family of trilobites. Some naturalists have even
endeavoured to call in question the fact altogether, though
we must think without reason, when we take into account
its certainty among the living families of crustaceans. M.
Barrande refers such doubters to his collections for proof of
its truth ; but as few can take a journey to Bohemia for this
purpose, we think the remarkable series minutely engraved
in the plates 7, 18, 26, 30, may serve for their conviction,
if studied without prejudice.

The geological distribution of these trilobites along with
the other fossils was noticed by us in our former article on
the introductory portion of M. Barrande’s work. He now
sums up his observations on this and other Silurian regions
in the following general propositions. 1st, “ In consequence
of local conditions, the fossiliferous formations of the Silurian
System present in each country a series of distinct stages,
each characterized, either by the nature of the rocks which
compose it, or by a particular fauna, more or less distinct
(tranchée). 2d, These local stages, considered individually
do not exhibit in general any complete or constant agree-
ment, when we seek to establish a parallel between them,
by comparing distant countries with each other. In other
words, the local stages of different countries are distinguished
from each other, either by the nature of their rocks, or by the
zoological composition of their faunas, or by the order of the
succession of these. Nevertheless, it cannot be overlooked
that there always exist very numerous relations between the
animal forms that constitute the mass of these local faunas,
even at great geographical distances. 3d, If we group the
local stages in each of the Silurian regions according to the
sum of the analogies noticed among the fossils of all kinds
that they contain, and in particular in accordance with the

Central Bohemia, by Joachim Barrande.” 317

succession of generic and specific forms in the tribe of tri-
_ lobites, we find everywhere three grand physical masses
similar one to the other, and superimposed in the same
order. These masses or groups are characterised by as
many general faunas—that is to say, faunas whose extent
embraces the whole Silurian world, and which present among
themselves a striking harmony, in respect both of their zoo-
logical composition and the uniform order of their succession,
wherever their presence has been determined. We distin-
guish these three Silurian faunas by the names of Primor-
dial fauna, second fauna, third fauna. ‘The first two
divide unequally the geological height of the lower Silurian
formation, whilst in the third we comprise, provisionally, all
the beings buried in the superior division.’

M. Barrande has represented the facts bearing on this
subject, so far as the trilobites are concerned, in a very clear
and striking manner, in Plates 50 and 51. His primordial
fauna is by far the most distinct; no species, and in Bohemia
only one genus, Agnostus (in Sweden also another, Amphion),
of trilobites, passing from it into the higher beds. But we
agree with him that this is no sufficient ground for separa-
ting the beds containing this fauna from the other Silurian
rocks as a distinct formation. Still less can we, for a similar
reason, separate the second and third faunas, or the lower
and upper Silurian groups, connected as they are, not only
by many genera, but even by several species, including,
as we must do, those in his “ colonies.”” On looking at the
plate, the true physical cause of the great break in the zoo-
logical series is at once apparent. The primordial fauna is
eut off by an enormous eruption of igneous masses (por-
phyries, &c.) which destroyed all organic beings in the limit-
ed basin of Bohemia. These are followed by conglomerates
marking shallow seas, and a bottom on which trilobites could
not live; and it is only when the appropriate sea-bottom of
schists and quartzites returns that they again reappear in
great abundance, but of course, after such a long interval, in

_ hew types and forms. His second division is closed in like

_ tnanner by eruptions of trap ; but these we would conjecture,
from the nature of the connected rocks, both less extensive,
_ and effecting less physical change on the sea-bottom, and,
VOL, LVI. NO. CXIJ.— APRIL 1854. Y

318 “ Silurian System of Central Bohemia.”

consequently, also less mutation in the co-existing organic
world.

We cannot now enter further on the rich field for specula-
tion which this portion of M. Barrande’s work presents, or
notice the important conclusions at which he arrives. Stillless
will our limits permit us to follow him in his critical review
of the various systems of classifying the trilobites, or in his
minute and elaborate descriptions of the genera and species
found in Bohemia. This portion of his work, with the
accompanying series of plates, must henceforth be in the
hands of every practical geologist who wishes to make him-
self acquainted with the form and structure of these most
ancient denizens of our globe. Even the zoologist, who
wishes to review the varied forms of Articulate organization,
will find it indispensable for his purpose, as containing not
merely the largest mass of materials, but many interesting
features in the form and structure of these animals which
we do not remember to have seen mentioned elsewhere.

In conclusion, we would congratulate M. Barrande on this
successful result of his long and laborious undertaking. An
exile from his own land for loyalty to his prince, he has well
repaid the hospitality with which Bohemia received him, and
connected his name indelibly with her scientific history.
But in his success we must confess that we feel a special
interest, from the connection in which it stands with the
geological history of the British Islands. M. Barrande tells
us he was specially led to the study of these ancient rocks by
reading the Silurian System of Sir Roderick Murchison, which
proved to him, as to so many other geologists, a sure guide
in unravelling the mysterious history of the oldest of known
creations. The benefits he derived from this classic work
of our distinguished countryman he now repays with interest ;
and we expect soon to see the influence of M. Barrande’s
valuable researches exhibited in new light dawning on many
obscure points in the geological history of our own land. In
this expectation we wish him all success in his labours, and
shall look eagerly for the appearance of the two remaining
volumes of this highly important work. We are glad to
learn that the engraving of the plates for these volumes is
now far advanced.

319

On Vesicles in the Abdominal Cavity and Uterus, contain-
ing a Mulberry-like Body rotating on its Awis, and on the
Expulsion of the Ovisac from the Ovary. By MARTIN
Barry, M.D., F.R.S., F.R.S.E. (Communicated by the
Author.)

Of such vesicles a very minute description has recently
been given by Keber,* who found no fewer than eighty of
them in seven-and-thirty rabbits. And large as the number
of rabbits was, this indefatigable observer discontinued his
researches only because no more of these animals could be
obtained. He opened scarcely any rabbits without finding
one or more of the vesicles in question. Their diameter was
generally about 3”. Some were smaller, others as large as
13”. The smaller were tolerably round, the larger ones
mostly elliptical, sometimes tapered at one end; and some
were bean-shaped. They had a fibrous membrane. Their
position was either on the fimbrie of the Fallopian tube, or
on the tube itself, or on the peritoneum in its neighbourhood ;
sometimes on the horns of the uterus, and in several instances
imbedded in the mucous membrane of the latter near its
junction with the Fallopian tube. They were attached by a
_ ramification of bloodvessels. A ciliated and vibrating epithe-
_ lium lined the inner surface of their membrane. A mulberry-
like body was seen in their interior, consisting of corpuscles
bearing cilia, by means of which it rotated on its axis. The
rotations of this body lasted from an hour and a half to two
hours. Its diameter averaged ;),”, that of its corpuscles
about =3,”. Nothing like uniformity was presented by the
_ vascular condition of the sexual organs, which in this respect
varied greatly. Keber has given other details, not required
in this communication.
In my “Researches in Embryology” many years ago,
vesicles such as those found by Keber were often seen im-

* In his work entitled “ De Spermatozoorum Introitu in Ovula,” K6énigs-
berg, 1853.—The last number of this Journal briefly noticed Keber’s observa-
tions on these vesicles, as well as those of the author of the present communi-
cation. The latter now gives a more particular account of them, and of some
recent observations of his own.

yY 2

320 Dr Martin Barry on Vesicles in the

bedded in the mucous membrane of the uterus, and attached
by bloodvessels near the junction of the uterus and Fallopian
tube. But being in search of ova, which it was important
to obtain without delay, I again and again passed the said
vesicles by, and perhaps might never have given them more
particular attention, had it not been that the small size of one
of them, by bringing its centre into view, revealed the pheno-
menon of a body rotating on its axis. The vesicle was ellipti-
cal and measured in length +”. The rotating body had a
diameter of ;4’, its corpuscles measured about 93,7”. I
watched it rotating for half an hour, though an hour and a
half had elapsed after the rabbit had been killed before the
examination of the rotating body was begun. Of this vesicle
and what was seen of its contents I published an account,
with a drawing, in 1839.* The observation was incidental,

and the account given of it was far less complete than it would .

have been had I known of the rotating body sooner. Singularly
enough, that body entire and rotating was seen by me but
once. Llliptical brown punctate corpuscles, however, the
debris of such a body, I afterwards repeatedly observed.

Keber is. of opinion that whether found in the abdominal
cavity or in the uterus, and however different in size, the
vesicles in question are the same; and farther, that the vesicle
in which I had incidentally observed a rotating body was one
of these. In this opinion I agree with Keber.

What are the said vesicles containing a rotating body ?
Keber believes them to be ova.

When in 1839 I saw a vesicle which contained a mulberry-
like body bearing a perfect resemblance to the essential part
of the mammiferous ovum in several of its phases described
by me at the same time—that body rotating on its axis—the
thought naturally arose: Have we not here a mammiferous
ovum exhibiting rotation like that of some of the lower ani-
mals? ‘The resemblance, however, did not extend beyond the
rotating body. The membrane of the vesicle was fibrous,—

‘it was connected by bloodvessels with the uterus, instead of
lying in its cavity unattached,—there was only one membrane

* Phil. Trans., 1839, p 355, Pl. EX,, fig. 161.

ieee ae

- Palomas

' Abdominal Cavity and Uterus. 321

to be seen,—this was certainly not what had been the zona
: pellucida,—and the mulberry contained no large cell in its
interior—my “ queen-bee in the hive.” I therefore did not
venture to consider it an ovum. (But in 1841 I had the
satisfaction to see from Miiller’s Archiv, that the said inci-
dental observation of mine had led to the discovery of rota-
tion in what was certainly the mammiferous ovum.*)

I therefore cannot agree with Keber, that the vesicles in
question are ova. What then arethey? For I am satisfied
that he is right in saying—and he was the first to say—they
arise in the ovary. I will now mention a few facts that may
assist in determining what these vesicles really are.

Up to 1838 the cavity containing the mammiferous ovum
in the ovary was known only as that of the Graafian follicle or
Graafian vesicle. In that yeart I made known the mode of
origin of the -Graafian follicle, and in 1841{ made several
additions which shew how it stands related toa “cell.” The
Graafian follicle arises in the following way. There is first
seen a large cell. The nucleus of this divides into a large
number of nuclei, which in colour, form, and size, are exactly
like the early state of mammiferous red blood discs. From
their origin in a mother-cell, these nuclei after their libera-
tion are found in groups. They form cells which are ellipti-
eal at first, become more spherical, and sometimes tapered at
.oneend. The number of these cellsis countless. But very

few of them are matured and make their appearance at the
_ surface of the ovary, though the rudiments of an ovum are
seen inall. They are highly elastic, and remarkably trans-
_ parent. They acquire a vascular covering, and there is thus
_ formed a Graafian follicle. Von Baer’s “couche interne ”
_ of this follicle is the originally independent cell just referred
to, and his “ couche externe.’’ is the vascular covering which
_ that cell acquires. That cell I found to be common to all
the Vertebrata, and in all these to arise, pass through stages,
and acquire a vascular covering, in essentially the same way
asin Mammalia. There is thus formed the capsule of the

* Seen in one rabbit by Prof. Bischoff.
+ Phil. Trans., 1838. t Ib., 1841,

322 Dr Martin Barry on Vesicles in the

Bird, &c. This capsule is analogous to the Graafian follicle
of Mammalia. The Graafian follicle is therefore not a struc-
ture peculiar to Mammalia, as had up to 1838 been supposed.
The said originally independent cell—the foundation of both
Graafian follicle and capsule—I proposed to call the ovisac.

There are several points connected with the ovisac to
which, on this occasion, I ask particular attention. 1. The
capillaries in ramifying on the ovisac often include minuter,
or as I called them parasitic ovisacs, which thus come to lie
between the membrane of a large one and its vascular cover-
ing. I once counted more than fifty in such a position in the
capsule of a bird. 2. The ovisac readily admits of removal
from its vascular covering, which, however closely applied,
does not become connected,—there is no penetration of its
membrane. 3. When research of the minutest kind is made
on the mode of origin of the ovisac, its young membrane is
found to be made up of nucleolated nuclei, which later stages
shew to have had within them the elements of fibre.

In 1839 I published the following fact.* An ovary of the
Hog, with a high degree of vascularity in all the parts, pre-
sented three ruptured Graafian follicles, with four on the
point of bursting. None of these were distended beyond a
moderate size. Bloody strings of a fleshy substance were
hanging at the orifices of two out of the three ruptured
Graafian follicles. In the infundibulum of this side there
were several of the same kind of bloody masses of a string-
like form, suggesting the idea of their having been rolled.+
Some of the string-like masses found in the infundibulum,
as well as those pendent at the orifices of the ruptured Graa-
fian follicles, on being examined with the microscope, pre-

sented a multitude of ovisacs, varying in size from ,!,” and

lessto }’”. Of one of these, and of its ovum, I gave a draw-

ingt. I added, “The presence of such objects in the infun- —

dibulum appears to be not unfrequent in the Hog. I have
observed them also in the Cat.’’§

* Phil. Trans., 1839, pp. 319, 320,

t In connection with the rolled appearance of these masses, I referred to the

muscular state at cerlain periods of the middle coat of the infundibulum,
t Phil. Trans., 1839, Pl. V., fig. 102. § Ib., p. 320.

?-

Abdominal Cavity and Uterus. 323

No doubt, as I then suggested, the multitude of minute
ovisacs thus found in the infundibulum are what from their
position I termed parasitic, these having been involved in
the rupture of a Graafian follicle, and thus expelled. Lying,
however, as these do, between a larger ovisac and its vascular
covering, the escape of the parasitic ovisacs implies the ex-
pulsion of the larger one. And itis very possible that it
was this larger ovisac with its ovum that I have just men-
tioned as having been represented by a drawing.*

Whether such was the case, however, it matters not. All
that I wish to shew from the said observation is simply this:
That ovisacs in large numbers are found outside the ovary,

and therefore that ovisacs are expelled from that organ.

But farther, I have reason to believe that in most instances
the Hogs, in which are frequently found such ruptured Graa-
fian follicles, have had no connection with the male. And
lastly, from what I have since noticed in other Mammalia,
and especially in the Rabbit, I am satisfied that the following
is common to this class of animals, viz.—In the rutting season
when there has been no connection with the male, the ovum
does not escape from its ovisac; for the ovisac itself is ex-
pelled from the ovary with the unfecundated ovum contained
in it.

Of what I had thus seen to happen in Mammalia on the
expulsion of an ovum from the ovary in the rutting season,
when there had been no connection with the male, I was re-
minded by Keber’s facts. And the conviction arose, that
the vesicles with a rotating body—certainly not ova—are
ovisacs. In favour of such an opinion was the fibrous struc-
ture of their membrane,} and their usually large size. I
have already published this view,t and have since received a

* Phil. Trans., 1839, Pl. V., fig. 102.

{ In the fibrous structure of the membrane of the vesicles containing a rotat-
ing body, Keber foresaw an objection likely to be raised against his view that
_ they are ova; the vitellary membrane (zona pellucida) never becoming fibrous.

This objection has been met by my opinion, that they are not ova but ovisacs.
‘For drawings which I gave in 1841 of young ovisacs present, in the nucleolated
nuclei of which their membrane is at first composed, the elements of future fibre.
(Phil. Trans., 1841, Pl. XXV., figs. 164 to 173.)
{ In the last number of this Journal.

324 Dr Martin Barry on Vesicles in the

letter from Dr Keber informing me that he adopts it. He
adds, that on becoming acquainted with my observations on
the escape of ovisacs in the Hog, he examined several of
these animals slaughtered by the butcher, and in the very
first of them found three escaped ovisacs on the outside of
the Fallopian tubes.

My health not admitting of much labour in microscopic
research, I have lately requested for this purpose the assist-
ance of a friend. He first examined two unimpregnated
rabbits, recording and reporting the results, which I quote
in his own words. In one rabbit, he says, “1 found no trace
of escaped ovisacs ; but removed as many as fifteen without
any difficulty from different parts of the ovaries. They were
of various sizes, 3” and under. They all were fibrous,... .
contained one, two, or three ova, and were sufiiciently clear
to shew the ovum within when gently flattened.” The other
rabbit, five months old, he was informed had never had con-
nection with the male. He brought me two vesicles from
this rabbit. One of them, A, he says, “ was still in the ovary,
but formed a translucent glistening projection upon the sur-
face. Its escape was almost spontaneous after the inclosing
ovarian membrane had been torn.” We examined this
vesicle together. It was elliptical, about 3” in length, and
fibrous. It contained three ova, one of them well formed,
the others smaller and apparently aborted. This vesicle was
evidently an ovisac, freed from its vascular covering. The
other vesicle, B, my friend remarks, “was lying at one ex-
tremity of the ovary, slightly attached to its surface, with
the infundibulum in close proximity. There was therefore
left upon its removal ’’ [from the surface of the ovary] “a
minute torn or abraded spot.” Our joint examination of this
vesicle yielded the following results, which are important as
shewing in what respects a vesicle, B, attached to the surface
of the ovary, resembled, and in what respects it differed from
an ovisac (the vesicle A) almost spontaneously escaping from
thatorgan. Insize, B rather exceeded A, but had a diameter
of less than a line. In the fibrous structure of their mem-
brane, and in their elliptical form, B and A did not differ.
There was neither “ zona pellucida ” nor anything that could

a a CFR es

Abdominal Cavity and Uterus. 325

be called an ovum in B. But it contained a mulberry-like
body such as I had seen rotating on its axis.

These observations leave no doubt at all that the vesicles
containing a mulberry-like rotating body have, as Dr Keber
supposed, their origin in the ovary ;—that they are not, how-
ever, ova, aS he supposed them to be, but ovisacs.

The said vesicles then being ovisacs, it is to be presumed
that the former ovum is represented by the rotating mul-
berry. How does the one become converted into the other ?
From what I saw in the Hog, it would seem that some of the
. first changes, after the expulsion of the ovisac from the ovary,
are liquefaction of the yelk, absorption of the vitellary mem-
brane, and enlargement of the germ vesicle and spot.* What
follows Icannot say. But it is difficult to believe that there is
anything in the ovum or ovisac so likely to produce a ciliated
rotating mulberry-like body as the dividing and sub-dividing
germ spot; for I shewed this spot to fill its vesicle by such di-
visions, and this before fecundation. An altered form of the
germ spot, therefore, I believe to be represented by the said ro-
tating body. The spot, as I have already said, is that of an un-
fecundated ovum. And in harmony with this is the important
fact, that the rotating body in the vesicles in question, though
perfectly resembling the mulberry in the fecundated ovum,
is much smaller, and contains in its interior no large cell with
a nucleus, which nucleus, according to my observations, is the
first appearance of what can be called the embryo.t

As to what becomes of these escaped ovisacs with their
remains of unfecundated ova, I am by no means of the opinion
that any of them are ever fecundated in the Fallopian tube
or uterus. My belief is that they are finally absorbed, for
in the same localities you find corresponding vesicles con-
nected by bloodvessels with the part where they are found,
having a thinner membrane, and either no more than traces

_ * Phil. Trans., 1839, p. 320, Pl. V., fig. 102 /.

t+ Von Baer’s “ primitive trace” exhibits a later stage, an altered form of
_ the nucleus of my large cell first seen in the centre of the mulberry, and then
_ passing to the surface.

326 Dr Martin Barry on Vesicles in the

of an epithelial lining and of a mulberry, or no trace of these
at all. Such states were also noticed by my friend in two
rabbits which he examined, besides those already mentioned.
In one he found two vesicles distinctly attached ‘‘ by blood-
vessels to the fold of peritoneum inclosing the ovaries and
between them and the fringe of the tubes. The capillaries
running over the surface of these fibrous sacs were very
plainly seen with the current of blood in them; yet they
were so transparent as to admit of a full examination of the
interior, j...,. (: No trace of cells or the mulberry-like body.”
A third vesicle in nearly all respects the same he found in
another rabbit attached to the fimbric of the Fallopian
tube.

Owen aptly termed the Infusoria a minute police,—their
ofice being to take up and retain in organic life particles
about to be lost from it.* This comparison may perhaps be
applied to the capillaries that ramify over the vesicles contain-
ing a rotating body ; butin the very opposite way. Instead
of retaining them in organic life, the capillaries lay hold of
these vesicles as foreign bodies to be expelled, and they ac-
cordingly take them up and effect their expulsion. In this,
however, they seem to be assisted by the vesicles themselves.
For as the rotations exhibited by a fecundated ovum belong
to the changes essential to development, so, it may perhaps
be said, do the rotations of the wnfecundated mulberry-like
body in its ovisac belong to the changes leading to dissolu-
tion.

The foregoing relates to the ovisac with an wnfecundated
ovum; the following to the ovisac after fecundation. Iam
about to give the substance of several more of the facts pub-
lished in my second series of “ Researches in riches Ss
in 1839, viz.—

1. Fecundation of the mammiferous ovum takes place in
the ovary.t

2. A large aperture is seen in the ovisac just before the
expulsion of the Rabbit’s fecundated ovum from the ovary.

* Hunterian Lectures. ft Phil. Trans., 1839, p. 350. } Ib., Pl. V., fig. 98.

Abdominal Cavity and Uterus. 327

3. In Mammalia the ovisac does not continue long in
the ovary after the expulsion of the fecundated ovum. A
few hours after the Rabbit’s ovum has been discharged, if
lateral pressure be applied, the ovisac escapes from the thick
vascular mass which has no connection with it. Of an ovisac
thus removed with its large aperture, I gave a drawing.*
Soon after, the ovisac is no longer met with in the ovary.
There is now seen protruded from the centre of what was
formerly the Graafian follicle, a mammillary process, noticed
by several observers, very accurately figured by De Graaf,
apparently mistaken by Cruikshank for the ovum, and not
inappropriately compared to a sort of hernia by Coste. This
mammillary process consists solely of an inverted portion
of the vascular spongy substance which previously consti-
tuted the covering"of the ovisac. In the Rabbit the expulsion
of the ovisac seems to take place in three or four days after
the fecundated ovum has escaped ; in the Sheep and Goat not
so soon.t For the vesicle described by Dr Pockels as re-
maining in the incipient corpus luteum eight days and more
after the expulsion of the ovum in the Sheep and Goat, was
evidently my ovisac.

4. The ovisac therefore can take no part in the formation
of the corpus luteum.{

The large and sometimes elliptical aperture in the ovisac,
which I figured,§ is obviously for the purpose not only of ad-
mitting the fecundating element, but also for the passage
through it of the fecundated ovum. (Such an aperture is
not required where, as in the case of the unfecundated ovum,
the latter continues in its ovisac—the ovisac escaping with
its ovum ; though it is by no means improbable that such
an aperture may be intimated even here.)

We have thus seen a vesicle—my ovisac—to exist in the
-ovary,—to be unconnected with its vascular covering,—to
have a fibrous structure,—and, either with the ovum or after
it, to be expelled from the ovary. This is in Mammalia,

* Phil. Trans. 1839, Pl. V., fig. 98. t Ib., 1839, p. 318.
t Ib., p. 350, § 261. § Ib., Pl. V., fig. 98.

328 Dr George Buist on the

where the expelled ovisac is probably absorbed. I have
shewn a corresponding vesicle to be common to the other
Vertebrata, and Iam by no means disposed to limit the ovisae
to this class of animals, believing it to correspond to the
“ schaalenhaut’”’ of German authors in the lower ones. Its
final destiny in different animals may be very different. But
analogy forbids the supposition that, exist where it may, the
ovisac in any two animals essentially differs in its relations to
what may be present of a vascular covering. It is equally
improbable that while the ovisac is expelled from the ovary
in Mammalia, it remains in that organ elsewhere.

The Physical Geography of Hindostan. By Dr GEO. BUIST,
Bombay. Communicated by the Author.

General Description.—Our recent conquests have extended

our north-west frontier to almost everywhere beyond the —

Indus, and the British dominions now stretch from the sea
to the mountains, all around from Soonmayance in Scinde
to Arracan in Burmah; and the region to which the follow-
ing remarks pertain is the same in its physical as its political
boundaries and area. It forms a vast irregular lozenge, com-
posed of two triangles, one of them nearly equilateral, resting
on opposite sides of the 22d parallel. The peninsula of Hin-
dostan proper—of about 1200 miles each side, extending
from the latitude of Cutch and Calcutta, and so southward to
Ceylon, in latitude 7°—constitutes the southernmost of these
and is bounded to the south-east and south-west by the Bay
of Bengal and the Arabian Sea; the other, which rests on
this, base to base, is obtuse-angled and scalene, its apex
reaching north beyond Attock, and its base extending along
the shores of Scinde to Cape Monze, and those of the Bay of
Bengal to the mountains eastward of Chittagong, or from
the 67th to the 90th eastern meridian. It comprises an area of
1,309,200 square miles, surrounded by a boundary of 11,260,
or one-half the circuit of the globe. Of these square miles
800,788 belong to England, 508,412 to native states,

The features of this vast country are almost endlessly di-
versified. A huge range of mountains walls it in on the north-

Physical Geography of Hindostan. 329

east, north, and north-west, with a general equatorial direc-
tion, bending at the extremities south-east and south-west.
A magnificent chain, constituting the Western Ghauts, runs
nearly parallel to the shore, along the whole western sea-
board, from Goozerat south to Ceylon. A large equatorial
mass, forming the Vindergah range on the north and Satpoo-
tra on the south, bending eastward from this, constitutes
the basins of the Taptee and Nerbudda. The Gomsoor and
Rajmahal hills, which bound the delta of the Ganges on the
west, constitute almost independent masses ; and the range
along the eastern side of the peninsula towards the seaboard
is, aS compared to the Western Ghauts, irregular in struc-
ture and inconsiderable in elevation. Shelving or sloping
gently from the inner sides of the latter of these, is the
vast table-land of the Deccan, resting on the highlands of
Malwa on the north, under the 20th parallel, and extend-
_ ing eastward and southward, till terminated by the moun-
tain spur which stretches from the Nhilgherries towards
Madras. Stretching again from the base of the mountains
on both sides of the peninsula on to the shore, and so ex-
tending all round the sea-coast, is a low border on the
eastern or Coromandel, and the Concan on the western or
Malabar coast. It varies from 5 to 50 miles in breadth, and
’ its average elevation is about 30 feet above the level of the
sea. A large portion of it is obviously of very recent marine
origin; and on the northern and southern portion of the
shores of Western India it is broken up into numberless
islands, of which the group of fourteen—of which Bombay
is one—is the best known and most beautiful.

It will be thus seen that the peninsula of Hindostan con-
sists of three distinct parts,—a central table-land, of an ave-
rage elevation of about 1500 feet, and a maximum of about
_ 2500 feet, sprinkled with magnificent isolated conical hills,
- some 2000 above the plain and 4000 above the sea, of a vast
circumyallation of mountains, spreading out into a great
mass on the north-west, and presenting on the west two
_ stupendous groups, rising at Mahabaleshwar, near Bombay,
_ under the 18th parallel, to the elevation of 4500 feet,—the
_ Nhilgherry group, under the 12th parallel, attaining an alti-

330 Dr George Buist on the

tude of 8500 feet,—and, thirdly, of the low land on the
seaboard betwixt the foot of the hills and the shore.

Without at present taking into account the Sooliman and
the Himalaya mountains, India, beyond the limits of the pen-
insula northward, exhibits four grand divisions of surface,—
lst, The great river deltas of the Indus and Ganges, consist-
ing of almost pure alluvium, yearly adding to its mass, and
which furnish by far the most fertile portions of the country ;
2d, The Doabs, which may be described as the converse of
the deltas—the latter being the rich lands which lie around
the mouths, the former those which separate the branches
of our principal rivers ; both being to a greater or less extent
subject to inundations, the Doabs being particularly acces-
sible to artificial irrigation ; 3d, The Great Desert, which
lies to the eastward of the Indus, and southward of the
Sutlej, towards Delhi, and which long formed the defence of
the British frontier; and, lastly, The Terai, or gravel belt,
which skirts the base of the mountains,—a tract of compara-
tively inconsiderable size, but so singular in point of struc-
ture as to be deserving of a separate notice.

The Terai, or Tauri, is a large gravel belt, filling, to the
depth of from 15 to 150 feet, a narrow, basin-shaped hollow,
from 5 to 15 miles in breadth, and from 500 to 600 in length,
skirting the base of the Himalayas. It is so penetrable to
water, that rivers, after traversing it for a short distance,
sink down and disappear under its surface, re-appearing
again when a fault, dyke, or other obstruction, is met with,
once more to disappear when this is passed. The marshes
thus formed are so malarious, that the husbandmen by whom
portions of the Tarai are tilled hasten away from it as evening
approaches, and make their abode high up amongst the hills.
The insalubrious character of this singular region, at certain
seasons of the year, pervades the vast Saul forests which skirt
its margin all along; they are waterless, rivers sinking be-
neath them, and emerging in the Terai; and Nepaul is girt
around by a border at times so dangerous to human life that
for months together no one attempts to traverse it.

River Systems of India.—In India we have two stupen-

»

Physical Geography of Hindostan. 331

dous river systems—the Himalayan and Hindostanee—
drawing their supplies from totally separate sources, and
traversing or surrounding the whole of the districts subject
to the visitation of famine. The Indus, with its five magni-
ficent tributaries which intersect the Punjaub, and the Ganges
and Burrampootra, with their gigantic branches, derive their
principal supplies from the melting of the snows; and the
more fiercely the sun shines on the hills, and the more insuf-
ferable that are the heats below, the more plentifully do these
gelid storehouses give up their treasures. ‘T’he whole of the
Hindostanee system of rivers, again, consisting of the Saber-
mutti, the Mhye, the Nerbudda, the Taptee, all discharging
themselves into the Gulf of Cambay, in Western India; the
Godavery, the Kistna, and the Cauvery, falling into the Bay
of Bengal, originate in the western mountains, and are fed
by the rains which fall over these, to the extent of 100
inches on an average, during the months of June, July, and
August. Both systems, whether fed by snow or rain, are in
flood at the same period of the year, that being just the sea-
son when moisture is most required. Both draw their sup-
plies from mountains too rocky or barren to require mois-
_ ture, and too steep to retain it, and which send to the ocean,

through tracts of the finest country in the world, supplies of
_ water sufficient to transform them into one universal garden.
The following table is given by Hamilton of the probable
length of some of the rivers of India :—

Miles to the sea.

1. Indus, 1700
2. Jumna (to its junction with the Ganges, ie 80 miles), 1500
3. Sutlej (to the Indus, 900), 1400
4, Jhylum (ditto, 750), : ; : 1250
5. Gunduck (to the Ganees 450), ‘ ; , 980
6. Godavery, . - 2 : 850
7 Krishna, . ; : ; 5 : 700
8. Nerbudda, ’ : F ; : 700
9. Mahanuddy, : ; ; : : 550
10. Tuptee, . 4 : 3 ' ‘ 460
11. Cavery,. ; : 460

Remarxasrie Cataracts.—Gairsuppa, Western Ghanta, top of fall to

surface of basin, 888 feet, depth of basin, 300—total, 1188 ; from 300 to
_ 600 feet across during the rains. Yeanna, Mahabaleshwar, 600 feet.
Cavery, Mysore, 300 feet. Bouti, in Bundeleund, 400 feet. Katra, in
‘Bundeleund, 398 feet. Chai, in Bundelcund, 362 feet. Keuti, in Bun-
deleund, 272 feet. Garsippa, near Honoor, 1000 feet, and 60 feet across,

332 Dr George Buist on the

When we find India generally talked of as one country of
moderate extent, and nearly uniform condition and character-
istics, it is not wonderful that the phenomena of the atmo-
sphere should be spoken of with as much looseness as the geo-
graphy of the land. The climate of India is in reality still
more various and diversified than the features of the country.
In the south, showers are frequent all the year round; on
the southern Coromandel coast three months of violent rain
occur in winter, the rest of the season being dry; while a
few degrees to the north of this, on both sides of the Bay of
Bengal, and all over Western India, the precise converse of
this is the case. In Central India the rain becomes ex-
tremely light, and occurs mostly about midsummer; in the
north there are both the summer and winter rains; in Scinde
and Beloochistan there is no rainy season whatever, and the
heavy showers which occur irregularly, and at intervals of
years, are productive of sickness, and considered injurious to
the country.

To go, however, more into detail :—From the conjoined
influences of the heat of the sun and the rotation of the
earth, there are two vast currents of air constantly cir-
cling round the globe from east to west, called the north-
east and south-east trade-winds, the two being separated
from each other by a belt of turbulent and irregular cur-
rents, and frequent precipitation, called the rains, calms,
or variables. These three great bands of air move somewhat
to the north and south, according as the sun is to the north-
ward or southward of the line ; and where they impinge upon
a continent or peninsula stretching towards the equator, a
branch is broken off, and a current, varying according to the
season of the year, produced, called a monsoon. On the western
side of India, north to the Gulf of Cutch, and on the western

shore of Burmah and the peninsula of Malacca, this blows, for —

betwixt two and five months in summer, according to the lati- —

tude, from south-west ; for the greater part of the rest of the —

4

year from north-west, an interval of storms and calms occur- _
ring in both cases at the period of change. Itis usually held —
that this takes place about a week or ten days after the —

passage of the sun northward or southward over the parallel

%

4

Physical Geography of Hindostan. O30

_ of the place, and that the rains which always accompany it

follow and retire a few days afterwards. On the eastern
side of the peninsula again, from Ceylon to considerably
northward of Madras, lying in the lee as it were of the land,
_ the monsoons blow from north-east and south-east, the former
of which occurs in midwinter, being their rainy season.

Few things can be more striking than the state of the
atmosphere or the aspect of the sky just as these periodical
alterations are about to arise. Taking what appears at
Bombay as an example : from the beginning of November to
_ the end of May the sky has been perfectly cloudless, and not
_’a shower has-fallen. Regular sea and land breezes setting
_ in before noon and daybreak respectively, the former blowing
from north-west for ten or twelve hours, the latter from due
east for five or six, with intervals of calm between, have
filled up the day and night. While this state of matters still
continues, and not the slightest indication is given of coming

change, the stranger observes to his astonishment a sudden
and simultaneous bustle amongst the whole community. The
_ tents occupied by the troops, and the flimsy dwelling-places
_ which had hitherto afforded accommodation to the European
_ population, are suddenly pulled down and swept away, as if
_ their occupants were fleeing before some fearful pestilence.
“The most substantial buildings, if thatched, have their roofs
_ stripped off and renewed, and in any case have them tho-
_ roughly repaired, while all doors and windows facing the
south-westward are boarded up, matted over, or in some way
or other secured. Square-rigged vessels strike their upper
masts, lower their yards, and make immediate provision for
a storm, while as yet there is nothing whatever to warn the
_ stranger of coming change ; and the lighter native craft are
hauled up beyond the reach of the waves, and thatched over.
with a thick roofing of palmyra leaves. Large clouds at
length begin to make their appearance daily about noon over
the western mountains, and advancing up the sky eastward,
right in the teeth, as it would seem, of the wind then blow-
‘ing, exhibit the most magnificent display first of sheet, after-
wards of forked lightning. This goes on from day to day for

334 Dr George Buist on the

and intense every night. Until the rains actually fall, the
clouds invariably disappear immediately after dark, and two
hours after the sun has gone down surrounded by the em-
blems of coming tempest, the stars shine out everywhere
down to the very edge of the horizon, and not a flock or film
of vapour is to be seen staining the deep blue of the serene
expanse from side to side of the firmament. Suddenly, and
in general after a day of unusual tranquillity, a little after
sunset, a blast at once darts forth from the east, followed by
a gush of rain as if the windows of heaven had been opened,
the thunder roars and lightnings flash incessantly, the
quivering light of a continuous succession of flashes being
sometimes sufficient for five or ten seconds on end to permit
the smallest print to be read. Sometimes it shoots upwards
from the earth, sometimes it seems to rain down in long
streams, like a string of red-hot beads, reaching from the
clouds to the sea; most frequently it darts in long zig-zags
horizontally from cloud to cloud, or bursting in all direc-
tions from a single point like a shower of coruscations shot
onevery side. This state of matters generally lasts from one
to two hours, when the wind veers round to south-westward,
blowing with increased steadiness and diminished force, and
the voice of the thunder, which had just before pealed in
a succession of tremendous claps or roars, is heard lowly
bellowing in the distance.

It may be mentioned in passing that although all our con-
tinued storms blow on us from the south-west, and the sea
breezes during the fair weather are north-westerly, that our —
casual blasts invariably burst upon us from the mountains to —
the east of us, as if these formed the grand magazine of
thunder and storm. The first burst of the monsoon seldom —
lasts more than a single night and part of a day, and the
second dawn presents the most wonderful change in the scene
that can be imagined. The burnt and parched earth seems
now washed and refreshed everywhere, long spikes of grass
of the tenderest green already shoot up from what a few
days before were brown and barren plains; deep and filthy
pits and unseemly tracts, half choked up with rubbish, straw,
and withered leaves, are now the basins of pellucid pools and

a

Physical Geography of Hindostan. _ 335

lakes, or the channels of majestic streams. The rays of the
sun, no longer fierce and intolerable as they were a week be-
fore, shaded by intervening vapours or transient clouds, pre-
sent that interminglement of alternating light and shade in
the landscape which, beautiful in itself, becomes doubly de-
lightful from the contrast it exhibits to the uninterrupted
and unceasing glare of the previous part of the year. After
a few days’ weather of this sort the rains return with re-
doubled violence, and continue to pour down for forty or
fifty days, at an average of above an inch a-day, the ordinary
fallin June, July, and August, amounting at Bombay to about
70 inches. Within a week or ten days of the commence-
ment of the rains, so soon as the surface of the soil is fairly
saturated, and occupied everywhere by rivulets or pools of
standing water, the whole earth seems to swarm with fish.
They are of four or five different varieties, such as abound
in the sea along-shore, and can live either in fresh or salt
water. They vary in size from an inch in length to that of

the forefinger, and are caught in myriads in baskets or in nets
affording sport to the boys, and an agreeable article of food.
Though their appearance has been mentioned by every one
who has attempted to describe the rains for the last two
centuries, it has never been so satisfactorily accounted for
as could be desired. Colonel Underwood of the Madras
_ Engineers, mentions a case when he was overtaken by a
furious shower in the midst of the dry season, when the earth
_ was at once covered with fish, which must have fallen from
the heavens. But this scarcely seems to account for those
| _ which appear some ten days after the burst of the monsoon.
Equally remarkable with this, though without its mystery,
is the appearance of myriads of frogs of the most enormous
dimensions, which occurs at the opening of the rains. At
night their croakings fill the air whenever a shower falls ;
and they are seen in hundreds by the margins, or in the
| waters of every pool—at times resting on the lotus leaf, at
i hurrying — the pursuit of the water-snakes which

often bounding from six to nine feet at a spring. The rains
| Z 2

336 Dr George Buist on the

slacken off early in August, and after the first full moon
an offering is made, and a festival held by the natives to
propitiate the ocean god, and vessels laid up in the end of
May prepare for sea. After some weeks of open weather
the Malabar coast is usually visited in the end of September
or beginning of October by a furious burst of thunder, rain,
and easterly wind called the Elephanta, from its occurring
as the sun enters the constellation of the Elephant, this
finally closing the rainy season.

On the Bengal side the rains are about a week later in
setting in than at Bombay. The amount of fall at Calcutta
is nearly the same, but seems more violent while it lasts,
and is somewhat less continuous. Along the whole of East-
ern and part of Central India, the rains are preceded by
furious whirling squalls, called north-westers, from their
coming down from the direction of the Himalayas, as our
eastern squalls do from the Ghauts ; three or four of these
occur during the months of April and May, and are fre-
quently accompanied by furious hail-storms, the hail being
on an average about the size of walnuts, frequently that of
duck’s eggs ; single hailstones have occasionally been found
from one to three pounds in weight. There are, indeed,
four cases on record within the last 70 years of masses of
ice having fallen from the firmament of from half-a-ton to a _
ton-and-a-half in weight. Recent observations have shewn
that the maximum fall of rain occurs, as might be expected,
at the ordinary altitude of the principal layers of rain cloud,
between 3000 and 5000 feet above the level of the sea, and
the amount of fall regularly decreases above this as the
higher regions of air are attained. The discharge where
this sea of vapour impinges on a cold mass of mountains is
tremendous. At Mahableshwar it amounts to betwixt 200 ©
and 300 inches, it exceeds 200 on the same level at the —
Nheilgerries, and at Cheraponge in the Cashia Hills north-
west of Calcutta there is an average fall of no less than 610
inches, above 20 feet occasionally falling in the month of
June.
In the north of India there are both winter and summer
rains, though the former are always the lighter of the two.

Physical Geography of Hindostan. 337

The regions to the leeward of the mountain walls, against
which the clouds borne up from the sea first dash and dis-
charge themselves, are comparatively dry, and the sudden-
ness with which the transition takes place is often most re-
markable. At Paunchghunny, 500 feet lower down, and ten
miles farther east than Mahabaleshwar, where from 250 to 300
inches fall, they have seldom more than 20 inches, while the
average of the table-land of the Deccan scarcely exceeds 25.
When the rain clouds approach the arid plains of Scinde and
Cutch, they appear to ascend and become absorbed by the
air, passing on to precipitate themselves on the mountains to
the northward. There is much reason to believe that the
fall of rain is diminished by the absence or destruction of
trees. Were vegetation sufficiently fostered in Scinde by
means of irrigation, it might cause it to have its regular
rainy season like the lands around.

Two events strike with surprise the ornithologist on the ap-
proach of the monsoon. Nearly all the kites, hawks, vultures,
and carrion birds disappear from the sea-coast, while the crows
begin to build their nests and hatch their young just at the sea-
son that seems most unsuitable for incubation, when the eggs
are often shaken out, or the nests themselves are destroyed by
the storm, and the poor birds are exposed in the performance
of their paternal duties to all the violence and inclemency of

_ rain and tempest. At the instigation of a sure and unerring

instinct, the carnivorous birds, as the rains approach, with-
draw themselves from a climate unsuitable to the habits of
their young, betaking themselves to the comparatively dry
air of the Deccan, where they nestle and bring forth in com-
fort, and find food and shelter for their little ones. The
earth, once saturated with rain in the low country, abounds
in grubs, snails, and worms, the food of the young crows,
_ which the parents pick up in the soft and moistened soil, the
_ rising generation coming forth just as the means of supply-
_ ing them with suitable sustenance become plentiful. The
scenes connected with this, which follow the conclusion of
_ the rains, are curious enough. While the Mahommedans bury,
_ and the Hindus burn, the Parsees expose their dead in large

j cylindrical roofless structures called TOWERS OF SILENCE,

338 Dr George Buist on the

where birds of prey at all times find an abundant repast.
Their family cares and anxieties over for the season, the
carrion birds, which had left in May for the Deccan, return
in October to Bombay, and make at once for the usual scene
of their festivities, now stored with a three months’ supply
of untasted food. As they appear in clouds approaching
from the mainland, the crows, unwilling that their dominions
should be invaded, hasten in flocks to meet them, and a battle
ensues in the air, loud, fierce, and noisy ; the flapping of the
wings, the screaming and cawing of the combatants resound-
ing over the island, till the larger birds succeed, and having
gained the victory, are suffered thenceforth to live in peace.

It is just after the rains have well set in, that those
beautiful exhibitions of thousands of fire-flies flashing out
in concert become visible. These brilliant little insects are
generally seen dancing alone amongst shrubs and underwood,
occasionally congregating in vast multitudes around iso-
lated trees, which they at times render wholly luminous. At
times the whole countless host flash out for a few seconds,
and simultaneously, at intervals of similar amount, becoming
dark again, and so they flash and flash for hours on end.
Sometimes they shoot in long columns into the air, like the
coruscations of fire-works, becoming bright and dark by
turns, or having reached a considerable altitude, they seem
to pour down in a shower of sparks.

Principal Falls of Rain in India—Eastern India and
Bay of Bengal.

Height. Lat. Long. Fall of Rain.

Cheerapoonj, . ; ‘ 4500 25° 16’ 91° 43’ 610 in.
Pee et) STB 24° 40! 92° 40’ 209 ,,
Tavoy, . : ; . sea level. 1¢e -5¢ 98° 10’ 208 ,,
Moulmein, . ; . sea level. 16° 30’ 97° 37’ 17a,
Sandowy, . ; . $e 18° 26’ 94° 18’ 178 33
Akyab, or ole ewemllevelis R026 92° 54’ 155. ,,
Darjeeling, . , ; 7000 27° 3’ 88° 18’ 125 ,,

Shores of Western India.

Height. Lat. Long. Fall of Rain.
Mahabaleshwar, . ; 4500 17 43° 74° 36° 248 in.
Attagherry, . . : 2200 LL? 26" ve 170 ,,
Kandalla, ; . : 1740 18° 30’ 4° 30/ 168 ,,
Untraymallay, é : 6000 11° 30’ 6° 20° 164 ,,
Dapoolee, . 900 18° 33’ 74° 2° 138 ,,
Angara Kandy, . Malabar Coast. 9° 76° 30° 124 ,,

Cannanore, . : . Ditto iz? 75° 20/ Sty

Physical Geography of Hindostan. 339

Average fall of Rain—At Bombay for 30, and Calcutta and
Madras for 8 years, near the level of the sea :-—

Madras. . Bombay. Calcutta.

January, . - : 3.50 0 0.71
February, . : : 2.00 9 0.55
March, : : - 0.25 0 1.10
April, : ; : 0.22 0 2.95
May, . . ‘ - 5.00 9 4.59
June, . f ‘ : 1.80 22.13 12.74
owuly; + - : : 2.80 | 24.88 13.15
August, : ; ‘ 3.30 16.77 16.82
September, . ° . 5.50 11.05 7.83
October, : é , 9.40 1.25 4,83
November, . ; . 10.30 0 .82
December, . : : 8.20 OF .50
Total, . a eee 76.08 66.59

Remarkable Falls of Rain in India and other parts of
the World.—At Geneva, 25th October 1822, 32 inches fell in
twenty-four hours; at Flangurques, 6th September 1801, 14
inches fell in eighteen hours; on the 20th May 1827, 6 inches
fell at Geneva in three hours; at Perth, on the 3d August
1829, four-fifths of an inch fell in half-an-hour; on the 22d
‘November 1826, nine-tenths of an inch fell at Naples in thirty-
seven minutes.—Forbes, Rep. Brit. As. 1840.

In India.—At Mahabaleshwar, in 1834, 302 inches fell in
one hundred days; on the 4th of October 1846, 10 inches fell
at Chittledrooj in twenty-four hours; at Bombay, in 1844, 74
inches fell in twenty-four hours; 2 inches fell in seventy
minutes on the Ist, 9.43 inches on the 10th, and 12 inches
on the 26th July 1849.--Sykes, Phil. Trans. 1850; Rep.
Brit. As. 1849.

At Rajkote, on the 26th and 27th July 1850, 26 inches fell
in twenty-four hours, and 35 inches in 36 hours ; 7 inches
fell in one hour and a half at Ahmed.

With this general review of the principal physical features
and climate of India, we may next pass to some of the leading
peculiarities of the ocean which surrounds it, and here I may
perhaps be permitted to quote from what has already ap-
peared in the Transactions of the Bombay Geographical
Society, a work so little known in this country, that there is

* Occasional showers occur at Bombay sometimes all the year round, of which
no account has been published in the Register. The majority of years are
rainless from October to June.

340 Dr George Buist on the

not much risk of its having fallen beforehand in the way of
the general reader. ’

‘It is more than probable that besides the currents occa-
Sioned by the trade-winds, monsoons, and sets of the tides—
we have a group of movements intermingled with these,”’
dependent mainly on evaporation. When it is remembered
that on the western shore of the Arabian Sea, including in
this the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, from the line northward,
we have an expanse of coast of no less than 6000 miles, and
a stretch of country of probably not less than 100 miles in-
land from this, where the average fall of rain does not amount
to four inches annually, where not one-half this ever reaches
the sea, and where to the best of our knowledge, the eva-
poration over the ocean averages at least a quarter of an inch
daily all the year round, or close on eight feet annually, some
idea of the enormous abstraction of water in the shape of va-
pour may be formed. On the assumption that this extends no
further, on an average, than 50 miles out to sea, we shall have
no less than 39 cubic miles of water raised annually in vapour
from the northern and north-western side of the basin, which
must be supplied from the open ocean to the south, or the rains
on the east. The fall of rain on the western side of the ridge
of the mountain chain from Cape Comorin to Cutch averages
pretty nearly 180 inches annually, and of this at least 160
is carried off to the sea: that on the Concan to 70 inches, of
which probably 30 flow offto the ocean ; or betwixt the two
over an area of twenty miles from the sea-shore to the Ghauts,
and about 1200 miles from north to south, or an area of
24,000 square miles in all, we shall probably have an ave-
rage discharge of nine feet, or close on forty cubic miles of
water,—an amount sufficient, were it not diffused, to raise
the sea on our shores three feet high over an area of 72,000
square miles.

The waters of the ocean cover nearly three-fourths of the
surface of the globe ; and of the thirty-eight millions of miles
of dry land in existence, twenty-eight millions belong to the
northern hemisphere.* The mean depth of the ocean

* Since the above was written, Lieutenant Walsh, of the United States Navy,
has sounded to the depth of about six miles, and in October 1852, soundings
were made in Lat, 46° 49’8., long. 37° 6’ W., from on board Her Majesty’s Ship,
Herald, with an American line, to the depth of 7706 fathoms, or above 7 miles.

Physical Geography of Hindostan. 341

is somewhere about four miles—the greatest depth the
sounding line till of late has ever reached is five-and-a-
quarter miles. The mean elevation of the land again is
about one thousand feet—the highest point known to us
is nearly as much above the level of the sea, as the
greatest depth that has been measured is below it. The at-
mosphere again surrounds the earth like a vast envelope:
its depth, by reason of the tenuity attained by it as the super-
incumbent pressure is withdrawn, is unknown to us,—but
is guessed at somewhere betwixt fifty and five hundred miles,
its weight and its constituent elements have been determined
with the utmost accuracy. The weight of the mass is equal

_ to that of a solid globe of lead sixty miles in diameter. Its

principal elements are oxygen and nitrogen gases, with
a vast quantity of water suspended in these in the shape of

vapour; and communicating with these a quantity of car-

bon, in the form of fixed air, equal to restore from its
mass many-fold the coal that now exists in the world.
In common with all substances, the ocean and the air
are increased in bulk, and consequently diminished in weight,
by heat; like all fluids, they are mobile—tending to
extend themselves equally in all directions, and to fill up
depressions in whatever vacant spaces will admit them ;
hence, in these respects, the resemblance betwixt their move-
ments. Water is not compressible or elastic, and it may be
solidified into ice, or vapourized into steam ; air is elastic—it
may be condensed to any extent by compression, or expanded
to an indefinite degree of tenuity by pressure being removed
from it—it is not liable to undergo any change in its consti-
tution beyond these, by any of the ordinary influences by which
itis affected. These facts are few and simple enough—let
us see what results arise from them. As the constant ex-
posure of the equatorial regions of the earth to the sun must
necessarily here engender a vast amount of heat,—and as
his absence from the polar regions must in like manner pro-
mote an infinite accumulation of cold,—to fit the entire earth
for a habitation to similar races of beings, a constant inter-
change and communion betwixt the heat of the one and
cold of the other must be carried on. The ease and simpli-
city with which this is effected, surpass all description. The

342 Dr George Buist on the

air heated near the equator by the overpowering influence of the
sun, is expanded and lightened: it ascends into upper space
leaving a partial vacuum at the surface to be supplied from
the regions adjoining. ‘Two currents from the poles towards
the equator are thus established at the surface, while the
sublimated air, diffusing itself by its mobility, flows in the
upper regions of space from the equator towards the poles.
Two vast whirlpools are thus established, constantly carry-
ing away the heat from the torrid towards the icy regions,
and these becoming cold by contact with the ice, carry back
their gelid freight to refresh the torrid zone. Did the earth,
as was long believed, stand still while the sun circled round
it, we Should have two sets of meridional currents blowing
at the surface of the earth directly from north and south
towards the equator, i in the upper regions flowing back again
to the place whence they came. On the other hand were the
heating and cooling influences just referred to to cease, and the
earth to fail in impressing its own motion on the atmosphere,
we should have a furious hurricane rushing round the globe
at the rate of 1000 miles an hour—tornadoes of ten times
the speed of the most violent now known to us, sweeping
everything before them. A combination of the two influences,
modified by the friction of the earth, which tends to draw the
air after it, gives us the Trade-Winds—which sweep round
the equatorial region of the globe unceasingly at the speed
of from ten to twenty miles an hour: the aerial current, quit-
ting the polar regions with the comparatively tardy speed from
east to west imposed on it by the velocity due to the 70th
parallel, is left behind the globe, and deflected into an oblique
current as it advances southward, till, meeting the current
from the opposite pole near the equator, the two combine and
form the vast stream known asthe Trades,—separated in two
where the air ascends by the belt of variable winds and rains.
Impressed with the motion of the air constantly sweeping its
surface in one direction, and obeying the same laws of motion
the great sea itself would be excited into currents similar to
those of the air were it not walled in by continents, and sub-
jected to other control. As it is, there are constant currents
flowing from the torrid towards the frigid zone, to supply
the vast mass of vapour there drained off ; while other whirl- ,

Physical Geography of Hindostan. 343

pools and currents, such as the gigantic Gulf Stream, come to
perform their part in the same gigantic drama. The cur-
rent just named sweeps from the Cape of Good Hope across
the South Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, and by the Straits
of the Bahamas. Here it turns to the eastward again, tra-
velling along the coast of America at the rate of from forty
to a hundred miles a day: it now stands once more across
the Atlantic, and divides itself into two branches—one finds
its way into the Northern Sea, warming the adjoining waters
as it advances, and turning back, most likely to form a second
great whirlpool, rejoining the original stream near New-
foundland. The main branch seeks the northern shores of
Kurope, and, sweeping along the coast of Spain and Portugal,
travels southward by the Azores to rejoin the main whirl-
pool. The waters of this vast ocean river are to the north of
the tropic greatly warmer than those around: the climate of
every country it approaches is improved by it, and the Lap-
lander is enabled by its means to live, and cultivate his barley
in a latitude which everywhere else, throughout the world,
is condemned to perpetual sterility. But there are other laws
which the great sea obeys, which peculiarly adapt it as the
vehicle of interchange of heat and cold betwixt those regions
where either exists in excess. Water, which contracts re-
gularly from the boiling point downwards, at a temperature
of 40° has reached its maximum of density, and thence begins
to grow lighter. But for this beneficent provision, the various
recesses of the frozen ocean would be continually occupied with
a fluid, at the freezing point, which the least access of cold
would convert into one solid mass of ice. The non-conducting
power of water, which at present acts so valuable a part in the
general economy,so far from being a blessing would be a curse.
No warmth could ever penetrate to thaw the foundations of
the frozen mass—no water find its way to float it from its
foundations, so that, like the everlasting hills themselves,
rooted immoveably in its place, every year adding to its
volume, the solid structure would continually advance to
the southward, hermetically sealing the Polar Ocean, thus con-
demned to utter desolation, and encroaching on the North Sea
itself. Under existing circumstances, so soon as water is
cooled down to 40° it sinks to the bottom, and, still eight de-

314 Dr George Buist on the

grees warmer than ice, it attacks the bases and saps the
foundations of the icebergs—themselves gigantic glaciers
which have fallen from the mountains into the sea, or which
have grown to their present size in the shelter of bays and
estuaries, and by accumulations from above. Once forced
from their anchorage, the first storm that arises drifts them to
sea, where the beautiful law which renders ice lighter than
the warmest water enables it to swim, and floats southward
a vast magazine of cold to cool the tepid fluid which bears it
along,—the evaporation at the equator causing a deficit, the
melting and accumulation of the ice in the frigid zone
giving rise to an excess of accumulation, which tends,
along with the action of the air, and other causes, to institute
and maintain the transporting current. These stupendous
masses, which have been seen at sea in the form of church
spires and Gothic towers and minarets, rising to the height of
from 300 to 600 feet, and extending over an area of not less
than six square miles, the mass above water being only one-
tenth of the whole, are often to be found far within the tropics.
A striking fact dependent on this general law, has just been
brought to light ; there isa line extending from pole to pole
at or under the surface of the ocean, where an invariable
temperature of 39°5 is maintained. The depth of this varies
with the latitude ; at the equator it is 7200 feet—at lat. 56° it
ascends to the surface, the temperature of the sea being here
uniform throughout. North and south of this the cold water is
uppermost, and at lat. 70° the line of uniform temperature de-
scends to 4500. But these, though amongst the most regular
and magnificent, are but a small number of the contrivances
by which the vast and beneficent ends of Nature are brought
about. Ascent from the surface of the earth produces the
same change in point of climate as an approach to the poles;
even under the torrid zone, mountains reach the line of
perpetual congelation at nearly a third less altitude than
the extreme elevation which they sometimes attain: at the
poles, snow is perpetual at the ground, and at the different
intervening latitudes reaches some intermediate point of con-
gelation betwixt 1000 and 20,000 feet. In America, from the
line south to the tropics, as also in Africa, within similar lati-

tudes, vast ridges of mountains covered with perpetual snow, -—

Physical Geography of Hindostan. 345

run northward and southward in the direction of the meri-
dian right across the path of the Trade-Winds. A similar
ridge, though of less magnificent dimensions, traverses the
peninsula of Hindostan, increasing in altitude as it ap-
proaches the line,—attaining an elevation of 8500 feet at
Dodabetta, and above 6000 in Ceylon. The Alps in Europe
and the gigantic chain of the Himalayas in Asia, both far
south in the temperate zone, stretch from east to west, and
intercept the aerial current from the north. Others of lesser
note, in the equatorial or meridional, or some intermediate
direction, cross the paths of the atmospherical currents in
every direction, imparting to them fresh supplies of cold, as
they themselves obtain from them warmth in exchange; in
strictness, the two operations are the same. Magnificent
and stupendous as are the effects and results of the water
and of air acting independently on each other, in equalising
the temperature of the globe, they are still more so when

- combined. One cubic inch of water when imbued with a

sufficiency of heat, will form one cubic foot of steam—the
water before its evaporation, and the vapour which it forms,
being exactly of the same temperature, though in reality, in
the process of conversion, 1700 degrees of caloric have been
absorbed or carried away from the vicinage, and rendered
latent or imperceptible ; this heat is returned in a sensible
and perceptible form, the moment the vapour is converted
once more into water. The general fact is the same in the
case of vapour carried off by dry air at any temperature that
may be imagined (for down far below the freezing point
evaporation proceeds uninterruptedly), or raised into steam
by artificial means. The air, heated and dried as it sweeps
over the arid surface of the soil, drinks up by day myriads of
tons of moisture from the sea—as much indeed as would,
were no moisture restored to it, depress its whole expanse at
the rate of four feet annually over the surface of the globe.
The quantity of heat thus converted from a sensible or per-
ceptible to an insensible or latent. state, is almost incredible.
The action equally goes on, and with the like results, over
the surface of the earth, where there is moisture to be with-
drawn, as over that of the sea. But night, and the seasons of
the year, come round, and the surplus temperature thus

346 Dr George Buist on the

withdrawn and stored away at the time it might have proved
superfluous or inconvenient, is reserved, and rendered back
So soon as it is required; and the cold of night, and rigor of
winter, are modified by the heat given out at the point of
condensation, by dew, rain, hail, and snow.

There are, however, cases in which were the process of
evaporation to go on without interruption and without limit,
that order and regularity might be disturbed which it is the
great object of the Creator apparently for an indefinite time
to maintain, and the arrangements for equalizing tempe-
rature, the equilibrium of saltness, be disturbed in certain
portions of the sea, and that of moisture underground in the
warmer regions of the earth. To prevent this, checks and
counterpoises interpose just as their services come to be re-
quired. It could scarcely be imagined that in such of our
inland seas as were connected by a narrow strait with the
ocean, and were thus cut off from free access to its waters, the
supply of fresh water which pours into them from the rivers
around, would exactly compensate the amount carried away
by evaporation ; salt never rises in steam, and it is the pure
element alone that it is drawn off. We have in such cases
as the Black and Baltic seas an excess of supply over what is
required, the surplus in the latter case flowing off through the
Dardanelles, in the former through the Great and Little Belts.
The vapour withdrawn from the Mediterranean exceeds by
about a third the whole amount of fresh water poured into it ;
the difference is made up by a current through the Straits of
Gibraltar in the latter ;* and a similar arrangement, modified
by circumstances, must exist in all cases where conditions
of things are similar,—the supply of water rushing through
the strait from the open ocean being in exact proportion to
the difference betwixt that provided from rain or by rivers,
and that required by the drain of vapour. Seas wholly iso-
lated, such as the Caspian and the Dead Sea, attain in course
of time a state of perfect equilibrium—their surface becoming
lowered in level and diminished in area, till it comes to be ex-
actly of the proper size to yield in vapour the whole waters

* Captain Smith’s excellent work on the Mediterranean, published since the
above was written, throws much valuable light on all these subjects.

Physical Geography of Hindostan. 347

poured in. The Dead Sea, before attaining this condition of re-
pose, has sunk thirteen hundred feet below the Mediterranean,
the Caspian about one-fourth of this. Lakes originally salt, and
which to all appearance are no more than fragments severed
from the sea by the earthquake or volcano, antl which have no
river or rain supplies whatever, in process of time dry up and
leave a mass of rock salt in their former basin. Such is the
formation in progress in the Lake Assal, in north-eastern
Africa, nearly five hundred feet below the level of the sea,
its waters having been this much depressed by evapora-
tion, having now almost altogether vanished, one mass of
salt remaining in their room. As it is clear in a case such
as that of the Mediterranean, that where salt water to a large
extent was poured in, and fresh water only was drawn off, a
constant concentration of brine must occur, the proposition
was laid down by the most distinguished of our geologists,

~ and long held unquestionable, that huge accumulations of

salt, in mass larger than all that Cheshire contains, were
being formed in its depths. The doctrine, eminently impro-
bable in itself, is now met by the discovery of an outward
under current, in all likelihood of brine. It is matter of
easy demonstration, that without some such arrangement as
this, the Red Sea must long ere now have been converted in-
to one mass of salt, its upper waters at all events being
known in reality to differ at present but little in saltness
from those of the Southern Ocean. The Red Sea forms an

excellent illustration of all kindred cases. Here we have
salt water flowing in perpetually through the Straits of

Babelmandeb to furnish supplies for a mass of vapour calcu-
lated, were the strait shut up, to lower the whole surface of
the sea eight feet annually,—and even with the open strait,
to add to its contents a proportionate quantity of salt. But
an under-current of brine, which, from its gravity, seeks the
bottom, flows out again to mingle with the waters of the
great Arabian Sea, where, swept along by currents, and
raised to the surface by tides and shoals, it is mingled by the
waves through the other waters which yearly receiving the
enormous monsoon torrents the Concan and the Ghauts supply,
become diluted to the proper strength of sea water, and
rendered uniform in their constitution, by the agitation. of

348 Dr George Buist on the

the storms which then prevail. Flowing back again from
the coasts of India, where they are now in excess, to those of
Africa, where they suffer from perpetual drainage, the same
round of operations goes on continually ; and the sea, with all
its estuaries and its inlets, retains the same limit, and
nearly the same constitution, for unnumbered ages. <A like
check prevents on shore the extreme heating and desiccation
from which the ground would otherwise suffer. The earth is
a bad conductor of heat; the rays of the sun which enter its
surface, and raise the temperature to 100 or 150°, scarcely
penetrate a foot into the ground; a little way beneath, the
warmth of the soil is nearly the same night and day. The
moisture which is there preserved free from the influence
of currents of air, is never raised into vapour ; so soon’as the
upper stratum of earth becomes thoroughly dried, capillary
action, by means of which all excess of water was withdrawn,
ceases ; and even under the heats of the tropics, the soil
two feet down will be found on the approach of the rains
sufficiently moist for the nourishment of plants. The
splendid flowers and vigorous foliage which burst forth in
May, when the parched soil would lead us to look for nothing
but sterility, need in no way surprise us; fountains of water
boundless in extent, and limited in depth by the thickness of
the soil which contains them have been set aside, and sealed
up for their use, beyond the reach of those thirsty winds or
burning rays which are suffered only to carry off the liquid
which is superfluous and would be pernicious if left; removing
it to other lands where its agency is required, or treasuring it
up in the crystal vault of the firmament, as the material of
clouds and dew,—and the source, when the fitting season
comes round again, of those deluges of rain which provide for
the wants of the year.

Such are some of the examples which may be supplied of
general laws operating over nearly the whole surface of the
terraqueous globe. Amongst the local provisions ancillary to
these, are the monsoons of India and the land and sea-breezes
prevalent throughout the tropical coasts. When a promon-
tory such as that of Hindostan intrudes into the region of the
trade-winds, the continuous western current is interrupted,
and in its room appear alternating currents from the north-

Physical Geography of Hindostan. 349

east and south-west, which change their direction as the
sun passes the latitude of the place. On the Malabar Coast,
as the sun approaches from the southward, clouds and
variable winds attend him, and his transit northward is in a
week or ten days followed by that furious burst of thunder
and tempest which heralds the rainy season. His southward
transit is less distinctly marked ; it is the sign of approach-
ing fair weather, and is also attended by thunder and storm.
The alternating land and sea-breezes are occasioned by the
alternate heating and cooling of the soil, the temperature of
_ the sea remaining nearly uniform. At present, when most
powerfully felt, the earth by noon will often be found to have
attained a temperature of 120°, while the sea rarely rises
above 80°. The air, heated and expanded, of course ascends,
and draws from the sea a fresh supply to fill its room; the
current thus generated constitutes the breeze. During the
night the earth often sinks to a temperature of 50° or 60°,
cooling the conterminous air, and condensing in the form
of dew, the moisture floating around. The sea is now from
15° to 20° warmer than the earth,—the greatest difference
between the two existing at sunrise; and in then rushes the
air, and draws off a current from the shore.

We have not noticed the Tides, which, obedient to the sun
and moon, daily convey two vast masses of water round the
globe, and which twice a month, rising to an unusual height,
visit elevations which otherwise are dry. During one-half of
the year the highest tides visit us by day the other half by
night: and at Bombay, at springs, the depths of the two dif-
fer by two or three feet from each other. The tides simply
rise and fall in the open ocean, to an elevation of two or three
feet in all; along our shores, and up gulfs and estuaries,
they sweep with the violence of a torrent, having a general
range of ten or twelve feet,—sometimes, as at Fundy in
America, at Brest and Milford Haven in Europe, to a height
of from forty to sixty feet. ‘They sweep our shores from filth,
and purify our rivers and inlets, affording to. the residents of
our islands and continents the benefit of a bi-diurnal ablution,
and giving health and freshness and purity wherever they
appear. Obedient to the influences of bodies many millions

VOL. LVI. NO. CXII.—APRIL 1854. - 2A

350 Dr George Buist on the

of miles removed from them, their subjection is not the less
complete ; the vast volume of water, capable of crushing by
its weight the most stupendous barriers that can be opposed
to it, and bearing on its bosom the navies of the world, im-
petuously rushing against our shores, gently stops at a given
line, and flows back again to its place when the word goes
forth—* thus far shalt thou go, and no farther ;” and that
which no human power or contrivance could have repelled,
returns at its appointed time so regularly and surely, that
the hour of its approach, and measure of its mass, may be
predicted with unerring certainty centuries beforehand. The
hurricanes which whirl with such fearful violence over the
surface, raising the waters of the sea to enormous elevations,
and submerging coasts and islands,—attended as they are by
the fearful attributes of thunder and deluges of rain,-seem
requisite to deflagrate the noxious gases which have accu-
mulated—to commingle in one healthful mass the polluted
elements of the air, and restore it fitted for the ends designed
for it. It is with the ordinary, not with the exceptional,
operations we have at present to deal, and the laws which
rule the hurricane form themselves the subject of a treatise.

We have hitherto dealt with the sea and air,—the one
the medium through which the commerce of all nations is
transported, the other the means by which it is moved along,—
as themselves the great vehicles of moisture, heat, and cold.
throughout the regions of the world—the means of securing
the interchange of these inestimable commodities, so that
excess may be removed to where deficiency exists, deficiency
substituted for excess, to the unbounded advantage of all.
We have selected this group of illustrations for our views, be-
cause they are the most obvious, the most simple, and the
most intelligible and beautiful, that could be chosen. Short
as our space is, and largely as it has already been trenched
upon, we must not confine ourselves to these.

We have already said that the atmosphere forms a
spherical shell surrounding the earth to a depth which is
unknown to us by reason of its growing tenuity, as it is re-
leased from the pressure of its own superincumbent mass.
Its upper surface cannot be nearer to us than fifty, and can

a oe ee 7

a
:
By

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ie

Physical Geography of Hindostan. 351

scarcely be more remote than five hundred miles. It sur-
rounds us on all sides, yet we see it not: it presses on us with
a load of fifteen pounds on every square inch of surface of our
bodies, or from seventy to one hundred tons on us all, yet we do
not so much as feel its weight. Softer than the finest down—
more impalpable than the finest gossamer,—it leaves the
cobweb undisturbed, and scarcely stirs the slightest flower
that feeds on the dew it supplies ; yet it bears the fleets of
nations on its wings around the world, and crushes the most
refractory substances with its weight. When in motion, its
force is sufficient to level the most stately forests and stable
buildings with the earth—to raise the waters of the ocean
into ridges like mountains, and dash the strongest ships to
pieces like toys. It warms and cools by turns the earth and
the living creatures that inhabit it. It draws up vapours
from the sea and land, retains them dissolved in itself or
suspended in cisterns of clouds, and throws them down
again as rain or dew when they are required. It bends the
rays of the sun from their path to give us the twilight of
- evening and of dawn—it disperses and refracts their various
tints to beautify the approach and the retreat of the orb of
day. But for the atmosphere, sunshine would burst on us
and fail us at once—and at once remove us from midnight
darkness to the blaze of noon. We should have no twilight
to soften and beautify the landscape—no clouds to shade us
from the scorching heat,—but the bald earth as it revolved
on its axis would turn its tanned and weathered front to the
full and unmitigated rays of the lord of day. It affords the
gas which vivifies and warms our frames, and receives into
itself that which had been polluted by use, and is thrown off
as noxious. It feeds the flame of life exactly as it does that
of the fire—it is in both cases consumed, and affords the food
of consumption—in both cases it becomes combined with
charcoal, which requires it for combustion, and is removed by
it when this is over. ‘‘ It is only the girdling encircling air,”
says a writer in the North British Review, “ that flows above
and around all, that makes the whole world kin. The car-
bonic acid with which to-day our breathing fills the air, to-
morrow seeks its way round the world. The date-trees that
2A2

352 On the Physical Geography of Hindostan.

grow round. the falls of the Nile will drink it in by their
leaves; the cedars of Lebanon will take of it to add to their
stature ; the cocoa-nuts of Tahiti will grow rapidly upon it;
and the palms and bananas of Japan will change it into
flowers. The oxygen we are breathing was distilled for us
some short time ago by the magnolias of Susquehama, and
the great trees that skirt the Orinoco and the Amazon—the
giant rhododendrons of the Himalayas contributed to it, and
the roses and myrtles of Cashmere, the cinnamon tree of
Ceylon, and the forests older than the flood, buried deep in
the heart of Africa far behind the Mountains of the Moon.
The rain we see descending was thawed for us out of the
icebergs which have watched the Polar star for ages ; and the
lotus lies have soaked up from the Nile and exhaled as va-
pour snows that rested on the summits of the Alps.” ‘The
atmosphere,” says Maun, “ which forms the outer surface of
the habitable world, is a vast reservoir, into which the supply
of food designed for living creatures is thrown,—or, in one
word, it is itself the food in its simple form of all living
creatures. The animal grinds down the fibre and the tissue
of the plant, or the nutritious store that has been laid up
within its cells, and converts these into the substance of
which its own organs are composed. The plant acquires the
organs and nutritious store thus yielded up as food to the
animal, from the invulnerable air surrounding it.’ But
animals are furnished with the means of locomotion and of
seizure—they can approach their food, and lay hold of and
swallow it; plants must await till their food comes to them.
No solid particles find access to their frames; the restless
ambient air, which rushes past them loaded with the carbon,
the hydrogen, the oxygen, the water—everything they need
in Shape of supplies,—is constantly at hand to minister to
their wants, not only to afford them food in due season, but
in the shape and fashion in which alone it can avail them.

353

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.
(Continued from page 152.)

X. Antimony Formation.—The principal, and, for the
most part, sole representative of this formation, is antimonite.
With regard to the periods of formation, of which there may
be several, it may be regarded as certain that it is more re-
cent than the argentiferous and auriferous quartz, and an-
terior to the fluo-barytic formations. It is indeed stated to
eccur likewise in the clinoedritic formation. Its bedding is
quartz, rarely ever absent.

It is a remarkable circumstance that antimonite has al-
ways been found to contain at least a trace of gold. In
some localities the proportion is sufficiently large for extrac-
tion, and even metallic gold is sometimes associated with it.
The antimonial minerals by which it is accompanied are
kermes, zundererz, berthierite, zinkenite,.plagionite, wolfs-
bergite, &c. Galena and blende are likewise associated with
it sometimes. Barytite occurs frequently implanted.

The lodes at Wolfsberg (Harz) probably present the great-
est variety of constituent minerals, but scarcely anything is
known of their order of succession.

XI. Manganese and Iron Formation.—Hematite, specular
iron, and more rarely common brown hematite, are frequently
associated with the manganese oxides, especially pyrolusites»
which is pseudomorphous, partly after manganite, partly but
less frequently after polianite. In some instances the man-
ganite and polianite have been found in their normal state.
In addition to these occur psilomelan, more rarely braurite
and hausmannite. The pseudomorphs after all of these
minerals are very numerous. At Laisa (Hesse Darmstadt)
there occurs very fine pseudomorphous pyrolusite after man-
ganite; and it would appear that in some instances psilome-
lan has been converted into pyrolusite, and that the man-
ganese in black, reniform masses, compact and without
lustre in the interior, are of this nature.

In Saxony the association of iron and manganese oxides
appears to indicate that the former were first precipitated.

354 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

The iron oxides then contain at least traces of manganese,
while the manganese oxides are free from iron. This fact
is in accordance with the chemical fact, that when a solution
of iron and manganese peroxides is treated with ammonia,
the iron is first precipitated. However, at the Thuringer
wald, hematite appears to follow manganese oxides, but this
may be connected, in some manner, with the subsequent dis-
locations which the lodes have suffered. |

There are many lodes in which iron oxides or manganese
oxides occur separately. They appear in Saxony to be iden-
tical with amethyst lodes, in which manganese or iron oxides
occur.

This formation is closely connected with barytite, and it is
known that baryta is present in most ores of manganese.
However, the barytite is always implanted upon the manga-
nese, and for this reason it will be treated of in the next
section. Barytite has been observed implanted upon hema-
tite, which occurs, on the other hand, above fluorite and
ealcite, as do manganese oxides above calcite, although indeed
the former presence of these spathic_minerals may only be in-
dicated by pseudomorphs. The paragenesis of manganese
oxides with calcite is remarkable. Pyrolusite and varvicite,
which have originated from manganite, occur pseudomorph-
ous after calcite, the apices of the scalenoedrous still con-
sisting of calcite, and the metamorphosis may easily be seen
to have originated from the saalbands.

It would seem that this formation belongs to nearly, if not
the same period as the fluo-barytic, barytite appearing as
the latest member; but a closer acquaintance with the for-
mation must decide this point.

The most recent rock in which the manganese and iron
formation occurs is phonolite. |

The general peculiarities of the lodes of this formation are
as follow :—
~ 1. Sulphurets are almost altogether absent.

2. Pseudomorphs are more numerous here than in any
other formation. It may without exaggeration be said that
there is not any manganese lode in which at least one kind
of metamorphosis has not taken place. The majority of

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 305

manganese minerals are pseudomorphous, and the iron
minerals. are likewise rich in pseudomorphs. :
_ 3. A certain simplicity in the substances contained in these
lodes is obvious. The reason has yet to be ascertained why
the more valuable metals are almost altogether wanting,
and why the lodes of other formations are poor in ore in the
neighbourhood of manganese iron lodes,'as at Johanngeor-
genstadt; and there is reason to believe that an examina-
tion of this phenomenon would lead to interesting results.

XII. Fluo-barytice Formation.—This formation, when con-

sidered in conjunction with the minerals imbedded in it, is
_ certainly inferior to none in either technical or scientific in-
terest. For convenience sake, it will be better to overlook at
first the occurrence in it of useful ores, a proceeding which is
also justified by the fact, that many lodes of considerable
magnitude belonging to this formation are known, in which
no traces of either of those minerals have been found.
- The great distribution of the minerals. constituting this
formation becomes more strikingly apparent, when it is re-
membered that they are found here and there, covering most
of the formations previously mentioned, and that they serve as
support for five of the following formations. It might indeed
be advantageous to class all the known lode formations as, 1,
Those older than the fluo-barytic ; 2, Those contemporaneous
with ; and 3, Those which are more recent than it.

The two most important minerals of this formation are, as
its name indicates, fluorite and barytite. In most of the lodes
of this formation they may be regarded as constant associates.
However they do occur apart, and this is true more especially
of the barytite.

The largest known lode of fluorite is that at Liebenstein
(Meiningen), called the Flossberg, and traversing zechstein.
Barytite lodes are often very large, for instance in Saxony,
and likewise very numerous. Miiller enumerates 1052 known
in the Erzgebirge through mining operations, and probably
this number is insignificant compared with that of the lodes
which are unknown.

In some instances ccelestine occurs together with barytite,
or as its substitute.

306 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

Among the carbonites belonging to this formation may be
named, as most important, pearl-spar, the lightest of the so-
called brown spars, and tautokin, characterised by its far great-
er density. It is much to be desired that these two minerals,
so interesting as regards the geognosy of lodes, should be ex-
amined chemically. The analyses of brown spars are indeed
numerous, but in the absence of data for the angles and den-
sities, they are comparatively valueless to the mineralogist.
When associated with barytite, the former of these minerals
is seated under, the latter upon it. Chalybite and some
varieties of calcite are likewise frequent associates. On the
contrary, witherite, strontite, alstonite, barytocalcite, and
neotype occur but rarely, and only in particular limited lo-
calities. Pinguite, chloropal, and hyposiderite, must be re-
garded as altogether sporadic, and rare productions of recent
date.

Quartz again is frequent, partly as the bedding of the for-
mation, more frequently as a subsequent production; in the
latter case constituting a large number of pseudomorphs.

Even the barytite presents, although rarely, impressions
of crystalline minerals immediately antecedent to it, shewing
that the formation of barytite was here and there connected
with the destruction of previously existing minerals.

Fluorite and barytite have been decomposed even still more
frequently. These two minerals, and likewise the implanted
calcite, have been removed, particularly during and still more
after the formation of the more recent quartz. Hence origi-

nate the extremely numerous quartz and hornstone pseudo- _

morphs after those minerals. They are partly incrustation,
partly replacement pseudomorphs, sometimes both. The
numerous tabular impressions in the quartz and galena of
Andreasberg (Harz) shew clearly that barytite once existed
there in great quantity, although at the present time not a
particle is to be found, and baryta occurs there only in the
hornstone of the more recent zeolite formation. In the Kur-
pring Friedrich August mine at Freiberg, the barytite has
partially disappeared, and pseudomorphous quartz occupies
its place. Witherite produced by the alteration of barytite,
is of rare occurrence, and in all probability owed its origin,

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 307

like the aphrite produced from gypsum, to streams of car-
boniec acid.

In no other formation are repetitions of the same consti-
tuents so numerous as in this; three or four are frequent,
and in the Reicher Seegen mine at Sachsenburg, pearl-spar,
barytite, and tautoklin, are repeated at one place twenty-two

times, without a vestige of ore.

_ The minerals occurring in the fluo-barytic lodes will be
considered under the head of the following formations, with
the exception of the iron pyrites, because here this mineral,
whether alone or associated with others, always presents a
characteristic chemical feature—it is arseniferous. It is highly
probable that iron pyrites very generally contains arsenic,
although in too small a proportion to be easily recognised.
Fritzsche likewise found in the pyrites of this formation, co-
balt and nickel to the amount of 1 per cent. On the contrary,
pyrites occurring imbedded or disseminated in slate and
other rocks, gave no indications of arsenic. Even iron pyrites
locally implanted upon arsenical pyrites in old formations
gave no sign of arsenic.

The question of the origin of the barytite contained in the
lodes naturally suggests itself. When it is remembered that
this mineral is almost always accompanied by sulphurets
and arseniurets, which can only have been derived from the
interior of the earth, we perhaps cannot do otherwise than
assume that its source was the same. But in what state?
Certainly not as a melted mass, scarcely as an aqueous solu-
tion. Professor Breithaupt is disposed to consider that it
was introduced into the lodes as sulphuret of barium, and
subsequently oxidised, and believes the probability that the
interior of the earth consists chiefly of metallic sulphurets
to be a sufficient ground for this opinion.

XIII. Later Cobalt and Nickel Formation, Group A.—
The constituents of this formation at Schladming (Styria), and
Oberwallis (Switzerland), are—-1. Thevariety of rothnickelkies,
whose specific gravity is 7:3, always containing a small per-
centage of sulphur, and probably constituting a distinct spe-
cies. 2. That variety of nickel-glance called gersdorfite or
Stirian. True spiescobalt, metallic arsenic, and even arse-

358 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

nical pyrites, are said to occur at Schladming. If the latter
mineral is really present, it may perhaps indicate that the
lode is of very remote date. Calcite is a recent member.

Judging from the little known of a cobalt and nickel for-
mation in the Pyrenees, it is not improbable that it should
be included under this group.

Group B occurs principally in the Saxon Voigtland, the
Harz, Nassau, Hungary, and Missouri. It is principally
imbedded in spathic iron, and can scarcely be regarded as
other than sporadic. Nickel is more abundant than cobalt.

The lodes of this group present in a marked manner the
peculiar characters of these deposits; their saalbands inter-
sect the rock, especially when it has a schistose structure.
The principal minerals are linneite and the less dense varie-
ties of nickel-glance, amoibite, and gray nickelkies. Although
galena is sometimes found, the other members of the pyritic
formation—zine-blende and arsenical pyrites—are entirely
absent.

With regard to the succession of pyritic arseniurets and
sulphurets in general, the same uniformity obtains, which is
more prominent in the third group of this formation.

1. The mono-arseniurets have been formed prior to the
binarseniurets, and it has already been pointed out that this
is the case with sulphurets.

2. The arseniurets have been formed before the sulphurets.

Group C.—Perhaps the purest cobalt minerals occur at
Schneeberg and Allemont; at other places nickel minerals
preponderate; and probably there is in general a greater
quantity of nickel than of cobalt. The association of mine-
- vals containing gold and silver may serve to characterize this
group.

Spathic iron seldom occurs as the bedding; and when it
does there is an approximation to the previous group. Bary-
tite is particularly characteristic, although sometimes its
existence is only indicated by pseudomorphs, it having been
removed during, or rather after, the subsequent formation of
quartz. This quartz contains traces of cobalt. It may in
general be assumed that the more abundant the later quartz
above heavy spar, the more the latter has been removed.

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 359

Still the bedding of heavy spar is not always wanting, even
at Schneeberg, and then the auriferous and argentiferous
minerals are generally associated with it. Calcite has like-
wise frequently been decomposed during the formation of
quartz, which is often pseudomorphous after it, and these
pseudomorphs sometimes present regular twins, in which one
primary rhombohedron of quartz is joined parallel to the
plane —3 Rof the calcite crystal.

Moreover, the lode quartz in this formation is always dif-
ferent from the rock quartz,—the latter having a fatty, the
former a vitreous lustre ; sometimes also being in the form of
amethyst.. The presence of quartz older than barytite, as
well as the association of quartz in general, distinguishes
this group from the previous and following group, from
which quartz is entirely absent.

Group D.—Although very little is known of the occurrence
of cobalt and nickel in the rocks of the coal formation, it
still appears desirable to call attention to the fact. Cotta
states that at the Regenberg (Gotha) asbolan occurs in lodes
in carboniferous sandstone, so frequently as to admit of being
worked advantageously.

At Bockwa (Saxony) there was found, a few years since,

{ upon small lodes in the upper pitch coal-seams, erythrine,

—a mineral which must always be regarded as a product
of decomposition ; and as iron pyrites, copper pyrites, ga-
lena, and zince-blende, likewise occur in lode fissures of the
coal-seams of Saxony, it is very probable that this erythrine
has originated from some pyritic mineral containing an es-
sential admixture of cobalt and arsenic. However insignifi-
eant this phenomenon may be, it nevertheless gives a hint as
to the date of the formation in question.

_ Group E.—The lodes belonging to this group are situated
in cupreous slate, and the overlying members of the zech-
stein. If greywacke, clay-slate, or granite, lie immediately
under the zechstein, cupreous slate and old red sandstone
being wanting, the lodes continue productive, although to an
inconsiderable distance, in the older rocks. When the lodes
bear barytite, they extend to some depth, but are unproduc-

360 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

tive. They do not bear ore either in the old red sandstone or
the schistose rocks, except when covered by the zechstein.

It may perhaps be assumed that a sudden eruption of
substances containing metals, especially copper, took place
in the sea from which the cupreous slate and other members
of the zechstein were deposited, and undoubtedly from lode
fissures. The contorted position of the fish in the cupreous
slate is a sufficient evidence of their sudden death. A si-
milar opinion was already entertained by Werner; but the
metallic substances with which the sea was impregnated
were not precipitated at once, and probably not entirely
until the formation of zechstein was completed. In several
parts of this series—for instance, at the south-western
Rothenberge—to nearly 150 feet above the cupreous slate,
nodules, and disseminated masses of copper pyrites, are
found, which have been partially converted into malachite
and brown iron ochre. If, then, cupreous slate is of sedi-
mentary origin, still the copper, silver, and other metals pre-
sent in it, have been derived from eruptions through lode
fissures. If there were any clue to these lodes, it is probable
that they will be found to yield rich supplies of ore.

The true primitive cobalt and nickel minerals usually occur :

in lodes called “ riicken,” because they are almost always con-
nected with elevation or depression of the sedimentary rocks,
partly in cupreous slate alone or in weissliegenden, or when
it and the old red sandstone are wanting, somewhat lower
down in the slate rocks; partly, but generally only for short
distances, in the upper zechstein. The vertical height of the
lodes is consequently in many cases very limited. Although,
in some districts where this formation exists, the occurrence
of the minerals above the cupreous slate is unknown, it is
certainly the case near Saalfeld. But under all circumstances,
where the lodes are continued in the rothliegenden or schis-
tose rocks, they are wholly unproductive where the covering
of zechstein is wanting.

Although no true cobalt or nickel minerals are found
even in cupreous slate, when it has no “ riicken,” still there
is at Saalfeld, sometimes in the delicate fissures parallel to

>
Lot er OS ore .

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 361

the planes of stratification, a coating of erythrine, together
with malachite and chessylite ; moreover, cobalt has been
detected by analysis as one among the numerous ingredients
of this slate. Vanadium has likewise been met with recently
in the Mansfeld slags; it has probably originated from some
cupreous mineral, in which it existed as a substitute of anti-
mony or arsenic.

Friesleben expressly states that cobalt and nickel minerals
occur less in cupreous slate itself than in the riicken,—~.e.
in the lodes traversing it, or when actually inthe slate, in the
immediate proximity of these riicken. !

All these circumstances render it probable that the con-
tents of the lodes called “‘riicken” have been formed by la-
teral secretion, the more so as they do not extend downward
to any depth. A direct ascension is thus out of the question
here. Quartz would, in such a case, have been brought up
from the granite and greywacke slate, but there is no trace
of quartz or of silicates. It is not improbable that the car-
bonaceous matter of the cupreous slate has chiefly contri-
buted, by reduction, to the formation of the pyritic minerals,
containing also cobalt, nickel, and arsenic.

-Asbolan, or black erdcobalt, is one of the minerals which
contains cobalt with traces of nickel. This occurs in the
lodes above the cupreous slate; in zechstein, which is espe-
cially rich in hydrated oxide of iron; indeed, the lodes which
bear it do not even extend into the cupreous slate, and ap-
pear to be fissures formed by drying, with which zechstein
abounds. It has been found by experience that the asbolan
near Saalfeld decreases as the cupreous slate is approached.
The stalactitic form, and the considerable percentage of
water in asbolan, may perhaps be evidence in favour of its
being an infiltration product. The large quantity of manga-
nese in asbolan may be accounted for by the fact, that the
spathic iron, from which the hydrated oxide of iron has prin-
cipally originated, contains manganese.

As might be expected, the group in question of the cobalt
nickel formation, is not deficient in the associates of cupreous

minerals. In the Mansfeld district they are not very abun-

dant on the riicken in cupreous slate and wiesliegenden, still

362 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

copper glance occurs, and as a rarity, digenite. At Saalfeld
the cupreous minerals occur in the lodes, especially above
the cupreous slate, and even when this is absent; because,
as has been stated, the beds of zechstein are partially im-
pregnated with cupreous minerals ; rich deposits of fahlerz,
copper pyrites, and barytite, together with the numerous
products of these minerals, have been found here in zechstein.
The fahlerz generally contains cobalt, a fact which accounts
for the efflorescence of erythrine from it; the most usual de-
rivative is, however, the so-called ferruginous copper green.
Erythrine has been found upon fahlerz, and indeed upon
the crystal planes, where they appear somewhat decomposed,
without any other mineral containing cobalt being visible
among its associates. Such fahlerz contains even some ar-
senic. Still it is stated that rothnickelkies and spiess-cobalt
have been met with in lodes at a considerable elevation
above the cupreous slate. But all the minerals with a me-
tallic lustre here mentioned are known to occur at Saalfeld
in lodes, in cupreous slate, or immediately beneath it, the
latter especially at Kaulsdorf.

According to Friesleben the cupreous slate, especially at
Mansfeld, appears to be richer near the riicken rather than
otherwise. This fact may be regarded as a further proof
that the metallic substances have generally accumulated
towards the riicken.

Barytite as a lode substance, is a very constant associate
at all depths ; but it is remarkable that it is always more re-
cent than the fahlerz, and older than the pyritie minerals con-
taining cobalt and nickel. For this reason, perhaps, the
fahlerz is wanting in the riicken of copper—slate, and weiss-
liegenden, heavy spar being there the oldest member. Cale-
spar and arragonite appear as more recent members, and it
is only in some few instances that there is a second genera-
tion of copper pyrites, almost solely in very small crystals
upon the cale-spar. In the immense and long-worked
deposits of brown iron ore at Konitz, Kamsdorf, and Saalfeld,
which belong to the zechstein, and have, perhaps, entirely
originated from spathic iron, as is indicated by the frequent
pseudomorphs, and the association of compact and frothy

ee os eS ek

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 363

wad—the usually accessory derivatives of this mineral,—
barytite is, in all instances, more recent than spathic iron or
brown iron ore, and lies in numerous veins in them.

The fahlerz and copper pyrites belong only or principally
to lodes in zechstein above the cupreous slate, and the fah-
lerz has most likely not often been found without a covering
of heavy spar. Here, as in all other formations, it has been
found that it is richer in silver when accompanied by little
or no copper pyrites. The galena, which occurs very
rarely indeed, may perhaps be referred to the same date as
the fahlerz. If, then, the barytite is taken as the boundary,
two formations must be distinguished in the lodes,—that of
fahlerz and that of cobalt and nickel minerals, even although
they may be very closely connected. This distinction is
supported by the circumstance that barytite has not been
deposited upon the first formation until after the fahlerz has
suffered decomposition. Consequently, the constituents of
the fahlerz must have first been set in motion, and those of
the cobalt and nickel minerals afterwards.

Sometimes the minerals whose formation has preceded
that of the barytite are mixed up together with those which
have been formed subsequently, partly in a fractured state,
and even so-called spheroidal masses are found; phenomena
which undoubtedly indicate violent disturbances of the lodes.
At the Neidhammeler-zuge, near Saalfeld, fragments of fer-
ruginous zechstein are surrounded by fahlerz, copper
pyrites, barytite, and then the numerous decomposition pro-
ducts, ferruginous copper green, copper lazure, malachite,
erythrine, kupferschaum, &c. Yellow and brown earthy
cobalt and copper—manganese ore likewise occur here,—and
these originated either from the hardening of mud, or are de-
composition products,—and ochery hydrated oxide of iron,
impregnated with oxide of cobalt. Even metallic copper has
in some rare instances been found in spike-shaped distorted
crystals, entirely surrounded by brown iron ochre.

In the riicken of Schweina and Gliicksbrunn spies cobalt
is the only abundant primitive mineral of the cobalt nickel
formation ; rothnickelkies with chloanthite is rare. Bis-
muth appears to be entirely wanting. The lodes, moreover,

364 On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals.

‘bear ore only to the depth of a few yards, corresponding to
the thickness of the cupreous slate, and the weissliegenden.
In the rothliegenden and in granite they terminate abruptly.
(This is likewise the case in the riicken of Sangerhausen
and Rothenburg, where rothnickelkies and nickel-glance pre-
dominate almost to the entire exclusion of spies cobalt.) In
the Riechelsdorf lodes pyrites containing nickel and cobalt
occur in the zechstein above the cupreous slate, although
near to it, and extend to a small distance beneath it. Traces
of bismuth have also been met with here.

According to previous observation, gold and silver mine-
rals are altogether absent from this formation; still the
fahlerz contains as much as 3 per cent. of silver, and although
this mineral, strictly speaking, does not belong to this group
of the formation which commences with heavy spar, as has
been shewn, it has been included because it appears in the
same lodes, and because it not unfrequently contains cobalt.

As regards the great variety of minerals occurring in the
lodes, the Saalfeld district is the most important. |

It must be admitted that these five groups of the cobalt
nickel formation cannot be referred to one and the same
period, but must, perhaps, be separated into several lode
formations. The Chilian is undoubtedly distinct, and should
perhaps be placed immediately after the fifth formation.
Again, a group which includes lode quartz as an essential con-
stituent should, perhaps, be separated from one in which it is
absent. The want of observations respecting the relative age
of the individual lodes in which cobalt and nickel minerals
occur, the absence of spathic iron, and especially of barytite,
or their pseudomorphs, in some places have rendered it
necessary to consider under one head groups of minerals
which will, without doubt, hereafter be found to differ.
Still the course here adopted has the advantage of present-
ing a connected view of the known modes of occurrence of
bodies which in a mineralogical, chemical, and geognostical
point of view are very closely related.

Further, the localities enumerated admit of the conclusion
being drawn, that the most recent group belongs to a period
between the completion of the old coal formation, and but

EE ———————E————

On the Paragenetic Relations of Minerals. 365

little subsequent to the zechstein ; up to the present time
at least, it is not known that cobalt or nickel minerals occur
in a sedimentary formation more recent than the latter.
XIV. Barytic, Lead, and Zinc Formation.—Although this
formation is characterised as barytic, the most frequent
lodic substance next to barytite is fluorspar. The lodes may
in other respects be classified into two groups, according to

the presence or absence of quartz.

Among the minerals galena is the most characteristic. It
is generally poor in silver, in some rarer instances without
any. There is perhaps no other formation of which it is an
essential member where it has suffered so many alterations.
The most ordinary products of decomposition are cerussite,

' hyromorphite, mimetite, anglesite, leadhilite, phosgenite,

mendipite, plumbocalcite, and the very rare schwebleinz
(superoxide of lead).
3 - (To be concluded in our neat Number.)

On the Fossil Plants found in Amber. By Professor
GOEPPERT.

[Berlin Academy, Bulletin, 1853, pp. 450-476; and Leonhard u. Bronn’s N.
Jahrb. f. Min. u.s.w. 1853, pp. 745-749.]

Since Prof. Goeppert recognised the Taxodites dubius of Stern-
berg, which occurs abundantly in the plant-bed at Schosnitz, Silesia,
as the Taxodium distichum, Rich., now living in the southern parts
of the United States and in Mexico, and found also some fossil Plants
from Schosnitz to be identical with living species, thus pointing out
the identity of some tertiary plants with the living, he has had the
opportunity of examining a collection of 570 specimens of Amber,
containing plant-remains, belonging to M. Menge of Dantzig, and
30 specimens bequeathed by M. Berendt. With these the author
has been enabled to raise the number of the species of plants in the
Amber Flora from 44 to 163, of which only Libocedrites salicor-
nioides and Taxodites Europeus occur fossil out of the Amber, and
30 are identical with existing species. The constitution of the
Amber Flora, as at present known, is shewn in the following table.*

* For the lists of genera and species, see the works above referred to,

VOL. LVI. NO. CXII.—APRIL 1854. 2B

366 Professor Goeppert on the -

Number of Number identical with

Species. existing Species.
PLANT CELLULARES.
Tsi Hemgeetcic.. ico8. 2740... AS 16 4, certainly; perhaps all.
oe ae Ri ee ae
6 or 7 (with species on
HI; , Lichenes <....6ssi09s- (i 12 the E. and W. coasts of
Arctic America.)

IV. atta hepatici : i 39 specimens 11 11
ungermanniee

Vid’ Mucei frondosi 1<.f;.4-: 03 ao... bet 19 { 2 or 3, certainly ; per-
haps all.

PLANT VASCULARES.
III. Cryptogame (Acotyledones.)
Filices.
Pecopteris Humboldtana, Gépp. & Behr.
IV. Monocotyledones.
Cyperacez.
Carex eximia, Gépp. and Menge.
Graminee.
Fragments.
Alismacee.
Alisma plantaginoides, Gépp. & Menge.
V. Gymnosperme.

CupressPiees.; cine cacs basccn coed <>: 220 2
PRRUCUTINGEEN nnn eee se tae ME cae net 31* 1
Ct elAGOaI Te: «seeped ke ec HLS. ees 1
VI. Monochlamydez.

TROTTER oon ove «nee shes walacn ceeets ne, une
SPORITOT AS on Ss Soman capable wiee | 10
Salicinez ........ ET Seek Seen as 3

VII. Corolliflore.
Kricinez...... bite HSLERGLE, DE, ole 22 3
V SPANO 65 oi, 5 foe aek ac asdinncsade sedis 1
Primulacee#.......0-....:. a. CEOS SO 2
Verbasea® sickats i pdencwas oo bleaies 2 1
ae ead aR he CART fcay Sete yi
SEFODATIATINOG ... d. sce sncenepicak ene x
MD MPIODTORD yc 5 «56 woe Hos crthece ca canes 2

VIII. Choristopetale.
Loranthez .......... Giwsgaate Vets ab
Crttaritbicsae era aoa eibs cate 1 s

The whole Flora as yet known consists of 24 Families, 64 Ge-
nera ; comprising 163 species.t

The following are the general results of Prof. Goeppert’s re-
searches,

A considerable number of tertiary species of plants (especially
Plante cellulares) are still living.

* Of these, eight (the species determined from the fossil wood) afford Amber.
t The number of species may probably be raised to about 180, by additions
from about 50 specimens of which the relations are barely determinable.

Fossil Plants found in Amber. 367

The flora of the Amber being destitute of tropical and sub-tropical
forms, it, is to be referred to the Pliocene period,

The. remains only of forest-plants have been preserved in the
Amber.

This flora much resembles the present, especially in the Cellular
plants ; the Cupressinec, however, are now almost wholly wanting in
our latitudes, and the Abietinee and the Ericinee are not abundant.
The four species, of Thuia, Andromeda, and Sedum, which are iden-
tical with the living, are indeed northern forms; on the other hand,
the Libocedrus Chilensis is found on the Andes of Southern Chili.

_ The flora of the northern parts of Europe, Asia, and America, is
at present less rich in species of Cupressinee and Abietinee than
that of the Amber, although it possesses some of the species found
in the latter ; nor are the existing northern species of Conifere so
rich in resinous products as were the trees of the Amber-flora with
which the Dammara Australis of New Zealand can alone in this re-
spect be compared, the branches and twigs of this tree being stiff
with white resin-drops.

If we take into consideration the enormous extent which the forests

of

Abies alba, Abies ovata,
. nigra, Larix Dahurica,
balsamea, Sibirica, and

— Sibirica, Pinus Cembra,

at present attain in North America and Northern Asia, we are led
to infer a similar extension in former times of the Amber-forests
throughout the northern regions; to which, indeed, the wide distri-
bution of amber in the late tertiary deposits of North America,
Holland, North Germany, Russia, and Siberia to Kamtschatka, bears
evidence.

If we judge from the proportion which the fir-forests bear to the
rest of our northern flora generally, we shall infer, from the preva-
lence of the Conifere in the Amber, the existence of a very rich
flora contemporaneous with the latter, and of which but a small part
has as yet been presented to our notice. Germany contains 6800
species of Cryptogame, according to Rabenhorst, and 3454 species of |
Phanerogame, according to Koch. The proportions are—

THr GERMAN FroRA. THE AMBER FLOP .

; Classes. Species. Classes. Speci
Mryptogame ...i3 0.4 257. -0 ys Beste C8Q0 aun. 6 60
Families. Species. Families. Species,
Phanerogame ...............005 - 135 3454 ...... 20 102
ae ee rere < Bo td 6% vit 10
PMO ccs aiirrkeec is ros sev ewees oat OD ee oY: 24:

368 On the Fossil Plants found in Amber.

Amber is never found isolated in large or small masses in the
bituminous wood of the Brown-coal with resin-ducts of a single row
of cells, which never contain yellow masses of resin, but only dark-
brown transparent resin-drops, as in the Cupressinee, or the Cupres-
sinorylon of Goeppert. The compound resin-ducts of the Abietinee
alone are filled with amber.

It is probable that the amber and its plant-remains have been
drifted to the places in which they are now found. The author
knows of no well-authenticated instance of the occurrence of amber
in the Brown-coal formation itself; it occurs in the drift-beds above
it, where, however, it does not appear to have originally belonged.
Scheerer has found it in Norway; Von Brevern, atG ischiginsk in
Kamtschatka; Rink, in Haven Island, near Disco Island, Green-
land ; and in these instances it is generally in drift-beds. The sup-
position, however, that it belongs to the Drift-period is difficult to
substantiate, the flora of that period being as yet but little known,
The stomach of the fossil Mastodon found in New Jersey contained
twigs of Thuja occidentalis (found in the Amber-flora) ; and in the
Erie Canal, in New York State, at a depth of 118 feet there have
been found freshwater shells, together with portions of Abies Cana-
densis, which still grows in the neighbourhood, and leaves of which
are recognised (though with some doubt) in the amber. The fossil
wood of the Drift-beds of Siberia, also, is nearly related to that of
the present day.*

The height at which amber is found at the Castle on the Riesen-
gebirge near Helmsdorf is nearly 1250 feet [German] above the sea
level, and at Grossman’s Factory near Tannhausen, at 1350 feet.

The amber is not derived from one species of wood only (Pinites
succinifer), as Professor Goeppert formerly thought, but also from
eight other species, including the Pinus Rinkianus, in which Vau-
pelt observed the amber of Disco Island.

It is probable that all the Abietine, and perhaps the Cupressinee,
have furnished their share of the resinous matter (at first consisting
of various specifically different resins) that afterwards by fossiliza-
tion became amber; and this is supported by the author’s experi-
ments in the formation of amber from resin by the wet process, as
in his experiments on the formation of coal from recent plants.t+

In form the amber is either like drops, indicative of a former semi-
fluid condition, or as the casts of resin-ducts and cavities. Large
nodular masses occur, which must have been accumulated in the
lower part of the stem or the root, as in the Copal trees.—( Quarterly
Journal of the Geological Society, vol. x., No. 37.)

* See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. vi. Part 2. Miscell. p. 66,—TRANSL.
+ Ibid., p. 33.—TRANSL.

369

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

METEOROLOGY.

1. Climate of Finmarken.—“ I shall here add,’’ says Professor
Forbes, ‘‘ a few particulars which give a general idea of the climate
of this part of Norway. For eleven years (1837-48), the average
temperature at 9 a.M. was 34°°50; at 9p.M., 32°-83 ; mean 33°66.
Von Buch estimated it, solely from the upper level of the Pine
(640 feet above the sea), at nearly 1° Reaumur, or 34°:25
Fahrenheit, a remarkable coincidence. ‘The mean temperature of
February, which is decidedly the coldest month, is 15°4; and of
August, which is usually the hottest, 54°°3. This range is, how-
ever, small, compared with the actual extremes on particular days,
which I find to be the following, during three years, for which they
are specified; but of which those for 1848 only are certainly taken
with self-registering instraments :—

1846. 1847. 1848.
Maximum ....... 83°3 84°°7 86°9
Minimum ,....... 14°8 3:1 20:2

Range see 98:1 87:8 107-1

Hence it appears that the thermometer rarely, if ever, falls below
the zero of Fahrenheit, whilst there is not, perhaps, another part of
the earth’s surface on this parallel where mercury does not freeze in
winter. The fall of rain and snow in these three years was only
18-18, 16:81, and 17°19 inches.”’*—(Morway and its Glaciers, by
Professor James D. Forbes.)

2. Proposed Meteorological Survey.—We regret to have to an-
nounce to the scientific public, onthe authority of Captain James,
Royal Engineers, that the proposed second conference at Brussels, for
making arrangements for the mutua] interchanges of the principal
results obtained from the meteorological observations taken on land
in all parts of the world, cannot, under the present aspect of our
foreign relations, take place this year.

The opinions of all the most eminent meteorologists in Europe and
America are strongly in favour of such a combination and system
of co-operation, and we trust the war which is now pending may be
of short duration, and that this conference may still be held at no
distant day.

HYDROGRAPHY.

3. Amount of pressure borne by Animal Life in profound
depths.—The real amount of pressure borne by aniinal life in pro-
found depths is truly an interesting element for consideration and

* See Reports of British Association for 1849 and following years.

370 Scientijic Intelligence—Hydrography.

experiment. At 16 fathomsa living creature would have to sustain
only about 60 pounds to the square inch, and at 60 fathoms as
much as 180 pounds. At 100 fathoms depth the pressure would
amount to 285 pounds; and at 700 fathoms the creature must
bear with impunity a quantity equal to 1830 pounds upon the square
inch; while the pressure of 1000 fathoms of superincumbent water
on the same area considerably exceeds a ton.—(Rear-Admiral
Smyth, K.S.F., on the Mediterranean, p. 193.) :

4, Sea Pressure.-—* In proportion to the descent into the sea
does the pressure of the superior portion upon the inferior become
greater ; and as a column of sea water, 11 yards in height, is nearly
of the same weight as a column of air of an equal base, extending
from the surface of the earth to the limit of the atmosphere, it fol-
lows that, at a depth of 1100 yards, the water sustains a pressure
of 100 atmospheres. How enormous, then, must this pressure be
on beds still lower, if the mean depth of the sea, at a distance from
the coasts, extends for several miles, as the laws of gravitation seem
to indicate.’ A question thence arises as to the depth of water
necessary to produce the liquefaction of gases. Estimating the
height of a column of water equal to the pressure of an atmosphere,
in the usual way, at 34 feet, and neglecting the saline contents of
the sea, as well as the probable compression of water itself at vast
depths, Dr Faraday has shewn (Philosophical Transactions for 1823)
the pressure and temperature at which the gaseous substances below
enumerated become liquid in his experiments, and it results that
those gases could not exist as such below the depths marked in
feet on the last column.

Feet.
Sulphurous acid gas liquifies, under 2 atmospheres, at 45° 68
Cyanogen gas, bin a 3°6 a. 45° 123
Chlorine gas, ee vee 4 ‘Sud 60° 136
Ammoniacal gas, ... aes 6:5 iti 50° 221
Sulphuretted hydrogen gas, 17 ate 50° 578
Carbonic acid gas, ... ent 36 ie 32° 1224
Muriatic acid gas, ... eee 40 whi 50°. 1360
Nitrous oxide gas, ... ol 50 45° 1700

—(Rear-Admiral W. H. Smyth, K.SF., on the Mediterranean Sea.)

5. The Colour of the Ocean.—The usual tint of the Mediterranean
Sea, when undisturbed by accidental or local causes, is a bright and
deep blue ; but in the Adriatic a green tinge is prevalent ; in the
Levant basin it borders on purple, while the Euxine often has the
dark aspect from which it derives its modern appellation. The clear
ultramarine tint is the most general, and has been immemorially
noticed, although the diaphanous translucence of the water almost
justifies those who assert that it has no colour at all. Seamen
admit of one conclusion in regard to colour, namely, that a green

Scientific Intelligence—Hydrography. 371

hue is a general indication of soundings, and indigo blue of profound
depth.—( Rear-Admiral W.H. Smyth, K.S.E., on the Mediterranean
Sea, p. 125.)

6. Admiral Smyth on the Temperature of the Ocean.—The result
of my experiments leads to the conclusion that there actually exists a
very sensible diminution between the surface temperature and that
obtained at great depths, and the difference may be roundly esti-
mated at about one degree for every twenty fathoms of line near
the surface, save where the agency of subterranean currents may
_be at work, for such streams are undoubtedly connected with oceanic
influences; but below about 180 fathoms, to our utmost depths, the
temperature varied but little from 42° or 43° of the Fahrenheit
scale. We found that at equal depths the warmth is rather higher
along shore than in the offing ; still no reliance can be placed here
upon thermometrical indications of an approach to land or a great
bank, as taught in the Atiantic Ocean, and the supposed heating of
the waves is a mistaken sensation produced by the cooling of the
. atmosphere in the meantime. The mere surface temperature is
very variable, according to the weather and the altitude of the
sun, differing at sunrise and in the afternoon by three or four
degrees, and even more.—(Rear-Admiral W. H. Smyth, K.S.F., on
the Mediterranean Sea, p. 124.)

7. Captain Allen’s proposal of converting the Dead Sea into a
north-eastern extension of the Mediterranean.—There is certainly
no natural feature of the earth’s surface more astounding, or more
difficult of explanation, than the existence of this long deep fissure,
which, being 630 feet below the Mediterranean at the Lake of
T iarias, deepens in the Dead Sea to 1300 feet below the general
sea-level. With the nature of the hilly country between the Medi-
terranean and the Sea of Tiberias we are pretty well acquainted,
and we are reminded by Captain Allen that a line of communica-
tion might be established without traversing any very high ground.
Hence it is possible that the modern spirit of enterprise might
adopt the suggestion of a ship canal, as shadowed out by this officer,
through which the waters of the Mediterranean, rushing for a number
of years, might be cascaded into the low country, and thus sub-
merging a great area, now pestilential and of little or no value,
render the Dead Sea a south-eastern extension of the Mediterranean.
But still there would remain a space of land to be cut through from
the Dead Sea depression into the Red Sea; and the first question
is, what is the nature of that barrier, and what its altitude.

But before we can arrive at any explanation of this problem
in ancient or geological geography, or form any rational con-
jecture of the eventual possibility of opening such a water
communication between Europe and Southern Asia, it is essen-
tial that the true physical features of the region, particularly
of the tract between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, be de-

372 Scientific Intelligence—Hydrography.

lineated. For this purpose the proposal of Captain Allen to effect
in his own person a survey of such lands, accompanied by a com-
petent officer of the Royal Engineers,* is well worthy of our country,
and I hope will be ordered by her Majesty’s Government.—(Sir
Roderick Murchison’s Address to the Royal Geographical Society,
vol. xxii., p. 15.)

8. Arctic Glaciers.—As, doubtless, large portions of our continents
were under water when vast erratic blocks were transported to great
distances by icebergs and deposited on what are now plains of terra
firma, so these must have proceeded from ice-clad continents.
Among others, I have laboured’ with my asseciates to shew how all
the higher portions of Scandinavia and Lapland constituted a
glacial centre in a former icy period which sent off its stone-bear-
ing ice vessels to what is now the dry land of Germany, then a
sea bottom. Dr Rink now comes out with a demonstration, that in
the present period all the vast continent of Greenland, as far as is
known, is one vast interior of ice, through which the rocks scarcely

protrude, and though of no great altitude, is yet sufficiently high in .

its central parts to afford a slight incline in the general and onward
march for the enormous ice-field, until, protruding its arms into deep
and long lateral fronds, huge bergs are in certain favouring spots
broken off from the parent mass, and calve (as the Danes term their
launch), before they sail away into Davis Straits and southwards.

9. Alpine, Norwegian, Himalayan, Snowdon, Cambrian, and
Highland Glaciers.—The glaciers which have been observed in the
Alps, Norway, and Himalayan mountains, are separate ice streams,
which fill valleys, and radiate from certain lofty centres, carrying
with them the materials out of which their moraines are formed. And
in some of our insular tracts, such as Snowdon and the Cumbrian
mountains, we can easily explain how such glaciers must there also
have acted from similar centres, and have scratched and polished the
shoulders of the valleys as they descended. But as several authors
have observed, and as Mr Robert Chambers has well shewn, ina re-
cent memoir,t replete with good new observations on the west coast
of the Highlands, there are many lofty tracts in Scotland, as wellas
in Norway and other countries: Striation seems to be quite indepen-
dent of the outline of the ground, thus indicating a grand and sie
movement of ice,

It is to countries which present such phenomena that the memoir
of Dr Rink forcibly applies; and it leads us to imagine that. there
was a period when Scotland, particularly all the Highlands, was ana-

* Steps were taken a few months ago to carry out this project, and General
Sir J. Burgoyne, with whom I consulted, was quite prepared to furnish the
requisite engineer officer, but the season was considered too far advanced. I
trust that the Government will sanction the execution of the enterprise next
Winter or spr ing.

{ Edin, New Phil. Journal, April 1853, p. 229.

:
a

|

Scientific Intelligence —Mineralogy. 373

logous to what Greenland now is, and when an icy mantle extended
itself from higher plateaux into the fronds or friths on its sides.—
(Sir Roderick Murchison’s Address to the Royal Geographical
Society, vol. xxiii., p. 1xxxiii.)

10. Professor Dove on Oceanic Currents.—The influence of oceanic
currents, says the Earl of Rosse, on the temperature of the regions in
which they prevail, was very inadequately appreciated before the pub-
lication of these researches. Of these currents, the most important, and
infinitely the most interesting to ourselves, is that so well-known as
the Gulf Stream. Its immense influence in moderating the winter
cold along the shores of western Europe, is shewn by the singularly
abnormal position of the winter isothermals in that region ; and not
only is this fact of great interest in itself, and of first-rate impor-
tance in meteorology, but it has also enabled the geologist to form a
far more accurate estimate than otherwise it would have been possible
to have done of the probable climatal influences of particular con-
figurations of land and sea, and thus to overcome, not by arbitrary
hypothesis, but by logical deduction, some of the greatest apparent
anomalies in speculative geology. The former existence of glaciers
in our own islands need no longer be regarded as a mystery, for it
is now demonstrable that they would be highly probable, if not ab-
solutely necessary, consequences of any configuration of land and sea,
which should divert the Gulf Stream from its present course; and
the geologist has no difficulty in conceiving such a configuration, not
merely as a possible, but as one which probably did exist during the
glacial period. I mention this as an instance of the diffusive influ-
ence of a great step in one science on the progress of science either
more or less directly associated with it. A further and very important
conclusion has been deduced by Professor Dove, from the monthly
isothermals ; I mean the fact that the mean temperature of the sur-
face of the globe, as a whole, is higher when the sun is in the northern
than in the southern signs. The explanation is, that the northern
hemisphere has more land than sea at the surface, and the southern
much more sea than land, and that from the different action of the
sun’s rays on the solid and fluid surfaces, it follows that the hot
summer of the northern hemisphere, added to the milder winter of
the southern, gives a mean of general temperature several degrees
of Fahrenheit higher than the cool summer of the southern, together
with the cold winter of the northern hemisphere.—( Proceedings of
the Royal Society, vol. vi. No. 99; Earl of Rosse’s Address at the
Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society, London.

MINERALOGY.

11. On the supposed new metal Aridiwm.—Some years since
Uligren published a paper upon a substance found by him in a Nor-
wegian chromic iron ore, and which he considered as the oxide of a
new metal, closely resembling iron in its chemical properties and
relations. Bahr has carefully examined the mineral in question,

374 Scientific Intelligence.—Mineralogy.

and finds that the so-called oxide of aridium is merely oxide of iron,
with a little phosphoric acid and oxide of chromium.—(Journal fur
Practische Chemie, ix. 27.)

12, Density of Selentum.—Schaffgotch has determined the den-
sity of selenium, and deduces from a great number of experiments
the following conclusions :—1st, Selenium has two different spe-
cific gravities (at 16 R.), namely, 4-282 and 4-801. The smaller
number belongs to an amorphous and glassy condition, the higher
one to a granular crystalline state; the two states may be con-
verted into each other at pleasure. 2d, The blood-red flocky Sele-
nium, as precipitated in the cold, has the density of amorphous
Selenium, whether its colour and apparent volume have been changed
by heat or not.—(American Journal of Science and Arts, 2d series,
No. 49, p. 123.) :

13. Dolomite.—M. J. Durocher has obtained dolomite artificially
through the action of magnesia vapours. He put in a gun-barrel
some anhydrous chloride of magnesium, and a porous carbonate of
lime, the latter being so placed that it could be reached only by
vapours from the former. The gun-barrel was closed, and then
kept at a low red-heat for three hours, The limestone, when taken
out, was partly scoriaceous externally, and covered with a mixture
of chloride of calcium, and chloride of magnesium within; it was
altered mostly to a dolomite, as ascertained by analysis.—(dAmerican
Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xvii., No. 49, 2d series, p. 128.)

14. Crystallized Furnace Products——¥F. Sandberger has an-
nounced the occurrence, as furnace products, of graphite in 6-sided
tables near Dillenburg ; metallic copper in threads, and rarely octa-
hedral crystals, near Dillenburg; antimonial nickel in long hexa-
gonal needles, at Ems; galena in cleavable cubes, at Holzappel
and Ems ; magnetic iron in octahedra ; 8 Cu? O+-SbO3 in copper red
or yellow hexagonal tables, at Dillenburg; Ti Cy + 3 Ti? N in
Bodenstvin.—(A merican Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xvil.,
No. 49, 2d series, p. 128.)

15. Purification of Graphite for Lead Pencils—Runge pro-
poses to purify poor graphite for pencils, by digesting, for thirty-
six hours, the finely powdered mineral with about double its weight
of concentrated sulphuric acid, then diluting the acid with water,
and washing the powder free from acid. Graphite thus powdered
is very much cheaper than the ordinary English, and is quite as
pure as the best Borrowdale black-lead.. The decanted sulphuric
acid contains iron, sulphate of alumina, &c.; the latter may be
separated when large quantities of graphite are operated upon.
Runge also proposes to add a little lamp-black with the graphite, in
order that the lines made by the pencils may have a deeper shade of
black. Probably certain kinds of manganese may be used for the
same purpose.—(La Technologiste, April 1858, p. 360; Dublin
Journal of Industrial Progress, No. 1, p. 21.)

Scientific Intelligence.—Geology. 375

16. Arctic Minerals.—Before we take leave of arctic subjects,
says Sir Roderick Murchison, let me remind you that, judging from a
memoir communicated by M. Lundt of Denmark, and lately read to
our society by Sir Walter Trevelyan, on the mineral produce of the
southern parts of Greenland, we have every reason to think that
valuable ores of copper may be found to extend far to the north of
the tracts around Disco, where the minerals in question were ob-
served. Judging from the few rocks submitted to my inspection by
Captain Inglefield, and which were coliected in the more northern
parallel of 77°, I should infer, from their crystalline character, that
a very large portion of this region may prove to be metalliferous,
and that industry may there be rewarded with spoils of the land, as
well as by catching the whales and seals of the sea——(Sir Roderiek
Murchison’s Address to the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xxiii.,
p- Ixxxiii.)

GEOLOGY.

17. The Lower Silurian Rocks of the United States.—One of the
chief geological facts ascertained in reference to the origin of life in the
crust of the globe, is the discovery of certain fossil animals (trilobites)
in strata lower than any in which they had been found in America,
but which are precisely on the same horizon as the lowest fossil-
bearing Silurian rocks of Britain, Scandinavia, Russia, and Bohemia,
where trilobites also occur in the same relative position. Excuse
me, then, if I say that I felt no small pride when I saw that M.
Owen had mapped all these rocks as lower Silurian, and as agreeing
with those which, under that name, I have defined to be the lowest
fossiliferous rocks of Europe. These and other paleeozoic rocks, the
equivalents of our Devonian, are surmounted by carboniferous masses
of such extent, that one of them may be mentioned as a coal-field
larger than England.—(Str Roderick Murchison’s Address to the
Royal Geographical Society.)

18. Nature of the Coral-Reefs between the coasts of Florida and
Meaico.—I must, indeed, specially allude to an admirable illustra-
tion of the true nature of the coral-reefs between the coasts of
Florida and Mexico, the “Keys” of the seamen. In a separate
report on the topography of that tract, in relation to the former,
present, and probable future condition of such reefs, Professor
Agassiz has successfully shewn how all such surveys ought to be
made in conjunction with naturalists. For, quite independent of the
important additions to natural history knowledge which are obtained,
Statesmen as well as hydrographers thus ascertain the causes of in-
crease or decrease of coral reefs, and learn that whilst no human
power can arrest the growth of such reefs, there are channels
amidst them which will remain deep in long periods of time, and
the outlines of which, when well defined by lighthouses, may be the
salvation of much life and property. In other words, the fixed and
stable points, of land and the channels which are dangerous, are

376 Scientific Intelligence.— Geology.

thus accurately defined by the great naturalist Agassiz——(Sir Ro-
derick Murchison’s Addiess to the Royal Geographical Society,
vol. xxiii.)

19. Geological conclusions in regard to the Russian Interior
Seas.—There is perhaps no feature of more commanding interest in
its bearing on the physical outlines of the earth at a period which
approaches near to our own era, than the fact, which geological re-
searches have established, that there has existed a vast interior sea,
which covered all the area between Constantinople on the west, and
Turkestan on the east, or a length of nearly two thousand miles, whilst
it ranged irregularly from south to north over a space broader than
the present Caspian Sea is long, or of about one thousand miles. Of
this great submerged area, the Seas of Azof, the Caspian, and the
Aral, are now clearly the chief detached remnants. For, as I for-
merly explained, the very same species of mollusca which are now
living in these seas, are found in a fossil state in limestones forming
cliffs on their shores, or on those of the Black Sea, or in masses ef
intermediate land, which are simply the elevated bottoms of a once
continuous vast internal sea, the whole of whose inhabitants were as
distinct from those of the then ocean as are the present inhabitants
of these detached Caspians from those of the present Mediterranean
and ocean.—(Sir Roderick Murchison’s Address to the Royal Geo-
graphical Society, vol. xxiii., p. 1xxxvii.)

20. On the probable depth of the Ocean of the European Chalk
Deposits. By Professor H. D. Rogers (Prov. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist.,
1853, 297.)—Various geologists, and among them Professor Ed.
Forbes, in his excellent and learned Paleontology of the British
Isles, in Johnston’s Physical Atlas, have suggested that the ocean of
the chalk deposits of Europe was a deep one; and in evidence of
this, Professor Forbes cites the ‘‘ striking relationship existing to
deep sea form of the English Chalk Corals and Brachiopods, adding,
that the peculiar Echinoderms (Holaster, alerites, Ananchytes,
Cidaris, Brissus, and Goniaster) favour this notion, as also the pre-
sence of numerous Foraminifera.”

21. Professor Rogers’ objections to Professor Forbes’ Deep-Sea |

Genera,—I beg leave to present a difficulty in the way of this con-
clusion. Several of these genera of Echinoderms, as Ananchytes,
Cidaris, &c., occur in the greensand deposit of New Jersey, referable
by every fossil test to the age of the greensand and chalk of Europe.
And this American stratum was unquestionably the sediment of quite
shallow littoral waters. That they must have had a trivial depth
is proved by the circumstance that they repose in almost horizontal
stratification, at a level of not more than from one to two hundred
feet lower than the general surface of the hills and upland region to
the N.W. of the margin of the zone they occupy as their outcrop.
It is obvious that a depression of the cretaceous region, such as
would cover the present deposits with a deep sea, would have like-

—_" =.

Scientific Intelligence.— Geology. 377

wise overspread the low gneissic hills to the N.W. of the Delaware,
which present no traces of having ever been submerged during the
cretaceous or any secondary period.

22. Mr Ayres’ objections to Professor Forbes’ Deep-Sea Genera.
—Mr Ayres remarked, that of those genera of Echinoderms, which
Mr Forbes regarded as deep-sea genera, two or three are found in
North America, in water not two hundred feet deep. Terebratula,
which has been generally regarded as only an inhabitant of very deep
water, and whose structure has been described as admirably adapted
to the depth at which it has been found, and which Professor Owen
has demonstrated, cannot exist at a depth of less than two or three
hundred fathoms, exists at Eastport, Me., in water so shallow that it
can be taken by hand. In the same locality and position, radiata are
found, which have heretofore been thought to be only inhabitants of
deep water. Some of Professor Forbes’ genera are also found in less
than ten fathoms of water.—( American Journal of Science and
Art, vol. xvii., No. 49.)

23. Artificial Silicification of Limestone.—lIt is some years since
M. Kuhlmann of Lille proposed to preserve pieces of sculpture, &c.,
by impregnating them with a solution of silicate of potash—SiO®
KO + CO? Ca0=Si0? Ca0+CO? KO. This process has been
used on a grand scale in certain parts of the cathedral Notre Dame.
The architect of the cathedral reports as follows :—1. That the in-
filtration of silica made “ sur les terrasses et contre-fort du chceur,”’
in October 1852, has preserved the stone from the green moss that
covers stone in moist places. 2. That the gutters and flagging of
limestone subjected to this process present surfaces perfectly dry,
covered with a silicious crust. 3. That upon the stone so prepared,
dust and spider webs are less common than upon the stone in the
ordinary state. The report also states, that tender stones have been
rendered hard; they have lost part of their porosity, and after being
washed, they dry more rapidly than stones not silicified. The pro-
cess has succeeded completely on all calcareous blocks, whether iso-
lated, or forming part of the structure, new and old.

It is not yet known how this process will act on mortars ; but if
successful, the silification of an entire monument may be accom-
plished, and its restoration when old. The whole exterior might be
thus covered with a thick bed of artificial silicate of lime, and a
whole edifice be protected by this means from all atmospheric causes
of destruction.*—(American Journal of Science and Arts, 2d
Series, No. 49. January 1854, p. 119.)

* This process may prove highly useful in protecting the rapid decomposi-
tion of some of our finer building stones, that are exposed to much damp. The
overseers of our finer buildings ought, undoubtedly, not to overlook this impor-
tant notice. ‘

378 Scientific Intelligence.— Geology.

24. To render Sandstone and other porous materials impervious
to Water.—The sandstone is first heated to a temperature of about
400 Fahrenheit, and then plunged into coal tar, heated to about the
same temperature, and allowed to remain in it for about eight hours.
In this way a mass is obtained so solid, that it is scarcely possible to
break it with a hammer. Bricks and tiles require only four hours
steeping, at a temperature of about 230° Fahrenheit. (Acid cisterns
and refrigerators of Yorkshire sandstone, and many other applica-
tions of that material, have been boiled, in this way, in tar, since
several years, in many of the chemical factories of Great Britain, and
with the best results.)—(Forster’s Bauzeitung, 1858, p. 36.
The Dublin Monthly Journal of Industrial Progress. No. 11,
p. 56. |

cr seats of Quick Lime in High Furnaces, instead of
Limestone, by C. Montefior Levi, and Dr Emil Schmidt.—From
experiments made at the iron-works of Ougrée near Liege, they
found that to produce 100 kilogrammes of pig-iron, the average con-
sumption of coke for six months of 28 days, when limestone was used,
was 1603 kilogrammes; whilst with burned lime the consumption was
only 1463 kilogrammes; being a saving of 8°88 percent. The ave-
rage production for 28 days with limestone was 461,000 kilogrammes,
and with burned lime, 735,000, or an increase of 24°3 per cent.
Corresponding results were obtained with another furnace, worked
for three months with limestone, and three with burned lime. The
average coke consumed per 100 kilogrammes with the former being
162, and with the latter 1474 kilogrammes ; the production of iron
per month being on an average 469,000 with limestone, and 563,000
kilogrammes with lime. The furnaces at Ougrée have now been work-
ing 34 years with lime, with the same result ; the saving per year,
notwithstanding the cost of burning the lime, being 30,000 franes
per furnace. The same process has been successfully tried in some
parts of Wales, and in England.—(Zeitschr. des Ostr. Ing. Vereins,
1852, p. 145.)

26. Professor Rogers on Earthquake Movements, and the thick-
ness of the Earth’s Crust.—Professor Rogers is of opinion that the
undulatory movement of an earthquake is felt much more sensibly
at a point above the earth’s surface, than directly upon it. An
instance illustrating this had come within his own knowledge. The
earthquake which destroyed the principal city of Guadaloupe was
felt in the city of New York, but only in the fourth story of a print-
ing office. The sound generally precedes the shock, as has been
observed in this country. In North America, the undulation is al-
ways parallel to the physical features of the continent, making it
reasonable to believe, that through a long series of epochs the motion
has been in one rather than various directions, as supposed by Elie
de Beaumont, There are two movements in earthquakes ; an un-
dulatory and a molecular movement. The latter, Professor Rogers

Scientific Intelligence.—Zoology. . 379

thought, was the movement which attracted most observation, giving
rise as it does, to.sudden and abrupt changes of relation on the sur-
face of the earth, at places where the formation of the strata admits
of more or less freedom of movement, causing the sudden shocks
which are so destructive.

Professor Rogers is of opinion, that the thickness of the earth’s
crust, in most places, is not more than ten miles.—(American
Journal of Science and Art, vol. xvii., p. 135.)

27. Coloration.—Coloration cannot be made use of as a generic
character, and its importance to the paleontologist is small, but when
occurring on fossil forms it should always be noted. Professor Forbes
has kindly informed me, “ that his observations on the distribution
in depth of recent species, have led him to the conclusion, that definite
patterns, 7.¢., stripes, bands, and waves of colour, vividly marked,
do not occur, except in rare instances, on shells living beyond mode-
rate depths, as below fifty fathoms or thereabouts ; and that thus we
may be enabled to come to approximate conclusions respecting depths
of ancient seas from the patterns preserved to us on fossil shells.”
The coloration is of some use in distinguishing the recent terms of
Brachiopoda ; green, yellow, red, and bluish-black, being the prevail-
ing colours : several forms are striped or spotted with red. Among
the fossil species, some examples have preserved traces of their colours,
as already mentioned in Part iii., p. 6, and several other examples
will be hereafter noticed so that in all probability the species now
extinct, when alive, presented all the rich varieties of tint, observ-
able in the present. inhabitants of our seas —(British Fossil Brachi-
opoda, vol. i., p. 53.)

ZOOLOGY.

28. Observations on the Habits of certain Craw-jishes—(In a
letter of Dr R. P. Stephens to the Smithsonian Institution.) ‘ Our
friends the Astaci increase in interest as I become more and more
acquainted with their habits and instincts. I have learned this month
that they are migratory, and in their travels are capable of doing
much damage to dams and embankments. On the Little Genesee,
they have, within a few years, compelled the owners of a dam to re-
build it. The former dam was built after the manner of dikes, 1.0.5
with upright posts, supporting sleepers laid inclining at an angle of
4.5° up the stream. On these were laid planks, and the planks covered
with dirt. The Astacus proceeding up stream, would burrow under
the planks where they rested on the bottom of the stream, removing
bushels of dirt and gravel in the course of a night. I have seen this
season, where they had attempted the present dam, piles of dirt, of
at least one bushel.

“* They now travel over the dam in their migrations, often climbing
upright posts, two or three feet high, to gain the pond above.”—
(American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xvii., p. 134.)

29. Arctic Whale Fisheries.— The extraordinary success which has

380 Scientific Intelligence—Botany.

attended the exertions of the whale-fishers of the United States, to
which Capt. W. Baillie Hamilton called my attention last summer,
has naturally roused the energies of many persons in this country,
in the hope that the whales which have repaired to the farthest
Arctic seas, to live there undisturbed, may yet be reached by the
harpoons of our sailors.

A document communicated to the United States’ Senate by the
Secretary of the Navy, on the 5th of April 1852, explains clearly
the very extraordinary and successful efforts, which were only
commenced in the year 1848, by the whale-ship ‘ Superior,”
commanded by Capt. Roys, penetrating through Behring Strait
into the Arctic Ocean. The success of this intrepid sailor, who
filled his vessel with oil in a few weeks, gave rise to many imitators,
and in 1849 he was followed by no less than 154 sail of American
whale-ships, nearly the same number going out in each of the two
succeeding years. When it is estimated that the value of the ships
and cargoes during two of these years amounted to no less a sum than
17,412,453 dollars, we cannot be surprised that so lucrative a trade
should excite much emulation among British speculators, As
geographers, indeed, we must now be anxious to have this important
question finally set at rest—z.e., whether (as I think, in common
with Old Barentz, Capt. W. B. Hamilton, and others) there may
not exist a practicable passage to the Arctic Ocean to the east of
Spitzbergen ; in which case our ships might reach profitable
whaling grounds without the risk of a long voyage to Behring
Strait and the difficult navigation of these seas.

Let us still hope that our own Government will endeavour to
determine this point, so ably urged by Mr Petermann, who has
shewn at how little cost and in how short a time the query could
be answered, and who has also given many valid reasons to induce
us to confide in the prospect of success.—(Sir Roderick Murchison’s
Address to the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xxiii., p. 1xxxi.)

30. Cod-Fishing of the Lofodden Islands.—The cod-fishing of
the Lofodden Islands is celebrated all over the north. Ilere, chiefly
in the inclement months of February and March, fishing-boats, from
an extent of coast of several hundreds of miles, are concentrated to the
number, it is said, of 3000, manned by 16,000 hardy fishermen,
who catch in the season not less than 3,000,000 cod-fish,* which
are conveyed about midsummer to Bergen in yachts, packed in the
manner already described.—( Forbes on Norway, p. 62.)

*-These fish are chiefly dried without salt, in the sun and wind, a process
peculiar to the clear dry climate of Nordland and Finmarken.

"=

Scientific Intelligence.—Botany. 381

BOTANY.

31. Zs the Flora of the Globe a distinct and independent one ?
_——-While there are evident and distinct features in the plants which
constitute the floras of different parts of Britain, there are many
difficulties to be overcome before we can adopt the speculative views
of Forbes. The connection between the Tertiary and the present
epoch is not made out as far as the species of plants are concerned,
and we are disposed to look upon the existing flora of the globe as
a distinct and independent one. Schouw differs from Forbes in his
explanation of the flora of the British Islands.. He does not believe
in the migration and geological changes to which Forbes alludes.
He thinks that the west and south-west coast of Britain and Ireland
had at first a mild climate, especially in winter, and that in conse-
quence, plants were produced there common to the analogous
climates of Spain and the south of France; while the Scotch and
English mountains were distinguished throughout by a polar
climate, and produced nearly the same vegetation as the Lapland
and Scandinavian mountains.—(Professor Balfour's Class-Book of
Botany, Part I1., pp. 10-33.)

32. Physiognomy of Vegetation in different Quarters of the
Globe.—In this department of botanical geography we consider
plants according to the distribution of forms, marking the predomi-
nance of this or that form of plants by the absolute mass. of its
individuals, or by the impression it makes from the character given
to the flora. The prevalence of a single form will often produce a
much greater physiognomic effect than the number and variety of
the floral productions: Hind says that a general physiognomic
impression is sometimes conveyed by the prevalence of colour.
Yellow colours, according to him, abound on the tropical mountain-
plains in autumn, while blue colours prevail in subtropical regions.
In northern latitudes and in Alpine districts, white flowers are
more common than on the plains. He makes the following state-
ments as to the proportion of colours in the flowers of different
countries :

et Xanthic. | White.

ie ik hia: pa

Central America, . . 12 1 OO - 8

Sandwich Islands,. . 12 31 7
Alashka, skiecla Smal bee 26 13 11
MOalwfornia,...... . 1h 25 19 6
New Guinea, .... 12 23 15

Hong-Kong, .. . 13 27 10

—(Professor Balfour's Class-Book of Botany, Part II. p.
99.)
VOL. LVI. NO. CXII.— APRIL 1854. 20

382 Scientific Intelligence.—Botany.

33.—The Plants considered as characteristic of Nations. By
Schouw.—In the South Sea Islands, the bread-fruit tree, and cocoa-
nut palm supply important articles of food and clothing. New
Zealand flax is characteristic of the island whence it derives its name.
Among the Malays of the Indian Islands, the clove tree, nutmeg,
pepper, and ginger, are the principal characteristic plants, and these
are also common in India. Maize, which gives the most abundant,
and also the most uncertain of all crops, was originally confined to
America, which was also the case with the Potato. The Maguey
plant (Agave potatorum), is a valuable product of Mexico, and may
be called the vine of the Mexicans; while Agave americana is use-
ful for clothing. Chenopodium Quinoa is a plant used for food in
the high districts of Mexico, Peru, and Chili; the Mauritia palm is
an important means of subsistence to the tribes of the Orinoco ;
the Date Palm is equally useful in the south of Africa, and in the
Arabian deserts. The Coffee tree characterizes the south of Arabia
and Abyssinia. Rice and cotton were two important plants for the
Hindoos ; the Tea plant for the Chinese; Wheat, barley, rye, and
oats, to the Indo-Caucasian races of Western Asia and Europe ;
the olive and the vine for the inhabitants of Mediterranean districts ;
and the Rein-deer Moss for the Laplanders.—(Professor Balfour's
Class-Book of Botany, Part II. p. 990.)

34. The Statistics of Vegetation over the Globe.—This subject
involves the consideration of the number of known vegetable species
in the world, their numerical distribution, and the relative propor-
tion of classes, orders, genera, and species in different countries.
In the present imperfect state of our knowledge of the floras of
different countries, it is impossible to tell the exact number of
species of plants in the globe. Those known at the present day,
tdescribed and undescribed, amount probably to nearly 120,000, and

rom this estimates have been made of the total vegetation, the num-
ber varying from 150,000 to 200,000. Hinds, reckoning the species
at 134,000, gives the following conjectural distribution as compared
with surface :—

Species. Extent of Surface.
Geog. sq. miles,
Europe, ; : . L1200° “ss we 27a
Asia, . ; : 6 ¢ 96,000... ccvicners pier
Afrieast. fs .. ete 2B; 200. shicniats aos pce
N. America, . : s+; 14,400 ..... ... hee
S. America, . . - 40,000. ... -...cinmO05000
Australasia, . i -§ 7,200. ... So ean
134,000 40,411,000

The following is the estimated number of known and described
plants :—

Scientific Intelligence.—Miscellaneous. 383

Genera. Species.

Acotyledonous plants, . 140,015,000
Monocotyledonous plants, . 1450 14,000
Dicotyledonous plants, : 6300 67,000
9150 96,000

—(Professor Balfour’s Botany, Part IL., Physiology and Classifi-
cation, p. 996.)

35. Geographical Distribution of Plants——From all that has
been said on this interesting subject, says Professor Balfour, we are
led to the conclusion that many plants must have originated primi-
tively over the whole extent of their natural distribution ; that cer-
tain species have been confined to definite localities, and have not
spread to any great distance from a common centre; while others
have been generally diffused, and appear to have been created at
the same time in different and often far distant localities; that mi-
gration has taken place, to a certain extent, under the agency of
various natural causes; that geological changes may, in some in-
stances, have caused interruptions in the continuity of floras, and
may have left isolated outposts in various parts of the globe; and
finally, that social plants were probably created in masses, that being
the natural arrangement suited to their habits.—(Balfour’s Class-
Book of Botany, Part II., p. 989.)

GEOGRAPHY.

_ 86. Dr Barth’s Discoveries in Africa.—F rom the end of March to
the end of May last year, Dr Overweg made a successful journey from
Kuka, in a south-westerly direction, and reached to within 150
English miles of Yacoba, the great town of the Fellatahs; while Dr
Barth went north-east, on a journey to Baghirmi, a powerful king-
dom between Lake Tchad and the Upper Nile, which had never been
previously visited by any European. Dr Barth reached Masena,
the capital of the country, on the 28th April last year, which place
formed his head-quarters during the three successive months.—(Sir
Roderick Murchison’s Address to the Royal Geographical Society
p- 110.)

MISCELLANEOUS.

37. Industrial Education.—If industrial education must be
cheap, in order to be successful, we may say with equal truth, that
its teachers must be well paid. In these countries the worth of a
man is estimated by his pay ; and if we judge by this standard, the
most worthless people are those to whom is intrusted the education
of the people. This rule not only applies to the humble teacher of
a country school, but to the most eminent professors of colleges. A
simple clerk in a Government office very often receives three or four

384 Scientific Intelligence.—Miscellaneous. ©

times the amount of salary which is thought liberal for a professor of
a college. If an eminent barrister is appointed to some place, less
than £1000 a-year would not be offered him, and even the obscure
members of the legal profession can readily obtain from £500 to
£700 per annum ; but the moment a scientific man is in question,
£300 is considered to be the equivalent of his services, no matter
how brilliant, while the junior members are considered to be suffi-
ciently paid if they receive a salary of a draper’s assistant. We
have selected the Government rewards for scientific and literary
services, not because they are exceptions to those conferred by the
public, but because they shew the standard by which the latter
judge of the value of education ; and as long as that remains, such
as it is, we can searcely believe that the public is seriously desirous
of either intellectual or industrial education. We ask of our readers
to consider calmly and earnestly the above points. One false step
made in the beginning would precipitate us again into the slough
from which we have already made some successful efforts to escape.
Let them ponder well over this fact, that to be an educated people
is to be respected, to be prosperous, to be independent.—(The Dub-
lin Monthly Journal of Industrial Progress, No. 11, p. 44.)

38. The Earl of Rosse, K.P.M.A., on Education.—* I do not
contend,” says the Earl of Rosse, “‘ that science can in a moment in-
crease our success in the arts, upon which the greatness of this
country depends, If we were to say to the mathematician, give us
the best lines for a ship suited toa given purpose, however profound
his mathematical knowledge might be, he would fail; practice must
be combined, but in due subordination with theory. It is where in
a nation science is cultivated profoundly by a large class of persons,
and circumstances exist tending to direct it to practice, that some
men will always be found gifted with the faculty of applying it
whatever way the interests of the country may require.

Popular science, however, will not do; it has its uses, subordinate
as they are. It must be science of a high order; science as taught
at our universities. There, a power is created capable of effecting
great objects, but in too many cases it is not applied at all, and it
now passes away without useful results. Were it possible to enlist
that gigantic power into the service of the country, by making our
scientific associations more inviting, by placing science in this metro-
polis in a position more attractive, a result would be obtained which
the meanest utilitarian would consider of immense value.—(Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Society, London.)

INDE X.

Adie, Richard, Esq., his account of the temperature of running
streams during the period of frost, 224.

Africa, discoveries in, by Dr Barth, 383.

Arago, Dominique, Frangois Jean, biographical notice of, 51.

Aridium, a supposed new metal, notice of, 373.

Auk (Alca impennis), still found in Iceland, 260.

Aurora borealis, noticed, 180.

Ayres, M., his observations on deep-sea genera, 377.

Barry, Dr Martin, his researches on Embryology, 36. On vesicles
in the abdominal cavity and uterus, containing a mulberry-like
body, rotating on its axis ; and on the expulsion of the ovisac
from the ovary, 319.

Boue, M. Ami, his account of the paleohydrography and orography
of the earth’s surface, 1.

Bore or Piroroco, in the Guama River, notice of, 181.

Buist, Dr George, on the physical geography of Hindostan, noticed
by, 328.

China-stone, or Kaolin of Cornwall, described, 91.

Chart, isothermal oceanic, illustrating the geographical distribution
of marine animals, 189.

Chalk deposits, their probable depth, 376.

Climate of Finmarken, noticed, 369.

Cloud, majestic, seen from the Jungfrau, 182.

Conference, maritime, report of, held at Brussels for devising a
uniform system of meteorological observations at sea, 81.

Cod-fishing of the Lofodden Islands, 380.

Coral reefs, the nature of, between the coasts of Florida and
Mexico, 375.

Cordylophora, anatomy and physiology of, 106. -

Coloration, its use as a generic character, 379.

Craw fish (Astacus fluviatilis), notice of an attempt to naturalize
it in the south of Scotland, 136.

observations on the habits of, 379.

Cull, Richard, Esq., the recent progress of Ethnology, 10.

386 Index.

Dana, James D., his account of an isothermal oceanic chart, illus-
trating the geographical distribution of marine animals, 189.

Dead Sea, a mode of converting it into a south-eastern extension of
the Mediterranean, 371.

Deodar, the cultivation of, in England, 70.

Dove, on oceanic currents, 373.

Dolomite, observations on, by Durocher, 374.

Diamond powder, its artificial production, 178.

Earthquake movements, notice of, 378.

Education, Industrial, remarks on, by the Earl of Rosse, 384.

Edmonds, R., jun., Esq., on the apparent visibility of stars through
the moon, 137.

Embryology, researches in, noticed, 36.

Emmons, Dr, his observations on the influence of climate on plants
and animals, 118.

Ethnology, recent progress of, 10.

Euclase, analysis of, 103.

Fisheries, Arctic Whale, 379.

Flora of the globe, 380.

Fluids, the cohesion of, as connected with evaporation and steam-
boiler explosions, 26.

Flourens, M., his funeral speech over the grave of M. Arago, 67.

Fleming, the Rev. Dr, observations by, on the means taken to
naturalize the Craw-fish in the south of Scotland, 186.

Frevermann, Auguste, on the formation of cr ystallized minerals, 176.

Frost, observations on the temperature of running streams sais
the period of, 224.

Fog, the nature and origin of different kinds of, 229.

Food of Man, under different conditions of age and employment
noticed, 262.

Forbes, Professor James, observations by, on some points in the
physical geography of Norway, chiefly connected with its
snow fields and glaciers, 159.

Furnace products, notice of, 374.

Glaciers, Arctic, 372.

Alpine, Norwegian, Himalayan, Snowdon, Cambrian, and
Highland, 372.

queries in regard to, 119.

of Norway, noticed, 159.

Gould, Dr Augustus, his observations on mollusca and shells, 74.
Graphite, purification of, for lead pencils, 374.

Hindostan, physical geography of, 328.

Index. 387

Hodgkinson, E., Esq., remarks on the elasticity of stone and crys-
talline bodies, by, 108,

Iceland, the Great Auk of, (Alcea impennis), noticed, 260.
Intelligence, Scientific, 176.

Justice, M., Esq., observations on the Protococcus nivalis, by, 187.

Kane, Dr, remarks by, on the vegetable matter found on the ice
plains of the Polar Seas, 187.
Kaolin of Cornwall noticed, 91.

Light, intensity of, noticed, 188.
Limestones, crystalline, the origin of, described, 127.
Artificial silicification of, 377.

Martins, M. C., Esq., his observations on the nature and origin of
different kinds of dry fogs, 229,

Mallet, J. M., on the analysis of the Euclase, 103.

Meteorological observations at sea, as devised by the maritime confer-
ence at Brussels, 81.

observations made at the Observatory, Whitehaven, Cum-
berland, 1853, 249.

Miller, John Fletcher, Esq., his meteorological observations, made
at the Observatory, Whitehaven, Cumberland, in 1853, 249,

Minerals, their formation and crystallization noticed, 176.

Paragenetic relations of, 139.

Arctic, 375.

Mirage of South Africa, 182.

Moa Caves in New Zealand, noticed, 28.

Mollusca and shells, observations on, 74.

Nicol, Professor, observations by, on Joachim Barrande’s account of
the Silurian system of Central Bohemia, 310.

Ocean, temperature of, 371.

colour of its currents, tides, depth, and outlines of its bot-
tom, noticed, 152.

Oceanic currents, 373. , |

Orography of the earth’s surface noticed, 1.

Paleohydrography of the earth’s surface noticed, 1.
Playfair, Dr Lyon, his observations on the food of man under dif-
ferent conditions of age and employment, 262.

__. Plants, geographical distribution of, 383.

characteristic of nations, 381.

a
;
wv” £

388 Index.

Quick lime, employment of, in high furnaces, 378.

ae

Rosse, Earl, remarks on education by, 384.

Rogers, Professor, on deep-sea genera, 378.

on earthquake movements, 378.

Rocks, paleeozoic, of Great Britain, as described by Professor Sedg-
wick, 110.

Sandstones, rendering them impervious to water, 377.

Scoresby, the Rev. Dr, on the surface-temperature and great
currents of the North Atlantic and Northern Oceans, 114.

Sea pressure, amount of, borne by animals in profound depths, 370.

Seas, Russian Interior, geological conclusions in regard to, 376.

Selenium, density of, 374.

Silurian system of Central Bohemia noticed, 310.

Silurian rocks of the United States, 3'75.

Salt, its use among the natives in Namaqua Land, South
Africa, 178.

Stars, their apparent visibility through the moon immediately before
their oscultation, 1377.

Stone, its elasticity, noticed, 108.

Soundings, deep-sea, a new method for taking them, described, 182.

Sedgwick, Professor, on the paleeozoic rocks of Great Britain, 110.

Stokes, Mr H. M., on the china-stone and china-clays of Corn-
wall, 91.

Strickland, Hugh Edwin, Esq., biographical notice of, 131.

Thomson, Arthur S., M.D., his observations on the New Zealand
Moa caves, 268.

Vesicles in the abdominal cavity and uterus, noticed, 317.
Vegetation, Physiognomy of, in different quarters of the globe, 381.
general statistics of, 381.

Wools of Saxony, an account of, 183.

END OF VOLUME FIFTY-SIX.

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