SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

METEOROLOGY.

1. On Electrical Sounds in the Alps.-At length we were free of the glacier, and recovered a track by no means obvious, which leads to the Châlets of Breuil, leaving upon our left hand the longer and more difficult route by the Cimes Blanches, conducting to St Giacomo d'Ayas. The atmosphere was very turbid, the ground was covered with half melted snow, and some hail began to fall. We e were, perhaps, 1500 feet below the Col, or still above 9000 above the sea, when I noticed a curious sound, which seemed to proceed from the Alpine pole with which I was walking. I asked the guide next me whether he heard it, and what he thought it was. The members of that fraternity are very hard pushed indeed, when they have not an answer ready for an emergency. He therefore replied with great coolness, that the rustling of the stick no doubt proceeded from a worm eating the wood in the interior! This answer did not appear to me satisfactory, and I therefore applied the experimentum crucis of reversing the stick, so that the point was now uppermost. The worm was already at the other end! I next held my hand above my head, and my fingers yielded a fizzing sound. There could be but one explanation—we were so near a thunder cloud, as to be highly electrified by induction. I soon perceived that all the angular stones were hissing round us like points near a powerful electrical machine. I told my companions of our situation, and begged Damatter to lower his umbrella, which he had now resumed, and hoisted against the hail shower, and whose gay brass point was likely to become the paratonnerre of the party. The words were scarcely out of my mouth, when a clap of thunder, unaccompanied by lightning,. justified my precaution.-Prof. Forbes's Travels through the Alps, p. 322.

2. Melting of a Watch in the Pocket of a Man struck by Lightning, without his being injured.-During a violent thunder storm, a fishing-boat belonging to Midyell, in the Shetland Islands, was struck by lightning. The electric fluid came down the mast, which it tore into shivers, and melted a watch in the pocket of a man who was sitting close by the side of the mast, without injuring him. Not only was the man altogether unhurt, but his clothes also were uninjured; and he was not aware of what had taken place, until, on taking out his watch, he found it was fused into one mass.-G. W. SPENCE, Esq.

GEOLOGY.

3. Rise of the Sea by sudden rise of a body of Subterranean Water; and Flowing of Water of the Sea into the Land.-At Samos in Cephalonia, in the summer of 1827, the sea rose about ten feet in perpendicular height, and raised on the shore some large masses of stone, brought there for

the purpose of forming a new mole on the site of the ancient mole. The weather at the time was fine and serene, indeed so calm, that the people of the place, alarmed by the rising of the water, came into the open air with lamps in their hands; it was at night. The phenomenon was without apparent cause; nothing unusual preceded or followed,—no motion of the earth,—not the slightest shock of an carthquake was perceived. It might have been occasioned by a large quantity of subterraneous water suddenly rising in the sea. As the adjoining hills abound in caverns, and the natural drainage of the hills takes place chiefly under ground, this explanation is not improbable, especially considering that the phenomenon was entirely local, and confined to the shore of Samos. However it may be accounted for, I have thought the fact deserving of notice, and worthy of being recorded. There is much that is mysterious in the physical history of these islands, especially in connection with the distribution of water, and too many facts on the subject cannot be collected; one may help to illustrate another, and ultimately some satisfactory explanation may be afforded.

The next phenomenon I have to mention is very extraordinary, and apparently contrary to the order of nature; it is the flowing by the water of the sea into the land, in currents or rivulets which descend and are lost in the bowels of the earth. This phenomenon occurs in Cephalonia, about a mile and a half from the town of Argostoli, near the entrance of the harbour, where the shore is composed of freestone, and is low and cavernous from the action of the waves.

The descending streams of salt water are four in number; they flow with such rapidity, that an enterprising gentleman, an Englishman, has erected a grist-mill on one of them, with great success. I have been informed that it produces him L.300 a-year. The flow is constant, unless the mouths, through which the water enters, are obstructed by sea-weed. No noise is produced by the descent of the sea-water, and rarely is any air disengaged; the streams have been watched during earthquakes, and have not been found affected by them. It is stated that fresh water is perpetually flowing through fissures in the rock from the land into the trench which has been dug for the reception of the mill-wheel, and that when the sea-water is prevented rushing in, then the water in the trench rises higher by several inches than usual, and is brackish to the taste. The phenomenon has been long known to the natives; familiar with it, it has excited no interest; they appear hardly to give it a thought. It is only recently that it has been brought to the knowledge of the English, within the last five or six years, and it is now become a subject of anxious inquiry and speculation. The little information I have obtained respecting these extraordinary currents, I owe to my friend Dr White, surgeon of the second battalion of the Rifle Brigade; it was collected by him when stationed in the Ionian Islands, several years after my departure from them. Probably they will soon be fully described; till then, and till they have been minutely investigated, conjectures only

can be made respecting their cause.-Dr Davy on the Ionian Islands and Malta, vol. i. p. 164.

4. Early Rise of the Nile in 1843.-M. Jomard has communicated to the French Academy of Sciences, the curious fact that, in 1843, the increase of the waters of the Nile at Cairo took place two months sooner than usual. In that latitude the rise occurs generally between the 1st and 10th of July, but in this instance it commenced on the night of the 5th and 6th of May. It lasted four days, and attained a height of 0.22 metres. Bruce has instanced examples of second floods of the Nile, but these were late and not early risings; for example, that of 1737, which took place after the autumnal equinox, while the waters were falling and the country was inundated. He remarks that the same phenomenon occurred also in the time of Cleopatra; but such cases are very different from the present one; for, during the month of May, southerly winds prevail. In Abyssinia, the Nile begins to rise about the 17th or 18th of June, at the commencement of the north winds, which rarely fail to blow at the solstice (Niebuhr, Forskal). In the narrative of Abdellatif it is mentioned, that, in the year 1200, the rise began about the 25th June, but that it was preceded, two months before, by the appearance of a green colour in the waters of the river. This, however, is a very common occurrence, and quite distinct from the rise now noticed.

5. Observations on the dissemination of minute Organic Bodies, still living and active, in Asia, Australia, and Africa; also on the Prevailing Formation of the Oolitic Limestones of the Jura by minute Polythalamous animals. By M. Ehrenberg. After a recapitulation of the investigations he has already published respecting the presence of minute living organisms in different quarters of the globe, the author mentions twenty-two new localities in Asia, which have afforded him 461 infusoria, consisting of 260 species referable to 80 distinct genera. The genus Biblarium, hitherto met with only in a fossil state, at Cassel, has been discovered alive under the form of B. glans, in Asia Minor, near Angora. The genera Spirodiscus, Tetragramma, Discocephalus, and Disoma, are peculiar to Asia, except, perhaps, the second, which is likewise observed in Lybia. The other 76 genera are common to Asia and Europe, and only the first mentioned of these quarters of the globe possesses species which are peculiar to it. In the course of his Memoir, the author points out the advantages which arise from subjecting the faintest traces of animal organic life to a searching examination, by announcing that the oolitic limestone of the Jura formation in Germany as well as in England, wherever it is granular, appears to be composed principally of Meloniæ. The mountain limestones of the lake Onega, in Russia, are in like manner composed of Meloniae of the same species and size. In many instances, these Meloniae of the oolite limestone are so completely transformed into calcareous spar, that it is impossible even to discover their heads. In other cases, we can recognise a sparry nucleus in the centre of a great

number of Meloniae, which at once leads us to suppose that there must have been a precipitation of grains of sand at the time when the transformation into calcareous spar began to take place. The Textilariae, and, as far as yet appears, the Nodosariae, which are noticed among these Meloniae in the oolitic limestone, as well as in the mountain limestone, present marks of difference from the genera still found in a living state.*

6. New Volcano in the island of Meleda in the Adriatic.—The Gazzetta di Milano announces that a new volcano was formed, about the middle of last September, in the mountainous island of Meleda, situated in the Adriatic, near Ragusa. In the night of the 14th, the crew of a Roman vessel, the Madonna-di-san-Ciriaco, which happened to be in the neighbourhood, and had felt successive shocks for four hours on the previous evening, saw lava issuing from the centre of the island, and flow over a space of about half a mile. The following night, while sailing in the neighbouring canal, about two miles from land, they observed that seven craters had been formed in the mountains of the island, and were throwing out burning substances. The appearance of this volcano has been considered as having an immediate relation to the very violent earthquakes which were felt at Ragusa on the evening of the 15th September. However this may be, the following are a few particulars respecting the earthquake which occurred at this date. The first shock was felt at 57 minutes past 4 o'clock. It was severe, and sensibly followed the direction from south-west. To this first shock, which lasted for four seconds, succeeded another still more violent, which continued from four to five seconds, the wind blowing from the south-west; and it was accompanied with a subterraneous noise. Other shocks occurred in the evening, nor did they cease till midnight. At 28 minutes past 1 o'clock on the morning of the 15th, a very violent oscillatory motion in the direction of south-west was experienced.

The inhabitants were beginning to become greatly alarmed; many shocks succeeded which took place during the day, and it was at last determined to quit the town. A horizontal cloud, which extended from the north-east to the south, known in the country by the name of houtre, and which appears to accompany every earthquake, and which was very conspicuous during the earthquake of 1669 which destroyed Ragusa, again appeared on this occasion, and it was not displaced by the wind. At Ragusa Vecchia, the shocks were less severe than at Ragusa, but they were more violent at Ombla, in the island of Guippassa, and in the neighbouring districts, particularly in Erzegovina. In the island of Curzola, the shocks took place on the 14th and 15th; as well as at Zara, Obrovazzo, and Almissa. The shocks were sometimes preceded by a detonation, and the barometer sank very sensibly. In Carniola, at Cilli, some shocks of an earthquake were likewise felt on the morning of the 15th. On the 16th, at Ragusa, two other shocks were again felt during the night, when soon after a brilliant meteor was seen to the east.

*From L'Institut., No. 517, p. 401.

Shocks, accompanied by the same phenomenon, were renewed every day up to the 23d. On the 18th and 20th they were felt nearly at all hours of the day. On the 24th, at 10 minutes past 2 o'clock in the morning, a subterranean noise was heard, and immediately afterwards the shock of an earthquake was felt so severely, that the inhabitants awoke in sudden fright, abandoned their houses in the greatest haste, and left the town. A strong wind from N.N.E. had risen immediately before the time when these shocks were felt; the sky cleared, and some bands of deep blue were distinctly seen in the neighbourhood of the Milky Way. On the 25th, about 3 o'clock in the morning, the ground again trembled for three seconds; the inhabitants of Ragusa were in the greatest consternation. On the 26th, about 27 minutes past 3 in the morning, another shock, much more violent than that of the 24th, was felt. The stars sparkled in a sky of the purest azure; but the scene changed in a few seconds. After a subterranean noise, many severe shocks succeeded each other at short intervals. At the same time a wind from the south-east enveloped the sky in clouds, the barometer sunk to 28.2, and the thermometer indicated 10° R. (54°.50 F.). All the houses of the town were shaken to such a degree, that they ran the risk of being entirely destroyed on the recurrence of a shock, even though not very severe. shocks were also felt in the islands of Curzola and Meleda.*

These

Since the month of September, new shocks have taken place at Ragusa and its neighbourhood; but we have not obtained sufficiently exact information regarding them.

In consequence of the frequent shocks of earthquake which have occurred at Khalki since 17th September, this unfortunate island has been completely ruined. The island of Scarpanto, situated at a short distance from Khalki, has likewise been subject to many severe earthquakes. At Rhodes, on the 10th October, about an hour after midnight, a severe shock was likewise felt, and the undulation was prolonged beyond 30 seconds. At Khalki, a stream of boiling and sulphureous water was thrown up on the declivity of a small hill, at the same time that the shocks took place. This stream still continues to flow.

On the 3d October, a shock of an earthquake was felt, at 10 o'clock in the evening, in some parts of the department of Ille-et-Vilaine. It lasted for two seconds. Another shock occurred on the 4th, and continued for upwards of 40 seconds.

The shock of an earthquake was felt at Chateaugiron on 5th October, about 45 minutes past 9 in the morning. This was taken by many people for a peal of thunder; it did not last longer than 2 seconds. On the

* We need hardly remind our geological readers, that in the summer of 1826 a Commission was sent by the Austrian Government to the island of Meleda, to investigate the repeated detonations which had caused much alarm to the inhabitants from March 1822 up to that period. The Commissioners were Messrs Riepl and Partsch, and an interesting report was published by the latter at Vienna in 1826, accompanied by a beautiful map.-EDIT.